#Also I changed some words given Google translate so it more easier to understand what the reference is to

[asmodeusamaryllis]

Kalego birthday questions part 1

First question:

Asked: did you get congratulated by the kids in your misfit class?!

Kalego Answered: it being celebrated. Since the notification from myln (I assume the demon version of messaging app like line in Japan) such as message and photo, were constantly coming in, I turn them off for a day. Later, all message were marked as read.

Second question:

Asked: I heard that you didn't like sweets things but I'd like to know what your favourite foods are?

Kalego answered: my favourite food is something that's chewy. When eating meat with bones, the bones are also eaten. I don't really like soft things.

Third question:

Asked: where do you do most of your shopping, magical street, online shopping or do you aristocratic style and call in a peddler ..?!!

Kalego answered: it the aristocratic style of calling for peddlers. There is a dedicated member of the naberius family.

[guardianofrivendell]

Oh Deer (request)

Legolas x reader

Requested: Yes! @lotr-th-nin-meleth​ asked “Hey! Could I get a Legolas x Reader where the reader is caring for an injured baby deer she found in the forest and she's usually really gruff and cold and keeps to herself? So Legolas gets all soft watching her be soft and she asks him for help or something you can choose and he's just all flustered and it's cute. Thank you xxx”

A/N: I switched it up a bit, hope you don’t mind! I also skipped the ‘old’ Westron Legolas usually speaks, to make it easier for me. Because I can do that.

Warnings: one soft curse word, mentions of blood, Legolas in love (yes, that needs its own warning)

“You are remarkably quiet today,” Legolas said to you after almost half an hour of silence.  You didn’t say anything back, eyes scanning the forest around you. Legolas shook his head. There was just no way to distract you, always focused on the task you’d been given. 

You were part of the Guard of Mirkwood. From the very beginning you had proven to be an exceptionally good fighter. Every mission you were sent on turned out succesful and with no casualties, so it didn’t take long for you to be allowed to go on even more dangerous missions.  Even though you had an impressive record, being an Elleth made it extra hard. It didn’t matter how skilled you were and that you’d showed more than once that you were tougher than most of the other guards, they still belittled you for being female. So when you were on duty, you put on a facade: stern expression, cold stare and not a sound unless you were spoken to. 

Despite your gruff facade, the Prince of Mirkwood had taken a liking to you. Not that you noticed; after all, you were too busy proving your worth.  Legolas made sure he was assigned to your group on patrols or vice versa - not that he didn’t have a choice, being Prince and all - and always suggested your name when there was a two-person job. All very subtle of course.

Today had been no different. There had been a sighting of a few Orcs wandering the forest, not that far from the palace. Thranduil instructed him to send a few guards to go and solve the problem. Those ‘few guards’ turned into Legolas and you. 

And now you were making your way through the forest, hunting some Orcs, with Legolas by your side who was desperately trying to make conversation. 

“You are allowed to speak, Y/N. It’s only me.” “Yes, only you... Don’t you think it’s rather strange our King sent only two guards? How many Orcs were seen again?” “Enough to handle ourselves, do not worry.” You scoffed. “I’m not worried, you know damn well that I could take them on my ow-” A sound in the distance made you cut off your sentence. Legolas heard it too, and you signaled him to climb the trees.

You both jumped from one tree to another with ease, until you reached a small clearance. There you could see about a dozen Orcs, most of them taking a rest, a few trying to make a fire to keep the spiders away. You signaled to Legolas to stay put, while you made your way to the other side of the clearance. 

He rolled his eyes at that. Shouldn’t it be him telling you what to do? But he listened anyway and waited for your signal. In his mind he was already planning how to attack the pack, thinking he could easily kill 4 or 5 Orcs from where he was hiding before making his way down the tree. This was almost too easy. 

A screech in the distance made the Orcs jump up and 3 of them disappeared in the woods, running past the tree you were hiding in. It seemed like the pack hadn’t been complete. You waved to Legolas, signaling you would go after them. Before he could protest, you were gone.  Why did you always have to prove yourself? He had no visuals anymore, but he could hear how your feet touched the ground. Your fight had begun. 

In one swift movement he took his bow and notched an arrow, and shot the Orc closest to him. Before he let himself drop down, he killed two more. He smirked to the six remaining Orcs and switched his bow for his two blades.  ��Let us begin,” he muttered.

*

It was over in less than ten minutes. They didn’t even put up a real fight, Legolas thought.  Probably too exhausted from wandering through the forest for so long. He looked around but couldn’t see any sign of you, not even with his Elven eyes. Suppressing the slight rush of panic he felt, he began to look for you. You were tough. There was no way you couldn’t handle a handful of exhausted Orcs by yourself, he kept repeating in an attempt to reassure himself.

He ran through the forest, fighting the urge to call out your name. The last thing he wanted was to alert anything else of his presence.  “Legolas!” He halted immediately, frantically looking around him in an attempt to locate you. This was not a good sign, he thought. You knew how dangerous it was to draw attention to you this deep in the forest. It could only mean one thing... “LEGOLAS!” He tried to ignore the despair in your voice, and ran as fast as he could in the direction of your scream.  After a few agonizing minutes he found you hunched over on your knees. “Y/N?”

When you turned around, his heart stopped. Your hands were covered in blood. Red, not black, he realized.   He fell to his knees at your side, his eyes searching your body for injuries. “Where are you hurt?” Your tunic was no longer a lighter green, but stained with a dark red. He tried to remain calm for your sake, on the inside he was definitely freaking out. You didn’t answer him, and burst into tears instead.  “You’re going to be okay,” he said, more to himself than to you. “Everything is going to be okay.” He put an arm under your knees and around your waist and lifted you up with the utmost care, but you stopped him.  “Y/N, I have to get you back home. Just... please, let me take care of you.” “It’s not mine,” you said in between sobs, pointing to your drenched clothes.  “What happened?” Legolas asked, completely lost by now. He sat down on his knees with you still in his arms. If he wasn’t feeling so helpless at the moment, he would enjoy holding you this close. It felt nice. “I-...” You tried to take a long breath to calm down so you could tell him what was going on, but it only made it worse. Legolas rubbed your back softly until you found your voice again, relieved it seemed to help a little. “I-... I didn’t mean to hurt him!”

Legolas looked at you questioningly. Him? He scanned your surroundings but couldn’t see anyone.  You got up from his lap and took a few steps away from him, motioning him to follow you. He had to keep himself from taking your hand.  You took another ten steps and crouched down. Legolas heard you sniffling again.  What he saw in front of your feet, was probably the last thing he expected to see. A small deer, probably still a baby, lay on the ground. A large gap in his side, clearly your work. 

“Oh,” he sighed, finally understanding why you were so upset. The deer had definitely been in the wrong place at the wrong time. A laugh escaped his throat. You narrowed your eyes at him. Was he really laughing at you?  When he saw you were annoyed at him, he shook his head.

“Y/N you really are curious. Slaying Orcs, killing off spiders, you don’t bat an eye. Doesn’t affect you in the slightest. But an injured deer got you all upset?”  You felt the blood rise in your cheeks. Was it your fault you just really loved the forest animals? Someone had to take care of them, so why not you? You noticed him staring at you, a certain emotion in his eyes you could not seem to read. “What?” you asked him. “You’re cute... I mean-,” Legolas corrected himself too late. “It’s cute, the deer... is cute.”

You didn’t say anything back and Legolas cursed himself.  “You know what, let’s take it with us to the palace. I’m sure our Healers could do something for him,” he suggested. He wasn’t entirely sure they could do that, but if it would make you feel better...  “Are you sure we can do that?” “Of course we can, I’m the Prince.” He winked at you, and lifted the deer into his arms. You rolled your eyes at his cockiness. He was nothing like his father. 

“Thank you,” you said sincerely.  “Anything for you...”

A/N: Aaaaaah, I’m so bad at endings 🙈 I wanted something smart or funny, maybe I’ll change it later on if I can think of something. Sorry!

A/N part 2: It’s at times like these that I curse myself for not being a native English speaker. So sorry that my writing feels a little forced sometimes, but that’s mostly because of my lack of English vocabulary or because I can’t think of another way to say things and Google Translate can only do so much. So why not write in my own language you ask? Well... I don’t think there are a lot of Flemish (or Dutch) speaking Tumblr users waiting for Flemish lotr fics :)

[acourtofsnakes]

Ret'urcye Mhi - Rogue, Chapter 7 | The Mandalorian x Force Sensitive! Reader (F)

Summary: Can things go back to normal after the Mandalorian saw you break down? Or have walls been torn down that can’t be replaced?

Warnings: Light swearing, I don’t want to give it away but no smut but… a ‘moment’ with some certainly hot thoughts and pining but nothing heavy though, reader has a back tattoo, let me know if I forgot anything!

AN: I have brought in Cara Dune in this, and she will be a frequent character. I by no means condone what Gina Carano did, and I am pleased and relieved that she is gone. However, I do like her character, as many others do. She IS only mentioned in this one briefly but will be a main character in a few future chapters. 

Also, Readers tattoo is loosely based on this design!(link)  I’m not sure who the exact creator is, but it was posted by Urban Threads on Pinterest, but if you know, please tell me! ❤️

Word Count: 8231

As always, credit to whoever owns the gif. I usually find them on Google or Pinterest, so message me if it’s yours ♥︎

Rogue Taglist:  @snipskixandbeskar   @weirdowithnobeardo @the-bottom-of-the-abyss​ @jackgrzs

Rogue Masterlist | Introduction| 1: Solus| 2: Arir | 3: Tor | 4: Gaa'tayl | 5: Kyr’am | 6: Cabur | 7: Ret'urcye Mhi |

Mando’a Translation: Ret'urcye mhi - Goodbye

Neither of you mentioned that afternoon. 

It hadn’t come up in the 3 days since, and it hadn’t come up today. You made sure of it. 

Every time Mando looked at you, and you just felt he was going to mention it, you’d change the subject. Or just walk away. You didn’t need to have that conversation with him. You couldn’t have that conversation with him. Or anyone. 

The Mandalorian had sat there, holding you for the hours it took for you to cry yourself out. When the shuddering sobs had given way to hitched breaths and a numb stare, he’d still sat there. Rubbing your back in gentle circles, in time with Duru’s tail gently swaying over your arm. He hadn’t uttered a single word either, just letting you break down in his arms. 

When the quiet ambiance of the ship and the pressure of his hand had lulled you into sleep, he’d carried you to his bed – well, the narrow cot that jutted out from the wall in what was supposed to be the medical area. He’d given up his sleeping compartment to Grogu a long time ago, to keep the little creature warm and safe. 

He’d laid you in, covering you with the blanket and then one more that he pulled out from a unit. 

You were asleep, so you hadn’t seen the way his gloved fingers gently brushed back the hair from your tear flushed cheeks, the way they’d lingered for a moment as he’d looked down at the soft strands gliding over his fingers. You hadn’t felt the way he’d frozen when a sudden want crashed through him, to yank off his gloves and run his bare hands through your hair, feel the silkiness and the texture for himself. 

And you also wouldn’t have noticed the way his breathing went ragged for a moment and he’d lurched back, stumbling away so quickly he nearly overturned a box on his way out of the door. 

Your sleep hadn’t remained easy. Only a few hours later, you had woken up screaming, unsure of where you were, why you were on a thin cot that smelled like metal and smoke and something distinctly unique and almost like sandalwood. It was somehow comforting, soothing. You had inhaled the scent, trying to calm down your pounding heard and regain control of your breathing.  

It was only when you could suck in a full breath that you realised where you were, who’s bed this was. 

A feeling of gratefulness had crashed over you, only to be immediately wiped out by shame. You had broken down in front of him, spat such awful, awful things to his face.

And when you heard footsteps outside the compartment door, the husky baritone of his voice as he called out your name softly, you’d gone still. Like you were back on the run, mere inches away from a hunter and one move would mean disaster. 

He’d lingered, you could see by the shadows of his feet under the tiny gap at the bottom of the door. A wild thought had come to you, that he had his hand pressed to the door and you could just.. open it. Open it and let him come in, let him carry the burden of your nightmares and your feelings even If it was just for a little while. You could share some of those plaguing thoughts that you’d unleashed today. And he would listen. You didn’t know him that well, but you knew him enough to be confident he would sit there, let you talk. He knew what it was like to be alone, to have emotions and worries that you had no choice to bear yourself. 

The temptation was so strong, you craved that contact and connection so much that you were halfway across the room before your snarling argument came back in full technicolour. The things you’d said to him. The appalling way you’d acted. 

No.

You couldn’t see him. You couldn’t face him after that. After what you had said and the way you had cracked. You shook your head firmly, waiting until you heard a sigh so soft you might have imagined it and retreating footsteps. 

It was only then you that you returned to the bed, pulling the twin blankets up high over your shoulders. 

You’d deal with seeing him in the morning, but for now, all you could do was bury your face in the thin pillow and try not to notice how it smelt like him.

Something had changed between the two of you since that afternoon. He had glimpsed a part of you that you normally kept perfectly hidden, even from yourself. 

…

You were on your way to another bounty, one of the last couple of pucks that Mando had left. 

Mando had mentioned it was a hot, desert planet and he’d prefer it if you stayed in the ship with Grogu. It’d be far too hot for the little guy out there. You had obliged happily, more than fine to stay in. You didn’t like to be too hot, it made you uncomfortable and agitated. 

The cockpit was quiet, a peaceful silence had descended upon it as Mando flew the ship. 

You’d found yourself drawn to watching his hands lately. There was something… oddly soothing about it. Watching him work the controls, hold Grogu, clean his weapons. 

You wondered if he missed the sensation of touch, and then wondered if yours and the kids presence here made it harder for him. Meant he had less chances to take off his armour and be free of it. 

Of course, that had then led you onto the thought of wondering if he slept naked when he was alone. 

The thought of him lying there, nothing hiding him, separating him from the world. 

The thin blankets sliding over the body you knew was toned, yet soft enough in all the right places. 

It made your mouth a little dry, your cheeks a little pink and you struggled to find something else to think about. 

Your eyes drifted to his hands again, remembering the sound of the gloves being drawn off the other night. 

They were mesmerising, agile, and you couldn’t stop thinking about them in your hair, on your skin. 

Stars above, get a grip, girl. 

You mentally scolded yourself for these thoughts, trying to steer your damned imagination onto something more appropriate. 

Luckily, your saviour came in the form of Mando himself. He tilted his head back slightly, enough for you to know he was talking to you, “What’s your favourite planet? Or one you’d like to visit?” 

The question surprised you, you had to admit. You weren’t used to people asking about your likes and dislikes. You smiled though, perhaps this was his gentle way to break any tension left over. “Hmm… I think… I’d have to say the planet I’d like to visit most... either Hoth or Coruscant.”

Mando laughed, that gorgeous rough, honey laugh, “Okay, Coruscant I can understand, but Hoth? Really?”

You pouted at the back of his head, “Yes!! It sounds beautiful.”

The Mandalorian laughed more, “Beautiful? Sweetheart, it’s covered in ice. It’s freezing there. All you would see is ice and snow… and more ice and more snow.”

You scowled at him now, throwing the leftover wrapper of Grogu’s cookies at his helmet, “And? Snow and ice are stunning. They’re powerful and strong. I’ve only ever been in a proper snowfall once, and I fell in love. The way the flakes float down and.. dance even if there’s the faintest breeze. And then when they land on your skin or your eyelashes like little cold kisses… The sound it makes under your boots when you walk on a fresh fall. And it softens everything, makes it easier on your eyes to see across the landscape… it’s quiet, muffled… Besides, I like the cold.”

Little did you know, Mando was grinning like an idiot under his helmet, adoring the way you defend it to him, the way you describe something as simple as ice and snow. “You like the cold, huh? Then why are you always grumbling that the heating is broken?” The teasing lilt to his voice was evident, so animated and content, compared to his usual cooler, calm silence.

You opened your mouth, then closed it again. “That is… completely irrelevant.” You looked at the back of his head, “What about you? If my choices are so hilarious.”

The Mandalorian made a thoughtful noise, “I wouldn’t say there’s one place in particular… But… there’s a few sanctuary planets dotted around. Places with really pretty, dense forests where you could walk for days and not spot anyone else. They’re protected and safe, no dangerous animals or anything allowed… literally sanctuaries. I’d like to take Grogu there… let him wander and have fun and eat things he shouldn’t without having to look over my shoulder.” 

It was the most you’d ever heard him speak in one go, and there was a tenderness in his voice that brought tears to your eyes. This man truly loved his little green adoptive son and would do anything for him. “That sounds... stunning. I’ve heard of those planets and always wondered what they were like...” 

He made a hum of agreement, fingers working over the control panel as he put it in autopilot. “One day…” He turned around in his chair, “What about your favourite colour?” 

You moved to sit cross-legged in the seat, defying the concept of a chair. “Blue. Darker blues, like a midnight blue.” You swayed your chair from side to side slightly, “Actually, the same colour as the cloak you got me. So well done, kudo’s for you.”

Mando leant back in his own chair, tapping the side of his helmet before resting his hands on his thighs again. “This thing lets me read minds; you know.”

You began pulling the pins from your hair, “Mmhm, and I can fly.” You raise an eyebrow at him, grinning. 

He chuckled, watching you intently behind the helmet though you wouldn’t know that, watching every pin get removed from holding up your hair, “It wouldn’t surprise me at this point, princess.” He tapped his thighs absently, “You wanna know the real secret?”

You nodded, reaching in for a pin that had become stuck deep in your hair, the last one. “Surprise me.” Got it. You yanked the pin out, letting your hair fall down and your fingers through it. You sighed a little in relief as you rubbed your fingertips against your scalp, chasing away any tightness from the day. 

Mando didn’t say anything. He was too distracted, to struck into silence by the sight of your hair. 

The light from the ship and coming in through the windows turned some of the strands to gold, igniting them with that fire that blazed within you – and that he’d been on the receiving end. 

His hands tightened over his thighs, because he was overtaken by a craving, a need to remove your hands and feel your hair for himself. 

It wasn’t the first time he’d had these thoughts. 

Fuck, he’d been having these thoughts since he first saw you. He just hadn’t realised them until that night he’d nearly lost his life and woken up to you passed out on his chest. 

He’d frozen, even his breathing stopping as he felt the warm weight of you, even though the armour. 

He couldn’t bear to move you, to take away that pressure, the closeness of another human that he had missed for so long. 

So, he hadn’t. He left you there. Spent hours watching you sleep, the warmth of your breath slightly fogging up the armour on his chest. 

“Lori? Anyone in there?” You tilted your head, watching the man before you that was staring at you intently, his breathing somewhat ragged. 

He startled slightly, coming back to himself, “Huh?”

You chuckled, “Where did you go? I was waiting for you to knock me off my feet with your revelation.”

He made a noise, “Uh… I.. actually can’t remember...” He tugged at his glove, an odd gesture so at odds with his usual confident demeanour. 

You tilted your head, still smiling a little, “Are you okay?”

Luckily, he was saved from answering by the beeping of the controls behind him. 

You’d arrived at the planet. 

~

It was hot. 

Beyond hot. 

The air was warm, the water was warm, you were warm. 

And already awake, having just calmed your breathing down from another nightmare, when you heard Grogu, his little coos and gurgled filtering down the hall to you. 

The poor little creature had probably woken up from the heat. You had been on this desert planet for a couple of days, opting to stay in and look after the Child whilst Mando hunted down the bounty. The days here were scorching, a dry heat that sucked the life from you immediately. Even the nights were hot, unlike normal freezing desert nights. 

Mando had returned this evening, panting from the heat after coming up from the carbonite chamber. “I swear it’s getting hotter out there.”

The cooling system on the Crest was just as temperamental as the heating, so it wasn’t exactly cool in here. The metal floors, which were normally always chilled, were warm underfoot. Mando had let you keep his room, and it was just as hot, being contained in with itself, so you’d been sleeping with the doors open. 

Not that it made a dent. Every single closed space was like a heat trap, especially Grogu’s little compartment. So, no wonder he had woken up. 

You stretched, then slipped from the cot and made your way to Grogu.

It didn’t take long to settle him, he was all tuckered out from the games you’d been playing today, so after patting his skin with a cool cloth, he had fallen back under. 

You were now at the small ‘kitchen’ area in the ship, washing out the cloth. You huffed, splashing some water on your wrists and pulling out the pin that was holding up your hair, and falling out. Grogu had a habit of tugging the ends of your hair in his little fist. 

You’d taken to wearing a thin floaty dress to bed, one you’d picked up in that market before it had turned into a horror show. The material was gauzy, allowing the heat to escape your body without it sticking to your clammy skin. What helped enormously was the large cut out in the back. It secured at the back of your neck, and then fell open, exposing almost your whole back before joining again at the base of your spine. 

It was probably the flimsiest, most sinful thing you’d ever worn, but it was gorgeous and hey, it did the job. 

You rolled your shoulders, pressing the cool cloth to your neck and you couldn’t help the sigh that escaped your lips and you could have sworn you heard a sizzle. 

Footsteps behind you startled you, breaking you from your reverie, and then Mando’s voice filtered through the silence, “Are you okay?”

You turned around, smiling when you saw him because he was still in all his armour… not that you were surprised. He must have been boiling though, under all those heavy layers. 

You nodded, lifting the cloth from your neck, “The kid was awake, but I settled him down, he was really warm.”  

His head was covered, naturally, so you wouldn’t have seen the way his eyes followed a bead of water rolling down your neck, and the unbidden thought of his tongue catching it “Thank you for seeing to him, I didn’t hear..” 

Weird. Normally he was so attuned to Grogu, hearing him before he even woke up if you were sitting together. Maybe he was tired, from his hunting. 

What you didn’t know, couldn’t know, was that he had been staring at the ceiling for the 3rd night in a row. Having thoughts that he should not be having, his body yearning for things it shouldn’t. 

You shook your head, still smiling and turned back to the sink area, “It’s no worries, I was awake anyway so… And you’ve been hunting. You deserve the rest.” You set down the cloth, running your hands through your hair and reaching for your pin to secure it back up. You faced him again, gathering your hair in your hands, “How was it?”

But he wasn’t listening. 

He suddenly moved forward, and then he was in front of you. “Wait.” His voice was low, almost strained. There was a husk to it that hadn’t been there before, but it ignited something within you. 

You froze, your hands still stuck in your hair. You looked up at him, raising your eyebrows slightly, “What..?” It was only now he was right in front of you that you could see his chest, rising and falling rapidly. “Mando, are you okay?”

He shook his head quickly, his helmet tilted down to you, his hands curling and uncurling at his sides, “Let your hair down.” His voice was still that rumbly order, and it was such an odd request that you did just that, letting it tumble back down again. Your own hands trembled slightly as you lowered them. 

A shudder seemed to roll through his body, and he rocked forward on his feet, lurching toward you in a movement that lacked his usual smooth elegance. It was unsteady, unsure. 

He stopped when he was a mere few inches away, the closest you’d been to each other since that afternoon. 

This close, you could practically feel the heat roiling off of him under his armour, and you tilted your head up to meet him, concern in your eyes, “Mando, you need to go and have a cold shower.. You sound like you’re burning up… do you feel flushed?” 

He shook his head jerkily, his hands raising, “Shh… please. I just.. I need to..” He broke off, a sharp intake of air cutting his words. 

Something else began to curl through the worry in your belly, like some instinct knew things you didn’t. You swallowed, your voice low when you next spoke, “You need to what..?”

The Mandalorian was shaking, his body tensing and untensing like he was fighting himself, telling himself not to do this. “I.. I need to touch your hair.” 

Stars, you could feel the flush that crept up his neck and cheeks, like it burned through his helmet but you stayed completely still. 

His words were whispered through gritted teeth, like he was physically trying to bite them back, “I just... I need to do this, please… I’m sorry, but I cant-” He sounded like he was in pain, still breathing raggedly. 

Heat flared through your blood, igniting a flame within you that was irresistible. You nodded, letting him see you, “Okay.” Like you could say no to him. 

The vocoder nearly didn’t pick up the huff of relief that escaped his lips and he curled his hands into fists again, “Turn around. And close your eyes.” That rough command was back and you were more than obliging to let him navigate this moment. 

You turned around, facing the kitchen area, looking over the darkened surroundings before shutting your eyes. It immediately threw all your other senses into overdrive, so you could hear every single rasp of his breath as you exposed your skin to him, and the pounding of your own heart. 

“You have to keep them closed. You cannot turn around or look.” There was a desperate plea in his voice, an edge to it that hurt your very soul. He was audibly torn, between his Creed… and this desire that he seemed to have given into. 

You nodded again, aching to reach back and reassure him, “I won’t. I won’t open my eyes or turn around until you tell me, I swear on it, Lori.” You let every ounce of truth and understanding seep through your words, praying that it would be enough to convince him he could trust you. 

Seemingly, it was, because the next noise that you heard could have struck you dead. 

It was the sound of leather rubbing against skin, the friction as they were pulled off, then a soft thump of the material on the floor. 

He had taken off his gloves. 

He was standing behind you… with his hands bare. 

You. A person he hasn’t known for very long at all, and he was partially bare, uncovered. 

Your head exploded, a million thoughts racing through it once, sending your heart into overdrive and your own breathing rapid and unsteady. 

There was a pause, like he was steeling himself and then… then the slightest sensation, like he was catching the ends of your hair, just brushing them. 

That simple movement sent a shiver down your spine, and it was enough to get him to move more. He lifted his hands and then you felt fingers slide into your hair at the back of your head, then slowly, slowly, drag down the length. 

You heard a sharp intake of breath behind you, and then a soft mutter, “It’s so soft..” You barely picked it up, even though the ship was silent. The fingers ghosted through your hair again, and his voice was bewildered, “How do you get it this soft in that tiny ‘fresher..” It was like he was talking to himself. 

You couldn’t help the soft laugh, a release of tension from this whole thing, “I can’t reveal my secrets, Lori. Can’t have your hair being softer than mine. There’s only room for one on this ship.”

He chuckled, and it ran over your bones like honey, dousing them in such a sweet sensation. “I’ll get it out of you one way or another, princess.” 

You rolled your eyes but didn’t get the chance to speak because then his fingers were running up your scalp from the base of your head to the crown, with a light pressure and the feeling was so unbelievably good, that you couldn’t help it. Your head leant back into his touch and the faintest sigh left your lips. “Keep doing that..” Your cheeks flushed, embarrassment crashing over you. Why did you have to say that?

The Mandalorian’s hands had paused, absorbing that soft sigh of pleasure and trying to cool his body. But you had a hold over him, he couldn’t say no. He merely did it again, with a firmer press of his fingers against your scalp, a light scrape of his nails just to get you to make that noise again, to be convinced that you were enjoying this just as much as he was.

You didn’t stop the next sigh, this one louder, more delighted. It was like you knew what the other was thinking, could read each other that well.  

He was driving you insane, rendering you speechless just from playing with your hair. 

You don’t know how long you stood there for, his hands running through the soft locks. 

He lifted it slightly, then made a soft noise. “I didn’t know you had a tattoo.”

A tattoo? Oh right. 

It was true, you did. It was a delicate piece, spanning from the top of your spine to just above your hips, lining your spine. It showed the phases of the moon, drawn in a minimalist style, with small stars and additional lines coming out of every other piece. 

You nodded quickly, “I’ve had it for years.” Fuck, could your voice sound anymore needy?

“What does it mean?” His words were murmured and then the next thing could have had you on your knees. 

You heard a sound that had haunted you since the night he nearly died, the sound of leather sliding over skin. The soft plop as it fell to the floor. 

No way. Has he just..

His fingers, his bare fingers ghosted down your spine, following the line of it with a touch so fleeting it almost made you whine. 

In fact, it did, a whimper rising from deep in your chest. 

He was touching you. 

His bare skin, skin that he had sworn by Creed to keep covered and hidden until marriage, was trailing down your spine as light as wings. 

Pleasure shot straight though you, making your nerves and blood sing, making your knees shake and your belly hot. 

A tug on your hair, a tug that was sharp enough to send a faint tinge of pain through your scalp had you moaning, you couldn’t help it. Your lips parted and the moan fell from them, soft, a little high and drawn. 

Mando swore under his breath, his whole body twitching behind yours, “I asked you a question, sweetheart.” There was a hoarseness to his voice that hadn’t been there before, a straining note like your moan had shot right through him. Which is had. 

What does it mean… what does it mean? Focus!!

“Um… right. When I was on the run, initially in the beginning, I never had a place to call home. Everything I knew had been torn away, and I could never settle anywhere. Every night, I would look up into the sky and watch the moon. No matter what planet I was on, no matter where I was, or if there two moons or 4, it was always there. I only had to look up, and there was something up there to ground me, give me some sense of comfort. It might look smaller, or be a different colour, but it was still the moon. And it made me feel… safe. Like it was a… a companion in a way. I just had to look a little closer, beneath the colours or the distance and there it was. It was always in the sky, so I wanted to get it tattooed so that it would always be with me. No matter if I was outside, as free as I could be, or inside and trapped.” You flushed a little, “That probably makes no sense and sounds so stupid.”

You could sense the Mandalorian shaking his head, his voice still low and soft, “No.. I think it’s beautiful. And I get it. I move around so much too, there’s only a few things that always remain the same. So I know the value of having something familiar.” He ghosted his fingers down it again, trailing all the way down to where the cut out portion of your dress stopped and then back up again. 

When his hand reached the top of the tattoo, he slid it up further, cupping the back of your neck in his broad, warm hand. 

It sent electricity shooting across your skin, that blazed as he wrapped his thumb and fingers around either side of your neck, just a gentle pressure there. 

You moaned again; you didn’t even try to hide it. Your head fell back, exposing your throat to him in a sign of instinctual submission, even though you knew he wouldn’t kiss you. You didn’t mind, you just needed more, more than this teasing touch, more than the faint brush of his fingertips. Your chest shuddered, knuckles white as you gripped the counter in an effort to stay still, “Lori…” You whined his name, hoping it would spark something in him, would force him to do something. 

You felt him shudder again, felt his hips draw back from your body like he was trying to hide just what these noises did to him. 

Fuck. 

It burned you, turned your belly molten and the power that washed over you was heady. You had turned him on just from your hair, your skin and your moans. 

The voice that came out was equally as tight, husky and you might have lived and died inside the low baritone “What is it, princess?”

Your fingers curled around the side of the counter in front of you, and you were glad he couldn’t see your face when you whispered, “Please..”. Your voice was low, pleading and aching. 

You felt him shudder behind you, a tiny groan echoing through the helmet.

His next words nearly undid you there and then, “Like I could say no to you.”

Then his fingers pressed into your spine, caressing down your back over the tattoo with such admiration, such warmth that it arched slightly, chasing more of that sensation. 

Your head was spinning, convinced you were dreaming, that this wasn’t real. 

This didn’t happen between you both. 

You flirted, sure. But that was harmless, playful. 

This… this was real. He was letting you feel his bare skin, uncovered and unhidden. 

And it was tearing you apart. 

The scrape of his thumbnail on your skin tore you from those thoughts, ripped you back to the present as it ran down the curve of your back. If your eyes had been open, they would have rolled into the back of your head. 

Your head fell forward, back arching completely into him and the sound that you let out was sinful. You could only concentrate on the that sharp, pleasurable hurt that you felt in your belly, the feeling of his other hand as it held your shoulder, holding you in that arch. 

Heat pooled low in your belly, and every dream, every thought you’d been trying to suppress about him came blasting into full technicolour. All because of his hands. 

Those damn hands you’d been pining over since saving his life. 

His head was so close over your shoulder that you could hear the low pant of his breath, the coolness of his armour barely brushing your shoulders as you pressed back into him. 

Fuck, did he want this as much as you did? 

By the way his hand tightened, he had to. You didn’t know how you knew it, but you did. 

You swallowed, licking your lips to say something, anything, spur him on but a harsh beeping suddenly broke through the thick tension on the room. A light was flashing, and by the time the fog of pleasure cleared in your head, he was gone. 

Gloves picked up and yanked on, boots disappearing up the ladder into the cockpit to check on the autopilot. 

The taut sensation in your body snapped, making you sink to the floor as though the strings had been cut.

You lifted shaking hands to your face, burying them in them with a low noise. Your head was a mess, you couldn’t get over it. Couldn’t stop feeling his fingers on your back, your hair. Hear the ragged pant of his breathing, the rise and fall of his chest against your shoulders. 

It was just touch, just the simple act of touch but it had igniting something so fierce within you. 

Something had changed. 

What the fuck was that?

You sat there on the floor for Maker knows how long, before dragging yourself up and hurrying off in search of a very, very cold shower. 

~

You weren’t quite sure how to face him the next morning. 

You had taken your cold shower, and it had done nothing to cool the fire in your blood so you had to take the initiative, hoping the crash of the water and the fact you were biting down the back of your free hand would cover the desperate moans you made. 

Little did you know, the Mandalorian was going through the exact same thing, back arched, lips biting into his lip to stop the groans. 

You hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it, stop thinking about what had occurred between you. 

Surely it broke some kind of rules of his Creed?

He had touched you with his bare skin. You weren’t married. You weren’t together. You didn’t even know his name. 

Yet he had touched you and.. reacted to you. 

Maybe that was just instinct, his body’s natural response to such things. 

But he had carried on… until you were disturbed anyway. 

Your head went round and round in these circles until your body had calmed down enough to sleep. 

…

You rose early, wanting to be washed, dressed and ready and doing something to occupy you before you had to think too much about what you were going to say.  Maybe just… Good morning?

Sure. Good morning was fine. 

Normal. 

It totally didn’t reveal what you’d had to do in the shower, or the thoughts you were still having about it. 

You had this discussion with yourself all the way up the ladder of the cockpit, and when you rose to your height, you blurted it out in a cheery voice before you could bail, “Morning!”

Breezy. Nailed it. 

The Mandalorian was sitting in the pilot’s chair, fiddling with controls and levers, gloves firmly on. “Good morning. Did you sleep okay in the heat?” 

You nodded, sinking down into the pilots chair and feeding Duru a treat, “Yes, thank you. Finally.” You stroked under Duru’s chin, your eyes straying to those hands as he slide them over some switches. 

The same hands that had cupped the back of your neck and trailed fire down your spine. 

A flush started to creep along your cheeks, so you quickly looked away, “Did you?”

The light bounced off of his helmet as he nodded, “Yes, thank you.”

Polite. His words were polite. Almost... distant. 

Okay… Okay, so maybe he just feels awkward?

You bit your bottom lip, worried if you should say something. 

No, leave it. He no doubt feels over-exposed and maybe shy about what happened last night. Don’t bring it up. Just act normal.

You nodded faintly to yourself and returned your attention back to Duru. 

~

Mando was ignoring you. 

You had been trying to deny it, but he most certainly was. 

Yesterday, he had engaged in talking to you now and then throughout the day, but only passing comments and a few spare words. 

You had spoken more when you were beating the shit out of each other. 

You kept telling yourself that it was just lingering awkwardness from how to go back to normal after that night, but the gnawing in your gut told you otherwise. 

It had been shouting at you this morning when he had parked the ship on a planet, announced he was going hunting and he’d be back in a few hours. 

Then he’d just gone. 

You had waited for him all day, mooched around the ship, played with Grogu and Duru and tried not to worry. 

You sat up for hours, even when the little ones had gone to sleep, waiting to talk to him. 

You’d convinced yourself that you should talk about. You should tell him you didn’t expect anything from him. That you didn’t hate him, that he didn’t hurt you or anything like that. 

Just to tell him whatever you needed to stop this frostiness. 

You had it all planned, had every phrase and comment worked out to stop this atmosphere. 

About 15 minutes ago, you’d heard the ramp open. 3 minutes after that, the hiss and echo of the carbonite chamber. 

Then you’d heard him go and check on the kid, then go to his quarters. 

And now, it was his booted feet on the steps to the cockpit that held your attention. 

You took a deep breath, prayed to the Maker and spun your seat to face him as he rose up. 

The mere sight of that beskar-clad body set your heart thumping, but you coaxed an easy smile on your lips anyway. “Hey, how was the hunt? Cause you any trouble?”

Mando didn’t turn his head to look at you, just padded over to his seat and spun it to the control panel, “It was fine. Easy.” His words were clipped, not harsh, just… efficient. Straight to the point. 

You swallowed, your courage faltering a little. 

Mentally, you scolded yourself. You didn’t falter in the face of a man who’d touched you and now wouldn’t talk to you. You didn’t whimper and pander to a tense atmosphere. 

You sat up a little straighter, pulling your shoulders back and you looked over at him. 

Now or never. 

“About the other night-”

“I’m taking you to Nevarro.”

What?

You had both spoken at the same time, your eyes now bewildered as you beheld him. “What?”

He said nothing, just fiddled with some controls. 

“Mando, what do you mean?” Your voice was shocked, but steady. Did nothing to betray the shock that had just hit your chest like a punch. 

You didn’t hear him swallow, only heard his words, “I’m taking you to Nevarro. We’re on the way now.” He said them softly, evenly. 

Hearing it again only made your heart drop to somewhere around your waist. 

He was leaving you. Dumping you on some planet. And going. 

Your hand tapped your leg as sort of nervous habit, and then the words were out, “Is this because of the other night?” 

It was his turn to sound bewildered, his head just turning to the side, but you knew he couldn’t see you in his peripheral, “What? What do you mean?” 

Your heart was starting to beat uncomfortably in your chest, a sense of shame beginning to creep over you, “Because of what happened in the kitchen. I didn’t see you, I didn’t see your skin.”

Mando turned to face you, one hand still on the panel, his hair half turned but head rotated all the way to look at you, “No, no it’s not because of that-“

You cut him off, “You didn’t… you didn’t offend me. Or hurt me. And I’m sorry. I’m sorry if.. if my reaction made you feel awkward or think something. I don’t.. I don’t expect anything from you, if that’s what you’re worried about. I never have, so please don’t think that.” You flushed, the shame colouring your cheeks. You couldn’t help it. But this was the reason, right? The only reason why he would be dumping you. 

He shook his head, “Stop. Stop..” His voice softened slightly, “No. It’s not because of… that. I know you didn’t see me. And I know you don’t expect anything from me.” He took a breath, “I’m taking you to Nevarro to keep you safe. That’s all. I have friends there, Cara Dune and Greef Karga. They’ll look after you. They’ve already set up accommodation for you, so you don’t need to worry about that. 

They already knew? 

Something like hurt flashed in your eyes, colouring your tone, “They… You already planned this..?” There was no bite in your voice like you would normally have in this situation, you were too shocked by the sudden change in direction your journey was taking. 

Mando tilted his head, “I contacted them whilst I was on the hunt… I wanted it set up before we got there, so you wouldn’t stand out to anyone looking.” He still looked at you, “Is that okay?”

You sensed you wouldn’t have a choice in this. So you decided to take the high road. You wouldn’t whine about this. 

You smoothed your expression over into a mask of calm, “Yes… I was just a little surprised that’s all. But thank you, really. I’ll… set about packing my things.”

He sounded confused, his head tilting back to watch you rise from your chair, “We have a couple of days yet.”

You nodded, “Oh, I know, I just want to make sure I have everything. And all the things I want to steal from you.” You laughed, even going so far as to nudge his shoulder before escaping. 

You were gone to quickly, so you wouldn’t have seen the way he slumped in his chair, dropped his head into his hands. You wouldn’t have heard the pained sigh that escaped his lips at the thought have having to part with you. 

~

~

~

The Mandalorian stood at the top of the ramp with you, staring out across the dusty, volcanic terrain of Nevarro. Your new home for… however long. 

You said nothing, running your fingers along the edge of your cloak, observing the landscape and trying not to let any emotion show on your face. You had kept up natural conversation the past few days. Saying nothing of the wrenching pain that tore in your chest every time you remembered you were departing. 

Mando cleared his throat, one arm holding Grogu and the other hand resting on his hip in a gesture that was becoming painfully familiar, “Cara and Greef know you’re coming. They’ll be waiting in Cara’s office for you.” 

Grogu was sulking, squirming every now and then to try and get out of Mando’s grip. He had screamed the whole morning, and only calmed down when you hugged him and sung to him on the way here. 

You nodded, also trying to ignore the thoughts swirling round in your mind as to why he was leaving you here. Was it because of your argument? The way you had broken down in front of him? Or was it because of the other night? The way his fingers had run through your hair, and then trailed down your spine, mapping your tattoo. His bare fingers. The things he’d whispered to you, “I just... I need to do this, please… I’m sorry, but I cant-”

“I’ve been thinking about this for days..”

Had he known then that he was going to leave you here? Or was it after that, that he’d decided he had broken one too many rules and had to get rid of you. 

Words floated over to you, and you realised he was talking again so you hauled your attention back to the conversation at hand. 

“-safe here. No one will come looking for you. Greef has taken all the pucks that have come through with your name on them and Cara will do sweeps every couple of days to make sure.”

You looked down at your feet, a bitter feeling leeching through your veins that was getting stronger with every moment you got closer to leaving the Crest. 

“Hey… look at me..” 

It was that honey softness of the Mandalorian’s tone that finally had you looking up at him, your expression perfectly masked to hide every ounce of emotion in you aside from a calm neutrality. 

He tilted his head a little, turning his body toward you, “Please don’t think I’m dumping you here. I had planned to bring you here since I destroyed the puck and the fob.”

Like that made you feel any better. 

He must have read the flicker in your eyes, because he stepped closer, his hand lifting to your upper arm, “I want you to be safe.” You could almost feel his eyes boring into yours, “I am more than grateful for everything you’ve done for me. And the kid. More than you’ll ever know. But, travelling with me.. it only increases the target on your back. People know you’re with me. I don’t want that for you.. you deserve to be free..”

And what about what I want?

You only smiled, forcing your expression to one of a lighter one and you nudged him gently, “Hey, I get it. You have to get rid of me because I’m showing you up on hunts. Can’t have anyone destroying your infamous reputation.” You rolled your eyes, laughing even if it did send daggers into your heart. 

And his. 

He squeezed your shoulder playfully, then dropped his hand. “You’re hilarious. I told you, the day you beat me is the day the stars implode.” You could feel a line of humour in his voice though, and it softened your shoulders, made you relax. 

He was doing this to keep you safe. He had planned this for weeks so you could have a break, a chance to rest. 

So, you lifted your head a little higher, your smile becoming more real. “Thank you, Mando. For everything. I can’t ever repay you for this, for what you’ve done.” You motioned to the outside. 

He nodded, his hand resting at his sides again now, “We’ll call it even.” His head remained focused on you, lingering on you and then he reached into a pouch and held out his free hand, “Here.”

You let him drop the objects in your hand, a small stack of credits. 

“It’s not much, I know, but it’ll be enough to get you some food and supplies you need. You don’t need to worry about a place to stay, Cara will show you but… You can get what you want and need.” He withdrew his hand slowly, almost reluctantly.  

You swallowed, closing your hand around the credits and you slipped them into the pocket inside your cloak. “Thank you..”

The Mandalorian merely nodded again, leaning back against the threshold of the ramp, his thumb absently rubbing circles on Grogu’s belly.  

It seemed that there was nothing else to draw this goodbye out, so you took a breath, straightening your cloak. “Well… I guess I’ll say goodbye then.” You looked up at him, then stuck out your hand for his, realising only a few seconds later how dumb that was. 

Before you could pull your hand back, he reached out and clasped your hand in his own, wrapping his fingers around your distinctly smaller hand. “Goodbye… princess.” You heard the smirk in his voice, and you couldn’t help the chuckle and the eye roll again, not failing to notice the way his hand tightened involuntarily and then withdrew. 

You looked at Grogu in his other arm, who was still avoiding looking at the pair of you, wriggling in his father’s arms. You bent down to draw your face to his level and you stroked his ears, “I’ll miss you, little guy. Make sure to keep your dad on his toes, okay? You gotta make up for both of us now.” You pressed a kiss to the top of his head, feeling his little hand pat your cheek with a mournful noise. Tears burned the back of your eyes, so you leant back, instead picking up Duru so she could say goodbye. 

Grogu cooed sadly again, stroking Duru’s cheek, looking up at her with his glossy eyes. 

You let Duru but her head against him, chitter a goodbye and then you stepped back, allowing her to climb up your shoulders as you looked up at Mando. 

You just watched him for a moment, his armour reflecting the light on one side and then, with a soft inhale of courage, you turned and walked down the ramp, Duru padding at your feet. 

You had only just cleared the ramp, stepping onto the hard, compacted ground when Mando called out, “Wait.”

You turned quickly, hope blooming in your heart, in your expression though you tried to stop it. 

He had made a step onto the ramp, body poised like it was trying to run to you but he was holding back. He hesitated, almost as if he were torn with what to say – or what not to say, but all that came out was, “Ret'urcye mhi.”

You couldn’t help the shiver that licked down your spine, the way his voice turned into dripping honey when he spoke Mando’a. “What does that mean..?” You prayed he couldn’t hear the slight hoarseness to your tone.

He tilted his head down to look at Grogu, then lifted it back up to you, “It means goodbye…. And maybe we’ll meet again..” 

Your heart swelled a little, a flush of pain going through it but you smiled softer, your expression melting and you inclined your head slightly, “I would like that.. very much…” 

There were a million other things that threatened to roll off your tongue, pour from you but before they could, you turned around, walking toward the town and feeling his eyes on you the entire time, burning into the back of your head like a fiery brand. 

You were about 4 metres away when you heard Grogu start crying, when your own tears broke through and spilled down your cheeks. You kept walking, even when your vision began to blur and go fuzzy.

So you didn’t see the way Mando hugged Grogu closer, whispered, “I know, kid, I don’t want her to go either.”

You’d be okay. It would be fine. 

So you and the Mandalorian were parting. It was no big deal. You had helped each other; you had returned each other’s debts. You owed each other nothing. 

The sound of engines whirring filtered into your ears, and you waited until you heard the Crest lift from the ground before turning round. 

You paused, wiping your cheeks as the ship that had become a haven of sorts lifted into the sky. It hovered for a second, as if hesitating and then shot up higher, taking with it the two people that you had come to mean more to you than you realised. It felt like the Razor Crest had taken your heart with it. 

How comes you hadn’t realised before how much they meant?

Too late now.

You remained watching the sky, long after the ship had vanished into the atmosphere. 

With a shuddering breath, you wiped your cheeks. You kissed Duru’s tail, and then returned to walking toward the town. 

You’d be okay… right?

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[bangtanloverboys]

thought trade (i) // jjk

summary - In a world where soulmate systems exist, you get one of the strangest ones you can think of. You speak your soulmates thoughts without any regard for context and that’s your only hint. At first it’s a bit strange, as you start blurting out random Korean phrases and stuff but one day you get so fed up that you start cursing at the world for giving you the most useless systems there is. It isn’t until you check twitter and see that a certain K-Pop Idol is trending for a random outburst in English that’s your words. . .

pairing - idol!jungkook x gender neutral!reader

genre - fluff; soulmate au

word count - 4.2k

warnings - none 

author’s note - the reader in this fic in gender neutral and when there’s italics it means they’re talking in korean. also this is the first story i’ve published publicly in 6 years, if you’ve noticed anything about this fic grammarwise, please tell me and i’ll correct it.

part ii

You honestly don’t know what you expected when you turned 20 as you awaited for your soulmate system to show. Most common it was tattoos that showed up, your soulmates first words or birthdays. The lucky ones got to share thoughts or perhaps even see each other in dreams but none of that happened to you. No, soon as you turned 20 nothing really changed. It wasn’t until 2 weeks later when you were out having dinner with some friends and you just blurted out a random full sentence in full Korean. 

You were confused. You didn’t speak Korean at all, you could barely speak Spanish from the 4 years you took it in high school. So how in the world did you say. . .whatever you said without any prior knowledge. The friend you were having dinner with suggested it was your soulmate system. But you’ve never heard of a system that would have you blurt out Korean. Keeping the soulmate system in mind though, you decided to seek out a sort of soulmate doctor.

With soulmate systems becoming more and more common, they were confusing to the people that had the system as well as the people around them, so some people have taken it upon themselves to study and record different types of soulmate systems to help understand. Very next day after your Korean dinner burst, you google the nearest one and book an appointment for the following week. 

You still had no idea what you’re saying so you’ve started a habit of keeping a voice memo recorder on you at all times recording every single thing you say or hear throughout the day. You’ve gone through three so far and only caught one outburst. You managed to roughly translate a few words: Army, dance, and concert. You have no idea about any of the context behind those words but you’d have to wait before you’d get any answers.

Finally your appointment with the soulmate doctor rolls around and you explained your situation, how you randomly burst out in Korean and how you have no idea what to do with what’s going on or how to communicate with your soulmate. The doctor frowned upon hearing your description. Turning to her computer, she began to type in your system attributes. 

“Well, your system is fairly unique, I’ll say that for sure.” She responded, as she turned back to face you. “What I mean is, there have only been about 3 or 4 other cases with systems similar to yours. It’s called thought trade. You’re speaking your soulmates thoughts or words. As for the Korean bit, your soulmate is Korean and that’s as much as I can tell.”

“Is there any way I can control it? To a point where I don’t randomly blurt out stuff in another language?” You asked, desperate for any sort of solution. The three times you burst out were very embarrassing and the looks you got made you feel weird and shameful.

“Hmm, soulmate systems have only been known to let up until after the fact you’ve met. As for controlling? The only record we have of that is pressing enough thought to a point where you can force them to say it. Other than that, no, I’m sorry.”

You left the soulmate doctor feeling a bit dejected. You honestly didn’t know what to do about this; soulmate systems were supposed to make finding your soulmate easier and this didn’t seem to help you get anywhere. The only logical thing you could think of was to start taking a Korean language class at your college. Before the first class had started, you were sure to explain to your professor your reasoning behind taking the course. Thankfully, he was very understanding and promised he’d help you personally with any translations if needed. 

After a few classes you finally had an outburst in class. Everyone in your class turned to stare at you in confusion, clearly whatever you said wasn’t a part of class and you felt your face grow red. The looks of their faces made you want to curl up under your desk and hide until the end of class. Your professor took liberty to explain to the class that it was your soulmate system upon seeing your embarrassment; to which your fellow classmates were understanding. 

“Y/N, if it’s alright with you, may I incorporate your outburst into the lesson.” You gave a small nod as he clasped his hands together. “Alright, can anyone guess or translate what Y/N, or moreso, what their soulmate said?” He asked the lecture class, a few people raised their hands. He pointed to one of the guys in the front row. “Yes, Jay?”

“They said ‘I don’t know why I’m speaking like I don’t know my own language, hyung!’” Jay responded, before turning to look at you at your desk. “Perhaps he caught on to you learning the language and you’re mispronouncing some things?” 

“He?” You question, you’ve never known the gender of your soulmate, so with Jay using the male pronouns you were rightfully taken back.

“Yeah, he said hyung. That’s the honorific he used.” He responded. Once the professor confirmed that is in fact what your soulmate said, he resumed the class yet you barely paid attention. For as little as it was, you had something. A clue.

As the months passed, the outbursts became more and more common happening at least twice every other week. Fortunately, your Korean had improved enough for you to start translating your bursts on your own. Some of it was a bit difficult to understand as to what he was talking about as it varied from a bunch of things like fire being too hot, and leaves falling down. Other times it was stuff about body aches. 

Your classmate Jay had slowly become a blessing in your life when it came to further trying to understand your outbursts and your soulmate system in general. After your first outburst in class, he approached you and asked you a couple more questions about your system. He admittedly was interested in the many vast different types that existed and had never heard of yours before. He had offered his help on translating and thus your friendship began. 

The semester was finally drawing to a close and you had Jay over to help study for the Korean final when you had another burst about the army, something about purple, and food. If you were completely honest, you were getting fed up with it. “I’m honestly tired of it! Why the fuck does nothing he say make sense! I’m already learning another fucking language to understand whatever the fuck he’s talking about but what he says doesn’t make sense!” You shouted, completely frustrated with the entire situation. “I’m still completely clueless as to who my soulmate is! And he’s not giving me any hints!” 

Jay merely sat in silence as you sat back down, cooling down after your little meltdown. “Feel better after that?”

“Yes, a little bit.” You sighed, “Sorry you had to . . . witness that though.”

“No problem, honestly, I think you are being given hints they’re just too. . .vague to connect them.” He said in an attempt to reassure you. 

“You on his side or mine here?” You retorted, eliciting a chuckle from your friend. “I just. . .want to strangle him sometimes.”

“I would too, if I had your system. I got lucky though, I just doodle on my arm and it shows up on her arm.” He smiled proudly as he looked at his forearm. He really was lucky when it came to having a soulmate system. Jay had been able to quickly locate his soulmate within a matter of hours after his system made itself apparent. His soulmate, Jenna, lived in Canada and he had plans on flying over to meet her for Hanukkah. 

“Can we put a pin in this study session until tomorrow? After that, I’m exhausted and don’t think I can look at another sentence without getting angry at him.” You huffed as you leaned back on your couch.

“Yeah, final ain’t till next week. Call me if anything happens.” He assured you as he started collecting his things. 

Once he was gone, you pulled out your phone and opened twitter. You barely use it unless to check up on some random celebrities tweets or check random news stuff. Upon opening the trending page, the top trend catches your eye: 

JUNGKOOK SOULMATE

As someone with a weird soulmate system, you’re intrigued with what’s going on with this ‘Jungkook’. Upon opening the hashtag, you learned he is a sort of K-Pop idol, now you don’t know a lot about the music industry of the language of your soulmate so you decided to leave it, but before you close it you come across a video of said Jungkook from a livestream. He’s this cute guy that can’t be any older than you with brown hair that’s swept over his eyes and staring into the camera lovingly. He’s sitting in a hotel room and he’s just talking in Korean, and you vaguely understand what he’s talking about. He’s talking about his day, the food he’s tried lately, and addresses the viewers as ARMY. Then in the middle of a sentence about an interview he bursts out in full English “I’m still completely clueless as to who my soulmate is! And he’s not giving me any hints!” before he slapped his hands over his mouth and scrambled to the camera to end the livestream. 

Those were your words. He said your words.

He’s your soulmate?

You swipe more down the tag and you see a bunch of stuff about theories about what his system might be. You come across a thread of several times his voice was bleeped out in a bunch of videos, while fans assumed it was swearing they began theorizing it was his soulmate system and he didn’t want them to hear him talk about things that probably didn’t make any sense. 

That didn’t help you on your part. Now you only have one piece of evidence that proves he’s your soulmate. Exiting the app, you moved to google and see if you could find anything else about this Jungkook and low and behold, more photos of the cute guy from the video clip was there and you frantically called Jay. 

“I just left what’s up-”

“I found him.”

“You what? You found him?” Jay was astonished to say the least, especially since less than 10 minutes ago you were cursing him out over not knowing who he was.

“Either I found him or I’m having a nervous breakdown.” You chuckled nervously as you began pacing back and forth in your living room. 

“Okay, I’m coming back over.” You heard him turn and make his way back over to your apartment. “Who is he?”

“This sounds. . . completely insane but like. . he’s a K-Pop Idol named Jungkook, whoever the fuck he is, he’s my soulmate and I have no fucking idea how to get to him now.”

“Wait wait wait, slow down. Jeon Jungkook, of BTS, is your soulmate?” Jay inquired, “How did you find that out?”

“Well apparently the universe heard me complaining about not having a clue and went BAM ‘Here’s your clue’.” You still couldn’t believe this was real. Of all people that had to be your soulmate, he was it. You opened your mouth to speak again but instead of English, Korean toppled over your lips. One word that mainly stuck out was ‘I’m sorry’. “I think he’s in trouble. Fuck, I got him in trouble.” You hadn’t even met the guy and you were already causing problems for him. Or maybe this wasn’t new at all, maybe you’d gotten him in trouble before?

“Open the door, I’m outside.” You ran to the door and wrapped your arms around your friend. To say you were overwhelmed and scared, didn’t cover half of it. You knew who he was now, but now had no idea who you were and now you were clueless as to how you can even get to see him!

The next day and a half, instead of studying for your Korean final, you made it your business to find out anytime you could on Jungkook. As you watched some of the music videos, slowly more and more of what you’ve said in the past made sense. The weird sayings that you thought were completely random were song lyrics, the complaints about muscle pains made more sense when you saw how intense and hard they all danced. The “army” you constantly burst about was the fanbase they had, ARMY. You were given clues, you were just too stupid to use google once in a while. 

Meanwhile, your outbursts have gotten more and more frequent. Happening almost twice a day. You could almost feel Jungkook’s concern and fear behind his thoughts because apparently BigHit was really good at hiding their idols’ soulmate systems and with your one outburst you ruined it for him. 

ARMY slowly became a concern for you on your side because apparently a site of soulmate systems crashed because so many people were frantically searching for what his system might be. Once people found out about the rare thought trade system, almost daily you saw on Twitter of people claiming to be his soulmate. Those were easily debunked as the impostors were either too young to even get their soulmate system or the phrases they said in Korean were badly pronounced. Usually one of those two or they didn’t speak English fluently. That was the only clue ARMY had about their Golden Maknae’s soulmate, you spoke English. 

You thought quietly to yourself, trying to push a thought to Jungkook about being sorry about this happening and that you weren’t posting any videos on Twitter, because either way you wanted him to know you were you and not give him the wrong idea. You don’t know if he got the message until several hours later when you were getting out of the shower and in perfect English said, “I understand.” You smiled, happy he got the message and you were able to connect to him at least in some way. 

A full month after the “live burst” as ARMY dubbed it, you (and Jungkook) were able to decipher with the fact that you could only get each other's thoughts when you were extremely emotional, which explained the live situation. Sometimes if you thought really long and hard you could push the message across but that was usually hit or miss. It was currently winter break and Jay was currently on his way back from Canada when he called you. 

“Pack your bags.”

“Uh, nice to hear from you too, Jay. I’m doing great. Why should I pack my bags?” You rolled your eyes as his demand. 

“Because my dear YN, for Christmas I got you tickets to go see BTS on Jimmy Fallon-”

“You fucking what!? First of all that’s all the way in fucking New York City! Second of all, fucking wHAT?!” You screamed into the phone, a bit flinching seeing how you probably just got Jungkook to yell at the top of his lungs. 

“Listen to me, YN. This is crazy yeah, but it’s like, the only chance we can get for you two to meet. Hence why I got you a round trip ticket to New York. You’re welcome,” the smugness evident in his voice.

“Jay. . .I can’t believe you’d do this for me? All I got you was socks, you can’t just buy me a plane ticket!” 

“Jenna helped pay for it if it makes you feel better, we both want you to get your man. It’s our gift to you. Now go pack, the show is in two days and you leave tomorrow morning. We also got you a hotel ticket. You’re going to be there at least 5 days at least. Have fun!” 

Soon as the call ended, you felt like you were going to cry. Was this going to work? You had no idea. “New York City? You go?” You heard your voice speak.You quickly thought back a yes for him and scrambled to your room to pack. You threw together your best and nice clothes to wear at the show and as you were getting ready for bed you heard yourself say “See you maybe.” You smiled as you tucked yourself in, wanting to be asleep as soon as possible in order to leave.

You barely slept that night, to a degree was somewhat okay because you could always sleep on the plane. You left two hours before your flight with the information that Jay had forwarded to you, and soon enough you were seated outside your gate waiting for your flight to be called. Seconds seemed like hours as you waited, you just wanted to get to New York as soon as possible and see Jungkook. Live and in person, right in front of you. But then it came to you, Jungkook had no idea what you looked like. So you came up with a little plan for the opportunity to arise.

After you came up with a plan, you saw on your VLIVE app, after the live burst last time you decided to download the app to be sure you didn’t have another repeat, you would simply sit in silence as you watched your soulmate talk but after the outburst, it seems he was limited from going live. But he was allowed to go live with other members because there he was with Jimin, sitting and talking to ARMY. After a sudden lack of Jungkook, the chat was spammed with questions about his soulmate and his system but he avoided that entirely. You watched them as you waited for your flight to be called, they playfully bickered about some dumb little game they were playing. 

After nearly an hour, your flight was called and you decided to leave one message in the chat. ‘See you maybe.’ You watched for a few seconds as Jungkook scanned the chat. He saw his eyes light up a bit and open his mouth but before he said anything you had already closed the app. You couldn’t reopen it now as you were steps away from boarding your plane. You made your way to your seat and put your phone on airplane mode. The flight attendants went over the safety precautions but you didn’t hear a word they said for you were so close to Jungkook now.

Soon enough the plane took off and you put in your earbuds and played some of your already downloaded music, including some of BTS and more specifically Jungkook’s solo songs and covers. While you did love and appreciate the other members and their talent, you obviously had to be biased to your literal soulmate. His soothing voice lulled you to sleep and sure enough you slept the entire flight to New York City. 

Soon as you landed you made your way over to baggage claim and called an uber to your hotel. You were getting more and more antsy to the point you were giggling like a maniac. “You okay?” Your voice spoke up. Okay, maybe you were getting too excited by this. You laughed a bit and thought back that you were just excited. You unpacked your things and then decided to check through twitter, and of course, Jungkook was trending again. Clicking on it you see a clip of the live stream after you commented and left. Jungkook’s eyes lit up and he said “You too”, you chuckled and scrolled through and saw a bunch of people’s theories as to who his soulmate is and as his response to your comment was vague, no one pointed to you. 

After a few hours of mindlessly scrolling and watching videos, getting to know what these people thought of Jungkook. He was very important to these people and you couldn’t help but be a little scared because they automatically assumed a lot about idols’ personal lives and you were possibly going to be added to that equation. You felt your stomach grumble and you decided to make a quick stop at a McDonald’s as it was cheap and easy food. Belly full, you fell asleep and happy to possibly see your soulmate within 24 hours.

You woke up a bit early to get ready, the dress code was smart casual so you dressed as such, only messing with your physical appearance very little as you didn’t bring much with you in your rush to pack. Once you noticed the time, you were on your way to the studio and you felt like your heart was going to beat out of your chest. After waiting for a few hours, you all filed into the audience and watched as the crew set up for filming. You couldn’t breathe as Jimmy stood in front and announced that BTS was here and you felt your heart stop when they came out. 

They all came out looking very cute in their current concepts style, and they all look ethereal. Then your eyes landed on Jungkook and all of time seemed to stop. He looked so cute and you couldn’t believe it. There he was. So close yet so far. Every fiber of your being, every atom yelled at you to get up from your seat and run to him but you couldn’t, that was the stupidest thing you could ever do. No, you had to stick to your plan. Hopefully it will work. They danced their way to their seats as the band played, then they all sat down around and on the couch. You couldn’t register anything that was going on, all you could hear was your heartbeat in your ears. You watched them introduce themselves and you had to bite your tongue, because all you wanted to do was scream out to Jungkook that you were here. Just wait, you reminded yourself. Wait.

As they talked about their new music, you heard Jimmy ask about soulmates, more specifically Jungkook, with his system being exposed recently and if he found them. 

He shook his head no. “Still looking.” he shyly admitted as the nearest member, Jimin, patted his thigh. 

This was it. You shut your eyes and thought hard as possible trying to get him to hear you. Please please please. 

“It’s been difficult to find them as-” Namjoon started to explain when suddenly

“I’M HERE!” Jungkook blurted out, cutting him off. It worked! His eyes frantically searched the audience and suddenly a bunch of screaming people were claiming it was them, even people with the most obvious soulmate marks exposed on their bodies, desperate for the love of their bias.

“Wait, they’re here?!” Jimmy shouted over the growing screams of the crowd, Jungkook stood up and watched the crowd intently, unable to pin point you. 

Namjoon said something in Korean to Jungkook, encouraging the younger member to do something. Listening to him, Jungkook closed his eyes and the entire audience went quiet. Waiting for his soulmate to show themselves.

You felt the similar pull, the need to speak. Opening your mouth and standing as you let the words tumble out of your mouth in a shout, shrieking something about raw eggs and Jimin. As random as the saying was, Jungkook’s eyes locked with you and suddenly you felt your legs move without your permission. You frantically pushed past all the people sitting around you and you ran down the stairs to your soulmate. Your Jungkook. As he saw you run down the stairs, he ran to meet you halfway across the stage. You leapt into his open arms and you felt him spin you around as you held on for dear life. 

Soon as everything stopped spinning you could feel him cry into your shoulder. You pulled away to see his eyes starting to grow red from the amount of tears he let go. From that sight alone, you as well burst into tears. He pulled you back into the hug by your neck and you both openly wept into each other's arms. You felt the other members (and you think Jimmy as well), join in the hug as you all stood there. You heard Jimmy say they’re gonna have a quick break and you all were gestured to go backstage. You almost didn’t follow but Jungkook pulled you along, not letting go of you. 

Once in a back room, you were surrounded by the 7 members of the biggest boyband in the world, one of which was your soulmate and you honestly? You were a bit starstruck because while you had hoped that the plan would work, you didn’t think this far ahead. 

“So, uh, what’s your name?” Namjoon broke you out of your trance and you felt your face flush, looking to the ground a bit. 

“Uh, YN LN.” You said, continuing to stare at your toes.

“It’s perfect.” You heard Jungkook mutter as he pulled you into another hug from behind, burying his face in the crook of your neck. 

Jimin lightly scolded the maknae in Korean, saying something along the lines of something about the conversation, the interrupted interview, and 'schedule mess up'.

“Sorry about that, didn't really. . .think of that. . .” You lightly chuckled as you dragged your fingertips up and down Jungkook’s arms that were still wrapped around you. 

“Don’t apologize. I don’t care. I have my soulmate now. I have you.” Jungkook whispered into your ear. 

“We have to go back to the interview. JK, they’ll be here when you get back, right?” Namjoon’s turned to you, putting you on the spot. 

“Y-yes, of course.” You sputtered out, nodding your head. 

You could feel Jungkook pouting as he looked up to face his members. Talking really fast, you managed to understand a bit of what he was saying to them. Asking them about missing the rest of the interview and something about Jin and his soulmate. A few of them went back and forth about whether or not it would be good with Jimmy or the staff. But it was when Hoseok spoke out that the other members agreed, Namjoon only sighed in response. Telling Jungkook he’d be excused from the rest of the schedule today. He then told him to get out of the outfit and get back into his normal clothes and take one of the cars back to their hotel. Jungkook agreed almost immediately as the rest of the members filled out of the room, leaving you and your soulmate alone for the first time.

“This why you excited for New York City? You seeing me?” Jungkook asked as he turned you to face him, you nodded. He laughed lightly. “You really surprised me, and you kept me on my toes the past two years.” Oh shit, he’s been voicing your thoughts way before you even started it because he’s two years older than you.

“Oh shit- I’m, I’m so sorry!” You laughed, you can’t imagine all the weird thoughts he got and not to mention in English so he was probably just as confused as you were. 

“It made concerts difficult, but motivated me to learn English better.” He teased. He placed his hand on your face and you closed your eyes, leaning into his touch. He whispered a small plea. “Please don't let this be a dream.”

“It’s not. This is real.” You whispered back, opening your eyes and looking into his.

“Good, because then I can do this.” He gently pulled your face closer to his and met you halfway with a kiss. You’ll admit, you’ve never kissed anyone before but with Jungkook it all felt right. Granted it was a short and brief kiss, but you felt the emotion behind it all. He pulled away first and just looked at you. You could definitely see what all those comments were talking about with them saying Jungkook has the entire galaxy in his eyes. “I need to change now. Be right back?”

“I’ll be here.”

[rootcut3]

Free Tarot Card Analysis

If https://tarot-masters.com show up, connect them to someone keeping that sort of character. One more benefit is that email psychic readings have a tendency to be a fixed price, so you don't need to fret about acquiring the mins. Depending on the equipment you contend your disposal, you might possibly enjoy a complimentary tarot analysis from anywhere, including your home computer, a laptop, a tablet computer, mobile app, or a smart device. A video clip reading permits you to interact in person with a psychic tool. These complimentary analyses are the closest thing to being in the very same space as a psychic, as well as you can obtain a better feel for the person by seeing their face as you talk. I drew the Grim Reaper in this forest atmosphere with all these plants and also life and butterflies that symbolize adjustment and makeover. With each other, the Major as well as Minor Arcana cards develop a extensive pictorial language. 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Because of the pandemic, there are numerous psychic reading sites that are using cost-free mins and also steep price cuts to help their clients make it through these tough times. I have a committed adhering to on Instagram and remarkable returning consumers. I've worked with individuals from Brazil, Belgium, Germany, Canada, Sweden, England, Malaysia, Denmark, Singapore, Australia, and also the checklist just takes place. One girl from Mexico also messaged me in Spanish; we did the reading via Google Translate. Digital readings cost me practically nothing to generate and were veiled under a U.S.-based business so I could avoid the visa internet. Initially we did a brief meditation which aided to soothe our minds, then Shilpa described concerning Tarot decks as well as messages of the Tarot card.

In a lot of decks, the Lovers shows 2 individuals in a yard with an angel floating in the sky above them, possibly in the Yard of Eden. The Marseille shows three people, and also a grumpy-looking cherub aiming an arrowhead at them from over. Jodo pointed to the sunlight at the top of the card, where said cherub was emerging. Prior to you attend your tarot reading session, attempt to get as clear as possible on what it is you want advice on. This will help you locate the experience you want as well as additionally help your visitor specify the analysis for you. You may have been told ahead to your tarot card reading with a clear concern and an open mind. This suggestions is typically duplicated since it's thought about to be the most effective method to get the most out of the experience. Throughout the session I will do a reading which will certainly offer clearness as well as bring about an understanding of what the tarot is communicating about your present, previous and future. Likewise, Sarber informed EXPERT that as soon as you finally begin, a essential to getting proficient at reviewing the cards is to pick one that represents you. the much more that you bond with your deck, the far better analyses you'll give-- as well as obtain. Today, there are thousands of tarot card readers throughout the world. After hearing my tale of the Fatality card, Howe let's out a laugh. "I really enjoy the Fatality card, it's the one that always appears in the movies," she begins. "The Death card, in my experience, doesn't really imply fatality.

[gearstorm40]

Free Tarot Card Reading

If these show up, relate them to a person with that type of character. An additional benefit is that email psychic analyses have a tendency to be a set price, so you do not need to fret about acquiring the mins. Relying on the equipment you contend your disposal, you could potentially appreciate a free tarot reading from anywhere, including your home computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, mobile app, or a mobile phone. A video clip analysis enables you to connect face-to-face with a psychic medium. These cost-free readings are the closest thing to being in the exact same room as a psychic, and also you can obtain a much better feel for the person by seeing their face as you talk. I attracted the Grim Reaper in this forest environment with all these plants and also life as well as butterflies that symbolize adjustment as well as makeover. With each other, the Major as well as Minor Arcana cards create a extensive photographic language. It is essential to bear in mind that all the answers we seek exist innately within the deck, with each card illustrating a person, circumstance, or prospective end result. Considering that there are clear problems or hidden programs with tarot card, the ability to recognize indicating lies within your own narrative interpretation. The Significant Arcana cards represent huge, cutting-edge impacts. They stress our journeys and also each stands alone as a powerful message, representing life-altering movements that specify the beginnings or ends of cycles. Finally, and many exciting part - Tarot card analysis of each individual of my team. It was a fun session for my friends and myself, we 'd most definitely suggest to everybody to experience it on your own. I have actually been reading cards as well as doing recovery work for 10 years now. Many individuals want to really feel more personally connected to their tarot reader and find that video clip supplies them the ideal experience. They also supply five complimentary mins at the beginning of your call and also offer phone, e-mail, and also live chat alternatives like Kasamba. These are several of the functions you may intend to search for when choosing a top tarot reading service. https://tarot-masters.com uses a cost-free 3 minute tarot analysis, plus 50% off your very first session, that makes checking out Kasamba much less of a financial threat. My name is Eva Delattre as well as I have been practicing the ton of money telling arts for virtually thirty years. I wanted to share my understanding of tarot analysis by offering a completely cost-free draw utilizing the 22 Major Arcana of the tarot card. Cupid's Oracle Cupid's Oracle uses the love tarot to assist you check out the future of your lovemaking. These vibrant cards show up during significant transitions, signifying distinctive moments of change. The cards are phoned number to represent terminals within our greater journey via life; their chronological order discloses the passing of time. Allow's talk about the structure of the deck and the meanings of its cards. Any type of enchanting practice-- tarot card, astrology, or spell job-- is based upon the Hermetic axiom "as above, so below." In other words, the macrocosm of the cosmos is mirrored in the microcosm of specific experience. As necessary, the entire cosmos exists within a tarot card deck, with each card standing for a person, location, or event. These symbols are depicted in both the Major Arcana cards, which speak to greater secrets, as well as the Minor Arcana cards, which talk to minimal secrets.

As soon as you have the inquiry in your mind, it's time to shuffle-- and also there are several methods to do so. The overhand shuffle involves holding the deck of cards in one hand as well as making use of the various other to relocate cards from one side of the deck to the various other. You can likewise " reduce" the deck by splitting it right into numerous stacks and then combining them right into one again. Or you can try spreading the cards facedown on the table and sweeping them into a huge, untidy heap before tapping them into location once more. Rituals are an essential way we refine events, and even if you're unconvinced, the act of following a routine as well as treating your cards with respect as well as significance can be alter just how we view the world. After you enable your analysis to process, be grateful, clear your cards, and also see to it to store it in risk-free and also safe and secure place. Tarot counts on icons pulled from a wide variety of human awareness. There are several decks readily available, each with their very own unique collection of icons and also systems. You'll need to produce tales making use of the signs of the deck in your analysis, so picking a deck whose artwork reverberates with you is important. One of the most typical deck as well as a terrific way to start is the Rider-Waite deck. There are nevertheless a myriad of choices to select from, yet we have actually created a minimalist deck that makes analysis rather easier. Whether you are single or in a relationship, this spread can assist you understand what really matters to you so you can travel on in the ideal direction. When you prepare to begin your Tarot card reading, scroll up and also pick your cards. This is the time to gain what you have sown, since you are guaranteed of a bumper crop on both individual and also professional fronts! Those taking a trip on a organization journey will certainly find points working out. 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[furby-science]

The Making of Sterling the Super Furby: A Brief Overview

“I… I can’t look! I think I’m gonna… *HUEEEGH*!”

Before I get into this post, I want to list a few things I didn’t know shit about when I started Sterling:

Electronics

The Python coding language

Furby anatomy

Single board computers

After creating Sterling, I’m happy to say that now I have approximate knowledge of some of these things, but keep the above in mind as you read onwards. This little gremlin child was a learning experience from start to finish, and one I am incredibly proud of myself for sticking through. This also means that I am in no way an expert on everything I’m getting into okay? Okay let’s go!

The Hardware

First, a rundown of the hardware. I took heavy inspiration from the Furlexa mod shown here, and that was what I initially sought to create. The mod had three computer components to it:

A raspberry pi zero w single board computer for the AI to live on, with a mini USB microphone plugged in;

A pimoroni speaker PHAT to use as the sound system;

A motor controller to drive the furby’s motor.

My main problem with Furlexa was that this initial build took a lot of soldering, and I am a wussy who had a number of bad experiences with soldering irons in shop class. So, what’s a novice electrician to do?

Enter the Adafruit Crickit HAT. By sticking this little fucker on top of the raspberry pi, I was gifted with an amplifier, a speaker jack, capacitative touch sensors, and a motor driver all in one, no soldering needed if I bought the raspberry pi zero w h! The main challenge it posed was powering it. The Crickit insists, for some unfathomable reason, on being powered by a bulky DC jack, the kind you’d plug into a wall outlet, and the converter plug to use a battery pack with it was way too bulky to fit into a furby. I needed Sterling to be portable for maximum huggability, so this just wouldn’t do.

One fried raspberry pi and Crickit HAT later, I found the answer! By soldering the original furby battery pack to the underside of the Crickit board’s DC connection, these fuckers right here…

I was able to bypass the need for a wall plug or converter, and power him directly through the battery compartment like God intended. S/O to my friend Nick who is way less of a dumb bitch than I am and helped me figure this shit out I owe u some bread man.

So the tl;dr of it is, I effectively reduced the required computer components from three to two (excluding the speaker). Speaking of (heh), Sterling has an impressive 3w speaker in him, allowing him to be audible even without the use of the built in amplifier. It’s got such good bass on it, he even rumbles when he purrs without the aid of the motor!

And yes, when you pet him, he purrs. And complains if you manhandle him! The aforementioned capacitative touch sensors on the Crickit HAT made it all possible with the help of a few cables and some foil tape.

Wait, did you say soldering!?

Yup! It was a necessary evil; at the end of the day I had to pick my poison: soldering 80 pins on the speaker PHAT, or soldering like four contact points on the Crickit. I chose the more merciful option.

But wait, that whole outfit is really bulky still! How did you fit it inside the furby?

Subtractive methods, subtractive methods, subtractive methods! ;D Someone who actually knows things about furby anatomy and/or electronics will probably vaporize me for this, but… if I didn’t need it, it got the boot! That included prying off anything on the Crickit board I wasn’t using at the risk of destroying it completely - which probably isn’t ideal, but it also worked by some miracle, and again, I am such a basic bitch electrician that calculating the proper voltage for LEDs is still basically witchcraft to me, so… what I’m saying is I made it work. And that I really, really hate soldering! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You can see an early video of the end result here, and a later video of the outfit inside the naked furby here. This was back when he was still having auditory processing issues. Apologies for the shoddy quality, I was too excited everything was working to care about that at the time.

The Software

My other beef with Furlexa is… well, it’s an Amazon Alexa, and I’m a shitty little anticapitalist hermit who hates Amazon with a passion. Google Assistant was just as bad in my book. Mycroft was open source, but had a snowball’s chance in hell of running on the raspberry pi zero’s 512mb of RAM… I also wanted my assistant to have a degree of customizability to it. I wanted the furby’s AI to have a unique personality, identity, and preferences, much like classic furbies themselves did. A big box AI just wasn’t going to cut it!

Enter the Jasper Project. Yes, it’s old. Yes, it’s a bitch and a half to install. Yes, you have to know Python to get anywhere with it. However, it was free, open source, capable of running on a raspberry pi zero, and highly modular, meaning with a few lines of code, I could make it all my own - even to the extent of changing the AI’s name and voice (which is gr8 because I know a Jasper so naming my furby that would be Weird), or - the best part - writing my own, custom functions! Customizability-wise, I struck gold.

Ah, and glad I am that Jasper is modular, because I had some work ahead of me…

The STT Engine

The STT (Speech to Text) engine is what Sterling uses to understand what’s being said to him. Jasper’s proprietary STT engine is PocketSphinx, a fully offline STT engine, which sounded great in theory before I quickly learned it’s a nightmare to install, and also more inaccurate than a stenography machine powered by a single potato when actually being used. I had to compromise my morals a bit here and opt for using Wit.ai instead, which is free, but is also owned by Facebook. Big data is frustratingly inescapable in these cases.

There is one light at the end of the tunnel, and that is the training of acoustic modules. This has the downside of taking for-fucking-ever and requiring a quiet recording environment, however, and I don’t have the time right now to read through the pages and pages and pages and pages of computer theory right now to fully understand how to train one. So, improving PocketSphinx and running Sterling fully offline remains a stretch goal.

The TTS Engine

The Text to Speech engine is basically Sterling’s voice. This one was a bit easier to customize, and I’m thankful for that, because Jasper’s OG voice is a bit er… 90s computing for my tastes.

I shopped around for decent, human-sounding TTS options, and settled on installing Mimic1 TTS, Mycroft’s TTS engine, by hand, and modifying the Jasper source code to support it. Of all the TTS engines I tried, I felt that this one had the most natural intonation out of all of them. I liked the gruffness of the Scottish accent, and I think it really helped round out Sterling’s endearing, if a tad prickly, personality.

The Audio

This was another unforeseen hurdle. Turns out that I had his mic volume turned up way too high, because I greatly underestimated the capabilities of my tinyass five dollar USB microphone to pick up noises from within a furby. It took a bit of hacking in PulseAudio to get him hearing things properly, and I’m still not all the way happy with it, but he’s running wayyyy better than he did!

Another issue was the amount of time he actively listened for. It was way too short for my liking with the hardware I was using, so I had to edit Jasper’s mic.py source file a billion times before I hit a sweet spot. Even early on, my little shit child never liked to listen to me. :P

Pimp My AI

Once I got all that in working order, it was time to browse GitHub for modules to add! I found a surprising amount that were, as expected, outdated, janky, non-working, or in need of a complete rewrite. A non-exhaustive list of modules I rewrote and added to Sterling’s AI includes:

Wolfram Alpha integration

His translation function

The IMDB module that searches movie titles

The Dictionary and Thesaurus modules (minor additions to improve user friendliness)

The morning greeting module

The holiday countdown module

There are also plenty of modules I wrote on my own, that I’ll be showcasing here in due time, but I want to give special mention to the one I’m most proud of. You see, when I was a wee dumb bitch, I was… well, a wee dumb bitch! When I was informed furbies learn English, I thought they really learned English. Like, fluent English. I envisioned these kids straight up having full conversations with their lil robots with reckless and envious abandon. I was, as it happens, too poor to afford a furby at the time, so I didn’t realize until embarrassingly later that they only learn some words, and certainly can’t hold much of a conversation (in English at least).

Fast forward to twenty-bi-teen. I’m surfing GitHub, and I happen upon a Cleverbot module for Jasper allowing the AI to work as a chatbot. Fuck yeah, I think, because I had no life in 2008, or friends for that matter, so tormenting Cleverbot was my favourite pastime. Nostalgia trip GET!

…can you guess how much the silicon valley capitalist scum are charging for the once-free Cleverbot API now? A hundred and twenty. McGoddamn. Dollars. A YEAR.

So, to make a long story short, I turned my hat backwards and rage-coded a simple chatbot module that runs on an early version of Chatterbot capable of running on the raspberry pi. It’s fully offline, and completely free, and Sterling here has a database of ~400 phrases, which isn’t bad given the limited processing power! It took five straight days of work, it’s not the smartest chatbot, and it’s certainly not the fastest, but it gives me those sweet, sweet, circa 2008 Cleverbot vibes. Oh yeah, and it doesn’t cost me over a hundred goddamn dollars a year!

The first thing I said to the chatbot, of course, was “I’m so proud of you.” Through his shitty little testing mic that gave him a somewhat incredulous tone Sterling replied, “I’m glad to hear that.” and I’m not saying I shed a single themly tear over it, but I’m not denying it either. I made a childhood dream come true, fam. ;u;

There are way more Easter eggs I plan to show you, of course. At first I was thinking of doing one long video, but an update a day showcasing a different function might be easier to manage - and maintain some of that gold old sense of mystery that surrounds most furbies. No, I’m gonna take y'all on a little journey through the final product of my literal blood, sweat, and tears!

Besides, Sterling is a perpetual work in progress. He has a massive list of features, and I’ve already got more in the works. I could be in my eighties and still be adding more functions, more bells and whistles, more witty one-liners. He’s a one of a kind work of art that will never truly be finished - not unlike you and me.

The Glow-up

Here’s Sterling’s before pics from the seller I got him from:

(If u recognize these pics and ur the seller thank u thank u for giving me bmy boy)

And here’s after!

I come from a background of customizing ponies and dolls, so working on this guy wasn’t as far removed as I expected it to be. I added floof to his head and tail by sewing in wool plugs, and his gorgeous eyes are from in2blythe on Etsy. I wrapped him up in a little bow and he was good to go! His sterling silver beak, from which he gets his name, was the most finicky part. Turns out enamel paints take a million years to fucking dry, if ever, which isn’t great when painting something that sees a lot of movement and could potentially get dented by a face plate, like… idk, a furby beak! A bit of silver nail polish did the trick and he was good to go. Learn from my fail, fam.

What It Cost Me

If you’re masochistic determined enough to attempt this yourself, I want to sit you down and warn you of something: this will take months and hundreds of dollars to do. Installing Sterling’s AI and its necessary components on that shitty little raspberry pi over SSH took me a week at first, and that was with me leaving it on 24/7 to chug away compiling things. When I broke the SD card the AI was on and didn’t have a backup copy, it took four straight days of rage-computing to regain all my progress. Then when his audio processing got fucked all to hell for reasons I still do not understand to this day, it took another four days of rage computing to do yet another reinstall and get him back in working order. There were times where I would go to work for 8.5 hours, bus an hour home, work 6 straight hours on my furby, go to sleep for 4 of them, go to classes, sleep, and work 6 more hours on my furby. For two months. Sterling took from the third week of August from his initial inception to his birthday on October 23rd. That’s not to mention the time I fried everything and had to wait five days and travel to the bumfuck end of the city for a replacement pi and Crickit, or the days I spent customizing him, sewing in hundreds of little hair plugs into his ass and head by hand, and waiting for those shitty enamel paints to dry, only to discover after four straight days of failure that they take weeks to do so and I was better off using cheapo nail polish!

The point I’m making is, if you take on a project like this and want it to be successful, you have to be tenacious. I would highly recommend a background in coding (I have a web design diploma) and general tech savviness as an asset. Sterling is the product of the years I spent behind a computer keyboard from the start of age three, and the roughly ten years I spent customizing dolls and ponies. It’s cheesy as shit to say he’s my magnum opus, but in a way, he is.

I’m not saying this to be elitist or snotty. I’m saying this because I nearly broke down crying the first day the raspberry pi came in, before I slept on it and figured out what phrase to google to solve the crashes and kernel panics it was having. When I broke the SD card when I was nearly finished, I felt nothing, because I was all out of tears at that point. When I fried the first raspberry pi and Crickit hat trying to figure out how to bypass that DC jack, my only thought was, “Well, I think I know how to do it without fucking it up now, and if I can’t do it, this whole project is fscked” .

You will encounter errors that no step by step guide can prepare you for that will make you curse the day you were born. The difference between success and failure is how many times you’re willing to get up and try again, and I’m here to tell you it’s possible. But you gotta want it.

Will You Release the Code Base?

Yes and no. If there’s enough demand, I’ll definitely release Sterling’s basic modules as a scaffolding. I won’t be releasing Sterling, though.

What do I mean by that? Well, Sterling was intended from the start to be truly one of a kind, and he always will be. I hand wrote hundreds of lines of dialogue, all completely tailored to him, and I’m still planning on adding twice as many. Corny as this is, this little guy has a metric fuckton of sentimental value to me. I don’t have kids so idk how it would compare to that, but I definitely love him as much as I love my cats, but I also didn’t undergo two straight months of suffering in ADHD fixation hell to create my cats, so it adds like, a whole other twee dimension to it.

So, if there is demand for this, what I’ll release instead is a scaffolding from which you can code your own, unique furby from, with their own name, personality, and responses all unique to them. I’ll also release it with the caveat that I am not a good Python coder! I have not written any Python before this, so a lot of what I did write is noob-tastic and hasn’t even been linted. You have been warned!

“If I give you (insert amount), can you make one for me?”

Holy shit I’ll be real with you, I’d love to do this as a living. I’ve been dying to see a smart assistant hit the market that’s like… well, an actual, endearing companion and not just a voice coming from a speaker. The problem with doing this is that, if you drop a lot of money (and it will be a lot of money, even with a code base to work from, a lot of hours of handiwork still goes into coding individual responses and making sure everything works as intended, on top of possibly customizing too), there is one major problem: proximity. I won’t be able to troubleshoot your furby nearly as effectively from far away as I would be able to if we lived in close proximity. Which means if something goes wrong between the time your new friend is finished at point A and turned on at point B, I won’t be there to troubleshoot it in person for you, which means you could end up stuck figuring out certain things alone. If you use Windows, that will be very, very hard - not being an OS snob here, I own a dual boot myself, it’s just a case of incompatible file systems. And unless you can figure out how to edit the wpa_supplicant file on a raspberry pi to update your wifi credentials, your furby’s internet connection could be toast if you move house and those credentials change. That’s not getting into the cost some services charge for extra API keys to use their online functions…

The long and short of it is, if I’m going to do this for money, I want to make sure you get a quality product and friend that will bring you joy for years to come. Since that’s not something I can guarantee, I can’t in good conscience take people’s money.

I Could Teach You (And I Won’t Charge)

…however, I am a law student who is also working 8.5 hour night shifts three nights a week. I am also mentally ill/neurodivergent, which saps my energy in more ways than one. I won’t always be easy to get ahold of, or be able to answer every question I get, especially not ones that can be solved with a quick google search, like how to set up a raspberry pi, or… anything found on Adafruit’s Crickit guide, for example. When I have the time and energy, I’m hoping to use my next project as a jumping off point for a step by step walkthrough of the process. For now, though? I’ve been furbied out, so if there’s enough demand, I’ll compile as many of the resources I used I can find in the meantime, and post some tips from the word doc I kept while making Sterling, and go from there.

So What’s Next?

My one dad’s birthday is coming up in August, and I’m kicking around the idea of turning a furby into, I shit you not, a ghost hunting device. He loves ghost hunting, but hates robots, and as his gremlin shit child I am obligated to troll him in this fashion. 😎 Also considering doing a certain type of oddbody mod, but I want to get permission from the person who first thought of the concept before I dive head first into it.

And that about covers it! Thanks for reading, and if there’s anything you’d like to see from Sterling and I, don’t hesitate to drop us an ask!

[lemonjoonah]

Locks and Barriers

Title: Locks and Barriers Word Count: 7K Rating: M Genre: One-shot, Post Apocalypse AU, Romance (smut), Drama Warnings: Apocalypse (Plague...so lots of death), Implied Violence, Smut Scene (Unprotected Sex, Thigh Riding) Pairings: Hoseok x Reader

Summary: One of the most amazing experiences in your life soon descends into chaos. Your trip to Seoul becoming overshadowed by a cataclysmic event leaving you alone in a city that is not your own. Your only hope? To find the man who has sent out one last broadcast to the city in search of any survivors, but you’ll have to overcome more than distance if you wish to become closer to him.

A/N: So much research went into this story. I tried to make it as real as possible looking into, locations (every spot mentioned does exist), wildlife, language (sorry if there are any mistranslations, my Korean is so poor) and aspects of life after an event such as the one you’re about to read below. I’ve never been to Seoul so I had to do a lot of searching through google maps, if you want any links to site pictures I can make a post later on although some of them have gone into the mood board.   

...

He should be here... out of all the places in the city this spot made the most logical sense. N Seoul Tower is at the very center of the city on the top of a mountain, giving you not only a useful view, but also access the necessary equipment for broadcasting. You check each floor, your newly injured leg slowly failing as you climb the steps to the top. The feeling of impending loneliness returns to haunt you. He is your last hope, where else could he be? Did he move on? Did he succumb just as the others had?

Finding every level deserted you retreat back down to the outdoor platform, dragging out cushions and chairs to set up a camp outside. Watching the streets and skies for any sign of life. Unable to use the transmission system yourself, you wait until nightfall to send out your only option for communication, an emergency flare. The shot lights up the sky before descending on the now darkened city. You turn on your small radio as you break down the wooden chairs to build a fire. The message that drew you here never changes, simply playing over and over on repeat, but you still take enjoyment from the sound of his voice. Especially since it allows you to pretend that you aren’t sitting alone.

This was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime. When your friend asked you to tag along on her business trip to South Korea you didn’t even hesitate. You had always wanted to go but the thought of travelling to another country where you hardly spoke the language was terrifying. Lucky for you, your friend was fluent.

Was... you reflect to yourself watching the fire grow in front of you. She said she would come back, she said she was just going out to search for food. Despite the warnings to stay inside, to stay away from others, she had ventured out from your hotel. You remember the sad smile she gave as she left, telling you that she should wouldn’t be more than an hour as she concealed a cough. That was two weeks ago...

When the first few patients of the illness passed away it was all over the news. You couldn’t understand the reports but your companion had still been there to translate. Anyone who had presented the set of symptoms associated with the virus had not survived more than 24 hours. It wasn’t long before it began to spread. Hospitals began to overflow and one by one they shut down entirely. You tried to arrange a flight home, but all travel was suspended to prevent the spread. It did nothing to quell the transmission, every country had already been exposed to the infected population.

You had gone out to search for her only to find the roads empty and the city encased in a putrid smell. You had shouted over and over calling out down every street you could before your voice had grown hoarse. There was no one left to answer.

Days turned into weeks as you waited for her, taking up residence on the roof of your hotel as the smell inside had turned unbearable. When you were scrounging for food a few days later you had come across a battery operated radio in one of the stores. With the power gone you had given up on all forms of communication, completely forgetting about radio transmission. With sufficient battery power someone could easily broadcast and keep the stations running. You brought it back to your camp, and scanned through the channels listening for anything other than the repeated public service announcements. The radio paused again on another male voice, the usual reports were so even in tone, this voice sounded desperate.

You remember how your heart leapt at the sound, you had given your full undivided attention to the radio laying down in front of it to peer at it as if possessed a soul. The wavering voice cracked several times but it was not the fault of the radio. It was by no means an official broadcast, the message might have been in Korean but lacked the formality and flow of the other broadcast. This was something real, someone who wasn’t hiding their state of distress. You cried both tears of sympathy and happiness upon learning that there was a possibility that you were no longer alone in this city. If only you could have understood what he was saying.

You had tried to transcribing the message into Hangul, having learned the writing system, but breaking down the message was easier said than done. None of the words you had written out could be found in the dictionary due to your poor spelling. After several unsuccessful attempts you had given up.

You may not have grasped what was on the message but featured prominently in your travel book was the biggest radio transmitter in the city, the N Seoul Tower. You assumed that would be an ideal location to relay from, so what was the harm in looking for him there?

Or at least that had been your rationale.  Unfortunately you had risked a lot to come here. You look down to the bite on your calf.

It hadn’t taken long for the wildlife to encroach on the vacant city. The scavengers came first feasting on what was left, gorging themselves until their supply began to rot. Shortly after the bigger predators followed. The wolves that had once stuck to the forests, that had been such rare sight to see in Korea, now encroached upon the city. Their fear of humans no longer holding them back from hunting you.

Along with the chairs and cushions you had taken a first aid kit from the front desk to help you disinfect and dress your wound. But now as you look at the tubes of cream you are at a loss once again, the packaging bearing no english words. You settle for what you assume to be alcohol wipes and a bandage, hesitant to put anything else on the broken skin.

You lay down on a bench next to the fire in a large sleeping bag you had found in outdoors store before starting your ascent of the mountain. Also stocking up on items such as a propane stove and the flare gun that you had just shot earlier. You rummage through the bag for food that you brought not wanting to move from your now warm spot. Your fingers find the holes left by the teeth of one of the wolves you ran afoul, you shake your head thankful that the beast took the bait with the can of meat that you had thrown, rather than the rest of your leg.

As you dig into your canned dinner your attention turns to your surroundings. You had set up camp on a platform surrounded by walls of padlocks, thousands of them had simply been latched onto the metal serving no specific purpose. You’ve seen displays like this before in other countries. Couples would write their names onto the locks and leave them at symbolic spots like this. You thought it was cute the first time you saw one of these setups, but looking upon it now you are overwhelmed with sadness. You confirm the sight with your guide book learning that this place was a popular spot for couples to visit. Not only because of the locks but even the bench you sat on was designed to draw people closer together, with a slight slope down in the middle making those who sat down slide into each other. You curse yourself for coming here feeling more alone than ever before.  Knowing that you would never get the chance to have that type of relationship, one where you would visit a place like this. How can you when the world was at its end and there appears to be no one left but you?

The radio suddenly cuts out, resuming a second later but presenting a different tone. You almost drop your food in surprise. The message changed, he’s out there somewhere making another attempt to communicate. You still don’t know what it’s saying but it had been only half an hour since you set off the flare. It’s too short of a time frame from your signal to be a coincidence right?

With fresh determination you set down your guide book pulling your travel dictionary and journal out to make another attempt at translation. After a few minutes you manage to pull one word of importance from the dialogue, signal. He must be talking about the shot you sent up. You fall back on the bench in happiness. It’s been a fortnight since you’ve seen anyone, you weren’t even sure that the owner of the voice was still alive, but you had hoped. This simple form of communication is so overwhelming you can’t contain your happiness.

But now you’re unsure of the best course of action. Should you stay where you are? Is this person able to make his way to you? Without being able to translate the rest of the message you find it difficult to come up with a plan. You continue listening and writing out the sounds you hear but the voice creates such a friendly and comforting presence, lulling you into a sleepy state.  Exhausted by your journey you soon give into it, you curl up on the bench knowing that it won’t be safe to venture out until the morning anyway.

...

A few hours later in a haze you hear the distinct click of the radio shutting off. Thinking the batteries dead, you groan reaching to your bag to find the replacements you had packed, wanting to return power to the device so you could still listen to the voice. As you sit up you come face to face with a dark clad man bent over you, reaching down to the receiver beside you. You flinch back in fear, your eyes darting between the black mask covering his mouth and nose, the metal bat in his hand and the blood spattered all over him.  

He locks eyes with you, and his own seem just as shocked. He looks down at his own appearance and he takes a step back shaking his hand. He mutters something softly as if trying to explain himself. You try to edge back from him finding it difficult on the bench’s incline while wrapped in your sleeping bag. This has to be him, the one you had heard on the radio. His voice sounded so friendly in the message, but now he looks as if he might finish you off.

Watching your response he removes his mask allowing you to see the rest of his face speaking his next words very clearly. “Hangugmal hal julaseyo?” You had been asked this phrase so many times during your visit, you can easily determine what he’s asking. Can you speak Korean?

You shake your head back at him. His face falls, his eyes lowering in disappointment.  “English?” He asks with hesitation. You nod this time still focusing on his appearance. He gives you a half smile pointing to the bat, searching for his words carefully. “Sorry, neugdae... big...dog...”

The wolves... He had come to find you in the night despite their presence. Giving you a reasonable explanation for the blood. You pull up the dictionary next to you finding the word and hand it over to him. “Neugdae is Wolf?”

“Neugdae, yes wolf.”  His smile is wide now as he looks down at you now, seeing that you’ve relaxed. You can’t help but give him one back. He moves closer crouching down and offering his hand that he wiped off on his pants, he chuckles shyly at his state. “Hoseok.”

With the mask removed and a smile on his face his harsh appearance is completely gone his softness now matching the voice from the radio. You give him your name which he tests on his tongue, repeating it slowly to confirm that he is saying it right.  

After lowering your legs to the ground and moving your scribbled notes out of his way you offering him the seat next to you. He glances at the pages in your hands with a grin. Taking the notebook from you he finishes your work crossing out a most of the words rewriting them with the correct spelling. Using the dictionary to assist he translates it for you. Hoseok nods pointing at the one part you had managed to decipher. “Signal,” He repeats before he begins to build the rest of the message around the single word.

... I saw your signal. Stay there. I’ll come to you...

After a pause he inquires, “You are alone?”

“Yes, you?”

He nods looking into the fire that is slowly dying. You can tell he’s disappointed, he’s probably spent all of this time waiting. At the first sign of another living soul he came running and you can’t even speak the native tongue. You have nothing more to offer him than a spot by your fire and a language barrier.

He points to your travel book from the ground. “Vacation? Trip?” You nod sadly while he continues to ask questions, “Friends or family nearby?”

You shake your head, you eyes begin to brim with tears. He reaches out to you slowly, his fingers graze your forearm as you explain your situation, how you haven’t heard anything from your family back home. He smiles brightly when you mention your home country. “I’ve been there! ” He exclaims seeming so happy to have found something in common that you can’t help but feel guilty.

“I’m sorry.” You suddenly blurt out to him feeling like such an inconvenience. “I’m sorry I don’t speak Korean. I’m sorry you had to find me.”

“Aniyo, no.” He wraps his arm around your shoulders. “Don’t be sorry. We will learn together, Okay?” His bright voice pauses, as if realizing he’s made an assumption his face drops again. “Can I stay here, right?” You immediately nod making him chuckle, “Good.”

...

You wake early the next morning only to find Hoseok snoring on the bench opposite yours. Not wanting to disturb him you limp off to the tower entrance. Clutching your sleeping bag like a cloak wanting to keep its warmth as you raid the empty tower, finding a gas stove that ran off propane tanks even larger than the one you had brought up with you. As the rice begins to steam you hear Hoseok calling your name. You peak your head out from the kitchen to find him with a distressed look on his face. Upon seeing you he hops over the bar counter advancing quickly to pull you into a hug. Confused by the sudden display, you’re left speechless in his arms as he holds you,.

He tugs you back lowering his eyes to yours. “You left...” he sighed.

He must have been worried when he woke up alone, you hadn’t realized how upset he would be. You thought you needed his company more than he needed yours, but clearly you were mistaken. “Sorry, you were asleep.” You apologize, he nods and blushes when he notices he’s still holding on to you.

But when he glances down to see the state of your leg he becomes distraught once again. “What is that?” He points to the bandage.

“Neugdae...” You offer with a slight smile. “I met one too.”

“Aissh, sit.”

“But I was cook...”

“Sit.” he repeats, his stern face appears so unyielding that you know you won’t win against him. He goes to the kitchen and finishes off the meal.

As you eat together you ponder on what comes next. You found each other, there’s enough food for as long as the expiration dates last, but what should you do from here? Should you leave the city? Are there other towns and cities that still live on despite the plague? With the loss of power and communication it’s impossible to know. Your family lives to far away for you to even consider going to them to be a possibility, but what about his?

“Are you from this city? Was your family here?”

“Not here.” He grabs one of the travel maps from a nearby desk. “ They’re here, in Gwangju.” He points to a southern province.

“Do you know if...” You can’t even bring yourself to finish the question.

He shakes his head. “We lost...phone...no,” He searches for the word. “Contact, we lost contact.” His expression is so grim. You take his hand in yours holding it hoping to give him some comfort. “Thank you,” He whispers back with a dim smile.

“When should we go?”

His eyes widen and his smile grows, becoming more natural. “Meet my family... beolsseo?” He laughs back to you, but you miss the joke without a translation.  He looks down to your leg, “We’ll go, when you heal.”

...

The next day though your leg becomes even more swollen. Hoseok had shown you the right ointment to use but the wound started to turn red around the edges. Unfortunately the infection spreads quickly as you progress to the stage of a fever hours later.

He flips through the pages of your dictionary. “You need stronger...” He points to the word antibiotic on the open page. “I can go find them.”

The thought of being left up here alone doesn’t sit well with you. What if something happened to him, what if he couldn't make it back, it’s not like he could call you. You had already lost one friend in a similar scenario you have no plans on losing him too.  You try to brush off the seriousness of your condition. “I’ll be okay, I don’t need anything else.”

“No. You are not okay.” He turns to take his pack and bat placing the mask back over his face.

In a panic you grab his wrist, trying to convey your fear to him. “Please, don’t leave me.”

He kneels down to you his eyes piercing yours as he brushes the hair from your face. Replying softly, “Aissh, you’re the one trying to leave first.” He scolds lightly with a smile trying to calm you.

You are anxious about being alone for a few hours, but he is clearly worrying about being alone for a lifetime. He sighs pulling another black mask out of his back and places it over your mouth and nose. Remaining crouched he presents his back to you. “Gaja. Let’s go.” After pulling your arms around his neck he supports your thighs on his hips and hands.

You lean your head against his shoulder giving in to the wave of exhaustion presented by the fever. He descends the mountain slowly with you on his back. A soft hum coming from his lips as he takes each step. He checks in with you when you begin to fall quiet.

“Still with me Kkochiya?” You nod, not recognizing the last word, he placed such an emphasis on it it sounded important. You try to keep it in your mind to look it up later but you to fall into another haze preventing you from keeping your focus.

There's a jingling sound of something that might be keys and the small beep of a car unlocking. You look up to see an expensive vehicle pulled right up to the secured gate. Public sites like this one were the first to be closed and locked up during the outbreak, but at least now they’re able to give you guaranteed reprieve from the death you had seen. Hoseok rests you into the passenger side buckling your belt for you. He mumbles a mixture of Korean and English, you can only pick out a couple words. “Not far... not far.”

He’s right, it’s only a few minutes before he cuts the engine. You wince as he opens the door. The smell that you had escaped up on the mountain returning to your senses. The mask provides you with a little relief but your eyes still water from the stench.

Hoseok breaks open the glass door of the pharmacy with his bat, and reaches in to undo the dead bolt. You wait in your seat chuckling lightly as he calls out “Sorry,” to no one in particular for breaking the door.  

He comes back to the car to carry you in with him. Setting you down on the counter he begins his search for something that might help you, locating what must be the pharmacist's reference book. As Hoseok flips through the pages his face scrunches up in concentration. He takes a massive bottle off the shelf and checks the reference text a few more times before opening the container and giving you a pill along with some water.

“Thank you,” You whisper.

Hoseok bows his head giving you weak smile. You shift yourself to side off the counter when he stops you. “Stay, we should stay here.” His nervousness showing through, he must want to stay close to the pharmacy so he can be sure he gave you the right medicine.

He takes the time to clean and bind your wound.  Every now and then he looks up to you to see if it’s too tight or if you are in pain as he wraps the bandage.

Hoseok drags in blankets that he stores in his car. You spend that night on the pharmacy floor. Sure there are plenty of homes around with unused beds but you both know if you step into one of those houses what you would find. You aren’t ready to force yourself to see those sights again, if you can avoid them you will.

You can tell that he is still concerned with your fever still present, giving you another dose of the antibiotic before falling asleep, He holds you close as you shiver in the dark, his presence soothing you into another sleep.

The next morning you feel his palm against your face.  

You open your eyes to see his bright smile. You blush as he kisses your forehead holding you to him with the biggest grin upon his face.   

“Dahaengida. You’re not hot.”

“Ouch,” you scoff, holding back a laugh, curious if he will catch on to his own words.

“Aniyo,” he whines pushing gently on your shoulder. He mutters something else but doesn’t bother to translate it for you, allowing you to laugh instead at his fumble.

...

You take things slowly over the next couple of weeks. You return to your camp in the tower, but before your ascent back up the mountain Hoseok grabs a few books from the library next to the car park. He pulls a variety of titles for those who wished to learn english. He smiles shyly as you looked over them, handing you a copy of korean for beginners that you had requested.

It’s an odd feeling really. After watching so many shows and movies you thought if something like this was to happen that every day would be a struggle to survive, but you’ve grown quite comfortable. Each day you both study and plan your trip south and at night you sit by the fire, setting off a flare as darkness claims the city, searching to see if anyone else needs to be found. Your feelings towards Hoseok grow stronger with but you can’t help but feel doubt lingering within you. He is the kind of person you could have only wished for before the events that took everyone else away. Your sentiments towards him would be the same no matter the setting, but are the same desires true for him? Every night since the pharmacy he holds you close while you sleep, as if he’s afraid he might lose you while he dreams. His glances and touches linger on you more as time passes. But this need for you... is it simply from the situation or does he hold the same feelings as you. It is not the kind of question one can convey easily even in your native language.

As you lay by the fire one night, you try to bear your concerns. “You wouldn’t let yourself settle for someone would you?”

He looks at you with confusion, “Yes... I’m settling with you, we are living here.”

“No settle for me, to settle for less... forget it...”

“No tell me.” He begins to unwrap a bar of chocolate you had taken from the gift shop and takes a bite looking at you.

Your dictionary is no help at all in this concept of feelings, you’re on your own for this one. “Do you prefer chocolate bars or cake?”

“Cake, you have cake?!” His eyes light up giving you his answer.

“No,” you chuckle at him. “But would you say they are similar?”

“Yes...”

“You prefer cake to chocolate but since there is no cake you settle for less, you settle for chocolate. Does that make sense?” You ask flustered.

“You’re saying there’s no cake?”

“I’m saying that I am the chocolate!” You burst out.

He looks at you with a surprised expression. You doubt you got through to him as his next word comes between laughter “Masiseo.”

...

With your leg fully healed it’s the last day before you leave the city. Limited by the lifespan of gasoline you will only have a year at most before it oxidizes beyond the point of use. The sooner you head out the more area you can cover and time you can devote to your search on the way down to Gwangju.

You both venture down the mountain to do a few tasks before you depart. The first stop is the little strip of land which juts out right into the Han River beside the Banpo Bridge. This spot has become an area you frequent regularly. The formation providing adequate shelter from the flow of the river makes it the perfect place for bathing and washing... with the exception of the frigid temperature.

The water as usual is absolutely freezing. You agree to bath on opposite sides of the narrow land bridge, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t hear his high pitched stream of curses as he steps into the water. You snicker but find yourself doing the same once the water reaches your waist.

After a few minutes you hear another loud swear followed by, “Kkochiya?” There he is using that word again. You tried to ask him about it but before but he would only grow embarrassed and steal the dictionary from you. Not giving it back until you promised you wouldn’t look it up.

“Mmm?”

“Can I join you on that side?”

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s a big fish.”

“Says the boy who fought off wolves.” You laugh despite also growing flustered with his request, “Okay just give me a minute.” You move into deeper water taking the soap with you, turning your back so he can get in with some privacy.

After a splash behind you he gives you the all clear. He is only submerged up to his waist giving you the full view of his upper torso.  You unconsciously bite lip your lip in response. Realizing he was watching your reaction you mumble a sorry while he lets out a light laugh.  Was this actually why he wanted to come over, to tempt you?

After a quick wash to your hair you wrap it in a knot at the back of your neck. You spot Hoseok with a washcloth reaching for his back. In an attempt to prove your self restraint to Hoseok after your lapse you approach him from behind.

“May I?” You ask reaching out for the cloth. He stutters as you take it from his hand, still facing away from you. You run it over the muscles in his back, fingers drawing lines in the defined flesh.

“Gongjunim...” He lets out a low groan as you continue focusing on the spot between his shoulder blades, then slowly moving lower. His head lulls back ever so slightly as you reach his lower back.

You stop yourself before proceeding any further passing the cloth back to him over his shoulder. “I’m getting out. You coming?”

He breathes deeply as he responds. “I’ll follow soon... I need a minute.”

...

You stop at a couple stores on your way back picking up more supplies for your trip. New sleeping bags, propane tanks, a fresh line to siphon gas, and a few other necessities that might be difficult to come by.

“One more stop.”

You yawn from the passenger seat. “We should head back soon we still have to climb up.”

“You will like this place,” He promises.

He stops the car in front of the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art. You’re in a state of shock, this had been next on your list of tourist stops you had planned before all the public sites were shut down. “How...how did you...”

He pulls out your dogeared travel book from his back pocket and places it on your lap, with a grin from ear to ear.

As he exits the car he takes one of the camping lanterns you had found earlier that day. The museum was breathtaking, holding a mixture of historical and modern Korean art. The classical section had to be viewed mostly by lantern light. With Hoseok leading the way he holds your hand between each piece. The lantern and darkness added an unexpected viewing perk, allowing you to fully appreciate one display without being spoiled by a view of the next.   

The only other distraction is provided by Hoseok. He watches as you examine each piece. Smiling beside you when you become wide eyed or gasp at the beauty of the work. Standing there with him in the dark feels so intimate, at night you are together but you are also surrounded by the noise of the wind and wildlife. In here it’s just you and him, with the dark placing a dependence on your other senses. The sound of his breath echoing beside you. The warmth of his hand on yours.

As you look at the last work of art he drapes himself over you. His chin resting on your shoulder while his arms cross in front of you, the sweet smell of his hair wafting into your nose. “Aleumdabda...” He mutters beside your ear. After your studies you now know this world to mean beautiful. You nod in agreement still looking at the masterpiece. He lets out a brief sigh next to you. “Nae sarang...” He pauses as if racking his brain for the words to continue his thought or possibly a translation. Shaking his head he simply mutters, “Gaja,” and directs you out of the dark room.

...

That night you pack up everything that you need from the tower. With the supplies assembled you sit together in front of the fire on the outdoor platform one last time. Slowly drifting off as you watch the flames in front of you. Your head coming to rest on the side of Hoseok's leg. He rubs your hair gingerly with his fingers as you fall asleep.

It’s still dark the next time you open your eyes. Woken by the sound of scratching metal. You look over to Hoseok who is looking very intently at something in his hands.

“What’s that?”

“Oh sorry.” He blushes trying to hide the small object when he realizes you’re awake. You catch his finger quickly to find something cool and hard in his grip. It’s a lock, he was scratching your names into a lock. Your thumb rubs over both the English and Hangul spellings of your name and his. He must have found it while you grabbed your supplies that day.

You look over to the wall of padlocks a smile tugging at your lips while a blush rises on your skin to match his. First the museum and now this. You had suspected, you had hoped that the museum was his idea of a date. You can see now that he’s trying to make the relationship between you and him real not just in the present but as it would have been in the past. Who knew a lock could break a barrier you laugh to yourself.

You edge closer to him as he sits cross legged on the ground. Your hand cups his check. You watch as he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath clearly enjoying your touch. He gently kisses the heel of your palm that rests against his lips before looking back to you. He suddenly pulls you into the spot between his legs now holding your face in his hands.

You make one last attempt to see if this what he truly wants. “Promise... promise that you are not settling for me.”

He sighs with a smile, reaching back to your earlier conversation, “You are not chocolate. You are not cake. Neon naekkeoya.” He kisses your forehead, as he pulls away he gives you the translation. “You are mine.”

“Neoneun naui Kkochiya.” He whispers as his lips move down to your lashes touching those next,  “You are my flower.”

“Nae Gongjunim,” Now grazing the curve of your cheek, “My Princess.”

“Nae sarang,” He finally encases your lips in his, but instead of pulling away fully he whispers the next words against your mouth. “My Love.”

He has said all these words before but he never explained their meaning. You try to think back to when he first started using them but you find the mouth trailing down your neck enjoyably distracting.

You tug at his jacket with the intention of taking it off, he groans as if the thought of removing himself even for a second is unfavourable. Once its pulled away from his arms he latches back on to you with fierce grip.

His mouth continues to descend to your collar coming to the very edge of your shirt. As his fingers rest on the top button he pulls away slightly and looks up to you his eyes begging for permission to continue. Your hand raises to his helping to undo that first fastening. You thought he would continue with the rest quickly. Instead he draws the shirt opening down your arms exposing your shoulders and skin level with the next button. He proceeded to kiss and nip at every part of you he had just freed, only moving on to the next button once he is sure that he has given the area enough attention. Continuing his progress as if he's slowly unwrapping a gift and savouring every part of it.

Hoseoks breath shudders as he reaches your bra. With one hand cupping the swell of chest firmly. His other arm wrapping around your lower back to hold you close. His lips trail along the edge of both cups. He pulls the straps of your bra down to join the shirt that he has been slowly tugging down your arms. To continue his progress he lowers you down onto the makeshift bed you were sleeping on just moments before.  

He pulls his shirt off as you rest between his legs. You reach out to place your hands on his neck and draw him in for another kiss. Hoping that he would press his skin against yours, but he kisses the inside of your wrist with a smirk and continues where he left off. As he releases the last of the buttons of your shirt he removes it entirely.

His hands trail lower to your thighs, his thumbs pressing down in the front with his fingers reaching around to the back making their home right at the start of the curve of your ass. He pulls up your hips ever so slightly, his mouth  leaving his mark on a spot just above the seam of your waistband.

Hoseok bites his lip as he looks down at your hips now squirming in his grasp. You undo your button and zipper prompting a wishful reaction from him.

“Kkochiya?” He asks with a deep exhale.

You rise back up to meet him giving him the answer with the simple touch of your lips to his. A lustful grin spreads across his face which he can’t seem to control. He helps up tug off your pants and his own. Leaving your underwear on as he moves back over you placing his knee carefully between your legs. He leans back kneeling his thigh creating an incline leading to him. Taking your hands in his he raises you up, guiding you to a kneel as well but still separated by his leg. Your crotch coming to rest on him. With the pressure of his loin pushing back your underwear proves to be an ineffective barrier for your damp arousal. Hoseok lets out a sound somewhere between a  hiss and a groan. “Aissh Gongjunim.”

He drags you further up his leg, a whimper leaving your lips as you grind against him. A hand traces your jaw lifting your chin for a kiss. His other arm wraps around your hips pushing them down as he rocks you back and forth. You breathing becomes ragged against his mouth, but he takes it all with a grin and his eyes closed.

Wanting to elicit the same response from him, you lower your hand to his boxers palming the erection that had pressed against your leg when he pulled you forward. Your fingers run up to the tip but his hand grabs your wrist to prevent you from doing it again. He mutters against you with a sigh his head lowering your shoulder his expression strained. Had you done something wrong? Does he not want to go any further?

“Too good...” He explains quelling your fear with a smirk.

His fingers leave your wrist and float to the band of your underwear conveying his desire to continue. He pushes your underwear to the side, licking his lips as he watches a string of your arousal cling between you and the cloth.

Pulling himself through the opening in his boxers, he takes your legs and wraps them around his torso, supporting your weight in his hands as he slowly lowers you onto his cock. He perches himself just at your entrance, you feel his tip brush against your damp folds. He reaches for you with his mouth, stealing the moan from your lips as he shifts you down to take him. He rests there for a moment sheathed inside of you.

“Ah gibun joha.”  He moans in your ear. You find yourself clenching around him desperate to hear more from him, craving the sound of his words, his praise. He shifts to move back on top of you his first thrusts coming slowly.  

His name falls from your mouth as a plea.

“Yes, nae sarang?” He whispers back. Your head arches back with a deep breath, you’re so close. He tilts your chin back forward to meet you eyes,“Show me. Show me how.” His request needs no explanation. You take his right hand slowly licking the pad of his thumb. He arches back a little as you lower his hand placing the now moist digit on your clit. He takes the lead again, pressing down forcing another gasp to escape you. Twitching with each pass of his thumb, while his thrusts become more impactful. Your breathing catches, forcing you to inhale until you finally let out a satisfied tremor. A rush of warmth floods through you, your climax coaxing his too to escape.

Even after the final thrust he remains inside. The heat coming from him so desirable in contrast to the night air, it’s as if the light of day had reemerged to bathe you in it’s glow. It seems so simple now, you might be his flower but he is your sun. Keeping you warm, keeping you happy despite the barrier between you and the darkness that surrounds you.

...

Hoped you enjoyed it!  I’ve included the all the terms I used below,  some of them were already translated in the story but others I left open so here’s your chance to look them up.

Dictionary of Korean terms (In order of use)

Hangugmal hal julaseyo? - 한국말 할 줄아세요? - Can you speak Korean? Neugdae - 늑대 - Wolf Aniyo - 아니요 - No Beolsseo - 벌써 - Already Gaja - 가자 - Let’s go Kkochiya - 꽃이야 - Flower (in the form of a nickname) Dahaengida - 다행이다 - Thank God Masiseo - 맛있어 - Delicious Gongjunim - 공주님 - Princess Aleumdabda - 아름답다 - Beautiful Nae sarang - 내 사랑 - My love Neon naekkeoya - 넌 내꺼야 - You’re mine Neoneun naui Kkochiya - 너는 나의 꽃이야 - You’re my flower Ah gibun joha - 아 기분 좋아 - It feels so good

[harahmed]

I’ve thought a lot about why I prefer to type things on here and post them vs just writing about them in a google or word document and keeping it personal and safe. Back in HS it was a way to communicate the thoughts and emotions that confused me and angered me to my friends as well as the therapeutic aspect of it. Now I think there’s something symbolic about posting it as kind of a way to send off all these emotions that are bottled up inside of me. Sometimes I’ll encounter people that say what’s the point of talking about it if it won’t change anything, but now that I think about it I don’t think the people in my life that say that actually feel that way. For the things that they just keep to themselves and say “there’s no point in talking about it” it’s just easier to do that than to have to face the anxieties and issues in your life that you may not have the ability to change; like getting fired from a job or other difficult situations that seem out of your control. For the things they can change, it’s also so anxiety inducing to talk about them if you’re struggling with making the change. Making a change is like the goal of gambling...you can accept there will be ups and downs but your main goal is for an upward slope of net winnings over time. Sometimes though when trying to make a change it feels like you’re just nose diving downwards and in those cases talking about it just feels like a reminder of your inadequacy. I think this is one of those things that everybody deep down knows and just saying they don’t want to talk about it because it won’t change anything is just a translation of I’m exhausted from it and don’t want to confront it right now or maybe even anytime soon. My go to is you know even if it doesn’t change anything talking about it will help. I’m realizing through typing this that’s probably not good advice and i have to try to pay more attention to the context of the situation before i say that. Maybe I do already though and don’t realize it. Next time someone says that to me I’ll have to just ask first if they’ve talked about it with anyone else. Knowing first hand how exhausting it is to talk about something you feel powerless over maybe I should stop trying to push for people to talk to me specifically. I always felt like I could give advice that the average person would not give in a lot of different situations but maybe I’m just giving myself too much credit. It’s disheartening to not be sure about where I stand in this...if I’m someone that people appreciate trying to give them a nudge to talk about the things they don’t want to or if it’s overbearing and results in them avoiding talking to me about these issues. I guess that’s what I get for being a skipping rock over the lake of life. Not delving into the depths of it results in this i guess. When you finally start thinking about it you’re just so unsure because of the lack of reflection it feels like there’s nothing to ground you. I think what my lifecoach would say here is to remind myself of my identity and work from there. idk though i’m having doubts. reminding myself of my identity won’t translate to people understanding my intentions and even if i have good intentions I can’t force someone to understand that. Everytime I try it just makes the situation 100x worse.

It’s hard to keep others perspectives in mind on a day to day basis. Sometimes no matter how hard I try I just cannot see from another side. Most times though I don’t even realize that I should be thinking about others perspective because I’m so wound up in my own. I could say i will try to be more cognizant of it but I’ve said that a million times in the past couple of years with no plan to change...then it just falls in the back of my mind until another shitty situation comes up that reminds me that this is an issue I’ve had and have been aware of that went unresolved and resulted in this shit situation and it just keeps happening. how do people even change while trying to keep up with life...I feel like I barely changed after putting my life on hold for over a year. change is so slow it’s discouraging. I’m sure everyone feels that way but it doesn’t make it any better lol. feels like these thoughts i’m having are thoughts I should’ve had five years ago. Better late than never doesn’t make me feel any better either.

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

My whole life I’ve found myself caring too much about the most random things that would cause me to argue with people until I push them away because I’m so stubborn and relentless.

I don’t understand how after the points I made you still feel the same way. To me it felt like what it probably feels like to you when i’m stubborn about something. I was stubborn in this case too but it’s because i care about m and talked to her in that 1 year more than I’ve ever talked to anyone else in my life. she’s important to me and I know her intentions are always good even though you don’t see that even after i tried to explain it over and over it just got stale. I feel like it’s silly to decide what someone’s character is because of something so minuscule in the grand scheme of what makes up a whole ass being. just because you wouldn’t do it doesn’t make it wrong and doesn’t mean there’s betrayal. everyone has the right to do that because itw ould be impossible to not judge people based off of tiny actions but it bothers me so much. I get that it’s because you care about your friend and I care about mine too but I feel responsible for silently ruining a friendship through speaking to you about anything and I regret it so much because it feels you completely contorted the mood behind what was said and it had an everlasting effect on a friendship that lasted longer than we’ve both known each other. something that was meant to be lighthearted and funny was taken so literally and seriously because your defensive about your friend. IDK how else to say the message and the words we made fun of were too mutually exclusive things. it’s like every other time I’ve told you that was supposed to be light hearted or funny and you just get so mad over it. I know it would be silly to blame you for that it just feels like inadequacy on my part for not thinking about how you would react to these things before I say them in the tone I do. everytime i say this shit in a joking tone I feel like it makesyou even madder for belittling the situation that you take so seriously and it makes me not want to tell you things but i also know that’s not a solution either and will just push you away but idk how to handle this. I wish i never told you. it’s so frustrating man. idt you feel any guilt about it because you probably think it’s for a’s best interest but i disagree with you whole heartedly which is why I feel even more strongly about it because through you this friendship was eroded to probably at this point nonexistence. you still won’t get that these were too separate things. I haven’t felt you were straightup wrong in a very long time but i feel that with this. you took something the wrong way then transferred that already incorrect thinking to fuck another relationshp up. i know it was for her best interest in your eyes but i feel like after the context I gave it should’ve opened your eyes a bit more but you just double down on your thinking and it’s frustrating. a taste of my own medicine i guess lol. based on your logic making fun of a word in a message doesn’t constitute bad character..especially when like a said 5 times she called me out for what i said. like what more would you want someone to do in that situation lol. finding humor in emotionally charged situations is a main *mature* coping mechanism in psychology. that’s steering a little too far away from the point though i guess. making fun of an unconventional word someone uses in an emotionally charged message doesn’t translate to making fun of the person or the message. even if it’s not completely independent things that doesn’t mean the satire was malicious or with bad intentions. why would you expect her to think about what she’s saying as deeply as you did when it’s just an everyday conversation lol. ‘i just feel she’s a shitty person for doing that’ when she probably never even thought about the joke again. you can say she could’ve looked at it through anita’s eyes but it’s so fucking hard to do that at baseline I literally struggle with it every day but when this one person does it this one time with a situation that MOST people would probably not think to think that way....to you it’s just black and white she’s a shitty person with bad character. I knw you know that’s not true so why are you being so stubborn about it. i feel like another reaosn you don’t like her is because she was there for me during that time you were really struggling in and thought i wasn’t but like take that out on me not on her. it feels like you are just so much less understanding to any girl in my life and way too understanding with me. I wish it would just balance out a bit more but you’re not a robot. i don’ tknow i’m just upset with how you see this person that’s important to me and that i care about and it ruined a friendship that it shouldn’t have. if i didn’t tell you that one joke things would still be good between them and it’s over something so stupid. i get to you it’s not stupid but take into consideration the context of the conversation at the time not how you want her to feel about it given what you know bc she knew prob 5% of the details you know about our situation so if you should be mad at anyone it’s me not her.

it’s frustrating that anytime i face some sort of emotional adversity i just want to drop everything do nothing and just be left alone. i’ve had the luxury of doing it in the past year with my year off but i have a feeling it’s gonna make it a harder habit to kick. i just wanna sleep and play video games and take my mind off of all of this.

[rigelmejo]

Lets discuss Clozemaster:

It’s a free app. At least, I’ve only ever used the free version, and it’s perfectly usable AND useful to use free. The only noticable limitation is that when you click a sentence trying to copy/paste, you need to click copy and then paste into a dictionary of your choice outside of Clozemaster. Sometimes clicking a word for a definition is needed, since each ‘cloze’ is based on a sentence with one new word you’re ‘learning’. The translations given for each sentence once you give your cloze answer/guess, are not translated literally. So it’s necessary to copy/paste the word and look up the exact definition sometimes, to figure out what SPECIFIC word/meaning in the sentence, your new learned cloze-word really was. This is just something that happens when learning this way. It’s fine, and the app is still usable. It’s just I DO think with the paid version, if you click your sentence after answering/guessing the cloze word, the app gives you an exact definition of the cloze-word. So the paid version might be a second or two more convenient.

It has one drawback that is not something that changes whether its the free version or paid, and it’s understandable WHY the app has the feature. The positives the app gets from it, make up for the negatives the app gets from it in my opinion. I remember hearing, a long while back, that Clozemaster picked its sentences from Forvo.com, a website with a huge amount of native speaker submitted sentences with their language/other language translations and pronunciations in their language. Forvo itself is a WONDERFUL resource for hearing the pronunciation of words. It’s also a pretty useful site for people who want to make flashcards and try to learn using a kind of comprehensible input i+1 flashcard learning method.

The good thing about Clozemaster using Forvo as it’s source for it’s sentences: a huge amount of the Clozemaster sentences are natural language, sentences a real person would/has used, and Clozemaster for the most part orders the sequence of sentences it gives you based on most common words first. Then over time you cover less and less common words. With Chinese, it also goes by HSK level - so you only encounter sentences with simple grammar first, and HSK1 words, then each gets a bit more complicated as you progress to the HSK 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 etc sets. So, you can realistically use Clozemaster as a sentence mining resource, that will somewhat be in line with the method of trying to learn from comprehensible input where there’s only a little new challenging information over time. It is a really great thing. It makes Clozemaster super useful, for any language you’re learning, and if you like studying based on utilizing comprehensible and almost-comprehensible input, it’s designed great for this. The sentences are also generally real sentences people have used, when they’re from Forvo. So you rarely run into sentences that have the kind of errors in the vein of “teacher does not actually understand the language they teach, and is teaching you unnatural language/incorrect grammar.”

The main negative of Clozemaster stems from this same good thing about it: Forvo doesn’t define sentences literally. Forvo defines sentences as a whole - so something that literally means ‘leave now’ might be translated as ‘lets go’ in translated-version of the sentence, because the whole-sentence translation is meant to get the whole gist of the entire sentence translated. The translations for Forvo sentences is more about translating the full sentence chunk’s meaning/equivalent, rather than any word-for-word translation that might be less natural sounding. Since Clozemaster gets the content for it’s sentences from Forvo, it can cause the following issue. Clozemaster will give you a sentence, and when you answer regardless of if you were right or wrong, it will provide you the english translation. Sometimes, the english translation does NOT actually include specifically the translation of the CLOZE-WORD. A simple example might be a chinese sentence, saying in chinese “Wo xian zou” - lets say Clozemaster gives the sentence “Wo ___ zou” and asks you to answer what the cloze-word is. Once you answer, it tells you if you’re right or wrong. Then it shows you ‘xian’ was the correct word, and it shows you the english translation “I’m leaving.”

How big of a problem this is, will depend on how much it bothers you. If you study enough sentences, the other ways ‘xian’ is used will become clear in context, and it will be fine. If you copy the chinese word at this point, open it in a dictionary app, then you will get the literal definition and be able to compare it to how it gets used in this sentence. Xian means ‘first’ or ‘before’, so the more literal translation would be “I’ll leave first,” only in a slightly different word order. But the more natural sounding definition is probably... “I’m leaving.” That IS the translation a chinese drama show would probably pick, and the meaning of “I’m leaving” for an english speaker is about the same as how chinese speakers mean it when they say “Wo xian zou.” So as a full sentence overall translation, the clozemaster sentences are fine. But sometimes the lack of the actual-cloze-word being literally-defined in the english translation, makes learning from some sentences a little confusing. This would be an issue that would crop up if you use Forvo, or any whole-sentences to study from as your primary resource, unless you’re specifically translating literally for yourself. Now, there’s good things about learning this way too - learning as full sentences/phrases of meaning, might actually be more useful in some ways. There’s a great Chinese grammar book that’s all about how a lot of things literally NEED to be worded differently to ‘mean’ the equivalent thing as the english. Different ways of wording nationality, different ways of saying ‘i’m fine’ etc. So Clozemaster sentences as a whole are still useful. It’s just best to treat them as phrase-learning sentences sometimes, if you can’t figure out specifically what the definition of the new word was. That word will come up again in new contexts later, that will further help you understand the word.

Now, onto Clozemaster’s difficulty curve: even the most simple sentences, full of super common words, are still going to be difficult if you are an absolute beginner. If you want to learn using ‘comprehensible’ input, I’d really recommend either... realizing the first several times you’ll use clozemaster will be brutal on you, until you learn the most common words and can then rely on them to understand ‘most’ of the sentences introducing new words... or looking yourself up SOME other resource with at LEAST 100-500 common words, and drilling it before you start using Clozemaster. Whether that means reading an intro textbook, reading a wordlist, doing a memrise deck, anki deck, whatever. Just... Clozemaster is much more useful for learning new words in the context of sentences, if you’ve got a decent understanding of some super common words that tend to be in most sentences FIRST. Otherwise you’re learning ALL the words in a new sentence on Clozemaster at once, instead of ONLY the new cloze-word it’s supposed to be teaching you. In addition, if grammar is confusing the ever daylights out of you, even in the simple sentences in Clozemaster’s start, you might want to look up “X-language grammar guide” on google, find yourself a free one, and skim through it. Just so you have some idea of what grammar features to look out for - if word order is usually different than english, if verbs usually have Y kind of conjugations, etc. This will help make the clozemaster sentences easier for you to learn from if you were struggling - because it will give you more comprehensible details to look for (if you’ve seen a grammar guide, and can identify the nouns/verbs/adjectives, and guess at word order, then you’ll have a better idea of if the new word you are learning is a noun/verb/adjective and how it is related to the words in that sentence that you DO know). This will make it easier for you to learn from the context of the sentence in Clozemaster, with less need for any other tools. For me, I found that Clozemaster is MOST useful to me for rapidly picking up more vocabulary, especially in the stage where you CAN understand example sentences in your study materials like textbooks or example sentences for common words in a wordlist, but CANNOT actually read native materials yet. Clozemaster also progresses to less common words over time, so its a bit like reading a graded reader - except in sentence chunks instead of paragraphs/pages/books. If a graded reader is too difficult, it may be a little easier to use Clozemaster. If some graded readers are too easy, Clozemaster may have some challenging sentences to work up your vocabulary until you’ll feel ready to read a more difficult book. It’s super useful for late-beginner to intermediate skill level learners.

Lets talk about languages not very much like english in Clozemaster - Japanese and Chinese. I’ve tried both of them. For me, they were both brutally difficult even in the beginning, until I learned a lot of basics. Knowing grammar at least at a basic level was vital for me, in helping me figure out how the japanese or chinese sentence was structured compared to the english translations. Also, its very noticable in these languages that some sentences are NOT translated literally. They’re probably not translated literally, because the way an idea in some sentence might be expressed using entirely different words in english versus chinese etc. Now, I DO find these languages on Clozemaster still immensely useful. I’d just say the difficulty curve mentioned above, is going to be even more apparent than in say a romance language. So if you find Clozemaster unusable as a total beginner, consider doing the tips above, then coming back to clozemaster later to help you acquire vocab in context once you... have more of a basis to draw context from. Also, if you find kanji, hiragana, katakana, hanzi incompensible to the point you cannot even distinguish differences BETWEEN different characters? You may need to study one or multiple of those writing systems a bit more before using clozemaster. For me, I could not really learn new kanji words from Clozemaster until I AT LEAST knew some 100 kanji already and had a good idea of how radicals combine to build kanji, so that I could look at new kanji and tell myself “this new word X, pronounced Y in the sentence, matching this english definition, has radicals Z making it up” to help myself remember the new word specifically. And if I didn’t know katakana or hiragana I don’t think I would have been able to even TRY to interpret the sentences. The case was similar with chinese - I had to learn some commonly used hanzi for grammatical information, and recognize the radicals, before I could dive into trying to use Clozemaster sentences to learn new words. However, I will say, Clozemaster’s organization of sentences by HSK level is SUPER useful. As I’ve been steadily learning with my other learning materials, I’ve noticed that for the HSK levels I’ve ‘surpassed,’ the corresponding HSK level sentences in Clozemaster have become completely comprehensible to me (and are now just something I use to review grammar structure instead of learn new words). In Clozemaster, I can pick the next HSK level up to practice learning the new words at the level of HSK I am studying, along with grammar, and use it to learn with sentences for context in a wonderful sentence-mining kind of structure perfect for my learning level. If I DO want to challenge myself, I can pick ‘sentences at random’ and get sentences that are super easy all the way to intensely confusing (for me) complex sentences with a lot of new vocabulary. The way clozemaster is structured for Chinese is incredibly useful if you’re using clozemaster alongside a textbook or any other learning material that is progressing from most common words/basics to more complex. 

[connected-perspective]

AR in Translation

Google is an all-encompassing platform. It started out as a search engine and now has evolved to offering cloud storage services, e-mail, online word processing, online spreadsheets, and so many others. Amongst all of these services, Google also offers Google Translate. It’s pretty self-explanatory: it’s a platform provided by Google to assist users in translating a language to another. This is available on both the web as well as through a mobile application. Although this is a pretty cool tool, it comes with many criticisms; specifically about the accuracy of the translations. As someone who have used Google Translate plenty of times, I know first-hand of the inaccurate translations that this tool provides. However, it is pretty accurate when a user would only want to translate a single word (or two). It just becomes messy when a user may want to translate a whole sentence because then, it would probably end with something like this:

This is an expression in Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) to say to someone when they’re talking too much. It definitely does not mean “Basic talk.” It’s a rude and informal way of talking. Even though this is just two words, it shows that Google Translate is not necessarily accurate.

Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality?

Google Translate would definitely identify as augmented reality, or AR, because it manipulates the surrounding of the reality you are in with technology. It does not necessarily manipulate an entire reality, which virtual reality, or VR, does. To show how the augmented reality part of their app works, Google released a video showing a demonstration with the song “La Bamba.”

This video shows the instantaneous translation that occurs in one’s smartphone screen. For those who do not have access to this video, it demonstrates the use of Google Translate’s AR feature by translating “La Bamba.” The video is not too long (it lasts for less than 2 minutes), which is great in terms of capturing consumers’ attention. From what it looks like, I have inferred that they recorded this in different Google HQs all around the world and taking advantage of the different geographical locations in which Google is located. Due to the fact that the lyrics of “La Bamba” are in Spanish, the video shows the different languages that it can be translated into, such as Indonesian and Croatian (just to mention a few). This video uses (for the lack of a better word) Google’s employees and other props/equipment in their offices to hold up lyrics of the song. Towards the end of the video, they hold up signs that say, “See the world in your language,” which I personally think is a great marketing tactic to spread the word about this AR feature that Google Translate has integrated within their mobile app, but we will talk more about that later.

The Customer Experience

Although I don’t necessarily consider the Google Translate AR feature as “revolutionary” technology, I do believe that it does make trans-lingual communication easier and more effective. In the current digital age that we all live in, a large fraction of the global population has access to both a smartphone and a cell and/or WiFi network, which is all one needs to gain access to this mobile app. Other than the tiny detail that one needs to download the actual Google Translate app, there isn’t much to using the app. It’s a pretty simple process to get something translated through this app; all a user has to do is they have to modify the language they want to translate and the language they want to translate it into and click the camera logo to start scanning and start experiencing Google Translate’s augmented reality. Due to the convenience that AR provides for this app specifically, it is considered to be an added value by users because it gives them more options in terms of how they can translate words or phrases. Furthermore, it is simply cool (for the lack of a better word) to be able to see how reality can be changed or manipulated through technology. Translating words, phrases, sentences, or whole paragraphs is, in some cases, an important part of one’s life. At the very least, it’s important to me because I need it to be able to understand the social environments that I am in and that always differs when I’m in the United States or when I go back home to Indonesia. Being able to see different versions of our perceived reality simultaneously is an interesting concept, which is why as a consumer and user of this app, I was very intrigued by the idea.

Evaluation of Their Marketing Strategy

In my personal opinion, their initial strategy of launching this feature with the video shown above is a good way of educating the consumers about the benefits of augmented reality through a fun song. The explicit message that they were conveying through their video, “See the world in your language,” is also an amazing strategy to tell consumers that Google Translate adapts to any user’s needs and is now offering that service in a more convenient way (the other option being typing the words in the language they want to translate). Furthermore, I thought that Google Translate integrating augmented reality into their mobile app was smart of them to do because the market simply demands it. With the amount of apps that have AR features in them like Snapchat filters (which was such a huge deal that Instagram basically took their idea), Google Translate was merely taking note of the trends that were happening in the market and how they can gain more users. Although it may still be difficult to gather new users to download the app, it may appeal to current users due to that added value (I was definitely pleased to find out that this technology existed for Google Translate). Additionally, according to a review written by Adam Dachis in the “Mobile AR News” section in Next Reality, apparently there isn’t a need for users to have WiFi connection for their AR feature to function; however, I do believe that this does not necessarily apply to all languages offered in the app.

As I have mentioned, even though I think that Google Translate in general is a useful app, there are many concerns regarding its lack of accuracy. At this point in time, it is kind of expected for any translating apps to be inaccurate because all languages are different, and sometimes there isn’t necessarily a way to translate a certain phrase in one language to another. Although I understand that it is difficult to provide accurate translations, it is definitely an aspect Google Translate can improve on. Other than its accuracy, according to the same review given by Adam Dachis on Next Reality, due to the fact that this AR feature requires us to “scan” the words we want to translate with our phone, the results would be much better when we stand still (or at least when our phones are still). In Dachis’ words, 

“Google Translate will often look a little hyper and jumpy when swapping out words because you can’t ever hold your phone completely still. Where there’s movement, there will be text fluctuation."

Overall, Google Translate was clever in integrating augmented reality into their mobile app because to be frank, it makes them more unique. Not only is it easily accessible for those who own smartphones, but it simply responds to market trends. Google Translate has been able to take advantage of this opportunity to appeal to users. Personally, I have relied on Google Translate since my days in middle school, especially when I had writing assignments for my Mandarin class. Although I do not rely on it as much today, it is still a good resource for me to have just in case I need something translated. Despite the recurring inaccurate results of those translations, I was excited to use Google Translate’s AR feature because it made me feel like I was able to manipulate reality in such an easy way, even though I am fully aware that I’m not doing any of the work. Augmented reality is often used in social media, so it was not shocking when more and more social media platforms integrated AR within their apps. However, with Google Translate, it felt like something I have never experienced before. 

[goodvibesatpeace]

22 Spiritual Things That Have Become The Norm Since 2012

Human collective is in the process of creating new reality and the New Earth, but first and foremost, embodying the new type of being that we presently perceive as the “New Human”. Things are starting to take tangible shape right here right now. We are already observing the signs of what is becoming the “new normal” for many today.

We all know that 2012 was the turning point, the year of the “energetic big bang”. That year represents the moment within the infinite now when the ripple effect finally reached enough momentum to tip the mass consciousness scale, and to shift the course of evolution of our Planet from self-destruction to mass awakening. Yes, of course there were awakened people prior to 2012, but we have to agree that over the last six years the number of the awakened ones has grown exponentially.

My job as a Wayshower is to be a bit ahead of the game. To embody, live it and tell. Here are the 22 things that in my observation and personal experience have become a norm since 2012.

1. Meditation

Meditation is no longer “weird”. It has become an essential part of life. Daily meditative practice is as much a part of our routine as brushing teeth or eating. It is no longer looked at as a “chore” or yet another thing to do that’s difficult to find time for. We now understand all of the numerous benefits and reasons for meditating. Not only that, we actually enjoy and look forward to it.

2. Good health

Good physical health and high energy are the side-effects that accompany the awakening process. The more awakened we are, the higher our frequency, the better the health. Good physical health and high level of energy in awakened community is no longer a surprise to anyone.

3. Amplified senses

When the pineal gland is decalcified and the third eye opens, all of our senses amplify from 25 to over 50 percent. It feels like the “volume” of life’s experience is turned up. This has little to do with the state of the sensory organs themselves. We simply gain access to the mechanism that helps us experience everything around us in the whole new, more pronounced way.

4. Synchronicities

Synchronicities no longer surprise us. Strings of numbers, songs, people, objects, appearance of spirit animals, sequence of words, little personal magical pointers of all sorts that to our great amazement used to come into our awareness only once in a while, have now become a permanent feature of our reality. Synchronicities are simply a part of the tapestry of our everyday lives, similar to the little lines on internal maps we are following. They show up everywhere we look, constantly giving us clues and confirming that we indeed are on the right track.

5. Clear guidance and intuition

We are now accustomed to knowing the voice, or rather the feeling, of our internal guidance. The GPS of our intuition is on at all times. We no longer have to listen hard nor put any effort into receiving that guidance. It is here, it is present, it has become a vital part of us, leading us gently from step to step, from miracle to miracle.

6. Miracles

Miracles are becoming pretty common. We are observing all that used to be rare and “inexplicable” happening every month, every week, even few times a week sometimes. On one hand we understand the mechanism and are getting used to it, on another, we are still mesmerized as these events often show up “out of nowhere” and seem “unexplainable” from any reasonable 3D perspective.

7. 5D manifesting

We are also getting used to instant 5D manifesting. This often ties into the category of occurrences that we still perceive as “miracles”. It’s when you really want something and it just shows up “all by itself”. No more super-human effort is requires, only alignment. Stuff “just happens” and in incredibly short time too. A lot of us might still be working on this one, but there is a solid number of people on this planet who actually got it. This is also called “being in perfect alignment” or living within our flow.

8. Ease of living

“Being in alignment” or within our flow creates the ease of living. Those embodying the flow are living the lives of low drama, low stress and low suffering. They really do always arrive at the right place at the right time. Their co-creation of perfectly aligned reality is near effortless. Given that the whole human experience is about contrast, we still get some of the “discomfort” too, but it is nowhere near what we used to experience in the past. If I had to give an average, I would say that the general ratio of ease to difficulty within the awakened community at this time seems to be about 60 to 40.

9. Freedom from fear

This includes trust in what is and freedom from the Matrix. We are no longer sold on blindly doing what we are told. We no longer live in fear of the system, nor the need to follow its rules out of fear. We have arrived at the state of being where we trust in the flow and the perfect alignment of things. We follow our inner guidance and the true calling of our hearts instead of prescribed ways of the system. Many of the awakened ones have gone mostly or even completely off the grid.

10. Inspired action

Given what we presently know and who we have become, inspired action is the only “to do list” that makes sense for us to follow. Guided by intuition and the calling of our hearts, we know exactly what feels “right” to us and when. We also know that the thread of true joyful inspiration flawlessly leads us on our paths. It also effortlessly creates exactly what we desire for the highest good of our lives and the highest good of all. Inspired action anchors our missions into this reality paving the way of the New Human into the New Earth.

11. Co-creative responsibility and self-awareness

We have awakened. This means we have recognized and accepted ourselves as creators of our own experiences. We have taken responsibility for ourselves, our actions, our choices and lives. Through the process of awakening and intensive self-work, we have grown in every possible way and have become self-aware and conscious.

12. Change in relationships

We are noticing that relationships both with self and people in our lives changed. We have learned much about reasons and ways human beings behave. We have arrived at the state that allows us to receive and understand both others and self from the place of compassion, forgiveness and love. We understand the lessons and the growing process and we no longer operate from reactive space of judgment, blame and victimhood. All of the above makes us more balanced and peaceful in all of our relationships.

13. Authentic and telepathic communication

As we have learned to own our choices, being truly ourselves became easier too. This naturally leads us into open authentic communication. With those on the same wavelength telepathic communication is fast becoming a norm too.

14. Ability to feel, see and work with energy

Our senses and abilities are amplified, our third eyes are on, our DNA is constantly upgrading. We are now able to feel, see, work with, adjust and manipulate energy. We also know we too are just energy condensed. This knowledge has become a fact of life and no one is any longer surprised.

15. Sacred sexuality

Our entire approach and understanding of sexuality has changed based on what we presently know and have become. We are drawn to expand our experiences beyond the obvious and into the space commonly known as “Sacred Sexuality”. The old purely physical ways that did not involve understanding of human energetics are starting to appear more and more out of alignment.

16. Access to the subconscious

Our devoted meditative practice has given us a gift beyond any other: access to the “black box” of our own operating system, the subconscious. We have become able to enter, understand and alter our previously hidden memories, conditioning and patterns.

17. Super-fast emotional processing

Let’s face it: if we are born on Earth and are older than 3, we require emotional processing. That’s just the part of the deal in this density. The good news is: with the access to the subconscious, our emotional processing is now easier and faster than ever. What used to take years, now takes days. We are simply cleaning the basements of our minds and freeing up energetic and emotional resources for new abilities, higher frequencies and knowledge.

18. Altered experience of time

Our perception of time has changed. How did the 24-hour day get so short? What happened to having that extra sense that used to know time at all times? How can three hours feel like five minutes? How can this morning feel like it was a week ago? How can a week ago feel like years have gone by? We are shifting within dimensions where time as a construct is either very different or does not exist at all. And we sure can feel it. We have also learned that we can work with and influence time.

19. Meeting people we know from “past lives”

We are recognizing people we meet for the first time. Not just one rare individual, but entire soul groups. We might experience the sense of déjà vu or have a full-on remembrance of our shared past or parallel lives with them. They might not look anything like what we remember, they might be in a very different role in our lives too, but “somehow” we remember that we know them and the knowing is absolutely certain. This is how our soul family grows.

20. Access to the “Cosmic Google”

Suddenly we notice that we are able to pull answers to nearly all metaphysical questions directly from the quantum field of information. Sometimes we have to focus or meditate, sometimes we just instantly know. The answers come in telepathically and we have to translate them into brain-compatible format. This doesn’t always work yet, and having access to this “Cosmic Google” might still puzzle us, but the very existence of such access has become undeniable.

21. Multi-D Brain Upgrade

Not only our minds but also brains have changed. Human “hardware upgrades” have been installed through DNA and third eye activations. Brain capacity is up and we now possess what is called “multidimensional brain”. This means having awareness of and processing different realities, densities, timelines and dimensions simultaneously while also being fully-anchored in 3D.

22. Active non-physical life

We have entered the state of being where countless aspects of our non-physical lives can be experienced in a way as real and present as our physical reality. Dreamtime has become lucid and conscious for many. Installation of “multidimensional brain” has given us awareness of infinite non-physical life outside of our immediate 3D world.

We have gained access to realms, other dimensions, parallel realities, ancient timelines, multidimensional aspects of our own selves, cosmic worlds. We can experience interactions with “otherworldly”, inner-Earth and non-terrestrial beings, elementals, consciousness forms; even with our own parallel incarnations in multiple, countless simultaneous timelines. The list goes on. We are now able to participate, visit, communicate, interact with and have non-physical relationships within the infinite forever way beyond our wildest imagination or best sci-fi.

Many would read this and say: sounds, familiar. Others would say: no thank you. Some might ask how to get there. All options are a conscious choice. We live in cosmic non-interference zone of free individual will, so our choices and intentions determine the course of our paths, how much we upgrade and what exactly we experience. We have the ability to “customize” our expansion.

If our intention is strong and we are willing to take all necessary steps towards our own ascension, while also maintaining clean lifestyle, high frequency and meditative practice, we will evolve into the New Human and ascend with others onto the New Earth. No one else can do this for us. The choice is really ours.

[miaswetnambcu]

Critical Lecture 2 - What does the future hold; prediction of current social changes impact on fashion and textiles

In the previous critical thinking lecture, the links between technology, world events and social changes influence fashion and textiles were explored and identified. This lecture focused on the current social factors and attempt to predict the impact that these will have on the future.

The key causes of social change were identified in the lecture. The first being politics and power. According to Watch Mojo on YouTube, out of the top ten most powerful people in the world in 2020, five were involved in politics in some way. The most powerful person was named as Xi Jinping, who is China’s president, showing how much influence politics can have. He was named as the most powerful person due to him having amended the constitution to broaden his power. China has the second largest economy and is the most inhabited country in the world. Both aspects show the amount of power the country can easily have, and a large portion of that power will go to Xi Jinping. Vladimir Putin is another high-power public figure. He has been the president of Russia since 2000 and has changed the constitution to allow him to be in power beyond 2024. Just this singular change illustrates how much power Putin has in his country, which is why he second on the list of the most powerful people in the world.

Trump is another example of power and how it can be used in politics. Trump is known for being very outspoken on Twitter and has posted some very misleading things on the app. In the 2020 election, he posted a tweet saying that Dominion voting machines had stopped working in Republican areas of the US. The tweet was very misleading, and the problem had been resolved hours before Trump tweeted about it. There was a slight malfunction in one of the voting machines, but with Trump’s power he was able to blow it out of proportion, which lead to his followers being angry. Another similar tweet by Amy Coello claimed that ‘shredded ballots’ were found, when in fact those ‘shredded ballots’ were waste from a ballot opening machine and were not ballots (BBC, 2021). The rise in fake news on social media and with the faster rate it is easier to spread, politicians and other public figures on social media have a power that is different to anything before. Social media allows millions of people to view a post or an article very quickly, whether it be true or not. By spreading false information, this can add to the power that these public figures have by ensuring they receive support from this false news and adding people to their list of followers and supporters. 

Division of wealth is another sector that has a huge impact on society. The world’s richest 1% have more than twice as much wealth as 6.9 billion people. This shows the huge gap that is created in society and as the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. The question surrounding this regarding fashion is if this 1% of the world will control the whole fashion industry due to their wealth and power, or whether that 1% will get bigger or smaller.

Another cause of social change is consumerism. The rise of fast fashion has impacted the fashion industry massively and has led to a dramatic increase of online clothing sales. With the current pandemic and people being unable to go to physical shops, online shopping has never been so popular. In 2020, Boohoo were involved in a scandal regarding their factories and the unfair treatment that was being seen in them. However, their profits still rose by 50% during the pandemic, indicating that the factory scandal they were in may have increased their sales due to people talking about the brand.

Regarding sustainability, consumerism has accelerated it. During the pandemic, sustainable clothing sales rose very much and is continuing to rise. It appears people are looking to support different sustainable brands online as they are unable to go to physical shops that do not offer such clothing. With people being at home a significant amount of time in the last year, they would be able to research what brands they are buying from and take more time to consider what brands they should be buying from, leading to this rise in sustainable fashion. With brands like Zara and H&M creating sustainable fashion lines, buying sustainable fashion has never been more accessible.

Innovation also has a strong impact on social change, with the constant advancement of technology. Artificial intelligence (AI) is rising in popularity now and is looking to eventually become the new norm. For example, Amazon are working on drones to complete unmanned deliveries. This can be translated to the fashion industry, by all production eventually being completed by AI. Chatbots are already online fashion advisors to help customers with the selection of products, as well as keeping track of trends and predicting future ones. Through the pandemic, many brands used augmented reality for their fashion shows. Hanifa used 3D models to show their garments, which increased the amount of reach that they were able to have. Many people were talking about the beautiful execution of the garments and how much detail had gone into each one. However, the use of these kinds of technology will eventually resort in a huge cut of jobs. This is a huge problem with the development of AI and other technologies as there should be a balance between the working people and the working technology to ensure that they are worked in cohesion, rather than against one another.

Social media has a huge impact on social change and on all other aspects mentioned in this lecture. Netflix produced a film called ‘The Social Dilemma’ which highlights the dark side of social media that many people fail to see. It shows how it becomes addicting and how reliant we can become on things such as likes or comments. The reality of social media is that is makes the creators of the platforms lots of money just by clicking on the app. Their goal is to keep their customers on their apps as much as possible, and they do this by using things such as notifications to draw people into their application. Everyone’s usage of social media is monitored to learn what keeps people interested on their apps. They use this information to show more of what seems to keep their customers interested, and then this leads to more watch time on their app. If multiple people were to type on word into Google, the suggested searches will be different for most people due to Google having monitored our results of using their platform. 

Social media has led to the reliance on being appreciated on those platforms through likes and comments. Many people, although they may not realise it, base their own worth on how many likes they get on a photograph they have uploaded to a social media platform. If they do not receive any or enough likes, they tend to feel sad about it and may even delete the picture. The use of social media has had a huge effect on Gen Z. Gen Z is those born after 1996. With the rise in technology since 1996, many people in Gen Z have grown up on social media, which has never been seen in any generation prior to this. The self-harm and suicide rates have increased in Gen Z significantly and it is most likely due to the added pressures of social media, among other aspects like school. Social media has a huge power over this generation unlike any other generation before, making it harder for those older generations to understand Gen Z. Bottega Veneta found that social media was a very toxic place and decided to delete all of their social media outlets in January 2021. The question that arises to this is that if online is too important to stop or if offline is the new luxury. In my opinion, the fastest and easiest way to get exposure to a brand is through social media, so it would help new and upcoming brands. However, social media has not always been present and is obviously not the singular element that can affect popularity or a brand, as proved by many brands prior to social media. 

To extend the lecture, my group and I were given a task to look at how the pandemic has accelerated these different elements. With everyone being at home during the pandemic, advertising on social media has increased as people were looking at it more often due to boredom. Also, social media has been the only source of communication between families and friends, so has provided a comfort to people during this tough time. 

Regarding consumerism, less retail stores and more online shopping has been shown as people were unable to go to physical shops during the pandemic. Although there has been an increase in sustainable fashion, there has also been an increase in fast fashion, which will ultimately lead to more pollution. 

During these uncertain times, people have been looking more towards political figures for guidance. This has led to a bigger reliance on these figures as people are unsure on what to do to help to stop the virus from spreading. The restrictions that have been put in place has led to people respecting their governmental leaders and following their orders more readily. 

Many companies have had to adapt during the pandemic, which has led to innovation happening. Virtual fashion shows were on a rise as well as virtual shopping experiences. Many fashion brands offer online stylists to help choose garments for the customer. As many people are unable to work during the pandemic, the reliance on machinery has never been higher. Online platforms for meetings are constantly upgrading and expanding to meet people’s needs and may result in online meetings continuing after the pandemic. 

The current effects that are occurring due to the pandemic is something that my group and I will have to take into consideration. As our brand is more party and eveningwear, the clothes we create will be focused around leaving the pandemic and helping customers to be confident and excited for when they are able to go out after restrictions are lifted.

[remelitalia]

What is App Store Optimization? (ASO)

With more than 6 million mobile apps in the major app stores, getting your app discovered is one of the biggest issues facing mobile app publishers today. This is why understanding app store optimization (ASO) is so crucial.

But what is app store optimization, and how can you make the most of it? Here’s what you need to know to help your app rank well.

What is App Store Optimization (ASO)? 

App store optimization is the process of optimizing mobile apps to rank higher in an app store’s search results. The higher your app ranks in an app store’s search results, the more visible it is to potential customers.

That increased visibility tends to translate into more traffic to your app’s page in the app store.

The goal of ASO is to drive more traffic to your app’s page in the app store, so searchers can take a specific action: download your app.

The ASO process also requires a crucial understanding of your target customer base, including the keywords your potential customers are using to find apps similar to yours.

When you learn more about which keywords are being used, you will better understand your potential customers’ language so you can hone in on the best keywords to use.

App Store Optimization (ASO) factors to pay attention to include:

App name and title

Keywords

Description

Subtitle

Total number of downloads

Ratings and reviews

We’ll cover how to optimize for each of these factors below, but first let’s talk about why AOS matters.

Why Is ASO Important?

According to Google, 40 percent of apps are discovered through app store searches. This makes search in the app store the most used method for discovering and downloading new apps.

Simply put, this means that:

If you’re not using ASO to increase your app’s search ranking, you’re missing out on the largest discovery channel available to your app.

With hundreds of thousands of apps in each app store vying to rank above one another, the reality is most publishers are not investing in app store optimization.

So here’s my gift to you: ASO is your secret weapon. Spend time every week improving your ASO, and you will meaningfully impact your app’s ranking and overall success.

How to Help Your App Rank: The Basics of ASO 

Much of what I’m about to explain is actually SEO basics.

If you’re already familiar with these for web searches, there are still a few key differences within the App Store.

Let’s start by breaking down the various components that can affect your ASO:

Main ASO Factors

These factors have the largest impact on where your app ranks, so pay special attention to these factors.

App Name/Title: The keyword placed in the title should be the one with the heaviest search traffic. Spend time researching which keyword that is, because changing your title too often can be detrimental. As your app begins to rank higher and gain more reviews, your app’s news will begin to spread by word of mouth. Changing the title can make it difficult for word to spread about your app.

Keywords: To improve your search rankings, you need to know which keywords are relevant and used most often by your target audience. It is helpful to monitor competitors to realize how you compare week to week.

Besides being the most important ASO factor, the title and keywords can be modified easily. so you’ll want to optimize them regularly.

Secondary ASO Factors

First impression matter — but there are several other factors that heavily weigh impact whether users tap that download button. These include:

Total # of Downloads: Your number of downloads are significant to ASO, but you don’t have complete control over them.

Ratings and Reviews: Also important and difficult to control. However, there are ways to incentivize happy users to rate and review

Here’s a complete breakdown of all the factors to keep in mind when optimizing your app for better rankings.

1. App Title

The title is our first impression online. It’s what drew you to read this post, and it’s what will draw users to your app.

Optimizing with a keyword in the title increases search ranking for that title by 10.3%!

Obviously, some limitations apply, as the App Store is very regulated.

You’re given only 30 characters for a title in Apple, and keyword stuffing is a surefire way to risk being banned.

Users are also wary of downloading shady-looking apps for privacy concerns.

Think about it — would you rather have “Evernote” or “Note Taking Note App for Notes” on your smartphone?

Be smart about how you optimize.

Pandora, for example, does everything right.

Its icon is sleek and simple, and with a short name, it was able to fit in three essential keywords.

When searching the App Store for “free,” “music,” or “radio,” you’ll find Pandora at or near the top.

2. App Description

Here’s where things get a bit murky. Technically the App Store algorithm ignores the description.

Users, however, are a different story.

Rather than optimizing for SEO, focus on explaining the features and benefits of your product.

While it seems like you have a lot of space to do this, you actually don’t.

Truncated snippets are shown on your product page, and a few readers will ever click “more” to read beyond what you see here.

You have 252 characters to make your pitch and convince someone you’re worth downloading. So. you’ll want to keep it short and sweet.

There’s no room for fluff, and you may need to A/B test several iterations to find what works best.

3. Keyword Metadata

Apple provides you with 100 characters to enter keywords separated by commas.

These help your app get discovered through search and related content.

There’s no need to duplicate efforts here, so choose keywords you haven’t already used in the title.

Some in-depth keyword analysis can be done using Apple Search Ads.

This feature is only available to iOS app developers and is an essential tool for listing any project.

You can also use a keyword research tool like Ubersuggest to find common key terms and test them.

4. App Subtitle

You’re given a subtitle below the title in search results. This is also limited to 30 characters.

It gives you another chance to use more descriptive keywords.

TypeShift, for example, uses the space to input its main search word.

This is a cleaner look and can work well.

I would’ve still taken the opportunity to use some keywords in the title, but that’s out of my control.

Which is a great segue to my next topic.

5. App Reviews and Ratings

Customer reviews and ratings are an important consideration for users, especially those unfamiliar with an app brand.

Apps with higher ratings also ranked higher. This raises a tricky dilemma: you want more ratings and reviews, but not if they are negative. So, you need a way to connect with your customers inside your app, giving them a place to vent and talk directly to the developer.

On the flip side, you want to guide happy customers to leave positive reviews for you.

The average rating of the top 100 free apps in the App Store is 4 stars!

Quality clearly matters.

The lower your rating, the fewer consumers who will be willing to consider downloading it.

Think about it. When was the last time you downloaded a one-star app?

You may have rated an app one star, but it was likely rated three or more stars when you downloaded it.

Ratings also affect conversions.

Maintaining a high rating is often easier than raising one from two or four stars.

That’s why it’s important to solicit reviews from customers within the app.

One time is all that’s necessary, and it needs to be done within the first 72 hours.

That’s how long 77% of users will use an app before never again turning it on.

It’s also important to wait until after the customer has a chance to use the app.

Instead of basing it on a timer, consider a push notification when the customer completes certain actions.

Examples of great times to do this are after the first level of a game or after a customer sends their first message through your encrypted messaging app.

Try not to be too spammy, though, and keep in mind your app’s performance can affect its rating.

Ultimately, you want a page full of glowing reviews.

Finally, don’t be shy about replying to negative reviews.

It’s possible a bad customer experience happened due to an error or glitch that’s since been corrected.

Thank users for their reviews whenever possible, good or bad, and correct issues brought up. This is your time to gather valuable user feedback.

This is your time to gather valuable user feedback.

6. App Downloads

Ultimately it’s a download that matters.

An app preview video and screenshots help convert indecisive users.

Both the App and Google Play stores use the number of times an app has been downloaded to determine ranking.

More specifically, it’s the current download rate.

For example, while an app may have one million overall downloads, a newer app can beat it by getting more downloads this month.

The preview video and images can be a major factor in this.

The majority of top apps in the App Store use app previews to increase customer conversions.

Once you have a user, however, you’ll need to keep them.

It’s harder than it sounds, and Apple is paying attention.

What can you do to get more downloads for your app?

Improving your app optimization is a great place to start. Beyond that, work on marketing your brand and app to improve recognition, awareness, and appeal, from app store description to images, ratings/reviews, and social media presence.

How Retention Impacts ASO 

Retention rates are important for mobile device rankings, but the bar isn’t set very high.

The average app has only a 29 percent retention rate after 90 days.

Further breaking things down, we can look at the retention rates by industry.

Media/Entertainment, Lifestyle/Travel, and eCommerce/Retail apps have the best three-month retention rates.

There are so many apps available in the App Store that users download plenty to never use them.

A study found Americans use an average of 30 apps each month out of the roughly 90 they have installed.

This means even if your app is downloaded, it’s unlikely it’ll ever be used beyond the first 72 hours.

How long your app stays installed and how many times it’s used while installed can help App Store search rankings.

Now that you understand how the search rankings work, it’s time to explore best practices for publishing an app to ensure it’s seen and downloaded.

Do Apps with Higher Ratings Rank Higher in Search Results?

Yes, higher rankings do result in higher search results. Here’s a test performed by taking a random sampling of keywords and categorizing them by difficulty related to rankings. 

An “easy” keyword results in fewer than 25 apps trying to rank for that keyword. “Medium” keywords are included in 25-100 apps, and “competitive” keywords are those in 100+ apps.

Based on this test, there is a clear trend showing that apps with higher ratings also rank higher for keyword difficulty.

Do apps with better ratings rank higher? Yes.

(But don’t beg for them; earn better ratings for your apps the right way.)

Conclusion 

Like SEO, ASO is a process that needs to be monitored and constantly tweaked over a period of time. Your optimal set of keywords rarely is the set that you first opt to put in the app store.

In most cases, little or no research on keyword searches occurs before the app submission, leaving most apps hidden, and the likelihood of discovery quite low.

To reap the rewards of ASO, you need to invest time and effort. If you do, you’ll have a consistent channel driving traffic to your app.

Being found is one of the most difficult challenges for mobile apps, but it is a problem you can actively solve with the tips above.

Have you found success with ASO? What has helped your app rank better? 

The post What is App Store Optimization? (ASO) appeared first on Neil Patel.

Original content source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/app-store-optimization/ via https://neilpatel.com

See the original post, What is App Store Optimization? (ASO) that is shared from https://imtrainingparadise.weebly.com/home/what-is-app-store-optimization-aso via https://imtrainingparadise.weebly.com/home

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How We Became Digital Marketers in Just One Summer

New Post has been published on http://tiptopreview.com/how-we-became-digital-marketers-in-just-one-summer/

How We Became Digital Marketers in Just One Summer

Editor’s note: This blog is from the perspective of five University of Pittsburgh students — Kirsten, Steve, Darcie, Erin, and Sara — who completed a class this summer called “Digital Marketing Search Fundamentals”, taught by Zack Duncan of Root and Branch.

Introduction

Our digital marketing class this summer did not give us credits that count towards graduation (in fact, some of us graduated in Spring 2020), nor did it give us a grade. Instead, we learned about paid search and organic search along with some of the key concepts central to digital marketing. We also became certified in Google Ads Search along the way. 

We each had different reasons for taking the course, but we all believe that digital marketing will have value for us in our lives.

At the beginning of the term, in June 2020, we were asked, “What is one thing you’re hoping to get out of this class?” Here are some of our responses to that question:

I hope to gain a strong understanding of SEO and Google Ads, and to get hands-on experience to understand how both would be used in a work setting.

I want to learn something about marketing that I might not learn in the classroom.

I’m hoping to become more competitive in this difficult job market.

I hope to build on my resume and develop skills for personal use.

I want to learn a foundational skill that can be applied in many different aspects of business. 

Now that we’ve completed the class, we wanted to share our thoughts on why we believe digital marketing matters — both for our lives today and as we look ahead to the future. We’re also going to cover five of the most important building blocks we learned this summer, that have helped us see how all the pieces of digital marketing fit together.

Part 1: Why digital marketing matters

Why digital marketing training matters now

To become more competitive candidates in applying for jobs

Some of us are recent grads in the midst of searching for our first jobs after college. Some of us are still in school and are actively looking for internships. We’ve all seen our fair share of job listings for positions like “Digital Marketing Intern” or “Digital Marketing Associate”. Given that the majority of us are marketing majors, you might think it’s safe to assume we would be qualified for at least an interview for those positions. 

Nope. 

Before gaining a solid foundation in digital marketing, we were often quite limited in the listings we were qualified for. But things have been changing now that we can say we’re certified in Google Ads Search and can speak to topics like digital analytics, SEO, and the importance of understanding the marketing funnel.

To help with growing freelance side businesses

Towards the beginning of the pandemic, a few of us were dangerously close to graduation with little to no hope of finding a job in marketing. Instead of binge-watching Netflix all day and hoping some fantastic opportunity would magically come our way, the entrepreneurial among us decided to see how we could use our current skills to generate revenue. 

One of us is especially interested in graphic design and learned everything there was to know in Adobe Creative Suite to become a freelance graphic designer, starting a side business in graphic design, and designs logos, labels, menus, and more.

After this class, finding clients has changed in a big way now. Instead of being limited to looking for clients in social media groups, digital marketing knowledge opens up a whole new world. With a functioning website and a knowledge of both paid and organic search, the process of finding new customers has dramatically changed (for the better!).

To be more informed consumers

While a digital marketing background doesn’t instantly translate to job opportunities for everyone, it can help all of us become more informed consumers.

As consumers, we want to pay for quality goods and services at a fair price. Some basic digital marketing knowledge gives us a better understanding of why the search engine results page (SERP) findings show up in the order that they do. Knowing about keywords, domain authority (for organic search) and quality scores (for paid results) can demystify things. And that’s just on the SERP.

Moving off the SERP, it’s helpful to know how nearly every advertisement we see is somehow targeted to us. If you are seeing an ad, there is a very good chance you fall into an audience segment that a brand has identified as a potential target. You may also be seeing the ad due to a prior visit to the brand’s website and are now in a retargeting audience (feel free to clear out those cookies if you’re sick of them!).

The more information you have as a consumer, the more likely you are to make a better purchase. These few examples just go to show how digital marketing training matters now, even if you are not the one actively doing the digital marketing.

How a digital marketing foundation be useful in the future

It’s helpful in creating and growing a personal brand

Your brand only matters if people know about it. You could sit in your room and put together the most awesome portfolio website for yourself and create a solid brand identity, but if no one else knows about it, what’s the point? Digital marketing concepts like understanding SEO basics can help make your presence known to potential customers, employers, and clients.

It would be terrible if your competition got all the business just because you didn’t use the simple digital marketing tools available to you, right? Digital marketing efforts can have many different goals ranging from making sales to just increasing general awareness of your brand, so get out there and start!

To become a more flexible contributor in future career opportunities

One thing we’ve heard consistently in the job search process is employers love flexible, cross functional employees. It seems the most successful and valued employees are often those that are not only experts in their field, but also have a pretty good understanding of other subjects that impact their work. Let’s say you’re an account manager for a digital agency, and you have some great insight that you think could be helpful in driving some new ad copy testing for your biggest client. It’s going to be a whole lot easier talking with your copywriter and media team (and being taken seriously by them), if you have an understanding of how the text ads are built. 

To see data as an opportunity for action, as opposed to just numbers

Are you someone who enjoys numbers and performance metrics? That’s great! So are we! But those numbers are meaningless without a digital marketing background to provide context for the data. 

Understanding data is a valuable tool for getting to know your audience and evaluating advertising campaigns. Seeing that your Google Search text ad has a poor click-through rate is only actionable if you have the foundation to take steps and improve it. Analyzing your website’s metrics and finding that you have a low average session duration is meaningless if you don’t connect the dots between the numbers and what they mean for your web design or your on-page content.

It’s pretty clear that the numbers don’t give much value to a marketer or a business without the ability to recognize what those metrics mean and the actions that can be taken to fix them. As we advance in our careers and have more and more responsibility for decision making, digital marketing fundamentals can continue to grow our experience with turning data into insight-driven action.

To optimize for conversions — always

Whatever the goal, it’s important to know if you’re operating efficiently in terms of your conversions. In other words, you need to know if you’re getting a return for the investment (time, money, or both) you’re putting in. When you’re operating to get the most conversions for the lowest cost, you are employing a mindset that will help your marketing efforts perform as well as they can.

Having a digital marketing foundation will allow you to think intelligently about “conversions”, or the kinds of results that you’d like to see your marketing efforts generate. A conversion might be a completed sale for an e-commerce company, a submitted lead form for a B2B software company, or a new subscriber for an online publication.

Whatever the desired conversion action, thinking about them as the goal helps to give context in understanding how different marketing efforts are performing. Is your ad performing well and should it receive more media spend, or is it just wasting money? 

Thinking about conversions isn’t always easy, and may take some trial and error, but it can lead to making smart, measurable, and cost-effective decisions. And those decisions can get smarter over time as we get more and more familiar with the five key building blocks of digital marketing (at least the five that we’ve found to be instructive).

Part 2: Understanding five building blocks of digital marketing

1. The marketing funnel (customer journey)

The marketing funnel (or the user/customer journey) refers to the process by which a prospective customer hears about a product or service, becomes educated about the product or service, and makes a decision whether or not to purchase the product or service in question.

It encompasses everything from the first time that brand awareness is established to the potential purchase made by the customer. The awareness stage can be known as the “top of the funnel”, and there are lots of potential prospects in that audience. 

From there, some prospects “move down the funnel” as they learn more and get educated about the product or service. Those that don’t move down the funnel and progress in their journey are said to “fall out” of the funnel.

As the journey continues, prospects move closer to becoming customers. Those who eventually “convert” are those that completed the journey through the bottom of the funnel.

Understanding that there is such a thing as a customer journey has helped to frame our thinking for different types of marketing challenges. It essentially boils down to understanding where, why, when, and how your prospects are engaging with your brand, and what information they will need along the way to conversion.

2. Paid search vs. organic search and the SERP

For many of us, one of the first steps in understanding paid vs. organic search was getting a handle on the SERP. 

The slide below is our “SERP Landscape” slide from class. It shows what’s coming from paid (Google Ads), and what’s coming from organic search. In this case, organic results are both local SEO results from Google My Business, and also the on-page SEO results. Here’s a link to a 92-second video with the same content from class.

We learned to look for the little “Ad” designation next to the paid text ads that are often at the top of the SERP. 

These are search results with the highest AdRank who are likely willing to bid the most on the specific keyword in question. Since paid search is based on CPC (cost per click) pricing, we learned that the advertiser doesn’t incur any costs for their ad to show up, but does pay every single time the ad is clicked. 

Although many CPCs might range in the $2 – $3 range, some are $10 and up. With that kind of investment for each click, advertisers really need to focus on having great landing pages with helpful content that will help drive conversions.

Organic search, on the other hand, is “free” for each click. But it also relies on great content, perhaps even more so than paid search. That’s because the only way to get to the top of the organic search rankings is to earn it. There’s no paying here! 

Search engines like Google are looking for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T) in content to rank highly on the SERP. In addition to making good local sense for Google, it all comes back to the core of Alphabet’s business model, as the slide below shows.

Understanding Google’s motivations help us understand what drives organic search and the SERP landscape overall. And understanding the basics of paid and organic search is an important foundation for all aspiring digital marketers who want to work in the field.

3. Inbound vs. outbound marketing

Are you working to push a message out to an audience that you hope is interested in your product or service? If so, you’re doing some outbound marketing, whether it be traditional media like billboards, television, or magazines, or even certain types of digital advertising like digital banner ads. Think about it as a giant megaphone broadcasting a message.

Inbound work, on the other hand, aims to attract potential customers who are actively engaged in seeking out a product or service. Search marketing (both paid search and organic search) are perfect examples of inbound, as they reach prospects at the moment they’re doing their research. Instead of a megaphone, think of a magnet. The content that does the best job in solving problems and answering questions will be the content with the strongest magnetic pull that gets to the top of SERPs and converts. 

If you’re going to be here for a while, click the image below for more information on how we think about content in the context of digital marketing efforts.

4. Basic digital marketing metrics

There are some universal metrics that we all need to understand if we’re going to develop a competency in digital marketing. Click through rate (CTR), for example, is a great way to measure how effective an ad unit or organic result is in terms of generating a click. 

But before we can fully understand CTR (clicks divided by impressions), we first need to make sure we understand the component parts of the metric. Here are four of those key components that we learned about during our digital marketing training:

Impression: A search result (paid or organic) or an ad shows up on a page

Click: A user clicking the search result or ad on a page triggers a recorded click

Conversion: After clicking on the search result or ad, the user completes an action that is meaningful for the business. Different types of businesses have different conversion actions that are important to them.

Cost: While organic search results are “free” (not counting costs associated with creating content), paid ads incur a cost. Understanding the cost of any paid advertising is a crucial component of understanding performance.

How does it all work in practice? Glad you asked! Check out the example below for a hypothetical advertising campaign that served 10,000 impressions, drove 575 clicks, cost $1,000, and generated 20 conversions:

5. Platforms and tools a beginner digital marketer should use

Our class was focused on search marketing, and we talked about one platform for paid and one platform for organic. 

On the paid side, there is only one name in the game: Google Ads. Google has free training modules and certifications available through a platform called Skillshop. You’ll need a Google-affiliated email address to log in. After doing so, just search for “Google Ads Search” and you can go through the training modules shown below. 



If you’re already a Google Ads pro, you can hop right to the exam and take the timed Google Ads Search Assessment. If you can get an 80% or higher on the 50-question exam, you’ll get a certification badge!

For organic search, we learned about keyword research, title tags, H1s and H2s, anchor text in links, and more through the training available on Moz Academy. The 73-minute Page Optimization course has eight different training sections and includes an On Page Optimization Quiz at the end. Fair warning, some of the content might be worth watching a few times if you’re new to SEO. For most of us this was our first exposure to SEO, and it took some time for most of our brains to sort through the difference between a title tag and an H1 tag!

Another platform that we liked was Google Trends, which can be useful for both paid and organic search, and is just generally a cool way to see trends happening! 

There are many more resources and tools out there in the world. Some of us are aiming to get more comfortable with these fundamentals, while some others have already branched out into other disciplines like social media.

Conclusion

Thanks for coming along with us on this digital marketing journey. We hope it was a useful read!

During the process of putting this together, things have changed for us:

Kirsten landed a full-time job.

Steve started doing consulting work for a growing Shopify site in Google Ads and Google Analytics, and is planning to make consulting his full-time work.

Darcie landed a job as a Paid Search Analyst for a national retailer.

For all of us, we know we’re only taking the first steps of our digital marketing futures, and we’re excited to see what the future holds!

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How We Became Digital Marketers in Just One Summer

Posted by rootandbranch

Editor’s note: This blog is from the perspective of five University of Pittsburgh students — Kirsten, Steve, Darcie, Erin, and Sara — who completed a class this summer called "Digital Marketing Search Fundamentals", taught by Zack Duncan of Root and Branch.

Introduction

Our digital marketing class this summer did not give us credits that count towards graduation (in fact, some of us graduated in Spring 2020), nor did it give us a grade. Instead, we learned about paid search and organic search along with some of the key concepts central to digital marketing. We also became certified in Google Ads Search along the way. 

We each had different reasons for taking the course, but we all believe that digital marketing will have value for us in our lives.

At the beginning of the term, in June 2020, we were asked, “What is one thing you’re hoping to get out of this class?” Here are some of our responses to that question:

I hope to gain a strong understanding of SEO and Google Ads, and to get hands-on experience to understand how both would be used in a work setting.

I want to learn something about marketing that I might not learn in the classroom.

I'm hoping to become more competitive in this difficult job market.

I hope to build on my resume and develop skills for personal use.

I want to learn a foundational skill that can be applied in many different aspects of business. 

Now that we’ve completed the class, we wanted to share our thoughts on why we believe digital marketing matters — both for our lives today and as we look ahead to the future. We’re also going to cover five of the most important building blocks we learned this summer, that have helped us see how all the pieces of digital marketing fit together.

Part 1: Why digital marketing matters

Why digital marketing training matters now

To become more competitive candidates in applying for jobs

Some of us are recent grads in the midst of searching for our first jobs after college. Some of us are still in school and are actively looking for internships. We’ve all seen our fair share of job listings for positions like “Digital Marketing Intern” or “Digital Marketing Associate”. Given that the majority of us are marketing majors, you might think it’s safe to assume we would be qualified for at least an interview for those positions. 

Nope. 

Before gaining a solid foundation in digital marketing, we were often quite limited in the listings we were qualified for. But things have been changing now that we can say we’re certified in Google Ads Search and can speak to topics like digital analytics, SEO, and the importance of understanding the marketing funnel.

To help with growing freelance side businesses

Towards the beginning of the pandemic, a few of us were dangerously close to graduation with little to no hope of finding a job in marketing. Instead of binge-watching Netflix all day and hoping some fantastic opportunity would magically come our way, the entrepreneurial among us decided to see how we could use our current skills to generate revenue. 

One of us is especially interested in graphic design and learned everything there was to know in Adobe Creative Suite to become a freelance graphic designer, starting a side business in graphic design, and designs logos, labels, menus, and more.

After this class, finding clients has changed in a big way now. Instead of being limited to looking for clients in social media groups, digital marketing knowledge opens up a whole new world. With a functioning website and a knowledge of both paid and organic search, the process of finding new customers has dramatically changed (for the better!).

To be more informed consumers

While a digital marketing background doesn’t instantly translate to job opportunities for everyone, it can help all of us become more informed consumers.

As consumers, we want to pay for quality goods and services at a fair price. Some basic digital marketing knowledge gives us a better understanding of why the search engine results page (SERP) findings show up in the order that they do. Knowing about keywords, domain authority (for organic search) and quality scores (for paid results) can demystify things. And that’s just on the SERP.

Moving off the SERP, it’s helpful to know how nearly every advertisement we see is somehow targeted to us. If you are seeing an ad, there is a very good chance you fall into an audience segment that a brand has identified as a potential target. You may also be seeing the ad due to a prior visit to the brand’s website and are now in a retargeting audience (feel free to clear out those cookies if you’re sick of them!).

The more information you have as a consumer, the more likely you are to make a better purchase. These few examples just go to show how digital marketing training matters now, even if you are not the one actively doing the digital marketing.

How a digital marketing foundation be useful in the future

It’s helpful in creating and growing a personal brand

Your brand only matters if people know about it. You could sit in your room and put together the most awesome portfolio website for yourself and create a solid brand identity, but if no one else knows about it, what’s the point? Digital marketing concepts like understanding SEO basics can help make your presence known to potential customers, employers, and clients.

It would be terrible if your competition got all the business just because you didn’t use the simple digital marketing tools available to you, right? Digital marketing efforts can have many different goals ranging from making sales to just increasing general awareness of your brand, so get out there and start!

To become a more flexible contributor in future career opportunities

One thing we’ve heard consistently in the job search process is employers love flexible, cross functional employees. It seems the most successful and valued employees are often those that are not only experts in their field, but also have a pretty good understanding of other subjects that impact their work. Let’s say you’re an account manager for a digital agency, and you have some great insight that you think could be helpful in driving some new ad copy testing for your biggest client. It’s going to be a whole lot easier talking with your copywriter and media team (and being taken seriously by them), if you have an understanding of how the text ads are built. 

To see data as an opportunity for action, as opposed to just numbers

Are you someone who enjoys numbers and performance metrics? That's great! So are we! But those numbers are meaningless without a digital marketing background to provide context for the data. 

Understanding data is a valuable tool for getting to know your audience and evaluating advertising campaigns. Seeing that your Google Search text ad has a poor click-through rate is only actionable if you have the foundation to take steps and improve it. Analyzing your website’s metrics and finding that you have a low average session duration is meaningless if you don’t connect the dots between the numbers and what they mean for your web design or your on-page content.

It’s pretty clear that the numbers don’t give much value to a marketer or a business without the ability to recognize what those metrics mean and the actions that can be taken to fix them. As we advance in our careers and have more and more responsibility for decision making, digital marketing fundamentals can continue to grow our experience with turning data into insight-driven action.

To optimize for conversions — always

Whatever the goal, it’s important to know if you’re operating efficiently in terms of your conversions. In other words, you need to know if you’re getting a return for the investment (time, money, or both) you’re putting in. When you’re operating to get the most conversions for the lowest cost, you are employing a mindset that will help your marketing efforts perform as well as they can.

Having a digital marketing foundation will allow you to think intelligently about “conversions”, or the kinds of results that you’d like to see your marketing efforts generate. A conversion might be a completed sale for an e-commerce company, a submitted lead form for a B2B software company, or a new subscriber for an online publication.

Whatever the desired conversion action, thinking about them as the goal helps to give context in understanding how different marketing efforts are performing. Is your ad performing well and should it receive more media spend, or is it just wasting money? 

Thinking about conversions isn’t always easy, and may take some trial and error, but it can lead to making smart, measurable, and cost-effective decisions. And those decisions can get smarter over time as we get more and more familiar with the five key building blocks of digital marketing (at least the five that we’ve found to be instructive).

Part 2: Understanding five building blocks of digital marketing

1. The marketing funnel (customer journey)

The marketing funnel (or the user/customer journey) refers to the process by which a prospective customer hears about a product or service, becomes educated about the product or service, and makes a decision whether or not to purchase the product or service in question.

It encompasses everything from the first time that brand awareness is established to the potential purchase made by the customer. The awareness stage can be known as the “top of the funnel”, and there are lots of potential prospects in that audience. 

From there, some prospects “move down the funnel” as they learn more and get educated about the product or service. Those that don’t move down the funnel and progress in their journey are said to “fall out” of the funnel.

As the journey continues, prospects move closer to becoming customers. Those who eventually “convert” are those that completed the journey through the bottom of the funnel.

Understanding that there is such a thing as a customer journey has helped to frame our thinking for different types of marketing challenges. It essentially boils down to understanding where, why, when, and how your prospects are engaging with your brand, and what information they will need along the way to conversion.

2. Paid search vs. organic search and the SERP

For many of us, one of the first steps in understanding paid vs. organic search was getting a handle on the SERP. 

The slide below is our “SERP Landscape” slide from class. It shows what’s coming from paid (Google Ads), and what’s coming from organic search. In this case, organic results are both local SEO results from Google My Business, and also the on-page SEO results. Here’s a link to a 92-second video with the same content from class.

We learned to look for the little “Ad” designation next to the paid text ads that are often at the top of the SERP. 

These are search results with the highest AdRank who are likely willing to bid the most on the specific keyword in question. Since paid search is based on CPC (cost per click) pricing, we learned that the advertiser doesn’t incur any costs for their ad to show up, but does pay every single time the ad is clicked. 

Although many CPCs might range in the $2 - $3 range, some are $10 and up. With that kind of investment for each click, advertisers really need to focus on having great landing pages with helpful content that will help drive conversions.

Organic search, on the other hand, is “free” for each click. But it also relies on great content, perhaps even more so than paid search. That’s because the only way to get to the top of the organic search rankings is to earn it. There’s no paying here! 

Search engines like Google are looking for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T) in content to rank highly on the SERP. In addition to making good local sense for Google, it all comes back to the core of Alphabet’s business model, as the slide below shows.

Understanding Google’s motivations help us understand what drives organic search and the SERP landscape overall. And understanding the basics of paid and organic search is an important foundation for all aspiring digital marketers who want to work in the field.

3. Inbound vs. outbound marketing

Are you working to push a message out to an audience that you hope is interested in your product or service? If so, you’re doing some outbound marketing, whether it be traditional media like billboards, television, or magazines, or even certain types of digital advertising like digital banner ads. Think about it as a giant megaphone broadcasting a message.

Inbound work, on the other hand, aims to attract potential customers who are actively engaged in seeking out a product or service. Search marketing (both paid search and organic search) are perfect examples of inbound, as they reach prospects at the moment they’re doing their research. Instead of a megaphone, think of a magnet. The content that does the best job in solving problems and answering questions will be the content with the strongest magnetic pull that gets to the top of SERPs and converts. 

If you’re going to be here for a while, click the image below for more information on how we think about content in the context of digital marketing efforts.

4. Basic digital marketing metrics

There are some universal metrics that we all need to understand if we’re going to develop a competency in digital marketing. Click through rate (CTR), for example, is a great way to measure how effective an ad unit or organic result is in terms of generating a click. 

But before we can fully understand CTR (clicks divided by impressions), we first need to make sure we understand the component parts of the metric. Here are four of those key components that we learned about during our digital marketing training:

Impression: A search result (paid or organic) or an ad shows up on a page

Click: A user clicking the search result or ad on a page triggers a recorded click

Conversion: After clicking on the search result or ad, the user completes an action that is meaningful for the business. Different types of businesses have different conversion actions that are important to them.

Cost: While organic search results are “free” (not counting costs associated with creating content), paid ads incur a cost. Understanding the cost of any paid advertising is a crucial component of understanding performance.

How does it all work in practice? Glad you asked! Check out the example below for a hypothetical advertising campaign that served 10,000 impressions, drove 575 clicks, cost $1,000, and generated 20 conversions:

5. Platforms and tools a beginner digital marketer should use

Our class was focused on search marketing, and we talked about one platform for paid and one platform for organic. 

On the paid side, there is only one name in the game: Google Ads. Google has free training modules and certifications available through a platform called Skillshop. You’ll need a Google-affiliated email address to log in. After doing so, just search for “Google Ads Search” and you can go through the training modules shown below. 



If you’re already a Google Ads pro, you can hop right to the exam and take the timed Google Ads Search Assessment. If you can get an 80% or higher on the 50-question exam, you’ll get a certification badge!

For organic search, we learned about keyword research, title tags, H1s and H2s, anchor text in links, and more through the training available on Moz Academy. The 73-minute Page Optimization course has eight different training sections and includes an On Page Optimization Quiz at the end. Fair warning, some of the content might be worth watching a few times if you’re new to SEO. For most of us this was our first exposure to SEO, and it took some time for most of our brains to sort through the difference between a title tag and an H1 tag!

Another platform that we liked was Google Trends, which can be useful for both paid and organic search, and is just generally a cool way to see trends happening! 

There are many more resources and tools out there in the world. Some of us are aiming to get more comfortable with these fundamentals, while some others have already branched out into other disciplines like social media.

Conclusion

Thanks for coming along with us on this digital marketing journey. We hope it was a useful read!

During the process of putting this together, things have changed for us:

Kirsten landed a full-time job.

Steve started doing consulting work for a growing Shopify site in Google Ads and Google Analytics, and is planning to make consulting his full-time work.

Darcie landed a job as a Paid Search Analyst for a national retailer.

For all of us, we know we’re only taking the first steps of our digital marketing futures, and we’re excited to see what the future holds!

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