#some designs more based on prev series though | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

discar · 30 days

Text

HZD Terraforming Base-001 Text Communications Network

Chapter 47 | Prev chapter | Next chapter Chapter Index

ADMIN [Zo]: GAIA, I have some questions about the machines down in the Burning Shores.

GAIA: Of course. How may I help?

ADMIN [Zo]: Aloy discovered a new machine called the waterwing. It appears to be similar to the sunwing, but with added functionality to allow it to swim underwater in addition to fly.

β: i think its literally a modded sunwing the code is near identical

β: i was able to get aloy an override for it with just a few parts

HIMBO: SPEAKING OF, HOW'D THAT GO?

FlameHairSavior: Dodging anti-air fire, talk later.

ADMIN [Zo]: My question was, what is the point of this machine? I assume it is more difficult to produce than a simple sunwing.

GAIA: The model designated "waterwing" is a dual-mode Acquisition-type machine, designed primarily for collecting and processing destroyed machines and other resources. The sunwing was designed to use solar energy to power its own processors, increasing the amount of time the machine could spend between recharge cycles. The waterwing improves on this base design by adding the functionality to scavenge underwater.

DIVINER: Then why not just make all sunwings waterwings??

Icarus: I assume it as Zo said. It is more difficult to produce. Specialized tools are always easier to design and build than general-purpose ones.

HIMBO: WELL, NO, A HAMMER IS EASIER TO BUILD THAN A CORKSCREW.

HIMBO: BUT A CORKSCREW IS EASIER TO BUILD THAN A CORKSCREW/FIRELIGHTER/SPARKWELDER.

HIMBO: THIS WATERWING ISN'T A GENERAL-PURPOSE TOOL, IT'S A TOOL WITH MULTIPLE SPECIALIZATIONS.

Icarus: I suppose.

GAIA: Correct. There are a variety of air-based Acquisition machines, and a variety of water-based Acquisition machines. Putting both into a single machine would undoubtedly be more expensive than simply building more of each individual machine.

β: we really need to recapture hephaestus

FlameHairSavior: Yeah, and if we had any real leads, I could be doing that instead of dealing with yet another crazy Zenith.

HIMBO: SO YOU LANDED?

FlameHairSavior: Shot down, a little, but we're fine.

β: what do you mean we

FlameHairSavior: I took Seyka with me. She has a stake in this. It's important to her.

FlameHairSavior: Her sister is involved.

FlameHairSavior: And her tribe.

FlameHairSavior: And she's very helpful.

DIVINER: ...huh.

Icarus: This makes me glad I never watched any of those ridiculous teenage dramas.

FlameHairSavior: Whatever. The point is, we're at the park. There's a fake volcano and a bunch of hologram dinosaurs. Lots of Quen guards everywhere.

Icarus: Why in the world would anyone build a fake volcano?

HIMBO: HEY, VOLCANOS ARE COOL!

Icarus: Putting your vernacular aside and accepting the comment in the spirit it was intended, I suspect that volcanoes lose some of their "cool" factor if they lack the ability to actually explode.

FlameHairSavior: I don't think it can explode.

FlameHairSavior: This whole park is some sort of... massive advertisement, or shopping mall, or both, for Londra's wife's most popular holovid series.

DIVINER: WAIT. WAITWAITWAIT.

FlameHairSavior: ...waiting.

FlameHairSavior: Actually stalking a Quen guard.

DIVINER: Are you talking about Pangea???????

FlameHairSavior: I think so, yeah.

DIVINER: [Squee.gif]

DIVINER: We've been looking for that series for forever! We only have the first movie, everything past that is in a format our focuses can't view!

DIVINER: Oh! Oh! If it's a park, there might be a gift shop!

FlameHairSavior: I'm a little busy right now, Alva.

β: also im sure any plush dinosaurs or whatever have long since rotted away to nothing

DIVINER: At least grab me copies of the holovids!

FlameHairSavior: I'll keep an eye out.

----

FlameHairSavior: Huh. Found an old data point about Londra.

DIVINER: Oh? Anything interesting?

FlameHairSavior: Interesting? Yes. Probably not useful, though.

FlameHairSavior: Apparently he thought his wife was cheating on him, so he sent his best friend the bodyguard to investigate her.

DIVINER: And??

FlameHairSavior: And she slept with him.

HIMBO: HA!

ADMIN [Zo]: Erend, be nice.

HIMBO: I'LL BET YOU A BIG BAG OF SHARDS THAT THIS GUY DESERVED WORSE.

----

FlameHairSavior: All right, have a better idea of where we need to go now.

FlameHairSavior: There's a place called the armory which should unlock the volcano, but we needed the key from a guy named Fedder, who was in the big dome.

β: why do you always have to do twenty things to do one thing

FlameHairSavior: I don't know. I really, really don't.

HIMBO: ARMORY? SO THERE WILL BE ZENITH WEAPONS?

FlameHairSavior: Not sure. I got the sense that name might have been from when the park was open. I doubt they had actual weapons inside. And if there are, they're probably all rust by now.

FlameHairSavior: Anyway, we spotted Kina in the dome with Fedder. She's definitely with Londra willingly, but she's... practicing for a play? It's weird.

FlameHairSavior: They were just doing a couple lines over and over. "How could I not come back?"

ADMIN [Zo]: Kina is Seyka's sister?

FlameHairSavior: Yeah.

DIVINER: Um, not sure if this is relevant, buuut that was Jane's most famous line from the first Pangea film!

FlameHairSavior: Jane?

DIVINER: Walter Londra's wife! Well, that was her character's name.

HIMBO: SO HE'S... MAKING THE QUEN ACT OUT HIS MOVIE?

DIVINER: We have experience with that sort of thing, so maybe it was their idea?

FlameHairSavior: I don't even know.

FlameHairSavior: Anyway, we waited for her to leave so she wouldn't be caught in the crossfire, killed Fedder, got the key. Almost to the armory now.

DIVINER: Don't let us distract you!

----

FlameHairSavior: Shit. ShitshitSHIT.

Icarus: Everything is going well, I take it?

ADMIN [Zo]: Perhaps the armory was just the fertilizer depository.

FlameHairSavior: Londra has brainwashing tech. That's what MSP is. "Mutiny Suppression Protocol." It got trashed in the Old World because it made the subjects more violent, even if they were also more loyal.

FlameHairSavior: That's why he has so many Quen guards ready to murder.

DIVINER: ...shit!

FlameHairSavior: But he was able to perfect it on the guards. He's planning to use it to brainwash a select retinue of Quen to be his new inner circle, copies of the friends he had in the 21st century.

FlameHairSavior: That's all he wants. Adoring friends who can't quite think for themselves.

β: and what hell just be on a barren planet with his harem

HIMBO: THAT'S NOT WHAT A HAREM IS.

MARSHAL Kotallo: Usually.

HIMBO: UH. I SENSE A STORY, BUT I'M NOT SURE I WANT TO ASK.

MARSHAL Kotallo: Not every Chief of the Tenakth has been as selfless and forward-thinking as Hekarro.

HIMBO: YEP, ALREADY REGRET IT.

FlameHairSavior: He's also getting DNA samples from all the Quen. He's going to have a colony of brainwashed clones to rule over with a pantheon of gods. But of course he'd be the only one with REAL power.

Icarus: How do you know all this? I doubt he left out a datapad detailing his full plans.

FlameHairSavior: We met his personal AI, Nova. He's basically been brainwashing her for a thousand years, "tweaking" her personality hour by hour.

FlameHairSavior: She begged us to kill her.

Icarus: Ah. That is unfortunate on multiple levels.

Icarus: I don't suppose you kept a copy of her core programming?

FlameHairSavior: No.

Icarus: That is likely for the best.

DIVINER: Waitwait! Does that mean Kina is going to be part of his retinue? Since she was doing lines his wife used to do?

FlameHairSavior: Yeah.

DIVINER: ...how old is Kina?

FlameHairSavior: Old enough to understand, young enough that it's still creepy. She hasn't been brainwashed yet, though. He's a perfectionist, so he's putting off the final selection.

ADMIN [Zo]: Small mercies.

FlameHairSavior: I'm going to the volcano. Hopefully I can find a way to kill him through his shield. Maybe this Zenith weapon will do the trick?

Icarus: I haven't seen the specs on it, but I wouldn't hold my breath. I highly doubt Londra would have given a minion something that could hurt him.

----

FlameHairSavior: So, there was a slaughterspine.

β: was it londras

FlameHairSavior: Yeah, and it was a big one.

FlameHairSavior: On the plus side, Kina finally realized what a bastard Londra is.

FlameHairSavior: On the down side, I think Londra has something else waiting in the wings. The slaughterspine felt more like a distraction.

Icarus: How did he control the slaughterspine? You said he was using a HORUS printer, but surely he wouldn't be foolish enough to print out SCARABs.

HIMBO: WHAT ARE THOSE?

Icarus: The Corruptors. They could easily run out of his control, especially if they're fresh from the printer.

FlameHairSavior: He officially doesn't care what happens to this planet, so I don't think he's losing any sleep over that.

DIVINER: What about the Quen!

FlameHairSavior: Oh, right.

FlameHairSavior: Well, after we took down the slaughterspine, Seyka took Kina and the other surviving Quen back to the settlement. I think most of the brainwashed guards are already dead, so they should be able to reintegrate.

DIVINER: That's good to hear!

FlameHairSavior: Londra went back to the bunker. He's up to something big.

HIMBO: KEEP US POSTED!

Chapter 47 | Prev chapter | Next chapter Chapter Index

#horizon #horizon zero dawn #horizon forbidden west #HZDBaseChat #aloy #zo #erend vanguardsman #kotallo #alva #beta horizon #sylens

9 notes · View notes

keicordelle · 1 year

Text

The Daily Inconveniences of an Au Ra: Dressing

"It seems your clothing did not survive the battle. Pray permit me to loan you something to wear for the moment."

Even ignoring the fact that it sounded like a line from a bad romance novel, Keshet grimaced at the prospect of borrowing clothing from Aymeric, but as his prospects were that or nudity, he just nodded and let the other man dig out a simple blue sweater and woolen trousers.

"At least blue is your color too," he joked as he passed them over. "Would you like some privacy?"

Keshet shrugged. "There's not much more left to see." As soon as he'd spoken the words, he wished he could take them back, staring balefully down at the fabric in his hands: pieces that had been designed for an elezen, not an au ra. While it was true that he cared little and less for how much of his flesh was on display, he sensed his pride was about to take a rather big hit.

He shucked his tattered clothes, weighing the borrowed articles in his hands as he tried to decide which was less likely to embarrass him. He opted for the pants, if only because he could go without a top if needed, and nodded along half-heartedly with whatever Aymeric was saying as he shoved one leg into the hole. His thighs were more muscular than the fabric was designed to accommodate, and the hem of them sat high enough that he looked ready to set to work in the rice fields of Yanxia, but he got them up his legs without too much trouble.

That was where his good fortune ended. He held his tail in one hand, contemplating the merits of trying to stuff it down one pant leg, but that would be incredibly uncomfortable, and the spines were liable to tear a hole in the clothing that way. Plus, he'd really like to be able to sit at some point tonight. Perhaps Aymeric wouldn't mind if he bored a hole into the back of the pants to feed his tail through. That would be an unfit way to repay the man's kindness, though, even for someone as known to be ornery as him. And in any case, he'd have to make the hole so wide to get the spines through that he might as well just cut out the entire backside. Which left him with only one option, really. Sighing in resignation, he dug a tattered strip of cloth from his old clothes to feed through the belt loops and simply cinch the pants tight below the base of his tail. It left far more of his rear exposed than was proper, but hopefully the sweater would cover it.

Aymeric's speech had paused, his lips pressed tightly together as he watched Keshet's conundrum. Keshet scowled at him and then down at the sweater he held, then ducked into the stupid thing before he could think better of it. Sure enough, the points of his horns caught on the weave no matter how carefully he manipulated it, and when he finally managed to find the neck hole, the fabric got tangled on his horns. He let out a stream of curses, each one more inventive than the last, and Aymeric at last lost his composure, clutching at his sides as he laughed himself hoarse.

It took another two minutes of careful manoeuvring before the sweater was seated properly across his torso, the corners of Aymeric's eyes wet from mirthful tears. Keshet glared, though it held little heat. "If you breathe one word of this--"

Aymeric held up a hand, gasping for air as he vowed, "On my honor as a knight, none shall know of your struggle."

"Good. I'd never hear the end of it from Alisaie." A heartbeat later, his lips twisted in a grimace, and he plucked at the fabric stretched tight over his chest.

"Is something the matter?" asked Aymeric.

Keshet sighed, positively despondent. "I just realized I'll have to get it back off... You may not be getting this shirt back."

Aymeric bit his lip, shoulders shaking as he responded, "That's quite alright. You do what you need with it."

Read the rest of the series on Ao3!

FIRST | PREV | NEXT

#ffxiv #ffxiv fanfiction #wol #aymeric de borel #au ra #my writing #daily inconveniences #drabble #keshet dotharl #~K

9 notes · View notes

droneseco · 3 years

Text

Elecrow Crowbits: The Ultimate LEGO-Compatible STEM Learning System That Grows With Your Child

Elecrow Crowbits

9.00 / 10

Read Reviews

Read More Reviews

Shop Now

Brick builds, combined with magnetic electronics blocks, and programmable micro-controllers. Does it get any better than this? I think my long search for the perfect STEM learning kit is complete. If you have young children just coming up to the right age for it, the Crowbits system can accompany them throughout their primary education and beyond.

Key Features

Magnetic blocks build circuits

Kits to suit various levels

Specifications

Brand: Elecrow

Development Platform: Scratch and MicroPython

Pros

LEGO-compatible to customize your builds

Full range of components planned

Level up with your child with more complex projects and programmable microcontroller

Familiar Scratch-based programming software

Cons

It's a Kickstarter

Instructions need work expanding on the principles and explanations

Buy This Product

Elecrow Crowbits other

Shop

// Bottom var galleryThumbs1 = new Swiper('.gallery-thumbs-1', { spaceBetween: 10, slidesPerView: 10, freeMode: true, watchSlidesVisibility: true, watchSlidesProgress: true, centerInsufficientSlides: true, allowTouchMove: false, preventClicks: false, breakpoints: { 1024: { slidesPerView: 6, } }, }); // Top var galleryTop1 = new Swiper('.gallery-top-1', { spaceBetween: 10, allowTouchMove: false, loop: true, preventClicks: false, breakpoints: { 1024: { allowTouchMove: true, } }, navigation: { nextEl: '.swiper-button-next', prevEl: '.swiper-button-prev', }, thumbs: { swiper: galleryThumbs1 } });

Take a moment to imagine the perfect electronics and engineering learning kit. It would be so simple even a child could use it: magnetic blocks, perhaps? Modular, so you could swap bits in and out to modify projects. It would scale up, so you could start with simple circuits and move on to programmable hardware, catering to all levels of the curriculum. Lastly, I'd throw in LEGO-compatible, because LEGO bricks are the best tool for creativity and engineering ever made.

That's exactly everything the Elecrow Crowbits system is, and it's crowdfunding now.

youtube

Disclaimer: This is a Kickstarter

Four of the five available Crowbits kits were sent to us for evaluation during the Kickstarter, however, they are still very much in the prototype stage, and we've evaluated them on that basis. Some bits were missing, some were non-functional, and the software is still a work-in-progress. This is to be expected at this stage, but the core system is solid.

Also, the usual Kickstarter caveat applies: your money is at risk, and there's no legal obligation with any crowdfunding campaign to actually deliver a product. That said, this isn't Elecrow's first campaign (the CrowPi 1 and CrowPi 2 were a huge success). It's a well-established company with a reputation to maintain and a good track record, so we think the risk is minimal.

What Are Crowbits?

Crowbits modules are magnetic electronics blocks with LEGO-compatible pin holes on the side and stud holes underneath. The 4-pin pogo connections are either male or female, and have a small protrusion on the bottom to prevent wiring them the wrong way around.

Extension cables enable you to place a module elsewhere, and these too feature the same magnetic connection and can't be plugged in the wrong way. The whole system operates on a safe, low voltage, and with rechargeable battery blocks that charge over micro-USB.

Each Microbits module is color-coded for ease of understanding:

Blue modules are power and logic. In the basic sets, these are simple battery modules that don't require programming. In more advanced sets, these are programmable microcontrollers with pin numbers on the connections for addressing modules directly.

Yellow modules are inputs: buttons, basics sensors and such.

Green modules are outputs: LEDs, motors, buzzers, relays.

Orange modules are special and require serial communication lines to the programmable hub. These include things like color sensors, joysticks, or 2G communications hub.

A large range of Crowbits modules are planned, though these will be available separately at a later date. For now, you can only purchase the full Crowbits kits with their included module selections.

No Programming Required!

Since the first two Crowbit kits require no programming, how does that work? Simple, as long as you follow some basic rules:

Yellow input modules must be placed on the left of green output modules (when viewed with the module name being on the top, and symbol in the bottom right).

One input module can control a chain of output modules.

A new input-output chain will be created if you add another input module to the right.

Blue battery modules can go anywhere in the circuit, and their orientation doesn't matter as long as the pins are compatible.

With this, kids can create basic circuits. For more complex circuits (that still don't need programming), a series of bitwise logic operator modules are planned. A "NOT" logic gate is included in the Hello kit, and more will be available later.

This enables you to reverse an input, such that a button that would normally turn on an LED, would now function as a button to turn the LED off.

Crowbits Kits

The Crowbits Kits are divided into five stages of increasing complexity, but all share a common system and are compatible with each other. Some modules are duplicated between kits. Let's take a look at the contents and direction of each kit.

Hello Kit

The most basic of kits is also the cheapest, available for $30. It includes seven modules, one of which is a small battery module. Five project builds are included along with pre-cut cardboard parts to stick together. No programming is required, and the Hello kit is suitable for ages 5-6.

Explorer Kit

The Explorer Kit continues the no-programming theme, but adds movement through the use of a motor module and pack of technic pieces for some basic engineering. A total of eight modules are included, one of which is a medium-sized battery pack. The build guide contains a mix of brick-based and cardboard projects. With a little adult supervision on the trickier mechanical elements, 7-8-year-olds should be able to handle this kit. The Kickstarter price is $80, rising to $130 RRP.

Inventor Kit

The Inventor Kit is a big step up that introduces programming concepts and more complex mechanical engineering. The main module of this kit requires a BBC Micro:bit (v1) to function. This is not included, though it may be available as an add-on if you don't already own one.

For those not familiar, the BBC Micro:bit is an all-in-one programmable microcontroller specifically designed for use in the school curriculum. It's widely used in UK schools, and gaining ground in the US.

Related: 10 Beginner Projects for the BBC Micro:bit

Ten modules are included as well as a large pack of technic bricks, suitable for building projects such as an obstacle avoidance car or color-sorting robot.

Given the use of BBC Micro:bit and Scratch programming in schools from around age 8, this kit would be suitable for 8-12 year-olds. It's available during the Kickstarter for $90, RRP $130.

Creator Kit

This was not yet ready for review at the time of writing, but the core of the Creator kit is an Arduino-based board, and includes 11 modules more suited to smart home projects and more complex interaction programming, along with a small selection of technic blocks. There are no movement motors. The Creator kit is available for $100 now, or RRP $150 later.

Master Kit

The most advanced kit in the range, the Master Kit uses an ESP32-based board at its core, featuring a TFT color screen. Also in the kit are some joystick modules, a small keyboard, laser ranging sensor, and 2G connection.

The Master Kit has a small number of technic bricks, and as well two silicone cases for a working phone, and a retro game console. It's designed to show the modules coming together to create a finished product. However, programming the firmware is quite complex, so I'd rate this kit as suitable for 14 and up. The early pricing is $100 for the Master kit, rising to $150 RRP.

LEGO-Compatible, not Actual LEGO

I should note that the Crowbits kits are not an officially endorsed nor licensed LEGO group product, and do not contain actual LEGO bricks. Instead, the LEGO-compatible technical bricks carry the brand name "CaDA", which I've not come across before.

That said, the bricks are well made and connect simply and securely, which is always a worry with off-brand construction bricks. For context, you can buy a set of at least 500 CaDA technic bricks on AliExpress for under $30.

You can of course decorate the builds with your own real LEGO, should you wish.

As a nerdy side-note, be warned that the instruction for the brick builds are read left-to-right, rather than top-to-bottom. If you're a LEGO family, this is mildly infuriating and means your child might skip steps!

Programming with LetsCode

Programming your Crowbits kits is done using Elecrow's new LetsCode (currently only for Windows, but support is promised for Mac OS and Raspberry Pi later).

LetsCode is a customized version of Microsoft MakeCode, which is itself based on the graphical block programming language, Scratch 3.0. As such, it'll be immediately familiar to anyone with experience of Scratch programming. It's widely used for introductory programming classes all over the world, and includes graphics blocks for all common concepts like loops, branching, and functions.

Pin numbers are printed directly on the blue modules, so it's easy to see which component is attached where.

If you outgrow graphical programming, you will also be able to program in MicroPython or Java, though this was not supported at the time of testing.

Should You Back the Elecrow Crowbits?

The Crowbits magnetic circuit system is easy to use and scales well for different ages and user levels. You can start with simple circuits, and move on to programmable logic controllers, and still reuse all the bits. It's a system that will grow with your child throughout their learning journey from age 6 to 14. Very few educational toys can make that sort of claim.

If you want your child to have a competitive edge in the programming, electronics, and engineering aspect of the STEM curriculum, then supplementing schoolwork is a great idea.

Even though many schools have now returned, it's possible you've opted to fully homeschool or just want to supplement their existing classwork. Over the next few years, schools will inevitably be different. There'll be a lot less practical work going on because of the aspect of touching shared equipment, so having this sort of kit available at home with software that's familiar will be of great benefit.

That said, the Crowbits kits vary greatly. If you're a completionist, you can grab a bargain bundle during the Kickstarter of every Crowbits kit available, for a cool $400 (rising to $600 RRP after the campaign).

But I think the best value comes from the Explorer, Inventor, and Master Kit bundle for $270. This includes a ton of mechanical bricks and plenty of movement modules. The BBC Micro:bit compatibility ties in perfectly to the existing curriculum (in the UK, anyway), while the ESP32 board is a good step up once they're old enough.

If you're only going to purchase one kit, I'd recommend skipping the Hello kit and going straight to Explorer or Inventor, depending on whether you want programming introduced yet. The cardboard projects in the Hello kit just felt a little too contrived and didn't engage my 6-year-old son in the same way LEGO does.

While the mechanical elements of the Explorer kit may need a little adult supervision, he was quite capable of the bulk of construction and able to use the LetsCode software thanks to previous experience with Scratch.

On the other end of the scale, I wasn't overly impressed with the Master kit either. The game console project, while it produces a cool end product, consists of simply the main board and two joystick modules on the side.

There is no construction, and the hardest part is loading on firmware, which tedious at best. The phone project is also impressive but limited to a 2G network, many of which will be disabled by the time the Crowbit kits ship. The ESP32 mainboard is technically impressive, but once your teenage child is ready to program this thing, the magnetic block system may not be appropriate anymore. It's a good addition to your collection if you're purchasing the earlier sets too, but I wouldn't purchase it alone.

Overall though, I think my long search for the perfect STEM learning kit is complete. If you have young children just coming up to the right age for it, the Crowbits system can accompany them throughout their primary education and beyond. And when they're done with it in a decade, we'll probably all be learning in VR anyway.

Alternatives to Crowbits

Crowbits isn't the only STEM kit around. The closest competitor is the littleBits STEAM kit, which retails at around $400, doesn't include any technic bricks, and has a limited selection of magnetic modules. It's more closely aligned to the US curriculum though with more extensive teaching materials, and already in use in many schools.

The LEGO groups' own Robot Inventor MindStorms kit is also worth considering, retailing at $350. It's focused more on robotics than basic electronics, and isn't suited to younger children, but the software is also based on Scratch. It would make a great step once your child reaches 14, and has outgrown the magnetic Crowbits system.

Elecrow Crowbits: The Ultimate LEGO-Compatible STEM Learning System That Grows With Your Child published first on http://droneseco.tumblr.com/

2 notes · View notes

nautiscarader · 5 years

Note

Hiccstrid - 16

I have no excuse why did it took so long, I’m just a trash.

() (ao3) (next>>)

—————————————————–

Flying in the rain was one of the many difficulties a dragon rider had to be prepared for, but as the raindrops bombarded their faces, Astrid was glad that Hiccup who was riding Toothless, as she wasn’t so sure she’d be able to maintain that relatively balanced flight. Wind, water and lightning seemed to be against the three, as they continue to fly above the stormy sea, often just a few feet above the raging waves.

- We gotta land!

Though she was clinging onto Hiccup, she could barely hear him with the wind blowing around the two, and only the sudden jerky move of his shoulder attracted her attention to the lonely, pillar-shaped island on the horizon. As the three approached it, it showed a multitude of holes and caves, making it look even less structurally stable than it was when they saw it for the first time. Toothless flew around it for good five minutes, before they spotted a cave large enough and finally landed in one of the upper grottos, forfeiting the largest one at the base in favour of not drowning when the high tide would arrive.

But even though they were now on relatively dry land, they were not letting their guard down. Astrid reached for Hiccup’s flaming sword and lit it, brushing Toothless’ head so his purple blast would help them not only light the cave, but also potentially alert them of any creatures that made the complicated system of caves their home. Half an hour later, they were still soaked and cold, but at least they were reasonably sure they won’t be interrupted by any inhabitants of the caves. One more flight to the rocky beach later, the two humans and one dragon were coiling around a provisional campfire, from a few pieces of wood that weren’t completely wet or rotten.

- We’re not gonna go the Dragon’s Edge any time soon… - Hiccup stated leaning towards the cave’s entrance and cowled when a spray of water hit his face.- Nope. - Astrid spoke, trying to get comfortable on Toothless’ harness that doubled as makeshift pillows.

She leaned onto his shoulder, listening to the monotonous sound of rain outside, that soon was mixed with the familiar, scratching noise of pencil against paper.

- Surprised that didn’t get wet. - Astrid murmured, watching her boyfriend draw more pages of his map. - Just some more layers of leather…

Though his book was interesting, he couldn’t help but throw quick glances at Astrid, undoing her soaked clothes to lay them around their makeshift campfire. Some of her leathery harness stayed on, though as the minutes went by, he found it harder and harder to concentrate. Without much sun to do any measuring, Hiccup’s work quickly became pointless anyway, and soon the two curled against Toothless’s warm body, talking and giggling, while they enjoyed their shared embrace.

- So that’s why Tuffnut never wants to take care of the young threadtails. - Hiccup snorted - I understand why he never told us about this accident.- And you understand completely why Ruffnut told me.

She giggled and closed her arms around his neck, bringing her lips against his in a long kiss.

- Just make sure you don’t make the same mistake.- Hey, I always wear pads all around my body. - Hiccup protested - If he doesn’t want to have all working parts, that’s his problem, but I don’t think Gobber would be able to fix *that* as easily as a leg. - I don’t know…

Astrid grabbed his shoulders and slid herself against him, covering his body, watching as his eyes grow wide. Her leg slipped between his and stayed there for quite a while.

- Sometimes it feel as if Gobber gave you an extra piece of metal…- Woah, Astrid. - Hiccup looked back at his snoring dragon - Now?- I feel I should be offended that your first choice of entertainment was a book, frankly.

She smirked, tracing her hands across his chest.

- Let’s-let’s go further down the cave, you know how-- Yeah, yeah, I don’t like if Stormfly’s around as well.

The two left the snoring dragon and ran down the cave, leaving the distant light of the campfire behind them. But as soon as they found a relatively flat spot, they no longer needed it, as their hands and mouths gave them enough information about their bodies that quickly became covered in less and less pieces of clothing. Already half-naked Astrid had much more difficult task, as it was Hiccup, who designed his own suit, full of buckles and finicky parts difficult to disassemble. It was no wonder he usually was the first to make a move, and when she was still doing his shoulder pads, his mouth was already between her naked breasts.

- Hiccup!

Astrid moaned, just as a distant thunder rolled and shone light at the two for a split of second, revealing their twisted position and hungry sensual stares. Their remaining clothes, especially Hiccup’s, created a much needed barrier between the rough ground, and it was Astrid who brought her boyfriend to the ground, from his already kneeling position. The lack of light gave the two an extra layer of intimacy, as they could only vaguely know what will be their partner’s choice of moves. Astrid’s mouth dealt the last of strings tying Hiccup’s pants, and a moment later he felt her hot breath around his cock, tingling with the few droplets already present on his head.

- As I said… hot metal… - Astrid whispered into his ear, wrapping her hand around his cock and giving it a few strokes.

His kiss silenced her moan when his fingers found their way to her sex, wet not just from the torrential rain outside, and only now he realised why Astrid was so keen on getting back to the Edge even in such terrible weather. he slipped his finger inside, while Astrid continued to spill her voice into his mouth, but after just a few minutes of gentle caresses, she forcibly pulled him out.

- Sorry, Hiccup, I need something more substantial. Every sword needs a sheath…

Hiccup didn’t need her warning, as just a moment later he felt her wetness around his head and then around him, when the feisty warrior impaled herself on him, once again filling the cave with needy, primal moans.

- You alright? - she babbled, as she got comfortable in his laps. - Couldn’t be better milady. - he replied - Well, I suppose I can, but…- I was asking if feel any rocks that might prick your bum, cos it’s gonna be bumpy flight…

And just as she promised, Astrid pressed her hands against Hiccup’s chest, rising up and down on him in short, but not at all shallow moves. Another thunder tore the skies, and a series of lightnings showed Hiccup his aggressive partner in a series of flashing images, making his cock seem to appear and disappear inside her completely. The needy Viking soon leaned on his body, allowing his hands to help with the thrusts, while her mouth looked for much soothing kisses that could cool her down.

But in turn, that only made them more ravenous and impatient, despite the amount of time they had. He wished he could roll her underneath him, but with the cramped space, he knew he’d have to get a bit creative. And soon, Astrid shrieked when she was pulled upright again, into a half-sitting position, giving her chance to close her legs behind Hiccup’s back. His arms and hips worked in sync now, moving her body back and forth, as they both tried to reach their peaks in the uncomfortable, and yet romantic spot.

She could feel his quickened breath on her neck, as he tried to say something, though only mangled parts of words kept reaching her ears.

- Astrid, I’m gonna…!

In a split of a second, Astrid’s short nails dug into his neck, as she brought his lips to hers, ceasing his warning.

Suddenly, the cave was filled with deafening noises, and the two lovers went blind. The thunder that struck a tree on the cliff was only partially responsible for it, as Astrid and Hiccup contributed equally to it, crying each other’s name into their hungry mouths. Hiccup bucked his hips in disorganised, erratic manner, as he tried containing the writhing, wriggling body of Astrid underneath him. With each pulse of his cum filling her, Astrid seemed to be climaxing anew, milking for his essence, demanding more with each, weakening thrust.

Hiccup ultimately lost his battle as Astrid rolled their joined bodies to their side, and climbed on top of him, only to impale herself onto his cock one last time and then collapse on his naked chest, unable to move.

- How long will this storm last? - Hiccup looked back, at the sky outside their cave, dark either from the clouds, or the lack of sun that has set.- I don’t know. - Astrid replied. - But I don’t think we need to go the edge anymore, so it can last as long as it wants to…

Their eyes met again a long, knowing stare, before Hiccup’s hands grabbed her thighs in a futile attempt to restore his dominant position, but Astrid has already pinned him to the sand and began her ride anew.

With each thunder that tore the sky, the storm seemed to be getting more and more severe, and with each lightning, the two were in a different position, locked in a constant battle of dominance, illuminated every few seconds. Just when the two felt they were too heated up, the cold wind cooled them down, readying for another round of love-making. And as the two went on, genuinely wondering if they themselves were providing rhythm for the rampaging weather outside, as for a few moments, thunders seemed to coincide with Astrid’s bounces or Hiccup’s thrusts.

As if to prove this, as soon as the tired lovers collapsed, feeling properly exhausted and drained of energy, the storm began to die down, and first rays of moonlight peeked through the dark clouds, filling the cave with soothing, pleasant light. When Hiccup rolled to his side, completely spent, Astrid was gonna fall asleep as well, but she felt the familiar, tingling, and somewhat unpleasant sensation between her thighs. She reached for the ripped wrappings and spread her legs, watching as Hiccup’s cum slowly drips from her twitching lips in thick, languorous globs. The once-dry piece of cloth quickly became damp, as orgasm after orgasm of her boyfriend was sipping into it, proving his virility and passion, as if Astrid needed that.

- You are so damn lucky it wasn’t my time of the month. - Astrid spoke.- What did you sa-Ah!

Hiccup jumped to his feet when the sticky, damp piece of cloth was put on his face, and he ran to the cave’s entrance to wash it off, hoping he won’t wake Toothles up.

- Now you know how I feel…

Astrid listened to her boyfriend gasping from air and muttering complaints, and almost subconsciously, she reached between her legs, dipper her finger in the pool of milky warmth and brought it to her lips, enjoying the familiar, musky taste and smell of her boyfriend, whose real warmth next to her soon brought her to sleep.

#hiccstrid #lemon #nautiscaraderfics

29 notes · View notes

onlinemarketingcourses · 5 years

Text

Six most common travel SEO mistakes to get right in 2019

Here’s a bold statement: “SEO in the travel industry is immensely challenging.”

The sheer number of pages to manage, complexities of properties, flights, accommodation, availability, occupancy, destinations, not to mention the crazy amount of APIs and databases to make a travel site function, can all make life tricky for an SEO, particularly when it comes to the development queue…

Having said that, there are still common mistakes and missed opportunities out there that have the potential to be really impactful and believe it or not, they don’t actually require a huge amount of resource to put right.

So, here’s a list of the six most common travel SEO mistakes to get right for 2019:

Forgetting about index bloat

There are a LOT of facets and filters when it comes to commercial travel category pages, arguably the most of any industry.

Typically with every facet or filter, be it; availability, location, facilities, amenities nearby, occupancy etc. A URL is created with the associated parameters selected by the user.

If not handled correctly, this can produce thousands of indexable pages that have no unique organic value to users.

This is a problem for a number of reasons:

It can be confusing for search engines because they can find it tricky to identify the best and most relevant URL to rank and show users depending on their query

It can dilute domain level ranking signals drastically

It can cause a huge amount of duplicate content issues

It can waste crawl budget which for big travel sites is super important

Combined, this can cause big losses in rankings, traffic and subsequently conversion!

How to identify index bloat

Go to Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) and check your ‘Index Coverage’ report or, in the old version, check ‘Index Status’ to see if you can see any spikes or growth in ‘Total Indexed’ pages. If you notice something like the graph below and it’s not expected, then there may be a problem:

If you find there is a big increase and you can’t explain why, conduct some ‘Site:’ operator searches and spot check areas of your site where this may be commonplace to see what you can find.

Here’s an example of index bloat from the page speed tool ‘Pingdom’. It seems as though every input a user executes produces an indexable URL:

Once you’ve found a problem like this, review the extent of it with a Screaming Frog crawl. This way you can see how many URLs are affected and distinguish between whether they are actually indexable or not.

For example, there may be a few hundred pages that are indexable but have not yet been found and indexed by Google.

How to fix index bloat:

Noindex – Use a page level meta ‘noindex’ directive on the culprit pages

Where possible redirect – index bloat can happen as a result of mountains of historical 404 pages too, 301 redirect them into the most appropriate page to consolidate

Canonicalisation – apply an absolute canonical tag to the culprit pages to indicate that they are duplicate

Pagination – where possible use rel=”next” & rel=”prev” markup to show that pages are part of a series

URL parameter tool – By far the easiest but arguably the most risky method is using Google’s parameter handling tool to indicate the purpose of the culprit pages, be careful though, this can cause bigger problems if implemented incorrectly

Expert tip

If any of the above are difficult to get implemented in your dev queue and you don’t trust yourself using the parameter handling tool, you can actually noindex web pages & directories in your robots.txt file. You can actually add lines reading:

Noindex: /directory/

Noindex: /page/

This could save you a lot of time and is fully reversible, so less risky if you have control over your robots file. If you’ve never heard of this, don’t worry it is supported and it does work!

Unemotive meta titles

It’s pretty staggering but in the UK, there’s a lot going on in January for travel — it is certainly the biggest spike in the year for many brands, followed by ‘holiday blues’ peaks after summer.

Here’s the trend of interest over time for the query ‘tenerife holidays’ (a destination famed for its good weather all year round) to show you what I mean:

January might be a bad time to experiment because of the higher interest but, the rest of the year presents a great opportunity to get creative with your titles.

Why would you?

Simply, keyword heavy titles don’t inspire high click-through rates.

Creative titles entice users into your landing pages, give your brand a personality and increase your click-through rate. This sends strong positive relevancy signals to Google which helps towards highlighting that your website is the best for the initial user query.

Here are a few things you can try with supportive content and commercial landers:

Get emotional, people buy holidays on the experiences they anticipate having. Play on that with your titles – how will products/content from this page make the user feel?

Where possible use a numbered list to be as descriptive as possible

Use strengthening words such as premium, secret, amazing, proven, guaranteed

Tie in emotional hooks using words like; fun, adventure, seamless, safe, welcoming, luxury, relaxing

Experiment with ‘price from’ and actually quote pricing in the title

Switch up your ‘PHP’ generated title tags for property pages and experiment with more descriptive wording and not just PROPERTY NAME | LOCATION | BRAND – but don’t remove any keyword targeting, just improve those titles.

Expert Tip

Write five completely unique title tags for the same page and test each one with a Facebook or PPC ad to see whether they outperform your current iteration in terms of engagement.

Poor merchandising

As previously mentioned, the travel industry experiences peaks and troughs of consumer behavior trend throughout the year which causes the majority intent to switch dramatically across different months in the year.

So, having a deep understanding of what users are actually looking for is really important when merchandising high traffic pages to get the best conversion out of your audience.

In short, gaining an understanding of what works when, is huge.

Here’s some tips to help you make better merchandising decisions:

Use last year’s email open rate data – what type of content/product worked?

Use Google Search Console to find pages that peaked in organic traffic at different times

Involve the social media team to get a better understanding of what your audience is engaging with and why

Use Google Trend data to verify your hunches and find clearer answers

Use UGC sites such as Quora to find questions users are asking during different months of the year. Use the following site operator and swap out ‘holiday’ for your topic: ‘site:quora.com inurl:holiday’ and then filter by custom date range on your search

Often consumers are exposed to the same offers, destinations and visuals on key landing pages all year round which is such a missed opportunity.

We now live in a world of immediacy and those in the industry know the challenges of users cross-shopping between brands, even those who are brand loyal. This often means that if users can’t find what they are looking for quickly, they will bounce and find a site that serves them the content they are looking for.

For example, there’s an argument for promoting and focusing on media-based content, more so than product, later in the year, to cater to users that are in the ‘consideration’ part of the purchasing funnel.

Expert tip

Use number five in this list to pull even more clues to help inform merchandising

Holding back on the informational market share

I grant you, this is a tall order, travel advice, blogs and guides are a standalone business but, the opportunity for commercial travel sites to compete with the likes of TripAdvisor is massive.

An opportunity estimated from our recent Travel Sector Report at 232,057 monthly clicks from 22,040 keywords and only Thomas Cook is pushing into the top 10.

Commercial sites that don’t have a huge amount of authority might struggle to rank for informational queries because dedicated travel sites that aren’t directly commercial are usually deemed to provide better/unbiased content for users.

Having said that, you can see clearly from above that it IS possible!

So, here’s what you should do…

…focus on one thing and do it better than anyone else

Sounds pretty straightforward and you’re probably thinking ‘I’ve heard this before’ but, only a handful in the travel industry are actually doing this well.

Often you see the same information from one travel site to the next, average weather, flight times, the location of the country on a map, a little bit of fluff about the history of the destination and then straight into accommodation.

This is fine, it’s useful, but it’s not outstanding.

Let’s take Thomas Cook as an example.

Thomas Cook has built a network of weather pages that provide live forecasts, annual overviews as well as unique insights into when is best to go to different destinations. It even has a tool to shop for holidays by the weather (something very important to Brits) called ‘Where’s Hot When?’

The content is relevant, useful, concise, complete, easy to use, contemporary in design and, most importantly, better than anyone else’s.

In short, Thomas Cook is nailing it.

They have focused on weather and haven’t stopped until it’s as best as it can be.

Why did they bother with weather? Well it’s approximately a third of all travel-related informational searches that we found in our keyword set from the Travel Sector Report:

Apply Thomas Cook’s methodology to something that is relevant to your audience, it could be; family attractions, adult only tour guides, Michelin star eateries, international laws families should be concerned about, the list is plentiful!

Find something, nail it.

Ignoring the gold in on-site search

There are some big travel sites out there that don’t have an on-site search function which is a huge missed opportunity. Travel sites are inherently difficult to navigate with such a volume of pages, site search is quite often a great solution for users.

As well as this, it can give marketers some amazing insight into what users are looking for, not just generally in terms of the keywords users might be using but also the queries users are searching on a page by page level.

For example, you could drill down into the differences between queries searched on your homepage vs queries searched on specific landing pages to spot trends in behavior and fix the content gaps from these areas of the site.

You could also use the data to inform merchandising decisions to address number three on this list.

In doing this, users are actually telling you exactly what they are looking for, at what time, whether they are a repeat visitor or a new one and where they’ve come from to visit your site.

If you spend the time, this data is gold!

If you can’t get buy in for this, test the theory with an out of the box search function that plugs straight into your site like searchnode. Try it for six months, you might be surprised at how many users turn to it and you will get some really actionable data out of it.

It’s also super easy to track in Google Analytics and the reports are really straightforward:

1. Go to Admin

2. Click ‘View Settings’

3. Switch ‘Site search Tracking’ on

4. Strip the letter that appears in your site’s search URL before the search terms e.g. for wordpress this is usually the letter “s”: http://bit.ly/2CBFu3t

5. Click ‘save’, boom you’re done.

Let Google collect data, extract it monthly and dig, dig furiously!

Ignoring custom 404 errors pages

Who doesn’t love a witty 404 page. More and more often you’ll find that when webmasters optimize a 404 error page they make them lighthearted. Here’s a great example from Broadway Travel:

There is a reason why webmasters aim for a giggle.

Think about it… when users hit a 404 error page, 100% of the time there’s a problem, which is a big inconvenience when you’re minding your own business and having a browse, so, something to make you laugh goes a long way at keeping you unfrustrated.

Time to name names, and show you some 404 error pages that need some work…

British Airways

TUI & Firstchoice

Expedia

Momondo

404 error pages happen over time, it’s totally normal.

It’s also normal to get traffic to your 404 error page. But it’s not just any old traffic, it’s traffic that you’ve worked hard to get hold of.

If, at this point, you’re thinking, ‘my site has recently been audited and internal links to 404 pages have been cleared up’.

Think again!

Users can misspell URLs, ancient external links can point to old pages, the product team can make mistakes, as meticulous as you may be, please don’t discount this one.

Losing quality users because of a bad 404 experience is an SEO’s idea of nails down a chalkboard.

Here are some tips to optimize your 404 pages:

Hit them with something witty but don’t be controversial

Feature the main site query forms prominently so users can conduct another ‘base’ search

Feature a site search option as well – an error page is a perfect opportunity to get users to conduct a site search to give you some insight into what they are looking for (number five on this list)

Include curated links to most popular top level pages such as destinations, guides, hotels, deals etc. This will allow users to start from at the top of each section and it will also allow search engines to continue crawling if they hit a 404 page

Re-emphasize branding, USPs, value proposition and trust signals to subconsciously remind users of why they’re on your site in the first place

Even if you think your 404 is awesome don’t neglect them when they pop up:

Review the 404 page data in Google Analytics behavior flow to find broken links you may not have known about and fix them

Keep on top of your 404 pages in Google Search Console and redirect to appropriate pages where necessary

404’s are often the bane of an SEO’s life and you might think about ways to get out of keeping on top of them.

Sadly there aren’t any short cuts….

…Bonus SEO mistake

Creating a global 301 redirect rule for every 404 page and direct them to your homepage.

This is surprisingly common but is poor SEO practice for a number of reasons, firstly you won’t be able to identify where users are having issues on your site when 404 pages pop up.

You may also be redirecting a page that could have originally had content on it that was totally irrelevant to your homepage. It’s likely in this situation that Google will actually override your redirect and classify it as a soft 404, not to mention the links that may have originally pointed to your 404’s.

Save your users, build a 404 page!

Final thoughts

No site is perfect, and although it might appear as though we’re pointing fingers, we want you to be able to overcome any challenges that come with SEO implementation — there’s always a bigger priority but keep your mind open and don’t neglect the small stuff to stay ahead of the game.

Want to stay on top of the latest search trends?

Get top insights and news from our search experts.