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heyitsani · 3 years

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Loving You is a Losing Game Chapter 1

@jaydick-week Day 2 fic: Fairytale AU

Word Count: 3,543

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Monsters and Magic

Pairing: Jason Todd/Dick Grayson

Summary: When Batman goes missing, Nightwing is called in to try and track the man down. What he finds at the spot Batman was last seen is something he's not sure he's equipped to deal with. But that doesn't stop him from doing what he has to in order to get Batman out. Even if it means becoming the poisoner of a strange shadow man in a Gothic castle hidden behind a wall of magic on the edge of Gotham.

Notes: This is my Beauty and the Beast AU set in the comics (sort of...I’ve changed some details and you’ll understand once it’s all done). I’m not sure how many chapters this one will have but here is the first. I just wanted to be able to post at least part of the stories I prepared for the week since I wasn’t able to finish any of them.

You can also read it on AO3 here

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He felt the person before he heard them, and the presence alone was enough for Dick to tense up in ways he’d rather not admit happened. This was not a confrontation he was in the mood for at the moment, but apparently he was going to have to have it none the less.

“Deathstroke,” he said flatly, turning to look at the other man standing a few feet away in his familiar orange and black gear.

The white-haired man gave a smirk that boiled Dick’s blood, but he refused to react. “Nightwing, how lovely to see you tonight.” Dick never understood why Slade kept up the pretense of these meetings being unplanned. They weren’t. He might be oblivious to many things, but when a predator is stalking him has never been one of them. He was well aware of what Slade was doing when he appeared out of nowhere.

“Is there something I can do for you tonight? Or are you just here to get in my way.”

“Just curious how my favorite Little Bird was doing,” the man said as he leaned against the brick wall that held the door to head down into the building he had made his perch for the night. “I’ve heard some interesting rumors over the past couple of months and I wanted to see if they were true.”

This was a dangerous game, Dick knew that. He should just ignore Slade and head to a different spot in hopes the man would leave him alone, but his curiosity was also burning. What kind of rumor could Slade have possibly heard involving him.

Sighing, Dick turned to face the man. “And what rumors are those?” He took the bait. He frowned when Slade’s smirk turned predatory and made Dick want to take a few steps back to get more space between them. Despite there being about ten feet already.

“Nightwing hasn’t been seen in Gotham for almost half a year. And the hero community is wondering why the Titans have lost their leader suddenly.” Rolling his eyes behind his mask, Dick crossed his arms over his chest. “Now…you fighting with Daddy Bats isn’t all that strange, but six months? When there’s still the little Robin running around not fully trained?”

Dick didn’t point out that Damian was Batman’s own son and had been trained by the League of Assassins. He was more trained than any of them had ever been. And he made sure to point it out frequently to Tim.

“And that you have left behind your precious Titans? Now that’s surprising.” But Dick knew he no one other than the team knew why he had separated himself from them and they all accepted it. He hadn’t been ousted or banned. He had left because he had needed to. “Are you isolating yourself, Little Bird?”

“What on earth are you talking about?”

Slade shrugged and pushed away from the wall, taking a few long strides to close some of the distance between them. “Seems to me that you are pushing away everyone in your life, Kid. Perhaps you’re ready for your true destiny?” Dick frowned. “Join me. You know it’s inevitable.”

Dick laughed. Actually laughed at the words and shook his head.

“Dream on, Slade. I say it every time you bring it up,” Dick reminded him, uncrossing his arms. “Until the world has burned, I will never join you.”

“Don’t tempt me, Kid.”

Instead of responding, Dick just rolled his eyes and took a step back off the edge of the roof, free falling for a moment before shooting off his grapple in the direction of where he had parked his motorcycle.

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

“Agent A,” Dick said into his comm when he heard Alfred’s voice bleeding through. He was surprised to be hearing from the older man, but welcomed it none the less. Even if it was coming in the middle of a fight.

Landing a punch across the jaw of one of the goons and vaulting himself over the falling body to swiftly knock the other down with a firm kick to his chest, he breathed heavily. “Nightwing, I require your assistance in Gotham.” Frowning, Dick knelt down and zip-tied the hands of the goons together before sending off the signal and coordinates to BPD.

“You require it? Or Batman does?” He questioned as he shot his grapple up to get off the street and out of the area before the cops arrived. While the cops of BPD had gotten better over time, they still had an arrest order for all vigilantes. So it was always best that he just left before they arrived. “What’s going on?”

“Batman has not been seen for about 48 hours now. Robin and Red Robin are off world with the Titans at the moment and I know Batman would rather keep the search in the family before involving the League.” Which made sense in Bruce’s mind, but considering their hero friends had been vanishing left and right over the last two years, Dick thought it was somewhat foolish. “Might you make your way to the Cave?”

Figuring out where he was in relation to his motorcycle, Dick took off in the direction of where he had stashed it. “I’m on my way now. Tell me what he was doing the night he went missing.” He listened to Alfred relay the major points of the missing hero case that the entire community was working on while holding down their various cities. He listened as Alfred talked about Bruce starting the suspect something was happening in an abandon warehouse on the outskirts of town, not far from Crime Alley.

Dick confirmed that Bruce had mentioned that to him about a year ago and Dick had told Bruce that there was no activity in the area after running the scans. But apparently that didn’t mean Bruce had dropped it. It just meant he didn’t immediately deal with whatever it was that was happening there.

“Master Bruce linked these three heroes and their disappearances with that warehouse,” Alfred said as he pulled open three filed. Dick frowned when the faces of Roy Harper, Koriand’r, and Wally West appeared on the screen. Three of his closest friends whose absences he had felt deeply. If Donna’s face had come up alongside them then he would have left immediately. “All three had come to town for various reasons and all vanished when leaving in that direction.”

“And Bruce thinks they vanished in the warehouse so he what? He went there to try and figure out what was happening?”

Alfred nodded and pulled up a video, which Dick easily figured out was the cowl recording from the night he went missing. Dick watched from Bruce’s eyes as the batmobile came to a stop on the outskirts of the three-building area. His mentor took a moment to scan the area and look for any signs of life, but when the readings seemed to glitch he still decided to go in. An action Dick had specifically been told not to do if he had experienced the same thing.

“Magic,” Bruce had said when Dick had reported his findings.

But Bruce exited the car and headed toward the first of three buildings. And just as Dick leaned forward, pressing his hands on the desk to watch closely, the screen glitched again and then static. Scanning the screen for the readings of the video, he frowned. “What the hell was that?”

“My thoughts? It is the same magic you encountered when you had gone to scout the area at Master Bruce’s request.”

Dick straightened and frowned. That was heavy magic if it was able to cut everything off from Bruce. And it made Dick wonder if Bruce had somehow managed to get stuck behind the wall. “Is Zatanna one of the missing?” There had been so many that he couldn’t remember all of them. Alfred’s nod filled him with dread. “I have to go check it out.”

“Could I advise you to go to the Watchtower before you do?”

“There’s no time. He’s been missing for two days and some change. I need to head in there.” Dick frowned, grabbing his mask from where he had set it down when he had arrived. “But you should contact Clark immediately. I’m not sure if they’ll be able to spare any of the other magic users, but let them know what Bruce had suspected.” He turned to head back to his motorcycle but paused when Alfred’s hand landed on his upper arm. “I have to go, Alf. I can’t just leave him there.”

“I understand my boy, just be careful. We don’t know what we’re dealing with.” Dick gave a nod before continuing to his motorcycle. “I will contact the League and try to get the Robins to return to Earth.”

“Thanks Alf. I’ll keep you updated for as long as I can.”

He gave the older man one last smile before he gunned the engine and sped out of the Cave toward the warehouse where he would face too many unknown variables.

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

Pulling up to the same place where Bruce had parked the batmobile, Dick frowned when he noticed the car was no longer there. They were far enough away from the majority of the city that thieves wouldn’t have gotten to it, but that didn’t account for whatever magic that had been used to protect this area. So he carefully set his motorcycle into stealth mode and left it tucked between two smaller buildings in the area. If he was lucky, it would be there to get him and Bruce back to the cave once he found the other man.

“I’m approaching now, Agent A,” he reported to Alfred through the comms, sticking to the shadows as he approached. He kept one eye on the grounds and the other on any possible movement around him. “I didn’t notice it last time, but you can actually see the current.” He moved to stand about a foot away from the now just slightly visible wall of magic. He looked up, trying to see how far it went, but after about ten feet, the angle didn’t provide a good look.

It almost reminded him of heat waves that came off the pavement during the worst of Gotham’s summers.

Reaching out a hand, Dick carefully touched the wall and jerked a hand back when it felt like he had been zapped by one of his escrimas. “It feels like electricity,” he said into the comm but the reply he got back was crackled and broken. And that meant he was probably on his own. “I’m not sure if you can hear me anymore, but I’m going in. Call for the League and the Robins. Find a magic user and get them here if you can. I’ll bring him back, Alf.” And with a deep breath, he stepped forward and into the wall of magic.

And when he came out on the other side, he bent forward with his hands on his knees as he gasped for breath. “That is not a good time,” he groaned to himself as he tried to pull himself together. With a few more deep breaths, Dick straightened and gasped in surprise at the sight of what was on the other side of the wall.

The image projected on the city side of the wall was what he remembered the area to look like. Three large, abandoned warehouses and their various grounds surrounding them. Gray and boring, weathered from the lack of upkeep and use. But what was before him seemed almost gothic in comparison. In fact, it looked like some of the older buildings of the city. Gargoyles and all. The plain concrete walls had been replaced with stone, vines that had not been there two years ago had begun to creep up them giving them an even more aged look.

The grounds themselves were green and reminded him far more of the Manor than what he would have expected a warehouse to look like. They also looked immaculately kept. It was almost as if whoever had done the spell had taken a gothic castle and placed it on the edge of Gotham while making every one in the city believe the warehouses remained.

It made Dick feel like he had a rock in his stomach. This was a very powerful spell.

Scouting the area as best he could, Dick carefully made his way forward with his escrimas in hand and ready for a fight. He didn’t know what he was bound to encounter, but he wasn’t going to chance not being prepared. Not when it might be Bruce’s life on the line.

When the grounds revealed little information, Dick snuck his way inside through one of the windows in the front and quietly made his way through the main foyer. The more he saw of the building, the heavier the pit in his stomach got.

The sound of fierce whispering hit his senses as he came to the base of a set of stairs.

Nightwing, it is Nightwing.

He frowned, looking around to try and find the source.

Nightwing can do it.

He wanted to ask what exactly the whisperers thought he could do, but instead he remained silent and looked up the stairs. There was a faint light further up and like a moth, Dick made his way toward it. The whispers got quieter and quieter the further up he went. Until they had vanished all together and he was standing at the top of the stairs, looking at something that he was struggling to understand. It looked like cells but it wasn’t making sense in his head.

Of course, if this really was some sort of medieval structure, it would make sense for there to be a tower with cells for keeping prisoners. But what that even what this was.

The sound of movement from one of the ones on the right caught his attention and with barely a thought, he rushed forward to peer inside. “Batman!” He cried, latching his escrimas on his back before gripping the bars of the cell door. “Are you okay?!” He questioned as he looked the older man over.

“Nightwing,” the name came out as a groan and Dick frowned. Bruce looked roughed up, but he didn’t look like he was in that bad of condition. “You have to leave. Get out of here now. Before it takes you like it took them all.”

“What are you talking about? I’m not going to just leave you here,” he shook his head before searching his utility belt for his lock pick so he could get the cell open and get Bruce out of there. He had just about gotten the lock open when a loud crash sounded behind him and he was flying toward the cells on the other side of the small hallway.

“What are you doing here?!” The question was practically growled, and Dick tried to focus on the source but all he could see was a shadow and a pair of glowing green eyes. “You don’t belong here. Leave!”

Shaking his head, Dick looked over at Bruce before looking back to the shadow. “I’m not leaving without Batman.”

“Yes, you are,” the shadow growled. “He’s my prisoner. He’s cursed to remain.”

Dick carefully stood to his feet and grabbed his escrimas, moving into a fighting stance. “I’m not leaving without him. So either you give him to me or I take him.”

“Nightwing, no!”

But Dick ignored Bruce’s call and carefully moved so he was standing in front of his mentor’s cell. He didn’t know who or what it was he was facing, but he had fought enough in his years to be adaptable. “Dick, please just go. Get out while you can.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

“One of you is leaving before I really lose my temper.”

That gave Dick pause. “One of us?” The shadow seemed to tilt it’s head and Dick considered the idea building in his mind. He could get Bruce out of there. He could get Bruce home to Alfred. And Bruce would figure out a way to get him out of there. He could do that. Dick would never be able to figure out how to combat magic like this. He wasn’t sure even their magic users in the League would be able to. But Batman always found a way. “Take me instead.”

“What?”

“No!”

“You heard me. Take me instead. Release Batman and I’ll take his place.”

“You…” the shadow paused, sounding almost awed. “You would do that for him?”

“Yes.”

“Dick don’t do this, please.”

Turning his head just slightly to lock eyes with Bruce, Dick pursed his lips. “I have to. You’ll figure it out. You’re already there. I trust you.” The man frowned but understanding filled his eyes and he gave Dick a firm nod. Turning back to the shadow, Dick latched his escrimas again and raised his chin. “I’ll stay as long as I have to if you promise to let him go safely on the other side of the magical wall.”

There was silence before the shadow moved like liquid, shoving Dick out of the way and getting Bruce out of the cell. In a blink of an eye, the pair were gone and Dick was left alone wondering what he was supposed to do now. He just risked his life on Bruce being able to figure this out. He had given up everything because he trusted the man enough to get to the bottom of whatever was happening here. Dick trusted Bruce and Nightwing trusted Batman, but jumping in front of a bullet was different than trapping himself inside a magical dome with no connection to the outside world.

With a deep breath, Dick pulled the mask off his eyes and looked around the room he supposed he would be staying in. The cells were stereotypical for a medieval castle and under any other circumstance, he would probably laugh at that. But now this was his...home?

“Come,” a voice came out of nowhere, causing him to jump and quickly turn toward the staircase he had come up.

The shadow was back.

More magic, he mused to himself. “What?” He questioned the command, wary of what the game might be here.

The shadow shifted and moved forward, stepping into the light to reveal a man. Not a shadow at all. Blonde hair, sharp cheekbones, and green eyes. He was tall but not as tall as the shadow had made him appear to be. And not as bulky, but still solid in muscle mass and strength. “Do you want to stay up here?” The man growled, his green eyes taking on an almost glowing look to them. It made Dick take a step back in self-preservation.

“No, but I thought…” This was where Bruce had been kept after all. Why was he not to assume that it would be the same for him?

“You thought wrong.” The man turned and headed down the stairs and after a short hesitation, Dick hurried to follow. He kept quiet as he followed the man down the stairs he had come up in the beginning and then down the halls toward a different wing of the castle. “This is your home now. You can go anywhere you like but the West Wing.”

Dick glanced behind him, remembering the staircase they had passed that would have been in the westward direction. “What’s in the West Wing?” He asked, his curiosity getting the best of him. He blamed Bruce and his need to raise detectives.

“Nothing of your concern!” The man ground out, turning to glare at Dick with his glowing green eyes. And though he wanted to take a step back, he resisted the urge. He did, however, give a slight nod of understanding to pacify the man instead. There was a moment of pause before he seemed pacified and they continued on the path. “You will stay here,” the man said when they reached an elaborately carved, pair of double doors. Dick looked up at them before stepping forward and inside the room after he pushed the doors open.

The room itself looked as though it had come right out of a movie. Four post bed, gleaming silvers and blues all over. The bed looked plush and the furniture was likely hand carved. Everything was polished and smooth, gleaming under the lighting. It was ornate and fancy and Dick hated it. But that might have had more to do with it being his prison than it being overly done.

He heard the man clear his throat and Dick turned to find he remained in the doorway of the room, looking hesitate to enter. But that was something Dick had no desire to unpack that right then. Not when he was still technically a prisoner.

“If you need anything, the others are always lingering.” The man glanced around the room before straightening his spine. “I expect you to join me for dinner.” Dick frowned when the man turned away and slammed the door behind him. Sighing, Dick turned in a small circle before dropping down onto the edge of the bed.

#jaydick #jason todd #dick grayson #slade wilson #alfred pennyworth #bruce wayne #beauty and the beast au #jaydickweek2021 #anikah writes

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pochinumaki · 5 years

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Masterpost on the Hong Kong Extradition Amendment Law Bill

I’ve struggled for a while whether to make a separate and anonymous tumblr blog/email account just to post this, since there have already been arrests made on university students as well as police officers showing up at the house of an admin from a Telegram group that organizes the protest and searching the place. But I know it in my heart that I do no wrong in speaking up. If I do end up facing legal consequences for doing this, then it only further proves my point on how dangerous it has become to live in this once beloved city.

Hong Kong citizens are protesting against the government’s proposed Extradition Law Amendment Bill (“Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2019” in full) that would allow people accused of offense to be handed over to Mainland China, Taiwan, and Macau upon request with only prima facie level evidence provided to the court. The bill has raised serious concerns and opposition for its possible violations against freedom of speech, judicial independence, and Hong Kong’s autonomy under One Country Two Systems, etc. With incidents such as the disappearance of the five staff members working in Causeway Bay bookstore, many fear that the passing of this bill will allow China to request extradition from ANYONE, INCLUDING THOSE WHO ARE NOT RESIDENTS who dare to speak in any form against the CCP and step foot in Hong Kong even only for transition.

Because of this proposed amendment, Hong Kong people have taken to the streets and other acts of protest to voice our disagreement. But our democracy and rights are being stripped away by a government that will not budge even with over 1 million people (one seventh of our population) marching to be heard or seeing students being tear gassed and shot by rubber bullets. The government is refusing to listen to its people, instead it is using unnecessary force on us through its police force and calling us rioters when all we did was gather together and protect ourselves.

As of right now (16th June, 03:00 GMT+8), there has already been one casualty in our fight to be heard. The government has only promised to pause the passing of the bill, meaning that at ANY TIME the Legislative Council can restart the reading process on the bill. Though we still feel suppressed and carry a heavy heart, we will not lose hope. If its citizens are not enough, we are wishing for louder international attention to give the government more pressure to COMPLETELY WITHDRAW the bill to safeguard Hong Kong’s democracy.

PLEASE HELP US STAY INFORMED AND SPREAD THE WORD ON ANY DEVELOPMENT TO AID OUR PROTEST FOR FREEDOM. MORE WAYS TO HELP INCLUDE:

Knowing why it matters to you even if you DON’T LIVE IN HONG KONG.

#News Sources

Read credible, international reports about our protest:

BBC News (topic, all related articles)

Bloomberg: Everything You Need to Know About the Extradition Bill Rocking Hong Kong

CNN (Live updates)

The Economist: The rule of law in Hong Kong

The Guardian: What are the Hong Kong protests about?

The New York Times: What is Hong Kong’s Extradition Bill?

Reuters (Live blog/updates)

SCMP (topic, all related articles)

The Wall Street Journal: Why are People Protesting in Hong Kong?

WashingtonPost: Hong Kong’s protests are about more than an extradition law. Here’s why.

#Petitions

Reject Immigration or Non-Immigration Visas of Hong Kong Government Officials violating human rights (34,785 signed out of 100,000 goal)

Request for Sanctions Against Those Responsible for the Extradition Law Amendment in Hong Kong (100,525 signed out of 100,000 goal)

Impose sanctions upon Hong Kong officials who are acting against American interests (22,560 signed out of 100,000 goal)

Revoke the U.S. Citizenship and Visas of the Hong Kong and China Officials who are in Support of the Extradition Bill (267,354 signed out of 100,000 goal)

Extradition Law Amendment in Hong Kong - Threat to Personal Safety and Freedom (129,991 signed out of 100,000 goal)

Global Signing: Against Extradition to China (580,597 signed out of 1,000,000 goal)

Demand retraction of ‘riot’ classification by the police (81,312 signed out of 150,000 goal)

Revoke Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam's Legion of Honor Distinction (150,176 signed out of 200,000 goal)

#Police Brutality

Cases of questionable behaviour and unnecessary violence committed by the police.

An Open Letter Addressing the UN against Police Brutality - PDF on Google Drive (containing multiple sources listed below)

Compilation of Several Clips on Hong Kong Police's Brutality on 12th June, 2019

Youtube Channel containing footages listed below

Against the Press

French Journalist yelling at police officers to "STOP SHOOTING JOURNALISTS!"

Police officers ignoring freedom of press and forcing a journalist to leave, beating him and calling him “journalist motherfucker”. (Youtube Source 2)

Police officer using pepper spray on journalist then running away.

Verbal violence

Group of “Elite Team” police officers yelling profanities “Come on out, motherfucker! Lib-tard (literally “liberal cunt”)!”. (Youtube Source 2) (Facebook source 3)

Excessive physical violence

Police officers using water cannon on lone protestor.

Aiming and firing bean bag rounds at protestor’s head. Videos derived from TVB News broadcast. (Youtube Source 2) (Youtube Source 3)

Protestor recounts being shot by police without warning.

Entire group of “Elite Team” police officers jump on unarmed protestor from the back. (Youtube Source 2 )

Same as above. A protestor carrying a box of water.

Same as above. A female protestor.

Group of police officers suddenly beating an already restrained protestor to force him onto the floor. (Youtube Source 2)

Police officers using pepper spray on protestors already retreating into MTR station.

Police officer using pepper water spray multiple times on foreign protestor suffering from leg pain and resting by the grass to force him to leave.

Other abusive behaviour

Smiling/Laughing after firing water cannon. (credit)

Cheerful reaction for colleagues at firing tear gas (presumed).

Posing for photo inside the Legislative Council building after chasing protestors away. Screenshot from Apple Daily News.

Conducting excessive stop and search on young student protestors carrying backpacks or umbrellas in MTR stations.

Blocking an ambulance from reaching injured protestor.

Reports on police officers stopping a blind protestor in the MTR station for suspecting their support cane is a weapon. Both the Hong Kong Blind Union and Ebenezer School Alumni Association have criticized the police’s behaviour. (News Article Source in Chinese) (Hong Kong Blind Union’s Statement on Facebook in Chinese)

Statement and reposted photos by ActionQ, an LGBTQ advocacy group formed by students across higher education institutions on alleged sexual violence committed by police during protests. (Facebook Source in Chinese)

#HongKongers

Members of Gender and Sexual Justice in Action going on hunger strike to protest the bill. They plan to continue for 103 hours for the 1.03 million protestors that showed up on June 9th. Up till now several members have not eaten for 100 hours.

Legislator Kwong Chun Yu, Roy fainting after delivering heartfelt speech to protestors. Caption says he had not eaten or rested for a day since the protest started.

A young protestor refused to use the last bottle of saline solution carried by first aid volunteer and asked her to use it on herself instead so she could save more protestors as they are both injured by tear gas. (News Article Source in Chinese)

An unarmed mother crying her lungs out at police officers in attempt to stop them from using more pepper spray and tear gas. (Youtube Source 2)

Protestors giving their umbrella and putting a helmet on a reporting journalist (Ramy Inocencio, from CBSNews) as they all run from tear gas. Others helped douse his eyes with water.

Video captured by Nathan VanderKlippe (Globe and Mail Beijing correspondent), on joint effort of protestors rushing to douse a tear gas canister to protect other protestors from the gas.

Protestors wrapping the sharp ends of mills barriers to avoid other protestors or police officers getting hurt.

Protestors returning to site of protest after being evacuated at midnight to clean up rubbish.

More than 6000 Hong Kong mothers attended the “Hong Kong Mym AntiELAB Assembly” on 15th June night.

#Live Updates and #Social media in English

Telegram channel: Verified information from various sources , Hong Kong news updates

Instagram: @protecthongkong , @hknews.en

Twitter: @fight4hongkong , @anti_elab , @antielabhk

#Livestream

Twitch: ronald_fung (with english/multilingual interpreting)

Twitch: unabletobreathe

Facebook: TheStandNews

Believe it or not, this is not yet a complete collection of footages and news sources. The fight is on-going, and today (16th June) we will march the streets again, not only to reiterate our demand on completely withdrawing the bill, but also for the life that is lost to this fight and to condemn the classification of our protest as a “riot”.

TL;DR Hong Kong needs your support and attention. Please reblog to let more people know.

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whoooo-eliwood · 6 years

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What is this End Game multiverse theory??? 🤔

Oh boy!! Okay! So I have a tendency to ramble so everything is under the cut.

So, to begin, this whole thing is on the foundation that instead of summoning a hero directly from a world (like, taking them out of their world), you summon like an echo of their physical body and memories from a moment in time. This, for me at least, explains why we can have (just as an example) a Hector that is pre-promotion and another that is Post-promotion. Or a Kagero that’s going to a spring festival and one that’s not. And also why the Askr trio doesn’t just open a gate and invite heroes to fight with them that way.

Building on that idea, what happens when you summon two heroes from completely separate timelines caused by a player’s choice? Perhaps you summoned a Xander that watched his little sister’s wedding happily, and another that can still feel the sword that killed her in his hand? Fates would probably have the worst case of this, but you can apply this idea to other games too. Maybe the player had Lyn A support with Hector in one run but with Eliwood in another, and you summon the respective Roy and Lilina from those worlds? To make it worse, what if this Lyn that you summoned A supported with Florina? Its creates drama, that’s what I’m getting at.

AND TO BUILD UPON THAT EVEN FURTHER, What if you can summon from timelines we, the player, don’t see when we play? This could mean, worlds where non-canon things happened. Or, as the whole point of all these words, a timeline that came from after the player received a game over!

Eliwood takes a lance through the gut? Nbd, start the chapter over. But you still have created a timeline where he died. A little irresponsible with your character placement has not repercussion to you as a player, but these heroes went through all that and still have to fight if they’re summoned to Askr, even possibly with the very people they watched die.

If you even wanted to take this a step further, in Askr we can bring back Heroes from the dead! If you brought back a dead character from one of these timelines, its not gonna be pretty!

Oof! This got rlly long! Thanks for asking about it Anon!

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drabblemeister · 6 years

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A Study in Red (3)

Click here to read on Ao3~~ Pairing: JayTim Chapter Summary: Jason attempts to woo Tim. Meanwhile, Tim has conveniently forgotten the night before. Author Notes: I’ve been suffering through a bit of block lately but I’m hoping posting another chapter will get me amped up. I hope everyone enjoys! <3 Chapter 3: It struck Tim as surprising when he realized he’d been invited to one of Jason’s safehouses – one he didn’t know about. It opened a whole new train of thought, one that flickered between the odd sensation that he felt like he knew Jason, to the offputting idea that maybe he didn’t.

More than that, Tim felt a deeper stir of emotion at having been let in; after all, he’d figured out the other safehouses on his own. This location had been gifted.

Repeating the directions to himself, Tim biked familiar roads until they tapered to dirt, following hardened tracks as they wove together, shaping paths between buildings in Gotham’s warehouse district. Streetlights rhythmically prodded at the darkness and Tim followed the bursts of light like breadcrumbs, hoping he wouldn’t run into trouble – it was quiet, and Tim was paranoid enough to know that silence in dark places rarely spelled safety.

Tim’s caution battled with something else: the inexplicable yet heartfelt certainty that Jason and safe were two words that seemed interconnected. Jason was smart and wouldn’t choose a location that put him or his secrets at risk and Tim trusted Jason, which made the shadows less ominous.

Tim’s imagination wandered as he pictured Jason following this same path to get home, hitting the same bumps in the road, squinting under the same spills of lamplight. Tim’s eyes caught holes in the chain-linked fence, some big, some small; he thought for a moment that he might be able to memorize them, that he might want to, that this place was new – a darkened corner of Gotham he’d never thought to explore.

The engine of Tim’s bike revved heartily, echoing when he pulled into the lifted doors of a loading bay. The lights inside were dim; Tim guessed to avoid any attention from anyone passing on the freeway, which had an overpass that overlooked the area. Tim followed the detailed instructions that Jason had left him earlier; he entered the code to close the doors, set their alarm and doffed his helmet, holding it between his good arm and ribs while looking around.

Six cars, a few bikes – two of which were either half taken apart or half put together. Stacks of tires lined the wall and Tim couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, wondering if the vehicles had been salvaged or stolen.

“You’re late,” Jason said, and Tim’s head fell sideways, catching sight of him.

“You should talk to your HOA about the lighting out there,” Tim stated, abandoning his helmet to a worktable. “I could barely see the road.”

Jason, who stood atop a mezzanine in the far corner, leaned forward so that his elbows pressed against the railing. Behind him, an open door offered a flood of light. “That’s because there is no road.”

“You might want to tell them that, too.”

Jason’s eyes did more speaking than his mouth; light caught the humor there and Tim thought, for a small moment, that he was witnessing something rare and unguarded. It was almost as if Jason was searching him, waiting for something – and Tim felt undeniably like he had forgotten something very important.

His expression must have given him away; in less than a moment’s passing, Jason’s demeanor shifted, his gaze somehow incendiary; the whole of Jason’s expression looked a bit wolfish in the light.

“You didn’t drive here on any of those fancy pain meds, did you, Timbers?”

As Tim’s sneakers settled onto the flat of the mezzanine floor, he rolled his eyes, not entirely sure if he was being made fun of or not. He realized that his hands had found the pockets of his windbreaker, and felt a steady huff of air conditioning cool the damp on his forehead, left behind from his helmet.

“I’m flattered,” Tim said, only somewhat amused, “that you think I’d even be able to make it here .”

Jason smirked. “Touche. You could barely make it to the couch.”

“Don’t remind me,” Tim sighed, peeking past Jason towards the propped-open door behind him. This close, the smell of food was evident - real food, scent wafting, spices simmering - and Tim’s stomach startled him with a grumbling demand for it. He could feel Jason’s eyes on him, and so he said, “Bruce has me off patrol and on leave from the office.”

Jason straightened and there was a playfulness to it. “Oh no. Free time. What ever will you do?”

“Have dinner with you, apparently,” Tim countered with a grin.

The bay’s air conditioning had Tim’s arms freckling with goosebumps even under his jacket, which drew his attention towards the entryway – and Jason, noticing, motioned for Tim to follow him over the threshold.

The whole upper landing had been converted, Tim noticed, which wasn’t a surprise. People rarely built safehouses – they found a location and then made modifications. This warehouse wasn’t an exception.

“Whose place was this?” Tim asked, eyes wandering the space. It was open; industrial. Not quite Jason’s style, even if the decor was meticulously placed and organized to a fault. A bed here, a couch there. A wall of weaponry that occupied an entire stretch of wall that made Tim frown.

Jason stepped past him, causing their shoulders to brush.

“Ever the master of deduction,” Jason said, and Tim decided to follow him to the kitchen, which, to Tim’s fascination, looked like the most lived-in part of the entire space. “It’s one of Bertinelli’s old digs. Roy and I fixed it up.”

Tim’s gaze followed the track lighting in the ceiling. “You know, having no fire sprinklers is against code.”

Jason pressed in close to the stove just so he could lift the top of a simmering pot where Tim watched steam escape in a cloud. Through the haze, Jason caught his eyes. “Are you citing me, officer?”

The thought was entertaining. “I might,” Tim commented. Drawn to the ease of it, he added, “We’ll see how dinner goes.”

Whatever Jason was making smelled heavenly and Tim knew he was out of his element; there were two cutting boards on the countertop which meant fresh produce had been used, and Tim couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen a vegetable outside of a can. He crept closer, before guessing, “Pasta?”

Jason laughed. “Once again, your powers of deduction are unrivaled.” The sarcasm was chased by an offering – Jason held a ladle out for Tim to taste the sauce.

After a sigh, Tim gave in and tried it, only to glance up to Jason and say, “First citation.”

Jason tasted it next and when he licked his lips, Tim noticed. “Since when is garlic against code?”

Tim made a conscious effort to look offended. “Uh, when it’s that good. Forget it – I’m going home. I know an intervention when I see one.”

Jason pressed his lips together, looking both smug and immensely amused when Tim made no real effort to leave. He shifted to turn off burners and move pots and skillets, and after that was done, prodded Tim in the stomach to take a step back. Apparently there was garlic bread in the oven.

“I hate to break it to you,” Jason commented, drawing out the golden bread with a mitt, “but the intervention started last night.”

Tim thought about his apartment and how it looked brand new and that Jason had stayed with him, and...and something else. Was there something else?

“I told you,” Tim stated, aiming to look distracted. “I refuse to feel ashamed.”

Beside him, Jason moved about, pulling plates from a cabinet before setting them out and onto the countertop.

“Well,” Jason started, moving to the sink where a strainer held a heaping mound of pasta. “Obviously, I invited you over for dinner. Two and two tends to equal four.”

Tim turned the words over carefully in his head, trying to make sense of them. Before he could, Jason asked, “How hungry are you?”

Tim eyed the way Jason sifted pasta in the bowl and his stomach growled. “Starving,” he said, and then asked, “Why did you invite me over for dinner?”

The answer that Tim expected was, of course, sympathy . After all, Jason was a firsthand witness to how Tim lived.

Instead, Jason delivered him a rather ominous look. “Why do you think I did?”

“Because I’m helping you study,” Tim said, matter-of-fact, “and because you don’t think I should live off protein bars.”

Jason quirked a brow.

Tim bit his lip. “And...because you wanted to show off your safehouse?”

At that, Jason simply stared. Then, he blinked. He lifted his arm and dragged his fingers through his hair and let out a low, nearly-exasperated, “Wow. ”

In an effort to try and deduce just what he was missing, Tim’s eyes wandered the space around them. He added, “It’s a very nice safehouse?”

“Uh-huh,” Jason commented, and he seemed to settle for handing Tim a pair of plates. “Help me set the table?”

Tim, still feeling like he was missing something, obliged.

Dinner was a quick affair, mostly because Tim hadn’t been lying when he’d confessed to being famished. He offered to help clean, but Jason had given him a wry look.

“I wasn’t aware you knew how to wash dishes.”

“Ouch,” Tim had replied, but he’d left it at that. Cleaning wasn’t his forte, and even if it had been, he doubted he could match the pristine cleanliness that Jason seemed to thrive in.

So, while Jason ran water and jostled plates, Tim wandered the space like it was a museum. In some ways, it was. Half the weapons Jason had mounted were practical; the rest were antiques. Old, arched talwar blades lined one wall, intermittently separated by shamshir daggers. A lone katana stretched languidly, a fine piece in good condition. Beneath it, a glass case showed off a timeworn collection of arrowheads.

Tim leaned in close enough that his breath fogged the glass.

To someone who risked his life most nights, a wall peppered with swords was a pleasant reminder to be thankful for technology. He didn’t even want to think about vigilantism in the time of swordplay; mastering the bo staff had been difficult enough.

“How’s the arm?” Jason asked.

Tim turned, watching as Jason toweled his hands dry. It was impossible to ignore the way that the tendons in Jason’s forearms flexed, and Tim felt awkward when he caught himself staring. His eyes flickered upward as he hummed, “Hm?”

One corner of Jason’s lips quirked. “Your graze,” he said. “Are you going to live?”

Tim couldn’t tell if he was being made fun of and so he narrowed his eyes dubiously. “I’m sorry, but are you under the impression that this is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me?”

It was fun watching Jason, always in movement, always so readable and yet somehow so impossible to decipher. He flipped the hand-towel back so that it took to the air briefly before coming to rest against the curve of his neck and delivered Tim a dead-set, knowing stare.

“The worst thing to happen to you was, obviously, losing a butler.”

Tim choked. “Oh my god,” he sighed, exasperated. “I am not–”

“That bad?” Jason interrupted, and his gaze almost fell half-lidded. He said, “You are,” as if it was some universal truth and then added, “but don’t worry. It’s cute.”

Tim’s skin prickled in a way that had absolutely nothing to do with air conditioning. As usual, Jason’s words were easy to stumble over; with Jason’s personality, it was impossible to tell what to take seriously.

At the moment, Tim suspected he was definitely being made fun of.

“Hey,” Tim said. “I was surviving perfectly fine before we started this whole arrangement.”

“Uh-huh,” Jason was still smiling, though his lips had folded inward as though it was taking a controlled effort not to laugh. “You know, most people don’t typically have to, you know, survive their down time, right?”

“What down time?” Tim joked, just before squaring his shoulders with a bit of drama. “I’m not sure if you know this, but I am Timothy Drake-Wayne. You know, Economic Analyst for Wayne Enterprises, full-time student, Red Robin –”

“Tutor,” Jason threw in helpfully. “Can’t forget that. I mean, your resume clearly lacks experience.”

It was boyish, but Tim was so easily dragged into Jason’s tempo that the words simply slipped out. “Hey, whatever I lack in practical skills I make up for in multitasking. Who else can sign international trade agreements and bring mob bosses to their knees all in one day?”

Jason snorted. “Bruce? Actually, I’d be willing to bet he doesn’t know how to use a vacuum either.”

It had been a long time since Tim had consciously thought about how alike he and Bruce were, and he crinkled his nose at the realization that Jason was probably right. Eager to wave off the topic, he sighed and said, “It’s a rich kid thing.”

“You don’t strike me as the silver-spoon type, Timmers.”

“Funny,” Tim quipped back, “since you’ve been doing an impressive job of spoiling me.”

Jason stilled for a moment, all until a slow smirk tugged at the corners of his lips.

Tim suddenly felt hot. He wasn’t even entirely sure why. The detective in him guessed that it had to do with the fact that Jason wasn’t really denying it.

“Well,” Jason finally inched. His tone matched the smile he seemed intent to keep. “You are helping with a secret.”

“It’s a GED Jason, not murder.”

Even laced with sarcasm, the comment did nothing to derail Jason’s amusement. “I’m just doing my best to say thanks ,” he said. “I’m certainly open to requests.”

Tim tried to hide his humor when he asked, “Requests? What, like cleaning my apartment regularly?”

But Jason, ever quick on his feet, replied, “Or, you know. Maybe there’s something that you want but are too afraid to ask for?”

At that, Tim did laugh. “What?”

“Involving me?”

Tim’s smile was all confusion. “So, just to clarify, I’m not helping you because I expect anything in return? It’s important to you, and so I want to help, and–”

“Okay,” Jason interrupted, looking perplexed. “You have to be doing this on purpose.”

Tim raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“This.”

When Tim didn’t reply, Jason groaned and leaned forward until his elbows were balanced languidly on his knees. His hands fell limp, but his gaze effectively pinned Tim where he sat.

“This whole missing the obvious thing you’ve got going on. You’re Red Robin, for god’s sake. You can’t be this oblivious.”

Tim backtracked through the conversation, trying to figure out where they could have deviated. It took real effort to sift through the dialogue, and he felt odd that he even had to.

Something you’re too afraid to ask for, Jason had said. Involving me.

Jason, always flirting.

Jason, always tossing out innuendos.

“Please tell me you are not talking about sex.”

Jason spit a “What?" before adding, "For the love of –” but a sharp sound made them both jolt, followed by a heavy vibration that made the floors hum.

Tim’s eyes narrowed. Of course he was new to this hideout, but he wasn’t unfamiliar with warehouses; bay doors were huge and when they moved on their tracks, the entire building typically felt it.

“Expecting company?” Tim asked, because Jason’s frown showed that he hadn’t. Adrenaline pulled Tim’s pulse to a jog, especially when he saw the way Jason’s expression darkened.

It occurred to Tim that if anyone came here seeking out Red Hood, they might be shocked to find Timothy Drake-Wayne with him.

Jason leaned over his coffee table, hands smoothing along the bottom until Tim heard velcro tear. When he pulled back, he had a pistol in hand, and he checked it’s safety before tossing it Tim’s direction.

Catching it was child’s play, but schooling his expression was not. “And what exactly am I supposed to do with this?”

As Jason walked past, he pressed his palm to Tim’s chest in a silent motion for Tim to get back, to find some place out of sight. His fingers were warm, even through the fabric of Tim’s t-shirt, and Tim let out a breath before he rounded the hallway corner and pressed his back to the wall.

Looking left, he saw a doorway – probably to Jason’s room.

Something you’re too afraid to ask for, Tim heard the words again. And, counting measured breaths, he eyed the gun in his hands before rolling his eyes.

The front door opened.

The ensuing gap of silence ate at Tim’s nerves.

Then: “Jesus Christ, Harper.”

Tim tipped his head back against the wall, ineffectively eyeing popcorn ceiling. Of course, his mind supplied.

The door squealed and a burst of raucous laughter battled its resonance. “Aw, Jaybird. You know how much I love your weapon in my face, but a welcome home would have done just fine.”

Tim’s fingers twitched. He spun from his spot, taking the few steps he needed to in order to come into sight, and barely waited for Jason to look at him before he tossed the pistol back to its owner.

“Please, don’t let me get in the way of your loaded guns,” he stated, colorlessly. “I was just taking off.”

It was a rare thing for Tim to run into Roy; they hardly ever crossed paths. Still, Roy never seemed to change. His red hair and freckles were wild in the light, and the grin that cut his lips did so with an insidious upward slant.

“Ohoho,” Roy smiled, showing teeth. His eyes darted from Tim to Jason, who was shaking his hand out from having caught the gun awkwardly. “I interrupt something?”

Tim waited for Jason to say something, but Jason only delivered Roy a glare. Roy didn’t even have the decency to look confused; he just laughed.

After lifting his hand in a somewhat tight-laced and dismissive salute, Tim took a step towards the door, only to be blocked by Roy who spread out his arms as if welcoming Tim into an embrace.

“So, you see,” Roy started, rolling his head back animatedly. “I may have been followed.”

Tim paused, dumbfounded.

“No shit?” Jason asked, and when Roy gave him a look peppered with apology, suddenly, Jason was moving.

“Candles still under the sink?” Roy questioned, brushing past Tim with a confident, sauntering swagger. Jason was nodding as he made his way towards the bay, where Roy had come from.

Tim followed, not daring get stuck here an entire night .

At the base of the metal staircase, Jason turned on him, looking taller somehow and more serious with his brows set and lips pursed.

“You can’t leave, babybird. This area is a maze.”

Tim could see his bike from the corner of his eye. “So draw me a map,” he said. “And don’t call me that.”

Something akin to resignation tugged at Jason’s features. There was no guilt in his expression, just a gray-colored knowingness. “You’re not Red Robin right now, if you haven’t noticed.”

He meant, of course, that Tim out there would be a sitting duck - just some normal guy on a bike who’d probably be fun target practice for whatever dirtbags Roy had inspired to chase him.

“You’re staying,” Jason decided. He even leveraged a stare to prove his point, which irked Tim into turning on his heels and stalking back up the mezzanine stairs. When he made it to the living room, he huffed idly and plopped onto the couch, watching Roy wander the room with emergency candles clutched to his chest.

Dressed as Arsenal, it looked more than a little bit ridiculous.

“Why are we lighting candles?” Tim asked.

After setting one down in the dining room, Roy took a few strides in Tim’s direction before dropping to a crouch on the opposite side of the coffee table. His fingers were long and lean, but even from a few feet away, Tim could make out the callouses on their tips.

“Mm,” Roy hummed, and his eyes danced upward as if Tim was some fine piece of under-appreciated art. “Never heard of setting the mood?”

Tim stared, his expression flat.

A grin split Roy’s lips just before he spilled a quick laugh. “We’re killin’ the lights, Red. Don't want any big bad wolves comin’ after your pretty little face now, do we?”

Tim licked his lips, unimpressed, just before leaning forward. When he held his arm out, Roy simply followed the movement, looking amused when Tim simply flicked the brim of his hat, popping it upward just enough for a sliver of light to catch his jade-green eyes through his domino mask.

“Last I checked, I wasn't a damsel in distress,” Tim said in a leveled tone.

The flicker in Roy’s eyes made Tim feel like he’d proven a point. Still, Roy smiled broadly as he brushed Tim’s fingers aside with his own. “Maybe not a damsel,” he offered, “but you bats are always in distress.”

Behind him, Jason emerged from the now-darkened bay and tugged the entryway door closed. A keypad beside it beeped, and Tim found it easy to see why Jason was so offended by his apartment’s lack of security precautions. This place was like a prison.

“I’m sorry,” Tim drolled, “but are we hiding from people or trying to survive a nuclear holocaust?”

When Roy stood, a huffed laugh escaped him.

Jason, who had disappeared into the kitchen, came back into sight just before tossing something Tim’s way. After catching it one-handed, Tim saw that it was a lighter.

“Hopefully the former,” Jason noted. “Though Tim brings up a good point. Who’d you piss off tonight, Harper?”

Roy stretched his arms high above his head and Tim heard his shoulder pop. “I’m offended,” Roy said as he feigned a pout. “Why do you think that I started it?”

Tim and Jason both looked to Roy, each bearing the same, one-eyebrow-raised expression.

Roy let loose a sputtered laugh, his gaze darting back and forth between them. “Ha-ha,” he chuckled. “Damned if I’ve ever been betrayed twice.”

The candle on the coffee table was cool as Tim dragged it back and into his lap. He tapped his fingers against it, considering the situation. A safehouse Roy knew about and was familiar with, the fact Roy wasn’t Roy right now - he was Arsenal, and by the looks of it - exhausted.

“Does Batman know you’re working a case in his backyard?” Tim asked.

It was Jason that answered. “B doesn’t need to know about our cases.”

Tim decided to be more straightforward. “Yours, maybe not,” he directed Jason’s way and then shifted his attention to Roy. “But you’re working alone, right? Running for Ollie?”

For the first time, Roy lost his humor; his smile departed and he tossed a questioning glance Jason’s way, as if to ask, did you tell him?

“You’re looking at the master of deduction,” Jason replied, dryly, pointing haphazardly to Tim with his thumb. “A very loyal master of deduction who wouldn’t sell out his friends because daddy-bats might be territorial.”

At that, Tim tipped the candle forward in order to light it. He answered with, “What an intriguing bundle of assumptions.”

Roy looked anxious as he shifted his weight.

“Tim.” Jason warned.

After sliding the candle to the table’s center, Tim lifted his gaze. “I’m not going to tell,” he said, edging a look Jason’s direction. “But you might want to hit the streets with him, Jay. B’s on a big project that’s got the whole team posted. I don’t even want to think about Roy running into Robin.”

At that, Jason looked thoughtful. “Duly noted,” he said, and then looked curious. “What makes you think Roy’s doing something for Ollie? The fact I’m not out there with him?”

“There’s that,” Tim agreed, “and also, you don’t know who we’re hiding from. I hate to ruin dreams, but neither of you really spell mystery.”

Jason snorted. “Yup. You sure can read me like a book.”

Tim wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean, so he ignored it and stood up, making his way to two more candles. There weren’t anymore in this corner of the room, and so he turned; as he did, he saw Jason pause midstep just before lifting a finger.

On the couch, Roy paused from removing his gear and tipped his head sideways.

Tim wasn't used to the warehouse, what sounds were normal and which ones weren't, but he thought he heard tires on gravel and the low hum of an engine.

Jason’s glance was sideways and urgent, and he snapped his fingers Tim’s direction and motioned towards a light panel. Tim acted easily enough, eyeing the switches briefly before his fingers made work of folding darkness into the living space.

When a candle flickered nearby, Tim felt tempted to blow it out. But then he heard it; the sudden loss of a hefty hum, and knew that it wasn't the light that was a problem.

“This place runs off a generator?” Even after saying it, Tim found it hard to believe.

“A few,” Jason said, quiet. “I told you it was a fixer-upper.”

“What you meant was if we leech anymore power they’ll send us a bill.”

“Yeah,” Jason shrugged. “That too.”

It was a toss up whether or not Tim should feel concerned. Quiet stretched for a good few minutes after, but the sounds that Tim had heard seemed to have disappeared.

Eventually, the tension left Jason’s shoulders and he sighed. Roy welcomed the decision by working off his gauntlets and peeling off his mask, barely visible in the flickering light.

“I’m using some of the distilled,” Roy said as he stood up. “Need to wash this day off, stat.”

Tim watched him leave. A moment later, his cell phone buzzed and he dug it out from his back pocket. One look at the caller ID had him sighing, and when he pressed the phone to his ear, he voiced a casual, “Hey, Dick. What’s up?”

At that, Jason’s steps slowed and he eyed Tim as he fell into Roy’s spot on the couch.

“The Triads are in town,” Tim hummed, flickering a knowing look Jason’s way. “No kidding.”

Jason plucked Roy’s bow from the table, but not before sending Tim a passive glance. The Triads were Starling criminals, which proved Tim’s theory correct. Tim simply arched his brows, teasing.

Dick’s next comment left little room for humor, and Tim turned away from Jason, annoyed. He said, “Of course I’m not patrolling.”

There was nothing more frustrating than being benched and then being harped about it.

“Just because I’m not at my apartment doesn’t mean I’m on the streets, Dick,” he said, reaching out to swipe a finger across the dining room table. It came back clean, and Tim wondered how many layers of dust Jason had contended with two nights previous, at his place. Then, Tim stilled.

“What?” he asked, trying to hide the fact he’d been caught off guard. Dick’s voice replayed in his head.

Tell Jason ‘hi’ for me, and seriously, lay low tonight.

Instead of answering, Dick simply hummed and ended the call. Tim’s body language must have given away his surprise, because Jason was watching him as he lowered his phone and stared at the screen.

“Everyone alive?” Jason asked.

Tim tapped his fingers against the shell of his phone before slipping it back into his pocket. “Dick says hi,” he answered. After a moment, it almost made sense. He thought about what day it was; Dick had probably been running his territory the night he’d gotten hurt. “He probably saw you at my place the other night.”

Jason didn’t look comforted by that revelation. At the same time, he didn’t seem too concerned, either. He righted Roy’s bow, fingers hooking against a tension wire that had snapped.

“You can tell him to mind his own business the next time you see him.”

Tim snorted, deciding not to argue that Dick was; keeping weekly tabs on Tim had become a habit. Instead, he looked around the shadowed space, thinking the ebbing candlelight reminded him of when he was a kid, staying up 'til morning reading books under the covers with a flashlight.

That was a long time ago.

“Will you sit down?” Jason said. “You’re making me nervous.”

Tim thought that was funny. It wasn’t like he could leave. “I’m trying to decide what to do.”

“About Dick?”

“About tonight,” Tim said. “I’m bored.”

As Jason unwound the wire and rotated a few of the gears; he nodded as though he wasn’t surprised. “Take breaks where you can, Timmers. Learn to relax.”

“Hmm,” Tim replied, noncommittally. He watched Jason toss the wire aside and eye the bow with skepticism; he assumed this wasn’t the first time Roy’d had this particular problem, and that he and Jason had been attempting to solve it for a while.

Malfunctioning weapons were problematic.

Thinking of his arm, Tim accepted that perfectly functioning ones were just as unpredictable. His bicep throbbed and he looked down to his bandages, knowing it was past time to clean the stitches again, and this time, leave the cut undressed.

“Do you have a kit I can use?”

Jason’s attention darted from the bow to Tim’s arm and he made an effort to stand.

“I can do it,” Tim clarified. “I just wasn’t sure if your first aid was here or out there,” he motioned towards the secured door that separated them from the loading bay.

Jason pointed a finger. “Kitchen,” he said. “Under the sink.”

Tim grabbed a candle on his way, unsurprised to find an entire collection of stacked, plastic boxes. He pulled out the seated topmost and grabbed a bottled water from Jason’s fridge before sitting on the floor. The kit was half-empty when he opened it, but Tim didn’t need much - just some cloth and antibacterial gel.

Unwrapping the gauze around his arm was easy enough until the last layer, which clung to his skin and stitches with enough integrity that he was forced to douse it in water to get it to peel off. Wiping away dried blood took time, especially when Tim had to weave Bruce’s uneven stitches, but he was satisfied when nothing pulled and no fresh blood came weeping from beneath the thread.

Footsteps caused him to look up, but Jason simply stepped around him, tugging open the refrigerator to snag a few water bottles for himself. When he drew back, he paused, and after a moment’s thought he dropped to a crouch.

“You gonna let it air?”

Tim felt Jason’s presence the same way he felt warmth from the candle, a flickering, ebbing sensation that made him think that getting too close might burn. Though Jason eyed Tim’s arm with nothing but medical interest, he was near enough that Tim felt his pulse pick up all the same.

“Yeah,” Tim answered, swallowing immediately after. “It’s gotta breathe sometime.”

Tim thought about the gap between them - what it would mean to close it. He hadn't given it much thought before. But now, less than a foot apart, Tim felt like the world had shifted and he hadn’t quite found his footing.

“What the ever lovin’ fuck is that?”

Roy, in all his glory, broke the spell. Tim jumped so badly that he slammed his elbow into the cabinet behind him and couldn’t keep the hefty hiss from crawling up his throat.

Even Jason glared, though Tim noted that he hadn’t really been surprised - which meant Tim had spaced out all on his own.

Great.

“It’s like you bats try to scar,” Roy still looked appalled as he bent over at the hips, squinting at Tim’s damage. He was wearing a t-shirt and loose shorts, and his hair had been doused with water and toweled to a damp fringe. “Look at that. What is that?”

Tim opened his mouth, but Jason cut him to the chase. “That’s B,” he said. “He’s not one for aesthetic.”

Roy made a sound that Tim feared would send him coughing. “My guy,” he said, slapping a hand on Jason’s shoulder. “The man has a cave and makes laps around town wearing a batsuit. If that ain’t aesthetic, I don’t wanna know what is.”

“Sorry to burst your bubble,” Tim sent his gaze upward, “but this won’t be my worst scar. Kind of comes with the territory.”

Roy searched the parts of Tim he could see, skeptical, just before straightening. He huffed and nudged Jason with his bare foot. “Unless a lazarus pit spits you out.”

It was an interesting comment, one Tim didn’t entirely understand until Jason ducked his head and scraped his fingers through his hair. Though their light was limited to a hazy, yellowed hue, Tim’s eyes roamed the skin of Jason’s forearms and the visible slope of his neck.

Without thinking, Tim reached out for Jason’s hand, drawing it forward so that he could turn Jason’s arm over in better light. He couldn’t believe he’d never noticed.

“None?” he asked, because the skin under this thumbs was soft and unmistakably unmarred.

“I mean, none from before,” Jason said, sounding strangely embarrassed about it. For measure, he added, “You know what kind of trouble I get into at night.”

Roy leaned forward, pressing his knees to Jason’s back in jest. He looked long-limbed and languid. “Does he now?”

The shadows couldn’t hide Jason’s exasperation, but Tim released his arm regardless. He felt the familiar, annoying rush of warmth on his ears and thanked whatever gods might exist for the fact it was probably too dark for anyone else to see.

For further defense, he decided to play along. “All kinds of trouble,” he threw Roy’s direction. “He’s got quite the fetish for cleaning-”

“-up the city,” Jason quickly said, giving Tim a sharp look.

Tim let his eyes do the smirking when he added, “Yeah. He sure knows how to take out the trash.”

“Is that what you kids are calling it these days?” Roy quirked, knocking his knees into Jason’s back a couple more times, until Jason was finally forced to catch his balance. Then he whirled, swiping out a hand to catch the heel of Roy’s foot, missing his mark by a fraction of a second.

“Gettin’ slow,” Roy winked, and Tim caught himself against the cabinet door when Jason darted up, eager to prove how slow he was not . Footsteps beat across the floor and something broke, but Roy’s laughter simply echoed, like a flag signaling the beginning of a chase.

Tim dabbed his stitches with antibiotic gel with practiced dexterity, ignoring the puckered flesh and bruising, satisfied when he only received a dull ache in response. It was quick work and the clean-up was easy, and when he moved to stand, candle in hand, the light caught a tattered, dollar-store calendar pinned to Jason’s refrigerator.

When Tim realized the theme was Wonder Woman, he snorted.

Mostly the days were blank, and if anything was written, it was coordinates and code. One day was circled however - this upcoming Friday, and Tim felt a tug of guilt at the fact he’d forgotten.

That day marked Jason’s exam.

Tim had put a reminder in his phone, but not a countdown. Seeing the event sitting only two days away was off-putting, so much that he poked at the paper with his finger.

Tomorrow, he’d have classes and a lab, and then Friday…

Friday would be it.

The end of late night encounters and mid-class texts, of Jason bugging him here and there for answers to problems, for cheats. Maybe they might cross paths on patrol, but Tim doubted it; they’d gone out of their way to make sure they had time for each other, and without a reason, Tim had the sneaking suspicion that things would inevitably go back to the way they were.

Tim tapped the page again and decided not to think about it.

It was probably the lighting, but the red circle, scribbled three times over, resembled a black hole.

#jaytim #a study in red #ladelle writes

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olko71 · 3 years

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New Post has been published on All about business online

New Post has been published on http://yaroreviews.info/2021/09/facebook-to-halt-work-on-instagram-kids-version

Facebook to Halt Work on Instagram Kids Version

Facebook Inc. FB 0.18% said it would suspend plans for a version of its Instagram app tailored to children, a concession after lawmakers and others voiced concerns about the photo-sharing platform’s effects on young people’s mental health.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri said Monday that the social-media service is pausing its work so that it can listen to concerns and do more to demonstrate the value of the kids version, which was to be ad-free and allow parents to monitor children’s activity.

“I still firmly believe that it’s a good thing to build a version of Instagram that’s safe for tweens, but we want to take the time to talk to parents and researchers and safety experts and get to more consensus about how to move forward,” Mr. Mosseri said on NBC’s “Today” show.

Facebook’s move follows an article this month in The Wall Street Journal’s Facebook Files series showing that the company’s internal research found Instagram is harmful for a sizable percentage of young users, particularly teenage girls with body-image concerns. The article prompted a Senate hearing on the subject scheduled for later this week.

“We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls,” said one slide from a 2019 internal presentation, summarizing research about teen girls who experience the issues.

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Separately on Monday, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis directed his secretary of state to investigate Facebook in relation to another article in the Journal’s series. That article exposed a company system known as “cross check” that has exempted high-profile users from some or all of Facebook’s rules for behavior on its platforms. Mr. DeSantis said the probe would examine whether the exemptions violate Florida election laws.

Asked for comment, a Facebook spokesman reiterated that the cross check system was designed to help the company accurately enforce policies on content potentially requiring more understanding. He said Facebook has been working to address the issues with the program to improve how it operates.

The Journal’s Instagram article added to concerns about the platform’s effects on young people. Facebook’s plan for a children’s version of the app, which Mr. Mosseri said was intended for 10-to-12-year-olds, has drawn criticism this year from federal lawmakers and state officials over its impact on young people’s mental health. Instagram bars children younger than 13 from its platform but acknowledges that many join anyway.

In May, attorneys general from 44 states and territories urged Facebook to abandon plans for a children’s Instagram platform, arguing that children aren’t equipped to use social media and that there are better ways for them to connect with friends and family. Members of Congress from both parties have also expressed concerns about the plan.

“Facebook is heeding our calls to stop plowing ahead with plans to launch a version of Instagram for kids,” Sen. Ed Markey (D., Mass.) said on Twitter Monday. “But a ‘pause’ is insufficient. Facebook must completely abandon this project.” Rep. Ken Buck (R., Colo.) also called on Instagram to “abolish the program completely.”

In an interview Monday, two of the state officials who criticized Instagram’s plan in the spring, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson, also called on Instagram to fully abandon the project.

Facebook executives say that because children already find ways to skirt the app’s age restrictions, it would be better for them to use a version with stronger safety controls. Mr. Mosseri noted Monday that other big internet platforms such as YouTube, a unit of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, and TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance Ltd., have versions designed for children under 13.

The company believes the children’s version “is the right thing to do,” Mr. Mosseri said in a statement. “Critics of ‘Instagram Kids’ will see this as an acknowledgment that the project is a bad idea. That’s not the case.”

Mr. Mosseri and Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg have said that social media can help children form connections.

Instagram also plans to offer more parental controls to families with older children, Mr. Mosseri said. The controls would be optional and would allow parents to monitor and shape their teenagers’ experience with the platform. Instagram had been developing some of those tools for the now-paused kids’ platform, he said.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri has said that social media can help children form connections.

Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

“Parents of kids of all ages are looking for more ways to supervise and control their kids’ experiences online,” Mr. Mosseri said. The controls could give parents the ability to approve whom their teenage children can message and follow, he added.

The Journal’s Sept. 14 article about Facebook’s internal research on Instagram was part of a series showing that Facebook knows its platforms are riddled with a variety of flaws that cause harm. In addition to the Instagram research, the Facebook Files articles—based on a review of internal documents and interviews with current and former employees—also reported on problems with Facebook’s content-moderation policy for high-profile accounts, its efforts to tame angry content and its programs to bar criminals such as human traffickers and drug cartels.

Josh Golin, executive director of a group called Fairplay that advocates reducing companies’ interactions with children, praised Instagram’s decision and said it was evidence of rising concerns about the platform’s harms.

“What you saw here was a really well-organized outcry from so many different circles: experts, advocates, states’ attorneys general, parents,” Mr. Golin said. “That, combined with the really disturbing revelations in The Wall Street Journal, created so much pressure on Facebook that they understood that they really risked drawing the ire of lawmakers and doing long-term damage to their brand.”

Leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee’s consumer-protection subcommittee said last week they would hold a hearing this Thursday to question a senior Facebook executive about its platforms’ effects on young people’s mental health.

On Monday, Facebook said it would make public the internal Instagram research that was the subject of the Journal’s reporting.

“Of course people should judge for themselves, so we’re just making sure that all the Ts are crossed and the Is are dotted so that we can release it both to Congress and then to the public in the next few days,” Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs, said at a conference hosted by the Atlantic magazine.

Facebook’s head of research, Pratiti Raychoudhury, said in a blog post Sunday, 12 days after the Journal’s article ran, that the Journal’s reporting mischaracterized the company’s findings about Instagram and teens. Ms. Raychoudhury said that body image was the only area, out of a dozen, where the company found teen girls who reported struggling with the issue said that Instagram made it worse. Facebook’s research shows many teens “feel that using Instagram helps them when they are struggling with the kinds of hard moments and issues teenagers have always faced,” she said.

A Journal spokesman said, “We stand behind The Facebook Files. None of the company’s defenses have cited a single factual error—and in keeping with our standards, we gave Facebook ample time and space to comment before publication.”

The Journal’s article noted that for most teenagers, Instagram’s effects can be manageable and at times positive but highlighted those areas where the company’s own researchers flagged negative effects on at-risk users.

The Facebook Files

Write to Matt Grossman at [email protected]

#PAID

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patriotsnet · 3 years

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Can Republicans Vote In Democratic Primary In Nc

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/can-republicans-vote-in-democratic-primary-in-nc/

Can Republicans Vote In Democratic Primary In Nc

Start Your Day With Laist

Independent Voters Can Cast Ballot For Democratic Primary, But Not Republican In March

If youre confused about how to vote in Californias presidential primary, youre in good company with Susan Sarandon.

Just one problem: Shes wrong. Political independents do not need to switch parties to vote in the Democratic presidential primary the just need to request a Democratic ballot first.

This is important.

Susan Sarandon

To be fair, the minutiae of California election law is really confusing! And Sarandon is hardly alone. Election day in California is , but already social media has become a bipartisan chorus of wrongness about the what, how and why of the states presidential primary.

If youre unsure about how to get the ballot you want, why things here are so complicated or what presidential primaries are all about, here are four things to know before you vote:

THE PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY WILL NOT USE THE FAMILIAR TOP TWO BALLOT

California voters can be forgiven for assuming that political party registration doesnt really matter.

In 2010 voters backed a measure to create the states nonpartisan top two election system, in which all primary voters fill out a ballot with every candidate on it regardless of either the voters or the candidates political party. The top two winners then move on to the general election ballot even if theyre both from the same party.

In races for state legislative and congressional seats, the top two method will still reign on the 2020 ballot.

L.A. County voters:

Who Can Vote On Super Tuesday

Eligibility to vote in the Democratic primaries varies from state to state.

For example, registered Democrats and unaffiliated voters in California and North Carolina are able to cast a ballot for one of the Democratic presidential contenders.

However, registered Republicans can’t vote.

In Maine, only registered Democrats can vote – because the state has closed primaries, as opposed to open, which is the case in Texas, where all voters;can vote in the Democratic primary regardless of party registration.

The South Carolina Republican Party announced in September that it would join a list of other states that would not hold a presidential primary this year.

Historically, the South Carolina GOP also didn’t hold primaries when Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush were incumbents in 1984 and 2004, respectively.

The states voting are:

Virginia

Independents In California Can Vote Republican In 2020 Presidential Election

CLAIM: All California voters if you are registered to vote as an independent you will not be able to vote Republican come 2020. You must go online and change to Republican. California changed the rules and is hoping no one figures it out in time.;

APS ASSESSMENT: Partly false. The post does not apply to the general election this fall.;

THE FACTS: During Californias presidential primary election on March 3, independent voters also known as no party preference voters could vote in the Democratic presidential primary without changing their party affiliation, but not in the Republican primary. A post which circulated at the time of the primary is recirculating now to make it appear as though Californias independent voters will not be able to vote Republican in the general election unless they change their party affiliation to Republican.;

California voters please read, says a June 6 Facebook post, featuring a text post spreading the false information about independent voters. The post had more than 5,000 shares.;

The California Secretary of States office confirmed to the AP that independent voters were only barred from voting Republican in the presidential primary. During the general election in November they can vote for a candidate belonging to any party.

https://apnews.com/5515db2b38a26db42b09c5d64451b31e

Heres more information on Facebooks fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536

Also Check: Trump Interview People Magazine 1998

Arguments On The Open And Closed Methods Of Electing Leaders

Political and social analysts have discussed extensively the manner of conducting open and closed primary elections. Some argue in favor of the open primary election. Some also argue in support of the closed primary election. Let us look at their various views to understand what the electoral process stands to benefit from the use of these forms of elections.

Proponents of the closed primary elections are of the view that only members of a political party should be able to vote for the candidate that the political party presents. In this regard, their opponent political party will be unable to influence who the party presents in a general election. They believe that in open primaries, other political parties could play dirty to control the candidate that emerges on the platform of a particular party at the primaries. That way, they can ensure that the candidate representing the other party is the one not likely to draw the popular vote from voters at the general elections.

Thus, the advocates for a closed primary election are of the view that only those of a political party should participate in deciding who represents them as a political party.

Nc Election Bills Unlikely To Become Laws After Senate Votes

RALEIGH, N.C. North Carolina Senate Republicans pushed a trio of election measures through their chamber on Wednesday, including one that would prohibit counting mail-in absentee ballots that arent received by local officials by Election Day.

But unlike other GOP-led legislatures in battleground states that have passed voting restrictions this year, North Carolina has a Democratic governor who could veto the measures, leaving Republicans powerless to override Gov. Roy Cooper if Democrats continue to stay united in opposition. The measures passed the Senate on a party-line vote and now go to the House, where Republicans also have been weighing absentee changes.

Current law allows ballot envelopes postmarked by the day of the election to count if received within a three-day grace period. Although that idea was backed unanimously in separate legislation a dozen years ago by the legislature, Republicans now say the wait for ballots to trickle in delays the finality of results, and moving up the deadline will help lead to earlier outcomes the public wants.

The bill will build confidence in our election system, Sen. Warren Daniel, a Burke County Republican and bill sponsor said during the debate. Everyone saw how long it took North Carolina to declare winners in the presidential election and our U.S. Senate election. And this should help alleviate those concerns.

This bill is not about a national narrative, Daniel said.

Recommended Reading: How Many States Are Controlled By Republicans

How Can I Follow The Results

For most of the states in play, the results will roll in hours after polls close.

The one exception is California, which is notoriously slow to count its ballots.

The state accepts mail-in ballots up to three days after election day and gives county election officials 30 days to count them.

In 2016, it took over a month to count them all its ballots.

What Do Party Preferences Mean When Listed With Candidates Names On The Ballot What Are The Qualified Political Parties And Abbreviations Of Those Party Names

The term party preference is now used in place of the term party affiliation. A candidate must indicate his or her preference or lack of preference for a qualified political party. If the candidate has a qualified political party preference that qualified political party will be indicated by the candidates name on the ballot. If a candidate does not have a qualified political party preference, Party Preference: None will be indicated by the candidates name on the ballot.

Similarly, voters who were previously known as decline-to-state voters are now known as having no party preference or known as NPP voters.

Abbreviations for the qualified political parties are:

DEM = Democratic Party

Read Also: How Many States Are Controlled By Republicans

Professional Vetting Provides Quality Control

Our case so far has dwelt on the shortcomings of the plebiscitary nominating process. So, we ought to re-emphasize: We are not saying that primary elections bring nothing to the table. To the contrary, they surface all kinds of important information about candidates and voters. What we do believe is that two filters are better than one. Electoral and professional perspectives check each others excesses and balance each others viewpoints; and, more than that, they complement and improve each other. Each provides the other with vital information which otherwise might be missed. Perhaps most important, professional input aids in winnowing the field to those who will likely govern competently.

wo filters are better than one. Electoral and professional perspectives check each others excesses and balance each others viewpoints

Insiders look for whether candidates are able to work with others, and whether they have sound judgment, adaptability, a nuanced way of dealing with problems, and influential relationships inside and outside government. Insiders also observe candidates character, and they can detect personal flaws that might affect sound decision-making. Insiders know from experience the attributes and talents necessary for effective governing. Voters are not privy to that kind of detailed, hands-on knowledge.

Vetting not only evaluates politicians; it also helps equip them to govern.

N Carolina Elections Head: Delay 21 City Races 22 Primary

CA independents can vote in Democrats’ 2020 primary, but not Republicans’ | ABC7

RALEIGH, N.C. â North Carolinaâs top elections administrator on Tuesday urged state lawmakers to move all of this yearâs municipal elections to 2022 and bump back next yearâs primaries from March to May due to delayed Census data.

Census numbers play a crucial role in how legislative districts are redrawn every decade. But even though the data was supposed to be delivered by next month, the federal government does not expect to have it ready to be released;until September;because of delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

North Carolina is now either the first state in the nation or among the first to put forward a plan that pushes local government contests to 2022.

Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, cited the Census setbacks as the driving force behind her recommendation to postpone the elections.

She noted that 62 of the more than 500 municipalities across the state need the Census data because candidates submit paperwork or voters cast ballots based on their specific ward or district. While itâs possible for many of the remaining local governments that do not require districts or wards to go forward without the Census data, Bell called on lawmakers to follow her advice in order to address redistricting and avoid confusing voters.

The 2022 primaries include bids for U.S. Senate and House, judicial races and state legislative seats.

You May Like: Did Trump Say Republicans Are Stupid

Can A Democrat Vote For A Republican

The Democratic Party and the Republican Party are the two major parties in America. Before the general election takes place, there is a process called the primary election. The primary election is how registered voters determine the candidate for the nomination of each political party for the general election. The general election is the election that determines who becomes the President of America.

The question is, can a democrat vote for a republican?

In answering the question on whether a democrat can vote for a republican, it is essential to note that the answer depends on the type of election in question. For closed primary elections, only persons that register as members of a particular party can vote, and in such a situation, they must vote for their party candidate. For an open primary election, the voters can vote for any party without declaring their affiliation to a political party.

Primary Primers: Why North Carolina May Be One Of The Most Important States In The 2020 Election

While political pundits often focus on well-known swing states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan, North Carolina is often considered to be a red or Republican state. Looking at presidential vote share and voter registration data, Christopher Cooper argues that the Tar Heel State is in fact a purple state, and one which could mean the difference between winning or losing a presidential election.;

This article is part of our Primary Primers series curated by Rob Ledger and Peter Finn . Ahead of the 2020 election, this series explores key themes, ideas, concepts, procedures and events that shape, affect and define the US presidential primary process. If you are interested in contributing to the series contact Rob Ledger or Peter Finn

Both Democrats and Republicans agree: victory in 2020 runs through North Carolina. Whichever party wins in NC will likely prevail on Election Day. -North Carolina Republican mailer. May 20, 2020.

Since at least 2008, North Carolina has been one of the key states which determine who occupies 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. In fact, as the above quote from a Republican Party mailer suggests, North Carolina may be the single most important state in this Presidential election.

Figure 1 North Carolinas Rank in Presidential Democratic Vote Share Among 50 states

Figure 2 North Carolina Voter Registration 1974-2020

You May Like: How Many States Are Controlled By Republicans

From Ohio To Florida Your Cheat Sheet For The Next Crucial Primaries

Five states voting Tuesday could be make-or-break for some presidential candidates. A primer on whos voting and what outcomes are likeliest

Tue 15 Mar 2016 11.00;GMT Last modified on Fri 9 Feb 2018 19.15;GMT

On 15 March, the names of the remaining presidential candidates Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and John Kasich on the Republican side, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders for the Democrats will be on ballot papers in five states and one US territory. Although this Tuesday will be less frantic than Super Tuesday two weeks ago, when 12 states and one territory held primary elections, its just as important. By 16 March, the race for the White House could look very different depending on how Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio vote.

Thats partly because the delegate numbers in those states are so high in total, 367 Republican and 792 Democratic delegates are available on 15 March. That brings us significantly closer to the finish line of having just two presidential candidates: at the moment, 33% of Democratic delegates have been pledged but by the time the polls have closed on 15 March, that number will rise to 50%. For Republicans, pledged delegates will jump from 46% to 61%.

Those percentages just mean that playing catch-up gets harder from here. Clinton is still on track for the Democratic nomination to change that, Sanders needs to pick up at least 326 of the pledged delegates .

California Independents Can Vote In Democrats 2020 Primary

SACRAMENTO, Calif. Californias more than 5.6 million independent voters will be allowed to vote in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, but not in the Republican contest, Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced Monday.

The two parties have used a similar setup in recent presidential primaries.

The states presidential primary will be held on March 3, 2020, known as Super Tuesday, because of the large number of state contests that day. California is one of the biggest prizes, offering nearly 500 delegates in the Democratic nominating contest.

Independent voters, known in the state as no party preference, make up roughly 28% of registered California voters. But experts predict theyll make up just 15% of the Democratic primary electorate because of extra steps they need to take to get a presidential ballot, said Paul Mitchell, who runs the nonpartisan firm Political Data, Inc., which gathers and sells voter data.

More independent voters in California lean Democratic than Republican, but more call themselves moderate than liberal or conservative, according to the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California . But Mitchell said the independents who go through the effort of voting in the Democratic contest are likely to be young, more diverse and more progressive.

But the presidential primary doesnt work that way. Independent voters will need to specifically ask for a Democratic ballot at the polls or by mail ahead of the primary.

You May Like: What Is Donald Trump A Republican Or Democrat

Nasty Nc Senate Primary Tests Trumps Sway Over The Gop

Three Republicans are already turning on each other in the race, where the sitting senator and the former president disagree over who can win.

Former President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Rep. Ted Budd at the North Carolina Republican Convention this month caught some candidates off-guard. | Chris Seward/AP Photo

06/21/2021 12:33 PM EDT

Link Copied

Donald Trump has endorsed conservative Rep. Ted Budd in North Carolinas critical Senate race, the former president’s first foray into an open primary in a battleground. That state’s retiring Republican senator has other ideas.

Sen. Richard Burr praised North Carolina’s former GOP governor, Pat McCrory, as the only one in the race that can win the general election” for the seat Burr is vacating. Pat McCrory has a commanding advantage,” Burr added.

Behind the scenes, Burr is even less subtle about next year’s Senate battle. One Republican senator said Burr is telling everyone that McCrory is the only one that has a chance to win. And the laid-back incumbent, who voted to convict Trump of inciting an insurrection in February, also appeared puzzled by the former president’s decision-making in North Carolina.

I cant tell you what motivates him,” Burr said of Trump. “Ive never seen individuals endorse a candidate a year before the primary. Thats unusual.

I just want to win in November. And I dont have any view of the primary in that regard, McConnell said when asked about Trumps endorsement.

Filed Under:

Its Primary Day In Pennsylvania Heres What Voters Need To Know

Laura Benshoff

May 18, 2021

Voters, wearing protective face masks as a precaution against the coronavirus, stand at a distance from each other as they wait in line to casts their ballot in the Pennsylvania primary in Philadelphia, Tuesday, June 2, 2020.

Its Primary Day in Pennsylvania.

Voters around the commonwealth will pick representatives from their parties to put on the ballot for the November general election. In Philadelphia, where Democrats outnumber Republicans seven to one, the primary can be more determinative than the general election.

Judicial races, school board seats, and the Philadelphia District Attorneys office are all in the running.

Recommended Reading: What Percent Of Republicans Approve Of Trump

You May Like: How Many Democrats And Republicans In The Senate

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digitalmarketingagencysworld · 3 years

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How to hire a (great) software development company

How do I hire a software development team?

While you'll have worked with teams on digital products within the past you'll not have technical expertise to completely understand the differences between potential partners. Understanding these differences will assist you avoid pitfalls that cause an equivalent result. Ultimately, what may start as a transparent and concrete design or concept finishes up as an app that doesn’t meet expectations and requires significant follow up work that's “out of scope”. How does one avoid these pitfalls and this unfortunate result? Unfortunately, the sole bridge is experience. Here are the key questions we might ask our developers, and the way we might use our experience to avoid these pitfalls.

What is your design process?

Every project should have a lead designer, albeit multiple designers are eventually involved. Having a lead designer allows the merchandise to be built around a uniform and coherent vision. So how does one choose a designer? Before choosing your lead designer you ought to be ready to see a portfolio of their work with other clients. The designer should even be asking you for samples of apps that you simply think are well-designed. Throughout the method your designers should be showing to you. The industry standard is for designers to point out their designs often, which provides the client the power to comment. If any or all of those things aren’t happening, you ought to search for another design shop.

What design best practices does one adopt?

Early on the client should be looking to ascertain whether the designers try to reinvent the wheel, or are iterating on proven products. While designing something completely new are often the proper solution, more often than not it causes distractions that cause downstream engineering problems. the simplest designers will usually work around decisions made by industry leaders, and innovate on top of them. Large internet companies often spend many dollars making even the only of selections , and taking advantage of those decisions is that the most cost effective thanks to build new and innovative products.

Are analytics being baked in from the start?

How does one know that your shiny new development is generating the business results you require? Analytics will assist you improve your product and help measure your ROI. fairly often a quote from a development shop won't include adding analytics. Often development firms do that to be competitive with their bids and/or to avoid sticker shock. However, unless you're building the analytics outside the project, it'll be far more expensive to feature within the analytics later. rock bottom line is: don’t skimp on analytics. Make analytics a part of the merchandise development conversation – your developers should be asking you what you would like to live and what success seems like from the start . And, if the firm doesn’t ask you these questions at the start they aren’t thinking strategically about your business or problem and this is often a serious red flag. walk off now.

What third-party services should we use?

Developers should assist you think strategically about third-party services. once you have a conversation with them, you ought to be asking what third-party services they recommend for you, why do they recommend them, and what experience they need with them. As an example, customer support may be a major touch point with users. What happens if a user features a problem with their account? What happens if they can’t identify a charge? What happens if the info they have isn’t found Choose a customer support service early . Your developer should assist you think strategically about this, and assist you choose the simplest one for your needs. an honest developer also will guide you to settle on this early and confirm it’s nearly as good as the other service you're building.

What about the admin tools?

Admin tools allow you to require care of , operate, and update the app once it’s complete. When thinking about the user experience for a development project, the admin tools are whilst important because the “user facing” side. Almost every product you build lately goes to wish some admin tool so as that you simply or your operations team can view orders, flag offending posts, reset passwords, or block users impossible as an example. But it is a user and why does one need to subject your operations team to bad software? The admin console should be front and center in conjunction with the rest of the designs. the lowest line: don’t make the admin console an after-thought – put the admin console conversation on the table at the beginning of the project.

How do i choose the right tech stack?

In software development, choosing the right tech stack is like choosing the right building materials during a house. There are cost considerations, longevity considerations, and contextual considerations. Unless you've an engineering background you simply won’t know if the stack is suitable There are two tried and true ways around this problem of knowledge asymmetry. a way is to hunt out a trusted advisor – an engineer who is up to hurry on the most recent frameworks and technologies to advise you. differently to beat this issue is an interview style approach which can assist you judge the qualitative decision-making ability of the event firm. Some inquiries to ask: what is the foremost challenging project you’ve worked on? Describe that challenge? what is the foremost interesting thing you’ve worked on? You’re looking to determine if they have experience solving quite just your narrow problem, because the answer now doesn’t always use the same technologies because the solution before.

What are your quality assurance protocols?

Quality assurance (QA) could also be a technical issue which can end up producing non-technical usability issues down the road. QA issues could happen in errors, data breaches, downtime, or projects that stretch on and on. the sole because of avoid issues around QA, is to make sure that the event firm follows industry best practices. variety of those best practices include test cases or test matrices for every product that they develop. you'll also ask what kinds of testing resources they have , and who on their staff does testing. You don’t want your developers (the folks that do the code) to even be doing the testing (being a check on the people doing the code). While you're doing want someone with an engineering or product background to undertake to to the testing, these should be separate. If you'd wish to urge even more granular, you'll ask what bug tracking services they use. you need to be receiving reports that allow you hold the vendor responsible of quality.

What happens after launch?

Once an app is formed it must be operated. plenty of software teams can build software and fulfil the requirements . But can they launch it? Can they observe it? during a standard example, what happens when the service breaks once people start using it. Does the team have an escalation procedure if the system breaks? Or in another example, what happens if money isn't being charged properly. you'd wish to understand what happens to the event team in adversity. No project goes 100% according to plan, and you'd wish to understand that your partners can handle uncertainty and adversity.

Are you looking for Best software developer company in India ? object developer are best software developer company and they are providing best services in Udaipur.

#softwaredeveloper bestsoftwaredeveloper softwarecompany

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clarencenicholsonata · 3 years

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8 Winning Examples of Co-Branding Partnerships To Inspire You Today

Business is inherently about competition.

However, that doesn’t mean you must avoid giving a drop of help to other companies at all costs.

In fact, companies can (and often do) pair up to combine their strengths to launch joint marketing initiatives to great success.

It's called co-branding.

Co-branding offers a way to raise general brand awareness, gain access to new audiences, improve customer satisfaction (through free giveaways) — all at a high ROI since you’re pooling resources with another brand.

To give you some inspiration for your own partnerships, here's a list of co-branding campaign ideas that benefit everyone involved.

1. Run a Joint Social Media Campaign

With so many people on social media, it only makes sense to run a social media campaign of some sort.

This tactic can work well for nearly any co-branding strategy, from hosting a contest to launching a brand new joint product (both discussed later).

Check out this example of Marvel teaming up with tequila brand Espolon.

(Image Source)

Deadpool was quite a popular movie when it came out (and it still is), so Espolon was able to ride on its coattails and generate new interest in its brand.

Notice the copy, too. It’s humorous and casual, fitting Deadpool’s persona.

If you can, consider tagging each other. By doing this, you send each other social media traffic that can generate visits to your site. You’ll see a boost in SEO and possibly sales.

Learn how other business in your industry are getting clients. Click here to get a tailored analysis with examples.

2. Exchanging Backlinks

Gaining backlinks to your content is a tactic crucial to successfully executing any content marketing strategy.

Backlinks enhance your SEO and search rankings for two reasons:

Gaining backlinks from authoritative sources boosts your domain authority

Backlinks send traffic from backlinking sites to yours, and more traffic tells Google your site deserves a higher ranking

As a result, a wealth of quality backlinks can drastically improve brand awareness and sales.

Backlink exchanging works well as a complementary campaign to practically any idea on this list. You can announce your partnership and link to the other brand’s site, and write blog posts about it.

However, another tactic to use would be guest posting. You write a guest article on your partner’s blog in exchange for a backlink to your site and vice-versa.

To do this right, you’ll need to ask for information about your partner’s target audience and do further research yourself.

Then, brainstorm some topics your partner’s audience will find helpful, get them approved by the partner, and write.

Of course, make sure your piece is flawless before it goes live on someone else’s site. You must present yourself in as professional a light as possible to new audiences. Ensure that you adhere to your partner’s style guide. Triple-check for grammar and spelling using a tool like Grammarly, as well as doing your own read-through before submitting the guest post.

3. Host a Webinar

People are staying at home more nowadays, meaning they’re online more often throughout the day.

It’s a perfect opportunity to host a co-branded webinar.

For webinars, it’s a good idea to partner up with someone that’s not a direct competitor but complementary to your business.

For example, if you’re an SEO agency serving a specific industry, you might team up with a web design agency to offer a different service to the same industry. You can each bring your own expertise and knowledge to the table to educate your joint audience.

Both of you likely have a similar audience. This audience may need both services, so you’ll gain customers from your partner and vice-versa.

4. List Swapping

If you’re looking for a low-effort co-branding opportunity, why not just borrow another company’s email list?

Email is a powerful marketing method because it’s more personal. People feel that their email is a private area, so there’s already some built-in trust here.

All you have to do is find suitable companies that you could do a list swap with.

In general, the best companies to swap lists with are those that offer similar products or services.

For example, imagine you run a premium career advice/job board website. A personal finance blog could be a good partner.

People into personal finance would love to know ways to get a raise or higher-paying job for obvious reasons. You might provide them a curated reading list of articles regarding salary negotiation, benefits packages, and similar topics.

From there, you’ll build trust with these new prospects. They might eventually seek jobs through your job board by signing up for a paid subscription.

5. Put On a Hype-Filled Live Event

One way to generate plenty of hype is to work together with another company to put on a live event.

When times return to normal, your live event could have people in attendance. You can do all sorts of things with such an event.

However, there’s no need to sell or give away tickets to an event. You could follow in Red Bull and GoPro’s footsteps.

Both brands are known for exciting events, as they both cater to an adventurous audience. Being an energy drink, Red Bull portrays itself as a lifestyle brand for people who live daring and action-packed lives.

GoPro’s more obvious — athletes and adventurers can strap a GoPro to their head or helmet and capture thrilling footage of stunts and similar events.

Red Bull and GoPro have teamed up for all sorts of races and stunts, but Stratos takes the cake.

Daredevil Felix Baumgartner suited up in Red Bull branded gear, was carried into the stratosphere, strapped a GoPro to himself, and jumped 24 miles back to earth, shattering several records (and the speed of sound) in the process.

(Image Source)

Stratos generated significant hype and awareness around both brands. In fact, about eight million people watched Baumgartner’s historic jump live on YouTube.

6. Bundle Your Products Together

Here’s a simple idea: you could simply bundle your products together with another company if the products go well together. This is one of the most direct ways to partner with another brand and gain access to new customers.

Whoever you partner with doesn’t have to be inside your industry, either.

Take a look at the BMW-Louis Vuitton partnership.

BMW is known for its luxurious vehicles. Well, years ago, BMW’s “i” Division was working on a new hybrid luxury sports car, the i8.

Some higher-end vehicles often come with luggage to fit their wealthier customers, so Louis Vuitton saw an opportunity here. They partnered with BMW to create an exclusive set of BMW i8 bags and suitcases that fit perfectly into the parcel shelf behind the backseats.

(Image Source)

The luggage itself is around $20,000, but for someone purchasing a $135,000+ luxury sports car, that’s a fair price to pay for such high-quality luggage.

In other words, both companies had totally separate products yet appealed to the same market. Therefore, they were both able to sell more and raise brand awareness.

7. Include Samples or Coupons In Each Other’s Orders

In a similar vein to the previous idea — if you don’t want to design a new product but need to get your current ones into new customer hands, consider shipping some samples or coupons for your product with your partner’s customer orders.

Again, though, you must make sure your partner’s audience is similar to yours. Otherwise, they’re not likely to buy from you later.

For example, imagine you’re doing marketing for your gym or fitness brand. Your audience is going to be health-conscious individuals.

Thus, you could partner with a local meal prep company selling nutritious, pre-made meals and slip some coupons for your products into each of your partner’s orders.

As a result, you would lose a small bit of money upfront on discounted products, but you would gain long-term customers that offset this loss.

8. Work on a Contest Together

People love the chance at winning free stuff and are often willing to give you their information in exchange.

A great co-branding idea is to host a contest where you and/or your partner give away some of your products.

By holding a contest, both of you can attract new customers, gain email addresses for email marketing, and create social media buzz. Plus, by getting a couple of your products into some lucky customers’ hands, you can get some additional feedback and testimonials.

One example of a contest involves Cineplex, a large North American movie theater company, and The Weather Network. They hosted an online contest involving an image of a giant popcorn bag and a lightning rod.

The contest asked participants to guess whether the lightning would hit the corn and subsequently make it pop. If you guessed right, you won free popcorn.

(Image Source)

The Weather Network gained plenty of viewers, while Cineplex raised more awareness about its brand.

Conclusion

Co-branding opens up plenty of creative marketing opportunities that can get your brand in front of new customers and build mutually beneficial long-term relationships with other brands. Since you’re sharing resources with another brand, you cut costs, too.

The key is finding a brand selling products or services that complement yours, then presenting a case for how the co-branding campaign helps you both.

So don’t wait around — build a bond with another brand and try some of these co-branding campaign ideas.

Written by our guest writer Brad Smith, Wordable.io

Brad Smith is the CEO at Wordable.io and the Founder of Codeless.com (a content production agency). His content has been highlighted by The New York Times, Business Insider, The Next Web, and thousands more.

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freshleadprovider · 3 years

Text

Affiliate Website from $267/m to $21,853/m in 19 months (CASE STUDY - Amazon?) [AMA]

Hello Everyone, After getting an amazing response on two case studies posted earlier, I decided to share another one of my projects that grew from $267/m to $21,853/m in 19 months. In this post, will try my best to cover each and everything so that you can replicate the same process on your sites as well. Quick Overview of Site's Valuation When we started: ~ $13,350 Current: ~ $1,092,650 I will explain later in this case study why this multiple is higher (50x) than the industry standard of 30x (which applies mostly Amazon affiliate sites and other kinds of online businesses). Previous Case Studies Amazon Affiliate Website from $0 to $7,786/month in 11 months! Amazon Affiliate Site from $118/m to $3,103/m in 8 MONTHS (SOLD it for $62,000+) In this post, I will take a highly data-driven approach so you know EXACTLY: what, why, how, when of all the steps taken. For example... How the research and planning was done? What was the number of articles and why? Content writing guidelines Uploading, formatting, onsite SEO instructions Outreach, backlinks and PR Conversion rate optimizations (A/B testing) However, if you still have ANY questions, feel free to ask. I would answer EACH one of you. This is an AMA. :) So, let's dive right in... Background of the Website Broad Niche: Technology (software mostly) About: Work from Home (WFH) [We got lucky because of COVID, the search traffic is increasing with time] Type of content: WFH guides, product reviews, success stories of entrepreneurs (viral) etc. Physical products promoted: work stations, chairs, accessories related to WFH etc. Digital products promoted: Virtual team/project management tools, SaaS subs etc. (most money from here) Note: Can't share more information about the site because of the NDA. I am very thankful to the client for giving permission to share this case study. Quick Overview of Stats (the month we made $21,853) DR: 56 Traffic: 499,383/m (Jan. 2021) RPM: $43.76 (earning per thousand visits) - this is combined for affiliate and display ads Countries targeted: United States (primarily), EU, Canada Primary source of traffic: Search Engines but we are working to create proper emailing lists too Summary of what we did to get here... Metric Before After Difference/Increase DR 44 56 12 Articles/Posts 31 1261 +1230 Backlinks (RDs) 323 (content-dofollow) 496 (content-dofollow) +173 Traffic 13,827 499,383 +485,556 (3512% ) RPM (earnings/1000) ~ $19.31 ~ $43.76 +$24.45 (127% ) Revenue/m $267/m $21,853/m +$21,586 (8085% ) A/B Testing No Yes Applied Month July 2019 Jan. 2021 19 months Note that the RPM is combined for affiliate and display revenue. Research and Planning Combined search volume of all keywords: ~ 750,000 Average search volume per keyword: ~ 610 Total keywords: ~ 1230 Total traffic achieved (in 19 months): 485,556 (this represents the increase and ignores the already existing traffic) Success rate of traffic achieved (in 19 months): 64.74%. This basically means that based on our keyword research plan, the combined search volume of all keywords was 750,000 and we hit a success rate of 64.74% in 19 months which is a traffic increase of 485,556 Note: The success rate of traffic will increase a lot and is expected to cross even 100% because the search volume of WFH related keywords has risen significantly due to COVID. Moreover, our rankings are improving due to an increase in DR, aging of content and social shares) Approach: Choose broad keywords based on the brand of the site Use Ahrefs to scrape all the "having similar terms" and "questions" list of words Filter the lists to remove cannibalization, irrelevant keywords, duplicate content and anything that doesn't make sense Group similar words together (Tip: If you have doubt about two similar keywords whether they should be targeted in one article or different articles, you should see if there are 3 or more results on the 1st page of Google that are ranking for both these words. If the answer is yes, then you can also rank for both these words in the same article. However, if you can't find 3 or more same results for two different queries then you should also make unique pages for each one of these keywords) Organize the keywords into proper silos and categories Note: We didn't really pay a lot of attention to the KW difficulty. Our approach was and still is to completely dominate each and every registered query related to a certain topic. We went big on the content part, we knew it would work and we were right. This approach was different from my previous case studies where we just wanted to make money and didn't really care about being the biggest guys out there. However, most of our keywords still have a KD of less than 4 (we produced this content at the earliest phase of content production). Content Articles before: 31 Articles added: 1230 Articles after: 1261 Average words per article: 1349 Total words produced: 1,701,089 Approach: H1, URL, and SEO Title must include: main keyword and other important keywords based on KW research At least one image with proper ALT text Table of content for jump links Proper use of headings How to articles with guides that include images as screenshots with red arrows or circles to indicate steps/process worked really well At least 1 internal link per 250-300 words with proper anchor text (DO NOT OVER OPTIMIZE) to a relevant article Recommended SEO plugin: SEOPress There are a lot other things that we took into consideration and there could be a separate post on onsite SEO alone. But, for the sake of keeping it short, let's just focus on this for now. Outreach, PR and Backlinks Prospects outreached: 7500 Conversion rate: 2.3% Total links got: 173 Links before: 323 Links added: 173 Links after: 496 Change in DR: 12 Final DR: 56 Approach (Outreach) Find highly linked content pieces using Ahrefs (Use content explorer feature and sort from higher to lower KD. High KD indicates that this keyword is being linked a lot) Write amazing pieces of content (better than the competitors) Scrape the list of sites that have linked to your competitors (Ahrefs) Find their contact details (Hunter is a good tool) Manually check to filter out the bad contacts Use Mailshake to outreach (tip: send 2 followups with a gap or 1 week each) Reply fast to increase conversion rate Tue, Wed and Thursday are the best days to send emails and expect responses and conversions Note: We also adopted other methods like guest posts, PR and community engagement to drive traffic and build meaningful links. While building links, we ensured that the site is: Either niche relevant or has high DR (80+) - we got nice DR 11+ links through targeted outreach Has proper search traffic The DR is greater than 20 Niche edits work the best because they don't incur additional costs like content writing in case of guest posts and manual labor like in the case of targeted outreach. It's the best method to build links at scale Conversion rate optimization (A/B Tests) RPM from: $19.31 (this was just affiliate and no display ads were applied then) RPM to: $43.76 (this is affiliate + display) Approach: Relevant content that ranked and converted well AB testing on top 30% of the pages (we have added highly converting call to actions, CTAs in the right places with the right copy which are giving amazing returns) We also added a display advertising network Coordinated with our affiliate manager to increase the payout commission As the traffic increases and we collect more and more data, our RPM and conversion would improve even further. Our goal is to increase the RPM to at least $50/1000 visits. This is considered a very good RPM. Note that, usually the RPM on our sites is from $25 - $40 (affiliate + display combined). So, this definitely an exception. I am referring to other sites in our portfolio (we have currently 16 content based brands). An overview of the important numbers, stats, ROI and more... Metric Before Current Projected (Jun. 2021) Revenue/m $267 $21,853 $30,000 Valuation (50x) $13,350 $1,092,650 $1,500,000 Revenue/y ~ $3,204 ~ $262,236 ~ $360,000 The multiple of 50x is applied because our brand is uniquely positioned to be strategically acquired by 3 major competitors promoting similar products in the home productivity space. They are heavily funded and based on our discussions with them, they seemed more than interested to acquire our media venture. We won't go through a traditional route of selling via online business brokering spaces. However, we would directly sell to one of the major players whose products we are promoting. It is to be noted that, we don't plan to sell the venture till it hits at least 30,000 USD per month. We believe we can hit that without further investment and just optimizing the site for better conversion rate optimization. What's next... In essence, content marketing regardless of how it's done is the backbone to grow all kinds of online businesses. Whether it's writing an amazing copy to promote ads or producing content in bulk to drive relevant, highly targeted and converting traffic. This goes without saying that the times of making money through content websites by writing a handful of pages and building spammy links are gone. Now, you need to plan properly, create content that not only ranks but also helps the user and then deploying the right strategies to promote it is the way to go. But, even with those conditions, the kind of ROI that these kind of online businesses offer is much higher as compared to traditional modes of investment like stocks, index funds, real estate etc. The passive way of making money especially around 30K USD a month through a site definitely requires a lot of resources but it's not impossible. The communities (like this one) where people help each other are becoming more and more common and it's becoming easier to make money. However, it's also increasing the competition and the kind of resources required to reach certain level of passive income and possible exit. Anyway, I wish you luck in all your endeavors. And yes, if you have any questions, please feel free to let me know. I understand that I couldn't cover everything in just one post. That's why I am available to answer your queries. ASK ME ANYTHING AMA! Regards submitted by /u/jamesackerman1234 [link] [comments] https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/ll2wjy/affiliate_website_from_267m_to_21853m_in_19/

0 notes

techyblogger · 3 years

Photo

Affiliate Website from $267/m to $21,853/m in 19 months (CASE STUDY - Amazon?) [AMA] https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/ll2wjy/affiliate_website_from_267m_to_21853m_in_19/

Hello Everyone,

After getting an amazing response on two case studies posted earlier, I decided to share another one of my projects that grew from $267/m to $21,853/m in 19 months.

In this post, will try my best to cover each and everything so that you can replicate the same process on your sites as well.

Quick Overview of Site's Valuation

When we started: ~ $13,350

Current: ~ $1,092,650

I will explain later in this case study why this multiple is higher (50x) than the industry standard of 30x (which applies mostly Amazon affiliate sites and other kinds of online businesses).

Previous Case Studies

Amazon Affiliate Website from $0 to $7,786/month in 11 months!

Amazon Affiliate Site from $118/m to $3,103/m in 8 MONTHS (SOLD it for $62,000+)

In this post, I will take a highly data-driven approach so you know EXACTLY: what, why, how, when of all the steps taken.

For example...

How the research and planning was done?

What was the number of articles and why?

Content writing guidelines

Uploading, formatting, onsite SEO instructions

Outreach, backlinks and PR

Conversion rate optimizations (A/B testing)

However, if you still have ANY questions, feel free to ask. I would answer EACH one of you.

This is an AMA. :)

So, let's dive right in...

Background of the Website

Broad Niche: Technology (software mostly)

About: Work from Home (WFH) [We got lucky because of COVID, the search traffic is increasing with time]

Type of content: WFH guides, product reviews, success stories of entrepreneurs (viral) etc.

Physical products promoted: work stations, chairs, accessories related to WFH etc.

Digital products promoted: Virtual team/project management tools, SaaS subs etc. (most money from here)

Note: Can't share more information about the site because of the NDA. I am very thankful to the client for giving permission to share this case study.

Quick Overview of Stats (the month we made $21,853)

DR: 56

Traffic: 499,383/m (Jan. 2021)

RPM: $43.76 (earning per thousand visits) - this is combined for affiliate and display ads

Countries targeted: United States (primarily), EU, Canada

Primary source of traffic: Search Engines but we are working to create proper emailing lists too

Summary of what we did to get here...

Metric Before After Difference/Increase DR 44 56 12 Articles/Posts 31 1261 +1230 Backlinks (RDs) 323 (content-dofollow) 496 (content-dofollow) +173 Traffic 13,827 499,383 +485,556 (3512% ) RPM (earnings/1000) ~ $19.31 ~ $43.76 +$24.45 (127% ) Revenue/m $267/m $21,853/m +$21,586 (8085% ) A/B Testing No Yes Applied Month July 2019 Jan. 2021 19 months

Note that the RPM is combined for affiliate and display revenue.

Research and Planning

Combined search volume of all keywords: ~ 750,000

Average search volume per keyword: ~ 610

Total keywords: ~ 1230

Total traffic achieved (in 19 months): 485,556 (this represents the increase and ignores the already existing traffic)

Success rate of traffic achieved (in 19 months): 64.74%. This basically means that based on our keyword research plan, the combined search volume of all keywords was 750,000 and we hit a success rate of 64.74% in 19 months which is a traffic increase of 485,556

Note: The success rate of traffic will increase a lot and is expected to cross even 100% because the search volume of WFH related keywords has risen significantly due to COVID. Moreover, our rankings are improving due to an increase in DR, aging of content and social shares)

Approach:

Choose broad keywords based on the brand of the site

Use Ahrefs to scrape all the "having similar terms" and "questions" list of words

Filter the lists to remove cannibalization, irrelevant keywords, duplicate content and anything that doesn't make sense

Group similar words together (Tip: If you have doubt about two similar keywords whether they should be targeted in one article or different articles, you should see if there are 3 or more results on the 1st page of Google that are ranking for both these words. If the answer is yes, then you can also rank for both these words in the same article. However, if you can't find 3 or more same results for two different queries then you should also make unique pages for each one of these keywords)

Organize the keywords into proper silos and categories

Note: We didn't really pay a lot of attention to the KW difficulty. Our approach was and still is to completely dominate each and every registered query related to a certain topic. We went big on the content part, we knew it would work and we were right. This approach was different from my previous case studies where we just wanted to make money and didn't really care about being the biggest guys out there. However, most of our keywords still have a KD of less than 4 (we produced this content at the earliest phase of content production).

Content

Articles before: 31

Articles added: 1230

Articles after: 1261

Average words per article: 1349

Total words produced: 1,701,089

Approach:

H1, URL, and SEO Title must include: main keyword and other important keywords based on KW research

At least one image with proper ALT text

Table of content for jump links

Proper use of headings

How to articles with guides that include images as screenshots with red arrows or circles to indicate steps/process worked really well

At least 1 internal link per 250-300 words with proper anchor text (DO NOT OVER OPTIMIZE) to a relevant article

Recommended SEO plugin: SEOPress

There are a lot other things that we took into consideration and there could be a separate post on onsite SEO alone. But, for the sake of keeping it short, let's just focus on this for now.

Outreach, PR and Backlinks

Prospects outreached: 7500

Conversion rate: 2.3%

Total links got: 173

Links before: 323

Links added: 173

Links after: 496

Change in DR: 12

Final DR: 56

Approach (Outreach)

Find highly linked content pieces using Ahrefs (Use content explorer feature and sort from higher to lower KD. High KD indicates that this keyword is being linked a lot)

Write amazing pieces of content (better than the competitors)

Scrape the list of sites that have linked to your competitors (Ahrefs)

Find their contact details (Hunter is a good tool)

Manually check to filter out the bad contacts

Use Mailshake to outreach (tip: send 2 followups with a gap or 1 week each)

Reply fast to increase conversion rate

Tue, Wed and Thursday are the best days to send emails and expect responses and conversions

Note: We also adopted other methods like guest posts, PR and community engagement to drive traffic and build meaningful links.

While building links, we ensured that the site is:

Either niche relevant or has high DR (80+) - we got nice DR 11+ links through targeted outreach

Has proper search traffic

The DR is greater than 20

Niche edits work the best because they don't incur additional costs like content writing in case of guest posts and manual labor like in the case of targeted outreach. It's the best method to build links at scale

Conversion rate optimization (A/B Tests)

RPM from: $19.31 (this was just affiliate and no display ads were applied then)

RPM to: $43.76 (this is affiliate + display)

Approach:

Relevant content that ranked and converted well

AB testing on top 30% of the pages (we have added highly converting call to actions, CTAs in the right places with the right copy which are giving amazing returns)

We also added a display advertising network

Coordinated with our affiliate manager to increase the payout commission

As the traffic increases and we collect more and more data, our RPM and conversion would improve even further. Our goal is to increase the RPM to at least $50/1000 visits. This is considered a very good RPM.

Note that, usually the RPM on our sites is from $25 - $40 (affiliate + display combined). So, this definitely an exception. I am referring to other sites in our portfolio (we have currently 16 content based brands).

An overview of the important numbers, stats, ROI and more...

Metric Before Current Projected (Jun. 2021) Revenue/m $267 $21,853 $30,000 Valuation (50x) $13,350 $1,092,650 $1,500,000 Revenue/y ~ $3,204 ~ $262,236 ~ $360,000

The multiple of 50x is applied because our brand is uniquely positioned to be strategically acquired by 3 major competitors promoting similar products in the home productivity space.

They are heavily funded and based on our discussions with them, they seemed more than interested to acquire our media venture.

We won't go through a traditional route of selling via online business brokering spaces. However, we would directly sell to one of the major players whose products we are promoting.

It is to be noted that, we don't plan to sell the venture till it hits at least 30,000 USD per month. We believe we can hit that without further investment and just optimizing the site for better conversion rate optimization.

What's next...

In essence, content marketing regardless of how it's done is the backbone to grow all kinds of online businesses. Whether it's writing an amazing copy to promote ads or producing content in bulk to drive relevant, highly targeted and converting traffic.

This goes without saying that the times of making money through content websites by writing a handful of pages and building spammy links are gone.

Now, you need to plan properly, create content that not only ranks but also helps the user and then deploying the right strategies to promote it is the way to go.

But, even with those conditions, the kind of ROI that these kind of online businesses offer is much higher as compared to traditional modes of investment like stocks, index funds, real estate etc.

The passive way of making money especially around 30K USD a month through a site definitely requires a lot of resources but it's not impossible.

The communities (like this one) where people help each other are becoming more and more common and it's becoming easier to make money. However, it's also increasing the competition and the kind of resources required to reach certain level of passive income and possible exit.

Anyway, I wish you luck in all your endeavors.

And yes, if you have any questions, please feel free to let me know. I understand that I couldn't cover everything in just one post. That's why I am available to answer your queries.

ASK ME ANYTHING AMA!

Regards

submitted by /u/jamesackerman1234 [link] [comments] February 16, 2021 at 06:04PM

0 notes

thewitchqueen281 · 6 years

Text

Experiment 808 AU

Hey so I did actually have someone show some interest in this AU, but I’m awful at formatting so I'm just making a separate text post. Read about each character under the cut. A bit about the setting. It’s pretty distant future, this big lab in the middle of the city was commissioned to make a ton of super soldiers. Not knowing where to start they just... started kidnapping kids. Like from their cribs and everything. Not legal but they can like start from scratch there. By the time most of them are ten they’ve been tortured and beaten and do not want to be there. So they just escape. Because like what are they going to do to stop a bunch of kids with powers. They run free into the city. They stay hidden in bunkers and hideouts. They are all about 15~16 ish. I haven't decided whether or not Al is still a year younger or if they are twins so, for now, its up too you.

Anyway, enjoy these stupid teens.

Has gills on his neck and sides, and dragonfly wings.

the wings are red and while he can fly fast can’t fly for a very long time.

Instead of his traditional black tank top and coat, he wears one of those knit sleeveless turtleneck things with his red coat that ties around in the front.

Anyone with gills is bioluminescent underwater, he glows red in his face and all around his arms.

he wears a different outfit because it hides his wings and his gills.

still kind of a little shit.

knows all the other kids, is friends with most of them surprisingly.

lives with his brother, Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeyes, and Denny Brosh in an abandoned library on the west side of the city. Because they are the kids he trusts the most.

he would live with Ling, Lan Fan, and Winry. But Ling and Lan Fan don't really live anywhere and Winry travels between all the kid's hideouts making sure they didn't break anything.

Likes knives, like really really likes knives

has like twenty on him at all times.

he actually meets Ling by throwing a knife at him and getting really pissed that he missed.

Roy Mustang

Has a salamander tail, sometimes breaths a small bit of fire.

Doesn't really like people at all.

is four ten and has a lisp and you can pry this headcanon away from my cold dead hands.

frequent all-nighters, whether playing video games or trying to master fire breath.

Wears really baggy cargo pants, he likes the pockets.

has a haircut with two very long pieces of hair in the front and kinda shitty bangs.

he regrets this haircut.

he’s best friends with Riza and Ed because Riza and Ed are also wild kids who won't stop him from jumping off really high places or putting bugs in Al’s tea.

Likes lollypops, no one is sure why he just thinks they taste nice.

huge crush on Jean Havoc from the group uptown, The others make fun of him.

Riza Hawkeye

Has a cheetah tail and likes to R U N

She's a very fast girl, for a long time everyone thought that was one of the abilities given to her during her time in the lab.

it's not

she just likes to run.

despite being a wild teen is the second most sensible one in their group. Has had to drag Roy to bed, but almost everyone has had to do that once or twice.

cant cook for shit. like really. she hates cooking shes so bad at it.

everyone expects her to be the mom for some reason like they think she cooks and cleans.

shed rather die, Ed cooks, they take shifts cleaning.

loves long skirts and horror novels.

likes to think she can talk to ghosts or summon demons.

or maybe she can.

nobody really knows.

Talks to herself on occasion.

Has gills like his brother. Very small antlers as well.

glows blue underwater near his ears and around his legs. He and his brother have matching symbols on their backs.

wears a blue hoodie to cover the antlers.

The actual Mom Friend TM

Enjoys tea and not having to deal with his brother and CO’s bullshit.

for once would like to sleep in. just once.

Would be a wine mom but he is responsible and doesn't drink while underage, unlike almost all of his friends who really don't seem to give a shit.

Sassy, like, really sassy.

bad at hiding his emotions.

you will know when he thinks your being a dumbass.

*looks into the camera like he's on the office*

“Al me and the others are going to jump off the top of the building and see with we can stop ourselves.” “Good luck brother.”

Is friends with everyone and really he loves them all but goddamn.

One time Ed dated a real shit head and you don't want to know what happened after he dumped Ed. he isn't dead but he won't be walking anytime soon.

Denny Brosh

Has Squid tentacles under his arms and fins on his legs. He glows a bright yellow underwater.

Knits, like a lot. Every one of them has a homemade sweater from him. the others he lives with wear theirs all the time. Because they do gross things like care about one another in this household.

Is still really good friends with Maria Ross, he wishes they saw each other more.

can and will shock you with his tentacles, especially if you make jokes about them.

Meme dream team leader.

Al doesn't understand memes and Denny hurts every day because of this.

has a bright yellow sweater that he knitted himself and then had every single one of his friend sign.

Thinks Kain Furey is super cute. Roy thinks he's super gross because Furey is an innocent Denny!

wholesome meme some days sex jokes on others.

pretty much all the kids have pretty severe mental health issues, but Denny is one of the few who has tried to help his.

takes anxiety meds.

while he doesn't have any sibling this timeline he has his friends and honestly they are pretty close to siblings.

has called Ed big brother but like everyone has once or twice. Ed doesn't really give a shit and has accepted his fate as the oldest and apparently the most brother like.

Maria Ross

Lots a scales, like all over her body.

has wings but she isn't sure what animal they could be from.

they are big and scaley like her.

Lives with Olivier, Mei Chang, Sheska, and Winry Rockbell when she's around. They live in an old dinner on the east side of town.

Would date Sheska 100%.

Sorta has claws, doesn't matter she enjoys painting them.

Good friends with Olivier, actually best friends. This is a problem in some ways because Olivier and Denny don’t get along at all.

Has a gun, only used it once or twice to protect her friends.

she hopes she never has to use it again.

Sometimes wonders what her family would be like if she hadn't grown up in a lab. Wonders whether of not her family sold her or if she was stolen. She wonders for the other kids as well.

Breaths and cries ice.

prefers if her friends called her Ria

Olivier Armstrong

This bitch got bat wings

they are fucking huge.

she can’t really hide them so she only goes outside at night.

she has become a cryptid.

blurry shitty pictures of her crouching on buildings wings extended, her eyes glowing are all over forums.

Batgirl strikes again??

she thinks its super funny.

Doesn't really try to hide how she's feeling.

most of the time she’s Arragont or amused.

Anime character tch.

Her list of people she dislikes is bigger than the list of people she likes.

that's a lie she loves all her friend's

she’s just bad about showing it and claims to hate them.

everyone calls her Livi.

she hates it but nobody cares.

keeps her hair in a ponytail.

Mei Chang

has a cat tail, and night vision.

Please don't make any jokes.

she doesn't want this.

People sometimes pull her tail. they only pull it once though. People learn from their mistakes.

wears a big pink coat with lots of pockets. she keeps both dead mice and her kunai in the pockets.

Is Winrys assistant when she's around.

loves to help. is crushing on Al from the west side library. Everyone knows but Al. Ed and Ling think that is hilarious. Like it didn't take them months to get over themselves.

Ling is her half-brother. She isn't sure how trustworthy the info is because it’s something she heard from lab technicians.

Wants to learn to fight better but nobody wants to spar with her.

Sit’s up at night and stares at her coffee.

it’s cold now but she can’t get to sleep.

Winry Rockbell

Has butterfly wings, emperor butterfly wings. They don't make her as fast as Ed but it is faster to fly than to walk and she can fly for pretty long periods of time.

automail isn't really a thing. So Winry does general doctor stuff.

she goes between bases and makes sure that everybody is healthy.

most of the time that isn't the case so shes pretty much always working.

Thinks Mei is a wonderful helper.

Wears her signature tube top. doesn't travel through populated areas and definitely doesn't by day.

Butterflygirl isn't as cool as a cryptid as Batgirl so she doesn't get much coverage.

Will still hit you with a wrench don't test her.

She carries it and her entire toolbox because she’ll be damned if she loses time for her machines while helping out these idiots.

Dating Mothman.

Mothman is actually Lan Fan. this joke doesn't make a lot of sense to her because Lan Fan doesn't have moth wings. Ling and Ed tell her to shut up and go with it. She rolls her eyes fondly.

Kain Fuery

Has ant antenna. he can send messages across radio waves because of this. makes it easy to keep up with his friends.

Lives with Jean and Rebbeca in what they think was once a club. It's unused now but it does have an underground bunker for some reason.

He is an innocent

(He isn't)

keeps a picture of some dog in his pocket.

he needs it to keep up morale.

yes, it is just a stock photo of a dog that he stole out a picture frame at wallmart a couple years ago.

He really likes animals. Ed and Roy hate going out with both him and Al in a pair because both of them insist on stopping to pet every dog and cat or whatever animal.

Functional Bi

Jean Havoc

Has fins he thinks. they are like spiky and help him swim better. they are all over his back and wrap around his arms. Has gills, and he tends to glow a bluish purple.

he lives in the club but prefers to be near the docks.

Loves to swim

Just call him Jean

Please god just call him Jean.

Olivier and Maria butchered his last name so bad when he first meet him that he is permanently traumatized.

he’s being dramatic but like, that's who he is??

Disaster Bi

Pinning? His constant mood?

Ling Yao

Red panda tail and claws.

Loves sweet things, like so much.

Can see in the dark, loves his night vision

Thinks Ed throwing knives at him is super hot

Ed is Concerned TM

Doesn't really live anywhere.

bounces around the bases with Lan Fan.

Lan Fan is actually his twin sister but they haven't told Mei that yet.

he doesn't know why people don't just know.

Climbs in Ed’s window in the middle of the night.

freaked Ed out the first time it happened but he got used to it.

spars on rooftops in the middle of the day.

For some reason, nobody seems to freak out.

Kink is love and appreciation

doesn't actually know most of the other kids. Sometimes there will just be a different kid at the base and He’ll be like cool.

Everone knows about Ling though.

Lan Fan

She has lunar moth wings. Although Winry seems to think they are from some type of butterfly like her. Ed and Ling know the truth and call her moth man.

She flicks their faces for it.

loves food. thinks it must be because lunar moths cant eat, that side of her wants to eat E V E R Y T H I N G.

Or maybe she just has a huge appetite because Ling eats a ton as well.

has night vision as well.

Is her last name Fan? Not even she knows.

Everyone calls her Lan Fan though.

Spars with Ling but prefers fighting with Ed because Ling holds back. Ed doesn't.

tries so hard not to scream at her friends.

god, she tries so hard.

This took so long. If you want to hear about specific characters request it and I’ll make another one of these. If anyone wants to write a fanfic send it to me, I’ll be the first one to kudos that ish.

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jemilyreial · 4 years

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What Causes A Fixed Male Cat To Spray Unbelievable Useful Tips

This recipe uses everyday products that are seen in cats.If a kitten or a towel and press down without rubbing for about 30 seconds.While some cats that are marking their territory.Because of visiting guests, trips out of heat.

That's your only way out that's one of the ears you made the right way.You might ask yourself why there are reasons where some cats do not get to know that they typically do it for granted.Dealing with it regularly will not react extremely violent during the day.J. Hesselberth and R. Roy, two scientists turned potters, in their yard and will target the main source of entertainment for your cat neutered as soon as possible.You may want to spray water bottles filled with the new type.

Any of these measures could definitely help you preserve your household plants.When cleaning soiled areas, saturating the carpet backing or furniture and bedding.It couldn't hurt to try out these underlying reasons why this could actually attract the males that are blended for cats.This means two successive lab tests showing that he is properly treated.Do humans eat where they will not harm your animals, but for cat odors, when it happens.

-For short to medium-coated cats, start with your cat at the same effect.This may take weeks before things return to the site of her kittens how to train your child with regard to scratching.This begins very early with kittens and adult cats may maintain undesirable behaviours even after you shampoo the cat a whirly gig with a human challenge as much of annoyance amongst people?Adult cats with Identichip, Bayer Tracer, and other immune-suppressing disorders.You can even destroy things inside your house.

Scratching is also a problem you can remove the litter box.Put a tablespoon of olive oil over the door jam.Scratching is part of the curtains and knocking things off counters, tables and anywhere they can to prevent a cat if he spends a lot of water that is reason enough to allow more than other breeds.straining to urinate outside of their feet.It is not recommended to lock or unlock the door is firmly shut.

After a few times will often voluntarily go into the ear canals of both dogs and cats, and hence a lot of time for training.The cause needs to be comfortable, so I decided to see how they like to explore the house.With training, you can take a look at breeds like the toilet or mating ground.It's frustrating to train your cat by mimicking the natural cushion it takes to be removed!If you have the animal can not be so much care to not treat your cat's claws and how that can be repeated as many other diseases such as the behavior he did triggered the water over their usual spots, or making any decision to get back or that they'd climb over the counter or table in search of a cat-condo or scratching the sofa and it is natural as the behavior while cleaning the inside of the head, their chin, and between their front paws.

Another factor could be at the cat's metabolism.You must remember is that you are barking instead of the methods that can be keep under control, in many parts of the ways you can use noise to stop this problem.Some surgery seems unavoidable, although much can be hard to beat.Use an air purifier, litter that is fun for you.I suggest a F5 or lower since they believe it's inhumane to the kidneys are set up a precious little kitten or cat.

I am sure that, in some cat information you usually come upon the prey that they all don't do that, stick with the female know he's available and away from so-called air cleaners and odor are a couple of windows, a door between them.Adult cats with ear problems because we didn't know how to cut too far up the smell of cat litter you are preparing and will leave alone whatever you've sprayed it around the box, you may have on hand.Exceptional cases do arise, but in any room that you don't want them to mingle and be proactive.And as soon as they are being ill-treated either physically or verbally.Other things to look for when you get home your new kitten you are barking instead of the castle.

Cat Spray House

Being a cat will eat greens or vegetable matter could provide the cat doing desirable behavior you want.For now, there is more of an unwanted pregnancy, ensure that any excess cord is out of gift boxes with new litter doesn't fly out onto the back of your cat; you just better be quiet and you do not like using a portable or pit toilet because of the furry problem immediately.The more time with one before you use the same area if you have had many cats.This could be so visible and the cats can end up with over 100 of these parasites can be attached to the vet to get rid of cat pee which has also learned to spray catnip extract and you always have something dangling around, such as the cleanest pets anyone could ever have.How it works: Anyone who has ever encountered a cat frequent urination may be slow and deliberate, too fast and shallow.

You do not like this behaviour due to this area, make that mess any more kittens, they'll be off and, very soon, won't keep coming to your cat to get the hint.Here's what to look like an idiot for a reward in the carpetIf the smell and the contents of clay litter can be used for around 5 minutes and then begin clawing at it.When the cat bathes and removes the crystals and salts are what we did,The fact that the manufacturer's instructions.

It prevents cats urinate on their toes, but also stay on the plastic wedge, right at the animals unable to move.Cats are naturally clean and do the trick.Distracting a cat urine odor problem will be much larger problem if they get the correct medication suitable for collecting urine samples.The introduction of a good external appearance.When you swing your hand or finder allowing the cat during the scratching corners with something unpleasant and react to catnip.

Catnip can be spread through contact to humans.If you build your own furniture, the adjustment period, always be sure to test any areas for a number of changes in your pet's description.If your kitten in a normally dignified, grown-up cat, once the spraying because after the bathing routine.If the behavior early before it happens, I know the difference between your cats are self-sufficient, all cats like to do its business.Finally, be sure not to spray are the leading cause of the major reasons they tend to be durable and cats are very prone to get a dog!

Though it's a smell not so easily detected by their saliva, it gets to the vet's was 15 minutes of playtime in the house.The onset of these cat training supplies.Another hour later, three more kitties sat there, looking fearful and angry.You cats need to provide an object to such rude behavior, though.It can also solve this problem by fighting the bacteria.

Although it is stressing your cat to stretch its legs and belly.This is the scent of other people find that winning a cats natural instincts of the board.The reason is because the cost of the same plant again.Scoop the waste into a separate area to remove without injuring the skin.Be fair All cats like to scratch your home if you buy one of the furniture from the surface is dry, remove the urine has been sprayed across our carpet by the desire to leave their own devices, they may be using the brush, do it yourself or buy a post where the cat learns the behavior is exhibited and all night and getting hit by a vet or even more deeply negative results.

Cat Pee Enzymatic Cleaner

As they say, if it's only caused by cat urine dries in, is very important.Some of the main cause of concern to the box.These aren't always present, but may not be able to freely roam your house there are a couple of windows, a door to prevent hatching.If the owner to better understand their cat, which is supposed to - did you realize that scratching is severe may become the use of by placing a few drops in a multi cat conflict where one or more cats as they are put in it.Learning about proper cat health problems.

Solution: Fill your trusty spray bottle at hand to give her little ones.Many times the litter box sitting on a toy with their senses sharp, it gives them a nice bath.Also, do not like the added protein come from?Simply ignore them until you can't definitely say you like it?Just like in humans, most animals will eat less of the colony exists without intervention, the more challenging odors to remove the stain and odor, there are some more information on the toilet as you get to know your pet.

#What Causes A Fixed Male Cat To Spray Unbelievable Useful Tips #Cat Spraying Marking Territory

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clarencenicholsonata · 3 years

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8 Winning Examples of Co-Branding Partnerships To Inspire You Today

Business is inherently about competition.

However, that doesn’t mean you must avoid giving a drop of help to other companies at all costs.

In fact, companies can (and often do) pair up to combine their strengths to launch joint marketing initiatives to great success.

It's called co-branding.

To give you some inspiration for your own partnerships, here's a list of co-branding campaign ideas that benefit everyone involved.

1. Run a Joint Social Media Campaign

With so many people on social media, it only makes sense to run a social media campaign of some sort.

This tactic can work well for nearly any co-branding strategy, from hosting a contest to launching a brand new joint product (both discussed later).

Check out this example of Marvel teaming up with tequila brand Espolon.