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The US Bishops just can't help themselves. They're obsessed with money and political power.Sponsored by Nelson Insurance Advisorshttps://www.nelsonplan.comSources:https://www.returntotradition.orgContact Me:Email: return2catholictradition@gmail.comSupport My Work:Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/AnthonyStineSubscribeStarhttps://www.subscribestar.net/return-to-traditionBuy Me A Coffeehttps://www.buymeacoffee.com/AnthonyStinePhysical Mail:Anthony StinePO Box 3048Shawnee, OK74802Follow me on the following social media:https://www.facebook.com/ReturnToCatholicTradition/https://twitter.com/pontificatormax+JMJ+

The US Bishops just can't help themselves. They're obsessed with money and political power.Sponsored by Nelson Insurance Advisorshttps://www.nelsonplan.comSources:https://www.returntotradition.orgContact Me:Email: return2catholictradition@gmail.comSupport My Work:Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/AnthonyStineSubscribeStarhttps://www.subscribestar.net/return-to-traditionBuy Me A Coffeehttps://www.buymeacoffee.com/AnthonyStinePhysical Mail:Anthony StinePO Box 3048Shawnee, OK74802Follow me on the following social media:https://www.facebook.com/ReturnToCatholicTradition/https://twitter.com/pontificatormax+JMJ+

Wrapping up loose ends and moving forward.Book 3 in 18 parts, By FinalStand. Listen to the ► Podcast at Explicit Novels.Love is like a crossbow quiver. You only have so many bolts to shoot before it runs outThere was a long pause. Pamela took another long breath then an impish grin came to her lips."With your luck you'll get those, then end up in the Artic," she scoffed."Not the Antarctic? I've got a soft spot in my dreams for penguins.""Nope. You get to be chased by polar bears," she nudged me. I nudged her back playfully. She gave me a Charlie horse."Ow!" I yipped. The two SD chicks from the front of the plane looked back our way. I didn't care about their misconceptions. My muscles needed some self-massages."I was pretty scared," I whispered to Pamela."Good for you. You were also pretty lucky and I'm sure pretty pissed with your 'Albanian' attackers," she replied quietly. "I missed you too."I liked the way she read my mind about that. I would have liked it some more if I hadn't glanced to my other side, then fallen straight to sleep.{1 pm, Monday, August 25th ~ 14 Days to go}On Tuesday night, Aya got one of her wishes fulfilled ~ sorta. I slept in Caitlyn Ruger's bed and I wasn't alone. The Sandman had dropped a Scottish sand trap sized load of sand on me and there was more than enough spillover to flatten little Aya too. Because I lived among Amazons, Caitlyn woke me up at 5:45 in the A M and only so much lollygagging was allowed.Aya got to sleep for fifteen whole minutes more than I did. She hugged me and kissed my cheek (which amused her three Fatal Squirt compatriots to no end) while I stuffed away my breakfast. Desiree showed up to take me to work minutes later. While Aya showed off her battle scar to the pre-caste Amazons and her Aunt D. (they had not been awake when we showed up the previous evening), I was chided for being late for weapons practice.Yes. Life and death battle successes meant nothing to the Amazons. If you had a spare moment you had better be training, or working out your mind and/or body. We had no 'weekends', though we did get an quarter day off in celebration for the religious festivals based on the sacred days of the various matron Goddesses. A full day off didn't happen.7:00 AM saw me with the intern group, just as if nothing had happened to change our relationship over the past two months. Oh, we were different. They teased me about my sunburn and wanted to see my latest scars. I couldn't work with Buffy anymore, since I was her spiritual leader. Due to my 'high risk' status, Desiree was the only other Amazon Katrina trusted me with, so I got to get beaten at her hands for the last three days of the week.To be fair, I teased Desiree incessantly. I made her smile when she thought I was doubled over in pain on multiple occasions. Beyond that seven-to-five schedule, I exercised after work until six and then managed to bike home in a manner that avoided the paparazzi.I was easy to track outside of the building by the members of the press (who thought I was still somehow newsworthy) and despite my persistent desire to not talk to any of them. Felix had 'vanished', so I was the only man left. What had happened to him? Katrina allowed me to take a glance. He was at an Epona Wyoming freehold training for the Great Hunt and reveling in his 'lone man in a household of twenty-two single women' status.Unlike the three other members of our 'first class', Felix got to choose his re-location location and communicated with me daily because he wanted us to create a battle plan for the upcoming Hunt. It was official; it was going to be a two man vs. thirty Amazons affair and there was no rule that we couldn't work together though only two Amazons could win by capturing us and holding onto us until sunset on Sunday, September 14th.No one except Krasimira, the Keeper of Records, knew what terrain we would be hunted on so we could expect anything from swamps to mountain ranges. The Amazons were in the same boat. Already the House heads had volunteered one member for the Hunt. The ancestors would be consulted for the half who would actually participate. Krasimira had also added her own twists.House Ishara couldn't compete because technically, I was already their participant. With 52 houses halved, that equaled 26. The final four? Runners. If a runner won, the Keeper would consult the ancestors to see which house they would automatically be inducted into. Eight runners were nominated by the department heads and four of those would be chosen by the Augurs as well.In a normal organization it would have been thought that Krasimira was abusing her station since there was no High Priestess to oppose her decisions. Not in the Amazons. No. She consulted the Augurs and the Augurs worked the will of the Ancestors and that was that. No Augur would lie about the sacred communications imparted to them. That was inconceivable sacrilege.What that did mean was that at sunset on Thursday, September 11th, Felix and I would be inserted with a knife, map and clothing into the hunting zone. When the sun rose on Friday morning, the thirty Amazons would be put into the zone. No Amazon could attack another unless they, or their targets, 'possessed' a man. They could team up but only two could win. It was promising to be a great 'get to know your buddies at work' moment for all of us,What was Felix getting out of this besides his freedom? (His freedom was no longer in danger. House Epona would protect him.) No, for Felix, if he survived free until the sun set on Sunday, he would become a Runner. If he lost, he would have to spend another year as an intern. This convinced me that Felix was totally dedicated to avoiding capture. I was good with that.Meanwhile for me, it was Brooke Wednesday night, Oneida on Thursday and Timothy and Odette going clubbing with me on Friday night. Saturday was my first House Ishara group activity. We gathered in the early morning at Doebridge, me with a hangover and Buffy giving me crap at every opportunity. Fortunately the rest of my 'sisters' treated me with a great deal more reverence.Now they all knew about my Summer Camp role, Romania and my kidnapping. Even in their 'man-hating' ideology, I was the exception to the rule ~ I was reliable, dedicated, smart, lethal and worthy of their trust and respect. On the council front, Buffy hinted to me that there was a way around the deadlock for who would be foisted onto the Regency Triumvirate, but she refused to tell me what it was. That was a cause for concern.Sunday, I worked with JIKIT, did some Amazon diplomatic stuff and discovered Desiree was my new bodyguard. Katrina thought a full SD team would be cumbersome and my best bet was to remain unconventional and mobile. I agreed because it allowed me to play the field a little more. Speaking of playing the field,This bright Monday afternoon, I was standing in a hangar at Stewart International Airport waiting on my fiancée, Hana Sulkanen. She had flown from Tibet to London with the Dali Lama. That exalted individual had passed on the mantle of national leadership to the Tibetan Constitutional Committee and left the country with the stern decision that the country would move forward toward democracy and not backwards toward theocracy.Now he was playing the role of goodwill ambassador, encouraging the Tibetan Diaspora to spend a few months to a year back in their homeland to help rebuild and teach. He also was rallying support for Tibetan recognition and financial support. Already the UN had voted to send a small international group to establish border security against both the Khanate and the PRC.With the PRC treaty-obliged by the ceasefire to not oppose Tibetan freedom, the UN acted rapidly. The UN Tibet Force(UNTFOR) combat elements consisted of the UK (+ Gurkha), Chilean, French (+ French Foreign Legion), Germany, India, Italy, Romania, Spanish and Thailand each sending one battalion each. Algeria, Denmark, Chile, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Canada, Cameroon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Brazil agreed to make smaller contributions. The USAF would supply a serious level of logistics support for the mission.The UN also created the UN Tibetan Training Force (UNTTFOR) which provided a structure for giving access by Tibetan forces to German, Italian, Chilean and Romanian bases to train to E U standards over a five month period. The Khanate provided gobs of captured Chinese hardware to the creation of a tiny Tibetan Armed Forces, easing worries about adequately equipping the troops once they were trained.The Dali Lama was simultaneously arriving at JFK to public fanfare in order to thank the UN personally on behalf of the nation he loved. Hana was able to finally shed the limelight and was coming into a secure National Guard facility to finally take a step back to a 'normal' lifestyle. The last bit of oddity: the hangars used by the Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 452 of the Marine Corps Reserve was courtesy of JIKIT. No press was allowed, or expected.It was an odd grouping of us. Jormo Sulkanen (Hana's father), his chauffeur and Hana's daughter  Annela were in one car. Hana was traveling with Libra and Ms. Meacham, so they would need the limo he came in. My appearance was a simple moment for us to touch base in person, as opposed to over the internet, or mobile phone. The third group waiting was Sten Phillip M nnik (her ex-husband) and two unnamed associates.Sten was being a total jerk, which may have been due to me calling him Philip when we first met. Philip wasn't 'ethnic' enough for him, so he never used it. Because he hated it, Brennan (Hana's deceased step-brother) had used it constantly. I had overheard it and thus screwed up our first meeting. But Sten's current blistering hatred had two positive side effects: Jormo came over and stood by me, a suggestion of solidarity I hadn't expected, and since we were standing next to each other, we finally began the dialog that we needed if Hana was going to be family to both of us.We chatted about the thing that mattered most ~ Hana. He asked me if I had really hired a team of assassins to protect her, so I told him a little bit about the Ghost Tigers. He talked about how proud she was to be bringing peace to a suffering planet and I agreed that she looked spectacular doing so.Some things remained the same; I had set in motion the death of his youngest son who had paraded a raped lady in front of me. A bunch of other dilettantes had perished as well. Balancing that was the joy I brought to the child closest to his heart, his adopted daughter Hana. I also had proved to be my own brand of eccentric knight in tarnished armor. I meant well, and in Jormo's book that meant something.He also told me he would strangle me with my own intestines if I broke her heart. I looked him straight in the face and asked him how he felt about open marriages. He hit me. To be fair, I let him hit me. He didn't try to do me serious harm."Don't be an asshole," he grumbled."I'm not sure I know how?" I shrugged. I got another hard stare."She loves you," he said with surprising tenderness."I would rather face that typhoon again than break her heart. The thought of that scares me because I've never been all that good at romance," I confessed."That wasn't what I expected you to say," he harrumphed. "I recall those two ladies I first saw you with. Libra Chalmers and,""Brooke Lee," I said."Yes, her. Are you staying loyal?""She has never asked more than she thinks my current level of maturity can hope to achieve." He looked at me. "I'm discrete and mindful of her sensitivities.""You aren't trying to befriend me," he noted."I don't feel it is right to expect you to like me. I think we both know I'm supposed to be nice to you and you aren't going punch me again. I believe Hana would see thru any deception on our part."I paused. "I wouldn't mind us getting along. I'll try not to piss you off because that would be rude to you and cruel to her," I continued. "I'll never ask you to forgive me and I'll never feel like what I did was inherently unjustified. I am sorry that I caused you pain because I think you are a hard, courageous man, and she loves you.""That's her plane," he stated."Thank God," I muttered. And thank you Ishara. I was starting to blather. We remained thankfully silent until the plane had pulled into the hangar and the people started to deplane. The first out was a young woman with dark blonde hair and hunters glasses.No one else appeared until she had reached the bottom of the stairs and continued to look about for a moment. Hana came next, smiling at me, then her eyes were following Jormo as he moved to the car to retrieve little  Annela. Libra followed with Ms. Meacham on her heels. Libra still wasn't used to playing the second fiddle/personal assistant. A short Mongolian fireplug of a man was the last passenger down the stairs. He looked like, a wolverine with his feral, primordial energy and general hostility.I imagined the girl was his apprentice and he was the prime assassin. That was how the Ghost Tigers operated. They were doing me a deep personal favor by putting aside their normal role as hunters to take up body-guarding duties. According to Addison, they had also managed to get their fair share of killing people of various persuasions. Not only had the Seven Pillars tried to take her out more than once, Chinese Intelligence and some criminal cartels had taken an active interest in her too.The young woman scanned from me to Desiree, then to Sten. She had a good eye for threat assessment. Jormo was partially concealed, but would rather die than put Hana at risk. I was the ally of the 9 Clans, and she probably thought she could take me in a quick-draw contest. Desiree? She left Desiree for her mentor to worry about."Ms. Sulkanen?" Sten's closer minion walked her way. The bodyguards got in the way instinctively. The man reached into his coat and nearly died. The women did a palm strike to his windpipe then grabbed his tie, yanking him to the hard concrete floor of the hangar.(Russian) "He has a piece of paper," she stated in a detached manner"Sten, what is the meaning of this?" Hana worried. I moved toward the woman.(Russian) "I am Cáel Nyilas. Let me help."She did more than that. She retreated from the downed man and put her body between Hana and Sten.I was schooled enough now to realize that was the deception. I hadn't seen the older man draw a gun but I knew he now had one out. It was down by his side and he was using his body to shield it from view."Are these the kind of people you want around our daughter," Sten asked haughtily. I had an inkling suspicion. I wasn't alone.Desiree pushed past me and attended to the downed man. She had him standing, patted him on the back and frisked all inside ten seconds."He's a process server," she commented to the group."What he is here to do is serve you with papers, Hana," Sten grew angrier. "You are an unfit mother and have developed an unsafe environment for her to grow up in.""What?" Hana growled. "You don't like the fact that I've finally moved on and found someone new. You don't care a damn thing about our daughter.""We will let a judge decide that. Right now I have an order of detention for  Annela," he grinned wickedly."Ms. Sulkanen," the second of Sten's minions step forward more cautiously, "the Family Court in the State of New York has,"I laughed."Oh," Desiree looked my way then shared a sliver of a smile with me."There is nothing laughable, I assure you," the lawyer snapped."Really, what's your name?" I asked."Mr. Dornier, not that,""Where are we?""What does that matter?" then, "New York State.""Incorrect Dornier. You are on a Marine Corps base, dumbass. Look around you," I smirked."So? What does that mean?" Sten harangued us."This is federal property," I explained as I strode toward his car."Hey, what are you doing, I'm talking to you," Sten pursued me."Excuse me," I grinned. I flipped out my Amazon Honor Blade and slashed one of his tires."What?""Go for it," Hana simmered. "Touch Cáel and he will defend himself.""He has a knife," he countered. He didn't touch me. A second tire began to deflate. "That's assault with a deadly weapon.""It would be if he turned to face you, or anyone else," Desiree had her 'bored ~ don't press me' voice. "Right now he's being a vandal." She put her hand on the process server's shoulder and shoved him back toward Sten and Dornier. "You should know your jurisdictions, asshole," she told him."Hana, I will drive back with Cáel," Libra announced loudly. That was a cue for Hana to shoot me an apologetic look, which was odd, considering that even knowing me was putting her child custody at risk. It took me a second to realize what a bastard Sten could be. I also doubted he had three spare tires. I left one untouched as I headed for my car."Hana, I'll catch up with you after you talk with your lawyers," I called out. It was infuriating for me that this was her reception home. Sten had better be thanking his lucky stars we weren't alone or I would have pummeled his ass, and given him the nuclear wedgy of all times, jackalope."Let's go home," Libra tapped my arm. Desiree was watching Jormo's limo speed away. She didn't dawdle. The Marines would want their hangar back ASAP. We'd let them decide if they wanted to help Sten, or not. Desiree tossed me the keys. That was her way of telling me I need to blow of some steam, and not by getting frolic-ee with Libra on the hour long commute home.{11 pm, Monday, August 25th ~ 14 Days to go}{Late that night with Hana}"So, who was the guy who gave you this?" I looked over at Hana while running my hand over the silk scarf some lama in Lhasa had given her to give to me ~ a 'Thank You' gift for the liberation of his homeland and the aid package heading his peoples' way."I never got his name, but my translator said he had traveled for three days straight to be there for the celebration," she smiled warmly.I picked up my second gift and began to play with it. The object was a fascinating toy, all the more so because it was more than a child's plaything. It was a simple prayer wheel. I put the handle between my two palms and rubbed them back and forth, causing the two balls to beat against the drum heads."I think you find that thing more interesting than you do me," Hana pouted."Oh no you don't," I pounced on her. With one hand I tickled her while I placed my Tibetan gift aside. I didn't want us rolling over on it as we frolicked naked on her queen-sized bed. "You were a happy little camper ten minutes ago and you certainly drove your vigor home with this grand Lothario.""Eek!" she playfully tried to bat my hand aside. She began giggling hysterically.Even when I pulled away so that she could breathe, she kept snickering."What?" I worried. I had been ramping us up for a second round of sex. Round one had been 'comfort' sex, helping her compartmentalize her feelings for that bastard of an ex-husband and the threat he posed to her custodianship of her daughter,  Annela.Those were emotions she'd deal with later. Fretting about them tonight, her first night back in the States, was counter-productive. She knew that, which was why she'd accepted my dinner invitation. We had now been seen in public together for the first time since she became famous; afterwards we had traveled back to her place. How serious was I about cheering her up? I'd brought a spare suit, biking clothes and my bike. I was planning to spend the night and make my way to work my usual way come sunrise."I," she gasped, "asked Libra how you "compared" in her experience, which seems to be extensive, as a lover on the way over. And after several, very long, I must say, seconds of introspection, she told me you were indescribable and incomparable. I've been trying to put my thoughts together since Rome and, why are you scowling?""That was rude of you two," I now play-pouted. "I like to think I'm 'thunderous', though 'stunning' will do in a pinch."Hana helpfully pinched me. "Ow!" I squalled. And back to tickling I went. I quickly showed her my 'sheet-fu' was superior to hers, which meant I tangled her up in her sheets before she realized she was helpless before me. Or so I bragged. Hana played helpless well."Oh please, Mr. World-Conquering Wombat," she pleaded. Wombat?"Wombat?" I questioned her. "How have I become an irascible furry marsupial?""Well Honey, you need a shave," she teased me. "You are a little furry.""Romantically that is called a five o'clock shadow," I protested."It scratches my thighs," she murmured.I had a remedy for that. Sliding down to her hip, I turned my palms toward me, interlaced my fingers and positioned my thumbs pointing up. My chin rested on my fingers and the thumbs covered the sides, so when I stuck my tongue into the three-sided void created, my hands, but none of my scruffiness, touched her intimate flesh. Once I had this technique in place, I rolled over her thigh and got to work."I find," she gasped, "that you have the answer to that conundrum down pat. It makes me, ah, think I'm not your, ah, first girl." My dedication to my erotic task (and the carnal reward that waited) kept me from responding. Besides, my upper lip was busy rolling back and forth over her clitoris. There I let the bristles of my oncoming moustache teasingly tickle her. I was pleased when the pleasure I caused quieted her and she settled down to running her fingers across my crown as she ramped herself up toward a climax. 'Not my first girl' indeed.Forty-five minutes later, I was coming back to her room from the kitchen with a glass of tomato juice for her and rice wine for me (she was out of beer). I heard a noise from  Annela's room, so I deviated to make sure she was okay. I was in boxers, not totally naked.  Annela was out like a light, caught up in some sort of childish dream. By the cherubic grin on her face, she was having a good one.She was another delicate female issue in my life. I had made her existence harder by just being me. Hana let me know that nothing 'bad' had better happen to her ex-husband, Sten. I couldn't beat him up, threaten him, or sic any of my Amazons on him. Stupidly, I had asked if using the CIA was okay. She'd banned all of JIKIT intervening as well, negating the use of the best pest removal people on the planet, the 9 Clans."You are going to have to get used to children making sounds while they sleep," Hana surprised me. "You'll learn to tell the dreams from the nightmare.""In spades, I'm going to have to learn that in spades," I nodded.{4 pm, Tuesday, August 26th ~ 13 Days to go}My schedule had remained steady. I had firearms practice at 6 am every morning, was in Katrina's office by 7 and working my cue by 7:15. According to my regular morning briefings, I continued to be a menace to the foundations of freedom, civilization and the terrestrial biosphere. It was wonderful to stand there side by side with my fellow New Hires.At lunch, around 11 o'clock, I had a brief get together with the other members of the Amazon diplomatic corps since I was still Chief Diplomat of the Host ~ we were a small unit. Daphne, who now worked with JIKIT, would give me a brief briefing on what the 'office' was up to in my name. I gladly kept my distance from their regularly scheduled mayhem. The truce in China didn't stop the Secret War from raging on and on.My three o'clock knife training with Pamela was slowly evolving into a greater study of human fighting philosophy and anatomy. I still studied the techniques of a larger single bladed hunting knife as well as the hilt-less, double bladed Amazon Honor Blade. Pamela promised me she'd start teaching me how to do the 'long-distance' and 'short'/snap throw for the blades. She made it look so easy.Pamela also began educating me on the basics and basis of the Amazon personal hand-to-hand fighting style. The eight points of emphasis in Amazon combat were: the finger, fist, elbow, shoulder, foot, heel, knee and hip. It encouraged channeling both your energies and the energy of your opponents by using fluid blows and throws. It also worked well with the close-in knife fighting Pamela was teaching me. Working with her once more did her as much good as me. We had come to feed off one another's moods, which was a good thing.Tuesday, walking to the elevator at the end of the session, the door opened to reveal Rachel talking to an SD chick I barely knew, Meridian."Oh, it is great to see you, Rachel," I enthusiastically stated. Her hesitation as she replied worried me."It is great to see you too, Cael Wakko Ishara," she responded softly, compassionately."Ladies, can you spare Rachel and I some private time," I asked Meridian and Pamela."Come on," Pamela addressed the SD Amazon, "we have tons of nothing to talk about.""As you wish, Ishara," Meridian answered. She looked to Rachel. She stepped off the elevator as Pamela stepped on. Away they went."I heard you were back in New York," I told her."I heard you were off of JIKIT for the time being.""I was running on fumes psychologically and my body wasn't too much better. Javiera gave me a week off. I go back Thursday.""That was the right move, Cáel," she said. "You've been stuck sweating both the small stuff and being caught up in the big picture. That is a humongous burden to bear for someone with your training and background.""I know, I'm not ready for where my life has taken me.""No one is, Cáel. You have training that has let you get this far when most of us would be lost. You carry that weight, plus you've had to work the physical side of the equation. I get to focus on you. You've had to focus on all of us."Rachel was being both honest and kind. I felt a sudden renewed kinship with my primary guardian."Thanks for that, Rachel, can I tell you a secret? Something you can't tell another soul. Something I've never told another living person?" I could tell Rachel. I couldn't tell Katrina because she was so close to Hayden. Pamela, Pamela had already prepared herself for a miserable afterlife and wouldn't have connected with my pain for another.Since she was my 'sister' in Ishara, I couldn't really confide in Buffy, but only an Amazon would understand my thoughts on the matter. It had to be Rachel."I cannot betray the Host, but you know that. What is it you wish to share?""Hayden lived life as an Anahit, yet lives forever in the Halls of the Isharans." Since that was now well known, Rachel knew that couldn't be the secret."When I was trying to induct her, Dot Ishara refused her entry. I thought she was challenging me and I was right.""I recall that she wouldn't accept Hayden, even though her death was righteous in the name of the Host. Has no one ever asked you what changed Ishara's mind? Not Buffy, or Helena?""Neither one ever asked. I think it was because they sensed I didn't want to talk about it, nor insult them by not opening up. Ishara refused Hayden because of me. I was refusing to accept my place in the Host. I kept playing, pretending, I was not really one of you. I kept thinking I could divorce myself from the evil we did because I was special.""But you weren't special in the way I think you are using the word," she nodded. "You were chosen by the Ancestors to be one of us, man, or not.""Yeah. I stupidly put my life on the line because I wanted to be the 'good guy'. I've always wanted to be the 'good guy', even when I hurt people. I'd tell the girl it was my fault, yet I excused that behavior by thinking that I hadn't meant to hurt anyone, so I was okay. I have never blamed myself for any of the shit I caused.""That has always been a rather annoying quality of yours," she noted."When I was on the roof of Havenstone, daring Ishara with my life on the line, that's when I felt it. I owed and owned my Amazon heritage in that moment. I finally blamed myself for something, for not accepting sacrifices were being made for me and I was dishonoring every one of you by denying their purpose.""You are Ishara," Rachel stated firmly. That was her entire argument."I had to believe that. I had to believe I was nothing more than one Amazon in a long line of Amazons dating back to that first night of betrayal. I had to realize I was one of many, not someone special, with special rules. I wasn't getting to be the good guy, or even the bad guy. I was just, an Amazon. One more Ishara among the hundreds that stood in my place.""And it took that moment for you to realize what most Amazons know from the age of five," Rachel stroked my cheek. "It is easy for us to forget your bravery comes from a place that is uniquely you and you didn't grow up around the fires with tales of our mothers, grandmothers and all those who have come before. We see our honor is gold and sing the songs in the First Tongue. We live as Amazons.""I wanted you to know because," I faltered at the last memory."Charlotte. You want to make peace with me about Charlotte," she touched my cheek yet again. "Cáel, I told her mother and daughter about how she died. They want to meet Vincent when he is feeling better. They want to talk to you. They worry about you not understanding that Charlotte lives and will live on until the Sun dies and the stars burn out.""Charlotte was in the Warband that killed Ajax the Unconquered, Cáel. She fell on that ridge, looking down on Ishara's triumph over Ajax and her spirit took the news of that victory to the next life. She is a welcome exemplar to House Ska i. She will be remembered in the lists of the Security Detail, our Warrior Elite. Charlotte was my friend and I didn't wish her to die, but war is what we do. And she buried her enemies and saved our lives."Ska i was a j tunn and the Nordic goddess associated with bow-hunting, skiing, winter, and mountains. I had known her house. The SD didn't talk about their families much because of their devotion to the craft of war, so I had never known her mother was still alive, or that she had a daughter."She did much more than die, Cáel. She killed men so that when you finished with Ajax, none of them, left on that field, could avenge him," she added."I hadn't looked at it that way," I confessed. "I'd like to meet her family. You said she has a daughter. I didn't know.""You didn't need the distraction. We all knew you would have only done incredibly stupid things trying to keep us alive. If it helps, she is five and cried freely, deeply and long. Her mother is fifty-two and runs a freehold in Saskatchewan. She'll be around for a long time, trust me."Charlotte's mother had to be one tough D O B (daughter of a bitch) to see sixty. I did know she was the second of five daughters, with the middle one being in the Ska i House Guard."I am doing something for, well, for me, but for Charlotte too. Sakuniyas is leading seventeen House Isharans and two ladies from MI-6 in West Africa.""I'd heard about that," she smiled. "Charlotte's Fist." Four (the core of any war band) was a sacred number to the Amazons, as was five (the number of digits) so twenty was a classic warrior unit. It was also the number of the original houses. Normally these groups were referred to by their leader's name, but I wanted the Condotteiri to know they'd killed the wrong Amazon and Sakuniyas agreed to the naming convention.The Condos had sent Ajax to Hungary and Romania to kill me. Charlotte had died stopping them, but this was not a matter of revenge. This honored her and was a request for her to watch over those who sought inspiration from her when they went into battle. West-Central Africa was one of the three Amazon Homeland (Eastern Europe and Southern India being the other two) and was where the war was heating up.JIKIT (Joint International Khanate Interim Taskforce) became involved when the Condos and Coils of the Serpent (one of the 9 Assassin Clans) began killing local civilian and military leaders. The Condos did it to spread chaos for them to use as a smoke screen behind which they could hide the large numbers of mercenaries in the area hunting down the Amazons. The Coils attacked any official that was on the Condo's payroll.As the body count began to rise, the US and UK began having 'normal' covert agencies investigate the killings, yet they remained blind to the reasons behind the actions. It wasn't until a whole Condo 'training camp' ended up being extinguished that they realized there was a third player in the game (as opposed to the governments and the rogue mercenaries).The Coils of the Serpent were one step ahead of the intelligence agencies. And that allowed the Amazons to hunt down the Condos. We in JIKIT had estimated it was roughly 15,000 Condotteiri foot soldiers (consisting of mercs, local paramilitaries and the occasional regular army commander) versus the roughly 3000 Amazons and 1000 members of the 9 Clans. The Golden Mare was asking for Havenstone and the Freeholds in North and South America to raise up 'fists' to join the struggle in Africa. In Belize they would be trained for two months to ten weeks in jungle warfare before heading over."Are your people going to be ready?" Rachel inquired."We have done well in Japan," I replied. "The former 'Runners' actually do better moving through urbanized society than their Old School Amazon sisters.""I heard they are more prone to taking orders from the Ninja," she looked me in the eyes."I told them to. This is the Ninja's war and we serve them best by doing what we do best ~ taking the fight to the Seven Pillars when they expose themselves," I clarified. "And you got me off talking about Charlotte," I realized a second later."A long period of mourning is not our way, Cáel," she confided. "You were our friend, but you were our mission first and foremost. That hasn't changed.""Are you going to," I began to say 'remain my bodyguard'."Yes. I have a dozen House Guard members expressing a desire to join the Security Detail and be our new electronics expert. Eight of those I'm giving serious consideration to.""The other four?" I asked."Three are too young and are too interested in you for my taste. One is too old and a rather odd individual.""I like odd.""I will reconsider her then," she allowed."Are you saying that to make me happy?""No," Rachel grinned. "I admire your instincts. Do you know how soon you will be needing us?""I'm going to stay in town until the Great Hunt. After my stupendous victory, I'll see if I can get to Brazil, so mid-September.""It will take longer to integrate a member ~ the last week of November," she bargained. I really wasn't in the mood to argue. I was too much the boy who was glad to see his primary guardian standing before him. Pamela was by far the most loving and lethal one of the pack. Rachel was my rock. She kept me alive and I helped give her something to live for, even if it was a flawed 'me'."And Wakko, you don't need to give me a piece of your soul to replace Charlotte. What is hers is hers and what is ours is ours. I'll always miss her and I'm okay with that. She was a good friend and a proud compatriot and I loved her. I never had any sisters of the flesh. Mona, Tiger Lily and Charlotte have been the only real family I've had. I will find another sister and I can now accept that.""Is it alright if I still miss her?" I pondered."Of course, Ishara. Will you still be capable of taking my orders when required?""Yes. If I started ignoring your advice, I wouldn't have been worthy of leading someone like Charlotte into battle. I can honor her by letting you do your job.""Thank you. I still worry about you trying to save everyone, but now I'll worry a little less," she confessed."I still plan to do crazy stuff, hey, do you have a daughter?""No.""Want one?""I'm in the final drawing of lots for the Great Hunt," she smiled once more."You could just ask.""My way is more fun. This way I'll be sure you'll obey," she let her eyes sparkle with a mirthful fire."Don't think I'll go easy on you. I plan to win," I pledged."Of course not. Why would you change now?""I'd rather you bust my balls than mock me?" I pouted. "Instead of spending a moving moment, you are cheering me up.""It is my job to look after you, even now," she stroked my neck affectionately."Especially now," I added as I hit the elevator button."Let's catch up with the others. I need to tell Meridian that she's back in the running.""Oh, that is fortunate," I grinned. "Oh, we'll start our mission to Brazil on Thursday, February 12th.""Is there a significance of that date?"I laughed. I put an arm around her shoulder as the doors opened. There were two others Havenstone ladies onboard."Carnival in Rio de Janeiro!" I exulted. "Half a million tourists a day. Two million Brazilians. Everyone wears a mask. What's not to love?""You are so fortunate you waited until you had witnesses around," Rachel groused."Desiree says it's bad for my prestige to be beaten in public," I chortled. "I'm glad you agree.""Maybe we can spar on the mats today when you get off work?""Oh, I'd like to see that," one of the other Amazons remarked. "Weapons or hand-to-hand?""I'll let him use a weapon. I'll use my hands. I want him to think he has a chance," Rachel declared. My arm was still around her shoulder, so I knew she wasn't really pissed."Didn't you kill Ajax?" the other one noted."He tripped over his shoelaces and impaled himself on his own sword," I sighed dramatically.Since the two women looked at one another, then to Rachel, I knew I'd told the lie well."Cáel had an ally shoot a grenade overhead, Ajax died in the confusion, so whatever blow killed him is irrelevant. Cáel beat Ajax with his mind before a single blow was landed. He made his foe fight his battle and that was how Wakko Ishara won," Rachel responded."Like an Amazon," the first one nodded."With balls," I added."An Amazon with balls? I guess you are, but I don't think the testes mattered in that you beat our foe in a matter your ancestors can be proud of," the second one said."Well said," Rachel nodded."Thank you," I shook her hand. "I'm Cáel Wakko Ishara aka Nyilas.""Oh, I'm Wynona of Allatu," she answered. She shook my hand, I ran a finger over her pulse and got her to blush slightly. Allatu was the Goddess of the Underworld in Canaanite mythology and one of the First Houses."Behave," Rachel whispered."Not likely," I whispered back."Did I say something wrong?" Wynona worried."No. Rachel is my moral guardian. So, do you want to go fishing, I mean swimming tomorrow after work, say 5:15?" I inquired."Sure," her smile broadened. "I excel in the water.""Good, maybe you can teach me a thing or two," I answered. The door opened at the lobby and there stood Desiree."Here," Rachel shoved me out the door. "Take him before he fishes himself into more trouble.""I understand," Desiree grumbled. "Come on fisherman. Financial Investigations is working late tonight and we need to pick up Italian food for twenty-two.""Lead and I shall follow," I proclaimed."Why do you call him the 'Fisherman'," Wynona asked Rachel."Fish, barrel, I'll explain it to you on the way to the garage," Rachel sighed. The doors shut and off we all went.{7:10 pm, Wednesday, August 27th ~ 12 Days to go}"Will you still be having dinner with us once you return back to JIKIT?" Europa asked as Lorraine passed me some Cajun rice."Every Monday and Wednesday night and on Fridays early," I grinned."We are going to be spending some time in Doebridge over the Labor Day weekend," Europa griped. "Do you want to come with us and save Aya from retelling her ordeal to yet another band of pre-Amazons?""Aya, do you want me to run interference for you?" I asked."No," she smiled. "I want you to train for the Great Hunt. Aunt Katrina says Elsa is virtually a guarantee to be one of the thirty.""Ugh," I groaned. "That's the cherry on the top of a rather bizarre day.""Was today bad?" Loraine asked."Let me see, for starters I got to use a variety of weird weapons for firearms practice. I had a feeling I was part of a round-robin, the way they rotated their assistance to me. In the elevator, I was with Brielle and her buddy when we had a security drill. The elevator cut off, but the air handler went into overdrive, dropping the temperature. After a quick democratic vote, I lost my shirt to an impromptu fire to stay warm, alive," I chuckled. "Then we cuddled together for warmth. I was about to lose my undershirt and pants when the alert ended.""Security alerts last less than fifteen minutes," Caitlyn noted. "I doubt you were in any danger of freezing to death.""Brielle was under the impression security alerts could last hours, despite my questionable knowledge otherwise from the handbook I'd read. Since she had the seniority, I thought she knew better.""So now you are shirtless," Europe smirked."I had a spare shirt stashed in Katrina's office, but I was required to change during the meeting because we were running late. Oh, and yesterday I forgot to feed some genetically superior white rats at one of our labs. Apparently they gnawed through their cages, broke out and now are in the Manhattan underworld, plotting a rodent rebellion," I related."Oh, that was my idea," Loraine perked up."Do you sit around the table with Katrina thinking up this kind of crap!" I protested."Occasionally," Caitlyn admitted. "Most of those are pure Katrina though.""Glad to know my misery is a family bonding experience.""You should be glad to know we care about you," Europa beamed."Yeah, I'll remember that and once you are casted I'm going to absolutely abuse my authority in some serious payback," I faux-glared at her."I promise you we will make it fun," Aya pledged."You would betray your own sisters?" Caitlyn questioned."Sisters are sisters, Mother, but boon companions are for life," Aya countered."That's cool, Mom," Europa snorted. "We'll always be taller than Aya, and faster.""Only more proof she'll be smarter," Caitlyn shook her head. "So Cáel what happened next?""What makes you think the rest of my day wasn't mundane and boring?""According to Katrina, you are the best stress reliever at Havenstone since they put in the Jacuzzis. With it being open season on you today, I figured your day was one misadventure after another," Caitlyn smiled warmly."Fine, I had to go to Financial Investigations to discuss my expense account in Europe.""That doesn't sound all that exciting," Loraine said."We were in the pool swimming in the classic Amazon style, I swear, sometime I think I should go to work wearing nothing but a trench coat and a smile," I grouched."Did you make any babies?" Aya chirped."No, I can't have that kind of fun with any employees for another twelve more days. Anyway, they were quite cross with me not using their services and let me know for an hour and, thirty-six minutes. After that I had to get a reference physical.""You are as healthy as a horse," Europa neighed."Funny Epona," I sniffed indignantly. "You are a load of laughs, filly. After I had been turned into a prune they made me undress again. There was some nonsense about all the combat I had been in had made me shorter and given me muscle constriction.""That is a good one," Aya nodded. "I'm glad they were being as creative as you are, Atta.""Who is to say that I'm not being the creative one here?" I winked at her."Were your muscles 'constricted'?" Loraine snickered. Europa gave her a thumbs up for joining on the fun."Nope, all my reflexes are in working order and I can still salute on demand," I smiled. "Which was good because after that, I worked through lunch with Acquisitions discussing Khanate plans for Siberia." There was a pause."What was so horrid about that?" Loraine inquired, as if I had been tortured up until that point."We had to do the whole three hour routine on the practice mats. I was pinned grappled and I had something that was strangely reminiscent of a titty-snuggle. I mean, all that skin-tight clothing, close contact and sweaty bodies was murder on my concentration," I confessed."We aren't going to be investing in Siberia, are we?" Aya winked at me."I don't know. I spent three hours saying "I don't know" and "I haven't a clue.""You are good at that," Europa jibed. I flicked a pea at her, bouncing it off her chin. She was getting ready for a spaghetti & meatball counterattack when Caitlyn's cough brought her up short."He is the Head of House Ishara. He can act that way. You are Epona and we are better behaved."Europa stuck her tongue at me, I returned the gesture and this time Caitlyn's cough was aimed at me. She followed that up by rubbing her foot along my shin. I smiled at her, then caught Aya smiling at the both of us. Then I recalled Aya had set the table, damn it."I'll get us dessert," Aya beamed happiness my way. I was thinking about dessert alright, damn that girl.{Rhada Revisited}"I'm home gang," I exhaled. "Ready to go out?" and was promptly shot with a Nerf gun. "What did I do this time?"Timothy and Odette were getting off the sofa. Odette was taking aim while Timothy left his single-shot where he'd been sitting."We are going out. You are not," Timothy grinned. "You have company in the bedroom.""Man, I was looking forward to," then Odette shot me in the stomach with her six shot nerf repeater."You have company," Odette emphasized the 'company' part. To me this implied someone who I couldn't seduce with a few words, maybe get busy for half an hour then go out partying. That could only mean,I opened my door and there lay Rhada, completely naked, hogtied and bound. She had even been gagged. Her look of hate and loathing turned to, something else; part fear and part heartsick yearning. Could Timothy and Odette, really just Timothy, I loved Odette but she had the combat skills of a Tribble. Could Timothy defeat Rhada so thoroughly that she could be so bound?Not likely. I'd been neglecting her, What with being kidnapped, running off to Europe and generally doing my job, I'd neglected her well-defined physique, olive skin and athletic curves. I'd been a fool for letting her waste away while I'd been 'not' earning a paycheck. Hell, I was working too much. I'd played around in college and still managed to graduate with good grades, and it wasn't like I had been hired for my brains."Oh, I've been missing this," I relished her helplessness while rubbing my palms together."Mumph," Rhada protested. It was hard for her to move her body. Her legs were bound above the knee to her shins while her ankles were lashed together and then to the top of her thighs.Her elbows and wrists were tied behind her back, wrists to wrist. The ropes securing her arms crisscrossed above and below her breasts and looped around her neck. She looked tightly secured. A bit too secured. I couldn't see how to un-hog-tie her."Don't you dare go anywhere," I warned Rhada then backed out of the room hurriedly."I suggested the ass plug!" Odette smiled as I turned around. I'd missed that given the shapeliness of her buttock,"I color-coded the ends of the ropes for you. Pull the yellow, then green and then pink and she'll come undone just fine. I put some ointment by the bedside for after. It will help numb the burn and promotes healing without scarring," Timothy patted me on the shoulder. "Now that you've b

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Paul reacts from Redmen HQ following Liverpool's 2-2 draw to Everton.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/redmentv. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A conversation with Daniel (aka @nicechute), co-founder and CEO @LuloFull notes for this episode at: https://solfate.com/podcast/70Solfate PodcastFollow us on twitter and turn the notifs on: @SolfatePodDiscover all our podcast episodes on our website: solfate.com/podcastCollect our episodes as NFTs on DRiP: drip.haus/solfateSummaryIn this episode, we welcome Daniel on the podcast, co-founder and CEO of Lulo, to discuss the birth and evolution of Lulo, a platform that simplifies DeFi. We explore the challenges faced in the DeFi space, the pivot from their original product to FlexLend, and the importance of user experience. The discussion also covers upcoming features, including a native app and an insurance product aimed at mitigating smart contract risks, ultimately positioning Lulo as a competitive player in the personal finance space.We talk about the innovative features of Lulo, a DeFi platform designed to enhance user experience and safety in digital asset management. The discussion covers the importance of risk management in DeFi, the introduction of an insurance-like product to protect users' deposits, and the vision for Lulo as a comprehensive financial tool that simplifies crypto investments. We also discuss regulatory challenges and the future of Lulo as a leading crypto app, highlighting the platform's potential to attract a broader audience to DeFi.TakeawaysDeFi is perceived as hard to use, which hinders adoption.The original idea for Lulo was an order book for lending.The pivot to FlexLend was driven by user needs for simplicity. Lulo's model allows for diversified risk management similar to traditional insurance.The future of Lulo includes features like debit cards and fiat onboarding.Lulo seeks to create a risk-free standard in the DeFi space.A simple UI can significantly enhance user experience.Launching a product early allows for easier iteration and feedback.Marketing strategies should align with product complexity.Lulo aims to compete with traditional finance apps like Robinhood. Safety is the number one concern for users in DeFi.The new insurance product helps manage risks associated with underlying protocols.Users will choose their risk level instead of specific apps in the new UX.Lulo aims to be the go-to crypto app for personal finance.The platform's efficiency improves as more DeFi pools are integrated.Follow us aroundNicktwitter: @nickfrostygithub: github.com/nickfrostywebsite: https://nick.afJamestwitter: @jamesrp13github: github.com/jamesrp13

Juventus and Roma are rolling, so its we did not have much to talk about with them. BUT United and Milan are a HOT topic - not for the right reasons either CAN MILAN figure out their STRIKER situation? IS UNITED spending money STUPIDLY? WHAT alure does UNITED have to get NEW players?  SHOULD MILAN consider sacking IBRAHIMOVIC? and so much more! Don't miss our in-depth analysis and lively discussions! Be sure to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE Keep Up with the Ultras XI Lads! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ultras.xi/ Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ultrasxi YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ultrasxi/

Championship Sunday in the NFL recap, The Bills are Stupidly Moronic, and Reusse doesn't like replay Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Championship Sunday in the NFL recap, The Bills are Stupidly Moronic, and Reusse doesn't like replay Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Championship Sunday in the NFL recap, The Bills are Stupidly Moronic, and Reusse doesn't like replay Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

***TIME SENSITIVE***Make sure you jump on the first MUST-ATTEND event of 2025: https://geni.us/Summit2025_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEShop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityUtilize the fastest and easiest way to look up and order parts and tires with PartsTech absolutely free.Click here to get started: https://geni.us/PartsTechTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingPros In this episode, Lucas and David are joined by Ryan Ragan, the new executive director for an automotive service alliance in North Carolina. Ryan discusses the importance of developing team members into experts, emphasizing the need for dedicated time and resources. He also highlights the value of vocational training over traditional college pathways, aiming to reduce debt and increase job readiness for new technicians. Lastly, the episode delves into strategies for organizational transparency to avoid rumors and misinformation while fostering an inclusive environment. 00:00 Therapy offered school escape amid family issues.05:20 He's mobile, unlike Kirk Cousins, Brady-like.09:38 Intensive effort invested in finding the candidate.12:55 Effort essential for associations' relevance and success.13:28 Providing real value through cutting-edge training.16:53 Access exclusive training, networking, and negotiation benefits.22:51 High industry turnover due to management and career paths.25:50 Collaboration improves the industry; Changing the Industry Podcast.28:34 Excited for development training at NC State.30:27 Focusing on Charlotte market strategies and training.35:39 Collaborative, adaptable approach; future plans underway.37:52 Event location crucial for out-of-state attendees.39:44 Exciting future improvements for upcoming show.43:41 Stupidly drove pink truck into Bronx danger.48:49 Defendant prepares poorly for court with advice.50:13 Airsoft gun prank mistaken for robbery panic.53:37 Gun unsnapped: scared, unshined shoes: lazy.58:14 Judge Ginn: Family friend, praised fair legal process.59:16 Breakdown led to appeal due to oversight.

Delve into year-end evaluations and developing a robust plan for next year's voiceover success. THE BOSSES share expert advice on setting clear objectives, utilizing effective marketing techniques, and maintaining enthusiasm in the unpredictable realm of freelance work. They give invaluable advice on maintaining passion, setting precise goals, and implementing effective marketing strategies. THE BOSSES also share strategies for balancing financial and time investments to align emotional satisfaction with professional objectives.  00:00 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Hey bosses, real Boss, Tom Dheere and myself have a very special deal for you guys. Tom, tell them what it is.  00:08 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) All right, nne. If you use the promo code BOSSVOSS that's B-O-S-S as in V-O-BOSS and V-O-S as in V-O-STRATEGIST, and the number 24, so that's BOSSVOS24, you get 10% off my 30-minute check-in, my one-hour strategy session and my one-hour diagnostic.  00:27 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) And you'll get 10% off all coaching packages and demos on the Anne Ganguzza website. So, guys, black Friday starts now and runs till the end of the year. So everybody, get yourselves on that site and get yourself a discount. BOSS, VOS, BOSS, VOS 24.  00:43 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) BOSS, VOS 24. Boss. VOS, BOSS, VOS, 24. BOSS, VOS, 24. 00:47 - Intro (Announcement) It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a boss, a VO Boss. Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza.  01:06 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Hey, hey everyone. Welcome to the VO Boss Podcast and the Real Boss Series. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, and of course, I am here with the one and only amazing Mr Tom Dheere.  01:18 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) Hello Anne, hello bosses.  01:20 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Hi Tom Dheere. Hi Tom, it's getting close to the end of the year, getting cold, getting ready for the holidays. At the end of the year, I always try to kind of step back and take a look at how did my year go, and I know that this is what you do. This is kind of like this is like your thing as the VO strategist. So I'd love to hear how you evaluate your year, because I want some tips actually, and I'm sure the bosses out there can always use some good end of year tips for evaluating how your business is going.  01:57 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) And I'll be happy to share those. I do the feels. You know. There's the emotional part of it. Just how did I feel about the year? Did I feel energized? Did I feel motivated? Did I feel satisfied? The emotional part of it Just how did I feel about the year? Did I feel energized? Did I feel motivated? Did I feel satisfied with the art of it? Was I able to express myself in the ways that I wanted or needed to express myself as both a voiceover artist, but also as a human being, Because there's a psychological aspect to what we do, Everybody has a different reason for why they want to be a voice actor.  02:26 You know, like Tom Dheere loves to tell stories. I love to talk, I'm a big talker, I'm a fast talker, but I just love telling stories. I love going on journeys and guiding people through journeys. And it's funny because ever since I did my very first paid voiceover in 1996, I've always had the question you know, how'd I do as an artist? You know, and every year the answer is a little bit better because I learn a little bit more.  02:49 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I love how you evaluated, first of all, the why. Right, because I think we always need to step back and say remember your why. Why are we doing it in the first place? Right, because if it gets to the point where it's stressing you out too much or you're I'm like my corporate job did that.  03:04 So I mean honestly like one of the reasons why I did this was to go into business for myself was because I found joy in running a business. I found joy in being creative and telling stories, such as yourself. And I love how you opened with that, because when I asked you, I was thinking, gosh, you're going to bring out your spreadsheet and you're going to be like all right, the business analyst is here and we're going to talk about how our year went, which I'm sure you're going to talk about anyways. But I love how you opened it with what is your why and how did you feel about it? Because I think you have to have the feels first right in order to want to continue and have the passion and the drive to keep moving forward.  03:41 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) Well, if there's no feels, then why are you doing it? And if you're doing it just for a paycheck, voiceover is the worst way to try to make money. It's so hard.  03:51 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) It's so hard. Wait, I feel like on the count of three, Tom, it's so hard.  03:59 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) And it takes forever to find out if you can make money and how long it's going to take you to make money, that's going to feel like it validates you at all, and if you wanted to get to part-time or if you want it to be something that's going to cover all your expenses and help save for retirement. Like you know, if there's a hundred jobs out there, there's 99 out there that are better to make money and have a paycheck than this one. So if you are doing this, it better have the feels right Now.  04:29 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) why do you say that, though I do want to ask you why do you say that there's a hundred jobs better at making the money? Why do we say that and the two of us are like oh my God, it's hard, but give a little more background to that, to that. Why?  04:40 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) I'm talking in the context of something that gives you personal fulfillment. Now, in all fairness, if your passion is photography and you want to be a photographer, the principle is the same You're a freelancer. You have to figure out how to make your own work, how to market yourself, how to brand yourself, how to manage your finances. So the principles are all the same. So the self-employed things like voiceover or photography I want to be a singer, dancer, actor, model, musician, freelance graphic artist, I want to open my own yoga business or whatever. But for everything else banking, legal healthcare and healthcare and all of these things can be emotionally and psychologically rewarding, but those tend to be far more stable forms of income, you know. So my point is is that if you're going to get into something as difficult to pursue like photography or voiceover or being a musician, if it doesn't have the feels, then why are you doing it? You're just some kind of masochist who just likes to make your life as difficult as humanly possible, you know.  05:42 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I read an interesting blog about when you're in freelance and you're doing stuff like we're voice actors. I mean, it's all about certainty. Right, we've given up our certainty, because if we've worked for people in the corporate world like I did, I mean I was certain I was getting that paycheck every two weeks, I mean as long as I was employed. This. Now you've entered into the era, or into a vortex, of uncertainty, and that is, I think, where Tom and I are like it's hard, it's hard and yeah. So if it doesn't give you the feels, then yeah, you have to make a lot of sacrifices for that.  06:15 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) Voiceover the vortex of uncertainty, the vortex of uncertainty.  06:20 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I'll tell you. Not that we don't love it. I mean, gosh, we've both been in this over 15 years, right, tim? So it's like, really, I mean I would not have stayed with it. I don't think I could ever work for someone again, unless it's like an in-out get paid for the job and we're done.  06:33 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) Oh no, I can't work for anybody again.  06:34 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) All my jobs? Yeah, I enjoy my, and the first step is to assess the feels right. So do we still have the same feeling about voiceover. Do we still find the same joy in it as we did when we started? Okay, all right, that's good, that's step number one. Then what, tom?  07:05 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) Well then, it's time to break that down, because everybody has dreams in voiceover and people like Ann Ganguza, who is a masterful genre coach and demo producer.  07:09 That's part of the journey of helping to make your dreams come true. Get quality training, get a demo that you can use as a marketing tool to get the casting opportunities that you want to help make your dreams come true. But I tell all my students, vague goals will get you vague results. Specific goals will get you specific results. Yes, I also say that vague efforts will get you vague results. Specific goals will get you specific results. Yes, I also say that vague efforts will get you vague results. Specific efforts will get you specific results. So, when it comes to analyzing your business and reconciling the feels with what do I need to do and be and have to fulfill me? Narrate cartoons or video games or military history, audio books or college textbooks or whatever it is that blows your hair back to get the feels that you desire? You need to be able to put in the time and money and energy and effort on a business and marketing sense to be able to get the casting opportunities that you want so you can get the feels right.  08:00 Yes, absolutely, and this is why, I tell my students the more specific you are about what you want, the better of a chance you're going to have to get what you want, and your goals can change from year to year.  08:11 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) So then, is this the step that's next in terms of like figuring out goals that you want for the next year, or are we still in the assessment phase of how, this year, went.  08:21 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) It directly flows into the goals that you want, because your goals also are going to change from year to year. So like, for example, this is 2024. One of my main voiceover goals was to book political voiceover work. I'm doing my research and taking classes and listening to experts in the area. I knew this was going to be a big opportunity to be a political voice actor for a lot of people.  08:46 My worry was that my sound, which is not the vote for this person and if you don't, the other one will eat your children. Like, I can't do that. My vocal folds are just not thick enough to be able to pull off that, or at least I just sound like I'm trying too hard. So it's like is there a place for me with my personality, my skill sets, the thickness of my vocal folds, to be able to get voiceover work? So I set a number for myself of how many political jobs I wanted to do this year and what are the things I need to do to be able to achieve those goals. So training yes, check. Little JMC, little Brandon Perry Okay, check. Demo yes, got the spots. Also added and embellished the demo with previous political work that I'd done in 2022 and 2023, because that's when I decided I wanted to give this a shot. And then marketing acumen Get representation that specializes in booking political voiceover work, going on casting sites and keeping an eye out for political work, as well as optimizing my profile to feed the algorithms to get political voiceover work. And use direct marketing strategies to be able to develop relationships with production companies that specialize in political work and develop relationships with them and get work.  10:05 And I did all three of those things and, to a greater or lesser extent, it worked in all three of those ways. So I did hit the number of political spots that I wanted to book this year. How do I know that? Well, I can count, but how does one keep track of this stuff? So I use my cash flow sheet, which is a free download at vo strategistcom, and it tracks every penny that goes into my voiceover business and every penny that goes out of my voiceover business.  10:34 So obviously I track all of the voiceover work that I did, what kind of genre it was, how much money I made, who did I work with, how I got the booking this is where being able to look back on your year and figuring out how you did, because having the feels, like I said, is critical. It's the most important thing. But you need to find out how much money did you spend this year? Where did you put your money Training, demo production, marketing, other things? Where did you put your time and energy? Cold calling versus auditioning, versus blogging, versus social media, versus workshops, versus conferences, versus local events versus national events? And how did all of that stuff pan out? What efforts did you put into 2024 that turned into what you want, which is the voiceover bookings, to get you the feels, to get that fulfillment of yes, I am realizing myself as a voice actor.  11:30 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) And that free downloadable has all of those aspects on there, like social media, like this is how you got the job social, oh wow, that's fabulous.  11:38 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) Yeah, so I'll talk everybody through. It is that the first column just has a little code. It's VO for voiceover, VOS for VO strategist. Because I track all my coaching stuff on there too, and then it's either the expense like you know, paperclips or whatever I bought, or a class that I took, or whatever that I attended, or whatever the voiceover is, and then I so I track what the voiceover is Do you buy paperclips, Tom?  12:00 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I haven't bought paperclips in years.  12:02 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) I have so many paperclips from you know my analog days that I'll never need to buy another paperclip again, so maybe that wasn't the best example.  12:09 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I know, no, but I love it. I just was thinking about it. God, do we use paperclips anymore? Anyway, sorry.  12:16 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) Barely, barely. I barely use paperclips. I use my stapler all the time, but I don't use my paperclip anymore.  12:21 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Right, I do too. I still use my stapler.  12:23 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) Yeah.  12:25 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Okay, Staples.  12:25 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) Anyway, at Staples, yes, one of my favorite places. It's like Disneyland for me that and the container store, if you've ever been to a container store.  12:33 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Oh, yes, I love the container store.  12:35 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) Love those.  12:36 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) There's one not far from me Stupidly expensive containers, but boy do I love them. But boy do I love them. They're worth every penny.  12:49 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) I just love walking around in there. They are, it's like Willy Wonka Good stuff Anyway. Oh, my mileage. I tracked my tolls, you know, because I drove from Manhattan to Virginia, specifically, and back. I tracked all the tolls in and out of the Lincoln Tunnel across the Delaware Bridge.  13:04 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Can I tell you, please Can?  13:05 I tell you, I tracked my $6 butter that I bought from the bar so that I could put it on my Royal Cousin bagel Because I'm a girl who loves butter on her bagels. And so it was like late at night and I went to the bar and I said can I buy some butter? And he's like butter. And I said, well, I have a bagel. I said, have you ever had a bagel from New Jersey? And he's like okay, and the first he comes back with two or three. Like I'm like no, no, no, no, that's not going to work for me.  13:35 He's just two or three little pats of that container, like I need like two or three per like square inch of a bagel for that. And ultimately he says I'm going to have to charge you and I said, okay, sure, so how much is that going to cost me? He goes and I'm like I thought about it it was late at night and I really wanted that bagel and I said, all right, put it on my tab. So that's been tracked.  13:56 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) Just wanted to clear the air on that. Just wanted to clear the air of that $6 butter. It's a tax deduction because it's a food expense at a professional event.  14:05 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Thank you, roy. Thank you, roy for my bagel.  14:10 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) I allowed myself to eat a bagel. This time. I had half a pumpernickel myself when I was down there I ate an entire bagel.  14:13 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I might have eaten one and a half, tom, because you know.  14:16 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) I gotta have a lot of butter. Yeah well, I understand you had to make it worth the $6 that you put out.  14:20 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Thank you, Uncle.  14:21 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) Roy. Thank you, roy. I track all the traveling expenses and obviously, every meal, I amount of money that I made. I enter the invoice that I generated for every voiceover that I did, the form of payment check, direct deposit, paypal, credit card, wise, formerly known as TransferWise. Oh, I also currency, because I get a lot of European clients, so I get paid in euros as well as dollars and British pounds.  14:51 But this is how to look at your voiceover business marketing-wise is that I have a section which I either type in AB for audition booking or DB for direct booking, because I like to know did I get this through a one-to-one audition I auditioned once I booked one gig or is it a regular client or a legacy client that just said oh Tom, here's another explainer video and you don't have to do an audition? So this year, 2024, my direct bookings were roughly 80% of my voiceover work and the audition one-to-one auditions were roughly 20% of my voiceover work. And the question is you get these numbers, but what do they mean? What that means for me, tom Dheere, is that I have legacy clients dating back to 1997 that I don't audition for anymore. So that's clearly an accumulation of building regular clients over an extremely long period of time.  15:45 And that's great, but I also need to know how relevant I am in the voiceover industry, because if you book an audition this year. That means that your voice, your sound, your performance is in demand and you're keeping up with casting trends.  15:59 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Love that and 20% is pretty good.  16:02 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) The other thing I do is I track the portal. How did I get this casting opportunity? The three portals in the voiceover industry are representation, online casting sites, self-marketing strategies. So, looking at my spreadsheet, so we're not quite at the end of the year yet, but we're pretty close. Right now it's only 8% of my work came through representation, 42% came through online casting. That's both free sites and pay-to-play sites. 26% came through direct marketing, 23% came through indirect marketing.  16:33 So what do those numbers mean? Well, it means a couple of things. One, you line up the genres of voiceover that you want to do with the portals that you need to use to get them. So, for example, agents don't cast audiobooks or explainers. So if I did a lot of audiobook work this year, that means I probably got it through ACX or Findaway, voices or Ahab or any of the other audiobook-centric casting sites. Or and this also happens a lot is that you develop direct relationships with audiobook production companies Hachette, podium Publishing, Oasis, a whole bunch of other places and so I can look and go oh okay, well, I got a lot of work through that too. So it's reconciling the genre of voiceover, the type of bookings that I got, with how I got them. So, for example, political so far has been my best genre. 23.9% of my voiceover revenue was political. Second best was e-learning. I do a ton of e-learning. I've had clients dating back to the 90s, so that makes sense.  17:35 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yes, does your spreadsheet calculate the percentage? Do you have like formulas built into that spreadsheet? That's awesome.  17:41 I do, I'm going to just ask, because I know there's a lot of bosses out there thinking this oh good Lord, it's a spreadsheet, and their eyes are already like rolling back in their heads because it's like overwhelming. Right, but tell me, how much time does it take for them to account for this? Because, if you think about it, this is nothing more than an expense report, really, and a little bit more right If you were to travel for your job, right? And so I feel like you always have to fill out an expense report in order to get paid for it. So this is kind of like your expense report slash income statement, inflow, outflow yeah, report for your business. And so how long should you expect to sit down at the end of a day, at the end of a week, and fill that out?  18:20 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) A couple minutes.  18:21 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Okay. So see that, guys. It's only a couple of minutes, yeah it's only a couple of minutes.  18:27 And so even as overwhelming, like Tom is coming up with all these numbers and these statistics from his own job and his own year, but yet he's only spent a few minutes a day jotting this stuff down, and I think it's just something like muscle memory. As much as you go and practice character development or practice your scripts, it is time invested that you have to put into your studio, and I just want to say that. I think I want to clarify, tom, that there's a number of people that get into this industry because they find joy in reading books or they find joy in creating characters. However, not everybody finds joy in the work that's required, right, to actually create and delve in deeper to that character or delve in deeper to growing a business. As much joy as these things bring you, there is work involved and I just want to acknowledge and, tom, we've said it before multiple times it's hard, right. I mean not every single aspect of your business is going to be like, I mean, until you're probably established right, eight hours in the booth doing joyful, light character work.  19:27 If that's what you want to do, there is the other work that it takes to get you to that place to feel joyful, as you were explaining right so you can derive the feels right.  19:38 And so this assessment, this end of your assessment, can give you such valuable insight into where you've gone and where you want to go in the future and how much time you're going to have to dedicate to different aspects of it. And so it's worth the couple of minutes and I say that it's worth a couple of minutes, like to my students that are in performance. I say it's worth a couple of minutes to do that copy analysis, to do that character development, to do that scene writing, because in the end, that's what's going to pay off and get you the gig. Because in the end, that's what's going to pay off and get you the gig. Because ultimately, you can go in and create characters all you want, but until you make a profit doing that right, that's just all you're doing is going in your studio and creating characters, and if it's something that needs to pay the bills, that may not happen. Until you put in a little more work, that may not be as pleasant.  20:25 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) Right. I mean I've been developing this spreadsheet for 20 years, and I have been developing this spreadsheet for 20 years and I have all sorts of little formulas and things in there, yeah.  20:34 - Intro (Announcement) You get the benefit and you can have it for free.  20:36 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Tom, is this for free? Oh my God, for free. That's so awesome, right? You don't have to put the work in that Tom. You're getting the benefit of Tom. This is why we call him the VO strategist, right? And if you need help, there he is, tom. I'm sure people can come see you and work with you, that you can help streamline this so that it becomes something that isn't so tedious or isn't something that you're questioning Well, why am I not booking work, or why is this not happening in my business? So, if you need an accountability partner and I'll tell you what I'm the first person to say that in my business, I will invest in something that will keep me on track, something that will keep me going. I have a business coach I invest in on a monthly basis, an accountability partner. Tom is like one of the best out there and he's done all this work for you. Sorry, I'm just. I'm gushing right now, tom.  21:27 But, bosses that know me like I don't bullshit sorry, I just don't I. But bosses that know me like I don't—bullshit sorry, I just don't. I'm honest to probably a fault, but I would not talk about Tom, nor would I have Tom on my podcast so many times if I didn't believe in what he's doing and I didn't believe that you're going to gain such value. And again, this won't be an month for Peloton so that I can get on that bike and be inspired and motivated by the Peloton instructor.  21:57 This is kind of no different right. It's worth it to me because the benefits, right that I get health-wise and joy-wise from getting on the bike and exercising and being inspired and motivated are very well worth the investment. And being inspired and motivated are very well worth the investment. And so, if this is something that you are not going to be disciplined enough to do, I believe that it's well worth your investment to really start seeing where your business has gone so that you can understand where to take it in the future right and guide it towards success. I stepped down from my podium.  22:29 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) Thank you, that was very kind of you. Thank you for all that.  22:32 - Intro (Announcement) I have an accountability too. I stepped down from my podium, thank you.  22:35 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) That was very kind of you. Thank you for all that I have an accountability too. I'm being truthful, I appreciate that, and I have a business coach too, and I have people in my village that hold me accountable because I have my days of self-doubt and self-loathing and laziness and stuff, and I have people that keep me on track.  22:48 But I, with my mentorship program, you're basically paying for an accountability and a business coach all in one, because folks I know bosses this stuff is hard. It's challenging on a logistical, financial, emotional, spiritual, psychological level and I am here for you. But you're grownups. You need to be able to invest in yourself and be consistent, be kind to yourself when you need to be kind, be firm to yourself when you need to be firm, and I frankly, don't care if you don't like the grownup stuff. I don't care, because the voiceover industry doesn't care either. You want to do this for money. You want to make all your goofy voices in the booth and play all day. Great, you got to put in a ton of work, a ton of work, and it never gets any easier. It just turns into different kinds of hard.  23:38 Anne has been doing this for a long time. Right, she has her own challenges, internal and external, that are just different from the ones that bosses who are earlier in their journey have. Same thing with me. But if you really want to know who you are, what your business is, what your relationship to the voiceover industry is, beyond just your talent, and how great coaches like Ann can help you realize your talent. You need to hunker down and use my damn spreadsheet and analyze your business and take a hard look, hunker down, Hunker down and use the spreadsheet. I'm wearing flannel today for you podcasters, so I'm feeling very, very very rural, use the damn spreadsheet.  24:17 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Oh my God, I feel like hunker down and Use the damn spreadsheet. Oh my God, I feel like hug her down and use the damn spreadsheet. See, like even Tom and I have fun with character development. So I mean honestly like it just makes sense.  24:26 And I'll be completely honest with you, we run our businesses for a purpose and we're doing this for a purpose, right? And I want to support the joy that I have in doing what I do and, yeah, there are days when, gosh, it's painful. But I also outsource some of this stuff as well to an accountant, and I've said that multiple times. I have an accountant who takes care of all my inflows and outflows and categorizations and that's a big help right then, and there she doesn't track my auditions or how I got the job, but I mean honestly, like that's just a couple of extra steps. Now there's another piece of software out there there's I think it's voice overview that does that as well. Voice overview with Danny States. Is that correct, right?  25:07 They have kind of a CRM and people will say, well, can I do this? Can I track this with my CRM? Yeah, you probably can, right? I mean, you won't have the benefit of the mentor, a monthly kind of meeting with Tom, and even if you're using voice overview, I don't think there's like a mentorship built into that. But you know, it depends on what level you need and what level you're requiring.  25:27 The thing that I like about your spreadsheet, tom, is that it's local, right. I'm very leery of a database that I'm necessarily putting confidential information in, like what I'm getting paid per job, unless I know that that system has like security that nobody's going to hack in and like steal my contacts. That goes for a CRM system too, right, I want to make sure that that is secured and that there's no possibility that somebody is going to go in and get financial data on me that maybe I didn't warrant anybody taking or seeing, or my client base. And so I like yours, because yours is local. You can just download it and you copy it to your computer and there it is and that's as secure as your computer is, and then you can meet with your mentor right On a monthly basis, weekly basis, however, that works and that, to me, I feel good about and I'm leery about CRM software anyway, just because a lot of CRM software doesn't do exactly what I want it to do and people are always asking me what CRM to use.  26:26 I use multiple CRMs depending on what I need. I'm not necessarily putting in financial data. I have my trust in my accountant and I have trust in the software that handles that accounting data and that is where that data goes. Everything else is my computer and my business partner. That's it. Nothing that's sitting out there on a server. And you know I'm not trying to disparage anybody who might be subscribing to those other services, but that's just my personal feeling. I don't know, tom, how you feel about that.  26:55 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) Yeah, you got to work within your comfort level, your comfort zone.  26:58 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) And like.  26:58 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) Anne said you can download the spreadsheet. It's on your desktop and then you can back it up to your external hard drive and it never sees the internet and you're totally safe and you got to work within your comfort level of your CRM.  27:18 If you feel that you just need to have another spreadsheet backed up to your hard drive that has a breakdown of all of your contacts, that's all fine too, just as long as you're able to be able to interact with it effectively, so you know when it's time to market to which potential, current or past clients and how you do it, based on this work that you've done with them or the genres that they cast.  27:31 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I don't want bosses to misunderstand to say that I don't trust CRMs. I have CRMs and I put my data on them, but I would need to know the specifics of the CRM. You know if they're a major company, I mean if they're not securing their data. You know what I mean and the reason why I'm like this is because I used to work in technology. I used to be the person that needed to secure the data so that nobody could hack in and get it, because I worked for a school with under the age of 18 children, so I needed to make sure that that data was safe. So I'm particularly anal about it. That's where my thoughts come from, so I don't want to like disparage any product out there. Just this is the way I feel about it.  28:09 Anyway what a wonderful way to assess how your year went, because how do you know, like, where you're going if you don't know where you've been, kind of thing. Right. It's nice to be able to assess how your year went, because how do you know where you're going if you don't know where you've been? It's nice to be able to assess how your year went so that you can really assess that, make improvements for the following year, because I know for a fact that I want to grow my business every year after year after year and, like you said, even though we've been in this business for so long, it doesn't get any easier even for us. I still have to strategize.  28:36 How am I going to grow my business next year? How am I going to evolve and change with a shift in the industry? Or, if there's shifts in the industry, how am I changing? Am I getting different performance coaching? How am I marketing myself differently? How am I planning my business? And I can't tell those things unless I've really assessed how the year has gone. So, tom, I so appreciate and we'll be putting the link for that download on our show notes page. And, of course, tom Dheere is always available to chat with. I'm sure you've got like one of those free consults that people can sign up for if they're interested in finding out more.  29:12 We have that also in the show notes. And with that I will say bosses, I hope you had an amazing year. I had a great year compared to like everything that's been going on this year. It's been a crazy year, but you know what? It's been a positive year and I always like a positive year in my business. So, Tom, thank you so much for all of your wisdom and, as always, for being a real boss.  29:35 - Tom Dheere (Co-host) Oh, thanks as always for having me, Anne.  29:39 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yeah, All right, Bosses. Big shout out to our sponsor, IPDTL. You too can connect and network like bosses. Find out more at IPDTLcom. Bosses have an amazing year coming up. I hope you had an amazing year. Make sure you assess it using Tom Dheere's downloadable PDF, and we will see you next week. Awesome Bye, guys.  29:59 - Intro (Announcement) Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your host, Anne Ganguza, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at vobosscom and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies and new ways to rock your business like a boss. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via IPDTL.   

Most PT's overthink and overcomplicate what it takes to build successful business. They don't work out the maths behind the business they want to build. If they did, they could reverse engineer it. That's exactly what i show you how to do in today's Fitness Insights Podcast episode.---------To catch all episodes, make sure you're subscribed to the show...Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-pro-fit-podcast/id1458318553Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/315111taFKBgrk2E7o6Wt8?si=c0901b6a3e14409c----------And for easy-to-review short form content (plus full guest interviews) please subscribe to our YouTube Channel...Matt Robinson on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_GIS4vVMb0sneZR6qKKMXQ----------To stay up to date with Matt  follow him on Instagram...IG - https://www.instagram.com/mattrobinsonpt/Website - http://mattrobinsoncoaching.com

If you had to be stuck on a theme park ride, which would be the worst? Yes, Josh is serious about going to the model train show. Stupidly simple things that we can't do. Plus, Mike Golden stops by the studio & much more on a Tuesdee!

We've done lots of episodes where, either directly or indirectly, we make fun of stupid corporate bullshit. Never before, however, have we focused on what is probably the worst thing that corporate bullshit creates: Stupid, insufferable names for things. Well, we're testing the limits of the word "insufferable" this week, because this episode is all about those kinds of names. Plug your ears if you know what's good for you.

Nothing brings out the redneck in me as much as a judge handing out a concurrent prison sentence.  You know the situation. A person's found guilty on, say, two charges —let's say they get two-year sentences for each— but they don't go to prison for two years plus two years (four years), instead, they serve the sentences concurrently. Meaning they're serving both sentences at the same time.  It's something the Government is turning its attention to with these tougher sentencing laws it's cracking on with, but I don't think it's going far enough.  It's introducing legislation to deliver the tougher sentences it promised prior to the election. Paul Goldsmith, the Justice Minister, says the changes are going to mean criminals will “face real consequences for crime and victims are prioritised”, saying there has been a trend in recent years where courts have handed-out fewer and shorter prison sentences.  Stupidly, he's saying that the legislation changes will help ensure there will be 20,000 fewer victims of crime within five years and that serious repeat offending by young people will be down by 15 percent.  I say stupidly because the Government has no idea whether that will happen or not. It might be its target. But, anyway, they're a couple of outcomes the Government thinks we will see as a result of these tougher sentences.  And it's all the stuff that people have been talking about and the politicians have been banging-on about for a while: the legislation is going to put limits on sentencing discounts judges can apply.   It's going to mean harsher penalties for anyone involved in crimes against sole-charge workers or at places where people live and work. So that's your dairies, where the family lives out the back or upstairs.  Young people who commit crimes over and over again can forget about sentence discounts because of their age or because they say “sorry”.  But the one that I'm most interested in, is what the new legislation is going to do about concurrent sentencing. Which I think is a good start, but I also think the Government should be doing more, going further on this one.  As it stands at the moment, through this new legislation, the Government is going to encourage judges to hand out cumulative sentences for crimes committed by people on bail, in custody or on parole - instead of concurrent sentences.   So if they're in custody and commit a crime in prison, that'll get added to the time they're already serving. If they're on bail and commit more than one crime and they're sent back to prison, they'll serve time for each crime. Not concurrently. The same if they're on parole.    And, as far as I'm concerned, these are all good things. I don't necessarily think that this will stop these people from re-offending, because I've never bought the argument that tougher sentences stop people from offending.   Because, most of the time, their heads aren't screwed on properly, anyway. And thinking about the punishment they might get if they're caught is probably the last thing they're thinking about at the time.  But these changes are great for victims of crime and their sense of justice. But, as I said earlier, I don't think the Government is going far enough.  I think we need to pretty much do away with concurrent sentences for all crimes. For all criminals. Because how can anyone think it is fair and reasonable to send someone away for the least amount of time?  Which is what happens when someone serves their sentences concurrently. They've done multiple crimes, they've been found guilty on each of them, there is a punishment for each crime, but —in real terms— they are punished as if they've only committed one crime.  And I reckon that if the Government was really serious, it would be doing away with concurrent sentences altogether. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Key cardinal makes argument for changing the Church and in so doing destroys the Magisterial authority of the Church Sources: https://www.returntotradition.org Contact Me: Email: return2catholictradition@gmail.com Support My Work: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/AnthonyStine SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.net/return-to-tradition Buy Me A Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/AnthonyStine Physical Mail: Anthony Stine PO Box 3048 Shawnee, OK 74802 Follow me on the following social media: https://www.facebook.com/ReturnToCatholicTradition/ https://twitter.com/pontificatormax +JMJ+ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anthony-stine/support

How many lies have been spoken?By NavyRigger - Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. The next morning I awoke, Kurt nowhere to be found. I found a sticky note on the coffee maker in Kurt's handwriting. He explained that he had the best night of his life last night, but had woken up late and rushed out the door. He wanted to wake me but apparently, I looked so peaceful and satisfied that he didn't have the heart to wake me. I'd like to say I spent the day doing something sexy waiting for him to come home, but my insides were so sore from the night before that I decided to binge watch some shows on Netflix and just relax.As the garage door opened, I stripped down and waited by the garage door for him to walk in. At the last second, I decided to hop up on the counter, and greet him with my legs spread and waiting for him. His face, as he walked in the door, was completely worth it. He dropped the bags in his hand and rushed over to me, kissing me lovingly. I was utterly surprised when I felt him pressing his tip against my opening. I looked down to see his cock stuck out from between the zipper of his pants.“I'm sorry baby, but I need this right now,” he said as he slipped inside of me.“Babe, don't be sorry. If you need it, please don't hesitate. Just be gentle, I am still sore from last night.”He leaned back on the counter and made long, deep strokes in and out of me. His face looked pained and desperate as he thrust in and out of me. I didn't know what was going on with him, but I flexed my vaginal muscles and was rewarded by a shuddering moan from him. In less than a minute he yelled out as he released himself deep inside of me. I bit my lip as a pleasant, hot, sticky, and familiar feeling filled my insides again. I looked up at Kurt and expected a look of satisfaction as he came inside of me, but what I saw was a look of relief.“Bad day,” I asked, thinking of what could make him so desperate to cum as soon as he got home.He shook his head, "No, today was fine. Problem was that last night was so amazingly hot, I couldn't stop thinking about it. By the time I was ready to leave work, I had blue balls so bad I could barely walk. I hate that I just came home and used you like that, but I needed to cum.”I sat up and put a hand on his cheek, pulling his face to mine, “Don't be sorry Babe. I am more than happy to make you cum anytime you need me to. Besides, I love the way you make me feel after filling me with a nice big load. By the feel of it, you've been pretty worked up all day, and this was an exceptionally big load. I love it.”“Damn I love you so much, Riza,” Kurt said as he leaned forward and kissed me slowly.“I love you too,” my eyes glanced on the bags behind him, “What's in the bag?”“I went out for lunch and picked up a few things for you for tonight,” he said as he rummaged around in the bag after tucking his cock back into his pants.I watched as he pulled out a black dress, a pair of black stilettos, and some black lacy panties.“Hurry up and get dressed or we will be late,” he quipped.“Late for what? What's going on tonight,” I asked as I slipped the dress on."I'll tell you when we get in the car,” he pointed to my thighs as I stepped into the panties, “Do you want something to clean up down there before putting those on?”I held his chin and gave him a quick kiss on the lips, “And risk some of that high-quality Kurt cum from leaking out? I don't think so. I want this pair to be soaked with your cum all night.”Kurt shrugged his shoulders and handed me the stilettos. Much to my amazement, everything fit quite well. The black dress was a little tighter than I would have chosen, but Kurt probably did that on purpose.“What about make-up,” I asked, feeling odd getting all dressed up but not wearing make-up."You don't need it, love,” he said with a sweet smile and a kiss, “Now hurry or we will miss the reservation.”I hopped in the front seat of the car, already feeling Kurt's seed leaking from between my folds and starting to soak my fabric of the panties. Half an hour later, we pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant, sushi by the looks of it.“Kurt, table for two,” he said to the greeter.The young greeter checked the list, grabbed the menus, and glanced at me, and smiled before she motioned for us to follow. We were seated at a table next to a relaxing pool with a small waterfall and Koi fish swimming around in it. I looked around at other well-dressed couples and realized that they were dressed much classier than I was. A waiter came to the table and offered some wine. Kurt nodded and the waiter poured it into our glasses.“Kurt, I don't think I am dressed well enough for this place,” I said as I took a sip of the wine that the waiter had poured for us.“Nonsense, Riza, if anything you are making other customers uncomfortable because they are realizing the same thing I already know.”“Oh really,” I said sarcastically, “And what would that be?”“That you're the most beautiful woman in the room right now,” he said as he glanced up from the menu and winked at me.Oh, my heart! I had to fan my face with my hand as I fought back emotional tears. Kurt's thumb rubbed the back of my hand as he held it, the whole time we sat at the table. We order a few rolls of sushi and started to talk about our past. He asked how Ronny and I met, I asked what made him fall in love with me. He told me he fell in love with me because I was the only woman he's ever met who can look into his eyes and touch his soul. That I was the only woman who he has ever made the fireworks of love go off in his chest. He knew when he first met me that his life would never be the same ever again, and that coming over to help me with the attic was the best decision he had ever made.The sushi arrived and we enjoyed the meal. I can understand why the place was so fancy. The sushi was exquisite. Every bite was a medley of flavors and textures that melted in your mouth. After we finished eating, the waiter collected the plates and offered us the check. Kurt gave the waiter his card and left a $50 tip on the table while he and I somehow found ourselves on the topic of baby names. As we walked hand in hand back out to the car, we were still discussing baby names. Like a true gentleman, he opened my door and helped me into the car. I closed my eyes and relished the moment of being wined and dined for the first time in years. Kurt sat in the driver's seat and turned the car on. As he backed out of the parking space, my phone rang. Ronny was calling me. I flashed the caller ID to Kurt and he motioned, zipping his lips.The phone clicked as I answered it, “Hey Dear, how's the project going?”“Slow but steady progress. How's your mom? You guys driving somewhere?”I panicked for a moment, “Yeah, Mama and I are driving back from the store. I helped her with groceries. You know how her wrist is after that fall last year.”“I wanted to call and remind you that according to my ovulation app, it's time to take another pregnancy test,” Ronny said in a snide tone.I rolled my eyes in disgust, “I took one this morning, and no.”The conversation continued. Typical boring couples stuff. Talking about things to be done around the house. Did this bill get paid, did that bill get paid, and so on. We almost got home before I managed to get Ronny to wrap up the conversation.Ronny sighed, “Well Dear, I gotta get off the phone and plug it in before bed. Tell your, mom, I said hi.”“Will do, Dear.”“Oh, speaking of your mom. How's that aunt of yours doing? The one that you are gonna get that $300,000 from when you finally get pregnant,” Ronny slipped in at the last minute.Kurt's face snapped towards me and he glared at me with surprise."She's good, just got back from the Caymans last I heard,” I said into the phone, watching Kurt's knuckles turn white as he gripped the steering wheel, “I'll talk to you later dear, love you.”“Love you too.”Click. Kurt cleared his throat, and it felt like my heart stopped beating.“I can explain,” I quickly said before he could say anything.“That would be a good idea.”“My aunt invested in Apple and Microsoft back when they first started, and well, she's loaded,” I started, speaking way faster than I wanted to, “But she can't have kids after a car accident when she was a teenager. I am an only child, so my aunt has promised me 300,000 dollars for when I get pregnant, so I can properly start my new family off right.”My heart sank. Even in the evening darkness of the car as we turned onto our street, I could see how red Kurt's face was. He shook his head in disgust.“Do you even really love me,” he barked."Of course I love you! Kurt! Why would you say something like that,” I could feel my heart starting to tear."Yeah, you love me, right up until you get pregnant, and then you and Ronny disappear with your aunt's baby-making money and I never see you again,” he said, his voice almost a growl.“I don't want the money! I want you! Only you Kurt!,” I said as my chest started to feel heavy and nausea flared in the pit of my stomach, “She can keep the money if it means I get to be with you.""Right, okay," he said with fury in his voice, "You're going to give up $300,000 for me. No way I am believing that lie, Riza. Tell me another one.""Kurt! Please, I wouldn't lie about that! I love you, Kurt!" I screamed."Yeah, like I am supposed to believe that after you just effortlessly lied your ass off to Ronny," he shouted.I watched a single tear roll down his cheek. He quickly wiped it away. I don't know what hurt worse, the fact he didn't believe me or the fact that he thinks I was that vile of a person to do that to him. I could barely breathe as fear gripped me. I sobbed, hard, as I gripped his hand."Kurt, please believe me!" I screamed as my body went numb, "I love you, please believe me!"The car came to a stop at the corner of our street. Kurt reached over and shoved open my door."Oh, I believe alright. I believe it's time for you to get out of my fucking car. Can't have the neighborhood seeing me for the fool that I am, thinking the woman I've loved for years was just using me as a sperm donor for baby-making inheritance money," he said as he looked forward.He couldn't even look at me and I couldn't let go of his arm."Baby, please, I am begging you! I love you, don't do this!" I sobbed uncontrollably."GET OUT OF MY FUCKING CAR YOU LYING BITCH!" Kurt barked with such ferocity it made me jump in fear.My whole body shook as I stepped out of the car. I turned around and tried one more time to beg him to stop this."Baby, I love you. I will call Ronny right now and tell him things are over if that's what it takes!" I screamed at the top of my lungs through the door.Kurt had a white knuckle grip with both hands on the steering wheel, and I watched as he took in a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. For a moment, there was a flash of hope as I watched his tension ebb away a little. For a moment, my heart began to beat again. For a moment, I thought Kurt had changed his mind. Slowly, Kurt's eyes turned to me and the look in his eyes, the burning fury in those once soft and deep brown eyes, burned all semblance of hope I had away."Fool me once," was all he said before the engine revved up the tires squealed as he sped down the street.Any strength I had left in me died away as soon as he took off. I collapsed to my knees in the street as tears poured from my eyes. My heart hurt, physically hurt. I wanted to throw up. I couldn't stop shaking. I closed my eyes and sobbed harder than I've ever sobbed before.With the last bit of strength I had, I screamed at the top of my lungs in emotional pain, trying to keep the setting darkness of night at bay before the same darkness of depression consumed me.Pain, nothing but pain, filled my psyche for the past three days. I sped off, leaving Riza on the street corner sobbing uncontrollably, my chest burning with rage and fury. I was mad at her, but not nearly as mad as I was at myself for being a fool and believing that someone as wonderful and amazing as Riza would ever take an honest interest in me. Like a love-struck boy, I played right into her ploy, blinded by my love, desire, and lust for her. She played me like a fiddle, talking about how horrible her husband was, how she had loved me for years, and a while... I believed every single word she had said. Every fucking word. I just assumed she had a breeding or creampie fetish when she told me she wanted a baby with me. Something I was all too willing to give her as her lover. However, I would not be some kind of sperm donor so she could get rich.I was so fucking pissed when I pulled into the driveway. I was trembling with rage, so much so that it took me a few tries to finally get the key into the lock. It was late, so I decided to take a hot shower to clear my mind off all the things I had heard. When I finished and got out, I wiped away the steam from the mirror and looked at myself. Stupidly, I let my emotions get the best of me as my fury flared again and I punched the mirror. Pieces of the mirror splintered and crashed into smaller splinters in the bowl of my sink, just like my heart was shattered into splinters. I gripped the edge of the sink as fresh red blood dripped from fresh gashes in my knuckles. Even the pain of the gashes on my knuckles paled in comparison to the sickening, white-hot pain in my chest. No matter how hard I mentally and physically willed myself, I could not stop the trembling.Fifteen minutes, several cotton swabs of peroxide, and a gauze wrap later, I stood at the foot of my bed. I have no idea how long I stood there, could have been seconds, could have been minutes, but I couldn't take my eyes away from the wrinkled and crumpled sheets where she had laid only this morning. My eyes burned, a combination of tears and exhaustion.Reluctantly, I rubbed the burning from my eyes and just laid in the bed. I pulled the comforter up to my chest and tried to sleep. I rolled to my side, not feeling comfortable on my back. For a moment, there was peace and silence in my life. It was a brief moment, almost a blink, but it was there. As I took a deep breath through my nose, all of my anger and frustration ebbed away. The sweet-smelling scent of Riza was still on the sheet and comforter, combined with her strawberry scented shampoo on the pillow she had slept on. That was all it took to strip me of my anger, leaving nothing but the pain, heartbreak, and the ache of loneliness behind as the darkness of my bedroom seemed to grow darker. On top of it all, there was the bitter sting of betrayal to process. I cried. I cried harder than I had ever cried in my life as I buried my face in her pillow, screaming at the top of my lungs trying to make the pain go away.Three days, for three whole days I barely came out of my room. I called into work, claiming a stomach bug. In reality, my stomach was in knots and nauseous from a severe case of heartbreak. Part of me wished I could go back to the days before she and I had gotten involved romantically, back when she was the beautiful, exotic, and sweet wife of my best friend who lived across the street. By the second day, I had to force myself downstairs to eat something. Yet when I opened the pantry, everything inside just seemed so unappealing. I ended up settling for some water and saltine crackers. I had already eaten two and was starting to nibble on a third, but decided to stop before crawling back into the bed. My stomach was hurting, my heart was hurting, everything was hurting. Every part of me was in pain. I was desperate to move past this and go back to my normal life.Like salt in a wound, I had a constant reminder of my mistake. Riza relentlessly texting and calling me, leaving voicemail after voicemail of her crying and begging me to give her a chance to explain things. In some messages, she was sobbing so hard I couldn't even understand her. I wanted to believe her. God knows I wanted to believe her, that everything we had done together had meant something. I just couldn't get over the feeling that she was hiding something from me. Knowing my luck, it was some sick erotic joke between her and Ronny, and I was the punch line. I just didn't have the strength to get my hopes up and have my heart broken again.On the third day, the texts and phone calls just stopped. Part of me was relieved, yet another part was wishing she'd just send one more. Just one more message asking me to hear her out, to give her a chance to make it all make sense. I wasn't ready to make myself vulnerable just yet though. I wanted her to come over and explain everything and make the madness go away. To heal all the pain and make me whole again, yet I dare not get my hopes up because Riza and I were already walking on thin ice together. We were already having an affair in the middle of a nosy neighbor, where the gossip tends to travel at the speed of light. I wasn't ready to be the center of that gossip, to have everyone look at me like I was the villain in their favorite Disney story. To be seen as the man that tore a marriage apart. Yet all my thoughts raced back to Riza. Why had she stopped her messages now? Had she already given up?On the fourth day, I picked up the phone after not receiving anything from Riza in the past 24 hours. As I stared at the screen and thought of what I would say. I went to type my message, but my fingers shook uncontrollably. I set the phone down and took a deep breath, trying to calm myself before my heart leaped out of my chest. I picked up the phone and tried again, yet my hands still shook uncontrollably. Flexing my hand and knuckles, I let the sting of the still-fresh cuts under the layers of gauze focus my mind and attention back to what I was intending to do. As I picked up the phone a third time, I tried to type out a message to Riza. This time my hands shook so bad that the phone fell from my grasp and crashed onto the floor. Defeated, I laid back onto the bed and resorted to staring at the ceiling for the next hour or so. Contemplating the outcome of what her reply would have been, had I managed to successfully type the message.On the fifth day, I felt better, more myself, more in control. I woke up, turned on the coffee maker, and pulled a bagel from the fridge. Sitting at my computer, I managed to take a few bites of my bagel and even to check my fantasy football scores. Other than feeling a bit warm, the pain wasn't as bad. It was still there, along with the ever-present stinging of her betrayal. Around nine, I received a text from my boss checking in on me to see how I was feeling. I was surprised to learn that my hands had stopped shaking and I was able to reply. A wisp of confidence filled me as I texted my boss, telling him I would be back in the office on Monday morning. I then thanked him for checking in on me. I put the phone down, I finally finished my cup of coffee and my bagel. I then decided I needed to take a shower to have the warm water calm my mind because all I could think about was her. I missed her, needed her, and wanted her. She was everything to me, but I hated her. I hated how I felt and how she made my mind conflicted. As I stood there, letting the water envelop me, I couldn't help but miss her. A part of me needed her, I needed those lips, those eyes, her body. How was I supposed to move on? Go back to what life was before that day we fucked for the first time? As thoughts of her raced through my mind I couldn't help the erection I was having. My dick wanted her so bad too. It wanted that tight little pussy of hers. It needed her like a diabetic needs insulin. Yet the memory of that day flashed in my mind changed everything. I was done. I was done feeling this way. It was OVER!Around lunchtime, I decided to open up Riza's previous messages. As I started to type out a new message. Letting her know that it was over, that I was done. Yet before I could send my message, a new message from her had popped up. It read...Kurt, my love, I know you are probably still mad at me. I swear to you that if you just give me a chance to

Turning the Fesshole Twitter account into other things is apparently what I do now. So far there's been two books and several live shows - so why not a podcast? The Fesshole novelty keyring is coming soon. At the simplest level, let's just pick some funny confessions and read them out and react to them. So that's what we've done here, a top ten in reverse order: 10. "My wife is a police officer. Her name is Nina. She can never find out how obviously hilarious I find this." 9. "After my husband cheated and left me his emails still popped up on my laptop. One day up popped a holiday he'd booked for him and her. I clicked on the link and it took me straight to the booking, whereupon I canceled the trip. He would have had no idea it was me." 8. "Once I took a shower at a friend's house hoping his hot mum would walk in on me. Instead his dad did and not only did he not know I was in the shower but took a shit, stunk the bathroom out and then his hot mum found me walking out of the stinking bathroom." 7. "I bought my house from a musician. Last Xmas, a package arrived for him. I don't have his contact info, so I sent him a Facebook message. Nada. I finally opened it & found a box of chocolates from Ringo Starr. They were exquisite, so this year, I didn't hesitate. Thanks, Ringo." 6. "My husband's best friend is female. If we're having a fight, he tries to get her to back him but she always takes my side. I really like her." 5. "Been running at the gym to lose weight. Last week, an athletic young woman was running next to me, 2 mph faster. Stupidly, I upped mine to 2 mph more than her thinking in my chimp brain it might have impressed her. It didn't. My Airpod fell out, and I tripped and broke my wrist." 4. "This term, i've told my 5 yr old boy a joke to tell his friends at school every morning. It's become a big deal, with kids crowding around hear it. Realised after drop off today I'm craving the validation of 5 yr olds, and now I need to keep finding jokes for him to tell." 3. "I manage a bar & I had enough of customers being rude while waiting for drinks.  So I decided to create a 'cunt' button on the till where it adds £2.50 to their bill. Proceeds made from that button went to our Xmas do. Last year's button got us £12k." 2. "Smoking is a dirty, disgusting, and expensive habit. I "helped" my girlfriend to quit smoking a few years ago by training her parrot to say "phewee! Smells like cancer," followed by a fake cough, every time she lit up a cancer stick. Thank you Jellybean the parrot, you legend." 1. "Got invited to lunch with the "big boss" last year. I told him how 80% of the work was done by 20% of the people and we'd be better off without most of the team. He agreed, and 6 months later I was one of the many, many layoffs as part of an efficiency drive. Fair play." Having recorded this, my gut feeling is a top ten isn't the way to do it, but the chat was enjoyable, so tune in next time to see what we've come up with - we're on a journey to nail this format, and you're all invited.  Producer: Will Fitzpatrick tempotalker.com

Former Manchester City and England defender Joleon Lescott is back with Jeff to pick the top 5 forwards he faced during his career.  Who made him realise what the level was in the Champions League? Which Champions League winner turned into Iron Man inside the box? Who is his surprise number one? Joleon also reveals how facing Wayne Rooney would leave you exhausted, why Carlos Tevez once refused to come on as a sub in Munich and who he'd pick between Harry Kane and Erling Haaland. Fernando Torres, Robin van Persie, Luis Suarez and Samuel Eto'o all get a mention too but do they make his final five? Football's Greatest is a Folding Pocket Production with BBC Studios. You can catch our previous episode with Joleon Lescott where he recalls Manchester City's epic Premier League title win in 2012 here: YouTube - https://youtu.be/hX6mZOBc6Ho?si=eY2IlJg8ly00g_Y9 Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/footballs-greatest/id1721822502?i=1000652573677 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/0E2zLwg8M5WiLjKE9R3eGS?si=9d41a647eb1041a8 Follow Football's Greatest and join in the debate: YouTube: www.youtube.com/@footballsgreatestpod Instagram: www.instagram.com/footballsgreatestpod Twitter: www.twitter.com/ftblsgreatest TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@footballsgreatestpod Facebook: www.facebook.com/footballsgreatestpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is something really fun and TOTALLY different.Total honesty, my loves - I scrapped the topic I was going to share this week. Don't worry we're going to share it next week!But I just HAD to have this conversation with you NOW because I know it's going to be SO valuable.In this week's episode, I am walking you through the anatomy of my most recent INSANELY highly converting landing page. Industry average for reference is 5-15% and this page is currently converting at 72%!!I'm treating this as a live case study which is just SO fun and I want to walk you through IN DETAIL why I think this page is converting so well.Tune in for:>> All of my industry secrets around HOW I'm creating a 72% conversion rate on my upcoming Masterclass: Nonsensical Conversions (how ironic and cute!)>> Me walking you through step-by-step EXACTLY why this is converting so well and the principles you can use to amplify the conversions on any landing page or sales page you have>> The specific tweaks and changes I made to this landing page and why I think it's performing so well RIGHT NOW - this will give you HUGE insight into buying behaviour and the non-negotiable shifts to make to create nonsensical conversions too!I also have REALLY exciting news to share at the end of this episode and I am SO excited for you feedback on this one so make sure you DM me on IG. Let's do it!And in case you missed it..

A developer and a marketer walk into a podcast studio...This is a great one. Rob Broadhead and I are on our respective soapboxes about the lost art of genuine relationship building... especially as AI becomes more prevalent. Forget cold outreach and spammy tactics - we're making human connection STUPIDLY simple. I couldn't script this one if I tried - Rob brings the real talk and together we'll have you rethinking your entire outreach strategy. Can't-Miss Moments from This Episode:Collecting business cards is pretty much pointless. #isaidwhatisaid Rob and I rap on what really works when it comes to connecting at business events... RANT ALERT: I have a beef with hyper productivity and how it puts pressure on efficiency over connection. Relationships

Dear Diary (& Listeners),   We made it! We survived.  VIDEO RECORDINGS OF EPISODES ARE HERE!   Even though at times it may have seemed impossible, we are both stronger than we thought.    This episode is the last episode in MY part of this story.    And while I am going to miss sharing my experiences with you weekly, I feel this indescribable weight lifted off my shoulders that it is all FINALLY OVER..    The next part of The Dichotomy Diaries Season One has one main focus… To help others share their truth, finally experience closure, and help countless others.    Many times while recording this episode, I caught myself smiling. Stupidly proud of what I have created. Stupidly proud of my own personal growth and accelerated healing.    But most importantly, stupidly proud that the woman I have become- is someone little 7 year old, ruby slipper wearing Amanda would be proud to become.    While sometimes I feel down when reflecting on the path my life has taken; the pride I feel directly relating to my resilience supersedes all of it.    In Episode 20, you will hear how my story ends. You will hear exactly how I uncovered all the other women Dick swindled in almost the exact same way. You will learn who's interview comes first, as well as who to expect in the upcoming episodes.    There's No Place Like Home. Especially when you build home within yourself. Be on the lookout for opportunities to interact with the upcoming guests on Instagram.    Thank you all for your support and hanging in there during this difficult and trying story that was my life. I will be forever grateful and humbled by this extraordinary experience.   Forever Speaking My Truth, Amanda Arnier, MLS   If you have experienced anything similar and would like to be a guest on The Dichotomy Diaries, please email: TheDichotomyDiaries@yahoo.com Music: Ashley England Sound Production: Amanda L. Arnier Podcast Website: www.TheDichotomyDiaries.com Insta: @TheDichotomyDiaries TikTok: @TheDichotomyDiaries Facebook: The Dichotomy Diaries

We shopped till we dropped: big wins at Sezane, Saba, Witchery, Spendless Shoes, Nude Lucy, Sheike, Myer, Hype DC, and Target. (Both loving following @carmenandmegstyle on Insta for friendly trend inspo, too!)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

1) more focused hours, 2) way more breaks than most people take, 3) constant reparenting of myself... In the video I also mentioned that I'd share the format of my work retreats. Here it is -- http://smpl.ro/CoWorkRetreat Get full access to Authentic Business for Solopreneurs with George Kao at georgekao.substack.com/subscribe

Four scientists find their mission led astray, by paradise.Based on a post by PhilippaMaQuente. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories.Forward:In the beginning, defiance led to rejection and expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Our species was transported to the parallel universe we've now occupied for several millennia. Legends of that previous world have been handed down to us, along with various elaborations and moral lessons.If we could only access that previous world. A world designed for our inclusion. Does it exist? Is it yet flourishing in our absence? Can we gain a second chance to rejoin Eden?Sally joins an expeditionary team. You know, the job of a scientist is not always easy, but it’s usually pretty rewarding. I’ve helped discover new species of plants and animals, and I derived a number of medicinal properties from my discoveries, too. I’m a naturalist and explorer.But, sometimes I think existence has an absolutely weird sense of humor. How else could I possibly explain the misadventures my team's had this past week? I mean, where do I even begin to explain all this craziness?We were on the trail of an extremely elusive lemur species on Madagascar when my teammate Brad stumbled into a burrow of some kind.“Shit!” he shrieked, his leg sinking calf deep in an extremely well disguised hole. I rushed over.“Oh man! Are you hurt?” I crouched behind him, putting my arms around his chest, hooked under his pits. I used my legs to try and pry him out of the hole. Our other team members, Marty and Mindy, rushed over to help.“I don’t think it’s injured, I was just really fucking surprised.” He began shifting his weight pushing back with his free leg. “Damn, this hole is deep! What makes burrows like this out here?”“What’s the angle like?” Mindy asked. “Most everything in this area are tree-dwellers,”“It’s weird, it’s straight down,” Brad said, “and it’s like there's nothing below, nothing on all sides. I’m only being squeezed right here at the calf.” He pointed to the section of leg we could actually see touching earth.“That is super weird,” I grunted, still pulling. He was coming loose. “But maybe, it was just a hollow that got buried by, a storm, or shifting ground. No biggie.” Marty threw himself into a crouch and aided me by wrapping his arms around my middle.“On my count,” he said. “One, two, three!” we both pulled, throwing our weight collectively into the effort.“It’s working!” Brad said happily. “My leg’s coming free.” After a couple of minutes of combined work, Marty and I got him out and we all fell back in a heap.“Whew!” I grunted. "Brad, your leg ok? Let’s see.“ Pulling away from the hole, Brad rolled up his pant leg and removed his boot. No blood, no bad scratches. It didn’t look twisted, and I saw no swelling."Looks good, Sally,” he told me. “Doesn’t hurt but I could just be pumping with adrenaline. I’ll give it a few.”“Good idea,” I nodded. “Let’s all take ten. Our little kerfuffle probably scared off everything within fifty yards anyway.” My team settled down and busted out water and some snacks. Tromping through rainforest looking for tiny primates was hot, thirsty work.“I kinda want to take a look at this hole,” Mindy said, walking cautiously toward it. “Could be a nest, could be just an odd patch of hollow ground.”“Yeah, let’s poke around a little,” I replied, after taking a gulp of my canteen. “If it’s not an animal den maybe we could fill it up, just so no one else stumbles in and gets hurt.” Mindy put herself on her belly and inched over.“Wow Brad, you must’ve caught it just right. It’s hardly big enough for a boot your size.”“Hey, you know what they say about men with big feet,” Brad quipped in response. He held his palms open nearly a foot and a half to illustrate his point. “You know what I mean?” I playfully punched him on the shoulder.“Sure, but you’re not supposed to stick your foot in those holes,” I countered. We all laughed, except Mindy. Totally focused, she was peering into the opening with her flashlight.“Guys, this is really fucking weird,” she said. “There's nothing down there I can see, nothing at all! And, it’s the weirdest thing, but, There's air flowing out of the hole. Cold air!" We all leaned in. I was fascinated."Buried cave, maybe?” I hypothesized.“Buried something,” she answered. “I say we open it up.”“Agreed,” I said.“Second,” Marty put in. Like Mindy, we all flopped down on our bellies and began pulling clumps of dirt away from the hole. The tree roots beneath us had formed a pretty good network to secure the dirt, leaving only that one gap. Pretty soon we’d uncovered a genuine hole in the ground, only about five feet wide, and deep. So deep, and cylindrical in shape, it was like an abandoned well. I said as much.“Solid theory,” Brad remarked. “What do we do now? Do we just leave it? We can’t fill it in.”“We could make a crude sign or marker and post it to warn passerby.” Mindy remarked thoughtfully. I used my headlamp to beam down into the hole. It loomed below us, black and yawning, but somehow, though I felt like I ought to be frightened, it seemed more mysterious and tantalizing than scary. I stuck my head in, bracing my upper body at the rim.“Hello!” I shouted into the void, and waited. My voice dropped down, but did not come bouncing back, I waited a while. "Echo!“ I dropped the second time, listening intently. Nothing. "This thing must be fucking deep,” I muttered, beginning to shimmy back out. Distracted by my own effort, I had to pause when I half caught something that sounded like my name, coming not from my team but somewhere below me. Twisting to look back at them, I asked: “Did somebody call me?”“No,” Marty said. “We were all waiting for you.” I shook my head and continued dragging myself out of the hole by my elbows.“Let’s make the sign,” Brad was saying when I felt something touch my wrist. I jerked, startled, but saw what appeared to be a root that I’d brushed, and relaxed again. However, when I was unable to pull free of it, I sought the source, And found myself peering straight down, at a vine curled snugly around my wrist, risen from the depths of nowhere.“Uh, guys?” I started, tugging at my captor. It was firmly set, somewhere. Before they could even look, I felt something, odd. The vine trapping me began to writhe, and suddenly the largest, most spectacular flowers I’d ever seen began to sprout and bloom from it. Big as dinner plates, with a five-petal bloom in the most vivid electric purple. I goggled at the sight of the one closest to me. As the flower came into its full beauty, it released a scent that hit me right in the face, immediately making me swoon with heady intoxication. My body, grew hot. And my mind told me to go down, to let the vine take me. That paradise awaited me down there,Mindy was the first to notice my predicament, and the first to react when I shot forward into the hole not of my own volition.The portal“Oh shit,” I declared, feeling myself dragged headfirst down into what I was already envisioning as some kind of wonderland. Mindy dove on my legs, screaming at the guys to help her, and I felt their weight momentarily halt my progress. It was just my round ass and legs sticking out of the hole at that point. The vine on my wrist grew thicker, and suddenly began growing. It enveloped my whole upper body as I watched and began pulling again. Then more vines, already blossoming like mine had, crept out around me to ensnare my team, dosing each one of them with the intoxicating perfume. I was feeling very warm and very good about the whole thing by then. “Hang on!” I giggled. “We’re going for a ride!” The vines got all of us in one fell swoop, and before we knew it, we were all being rushed right along down the tunnel to somewhere, screaming bloody murder in the dark.We fell a long, long time, and at some point I blacked out into nonsensical dreams full of vivid colors and scents but no substance. I didn’t know how long I was out, but I did know why I came to. Something was tickling me, between my legs. I was fuzzy, waking up, but when I felt something thick and incredibly bendy probe between my cunt lips and slide inside me, I hollered, coming awake more violently than anything else could have done. Intense pleasure shot through my cunt as something thrust itself deep inside. I looked down. I was sprawled in a plant that resembled a strawberry patch, naked, with my legs tethered open by tendrils of plant life, a shining green vine filling my cunt. It was growing out of the bottom of the thing, which cradled me like a bed. My arms were tethered above my head, and I watched helplessly as another part of the giant vine-plant wrapped my breasts. Two little buds, different from the previous purple ones, latched on to my nipples and began dripping something- I guess nectar- onto them. The long tendril actually inside me plunged deep into my womb, bypassing my cervix in a moment of strange ecstasy. I felt a tremendous rush of liquid fill me, like, a huge swelling, but then it all absorbed into my body. After that, my blood began to heat. My arousal tipped up to an insane degree.“Oh holy fuck!" I shouted. "Mindy? Marty, Brad- where are you? Are you okay?” The vine in my cunt gently plunged in and out of my hole. The buds on my nipples somehow made them extra sensitive and dying for touch. I began to pant. Nearby I heard what sounded suspiciously like Mindy, screaming an orgasm. A third bud grew toward my clitoris and latched on. I howled. The nectar gushed onto that part of me too and sent my insides roiling with need. Brad popped up into my plant-bed. He wasn’t restrained, but I did notice he was naked, and had a rather interesting new accessory. A vine was in his ass, plunging back and forth.“Sally!” he gasped, steeling himself against his body’s invader. “Everyone’s, uh okay, but,” He climbed toward me, his erection stiff as hell and huge. “Marty and Mindy are like this too, They're already fucking, God Sally I’m so sorry! I can’t help it!” Spurned forward by the vine using his asshole, Brad dove on top of me like a man starving and plunged his tongue into my mouth. Already wild with arousal, I responded eagerly. The vine filling my cunt pulled away and redirected itself into my other hole, The same place it was filling Brad and driving him mad. Once inside me there, the plant spread my legs further and opened me for Brad’s cock.“We can worry about this later,!” I grunted out. “Fuck me, fuck me now!” Nothing in the world was more important at that moment than being fucked. Brad did not hesitate. His huge cock speared me immediately. I howled, he groaned. He started thrusting inside my burning hot hole immediately, and as our bodies entwined we realized the heat was overwhelming, our lust scorching.“Oh fuck! Oh fuck, Sally!” he growled, slamming his hips into mine. I bucked against him, taking everything he had, wanting more.“Yes, yes, yes, oh Brad!” Each of us had our asses plundered, and I felt the penetration from each side within me and screamed my bliss. Brad was fucking like a man on fire, driving his dick so hard into my cunt it was miraculous I felt no pain. Instead I felt heat and good and pleasure so profound my whole body was singing. The buds nipping at my nipples and clitoris had made them so stiff, so swollen in arousal that I marveled they didn’t shoot right off my body. The buds finally left my nipples, and Brad seized downward as he fucked me to latch on with his lips, as if driven by innate primal desire.“So, sweet,” he groaned through his teeth. I could feel a climax building powerfully inside me. The bud on my clit hadn’t stopped its curious brand of soaking aphrodisiac nectar into that most sensitive place, and I was veering dangerously close to stimulation overload. Brad’s cock was thicker and bigger and harder than any man I’d ever had before, and the savagery of his thrusts ought to hurt, but they just felt amazing. I was so rabid I just screamed his name, over and over, and I felt another gush of fluid from the vine in my ass. At the same time, Brad surged forward like he’d gotten the same.“I’m going to cum in you, Sally!” he told me with a tinge of regret.“I’m going to cum too, Brad! It’s ok, this isn’t us!” He wrapped me in his arms. “We’re being used, It’s not your fault.” I breathed raggedly, thrashing myself against him.“No!” he groaned. “I really do like you, Sally! A lot! But I wouldn’t have wanted it this way!”“I know! Me too, it’s ok, you can cum in me! I need you to cum in me!” I screamed. “Please, please cum in me!” My body, overloaded with aphrodisiacs and stimulation, pitched over the edge. The muscle spasms that went off in my cunt were tremendous, and would have crushed a normal cock. But Brad, inundated by the plant’s strange properties, had a dick of steel and pistoned it to the back of me expertly until his body gave up his seed. And believe me, I felt it. It was like the fluid from the vine that had gushed tremendously and then absorbed. He poured shot after shot inside, but it was molten hot and he just kept cumming as I kept cumming, on and on.The orgasm we shared caused an explosion of blue-green blossoms all over our plant bed, and the vines finally released us as we lay shaking in each other’s arms. Mindy and Marty finally found us; they were huddled together and spent from their bout of lovemaking. Brad and I joined our comrades, totally naked as well. All four of us left the now docile and incredibly beautiful bloomed plants that had fucked us, and spurned us to fuck each other, behind. When we did, we could not believe the world spread before us.It was a riot of color. Plant life like none of us had ever seen before. Huge blossoms, trees that dwarfed even redwoods, in hot cinnamon red and mossy green. Tall gold grasses that danced in the breeze. Looking around, we noticed all of our clothing and equipment was totally gone, like it had never existed in the first place. We also noticed that Mindy and I were both now sporting breasts the size of small melons, both of our nipples a deep ruby red, our clitorises the same rich color. I also noticed that my belly seemed to be rounding, and growing heavy. Hers too. My breasts ached, almost as if they were filling up with liquid.“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore, Toto,” I hummed forebodingly. Instinctively I cupped my stomach with my palm.“What, the hell, Did we fall into?” Marty croaked out, holding Mindy to him possessively.“I don’t know,” Brad answered.“Am I the only one that heard the voice before we got pulled down here?” I started, trying to keep my rational scientific mind. In fact, I began studying my environment with more critical detachment. I looked up into an overcast, but still sunny, sky, with a faint mixture of pale blues, purples and greens, but saw no hole. Nothing. No cave, either, just lush foliage and Technicolor world.“Voice?" Mindy suddenly barked. "What did you hear?” Her reaction, so sharp and intent, clued me in.“Don’t flip out yet, any of you,” I said, holding up a hand. “We're scientists. We are making discoveries, got it?” I waited, to see them all understand my meaning and nod. “When the vine grabbed my wrist, I thought I heard my name, first,” recollection hit them of the moment, “And after I got dosed by the flower I thought I heard a voice say I should come down here.”“I heard the same fucking thing!” Mindy said. “I thought I was experiencing a panic-induced hallucination! It said ‘paradise’ was down here.” I gasped.“I heard that too!”“I didn’t hear anything besides our screaming,” Brad said, shrugging. He looked at Marty.“Nothing here. But I did get hit by a load of that flower perfume. It made me sneeze but I didn’t otherwise feel anything different.”“It made me feel drunk, and, horny.” I blushed. Stupidly, really.“Yeah,” Mindy said. “Me too,” she looked down, as if realizing she was naked for the first time. Our erogenous zones were like fat cherries on our breasts and loins. The ache in my tits and the swelling of my lower body led me to my logical conclusions.“Okay, Mindy and I were both dosed by the perfume and had physical reactions, and heard a voice prior to being pulled down here. Logically it seems that the targets are females. Though obviously this place makes use of males as well. Based on my physical sensations and everything that happened in the blue-flower plant, Mindy and I are pregnant. The pregnancies are escalated, and not entirely human. I think, this world not only enhances our reproductive capabilities but needs our fertility for its own.”“If it needs both males and females to help it propagate, why didn’t it try and lure us too?” asked Marty.“Maybe because it knows that the males will follow their females, especially if they seem to be in danger. Breeding females are an important resource.” Mindy added on, suddenly holding her belly. “You wouldn’t have let us disappear down that hole without trying something.”“No, we wouldn’t have.” Brad said. “Alright, the million-dollar question now is what do we do?”“Well, I can’t see where we came in here from, can any of you?” They all looked, and once each of them had surveyed the landscape to their satisfaction, they shook their heads.“Fuck,” Marty said.“I postulate that we have discovered a pocket dimension or a passage through space-time, friends,” I said. “Which means that if we get back, We're going to have more money than God.” I grinned, trying to break the tension and get a laugh. It worked, and my team cracked up.“Oh my God,” Mindy started, wiping away a few tears from laughing so hard. “We’ll be the most famous fucking science team that has ever been.”“We went searching for monkeys and ended up proving parallel universes exist,” Brad continued. “Or at least that Narnia might really be in a closet somewhere.”“Wardrobe,” I corrected. Brad laughed.“Oh forgive me, Sir Reads-a-lot.”“Alright seriously though,” Marty said, once the mood had relaxed. “If Mindy and Sally really are pregnant, we’ve got to deal with that.”“Yeah, and we’ve gotta survive,” I said.“We need to find shelter and resources,” Mindy added.“Precisely. Alright team, we can do this.” I put my hand palm down in front of them. “Pile on.” They added their hands to the stack. “What happened back there we can talk about. We’ll talk about how we want to move forward, with these potential babies, and this world. Right now, we focus on food, water, shelter, warmth. Let’s spread out and begin observing.” Everyone nodded.“I’m going to scout the area for potential camping ground or natural shelter,” Marty said. “I’ll also take note of building resources. I think we should remain as close as we can here just because our passage back is likely accessible here.”“Agreed,” Brad chimed. “I’m going to search for fresh water resources and examine these flowers. I want to see if the other plants demonstrate any more signs of sentience.”“I’m going to start looking for edible plants and signs of animal life,” Mindy said. “There could be berries, fruits, roots. We’re going to need as much nutrition as possible if we’re out here a while.” I nodded.“I’m going to see if those grasses can be harvested and woven.” I said, eyeing the long gold strands. “Clothing and blankets for exposure and warmth, baskets, hammocks maybe, hats, water skins- I might be able to make anything we need to survive.”Then, I did something corny, harkening back to our undergrad college biology club days. Our competitive chant seemed the thing to do. All of us nodded, pumped our hands together and raised them with a shout of “For Science!” all together.After we split apart to our chosen tasks, I headed right for the golden grasses. They were silky but strong, like the husk on fresh corn, without the little fibers on the inside. As I ran my fingers up the stalks, moving forward, I felt and saw them bend to accommodate my body. They allowed me to pass without me having to bend or cut them. Well, there was at least some evidence of the world’s sentience. Perhaps cognizance had evolved in the plants of this world, and not the animal life. As I wandered through the stalks, they caressed my body like tiny hands, and I began to notice how direct the touches were. I stopped walking. Immediately the grasses all around me wrapped my body all over and began stroking every one of my curves. I moaned aloud as the tendrils rubbed my incredibly sensitive nipples and wrapped my breasts. They began to squeeze the heft of each tit and tug on my nipples, almost like they were milking me. I felt stalks wind up my legs and find my labia’s cleft. I was already gushing juice from my slit, and they dove into it- four, five, six stalks writhing inside me all at once, squirming and pleasuring my g-spot and my tender cervix. My nipples started gushing clear, sweet-smelling liquid like rain all over the stalks. I cried out in delight as I was rubbed on my clit too, the grasses keeping me pleasured so that I kept producing nectar for them to soak up. As they did, they ripened before my eyes, turning from bright gold to bronze, and they shook off the outer coat, leaving behind a silky strip I could harvest for raw materials. The plants milked me and fucked me to multiple orgasms, shedding piles of their golden husks and turning rich bronze, getting taller and thicker. Soon a whole little patch of bronze was all around me, and I was both thirsty and exhausted, my arms full of weaving material.Not too far off, Mindy was wandering in a brushier part of the landscape, searching for root plants and berries, or fruit-bearing trees. She was getting hungry and thirsty, her belly becoming more of a burden. Sally had to be right. They were pregnant with something. Mindy’s nose detected a sweet aroma and she followed it. A cluster of trees, small, lemon-yellow in bark and emerald green in foliage, were growing just upwind. Their branches were low enough to reach, and she saw a number of fist-sized fruits growing there. Only one way to know if they were edible. She examined the colors of the fruits, and looked for evidence of fallen ones. It seemed as though they started green, like the leaves, and soon turned an orange yellow to indicate ripeness. For starters, Mindy picked up a recently fallen ripened fruit and sniffed it, touched it. It emanated a tangy-sweet aroma and was about the feel and size of a peach. Her Mouth watering, she bit into the fruit.An explosion of delectable flavors coated her tongue. Tangy, tart and sweet, with firm, smooth flesh and thick juice, the fruit was absolutely delicious, and calmed her belly immediately. She felt refreshed and strengthened by it as well, and devoured the whole piece down to the stone inside. Mindy began loading her arms full and took the fruit with her back to the central area. Along the way she felt her cunt getting warm. Just like when the plant had ensnared and injected her before, she was becoming incredibly horny. Mindy found me as I stumbled out of the grasses, arms full of plant material and panting hard.Give her fruit, a voice whispered. Then go into the grasses. The voice startled Mindy but she knew there was nothing to fear, somehow.“Eat this, Sally,” she said, bending to offer me one of the fruits. Parched, I grabbed it and took a bite. It immediately refreshed me, and I moaned at the flavor. It was incredible. “It wants me to go in there. What’ll happen?”“Well for me, like ten orgasms. I helped ripen it somehow, and it shed these stalks.” I pointed. “Our breast juice helps it.” Mindy shrugged, and stepped into the grasses. They took my friend down the road to pleasure, and as soon as I began feeling the effects of the fruit, I understood why. The grasses reached out and dragged me back in. Our screams of pleasure began rising in harmony.Oblivious to the women, Brad was bent over several flowers in the field, absorbed by the wondrous nature of them, their colors, complex perfumes and variegated shapes. He was looking for a fresh water resource, like a stream or a pond, but what he was discovering was even more astounding. Some of the flowers held a reserve of water or nectar inside bulbous lower chambers. But how could he access it without damaging the plant? Carefully, he probed the opening with his fingers. It was large enough to slip something like a straw in there, if he could make one. But as he examined, he brushed the flower’s stamen, releasing some pollen, which he breathed in. The flower then gave up the entire cup-like lower petal, thick as a cabbage leaf and full of liquid, right into his hand. The pollen had a curious effect on him. Immediately his cock thickened and surged rigidly erect.Go to the grasses and pollinate your female again, a voice out of his mind told him. The environment here will see to all your needs. Go. Compelled and horny, Brad took the petal-cup with him and sprinted back to where the girls were being pleasured and harvested by the golden grasses.Marty’s quest through the tall trees and forest-like area had proven rich with sticks and limbs, foliage, mud, and other such raw building materials. He was busily gathering them into a pile when he came upon a tangle of small green plants growing at the base of one of the cinnamon red giant trees. They resembled basil and gave off an herbal scent. Curious, Marty leaned down and plucked a leaf. He brought it to his nose, and it smelled pleasant, minty and fragrant. Deciding it was better to try and document any possible edible greenery, he popped the leaf in his mouth and chewed. It was like spiced mint, enjoyable and unusual. Chewing, Marty went to return to his work, but was quickly blindsided by a ferocious erection.Go to the grasses, the voice told him too. Go pollinate your female.Confused, all four of us were soon converged. The men found us bound by bronze and gold grasses, our tits being milked and our cunts kept in a state of perpetual orgasm. We’d each eaten three of the stone fruits Mindy had found, and our bodies were producing insane amounts of nectar from our breasts. The planet’s voice became audible to all of us in that moment.“Drink of their nectar and seed them,” the voice said, directing the men. The grasses began looping their engorged and enormous cocks. The men were pulled forward, compelled by sexual desire so fierce it could not be denied, like we were. Brad’s lips fell to one of my breasts first, and he began suckling. My cunt and Mindy’s were held open by the grasses. Marty descended on Mindy. I would have thought the grasses filling me and wrapping Brad’s cock would recede when we joined, but they didn’t. Instead I was filled with the mass of flesh and plant, my cunt so full I couldn’t move. I stretched easily to accommodate the girth of everything inside me, and it felt so good I couldn’t do much more than yelp as I received it. The grasses bound Brad at the base of his cock and squeezed, trapping blood in his erection, making him fiercely hard, prolonging his orgasm. They also wrapped his balls and added stimulation there. Finally we both felt the tendrils fill our asses.“Oh fuck!” he cried, jolting inside me.“Ah!” I screamed. Brad started thrusting, but it was half him and half the plants, spurring him deep. Mindy and Marty were right next to us, undergoing the same. She and I grasped each other's fingers together as we each got fucked and filled.Once the orgasms started, they never stopped. My body kept cumming, over and over again on Brad’s dick as he grunted and desperately sought orgasm in my overheated cunt. Adding more aphrodisiac juices to each of us as our bodies were used, the plants finally allowed the men to come, and Brad filled me with I think, a literal gallon of cum. As he did, both my tits and belly swelled even larger, and now we were very obviously pregnant. I ached, and my belly was full and round in my arms. The sight of us like that, Did something to the guys. Without speaking, both of them broke away, as if possessed, and ran off. The grasses moved Mindy and me toward each other, and though they had released the men, we were still trapped, and still being pleasured. We squealed in one another’s arms. We even pressed our lips together as we were both used, our tits and bellies rubbing on each other, and we made out fiercely. Mindy and I were lost in a haze of pure lust.Brad and Marty, meanwhile, had run on instinct back to the flower patch and taken more of the pollen that triggered the voice for Brad. They each took pollen on their tongues and felt their pricks swell again. The flowers gave up their nectar cups and they drank. It refreshed both their parched throats and readied them to return.When they did, they found us tangling our tongues and stroking each other’s tits, our legs still splayed open for them. The boys each grabbed another fruit and came toward us. Marty took me this time, and Brad took Mindy. They plunged their cocks inside without asking, without a word, and began fucking us hard. Pulling our mouths apart, Mindy and I moaned. Each man bent down to make us eat the fruit they bore, even as they rode us so hard I was afraid they’d hurt our babies. But it felt so good I forgot to worry. It was just an oblivion of pleasure and I fell into it.I lost count of how many times the men fucked us, switching between pussies and impregnating us bigger and bigger with every load of cum.“You’re going to give birth soon,” Brad said, as he helplessly fucked the absolutely hell out of my cunt. “We’re going to be giving you sperm until you both give birth!”“The voice keeps telling us, to pollinate,” Marty choked. Every load had made my tits and belly bigger. I felt the child in my womb now, and I heard it. It was made of my and Brad’s human genetics, and enhanced by the sentience of the plants. It would be a new evolution of humanity.“Not long now!” I panted. “Not long,” Brad fucked another load of molten cum into my cunt, and I shrieked as another orgasm tore through me. As it did, my womb opened up, Brad’s cock slipped out of me, and my child fell into my birth canal. The birth itself wasn’t horribly painful, as the whole escapade had prepared my cunt to stretch much wider than before, but it did feel weird. My baby’s head, followed by the rest of her, slid into my vaginal canal, and the remnants of my orgasmic contractions pushed her out of my hole. “Oh fuck!” I cried. Mindy next to me screamed as she too felt life coming out of her body. Brad was right between my legs to catch our daughter as she was born.“Oh my God!” he cried. Our child was attached to me inside, not by an umbilical cord, but a vine, and though human in shape and features, her hair was leafy and her skin had the sheen of silvery bark. “It’s a girl,” he said, wiping startled tears off his face.“We have a boy!” shouted Marty.“Oh my God,” I said, gasping, “we’ve given birth to a new race.”“Thank you,” said the voice. “We’ve been waiting for a species like yours to help us evolve. Now we can begin the Dryad race. Your sacrifices will not be unrewarded.” My body was sweaty, and I was exhausted, but I raised my beautiful new daughter to my swollen tits and she latched on to drink. The world compelled Brad and Marty to run off again for more of its special sustenance. We were left to expel the afterbirths of our children alone, at least until the voice spoke to us alone. “You will be used to birth our children many times, but your bodies will experience pleasure unlike any you could ever dream, and you will never want for anything. We thank you for your service.” Our babes suckled, cooing and growing at an alarming rate, and when our mates returned with more fruit and nectar we were soon seeded by them again. Brad and Marty’s enhanced cocks proved insatiable, and our cunts proved endlessly fertile. Mindy and I have already gestated and given birth at least once a day, and our eldest children already are like seven years old instead of seven days. They’ve already started making the world their own while we are giving them siblings. I don’t know how long we’ll be here, fucking and being pregnant with our dryad children, but it feels so incredible we may never want to leave.Brad’s cock was inside me even as I wrote this, cumming huge amounts and making my belly swell. I’ll be giving birth again soon, to my eighth child. While we’re busy making more, the plants around us show the kids their world and take care of them in the way I guess only sentient plant parents can. We, the humans, can’t stop fucking! The youngest babies drink my nectar while more babies are gestating in me, every day. I never ended up making any clothes. We’ve been too busy having sex since, we got here.Post script:The foliage of this place seems to retain dominion over our team, unlike Adam & Eve's dominion over that first ‘Garden of Eden'. Life in this world seems preoccupied with procreation and pleasure; less so on curiosity and learning. The vines did not tolerate non-compliance in this domain.Has mankind been here before? Is the transporting vine actually a ‘Tree of Life'?  Were we the first human-like race? Will the Dryads ever be transported back to our world? Will Dryads and humans live in harmony?Based on a post by PhilippaMaQuente for Literotica

Four scientists find their mission led astray, by paradise.Based on a post by PhilippaMaQuente. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories.Forward:In the beginning, defiance led to rejection and expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Our species was transported to the parallel universe we've now occupied for several millennia. Legends of that previous world have been handed down to us, along with various elaborations and moral lessons.If we could only access that previous world. A world designed for our inclusion. Does it exist? Is it yet flourishing in our absence? Can we gain a second chance to rejoin Eden?Sally joins an expeditionary team. You know, the job of a scientist is not always easy, but it’s usually pretty rewarding. I’ve helped discover new species of plants and animals, and I derived a number of medicinal properties from my discoveries, too. I’m a naturalist and explorer.But, sometimes I think existence has an absolutely weird sense of humor. How else could I possibly explain the misadventures my team's had this past week? I mean, where do I even begin to explain all this craziness?We were on the trail of an extremely elusive lemur species on Madagascar when my teammate Brad stumbled into a burrow of some kind.“Shit!” he shrieked, his leg sinking calf deep in an extremely well disguised hole. I rushed over.“Oh man! Are you hurt?” I crouched behind him, putting my arms around his chest, hooked under his pits. I used my legs to try and pry him out of the hole. Our other team members, Marty and Mindy, rushed over to help.“I don’t think it’s injured, I was just really fucking surprised.” He began shifting his weight pushing back with his free leg. “Damn, this hole is deep! What makes burrows like this out here?”“What’s the angle like?” Mindy asked. “Most everything in this area are tree-dwellers,”“It’s weird, it’s straight down,” Brad said, “and it’s like there's nothing below, nothing on all sides. I’m only being squeezed right here at the calf.” He pointed to the section of leg we could actually see touching earth.“That is super weird,” I grunted, still pulling. He was coming loose. “But maybe, it was just a hollow that got buried by, a storm, or shifting ground. No biggie.” Marty threw himself into a crouch and aided me by wrapping his arms around my middle.“On my count,” he said. “One, two, three!” we both pulled, throwing our weight collectively into the effort.“It’s working!” Brad said happily. “My leg’s coming free.” After a couple of minutes of combined work, Marty and I got him out and we all fell back in a heap.“Whew!” I grunted. "Brad, your leg ok? Let’s see.“ Pulling away from the hole, Brad rolled up his pant leg and removed his boot. No blood, no bad scratches. It didn’t look twisted, and I saw no swelling."Looks good, Sally,” he told me. “Doesn’t hurt but I could just be pumping with adrenaline. I’ll give it a few.”“Good idea,” I nodded. “Let’s all take ten. Our little kerfuffle probably scared off everything within fifty yards anyway.” My team settled down and busted out water and some snacks. Tromping through rainforest looking for tiny primates was hot, thirsty work.“I kinda want to take a look at this hole,” Mindy said, walking cautiously toward it. “Could be a nest, could be just an odd patch of hollow ground.”“Yeah, let’s poke around a little,” I replied, after taking a gulp of my canteen. “If it’s not an animal den maybe we could fill it up, just so no one else stumbles in and gets hurt.” Mindy put herself on her belly and inched over.“Wow Brad, you must’ve caught it just right. It’s hardly big enough for a boot your size.”“Hey, you know what they say about men with big feet,” Brad quipped in response. He held his palms open nearly a foot and a half to illustrate his point. “You know what I mean?” I playfully punched him on the shoulder.“Sure, but you’re not supposed to stick your foot in those holes,” I countered. We all laughed, except Mindy. Totally focused, she was peering into the opening with her flashlight.“Guys, this is really fucking weird,” she said. “There's nothing down there I can see, nothing at all! And, it’s the weirdest thing, but, There's air flowing out of the hole. Cold air!" We all leaned in. I was fascinated."Buried cave, maybe?” I hypothesized.“Buried something,” she answered. “I say we open it up.”“Agreed,” I said.“Second,” Marty put in. Like Mindy, we all flopped down on our bellies and began pulling clumps of dirt away from the hole. The tree roots beneath us had formed a pretty good network to secure the dirt, leaving only that one gap. Pretty soon we’d uncovered a genuine hole in the ground, only about five feet wide, and deep. So deep, and cylindrical in shape, it was like an abandoned well. I said as much.“Solid theory,” Brad remarked. “What do we do now? Do we just leave it? We can’t fill it in.”“We could make a crude sign or marker and post it to warn passerby.” Mindy remarked thoughtfully. I used my headlamp to beam down into the hole. It loomed below us, black and yawning, but somehow, though I felt like I ought to be frightened, it seemed more mysterious and tantalizing than scary. I stuck my head in, bracing my upper body at the rim.“Hello!” I shouted into the void, and waited. My voice dropped down, but did not come bouncing back, I waited a while. "Echo!“ I dropped the second time, listening intently. Nothing. "This thing must be fucking deep,” I muttered, beginning to shimmy back out. Distracted by my own effort, I had to pause when I half caught something that sounded like my name, coming not from my team but somewhere below me. Twisting to look back at them, I asked: “Did somebody call me?”“No,” Marty said. “We were all waiting for you.” I shook my head and continued dragging myself out of the hole by my elbows.“Let’s make the sign,” Brad was saying when I felt something touch my wrist. I jerked, startled, but saw what appeared to be a root that I’d brushed, and relaxed again. However, when I was unable to pull free of it, I sought the source, And found myself peering straight down, at a vine curled snugly around my wrist, risen from the depths of nowhere.“Uh, guys?” I started, tugging at my captor. It was firmly set, somewhere. Before they could even look, I felt something, odd. The vine trapping me began to writhe, and suddenly the largest, most spectacular flowers I’d ever seen began to sprout and bloom from it. Big as dinner plates, with a five-petal bloom in the most vivid electric purple. I goggled at the sight of the one closest to me. As the flower came into its full beauty, it released a scent that hit me right in the face, immediately making me swoon with heady intoxication. My body, grew hot. And my mind told me to go down, to let the vine take me. That paradise awaited me down there,Mindy was the first to notice my predicament, and the first to react when I shot forward into the hole not of my own volition.The portal“Oh shit,” I declared, feeling myself dragged headfirst down into what I was already envisioning as some kind of wonderland. Mindy dove on my legs, screaming at the guys to help her, and I felt their weight momentarily halt my progress. It was just my round ass and legs sticking out of the hole at that point. The vine on my wrist grew thicker, and suddenly began growing. It enveloped my whole upper body as I watched and began pulling again. Then more vines, already blossoming like mine had, crept out around me to ensnare my team, dosing each one of them with the intoxicating perfume. I was feeling very warm and very good about the whole thing by then. “Hang on!” I giggled. “We’re going for a ride!” The vines got all of us in one fell swoop, and before we knew it, we were all being rushed right along down the tunnel to somewhere, screaming bloody murder in the dark.We fell a long, long time, and at some point I blacked out into nonsensical dreams full of vivid colors and scents but no substance. I didn’t know how long I was out, but I did know why I came to. Something was tickling me, between my legs. I was fuzzy, waking up, but when I felt something thick and incredibly bendy probe between my cunt lips and slide inside me, I hollered, coming awake more violently than anything else could have done. Intense pleasure shot through my cunt as something thrust itself deep inside. I looked down. I was sprawled in a plant that resembled a strawberry patch, naked, with my legs tethered open by tendrils of plant life, a shining green vine filling my cunt. It was growing out of the bottom of the thing, which cradled me like a bed. My arms were tethered above my head, and I watched helplessly as another part of the giant vine-plant wrapped my breasts. Two little buds, different from the previous purple ones, latched on to my nipples and began dripping something- I guess nectar- onto them. The long tendril actually inside me plunged deep into my womb, bypassing my cervix in a moment of strange ecstasy. I felt a tremendous rush of liquid fill me, like, a huge swelling, but then it all absorbed into my body. After that, my blood began to heat. My arousal tipped up to an insane degree.“Oh holy fuck!" I shouted. "Mindy? Marty, Brad- where are you? Are you okay?” The vine in my cunt gently plunged in and out of my hole. The buds on my nipples somehow made them extra sensitive and dying for touch. I began to pant. Nearby I heard what sounded suspiciously like Mindy, screaming an orgasm. A third bud grew toward my clitoris and latched on. I howled. The nectar gushed onto that part of me too and sent my insides roiling with need. Brad popped up into my plant-bed. He wasn’t restrained, but I did notice he was naked, and had a rather interesting new accessory. A vine was in his ass, plunging back and forth.“Sally!” he gasped, steeling himself against his body’s invader. “Everyone’s, uh okay, but,” He climbed toward me, his erection stiff as hell and huge. “Marty and Mindy are like this too, They're already fucking, God Sally I’m so sorry! I can’t help it!” Spurned forward by the vine using his asshole, Brad dove on top of me like a man starving and plunged his tongue into my mouth. Already wild with arousal, I responded eagerly. The vine filling my cunt pulled away and redirected itself into my other hole, The same place it was filling Brad and driving him mad. Once inside me there, the plant spread my legs further and opened me for Brad’s cock.“We can worry about this later,!” I grunted out. “Fuck me, fuck me now!” Nothing in the world was more important at that moment than being fucked. Brad did not hesitate. His huge cock speared me immediately. I howled, he groaned. He started thrusting inside my burning hot hole immediately, and as our bodies entwined we realized the heat was overwhelming, our lust scorching.“Oh fuck! Oh fuck, Sally!” he growled, slamming his hips into mine. I bucked against him, taking everything he had, wanting more.“Yes, yes, yes, oh Brad!” Each of us had our asses plundered, and I felt the penetration from each side within me and screamed my bliss. Brad was fucking like a man on fire, driving his dick so hard into my cunt it was miraculous I felt no pain. Instead I felt heat and good and pleasure so profound my whole body was singing. The buds nipping at my nipples and clitoris had made them so stiff, so swollen in arousal that I marveled they didn’t shoot right off my body. The buds finally left my nipples, and Brad seized downward as he fucked me to latch on with his lips, as if driven by innate primal desire.“So, sweet,” he groaned through his teeth. I could feel a climax building powerfully inside me. The bud on my clit hadn’t stopped its curious brand of soaking aphrodisiac nectar into that most sensitive place, and I was veering dangerously close to stimulation overload. Brad’s cock was thicker and bigger and harder than any man I’d ever had before, and the savagery of his thrusts ought to hurt, but they just felt amazing. I was so rabid I just screamed his name, over and over, and I felt another gush of fluid from the vine in my ass. At the same time, Brad surged forward like he’d gotten the same.“I’m going to cum in you, Sally!” he told me with a tinge of regret.“I’m going to cum too, Brad! It’s ok, this isn’t us!” He wrapped me in his arms. “We’re being used, It’s not your fault.” I breathed raggedly, thrashing myself against him.“No!” he groaned. “I really do like you, Sally! A lot! But I wouldn’t have wanted it this way!”“I know! Me too, it’s ok, you can cum in me! I need you to cum in me!” I screamed. “Please, please cum in me!” My body, overloaded with aphrodisiacs and stimulation, pitched over the edge. The muscle spasms that went off in my cunt were tremendous, and would have crushed a normal cock. But Brad, inundated by the plant’s strange properties, had a dick of steel and pistoned it to the back of me expertly until his body gave up his seed. And believe me, I felt it. It was like the fluid from the vine that had gushed tremendously and then absorbed. He poured shot after shot inside, but it was molten hot and he just kept cumming as I kept cumming, on and on.The orgasm we shared caused an explosion of blue-green blossoms all over our plant bed, and the vines finally released us as we lay shaking in each other’s arms. Mindy and Marty finally found us; they were huddled together and spent from their bout of lovemaking. Brad and I joined our comrades, totally naked as well. All four of us left the now docile and incredibly beautiful bloomed plants that had fucked us, and spurned us to fuck each other, behind. When we did, we could not believe the world spread before us.It was a riot of color. Plant life like none of us had ever seen before. Huge blossoms, trees that dwarfed even redwoods, in hot cinnamon red and mossy green. Tall gold grasses that danced in the breeze. Looking around, we noticed all of our clothing and equipment was totally gone, like it had never existed in the first place. We also noticed that Mindy and I were both now sporting breasts the size of small melons, both of our nipples a deep ruby red, our clitorises the same rich color. I also noticed that my belly seemed to be rounding, and growing heavy. Hers too. My breasts ached, almost as if they were filling up with liquid.“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore, Toto,” I hummed forebodingly. Instinctively I cupped my stomach with my palm.“What, the hell, Did we fall into?” Marty croaked out, holding Mindy to him possessively.“I don’t know,” Brad answered.“Am I the only one that heard the voice before we got pulled down here?” I started, trying to keep my rational scientific mind. In fact, I began studying my environment with more critical detachment. I looked up into an overcast, but still sunny, sky, with a faint mixture of pale blues, purples and greens, but saw no hole. Nothing. No cave, either, just lush foliage and Technicolor world.“Voice?" Mindy suddenly barked. "What did you hear?” Her reaction, so sharp and intent, clued me in.“Don’t flip out yet, any of you,” I said, holding up a hand. “We're scientists. We are making discoveries, got it?” I waited, to see them all understand my meaning and nod. “When the vine grabbed my wrist, I thought I heard my name, first,” recollection hit them of the moment, “And after I got dosed by the flower I thought I heard a voice say I should come down here.”“I heard the same fucking thing!” Mindy said. “I thought I was experiencing a panic-induced hallucination! It said ‘paradise’ was down here.” I gasped.“I heard that too!”“I didn’t hear anything besides our screaming,” Brad said, shrugging. He looked at Marty.“Nothing here. But I did get hit by a load of that flower perfume. It made me sneeze but I didn’t otherwise feel anything different.”“It made me feel drunk, and, horny.” I blushed. Stupidly, really.“Yeah,” Mindy said. “Me too,” she looked down, as if realizing she was naked for the first time. Our erogenous zones were like fat cherries on our breasts and loins. The ache in my tits and the swelling of my lower body led me to my logical conclusions.“Okay, Mindy and I were both dosed by the perfume and had physical reactions, and heard a voice prior to being pulled down here. Logically it seems that the targets are females. Though obviously this place makes use of males as well. Based on my physical sensations and everything that happened in the blue-flower plant, Mindy and I are pregnant. The pregnancies are escalated, and not entirely human. I think, this world not only enhances our reproductive capabilities but needs our fertility for its own.”“If it needs both males and females to help it propagate, why didn’t it try and lure us too?” asked Marty.“Maybe because it knows that the males will follow their females, especially if they seem to be in danger. Breeding females are an important resource.” Mindy added on, suddenly holding her belly. “You wouldn’t have let us disappear down that hole without trying something.”“No, we wouldn’t have.” Brad said. “Alright, the million-dollar question now is what do we do?”“Well, I can’t see where we came in here from, can any of you?” They all looked, and once each of them had surveyed the landscape to their satisfaction, they shook their heads.“Fuck,” Marty said.“I postulate that we have discovered a pocket dimension or a passage through space-time, friends,” I said. “Which means that if we get back, We're going to have more money than God.” I grinned, trying to break the tension and get a laugh. It worked, and my team cracked up.“Oh my God,” Mindy started, wiping away a few tears from laughing so hard. “We’ll be the most famous fucking science team that has ever been.”“We went searching for monkeys and ended up proving parallel universes exist,” Brad continued. “Or at least that Narnia might really be in a closet somewhere.”“Wardrobe,” I corrected. Brad laughed.“Oh forgive me, Sir Reads-a-lot.”“Alright seriously though,” Marty said, once the mood had relaxed. “If Mindy and Sally really are pregnant, we’ve got to deal with that.”“Yeah, and we’ve gotta survive,” I said.“We need to find shelter and resources,” Mindy added.“Precisely. Alright team, we can do this.” I put my hand palm down in front of them. “Pile on.” They added their hands to the stack. “What happened back there we can talk about. We’ll talk about how we want to move forward, with these potential babies, and this world. Right now, we focus on food, water, shelter, warmth. Let’s spread out and begin observing.” Everyone nodded.“I’m going to scout the area for potential camping ground or natural shelter,” Marty said. “I’ll also take note of building resources. I think we should remain as close as we can here just because our passage back is likely accessible here.”“Agreed,” Brad chimed. “I’m going to search for fresh water resources and examine these flowers. I want to see if the other plants demonstrate any more signs of sentience.”“I’m going to start looking for edible plants and signs of animal life,” Mindy said. “There could be berries, fruits, roots. We’re going to need as much nutrition as possible if we’re out here a while.” I nodded.“I’m going to see if those grasses can be harvested and woven.” I said, eyeing the long gold strands. “Clothing and blankets for exposure and warmth, baskets, hammocks maybe, hats, water skins- I might be able to make anything we need to survive.”Then, I did something corny, harkening back to our undergrad college biology club days. Our competitive chant seemed the thing to do. All of us nodded, pumped our hands together and raised them with a shout of “For Science!” all together.After we split apart to our chosen tasks, I headed right for the golden grasses. They were silky but strong, like the husk on fresh corn, without the little fibers on the inside. As I ran my fingers up the stalks, moving forward, I felt and saw them bend to accommodate my body. They allowed me to pass without me having to bend or cut them. Well, there was at least some evidence of the world’s sentience. Perhaps cognizance had evolved in the plants of this world, and not the animal life. As I wandered through the stalks, they caressed my body like tiny hands, and I began to notice how direct the touches were. I stopped walking. Immediately the grasses all around me wrapped my body all over and began stroking every one of my curves. I moaned aloud as the tendrils rubbed my incredibly sensitive nipples and wrapped my breasts. They began to squeeze the heft of each tit and tug on my nipples, almost like they were milking me. I felt stalks wind up my legs and find my labia’s cleft. I was already gushing juice from my slit, and they dove into it- four, five, six stalks writhing inside me all at once, squirming and pleasuring my g-spot and my tender cervix. My nipples started gushing clear, sweet-smelling liquid like rain all over the stalks. I cried out in delight as I was rubbed on my clit too, the grasses keeping me pleasured so that I kept producing nectar for them to soak up. As they did, they ripened before my eyes, turning from bright gold to bronze, and they shook off the outer coat, leaving behind a silky strip I could harvest for raw materials. The plants milked me and fucked me to multiple orgasms, shedding piles of their golden husks and turning rich bronze, getting taller and thicker. Soon a whole little patch of bronze was all around me, and I was both thirsty and exhausted, my arms full of weaving material.Not too far off, Mindy was wandering in a brushier part of the landscape, searching for root plants and berries, or fruit-bearing trees. She was getting hungry and thirsty, her belly becoming more of a burden. Sally had to be right. They were pregnant with something. Mindy’s nose detected a sweet aroma and she followed it. A cluster of trees, small, lemon-yellow in bark and emerald green in foliage, were growing just upwind. Their branches were low enough to reach, and she saw a number of fist-sized fruits growing there. Only one way to know if they were edible. She examined the colors of the fruits, and looked for evidence of fallen ones. It seemed as though they started green, like the leaves, and soon turned an orange yellow to indicate ripeness. For starters, Mindy picked up a recently fallen ripened fruit and sniffed it, touched it. It emanated a tangy-sweet aroma and was about the feel and size of a peach. Her Mouth watering, she bit into the fruit.An explosion of delectable flavors coated her tongue. Tangy, tart and sweet, with firm, smooth flesh and thick juice, the fruit was absolutely delicious, and calmed her belly immediately. She felt refreshed and strengthened by it as well, and devoured the whole piece down to the stone inside. Mindy began loading her arms full and took the fruit with her back to the central area. Along the way she felt her cunt getting warm. Just like when the plant had ensnared and injected her before, she was becoming incredibly horny. Mindy found me as I stumbled out of the grasses, arms full of plant material and panting hard.Give her fruit, a voice whispered. Then go into the grasses. The voice startled Mindy but she knew there was nothing to fear, somehow.“Eat this, Sally,” she said, bending to offer me one of the fruits. Parched, I grabbed it and took a bite. It immediately refreshed me, and I moaned at the flavor. It was incredible. “It wants me to go in there. What’ll happen?”“Well for me, like ten orgasms. I helped ripen it somehow, and it shed these stalks.” I pointed. “Our breast juice helps it.” Mindy shrugged, and stepped into the grasses. They took my friend down the road to pleasure, and as soon as I began feeling the effects of the fruit, I understood why. The grasses reached out and dragged me back in. Our screams of pleasure began rising in harmony.Oblivious to the women, Brad was bent over several flowers in the field, absorbed by the wondrous nature of them, their colors, complex perfumes and variegated shapes. He was looking for a fresh water resource, like a stream or a pond, but what he was discovering was even more astounding. Some of the flowers held a reserve of water or nectar inside bulbous lower chambers. But how could he access it without damaging the plant? Carefully, he probed the opening with his fingers. It was large enough to slip something like a straw in there, if he could make one. But as he examined, he brushed the flower’s stamen, releasing some pollen, which he breathed in. The flower then gave up the entire cup-like lower petal, thick as a cabbage leaf and full of liquid, right into his hand. The pollen had a curious effect on him. Immediately his cock thickened and surged rigidly erect.Go to the grasses and pollinate your female again, a voice out of his mind told him. The environment here will see to all your needs. Go. Compelled and horny, Brad took the petal-cup with him and sprinted back to where the girls were being pleasured and harvested by the golden grasses.Marty’s quest through the tall trees and forest-like area had proven rich with sticks and limbs, foliage, mud, and other such raw building materials. He was busily gathering them into a pile when he came upon a tangle of small green plants growing at the base of one of the cinnamon red giant trees. They resembled basil and gave off an herbal scent. Curious, Marty leaned down and plucked a leaf. He brought it to his nose, and it smelled pleasant, minty and fragrant. Deciding it was better to try and document any possible edible greenery, he popped the leaf in his mouth and chewed. It was like spiced mint, enjoyable and unusual. Chewing, Marty went to return to his work, but was quickly blindsided by a ferocious erection.Go to the grasses, the voice told him too. Go pollinate your female.Confused, all four of us were soon converged. The men found us bound by bronze and gold grasses, our tits being milked and our cunts kept in a state of perpetual orgasm. We’d each eaten three of the stone fruits Mindy had found, and our bodies were producing insane amounts of nectar from our breasts. The planet’s voice became audible to all of us in that moment.“Drink of their nectar and seed them,” the voice said, directing the men. The grasses began looping their engorged and enormous cocks. The men were pulled forward, compelled by sexual desire so fierce it could not be denied, like we were. Brad’s lips fell to one of my breasts first, and he began suckling. My cunt and Mindy’s were held open by the grasses. Marty descended on Mindy. I would have thought the grasses filling me and wrapping Brad’s cock would recede when we joined, but they didn’t. Instead I was filled with the mass of flesh and plant, my cunt so full I couldn’t move. I stretched easily to accommodate the girth of everything inside me, and it felt so good I couldn’t do much more than yelp as I received it. The grasses bound Brad at the base of his cock and squeezed, trapping blood in his erection, making him fiercely hard, prolonging his orgasm. They also wrapped his balls and added stimulation there. Finally we both felt the tendrils fill our asses.“Oh fuck!” he cried, jolting inside me.“Ah!” I screamed. Brad started thrusting, but it was half him and half the plants, spurring him deep. Mindy and Marty were right next to us, undergoing the same. She and I grasped each other's fingers together as we each got fucked and filled.Once the orgasms started, they never stopped. My body kept cumming, over and over again on Brad’s dick as he grunted and desperately sought orgasm in my overheated cunt. Adding more aphrodisiac juices to each of us as our bodies were used, the plants finally allowed the men to come, and Brad filled me with I think, a literal gallon of cum. As he did, both my tits and belly swelled even larger, and now we were very obviously pregnant. I ached, and my belly was full and round in my arms. The sight of us like that, Did something to the guys. Without speaking, both of them broke away, as if possessed, and ran off. The grasses moved Mindy and me toward each other, and though they had released the men, we were still trapped, and still being pleasured. We squealed in one another’s arms. We even pressed our lips together as we were both used, our tits and bellies rubbing on each other, and we made out fiercely. Mindy and I were lost in a haze of pure lust.Brad and Marty, meanwhile, had run on instinct back to the flower patch and taken more of the pollen that triggered the voice for Brad. They each took pollen on their tongues and felt their pricks swell again. The flowers gave up their nectar cups and they drank. It refreshed both their parched throats and readied them to return.When they did, they found us tangling our tongues and stroking each other’s tits, our legs still splayed open for them. The boys each grabbed another fruit and came toward us. Marty took me this time, and Brad took Mindy. They plunged their cocks inside without asking, without a word, and began fucking us hard. Pulling our mouths apart, Mindy and I moaned. Each man bent down to make us eat the fruit they bore, even as they rode us so hard I was afraid they’d hurt our babies. But it felt so good I forgot to worry. It was just an oblivion of pleasure and I fell into it.I lost count of how many times the men fucked us, switching between pussies and impregnating us bigger and bigger with every load of cum.“You’re going to give birth soon,” Brad said, as he helplessly fucked the absolutely hell out of my cunt. “We’re going to be giving you sperm until you both give birth!”“The voice keeps telling us, to pollinate,” Marty choked. Every load had made my tits and belly bigger. I felt the child in my womb now, and I heard it. It was made of my and Brad’s human genetics, and enhanced by the sentience of the plants. It would be a new evolution of humanity.“Not long now!” I panted. “Not long,” Brad fucked another load of molten cum into my cunt, and I shrieked as another orgasm tore through me. As it did, my womb opened up, Brad’s cock slipped out of me, and my child fell into my birth canal. The birth itself wasn’t horribly painful, as the whole escapade had prepared my cunt to stretch much wider than before, but it did feel weird. My baby’s head, followed by the rest of her, slid into my vaginal canal, and the remnants of my orgasmic contractions pushed her out of my hole. “Oh fuck!” I cried. Mindy next to me screamed as she too felt life coming out of her body. Brad was right between my legs to catch our daughter as she was born.“Oh my God!” he cried. Our child was attached to me inside, not by an umbilical cord, but a vine, and though human in shape and features, her hair was leafy and her skin had the sheen of silvery bark. “It’s a girl,” he said, wiping startled tears off his face.“We have a boy!” shouted Marty.“Oh my God,” I said, gasping, “we’ve given birth to a new race.”“Thank you,” said the voice. “We’ve been waiting for a species like yours to help us evolve. Now we can begin the Dryad race. Your sacrifices will not be unrewarded.” My body was sweaty, and I was exhausted, but I raised my beautiful new daughter to my swollen tits and she latched on to drink. The world compelled Brad and Marty to run off again for more of its special sustenance. We were left to expel the afterbirths of our children alone, at least until the voice spoke to us alone. “You will be used to birth our children many times, but your bodies will experience pleasure unlike any you could ever dream, and you will never want for anything. We thank you for your service.” Our babes suckled, cooing and growing at an alarming rate, and when our mates returned with more fruit and nectar we were soon seeded by them again. Brad and Marty’s enhanced cocks proved insatiable, and our cunts proved endlessly fertile. Mindy and I have already gestated and given birth at least once a day, and our eldest children already are like seven years old instead of seven days. They’ve already started making the world their own while we are giving them siblings. I don’t know how long we’ll be here, fucking and being pregnant with our dryad children, but it feels so incredible we may never want to leave.Brad’s cock was inside me even as I wrote this, cumming huge amounts and making my belly swell. I’ll be giving birth again soon, to my eighth child. While we’re busy making more, the plants around us show the kids their world and take care of them in the way I guess only sentient plant parents can. We, the humans, can’t stop fucking! The youngest babies drink my nectar while more babies are gestating in me, every day. I never ended up making any clothes. We’ve been too busy having sex since, we got here.Post script:The foliage of this place seems to retain dominion over our team, unlike Adam & Eve's dominion over that first ‘Garden of Eden'. Life in this world seems preoccupied with procreation and pleasure; less so on curiosity and learning. The vines did not tolerate non-compliance in this domain.Has mankind been here before? Is the transporting vine actually a ‘Tree of Life'?  Were we the first human-like race? Will the Dryads ever be transported back to our world? Will Dryads and humans live in harmony?Based on a post by PhilippaMaQuente for Literotica

Four scientists find their mission led astray, by paradise. Based on a post by PhilippaMaQuente. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. Forward: In the beginning, defiance led to rejection and expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Our species was transported to the parallel universe we've now occupied for several millennia. Legends of that previous world have been handed down to us, along with various elaborations and moral lessons. If we could only access that previous world. A world designed for our inclusion. Does it exist? Is it yet flourishing in our absence? Can we gain a second chance to rejoin Eden? [[MORE]] Sally joins an expeditionary team.  You know, the job of a scientist is not always easy, but it's usually pretty rewarding. I've helped discover new species of plants and animals, and I derived a number of medicinal properties from my discoveries, too. I'm a naturalist and explorer. But, sometimes I think existence has an absolutely weird sense of humor. How else could I possibly explain the misadventures my team's had this past week? I mean, where do I even begin to explain all this craziness? We were on the trail of an extremely elusive lemur species on Madagascar when my teammate Brad stumbled into a burrow of some kind. "Shit!" he shrieked, his leg sinking calf deep in an extremely well disguised hole. I rushed over. "Oh man! Are you hurt?" I crouched behind him, putting my arms around his chest, hooked under his pits. I used my legs to try and pry him out of the hole. Our other team members, Marty and Mindy, rushed over to help. "I don't think it's injured, I was just really fucking surprised." He began shifting his weight pushing back with his free leg. "Damn, this hole is deep! What makes burrows like this out here?" "What's the angle like?" Mindy asked. "Most everything in this area are tree-dwellers," "It's weird, it's straight down," Brad said, "and it's like there's nothing below, nothing on all sides. I'm only being squeezed right here at the calf." He pointed to the section of leg we could actually see touching earth. "That is super weird," I grunted, still pulling. He was coming loose. "But maybe, it was just a hollow that got buried by, a storm, or shifting ground. No biggie." Marty threw himself into a crouch and aided me by wrapping his arms around my middle. "On my count," he said. "One, two, three!" we both pulled, throwing our weight collectively into the effort. "It's working!" Brad said happily. "My leg's coming free." After a couple of minutes of combined work, Marty and I got him out and we all fell back in a heap. "Whew!" I grunted. "Brad, your leg ok? Let's see." Pulling away from the hole, Brad rolled up his pant leg and removed his boot. No blood, no bad scratches. It didn't look twisted, and I saw no swelling. "Looks good, Sally," he told me. "Doesn't hurt but I could just be pumping with adrenaline. I'll give it a few." "Good idea," I nodded. "Let's all take ten. Our little kerfuffle probably scared off everything within fifty yards anyway." My team settled down and busted out water and some snacks. Tromping through rainforest looking for tiny primates was hot, thirsty work. "I kinda want to take a look at this hole," Mindy said, walking cautiously toward it. "Could be a nest, could be just an odd patch of hollow ground." "Yeah, let's poke around a little," I replied, after taking a gulp of my canteen. "If it's not an animal den maybe we could fill it up, just so no one else stumbles in and gets hurt." Mindy put herself on her belly and inched over. "Wow Brad, you must've caught it just right. It's hardly big enough for a boot your size." "Hey, you know what they say about men with big feet," Brad quipped in response. He held his palms open nearly a foot and a half to illustrate his point. "You know what I mean?" I playfully punched him on the shoulder. "Sure, but you're not supposed to stick your foot in those holes," I countered. We all laughed, except Mindy. Totally focused, she was peering into the opening with her flashlight. "Guys, this is really fucking weird," she said. "There's nothing down there I can see, nothing at all! And, it's the weirdest thing, but, There's air flowing out of the hole. Cold air!" We all leaned in. I was fascinated. "Buried cave, maybe?" I hypothesized. "Buried something," she answered. "I say we open it up." "Agreed," I said. "Second," Marty put in. Like Mindy, we all flopped down on our bellies and began pulling clumps of dirt away from the hole. The tree roots beneath us had formed a pretty good network to secure the dirt, leaving only that one gap. Pretty soon we'd uncovered a genuine hole in the ground, only about five feet wide, and deep. So deep, and cylindrical in shape, it was like an abandoned well. I said as much. "Solid theory," Brad remarked. "What do we do now? Do we just leave it? We can't fill it in." "We could make a crude sign or marker and post it to warn passerby." Mindy remarked thoughtfully. I used my headlamp to beam down into the hole. It loomed below us, black and yawning, but somehow, though I felt like I ought to be frightened, it seemed more mysterious and tantalizing than scary. I stuck my head in, bracing my upper body at the rim. "Hello!" I shouted into the void, and waited. My voice dropped down, but did not come bouncing back, I waited a while. "Echo!" I dropped the second time, listening intently. Nothing. "This thing must be fucking deep," I muttered, beginning to shimmy back out. Distracted by my own effort, I had to pause when I half caught something that sounded like my name, coming not from my team but somewhere below me. Twisting to look back at them, I asked: "Did somebody call me?" "No," Marty said. "We were all waiting for you." I shook my head and continued dragging myself out of the hole by my elbows. "Let's make the sign," Brad was saying when I felt something touch my wrist. I jerked, startled, but saw what appeared to be a root that I'd brushed, and relaxed again. However, when I was unable to pull free of it, I sought the source, And found myself peering straight down, at a vine curled snugly around my wrist, risen from the depths of nowhere. "Uh, guys?" I started, tugging at my captor. It was firmly set, somewhere. Before they could even look, I felt something, odd. The vine trapping me began to writhe, and suddenly the largest, most spectacular flowers I'd ever seen began to sprout and bloom from it. Big as dinner plates, with a five-petal bloom in the most vivid electric purple. I goggled at the sight of the one closest to me. As the flower came into its full beauty, it released a scent that hit me right in the face, immediately making me swoon with heady intoxication. My body, grew hot. And my mind told me to go down, to let the vine take me. That paradise awaited me down there, Mindy was the first to notice my predicament, and the first to react when I shot forward into the hole not of my own volition. The portal "Oh shit," I declared, feeling myself dragged headfirst down into what I was already envisioning as some kind of wonderland. Mindy dove on my legs, screaming at the guys to help her, and I felt their weight momentarily halt my progress. It was just my round ass and legs sticking out of the hole at that point. The vine on my wrist grew thicker, and suddenly began growing. It enveloped my whole upper body as I watched and began pulling again. Then more vines, already blossoming like mine had, crept out around me to ensnare my team, dosing each one of them with the intoxicating perfume. I was feeling very warm and very good about the whole thing by then. "Hang on!" I giggled. "We're going for a ride!" The vines got all of us in one fell swoop, and before we knew it, we were all being rushed right along down the tunnel to somewhere, screaming bloody murder in the dark. We fell a long, long time, and at some point I blacked out into nonsensical dreams full of vivid colors and scents but no substance. I didn't know how long I was out, but I did know why I came to. Something was tickling me, between my legs. I was fuzzy, waking up, but when I felt something thick and incredibly bendy probe between my cunt lips and slide inside me, I hollered, coming awake more violently than anything else could have done. Intense pleasure shot through my cunt as something thrust itself deep inside. I looked down. I was sprawled in a plant that resembled a strawberry patch, naked, with my legs tethered open by tendrils of plant life, a shining green vine filling my cunt. It was growing out of the bottom of the thing, which cradled me like a bed. My arms were tethered above my head, and I watched helplessly as another part of the giant vine-plant wrapped my breasts. Two little buds, different from the previous purple ones, latched on to my nipples and began dripping something- I guess nectar- onto them. The long tendril actually inside me plunged deep into my womb, bypassing my cervix in a moment of strange ecstasy. I felt a tremendous rush of liquid fill me, like, a huge swelling, but then it all absorbed into my body. After that, my blood began to heat. My arousal tipped up to an insane degree. "Oh holy fuck!" I shouted. "Mindy? Marty, Brad- where are you? Are you okay?" The vine in my cunt gently plunged in and out of my hole. The buds on my nipples somehow made them extra sensitive and dying for touch. I began to pant. Nearby I heard what sounded suspiciously like Mindy, screaming an orgasm. A third bud grew toward my clitoris and latched on. I howled. The nectar gushed onto that part of me too and sent my insides roiling with need. Brad popped up into my plant-bed. He wasn't restrained, but I did notice he was naked, and had a rather interesting new accessory. A vine was in his ass, plunging back and forth. "Sally!" he gasped, steeling himself against his body's invader. "Everyone's, uh okay, but," He climbed toward me, his erection stiff as hell and huge. "Marty and Mindy are like this too, They're already fucking, God Sally I'm so sorry! I can't help it!" Spurned forward by the vine using his asshole, Brad dove on top of me like a man starving and plunged his tongue into my mouth. Already wild with arousal, I responded eagerly. The vine filling my cunt pulled away and redirected itself into my other hole, The same place it was filling Brad and driving him mad. Once inside me there, the plant spread my legs further and opened me for Brad's cock. "We can worry about this later,!" I grunted out. "Fuck me, fuck me now!" Nothing in the world was more important at that moment than being fucked. Brad did not hesitate. His huge cock speared me immediately. I howled, he groaned. He started thrusting inside my burning hot hole immediately, and as our bodies entwined we realized the heat was overwhelming, our lust scorching. "Oh fuck! Oh fuck, Sally!" he growled, slamming his hips into mine. I bucked against him, taking everything he had, wanting more. "Yes, yes, yes, oh Brad!" Each of us had our asses plundered, and I felt the penetration from each side within me and screamed my bliss. Brad was fucking like a man on fire, driving his dick so hard into my cunt it was miraculous I felt no pain. Instead I felt heat and good and pleasure so profound my whole body was singing. The buds nipping at my nipples and clitoris had made them so stiff, so swollen in arousal that I marveled they didn't shoot right off my body. The buds finally left my nipples, and Brad seized downward as he fucked me to latch on with his lips, as if driven by innate primal desire. "So, sweet," he groaned through his teeth. I could feel a climax building powerfully inside me. The bud on my clit hadn't stopped its curious brand of soaking aphrodisiac nectar into that most sensitive place, and I was veering dangerously close to stimulation overload. Brad's cock was thicker and bigger and harder than any man I'd ever had before, and the savagery of his thrusts ought to hurt, but they just felt amazing. I was so rabid I just screamed his name, over and over, and I felt another gush of fluid from the vine in my ass. At the same time, Brad surged forward like he'd gotten the same. "I'm going to cum in you, Sally!" he told me with a tinge of regret. "I'm going to cum too, Brad! It's ok, this isn't us!" He wrapped me in his arms. "We're being used, It's not your fault." I breathed raggedly, thrashing myself against him. "No!" he groaned. "I really do like you, Sally! A lot! But I wouldn't have wanted it this way!" "I know! Me too, it's ok, you can cum in me! I need you to cum in me!" I screamed. "Please, please cum in me!" My body, overloaded with aphrodisiacs and stimulation, pitched over the edge. The muscle spasms that went off in my cunt were tremendous, and would have crushed a normal cock. But Brad, inundated by the plant's strange properties, had a dick of steel and pistoned it to the back of me expertly until his body gave up his seed. And believe me, I felt it. It was like the fluid from the vine that had gushed tremendously and then absorbed. He poured shot after shot inside, but it was molten hot and he just kept cumming as I kept cumming, on and on. The orgasm we shared caused an explosion of blue-green blossoms all over our plant bed, and the vines finally released us as we lay shaking in each other's arms. Mindy and Marty finally found us; they were huddled together and spent from their bout of lovemaking. Brad and I joined our comrades, totally naked as well. All four of us left the now docile and incredibly beautiful bloomed plants that had fucked us, and spurned us to fuck each other, behind. When we did, we could not believe the world spread before us. It was a riot of color. Plant life like none of us had ever seen before. Huge blossoms, trees that dwarfed even redwoods, in hot cinnamon red and mossy green. Tall gold grasses that danced in the breeze. Looking around, we noticed all of our clothing and equipment was totally gone, like it had never existed in the first place. We also noticed that Mindy and I were both now sporting breasts the size of small melons, both of our nipples a deep ruby red, our clitorises the same rich color. I also noticed that my belly seemed to be rounding, and growing heavy. Hers too. My breasts ached, almost as if they were filling up with liquid. "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto," I hummed forebodingly. Instinctively I cupped my stomach with my palm. "What, the hell, Did we fall into?" Marty croaked out, holding Mindy to him possessively. "I don't know," Brad answered. "Am I the only one that heard the voice before we got pulled down here?" I started, trying to keep my rational scientific mind. In fact, I began studying my environment with more critical detachment. I looked up into an overcast, but still sunny, sky, with a faint mixture of pale blues, purples and greens, but saw no hole. Nothing. No cave, either, just lush foliage and Technicolor world. "Voice?" Mindy suddenly barked. "What did you hear?" Her reaction, so sharp and intent, clued me in. "Don't flip out yet, any of you," I said, holding up a hand. "We're scientists. We are making discoveries, got it?" I waited, to see them all understand my meaning and nod. "When the vine grabbed my wrist, I thought I heard my name, first," recollection hit them of the moment, "And after I got dosed by the flower I thought I heard a voice say I should come down here." "I heard the same fucking thing!" Mindy said. "I thought I was experiencing a panic-induced hallucination! It said 'paradise' was down here." I gasped. "I heard that too!" "I didn't hear anything besides our screaming," Brad said, shrugging. He looked at Marty. "Nothing here. But I did get hit by a load of that flower perfume. It made me sneeze but I didn't otherwise feel anything different." "It made me feel drunk, and, horny." I blushed. Stupidly, really. "Yeah," Mindy said. "Me too," she looked down, as if realizing she was naked for the first time. Our erogenous zones were like fat cherries on our breasts and loins. The ache in my tits and the swelling of my lower body led me to my logical conclusions. "Okay, Mindy and I were both dosed by the perfume and had physical reactions, and heard a voice prior to being pulled down here. Logically it seems that the targets are females. Though obviously this place makes use of males as well. Based on my physical sensations and everything that happened in the blue-flower plant, Mindy and I are pregnant. The pregnancies are escalated, and not entirely human. I think, this world not only enhances our reproductive capabilities but needs our fertility for its own." "If it needs both males and females to help it propagate, why didn't it try and lure us too?" asked Marty. "Maybe because it knows that the males will follow their females, especially if they seem to be in danger. Breeding females are an important resource." Mindy added on, suddenly holding her belly. "You wouldn't have let us disappear down that hole without trying something." "No, we wouldn't have." Brad said. "Alright, the million-dollar question now is what do we do?" "Well, I can't see where we came in here from, can any of you?" They all looked, and once each of them had surveyed the landscape to their satisfaction, they shook their heads. "Fuck," Marty said. "I postulate that we have discovered a pocket dimension or a passage through space-time, friends," I said. "Which means that if we get back, We're going to have more money than God." I grinned, trying to break the tension and get a laugh. It worked, and my team cracked up. "Oh my God," Mindy started, wiping away a few tears from laughing so hard. "We'll be the most famous fucking science team that has ever been." "We went searching for monkeys and ended up proving parallel universes exist," Brad continued. "Or at least that Narnia might really be in a closet somewhere." "Wardrobe," I corrected. Brad laughed. "Oh forgive me, Sir Reads-a-lot." "Alright seriously though," Marty said, once the mood had relaxed. "If Mindy and Sally really are pregnant, we've got to deal with that." "Yeah, and we've gotta survive," I said. "We need to find shelter and resources," Mindy added. "Precisely. Alright team, we can do this." I put my hand palm down in front of them. "Pile on." They added their hands to the stack. "What happened back there we can talk about. We'll talk about how we want to move forward, with these potential babies, and this world. Right now, we focus on food, water, shelter, warmth. Let's spread out and begin observing." Everyone nodded. "I'm going to scout the area for potential camping ground or natural shelter," Marty said. "I'll also take note of building resources. I think we should remain as close as we can here just because our passage back is likely accessible here." "Agreed," Brad chimed. "I'm going to search for fresh water resources and examine these flowers. I want to see if the other plants demonstrate any more signs of sentience." "I'm going to start looking for edible plants and signs of animal life," Mindy said. "There could be berries, fruits, roots. We're going to need as much nutrition as possible if we're out here a while." I nodded. "I'm going to see if those grasses can be harvested and woven." I said, eyeing the long gold strands. "Clothing and blankets for exposure and warmth, baskets, hammocks maybe, hats, water skins- I might be able to make anything we need to survive." Then, I did something corny, harkening back to our undergrad college biology club days. Our competitive chant seemed the thing to do. All of us nodded, pumped our hands together and raised them with a shout of "For Science!" all together. After we split apart to our chosen tasks, I headed right for the golden grasses. They were silky but strong, like the husk on fresh corn, without the little fibers on the inside. As I ran my fingers up the stalks, moving forward, I felt and saw them bend to accommodate my body. They allowed me to pass without me having to bend or cut them. Well, there was at least some evidence of the world's sentience. Perhaps cognizance had evolved in the plants of this world, and not the animal life. As I wandered through the stalks, they caressed my body like tiny hands, and I began to notice how direct the touches were. I stopped walking. Immediately the grasses all around me wrapped my body all over and began stroking every one of my curves. I moaned aloud as the tendrils rubbed my incredibly sensitive nipples and wrapped my breasts. They began to squeeze the heft of each tit and tug on my nipples, almost like they were milking me. I felt stalks wind up my legs and find my labia's cleft. I was already gushing juice from my slit, and they dove into it- four, five, six stalks writhing inside me all at once, squirming and pleasuring my g-spot and my tender cervix. My nipples started gushing clear, sweet-smelling liquid like rain all over the stalks. I cried out in delight as I was rubbed on my clit too, the grasses keeping me pleasured so that I kept producing nectar for them to soak up. As they did, they ripened before my eyes, turning from bright gold to bronze, and they shook off the outer coat, leaving behind a silky strip I could harvest for raw materials. The plants milked me and fucked me to multiple orgasms, shedding piles of their golden husks and turning rich bronze, getting taller and thicker. Soon a whole little patch of bronze was all around me, and I was both thirsty and exhausted, my arms full of weaving material. Not too far off, Mindy was wandering in a brushier part of the landscape, searching for root plants and berries, or fruit-bearing trees. She was getting hungry and thirsty, her belly becoming more of a burden. Sally had to be right. They were pregnant with something. Mindy's nose detected a sweet aroma and she followed it. A cluster of trees, small, lemon-yellow in bark and emerald green in foliage, were growing just upwind. Their branches were low enough to reach, and she saw a number of fist-sized fruits growing there. Only one way to know if they were edible. She examined the colors of the fruits, and looked for evidence of fallen ones. It seemed as though they started green, like the leaves, and soon turned an orange yellow to indicate ripeness. For starters, Mindy picked up a recently fallen ripened fruit and sniffed it, touched it. It emanated a tangy-sweet aroma and was about the feel and size of a peach. Her Mouth watering, she bit into the fruit. An explosion of delectable flavors coated her tongue. Tangy, tart and sweet, with firm, smooth flesh and thick juice, the fruit was absolutely delicious, and calmed her belly immediately. She felt refreshed and strengthened by it as well, and devoured the whole piece down to the stone inside. Mindy began loading her arms full and took the fruit with her back to the central area. Along the way she felt her cunt getting warm. Just like when the plant had ensnared and injected her before, she was becoming incredibly horny. Mindy found me as I stumbled out of the grasses, arms full of plant material and panting hard. Give her fruit, a voice whispered. Then go into the grasses. The voice startled Mindy but she knew there was nothing to fear, somehow. "Eat this, Sally," she said, bending to offer me one of the fruits. Parched, I grabbed it and took a bite. It immediately refreshed me, and I moaned at the flavor. It was incredible. "It wants me to go in there. What'll happen?" "Well for me, like ten orgasms. I helped ripen it somehow, and it shed these stalks." I pointed. "Our breast juice helps it." Mindy shrugged, and stepped into the grasses. They took my friend down the road to pleasure, and as soon as I began feeling the effects of the fruit, I understood why. The grasses reached out and dragged me back in. Our screams of pleasure began rising in harmony. Oblivious to the women, Brad was bent over several flowers in the field, absorbed by the wondrous nature of them, their colors, complex perfumes and variegated shapes. He was looking for a fresh water resource, like a stream or a pond, but what he was discovering was even more astounding. Some of the flowers held a reserve of water or nectar inside bulbous lower chambers. But how could he access it without damaging the plant? Carefully, he probed the opening with his fingers. It was large enough to slip something like a straw in there, if he could make one. But as he examined, he brushed the flower's stamen, releasing some pollen, which he breathed in. The flower then gave up the entire cup-like lower petal, thick as a cabbage leaf and full of liquid, right into his hand. The pollen had a curious effect on him. Immediately his cock thickened and surged rigidly erect. Go to the grasses and pollinate your female again, a voice out of his mind told him. The environment here will see to all your needs. Go. Compelled and horny, Brad took the petal-cup with him and sprinted back to where the girls were being pleasured and harvested by the golden grasses. Marty's quest through the tall trees and forest-like area had proven rich with sticks and limbs, foliage, mud, and other such raw building materials. He was busily gathering them into a pile when he came upon a tangle of small green plants growing at the base of one of the cinnamon red giant trees. They resembled basil and gave off an herbal scent. Curious, Marty leaned down and plucked a leaf. He brought it to his nose, and it smelled pleasant, minty and fragrant. Deciding it was better to try and document any possible edible greenery, he popped the leaf in his mouth and chewed. It was like spiced mint, enjoyable and unusual. Chewing, Marty went to return to his work, but was quickly blindsided by a ferocious erection. Go to the grasses, the voice told him too. Go pollinate your female. Confused, all four of us were soon converged. The men found us bound by bronze and gold grasses, our tits being milked and our cunts kept in a state of perpetual orgasm. We'd each eaten three of the stone fruits Mindy had found, and our bodies were producing insane amounts of nectar from our breasts. The planet's voice became audible to all of us in that moment. "Drink of their nectar and seed them," the voice said, directing the men. The grasses began looping their engorged and enormous cocks. The men were pulled forward, compelled by sexual desire so fierce it could not be denied, like we were. Brad's lips fell to one of my breasts first, and he began suckling. My cunt and Mindy's were held open by the grasses. Marty descended on Mindy. I would have thought the grasses filling me and wrapping Brad's cock would recede when we joined, but they didn't. Instead I was filled with the mass of flesh and plant, my cunt so full I couldn't move. I stretched easily to accommodate the girth of everything inside me, and it felt so good I couldn't do much more than yelp as I received it. The grasses bound Brad at the base of his cock and squeezed, trapping blood in his erection, making him fiercely hard, prolonging his orgasm. They also wrapped his balls and added stimulation there. Finally we both felt the tendrils fill our asses. "Oh fuck!" he cried, jolting inside me. "Ah!" I screamed. Brad started thrusting, but it was half him and half the plants, spurring him deep. Mindy and Marty were right next to us, undergoing the same. She and I grasped each other's fingers together as we each got fucked and filled. Once the orgasms started, they never stopped. My body kept cumming, over and over again on Brad's dick as he grunted and desperately sought orgasm in my overheated cunt. Adding more aphrodisiac juices to each of us as our bodies were used, the plants finally allowed the men to come, and Brad filled me with I think, a literal gallon of cum. As he did, both my tits and belly swelled even larger, and now we were very obviously pregnant. I ached, and my belly was full and round in my arms. The sight of us like that, Did something to the guys. Without speaking, both of them broke away, as if possessed, and ran off. The grasses moved Mindy and me toward each other, and though they had released the men, we were still trapped, and still being pleasured. We squealed in one another's arms. We even pressed our lips together as we were both used, our tits and bellies rubbing on each other, and we made out fiercely. Mindy and I were lost in a haze of pure lust. Brad and Marty, meanwhile, had run on instinct back to the flower patch and taken more of the pollen that triggered the voice for Brad. They each took pollen on their tongues and felt their pricks swell again. The flowers gave up their nectar cups and they drank. It refreshed both their parched throats and readied them to return. When they did, they found us tangling our tongues and stroking each other's tits, our legs still splayed open for them. The boys each grabbed another fruit and came toward us. Marty took me this time, and Brad took Mindy. They plunged their cocks inside without asking, without a word, and began fucking us hard. Pulling our mouths apart, Mindy and I moaned. Each man bent down to make us eat the fruit they bore, even as they rode us so hard I was afraid they'd hurt our babies. But it felt so good I forgot to worry. It was just an oblivion of pleasure and I fell into it. I lost count of how many times the men fucked us, switching between pussies and impregnating us bigger and bigger with every load of cum. "You're going to give birth soon," Brad said, as he helplessly fucked the absolutely hell out of my cunt. "We're going to be giving you sperm until you both give birth!" "The voice keeps telling us, to pollinate," Marty choked. Every load had made my tits and belly bigger. I felt the child in my womb now, and I heard it. It was made of my and Brad's human genetics, and enhanced by the sentience of the plants. It would be a new evolution of humanity. "Not long now!" I panted. "Not long," Brad fucked another load of molten cum into my cunt, and I shrieked as another orgasm tore through me. As it did, my womb opened up, Brad's cock slipped out of me, and my child fell into my birth canal. The birth itself wasn't horribly painful, as the whole escapade had prepared my cunt to stretch much wider than before, but it did feel weird. My baby's head, followed by the rest of her, slid into my vaginal canal, and the remnants of my orgasmic contractions pushed her out of my hole. "Oh fuck!" I cried. Mindy next to me screamed as she too felt life coming out of her body. Brad was right between my legs to catch our daughter as she was born. "Oh my God!" he cried. Our child was attached to me inside, not by an umbilical cord, but a vine, and though human in shape and features, her hair was leafy and her skin had the sheen of silvery bark. "It's a girl," he said, wiping startled tears off his face. "We have a boy!" shouted Marty. "Oh my God," I said, gasping, "we've given birth to a new race." "Thank you," said the voice. "We've been waiting for a species like yours to help us evolve. Now we can begin the Dryad race. Your sacrifices will not be unrewarded." My body was sweaty, and I was exhausted, but I raised my beautiful new daughter to my swollen tits and she latched on to drink. The world compelled Brad and Marty to run off again for more of its special sustenance. We were left to expel the afterbirths of our children alone, at least until the voice spoke to us alone. "You will be used to birth our children many times, but your bodies will experience pleasure unlike any you could ever dream, and you will never want for anything. We thank you for your service." Our babes suckled, cooing and growing at an alarming rate, and when our mates returned with more fruit and nectar we were soon seeded by them again. Brad and Marty's enhanced cocks proved insatiable, and our cunts proved endlessly fertile. Mindy and I have already gestated and given birth at least once a day, and our eldest children already are like seven years old instead of seven days. They've already started making the world their own while we are giving them siblings. I don't know how long we'll be here, fucking and being pregnant with our dryad children, but it feels so incredible we may never want to leave. Brad's cock was inside me even as I wrote this, cumming huge amounts and making my belly swell. I'll be giving birth again soon, to my eighth child. While we're busy making more, the plants around us show the kids their world and take care of them in the way I guess only sentient plant parents can. We, the humans, can't stop fucking! The youngest babies drink my nectar while more babies are gestating in me, every day. I never ended up making any clothes. We've been too busy having sex since, we got here. Post script: The foliage of this place seems to retain dominion over our team, unlike Adam & Eve's dominion over that first ‘Garden of Eden'. Life in this world seems preoccupied with procreation and pleasure; less so on curiosity and learning. The vines did not tolerate non-compliance in this domain. Has mankind been here before? Is the transporting vine actually a ‘Tree of Life'?  Were we the first human-like race? Will the Dryads ever be transported back to our world? Will Dryads and humans live in harmony? Based on a post by PhilippaMaQuente for Literotica

Is it better to hopeful, optimistic and positive or is it a sig of delusion?I was speaking into this with a client of mine today, she asked me whether she was stupid for believing in someone close to her. This person has made wrong choices many, many times before in their life and my client was wondering if she was mad, believing in her again?I love this topic!My response? The strongest of humans are wildly optimistic. The open their hearts to hope, and in doing so open their hearts. hurt, to failure.  Only the strongest of humans are capable of this. The rest choose the safety of resignation to their circumstances, in case they hope for more and get hurt along the way Support the show Need some guidance and clarity? Book a free call with Janelle https://calendly.com/janellebridge/clarity-call?Reach out on InstaInsta >https://www.instagram.com/thisisjanellebridgeemail Janelle: hello@janellebridge.com.au

It's the season finale of Columbo as he faces the true evil, the police force! The commissioner kills his own wife and blames a small-time crook. Stupidly though he puts his best little elf on the case. We talk about: Editing Woes, Hitman, Blade Runner, Basketball, The Devil, Pillow Nightgown, Bar Ownership, Columbo's Car Problem, Columbo Coulda Solved Gone Girl, Big Acting, Sunglasses, Shitty Apartment, Worst Bathrooms, Molly Would Win, Episode Watched: S3 E8 A Friend In Deed

GET A FREE 14-DAY TRIAL MEMBERSHIP TO MY ONLINE DRUM SCHOOL: https://bit.ly/2TpkJmJ Free series on how to create drum fills: https://www.stephensdrumshed.com/creating-drum-fills-signup/ 30 Days To Better Doubles 30 Days To Better Singles  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephensdrumshed/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/DrummerEtc SDS Drum Camp Info: https://www.stephensdrumshed.com/sds-drum-camps/ Steel Woods Tour Dates & Tix: https://www.thesteelwoods.com/#tour

In the tenth episode of Semi-Indestructible, Peter Fitzer joins me to discuss strange but amazing animal behaviors. BTG's Links: https://www.instagram.com/tasmanian_g... https://www.amazon.com/stores/Bradley... Shop Semi-Indestructible Here: https://btgartistshop.threadless.com/designs/semi-indestructible-1 Watch Adventure Beast here: https://www.netflix.com/title/81080959 Subscribe to The Wild Times Podcast on YouTube ▶▶ / @wildtimespod Get YouTube Membership Perks ▶▶ / @wildtimespod Get Up To 4 Bonus Podcasts Per Month ▶▶ https://www.patreon.com/wildtimespod Watch More Episodes Here ▶▶ https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLP... Visit https://thewildtimespodcast.com/ now! Join The Wild Times Discord Server: https://discord.gg/ytzKBbC9Db Get your Wild Times Podcast merch: https://thewildtimespodcast.com/merch Leave a review on iTunes Apple Podcast: https://thewildtimespodcast.com/itune... Follow The Wild Times Podcast on socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildtimespod/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wildtimespod Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildTimesPod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildtimespod/ Listen to The Wild Times Podcast on: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2cbFBzf... Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0... Anchor.fm: https://anchor.fm/wildtimespod/ YouTube: / @wildtimespod Enjoy, Bushmasters! Semi-Indestructible Ep. 10 Breakdown 00:00 Housekeeping 04:40 - Introducing Peter Fitzer 05:55 - Mukbang 14:40 - Fish 18:05 - Insects 36:30 - Birds 45:45 - Reptiles + Amphibians 54:20 - BTG's last fight he was in 1:03:30 - Mammals 1:12:30 - What animal superpower would you take? + Sydney Hail Storm 1:20:00 - More stupidly amazing animal behaviors Jingles made by: www.soundcloud.com/mimmkey #podcast #semiindestructible

Duh!  So damn obvious, as myself and Gabor Erdosi pointed out clearly in early 2021, when all the data was in! Enjoy this trip down memory lane - especially given that we were all so CORRECT FOR EVER! NOTE: My extensive research and interviewing / video/sound editing, business travel and much more does require support - please consider helping if you can with monthly donation to support me directly, or one-off payment: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=69ZSTYXBMCN3W - alternatively join up with my Patreon - exclusive Vlogs/content and monthly zoom meetings with the second tier upwards: https://www.patreon.com/IvorCummins

What does it take to REALLY have a happy marriage, happy life and yes, a happy wife - and why most of us have this backwards...In this episode I talk about the most important thing that a man can learn about what to use his masculine energy FOR in his life and relationships.In our coaching, we help men get a powerful new mindset that empowers you to give, love and connect more deeply because you're finally doing that within yourself first. This mindset allows empathy, trust and connection to happen because you're confident in who you're being. We teach skills and knowledge that nobody ever teaches men when we're younger. Skills and knowledge that make you feel confident and in control even when chaos is going on around you. It's amazing what you can achieve when you make yourself a priority. Most men don't. They are too busy taking care of everyone else. Too busy minding the store and making the money. They are focused on the "outside game" of winning life. But their "inside game" of confidence and clarity is suffering badly. You can only improve your inside game with other men. We would love to help you become more calm, more strong emotionally and more confident and happy in who you are as a man. Come and join us, either through 1-on-1 coaching with my colleague Dan Dore or me, or in our group coaching program with other amazing men who are travelling the same path as you right now in our Men's Live Coaching Roundtable. There's an amazing tribe of guys in this group with us, supporting and helping each other through this process of growth and self realization. https://goodguys2greatmen.com/goodguys2greatmen-live-coaching-roundtable/ If you're facing possible divorce, we have an online course which is specifically for you - Defuse the Divorce Bomb: https://mojopolis.thinkific.com/courses/HDDB-preview?ref=a53950 What if this next year everything changed for you? That's what we want for you brother, We love teaching men these tools - how to be better, how to know who you are, what you stand for, what you want and how to CREATE it in your life through our Masculine Confidence coaching programs. Dan and I are here to guide you on this mission.http://goodguys2greatmen.com/work-with-steve/ Steve's book Straight Talk Tools for the Desperate Husband will help you to lead yourself and your relationship back to good health. Understand why your partner acts the way she does toward you and learn how to lead your life in the direction you want it to go. You CAN have the relationship you want, fulfilling all your desires while maintaining love and respect. http://goodguys2greatmen.com/goodguys/straight-talk-tools-for-the-desperate-husband/ We also have a free e-book to help men learn how to lose their fear and be more bold in their marriage to create the love and connection they want. Get The Hard to Swallow Truth About Saving Your Marriage: http://goodguys2greatmen.com/ If you want to learn more about how to take a bigger step toward being a clear-headed, confident man of action, then find out more here: http://goodguys2greatmen.com/work-with-steve/ We would be thrilled to help you get there - our first discovery call is always free and always gives you a BIG boost of confidence. You WILL become a clearer, stronger, more confident man only through other men. Your woman cannot take you there - and she doesn't WANT to...trust us on that. Sign up to receive our email newsletters for lots more free tips and advice here: http://archive.aweber.com/stevemain Subscribe to be notified whenever we upload a new video: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC13h36xaBvyTPVAES4-4rXw?sub_confirmation=1 You can watch all our videos here: http://goodguys2greatmen.com/video-library/ Or read our blog articles here: http://goodguys2greatmen.com/blog/

Ed reacts to Evan Neal's shocking, regrettable attack on Giants fans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rich is talking about how to increase your workplace productivity today

DJ & PK talked about the decision by the Baltimore Orioles to suspend play-by-play broadcaster Kevin Brown for a seemingly innocuous statement of fact on-air.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Trump stupidly keeps attacking judges and prosecutors. Man-baby melted down bigly on Truth Social tossing shade at Nancy Pelosi, Jack Smith, and many others. Trumpy judge Allieen Cannon caterwauled over the use of two grand juries in the Trump document case. Shitler complained that water regulations have negatively impacted his creepy orange hair configuration. Don-the-con's ridiculous defamation lawsuit against E.Jean Carroll was dismissed. Mein Pillow wanker Mike Lindell announced yet another cyber symposium with the promise of a plan to get Trump into The White House. The Crabs covered the magnificent Alabama boat brawl where a bunch of lobstered racist rednecks gets their comeuppance for attacking an African American security guard. The Czar of Oklahoma blathered that everyone in his state gaining a personal relationship with JEEBUS would be his only wish.

Have you ever been so sure you're right that you were willing to bet your life on it? The world of science occasionally attracts people ready to take that test, walking the line between braveness and serious stupidity. Forget all about safety regulations, because when no one else was willing, these mad scientists used themselves as guinea pigs!Our Sponsors:* Check out HelloFresh and use my code 50beamazed for a great deal: https://www.hellofresh.com/Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Portfolio manager Lance Roberts & Wealthion founder Adam Taggart recap the major developments of the week, including: Is the top in for the AI/Tech rally? Central banks are hiking rates again. How aggressively with the Federal Reserve resume hiking? Is inflation due to increase in the next few months? Unseasonably hot weather creating hurricane & drought risks The latest macro data still screams recession even though the market remains unconvinced The trades Lance's firm made this week ************************************************* At Wealthion, we show you how to protect and build your wealth by learning from the world's top experts on finance and money. Each week we add new videos that provide you with access to the foremost specialists in investing, economics, the stock market, real estate and personal finance. We offer exceptional interviews and explainer videos that dive deep into the trends driving today's markets, the economy, and your own net worth. We give you strategies for financial security, practical answers to questions like “how to grow my investments?”, and effective solutions for wealth building tailored to 'regular' investors just like you. There's no doubt that it's a very challenging time right now for the average investor. Above and beyond the recent economic impacts of COVID, the new era of record low interest rates, runaway US debt and US deficits, and trillions of dollars in monetary and fiscal stimulus stimulus has changed the rules of investing by dangerously distorting the Dow index, the S&P 500, and nearly all other asset prices. Can prices keep rising, or is there a painful reckoning ahead? Let us help you prepare your portfolio just in case the future brings one or more of the following: inflation, deflation, a bull market, a bear market, a market correction, a stock market crash, a real estate bubble, a real estate crash, an economic boom, a recession, a depression, or another global financial crisis. Put the wisdom from the money & markets experts we feature on Wealthion into action by scheduling a free consultation with Wealthion's endorsed financial advisors, who will work with you to determine the right next steps for you to take in building your wealth. SCHEDULE YOUR FREE WEALTH CONSULTATION with Wealthion's endorsed financial advisors here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.wealthion.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKMeK-HGHfUFFArZ91rzv5A?sub_confirmation=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Adam on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/menlobear⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow us on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/Wealthion-109680281218040⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ #inflationrising #recessionandinflation #stockbubble ************************************************* IMPORTANT NOTE: The information and opinions offered in this video by Wealthion or its interview guests are for educational purposes ONLY and should NOT be construed as personal financial advice. We strongly recommend that any potential decisions and actions you may take in your investment portfolio be conducted under the guidance and supervision of a quality professional financial advisor in good standing with the securities industry. When it comes to investing, past performance is no guarantee of future results. Any historical returns, expected returns, or probability projections may not reflect actual future performance. All investments involve risk and may result in partial or total loss.

Do you run webinars in your business? Whether you do or you don't, you need to check out this conversation with Dave Dee about selling with webinars and email marketing. Dave's tried-and-tested tips (and this exact email sequence) work a treat and will help you convert like crazy. Trust us - you do want all the details (and wording!) of this stupidly simple email campaign. Here we go.SOME EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: (0:10) Join our FREE Facebook Group.(3:03) Did Dave really embarrass himself trying to speak Italian at a presentation in Italy?(5:06) The killer webinar & email marketing combination.(7:03) Crafting the perfect live webinar email sequence.(10:54) How to increase your webinar show-up rate.(13:53) The first email of the sequence.(17:27) Writing the second email of the sequence.(19:38) The third and fourth email of the sequence.(26:41) Subject line of the week with Dave Dee.(28:38) Get this FANTASTIC gift from Dave Dee!The killer webinar & email marketing combinationIf you want to make sales in your business you need two things - email marketing and a conversion mechanism. Dave Dee is an expert at webinars - his choice of conversion mechanism to be used in conjunction with email marketing. Dave believes that live webinars (not pre-recorded ones) are a tremendous way to build your list. You can generate leads using Facebook, LinkedIn, or other methods and drive them to webinars to build your list and convert leads into appointments (if you're a coach, for example) or sales. Dave's model is based on running a live webinar once a month and driving traffic to that webinar via email. It's great for list building but also for sales, especially if you sell a higher-ticket item. In fact, Dave's even sold a $100,000 product with this exact system by driving people to a landing page and inviting them to a live webinar.Crafting the perfect live webinar email sequenceWe're all familiar with webinars as, post-pandemic especially, they're everywhere – not just in B2B spaces but also in B2C. So to stand out, you have to use email in a more efficient and effective way. And here's the exact sequence you want to use to promote your next (or first, if you haven't done one before) webinar. Typically, Dave runs his webinars on a Thursday, so his emails go out from Monday to Thursday. Dave finds that if you start emailing a lot earlier than that, people will register but then forget and not show up. So 4 days is plenty of time - in fact, a lot of people will sign up on the last day! In the four days leading to the webinar, Dave sends out a daily email (at 6:30 am) where he'll promote the webinar in the PS (and drive people to the registration page). On top of that, he sends out a solo email to promote the webinar (at 2:30 pm) - and that's what helps to increase registration. And here's a big tip. Everyone teaches that once someone registers for a webinar, you need to put them on a separate list and stop emailing them the invitations. Don't. Do. That. What you want to do instead is to send the entire sequence of invitation emails to everyone on your list - including the people who already registered. Sounds crazy and counterintuitive? Maybe. But it works. How to increase your webinar show-up rateThe people who register for your webinar will also go on a separate reminder sequence, but you want to keep sending them your regular emails too. And the reason for that is to increase your show-up rate. Dave typically gets a 50-60% show-up rate to his...

Sitting on stumps, falling out of trees and stepping in rotten logs figure prominently in Russian expressions.

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OSN #94B | TRUMP BEATS BOGUS INDICTMENTS AFTER ALVIN BRAGG STUPIDLY ADMITS THIS…. [OPEN SOURCE NEWS. 4 APR 23. EVENING REPORT.] #BCPTODAY #TRUMPINDICTMENT #TRUMPARREST #TRUMPNEWS #POLITICS #ALVINBRAGG 00:00 Trump in NYC: The Gag Order 07:44 Trump wins again in Stormy Daniel suit 09:05 Trump's upcoming trial date 11:19 Kevin McCarthy's promise 14:24 D.A. Bragg shoots himself in the foot! Part 1 22:43 Meanwhile Hunter Biden continues laundering money 26:35 Meanwhile the Trump Judge's family exposed 30:08 Bragg opens his mouth. Gives Trump the win! Part 2 35:09 Doocey time! Biden says the quiet part out loud. 3 Ways to watch my other show, BCP UNFILTERED: · www.TheRealBCP.com · www.BCPextras.com · www.BCPpodcast.com Subscribe to our sister YouTube channel, The BCP REPORT: https://bit.ly/3BFyKhB Social Media: · FaceBook: https://bit.ly/40Ayz3a · Truth Social: @BCPtv · Locals: @TheRealBCP · GETTR: @Black_C_Patriot · gab: @Black_Conservative

I was teaching an extremely hard cycle class the other night. The conditions were: Stupidly hot It was a very challenging workout Everyone was working hard With around 10-15mins to go, when the hardest part of the workout was still in front of us, I could see that people were: Getting tired, both physically and mentally Looking for a reason to take it easy Starting to lose their focus In fairness to the class, it was easy to justify pulling back in effort because the hot conditions were making it so tough... But it's my job to help people get to a higher level within themselves.   I knew I had to come up with something that would do just that.   A motivational thought popped into my mind, and I shared it with my class. It must have hit a note because for the last part of the workout everyone absolutely destroyed themselves. It was amazing to see. In this week's video, I share this with you, and you may find that it helps you in times when you need to take things to the next level.

We've got an action-packed report from Tim's and Michele's latest Las Vegas adventure, including reviews observations and mildly amusing anecdotes The post FHBM #862: Aggressively Stupid or Stupidly Aggressive first appeared on Five Hundy By Midnight.

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Stupidly Simple and Free Marketing Tactics Hosted by: James Patrick   I'm working on a new marketing plan right now and I'm trying to determine the most appropriate charts to showcase the exact strategy and tactics that we will be performing. I am reading articles and asking myself questions about quantitative relationships to determine which chart is the right chart. There's got to be an easier way.   Today, we're talking about stupidly simple marketing steps that you need to be taking. “Get interviewed, a lot.” IN THIS EPISODE 3 of the simplest and FREE marketing tactics that would improve your business today. Asking for referrals the right way. The requests you need to be sending out consistently. How to learn more about landing earned media features. Lock in your pass now for FITposium on October 13-15th in-person or virtually and get early bird pricing at www.fitposium.com. See past features @fitposium Connect with James  Website: jamespatrick.com Instagram: @jpatrickphoto Text me marketing questions @: 480-605-3254  Share this podcast with a friend and remember to leave a 5-star review!  For more, visit jamespatrick.com

Chris Volk is an investor and former CEO of three publicly traded companies. A 2019 regional winner of EYs' Entrepreneur of the Year award, Volk is a frequent university lecturer and serves on multiple non-profit boards. • Studying...