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#the first copy of my very first 5* pretty darn close to 5 years after
samallama · 2 years
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Got forcibly launched back into 2014
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five-rivers · 3 years
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Long Night in the Valley chapter 8
A young man walked in.  His hair was dark, the style conservative.  The only thing that stood out about him was his high-collared jacket.
Aizawa knows who this man is, for much the same reasons that Uraraka knew Skyrunner.  
Fidelity had literally written the book on underground heroism. It hadn’t been published until his death.  
The lights flickered.  The murmuring of the shadows rose, then cut off abruptly, the shadows disappearing along with Nana.  The projector screen changed.  It now read:
Greetings 9’s Friends!  (And teacher.)
“This was my last mission briefing before I died,” said the young man.  “At least, that’s what I’d say if I was really Fidelity.”
“You’re saying you aren’t,” said Aizawa, keeping his voice level.  
The screen behind him changed to read Vestiges: what you need to know.
“I am based on Fidelity.  I’m also based on Railgun.”
“The hero who took down Destro?” asked Uraraka, clenching her fists and briefly floating in excitement.  
Why was she not getting a better grade in history?  
“Not exactly.  He wasn’t actually captured until years later.”
“But you broke his charge, his army!  And all by yourself!”
“Railgun did, yes.  I’ve put together a little presentation for you guys.  Hope you don’t mind.  We all figured you wouldn’t want to go any further without an explanation of sorts.”  He said this all with an enviably flat voice, despite his friendly words.  His body language was controlled and to the point.
Darn Midoriya for managing to build a fantasy that was so close to what Aizawa had always imagined the man to be like.  
(He was not a fan of Fidelity.  Underground heroes did not have fans.  It defeated the point.)
(He pointedly ignored his memories of the bootleg Eraserhead merchandise Midoriya and Yamada had snuck to Eri.)
“You’d be right,” said Aizawa.
“Cool,” said Six.  “Before we begin, I want you to understand that much of what I’m going to tell you will be a lie.”
“What?” said Iida, confused.  “Then what’s the point?”
“The point is, there will be enough truth in it to get you through this safely, and enough falsehood to prevent the commission from taking advantage of Nine later, should they be watching what’s happening here with a quirk we can’t detect.”
“Nine?”  
“Izuku,” clarified Six.  
“Who you called Nine because…?”
“If we count in order of when we were supposedly born, he’s the ninth.  Although, really, he’s the first.  I’ll explain in a moment.”  He pointed to the screen.  “We call ourselves vestiges, and, like I said, we are all based on real people.  We’re part of Nine’s quirk.”  The screen switched to show Midoriya with eight shadowy figures behind him.  “I want to stress that Nine wasn’t aware of us until the sports festival. Specifically…”
The screen now showed Midoriya’s fight with Hitoshi, right before he broke his fingers.  Aizawa recognized the image as a still from one of the cameras.  Except those eight shadows were there as well, right in front of Midoriya.  
“You had something to do with him breaking his fingers and getting out of Shinsou’s quirk.”
“We don’t mix well with mental quirks, apparently. Nine minds all together at once are too many, even if eight of them are fictional.  It’s an interesting side effect.  Speaking of which.”
The new slide was a picture.  An edited picture.  Of a person giving a presentation.  
“Is that a meme?” asked Todoroki.
“Yes,” said Six.  
The slide read, You were never in All Might’s mind.  Nine was just confused.
That meme was so old Aizawa could feel himself taking psychic damage just by looking at it.  
“You’ve been passing through our, the vestiges’, mindscapes. Eight is simply based on All Might.”
That would be a relief, if not for the fact that that Six had admitted he was going to lie.  Also, there was something off about the whole explanation.  
Iida raised his hand.  “Excuse me!  You claim that you are part of Midoriya’s quirk, but you haven’t explained how!”
“I’m getting to that,” said Six.  “Todoroki-san, you’re the one who is always saying how similar Nine and All Might’s quirks are.  Do you have any theories?”
Todoroki’s eyes lit up, even though he kept his habitual deadpan expression.  “Midoriya is All Might’s secret—”
“We wish, but sadly no.  Pick a different one.”
Todoroki looked devastated.  He collected himself quickly, however.  “Midoriya’s strength,” he said, “he got it from All Might, didn’t he?”
“Yes.  Eight is a bit of a complicated case, since he’s based on someone who is alive and Nine knows personally, but in the end, he’s the same as the rest of us.”
“He said something about receiving Skyrunner’s quirk, earlier,” said Uraraka.  
“And Blackwhip…” said Iida.  
“You’re getting it,” said Six.  “Blackwhip originally belonged to Five, incidentally.”
“He has a copy quirk,” concluded Aizawa.  
Six nodded.  The screen changed.  “Right now, Nine has four quirks, three of which he can use freely.  Superpower, Blackwhip, and Float,” he read the quirk names off the screen.  
“And he’s going to get more?” asked Aizawa.
“Eventually,” said Six.  “We don’t want to overload his body—This whole process only kicked off when he met All Might.”
“And why you?” asked Aizawa.  “Why All Might, Skyrunner and these… Five others?”
“I would like to tell you,” said Six.  He raised a finger and waved it in a circle to indicate outside listeners.  
“What are the drawbacks?” asked Aizawa.  
“Hm?”
“The drawbacks.  I get dry eyes when I use my quirk.  Present Mic is deaf.  Vlad is anemic.  A quirk like this one has to have a drawback.”
“What, the broken bones aren’t enough for you?  Or the fact he didn’t hit on the activation conditions until he was fourteen?”
Aizawa stared, unimpressed.  
A tiny corner of Six’s mouth made itself visible over the collar of his coat.  “Well. I think you can make some conclusions but, again…”  He trailed off.  “There are a few more things you should be aware of.  First, Nine had no choice in who we are, although we all fulfil certain criteria.”
“Are you all relatives?” asked Todoroki.  
“Man, you never do give up, do you?” said Six.  “That’s a great quality in a hero.”
“Are you all heroes, then?” continued Todoroki.  
The slide on the screen changed again.  
Vestiges According to History:
8. Yagi Toshinori aka All Might – Hero
7. Shimura Nana aka Skyrunner – Hero
6. Tenma Rokuya aka Fidelity/Railgun – Hero
5. Banjo Daigoro aka Lariat – Hero
4. Vigilante
3. Terrorist
2. Terrorist
1. Unknown
 “Unfortunately,” said Six, “no.”
.
Toshinori caught sight of the feathers first.  He had more experience as a hero, and, as he was no longer the primary user of One for All, the mental strain he was experiencing was much lower, comparatively.  His awareness of his surroundings was better.
Stay calm.  Don’t speak. Don’t run.  
Hawks could receive sensory input from his feathers, though neither Toshinori nor Izuku knew how much.  Better to be safe than sorry.  
We need to get out of the city.
Out of the country, too, for that matter, as much as it would hurt Izuku—
They couldn’t leave all their friends behind to face Shigaraki.  
A compromise could be reached.   They knew a few places—An island, near—
But first, the city.  The first priority was to evade pursuit.  
A bus pulled into the stop ahead of them, and they got on. If they could get outside city limits, where there were fewer people, fewer witnesses, Izuku could float them away. Also, Hawks was less likely to trap his feathers on a bus.  
We might be dealing with the Hawks problem earlier than thought.  
Izuku slouched back on the bus seat, covering his eyes. Toshinori looked up at the ceiling. The Hawks problem.  AKA, the others’ theory that Hawks had been raised as a child soldier, and Toshinori had missed the signs.  
Izuku put his hand on Toshinori’s knee.  
“I can’t believe it,” said one of the other passengers, a few rows ahead of them.  “I really just can’t believe it.  It’s like something from a horror story.”
“What?” asked someone else.  
“Look!”  
“Someone kidnapped All Might?”
The bus filled with chatter.  
Toshinori still couldn’t believe people thought Izuku kidnapped him.  The reality was closer to the opposite, honestly.  He’d have to apologize to Izuku’s mother…
There was a tiny incensed gasp from Izuku, and Toshinori saw Izuku glaring up at him.  Izuku made a series of gestures that could probably have been interpreted as ‘You can’t kidnap anyone, you’re All Might!’ even without the psychic link they were currently enjoying, then went into an enthusiastic tangent about how the commission was probably playing up the ‘crazy stalker fan’ angle.
Toshinori sighed, ruffled Izuku’s hair, and studiously avoided any and all thoughts about what he’d done to Aldera Middle School after Izuku had shown up to training with a black eye and bloody nose that one time.
“What?” squeaked Izuku, his eyes gone very wide.  
Drat.  
Out of the corner of his eye, Toshinori saw three passengers near the front of the bus stand up and felt his heart drop.  One of them had an obvious eagle mutation, the second had a bulging, almost spherical, neck, and the third had broad, flat-ended fingers.
Decades of hero experience told Toshinori exactly what was going to happen next.  Even before the guns came out.  
“Well,” said the eagle-headed man, “with all the heroes looking for the ‘Symbol of Peace,’ I guess this is our lucky day!”
“Nobody move!” demanded the man with the round neck. “This is a hijacking!”
Izuku let out an incredulous grunt next to him, but Toshinori could literally feel his mind whirring at a thousand miles a minute, analyzing the quirks of the hijackers and possible motives.  
Really.  There was no way they weren’t going to help.  
.
“By the way, not all of Nine is awake, so, out in the real world his body is operating according to consensus.”
“Consensus of…” said Aizawa, not wanting to finish the thought as he stared at the two entries labeled ‘terrorist.’
“All nine of us together, yes.”
“That’s a pretty big drawback,” said Aizawa, his voice rasping against his throat.
“Eh.  It has its benefits.  Besides, Three and Two lived over a hundred years ago.  We didn’t even have the hero system back then.  Things change.”
“Excuse me!” said Iida, raising his hand.  “Why don’t the last four—the first four? —have names?”
“They asked me not to share them with you quite yet,” said Six.  “Don’t call Three a terrorist though.  That’s a bit of a sore spot with her.”  He looked off to the side.  
“And the quirks?” said Aizawa, hanging on to the very last bit of his will to live by the tips of his fingers.  “The ones I’m presumably going to have to teach Midoriya how to use?”
“Right.”
 Our Splendiferous Quirks
 8. Yagi Toshinori aka All Might – Hero.  Quirk: Superpower.
7. Shimura Nana aka Skyrunner – Hero.  Quirk: Float.
6. Tenma Rokuya aka Fidelity/Railgun – Hero. Quirk: Internet Perception.
5. Banjo Daigoro aka Lariat – Hero.  Quirk: Blackwhip.
4. Vigilante.  Quirk: Danger Sense.
3. Terrorist
2. Terrorist
1. Unknown
 Aizawa was not surprised to see the last four entries, once again, had little information attached.  
“You know,” said Uraraka, “if you ignore the terrorists, this actually makes sense.”
“If you ignore the terrorists?” asked Iida, incredulous.
“I mean, think about who we’ve seen so far.”
“It is like Midoriya to have a split personality based on All Might,” agreed Todoroki.  Because split personalities were going to be his go-to theory, now that figments of Midoriya’s quirk’s imagination had shot down his ‘Dadmight’ conspiracy.  
“If you want to think of us as split personalities, sure,” said Six.  “We really don’t interact that much with the outside, though.”
“And Skyrunner is basically supermom,” said Uraraka. “Like, if she was All Might’s mentor, it makes sense that that’s what he’d envision her as.”
“Ah,” said Iida, “so she reminds you of Midoriya-san as well?”
Aizawa noticed Six shift uncomfortably and look away but decided he honestly did not want to know.  
“Oh, and you,” said Uraraka, spreading her hands to indicate Six, “are kind of like Aizawa-sensei!
“Except with more memes,” said Todoroki.  
“Yeah, except with more memes,” agreed Uraraka.  
Six faked a cough into his fist.  “Anyway, I think that’s everything…  No, wait.  Hawks.”
“Hawks,” repeated Aizawa.  
“Yeah.  We’re pretty sure he was raised and conditioned to be a slave for the commission from a very young age.”  Another pause.  Six turned to face Todoroki.  “Also, Dabi is probably your dead older brother, Todoroki Touya.”
“Oh,” said Todoroki.  
“What,” said Aizawa.  
“We’d just like someone in a position to do things with this information to have it.  Even if we were sure Nine would retain all this, he, ah.  The commission is doing a very good job of trashing his reputation.”
“Is this revenge?” whispered Todoroki.  “Did I push Midoriya too far?”
“Kid, you could beat Nine up on a weekly basis for ten years, and he’d still barely think of revenge.  Come on, I need to take you guys to Five.”
Barely, he said.  Meaning, he did think about revenge.  They had to get out of here fast; Bakugo’s life was in danger.  
.
There were lives in danger.  A simple robbery wouldn’t require this kind of setup.  These three needed hostages for some reason.  
Or…  Izuku traced the direction the three villains kept looking to the college student in the corner.  The young woman’s clothing was high quality, and she looked vaguely familiar.  
He couldn’t help but be exasperated.  Shigaraki Tomura was running around out there somewhere, and these guys were doing… whatever this was.  Causing problems.  He and Toshinori would have to try and evade Hawks after this.  
But exasperation wasn’t going to keep these people safe.  
Eagle-head looked like the leader at first glance, but on closer inspection, he was taking cues from the man with the squared-off fingers. The man with the round neck seemed to have a body expansion quirk of some type, possibly similar to Kendo’s, considering how his joints pulsed and how his clothing was designed with extra folds.
… He’d shown Toshinori a catalogue with similar clothing, once. But Toshinori had said that the ill-fitting look added to his disguise.  
In the tight confines of the bus, that would be dangerous. The best thing to do to him would be to throw him out when the bus came to a stop.
The quirk of the man with the square finger was a problem. It was probably an emitter type, rather than a transformation type.  Something to do with his hands, perhaps?
Honestly, the best thing to do for all of them, at least with regards to the people on the bus, would be to toss them off and then get the driver to gun it.  But then, what about people on the street?  These guys didn’t have any scruple against taking hostages, obviously.
“Hey, you, hand over the briefcase,” said the man with the round neck.  
Izuku glanced at Toshinori, who nodded.  Coils of Blackwhip ran up and down his arms under the sleeves of his suit, much more controlled and complex than Izuku had managed to date.  
Thanks for the help, Five.  
He slammed the briefcase into the eagle-headed man’s beak. Toshinori hadn’t skimped on anything when stocking the hideout, and the metal made immensely satisfying contact with bone.  Blackwhip shot out from near his elbow—like Sero—and wrapped around the hands of the gunmen, forcing their aim down.
The man with square fingers reacted first, raising his hand. Each fingertip emitted a flat, square pane that traveled in a straight line and got progressive larger.  Izuku pulled, slamming the man into the back of his own shield, because really, that was too slow, and how similar was this quirk to Crust’s?  Could the villain change the trajectory of his panels, or no?
Not the time.
The shield cracked as Izuku hit it from the other side, and Toshinori was throwing open the back door.  The man with the expanding quirk—and it was an expanding quirk—seemed to finally realize what was happening, and lashed out, but Izuku was faster than he was.  The spherical throat was evidently a weak point.  
“Can you stop?” Izuku asked the bus driver, who, tense as he was, slammed down on the brakes, making Izuku stumble.  He hauled the villains off the bus, Toshinori hopping off the back with the eagle-headed man a moment later.  
Well, that had happened.  
Izuku caught a flash of very distinctive red out of the corner of his eye.  
.
Six stopped.  “That isn’t good,” he said, looking slightly up.  There was nothing there that Aizawa could see, except for a collection of pipes.  They were travelling through a series of underground concrete passages in an effort to find ‘Five.’
“What is it?” asked Uraraka.  
Six’s form abruptly flickered and vanished.  Oh, that couldn’t be good.  
“Sensei.”  
Aizawa turned to see Midoriya standing behind them, wearing a truly godawful pinstriped suit.  He held his right wrist in his left hand, an odd bracer wrapped around it.
“Is that the Full Gauntlet?” asked Uraraka.  “Why-?”
Midoriya flashed a quick smile in her direction.  “I’m sorry, sensei, this is really last minute, but I need you to tell me how to use your quirk.”
.
We absolutely can’t strike first.
They wanted to.  They knew this would turn into a battle.  The first strike was an advantage they couldn’t discount.  
Win the battle and lose the war.  
He could see the cell phones already out, held bystanders not quite broken from the habits gained in All Might’s era.  Even with the Hero Commission already slandering him, this would affect the narrative.  If he ever hoped to be welcomed back to hero society, or even the public’s good graces, in any way shape or form, he could not be seen starting a fight with a hero.  Much less the current number two hero.  
“I don’t suppose you’ll make my job easier and release All Might from your mind-control quirk,” said Hawks, tone conversational despite the fact he was standing at least two stories above them in the air.  
“I don’t have a mind-control quirk,” said Izuku, reaching up to the knot of his tie.  
“And I’m not being mind-controlled,” said Toshinori, loosening his mask.  
Hawks actually paused.  “Oh my gosh,” he said, raising one hand to his mouth like a scandalized housewife, “I didn’t realize that was you!  What happened to your hair?”
“I… cut it off.”
“That’s, uh.”  Hawks quickly regained control of his expression.  “Terrible that this villain made you do that.”
Hawks’ heart wasn’t entirely in this apparently.  
Just as apparently, that had no bearing on what Hawks was actually going to do.  
.
“You’ve seen me use my quirk,” said Aizawa.  
“I know, and that’ll be helpful, too, but how do you use it?  What’s the feeling you get when you use it?  How do you activate it?  What’s the internal mechanism?  This is important.”
“Why?” asked Iida.  “What’s going on Midoriya?”
“It’s—” Midoriya’s form flickered.  He took a deep breath.  He was now wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants.  “I’m in a fight right now, and it would be useful,” he reported, calmly.
“Please tell me it isn’t with my mind-controlled unconscious body,” begged Aizawa, “or the League of Villains.”  
“It isn’t.”
Thank goodness.
“I’m fighting Hawks.”
Why.  
No, ask questions later.  The Problem Child needed help now.  To fight the number two hero.
He didn’t know how knowledge about his quirk could be useful in a fight against Hawks, but the claim was far, far too stupid to be a lie.  
“When I turn on my quirk, I—”
.
Blackwhip unfurled from his arms like a dark version of Shouji’s quirk, tearing his sleeves to shreds and dislodging the feathers that had been imbedded there.  The ends wrapped around feather after feather, splitting into dozens and dozens of pseudo-arms.  Izuku was amazed.  
Someday, he would be able to do this on his own.  
For now—
For now, he was fighting Hawks, who had trained since childhood to fight on behalf of the commission.  
For now, he was a hero student, with only a few months of practical experience.  
For now, he was a fugitive, on the run and desperate.  
For now, he was host and member of One for All, and collectively they had been heroes for over a hundred years.  
And Toshinori had his back.  
They wrapped the silk tie around his knuckles.  Any protection for the bones in his hands was valuable.  In the other, they adjusted the briefcase.  They had only rarely used weapons in the last hundred or so years. Usually, their quirks made weapons overkill.  
But before that—Before that, things were different.  For a while, One and Two had used swords, of all things.  
This battle was much more even than it looked.  
Their victory condition: Escape with Toshinori.  
Their failure conditions: Civilian injury, serious injury to Izuku or Toshinori, or capture of either Izuku or Toshinori.  
To avoid the first point of failure, it was best for them to get away from the vulnerable civilians.  They didn’t want to give away float so soon in the game, so…  
They grabbed the edge of a building with Blackwhip and launched Izuku upwards, flinging feathers away from him.  Toshinori would follow and provide the group with a second perspective.  
Hawks did not expect to be joined in the air.  An incredulous smile graced his lips.  Izuku smiled back and catapulted himself directly into Hawks.
“You know,” he said, “I think that’s the first time I’ve seen you smile for real!”
.
“What?” asked Hawks, startled.  He wasn’t one to have meaningful conversations with people he was supposed to bring in, but a statement like that had to be responded to.  
Even if most of his attention was on the quirk that Midoriya controlled with much more proficiency than indicated by his school records.  The kid was good, had good instincts when it came to battle, but he wasn’t quite fast enough to get past Hawks’s guard, or to really close the distance between them.
“Your smile!” said Midoriya.  “When I was younger, I didn’t realize it, but once I knew the truth behind All Might’s smile, I understood!”  
“Did you, now?” asked Hawks.  
“Underneath,” said Midoriya, “your face is a lot like Todoroki’s!  It’s—”
Conversation during a battle was usually a distraction, to the person employing it as a tactic as well as the target.  Somehow, though, Midoriya was subverting that rule.
“It’s actually really sad!” exclaimed Midoriya, breathless, but apparently genuine, not mocking.  “Who hurt you?”
“Heh,” said Hawks.  This kid knew.  How? “Shouldn’t I be the one asking questions here?”
“Gotta hand it to the commission, they really did a number on you,” said Midoriya, briefly touching down on a rooftop.  “Why do you keep doing their dirty work for them?”
He was using that second quirk, but not his strength.  Was it a matter of ‘won’t’ or ‘can’t?’  Either way, it was something to keep an eye on.  
“Why don’t you—” Hawks briefly managed to pin Midoriya by the edge of his jacket, but the boy tore free easily.  “—fly free?”
“You’re one to talk,” said Hawks.  “What did you trade to All for One for those quirks?”  He didn’t actually believe Midoriya was in league with All for One.  Even tangentially, through proxies, they’d been at odds too many times, not to mention the videos he’d been shown by the commission of Midoriya and All Might interacting.  The connection there couldn’t be faked.
He’d know.  He’d tried so many times.
(Was trying now, with the League of Villains.)
(Midoriya wasn’t one of them.)
But he had a job to do.  
Besides.  Even he had to admit the commission had a point.  The quirks had to come from somewhere.  
(Just because Midoriya didn’t willingly associate with All for One didn’t mean he hadn’t been forced.  Didn’t mean he hadn’t gotten out.)
(All Might was protecting him.  How did they know each other?)
“Wouldn’t you take any hand offered to you if the person behind it offered to make you what you always wanted to be?”
Midoriya tilted his head to one side.  “Nope!” he responded, cheerfully.
.
On the street below, Toshinori coughed, blood splattering his sleeve.  What had Izuku been doing when he was younger, to get involved with so many dangerous and disturbing people?
It wasn’t my fault!
Kid really is a trouble magnet.  
Oh, heck, I think I recognized that one—
Really, with that sharp mind, and Izuku’s propensity for both curiosity, helpfulness, and, well, finding trouble, it was a miracle he’d stayed alive for so long.  
Wouldn’t call it a miracle, sonny—
HAHA I can’t believe he thought that was a dream.  
In his defense, a dream makes more sense than—
Guys.  Focus, please?
Yes.  This was not the time to discuss… that.  Now… Well.  Toshinori had a role he could play in this battle, even as he was, and—
Hawks and Izuku’s path over the rooftops mapped itself out in his mind.  
Oh, no.  
Izuku wasn’t evading Hawks.  
He was being herded by him.  
.
They tucked and rolled across the pavement, Blackwhip cocooning them and breaking their fall.   This was significantly more than what Five, what Daigoro, could use back when he was alive.  It took everyone’s efforts to keep everything going.  
Wait for it, they reminded themselves, bouncing back to Izuku’s feet.  
Izuku looked up.  This… was not a good position.  Hawks had forced them into the entertainment district.  They couldn’t trust that the fancy facades and art instalations of the buildings would hold up to Blackwhip.  Not to mention, in places like this…  He glanced around.  
Fourth Kind.  
Kesagiriman.
Slugger.  
Death Arms.  
There would be more, soon.  This was… less than good.  Maybe they should just grab Toshinori’s body and launch themselves with Blackwhip and Float, as far as they could.  They’d lose a lot of their advantage on Hawks, but at least then they wouldn’t be fighting five different heroes.  
Izuku gritted his teeth in something like a smile.  Five different heroes.  Well.  Nine on five wasn’t bad odds.  
.
Suzuku pulled himself along the ground, trembling.  He had been falling for—for ages by the time that witch woman had disappeared.  Why she had disappeared, he couldn’t guess, but…
Falling.  
So much falling.  
And hitting the ground again, and again, and again.  
You invaded our minds, said the woman, don’t complain when we counter with something psychological as well.  
Something like a laugh bubbled up from his throat.  
You can leave whenever you want, can’t you?
He’d show her.  He’d show her and find all her secrets.  Just see if he didn’t.  
.
Fourth Kind, Kesagiriman, Slugger, and Death Arms all had very physical, straightforward quirks.  Out of all of them, though, Death Arms was probably the most problematic, followed by Slugger and his long-range attacks.  
None of them held a candle to Hawks, of course.  Which was the reason why Death Arms in particular was so problematic.  
In order to deal with Hawks’s feathers, they needed Blackwhip. But using Blackwhip and One for All’s signature superstrength at the same time wasn’t something Izuku’s body was used to.  They were limiting it to small bursts.  Death Arms’ own physical enhancement quirk, while miniscule compared to One for All’s current stature, was nothing to sneer at.  
If Death Arms—or any of the other heroes—landed a solid blow, that could be it for Izuku.  
They refused to be locked away again.  
That’s when it happened.  
A scene played across Izuku’s inner eye:
A frosty morning.  A little boy with dark hair.  A farewell. Tears.  
He flubbed the landing and a sharp pain lanced through his ankle. Blackwhip wrapped it, giving it much needed support.  
He started to rise, only to drop to avoid one of Slugger’s patented Home Run Pitches (tm).  
The ball spun, ricocheting off the stainless steel of an art installation before drilling right through a wooden beam on a bit of scaffolding holding up part of a building that was being refurbished.  Izuku let out a breath of relief (there were still people around who hadn’t learned how to run away from a dangerous fight) before they returned to the dance with Hawks’s impressively huge number of feathers.  
Blackwhip could keep up with them, barely, but Izuku was tiring. He couldn’t take much more of this.
He needed an opening to get to Toshi—
Another scene:
She couldn’t be pregnant.  Not now. Not right after giving away another. The next time Sorahiko suggested drowning her troubles in sake, she was going to shove it straight up his blowholes, no matter that he was probably just as drunk as she was.  
This slip almost resulted in Izuku getting his face punched in by Death Arms.  Considering what he’d just learned, he’d almost welcome that fate, if it made him forget.  Plus, it might have been funny for the ultimate battle of ultimate destiny, the show down between One for All and All for One, to take place between not one, but two potato-headed individuals—
There was a sharp crack from above as the damage Death Arms had done to the scaffolding made itself known.  
Izuku didn’t have to think before moving.  
.
“Alright,” said Midoriya.  “I think I’ve got it.  Thank you, sensei.”  He looked young, now.  Barely primary school age.  
“I’d feel a lot better,” said Aizawa, “if I knew what you needed this information for.”
“Oh!  That’s simple.  You see, it’s my theory that the overlap in mechanisms between my quirk and Saito-san’s might allow for interesting emergent behaviors.  Specifically, her quirk bridges a gap I’d normally have no way of crossing, although there’s certainly drawbacks.  It’s like what we tried earlier, when I asked you to use your quirk.  Although, I am hoping for different results than what I was looking for back then.  I think, with what you’ve given me, and this processing time…  Yes, this should work.”  He clenched a fist.  “These remnants—I can use them!”
Remnants.  Vestiges.
Aizawa frowned.  Something… something wasn’t right, here.  The explanation Six had given them…
“Just keep going this way, for now.  Six will try to get back to you as soon as possible.  I have to go now!  I love you guys!”
He then faded out.  While waving.  
“Wow,” said Uraraka.  “Izuku-kun sure was a cute kid.”
Aizawa couldn’t argue with that.  
“Aizawa-sensei,” said Todoroki.  “You’re blushing.”
He wouldn’t lower himself to argue with that.  “This conversation is illogical.  Let’s go.”
“Sensei is weak to little kids,” observed Todoroki.  
And if they ever discovered they could remove the ‘little’ in that sentence and have it still be accurate, he’d never live it down.  
.
Hawks saw the eyes first, shining through the dust like two perfect green coins.  Then every one of his feathers went dead, and he started to fall.  
Sensation returned just in time for him to avoid hitting the ground at speed and, just as quickly, vanished again.  
A breeze blew cleared the dust away.  
Midoriya Izuku stood under the collapsed scaffolding, holding it up with black tendrils and sparking green arms.  If this scene had been all that there was, an observer might be forgiven for wondering why he was holding up the scaffolding like that.
But Hawks knew.  If Midoriya hadn’t caught the scaffolding, even he wouldn’t have been able to get those civilians out from underneath it in time.  He glanced to the side, where the almost victims were standing up. Normally, he’d just trust his feathers, but…
“Is that Eraserhead’s quirk?”
“Don’t worry, I asked Eraserhead-sensei for permission, first.”
“What kind of monster—” started Death Arms.  
“Don’t you dare, Mister ‘my quirk isn’t suitable.’” Midoriya shifted the scaffolding to one side and shrugged himself out from underneath it.  “As heroes, aren’t you supposed to consider the civilians around you?”  He laughed. “I guess we’re still a little bitter about that.”
.
Izuku was putting on a good show, but he was reaching the end of his endurance.  Plus, he could already hear the sirens of police cars and the exclamations that followed large groups of heroes on the move.  
Good thing, then, that Toshinori was about to round the corner in three… two… one… There!
To an outsider, Blackwhip wrapping around Toshinori probably looked violent.  In reality, everyone operating the quirk was intimately aware of everything wrong with Toshinori’s body and did not want to add to his problems.  They could have probably grabbed an egg like this.  
Grabbing the newly-exposed concrete and rebar of the building behind Izuku, they launched themselves up.  At the top of their arc, they activated Float.  Blackwhip reeled Toshinori in, and they held onto each other as Izuku prepared to use air pressure to launch themselves forward.  
He hadn’t blinked yet.  
His eyes really hurt.  
(And so did everything else.)
He aimed and kicked against the air, sending them soaring away.
They had escaped.  
.
Tomura ducked behind the wall at the top of the building, glad that his party had put so many points into stealth, because he was not touching what had just happened with a ten-foot pole.  He’d rather be shot again.  He’d rather fight Machia for a week straight with no rest breaks.  He’d rather listen to Sensei try to give him the birds and the bees talk.  
What was that?  Huh? What kind of a broken character build allowed for that kind of combat ability?  The mods had to be asleep.  If he were in charge, he’d nerf it, pronto.  
That was a lie.  He’d take it for himself.  
Still.  
“Uh, Shigaraki?  Boss man?  You okay there?” asked Spinner.  
“No,” decided Shigaraki.  
Suddenly, making all of them jump, Toga squealed.  “Did you see him?  Did you see Izuku-kun?  He was so cute with his nose bleeding like that!”
“Hey,” said Dabi, “are we going after the green kid or what?”
“No,” decided Shigaraki, for the second time in as many minutes.  And then, “Gimme the phone.  We need to call the doctor to get us out of here.”
They did, but that was pretty much secondary to his primary objective, which was to cuss out the doctor concerning the cursed knowledge that was currently trying to escape his skull with a pickaxe.  
.
“Um,” said Inko.  “Aren’t you going to get that?”  She pointed at the phone that had been buzzing on the table for the past several minutes.
“No,” said Garaki, pretending to sip at his tea.  “You were saying?”
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sidelinesbysam · 4 years
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I’m a Senior Again...I think
Back in the day I remember what it was like to become a senior. It was June of 1977 and it was a glorious day! We were just wrapping up our Junior year at Proviso West High School and as the final days of junior year ticked away, we all became filled with the anticipation of what was about to take place. Well almost all of us. There were a few dudes hanging out behind the auto shop that may not have had quite the excitement and focus as the rest of the Class of 78. But nonetheless, it was here...the day my friends and I were waiting for. As the last final exam was completed and that final bell rang, just like that, I was a senior! When you go to a huge high school like Proviso West, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. Now I certainly wasn’t one of the cool kids but I do have to admit, I had some really cool friends heading into that senior year. And they were all awesome and cool in their own way  
Even though during those years I never eclipsed the 5’6” mark on the wall, I had some good friendships with some really big dudes at PWHS. I mean they were big...tall...vertically unchallenged as it were. Brett seemed to be 7’ and so did Ron. Pat O was a monster too. Looking back I’m going to guess they were in the mid 6 foot range but to me they were giants. We were friends all four years but this year, senior year was different. We were on top of the mountain of high school life and those guys were the coolest of cool. Being a high school athlete had to be the pinnacle. Especially becoming a senior.
 Somehow I had also forged a close friendship with one of the prettiest girls in a school of thousands. Carolyn was the captain of the dance and pom pom squad and her and I used to meet in the halls between classes and we chatted almost everyday. And she hung out with the greatest collection of friends that made an adolescent guy like me crazy. 
I may not have been a cool kid but when I became a senior I did some things that I thought were pretty cool at the time, and maybe still.  I was there editor of the Mural in 1978 which was the high school yearbook. Everyday for months the staff and I met to build that 300+ page yearbook that holds the memories of turning into a senior for so many of my classmates. Along with Mike, my still best friend ever, we took nearly every one of the candid photos for that book and when the first copy was delivered, maybe for the first time in my life, I felt really accomplished and pretty cool. I was also the sports editor of the Profile, the school newspaper. I had my own column and I wrote stories about all the different sporting events that entire senior year too. I wrote some stories that were really good and insightful and a few others that got me threatened with a meeting in the parking lot after school. Such is the life of a journalist! At the time I was sure that those experiences were going to launch me into a career of journalism. Looking at the media today, maybe it’s a blessing my life took another direction. After all these years, turning a senior at PWHS is mostly a clouded memory. I recall bits and pieces. I was the dude at basketball games that got hoisted up on someone's shoulders and shouted out, “Give me a P…” I remember being the first person to put on the new Panther mascot costume Coach Lucas and Mr. Skul had bought and I remember being a faithful part time team manager for the basketball team that senior year. I remember after the last loss of the season I sat in the locker room with those cool giants and I cried. “Coach Luke” came over and consoled me and told me thanks for everything. That moment really meant the world to me and it was probably the first time I considered being a senior was coming to a close. 
I even met my first wife my senior year. She wasn't a Panther but she did live close by in Elmhurst. We met at Dominick's and that eventually led directly to two great kids and three grandkids. Wow! All in all, being a senior was pretty cool.
And here I am today. Once again, I’ve become a senior. But let me tell you, it came without the same anticipation or excitement. Now to be completely clear, there is some debate as to when a person officially becomes a senior. Some say it’s 65. The Social Security Administration, in some cases, says it’s 62. For some reason, me personally always had the number 60 attached to it. Maybe now that I’m 60, I should rethink the connection. But you know what, it’s just a number and just a word. Some people say that in the context of growing old, the word senior has a negative connotation. The PC word to be used should be “elderly.” Really, elderly? I don’t like that at all. I may not be old but I am definitely not elderly. Am I? But for the sake of argument, let’s just say 60 is seniorly. What sort of cool things come with becoming a senior this go around? It appears that the gallbladder is a right of senior passage. That thing must not like being housed in a senior because half of everyone I know had to have it removed. And remember, as a senior, people like to tell you it’s not surgery...it’s just a procedure. Another thrill of being a senior is the eyesight. It appears as you progress through the years you go from readers to prescription glasses to bi-focals to trifocals and then “progressives.” The pinnacle (I hope) of a never ending battle with blurry vision. Another treasure of seniordum is that first 30 minutes or more of every single morning for the rest of ever I guess. Back in the day my alarm would go off, I would spin out of bed, get ready for school or work and take off. Now there is a strategic series of snoozes, slow turns over the edge of the bed, an occasional reach for the wall and a very deliberate walk to the first destination in the morning. Sorry dogs, your business has to wait for my business. And what do seniors do while doing their business? I, for one, look at The Facebook. And what do I see when I look at The Facebook? It appears people my age look a lot older than I think I look. Must be part of that whole “blurry vision” issue. If I am in fact a senior again, it sure looks a lot different than it did 42 years ago. But ironically, there are the benefits.
Back in 1978, as a senior, we thought we could do anything. We had a closed campus at PWHS but at lunchtime I still left to go to McDonald’s for a burger or Ne’Joes for an Italian sub. Once the truant officer stopped me at the gate before I got out of the south lot and asked me where I thought I was going. I chose what I thought was the best route and told him to get some lunch. He handed me a 5 and asked if I would grab him something. Being a senior had it’s privilege. And being a senior still does today. I find that as a senior, if that’s what I am, I can get away with saying things I couldn’t when I was younger. Now for the record, subtlety helps, but having the same filter as a younger man is not required. I notice that beating around the bush is a much shorter process. 
Me: “Can I have just a large iced tea? That's it.” 
The other person: “Anything else with that?” 
Me again: “Did you NOT hear the words JUST and THAT'S IT tucked into that sentence?”
The disgruntled other person: “(grumble...mumble...old fart)”
But in reality, landing at 60 and looking at life in perspective ain’t such a bad thing. There are some real blessings to this senior stuff and I’m not talking about AARP discounts. This is more about life in general. I have four great kids that are moving through life at breakneck speed sometimes, and I love them very much and I’m so proud of them all. I wish we connected more often but modern day electronics makes it easier to fill the gaps. A quick text or a social media “like” or thumbs up will never be a substitute for a call or a visit, but it lets us know that we’re all still out there. And I have the blessing of three grandkids that fill my life with joy and happiness. The 12 year old lives in south central IL so we need to use our devices to connect and talking to grandpa isn’t much of a priority to a video game playing, pre-teen but we do our best. The 8 and 6 year old live close by and I get to see them frequently. My granddaughter who is the youngest, observes my senior status by asking, “grandpa, why do you sit in your chair and watch those cooking shows all the time?” I want to load up one of those unfiltered replies but she’s so darn cute I just tell her, “Because I can’t find the remote to change the channel.” The fun part about my middle grandson is that at 8 years old he’s starting to let his hair grow out. And in senior fashion I asked him if he was trying to look like one of the Beatles. That got me the most puzzled look and after a pause, “who’s that?” 
And as a senior today, I look back to when I was a senior back then. I fondly remember those giants that I was friends with. Sadly Brett lost his life several years ago but I still think of him from those days and I can’t help but smile. Even though he was a massive dude in my eyes, I’ll always remember that he had a giant heart too. He always treated me like I was part of his circle even though I existed on the edge of that circle at best. And that pretty dance team captain that befriended me way back when, well she is still a BFF and not only one of the most beautiful women I know inside and out, she’s a successful business woman, an author, a proud momma and a loving, devoted wife. And I can gladly say, even though we’re a couple of hundred miles apart, we stay connected and chat often. My best friend forever Mike and I connect almost daily. Sometimes it’s a call or a text. Maybe a dad joke or a backhanded jab. We even have laughs about being seniors. Sometimes remembering 1978 and other times trying to remember stuff from 2020. 
Through the miracle of social media, even though I live over 200 miles from where I lived the first time I was a senior, I am still connected to dozens and dozens of friends from those great days at Proviso West and even earlier at MacArthur and Jefferson. For example, at our last class reunion, Tom and his band played for a couple of hours and it’s hard to believe he and I met in 1971. That guy is a rocking, surfing, boating senior and a really cool dude (does that sound seniorish?) now living in Florida. Steve and Mark and others live in Cali, Donna lives in Texas, Bill lives in Michigan, Diane has traveled all over Europe and also lived in Germany. Rich has lived in Colorado for years. My cousin Pat and his wife Patty who are also 78ers have been in Oregon for as long as I can remember. And hundreds of others are scattered all across the land and sadly, several others have gone before us. But for those that remain, there is a line of commonality that we all share and have shared before. At one time we were all seniors before life really got going. And here we all are, seniors (maybe) again. It really doesn’t matter about our life perspectives or where we stand in today’s climate of world views, we cannot separate ourselves from the fact that we were seniors together back in 1978 and we may or may not be seniors together again now. In a few years, many of us will meet again or for the first time at a class reunion. We will have happy memories about those first senior days and share a lot of laughs and a few tears. And surely the conversation will turn to current senior days and all of our own transition to being a modern day senior.
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bigmoodword · 5 years
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11/11/11 Tag
tagged by @silver-wields-a-pen -- thanks a bunch! this was so thought-provoking.
1. Who is your favourite oc? 
probably a toss-up between the two oldest:
a werewolf who hides his cold-burning hate behind a sweet smile and endless offers to make bitchin’ cups of tea/coffee/poison/cocoa
an immortal with unhealthy escapist tendencies, livin’ that long life as if EXTRA is their personal motto
at this point, they’ve run through several names each. here’s hoping i finally set 'em in stone sooner rather than later.
2. What themes do you struggle writing? 
healthy, established romance. i can do flirtation and doomed relationships, but actually solid relationships are a whole different beast. it’s kind of funny, because although there are plenty of problems to work through even in the best relationship, i have a tendency to tidy them with too nice a bow. lucky me, that’s my life experience, but it doesn’t make for the most engaging story.
3. What’s been the best thing about writing your wip?
striking creative oil. it’s wonderful to be so enamored with an idea that all my doubts dissipate and the words just... flow. it’s a feeling i remember from childhood, and it’s a relief to know it can still strike.
4. What themes has your favourite story included? 
survivor’s guilt. betrayal. missed opportunities. miscommunication. learning to let go. learning how to love oneself. abuse. wearing a mask. class struggles. systemic oppression. the importance of hope--whatever that ultimately means for you.
honestly, these tend to pop up in all my stories to varying degrees.
5. What time of day do you prefer writing?
i tend to switch between the night owl and early bird approaches. the former pops up when i’m on a serious roll, the latter when i’ve hit a rhythm of jotting down a few hundred words over coffee.
6. What’s your favourite relationship trope to write? 
a very specific kind of unrequited love. like the two are this 👌 close to actually coming together--they’d honestly be pretty great!--except they fail to communicate mutual interest so each assumes the other isn’t. or maybe they’re too preoccupied with their own issues to have a good relationship, so temptations aside, one or both decide it’s better to pass. it’s the idea of “maybe in another life” or “if only we’d met x years ago or y years from now.” can’t get enough of it!
7. What detail about your ocs has surprised you? 
they’re all so messed up. i mean. granted, most of them are born by taking a personality flaw (whether my own or one i struggle to understand) to a certain extreme, but even those that start on an even keel inevitably hit a significant low point. i think it’s an extension of the idea “everybody’s got something” but i hope someday i can manage to have a character that’s both interesting and well-adjusted throughout.
8. Thoughts on including romance in other genres? 
i’m ace, so romance often misses the mark for me. the fact my favorite romantic trope is two people not ending up together probably says a lot on its own. more specifically, unless the romance really adds to the wider story, i prefer it in the background. i think of certain characters flirting and growing closer as sprinkles atop the main plot’s cupcake.
9. Favourite writing snack? 
coffee! i don’t tend to snack much in general, especially not when writing, but i’m always game to break out the bean juice.
10. Favourite villain trope? 
the anti-villain. as a huge “fan” of gray morality, i guess that’s pretty darn predictable. while obviously i’m not here to root for villains, i like to understand them. i think it’s important to recognize how an otherwise good person becomes villainous, and i also have a certain affection for reformed villains. j/s
11. Best scene you’ve written? 
oooo. that’s a good one. i’m not comfortable calling anything my “best” scene, but i tend to favor those where major plot points finally intersect. here’s one i still quite like--
background: urban fantasy, slayer organization, investigation into a recently caught perp
trigger warning: implied sexual abuse
Sven didn’t bother returning Nina’s call until he was in the werewolf’s ritzy apartment, and when she picked up, she immediately reported how the guy had copped to lying throughout his first interview.
As he examined the titles in the bookcases, Sven figured that meant his perp was smart enough to recognize a boon. The asshole who’d put him in a wheelchair had also thrown him a softball cover story, and if he played along, his pack wouldn’t get hurt. Lucky puppy.
Yet Nina remained skeptical. She specified how Nate—that beacon of truth—had caught the werewolf talking on the sly about a little friend. He wouldn’t just make that up, so of course she expected him to search high and low for any proof. Just in case.
He promised he’d do his best then sat cross-legged before the shelves. He put the phone on speaker, set it on a dizzyingly ornate rug, and began pulling books out. One by one, he’d flip robotically through the pages, looking for anything of note.
Meanwhile, Nina’s voice lost its authoritarian edge, “What was up before?”
“Nothing important. Just a guy. Lonely. Works at the hotel.” Having said the words, he tried not to picture her growing smirk. “One thing led to another and…”
“Good for you.” A pause. “Hey. Hey, Sven. Was he cute?”
“Quite.”
“'Quite.’” He could hear her rolling her eyes. “And? Did you, well, have a good time?”
“Debatably.”
“Huh.” Nina thought aloud, “See, you were awfully mad at me when I called you before. That would imply that you were, in fact, having a good time. Otherwise, you would’ve appreciated the excuse, right? Right. But you didn’t. Since we’re talking about you, that means something.”
He snorted.
“Really! It does, and I hope you didn’t just run this poor guy off, you know? You should try meeting up again. Do a little wine and dine. Something nice. Classy. You have that red sweater that looks nice; you should wear that.”
Sven looked down at said sweater. “… Right. Well, I gave him my number, so we’ll—”
“Damn, Sven! He must’ve been really cute!”
He remembered Drake’s anxious wiggling and cracked a smile. “Yeah, he was pretty damn cute.”
Bit by bit, he shared details, and Nina nearly blew out his phone’s speaker with a squeal. She insisted others would give up their firstborn for the kind of porno romance he apparently lived, and her office chair creaked as she huffed a triumphant sigh. She was so animated about the whole thing, as if it’d happened to her instead of him, and however briefly, he thought maybe he felt a fluttering of that same enthusiasm. He wanted to, anyway. 
Even after hanging up, something twisted in his gut every time he thought about Drake calling or, hell, simply sending a three-letter text. But realistically, that was as likely to be dread as giddiness.
With pen and pad, Sven made notes about bookmarked passages as well as the odd comment in the margins, then restored each book to its original slot. Likewise, he compiled the contents of drawers, filing cabinets, and closets. He’d come prepared to scrub the evidence, but apparently, the evidence already suggested the werewolf lived alone. 
There were no articles of clothing that deviated from the rest of his wardrobe. The master bath featured a single toothbrush, and the kitchen just enough rotting food to feed a particularly voracious adult male. He couldn’t even find a hair that wasn’t deep brown and short.
He bagged a phone and tablet for further examination, then muttered to himself about how he really should’ve done at least that much beforehand. That is, the first time he visited the apartment, but no. He’d made his catch, handed the perp off, and disappeared for a long run in the Boston fog like a coward.
To be fair, the place still gave him the creeps. It bothered him that the overturned furniture, smashed vase, and cracked mirror were all exactly where he’d left them. There were blood stains too. Deep brown and foul.
In a small safe, he found jewelry, yellowed woodcuts, and a first edition copy of Leaves of Grass. Extraordinary, sure. Cataloged, absolutely. Yet, save for the werewolf’s budding psych profile, such finds were also woefully meaningless.
He moved on to the lockbox dug out from under the king-sized bed. As with the safe, he was able to pop it open without too much difficulty, but unlike the safe, its contents raised eyebrows. 
Polaroids. Hundreds of them aggressively rubber-banded into tidy stacks, all meticulously sorted. He held his breath as he unwrapped the first only to exhale a bitter “of course” at the revealed photos.
The shots lacked faces. Just bodies. All slender. All male. All dubiously legal. Twisted. Bound. Violated. Every single one manipulated with an escalating ingenuity. Clearly, the werewolf considered it an art-form. 
After that first stack, Sven quickly flipped through the others. He was convinced the whole stash was worthless. None of the subjects had tattoos, piercings, or any significant scarring. No one depicted could be reasonably identified. He was wasting his time.
But he had to make sure, and the deeper he waded, the more his shoulders tensed, the more he felt walls close in. He caught himself listening for heavy footsteps outside the door.
Childish. At its heart, it was all so childish. 
And pointless.
Then he found a stack with a face. He found Drake.
My questions
1. Who was your first OC? 2. What was the first story you ever wrote? 3. What book (or other piece of media) has most inspired you? 4. How do you fight writer’s block? 5. What is your favorite genre to write in and why? 6. How would you describe your writing style? 7. In general, do you think you’d get along with your protagonists? 8. What do you love most about your WIPs? 9. What is your favorite character trope? 10. What is your least favorite character trope? 11. What’s an upcoming scene you’re excited to write? Tagging: @mvcreates ; @whataremetaphor ; @phloxxiing ; @gaytivity ; @jessica-shouldbewriting ; @oyef ; @blurrywhitelies ; @savannahscripts ; @imaghostwriter ; @quilloftheclouds ; @maabon
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katsbooks · 5 years
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Schwarze Nacht - Chapter Six
Walter C. Dornez x Reader
‘All orders by Master Integra Hellsing will be followed to the letter. Any complaints will be given in written form to the Head Maid, who will in turn give them to Master Hellsing. You will have Sundays and Wednesdays off to do as you please, within reason and without violation of Organization policy. Otherwise, you will be in the uniform given to you at all times outside of your room. Your shift will begin at 5:30 am and will end only when the Head Maid, Butler (Sir Walter C. Dornez) or Master Hellsing deems it over.
      If there are any questions or concerns that are not addressed in your pamphlet, please consult the Head Maid or Butler.’
           Walter began (Y/n)’s weapons training the day after the probation period ended.
           Where she was pretty efficient with a handgun and a normal rifle, Walter wanted her to try out a sniper rifle. He had her outside on the rolling grounds of the manor, with a target over 500 meters away. She laid on her belly, the rifle cradled in her hands as she looked down the target sight. Her shoulders and arms were cramping a little from holding the heavy gun for so long and her grip was starting to grow shaky.
           Walter was knelt down beside her, instructing her on how to steady the gun. He reached down and held the hand holding the underside of the barrel with his own, offering a little more stability. (Y/n) aimed carefully, for the heart of the target and held her breath for a second, before firing, releasing her breath.
           “Five centimeters to the left, but you’re starting to get the hang of it,” Walter said with an approving smile. (Y/n) groaned and flipped the safety on, setting the gun down so that she could sit up, rolling her stiff shoulders. “You’ll grow used to the weight and position. It’s always difficult to deal with at first.”
           “I hope so, otherwise I’ll end up looking like a board….” She commented, rubbing her neck and arms to loosen the tense muscles.
           “Hm….are there any other weapons you’re interested in learning how to use?” Walter asked. (Y/n) thought for a minute.
           “…knives.”
           “Knives?”
           “Yeah. They’re easier to conceal, lighter and just seem a little more practical in my personal opinion,” (Y/n) shrugged. Walter hummed as he disassembled the sniper rifle, placing it back into its case.
           “….well, I don’t know much about handling knives, but Master Hellsing and Alucard are quite familiar with blades. I could talk with them about possibly teaching you,” he suggested. “Until then, though, I would like for us to focus on your gun handling.”
           (Y/n) grimaced a little. “Lovely.”
           By the time Sunday rolled around, she ached in places she didn’t know she could ache. Walter had her practicing with that sniper rifle every day, assembling and disassembling it, cleaning it and shooting it. She rubbed the back of her neck, sitting in the galley with her morning coffee.
           “Good morning, Miss (Y/n).”
           She looked up wearily, “Morning, Walter.”
           “Are we tired, my dear?” he inquired, sitting down across from her with his morning tea and a small stack of toast.
           “Mostly body sore, which in turn makes one tired,” she said.
           “You’ll have to grow used to that feeling, working with that rifle,” he stated.
           “I know. I’m just being a whiner,” she smiled a little. Walter chuckled as he stirred in his usual spoonful of sugar for his tea. “Doesn’t training me take away from your own duties, Walter?”
           “Not really. It is part of my job to see that you’re properly trained,” he said. (Y/n) hummed and swallowed a mouthful of her coffee. “So what is the plan today, (Y/n)?”
           “I’m planning on walking to town today,” she said. “I’ve got a letter coming in and a book I’ve been waiting to come out is finally in the stores.”
           “Ah, would that be a sequel to that mystery novel I loaned you?”
           (Y/n) grinned, “You caught me.”
           “I suspected as much when you kept it a little longer than usual,” Walter smiled.
           “Yeah, I really liked it. I might pick up the first while I’m there, too, so I don’t have to keep stealing yours,” she chuckled.
           “Well, why don’t I accompany you today? I’d rather like to get my hands on it as well.”
           “It would be nice to have some company,” (Y/n) admitted. “I was planning on leaving after I finished breakfast.”
           “Very good, then.”
           (Y/n) smiled and turned her attention to finishing up her bowl of sliced peaches. Thinking on it, it really hadn’t felt like she had been there over three months. It felt both shorter and longer than that.
           “Something bothering you?”
           “Hm? Oh, no. Just thinking about how long I’ve been here. It doesn’t feel it,” she said.
           “Is that a good thing?”
           “I suppose so. I feel comfortable enough here to not really let something like time bother me, but then I think on how long or short it’s been since I arrived here and I’m surprised because it doesn’t feel like that much time had passed at all,” she said.
           “When you stay busy and you work with people you enjoy being around, you tend not to notice time passing by,” Walter stated. “Now then, are we finished?”
           (Y/n) looked down at her empty bowl, where her fingers had absently been feeling around in. “…I guess so. I hadn’t even noticed I had finished my breakfast. Darn.”
           Walter chuckled and stood, putting away his and (Y/n)’s dishes as she wiped down the table real quick, before they walked out of the manor together, once he let Integra know where he was going.
           It was a pleasant day, the sky was bright blue and there was a comfortable breeze blowing, the temperature just cool enough to ask for a light coat.
           “It’s growing close to winter,” Walter noted, having donned a light jacket before leaving.
           “Yes, my favorite time of year. I love the cold,” (Y/n) smiled brightly. “I love the snow and the warm blankets and hot chocolate, all of it.”
           “Even the blizzards and ice storms?”
           “Alright, not real big on them, but the results can be pretty.”
           Walter chuckled, “I’m rather one for fall or spring. Nice in between seasons.”
           “Mm, yeah. The colors around that time of year are lovely,” (Y/n) agreed. “Weather’s not too bad, either.”
           “Not at all.”
           They stopped at the post office for (Y/n) to grab her letters, which she opened as they walked to the bookstore.
           “’ Miss (Y/n),
                       As pleased as we are to hear that you have a full-time, successfully paying job, I’m afraid we must decline your offer of returning home, even for visit. Your parents have both decided that it is within everyone’s best interest for you to stay—‘ Oh this is just rubbish,” she scowled, folding it up. Walter looked at her curiously.
           “May I ask why you would have to send an inquiry to return home?”
           (Y/n) sighed, tossing the letter in the trash she passed by to open her second envelope.
           “I mentioned that I moved here from America, on my parents’ pushing. Well…I got into a little bit of a scrap back home, when my parents won the lottery and joined the rich folk. I didn’t approve of the change in behavior just because we had money and they didn’t like that too much. So…hence why I’m here, working for Master Hellsing, instead of living at home with my parents. I guess they got a secretary now to deal with the letters. Ugh,” she shook her head, tugging out the second letter. “Dear (Y/n), really happy to hear that you’re working full time now! So glad to hear that Head Maid got what was coming to her. Sorry this is so short, but expect a present within the next couple weeks! Lots of love, Sammy.’ Hm…what is that girl planning? Her letters are never this short.”
           “Your friend, I take it?” Walter smiled.
           “Yeah, Sammy. She’s something else, I’ll tell you that,” (Y/n) smiled fondly as she pocketed the letter, before glancing over the last three envelopes. “Marriage offer, marriage offer…ooh, what’s this? Oh. Oxford’s rejection letter.” She tossed them into the next trash can they passed.
           “Marriage offers? Because of your parents, I take it?”
           “Because of their money, is more like it. What these poor sods don’t realize is that I don’t see a penny of that money,” (Y/n) shrugged. “If I’m going to marry someone, it’ll be because I love them and they love me. Not because of money or looks or age or whatever…”
           “That’s a very wise thing to do,” Walter hummed.
           “I don’t know about wise. More like just…common sense. Why marry for money or looks if you’re going to be unhappy for the rest of your life, right?”
           “Very true,” he agreed, stepping forward to open the door to the bookstore for her. She flashed him a smile, stepping inside with him behind her. She loved the smell of a bookstore, breathing in the scent of paper and ink.
           “What a wonderful smell,” she sighed happily.
           “Indeed, it is such a comforting scent,” Walter agreed. (Y/n) smiled, and walked to the new books table, finding what she was looking for.
           “Oh yay, it’s a sales week too!” (Y/n) nearly squealed, hugging the book to her chest. Walter chuckled softly, picking up a copy for himself.
           “It’s a pleasure to see you so excited over something so small, Miss (Y/n),” he smiled warmly. (Y/n) felt warmth slide up her cheeks and she gave a sheepish smile.
           “I’m sorry, I just…I really like reading. I’d like to be a writer someday,” she admitted.
           “Really? I’d be most interested in seeing what you would write,” he said. (Y/n) chuckled softly.
           “Maybe someday,” she smiled, heading towards the checkout line. Walter smiled as he watched her for a minute, before following after her with a slight pep in his walk.
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invinciblerodent · 6 years
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This is gonna be a very long and super tedious story about my job, so I apologize in advance, but I just. I need to vent.
Long list of petty retail woes under the cut.
I'm really beginning to feel like I messed up. Not by making a mistake, or doing anything reprehensible, but by being too diligent in the first few months, and thus allowing my coworkers to believe they can get away with piling all the work on me.
So in my bookstore, I'm the newest hire, and even I've been here for about five months now (which is how long it took them to get this bold I guess). All but one other girl has been here for years, and most people are already very close because of it, although they are also understandably jaded. (Last year the old company went bankrupt around them, there was a weirdly executed merger when the new owners took over stock and crew, and just a month ago there was ANOTHER owner change, it was a whole thing. I wouldn't feel much like working my ass off in those conditions either, so really, I get it. But that's not the point.)
Now y’all probably know I'm a pretty quiet person in general (I’m not finding it very easy to make friends at all, and at work I still feel very much like an outsider), and it's no secret that I have better work ethic than the position would warrant because, well, not only is that just the type of person I am, I'm also just happy to finally have a job at all (no money < not a lot of money). But I can't help but notice that, more and more often, I've been finding myself saddled with 3-4 distinct tasks at the same time, while the 2-3 people on the same shift are just... standing around and talking.
Just yesterday, I was checking stock for next month's sales (which is busywork consisting of manually looking up literally about 300 titles and noting how many copies we have listed in the inventory- I may be the fastest typist but come on now), doing the price changes (which is checking inventory on ANOTHER list of ~50 sent down from the company, hunting them down in the store -which is sometimes one copy hidden in a messy pile and sometimes a stack of 25 that has to be checked individually- and putting a new, correct price tag on each)........ WHILE helping customers, AND being on register duty. And my register STILL ended up having all the paperwork (online order pickups, gift card sales, returns, vouchers, all of it) and more than double the traffic of my coworker's who 1.) WAS NOT running around the store constantly, 2.) HAD NOT been on her feet two days at that point, and 3.) was visibly NOT BUSY most of the day, as while working I could hear her and the supervisor gossiping pretty much all day.
Not to mention that I WAS STILL SCOLDED BY SAID SUPERVISOR because -get this pettiness- my register had too much of one specific type of change (because "it takes too long to count [nothing says that she would have to count it, that's her idea] and she's gonna miss her bus [8 times out of 10 she misses it anyway because she can't shut up and drags out closing 5-10 minutes by talking]"). Even though she's the one who keeps telling us to ask people for change, which I fucking do like a good noodle, and damn it Jackie, I can't control the type of change people give me. It's the end of the month, people kept coming with huge bills and maybe five cents anyway, we're lucky I have anything besides a fistful of hundreds!
And I've been noticing other hypocrisies too. Like I'm often told to stay at the register because "if there is only one person there they can't leave and help people find things" (understandable, but I already only leave to do exactly that tho????), but if I'm there, I almost always find myself left there alone, sometimes for hours??? And if I dare ask for help or need to go to the bathroom, I always get groans, eyerolls, and often a "just hurry!" in return.
I'm also sometimes told that my breaks "feel long" (which is weird because uuuuuhhhhhhhh not only am I usually the last to eat at like 2 pm, sometimes I'm too busy and have no time to have my second, and I time myself exactly to the company-allotted time with a fucking stopwatch), but other people full on just say "I need to pick up [X] at [Y]" and fuck off to go to the store across from us for 10-20 minutes, just whenever they damn well please.
Not to mention that I'm often told my boyfriend arriving five minutes before closing to pick me up after I'm done is distracting (even though every single time, I just give him a quick peck, say "hi, I'm still on the clock" and continue doing my job)- not the fact that my coworkers tend to spend 20+ minutes literally just chatting with people they happen to know mid-shift, or taking outside phonecalls on the store phone. Some even have fucking PACKAGES delivered to the store, my manager's kids and husband come in almost every fucking day like an hour before her shift would be up, and sometimes she even does her not-really-door-to-door-but-close-enough sales shtick on company time.
And what takes the cake is when, still yesterday after all that, I was told at the end of the day that I have the choice of a.) taking out ALL the garbage -which is several large boxes worth of packing material and other shit accumulated in the break room-, or b.) vacuuming the whole store because "I missed my turn". Even though people know FULL WELL that I missed that turn because injured my back pretty darn badly (I tore a muscle while stocking, it inflamed to shit, and I could barely move for almost two weeks and had to go on sick leave- really I'm only back because I begged my doctor to let me), and lifting heavy things (like all that garbage) and bending down (which one has to do to vacuum) still causes me a lot of pain and was straight-up forbidden by my doc for at least the rest of the month, lest I cause myself permanent harm. (Not to mention that I was already the one doing the weekly cleaning of the entire glass storefront, by myself, in the morning anyway, while my coworker just counted down the registers and went for a smoke, so... it being "my turn" to clean is kinda subjective, ain't it.)
I'm just.... getting so fed up, and so tired. I'm looking at three days off at the end of April (it just worked out that way with May 1st which is awesome), and tbqh, I don't even have the energy to make plans beyond snuggling up to my boyfriend and sleeping for two days straight.
TL;DR: I'm carrying this whole goddamn store for the same pay as the rest of these slackers, and yet there still seem to be things for which to find fault in me. I'm tired, annoyed, and almost always in pain these days, but I can't allow myself to stop because nobody else gives a shit, they're all hella chummy with each other, and if I do, the place fucking falls apart in a pile of filth.
FML.
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televinita · 6 years
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I have only 2 checked out library books left, both of which are the start of trilogies that could set me up for quite a large chunk of reading time, but it took so long to drag them back from the people who had them checked out when I first got the urge that I am no longer in the mood to launch myself into a post-apocalyptic survivalist/war setting.
Unfortunately, I also don't know what I am in the mood for. I do have numerous options close at hand, both at home and in the library system, so I'm going to make myself a lil' list of possibilities. Ten possibilities, let's say, the size of a good checkout stack if starting from scratch. You might think this is what my to-read shelf on Goodreads is for, but it works better if I actually talk it out to myself.
1. I Know a Secret (Rizzoli & Isles #12) - Tess Gerritsen.
I have been on the request list for 3 months, after waiting for this to be published since I finished book 11 in December, and I FINALLY HAVE IT. However, because who knows if or when there will be another, I want to make very sure that I read it on a night where I can relax and not have anything else to do. I have 13 days to find the breathing room in which to do that.
(Verdict: done, awesome)
2. Swampfire - Patricia Cecil Hass
A short little mass market paperback I picked up last weekend. I am a chapter into this vintage children's adventure about camping in the Great Dismal Swamp and trying to catch a wild horse there. Old animal books make up the majority of my owned-and-unread books, but ironically, they are what I am most rarely in the mood for.
(edit: that said: I'm in the mood now, I should probably chase this feeling, because when I AM in the mood, they are the very most satisfying type of book to consume. It's darn near impossible for one to earn below 3 stars from me, and below 4 is rare)
3. If I Stay - Gayle Forman I really do keep meaning to read this, just to see if it's worthy of the buzz (and also because the sequel sounds more appealing to me, and I wanna go in order). I found a copy for pennies at a church sale, and I'd like to know if it's worth holding onto.
4. Zig Zag - Ellen Wittlinger I want to reread this because I think I'd like it even more now that I can drive and am specifically in love with road trips and road trip novels -- it was the first such one I'd ever read.
5. Ashes to Ashes - Melissa Walker It looked vaguely like a book I could cast Ryan/Marissa/Johnny (The O.C., and one of the few love triangles I can tolerate) in. Local library didn't have it, but it seemed serendipitous when I found it at the dollar store a few days later, so I grabbed it. Pretty sure I won't want to keep it because I'm not real into Good Vs. Evil Spirits stuff, so if I read it, I can throw it in my sale bag.
6. The King of the Cats - Rene Guillot
A vintage kids' chapter book, also bought at the church sale. It's a lot more anthropomorphic than I expected it to be, and I definitely want to release it, but it isn't on Goodreads yet and it feels like my duty to add it if I have access to a copy, and that includes being able to give it an accurate summary. Old books with no summary and no (or very bare bones) reviews are my pet peeve.
7. Hoofbeats on the Trail - Vivian Breck.
Another older teen novel I picked up last weekend. I was so excited by the summary and heft that I bought it even though it's spotty across the top pages and that for my own peace of mind I'll probably have to get rid of it once read.
(verdict: AMAZING; I will fight you before I get rid of it)
8. Red River Stallion - Troon Harrison
I bought this "to read" at a library sale like 2 years ago. It has all the ingredients I like (historical novel with a half-white Native American girl, and a horse), but I have a feeling I'll be fine getting rid of it. I just need to make *sure* I can.
9. The Peter Pan Bag - Lee Kingman
I've been wanting to reread this since I first adored it a decade ago. Be interested to see how my perspective on the hippie-culture group of runaways changes. I can't remember anything more than the barest outline as far as what happens, just that I loved it.
10. Blue Willow - Doris Gates
Would like to reread this childhood book so I can see if it's better as an adult, or at least so I can give it a proper Goodreads reviews.
(verdict: done and yes)
11.  Never Broken: Songs Are Only Half the Story - Jewel Just found out this exists, and I loved "Chasing Down the Dawn."
BONUS: I recently determined there to be approximately 45 Lynn Hall books I have not read or can't remember reading, nearly all of which I will have to -- but CAN -- request via Interlibrary Loan. (The drawbacks to that are that I can only have 10 active requests at a time and I gotta ask to pick them up and check them out directly at the circulation desk instead of going to the hold shelf & using self checkout.) Each one is like finding a piece of buried treasure.
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littlebitofbass · 7 years
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Artist management contracts have been known to contain some idiosyncratic clauses over the years, but the one buried deep inside Stuart Camp and Ed Sheeran’s contract at the artist’s behest is surely one of the most unusual.
“He’s inserted a clause that says I will be with him at all times, looking like I’m enjoying myself,” Camp laughs. “It gives the lawyers sleepless nights, like, Surely we could be in breach if there are pictures where I look grumpy? But I don’t have to actually enjoy myself. As long as I look like I am, that’s OK…”
Right now, his joy seems to be genuine. And he’s certainly been with Sheeran every step of the way during the singer-songwriter’s remarkable rise.
After his 2014 album X sold 2,948,802 copies, according to the Official Charts Company, Sheeran’s return was always going to be huge, but the innovative double-single release of Shape Of You and Castle On The Hill has turned it into a blockbuster event.
Both tracks broke the previous UK one-week streaming record, Shape Of You smashed the all-time Spotify record, while Sheeran became the first artist to have the Top 2 UK singles for five weeks in a row.
So no wonder Rocket Music Management’s Camp answers the door at his newly-done-up house in the nice part of Clapham with his trademark smile on his face.
His still-unpacked suitcase from his Grammys trip (Sheeran performed at the ceremony, as he did at the BRITs) is still in the hall, his house refurb is so recent he doesn’t know where the sugar is and he’s fighting off the effects of glandular fever, but he seems perfectly relaxed in what he terms “the eye of the storm” before the most anticipated album since Adele’s 25.
But then, Camp’s experiences with Sheeran have taught him to be unfazed where others might be daunted, as the ginger kid with the guitar and the loop pedal has made the impossible look pretty darn easy at every turn.
Camp actually started on the label side of things, first at Infectious then, when that was bought by Warner, at East West, which in turn became Atlantic.
He was product manager for a bunch of American rock bands and James Blunt when Rocket’s Todd Interland finally persuaded him to try life on the other side of the fence as Blunt’s day-to-day manager.
By his own admission, he “took to it pretty quickly”. Later, he looked after Lily Allen before taking on Sheeran in 2009. Sheeran was homeless and had been turned down by almost every label in the country, but Camp took him on, let him sleep on the sofa at his place (then considerably smaller than his current abode) and, slowly but surely, helped guide him to international superstardom.
Today, Sheeran is his only client, “the last thing I think of before I go to bed and the first thing I think about when I wake up”.
Right now, those thoughts are full of dizzying projections for global first week sales and touring plans that will take him and Sheeran up until at least summer 2018, not to mention the constant Sheeran-related questions from Camp’s own 119,000 Twitter followers.
But there’s still time for him to warn Music Week about his “potentially vicious” cats and sit down to talk streaming, stadiums and social media strategy…
Who actually had the idea for the two singles?
Me, [Atlantic president] Ben Cook and Ed were sitting in Ed’s house in Suffolk, arguing over which one should be the single.
We were just going round in circles, pros and cons, pros and cons. Then it was like, The album’s called Divide, why don’t we have both sides? It was a Eureka moment which, at any one point over the next few years, one of us will claim to have been solely their idea, but it was pretty mutual.
Had you been arguing for different singles beforehand, then?
Yeah. You can probably guess who wanted which. Ed wanted Castle, I was very much either/or. I could see the merits of both. But that’s why we weren’t falling out or coming to a decision, because everyone knew that the other was a very good argument as well.
How are you feeling about the album?
Very confident now. We know the market’s there, we know people want and are desperate to hear more music, so it’s now more a case of seeing where those numbers land.
Does it feel like an even bigger deal now?
It does to a certain degree, but there’s less pressure. We could have been worried if one of these singles had fallen off quite quickly, if they hadn’t been doing quite as well, we might have been, Ooh, how’s the album going to do? But we now know that there’s the demand there. I’m just desperate to get it out, we just want people to hear it.
Do you worry about fulfilling industry/retail expectations at all? I do worry that some people might be getting a little silly on what they expect. But I’m not worried about it. Does that sound horribly conceited? There’s someone very close to me and this project who thinks it’ll do 350K [in week one] and I’d be very happy with that. That’s one of your best band’s lifetime best sales.
Even the big sales are usually around 200K. So I’d be ecstatic. But really I’m thinking, What will we have sold by the end of 2018? It’s about the long game.
Has streaming changed the dynamics of selling an album like this?
Yeah. It might not necessarily be about the album sales and what they tot up to, but at the end of the day we just want as many people as possible to hear the music, because our primary business is still live.
If people are hearing it on whatever, I can’t feel too bad [because] they might buy a ticket. It’s about getting out there as much as possible.
The album will debut on streaming services on release day. Are you a believer in streaming?
Absolutely, 100%. Always. We were always over-indexing on streaming, even from the first record. We became the poster boys for Spotify to a certain degree, before anyone else really latched on.
In the years since the last record, it’s caught up and it’s now taken over for everybody. But we were always that act.
So far, your touring plans look relatively low-key. Are there bigger things to come?
Yeah. In 2018, we just do stadiums. I knew three nights at The O2 would be an underplay and create a bit of fuss, but I didn’t realise quite how much.
But to be fair, we wanted to play this year and we can’t do all the stadiums all the time, because they’re weather dependent, so we knew we’d do arenas first. But in summer ‘18 there’s a lot of outdoor shows, a proper stadium tour, even obscure stadiums!
Were you disappointed by the secondary ticketing furore around the dates?
It’s always a shame. We do what we can to try and stop the bastards putting them on the secondary market, but you’re always going to get it.
A load of people bought tickets on [secondary sites], even though we told them not to, quite explicitly and they were getting billed for three or four grand. Everyone comes back to us like, What are you going to do about it? It is frustrating.
I’d love to do a Glastonbury model where it’s names and tickets but even that is just a pain in the arse for everyone.
You’ve got to balance it with what’s actually a good fan experience for buying a ticket. It’s an on-going thing and we’ll be looking at it even further for the stadium shows. Hopefully we’re doing enough shows so that the people who want to see us can, and aren’t spending hundreds of pounds.
Why has Ed connected as well as he has?
The music’s great and he just comes across well as a person. It’s been the same since Day One, everyone has wanted us to do well and people have been cheering for him. That helps.
He’s not a jack of all trades, but he does go across genres, he gets so many different people championing him, from grime acts to hoary old rockers, everyone just gets it and he does tick a hell of a lot of boxes, but without weakening him in any areas or looking like we’re going for a compromise.
He’s crossing those barriers and he just does it perfectly. He is sometimes quite sensitive about it, especially for Sing and Shape Of You, that was a little out of his comfort zone, so will people think he’s jumping on a bandwagon? But with him, if it’s good there’s no barrier to it becoming an Ed Sheeran song.
Does it help that he came up the hard way? Will he be the last superstar to make it like that?
You’d imagine so. Everyone else is either looking for or expecting a quick fix in this internet age. But for years before I met him, he had CDs in his rucksack and was sleeping in railway stations and doing all sorts. He really slogged it from the age of 14.
Did you always think he was going to make it?
Yeah. Not that I put a limit on it in my head, but I never at the time thought he’d be playing Wembley Stadium or anything like that, but I always knew there’d be a market for him.
When he came to me, he’d exhausted his turning up at record labels, chubby and ginger and that’s when we just took a year out of it.
He did the No.5 Collaborations Project EP. When that first charted, we were out walking in Richmond Park and we were like, How do I screengrab this, it’s No.55 on iTunes, thinking that was amazing.
Twenty minutes later it was No.10 and by teatime it was No.1. That was a nice day. That’s when the labels started coming back to us. He thought the doors were all closed and that’s when he thought, Fuck it, I’ll just do it myself. He’d been around but bless him, he didn’t give up.
Have you ever fallen out with each other?
Never. It was almost unspoken, we knew the mission and we were making progress. There are certain things we disagree on, but eventually we come round to each other’s way of thinking.
I don’t care how we get there or who gets the credit, as long as we get there. I saw everything and anything in life [with previous clients]. Ed’s always like, Am I a pain in the arse? And I’m always telling him, Yeah, you’re terrible, knowing full well that I have literally put my head into the mouth of the lion. You learn a lot in those situations.
How would you describe your management style?
I think I’m very fair and understanding. I’m not a shouter, silence scares people more. Having been on the other side, I knew the managers I loved and ultimately you’d always work harder for them.
So you try and be that person. There were so many managers in the late ‘90s, mentioning no names, where you’d be like, You’re an arsehole.
That was before the spirit of [legendary Led Zeppelin manager] Peter Grant had completely disappeared and everyone was just going, I’ve got to be a complete c-u-n-t, that’s the only way to get things to happen. And it isn’t at all.
The managers I got on with were people like Tav [Alt-J/Wolf Alice manager Stephen Taverner] and CJ [Raw Power Management CEO Craig Jennings]; they have their moments, but they were still decent and fair and would listen to you, even when I was the 20-year-old kid.
Your bond with Ed sometimes looks less like business and more like friendship…
I think that’s important. Some people always refer to their acts as my client and I’ve never been one of them. Our bond comes from living together and, glandular fever aside, I do everything with him. If you want an act to get up at 5am to do bloody German breakfast TV that’s going to be hell, at least be standing next to him when he does it. You can’t expect otherwise. There’s no airs and graces between us, we speak our minds.
What’s different about managing him now, compared to the early days?
Not a lot to be honest. He certainly hasn’t changed as a person. There are bigger things and I’m spinning more plates but, as a whole, it’s no easier or harder. We’ve always had that same attitude. We want as many people to hear the stuff as possible.
His whole attitude is, If I’ve made a record I’m proud of, I will do anything and everything to promote it. He’s not one of those people who’s like, I’ve had two No.1 albums, you can fuck off. He was really looking forward to getting back on the promo trail.
Six weeks later he’s still like, eah, bring it on, two hours sleep, Dutch TV.
Meanwhile, you’ve become a cult figure yourself on social media…
I only ever went on Twitter so I could see where Lily Allen was when I was looking after her. And then when we put [Sheeran’s] first tour on sale after the album was released, we literally broke the internet at 9am and I couldn’t get hold of anyone.
I had to get on Twitter and put the fire out and it snowballed from there. So now, when people ask me sensible questions, I try and answer as many as I can. My father was trying to show my very elderly neighbour what I did for a living and he came across some [Tumblr] site entitled Stuart Camp Gives Less Fucks Than The Virgin Mary. I got in trouble for it. I was like, I’m 38 years old, why am I in trouble for this, it’s not my fault...
Do you have targets for this campaign?
I know Ed would love to do 20 million albums off this one record, that’s his personal one. We did 14m of X, so... Let’s see! Beyond that, we don’t know.
There are folders on Ed’s laptop that have the next three albums on them, though that might change. He has his little secret ambitions for every campaign, which he never tells anyone until after the event. The Wembleys were the last one, he hasn’t told me what this album’s are and he won’t until after we’ve done them.
Where do you see the two of you being 10 years from now?
We’ll be at the end of what may be Phase 1. He’s got a clear plan - he knows the titles for the next two records, it won’t take a genius to work out what they may be! I’d like to think we’ll still be relevant and I’m sure we will be. He wants to be [like] Springsteen, career-wise. He’s definitely in it for the long haul.
And finally, have they asked you to do next year’s Super Bowl yet?
No. I’m not sure we want to do it. It’s always been a strong point for us that he’s a solo act on stage but, for that, you really have got to have the fire-breathers and dancers. I’d love them to ask us. I’m just thinking what we’d do for a show like that, but I’m sure Taylor Swift’s got an album out this year...
Originally posted in [Music Week], February 27, 2017.
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New Post has been published on https://jimmycrow.com/things-people-hate-about-your-website/
Things People Hate About Your Website
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Re-post from the  blog
You love your website. We get it. And why wouldn’t you? After all, you have put in hours and hours and sometimes quite a bit of money into bringing it into the world.
As a consequence, any insult hurled into its general direction is taken personally (and the perpetrator called a doo doo head – or worse). How dare they say bad things about your baby!?
However, I hate to break it to you, they might have a point. And in your heart of hearts, you know it, too. For weeks your bounce rate has been climbing, conversions are falling and your reputation dwindling. All the signs point to the need for a change.
Consider this an intervention. To open your eyes to the truth, in this article we will list all the things people hate about your website and that makes it hard to use, confusing, badly designed or simply out of date.
Ready to take of the rose-colored glasses and get to work on your website’s flaws? Then let��s go.
Here’s What Your Visitors Probably Hate About Your Site
Still here? Alright, now it’s too late to turn back. Let’s see if you recognize your site in the points below.
1. Your Site is Too Slow
People have never been as impatient as they are today. We want everything and we want it now. Especially on the web. I know you think that once people know how fantastic your site is, they will gladly wait for it to load. But that’s just not true.
47% of customers expect a site to load within two seconds. 40% will leave after three. Yes, one friggin’ second makes that much of a difference. In fact, Amazon found that one second delay in page loading would cost them $1.6 billion per year. That’s right, one second!
As a consequence, slow page loading times are one of the best ways to annoy the heck out of people (especially on mobile). It’s one of the things people most hate about websites. So much so that it will keep them from coming back.
Luckily, there is plenty of things you can do, from changing hosting providers and reducing the code to optimizing images and more. Even luckier, we have detailed article on this very topic.
2. It Doesn’t Look Good on Mobile Devices
Having a mobile optimized site is mandatory in today’s Internet. Nobody likes to use the old zoom-and-pan technique to consume your content. Neither do they like hitting the wrong menu items because your buttons are just too darn small.
Is there a quicker way to get people to rage quit your site? Probably not.
However, it’s not just human visitors. Search engines are just as annoyed of websites that fail to deliver an adequate mobile experience. In fact, Google goes so far as not even show websites in their mobile search results that they deem unfit to use with phones and tablet.
So, your existing users will quit your site while Google will stop sending you new ones. Sounds like a lose-lose situation to me. Time to stop being annoying and fix it already. This article will help you do so.
(By the way, a good step in the right direction is to use a mobile-optimized theme. Divi is one such example.)
3. It’s Littered With Popups
Popups can be a very effective tool for building an email list if used the right way. However, if not, they also have the potential to be the bane of your user’s existence and send your bounce rate soaring.
Nobody wants to close a welcome mat, normal popup and a slide-in form just to get to the content. If that is you, no wonder people are disgruntled with your site.
Keep in mind that there are other websites out there that don’t do the equivalent of yelling at their visitors. Plus, the back button is just a click away in every browser.
I’m not saying don’t use any pop-ups (you want to build an email list after all), I’m just saying be smart about it.
Take advantage of technology to stop showing returning visitors the same ads (especially if they have opted out before). Use exit intent to have to serve pop-ups only when they are about to leave or at least give them a time delay.
Or run A/B tests to find out which of your calls to action are actually effective and double down on that. Your visitors will thank you.
4. Your Website is Stuck in The 90s to Early 2000s
Look at the image below and tell me what’s wrong with it:
  Hopefully, you can see it right away. The site looks like the person who built it learned web design on MySpace in 2004. Nice blast from the Internet archive, right?
However, don’t be the fooled. That is a website advertising an actual company and its services today! Of course, that is an extreme example and I don’t think your site looks like this. However, if it contains some of the design hallmarks of that same era, it’s time to rethink if you are not sending visitors away screaming.
Blinking GIFs, elaborate animations, flashing ads and other eyesores – just say no. They are distracting, annoying and in most cases not furthering your goal. If your site fits this description, you have found the explanation for the hate mail your receive.
5. Two Words: Stock Photos
Do you know this woman?
Image by Ariwasabi / shutterstock.com.
I see her literally everywhere. My wife and I actually have a running gag to point her out whenever we spot her. I have noticed her advertising everything from gyms to dentists to opticians.
That’s what happens when everyone uses the same stock images. Businesses (and websites) become indistinguishable from one another. A death sentence in marketing.
Plus, many of these images are cheesy, generic, non-genuine-looking and other unflattering adjectives.
Yeah, none of us actually work here. Image by Pressmaster / shutterstock.com.
Of course, you should use images in your content. And there are are exceptions (for example these).
However, stay away from stuff like above. It makes your company or website look as generic as the images.
A much better idea is to use unique images or stuff people can’t find elsewhere. For example, the Art of Manliness blog uses old vintage photos. Custom illustrations are another option. If that is not your thing, at least try to use real photos of your employees or clients.
6. Bad, Overly Optimized or Too Much Copy
Depending on how old you are, you might still remember the bad old times of SEO. Back in the day, when the motto was “the more keywords, the better”.
You would find pages with the same key phrases squeezed into every possible nook and cranny. Or copy that sounded as repetitive as the jokes in bad sitcoms.
Thankfully, search engines have caught on and punish people for said behavior. Yet, unfortunately, not everyone else has.
If you are one of those who still engage in keyword stuffing, it’s time to cut it out and get with the times. Read up some SEO copywriting tips, learn how to write in a way that is engaging and creates a connection instead of using marketing speak. And exchange your long prose with some multimedia! People only read 28% of your text anyway.
7. A Bland “About” Page
Especially if you are running a personal blog, the about page is usually one of the most frequented pages of a website. Visitors care about the person behind the writing and want to learn more about them.
However, this also contains the chance for failure. An impersonal about page filled with industry drivel that says nothing with a lot of words makes no emotional impact and puts people’s brains to sleep can quickly become one of the things people hate about your website.
To avoid this scenario, focus on language that people actually use, tell a story, connect. Also, make sure everything is up to date, including your contact information.
8. Your Site Structure is Non-existent
Little is as annoying as a badly structured website. People come to your website to accomplish a goal, not wander around like a labyrinth (unless they are minotaurs, who are pretty Internet averse).
Two of the most important factors for site structure is site navigation and internal linking. Get one of them or both of them wrong and your visitor’s annoyance level will show a sudden spike.
Consequently, when it comes to navigation, make sure you first map out the route you want your visitors to take. Only then can you create a proper way for them. After that, give them directions via headlines, copywriting, calls to action and a clearly labeled (and not overstuffed) navigation.
As for internal links, make sure to link between pages on your site that are topically related. The point is always to enhance the experience of the visitor, not run a smart SEO scheme. In the same vein, don’t overdo the anchor text!
And for heaven’s sake, check your site for broken links!
9. Your Titles and Headlines Suck
Titles, especially blog titles are an important part of copywriting. They are usually the thing that pulls people in – or pushes them away.
Page titles also create expectations. That’s a good thing if you can fulfill them, however, an equally bad one if you don’t.
Imagine you had read the headline of this post, expecting for the author to tear you into you about your website flaws and all I’d end up doing is mollycoddle you. That would be a shame, wouldn’t it?
The point is, don’t do the old bait-and-switch and stay away from click bait practices. It will only annoy people and send them the other way.
For tips on how to craft compelling titles and headlines, check this article.
10. Multimedia on Autoplay? You Gotta Be Kidding!
  Who hasn’t had the experience of opening a bunch of tabs and suddenly having one of them play an unsolicited video or sound file in the background? And who here thought that was a good thing? Nobody. Especially in the office environment without headphones.
If your site does that, keep in mind that closing a tab is much faster than looking for the mute or stop button on your video. Whoops, there goes another visitor, never to return.
If you do have videos on your site (and there are good reasons to do so), make sure they are voluntary to play, not mandatory. Or, at least take a page out of Facebook’s playbook and play them on mute.
11. Two-site Syndrome
Even if you don’t know the term, chances are you have experienced two-site syndrome before. It’s when a company’s information website and e-commerce area are built with two different platforms.
For example, when you find yourself on a shop built with Shopify that takes you to a WordPress.com site when clicking on the blog button. It totally disrupts user experience and looks plain unprofessional. Say goodbye to your conversion rates!
The good thing is, with WordPress there is absolutely no reason for the divide. WooCommerce and other e-commerce plugins integrate seamlessly into the platform so you can have everything in one place.
What Things Do You Hate on Websites?
As parents of our web presences, we idealize them. We think they can do no wrong and there’s never been a better website out there.
For that reason, it’s often hard to fathom that others have a different opinion. Yet, your analytics might indicate just that.
The points above are frequent things people hate about your website and websites in general. If you recognize yourself in those points, for the sake of all of us, take some remedial action.
You will find that, even if your site changes a bit, you will still love it. Only this time others will share the sentiment.
Source: Nick Schäferhoff for Elegant Themes Blog
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Edit: WOW! I can't believe how much traction this got - I'm so blessed that this resonated with all of you! I've been getting mad amounts of requests, phone calls, PM's, LinkedIn invites, and more. Feel free to connect with me on Twitter for more of this stuff. I'll definitely be following this up for you guys with a detailed post of how I did so well with business networking events due to the amount of requests I got for it. Thanks for the Reddit Gold, and thanks for being so supportive!Hi guys,I run a small/mid-sized web development & online marketing agency. I wanted to share my process that brought me from 0 customers to a solo-entrepreneur making about $120k/year with you all, because there are a lot of people out there looking to start a business or keep it going! I told some others in r/Entrepreneur that I would give a write up on how I used cold calls to get started and push through the first 2 years of beginning a business from nothing.I have since incorporated and grown a lot, and don't cold call very often. However, I still get into big companies through cold calls, and had a meeting last week with one of the biggest fish I've ever sat in front of as a result of a cold call - I just hate making them and so use this strategy infrequently. I love referrals and people calling me!Author’s note: I finished writing this post, and it is nearly 3,100 words. I put my heart and my soul into writing this for you guys. Maybe there is a person out there that will be inspired to take this even further than I did. If that is you, don’t forget to share! All glory to my savior Jesus Christ for leading me to where I am. Without God showing me the path, I couldn’t share it with you!First, the (short) story:I was an EMT and volunteer firefighter in California back in 2010. I was working in the emergency room of a hospital and had a really tough Monday - lots of death, blood, and more. I decided the only reason I wanted to be a firefighter was because of the retirement (residual) income. If I could do it faster another way, my mind just opened to it. Queue my brother-in-law coming back from a trip to the east coast and telling me about a business opportunity. I started selling websites for another company (which is a really terrible summary of what actually happened, but it's short).When I started, I didn't have ANY money to spare. I had about $5,000 worth of "emergency fund" that I could live on, and my wife worked and brought in about 1800/mo after taxes. Our bills cost about 3000/mo, so I needed to come up with at least 1200/mo to survive by selling websites. I ended up resorting to the only thing that costs no money: Cold Calls!TL;DR: Make cold calls, even if you're terrible like I was. Use my script (Link below). Record data. Follow up. Profit.The idea of picking up a phone and calling a stranger to solicit them to purchase something I was selling made me feel sick. I was also scared of the rejection, and justified my position with every "logical" argument that I could think of. But when you're on a time clock that ends in homelessness and starvation (or failure), you've got to man (or lady) up and do it.Some stats and info These are my statistics based on what I recorded. I don’t have excel spreadsheets of data to link… Only my company’s existence and some old notepads with my first call logs to prove these things, lol. My current URL is NextLevelWeb.com, though we are currently in the middle of a re-brand and the website may not be fully functional for anyone that goes to see it yet!I talked to a person about 70% of the time, so if you want to base my stats on actual people I talked to on a cold call, it’s actually 3.25%. This means that for every 100 conversations, I made 3.25 website sales. My conversion rate including non-answers was 2.5%. I counted all non-answers in my daily calls too.I tried to make 50 calls per day in a 4 hour time-frame, which calculates out to 250 calls/week (assuming Mon-Fri only). The actual number was around 150-200 in action, because I got lazy some days and hurt feelings other days. In addition, making follow-up calls (which don’t count towards these “50 calls per day”) got to be pretty time consuming eventually. Sometimes I’d make 15 of these in a day, and they took even more brainpower than a cold call sometimes due to them being a longer call.The best time to call was the hours of 9AM – 11:30. The hour of 10-11am was the best. I’d typically make calls from 8am-noon.My time to closing my first sale ended up being 2.5 months. I think the 17th call I made eventually led to my first sale. I made it in November, and it didn’t close until mid-January. I eventually shortened this cycle to 2 weeks - 1 month, but I really sucked at calls, talking to people on the phone, etc. at first, so I needed more time and more numbers to start. If this proves anything, you can be absolutely horrible at this like I was and still make it happen!In all the time I did calls, and it must’ve been thousands of them, I made 0 sales on the first call. I wasn’t trying to make them on the 1st call, which is a part of my process outlined below (small commitments leading to larger commitments).My market area is San Diego County, California. While there are a ton of big businesses here that make money, there are many small businesses that are 1-5 employees, and these people were who I was trying to target at the time.I was selling a website product for another company at this time (MLM/Network Marketing deal). The average ticket price was between $1,200 – 3,000 each, and my take was around 70% of that. So, assuming an average take-home of $1,050 (Which was common), that meant that each 100 dials would eventually net me about $2,625.Every time I was told “no,” I assigned a value to it. I’ll save you the math, but at first, each time I heard that word, it was worth about $10 to me. When I got going, each “no” was worth closer to $35 each, because every no led me to someone that says yes! Not every call ended in a yes or no – sometimes it was the dreaded “send me an e-mail and give me a week to think about it” which is not yes or no.I was closing the deal myself, because people wanted to know that they got to deal with me – The idea that I was some salesperson that wouldn’t care if the product I sold worked or not is an appalling idea to a business owner. They wanted to know I was their account manager, too, which is something I carry forward in my agency now. If a salesperson sells, they get to maintain the relationship and ensure the client is satisfied, too.Where I found my list to call:The local Chamber of Commerce websites. They always have a business directory that includes the business owner's name, their current website, the correct phone number, etc. Very good and current source of info, you can start local, and you can use the fact that you found them through the Chamber as a positive thing. Just search for the site on Google -- [city] + chamber of commerce (i.e. - San Diego Chamber of Commerce). Often times, there are 300-1,000 businesses right there, and every one of them has the business owner’s name, a phone number to call, and website address to investigate further.Local free/low-cost networking meetings/groups. I actually wasted a LOT of precious time at local meetup groups - most people were poor like me, and they were only looking to sell (not to buy or refer)! I found these through [http://ift.tt/1nANsPt. I’d actually recommend against going to these if you’re purely focused on trying to sell stuff. There are other, better networking events you can attend (I have an entire process for networking events that has made me even more than cold calling – maybe I’ll share that next?)!The local business directory book that gets delivered. You can even use one from last year.Local magazines delivered to communities.Googling things like “Chiropractors in 92008.” Some people have more money than others, and so I’d spend some time creating a list from googling a profession + zip code. Often times, it produces some decent results.How I qualified my list:This is going to be a bit specific to my niche, which was selling websites (and later online marketing services) to businesses. However, you can also qualify your list so that you are talking to more of the right people and spending less time calling/talking with the wrong people!I looked at their website. If the website looked old or had an old date at the bottom of the site (aka ©2012 when it's 2016), that was a good candidate for calling. If the website was newer, I'd pass on it (though if it was somewhat new, this was a good candidate for online marketing services).They had to be local places/people. I didn't want to be that call you get from an out-of-state number, because those calls get ignored. Local calls get answered.How I documented calls & results:A note on this: If you don't record who you called and what happened, you won't be able to follow up, and consequently won't make it anywhere. You need to be able to follow up on people and call numbers that didn't answer the first time or you’ll run out of decent numbers to call.I opened up a word doc on my computer, numbered a list, and copy/pasted the info if I found the info online or typed it in manually if it was from a magazine/directory/business card. My first notes were actually on a yellow legal pad. I'll get a pic of them, because I still have them somewhere, but digital is best. CRM systems are great, but it's more important to make the darn call and be marginally organized than to be highly organized and sit around doing CRM optimizationlike a poor idiot trying to avoid making his/her calls.I determined my KPI's (Key Performance Indicators) to be: # of calls made, # of people that answered, # of decision makers reached, # of requested call-backs or e-mails, # of appointments set, # of sales made. I made a mark next to the corresponding number on my list for each of these things occurring.I recorded the meaningful points of the conversation (aka what to remember if I talked to them again), and the next step. If they said “not right now,” I’d write to call back in 6 months. I didn’t call many of these people back.The Goal of a cold call and any necessary follow-up activity is to get to a Yes or to a No.Don’t try to convince people of your product’s value. That takes more effort and isn’t what you should be doing. Explaining is required, but convincing is something altogether different – I didn’t have the time or patience to try to show that there was value in a new website. If they didn’t see it, then they didn’t have any money or they were old-school and likely going to be tons of work to convince.Small commitments lead to larger commitments. I didn’t ask for the sale right away. I didn’t ask for an hour of their time. I didn’t ask for them to meet for coffee. I asked for 5 minutes of their time over the phone. If they liked what I had to say, then I’d ask for 30 minutes of their time to show.Don’t leave voice mails for people unless they know who you are. Only leave voice mails for follow-up calls.It is okay to call as often as 5 times per week (once per day), but only leave one voicemail per week in follow-up. It is safer to call only 2-3 times per week, and you should call less often as time goes on so you’re not annoying. I’d say up to 5 calls the first week, 3 calls in week 2, 2 calls in week 3, and 1 call per week after that for follow-up. Just a general set of guidelines.The most important concept I learned on my own: The Three BoxesPeople have three boxes in their head that need to be “checked off” before they will allow you to pass. The receptionist, the business owner, or the office manager will reject your call and not even give you an answer if you don’t give them these three critical pieces of information!– Your name. You don’t need to give your company name. Sometimes it’s even a bad thing if you give your company name. It doesn’t add credibility – It just tells me that I don’t know you. Most times, I’d only give my first name, and this was almost always fine.– How you found them. This tells them if you have something in common or not. If you found them in the Chamber of Commerce, for example, this tells them that you’re local and immediately differentiates you from a random cold call. Look to leverage anything you can to show that you are “like them.” If you can somehow connect on any level, you get a check on this box, because you seem human.– Why you’re calling (and it better not be to sell something!). This one is really the crux of why I am different. If I told someone that I was looking to sell them a website, they’d get rid of me as quickly as possible. “Ugh, not another sales call…” I needed to give them a different, but still valid, reason for calling. My reason was because I saw “a potential fit between our businesses, and was calling to talk to [insert name here] about it.”I do tell them what I am selling afterward, but once I addressed the third box in this new way, something magic happened. People started listening! I was no longer selling snake oil to make money, but was offering to talk about something that would be mutually beneficial. Often times, they would identify with me, and I would get people to give me respect and honest answers. Many times, the answer was still no, but I got my answer! And guess what? Sometimes the answer was yes and I made a sale!The Script (Finally)Link to the script in Google DocsUPDATE: Link to the conversation script in Google DocsHopefully by now, you have read this and can understand why my script is this way.How I followed upThere is a difference between following up and moving prospects forward. It’s a lot simpler than you might think – Start your follow-up call with a goal in mind, remembering that small commitments lead to larger commitments. For me, I always had the same goals in my prospect funnel:Cold callAsk for a 5 minute conversation (to determine if there is a fit)Schedule a 20-30 minute demo (even if it ends up being an hour… 20-30 minutes is easier to stomach for a “busy” business person)Ask for the sale after a website demonstration (Go over pricing – 3 pricing packages are important. Don’t do this for custom quotes… Custom quote requires a modified process from what I shared)Meet in person over coffee, buy their coffee, thank them for their business, get to know them and their company more, and ask for referrals.The end result (Recap)I went from being ~5 months from bankruptcy to making just over $120,000 by myself (using the same company I sold for as sub-contractors for the work, which their cut wasn’t included in the 120k) in my 2nd year of doing this. I also supplemented this work with focused business networking after a while, which is a whole other 3,000-word post in and of itself.A few final notesI made a commitment to making 50 calls per day, 5 days per week. I know others can supposedly bang out 100-300 calls a day, but I don’t know how you do it with any brain power. My brain power was gone after about 50 calls. I would make 50 calls in 4 hours or less. That is a good benchmark, especially when starting out. I was also given that advice by other successful sales professionals. A note is that I counted every time I dialed, whether I spoke to a person or got a voicemail.I bought a pack of small beads at Wal-Mart and put 50 of them into a cup. When I dialed a number, I would move 1 bead over. It was motivation once I was 30 calls in and didn’t want to finish. I even wrote cheesy motivating blurbs on the cups like “you can do it” and “keep going!” Whatever gets you to keep picking up the phone.Don’t let yourself get distracted. You will stop making calls – I guarantee it!Don’t start doing this without an emergency fund (shoutout to [r/PersonalFinance](http://ift.tt/1defSDb) in place. I recommend keeping 6 months of expenses in an emergency fund account. I needed mine to make it happen.You need to have the memory of a goldfish! You have to just forget or leave behind the negative experiences and focus on doing your best now. I did not get yelled at very often, which was due to the way I conducted calls (explained below), but it hurt a LOT when I did. Also, there were entire days that I failed on myself. A few times, I remember making less than 5 calls, putting on headphones and playing Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for 8 hours straight because I let a mean person get to me. Nothing against gaming, but this will kill your dreams – I was not okay with failing on my wife and potentially losing our home, but I failed that day. I would pick up and continue on the next day as if nothing happened – It’s a new day, and a new chance to succeed! Don’t get down on yourself for failures.Feel free to post any questions you may have in the comment section. I will answer them as best I can. If you want me to do an AMA on building a marketing agency from scratch down the road, I can if the mods want me to do it.
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