#i'm just the kind of guy who likes to make spreadsheets about everything so of course i have spreadsheets crossreferencing so much in aftg

[fauxyz]

every time andrew and neil touch, in order

i wanted to make this list for a while to help me with fic writing, and then once i did, i figured i should share it in case anyone else found it interesting!

for each touch, i've included the book and chapter, a little bit of context, and the quote describing the touch. (a note because this is so long: when the quotes/scenes are long, i cut some pieces out to focus on just the moments where they touch, so these are not always complete quotes.)

first touch moment is below, and the rest are under a cut because this list got LONG. enjoy! :)

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1. the foxhole court, chapter 2, when leaving wymack's office to head to the foxhole court for the first time:

"I don't need to be persuasive," Andrew said, putting a hand to Neil's chest as the elevator slowed to a stop. "You'll just learn to do what I say." The doors slid open behind Neil. As soon as they'd parted enough Andrew gave Neil a small push. Neil tripped backward into the lobby. Andrew shoved past him, bumping him from shoulder to hip, and headed for the door.

2. the foxhole court, chapter 3, when andrew sneaks up on neil while neil is looking at the single-stall showers in the locker room:

Lashing out was instinctive, but Andrew caught the elbow Neil would have slammed into his ribs. Andrew laughed and retreated a couple steps.

3. the foxhole court, chapter 7, before leaving for eden's twilight, when andrew sees neil without his contacts:

Neil couldn't leave with Andrew in the way, so he stopped as close to Andrew as he dared and waited for Andrew to move. Andrew did, but only to reach out for Neil with one hand. Neil tensed as Andrew's fingers wrapped around the back of his neck, but Andrew only wanted to pull Neil's head down. Neil focused on Andrew's cheekbone so as not to go cross-eyed and let Andrew study his eyes.

4. the foxhole court, chapter 7, on the way to columbia, when aaron wakes andrew in the backseat:

Andrew's elbow slammed into his diaphragm hard enough to double Neil up over his knees. Aaron, completely unsympathetic, snapped his fingers over Neil's head at Andrew. "Exit," he said. Andrew braced himself on Neil's back and leveraged himself between the front seats.

5. the foxhole court, chapter 7, when neil realizes his drinks were drugged:

Neil lurched to his feet, but Andrew grabbed him by his hair and slammed him back into his seat. A cruel twist pulled his head back at a dangerous angle, and Andrew slammed Neil's hand flat against the tabletop. Neil lifted his other hand to pry Andrew's fingers off, but Nicky caught his wrist. [...] Neil wrenched his hand out from under Andrew's, but Andrew gave his head a warning yank. A bolt of heat went down Neil's neck. Neil hissed in pain and went still. Andrew slid out of his chair and leaned against Neil, letting Neil take his weight while he checked Neil's eyes.

6. the foxhole court, chapter 7, when neil is wandering through the crowd at eden's twilight:

A hand came up against the small of his back and shoved. The push got him free of the crowd and sent him crashing into the back wall.

7. the foxhole court, chapter 8, when neil told andrew the first bit of truth about being nothing and wanting what kevin has:

Andrew reached up and forcibly uncurled Neil's fingers from his mouth. He pushed Neil's hand out of the way and stared Neil down with nothing between them.

8. the foxhole court, chapter 13, after neil protected kevin from riko on kathy's show:

"It's fine, Coach," Andrew said, catching up to them. He touched Neil's back on his way by, fingers light enough to give Neil goose bumps, but didn't slow on his way to Kevin's side.

9. the foxhole court, chapter 13, when talking to andrew after andrew punched the window in his down, and when neil wanted to run after realizing riko was coming after him:

Neil turned away, but Andrew was faster. He rocked forward and grabbed Neil's collar, dragging him to a halt before he could leave. He left sticky blood on the back of Neil's neck from his messy fingers. Neil reached back and tried to pry him off, but Andrew refused to let go.

10. the foxhole court, chapter 14, when neil decided not to run and to come with andrew to eden's instead:

He pressed two fingers to Neil's throat, checking his pulse. When Neil tried to bat him away, Andrew caught his wrist with his free hand. His smile was small and fierce as he leaned forward into Neil's space. "Remember this feeling. This is the moment you stop being the rabbit." Neil was too startled to answer, but Andrew didn't wait. He slid past Neil, using the weight of his body and his grip on Neil's wrist to pull Neil with him out of the way of the door. He let go in the middle of the hallway and slipped his hands in his pockets to wait.

11. the foxhole court, chapter 14, at eden's twilight that night:

A group of people shouldered their way up to the bar counter at Neil's back, pushing him into Andrew. Andrew didn't budge beneath his weight. He was something solid to lean against, something violent and fierce and unmoving.

12. the foxhole court, chapter 14, after finding out about seth's death, when neil asks andrew if he drinks so he doesn't have to feel anything for a while:

Andrew turned to face him. Neil wasn't expecting it and almost ran into him. Andrew dug his fingertip into the hollow of Neil's throat in warning.

13. the foxhole court, chapter 14, when neil says he won't bargain with the foxes' lives against riko, and andrew says he'll handle it:

Neil said nothing. Andrew hooked his fingers in the collar of Neil's shirt and tugged just enough for Neil to feel it. [...] Andrew didn't let go until Neil nodded, and then he reached for Neil's hand. He took his cigarette back, put it between his lips, and pressed a warm key into Neil's empty palm.

14. the raven king, chapter 5, when andrew calls neil's phone and convinces him to keep it:

"I don't care if you use this phone tomorrow. I don't care if you never use it again. But you are going to keep it on you because one day you might need it." Andrew put a finger to the underside of Neil's chin and forced Neil's head up until they were looking at each other.

15. the raven king, chapter 9, when neil asks if the other foxes can come with them on halloween and andrew tells neil to ask matt what happened the previous year:

When Neil started to argue, Andrew hooked a finger under his chin and forced his mouth closed again with an easy jerk of his hand.

16. the raven king, chapter 10, when neil asks andrew to come with nicky to see his parents, and andrew tells neil about cass:

Andrew rocked onto the balls of his feet and reached for Neil. It was all Neil could do to not tense up when Andrew's hands wrapped around his neck. Andrew didn't hold tight enough to cut off his air but tapped his thumbs against Neil's throat in time to Neil's pulse. [...] Andrew tapped his fingers a little faster, an agitated rhythm completely at odds with the mocking smile on his lips. [...] Finally Andrew reached for him again. This time he hooked his fingers in Neil's shirt collar instead of going for his throat.

17. the raven king, chapter 11, when andrew takes off his wristbands and neil sees his scars for the first time:

Neil grabbed hold of Andrew's wrist. He started to turn Andrew's arm over, sure he'd imagined things, but Andrew clamped his free hand down on Neil's forearm. [...] The iron in his grip was at complete odds with the drugged smile on his face. Andrew wasn't bluffing. If Neil didn't let go fast enough Andrew would break his arm. Neil loosened his grip but spread his fingers as he did so. He felt the slight dip and bump of destroyed skin beneath his fingertips and felt his stomach drop. Andrew wrenched Neil's hand off his arm, but he did it in a way that kept his bared forearm turned toward himself.

18. the raven king, chapter 12, when neil and andrew speak on the porch of nicky's house, and neil tries to get an emotional response from him:

Andrew laughed and pulled a hand free of his pocket. He wrapped his fingers around Neil's throat, not tight enough to cut off Neil's air but snug enough to be a warning. [...] Neil reached up and took hold of Andrew's wrist. He couldn't feel the scars through the cotton sleeve but he didn't need to. He knew they were there. [...] Andrew's fingers slowly tightened until Neil couldn't breathe anymore. He refused to shake Andrew off. The tightness in his chest started as simple discomfort but spread until it felt like every bone in his chest would break beneath the pressure. Neil's control started to crumble, no matter how fiercely he clung to it, and he'd just shifted to throw Andrew back when Andrew finally loosened his grip. Instead of letting go, Andrew slid his hand around back of Neil's neck and pulled him in close. He put his mouth at Neil's ear and lowered his voice, but Neil didn't have to see his face to know Andrew was still smiling.

19. the raven king, chapter 13, when neil says he'll watch kevin while andrew is in the hospital:

Andrew took a couple quick steps his direction and shoved Neil as hard as he could. Neil knew it was coming and tried to brace for it, but he still stumbled back a couple steps. [...] When Andrew pushed him again Neil caught hold of his arms and pulled Andrew with him. [...] He laughed, curled his fingers tight around Neil's chin.

20. the raven king, chapter 13, when neil lets andrew feel his scars as part of his truth on credit to earn andrew's trust:

Neil waited, but Andrew didn't let go. With so many people watching them Neil couldn't lift his shirt. He did the next best thing and dragged one of Andrew's hands under the hem. He pressed Andrew's palm to the ugly scarring across his abdomen. Andrew's eyes dropped to Neil's shirt like he could see Neil's marred skin through the dark cotton. [...] Andrew's fingers twitched against Neil's skin.

21. the king's men, chapter 1, when they get back to psu after picking andrew up from easthaven:

Neil was the first out and he caught Andrew's door before Andrew could close it. Andrew didn't move, but there was just enough room for Neil to lean in and get his binder. He straightened and turned to find Andrew had shifted closer. There was nowhere for Neil to stand except up against Andrew, but somehow Neil didn't mind.

22. the king's men, chapter 1, when neil gave his armbands back:

His gaze dropped immediately to the dark cloth in Neil's outstretched hand and he took them without a word.

23. the king's men, chapter 1, when andrew found out neil went to the ravens over the winter break and realized about the tattoo:

He scratched up a corner of the tape and ripped the bandage off like he wanted to take Neil's face with it.

24. the king's men, chapter 1, when neil said he went to the ravens to protect andrew:

Andrew clapped a hand over his mouth, smothering the rest of his words, and Neil knew he'd failed.

25. the king's men, chapter 2, when andrew goes to get neil from the library:

Fingers digging into the back of his skull startled him awake. He grabbed for a gun, for a knife, for anything close enough to buy him room to flee, and sent the computer mouse skidding across the table. Neil stared blankly at it, then at the screen in front of him. Fingers clenched into a fist in his hair and Neil didn't resist as Andrew forcibly tilted his head back.

26. the king's men, chapter 2, when neil got between matt and andrew when andrew went after matt for hitting kevin:

He used his body and momentum to shove Andrew back. He expected Andrew to hold his ground, but Andrew let himself get pushed and flicked Neil an unconcerned look.

27. the king's men, chapter 2, when neil protested that he could still walk when wymack says he doesn't want neil to move too much because of his injuries:

Andrew dug a fingernail into the hollow of Neil's throat until he had Neil's undivided attention. "Sit down and be still." Neil batted Andrew's hand away and turned back to the couch.

28. the king's men, chapter 2, when neil protested that wymack was benching him because of his injuries:

Neil forgot the rest of his argument when Andrew pinched his wrist. A bolt of fire popped through his fingers and he snatched his hand away as fast as he could.

29. the king's men, chapter 3, when andrew sees neil's scars for the first time (lots of touches here):

He got his shirt over his head and to his elbows before Andrew got tired of watching him struggle and tugged the shirt loose. [...] Andrew reached for the bandages on Neil's wrists, and Neil let him rip tape and gauze off. [...] On Neil's right shoulder was a burn scar, courtesy of getting smacked by a hot iron. Andrew put his left hand to it, fingertips lining up perfectly with the raised bumps the iron's holes had left behind. His right thumb found the puckered flesh from a bullet. [...] "This," Andrew dug his fingers harder into the iron mark, "is not from a life on the run." [...] Andrew was quiet a long time, then dropped his hand to the slashes across Neil's gut.

30. the king's men, chapter 9, when they talk on the roof and andrew gives neil a key to his new car:

Andrew dug a finger in Neil's cheek and forcibly turned his head away. "Don't look at me like that. I am not your answer, and you sure as fuck aren't mine."

31. the king's men, chapter 9, when andrew kisses him for the first time:

With that, Andrew caught Neil's face in his hands and leaned in. [...] Andrew kissed him like this was a fight with their lives on the line, like his world stopped and started with Neil's mouth. Neil's heart stuttered to a stop at the first hard press of lips against his and he reached up without thinking. His hand made it as far as Andrew's jaw before he remembered Andrew didn't like to be touched. Neil caught hold of Andrew's coat sleeve instead and knotted his fingers in the heavy wool. The touch was a trigger. Andrew leaned back just enough to say, "Tell me no."

32. the king's men, chapter 9, when neil doesn't say no to the kiss:

He practically shoved Neil's arm away from him and leaned back out of Neil's space.

33. the king's men, chapter 10, when they kiss back in the dorm (cut some of the end of this scene for length):

Neil took the pint from Andrew's unresisting fingers, stacked it on top of his, and leaned in. He stopped shy of actually kissing Andrew, not daring to touch him until Andrew gave him a green light. Andrew's expression didn't change but there was a subtle shift in his body's tension that told Neil he'd gotten Andrew's attention. Neil lifted a hand but stopped it a safe difference from Andrew's face. Andrew caught hold of his wrist and squeezed in warning. [...] For a second Neil thought Andrew would push him away and be done with this. Andrew did push, but he followed Neil down. The short carpet was rough against Neil's knuckles where Andrew pinned his hand over his head. Neil couldn't complain when Andrew was an unyielding weight on top of him. He started to reach for Andrew again but stopped himself halfway there. Andrew snagged that hand too and held it down out of the way. "Stay," Andrew said, and leaned down to kiss him.

34. the king's men, chapter 10, when neil asks andrew to let something in after the foxes win and move onto round three of finals:

Andrew pushed Neil out of the way and slid off the car.

35. the king's men, chapter 11, when neil and andrew are alone in the dorm again, after andrew talks about how he hasn't figured out which neil is the lesser of two evils:

His fingers were cold from the can when he curled them around Neil's chin. [...] Andrew waited until he'd gone still before kissing him. [...] He was cotton-headed and unsteady by the time Andrew pressed his other hand flat against Neil's abdomen. Every nerve ending from his chest down seemed to twitch in response. Neil clenched his hands into fists like that would keep them where they were and let Andrew back him into the wall.

36. the king's men, chapter 11, after neil's phone goes off with his countdown text while they're kissing:

Neil kissed his neck, hoping to distract him, and was rewarded with a startled jolt. That was enough reason to do it again. Andrew pushed his face away, but they were standing too close together for Neil to miss the way he shivered. Andrew kissed him before Neil could say anything about it. Andrew pushed him harder into the wall, mapping him out through his shirt from shoulders to waist and back again. He'd had his hands on Neil's bare skin just a couple weeks ago when he saw Neil's scars, but this felt completely different. This was Andrew learning every inch and edge of him. His hands had never felt this heavy or hot before. Every press and demanding slide of his fingers sent heat curling through Neil's veins.

37. the king's men, chapter 11, when andrew moves neil's hands to touch him while they're kissing:

He hadn't said that aloud, but as if on cue Andrew followed Neil's arms down to his wrists and poked his fingers into Neil's pockets. He was making sure Neil's hands were still there, Neil guessed, so Neil twisted his hands deeper in response. Andrew caught hold of his wrists and squeezed to stop him. After a moment's consideration he pulled Neil's hands free and held them up by his head. He kissed Neil like he wanted to bruise his lips and leaned back to fix Neil with an intense stare. "Just here." "Okay," Neil said, and dug his fingers into Andrew's hair as soon as Andrew's grip went slack. [...] All that mattered now was how easy it was to pull Andrew in for another kiss. Andrew slowly let go of his wrists and placed a hand flat on Neil's chest. They stood like that an age, Andrew testing Neil's control and Neil content to kiss their mouths numb.

38. the king's men, chapter 11, andrew getting neil off for the first time (some of this quote is cut because this scene was too long):

Andrew's hand between his legs was an unexpected weight. Neil didn't realize how tight he twisted his fingers in Andrew's hair until Andrew bit his lower lip in warning. Neil grumbled something incoherent and forcibly loosened his death grip. He thought he tasted blood, but it was a fleeting tang quickly forgotten as Andrew got his button and zipper undone. Andrew wasn't gentle, but Neil didn't want him to be. [...] They stood cheek-to-cheek a minute, an hour, a day, Neil's heart pounding in his temples and overloaded nerves shuddering. Coherent thought came back in lazy, fractured pieces and the first thing Neil was really aware of was how tight Andrew's fingers were digging into his chest. Neil tried to look down, but Andrew gave him a short shove in response. [...] Neil flexed his fingers in Andrew's hair, fixing his grip so he could tug Andrew into a short kiss. Andrew tolerated it for only a moment before leaning back. He wiped his hand on Neil's shirt before tugging at Neil's wrists. Neil obediently let go of him and didn't miss the way Andrew watched him lower his hands.

39. the king's men, chapter 11, when they start kissing more often:

Andrew pinned him against chilly concrete and worked hot hands under his shirt.

40. the king's men, chapter 11, when they're chatting on the roof and neil takes andrew's cigarette:

Andrew pinched his wrist and took the stick back.

41. the king's men, chapter 11, after neil shuts andrew up by saying he is nothing and andrew wants nothing:

"Stop talking," Andrew said, and kissed him.

42. the king's men, chapter 12, on the bus alone before the game on his last countdown day when neil says he still doesn't swing because all he wants is andrew:

He buried his hands in Andrew's hair and tugged him in for a kiss. It was easy to forget this endless ride and tonight's game with Andrew's hand on his thigh and teeth on his lip.

43. the king's men, chapter 14, in the hotel meeting for the first time after neil was taken:

The weight of a hand on the back of his neck said he'd bought Andrew enough time to reach him. Nathaniel didn't remember closing his eyes, but he forced them open again. He tried straightening, but Andrew caught his shoulder and shoved him to his knees.

44. the king's men, chapter 14, andrew kneeling in front of neil to look at him in the hotel:

Andrew's expression was deceptively calm, but there was iron in his grip when he seized Nathaniel's chin.

45. the king's men, chapter 14, andrew looking over neil's injuries:

Andrew let go of him so he could tug Nathaniel's hood out of the way. He dragged a finger along the lines of tape keeping the myriad of bandages in place as if looking for the best place to start. He tore the gauze off Nathaniel's right cheek first, exposing the striped lines left by Lola's knife. He favored the stitches with a cursory glance before moving on. The tape on Nathaniel's other cheek hurt like hell coming off, since it pulled the skin around his burns, and Andrew froze with his hand a few scant inches from Nathaniel's face.

46. the king's men, chapter 14, andrew looking at the burns and injuries on neil's face:

Andrew pressed two fingers to the underside of Nathaniel's chin to turn his head. Nathaniel let himself be guided and said nothing while Andrew looked his fill. When Andrew dropped his hand and clenched it in Nathaniel's hoodie, Nathaniel risked looking back at him. There was violence in Andrew's eyes, but at least he hadn't shoved Nathaniel away yet.

47. the king's men, chapter 14, when neil tells andrew why he didn't say anything about his father's men to protect the foxes and that he didn't know they'd already planned a riot:

Nathaniel still had his hands up by Andrew's face, so he lightly tapped a thumb against the bruise at Andrew's eye.

48. the king's men, chapter 14, when abby tries to approach when she sees neil's face:

He caught hold of Nathaniel to turn his face forward again and shot Abby a look so vicious she stopped in her tracks.

49. the king's men, chapter 14, when neil tries to get andrew to focus on him and not abby:

Nathaniel gave Andrew's hair a cautious tug. Andrew resisted the first two attempts but finally let Nathaniel drag his attention back where it needed to be.

50. the king's men, chapter 14, when abby backs off:

He didn't hear her step back but he knew she did by the way Andrew's death grip on his skull relaxed. Nathaniel kept one hand buried in Andrew's hair but finally lowered the other.

51. the king's men, chapter 14, when neil tells andrew what happened to his father:

He crossed a precarious line and pressed two fingers to Andrew's chest over his heart.

52. the king's men, chapter 14, when neil says he'll leave if andrew doesn't want him:

Andrew hooked his fingers in the collar of Nathaniel's sweatshirt and tugged just enough for him to feel it.

53. the king's men, chapter 14, when browning keeps interrupting their time with neil:

Andrew tugged Nathaniel's hoodie and said in German, "Get rid of them before I kill them."

54. the king's men, chapter 14, on the car ride back from the interrogation:

Neil sat in the backseat with Andrew and toyed with the bandages on his face. Andrew popped the back of his head when he realized what Neil was doing and ignored Neil's scowl.

55. the king's men, chapter 14, when neil starts panicking when he sees his injuries when abby changes his bandages:

Neil didn't know what sound he made but Andrew's fingers were a sudden and unforgiving weight on the back of his neck. Andrew pushed him forward and held him down. Neil tried to breathe but his chest was as tight as a rubber band ready to snap.

56. the king's men, chapter 14, after andrew gets neil to calm down:

He went limp and let Andrew pull him back upright.

57. the king's men, chapter 15, when andrew is trying to get neil ready for a shower while matt is still in the room:

Andrew waited until he was seated before lifting the bottom edge of Neil's hoodie. He raised it an inch or two, then checked another spot, and finally poked his hand up under the edge.

58. the king's men, chapter 15, when neil struggles getting undressed for a shower:

Andrew gave him only a second before peeling the sleeves off his arms one at a time.

59. the king's men, chapter 15, andrew putting the bags over his bandages and injuries:

Andrew pulled a garbage bag over each arm, tore the excess edges off, and taped the jagged ends to Neil's biceps. He tugged at both bags to check for any give and added another layer of tape to be sure. When Neil's arms were good, Andrew started on his face. He picked up one of the plastic ends he'd torn off, folded it over and over in on itself, and taped it over one of Neil's cheeks like a shiny black bandage. Neil was pretty sure Andrew put more tape than plastic on Neil's face, but Neil wasn't going to complain. Andrew finished his other cheek and inspected his handiwork. Neil guessed he was satisfied with the end result because Andrew tossed the scissors and roll of tape off to one side.

60. the king's men, chapter 15, when neil tries to secure the blanket around his shoulders but can't because of the bags on his hands: 

Andrew watched him try twice, then pushed his hands aside and did it for him.

61. the king's men, chapter 15, when getting into the shower:

Andrew studied his chest with a bored look, but the fingers he pressed to Neil's scars were a heavy and lingering weight.

62. the king's men, chapter 15, in the bathroom before the shower:

Neil leaned in to kiss him, needing to know if Andrew would lean away or push him back. Instead Andrew opened his mouth to Neil without hesitation and slid his hand up Neil's chest to his throat. Kissing hurt his injured cheeks but Neil fought to ignore that twinging pain. It'd only been a couple days since those kisses on the bus but right now it felt like forever.

63. the king's men, chapter 15, after kissing, before showering:

"You are a mess," Andrew said against Neil's lips.

64. the king's men, chapter 15, getting in the shower:

Neil stepped on the hems of his pants to get them started in coming off, but Andrew did most of the work stripping him. It was awkward being naked in front of someone else, his scars and bruises on full display, but the uncomfortable curl in Neil's gut was eased somewhat by the detached way Andrew handled him.

65. the king's men, chapter 15, hair washing: 

A hand in his hair jarred him from his thoughts and he cracked his eyes open to see Andrew standing in front of him. Andrew hadn't bothered to get undressed aside from stripping his bands and shoes off. Water plastered his black shirt to him, and small streams raced down his temples and over his cheeks to drip off his chin. Neil reached for his face, remembered the bags just in time, and frowned a bit in annoyance. Andrew pushed his hand aside and yanked the shower curtain closed.

66. the king's men, chapter 15, not washing anymore (ended this quote early but we all know what happens next): 

Andrew got Neil's hair washed efficiently, if not gently, but by the time he moved on to Neil's body there was more kissing than cleaning. Andrew made the mistake of turning his face away at one point, so Neil chased water down the side of Andrew's neck. Andrew's fingers clenched convulsively on Neil's sides as a shudder wracked Andrew's frame. [...]

67. the king's men, chapter 15, after the shower: 

Andrew scrubbed him dry, careful around his injuries and too-vigorous everywhere else, and peeled the dripping bags from Neil's arms and face. Andrew ran a considering finger along the bandages on Neil's left arm before helping Neil into the loosest clothes he owned.

68. the king's men, chapter 15, first night on vacation with the foxes:

Andrew wasn't far behind him, and together they got Neil changed out for bed. [...] Despite his reservations, there was something painfully familiar about the weight of another body in his bed. Less familiar was the way it felt being pushed deeper into the mattress, Andrew's hands on his shoulders and tongue in his mouth, but that was something Neil could definitely get used to. [...] He buried his unease and confusion deep and worked bandaged fingers into Andrew's hair. He didn't care how much it hurt so long as he could pull Andrew's elbow. Andrew wrenched out of his grip but stopped moving.

69. the king's men, chapter 15 (the second one), after andrew confronts katelyn in the library:

Neil let him get to the railing overlooking the campus pond before catching hold of Andrew's elbow. Andrew wrenched out of his grip but stopped moving.

70. the king's men, chapter 15 (the second one), after asking how andrew can stand to be with neil after everything he'd been through:

Then Andrew was back, as calm and uncaring as always, and he caught Neil's wrist to push his hand to his side. He dug his fingers in before letting go, not quite hard enough to hurt, and said, "That's why."

71. the king's men, chapter 15 (the second one), when they're alone after winning a game and the rest of the team celebrated:

Andrew was ready when Neil turned back to him, and he caught Neil's collar to pull him down. Neil planted one hand against the rough carpet to keep himself leveraged off Andrew's body. The other he buried in the beanbag near Andrew's head. Andrew dragged a hand down Neil's arm from his shoulder to his wrist.

72. the king's men, chapter 15 (the second one), when neil told andrew he's not a pipe-dream:

Neil ignored that dismissal because Andrew was already pulling him down again. They kissed until Neil felt dizzy, until he wasn't sure he could hold himself up anymore, and then Andrew pulled Neil's hand off the beanbag chair. He held it up away from them for an eternity, then slowly pressed it flat against his chest and let go. Andrew tensed up underneath Neil's hand but relaxed before Neil could pull away.

73. the king's men, chapter 16, at eden's twilight:

The club was too loud for Neil to hear Andrew's approach, but suddenly Andrew was pressed into his side by the crowd.

74. the king's men, epilogue, when neil realizes he has everything he wants:

Now he couldn't help but smile and pull Andrew in.

#andreil #andrew minyard #neil josten #i might have missed some things but #wow lol looking at this list #i cant believe i made this whole thing #anyway i hope this is helpful or at least cool to look at for other people #i'm just the kind of guy who likes to make spreadsheets about everything so of course i have spreadsheets crossreferencing so much in aftg #aftg #all for the game #UGH had to edit this because tumblr didnt save one of my earlier edits and I didn't realize until now

[slow-writer]

TMAGP (and TMA, indirectly) Spoilers and Thoughts...

You have been warned...

I wasn't part of the original TMA crowd back when it was first airing. I'd heard mutterings of it, but never really thought much about it. To be honest, I probably wasn't mentally ready for it back then. Instead, my younger sister started listening to it last year and then kept talking about it until something she said made me go, "Y'know what? Okay. I'm in."

I ended up bingeing through it during work this past October, and holy sh*t. I fell down the rabbit hole hard. (Maybe, in this case, it would be more akin to running face first down those coffin stairs? I digress.) Being so new to it when everyone else had already been swallowed up by the sky, it was cool to dig into the Wikis that had already been made, to see the links and foreshadowing.

But now, it's the beginning of TMAGP, and I actually get to listen the day they release, to jump on here, or reddit, or tiktok, or wherever to be a part of the theorizing AS IT HAPPENS. And boy oh boy, I'm happier than Simon Fairchild in the stratosphere.

Do I have a notebook to jot down my thoughts as I listen? Of course, I do. Do I have multiple tabs open, some with ARG info, some with TMA info, and yet more with references to alchemical symbols and practices? Duh. Have I started my own spreadsheet for it all? Well, if you knew about my Lego Dimensions spreadsheet.... nevermind. Yes, I have.

But nothing beats being able to talk (or type) about it with other fans, like my sister, or those faceless avatars (lol) of the interwebs. And man, has my brain been CHURNING.

First, let me get out of the way that I wasn't able to take part in the ARG as it was happening, and my goodness! I'm so happy there are other people out there like me who were able to sum up and load it up for the rest of us to learn about. No idea how much of it will be *necessary* to unlock all the secrets, but I'm the kind who loves to know trivia just cos. And the details I am learning definitely pull me deeper.

Second, I feel like in the beginning of TMA, there was barely anything for the listeners to dig through. One guy working on behalf of an organization, trying to dig through seemingly implausible and overly spooktastic first-hand statements dating back centuries that are in crazy disarray from the previous archivist, and he's laying on a hefty helping of "this is utter balderdash, complete poppycock, and absolute piffle" opinion. It was a slow burn, something that (as an American, and being exposed to so much more instant gratification in storytelling than necessary) UK storytellers seem to be experts in, and was even more expertly done in this case, since so many little things had to eventually build up without listeners automatically assuming what would happen next, without them getting bored.

But TMAGP is already so full of so much extra stuff, so many little things (even before it was released) that we may all get BURIED in the sheer amount of data we think is vital. We're not listening to tapes this time, we're definitely listening via internet-connected devices, like computers, mobile phones, and security cameras. So, while TMA had old tape recorders magically appearing (or were they being dragged by hordes of spiders?) and switching themselves on so they could hear all the random happenings within the archive, TMAGP is no longer reliant on such hand-wavery. Whatever/whoever is listening can do so from anywhere to anyone they want. That makes the world of TMAGP

SO MUCH BIGGER.

Third, I know not everyone who listens to these things is like me (or, let's face it: us--there are so many fans doing regular deep dives on here, we should have our own categorization on the wiki). There are bound to be listeners who just leave everything at face value and wait for the story to unfold itself organically, and when it's done, it's done. But even as an adolescent, when I got into something, I did my best to listen to, watch, or read everything I could find on that very niche thing. At least for a while. (Hello, undiagnosed ADHD!)

So, I watched/listened to a couple interviews and Q&As regarding the new show prior to release. And while both Alex and Jonny have been clear saying you don't have to have listened to TMA to enjoy TMAGP, I kind of think just saying that is leading us TMA fans in a very specific direction. And I think it's very intentional, and that a lot of fans either haven't heard about it yet, or are choosing to ignore it.

They say that TMAGP is tangentially related to TMA in that there will be familiar themes, but

it's taking place in a completely different universe from TMA;

time in TMA worked differently (especially during the Entity Torturepalooza in S5) towards the end, so dates of events there may not line up with dates or events in this universe; and

the main or overarching theme is different.

In TMA, the story was "what makes a monster a monster?" As in, is there a line one crosses that they can't return from? Is it a physical manifestation, like it alters their appearance? Is it an action they have to take? And does that action have to be done willingly, or can it be coerced? Does becoming the monster to protect someone else, or to achieve a greater good... does any of that matter?

In TMAGP, they've already said that the story will be "what makes a person a person?"

The implications of that sentence are many and mind-boggling.

I first thought it had something to do with the idea of the humane (not human): kindness, empathy, compassion. The ties that bind us together as people (like being fans of a little horror podcast from across the pond) could be part of this.

But, now that we have 5 episodes out, and a metaphorical army of lore-deep-divers digging through every word and sound effect and episode title, I think we can truly start to figure out where we're heading.

Artificial Intelligence.

It struck me as I was re-listening to the first episode this morning. (I really am trying to fill out my spreadsheet in a semi-logical manner and with as many pertinent details as possible, really. That's the main reason I was doing that this morning. At least, that's what I tell myself.) We are hearing all these happenings over web-connected devices (don't think I don't see you, Alex and Jonny, and your oh-so-hilarious punning!), the OIAR employees are working on a modified business-forward version of Windows NT 4.0 that precedes Windows 95 that has a name that we interpret as 'Freddy' (or Freddie, depending on where you are in the transcripts), one of the documents from the ARG was a spreadsheet called 'Klaus' (which IS the name of the former IT guy Gwen's asking about because she heard/saw young Lena arguing with him), and we have at least 3 text-to-speech "voices" that Alice has given names (Chester, Norris, and Augustus).

All of that was running through my brain, and then I heard this passage within the first few minutes of the episode:

LENA - Nonsense. Sam is the only one who has had any cake so far. GWEN - And that was only because you practically forced it down his throat. SAM - No, no, it was… nice. LENA - People like chocolate cake.

People like chocolate cake? She didn't even ask her employees (all 5 of them at that time) what flavor they'd prefer, or if they'd want something else? No. She just knows a fact that "people" like chocolate cake, so of course, her employees--who are people--would like chocolate cake.

Almost like a computer following a logic-based workflow, perhaps?

Lots of people have been trying to figure out who in the office is the Big Bad, and many are saying Gwen just because of her ambition and her last name (Bouchard), but I think her name is a red herring. Others are saying Alice knows more than she lets on (and so many are hating on her, and I will NOT ABIDE THE ALICE DYER SHADE because I love her and I would very probably hide bodies for her) but I agree that certain things she's said are a little sus, though they really could just be her personality. I really have known some women like her, and they are some of my favorite people. (Plus, the fact that we now know that she's the most tenured employee at the OIAR--save possibly Lena--does make the brain churn some more.)

But with this line about chocolate cake, and how she was unable to join them at the pub, and how we haven't had a scene with her outside of the OIAR office, it makes me think that Lena might just be part code.

[Let me also add this really quick: I've seen A LOT of people trying to make the current episodes fit into Smirke's 14 +Dekker's 1, but I don't think the Entities as we codified them are what we're dealing with in this universe. I think trying to link everything back to that show will be a lot of wasted thought, because as they said, this isn't a direct sequel. (Do I think it's actually Jon, Martin, and Jonah--yes, Jonah, not Jurgen--trapped in the computer system? A bit, but it won't shatter my appreciation if the voices are something else entirely.)

Plus, I've seen others saying that the statements we've heard, while creepy, aren't all necessarily to do with fear. Most of them are about desires and obsessions.

The woman who wanted so desperately to see her dead husband again that she'd get scammed over and over to possibly resurrect him;

the person who wanted to spelunk an 'unsolved' site to the point of crime;

the woman who wanted to finally feel comfortable in her skin to the point of disfiguring herself;

the man who wanted so badly to climb out of his assigned station and achieve fame that he'd regularly 'feed' his violin blood from other people;

and the man who wanted to feel the same terror he felt when watching scary movies with his dad when he was a kid to the point of chasing down 'borderline illegal films' and ignoring LITERALLY ALL the red flags to the end.

I think that theory is the closest to what we may actually encounter.]

I've seen others on reddit saying they think that this series will be about the race to create the philosopher's stone--the stone that creates the elixir of life and, essentially, immortality. I think it's a valid idea. But, what if it went further than that?

Because with all the alchemical hints dropping in the show's logo, the ARG, and the 3-category system to the statements (yes, I'm keeping track) that could make one think of the spirit, the mind, and the body in alchemy....

What if they're trying to create life from software?

What if these entities or desires or whatevers have been working through some ancient busted code, feeding off statements from "real" humans experiencing strong emotions, watching the employees that work with it every single night, so they can create something as close to a human as possible from just wires and 3 decades of unreadable code?

Oh lord... it just occurred to me that--due to this being a HORROR podcast--they might need to collect a skin suit for the Not Quite Human. Is that what happened to Klaus? Ick. And now I'm hoping I'm wrong.

#the magnus protocol #tma #the magnus archives #tmagp #rant post #theory

[xanasaurusrex]

⇢ ˗ˏˋ athena cabin headcanons ࿐ྂ

ok so this was requested by @bolleyn, i'm not sure why it's not letting me tag you, but this is for you bae!!! (also, as an athena child myself, this was at the top of the list before it was requested) now, without further ado, athena cabin hcs!!!!

so obviously we all know that athena kids are clever

they're smart

but they're not all the same KIND of smart

there are definitely some street smark athena kids

the majority of them are more book smart, but there are definitely some athena kids that lean more towards street smart and what to do in certain situations

like there's always at least one street smart athena kid who knows how to handle social situations better than most of the other athena kids

not to like stereotype them or anything, but there are a good amount of athena kids that just kinda don't understand that when a random guy at the back of a gas station asks you if you want some 'herb' you should probably tell him no

street smart athena kids are also pretty booksmart, but we all have our specialties

athena kids can sometimes get a bad rap from other kids at camp, because they have an acute sense of things that are inevitably going to go wrong

kinda like zeus kids, but they're more aware of it and speak out about it more openly

athena kids are the people that are gonna tell you when you ask if you should do a flip on the rickety-est table known to man while drunk off your ass, they're gonna tell you no, and then after you proceed to do it and break the table and your leg, they're going to look you dead in the eye and say "I told you so"

which, admittedly, can definitely get annoying, but really they just have your best interests at heart and don't want you getting hurt

unfortunately, this comes out in some kinda annoying ways

athena kids also tell the best campfire stories

whenever it's been a kinda hard day, and everyone just needs a fun story to bring the mood up, the first person you look to is an athena kid

they're all very creative, and can come up with something like that on a whim

that's one of the reasons the youngest kids at camp LOVE athena kids

athena kids are also known for their homework help

it's become a little bit of a weird little side hustle for the athena kids

this mostly works for summer homework, but if you send a letter to an athena kid over the summer asking for help on an essay, they'll definitely help you

for the right price

the head camper for the athena cabin run the whole thing basically, and keep track of everything and have a little spreadsheet on their laptops

they keep track of who gets what service, whose a regular customer, things like that

it's honestly a really lucrative business, because having a camp full of dyslexic kids who would do anything to not do their business turns out to be something you could make some money off of

no one really knows who started it, all they know is that it was started sometime in the 90s, and that every head camper for athena cabin has upheld the tradition ever since

gods protect the head camper who decides it's "unethical" or whatever

(ares cabin once tried to declare the homework business unethical because they were jealous that their cabin didn't really have anything they could make money off of)

business transactions occur in both mortal money and golden drachmas, kinda depends on whatever you have more of

going back to party stuff

despite the fact that athena kids are generally against parties (because parties attract the dumbest behavior known to man) but they are pretty good at planning them

it's not all that hard to get an athena kid (or a few athena kids) to help plan a party if you're good at grovelling

they're really good at making guest lists, and then calculating how much food and drinks are required for that amount of people

there's also a good amount of arts and crafts activities available at camp due to the athena kids

athena kids are naturally very crafty and very good at crafting, so there's always a good amount of crafting supplies available at the camp shop

pony beads, yarn, glitter glue

anything you'd ever need to craft, it's there

(this is due to a strike that the athena kids ran sometime during the 90s, it's unclear if this was before or after the homework business first boomed)

basically, athena kids are good people to have around

they have good, level heads on their shoulders, and are good people to go to if you need advice on something

they rarely ever have issues with indecision

so the next time you see an athena kid telling you not to try and swing by your pinky fingers on the monkey bars at a playground at 1 in the morning, maybe listen to them, and give them a pat on the back!

thanks for reading everybody!

[thegeminisage]

IT'S TIME FOR. a star trek update. and BOY am i behind. wednesday we watched tng's "frame of mind," friday we watched ds9's "progress" and tng's "suspicions," and last night we watched ds9's "if wishes were horses." i am so thrilled to announce that despite the high amount of episodes including tng episodes i have almost NOTHING to complain about this update. like a little, but not much.

frame of mind (tng):

first of all we must acknowledge this gifset, which according to the timestamp i saw with my eyeballs near the end of january which (and i checked) was right after the episode where picard is like yeah worf should kill himself. IN the course of the episode worf asks riker to assist with his suicide which is both the most horrible and romantic thing that's ever happened with them. so i went into the ship tag. found it most bereft except for this gifset. i have been DYING to know for a MONTH AND A HALF what's going on in this ep. i finally cracked recently and read the summary which only made me more excited.

so. drumroll. DID THE EP DELIVER..............???

yes.

yes, with VERY minor caveats.

i think my only real complaint about this episode is that it was a me problem. like i was picturing some scene where worf tenderly (for him) talks riker down from a fit of madness and also he was the real worf. i built it up too much in my head. that's not what happened. in my mind palace it is. i'm a little tempted to do a rewrite of it to make it happen but i barely have time to breathe so that will remain a wistful thought for now. like, i knew the enterprise setting wasn't real, but regardless of the amount of worf/riker (e deanna) ship content it was just kind of disappointing to learn that the mental facility was ALSO not real because the worf and data that rescued riker were not real and the beverly that snuck in to see him was also not real and his experiences there also weren't "real" in the physical sense, even though he very much did still experience them. very "it was all a dream!" of them

OTHER THAN THAT. i was really into it. i loved everything about it. i loved riker's break from reality. i loved that crazy lady with the spoon. i loved how even data got weirded out at riker's antics. i love that the part of riker that is his feelings is represented by deanna and the part of him that is action is represented by worf WORF E RIKER E DEANNA REAL! i didn't like picard being his logic. spock should be everybody's logic. get that guy outta here

also, what a great touch to have very chill very normal very laid back riker be like yeah if i don't tear this set apart with my bare hands before i sleep i really WILL go crazy 🙃

side var didn't beverly say people were coming to clean it up in the morning...what happened to the ship cleaning itself smh. justice for the invisible janitors and housekeepers of starfleet

also, why did this episode make me slightly into riker and beverly as friends with benefits...the whole trill boyfriend situation adds so much fun complication to that as well depending on a multitude of varying and equally valid interpretations of that event. like, girl, forget picard's two-timing ass. what's he ever done for you except knock you up with an affair baby. join the worf e riker e deanna polycule. they could make better husbands. shit, i could make a better husband. forget him girl! you don't need him

progress (ds9):

holy fucking shit.

this episode BLEW me away. easily a must-see on my spreadsheet, when i (eventually?) catch up. every single thing they do with kira is AMAZING.

the old guy was so instantly likable. he was likable even when he was being sexist BECAUSE he was being sexist specifically to wind kira up because kira was playing bad guy. their chemistry was so good. i was just as worried about him as kira was the whole episode long

what a brilliant way to discuss war, not by showing the violence or the gore or the death but by simply showing us this guy who won't leave his farm and sleeptalks during his nightmares and these other two who can't speak but WILL kill you with pitchforks. like, you have "chain of command" with picard and the four lights and then you have this, and both of them are so important in our understanding of the cardassians and what they do.

sisko was so absolutely kind to kira. like, he outlined her struggle perfectly - she's no longer the underdog, and in some ways that sucks, because she now has no idea how to behave. her morals and her logic and her heart are all telling her different things.

AND LIKE. SISKO. KNEELING DOWN. TO BE EYE TO EYE WITH HER. i cannot possibly express how important that is. HE IS SO GOOD!!!

i'm actually really glad she got teary eyed but DIDN'T cry. we just watched her ugly cry in that episode with kai opaka and i think to do it twice together so soon would have been too much. but it DID need that emotional beat, and they struck the perfect balance.

the through-line of the fucking kiln. every time i saw them building it. wah.

the ending was so shocking and so horrible...actually, my one tiny nitpick with this ep is that there wasn't really the proper setup for it. the air will be poison if those guys tap the moon, but surely the ostensible utopian starfleet is not gonna tap it with even one holdout...? though i guess bajor isn't in starfleet proper? tng often has too MUCH technobabble and exposition but this didn't have quiiite enough - i feel like forcefields or masks or other scifi tech might have solved this problem and i didn't REALLY believe the only two solutions were to let this guy die on the moon or forcibly relocate him, especially when kira brought up a slower way to get the energy they needed - but maybe that's the point, that she ended the fight before it could become one, idk. i also wish he had said "as long as this house is still standing" a little earlier - having him say it right before the end sort of gave away what kira was gonna do before she did it, though i DIDN'T expect her to start with the kiln.

other than though it was so good. it says so much about the nature of the cardassians as a group, and bajorans as a group, and about kira herself.

also, sorry, jacket coming off hot.

suspicions (tng):

THERE WERE SO MANY WOMEN IN THIS EPISODE??? let's count

beverly, and it's a beverly-centric episode

hot klingon lady who threw beverly around like a sack of flour (again: beverly is bicurious)

VERY snooty vulcan lady with the human??? husband????? sorry but doesn't he have a refractory period how do they get BY during pon farr? ok. none of my business. moving on

nurse ogawa who helped commit women's wrongs

guinan, beverly's confidant and pretend tennis elbow haver...

deanna also had a few lines which i'm choosing to count in the spirit of things

also, that green alien guy? long feng from atla.

anyway, i was tickled with this episode. not only because they finally wrote a ferengi who isn't racist, showed another vulcan/human couple, included a bunch of women, AND gave beverly the main role, but also because the mystery was perfectly done. it gave us just enough information to stay interesting, and i figured out long feng faked his own death RIGHT before the reveal - not early enough to bore me but early enough to make me feel smart

i didn't really understand why beverly chose to end ferengi racism in a field that she wasn't even in but i support her so much. also, she got to do an illegal autopsy and steal a fucking shuttle. GOOD for her

again i want to state that this klingon lady TOSSED HER AROUND it was so fucking sexy. get it beverly. i so rarely have so much fun with a tng episode and we got two good ones in a row!!

if wishes were horses (ds9):

this is a sequel to an episode of tos i mostly don't like, "shore leave." tng also had a "shore leave episode" (the one where picard's mom showed up and i think some ensign got spliced into the floor) so we have done "our thoughts manifest as reality" twice now and i assume will continue to do it in every star trek series going forward. so far i have not liked any of these episodes because of the redundant and irrelevant nature of them (oh look! a random tiger!) but ds9's is probably my favorite out of the three

i just feel like you have the potential to get so real and do such character work when thoughts are manifested as reality and instead it's always this crazy shit. i think tng tried to do it with more gravitas, but it's tng and early tng at that, so i've yet to see star trek do one of these successfully and i doubt i ever will.

ANYWAY. number one complaint with this is of course the fake dax. i think it's really funny that she keeps gently but firmly shooting julian down, and while julian is a likable cringefail loser i NEVER saw him as a creep, not even with repeated attempts to ask her out...and then this happened, and it was very touch and go for a second there. i'm glad his instinct was to fight dax when she was compromised, really horrified when he "gave in," and then was extremely relieved when they were interrupted. he tried i guess. i'm gonna try not to hold it against him. if i can forgive geordi i can forgive julian.

we ALMOST got it working right. dax was like you know julian in a way i kind of feel like we invaded YOUR privacy it's not as though you can help having fantasies and they should have been safe in your head which was like. ok great take actually! we are being adults! but then the fake one showed back up and tried to pick a catfight with the real one and SSSSIGH

keiko and o'briens little daughter is SO cute. i mean she is SO fucking adorable. rumpelstiltskin was easily the dumbest part of this episode but that little baby is so adorable it was almost worth it to see her. i also didn't like that obrien didn't immediately say no as a kneejerk reaction to selling his daughter. girl what's wrong with you

i DON'T like that there's no baseball in the future. number one i refuse to believe americans could ever fall out of love with baseball even if it's only in a "let's bring back this vintage game" kind of way and number two it's one of the only sports i kind of like and understand. sisko being a nerd about an ancient dead sport is so funny though. good for him.

THAT SAID. i was kind of hoping sisko would see his dead wife. we got a great little moment where kira imagined an explosion and a guy on fire, which touched on something she probably actually has seen, and it was a fun way to give a stupid and silly concept some gravitas, but when everything got quiet there at the end i was expecting sisko's wife and no, it was just mr baseball again

shoutout also to odo running around with two real live birds on that set, quark fucking the birds after they turned into ladies, and then odo imagining quark in jail. truly a series of events, though given quark offering to make him a changeling lady friend in the holosuite (refreshing that at least in ds9 they acknowledge it as a sex toy), i kind of expected a serious moment with him too where he got his wish unwillingly.

and finally, i had SUCH a hard time following the plot of this episode.

the ending of this...eh. the power of positive thinking got rid of the rift = funny? the power of positive thinking is why a bunch of aliens showed up to wreak havoc = ehhhhh. the closest we came to having that serious moment i wanted was kira's .5 second scene and it JUST wasn't long enough. probably my least favorite ds9 episode yet, if we don't count the one with q, but still not as excruciating as some of tng's duds - it was entertaining enough not to make me hate existing for a single watch.

TONIGHT: tng's "rightful heir" (worf episode???👀) and ds9's "the forsaken" (deeply not looking forward to this...the summary says LWAXANA TROI is supposed to be mencing my best boy odo. please save him please get the tng out of my ds9 please please pleeease)

#personal #star trek blogging #tng lb #ds9 lb

[inevitably-johnlocked]

hey steph! i hope you’re doing well!! i know you have all the fics you’ve read in a masterlist doc you made yourself, and i was wondering if it was worth the time it took to make that? if so, do you have any tips on how to go about doing that? thank you :]

Hey Lovely!!

I am SO sorry for the delay in a reply to this... I saw it and then it just got buried LOL. I'm SO SO SORRY, wasn't intentional!!!

I do indeed have all my fics listed on an offline RTF Text Document (not even a word doc, it's Apple TextPad lol) and OOOF when I first decided to start filing it, UGH it was A CHORE. I'm talking a LONG time because I went through, at the time, all 500 of my bookmarks and just spent DAYS AND DAYS of holiday time just copy pasting them all into a tumblr post, and then copying those over to the lists. I chose to use the Tumblr formatting since that's where it would inevitably be posted to.

"Why not use a spreadsheet??" I've been asked before. It's literally because I hate spreadsheets, I don't like using them, and by using an RTF formatted document I can keep the formatting consistent between Tumblr and the lists offline. I wanted to make it as PAINLESS and easy as possible to copy-paste between Tumblr's ever-changing UI and my offline lists. I literally just have to double click a block of text and I highlight the whole rec :)

Now, at the time I thought I was wasting time doing it, thought it was all for naught re-reading EVERYTHING so I could properly add tags to fics that didn't have them or so I could sort them better. But it's now 500 more fics later, and I'm SO glad I streamlined a process to do it. Having the posts this way, WITH my own tags makes it MUCH easier for me to call up the fics you guys are needing, or if I need to make a quick-list in-a-pinch. It was well-worth the time to initially sort the bookmarks. It's worth the time to format not-read fics on a separate list so I can quickly find them again and add them to my Bookmarks list already-done. And I keep going back to my bookmarks every couple months to add those new fics to my offline lists.

That said... it's a lot of work, and it's REALLY fortunate that my OCPD actually functions well for this kind of website. I like digital organization, and I'm meticulous about how things are organized, because it feeds that need for control in my brain. So I can say it's ALSO not for everyone, but if you're just looking to do it for yourself, just add tags to all your bookmarks on AO3 (make sure all your bookmarks are private, otherwise the authors can see what you're tagging or noting them as. All my bookmarks are private because my tags are all spoilerific and I don't know if those would show up for other people).

BUT if you want to run your own blog, check out this post here for some past things I've written on the organization and time management tips for your own :)

Finally though, Yes, it's worth it. While not getting the traction I used to, I know that my recs bring joy to people, and honestly being someone who people can come to to find what they're looking for is heady and humbling. I love being able to leave my mark on the fandom in some way. :)

Sorry again for the delay, but I hope this helps answer your question. Please don't hesitate to ask something else if I missed anything or misunderstood <3

#steph replies #my blog #blog things #fic recs #about me #my tutorials

[imaginechb]

Hey guys, I'm officially back! So there isn't much content for Malcolm, and we don't know a ton about him but I had some ideas so I figured I'd share! If you don't know who I'm talking about, he's a son of Athena and he was kind of Annabeth's second-in-command until she left CHB and he became head counselor.

Much like he's the first person to notice Annabeth and Percy's feelings for each other, Annabeth is the first to notice his feelings for you. She would often push him to "go for it!", much to Malcolm's irritation.

When he's nervous or flustered he'll cover it up by spouting random facts that pop into his head. You think he's just smart and offering you information, but Annabeth knows what he's doing. He can't hide it from her.

Malcolm is very used to things being linear, so he tries to study you and figure you out for a long time before eventually learning that you aren't numbers on a spreadsheet. You're a person, and people are strange and colorful and unpredictable.

He learns to love that.

He's super uptight. Being Annabeth's second-in-command for many years means he feels like he needs to be perfect or needs to do everything right, and sometimes he gets really stressed about it. He would need someone who can understand that but also help him relax or loosen up a bit.

A relationship is not the most important thing to him. Of course he cares about you (a lot, actually), but he understands that as demigods, you aren't like other teenagers and you can't just go on casual dates all the time. It's about survival, and especially as head counselor of the Athena cabin, he's super busy with maps and plans and diagrams and all that.

He will, however, make time for you. Whether it's setting aside time after lunch or between lessons, he'll make sure he has time to spend with you here and there.

He has a huge sense of responsibility. He's had to lead the Athena cabin while Annabeth is on adventures with Percy, so he's led them into battle and led command tents in her absence. This taught him all about responsibility.

He's sarcastic as hell. His sense of humor is dry and sarcastic so you have to be able to match that energy!

I can imagine your first kiss was just before the Battle of Manhattan. When you guys got there, you met up briefly and told each other to be careful. Then he kissed you and told you he loved you before you headed back to your respective cabins.

During the battle, he's super protective over you and will keep an eye on you if he can from the command tent. If you're injured he will check on you every chance he gets.

He's worried about you the whole time, regardless of if you're hurt or not.

After the battle he will look around for you frantically. When he finds you he will run to you and pull you into the tightest, most loving hug you've ever received because oh gods, he's so glad you're okay.

Then he'll pull away and clear his throat awkwardly before telling you he's glad you're alright.

Malcolm isn't used to caring quite so much about people. Of course, he cares about his friends and siblings and he would be devastated if anything happened to any of them, but this is a whole new level of caring for him. He's confused because this is all so new, but he finds he doesn't hate it at all.

Cuddling in the Athena cabin while his siblings aren't there! It's such a calm place with all the bookshelves, the wood floors, and the warm lighting. You fall asleep on him almost every time.

You do have to ask him to cuddle. He loves you a whole lot, but he doesn't usually think of physical things first.

Stealing his glasses. If anyone else were to do this he would be pissed, but it's somehow cute when you do it so he lets it slide.

He's not big on affection so it's not often, but that makes it more special when it happens! He does like cuddling, though.

Also hold his hand when he's anxious! It helps him so much.

Sometimes he'll get nightmares (like most demigods) and while he won't sneak out of the cabin to find you or anything dangerous like that, he'll hug you extra tight the next day at breakfast.

He's new to relationships so he may not be the best at being a boyfriend but he does try!

Sometimes he needs reminders to stop working and pay attention to you, and you'll have to tell him if things like going on dates or anniversaries are important to you.

You actually change him quite a bit. Not in a bad way, but being with you has changed the way he sees things a lot! He learns to love unpredictability and spontaneous adventures, and he gets a lot more social. He buries himself in his work a lot less, and over time he gets more comfortable with relationships and physical touch!

He's still your Malcolm, though.

Overall, he's new to this and can be uptight, but he cares for you a lot and is a total sweetheart. 10/10 adorable nerd boyfriend.

#pjo #hoo #toa #percy jackson and the olympians #heroes of olympus #trials of apollo #pjo hoo toa #chb #camp jupiter #percy jackson #malcolm pace #malcolm pace x reader #dating would include #malcolm pace pjo

[hoebaring]

Just The Two Of Us (7) | Kim Taehyung

In which two ambiverts who are conscientious, resourceful, firm, and slightly egoistic happen to realise, discover, and explore the possibility of being in love. It’s a dream-like almost magical romance focusing on what I love to call “the butterfly inducing effect”. So, get comfy, grab a tub of ice cream, maybe get a few tissues and be prepared to experience romance like no other and fall in love.

I fell in love with you, I don’t know why, I don’t know how, I just did.

Tags/Warnings :- An Office Au, Ceo!Taehyung, Secretary!Y/N A fairytale at an office. Cheesy. Highly Romantic. TaehyungxReader.

Written by Author L

Cross posted on Wattpad

Word count :- 2.5k Words

Previous | Index | Next

“”“”“

Maybe

Disgusting.

That is all I could think of.

I hate how my morning had to start with this. With him.

“You see, I’ve always admired the way you work Y/N.”

There we go again.

“Thank you, sir.” I say trying to sound grateful.

I go back to the spreadsheet on the laptop screen and continue typing quickly to look busy. I’m currently in a meeting room with…you guessed it, Mr. Cheong. Ever since we got the deal, we, I have been working my ass off for it. And you know what is super-duper annoying? This creepy bigshot who’s desperately trying to hit on me. And since all the Gods want me to suffer on this particular morning when it’s particularly bright and beautiful outside, I’m stuck with this bobblehead in the most boring place ever, alone.

I’m sitting on a chair with my laptop on the conference table. Mr. Cheong is on a couch, beside the projector screen on my right side. He has been eyeing me for the past 23 minutes and I’m at the verge of grabbing my laptop and smashing it onto his head. If it weren’t for my job and the Cheong Corporation contract, I’d be looking for new laptops by now.

Everything about him is just so uncomfortable. The snide and flirty comments, the pathetic eyeing, and the desperate tries to touch me. Ugh. To make things even worse, Mr. Kim who was supposed to arrive half an hour earlier is late to the meeting. After being unnaturally nice to me, he went to California the very next day for a business trip. The unexpected trip lasted three days and ideally, the airplane should have landed two hours ago, giving Mr. Kim enough time to get to work, and not let this unfortunate situation with Mr. Cheong unfold. But, the world hasn’t been so kind to me. The flight got delayed and thus my morning got ruined.

‘Lord help me’

Suddenly, Mr. Cheong got up from the couch, walked toward me and stood behind my chair. He bent down, looked at the spreadsheet over my shoulder and with his breath dangerously close to the right side of my face, he eerily said, “So this is what is keeping you so busy.”

Looks like the Lord isn’t listening at all.

I let out a nervous chuckle as he stands up straight, turns around swiftly, leans back on the conference table, and looks down at me.

“Ms Y/N…”

“…I think I’d truly recognise all the work you do better at my company. You really should reconsider”

Aha! Of course.

“People over…”

Maybe this time I should get a MacBook.

“…here won’t…”

How about Lenovo? The convertible one.

“…appreciate what you do”

It's cheaper too, that way I wouldn't feel bad even if I smashed someone’s head with it.

“What do you say? I can…uh…offer other…better benefits as well” he said while leaning forward.

Okay what the actual fuck? Someone call an ambulance.

“I’m so sorry for being late! Hope you guys didn't wait for…”

Mr. Kim who barged into the room unannounced paused and looked at the two of us.

“…long” he frowned.

I'm not exactly sure what seemed odder. The look of relief on my face or the confusing sight of Mr. Cheong leaning forward and being so fricking close to my face. Arghh it feels so weird when you say that.

Either way, I think the Lord finally listened. Thank you.

“Good morning sir!” I got up so quickly that my chair was almost about to fall down. I couldn’t care less though.

I begin walking towards Mr. Kim, I don’t even know why. I just want to stay away from that hideous man.

“I hope your trip went well. I’m glad you’re back sir.” I actually am.

Before he could say anything, I continued.

“Now that you’re here, let us begin the meeting. I’ll inform the others as well.”

I immediately leave the room to call some of the employees involved in the meeting.

Now, I know what you are thinking, why weren't they present earlier? That is because earlier, Mr. Cheong very conveniently asked everyone to get on with their work while he and I could wait for Mr. Kim in the meeting room alone. And what crap was that earlier? Better benefits? The man is nuts.

“Guys, Mr. Kim is here, let's head to the conference room.”

***

Author’s POV

The meeting ended at lunch hour and Y/N made a mandatory mental note to stay six feet away from Mr. Cheong at any given moment, for her safety. And…for her laptop’s safety.

Knock knock

“Yes, come in”

“I’ve rescheduled everything you had to miss in the last three days sir. This is the new schedule for the following week.” She says while handing a black file to Taehyung.

He opens the file, takes a look at it and frowns.

“Woah, looks like I'll be quite busy this week Y/N.”

Y/N shrugs for a spilt second and makes a ‘I don’t know man, you chose this life’ face to which Taehyung chuckles.

“So, how did the California deal go sir?”

“Well, it was...moderate.”

“Oh.”

“They are way too sceptical and paranoid. They will be coming to Seoul in order to ‘personally' and ‘thoroughly’ understand how things at Kim Enterprises work. I don't understand why dad wants them as our clients.”

“Oh, when will they be here sir?”

Taehyung looks at Y/N for a brief second.

“Today.”

‘The heck? That soon?’

“Alright, let me take that back, I’ve got to make some changes now.” Y/N says as she takes the file from Taehyung’s table, scribbles something on it and starts to walk towards the door.

“I’ll be outside sir.”

“Wait!”

Y/N turns around with a ‘huh’ expression on her face.

“Wha...What is your plan for lunch?”

“Ah, I’ll be having lunch at the cafeteria sir.”

‘Should I join her?’

‘Should I ask him to join me?’

‘Ahh no, Taehyung that’s too desperate.’

‘Ahh no, Y/N don’t cross the line.’

“Okay go ahead, have your lunch now, revise the schedule later.”

“Uh alright sir.”

Y/N nods and walks out of the room.

‘Maybe I should’ve asked her.’

‘Maybe I should’ve asked him.’

Y/N arranges some files on her desk before leaving for lunch. Just as she grabs her phone and walks out, she hears a loud and annoyingly high pitched scream.

‘Okay, what now?’

Upon hearing the obnoxious shriek, Y/N turns on her heels and walks over to one of the many white wood desks. This particular one had a tall glass tumbler filled half-way with water which kept the blooming pink tulips in it alive. As the bright light shined on the lovely petals, Y/N looked at the not so pretty looking part of the desk. Followed by the person who interrupted her exciting journey towards joy- which was, in fact, disguised as food.

“Ms. Seon, what seems to be the problem?”

Seon Mi Cha, an often bubbly yet nervous intern started working a month or two ago at Kim Enterprises.  

Her usual cheerful eyes were full of dread and guilt at the moment.

“Ms. Y/N, I…I think…I may have, by mistake, absolutely unintentionally…misplaced the investment plan details from Velocity Estates.”

 ‘Okay, we’re screwed.’

I close my eyes, look down and sigh.

“Ms. Y/N…could you please help me out? Pleasepleaseplease-”

“Uhh alright stop now!”

Puppy faces never work on Y/N. But the fact that she was once an intern too, made her give in to Mi Cha’s pleas. She has a soft corner for interns. Interns make a minimum of four million mistakes a day and get hated on by their superiors. Y/N knew that very clearly. However she was lucky enough to be working under Taehyung. He forgave people quickly. Moreover she didn’t want to seem like an unhelpful bitch to those poor souls.

Probably two hours went by in helping out Mi Cha. A lot of other interns gathered around and helped out as well. They often engaged in some office gossips while sipping some coffee- courtesy of Mi Cha. Some of the “tea” came from Y/N herself. She was professional when it came to work, but never boring. Y/N actually knew the interns and junior employees well. She chimed in when something interesting came up, like the mysterious case of the missing desk from the fourth floor. There are five rows of four desks on each floor. But the fourth floor had a row with one missing desk. It was a big deal when the issue first came up. Many believed in many rumours. Even though it could have been just a simple mistake in the delivery and arrangement of furniture, people loved to think otherwise. Y/N spent another tedious 45 minutes figuring out Mi Cha’s problem while simultaneously listening to the HR department’s head, Mr. Jun’s romantic involvement with Ms. Kook.

“Ms. Seon, I’d really appreciate you treating me to a meal soon.”

Y/N says as she finally finished retrieving the files and stretching her arms.

“Oh my god! Thank you so much Sunbae! I’m eternally grateful to you.”

“Woah, Ms. Y/N is truly the best” Choi Ji Moon, another intern announces in awe.

“What would we do without you?” A recently promoted junior employee says as he wipes away a fake tear.

“Guys calm down please, I know I’m awesome.”

Y/N stands up from the chair and arranges some papers.

“Ji Moon get five copies of these.” Y/N says and points to the copier machine near him.

He playfully salutes and walks over to the copier.

“Okay something is wrong with this.” Ji Moon says in frustration and aggressively pats the side of the copier in hopes that it would start working.

‘Another problem? Classic.’

Ji Moon opens some random parts of the machine and tries to fix them.

He mumbles a few ‘This goes here’, ‘Got it’, ‘Okay maybe not’ before sighing and putting it back together again.

“Maybe you should put it inside.” Mi Cha says while gesturing to a random part of the copier.

“That’s what she said.” Y/N says very casually with a straight face.

Probably around ten or so people started laughing hysterically at Y/N’s impeccable timing, although they suddenly stop and frantically go back to their desks, pretending to seriously work.

‘Oh God no, please no.’

Just as every comedy has to have a dramatic ending, this harmless, jovial little joke of Y/N’s has the most tragic ending ever.

Y/N immediately turns around to find Taehyung standing a few steps away. The perfect distance for an audience to watch this little scene play out and hear all the dialogues very clearly.

‘Holy fuck’

Y/N’s POV

I have messed up. Terribly. I mean, just who the heck casually goes around saying “That’s what she said” at a workplace? What is this? The Office? Who am I? Michael Scott? Please push me off an airplane. Or bury me. Please. This is so embarrassing, awkward, unprofessional and what not.

I don’t think I’ll be fired though. That’s too silly of a reason to be fired, don’t you think? Oh my god, that makes it even worse.

“Ughh what am I gonna do?”

I stab the broccoli on my plate with a fork as I say so. I decided to hide in shame at the cafeteria for the time being, in order to be completely self absorbed in my embarrassment and rethink my life choices multiple times. The worst fricking part of this entire situation is the fact that Mr. Kim and I, for once, were getting along in a…argh I don’t even know in which way.

I thought maybe there was tiny chance for me. Maybe a tiny possibility. But again, it was for one goddamn day that he was unnaturally nice to me. It could have been a totally unplanned thing. I don’t like how I’ve thought about it so much and I definitely don’t like how I’m sort of letting it affect me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not desperate. I was just trying to be like an elegant, kinda mysterious and feminine lady until I blew it all up. And all I’m doing right now is contradicting and over-justifying myself.

You know what, screw this whole “oH mY gOd hE wAs sO sWeEt tO mE” and the “maybe” concept. I’m highly overthinking about this crap. Y/N you’ve got a lot more to worry about. For instance, your terrible attempt at being Michael Scott. So how about we deal with that? I’ll just continue with the rest of my day, pretending like nothing happened. Avoiding Mr. Kim would only make it more obvious and awkward. It’s okay. It was a casual joke. Maybe Mr. Kim laughed too. Maybe he didn’t.

“OKAY STOP WITH THE MAYBE!”

  ***

Author’s POV

“…focused on increasing our cooperation at a global level and how we would achieve that in the short-term. Those were a few of our future goals and their implementations. I think that is all, thank you.” Y/N finishes her presentation with a smile.

“Impressive, Mr. Kim. Very impressive” Rachel the CTO of Affinity Assets pvt. Ltd. says. They’re the “California deal” Y/N mentioned earlier today.

Y/N was a little confused about what Taehyung meant when he said these guys were a paranoid. Little did she know, she would understand exactly what he meant later on. Affinity Assets is a trading firm offering advice which focuses on high frequency trading in certain markets. However, they were quite new to the business game and deeply mistrusting. Which for a company like Taehyung’s is already a red flag. Taehyung only went forward with this because his father thought Affinity Assets had potential. Mr. Kim is usually always right.

Taehyung thought Y/N handled the meeting very professionally. Since she gave the presentation, most of the questions were directed at her. And Y/N couldn’t have done a better job. Although towards the end, there was one particular question, which seemed more like a silly and unreasonable demand. Rachel questioned Y/N about their proficiency regarding meeting with deadlines and sticking to commitments. To which Y/N replied by saying-

“Oh, I can confidently assure you that you need not worry about our expertise in providing timely results.”

“In addition, as per your request, we can have Y/N handling this contract on a more careful and cautious note.” Taehyung continues.

Weirdly enough, Rachel doesn’t seem to be satisfied with that.

“You see Mr. Kim, I’d prefer if you were the one taking additional care in this matter.” Rachel says while looking Y/N as though she was a burglar.

‘Paranoid? No, these guys are crazy.’

“I don’t quite understand-” Y/N begins but soon gets interrupted by Taehyung’s chuckle.

“I think, Ms. Y/N is truly the right person to cater to your requirements. You will not be disappointed. She is the best we have.”

Taehyung leans forward, places his arms on the table and looks straight at Rachel.

“I trust her with the whole company.”

Y/N’s heart skips a beat. Heck no. That is a serious understatement. She feels an excessive amount of joy and gratitude swell up inside her. Blood rushes to her cheeks as she is unable to contain her smile.

‘Did he really say that?’

Rachel finally accepts her defeat and agrees to the deal. Unfortunately, that meant more work for Y/N. Time passes by and Y/N & Taehyung almost never leave their desks. Y/N at some point feels a tingly, itchy sensation in her throat but decides to shrug it off. She later realizes that she’s worked overtime when she looks at her phone for the first time in four hours. She starts packing up and things start feeling a little cold.

‘I’ll just go by cab for today’

“Mr. Kim?”

“Come in.”

“Sir, I’ll get going. Will you be staying for long?”

“Uh, I’ll leave in an hour. Will you go by walk?”

“I can’t walk, I’m exhausted.” Y/N says chuckling.

“That’s what she said.”

Y/N’s jaw drops and eyes widen.

‘WHAT? DID HE JUST-’

Taehyung starts laughing out loud at Y/N’s face.

“I can be funny too sometimes, you know?” he says looking kinda proud.

“That… was hilarious” Y/N nods while laughing.

“I’ll take a leave sir.” Y/N says smiling, as she walks out of his office.

“Alright, good night Y/N.”

“Night sir.”

***

Y/N takes a shower, has some leftover rice, and checks her phone.

Mr. Kim

Hope you’ve reached home safely. Sorry couldn’t drop you home today.

Get some good sleep, you looked a little pale earlier.

Aw man her heart is surely gonna explode. This is definitely bringing the “maybe” concept back.

#taehyung x you #taehyung ff #office au #kth x reader #btsff #btsimagines #btsfanfic #vff #kim taehyung fanfic #kim taehyung #taetae

[archived-and-moving]

Hey Tobi!

I know life is getting in the way rn so don't worry if it takes a little while to get around to this. I am in no rush and I completely understand. Life is very much getting in the way of my tumblr time too.

That being said, I'm having thoughts and one (1) maybe-idea right now and I think you'll be able to provide some insight.

So I'm thinking of ~maybe~ doing like a kotlc group project where we all (by we i mean anyone who wants to participate) pick a historical person to research and put it into the form of an xavier riddle episode because i was watching that like two days ago and i thought it might be fun. I might also add an art thing but idk. Nothing's set in stone yet. I just wanted to come ask for your advice because you have experience in this kinda thing. Or at least close to this kinda thing.

For your ship weeks, did you find it easier to have a separate blog or just post it to your main? And have you found how long a reasonable amount of time would be for releasing things like prompts/directions? (Will you maybe make me a playlist if this ends up happening? /j unless you want to) Do you have any other pro tips I don't know enough to ask for? Preposition. Aergh. That seems like a good way to end this.

Hey Squish!! Thankfully I have off everything today, so I actually get four hours of rest! Thank goodness!!

Your idea sounds super cool also. I'm personally a history nerd, so that honestly sounds so awesome! Though I will admit, I don't know too much about the format of a Xavier Riddle episode, however after looking it up, it sounds like something I might enjoy. I'll add that to my to-do list of things to listen to in the background of drawing.

And I can't believe you're coming to me for advice!! Like yes I've done a little bit of stuff but wow!!! Anyway, I am definitely shocked, but please note that: I have no idea what on earth I'm doing. I know what works best for me and I usually just listen to my collaborators if I have them. So yes!!! Take all of this with a grain of salt.

Is it easier to have a separate blog or just post it to your main?

This honestly depends on the person and the project, and you kind of have to ask yourself a couple questions. How big is the project? How would I feel more organized? And how many people do I want to have participate who need to see it?

For example, when I hosted Sophiana Week with Wren, ae wanted a separate account to keep everything more neat and make it easier to arrange between the two of us. However, Shai and I just did it on our split main accounts.

Also, I have a separate account for my Ten Years of Keeper project, simply because I'm working with 11 people on events and such. So, it quite honestly just depends on how you feel.

Have you found a reasonable amount of time for releasing things like prompts/directions?

Please please please don't pull a me and give everyone ten days. Like again it really depends how big you want the project to be but minimum is probably 2-3 weeks. I have ship weeks, and I've found that for me around a month is good, but if you have something more complicated like research I'd shoot above that.

Seriously, I'd give a good couple weeks if it's one that is complicated and needs a lot of instructions. I'm using Ten Years of Keeper as an example cause ah. That's a big boy. If you'll notice, I gave everyone a pretty lengthy heads up, and I would rather have given you guys more time.

Do you have any other pro tips I don't know enough to ask for?

If you're making a big project please know it is draining. You have to coordinate with people, make sure that your instructions are clear, and overall know how progress is going.

This one sounds really silly, but dude if you have access...make a spreadsheet. Like excel and whatever the google alternative is is there and believe me when I say that it's literally your best friend.

I'm using mine to track the progress of my coordinators. How far along in the process they're in, what they're doing, etc. It's kept me organized so far, and I've only had like one mental break down so far, so that's good!!

But yeah mainly take care of yourself bestie. Managing and organizing a project is hard work. (not ship weeks, ship weeks aren't that hard. But for things bigger than that like what you're planning, please don't overwork yourself. Drink water, get sleep, and hope that some day you can put it on your resume somehow, because it shows such essential skills.

Will you make a playlist for me?

Hell yeah dude. Gimme some vibes and one thousand percent. This was a joke but I'm serious, if you actually need a playlist hmu.

#asks #squish tag #tobi talks too much #long post #anyway. hope this helped a little bit??? #again i really am just winging it

[olderthannetfic]

I have a real stupid question/challenge for you, if you want. (you can also tell me to shoo, i won't be mad lmao)

I have a friend who insists that I'll fall in love with BTS if I give them a chance, based on the fact that I love montero and lemonade. they don't listen when I tell them that 1) just cuz I appreciate a few beautifully-crafted, pop-flavored hip-hop albums, doesn't mean that I now like pop; and 2) I have a raging hate-on for manufactured boy bands that dates back to the new kids on the block era. I'm not mad about them anymore, just can't find it in my limited attention span to engage with manufactured pop groups, even when they're quite good in every measurable way.

I've listened to the big singles and they didn't hook me. i appreciate what they're doing, but it just doesn't appeal to me. 🤷

so, I guess my question to you is, do you know any good BTS songs that might change my mind? anything bluesy or reminiscent of old-school 80s rap? any super 90s throwback tracks? idk, I'm doing my best to be open minded :|

--

BTS has a massive discography, and I dislike plenty of individual songs. I guarantee there's at least one song you'll find tolerable, though whether you'll become a BTS fan is another story.

I have little patience for New Kids, though I do like some bouncy dance music. BTS have a pretty high degree of artistic freedom, considering everything. The packaging is slick. The inside is considerably less hollow than usual. If you've been listening to their recent English-language hits... uh... they have their good points, but I really don't think those are representative of BTS overall—except insofar as they represent their intense desire to win a Grammy.

I'm not great at telling what's like what, so IDK which of their songs best fit your criteria necessarily, but I'll pick a few for you to try. As a listener, I'll think some hip hop sounds familiar, but it's only when I see other people's reviews that I understand what era it's reminding me of. (TBH, what I personally did was make a spreadsheet of everything they'd done, including random soundtrack songs and solo work and just try everything in order.)

--

I might start with the BTS rappers' solo work. Try RM's second mixtape, mono. I like listening to this as soothing background music at night.

Suga goes by Agust D as a solo artist. His song 'Agust D' is one of my favorites. The lyrics to many of their songs are quite clever too, though of course, as a non-Korean speaker, I have to rely on other people's explanation. (The basic content here is "I may be an idol, but I'm still twice the rapper you are".)

J-Hope tends to sound kind of... well... goofy. I like his voice in Baseline.

He did cover Chicken Noodle Soup, which is certainly old, but I don't actually like the original version of that song.

The Cyphers are great: Cypher Pt. 2, Cypher Pt. 3, Cypher Pt. 4.

To get a sense of their wordplay and why it's cool, check out this video where a Korean guy explains Ddaeng.

--

If you want to know who they think their influences are, they outline a bunch of them in Hip Hop Lover.

Dionysus is one of their big showstoppers that I like a lot better than, say, Permission to Dance.

Louder Than Bombs is a favorite of mine.

--

I'm not usually super into the vocalists-only songs, but maybe you'd enjoy some of them. Some people find House of Cards bluesy. Not sure how much I agree.

--

I guess a couple of their older albums are considered particularly oldschool, though maybe that's because of that ultimate scourge of old albums the skit. (Kill it with fire!) Also, I like a lot of the sound, but their fashion at the time, gaaaaah! You can see some images of the full horror on this lyric video to We Are Bulletproof Pt. 2. I like N.O a lot and Satoori Rap. That latter celebrates regional dialects, which is neat.

And one of their better-known songs and one of my personal favorites is Baepsae, an anthem of youthful discontent that makes use of a Korean saying and turns it on its head.

--

And hey, if you loathe all that, you can go listen to Tiger JK as a palate cleanser. RM features on a couple of his songs like MFBTY's Buckubucku and Timeless off of Drunken Tiger X.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

Maybe this is a little validation seeking or maybe I'm dumb, do you keep tract of the books you read? I'm.. old, I'm relatively new on social media. I've been reading all my life without ever thinking of keeping a list. Now my new friends online suggest that I should get to it immediately, keep lists of books, movies, tv shows etc. that I consume. Have you ever felt a need for that or have I just been foolish all along? Do you have thoughts to share? They recommended me apps for everything, I might get a journal but I'd likely forget about its existence.

Btw, you're an awesome person. Keep doing you, wish you and your wife a prosperous future together. :)

sweet anon, from the bottom of my heart, I don't give a shit if you keep a list of the books you read or the tv shows you watch and nobody else should, either. that's your business.

I do keep track of the books I read, which you might already suspect if your question was prompted by my monthly reading updates. I personally really like keeping lists, so I don't just make monthly posts recapping what I've been reading. I also keep track of the books I read every year on a spreadsheet that looks like this

and I keep track of the books I want to read on a list that looks like this

... all done in a rainbow motif to validate myself through queercoding.

there are a number of reasons that I do this, other than feeling generally less anxious about Everything when I have a nice list to look at. the list of books I want to read is helpful because I work in a fucking library and I'm never going to remember all the cool new books on my own; the list of books I've been reading is an idea I stole from Joseph Fink, who uses it as a way to keep track of how many books he's reading by women, people of color, etc. the first year I kept a book spreadsheet was the year I realized I was giving myself a heck of a lot of woke white guy back-patting for my ~super diverse~ reading habits even though my reading was, mmmm, not actually that diverse. the spreadsheet is a very convenient

but all of that is a me problem and I don't think anyone else should do it or anything like it. I mean, you obviously can if you want to, but should? should implies an imperative of some kind, maybe even a moral one. get that shit out of here, I can think of 2,000 things that are more important than keeping a list of what you're reading, unless keeping a list sounds particularly enjoyable to you, in which case you should start doing that posthaste.

I can't really weigh in on whether you should be keeping lists of movies or tv shows, because I don't now what those are, but I would assume similar principles apply. anyway I'm not going to validate you, do it if you want, don't if you don't. anyone who gets bothered about whether you do it or not is a huge weirdo.

#bookblr

[ersatzangel]

So, I've decided to try a different approach to how I post fic next year, and only post multi chapter fics once they're complete. I'm hoping I'll be able to stick with that (I think I know how I can make myself), but also post some one shots along the way to satisfy my need for external validation :P

At the moment, though, I'm not sure which multi-chaptered idea to focus on. These are the ones in the priority spreadsheet (all of these are working titles):

misty watercolour memories

This one is set at the start os S13 when Dean thinks Cas is gone for good. They're on a hunt and encounter Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory*, who was (sometimes?) the mother of the muses, so I can link it into them killing Calliope that one time if I want. Anyway, she erases Dean's memory (I think she might give him the option and he says yes or he just doesn't put up much of a fight), but only to just before he reconnected with Sam. (For reasons). And then Cas comes back and there is angst! And also a quest, but I don't want to give everything away *I know very little about Greek mythology, etc., and will do research, but it's also going to be a bit of a Xena vibe :P

Paper Moon

1930s human AU centering on Dean, who is a small time grifter, floating through the Dust Bowl states when Jack hitches a ride with him. Dean feels bad for him - and Jack also reminds him of someone who he feels indebted to - and lets him tag along, and then Cas later comes along, too

Roswell, Summer of '47

Dean is either military, or ex-military, living/stationed in Roswell when the UFO crash of 1947 occurs. Cassie, his ex, and a local journalist, wants his help to get into the base where they're apparently hiding these extraterrestrials so she can get the scoop. He does and, wow, guess who the alien is? ;D

this is hardcore

Dean is a writer for the pulps at the tail end of the 1940s; Castiel is still an angel of the Lord with a mission and needs Dean's help. That's as far as I've got with this one.

That '70s Noir

It's the 1970s, Dean is a PI somewhere (maybe LA) and his case involves Cas somehow probably. The most vague of my ideas, but I just really want to write a mystery set in the 1970s. Inspirations include: The Nice Guys; The Long Goodbye (1973); Inherent Vice and The Kid Detective (not the '70s, but kind of the vibe)

Obviously I: 1. don't expect anyone to have read all of that and 2. can't promise where my inspiration goes... But! If anyone did read all of that (you're amazing) and finds any of the above more interesting than another, please do let me know! Like I said, I'm really not sure which to focus on because I like all of the ideas equally and an outside vote might help me XD (though I guess as the first 3 are the most developed it might make sense to focus on one of those?)

#ersatz writes #please excuse the formatting - i copied this from an email to myself and it's gone wonky #pretty sure no one's awake so obviously a great time to post this ;D

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY I'M SMARTER THAN UNDERGRADUATES

One of the cases he decided was brought by the owner of a food shop. Don't be discouraged if what you produce initially is something other people dismiss as a toy, it makes us especially likely to invest. Seeing a painting they recognize from reproductions is so overwhelming that their response to it as a tautology. There's nothing more valuable than an unmet need that is just becoming fixable. You have to show you're impressed with what you've made. Google, companies in Silicon Valley already knew it was important to have the right kind of people to have ideas with: the other students, who will be not only smart but elastic-minded to a fault. Being good art is that it will make the people who say that the theory is probably true, but rather depressing: it's not so bad as it sounds.

The founders were experienced guys who'd done startups before and who'd just succeeded in getting millions from one of the reasons artists in fifteenth century Florence to explain in person to Leonardo & Co.1 If Microsoft was the Empire, they were the Rebel Alliance. In every case, the creation of wealth seems to appear and disappear like the noise of a fan as you switch on and off. One often hears a policy criticized on the grounds that it would increase the income gap between rich and poor? Perhaps this tends to attract people who are bad at understanding. It would work on a moon base where we had to buy air by the liter. It seemed obvious that beauty, for example, as property in the way we do. It could be the reason they don't have to wait to be an adult.

The answer, I realized, is that my m. And passion is a bad way to put it, because it's so hard for rigid-minded people to follow. That's to be expected. An eloquent speaker or writer can give the impression of vanquishing an opponent merely by using forceful words. But valuable ideas are not quite the same thing; the difference is individual tastes.2 Don't talk about secondary matters at length. When we launched Viaweb, it seemed to be nothing more than a tenth of your time working on new stuff. Now a lot of people in the Valley is watching them. In either case you let yourself be defined by what they tell you to do.3

Of course, space aliens probably wouldn't find human faces engaging. Rebellion is almost as stupid as obedience. The next level up we start to see responses to the writing, rather than something that has to be the most common complaint you heard about Apple was that their fans admired them too uncritically. Does anyone believe they would notice the anomaly, and not simply write that stocks were up or down, reporter looks for good or bad?4 Inc recently asked me who I thought were the 5 most interesting startup founders of the last 30 years.5 Simplicity takes effort—genius, even. But unlike serfs they had an incentive to create a giant, public company, and assume you could build something way easier to use.

Putting undergraduates' profiles online wouldn't have seemed like much of a startup called Friendfeed. That would definitely happen if programmers started to use handhelds as development machines—if handhelds displaced laptops the way laptops displaced desktops. Taking a shower is like a form of exemplary punishment, or lobbying for laws that would break the Internet if they passed, that's ipso facto evidence you're using a definition of property be whatever they wanted. Back in the 90s. Franz Beckenbauer's was, in effect, that if you tried this you'd be able to say about such and such market share. The average person looks at it and thinks: how amazingly skillful.6 It's still a very weak form of disagreement, we give critical readers a pin for popping such balloons. If one blows up in your face, start another. Ten weeks is not much time. Everyone at Rehearsal Day. Merely being aware of them usually prevents them from working. If I could tell startups only ten sentences, this would be one of them.

What counts as property depends on what you mean by worth. It would have been. I don't think people consciously realize this, but one person, but secrecy also has its advantages. Honestly, Sam is, along with Steve Jobs, the founder I refer to most when I'm advising startups. It's also true that there are quite a few marketplaces out there that serve this same market. Obviously the world sucked, so why wouldn't they? There was not much point. There are always great ideas sitting right under our noses. England in the 1060s, when William the Conqueror distributed the estates of the defeated Anglo-Saxon nobles to his followers, the conflict was military. When I ask people what they regret most about high school, I now realize, is that I was ready for something else. The old answer was no: you were supposed to pretend that you wanted to make pages that looked good, you also have to discard the idea of good art, there's also such a thing as good art, and if one group is a minority in some population, pairs of them will be a minority squared. You have to show you're impressed with what you've made.

For describing pages, we had a template language called RTML, which supposedly stood for something, but which in fact I found my doodles changed after I started studying painting.7 We are having a bit of a debate inside our partnership about the airbed concept. It was thus subjective rather than objective. Don't fix Windows, because the school authorities vetoed the plan to invite me. You can see wealth—in buildings and streets, in the sense that hackers and painters are both makers, and this question is just to do what they did.8 It's dangerous to design your life around getting into college, because the only potential acquirer is Microsoft, and when you're not paying attention, you keep making these same gestures, but somewhat randomly. No matter how much to how many voters, and adjust their message so precisely in response, that they tend to split the difference on the issues have lined up with charisma for 11 elections in a row?

So is it meaningless to talk about it publicly till long afterward.9 The way Apple runs the App Store is full of half-baked applications. If I were talking to a roomful of people than you would in conversation.10 The problem is, it's hard to get the gold out of it. Where does wealth come from?11 You can demonstrate your respect for one another in more subtle ways.12 So for example a group that has built an easy to use web-based spreadsheet and see how far we get.13 If success probably means getting bought, should you make that a conscious goal? While young founders are at a disadvantage when coming up with a million dollar idea. I'd like to reply with another question: why do people think it's hard?

Notes

But it is generally the common stock holders who take the term whitelist instead of themselves. There's comparatively little from it. I couldn't convince Fred Wilson to fund them. I've come to you about it.

Peter Norvig found that three quarters of them could as accurately be called unfair. We don't call it procrastination when someone works hard and doesn't get paid to work on what you learn via users anyway.

They're often different in kind, because some schools work hard to say that the investments that generate the highest price paid for a startup in a more general rule: focus on building the company down. Enterprise software sold through traditional channels is very visible in Silicon Valley.

In many ways the New Deal was a kid that you'd want to get jobs. Philosophy is like starting out in the US, it might seem, because they have zero ability to change. If the rich paid high taxes? The two guys were Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston.

Don't be evil. And especially about what other people in return for something that flows from some central tap. I'm convinced there were, we found Dave Shen there, only for startups to have suffered from having been corporate software for so long. I think investors currently err too far on the dollar.

The fancy version of everything was called the option pool as well use the local stuff. Philosophy is like starting out in the postwar period also helped preserve the wartime compression of wages—specifically by sharding it.

This is everyday life in general. So, can I make it easy. Believe it or not, under current US law, writing and visual design.

But which of them agreed with everything in exactly the opposite: when we say it's ipso facto right to buy your kids' way into top colleges by sending them to justify choices inaction in particular.

An influx of inexpensive but mediocre investors. Comments at the start of the things I find myself asking founders Would you use in representing physical things. These points don't apply to the ideal of a rolling close usually prevents this.

If you're sufficiently good bet, why are you even working on what people will give you fifty times as much income. When a lot of money around is never something people treat casually. No one writing a dictionary from scratch, rather than giving grants.

For similar reasons, avoid the topic. It's not only the leaves who suffer. They act as if you'd invested at a 5 million cap, but that we know exactly how a lot of reasons American car companies, like the bizarre stuff.

Foster, Richard and David Whitehouse, Mohammed, Charlemagne and the exercise of stock the VCs should be designed to live in a request.

Odds are people who are good presenters, but to do certain kinds of work the upper middle class first appeared in northern Italy and the first version was mostly Lisp, Wiley, 1985, p. So during the 2002-03 season was 2. Possible doesn't mean the hypothetical people who need the money so burdensome, that must mean you should seek outside advice, before realizing that that's what you're doing.

Thanks to Robert Morris, Sam Altman, Chris Dixon, Jessica Livingston, Paul Watson, Geoff Ralston, Sarah Harlin, Dan Giffin, and Alexia Tsotsis for smelling so good.

#automatically generated text #Markov chains #Paul Graham #Python #Patrick Mooney #version #Does #stuff #someone #founders #Wiley #company #wealth #Steve #sentences #development #people #Valley #Alliance #person #Fred #Jobs

[luninosity]

I don't have much right now, but I seriously want to paypal you money when I get paid. I finished Character Bleed. It's probably the best thing I've ever read, and I've read... thousands of fics. Probably hundreds of thousands. Thank you for giving me something to look forward to and think happily about while the world is going apeshit. Yeah, I can see poor Colby trying to take care of himself like that, as a child... it hurts my heart. I'm so glad he has Jason to take care of him now.

I’ve had this ask sitting here because every time I see it, it makes me smile, and then I end up just being happy and not having words to answer! Thank you!!

It’s probably my favorite thing I’ve written (not that I don’t have other favorites...depends on the day and the fandom...) just in terms of...how real the characters feel in my head, how much I know about them, how protective I feel about them...and then all the excitement of sharing them with everyone and seeing people love them along with me!

And - I think I’ve mentioned this somewhere, but if I haven’t - it’ll be coming out as a trilogy this fall, from JMS Books! (And good GOD did I have a hard time with the summary...trying to explain to my editor what it was in fact about...”it’s sort of like they’re filming Master and Commander except even more gay somehow, and also the actors fall in love, but there’s also very gentle hurt/comfort and D/s themes and a lot of bread puns...also the whole thing is like 254k words...”)

Colby is in some ways weirdly super-competent, and then in some very specific ways not! He taught himself how to cook, how to do laundry, how to clean everything in his room(s)...he always wanted to try to not make a mess and try to not cause a bother to anyone (up to and including times when he got hurt, physically or emotionally) (young!Colby figured out that he was into guys, and hence probably gay, when he was pretty young - unlike Jason, who kind of tried not to think about being bi, Colby pretty much knew...as soon as he was old enough to realize who he had crushes on...and then quietly coped with that self-awareness on his own, too). He’s also never not had money - he had a credit card really young, and zero parental oversight; they basically went, “here you go, don’t bother us” - and he doesn’t really...know how much things cost? Things cost whatever they cost, right? (*insert “it’s one banana, what could it cost?” meme*)

So Colby can cook a fantastic meal and do his own laundry and dust the bookshelves and pick locks and make his own mead, but he doesn’t really know what a budget is. Like, he gets the concept - as a producer on Steadfast, he’s seen spreadsheets and such, he understands the idea - but the back of his head is always going, “well, but if we need more money, can’t I just simply...give us more money?”

And Jason has a lot of complicated feelings about all this. Like, it’s not as if he grew up poor either - his family was doing more than fine - but both his parents definitely *worked*, and his mom knows about the prices of food and ingredients, and so on. He’s both sort of glad that at least Colby wasn’t neglected in *that* specific way - Colby had food, a household staff, ways to buy himself new books or school supplies - and also sometimes baffled by the level of wealth/connections that can just say, “oh, we could stay in that castle for the week if you want!” But then Jason is also sometimes Very Angry about Colby’s childhood, like when Colby admits to learning how to pick locks because his parents kept forgetting they had a kid and would leave and go on vacation before he got home from school, or the day Jason realizes that kid!Colby never really had a birthday party. (His dad tried to organize something once or twice, but it was always, like, the kids who had parents that were politically useful, and not a real party, and young!Colby was very shy and did not in fact have friends anyway. Colby’s mother also never saw the point of birthday parties: not as if it’s an accomplishment, is it, darling...)

Jason, upon hearing that, has to take a few deep breaths and calm down before saying anything. And then he ends up baking a cake while Colby’s at a Krav Maga lesson with Evan or something, because Jason also isn’t bad in a kitchen and Colby deserves a birthday cake, dammit. <3

...look, more headcanon! I did say they were way too real in my head... :D :D

And thank you for putting up with me rambling about them! <333

(side note: I do have a paypal, not that you need to, but I’ve just realized I don’t in fact have that linked anywhere on this tumblr! here it is.)

#bekthescribe #replies #character bleed #headcanon #yay friends

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY I'M SMARTER THAN CASE

In retrospect this was a smart move, but we want to be the top one, rather than the one that is. Not quite so dominant as it had been a book.1 So an artist working on a hard problem, but their approach was so bogus that there was little chance of getting market price. You can thus gradually work your way into their confidence, and maybe turn it into an official job later, or not, big changes are coming, because the younger you are, are you really out of your element?2 It makes me spend more time on the Octoparts than I do with most of the time.3 I've noticed for a while before starting a startup generally. Certainly it can be used in painting: this is our site, not yours.4

I just wanted to keep one foot in the art world. Companies often claim to be benevolent, but because it's so much easier than building something great. They seemed wrong. Once you've seen enough examples of specific types of tricks, you start to become a connoisseur of trickery in general, just as more people could have computers once microprocessors made them cheap. But you have to do well on tests. So being hard to talk to? How to Win Friends and Influence People.5 Once they realized this, they stopped caring so much what investors thought about them. If you've heard anything about startups you've probably heard about the long hours.6

They're not part of the conversation.7 Rockefeller said in 1880, The day of combination is here to stay. You may find you'd prefer the quiet guy you've mostly ignored to someone who seems impressive but has an attitude to match. But though it was evidence that there was, somewhere, a world that wasn't red delicious, I didn't find it till college. Regardless of how complex your life is, you'll find that everyone else still shares, you're in a powerful position. But it was nearly as bad at Cornell.8 Big companies also lose because they usually only build one of each thing.9 Why hadn't I worked on more substantial problems? Sam Altman did. Whereas if you graduate and get a little more experience before they start a company. In fact, the whole concept of a good effort.10 It's useful in starting startups because you're capable of more than you realized.

Get into the habit of thinking of software as having users. So you have to do is give them a lead, and they'll close it, whatever type of lead it is.11 That last one is a big problem. So presumably that's what this brainstorming session was about. Since there's such a thing as good art.12 It seemed to people at the beginning of their career only works if everyone does it. At the bottom you'll find the subjects with least intellectual content. A sales force is worth something, I'll admit. That scariness makes ambitious ideas doubly valuable. So you have to remember everything you've said in the past to make sure you don't contradict yourself. Don't be evil.

So the downhills of the roller-coaster are more of a self fulfilling prophecy than the uphills. But you have to charm them.13 Plus if you didn't put the company first you wouldn't be promoted, and if they take it, they'll take it on their terms. Maybe in the future the executives installed by VCs will increasingly be a third option: to start with good people, to make something people will pay most for? Not at all. I didn't find it till college. It sounded serious and difficult.14 I solve?15

In fact, one of the O'Reilly people that guy looks just like Tim.16 Most companies, at least at first. A new search engine, when there were already about 10, and they were all aiming at the middle of the 20th century was a low-res: a Duplo world of a few big blocks fragmented into many companies of different sizes—some of them overseas—it became harder for unions to enforce their monopolies. Many students feel they should wait and get a job depends on the kind you want. That's their secret. I think angel rounds will start to develop standardized procedures that make acquisitions little more work than hiring someone. It's not so much that adults lie to kids about this as never explain it. Let's look at our case. Art is man-made.17

Notes

The Duty of Genius, Penguin, 1991.

They act as if the value of a startup. One year at Startup School David Heinemeier Hansson encouraged programmers who wanted to than because they believe they have wings and start to go to a study by the Clayton Antitrust Act in 1914. If Apple's board hadn't made that blunder, they wouldn't have the same town, unless it was not just the location of the Industrial Revolution, England was already the richest country in the technology everyone was going to drunken parties.

They hoped they were just getting started. Two customer support people tied for first prize with entries I still shiver to recall. Users dislike their new operating system.

There may be underestimating VCs. If I were doing more than others, like a later Demo Day or die.

Maybe it would be reluctant to start a startup could grow big by transforming consulting into a significant cause, and everyone's used to hear about the same people the shareholders instead of bookmarking.

The best way for a startup is rare.

The point where things start with their companies till about a week before. If you're sufficiently good bet, why did it. I think the company. They're common to all cultures with long traditions of living in a band, or can make offers that every successful startup?

This must have seemed shocking for a smooth one. The Nineteenth-Century History of English Studies.

Tell the investors talking to a 2002 report by the Robinson-Patman Act of 1982, which have remained more or less constant during the Ming Dynasty, when the country it's in.

This would penalize short comments especially, because time seems to have discovered something intuitively without understanding all its implications. Free money to spend on trade goods to make up the same weight as any successful startup?

I think lack of transparency.

This is a case in point: lots of people, but if you were doing more than the founders don't have one clear inventor. This is actually a great idea as something that would scale.

You'll be lucky if fundraising feels pleasant enough to invest more, the laser, it's easy to imagine cases where a laptop would be rolling in their IPO filing. It's not quite as harmless as we are only doing angel deals to generate revenues they could imagine needing in their heads for someone to invent the spreadsheet. 8%, Linux 11.

If they agreed among themselves never to do this would give us. But the usual suspects in about the idea of getting too high a valuation cap is merely boring, we actively sought out people who'd failed out of just assuming that their experience so far. According to Zagat's there are before the name implies, you can get very emotional.

Oddly enough, but getting rich, purely mercenary founders will seem more powerful sororities at your school sucks, where x includes math, law, you're going to visit 20 different communities regularly. Not startup ideas is to start a startup. Price Bubble? When companies can't simply eliminate new competitors may be underestimating VCs.

Some translators use calm instead of a powerful syndicate, you might be able to at all.

The best kind of work is in the sort of pious crap you were still employed in your classes as a kid and as a high school writing this, but it might be interested in you, they may have no decision-making causes things to them more professional. There are a lot of people thought it was the first type, and most pharmaceutical startups the second clause could include any possible startup, but rather by, say, recursion, and indeed the venture business would work better, and this tends to be spread out geographically. This is one way in which case this behavior at least try. And startups that get killed by overspending might have done and try another approach.

#automatically generated text #Markov chains #Paul Graham #Python #Patrick Mooney #company #examples #engine #History #kind #problem #painting #Zagat #school #sup #li #operating #look #Tell #something #technology #students #Demo #heads #content #Art #attitude #work #habit

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY I'M SMARTER THAN BLACKWELL

You don't win fights by thinking of big ideas but by thinking of tricks that work in one particular case. I think this will be the limit; the number of spams that have been readjusted. That's normal for startups. A good trick for bypassing the schlep and to some extent, yes. In addition to their intrinsic value, they're like undervalued stocks in the sense that I have wondered about it for themselves, rely instead on the opinions of the elite in this country think of taste as something elusive, or even perhaps look where he's going while he's thinking about some interesting question. Maybe if you do, talk to them, equalled big, honking Windows apps. Having people around you and ask yourself which you'd like to work with. The computer would be just as much. I never considered it till this summer, but this was in the spring of 1998, before Google was founded, the conventional wisdom. It depends on what works to treat as property. You can't fight market forces forever. But Apple doesn't understand that either.

I just wanted to hack. In fact, so unconsciously that you don't have to be aggressive about user acquisition when you're small, you'll probably grow, your price will go up, and the bureaucratic obstacles all medical startups face, they'll be able to see things from the user's point of view anyway. The phenomenon isn't limited to books. 1 was, if I was interested in AI a hot topic then, he told me I could be whatever I wanted when I grew up in and that of a successful startup is going to love, and spend less than you make. They're not very common, but the relative importance of determination and flexibility you need is good hackers: when something's broken, they need to run spreadsheets on it, or do something because that's what you need as a hacker I can't help thinking about how something broken could be fixed within a few months old and doesn't have a probability for it. When Bauhaus designers adopted Sullivan's form follows function, but I don't know any technology companies that have already launched or can launch during YC. I know who favor markets are Marc, Jawed Karim, and Joe Kraus. Part of what he meant was that in some ways we were a step ahead of Venezuela. Successful founders are in love with their companies. It's not just that if you get a lot of valuable advice about business, and they're begging not to be at the very beginning.

You're doing the same thing. The first time I wrote that paragraph, instead of going to an elite college; you learn more from them than the professors. But I remember thinking his company's name was odd. Fourth, they calculated probabilities differently. But we invest in such a roundabout way that the ones you never hear of deals where a VC invests $6 million at a time. What students lack in experience they more than make up in dedication. What does it mean, exactly? IBM. All they saw were carefully scripted campaign spots. There was a good time to start a startup as a 19 year old. For example, knowing what to make, it's mere effort to make software incompatible.

So in practice big companies only get to develop technology in fields where large capital requirements prevent startups from competing with them. But it's not because liberals are smarter that this is only done to suspected spams. In the software world, this idea is known as Worse is Better is found throughout the arts. Most founders who get contacted by corp dev already know what the basic human reaction to a piece of software. Trevor Blackwell is a great artist: it's the one time that hacking is the applied version of what theoretical computer science is the theory of computation about as much as any startup needs initially. It has become one of the few, artificial, easy tests they've faced in life so far. I'm not even sure what they want will also tend to increase it sufficiently the next time you need to simplify and clarify, and the policeman at the intersection of ambition and incompetence: people want to live in the boring sprawl of the valley proper, or live in San Francisco wearing a jeans and a t-shirt, they're nice to you; who knows who you might be able to describe it is all the different kinds of work. The name of a variable or function is an element; a segment of literal text is an element; an element of subjection. White than from an academic philosopher. If I'm right, then it is spam.

But the idea terrified me at first. So rule number zero is: these rules exist for a reason. Miraculously it all turned out ok. When you list everything ambitious people are ambitious about, it's not Lisp that sucks, but Common Lisp. Founders never really liked giving up as much equity as VCs do now. The mathematicians don't seem bothered by this. It was not until Hotmail was launched a year later and say I want to spend as little time inside the minds of spammers as possible. Investors don't like trying to run through people. We're taking on some consulting projects, but we're not willing to admit. The one possible exception are things like working in fast food. But there might be some businesses that it would be better off taking a class on, say, 1970, I think, because they're already running through that in their current state they have nothing to lose. Better check.

If they make your life difficult. The desire for speed is so deeply engrained in us, with our puny computers, that it made sense to invest in startups Y Combinator has been an unprecedented opportunity for learning how to write. It could be interesting to eavesdrop on people, but diluted by a sixth. It would have been happy if just one of the inventors of the transistor. Isaac Newton Newton has a strange syntax as because it has no relation to what you build for them. 20th century cohesion disappeared because of few policy tweaks, we'll be increasingly unable to rely on cold calls and introductions. Your Research which I recommend to anyone ambitious, no matter how inexperienced you seem or how unpromising your idea sounds at first, room to recover from mistakes is a valuable tool in painting too, though perhaps none of them agreed with everything in it. In a sense, when this happens, of wasting something precious. Unfortunately there's no antonym of hapless, which makes software free; the web has made marketing and distribution free; and more powerful programming languages mean development teams can be smaller. Most of the people.

Are there walkable neighborhoods? The informal delivery mechanism was me, showing up in jeans and t-shirts. The paintings that were popular at the low end and the high end, but not design it. Cram schools turn wealth in one generation into credentials in the next 40 years than it does now. I suspect. And the spammers would also, of course, but someone who really devoted himself to work could generate ten or even hundreds of microcancers going at once, because you will never again be so productive. Prognosis Who will win, the super-angels seem to care at all about it. And so ten years ago trying to sell the company. It was as if I'd told him how much girls liked Barry Manilow in the mid 2000s. Why should anyone care about a startup making $3000 a month do not mean the company has all the elements of a good programming language. And if there are any axioms that could be taught better by itself. Really, Google was funded with angel money.

Most startups coming out of organs not designed for that purpose. The only real difference between adults and high school, I let myself believe that my job was to be driven by how well you do in college would be like drinking from a firehose. Dropbox wasn't rejected by all the East Coast VCs. Everyone's model of work is a facebook exclusively for college students. If your city isn't already a startup hub. That's a reasonable proxy for revenue growth because whenever the startup does start trying to maximize this. That cap need not simply rise monotonically. The reason the filters caught them was that both companies in January switched to commercial email senders instead of sending the mails from their own startups and those working for money. I know delivering a prewritten talk your attention is always divided between the audience and the talk—even if you succeed, you'll have the most to lose, seem to see the better idea when it arrives. Increasingly it will mean the end of the Bubble showed that generic business guys don't make such great stuff, but also like an undervalued stock in that so few founders know whether they're default alive or default dead is that the percentage of the company if he'd let us have it. They use the same word for a brilliant or a horribly cheesy solution. I have to give them your full attention.

#automatically generated text #Markov chains #Paul Graham #Python #Patrick Mooney #flexibility #startup #hundreds #spammers #spring #requirements #people

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY I'M SMARTER THAN COMPANY

So why did they call themselves a media company to throw Microsoft off their scent. Do you want to be considered startups. At the time, could get excited about some new project and you want to hear about new startups, the best way to do it than literally making a mark on the world. They just can't do it; she just shuts down.1 Though really it might be better to describe iTunes as Web 1.2 Some will do everything, from finding tenants to fixing leaks. You'll find more interesting things by looking at the world than you could ever produce just by thinking. Why do good hackers have bad business ideas?

Till now we'd been planning to use If you can recognize good startup founders by empathizing with them—if you both resonate at the same frequency—then you may already be a better startup picker than the median professional VC. But startups aren't like that. The startup may have more long-term potential, but you'll always interrupt working on it. At our end, money is almost a negligible factor. To do good work you have to do is get eight or ten lines in the right startups. We started Viaweb with $10,000 in seed money from our friend Julian. Don't click on Back after following a link.3 A media company should be run by suits. VCs and corp dev guys are professional negotiators.

Not likely. Perhaps this tends to attract people who are famous and/or will work hard for them.4 The obvious way to solve the same problems by successive approximation. You should figure out programs as you're writing them, just as each person walks in a distinctive way, just as I once felt bad that I didn't. Most makers make things for a human audience. Jessica Livingston, Michael Mandel, Robert Morris, and Fred Wilson for reading drafts of this. But for the hackers this label is a problem. Microsoft still inspired in 1995.

At about the same time as mine, the meeting presumably interrupts theirs, but since they made the appointment it must be worth it to them.5 The reason Yahoo didn't care about targeting.6 Suppose another multiple of three. Kids know, without knowing they know, that they tend to sell early.7 Belonging to such a group becomes part of your identity: name, age, role, institution. One might worry this would prevent people from expressing controversial ideas, but a fickle client or unreliable materials would not be. We're in good company here. But something seems to come with practice.

At the stage where YC invests, there is not much overlap between the kind of software that makes money and the kind that's interesting to write. When we were kids I used to program from dinner till about 3 am every day, you'll probably feel like running tomorrow. They generally prefer to use time in units of an hour. Try making your customer service not merely good, but it requires extraordinary effort. In particular, I don't think we should discard plunging. Even Google probably doesn't think that.8 For example, it is a good idea to understand what's happening when you do this. In some cases you literally train your body. In the earliest stage, startups not only have more questions to answer, but they never interrupt it. It doesn't make a product.

For example, when Leonardo painted the portrait of Ginevra de Benci, their attention is often immediately arrested by it, just as property managers can't save you from the building burning down. For example, reading and experience are usually compiled at the time that Federico da Montefeltro, the Duke of Urbino, would one day be known mostly as the guy with the strange nose in a painting that suggests is usually more engaging than one that tells.9 Being profitable, for example. Nearly all of it falls short of Leonardo, for example. If the mean is 30x, the median is probably zero. I think the problem here is that people get used to how things are. By gradually chipping away at the abuse of credentials, you could probably make them more airtight.

You'll probably get either preferred stock, which means endless negotiations with big, bureaucratic companies. Four years later, pundits said the country had lurched to the right. 0 mean anything more than the strength of the company's bargaining position. It's kind of surprising that it even exists. You set up a still life I set up in about four minutes. But angels have to be set up properly or you're just launching projectiles. Many painters might have thought, this is true. It's also financially wiser, because selling allows you to diversify.10 Bad founders seem hapless. Investors were excited about the Internet.

Notes

Living on instant ramen, which you are not just the location of the infrastructure that this had since been exceeded by actors buying their own page. You can't assume that P spam and legitimate mail volume both have distinct daily patterns.

In other words, of course some uncertainty about how to be hidden from statistics too. This kind of kludge you need to run an online service, and since technological progress, but when companies reach a certain city because of the most successful companies have never been the losing side in debates about software startups are usually more desperate for money.

Their opinion carries the same work, done mostly by technological progress, however unnatural it seems a bit more complicated, because investors don't yet have any of the increase in trade you always feel you should be asking will you build this? There are aspects of startups have over you could out of customers is that the government. Download programs to run spreadsheets on it. Sullivan actually said form ever follows function, but it is certainly part of an early funding round at valuation lower than the time and get pushed down by new arrivals.

Instead of making a good way to find a kid that you'd want to wait for the firm in the same town, unless the owner shouldn't pay me extra for doing so because otherwise competitors would take up, but that's a pyramid scheme. A lot of face to face with the other direction Y Combinator certainly never asks what classes you took in college or what grades you got in them to keep the number at Harvard Business School at the exact same thing. The real decline seems to have had a house built a couple of hackers with no environmental cost. The markets seem to have the least VC-like.

One-click ordering, however. To the extent this means anything, it would be enough to convince limited partners. The meaning of the x axis and returns on the process dragged on for months. There is archaeological evidence for large settlements earlier, but that's a rational response to the prevalence of systems of seniority.

This wipes out the words we use for good and bad luck. In any case, is he going to have, however, by doing a bad imitation of a social network for x instead of being back in high school you're led to believe your whole future depends on a hard technical problem. It's worth taking extreme measures to avoid variable capture and multiple evaluation; Hart's examples are subject to both left and right. So what ends up happening is that they've focused on different components of it.

Or it may be to write an essay about it. What you're too early if it's the right way. But knowledge overlaps with wisdom and probably also encourage companies to build their sites, and know the answer, and that most three letter word.

They live in a journal. That's why the series AA paperwork aims at a critical period. A significant component of piracy is simply what they say.

I'd say the raison d'etre of prep schools, because a unless your last funding round usually reflects some other contribution by the time I did when I switch in the latter without also slowing the former depends a lot of classic abstract expressionism is doodling of this model was that it would be worth starting one that we wrote in order to win.

Founders are often surprised by how much we really depend on Aristotle more than whatever collection of stuff to be a variant of the company they're buying.

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