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honeymoonjin · 5 years

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𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 namjoon x reader || 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕 9.7k || 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒓𝒆 smut

𝒔𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒚 desperate to finally break your masturbatory dry spell, you seek out a professional.

𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 explicit sexual content, cursing, sex work, masturbation (f), fingering (f), soft dom!namjoon, sub!reader, light degradation, roleplay, oral (f), use of sex toys, crying during sex woo, namjoon is a professional

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“So; you’re having problems in the bedroom?”

You choke on your own spit and your cheeks flush a violent red. “Um, I- I guess? It’s not, uh…” You trail off uselessly, keeping your eyes firmly focused on the bland, off-white wall behind the man’s head.

He doesn’t seem fazed by your response, choosing to move past it. “Are you having problems being pleasured by a partner, or problems pleasuring yourself?”

If your cheeks could get any hotter, they do then. You let out an uncomfortable laugh. “Sorry, that’s a little… I didn’t realize this would be so…”

“So personal? This is a sex clinic, Ms. L/n, it’s why you’re here. There is nothing to be ashamed about. How about this? I’ll ask you yes-no questions, and then you don’t have to give up information yourself. Saying it is often the hardest part, I’ve found. Alright then; are you having problems bringing yourself to orgasm when masturbating?”

You bite down hard on your lip as you nod, beyond ashamed. It was good that the doctor seemed so blasé and unbothered and professional about it, but you were starting to regret coming.

Doctor Kim flashes you a reassuring smile and clicks his pen against his chest to open it, scribbling a note on his clipboard. “Okay, that’s fine. Is this a recent issue?” You nod stiffly. “Alright. You used to be able to achieve orgasm, but in recent times that’s changed, correct?” Another nod. “Would I be correct in assuming you have had a lot of stress in your life crop up?”

You let out a small huff. “Look, I wrote all this down on the application form. I don’t see why we have to go through it all again if you already have the answers.”

You jump a little in your seat as he slaps the clipboard down on his desk, fixing you a focused stare. “Y/n- may I call you Y/n? Y/n, quite frankly, if you’re not mature enough to hold a conversation about sexual activity like an adult, then I’m afraid you’re not mature enough to be using my services. This isn’t some back-end business; I’m not a prostitute, this is my profession, and I take it rather seriously, you’ll find. Sex is natural. Our bodies are natural. Now, do you want to stay and talk to me so that I can help you, or is this too much? If it is, I suggest you take your leave.”

Inexplicably, his firm tone has a heat rising deep within, something you haven’t felt in a while. When you speak, your voice is hoarse. “I’ll stay.”

And with that, his body and face relaxed, as he leans back in his chair comfortably. “Wonderful. Continuing on, then. What exactly have you tried to get an orgasm? Just your fingers, toys, what?”

“I thought…” You swallow hard. “I thought you said you’d give yes-or-no questions?”

“And I thought you said you wanted this.”

You sigh again. Fuck, why was it so hard to just say it? “Um, I use fingers and… that’s about it.” You swallow again and clear your throat.

“No, it isn’t,” he shoots back immediately with a raised brow, clicking his pen against the surface of the paper. “Honestly, Ms. L/n, I’ve worked at this clinic for six years. Nothing you could possibly say would faze me. I once had a client who confessed he had tried to reach orgasm by putting a blunted letter opener into his urethra.”

Your mouth gapes open. “He what? Wait, you’re not supposed to give details about clients. Isn’t that breaching, like, patient confidentiality?”

The doctor simply shrugs. “I asked his permission to use it as a teaching moment. I found it’s been rather helpful to assure people that there is nothing too ‘wild’ or ‘out-there’. Everyone has different tastes. As a matter of fact, that man found it incredibly effective.”

You blink. “Well, uh, mine isn’t anything like that. I just have a, you know,” you break off to gesture at your crotch in a vaguely penetrative motion.

Doctor Kim pinches his lips together, a dimple appearing on one cheek. “A dildo? Or a vibrator?”

“First one,” you admit. “Is that… That’s all the questions, right? What else could you possibly ask?”

He raises an eyebrow, taking some notes before he puts his full attention on you again. “Plenty. How fast do you penetrate yourself with the dildo? Could you indicate the speed of your hand?” You go dead pale. He holds a neutral expression for a moment longer before he cracks, laughing loudly with his eyes scrunched shut. You go limp against your chair, cheeks red for a different reason. “Sorry, I’m just playing with you. The inquisition is complete, I promise. Now, Sandra at the front desk can make you an appointment, and I’ll be sure to send you out an email with any instructions prior to our session. Thanks for coming in.”

With the session being made for that Friday, it was Thursday afternoon that the anticipated email came through. You were at work, stuck in meetings all morning and desperately trying to catch up on your personal stash of work after lunch, when a ping sounded, lighting up your screen with a notification from [email protected]. Hurriedly, you fumble to turn the screen dark, glancing around to make sure no one around your desk had somehow read it.

You stewed in nervous energy for the rest of your day, only opening the email once you were in the privacy of your own home with a freshly made hot drink to calm you down.

Expecting the instructions from the donotreply email address to be generic, you were surprised when it instead instructed you to click on a link to their database, with a random string of letters and numbers as an access code.

On the official website (which looked unbelievably slick and professional like any other business’ page), under a section titled MyHealing, you put in the code as requested, eyes widening as you saw just how organized the system was.

There was a tab for Customer Info, one for Session History, one for Calendar, and a final one with no name, just a little envelope symbol with a small, red 1 above it. You click on it and are taken to an inbox with a single message from Doctor Kim Namjoon.

Y/n,

Thank you for booking an appointment. Your session is slotted in for Friday 9th, 5:15pm. Should you need to cancel or reschedule less than 24 hours before, keep in mind the $40 fee will apply. Personalized instructions for this appointment are below. Please note that new instructions will be sent out for every appointment; these are not intended to be used for anything other than this specific session.

You take another sip from your mug as you read that line. ‘Every appointment’. How often did he think you were going to be coming back? You had booked in imagining once you got some sexual release, you’d be fine again. Perhaps it was a blanket statement he told every customer. You let it slip your mind and continue reading.

I advise you first and foremost to get a good night’s sleep on Thursday. Since your appointment is late in the day, I would also suggest a midday nap if possible. I assume you’re at work during the day. Make sure you have enough water, and if your job is at a desk, use your lunch break to go for a walk, preferably outside. When it comes to orgasms, one part is physical, one part is mental, and only a small part is the actual stimulation. So, you can understand how important it is to make sure your body is physically primed and ready for exertion.

Secondly, the mental side of things. I know it’s hard but try not to get too stressed out about the appointment during the day. It’s understandable that you might be nervous but putting too much pressure on yourself will only make reaching orgasm more difficult.

Instead, keep yourself occupied with things you enjoy as much as possible. Consider taking the afternoon off if you have enough leave.

Finally, stimulation. We didn’t cover if you’re still currently attempting masturbation regularly or not, but I would like you on the Thursday night to get yourself as aroused as you can. Watch pornography, read erotica, touch yourself. But don’t try to actually achieve an orgasm. If you simply-

You toss your phone on the couch beside you and huff. Fuck. He really wrote you a whole essay, huh? Did he do this for every customer, for every appointment? He had said he took his job seriously. You just didn’t realize it was to this degree. Hopefully he was as thorough in the practical side of his job as he was in the administration.

Later that night, you decided to treat yourself to a hot bath. Relaxing in the perfumed waters, you lazily bring a hand down to rest between your legs. As Doctor Kim said, he didn’t know whether you were still trying to get yourself off or not, but in reality, it varied greatly. Some evenings you'd spent hours, with aching wrists and tears of frustration, to no avail. Other days you gave up completely and wallowed in your sexual frustration, haplessly grinding against a pillow between your legs for the minimal relief it provided.

But you had re-read over the notice a couple of times, and it was clear that Doctor Kim didn’t want you cumming tonight. Just getting a little riled up in the hopes that your body would be more desperate to cum tomorrow.

Water always gives a weird kind of friction, so it’s somewhat of a hassle trying to rub at your clit, but once you settle into a natural rhythm, you close your eyes and lean back until the water laps over your shoulders. You hitch a leg up over the side of the tub and let out a deep breath.

It always started out nice. You’d get a false sense of hope, that the flicker of pleasure would ignite into anything more than a low smolder, but it never did. Although, this time, knowing full well that cumming isn’t a goal, you find yourself enjoying the relaxing stimulation for its face value. You knead lazily at your breast, rolling a nipple between your fingers as your other hand continues its circling motions. Gradually, your mind naturally begins to float, and a scene begins to materialize in your imagination: in your mind’s eye, your fingers are replaced by much larger and thicker ones, and instead of the grazing of your fingernail it was teeth latching around your nipple, tugging lightly to make your toes curl. Fingering yourself is generally a fruitless endeavor, but you can’t help but clench, longing to be filled by him.

Him… Whether by the context of your relationship, or genuine attraction, it’s Doctor Kim Namjoon that fills your thoughts, the way the water would stain his button-up sleeves rolled up to the elbow, but not quite high enough to avoid the sloshing of water. You hear the scribble of a ballpoint on that clipboard, like he’s taking note of your reactions, like you’re something to be studied and analyzed.

Below the water level, you grind your hips into your hand, rubbing yourself with the flats of four of your fingers know in an effort to increase the surface area. One of your nipples is flushed from being pinched and tugged at, so you clumsily cross your arm over to the other side, whining into the damp air of your bathroom once you begin repeating your ministrations. You should probably open a window. The vents aren’t great and the last thing you need is a moldy ceiling.

You grunt low in your throat, shaking your head. You can worry about that later, dammit. With added vigor, you press at your clit, biting down on your lip to try and out all your focus into going faster and harder. Only it doesn’t feel as good as before.

Where was I? Doctor Kim’s arms. Maybe he’d forgo the button-down shirt completely and decide to strip down, getting into the tub with you, wrapping his arms over your front and pulling you down onto him. You huff, furrowing your eyebrows, holding onto your breath, feeling that pleasure slip away from you. Come on, imagine him fingering you or something, what’s wrong with you, he’s hot! That smile, the thick thighs straining under pants material. Not long before you’d see him again, tomorrow night. It was strange that he worked nights, though you supposed considering his job it made sense that people might prefer-

“Fuck!” Your hands have come to a halt, too distracted to continue, and that slow burning of pleasure in your gut has been extinguished as if from the now-lukewarm water you sit in. You let out a frustrated cry and kick out with the leg that’s still in the water, splashing water up the wall in front. “Fuck off! Are you serious?” You force yourself to take a deep breath and tamp down your rising frustration. The kind doctor had told you not to cum, so it was probably for the best that you didn’t get too into it. Still, it’s irritating you that even the thought of a… a sex professional getting you off isn’t enough to actually get you off. You huff, picking up the bar of soap off its dish, and begin to lather yourself up. “Good luck, Doctor Kim,” you mutter.

Surprisingly, you sleep well and have a productive morning. Missing the morning traffic and arriving at a quiet office lifts your mood, and you have just enough work to remain mentally and physically occupied. In fact, you’re sure you would’ve spent your whole day in this calm working mentality, were it not for the phone call that comes just after midday.

Most of the office is out on their lunch break. Only a few of you hang around this time; you know others just prefer to eat earlier or later, but you actively hang around because you appreciate the chance for some peace and quiet. That tranquility is broken by the aggressive buzzing of your phone on your desk. Anticipating a call from a client later on, you figure they’re just phoning in a little early, and you answer it without checking the number.

“Y/n L/n speaking,” you rattle off automatically, “how may I help?”

A low chuckle on the other end gives you pause. It certainly doesn’t sound like the retired seamstress you were expecting to hear. “Did you give me your work phone number, little miss?”

A shot of electricity shoots up your spine and you sit bolt upright in your office chair, instinctively glancing around the five or six people milling about the office floor. “Doctor Kim,” you reply in a low voice.

“Correct. Have you suddenly entered a library or is there another reason you’ve gone all quiet?” His voice is lilting with amusement and you can almost picture him sitting back in his office chair, dimple sticking out as he grins.

Your fingers curl around your phone, and you use your other hand to cup over your mouth, leaning forward over your desk. “I, uh, wasn’t expecting you to call,” you reply honestly, “is there a problem?”

“Of course not. My clinic has a policy of always giving a reminder call the day of or before the appointment.”

You pout. “Oh.” Somehow, the fact that he calls everyone makes you feel something akin to disappointment. “Shouldn’t your receptionist do stuff like that?”

“Would you prefer I put Sandra on the phone?”

“No,” you blurt out reflexively. The doctor rewards your honesty with a breathy chuckle. You press your knees together and clench your thighs. “So, just a reminder then? Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten. Thanks for the call, though.”

“You haven’t?” You can hear the teasing smile in his voice, and it affects you more than you care to admit. “You’ve been thinking about it, then? Have you been trying to guess what I have in store for you? What I’m going to do to you?”

You clear your throat awkwardly, sensing the conversation taking a decidedly sexual turn. “I’ve been trying to focus on my work, actually. Like your message said.”

“Ah, that’s good. Did you take the afternoon off like I suggest, or are you just on your lunch break?”

You barely hear him speak, your heart skipping a beat when a crowd of some of the older employees starts filing back in. Fuck. 12:32pm. People were going to start getting back to work now, you couldn’t be on the phone with a sex therapist. “Is there anything else I can help you with, sir?”

He pauses for a moment. “Are you still at work?”

You clear your throat, ducking your head as one of your superiors walks past. “Uh, yes, sir. Will that be all?”

He chuckles, though it’s more a sharp exhale through his nose, slightly crackly through the receiver. “Spending company time talking to the man who will fuck your brains out tonight?” You cringe at how loud he speaks, mind going blank with shock. You can’t find your voice to reply, though you have no idea what you would even say. He listens to you splutter for a few moments, your lack of response an answer in itself. “Naughty girl,” he chastises. “What would your coworkers think if they knew who you were talking to? I bet you wish you weren’t at work right now so you could just slip a hand into your panties, isn’t that right?” You bite down hard on your lip, using the ruse of sliding your office chair further in as cover for rubbing your core against the seat for some relief. “Come on, Y/n,” Doctor Kim’s voice echoes in your ear, “what did we say about yes-no questions?”

“Yes, sir,” you make out through a tense jaw, hoping your voice sounds as bright and customer-friendly as it normally would be with anyone else, even as your thighs clench together. “My office hours are 8:30am to 4:30pm Monday to Friday.”

“Oh?” His laugh bubbles through your phone and makes you absentmindedly start scrunching up a scrap bit of paper on your desk. He was enjoying this. “So, you’re there for a while still, hm? I wonder if you can make it until 4:30pm or if you’ll have to sneak into the bathroom and get some relief. It’s a shame I can’t stay on the line; I’d have loved to hear you moan over the phone, unable to keep quiet as you touch yourself. Oh well. I’ll make you moan for me later tonight.”

You slowly slip your hand down, tucking it between your legs and shifting your hips slowly beneath your desk, grinding against the delicate bones of your wrist for some friction. “The, uh, the appointment is confirmed, sir, thank you. Is there anything else I can help you with before I go?”

You hear a pen clicking, and some hurried strokes against paper in the background. The thought that, like your fantasy last night, he was writing down notes on all your reactions and desires, brought a rush of heat between your legs. You can feel the fabric of your panties, wet through to the outside of the fabric and dampening the skin of your arm. Oh god. “That will be all, Ms. Y/n. I look forward to our appointment tonight very much. Don’t forget to drink enough water to prepare for the fluids you’ll be depleting in our session. Have a splendid day.”

All the energy leaves you the moment the line goes dead, and your top half slumps forward onto the desk. You pull your arm out from between your legs, rubbing away the slippery patch on the side of your wrist before anyone can see it. You didn’t think you were going to get much work done for the rest of the day.

“Are you nervous?”

You lift your gaze from your trembling hands to the man sitting across from you. The two of you were the only ones in the cosy waiting room you had been led to. It was something halfway between a bedroom and a spa, with a great long bed covered in cushions and blankets, a bench laden with food and drink, and several diffusers spraying gently perfumed mist into the air.

The stranger was there when you had arrived moments prior. A green silk robe loosely tied around his waist was the only thing he was wearing as he lounged on the bed, lazily scrolling through his phone, black hair curled and damp, sticking haphazardly to his temples and cheekbones. He had watched you in mild curiosity as you walked in and stiffly sat down on a cosy armchair, and didn’t take a moment before initiating conversation.

He looks at you now with an expectant glimmer. You recall the question and flick him a shy smile. “Mm. First time,” you explain with a sheepish shrug. You let your gaze linger on his attire. “Are you...waiting to go in, too?”

His brows lift in surprise, along with a toothy grin. “Oh, no! I just got out of my sesh with the doc. This is just the whole aftercare shtick. I’m Jungkook, by the way,” he adds with a jaunty wave of his hand.

His languid ease has you relaxing a little, and you crack a smile. “I’m Y/n. So, how many times have you come here exactly? I thought surely once he fixed you, you’d be fine?”

The corner of his mouth quirks. He tosses his phone carelessly onto the bedcovers and sits up a little, the robe falling open to reveal his chest, all defined muscle and tanned skin, glimmering with a sheen of sweat. "Hey, that's what I thought. But honestly? This shit's addictive. I work an extra ten hour shift every week now to afford one hour of bliss. I think I may be in love with him. Or at least, I'm definitely in love with his mouth."

Your eyes drop to the thick carpet as you flush with the mental image that provides, but you can't help but glance back up out of curiosity as his words sink in. "Wait, his mouth? I thought he was meant to just..."

"Jerk people off? I mean, sure, he can do that, but the doc tends to mix it up. With how packed his schedule is, he'd probably get fucking carpal tunnel or some shit if he just jacked his patients off all day. He's a pretty creative dude when it comes to this, you know?" He breaks off with a faraway smile. "Actually, I consider myself a bit of an innovator, too. One time I had this letter opener, right, and-"

"Mister Jeon," an unimpressed voice drawls from behind you, "please refrain from accosting my clients with your sexual history. I am sure they don't find it as enlightening as you do."

You whirl around, heart immediately returning to its aggressive thudding, palms dampening in moments. Standing in the doorway, in a three-piece suit, is Doctor Kim Namjoon, one leg crossed over the other as he tucks a hand into his pants pocket. It's a vast difference from the simple shirt and pants combo he had on when you last saw him, and it seems he takes note of your startled reaction.

"It's casual Friday," he jokes with an easygoing grin, and it only strikes you then, as his eyes lock with yours, that you're about to have sex with this man. Maybe not in the traditional sense, but you'd be leaving this building feeling fully fucked out if all went well. Your nerves return with a vengeance, and his face softens. "Come on inside, Y/n."

A scoff tears your attention from the doctor. "Oh, so I'm Mister Jeon, but she's Y/n?"

Doctor Kim's jaw ticks, though it's bemusement rather than anger on his face. "Would you like me to call you Y/n?"

Jungkook pouts, picking at a loose thread on his robe petulantly. "No." He pouts deeply, looking up at the older man reproachfully. "If you keep being mean to me I won't come back anymore."

The doctor nods patiently like he's heard it a thousand times. "I'll see you next Friday, Jungkook. Do well on your bio exam next week and I might just show you how mean I can really be."

Jungkook's face clears and his eyes gleam. Without speaking, he simply gets up and jogs over to the little set of lockers by the exit, gathering his belongings. Doctor Kim doesn't spare him any more attention, and simply gestures for you to follow him.

You make your way down a dimly-lit corridor with wobbly legs, trying not to stare at the way his pants strained around his behind with every stride he took. Although there’s a distant wisp of relaxing piano emanating from the waiting room, the silence is unbearable.

“So,” you blurt, cringing at how loud your voice sounds in the stillness of the corridor, “what do you have planned?”

“Well, if Jungkook inspired you, I did bring along a letter opener,” the doctor calls out pleasantly, tilting his head, though he doesn’t turn to look at you.

Your step falters uncertainly. “Oh, I don’t…” You watch in dawning realization as he stops in front of a closed door and swivels, face scrunched up with delight as his shoulders shake silently. Although it was a dig at your naivety, you can’t help but crack a smile at him. “Aren’t doctors meant to be nice to their patients?”

He fumbles in his pockets, producing a keycard to scan at the entrance. Once it’s opened, he holds it there and turns to you expectantly. As you catch up to him and slip through the opened door, you can’t help but brush past his chest with your shoulder, breathing in his soothing scent of raspberry and vanilla. You hadn’t expected him to smell so...sweet.

You hear the door click shut behind you, self-locking, and that layer of security reassures you. Your attention, however, is quickly caught by the contents of the room itself.

It’s this disconcerting mix of a massage room, a doctor’s office, and a sex dungeon, and your head whirls as Doctor Kim preoccupies himself with messing with the heatpump settings on the far wall.

In the centre of the room is a traditional massage table, lowered to around the height of his hips, covered in a lush-looking slate grey towel. You figured the usual white wouldn’t fare so well with his line of work. Two of the walls make great use of shelves and cabinets, and you can’t help but be bewildered at the strange way they’re organised. A man like him surely had a system to keep everything in track, but dildos were beside bottles of massage oil and ropes, and a collection of gags and leashes hanging from hooks dangled above a little pyramid of neatly rolled towels and a steaming metal bowl of warm water.

“Please, take a seat anywhere you feel comfortable.”

You jerk out of your gaping stare and clear your throat awkwardly, moving to take a seat on a little wooden stool that sat in the corner of the room in front of a small dresser covered in props like handcuffs, some blindfolds and, strangely, a black ski mask with eye and mouth holes cut out. The image of the friendly doctor fucking someone in a full burglar outfit makes you snort out a laugh before you have the time to clap your hand over your mouth.

You press your lips together with a muffled giggle as the man himself flattens a stare.

“Is my job funny to you?”

Your smile drops as you recognise the change in his tone. Gone is the somewhat clumsy, joke-cracking doctor. Now he’s in his role. The session has begun. “No,” you deny weakly.

His deft fingers gravitate to the buttons holding his suit jacket together, and you feel the room become hotter as he walks the perimeter of the room slowly, eying up all the offerings he has to play with while he slips off the expensive material. Hanging the jacket on a coat rack beside the black cape and what looks like priests’ robes that already reside there, he turns on a heel to face you. His eyebrows are low, narrowing his eyes, but you can see the dark heat that radiates off him. You tuck your knees together. God, he’s good and he hasn’t even done anything. “My profession isn’t something to be laughed at,” he chastises lowly. “We had this problem the other day, didn’t we? With you not taking this seriously. It’s disappointing, Y/n.”

Your heart thuds uncertainly in your chest. The natural instinct to get upset from being told off mixes with the warmth building between your legs. “Sorry,” you offer up, voice lifting at the end like it’s a question.

He’s on the other side of the room to you. You wish he were closer, though now that he’s unbuttoning his shirt cuffs and beginning to roll the sleeves, eyes locked on your hunched-over form with an unreadable look, you don’t know that you could handle it. “No, you aren’t,” he brushes off, “and it’s very important that in this next 90 minutes, you only say things you absolutely mean. Understand?”

You take a steadying breath, feeling it expand your chest. “Yeah. I understand. It’s just… a lot. I’ve never done this, and I don’t know what’s going to happen, and-”

The tension disappears from his jaw and his eyes soften. In mere moments, he’s crossed the room in strides to crouch in front of you, catching your lowered gaze. “Woah, settle. First of all, everyone starts somewhere, so don’t feel anxious. Secondly, how many times have you had sex and known exactly what was going to happen in advance?”

His palms are warm and grounding as they gently rest, wrapped around your calves. You breath deeply again, appreciating this break in character. “I… But we’re not having sex though, right? This is, I don’t know,” you shrug futilely, “different.”

He returns your shrug, but with a far more carefree attitude. “It doesn’t have to be.” As he talks, his grip tightens a little on your calves, gently pressing into the tensed muscle. You find yourself relaxing without noticing, going lax in his touch, as non-sexual as it may be. “But, for the most part, people that come here do want it to be different. More exciting, more taboo, more intense. You need to communicate with me now. Do you want me to go easy on you, or do you want me to be thorough?”

Your mouth goes dry. With his hands on you, with the room you’re in, with the way his eyes linger heavy on yours, the word makes your toes curl. “Thorough,” you croak out.

He searches your face once more, then a slow grin spreads across his. “Excellent. Then get up on the massage table.”

He stands up; the lack of his touch on your legs makes you shiver. You follow him over, feeling your palms damp with nervous sweat. “On my front, or…?”

“Just sit on it for now, baby.” His eyes are alight with mirth when you blush at the petname, but he’s quickly snapping back into that dominant role, jaw muscles popping out as he watches you get up, facing him as your legs dangle in the air, not quite reaching the ground. You wait for him to get closer to you, but he ticks an eyebrow in affirmation and turns abruptly, stalking across the room to a tall, thin cupboard. He reaches in without speaking, and when he turns, in his hands he carries a vibrator in his hand, a relatively friendly-looking, gold bullet that looks rather small in his hand.

You think you recognise the brand, and if you’re right, it’s unbelievably high end. As he makes his way over to you, his gaze drops to your legs, which you’ve begun absentmindedly swinging back and forth. “Cute,” he remarks with a small sneer, and you abruptly stop, embarrassed at the childish action. “Don’t be so shy,” he advises, “I plan on hearing you scream for me tonight at some point or another. These walls are soundproof, you know. Every little sound you make will only be heard by me. Now spread those pretty legs.”

Suddenly, even though arousal steadily rocks through you, your legs lock up and you go stiff. The room is being pumped with warm air and yet your skin breaks out in goosebumps.

The doctor notices this, of course he does, and fiddles with the bullet, flipping it over and over in his palm as he makes his way back to you, stopping when his upper thighs brush against your knees. “What’s wrong? Second thoughts?”

You shake your head hastily, though you’re no less tense. “Just- just really nervous.”

His eyes warm in sympathy. “Hm, that’s no good. I can’t get you to cum with your legs shut tighter than a vice.” A quirk of a smile. “Well, I could, but we don’t have time for that today. So, let’s help you relax.” His free hand reaches up to brush against your shoulder. Even though he’s fully clothed as well, you still feel strange still wearing the large sweater and leggings you had arrived in. The fabric feels itchy on your skin, and you yearn for his palm to warm your skin instead of your sweater.

He lets out a breathy laugh as his hand rubs slowly up and down your upper arm. “God, look at you,” he marvels, “I’ve never seen someone so stressed still look so beautiful.” You manage to crack a reluctant smile, cheeks heating. He places the golden bullet vibe on the towel beside you, and pats your knee warmly. “Would it help if I kissed you?”

Your mouth drops open a little. You have to swallow away the dryness. With eyes unable to leave his perfect lips, you nod.

“Good, I can do that,” he soothes, “can you part your legs for me so I can get a little closer?”

The moment you shakily do as he asks, his hips are pressing against your thighs, pushing them wider still. You hastily dart your lips out to wet them, but he’s in no rush. The doctor slips a hand into your hair, brushing it off your face with fondly gleaming eyes.

It’s an expression you’ve never seen someone look at you with before, and you let yourself sit in the fantasy that it’s anything more than acting.

“C’mere,” he murmurs softly, before pressing lightly on the back of your head so that you straightened up to meet him halfway. You sigh into him when your lips touch, unbelievably soft yet insistent as they move against you.

He’s clearly experienced; you quiver inside with every movement, and he barely moves at all, drawing out the languid embrace. Your jaw falls slack, and you let yourself be guided by him, following his patient lead.

The room itself is quiet, and you can hear the way he lets out the smallest of grunts, delicate sounds of affirmation as you part your lips and feel the very tip of his tongue swipe against your lips, sucking the bottom one into his mouth and tugging it lightly, chuckling when you let out a throaty whimper.

“Do you feel better now? Hm?”

He pulls away but your eyes stay shut, your whole body stretched up towards him. You nod, licking over your slightly swollen lips, humming in agreement. You smile dopily when he caresses your face, leaning into his touch, as his silken voice reaches your ears. “Are you ready to play?”

Your breath leaves you in one shuddering gasp. “Yeah,” you whine pleafully, eyes slowly slipping back open.

He’s standing over you, closer than you realised. Only a mere few centimetres rest between his crotch and your spread legs. Still, he uses that space to dip his hand down, brushing the back of it between your thighs, knuckles pressing teasingly lightly over your clothed core. “I bet you want these pants off, huh? You wanna take ‘em off for me?”

You nod obediently, kicking off your shoes before you wiggle your leggings and underwear off your hips awkwardly, lifting your legs up onto the bench to tug them off your ankles. Doctor Kim takes them and places them in the corner of the room by the door, and by the time he comes back, you’ve crossed your legs, leaning forward so that your sweater hem covers your naked center.

His eyes fall down to that dip in the hem, darkening. His fingers come up to lazily tug at his tie, loosening it and undoing his top shirt button so that the white pressed fabric parts, revealing a golden upper chest. “You sure seem to like that, don’t you?”

You frown. “Like what?”

“Acting innocent like that.” He’s in front of you again, hands immediately wrapping around your thighs, and the touch is electric, making you more aware of how naked you are. “There won’t be any of that innocence left when I’m done with you,” he promises lowly, before bending down to capture your lips again.

You let yourself be taken over by him, drunk on the arousal that glows warm within you. The heat your own body is enough that you don’t notice the missing presence of a palm resting on your inner thigh, until your sweater is shifting and something ice cold is slipping between your folds.

You hiss in a breath and jerk in his grasp, causing him to shush you, lips still firmly attached to you, though they leave your mouth and migrate southward, nibbling along your jawline up to your ear. “The vibrator,” he explains gruffly, “I’m going to turn it on. Just relax.”

Your legs shift, ankles uncrossing slightly so that you’re more open to him, though you can’t bear to open your eyes, trying to stop the nerves from getting to you.

The moment he turns it on your back arches from the immediate shockwave of pleasure that radiates from that tiny yet strong vibe held directly against your clit. You swallow your moan, breathing heavily through your nose as you fight to keep quiet, letting the mechanic buzz fill the silence instead.

“Is it good?” the doctor questions, making you tremble as his lips dip lower, brushing over the column of your neck with just the slightest hint of tongue. You nod feverishingly, attempting to push your pelvis forward for more of it, rocking your hips in small circles to increase the surface area. The hand still on your thigh tightens, and you open your eyes blearily at the grip. Doctor Kim’s eyes are hard. “It doesn’t sound like it,” he comments flatly, turning up the vibe to a higher setting, making your mouth drop silently open.

“It is good,” you force out, beginning to pant.

“I’m sorry, I can’t hear you. I know you want to moan for me, baby. Let me hear you lose control.”

You whine through a closed mouth, eyes screwing shut again in focus as he lets you chase your own please. How could he seriously expect you to moan in front of him? He was basically a stranger, and although the way he pinned your thigh spread for him, holding a sex toy to you as you got off on it was hot, you were still in a room alone with him on a Friday evening, paying for him to bring you to orgasm. He was probably just staring at you, waiting for you to hurry up and come already.

“Stop thinking, Y/n,” he chastises, “stay in the room.” You shake your head, wishing you could, but it’s too late. The weirdness of the situation hits you, and you open your eyes, searching for a clock on the wall.

The price of this 90-hour appointment was practically highway robbery, and all he was doing was something you could’ve done yourself at home. And as your eyes coast around the room and the curve of your spine settles, you realize that what’s worst of all is that he won’t even be able to do it. You’ve lost that thread, the one that leads you over the edge, and he won’t have time to get it back before-

You shoot up straight when a stinging slap lands on your thigh. You gape at the man in front of you in shock, hand instinctively going to the pinkened flesh to soothe it. “Ow!”

You realize belatedly he’d turned off the vibe, now holding it between two fingers and a thumb. It’s shining with your slick, but less than you’d have expected by this point, and he sighs in disappointment and tosses it onto the towel beside you.

You suddenly feel, as he cocks an unimpressed eyebrow and tenses his jaw, like you’re a child being scolded for breaking a vase or skipping class. Your legs tighten up together, and you gather a fistful of sweater fabric in your hand, pushing it down to cover yourself.

“You know why I stopped?”

You nod shamefully, eyes dropping to the carpet below. “You couldn’t do it. There’s something wrong with me, I guess. Sorry for wasting your time.”

He pauses for a long moment. You almost glance up out of curiosity but can’t stand to see the look of disapproval that no doubt resides in his eyes. “No, Y/n,” he explains tiredly, “I can see clearly now that your problem is that you’re too in your own head, and no amount of stimulation can break through an unwilling mind. So, like any good doctor, if something isn’t working for one of my patients then I stop and reassess. What was on your mind?”

You breathe out heavily, not wanting to have to sit and talk about feelings, but he’s not satisfied when you shrug, simply pulling up a stool and waiting for your answer.

Your mouth tightens and you stare at the ceiling. “I just feel stupid,” you admit finally, “like… you’re just standing there waiting for me to cum and I’m just… not. I don’t know.”

Out of your peripheral, you see him nod slowly, processing your words. “Well, no wonder it wasn’t working. You feel pressured to cum.”

You furrow your eyebrows and look back over to him. “Well, yeah, that’s the whole point of this session.”

He just opens his palms out in a shrug. “Of course, we had booked it in for that, but that’s not my only job as a sex therapist. I have clients that come to learn how to better pleasure a partner, clients that want to explore their kinkier sides without judgement, clients that perhaps are wanting to indulge in something that could potentially be dangerous and want a professional to spot them. I’ve had couples come in and have sex with my supervision because they’re trying something new and are concerned about injury. My point is, not everybody comes here for me to simply bring them to orgasm and go.”

You shake your head quickly. “Oh, I wasn’t- I wasn’t trying to say that your job was just-”

“I know, I know,” he soothes, “I just want you to know that sessions with me aren’t a complete failure if the client doesn’t orgasm. Perhaps you need a little more trust and we can work up to it.”

You bite your lip, uncertain. “I can’t really afford a bunch of sessions like that other dude. If you can’t do it today, I’ll just go-”

“How about this?” The doctor rests his elbows on his knees and clasps his hands together. With the nearly see-through white shirt rolled up to the elbows, a slackened tie, and straining pants, he strikes a powerful image. “If you promise me to come back, I’ll give you the next session for free. Since you came here expecting to be brought to orgasm, we can call it fair compensation. Today you won’t orgasm. Sound fair?”

You relax a little as you perch on the massage bed. “Okay… But what would we even do then?”

“Like I said, orgasming isn’t the only thing I offer. You mentioned earlier you felt uncomfortable with me waiting for you to come, is that right?” You nod slowly. “Well, perhaps if you didn’t feel that I was expecting anything from you, you could relax more.”

“I don’t understand,” you admit, trailing off.

“Stand up, I have something for you.”

You do so immediately, needing to use the massage bed for support as your knees buckle slightly. The doctor slips a hand under his waistband slightly, drawing your gaze lower to his crotch, where a bulge strains against the fabric.

“I think you would benefit from focussing on yourself a little less,” you hear him say as his hands pop open his pants, dipping into his underwear to pull his straining cock loose, “and focus on me a little more. Do you see how horny you made me, grinding on that vibrator?”

Your eyes widen. You watch his hand, defined by thick veins and delicate bones, stroke himself, a thumb dragging over the slit to spread the beads of precum that were produced. “Is this what you have for me?” you question in confusion.

He laughs. “No, although I do love the way you’re looking at it like a three-course meal. Eyes up,” he commands with a bite of humor in his voice. You hastily obey, and his warm eyes crinkle as he jerks his head to the side. “Let’s go; we’re changing location.”

You frown. “Sorry, what? Changing to where?”

You watch in wonder as he casually strides over to a bookshelf near the far corner of the room, clothes disheveled and leaking cock still in hand. What you had failed to notice when entering the room was a sliding door just past it, the same unassuming wood finish as the shelves. He slides it open, removing the hand from around his dick to wave you through.

Tugging on the hem of your baggy sweater to attempt to cover yourself - though you weren’t sure there was anything of you left to hide - you let him lead you through the small opening into a far darker room. You squint, eyes adjusting, and slowly the gentle light of several flickering candles is enough to see by. They’re scattered around the room, and you notice soon enough that they’re all electric.

“Safety hazard,” the doctor explains. “Me, not the candles.” The rest of the room, in a hazy warm glow, is outfitted in a very different vibe from the previous one. Instead of containing all the erotic bells and whistles, this room could be easily mistaken for a honeymoon suite. On the outskirts are a bar fridge, a few armchairs, and a coffee table, but the main event is the gigantuan bed that takes up almost all the floor space, even more lushly covered with blankets and pillows than the one you had seen in the waiting room.

“Far out,” you breathe, “this is impressive.”

With a rakish grin, he remarks, “what? The purpose-built sex room didn’t do it for you?” Doctor Kim gently slides the door shut behind the two of you, making his way over to a small bluetooth speaker resting on the coffee table. “I had suspected when you responded so well to that kiss that you might be the type to need a comforting environment to keep you in the moment.” He fiddles with the settings, slipping a phone out from his back trouser pocket to select some gentle instrumental song with a muted beat and hypnotic melody. “I’d like to propose a roleplay scenario.”

You bite your lip. “Don’t we… There can’t be much time left of my appointment now, right?”

“Don’t worry about that.” You’re not convinced. He gives you a warm smile, leaning against the arm of the chair. “My next slot is empty. How about we let you book out that one as your compensated session? As far as that pretty little head of yours is concerned, we have all the time in the world. Now: roleplay. Have you done it before?”

You shrug awkwardly. “Not really. I’m not a good actor or anything.”

He shakes his head. You appreciate the way the flickering lights play with shadows over the planes of his face, his neck. “This isn’t the Oscars. And it’s not going to be anything difficult. I was thinking perhaps an anniversary date night. We rented out a fancy hotel room to celebrate. We’ve hand some drinks from the mini fridge,” he waves a hand towards the aforementioned appliance, “and now that the evening is drawing to a close, we’re going to share each other’s company on a more… intimate level.”

You take a deep breath and nod slowly. “Okay, that sounds good. Thank you, Doctor Kim, I appreciate your-”

“Shh, baby,” he soothes, pushing off from the armchair to stroll over to you. He waits until he’s in front of you, hands cupping your face tenderly and looking deeply into your eyes, before he continues. “We’re married; this is our anniversary night, remember? I want you to call me Namjoon.”

“Namjoon,” you repeat dreamily, blinking up at him. In the dim lighting, he looks even softer than before. There’s no tension in his face, and his rumpled clothing looks awfully… domestic.

His eyes turn up at the edges with his smile. You feel safe yet weirdly vulnerable with your face in his hands and his gaze deeply focused on you. “Do you want me to kiss you again?”

You nod eagerly, just about pushing his hands off you, and his lips quirk up. Without any further words needed, he ducks his head down and slants his mouth across yours, reigniting that flush of want inside you. One of his hands slides around into your hair, playing with it lightly, and the other presses on your jaw, tilting your head back so that he can deepen the kiss. You whimper when you feel his tongue make contact with yours, teasingly swirling inside your mouth, and your hand flies up to curl around his wrist, needing to anchor yourself to him as much as possible.

“You’re so perfect,” he murmurs against your lips, pressing his body against yours. “I missed you so much. Did you miss me?”

You pause, feeling his lips keep moving against you, nibbling at your bottom lip when you don’t answer. “Y-yeah.”

“Yeah? You don’t sound like you miss me.” He laughs breathily, taking his hands away from your face. One links up with yours, squeezing your fingers reassuringly, and the other snakes around your back to hold you even tighter against him. “I wanna show you.”

Your eyes flutter uncertainly, so overwhelmed by the sensual kisses he gave you that you only process what he says belatedly. “Huh? Show me what?”

“How much I missed you,” he replies, the arm around your back sliding lower until it’s slipping under your sweater hem to grasp at the flesh of your ass. You tremble, knees going weak. He leans down to your ear, dragging his spit-slicked lips your face like he can’t bear to part with it. His voice is like honey in your ear, whispering in between teasing nips at your earlobe. “Can I show you how much I missed you?”

“Please, show me,” you plead, not even sure what he means by that, but letting him walk you backwards until the backs of your thighs hit the bed. He lays you down gently, rubbing soothing circles over your naked flesh. You gasp with anticipation when he drops to his knees in front of your legs, pushing your knees apart to slip in between.

The bed is comfortable and the room is perfectly tiered for a romantic environment. You try and keep yourself grounded, letting yourself drink in the sensation of his hands on you.

“Can you scoot forward a little for me? Legs over my shoulders.” Namjoon’s instructions are easy to comprehend but harder than expected to execute. Your body feels a little dead, and you shuffle your butt lower, thigh muscles complaining when you lift them up. He helps you, hands on the backs of your knees to hook them up onto himself. “You look so beautiful, spread out for me. Will you let me have a little taste?”

If orgasms weren’t so hard to come by, you’re sure you would’ve come from that statement alone. You make a whined noise of agreement, shuffling your shoulders down the bed so that you can arch your back a little more, needing to feel him.

With palms sliding up to wrap around and hold down your thighs, the doctor gives you no other warning before he descends on you, slurping noisily against your center. Your mouth drops open and you clench around nothing automatically, simultaneously embarrassed by the loud sound and turned out by his enthusiasm.

He wastes no time in teasing, instead devouring you like a starved man, putting everything into it. Your brain has no time to process the sensations your nerves are being assaulted with; his tongue is inside you and his nose is bumping your clit, then he moves up to wrap his lips around that little bud with a demanding suck, slicking his chin with your wetness. He changes from place to place, never the same speed or intensity. If your lack of orgasms are like a failing heart, Namjoon going down on you is the defibrillator, the shock to your system that you needed.

Your fingers clench tightly onto his hand, moaned-out sighs and shuddering muscles the only sign your body is able to give that he’s doing well. In the back of your lust-addled mind, you feel a single finger slip between your folds, passing over your center to collect wetness before dipping inside. You clench at the intrusion, feeling him groan against you at your tightness.

He crooks that finger, slowly thrusting it in and out like he has all the time in the world, and you whine, mouth dangling open and drooling, eyes clenched tightly shut. With its proven success, it’s not long before that one finger becomes two, and he has you writhing on the bed.

You whimper when he gives your clit a final flat drag of his tongue before lifting his head up again, continuing to work his fingers inside you. “When was the last time I got to make you feel this good, huh? It’s been so long, hasn’t it?”

Your body curls in and you keen as a third finger joins the other two, beginning to provide more of a tight fit, preparing your inner muscles for what was to come. You realize he asked you a question and force your tongue to form words. “I, ah, I can’t think,” you blabber out in a slur.

“Good.” And with that, his mouth is on you again, this time with renewed vigor. When he speaks again, he doesn’t even bother removing his lips from you, lapping at your clit between words. “I want to see you fall apart on my tongue, baby,” he confesses, “gush all over my fingers.”

Like a train hitting you, you feel your nerves deep inside shortcircuit at his words, and you let out a little scream when an orgasm abruptly hits, your legs closing to tighten like a vice around his head as he works you through it, speeding up his tongue and grinding against that rough patch inside you with his fingers as your pussy locks up. Your muscles push against the intrusion, though he refuses to let up as violent tremors wrack your body and leave you shuddering hopelessly under his ministrations.

You don’t realize until wetness hits your temple and slips past your hairline that you’re crying, but when you press a shaky hand against your eyes, they’re soaked with tears. The fact that you’re crying, as well as finally achieving the orgasm that was feeling more and more impossible, just makes your lip tremble harder until you’re sobbing against your hand, beyond overwhelmed.

Your legs are taken off his shoulders without ceremony. They flop limply over the edge of the bed. “Hey, hey,” Namjoon’s voice is concerned, though not surprised or frantic, and you suppose he must deal with this often, “you did it. I’m so proud of you. Do you want me to get you some water, or stay here with you?”

“Stay,” you plead brokenly, voice breaking even on the one syllable. He acquiesces, crawling up on the bed to lie beside you, rubbing your shoulder. You feel yourself calm down slowly with his presence, letting out one shaky exhale. “Fuck.”

“You can say that again,” the doctor jibes. “I don’t mean to be crude, but the way you came like that? It was fucking hot. Shit, I’m harder than a rock right now.”

You laugh breathily, sniffing and wiping away your tears. “I can help with that if you want.”

He swears under his breath. “You can’t say stuff like that. Sex with patients is where I draw the line, and as much as I’m hating that rule right now, I need to keep at least an inch of professionalism here.”

You turn to face him, propping your head up on your hand. “I regret to inform you, Doctor Kim, but I won’t be needing your services after this session. There; now I’m not your patient anymore.”

You watch his pupils dilate, eyebrows narrowing. In mere moments, the more dominant personality from earlier has been brought out again. “Well, then. I’m not going to fuck your tired little pussy, because I’ve worn it out for the day. So if you’d like to give me a helping hand, you better get on your knees.”

#btssmutclub #thekimlinenet #smutcentralnet #knj smut #namjoon x reader smut #bangtanarmynet #btswritingcafe #btswriterscollective #bts smut #bts x reader smut #namjoon oneshot #namjoon fic #dom namjoon

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losille2000 · 4 years

Text

Mister America, Prologue: Massachusetts

CHAPTER NUMBER: 1/? CHARACTERS: President!Chris Evans/OFC (see notes) GENRE: Romance/Drama FIC SUMMARY: After a massive social media write-in campaign organized by others, Chris finds himself thrust into a spotlight that he is unprepared to handle. His campaign managers suggest that a political marriage might help him weather the storm and help his image during the campaign... just so long as it isn’t the one woman Chris really wants. RATING: M WARNINGS: Nothing. AUTHORS NOTES: This story is AU in the fact that this is the 2020 presidential race, and Chris is a candidate. But everything in the past is still the same with him being an actor. Also, COVID-19 is not a part of this story. I needed to play in a land where COVID didn’t exist and “Captain America,” in his alter ego, punched out a Nazi in a metaphorical(?) way. For more on the story, go here.

This first part is prologue-y.

I have also curated a soundtrack for all 50 states, and then some. You can listen on Spotify right now, may eventually put it on Youtube. There will be 50 chapters (I’m hoping), but many of them will be shorter.

Also on AO3!

Boston, MA Evans for President Campaign Headquarters November 3rd, 2020 30 Minutes Before First Polls Close

Stage fright is no joke.

When it hits, it hits like a semi truck going seventy on an icy Massachusetts road. In the blink of an eye, you’re completely obliterated. Except this is on stage and you’re not dead, even though you wish you were. In fact, you’re very much alive. Alive enough to feel the force of the impact, followed by the squeezing in your chest and choking on your breathless words. Paralysis takes over. Cold clammy sweat slicks your palms and also trickles down your back to that one spot between your shoulder blades you can’t reach, but causes your costume to uncomfortably stick to your skin.

There’s no escape. You know what’s coming. You worry you’ll forget your lines, or trip on your cue, or make a complete and utter fool of yourself. You feel like an imposter, questioning why you’re here, in this role, when that dude, JD, from your acting class years ago was a million times more talented than you, and you’re the one that got that teen movie deal. You’re the one who became one of America's most beloved superheroes for a decade.

You’re also the one who has a very real chance of winning the 2020 presidential election, despite no college education, limited understanding of what elected officials in DC actually do on a day to day basis, and the closest thing you have to experience as a “boss” or “commander in chief” of anything was a movie set or two where you were director and executive producer.

Nope.

What I, Chris Evans, have is a dedicated online fan base who took the time to write my name into ballots when they discovered I had filed for ballot access in every state of the union. I didn’t do the filing on a whim; we sat around late one night talking about the interviews I had been conducting in DC for a website about party positions on important issues. My business partners and I came up with the idea that a long form documentary about campaigning would be interesting, and we determined the best way to understand the process was to become a “candidate” myself. Meaning, we only planned to use the credentials to be on the front line of the campaigning process. I was never going to create signs and make speeches or debate with others.

I never intended to run a legitimate campaign.

But, as I mentioned, something strange happened during the Democratic primaries. People started to vote for me, a trickle of rain in a hurricane.

I won a few primary delegates.

Without even trying.

Not enough to win the Democratic ticket, but enough to make pollsters sit up and take notice.

My loyal fans stepped in again, undaunted, and ignited a storm. They dubbed it “Operation America’s Ass” and created a grassroots campaign across the country with GoFundMe donations and a lot of pluck. I thought it was a joke. A part of me still does think it’s a joke. I mean, what other explanation is there for this mess? For the red, white and blue bunting hanging on the walls with the “Chris Evans for President” sign plastered underneath it? For the staffers who stop briefly to see if I need anything...‘Would you like a drink, sir?’... or, upon seeing how pale I look, give me a vote of confidence… ‘Are you ready for your acceptance speech?’ There’s absolutely no good explanation as to why there are twenty or thirty people buzzing around the hotel suite waiting for results. They’re so energized with hope for a better future.

Hope that I can be everything they ever wanted in a president.

An Independent president, free from party oversight.

A president with class.

A president for the people.

A president who can bring the United States back from the brink of destruction at the hands of previous leaders.

I wish I had their confidence.

When they asked me on career day in school what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always said artist. When I was older, in high school, I knew I was going to be an actor. Never president. The job never entered my mind as being a possibility, not even when I used to work for my uncle’s congressional campaigns. Or when I started filming those interviews.

Why does anyone think I, a straight white momma’s boy from Boston should be president in 2020? Just because I made a few popular Tweets about the current president’s lack of leadership?

It has to be a joke. A cosmic one. I’m a punchline. I am convinced they’ll jump out from behind a doorway and yell “You’ve been PUNK’D! We really got you this time, now here, Bernie, you’re the better candidate.”

And yet…

What if they see in me something I do not?

I place a lot of stock in being in the moment. I’ve also put a lot of work into accepting the twists and turns of life instead of allowing all the “what ifs” and “what should I dos” to eat away at me. I told everybody after I was done with Marvel and financially secure enough to only work on projects I really wanted to, I’d take life as it came at me.

Well, it came after me.

To be fair, I originally chose to get into politics, even in a tiny way, because I wanted to be informed about my choices. I created a website so others could learn, as well. As time went on, I became more involved on Capitol Hill. I even did some lobbying for a few causes dear to my heart. And, yes, I did file the ballot access paperwork.

Had I unintentionally set my path in this direction? Was it inevitable for me to become a contender for the presidency?

Fortunately, I learned early on in the process that a lot of being a presidential candidate is being a convincing showman. An actor. The world's a stage, after all, and I am but a player. You have to have some solid ideas and convictions to back up the image, but a lot of the governing comes from other members of the executive branch. Should I win, I’d only be signing off on everything.

Of course, that “everything” affects the lives of more than 300 million souls. I wouldn’t trust me with a kitchen knife, much less nuclear launch codes and people's livelihoods and education and health and…

My hands shake with nerves just thinking about it.

Let it be said, once I do make it out onto the stage--be it as an actor or presidential candidate--I rise to the challenge. The energy from the audience buoys me. Makes me feel alive. But I am not, by nature, someone who likes to sign away so much personal freedom in exchange for the weight of carrying an albatross around my neck. I thought signing for Captain America would be tough; the human toll of running for president even moreso.

Actually being President? I can’t even wrap my mind around that.

It would be easy to call it quits, even now when the votes are already cast. I could have done it a long time ago, when the reality of the situation hit me the first time. I didn’t. Something told me to hold back, play it out. I persevered. Why? Somewhere, along the line, I began to believe I could do this. I could make a positive difference in the lives of Americans.

I certainly want to do right by all my supporters--and my detractors. I want to be a leader for all Americans.

But can I, really, while knowing my incredible deficiencies?

Maybe I can’t, but I can be the team leader. A brand ambassador, if you will. A good leader delegates. And I intend, should I win, to surround myself with the best and brightest. I will accept no less. I will do ‘Whatever It Takes,’ as our slogan boasts. I am American, first and foremost, and I care deeply about this country.

A real Captain America, if you will. Maybe not as strong or powerful as others, but I sure as hell can give a great speech and will defend my country from bullies until my last breath, whether they be purple… or orange.

Except, I suppose if I’m elected, I won’t be Captain America anymore. They’ll call me Mr. President.

Or, horror of horrors, what if the new name my nearest and dearest coined makes it out into the public. They tease me with it just to see my visceral revulsion and get a laugh. But if I have learned anything about the internet--and pop culture--is that if something is catchy, it sticks around for a long time.

Maybe I ought to get used to the idea of being a punchline.

So, I suppose I have a question for you.

Won’t you consider a vote for Mr. America?

#chris evans #captain america #chris evans fanfiction #chris evans fan fiction #chris evans fanfic #chris evans fan fic #mister america #president!chris evans #president

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joonsrack · 4 years

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+Pairing: Namjoon x Reader

+Genre: One shot (maybe an eventual series). It’s not fluff, it’s not angst, it’s....idk i’m bad at this.

+Word count: 2.1k

+Summary:

“Here stands Kim Namjoon, tyrannic CEO who has made the last few months of your life a blur of stressful weeks and nonexistent weekends. He's a workaholic on a good day, and a demon on the bad ones. Not a...whatever this is.

‘He’s flirting, right?’ The little voice from the back of your mind supplies. ‘Shut up’ is all you answer.”

Meeting your boss in a BDSM club is probably the last thing you were expecting coming here.

+Warnings: NSFW (nothing graphic but story takes places in a BDSM club), BDSM themes, implied switch namjoon, implied dom reader, i know nothing about BDSM and BDSM clubs, don’t @ me. (if i should have tagged anything else pls let me know uwu)

+A/N: This is my first reader x member type of fic, and i gotta say, it was pretty fun. I wrote this for the Secret Santa event organized by the amazing people at BTS writers collective, as a gift for the lovely @freekyegg 💖💖💖. You said your fave namjoon was harness and choker namjoon, so my brain went straight for the kinky stuff.... I hope you enjoy this as much as i enjoyed writing it! Also this fic has nothing to do with Christmas, idk how that happened..

ENORMOUS thank you to @spicykoreantatertots who edited this on a 2 hour deadline, when it wasn’t even finished yet 🥰💖

Of all the places you thought you’d be spending your Friday night, sitting in the office of a BDSM club owner, discussing SSC and setting up your membership, was not one of them. But here you are, sitting in the office of a BDSM club owner, going through the terms and conditions of your membership.

Jung Hoseok smiles at you before handing you a gold pen. The man looks immaculate in his double breasted gray suit, not a crease in sight. Despite his smile, there’s a dangerous aura to him. One of complete and utter control.

“Sign here, here, and here. It’s very important that you respect these rules, for everyone’s safety. We also insist that first timers stick to observation during their first visit. Wear this.” He says, putting down a red bracelet on the desk before you. “Then other customers will know not to propose you. You can also choose to wear this bracelet whenever you feel like just watching from the sidelines.” You hand him back the membership contract after you’ve finished signing on all the proper lines, and he examines your signature before nodding in approval. “There’s a bar at everyone’s disposal, but we don’t allow heavy alcohol consumption, since we prioritize clear consent.”

The nameplate on the desk with 'Jung Hoseok - Headmaster' engraved in cursive makes you feel like you’re back in high school. Except this is not high school, and sitting on the other side of the desk is a successful attractive young man, not a bald idiot.

“There’s some private rooms to everyone’s disposition, which you can either reserve in advance or the same night depending on the availability. We have one room for people who like to have an audience, which we call the Window Room.”

You nod along with him, a little overwhelmed by all the information. He smiles reassuringly at you, noticing your deer in the headlights look. It feels more predatory than anything else.

“There's single mixers every last Thursday of each month, open to the BDSM community, and sometimes there’s special events, themed nights or performances, which are posted on the website. Any questions?”

You shake your head, feeling so far out of your element, sitting in this chair, about to enter a whole new world you’ve been fantasizing about but never dared to seek out.

It took your best friend, Taehyung, digging a little too deep in your closet for one of your blouses and finding your box of accessories and outfit. You had flushed a deep red in embarrassment at having your secret exposed, but your friend had been quick to reassure you there was nothing to be embarrassed about.

Then he’d shocked you into admitting he had a similar interest.

“You asked me once why I have a leash at home when I don’t own a dog.” He had said, shrugging one shoulder, and that had been an eye opening moment for you.

And then, after revealing you’d never shared with anyone your interest for all things leather, whip and power dynamic, he had talked to you about this club.

“It’s called Club Dionysus. It’s for people interested in BDSM. There are spaces reserved for scenes, but you can also just chill at the bar and observe. It could be good for you, to explore this side of you, you know? Without any pressure to participate in anything.”

A few days later, after a hellish week of dealing with your tyrannic boss, distracting yourself with a new experience seemed like an excellent idea.

The corset is hugging your body just right, your sheer stockings held in place by some garter and disappearing into your leather pencil skirt. The heels you have on would never be appropriate for a setting other than this one, making you feel like there’s power to each of your steps.

It’s definitely not the kinkiest outfit you own, but you chose to keep it tame for you first visit.

Taehyung is waiting just outside the door as Hoseok dismisses you from his office, wishing you an excellent time. He steers you toward the bar area, but that doesn’t stop you from mapping out the place. You had sneaked a peak at the club before being ushered into the Headmaster’s office, but it’s still a lot to take in once you’re finally free to let your eyes roam around.

The general theme colour seems to be dark palettes, dark wood details, and a little touch of red here and there, but definitely less than you were expecting. There’s the bar corner, which looks like any other club, save maybe for the bartender’s outfit. There’s some tables and then an open space, but it doesn’t seem to be for dancing, judging from the handcuffs hanging from the ceiling.

“For public punishment.” Taehyung specifies once he sees what you zeroed on.

You try to act unaffected, but it’s definitely going to stay in the back of your mind.

There’s a hallway that leads to a few closed doors, some with signs on them. It’s probably safe to assume these are “occupied” signs. Then there's a corner with a small stage, where those performances Hoseok mentioned probably take place. A Saint Andrew’s cross is placed on it, which you were kind of expecting, coming here.

Then, there’s a ceiling to floor window, giving into a darkened room.

You leave Taehyung at the bar waiting for you drinks, curious about what is standing on the other side. The room is dark, so you need to stick your face to the glass and shield your eyes from the light to see anything beyond the window.

You see some outlines, but you can’t make out exactly what’s in there, other than some dark furniture. You push your face even closer, tightening the shield around your eyes.

“You’re allowed to peak inside through the door, you know.” Someone says from behind you, startling you from how close they sound.

Your body seizes up in fight or flight response, survival instinct kicking in at the familiar voice. You know it so well; Too well. It follows you all day long, barking orders left and right, calling you at all hours to add to your workload. And then it wakes you up in the middle of the night, most of the time from stress nightmares.

Most of the time.

You deliberate about turning around and facing the most humiliating moment of your life, or just going straight for the exit without turning back. There isn't a lot of patrons in the bar right now, so the path to the door is probably clear. The only problem is that your feet are grounded to the floor, your heels feeling like they're suddenly made of concrete.

There's a little voice in the back of your mind whispering something that resemble 'Don't forget he's here too', but right now all you’re able to focus on is the presence you can feel, hovering over your shoulder.

That's probably what describes best your relationship, him hovering over your shoulder.

Kim Namjoon has been breathing down your back since the first day you started working as his personal assistant, making your every waking moment a living hell. Go figure he would be doing it here too.

You brace yourself for his usual cold demeanour. You're persuaded this man hates you, always bossing you around and criticizing your every move.

You aren’t expecting the soft grin pulling at the corner of his lips.

Neither are you expecting… everything else.

Gone is his everyday slicked back hairstyle, his silver hair coiffed into a more relaxed, swoop to the side look. He’s wearing this black satin blouse with see through sleeves and leather jeans, which is already a lot to compute, quite different from the suit you’re used to seeing him in. What makes your brain short circuit though, is the harness.

A leather belt cinches his slim waist, two leather straps attached to it, running over his strong shoulders. There’s two leather cuff on each of his wrist, over the sleeves ends, and the harness look is completed by a simple black choker, looking stark against Namjoon’s neck.

You feel your mouth go dry, your breathing getting a little short and heart beating a little faster.

All because of the stress of meeting your boss here, of course. No other reason at all.

“Hello sir.” You say, finally finding your voice. Your head is in a state of chaos, your brain on a loop of everything going on with Namjoon’s outfit.

“Rule #6 if I remember correctly; Relationships and dynamic with people you might know outside of these walls do not apply inside Club Dionysus.” Namjoon recites, eyes on your red bracelet. He takes a very small step back that doesn’t do anything for the lack of space between you.

You would feel caged in, except he has his hands in his back.

You’re not exactly sure why he’s telling you that, although you vaguely remember Jung Hoseok mentioning this earlier. The confusion must show on your face, because Namjoon carries on.

“You don’t need to address me as sir here.” He says, his smile turning sharper. “That is… unless we’ve previously agreed upon that.”

Oh. Oh.

There’s something happening here. A shift in the air. A glint in his eyes.

You swallow, and it sounds ten times louder than usual, despite the soft background music.

“I- hm. Interesting.” You’ve probably never sounded so dumb, but you can’t think over the sirens going off in your head.

This is a weird situation. Something you were not expecting, not in a million years. And how could you?

Here stands Kim Namjoon, tyrannic CEO who has made the last few months of your life a blur of stressful weeks and nonexistent weekends. He's a workaholic on a good day, and a demon on the bad ones. Not a...whatever this is.

‘He’s flirting, right?’ The little voice from the back of your mind supplies. ‘Shut up’ is all you answer.

Unaware of your internal struggles, Namjoon snorts at your lack of response, looking...endeared? Is that the correct word? Is your obvious lack of brain cells endearing to him?

“I’m not your boss here, and you’re not my personal assistant.”

“Ehrm, I see. Should I call you Mr.Kim then?”

“If you wish to.” He says, looking particularly amused by your awkwardness.

Which, rude. This is a stressful place to meet your boss, how dare he.

“If I wish to, huh? So, I could choose to call you anything I’d like?” You can’t stop the slight flare of temper, not liking being made fun off. If he wants you to treat him as an equal, then treat him as an equal you will.

Namjoon nods once, his tongue quickly wetting his lips before adding, “Of course I will need to agree to it beforehand.”

You catch Taehyung from the corner of your eyes, waving at you from the bar with a question mark on his face. Namjoon follows your line of sight, focusing on your friend and frowning.

“Would you agree to being called ‘baby boy’, then?” you taunt, standing straighter than you have so far.

He snaps his attention back to you, looking taken aback by the switch of demeanor.

You can’t stop your mind from conjuring the memory of those dreams, the one that wake you up in the middle of the night. Blurs of a long body tied to a bed, a diamond choker sparkling on his neck, a voice, usually hard, sounding soft and whimpery.

The wide eyed look Namjoon is giving you is pretty close to the one you usually see on his face during those short nighttime visits.

“I-” He says, but stops, looking flustered. You feel a growing satisfaction at having reversed the roles.

The novelty of the situation, that left you feeling unsteady, is starting to subside, leaving you sure footed in your stilettos.

You purse your lips, cocking a brow.

“Only if you agree, of course.”

You see his throat work, making his choker shift as he swallows once, then twice.

“I’m sure you’ve noticed I’m not allowed to take part in the events tonight,” You say, showing off your bracelet. “so I guess we should keep this discussion for next time.” You side step him, never breaking eye contact.

“After all, we need to talk about what you’re going to call me, too.”

“In fact,” He finally says after a moment of silence, his earlier confidence replaced by something more tentative. “we should discuss it in great detail.” He finishes.

You smile in lieu of a response, before giving one last appreciative look to his attire, lingering on the black choker. You feel his eyes on you as you make your way back to the bar, already looking forward to next Friday.

#magicshopnet #secretsanta2019 #ficswithluv #bangtanarmynet #namjoon fic #i hope you enjoyed Roxy uwu

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d-criss-news · 4 years

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When it was announced that The Rosie O'Donnell Show would be back for one night only with a guest list of about 15 million Broadway talents, many of us wondered, would it be a return to the glory days of her multiple Emmy-winning daytime talk show or more like her ill-fated attempt to resuscitate the primetime variety format on NBC in 2008. It turned out to borrow from both those predecessors while evolving into something completely different — a low-tech lovefest that felt like eavesdropping on a group chat among friends looking out for one another in a time of need.

It was spontaneous, messy and blighted by some of the worst audio glitches imaginable. Yet it was often affectingly intimate, and even over an endurance-testing three-and-a-half commercial-free hours, also strangely addictive. The lack of slickness seemed to carry through to the relaxed manner of the guests, and their refreshing unpretentiousness.

Conceived by actor-producer (and occasional tech-support helpmate) Erich Bergen and live-streamed on Broadway.com and the website's YouTube channel, the show was a benefit for The Actors Fund, the charitable organization founded in 1882 that supports performers and behind-the-scenes theater workers. It raised more than half-a-million dollars, O'Donnell announced at the end of the marathon, sitting in a Hamilton hoodie and offering a champagne toast in a glass emblazoned with the face of Barbra Streisand.

She conducted the entire show from behind a laptop in her New Jersey garage, its floor spattered with the paint spillage of countless craft projects. "I'm a little bit of a Broadway nerd, I admit it," said O'Donnell, establishing her dual role as host and superfan.

Part of the show's unique pleasure was seeing favorite Broadway performers chilling in their own homes, almost all of them dressed down, with little visible attention to makeup or hair, and zero concern about unflattering angles. It was a great equalizer, proving that even artists who can hold packed theaters in the palm of their hands with a song are housebound and trying to make the best of a bad situation just like the rest of us — staying close to their families, killing time, learning to cook, wondering how long this unnerving isolation will last. Or how much longer we can put off that shower.

It was kind of comforting to see Idina Menzel sitting by her microwave and confessing, "I guess I'm going a little bonkers," while lamenting a failed lasagna attempt and sharing the challenges of homeschooling her son when she's no math genius. Likewise, hearing Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker talk about watching Columbo reruns or catching up on The Crown, while SJP begged for no spoilers on the final episode of The Sopranos, which she may now get to at last. Seeing Annette Bening on her Los Angeles balcony wearing a "Make America Kind Again" baseball cap was as much a tonic as watching Neil Patrick Harris do a card trick with his adorable twins. And who doesn't want to meet Gloria and Emilio Estefan's cute rescue dogs or hear about Lin-Manuel Miranda's kids' reaction to their first exposure to Singin' in the Rain?

Then there were the musical interludes.

Where else could you catch Patti LuPone, in magnificent voice, singing the urgently upbeat 1930s standard "A Hundred Years From Today," unaccompanied while sitting by the jukebox in her basement? Or Kelli O'Hara nestled into an armchair honoring Stephen Sondheim's 90th birthday by wrapping her crystalline soprano around "Take Me to the World," a hymn to unity from Evening Primrose? Or husband and wife Audra McDonald and Will Swenson duetting on the Charlie Chaplin evergreen, "Smile," from their Westchester living room? Or Darren Criss pouring his heart into another Sondheim classic about the desire for connection, "Being Alive," from Company, accompanying himself in a lovely pop arrangement on acoustic guitar from the sofa of his Los Angeles home? And while sound problems plagued Barry Manilow's selection of hits, ending with "I Made It Through the Rain," I was tickled to see his Judy Garland Kleenex dispenser.

Many of the song choices were thoughtfully apropos of the current crisis, offering comforting reassurance of the eventual return of resilience and togetherness while people in major cities all over the country self-isolate as the infection rate of the coronavirus pandemic continues to climb. Maybe Tituss Burgess at his home keyboard singing "The Glory of Love" is exactly the kind of uplift we all need right now.

Even in the seemingly random numbers, the entire enterprise was characterized by a spirit of generosity and sharing.

Kristin Chenoweth celebrated a Starbucks romance in "Taylor the Latte Boy." Matthew Morrison goofed it up on ukulele to a mashup of "The Bare Necessities" and "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" from his Disney Dreamin' album. Alan Menken whipped through a medley of his songs from The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Little Shop of Horrors, among others, at the piano. Ben Platt, also at the keyboard, did Bob Dylan's "Make You Feel My Love." And Adrienne Warren, the sensational star of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, growled out "Simply the Best" from her bathtub. That was on the third attempt during a particularly troublesome audio patch, by which time her bubbles were history.

Prompted by O'Donnell, more than one guest reminded viewers that The Actors Fund is not just about Broadway artists pulling star salaries but also stagehands, makeup artists, wigmakers and ushers who work in what is very much a gig economy. The organization provides emergency financial assistance, social services, affordable housing, healthcare and insurance counseling and addiction support.

"Everything's a one-off," said Tony-winning actor Brian Stokes Mitchell, who serves as chairman of The Actors Fund. "That's how we get by, and many people are living on the edge right now."

"We're all just one, two, maybe three paychecks away from bankruptcy," added Billy Porter, whose mother is in an Actors Fund nursing home. "In this community, our whole job description is insecurity," said Judith Light.

Porter, along with Lea Salonga and longtime activist Light recalled how Broadway was on the frontlines of another life-threatening struggle during the early days of the AIDS crisis. All of them urged viewers to stay strong and take the time to reflect on the value of solidarity.

While O'Donnell has never been shy about her opposition to Donald Trump and everything he stands for, the show was remarkably light on politics, with just the occasional dig slipping through. She opened with a little celebratory "Yay!" while admitting she had missed the president's daily coronavirus press update, and then explained that she and her guests were not there to talk Trump. When Harvey Fierstein, O'Donnell's 2005 stage husband in Fiddler on the Roof, reminded her of all the election work still to be done, she said, "Let's all just know, we deserve a leader who tells the truth." And the delays in making coronavirus testing more widely available prompted a comment that the government should have gotten busy on that back in January when the writing was already on the wall.

Mostly, however, the hastily revamped Rosie O'Donnell Show was about bringing people together at this time of anxiety and isolation, as the host reconnected with artists whom she has championed since her reign as the Queen of Nice. "Everyone in the community loves you," she told Chita Rivera in a particularly effusive greeting. "You are our queen mother!"

Many of the performers would have been decompressing after rehearsals or Sunday matinees if the Broadway shutdown hadn't happened — Criss in American Buffalo, Broderick and Parker in Plaza Suite, Warren in Tina, Lauren Patten and Elizabeth Stanley in Jagged Little Pill. Sunday would have been LuPone's opening night in the gender-flipped revival of Company. Gavin Creel, who abruptly ended his London run in Waitress to fly home and is in isolation in a cabin in upstate New York, revealed the fear that he might have contracted the virus, given that several others in the cast have fallen ill, with one of them testing positive.

The show bridged the gap separating us from artists whose work we normally experience on the other side of the footlights. Most of us will never again get to see Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber exchange greetings in song on the birthday the two composers happen to share. From those celebrated veterans to rising-star newbies, the common denominator here was everybody facing the crisis just like us, reaching out a hand of friendship, albeit from a mandatory safe distance.

#darren criss #rosie o’donnell #rosie o'donnell show livestream #the hollywood reporter #press #march 2020

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twiddlebirdlet · 4 years

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https://www.wired.com/story/chris-evans-starting-point-politics/

Chris Evans Goes to Washington

The actor's new project, A Starting Point, aims to give all Americans the TL;DR on WTF is going on in politics. It's harder than punching Nazis on the big screen.

It’s a languid October afternoon in Los Angeles, sunny and clear.

Chris Evans, back home after a grueling production schedule, relaxes into his couch, feet propped up on the coffee table. Over the past year and a half, the actor has tried on one identity after another: the shaggy-haired Israeli spy, the clean-shaven playboy, and, in his Broadway debut, the Manhattan beat cop with a Burt Reynolds ’stache. Now, though, he just looks like Chris Evans—trim beard, monster biceps, angelic complexion. So it’s a surprise when he brings up the nightmares. “I sleep, like, an hour a night,” he says. “I’m in a panic.”

The panic began, as panics so often do these days, in Washington, DC. Early last February, Evans visited the capital to pitch lawmakers on a new civic engagement project. He arrived just hours before Donald Trump would deliver his second State of the Union address, in which he called on Congress to “bridge old divisions” and “reject the politics of revenge, resistance, and retribution.” (Earlier, at a private luncheon, Trump referred to Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, as a “nasty son of a bitch.”) Evans is no fan of the president, whom he has publicly called a “moron,” a “dunce,” and a “meatball.” But bridging divisions? Putting an end to the American body politic’s clammy night sweats? These were goals he could get behind.

Evans’ pitch went like this: He would build an online platform organized into tidy sections—immigration, health care, education, the economy—each with a series of questions of the kind most Americans can’t succinctly answer themselves. What, exactly, is a tariff? What’s the difference between Medicare and Medicaid? Evans would invite politicians to answer the questions in minute-long videos. He’d conduct the interviews himself, but always from behind the camera. The site would be a place to hear both sides of an issue, to get the TL;DR on WTF was happening in American politics. He called it A Starting Point—a name that sometimes rang with enthusiasm and sometimes sounded like an apology.

Evans doesn’t have much in the way of political capital, but he does have a reputation, perhaps unearned, for patriotism. Since 2011 he has appeared in no fewer than 10 Marvel movies as Captain America, the Nazi-slaying, homeland-defending superhero wrapped in bipartisan red, white, and blue. It’s hard to imagine a better time to cash in on the character’s symbolism. Partisan animosity is at an all-time high; a recent survey by the Public Religion Research Institute and The Atlantic found that 35 percent of Republicans and 45 percent of Democrats would oppose their child marrying someone from the other party. (In 1960, only 4 percent of respondents felt this way.) At the same time, there’s a real crisis of faith in the country’s leaders. According to the Pew Research Center, 81 percent of Americans believe that members of Congress behave unethically at least some of the time. In Pew’s estimation, that makes them even less trusted than journalists and tech CEOs.

If Evans got it right, he believed, this wouldn’t be some small-fry website. He’d be helping “create informed, responsible, and empathetic citizens.” He would “reduce partisanship and promote respectful discourse.” At the very least, he would “get more people involved” in politics. And if the site stank like a rotten tomato? If Evans became a national laughingstock? Well, that’s where the nightmares began.

It took a special serum and a flash broil in a Vita-Ray chamber to transform Steve Rogers, a sickly kid from Brooklyn, into Captain America. For Chris Evans, savior of American democracy, the origin story is rather less Marvelous.

One day a few years ago, around the time he was filming Avengers: Infinity War, Evans was watching the news. The on-air discussion turned to an unfamiliar acronym—it might have been NAFTA, he says, but he thinks it was DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era immigration policy that granted amnesty to people who had been brought into the United States illegally as children. The Trump administration had just announced plans to phase out DACA, leaving more than half a million young immigrants in the lurch. (The Supreme Court will likely rule this year on whether terminating the program was lawful.)

On the other side of the television, Evans squinted. Wait a minute, he thought. What did that acronym stand for again? And was it a good thing or a bad thing? “It was just something I didn’t understand,” he says.

Evans considers himself a politico. Now 38, he grew up in a civic-minded family, the kind that revels in shouting about the news over dinner. His uncle Michael Capuano served 10 terms in Congress as a Democrat from Massachusetts, beginning right around the time Evans graduated from high school and moved to New York to pursue acting. During the 2016 presidential election, Evans campaigned for Hillary Clinton. In 2017 he became an outspoken critic of Trump—even after he was advised to zip it, for risk of alienating moviegoers. Evans could be a truck driver, Capuano says, and he’d still be involved in politics.

But watching TV that day, Evans was totally lost. He Googled the acronym and tripped over all the warring headlines. Then he tried Wikipedia, but, well, the entry was thousands of words long. “It’s this never-ending thing, and you’re just like, who is going to read 12 pages on something?” Evans says. “I just wanted a basic understanding, a basic history, and a basic grasp on what the two parties think.” He decided to build the resource he wanted for himself.

Evans brought the idea to his close friend Mark Kassen, an actor and director he’d met working on the 2011 indie film Puncture. Kassen signed on and recruited a third partner, Joe Kiani, the founder and CEO of a medical technology company called Masimo. The three met for lobster rolls in Boston. What the country needed, they decided, was a kind of Schoolhouse Rock for adults—a simple, memorable way to learn the ins and outs of civic life. Evans suggested working with politicians directly. Kiani, who had made some friends on Capitol Hill over the years, thought they’d go for it. Each partner agreed to put up money to get the thing off the ground. (They wouldn’t say how much.) They spent some time Googling similar outlets and figuring out where they fit in, Kassen says.

They began by establishing a few rules. First, A Starting Point would give politicians free rein to answer questions as they pleased—no editing, no moderation, no interjections. Second, they would hire fact-checkers to make sure they weren’t promoting misinformation. Third, they would design a site that privileged diversity of opinion, where you could watch a dozen different people answering the same question in different ways. Here, though, imbibing the information would feel more like watching YouTube than skimming Wikipedia—more like entertainment than homework.

The trio mocked up a list of questions to bring to Capitol Hill, starting with the ones that most baffled them. (Is the electoral college still necessary?) They talked, admiringly, about the way presidential debate moderators manage to make their language sound neutral. (Should the questions refer to a “climate crisis” or a “climate situation,” “illegal immigrants” or “undocumented immigrants”?) Then Evans recorded a video on his couch in LA. “Hi, I’m Chris Evans,” he began. “If you’re watching this, I hope you’ll consider contributing to my new civics engagement project called A Starting Point.” He emailed the file to every senator and representative in Congress.

Only a few replied.

In hindsight, Evans realizes, the video “looked so cheap” and either got caught in spam filters or was consciously deleted by congressional staffers. “The majority of people, on both sides of the aisle, dismissed it,” Evans says. Many “thought it was a joke.” Yet there are few doors in American life that a square jaw can’t open, particularly when it belongs to a man with many millions of dollars and nearly as many swooning Twitter fans. Soon enough, a handful of politicians had agreed to meet with the group.

On the morning of his first visit to Capitol Hill, as he donned a slick gray windowpane suit and a black polka-dot tie and combed his perfect hair back from his perfect forehead, Evans felt a wave of doubt. “This isn’t my lane,” he recalls thinking as he walked through the maze of the Russell Senate Office Building. Here, people were making real change, affecting the lives of millions of Americans. “And shit,” Evans said to himself, “I didn’t even go to college.”

“This isn’t my lane,” Evans thought as he walked through the maze of the Russell Senate Office Building.

The trio’s first stop was the office of Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware. “Which one is the senator?” Evans asked.

Coons, having never watched any of the Avengers movies, didn’t know who Evans was, either. But in short order, he says, he was won over by the actor’s charm and “very slight but still noticeable” Boston accent. The thing that got Coons the most, though—the thing that would lead him to pass out pocket cards on the Senate floor to recruit others, especially Republicans, to take part in the project—was how refreshing it was to be asked simple questions: Why should we support the United Nations? Why does foreign aid matter? Coons saw real value in trying to explain these things, simply and plainly, to his constituents.

“Look, I’m not naive,” Coons says. He is the first to admit that one-minute videos won’t fix what’s wrong with American politics. “But it’s important for there to be attempts at civic education and outreach,” he adds. “And, you know, his fictional character fought for our nation in a time of great difficulty.”

Evans stiffens slightly when people mention Captain America. The superhero comparison is, admittedly, a little obvious. But again and again on Capitol Hill, the shtick proved useful: Sometimes it’s better to be Captain America than a Hollywood liberal elite who defends Roe v. Wade and wants to ban assault weapons. When Evans met Jim Risch, the Republican senator from Idaho joked about catching him up on NATO, “since he missed the 70 years after World War II.” When he met Representative Dan Crenshaw, a hard-line Texas Republican and former Navy SEAL who lost his right eye in Afghanistan, Crenshaw lifted up his eye patch to reveal a glass prosthetic painted to look like Captain America’s shield.

Eventually, Evans loosened up—at least he lost the tie. Since that first round of visits, he and Kassen have returned to Washington every six weeks or so, collecting more than 1,000 videos from more than 100 members of Congress, along with about half of the 2020 Democratic hopefuls. Evans has conducted every interview himself. Kassen, meanwhile, managed the acquisition of a video compression startup in Montreal. About a dozen of the company’s engineers are building a custom content management system for A Starting Point, which is slated to go live in February. They’re running bandwidth tests too—just in case, as Kassen worries, “everyone in Chris’ audience logs on that first day.”

“We have to do this now,” Evans says. “It’s out there. We have to finish this. Shit.”

Back in LA, Evans pulls up the site on his iPhone. He hesitates for a moment and covers the screen with his hand. It’s still a demo, he explains, in the same bashful tone he uses to tell me the guest bathroom is out of toilet paper.

On the homepage, there’s a clip of Evans explaining how to use the site and a carousel of “trending topics” (energy, charter schools, Hong Kong). You can enter your address to call up a list of your representatives and find their videos; you can also contact them directly through the site. The rest is organized by topic and question, with a matrix of one-minute videos for each—Democrats in the left-hand column, Republicans on the right.

Early on in the development of the site, Evans and Kassen fought over fact-checking. Kassen, arguing against, was concerned about the optics: Who were they to arbitrate truth? Evans insisted that A Starting Point would only seem objective if visitors knew the answers had been vetted somehow. Ultimately he prevailed, and they agreed to hire a third-party fact-checker. They have yet to put their thousand-plus videos through the wringer, so for now I’m seeing first drafts. If they’re found to contain falsehoods, Evans says, they won’t appear on the site at all.

Kassen showed me a sampling of some of this raw material. Under “What is DACA?” I found dozens of videos, offering dozens of different starting points.

One representative, a Republican whose district lies near the Mexican border, describes the program’s recipients as “1.2 million men and women who have only known the United States as their home.” They go to school, he explains; they serve in the military; they’ve all passed background checks.

Sometimes it’s better to be Captain America than a Hollywood liberal elite who defends Roe v. Wade and wants to ban assault weapons.

Another Republican representative says, “So, DACA is a result of a really bad immigration system … We’re seeing record numbers of families crossing the border because a kid equals a token for presence in the US. All right? We have all of these people come over, we can’t process them, they’re claiming asylum. I just heard from the secretary of Homeland Security this week, about nine in 10 don’t have valid claims of asylum. Meaning they’re not political—there’s no political persecution going on. OK?”

These two responses (from politicians on the same side of the aisle, no less) illustrate some of the quandaries that Evans, Kassen, and their fact-checkers are likely to encounter. The first representative, for instance, says there are 1.2 million DACA recipients, when in fact only 660,000 immigrants are currently enrolled in the program. The higher number is based on an estimate of those who could be eligible published by the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank. The “nine in 10” statistic, meanwhile, is a loose interpretation of data from 2018, which shows that only about 16 percent of immigrants who filed a “credible fear” claim were granted asylum. But this does not mean, as the representative implies, that the other claims weren’t “valid”—merely that they weren’t successful. Nearly half of all asylum claims from this time were dismissed for undisclosed reasons. These are fairly hair-splitting examples, but even the basic, definitional questions are drenched in opinion. What is Citizens United? “Horrible decision,” says a Democratic senator in his video response.

Evans doesn’t want to spend time refereeing politicians. To him, A Starting Point should act more like a database than a platform—rhetoric that rhymes with that of Facebook and Twitter, which have mostly sidestepped responsibility for their content. He’s just hosting the videos, he says; it’s up to politicians to decide how they answer the questions. There’s no comment section and no algorithmically generated list of recommended videos. “You need to decide what you need to watch next,” Kassen says.

One of the assumptions underlying Evans’ project—and it’s a very big assumption—is that the force of his fame will be enough to attract people who otherwise would have zero interest in watching a carousel of videos from their elected officials. This, by all accounts, is most people: Only a third of Americans can name their representatives in Congress, and those who can aren’t binge-watching C-Span. “Celebrities bring an extraordinary ability to get attention,” says Lauren Wright, a political researcher at Princeton and author of Star Power: American Democracy in the Age of the Celebrity Candidate. But Evans, she says, is “not taking the route that a lot of celebrities have, which is: The solution to American politics is me.” It would be one thing if Evans were guiding you through the inner workings of Congress like a chiseled Virgil. But why would someone watch a senator dryly explain NAFTA when they could watch, say, a YouTube video of Chris Evans on Jimmy Kimmel?

Without its leading man in the frame, A Starting Point begins to look uncomfortably similar to the many other platforms that have sought to fight partisanship online. A site called AllSides labels news sources as left, center, or right and encourages readers to create a balanced media diet with a little from each. A browser plug-in called Read Across the Aisle (“A Fitbit for your filter bubble”) measures the amount of time you spend on left-leaning, right-leaning, or centrist websites. The Flip Side bills itself as a “one-stop shop for smart, concise summaries of political analysis from both conservative and liberal media.”

The underlying idea—that there would be a new birth of civic engagement if only we could wrest control of the information economy from the hands of self-serving ideologues and deliver the news to citizens unbiased and uncut—is an old one. In 1993, when the modern internet was just a gleam in Al Gore’s eye, Michael Crichton wrote in this magazine’s pages that he was sick and tired of the “polarized, junk-food journalism” propagated by traditional media outlets. (This was three years before Fox News and MSNBC came into being; he was talking about The New York Times.) What society needed, he argued, was something more like C-Span, something that encouraged people to draw their own conclusions.

But does any of it work? Not according to Wright. “We have many years of research on these questions, and the consensus among scholars is that the proliferation of media choices—including sites like Evans’—has not increased political knowledge or participation,” she says. “The problem isn’t the lack of information. It’s the lack of interest.” Jonathan Albright, director of the Digital Forensics Initiative at Columbia’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, agrees. “All of these fact-checking initiatives, all of this work that goes into trying to disambiguate issues or trying to reduce noise—people have no time,” he says. “Some people care about politics, but those are not the people you need to reach.”

Naturally, this sort of talk makes Evans a little nervous. But he takes refuge in what he sees as the core strengths of the concept. For one thing, he argues, snack-size videos are more accessible than text. Also, those other sites rely on a translator to interpret the issues, while A Starting Point goes straight to the source. It’s not for policy wonks. It’s for average Americans, centrists, extremists, swing voters—everyone!—who want to hear about policy straight from the horse’s mouth. (Never mind that most people hold horses in higher regard.)

Evans has all kinds of ideas for how to keep people coming back. He might add a section of the website where representatives can upload weekly videos for their constituents, or a place where policymakers from different parties can discuss bipartisan compromise. He talks about these ideas with an enthusiasm so pure and so believable that you almost forget he’s an actor. The whole point, he says, is giving Americans a cheap seat on the kinds of conversations that are happening on Capitol Hill. That’s a show that Evans is betting people actually want to see.

The worst thing that could happen isn’t that nobody watches the videos. That would suck, but Evans could deal with it. What gets him riled up most is thinking about what he might have failed to consider. What if the site ends up promoting some bizarre agenda that he never intended? What if people use the videos for some kind of twisted purpose? “One miscalculation,” he says, “and you may not get back on track.” (See: Facebook.)

Evans knows his idea to save democracy can come off a little Pollyannaish, and if it flops, it’ll be his reputation on the line. But he really, really believes in it. OK, so maybe it won’t save America, but it might piece together some of what’s been broken. A fresh start. A starting point.

“This does feel to me like everybody wins here. I don’t see how this becomes a problem,” he says, before a look of panic crosses his face, the anxiety setting in again.

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let-it-raines · 5 years

Text

Not Your (soul)Mate {3/?}

Killian Jones doesn’t like the idea of soulmates. He sees how happy his friends are with theirs, but he still doesn’t like the idea, not when he’s found love and lost it time and time again only to still not know his sign. He has no markings on his skin, no voices in his head, but then one day he meets Emma Swan and everything changes. Because, well, he may not have ink on his skin to tell him who to love, but the very first time that he hears Emma’s voice he knows that she’s the one for him. Then again, that could simply be his desire talking. After all, for every word she speaks, he becomes aroused.

It’s not the worst thing in the world to be incredibly attracted to a beautiful woman, but things aren’t that simple when she doesn’t have any interest in being his soulmate.

He’s screwed. And not in the good way.

Rating: Mature

A/N: Are you guys ready for some meddling friends and conversations about stealing bread? Cool. I am too 💜 As always, thank you to @captainsjedi for her beautiful artwork and supportive reading and to the organizers of @cssns for putting this event together! 😘

Sorry for reposting. Something weird happened, and I had to delete it and try again!

Found on AO3: Beginning | Current

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Tag list: @captswanis4vr @a-faekindagirl @galaxyzxstark @emmas-storybook @searchingwardrobes @spartanguard @ultimiflos @jamif @idristardis@dreameronarooftop15 @nikkiemms @resident-of-storybrooke@tiganasummertree @wellhellotragic @bmbbcs4evr @onceuponaprincessworld@jennjenn615 @mayquita @captainsjedi @teamhook @kmomof4 @ekr032-blog-blog @superchocovian @ultraluckycatnd @artistic-writer @cs-forlife @andiirivera @qualitycoffeethings @jonirobinson64 @mariakov81@xellewoods @thejollyroger-writer @cssns

-/-

“I’m going to kill you for dragging me out here.”

“No you’re not.”

“Asshole.”

“Wanker.”

“Bastard.”

“You’re my brother, so if I’m a bastard, so are you!”

Killian stops running, his feet halting in their tracks, as his breath fully escapes him. They’ve been out here for over an hour, and his legs are burning. Hell, his entire body is burning, every inch of him slick with sweat that is doing nothing to put out the flames. He can practically feel his heart beating between his ears, and he knows that he shouldn’t hastily stop his running, that he should walk it out, but he can’t physically run anymore.

As much as he likes having their workouts done before work, sometimes six in the morning is too early when they don’t even have to be in the office until ten.

Scratch that. All of the time. Six is too early all of the time, and he’s an early riser most days. Unlike Liam, he’s never quite gotten out of a lot of the routines he became accustomed to in the Navy, but he likes to spend that time drinking his coffee or tea and eating breakfast, possibly catching up on some television or on what’s going on the world that he might need to know about. That’s not always the most pleasant thing, but it’s a necessary thing.

“I can’t believe,” he huffs, stretching his arms over his head to try to catch his breath and relieve some of the tension that’s pulling at all of his muscles while a pleasant breeze blows up from the beach, “that you basically just gave me a version of ‘I know you are but what am I.’”

“I probably got it from Luis and Luca. They’ve really been into fighting with each other lately.”

He looks over to his brother, eyes flickering down to his feet which are still moving despite the fact that they’ve stopped their run. The man is still getting exercise in when he knows that they’ve far surpassed their ten thousand steps...not that he tracks them. He had a fitbit at one point in time, but he may have accidentally dropped it into the ocean one day when he was inspecting one of their boats. He’d been messing with his wrist because his scars were agitated and burning like the dickens, and the damn thing came unclasped.

But really, there is no need for Liam to be still jogging in place. He knows that the man is five years older and that his metabolism might not be as great as Killian’s is right now, but damn. All he wants is to take a nice cold shower, eat some more food, and then maybe watch some television before he goes into work. He’s behind on The Rookie, and he really wants to catch up so that Ariel doesn’t ruin it for him. Whenever they watch the same shows, she always ruins them if he gets behind. And if she doesn’t, it’ll be Will. The only person he can count on to not spoil things is Robin, and that’s only because he doesn’t have time to watch anything that’s rated over G with a six year old at home. Technically Liam could also fall into that category, but Liam so rarely watches television unless Elsa makes him.

Elsa watches a hell of a lot of shows that are entirely in Norwegian so that Luca and Luis are bilingual. Liam is still working on his Norwegian, though. It’s funny, when Liam and Elsa could hear each other’s thoughts, things were always spoken in their native tongues.

It was like Google translate, free of charge and of bad mistranslations.

Imagine their surprise when they met and Liam didn’t speak Norwegian. Elsa speaks fluent English, though. Obviously she’s far superior to Liam.

He’d get his ass kicked if he ever spoke those words out loud.

It might be worth it. It’s most definitely true.

“Traffic is going to get bad if we stay out here too much longer,” he points out, his skin cooling down while his heart starts beating steadily again, normalcy returning to his body.

“We live in Storybrooke. There is no backed up traffic. Let’s do one more mile, and then I promise we’ll be finished. And good news for you, we’re not running tomorrow.”

He takes a deep breath, puffing his chest up, before he takes off, yelling to Liam that whoever gets to the library last has to buy lunch.

(He ends up buying lunch.)

(He’s going to have to start training alone so that he can beat Liam’s ass.)

(Who cares about fitness when being better than your brother is at stake?)

His next few weeks at work are a bit insane. It always is in the spring. On their website they recommend ordering customizations, especially full customizations or total redesigns, in the winter, preferably in the fall, but without fail, everyone seems to put in their orders in the late spring. It’s something about the sunshine being more prevalent, temperatures warming up, and everyone simply gets that itch to be outside, specifically to be on the water. He can’t blame his clients. He feels exactly the same way.

There’s likely no one who enjoys spending time outside, spending time out on the water, more than him, so he gets where everyone is coming from.

It honestly makes his life a little bit of a living hell.

It’s funny because hell is only supposed to be for the dead, and he’s only dead inside.

(Not really.)

Maybe his sense of humor is a little twisted.

Being busy is a good thing. It keeps his hands and mind occupied, and that’s something that he desperately needs right now. He needs something to think about other than his personal life. His friends and his family are great like they’ve always been, but they all have lives of their own that are separate from him. He spends his days at work, evenings as a mixture of personal times and spending time with all of his loved ones, but ever since Ariel’s pregnancy announcement dinner, his mind has been absolutely muddled with thoughts of...everything. He’d say his mind is muddled with thoughts of Emma Swan, but that would only be half the truth. After all, he’s only met her once, and he barely knows anything about her.

Scratch that.

There’s a pretty high probability (and he knows this even if his mathematics may be a little off and out of practice) that she’s his soulmate.

That is absolutely the most insane thing in the world. He doesn’t want a soulmate, not really. A part of him does, but for years now all he’s felt is despair. He doesn’t want to be forced to love someone. And yet only days after the anniversary of Milah leaving him, he might have met the woman who is supposedly the love of his life.

But what if he’d already met his?

What if he can’t love again after Milah? What if the universe is telling him to move on in a very big way and he’s not ready? What is he supposed to do with that?

It doesn’t even matter. Emma had been kind and witty, bloody well one of the most beautiful women he’s ever seen, but she’d very clearly not been interested in him. Obviously she was sexually, if only because they apparently literally cannot help themselves (She’s obviously stronger with her restraint than he is.), but she made it clear as day that nothing was going to become of them. He doesn’t know her, doesn’t know her background outside of what he’s picked up from friends, but she seemed just as averse to soulmates as he was.

Maybe they are kindred spirits.

Obviously they are.

But maybe in a different way.

He doesn’t know. He doesn’t know anything, really.

He’s freaking Jon Snow.

(Is it still funny to make that joke now that the show is over?)

(It doesn’t matter. He’s still going to make that joke.)

It’s all a confusing mess. He’s met the woman he’s supposed to be with. He’s met his soulmate like all of his friends and family have, but he imagines that not a single one of them had an aversion to their loves to the point of them meeting and then never speaking again despite having access to each other. It’d be a bit of a roundabout way, but he could still talk to her if he really wanted to. All he’d have to do is go to the police station, frequent Granny’s Diner since that’s where Ariel and Emma eat lunch together, or literally ask any one of his friends for her number.

But Emma’s not interested.

Besides, when they met, he spilled water down her dress, making it see through, and then they’d made each other aroused to the point that she caught him wanking one off. It was not one of his finer moments, so it might be for the best that they don’t see each other for awhile. Or forever. It’s not like they can talk to each other in public anyhow. Emma may be able to hide how it affects her, but he cannot no matter how many unpleasant thoughts he thinks.

Seriously. He’s come up with a lot of boner killers over the years, and none of them work.

The universe is fucking with them because it wants them to fuck.

Will: Belle wants to invite you over for dinner tomorrow. Can you make it?

He looks down at his phone, at the message that just popped up. Belle is always inviting him over for dinner. She’s an absolute sweetheart, but he honestly thinks she must assume he doesn’t eat or that he’s lonely. He does eat, and he isn’t lonely. But Belle and Will are both brilliant cooks, most likely because Belle spends her days in a library that has a section full of cook books and Will is always experimenting with food at the Rabbit Hole. So he’s definitely not going to complain.

Killian: Sure! What time?

Will: Six. We’ve got to do it before I go to work.

Killian: Okay, I’ll make sure to leave the office early.

He’s just put his phone back on his desk when it buzzes again, Will’s message popping up on the screen.

Will: At Belle’s apartment, not mine.

Cue the Tag Team because Whoomp (there it is).

He’s being set up on a double date with Emma, and he’s already agreed to go. He already knows that’s what happened because never once have they gone to Belle’s apartment instead of Will’s. Not once.

Sneaky bastards.

Starting tomorrow he’s designing himself a boat...no, he’s designing himself a ship that he can live in for the rest of his days, because he needs to leave Storybrooke in order to avoid Emma Swan.

He’s not even sure if he wants to. All he knows is that he can’t possibly be in public with her.

This entire dinner is going to be spent with him sitting at the table dying a little inside with every word, isn’t it?

No one told him life was going to be this way.

(He’s got to stop quoting songs.)

Maybe she won’t be there. Maybe he’s wrong. Maybe Will’s apartment has a gas leak or something and that’s why the dinner is at Belle’s.

-/-

He hears Emma talking from outside the apartment door before he gets to the end of the hallway where their apartment is. His thing with sounds, his unfortunate ability to be able to hear absolutely everything unless he’s actively focusing on not hearing it or distracted by something else, is somehow heightened when Emma talks or laughs or even, he assumes, when she sneezes. He has a visceral reaction to it, his entire body heating and tensing, and he hasn’t figured out how to control it, how to make it stop.

There’s about thirty seconds from now until he’s inside that apartment to figure it out.

He doesn’t figure it out.

“Hi,” Belle smiles the moment she opens the door, not even letting him gather his bearings or knock. Belle might very well be the most considerate person he knows, Mary Margaret aside, and she has no idea that she is helping in his demise.

He’s not dramatic in the slightest.

(He definitely is.)

“Hello, love,” he greets, leaning down to kiss her cheek and handing her the bottle of wine he’s brought with him. He prefers to bring homemade food, but he came straight from work and only had time to grab something from the grocery store down the street. “You look absolutely beautiful today.”

“Thank you. Why don’t you come in? I hope you don’t mind that Emma is here. You two have met, right?”

He’s about to answer Belle, to say that they have, even if he sees the cheeky smile on Belle’s face, when Emma turns around from her seat at the table and sees him. She’s in leggings and a sweatshirt, her feet only covered in comically mismatched socks, and her hair is pulled back into a ponytail under a baseball cap. And if the way her lips keep parting before coming together again is any indication, she had no idea that he was coming.

Surprise.

She’s going to hate him.

This was definitely some kind of set up. Never in doubt.

“Hello, Swan,” he waves, awkwardly putting his hand in the air and moving his fingers. Her mouth snaps closed, lips pressing into a firm line, and he sees her eyes roll even under the shadow of her cap. She’s not happy that he’s here, and he doesn’t blame her. They’re in a bit of a complicated situation.

Instead of speaking (thank goodness), Emma simply waves back with a flick of her wrist and the slightest nod of her head. He’s grateful for that, truly. This entire night is going to be torture, but she’s doing him a kindness there. It’s the little things in life.

“Oi, why do you look like the cat has your tongue, mate?”

“Shut up, Scarlett.”

“You know I’m incapable of that. Besides, milady likes the sound of my voice.”

“I don’t know what you see in him,” he sighs to Belle as he walks into the apartment and settles against the kitchen counter next to the table where Emma is alternating between shooting him daggers and completely avoiding his gaze. He should probably stop talking, but he’s not entirely sure how to do that when he’s having dinner. Conversation is kind of expected.

They could all become mimes.

The apartment is a small place, especially for two people, but Emma and Belle have it decorated in soft whites and creams with green and blue pillows and accents everywhere. As well as books. He shouldn’t be surprised at that, especially with Belle living here, but he wasn’t expecting them to have an entire wall of the things. It’s nice though, cozy even. He loves his apartment, but there’s a certain staleness to it sometimes. He doesn’t have much there, just his leather couch with one or two pillows and a painting of the horizon at the bay hanging over his television. He’s got bookshelves too, but it’s nothing like the packed space before him. He wonders if Emma is a bookworm as well.

He hopes that she likes flowers for all of the ones that Belle’s father sends them from his shop.

“He’s surprisingly kind when he’s not being an asshole.”

“So once or twice a year then?”

There’s a loud snicker, more of a snort really, and he whips his head to the right to see Emma covering her mouth, her shoulders shaking the slightest bit. Well, look at that. He made her laugh. It may be a good night already.

“You find that funny, love?” he teases, not able to stop himself from talking when he knows that she must be losing her mind. Maybe he’s a bit sadistic, but it’s kind of fun watching her squirm and knowing that there’s nothing she can do to stop him.

“You? Funny? I don’t believe it’s your allotted one time a year for that.”

The beginnings of arousal spark at the base of his spine, but it’s not enough to do anything. Thank fuck.

“It’s not a funny joke when you have to steal it from me, love.”

“That’s cute that you thought it was a funny joke to begin with.”

“Aww, sweetheart,” Will sighs, leaning back in his chair so that it props up on two legs while he looks at Belle who is grabbing glasses out of the cabinet, “would you look at the two of them flirting?”

“We are not flirting,” he and Emma say at the same time while the real hum of arousal starts to spread across his skin. Sighing, he speaks again on his own. “Belle, would you like some help with dinner since your boyfriend is a wanker who isn’t helping you out?”

“You guys are such weird friends, but sure. That’d be great.”

He helps Belle butter slices of toast while she gets the lasagna out of the oven, the two of them easily moving in and out of the kitchen. His left hand being near heat can sting sometimes, so he tries to avoid it on days where he has pains. It’s been nearly a decade since the accident, and sometimes it’s like nothing has changed. He and Belle fill in casual conversation, catching up on how they’ve been while Belle recommends him some new books to come pick up from the library, and Will occasionally adds something in to make Belle laugh, her entire face lighting up. He sees Emma get up from the table and stalk off to what must be her room, and not a part of him blames her. It’s likely what’s best for the both of them, and he appreciates it.

Until she comes back into the room right as they start to eat, silently fixing herself a plate and settling down across from him. He can’t help but watch her, be fascinated by her. For someone who he knows is intelligent and graceful, incredibly athletic if her legs and arms are anything to go by, she’s not very graceful as she eats. He can’t count the amount of times she’s gotten sauce on her chin and he’s had to motion to his own to get her to wipe it off. It’s funny, if he’s honest with himself, but he’s also pretty sure that each move he makes causes Emma to hate him that little bit more.

Hate may be too strong of a word. She simply wants absolutely nothing to do with him. That’s all.

And that’s totally not hate.

Belle and Will are most definitely trying to set the two of them up, as every other sentence is some kind of not-so-gentle nudge for he and Emma to talk to each other. Emma is much better at avoiding everything, deftly nodding her head in answer or giving as curt of a response as possible. He’s not so adept at it, getting roped into saying a bit more than Emma does. He can’t help himself, even though he’s pretty sure that she’s going to murder him and then hide the evidence. She is a detective, after all.

He’s taking a sip of his wine while Belle and Will are having some kind of argument over their upcoming vacation. It’s refreshing to see that even with the whole soulmate thing that people still have normal arguments and petty squabbles. It makes life seem more…real and not like he’s living in some kind of manufactured box.

Out of the corner of his eye he sees Emma slide her phone across the table, the screen lit up with the messaging app open. He takes it, pulling it into his side so Belle and Will don’t see. It’s not like they’re paying attention anyways. They’re currently debating if they should go to England or to the beach in Florida. He’s not really sure how that’s a competition, but then again, sometimes people like sunshine.

Sometimes people also like not burning up in the fiery pits of hell of Florida.

If we leave right now, I bet they won’t even notice.

He chuckles at her words, looking up and curving his lips into a smile only to see her looking down intently focusing on what he assumes is a split end on her ponytail. Obviously he knows that she wanted him to see this message. She typed it and sent her phone over to him, but she’s acting like he doesn’t exist. It’s an odd disconnect, but he guesses this is how this is going to go.

Do you think we can take the bread with us?

God no. Belle would snap our heads off. The bread isn’t even worth it.

The bread is always worth it.

That gets a laugh out of Emma, even if he almost missed her small snicker. But he can see the slightest tick of her lips, the smallest of smiles peeking out.

Damn. It feels good to make her smile.

He’s not supposed to be feeling that way.

At least he’s not feeling aroused. That’s a damn good feeling and all, but it’s not something he really wants to deal with right now. It still may be the most idiotic soulmate (or maybe not soulmate and just some sick, twisted game the universe is playing with the two of them to screw them up even more) sign in the world, and while he’s still wondering just how long he’s going to have to suffer with it, it may not be the worst thing in the world.

As long as he doesn’t speak to Emma.

That seems pretty easy since they probably won’t be stuck eating another meal together.

He’s not sure how he feels about that.

“Killian,” Belle huffs, slapping her hands against the table just as he’s texting himself on Emma’s phone so that he has her number, something that contradicts every logical thought that he’s had all night (and something that will probably piss her off), “will you please tell Will that we don’t need to go to England when we can go somewhere nice and relaxing like the beach in Miami, which is definitely different than the beach here?”

“I – ”

“Florida sucks,” Emma starts, inching her glass into the middle of the table so that he can covertly slide her phone back to her. “It’s not only hot but also humid, and the people there are assholes.”

“Oh Emma,” Belle sighs, her eyes widening with what he thinks is compassion, “just because Neal is – ”

“It’s not about Neal,” Emma barks, cutting Belle off. If he wasn’t so interested in who Neal is and why he causes such a reaction from Emma, he’d probably notice the slight tingling sensation that’s working its way over himself. “Go to Spain or something. You get Europe and the beach. I’m going to bed.”

With that Emma gets up from the table and stalks over to her room, slamming the door shut behind her. He thought that things were going well tonight, especially with their little back and forth over the phone, but whatever just happened obviously made her change her mind.

“Damn, Jones. What’d you do to make her so mad? I told you she could kick all of our asses.”

He holds his hands up and shakes his head from side to side. “I didn’t do a thing. She was fine.”

“Until I mentioned Neal,” Belle laments, her lips parting slightly before snapping shut. He so wants to ask who Neal is, the words on the tip of his tongue, but it’s none of his business. Emma might not be interested in him, despite her being kind of friendly to him tonight, but if she’s really his soulmate, he’d like to get to know her on his own. Betraying her trust doesn’t seem like the best way to start that. And if she isn’t his soulmate, he’d still like to get to know her. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Why? You think Emma doesn’t enjoy talking about her bastard of an ex?”

An ex.

He figured that, but it’s still…nice, he guesses, to have confirmation even if he doesn’t want to know more.

“I just hate that she’s been hurt so badly,” Belle sighs, rising from the table and collecting plates. He stands with her, not about to let her take care of everything when she cooked. “I wish she could find her soulmate so that she could have that partnership, you know? Like us, Will.”

“You and I both bloody well know that Emma will shove her soulmate away whenever she finds him. She’s not about to fall for everything just because someone tells her to.”

Boy do they have no idea.

He doesn’t stay there much longer, only helping to clean up and chat with Will and Belle a bit more, before he’s leaving Belle and Emma’s apartment and walking home thinking about all of the little bits that he learned about Emma tonight. She’s definitely got protective layers around her heart, something he can understand, but he can also see some of the cracks that let in her friendliness and her humor. Sure, the humor might be a defense mechanism, but it’s still humor.

He rather likes her, he thinks.

He’s not sure if it’s just as friends or some kind of crush, but he knows that he doesn’t seem to hate her. Really, he’d love to talk to her some more. If only the universe didn’t suck and they didn’t have this teeny tiny (in his case big if he does say so himself) problem that keeps them from doing that.

Never in his life has he hated getting turned on this easily.

(Except maybe in secondary school in the middle of a mathematics exam, but that’s an unfortunate story for another day.)

Walking into his apartment, he turns on the lights and kicks off his shoes, leaning down to put them in the right order on his little rack, before he sheds his jacket and hangs it on its hook. It’s eerily quiet in here compared to his dinner, so when he sits down on his couch and props his feet up on the ottoman, he immediately turns the television on, letting it stay on the History Channel for some background noise on the American Revolution.

His phone vibrates in his pocket, and he responds to Ariel’s text about her time off for a doctor’s appointment next week. He’s about to put it back in his pocket when he remembers Emma’s number in his phone. He could text her, but should he? She probably doesn’t want to hear from him, especially if she’s in a bad mood because Belle mentioned her ex, but it’s almost like he can’t help himself.

Dammit.

He’s thirty-five. He should not be having this much of an issue on deciding whether or not to text a woman he fancies.

Killian: You know, I quite fancy you from time to time when you’re not yelling at me.

One, two, three minutes pass. He watches his screen for all of them.

Emma: I could just block you, you know.

He snickers at that. Of course that’s where she goes first.

Killian: I know. I also know where you live.

Emma: That’s stalkerish, dude.

Killian: Block my number and throw me in a jail cell, love. I’m ready for it.

Emma: Kinky.

Killian: The name’s Killian.

Emma: Asshole.

Killian: I also answer to that.

She takes a few minutes to respond, the little dots popping up on his screen and disappearing over and over again.

Emma: Good.

#Not Your (soul)Mate #cs fic #cs ff #captain swan fic #cssns

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samanthasmeyers · 4 years

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How to Grow Your Sales with Shopify Landing Pages

Georgia sells boutique hot sauces online and she’s starting to get some traction.

With five years of marketing experience under her belt, she launched her store on Shopify as a side hustle. It’s blown up since then, allowing Georgia to turn peppery products into her full-time gig.

To manage growing demand, she relied on an ecomm agency that promised her 7X ROAS. But the $3,000 monthly retainer didn’t make sense, especially since she wasn’t even close to matching that in ad spend.

So, Georgia set out to do some research on her own. She’s smart, and she’s no stranger to marketing. That’s when she discovered the secret sauce to scaling her ecommerce business.

It wasn’t sriracha. It was landing pages.

Georgia knows you don’t need to be a spice savant to creating marketing campaigns that bring the heat—you just need to know what converts. Read on to learn how Shopify landing pages can help you transform your ecomm sales from mild to five-alarm hot.

Why Use Landing Pages for Shopify?

Tons of companies that sell on Shopify send traffic from their paid campaigns directly to product pages on their website. And, sure, that works well enough for some of ’em. After all, your site gives people a high-level overview of your product offering that landing pages usually don’t.

But the reality is that if you’re not using landing pages to prime visitors for purchase, you’re not converting to your potential.

Let’s say you’re running a seasonal campaign around Black Friday. You’ve got all your Facebook ads set up and ready to go. You hit the red launch button, and… oh no. Your relevance score is crying for help because you’re sending people who clicked a Black Friday ad to a generic product page.

Not only that, but you’re creating an awful experience for visitors. The place they wound up doesn’t match the ad that they clicked. They’re confused, maybe even frustrated. You can kiss that conversion goodbye.

Now, consider the benefits of sending your traffic to a dedicated landing page before they hit your online store:

1. You can get specific with your target audience

Pushing shoppers to a run-of-the-mill product page isn’t ideal since the page probably wasn’t designed to address their needs specifically. The best way to drive ecommerce sales is by pairing custom landing pages with highly targeted ads or emails to help you reach a specific audience at a specific time with a specific offer, encouraging them to take a specific action.

Specificity converts.

2. You can get higher conversion rates by A/B testing

The average ecommerce site in the United States converted at 2.6% last year. Worldwide, that percentage is only slightly higher at 4.3%. Not bad, but also not awesome.

Landing pages let you perform A/B testing at a level of granularity that most ecomm platforms don’t allow, helping you validate their effectiveness and optimize as you go. By tweaking your messaging and tinkering with design elements, you can squeeze even more conversions outta your campaigns.

3. You can deliver a customized brand experience

The product pages that come pre-packaged with themes on ecommerce platforms are meant to be modified to suit your brand, but most businesses just add their content and start sending traffic. That means lots of ecomm brands show up the same, with product pages that lack distinguishing features or meaningful detail.

With landing pages, you can provide a truly customized brand experience before visitors even hit your website—so once they do, they’ll be ready to buy.

4. You can build and launch with less time and money

We’ll be the first to admit there are plenty of head-turning product pages out there. The trouble is that most of these pages have been custom-built by specialized teams who speak Liquid code—and that’s reflected in their cost.

Then there’s the time commitment. Say you’ve decided not to run a Valentine’s Day campaign, but then you have a last-minute change of heart. Your dev won’t appreciate your call at 3 am, asking ’em to put together a product page. (And your designer, copywriter, and other team members won’t be throwing you a party, either.)

5. You can keep visitors focused on making a purchase

Most product pages come with tons of distractions: site navigation, links out to reviews, multiple calls to action. There are plenty of ways for visitors to wander off in the midst of making a purchase.

On the other hand, your landing page is totally laser-focused on getting people to convert. Fewer distractions mean lower bounce rates, which means more sales.

Building Your Shopify Landing Page: Best Practices

Best practices for Shopify landing pages are a lot like any other landing page best practices: message match, context of use, that sorta thing. Still, there are some specific things you can do on your Shopify pages that’ll give them that extra oomph.

Here are some tips to keep in mind while you’re building your Shopify landing page:

Sell the benefits, not the features. Converting in ecomm is all about the benefits of the product. How does it improve your target customer’s life? Think through all of the potential benefits of your product (even the obscure, less tangible ones) and make sure you’re highlighting them on your landing page.

Make it look amazing. Before your audience reads a single word of copy, their emotional response will be to the visuals of your page. Be sure to wow them with your design.

Stun ’em with a video. If it makes sense for your brand, also consider using video on your landing page. Marketers who include videos in their campaigns often see conversion rate bumps of 34%—and with loads of other benefits, it’s a wonder more brands aren’t getting out their camcorders.

Use psychic triggers. Familiarize yourself with concepts like social proof and scarcity. For example, you might wanna include messaging around time-based (“only for the next 24 hours”) or product-based (“only 10 left”) scarcity to drive landing page conversions.

Stay relevant by launching fast. The timing of your ecomm campaigns is huge. No one wants to hear about your New Year’s sale in February, so get crackin’ on those landing pages and launch your next campaign yesterday.

Shopify Landing Page Examples

Here are three examples of Shopify landing pages that were handcrafted by Unbounce customers.

1. Doctor + Daughter

Doctor + Daughter is a cosmetics line made with organic ingredients. You wouldn’t know it by looking at their landing page, but the business behind the brand is actually The Lee Clinic.

One quick look at their website is all it takes to understand why this landing page is vital to their marketing. The homepage does a lot of things—explains who the company is, where they’re located—but there’s no obvious way to find and purchase their products.

Let’s dig a little deeper and take a look at The Lee Clinic’s product list page.

Sending traffic to this page presents obstacles, too. The copy doesn’t really tell us all that much about the benefits of the product. What’s driving me to learn more and buy?

Even the individual product pages bury lots of key information within collapsing bullet points, making it tough for visitors to find out what the products do or how to use them. And while these pages look pretty slick, most ecomm marketers could spot ’em as Shopify templates.

Imagine you get a promotional email from The Lee Clinic advertising a site-wide discount. You click the link and find yourself on the page with their list of products, or even one of the specific product pages. What do you think would do a better job of getting you to buy—that, or this landing page?

The Lee Clinic’s landing page (built by Webistry) does a fantastic job of summarizing the product benefits in a super attractive way. The design isn’t just gorgeous—it’s congruent. Clean. Simple. Professional and eye-catching. Really, it’s just a treat to look at.

And check this out:

This clever section asks visitors what their main skincare concern is, then presents them with a product designed to address that very issue. The Lee Clinic is tying the customer problem directly to their solution. (And this technique can work like magic when you’re retargeting visitors later on down the funnel.)

Also, notice the add-to-cart slide-in on the right-hand side of the page. This minimizes the steps to checkout, making the buyer journey faster, simpler, and smoother. There’s no redirecting to the website, so the entire checkout process can be completed within the landing page. Sweet.

Ready to run email marketing campaigns that’ll blow your subscribers’ socks off? It’s easy—just add landing pages to the mix. Check out how you can drive more email sales by sending your shoppers to dedicated post-click landing pages.

2. Nanor Collection

Nanor Collection sells long-lasting luxury candles, which is to say they burn real slow. If you’re planning a romantic evening (or several, consecutively), these candles are pour vous.

They’ve got an awesome landing page (another from Webistry) that does a great job of showing off their product in an attractive way. It’s sexy. Slick. Simple. An alluring invitation, if I were so inclined.

And look at how the product is showcased here.

Yes, it’s gorgeous and jam-packed with persuasion elements, but that’s only half of it. It sustains the shopper’s experience. It lets them remain on the page, adding items to their cart without ever having to leave. Compare that with the online store on their site, where the user would need to click out and navigate through multiple pages to achieve the same objective.

It’s a great landing page, right? So it’ll come as no surprise to learn it’s converting at a healthy 5.6%.

Let’s compare it with another one of their pages specifically targeting Mother’s Day shoppers. But before I reveal the conversion rate of this one, take a closer look:

Visually, there’s not a huge difference between the two pages. The real change is in the copy: the general landing page highlights a product feature (they’re “long-lasting”) while the Mother’s Day page speaks to the benefit customers can derive from that feature (making your partner feel special with an awesome gift).

The Mother’s Day page has some other things working in its favor. There’s a site-wide discount with an established deadline, plus messaging that indicates there might not be enough of these candles to go around (“while supplies last”). It does a good job of establishing scarcity.

So, which do you think did better?

The Mother’s Day page is converting at almost 15%, essentially turning 3X more visitors into customers than the general landing page. It just goes to show: benefits sell way better than features.

3. DIFF Eyewear

DIFF Eyewear is an eyeglass ecomm that gives up a chunk of their revenue in support of charitable initiatives, helping provide glasses, eye exams, and surgeries to people in need.

The brand has a great-looking website, but like lots of storefronts, it has a ton of elements that distract visitors from making a purchase. There are all those menu items. Multiple calls to action. Different features and incentives like blue light lenses, buy-one-get-one, and philanthropy.

Compare the unfocused (because glasses—get it?) experience of their website with that of this mobile landing page:

Can you see the difference? Here, DIFF tilts its messaging on its head. The main site really focuses on their humanitarianism, and that’s great—it’s what their brand is all about. But here, the copy is all about the value to the customer. There’s no mention of charity. It’s all about making the sale based on the benefits of the product.

Getting Started with Shopify Landing Pages

Whether you’re putting together a business-as-usual campaign or creating something special for an upcoming promotion, you’ve got urgent deadlines that you’ve absolutely gotta hit. That means you need to be able to get slick, super targeted pages up fast.

Forget custom coding. Armed with a powerful landing page builder (like Unbounce), you can adjust everything like Neo in The Matrix—drag, drop, and publish. And with more than a hundred quick-start templates, you can get going right this minute.

from Marketing https://unbounce.com/conversion-rate-optimization/shopify-landing-pages/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

#Digital Marketing

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humongoustidalwavedeer-blog · 4 years

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Role of Digital Marketing Agency

The electronic world and the clients inside are changing, and nobody understands this over a firm's marketing division. Marketing agencies in Mumbai now need solidified abilities and comprehension of the electronic world more than previously, and also senior managers in developing businesses will need to surround themselves using innovative digital experience. For a company with a strong marketing and advertising division, or present branding and innovative attempts through an marketing agencies in Mumbai , it is difficult to envision where a digital bureau may match. While integrating an agency in your practices could possibly be an alternative you've already believed, it is sometimes a challenging choice for a huge company with an current marketing procedure to act upon. But, there are lots of distinct facets to a service which could be helpful to your business. By strategists and analysts to both designers and programmers, there are plenty of functions a digital agency may play in the rise of your recognized brand. Below are only a couple of examples of what an electronic service can do to you.

Data AnalysisWhen the term on the road is about Big Data, the men and women who live in the C Bundle have been waking up and paying close attention. While firms have spent decades putting the individuals, infrastructure, and most of all, the procedures set up to read important data on product and sales trends, the information analysis behind electronic behaviour can be sorely lacking. Which clients are buying products on the internet; and just how are they acting? It is not sufficient to get an e-commerce website: It is time to fully grasp how it's performing by placing the individuals with the knowledge to browse, assess, and optimize the site into position. Going over earnings data was the Friday day activity in almost any provider. It is time to expand this to digital information, to find out in what way the clients are acting, and everything could be carried out by your company to be able to cater to their own needs and requirements. Tracking e-commerce information goes beyond estimating the earnings amounts and related costs - it's all about knowing what the information tells us concerning our clients, and we could alter the internet experience to maximize earnings. What pages are they seeing during their course to buy? Can they arrive at the website multiple times until eventually purchasing a product? Assessing their behaviour along the way will be able to assist you in making informed decisions regarding what modifications or adjustments will need to be created to your website. This info may be employed to grow the user experience, and also maximize your conversion speed in return.Quick Tracking and InsightsWith electronic we could learn more about our customers and competitions than in the past. Responding immediately by knowing what your opponents do through observation and opinions, and understanding how your customer behavior may be shifting is overriding. Imagine having the capacity to reassess the precise blueprint of the way that clients walked around your shop, participated together with your salespeople, or even analyzed a product: electronic monitoring tools provide visibility along with your electronic agency's specialists are there to assist you examine it. Forget seeing every competing shop from the mallYour electronic marketing and advertising agency will offer a competitive evaluation to ascertain what's happening in your business, and exactly what your organization has to do so as to rise over the alternatives in your marketplace. With tracking tools on various social networking platforms, it is possible to watch what's occurring everywhere, the figures behind it, and also the way that audiences are reacting to it. Your electronic agency can supply you with information like the graph under - telling you exactly when a new audience has become easily the most busy on social networking and so the most careful to hear some company' giveaways or deals. It's just another chance to strategize your articles, and decide if the best time to attain your clients is. For the offline example: state a rival puts a billboard on the street, and their shop in the neighborhood mall is overrun with earnings. Before, collecting data could have taken months to surmise. But from the virtual world, we're immediately advised of competition activity. Evaluation, resources, and information help us to observe the potency of the behaviour, and permit marketers to swiftly make responsive and educated decisions to their particular firm's branding efforts.Creative ThinkingTraditionally, advertising study; product growth, and R&D sections have lived with tracking trends and integrating them into a continuous approach. As social media becomes a main action for all ages -- not only young folks -- it is time to utilize creative thinking to enlarge research and garner increased shopper opinions. Digital bureaus have the ability to integrate technological tendencies into innovative approach, while it's adding cellular experiences for elderly shoppers or integrating a social media community for the aging population. The comprehensive analysis of your marketplace, competitions, and target market makes it possible for strategists to think beyond the box and find new techniques to earn your company stick out. They could collaborate with you so as to keep up your branding campaigns while positioning your business for internet expansion and success.Content RepositioningAdvertising bureaus have lived with the adage of glistening, well-branded revenue backup:"This vehicle is slick, goes quickly, will capture youpersonally, girls." While this conventional version will continue to function as soon as an extensive ad budget is centered on movie, it is very important to expand the attention of electronic tendencies in the business. Search tendencies can offer valuable metrics to the content customers are searching for, or the sort of entertainment they are very likely to participate with. By way of instance, if you had an electronic service which took a peek at exactly what replicate might best sell automobiles between being slick, moving quickly, and becoming girls you would understand that, astonishingly, being"glossy" is now more interesting to customers than getting girls or moving quickly: Channel-specific advertising strategies that are dedicated to interactive media past a 30-second advertisement clip may offer experiences which are native to electronic and supply an additional layer of delight to a product that will not happen to be hauled onto the TV display. Utilize your electronic agency's experience to comprehend the way the conventional creative advertising campaign could be repositioned and realigned to appeal to your targeted audience on particular electronic platforms.Digital OptimizationsIt isn't only enough to carry your own advertisement and slap this up in the electronic space. A billboard which is employed on the street will not function exactly the same on social networking or even the homepage of a significant site. As a booklet that works good when given to clients will not have exactly the exact same effect if it is an easy downloadable pdf about the microsite. Digital specialists will be able to help you maximize your advertising campaigns in line with the socket that you need to pursue while converting the electronic media to be successful in its online habitat. Including applicable calls-to-action can encourage people to be part of your internet network and draw towards your company in a manner a billboard or even a commercial can not do. Asking for e mail signups and societal follows while making certain that your microsites and landing pages follow SEO best practices may go a very long way concerning producing a new identity for your business online. Keep your content current, and above all, shareable, and incorporate your own efforts across societal networking in tandem with television and print. Your electronic bureau is there to operate together with any present creative efforts to be able to maximize the great digital campaign.Complement Internal sources digital agency is not here to replace your internal staff, we are here to partner together and nutritional supplement your efforts. Sales and advertising specialists with years of expertise in the business may be ideal for easing an internet Q&A which can allow you to market your company on the internet, but it is up for your bureau that will assist you guarantee that the event is promoted to ensure prospective customers really appear. Taking your company online goes beyond a very simple site or Facebook page. For a properly optimized digital existence, incorporating every part of your sales cycle, then your product creation procedure, along with your customer support management into your electronic strategy should occur. Digital bureaus are partners in advance since companies navigate an increasingly intricate landscape. It's time to quit thinking of electronic agencies and internal promotion groups as two forces which don't combine. Rather, think about them as two distinct but crucial pieces of any successful internet advertising effort.

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wishful-sins · 5 years

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Live (Chapter 1)

CamModel!Male!Orc x Female!Reader

You unlocked the front door to your apartment while lazily kicking off your work shoes. You were barley in the door frame before they were completely off. Haphazardly you dropped your bag on the floor by the door and shambled like a zombie to your comfy couch, face planting onto the throw pillow and letting out a long and relieved moan. You stretched out and laid there for a few moments debating whether you wanted to take a nap or not.

As you shimmied to get yourself comfortable you felt a certain tension between your legs. You groaned as you moved your hips against the couch cushions. As you moved you only further agitated the feeling, so you decided to do something about it.

Before you could decide what you wanted to do you felt your phone buzz in your pocket. You pulled out the device and read the notification.

Valk: I’m going live now. Also doing an unboxing if you wanna watch ;)

You smiled and typed a quick reply before pocketing the phone again.

Eventually you were able to force yourself off your couch and find your laptop. After gathering it, your charger, and a special drawstring bag that you kept in your dresser drawer, you set them down on the chipped coffee table and plugged in the computer. As it booted up you took the opportunity to change into something more comfortable than your work attire. Shedding your skirt and button up shit you replaced them with a tank top and runner shorts. You also took the opportunity to remove your bra and throw it into the hamper.

As you organized your little set up you couldn’t help but feel more and more excited. You eagerly logged into your computer and without hesitation opened your browser to find your list of bookmarked websites. Scrolling down the list until you found url for monstercamx.com. You clicked the tab and entered your log in information so fast you messed up a few times. Your efforts were well rewarded with the unfiltered homepage of the site.

You moved your cursor to the search bar at the top of the page and typed in the familiar name Gr33nDemon26. You clicked enter and were brought to the page of a handsome orc you knew all too well.

You clicked on the thumbnail with the red and white icon that indicated it was live. The video window filled your screen and you saw your amazing boyfriend, Valk.

The video showed him sitting at the foot of his bed, shitless of course, his foresty green skin on full display. He wore loose light gray sweatpants with obviously nothing underneath, subtly showing off his giant bulge. His massive arms we out to play with all his ink exposed. You bit your lip as you watched his arms flex as he reached back to tie his long black wavy locks and braids into a loose bun. He grinned cheekily at the camera, his medium sized tusks causing his smile to become a little crooked yet all the more adorable.

You know his set up well from all the times you stayed at his place. His camera and tripod were sitting on top of his dresser as to get the best view of his room and bed. He also had a big screen tv fixed to the wall behind the camera connected to the internet so he could see all his tips and live chats. He was a professional and he acted like one.

“Welcome back, everyone,” he said in a low, sexy, yet playful tone. He may be a pro but he wasn’t too serious all the time.

“I’m real excited about this stream. You all have sent me such awesome gifts I thought I’d open them on camera for you all. Maybe I’ll even use one by the end. Don’t worry the fun stuff is coming.”

You laid back on the couch and watched as he reached behind him and pulled a box from the pile and rip it open, pulling out the contents. He made sure to thank the fans who sent him gifts though he was courteous and named them by their usernames. Normally his fans would send him sex toys or lube or novelty sex items even really bad porn games that he would play on occasion… naked of course. Sometimes outfits. One stream you remember he had tried on a leather daddy outfit someone had sent him and got many, many tips for it. You remember this because he’d worn it during one of you more private shows.

Though he was thankful for all he was sent he didn’t dwell on them too long. The people came here for a show after all.

“Thanks again for all the gift you’ve sent, if you guys want to send me more you can send them to my P.O. box. I put the address in my bio. Now I think I want to try one of them out,” he said in a sultry voice.

Out of the group of toys he had received he presented a very realistic masturbator. The kind that is actually shaped like a woman’s ass with two holes in it. The kind that you thrust into instead of moving up and down with your hand.

“This one looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun,” he said as he pulled it out of its packaging. He squeezed the silicone butt cheek before laying it down on the bed next to him.

“Thanks again, MissTrix,” he said as he prepared the toy.

You recognized that name. She was a popular elf cam girl. She and Valk often did collaborations since you all lived in the same city. Their streams together are insanely popular. Probably having to do with the fact the MissTrix is such a tiny girl with large breasts and Valk is a huge hulking orc that towers over everyone. That visual size difference is rather erotic in a sexual context. At first you were skeptical and even a little upset when you found out about their work together. But soon you came to realize that their relationship was nothing more than professional, maybe platonic at the most, as the three of you have hung out before. You trusted Valk fully, even if you weren’t a huge fan of his streams that weren’t just him.

As Valk got ready to begin the livechat was filled with people cheering that the show was finally started. Messages like “finally!” and “get on with it!” and “Let’s see the cucumber baby!” scrolled up your screen in rapid succession.

Valk stood up from the bed, his tree like height made his head go out of frame as he palmed himself through his sweatpants groaning softly at the sensation.

“Alright,” he said his voice much lower now it was time for some action, “Now let’s have some fun.”

You looked at the live chat as all the other viewers were furiously begging him to take off his pants. He chuckled as he read the messages and sated their cries by digging his thumbs into his waist band and pulling his pants off slowly. Agonizingly slowly.

As he pulled then down, more and more of his enormous cock became visible. You bit your lip in anticipation as the elastic waistband was pulled all the way down and his rock-hard cock sprung up and out of his pants. The thick head was flushed a darker green than the rest of his shaft and was already leaking precum. Beneath his shaft was a heavy pair of balls that were cleanly shaved. Valk liked to do manscaping for his streams, though he did always keep a patch of hair just above his cock.

Valk gripped his member in his fist and began pumping it up and down. Slathering the precum all down his shaft. He moaned and grunted from off frame as he continued pumping himself. He turned to the side to give the audience a full look at his throbbing cock.

At this point in most of his streams the messages stopped, and the tips flooded in even more. A few times people will message generic things like, “oh yeah baby,” or “that’s hot”. But since he was so preoccupied, he rarely had a chance to read them.

After pumping his cock a few more times he released it and stepped over to where the toy was situated at the edge of the bed. He stood at the side of the bed giving everyone the perfect view of his length relative to the toy. He placed his hands on the fake ass and aligned himself with the hole. He thrusted his hips as his cock was buried in the silicone pussy.

You were already hot and bothered at this point but now you were pushed passed the edge. You grabbed the bag from the coffee table and opened it, reaching inside and pulling out a bright pink vibrator. A toy that Valk had given you as a Valentine’s Day present last year. It wasn’t nearly as big as him, but it got the job done when he wasn’t here. Plus, the powerful vibrations more than made up for its size.

Grabbing a bottle of lube from the bag, you coated the toy and pulled down your shorts and underwear to your knees. You rubbed the slick head of the vibrator around your clit and against your labia, occasionally dipping the tip into your hole just to tease yourself and get you going more.

You listened and watched as Valk pounded into the toy, getting more and more rigorous with each minute. He moaned louder as his hips jackhammered into the fake ass.

Oh god how you wished that was you right now. Getting pounded into the mattress, your body barley being able to accommodate his massive girth and length, clenching at the sheets and screaming with ecstasy into the covers. Those thoughts only served to get your pussy even wetter as your slick coated your lips and making your toy glisten.

You inserted the toy and pressed the button which started the vibrations. You grabbed the toy by the hilt and began thrusting it into you, trying to match Valk’s movements, pretending it was at least his fingers inside you right now. You groaned in pleasure as the vibrator massaged all your most sensitive spots. With your free hand you moved to rub circles around your clit, imagining it was Valk’s big meaty fingers flicking and pinching the little sensitive button.

Your toes curled against your carpet as you watched and listened as your boyfriend continued to fuck the toy with reckless abandon. You could always tell when Valk was actually enjoying himself and when he was just putting on a show. He had told you he likes to think of you to get himself going. He doesn’t like being fake about it. He’d even admitted once to having a bit of an exhibition kink. The idea of taking you on camera as you both knew hundreds of people were watching excited him greatly. Not have it be a show like he does with other cam models he colabs with. Having it be real passionate love making that others could see in real time. Like someone just put a camera on you two when you had sex.

He never pressed you on this, however. He never asked you to be on a stream with him. He knew you would not be comfortable with that. He also never said your name on camera. He expressed he had a girlfriend but never divulged any other information. He was very popular on the site and he didn’t want to force that kind of spotlight on you. Or risk someone trying to find you or use his profession against you. He was in no way ashamed of what he does, and he knew you weren’t either, but he didn’t want to risk someone getting the wrong idea about you. Such a gentleman.

You were reaching your peak as you continued fucking yourself with the toy. Your fingers continued their assault on your clit as well, pushing you even further to the edge. You watched Valk pull himself from his own toy and begin stroking himself again. This time much harder and faster than when he had started. You could see the sticky threads of precum as his hand moved up and down his shaft and the sound of wet flesh mixed with his moans and animalistic grunts were music to your ears.

“Ahh! Fuck yes,” he moaned and hissed.

A few more thrusts of your own toy and you felt your inner walls contract around it. Waves of electricity flowed up your spine and all throughout your body. An explosion of sweet release. Your legs stretched out as your entire body coiled like a spring and just let go all at once. You moaned out loud, not caring if the neighbors heard you. Who cares? You’re a woman with needs.

You slumped against the couch as you’re high slowly yet steadily dissipated, leaving all your muscles with a warm tingling feeling. Breathing heavily, you pulled the toy from your body, letting out a light gasp as your flesh stretched around it only to relax again once it was gone. You set the toy on the coffee table. Not wanting to get your slick all over the cushions. Though to be honest you were very close to not caring right now.

You continued watching the stream, as Valk also rapidly approached his own climax. He kept pumping his cock, his green skin damp with sweat and his muscles rippling under his skin as his body tensed. With a very loud grunt, Valk squeezed the base of his cock as white ropes of cum shot from the tip, he pumped it a few more times, milking his shaft and prolonging the pleasure he felt. He kept cumming, his seed spilling into his hand and the back of the toy he had been using, hopefully he didn’t get any on his clean sheets. You watched his whole body relaxed as his climax finished and he panted like a hot animal. You bit your lip at the sight, wondering if that was enough to make you want to pull up one of his archived streams and go for another round.

With what strength you had left you reached for your trackpad and clicked on the little dollar sign button next to your username. You entered a number and clicked enter. A blue notification appeared next to your name with the dollar amount you had just paid with the message, “perfect show big boy ;)”. A nice fifteen-dollar tip for a good show. That sounded fair.

As you regained your composure you watched Valk do the same. Gathering himself enough to make a few more sexy remarks, another thank you to MissTrix for the toy and to thank his audience for watching. He winked into the camera as he signed off before turning off the camera officially ending the stream.

You clicked off the screen and relaxed against couch, closing your eyes and basking in the afterglow of your climax. After a few minutes of silent bliss, you heard your phone vibrate on the cushion next to you. You lifted the device and clicked the screen on to read the notification.

Valk: I’m headed over…

You weakly smiled and typed another simple response before lifting yourself from the crouch and shambled to the shower, the leftover pleasure in your muscles mixed with the tiredness of the day didn’t help with your balance. You shed your clothes a second time and stepped into warm shower rinsing the smell of your own sex off of you and rejuvenating your muscles.

After your shower you changed into even more comfortable clothes, a pair of soft leggings and an oversized sweater that hung off your shoulder. You were too busy vigorously drying your hair with a clean fluffy towel to notice the soft knocks on your front door. When the second, louder set of knocks reached your ears you discarded the towel on to the bathroom floor and walked to the front door.

The door creaked open and you looked up at your tree like boyfriend standing in the door frame. He smiled down at you and you noticed he must have also taken a shower right after his stream as his black locks were still damp and clung to his shoulder. He leaned down and gave you a quick kiss, your lips fitting perfectly in the space between his tusks.

You stood aside to let him in and that’s when you noticed the plastic bags in his hand. You smirked as you closed the door and he placed the bags on the kitchen counter. He began digging through the bags, pulling out several Chinese take-out boxes and two pints of ice cream. He placed the ice-cream in the freezer and turned back to you with his arm crossed over his broad chest.

You looked at him innocently as you grabbed one of the boxes and peeked inside.

“I thought I told you that you shouldn’t tip me,” Valk said.

“But you did such a good job,” you defended as you looked at the massive orc with innocent eyes, “I wanted to show you my appreciation for putting on such a great show.”

He chuckled and leaned forward on the counter making direct eye contact with you.

“You show me your appreciation when there isn’t an audience,” he said smugly, “You make it very, very clear.”

Instead of answering you planted another sweet kiss right on his lips. He reciprocated, his hand gliding up to rest against your cheek as you smiled into the kiss. Valk pulled away first making you whine a but in irritation.

“Don’t be like that, baby,” he said with a smirk, “Let’s eat first and then we can have a good time. Besides, you’re technically paying for dinner.”

END

Helloooo everybody who’s reading this! I hope you enjoyed my story. It’s the first real monster boyfriend story I’ve fully written and I’m really proud of it. I hope it doesn't bother too many people that the reader insert character is female in other stuff I write I try to keep reader insert characters gender neutral. Anyway! I hope you enjoyed it and any feedback is appreciated. I already have ideas for future chapters of this story!

#exophilia #exophilia fiction #exophilia fanfiction #monster #monsterlover #orc #orc boyfriend #orc lover #orc x reader #orc x human #original character #monster lover #monster boyfriend #lemon #lime

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belktile3-blog · 5 years

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The Kitchen Renovation Does Not Need to Be Painful As You Might Believe

BELK Tile

You have We are in need of a fresh, practical kitchen!"

You are not alone. Generally everyone has a Specific tipping point; this one final thing which sends them to the renovation pool. You attempt to continue for so long as possible because you are stressing the sound, the dust, the annoyance and the disruption to your everyday life. Whenever your distance becomes unusable, it is time to do some thing.

BELK Tile

Start by Creating a Design Strategy: A renovation is only going to be as powerful as the study and preparation that is put to it. Like every business proposal you create to get work, you want to get a very clear aim of what you would like to achieve together with the renovation. Can you yearn for upgraded electric wiring, optimizing storage space, including an eating place, appliances that operate?

You Can begin with popping to kitchen renovation shops to examine the most recent available attributes in kitchen layout. Speak to the team, let them know you are at the commencement of your travel and see whether they have any tips for you.

Cut out photographs of kitchens you enjoy from magazines Describe why you enjoy the kitchens you have selected - Why is it the distance? The light? The color? The manner of cabinetry or cabinetry? It's even useful to present your designer pictures of things you surely do not like. When you decide what you want, it is going to enable your kitchen designer draw the plans which suit you.

If You've Got a friend who is recently revived her Kitchen, shoot pictures and determine exactly what you enjoy about it well and stick it in the folder along with your other images.

Toronto architect Jacqueline Rhee states when she sits down with prospective customers and they say for her,"Style us something stunning," she must clarify they aren't giving her sufficient details. She says,"What their notion of'stunning' is and exactly what I've in mind might well be two distinct things. Perhaps they need French nation, but I've a notion that they may prefer a slick modern kitchen" The more management customers may present their designer regarding their likes, dislikes and what their own aims to the distance are, the better your layout can fulfill their expectations.

Kitchen renovation is the fact that it will be a fantastic investment. As you would like your business's yearly advertising budget, you will need to come up with a budget for the kitchen renovation. A general guideline for how much to invest on a kitchen renovation is left up to 10-15percent of the value of your property. But do not feel as though you need to devote that much; if you're able to do much more with less, take action. Refacing comes in at approximately 50-75% of the expense of new custom made cabinetry.

Selecting a Kitchen Contractor or Company: If you have been to a buddy recently remodeled home and you enjoy what you see, then begin asking questions: Who did the work? If you enjoyed the replies your buddy gave you assuming your buddy is not shell-shocked in the direct grilling she is only obtained - get your own card. Now, locate at least 2 other kitchen or contractors companies so that you can compare quotes.

Meeting together with the Contractor and Designer: If, You might need to meet this person daily. If your characters do not blend, you're never going to have the ability to solve problems collectively. Probably, but if you are having that vibe, the builder or contractor is overly; it is ideal to part ways prior to a connection has started.

You are bowled over with his enthusiasm and thoughts and you get together as in the event that you'd known each other your whole lives, you still have to perform your own research. Ask him how many tasks he can manage simultaneously and how many he's going now and also make sure he's insured and bonded.

Further essential research - the World Wide Web is the new best buddy: Researching kitchen businesses and builders is now a great deal easier with the era of the world wide web. Currently there are sites that are especially focused on getting word-of-mouth reviews from customers on the internet. If the businesses you are considering utilizing do not have some testimonials, you might choose to check at other businesses which perform and compare their solutions. Also take a look at the organization's website. When they don't own one, you need to wonder just how professional they are.

Another suggestion It is possible to attempt is entering the organization's name in search engines such as google and Yahoo!. You might discover some feedback folks have posted on these on different forums. You might even post a question asking if anybody has used this organization. In the end, check the testimonials that he or she provides you too, speak with a couple of his previous customers and see the job he or she did for them.

As Soon as You've picked your own designer, kitchen or contractor business, prepare: Ask yourself whether it's possible to live through the renovation by assembling another kitchen in the garage or cellar. Make arrangements to be outside of their house for a particular quantity of time and be certain you and your project team have discussed that the many acceptable move-out and move-in dates.

Do you need to variable furniture storage in your Budget or is it wrapped and stored on web site? Your contractor will say what's the best choice based upon how big the project and your own storage space availability on website.

Among the frustrations in communication between contractor and homeowner would be in premises made by one party or another. As an example, 1 woman had bought bathroom fixtures and sinks for a new house. The builder saw the powder room fixture could be equipped with taps along with a faucet and drilled three holes all of the sinks since he supposed that all the fittings were exactly the same. Unfortunately, they were not and the homeowner needed to substitute the other fittings to coordinate with the holes.

But wrong assumptions can equally readily be Produced from the homeowner. A homeowner given out a water filter kit into the contractor and requested him to install it. The homeowner had read about the box which the water filter was so great for the entire home and may be fitted on the home water supply. When she returned in the conclusion of the afternoon, the builder had put in it under the kitchen sink. She had never told him was to proceed, she'd only assumed he knew it had been meant for the whole residence.

Renovation, however small, there always appear to be unforeseen issues. It is not quite as surprising as you may think. What occurs behind the walls remains behind them till they are torn apart. Up until then, you may not understand the insulating material used was really paper, or the pipes went through the walls that has to be demolished. The way your contractor and you manage these issues is dependent upon how educated your contractor is.

Throughout budding and Leon's Most Important floor renovation, The designer had known for the laundry area backsplash to include stainless steel crowns; exquisite, however at a price of around $5,000. Sue balked. The builder suggested rather a row of those tiles, 2 feet high, only behind the washer and dryer in a price of $500. Sue was thankful that builder made her conscious of the prices and had an alternate proposal for her.

The result -- your fantasy distance: Alive through the dust, sound and strangers in your home for months on end could be tiring. Though you get along nicely with the team as well as your builder, you can discover your temper becoming brief, especially if there are flaws during the project resulting in prolonged construction. Realize that delays tend to be inevitable and one day, you'll be back into your house, the employees will be gone along with your new kitchen that is beautiful will be yours.

Online Resources: You will find videos and Kitchens.com: A Better Homes The Canada Home and mortgage Corporation: CMHC has an Superb site for any The kitchen renovation region has Downloadable graphs you may use for reference manuals as you move about Your renovation preparation. Section of the site lets you enter the expense of your renovation Also it will calculate just how much of a return you'd get if you sold Your house.

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anneedmonds · 3 years

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Beverly Hills MD Review

Looking good is big business but not everyone can afford the Hollywood A-list beauty treatment. Or perhaps you can, if the widely rated Beverly Hills MD range is within your price range. Founded by two cosmetic surgeons, this skincare range aims to offer cutting edge anti-aging products without the sky-high salon price. But this still doesn’t make them low budget.

So, is the Beverly Hills MD product range worth the premium price-tag? If you are concerned about the signs of aging and stress on your skin, then adding some Beverly Hills MD to your bathroom cabinet could well give you the results you are hoping for. And their use of premium ingredients is impressive, as is their science-backed approach to skincare.

In this review, we peek beneath the Beverly Hills MD gloss and packaging to explore the company’s philosophy, its product range, and ingredients, as well as those tell-all customer reviews so you can decide whether this is the skincare range for you.

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About Beverly Hills MD

Behind Beverly Hills MD are John Layke and Payman Daniel, two cosmetic surgeons who met during their residency at New York’s Nassau University Medical Center. The duo had already developed a strong reputation in their chosen field before deciding to get together to set up their own company. In 2014, Beverly Hills MD was born.

Making the City of Angels their base, Beverly Hills MD was created to provide solutions to support women and men ‘to feel and look their very best’. Layke and Daniel draw on their 10 years of plastic surgery experience to develop at home skincare products to target specific skin and ageing concerns. Thanks to their innovative formulations, using proven active ingredients such as saw palmetto, vitamin A and fruit extracts, their products are also safe for all skin types. Many ingredients are organic too, and the company is animal cruelty free.

Key skin concerns the Beverly Hills MD product range aims to address include scar reduction, wrinkles, acne, dullness, and sagging. They also offer formulations to enhance your skin and features, including eyes and brows.

Beverly Hills MD prides itself on being able to offer professional-grade skin care for both the face and body which can be used at home. And while the range is a premium product, it does come in at a relatively affordable price-point, considering its quality and scientific background.

Pros and Cons

With a clear philosophy, backed by the experience of two cosmetic surgeons, the Beverly Hills MD approach has not got unnoticed. We dig a little deeper to highlight the brand’s main benefits and disadvantages.

Pros

Formulas backed by science and cosmetic surgery expertise

A good range of products to tackle all the main skincare and aging concerns

High quality active ingredients, many organic

Range also includes vitamin and dietary supplement range

No animal testing and cruelty free

Impressive 60-day money back guarantee on all Beverly Hills MD products

Socially-minded – the company supports Smile Train, a charity that provides cleft lip/palette corrective surgery for children

Cons

A more expensive range compared to similar online brands

Information on their shipping and returns policy is difficult to find

Can be a little intimidating to first time premium skincare brand users

Product Review

From fuller eyebrows and tackling pigmentation to plumping, hydrating, and filling wrinkles, there is a Beverly Hills MD product – or combination of products – for most skin concerns and types. Here are six of the brand’s current bestsellers.

Lift + Firm Sculpting Cream

One of Beverly Hills MD’s core products, we like the double action of this anti-aging cream, as it lifts and firms while it hydrates. The result, says many of the customer reviews, is a visible impact on the skin, with many reporting some tightening to create a rejuvenated, more sculpted appearance. Lift+Firm Sculpting Cream uses an exclusive blend of amino acids, tightening fruit extracts and collagen supporting ingredients to boost natural elasticity and create more firmness in the skin on both the face and the neck. Think of it as a natural support system for your skin’s internal structure and you can see how it can work to create a more youthful appearance. And, with 4.78 out of 5 on the brand’s own website, this hardworking cream has its fair share of fans.

Suitable for all skin types – but especially mature skin – Lift + Firm Sculpting Cream needs to be applied twice a day and massaged into the skin. Night-time application should be prioritized as the formula’s active ingredients can support your skin’s own regeneration process while you sleep.

For all this sculpting and lifting, you can expect to pay a price, as each 5.6-ounce jar costs $120 but a little does go a long way. And you can also save up to $12 per jar with Beverly Hills MD’s multi-buy offer.

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Dark Spot Corrector

As your skin ages, it can develop patches of discoloration and uneven pigment, such as age and sun spots. But with Dark Spot Corrector, you have a light gel which can work to help reduce the look of dark pigmentation, leaving your skin brighter and more radiant. And all without bleaching or irritating the skin.

Dark Spot Corrector uses a concentrated blend of natural ingredients, including vitamin C-rich Kakadu plum, vitamin B which protects against environmental damage and skin-evening daisy flower extract, to create a light, cool gel which rapidly absorbs into the skin.

Dark Spot Corrector can be applied up to three time daily, depending on how severe the dark areas are. And for best results, you should also exfoliate your skin at least twice a well to allow the gel to penetrate more effectively to do its brightening work. An SPF moisturizer is also recommended.

A 30ml bottle of Dark Spot Corrector will set you back $129.95, so this is one of the most expensive products in the Beverly Hills MD range.

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Deep Wrinkle Filler

Now on to one of Beverly Hills MD’s consistent bestsellers, Deep Wrinkle Filler. The aim of Deep Wrinkle Filler is to erase those pesky wrinkles and creases that can be found across the forehead, between the eyes and around the mouth. And the beauty of this lux-feel product is that not only can it soften deeper wrinkles on application but with regular use works to improve the skin’s texture over time. And this means you should get both short and long-term results.

So, what ingredients make this such a wonderful addition to your anti-aging skincare routine? First up, it has a polymer blend which instantly ‘fills’ out the appearance of deeper lines on contact for day-long confidence. Then there is diamond powder which reflects light away from the skin to disguise the look of any wrinkles. And for a longer effect, there is also a special formula called Tightenyl, which has been designed to improve the texture of the skin for a smoother, more youthful appearance.

Using Deep Wrinkle Filler is quick and easy, all you need to do is apply a small amount to deep wrinkles or fine lines and gently pat with a clean fingertip into the skin. However, you do need to leave the product to dry – around one minute – before applying your makeup.

A 0.6-ounce tube of Deep Wrinkle Filler will cost $125, although you can make some savings on the multi-buy deal via Beverly Hills MD’s website.

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Ultra Firm Lifting Eye Mask

Your eyes are the window on your world, but they are also one of the first areas to show the first signs of aging. Which is why Beverly Hills MD have developed their Ultra Firm Lifting Eye Mask to help correct all those tell-tale signs. Each mask is pretty potent but is gentle on your skin to give you a relaxing eye treatment that also helps to stimulate the circulation in the surrounding skin.

And it works hard too, as it tackles not just fine lines, but also lifts, reduces the appearance of crow’s feet, plumps thinning skin and reduces under-eye bags. Like many of their products, Beverly Hills MD has come up with their own problem-specific formulas, including BeautifEye, which lifts saggy eyelids and ‘UnisoothTM EG-28’ which helps to fade dark circles and reduce puffiness. You also get Rhodiola Rosea Extract, a proven antioxidant that is effective in hydrating and energizing the delicate skin around the eyes.

Each eye mask has been designed for optimum coverage and needs to be worn for 15 minutes to allow the serum to penetrate the skin. For best results, you are advised to use every two days, but as there 15 mask pairs in each box, you should get a month’s use per pack. But this comes at a price, as a box of Ultra Firm Lifting Eye Mask retails at $128, with a saving of $20 per box if you buy three at once.

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Thick + Full Brow Enhancing Serum

Full, shapely eyebrows are here to stay, so if you have thinning brows, or over-plucked in the past, a serum can help to bring them back to life. And with Thick + Full Brow Enhancing Serum, you can be sure you are using a hormone-free formula that is safe for all eyebrows.

Easy to use, this advanced formula needs to be applied daily for the best results and gives the follicles of your eyes a real nutrient boost to help them grow and thrive. With active ingredients such as polyphenols, proteins, and vitamins as well as fruit extracts, Thick + Full Brow Enhancing Serum can help to make your brows look thicker and fuller as well as more natural. It can also be used on eyebrows that have thinned due to age. A slick of this serum is all you need, and the formula also helps to gloss your brows and make them shine with health.

Results can vary, although many customer reviews show that improvements can be seen in as little as three-four weeks. However, this is not the cheapest eyebrow serum you can buy as Thick + Full Brow Enhancing Serum cost $88 per tube.

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Crepe Correcting Body Complex

And finally, to a product from the Beverly Hills MD body range. And one that aims to tackle a very specific concern – crepey skin. Typically found on areas such as the arms, knees, stomach and decolletage, as well as the hands, loose, creased skin can make you look prematurely aged, or emphasize the appearance of loose, older skin.

The Crepe Correcting Body Complex is a deliciously rich formula that intensely moisturizes at a cellular level while it works to firm and improve the look of crinkled skin on the body. With key ingredients including niacinamide, which supports the body’s natural production of skin-firming collagen and protein, this high-quality complex also contains Beverly Hills MD’s own formula, Hydrafirm.

Packed with skin-boosting algae as well as hydrating and smoothing ingredients such as lentils, apple and watermelon, Crepe Correcting Body Complex is a crepe-busting powerhouse that is also a delight to use. Used daily, your skin should feel softer, smoother, and beautifully hydrated. Suitable for even sensitive skin, Crepe Correcting Body Complex costs $100 for a 118ml jar.

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Beverly Hills MD Customers Reviews

If you look online or in the fashion magazines, there is clearly a buzz around the Beverly Hills MD range, and the two co-founders are adept at publicity to promote their brand. But ultimately, it is down to the user and their experience of the Beverly Hills MD product range that really counts as to service, quality and ultimately, results.

Overall, customer satisfaction is high, with the range scoring on average 4.5 stars out of five, both on Beverly Hills MD’s own website and independent review sites such as Site Jabber and Trust Pilot. It’s clear that some of their classic products, such as Deep Wrinkle Filler have loyal fans, and overall, their Beverly Hills MD range do show results, albeit of varying degrees.

Here are just a few examples: “It has unquestionably and undeniably altered my deep wrinkles around my mouth…”; “I have found this product works so well and improving the texture of my skin, after only one week”; “My skin is tighter, lifted and younger looking in just a few days. And wrinkles are extremely lessened”; “This Lift & Firm Sculpting Cream has definitely shown results”; “I was about to get Botox for them, but I thought I would give Deep Wrinkle Filler a try.”

From the full product range, it seems that Beverly Hills MD’s face masks, serums and anti-aging creams were repeatedly acknowledged for showing results.

However, the same cannot always be said with the company’s customer service, which appears to be the main bone of contention when it came to any negative reviews. And it is the company’s return policy and shipping times that attracted the most comment on Site Jabber and Trust Pilot, such as: “I have canceled my subscription due to the poor customer service”; “I noticed they make it extremely difficult, despite the videos saying no questions easy returns”; “I ordered to Australia a month ago and have still not received my item.”

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Where to Buy Beverly Hills MD

All the Beverly Hills MD product range can be bought directly from their own website as well as a few online retailers, the largest being Amazon and Walmart. However, you are only covered by the company’s 60-day money back guarantee and access to their VIP discounts if you buy direct from www.beverlyhillsmd.com

beverlyhillsmd.com

Beverly Hills MD Shipping and Return Policy

The shipping and returns policy of Beverly Hills MD is not immediately obvious on the website, and it takes some digging to find the information before you decide to buy. But in a nutshell, you can get free shipping on all orders over $39, but only if you live within the US.

Their return period is generous – 60 days – and it covers all their product range, if you are unhappy in any way. However, the kicker is that while you will get a full refund, you as the customer will have to pay all the return shipping fees. And this 60-day refund policy only applies to products bought directly from the Beverly Hills MD website.

To start the return process, you also have to contact the customer service team directly first.

Contact Beverly Hills MD

The main way to contact the company is via the Beverly Hills MD website – beverlyhillsmd.com – or email [email protected] To speak directly to a member of the customer service team, you should call 1-877-828-5528

You can also keep in touch with all the latest Beverly Hills MD news and offers by signing up as a VIP and receive their e-newsletter, where discount codes for members only are also promoted.

contact Beverly Hills MD

Beverly Hills MD: Editors Verdict

If you are looking for a boost to your skincare routine and want science-inspired products that actively tackle the most common anti-aging and skin concerns, then Beverly Hills MD has a lot to recommend it.

With two surgeons behind the company and its philosophy, there is definitely a cosmeceutical approach to the brand’s formulas which can inspire confidence in the user. And overall, customer reviews indicate this is a skincare brand that can achieve results, although they do vary and there is a limit to what these ‘over-the-counter’ products can achieve.

For tackling fine lines, plumping, hydrating, and boosting, the Beverly Hills MD range is worth considering, especially if your budget doesn’t stretch to cosmetic surgery or surgery is an avenue you would never go down. But as everyday skincare, this is an expensive line, particularly if you have several skin concerns you are looking to address.

We do like the quality of the ingredients however, and the formulas are pretty impressive without being harsh on the skin. In fact, the whole product range is animal cruelty free, which is a selling plus.

As a skincare line, it does seem to be focused on the older customer who is looking for improvements in the look, feel and overall health of their skin. These customers also seem to be drawn to and reassured by the experience and knowledge of the company’s founders as well as the more scientific approach to skincare. And the growing reputation of Beverly Hills MD as a premium skincare brand that has the skills, ingredients, and know-how to tackle the main skin concerns can help to soften the blow of the higher price-tag.

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thesportssoundoff · 6 years

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“Watch This Show, Dudes” The UFC 223 preview

Joey

April 1st, 2018

Fights: 13

Debuts: 1 (Mike Rodriguez)

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 1 (Mairbek Taisumov OUT, Olivier Aubin Mercier IN vs Evan Dunham)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 16 (Tony Ferguson, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Rose Namajunas, Joanna Jędrzejczyk, Anthony Pettis, Michael Chiesa, Al Iaquinta, Karolina Kowalkiewicz, Felice Herrig, Ray Borg, Brandon Moreno, Joe Lauzon, Evan Dunham, Alex Caceres, Artem Lobov, Bec Rawlings)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: 5 (Bec Rawlings, Joe Lauzon, Chris Gruetzmacher, Alex Caceres, Artem Lobov)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: 9 (Khabib Nurmagomedov, Tony Ferguson, Rose Namajunas, Calvin Kattar, Al Iaquinta, Paul Felder,Olivier Aubin-Mercier, Felice Herrig, Zabit Magomedsharipov)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2016 (in the UFC): 21-6

Tony Ferguson- 3-0 Khabib Nurmagomedov- 3-0 Renato Moicano- 3-0 Calvin Kattar- 2-0 Michael Chiesa- 2-1 Anthony Pettis- 2-4 Al Iaquinta- 1-0 Paul Felder- 5-1

Too High Up- Karolina Kowalkawiecz vs Felice Herrig

I get it I get it. The winner of this fight could in theory be the #1 contender given the dearth of options at 115 lbs. Karolina K has a rivalry with Joanna and a win over Rose Namajunas so she's a natural fit. Felice Herrig is not the world's most exciting fighter by any stretch of the imagination but she has a pretty sizable winning streak going and has a cult-ish following-ish out there. Here's the problem; this division doesn't produce many finishes if at all. It's a dry division when it comes to fight finishes as evidenced by its recent stretch of split decisions and so-so fights. This is the prelim headliner to get us into the PPV. You probably want a really exciting back and forth fight or a killer finish to get us into the PPV all hot and bothered. It's just not going to happen here chances are. I get putting it on the FS1 prelims but I'd prefer a different headliner.

Too Low- Zabit Magomedsharipov vs Kyle Bochniak

So let's talk about Zabit Magomedsharipov right quick. He's a really talented 145er. It would not be a stretch to suggest that Magomedsharipov right NOW is a top 10 featherweight just without the wins to prove it. He can wrestle, he's a funky flashy striker and when it's on the ground, he's just swamping dudes with ease. He hasn't been tested yet which is why Kyle Bochniak, the sort of dude who can live as a high level gatekeeper, is a great matchup for him. The problem? Magomedsharipov is not blessed with the sort of personality that sells and has no home market to go to where he's insanely marketable. Making matters worse is he's the ultimate low reward high risk for a fighter in an era where fighters are choosier than ever before. As such, he's buried on the prelims on Fight Pass. I know Magomedsharipov is a no sell type of fighter but you HAVE to at least try. Put him on FS1.

Stat Monitor for 2018: Debuting Fighters (Current number: 7-11): Mike Rodriguez

Short Notice Fighters (Current number: 7-3): Olivier Aubin Mercier

Second Fight (Current number: 9-10):

Cage Corrosion (Current number: 5-9): Al Iaquinta

Undefeated Fighters (Current number: 12-9): Khabib Nurmagomedov

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- What is a fair buyrate for this event? This is Khabib's first shot as a headliner in any capacity (although he did co-main the NYE card) so right off the jump, we're in uncharted waters. Tony Ferguson has headlined events in the past and his first PPV fight vs a guy with no real name value did in the low 200K range. Joanna Champion as a co-main event has been apart of some major shows but without the BIG main event, she's been a comfortable support for events that do in the 300K range. This isn't the big numbers of 2015 and 2016 either so what's a fair buy rate? I'm thinking low 300Ks would be a success for this show. This is an awesome card people SHOULD be excited for. If they're not excited for it then I just dunno what to say to y'all, man.

2- On a scale of 1-10, how likely is it that Conor faces the winner?

3- What can be said of this main event? I don't think it's unrealistic to refer to Ferguson vs Nurmagomedov as the most proven pure talent fight since Garbrandt vs Dillashaw back in November. It might even blow by that fight as well. There's seriously no title fight I've been as excited for as this one; Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Tony Ferguson is the title fight that MMA fans have been waiting for for the most part since the end of 2016. Khabib vs T-Ferg features the best wrestler at 155 lbs vs the division's most compelling submission grappler. Two of the best cardio machines in the entire UFC clashing over five rounds, both with punishing styles in their own capacities. So much is made of Khabib's wrestling but the fact is that his striking on the feet is no joke either. Khabib can generate power in short distances and he's got this weird smothered forearm-y thing that he uses from time to time which does some damage (he kind of buzzed Thiago Tavares with one prior to the finish). On the other hand, Tony Ferguson is sort of the total package without the fight finishing one shit one kill power. He just overwhelms and overworks dudes with volume, intensity, a variety of attacks from a variety of different angles and a total "Not give a fuck" style of fighting. Get taken down? Whatevs. Get mounted? Whatevs. Get rocked? Whatevs. Ferguson is just one of those guys who has a tremendous belief in himself with the ability It's not entirely unrealistic to refer to this as a battle of stubborn (Khabib Nurmagomedov) vs creativity (Tony Ferguson). Khabib has a gameplan and he's going to try to implement it whereas Tony Ferguson seems like the sort of guy who ha sno idea what he plans on doing from one second to the next. He's the sort of dude who can make reads on the fly, adjust and adapt and find new ways to flummox a dude over the course of a twenty five minute fight. Making matters even more complicated is we have no idea if we've seen the best version of either guy yet.

4- Can Ferguson get Khabib's neck ONE time and if so, is that all he'll need?

5- We know that Ferguson can get taken down. Kevin Lee, Danny Castillo, Yves Edwards all found ways to get Ferguson down even if just momentarily. He's very comfortable and adept in scrambles and I get the feeling even vs Khabib, he's not going to panic if he winds up on his back for a stretch of time. My question is----will Ferguson be willing to get taken down if it puts him in position to challenge with submissions? Against Danny Castillo, Ferguson was taken down quite a bit but always seemed to use that to chase a d'arce or a guillotine choke. If desperate, will Ferguson be willing to wrestle to try and find a submission attempt? Similarly what are Khabib's submission chops? He had opportunities I felt against Barboza to score a sub. I remember him having a shot or two against Darrell Horcher as well. Could he sub Ferguson?

6- It sounds like it was Joanna's idea to try to reclaim her title vs Rose Namajunas again. It's not the worst idea in the world but given her struggles with weight, why even risk it? You have to at least admire Joanna's heart and fighting spirit to give it another go at a weight class she's clearly uncomfortable with going forward.

7- I don't know if this is by design or what but I like the idea of using the 3rd fight on these cards to try and showcase a potential future star. It's somewhat slick; putting them in a PPV card in a high capacity spot where you can, in theory, showcase them to a new audience. It's an imperfect act that at least has some purpose behind it. Sean O'Malley at UFC 222 was a good use of the concept, same for Tai Tuivasa I suppose at 221. If the UFC website is to be believed then Dern is third on the PPV card for UFC 224 as well. Here you have Calvin Kattar, who has been ultra impressive through two UFC fights, getting the 3rd billing vs the fantastic Renato Moicano. It's a really good FW fight and with Ortega and Holloway mowing through every 145er on two legs; the winner of this fight could get a quick bump up. Moicano probably has had the most success of anybody vs Ortega so a rematch would be pretty juicy.

8- If you had to describe Anthony Pettis' legacy in one word, what would you use?

9- The UFC tends to be a pretty reactive organization when it comes to problems with fighters but some of the labor hawks they've had on their roster tend to not get much blowback. I wonder if that'll change with Al Iaquinta who by all accounts they really don't like. If he loses, it might get a touch awkward.

10- Mike Rodriguez has a lot of pressure on his shoulders after Magomed Anakaleav's failure in his UFC debut. 205 needs more guys getting their careers off on the right foot and Rodriguez can be another guy in that mix, fresh off of a 30 second DWTCS win. Trains with Joe Lauzon, has a 9-2 record and could be valuable as an East Coast attraction going forward.

11- Can somebody at 115 lbs please finish a fight? I'm not asking for too much here!

12- The failures of the likes of Elias Thoeodoru and Hakeem Dawodu turns the attention back to Olivier Aubin-Mercier as the young fighter by whom Canada turns its lonely eyes to. There's no doubt Olivier Aubin-Mercier can grapple as he's found plenty of success on the mat with four submission wins in his six UFC wins----but the problem is what happens when the grappling doesn't work. Mercier has showcased solid striking in the past but it's so infrequent and inconsistent that it's hard to really get a feel for how good he is. There's an element of panic to his game. Sometimes he doesn't respond well to pressure in his face and his first inclination is to grab at something and hope like hell the fight goes to the ground. Evan Dunham has only been submitted once in his UFC career, vs Donald Cerrone in a fight where he was pretty much dead on the feet at that point. This is a really good test for OAM.

Must Win

1- Tony Ferguson

I LOVE Tony Ferguson as a fighter and wish more people loved him. I even enjoy his stupid zany off the wall madness that he tends to produce outside of the cage. In a sport searching for guys who are "different", Ferguson is different and he's just so weird. On the other hand, it's obvious to me that the UFC doesn't see Ferguson the way I do----and perhaps the fans see him in the same spectrum the UFC does. Ferguson is not the chosen one at 155 lbs; that would be Khabib Nurmagomedov who may be the key to some Russian windfall. Ferguson is a bit like RDA; reliable and dependable but not "the guy" as the uFC attempts to find out who "the guy" at 155 lbs is. Ferguson needs to not be like every other Khabib opponent or risk the long road back that RDA had.

2- Michael Chiesa

So there's a little bit of an issue here with Michael Chiesa. Chiesa is clearly a good fighter and he's the kind of guy who can rack up win after win vs the mid levels of the division. Wins over Jim Miller, Beneil Dariush and Al Iaquinta (before he developed into the fighter he is today) suggest he can be one of the best fighters at 155 lbs. That said, every single time he gets a step up, he gets quickly checked back to base level. Losses to Masvidal, Joe Lauzon and Kevin Lee all put him back to trying to prove himself in a division where a backwards step can be a killer. THIS is the sort of fight that Chiesa has to win; it's a somewhat faded version of a guy who has become more of a struggling grappler over the past few years. This is a fight he pretty much has to win if he plans on really making a run at 155 lbs.

3- Karolina Kowalkiewicz

I really like Karolina K. I think it says a lot about you as a person if you DON'T like Karolina K. She's a fun fighter who has good action fights and has this great personality. The downside is that after wins over the likes of Rose Namajunas and Randa Markos, she lost two straight to the very good Claudia Gadelha and then champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk. She rebounded vs Jodie Esquibel but whether Esquibel is UFC quality remains to be seen at this point. Karolina gets Felice Herrig in what is on paper a UFC title contender fight.

Five Can't Miss Fights

1- Tony Ferguson vs Khabib Nurmagomedov

2- Zhabit Magomedsharipov vs Kyle Bochniak

3- Joanna Jedrzejcyk vs Rose Namajunas

4- Paul Felder vs Al Iaquinta

5- Ray Borg vs Brandon Moreno

#MMA #UFC #UFC 223 #Tony Ferguson #Khabib Nurmagomedov #Al Iaquinta #Paul Felder #Rose Namajunas #Joanna Champion #Zhabit Magomedsharipov

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Friday, March 5, 2021

Water crisis continues in Mississippi, weeks after cold snap (AP) Mississippi’s largest city is still struggling with water problems more than two weeks after winter storms and freezing weather ravaged the system in Jackson, knocking out water for drinking and making it impossible for many to even flush their toilets. Residents in the city of 160,000 are still being warned to boil any water that does come out of the faucets. “I pray it comes back on,” Jackson resident Nita Smith said. “I’m not sure how much more of this we can take.” City officials on Wednesday continued distributing water for flushing toilets at several pick-up points. But they’re giving no specific timeline for resolving problems. Workers continue to fix dozens of water main breaks and leaks.

‘It’s Madness’: American Factories Scramble To Secure Critical Supplies (NPR) For American factories, business is good these days. Almost too good. Unexpectedly strong demand for furniture, appliances and other manufactured goods is providing a windfall to many of the country’s industries. But as factory gears spin faster to meet the surging demand, a big headache is emerging: Supply chains are getting stretched more than ever, and critical components are proving a lot harder to procure. Take the word of Drew Greenblatt, the president of Marlin Steel in Baltimore. “The economy is snapping back in a big way,” Greenblatt said. But hinges that used to arrive from his supplier in a day or two now take three weeks. Steel he uses to make pail handles is back-ordered for months. More robust consumption caught many factories by surprise, and they’re now struggling to catch up.

Vaccine robbery: New ground for organized crime (Bloomberg) Billions of doses of coronavirus vaccines will travel the world over the coming months, valuable cargo that is in the crosshairs of organized crime and paramilitary attacks. An individual shipment of coronavirus vaccines can be as high as $70 million per load, and freight haulers are putting only their very best, most experienced and trustworthy drivers on the case. Interpol is bracing for an increase in armed robberies of vaccine shipments, and on the dark web purported vaccines are going for $200 per dose. German freight hauler Aircargo Transport has souped up a dozen trucks for vaccine shipments, a $300,000 load-out entailing an alarm system, a panic button and a kill switch.

Police request 60-day extension of Guard at US Capitol (AP) The Capitol Police have requested that members of the National Guard continue to provide security at the U.S. Capitol for another two months, The Associated Press has learned. Defense officials say the new proposal is being reviewed by the Pentagon. The request underscores the continuing concerns about security and the potential for violence at the Capitol, two months after rioters breached the building in violence that left five people dead. And it comes as law enforcement was on high alert Thursday around the U.S. Capitol after intelligence uncovered a “possible plot” by a militia group to storm the building. The more than 5,000 Guard members currently in Washington, D.C., are all slated to go home on March 12, ending the mission.

Virus surge forces Sao Paulo to shut as Buenos Aires reopens (AP) A swell of COVID-19 cases is halting samba steps in Brazil’s biggest metropolis while Argentina’s capital tiptoes its way back to the tango floor. The two biggest cities in each of the neighboring South American countries are headed in opposite directions. Sao Paulo, home to almost 12 million people, is bracing for the worst two weeks yet in the pandemic and the growing risk that its once-resilient health care system will collapse, Gov. João Doria told reporters Wednesday. More than 75% of the city’s intensive-care beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients and some wards—like those of the private Albert Einstein hospital—are full for the first time. Meanwhile, the nearly 3 million residents of Buenos Aires are enjoying an easing of their restrictions, with authorization to attend movie theaters taking effect this week. On Wednesday, official figures showed just 26% of intensive-care beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients. The low hospitalization rate also enabled local authorities in mid-February to reopen bars and restaurants until 2 a.m.—something long sought in a city famous for its all-hours culture. That means Buenos Aires’ famed steakhouses are reigniting their fires, while counterparts in Sao Paulo extinguish theirs.

UK government may start offering financial rewards for becoming healthier (The Guardian) The government is expanding access to weight loss services and may start offering people financial rewards for maintaining a healthy lifestyle as part of the fight against obesity. The Department of Health and Social Care is giving the NHS and local councils in England £70m to pay for up to 700,000 overweight or obese people to go on weight management courses, such as those provided by Weight Watchers or Slimming World, or work with a personal coach to help them shed unwanted pounds. In addition, it has asked Sir Keith Mills, the creator of the Nectar and air miles reward schemes, to look into whether financial incentives would motivate people to eat better and exercise more. He will look at whether initiatives such as the national step challenge in Singapore could work in England. Citizens are offered cash payments if they do a certain amount of physical activity, such as walking and running, and their progress is measured through wearable devices.

Germany Places Far-Right AfD Party Under Surveillance for Extremism (NYT) For the first time in its postwar history, Germany has placed its main opposition party under surveillance, one of the most dramatic steps yet by a Western democracy to protect itself from the onslaught of far-right forces that have upset politics from Europe to the United States. The decision by the domestic intelligence agency will now allow it to tap phones and other communications and monitor the movements of members of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which not only sits in the Federal Parliament but has become entrenched at all levels of politics in nearly every part of the nation. News of the move came on the same day that France banned Generation Identity, a militant youth movement considered dangerous for its slick rebranding of neo-Nazi concepts, and as lawmakers in the European Parliament in Brussels forced the party of Hungary’s semi-authoritarian leader Viktor Orban out of the mainstream conservative group.

Myanmar crackdown on protests, widely filmed, sparks outrage (AP) Footage of a brutal crackdown on protests against a coup in Myanmar unleashed outrage and calls for a stronger international response Thursday, a day after 38 people were killed. Videos showed security forces shooting a person at point-blank range and chasing down and savagely beating demonstrators. Despite the shocking violence the day before, protesters returned to the streets Thursday to denounce the military’s Feb. 1 takeover—and were met again with tear gas. U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, described Wednesday as “the bloodiest day” since the takeover. “I saw today very disturbing video clips,” said Schraner Burgener, speaking to reporters at the U.N. in New York via video link from Switzerland. “One was police beating a volunteer medical crew. They were not armed. Another video clip showed a protester was taken away by police and they shot him from very near, maybe only one meter. He didn’t resist to his arrest, and it seems that he died on the street.”

‘The East Is Rising’: Xi Maps Out China’s Post-Covid Ascent (NYT) Xi Jinping has struck a confident posture as he looks to secure China’s prosperity and power in a post-Covid world, saying that the country is entering a time of opportunity when “the East is rising and the West is declining.” But behind closed doors, China’s Communist Party leader has also issued a blunt caveat to officials: Do not count out our competitors, above all the United States. “The biggest source of chaos in the present-day world is the United States,” Mr. Xi said, a county official in northwest China recounted in a speech published last week on a government website. He quoted Mr. Xi as saying: “The United States is the biggest threat to our country’s development and security.” That warning, echoed in similar recent public comments by senior officials close to Mr. Xi, reinforces how he is seeking to balance confidence and caution as China strides ahead while other countries continue to grapple with the pandemic.

Powerful quake hits off New Zealand, prompting evacuations (AP) One of the biggest earthquakes to hit the South Pacific in modern history forced thousands of people in New Zealand to evacuate and triggered tsunami warnings across the world Friday, but it did not appear to cause injuries or major damage because it struck in remote ocean. The magnitude 8.1 quake was the largest in a series of tremors that hit the region over several hours, including two earlier quakes that registered magnitude 7.4 and magnitude 7.3. The earthquakes triggered warning systems and caused traffic jams and some chaos in New Zealand as people scrambled to get to higher ground, but their remoteness meant they did not appear to pose a widespread threat to lives or infrastructure.

Israel condemns ICC investigation (Foreign Policy) The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, has announced plans to investigate alleged war crimes by Israeli forces and Hamas in the Palestinian territories from June 2014 onwards. The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry referred to the move as a “long-awaited step,” while Israeli President Reuven Rivlin condemned it as “scandalous.” In a statement referring to the Palestinian “situation,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken opposed the ICC decision and questioned its jurisdiction.

Concerned about the spread of Ebola, CDC lays out new rules for travelers from Congo, Guinea (Washington Post) Federal health officials said this week that airlines will be required to collect contact information for travelers coming to the U.S. from Congo and Guinea, two countries that have experienced recent outbreaks of the Ebola virus. Officials say the information will allow them to monitor and identify anyone who develops symptoms so they can be isolated and treated. In addition, health officials will be able to warn those who may have been exposed. Health officials said experience with previous Ebola outbreaks showed the virus, which is spread through contact with bodily fluids, is highly contagious and can spread quickly among people who come in close contact with a person who has been infected.

Ethiopia’s deadly Tigray crisis (AP) Civilians massacred. Journalists arrested. People starving to death. Ethiopia’s government is under growing pressure to allow the world to see firsthand what has occurred in its embattled Tigray region as its Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister rejects “partisan interventions.” That pressure is expected to spike this month as the United States chairs the United Nations Security Council and addresses the first major African crisis of the Biden administration. Millions of dollars in aid to Ethiopia, a key security ally in the region, are at stake. Last month The Associated Press exposed the killing of an estimated 800 people in the city of Axum, citing several witnesses, and a week later Amnesty International reported “many hundreds” killed there, citing more than 40 witnesses. Soldiers from neighboring Eritrea, long an enemy of Tigray’s now-fugitive leaders, were blamed. Ethiopia continues to deny the Eritreans’ presence, even as senior officials with the interim Tigray government that Ethiopia appointed are increasingly outspoken about them. There is growing concern that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who won the Nobel in 2019 for making peace with Eritrea, has now teamed up with it in war. Eritrea called the AP story on Axum “outrageous lies.” Amid the denials, untold thousands of civilians have been killed as Ethiopian and allied forces pursue the former Tigray leaders who once dominated Ethiopia’s government before Abiy took office in 2018. Each side came to regard each other as illegitimate, then turned to fighting.

#headlines #news

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