#this shit continued into well into the 80s and we can kind of thank mike nesmith for helping fix it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

keepyourpantsongohan · 4 years

Text

Ayesha Liveblogs Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card S1

Not to be someone born in the 90s but wow this is a change from the more simple animation style new anime truly likes things shiny, intensely bright and round lmao

Ah I guess the prologue is just a reanimation of the original anime finale? That’s fair it helps you reintegrate if it had been nineteen years for you

“That way, you’ll realize who you consider to be your Number One” Eriol’s advice has gotten less cryptic since he stopped lying

“The person I love the most... is you” Lmao didn’t Syaoran ALREADY do this confession in the final battle this is like in Naruto the Last where Naruto just forgot that Hinata had already said she loved him

Fdshkfjhkjdfhksjhfkjh wow Yukito appearing with a flower background and shine effect and softened face is this a style choice or is this just Toya Vision™

I think Toya’s voice IS different rest in pieces I still respect u bro

“How do I feel about Syaoran” [Pan across Syaoran in floral background] It is a style choice how very shojo manga of you

I’m really very confused by the references to Tokyo Tower bc I’m pretty sure they were battling at Tsukimine Shrine did I miss something??

No I just checked it was definitely at the shrine in the anime did THEY not check or were they like ‘hmmm not enough drama only Tokyo Tower for our battle backdrops pls’

This is the third or fourth flower backdrop in the first ten minutes jkhkdjhg the floral effect artists said ‘I WILL BE SILENT NO LONGER’:

I DO NOT understand the chronology of this the bear exchange was the last scene in the anime is this before or after the finale???? If it’s after then why is Syaoran still in town

Rjhkjhgkj is the entire point of redoing this episode so Sakura could also give Syaoran a bear

“Toya was too embarrassed, so he had me bring it over and went back to his room” Lmao @ Toya sending his boyfriend to be nice to his sister in his place

If this show does not stop the floral cutaways I will not be able to take it seriously it is Ouran High School Host Club levels of intensity jdshfkjshdfkjhsdk

“Will you wait for me?” “Yes! I’ll wait! I’ll be waiting!” I think they threw out all continuity just so they could establish that these feelings were for sure mutual for the setup of the sequel series

That, or the original series so heavily discarded manga continuity that they are trying to walk it back to something more accurate without any real explanation

Rffkghkfghkdfhgkj if they’re referencing the original anime bear scene what was the point of that stupid prologue SO WHAT IS THE TRUTH

“My name is Mike. I’m from Portland” LOL references to Americans in anime are always so funny

“Now I can stay in Tomoeda forever” did u bring ur mom and sisters orrr

Gosh I’m actually quite thrown by how quickly this romance escalated it took them 57 episodes to just use each other’s first names and now it’s taken them one (1) episode to Commit 4Ever At Age 13

HAHAHA do they have smart phones now? Always on the cutting edge

“I Am a Stuffed Animal” some of the quirky captions ARE worth it

“Make sure you tell him... even the smallest things” Yue has become more of a romantic since he got closure and a part-time boyfriend

“I never knew! Thanks for telling me!” “Never change, Li-kun” kjhgkjhdkj STILL MY GULLIBLE BOY some things don’t ever change

Is that a dragon?? They are really expanding this magical universe

It bears repeating the polar opposite levels of pacing from the two shows it’s only episode one and they’ve already established so many new rules and powers

I don’t blame them for it though bc they have to put forward some kind of plot progression

There were so many visual effects in that scene I couldn’t even tell what was happening lmao it’s like reading manga battles

“But why are these things happening in Tomoeda again?” I mean not to point fingers but Syaoran’s arrival is fairly recent

“Did Wei-san come back with you” “No, just me. But he said he’d come to check on me in a while” HE’S 13?? CHILD. WELFARE. LAWS!!!!

“I wish that I could’ve used it as a reference” “For what?” “To make something that would look wonderful on you” LMAO now that Syaoran and Sakura are a thing He is Included in the outfits

“’Great to have you’ so you can do what?” don’t bully ur sister Toya, u r both happy with your respective relationships now

WHAT ARE THE STAKES OF KERO PRETENDING TO BE A PLUSHIE TOYA IS LITERALLY DATING THE MOON

I understood “Gale” but what exactly is a “Siege” card this feels a little abstract

“We managed to keep him in the dark” did u tho? Again. Moon boyfriend

“So it happened in her room” Did u put a protection spell on that bear or something Syaoran

I genuinely do not tire of Syaoran and Sakura’s shared gullibility this couple is morosexual solidarity

How convenient that Sakura’s new key just announces whenever there’s a new clear card to collect lmao

I meant what I said about Toya’s love language being touching Yukito somewhere above the shoulders

“You’ll find out when the time comes” Dfddjhfjkdhf Toya what are you going to DO

Two cards in one episode is quite a bit for ep 3 I guess they’re trying to give her some more fighting options lol

Is the implication of the way Sakura just happens to be coming across magical phenomenon that Clow Reed didn’t make his cards but just harnessed magic that existed in nature

For no reason other than my own suspicion I think that something funky is going on with Syaoran’s powers

“That person was almost the same height as me” I mean so was Eriol

“Sakura and the Lovely Transfer Student” we know by now transfer students mean that shit’s about to get real

“And then you slept with your belly uncovered” “I did not!” Toya’s gentle bullying to distract Sakura is always weirdly sweet

“Your brother is so funny Sakura” CHIHARU’S RIGHT STAN TOYA

SHINOMOTO ARE YOU SHITTING ME JHDFGHDGDFDD WHY DOES IT RHYME

“I hope we can be friends” if I know anything about this show this means she’s going to do something very shady immediately

I wonder if this will be the season that Tomoyo’s filming of everything Sakura does finally becomes plot relevant

I do think it’s weird that Sakura trusted a new key without questioning it

“I’m changing back” LOL @ YUE TRANSFORMING INTO YUKITO JUST TO AVOID PEOPLE I’M STARTING TO REALLY LIKE HIM

DGSJGSJDGDJGSFFSJDHJS YUKITO APOLOGIZING FOR YUE LEAVING RUDELY THAT’S MY POLITE AND HANDSOME MAN WHO HAS NEVER DONE ANYTHING WRONG IN HIS LIFE

I KNEW Syaoran was being suspicious!!! Talking about Sakura with Eriol in secret phone calls

“I came here to be ready for that time, when it comes” current theory is that Syaoran has NO powers and that’s why he is not running out of his classroom for teenage battles with the Forces of Nature

“How much has Yukito-san been eating?” “Not as much as he did when you were in elementary school, but he still eats a lot for his size” This must be a strange conversation for their dad to listen to but I like how this is code for Does Yukito Have Magical Chakra Exhaustion

“Um, I just... Phone call” said Sakura, as she was forcibly moonwalked away right in front of her friends’ eyes

LOL is Tomoyo being unable to film Sakura going to be a recurring joke

“Don’t worry about it” “I have to, when it’s about you” Syaoran really going Full Boyfriend Mode huh

I’ve never questioned it in until precisely this moment but who pays Kero’s phone bill?? Is it Tomoyo? Who is the account holder for this stuffed animal did she establish Kero as a legal person

“Momo-chan, let’s be friends okay?” I feel like this has to be immediate foreshadowing for Momo being alive

[Cucumber cut incorrectly] “Gotta show Yuki” hjkfhksjdhfkjhd rude of Toya but the caption kills me

Ddjkhfkjdhfjkdhfkjh the pure juxtaposition of this energy:

Tomoyo: They have other things to do

Chiharu, thinking that it’s a romance thing: [Winks]

Syaoran and Sakura: [In the shadows while threatening music plays]

“I didn’t feel... anything” oh NO why r their magic senses NOT tingling

I feel like I have been had, they had an episode called the “Song of the Moon” and Yukito didn’t even show up?? Rude

SCREAM this magical FaceTime call is much funnier than I could’ve imagined

“Yukito is in a recitation club, which he takes very seriously” GDGJFGJGJHGDG Yue very respectful of not occupying Yukito’s time with magical shenanigans LMAO

“And we’ll make them the cutest oxygen masks you’ve ever seen” Tomoyo, like the background effects artists in this anime, will not be stopped

Well colour me inaccurate I guess Syaoran can use his powers and he can do a fancy new sword thing

I like this flying scarf it’s the first of the new cards with a personality

Poor Syaoran always so serious to being a Teenage Wizard is hard

Wow I bet there’s NOTHING weird about the fact Akiho lives in Eriol’s house it’s just pure happenstance (said no one)

“Could we um, go out together?” I think this is the first time someone has explicitly scheduled a date in all 80+ episodes

I really do enjoy Toya’s never-ending list of temp jobs lmao

“Still going on, huh?” Toya’s older brother senses are unparalleled

LMAO IS THIS A 15 YEAR OLD BUTLER

Ghgjhfjfjhfjh what is the scale for these heights why is Kaito twice the height of these 13-year-olds

Unsubtle shot of this man’s pocket watch echoing Sakura’s dream

I’ve never seen a more Rich Person Reaction than Akiho getting upset that Katio, a service worker, stated that taking care of her was his job hfkjdhfkjh

“I came to Japan because there was a book I wanted”

1. VERY Rich Person thing to say

2. Wow I wonder which of you has a MAGICAL BOOK that’s been doing weird things lately

“What language is it” “I don’t know, but I’ve learned to read it” me when I hear people speak South Asian languages LMAO

Why does everyone keep referencing the Time That’s Coming? Toya, Syaoran, Eriol... they’ve all caught Mizuki’s affliction of vague and unhelpful prophecies

*One more go to jail Mizuki for the road

I hope that these stupid FaceTime calls with Yue are in EVERY episode from now on

Does the fact that he’s listed as Yue-san in Sakura’s phone mean that there’s a phone for each personality omg

OMG I just realized the ep title (Sakura’s Thrilling Aquarium Visit) must be a throwback to “Sakura’s Heart-Racing First Date” which was not a date but took place at an aquarium. Cute!!

GJHGSHJGFSGH Yue is me whenever people talk about video games:

Kero: Hey, Yue, play an online game with me

Yue: [Hangs up immediately]

“I made you wait” “Nah, I got here too early. It’s still twelve minutes before our meeting time.” I think she and Yukito had this exact exchange in that early ep

“She doesn’t have magical powers, but she’s oddly perceptive” I hope that Meilin’s one and only magical power is precognition lmao

Omg every time someone in this show speaks English I am so thrown

“I wasn’t sure how I should look at him” awww Syaoran trying to re-establish himself in the family

I guess this aquarium HAS changed in that it developed a security system for when the tank breaks [youknowwhathatisgrowth.gif]

LOL I guess it’s convenient to have an invisibility cloak when ur breaking and entering I was wondering how they were going to deal with their criminal behaviour in the age of cameras

Ep 10. Sakura’s Unbelievable Juvenile Detention Centre

Weel weel weel looks like Sakura isn’t the only one with new powers nice ice Syaoran!! I missed their tag team fights

OH MY GOD IF THIS PHOTO ALBUM ACCEPTS THE CONTINUITY OF THE SECOND MOVIE THEN SAKURA AND SYAORAN HAVE ALREADY! DONE! THEIR! CONFESSIONS! WOULD YOU PICK A LANE

“You want the person you like to eat good food” Besides the fact Kaito is twice your height and therefore probably an adult... u should not make advances on people u employ - this is all very bad-vibes-no-jutsu

I am shocked that it took this long for Sakura to notice that her new cards paralleled the old cards

Syaoran is staring at Kaito like he murdered his spouse in a previous life

“So he has Moon magic too?” UHHHH WAS SYAORAN’S MAGIC ALWAYS MOON-BASED I FEEL LIKE THAT’S NOT CLEAR

Also very unclear why Eriol keeps leaving her on read if he’s talking to Syaoran what

I love how Kero has independent friendships and communications with both Yukito and Tomoyo lmao

How many times has Penguin Park been destroyed by now

“Perhaps your dream is gradually progressing” Progressing into what exactly the Battle of the Nice Thirteen-Year-Olds

Why is it that magic in this universe comes with above-average athletic ability LOL

Once again, without a body/personification, these cards seem harsh

Kaito seems like too much of a red herring a la Mizuki so I’m going to assume the other presence we see is someone we either haven’t met yet or smth really fucked up with the rest of the main cast

I’d lose my mind if it was Toya but I genuinely hope not he’s too nice

I honestly missed Meilin ever since she chilled out a bit she’s very fun

“The emoji in her message definitely looked thrilled” [Bob Dylan voice] For the times they are a-changin’.....

“I don’t know when it’ll happen, but when it does you’ll know” Toya.......

Toya’s absolutely nonplussed reaction to his Moon Boyfriend never ceases to amaze

Yukito: [Sighs and floats into the air to wrap in a wing cocoon]

Toya: [Sitting and staring unfazed]

Also am I crazy or was that transformation on purpose bc it really had the energy of ‘Fine if you won’t talk to me maybe you’ll talk to Rude Magical Me!!’

“Did I change again?” GUESS NOT LMAO

Also it’s fun how as different as Yukito and Yue are, their shared brain cell says ‘TOYA COMMUNICATE WITH MEE’

“But ever since Syaoran came back, he’s had something important on his mind” People don’t give Sakura enough credit for her emotional intelligence

Can we take a minute to appreciate Sakura’s outfit fashion ICON

What is this Furry card that makes u dress up in ears and a tail lmao

“I’ll treasure [these cookies]” “I’d rather you ate them” LOL

My Furry card prediction gets more and more accurate with each passing second (even a broken clock’s right twice a day)

Uhhhhh Syaoran what did u sell to the moon devil to be able to cut through the space-time continuum

Sakura: NO THAT’S MY EMOTIONAL SUPPORT SYAORAN

SCREAM this family and their circle of hair cutting (also if Yukito cuts Toya’s hair, does Toya cut Yukito’s? Or does it not grow bc magic jfhkfh)

“I’m pretty sure that was middle school English” Sakura hearing English is me hearing French LMAO

“Sucks, doesn’t he?” MEILIN PLS

Djhfjkdhkjfhjk Tomoyo’s immediate rage at being the centre of attention

SAKURA DOING MAGIC RIGHT IN FRONT OF OTHER PEOPLE OMG

“Surround the entire mansion” Very subtle Sakura I’m sure no one in your whole town will notice

“I hear her father specializes in archaeology, so he might have some interesting books” “Have I mentioned Sakura-san’s father to you before?” [Dramatic cut in music] WELL

Oh my GOD did Kaito just turn back time bc he regretted what he said immediately? Honestly a mood

Also: BITCH

“You’re so alike, and not just because of your names” I have to say I’ve been thinking since her first appearance that Akiho looks like Nadeshiko so if they’re not related I will be surprised

“Sometimes watching good people makes me feel sad” well damn Meilin

I’m going to guess this Teenage Robot is the equivalent of the fight card that Meilin fought upon her introduction

Aw HELL YEAH SAKURA AND MEILIN TAG TEAM FIGHT WOOOO

“Aren’t you and Syaoran doing too much for those you care about, and forgetting to care about yourselves?” WELL DAMN MEILIN U R THE NEW TEENAGE SUPERHERO THERAPIST

“Can I call you ‘Sakura’ from now on, too?” AHHH THESE KIDS

LMAO AMAZING IT TOOK 13 STRAIGHT EPISODES FOR MOMO TO EVEN TWITCH

“We are indeed progressing... toward that time” I feel THREATENED

Once again I cannot stress strongly enough how much I love physical comedy

Sakura: They don’t seem to be causing any harm

The dessert rolls:

GOD the roll cakes eating each other to form one giant monster Babushka doll roll cake jhfjkdhgkdjhgkj incredible

EXCUSE ME MA’AM WHY WAS THERE A DEMON GIRL IN THE REFLECTION OF THIS SHATTERED CARD

“Please laugh again” Akiho is v nice I really hope Kaito isn’t mean

“Once a magical contract is formed, it can’t be broken, unless something really serious happens” [Quirrel voice] Can anyone tell me what foreshadowing is?

“What do you feel” “I think it’s a card” Very observant Sakura I think they gathered that

When Sakura gets all four of the base elements is Momo going to turn into a 200 pound giant rabbit

I like that every time Toya is concerned about Sakura, Yue appears suddenly to discuss the matter seriously with him [Gay and Wondorous Life of Caleb Gallo voice] He’s in this relationship!!

“When you’re angry or upset, it shows on your face, even if you don’t say it” Yue IS in this relationship woooow

“When humans realize they’re talking to a fox, they won’t sell you mittens. In fact, they’ll catch you and put you in a cage.” UH who is the fox in this metaphor not Sakura I hope???

Years later Syaoran is still winded if Sakura makes too much eye contact khgkghkjg

The fact that Yukito reads at a children’s hospital... truly one of The Nicest Not-Humans On Earth

Well with each passing episode we have less and less reasons to trust these cards and Kaito the Young Magical Butler

Ever since Kaito reversed time, I cannot shake the persistent thought that Akiho IS Nadeshiko. That’d be weird but u know... I’ve seen this show do weirder

“Your sweets look better” “No, yours!” Grandpa witnessing this date

“Also if Sakura-chan goes to college or wants to do something else, he wants to help” TOYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

“Any further, and you won’t be able to return” NADESHIKO BE MORE SPECIFIC

“It was my robe” Wait what ur family is a magical society or smth and somehow u don’t know Akiho??? How in the whomst

Everyone in this anime is like, ‘Haha Yue looks mad’ as if Yue does not look mad every second that he’s alive

KHKJHKFJHKJFHJ GRANDPA MASAKI REALLY GONNA GIVE SAKURA A HOUSE AND TOYA NOTHING LMAO WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE THE LEAST FAVOURITE GREAT-GRANDCHILD LOL

“Nadeshiko would talk to things that weren’t there, and try to reach an understanding with things that couldn’t talk” 91 EPISODES LATER AND MR. KINOMOTO FINALLY ACKNOWLEDGES MAGIC?? OKAY

AND HE KNEW BOTH SAKURA AND TOYA HAVE HAD MAGICAL PROBLEMS FOR 3 YEARS!!! MR. KINOMOTO WHAT KIND OF HANDS-OFF PARENTING

“I want me to tell me [about your pain] too” wow this is the CALL-OUT EPISODE

“The house they live in was once torn down and replaced with an amusement park” were the continuity errors of accepting the second movie... A PLOT POINT?!?!?!

DAMN U KAITO I REALLY WANTED THINGS TO BE OKAY FOR AKIHO

“But I’ve got a great poker face” “Yes you do. But Yue does not” JKHDKJGHKJSHGKJHDKJGHSDJGHKJH BY DIALOGUE ALONE IT’S LIKE WHENEVER ANYONE SEES YUE’S FACE TWITCH IT MEANS HE’S HAVING AN EMOTIONAL BREAKDOWN

Yue: Evil magic looming overhead is bad for your wifi signal actually

“I will obtain these new cards. So I can use the relic I took from the association to activate that magic spell” Kaito really laying out his motivations out loud in a library. Insensible. Vague and probably misleading. 1/10 villainous monologue

Sakura’s powers are WILD she can duplicate the strength of her magic

“Power that’s too strong will bring unhappiness to its owner” SYAORAN :((

I feel like the only way this can end is Toya giving Sakura magical noogie so she doesn’t have to carry all of her powers like the reverse of what he did for Yue-kito

THERE IS TOO LITTLE TIME LEFT IN THIS SHOW FOR ALL THE ANSWERS I NEED THERE’S ONLY 20 MINUTES AHHHH

THERE ARE 12 MINUTES LEFT AND STILL NO ANSWERS!!! WHAT HAPPENSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

I GOT ABSOLUTELY NO ANSWERS OH MY GOD?!?!?!?!

#ayesha talks anime #ayesha liveblog ccs #liveblogging #long post

11 notes · View notes

calpalirwin · 4 years

Text

Every Part of You

Summary: Ashton Irwin had only planned on performing and enjoying his New Year’s Eve rocking out to 80s music. He never planned on the woman in the black dress shaking up his world. What a way to rock in the new decade.

A/N: So, as some of you know, I was at the same party as Ashton Irwin last night. And I was lucky enough to talk with him a few times. Star-struck jitters ensued along with this story for y’all courtesy of my wildest daydreams. (Photo credit to me!) And @1-irwin-94 asked for a Part 2, so here we are. Be sure to read Part 1. And stay tuned for an epilogue because I don’t think I’m ready to let go of this story yet.

Content: Smut. Fluff. Cussing. Mentions of abuse, abortion, and suicidal tendencies.

Word Count: Oh, just read it!

And away, and away we go!

~~~

“You don’t have anywhere to be, do you?” I asked her as we lay together in bed. It was creeping up on 2 in the afternoon and we hadn’t done much besides lay in each other's arms since I got her to stay.

She shook her head. “I don’t go back to work until Tuesday. But I should probably get some clothes at some point. A shower. Some food.”

“What do you do?”

“Oh, I’m working as a tutor while I finish school.”

“School. Like college?”

She nodded. “Yep. It’s my last semester.”

“And what happens after?”

“A 3 semester long teaching program and if all goes well a classroom of my own.”

“Oh, so you wanna teach? That’s cool.”

She chuckled. “It’s incredibly mundane actually. But yeah, it’s what I wanted to do since I was seven.”

“Mundane? No, that’s amazing. I shouldn’t be surprised that someone like you wants to teach, though. Makes perfect sense.”

“Someone like me?” she asked, quirking an eyebrow playfully.

I giggled. “Yes. Someone like you. Someone who is kind and patient. What do you want to teach? Or do teach right now? Tutoring’s not teaching, is it?”

Her cheeks flushed momentarily. “I’m hardly either of those things, trust me. But, you’re sweet to think so. And I want to teach history, ideally to high schoolers. Right now I work with middle schoolers and it’s a little bit of everything. I’m really just an extra set of hands three days a week.”

“Only 3 days a week?”

She nodded. “I told you it was mundane. But, the monetary aspect never bothered me. Money is eh. But, the way their eyes light up when something they’ve been struggling with suddenly clicks? And I get to be part of that? Can’t put a price tag on that type of joy.”

“But you make enough to survive?” I asked, surprised. I had no idea how much money she made. But I knew living LA was anything but cheap. Working 3 days a week certainly couldn’t sustain living in LA.

She laughed. “Barely. I mean, I live at home, so that helps. Not my favorite thing in the world. But, I just keep out of the house as much as I can.”

I frowned at her words and she laughed again, her hands coming up to caress my cheeks. She liked touching me. I liked her liking to touch me. “Don’t frown, handsome. I’m happy with my life. Do I get frustrated living at home? Yes. So much. But, this is part of my story. Part of my struggle. And I’ve struggled through far worse and survived.”

I tilted to kiss her palms. “How do you do it?” I marveled. “You’re so happy and upbeat. It’s damn near infectious.”

She shrugged. “Trust me, my head can be a dark place. But, the dark isn’t the whole book. Learning to dance in the rain and all that peppy shit.”

I smiled at her. I too, knew just how dark someone’s own head could be, and I had the scars to prove it. And instead of running, she had stayed. More than that, she had kissed the ugly parts of me. I wanted to do the same for her. “Take me there,” I murmured, continuing to kiss at her hands.

“Take you where?” she giggled.

“Take me to every part of you,” I said, lifting my eyes to look at hers.

She laughed a little louder this time. “Food first. I’m starving. And I could really go for some clothes that… well, that are a little less that,” she said with another laugh, pointing at her dress on the ground.

“But I like you in that dress.”

“You like me out of it, you mean.”

I winked. “Yeah, that too.”

~~~

“Well, this is me,” she said, as I pulled up in front of the small house. She had put her dress back on, along with the boots, having nothing else to wear, even though I offered her a shirt. But she told me that that wasn’t good for going home in.

“Nice place,” I commented, offhandedly.

“Thanks, it’s not ours,” she told me with a smile.

“Do you want me to wait while you get some stuff and change?” I offered.

“You don’t have to. I do drive. I can just meet you at your place later.”

I frowned and her hands were on my cheeks, pushing my lips up. “Stop that,” she scolded.

“Go pack. I’ll wait,” I told her, kissing at her hands. I liked kissing her.

“I’d offer for you to come inside, but my family’s home. So…” She made a face like she was hoping her words wouldn’t make me mad.

“I can be patient, too,” I told her simply.

“5 minutes,” she assured me. “10, tops!” and then she was dashing out of my car and into her home. I could hear her voice announcing her presence and then someone was standing in the doorway. The man looked blankly at me and she pulled him back inside, slamming the door shut.

10 minutes on the nose, the door was opening as she was walking out. This time she had on jeans and sneakers. A hoodie covered whatever shirt she had on and a hat was on backwards, covering her hair. She had a duffle bag slung over her shoulder, a grin on her face, and two water bottles in her hand. “I was thirsty,” she said, climbing back in the car, tossing her bag at her feet, and handing me one of the bottles. “You like water, right?”

I chuckled as I twisted the cap and took a swallow, the ice cold water soothing my throat. “Thanks.” Then, “Who was the man? Your dad?”

“My brother. My dad lives about a half hour away with his wife.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said, reaching out to grab her hand reassuringly as I pulled out of her driveway.

“Why?”

“Because your parents are divorced. That must’ve been rough.”

She shrugged. “I was too young to know any different. And they’re happy. They’ve had their moments, sure. But they’ve always been Mom and Dad.”

“My band released a song all about the girl with divorced parents,” I told her.

“I know. And while that song absolutely breaks my heart, that wasn’t my experience. My parents have always remained civil with each other. Hell, we can all go out for dinner and my dad will sit smack dab between my mom and his wife. They get along. They’re happy. I’m happy. It is what it is.”

I didn’t even have time for my lips to turn downwards before her hand, ice cold from the water, was on my cheek. I shuddered and pulled back, swallowing the scream of shock. Her hand dropped and it was her turn to frown. “Your hand’s cold, gorgeous,” I explained. “As for your parents, I still think that sucks. But you have a mature outlook about it.”

She shrugged again. “Like I said, I was too young to know any different. They split up when I was like 4.”

I coughed, “Jesus, gorgeous…”

“What?” she asked confused. “It could be way worse. They could’ve been one of those stay for the kids types and ruined my life with their unhappiness. But they didn’t. They walked away from what made them unhappy and towards what did make them happy. And in doing so they taught me to do the same.”

I stole a glance at her as I waited for the light to change. Much like last night, she was staring out the window, with a soft smile on her lips. Like there was no place else in the world she’d rather be. I certainly didn’t want her to be anywhere else.

~~~

“Oh, hi!” she greeted, pulling open the door to reveal the guys and their girlfriends. “I’m Bridget,” she continued to say, shaking their hands. “Um, Ashton is… um…” her hand was covering up her mouth.

I grinned and came to her rescue. “Hey, guys, c’mon in.” When I shut the door after they all filed in, I turned to look at her. Her hands were still covering her mouth, her brown eyes wide behind her glasses. “You good?” I asked, resting a hand on her shoulder.

She jumped at my touch and I pulled back. “Oh, I’m gonna make such a dumbass of myself…” she whispered out loud, more to herself than to me. “Oh, I dunno if I can do this, Ashton…”

“You talked with me, right?”

“Yeah. After purposefully walking by you and being in front of you any chance I got. And even then, I wasn’t good at it.”

I chuckled. “You did fine. You’ll be fine. Worse case scenario just talk to Mike and Luke. They’ll talk about anything.”

She nodded her head as she hyped herself up. “Yeah, I can do this. I got this. I’m fine. This is fine. This is great. I’m just kinda seeing my favorite drummer and now hanging out with my favorite band. Yeah, this is great. I’m not freaking out AT ALL!”

My eyes went wide as I watched her spiral. “Whoa,” I said, putting my hands on her shoulders, trying not to take too much delight in her confession. “Just breathe.”

Her eyes glanced up at me and I saw how wide they were with her nerves. Slowly, she relaxed and the nerves melted. She let out a shaky breath. “Okay. I can do this.”

“Course you can.”

~~~

Her laugh echoed around us, loud and full of life as she leaned against me from her spot on my lap. “All I said was that my friends play, Mike. I never said I did.”

“Can I teach you though?” Mike asked, his green eyes wide in his excitement.

“Oh, my God!” she continued to laugh. “Do you actually have 2 decks on you?”

“Only always.”

“You know what? Fuck it. Let’s play Magic. I’ll probably lose, but eh.”

“Dude, please keep her,” Mike said, looking over at me as he dug through Crystal’s purse for his cards.

“Uh…” I chuckled, rubbing at my neck. I had every intention of keeping Bridget. But we had only known each other for 4 days.

“We’re still figuring it out,” she told him. “And while I’m not fond of the idea of being kept, I’m willing to make an exception.”

“Feminist?” Sierra asked.

Bridget shrugged. “I just believe in being in a relationship with someone because that’s what both partners want. I’m still going to be me, and if someone wants to love me while I keep being me, that’s more than fine because I have a lot of love to give somebody like that. But kept? Nah, I dated a guy once who was possessive that way and it didn’t work out. And then I dated a guy who loved me for me and allowed me to be unapologetically myself, and it still didn’t work out. But, eh, c’est la vie. And that last love is still the type of love I’m chasing after, just hopefully with a better ending.”

I leaned my head back and processed her words, betting everything I had that her demons lay somewhere in her confession.

“Did you just speak French part way through that?” Calum asked.

She scratched under her right ear. “Did I?” She shrugged, “That’s entirely possible.”

“She can speak French?” Mike asked, a dumb grin on his face.

“I think she’s fluent,” she teased back with an equally dumb grin. Then she shook her head. “No. I took French in high school, but I’m nowhere close to being fluent. Ready to play?” she asked, nodding at the cards in his hands.

“Wait, can you ask me to play Magic in French?” Mike asked, not willing to let it go, and I secretly thanked him. I wanted to hear her speak French. I just wanted to hear her in general.

Bridget’s cheeks flushed. “Uh…” Her glassed moved up as she pinched at her nose and closed her eyes in thought. The words tumbled out slowly, “Veux-tu jouer a la magie avec moi?”

“Wow… the lady doth speaketh French muy bien,” Mike applauded.

“That’s Spanish, Mike,” she said, her cheeks flushing, as her hand dropped from her face and her eyes opened. “I probably should’ve used the formal and said cards rather than magic but, eh.”

“What’s the difference?” I asked.

“Uh.. Voulez-vous jouer aux cartes avec moi.”

Calum grinned, wiggling his eyebrows at her. He loved hearing people speak other languages. We all did. “Oh, la, la. Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?” he said.

Bridget’s cheeks flushed damn near purple, hands covering her mouth in shock as she giggled. “Oh, my God! No! Don’t say that, Calum!”

“What?” we all asked. “What did he say?”

“Yeah, what did I say? I get that all the time when we go to France and I have no idea what they’re asking,” Calum said.

“You asked if I wanted to sleep with you tonight,” Bridget squeaked out. “Which is significantly less crude than that actual verb ‘to fuck’ as ‘coucher’ is ‘to sleep’, but the implication is there all the same. Please don’t ask me that,” she giggled through her explanation, her brown eyes wide as she looked at Calum’s equally brown eyes.

Yeah, I thought to myself, don’t ask her that. Then, to her, I whispered, “Can you ask me that?”

She turned her wide-eyed gaze at me and lightly smacked my chest, “You are terrible! Stop that!” she giggled at me, swatting my chest again.

I grabbed her hand and she gulped as my eyes darkened. “I strongly suggest not doing that,” I told her, my voice a low warning.

“Normally I’d say something sarcastic back like ‘Oh yeah? Or what?’ but I can’t tell if you’re being mad or sexy right now, so I’ll just nod my head and stop,” she whispered against me.

I held her tighter against me, wondering who had made her fear making people mad, wondering who in their right mind could ever be mad at her. Her demons, my thoughts answered for me.

~~~

“Whoa, someone’s hungry,” Bridget laughed as our stomachs all let out a collective rumble.

“Pizza?” Mike suggested.

“Nah,” Luke brushed off. “Chinese?”

“Nah,” Calum disagreed.

“Wait,” Bridget said. “Do you guys not cook?”

“No,” we all told her. “We’re on the road a lot, and when we’re home it’s still just easier to order in or something. Can you imagine if we actually went to the store?” I explained.

Bridget laughed. “Aw, no Walmart adventures then?”

Calum grinned, “Yeah, that’s why we go at like 2 am.”

“So no one can judge you for thinking a whole damn roll of fabric is five bucks? Honestly what were you thinking?” Bridget continued to tease and laugh.

“What the fuck is a yard?!” Calum asked.

“3 feet!” she told him.

“That makes no sense!”

“I never said it did!”

“Alright, settle down,” I giggled.

“But you guys seriously don’t cook? Wow.”

“You cook?” I asked.

She shrugged. “I’m more of a baker. But yeah, I can cook basic stuff.”

“Like what?”

“What do you want to eat?”

“Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had like a really good mac and cheese?” Luke spoke up.

Her brown eyes lit up, “You want mac and cheese? I make bomb mac and cheese.”

“I think I might have a box in the kitchen,” I said.

“But is it good?” she asked.

I shrugged. “What’s good by your standards?”

She rolled her eyes and got up off my lap. “Show me,” she said, holding out her hands for me.

I got up, leading her to the kitchen. “Do you have a large casserole dish?” she asked, leaning against the counter as I rummaged through my sparse cupboards.

“Yeah,” I told her, retrieving the blue box, “I have stuff to cook with. I just don’t really cook much. Here ya go.”

She frowned at the box in her hand. “Oh, no. This won’t do.”

“It’s mac and cheese!”

“It’s the wrong kind.”

“So, what? You want me to go to the store so you can cook for us? We can just order in, it’s fine.”

“Please?” she asked, looking up at me pleadingly. “I wanna cook for you guys.”

I sighed deeply. She, I decided, made it very hard to say “no.” “Alright, guess I’m going to the store.”

“I can go. You guys don’t have to… that’s not…” her voice faltered.

“It’s the store, not war,” I told her with a giggle.

“I know. But it’s fucked up that you can’t do something as simple as grocery shopping without ending up in the tabloids or some shit.”

“Maybe so,” I agreed. “But you want mac and cheese and I don’t have the right kind, so what else do you propose I do? Do tell.”

She rolled her eyes and smacked my chest lightly. “Alright. I’m not gonna deny myself the chance of seeing you doing something as mundane as shop for groceries.”

~~~

“Oh, this is good!” Luke groaned into his bite.

After a, thankfully uneventful, run to get groceries, Bridget had shooed us all out of the kitchen to cook.

“Are these breadcrumbs?” Mike marveled.

“Glad you like it, and yes,” she said, blowing on her forkful before taking a bit. “Mmm, I love comfort food.”

“And you made this out of a box?” Crystal asked.

Bridget nodded. Then, “Shit! None of you guys are vegans or anything are you?”

“I mean, I try to be,” Crystal said.

Bridget’s hand clapped to her mouth. “Oh, my God! I’m so sorry! It’s not vegan! It’s definitely not gluten free either! Oh, my God! I’m so sorry! I didn’t even think to… I’m such an idiot! Oh, my God!” she continued to freak out, setting her bowl down.

“Whoa, easy,” I said soothingly. “It’s fine.”

“Crystal, I am so fuckin sorry. If you don’t want to eat it, I understand. I just… I normally cook for myself or my family and none of us… I didn’t even think… I’m so sorry,” Bridget continued to apologize.

Crystal smiled softly at her. “It’s fine, babe. It’s good.”

“It really is,” Mike agreed. “Seriously, don’t worry about it. This is probably the nicest thing someone has done for us in a long while.”

“Really?”

We all nodded. “People don’t cook for us,” Calum told her. “This was kinda… homey? Like just one big family eating a home cooked meal together.”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself, Cal,” I said, placing a kiss in Bridget’s hair.

“You are all way too fuckin sweet, I swear,” Bridget said, smiling at us. “How anyone is ever rude to you guys is beyond me.”

Funny, I was thinking the same thing about you, I thought.

~~~

“So, how does that phrase go again?” I asked, once everyone had left and we got ready for bed.

“What phrase?” she asked, looking at me confused.

“The French one.”

“Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?” she asked, still confused.

“Yes,” I grinned.

“That’s how you say it,” she told me.

“And I’m answering your question.”

“I didn- Oh!” Her hand reached out to slap my arm. “You are trouble, that’s what you are.”

“So?” I asked suggestively.

“Ashton Irwin asking me for sex? Who am I to say no to that?” she laughed, coming into my arms, shedding her shirt as she did so.

“Technically, you asked me,” I grinned before dipping down to nip at her skin.

“Not the neck!” she breathed. “It won’t fade in time for work!”

I groaned, but moved my head lower anyway. “But I love kissing your neck.”

“You can kiss it all you want, just don’t mark me up where people can see.”

“Yes ma’am,” I winked at her.

“God, you’re so hot,” she marveled.

“Speak more French to me.”

“I can barely speak English when you look at me like that. You really think I c- oh, Dios mio!” she faltered as I ran a finger through her folds, my hands wasting no time.

“That’s Spanish,” I smirked.

“I know!” she laughed breathlessly. “Oh, fuckin fuck,” she moaned as her head rolled back as I pushed my finger into her.

“Aw, you can be louder than that for me, can’t ya gorgeous?” I asked, moving my head to breath in her ear, my finger already bringing forth the filthiest squelching sounds from her pussy.

“Keep doing that, and I’m about to get real loud, real fast,” she answered between panted breaths.

“Is that a promise?” I curled another finger inside of her and grinned wickedly as she fought to keep her eyes open.

“That’s a threat,” she managed to answer.

“God, you’re so good to me,” I praised, using my free hand to tug down her jeans.

“Not gonna be able to stand,” she told me, breathing hard.

I pulled my hand from her and gently knocked her onto the bed. “I didn’t say st- OH FUCK!” she screamed suddenly as I dropped to my knees and buried my face in her. Her hands gripped my hair. “Yes, yes, YES!”

~~~

“Tomorrow’s Sunday,” she told me, after she finished her nightly ritual of kissing all my scars.

“I know. You don’t go back to work until Tuesday though right?”

She nodded. “But, you’re religious, yeah? Don’t you have church or something to go to?”

“I’m religious, yes, but I haven’t been to church in a good while. Why? Do you go to church? Cuz, I can take you if that’s the case.”

She shook her head at me. “No, I’m not religious, remember? I just- I wanted to be considerate of your beliefs.”

“What are your beliefs?”

She shrugged. “I think every religion has its truths. But, I don’t believe I need to devote myself to one religion to promote the message they all promote, which to me is to be kind and love unconditionally. But, I guess I’m technically Catholic. Irish Catholic if you want specifics.”

“Irish?”

She nodded. “Ashton, my name is an Irish trainwreck. I’m like half Irish or something. I forget the actual percentage, but it’s about half.”

“But, you don’t practice religion at all?”

“Nope,” she said, the ‘p’ popping. “Spent a lot of time being angry with God to ever feel justified calling myself a Catholic or a Christian. Never spent too much time with other religions to justify being any of those either. I’m just agnostic. I believe in something greater than myself, that the universe works in weird ways, that we are just as in charge of our destinies as anything else, but I’m not comfortable saying that force is God.”

“Why not?” I asked.

She shrugged. “There’s too much bad in the world for me to buy into the fact that it’s all God’s plan. Like really? God’s plan was giving my baby cousin cancer, making her better, and then making her sick again and taking her from us? God’s plan was to give my great uncle Alzheimer’s and leave my great aunt with a folded up flag to remember him by? And that’s just my life. But, then I went to church, ironically enough, for my baby cousin’s service. And the pastor said something that has stuck with me ever since and it was that his God is the good in the world. And while that didn’t stop me from being angry with God, it made me feel a little better about the whole concept. That being said, my relationship with God and what he is to me, it’s personal, I guess. Like, I don’t need to be part of this or that religion to prove my faith. I just keep on doing what I can to be a good person and try not to think too much about happens when I leave this place. I just hope my loved ones are there.”

“That,” I breathed, “is probably the most beautiful and poetic thing I have ever heard.”

“Then you,” she told me, “need to hear yourself more because I promise you that you’re wrong. You are, by far, way more beautiful and poetic than I can ever hope to be.”

“Agree to disagree,” I said, pressing my lips to hers.

~~~

“Hey, it’s that ring!” she said, pulling my hand closer to look at my pinky. “You don’t wear it all the time. You should.”

“Why? It’s just a ring.”

“No it’s not. It’s a Claddagh ring. You know what those rings symbolize, right?”

“I’m also half-Irish. You know that right?”

“You don’t know what it means, do you?”

“Care to tell me what it means Miss History Major?” I asked, my lips quirking upwards. Of course I knew what it meant. I just liked the way she explained things.

She rolled her eyes. “I much prefer when you call me ‘gorgeous,’ Ash,” she told me.

“And I much prefer when you dazzle me with your smarts. So please, dazzle me.”

“It’s a Claddagh ring,” she started. “Traditionally a mother gives it to her daughter when the daughter comes of age. There are two ways to wear it, and four meanings for it. Right hand with the tip of the heart outwards and the person is single. Right hand with the tip of the heart facing the wearing and the person is in a relationship. Left hand, heart tip outwards means the wearer is engaged. And left hand with the heart tip facing inwards means the wearer is married.”

I smiled more. “And what does mine tell you?” I asked.

She peered down at my pinky real quick. “It says you’re in a relationship,” she said simply. Then her eyes went wide, “Wait… Ashton…”

“What?” I asked, innocently. “I’m in a relationship, am I not?”

We hadn’t labeled what this was between us. She had been patient enough to not even ask what we were after our first night, content that we were figuring it out as we went along. But after 3 and a half months, I was teetering on the edge of being in love with the woman who greeted me by kissing first my lips and then my scars, who wouldn’t fall asleep before she kissed my scars again or watched as I did it myself if we were apart. She was the voice I listened to when my demons reared their ugly heads. But, I was too scared to tell her all that, so wearing my ring was the next best thing.

“Is that what you’re asking?” she breathed. “Much like how you tell me you won’t make me do anything I don’t want to, this goes both ways. I’m fine with where we’re at, Ash. I don’t need promises just because you think I need them.”

I frowned, dropping my head down, feeling like I had pushed too far. Damn it. My fists curled and I felt a wave of self-hatred wash over me. “Nevermind,” I said shortly, sliding the ring off and letting it clatter on the kitchen table between us.

“Don’t do that,” she said, reaching forward to grab the ring, spinning it between her fingers.

“Don’t do what?” I demanded, my voice snapping at her. “Don’t ask you for a relationship?”

“No,” she whispered. “Don’t get mad at me for trying to protect you.”

“Protect me from what?! You’re the one who wanted to know every part of me! Is this too much for you now!” my voice thundered and my hand came down to slam on the table

“Please,” her voice cracked, barely audible. “You’re scaring me...”

My eyes took in the quiver in her lip, the tears sliding down her cheeks, the way she was cowering in her seat. I had seen her eyes wide with nervous fear before, but that wasn’t the look she had now. This was legit terrified. And it was my fault. I slumped back, shame washing over to mix with the self-hatred. “I’m sorry,” I said, my voice dropping low.

“Please don’t do that,” she blubbered before bursting into tears. Her hands covered her face, her shoulders heaved, and I felt like an absolute monster. I moved towards her, but her hands pushed out, “No, don’t,” she said, shaking her head at me. “Please.”

“Baby,” I begged, my heart breaking for what I had done to evoke such a strong negative response from her. All I wanted was to tell her what she meant to me and now she was literally pushing me away.

Her breathing came out rapid and shallow. Her hands fluttered in panic. “I’m having… oh, God…” she sputtered.

I didn’t care anymore. I grabbed her in my arms and moved us to sit on the kitchen floor, cradling her body against me as she struggled for breaths. “I’m sorry,” I whispered over and over in her hair. “I’m so sorry, baby. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Water,” she spoke, after what felt like an eternity but was probably not even 2 minutes.

“I’ll get you water, baby,” I nodded, standing us up carefully.

“Oh, I can’t believe I just did that…” she mumbled into her hands as she took a seat at the table.

“Baby, I am so sorry,” I kept apologizing, my stomach twisting itself in knots as I pushed a glass of water in her hands and then took a seat next to her. “Do you want to talk about it? Or do you want me to give you some space?”

She held up a finger at me and gulped down the water. “I had a panic attack. Those happen sometimes. They used to happen to me a lot. But, I haven’t had one in a long while. And I’m really embarrassed right now.”

“I’m so sorry, baby…” It was taking all my strength not to burst into tears myself after seeing her so broken and broken because of me. I never wanted to experience this again, and I would spend the rest of my life making it up to her if she let me.

“Not your fault,” she said, smiling softly at me. “It’s a reaction. You did something kind and thoughtful. And I panicked. And that’s all there is to it.”

“No. That’s not all there is to it. I scared you.”

She gave a wry chuckle. “It’s them damn demons, I tell ya. Yes, your reaction scared me. I don’t-” she paused looking for the words. “I don’t do well with bad reactions. I panic. As you just saw. But, that doesn’t make your reaction any less valid than mine.”

“No. Scaring you is not a valid reaction. I lost me temper. And I lost it with myself and I lashed out at you. And that is never okay.”

“Ashton,” she said softly, reaching out to grab my hands in hers. “Losing your temper doesn’t make you a bad person. It’s my past that made me panic. Not you.”

“But I triggered it. You were fine until I slammed my hand.”

She nodded.

“What happened?” I asked, hoping she knew I meant what happened in the larger context, not her panic attack specifically.

“My ex. The first one. He was…”

“The possessive one?”

She nodded. “He was a piece of work. He had his own demons he was fighting. And we were too young to know any better. And when he said he loved me, I believed it. But, he had an odd way of showing it, that I passed off as high school romance.” She shook her head and looked up, like she was trying to reverse gravity on the tears that were starting to spill down.

“What did he do to you?”

“In simple terms, he abused me. Mostly emotionally and mentally. Sometimes sexually.”

“He raped you?” I asked, feeling my fists clench.

She shook her head. “No. We never actually had sex. Sexual stuff, sure. But never actual sex, thank God for that. But, he took advantage of the idea that I would always go running back to him. And when I pushed, he shoved. Not physically. He scared me plenty and implied a few physical threats, but he never hit me. And that was the golden fuckin phrase. He made me feel absolutely worthless, but hey, he never hit me.” She let out a disgusted chuckle. “Anyway, he got angry with just about any choice I tried to make if it wasn’t what he wanted. Especially if it wasn’t what he wanted. And I’d get scared. And that only fueled his anger. Like he got a sick thrill from scaring me. I eventually grew up and learned what real love was like and cut ties. And while I try really hard to have confidence in my choices, there’s still this part of me that wants to please people. I can’t stand people being disappointed in me. And you… well, I’m not as healed as I thought I was.”

“I was angry at myself. Not you. I could never be mad at you, or disappointed in you,” I told her. “And I will never hurt you or make you scared. I promise.”

“I know, Ashton. I’ve known bad, and I’ve known good. You are neither.”

I tilted my head to the side in confusion.

She grabbed my ring and slid it back on my right pinky, the tip of heart facing my wrist. “You are great. And I love that you want to be in a relationship with me because I love you, Ashton.”

My eyes went wide at her words. “You love me?”

She laughed. “If you want downright honesty, I was in love with you the day I became a fan of your band. But, yes. I do love you. Every part of you.”

“Even the part that just scared you into a panic attack?”

“Especially that part,” she nodded. “Because that part then showed a great remorse that I never got from my ex.”

“It’s not good what I did. You know that, right? That was toxic. I’m toxic.”

“You,” she said, getting up and coming to sit in my lap. Her hands reached up to cup my face. “You are beautiful. And I love you dearly.”

I nuzzled my face into her neck. “I love you too, baby. And I’m sorry. I promise I’ll never scare you again. I never want to see you look that way again and know that I’m the reason for it.”

She chuckled in my arms. “I’m not made of glass, Ash. Sometimes I fall, but I’m not gonna shatter if you raise your voice at me. Never hold back your emotions.”

“This is a complete 180 from the woman who was freaking out over me wearing a ring,” I continued to talk into her neck.

“I know,” she giggled. “I’m crazy that way. I pushed. It’s not that I’m afraid of love. I’m afraid of what comes when that love stops because I barely survived last time. I don’t ever want to feel that low.”

“I don’t ever want to make you feel that way.”

“I know. That’s why I’m telling you this. I’m not saying that I love you and want a relationship with you because it’s what I think you want to hear. I’m saying it because it’s the truth. It just took you holding me while I crumbled for me to realize it.”

“I’m never gonna let you go,” I promised. “I love you, baby.”

“I love you, Ash.”

~~~

“Are you gonna be okay?” I asked as I packed.

She just laughed. “Ash you’re gonna be gone like a month. I think I’ll live.”

“Have you ever been to Europe?”

“No.”

“Wanna go?”

“Ashton!” she gasped at me. “I have school!”

I rolled my eyes playfully. “Don’t your finals start soon?”

“Yes. So I should really be writing essays rather than watching you pack.”

“So come out after your finals.”

“I still have work after finals, Ashton. And not to mention, I can’t afford to go to Europe. I live with my mother!”

I sat down on my bed with a huff, holding out my arms for her. “Two questions for you,” I said, once she was in my arms.

“Two answers,” she responded, which was her quirky way of telling to go ahead and ask.

“Move in with me when I get home. And come to Europe with me when you get done with work.”

“Those aren’t questions,” she said, rubbing her nose against mine.

“Fine,” I conceded. “Will you move in with me when I get home? And will you join me in Europe when you go on summer break?”

“Yes to the first one. I would love to, but I can’t for the second one.”

“You’ll move in with me, but you won’t go to Europe with me?”

“I can’t afford it, Ash.”

“What if I said money wasn’t a factor?”

“I would say you’re crazy.”

“Money isn’t a factor.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Please?”

She looked up at me and sighed. “How can I say no when you look at me like that? How you can come across as so intimidating while looking like a damn puppy dog, I will never know.”

“So, is that a yes? You’ll join me on tour?”

She sighed again. “I guess…”

“Yes!” I cheered. “My baby’s moving in with me and coming with me to Europe!”

“I’m moving in with my boyfriend and going with his band to Europe!” she cheered with me.

I put a finger in my ear as she cheered. “Wow, you wanna scream, huh?” I asked, a seductive grin crossing my face.

“Sorry,” she said, her hands rubbing at my ears tenderly. “I’m excited and forgot that you’re right here. Sorry.”

My seductive grin grew wider and I sucked into her neck. “Be as loud as you want for me, baby,” I told her, my voice a low growl.

“Oh, fuck,” she moaned, her body slacking into mine, her eyes rolling before they shut.

“Gotta make you remember who’s baby you are before I leave,” I continued to growl and nip at her.

She giggled, then gasped, eyes snapping open. “No, not my neck, Ash! I have work still!”

I rolled my eyes as I pulled back. “That’s my favorite spot though,” I whined.

Her hands were in my hair. “I know, Ash, I know. But, please don’t. Make me remember that I’m yours from my collarbone down, okay?”

“Yes ma’am,” I winked, tugging her shirt upwards. “And you don’t belong to anybody,” I told her, kissing her as the shirt got tossed and I undid her bra.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m a feminist, you respect women, and I love you. Now give me something to get me through this next month without you,” she demanded, pushing me backwards onto the bed and straddling me.

“Whatever you say, baby.”

“Fuck, I love it when you call me that. Although I do miss you calling me gorgeous.”

“Mmm, my gorgeous baby,” I purred at her, as I took her glasses off and set them aside.

“I think I just came,” she laughed, putting her hands on my face. “You used to wear glasses. Why don’t you?”

“You’re really asking me this now?”

“I keep forgetting.”

“I wear contacts, baby. That way I don’t waste time taking them off every time I fuck you.”

“That’s a shame. The glasses were hot.”

“Do you want me to give you something to remember me by or not?” I growled, growing impatient.

“Talking too much again?” she asked.

“Never, baby, never. But right now? The only sounds I wanna hear from you better be the filthiest fuckin shit rolling off those gorgeous lips.”

“Okay, seriously, my panties could not get any fuckin wetter.”

“That’s more like it,” I grinned, undoing her pants and sticking my fingers between her. “Good God, woman. Are you sure you didn’t come already?”

“I already told you,” she said squirming to get me to touch her, “that I thought I did. Your voice alone is enough to make me weak in the knees. Then you call me shit like ‘gorgeous baby’ and I’m a mess, alright?”

“Oh, you’re gonna be a mess alright,” I told her, driving two fingers deep into her, grinning devilishly as she gasped at my touch.

“Yes, please,” she moaned.

“Get undressed, baby,” I told her, taking out my fingers. “Da-”

“Don’t,” she said, pressing a finger to my lips, her cheeks bright red. “That was a kink I never really got behind. There’s only one way I’ll ever call you that, and I really don’t want to get side-tracked by having the kids conversation right now. So, yes, I want them. Yes, I think about having them. Yes, I think about having them with you. Do with that information what you will. But do not call yourself ‘Daddy’ in the bedroom, please,” she told me, her eyes sparkling a million different ways she rolled off of me to kick off her jeans and panties.

“God, I love you,” I marveled before I was on top of her.

“I love you, too,” she breathed up at me. “Now ditch the pants, get your head between my legs, start fingering me. I don’t really care. Just fuckin make me cum until I see stars.”

“I’m gonna ruin you, baby,” I promised, shoving two fingers right back into her.

“Do it,” came the gaspy reply.

So I did. She got every part of me that night- fingers, mouth, and cock- driving orgasm after orgasm out of her.

~~~

“So, kids?” I asked as she started kissing my wrists. God, I was gonna miss so much about her, but especially the way she was so soft to me.

She giggled and her face flushed. “I’ve wanted kids for a long time. My ex, the good one, wasn’t ready. He always said we were too young and he wanted to be able to support us. I was fine with that, right up until I wasn’t anyway.” Her head tilted as she looked away from me, reliving the memories.

“What happened? You say he was the good one but you still look haunted,” I said, gently touching her face to guide it back to look at me.

She closed her eyes briefly while she leaned into my touch. Fuck, I was gonna miss that too. “We were in high school. He loved me while my ex was abusing me. He loved me in spite of the abuse actually. He didn’t think that I was broken or weak, he just loved me through it. And I was 18 when the condom broke. He was 17 still. High school graduation was 4 months out. We were scared kids and did what scared kids do. He promised me next time. That promise was what kept me going through some of my darkest days. And then the years kept rolling. And we both got stubborn. And in the end, we decided that we were only together to make good on that promise. Yes, we loved each other. But, our relationship had changed from the young love it was into almost a chore of making up for past mistakes. And we weren’t okay with that. So we walked away. And in doing so we rebuilt the friendship we had lost. He’s still one of my closest friends.” No tears slid down her cheeks at this confession, just a small smile on her lips that conveyed a million different emotions: a deep sadness for love lost, pain for past mistakes, and contentment that it had all worked out for the best.

“Baby, I-”

“Don’t,” she giggled. “Don’t apologize. I am here and I am happy.”

“How? I think all of that would’ve broke me. And yet, you don’t sport a single scar.”

“My scars aren’t on my skin. I struggled. I cried. I shattered to pieces. I fantasized about how easy it would be to end everything. To succumb to the numb nothingness I felt inside. Hell, I loved the numb nothingness because it hurt so much less than the searing pain of disappointment. The what ifs I played over and over in my head came very close to eating me alive. I have journals where it’s just draft after draft of suicide note or just mad scribbling because the thoughts were so loud I couldn’t see straight. There is a darkness to me that not many people know about because I fought to be happy instead.”

I tucked my hands away feeling a deep shame. She was so much stronger than I could ever hope to be. “You are strong. And beautiful. And I’m so glad you’re here.”

She smiled and pulled my arms back to her for more soft kisses. “You are also strong and beautiful. And I am so fuckin glad to have met you. And to get to love every part of you.”

“I can’t wait to make you a mom,” I admitted, admiring her and all she was.

“Really?” she asked, pausing her kisses to look at me with those soft eyes of hers.

“Really.”

“We’ve been together five months, Ashton. Isn’t this all a little soon?”

“We don’t have to do this now. Whenever you’re ready, baby. Just say when.”

“I fuckin love you.”

I chuckled. “I love you too, baby.”

~~~

“Hey, Ash?” she asked me the next morning.

“Yeah, baby?”

“The guitars you have in the spare room. Do you take them with you?”

I shook my head. “Nah, we have a whole set of stuff we take for touring. I leave those here. Why?”

“Can I use them while you’re gone?”

“You play guitar?”

She giggled. “Not well. But yeah. So can I?”

“Do you wanna go play now?”

“Can we?!”

I giggled at her excitement. “C’mon,” I said, getting out of bed and holding out my hand for her.

“This is so cool,” she admired, taking in the instruments scattered about the room I had turned into a home studio of sorts. “Can I?” she asked, gesturing at the acoustic guitar in front of her.

“Go for it,” I said, taking a seat behind the drum kit and pushing my hair back.

She gingerly picked it up, and strummed her way through a few chords. A huge grin came across her face as the music rang out around us. “Oh, God I forgot how cool this was.”

“Pretty sure that’s one of my songs,” I giggled, recognizing the chords.

“It is,” she said, blushing. “It was simple enough for me to pick up, but I still can’t move my fingers fast enough to play it right. But I still like hearing it.”

“C’mere,” I said, patting my thighs.

I scooted as far back in the stool as I could while she squeezed her way between me. “It sounds better on electric,” I told her, taking the guitar from her and reaching for the electric one. “Same finger placement. Same pattern. Try it,” I encouraged.

Again, she slowly strummed her way through the pattern, humming along as she did so.

“Hey-ey-e-ey,” I sang softly with her. “Keep going.”

She plucked her way slowly through the whole song, both of us humming the lyrics. “Well, that sucked,” she laughed, setting the guitar down.

“Nah, it was awesome,” I smiled at her. “Wanna drum it with me?”

“I don’t know how to drum,” she whispered.

“That’s okay, I’m gonna teach you. Here, take these,” I said, handing her a set of drumsticks. “Now, relax your hands and let me guide you through it. Don’t worry about the footwork, I’ll take care of it.”

Again, we worked our way through the song, this time at the right speed, as I carefully but swiftly moved her hands through the pattern.

“That was so cool!” she said, once we finished, her eyes shining. “Can you teach me more when you come home?”

“Baby, I’ll teach you anytime you want me to. Doing my favorite thing with my favorite girl? I can’t think of anything I’d rather do.”

“There is a huge part of me freaking out over you calling me your favorite girl, but I can think of something else we can do.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked.

“What was that thing people used to ask you? Bang me like you bang those drums?”

I closed my eyes and groaned, feeling the twitching in my sweatpants. “That’s a lil rough,” I breathed.

“Then be a lil rough. I can handle it.”

“You’re gonna be regretting those words by the time I’m through with you,” I growled, already stripping her of her shirt.

“I regret nothing,” she said before a wild side I didn’t know existed had her sinking her teeth into my neck.

~~~

“Ash!” she squealed, running full speed into my arms.

“Baby!” I breathed, picking her up. God, the month apart from her had dragged. Tour was great. But I missed her in my arms.

I hadn’t even fully placed her on her feet before she was kissing my wrists. “I’ve missed you,” she murmured.

“I’ve missed you too,” I smiled.

“I have to tell you something,” she said, suddenly, pulling back and getting shy.

“What baby?” I asked, keeping my face neutral despite my stomach twisting itself in knots and my heart doing flips in my chest.

A grin spread across her face as she leaned up on her tiptoes. “When,” she said, her voice low and seductive.

“When what?” I asked confused.

“Ash,” she said, looking at me seriously. “You told me that whenever I’m ready to tell you when. When, Ash. Fuckin when.”

“Wait, what?!” I asked excitedly. “You want a-?”

She nodded excitedly. “Make me a mom, Ashton Irwin.”

“I fuckin love you, baby.”

~~~

“Ready to go, baby?” I asked, peeking my head in the bathroom.

“Yeah, I just need to grab my shoes,” she told me, flashing me a smile.

“No black dress this year?” I pouted, taking her hand and spinning her in a circle. She was still stunning in a navy blue dress that showed of her shoulders and flowed down to her feet.

She shook her head. “I feel a little bloated,” she told me with a frown.

“Oh?” I asked, perking up. Trying for a baby hadn’t been easy with my being off on tour and I knew it was eating away at her. But since I got home two weeks ago, we hadn’t been able to keep our hands off each other.

She shook her head again. “No, Ash. I’ll tell you when there’s news to tell.”

I rested my chin on her head and looked at her through the mirror. “I’m sorry, baby. I know how much this means to you. It’ll be easier now that I’m home, okay?”

She smiled that soft smile and turned to face me. “I know, Ash. I wasn’t expecting this to happen right away. I knew it would take time.”

“But you’re disappointed all the same,” I pointed out. “I’ve seen the trash. And I’m sorry I haven’t been here for you.”

“Ash, I’m fine, I promise. Has it been hard? Yes. But, we kinda got to be able to see each other to have a baby.”

“Well, I’m here now,” I suggested, ducking my head down to kiss her deeply.

She pushed at my chest. “Later. We got a party to get to.”

I groaned at her words. “Alright, then. Let’s go,” I relented.

She smiled and moved passed me. I grinned, my hand moving to feel the weight of the small box in my pocket.

~~~

She sipped on her water, a small smile on her face as she watched me interact with the people around us. “Enjoy your night,” I told the person I was talking with, shaking their hand and reliving how a year ago I was telling her that. I touched my pocket, feeling the small box in there. Fuck, I didn’t know who was more nervous: her last year approaching me, or me, now, with her ring burning a hole in my pocket. “Wanna dance?” I asked her.

“I waited a whole year to hear you ask me that,” she grinned, taking my hand in hers.

“Me too, believe me,” I agreed, letting her lead me to the middle of the room.

“So you were checking me out!” she grinned. “I fuckin knew it!”

“You’re hot, baby. How could I not?” I winked.

“Because last year you were Ashton Irwin and I was a nobody?”

“You’ve never been a nobody, baby.”

She rolled her eyes playfully. “Agree to disagree.”

“So, tell me,” I said, spinning her in a circle. “You gonna get your time-stopping, earth-shattering New Year’s kiss this year?”

“I fuckin better.”

“You will,” I promised. “But first, favorite moment from this year. Go.”

“Ooo, that’s a tough one,” she said, bringing a finger to her lips in thought. “There were so many good ones this year. But, I guess I’ll go with our first kiss. All of my favorite spiraled from there. What’s yours?”

“This,” I winked, then dropped to my knees, digging my hand in my pocket to pull out the box.

“Ashton, what are you doing?!” she shrieked, clapping a hand over her mouth.

“Asking you to marry me,” I said, grinning and flipping the box open. “Marry me?”

“YES!” she screamed.

“Yeah?!”

“YES!” she continued to scream.

“YES!” I screamed with her, standing up, wrapping her in my arms, and spinning us in circles.

“Whoa, easy,” she scolded lightly. “My stomach hurts.”

“Shit, sorry,” I rushed, setting her on her feet and slipping the ring on her finger.

“Oh, Ash!” she breathed, tears falling down her face as she looked at the ring. “It’s a Claddagh ring. It’s beautiful!”

“I got myself a new one too,” I smiled, showing her my hand.

She grinned. “Mikey is gonna be so mad you got an engagement ring and he didn’t,” she laughed.

I laughed with her, “Yeah probably. Happy anniversary baby.”

“It’s not our anniversary yet.”

“Yes it is. I count it from the minute I met you.”

“In that case, I have your present.”

“Oh?” I asked, getting excited.

She moved around me to dig through her purse. “I mean, it’s no ring,” she said, pushing a small photo into my hand. “But I think you’ll like it all the same.”

“What is i- OH MY GOD!” I screamed, clapping a hand to my mouth as I drew the attention of the room. This time the tears fell down my face. “Is this what I think it is?” I whispered, my voice cracking.

A huge grin came across her face as she nodded. “We did it, Ash.”

“But you said!”

“I know! I lied!”

“You brat!” I laughed, swatting at her arm.

She grinned. “I lied twice. I said that our first kiss was my favorite moment from this year. I take it back. This one is.”

“Mine too,” I grinned back, kissing her deeply. “You are going to make an amazing mom and wife.”

“And you’re gonna be an amazing dad and husband. And I can’t fuckin wait.”

“How far along are you?”

“Baby Irwin arrives sometime in May.”

“I love you, gorgeous. So fucking much. And you too, baby!” I said, dropping to my knees again to kiss her stomach.

“We love you too, Daddy,” she winked at me. “Every part of you.”

#every part of you #ashton irwin #ashton fic #galcal irwin #oh how part of me wishes this was true #5sos

15 notes · View notes

derryhawkins · 5 years

Text

I Love Him, Your Honor [2 of ??]

summary: During college, Richie works part time at a law office for the sole reason it pays well, and he honestly thinks it’s utter hell. But then he meets another part time employee who works down in the file room and, well, maybe the law office isn’t completely hellish. word count: 4.1k a/n: our fave boy mike makes an appearance near the end & rich sees eddie’s clothed ass for the first time, so enjoy

AO3 link; chapter one

chapter two: boring as all hell

The work load at the law office ends up being relatively easy. At first, on that Tuesday when he first started once he sorted out the hours he'd come in with the three lawyers, everything sounded complicated and Richie fully believed he had gotten himself into a extremely hard job with just the simple persuasion of money on Bev's part. That, thankfully, isn’t the case at all. The rest of the week goes by smoothly though, much to his surprise. He doesn't really do much Tuesday. Various other employees sat him show him how to do different things throughout the day so he would be able to do what they asked and what they lawyers needed, and he catches on rather quickly, impressing everyone. He essentially becomes their little elf as the rest of the week rolls by - as much as his six foot, lanky being could be an elf. Mostly, he just does things on the computer. He scans stuff in, searches clients, checks people's files in the N-drive or whatever it’s called, and other various boring shit that's mind numbing.

It's easy. But it's so boring.

Richie is just glad he's allowed to listen to his music while he works or else he would have gone batshit crazy on the first day and the ones following. He doesn't even have to work on Fridays; the law office is closed, and people only go in to make up hours or catch up on work they got behind on. He just has to work from eleven to five Mondays, and then eight to three Tuesdays through Thursdays. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

A tune of one of Hozier's songs plays through his ear buds as he sits in the rolling chair in front of the computer. His fingers tap against one of the arm chairs as he checks the releases that had been sent back by clients, making sure they signed where they needed to and that it was stamped correctly. His eyes lifted up for a split second as someone walks by the cubicle, the woman's blonde hair catching his attention, and a split second later the woman is shouting down the hall to one of the other women. It's mostly women who work at the law office, and Richie can only this that this was his teen's wet dream. Only, it's not at the same time. He doesn't find any one here attractive, and he doesn't mind that, and he would include Bev - she's one of the prettiest girls he knows - but she’s engaged and basically his sister so she’s bunched in with the others, but his hormonal side of him wishes there's someone worth his ogling. The only other guys are the two other lawyers, Thomas and Peter; middle age men.

A sigh leaves his lips as he sits up to take the staple out of the papers so he can scan them in, only to stop short when someone enters the cubicle. Richie blinks at the woman and takes out an earbud. Her hair is brunette and looks to be styled in an 80s sort of way. She's probably the oldest one who works at the law office other than Peter, and she has a look that kind of reminds Richie of Stan when the Jew has had enough of his best friend's shenanigans. He half wonders if they would get along, and completely wondering what her name is.

Her dark brown eyes squint a little through her tiny glasses as they look him up and down. "You look tall," she states.

Richie slowly nods as he pauses his music. "I am. My whole family's pretty tall, actually. Dad's over six foot, Mom's close to five nine, and the little demon I have as a sister is probably the tallest girl in her grade."

She grins, pleased. "Perfect! Follow me, there's a few lights out and all of us women aren't exactly on the tall side here," she tells him. With a hand, she hurriedly motions for him to follow and then walks away just as fast. Richie scrambles out of the chair, nearly tripping over his own feet, and follows her closer to the back of the building where the back door is, the one the employees use to come and go when getting to and leave from their job. She suddenly stops and points up. "The bulbs went out, have been for weeks, and the maintenance guy is a slacker."

Richie looks up with furrowed brows. "Listen, I dunno how to tell you this, but I'm not Mr. Fantastic. I gotta have a ladder even if I am six foot."

"Mr. Who?"

"Comic character, I think, Sasha," the blonde woman who he saw pass by his cubicle a minute earlier says, sitting at her desk in the office that's right by them. "DC, maybe? I dunno, my son mentioned something about it the other day."

Richie gives a tight smile. "Marvel," he corrects. "Mr. Fantastic can-."

Sasha waves a hand. "I don't care! I don't care, just fix the lights."

His eyebrows shoot up and he holds his hands up. While Sasha goes to get the new light bulbs, Richie and the blonde, Deb, search for the ladder. They do, eventually, but it’s broken, the things that hold the ladder up right are only attached to one side of it. The next ten minutes are filled with the two searching for something to help Richie get to the ceiling, and he finds a somewhat sturdy green card table. Once he gets back to where the lightbulbs are out, he unfolds the table legs, waving off Deb’s and Sasha’s concerns.

“Hey, it’s better than the ladder,” Richie tells them, leaning on the surface of the card table to see how wobbly it actually is. Then he climbs on completely just as Thomas walks up. The man stares and takes a sip of his coffee.

“Are you trying to get the newbie killed?” Thomas asks. He walks over and goes into Deb’s office to set his coffee down before walking to the card table, holding the edge as Richie reaches up to screw out the old bulb.

“He’s tall and we need them changed, Thomas,” Sasha says.

“You could’ve used the boy in the file room.”

Richie looks down at the adults and hands Deb the old light bulb as she hands him the new one. To make us seem as if he’s not listen, he busies himself with putting the new bulb in.

“He’s out today – something about a test.”

“He is coming in later, though,” Deb says. “After, of course.”

“Also, he’s short. Hence Richard.”

“You women are something else,” Thomas sighs.

Richie grins as he finishes up the first one and climbs off of the table, scooting it under the next bulb that needed to be fixed. He climbs back and on repeats what he did before. The three adults continue to talk about File Boy. Apparently, he’s part time too, but none of them except for Sasha see much of him since her work space is in a room in the very back of the large file room; no one else really goes to the file room unless they need a file, which isn’t too often but often enough to at least see a glimpse of the working boy. Richie keeps his mouth shut from asking anything about him, planning on just bombarding Beverly with them later.

Richie half wonders what the other guy looks like as he does the third and final bulb. Blond or brunet – or, maybe a dyed bright color like blue, or a darker red – with green eyes, or maybe he has brown eyes? Light skin or dark skin; how short is this File Boy anyway? Apparently not as tall as himself, Richie thinks, if any of Sasha’s words are a hint. He blinks rapidly, half from his thoughts and half from the light of the new bulb as it got screwed in correctly. He’s so interested in the file guy already it’s almost comical.

I’ll just blame it on the fact I haven’t gotten laid in three months, Richie thinks. Not whatever Beverly is going to come with – which will be the total opposite of needing and wanting a hookup.

He rubs his eyes under his glasses and gets off of the card table not so gracefully. “There ya go, madam,” Richie grins as he uses a British voice, bowing dramatically at Sasha. A screwing joke sits at the tip of his tongue but he keeps a hold of it. He doesn’t want to get fired yet. “Gives off an enlightening point of view, does it not?” He asks, still using the British accent and still smiling.

Thomas laughs at the pun as Sasha smiles amusedly. Deb half rolls her eyes as if exasperated by the pun, and Richie turns to her feigning hurt.

“Do you not like puns, Deb?”

Deb shakes her head. “Nope. They’re just not funny to me.”

He drops his jaw. “I think you just broke my heart.”

Deb rolls her eyes again but there’s no annoyance or fire in the action. “You’ll heal,” she tells him with a small smile.

Thomas laughs, a loud sound that goes through the building. He lays a hand on Richie’s shoulder. “You’re funny, kid.” Then, he’s grabbing the coffee he set in Deb’s office and leaving, Richie grinning wide.

Sasha chuckles. “You are interesting, I’ll put it that way. Thanks for the help, by the way.”

“Ah, ‘s no problem,” Richie says, almost sheepishly, and puts his hands in his hoodie pocket.

He then helps put the card table back where they got it while Sasha throws the busted bulbs away. Then he’s back at his desk, boredom hitting him like a train.

+++

The café and grill Stan works at isn’t as busy as Richie thought it was going to be. There are still a lot of people about, but it’s not over flowing. The line to the front is just a bit longer than it usually is when Richie normally visits, and more tables are filled. It's nearing close to rush hour, which explains the abundance of people, and Richie knows that its only going to become more busy, but that doesn't stop him and Stan from sitting at a far back table and moaning about their jobs.

"Literally none of my co-workers polite to the customers half the time," Stan tells Richie, angrily sipping on a cold brew tea he made himself moments before Richie entered the building. "I'm amazed we have customers to begin with - and I know there have been complaints about them! Roger needs to fire all these assholes."

Richie bites into the cinnamon muffin he paid for. Crumbs fell into his lap and on the table, but he doesn't bother to brush them away. "Dude, I know," he says with a mouthful of muffin, "That girl - Grits, or whatever - seemed like she wanted to murder when I ordered this muffin. Speaking of, if this were a person, I'd fuck it. Marriage is plausible, too."

Stan's face contorts into disgust. "Who are you, that underage kid in that one movie with a peach kink?"

It takes Richie a moment to understand but then he's belting out a laugh, sliding down the seat he's in. "Stan gets off a good one," he says, still laughing. It's only when he calms down a bit when he talks again. "But, gross, man. No. If I ever actually become that just toss me in piranha infested waters."

"Deal. So, how's the law office?"

Richie lets out a groan and sinks farther down into the chair. "Boring as all hell," he says. He pulls off part of the muffin and stuffs it into his mouth. "I mean, it's easy. Having lunch with Bev like we're in high school again is cool, and the ladies are pretty nice, I guess. Lawyers are chill. But, fuck, it's so mind numbing. And usually I don't mind that, but its all the time!"

"Honestly surprised you're alive." At Richie's slightly confused look, Stan elaborates, "Your ADHD."

His mouth forms an 'O' shape. He hums and nods, things making sense all of a sudden. It's not like he's forgotten about having ADHD - he has to take medicine for it, so it doesn't ever really leave his mind - it's just that it hasn't been such a big deal since his senior year of high school when his parents were finally brought to the realization that their hyperactive son has ADHD. His grades sky rocketed that final year, he was actually on time for school, and his impulses died down. Of course nothing was perfect; even with the meds Richie still struggles. It's become a normal thing in his life within the past few years.

Stan chuckles. "Dude, you're screwed," he says, fixing a few crooked napkins on table.

Richie makes a face. "Tell me about it," he mumbles, eyes watching Stan as he scrunches up his nose when unable to get the napkins just right. Richie grabs them and sets the napkins in his lap, away from Stan's sight. "Speaking of disabilities," he starts, "How's the OCD thing?"

Stan looks slightly annoyed that Richie took the napkins, but the look is gone within seconds. He shrugs and leans back in the chair, but still somehow sitting up straight. "Good, actually. Obviously a few things still bother me, but the meds help. Have since middle school, you know that."

"Just makin' sure, Stan," Richie says, smiling softly. "You're my best friend."

"Oh, don't get all sappy now, bitch!" Stan exclaims, grinning wide.

Richie laughs and says sorry repeatedly for a few seconds. After that, silence falls over them, and Richie finishes the muffin while Stanley finishes his drink. Richie swipes the crumbs onto the floor and sets the napkins back on the table as neatly as he can, and doesn't take them away when Stan reaches over to fix them again, this time satisfied with the outcome. Richie looks around as Stan pulls out his phone to check the time, noticing that it's getting even busier than when he first came in. He's about to ask if Stan needs to get back to work when his eyes land on a guy in a blue polo shirt, and jeans that outlines his ass perfectly. It's unfortunate that Richie can't see the guy's face because there's no doubt in his mind that the guy's face looks as stunning. But Richie can see that he was brunet, the hair styled nicely out of his face; and the guy is tan, and only a few or so inches taller than the blonde girl beside him.

Stan looks up then and to Richie, who's head is tilted at a ninety-degree angle to get a better look. Stan turns around, quickly noticing the boy in the blue polo but also noticing the blonde. She's positively stunning; the hair is in a loose braid, and Stan can see the blue her eyes from where he's sitting. The nice shirt she has on brought out the blue color, and the skinny jeans hugged her legs nicely. Stan forces himself to move his eyes back to her face and a dopey smile forms on his lips as he watches her laugh at something her friend says.

"I think I just fell in love."

"Look at that ass."

Both nineteen year olds still and quickly move to look at one another.

"How are we friends?" Stan asks, brows close together.

"Beats me," Richie says. He goes back to look, but sits up straight. "Where'd they go?" The question causes Stan to turn back around again. They have to look completely weird as they search around the café and grill for brunet boy and blonde girl. With their luck, they don't spot either of them, and it confuses the two best friends, wondering how the hell either of the two people they were staring at disappeared so quickly. "His ass was too perfect, it has to be a hallucination."

Stan rolls his eyes. "That's bullshit!" He pauses and looks at Richie once again. "You gotta stop checking out random people's asses."

"Like you weren't checking out his friend!"

"I was captivated by her beauty, there's a difference, Richard!"

"No-."

"Uris! Back to work! We're getting too busy," the manager calls from a bit away from them.

"Be there in a sec!" He then turns to Richie as he stands. "See you at the game night, Rich."

Richie smiles and stands as well. "Text me if you see the girl again."

"...For why?"

"So I can rush over and embarrass you."

"I hate you."

They then say a quick goodbye, and Stan is heading back to work while Richie grabs their trash and throws it away before leaving, doing one more look over everyone inside just to make sure they didn't over look the two earlier. He shrugs away the disappoint when he doesn't spot them, and leaves, texting his dorm mate if he wants to do a Forensic Files marathon later.

+++

"Y'know, sex is cool - I love it, personally - but that cinnamon muffin might just come back up."

Richie, he realizes, should have known something was up when Mike Hanlon, his dorm mate, never responded. During the Lyft ride back to the university, he just assumed Mike was neck deep in studying for one of his classes. And, technically, he had been studying, Richie guesses; it just wasn't for school.

Mike Hanlon smiles awkwardly and side glances at the boy in bed with him. The two covered waist down thanks to the bed sheet; Richie doesn't know what he would have done if everything had been out for all to see. "Sorry, man, we thought you'd be out longer," Mike explained.

He shrugs. "I mean, I'm not mad, no need for a sorry in that regard," Richie explains, eyes landing on Bill Denbrough. The auburn haired student looks awkward as ever and they both know why. They were friends for a short time in middle school because Bill dated Beverly for a few short months. It didn't last long and the break up was mutual. Nothing had been exactly awkward between everyone until high school when Bill drifted off to become one of the more popular kids after joining the baseball team. It caused a sort of rift between Bill and Richie, where as Stan and Beverly, as hurt as they were, just moved along. The last time the two boys talked had been at graduation when they accidentally ran into one another. Now, almost two years later, Richie is walking in on his former friend and current dorm mate fucking. Things are definitely awkward. "Bill," Richie says, putting on a smile that lacked any emotion.

Bill shifts awkwardly, lifting a hand for a second. "R-Richie."

Mike looks between the two with a frown. "Do... Do you two know each other?" He asks slowly, uncertain whether or not he can ask.

"Yeah, we d-d-do," Bill answers.

"Big Bill here dated my best friend, Bev, in middle school," Richie explains. "They broke up quick, and Bill stayed our friend for a bit. Then he fucked off in freshman year to be with the popular kids, leaving his only friends behind, not bothering to stand up for any of us the following years when his so-called new friends picked on us." Richie doesn't mean for it to come out: bitter filled. He doesn't even realize that he's still mad at Bill for what he did until the words leave his mouth.

Bill frowns. "Richie," he starts but doesn't continue, unsure of what to say.

Richie waves a hand and backs up. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Don't care at the moment," he says. Then, he's walking out to let them have a bit more privacy to get dressed.

Just a couple minutes later, Bill is walking out. Thankfully, the guy is dressed. The only indication that he had been messing around with Mike is sec hair and a hickey right under his jaw. He stops and looks at Richie who is leaning against the wall opposite of the dorm’s door. “Have a g-good night, Rich.”

Richie grunts and pushed himself off of the wall. “Ditto, I guess,” he says. He walks bun Bill and into his room, and shuts the door. He looks to Mike who is sitting on his bed with sweatpants and socks, no shirt. “Genuinely sorry for stopping your good time, Mike.”

Mike shrugs. “It’s fine. Look, if I knew you and Bill-.”

“Dude, You can fuck him or date him or whatever with him, I don’t care,” Richie interrupts as he jumps on his bed, laying on his stomach. He turns his head to look at Mike. “It’s your life. Didn’t even realize I was still mad at him until now, and we’re just dorm mates.”

“Yeah, but it’ll still be awkward.”

“Not if you make it awkward. I mean, other than that shit he pulled in high school, he’s a decent guy. Have your fun with him, Mike ‘n’ Ike. So, what, are you dating? Just hook ups? Give me the details, lover boy!”

Mike laughs and shakes his head. “Just hook ups from time to time. But we are friends, so we hang out too – mostly with his other friends, or guys from the baseball or football teams.”

“Oooh, friends with benefits! Life imitating art!”

“So what about you? Any cute girls or guys?” Mike asks as he gets off the bed. He grabs his phone from the floor and checks his messages as he walks to his closet, pulling out a pack of beer. He gets one for himself and one for Richie, handing it to him after opening both.

Richie sits up, criss cross apple sauce, and takes a sip. “Nope,” he sighs. Then he perks up. “But there was this cute dude at Stan’s – you know Stan, right, he stopped by a few weeks ago when we were watching Snapped-.”

“Yes, I know Stan,” Mike chuckles.

“Right. Yeah. Okay, so I was at Stan’s work earlier after leaving mine. He was on break so we sat for a bit and talked when all of a sudden my eyes land on the cutest ass in the world. On the short side. Brunet. Wish I could say something about his face but his back was to me, but I can’t complain too much. Stan saw too, but was focused on the girl Cute Ass was talkin’ to; said he fell in love or whatever. Then they, like, disappeared into the growing crowd.” Richie gives a disappointed look and takes a sip of the beer.

Mike winces sympathetically. “Nothing more disappointing than a cutie getting away.”

“There’s also this guy at my work who’s in the file room but I dunno his name, or what he looks like, so I can’t say much about him, but I want to meet him just so I can see if he’s as cute in person as he is in my mind.”

A laugh tumbles out of Mike. “You need to get laid, man. Or – fall in love.” He waggles his eyebrows, laughing more at Richie’s reaction.

Richie makes a face. “The day I fall in love is the day pigs fly.”

It isn’t that Richie is opposed to falling in love – the more time he’s around his engaged friends, the more he wants that for himself. Rather, it’s just that he’s a bit scared to, if he’s being completely honest. He doesn’t want his heart to get shattered into a million pieces like it did in sophomore year. Actually, it more like a hundred pieces, because he wasn’t completely in love back then, but he did get a taste of it, and it was wonderful until everything came crashing down. Since then he’s relied on a few months long relationships and hook ups from time to time, not getting too emotionally attached to any of them.

The rest of the night is filled with the two boys neglecting school work that was slowly starting to pile up as they watch a true crime show, sipping on their beers and talking every once in a while. They drop the topics of relationships and love, and move on to ones about the crazy murders, episode after episode, until one in the morning when they went to bed.

Only, an hour later, Richie sits up in the dark. “Wait, Bill doesn’t even go here!”

Mike groans. “How d’you ‘ven know tha’,” he slurs out the question, his mind too plagued with sleep to utter the words correctly.

“Snapchat. The Uni across town’s. He’s been on there multiple times. Holy shit, this is like some Romeo and Juliet shit, our schools are rivals!”

“Stan goes there.”

“Yeah but that’s different. We’ve been friends since childhood. You didn’t go to our high school either, so-.”

“Go t’sleep, Richard.”

Richie lays back down, muttering a few ‘okay’s to appease Mike. Then, “...I ship it.”

#reddie #it #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #the losers club #my writing #*#this fast updating won't stay so enjoy while u can #it (2017)#it chapter two

8 notes · View notes

scribeofmorpheus · 5 years

Text

His Girl Tuesday {Part 1}

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Tuesday Adams x Billy Hargrove

[Prologue] [Series Masterlist] [Main masterlist] [AO3]

Series Warnings: This series will contain NSFW, Language, Drug use, horror themes, potentially gore and the occasional racist depictions (because it’s the 80′s people)

Words: 3k

Part One: Infectuous

The plastic bottle pressed between Tuesday's palms shook slightly. The trapped water inside, sloshing against the flimsy material that was pressed inwards -deforming with rounded indentations on contact with her fingers.

Tuesday felt numb to everything. The rapid pounding of her heart beneath her breast reduced to nothing more than a distant thrumming of white noise. The shake in her limbs transformed into a tingle of discomfort that refused to subside. But most notable of all was the outward silence.

There she sat, in a crowded, bustling mall. A dizzying panorama of people laughing, talking, arguing, chewing, stomping, and yet, everything was so distant. It was as though someone had turned the dial on her piece of junk television set and now static was the only thing blaring through the dust-covered speakers. Leaving only one voice to speak up inside her cranium. One confounded voice.

She needed to find her way out of this maze, she needed to return to the now.

"One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi..." she counted idly by within the safety of her private thoughts. Savouring that one truth that still held true. Unless…

Tuesday pried her eyes away from the air bubbles trickling to the surface of the water bottle, placing her attentions on the group of kids across from them in the arcade, "She can't read minds can she?"

Steve drummed his fingers on his thighs, lips pursed in a half show of amusement and concern, "No," he replied. "At least, if she can, she hasn't told me about it. I don't typically ask too many questions. It makes it easier to hold onto my marbles."

Feeling redundant, Tuesday rotated the lid until it popped off and rolled away, devouring the contents of the plastic bottle as if she'd been tittering on the precipice of unquenchable thirst. It hadn’t helped. The liquid, though refreshing, didn’t freeze up her mind. She yearned for her action potentials to stop racing across her wired synapses so she could stop hearing the singular overlapping sound of her own voice inside her head. The voice kept multiplying into a cacophony, overlapping over itself again and again.

Steve ignored the meandering rivulet of water making its way from her mouth to the space between her breasts –moving awkwardly in his seat.

Tuesday wiped the cool liquid from her chin and the underside of her jaw using the side of her shirt -overalls half peeled off at the waist.

This was turning into the kind of day where Billy's proximity was sorely missed. His dominant nature made him an overwhelming persona to be around. It was demanding and dark, a crack in the universe that led to a solitary grotto away from everything.

Some days Tuesday felt as if she was viewing her entire life through neon coloured glasses accompanied by that electric hum that was always present, even in the dark recesses of her mind. Billy was her sedative. He kept her in a state of euphoria, an enticing escape from her woes.

There were two things that sent her over the edge, into that euphoric bliss she craved. One of them was Billy. The other was the smell of his cigarettes. Lucky Strike was his go-to brand, he always had a burning fag in his mouth at one time or another. It's bitter and oaky scents mixed into a heady blend when it diffused together with his musky aftershave. It was an intoxicating mix. A cheap odour that she'd grown accustomed to. And now she found herself scanning the crowd for puffs of smoke, looking desperately for that distinguishable red dot on a filmy white packet.

"Look, I don't mean to be pushy but..." Steve leaned closer. "What are you planning on telling your boss? About the freak accident you narrowly avoided? Heck, what are you planning on telling anyone, period?"

She almost didn't hear him, his gentle nature was a rarity to her, it didn’t demand to be seen, instead, it whispered. "Do you have a smoke?" she asked, her nails scratching at the mystery bruise on her arm.

Steve's eyes skittered about before he said, "Uhhh, n-no. I'm trying to lay off."

She hissed as she scratched at her scalp, ankles springing with pent up energy underneath the table. "Shit."

"Listen, I know all this can be overwhelming, believe me. But you have to promise to keep this a secret. She may have superpowers but she's just a kid, and all she wants is to have the same kinda life as any other regular kid," there was compassion in his words. The way his tone fluctuated from a serious whisper to a soft muttering informed Tuesday that Steve actually cared for those kids.

She wanted to listen, wanted to be wholly attentive, but she just kept searching for a white stream of cigarette smoke. Her mind drifted away again as he continued his plea: "And it's not just her life that would be affected either. I mean, Dustin, Mike, Will, Max, they're great kids and--"

"Wait, Max?" she careened her head. "As in Hargrove?"

"Y-yeah. You know her?"

"In passing. Why isn’t she here?"

"Sick with the flue apparently."

Tuesday's mouth stayed agape until she caught sight of a man with a moustache sucking in the air through the cotton filter of a cigarette bud by a clothing store. "Excuse me a minute."

She dashed from the table with a near-jog. Butting into the strange man's conversation to ask if she could bum a smoke. When she returned, she had a fully lit cigarette strategically placed under her nostrils so she could be bombarded by the smell. It wasn't Lucky Star, but it was a close alternative.

After a satisfied inhale, she turned to Steve, fully present this time.

"Well?" He pressed after she spent a whole minute just staring blankly at his face.

"Well what?"

"What are you going to tell your boss really happened?"

"Jack?"

He was confused by that, "I guess.”

She looked back at the kids all hovered around a Mrs Pac-Man arcade game. "People survive near-death experiences in inexplicable and miraculous ways all the time. Perhaps my guardian angel finally awoke from its slumber. Maybe it was divine providence. Though sometimes it's best to leave things unexplained."

Steve nodded a thank you in gratitude, stress leaving his face with a deep exhale. "Thank you, Wednesday."

"Tuesday," she corrected like it was second nature. "Wednesday Adams was the nickname Tommy H. and Carol gave me in high school."

"Oh," regret was present in his eyes.

"Ingenious, I know," she chortled sarcastically. "Don't sweat it. We were all a little screwed up in high-school. It's no one’s fault I was a little weird too."

She noticed him push back his hair, an old habit she would have swooned over had they been sitting at the same table two years ago -before Billy.

“Doesn’t make it alright,” he said.

“C’est la vie.”

He fidgeted, "I always wondered…" he trailed off, unsure if he should be treading over these particular eggshells.

Tuesday recognised that look. "If my name is somehow a rip off of a popular 60's television show?" she finished his unspoken question for him.

He nodded.

"No," she blew the miniature logs of ash off the table. "At least, I don't think so. My dad says I found my way to him on a Tuesday morning. He was never one for television. I guess it was just another stroke of divine providence is all." she joked flatly before standing from the table. "I'm beat and I feel gross. I'm gonna head out. And don't worry. I'll keep your secret."

Tuesday didn't have the energy to towel dry her long hair, the wetness of it made it look blacker than coal. Her head fell back onto her thinly stuffed pillow, the landing much harder than she intended. She could feel the moisture seep into the cotton pillowcase, but she was content with ignoring the coldness at her back so long as sleep came quick. And it did. She went out like a light.

***

Eyes filled with terror. A stench of copper and urine turning the air humid. Fear clung around opened sweat glands. A nauseating feeling upturning stomachs as Tuesday's vision was impaired by the spin of vertigo.

The unfamiliar room was a striking show of gestating entropy; shadows born from pale, sickly, yellow lights; dust covering every crack and crevice; the smell of gasoline and burning rubber ghosting off a rusted metal drum placed next to tattered and torn couches. This was a den. A derelict place of rest. And someone had claimed it as their own.

The lord of this domain sat on a leather chair, the whites of his eyes and the stained yellows of his teeth were the only thing visible about him. Tuesday stood under a circle of light that flickered out of beat.

"Who are you?" her voice came out distorted, a ringing echo that morphed into the voices of others –those she had heard whispered to her during the day.

He shifted closer to the light. No. It was more like the darkness had peeled itself back, like a cloud he could control hovering around his body. Even with the dark cloud pulled back, he was still enveloped in blackness. It was slick, wet. Like his body was drenched in tar.

That's when Tuesday realised that here, in this wretched place, he was darkness. From his aura, to the veins around his aqueous humors and the chipped off nail polish on his bitten down fingernails. He was void and Tuesday had unknowingly trespassed into his domain.

She was unwelcome here. The weathered concrete walls leaked of despair. Seeping out like a pustulous boil. It made her want to retch. But there was something else too. Something primordial and infectious rolling off his menacing presence. It snaked its way to her through the soles of her bare feet, veins turning black the higher up it climbed.

Tuesday was petrified in fear as this unwelcome sensation burned at her toes and her ankles and her knees and her stomach until finally, it blocked out all the light in her eyes. She looked down at a materialising pool of oil and what she saw made her scream –only no sound came out of her. Her eyes, they were gone, replaced only by orbs of blackness. She was like him now.

His body turned to air and mistified off the couch, materialising a second later behind her, the stench of stale beer and cigarettes trickling off his pierced tongue. "It feels good, doesn't it? Rage."

She swallowed but her throat remained parched.

"Do you know why you came to me? Why it was so easy for me to worm my way into your pretty little brain?" He dug a fingernail into her temple, the pulsating vein turning dark, spreading like a stain. "Someone tried to hurt you and you can't let such an injustice go unpunished. You can’t bear it for a moment longer."

He appeared a mere inch from her nose now, his eyelids carrying the same epicanthic fold as hers. "Are you going to lie down and take it, like some weak, powerless, frightened little girl who's too afraid to leave her pathetic life behind? Or are you going to give in and do the one thing you've been thinking about since that car nearly crushed you?"

His words were a cajole to join him in his darkness. A temptation to embrace her baser instincts. An awakening of a vehement desire. A violent urge.

Now she was grinning, as he was grinning, their faces mirrors of each other.

"Atta girl," he praised before turning into mist and tunnelling down to her chakras through her nasal cavity and throat. And then she was burning, a fire burning through her flesh.

She was infected now.

***

Tuesday's eyes flashed open, but her body remained relaxed. It was noon, the sun still high up. She washed her face, noticing a dark purple outline encircling her eyelids. Then she grabbed her car keys off the hook, dropping the note that that was stuck onto the pinboard, stepping on it with her dusty boots. It went unread.

The sputtering sounds of her engine vibrated through the entire car. Tuesday set in in park, but kept the motor running. Sam and his brothers were welding off car door hinges, stripping it for parts. The red flashing signpost of their establishment blinked in the back, several bulbs blown: Carson Bros Metal Works and Junkyard.

One of Sam's brother's noticed her arrival, peeling back his welding helmet, "Yo, Sammy, we got a visitor."

Sam Carson was not the most refined specimen Hawkins had to offer, and that was about all Tuesday cared to noticed of him. His entire body stunk of sweat and burning, the tell-tale signs of leading a life that relied on scraping by. The smell stuck to him like flies over rot. All his foul persona was missing was that constant buzz that accompanied large house flies.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the beguiling Tuesday Adams," he snorted with a pinch of his nose.

Tuesday bit down on her teeth until they sent trembles up to her cochlear nerve. "Can you even spell beguiling?"

"Yeah," he leered, thumbs in his back pocket. "I believe it goes: B-E-Blow me!" He mocked.

Tuesday narrowed her eyes and he bent his pelvis so he could look at her at the same level.

"Can you even see when you squint like that?" his brothers let out huffs of amused noises and Tuesday balled up her fists. He noticed her fingers strain under her shaking fist and he held up his hands as though he were innocent of whatever feelings of antagonism she held towards him. "Oh, hey now. Don't get your knickers in a twist. We're just making light." He propped his frame on top of a newly salvaged JTO. "What brings you to my place of business?"

"Jack brought over the car-jack yesterday, he said you told him you fixed it." It was a statement, but it implied something else.

"Jack? I don't know no Jack. You must have your wires crossed honey," he leaned further back with a smug smile on his heat blistered lips.

"Your botched up job nearly cost me my life," she was seething now. "I nearly got crushed!"

"Yeah, well," he pulled out a cigarette from his breast pocket, lighting it with a match. "I can't be held liable for any accidents that happen at other people’s businesses. It's not my fault your boss is a negligent cook. You get what you pay for, and he’s the one who wanted to play hardball. Take up your grievances with him."

Tuesday could feel that infectious rage swirl inside her, her breathing rising and rising the same time her knuckles turned white. She didn't come here to talk. In that moment, she knew exactly why she came here.

In a flash, her hand swung back as she planted her feet and powered her right hook into the unsuspecting Sam's cheek, his cigarette spitting out on contact. Her form was off, sacrificing technique for power and as a result, a cracking sound came off her proximal phalanges.

Sam was sent reeling into the dust, his brothers scattering to come to his aid and gang up on the very riled up Tuesday.

"You bitch!" He sucked on his split lip. "Are you fucking insane?"

He picked himself off the ground and in an instant of red, he struck Tuesday with a heavy open palm. She landed on the hood of the car, trading places with Sam, a gasp of air knocked out of her lungs. She massaged her jaw muscles and spun around to promptly kick him in the crotch. Her fists pressed to her cheeks.

Sam groaned, buckling to the floor again. One of his brothers rushed at her but was deterred from his path by a threatening Trans-Am almost ramming into him.

Billy got out of the car with flaring nostrils and a baseball bat.

"Get the fuck back," he growled as he strode over to her side. The bat pointed at each of the men lick a swinging pendulum. "Tuesday, get in the car."

She didn't listen to him, in fact, her focus was fixed solely on Sam. She made a motion to advance, to trade another blow and this time Billy snaked his arm around her waist and heaved her off the ground. Tuesday was dragged, kicking and screaming, into Billy's car. Face turning beat red from anger.

Billy walked back up to Sam after he locked Tuesday inside, he walked with his usual slow, swaggerful gait. He appeared to be extending a white flag when, without warning, his bat abruptly crashed onto Sam's knee, making him howl in pain.

Billy pulled him by the collar and threatened him, "The next time you lay hands on someone, you better pray it's someone I don't know." He pushed him back into the dirt and taunted his brothers, arms wide open. "Anyone else?"

They all took an instinctive step back when Billy motioned to step forward. He spat at the ground before climbing into his car and speeding Tuesday home.

"The fuck were you thinking?" his voice was harsh as he grabbed a packet of frozen peas from the fridge.

Tuesday stared at her reflection in the television screen, the voice from her dream returning to taunt her: "Someone tried to hurt you and you can't let such an injustice go unpunished."

The cold press of peas to her face brought her back. She looked into Billy's eyes, so filled with anger and worry. Her right arm stiff from the tight bandage Billy had wound around her undoubtedly fractured hand.

"I- I don't know what came over me..."

He sighed, placing his forehead to her knee. "Something could have happened."

Tuesday was reminded of the harrowing image of the car hurtling towards her small frame, "Something nearly did."

“How did you learn to fight like that?”

“I was raised by a single dad…”

Billy didn't move and for a while, neither did she. They just sat there, stewing in their unpleasant emotions until they proverbially pruned.

Her eyes caught sight of the note that had been stamped with a dusty boot print, "Hey Champ. Won't be home for dinner. Don't wait up. Taking a double tonight. Love dad!"

Her chin quivered, barely. "How did you find me?"

Billy sat up, removing the bag of peas that turned soft. "I went over to the garage. Jack told me what happened. When no one answered the door I figured, if you were anything like me, you'd be itching for payback. I got lucky." He turned her head to examine the red palm mark. "It won't bruise."

Tuesday noticed he sported a new bruise beneath his shirt, she trailed a finger over it and he shivered, biting down hard. "How'd you get this?"

"Does it matter?"

"It does to me."

Billy held her gaze, and now she was reminded of their proximity. Of the cheap aftershave and cigarette smell that turned her limp. She pulled him close, savouring the feel of sedation. And then her lips found the sensitive stop of flesh behind his ear and he groaned, fingers digging into her back.

Without a word or look or a warning, Billy pulled her off the couch and carried her towards the bedroom where he proceeded to fuck her against her old, creaking dresser -the wood groaning and legs lifting from his fevered intensity. Their kisses all tongue and teeth and with no propriety -it was a primal instinct fuelled by heat and savagery. When he flipped her over and backed her into a wall, legs locked around his waist while he increased the power of his strokes, he noticed her hand had been kept over the bruise she had seen earlier. Her unintelligible whimpers fuelling him to go even deeper -harder. When he came, he had pulled out just in time. They leaned against the wall, ragged breathing, raspy voices and aching limbs. He watched his cum slide down the length of her inner thigh, waiting for it to reach the dip in her knee before he let her drag him to the bathroom.

That night, as he held her in his arms, he couldn't help but notice that the purple-bluish marks had almost faded into the yellowish-brown of a nearly healed bruise. Billy ignored the strangeness behind the colour change and focused on smoothing the raw skin of her cheek as she let out small breaths through lips agape.

***

Tuesday was drawn back into the dreamscape from before, but this time it wasn't drowning in darkness. The red and orange hues of the sunset covered the room in orange paint. The man from before looked less animalistic and spectral. He resembled a simple human now.

He held a bloody bat over his shoulder, the plasma smearing onto his wrist as he craned his neck to the side and side-stepped so she could see the fruits of his depraved labours. On the ground, a man in a security guard uniform lay barely breathing, incisors surrounded by splotches of blood around his face, no longer rooted in his mouth.

The nightmare-man turned to her, and with a mockingly high pitched tone, he screeched like a deranged parrot, "What are you? Some kind of ffrrreeeeeaaaaakkk?!"

His yellow teeth in full view through thinly pried lips.

And then she was forced awake.

***

Tuesday grumbled when she was conscious again, an epiphany dawning over her now that she was sober and in full possession of her bearings.

“Damn it,” she cursed as she realised she had left her car at the Carson’s Junkyard.

To be continued...

Meet Cute & Robin’s Girl taglist: @chims-kookies @electroma89 @mochminnie @timeladygallifrey

Permatags: @gruffle1 @thechickvic @notawarriorjustyet @savethehoneeybees

#steve harrington #billy hargrove #steve harrington imagine #billy hargrove imagine #steve x ofc #billy x ofc #horror #violence #billy smut #stranger things #st3

11 notes · View notes

serendipitous-magic · 6 years

Note

And cause I feel bad for just sending you smut in the previous one here's another one. The Red Envelope, Chapter 8. From "“You like me?” Will blurts." to "Both, Will thinks. Oh." ;) ;)

Ah, one of my favorite chapters of TRE to write! (Spoilers, obviously.)

“You like me?” Will blurts. His voice comes out a little flat, but it was the first thing that came to mind and he’s honestly just glad he said anything in English.

So Will is In Shock.

He sneaks another half-second look at the list, compulsively checking that it’s still there. It is. The cool breeze rustles it in his hands and turns his fingers pink with chill.

Will is still In Shock.

Mike’s arms lift limply, like an apologetic-shrug-turned-helpless-gesture. His mouth opens and closes before he can meet Will’s eyes. “Uh… yeah? Yeah.” He shrugs again and tilts his reddening face down. “Yeah.” His chest visibly falls under the navy sweater, as if releasing a long-held breath.

I had that particular rhythm of dialogue planned out loooong before I wrote the chapter. It was one of those Big Moments in the fic that I went over and over in my head long before it was written - hell, this whole chapter is basically that! But I distinctly remember pacing around with my earbuds in, probably silently mouthing the words to myself and making the characters’ expressions like a madman (I’m told I do that frequently when writing or planning scenes) - the “You like me?” “Uh… yeah? Yeah. … Yeah.”

He seems so far away. There’s a yard and a half of space between them. Will wishes he was closer; it feels like they’re shouting to each other across a football field. But he can’t move his feet. He can only stare, frozen. Eventually he opens his mouth again.

I actually wrote that part about him seeming far away because that’s how it seemed to me as I was writing it - I was like “this feels like they’re kinda separated, like they’re just talking at each other from a few feet away and they’re gonna need to get closer - how to fix this?” And then I was like “hmm well if I’M feeling it, the characters are probably feeling it, so I’ll just put that in.” And I think it actually ended up working pretty well.

“You’re shitting me.”

And Will is yet still In Shock. Because Will never even thought this could be an option. He knew for sure Mike liked girls so in his mind he was like “either he’s mad or he gently but uncomfortably lets me down, we’ll see,” and the idea that Mike might actually say YES was, in his mind, nothing more than a daydream. So here he’s just kind of like “???? ERROR ERROR THIS DOES NOT COMPUTE”

Mike’s head pops up and he meets Will’s eyes, holding his gaze for more than a few seconds this time. “No -! Really, I…” He gestures at Will, and then at himself, struggling uncharacteristically to get something past his lips.

Will’s mind is still spinning, spinning. Backtracking. Re-analyzing. Trying to twist and turn this whole situation like a rubix cube; trying to find the real meaning, the one that fits , the one that’s true , because this can’t -

He can’t -

Mike likes girls. He’s sure of it. So how -

This doesn’t feel like real life. It feels surreal - like when you get up and re-join reality after being dug into a good book like a tick for upwards of five hours.

Ugh, the more I reread that sentence the more I’m like “wow that flow is teeeeeerrible,” but. I still do like the metaphor. Like when you’ve been reading a book like cover-to-cover for multiple hours and then you have to get up and you’re like “is this real life.” That’s the kind of disconnected-from-reality feeling that Will is having.

“I thought -” Will stops. This feels rude, somehow. But Mike looks at him and waits, his throat moving in a swallow. “I thought you… liked girls.”

A few expressions play across Mike’s face. He twists it into a clearly forced, wry smile, and his hands float up once again to toss about helplessly. He always has done that. Gestured a lot when he’s high-strung. And Will can see right through it. He’s trying to be flippant to cover up his discomfort.

“I like both, okay?” Mike almost snaps. Then his tone lowers a bit, along with his eyes. “I’m a freak of nature, I know.”

He grins, stiffly, like he’s trying to make it a joke. It folds in on itself almost immediately under Will’s startled gaze.

Like we’ve seen in Mike’s POV before, he really doesn’t know a whole lot about bisexuality existing - and what he does know is just kind of an abstract concept off in the realm of celebrities and TV. So he really does see it (right now at least - just wait until he gets some support and more info later, he’ll be fiiine) as a freak of nature, like a sixth finger or something. Add that to the general homophobia of the 80s, and telling Will that he likes not only BOYS but BOYS AND GIRLS is like kind of a terrifying thing.

Both, Will thinks. Oh.

And Will is basically just like “uh?? Huh. Okay sure why not but whAT WERE YOU SAYING ABOUT LIKING ME AGAIN” because that’s the important part right at the moment, and also the last thing he wants to do is make Mike feel bad about who he likes, because Will has been through plenty of that himself and wouldn’t wish it on anyone else, Especially Mike.

Okay! That about wraps it up. God, I fucking loved writing this fic - I thought it was gonna be like 3 chapters originally but we all know how that goes XD I had so much of it planned LONG before it was written, it was just one of those fics where certain scenes, especially chapters 7-9, were very vivid in my mind when I first got the idea, and I was so damn excited to get to those last chapters you have no idea! Because like, this was it! This was THE SCENE I had been daydreaming and going over for like MONTHS!

And then when I got near the end I was like “wait there is SO MUCH MORE I need to include in this story, should I continue it…? But the plot arc is over…” so… Yes. There will be a sequel. It’s called The Unmarked Mixtape, and I can’t WAIT to hammer out that first chapter and get it to y’all; I’m just hoping a few people are excited about it too, because I know I am! LOL Anyway. I’ll stop ranting.

Thanks Pixie!!

#byeler #ask meme #the red envelope #byler #byeler fanfic #pssssst #the first chapter of The Unmarked Mixtape #will be titled #The Sleepover #just fyi

13 notes · View notes

leigh-kelly · 6 years

Text

Heartache to Heartache

Some 80s AU.

Artie and Mike decide to have a wedding. They plan it really quickly, and Santana is surprised to hear that Brittany is performing the ceremony. She can’t quite put her finger on why the whole thing makes her uncomfortable, but it does. She doesn’t express that to Brittany, because she’s beside herself with the preparations for it, acting almost as if it’s her own wedding. It’s the strangest feeling in the world for Santana, but she pushes it down, and the day of the ceremony, she puts on one of her formal dresses, and does her hair and makeup while she waits for Brittany to be ready to go to Holly’s bar.

When they get there, there’s cheap champagne, and Santana sips from a glass, trying to hide her displeasure with each taste. She tries not to be a snob, she really does, but the champagne is disgusting, and she ends up going to the bar to order a scotch on the rocks from Holly while Brittany is off doing whatever it is she’s doing with Artie and Mike.

“What’s the matter with you, sweet cheeks?” Holly asks, sliding her drink across the bar. “Look like you’re going to a funeral rather than a wedding.”

“Nothing, I’m fine.” Santana shakes her head. “I’m just not a fan of big functions.”

“Aren’t you from the Gold Coast?”

“Precisely why I’m not into it. I grew up going to them every weekend.”

“Well this is going to be a party like you’ve never seen. These boys sure do know how to have a good time. Even the sick ones are coming, it’s going to be the event of the year.”

“I’m sure it’ll be lovely.”

“I’ll come sit with you for it, since I know your girl will be up there doing the thing.”

“Oh, yeah, cool…thanks.”

As the bar begins to fill, Santana finds a seat toward the back. Though her girlfriend is the best friend of both “grooms,” Santana doesn’t feel comfortable sitting up toward the front. So, she sits alone, while Holly continues to serve drinks at the bar, and she watches everyone come in. The sight of some of the men, sicker than she’s ever seen another human being sends chills of anxiety down her body, and she wonders what she’d do if a plague like this impacted lesbians the way it does the gay men. She thinks of the partners she’d had before Brittany, always casual, nearly always nameless, and she thinks of the partners Brittany had that she has no idea about—because she doesn’t want to. She wonders how utterly awful it would be to wait, knowing you could fall sick any day, with something there is no cure to.

She thinks of the men she’s read about, sitting in the doctor’s office with their current partners, and learning that they’re both dying. She considers what it would be like, if it were her and Brittany, learning that their time together would be cut short, all because of something that happened long before they were together. She wonders how she’d be. Would she hold her hand in public, as they learned they were dying? Would she hide away, leave Brittany, like so many men have done to their partners so Brittany wouldn’t have to watch her die? What would she tell her parents, if telling them she was sick meant telling them that she’d done something so utterly despicable to them? Would they take her in, let her die there in peace, or would they cast her out in the cold, leave her to find someone who isn’t her lover to take care of her? The thoughts make her sick to her stomach, and she wonders if this isn’t the reason why she’s given so much money to the cause, but hasn’t yet been able to look a person dying of AIDS in the eye.

As she sits alone, getting drunk on her second scotch, she thinks of how odd it is for Mike and Artie to celebrate when everyone around them is dying. Maybe that’s what her problem with this whole thing is, that it’s so out of place. Not that she doesn’t enjoy the happiness she has with Brittany in their everyday life, but there’s no spectacle of it. They just exist, though maybe that’s just as wrong, when so many of the men who have showed up here today won’t have the opportunity to do that for much longer.

“Hey everyone.” Brittany grins from the makeshift altar at the front of the room. “Glad you all made it out here tonight to watch two of my best friends get married. As we all know, because of the goddamned U.S. government, Mike and Artie can’t get legally married, nor can they get married in any church around here. But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to shower them with all the love in the world while they commit to each other for the rest of their lives. DJ, cue The Power of Love.”

Santana watches Mike wheel Artie down the aisle, the two of them wearing powder blue tuxes, and she listens as Brittany speaks the most heartfelt words about their love. She thinks maybe her eyes are the only dry ones in the house. She doesn’t know what the hell her problem is, but she must have one, if she can sit there alone and not cry. Maybe she just needs more to drink, maybe her work week has just been shit and she has no room in her heart for emotion after coming home on the verge of tears every night. That has to be it, she can’t be totally heartless at the sight of her amazing girlfriend performing a makeshift marriage ceremony for two of her best friends.

After the ceremony is over, Santana helps clear the chairs from the dance floor, and she leans into Brittany’s side as they watch Mike and Artie share their first dance. She thinks it’s sweet, the way they’ve learned to dance together, even with Artie in a wheelchair, and she gives Brittany a small smile, accepting her hand when she leads her out onto the dance floor to dance with the other couples. She averts her eyes from anything that will make her sad—though she knows that she’s privileged to be able to do that—and she looks into Brittany’s, wishing, wishing, wishing that a day will come when she doesn’t feel such a deep, burning shame in her heart at everything she is, and the community she exists on the very fringes of.

Santana is quiet when they get home, and she makes herself another scotch. Brittany watches her from the corner of the kitchen, but she doesn’t say a word. She just stands there, as if she’s waiting for Santana to say something to her. But Santana just sips her drink, letting the alcohol burn down her throat, and Brittany grabs a beer from the refrigerator, drinking it in two gulps.

“What’s going on with you today?” Brittany finally asks. “You’ve looked half-miserable all day.”

“Nothing.” Santana snaps back. “I’m fine.”

“I can obviously tell by the tone of your voice when you’re not fine, but good try.”

“Jesus, Brittany, why do you have to do this?”

“Get you to talk about what’s bothering you? I’m your girlfriend, I think I deserve to know.”

“I just don’t get it, okay?”

“Get what?”

“The whole thing, the spectacle of it. It’s not like having a marriage ceremony like that means anything?”

“Really?” Brittany huffs, grabbing another beer and taking a long swig. “How can you even say that?”

“Because it’s the truth. What does it even mean? They’re exactly the same right now as they were five hours ago.”

“It’s nothing to stand up in front of the people you care about, and proclaim your love for each other? That means a pretty damn lot to me.”

“Marriage is a financial contract, and without it being a legal marriage, it’s not even that.”

“Marriage is a financial contract? Do you even hear yourself sometimes? Marriage is so much more than a goddamn financial contract. It’s about loving someone and wanting to be with them for the rest of your life. But good, I’m glad to know how you feel about that.”

“Seriously, are you turning this around and making it like I’m some kind of bad person?”

“Oh, please. No one is making it like you’re a bad person. I’m just glad to know where you stand on that.”

“You act like we can even get legally married, and like it matters. It’s never going to happen.”

“Wow.” Brittany slams her bottle down and crosses her arms over her chest. “Just wow.”

“What?”

“I’m sitting here, living with you like we’re going to be together for the rest of our lives, but you don’t even see the sanctity in getting people who care about you together to watch you commit to that. Whatever.”

“Just because I think a stupid ceremony is bullshit doesn’t mean I don’t plan to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“And do you even care what I want? What if I wanted the stupid ceremony so I could show people what you mean to me? God, I can’t even believe you sometimes, you can watch something like that, with all these people dying, and still seeing that there’s love and beauty in the world, and think it’s fucking awful.”

“That’s another thing. The whole thing was like rubbing it in everyone’s faces.”

“Oh my God. How were we watching the same thing? Did you even look at how happy everyone was? People want to see that. Most people don’t want to wallow in misery and death.”

“Whatever, Brittany, I’m not going to fight with you about this.”

“Why? Because you know that I’m right, and you just hate being wrong?”

“No, because it’s a stupid fucking fight.”

“Well I don’t think it is. I think you’re being kind of a bitch, and you’re ruining something that meant a lot to me.”

“If my opinion ruins it, then clearly it wasn’t a tightly held belief.”

“Do you even listen to yourself? Whatever, I’m going downtown, I’m not staying here like this.”

“You’re going downtown at eleven-thirty at night?”

“Yeah, I am. I’ll go stay with Sugar, I can’t even look at you right now.”

“Real mature, Brittany.”

“Are you honestly questioning my maturity right now?” Brittany barks. “I’ll see you tomorrow, or whenever you get over this bad attitude you have about things that make other people happy.”

Brittany brushes past Santana, and she grabs a duffle bag to fill with her things. Santana is so mad that she doesn’t even try to stop her from leaving. She just finishes her drink, and she sits on the couch, staring at the turned off television. She knew there was a reason she didn’t plan on expressing her feelings about this stupid wedding, and she probably knew that Brittany would have overreacted about it. But she felt cornered, and she opened her mouth, and now they’re in a fight, and it makes her sick to her stomach.

When Brittany doesn’t come home before bed, Santana tosses and turns all night. She has to work in the morning, and when she finally gets up, twenty minutes later than she should, she looks ravaged from lack of sleep. She gets dressed, and she just feels absolutely miserable and hung over. After she manages to down a cup of coffee, she gets a cab down to the bank, and she thinks it’s entirely possible that she might kill one of her employees if they look at her the wrong way. She prides herself on keeping her composure, but her patience is worn thin from her frustration with herself, and she snaps at Terri before she locks the door to her office and sets to work dealing with some of the week’s account issues.

She ends up working much later than she’d planned, and by the time she finishes up, only Hummel remains at his desk. She’s frankly surprised he’s still there, considering everyone is quick to get out the door on Friday evenings. Before she can go, she has to wait for him to be finished, and she huffs a little to herself. All she wants to do is go home, have a glass of wine, and maybe throw up a little, but instead, she sits down in one of the plush chairs, and she waits.

“I’m sorry, Santana. You’re usually here later than this, and I…I started working on this a little late.” Hummel stammers a little, and Santana shakes her head.

“It’s fine, just finish up what you’re doing. I’ll wait.”

It takes him nearly forty minutes to finish what he was working on, and Santana repeatedly looks at her watch. She’s normally here at least a half an hour later than this, so she understands why he’d expect that, but still, her head throbs a little, and she wants to go home. When he’s finally done, she locks the door behind them, and as it’s started to rain, she knows that getting a cab is going to be a total nightmare.

“Did you want to share a cab?” He asks. “We’re both going uptown, and it’ll be easier to get one than two.”

“Didn’t you used to take the subway home?”

“I did, until I promised my dad that I’d start taking cabs instead. He…” Hummel looks down. “Worries about my safety.”

“He’s not wrong.” Santana shakes her head, and reaches her hand up for the first cab she sees with her lights on. She slides across the seat, and Hummel gets in behind her. “That was better than I expected.”

“I suppose because it’s so late. I apologize if I kept you from getting to a date early.”

“No date tonight.” She sighs. “I’m not even sure she’ll be home.”

“Oh, well that doesn’t sound good.” Hummel looks out the window, and Santana knows he’s trying to decide if he’s crossing a boundary.

“Have you ever been to a gay wedding?”

“My friends are too young to be married.”

“Don’t you think it’s a little ridiculous? What’s the point of getting married if you’re not getting any of the benefits of it?”

“Because why should they tell us what we can and can’t have?” Hummel asks, finally looking toward her. “It’s bad enough they’re letting us die, why should they get to choose how we have happiness?”

“I just…don’t understand it. We went to Brittany’s friends’ wedding last night, and the whole thing turned into this huge fight between us. I was incredibly uncomfortable with it, and she just doesn’t get it.”

“At the risk of you getting upset with me, I don’t think I get it either. What isn’t there to be happy about at a wedding?”

“It seemed like such a spectacle. There were all these men there in various stages of decline, and here were these two healthy men, standing up and saying they’re going to have this beautiful long life together. It’s morbid.”

“I have to disagree with you.” Hummel wrings his hands. “I…lost a lot of people in San Francisco, and not one of them wished for any of the rest of us to have anything but a long, happy life. I may not have been to any weddings, but every occasion we could find was one for joy, when joy is in such short demand. I imagine that the sick men at that wedding were grateful to see that happiness still exists, I don’t know…”

“Would you get married? Even though it’s nothing but words?”

“Words mean a lot. I don’t know your relationship in the slightest, beyond how happy you looked when I came to dinner at your house, but I think words mean a lot more than nothing at all.”

“I’m not sure that’s ever something I’d want.” Santana whispers, surprised that she’s confessing such a thing to Hummel.

“I think that’s alright. But it doesn’t mean you can’t feel happiness for those who do.”

“I’m pretty certain now that it’s something Brittany does want. Just another thing that I’ll struggle to give her.”

“I think that’s a conversation you ought to be having with her, rather than me.”

“I’m looking for advice here, Hummel. I don’t exactly have a whole lot of friends to talk to about this.”

“And my advice is to talk to her. No offense, but you’ve been in a mood all day. The only thing that’ll help is dealing with the problem.” The cab driver pulls up in front of Kurt’s apartment, and he gives Santana a pointed look. “Do it.”

Santana mulls over Kurt’s advice for the rest of her ride home. The last thing she wants to do is to piss Brittany off further, if she even comes home, but if she doesn’t talk about this, she’s going to drive herself absolutely crazy. When she gets home, Brittany is in the kitchen wearing her work clothes making dinner, and Santana stands in the entryway, waiting to be seen. When Brittany sees her, a look crosses her face, and Santana sucks in a deep breath. She’s crazy in love with this girl, but sometimes it’s really hard, and she never knows quite how to fix things when they get hard.

“Hey.” She mumbles, looking down at her feet.

“Hi.”

“You came back.”

“Well, obviously. I live here.”

“I know, but you were mad.”

“Still pretty mad.” Brittany’s tone is clipped, and she stirs the pasta in the water. “But I slept like shit on the couch over there, and I’m not really trying to do it again.”

“I’m sorry.”

“What are you sorry for?” She challenges.

“For last night.”

“Yeah, well, I kinda figured. What part of last night are you sorry for?”

“Why are you making this difficult?”

“I’m not making it difficult. I genuinely want to know what part of last night you’re sorry for.”

“All of it?”

“Are you asking me? Or are you actually saying it?”

“Jesus, Brittany.”

“Don’t think Jesus has anything to do with it. But that’s not exactly in my wheelhouse.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Do I?” Brittany crosses her arms over her chest.

“Look, I’m sorry I ruined your excitement about the wedding, I’m sorry I called you immature, and I’m sorry that you slept at Sugar’s last night.” Santana huffs, trying to let her guard down enough to sound sincere. “And I’m sorry I said marriage was just about money.”

“You come from like…this totally weird place sometimes. It’s like, I don’t know, we’re from two different worlds, and this side of you comes out that makes you sound like your parents, I don’t know.”

“Brittany.” Santana is highly offended, and she backs away from Brittany.

“I’m not saying it to insult you, I’m just saying it’s how you were raised. My parents don’t give a shit about money, so I don’t really give a shit about money. Your parents obviously do, and so do you. But to say that that’s all marriage is about…God, it makes me wonder what you even think about me, who has basically no money, and who’s been living here with you, barely paying a fraction of the bills…”

“You know I don’t care about that.”

“Do I? How do I know what you really think, when you come home from this beautiful ceremony completely miserable?”

“Do you even know how hard it was for me to see people so sick in contrast to how happy the event was supposed to be?”

“No, I have no idea.” Brittany snarks. “I’ve never seen anyone sick, I haven’t had friends who have died. It’s just you, for the first time getting a real wakeup call, who feels any kind of way about this.”

“I get it, I’ve been sheltered from it.”

“Well that’s the understatement of the decade.”

“Can we just talk without you making me feel like a fucking idiot?”

“I don’t know, Santana. You sort of blindsided me with your way of thinking.”

“I don’t think I want to get married.”

“Oh my God. Oh my God.” Brittany pinches the bridge of her nose. “This is what this is all about, isn’t it? You think I’m about to run out and plan a wedding for us.”

“You keep trying to make me sound stupid.”

“No, I don’t. That’s all in your head. Mike and Artie have been together for years. They’ve had all kinds of scares about their health, Artie is in a wheelchair for God’s sake, and just because they’re ready to have this big commitment ceremony in the face of all the terrible crap that’s going on in the world doesn’t mean I’m about to rush down the aisle with you. I think things have been really good for us as they are, but you’ve chosen to totally overreact about this, and be kind of shitty to me.”

“How the hell have I been shitty? Because I told you how I feel?”

“No, because you threw it in my face that I was immature because I wanted to leave. I get it, you’re older than me, you have all of this experience that has apparently made you really bitter—”

“I’m not bitter, I’m realistic.”

“Which implies that I’m not. I wanted to enjoy last night, and you moping around made it really hard for me to do that.”

“Well I’m sorry for that.” Santana mumbles. “I didn’t feel comfortable.”

“And there are a lot of things that I do that make me uncomfortable. But I don’t act the way you did about it. I’m upset with you, and I hate being upset with you.”

“Can we just talk, instead of screaming at each other?”

“I guess.” Brittany runs her hand through her hair. “But I’m still really mad.”

“Let me just answer your first question, okay? I’m sorry that I made it obvious how unhappy I was, and I’m sorry I called marriage a financial contract. It’s just…really hard for me to know that I can never really have with you this big thing that other people can have. I just…can’t imagine having a ceremony like that with my family not even knowing it’s happening. Artie and Mike were talking about being husbands, and I don’t exist in a world where I could call you my wife. It’s hard enough for me not being able to call you my girlfriend, and having to pretend that it doesn’t bother me every time someone at work assumes that I have a male partner. And I just think about all of those dying people—”

“The sick people really bothered you, didn’t they?”

“They didn’t bother me, the whole idea that it’s happening just makes me physically ill. And the thing that I think really got me about the wedding is that if something happened to Artie or Mike tomorrow, the other one would have no right to be with them. I shouldn’t have said that marriage is a financial contract, but it is a contract for a lot of things, including being a part of your partners medical care, and they don’t get to have that. I can’t help that it bothers me.”

“I…get that.” Brittany nods slowly, stepping a little closer to Santana. “But do you think you can try and understand what I’m saying? About how it’s a symbol of commitment, and they wanted to do that in the face of everything else?”

“I…can understand that.” Santana sucks in a breath. “And it looked like it made them really happy.”

“It did. They really wanted that.”

“I don’t know if it’s ever something I’ll be comfortable doing.”

“I think you’ve made that clear.” Brittany laughs a little. “But I’m not asking for it. I’m happy as we are. If things change, then we’ll talk about it. But the last thing I want to do is fight with you.”

“I hate it so much.” Santana opens a bottle of wine, while Brittany dumps the limp and overcooked pasta into the colander in the sink.

“Well, this is basically ruined.” She pouts at it. “I’m just going to throw it out.”

“We can just order or something. I’m honestly not even hungry.”

“You should eat though, especially if you’re drinking. I don’t want your ulcer to act up again.”

“My stomach has been killing me all day. Being upset sucks. I was so afraid you were going to come home and break up with me.”

“Santana.” Brittany takes her hand. “I was mad at you, but I never for a second thought about breaking up with you.”

“It felt like a really bad fight.”

“Honey.” She shakes her head. “We’re okay.”

“Are we really?”

“We are.”

Santana is still a little distant as she calls and orders a pizza. She’s not sure how it’ll be on her stomach, but she knows Brittany is right that she should eat something. She finishes her first glass of wine, and pours another. After such a big fight, she feels really needy, but she’s hesitant to just curl into Brittany’s arms, even as they sit together on the couch eating pizza. Instead, she eats slowly, and she gets up to put the leftovers away. When she’s finished with that, she goes back into the living room, and she sits down at Brittany’s side. It doesn’t take long before Brittany puts her arm around her, and she rests her head on her shoulder, trying to be content where she sits, even as she still fears that the fight they had will resurface.

“How’s your stomach?”

“It’s okay, I guess. I don’t know.”

“Did you take your pills last night?”

“Honestly, no. I forgot, and then I didn’t want to take them this morning and mess up my schedule. I’ll take them in a little while.”

“Let me get them for you, you should take them.”

“You don’t have to do that.” Santana shakes her head.

“I know, but I want to.” Brittany gets up, and Santana sinks back into the couch cushions, waiting for her to come back. When she does, she has Santana’s pill bottle and a glass of water in her hand.

“I shouldn’t be drinking this wine right now…I just…I don’t know.”

“If you’re drinking because you’re stressed about what happened with us, you can stop. I really don’t want you to end up back in the hospital.”

“Yeah. I guess I’m going to.”

“I’m super exhausted. I didn’t sleep at all last night.”

“Neither did I. I’m not going to make it up for Dallas tonight.”

“We can just go to bed now, if you want to.” Brittany offers.

“Okay, I think that sounds really good. As long as we’re good, I think I’ll be able to sleep tonight.”

“You’ll wake me up if your stomach is bothering you?”

“I will, I promise.”

#brittana #80s AU

61 notes · View notes

cksmart-world · 4 years

Text

The completely unnecessary news analysis

by Christopher Smart

May 5, 2020

IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD

Oh boy, are things crazy. It's the 50th anniversary of the Kent State massacre where National Guardsmen shot and killed four student protesters and wounded nine others on the Ohio campus. At that time American deaths in Vietnam were approaching 50,000 and the war was tearing the country apart. Eventually 58,220 Americans would die in Southeast Asia. Fast forward — now deaths from the coronavirus pandemic in this country eclipse 70,000 and it seems like to many it doesn't really matter all that much. (We won't mention Afghanistan and Iraq because no one cares.) Some have downplayed the pandemic, comparing it to automobile and gun deaths, which, by the way, are not communicable. And Fox news pundits keep repeating that more than 60,000 died from the flu last year. Nonetheless, coronavirus is 10 to 20 times as deadly and spreads much faster. These days, protesters aren't college students but middle-aged people carrying “Liberty or Death” placards and firearms. Imagine being transported from 1970 to 2020 and showing up in Lansing, Michigan in bell bottoms and tie-dye with peace symbols and coming across old fat guys wearing camouflage and brandishing AR-15s. Talk about a bad acid trip.

MITCH THE MENACE

That great American Mitch McConnell, the Cardinal de Richelieu of Washington, is a master at blowing smoke up Donald Trump's pant leg while doing the bidding of corporate fat cats. All this while many working-class Americans are waiting in long lines at the food bank. Well, let them eat cake. When it comes to looking out for the little guy and his fellow Kentuckians, there's no one quite like Misery Mitch, who lords his power over the country like a corporate thug. Most recently, he's been pushing legislation that would release companies from liability during the coronavirus pandemic, all while President Trump has ordered meat packing plants to remain open. As such, those companies and others who force their workers into unsafe conditions could not be sued by employees or the families of workers who die from Covid 19. But that's just where the fun begins. Maniacal Mitch made sure corporations got more than their share of the so-called stimulus dough, while anxious workers waited on tenter hooks for 1200 bucks that would easily get them through the crisis. But why should working men and women complain after they swept up crumbs from Trump's $1.5 trillion tax cut, while the big boys hauled away 80 percent of the largesse. It's a tried and true strategy from Money Man Mitch because Wall Street repays him with tens of millions that keep him in Washington's driver's seat — he's holds the whole country hostage but only Kentuckians can vote him out. It is a democratic republic, after all.

(You can make a donation to his Democratic opponent, Amy McGrath, retired U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Colonel, at amymcgrath.com.)

DEMOCRATIC LAMBS TO SLAUGHTER

Every four years, the endangered species known as Utah Democrats select one of their own to sacrifice to the angry gods of politics in the “election” for governor. In 2016, Gov. Gary Herbert, the Republican, defeated Democrat Mike Weinholtz by 38 percentage points — slaughter would be an understatement. One reason: there is no Utah Democratic Party. Not really. Here at Smart Bomb, the staff attempted to find the Utah Democratic Party but could only locate a phone number and a recorded message: “We'll get back to you one day, maybe.” Up into the 1970s, Utah had Democratic governors and senators, but the Republican culture wars successfully branded Dems as baby killing faggot lovers who would steal your guns and tax you to death. Mormon faithful bought it hook, line and sinker. The Democrats just kind of rolled over, while the Republicans robbed working-class folks blind in favor of their rich supporters. There are, of course, pockets of Democrats in Salt Lake, Summit, Grand and maybe a few other counties. But until Democrats go on a statewide grassroots offensive, Utahns will have to endure patriarchal self-righteous leaders who continue to embrace the debunked theory of trickle-down economics. As one cold-hearted observer said: In a democracy we deserve the government we elect.

WHO NEEDS SCIENCE? SHINE A LIGHT

As some have noted, science is not President Trump's strong suit. But he isn't alone. There is an entire segment of America that doesn't believe in science. Galileo who? Climate change is hoax, don't you know, perpetrated by tree-huggers and Democrats along with French people who eat snails. It's nothing new, of course. In 1925, high school teacher John Scopes was put on trial for violating a Tennessee law that made it illegal to teach human evolution. The notion that humans and apes had a common ancestor was an affront to God — or at least some Tennessee Christian churchgoers. And if evolution is true, why isn't every other baby born a chimpanzee? Fuckin' Darwin. Didn't he hear about Noah's Ark? The earth is 4.6 billion years old? Kiss my ass. The fact that we have put someone on the moon, changes nothing. Cure for cancer — nothing. The technology that allows us to listen to Rush Limbaugh and watch Sean Hannity couldn't possibly be based on science. So when Donny No-Dange suggested curing Covid 19 patients by shining a light up their ass, it was kinda funny, but not really a surprise. The United States has more confirmed coronavirus deaths than any other country — twice as many, per capita, as Canada — because Trump ignored scientists early on, failed to test and failed to stockpile enough medical equipment. He now is eager to reopen the economy while case counts are still surging. Say a prayer.

Post script — Well chillens, another week of The Twilight Zone is in the rearview mirror and the beautiful May weather beckons. Pandemic or not, folks who live near the beach are simply saying, fuckit, let's go surfing. And who can blame them really. How can coronavirus get you as long as you make sure to use plenty of Coppertone. Meanwhile thirsty landlubbers want to hit the bar and what are the chances that you could die, anyway — except if you drink too many Jagermeister shooters. Now, that shit is dangerous. And as Billy Graham Jr. says, you're gonna die someday, anyway. He's a gem, ain't he. Hopefully, there's no heaven, because his father would be looking down and shitting his pants. So, anyway, you can play it safe and stay home and go batshit (unless you've got the right drugs) or you can go out and live life and bring coronavirus back to your friends and loved ones, who may or may not die. Sure, you'd be taking chances with their lives, but this is America where we apply cost/benefit analysis to everything. For example, before this whole pandemic thing, how many weighed the probability of going on a cruise and dying of food poisoning or boredom. See how it works. And how many have thought twice about going to the company summer party? Talk about scary. Times do change, although you'd have a hard time convincing our youth of that. Fifty years ago, the scariest thing that could happen was you'd get your ass drafted and end up in Vietnam where you'd probably get it shot off. If you were a young woman, your boyfriend or husband could end up in Southeast Asia dead for absolutely nothing. Like it or not, we are a warrior nation. Last week as nurses and doctors were dying on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, our jet fighters — the best killing machines ever invented — were flying overhead to thank caregivers and buoy the spirits of Americans who apparently don't mind spending $67 million on a single aircraft while many can't afford healthcare. Funny place, this United States of America.

Alright Wilson, tell the band to put down their beers and take us out with a little something for the occasion:

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming, We're finally on our own. This summer I hear the drumming, Four dead in Ohio. Gotta get down to it Soldiers are cutting us down Should have been done long ago. What if you knew her And found her dead on the ground How can you run when you know?

(Ohio, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)

PPS — During this difficult time for newspapers please make a donation to our very important local alternative news source Salt Lake City Weekly at PressBackers.com, a nonprofit dedicated to help fund local journalism. Thank you.

0 notes

janehopperra · 4 years

Text

OOE:

So in order to take back some of the order on my blog, I’m gonna keep the tally for today’s stuff on one post, then when I’m done watching tomorrow, I’ll put that tally on here as well.

This is also to save the dashes of whoever likes to keep them clean. I apologize for the mass ooc. I just finally felt like I could safely let my saltiness over s3 run rampant.

Bad: The makeout scene Good: Will taking care of everyone in the party making sure everyone has snacks for the theatre Bad 2: Mike being a whiny brat right off the bat Good 2: Steve immediately flicking the switch on and off to spite Robin Good 3: Jane playing pranks with the party with her telekinesis. Bad 3: The Karen and Billy Thing Good 4: IT IS CONSTANT… CONSTANT. Bad 4: ‘Curfew at 4:00pm’ Bad 5: The apparent focus of Will’s character only being that he’s jealous of Mike and Jane and also that he can sense the mindflayer. literally nothing else. Bad 6: Karen and Billy Again Bad 7: Joyce eating tv dinner alone while thinking about bob :( Bad 8: Makeout scene 2.0 Good 5: Hopper yeeting himself to another plane of existence in the next room Bad 9: Mike whispering to Jane right in front of Hop ( As if I didn’t find this creepy enough ) Bad 10: I gotta admit Hop lying about Mike’s grandma is bad Good 6: Hop being an actual dad and placing boundaries between Mike and El makes up for that though. Like that needed to happen. Bad 11: Dustin being left alone at the radio tower. Bad 12: Karen??? what the fuck are you doing??? Good 7: Karen coming to her senses. Bad 13: Billy.. jfc

First episode - 7-13

Good 8: Boundary establishing actually working. Bad 14: Mike lying through his teeth, keeping the lie up even after Karen caught him in it. Bad 15: “You lie?” “What? No! Friends don’t lie!” Good 9: Hop scream singing his song in the Blazer. Bad 16: Nancy’s boss being an absolute??? Jerkwad??? They were that way in the 80′s to women yeah but yikes. Good 10: Dustin and Steve’s handshake Good 11: ‘Mike’s a piece of shit!’ Snaps fingers hell yeah he is Bad 17: ‘You don’t understand lucas! He’s lost his mind!’ How about stop??? Blaming other people??? For how you acted Mike??? You had a choice not to lie dumbass. Bad 18: The boys acting like this is some sort of battlefield where you need combat strategies when in reality you need to speak the truth. Bad 19: Them constantly leaving Will hanging, poor boy just wants to play dnd :( Bad 20: More Karen and Billy like tf Thank god Billy told her to stay away Good 12: The girls going out and having fun!!! To hell with the boys!!!! Bad 21: Joyce forgetting about Hop to solve the magnet issue ( wasn’t her fault but yeah ) Good 13: The Material Girl skit!!! The photographer session! High heels! Jane pranking the binch that rejected Dustin at the snow ball. There’s more to life than stupid boys! Bad 22: “Can we play DND now???” “NO!!!!” Bad 23: Mike trying to change the subject and recoiling when he’s caught at the mall, like he thought he would get away with the lie??? Good 14: I dump your ass. Bad 24: The face Mike makes when Jane walks away, like you’d think if he’s so??? in love he’d be at least a little more devastated??? He looks like a brat. ( No offense to the actor he’s great, the character’s a brat ) Good 15: IT’S CUTTING EDGE STUFF MAN!!! Bad 25: Hop being left at Enzo’s :((( He was so excited man Good 16: The scoops troop solving stuff. Bad 26: Hop taking the whole bottle of alcohol and leaving, kind of shit faced, DRIVES HOME SHITFACED. You’re a cop, Hop! For fuck’s sake.

Episode 2 mark - 16-26

Good 17: Jane and Max acting like best friends Bad 27: “I don’t understand what I did to deserve this why is she treating me this way I’m the victim” I honestly can’t. Bad 28: ‘We’re trying to solve the great mystery of the female species’ oh yikes. Bad 29: Hop arriving home drunk and barging into Jane’s room thinking Mike was with El and the door was closed. Bad 30: Hop.. acting like a bit of a creep and then cracking open the bottle of wine for more drinking!!! In the presence of El. After what he just did. Good 18: Honestly I think it’s kind of cool that Max and Jane have made a game utilizing Jane’s powers instead of shoving them away. Bad 31: The boys mocking Will for taking the chance to play DND. Will honey its okay Bad 32: Hopper being a weird disgusting bear, and also being kind of spiteful towards Joyce. I get she hung you up but like come on man, you know she wouldn’t do that without good reason. Bad 33: “You stand me up, no phone call no apology because you had to go to Scott Clark’s house” NOW IT’S TIME FOR HOP TO GET BASHED. Bad 34: Hop pretending to understand how Joyce thinks the magnetism loss thing was the lab then going back to being spiteful and a smartass. Bad 35: Max in denial about the Billy situation Good 19: Scoops troop being funny little shits. They’re the only pure group in this nonsense of a season. Bad 36: The boys still mocking Will during DND. Guys just humor him for fucks sake, he’s been dealing with yalls shit all summer. Bad 37: Mike recoiling when Will finally has enough of their shit and leaves. Bad 38: “You guys are never in the mood anymore! You’re destroying everything and for what, so you can swap spit with some stupid girl” “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!” Honestly, low blow on both ends. Yikes. Good 20: Honestly the horror in this season is good so it gets it’s own good point for that. Good 21: Hop actually going to the lab with Joyce to soothe her worries about the magnetism loss. ( Also poor joyce remembering Bob’s death ) Good 22: The scoops troop again being on the case, only to then find out the guy they’re chasing is a yoga instructor. Good 23: Hop trying to make sure everyone feels safe and at home. Good 24: Hop opening up just a tiny bit about what he did after Sarah died, trying to relate to Joyce. Bad 39: The fact that Will felt so alone and outcasted to the point that he felt the need to tear the castle down after looking around at all the memories in it and bursting into tears. My poor lad. I’ve been in the same boat, fuck the boys honestly. Good 25: The scoops troop at it again, actually being productive in their side of the story. Bad 40: Something I just don’t get at all is the fact that Jane just.. introduces herself as El, giving herself away almost immediately. Hun, you have another name, you’re not still a number. Idk that thing just irks me. Bad 41: And again, Will just being used for the ‘woe is me/enemy locator’ trope.

Episode 3 mark - 25-41

Good 26: Max introducing the wonder woman comics to Jane after listening to her. Bad 42: Max still being in denial about Billy and Heather. Good 27: Joyce taking care of Hop, SOMEHOW dragging his ass back to the cabin. Bad 43: ThIs iS a CoDe ReD ( I don’t blame Max for turning the radio off I’d throw it across the room after all that’s happened ) Bad 44: Again. Will’s only purpose being that he senses the mindflayer– like what the fuck he could be used for so much more. Bad 45: This is just a thing– I honestly hate that we only get one scene with the hoppers and also the byers acting like a family. All that build up in season 2??? wasted. All that potential wasted. Bad 46: The mayor taking a jab at Hopper and his ‘dead daughter sob story’. Damn right you deserved that fucking punch. Good 28: Joyce pulling the phone line when the receptionist tried to call the police. Good 29: The scoops troop and their hilarity. Bad 47: Max continuing to be in complete denial over Billy’s role with the mindflayer. Good 30: “Don’t you love your country” “You can’t spell America without Erica” I love Erica so much Good 31: “I want you to forget about sales and come work for me at hawkins pd.” “And have to look at your face every day? I don’t think so.” I have to admit that was cute Good 32: Karen actually being a mom for a change and listening to and supporting Nancy. Good 33: “He made me lie, I mean–” “What if he’s right?” “No no no he’s just a crazy old man” “No, if I only see you and I’m a different species, maybe I should be with my own species more.” Bad 47: “Wait you spied on me? That’s totally against the rules!!!” Mike she’s a telekinetic who can locate people and also implode your brain. There are no rules. Good 34: “I make my own rules.” Except hers. Good 35: “If you die, I die” “Okay” Dustin’s such a ride or die bitch I love it. Bad 48: How many times has Will been used for mindflayer location? 4-5 times? Bad 49: Jane relenting when protecting herself and her friends. I’m sorry but if someone’s had a hand to her throat or face or anything she’s thrown whoever did that through a wall, caught off guard and not. Good 36: She eventually did throw Billy through a wall but still the point remains

Episode 4 mark - 36-49

Bad 50: Joyce’s bad throwing skills. Hun you’re throwing a gun not a baseball. ( jk ilu mom ) Bad 51: This terminator guy gets a bad point. I don’t think they explained him at all? Even if they did.. eh. Good 37: “Why wouldn’t he be safe? Nancy?” For once someone’s worried about the welfare of these kids. Good 38: Hop’s big butt sprawled over the Blazer gets a point. Bad 52: Hop calling Alexei Smirnoff gets an… eh point for me. Idk why it turns me off a bit. It’s a funny name and all but eh. Bad 53: The beloved Blazer exploding gets a bad point. Shame on you for killing it, st writers. Good 39: “Ill-annoy” cute. Bad 54: “ThEy’Re CoNsPiRiNg AgAiNsT mE” Not everything’s about you, Mike. Good 40: “She was making bad screams” “What’s a good scream” Max: “Doesn’t matter–” Bad 55: Hop making the joke that every man Joyce talks to must be another version of Clark. Yikes man, she burned you that bad? Good 41: “He’s a dangerous child murderer” As Alexei smiles whilst sipping his cherry icee.

#OUTOFEGGOS #so far this whole season has been yikes from start to fucking finish #Moira watches s3 #now I must go and delete the mass amounts of ooc

0 notes

crimsonadri-fanfiction · 6 years

Text

Make a Move (Chapter 9)

Fandom: Until Dawn

Genre: Romance, Humor, Tragedy, Hurt/Comfort

Pairing: Josh x OC

Rated: M

Warnings: Language,

(First) (Previous)

A/N; This chapter will end the game events. After this chapter it’s all original scenes from my brain.

Sam, Ashley, Maxine, Emily and Chris were walking through the basement. Sam had a flashlight attached to a headband, Ashley had a normal flashlight and Chris had a larger flashlight. Maxine had put on Josh’s jacket and she continued to hold herself as she followed the others.

“Come on guys! Hurry up! We gotta find Mike.” Sam said. “Come on.”

“Hey…” Chris said leaning against the wall. “ahhh… I’m kinda gimping out here, guys…” Ashley walked up to him as Emily walked past her. “I think maybe you should go on without me.”

“Oh god, Chris. Are you gunna be okay?” Ashley asked.

“Yeah, yeah! Just go on…” he said waving an arm. “I… I can’t keep up with you macho ladies…”

“Oh god Chris just stop it, okay?”

“Listen, just… just go on ahead, okay? You gotta warn Mike. I’ll be right behind you…” Chris sat down against the wall. “I’m just gunna take a breather.”

“…alright…” Ashley said. She started to follow the others but stopped and went back to Chris. “No. Chris. We are not leaving you. We’re sticking together. Mike will just have to wait.” Chris got up with a sigh.

…

The two were slower than the rest of the group but eventually caught back up. Sam tried to open the door to the sanatorium.

“Oh shit. Mike must have locked it behind him. Crap! There’s gotta be another way in.” Sam said.

“Wait.” Ashley said. “Hey. What about this?” she gestured down to a sewer grate.

“Oh…huh.” Sam ran back over to the others.

“I mean, should… should we try it?”

“Well it’s not like we got a whole lot of choices here…” Sam said. Ashley grabbed a nearby pipe and lifted the grate cover. “Okay… ugh!” She and Sam moved it over. “Okay this is maybe the last place I’d wanna be right now.”

“This was your idea.” Maxine pointed out.

“So who’s going first?” Sam asked. Ashley chuckled.

“After you.” Emily said.

“Might as well get it over with.” Maxine said. She sat down at the edge and reached across for the ladder as she slid off the edge. Sam followed after her.

“Not so bad.” Sam said. “You think this is the tunnel to the sanatorium?”

“Of course it is. Where else would it go?” Ashley asked. Emily followed after Sam. “Chris. I know you’re hurt but you gotta move it, alright?”

“I’m tryin’, Ash…” Chris said as he got down.

“Hey… um…” Ashley stopped at the top of the ladder. “hey we should close this, right?”

“Huh?” Sam looked up at her.

“I mean what if something’s following us?”

“Yes, fine. Close it.” Sam said. “But we gotta keep moving. Can you just catch up? Please?” Sam said as the group continued on.

“Yeah.” Ashley called back.

…

The group ran into Ashley.

“How’d you get in front of us?” Maxine asked.

“Oh my god I am so glad to see you.” Ashley said.

“Glad you’re safe.” Sam said.

“Look… look there!” Ashley said as she pointed to a broken ladder.

“Wow great.” Sam said.

“The ladder’s toast we’re never going to make it up there!”

“No no no, I think I can… I think I can do it. It’s like… a rock wall.” Sam said. “I’m gunna keep going… you should head back to the lodge I’ve gotta get Mike.”

“I’m coming with you.” Maxine said as she followed Sam.

“Have you ever climbed a rock wall before?” Sam asked.

“Yeah… during gym.”

“Good luck!” Ashley called as she and the others left.

“I’ll just watch what you do.” Maxine said.

“… alright, be careful. If you feel like you can’t do it, climb back down and catch up with the others.” Sam said.

“I’ll be fine.” Maxine said. Sam nodded and started to climb. She climb about seven feet before she jumped to an outcrop. “Right because I can do that.” Maxine muttered to herself. She quickly examined the wall and picked out her own path before she started climbing. Sam reached the top with a grunt.

“I beat you.” Sam said. “I fuckin’ beat you.”

“You talking to me or the wall?” Maxine grunted as her foot slipped and she got a scrape on her leg that tore her leggings.

“The wall.” Sam said. “You’re almost there.” She said. “…almost there.” She reached down to pull Maxine up. “There. You did it.”

“That’s my workout for the year.” Maxine panted. She looked down at the new rips and tears in her leggings. “I’m never wearing these again.” She sighed.

“Come on, let’s go.” They walked forward a bit and turned left before dropping down.

“Man I wish I had a flashlight.” Maxine whispered.

“Just stay close to me.” Sam said as they walked. “Hello?” she called.

“Is it really the best idea to shout in here?” Maxine whispered.

“You’re right, my bad.” Sam said. “Help me with this door.” she said as the two walked up the fence gate. They tried to pull it open but it wouldn’t budge.

“We can use this.” Maxine said handing Sam a shovel she picked up.

“Come on, come on you can do it.” Sam said as she put the shovel between the gate and the fence. “Push it.” Both girls pushed until the door flew open. They walked only a few feet towards another door when Mike burst in.

“Goddamnit!! Say out there!!!” he shouted as he tried to close the door on a semi-burning wendigo.

“Mike!” Sam screamed.

“Oh god!” Maxine yelled.

“Holy shit!” The Wendigo jumped on Mike who was on the ground. “Hey!! Fatty! Over here!!” Sam shouted before she hit it with the shovel twice with the second hit knocking off the Wendigo’s head. Mike quickly got up and closed the door and locked it by putting a sawed off shotgun in the way.

“Whoa. You alright?” Mike asked looking between the two girls.

“Uhh, define ‘alright’.” Sam said.

“Alive, for a start.” Mike said.

“Yeah. Yeah, alive’s good!”

“The hell are you two doing here, anyway?” Mike asked.

“We were gunna warn you about the Wendigos.” Sam said.

“I think I got it.” Mike said.

“Yeah…”

“Let’s find a way down to where this fucker lives.”

“I was not prepared for how ugly that thing would be up close.” Sam said as she and Maxine followed Mike.

“Yeah… so I noticed something kind of weird about it…” Mike said.

“Uh…what?”

“The Wendigo- it had a scar.”

“So?”

“I’ve seen it before.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I saw these old pictures of some guy with that same scar- and he was transforming into a Wendigo.”

“You’re kidding.”

“It was one of the miners who’d been trapped, back in the 50s… the cave in.” Mike said. “Which means that thing is 80 years old. At least.”

“Spunky for an old timer.” Sam said.

“They cleaned the place out…” Mike said. “Killed a lot of people.”

“They? You mean there’re more of them?”

“Oh yeah.”

“How many?”

“Too many.”

“I don’t know if that’s more comforting than an actual number.” Maxine muttered.

“I think we’re close.” Sam said. “To the lair.”

“How can you tell?” Mike asked.

“I don’t know… I just… feel really terrible all of a sudden.”

“Ditto.” Mike said. The three entered a large cavern with a lake.

“I really don’t wanna go in there…”

“There’s no other way through.” Mike said.

“Well, why don’t we take a look around first? I’d rather not get hypothermia.” Maxine said. The three walked around the water to the left.

“Mike… is that what I think it is?” Sam asked.

“Shit… looks like a grave.” Mike said. Sam walked over and picked something up.

“Oh god… Mike.” Sam said as she turned to show the two. “This is Beth’s. This is her watch.”

“What? Let me see.”

“Look, there was a cross here.” Sam pointed.

“So this is where she was buried.”

“Meaning… Hannah was still alive like Emily thought.” Maxine said. “She buried her sister.”

“But… who dug her up?” Sam asked.

“Let’s keep moving.” Mike said. Sam put the watch in her pocket. The three headed back to the water.

“Fine. I’m going in.” Sam said as the three sat on the edge. Mike jumped in and let out a breath.

“Come on, it’s okay.” He said.

“You sure…?”

“I’m not dead yet.”

“Famous last words.” Sam said before dropping in. “Brrrrrr. It is freezing. I can’t feel my fingers.”

“Holy shit.” Mike said. Maxine grimaced but slid off into the water, she lifted Josh’s jacket so it didn’t get wet.

“Ack-! My legs are already numb.” She gasped. Sam noticed Mike sinking in a bit.

“Wait a minute. I thought you’d reached the deepest part?” she asked.

“Well I didn’t say that I said… it was okay, meaning like there weren’t any sharks or anything in here.”

“Sharks? Great! Thank you.”

“I’d love to meet a shark that would live in this water.” Maxine breathed.

“Pretty sure you wouldn’t.” Sam said.

“Yeah I-I know I meant… ya know behind the glass of a tank or something.” Maxine said. “Hey there’s another area over here.” Maxine said as she made her way over. She climbed out of the water and shivered as the other two got out. They walked over to an open journal.

“Oh shit. This looks like Hannah’s writing.” Mike said. Sam turned a few pages.

“’I’m sorry, Beth… I have no choice.’” Sam read. “’it’s the only way I can survive any more. If someone finds this, I’m sorry. I had to… I had no other choice.’”

“What does it mean…Jesus…” Mike said. Sam turned the page and the writing became bigger. On the next page the writing devolved into scrawls but the word hunger would be read. Sam stood shaking her head.

“Oh god… it makes sense… I think Hannah dug up Beth. It was Hannah!”

“No that’s-“ Mike shook his head. “That’s ridiculous-“

“Michael… Michael, it has to be.” Sam said. “It’s the only thing that makes sense- Beth died in the fall-”

“So what… what does that mean-“

“So Hannah must have buried her.”

“Goddamnit… god-damn it.”

“Hannah was down here… for…”

“I don’t believe any of this-!”

“She would have been starving… she would have been desperate-“

“Fuck!”

“We need to find Josh.” Sam said. “Right now.” The three headed back into the water and waded to the other side.

“It’s getting deeper.” Mike said as they neared the edge.

“Yeah, uhm…”

“Okay okay… Hey, it’s sloping up again. We’re gunna make it.”

“Oh my god, don’t jinx it!” Sam hissed. They three climbed out of the water.

“Come on, come on, we made it.” Mike said. Sam walked up to a door and pulled the handle down. The door burst open and water flooded out knocking the three down. Maxine opened her eyes and gasped as she was face to face with the head of the stranger. She screamed and scrambled to get up and away from it. Mike pulled her up and held her by her arms. “Oh whoa whoa… Jesus… jee…” The three were breathing heavily as they went through the door.

“You see that…?” Sam asked as she looked up at the body of the stranger on a hook as well as a few others.

“Yeah…” Mike said.

“…bodies…”

“Yeah. Yeah, a lot of them.”

“Oh…”

“Oh my god…”

“Nooo…!”

“I’m gunna be sick.” Mike moaned. They turned away from the bodies. Mike turned towards a wall that was a bunch of boards. “Wait wait wait! Hold on…hold on… I think I saw something…” The three looked through the boards. Maxine gasped.

“No… no no… no no no… I don’t… I don’t take orders from you…”

“Josh!” Maxine gasped. Mike pushed open the door to the area Josh was in and they ran in.

“I don’t take orders from you; you can’t tell me what to do…” Josh moaned.

“Hey…” Mike said. “Hey Josh!”

“You can’t tell me what to do anymore!!” he cried.

“Josh? Buddy?”

“You can’t tell me what to do!!!” He cried as he held his head. “Okay…okay… I trust you… I trust you…” he said. “I trust you…”

“What’s the matter with him Mike?” Sam asked.

“He’s tripping or something.” Mike said before he slapped Josh. “Josh!”

“M-Mike?” Josh asked. Mike grabbed Josh’s shoulders.

“Josh… hey man-“

“Don’t- Don’t h-hit me, p-please-”

“Well you were deep in it, man. Full mental jacket.” Mike said.

“We didn’t think we’d get you back.” Sam said.

“Josh!” Maxine gasped and threw her arms around his neck.

“M-M-Max?” his eyes widened as he wrapped his arms around her tightly. “Max!...Max…oh…”

“I thought you were dead!” she sobbed into his shoulder.

“Josh…” Sam said. “Hannah was down here for… weeks… a month?! She dug Beth up!”

“Sam…” Mike said.

“Mike…”

“Let’s just get the fuck out of here.” Mike said.

“Okay, Josh do you have the key for the cable car?” Sam asked.

“Uh…Y-yeah… here.” Josh reached into his pocket and handed it to her.

“Oh good.” Sam said. Maxine took her arms from around him and took a step back but still kept her hands on his arms.

“M-Max, you…” Josh put a hand on her cheek and ended up smudging the dirt and blood. “you’re soaked.” Josh said as he finally seemed to noticed. “I-It’s freezing down here.” He fumbled to zip her jacket before he quickly pulled her back into his arms in an attempt to warm her. Sam walked towards one side of the room where light was shining.

“See that over there?” Sam asked as she pointed. “That means there’s a direct way out. C’mon.”

“There’s no way Josh is gunna make it up there.” Mike said.

“Okay. If you help me up I can go back to tell the others we’re okay.” Sam said.

“Yeah… Yeah good.” Mike said.

“You bring Josh back the way we came and we’ll all meet at the lodge.” Sam said. “Max, you coming with me?” Josh tightened his hold on Maxine as she shook her head.

“I’m not leaving him.” she said. Sam nodded.

“Be careful.” Mike said as he helped Sam up.

“You too.” Sam said before she started to climb.

“Alright let’s go you fucked up son of a bitch.” Mike said. Josh kept an arm around Maxine, and she him, as they followed Mike.

“You didn’t… you didn’t have to hit me so much, man.” Josh said.

“Ah, yeah… I’m sorry about before, man. I-I thought you killed Jess…” Mike said. “I was wrong.” The three re-entered the room with the hanging bodies.

“No… no!” Josh said. Maxine looked up at him.

“How’s your shoulder?” she asked as she tried to distract him.

“F-Fine… fine… it’s fine…” he said as he nodded. He started to mumble to himself. “I know… I know I know I know… okay.” He breathed. “H-How are you doing?” Josh asked as he looked down at her.

“I’m fine.” Maxine whispered with a smile.

“Y-You’re bleeding…” he touched her forehead.

“Huh?” Maxine reached up and touched the left side of her forehead and pulled back to find blood. “I must have hit my hand when I fell…”

“You- are you okay?” Josh stopped and turned to face her. “I didn’t want – I didn’t want you to get hurt.” he moaned. “I didn’t want anyone to get hurt…” Maxine reached up and held his face gently.

“I’m fine, Josh, if finding you alive means getting hurt, I would do it all again.” She whispered. Josh closed his eyes as put his hands over hers. Mike dropped back into the water and started heading back. Josh frowned deeply at the water but as Maxine sat down on the edge he followed. They dropped into the water and Josh put his arm back around Maxine as he shivered. As Mike got to the center he suddenly freaked out.

“Oh fu-!” he shouted as he fell into the water. Josh immediately pushed Maxine behind him and held out his arm as the Wendigo swam towards them. It popped out and screamed.

“NO you’re not real!” Josh screamed. “No, you’re not…” Josh noticed the tattoo on the Wendigo’s shoulder as it grabbed his shirt. “Hannah!”

“Josh, I love you!” Maxine screamed. The Wendigo’s head snapped to look in her direction, still keeping a hold on Josh’s shirt.

“W-What?” he gasped.

“I can’t die without having told you!” she sobbed. “I’m in love with you.” She whimpered.

“M-Max…” The Wendigo’s head snapped back to look at Josh. “Max I-…” The Wendigo screamed in Josh’s face. “I love you too!” he screamed as he turned his head away from the Wendigo with his eyes shut tight. “I love you too…” he sobbed. “I should’ve asked you out before but I was afraid- I was afraid you didn’t like me like that…” The Wendigo screamed in Josh’s face as it lifted him up. “O-Oh god! Max, run!”

“I’m not leaving you!” Max screamed. The Wendigo looked at her then back to Josh before it dropped Josh in the water. Max rushed to help him up as he coughed out water. The Wendigo screamed long and hard in both their faces as they held each other before it ran off.

“Oh g- oh god…” Josh pulled Max to him and held her tightly. “Oh Max, I’m sorry! I’m so sorry all of this happened…” he sobbed as he put his forehead to hers.

“Josh…” Maxine cried. He kissed the top of her head.

“Hey.” Mike whisper-yelled. “You can be happy to be alive after we get out of here. Let’s go.”

“Where were you?” Maxine asked.

“Can we just get out of here?” he asked. Maxine nodded. The three continued through the water and climbed out.

“You’re gunna get sick…” Josh said as he looked Maxine up and down.

“Getting sick is the least of our problems.” she said.

“We gotta move.” Mike said.

“Okay.” Maxine said.

“You’re not leaving my side.” Josh said as he put his arm around her.

“Promise?” Maxine asked as she looked up at him.

“It’s a fucking oath.” Josh said as he looked in her eyes.

“Come on.” Mike said.

“There’s Sam!” Maxine said as she pointed at the girl who was calling for someone to let her into the lodge. The three ran up to her.

“Sam-“ Mike said. She turned around and jumped.

“Ah! Shit, Mike!” Sam said. “Oh gosh you guys look terrible-“

“Gonna look worse if we stay out here.” He said. “Come on!” Sam picked up a rock and smashed the glass of the door. She reached in and opened it.

“Okay…” Sam said. Mike closed the door behind them. Sam walked over to the light switch and turned on the lights. Mike immediately turned them off.

“Not good.”

“What do you think we should do?” Sam asked.

“We should check the basement…” Mike said. “Might be someone left down there…” The group headed downstairs and into the cinema room.

“How do you rate our chances of survival?” Sam asked.

“I’m trying not to think about it.” Mike said. As the three approached the door they hurt running and saw the other trio.

“Go! Run!” Ashley shouted. Chris ran out first.

“Go! Go! Go!” He shouted.

“Go! We gotta go!” Emily screamed as she ran out next, pushing Ashley against the door. Ashley easily recovered and ran out as well.

“Run!” Mike shouted before he, Josh and Maxine ran after them while Sam locked the door. Maxine and Josh were holding hand as they ran up the stairs; he saw the Wendigo first. Josh quickly pulled Maxine against his chest and put a hand on hers to stop her. He put his lips against her ear.

“D-don’t… move…” he whispered. With his hand on her chest he could feel her heart racing as she saw the Wendigo on the hanging sculpture. Maxine closed her eyes as Josh gave her hand a squeeze. Sam ran up the stairs but before she saw everyone wasn’t moving she ran out and stopped closest to Mike.

“Don’t… move…” Mike whispered to her. “Don’t fucking move a muscle…” Two more Wendigo climbed up out of the basement. The one on the sculpture, Hannah, climbed down and faced one of them. It lunged at her but she threw it against the stairs, breaking them, then at the fireplace. The Wendigo’s body hit the fireplace and knocked into the gas pipe. Gas started leaking into the air. Mike saw it then noticed a light on the other side of the room. He looked back at the pipe then slowly turned his head around to look at the light switch next to the door. Mike silently looked at Sam to convey his plan. She nodded ever so slightly. Mike slowly moved towards the light. Two of the Wendigo’s attacked each other. The larger, Hannah, slammed the other’s head on the ground before she picked it up and pulled its head right off. Sam took a step back and the floor behind her creaked. The Wendigo screamed and turned towards her. It took a few steps towards her. Mike reached the light and broke the light bulb. Chris managed to run out the door. The Wendigo, having heard the light bulb break, turned to Mike.

“Hey!” Sam shouted. The Wendigo screamed and moved towards her. Maxine could hear Emily move behind her and Josh as she managed to escape. In front of them Ashley was backing up slowly.

“Come on Max.” Josh whispered before he started to back up. “We’re g-gunna be okay… almost there…” he gave her hand a squeeze as he slowly looked behind them. Josh took his hand from Max’s chest and he turned to run, pulling her with him. They ran outside where Chris and Emily were waiting.

“Josh…” Maxine wrapped her arms around his neck and held him.

“You’re alive… you’re safe… you’re okay…” he whispered as he wrapped his arms around her tightly. Maxine pulled back slightly and kissed him.

“I-I thought I would never get the chance to do tha-” she was cut off as he put a hand on the back of her head and kissed her deeply. Ashley ran out of the lodge and immediately ran to Chris who followed Josh’s example by scooping her into his arms and kissing her. A few moments later Mike ran out.

“Where’s Sam?” Emily whispered. Everyone looked back at the lodge in time to see Sam running out.

“Get down!” Mike shouted. Everyone hit the ground as Sam hit he light switch on her way out and the whole lodge exploded sending Sam flying.

“Is everyone okay?!” Mike called as he got up. He looked up as he saw a helicopter.

“Oh thank god!” Emily shouted.

“Everyone move so it can land!” Mike called out. Josh got up from beside Max.

“Max- Max?” he looked down at her. She was staring at the lodge, her hands on her head. “M-Max? Max!” He crouched in front of her. Her eyes were wide as she stared right through him. Her chest was moving up and down rapidly. “H-Help! Guys help me! She-she-she’s not-… Max!”

“What’s wrong?!” Mike shouted as he ran over.

“I-I-I don’t- I don’t know! I don’t know!”

“She’s hyperventilating!” Ashley shouted. Emily looked from Maxine to the lodge as it burned. Her eyes widened and she ran over to the girl.

“She’s going into shock!” Sam shouted.

“The fire must have triggered her PTSD.” Emily said. Everyone looked at her. “She told me she almost died in a fire that killed her parents!” Josh’s eyes widened.

“Max!” he shouted. “M-Max snap out of it!” he was starting to cry as Max’s breathing became more erratic.

“Slow breaths, Max, slow breaths.” Sam said as she tried to calm her. The helicopter soon landed.

“Is anyone hurt?” someone called as they jumped out and ran over. The man’s eyes widened at the state of the group.

“Please help her!” Josh shouted.

“Everyone get in the chopper.” The man said. Everyone ran over to the helicopter. Josh didn’t move. “Sir-“

“I’m not leaving her.” Josh said. The man nodded and turned to Max.

“Ma’am.” The man kneeled next to Max. “I need you to slow your breathing. Breath through your nose.” Max grabbed at her throat as she struggled to breathe.

“We- we need to get her away from the fire.” Josh said. “She… she has PTSD.” The man nodded and lifted Max up. Her head fell back as she finally passed out.

“Your parents own the lodge?”

“Where’s… where’s Max?”

“Your friends say you invited everyone back. They’re saying some pretty… bad things.”

“Is she okay? Can- Can I see her?”

“Your friend is fine. Why did you subject your friends to all of this?”

“I want- I-I want to see her.”

“You can see her after. I need you to answer my questions.”

“P-Please let me see her…”

Story continues after the game like I said BUT chapters are gunna be shorter again since it’s all original scenes (I’ll try to make them as long as I can). I really like writing this and I don’t want to stop. I enjoy writing the characters. I’m gunna try to think of as much content that I can for post-game events.

I do have an alternate ending that was originally going to be the ending to the story but I changed it to this one so I could keep the story going.

Alternate Ending Here

Next Chapter

Tagged:

If you wish to be tagged (or to stop being tagged) to know when a chapter is posted let me know via ask/messages/reply.

#until dawn #josh x oc #fan #fanfiction

0 notes

lawrenceseitz22 · 7 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 121

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 122 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://ift.tt/1NZu6N2.

Announcement

Bradley: … Core ones.

Marco: Right.

Adam: All right, we are live. I’m sure we were live earlier like always. Anyways welcome everybody. Today is the 8th of March 2017. This is Hump Day Hangouts number 122 and we got almost everybody here. I guess it appears random so I’m gonna quit guessing where everybody’s at and I’m just gonna say their names, so Hernan how’s it going?

Hernan: Hey Adam. Hey Adam, I see you there. Hey Bradley over there. I’m pretty excited to be here.

Adam: What’s up with the tank top? It’s pretty warm down there?

Hernan: It’s hot, yeah. It’s warm still. It’s warm-

Bradley: Look at Adam [crosstalk 00:00:36].

Marco: Adam’s bundled up.

Adam: Help.

Hernan: The two hemispheres, there you go.

Adam: Gotcha, I know. We’re only separated by nearly, I don’t know, like 10,000 miles or something.

Hernan: Yeah maybe.

Adam: Gotcha, all right well Marco speaking of weather man, how’s it going?

Marco: It’s nice man. It can’t get any better. It’s like 80, 85 during the day and it gets really cold at night. About 70.

Adam: That’s tough. All right, moving right along. Bradley how you doing?

Bradley: Good, happy to be here.

Adam: Outstanding. Well I’ll just launch right into it everybody. I think by now you probably know if you were interested in video powerhouse the launch is now over, so we’ll have a sign up for you if you want to find out some more information about how you could get involved in that later on but if you were looking for launch bonuses and stuff that is gone. Just wanted to make that clear to everybody. We do have a very cool webinar coming up, so Marco do you want to tell the viewers what they can checkout next week.

Marco: Birds eye view, how much can I say without giving an arm? All right, I’m going to be talking about this during the webinar so it’s okay. It’s public. It’s okay to talk about it now. What really bugs me about our space, internet marketing, SEO, just the whole deal is how people are mislead and the problem with human psychology is that if we’re told often enough that something works, we tend to believe that it does even though it doesn’t and so we keep trying to make it work because we’re told that it’s supposed to work. Now that’s down right, it’s either misleading, dishonest. I mean you name it. There’s other people who don’t know what the hell they’re doing and they’re selling in our space, right? And then there’s other people who actually know the things that work and the things that will actually help people but they don’t give everything. They call it informative but incomplete. I mean get the fuck out … Am I allowed to say that on Hump Day? Get the freak out of here man.

Bradley: Hump Day we want to try to keep it a little bit cleaner.

Marco: How can you do that man? You can expect more during the webinar trust me ‘cause I’m angry. I’m upset, so what I’m going to do this coming Monday I’m gonna tell it like it is. I’m gonna say what’s working and I’m gonna say why and I’m not going to show what I’m doing but I will get into what I’ve done to show that it is working. Look, let me tell you because I had a talk with my guy. You know how Mike Pierce and I go way back to when he was doing the social explosion plugin for Network Empire and I was a beta tester for that, so we’re talking three, four years back. I can’t remember how long it was.

Bradley: At least four years now.

Marco: Right. I was talking to him and you know he said that from conversation that we had we actually changed the way that SEO is being done. Now I don’t see myself that way. I don’t see myself as influencing the whole SEO community and the way that search engine optimization is done. I will go into what he said and the discoveries and the things that we know, right, because he’s one of those guys who tells it like it is. I mean he doesn’t just give you garbage. He’ll give you actionable shit just like we do.

On Monday, even though I will go back to a previous webinar that I did last year on Iframes, it’s not just going to be, I’m not just going to regurgitate the same information. Of course I have to do the foundation, right? I have to do the foundation but the rest of it I think is going to be on point and people who miss it, I’m sorry. I’m sorry and I feel sorry for you 'cause I’m in one of those moods where I’m bound to say anything.

Adam: Awesome, all right well the link is in the page [crosstalk 00:05:07]. Oh go ahead.

Bradley: I was gonna say quick question though. Are we, it’s free to attend the webinar but only on Monday correct? If you’re not there on Monday then we’re gonna make it available but it’s gonna be behind a payment gateway after the initial webinar. Am I right on that guys?

Adam: Yeah we had a few people, not a few, we’ve had several people who kept saying literally people were like, “You guys should charge for this,” and we’re like, “Okay, well we’ll do that.” So there it is. That’s the way it’s gonna be. We want to keep providing this and Marco, he’s the one giving the information and he said, “I want to do this free up front, provide the chance for people to see this stuff.” So that’s the way we’re gonna do it but after that yeah we’re charging.

Marco: Remember that most of the stuff that I give away for free, people are charging literally thousands of dollars for. You know this and they’re not giving everybody everything that they’re supposed to be giving them. I’m going to give it for free. Come get five, $10,000 worth of information for free. I’m not gonna pitch, although I will say what it is that I use to get the results that I get. Does that make sense? I’m not gonna pitch. I’m not just continue saying oh this rocks, and this and this and this and just mention my product over and over and over. I’m not going to do it at the end. I mean people know us well enough to know where they should go for stuff that works. That’s just my two cents.

Adam: All right real quick I’m gonna hop back on. I’ve got Adam’s quick book report moment. Now this is embarrassing. I noticed that this was in the background, so I just picked this up. This is kind of sad for somebody who’s selling the click funnels. I’ve actually never read this book, so I’m gonna read that book this week and then another one that I’m reading and I’ll definitely tell you guys about but the Blue Ocean Strategy. This is more on the business side of things but maybe I’ll do a quick review of that, like a two or three minute video but so far it’s pretty cool. It’s about just kind of redefining the boundaries in terms of your business, which you know you can do for clients or whether you’re doing SEO instead of just being another person in that shark filled water it’s kind of defining your own game so anyways, good stuff.

Bradley: Awesome, thanks Adam. Okay so I guess we can get into questions now.

Adam: Let’s do it.

Bradley: … You guys can hear me again.

Adam: We can hear you. [crosstalk 00:07:43]

Hernan: Yeah we can see your screen.

Bradley: I know there’s an odd delay when you screen share on this new [inaudible 00:07:51] app. Okay so Mark O'Connell’s up first. Hey Mark. He’s been attending our hangouts for god knows how long, long time so thanks for showing up again Mark. He asked the first part, Marco it’s directed at you and your back talking about using Varidesk or a stand up desk type thing, which could help. I’m not going to read that to you because you can read that but thanks for that Mark, that’s a good suggestion. I know a lot of people are doing that stuff now, the stand up desk. Converting their desk to stand up desk using Varidesk or other sort of products like that. I’ve rad a lot of stuff about I guess sitting down now is what they consider is bad for your health like smoking was 20 years ago or something, I don’t know.

Adam: I’ve heard the same thing. That or just if you can’t do the standing desk, just get up and move. Don’t sit there for an hour or two at a time.

Bradley: Yeah every hour get up and move around for five or 10 minutes.

Hernan: I can’t sit around for an hour anyway. I have to stand up. I have to sit down. I have to lie down. I’m beyond Varidesk, I need surgery. I have to go have surgery. I’m beyond that. Once I heal and go through the whole process then yeah that would be an option so thanks Mark.

Duplicate Content Issues For Mobile And Desktop Website Source Codes

Bradley: All right so the question is, “My question relates to mobile specific design.” Oh this will be a tough one for me because I am not up to speed on mobile stuff at the moment. “I’ve been using Beaver Builder Page Builder, which is an incredible web design tool and Beaver Builder allows you to create different layouts that will only be shown on mobile if the site doesn’t look quite right on a mobile. So you can copy a certain part of a website and change it slightly for mobile users, which results in a better experience for all devices as you can modify the design or text or whatever you want for any advice but in the source code it shows both layouts. If the content is the same, will this be classed as duplicate content?”

That’s a good question. I guess it depends on if they have some sort of mark up to explain that in the code. That would be something that maybe, for example, a canonical would work with a mobile version of a site which is basically an exact duplicate of the full version of the site but just in a mobile friendly format. Then that could be considered duplicate content as well but a lot of times it depends. The way that I’ve set them up in the past has always been on a like an m dot subdomain. In other words, whatever the domain is I’d put a m dot subdomain on it. So it would be m.domain.com and then I would install the mobile version of the site but all I would do is set a canonical in the header, the HTML header of the site, the mobile version of the site to point to the corresponding pages on the full version of the site.

You also have to think that, and again I don’t know this for sure, but if you have the mobile site on a subdomain it’s considered a different domain. So I don’t know that that would cause a problem anyways. Now I’m not sure that that’s the case here Mark because you don’t state whether it’s on a separate subdomain or if it’s just a redirect script that the text when a mobile browser is viewing the site and then redirects them to the mobile version of the site then that may be the case but I would imagine there should be some sort of markup that would eliminate that as being a potential issue. What are your thoughts Marco?

Marco: If it’s on m.website.com, then the canonical should go from mobile to desktop right now as Google fully moves over to mobile, it should go the other way. It should go from desktop to the mobile. That’s the way that you’re supposed to be canonicalizing right now. I would just do it through the mobile all together because they’re moving to it if they haven’t done it all already. Now-

Bradley: You mean canonicalize the desktop to the mobile?

Marco: Yeah.

Bradley: Oh wow.

Marco: Absolutely, that’s the way it’s being recommended right now and that’s the way that I’m recommending it to all of the people that I talk to.

Bradley: Wow.

Marco: Well it’s mobile first.

Bradley: Yeah I know and I get that. Old habits die hard.

Marco: I know, yeah.

Bradley: That’s quite a shift.

Marco: If you have a responsive website, and we’re not talking about a subdomain, a canonical will take care of everything, right?

Bradley: Yeah, well he says right here at the last part of the question it states, “In the source code what is for desktop and tablet and what is only for mobile so it’s very much like dynamic web design but both are there even though the mobile version of the specific piece of content is served just to the mobile users only both are in the source code. Do you think this could cause issues? Sorry for the long comment.” No Mark, I don’t think it does. Again I don’t know because I’m not that versed on mobile stuff yet. It’s not something I spend a lot of time studying at the moment but if it’s got separate mark up, then I’m assuming that’s gonna resolve any issues but what I would do is reach out to Beaver Builder support and ask them specifically that question because I’m sure that that’s been brought to their attention and if it hasn’t thus far, you can be the one to bring it to their attention and let them address it for you and resolve any potential errors or problems before they arise. Okay?

Marco: Isn’t Beaver Builder a plugin for WordPress anyways? He’s doing WordPress.

Bradley: I don’t know but I’m afraid to do a Google search on Beaver Builder on a public webinar.

Marco: I’m pretty sure. I mean I’m almost 100% sure that Beaver Builder is a WordPress plugin and so the template that you’re using should be taking care of the canonicalization anyway, so I don’t think that there’s any problems either way unless they’ve omitted that, which talk to them about canonicals.

Bradley: If we had more time, anybody remember the movie The Naked Gun?

Marco: Yep.

Email Solution For A Small Business With 3 Employees

Bradley: He’s like, “Nice beaver.” “Thanks, I just had it stuffed last week.” She pulls down a stuffed beaver. All right anyways, sorry guys. Scott Rogers is up. He says … There it is, there’s the Giphy. Ill be damned. “What is your recommendations for a small business email solution for three employees? Use their website hosting company? Use Gmail and customize it so it doesn’t look like a Gmail account or other?” I always do Gmail Scott. I always just use the SMTP settings through Gmail. Let me rephrase that. I use the web mail account with my hosting account but I set up SMPT through Gmail in an alias. That way I can send and receive emails directly from my Gmail. Does that make sense?

Let me just give you an example. Take a look at this guys. I got a ton of aliases. See that? That’s what I’m saying. I always do everything right through Gmail. The reason why is because Gmail is like industry standard number one. It’s just easy to use, we’re all familiar with it and in my opinion it’s the best way to set it up.

Marco: The only problem with that is if the receiver, the person who receives the email, is using Outlook and Outlook will expose the original account. It’ll say, if your Gmail is Bradley Benner and you’re sending a semantic message email, it’ll be [email protected] on behalf of-

Bradley: Right.

Marco: Outlook, I’m pretty sure, I think Outlook is the only one that’ll do that, that will expose what’s behind the alias.

Bradley: Okay. Well the more complicated route that I don’t like to do but you can use Google Apps and set up a business email account through Google that way.

Adam: Yeah Google Suite, which is pretty easy to set up and then you get your own storage associated with it, which is kind of nice. I use that for some stuff.

Bradley: Yeah you can do that. Again, I just stick with regular Gmail but that’s another way that you can do it.

Adam: One cool thing about that I will say is that you can have several inboxes open and Google knows that you can do that. I have two or three Gmail tabs open in the same browser and it knows the difference between them so it’s kinda nice.

Bradley: Cool. So he said-

Marco: The only-

Bradley: I’m sorry go ahead.

Marco: The only problem with that is that if you use Google Suite you won’t be able to sign into Hump Day now.

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: You won’t be able to watch anything semantic messaging. You’ll have to do it through a regular Gmail account.

Bradley: Yeah, good point. However we may be eliminating that as an issue over the next couple months but we’ll talk about that at a later date. All right so he says how do you do number two? Scott go to YouTube and search SMTP settings for Gmail or Gmail setup alias. Just go to YouTube and search for it. I’m sure you’ll find plenty of tutorials that will help you set that up. It’s very, very simple to do. And C-Panel, if you’re using your web hosting you just click on configure email client and it will give you all the details that you need to add into the Gmail when you set up the SMTP settings. It’ll give that information to you, so just go to your web mail section in c-panel and then go to the web mail address and click on configure email client and it’ll basically expand like a drop down and then it’ll give you all of your host. It’s usually host.domain.com or whatever your host is or mail.domain.com and then it’ll give you your port number and TTL or SSL or something like that, whatever. It’s really simple to do and you can figure it out. Just go to YouTube and find a tutorial.

Grid Display Issues With Browser Bookmarks

Okay, “My browser bookmark’s out of control. I’ve seen some screens on webbies that appear to have home page grid of bookmark. I’m trying to find that somewhere. Any ideas?” No, I use Xmarks as my bookmark keeper because it syncs across all of my devices and all my laptops and Chromebooks and all that stuff and tablets and everything and it’s also integrated because it’s made by the same company as Last Pass but I don’t have a bookmark page. I just use Xmarks. That’s this little icon right here. I prefer using Xmarks. Anybody else have any bookmark thing that they use?

Adam: Yeah I would just say for this once it gets out of control it’s not like having more and more layers is gonna do it. Eventually you need to go through and maybe you create an archive section where if you haven’t used it or you don’t even know what it is you just throw it in there so you still have it in case you need it but it takes a little bit of upkeep. You can’t just have 100,000 bookmarks that are easily accessible.

Bradley: By the way, if you’re using Xmarks or some sort of bookmark sync device or app, excuse me, one thing you have to do is go to your Chrome settings and make sure you disable the sharing of bookmarks between Chrome browsers. It’s in the settings because otherwise what happens is if you make a change on one device but not on another, then it’ll try to sync with whatever … There will be a mismatch and it’ll throw an error code. I made a mistake, I bought a new Chromebook in December last year just a couple months ago and I bought a new Chromebook and I forgot to change that setting once I got online and I told it to sync with Xmarks from that Chromebook and it screwed all of my bookmarks up. We’re talking seven years of accrued bookmarks and it’s been a nightmare. I’m still struggling with that now and that was back in December. I just recommend if you’re gonna use Xmarks that you make sure that you disable in Chrome the sharing of bookmarks or syncing of settings. That’s what it is and there’s a specific checkbox for that, okay?

Favorite Way To Protect Anonymity Via Proxies

All right Jane is up. She says, “What is your favorite way to protect anonymity,” I can’t pronounce that word, “Via proxies? We use hero.net as a guide. Always checking for 100% before working on posting for clients in multiple locations but some on the Google search at the bottom of our search query shows our subnet even when using a Firefox add-on called Location Guard.” The only thing that I would be, what I look for mainly is web rtc. First of all I’ll use Foxy Proxy, which we have training aside of syndication academy and that kind of stuff. But anyways, I add the IP the proxy to Foxy Proxy and then I’ll make sure that if I’m using a proxy that’s not in the same time zone as my local computer, my PC, then I’ll make sure that I switch the time on my PC to match the time zones up, okay, because otherwise there will be a basically it won’t be synced. The IP time or proxy time will be different than what your local computer time will show if that makes sense and that will show that you could be using a proxy.

The other thing is Web RTC. Make sure that’s disabled and if you’re saying that you’re hitting 100% in hero.net than I’m sure you already know about Web RTC but if you don’t just go to Google and search, or you can go to ipleak.net. Ipleak.net, right, and scroll down to the bottom of the page and right here where it says what is Web RTC leaks and it basically tells you exactly what to do right here. It’s very, very simple to do and also if you’re using Chrome there’s apparently an extension called Web RTC network limiter. I have not tested that because I do most of my dirty SEO work in Firefox, not in Chrome, but just so you know I’m pretty sure that you’re aware of that already but for those of you that aren’t but other than that I don’t even really try to hit 200% but I would recommend, Jana, if you’re doing a lot of this kind of stuff if you don’t already have Browsio you should. You should get it because then you can assign IP’s or proxies to specific profiles and then you always log in using the same IP to those, like you always login to those profiles using the corresponding or associated IP, right? The designated IP.

Here’s the thing: with Browsio, guys, I’m telling you it’s the way to go. Going forward if we come out with a syndication academy V3, we’re gonna be basically integrating Browsio with it because guys you should be building digital footprints now. You should be building digital footprints if that makes sense. We talk about that doing what we do with interlinking all of our accounts and getting a presence on as many properties as possible and not trying to hide that, especially what I mean is like the branded foot prints guys. You want that but even for persona based stuff guys, it’s only natural for people to browse the web that the vast majority, 98% of people out there, don’t even know what cookies and cash are, so they never clean any of that stuff.

You want to start accruing cookies and basically allowing the networks to start developing a profile for your personas or your brands so that it makes that association and it makes it more genuine and more real. So again in Syndication Academy v3 if we develop that and come out with it, we’re gonna be encouraging using something like Browseo very heavily because it’s awesome. You can start building out or accruing a digital footprint, which is going to make your profile so much stronger and so much more relevant and valid if that makes sense because it’s like an entity validation, right? It’s another way for Google to validate that it’s not a spam account is when it has accrued cookies and a digital profile.

Keep that in mind Jana. Again it sounds like you’re doing client work and everything else, then I highly recommend that you invest in Browsio. It would totally be worth it and that way you can assign specific proxies to each client that you have and always login using that same IP and start building digital footprints for those clients. Okay, it’s gonna make a world of difference going forward, all right?

Correct Channel URL To Submit When Setting Up A Branded IFTTT Network

Jeff [inaudible 00:24:04] says, “I’m in on Video Powerhouse. I have one major goal of ranking this video and I’m already planning my silo. Great training, thanks. The channel for this business is older. When I’m not logged into YouTube I get this URL as the channel URL,” okay. “If I’m logged into the user which controls the channel and I click on the creative [inaudible 00:24:21] I get the following,” okay. “Which is the correct channel URL for me to submit if I set up a branded network? I may not be able to attend today so tag me and I’ll see your reply.” Jeff, you can use either because they both result to the same location. Does that make sense?

I’m pretty sure, I’d have to double check this, but I’m pretty sure that the vanity URL, in this case this one, let’s go take a look at it. You could do something like, I know Marco likes to use where go’s but I like to use this one. To each their own but if we take a look at them I’m pretty sure it just resolves … Okay, so I thought the vanity URL resolved to the ugly URL but it looks like it might be the other way around so let’s try that one 'cause if we’re looking at this you can see that it goes, it’s a 200 test okay and it goes directly to that URL. I know it’s small on your end guys but you can check this on your own. Let me just check one more but they both resolve to the same place, so it doesn’t make any difference. Yeah, it looks like both of those URLs, they’re not even set up as redirects but they both land at the same location. It shouldn’t make any difference and just to double check this let’s just take a look at this. We’re gonna expose your channel here.

Marco: If I could just make a comment.

Bradley: Sure.

Marco: One is a user and one is a channel. Now if you look for the channel Bobble Factory there is no channel Bobble Factory with the-

Bradley: You mean with user-

Marco: Right. Not user but channel. Look at the first one. The first one says channel.

Bradley: Right.

Marco: And then it has that long string.

Bradley: Right, that’s this one.

Marco: The user resolves fine because he’s the user of the channel. If you checked the channel URL with the long string that’s the channel but there is no vanity channel called Bobble Factory.

Bradley: Yeah but what I’m saying is if you remove this user right here to where it’s just http://youtube.com/bobblefactory-

Marco: Right.

Bradley: Then it resolves to the same location, see?

Marco: Right. That’s to the user, not the channel.

Bradley: But I mean okay it says user in the URL but it’s still the channel URL, it’s just the vanity URL.

Marco: Right.

Bradley: Does that make sense? Maybe I’m not understanding the disconnect here because they both land at the same place. If I’m not logged in, if I’m in a clean browser and I visit both of those URLs, I’m gonna get to the same location. It’s not gonna make any difference, right?

Marco: I mean- [crosstalk 00:27:01]

Bradley: Correct me if I’m wrong, I’m asking.

Marco: Try the long string …

Bradley: That’s this one.

Marco: … With the user. Change channel to user and see if that redirects.

Bradley: But why would we do that? He wasn’t asking about that. I’m just curious, I’m not understanding.

Marco: I know, but I’m just checking to see where everything’s going because I don’t know why that’s looking like that. He should have a channel that’s called that, whatever it is that it’s called.

Bradley: But that’s what this URL is, this one. See let me just explain guys because this might be … Like, look if I change this out, if you go into YouTube and you look at your custom URL, if we change this to I think just a ‘C’ that’s the display URL that they give you, right? Let me check it and see. Yeah, no it’s saying this one’s not existing so apparently not but what I’m saying is it says user Bobble Factory, you could even just remove that and just have it say http://ift.tt/2mDRwRK and if I hit enter-

Marco: Then it resolves back to the user, right.

Bradley: It resolves to the same location, which is the same as this long string here.

Marco: Right.

Bradley: It doesn’t matter either way as far as SEO or branding or interlinking in my opinion. It makes no difference. I like to use the branded URL or the vanity URL because it just gets that brand term in there again if that makes sense. I prefer using this one if that makes sense but honestly I don’t think it makes any difference as far as SEO because they both resolve to the same location.

Siloing YouTube Channel For Real Estate Campaigns

Anyways, we’re gonna move on. Next one is Quit This House. Okay, “I am a real estate agent that sells in different towns and three counties. In YouTube should I create a playlist of the top six keywords then silo six videos under main keyword.” Let’s see, sells in different towns in three counties, okay. “Should I create a playlist of the top six keywords and then silo six videos under main key word and then the same videos and create a playlist for each city and county that I work in?” I’m not really following this question. I mean usually with a playlist silo, guys, you’re gonna want your broadest term at the top. You’re gonna name your playlist your broadest term and then if you’re gonna put supporting videos in there, essentially supporting keywords, right, generally they’re gonna be longer tail, you’re gonna use whatever the top level keyword is as the first video and then you’re gonna put all the other videos subordinate to that and you’re gonna interlink between them and you can do it in the video descriptions. You can also use YouTube comments. You should be using both by the way.

You should be linking to the playlist URL, the share URL, and you should also, depending on what type of silo method, and this is all covered in YouTube Silo Academy, depending on if you’re trying to rank one specific keyword or if you’re trying to rank all of them in together, there’s different types of siloing methods but trust me, you’re gonna want to use the video description and the comments for both okay and I’m doing a lot of YouTube case study work right now and so I’m doing a lot of heavy stuff in there guys. MasterClass, which by the way we have that in about 30 minutes, we’re gonna be going over some of that today and we’re also doing a lot of YouTube stuff right now, okay?

As far as your question, yeah put your six keywords under the main keyword in that playlist and then you can use the same videos or create a playlist for each city and county. Yeah you can do that, that’s not a problem. Guys you can have a video in more than one playlist, that’s fine. What you want to do is just make sure your silo’s are logical. I mean that’s it, you just want to make sure that they’re logical. They can be silos based upon geographic location, like that’s the common denominator is the location, or they could be industry or they could be both really. It just depends. You just gotta make sure that it’s logical. It’s really that simple guys. When it comes to siloing stuff, it’s just does it make sense for this hierarchy? The way that you have those keywords stacked, does it make sense? If it doesn’t make sense, if it seems out of place somewhere, then don’t do it basically.

Any comments on that guys?

Hernan: I like that last statement really. If it seems out of place, don’t do it. I totally agree with that because your optimizing for the user first, you know, so I really like that last statement that you said.

Using The Same Google Account To Rank A Video Using Google Properties or Drive Stacks

Bradley: All right, Paul’s up. He says, “Say I have a video I’m trying to rank on first page using Google Properties, Drive stacking as you call it. Should the other Drive files with links pointing to this video be created in the same Google account where the video is uploaded to or should these Drive stacks be created in a non-associated Gmail account? In my experience Paul it doesn’t make any difference. Marco, what’s your take?

Marco: Yeah I think we’re getting into RYS territory here. I don’t know how much I’d be willing to give away as far as Drive stacking. If he’s in RYS Academy I’d be more than happy to guide him more in whatever it is that he’s trying to do but same Google account, it does make a difference by the way.

Bradley: Okay.

Marco: It does because I mean your Drive account is associated. Everything in there gets all of that love, right, the spider web silo as we call it and then it goes out from there to wherever it’s directed [crosstalk 00:32:32].

Bradley: So you’re saying you should create it with the same account or have it in a different account?

Marco: Yeah I would say that it needs to be in the, a drive, that’s why we call it a Drive stack. It’s a self-contained Drive. I don’t know if you consider it, I don’t know what you consider it. It’s just a place where you store those files and they’re interlinked and we add all of our secret sauce to it so that everything is relevant and we’re pushing relevancy everywhere.

Bradley: Okay.

Marco: I don’t see how having it on another account … I mean you could push the relevancy but it wouldn’t be as relevant as if you had it in the same account.

Bradley: Well there you have it, that’s a good answer then Paul. I’ve done both to let you guys know and I’ve seen results using both methods. A lot of the times, for example, if I’ve got existing videos out there that were on another account and I get a Drive stack built under a persona account to push relevancy to that video then it’s not gonna be in the same account and it still provides results. Maybe not as good a results according to what Marco’s saying but I’ve still been able to produce results that way. If you can get better results, having the video in the same account then absolutely do that but again I’ve tested both methods and I’ve been able to achieve results both ways.

Jeanie is up, this is a good question. I can show this. Guys, am I allowed to give away my Yelp listing strategies right now on Hump Day Hangouts? We can talk about that can we or is that Master Class Mastermind stuff only?

Adam: Leave this one up to you.

Bradley: If it’s up to me I’m gonna give it away 'cause it’s just Yelp.

Adam: All right, let’s do it.

Bradley: All right. You guys want to see a Yelp listing strategy, let me do this. All right we’re gonna pull up a Yelp listing here, so let me just pull up, I don’t know, think of something. Let’s just say HVAC contractor Culpepper which is where I live. I’ve got it set on Bing as my default, which I teach you guys to do so apparently I’m drinking my own Kool-Aid here. Let me try this again. Son of a bitch, sorry guys. HVAC Culpepper, VA. All right let’s see if we can find a Yelp listing here. Right here, well that’s fine. This is a Yelp index page but that will work. Let’s go click on one of these guys that has some photos, like this guy right here. We’ll click on this one. All right guys so yeah you can get away with basically just a whole bunch of links to Yelp listings. Well first of all, make sure the Yelp listing is completed in it’s entirety. Complete everything you can on the Yelp page, right, so when you’re setting up the listing complete as much as you possibly can. I mean everything that you can fill in, do it. Put as many photos in as it allows you to. Make sure that your photos are geo tagged, that you have the meta data, EXIF data, all of that stuff has been added. When I say EXIF data guys I mean coordinates, that kind of stuff.

Mark everything up first. Get various keywords in there so that you’re not, don’t hammer every single picture with the same keywords or the same keyword and also remember when you’re optimizing or adding meta data of the files themselves, you want every individual file to have multiple variations of the keywords too. You don’t want to hit the same keyword like in all the different locations. What I mean by that is if you’re on Windows, if it’s a JPEG file or JPG, either one, you can right-click on it and click on Properties and then click Details and from Details you can add a bunch of meta data. You can do it that way or you can use something like, and I was just playing with this yesterday, there’s an online tool called the Exifer. It’s so you can add Exif data. So if i say ‘Exif tools’, something like that it’s called the Exifer.net or something like that. Let me see if I can find it.

Right here, this is it. The Exifer.net. It’s a very strange name but anyways this right here you can use to add coordinates and stuff like that. There’s also a download. This is all done online, that’s why I like this one but I’ve been using and I’ve got it up here in my browser called Geosetter. I’ve been using that for seven years now and that’s this right here. You guys see this? And this is how you can add basically meta data and everything to the actual files. You can add geo coordinates and everything else. Make sure that all of that is done first. Then when you go to once you completed the Yelp listing, let me show you a few things. Number one you got the main Yelp listing URL. You guys see that, that’s pretty standard right? Well let’s show you something else, and this is one of our Mastermind members brought this to my attention, David Ross, and it was awesome because I had never even thought to do this and he brought this to our attention.

If you go look at the page source guys from your Yelp listing, scroll down a little bit and you’re gonna see this right here. You guys, this is freaking gold. Those are all canonicals guys. They’re basically the Yelp in different languages, in different versions. Everyone of these URL’s guys are canonicalized or basically to this main listing here. Look at all these additional target URL’s right here you have to build links too. You guys see that? That’s freaking gold right there because everyone of these could be different link targets, okay? That’s the second method. The first method is number one, complete the profile and that includes as many photos as you can with all of your photos optimized with meta data, geo tags, everything, right?

Number two, hit the source code of the listing, copy all of your canonical URL’s or alternate URL’s, foreign language, whatever you want to call it. Get all of those. Put those in a spreadsheet too, right, that you can use as link building targets. Lastly, you want to go through each one of the images now that you’ve got all the images, click on each image guys, copy the URL right out of that. Each one of these images has a separate URL. Watch the address bar, when I click to the next image it changes. Well there’s only two images on here, maybe three. There is is, there’s another one. Each one of these URLs guys is another target URL, does that make sense?

I didn’t give it all away but I gave a lot of it away, so is that acceptable? Are you guys okay with that?

Adam: Good to go.

Bradley: Hopefully that made sense. [crosstalk 00:39:13] What’d you say?

Hernan: I guess that’s fine.

Bradley: Yeah, okay cool. All right hopefully you guys got something out of that because you can do a lot with Yelp listings. They rank like crazy. I’ve got a lot of lead gen stuff throughout there that is like the organic part, I rank the Yelp listings very easily even if the websites themselves don’t rank as well in organic as I would like, I end up getting Yelp listings to rank really well. Okay so Tara’s up. She says, “I have a client who’s site was spammed by competitor with over 22,000 links using his main anchor text. He already had about 50,000 links. Normally I would correct the anchor ratio but with 22,000 links I think that would look bad. Would a disavow be a better option here or is there some other trick that I’m not thinking about?” That’s a good question Tara.

Look, all I ever do with that stuff is disavow it and I’ve had to do that a few times now. I’ve got one client in particular that there is a relentless spammer out there. It’s an ex-employee, he thinks it’s an ex-employee, who constantly just adds negative links like spam links and really nasty stuff too like porn links with really bad anchor texts, stuff like that. So about once every six months I do an audit on his back link profile and scrape any of the new URLs that pop up and just add them to the disavow file and resubmit and that’s what I do honestly because there’s so much and I’m open to hear the opinions of my partners as well but literally I know some people say don’t use the disavow. I’ve never had it ever cause any problems for me. I’ve been able to recover penguin penalties using disavow and I’ve also been able to prevent negative SEO from causing problems using disavow but I know that some people say not to use it but again I’ve never experienced anything negative from it so that’s just what I do because it saves time.

What do you guys think?

Marco: I’ve never used a disavow tool. I never plan to use it, so but that’s just my take on it. I know people who have had to test, I know people who have not. It is what it is, it’s Google.

Bradley: Yep.

Marco: Yeah.

Hernan: I’ve done it. I’ve done disavow tools with good results but Tara in any case disavow tools will help you until some point but I think that you will need to go out there and find some really good quality back links to offset the damage of it. What I would do is to go out, maybe get a couple of editorial links. If you can get like a guest post because it’s a client or a press release to offset that doing it strictly URL and/or branded anchor texts so you can get a press release out there, you can get a couple of editorial back links like really powerful back links. That will definitely off set the 50,000 back links that they are building to you in addition to the disavow, you know?

Bradley: Yeah. Yeah one trick with the disavow file that I found was whenever you submit the disavow file you want to also submit it to several indexing services. So all the links that are in the disavow file you want to submit to indexing services because that’s how Google kno-, like for example if you submit a disavow file and you don’t send them through indexers as well then Google is gonna take it’s sweet old time for it to naturally go re crawl those links, especially if they’re spammy links. A lot of those are like spambots or honey pots or those sites where like blog comments for example where there’s dozens and dozens of paginated comments. Those links are very, the bots don’t crawl those type of links very often because it recognizes that it’s basically a spam point.

It’s rare that Google will come crawl those types of links a lot of the time. You have to get the Google bot to come crawl those links again and it will cross reference the disavow file and if there’s a match between URL’s, it will discredit or disassociate that URL from your profile. It doesn’t take it away from your profile. The links will still show in your back link profile but Google just won’t count that link, either negative or good. It’ll be neutral, it won’t have any effect. According to Google it’s just been disregarded all together although again it doesn’t eliminate the URL, it just disregards it.

That’s why if you take the URL’s from the disavow file and submit them to several indexers or if you have an index service that is indexing really, really well like a really high success rate on indexing, then just sent it to that one. My point is you want to get the Google bots to come crawl those URL’s because that’s when it’ll recognize that there’s a file been submitted and it will make that match and then it will discredit or just disregard that URL all together if that makes sense because that’s the trick with disavow files guys 'cause otherwise you can submit a file and it can be months before you see any results but if you send it through a link indexing service you can generally see results fairly quickly, okay?

Ranking Yelp Listings In Google SERP

Okay cool. Let’s keep moving. Roboform, yeah that’s another one. Oh wow there’s not a whole lot of additional questions, good 'cause we’re almost out of time anyways. Don Franklin says, “I know Mastermind members get a discount on RYS but I think Mastermind members should have RYS included as there is so much overlap and it’s a piece of the puzzle needed for Mastermind members. Just my two cents.” Well we appreciate that Don but it’s not gonna happen. Let’s see Paul says, “I can see how we use this Yelp strategy to land new clients that are not ranking on first page.” Yeah Paul, it’s very, very powerful. That’s something that, you guys you can create a whole separate service just out of optimizing Yelp pages, did you know that? I mean literally, you could contact and I’ve done this in the past. You could contact people, like you can go start scraping Yelp listings and by you I mean a VA. You can hire a virtual assistant to go out and scrape whatever your preferred industry is. Remember I always recommend that you niche down. Get in one vertical and stay there because you can scale in one vertical so much faster than you can trying to serve multiple verticals or multiple industries.

Select an industry, hire a virtual assistant to go out and start scraping Yelp listings for multiple cities. Like cities surrounding you or anywhere in the world really. It doesn’t make any difference but start scraping the listings in the cities that you designate and look for people that have non-verified or non-claimed Yelp listings. Look for companies because you can then actually reach out, and again this is all work that the VA can do. The VA can email, you give them the email, text, give them an email program that they can run through. Use something like point of mail or Yesware or some sort of email tracking client or an app that will notify of you opens and clicks and things like that and send out emails to those non-verified Yelp listings and give them a soft pitch and say, “Look we can optimize your Yelp listing and we can help it to rank on Google, get you more phone calls.”

Not only Google, guys, but there’s a ton of traffic in Yelp period. You can use all of that in your sales pitch and again if you’re having a VA do it it’s basically hands off and it’s a numbers game. You just gotta constantly continually send out emails to those customers or excuse me those businesses that have non-verified Yelp listings and you’ll get some. Some will bite and when they do it’s easy money because you can charge 500 bucks let’s say to optimize a Yelp listing and that includes optimizing the images, completing the profile, confirming the listing, all of that and then you can charge them on a monthly recurring basis to rank it for them and to keep it optimized.

That’s something else you could do. You could also manage comments and things like that. My point is you can turn it into, first of all it could be a one-off, just optimizing the listing but then you can turn it into recurring revenue and it’s also a foot in the door strategy for additional marketing services, okay? It’s a really, really good strategy and by the way inside Yelp now when you’re logged in, I’m not logged into Yelp now, but you can actually send messages to people inside of Yelp. I prefer sending emails out first and then if they don’t respond then going back and sending a question via the Yelp contact form because not always but sometimes they’ll get notified of it and that’ll go for people that have verified their listings, so it’s a confirmed listing, but it’s not optimized.

If somebody has confirmed their listing but they don’t have any images, there’s no description, they don’t have any reviews or maybe they have negative reviews. That’s a whole other strategy, is going out and contacting people with negative reviews and saying that you can help to optimize their listing and help to set them up. That’s reputation management stuff. That’s something else you can do in Yelp because Yelp is a huge, huge community with a ton of traffic, okay? It’s a pretty good service that you can create a whole other stream of revenue just from that.

Okay cool, it looks like we’re done. Awesome thanks for the extra indexing tip. Never thought of that and that’s exactly what I have in mind Bradley-, okay. All right guys since we don’t have any other questions you want to wrap it up?

Adam: I think so.

Hernan: Sounds good.

Marco: Sounds good.

Adam: Don’t forget everybody we got the webinar next Monday so I will pop the link in real quick again and get signed up for it. Like we said try to make it live if you can. Obviously a valuable webinar. Tons of content, some good stuff so get signed up and we’ll see you guys there.

Bradley: Awesome, thanks everybody for being here. Masterclass starts in 10 minutes, so we’ll see those of you there. See you.

Adam: Bye guys.

Hernan: Bye everyone.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 121 posted first on your-t1-blog-url from Blogger http://ift.tt/2n1CBSw via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Blogger

0 notes

beyondvapepage · 7 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 121

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 122 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://ift.tt/1NZu6N2.

Announcement

Bradley: … Core ones.

Marco: Right.

Hernan: Hey Adam. Hey Adam, I see you there. Hey Bradley over there. I’m pretty excited to be here.

Adam: What’s up with the tank top? It’s pretty warm down there?

Hernan: It’s hot, yeah. It’s warm still. It’s warm-

Bradley: Look at Adam [crosstalk 00:00:36].

Marco: Adam’s bundled up.

Adam: Help.

Hernan: The two hemispheres, there you go.

Adam: Gotcha, I know. We’re only separated by nearly, I don’t know, like 10,000 miles or something.

Hernan: Yeah maybe.

Adam: Gotcha, all right well Marco speaking of weather man, how’s it going?

Marco: It’s nice man. It can’t get any better. It’s like 80, 85 during the day and it gets really cold at night. About 70.

Adam: That’s tough. All right, moving right along. Bradley how you doing?

Bradley: Good, happy to be here.

Bradley: Hump Day we want to try to keep it a little bit cleaner.

Bradley: At least four years now.

Adam: Awesome, all right well the link is in the page [crosstalk 00:05:07]. Oh go ahead.

Bradley: Awesome, thanks Adam. Okay so I guess we can get into questions now.

Adam: Let’s do it.

Bradley: … You guys can hear me again.

Adam: We can hear you. [crosstalk 00:07:43]

Hernan: Yeah we can see your screen.

Adam: I’ve heard the same thing. That or just if you can’t do the standing desk, just get up and move. Don’t sit there for an hour or two at a time.

Bradley: Yeah every hour get up and move around for five or 10 minutes.

Duplicate Content Issues For Mobile And Desktop Website Source Codes

Bradley: You mean canonicalize the desktop to the mobile?

Marco: Yeah.

Bradley: Oh wow.

Marco: Absolutely, that’s the way it’s being recommended right now and that’s the way that I’m recommending it to all of the people that I talk to.

Bradley: Wow.

Marco: Well it’s mobile first.

Bradley: Yeah I know and I get that. Old habits die hard.

Marco: I know, yeah.

Bradley: That’s quite a shift.

Marco: If you have a responsive website, and we’re not talking about a subdomain, a canonical will take care of everything, right?

Marco: Isn’t Beaver Builder a plugin for WordPress anyways? He’s doing WordPress.

Bradley: I don’t know but I’m afraid to do a Google search on Beaver Builder on a public webinar.

Bradley: If we had more time, anybody remember the movie The Naked Gun?

Marco: Yep.

Email Solution For A Small Business With 3 Employees

Bradley: Right.

Marco: Outlook, I’m pretty sure, I think Outlook is the only one that’ll do that, that will expose what’s behind the alias.

Bradley: Okay. Well the more complicated route that I don’t like to do but you can use Google Apps and set up a business email account through Google that way.

Adam: Yeah Google Suite, which is pretty easy to set up and then you get your own storage associated with it, which is kind of nice. I use that for some stuff.

Bradley: Yeah you can do that. Again, I just stick with regular Gmail but that’s another way that you can do it.

Bradley: Cool. So he said-

Marco: The only-

Bradley: I’m sorry go ahead.

Marco: The only problem with that is that if you use Google Suite you won’t be able to sign into Hump Day now.

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: You won’t be able to watch anything semantic messaging. You’ll have to do it through a regular Gmail account.

Grid Display Issues With Browser Bookmarks

Favorite Way To Protect Anonymity Via Proxies

Correct Channel URL To Submit When Setting Up A Branded IFTTT Network

Marco: If I could just make a comment.

Bradley: Sure.

Marco: One is a user and one is a channel. Now if you look for the channel Bobble Factory there is no channel Bobble Factory with the-

Bradley: You mean with user-

Marco: Right. Not user but channel. Look at the first one. The first one says channel.

Bradley: Right.

Marco: And then it has that long string.

Bradley: Right, that’s this one.

Marco: The user resolves fine because he’s the user of the channel. If you checked the channel URL with the long string that’s the channel but there is no vanity channel called Bobble Factory.

Bradley: Yeah but what I’m saying is if you remove this user right here to where it’s just http://youtube.com/bobblefactory-

Marco: Right.

Bradley: Then it resolves to the same location, see?

Marco: Right. That’s to the user, not the channel.

Bradley: But I mean okay it says user in the URL but it’s still the channel URL, it’s just the vanity URL.

Marco: Right.

Marco: I mean- [crosstalk 00:27:01]

Bradley: Correct me if I’m wrong, I’m asking.

Marco: Try the long string …

Bradley: That’s this one.

Marco: … With the user. Change channel to user and see if that redirects.

Bradley: But why would we do that? He wasn’t asking about that. I’m just curious, I’m not understanding.

Marco: Then it resolves back to the user, right.

Bradley: It resolves to the same location, which is the same as this long string here.

Marco: Right.

Siloing YouTube Channel For Real Estate Campaigns

Any comments on that guys?

Using The Same Google Account To Rank A Video Using Google Properties or Drive Stacks

Bradley: Okay.

Bradley: So you’re saying you should create it with the same account or have it in a different account?

Bradley: Okay.

Marco: I don’t see how having it on another account … I mean you could push the relevancy but it wouldn’t be as relevant as if you had it in the same account.

Adam: Leave this one up to you.

Bradley: If it’s up to me I’m gonna give it away 'cause it’s just Yelp.

Adam: All right, let’s do it.

I didn’t give it all away but I gave a lot of it away, so is that acceptable? Are you guys okay with that?

Adam: Good to go.

Bradley: Hopefully that made sense. [crosstalk 00:39:13] What’d you say?

Hernan: I guess that’s fine.

What do you guys think?

Marco: I’ve never used a disavow tool. I never plan to use it, so but that’s just my take on it. I know people who have had to test, I know people who have not. It is what it is, it’s Google.

Bradley: Yep.

Marco: Yeah.

Ranking Yelp Listings In Google SERP

Adam: I think so.

Hernan: Sounds good.

Marco: Sounds good.

Bradley: Awesome, thanks everybody for being here. Masterclass starts in 10 minutes, so we’ll see those of you there. See you.

Adam: Bye guys.

Hernan: Bye everyone.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 121 posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnZU8p

0 notes

donaldmueller97 · 7 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 121

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 122 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://ift.tt/1NZu6N2.

Announcement

Bradley: … Core ones.

Marco: Right.

Hernan: Hey Adam. Hey Adam, I see you there. Hey Bradley over there. I’m pretty excited to be here.

Adam: What’s up with the tank top? It’s pretty warm down there?

Hernan: It’s hot, yeah. It’s warm still. It’s warm-

Bradley: Look at Adam [crosstalk 00:00:36].

Marco: Adam’s bundled up.

Adam: Help.

Hernan: The two hemispheres, there you go.

Adam: Gotcha, I know. We’re only separated by nearly, I don’t know, like 10,000 miles or something.

Hernan: Yeah maybe.

Adam: Gotcha, all right well Marco speaking of weather man, how’s it going?

Marco: It’s nice man. It can’t get any better. It’s like 80, 85 during the day and it gets really cold at night. About 70.

Adam: That’s tough. All right, moving right along. Bradley how you doing?

Bradley: Good, happy to be here.

Bradley: Hump Day we want to try to keep it a little bit cleaner.

Bradley: At least four years now.

Adam: Awesome, all right well the link is in the page [crosstalk 00:05:07]. Oh go ahead.

Bradley: Awesome, thanks Adam. Okay so I guess we can get into questions now.

Adam: Let’s do it.

Bradley: … You guys can hear me again.

Adam: We can hear you. [crosstalk 00:07:43]

Hernan: Yeah we can see your screen.

Adam: I’ve heard the same thing. That or just if you can’t do the standing desk, just get up and move. Don’t sit there for an hour or two at a time.

Bradley: Yeah every hour get up and move around for five or 10 minutes.

Duplicate Content Issues For Mobile And Desktop Website Source Codes

Bradley: You mean canonicalize the desktop to the mobile?

Marco: Yeah.

Bradley: Oh wow.

Marco: Absolutely, that’s the way it’s being recommended right now and that’s the way that I’m recommending it to all of the people that I talk to.

Bradley: Wow.

Marco: Well it’s mobile first.

Bradley: Yeah I know and I get that. Old habits die hard.

Marco: I know, yeah.

Bradley: That’s quite a shift.

Marco: If you have a responsive website, and we’re not talking about a subdomain, a canonical will take care of everything, right?

Marco: Isn’t Beaver Builder a plugin for WordPress anyways? He’s doing WordPress.

Bradley: I don’t know but I’m afraid to do a Google search on Beaver Builder on a public webinar.

Bradley: If we had more time, anybody remember the movie The Naked Gun?

Marco: Yep.

Email Solution For A Small Business With 3 Employees

Bradley: Right.

Marco: Outlook, I’m pretty sure, I think Outlook is the only one that’ll do that, that will expose what’s behind the alias.

Bradley: Okay. Well the more complicated route that I don’t like to do but you can use Google Apps and set up a business email account through Google that way.

Adam: Yeah Google Suite, which is pretty easy to set up and then you get your own storage associated with it, which is kind of nice. I use that for some stuff.

Bradley: Yeah you can do that. Again, I just stick with regular Gmail but that’s another way that you can do it.

Bradley: Cool. So he said-

Marco: The only-

Bradley: I��m sorry go ahead.

Marco: The only problem with that is that if you use Google Suite you won’t be able to sign into Hump Day now.

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: You won’t be able to watch anything semantic messaging. You’ll have to do it through a regular Gmail account.

Grid Display Issues With Browser Bookmarks

Favorite Way To Protect Anonymity Via Proxies

Correct Channel URL To Submit When Setting Up A Branded IFTTT Network

Marco: If I could just make a comment.

Bradley: Sure.

Marco: One is a user and one is a channel. Now if you look for the channel Bobble Factory there is no channel Bobble Factory with the-

Bradley: You mean with user-

Marco: Right. Not user but channel. Look at the first one. The first one says channel.

Bradley: Right.

Marco: And then it has that long string.

Bradley: Right, that’s this one.

Marco: The user resolves fine because he’s the user of the channel. If you checked the channel URL with the long string that’s the channel but there is no vanity channel called Bobble Factory.

Bradley: Yeah but what I’m saying is if you remove this user right here to where it’s just http://youtube.com/bobblefactory-

Marco: Right.

Bradley: Then it resolves to the same location, see?

Marco: Right. That’s to the user, not the channel.

Bradley: But I mean okay it says user in the URL but it’s still the channel URL, it’s just the vanity URL.

Marco: Right.

Marco: I mean- [crosstalk 00:27:01]

Bradley: Correct me if I’m wrong, I’m asking.

Marco: Try the long string …

Bradley: That’s this one.

Marco: … With the user. Change channel to user and see if that redirects.

Bradley: But why would we do that? He wasn’t asking about that. I’m just curious, I’m not understanding.

Marco: Then it resolves back to the user, right.

Bradley: It resolves to the same location, which is the same as this long string here.

Marco: Right.

Siloing YouTube Channel For Real Estate Campaigns

Any comments on that guys?

Using The Same Google Account To Rank A Video Using Google Properties or Drive Stacks

Bradley: Okay.

Bradley: So you’re saying you should create it with the same account or have it in a different account?

Bradley: Okay.

Marco: I don’t see how having it on another account … I mean you could push the relevancy but it wouldn’t be as relevant as if you had it in the same account.

Adam: Leave this one up to you.

Bradley: If it’s up to me I’m gonna give it away 'cause it’s just Yelp.

Adam: All right, let’s do it.

I didn’t give it all away but I gave a lot of it away, so is that acceptable? Are you guys okay with that?

Adam: Good to go.

Bradley: Hopefully that made sense. [crosstalk 00:39:13] What’d you say?

Hernan: I guess that’s fine.

What do you guys think?

Marco: I’ve never used a disavow tool. I never plan to use it, so but that’s just my take on it. I know people who have had to test, I know people who have not. It is what it is, it’s Google.

Bradley: Yep.

Marco: Yeah.

Ranking Yelp Listings In Google SERP

Adam: I think so.

Hernan: Sounds good.

Marco: Sounds good.

Bradley: Awesome, thanks everybody for being here. Masterclass starts in 10 minutes, so we’ll see those of you there. See you.

Adam: Bye guys.

Hernan: Bye everyone.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 121 published first on your-t1-blog-url

0 notes

profoundbasicincome-blog · 7 years

Text

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 121

youtube

Click on the video above to watch Episode 122 of the Semantic Mastery Hump Day Hangouts.

Full timestamps with topics and times can be found at the link above.

The latest upcoming free SEO Q&A Hump Day Hangout can be found at http://bit.ly/2gbqiP2.

Announcement

Bradley: … Core ones.

Marco: Right.

Hernan: Hey Adam. Hey Adam, I see you there. Hey Bradley over there. I’m pretty excited to be here.

Adam: What’s up with the tank top? It’s pretty warm down there?

Hernan: It’s hot, yeah. It’s warm still. It’s warm-

Bradley: Look at Adam [crosstalk 00:00:36].

Marco: Adam’s bundled up.

Adam: Help.

Hernan: The two hemispheres, there you go.

Adam: Gotcha, I know. We’re only separated by nearly, I don’t know, like 10,000 miles or something.

Hernan: Yeah maybe.

Adam: Gotcha, all right well Marco speaking of weather man, how’s it going?

Marco: It’s nice man. It can’t get any better. It’s like 80, 85 during the day and it gets really cold at night. About 70.

Adam: That’s tough. All right, moving right along. Bradley how you doing?

Bradley: Good, happy to be here.

Bradley: Hump Day we want to try to keep it a little bit cleaner.

Bradley: At least four years now.

Adam: Awesome, all right well the link is in the page [crosstalk 00:05:07]. Oh go ahead.

Bradley: Awesome, thanks Adam. Okay so I guess we can get into questions now.

Adam: Let’s do it.

Bradley: … You guys can hear me again.

Adam: We can hear you. [crosstalk 00:07:43]

Hernan: Yeah we can see your screen.

Adam: I’ve heard the same thing. That or just if you can’t do the standing desk, just get up and move. Don’t sit there for an hour or two at a time.

Bradley: Yeah every hour get up and move around for five or 10 minutes.

Duplicate Content Issues For Mobile And Desktop Website Source Codes

Bradley: You mean canonicalize the desktop to the mobile?

Marco: Yeah.

Bradley: Oh wow.

Marco: Absolutely, that’s the way it’s being recommended right now and that’s the way that I’m recommending it to all of the people that I talk to.

Bradley: Wow.

Marco: Well it’s mobile first.

Bradley: Yeah I know and I get that. Old habits die hard.

Marco: I know, yeah.

Bradley: That’s quite a shift.

Marco: If you have a responsive website, and we’re not talking about a subdomain, a canonical will take care of everything, right?

Marco: Isn’t Beaver Builder a plugin for WordPress anyways? He’s doing WordPress.

Bradley: I don’t know but I’m afraid to do a Google search on Beaver Builder on a public webinar.

Bradley: If we had more time, anybody remember the movie The Naked Gun?

Marco: Yep.

Email Solution For A Small Business With 3 Employees

Bradley: Right.

Marco: Outlook, I’m pretty sure, I think Outlook is the only one that’ll do that, that will expose what’s behind the alias.

Bradley: Okay. Well the more complicated route that I don’t like to do but you can use Google Apps and set up a business email account through Google that way.

Adam: Yeah Google Suite, which is pretty easy to set up and then you get your own storage associated with it, which is kind of nice. I use that for some stuff.

Bradley: Yeah you can do that. Again, I just stick with regular Gmail but that’s another way that you can do it.

Bradley: Cool. So he said-

Marco: The only-

Bradley: I’m sorry go ahead.

Marco: The only problem with that is that if you use Google Suite you won’t be able to sign into Hump Day now.

Bradley: Yeah.

Marco: You won’t be able to watch anything semantic messaging. You’ll have to do it through a regular Gmail account.

Grid Display Issues With Browser Bookmarks

Favorite Way To Protect Anonymity Via Proxies

Correct Channel URL To Submit When Setting Up A Branded IFTTT Network

Marco: If I could just make a comment.

Bradley: Sure.

Marco: One is a user and one is a channel. Now if you look for the channel Bobble Factory there is no channel Bobble Factory with the-

Bradley: You mean with user-

Marco: Right. Not user but channel. Look at the first one. The first one says channel.

Bradley: Right.

Marco: And then it has that long string.

Bradley: Right, that’s this one.

Marco: The user resolves fine because he’s the user of the channel. If you checked the channel URL with the long string that’s the channel but there is no vanity channel called Bobble Factory.

Bradley: Yeah but what I’m saying is if you remove this user right here to where it’s just http://youtube.com/bobblefactory-

Marco: Right.

Bradley: Then it resolves to the same location, see?

Marco: Right. That’s to the user, not the channel.

Bradley: But I mean okay it says user in the URL but it’s still the channel URL, it’s just the vanity URL.

Marco: Right.

Marco: I mean- [crosstalk 00:27:01]

Bradley: Correct me if I’m wrong, I’m asking.

Marco: Try the long string …

Bradley: That’s this one.

Marco: … With the user. Change channel to user and see if that redirects.

Bradley: But why would we do that? He wasn’t asking about that. I’m just curious, I’m not understanding.

Marco: Then it resolves back to the user, right.

Bradley: It resolves to the same location, which is the same as this long string here.

Marco: Right.

Siloing YouTube Channel For Real Estate Campaigns

Any comments on that guys?

Using The Same Google Account To Rank A Video Using Google Properties or Drive Stacks

Bradley: Okay.

Bradley: So you’re saying you should create it with the same account or have it in a different account?

Bradley: Okay.

Marco: I don’t see how having it on another account … I mean you could push the relevancy but it wouldn’t be as relevant as if you had it in the same account.

Adam: Leave this one up to you.

Bradley: If it’s up to me I’m gonna give it away 'cause it’s just Yelp.

Adam: All right, let’s do it.

I didn’t give it all away but I gave a lot of it away, so is that acceptable? Are you guys okay with that?

Adam: Good to go.

Bradley: Hopefully that made sense. [crosstalk 00:39:13] What’d you say?

Hernan: I guess that’s fine.

What do you guys think?

Marco: I’ve never used a disavow tool. I never plan to use it, so but that’s just my take on it. I know people who have had to test, I know people who have not. It is what it is, it’s Google.

Bradley: Yep.

Marco: Yeah.

Ranking Yelp Listings In Google SERP

Adam: I think so.

Hernan: Sounds good.

Marco: Sounds good.

Bradley: Awesome, thanks everybody for being here. Masterclass starts in 10 minutes, so we’ll see those of you there. See you.

Adam: Bye guys.

Hernan: Bye everyone.

Weekly Digital Marketing Q&A – Hump Day Hangouts – Episode 121 published first on your-t1-blog-url

0 notes