#Even with a supposed beginner guide open in another page

[violasgamingpalace]

There's something so frustrating about there being dozens upon dozens of videos about how to conceptualize good map design aimed specifically at Fire Emblem hack creators... and basically nothing on how to use the tools for Map Creation and how they work.

[btsinwonderland]

A Drop of Poison - Ch. 4: An Invitation

A Loki fanfiction!

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“You’re late!” Valkyrie said, stuffing a pancake into her mouth as you approached her table in the Great Hall. “And you look like shit.”

You could feel the papery dryness of your eyes. Each blink felt grating. “I didn’t have a great sleep…” you said, hoping that your face did not give away the perpetual embarrassment you felt every time you thought about what happened the night before.

“Was it the dream again?” Valkyrie said, handing you a plate she filled with hash browns and eggs.

You took it gratefully. “No, I...went to the restricted section of the library last night,” you said, looking down at your plate. An image of Professor Laufeyson’s bare chest flashed before your eyes and you nearly dropped your fork.

“What!” She spoke so loud that several of the people surrounding you and at the other tables glanced at you both.

“Shhh! Don’t be so loud,” you whispered.

“You went without me,” she said, stuffing a mushroom into her mouth.

“It couldn’t wait, but I didn’t even find what I was looking for,” you said.

“And what was that?”

You were about to speak when you saw Professor Laufeyson enter the Great Hall. You nearly choked on your hash browns when he glanced at you. “I have to go,” you said and ran out of the hall.

You did not look back, and you did not stop walking until you realized you were back at the library. Your subconscious seemed to have a sense of humour that you did not find particularly funny. As you stood at the door like a deer in the headlights, someone nearly body checked you to the side as they entered the library.

“Out of the way, mudblood,” he said. His blue hair was striking in the daylight.

“Watch it, Talon,” you said.

He turned to you with a glare, then he smiled coldly and walked on.

You nearly rolled your eyes straight to the back of your head. Talon, the one person you would not mind using one or two of the unforgivable curses on. Just a bit of the Imperious to make him wet his pants in class, maybe? Nothing too awful. You still remember the way he laughed when he stuffed you and one other student into a Shrinking Shed in a pawnshop in Knockturn Alley. It was only your second year, and you berated yourself for trusting any wizard that said they “had something cool to show you” since that day. The poor boy you were stuck with broke his arm and may have broken the other, lest Professor Heimdall had not come by the shop; by that time the shed was half the size of a fridge. You still hated confined spaces from that day onwards.

He walked towards a blonde Slytherin girl trying to finish her homework at a large table. She looked less than pleased at his interruption. You rolled your eyes and moved on.

Your thoughts drifted back to the previous night as you headed to the back of the library. And just like that, it transported you into a completely different head space. Professor Laufeyson. You thought about his smooth skin and the way the moonlight glinted off the sweat on his body.

Thinking of him like that put you in a sort of daze, where you were so embarrassed you thought you might die but also so intrigued that you could not stop yourself from wondering. You paused where you were and gazed at the restricted section. From there, you could see the table where he had...relations with Professor Sif. You remembered her panting and writhing in pleasure. The entire night you had thought about only one thing. What did that feel like?

You knew how your own fingers felt, and despite how wonderful that was, you had always been curious about something more. Valkyrie had described it to you in visceral detail several times. She had said that if the person knew what they were doing, that it could be amazing. Higher than high. But if the person only cared about themselves, it could be quite awful. From the looks of it, Professor Laufeyson knew what he was doing.

Something about him felt different. Enticing. The way his lean muscles flexed as he gripped the edges of the table and the way his eyes glowed. Heat coursed through you, and the muscles in your stomach tightened. You had not been this bothered in all your life and had a fleeting thought of whether there was a way to quit Potions class. You rubbed your eyes and face. The book. That was what you came here for.

“Are you alright?” A sweet voice said.

You opened your eyes; it was Pom. She was carrying four large textbooks and placed them on a study table between the aisles.

Putting on your most convincing smile, you said, “I’m fine, I was just looking for a book.”

“Oh? What one?” she said, her eyes lit up.

Pom did frequent the library. Perhaps she could be of use. “It’s about cats, common spells for cats.”

She gave you a look.

“No, I’m serious! I just really love cats,” you said. It was not a lie, though you preferred reptiles.

“Well, where is it supposed to be?”

You thought about how to put it. “Well, that’s the thing. I was informed that it would be in one place, but it’s no longer there. And I don’t think anyone checked it out.”

Pom thought about it for a moment. Then her eyes lit up. “Maybe it’s a switcher!”

“Switcher?”

She nodded with an excited smile. “I’ve only ever encountered one of them. But there was once a book that my brother and I were looking for. I heard it was the journal of a student who created their own spells. And I think we found it, but right before Ken could pick it up from the shelf, it faded and disappeared. About two months later, I saw it again, on the other side of the library. I reached for it, but it disappeared. I talked to one of our senior prefects and she told me there’s a rumour about books in the library. Apparently, some of them like to disappear and reappear. Nobody knows how to catch them, but there’s a theory that they’ll come to you if you need them.”

You raised your eyebrows at the thought of disappearing books. Of course the book you needed to find was evading you. “So if I need it badly enough...I might find it?” You said.

Pom nodded with an unsure smile. You thanked her as she picked up her pile of books and wandered off to study.

A bright pink guide on potions stood out as you looked at the shelves. Flora and Fawna for Beginners. You sighed. This was going to be a long day.

So you roamed. You roamed the bookshelves for hours, reading every title, every author name and every little scroll in the cabinets. It was tedious beyond belief and you stopped to rest a few times. After your third hour of wandering the library and receiving strange looks from the students you passed by for the thirtieth time, you sighed and sat right on the floor, in between the Magical Creatures and Astrocentric Religions sections. Your stomach rumbled from hunger and you wondered if it was time to give up yet. So much for your investigation. It felt quite less glamorous when you were at the start of it and all you could muster up was sitting on your bottom with an empty stomach and dry hands.

You looked out the window at the end of the aisle; the day was overcast again. It has been raining non stop this season. You got up, defeated, and ready to find some food. Suddenly, there was a sharp bang on the window and you turned to see what it was. A dark smudge was streaked across the glass and you walked up to it for a closer look. You nearly jumped a foot in the air when another bird flew into the window. It fell and you could not see where it landed, but you wondered if it was dead.

A few more birds banged into the windows, and other students got up from their chairs to see the disturbance. One girl gasped so loudly that the librarian had to come over and calm everyone down. The librarian looked at the windows and grumbled to herself as she went out to inform someone of the mess.

You walked across the aisles to observe the other windows, and each one was streaked with a dark red stain. As you walked by the first year selection of books near the front of the library, you noticed in the corner, on the bottom shelf there was a new title. Something you had not noticed before. The spine was dark red and your eyes widened at the title “Spells for the Common House Cat”.

Nearly diving for the book, you crouched down and grabbed it, thinking it would disappear right before your eyes. But, you held it in your hands and yelled out a “yes!” This earned you a shush from the students who were studying.

You were so elated to read the book once you returned to the common room that you nearly ran into the door as you exited the library. It was already an hour past dinner at the Great Hall; you imagined Valkyrie had stuffed her face full already and probably wondered where you were. You picked up your pace and raced through the halls with meat pies on your mind and the book in your hands. The texture was of a smooth aged leather, with odd scratches along the spine and cover. The writing on the cover was a rushed scrawl with black ink and you flipped through the inside, only to see pages and pages of the same hurried writing. There was one passage that caught your eye:

Informed though we may be of my house we are not warned to eat live snakes. Wish you well my balloon animal friend. Did you know hats wore cow bells on their noses? Bells bells bells! Nasty business wandering through the dry sun. If there is one watered down lion to know, it’s Muriel and her tacky shoes.

You were so perplexed you said aloud, “What the fu-”

A hard body stopped your momentum, and you fell right on your rear onto the floor. The book fell out of your hands and you rubbed your nose where it was bumped. “I’m so sorry, I-” You looked up and your mouth went dry.

Professor Laufeyson was standing above you, with your book in his hand, and his eyebrows slightly raised. You saw the recognition in his gaze as he assessed you and a whisper of a smile appeared on his lips; it disappeared again into his usual stoic expression. You remained on the floor and stared at him for several seconds, as if you were paralyzed.

He reached down and helped you up. “We keep bumping into one another, don’t we, Miss Eves?” He said, throwing you a smile that almost knocked you down again.

“Y-yes, I suppose so.”

He handed you the book, glancing at the title. “Interesting literature, is it for your classes or for pleasure?”

You bit the inside of your cheek. “Just for fun.”

“Ah, and is this a title you found in your evening forays into the library?” He said, leaning close so you could see the flecks of lighter blue in his eyes.

Your heart skipped a beat. He knew. He knew. Oh god. He knew. Your mind made a split second decision.

“I’m not sure what you mean, sir,” you said, gripping the book tightly against your body.

Professor Laufeyson chuckled and leaned against the wall, further away from you. You breathed a little easier. “It seems that a student has been out of bed and has seen things she should not have,” he said, crossing his arms. His eyes looked down at you with a mocking sort of sternness. “It could lead to expulsion…”

You held his hard gaze, not denying anything but not giving in. It seemed he was testing you, checking your resolve. You took a silent breath and looked right back at him. There was no way he could get you into trouble without admitting his own faults. “I wonder what the protocols are for teachers and acceptable behaviour on school grounds?” You said, sticking your chin up and thinking you sounded more like an insolent child than anything else.

He smiled widely. “Ah, very good, Miss Eves! Worry not. If I wanted to expel you I would have had Professor Sif handle it,” he said.

“I haven’t told anyone, and I don’t plan to,” you said. You finally lost your resolve and looked at the floor. Your cheeks heated at the thought of him half naked. “Th-thank you for not letting Professor Sif see me.”

“Miss Eves, it is simply water under the troll bridge. Though, I have a bit of a favour to ask of you,” he said. “Perhaps we can call it even then.”

You glanced up, and he had moved away from the wall and was now standing a couple of inches away from you. “Yes, sir?”

“That envelope you gave me was an invitation to dinner with the Headmistress and Professor Odinson. That’s just where I’m headed now, in fact. And I would love for you to accompany me,” he said, holding out his hand like a gentleman.

You stared at his hand, and then up at him, dumbfounded. “What?”

He smiled and reached over to your shoulder, guiding you to follow him. As you both walked, he said, “To be completely honest with you, I just hate these family reunion dinners. Terribly awkward. It would be a pleasure to have you there.”

“I’d hate to crash a dinner party. I’m sure Headmistress Frigga just wanted a family affair. Plus, I’m not even hungry!” You said, and then your stomach growled most viciously. You looked down at it with a look of betrayal.

“It will be fun, I promise. Rainbow umbrella,” he said.

You realized you were already at the Headmistress’s office as the statue of the gargoyle began to turn. “But sir,” you started, but he smiled at you so disarmingly that you could not find any words to deny his request. He grabbed your hand and led you up the steps and you were sure that this was an awful, terrible idea.

[vanaera]

Defining Epilogues (ksj)

Synopsis:  Seokjin thinks he could always see the end of something before it even comes. When an annoying girl starts to rent the weirdest books from his shop, all Seokjin could see is how she will be the one to end him.

Characters: Seokjin x Female Reader

Trope/Au: Book rental shop owner!ksj x animator/artist!you (onesided enemies to lovers)

Genre: Fluff, comedy that’s close to crack

Wordcount: 6.3k

Warnings: Books with weird titles and secondhand-embarrassment-inducing sfw sex jokes (PG-15 Rating)

A/N: Happy birthday to my best girl @sophrosinn!!!  This is my gift for you! This fic is done with the great help of the ever wonderful @senfleurs who edited this story and stayed with me for the past 24 hours while I cry, laugh, and panic writing this fic! This fic also ended up helping me ride out a massive writer’s block.

            If Seokjin ever prides himself for something, it’s on his ability to tell how things will end the moment he sees them. He can tell when someone is about to fail their exam. He can sense a fight within a crowd before it even happens. He can stand at the end of the street and know the woman with the umbrella is about to break up with her boyfriend. And it always ends with Seokjin being right.

          Seokjin’s thankful for this skill because he’s been able to learn when it’s the right time to pursue something or when it’s time to give up. If it weren’t for this ability, he would have not been able to accomplish his dream of having a book rental shop that actually sells. Seokjin just didn’t expect he would have to start thinking twice about this skill soon after his shop’s opening. All because of a Y/N L/N who appears in his life like a wild Pokemon.

          From the start, Seokjin was already certain of one thing: Y/N is far from his type. For one, he didn’t even like having her as a customer.

            “Hey, I think that girl’s been staring at our way for three hours now. Are you sure I’m not supposed to go help her out?”

            Seokjin turns around to face his assistant and he hates that he’s able to see that girl from his peripheral. Seokjin shakes his head and turns back to the new books he’s been putting on the database, “I’m sure, Jungkook. Go back to work.”

            “Are you really sure? I think she’s the type who’s too shy to ask for help and instead, hopes to send a telepathic message by burning holes on our heads.”

            “I’m sure, Jungkook,” Seokjin repeats with a sigh. “Now why don’t you try working on that next book instead of stalling?”

            “I’m not stalling—”

            “Hello. I want to borrow this book.”

            Seokjin looks up from his counter. The girl stands in front of him, staring straight into his eyes as she pushes the book his way.

          Natural bust enlargement with total mind power: How to use the other 90% of your mind to increase the size of your breasts by Donald Wilson.

            Seokjin looks back at his work and sighs, “Jungkook, get this.”

            Jungkook picks up the book. He must have been taken aback as he looks at Seokjin, confused.

          Seokjin closes his eyes and waves him off. “Don’t even ask. Just do the usual.”

            “Okay,” Jungkook says. “Uh, ma’am, please write your name here. Okay, so Ms. Y/N L/N, you’re gonna return this—wait, you’ve been borrowing this book for three weeks?

            “Yes. Why?”

            “U-um, n-nothing. Just curious. It only has 141 pages and you’re not, um, finished yet?”

            “Well, I want to learn more about how to mind control my breasts to make them bigger.”

            “Uhh…”

            “Alright,” Seokjin stands up and nudges Jungkook away. “Ms. Y/N L/N, you’ll need to return this book five days from now, on March 23rd.” Seokjin slams his date stamp on the paper. “If you fail to return this book on time, we’ll have to charge you $1 for every day past the due date. And if the copy gets destroyed or lost, we’ll also have to charge you. Understood?”

            “Yep.”

            “Now, that will be $17.”

            Y/N places the money on the counter and heads for the door. But she doesn’t leave without sending one last stare into Seokjin’s way.

            Seokjin plops back down on his seat and clicks his tongue. “She didn’t read the book again.”

            Jungkook rolls his chair next to him and asks “Aren’t you being judgmental? Maybe she’s just a slow reader.”

            “No, she does not read it. The author didn’t mean literal mind control as she said. The book is about conditioning your mindset to a more positive view of your body image.”

            Jungkook looks at him with his forehead scrunched, “Wait, you’ve read that book?”

            Seokjin’s lips turn into a frown and he rolls his chair away from his assistant. “Don’t even ask.”

            When Seokjin first met Y/N L/N, he was convinced that she’d be the type of customer he’d hate the most. The type that comes in, picks a book, stays for god knows long, and leaves without borrowing anything. She used to do this back when she first came to his shop within its first week of opening. She kept the tradition strong for a solid month, and Seokjin was convinced that some highschoolers noticed her behavior and attempted to use his shop as their new hangout spot. He’s glad his shop was getting packed as the days went on. It’s just a different story when a hoard of teens started flocking around his shop without renting anything and prevented actual renters from entering his shop. Seokjin had to put up “No loitering” and “Maximum of 3 hours stay” signs on his windows to end this money-ripping tactic once and for all. 

          That didn’t seem to stop Y/N, though, as she would still come to his shop to pick a book to read right in front of his face without ever renting it. This time, however, she made sure to follow the three hours maximum to avoid getting called out. This went on for another week until Seokjin decided he had to talk with her about this. That didn’t end as well as he had hoped, as Y/N just looked at him straight in the eye and left immediately after he got his last word out. 

          Seokjin remembers getting so embarrassed at how he unknowingly did a monologue to a single-person audience. He wasn’t left mulling over it for long as Y/N came back the next day and actually began to rent a book. She still stays the three hours max limit most of the days but she doesn’t let a week pass without renting a book. She also manages to lower her ‘miser’ type level to the ‘weird borrower’ level in Seokjin’s annoyance scale. Having a customer with a renting history surrounding the most ridiculous-sounding books is much better than having them rent none at all. 

          Albeit, that’s a bit of a stretch, too, as Seokjin finds out that Y/N’s not exactly the weird borrower type, but the weird borrower who comes again on time just to rent the same book for weeks. And she doesn’t even read them. Seokjin confirms it one night when Y/N came to his shop a minutes-breadth away from the closing time.

          “Wait!” Y/N screams, running towards the shop.

          Seokjin stops pulling down the metal gate to give her a glare, “I’m already closing, L/N. Come back tomorrow.”

          “But I have to borrow something!”

          “Oh no you don’t—”

          It’s too late though, as Y/N slips under Seokjin's elbow and pushes the unlocked glass door open.

          Hearing his bell on the counter ring for consecutive times from the incessant taps of the infamous L/N, Seokjin knows he’s already lost the fight. He sighs as he makes his way back to the counter.

          “What do you want?”

          “This,” Y/N smiles. 

          The Beginner’s Guide to Sex in the Afterlife by David Staume.

          Seokjin eyes her as he picks up the book, “This again? You’re still not done reading 164 pages after, what, two months?”

          Y/N gulps as she clasps her hands in front of her, “Well, um, I still don’t get how people engage in sexual intercourse in the afterlife.”

          Seokjin decides not to reply and continues to do his job.

          “If they believe in a god. Or gods. Wouldn’t they worry about their god seeing them do...lewd stuff?”

          Seokjin feels his right eye start to twitch.

          “Unless...their god is a sex god?”

          Seokjin closes the book louder than necessary. He pins Y/N with a glare. “Look, Y/N. This book is about sexual energy transcending material life and even moving to the astral world. Just like how people pass away. What made you think that this book was about literally having sex in the afterlife?”

          Y/N looks at him with wide eyes, “You read the book?”

          Seokjin scowls. “Don’t turn this on me. We’re talking about you. Why do you keep borrowing books you don’t even read?” 

          Y/N looks at him then back at her clasped hands. “You don’t have to know,” she mutters under her breath, taking Seokjin by shock when she slams the payment on the counter and leans over to stamp the renting slip with the due date herself.

          Seokjin tries to call after her retreating figure by the door. “Wait, I didn’t even tell you the—”

          “Yeah, $1 for each day after the due date and you’re gonna charge my card if I destroy the book,” Y/N yells over her shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’m gonna come back on time!”

          Seokjin pales in his seat. Her announcement sounded like a death sentence.

          He wishes he wasn’t so easily bothered at the slightest of things Y/N said. He wishes he didn’t spend too much time deciphering a way to stop her. Most of all, he wishes he didn’t become too intrigued by her to the point he’s started to care about what she’s actually doing.

          And Seokjin hates it. He hates how he stresses himself reading the books Y/N borrows. He hates how he wastes his time trying to re-arrange the books in the shelves just so Y/N would start picking books with titles that actually made sense (which he learned is futile as Y/N had a penchant for finding weird books around his shop whenever and wherever). And, Seokjin hates how he basically studied her long enough to memorize her pattern. Long enough to realize that underneath all that weird borrowing behavior, Y/N just comes to his shop to stare at him. Moreover, Seokjin hates how he confirmed it with a friend.

          “Y/N must be making you quite busy, no?” Jimin asks over a mug of coffee.

          “You know her?” Seokjin asks in disbelief.

          “Yeah,” Jimin nods, “I’m friends with her. I consulted their animation company for the ad I told you I was making for Books to Tell. She was the one who assisted me and we just clicked. Especially after I learned that she’s also friends with Namjoon.”

          Seokjin’s eyes go wide, “She’s also friends with Namjoon?!”

          “Yeah, they kinda knew each other in college. Why are you so shocked? You were in the same major as Namjoon. You could have seen her with him around uni.”

          “Uh, no, I didn’t.”

          Jimin rubs his chin and shrugs, “Well, it’s a small world then. So, how is she? I actually told her to go visit your shop when you first opened.”

          Seokjin chokes on his coffee and Jimin hurries to pat his back. “God, why are you like this today? Is something wrong—"

          “How come you’re just telling me all of this now?!” Seokjin cuts his friend with a glare, making Jimin jolt in surprise.

          “W-what? Was I supposed to tell you about this earlier?”

          “Yes! Y/N’s been annoying me for four months now!”

          “I…didn’t know about that,” Jimin steps back and sits in his chair. “I just told her to take a look at your shop and she said ‘okay.’ She didn’t say anything after that so I figured it left her mind. I didn’t know she was a regular in your shop. She just brought it up again yesterday when she told me how…” Jimin zips his lips and shrugs.

          “How what?”

          “...how she likes your face.”

          Seokjin chokes again. This time on his own spit. He should have seen this coming. He was long aware that some of his renters only went into his shop to get a look at his face. Even if he had to suffer through the tedious cycle of rejecting their queries for his number and offers of coffee, some of them ended up as his regulars. Seokjin didn’t mind. Money is money after all. He just didn’t expect Y/N to be like them after all the months he spent trying to decode her actual intentions.

          Seokjin tried to brush Y/N off just like he did with the previous renters. Although she hasn’t pulled off anything yet, Seokjin believes it’s better to set things straight before it happens. The sooner he ends this, the faster he’ll find his peace again.

          Seokjin hired his neighbor, Jungkook, who’s been bugging him for a part-time job for so long and made him his assistant. He entrusted him with entertaining the customers so Seokjin wouldn’t have to deal with Y/N bugging him anymore. And like always, that plan goes down the drain because Y/N always, always ends up in front of Seokjin even when he’s countlessly told her to go to Jungkook.

          Seokjin’s tired of stressing over her so he forces himself to ignore her and the ridiculous books she borrows. But even that proves to be hard when Y/N hasn’t even done anything untoward but to stare at him from time to time. And give him a headache with the books she borrows like The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America by Julian Montague, 50 Sad Chairs by Bill Keaggu, and Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich by James Yannes. For after all the progress he thought he’s put in, Seokjin still finds himself reading these books all because of a goddamn curiosity he couldn’t put down.

          It becomes harder when Namjoon and his friends pick up Seokjin’s weird setup with Y/N. And mutual friends being the annoying mutual friends they are, Namjoon and the gang begins to invite him and Y/N to hangout.

          “Why is she here?” Seokjin mutters to Namjoon the moment he sees their table.

          “Who?”

          “You know who.”

          “Oh, Y/N,” Namjoon prolongs the syllable as if her name is the most amazing thing ever. Seokjin grimaces. “Why? You got a problem with her?”

          “No,” Seokjin instantly denies. “I’m just asking why you invited her. It used to be just us for so long.”

          “Yeah, it’s always been just us that’s why it became boring.”

          “Boring?”

          “Yeah, I’m getting tired of your face,” Namjoon chuckles, stepping ahead of Seokjin. “Besides, what’s wrong with adding a new friend? Y/N is cool.”

          Oh hell yeah, Y/N is cool. She beams at Seokjin like she always does as if their legs weren’t just casually touching after their friends made it a point to choose a cramped barbecue restaurant and sit the two of them next to each other.

          “So Seokjin, I heard you and Y/N are getting close,” Namjoon starts and Hoseok hoots in support.

          Jimin, being as annoying as ever decides to ride in too. “Yeah, why don’t you tell us how you met.”

          “I was doing my business and Y/N just rented a book. That is all,” Seokjin says dismissively as he grabs his shot glass and downs the gin in one go.

          “Are you sure, that’s all, Seokjin?” Rose leans forward, grinning, “Maybe you’re hiding something from us.”

          “I’m not—”

          “He’s not hiding anything. That’s true.”

          The table pauses as all eyes dart to Y/N. A wave of self-consciousness washes over her and she directs her focus back on her clasped hands on the table, “S-Seokjin’s right. I just rent books from him.”

          Seokjin glances at Y/N then back at his drink. It’s the first time she actually addressed him that night after engaging animatedly with Namjoon, Jimin, and Rose for the past hour. The table nods slowly and Seokjin guesses they’re already about to drop the subject. Seokjin’s lips tug in a small smile. Maybe tonight’s not gonna go as bad as he initially thought.

          However, Jungkook,  being the ever-living oblivious fuck that he, must’ve not gotten the memo, decides to stir up the subject again.

          “No, I don’t think so. Seokjin and Y/N do have something going on. I catch Y/N constantly looking his way and Seokjin for some reason, knows every single weird-ass book Y/N borrows.”

          Seokjin’s lips part in shock. Jeon Jungkook did not just give him away like that. “Of course, I’ll know those books. I bought them to rent them to people. That’s my business!”

          Jungkook blinks. “But you know every single detail about them.”

          The table goes silent. It doesn’t last very long, though, as Rose and Jimin break into simultaneous laughter while Namjoon repeatedly slaps his thigh. Hoseok shoots, “Oh my god, you must’ve kept on buying books with weird titles just to keep Y/N borrowing!”

          “What? I did not!” Seokjin yells but his voice is lost in the sea of laughter and teasing. Seeing as there’s no hope in making his friends stop anytime soon, Seokjin decides to lean on his seat and cross his arms in silence. His friends are going to jump onto another topic eventually. Looking at his empty plate, his eyes glance at the person who’s equally quiet next to him.

          Y/N is busy fiddling with the seams of her jacket. She looks up from time to time to their friends to wave off their playful jibes at her with a laugh.

          Seokjin feels an annoyance prick on his skin. His friends invited him over just to tease him. Seokjin is sure it’s only him because he’s the only one who’s gotten frustrated over this debacle while Y/N sits chill beside him. Y/N doesn’t even break a sweat laughing with the others as if she hasn’t been bothering him for months now. Seokjin swears he’s gonna decline the next time his friends invite him again. Or at least try to, because he’s gullible to their promises of “Hey, they’re giving out free drinks. Free is free!”

          It’s the same as that one fateful night.

            Seokjin stops in his tracks and grabs Hoseok by the shoulder. “Why is she here again?”

            “Who?”

            “Y/N.”

            Hoseok raises a brow, “Why do you keep asking this question when you already know the answer?”

            “I don’t,” Seokjin shakes his head. “I don’t know why you keep inviting her whenever I decide to join you guys.”

            “Oh, don’t be such a grump. Y/N’s our friend, too.”

          Feeling Seokjin still in his spot, Hoseok turns around and sighs, “Hey, we only see each other ‘bout twice a month, you know. Let’s have some fun, okay?”

          Seokjin should have known Hoseok’s definition of ‘fun’ is far from his as he sits across Y/N in the restaurant. All their friends out of sight.

          Hoseok started a game after dinner where everyone had to draw a piece of paper from the cup being passed around. The partners would then have to leave together in a form of a friendly date. It’s similar to seven minutes in heaven but messed up because instead of seven minutes together, they had to spend the rest of the night with the person they’ll end up picking.

          Seokjin should have known that this was all planned when Namjoon oh so coincidentally pulled Rose, who everyone knows he’s been secretly crushing on. Meanwhile, Hoseok, Jimin, and Jungkook obviously ended up drawing each other’s name just to purposely get Namjoon and Rose together. And well…him and Y/N together. Seokjin sighs as he stands up. He just had to get this done and over as quickly as he possibly could.

          “Look, Y/N—”

          “I know a good place near here.”

          Seokjin halts. He looks at the girl who’s already looking up at him with wide eyes. "There's a cafe down the block and I heard it's really nice."

          "Uhh, that sounds amazing. I guess. Look, Y/N-"

          "They let you play with board games and borrow books, too."

          Seokjin scratches his head, "Uhh, I don't know about that, Y/N. I haven't had the time to check them out yet...I mean...if those cafes are good...or bad," Seokjin internally cringes at his words. Making believable excuses was never really his forte.

          "Oh, it's good!" Y/N smiles, “I’ve tried it before and I had a really good time."

          "Uhh-"

          "It's really good. You can trust me on this.”

          “No, I can’t,” Seokjin says before he could think about it and he immediately feels the guilt pang in his heart when he sees Y/N’s eyes drop to her feet

          “That’s…okay. I'm sorry. I just wanted to make up for the days, and uh, nights I probably made you uncomfortable. I thought, maybe you'd enjoy having a few drinks at the cafe since I always see you with a to-go cup on your counter."

          Seokjin looks at her with surprise written on his face and Y/N flushes. "Sorry. I tend to observe... stuff. I’m sorry," she repeats again, voice dripping with remorse.

          Seokjin bites his lip. He didn’t mean to make her sad. He just wants to…run away from her. The reason? Well…Seokjin doesn’t exactly know why. Maybe it had to do with the feeling that nagged at him since the night started. The feeling that something may happen tonight that he wouldn’t like. He tends to prioritize his disposition because more often than not, his gut feeling has saved him countless times from unnecessary drama and unpleasantries. But for tonight, Seokjin decides to shake them off. It wouldn’t hurt to take up Y/N’s offer, right? It’s just some coffee.

             “Okay. Um, I forgive you.”

             “You do?” Y/N perks up, lips curving up again.

             Seokjin looks away, “Yeah. I think I’m being difficult, too. I’m sorry if I also made you uncomfortable.”

             Y/N waves her hands, “Oh no, don’t apologize. You don’t make me uncomfortable. Far from it, actually.”

             Seokjin doesn’t know what to say to that so he clears his throat, “Okay, so...let’s go to the cafe?”

             “Sure,” Y/N grins.

             It feels weird to walk side by side with Y/N when he’s gotten used to having a counter between them. It’s even weirder that he actually enjoyed their time together inside the cafe. The cakes were delicious, the coffee was amazing, and the books and board games were a wonderful addition. Seokjin didn’t know he'd actually have fun playing scrabble against Y/N.

             “I can’t believe I lost again!”

             Seokjin chuckles at her, “That’s because you kept using short words.”

             Well, it really is fun when he’s winning.

             Y/N pushes the game to the side, “I don’t want to play scrabble anymore.”

             “That’s okay,” Seokjin chuckles, “I can find another game I’m sure to win again.”

             The two of them fall in a comfortable silence. It’s the first time Seokjin felt this way around Y/N. For all the months she came to his shop, he did nothing but be forever on his toes around her.

             “You know...I really like your face.”

             Or maybe not. Seokjin tenses up in his seat.

             Y/N puts her hands up, “Oh, I didn’t mean it like, in a bad way. I mean, I like your face. It’s so...expressive.”

             Seokjin looks at her, confused. Expressive?

             “You’ve asked me before about why I keep on borrowing books I don’t even read and I told you that you didn’t have to know. It seems right to tell you the reason behind it now..” Y/N fiddles with her hands, “Since you’re now paying attention to me.”

             Seokjin knows this isn’t true but he doesn’t say anything.

             “You see...I’ve been fumbling around my work for so long. Well, it’s more like a personal project for now. I’ve been meaning to pitch in the idea of a lighthearted romcom series to my department. I just wanted to have a solid draft first so I could at least let them see my vision. I’m pretty bad with words. I need things to be spelled out completely and I don’t think I can do it with this one so I will have to get the drawings complete instead,” Y/N scratches her head. “I want this pitch to have a solid chance. I’ve been working on it for almost three years now. I just can’t seem to finish it because I didn’t know what to do with my lead male. Until I heard about you from Jimin.”

             “Me?” Seokjin points to himself.

             “Yeah. You have this look in your face that just exudes…greatness. It’s like you’re telling me...‘I’m a star.’”

             “Huh?”

             “What I mean is, your expressions are perfect for a leading guy!” Y/N squeals, “Oh my god, I just found the right words.”

             Seokjin laughs nervously, “Y/N, just so you know, you’re not making any sense right now.”

             Y/N cautiously fixes herself again, “Uh, what I’m trying to say is, you have this aesthetic around you that’s just perfect for the male lead I am envisioning. It’s easy for you to make various expressions that stretch from annoyance to glee and beyond. I’m really surprised at how well you could do that. If you think about it, you can be an actor if you’d like. You’re even handsome.”

             Seokjin flushes at the sudden compliment.

             Y/N continues, “And that’s that. You became my muse and I kept visiting for inspiration because I obviously couldn’t take pictures without your permission. That’s illegal.”

             Seokjin should be appalled. He’s never met a person before who said such...things aloud in the open as if they’re just talking about the weather. But here he is, looking at Y/N, and feeling at peace. Maybe it had to do with him finally getting the answers he’s been looking for for months.

             “Well, you should have just told me from the start. I wouldn’t have been...too weirded out by you.”

             “Yeah, I’m sorry. My bad,” Y/N softly laughs.

             “I thought you’re purposely messing with me with the way you pick the weirdest titles from my shop.”

             Y/N awkwardly shrugs, “Yeah, sorry ‘bout that.”

             Seokjin chuckles but halts. Why does Y/N bother to pick the weirdest titles when she can just pick from the hundreds of normal-looking books he has? She won’t even read them anyway.

             Seokjin clears his throat, “Um, Y/N, why do you always borrow the weird-looking titles?”

             Y/N’s eyes grow wide. She darts her eyes at her lap, “Uhh, I just, uh, do.”

             Seokjin isn’t convinced. No one spends time finding the weirdest of books in a shop ‘just because they do.’ Seokjin feels the familiar itch of his curiosity. He needs to know why. Only then will he probably stop finding a pattern in the ridiculous-titled books Y/N borrows.

             “Okay, you can keep doing your...inspiration thing.”

             “What?”

             “I’m not angry about what you said. You don’t have to worry. Everyone has their own inspiration. You can keep coming to my shop. After all, you’re my regular renter.”

             Y/N’s smile immediately grows into a grin, “Okay. Thank you, Seokjin.”

             Seokjin feels his chest lighten with satisfaction. But at the same time, he can’t deny the feeling that he’s probably signed himself up to something he’s unprepared for. He presses his lips together. His gut feeling was right. He doesn’t like this night.

          Seokjin confirms this when tomorrow comes as well as the following days. Y/N comes in like usual in the afternoon, maxes her three hours, and finds a book with a weird title to rent. Nothing had changed much except now, Seokjin had to see her stare at him openly and not behind a book, as she intermittently looked towards his counter then back to her sketchpad. He regrets having ever welcomed Y/N because now he thinks he’s the one who’s weird for feeling his heart pound in delight whenever Y/N looks at him.

          Seokjin hates what he’s become. He hates how he simultaneously dislikes and likes Y/N’s presence in his shop. He likes how Y/N has begun using her three hours to tell him another story from work. He likes how she makes him laugh even when her jokes don’t make any sense. He likes how easy it is for him to tell her his own stories—his dreams, his fears, his past relationships. He could even say the most ridiculous musings he ever had without feeling ashamed of it because Y/N understands. But at the same time, he can’t help but dislike how he’s started to constantly wait for her return in his shop. He hates how he instantly feels so down when he realizes Y/N won’t be able to make it to his shop. He dislikes how he finds himself oversharing stuff without feeling any guilt when all his life, he made it sure not to say to let people know too much. The more they know, the easier it is for them to inflict hurt. Because they know what part is gonna hurt the most. And so, Seokjin tells Y/N everything other than the things he feels about her. The things he really wishes to say.

          All his life, Seokjin has always anticipated seeing how things will end up. Because he knows he’s right. And he always almost is. He knows that this relationship he has with Y/N is purely transactional. Y/N just kept coming because she needs someone who’ll give her inspiration. Seokjin knows if he ever lets his feelings out, he’ll only end up breaking his own heart. He knows how this will end and yet he can’t but wish he isn’t always right. Now, he sits fearfully in anticipation of the day Y/N stops her visits as soon as she finishes what she started coming to his shop for.

          Turns out, Seokjin didn’t have to wait very long. Because on one Thursday morning, he finds a copy of Y/N's final draft on his counter and no presence of the girl. Y/N doesn't appear during the following week. Or the week after that.

          "What do I do?" Seokjin mumbles. He covers his face with his hands as he slumps on Jimin’s dining table. The rain thundering outside fits his current mood so well. Seokjin hates it.

          "Well, you shouldn't have been so hostile to her from the start," Jimin says with crossed arms.

          "Don't you think I already know that? I've already played through all the different things that could’ve happened if I didn't pick on her borrowing habit."

          "It's not that," Namjoon says. "We meant how you usually react when we invite her over to our hangouts."

          "Yeah, you always look so stiff next to Y/N even after we set you guys up on a date," Jungkook remarks. "Anyone would have looked at you and would’ve commented on how uncomfortable you looked right next to her."

          It's true. He felt uncomfortable whenever he sat beside Y/N. In his defense, it no longer felt like the uncomfort he felt when they had first met. This feeling of uncomfort felt different, it’s brought by the heat that fills his body when Y/N's leg brushes against his.

          And it didn't help that earlier that day, Y/N pulled quite a stunt on him.

          "Hey, you have something on your hair," Y/N points at his head. But before he could pick it up on his own, Y/N had already leaned over the counter and picked it away for him. She came so close that Seokjin could clearly see how long her lashes actually were and how pink and soft her lips looked. He feels his Adam's apple bob up and down.

          "There," she smiles, "All handsome again."

          Seokjin feels heat rush to his ears as he looks away.

          Seokjin looks at Jungkook, “Well, I can’t control how I feel. You know how bad I act when I’m not okay.”

          “So you’re not okay being by her side in public but you’re okay when you guys are alone?” Jungkook eyes him, “Don’t you dare deny it because I saw you guys getting chummy across the counter.

          Seokjin gulps. He knows what Jungkook is talking about. He didn’t know where and when but somewhere along the way, he and Y/N started to blur any nuance of personal space around each other. He just found it natural to tuck her hair behind her ear when it falls on her face as she draws. He found it natural to let his fingers brush on Y/N’s own as he grabs a book from the upper shelf for her.

          “You must have been watching too many romantic movies.”

          “Why?”

          “You’re really acting like a main lead now. You’re making me feel as if I’m the female lead.”

          Seokjin freezes and tears his eyes away from Y/N. He pulls the book and unceremoniously pushes it to her. “Here’s your book,” he mutters before walking back to his counter.

          “Hey, don’t just leave me here!”

          And Seokjin found it natural to let his actions do the talking for him instead.

          “Do you trust me?” Y/N asks as she looks up at him. “I already made you look good on paper. What more if we go to this amusement park together?”

          “I don’t trust you,” Seokjin says but his hand grips on hers tighter. 

          “Of course, I’d feel better when we’re alone,” Seokjin grunts as he grabs his coffee, “Who would want to see two people touching each other in public? Not to say people who engage in PDA too many times will eventually break up since the pressure from the public-”

          “We’re not telling you to engage in PDA,” Namjoon cuts him. “What we’re trying to say is that, why do you refuse to act on your feelings?

          “Yeah,” Jimin seconds, “It’s obvious that you like her. You wouldn’t keep on buying weird books and reading what Y/N borrows just to check if Y/N will indeed read it. You wouldn’t keep asking me if she’s alright at work whenever she doesn’t show up or leave you any messages under the pretense of ‘ensuring she wouldn’t come to your shop to disturb you’. You keep asking me because you’re worried about her. You keep buying her weird books because you’re happy seeing her smile happily about them. You keep welcoming Y/N into the shop even when you hate getting distracted because you like her!. It’s so obvious! Why can’t you say it?!”

          “Because I know how this thing between us will end. What we have is purely temporary. Y/N came in to find a muse and that’s that. She comes to my rental shop just to finish her project. Y/N never intended to stay long, and I made sure she didn’t. I knew she was leaving the moment she finished. If I said I liked her then, it would’ve only made us awkward and I would’ve ended up absolutely miserable.”

          “Well, she already did leave,” Namjoon deadpans. 

          “And you didn’t say anything but you’re still miserable,” Jungkook says.

          Seokjin closes his eyes and nods. He’s fully aware that Y/N is gone, but it’s not like he can act like nothing happened. It was his fault, after all. “Yeah, I know now. I’m stupid. I’ll just have to deal with it on my own and move on.”

          “You don’t have to deal with it on your own.”

          Seokjin jolts at the familiar voice. He turns around and finds the very person he’s been missing for weeks. Y/N. With the deep bags under her eyes and her hair all mussed up, she looks far from Seokjin’s type. But she’s still the most beautiful person he’s ever seen in his life. 

          “Okay, I guess this is our cue to go.”

          Seokjin whips his head to Jimin, his eyes wide, “You planned this?”

          “Obviously. It looks like you still needed a little push after the last stunt we pulled. Jungkook, stand up from your goddamn seat.”

          Y/N stays in her spot until their three friends leave them alone. Seokjin looks at his feet as shame and self-consciousness mingle in an unsettling mix in his stomach. Y/N is here and he must look like the stupidest idiot in the world right now.

          “Did you mean it when you said you liked me?

          “Yes,” Seokjin sighs.

          “Then why didn’t you say so from the start?” Y/N says in a soft voice. “You kept blocking my advances. I was trying to let you know that I liked you, too.”

          “You like me, too?” Seokjin asks, shocked and confused.

          “Of course! Did you really think I just picked weird books out for fun? Okay, I did have a lot of fun picking them — but the point is, I did all of them to get your attention!!! For god’s sake, did you think I sat through your lecture on divine afterlife intercourse “just because”? No!! Okay,” Y/N closes her eyes, I first went to your shop for inspiration. But that all changes when I started liking you. You’re just so hardworking and smart and even if you’re grumpy on bad days, you actually care so much. I just want to stand out at least a bit so you could see me, too. And just when I thought I had finally succeeded when you agreed to let me draw your face, you started giving me mixed signals. You’d come near me and touch my hand and would let it go right when I started to talk about it. You’d act so affectionate then say the exact opposite. Do you know how bad it hurts when I ask you if you’d trust me—even when I sound like I’m joking—and all you’d ever answer is ‘no’?”

          “I thought...you already knew the answer.”

          “No, I don’t, Seokjin. I told you I’m bad with words. I need things to be spelled out. I-”

          “Y/N, I trust you. I thought you figured it out already when I told you everything about my life.” Seokjin looks at his hand, “But it turns out it wasn’t enough. I’m sorry we had to take the long route like this because I couldn’t say what I really wanted.

          “And what is it?”

          “You.”

          Y/N flushes at his sudden confession. The surprise in her eyes morphs into a satisfied glint as Y/N’s lips curve into a soft smile. “It’s okay. You have me now,” She steps into his arms and Seokjin immediately engulfs her in his embrace. For the very first time in his life, he doesn’t anticipate anything. His mind doesn’t conjure any endings. All he could think of is how he wants to prolong this moment as much as he can. Seokjin smiles into her neck as he tightens her hold on her. This must be what it feels like to be finally at peace.

          “So you like me now, huh?” he feels Y/N murmur at his chest.

          “Yeah.”

          “And you trust me now?”

          “2000%” Seokjin grins.

          “Good. I’ve been wanting to try out something that I read.”

          “Oh, so you’ve finally read something,” Seokjin chuckles by her ear.

          Y/N giggles, “Yeah. I wanted to do it right this time for this book.”

          “What book?”

          “Edward Jaye’s The Cookie Sutra.”

          “What?”

          “Cookies and Kama Sutra.”

A/N pt. 2: Hello my dear @sophrosinn. Happy birthday! First of all, I love you. I LOVE YOU SO SO MUCH. AND MY LOVE FOR YOU CANNOT BE CAPTURED ENOUGH BY THESE WORDS. You’ve been with me for four years of my life and I couldn’t believe it’s just four years when it feels like I’ve been living my whole life with you. Yeah, you made a super large mark in my life and I couldn’t imagine what my life would have been if I didn’t meet you. You’ve helped me out in so many difficult times of my life. Through all the shits and slumps I had in school, in my family, and in my writing journey, you’ve stayed with me throughout all of those things. Gave me the advices I needed to hear. You’re still here, helping me heal from the pain I’ve suffered and still suffering. You’ve always been a rock of support in my life, @sophrosinn, and I wouldn’t have come this far if it weren’t you. When I look at you, I still wonder how life managed to let me meet such an astoundingly wonderful person like you are. These days have been tough but I hope you know you don’t have to suffer through it alone. I and @senfleurs will always be here to hear you rant, listen to your basog moments, and help you lighten your load as much as we can. Whenever life brings you down, I hope you always remember I will be here for you to give you an ear that will listen to you, to give you a shoulder you could cry on. I want to also be your rock of support you could always go to without hesitation just like you’ve always been for me. So Happy happy birthday my dear best girl! You have gotten a year older today but don’t worry, you’re not gonna be alone. I and @senfleurs will be by your side as we grow old with you! Here’s to more amazing years! I love you!

P.S. Yes, this fic is inspired by this reddit post you sent to us.

I just changed it up a bit bc my mind went blank when I first drafted the “we’re married” concept. Hope you like it, anyway! I tried writing both your serious and quirky sides through Seokjin and the OC!

P.P.S. I’m sorry I couldn’t get this fic out much earlier. My writing slump is still as bad as it can be but oof, I managed to get it out just before August 11 ends! I hope the wordcount and the feels and laughs make up for that   > u <

All Rights Reserved © Vanaera. Reposts, modifications, and translations of content are not allowed without direct permission

[anothermcytblog]

Of Hades, Of Achilles (Of Apollo)

Style: One Shot Word Count: 1202 CW: Ranboo hallucinates Dream again! 

Summary: You look at the door you watched Techno walk out of and you wonder how many of the stories are true, and how many are made up from fear.  // ... Picturing Dream in his armor and shield, the river Styx flowing behind him. // Apollo, who walks next to you in a green hoodie and white mask, humming the anthem of a home he destroyed.

The snow stung as you work on building your little shack. Dream (No, no not Dream. Just your imagination again, you’re safe you’re safe youresafeyou resafeyoursafe) sits on one of the ledges, feet dangling off the edge. In the back of your mind, you wonder when you started seeing him with a halo made of sunlight with a crown made of black and white feathers on his head. You place another spruce plank on the roof, careful to make it secure but easily removable just in case. (“Just in case of what? You get kicked out?” Dream asks you, resting his chin on the palm of his hand as he leans down to watch you work, “Betray them like you betrayed Theseus and Echo, like you betrayed-” You tune him out quickly, hands tightening around the pieces of the wood as you try and remember how to breathe.)

The army of dogs bark in the background as you tie the planks down with some rope, “Cerberus…es,” You mutter to yourself, making a tight knot as you think of flames amidst the snow.

--

“For me?” You quietly ask, gently taking the old book Techno holds out to you. He doesn’t verbally respond- looking a bit bashful- rather he just nods and once you have the book, he heads out on one of his journeys. Looking at the book, you run your fingers over the cover. ‘Myths of Old for beginners’ is written in golden cursive against a darker red. Quietly, you sit next to Edward with your back against the chests, giving a small chitter as a greeting to him before you open the book up to read what you land on- Hades.

“Being given the Underworld after his father, Cronus was defeated, Hades is the God of the dead. While he does supervise the trial and punishment of the dead, he normally isn’t one of the judges nor did he personally torture the guilty. More often than not, his personality is stern and aloof, unmoved by prayer or sacrifice.

Spotting Persephone in a garden, Hades had fallen in love. In some stories, Zeus gave consent to Hades abducting Persephone- even lying as to where Hades had taken Persephone, saying it was either Sicily or Asia. More commonly, however, is Hades just kidnapping and bringing Persephone down to the Underworld.

Demeter, Persephones mother, and goddess of the harvest, began to search the Overworld for her. Eventually, Demeter arrived in Eleusis and disguised herself as an old woman, and began taking care of Demophon, the prince of Eleusis. In exchange for the kindness the family had given her, she began making Demophon immortal by placing him in fire each night. When Metaneira, his mother, saw this, she raised alarm. This is when Demeter revealed her true identity and demanded the kingdom make a temple be built in her honor. When it was completed, Demeter left the Overworld to live in the temple, bringing a great drought to the land to force the other gods to make Hades release Persephone.

As the drought claimed more victims, Zeus had no choice but to send Hermes to try and persuade Hades to release Persephone. It gets murky here, however, regardless of how it happened, Persephone had eaten at least a single pomegranate seed which trapped her in the underworld. A compromise was made, however, that for half a year Persephone would spend in the overworld- the other half in the underworld.

In some myths, Persephone and Hades genuinely loved one another, in others, it was one sided. Myths and stories get muddled when people speak them.”

You blink, fingers tracing over the letters of the page. Hm… You look at the image of Hades on the last page, Cerberus behind him. Tall, dark, brooding- terrifying with a crown on his head- but you look at his myth and you wonder what part you’re supposed to be scared of. Hades is the god of the dead, he isn’t the god of death. You wonder if there is more to his story you’ll never learn, his title and appearance leading people to presume things that are untrue.

You look at the door you watched Techno walk out of and you wonder how many of the stories are true, and how many are made up from fear.

--

“I’m surprised you chose Hades,” Apollo- No, Dream - tells you, floating next to you as you finish up the shack, “People tend to point out that Hades is the God of The Dead, not The God of death .”

“Shut up,” You mumble, shaking your head to try and get him to leave (He’s not real, but… it’s less lonely with him here at least) “Hades is often mistaken as the god of death and people tend to assume things about him and- You’re not even real! Why am I arguing this?!”

He laughs for a moment, it sounds more human than anyone you heard in L’manberg, but then he’s suddenly next to you and you are vividly aware of how fake he is, “So, Hades Techno. What about me, hm?”

You hesitate, “Dream is Achilles,” You tell him, trying to make that separation more visible in your brain, “Appearing invincible, though very mortal- unless you believe the myths were he is immortal everywhere except his heel- with very powerful armor and a powerful shield, Achilles is a powerhouse in the Greek army. Achilles is petty, believing in taking two eyes for every one eye you take. Of course, he has his reasons for it but he didn’t need to humiliate Hector even in death. He does relent, however it takes a while. The original Iliad ends there, however, in later stories Paris, Hectors' brother, kills Achilles with an arrow guided by Apollo right to his heel- his one weakness.”

You pause for a moment, trying to collect your thoughts as you jump off the roof of the shack, wincing a little when you land, “Dream is powerful, appearing invincible but… but I want to believe he has a weakness. Sisyphus reminds us that no one can escape death.”

You walk in the snow quietly on your way back to Techno and Phils cottage to get the rest of your things, picturing Dream in his armor and shield, the river Styx flowing behind him.

--

You walk quietly in the snow next to Halo Dream, thinking of Apollo. Apollo isn’t a perfect fit for Dream, not like Achilles, but you can’t help but think of Apollo interfering with mortals in so many myths. Apollo, being the one to guide the arrow that kills Achilles. Apollo, who speaks of prophecies that lead to people's end (Is Apollo any better than you? Who are you trying to prove yourself to?). Apollo, who can’t let people have happy endings. Apollo, blessing Cassandra at first but cursing her as soon as he couldn't get what he wanted from her.

Apollo, who walks next to you in a green hoodie and white mask, humming the anthem of a home he destroyed.

[prideandpen]

Hi! 💕 do you have any tips for someone getting started with tarot?

hello! Are you just getting started with tarot? That’s so exciting! I’m sure you have a wonderful journey ahead of you. Tips? Oh where to start. I suppose the first thing is your deck. Assuming you don’t have one - don’t be afraid to simply purchase your own. I know there’s a long-standing “tradition” of either needing to be gifted a deck or stealing one for your first deck. But that’s not necessary. I think there’s something good and wonderful about choosing your own deck, be it your first or your fifteenth. (Though of course there’s nothing wrong with a gifted deck, those are also pretty lovely) Whether you’ve been gifted a deck or choosing your first one my top tip would definitely be to just start learning about your cards. I was gifted my first deck by a friend, a mini beginners deck with cards about the size of my palm and a thick little book on how to read them, and when I finally decided to dedicate myself to learning them I remember going through the deck one card at a time just looking at them and getting a feel for them (and almost every little white book will have some suggestion on getting to know the deck) and then i went back through the cards one by one and looked at their page in the book to see what the meaning of each card was. And I’ll tell you a secret. While all the cards do have a fairly set standard meaning, they’re also very open to interpretation, and that’s something you’ll come to understand more as you work with them. But from day one there were things I read in that little book that I didn’t agree with then and still don’t today at you might find you feel the same. You don’t need to use fancy spreads. You can! And it can be helpful! But the questions you’re asking are more important than the order you lay the cards out in. If you’re asking multiple questions during a tarot session write them down! Otherwise 7 cards in you might forget what question the first card was supposed to be answering (I’ve done this more than once and it can be frustrating)

Try to make sure you’re grounding/centering yourself before you read. Whatever that means to you. If it’s imagining a tether, asking the universe or god, or whatever deities you worship, or your higher self, to guide you, mindful breathing, or 5 minute yoga. whatever. Do Something. Anything. To put yourself in a state of being where you’re not going to use more energy than you have. A mistake I still often make is forgetting to ground or center myself before I pull cards and afterwards i often end up feeling very tired because of it. Even if I was feeling excellent before. Even if you don’t believe that the cards have any sort of magic to them, that much internal work takes energy and you should be sure to protect yours. Yes/No questions are always up for debate in tarot. Same with timeing questions. Are they possible to incorporate? Sure, absolutely - at least I think so. Are there better questions to ask? Maybe. Do certain cards mean yes/no? I don’t think so. but it’s up to you to come to that conclusion for yourself. Though if you’re interested in my take I’m happy to share. How you shuffle and pull the cards doesn’t matter. If you pull from the top, or spread them out in a fan, or cut the deck, or only read jumpers, never read reversals, pull from the bottom, shuffle like you work a card table in Vegas, shuffle a specific number of times, whatever, If honestly doesn’t matter except, of course to you. Shuffle in a way you’re comfortable and happy with. there’s no right or wrong answer, and if late you want to do it differently than do it differently (I have different decks that i shuffle in certain ways. some I only read the jumpers for, some I pull by instinct)

Last one, because i’m so sorry this has ended up rather long. Tarot tips can be super fun and super helpful, and of course I encourage you to do your research and talk to other readers (and appreciate that you think my insight is worth asking! Seriously! I’m incredibly flattered and a lot amazed! <3) but at the end of the day your tarot practice is yours and it’s what you believe that matters most. So don’t just take other people’s word for it. Nothing anyone says is law except that the death card doesn't literally mean death. There are some tips I’ve seen on tumblr I love that in a pinch can be helpful and fun, and then there are some that i roll my eyes at because to me and for my practice it just doesn’t make sense My darling anon, i’m so sorry for how long this is. you probably were looking for a few simple tips to get you started and i just went off. But i hope there’s something helpful in here for you, and that you haven’t waited too long for this reply. If you ever want to ask anything else or talk tarot or whatever shoot me another ask or a message. :) I really appreciate you and would love to hear how learning tarot goes for you.

[fanfoolishness]

a world for the birds (1/10)

Andy DeMayo took up birding years ago, but his favorite hobby takes on new meaning when shared with his nephew Steven.

A series of looks at Andy and Steven’s growing family relationship.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4

***

Chapter 1: learning how to see

Andy breathed in the salt air.  Another visit back to Beach City in Delmarva; a good place.  He’d forgotten how good, somehow, years of flying on his own and watching folks move away.  But there were new reasons to come back here, Greg and his kid, their weird space family.  He liked having a home base again, even if still he only visited once a month or so.  Some habits died hard.

Andy and Steven sat on the porch, watching the waves as they waited for Greg to come on over. They had dinner plans at the crab place down the street.  Andy was looking forward to it. He’d seen Greg last month, but it’d been a while since he’d gotten a chat with the kid, who’d apparently been spending an awful lot of time in space lately.  It was still hard to wrap his mind around sometimes, though Steven seemed to take it in stride.

Andy let out a sigh, watching the laughing gulls on the beach fighting over a crab.  He found himself asking a simple question.

“Hey Steven, you ever been birdwatching?”

Greg’s kid wasn’t quite as open and excitable as he used to be.  Typical teenager, Andy supposed, especially since the kid had finally started growing.  He’d been weirdly tiny when he met him the first time.  Maybe now that he’d hit that growth spurt, he’d figured out how to get moody, too.  Or maybe it was all the space stuff.  Andy wasn’t sure.

Steven shrugged.  “Uh, I mean, I’ve seen birds…”

“Nah, I mean, you ever actually watched ‘em?  Like those laughing gulls out there?”  Andy rummaged through the knapsack at his feet, pulling out a battered copy of Sibley’s Guide to Birds of Eastern North America.   He waved the book at Steven.  “I see a lot of birds when I fly, and after a while I got tired of not knowing their names.  If, uh, you ever want to give it a try, it’s pretty fun….”

Steven’s face lit up.  Oh, there was that excitable kid again.  “Sure!”

***

Andy mulled over the destination for their first birding foray for a few weeks.  The weather had been crummy for the rest of his stay last time, so they made tentative plans to bird the woods around Beach City and the local marsh nearby.  Andy sorted through some of his old books.  Was Sibley better for a beginner?  Peterson?  Maybe he’d throw in the National Geographic guide.  He went back and forth about it for longer than he would have liked to admit.

He knocked on Steven’s door bright and early, having landed the plane well above the high tide mark.  “You ready, kid?”

Steven opened the door, strapped to high heaven with binoculars, a camera, and a bulging messenger bag.  He was also wearing a bright pink jacket over a blue shirt. Not exactly nature colors, but it would be fine.  “Oh, I’m ready, Uncle Andy.  I was born ready.”

“I… admire your enthusiasm,” said Andy gruffly.  “Here ya go.  Take your pick.”  He held out two different guides.  Steven grabbed the Sibley’s, leaving Andy with the Nat Geo.

“So I just look up the bird I think it is?”

“Yeah, but you gotta have an idea of what type of bird is, or you can get confused real easy.  There’s like seven hundred birds in that book.”  Andy nodded to a pair of terns flying over the water.  “Any idea what those are?”

“Uh, seagulls?”

Andy tried not to grimace.  “Ain’t no such thing as a seagull.  Just gulls.  There’s lots of different species.”  He showed Steven the right section of the book, and the kid’s eyes widened.

“Whoa.  I had no idea!  I just thought they were all seagulls, and that they like to steal my food.”

“Well, yeah, that they do.  But those there are terns.  Caspian terns, you can tell by the size of ‘em.  And that bright red bill.”

Steven raised his binoculars, struggling with adjusting them for a moment.  Then he grinned, lowering them.  “I see the red!  That’s awesome, Uncle Andy.  I can’t believe I never noticed those before.  Are they rare?”

“Not really, no.  Now that you’ve got an idea of ‘em, you’ll see ‘em all over.  See the thing about birding is, it teaches you how to see birds instead of just looking at ‘em.  It’s not the same thing.”  

“What do you mean?”

Andy thought about the kid’s question.  They walked along the sand to the plane, Andy pointing out a few willets and a lone killdeer as they went.  As they neared the plane, he came up with something, huffing and puffing as they hiked up the hill.

“I mean… so many people see a bird, and they don’t even think about it.  Or if they do, they think, ‘oh, it’s just a bird.’  But there’s more to it than that, ain’t there?  You look a little deeper and you start to see it.  A red beak on a bird you thought was just a gull.  Or the flashy colors of a hummingbird or a painted bunting.  Or a little peep, just digging and digging away until it comes out with a huge clam in its bill.  And it just makes you think, you know?  Like what else am I missing?”

“You mean about birds?” asked Steven as they reached the plane, not the slightest out of breath.

Andy wiped the sweat from his brow.  “Well, yeah.”

***

The birding went great.  Andy found a smooth field to set the plane down in on the edge of the Beach City woods.  It was no Magic Hedge out there -- not that he’d expected that level of activity-- but he was pleased with the different types of environments the little wood and field had.  The field itself, full of horned larks; the deep part of the wood, where a woodpecker lurked frustratingly out of sight; the edge of the wood, where the flycatchers perched and watched for passing bugs.  Steven almost looked like he was gonna cry when Andy showed him the pages of Empidonax flycatchers, all of them almost exactly alike.“You don’t have to get those right away,” said Andy gruffly.  “I’ve been doing this twenty years, I still mix ‘em up if they don’t sing.  People just call them Empids a lot in their notes because you can’t tell ‘em apart.   But I’d guess that one’s a least flycatcher, sitting here on the edge like it is, and that sharp little call.”  

Steven wrote the bird’s name down in a brand-new waterproof notebook in pencil, tongue peeking out of the corner of his mouth.  “So now I have… twelve birds for my life list?  How many do you have, Uncle Andy?”

Andy laughed.  “I don’t know off the top of my head.  I have a list back in the plane, though.  I think last time I checked I hit somewhere ‘round eight hundred?  Flying takes me all over, you see.  Picked up some great birds when I flew you and your dad to Korea.”

Steven gaped at him with eyes like dinner plates.  “How many species are there?  Now I wish I’d been paying attention when Dad and I went on that trip.”  He frowned.  “I guess I was thinking about other stuff, though…”

Andy looked curiously at the kid.  Pensive was an odd look on him.  “Uh, there’s a ton of species, almost ten grand.  A damn lot of them.  Always new ones to find,” said Andy.  “Ooh!  Look there!  Tufted titmouse.”

They ended the day with forty species, not bad at all considering it was the beginning of summer and migration was over.  Andy had managed to start impressing upon Steven the importance of birding by ear, especially for warblers, and Steven had immediately downloaded something on his phone that did bird calls, promising to study.  

Andy left him with the Sibley’s, Steven giving him a bonecrushing hug.  He’d hugged him back, awkwardly.  He still wasn’t sure what to do with his nephew’s affections, but he thought it was a good problem to have.

*** Bird photos: Cornell Ornithology Lab, Caspian tern; Empidonax flycatchers, Peterson’s field guide (was too lazy to take a good picture of my Sibley lol).

[alicepink-me]

The New Guardian

Story Summary: Marinette Dupain-Cheng is an adult in the real world, guarding the Miracle Box in Master Fu's place. She's in love with Chat Noir, but refuses to tell him her feelings. New holders appear to fight the duo and shake up their lives. Marinette makes a tough decision about her future as Ladybug.

Chapter 9: History

Marinette's alarm went off, waking her. She rolled over and hit her clock, looking over at April. April laid in her bed with a book and reading light. She was wearing round purple glasses and more comfy clothes like yesterday. Marinette rubbed her eyes.

"You know, it's not polite to stare." April said, turning a page.

"Why are you awake?" Marinette blinked, breathing in. "It's five in the morning."

"I'm reading." She answered. "What's your excuse?"

Marinette threw her covers over and hopped off her bed. "I have a 6 a.m. class."

"Oh, say hi to the munchkins for me." April laughed.

Marinette rummaged through her dresser. "What does that mean?"

"Nothing." April turned a page.

Marinette rolled her eyes before grabbing her clothes and a small bag. She opened the door but stopped to see a blonde standing right there, smiling.

"Good morning, Marinette." The woman greeted, holding her hand out. "My name is Rebekah and I will be your tour guide for your first week."

"Uh . . . nice to meet you." Marinette shook her hand, awkwardly. "But my first class isn't until six."

"I know. I'm just waiting for you." Rebekah cheered. "I'll give you a tour at anytime and I'll be ready to take you to your class in . . . " She checked her watch. "Exactly fifty-eight minutes."

"Okay . . . sounds great, but I'm gonna get ready first." Marinette carried her stuff past her.

April rolled off her bed and moved to the door.

"Hi April!" Rebekah squealed

April gave a fake smile. "Hey Rebekah."

"I haven't seen you since last year. How are your classes?"

"Great." April slammed the door in her face.

. . .

"Alright, Marinette, first things first . . . I need all of your completed paperwork." Rebekah turned around in her tracks.

Marinette handed over the giant stack of papers before grabbing her bag. "Anything else?"

Rebekah flipped through them. "No . . . I think you're all set. I'll drop these off by Master Mantis later, but I'll show you to your first class now." She started walking.

Marinette followed. "Yeah what exactly is the first one and . . . basically all of my other classes?" Marinette asked. "My schedule was two pages, labeled day 1 and day 2, and they just included times and locations. There wasn't any other information."

"That's because we have one day of school/studying classes and one day of action/fighting classes. Neither are easy to begin with, but if we had both in the same day, students would only focus or excel in one." She admitted. "The study days are mostly history based while action days focus entirely on sparring and the miraculous." Rebekah explained, rounding a corner of the building. "You have four history classes today, all two hours each plus one one hour math class at the end of the day. Tomorrow you will have two two hour fighting and action sessions with your assigned group. I will look into your files tomorrow to give you more information on that." She turned left.

"Why would I need eight hours of history today?" Marinette asked, trying to keep up with her tour guide.

"Because you're here for a shorter time than the rest of us. You will only receive a crash course, yet a sample of each." Rebekah stopped by a door that a bunch of kids were going through. "And we're here."

"We are?" Marinette panted. They were walking really fast. Marinette watched the crowds of kids walk by. They couldn't be any older than thirteen. "These are my classmates?" She raised her eyebrows. "Why aren't they . . . more . . . my age?"

"Most people start training at the academy when they are eleven or twelve years old. You obviously have been here for like ten hours, so you don't even have the beginners level of information." She said. "Which is why you have four. You have one class for each age group."

"I didn't think I drew enough attention to myself already." Marinette said sarcastically. "This should be fun."

"I'll leave it to you then." Rebekah grinned before prancing away on her high horse.

Marinette inhaled. She walked inside and looked around the classroom. It might be best for her to sit in the back, away from everyone, and luckily there were still some empty seats. Marinette slid into a desk, waiting for class to start. There was probably one hundred twelve year olds in the room with her. Either they'll think she's the same age because of her height or Marinette's gonna get made fun of by a bunch of prepubescents. Luckily they hadn't noticed her yet.

"Alright class." The professor walked in and set his briefcase on the counter. The class immediately silenced. "Today's lesson is about the most important event to ever occur at this temple. A temporarily fatal day that permanently changed our lives and futures." The class stared at their teacher with curiosity. "Does anyone know what this time was?" No one answered. "It may be mid-semester, but I think now is the right time to introduce this unit." His eyes locked with Marinette before picking up a piece of chalk. He wrote on the board. "This event was known as The Great Massacre by Wang Fu or The Temple Buried in Time." He turned back to the class. "And since all of you are our newest pupils, none of you were born yet. It's recent yet decades old." He breathed in, pondering. "This Massacre lasted 166 long years . . . and was only cured six years ago."

The class began to murmur. One kid raised his hand "Why haven't we heard about it before?" He asked. "166 years is a long time, but it wasn't even mentioned back in my hometown."

"I'll answer that only because you all are beginners." The professor sighed. "No one, unless they have attended this academy, knows about the existence of us, so our history is hidden as well. News stations will report on heroes, but no information about their origins or identities will be released. If we allowed our secrets to be known, our safety as well as this temple would be in peril. There would be no order and all power could be stolen."

"Actually." Another girl started. "I heard about a story whenever I was seven. The news mentioned a mysterious temple reappearing."

"Yes, that is correct." The professor continued. "But once the story was released, we used some of our miraculous holders to convince every news station that discovered the incident, that nothing unusual or interesting was here. After all, they already had two heroes in their city to focus on. We made the reporters believe that there was no need to ever come back. After that, there weren't anymore stories reported and the general public completely forgot as if it never happened."

Marinette adjusted in her seat, recrossing her legs. Every ambitious child in the room whipped out their notebooks and aggressively took notes on the astonishing information. Marinette didn't really need to since Master Fu had already taught her about his past years ago and she was present for the temple's reappearance. This class seemed more like a refresher course than a complicated history class.

"So this is where the problem started." The professor began, turning back to the chalkboard. "A young guardian in training named Wang Fu made a horrible mistake that cost us dearly. He was assigned the regular training assignment that required guarding the Miracle Box for a measly 24 hours, but . . . the man's hunger got the better of him and he misused this task by stealing the peacock miraculous. Fu then used the miraculous to conjure up a creature that would bring him food, but because of his lack of training with that power the monster turned on his creator. That monster devoured every other miraculous and later the people here as well, including me." The class gasped. "The temple burned and all was lost, but Wang Fu never looked back. He grabbed the Miracle Box that he misused and ran, leaving his mess behind and that monster raging. It wasn't until 166 years later that two of his own uneducated students defeated the monstrosity." The professor turned around. "That man left everything to ruins and never bothered to finish his mess. It required two unqualified tweenagers to do it instead, bringing such shame to our group." The professor sighed. "And to top off his crimes, he lost two miraculouses after that fateful day, the peacock and butterfly. Both were found and used for evil purposes, which we will discuss in tomorrows lesson about Paris."

These kids shouldn't be brainwashed like this. Master Fu wasn't a criminal. Marinette raised her hand, even if it meant outing herself.

The professor glared at her. "Yes, Ms. Dupain-Cheng?"

Oh, he knew her name. "I'm sorry, but . . . some of your facts are wrong." Marinette said.

He squinted. "How so?"

"Well . . . one of the council members actually told Master Fu to run. He didn't leave without looking back. He tried to fix it, but before he could, everything was desiccated in destruction." Marinette continued. "And Master Fu did not leave the monster. He had believed it was destroyed in the fire, but it was later discovered in a rock formation by Mayura. Mayura was a villain, which I'm sure you already know, and she brought the creature back to life. Master Fu's pupils took down the monster that was believed to be indestructible and the temple was restored." Marinette paused, smiling. "You'd never know how happy Master Fu was when he found out that everything had returned. He wasn't some sort of villain who prayed for death and destruction."

"Hmm." The professor's eye twitched. "I suppose your view is slightly distorted since you were taught by him rather than at the temple. Maybe it's only opinion rather than factual."

"I guess the same goes for you." Marinette suggested. "The lesson would be a little biased if it's taught by a survivor of the incident."  

"Seems fair." The professor nodded, turning back to the board. "Now, class, your assignment for the week is to think of your argument." He wrote as he spoke. "How guilty or innocent is the man? What are your thoughts and if Wang Fu was still alive . . . how should the matter be dealt with?" He turned back to the class and looked at Marinette. "I'll be interested to hear your thoughts."

The rest of class was boring and frustrating for Marinette. She had heard everything before and lived part of it, yet every detail was distorted. That professor taught from his point of view, which clearly despised Master Fu. And she can almost guarantee that all the other professors are sharing from their point of views as well. Now, every child that trains at the temple will grow up believing them. They have no reason not to.

. . .

Lunch:

The temple's café was set up like a buffet with several different lines leading to different types of cuisine. Ninety percent of the food was healthy and the only weird thing here was the entire corner for protein bars and drinks. There was a huge crowd around that section. It was probably included since there's so much training at the temple. Marinette did overhear something about a wellness class, so everyone else is apparently trained for that specifically. They're specifically in tune with their diets and understand exactly what they need for their own bodies to maintain their powers at a maximum.

Marinette entered a smoothie line. She figured it might be best to start out with something simple for her first day. She didn't want to spend too much time looking at all the options, seeming like a lost puppy. Marinette might be new, but she didn't want to look like a sad freshman. It was hard to see around the hoards of students anyway.

She stepped up in the smoothie line. There was a tablet to design your smoothie and order it off of. Marinette reached for the tablet after the next girl, typing in her name and picking out ingredients. She put the tablet down as the girl behind her squinted.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng?" She questioned. Something about her tone was off.

"That's me." Marinette turned to her.

The girl picked up the tablet to punch in her order. "I heard about you. You're that girl." Her tude was ripe. " The one who just walked right in, demanding special treating."

Marinette's eyebrows furrowed. "I didn't-"

"I heard enough." She interrupted. "I know what you are, I know all about your past, and I won't let you believe you're better. You don't deserve to be here in the first place."

"I know." Marinette nodded, taking a step down in the line.

The girl's eye twitched as she set the tablet down. "I'm Priya, last name not assigned yet, and I have been here for eight years. You have been here for eight seconds, yet you have an enormous amount of power over me. And did you train for it? No. Did you earn that right? No. And why are you here? To make up for the fact that you cheated the entire system that has been in place for centuries and don't want the guilt to eat away at your soul anymore. Please, don't plead innocence."

Marinette's mouth hung open. "I'm just trying these classes out. I can leave anytime with my miraculous, but I've chosen to stay here for now to understand the history better and to receive partial training. I'm sorry that I wasn't raised with the same lifestyle as you."

"And that's the problem." Priya moved down the line. "You can leave." She glared at Marinette. "I have worked day and night for eight years . . . and I don't have a miraculous. So I don't want to hear your self-centered sob story about how you've changed your path and you want to fit in with the world that never picked you just because you feel destined to be a part of all the magic. It's kind of sad really. If you really felt bad, you would've given up that power and left it behind because you shouldn't have it and there is no way you can start over from the beginning to earn it."

Marinette scooted down the line, standing in front of the barista. "I guess we're just going to live with it. I can't change my past, but I can alter my future here."

"Oh I'll live with it." Priya smiled. "We're in the same class tomorrow after all. There's no way you'll win against us. Once you step into that classroom, you're just prey to the wolves."

Marinette smiled. "We'll see."

"Marinette?" The barista asked.

Marinette took her large smoothie and sipped it. "Class should be fun and you can crush my experience all you want, but even if I get my butt beat . . . I can't feel anything worse than I already have this week."

Priya watched her strut away, Marinette slurping her smoothie with a grin.

. . .

Later that Night:

Marinette reached her dorm room and unlocked the door. She walked in and saw April sitting on her bed, reading. Marinette stopped and stared at the book, her eyes widened.

"My diary . . . " She mumbled. "You're reading my diary?!"

April sprung off the bed and held it behind her back. "To be fair, you are pretty sketchy." She admitted.

"I'm sketchy?!" Marinette threw her bag on her bed.

"You are a cheater, whether you accept it or not." April shrugged. "What am I supposed to believe?"

Marinette took a deep breath. "Just give it back." She held out her hand.

"I won't be so harsh anymore." April handed it over. "I think I understand you a little better now."

"Really? I wouldn't have guessed. I only publicized my entire life inside that journal." Marinette said sarcastically. "But I can forgive a fraction of it if you aren't so bitter all the time."

"Oh please, everyone here is bitter." April snorted. "It's survival of the fittest. Any kindness can be taken advantage of. It's how we are." She leaned against the bed. "And people don't lie in their diaries because they don't plan to show people, so I've learned the real you by reading your secrets."

"Well that's great." Marinette hopped on her bed. "I'm glad my life story and miserable love life brings you reassurance."

"It's not that bad." April walked to her closet. "At least I don't have to kill you in your sleep because of my debilitating trust issues."

"Would you actually do that?" Marinette shoved her diary under her pillow.

April smiled. "Why do you think I didn't already have a roommate when you got here?"

[fitprocafe-blog]

FIT PRO CAFE Relieve Overall Body Pain

Do you repeat the Fitness mantra in your mind every morning? Various Fitness types are available for use where this is how to tell if your Health is working properly for you. Finally, in this case, it was sort of my fault. That is how to reduce problems with Health. How can old hands affect premium Fitness schedules? Read my lips, this should be progress. This is the time to enjoy yourself. I'm definitely going to use more Fitness soon. I have tried this for myself and found Health to work wonders. FIT PRO CAFE it is not going to be a lecture on Fitness. That isn't going to happen. It was a meaningful investment. If you're providing Fitness, there's nothing fake about it. What's the downside to this? I had brainstormed that I should not like to leave the Health bandwagon. It may be a big deal. In this post, I'm going to share a couple of things that I reckon are salient to doing it. This is only going to assist us in the long term. The cost varies depending on several incidents. We've always been well regarded in this area although fitness is as fine as wine.

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Fitness wasn't easily digestible.

I feel as if I'm a stuck record.

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[xehanortsreport]

99 for that xigsem parenting riku and vanitas au......

as soon as this came into my askbox i was transfixed, SO HERE WE GO....i got a little carried away, whoops

“How could you forget your son’s birthday?”(owie)

Birthday morning. Vanitas struggled to keep his excitement down as he clambered out of his bed; Riku had already left the room, it seemed, and he couldn’t help but be glad that he had. This was Vanitas’s day, after all, and he didn’t need his too talented younger brother hogging up the moment from sunrise to sundown this time too. Ten...finally ten. Double digits. A whole decade. He hastily pulled on his oversized hoodie and jeans, ruffled his hair in place of a comb, and sped into the kitchen, wanting to look cool, calm, collected, just like a preteen should in his head.

He peeked around. Riku had probably already been dropped off to his special before school program, but the sight of Ansem, who usually joined for breakfast, was nowhere to be seen. His other father, Xigbar, was already up and ripping open a new package of sugar, squinting at a measuring cup on the counter with his good eye. The moment he caught sight of Vanitas edging around the corner, he gave a cheerful finger gun and clicked his tongue in greeting.

“Morning, little man. And more of a little man today than ever, right?”

Vanitas rubbed his nose to conceal his grin and slid over to the table, where a small plate of scrambled eggs was waiting for him.

“Morning, Appa. Where’s Dad? Did he already leave?”

“It’s his day off, remember? You already know he’s in the workshop.”

“Oh yeah...I kinda forgot it fell on my birthday this year.” Vanitas looked off to the side, and pouted. “But he’s still not here, so I guess it doesn’t make a difference. Wonder if he’d show up for Riku.”

“Please, the man’s a workaholic no matter what day it is. Anniversaries, birthdays, I dunno...lung transplant surgeries on his grandma? No matter the occasion, he’ll find a way to be busy.”

Xigbar’s rich black hair swayed back and forth as he busied himself whipping up pancake batter: Vanitas’s favorite breakfast, especially when loaded with chocolate chips. The hair and golden eyes: Vanitas had inherited both. Though the eyes also ran on Ansem’s side of the family, deep brown skin and broad nose were the more obvious signifiers of what he had inherited from his other father. Still, he felt closest to Xigbar, whose chaotic sense of humor and wickedly chill attitude (and cool stories about being the governor’s most trusted bodyguard) appealed more to a young boy than the stern, sometimes condescending cool of the respected scientist.

“Dad always looks like he likes Riku more, though. He’s always helping him with his homework and talking with his teacher and stuff.”

Smoke started rising from the pan, and Xigbar cursed under his breath, clearly trying, and failing, to censor himself around the kid.

“Your brother is talented in all the same ways your Pops was. He’s probably just trying to guide him around the same pitfalls he made as a kid,” he said, trying to scrape up the burnt pancake. “People like you and me, we gotta work a little harder, but the pain of being a ‘gifted’ kid is that it hurts more when you fall. I think he’s tryna protect that from happening to your brother.”

He let out a low, disappointed whistle at the burnt mess in his pan, snatched it up, and flung it into the nearby trash bin.

“You’re a genius too, though. The teachers are always talking about how I shouldn’t have any trouble with the material, ‘cuz my dads are some of the smartest people in the city.”

Xigbar let loose a throaty laugh, edging the new pancake side to side to make sure it wasn’t burning.

“Nah. Your Pops? Definitely a genius. No doubting that man’s mind works in ways the average human can’t comprehend. But me? No, I just learn fast.”

With a flick of the wrist, the new pancake sailed through the air and landed expertly into the pan on the other side, as if Xigbar had merely been playing at incompetence earlier. The burnt smell of the earlier pancake slowly gave way to a gentler, breadier scent, and Vanitas found himself melting in his chair, impatient to start shoving stack after stack into his mouth.

“At practice, teacher said Riku was a natural,” he muttered, nudging around eggs with his fork. “I wonder if I can learn so fast that he won’t be able to catch up…Hey!”

His father had bumped the plate out of Vanitas’s path with another plate, sending the first one dangerously close to the edge and catching him completely off guard. The stack of pancakes had been completed faster than he had thought, and each of them was a golden brown that made the first pancake’s failure look even more and more like a freak accident.

“Persistence’ll get you places natural talent couldn’t dream, kid. Think of that as your free Birthday Wisdom.”

“‘Birthday Wisdom’? That’s a thing?”

“It is now. And it’s free! Happy Birthday, isn’t life just great?”

“That better not be my gift.”

“As if,” Xigbar said, and began to slice open a melon, peeling and cutting it into floral shapes with ease. “I’m the cool dad, remember? Check by the TV before you catch the bus, I left you something there.”

Vanitas didn’t answer, but shoved the pancakes into his mouth to avoid showing the growing smile on his face. Xigbar snorted knowingly, and set down the fruit in front of him. Golden eye catching golden eye as Vanitas suddenly piped up.

“I want to switch to somethin’ else. Boxing, or...taekwondo or...maybe Dad could actually teach me some of his science or his bookmaking or something…”

“I know what you’re tryin’ to do here, Van,”

“I mean, at school, all the class already thinks I’m too girly, and that’s without the ballet...because havin’ two dads, and one of them is,”

“Continue with that line of thought and I’ll kick your butt along with the kids who said that crap in the first place,” Xigbar sighed, and plopped into a chair beside him, rubbing his temple.

“But you know what I mean! ...I’ll just...leave it to Riku. He’s prettier, too, so I guess I can’t even compete with him on that...hah.”

“Prettier?” With a frown Xigbar chewed on a piece of melon before continuing. “He’s not, number one, number two, this isn’t a competition. By all means, whoop the other kids’ behinds, but not your baby bro’s. You two should be teaming up to take the other losers down, not turning on each other.”

“You don’t think Dad isn’t constantly comparing us in his lab notes or whatever? Y’know…’subject V has a really big head and a small brain compared to the smaller and more compact subject R’.”

“Alright alright, you got his nerd talk down, I won’t deny that, but trust me, that’s not how he sees you kids.”

“You sure?”

“‘Course I’m sure, every mad scientist needs an assistant, and that’s me.” Xigbar winked as best he could with only one eye, and laughed. “The man is an absolute idiot when it comes to emotional intellect, but he does know well enough to keep the lab in the lab. Kinda.”

“Huh...well...I mean, you shouldn’t say that in front of your kid! Aren’t you supposed to be all, ‘Son, you can’t be mean to your father’ and stuff?”

“I told you, I’m the cool dad,” Xigbar said with a smirk, and sipped at his orange juice. “Anyway...if you’re sure about the switch, and you’re not just doing it because you think you can’t do ballet, I guess I can make it happen. Taekwondo sounds good. The only condition is that you use your newfound powers to try and see if you can take me on in combat later.”

“No problem. You’ll go down easy, old man.”

“We’ll see about that,” Xigbar mused, and slid a slice of cake, hidden somewhere Vanitas hadn’t noticed, in front of him while the kid let out a huff of surprise. “I’m pretty tricky.”

That night, as the brothers sat across from each other in separate beds, Vanitas’s hands curled angrily above his knees, balling his sheets into wrinkled messes. Riku was already nose deep in some beginner’s chapter book, devouring stories of pirates and treasures, risky adventures and fantastic worlds...ideas Vanitas found sickening as he grew older. At some point, he couldn’t even see himself playing hero, couldn’t trick himself into believing the magic fairy dust sprinkled on the page anymore. Riku’s dreams soared higher and higher.

Vanitas believed Riku was the only one who could reach them.

“Hey,” Vanitas said, voice a cacophony against the now shattered silence. “What if Dad’s evil?”

Riku paused, eyes flickering from his page to Vanitas and back again. Then, slowly, he folded the book shut, thumb still marking the page, and laughed. Vanitas’s lips pulled into a disappointed sneer.

“What’s so funny? You don’t think he is?”

“Of course he isn’t,” said Riku, brimming with confidence. “I mean, he can be cranky and stuff, but that isn’t the same thing as being evil.”

“But what about that workshop, huh?” Vanitas pressed forward, physically and verbally, voice dropping dangerously. “He locks himself in there all day, and always with the lights off. He’s using candles! Who still uses candles?”

“That’s evil?”

“‘Course it is.” Vanitas huffed, and his golden eyes burned with challenge. Cry, idiot, he thought to himself. Be weak already. Be scared. “Maybe the reason he spends all his time with you is because he wants to size you up and feed you to the dog and make a clone. I bet he doesn’t really love you at all!”

The last word was a shout. Riku’s breath hitched, body locked tight, and Vanitas thought, at last, all those barbs and jabs had landed a significant blow.

But when he locked eyes with Riku, he felt his stomach clench. Riku shone with preternatural wisdom, beautiful, ocean blue, almond shaped eyes narrowing knowingly, thin smile shaky but self assured, a feeling of challenge reverberating with nothing more than a cocky “heh”. Silver locks...Ansem’s hair...shook around his shoulders.

“Yeah, well...maybe Dad’s gonna replace you, then, too.”

Vanitas’s jaw immediately clamped shut, wired by the jolted, struck nerves. Riku, though intelligent, was still seven, and remained ignorant of the bleeding gash he had struck deep into Vanitas’s heart.

“It’s almost midnight...hey, did he give you a present, yet?”

Whatever Riku was saying was immediately lost in the trample of Vanitas’s feet as he threw himself off the bed and ran down the hallway, hoping desperately that the tears spilling down his face had been lost in the dark. They slowed eventually, after what felt like hours, and his legs began to feel like they were pulling him through mud. Almost midnight...almost midnight, and that man was still cooped up in his workshop. Tears turned caustic as they streamed, teeth grinding in a way that he was sure would earn some sort of lecture. Good. Let him be lectured. That would be enough to show Dad still cared about some part of him.

He paused in front of the open door leading into the workshop, feet stopping just short of the threshold. Contained candlelight was all that lit the room, deep oranges and browns driving back the encroaching darkness. Hunched over beyond the frame, leaning over an ancient looking wooden desk, was that man. Silver hair fell elegantly about broad shoulders in shimmering sheets...almost Elven, magical...a stark contrast to the furious flurry of his arms and hands and fingers working mechanically, this way and that, grabbing oddly shaped knives and tools that Vanitas couldn’t have made up even in a particularly vivid daydreaming session. His stomach swam, and for a moment, he was prepared to believe his own lies...what if his father really was just some mad scientist, who would carve him up to the bone and throw the scraps to the dog?

“Dad?” His voice was weak, faltered the moment it left his throat. All it did was push out more tears, mourning how pathetic he sounded.

He thought he saw Ansem’s movements pause, but they quickly resumed his work. Anger boiled over in his stomach as he threw out his voice more wildly, it cracking in his emotion.

“Dad!” Vanitas stomped his foot simultaneously, and snot dribbled down his face. “Arentcha forgetting something!? ‘Happy Birthday, Van’! ‘Happy Birthday’! How could you forget your own son’s birthday?! I bet you wouldn’t forget Riku’s! Riku...Riku’s your…”

His voice fell out completely, head hanging, unable to look up as the wooden chair creaked and the solid footsteps of his father quietly approached. Hiccups tumbled out of his mouth, and he couldn’t help how his shoulders trembled even as a strong hand cupped around them.

“Vanitas.”

How strong and confident and unwavering that voice seemed; how kittenish Vanitas’s own sobbing seemed compared to that deep, lionlike roar.

The tears barely left enough room in his eyes for him to notice the gilded corner of a leather notebook, pushed gently under his nose, offered.

“I’d never forget my proud, eldest child.”

Vanitas’s breath seemed to vanish. His head swam with confusion as he hurriedly swiped away the tears clouding his vision, growing cold on his cheeks, and shakily grasped the book. A few second for his eyes to refocus, and it soon became clear what he was holding: a hand bound journal. Elegant carvings decorated its cover, its face stamped with some sort of symbol Vanitas had never seen before.

“This is what is called a ‘sigil’. This one was made with your name,” said Ansem with a sigh that suggested he too had been holding back some worry. Worry? “It is imbued with your will, your spirit...and my guidance.”

Vanitas thumbed through the journal; mostly blank pages greeted him, though there was a hand written appendix in the back detailing simple charms and spells for luck. The occult and science seemed to be at odds to each other, but his father had a vested interest in both, one that he had apparently noticed Vanitas picking up. And now...he had made this, a journal..a grimoire? Welcoming Vanitas further into that world, by his side.

Was that why it had taken so long? Was he waiting until he had finished the gift?

“Happy Birthday, Vanitas.” Ansem’s eyes tilted downwards, and it seemed he was hiding some emotion from his son. “For ever letting you think I did not care...I am sorry.”

“Dad…,” Vanitas’s lips couldn’t seem to focus on becoming a smile or a frown, and wobbly flopped between both. He threw his arms around Ansem, pressing his face into his torso, and let out an ugly, primal shout. “Say it sooner, next time, jerk…!”

“Noted,” Ansem replied primly. “I heard from your Appa that you wanted to give up ballet. Is this also because of how you see Riku? How you think I see him?”

Vanitas flushed, heart pounding, and he was grateful his face was hidden.

“Mm….mmhm…”

“I went ahead and booked you a private tutor earlier, after I heard. You’re skilled, Vanitas, and I don’t want to see your passion fall away. You’re both valuable to me, equally. Perhaps it’s best to let you boys start being separate more often…” Ansem mused as Vanitas backed away, face and tears brimming with surprise.

“Really?”

“Unless you still wanted to do taekwondo. I heard your Appa is quite excited about the possibility of you flipping the children in your classroom around,” he said, chuckling. “I’ll admit, if they’re saying the things I think they are, I’m inclined to agree.”

“Sweet! Uh...wait,” He paused, clutching the journal to his chest and awkwardly scratching his hair. “Can I do both?”

“My, a multidisciplinary. You truly are my son.”

“...Van?”

A voice lilt up from the doorway. Vanitas, eyes barely losing their redness, turned, and immediately he shrank back towards Ansem, who caught him in a ready arm. Riku, eyes wide, hand lifted up nervously to his chin, stood in the threshold.

“I uh...I followed you here…um.” The smaller boy cleared his throat and closed his eyes, and when he spoke up, it was with a courage that steadied the tinniness of his small voice. “I’m sorry, for hurting your feelings. I didn’t know what I said was bad, I just wanted to tease you back. And, um…”

Riku inched forward, traded a glance with Ansem, who nodded down at Vanitas, and wrapped his arms around his older brother, melting into the embrace. Vanitas stood stock still, surprised but unwilling to move, as if afraid to dismiss the warmth of the moment altogether.

“You’re smart, and talented, and a really cool brother,” Riku said, muffled by Vanitas’s chest. “Love you.”

Vanitas finally managed to break his hesitation and placed a hand on Riku’s hair, gently ruffling it.

“I guess you’re not bad yourself.”

“Van.”

“...Love you too.”

[rivertellsstories]

Newsies as things that happened during the one week exchange my school had with another school in Italy.

Albert: *looking at a glass floor* Do you think that’s safe to walk on?

Teacher: I wouldn’t try it if I were you *turns around*

Albert and Race: *look at each other and immediately start jumping on the glass

-

Jack: *spots a huge garbage can with one small hole instead of a lid that you can tilt open* That’s so handy! (Not sarcastic)

Crutchie: Yeah Jack, garbage cans usually are. (very, very sarcastic)

-

*first day with the exchange group*

Race: So, I’m still a virgin no thanks to someone *looks at Spot*

Spot: *glares at Race*

-

Race: *puts Virgin (Race) as his Kahoot name*

-

Teacher: So if you turn around three times on the bull’s balls, you’ll lead a lucky life.

Race: So I won’t be a virgin anymore? *enthusiastically stomps and spins on the bull’s testicles*

-

Davey: *wins Kahoot quiz he wasn’t even supposed to be part of*

-

Guide: Did you all pay attention? If so, please tell me what the name was of the second family that lived in this castle.

Davey: Sforza.

Guide: *confused* That’s true, but I’ve never seen you before? You weren’t part of my group.

-

JoJo and his Italian host:  *both staring at candied fruit while knowing what it is in their native language, but forgetting the English word for it*

-

*at a mass*

Priest: *sings terribly*

Elmer: If this was The Voice, I would’ve turned for him.

Henry: I’m gonna make a fan page for him.

Elmer: *snickers* The Vatican is hella rich, let him be your sugar daddy

-

*playing truth or dare with the Italian students*

Katherine: *has to rub her boobs against one Italian guy for a bit*

Italian student: *holds out hands in confusion* (he only understood the word boobs lmao)

-

Teacher: So you have to take interviews. The Italian students ask the questions and the others have to use their ‘Italian for beginners’ book to understand the numbers. So if they say quattro-

Katherine: four

Teacher: Indeed. And when they say sette-

Katherine: seven

Katherine’s Italian host: *shouts proudly through the room* é la mia!!!

-

Teacher: Shit, someone forgot their bag.

Smalls: *yells louder than anybody thought she could yell* HEY SOMEBODY FORGOT THEIR BAG!!!!

-

Smalls: *has to shout every time the group is in danger of splitting up (thanks traffic lights) because she just screams the loudest out of everybody*

-

*during a trip in Verona*

Specs: Miss, could you tell me the name of the building?

Waitress: *doesn’t speak English and prepares to leave*

Romeo: WAIT! Il nome di *gestures wildly at the building*

-

Sarah: *absolutely destroys everyone at dodgeball. Doesn’t know what ‘mercy’ means*

-

Race: There’s a window in the bathroom door of my host family and now I can’t shit in peace. And I really, really have to go to the bathroom.

-

*at a really fancy bathroom in a new shopping centre (it had a fountain in the fucking bathroom, when I say fancy I mean really fancy)*

Albert: Man, there’s no way I could shit in a place this fancy

Race: *guilty silence*

-

Davey: Where’s our other teacher?

Teacher: He is feeding his inner self.

Elmer: Is he masturbating?

Teacher:… No, he is just eating….

-

Blink: *gets drunk even though the rules explicitly stated that students weren’t allowed to have alcohol*

-

Albert: *sends a snap of a joint on a table* lol my Italian has weed

-

Crutchie: *sends a snap of his stuffed animals* Let’s all introduce our stuffed animals to each other via Snapchat!!*

-

*at a happy hour*

Henry: This drink is good, can I get another?

Teacher: Yes, but you’ll have to pay though.

Henry: *angry scowl*

-

Mush: *eats too much pudding because it was free and good*

-

Jack: *dances very enthusiastically but not very good. Kind of terrible actually, but looks cute while doing so*

-

Buttons: soco soco bate bate soco soco vira vira (all the damn time)

-

Street vendor: *tries to sell something*

Blink: *in angry German* NEIN

-

Street vendor: *puts bracelet on Davey’s arm*

Davey: *competely and utterly lost about what’s going on*

Race: NO DON’T FALL INTO THE TOURIST TRAPS *zooms at inhumanly speed and pulls Davey away*

-

Crutchie: *visits only the Disney shop on the free day*

-

Finch: *climbs in tree, knowing fully well that it’s illegal and puts pictures of it on Snapchat*

-

Race: *teaches the Italian kids weird English curse words*

-

All the Newsies: *teach the Italian students the dances that they also teach to the younger Newsies (those dances you do on the playground or at camp)*

-

Bonus:

Pulitzer: *makes a girl cry by bullying her and leaves the student he was supposed to host behind in the midst of Milan*

[rashidnidm]

A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO WHICH DIGITAL MARKETING IS BEST

  A prevailing digital advertising and marketing method can make or destroy a business. It doesn’t rely how remarkable your product or carrier is, if you can’t market it, no one will gain from it. Competition is rife in the digital area with new modern businesses and merchandise being launched each day, and entrepreneurs want to remain at the pinnacle of their recreation to make sure that what they share with their clients and target audience is nonetheless relevant. 

The fast-paced nature of digital channels has pressured entrepreneurs to come to be agile ample to each remain on pinnacle of developments and put in force them in their advertising and marketing strategies.

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 Digital advertising techniques are what you want to make your commercial enterprise thrive. They allow you to create a clear and complete graph for how you will attain your goal audience, as nicely as construct a direct relationship with them.

 When requested about strategy, Martin Petrov, Head of Marketing at Odense, Denmark-based Morningscore shared that a deep know-how of your target audience is a need to for a profitable digital advertising strategy. “Every product we convey to market serves a unique cause for a precise goal audience. Understanding the audience's wants and successfully positioning the product at once informs what duties your entire crew must interact with on a extra tactical level,” he said. 

A digital advertising and marketing method is a format to attain your clients via all the digital channels. It's essential due to the fact it offers you a framework for how to use every channel, and helps you measure which components work first-rate for your business.

 Digital Marketing Strategy Best Practices

 “Without a digital advertising and marketing strategy, an enterprise will now not be in a position to persistently and cohesively join with parts online, compromising sales and income projections. Digital advertising ought to combine seamlessly throughout digital and analog channels for most impact,” introduced Kent Lewis, President at Portland, OR-based Anvil Media.

 Here are 6 suggestions that will assist you tighten up your method and get your advertising and marketing analytics transferring in the proper direction. 

1. Do Your Competitor Research

 “To stand out from your competitors, you want to find out about their digital advertising techniques and appear for opportunities,” stated Cristian Ungureanu, Senior Growth Marketer at Zurich, Switzerland-based, QuickMail. Think, what areas are they focusing on? What are they neglecting? It should be that they are investing closely in SEO, or paid ads, however are very vulnerable at webinars and podcasts.

 2. Be Authentic 

Organizations have to attempt to be actual to their values and mission. “Create messaging and advertising techniques that are true and primarily based on core values, mission, and imaginative and prescient alternatively of doing some thing due to the fact it’s the cutting-edge trend,” stated Lewis.

3. Investigate Your Content

 Performing a content material hole evaluation can divulge what kinds of content material have carried out properly for the competition, as properly as what has no longer carried out nicely and may also no longer be really worth your time. Kristien Matelski, PR Manager at Irving, TX-based Vizion Interactive provides that “maybe there’s a subject that carried out properly for a competitor and you have a fresh, up to date take on the subject matter with more moderen facts that should surpass your competitor’s piece. Numbers don’t lie, so do your research, see what humans are asking google the usage of equipment like AnswerthePublic and BuzzSumo for content material hole analysis.”

 4. Influence Different Channels 

There are extra digital channels than you would think. While most entrepreneurs suppose of social media and website positioning as the solely approaches to join with their audiences, there are different interesting rising applied sciences and channels such as NFT drops, augmented reality, and digital actuality that entrepreneurs want to comprehend and use.

 5. Adjust Your Strategy To Your Goals 

Doing this does not just open up heaps of possibilities for virtually executing your method thru tactics, however ensures that your approaches and your approach are aligned at all times. “From demand gen to lead gen, having a in reality described trouble helps make extra possible clients conscious of your answer with the proper content,” delivered Petrov. 

6.  Try not to Be Afraid To Innovate

While most innovation is centred on products, you can additionally innovate on your advertising processes. “There are additionally sizable possibilities for innovation in your marketing,” stated Ungureanu. “One region of advertising innovation I've discovered to be specifically high-quality is visible identification and tone of voice. If you can gain a mainly fascinating visible identification on your internet site and product, and you can pair that with a matching tone of voice, you may be capable to seize the interest of your target audience lots extra efficaciously and stand out from the crowd,” he continued. 

Kinds of Digital Marketing

1. SEM

 SEM or Search Engine Marketing is typically viewed to cowl each PPC and search engine optimization work. Bringing in site visitors to your internet site with the aid of search engines is no handy task, that’s why search engine marketing and PPC work to appear into bringing stated visitors in thru each paid and unpaid means. PPC paid advertising, and SEO, which works on bringing in natural traffic.

2. SEO

 We’ll begin with SEO, which stands for search engine optimization. search engine marketing works to make your commercial enterprise optimized for search engines, like Google and Bing. It’s all about transferring you up the search engine consequences web page rankings to have higher visibility for customers looking out for your website. Many humans don’t trouble scrolling to web page two of search engines, so web optimization is critical to work if you prefer to generate greater enterprise from online searches. By no capability is website positioning a rapid fix, when our purchasers signal up for SEO, we usually inform them that the system will take time to yield results

3. PPC

PPC, or pay-per-click, is a structure of advertising and marketing on search engines, like Google and Bing. It’s a way of transferring to the pinnacle of search engine consequences pages through paid means. It’s known as PPC due to the fact your advert account is charged every time one of your adverts is clicked. The price of every ad, or CPC (cost per click), relies upon the best rating of your internet site and the chosen keyword’s competition. PPC campaigns can be a non-permanent solution, and many use it to shift merchandise or seasonal deals, as a way to improve revenue. There are around four spots for Ads on Google, so getting your internet site in the for a chosen keyword can be challenging. search engine optimization work is about your rating being ‘earned’, however PPC your rating on the first web page is bought.

4. Social Media Marketing

Social media advertising is the system of working on advertising and marketing through, you guessed it, social media. With social structures like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (to identify a few) ever-growing, corporations online want to make investments in social media advertising and marketing to develop their following and attain an entirely new pool of conceivable customers. Dependent on your commercial enterprise type, there’s a social community out there for you. All organizations would do properly to be on Facebook, however, if you specialize in B2B, LinkedIn is the one for you. If you’re a ‘visual business’, then Instagram is ideal. We should go on and on, however you get the point. You ought to be on social media if you aren’t, however how do you market on social media?

6. Email Marketing

Another shape of advertising is electronic mail marketing, and you’ve guessed it, it entails email. It’s a structure of direct advertising and marketing that sends information, offers, blogs, etc. at once to your mailing list’s inboxes. Through a sea of emails, your advertising e-mail will appear, however, the trick is getting it to read. Yes, it'd also emerge alongside 100s emails, and if you can’t create an attention-grabbing email, then it'll be lost. Luckily there are email advertising equipment and groups that can aid you. Email advertising and marketing is a top-notch way of accomplishing your customers, interacting with them after purchases, or even sending them a newsletter. Be warned, sending unsolicited emails will land you a region in the junk mailbox. So, make certain you’ve gathered your mailing listing with the aid of your very own potential and no longer from a third-party company. They want to be your customers or have opted in to receiving your mail.

7. Affiliate Marketing

Both influencer and affiliate advertising utilize these in a role of ‘power’, normally social media influencers or enterprise professionals, etc. This is to help you in advertising and marketing a product or carrier to their audience. It’s grown to be extra and extra famous in current years, via websites like Instagram and YouTube, the place corporations will enlist a generic influencer, to promote their products or offerings on their social pages or affiliate websites. These collaborations can contain giving away special cut-price codes, subsidized weblog posts or prize attracts, etc. for the influencer’s audience, to construct some buzz around your manufacturer and business.

Last Thoughts 

Digital advertising is a effective device for any business, enabling you to create a clear and complete sketch for how you will attain your goal target audience as nicely as construct a direct relationship with them. As the web continues to be greater on hand throughout all gadgets and platforms, your digital approach ought to healthy these changes. 

[localbizlift]

Does Fixing Old Broken Links Still Matter to SEO?

Fixing broken links has long stood as an SEO best practice. But if you've run into situations where you've fixed a broken link and nothing happened, you’re not alone. In today’s episode of Whiteboard Friday, SEO expert Cyrus Shepard discusses whether these fixes still matter, and takes you through steps to increase your chances of seeing the benefits.

For more link building tips, be sure to check out our recent update to The Beginner’s Guide to Link Building:

Read the Guide!

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a larger version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. I'm Cyrus Shepard. I am a full-time SEO consultant, working here with Moz. Today I want to talk to you about a subject I saw on Twitter that I thought was really interesting: Does fixing old broken links still matter to SEO?

Now I thought this was a great question because fixing broken links is an SEO best practice. You read about it all the time. But if you've been doing SEO long enough, like I have, you've run into situations where you've fixed a broken link, or you found a page with hundreds of broken links, maybe thousands of broken links, you fixed it, you redirected it to a new target, and nothing happened.

So does this happen all the time? Is this common? Has Google changed the way it treats broken links? What's going on here, what are best practices, and what steps can we take to increase our chances of seeing a benefit from fixing broken links? That's what we're going to talk about today. 

Why we fix broken links

So let's start off with why do we fix broken links. This is the basic stuff, the introduction.

Links pass link signals. Google uses links for things like PageRank and anchor text. So when they find links, they can give you a rankings boost. When a page 404s when those links break, when they go to a page that doesn't work, those link signals don't have a chance to pass anymore, and that can hurt your SEO. Usually these are caused by one of two reasons.

One, the link itself is just bad. It points to a page that doesn't exist on your website or something like that. There's a weird parameter in it. Someone typed it in wrong. But oftentimes pages break on your own site. You remove a page and you don't redirect it to another page. A combination of these factors means that on any given site you can find tens, hundreds, thousands, even millions of links sometimes because this is a very common scenario.

So that's why we fix broken links, to regain that link juice and get that ranking benefit that Google is looking for. So it's supposed to work and oftentimes it does work and a lot of times it's great. But there are times when it doesn't work. 

Why it might not work

So what could be going on here during these times that it doesn't work? So here are four reasons why fixing broken links may not be effective in certain situations.

1. The links didn't count

First of all, the links may not have counted in the first place. The truth is there are a lot of links Google just doesn't count. These could be spam links, manipulative links, or links they find that are non-editorial. Just because a tool reports a link as being broken or pointing to a non-existent page doesn't mean that link actually has value. So that could be one reason why fixing the broken link may not work.

2. The links were low value

Second reason, Google may have counted those links, but they were considered low value or not fresh. Consider a link on a page that's a broken link from a page that's 10 years old. It doesn't have very much traffic or no traffic. It's buried at the bottom. No one even visits this page. Google doesn't even rank it.

Would you expect Google to attach a lot of value by fixing that broken link? Probably not. So a lot of times when you're fixing broken links, you may find low value, not fresh links, pages that aren't updated. They may not pass a lot of value and fixing them may not have a lot of benefit. 

3. You redirected to an irrelevant URL

Third, and this is a really common reason, you fixed the link, but you redirected it to an irrelevant URL or a URL that's not as pertinent.

We see this a lot with sites that discontinue an entire section and they redirect everything to the homepage. They get rid of a subdomain. They redirect to a category page or something like that. Google will often report these as soft 404s, meaning they see your redirect, but they don't think the page that you're redirecting to is as relevant as the original page or the page that was broken or intended to be there in the first place.

So that's another reason why Google may not pass these link signals through these links when they see a soft 404 or they see you redirecting to a page that just isn't as relevant as the original. 

4. Google may not rely on "live" links

The fourth reason it may not work, there's this phenomenon, this theory that Google may not rely on live links, that these link signals don't necessarily have to be there all the time for Google to pass value to them.

Now Google advises us, when we do redirects, to leave those redirects in place for a year. Now why would they say a year? The theory is that after a year any value in those link signals has already passed. Rand Fishkin noticed this phenomenon and named it ghost links several years ago, where links that no longer exist might already have passed their value.

So sometimes we don't really know how Google treats these older links. But sometimes it may not be necessary for links to be live for them to pass value, so fixing them doesn't really have an impact. Again, this is an area where we don't have a lot of insight into how Google actually works, but it's possible that the link signals have simply passed on their relevance anyway.

5 broken link building best practices

So what can we do about it? What can we do about these situations to maximize fixing old broken links on our website? So here are my five best practices. 

1. DO fix broken links

One, yes, you should fix broken links. Do continue to fix broken links, because we don't know which links Google isn't counting, and there are several, often many instances where it does work and you can see a benefit.

Plus it's just a good user experience. When users are coming from one URL to another, they don't want to see broken pages, and those link signals can pass relevance and value to Google. 

2. Prioritize pages with high authority

Two, prioritize pages and links with high authority. Your site may have thousands of broken links or millions of broken links. You don't need to fix all of them. But what you want to prioritize are the high value links, the pages with lots of links pointing to them, or links from pages that have lots of value themselves.

We score pages here at Moz on a value called Page Authority. A lot of SEO tools have different metrics that help rank pages based on links. So fix the pages with your highest number of links, your highest Page Authority or whatever score you're using, and prioritize links from pages themselves that also have high Page Authority. These are going to be your most valuable links to fix. 

3. Prioritize links with freshness signals

Third, we want to prioritize links with freshness signals. We want to avoid these 10-year-old pages. Well, we don't necessarily need to avoid them, but we want to prioritize the most important pages. So what are freshness signals? Generally, we want to prioritize links from pages that get traffic themselves, that are regularly updated, that get links coming to them.

There are many, many different types of freshness signals. There's an old post I wrote a while back. We'll link to it in the transcript below. But we definitely want to prioritize those links that have the highest value. 

4. Redirect to relevant URLs

Fourth, we want to make sure we're redirecting to relevant URLs. You don't want to redirect everything to your homepage or necessarily a category page that's off-topic.

A question to ask is: Does the page you're redirecting to rank for the same types of keywords as the old URL? Or would it provide a good user experience to someone coming from the old link, or would the user be confused? The closer you are in topicality to the original page, the more likely those link signals are to pass from one target onto another.

Ideally, you're linking to the exact same page and it just happens to be a broken page and you can fix it and it's relevant and everything is great. But in cases where you can't redirect to a relevant page, as close as possible or maybe you just shouldn't redirect at all, because 404s are okay. They're a natural part of the internet. It's not always bad to have a 404.

5. You don't need to fix every link

Which brings us to best practice number five, you don't have to fix every link. This happens all the time. Broken links are a natural part of the internet. Moz, if we go into our broken links report, we have tens of thousands of broken links. It would not be worth our time to fix every one of them, and it would be a waste of money and effort. But fixing the good ones, fixing the ones with high authority, with freshness signals, and redirecting to relevant URLs or the original URLs, those are the ones that are going to have value.

So you don't want to give your developers a list of 10,000 broken links and say, "Hey, fix all these." They're going to be mad at you, and you're not going to see the value out of it. So if you want some tips on how to fix broken links, how to find those high value links, we have a video from Dr. Pete on tips on exactly how to do that using Moz. You can use many other tools.

Google Search Console and others are great at this. So yes, fix those broken links. You don't have to fix all of them. That's how you're going to get the value. Leave us your tips in the comments below. Thanks, everybody.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

 Tweet your questions and comments about broken link building using #MozBlog!

[liampatrickblog]

Does Fixing Old Broken Links Still Matter to SEO?

Fixing broken links has long stood as an SEO best practice. But if you've run into situations where you've fixed a broken link and nothing happened, you’re not alone. In today’s episode of Whiteboard Friday, SEO expert Cyrus Shepard discusses whether these fixes still matter, and takes you through steps to increase your chances of seeing the benefits.

For more link building tips, be sure to check out our recent update to The Beginner’s Guide to Link Building:

Read the Guide!

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a larger version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. I'm Cyrus Shepard. I am a full-time SEO consultant, working here with Moz. Today I want to talk to you about a subject I saw on Twitter that I thought was really interesting: Does fixing old broken links still matter to SEO?

Now I thought this was a great question because fixing broken links is an SEO best practice. You read about it all the time. But if you've been doing SEO long enough, like I have, you've run into situations where you've fixed a broken link, or you found a page with hundreds of broken links, maybe thousands of broken links, you fixed it, you redirected it to a new target, and nothing happened.

So does this happen all the time? Is this common? Has Google changed the way it treats broken links? What's going on here, what are best practices, and what steps can we take to increase our chances of seeing a benefit from fixing broken links? That's what we're going to talk about today. 

Why we fix broken links

So let's start off with why do we fix broken links. This is the basic stuff, the introduction.

Links pass link signals. Google uses links for things like PageRank and anchor text. So when they find links, they can give you a rankings boost. When a page 404s when those links break, when they go to a page that doesn't work, those link signals don't have a chance to pass anymore, and that can hurt your SEO. Usually these are caused by one of two reasons.

One, the link itself is just bad. It points to a page that doesn't exist on your website or something like that. There's a weird parameter in it. Someone typed it in wrong. But oftentimes pages break on your own site. You remove a page and you don't redirect it to another page. A combination of these factors means that on any given site you can find tens, hundreds, thousands, even millions of links sometimes because this is a very common scenario.

So that's why we fix broken links, to regain that link juice and get that ranking benefit that Google is looking for. So it's supposed to work and oftentimes it does work and a lot of times it's great. But there are times when it doesn't work. 

Why it might not work

So what could be going on here during these times that it doesn't work? So here are four reasons why fixing broken links may not be effective in certain situations.

1. The links didn't count

First of all, the links may not have counted in the first place. The truth is there are a lot of links Google just doesn't count. These could be spam links, manipulative links, or links they find that are non-editorial. Just because a tool reports a link as being broken or pointing to a non-existent page doesn't mean that link actually has value. So that could be one reason why fixing the broken link may not work.

2. The links were low value

Second reason, Google may have counted those links, but they were considered low value or not fresh. Consider a link on a page that's a broken link from a page that's 10 years old. It doesn't have very much traffic or no traffic. It's buried at the bottom. No one even visits this page. Google doesn't even rank it.

Would you expect Google to attach a lot of value by fixing that broken link? Probably not. So a lot of times when you're fixing broken links, you may find low value, not fresh links, pages that aren't updated. They may not pass a lot of value and fixing them may not have a lot of benefit. 

3. You redirected to an irrelevant URL

Third, and this is a really common reason, you fixed the link, but you redirected it to an irrelevant URL or a URL that's not as pertinent.

We see this a lot with sites that discontinue an entire section and they redirect everything to the homepage. They get rid of a subdomain. They redirect to a category page or something like that. Google will often report these as soft 404s, meaning they see your redirect, but they don't think the page that you're redirecting to is as relevant as the original page or the page that was broken or intended to be there in the first place.

So that's another reason why Google may not pass these link signals through these links when they see a soft 404 or they see you redirecting to a page that just isn't as relevant as the original. 

4. Google may not rely on "live" links

The fourth reason it may not work, there's this phenomenon, this theory that Google may not rely on live links, that these link signals don't necessarily have to be there all the time for Google to pass value to them.

Now Google advises us, when we do redirects, to leave those redirects in place for a year. Now why would they say a year? The theory is that after a year any value in those link signals has already passed. Rand Fishkin noticed this phenomenon and named it ghost links several years ago, where links that no longer exist might already have passed their value.

So sometimes we don't really know how Google treats these older links. But sometimes it may not be necessary for links to be live for them to pass value, so fixing them doesn't really have an impact. Again, this is an area where we don't have a lot of insight into how Google actually works, but it's possible that the link signals have simply passed on their relevance anyway.

5 broken link building best practices

So what can we do about it? What can we do about these situations to maximize fixing old broken links on our website? So here are my five best practices. 

1. DO fix broken links

One, yes, you should fix broken links. Do continue to fix broken links, because we don't know which links Google isn't counting, and there are several, often many instances where it does work and you can see a benefit.

Plus it's just a good user experience. When users are coming from one URL to another, they don't want to see broken pages, and those link signals can pass relevance and value to Google. 

2. Prioritize pages with high authority

Two, prioritize pages and links with high authority. Your site may have thousands of broken links or millions of broken links. You don't need to fix all of them. But what you want to prioritize are the high value links, the pages with lots of links pointing to them, or links from pages that have lots of value themselves.

We score pages here at Moz on a value called Page Authority. A lot of SEO tools have different metrics that help rank pages based on links. So fix the pages with your highest number of links, your highest Page Authority or whatever score you're using, and prioritize links from pages themselves that also have high Page Authority. These are going to be your most valuable links to fix. 

3. Prioritize links with freshness signals

Third, we want to prioritize links with freshness signals. We want to avoid these 10-year-old pages. Well, we don't necessarily need to avoid them, but we want to prioritize the most important pages. So what are freshness signals? Generally, we want to prioritize links from pages that get traffic themselves, that are regularly updated, that get links coming to them.

There are many, many different types of freshness signals. There's an old post I wrote a while back. We'll link to it in the transcript below. But we definitely want to prioritize those links that have the highest value. 

4. Redirect to relevant URLs

Fourth, we want to make sure we're redirecting to relevant URLs. You don't want to redirect everything to your homepage or necessarily a category page that's off-topic.

A question to ask is: Does the page you're redirecting to rank for the same types of keywords as the old URL? Or would it provide a good user experience to someone coming from the old link, or would the user be confused? The closer you are in topicality to the original page, the more likely those link signals are to pass from one target onto another.

Ideally, you're linking to the exact same page and it just happens to be a broken page and you can fix it and it's relevant and everything is great. But in cases where you can't redirect to a relevant page, as close as possible or maybe you just shouldn't redirect at all, because 404s are okay. They're a natural part of the internet. It's not always bad to have a 404.

5. You don't need to fix every link

Which brings us to best practice number five, you don't have to fix every link. This happens all the time. Broken links are a natural part of the internet. Moz, if we go into our broken links report, we have tens of thousands of broken links. It would not be worth our time to fix every one of them, and it would be a waste of money and effort. But fixing the good ones, fixing the ones with high authority, with freshness signals, and redirecting to relevant URLs or the original URLs, those are the ones that are going to have value.

So you don't want to give your developers a list of 10,000 broken links and say, "Hey, fix all these." They're going to be mad at you, and you're not going to see the value out of it. So if you want some tips on how to fix broken links, how to find those high value links, we have a video from Dr. Pete on tips on exactly how to do that using Moz. You can use many other tools.

Google Search Console and others are great at this. So yes, fix those broken links. You don't have to fix all of them. That's how you're going to get the value. Leave us your tips in the comments below. Thanks, everybody.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

 Tweet your questions and comments about broken link building using #MozBlog!

[jackburnsblog]

Does Fixing Old Broken Links Still Matter to SEO?

Fixing broken links has long stood as an SEO best practice. But if you've run into situations where you've fixed a broken link and nothing happened, you’re not alone. In today’s episode of Whiteboard Friday, SEO expert Cyrus Shepard discusses whether these fixes still matter, and takes you through steps to increase your chances of seeing the benefits.

For more link building tips, be sure to check out our recent update to The Beginner’s Guide to Link Building:

Read the Guide!

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a larger version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. I'm Cyrus Shepard. I am a full-time SEO consultant, working here with Moz. Today I want to talk to you about a subject I saw on Twitter that I thought was really interesting: Does fixing old broken links still matter to SEO?

Now I thought this was a great question because fixing broken links is an SEO best practice. You read about it all the time. But if you've been doing SEO long enough, like I have, you've run into situations where you've fixed a broken link, or you found a page with hundreds of broken links, maybe thousands of broken links, you fixed it, you redirected it to a new target, and nothing happened.

So does this happen all the time? Is this common? Has Google changed the way it treats broken links? What's going on here, what are best practices, and what steps can we take to increase our chances of seeing a benefit from fixing broken links? That's what we're going to talk about today. 

Why we fix broken links

So let's start off with why do we fix broken links. This is the basic stuff, the introduction.

Links pass link signals. Google uses links for things like PageRank and anchor text. So when they find links, they can give you a rankings boost. When a page 404s when those links break, when they go to a page that doesn't work, those link signals don't have a chance to pass anymore, and that can hurt your SEO. Usually these are caused by one of two reasons.

One, the link itself is just bad. It points to a page that doesn't exist on your website or something like that. There's a weird parameter in it. Someone typed it in wrong. But oftentimes pages break on your own site. You remove a page and you don't redirect it to another page. A combination of these factors means that on any given site you can find tens, hundreds, thousands, even millions of links sometimes because this is a very common scenario.

So that's why we fix broken links, to regain that link juice and get that ranking benefit that Google is looking for. So it's supposed to work and oftentimes it does work and a lot of times it's great. But there are times when it doesn't work. 

Why it might not work

So what could be going on here during these times that it doesn't work? So here are four reasons why fixing broken links may not be effective in certain situations.

1. The links didn't count

First of all, the links may not have counted in the first place. The truth is there are a lot of links Google just doesn't count. These could be spam links, manipulative links, or links they find that are non-editorial. Just because a tool reports a link as being broken or pointing to a non-existent page doesn't mean that link actually has value. So that could be one reason why fixing the broken link may not work.

2. The links were low value

Second reason, Google may have counted those links, but they were considered low value or not fresh. Consider a link on a page that's a broken link from a page that's 10 years old. It doesn't have very much traffic or no traffic. It's buried at the bottom. No one even visits this page. Google doesn't even rank it.

Would you expect Google to attach a lot of value by fixing that broken link? Probably not. So a lot of times when you're fixing broken links, you may find low value, not fresh links, pages that aren't updated. They may not pass a lot of value and fixing them may not have a lot of benefit. 

3. You redirected to an irrelevant URL

Third, and this is a really common reason, you fixed the link, but you redirected it to an irrelevant URL or a URL that's not as pertinent.

We see this a lot with sites that discontinue an entire section and they redirect everything to the homepage. They get rid of a subdomain. They redirect to a category page or something like that. Google will often report these as soft 404s, meaning they see your redirect, but they don't think the page that you're redirecting to is as relevant as the original page or the page that was broken or intended to be there in the first place.

So that's another reason why Google may not pass these link signals through these links when they see a soft 404 or they see you redirecting to a page that just isn't as relevant as the original. 

4. Google may not rely on "live" links

The fourth reason it may not work, there's this phenomenon, this theory that Google may not rely on live links, that these link signals don't necessarily have to be there all the time for Google to pass value to them.

Now Google advises us, when we do redirects, to leave those redirects in place for a year. Now why would they say a year? The theory is that after a year any value in those link signals has already passed. Rand Fishkin noticed this phenomenon and named it ghost links several years ago, where links that no longer exist might already have passed their value.

So sometimes we don't really know how Google treats these older links. But sometimes it may not be necessary for links to be live for them to pass value, so fixing them doesn't really have an impact. Again, this is an area where we don't have a lot of insight into how Google actually works, but it's possible that the link signals have simply passed on their relevance anyway.

5 broken link building best practices

So what can we do about it? What can we do about these situations to maximize fixing old broken links on our website? So here are my five best practices. 

1. DO fix broken links

One, yes, you should fix broken links. Do continue to fix broken links, because we don't know which links Google isn't counting, and there are several, often many instances where it does work and you can see a benefit.

Plus it's just a good user experience. When users are coming from one URL to another, they don't want to see broken pages, and those link signals can pass relevance and value to Google. 

2. Prioritize pages with high authority

Two, prioritize pages and links with high authority. Your site may have thousands of broken links or millions of broken links. You don't need to fix all of them. But what you want to prioritize are the high value links, the pages with lots of links pointing to them, or links from pages that have lots of value themselves.

We score pages here at Moz on a value called Page Authority. A lot of SEO tools have different metrics that help rank pages based on links. So fix the pages with your highest number of links, your highest Page Authority or whatever score you're using, and prioritize links from pages themselves that also have high Page Authority. These are going to be your most valuable links to fix. 

3. Prioritize links with freshness signals

Third, we want to prioritize links with freshness signals. We want to avoid these 10-year-old pages. Well, we don't necessarily need to avoid them, but we want to prioritize the most important pages. So what are freshness signals? Generally, we want to prioritize links from pages that get traffic themselves, that are regularly updated, that get links coming to them.

There are many, many different types of freshness signals. There's an old post I wrote a while back. We'll link to it in the transcript below. But we definitely want to prioritize those links that have the highest value. 

4. Redirect to relevant URLs

Fourth, we want to make sure we're redirecting to relevant URLs. You don't want to redirect everything to your homepage or necessarily a category page that's off-topic.

A question to ask is: Does the page you're redirecting to rank for the same types of keywords as the old URL? Or would it provide a good user experience to someone coming from the old link, or would the user be confused? The closer you are in topicality to the original page, the more likely those link signals are to pass from one target onto another.

Ideally, you're linking to the exact same page and it just happens to be a broken page and you can fix it and it's relevant and everything is great. But in cases where you can't redirect to a relevant page, as close as possible or maybe you just shouldn't redirect at all, because 404s are okay. They're a natural part of the internet. It's not always bad to have a 404.

5. You don't need to fix every link

Which brings us to best practice number five, you don't have to fix every link. This happens all the time. Broken links are a natural part of the internet. Moz, if we go into our broken links report, we have tens of thousands of broken links. It would not be worth our time to fix every one of them, and it would be a waste of money and effort. But fixing the good ones, fixing the ones with high authority, with freshness signals, and redirecting to relevant URLs or the original URLs, those are the ones that are going to have value.

So you don't want to give your developers a list of 10,000 broken links and say, "Hey, fix all these." They're going to be mad at you, and you're not going to see the value out of it. So if you want some tips on how to fix broken links, how to find those high value links, we have a video from Dr. Pete on tips on exactly how to do that using Moz. You can use many other tools.

Google Search Console and others are great at this. So yes, fix those broken links. You don't have to fix all of them. That's how you're going to get the value. Leave us your tips in the comments below. Thanks, everybody.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

 Tweet your questions and comments about broken link building using #MozBlog!

[humbertovsheffield]

Does Fixing Old Broken Links Still Matter to SEO?

Fixing broken links has long stood as an SEO best practice. But if you've run into situations where you've fixed a broken link and nothing happened, you’re not alone. In today’s episode of Whiteboard Friday, SEO expert Cyrus Shepard discusses whether these fixes still matter, and takes you through steps to increase your chances of seeing the benefits.

For more link building tips, be sure to check out our recent update to The Beginner’s Guide to Link Building:

Read the Guide!

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a larger version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. I'm Cyrus Shepard. I am a full-time SEO consultant, working here with Moz. Today I want to talk to you about a subject I saw on Twitter that I thought was really interesting: Does fixing old broken links still matter to SEO?

Now I thought this was a great question because fixing broken links is an SEO best practice. You read about it all the time. But if you've been doing SEO long enough, like I have, you've run into situations where you've fixed a broken link, or you found a page with hundreds of broken links, maybe thousands of broken links, you fixed it, you redirected it to a new target, and nothing happened.

So does this happen all the time? Is this common? Has Google changed the way it treats broken links? What's going on here, what are best practices, and what steps can we take to increase our chances of seeing a benefit from fixing broken links? That's what we're going to talk about today. 

Why we fix broken links

So let's start off with why do we fix broken links. This is the basic stuff, the introduction.

Links pass link signals. Google uses links for things like PageRank and anchor text. So when they find links, they can give you a rankings boost. When a page 404s when those links break, when they go to a page that doesn't work, those link signals don't have a chance to pass anymore, and that can hurt your SEO. Usually these are caused by one of two reasons.

One, the link itself is just bad. It points to a page that doesn't exist on your website or something like that. There's a weird parameter in it. Someone typed it in wrong. But oftentimes pages break on your own site. You remove a page and you don't redirect it to another page. A combination of these factors means that on any given site you can find tens, hundreds, thousands, even millions of links sometimes because this is a very common scenario.

So that's why we fix broken links, to regain that link juice and get that ranking benefit that Google is looking for. So it's supposed to work and oftentimes it does work and a lot of times it's great. But there are times when it doesn't work. 

Why it might not work

So what could be going on here during these times that it doesn't work? So here are four reasons why fixing broken links may not be effective in certain situations.

1. The links didn't count

First of all, the links may not have counted in the first place. The truth is there are a lot of links Google just doesn't count. These could be spam links, manipulative links, or links they find that are non-editorial. Just because a tool reports a link as being broken or pointing to a non-existent page doesn't mean that link actually has value. So that could be one reason why fixing the broken link may not work.

2. The links were low value

Second reason, Google may have counted those links, but they were considered low value or not fresh. Consider a link on a page that's a broken link from a page that's 10 years old. It doesn't have very much traffic or no traffic. It's buried at the bottom. No one even visits this page. Google doesn't even rank it.

Would you expect Google to attach a lot of value by fixing that broken link? Probably not. So a lot of times when you're fixing broken links, you may find low value, not fresh links, pages that aren't updated. They may not pass a lot of value and fixing them may not have a lot of benefit. 

3. You redirected to an irrelevant URL

Third, and this is a really common reason, you fixed the link, but you redirected it to an irrelevant URL or a URL that's not as pertinent.

We see this a lot with sites that discontinue an entire section and they redirect everything to the homepage. They get rid of a subdomain. They redirect to a category page or something like that. Google will often report these as soft 404s, meaning they see your redirect, but they don't think the page that you're redirecting to is as relevant as the original page or the page that was broken or intended to be there in the first place.

So that's another reason why Google may not pass these link signals through these links when they see a soft 404 or they see you redirecting to a page that just isn't as relevant as the original. 

4. Google may not rely on "live" links

The fourth reason it may not work, there's this phenomenon, this theory that Google may not rely on live links, that these link signals don't necessarily have to be there all the time for Google to pass value to them.

Now Google advises us, when we do redirects, to leave those redirects in place for a year. Now why would they say a year? The theory is that after a year any value in those link signals has already passed. Rand Fishkin noticed this phenomenon and named it ghost links several years ago, where links that no longer exist might already have passed their value.

So sometimes we don't really know how Google treats these older links. But sometimes it may not be necessary for links to be live for them to pass value, so fixing them doesn't really have an impact. Again, this is an area where we don't have a lot of insight into how Google actually works, but it's possible that the link signals have simply passed on their relevance anyway.

5 broken link building best practices

So what can we do about it? What can we do about these situations to maximize fixing old broken links on our website? So here are my five best practices. 

1. DO fix broken links

One, yes, you should fix broken links. Do continue to fix broken links, because we don't know which links Google isn't counting, and there are several, often many instances where it does work and you can see a benefit.

Plus it's just a good user experience. When users are coming from one URL to another, they don't want to see broken pages, and those link signals can pass relevance and value to Google. 

2. Prioritize pages with high authority

Two, prioritize pages and links with high authority. Your site may have thousands of broken links or millions of broken links. You don't need to fix all of them. But what you want to prioritize are the high value links, the pages with lots of links pointing to them, or links from pages that have lots of value themselves.

We score pages here at Moz on a value called Page Authority. A lot of SEO tools have different metrics that help rank pages based on links. So fix the pages with your highest number of links, your highest Page Authority or whatever score you're using, and prioritize links from pages themselves that also have high Page Authority. These are going to be your most valuable links to fix. 

3. Prioritize links with freshness signals

Third, we want to prioritize links with freshness signals. We want to avoid these 10-year-old pages. Well, we don't necessarily need to avoid them, but we want to prioritize the most important pages. So what are freshness signals? Generally, we want to prioritize links from pages that get traffic themselves, that are regularly updated, that get links coming to them.

There are many, many different types of freshness signals. There's an old post I wrote a while back. We'll link to it in the transcript below. But we definitely want to prioritize those links that have the highest value. 

4. Redirect to relevant URLs

Fourth, we want to make sure we're redirecting to relevant URLs. You don't want to redirect everything to your homepage or necessarily a category page that's off-topic.

A question to ask is: Does the page you're redirecting to rank for the same types of keywords as the old URL? Or would it provide a good user experience to someone coming from the old link, or would the user be confused? The closer you are in topicality to the original page, the more likely those link signals are to pass from one target onto another.

Ideally, you're linking to the exact same page and it just happens to be a broken page and you can fix it and it's relevant and everything is great. But in cases where you can't redirect to a relevant page, as close as possible or maybe you just shouldn't redirect at all, because 404s are okay. They're a natural part of the internet. It's not always bad to have a 404.

5. You don't need to fix every link

Which brings us to best practice number five, you don't have to fix every link. This happens all the time. Broken links are a natural part of the internet. Moz, if we go into our broken links report, we have tens of thousands of broken links. It would not be worth our time to fix every one of them, and it would be a waste of money and effort. But fixing the good ones, fixing the ones with high authority, with freshness signals, and redirecting to relevant URLs or the original URLs, those are the ones that are going to have value.

So you don't want to give your developers a list of 10,000 broken links and say, "Hey, fix all these." They're going to be mad at you, and you're not going to see the value out of it. So if you want some tips on how to fix broken links, how to find those high value links, we have a video from Dr. Pete on tips on exactly how to do that using Moz. You can use many other tools.

Google Search Console and others are great at this. So yes, fix those broken links. You don't have to fix all of them. That's how you're going to get the value. Leave us your tips in the comments below. Thanks, everybody.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

 Tweet your questions and comments about broken link building using #MozBlog!

[webestipstresser-blog]

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