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jayeray-hq · 3 years

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Sakusa : You Know We’re Meant to Be

JayeRay’s fluff prompts

Post Time Skip/Manga Spoilers!

Warnings: A little but of Hurt/Comfort and bullying but lots of Fluff after

If you like this, please check out the Character Masterlist!

This is part of a collaboration I’m doing with @lilolpotato some fluff to counter some of the hate from the Sakusa Hate Night thing that was going around 😊💖 Also a huge huge thank you to the amazingly talented @yuujiscurse for the banner! Their work is amazing! 😊💖

You weren’t sure if they simply didn’t know you could hear them whispering or if they simply didn’t care, as you stood waiting for your boyfriend to emerge from the locker rooms. Hopefully you wouldn’t have to wait long, Sakusa was usually the first out due to insisting on showering before the others of the team could infect the space with their germs. Still today you hoped he would hurry, even faster than usual, so you could leave the receptionist and the woman she was talking to, likely someone who worked in the building, far behind you.

“What does he even see in her?” the woman who’d greeted you almost every time you’d entered the building with a saccharine smile that was apparently hiding a mouthful of venom whispered to her blond coworker.

“I certainly don’t see anything special,” the other woman, a pretty brunette agreed giving you a clear once over a blatantly dismissive look on her face, “She’s probably absolutely hideous behind that mask she wears all the time.”

Your hands balled into fists in your jacket, as you tried to ignore them, reminding yourself that you wore the mask for a reason. It was for both your comfort, and your boyfriends. Sakusa’s germaphobia was a very real fear, and frankly you didn’t mind doing a few things to accommodate his fear, or make him feel more comfortable where you could, especially since you knew he would and had done the same for you before.

Wearing a mask out in public was a simple thing, and frankly considering the pollution in Japan, not all that uncommon. The women were clearly being deliberately petty and you sank deeper into the jacket burrowing into it, and taking comfort in the familiar smell and feel of it. It was one of Sakusa’s old Itachiyama jackets, one he’d gifted to you when the two of you had first started dating.

It was warm and comfortable, and a blatant reminder of how very much your boyfriend cared about you. After all very few people were allowed to touch his things, and even fewer were given gifts, especially sentimental gifts. Komori had teased the two of you for days when Sakusa had first given it to you, exclaiming every time he saw you wearing it that even he had never been allowed to touch Sakusa’s Itachiyama jackets and he was his cousin.

It smelled like him, clean and crisp from the detergent he preferred to use for all of your clothing, one you’d become quite fond of yourself, and that you associated solely with him. It took your mind off the cruel women in front of you, at least for a little while.

“Can you believe just the other day he dropped his towel on accident, I tried to hand it to him, and he gave me the most disgusted look and just walked away,” the brunette told the receptionist clearly deeply offended by the incident, “As if I were something dirty he’d found on the bottom of his shoe.”

“I’ve tried to give him pens to use before,” the receptionist admitted equally huffy as she explained, “He won’t touch them, not until he disinfects them with a wipe first, and even then he’ll only hold them if he’s wearing gloves.”

You sighed quietly to yourself, a part of you wanting to storm over there and defend your boyfriend and an equal part understanding, just a bit where they were coming from. Sakusa had a fear, one that was very real to him, even if it seemed silly to others, and he had extreme ways of reacting when forced to face that fear. Still even you could admit sometimes his inability to properly interpret social cues could leave him coming off cold, or even cruel even if he didn’t mean to be that way.

“I bet she’s not even his girlfriend,” the spiteful brunette hissed, “Just an obsessed groupie who follows him around.”

“He probably treats her like trash,” the receptionist added in a cruel enjoyment to her unkind speculations, “Which is really no less than she deserves honestly.”

The women were clearly lashing out, and on the only target the had readily available, but that didn’t stop you from feeling hurt or furious on behalf of your boyfriend. How dare they insinuate he treated you badly? The idea was infuriating especially when you knew how very hard he tried for you.

Sure, your relationship wasn’t all smooth sailing, but then what relationship was? Yes, you’d had to exercise a lot of patience as Sakusa slowly worked himself up to touching you, but it had been completely and utterly worth it. The feeling of being held in his arms, knowing he desperately wanted you to be there, so much so that he fought off his worst fears in order to do so was indescribable. You’d honestly never felt as loved as you did when your germophobic boyfriend reached his hand out to you, assuring you that he wanted to be able to touch you.

Even several years in you still couldn’t cuddle without a thorough shower beforehand, and some aspects of physical intimacy, including public displays of affection were especially hard, but it was worth it. You were so proud, both of your boyfriend and how very far the two of you had come as a couple, and it infuriated you that these two women, who knew absolutely nothing of his struggles would dare to insinuate such awful things about him.

Oh, you knew they probably didn’t actually believe them. You’d dealt with jealousy from other women before. Your boyfriend was undeniably incredibly good looking, stunning even, and for some reason a lot of people found his supposedly aloof and cold demeanor cool and enticing. He’d had fans for as long as you’d known him.

Still it didn’t stop you from wanting to march right up to the women and force them to take it back. They could say what they wanted about you, but in no way shape or form would you allow them to badmouth your secretly dorky and completely socially inept boyfriend. Honestly one more word from them and you might’ve done just that, fortunately or unfortunately your furious thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of your boyfriend.

“Hey,” the sound of his voice pulled you from your murderous thoughts and turned your attention to Sakusa who had emerged from the locker rooms at last. His hair was still a little damp from his shower, the dark curls not quite as springy as they usually were as they fell across his forehead, and he was fully zipped into his Black Jackals jacket, hands in his pockets the traditional mask covering half his face, “let’s get going before the others come out.”

“Sure,” you agreed trying to keep your tone as upbeat and normal as possible ready to fall into step with him and head to the store, which was the whole reason you’d agreed to meet him at the Black Jackals usual practice gym in the first place.

However it seemed you hadn’t done a very good job of concealing the lingering upset from overhearing the women’s gossip session. That or your boyfriend was getting better at reading you, though both honestly were possibilities. He stopped in his tracks, forcing you to come to a halt as well, his brows sitting heavily over his dark eyes as he peered at you intently, clear concern visible in them.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice taking on the clipped edge that let you know he was deeply concerned. Apparently, you’d been more obvious than you’d thought.

“Nothing,” you tried to assure him, forcing your tone to be upbeat, not wanting to drag him down, “Why would something be wrong?”

“Don’t lie to me,” he ordered, the words blunt, but the clear care in his tone taking any sting out of them. Honestly he had very little in the way of tact at times like these, something you should probably be annoyed by, but could only find strangely endearing.

“It really is nothing,” you assured him, your own tone softening at his clear concern for you, “Just overheard people gossiping about us again.”

“Were you upset by them?” he asked hesitantly, clearly peering into your eyes, his whole body fidgeting with restless energy, a tension to him that reminded you of a rubber band stretched and ready to snap. For all that many read him as uncaring you knew that Sakusa was extremely protective of the few people he allowed close to him, and that you were one of the privileged few. He was clearly ready and willing to tear verbal strips off anyone who’d dared upset you.

“Yes,” you told him, figuring honesty was probably the best policy at this point, “But only because they were saying untrue things about you, about how you treat me.”

Some of the tension in his shoulders relaxed at that, and his eyes softened. You couldn’t see his mouth because of the mask, but long familiarity let you know the corners would be curling up in relief,. He clearly didn’t care a bit what people said about him, an attitude you wished rather desperately that you could emulate.

“Let them say what they want,” he told you firmly, “It’s not something that bothers me, so don’t let it bother you.”

“If only it were that easy,” you told him your own lips curling into a wry smile.

Your eyes widened in surprise as he pulled one of his hands from his jacket pockets and gently took hold of your face, the warmth of his shockingly bare fingers on your skin making your heart flip over in your chest his thumb gently swiping across your cheekbone rendering you completely and utterly speechless.

“The only opinions about my person that I care about are opinions from people who matter to me,” he told you sincerity dripping from very word, “And the only opinion I care about when it comes to our relationship is yours.”

Your heart was beating a rapid tattoo against your ribs at his fervent declaration, especially since you knew he meant every word. Your boyfriend was nothing if not completely and utterly honest when it came to you, even brutal at times. He was never one who’d spare your feelings, which was how you knew moments like these were as raw and honest as it was possible to be.

“I love you Kiyoomi,” you told him a little helplessly, the words falling out of your mouth before you’d had a chance to really think about them.

“I love you too,” he responded without missing a beat, even if you could see the faintest of pink blushes decorating the tops of his cheekbones over the mask, “And I don’t like seeing you upset. What people say about me doesn’t bother me, so please don’t let it bother you.”

“But wouldn’t you be upset if people were saying things about me?” you pointed out reasonably, well aware he would be, as he’d proven many times over in the past.

He clearly couldn’t think of an argument to that and so instead remained silent, so you continued, “You mean so much to me Kiyoomi and it hurts to hear anyone might think poorly of you or insinuate cruel things about you and how you treat me that are blatantly untrue.”

He watched you with soft eyes, his thumb still gently tracing your cheek as he explained, “So long as those things don’t cause you to doubt me I could care less.”

“Never,” you assured him fervently, “I like to think that by now I know you pretty well Kiyoomi and I don’t think there’s anything ridiculous petty gossipers could to make me doubt you, to doubt us. Despite the fact that we’ve had our challenges I always felt like we fit well together. Like two pieces of a puzzle.”

“I’m glad,” he admitted freely, “I’ve always hoped that you’d felt the way I do.”

“The way you do?” you repeated curiously.

“Like you know you’re meant to be,” he told you the words stealing the breath from your lungs and you were fairly sure you forgot how to breathe entirely as he leaned forward to press a gentle masked kiss to your forehead.

Fortunately, or unfortunately you were pulled from your thoughts by raucous sounds from behind the two of you. It turned out you’d been so wrapped up in your conversation with your boyfriend you hadn’t noticed you were blocking the hallway and keeping the rest of the team as a captive audience of sorts. Apparently the private, intimate moment wasn’t nearly as private as you’d thought, and you were suddenly incredibly grateful the mask helped cover your cherry red cheeks.

Apparently Bokuto was the one who’d interrupted your moment, too moved by it to stay quiet any longer, and now the former Fukurodani Ace was fervently congratulating your poor boyfriend about how smooth he was. Sakusa looked incredibly put upon as the team swept you up with them as they left the building in a small herd, all of them gently teasing or congratulating the two of you on how very cute your relationship was.

In the midst of all the chaos your boyfriend managed to sneak his hand into yours, his fingers twining together to keep you close and connected to him. You accepted the gesture, feeling warm, and secure and completely and utterly loved, enough to shoot the poisonous receptionist and her bitter friend a blinding smile on your way out the door.

Sakusa was right. Their opinions, especially on your relationship, shouldn’t matter to you, at the end of the day you knew he loved you and that was more than enough.

#sakusa kiyoomi #sakusa fluff #love sakusa #sakusa love #sakusa x y/n #sakusa x reader #sakusa x you #sakusa kiyoomi x you #sakusa kiyoomi x reader #sakusa kiyoomi x y/n #haikyuu!!#haikyu imagines #haikyu fluff #haikyū!!#sakusa oneshot #JayeRayWrites

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simplybakugou · 4 years

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Sweet Sugar

↝ Tired of not being able to see your boyfriend because of his demanding job, you decide to give him the cold shoulder only for it to backfire on you.

BINGO SPACE: Distract with Kisses

⋆ PAIRING: prohero!kaminari x reader ⋆ WARNINGS/TAGS: flufff :) ⋆ WORD COUNT: 1551

A/N: more kaminari? yes. another @bnhabookclub bingo piece? yes again! thank you to @laylahoran for requesting kaminari for this prompt! credits to @eraserhead-transparents for kaminari cap! also don’t mention why the banner looks crusty, i have no idea why tumblr hates me this much

FULL BINGO MASTERLIST

✐posted 08.04.2020✐

Since you started dating Kaminari, almost everyone you knew expressed how jealous they were of their friend who was in a relationship with one of the top pro heroes. Initially you understood their feelings as Kaminari was quite evidently a celebrity to the point where you couldn’t go out with him in public without him getting recognized. Even hardcore fans would recognize you despite the fact that you were an ordinary citizen.

You met Kaminari in his last year in U.A. and although he wasn’t a pro hero at the moment, he was still popular as he came from the infamous class 1-A, the unfortunate group of students who always seemed to be one of the League of Villains’ targets. With his studies and training, you always understood how hard he worked to achieve his dream: to be a pro hero.

And once he did become a pro hero, you continued to be as considerate as you could when he had to call your dates off as he was whisked away to save civilians from evildoers. It was to be expected when dating someone with such an important and demanding job.

But in the past few weeks, it seemed that it was even harder than usual to spend even a few moments alone with your boyfriend. Every morning you would wake up, feeling around your bed for his body beside you only to feel the emptiness of the sheets engulfing your palms. And every night you would attempt to stay up to see him, often ending up sleeping on the couch as you patiently waited for him. Kaminari always came home, smiling at the sight of your sleeping body as he would carry you to bed before crawling in right beside you.

You never wanted to hold him accountable or get upset with him for never having time to be with you but you’d be lying to yourself if you said that it didn’t make you upset to barely have enough time to even catch a glimpse of his face, especially since you live together.

That night was the same as you were sat on the couch, a cup of tea in your hand as the loneliness you felt every night felt more intense than usual. The colors displayed from the TV screen glared to your eyes as you watched in anticipation. It became a daily routine for you to watch the news, specifically the channels that covered any villainous activity and news on pro heroes. You wanted to make sure Kaminari was safe if he were ever involved with the missions and attacks that the reporters covered.

You continued watching, hearing the news reporter explain how heroes like Deku and Ground Zero were encountered with numerous villains as crime rates continued to increase. It made your heart race watching the footage taken of the heroes fighting such murderous, terrifying people as you couldn’t help but be afraid for Kaminari as you were reminded how his life was constantly put in danger due to his job.

On most nights, due to his status as one of the top heroes, Kaminari’s name would be mentioned at least once on the news, most of the time covering what he accomplished on his daily patrols or the areas he was often stuck with patrolling. But that night the news reporter didn’t mention his name once. Maybe you were being paranoid but you couldn’t help but suspect something was wrong. When reporters don’t mention high profile heroes’ names, it's either because they weren’t required to patrol that night or they were injured and their whereabouts were unconfirmed.

You knew Kaminari was on patrol that night, as he would text you every morning and night to let you know when his patrols were. You couldn’t help but worry… was he okay? Was he injured? Should you text him? What should you do?

Giving into your conflicting thoughts, you decided to call him. Usually he would answer immediately just to reassure you as he was well aware of how distressed you can get, but his phone went straight to voicemail.

While you were sat with your perturbed thoughts on the couch, Kaminari slowly opened the door to your apartment, a sigh escaping his lips. He could see the back of your head from the front door and he smiled, happy to see that you were still awake. He managed to get out of work early, wanting to make up for all the times he was unable to spend some time with you.

He saw that you didn’t acknowledge him, deciding this was the perfect time to give you a little scare. He quietly slipped his shoes off, tiptoeing towards you. You were staring at your phone as you were still panicking, not sure what to do. The TV was fortunately drowning out the creaking of Kaminari’s footsteps and just as you were about to try and call him again, Kaminari screamed out “BOO,” sending you falling off the couch to the floor out of fear.

Kaminari plopped down on the couch, gasping in between laughs as you sat upright, experiencing a mixture of glaring at him and the initial shock of seeing his face before you.

“I’m sorry,” Kaminari said finally, his cheeks hurting from his laughter. He extended his hand out to you to hoist you up but you ignored him, getting up from the floor and sitting as far as you could from him on the couch.

Kaminari chuckled at your evasiveness, sliding closer to you. “I’m sorry, baby, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You should’ve answered your phone,” you mumbled under your breath, leaning forward to grab the TV remote.

“I know, but I wanted to surprise you!” Kaminari said as he watched you despite you ignoring him. He grabbed you by your waist, wanting to pull you onto his lap and kiss your cheek but you pushed him away, refusing to succumb to him.

You were ecstatic to see him and as much as you wanted to be in his arms, you were still a bit angry that he hadn’t answered his phone while you were panicking about his well-being, even though you were probably overreacting.

“Are you mad that I scared you?” Kaminari asked, still confused with why you were so upset in the first place.

You finally turned to him, narrowing your brows at him. “I thought something happened to you! You weren’t answering your phone and you always answer right away so I thought you were hurt, Denki!”

Despite you expressing how frightened you were, you grew even angrier when you looked back at Kaminari who had a wide smile on his face, one that he was attempting to hold back. “What’s so funny?”

Kaminari leaned in, wrapping his arm around you and bringing your face closer to his. “You’re just so damn cute.” He kissed your left cheek and then your right cheek, planting kisses all across your face.

“I’m sorry for making you worry. I got Sero to cover tonight’s patrol for me so I could be with you. I know I’ve been an ass and haven’t been able to see you in the past few weeks so I wanted to make it up to you,” Kaminari explained, brushing your hair back through his fingers. “Are you still mad?”

Your expression nearly faltered as you practically had to ball your hands into fists to refrain from leaning into him into a hug. You jutted your bottom lip out as you looked up at him, the frown back on your face. “Yes.”

“Okay.” Kaminari moved his arms up your back and held you tightly against him into his embrace. He turned his head, peppering your face with kisses to the point where you could barely breathe from his grip. He left small kisses on your cheeks, your neck, your nose, your forehead… basically anywhere but your lips just to tease you.

He was attempting to distract you from being upset with him and it was working. “Fine, fine! I’m not mad anymore, okay?”

Kaminari pulled away, his arms still around you as he rested his forehead against yours. “Good. ‘Cause we’re spending the rest of the night together and I can’t have you be mad at me.”

You finally smiled a little, closing the gap in between you and your boyfriend yourself as you closed your lips over his, both of you smiling against each other. Kaminari pulled you into his lap so you were straddling him. You could barely keep up with his pace as you were both eager to see each other once again.

You couldn’t remember the last time you were with your boyfriend like this, which made this moment mean even more to you. Your past paranoia dissipated as quickly as it came as Kaminari stood to his feet, holding you up in his arms as your legs hooked around his waist to keep yourself upright. He made his way to your shared bedroom and you were giggling as he almost fell on his rear in the process.

That night, despite how trivial it was, was one you’d always remember. Because despite having a boyfriend who had a job that was always putting him in danger, you never once felt lonely ever again.

If you’d like to be added to my taglist, please join here!

Taglist: @pinkcowgirleggpanda @xtsundere-princess @wesparklebitch @hot-pocket01 @iamthe-leaf @pixxiesdust @ahrininetales @kirisclementine @happygalaxymilkshake @hookedinto-fictionalworlds @entraptas-kid-sister @mirakeul @icy-hot @lmaobroccoli @anastar-legion @lowermoons @mykuronekome @susu-chan

#kaminari denki x reader #kaminari x reader #denki x reader #bnha x reader #bnha x y/n #bnha kaminari #my hero academia #my hero academia imagines #boku no hero academia imagines #boku no hero academia #boku no hero imagines

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deus-ex-knoxina · 4 years

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When you added onto your tags and acknowledged that tightlacing is vastly different than corsetry... I'm ace and I think I'm on the aro spectrum but that was extremely hot of you and I think I fell in love

hey i’m on the aro ace spectrum too high five!! and FUCK yes i’m so glad that my strong feelings on making sure everyone knows the difference are appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!! and also you’re giving me this stellar opportunity to talk about it even MORE anon i love you let the infodumping commence

this gets long so the rest is under the cut:

TL;DR: corsets serve the same purpose as a bra, supporting from the hips instead of the shoulders. today, some people wear them for that purpose, and some people wear them as medical devices for scoliosis. if a corset doesn’t fit properly, it’ll be uncomfortable, which is why we hear actors complain about them so much (because they’re not wearing custom-made ones, like they would have, say, a hundred and fifty years ago).

so when everyone was wearing corsets, they had ones that fit them, and corsets HAD to allow women to breathe and move because EVERYONE was wearing them, including working-class women. tightlacing was done by a tiny minority of upper-class women to get the tiniest waist possible, which was fashionable at the time (and still is, if you look at modern waist trainers). and yes, it was damaging to them, but it’s not the intended purpose of a corset. the reason that so many people today think it IS is because of victorian men, who sucked.

(so don’t draw neil josten like a super-rich super-fashionable victorian woman)

(and that was the tl;dr so as you can imagine! what’s under the cut is quite long! BUT IT’S INTERESTING SO I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE U TO READ)

OKAY SO HERE’S THE DEAL. we always hear about corsets as like, women-oppressing torture devices. that’s not true. the *reason* we have all these misconceptions about corsets is the fault of victorian men, just like so many things are the fault of victorian men

the actual purpose of corsets??? like the ACTUAL actual purpose of corsets??? they have literally the same function as a bra. the benefit of a corset is that it supports from the hips and waist, not from the shoulders, so depending on your bust size a corset might be better for you (and for your back)!

and people do still wear corsets today, *not* just people dressing up. like i mentioned above, they’re practical, they’re COMFORTABLE ACTUALLY, and if you have scoliosis then special corsets are sometimes used as medical devices!

so back to them being comfortable. this is another huge-ass misconception. you know who wore corsets Back In The Day? women. not just rich women. middle-class women, working class women, EVERYONE. because it’s underwear. do you think a woman who lives on a farm and has to help with farm things could do that with a super uncomfortable, super tight corset? no.

you can try to lace your corset up as tight as possible, but if you have ANY form of core/abdominal muscles whatsoever, you’re just. not gonna be able to have a wasp waist. you’re just not! you have muscles there that can’t be pushed out of the way!

and are you REALLY gonna put all that effort in to lace it super fucking tight every single day? no. you’re not. because unless you’re super rich, you’re probably having a family member or spouse or maybe a single maid help you get dressed in the morning, and the two of you just don’t have time to turn ‘putting on undergarments’ into a whole fuckin’ production every single day.

but birl, you ask, why is it that movie actresses (such as emma stone and emma watson, literally just off the top of my head) always complain about corsets? simple answer: they’re not fitted well, and the actresses have been inundated with victorian men’s opinions on tightlacing and think that wearing a corset automatically means they’re gonna have their internal organs fucked up. if a corset doesn’t fit you, of course it’s gonna be uncomfortable!!!

and when it comes to movies/tv, whether it actually fits is... not always treated as a primary concern. because they’re doing it for costumes, and since it’s film, the actresses can change out of the corset and wear something else when they’re not filming. if you’re wearing a corset as part of your everyday clothes, you’re GONNA pay for one that’s made specifically for you (not to mention that off-the-rack clothing is a fairly recent invention, and for the vast majority of human history, clothing was made to fit an individual, so OF COURSE women would wear corsets that fit them)

costume corsets are frequently not a functional garment and they don’t need to behave like one. real corsets are, and they have persisted as a functional garment for CENTURIES, which they would *not* have if they were actively harming every single person who wore them. which, if you recall, was... pretty much every single woman. that’s the difference, and also, like i said, there’s an element of fear that also drives those actresses complaining because they have fallen for the victorian male complaining.

(side note: i watched enola holmes recently, and it’s a great movie, but for FUCK’S sake a corset is not a tool of repression any more than a bra is! i know some of y’all like to say that a bra is a tool of repression, because you hardly have any need for one! but a lot of people actually do need breast support SO THEY DON’T DEVELOP BACK PROBLEMS)

now. on to tightlacing, finally. with a normal corset, you lace it tight enough to get support from it, and no tighter, because why the fuck would you want to imprison your lungs and also you probably have core muscles because only a TINY subset of society was rich enough to afford zero abdominal strength.

tightlacing, on the other hand, is what most people think of when they think of a corset. pulling the laces on the back of the corset as TIGHT AS POSSIBLE (sometimes with multiple people pulling) to get a teeny-tiny waist. it severely restricts your lung capacity (since your lungs go all the way down your back), it forces your internal organs to move, and it can deform your ribcage.

additionally, since you can’t breathe very well, you have to breathe into the top of your chest (this is where the whole ‘heaving bosom’ thing comes from), so you can’t really engage in physical activity AND when you take your corset off, you’re likely to faint because of blood rushing everywhere.

and like i have mentioned SEVERAL times, if you have abdominal muscles, it is NOT GONNA WORK. because you can’t push muscle out of the way.

so this can only be done by the superrich, and IT WAS A FAD. i cannot state this enough. it didn’t last, because it fucked people up! and the fact that it wasn’t healthy, combined with some good old victorian misogyny, meant that victorian men were talking about tightlacing CONSTANTLY. and since normal corsets had been around for forever, nobody was talking about them because everyone knew how corsets were supposed to work!

which means, of course, that if you look at, say, victorian sources discussing corsets, they’re gonna be talking about tightlacing, and if you don’t live in a time where the VAST majority of women are wearing corsets, then you might not know that tightlacing is this weird fad among super-wealthy women and assume that it’s what everyone was doing!

now here’s the thing. we have bras now. we also have modern corsets. guess what? we also have modern tightlacing. those are waist trainers. now, i don’t know as much about them as i do about corsets, but i imagine they at least pretend to be better for you than tightlacing. don’t fall for it. being able to breathe is sexy.

AND if you’re interested in this, bernadette banner and karolina zebrowska have some great youtube videos on it! i actually don’t remember off the top of my head if bernadette banner has a video dedicated to corsets but she does talk about them when analyzing terrible ‘historical’ movie costumes

another side note: so what sparked this initially was talking about the aftg fandom and how neil josten is frequently represented in art as having a tiny waist. having made it to the bottom of this post, i hope u now have an ARSENAL of facts with which to know with 100% certainty that it is impossible for neil josten to have a wasp waist. the guy’s a d1 athlete.

and even if it’s some kind of AU, if he runs as much as he does in canon, no wasp waist. he has abdominal muscles. and body fat, because he is not a bodybuilder and he NEEDS body fat. i get that he’s short???? but he’s not a twink. he’s a future pro athlete. so even if he tightlaced a corset, he would STILL not have a tiny waist. it’s physically impossible for him.

the end!

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mfackenthal · 4 years

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The MFackenthal Show with Guest Star @usuallyamazinglyaverage!

banner by @whenyourheartskipsabeat

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Megs: Hello Hello Hello!!! Oh my gosh, I cannot believe it has been so long since my last show. It’s truly so wonderful to see all of you here! Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to catch up on my old shows and to encourage me to continue with them! But enough about me, I am not why you are here today. Today, you are here to meet another AMAZING guest. Please help me welcome to the stage @usuallyamazinglyaverage!

Mar shyly walks on the stage and gives Megs a hug. They sit down on the couch facing the audience, their bodies angled towards one another.

Mar, I am so glad that you are here today. Thank you for agreeing to be on the show!

Mar: Megs, I am delighted and simply honored to be here. I can’t believe I am on The Mfackenthal Show!

Megs: And I am so glad you are here. You and I connected over a shared love for one Ethan Ramsey and I have loved watching you grow as a writer!

Mar: Awh, Megs! I think I’m blushing!

Megs: Oh stop! You’re an amazing writer. And we’re going to talk all about that shortly, but first, can you tell us when you joined the fandom and what brought you here?

Mar: Well, I officially joined in mid-april 2019, when I created my blog, but I’ve been following the choices fandom for much longer than that. While I’ve been a part of other fandoms before, this was the first time I really wanted to join in.

BRRRRRING! BRRRRRING!!! A phone rings from somewhere backstage.

Megs and Mar look at each other with questions in their eyes. Megs looks behind her for the source of the sound, but when it stops, she just looks at Mar and shrugs.

… I discovered the choices app by chance in the Apple store one weekend, while looking for something to distract myself with. I always loved games that featured in-depth romances, so of course my interest was peaked immediately. The first book that got my attention was Big Sky Country. I was instantly hooked. After I read that one, I browsed through more books and found Open Heart. Pixelberry had just released the first few chapters - and that’s when the real fun began! Hospital drama? Interesting plot? Quite a few really cool love interests? Sign me the heck up! Of course, the one who got me really into it was our resident smartass doctor, Ethan Ramsey... Which is why I looked through tumblr right after finishing chapter 3, to see if a fandom for this strange and wonderful game existed. The rest is, as you say, history.

Megs: And just about a year later, you’re still here! And so is Open Heart 2!! Eeek! That last chapter you wrote with Ethan helping MC work out and then showering. Damn girl! If you haven’t read it yet, folks, check out the link at the bottom of your screen:

https://usuallyamazinglyaverage.tumblr.com/post/612091098044792832/two-more-minutes-ethan-x-mc

While Megs is pointing out the link, a red phone booth is rolled out onto the left side of the stage beside the couch. Mar just glares at it. Megs doesn’t seem to see it at all because it’s behind her.

Megs: The fandom is an interesting place. What do you love about the fandom? What do you dislike? What would you like to say to the fandom?

Mar: The better question is, what don’t I love about it? There is so much talent and kindness in this fandom, it’s sort of mindblowing! I was welcomed with such enthusiasm and I have made many (hopefully) lasting friendships as well. But, like all fandoms, we have our problems. Some people will never get over the fact that the opinions of others will often differ from their own. That kind of toxicity is a part of every fanbase, unfortunately.

The phone in the phone booth starts ringing. Megs jumps up and practically into Mar’s lap.

Megs: What the hell?!

Megs and Mars just hold each other for a moment.

The phone keeps ringing.

Megs: Umm, should we answer it?

Mar: Not it!

Megs: What?! They’re probably calling for you!

Mar: Megs, this is your show. I’m guessing it’s for you.

Megs: Hmm, that is strong logic. Let’s just ignore it and see if it stops.

Mar: Sounds good to me.

Megs: Okay, umm, what were we talking about …

Brrrrrring!

Megs: damn it! Why is it still ringing?! I guess phone booths don’t have voicemail, huh? Okay … umm … shakes her head … okay, tell me, what do you do when you’re not producing work for the fandom; what do you do for fun?

The phone stops ringing.

Mar: Oh, the silence is wonderful, isn’t it? Well, when I’m not writing for the fandom or interacting with other fans, I go to school. I’m currently finishing up the first year of my apprenticeship, to become a nursery school teacher/educator. The whole thing is super stressful, but it’s my dream to one day work with kids and teens. So I endure, haha!

As for fun, You already know that I love writing and reading, of course. I also play a lot of video games, they have played a huge part in life since I was about seven years old. I also meet up with close friends, when I have the time.

Megs: Speaking of writing - I totally got sidetracked by that damned-

Brrrrring! The phone starts ringing again.

Megs: looks down dejectedly - phone. Ugh! I hate phone calls. How about you, Mar?

Mar: Oh Megs, the truth is I’m a dork! I can interact with people under normal circumstances just fine, I am usually quite confident. But talking on the phone? Nope. Job interviews? Total nope. Flirting? Absolute no go. I’m a social disaster when it comes to that kind of stuff. The phone is the worst.

Megs: Awh, well, you’re doing great on my show. We would never have known any of that! I’m guessing you told my producers about hating the phone and they decided all these phones would be funny because I also hate the phone. I was really hoping you’d want to answer these phones ... but I guess our shared hatred that means it would be really mean of me to ask you to answer this phone then, huh?

Mar: In fact, it would be.

Megs: Hmm … well, I have an idea …

Megs goes into the phone booth and picks up the receiver and then just drops it back on the base.

Megs: There we go - we can just say we got disconnected. .

Mar just laughs while Megs looks very smug and proud of herself.

Megs: So, let’s talk some more about writing. What’s your favorite work that you have written?

Mar: Mhhh, I actually think that changes every time I post something new! My more recent works are the ones I often enjoy the most, because I can see the improvements I made, I can see progress in my writing. People may have noticed that I write a lot of smut - which is also a favorite pastime for me. Something about writing it just tickles my fancy, I have so much fun doing it!

Megs: What a healthy attitude! Can you share with us your writing process?

Mar: To be honest, I don’t really have one. I write when inspiration strikes and when I feel up to it. When an idea excites me, it usually takes me a lot of time to get it done, because I want it to be just right. What I do need for writing is music that fits the topic of the fic though. If it’s something fluffy, I’ll listen to romantic songs. If it’s something smutty, I’ll listen to sexy songs. It helps me get into the right headspace for whatever I’m about to write.

Megs: What advice do you have for other writers? Especially other fanfic writers?

Mar: Best advice I can give is not to think too hard about it. Just go with the flow, write what feels good. When the words won’t come, step away from your work and take a breather. Eat something. Do some sit-ups. Watch an episode of your favorite show. Just come back to it later, your inspiration will strike eventually.

Megs: That is sage advice.

Mar: Now Megs, I have a question for you. How and where did you get the idea for the interviews? I’ve never seen anything like this on tumblr!

Megs: That’s a great question, Mar. The idea was the brainchild of a group of people. It started with me trying to find a way to add something to the fandom that didn’t involve me writing a fic. At that time, I said I wasn’t a writer. I read and I left reviews and that was as much writing as I was willing to do. I was gaining followers though and I wanted to do something to give back to the fandom. Through the help of people who are no longer with us, but also @maxattack-powell, @lizeboredom, and a few others, I learned that people were truly interested in learning more about each other but the connections could be hard to make. I figured this was where I could help the fandom. While I hate the phone, I love messaging people via text and I have no fear in messaging someone and asking questions. If they don’t respond, that’s okay! So I came up with a set of questions and wrote the first show as though I was just at a bar or something. When people really enjoyed that, I came up with the idea of serializing the show and here we are!

And that’s the end of today’s show. Mar, thank you so much for coming on today’s show. To everyone in the audience, thank you for coming to today’s show! I look forward to seeing you on our next show!!

The phone starts ringing again.

Megs: I bet that’s my producer calling to remind me that to say that tickets can be purchased online or over the phone. Luckily for you, I won’t be the one answering the phones. Because this is what that would look like:

Megs gets up and this time she picks up the receiver and instead of putting it back on the base, she just lets the phone hang. It swings back and forth.

Megs takes Mar’s arm and together they walk off stage.

~~~~~

And now for the tags. I’m only tagging people who have specifically mentioned an interest in The MFackenthal Show. If you want to be added to the tag list for these or removed, please let me know!

@hopefulmoonobject @queen-among-writers, @hopelessromantic1352, @lilyofchoices, @msjpuddleduck, @theroyalweisme, @lady-kato

#The MFackenthal Show #special guest usuallyamazinglyaverage #episode 12 #I hate talking on the phone #I love that I'm not the only one #My producers think they're funny

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baronmagweb-blog · 5 years

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How to Make Money Online During the Recession

Although we are presently confronted with what is generally thought to be the worst recession since the 1930s, the world of e-commerce continues to grow, showing few sign of peaking anytime soon. In an effort to get the most bang for the buck, savvy businesses and marketers are moving traditional ad spend dollars online in ever-increasing numbers.

This growth has not come without a price. Newspapers and periodicals across the country and around the world continue to fail at an alarming rate as readers (followed by representative ad dollars) continue to move to the Net.

Web 2.0 technologies present new opportunities and hazards

In an effort to make the most of this trend, thousands of astute Web surfers are actively learning to leverage Web 2.0 technologies in order to make money online during the economic downturn.

Just as surely as there are many eager to learn this nascent trade, so too is it certain that unscrupulous businesses and marketers will look to take advantage of these "e-newbies" with promises of riches from programs that "do all the work, while you need only sit back and count the cash." As we have heard too many times before, "if it sounds too good to be true…"

Most online marketers fail

The simple truth is that most surfers with little-to-no marketing experience who turn to e-commerce as an income source fail. However, it is important to note that failure is no less certain for those who try to make it on their own, than those that fall victim to scammers.

I will elaborate.

There is no better place to start a business than the Web

Despite the fact that most online business ventures fail, the potential for earning vast sums of money quickly is far greater online than off. The Web provides heretofore unforeseen opportunities to anyone with access to a pc and an internet connection. To boil it down to a single factor-the Internet provides potential access to a virtually unlimited consumer base for a tiny fraction of the cost required to reach those same consumers via traditional marketing methods. Those that understand this concept and implement an effective plan to take advantage of it become wealthy.

Brilliant Internet concepts and the riches that follow are not necessarily the fruits of experience

One favorite example of high concept is "The Million Dollar Homepage." This stroke of genius plan was hatched in August, 2005 by a young Englishman, Alex Tew, who needed a way to pay for university. In short, he decided that he would put up a Web page and sell space by the pixel (at $1.00 per pixel) to advertisers. He earned his million without spending a dime on advertising as Web surfers from around the world visited "The Million Dollar Homepage" just to see for themselves if it actually existed and what such a page would look like.

Of course, such high-concept sites are the exception and not the norm. People have made fortunes small and large with far more mundane ideas.

How much is one "dumb" idea worth?

In 1999 a shopper in San Francisco went in search of a certain type of shoe in a specific size and color. He left the mall tired, frustrated, and empty-handed. Back at home he decided that the task could be better handled online. His only problem was that there was no major online shoe retailer to buy from. That day, Nick Swinmurn founded Zappos.com. "Who would be dumb enough to buy shoes online-without even trying them on?" people asked. Hundreds of thousands of customers and millions of dollars later, Nick had his answer-almost everyone. Despite the recessionary woes faced by most retailers, Zappos did more than $1 billion dollars in sales last year.

Alex Tew's and Nick Swinmurn's dreams really only had one thing in common, the fact that they would not have been possible without the Internet and its low-cost access to millions of consumers worldwide.

OK, OK, I get it. But what's in it for me?

We're glad you asked, and the answer is, almost anything you want-if you are willing to learn the skills required.

While the internet continues to have many success stories, it has many more failure stories, and those remain mostly unheard. There are thousands of budding entrepreneurs who may have had a good idea, but didn't know how to effectively market it. Or, perhaps they were top-notch marketers, but had no idea on how to deliver the product cost-effectively. Or perhaps they just lacked the fortitude or the dollars to stick it out.

Please, no more stories; just get to the point. I have things to do.

While the Editors at Top 5 Online Jobs rarely agree about much, we are virtually unanimous in the opinion that most budding online entrepreneurs fail because they are generally undercapitalized and too easily discouraged by the almost inevitable initial failures. Far too often they quit just before reaching the "tipping point"-that magical moment when the idea begins to realize a profit.

From the mouths of hucksters…

If you are old enough to remember get-rich-quick king of "tiny classified ads" infomercials, Don Lapre, you might recall this pitch:

"If you can create and test one tiny classified ad in the newspaper that makes just $30-$40 profit in a week, it could make you a fortune, because the secret is learning how to take that one tiny classified ad that just made $30-$40 profit in a week and to realize that you can now take that same exact ad and place it in up to 3,000 other newspapers around the country…" You can almost smell the hair gel.

Despite Don's reportedly questionable business practices which made him subject of many a Better Business Bureau complaint, his thesis was correct. If nothing else, Don understood that the concept of scaling could be used in marketing to multiply a campaign that shows a small but consistent profit into a small (or even large) fortune.

Today's Web is a Don Lapre dream come true-potential access to a virtually unlimited number of eager consumers-if you can figure out how to reach them cost effectively. And while the ROI on successful Internet campaigns is difficult to match in the offline world, the Web is also a place rife with costly and frustrating hazards that chew up and spit out budding online entrepreneurs with clock-like regularity.

How shall I begin?

The very first thing is to decide what type of an entrepreneur you are or would like to be:

The Fiercely Independent Entrepreneur This person is a strong-willed, highly motivated, self-starter. This sometimes egotistical entrepreneur would rather succeed or fail on their own terms rather than follow in someone else's footsteps. This is a high-risk, high reward approach and not for someone who is easily dissuaded by initial failures. This entrepreneur's Achilles' heel is the tendency to enjoy the hunt more than the feast. However, this entrepreneurial type is far more likely to launch the next Million Dollar Homepage, Zappos or Twitter.

The Template Entrepreneur While also a highly motivated, self-starter, the template entrepreneur allows others to blaze the trail and follows only when they feel confident that the successes of the trailblazer can be achieved without suffering through the same mistakes. To this person the bottom line is the destination, not the journey. They generally prefer fast nickels to slow dimes, are willing to utilize the advice of experts, and are less likely to lose interest in a project once they have achieved success. It is of course far easier to navigate a path that has already been cleared, but the downside to this approach is that if they wait too long, it may be difficult to emulate the pioneer's results due to the inevitable increase in competition. And while this entrepreneur is less likely to launch the next Facebook, they are also more likely to turn a profit.

What do I sell online?

Here's where you have to make another big decision - should you begin by marketing your own product/service and keep 100% of the profits, or marketing someone else's product/service and keep a percentage of the profits?

For persons new to the world of e-commerce, we would suggest that you begin by selling someone else's product or service. Consider selling your own only after you have demonstrated a thorough understanding of Internet marketing techniques and achieved a satisfactory level of online success.

Affiliate Marketing

Many Internet marketers begin with affiliate marketing-the practice of advertising someone else's product or service in exchange for a commission for each sale referred.

The methods utilized most often by affiliate marketers include PPC (pay-per-click) marketing, posting links on your own search-engine-optimized, content-related website or blog, banner advertising, and e-mail/e-newsletter marketing. There are of course, other "outside-of-the-box" methods used by savvy "super-affiliates," but these are rarely revealed freely, as the key to successful affiliate marketing is referring traffic to the seller at the lowest possible cost.

For example, if you were to purchase 1000 clicks from Google by using their AdWords program and you paid $0.50 for each click, and 1% of the clicks resulted in sales, and each sale yielded a $10.00 commission; you would produce 10 sales and lose $400.00. Ouch.

Commission ($100) minus Cost ($500) equals Profit/Loss (-$400)

However, if you paid $0.05 for each click, assuming the same 1% conversion rate, you would profit $5.00 for each sale-a very healthy ROI (return on investment) of 100%.

Commission ($100) minus Cost ($50) equals Profit/Loss ($50)

Scaling Marketing Campaigns (the "Don Lapre Method") to Maximize Profits

Using the same parameters, an investment of $500 in AdWords clicks would return your $500 investment plus an additional $500 profit.

Commission ($1000) minus Cost ($500) equals Profit/Loss ($500)

Rather than be satisfied with a $500 profit on a $500 investment, once convinced that the results could be repeated with a reasonable degree of consistency, a savvy internet marketer would reinvest profits in increasingly greater amounts. If successful, the marketer would become wealthy in short order.

A Little Online Marketing Perspective

While you don't run into campaigns with 100% ROI on a daily basis, they certainly exist, and they have and will continue to make Internet millionaires of many. If we were to think of such a campaign as a machine into which you could put a single dollar and have it spit out two dollars a few days later, what that machine be worth? What would you be willing to pay for the plans to build such a machine?

But you don't need 100% ROI to make a very good living as an affiliate marketer working only a few hours per day from home. A fairly consistent ROI of 50% would be enough to allow you to quit your day job in relatively short order. All you really need are the plans to create your own ROI machine.

Building Plans for Sale

While some "super-affiliates" will take their methods to the grave, there are others that are willing to part with them-for a price. The trick is of course, to get the best possible "plans" at the lowest possible cost. All plans are not created equal.

It is our recommendation that persons new to Internet marketing seek out the mentoring of someone who has already become wealthy by creating high ROI affiliate campaigns (not by selling online courses). Contact this person and offer to work as an apprentice for an hour or two per day to learn the methods used to create and implement high ROI affiliate campaigns. Or simply ask them what they would charge for weekly phone consultation. Or if they give seminars or webinars, begin by attending one. Or if they offer a class, take it. Or if they offer an online course, buy it. Keep in mind that doing so will likely save you the time and cost of many of the initial failures encountered by most if not all Internet marketers.

If you find the right mentor and truly heed their advice, it would probably be difficult not to at least approach their level of success.

Finally: A Word about Work from Home/Online Job Scams

While there are certainly more than enough online scams to go around, it is amusing to hear programs created by some of today's top online marketers referred to as scams. To keep a bit of perspective it might be helpful to note that a college education generally costs tens of thousands of dollars. Somehow graduates who find themselves amongst the unemployed rarely refer to their degrees as scams. Yet, when someone takes an online course and fails to produce a profit within 30 days, the word "scam" is thrown around freely. We would suggest that students order thesis of online courses also examine their own efforts before referring to anything that has been proven to work for others as a scam. The price of a book is never a guarantee of the knowledge within.

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wolfie-dragon-rider · 6 years

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Blind Spots 19: Blind Love

A/N: It has taken a long time. It has been nearly 3 years since I started posting Blind Spots. I've had long gaps in my posting schedule for this story in that time. There were months where I just burned out on Blind Spots, was completely sick of it, or unsure of how to continue. But I made a promise that I would finish it, and today I fulfil that promise. Here it is, at long last, the wedding chapter. Over 10 thousand words long, but I like to think it's the culmination of Hiccup and Astrid's journey in this verse. I hope you agree. More thoughts at the bottom, but please read it first!

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"Ready to go over the final preparations for the wedding? Just a week to go now," Stoick asked his son, who didn't really look ready. Still, Hiccup nodded.

"O-Okay," he said with trembling voice, hands clenched.

"You know, son, when I was getting married, I was terrified. But then I saw your mother in her wedding dress. She was beautiful, and the way she smiled at me… I just knew it was meant to be," Stoick said, sitting down next to Hiccup. The boy frowned underneath his blindfold.

"I don't think that'll happen to me, Dad. Remember I can't see Astrid, or her dress," he said, making Stoick chuckle.

"I keep forgetting. You're doing so well, Son. It just slips my mind sometimes. But that's what I wanted to talk to you about. I know you're not a traditional Viking, and you have different needs, so I managed to convince the council to let you pick one part of the wedding day to skip or change. Well, anything apart from saying the vows, of course!" he explained, before grabbing his copy of the wedding schedule.

"Okaaay," Hiccup said, looking apprehensive.

"Let's see… there's the bride run. Running is difficult for you, so we can change it. Maybe you two can ride on Stormfly and Toothless! You still want to get married at the cove, right? That means quite a long run, all the way to the Great Hall," he said. Hiccup's face brightened a bit.

"That would be nice to avoid. But what are the other options?"

"There's the sword ceremony. You're supposed to stab the pillar with your sword, to show your… virility. After that there's the feast, which traditionally includes the newlyweds dancing. After the feast you're supposed to carry Astrid over the doorstep into your new home, and after that is the public consummation. And then it's done!" Stoick said, finger running down the list and face heating up at the end.

Though not nearly as much as Hiccup's. He became as red as his blindfold, fingers grasping the edge of the table.

"P-Public consummation?" he stuttered. Sighing, Stoick put his hand on his son's shoulder.

"Yes. It's because you're the next chief. We need to make sure that, uhm, the Haddock line continues. And it won't be the entire village! Just me, and your mother, the Hoffersons, the Council, and Gothi," he said, trying not to think too much about having to witness his son doing… that. It had been bad enough with his own parents and Valka.

"Do you really think I would not… That Astrid and I don't love each other or something? Why do we have to prove- No, that's what I don't want to do. No public consummation!" Hiccup said loudly, pushing his father's hand away. Stoick flinched.

"But son, this is about more than just embarrassment! This is about legitimacy! And this offer… it's because you're blind, and have difficulty with things. But that shouldn't impact the consummation!"

"Of course it impacts it! I-I will never be able to see Astrid… in that state. And I can live with that. I accept that. But… But I can't stomach the thought of everyone else being able to see that. For once in my life I want to have something that I alone get to see. Especially the first time..." he said, turning away. Stoick felt ashamed, and sighed deeply.

"You're right. I hadn't thought of that. I'll… I guess it's okay if you just take her kransen off in front of the witnesses. Then we'll leave and you two can, well, get on with things in private," he said, putting his hand back on his son's shoulder. This time Hiccup left it there.

"Thanks, Dad," was all he said, but Stoick could tell it meant a lot to his son.

"Alright then. Let's rehearse some things. And see if the armor fits! We want every part to go perfectly! The entire village will be judging every second of it, so we don't want any bad omens or signs you're not meant to be!" Stoick laughed, remembering his own wedding where the sacrificial goat had escaped.

"Okay, let's do it!" Hiccup said with surprising enthusiasm. Normally the boy would do anything he could to avoid lessons in diplomacy and protocol. Ah, young love and what teenagers are willing to go through for it.

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"Okay Astrid, I know you're tired of all the preparations, and I know I may have gone a little overboard with it all, but there's just one last thing we need to do," Kirsten said as she lead her daughter to an ornate chest. Astrid sighed, clearly tired.

"Ugh, fine. But I'm not gonna do any more sewing. I made enough banners," she muttered, though perking up when she saw the chest. Astrid had never been allowed to open or even touch it.

"No, I'll do the sewing on this one. It has to fit perfectly after all!" Kirsten said as she opened the box and pulled out a dress.

"What?" Astrid said flatly, confusion clear on her face.

"It's your wedding dress! Oh, you'll look so beautiful!" Kirsten cooed as she carefully unfolded the dress and brushed some dust off it. "Better wash it quickly as well!" she added with a chuckle, but her daughter didn't laugh. In fact, she stared at the frilly and intricately detailed dress with slight disgust.

"It's… interesting," she eventually said, and Kirsten's face fell.

"You don't like it?"

"I… It's not me. It's all frail and ridiculous and all these unnecessary gold thingies! Plus Hiccup won't be able to see it anyway! What's wrong with my armor? Or a simpler dress?" she said, fingering the silk. Kirsten sighed deeply.

"Astrid, this was my wedding dress. And my mother's before me, and her mother's before her. It's from when my family was nobility in Denmark. This is a countess's dress. This dress, and the other things in that chest, are all I have left of that. Of my family history. Our family history. This is part of your story just as much as Hiccup's chief armor is of his." Kirsten said, folding the dress carefully.

"And I know you'll become a Haddock, as I became a Hofferson, but that doesn't mean that it isn't family. Noble blood flows through your veins. You're just as much a ruler as Hiccup is. Don't you forget that. And don't let your children forget that either. Your father made you a warrior, but you're so much more than that," she finished, noticing that for once Astrid didn't flinch when she mentioned children. Maybe because she realized this was not a joke or teasing.

"I understand, Mother," Astrid eventually said. "But don't talk like I'll disappear forever after the wedding! I'll still be right here on Berk, just in our new house! I'll see you every day!"

Kirsten felt her eyes get wet, and she pulled her daughter into a hug. "I know. But it's still… You're getting married! You're all grown up and moving out and you're not my little girl anymore! Maybe one day, when your children get married, you'll understand," she said.

"I… I hope I'll be able to understand one day," Astrid said, the first time she actually admitted to her mother she might want children with Hiccup. They held each other tight for a few more moments, before Kirsten pulled back.

"So, let's get this dress fitted!" she said, pushing it into Astrid's hands before grabbing her tailoring kit.

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Toothless warbled loudly, clearly confused by what was happening. Why was his nice calm cove filled with people and decorations? Why was his best friend so nervous, and wearing these weird shiny clothes?

Hiccup did his best to reassure him that everything was fine, that the people would leave soon, and that this was a happy day.

Honestly he was trying to convince himself as well. Hiccup's hands were shaking, nearly making him drop his sword. Today was the day. They'd be married in less than an hour. He was happy. He was ecstatic.

He was freaking terrified. What if something went wrong? What if he forgot his vows, or tripped, or did some stupid embarrassing thing?

Suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder, making him jump.

"Nervous?" Valka asked, and he nodded. Hiccup didn't really trust himself to speak. His stomach was bouncing in his chest, and he felt like he could fly and like he was going to throw up.

"It'll all be fine. I promise. You look so handsome. Oh, my son all grown up. I'm so glad we found each other, so I could see this day," his mother said as she fussed over him, brushing some dust off his shoulder and righting his blindfold.

"It's time," Stoick said, moving to Hiccup's other side. "We'd better get a move on, I don't trust these clouds. Bucket says it's gonna storm soon. I'd rather be inside for that."

Hiccup took a deep breath, before nodding. Just take steps. One foot at a time, until you reach Gothi. Just like Astrid was doing. Oh gods, just the thought of her made his stomach bounce even worse. But he still walked forward, flanked by his father and Toothless. Gasps erupted from the crowd when he left the tent and carefully walked to the center of the cove, right next to the lake. He suspected most of the gasps were for Astrid, however, approaching from the other end of the clearing.

Although he couldn't see her, Stormfly's heavy footsteps and the rustling of her dress reached his ears, and he couldn't help but smile. Astrid grabbed his hands and pulled him a little closer to her, and suddenly there was nothing but them. She was there, and she was beautiful and strong and amazing, and in just a few minutes she'd be his.

"Friends. Family. People I honestly don't really know but I'm sure are very important to the couple. We are here today to bind these two people in marriage," Gobber started as Gothi scribbled loudly in the sand. Hiccup wondered if the wind was blowing away her words.

"Our bright heir, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, and our greatest warrior, Astrid Hofferson, have decided to wed, so that the Norns will weave their threads as one in the great tapestry of fate. If anyone has any reason to object, speak now," Gobber said, and a silence followed. However, just as Gobber took another breath to continue speaking a chorus of ravens erupted from the trees. It sounded like dozens of them flew overhead, cawing and screaming loudly. The crowd gasped and whispered, and it felt like the sun wasn't shining as warmly as it did before. Toothless growled, and Hiccup reflexively put his hand on the dragon's head.

Angry ravens were a bad omen. Odin used ravens as his most trusted messengers, sending his very thoughts to Midgard on black-feathered wings. And if those birds were angry… No, Hiccup couldn't let himself think like that. They were just startled by something else. Maybe the weather. The wind was picking up, making the banners and tents rustle.

"Just get on with it and let them get married! They've waited long enough!" Camicazi shouted loudly, and he couldn't help but smile despite the worry. Her statement seemed to lift the bad mood, and the crowd chuckled as Gobber continued.

"Well then. Hiccup, you first. You know the oath, and you may add your own vows." Hiccup took a deep breath, remembering what he had memorized.

"Astrid… The past few years haven't always been easy. I, and my… disabilities haven't always been easy. But throughout all of that, you were there for me. You were my eyes when I couldn't see. My legs when I couldn't walk. My mind when I couldn't think. But above all, you are my light. The reason I come out of bed in the morning. And… And I never want that to end. That's why I, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock, vow to help and to hold you, to protect you from harm, to provide for you and respect your property. To be true to you, to never raise my hand against you. I vow to love you, as Odin loves Frigg. I will be your husband, if you will have me."

Hiccup shuddered as he finished, terrified and happy and in awe, all at the same time. It was happening.

"Very well. Astrid, your vows and oaths," Gobber said.

"Hiccup. You know I'm more a girl of actions than words. 'Why talk when you can cut it to pieces,' I used to think. But you make me stop and think about what I'm doing, and why I'm doing it. You opened my eyes, showed me a whole new world I could never have dreamed would be possible. In the past years we have discovered and done so much together, and I can't wait to see what we'll accomplish in the future. And that's why I, Astrid Hofferson, vow to help and to hold you, to aid you in battle and peacetime, to manage your home and finances, to be your voice if needed, and to bear you children. I vow to love you, as Frigg loves Odin. So I will be your wife, and accept your vow."

Hiccup didn't think he had ever smiled so wildly. He resisted the urge to duck his head, sure his face was so red from blushing the entire crowd could see it.

"Thus, as Odin and Frigg, you are now-" Gobber was interrupted by a loud clap of thunder. Little gasps echoed through the cove when lightning flashed across the sky.

"You are now husband and wife-" Rain started falling heavily, big cold drops pelting Hiccup like he was standing under a waterfall.

"Let's just speed this up. Exchange of the rings and swords!" Stoick shouted.

"Uh, right. Hiccup, your sword and ring," Gobber said. Hiccup hastily drew his sword and took his ring from his pocket. Carefully he placed the ring on the pommel and held it out to Astrid.

"I give you my family sword in safe-keeping, so that you may pass it on to our firstborn son when the time comes. As a symbol of this, I will bear this ring," he stated. Astrid slowly took the sword from him, taking the ring and putting it on his outstretched finger. There was mild applause, though Hiccup could barely hear it over the pouring rain.

"Okay. Astrid, your sword and ring," Gobber said, and Hiccup sensed her drawing her sword, putting her ring on the pommel, and holding it out to him.

"I give you my family sword in safe-keeping, so that you may pass it on to our firstborn daughter when the time comes. As a symbol of this and all our bonds, I will bear this ring," Astrid stated. Hiccup's fingers shook, from cold and nerves, as he tried to find the sword. Suddenly his palm brushed steel, and he jerked. Through some miracle he managed to grab the handle with his other hand, but when he fumbled for the ring he sensed a thin band of metal slip through his fingers and fall into the void below.

"No!" he shouted, dropping the sword and diving down, desperately searching for the ring in the muddy ground. The crowd whispered worriedly, and Hiccup's panic only grew.

"Hiccup. Here it is," Astrid kneeled next to him and gave him the ring. It was muddy and icy cold, but he knew he had to complete the ritual. So Hiccup awkwardly stood up and put it on her outstretched finger, then took Astrid's now dirty sword and put it in his sheath.

"It is done! They are bound, and so it's time to feast! As we all know, the bride and groom will race, along with the women and men respectively, to the Great Hall. The family of the couple's half who arrives last has to pay for the feast! So let's get to it!" Gobber shouted, and the audience eagerly stood up and prepared to head indoors as quickly as possible.

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Astrid looked out into the rain, trying not to reveal the worry in her heart. Although the rain was slowly lightening, she could barely even see to the bottom of the stairs to the Great Hall.

"Come inside, Astrid! The men will be here soon, I'm sure! We don't want you getting sick!" her mother called, trying to shoo her into the warm Hall where the feast was being served. But Astrid shook her head. She had just taken vows that she would always support and protect Hiccup. She couldn't abandon her husband.

Husband. The word still felt strange, foreign, to her mind. But it also felt right, made her feel warm and glowing despite the rain running down her hair and soaking her dress. Kirsten had long since given up trying to keep it dry, instead just telling her not to get mud on it. The ring on her finger was freezing cold.

Camicazi was standing next to her, looking worried too. The girl looked out of place in her nice dress, though her hair was as untameable as ever. The rain made it even frizzier than usual.

Where were they? Hiccup couldn't run fast, but even if he had walked the entire way, he and the other men should be here by now. A shiver that wasn't just from the cold ran through her body, and she was about to run down and search for him when she heard Toothless croon. Eyes narrowing, she spotted the men at the bottom of the stairs, Hiccup sitting awkwardly on Toothless' back. His arms were around the dragon's neck, barely holding on without the saddle.

Her mother called after her, but Astrid didn't hesitate, running down the steps two at a time despite the delicate shoes she wore, hiking up her dress to avoid the mud. Camicazi was right behind her.

"What happened?" she asked when she reached them, seeing Hiccup being lifted off Toothless' back. A small gasp escaped her mouth when she saw her husband was covered in mud. From his hair to his fine trousers, his entire front was caked in brown gooey mud. Some of it seemed hastily wiped off, but he still looked like he had rolled through a yak pen. He avoided her gaze as Stoick put him down gently.

"He tripped over a rock and fell into a mud pool. Really bad luck," Tolfdir explained as Hiccup leaned heavily on Toothless, and only now did Astrid notice that he wasn't wearing his prosthetic. Stoick noticed her shock.

"The leg broke in his fall. Gobber is at the forge now, grabbing a spare. Once we have that, we can continue with the pillar ceremony. You should go inside for now, Astrid. As should most of you!" the chief said, raising his voice to address the countless men gawking at them.

"I'm not leaving him when he's hurt," Astrid simply said, grabbing his hand. Hiccup flinched, nearly falling when he jumped in surprise.

The people around her muttered as they retreated inside, out of the rain. Astrid couldn't ntot hear their whispers about bad omens and angry gods, about the marriage being cursed. It was just some bad weather, dammit! She wasn't going to let some rain and mud ruin her wedding day!

"You okay?" she softly asked Hiccup. He looked very small in that moment, pressed against Toothless like he wanted to hide under his wing. Before he could answer her, however, he shrieked.

"MOTHER!" Astrid shouted as Kirsten emptied a bucket of soapy water over Hiccup's head before starting to scrub him with a rough brush. Toothless jumped in alarm, but didn't interfere.

"I'm not letting him get any mud on your dress when you dance. He might be your husband, but that is still our dress, and it's worth a fortune!" the older woman said, scrubbing the mud off Hiccup's hands, leaving red irritated skin behind. Moments later even the parts she hadn't scrubbed yet, like his face, were turning bright red as well. At least there weren't that many people to witness Hiccup like this.

"He does need a clean up. It's a shame, he bathed just this morning," Stoick said. Thankfully the discussion ended when Gobber ran up, holding the spare leg. Hiccup eagerly took it and strapped it on without a word.

"All good now?" Stoick asked the now relatively clean Hiccup, who frowned.

"It's too short," he said, moving the prosthetic experimentally. "But it'll have to do, I guess."

"Hey, this might be the first time the groom lost his leg at a wedding. You just keep creating new legends!" Camicazi laughed, pushing Hiccup's shoulder lightly. Astrid smiled. It was good to have Cami here. She was always able to cheer up Hiccup in a way Astrid never truly could. Especially when he was this embarrassed and distant.

"Sure, I just... " Hiccup's voice trailed off, and his face dropped again. Astrid grabbed his hand, making him smile slightly again, and she gently nudged him towards the stairs.

"Together," she simply said, and he nodded. His back straightened, and the two of them walked up the stairs side by side. It went slowly, the stairs were slippery and Hiccup's kept tripping on his shorter prosthetic, but a minute later they were at the top, walking through the huge doors to applause.

"There they are! I was starting to think you guys had eloped!" Snotlout shouted, and Astrid rolled her eyes. But then her gaze fell on the large pillar at the center of the hall. The next part of the ceremony was coming.

"The time has come for Hiccup to prove his strength and skill with the sword," Stoick declared, handing Hiccup the family sword. He looked a little sick at the prospect, but still walked toward the pillar. All he had to do was stab the pillar with the razor-sharp weapon. The deeper it went in, the better he was able to 'provide' for her. Astrid knew very well the sword stabbing was a thinly veiled metaphor for marital activities, but resisted looking too annoyed at the crude comments echoing through the hall.

Hiccup took a deep sigh. He held the weapon in both hands at his side, pointing forward. To her horror, Astrid realized it wasn't actually pointing directly at the pillar, and she knew what was going to happen. Somehow she froze, not knowing if she should intervene or not.

A second later Hiccup unknowingly made the decision for her, charging forward… and missing the pillar with the sword. The rest of his body didn't, however, and a painful smack echoed around the room, followed by 'oooh's'.

"I'm feeling sorry for Astrid. Looks like that's not gonna be a nice night," Tuffnut said, and she glared at him, taking her eyes off Hiccup who was rubbing his arm where it hit the pillar.

"Or life," Ruffnut said with a laugh, and other bawdy jokes started flying. Hiccup seemed to shrink a bit, lowering the sword and dropping his head. And then Astrid couldn't take it anymore. She walked forward and grabbed his free hand.

"You're gonna do it again. Prove that you can use that sword," she said loud enough for the Hall to hear. That made them shut up.

Hiccup hesitated for a moment, but the air of anticipation in the room seemed to be too much and he nodded. She led him back to the center of the room and turned him gently so his raised sword faced the pillar exactly.

"Hah, looks like he needs his wife to wield his sword for him," Snotlout said, but Cami slapped him.

"Hiccup is doing a brave thing here. How many of you would do this? Any volunteers? Anyone who'd wear a blindfold and try to figure out where everything is?" Astrid asked while glaring around the room, daring anyone else to mock Hiccup.

No one did.

"Come on. You can do this. I believe in you," she whispered in his ear before drawing back. Hiccup looked like he wanted to say something, but then he stopped and faced forward again.

A deep breath, and then he was charging forward, sword at his hip. A loud thump echoed through the silent hall as the sword entered the wood, penetrating several inches.

"Woooo!" Cami shouted, and that was enough to break the ice, the hall erupting in cheers. Still, Astrid noticed the hushed discussions and dark looks from some of the older guests.

She ignored them, forcing a smile to her face and walking to Hiccup, who looked more cheerful now.

"Good job," she told him, but before he could reply Stoick's voice boomed.

"With my son's strength proven, it's time for feast and celebration! There's plenty of food and drink for everyone, so you won't have to hold back! But there's one more thing we need to do. The ceremonial drink of mead and blood, representing the happiness and the darkness in any married life, must be drunk by the couple to truly bind them together!"

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Hiccup felt a little sick as he sat down at the head table, Astrid beside him. He knew the things that had happened today were just dumb accidents, unavoidable with his blindness. But he couldn't ignore the whispers, the talk of bad omens and angry gods and cursed marriages.

Hopefully the food and drink of the feast would distract the villagers and give him a few minutes to collect his thoughts and process the day's events. With him breaking his prosthetic and losing the ring he had barely even realized he was married now. Astrid was his wife. Well, she wouldn't truly be his wife until the consummation. Until then either of them could still back out. But she wouldn't do that. Hiccup was sure of that.

"Speech! Speech!" Camicazi started yelling, and the crowd joined in. Hiccup shrank back a bit, not seeing this coming, but when Astrid squeezed his hand he found the courage to stand up.

"Okay… I'm so glad you're all here today, though I never saw any of you," he started with a joke, hoping it would make the crowd forgive his awkwardness. He had actually prepared a sort of speech last week, but he couldn't remember a single word of it now.

Well, improvising worked out for him in the past.

"I know for many of you it was a long journey, only worth it for the promise of a plentiful feast with ale for everybody!" he continued, sensing Gothi walk up beside him with the goblet of ceremonial drink. The very scent of it made his stomach churn, the sweet mead and metallic blood mixing to something that rivalled Astrid's yaknog in foulness. But that was part of the struggle of married life, apparently.

"I know that it seemed unlikely in the past that this day would ever come for me, especially with such a wonderful woman as Astrid," he said, hearing her take a deep sip of the drink. After this speech it was his turn.

"Despite the foul weather, my heart feels warm and comforted that she is now my wife," he continued, gesturing to his left.

Hiccup's hand touched something unexpected while gesturing, something cold that tipped over before he even realized what was happening. There was a bang and a splash of liquid on his pants.

The deadly silence told Hiccup what he had just done. The speech forgotten, he dove down and tried to capture some of the drink in his hands, searching for drops flowing from the table. His hand came back wet, and he lapped up the nauseating essence as the room surely gazed at him in shock. Did this count as drinking? Were he and Astrid bonded or not?

"Is there any left?" Stoick whispered to Gothi behind his back, and Hiccup sensed the headshake. Oh gods. Oh gods.

"What now? What does it mean? Is the marriage valid or not now? Did he just insult the gods?" the Hall whispered. Hiccup sat back down with shaking hands, shivering when his wet pants touched the chair. He wished he could sink through the floor.

Kirsten pressed something in his arms, a piece of cloth, and whispered sharply at him.

"Clean it up. Now!"

Although his brain felt detached from what was happening, his hands moved to wipe the stain off the table. The stench remained.

"My friends, we see here that although Hiccup makes mistakes and messes up sometimes, he'll always make it right again. And that's the most important thing in married life!" Kirsten announced, and a sigh of relief swept through the Hall.

Sighing, Hiccup covered his face with his hands, immediately recoiling when the wetness stained his blindfold. Astrid took the cloth from him and quickly cleaned his hands and face while Stoick opened the feast.

Hiccup felt empty, like this wasn't really happening to him but to someone else. Like he was listening to one of Kirsten's stories. He could barely comprehend he was married.

He could barely comprehend how badly his wedding day was going.

"Hiccup! Hiccup!" Astrid's voice tore him from his thoughts, and he jolted.

"What?" he asked, realizing food was being served. Someone put a plate in front of him, probably specifically prepared for him because he couldn't easily grab his own food.

"Are you okay?" Astrid asked, and he honestly wasn't sure. He felt sick, but the emptiness in him made him want to eat as well. He took a quick sip of water to rinse his mouth of the foul taste of blood.

"I'm fine," he said without believing it. Astrid had been helping him all day, covering for his screw-ups and cleaning up his messes. She shouldn't have to deal with his insecurities as well. This was their special day, her special day, and he couldn't ruin it any more.

Astrid started to say something, but Cami walked over to congratulate them, interrupting her. Hiccup smiled and laughed at her jokes while feeling his plate with his fork, trying to figure out what was where. Cami left, but before he could take more than one bite a villager came up to offer congratulations as well.

The next hour was a constant train of congratulations, receiving small gifts, and awkward small talk as his stomach rumbled and his food grew cold. The guests seemed genuinely happy for them, though many talked about the many mishaps of the day, 'joking' that the gods weren't favoring them. Hiccup could almost sense Astrid's glare when they said such things, as the jokesters often left immediately after.

Music started, and Astrid grabbed his hand. He knew what that meant. The dancing was starting, with them having to go first. Reluctantly he stood up, abandoning his barely touched plate and following her to the center of the room.

"I know this is hard for you. Just ignore them, okay? This is our day. Just follow my steps," Astrid whispered in his ear as she pulled him closer, making him sway with the music. It had started with a slow song, so he managed to (mostly) avoid stepping on her toes, but then the music sped up to a popular party song. It was a jig, a song where everyone joined into one dance, switching partners and moving around in a set pattern.

Suddenly Astrid was gone, whisked away into the female line while Hiccup's arms were grabbed by men as they formed a line in turn. Hiccup managed to keep up for a few minutes as the lines moved back and forth as one, the men chasing the women and the women chasing the men in turns. Laughter was as much part of the music as the flutes were, and Kirsten shouted instructions and directions that were mostly ignored as the mood grew more gleeful.

Suddenly the lines broke up and Hiccup was whisked away again as the men and women ran past each other. For a moment he could hear Astrid's voice shout something at him, but he couldn't catch it as lines reformed, this time a mix of men and women. The lines formed circles and started rotating.. Hiccup just moved with the arms linked with his, happy he hadn't fallen yet on his bad prosthetic.

It was a common dance on Berk, always performed at parties, but Hiccup hadn't really joined in before, too socially awkward before everything that happened with Toothless, and too, well, unable to dance because of blindness and a bad leg to join after.

But at his wedding he could not avoid it. The groom and bride were at the center of the dance, designed to be basically tossed around, dancing with as many people as possible. So Hiccup let himself be lead as the circle he was in broke up and someone grabbed his hand and waist, making them twirl around until she was suddenly gone, replaced with another girl.

"Having fun, Hic? Doing pretty well," Cami shouted, barely audible over the loud music as she led him through a rapid spin.

"I'm surviving," he said with a chuckle, but before she could reply she was gone again, replaced with Fishlegs. It was a sudden change in pace, Fishlegs stepping hesitantly through the steps as they moved much slower than the people around them.

"Congratulations!" the other boy said. Hiccup could barely say a thanks back before his arms were grabbed again, the lines forming again as the chorus played.

The banging of dozens of boots stamping the floor as one made Hiccup's ears hurt. His prosthetic didn't quite join the rest, catching up as he was dragged forward and back by the people beside him.

Thankfully no one seemed angry at how out of sync he was, a heavy hand slapping him cheerfully on the back as the line broke again. He stumbled but managed to regain his footing as Kirsten took his hands and righted him.

"Try to keep up," she said with a laugh. If Hiccup had a moment to breath he would have told her he could never keep up with her. With a grace and ease he had never seen before she danced, her heels clacking on the floor way faster than his. Singing softly to the music she twirled around him, pinching his side and booping his nose. Before he could even process the silly gesture she flung him away again, right into arms he didn't recognize.

A giggling woman danced with him, slower than Kirsten had but still within the steps of the music. The song was speeding up, heading for the climax. The instruments grew louder by the second, everyone clapping along as they circled around him. Hiccup knew this would end with him and Astrid together again, so he prepared to catch her in his arms as soon as the song was over.

But as the final note played, accompanied by a big hoorah from the crowd, his dance partner hesitated, pushing him away a second too late when he was already taking another step. He stumbled, the too short prosthetic slipping on the stone floor. He flung his arms wildly in an instinctive attempt to regain his balance.

That was the exact moment when Astrid wrapped her arms around him, making them sway precariously before finding a stable position.

"My foot!" Astrid whispered sharply, as loud as she could without the crowd hearing, and he suddenly realized his prosthetic was planted firmly on her foot. He jumped back a bit, nearly making them fall as Astrid sighed in relief. The sound was drowned out by the cheers and applause from the crowd, and Hiccup couldn't help but smile. The first thing today that went (mostly) right.

"You okay? Can you walk?" he whispered as the crowd quieted down. Another song started, a much calmer tune meant for couples.

"Yeah, I'm fine. You did great!" she said, putting her hand on his waist as they started swaying to the music. He smiled and ducked his head.

"I don't know, I just let everyone toss me around. It's hard to focus when there's music distracting me," Hiccup said, and she giggled.

"Well then, you did a great job as a projectile. But seriously, I know you don't like to dance because of… everything, but I'm enjoying this," Astrid said, moving them a little faster.

"Me too," he simply said. The simple truth. It felt like the crowd had disappeared and all that mattered was this amazing woman in his arms.

They danced for a while, but eventually his leg just ached too much to continue. Astrid kept dancing, on her own and with others, as Hiccup sat down and tried to massage his leg as casually as possible.

"It's sad, isn't it? They're obviously happy together, but the gods don't approve. Surely the marriage will fall apart soon," a male voice Hiccup didn't recognize spoke, moving past his chair.

"I know! All these signs! The gods are making it clear it should stop! He's just gonna embarrass her more. You know what they say: the wedding day reflects the rest of the marriage," a woman replied loudly, apparently dancing with the other person. Hiccup wanted to speak up, let them know he was right there. But it was like an icy hand had grabbed his muscles and prevented him from moving.

"Hey Hiccup, dance with me," Ruffnut said, appearing from out of nowhere. Before he could even answer she had pulled him out of the chair and was dragging him to the dance floor. He went along with it, the cheerful song giving him energy.

"What an eventful day. Loki would be proud of all this chaos!" she said, and Hiccup wasn't sure if it was a compliment or not.

"I'm more worried about Thor and Freya," he chuckled, nearly stumbling when Ruffnut pulled him closer to her.

"You worry too much. Sure, all these old folk care what the boring gods think, but I'm pretty sure you're already in their good books. Remember how Astrid was Thor's messenger?" she asked, and Hiccup laughed.

"Haha, true, but… I don't want her reputation to be ruined by today," he said, voice growing quieter near the end.

"Pff, like that wasn't a risk for her from the moment she kissed you in public. Get it through your thick skull. You two are so freaking sweet together and you need to bang already. In fact... " Ruffnut said, letting him go as loud footsteps approached.

"It's time for the consummation, Hiccup," Stoick said. Astrid grabbed his hand in hers, and a shiver ran down his spine. He wanted to feel happy and excited, but somehow all he felt was dread, like he was making the biggest mistake of his life.

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Astrid lost track of how many people she danced with after Hiccup, so many people wanting to talk. Boys and girls, men and women all took their chance to catch her alone quickly for everything from a heartfelt congratulations to condolences for her 'cursed marriage' to lewd tips for her wedding night.

And yet it felt like barely any time had passed at all when her mother nudged her and told her the sun had long since set and it was time for the feast to end for the night.

Time for her and Hiccup to go to their new house and spend the night together.

Spend their lives together.

Astrid wasn't sure how she felt. Excitement, nervousness, love, happiness, embarrassment all fought for dominance over her. But the moment she saw Hiccup dancing with Ruffnut a calmth settled on her. He was handsome despite his blindfold and awkward moves. Stoick walked up to him, no doubt telling him the time, and Astrid couldn't take being apart for one more moment. She grabbed his hand, a shiver going through her at the feeling of his warm fingers. In no time she'd feel so much more of him…

Hiccup looked nervous, but he seemed to steel himself when she squeezed his hand and drew a heart with a finger.

They descended the stairs together, followed by the witnesses: The council, their parents, and Gothi. Their dragons stayed in the hall. In the future Stormfly and Toothless would live in their new house, but for this night Hiccup and Astrid wanted to be alone. Astrid knew Hiccup had chosen the public consummation as the one thing he wanted changed, and she was very grateful for that. Her fears of all these people seeing her like that were verified by the jeers and lewd comments echoing from the top of the steps where the (mostly drunk) guests were.

Astrid couldn't help but think that for someone who grew up on an island with no men, Camicazi certainly seemed to have a lot of knowledge about their bodies.

Hiccup shivered, and she leant over as they took the last step.

"Don't worry, I'm sure it'll be great," she whispered in his ear. Hiccup gulped at the words, looking like he was going to throw up. "You're Hiccup the Dragon Conqueror, Capturer of Alvin, Tamer of the Night Fury! You can do this. You're my hero," she said, and that seemed to reassure him. He took a deep breath before straightening his back.

"You're the big strong hero," he whispered, and she jabbed him lightly with her elbow.

"No putting yourself down on our wedding day," Astrid chuckled before grabbing his hand again. Then they walked through the village, past Hiccup's old house to the little house built for them next to the hot spring. The old house was too small for them and Hiccup's parents, especially since perhaps in 9 months there'd be even more Haddocks.

Not to mention this new house was designed with Hiccup's disabilities in mind. Heavy furniture that wouldn't move easily when he couldn't see it, plenty of markers and defined places for tools and objects and cutlery. Their bedroom was on the ground floor so he wouldn't have to climb a staircase on a bad leg day. And, to Toothless' great delight, wider doors and open spaces for the dragons.

It wasn't very big, and they would probably have to expand it depending on future children, but to Astrid it was perfect.

They stopped a few steps from the entrance, where Hiccup was supposed to carry her over the threshold and into their new life. His hands were shaking again. They clenched into fists as the witnesses gathered round, some of the guests coming up to take a look as well.

"It's okay. You can do this. You trained, you're strong," she whispered, before adjusting her dress and moving into position. Hiccup took a deep breath and muttered something she couldn't hear, before putting his arms behind her back and legs. For a second Astrid was sure he would fall, but he managed to lift her up without losing his balance, carefully cradling her in his arms.

"I love you," he whispered, and she was glad it was so dark out so people wouldn't see how hard she blushed and smiled.

"I love you too," she said, and then he was taking a hesitant step. Hiccup swayed for a moment, but didn't drop her.

Slowly he walked to the open door. Astrid pretended she couldn't feel his arms shaking with exertion. The crowd seemed to relax as Hiccup came closer without dropping her. Just two more steps and they'd be through. Into their new home, their new life. One more step. Hiccup stopped when she whispered how close they were, turned a bit so her head wouldn't hit the frame. Then he stepped through the doorway.

The first foot, his right foot, went through fine, landing on the wooden floor inside.

The other foot went less well. Astrid didn't know what happened, if Hiccup had miscalculated how close he was to the threshold or if it was the misshapen prosthetic, but for some reason the fake foot caught on the slab. Astrid felt herself fall out of Hiccup's arms as he fell forward.

With a scream she hit the ground hard, her shoulder taking the worst of the impact. Before she could even process that, however, Hiccup fell on top of her. The sheathed sword on his side dug into her hip painfully. But that ache was forgotten when suddenly a pain like she had been struck by lightning shot up from her shin, making her groan.

Astrid pushed Hiccup off her, crying out when more pain raced through her body. She looked down to see blood stream from her ankle. A drop of blood dripped from Hiccup's prosthetic to the floor, and she realized he must have kicked her accidentally, probably when trying to scramble off her.

"Up, now! Sit in this chair and lift that dress! I'm not letting blood get all over it!" her mother shouted as Astrid still tried to reorient herself. Someone grabbed her shoulders and lifted her into a nearby chair as Kirsten held the dress up near her knees while shouting for bandages.

"What a mess. Do you think you'll be able to walk?" her father asked. Astrid wasn't sure. Now that the wound was being cleaned it didn't look that bad, and it certainly didn't feel like she couldn't move her foot. There was just a lot of blood. Finally she tore her gaze away from her leg to see Hiccup getting back on his feet with his parents' help. Outside the still-open door the guests and witnesses were whispering and talking. Astrid could catch snippets of their words.

There seemed to be two kinds of conversations happening. The men were making jokes about how that wasn't the way Hiccup was supposed to make her curse and bleed on her wedding night.

The women, however, were talking in much more worried tones about the bad omen, how this was a direct sign from the gods that the marriage was cursed.

Astrid didn't know which of the two types of talk were upsetting Hiccup more. He stood next to the door looking like he wanted to disappear into the ground. His head was dropped, hands balled into fists. Her kransen lay on the floor, forgotten. It must have fallen off her head when Hiccup tripped.

"Okay, it isn't so bad. He just hit a big blood vessel. It looks a lot worse than it is. Look, it's already stopped bleeding!" Kirsten said, pulling Astrid from her worries. She tried to smile when she saw it had already been bandaged skillfully. Barely any pain left. Hell, her shoulder hurt more.

"Now all you perverts get out. The couple entered their new home, and with it, their new life, and we all witnessed it. Astrid's kransen is off, even if it fell off accidentally. Let them spend their night alone now," Stoick shouted. The people grudgingly left, and after showing her parents that she was fine and could walk by herself, they left too, though Tolfdir looked rather worried. Astrid didn't know what to say to her devout father to reassure him that this marriage could not be cursed.

Then she remembered her husband. A shiver ran through her when the word entered her mind. Husband. Hiccup was her husband now. And they'd make it official in just a few minutes.

She couldn't wait.

"Hiccup? You okay?" she asked as she grabbed his hand. He jerked up in shock, before nodding softly.

"Shall we… go to the bedroom?" she continued, pulling gently on his arm. Hiccup let himself be led, and Astrid figured he was nervous. She was scared too. But she was also excited. All her mother's tips and stories and advice would finally be useful now.

Hiccup sat down on the bed, and Astrid turned away from him to walk to the closet. Smiling, she reached behind her back to undo the ties on the dress. It wasn't the first time she had undressed in front of Hiccup, with his blindness it didn't feel embarrassing. Besides, she still wore an undershirt and short leggings on top of her underwear, so there was still plenty left to explore when she rejoined her husband. She just needed a moment to herself, to process the day and get out of the constricting dress.

Hiccup was quiet while she carefully took off the dress and folded it. Probably just nervous. She suddenly didn't want to turn around and look at him. It felt like she was under a spell, and if she saw him her nerves would get the better of her. It would feel too real, too sudden after nearly three years of just kisses and superficial touches.

So Astrid sighed deeply before grabbing the one of the large jugs of mead that was always a traditional part of the honeymoon. If they didn't drink all the mead before the end of the month, it was a bad omen.

They had had enough of those.

"What a day, huh? I feel like I haven't had a chance to breathe since I got up this morning. Or have a nice drink," she said while pouring herself a mug of mead. She was still turned away from Hiccup, who, as far as she could tell hadn't moved.

He didn't say anything.

That was odd. Hiccup reacted unpredictably to many things, but he usually said something. A joke, a sarcastic remark, a complaint about the gods hating him.

But silence was usually reserved for…

Oh no.

Astrid turned around to see her worst fears confirmed. Hiccup was sitting on the bed, hugging himself tightly, swaying back and forth as he muttered to himself.

"All wrong, it's all wrong, can't do it, gods are angry…" Astrid heard him whisper when she leant closer. Her heart broke, but her sadness was drowned out by a sudden fury and frustration.

Why now?! Why today of all days! Why did the gods have to be so cruel to give him a Dark Day on what was supposed to be the happiest day of their lives?! For all those years she had helped him through these. Didn't she deserve to have this one night without worry?

Her fist clenched as she tried not to scream, tears stinging at her eyes. Suddenly a bang echoed through the room when the ceramic mug exploded in her hand. Mead splashed over her fingers, but Astrid barely even registered it. Her senses were drowned out by the scream Hiccup produced. He fell back, his hands covering his face as if he expected to be attacked.

Astrid's anger washed away at the sight of her beloved in distress. She quickly wiped her hand on her undershirt, grateful the shards hadn't cut her, before sitting down next to Hiccup.

"Don't worry, nothing's gonna hurt you. I'm here, it's okay," she told him, putting her arm around his shoulder. He jerked away before muttering harder.

"It's a mistake! We gotta annul! The gods hate me and punish you for it! You shouldn't have to go through this! No, no, no, no, no!"

"Stop it! Hiccup, you're not thinking clearly! Just come here and let me help you!" Astrid shouted. Hiccup didn't reply this time, instead curling in on himself. His voice became softer until he stopped talking.

Astrid kept quiet as she watched him carefully, hoping he was calming down on his own. But it took her too long to realize what was truly happening. He stopped swaying, pretty much stopped moving completely. Just shivering and rapid breaths.

"Hiccup? Hiccup, are you listening? Can you hear me?" she asked, reaching out to him. This time Hiccup didn't respond at all to her touch or voice.

No, no, no, no, NO! Not this! Not one of those panic attacks where Hiccup became completely unresponsive! She had only seen it happen once, during an argument over his technical drawings. But Toothless had been there that time. The dragon knew how to help. Astrid didn't. But Toothless wasn't here now, he was staying with Stormfly in the Great Hall. She considered getting him, but she didn't want to be seen by all those people.

Plus, she really didn't dare to leave Hiccup alone right now.

So she sat down next to him, putting her arm around his shoulders and grabbing his hand with the other. She wanted to cry. This wasn't how she had imagined her wedding night. It wasn't fair. Hiccup was in such pain, and she didn't know what to do. How could she drag him away from his horrible thoughts? How could she tell him she didn't give a damn about what the gods or the villagers thought?

They sat in silence for a while, Hiccup completely unmoving. Astrid's thoughts wandered to the feast earlier. Had he been so distraught then already? She should have seen the signs. She had seen the signs. But after the dancing he had seemed so happy and calm again, so she thought he was fine.

What a difference one little accident makes, she thought as she looked at her bandaged leg.

Maybe they could dance again, that might cheer him up. But there was no way she could get him to move in his current state. But maybe… maybe there was something she could try.

"I…" she started, voice breaking in her raw throat. Dammit, she couldn't cry. She had to be strong. She promised him in her vows. She promised him every day for the last three years, even if she hadn't said it out loud.

Astrid cleared her throat and took a deep breath before starting over.

"I'd swim and sail on savage seas, with ne'er a fear of drowning.

And gladly ride the waves of life, if you would marry me."

She sang softly, her voice growing stronger near the end.

"No scorching sun, nor freezing cold will stop me on my journey. If you will promise me your heart…" she looked at Hiccup as her voice trailed off, waiting for him take over.

"And love…" Astrid tried, but the room remained silent apart from a faint echo. But just when she was about to give up she saw a muscle twitch in Hiccup's cheek, like he was trying to open his mouth.

It was a tiny thing, but it was a signal. Telling her he was in there, fighting. He was hearing her. She just had to help him gather his strength.

"I'd swim and sail on savage seas…" she started over, singing the male part of the song. Again, Hiccup's cheek twitched and his hand trembled.

Over and over she sang the first part until she lost count of how many times she had done it. Hiccup remained frozen in place, but she knew he was trying, knew he was fighting for her. For them.

"If you will promise me your heart…" she finished once again, pausing for a few seconds before opening her mouth to start over. But just as she spoke the first word she heard him.

"...And love me for eternity…"

It was barely more than a whisper, his voice shaky and unsure, but it made her freeze.

"My… dearest one, my d-darling dear. Your m-m-mighty words astound me. But I've n-no need of mighty deeds when I… when I feel your arms ar-around me."

Honestly she couldn't call it singing. Hiccup stuttered his way through the stanza, speaking it in a whispered slow monotone without melody. But his voice grew a little stronger when she pulled him closer against her during the last line.

"But I would bring you rings of gold, I'd even sing you poetry. And I would keep you from all harm if you would stay beside me," Astrid sang slowly to match his pace, making sure every word was clearly audible. She hoped Hiccup could hear the love in it.

"I have no use for r-rings of gold, I care… not for your poetry. I only want your hand to hold," Hiccup took over with a little more confidence this time, grasping her hand and rubbing her ring with his finger. Somehow she knew that Hiccup cared about the poetry more than anything in that moment.

"I only want you near me," Astrid sang, letting go of his shoulder and putting her hand on his hand.

"To love and kiss, to sweetly hold, for the dancing and the dreaming. Through all life's sorrows and delights I'll keep your love inside me."

They sang together now, slowly and clearly. It was at least three times slower than the song would be played at feasts, but Astrid didn't care. This way they could share every word. She looked closely at his mouth, letting her husband set the pace.

"I'll swim and sail on savage seas with ne'er a fear of drowning, and gladly ride the waves of life if you would marry me."

It didn't end on a loud and drawn out note like the song normally did. Hiccup's voice choked at the last word, and suddenly his arms were around Astrid, pulling her tight against him.

"Don't go," he whispered, and she smiled before putting her arms around him as well.

"I'm never leaving you," she whispered back. He swallowed another sob before falling apart in her arms. Trying to hold back her own tears, Astrid rubbed his back and whispered silly things into his ear about how much she loves him.

They sat like that for a while, until Hiccup calmed down and pulled out of her embrace. Astrid quickly wiped the tears from her face with one hand, holding onto Hiccup's with the other.

"I'm sorry for everything. For how today went, for all the embarrassment, for… just now," he said softly, voice raw.

"It's okay. It's not your fault," she said, squeezing his hand tightly.

"But it was! Whether it's because the gods hate me, or because I'm blind or my prosthetic, or these dark days, I'm… If it hadn't been me, you'd have had the wedding day you deserve," he said, and she smiled. Silly silly boy.

"And you saying this is precisely why I chose you and no one else. You care about me, you got so worked up about this, and it shows me why I made the right choice." Hiccup froze at her words, lips curling up in a shy smile.

"I don't understand," he whispered, and she shifted a bit so she could face him directly.

"Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third. Do you love me?" she asked clearly. He shrank back a bit.

"Of course I do. With all my heart!" he said loudly, clearly a little insulted she even asked.

"And do I love you?" Astrid asked him, squeezing his hand again. He hesitated.

"I… do you?" he asked with a suspicious voice.

"I'm asking you. Based on everything I've said and done, do you think I love you?" she asked with a little chuckle. Despite all that had happened, his little smiles and dorkiness made her heart burst.

"I… Yes. Yes, because you told me over and over again, and helped me through… through the worst times of my life when I was an absolute idiot or just…" his voice trailed off, and she could tell his brain was going into overdrive again trying to figure out where she was going with this.

"Well then. You love me, and I love you. Isn't that enough? It's enough for me, okay? Remember our first flight, when we found the Nest? We promised that we'd face everything together. We didn't know whether the village or the gods would accept it. Accept us. And I was okay with that. I realize that now. As long as you were with me I'd be happy. Even back then, way before I even understood what I felt for you. And now, having seen so much more of you, I feel that way even stronger, okay? So I don't give a damn about you 'ruining' my wedding day. Would I have preferred no dark day? Of course. Would I have liked it if people didn't speculate about the gods striking us down? No doubt. But I'd still rather have this day and this night than a wedding with someone that isn't you."

Astrid didn't know where her words came from, but she knew that they were true. Hiccup's face fell again, another small sob escaping as he buried his face in her neck.

"What did I do to deserve you?" he half-sobbed, half-laughed.

"You showed me a whole world I didn't even know could exist. You continue to show me new things, new ways of looking at the world every day," she told him. Patting his back before pulling out of the embrace a bit. She couldn't help but smile looking at him, couldn't resist kissing those lips.

"You're my light. I meant that. I don't know what I'd do without you. I'm sorry I don't have a big speech," he said, chuckling at the end.

"I know. Don't worry, I know," Astrid said before remembering something. "And don't you dare think you ruined the wedding night. We still have a lot of time until dawn. And… and even if you're not up for it tonight, we still have our honeymoon, and after that the rest of our lives."

"You're right. But I am up for it. I've waited so long for this," Hiccup said with shaking voice.

"Then let's not waste any more time, husband," Astrid teased before kissing him more deeply, pushing him back on the bed.

"You're very right, milady," was the last thing Hiccup said before Astrid blew out the candles, hiding them in a darkness as black as night.

THE END (FOR NOW)

-------------------------------------

A/N: Thank you, loyal readers who have stood by this story all these years, and new readers who might read every chapter in one go. This story has been such a large part of my life for such a long time, and I hope I was able to touch your lives in some way with it.

Now, if you're interested in what happened after Astrid blew out the candle, I wrote that in a separate story entry called 'Touches in the Dark'. it's E-rated, so make sure you're ready for that.

I know the question many of you want to ask: Is this the end of it? No more Blind Spots? The answer is a resounding NO! Starting November 1st, I will be releasing a series of drabbles, based on a 30-day-30-prompt list. These will allow me to write shorter stories and observations in this verse I was never able to incorporate in Blind Spots' relatively long chapters. I hope to see you there!

#Blind Spots #fanfic #hiccstrid #wedding #httyd #hiccup #astrid #romance

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mikotyzini · 6 years

Text

Happy Not-Birthday

Words: 2290 Pairing: Bumblebee

Totally almost forgot to post this today...whoops! Enjoy! Also, warning for being slightly suggestive!

Humming a tune to herself (the newest AchieveMen single), Yang jogged up the front steps, unlocked the front door, and let herself into the front entryway.

“Hey Blake!” she called out, hanging her bag on a hook by the door and kicking off her shoes. Pushing them towards the clutter of shoes already on the ground, she glanced towards the staircase when she didn’t hear a response.

“Blake?” she called out again. “I’m home.”

Still nothing but silence, which was weird...because she knew Blake was already home. Her bag was by the door, her shoes underneath, and she’d just texted asking when Yang would be home.

Heading towards the staircase to check upstairs, Yang froze when she felt it.

What was ‘it’ exactly? ‘It’ was hard to describe. Some days, she described it as a disturbance in the air - one of those feelings that raised the hairs on the back of her neck. Other days, she’d swear it as a weird type of intuition. But most of the time, she called it just plain scary.

Whatever it was, she felt it right before something lowered in front of her eyes - cutting off her vision and plunging her into darkness. Instinctively, she jerked an elbow back at the presence behind her as her heart started pumping with adrenaline.

“Woah there,” came a calm voice as her elbow connected with nothing but air. “Easy, tiger.”

The sound of Blake’s voice instantly put her at ease, allowing her to relax and drop the ‘fight’ reflex that ran so strongly through her.

“One of these days I might accidentally get you,” she replied, turning towards where Blake had spoken from, only for the strip of fabric to remain in front of her eyes.

“Right…” Blake answered, her disbelieving smirk practically visible in her tone. “I really don’t see that happening.”

“You never know!” Trying to turn around again, Yang was disappointed when the blindfold stayed over her eyes. “I’m pretty fast.”

“That’s like a koala telling a cheetah it’s fast.”

“Are you the koala here?” Yang joked, grinning when she heard Blake laugh from behind her.

“If you’ll let me hang onto you, I will be.”

“Hmm…” Drawing out the word, Yang tried to use the element of surprise and spun around faster this time. Of course, she then sighed when Blake somehow managed to keep the blindfold in place.

“Ok, what’s up with the blindfold?” she finally asked. “Is this payback for accidentally embarrassing you in front of JNPR?”

“Not quite,” Blake replied, softly chuckling when Yang spun around again, to no avail.

“You have to admit it was kinda funny though,” she said, imagining Blake’s expression. “You were bragging about having such good balance then wham! I knocked you right over.”

“Yes, it was...very funny…”

Sensing the dryness in Blake’s tone, Yang twirled again and finally gave up, raising her hand then dropping it to her side in defeat.

“Ok, what gives? I just want to see my beautiful girlfriend.”

“You’ll see me soon enough, but first…”

Feeling the strip of cloth fasten behind her head, Yang hadn’t even thought to remove it when she felt soft lips on her own - Blake kissing her out of the blue. No longer caring whether or not she could see, Yang immediately responded by leaning in to kiss Blake deeply - because she didn’t need to see in order to do that. Breathing in the smell of Blake’s body wash - a nice, flowery lavender - Yang clutched at Blake’s sides, pulling the girl close.

It was one of those kisses that went from zero to a hundred in less than a second. It was one of those kisses that made her realize how absolutely and unconditionally she loved the girl in front of her. It didn’t matter if she couldn't see Blake right now. Ultimately, she didn’t care what Blake looked like - she cared about that feeling bubbling up inside her the longer their lips clashed together. Love, longing, desire, adoration, admiration - all those feelings and more burst forth the longer the kiss progressed.

Yang was fully prepared to profess a lot of love right there in the entryway, but Blake suddenly broke away, resting one hand on Yang’s collar to keep her from following. Confused at the sudden loss of intimacy, she cleared her throat and struggled to find words while her mind was hung up on the kisses instead.

It was common knowledge that Blake scrambled her mind, so there was nothing to be embarrassed about, right? Especially not when Blake had just awakened a very big and very ferocious desire within her.

“U-uh...wh-what?” she stammered, clearing her throat again and shaking her head in an attempt to clear her mind. “Uh, what was that for?”

As fingers wove through her hair, Yang so wanted to see Blake’s eyes at the moment - that smart, sexy amber that looked right through her. Instead, she would have to be satisfied with feeling Blake’s hand slide behind her neck and pull them closer together.

“Happy birthday,” Blake whispered in response, pressing another sultry kiss to Yang’s lips while her confusion soared through the roof.

“Uh…” she said, accepting another kiss in the darkness. “But...it’s not my birthday?”

“Are you sure about that?”

Five minutes ago, she’d been pretty sure it wasn’t her birthday. But with Blake pressed against her, kissing her...she wasn’t so sure. Maybe it was her birthday. Or maybe she didn’t care if it wasn’t her birthday.

“I mean…” she got out before getting lost in another kiss, taking a step back as Blake pressed forward. “Sure - yeah, it can be my birthday.”

Hearing a delighted laugh, Yang grinned. No matter what it was, she loved making Blake laugh. If that meant she had to change her birthday, then so be it. It was just one day a year, anyway. No big deal!

“Glad you agree,” Blake replied, running her hands up Yang’s shirt and disappearing when Yang tried to grab her and pull her back for a kiss. When Yang let out a disgruntled sound, Blake laughed from somewhere off to the left.

“I have a surprise for you,” Blake added, amusement evident in her voice.

“I hope it involves the two of us,” Yang replied, turning towards Blake and stepping forward.

“Oh it does.”

Hearing Blake in the opposite direction, Yang turned again and moved that way instead.

“I think you’ll enjoy it immensely.”

Growing impatient with her lack of vision, Yang reached up to remove the blindfold - only for a hand to grab hers right before lips kissed her passionately - forcing her to forget her quest once again.

But this time when Blake tried to back away, Yang refused to let go. Instead, she pulled Blake closer, wrapping her arm around Blake’s waist while layering one kiss on top of another. Letting out a content sigh, Blake acquiesced - opening her mouth and allowing Yang to deepen the kiss.

Without her vision, Yang focused on so many other sensations - like Blake’s tongue clashing with hers, playfully fighting for superiority. Blake’s hands slid up her sides before moving across her chest, yanking the zipper down on her jacket before pushing the coat off of her shoulders. She heard it hit the ground, neither of them caring to hang it up at the moment, not when the heat being generated between them grew hotter by the second.

“Mmm - mmmk -”

Blake tried to break away, but Yang followed and pressed another greedy kiss to her girlfriend’s lips - a kiss that was willingly accepted before Blake again pulled away. “Mmm - Yang -”

“You said it’s my birthday...” Yang murmured, running her hand through Blake’s hair while kissing her neck, sucking and lightly biting just how she knew Blake liked.

“Yes -” Blake replied, letting out a small gasp when Yang nipped at her ear. “And I - I have a surprise -��

“Do you…?” Yang whispered into Blake’s ear, feeling a shudder of ecstasy travel under her fingertips.

“Yesss...yes.” Unexpectedly pulling away, Blake managed to slip out of Yang’s grasp and disappeared once more.

“Ugh, again?” she whined, turning around as if she could somehow find Blake.

“I have a surprise for you,” Blake repeated, her voice steadier but still breathless. “Can you come with me?”

When Yang raised a brow, Blake grabbed her hand and led her away from the front door.

“Don’t answer that. Just...follow me.”

“I hope we’re continuing that kiss…” Yang muttered while allowing Blake to pull her forward.

“Maybe…”

“In the living room?” she guessed when she felt carpet underneath her feet - her excitement building once again. “I’m totally on board with this.”

“Are you?” Blake whispered - her soft breath tickling Yang’s ear and sending new tingles of desire down her spine.

“Ohhh yeah. Wherever you want, Blake - you know I’m always willing to...please you.” Grinning at the thought, Yang reached out in another futile attempt to find Blake’s skin. “Just don’t make me wait for it - or do I have to beg again? You want me to beg, don’t you?”

Another light laugh, and Yang tried to turn back to Blake. Instead, she felt soft lips touch her ear.

“You don’t have to beg,” Blake whispered. “But first, your surprise.”

“I hope this surprise is you naked, because I can’t wait to nail -”

The blindfold suddenly disappeared and Yang blinked in the bright lights.

When her mind processed what was in front of her, she found herself looking at Weiss, Ruby, and the entirety of Team JNPR - all of her closest friends standing underneath a homemade ‘Happy Birthday, Yang!’ banner with a cake on the table between them.

“Uh...surprise!” Ruby shouted, trying to keep the birthday surprise alive even though her cheeks were ultra-red. Standing by Ruby’s side, Weiss shook her head and looked like she wanted to say something else entirely. Fortunately, Weiss was cut off by the much-delayed “Surprise!”s that JNPR managed to get out - each of them with varying degrees of shock or embarrassment on their faces.

“Surprise,” Blake whispered, nipping the bottom of Yang’s ear before backing away with a triumphant grin. “Who’s embarrassed now?”

Turning back to her friends, teammates, and little sister, Yang felt her cheeks grow much warmer.

Ok, so that was pretty damn good. Get her all riled up, then throw a bucket of cold water on her desire. Touché, Belladonna. Touché.

“Joke’s on you - I’m totally not embarrassed!” she replied, to which Blake rolled her eyes. Proving her lack of embarrassment (even though she was just a little embarrassed), she smiled at her friends and family. “Ok, peanut gallery. Let’s eat cake, but then you need to leave so Blake and I can get down to business - if ya know what I mean.”

“We know exactly what you mean,” Weiss replied, folding her arms over her chest. “Honestly, I’m surprised the two of you didn’t do it in the hall before walking in here.”

“Are you upset about that?” Yang retorted, knowing a good tease when she saw one. “Sad you missed out? I don’t think Blake’s into that, but...you can always ask.”

While Yang grinned, Weiss scoffed and turned to Blake.

“I know you have a blindfold, but do you also have earplugs so we can stop listening to her speak?”

“Oh! I do!” Nora exclaimed, digging in her pockets in search of the random items. Chuckling at the response, Yang winked at Weiss.

“Come on, Weiss. I know you and Ruby get super freaky.” Watching Weiss’ cheeks flush deep red while Ruby’s darkened to match, Yang smirked and pointed at Pyrrha and Jaune. “Same with you two.”

“W-what?? I don’t know what you’re referring to -”

“Uhh - y-yeah, what she said -”

Laughing at the responses, Yang reached out and pulled Blake closer.

“If I’m going down, I’m taking all of you with me,” she said, waving her hand around the room while everyone’s cheeks blushed in culpability. “Well, except you, Nora.”

“Found ‘em!” Nora shouted, holding up a pair of earplugs before sticking them in her ears. “Sorry!” she then yelled, waving in Ren’s face. “What did they say!”

When Ren raised a finger to his lips and shushed his partner, Yang laughed and kissed Blake’s temple.

“So...was that your way of getting back at me?” she whispered into Blake’s ear, noticing the satisfying flush still on Blake’s cheeks - the lingering evidence of Blake’s very successful attempt to excite her.

“It was my attempt…” Blake replied, looking moderately disappointed in the results. “I forgot you have no shame.”

“Not when it comes to you.” Shrugging when Blake gave her a look, Yang let out a laugh as she stooped down and grabbed the blindfold off the ground. “We’re totally keeping this for tonight,” she said, watching Blake’s linger on the strip of fabric for an enticingly-long time.

Leaning close, she pressed her lips to Blake’s ear and whispered, “Guess who gets to wear it next?”

“I do!”

When the blindfold was snatched from her hand, Yang looked over in surprise - finding Ruby pulling it over her eyes while Weiss watched with a smug smile.

“I’m completely ok with this.”

“Of course you are,” Yang answered with an eye roll. Sharing a look with Blake and finding a small flame of desire in those amber eyes, Yang spurred to motion - willing to do anything to rekindle that fire.

“Ok!” she said, gaining everyone’s attention while taking Blake’s hand. “Let’s eat my not-birthday cake so you can get out of here. I’ve obviously got better things to do.”

Blake blushed at the comment while everyone else groaned. Yang grinned at the response, knowing she was about to have the best not-birthday birthday anyone had ever had.

#rwby #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #bumblebee #bumbleby #oneshot

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firstofsakaar · 6 years

Text

Could it be...? It is! It’s--

TIME FOR MORE UNNECESSARY HEADCANONS NOBODY ASKED FOR! :D

Explored in today’s issue: names and naming culture! And a little bit about occupation and social stratification, too. It’s a mixed bag!

Let me get this out of the way right now. Marvel naming conventions are DULL. It’s always in the Western conventions for names (First Last) and always bears the same significance (just a name, sometimes accompanied by a more important title), no matter who is being named. that’s just booooooooooooooring! When I first heard of Taneleer Tivan, for example, I thought he was following Eastern naming conventions: Taneleer as the last, sur-, or family name, Tivan as his first or individual name. Being the last of his kind, he’s given up on correcting the inevitable waves of masses who learn of him, and would keep the information between himself and the other Elders.

This isn’t a viewpoint I’m going to push on Taneleer RPers, obviously, just an example of what I’m talking about.

Some of you already know this about me: that I find Marvel naming conventions, ESPECIALLY for aliens, unbearably boring and unimaginative, and something to be rebelled against. Some of you know this through evidence on this blog but have yet to put two and two together. So today, I’m going to be speaking at length about En Dwi and Homeworld naming conventions. This isn’t one of those headcanons that’s going to impact a lot of people, but I’m still not going to cut this post: I like making the information readily available for anyone who wants to incorporate it into their own writing! Reblogs welcome, if you like it. :)

Let’s start with the surname apparent: Gast. Rather than a family name, in my work, GAST operates as a geographical surname: Gast is the region of Homeworld En Dwi hails from, likely a country or continent. The folk of Gast would only ever use the signifier name when outside of Gast. Homeworlders seldom fully change or get rid of their locational signifiers: they tend more often to keep the name, which is the name of the place they were born rather than where they raised or where they live. They sometimes add additional names of locations of special significance to them, always following the first place. This is a common practice, and usually only ever ends in the addition of one or two locational signifiers of import. Ambassadors spending significant amounts of time off of Homeworld were especially guilty of this, usually adding the name of the planet or its capitol in which they worked to their locational name.

It’s important to stop here and note two things, however: Firstly, “Gast” is not the name of Homeworld. It’s the name of a specific region in Homeworld..

Secondly, of course, is how to tell people apart on Homeworld when they hail from the same location and also share a name. The Grandmaster, as En Dwi Gast, is neither the first nor the last of his native name; he wasn’t even the only one named that way during his lifetime! That wouldn’t make any sense, especially given the limitation of an oral language: written you could change it for a longer time than orally, but it usually all comes down to how people pronounce it. A name is not a rare resource. Rather, in a society as old and advanced as Homeworld was, and one that would have produced a full race of Elders if not suddenly brought to a dead stop, there were other ways of expressing who was being addressed: primarily, this was done telepathically. Although it was still considered only POLITE to use one’s “physical” voice as well, members of Homeworld also sent telepathic intentions indicating the appropriate person of the name whom they meant to address. It cut back on quite a lot of confusion!

Which brings us to the first name/s: En Dwi. I got into a really interesting discussion on the principles of alien naming with Dictionary over Discord, and he suggested something so cool I’m kind of incorporating it into my own viewpoint. He suggested that, of the Homeworlders left (En Dwi and Va Nee, in most cases), the first part of their name is a social title. Initially, I wasn’t sure what to think about this--but given my own thoughts on En Dwi’s employment, particularly that he wasn’t allowed to pursue cybernetics, I do think it makes a kind of sense. To incorporate a title as a part of one’s own name, at least in Western culture, is a mark of achievement: Doctor So and So, Professor This or That, etc. But that, again, is limiting our thought process to the familiar. I think it’s something else entirely to be branded from birth, FOR LIFE, within a particular caste or spot on the totem pole, as it were. I know there some cultures here on Earth that practice this kind of rigid, stratified society, and of course history is chock-full of them, so it’s still familiar enough to make a kind of sense of. I agree with Dictionary’s general premise, as well, that the title En signifies something or someone slightly lower-caste: perhaps not all the way on the bottom, but low enough to not exactly be comfortable in things.

Although initially I thought of En as being a gendered title, the more I think on it, the less I think this is true. En denotes a lower-middle (or higher-low) class caste in the planetary system; the Grandmaster becoming a scientist for the Royal Academy at his caste was all but unheard of, being that it happened to less than 10% of the planet’s population. (Exact percentage is currently subject to change; I’m play with 1% or below, but worry that makes it too rarefied a condition.) During his lifetime, the Grandmaster was one of a very few En’s working for the Royal Academy. (He was either the only one, or the only one save one, I haven’t decided yet. He certainly wasn’t the only Gast, though, which made fitting in a little easier on him.) En’s and Va’s, I think, generally rest around the lower/lower-middle/middle area of the caste system.* Higher castes would follow a different-but-similar naming pattern of two letters, always one vowel and one consonant; think of the naming structures of Vulcans for a precedent, where either all women or all women of a certain powerful class in society have a name beginning with T’P (T’Pring, T’Pau,T’Pol, etc.).

Dwi, on the other hand, is a common second name. Ki Dwi, En Dwi, Va Dwi--it’s as simple and common a name as Jeffrey. ;)

It is generally considered rude to address a Homeworlder without their title unless you have special permission: the Grandmaster could call Va Nee “Nee” if he really wanted to, but that doesn’t mean anyone else should. For the higher castes of Homeworld, this is a mark of clear and certain respect; for the lower castes, it is both a reminder of their place and a means of “making them grateful” to have a title. Those in Homeworld society who exist too far down in the caste are considered outside of it, and are stripped of their title-names. Example: En Dwi Gast might be in the lower stratosphere of society, but he is still generally considered a socially acceptable person. Dwi Gast, on the other hand, is an outsider to be shunned and perhaps even exiled. It also considered exceptionally odd, except in certain familial situations, to address a Homeworlder by only their title-name, as it signifies...virtually nothing. Where title and name (Dr. Banner, for example) are perfectly acceptable in the West/on Earth, on Homeworld, En Gast signifies...every En in Gast. It does NOT indicate the Grandmaster.

With Homeworld destroyed, several of these practices of names fall out of favor with the Grandmaster. He takes ownership of all he is and was instead.

--Hey. Did you notice the *? That’s largely because this is where we hit a snag with my Grandmaster in particular. In the majority of verses that I play, Va Nee isn’t born yet. Now. In verses where she is, and where she existed in some way, shape, or form before the destruction of Homeworld, it makes sense that her name would be of a lower caste; she is En Dwi’s daughter, that makes sense. However, in verses where she’s not born yet, it makes more sense if Va is a title that is either holy (and thereby outside the normal stratification of social hierarchies) or is of a much higher caste (since En Dwi is now in the highest ruling caste).

Sidebar: Although I haven’t taken the time to fully explore what some of the options are based on things outside of the human experience, I have already made the vague, general decision that Homeworld played host to more sexes and genders than are imagined here on Earth; the genders for sure are somewhere up in the mid- to high-teens, so it follows suit that sexes should be...likely no less than eight, maybe more. This is only important to note here because I don’t think any of the caste/class titles (or “title-names”) are gendered, but represent different demarcations within the castes.

#long post cw #long post for ts #;a great eye for detail (headcanon)#outofgames #;where are you going / where have you been (worldbuilding)

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notreblogs · 6 years

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Customization of my GPD XD so far~

I installed LegacyRom and TWRP recovery following the guide right here. Instantly got rid of all the chinese bloatware, got root, and now have all stock goodness.

Installed TVLauncher and made some customized tiles/icons/banners for it (Even paid for the ad-free version because it’s just so nice~).

I installed the XPosed framework, to fine tune some stuff. The installation was quick and easy~ I installed the following modules:

APM+ to add a reboot option to the power menu (Because Android kit kat only has shutdown/airplane/silent options by default, and no reboot option)

Youtube AdAway, self explanatory adblocker.

Youtube Background Playback, which allows you to close the lid/minimize youtube and the audio will still be playing in the background (It’s a youtube RED functionality, but without it lol)

Forced Screen Rotation mod, because TVLauncher turns upside down if you flip the thing over, even when automatic rotation is disabled ^^;. This module though, allows you to LOCK the rotation by faking the accelerometer sensor data. You can whitelist some apps if you want to still use the accelerometer.

The emulators i’m using are johns lite emulators (GBC, GBA, NES, SNES) cuz I like the selector and it’s consistent, MD.emu, DraStic, ePSXe, MAME4droid (Uses MAME 2010 romset), mupen64+, yabause (Yaba Sanshiro), PPSSPP (A lot of games run at full speed), reicast (Dreamcast emulation has come a long way and most games run at full speed!), Ataroid, Turbo Dosbox, and VirtualJaguar (Not full speed but I like the jaguar as the weird little thing it is). They all have gamepad support!

Some of them are paid apps but trust me it’s worth paying most of the cases heh. I bought Turbo Dosbox, DraStic, and ePSXe long ago and it’s been worth it.

Yeah I still hate retroarch. Tried it once again, and although the menu seems slightly more maneuverable, sorry ^^; ...still added it for completeness sake, and just in case, but could get rid of it at any moment. I don’t really care that it’s free, It’s just my opinion but I prefer to have my stuff separated and I like to have many icons on the screen. But first and most importantly I like it the way things are now and I’m not willing to change just “because retroarch”.

I can live without picodrive’s 32x emulation anyways...

Alright, now onto Android games. The Sonic android ports are lovely and have native gamepad support, same as Minecraft, Virtua Tennis (?), and an android port of GZDoom (Which isn’t on the play store as far as I know).

Re-Volt, Rayman and F1 2016 (Found a modded version to make it work on android Kit Kat) don’t have gamepad support BUT the GPD-XD Mapper allows you to map physical buttons to touchscreen controls so you can virtually play any game that has on-screen joystick controls.

Also there’s my own games Tunnel Runner Redux (which has full gamepad support in-game, even strafing with the shoulder buttons heheh) and OuO (which doesn’t use the gamepad at all but it’s cute)

TVLauncher supports adding web bookmarks as well, so I’ve added some bookmarks to sites, alongside all the other apps I’ve installed (twitter, tumblr, chrome, it’s not really better than on the phone, but I like to have em it looks neat and this thing has 32 gigabytes of internal storage memory, that’s enough room for everything hhaha)

I heavily recommend getting most of Simple Mobile Apps, they’re ad-free and they do just what you need. Clock, File Browser, Image Gallery, Music Player, and other stuff.

Anyway, so far I’m still in love with this thing. Zero disappointments, and everything works just as I expected and even better. <33

If you guys know of any cool gamepad-ready android games I should try (or action-oriented, you know, arcade style or that are played with on-screen controls heh) let me know!

Here’s a bunch of things to note if you’re considering getting one (Putting them under the ReadMore because this post is already too long!):

Ok so:

The GPD XD model I have is the one with 32GB of internal memory.

It doesn’t have bluetooth (The newest GPD XD+ “plus” revision does have bluetooth though, along with more RAM; that makes it a bit more expensive than the “old” 2017 model)

It doesn’t have a GPS.

It doesn’t have a light/proximity sensor, so automatic brightness doesn’t work.

It doesn’t have a Camera.

It does have an accelerometer but it doesn’t have a gyroscope, or a magnetic field sensor. So essentially any game that requires turning the device “around” (cardinal directions) won’t work.

It doesn’t have a SIM card slot.

Basically it doesn’t have any pointless hardware so that you don’t have to pay for what you don’t need. It is an emulation-oriented-handheld after all.

It does have a microphone though. And stereo speakers, in front of the device.

The accelerometer is located at the bottom half of the device, and not at the top half. Keep that in mind when playing tilt-controlled games!

The thumbsticks are really analogue joysticks and they feel quite nice, even if the sensitivity is quite high, but frankly that’s expected from these kind of joysticks. You can still kind of press it softly on one side to do small movements.

The shoulder buttons are clicky and the d-pad and the ABXY buttons are not. The start and select buttons are both placed on the left-hand side of the console, but if you don’t like that you can easily remap the select/start buttons to the L3/R3 buttons. I personally don’t mind it heh.

It DOES have a mini-hdmi port (to connect to a TV), an SD card slot, a microUSB port (obviously), and a headphone jack.

YES, it supports USB-on-the-go, so you can plug in a keyboard, or a mouse, or even a usb joystick I think.

It has Android 4.4.4 but it’s not like you’ll need anything higher than that If your goal is to play emulators (And some games like F1 2016 can be modded to work on that version of android as well).

HOLD DOWN the app drawer button (the one right between the power button and the gamepad-mapper button) to access the SETTINGS menu of applications! (Works like a settings button!). If you just press it, it will open the recent apps menu instead.

Gamepad-mapper configurations are saved separately for each game/program so you don’t have to re-config every time you play!

In any case, I love this thing and It’s been worth all my money so far!

I’m thinking of making a new boot animation because the LegacyRom one looks a bit out of place tbh and because WHOO CUSTOMIZATION hhaha

Thanks for reading!

#GPD XD #android #handheld console #gamepad digital #customization #emulators #long post

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visticsmedia · 3 years

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I can’t believe it

New Post has been published on https://alansummers.com/blogroll/

I can’t believe it

Review of Desktop Lightning – Strengths and WeaknessesFrom the Desk of Alan SummersIf you’ve been following what’s been going on in the Internet Marketing scene then I’m sure you’ve at least heard about DesktopLightning.com by now.A lot of people are saying really good things about the site, but are they true?I decided to write up an honest review of the site, covering what I believe to be its strengths and its weaknesses, just to clear it up once and for all…To your continued success!

=========================================================================DesktopLightning.com – Strengths and Weaknesses=========================================================================Overall Rating: 4.5 / 5 stars (* * * * 1/2)In A Nutshell———————-A catchy new viral marketing tool, capable of broadcasting messages directly to people’s desktops. Easy to use, and caters primarily to those who have something they want to promote and are looking for a better way to do it. I don’t want to forget to mention that there is a FREE version available.(Read on for why I didn’t give it 5 stars)1. Initial Impressions———————-When I was first introduced to Desktop Lightning, I wasn’t quite sure exactly what to think. Everyone was saying it was going to be more powerful than e-mail marketing, but this seemed like too bold of a claim.I signed up anyway, since I usually give things a chance — that’s how I have found the several sites I do really trust and rely on.The signup process did take about 60 seconds, as advertised, and their software program downloaded and installed in about 30 seconds. No long, tedious install processes here. If you own downloadable software, you might want to take a look at how quick their install process is.Right after installing the software, it ran immediately, and I was quickly presented with a tool to invite my friends.Within one-click’s access was my Inbox, the tool to send broadcasts, a statistics page, and my favorite, the “Build Your Network” page.I’ll get more into why that’s my favorite page later.2. Viral Growth———————-This is where the site really shines, in my opinion. The purpose of a viral marketing site is that you should be able to invite just a few people, and then it will start growing on its own.Many sites claim to work like this, but few actually work as advertised.I’m not sure if it’s because of their unique concept or the slick implementation, but this site is REALLY viral. Here’s some of the testimonials they got, which I think sum it up pretty well:“I haven’t ever seen a system build a downline so fast. I joined your program just to try somethingnew. Four days later I had a downline of 43 people. This is unbelievable.” ~ Harry Joseph“I invited just a handful of people only a few days ago and I already have 48 members on 5 levels below me. I am going to keep promoting this, but I see it has a life of it’s own now. I couldn’t stop my network from expanding if I wanted to!” ~ David Parton“This website is so viral – I received over 100 sign-ups and my network is already 5 levels deep inless than 48 hours.” ~ Rene KeiserAlthough they obviously can’t guarantee results for anyone, the general consensus is that most people who do get those initial few people in are experiencing results similar to these.I give DesktopLightning.com an A+ for spreading like wildfire.3. Direct-To-Desktop Broadcasts———————-So, once you have the people in your network from the direct invitations and the viral growth, then it really gets cool. Now is when you get to broadcast whatever message you wantdirectly to their desktops.Gone are the days of sending out emails and wondering if they were received due to spam filters and crowded inboxes.If you upgrade to their Platinum membership, then you can even get exact statistics on the percentage of your broadcasts that were opened, but the Platinum membership is not the subject of this review.Here’s how it works — the Desktop Lightning software is what allows the direct-to-desktop communication to be received. Since everyone in your network will have the Desktop Lightning application installed, just as you do, this is what allows such smooth and instant communication to occur.Within one hour of your sending the message, everyone in your network who is online will receive a notification on their desktop that they can click to read your message.Anyone who isn’t online at the time will receive it when they log on next.I’m sure you can see why this type of communication has been more successful than email as of late, so I won’t get into it too much here. The basic point though is that there’s no way your message can be lost, overlooked, or blocked by any filters.If you upgrade to their Platinum service you can do things like embed video and sound right into the broadcast, but again, I’ll save the Platinum service for another review.4. Building Your Network———————-Most sites out there nowadays don’t really help you build a network of people below you. They just throw you a URL and tell you to run with it.While this works for most advanced people, it’s not something that’s very easy for people who are just starting out.DesktopLightning.com went really far this time to make sure that everyone has a way to bring people into their network, regardless of skill level.When you click on the “Build Your Network” link from within their application, you’ll be presented with a surprising number of tools to help you build your downline.Everything from banners, to popups, to text ads, to invitation tools, to emails to send out, etc.Then, they continue to offer something which I haven’t seen on any Internet Marketing site yet — they have a “Starting From Scratch” section, designed specifically for people who haveno list and no website with traffic.If you’re in that position, then you’ll love this section, since they detail specific strategies you can use to promote DesktopLightning.com (or anything for that matter), even if you don’t have anything to start with.Quite a valuable resource.5. Not For Everyone———————-With all that said, the only downside to Desktop Lightning is that it’s not for everyone.Of course, some might see that as an upside, since it’s a more targeted opportunity.Basically, the bottom line is that DesktopLightning.com is a promotional tool. You need to have something you want to promote or advertise before you can really make use of thesite.This is all due to the fact that the basic concept is that you build a viral network of people, and then broadcast something to it.But, this “something” is whatever you want, so you must already have something you’d want to send to a lot of people.If you don’t have something yet, you could start building your network first, and then once you get something to promote you’ll be ready to launch it immediately.If you do have something to promote, that’s when the site really shines.6. Conclusion———————-I would recommend this site to anyone who has something to promote or advertise.It definitely works, and your downline will grow extremely fast if you put some energy into getting it started.The direct-to-desktop broadcasts are a killer app in today’s online climate, where emails barely even get through anymore.The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is that it has nothing to offer for people who don’t have anything to promote or advertise yet.If you want to advertise or promote something to a lot of people in a unique and powerful way, then this site is for you.=========================================================================At any rate, my general opinion is that since it’s so quick to set up and try, if you have something you want to promote you might as well go check it out.You can always remove it later if you decide you don’t like it.

[tcb-script language=”javascript” src=”https://www.desktoplightning.com/banner.js.php?id=468×60&spid=378621″][/tcb-script]

Here’s the link where you can find the FREE sign up:https://alansummers.com/tools/review-dl/Enjoy! 🙂

#Business (General)#Business (Online | IM)#Marketing Tips

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itslulu42 · 6 years

Text

Asphyxiation

The last of my LJ fics from 2009 that I’m finally posting here because it is seasonally appropriate.

I wrote it when I was out of my mind on cold medication and people really liked it. I guess that says something about my writing. XD The final version is almost identical to the rough draft in my notebook.

Banner for my nostalgia and because I gotta delete that LJ soon. :D

Story behind the cut for you lovelies.

The thing that Sakura despised the most about the war was the smell; it was a putrid, clinging stench that was unique unto itself. Elemental jutsu would leave behind the acrid scent of ash and iron, odors that burned at her nose and lungs. War was dead bodies in various stages of decay that reached forth with ghostly arms to choke her and the taste of wasted energy on her tongue.

When Sakura first arrived, she had expected the horrific injuries; she had anticipated the exhaustion that would wear at her body and mind. She hadn’t anticipated the smell, one that would inundate her mind, cling to her skin, and taint the flavor of her bland food. Her only saving grace was that Suna had developed a seal to keep the fetid smell out of the tents.

Sakura cursed Iwa and Naruto’s steadfast dedication to Gaara. If they hadn’t been such close allies she wouldn’t be here at all. Suna was in no shape to fight Iwa; most of the jounin were still young and lacked the experience. As such, Naruto had sent over several squads over and they were doing their best to bring the battle to a swift end. But Iwa’s experience was making it difficult to gain any advantage and as the weeks passed, Sakura was having a difficult time seeing an end in sight.

The four months made her feel as if she had aged twenty; it was full of sleepless nights and ripped bleeding flesh. Her body was constantly tense, waiting for another crack of rock breaking or the horn that was the sign of Iwa’s advance. Sakura had at some point developed a tick in her right eye and every glimpse in the mirror made her more unrecognizable. Soon Sai’s nickname for her was going to be more truth than a lie. It was just another thought added to her heavy heart.

Sakura thought she was over such vain trivialities.

The horn outside Sakura’s tent blared and she knew that the latest advance had retreated. She grabbed the scrap of cloth she used as a mask and wrapped it around her nose and mouth. Once in place, Sakura exited her tent and made her way across the compound. The smell was still there, filling her mouth and throat. She stopped to gag, huffing through her mouth until her body adjusted to the exposure. Her eye gave another tick as some of the sand cracked underneath her feet. She waved at the dirty ninja returning from the battle.

“Injured?” Sakura asked them.

“None,” replied a Sand Ninja, a man she knew by sight alone.

“What?” Sakura’s widened in surprise. Iwa was full of ruthless fighters and the injuries they caused were many and severe. Most ninjas were put on rotation so they could recover from their injuries, Sakura being one of the few who had been present the entire time.

The ninja shrugged. “It’s New Year’s Eve. Both sides are on a truce for twelve hours.”

“You don’t actually believe them, do you?” Sakura asked. “They’re hoping you become drunk so everyone is vulnerable.”

But the men continued without a word, making their way to the tent that contained the jars of desperately made alcohol from random bits of rations.

Annoyed, she walked to the captain’s tent, determined to give him a piece of her mind. What sort of hair-brained leader was he?

“Kakashi?” Sakura came to a halt once she recognized the back of his scruffy head.

He raised a gloved hand, his back to her as he stood up from his chair. “I thought you were stationed here.”

“Did you make that announcement about the truce? And where is the captain? You know that is only going to make the men drink and become careless.” Her eye gave another twitch as she removed her mask and placed it on a table.

“Well, I hardly think that—damn." Kakashi had turned around mid-sentence.

“What?”

"Er...nothing,” Kakashi replied in an unconvincing tone.

“What?”

“Ahh…” He cleared his throat. “You've changed a bit.”

“I haven’t changed that much,” Sakura retorted as he approached her. Kakashi raised his hand to pluck at her hair. “What are you doing? Stop it, Kakashi!”

“It’s grey,” he replied in astonishment as he peered at the strand between his fingers. “And your eye has been twitching since you walked in.”

Sakura pressed her lips together in displeasure. Part of her wanted to rage in anger because Kakashi was so inconsiderate, but she couldn’t muster the energy. He stared at her. She stared back.

“Huh…Every five minutes your eye gives a little tick.” Kakashi leaned forward to peer at her closer. “It’s like you can tell time by it.”

“You’re so rude,” replied Sakura as she crossed her arms.

“The war hasn’t been kind to you.” Kakashi made his way over to the table and patted it invitation as he sat upon it. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. The war isn’t kind on anyone. You’ve changed and it caught me by surprise.”

Sakura shuffled over and sat down next to him. She wiped at a crusty orange stain on her uniform as she gathered her thoughts. “It’s the waiting that gets to me, those moments after the advance and I have to wait for the injured to start coming. And then when they do arrive, I don’t quite know where to start.” She stared at her feet, noting that the soles were beginning to fall apart again.

Sakura saw Kakashi’s s boots from the corner of her eye and marveled that they weren’t covered in mud or blood. She could feel the familiarity of his presence returning to her, that longing that had seized her body every time he had passed her in the street. And that was only when she looked at his boots.

Kakashi hummed. “I’m sure the grey will fade away when you get home.”

“I hope,” she confessed. It was only a few strands, but that was already too much. “So are you certain the truce will hold?”

“I’m hoping Iwa goes back on their word. Otherwise, all of the traps I set up on the field and the fresh wave of troops waiting for them would have been for nothing.”

Sakura felt her eye tremble as she sighed in relief. Of course, there was more to the plan.

Kakashi looked at the clock. “The next time your eye twitches, it will be a new year.”

“Shut up, Kakashi.” She raised one hand to rub at the furrow that has formed in her brow and her nose caught a whiff of the disinfectant she has been using the past few months. It had crept into every crevice of her hands to dry it out and peel away her skin. Kakashi was stationed at another location of the front, but he looked the same. In the village he was considered aloof and taciturn, some believed him unfeeling. But in a shabby tent out in the battlefield he looked like a pantheon of confidence and stability. It was unfair that Kakashi grew more virtuous in a war and she deteriorated like a poorly made toy.

Kakashi’s head was turned to the side and his headband was blocking his view of her. Sakura’s eye twitched once more and her renewed adoration burned in her lungs and heart. She leaned forward to tug down his mask and kissed him. It was an awkward thing, his head was in the process of turning and their teeth collide together and she has caught part of his top lip but none of his bottom. She tried to redeem herself by readjusting but he pulled back and the moment was over.

Astonishment was etched all over his face. “You kissed me.”

The corners of Sakura’s mouth tucked into another frown and she wonders if she will smile before she forgets how to do so. “I know that.”

“Why?”

Sakura turned away and shuffled back to her spot by the table. “It’s the New Year. I thought that it would be clever and kind of sexy or something.” Normally, she would be plotting her escape from shame by now, but she’s too weary to put forth the effort.

“Well, it wasn’t. It was terrible.”

“I know.” She tried to smile, but all that she can make is a painful grimace, her cheeks aching with the effort. “I could try again.”

Kakashi shook his head. “I don’t recommend that.”

“Oh.” She stared at her hands in her lap. It was just as well, one only gets a single chance at a New Year’s kiss anyway. Sakura’s embarrassment caused her lungs to burn again even though she is the safety of the tent. Kakashi had the worst possible reaction, short of posting an international flyer on how much he hated her. She sat next to him in an uncomfortable silence.

Sakura stayed because dying of embarrassment next to him was better than being alone with a tent and a drink.

So deep in her thoughts, Sakura failed to notice Kakashi move closer. But she caught a whiff of his smell, the scent of ozone and cleanliness. There was a brief glimpse of the stubble around his mouth before his lips pressed against hers. He tongue swooped in as she opened her mouth in shock. Kakashi’s hands tangled in her hair as he stole her breathe away.

The horn outside the tent blared, and Sakura knew Iwa had fallen into Kakashi’s trap. He pulled away from her, a mischievous smile on his lips that caused her heart to stutter. Sakura felt the pressure inside of her slacken as he spoke.

“Happy Monday.”

#kakasaku #my fanfiction

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jolteonjordansh · 7 years

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Day 1: “Successor”

Synopsis: It’s been five years since Wes and Rui have defeated the criminal syndicate Cipher, and since their disbandment the duo have advanced their travels to a wider scale as they visit multiple regions. Upon making their recent arrival to the tropical region of Alola however, Rui discovers the potential uprising of old adversaries.

Author’s Note: It’s the first day of 2017’s Orre Week! I hope to get everything in on time, but if I don’t I’ll still be sure to post everything I have planned! This may disappoint some people, but this is pretty much the only prompt that will directly connect to the events of Pokémon Colosseum. My focus will be the events after Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness. But this is a story I wanted to get out. I should confess though: This is actually my first time drawing Wes and Rui. Okay, maybe not first time ever—I did an old comic back in elementary school regarding origin stories of this duo, but my headcanon has drastically changed since then and I can’t even find the original material. Still, this is my first time actually drawing default Wes and Rui and as much as I wish it was better, I’m mostly happy with how it turned out! Still, I never realized how ridiculous Wes’ hair is… lol

I hope we all have a great Orre Week, and I hope you guys like my contributions! I’ll admit, I’m a bit nervous as this is some of the first writing I’ve posted online in years, so I could be a bit rusty. Proceed under the break to read today’s one-shot!

His black boots trampled against the wooden stairs as Wes trekked up to the next floor, his Espeon and Umbreon trotting adjacent to his left and right. Reaching into a pocket in his blue coat, he pulled out a card as he made his way towards a door. Placing the card up against the knob, it clicked and he opened the door as he and his Pokémon companions passed through the door.

“Oh, you’re back already?”

Wes looked towards one of the beds, where Rui laid back as Espeon stood up to the side of the bed, rubbing his head against her hand with a soft purr. She was one of the few sights that could crack a genuine smile out of Wes, and he nodded as the door shut behind him. “The trainers are still pretty sparse around here, but I’ve noticed they have quite a close connection with their Pokémon, even if they’re not as challenging as some from the other region.”

“Yeah, a lot of them walk around with their Pokémon everywhere. There’s so many cute companions around here!” She giggled, looking down at the pink feline and his approaching ebony ally. “But not as cute as you two, of course.”

“Don’t spoil them Rui. They’ll become too content with all of the attention you give them.”

“Oh, relax. You keep them well-trained as it is. Just because you’re not as affectionate doesn’t mean I can’t be,” She reached her hands as she pet them both, their purrs harmonizing.

“You make it sound like I don’t care for them at all. These guys are the closest thing I have to family,” Wes sat down on the adjacent bed. “And how have you enjoyed your down time?”

“Oh, I just woke up from a nap. I can’t believe how much there is to do on Melemele Island! This place is just so beautiful, and this region still has other islands we can visit. I had to have a day to take it all in!”

“I guess this is our most relaxing visit yet. I guess you made the right decision picking it out.”

“It’s almost like if Agate Village were a whole island. I think I’m ready to pick it out for the both of us to stay here!”

“Come on, cut that out. You’re being silly,” Wes looked down and scratched underneath the chins of his companions, noticing what seemed like a pair of smirks between them. “I still want to be able to go back to Orre too. I’ve got pals to meet up with at the Outskirt Stand when we go back, if hell hasn’t frozen over and Officer Johnson hasn’t caught them.”

“I know, and I want to go see grandma and grandpa when I can too,” Rui looked over towards the TV running in the background as she held the remote out. “I do hope they’re doing alright though. The P*DA’s service doesn’t really work outside of Orre, and you know how my grandparents are with technology…”

“You’re not trying to search for the ONBS through the TV service here again, are you? You’ve done that in every region we’ve visited, and you’re never successful. I get that you’re so blown away by how many channels they all have, but ONBS just has too limited of a broadcast.”

“I just want to try, alright? Is that such a bad thing to do?”

“Well, alright. I’m just saying it’s probably a hopeless cause,” Wes shrugged as he scratched behind Espeon and Umbreon’s ears, listening to their shrills of delight as his two friends turned over towards him instead and leaned into his hands. His ears blocked out the clicking of the TV, staring into the violet and red eyes blinking at him as he gave them a gentle smile.

I do wonder how things are in Orre, His mind wandered, but easily he remembered just how little Orre had changed in his time living there. Even in his life living alongside Team Snagem, his life had been mundane. The places he saw never changed. The people barely changed. Regulations never changed. Even when Cipher had reared their ugly heads into the scene, only a handful of people took action.

The police force was nearly nonexistent after all, as Chief Sherles and Officer Johnson were the only ones who strived for any sort of peace. Only the occasional bystanders like Duking ever bothered to step in. There was the Kids’ Grid, of course, but they were just as their name implied—kids. As skilled as they were with technology, they didn’t have the resources to reach any further than Orre. For all Wes knew, they could have been continuing with their usual work behind the scenes in The Under as he and Rui continued to travel.

But Orre had found peace after he had stepped in, and that was what mattered. The usual petty crimes of bandits and lone wolves would continue throughout the region, but he wasn’t a superhero meant to handle the region’s problems. These were mere misdemeanors that would take care of themselves. The world was built to handle those who could survive in it, and nature would take its course. It was only if humanity strayed nature too far from its course that it required such interference.

Still, I can’t help but wish to see Orre improve for the better. Solving everyone’s problems is a nice thought, just not feasible, He ruffled his hands against Espeon and Umbreon’s heads. I suppose it’s just best to believe Orre is on a road towards improvement.

“Wes!”

He lifted his head up at the sound of her gasp. “What? You didn’t seriously find it, did you?”

“In a way, but… Not in a way I was hoping. Look!”

As Rui sat up and pointed towards the screen, like an excited child pointing out her favorite superhero, what she pointed towards was nothing to be thrilled for. A bold red banner laid at the bottom of the screen, reading its news report.

“Orre News Broadcast Station Attempts ‘Shadow Pokémon’ Hoax”

“What…?” The words squeezed out of Wes’ mouth like a ghastly breath.

“Today on the Pokémon Conspiracy Network, we have probably one of our strangest stories in years,” A red-haired woman appeared on camera as video footage played to the left of her. “From the obscure ‘Orre Region’, we received word of supposed news reports of an entire city being taken over by a criminal organization named Cipher, with weapons the news station— ONBS—has reported as ‘Shadow Pokémon’.”

“Why would ONBS report false news? I know they weren’t the most accurate when I blew Gonzap’s base, but this doesn’t sound right…” Wes mumbled.

“If this story sounds crazy enough to you, don’t take our word for it—Here’s the full footage of ONBS’ supposed news report,” The camera panned away from the woman as the video to her left then filled the screen. It was the usual ONBS set-up, but rather than having the station’s standard broadcast woman reporting the news, a somewhat familiar brown-haired boy sat alongside a monitor playing back footage, with the young narrator beginning his speech.

“Hello, viewers! This is Secc, ONBS’ Director. We bring you a special scoop.”

“No way… That’s Secc? He really grew up!” Rui exclaimed.

“And he’s ONBS’ Director? I guess that was only a natural progression for him in Orre, the kid being so smart…” Wes then rose his hand in a gentle hushing manner, as Rui’s voice calmed to whispers of disbelief.

“The courageous actions of a young boy thwarted a group of Cipher operatives who had infiltrated Phenac City,” The monitor’s camera then panned towards a young boy with long red hair clad in yellow, a strange mechanical arm adorning the left half of his body. “This footage shows the boy and his Pokémon driving off a top Cipher Admin from the city’s Stadium.”

Wait, that machine… That can’t be…! Wes’ eyes widened as the robotic arm caught his attention, subconsciously glancing towards his own left arm to the machine that he wore as rusty armor, his voice reduced to a raspy whisper. “That’s Phenac City, no doubt about it…”

“I don’t think we ever saw that guy from Cipher though. He… kind of looks like Ein had a little too much fun at a costume party,” Rui said.

“He’s got a weird get-up, I’ll give you that,” Wes added.

“Cipher had been trying to take over the entire city by replacing its citizens with the syndicate’s members,” Secc continued. “ONBS was also targeted for takeover by Cipher. Despite this setback, Cipher appears to be growing more active.”

“Wait, they tried to take over ONBS too!?” Rui piped up.

“So did Venus try that nonsense again? At least it sounds like Orre’s smartened up to know not to let them influence them… I bet the whole Kids’ Gridd works for ONBS now. That’s why they managed to actually capture good coverage of Cipher… if this is real.”

“Wes, you don’t really think Secc would fake thi—“

“Hang on, let it finish Rui.”

“The authorities have issued a caution to all citizens and organizations to be alert to the possibility of further attacks,” Secc said. “As you have seen, Cipher has returned with a vengeance. The entire Orre Region is endangered again. ONBS promises to doggedly pursue this story and provide you with the most accurate information on Cipher’s actions,” A look of determination flashed into Secc’s eyes, one Wes recognized from nearly half a decade ago. “We must not allow Cipher to carry out its conspiracy of fear. Let us all protect the peace of Orre with courage!”

And with a final outcry, the video faded to black, returning to the red-haired woman at the center stage of the TV recording. “The ONBS report was sent to multiple news stations from Kanto to Hoenn. However, most officials have dictated the footage to be false and controversial at best. The so-called ‘Shadow Pokémon’ that were reported could not be seen in the footage, as the battle seemed no different than any other Pokémon battle,” The woman explained. “The obvious bias towards the Orre Region and justice for it also leads officials to believe that the report was put together to gather attention towards a region even I have never heard of before.”

“Of course that battle seemed regular to you guys!” Rui’s face turned red with anger as she found herself getting up out of bed. “Normal humans can’t see Shadow Pokémon! You wouldn’t know the difference unless you watched the battle closer!”

“Rui…” Wes murmured.

“While the report talks as if these attacks have happened before, we could not find any evidence of such incidents between several news stations through multiple regions. It seems the whole ‘issue’ is a self-contained show with over the top acting, particularly with the ridiculous cloaked man. For now, the ‘Cipher’ reports are being dismissed. We’ll show you what other locals had to say after seeing this stage sho—“

The TV blinked off as Rui held out the remote, slamming it down next to the TV as she turned around to Wes. “I can’t believe these people! The ONBS is actually reaching out to other places in the world and they won’t listen because Cipher’s work has always been so under-handed and secretive! How was any of that fake!? Secc and the other kids would never lie and spread it around like that!”

“Rui, you need to calm down. You’re hardly rational right now,” Wes hushed.

“I’m not rational!? Wes, you should be mad too! That’s our home these conspiracy jerks are talking down about, and our friends too! They’re hardly being reasonable about this to! And everyone could all be in grave danger but no one else is bothering to get involved!”

“Rui,” Wes stood up as he placed a finger on her lips, immediately silencing her ranting. “Let’s think through this, alright?”

Her shoulders slouching, Rui sighed as she looked up at Wes with her blue eyes crying of despair. “Wes, I just… I can’t believe this is happening again, and we weren’t there for it… What if this has been going on since we left?”

“I can’t imagine it’s been going on for that long. I know our connection with Orre has been limited in the last five years, but we’ve found ways to send e-mails at some places with wired connections. I would have gotten an urgent message back when we visited the PokéCom Center in Johto last year. It must have been within the last few months at most.”

“I guess… But do you really think this was faked?”

“No, I think there’s some legitimate news here. Sure, Secc was pretty vocal about justice for Orre, but… He’s not wrong. And I wouldn’t put it past Cipher to take over a city. Evice posed as mayor for Phenac City all while we remained unaware, and they built a whole tower for themselves. They have resources and connections, without a doubt.”

“Yeah, this has to be legit… But it doesn’t look like Orre is completely vulnerable.”

“You’re right. They had a boy fighting that Cipher Admin, not to mention that mechanical arm…”

Rui nearly felt her soul leap right out of her skin as she recalled the machine Wes had just pointed out to her. “Wait, you don’t think that was a…!?”

Wes nodded. “It’s got all the parts. That kid had a Snag Machine on him, no doubt about it.”

“Do you think maybe Team Snagem is working with Cipher again, and that boy got his hands on their Snag Machine?”

Wes snickered. “That thing looked way too fancy to be Snagem’s handiwork. Besides, they’d practically fallen apart by the time we left, but the Old Man insisted he’d bring Team Snagem back. Besides, after Cipher made a fool of themselves, he’s got bad blood with them. He told me all about it before we left.”

“So you went to see Gonzap even after everything that happened? Wouldn’t he have bad blood towards you?”

Wes shrugged. “It is what it is. I figured I’d at least try to set things straight with him. Either way, that kid doesn’t really look like Snagem material. Gonzap was barely willing to take me in at my age as it was. That Snag Machine was probably reverse engineered somehow, I’m sure. And if the boy fought off a Cipher Admin, sounds like he’s doing a lot of the dirty work.”

“I guess so… But I can’t believe Cipher would return, and with more Shadow Pokémon too…”

“Were you able to tell if that crony was using a Shadow Pokémon? Or maybe that kid?”

“I don’t know, I couldn’t really tell but the battle was pretty violent… Maybe since the footage is recorded and I’m not seeing the Pokémon directly, I couldn’t see the black aura around it.”

“I see… I guess that only makes sense,” Wes looked out towards the window, his yellow eyes gazing out away from Rui. “ It’s in their hands then.”

“In their hands!? That’s all you have to say!? Wes, we need to go back there and help! We can’t just leave Orre’s people and our friends and family out there to just deal with it!”

“What do you propose we do then?” Wes gave her a sharp glare. “You know as well as I do that finding a ferry that takes us back to Orre only comes once in a blue moon in regions like this. And there’s certainly no airports nearby. We couldn’t afford a private jet even if we wanted to.”

“What about your Skarmory? She can fly us there, can’t she?”

“She couldn’t fly two people to a far off region efficiently, that’s for sure. I can’t put that kind of stress on her.”

“But Wes, if we just try—“

“Rui,” All Wes needed to do was firmly say her name for her to realize she needed to calm down. There was a stiff silence between them, Rui’s heart dropping to the pit of her stomach as she began to understand Wes’ logic was sound—far more than her rampant emotions.

The silence held as if the legendary Celebi had entered the room, with time itself frozen to a halt. Umbreon and Espeon stared up towards the argument of their two human friends, but remained neutral with their own sense of tact. Only the soft sound of Wes’ feet shuffling and turning towards the door could be heard among them.

“Wes, I’m sorry. I just…” Rui broke the silence as Wes had turned away from her. “I want to help everyone back home. I can’t stand the thought of thinking they might be in trouble. I don’t know what I’d do if Cipher took over Agate Village and did something to grandma and grandpa.”

“I know it’s frustrating,” He extended his right arm out, as if signaling her to hush, but now with a sense of understanding. “I want safety for Orre too. There’s a reason I left Team Snagem so many years ago—I understood how important its people and Pokémon were. But we’re not in a position right now.”

Rui had no response. She didn’t have to remind him that he was right. He already knew, and she did too.

“But you have to remember too, just because we’re not there doesn’t mean Orre is helpless. I think it’s fair we give the rookie a chance.”

“Oh, the kid? You really think he can handle it though?” Rui asked.

“The footage spoke for itself, don’t you think?” Wes grinned. “He fought pretty well with his Pokémon, and defeated a Cipher Admin. It seems like he has the tools, especially if the Kids’ Grid have made connections with him.”

“You’re right… You always seem to figure things out quick, don’t you Wes?”

“I’ve got street smarts. That’s about as well as I can put it,” Wes turned back to her as he placed one of his hands over her shoulders, then gently bringing her into a supportive embrace. “I’m sorry if I came off as cruel. Why don’t we try to find a place like the PokéCom Center and connect my P*DA so we can communicate with the others? If we can do that, we can at least see if we need to make drastic measures to intervene and make sure everyone else is okay.”

“Yeah… That sounds good. Maybe we should go start asking around?”

“Sounds good to me,” Wes released Rui from her grasp, though reaching and holding her hand in support. “It’ll all be okay. I’m sure of it. And if worst comes to worst, we’ll make sure to fix everything.”

Rui nodded, as her eyes suddenly lit up. “Hey, maybe we can even spread awareness outside to the other regions so people believe that it’s true! We can tell them it’s no hoax!”

“I’m not sure how much they’ll believe us. To the rest of the world, we’re nobodies. But I suppose it couldn’t hurt.”

“Come on then, we shouldn’t waste time! Let’s get going!” Rui grasped Wes’ hand as she charged towards the door, Wes feeling his body being thrown forward along with her. Standing back up, Umbreon and Espeon yipped and skipped along as they followed after their master and his companion. The discovery of such a dire situation was disheartening to be sure, and perhaps now their master had more work to do.

But a new hero had stepped forward now, one they had now decided to place their trust into for the sake of the Orre Region.

#OrreWeek2k17 #JJ Writes #JJ Doodles #Pokémon Colosseum #Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness #Pokémon #fanfiction #fanart #Wes #Rui

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ghostboy-gamedev · 4 years

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Learn Log #3 - GUI

This week I studied various elements of Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) including text, logos, buttons and cursors. For practice, I made a mock-up of a fantasy RPG menu which turned out alright. Apologies for the late post. I was a bit busy this past week. Hopefully this doesn’t cause a delay in next week’s post but we’ll have to wait and see!

Text and Font

To practice my font making skills, this week, I tried to make readable fonts in the smallest sizing possible. My reasoning behind this is letters might be read in large passages of text, so a smaller size will likely be required – especially for small menu spaces such as inventories.

Above was my first attempt which used 3x4 pixel letters. While many of the characters were recognisable, a good number were not. The ‘M’ and ‘W’ were utterly unreadable, and some of the characters were difficult to read, like ‘S’ and ‘X’. I decided to move up to a 4x5 size.

With this slightly larger size, I attempted to make both uppercase and lower case letters, most of which worked pretty well. While most characters such as the ‘S’, ‘E’, ‘3’, ‘Z’ and so forth benefited from the extra pixel in the Y-axis – characters were still needed an extra pixel along the X-axis. Characters such as ‘M’ and ‘W’ were still basically unreadable, and characters such as ‘T’ and ‘I’ were difficult to align along the even number of pixels. To fix this, I moved up to 5x5.

Finally! I have successful ‘M’s and ‘W’s! From this test, I really think that there are a few principals for creating nice fonts. 1) If you know or unsure about if the letters ‘M’ and ‘W’ are involved then make the canvas size for each letter at least 5 pixels wide. The same can go for characters like ‘S’ with regards to height. 2) Make the canvas size an odd number along the X-axis to better align specific letters.

With this last font set, I was also able to size the canvas for different types of characters differently. Capital letters occupied the full 5x5 canvas, lowercase letters occupied a 3x4 canvas (except for the ‘M’ and ‘W’ which had to be 5x4), and numbers and symbols filled a 3x5 canvas. I did this so readers could better distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters, and similar characters like ‘O’ and ‘0’. I’ll have to see what it’s like an actual game later, but I think it’ll be a pretty useful trick.

I do think I will be able to make larger fonts than this and size them down in the Unity engine. Even if this is the case, I think this worked pretty well as practice within tricky boundaries.

Logos

I think logos and titles are pretty crucial to a game. They plaster the cover and main menu of the screen, and I’m sure we can all think of a few memorable logos we’ve seen in games. So, now that I’d practised making text I wanted to make a banner logo for my Itch.io page. The first thing I did was a little sketching on paper before converting it to a small pixel art concept, as shown below.

The recommended banner size for Itchi.io is about 900px wide. I was not going to start here, so I decided to do my rough draft at 45x26 and detail it as I scale up. I made this draft by implementing the concepts I really wanted first and building around that. I knew I wanted to include the ‘S’ wrapped around the ‘T’, so I started there and worked my way through the logo. I also wanted to include a little ghost, so I left a space for it in the bottom left corner. Next, I wanted to add some detail and hollow out the letters, so they were white with a black outline. This is useful as it means the letters are both white and black, allowing the logo to be read on dark and light backgrounds.

To add the detail, I scaled up the previous logo by 400%. This allowed me to round out the edges and create a nice ‘blocky-but-smooth’ look. I also adjusted the ‘G’, ‘T’ and ‘S’. The original ‘S’ and ‘T’ combo made the ‘S’ seem a little bit strange, but this new version was a lot better. With the hollowed out ‘G’ I made it seem like it was beneath the ‘H’ which I thought was a nice effect. I left one of the ends of the ‘Y’ very blocky to make it seem like it had been interrupted by the T. At this point the logo was 180x104, so I scaled it up by 500% to reach 900x520 before adding more detail.

If someone were to ask me, ‘Hey, should I make a 900x520 pixel art logo dealing round edges and circles?’ I would slap them. In fact, I’ve slapped myself because I did precisely this, and it took ages. At smaller sizes, circles can easily be adjusted, viewed, or manipulated to trick the viewer into thinking they are looking at a round edge. When you need to make 4 circles, the largest being 220x220 this becomes insanely difficult. Looking back on this issue I definitely should have used anti-aliasing - I completely forgot about it if I’m honest. The ‘O’s didn’t even come out looking that great. They look quite boxy – definitely should have used anti-aliasing. I have regrets.

Luckily the other letters turned out much better. I did adjust the ‘Y’ also as previously the logo read ‘Ghosty Boy’ rather than ‘Ghost Boy’. This did make the canvas 840x520, but I don’t think it’ll be a noticeable change. I’m pretty happy with it, especially after all the time it took. I may revisit the logo at another time (especially to fix up those ‘O’s).

Above is the final logo, I added the pattern used in my profile picture (slightly desaturated to make it easy on the eyes) to the insides of the letters and called it a day (or 3 days. I hate the letter ‘O’).

Buttons

So, we’ve got our game’s font and title, what we need now are some buttons for interacting with the menus. To practice making button sprites, I decided to make link buttons for social media sites. I started by making the designs of the buttons, as shown below.

I started with small, white 9x9 designs of each social media sites’ logo on a background of their associated colour. I wanted the buttons to be small (to be put on the sidebar of a website) and completely circular. The Itch.io logo could not fit onto the small size, so I made a rough-looking videogame controller instead.

I then expanded these designs into a larger 13x13 circle which I would later turn into the button. Not much happened in this step but this.

And the buttons were done! I shifted the logos of each button upwards before adding a shadow and highlight line on the bottom. Buttons require some sense of depth or separation from the background to show that they can be interacted with. This is really all that’s needed, but more detail can be added to make the button look more appealing.

I added a shadow around the back of the buttons to emphasise the edges of the buttons, separating them from background. I then added some more detail to the highlight to make the button seem shiny and draw attention to it. By alternating between highlights and normal tones, the button appears metallic. Finally, I changed the white logos to a light yellow so the white didn’t seem too bright.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with how the buttons look. The colours on the Itch.io button are a bit desaturated which conflicts with the metallic look. This is due to the colours of the actual logo being quite desaturated. If I were to return to it, I would change it to be pink or orange to capture a similar colour but make the button as bright and eye-catching as the others.

Cursors

There’s not much to talk about in regards to cursors. The default cursors of PCs and Macs are pretty good, however, adding a custom cursor image to a game makes it look really cool I think – even if it’s just a simple adjustment. I tried my hand at making some cursors. The circular points make fitting cursors for shoot games as they’re reminiscent of a gun scope. The hand cursor is a little tricky to do in a small space and might not be worth it as cursors need to be small. Like I said regarding text - if Unity has an option to scale down cursors that will make things much easier. These are some simple ones, but I’m sure there could be more eccentric designs even within these cursor shapes.

Assessment

So, for this week’s learning assessment, I wanted to make a mock-up fantasy RPG menu based on the items I made last week. This was definitely not a lazy excuse to use the same colour palette and 100% a sincere artistic decision.

The first thing I started with was the buttons. It is crucial a menu’s buttons are clear and easy to read so they should dictate the size and presentation of the rest of the screen. I really liked the scroll item from last week, so I decided to make the buttons scrolls. This made the addition of depth more complicated, but I think I did an alright job by adding a shadow bottom right of the scroll.

For the text on the buttons, I wanted to delve into the fantasy aspect and use rune-like letters. I had to tread a fine line between clarity and the desired aesthetic of the letters which took a lot of trial and error, but I think I got there in the end.

I then scaled up the buttons to add some further detail to the scroll and the runes. I thought the plain white background looked pretty bland so I decided to make a background.

I made a mountain range as a background for the menu and changed the text of the ‘PLAY’ button to an outlined red. I kept the background quite simple as this week’s topic was interfaces, and I was concerned that a detailed background might distract from the interface elements. I turned the ‘PLAY’ red because I wanted to give the impression that the option was being selected. I had ample empty space to the left of the screen, so I decided to create a logo for the game to fill that space.

[photo]

After some more trial and error with different rune letters, I created this logo giving this fake game the title ‘Mt Doom’, inspired by the mountain range background. The rigid rune style really gave the title a more menacing feeling which was good. The ‘O’s used looked a bit weird as I had trouble turning them into a rigid rune style. I increased the size of the logo to add more detail and popped it into the menu screen.

The extra detail made the runes look a bit nicer. The ‘O’s were still off but did fit the rest of the font a little better after adjustment. My biggest concern was how out of place the whole logo looked. This was quite clearly because of the pure white colour used for the letters. I could change this to the white within the colour palette; however, this colour was used in the background, so I decided to match the selected button and use the colour red for the logo.

The red made the logo really pop while fitting in with the rest of the piece. Additionally, some light shading on each of the letters made letters stand out even more. I also moved the black outline of the text slightly to the right to make it feel more like a shadow rather than just an outline. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like the logo had a grand enough presence for its purpose and menace to shine through. To fix this up, I digitally resized the logo by approximately 133.33%. Now, digital resizing really works well for stuff like 200%, 500%, 1000% and so on because it just adds pixels. However, a resize of 150% means you are resizing the image by 1 and a half-pixel which is not possible. This creates jagged, messy lines – but I decided to give it a shot because why not?

To my surprise, the sizing was perfect, and the messy lines actually worked somewhat with the aesthetic. The shading did get messed up a bit, and if I were to do this again I would go back and adjust the shading, but overall I actually think it improved the piece. Finally, I decided to add a cursor, a watermark and social media buttons into the piece, as shown below.

This watermark and the social media buttons do look a bit out of place in the piece, but I think that works in their favour. It draws attention to them and makes it clear that these are not part of the game or menu. This is particularly useful as those social media sites will open an external tab so showing they’re not part an internal part of the game is important.

Looking back on this piece, I do wish the background had more detail. Initially, I didn’t add it so the interface was clear and this may have worked. Still, the fact the background is very simple makes it aesthetically different and distracting. Also, while the scrolls were a nice concept, they could be designed to have more depth and a better select state. Overall, what I took from this practice is that this design process of ‘Buttons to Background to Logo’ is quite useful, but I do need to make adjustments as I go through each stage in the process.

Conclusion

That concludes week 3 of learning pixel art. In week 4, I will be diving into environments starting with grass, trees, bushes and some other features of nature. I’m really excited to build pixel art environments, and I think I’ll enjoy it more than this week as I got a bit sick of making letters over and over again.

My learning and this blog post wouldn’t have been made possible without these fantastic resources. Go check them out if you wanna learn some stuff about pixel art!

Creating A Pixel Art Font by TutsByKai

How to Make a Pixel Logo by TutsByKai

Pixel Art 101: Buttons by Pixel Pete

How to Animate a Button by TutsByKai

How to Make Pixel Art Cursors by TutsByKai

#pixel art #pixel #pixel aesthetic #video games #gamedev #game dev #learning #learn

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wpbloggertools-blog · 4 years

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Why You Should Skip Cheap Wordpress Themes

Price is important but it isn't everything. If you were building a house and you had very expensive furniture would you put it in the cheapest house you could find? Probably not. You'd look for a sturdy but affordable house that was within your budget. I doubt the house would be free and I would hope it wasn't cheap. Because long term cheap houses tend to have problems. Your Wordpress theme is the infrastructure of your website. Building it requires a few skills and Wordpress is easier to use than ever. With a good theme that has versatility and support, you can create an amazing website. Affordable (not cheap) themes provide a wealth of features, have fantastic support and play nice with other plugins. Finding a good them makes managing and building a blog much easier than in the past. But I won't recommend cheap, because cheap implies that any low-cost theme will do and that's definitely not been my experience. I've bought cheap Wordpress themes and walked away frustrated with trying to use them and integrate other services with them. Affordable low-cost themes with easy intuitive drop-down menus, sliders and configurable features are available; most of them have excellent support. I'm about to tell you about 2 options I think even the most non-technical person could use.

My favorite is Astra's Theme and I've written a fairly in-depth article about why I think it is the best Wordpress theme for the money. It costs about $60 and I now use it on every site I build. If you'd like to know more about why Astra is my number 1 choice and why I think it is the most affordable Wordpress theme for the money then just click here. Unfortunately, a few of you will stop reading now because you think that you can find a free theme that does it all. Sorry, I was there and it's a huge mistake if you ask me. Sixty bucks over the course of 1 year is $5/mo or about 15 cents /day. How much money do you think you'll make on your blog or business. Is $5/mo for a theme that is intuitive and easy to use worth it? How about $5/mo for a theme where the support actually responds and answers your questions? Free is great and cheap might save a few bucks in the short term at least until there's a problem. So skip cheap Wordpress themes and invest in a low-cost affordable one that makes building your small online business easier. Because at some point you'll have a question and if you're building a blog or website to create an online business then $5/mo isn't really that bad for a theme that makes that blog or website possible. If you still think that $60 /year is too expensive then I recommend you look at GeneratePress. It costs around $39/year, is super easy to use and has very good support. Frankly, I'd still be using GeneratePress except I found Astra; it's a good solid 2nd choice. Like Astra if you use GeneratePress, you can start with the free version and switch to the paid version in the future. You won't get customization with the free unless you know CSS. The paid version allows for customization of typical stuff like font size, style, colors, navigation and sidebar configuration. Like Studiopress, GeneratePress supports both parent and child theme configuration. GeneratePress documentation and how-to videos are also quite helpful; Support is and very responsive support is provided thru a user forum. GeneratePress websites are optimized, built as lightweight themes. Thus it remains speedy once configured. The versatility of changing the way the final site looks is highly customizable with the affordably priced GP premium version. The paid version is super easy to use.No additional drag n drop builder is required because GeneratePress is amazingly flexible through the use of it’s own built-in “customizable options”. It integrates a couple of really nice features (like individual per page banner, backgrounds, and overlays) into pages and posts not normally available in some themes. Changing color, font size and type with GeneratePress is the easiest I’ve used. GeneratePress is a solid candidate as choice amongst the many Wordpress themes available. One con may be that some plugin buttons are not always viewable in the Wordpress page editor when using GeneratePress sections. However, the plugin shortcodes are still quite useable within the page sections. So getting the button to show requires additional configuration. This slight inconvenience is overcome by documentation and support. Here's is one of the easiest themes for beginners and non-coders alike. In fact, it's my theme of choice because of the flexibility built-in. While getting good responsive Wordpress themes seems easy, there’s a ton of themes to choose from. Importantly, the key is finding an easy to use, eye-catching and versatile theme and that's where Generatepress excels. GeneratePress is one of those really nice, stylish customizable themes that provides great features, solid support, and optimal performance. There’s always debate about themes that come with drag 'n drop builders. These builders are popular because many bloggers aren’t interested in coding. Here are just 5 awesome reasons to love the GeneratePress WP theme.

#1 Lightweight themes are faster.

No surprise. It takes a lot of time to get good at coding from scratch. More importantly, blogger and web owners focus on content, not coding. Still, everyone wants a great looking website. A drag n drop builder is seen as a way to create a stylish site without coding. Some themes have that the builder built-in. The problem arises when the theme becomes so loaded supporting code for the builder and features that the resulting website loads at the speed of growing grass. GeneratePress has avoided that pitfall. While GP doesn’t have a drag n drop builder, it's super easy to configure and that is an understatement. GP maintains a lightweight framework which allows this theme to perform well for both blogger and end-user.

#2 Intuitive themes are easy to configure and maintain.

Understanding where and how to configure a theme should be intuitive. Let’s face it. Most prefer a short how-to video or an easy to understand "checkbox- dropdown- fill-in-the-blank" menu versus reading dry documentation. The theme configuration settings of GP are really intuitive, and the customizer menus are easy to understand. Simple dropdown, sliders, and selections make using the theme a snap. Plus, the short video’s available showing each feature are available on GP’s site. (Documentation is available for those so inclined.) The main theme customization is broken into standard sections. Clicking on each slide open a new menu of choices. It’s simple to go thru each adding, color, font, sizes and details. Plus, how the site looks can be viewed simply by clicking on the small icons at the bottom of each menu. These icons represent desktop versus mobile devices. Just from what little is shown, it’s clear to see how easy with color options it is to change settings on the fly. And the color is just one of the many, easy to change features that GP offers. Navigational menu, backgrounds, header, footer, and widget are all configured in a similar manner.

#3 Themes with solid support mean less headaches.

Most free support forums are just that. Post a question, wait a while and hope someone provides an answer. Some paid sites do the same. GP support is responsive and actively involved in user support. Post a question and expect a response within less than 8 hours. That’s on the top end of the support performance bell curve. Search the user ticket forum for others that might have had the same issue is available. Good support makes using this theme that much better.

#4 Themes that have how-to guides are easier to understand.

One of my favorite reasons that GP makes using their theme much easier is the how-to video’s that show the customizing the color, fonts, background, and images. However many other helpful links to tips like optimization, documentation and the help form are available. Plus, GP offers tips on CSS and PHP for hearty souls wanting to go the extra mile in configuring their site.

#5 Themes with extra features make creating a blog easier.

GP has some cool features in addition to the easy changes all the standard areas (font, header, navigation, layout, and color, etc). One of the coolest features is the built-in page sections that come with the premium paid version. Each section not only can contain normal content (images, links, text, video’s, etc); each section can be configured individually within the page to have different backgrounds, parallax effects, overlays, color, and font. Having that really supports styling custom pages for whatever need might arise. Enabling Sections in GP allows changing other features for that page; features like page container width, enabling/disabling certain elements, footer widget, and sidebars. This flexibility thru a couple of checkbox and radio buttons make GP truly user-friendly. If you found this useful, please consider sharing it.

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simplemlmsponsoring · 5 years

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Brave Payments: Could This Be The Future Of Monetization For Content Creators?

If you’ve visited almost any news site lately, you’ve likely experienced first hand just how broken the online advertising industry is today. We’re talking numerous banner ads, auto-play videos, instream video ads, sponsored posts with somewhat questionable preview images, and more.

Visiting most modern news sites today is basically like stabbing yourself in the eye socket. Your web browser isn’t too happy about it, either, as it usually drives up memory usage on your computer, causing that CPU fan to speed up or even crash your browser.

Visiting most modern news sites today is basically like stabbing yourself in the eye socket. Too many ads!Click To Tweet

These sites didn’t use to be this bad. But, the truth is that they’ve become more and more desperate to drive adequate revenue in an increasingly competitive landscape. Since their entire business model is reliant on ads, the only way to increase revenue is to pack the site with more ads.

Here’s a quick shot of a random visit to CNN:

If you scroll down on CNN, a huge chunk of the bottom of every story is full of sponsored placement.

And, have you ever been to a blog and been sucker-punched with crap like this?

I mean, there’s some quality stuff that just makes your blog seem really reputable. You must be so freakin’ proud.

You’ve also got a whole swath of more independent news sites coming up. Some of them are more questionable than others, of course.

But, they find themselves in the same situation. So, they just jam-pack their sites with every ad they can find. Many of them are just embarrassing for the owners of those sites.

Not only is it not a good look, but you’re basically just assaulting your visitors.

The Ad Industry Is Broken

There’s no doubt that the online advertising industry is big. In fact, estimates are that around $160 billion will have been spent on digital advertising in 2018. We’ll see where those numbers come in, but there’s certainly a lot of money sloshing around. And publishers want their share.

There is also a LOT of fraud, though. Juniper Research estimates that about 9% of all revenue generated in online advertising is due to fraud. That’s over $19 billion annually in fraud alone. Things like click fraud are rampant.

There’s also a thousand middlemen in this space. For every ad you might see online, there is a whole patchwork of middlemen between you and the original advertiser. All these middleman need their share of the revenue, and all of them do their own tracking. Before you know it, your web browser is being sent MULTIPLE tracking cookies from companies you’ve never even heard of… all to load down a couple of banners on some blog you’re visiting. And, of course, track your activity.

And two of the biggest middlemen of them all are Google and Facebook. Estimates are that these two companies alone take about 73% of all ad dollars… and about 99% of all growth. They’re monopolizing it… and your data.

So, what’s going on is that the ad industry is growing, but it is also on a flawed course that will need to be corrected.

There is a massive amount of fraud. It is being overly centralized by Google and Facebook. All these advertising companies and the middlemen need data. YOUR data. So, they do whatever they have to do to gather as much data about YOU as possible. Publishers are held hostage. If they want to increase revenue, they have to jam more ads onto their sites, accept questionable ads, and stuff more and more tracking cookies onto visitor web browsers.

The course that the industry is on isn’t really sustainable. That’s because people are punching back…

The Rise In Demand For Privacy

In the end, the consumer is always in control. And, come to find out, most people aren’t huge fans of their information being used for advertising purposes, or in having their browser smashed by ads and tracking cookies.

There’s a war on.

It is a war between this hungry industry of online advertising, and the end user who just wants to be left alone.

There’s a war on. It is a war between the hungry industry of online advertising, and the end user who just wants to be left alone.Click To Tweet

One survey in 2017 showed that as much as 40% of all US users use ad blocking. Another survey showed about 31% use ad blocking. Whatever the real number is, that’s quite a lot of people who are just throwing up the hand and blocking ads.

Some news sites fight back against this. If they detect an ad blocker, they will just block you from viewing the content unless you allow the ads.

In some cases, they offer subscription options to exempt you from the ads. I don’t envy their position. I fully understand that they need to make money, but I also understand why many consumers are blocking those ads and likewise might not be willing to pay for their content.

So, there is indeed a war on. And there are 3 parties either being incentivized by their own motives:

Advertisers and the army of middlemen are incentivized to be as interruptive as possible as well as track everything you do so as to make the ads more effective. Publishers are incentivized to pack their sites with more ads so as to increase revenue End users are incentivized to block ads in order to safeguard themselves from the increasing onslaught

This isn’t a war which is solvable without a different model. We’ll get to that.

But, there’s another issue on top of all that…

The Dangers of Centralization (And Google And Facebook Controlling Most Advertising)

Another huge problem in this industry is that Google and Facebook have become absolute behemoths in terms of gatekeepers. They take about 73% of all ad revenue. This means that publishers feel forced to play by their rules if they want to make any money.

This kind of centralization is dangerous, though.

When either Google or Facebook changes their ad rules or even makes a tweak to their algorithm, it can potentially have a very large impact on site traffic and, hence, site revenue. This leads to a lot of publishers who totally change their content strategy specifically to tailor to these networks.

One of the dangers to this is in the world of news. Since they need Facebook to survive, they have to create content that is designed to perform well on Facebook and other social networks. What gets the clicks? Sensationalism, clickbait, headlines that are designed to spark anger and emotion. And so we get “news” that isn’t really news, but is instead supposed to piss you off or get you entrenched into some emotional battle. The goal is that you’ll hit the share button and drive up their ad views.

What gets the clicks? Sensationalism, clickbait, headlines that are designed to spark anger and emotion. Fake news is a business model.Click To Tweet

If you want to know why news seems more polarized, why fake news sites have become a thing, and why memes and clickbait headlines seem to be the norm… this is why. It is a business model. The truth can be boring sometimes. Controversy makes more money and “us vs them” battles motivate people like nothing else.

Content quality drops as a result… and it becomes harder and harder to find good, solid information online.

Another danger is de-platforming. There have been many sites out there that Google and/or Facebook just deemed inappropriate and they just get banned. Unfortunately, this seems to be more common in sites that lean politically conservative. It has also happened to some sites that discuss health topics.

When the major gatekeepers of traffic these days just collectively BAN you from their networks due to your content, that is called de-platforming. Sure, your site still exists, but it is much harder for anybody to find you. And you can’t make money with ads and, for many publishers that would be a death knell.

It is a very dangerous situation. It would be easy to turn a blind eye to it… or just to accept the patent excuse that such sites were engaging in “fake news” or “hate speech”. But, in many cases, they were doing no such thing.

So, do we have freedom of speech online or do we not?

The centralization of the internet around a handful of companies is very dangerous to the future of the internet.Click To Tweet

Truthfully, no. The centralization of the internet around a handful of companies is very dangerous to the future of the internet. And these companies are basically black boxes as we don’t really know why they make some of the moves they do.

We need a better way.

Decentralizing the Internet. And An Intriguing Solution…

One thing is for sure��

The internet will be undergoing a transformation. While the trend has been toward more and more centralization and more middlemen, there are huge waves happening that I believe will radically transform and decentralize the internet.

The technology that will spur these very large changes is known as blockchain.

If “blockchain” isn’t a term you’ve heard, then you’ve probably heard of Bitcoin. Blockchain is the technology behind Bitcoin, however the applications of blockchain go way beyond a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin.

It is basically a distributed database that is immune to being hacked because it is distributed everywhere. Remember the scene in the movie “V for Vendetta” where all those people were wearing the same mask so they couldn’t get the person? It’s like that. It’s everywhere, so it can’t be taken down. It’d be like a game of whack-a-mole.

That’s blockchain, in an uber-simple version. Plus, it takes care of the issue of trust. It is verifiable trust without a third party.

Blockchain isn’t just about currency like Bitcoin. It is also about applications. Ethereum is all about decentralized apps. You’ve got apps like Storj, which is distributed storage that could rival Amazon S3 (while not being controlled by a middleman like Amazon).

On top of all this, you’ve got the currencies and token that are part of the whole crypto-scene. What it does is puts INCENTIVE into the system. It was (and still is) that the Facebooks, Googles and Amazons could out-incentive the smaller companies. This is what led to things becoming so centralized to begin with.

But, the tokens in these various blockchain-powered systems provide economic incentive to DECENTRALIZE. In many of these systems, the tokens are required to use the system. So, to power an app on the Ethereum network, you need some ETH (the token of the network).

Now, add to all this the exchangeability of these tokens. Where you can move one token into another, via a decentralized exchange. It all becomes economically viable. The incentive to decentralize outweighs the value that the big juggernauts like Google can provide. It is a new internet of value, with trust built-in.

If you’ve ever used BitTorrent, what I’m talking about is kinda like that. It is distributed, so it can’t be shut down.

But, in the case of these various blockchains, there will be a built-in incentive. And human nature is to use that which provides the greatest award.

You’re also going to see technologies come in which allow these various blockchains to communicate to one another easily. Sort of like how TCP/IP protocol enabled the internet to blossom. The “internet” was a bunch of separated bulletin boards before the TCP/IP protocol came around and gave everything a common “language”. The internet, as we know it today, began with that. It will happen in the world of blockchain, too.

It will dethrone Google and Facebook and those big corporations currently in control. Not out of any force… but just simple economic incentive.

I don’t know what the whole thing will look like. But, I think the writing is on the wall.

I think, eventually, we’ll be selling our stuff online for cryptocurrency much more commonly.

I think the current domain-name system which is controlled by ICANN is going to be replaced with a de-centralized system.

I think the current model of centralized hosting resources is going to be replaced by one, distributed cloud. Perhaps powered by an internet of things, decentralized storage, and decentralized computing power. The days of denial of service attacks will be over because it’d be a useless game of whack-a-mole. No point to attack.

Issues of censorship become a moot point because no single company controls the pipeline.

But, what does any of this have to do with privacy and online advertising?

A Blockchain Solution To Privacy And Ad Overload

I recently came across a project that I think could be quite promising as a way out of the invasions of privacy and being assaulted with too many ads. It was created by the co-founder of the Mozilla Foundation and the creator of the javascript programming language. In other words, this isn’t some fly-by-night thing.

It is called Brave.

On the surface, Brave is a web browser. One that respects your privacy and puts you in control of the tracking that websites are able to do on you. The browser is also quite fast and it is a real pleasure to use.

It is insanely effective at blocking the crap, too. Since I used CNN as an example above, look at what happens when I pull up CNN inside of Brave:

30 damn ads and trackers being blocked just from visiting the CNN homepage. Amazing!

But, what does Brave have to do with banner ads? Well, Brave is about much more than merely a web browser. It is about an entirely different structure to the internet advertising economy. It removes the middleman between the end user and the publisher.

At the core is a cryptocurrency known as Basic Attention Token (BAT).

As an end user, you would have BAT in your wallet. Then, you have the option to reward those publishers who you want to support and who you pay attention to. Soon, you will also earn BAT by viewing ads.

Essentially, this is a network designed around ATTENTION. One that rewards publishers who do a good job because you are paying attention to them. One that rewards users for viewing advertising. But, all of it is in YOUR control. If you don’t want to look at ads or pay any publishers, that’s your call. And nowhere in the transaction is your personal data exposed.

Basic Attention Token is a way out. It removes the middlemen and puts YOU in control of your own “attention dollars”.

In many ways, it is similar to the U.S. Healthcare market. Our costs here are utterly ridiculous because of a thousand middlemen between us and medical providers. And on top of that, you have law coming in and enforcing this screwed-up system under the threat of penalty. Talk about removing all choice! If we could de-centralize the whole healthcare model and re-connect providers with consumers, costs would drop substantially.

This is what BAT – and the Brave browser – is attempting to do to online advertising.

How To (Potentially) Make Money With Brave And BAT?

Now, I want to be clear…

We’re still quite early in the lifecycle of Brave and the Basic Attention Token. So, I wouldn’t expect this to make you a millionaire right now.

However, I think it is a good idea to get started with this early as I do think there’s a lot of growth ahead for BAT.

To get started, you need to register as a publisher on Brave Payments network. This will allow you to accept funds into your own wallet which is tied to your site’s domain. You will need to enter your email address.

Once you’re in, you’ll want to “Add Channel” so that you can add your blog.

You can add a website, a Youtube channel, and a Twitch channel. This means that not only can you potentially earn BAT from your blog, but you can also earn BAT with your Youtube account or Twitch.

Choose “Website” then enter the domain of your blog. Next, you’ll need to verify that you’re the owner of the site.