“We can’t improve what we don’t measure. And our wellness comes first.” Take the 2024 Legal Marketing Mental Wellness Survey today. Thank you, fSquared, for your support of this initiative. #lmamkt #lma24
“Our health and well-being are paramount. We are all high performers with big dreams and aspirations, but as RuPaul has said, ‘If you don’t love yourself, how in the h*ll you gonna love somebody else?’
“Maybe it’s my age, but coming off the past couple years, mindfulness has become a key concern for me and for those I care about. I find that when I pause – truly pause – and let the universe in…
So I scrolled through a prompt post and read two of them together which made me laugh so I wrote a slice of life for my England rugby union boys. (I posted this as part of the reblog but decided I wanted it as a post of its own.)
In a world where Owen and George are an open secret within the England camp, in a nebulous post-match social celebration, they steal a quiet moment.
"Wow, you’re hot. I want to marry you.” George tipped his head back over the arm of the sofa to look up at Owen upside down.
Owen regarded him, fond and amused. “Oh my God, you’re drunk!”
“Yes. So? It’s not the first time, Owen.” George tried to be defensive, but gave up, rolling his eyes and lolling his head loose. “Doesn’t change the fact that you’re hot and I want to marry you.” George smiled up at him dopily. Owen was helpless but to smile back, reaching out to card a hand gently through George’s hair. George’s eyes fluttered shut and he nudged back into Owen’s hand, wordless demanding more petting when Owen’s fingers paused.
Owen glanced around the lounge, their teammates draped about in various states of inebriation and varying configurations of conversations. No one was paying them any attention. He sank to his knees at George’s head, and dropped quick kisses, first to his forehead and then to his lips. George giggled quietly before flipping himself over to look at Owen properly. He reached out to clumsily trace Owen’s cheekbone, Owen capturing his hand and keeping it against his face as he turned his head to press a kiss to George’s palm. “Want to know a secret?”
George could feel his smile as Owen moved to kiss the tender inside of his wrist. “What?” he breathed, shifting further over the arm to be closer to him.
Owen’s smile widened as he sat back on heels, keeping George’s hand tapped in his own and their faces close together. “I’m drunk too.”
George rolled his eyes, “that’s not a …”
“-and,” Owen interrupted, “I want to marry you too.”
George’s eyes went soft and he surged forward, kissing him urgently. Owen kissed back just as insistently, a marked change from their previous softness.
“Really?” George pulled back just enough to check the other man’s face, eyes searching.
“Really really.” Owen confirmed, pressing in close again, the kiss hampered by the smiles threatening to break both their faces.
Eventually George pulled back, flipping so that he was once more sprawled on his back on the sofa. He tugged on Owen’s hand, urging him up and round to join him, the other man going easily. Owen settled his weight evenly on top of George, blanketing him and shuffling down to press his nose into the hollow of George’s throat. It was George’s turn to card his fingers through Owen’s hair, the pair of them settling in contentedly amidst the susurrus of their teammates.
Former F-Squared CEO must pay $12.4 million in SEC case: U.S. judge
Former F-Squared CEO must pay $12.4 million in SEC case: U.S. judge
BOSTON (Reuters) – The former chief executive of F-Squared Investments Inc, once the largest U.S. money manager creating portfolios out of exchange-traded funds, must pay more than $ 12.4 million for making false statements to investors, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: Former F-Squared Investments Inc CEO Howard Present (center), arrives at the federal court in Boston,…
Former F-Squared CEO goes to trial in SEC fraud case
Former F-Squared CEO goes to trial in SEC fraud case
BOSTON (Reuters) – The former chief executive of F-Squared Investments Inc, once the largest U.S. money manager creating portfolios out of exchange-traded funds, went to trial on Monday on charges by the top U.S. securities regulator that he misled investors. A 12-person jury was selected to hear evidence presented in federal court in Boston in a lawsuit the U.S. Securities and Exchange…
Summary: Five records, and five ways in which they are enjoyed. The good times, scarce as they are, still roll.
Notes: Happy birthday to shockedandrocked! Enjoy your btsrp main ship primer sampler. (◡‿◡✿)
fsquared (Faolan Crowe/Ferdinand Andres) [ X ]
It takes some wheedling, but Ferdinand consents to taking his hand at last. A few spins around the room and a song later, he lays his head against Faolan's chest, cheek pressed against the roughness of the taller man's coat.
Faolan sings softly, his voice cracking with disuse at first but warming up to a familiar smoothness. This—the broken tiles and darkened ceilings—is a poor stage for him, when he once performed in grander halls for bigger audiences. But none of that lasts, and none of it matters now. His fingers are shot, nerves dead and dying from months spent frozen. The audience is dead or crazy.
The only thing left is Ferdinand.
cajuncranium (Vestor Ashford/Alice Lamont) [ X ]
The record is not something Vestor would have chosen, an admittedly-catchy tune with a man crooning about ruling the world, but under Alice's insistence, he set the needle down on the player. And here they are, the office door thankfully locked and bolted—he made sure of that after last time—as they step around the room, a quick waltz to the lively piano.
"See? It's not so bad, mon cher." Alice grins mid-spin, and Vestor only rolls his eyes with something he'd never admit to being fondness, when the younger man spins back to press up close against him.
science lesbians (Vera Singh/Sonja Calloway) [ X ]
The speakers overhead are faintly crackling with the strains of music. Not her doing, Sonja thinks, but it could hardly be any more fitting given the circumstances. Arm in arm with Vera, their heels clicking smartly against the tile floor. All that's missing is most of the lighting in this section of Rapture, but it's sort of thematic, she supposes.
A kiss, pressed to her companion's cheek. "Isn't this wonderful?"
"It was better when one could take a walk without the added distraction of splicers." Vera's gaze grows softer for a moment. "But a moment to share with you is wonderful."
heartburn (Annabel Clarke/Jin Lee) [ X ]
She's motioning for him to come up and join her, and he has to look away to stop the heat from rising to his cheeks when her skirt kicks up. There's no persuading her when she's there and he's here, but that doesn't mean he should stop trying to appeal to reason.
Reason is something that her presence seems to leave him lacking, though. He's climbing up to join her even as he says, "Annie, I don't think this is safe."
"Jin, I think this is perfectly fine." She imitates him, and laughs from across the short distance that separates them. "I come here all the time. Have you ever noticed how pretty it looks from here?"
He glances down, the city at his feet and twinkling lights below, and looks back to her. "Yeah," he says softly, looking away when her fingertips touch against his bandaged hand, "It's pretty."
fire and brimstone (Allegany Beckett/Isaiah Hall) [ X ]
They've agreed, implicitly, not to discuss that which divides them. His radio transmissions from yesterday that she—and the rest of Rapture with a working shortwave radio—has no doubt heard him make, the way she refrains from sharing her point of view on the situation in the city. Allegiances are what separates them more than anything else.
That's the reason for this. This, being the walks down the hallways while they trip through memory lane, and the shared recollection of songs that remind them of better times. Of times, far away from here.
"You remember songs of heaven which you sang with childish voice," she sings, mezzo-soprano voice clear and sweet. She looks to him, eyebrow raised in a question as she continues, "Do you love the hymns they taught you?"
He joins in, the tenor to her higher range and his hand curling warmly around hers, "Or are songs of earth your choice?"
"It would be a shame if i had to damage that pretty face of yours."
He’d only pushed open the door ever so slightly, but he was regretting that hairline fracture in the closed room right about now. Isaiah drags the back of his hand across his cheek, making an absolutely bloody mess from the cut that Faolan’s left there.
"The solution, Crowe," he says with no small amount of venom in his tone, "Is to stop aimin’ for my face. And maybe you shouldn’t say such things when he’s right there.” Scalpel blades are ludicrously sharp in the other’s hands, and he has no further desire to be on the other end of them.
"I’ll make sure to knock next time you and your partner-in-crime go into the same room."
