#I hope the text in that mind map is legible

[carlottastudios]

YES FELLOW KAEYA ENJOYER 🙌🙌🙌🙌 I woukd LOVE to hear your thoughts its so hard to find anyone talking about all of kaeyas lore and implications

HI FELLOW KAEYA ENJOYER!!!!

Thank you so much! I have actually started the process of writing down my thoughts and even realized that, because of how much all of Kaeya’s lore and implications and references connect together, a mind map might actually be a better format for listen all of my thoughts than just a text post. But then, ah…I started the VERY rough draft for this mind map and I’m realizing it’s already getting so huge and complicated, I’m actually worried about whether or not I’ll be able to make it cohesive and readable.

I think that might be why it’s so hard to find anyone talking about ALL of Kaeya’s lore & myth connections & implications. THERE’S JUST SO MUCH!!! Kaeya, you have so much going on!!!! And, like, good for you, beloved, but it’s not easy for the theorists!

Anyways, in case anyone is curious, here’s a look at what I’ve got so far for the super-rough draft of a mind map for all my unhinged Kaeya lore thoughts:

Thank you for the nice message, anon!

[xtruss]

Mappa Mundi: The Greatest Medieval Map In The World

— By Anna Bressanin | Wednesday February 14, 2024

Credit: CalimaX/Alamy

From a small island in the Venetian lagoon, a 15th-Century monk somehow designed an astonishingly accurate planisphere of the world.

On the second floor of the Library of Saint Mark in Venice, a map of the world occupies an entire room – and rightfully so, considering its historical significance and imposing size (2.4m x 2.4m, bigger than a king size bed). Completed in 1459, the Mappa Mundi is the compendium of all the geographical knowledge of the time and is arguably the greatest medieval map of the world.

Almost twice as large as the famous English Hereford Mappa Mundi (ca 1300), this exquisitely decorated planisphere showcasing Europe, Africa and Asia was the masterpiece of Fra Mauro, a monk of the Camaldolese order who lived on the small Venetian island of San Michele.

Although the monk never set foot outside Venice, his Mappa Mundi is amazingly accurate in its depiction of cities, provinces, continents, rivers and mountains. America isn't on the map, since Christopher Columbus would take his trip across the ocean 33 years later; and nor is Australia. But Japan (or in Fra Mauro's words, "Cipango") is there, making its first appearance on a Western chart. Even more surprisingly, Africa is correctly drawn as circumnavigable, long before the Portuguese rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488.

"It's the oldest surviving medieval map," said Meredith Francesca Small, author of the book Here Begins the Dark Sea, also describing it as the most complete medieval map to survive into modernity. "It's the first map to be based on science more than religion. The Hereford map is all propaganda, religious propaganda."

While the Hereford map depicted Heaven and Hell and was designed to serve as a compendium of the world's knowledge from a spiritual perspective, Fra Mauro took a scientific approach to his cartography. He declared in his inscriptions that he would "verify the text by practical experience, investigating for many years and frequenting personas worthy of faith who have seen with their own eyes what I faithfully report here".

There's more than scientific and historical relevance to it, though. The most striking aspect of the map, which immediately catches your eye after ascending the white marble stairs of the Library of Saint Mark, where some of the world's most precious and ancient manuscripts are kept, is its sheer splendour.

"It's huge, beautiful, fantastically crafted," said historian Pieralvise Zorzi. Beyond the outlines of countries and continents, Fra Mauro's Mappa Mundi is a magnificent golden and blue painting composed of minute drawings of gorgeous palaces, bridges, sailing ships, rolling blue waves and outsized sea creatures, plus a total of 3,000 cartigli – red and blue annotations written in ancient Venetian that tell stories, anecdotes and legends.

In Norway, for instance, a cartiglio indicates the location where the Venetian merchant Pietro Querini came ashore after a shipwreck. As the tale goes, he not only survived the accident, but he brought stockfish back home, thus starting the Venetian passion for baccalà (the creamy fish spread you can find in every osteria).

The Exquisitely Decorated Mappa Mundi measures an impressive 2.4m x 2.4m. Credit: Bildagentur-online/Getty Images

Another cartiglioindicates Tharse, the "kingdom where the Magi came from", then thought to be located somewhere between China and Mongolia.

All these annotations are legible on the map, and are relatively easy to decipher for Venetian speakers since the current dialect is not dramatically different from the idiom of the 15th Century. However, the inscriptions are also translated into English on an interactive map created by the Galileo Institute and Museum in Florence. Displayed on a flat screen in the same exhibition space as the Mappa Mundi, it provides the somewhat peculiar experience of entering the mind of a savant monk and reading the world through his medieval eyes.

It was not a small world. Although Fra Mauro lived his entire life in his island monastery in the lagoon backwaters, he tapped into the knowledge of travellers and merchants who crossed paths in the flourishing trading city of Venice that was "the capital of cartography at the time", explained Saint Marks librarian Margherita Venturelli.

“Maps Were Fundamental For Trade Because If You Have A Good Map, You Can Go Everywhere”

"Maps were fundamental for trade because if you have a good map, you can go everywhere," added Zorzi. "Every innovation in terms of cartography was welcome in Venice, and well-paid."

The Library of Saint Mark is home to one of the world's most significant collections of classical texts. Credit: Mo Peerbacus/Alamy

Fra Mauro's main source for Asia was merchant and fellow Venetian Marco Polo, who had published his travel accounts more than 150 years earlier. On the map, 150 locations are directly traceable to Marco Polo's Travels; for instance, the Mount of Adam was placed in the island of Ceylon (today's Sri Lanka), where, according to legends recounted by Polo, the first man's body was believed to be buried, together with his teeth and even his bowl, which was supposed to have the magical property of multiplying food.

Besides Polo, Fra Mauro had numerous sources around the globe. The fact that the chart looks upside down to contemporary Western eyes, with the south on top, might indicate that he was inspired by Arab cartography, like a 12th-Century map by North African geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi. The numbers that Fra Mauro lists as "the Distance of Heavens" are from mathematician and astronomer Campanus de Novara. "From the centre of the world to the surface of the Earth there are 3,245 miles. From the centre of the world to the lower surface of the heavens of the Moon there are 107,936 miles," and so on, he writes in the top left corner of the Mappa Mundi.

Fra Mauro also displayed a healthy scepticism and wasn't shy of criticising – as well as sometimes using –the revered Ptolemy's Geography, a treaty written in Alexandria, Egypt, by Claudius Ptolemy in 150 CE and lost for centuries to the Western world until it was rediscovered and translated in Latin again in the 1400s.

Fra Mauro's main source for Asia was merchant and fellow Venetian Marco Polo. Credit: The History Collection/Alamy

This Renaissance rationalist attitude also showed in the way he placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden outside of the planisphere, making it clear that Heaven is not a place on Earth; a statement that separated religion and geography and was forward thinking for any medieval man, let alone a monk.

These novelties, and the fact that the map was completed few decades before Christopher Columbus sailed to America, contribute to Fra Mauro's Mappa Mundi being considered the geographical link between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. To contemporary visitors, his map is a reminder of the fact that maps were once not only practical tools, but also a matter of beauty – and a way to tell the most extraordinary stories.

[meloinaw]

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[ri-ahhh]

desert secrets

MJ meets a helpful stranger in the desert that turns out to be more than she hoped for.

7k holy shit lol

warnings: some pretty unrealistic fluff that might get your hopes up that you’ll have a meet-cute with Grayson

***

Shit. Fuck. Fuck. Shit. Shit on a fucking stick. You actual fucking idiot, MJ.

A stream of thoughts along these general lines becomes her stream of conscience as MJ Macias plops down on a large rock, throwing her head back to the sky to bask in the sun and her own general incompetency. Maybe the heat of the desert mountain sun beating on her face will cause her to shrivel up and disintegrate to become lizard food or something — the thought isn’t altogether unwelcome.

Her trip to the middle of nowhere was meant to clear her mind both through exercise in the form of a nice, long hike, as well as simply by being alone amongst nature, under an endless expanse of clouds and stars. The week had been pure hell for her: she had been let go from her dream job at her marketing firm in the latest round of budget-related layoffs; received a ticket from a dickhead cop for going 34 in a 30; and discovered last night that the hot water heater in her apartment had broken. To top it all off, her ex had been harassing her relentlessly over texts and calls, wanting to meet up and ‘talk about things’ since she had dumped him two months ago.

So as she cried hot tears in a frigid shower that morning, thoroughly wallowing in self-pity, an idea popped into her head that was so spontaneous and ridiculous she didn't even try to talk herself out of it: go on a solo camping trip.

MJ really has no idea why this of all the therapeutic outlets available to her was something her brain decided was the right one, since a camper she is not. Sure, she loves being outside in the sun for a good hike, or a swim in the ocean once in a while — nature isn’t the problem. It’s the whole navigating-desert-terrain-alone-and-sleeping-on-the-ground thing that isn’t usually at the top of her list of fun weekend activities. The tent and sleeping bag that she had been forced to purchase for the ridiculous bachelorette party of one of her very outdoorsy friends had called her name as she paced manically around her apartment that morning, though.

Did she have every intent to return them after their one-time use? Absolutely. Did they both end up getting thrown to the back of her storage closet and thus forgotten about until then? Also, yes.

Both her practically nonexistent camping experience and her general lack of enthusiasm for the activity as a whole should have been her first clues at how moronic she was for thinking this is a trip she should (or could) handle alone. But, now determined to have the ultimate self-care weekend, she had: packed a backpack as an overnight bag; tossed it with her shitty little tent and a cooler full of snacks and water in the back of her car; texted her best friend Lainey to sound the alarm if she wasn’t home in 36 hours; and driven away to the first camping ground Google showed her that was at least 100 miles outside of LA. It seemed adventurous and spontaneous an indie movie-esque at the time.

But now, as she sits on this rock, feet and back aching, utterly fucking lost, MJ is starting to feel more like she’s on a self-inflicted episode of Punk’d. Being very directionally challenged, she had been using the maps feature on her phone to find her way back to her campsite after going on a winding, hilly hike, until her phone had suddenly died. The trails have no legible signs so between her use of the GPS, the borderline stalker-ish calls from her ex, and the heat of the sun, she’s left without her lifeline much sooner than she could have anticipated.

She thinks of her backpack and the battery-powered charger in her tent. In a moment of pure rage with herself for being such a lost, ill-prepared dumbass, she wants nothing more than to run back up the mountain and punt the now useless little piece of metal and plastic into the abyss. Her inner drama queen thinks maybe the best thing that could happen is that it will fall on a mountain lion, which will devour her out of anger before she shrivels up into lizard food, and put her out of her misery early.

MJ rolls her eyes at how ridiculous she’s being, and forces herself to take a deep breath and think. Her inner antics really do bring up an actually pressing issue. There are plenty of animals out here that don’t need any iPhone provocation to attack, and she’s only armed with a half-empty HydroFlask and a sparkly purple tube of pepper spray. Not to mention, judging from the incurring pinkness of the sky, the sun is going to set soon, and with that means it’ll be getting cold as well. She looks down at her thin Lulu Lemon tank top and shorts.

Fuuuck.

Knowing she has to make a decision, MJ doesn’t second guess herself when her feet heave her body off of her rock and set off further down the trail. Her only hopes at this point are to either miraculously stumble upon her camp before dark, or pray that she runs into fellow campers that might have a portable charger and that also aren’t serial killers. The only people she had passed on her hike had been a middle-aged couple and a woman maybe a little older than herself with a dog, but she couldn't have any idea if they were staying on the campgrounds or merely taking a day trip. Like she should have done.

MJ walks down the trail a solid 20 minutes, and wonders where the hell she had actually gone on her hike to be so far out from her own campsite. Inexperience with the outdoors had made her assume all the trails met up in a circle, but clearly that isn’t the case here. She’s already out of the hiking trail and in one of the areas designated for camping, but there are a couple of those around the park and she has no clue which one she had chosen.

Trying and failing to keep the creeping worry out of her spine as a few clouds turn orange and the noises of the nocturnal wildlife start up, she picks up her pace.

She’s about to resign herself to huddling in an unoccupied camping spot for the night when she suddenly sees flumes of smoke about a football field away. The Hallelujah chorus fills her head, and she mumbles out a quick ‘thank you’ to whoever is listening as she practically speed-walks to her impending safety.

The smell of the crackling wood draws her nearer and nearer. When she finally rounds the corner, she’s surprised and disappointed to see that while there is indeed a small fire burning, as well as a deconstructed tent piled on the ground, the occupant of the campsite is nowhere to be found. MJ hesitates and looks around for any sign of them, not foreseeing this issue. Should she wait around like a creep? Keep walking and hope to run into them?

“Can I help you?”

MJ startles out of her skin and lets out an embarrassing little squeak. She whips around and is thoroughly unprepared to see what just might be the hottest guy she’s ever had the pleasure of laying her eyes on in real life. Judging from her own height, he’s maybe six foot or a tad over; his thick arms are laden with a bulky backpack and a sleeping bag, and his dark hazel eyes observe her warily behind a flop of dark wavy hair.

“Uh,” she begins stupidly, slightly stunned by both his sudden appearance and his masculine beauty. “Yeah, um, I’m so sorry to intrude on your space but, I, you know, got a little confused on the trails and, uh…”

He raises a naturally arched eyebrow expectantly as she pauses and stumbles over her words. MJ looks at him, then releases a huge breath she hadn't even realized had been held in her chest until this moment, officially giving up on not sounding like a complete and total idiot.

“I’m fucking lost. I have a terrible sense of direction and was using a map online of the trails to find the pin I dropped on my campsite, but my phone died. Is there any chance you have a portable charger I can use for, like, twenty minutes?”

The guy chuckles, and despite her pure mortification at the situation, MJ cracks a smile too, glad to see he isn’t pissed at her for lurking around his campsite like the actual weirdo she is. Unfortunately for her, though, his crooked grin somehow makes him even more attractive, which doesn’t bode well for her already inevitable awkwardness.

“Uh, yeah, I have my Mophie in here somewhere,” he says, indicating the backpack in his arms. He nods his head in the direction of his campsite where there is a large stone clearly put there by park officials as a makeshift bench. “Come on over and I’ll find it.”

“Thank you,” MJ sighs in relief. She follows him through the gap in the log threshold, and when he drops the items he’s carrying on the ground, she gapes; holy shit, the man is built. She could tell he had pythons for arms, but the stuffed backpack and sleeping bag had hidden the way his plain white t-shirt stretches taut over every solid, muscled crevice of his torso.

She shakes her head and hopes he can’t sense her obvious stare that has since traveled from the breadth of his shoulders, down his tapered waist, settled on his ass, and finished on the multitude of tattoos decorating his legs as he walks in front of her. MJ finds every one of these aspects of him immensely appealing; she’s never felt so viscerally attracted to a complete stranger in her entire life.

MJ settles on the rock and, sensing some of the aforementioned awkwardness about to settle in the air, searches her brain for a way to alleviate it. She knows she’ll only be here a short amount of time, but she feels compelled to get to know him even just a little bit. And to not make a complete fool of herself, if possible.

“What’s your name?” she asks. That’s a safe place to start. She hugs her knees to her chest as she watches him arrange the stuff he had just dropped into a neater pile.

“Grayson,” he replies. Grayson crouches down to dig through his backpack and flashes her a friendly, blinding smile over his shoulder. “Yours?”

As if she couldn’t embarrass herself any more, she feels a flush rise to her cheeks. For fucks sake, she isn’t 16 talking to her high school crush — she’s a grown woman who has been with plenty of guys and knows how to have a simple conversation with one, no matter how hot they are.

“MJ,” she finally manages to get out.

“MJ,” he repeats, testing it on his tongue, nodding approvingly. “That’s cool. I don't think I’ve ever met a girl with that kind of name. What does it stand for?”

He stands and turns to face her. He extends the little black charger to her and MJ looks up at him through her lashes as he towers over her, biting her lip. Flirting isn’t her strong suit whatsoever, but she can’t help trying; it’s not like she’s going to see him again by the time the sun sets.

“It’s a secret,” she answers after a brief moment, taking the Mophie from Grayson and accidentally-on-purpose brushing the tips of her fingers against the back of his. “Thanks.”

Grayson raises his eyebrows, but a humored grin graces his full lips. “Okay,” he says, surprising her by taking a seat next to her as she plugs in her phone. “But who better to spill your secrets to than a total stranger, you know?”

MJ can’t help the giggle that escapes her throat, humored more by the fact that he seems to be having the same idea of fuck it, we won’t ever see each other again, as her, than his actual question. His nearness should make her uncomfortable, but it just…doesn’t; he’s close enough for her to smell his scent emanating from his warm body. Clean, like laundry and soap, but also hints of an earthy, masculine cologne and an admittedly enticing musk from being in the sun. She wants to lean in and inhale him.

God, she hopes she isn’t coming off as insane as she feels inside. What is wrong with her? He’s just a guy. A guy whose close proximity as a stranger should be making her feel intimidated rather than buzzing with electricity.

“You’re very right,” she says, leaning back on her hands to appear more relaxed. “If I die out here in the wilderness, killed by my own stupidity, I wouldn't want the last person to see me alive not know my real name.”

Grayson throws his head back and laughs, and it draws one from herself as well. She likes his laugh because despite the deep timbre of his voice, the sound is carefree and boyish.

“It’s Makenna Jean,” she finally admits once they both quiet down. “I’m named after my grandmothers, but my mom didn't like your typical shortenings people might automatically give to Makenna — you know, Mack, Ken, Kenna, all those. So she just started calling me MJ to avoid it all, and…that’s me, MJ.”

He nods in understanding. “Gotcha.”

They continue effortless conversation for a while, words and laughter flowing freely from their lips with an ease that MJ hasn’t experienced in years. In the first lull, though, MJ fills it with a sigh and extends her long legs to stretch them as they tire from being folded so closely to her body, flexing and pointing her toes. She knows her shorts are a little too short, her tank top a little low cut, even with a sports bra on. It’s another one of those accidentally-on-purpose moves that starts as inadvertent in the way it exposes and elongates her body, but ends in her relishing the way his eyes quickly dart across her form. She’s reticent to admit that she isn’t mad about it. Not even a little.

She ducks her head and bites her lip to hide a triumphant smirk as Grayson clears his throat and runs a hand through his hair. “So, are you out here by yourself?”

For the first time since she met him, a little swoop of nerves unrelated to her attraction to him passes through the pit of her stomach. She feels like she’s always had a spot-on instinct for determining someone’s ���vibes’, and Grayson has only given her good ones since the minute she saw him. Maybe she’s fallen victim to the Ted Bundy effect, though…

He seems to pick up on her hesitation, and Grayson slaps his palm to his forehead, squeezing his eyes shut. “Fuck, sorry, that was so creepy. I didn't mean it like that, I was just, uh, making conversation.” He opens his eyes and rubs his forehead and, to her shock, is he blushing now? “I promise I’m not a murderer.”

She might have still been weirded out by a guy even putting the word out there in this situation, but her gut is telling her that Grayson is harmless, and she prides herself on being a pretty good judge of character.

“It’s okay,” she says, giving him a serious look. “I promise I’m not either. But you should know that I’m packing heat with a fully loaded can of mace and my best white belt skills from the karate classes my mom made me take in 4th grade.”

Grayson gives her a disbelieving look. “Fourth grade karate, huh?”

“Yep. For real, I’ll karate chop your arm off if you try anything sketch.”

“Try,” he challenges with a beautiful, dangerous smile, leaning in ever so slightly and looking her dead in the eye. It takes her breath away a little bit. “I dare you.”

MJ scoffs, still keeping up this facade that she isn’t fighting every primal urge to mount him, especially with the unmistakeable tinge of flirtation in his last words.

“Fine,” she accepts. Grayson grins wider and leans back, offering her his right arm. “Get ready.”

“Oh, I am.”

She lines her hand up with the dip in his muscles between his shoulder and the top of his bicep, rears it back, and —

“Ow!”

The side of her hand simply bounces off of the solid mass of his bulging arm. Grayson does that head-back belly laugh again and she pretends to pout as she rubs her sore hand. “That hurt way more than it should have!” she exclaims. “What are you, Superman?”

Grayson, still laughing, grabs her hand in his and strokes it rather tenderly considering the sheer size of his palm compared to hers. And it’s so cliche, but MJ swears she feels tingles where their skin connects.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he says, biting his lip in an attempt to contain himself. “It’s just, in the least misogynistic way possible, that was high-key cute.”

“Hmph.” MJ scrunches her nose at him as her heart drops to her stomach in the best, scariest way.

Uh oh. He's a stranger, MJ; you’ve known him for half an hour, MJ; you’re in the middle of nowhere, MJ — you can’t catch feelings for a stranger you’ve know for half an hour in the middle of nowhere, MJ…

She clears her throat and gives his hand a slight squeeze before extracting it from his grip, hoping that conveys that she doesn’t disapprove of his touch. But the sun is well on it’s way to setting, and she does need to check her phone battery. It’s at 28%, not as much as she hoped for but probably enough to do the trick.

Shit. MJ really, really doesn’t want to leave him, but she can’t exactly invite herself to stay longer. She had already kept him from building his tent, and his fire is starting to die as well. She turns back to face him only to find his eyes trained on her, brow slightly scrunched. Her belly swoops again.

“I should, ah, probably get going,” MJ admits quietly, fidgeting with her fingers. A shiver runs down her spine and goosebumps raise themselves up the skin of her arms, too, as the setting sun steadily lowers the temperature around them. She crosses her arms across her chest, partly for warmth and partly to hide her stiffened nipples that peak through her thin sports bra and tank. “Or I really will kill myself out here in the dark by walking off a cliff or something.”

Grayson smiles woefully and lets out a little huff, ducking his gaze down for a moment and picking at a thread on his shorts. “Yeah, I understand.”

Is it her imagination or does he sound…disappointed?

When he looks back up at her, the sudden intensity of his gaze makes her swallow thickly. She wants so badly to ask for his number, his Instagram, his last name, but it all seems too weird given the circumstances and the amount of time (or lack thereof) they’ve spent together. Besides, she thinks, she’s still dealing with a psycho ex amongst the rest of her life falling apart, and doesn’t need any more boy problems in her already crazy-stressful life.

MJ stands and dusts off the back of her shorts. “Thank you, Grayson, seriously. You really did save my ass,” she says with a sad smile.

“Of course,” he replies, standing with her.

She unplugs her phone and pulls up both maps before setting off down the trail with one last wave at the gorgeous, sweet man she’s so reluctantly leaving behind.

“MJ, wait!”

She stops in her tracks, black Nikes skidding in the loose, sandy dirt. Turning around in time to see Grayson dig his hands in the backpack to fish out a sweatshirt and flashlight, her heart lifts when he starts jogging toward her. Despite her elation, however, she looks up at him confusedly.

“I’ve actually been to this place a few times, so I’m pretty familiar with the trails and campgrounds. I would feel a lot better if I walked you to your tent. Not that you need a man to help you anywhere or…whatever, but yeah, only if you want —”

“Grayson,” she interrupts, touching a slim hand to his forearm. She smiles, endeared at how flustered he’s getting. He runs a hand through his hair again. Is this him wanting to spend more time with her, or him simply being a gentleman? “I really do appreciate it, but I’ve already kept you from setting up your own camp. I couldn't ask you to walk me all the way to BFE and risk you coming back alone in the dark.”

Grayson shakes his head. “I swear, it’s fine. I’ve got a flashlight.” He clicks it on and shines it under his chin, illuminating his head in typical campfire story-time style, and makes a face at her. MJ giggles. “And you can’t be too far from here; there are only two main campgrounds and they’re less than a mile apart from each other, so I should make it back before dark one way or the other.”

A shiver from the cold overtakes her body suddenly. “Oh, here,” he adds, extending the purple hoodie to her. She starts to protest, but he shakes his head and holds it at her more insistently. “I know you’re cold.”

MJ flushes, but takes the soft garment from him gratefully. “I never said I was cold,” she remarks as she shoves her arms in the sleeves and slips it over her head. It practically swallows her, but it smells just like the laundry/cologne scent she had picked up earlier, only more concentrated and delicious.

Grayson eyes her up and down slowly, grinning. “I’m observant,” he says teasingly.

MJ raises her brows at him amusedly. Again, she should be creeped out, but there’s something about him that sends all potential red flags out the window.

“And I might not be done sharing secrets with you,” he adds quietly, smiling the softest, sexiest smile she’s ever seen and utilizing the ultimate puppy-dog eyes. “Please?”

Well, twist my arm, MJ thinks sarcastically. “Okay,” she says without hesitation now, her insides jittering with a strange mixture of happiness and nerves. He beams at her and jerks his head in indication for them to continue down the trail.

“So, you never said what you’re doing out here by yourself,” Grayson prompts, nudging her with his elbow.

MJ shakes her head and smiles up at him. “Nuh-uh. Not only is that a sob story no one wants to hear, it’s definitely your turn to share. So I could ask you what you’re doing out here by yourself?”

Grayson shrugs as if to say ‘fair enough.’ “I’m not, actually. I’m with my brother and his girlfriend because she wanted to camp, but my brother doesn’t know shit about it. I only came under the agreement that there was going to be no funny business while I was around, only to come back from getting firewood to find them going at it, so I chose to remove myself from the situation. They’re still at our original campsite further down the trail. I needed to make sure I was far enough away to not hear anything.”

MJ sucks in a sympathetic breath through her teeth. “Ooh, yeah, there’s nothing worse than being the third wheel, especially when you have nowhere to escape.”

“Exactly!” he exclaims, turning to her with his hands raised. “Thank you! Ethan told me I was being dramatic, but it definitely sucks. He’s been with her long enough now, I think he’s forgotten what it’s like to be the lonesome outsider.”

This is the perfect segue for the question, but it gets stuck in her throat. Come on, MJ, grown woman, remember? She’s sure she already knows the answer based on what he had just said, but it never hurts to check.

“So…you don’t have a girlfriend?”

“Nope.” She glances up at him to find him staring straight ahead with that lopsided, boyish grin. He looks back down at her and reciprocates the question. “Do you have a boyfriend?”

“Nope.” MJ is mortified to hear it come out as a whisper. She clears her throat and diverts her gaze to the sunset. She had literally, quite literally, just met this man — he should not have this kind of effect on her.

Just then, her phone buzzes, and she’s infuriated to see the deleted number of her ex pop up on the screen. She groans in frustration. “But it’s not for my idiot ex’s lack of trying to get back together,” she complains, wiggling the phone and sending it straight to voicemail.

“I’m sorry,” Grayson says, shaking his head understandingly. “I’ve definitely been there. How long have you been broken up?”

MJ swipes the voicemail notification away and rolls her eyes. “Over two months. We weren't super serious and it wasn't a crazy bad breakup or anything, we were just in different places, and I’m not one to be in a relationship just for the sake of it. Especially if I’m not feeling any aspect of it. I didn't hear a word from him the first month or so, but he’s acting like we were soulmates who had some tragic ending, calling and texting me nonstop the last couple of weeks.”

Grayson shrugs. “Sounds like he’s just realizing what he missed out on,” he says, grinning. MJ’s breath catches in her throat and she rolls her eyes again embarrassedly with a smile, flushing pink yet again. “Why don’t you block him?”

She sighs. “I probably will. I don't like to burn bridges like that unless someone really does me wrong, but it’s getting ridiculous at this point.”

Grayson nods. “I’m not just saying this, but I feel the exact same way. And about what you said with being in a relationship just to be in one. Like…” he ruffles the back of his hair, something she now detects as a tell for when he's uncomfortable. “Ok, like, this sounds so ugly and conceited, but if I really wanted to be with someone, I could. Ethan and I do social media for a living and we have a decent following, so it’s not a lack of girls, but that’s not me. Maybe when I was a little younger, but…yeah, not now.”

Wow. What does that mean, a decent following? Her job requires her to know the ins and outs of the social media side of marketing, but she isn’t super invested in it for herself entertainment-wise. Mainly, she’s active on Snapchat with her friends and just occasionally uses Insta, so with the knowledge of the spectrum of social media followings, that could really be any number in her book. “So you’re, like, an Instagram model or something?”

He chuckles. “No, no. We make YouTube videos mostly. We’re identical twins so a lot of them are stupid things based on that — challenges and skits and stuff. It’s pretty chill. We’re starting to dabble in documentary-style projects, too.”

MJ gawks at him playfully, though she is actually surprised by his admission. “There are two of you?!” she gasps.

Grayson gapes back at her jokingly. “Technically, yes. He’s my absolute best friend in the entire world and, like I said, we’re identical, but half the time we really couldn’t be more opposite if we tried. I’ll show you our channel later, if you want, and you’ll see.”

“Hmm,” MJ hums, catching her lip with her teeth briefly. “Well I’m sure Ethan is great, but I’m glad I met you, then.”

He bumps her with his hip. “Are you saying you like me?”

MJ rolls her eyes good-naturedly at the teasing lilt to his voice and hopes that the light is low enough that he can’t see the seemingly permanent tint to her cheeks. “Since we’re sharing secrets…maybe. Yes.”

“I like you, too,” he replies, just as quietly. She picks up a barely-detectable lisp on the ’t’ and the East Coast lilt on the ‘oo.’ It’s adorable.

Her heart flutters.

They walk steadily a few more feet in silence, when suddenly she feels his hand brush hers gently. She assumes it was accidental until it happens again, only this time there’s more assertiveness in the movement, clearly indicating what he’s trying to do. Her heart jumps in her throat as she gladly lets his palm dwarf her own as he takes her hand in his. They happen to both glance at each other, only to duck their heads simultaneously, each attempting to hide giddy smiles.

“Ah, so, secrets,” MJ says to break the silence that’s thick with the best kind of tension. “How old are you?”

There’s a beat of silence. “Old enough…almost,” he answers cryptically, side-eyeing her.

His reply actually makes MJ stop in her tracks, and she’s jerked a bit by their joined hands as he continues moving. “What?” she asks incredulously.

Grayson laughs heartily and squeezes her palm, melting her insides a bit. He’s clearly pleased with himself at catching her so off-guard. “I’m kidding. I mean, I am legal, but people tend to think I’m older than I am.” He observes her standing there, waiting for his answer, and finally relents. “I’m 20.”

MJ shakes her head, stunned. “Shut the fuck up!” she exclaims. “Twenty?! Dude, yeah, no kidding people think you’re older. I definitely did.”

He tugs on her hand to keep her walking, and MJ obeys dutifully, still amazed at yet another shocking disclosure. “Is that an issue?”

She shrugs; she feels like it should be, but he doesn’t look or act 20 at all. But also…an issue for what? They literally just met. And she should only be thinking of being friends; she can be friends with a 20 year-old.

That thought doesn’t stop her from answering, though, because time factor aside, something is happening between them. Something more than friends, if she’s letting herself be honest. “I guess it’s only an issue if it affects maturity, but that doesn't seem to be a problem here that I can tell.”

Grayson squeezes her hand again, and a shot of sparks zings up her arm this time. “Good. Now, are you gonna make me ask, or are you gonna tell me how old you are?”

MJ groans. Twenty. She’s basically a dinosaur compared to that. “God, I don’t even want to say now. I’m 24,” she admits.

“What’s wrong with that?” Grayson asks with a chuckle.

“Because…” How do you explain to a young, hot 20 year-old man that every year that you creep closer to 25 only means one year closer to the downhill to 30? “I don’t know. Sometimes I feel old. And stuck. Especially lately. And you seem like this super young, super successful guy. It’s a little intimidating.”

Grayson is quiet for a moment. “If there’s anything I know, it’s not to judge your path based on other’s. If you’re feeling stuck, something will happen that gets you unstuck. Age has nothing to do with that.”

His answer catches MJ by surprise in its sincerity and maturity and thoughtfulness. Before she can form an answer, they pass what must be his brother’s tent. She has to hush her fit of laughter into her free hand when Grayson makes a disgusted little noise and flips off the dark red canvas that is, indeed, rustling suspiciously.

From there on they share anything and everything about each other, with each other. Against her word from earlier, she tells him about losing her job and her other woes from the week; he briefly opens up that he had lost his dad a little over a year ago and is still coping with it. This shocks her a bit, but his openness leads her to sympathize with him by sharing how her mom had passed away in a car accident when she was 15. By the time they reach the next campground, their fingers are completely intertwined and she’s leaning her head on his shoulder, his smell enveloping her completely from both his shirt sleeve and the collar of the hoodie. MJ has truly never felt more connected to a man on this level, and it’s both exciting and terrifying.

They aren’t even to her tent yet and she already doesn’t want him to go.  

“Should be just around this corner,” Grayson says, squinting at her phone before concentrating on the trail again.

Sure enough, the next turn reveals her campsite, complete with the tent she had miraculously managed to construct herself and her cooler propped next to the same rock-bench that they had sat on at Grayson’s camp.

Her free hand clenches around his elbow. “Yep, here it is,” she says.

They stop and stand to face one another. “Thanks again, Grayson,” she tells him sincerely. “I didn't really know what the hell I was doing coming out here. In more ways than one, obviously.” This earns her a smile and — God, as if her heart could feel any more sappy in that moment — he brings their clasped hands to his lips to kiss the back of her palm. “But in the hour that I’ve known you I think you’ve helped me take my mind off things more than anyone else back home could have. So…thank you.”

“Of course, MJ,” he says quietly. “I could say the same. I rarely talk about my dad with anyone besides Ethan, let alone someone I just met.” Her heart warms at his confession, and a heated moment of quiet and intense eye contact passes between them before he breaks it. “Come on, I’ll help you start a fire.”

She nods, and they release their grasps on one another to gather sticks and dry brush at his suggestion.

“You know,” he says as he leans over the fire pit that’s now filled with their findings with her lighter, breaking the short silence, “I was going to spend the night alone since E was clearly pretty busy. I don't think he would miss me if I stayed for a bit. To keep telling secrets. If you want, that is.”

MJ swallows. What the hell is this night? She’s pretty sure sad, lost girls meeting and mutually falling for beautiful, polite, genuinely funny boys in the desert is something that only happens in the likes of cheesy Meg Cabot novels. Yet, here she is, living out her nerdy 16 year-old fantasies in real life somehow.

“Yes. I want you,” she murmurs finally, and though she doesn’t mean for it to come out as a bit of an entendre, she doesn’t regret her wording; even in the low light of the late sunset, she can see his eyes darken. “Won’t he notice eventually, though, if you stay gone for very long? And it’s getting dark…”

“If I can borrow your phone, I can text him,” he explains. “I don't have any service but you do somehow. I guarantee he’ll use the wifi in our car to check his phone before he goes to bed, so he’ll get it eventually.”

She nods and unlocks her phone for him. “How do you have service out here, actually?” he asks as he types out a new message.

“My brother,” she answers, entranced by the way his thick fingers fly across the keyboard of her phone. “Being a firefighter, he gets to be on this plan for first responders where he gets first access to a bigger network in case he’s in the middle of nowhere on a call or in a crowd during an emergency or something. I was able to sign on with his account and get all the benefits of it.”

Grayson looks up at her, surprised, and smirks when he hands her phone back to her. “Wow, a firefighter? So he could probably kick my ass if he wanted, huh?”

MJ laughs. “Normally I would say yes, but somehow I think you've got a solid 20 pounds of muscle on him, even though he's a little taller than you,” she admits.

She finally can’t resist anymore and runs her right hand over a bicep that is truly bulging right beneath the edge of his shirt sleeve, and allows herself to take in unabashedly the way the fabric stretches across his wide shoulders, his defined pecs…fuck, he’s sexy.

He swallows hard and she looks up at him. For the second time that night, the intensity of his gaze stuns her into silence and stillness.

When he ducks his head to meet her lips with his, however, her insides are screaming and the hand not clutching his arm travels to grip the front of his shirt, then the short hairs at the back of his neck.

More cliches, but it’s a perfect first kiss — soft but intense, not too much tongue but just enough as it deepens. MJ sighs into his mouth, deciding she would be perfectly content to do this with him forever despite the fire now lit within her at his touch that has her body begging for more.

It could have been a few seconds or a few hours that they stand there entwined with one another, but eventually they part, eyes closed and breaths panting heavily in the minimal space between them. The longer she isn’t distracted by his lips, the longer she stands there trying not to overthink things.

But the beauty of what this trip has been — what Grayson has been — for her is that it was the opposite of overthinking; it was instinctual, impulsive, and honest. In short, her motto had been ‘fuck it.’

Her green eyes open and lift to his hazel ones. “Grayson,” she whispers, “we’re telling secrets tonight, right?”

“Right,” he replies just as breathlessly.

She swallows past a small lump as an inexplicable rush of emotion hits her.

Fuck it.

MJ’s hands cup his angular jaw and she forces herself to keep eye contact with him. She takes a deep breath. “Look, I’m not into drama and feelings and fairytale shit. But I like you. I really like you, way more than I should considering we’re basically strangers, which fucking scares me. And even though I barely know you, I trust you for some reason. I just…need you to tell me if you feel kind of the same, or if this is starting to feel like too much now that I’m putting my thoughts out there. Because my gut is telling me this is mutual, but we can both walk away now and write it off as a crazy, whirlwind thing in the desert. I go in my tent, you go in yours, and we never see each other again.”

Her words come out in a rush, her last sentence almost painfully so. She also suddenly considers the idea that maybe he’s only using her as a fun story to tell his friends about, the pretty girl he met in the desert, wooed by his charm and good looks into her tent, only to be ghosted by him the next day.

Maybe the uncertainty in her life is leading her to be too impulsive with her wants and desires right now.

Maybe she’s starting to overthink things.

Grayson catches his lower lip with his teeth and mimics the position of her hands with his own. His thumbs brush the ridges of her mandible and his long fingers overlap at the back of her neck, scratching lightly. Despite herself, she could have purred at the sensation, almost does when it’s combined with that of his lips brushing hers tenderly.

“MJ,” he says lowly, resting his forehead against hers. “I’m not a fuckboy, I promise; like I said earlier, if all I wanted was a warm body beside me, I could have that in a second. What’s so hard for me is to find someone who's not after clout or money or anything that comes along with being in the social media space. Almost every girl I’ve talked to in the last couple of years has been attracted to one of those aspects of my life, not me. Once I find that out, no matter what they look like, I’m never interested in being in the same room as them, let alone in a relationship with them. I can tell you don't give a shit about any of that, and I love it. I love how funny, genuine, and kind you are. I love how naturally, absolutely gorgeous you are. That’s what I look for, that’s all I go for, and you’re all of it.”

Holy fuck, how is this guy real? It’s like he could read her mind. Her thumb tugs on his lower lip and he takes that as his cue to kiss her thoroughly again.

“Promise me now, then,” she huffs when they break apart, “no matter what happens tonight, we try to stay friends, at least, tomorrow.”

“Deal,” he agrees with a grin.

MJ bites her lip and smirks up at him. “How about we, uh, keep sharing secrets in my tent?”

Grayson raises his brow, his smile widening. “It is getting a little chilly out here.”

[yandere-daydreams]

So I watched venom and now all I can think of is yandere dark shadow's voice telling tokoyami all kinds of horrible thing he should do. Tokoyami looks like he's going crazy and he feels like he is too from all the things dark shadow is telling him to do and all the obsessive thoughts he's filling his head with over someone he only rarely talks to. I know that was a lot but I was hoping that you could write something with this please?

So I didn’t see the ‘rarely talks to’ part until I wrote this and re-read the prompt… hopefully, you can forgive me.

Tokoyami was going to die. 

Every time he walked into class, every time he checked his phone, every time he saw you, he only grew more convinced. His heart rate spiked, face heating up and mouth going dry, to the point where he’d already asked a very flustered nurse how long he had to live. That had to be it, right? He was dying, and you just happened to be in the room whenever he had one of these ‘attacks’. There just wasn’t another explanation. And even if he wasn’t going to die from this opportunistic fever, the embarrassment would get him, eventually.

But, you were always so nice about it. Always laughing off his stuttering, asking him about bands you knew he liked and offering him whatever snack you’d brought to class that day (once you offered him a bag of bird seed with such a genuine smile… he was almost tempted to take it). It didn’t help that your quirks worked so well together. Even if pairing-up wasn’t necessary, you’d always find your way to his side. And Dark Shadow liked you too, judging by the way he rambled.

It was only a few hours before sunrise, the first time he spoke up. Despite the gentle fairy-lights and glowing-paints Tokoyami used to keep his companion under control, he stayed persistent, whispering such awful things to his host in that quiet, scratchy voice. All the things he wanted to do to you. All the thing he wanted Tokoyami to do to you.

To keep you. To make that pretty voice of yours go hoarse from screaming, right before he pulls you close and… makes up for it. How Tokoyami should cut off this, and buy you that. How he should just take what he wants, instead of waiting around and pretending you’re just his friend. How he shouldn’t care about anyone who might be in the way.

He could hardly meet your eyes, the next morning. Still, you sat on his desk, idly chatting about the weird dream you had last night. He couldn’t remember what you were talking about, something about a creepy maze and some featherless birds, but he knew letting you be so close to him would only encourage Dark Shadow.

It’d only encourage him.

The same thing seemed to happen every night. He’d pull at his skin and try to control Dark Shadow, but that never stopped the creature. It was all just so loud. The voice inside his head, your laugh on replay, fantasies darker than anything he’d ever wanted, all of it. Part of him wanted everything and everyone to shut the fuck up, while the other just wanted to give in and see how far he’d go. It wasn’t like he’d really hurt you, the person so precious to him. He couldn’t, he was sure of it. He had enough self-control to stop himself from maiming you. He had to.

Needless to say, Tokoyami wasn’t getting much sleep. It wasn’t long before he stopped eating regular meals, only making his condition worse. Of course, like the perfect, loving person you were, the reason behind all of this didn’t even cross your mind. So, when you demanded that he come with you to a restaurant near UA, you only had the best intentions in mind.

And when he accepted, he only wanted to make you happy.

At least until you were walking in front of his so carelessly, passing dark allies and abandoned buildings that would be wonderful for dragging you into. At least until you focused on your phone for a little too long, trying to decipher the directions despite your inability to read a proper map. Until you were so, so close and oh-so trusting. If he told you he wanted to check something out off the beaten path, you’d accept, regardless of how far away from other pests it happened to be. And even if you didn’t, all he had to do was let Dark Shadow get his claws-

“Thinking about something?”

~

You squinted at the small screen, zooming-in on the street you thought you were trying to find before scrolling back to the written set of directions. Fucking white-text on a grey background, because someone at Google Maps had a grudge against your eyesight. Sighing, you switched off the device, sliding it into your pocket and looking back towards your friend, ready to tell him that you were helplessly, hopelessly lost.

You’d been worried about Tokoyami, lately. He was acting distant, more distant than usual. Less aloof and more… more unresponsive. You just wanted to make sure he got a decent meal, for the first time in a little more than a week. His exhaustion was apparent, with everything from his glassy eyes to the sudden paleness of his skin screaming teenage angst. But, you knew you’d be able to help him with that, soon enough. Dark Shadow had slipped you a semi-legible note during class, just telling you to sneak into Tokoyami’s dorm that night. You could bring comfort food, a movie, anything you thought would help him relax. It was a sweet idea, even if you didn’t really understand why it would help. 

But, Dark Shadow knew Tokoyami better than you did. He was just an extension of his holder, really. Maybe Tokoyami was just too shy to ask you himself.

You smiled at the thought, letting out a laugh when you saw Tokoyami glaring at a loose brick. Tugging him forward, you tried to sound as cheery as you could, your voice light but brimming with concern. “Thinking about something?”

[a-courtof-sarah-j-maas]

Feysand Modern- Chapter 3

Chapter 3

For once within the past few months, I have not had any nightmares. Last night, my dreams were filled with images of a dark-blue eyed boy: Rhysand . I couldn’t stop thinking about him, and when I did so you could see my visible blush that forms. Due to my recent good mood, I decided to venture out into the city. I did a google maps search in my phone to look for local coffee shops, somewhere cozy where I could sit with a hot chocolate and draw. The closest one was 8.2 miles away, and it got 4.8 stars. It was called Rita’s. After letting Nesta and Elain know where I was heading off too, I quickly made myself look presentable, grabbed my purse and my sketchbook and hopped in the car.

 I was in the car listening to the radio for about 15 minutes when I finally arrived at my destination. I can’t deny that I was disappointed by the look of the place. It looked like a little hole in the wall cafe where no one would visit, but when I walked in, I was in awe. Nearly every table was occupied with teenagers, adults, and others of varying age. I scanned the room hoping there is a place to sit, and I find a window side seat that looked comfortable. I looked out the window and saw a beautiful view. There was a small gathering of trees and bushes, and a small playground for children, I immediately brought out my sketchbook and I started drawing the scene in front of me. I don’t know how long I was sketching for, but I looked up searching for a waiter. After a few moments, I realized that there were no waiters to take your order, but that you have to walk up to the front and order.

 I took my stuff out of my satchel to make it known to everyone else that I was sitting here, while I went to go order. I got to the back of the line, and looked up at the menu. They had a whole section for hot chocolate!! I could drink hot chocolate all day, I mean, who doesn’t love hot chocolate. I saw many flavours, such as caramel, peppermint, dark, white, and then I came across something I had never seen before. Snickerdoodle? A snickerdoodle hot chocolate? After a quick decision I chose to actually try it. I have never been an adventurous person, but I felt a little spontaneous today. When someone called, “Next in line, please”, I walked up while pulling cash out of my pocket. While searching for a 10 dollar bill, I started to order, but then I looked up and found a familiar pair of dark blue eyes staring at me, “Rhys?” I blurted without meaning to. At the same exact time, Rhys said, “Feyre?”. I smiled and continued saying, “Rhys, what are you doing here?” I exclaimed still in shock at his appearance. “I just got a job here, to keep myself busy, and to earn a little extra cash. Do you come here often?” He asks, in an almost hopeful tone. “No, actually, this is my first time here.” We were happy to continue the conversation but the person behind me in line, cleared his throat in an obvious way, that told us to hurry up.

 I gave him a shy grin, and said, “I think I will try the snickerdoodle hot chocolate.” He returned my grin and replied, “Coming right up.” I reluctantly stepped to the side and paid the cashier, while Rhys started making my drink. After 2 minutes, I snapped out of my intense gaze, realizing that Rhys was handing me my drink. He gave me toothy grin, that let me know that he was aware of my constant staring. While I grabbed the cup, his hand brushed mine. I couldn’t tell if he did it purposefully or on accident, but when I looked up into his eyes, he blushed. Rhysand blushed. I said a quick thanks, and walked back to my table in the corner, all while my heart was beating wildly. I took a sip of my hot drink, and sighed in happiness. I looked outside for the perfect scene to sketch. There was the park, the beautiful flowers, and much more that were art-worthy, but instead I looked behind me. That certain someone that was making drinks and taking orders, seemed much more appealing to draw rather than the outdoors. After grinning at my own thoughts, I got to work. I pulled out my coloured pencils, and my charcoal, and I began my outline. He had a somewhat oval face, with high cheekbones, and a sharp jawline. His hair was a curly midnight black, and was almost until his eyebrows. He was slightly flushed due to the excessive amount of working, but all in all, he was gorgeous.

 After finishing my outline, which took a lot longer than expected, I packed up, noticing that it had already been an hour and 15 minutes. I picked up my cup to finish the remains of my hot chocolate, but I realized my hands were smudged in black ink. It didn’t look like the charcoal I used, and it was definitely not the coloured pencils. So, I looked around my station, until my eyes landed on my paper cup. There was smudged calligraphy, but it was definitely still legible.

You like delicious today, Feyre, Darling. I kept reading the line over and over again, making sure I am not seeing things, that I am not hallucinating. I looked over at Rhys, to find him watching my bewildered expression. He had a twinkle of amusement in his eyes, as he was watching me fluster and blush. I was at a loss of words, should I respond back with an attitude? Should I just ignore it? But before my mind could catch up with what my hands were doing, I grabbed the napkin at my table, and jotted down my number.    (214) 682 7956 … call me -- from Feyre, Darling.

 Before I could lose my nerve, I strolled over there, sashaying my hips while doing so. I gently flipped my hair back with my hand while, I shoved the napkin into Rhys’ hands. He looked at me, slightly confused, and then he looked down to read the note. His eyes widened, and then he looked straight into my eye. I winked and smirked at him, simultaneously. I walked back to my table, picked up my bag, and left the cafe. I could feel Rhys’ stare still on my back, so I refused to turn back around to watch his expression. I guess I would be visiting Rita’s a lot more often than I thought I would be. I dumped my stuff into the trunk of my car, and opened the driver’s door. Just as I was about to start driving, I heard my phone ding. I picked it up, and saw an unknown number, and I immediately grinned. 

Hello, Feyre, Darling. I didn’t want to respond right away, because that would seem too eager, so I decided I would respond back when I was in the safety of my room. I drover back as quickly as I could, without breaking any laws, that is. I opened the front door, and tried tiptoeing upstairs, to avoid my sister’s questions. But I tripped over the rug and nearly fell face forward into the hardwood floor. Nesta and Elain came running out of the kitchen, wondering where all the commotion was coming from. I looked up at them sheepishly while I managed to stand up. Elain asked, “Are you okay…” I responded yes, and I fought so hard to keep the smile off of my face, but I didn’t succeed. I tried walking away, but Nesta grabbed me by the wrist and said, “You look suspicious. Why are you smiling?” She was always the perceptible one out of all of us. I shook my head quickly, and told them it was nothing. I knew that Nesta would seek me out about it again, because as much as she is perceptible, she is stubborn, and no matter what, she will not drop this subject. I nearly sprinted up the stairs in effort to get to my room and on my phone. I jumped onto my queen sized bed, and pulled out my phone from my back pocket.

 What was I supposed to say? I typed in so many different messages, but deleted them all. After 10 minutes of trying to choose what to say, I decided that I was being stupid and that I should just text back. I texted in my message, closed my eyes, and pressed send.

 Hey Rhysand, darling.

Let me know what you all think! Comments and feedback are always great! <3

[ndrmag]

Contributor Interview: Claretta Holsey talks with Assistant Poetry Editor Penda Smith about her poem, “Mouth (Forsakes) Sound”

Claretta Holsey is a Rona Jaffe Foundation Graduate Fellow and a Literary Translation Graduate Certificate candidate at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. A three-time awardee of the Academy of American Poets prize, she recently graduated summa cum laude with a BA from Stetson University. Her poetry and creative non-fiction have been published in Eclectica Magazine, Poetry Breakfast, Fishfood Magazine, and on Poets.org and PromptPress. She has read for The Iowa Review and is reading for the microjournal Black Poetry Review.

Read her poem, “Mouth (Forsakes) Sound” in NDR 11.1 

How did you arrive at this poem? What led you to this use of mathematical language interspersed with fragmented lines of lyric poetry?

I wrote this poem when I was a sophomore at Stetson University. I was taking a course in qualitative reasoning called Intro to Logic and an Open-Studio Workshop, which allowed for all kinds of creative folk—poets, short fiction and nonfiction writers, filmmakers, musicians—to respond to prompts in their own ways. I remember a fellow poet, who majored in Biology, prompted us to use math to describe a place. I used the only kind of math I had at my immediate disposal, a language called predicate logic. This language uses variables to summarize philosophical premises and can be used to construct equations that map out and validate philosophical arguments. I got to thinking about how poetic language could similarly contract and expand—opening, hopefully, on an understanding about the nature of all language.

The slashes in this poem are borders that separate the mathematical language from the “poetry.”  Yet, as someone who studied calculus (a little) I could not help but see them, not only as borders, but also as fractions. You say, "D(m) * D(y)/ premise" and I am inclined to try and solve an equation. Could you say more about your intention with the form and use of slashes?  

I like the idea of the slash as an indicator of separation, but separation between two kinds of language that are telling the same story. I’m so very interested in duality—a math problem that is poetic, a poem lined with code, each part dependent on the other for form and meaning. You could read the slashes as a site of friction between two pieces of a single understanding, where the proximity of these pieces allows one to become the other, by association. Math as poem. And you could read the slashes as merely superficial fracture. Superficial because, in this poem, D of m and D of y is the premise of the poem’s logical proof. There is a genuine relationship between the pieces, across the broken border that, in poetry, signifies the breaking of a poetic utterance across/into a new line of thinking.

Reading the slashes as fractions, I begin to think about inversion, and you name so much "upside down" in the poem. Do you think that that's a theme this poem grapples with and if so, could you say more?

I wrote this poem with a specific place in mind: a jungle gym. Given that inspiration, the poem talks about being upended, addressing an “upside down” that is, at least in the beginning, taken literally. But then, the poem starts grappling with the notion that language makes the world go round, turns the world uncanny, makes us dizzy and deaf. I was interested in our desperation for a way to “read” the signs of the world, of the world’s language. There, fracture and inversion happen all the time.  

Is it possible to solve the mathematical problem presented by this poem?  

Well, because this poem is a logical proof, its central problem is already solved. Let me explain. To write the poem, I began with my conclusion, F, which stands for “my mouth forsakes sound,” and I set about proving this to be true by organizing and manipulating a set of propositional variables (written in bold type in the poem). As you move through the poem with me, you’re watching me use predicate logic to prove that, yes, my mouth forsakes sound. Still, on both sides of the equation, the closer you get to the conclusion, the proof/truth, the more the language breaks down. In this way, I hoped to subvert what is meant by proof. All the evidence here is subjective, and this subjectivity, which grounds the reader in something concrete, becomes increasingly incomprehensible and abstract. The language of the logic statements infiltrates the boundary of the subjective, lyrical space. At the end, we’re left with an “illogism,” by necessity.  

What is beautiful about this poem, is its ability to reach diverse audiences—it’s working on multiple levels. If someone does not know the mathematical language that you summon, the words offer a compelling story on their own, both separate from and interacting with the mathematical. If a reader doesn’t understand the math, do you think they’re reading a different poem from someone who does understand the math?

That’s a great question. I thought about readers who wouldn’t know how to vocalize the logic statements. I thought about how they might read those lines in silence, without even using their inner head voice to articulate it. I worried that readers would simply glance at those lines then glance away, like we sometimes do when reading complicated words or long surnames. But because the poem’s lyrical language is literally a translation of the math, I think readers who don’t understand the equations are still able to understand the poem’s story. I would even go so far as to say that the reader’s incomprehension of the mathematical language is part of the project of the poem.  

I remember performing this poem for an audience: I read the equations aloud and asked that the audience members on the left side of the room read the left-hand text, that the people on the right side read the right-hand text. I remember a young lady in the audience had paused on the word “wor(l)d.” That moment of indecision brought on by the “disjunction” of language is precisely what the poem is about. I think that’s legible to readers.  

 Who are you reading right now? 

I’m reading Janet Burroway’s Writing Fiction to get a handle on the craft. And I'm reading Claudia Rankine’s Just Us and Don Mee Choi’s DMZ Colony to learn how poetry can expand to include other kinds of knowledge and documentation.

* * * *

Pendambaye Zenisha Smith is an emerging poet and scientist/researcher who is invested in how Black women sustain themselves amidst antiblackness. She holds a degree in neurobiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the co-founder of the UpRise Poetry Collective, the assistant poetry editor for New Delta Review, guest editor for the 2020 Tennesee Literary Writing Festival, and a First Wave scholar. Her work has been published by Rattle Magazine, Wusgood.black, and Decomp magazine. Currently, she is a First-Year MFA candidate for poetry at Louisiana State University.

[pyre-prism]

Creepypasta Story - A Circle of Stones

The farmhouse stood as silent as it had for over a hundred years, its walls crawling with vines, every crack and crevice overflowing with moss and trapped leaves. No traces of the ever-expanding town came near the farmstead, almost as if afraid to breach the property line. All around the house, tangles of all manner of plants grew tall and wild, hiding fallen branches and rocks in a blanket of yellow and green.

Sarah’s car had already cooled by the time that she started to slowly pick her way to the front door, a crumpled map in one hand and a crowbar in the other. Hazel eyes stared up at the two-storey building, studying the structure as if it would tell her the secrets of the universe –or at least, the secrets of what she was looking for.

“The Goodfellow farm should be this one… There aren’t any other farmhouses close to town that aren’t, well, this…” she muttered to herself, peering at the map one last time before she folded it back up and stuffed it into a side pocket on her backpack.

Her careful approach had finally brought her all the way to the door, and she inspected the old wooden barrier. The wood was rotten, waterlogged from at least a century of English weather, and hadn’t even been barricaded or locked from the outside. She grinned to herself and pushed at it, letting out a snicker as it shifted just enough to assure her that there wasn’t anything on the other side, either. A series of powerful shoves later, and it had scraped open enough for her to step inside.

Immediately, the smell of mould and mildew hit her nostrils, and she pulled a handkerchief out of her jeans pocket, slamming it quickly over her nose and mouth with her free hand before she could retch more than a few times –there was no way she wanted to lose her meagre breakfast. After a moment of consideration, she bent to set the crowbar on the floor and tied the handkerchief around her face, then grabbed the iron tool back up again. Satisfied, Sarah reached behind her for a flashlight, clicking it on and using the beam to get a better look at the room she was in.

While the smell had been expected and even a little disappointing, the interior seemed to actually be in fairly good condition… perhaps a little too good. Not for the first time since leaving home, Sarah found herself debating whether getting a decent mark on her criminology paper was worth investigating such an old building.

The history of the farmstead was almost completely buried in superstition and local folklore, but the disappearances of the family that last inhabited it was a fact… What she wanted to find out was who they were, to begin with. No-one in the town, even those with families going back to the time of that event, seemed to know –or if they did, they had no intention of telling her…

She shook her head to clear it, and focused her attention back on the here-and-now. “First floor first, then I’ll think about trying the stairs…”

The bottom floor was comprised primarily of a barren living area, a dilapidated kitchen, an empty basement, and what had probably once been servants’ quarters, considering the time period she was stepping through the remains of. Unsurprisingly, her search yielded nothing of interest, although she did wonder whether or not the house had been scavenged through at some point, to explain how empty it felt. With nowhere else to search on that floor of the actual farmhouse, she returned to the stairs in the entrance area, shining her torch beam up them and forcing herself not to envision getting halfway up and then falling back down to the ground.

“Nothing’s creaked or groaned since you got in, so stop being a baby. This is for your career!” Taking a deep breath in an attempt to steady her nerves, Sarah ascended the surprisingly-stable staircase as quickly as she dared, and was instantly met with more than she’d bargained for…

The walls, which were obviously supposed to be a sort of white or creamy colour, had been splattered with something that looked to be a dull maroon –there was barely anywhere that hadn’t been covered in splashes of the substance, and the more she stared at it the more she became certain that the liquid responsible for such stains was blood… ancient and dried, but blood nonetheless.

Her heartrate picked up, and her face felt torn between grinning and grimacing. Something had happened, that much was clear, and she felt closer to the answers than ever before.

Most of the doors on the upper floor were caved-in, splintered and broken as if something had been rammed into each of them. Each of these, she gave up on entering for the time being –unease had started to rear its ugly head the longer she spent on the second floor, as if she was expressly unwelcome in the old building. In fact, there was only one door that looked remotely promising to her, all the way down the hallway, right next to the only portion of the walls that wasn’t completely covered in the old blood.

Sarah slipped through the last door, noting the splintering of the wood in the vicinity of the missing handle with a slight frown. The room itself looked like it had once been some sort of study or library; or rather, that was the only idea that came to mind when she looked at the shelves built into the far wall, each shelf bearing at least ten rotten volumes, coupled with an old writing desk by the grimy window.

“Well, this is something, at least…” she murmured, using the hooked end of her crowbar to open the top flap of the desk, then propped the other end of the tool against the bottom of the storage space underneath. With her now-freed hand, she carefully picked up the only thing hidden there; the leather-bound book was in shockingly-good condition, with barely any signs of damage from its age or how it had been stored for who knew how many years. Sarah shrugged one of the shoulder straps of her backpack off, opened the main pocket, and slid her find into the bag. With that done, she retraced her steps down the hall, down the stairs, and out of the entire house.

A wave of exhaustion hit her suddenly, and she sat down on what had once been a front porch, tugging off the handkerchief and setting her backpack beside her with as much care as she could. The flashlight was turned off and returned to its place hooked to her belt, the crowbar was laid across her lap, and she dug into the back pocket of her bag for a bottle of water and a muesli bar. With a quick refuel taken care of, Sarah pulled out the book she’d found.

Her hands caressed the leather as if the book was actually wet tissue paper instead, and she squinted, trying to read the embossed text on the cover. With a quick motion, she brushed a stray lock of black hair behind her ear, before cautiously unlatching the buckle holding the book shut. “Time to find out something about the family, I hope.”

To her delight, Sarah had found a journal, penned in scratchy text that was surprisingly legible. As she scanned through the entries, however, her excitement started to turn into dread… She flipped back to the start and began to read them thoroughly.

~*~

The family was a small one, with the husband having inherited the farm from his father, and his father before him, and his father before him… He married a local girl, and together, they had a single son. They were strict parents, perhaps a little more than usual for the time and the place, but the father truly believed that that was the lifestyle which would serve their child the best.

Unfortunately, their son was a flighty boy, always with his head off in the clouds and never on the work that he needed to do. This problem grew, like a tainted seed, despite their best efforts.

They kept him on the farm, they made certain that he understood the value of hard work and that he paid the proper deference to his parents. The children of the other families around the town never showed their faces on their farm, and in fact, if their son had been the only child in the entire country, it wouldn’t have made any difference to him.

On their large and lonely farm, there was never time to waste on frivolous things, what with only the three of them and an entire farm to tend. The father, the mother, and the son; all of them up and working from before the break of dawn until far beyond the setting of the sun, every day without fail. The toys he had were the tools he used, but if he dared to use them incorrectly… his father was duty-bound to teach him the error of his ways.

In many respects, it truly was a good thing that the father had married a woman with a witch’s touch, for that dark and twisted knowledge had kept their boy from suffering longer than was truly necessary, each and every time that he dared to step out of line. The fact that she was able to soothe the boy’s pain in such an unholy way… well, it was the secret that belonged to the family, and no-one else.

Their son remained flighty, but instead of growing staid and respectable, he grew vicious and even more unruly than they had ever expected. His father was forced to discipline him more and more, with greater intensity… His mother began to share her darker skills with her husband, all in the hopes of taming their wayward son. The boy, however, fought against these teachings… he fought and fought and fought.

And so, his father, after long debates with both himself and his wife, fought back.

The punishments that the child had endured in the past were repeated, but with a new element…

In the barn, behind the farmhouse, there was an underground room. Usually, it was meant for storing feed for the livestock, but the boy’s parents converted a part of it into the boy’s new bedroom. They left him locked in there for days after his mother had seen it fit to ease his pain slightly, in the middle of winter…

~*~

Sarah slapped the journal shut, holding one hand over her mouth, eyes wide and heart pounding. The journal was written by the father of the small family, and the man’s words made her stomach churn and her gut twist further with each passing second. She could almost hear the man, speaking directly to her, with absolutely no care in his tone for what he did to his own son.

“I know this was written ages ago, but that just sounds sick…” she groaned, reaching for her water bottle before reconsidering and putting it back into her bag. “Well, I wanted to know what the family was like… I guess I got what I wanted. Kinda… sorta… not really…”

Steeling herself, she opened the book again, resuming from where she left off.

~*~

Once freed from the dark confines of his new living quarters, the boy had tearfully latched onto his parents as if he was a mere infant once more. He had become desperate to avoid being returned to the barn’s underground store, leaping at the chance to obey every request and demand made of him. No more did he ask for breaks during a gruelling day of work, no more did he ask to see other children… no more did he ask for anything.

This peace, however, could never last… not when the boy had the tenacity of a fox and the wits of a raven.

Slowly, he began to challenge his parents again. His mother, his poor sweet witch of a mother, started to cave to the boy’s strengthening will… his father did not.

His father pulled the child aside, one night, taking him into the barn with his wife following silently behind them. The boy struggled and cried and begged, but these pleas fell on deaf ears; the child needed to learn his place in the world, and if that meant carving it into his small body so that he could never forget… then so be it.

It was only thanks to his mother’s dark knowledge that the boy lived to see the next sunrise.

They began to keep him in the barn’s underground storeroom whenever he wasn’t working. His father wanted to leave him in there for another stretch of several days, without any contact with either parent, but his mother persuaded her husband that doing so might invite more darkness into their son’s heart. This continued for months… and they began to notice a change in the child, but it wasn’t the one they wanted.

The boy was always tired, yet seemed to dream while he was awake, speaking to and interacting with creatures that weren’t visible to his parents… The dark now terrified him, to such a degree that the boy froze just outside of any shadows, or merely skirted around them in any way that he possibly could… and he became as wild as a raving beast once night fell.

His father believed that his son had become tainted, even more so than the taint that he had carried since his birth –plainly visible every time that they looked into the boy’s mismatched eyes– and wanted to ask the town’s most devoted priest to inspect the child… His wife was hesitant but eventually agreed, and it was while the two of them went to seek holy intervention that their son was lost to the darkness they had locked him within.

~*~

The journal ended with the hastily-scrawled line ‘that thing is not my son’, coupled with another splatter of red-brown –this time a shade closer to the colour expected of dried blood. Sarah felt her entire body shaking with a toxic cocktail of emotions that she couldn’t even clearly identify. Gulping back the rising burn of bile, she slid the book back into her bag. By all rights, she had all she needed… but that room under the barn simply begged for her to investigate.

She sighed, gathering her things and getting to her feet. The barn was behind the house… so that’s where she was headed next.

The trek to the other main structure that remained on the old farm didn’t take long, and she wasn’t as surprised as she thought she should have been when she saw that the double-doors she expected to be there… simply weren’t. She was glad to avoid breaking into the building, though, and made her way into the wide-open space.

Finding the trapdoor to the storeroom didn’t take very long, nor did opening it, thanks to what had probably been the lock to imprison that poor boy being flung off to one side. Sarah grabbed her flashlight, turning it back on, and descended the ladder-like steps.

She swung the beam around, light sweeping over every side of the room, including the ceiling and the floor. One half of the space looked more or less normal, albeit entirely empty of what it had once been used to store, while the other half had Sarah covering her mouth for the third time in an hour…

The splatters of red were almost expected by that point, but the freshness of the colour wasn’t.

“It’s like all that crap just happened…” she hissed, feeling her heartbeat beginning to speed up yet again. A sense of dizziness started to creep up on her, and she tried to force herself to take deep breaths; within minutes, though, her body fell to the dusty floor… completely unconscious.

~*~

When Sarah woke up, she was no longer in that makeshift torture chamber, but was instead in a wide field of flowers, surrounded by a ring of rocks that each looked to be around the same size as her fist. Blinking owlishly, she pushed herself to her feet, swaying a little before regaining her balance completely, and looked around. The air smelled sweet and fresh, the sun looked to be higher than she’d have expected… unless she was dreaming, which seemed more and more likely the longer she thought about it.

Deciding to get a better look at her surroundings, Sarah picked a random direction and started to walk. No longer than a few minutes later, she found herself standing beside a pool of water so still that it resembled a mirror rather than any kind of liquid she knew. She knelt down and reached out a finger to disturb the perfection of the pool’s stillness.

The moment that her finger touched the water, she let out a startled shout; an image had appeared on the pool’s surface, showing a scene that looked far too much like the storeroom for comfort. Another moment passed, and then the image rose up off of the pool and began to play as if she was watching an old movie…

In the scene, a small child sat with their knees up by their chest and arms wrapped tightly around their legs, a messy head of red curls buried in the bony limbs. His arms bore some of the most stomach-turning injuries that Sarah had ever seen, resembling words carved directly into the child’s tender flesh. The red splatters she’d seen for herself were even fresher than they’d been in reality…

A sliver of light appeared, widening rapidly and accompanied by the creaking of iron hinges. Instead of looking up, the child flinched and began to shake. A deep voice sounded, then, making Sarah’s insides clench with dread –it was exactly the same as the one that her mind had connected with the surprisingly-literate father.

“We’re goin’ t’town. You behave y’self, ya hear?”

A doglike whine was the only answer the child gave, but it seemed to be enough for the man, as he grunted and the light disappeared with an echoing slam.

The scene crackled, like static interference with an old television, before resuming. The child had lifted their head, showing a gaunt and terrified face. It had to be the son, Sarah realised in the same breath as she questioned how she was even dreaming something so vividly. Set on the boy’s face, in the midst of what looked to be dark shadowy bags, were a pair of bright eyes… one grey and one light brown.

She frowned, finally realising what the journal might have meant by ‘a visible taint’ on the boy… In a time where witches were still a concern, heterochromia was often met with intense superstition.

Returning her attention to the scene, she saw a ring of glowing orbs materialise in the storeroom. The boy’s stare was locked on the phenomenon, and he watched the orbs turn into… rocks. Like the ones that Sarah had woken up to in this dream. Slowly, the light from the stones faded, and another glow began to appear in the centre of the ring; a humanoid shape that started as the size of a regular action figure but then grew until it was the same size as the boy.

The figure’s head dipped to one side, apparently studying the child for a moment before nodding rapidly and holding out a hand towards him, gesturing for him to come closer, a palpable air of urgency filling the area when the boy didn’t move a muscle.

“I can’t…” the boy whimpered, shaking his head. There was a tense pause before the strange figure repeated its gestures, using both hands instead of just the one. “Y’don’ get it! I wanna, but… No, I don’ wanna stay, don’ be stupi—…” He trailed off, curling back into himself. “…I think they wanna kill me…”

At that, the figure’s shape seemed to glitch for a moment, before it stepped out of the ring. As if it had passed some kind of barrier, the instant a part of it exited the ring, its glowing featureless form was replaced with a beautiful yet naked young girl… coloured from head to toe in pastel colours not found in humans. Her face was set in a pained and fearful grimace, and she crouched in front of the boy, wrapping her arms around him. Sarah could see her mouth moving, but the floating scene didn’t seem able to relay what the girl said.

The boy froze when the girl embraced him, pulling away after she spoke. “Wha’s that s’posed ta mean?! I ain’ givin’ up…!”

She also pulled away, letting go of him and turning back to the stone circle; Sarah saw her face twist into a frightful and greedy visage for a split second before the girl’s mouth started moving again.

“…A castle…? Y’mean it…? No more bloody chores…?” the boy’s voice turned wistful, and he slowly uncurled his thin limbs enough to stand, despite the pain it seemed to cause him. “An’ all I gotta do is go with ya an’ learn from someone?” Another unheard statement from the girl, and his freckled face paled slightly. “King?!”

Sarah’s mouth fell open, wondering why her dream had taken such a strange turn. She watched the girl laugh and turn back to the boy, holding out her hands for him to take and nodding her head at the circle. She watched the boy’s gaze switch between the girl’s pastel face, the ring of stones, and the closed trapdoor… and all at once, she knew what the boy’s decision would be.

“…I can’ jus’ leave ‘em t’do this to someone else… What if I get a li’l brother or sister…? I can’ let ‘em… I won’ let ‘em…”

The girl paused, tilting her head and crossing her eyes, then she nodded vigorously with a face-splitting grin. Her hands began to glow brightly and she put them on his chest; the glow brightened even further and spread, engulfing his entire body. A scream tore from the boy’s throat, making Sarah jump and inch further away from the edge of the pool. The heart-wrenching sound continued for what felt like hours, but eventually faded at the same time that the glowing light did, revealing the boy’s body to be floating slightly…

A confused frown tugged at Sarah’s lips. The boy looked different… the bright red of his hair had intensified beyond what a human could possess without dyes and his ears –now long and pointed– peeked out from behind the unruly strands, his eyes now gleamed silver and gold and appeared to be lit with an internal light… and the carvings that his father had made on his arms had been gouged out, leaving behind horrific scars that trailed from his wrists to his elbows.

The boy took a few seconds to assess the changes wrought upon his body, before hugging the girl tightly and literally flying out of view –although a couple of resounding smashes hinted at what he’d gone to do.

Strangely, the scene didn’t dissipate like Sarah had expected it would…

Instead, the pastel-coloured girl turned to face what Sarah had subconsciously-dubbed ‘the camera’ and grinned widely, baring a set of sharklike teeth. Her mouth moved again, and this time an ethereal and musical voice reached her ears.

“So, now you know the story of our little Robin red-breast… Step back into the circle to return and forget, or touch the water to join us forever. The choice is yours, Sarah Goodfellow, but make it quickly… The king and queen of the Seelie Court have been waiting to meet the blood of their wayward toy.”

[bentonpena]

Can Music and AI Coexist? Predictions from 8 Mutek Artists

Can Music and AI Coexist? Predictions from 8 Mutek Artists http://bit.ly/30rqdvt

Music has always been linked with emerging technologies. But AI is something new. AI has the power to completely transform how we make and experience music. AI is already changing the world.

We spoke to 8 artists from MUTEK Montreal 2019 to discuss their wildest predictions for the future of music, AI, and their own workflow.

404.zero

We do not see any future as we expect humanity to destroy the entire planet before AI reaches a certain complexity level to be useful in music creation.

More about 404.zero

Kaleema

I think there’s great potential for AI development in musical creation. But the first thing that comes to mind is who owns the rights of the composition—software creators or the AI?

If an AI is trained to create, it needs to work on pre-existing music… So another question arises: is the AI the author, or is it just a copy from the music that the AI used as a reference?

Is there any possible originality in AI at all? I guess it’s still an early stage to answer all these questions as it’s unknown territory.

My music trajectory is very much related to classic instruments. I play violin and piano since I was a kid and had the opportunity to play in orchestras. It was a collective artistic experience of sharing that I consider of great value.

I think each musician can provide a different touch through his original interpretation to make an art-piece come to life, something that is beyond technicality and virtuosity.

It’s an invisible variable, more of a personality and sensibility thing… In this sense I have certain doubts about how an AI can detach from “data” and algorithmic training in order to provide musicality to a creation, as interpretant or author.

I’d be interested in working with AI as long as the situation doesn’t become a music dialogue where the algorithm behaves the same as me and takes me back to the same point.

If the AI can’t create on its own, rather than just copy artists styles, I wouldn’t be interested to add it to my creative process as I feel I wouldn’t be adding anything new.

More about Kaleema

Adam Basanta

From my perspective, AI is one of many algorithmic approaches that could be useful for making new work. Based on the task at hand, it could be the most appropriate or inappropriate tool.

It certainly offers some exciting new potentials for less than thrilling preparation tasks. For instance, the ability to speed up sophisticated similarity-recognition processes could be very useful when using large sample banks, whether in studio practice or a live application.

In terms of using AI for generating musical structures (such as phrases, rhythms, etc) it’s important to recognize that the result is more dependant on the data it is trained on than on the particularities of the algorithm itself.

The use of such generative tools would involve tailoring of datasets, as well as multiple custom macro-compositional levels which would ensure that the generative material retains a character which is not easily achievable by just training the AI.

I feel that despite the exciting specific possibilities of AI in music, the quality of the music will still much more dependent on one’s ears and imagination rather than on any specific algorithm or application.

More about Adam Basanta

Aquaventure

I would like to see how AI can work with non-copyrighted material. I know there are algorithms out there that can take an input and find something that sounds at least partially similar to it. But what if the search results came exclusively from databases of public domain, free-access sounds?

For example, let’s say I want to add something in a track that I know I can sing, but I don’t want to use my voice; such an algorithm could come in very handy. I can only imagine the exciting, unpredictable material it could take me to—fragments of speeches, videos, field recordings, and so on.

Now, what if we included literally every sound online that isn’t copyrighted? Add to your results every instance of home video on YouTube where people are just hanging out, doing their thing. That would be a tool I’d love to experiment with.

I hear AI technologies are already capable of making full pieces of music based on pre-existing, copyrighted material, but that really doesn’t interest me.

I would rather support projects that expand our possibilities as human creators, instead of gradually dehumanizing the process, stealing our jobs away from us, and banking in on our talent, time and effort. I really hope there are leading AI developers out there with this kind of vision in mind.

More about Aquaventure

Huges Clement

I see AI just as another significant advance in this never ending, exponential quest of pushing and questioning technology’s potential and boundaries in this prehistoric digital age.

Democratization of AI is, in my mind, highly connected to the democratization of art practice in our society.

More than ever now, powerful, complex, human brain/mind inspired and—I am tempted to say—organic, is now accessible for people to get their creative vision out of their head, without being musically trained or know anything about computers or programming.

But Just like any creative technology, adapted to music creation or not, I’m interested in what a creative mind can do with those tools, not the opposite.

More about Hugues Clement

Akiko Nakayama

I am a painter. And I use music as a “clear paint” for my audiovisual performance.

AI will be a good entrance guide to people whose main expression technique was not Music. They will help us in shaping that inspiration. Or it will create unexpected chaos luckily.

From the age of ‘tools used by humans’, I have hope in the age of tools that walk with humans.

More about Akiko Nakayama

TM404

I’m very interested in this subject and I read as much as I can about this.

The human brain and ear will always come up with more interesting and ”better” results than any AI could ever do, I’m sure of that.

There’s this famous example of Daddy’s Car which always pops up when people are speaking about artificial intelligence and music making.

The story of a track that was written by AI. But if you actually care to check, the track wasn’t done by AI really. It was arranged and produced by a human being. Also, the track isn’t even interesting.

For me personally, making music is the most thing I know and I love spending hours and hours in the studio just trying out new things.

I know a lot of people who more or less try to skip certain steps in the process of making music. For instance, saying that no-one who listens to a certain techno tune can hear if it’s a sample of a 909 drum machine or if it’s actually the vintage Roland instrument that is playing.

Well, again I love the moments when I make music and for me it’s more fun to use the hardware drummer instead of browsing tons of samples of the 909. Meaning the end result is not all that counts.

Having fun is the most important thing for me and the reason I make music to begin with. Experiencing with various algorithms and generative sequencers is super enjoyable for me but it will never replace actually coming up with melodies and drum patterns myself.

Having said that, I’m a huge fan of not having full control.

The sole reason I think the TB-303 is the most fun sequencer ever is that I still cannot master it, even after all these years. There’s always a certain degree of randomness in the basses and melodies I write due to the fact that the 303 sequencer is almost impossible to master. Ghost in the machine.

More about TM404

Chloe Alexandra Thompson

I see AI being used as a blanket term that may serve as a means to explore automation through machine learning, as well as creating instruments and applications which allow us to work with our trained applications to explore means of interactivity with data, objects, and human collaborators.

I will be working as a spatial sound designer for an artist named James Sprang later this year who is using an AI speech interpretation software as a means to explore legibility, experience and identity. While I will not directly be using this in my own personal work, I am excited to be working with this AI as it is being trained through the work of many recorded voices of poets we will be playing back and running through it in a spatial audio array.

How I see this fitting into music creation as a whole is having trained and intuitive FX chains that are run through automation. Presently it seems that AI programs are being trained to work with composers to take parts of the composition they may or may not typically focus on and expand those through following the users typical choice patterns.

In my own practice I see machine learning potentials being the integration of smart panning protocols which allow me to have the panning automation I construct through code, and also manually play be mapped out by a program rather than the individual panning protocols I apply to each instrument or movement of a work.

I would like to work with an AI that could translate selected frequencies into poetic text, spoken messages, or “lyrics” based on the writings of many critical theorists and poets who’s work I often reference in my praxis. 

As an artist who focuses on abstractions rather than in a more discernible sung lyric song structure direct messages do not make it into my compositions and this could be a way to apply those abstracted principles and find new avenues of entry to this realm of personal interest.

More about Chloe Alexandra Thompson

Written in collaboration with Mutek Montreal 2019.  Learn more about Mutek and their ongoing series of global events.

The post Can Music and AI Coexist? Predictions from 8 Mutek Artists appeared first on LANDR Blog.

Music via LANDR Blog http://bit.ly/2ZnKIfa August 21, 2019 at 03:13PM

[jessicakmatt]

Can Music and AI Coexist? Predictions from 8 Mutek Artists

Can Music and AI Coexist? Predictions from 8 Mutek Artists: via LANDR Blog

Music has always been linked with emerging technologies. But AI is something new. AI has the power to completely transform how we make and experience music. AI is already changing the world.

We spoke to 8 artists from MUTEK Montreal 2019 to discuss their wildest predictions for the future of music, AI, and their own workflow.

404.zero

We do not see any future as we expect humanity to destroy the entire planet before AI reaches a certain complexity level to be useful in music creation.

More about 404.zero

Kaleema

I think there’s great potential for AI development in musical creation. But the first thing that comes to mind is who owns the rights of the composition—software creators or the AI?

If an AI is trained to create, it needs to work on pre-existing music… So another question arises: is the AI the author, or is it just a copy from the music that the AI used as a reference?

Is there any possible originality in AI at all? I guess it’s still an early stage to answer all these questions as it’s unknown territory.

My music trajectory is very much related to classic instruments. I play violin and piano since I was a kid and had the opportunity to play in orchestras. It was a collective artistic experience of sharing that I consider of great value.

I think each musician can provide a different touch through his original interpretation to make an art-piece come to life, something that is beyond technicality and virtuosity.

It’s an invisible variable, more of a personality and sensibility thing… In this sense I have certain doubts about how an AI can detach from “data” and algorithmic training in order to provide musicality to a creation, as interpretant or author.

I’d be interested in working with AI as long as the situation doesn’t become a music dialogue where the algorithm behaves the same as me and takes me back to the same point.

If the AI can’t create on its own, rather than just copy artists styles, I wouldn’t be interested to add it to my creative process as I feel I wouldn’t be adding anything new.

More about Kaleema

Adam Basanta

From my perspective, AI is one of many algorithmic approaches that could be useful for making new work. Based on the task at hand, it could be the most appropriate or inappropriate tool.

It certainly offers some exciting new potentials for less than thrilling preparation tasks. For instance, the ability to speed up sophisticated similarity-recognition processes could be very useful when using large sample banks, whether in studio practice or a live application.

In terms of using AI for generating musical structures (such as phrases, rhythms, etc) it’s important to recognize that the result is more dependant on the data it is trained on than on the particularities of the algorithm itself.

The use of such generative tools would involve tailoring of datasets, as well as multiple custom macro-compositional levels which would ensure that the generative material retains a character which is not easily achievable by just training the AI.

I feel that despite the exciting specific possibilities of AI in music, the quality of the music will still much more dependent on one’s ears and imagination rather than on any specific algorithm or application.

More about Adam Basanta

Aquaventure

I would like to see how AI can work with non-copyrighted material. I know there are algorithms out there that can take an input and find something that sounds at least partially similar to it. But what if the search results came exclusively from databases of public domain, free-access sounds?

For example, let’s say I want to add something in a track that I know I can sing, but I don’t want to use my voice; such an algorithm could come in very handy. I can only imagine the exciting, unpredictable material it could take me to—fragments of speeches, videos, field recordings, and so on.

Now, what if we included literally every sound online that isn’t copyrighted? Add to your results every instance of home video on YouTube where people are just hanging out, doing their thing. That would be a tool I’d love to experiment with.

I hear AI technologies are already capable of making full pieces of music based on pre-existing, copyrighted material, but that really doesn’t interest me.

I would rather support projects that expand our possibilities as human creators, instead of gradually dehumanizing the process, stealing our jobs away from us, and banking in on our talent, time and effort. I really hope there are leading AI developers out there with this kind of vision in mind.

More about Aquaventure

Huges Clement

I see AI just as another significant advance in this never ending, exponential quest of pushing and questioning technology’s potential and boundaries in this prehistoric digital age.

Democratization of AI is, in my mind, highly connected to the democratization of art practice in our society.

More than ever now, powerful, complex, human brain/mind inspired and—I am tempted to say—organic, is now accessible for people to get their creative vision out of their head, without being musically trained or know anything about computers or programming.

But Just like any creative technology, adapted to music creation or not, I’m interested in what a creative mind can do with those tools, not the opposite.

More about Hugues Clement

Akiko Nakayama

I am a painter. And I use music as a “clear paint” for my audiovisual performance.

AI will be a good entrance guide to people whose main expression technique was not Music. They will help us in shaping that inspiration. Or it will create unexpected chaos luckily.

From the age of ‘tools used by humans’, I have hope in the age of tools that walk with humans.

More about Akiko Nakayama

TM404

I’m very interested in this subject and I read as much as I can about this.

The human brain and ear will always come up with more interesting and ”better” results than any AI could ever do, I’m sure of that.

There’s this famous example of Daddy’s Car which always pops up when people are speaking about artificial intelligence and music making.

The story of a track that was written by AI. But if you actually care to check, the track wasn’t done by AI really. It was arranged and produced by a human being. Also, the track isn’t even interesting.

For me personally, making music is the most thing I know and I love spending hours and hours in the studio just trying out new things.

I know a lot of people who more or less try to skip certain steps in the process of making music. For instance, saying that no-one who listens to a certain techno tune can hear if it’s a sample of a 909 drum machine or if it’s actually the vintage Roland instrument that is playing.

Well, again I love the moments when I make music and for me it’s more fun to use the hardware drummer instead of browsing tons of samples of the 909. Meaning the end result is not all that counts.

Having fun is the most important thing for me and the reason I make music to begin with. Experiencing with various algorithms and generative sequencers is super enjoyable for me but it will never replace actually coming up with melodies and drum patterns myself.

Having said that, I’m a huge fan of not having full control.

The sole reason I think the TB-303 is the most fun sequencer ever is that I still cannot master it, even after all these years. There’s always a certain degree of randomness in the basses and melodies I write due to the fact that the 303 sequencer is almost impossible to master. Ghost in the machine.

More about TM404

Chloe Alexandra Thompson

I see AI being used as a blanket term that may serve as a means to explore automation through machine learning, as well as creating instruments and applications which allow us to work with our trained applications to explore means of interactivity with data, objects, and human collaborators.

I will be working as a spatial sound designer for an artist named James Sprang later this year who is using an AI speech interpretation software as a means to explore legibility, experience and identity. While I will not directly be using this in my own personal work, I am excited to be working with this AI as it is being trained through the work of many recorded voices of poets we will be playing back and running through it in a spatial audio array.

How I see this fitting into music creation as a whole is having trained and intuitive FX chains that are run through automation. Presently it seems that AI programs are being trained to work with composers to take parts of the composition they may or may not typically focus on and expand those through following the users typical choice patterns.

In my own practice I see machine learning potentials being the integration of smart panning protocols which allow me to have the panning automation I construct through code, and also manually play be mapped out by a program rather than the individual panning protocols I apply to each instrument or movement of a work.

I would like to work with an AI that could translate selected frequencies into poetic text, spoken messages, or “lyrics” based on the writings of many critical theorists and poets who’s work I often reference in my praxis. 

As an artist who focuses on abstractions rather than in a more discernible sung lyric song structure direct messages do not make it into my compositions and this could be a way to apply those abstracted principles and find new avenues of entry to this realm of personal interest.

More about Chloe Alexandra Thompson

Written in collaboration with Mutek Montreal 2019.  Learn more about Mutek and their ongoing series of global events.

The post Can Music and AI Coexist? Predictions from 8 Mutek Artists appeared first on LANDR Blog.

from LANDR Blog https://blog.landr.com/music-ai-coexist-mutek-2019/ via https://www.youtube.com/user/corporatethief/playlists from Steve Hart https://stevehartcom.tumblr.com/post/187170313209

[constructionaccounting]

0286: Six Steps to Effective Copywriting in the Construction Industry

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0286, And It Is Based On A Guest Article From James Daily Professional Writer And Content Manager At FlashEssay.

  Being a copywriter means that you have a responsibility to both your audience and your client. This rule goes double for copywriters that work in the construction industry where even a slight mistake can cause injuries, revenue loss or worse.

But how do you go about writing copy for an industry as delicate and important as the construction one? Pauline Farris, a content specialist at IsAccurate says: “Copywriters who inquire about their projects before taking them on will likely bear better results in the long run.” With that in mind, let’s take a look at several steps which can help you write effective copy in the construction industry.

No assumptions

Copywriters are often hired based on their previous track record. However, when it comes to construction, architecture and civil engineering, this rule doesn’t apply. Every state, company and contractor has their own set of rules and regulations that need to be followed.

Copywriters are required to do proper research before writing a single word of copy for their new client. Just because you came to be hired doesn’t mean that you know everything there is to know about the project.

Talk to your client and ask them for specific information, special requirements and no-no words you should avoid. Construction industry copywriting is different than essay writing, UI copywriting or even white paper writing. It’s delicate work that can cause irreversible mistakes if it’s not taken seriously.

Ask for specific word count

Construction industry is unlike any other industry when it comes to copywriting. There will often be very little space left for writers to work with once the project is set in stone.

This means that you should talk to your contractor about the word count you can count on (pun intended). Focus your attention to creating very short, direct messages, announcements and warnings.

Most construction copywriting revolves around the creation of materials related to construction sites (including the promotional spiel). Make sure that you know how much leeway you have when it comes to your copy before writing a wall of text that won’t fit anywhere.

Use negative space

Construction industry copywriting differentiates itself from other types of copy with its emphasis on urgency of information. While some copy types might target sales or CTAs, construction industry serves to alert the reader of impending danger.

For example, a simple STOP sign with a subsequent elaboration is often enough to drive a successful construction copy forward. This means that you should make ample use of negative space and contrast your writing with the space you are given by your client.

Make sure that your writing is as bold and legible as possible. Construction copy also has a much smaller timespan for the message to be delivered. As long as your message is loud, clear and as short as possible, you will have achieved your goal.

Don’t be smart – be consistent

While this may put some writers off, it may also encourage others to try the construction industry copywriting niche. This niche allows for very little creativity or wiggle room when it comes to mixing and matching words. There are established words that mean different things in our collective society.

If you tell someone to “Pay attention”, they will do so without excuse. However, if you try to be clever and say something along the lines of “Hey you, take a look” it will likely end in disaster.

Don’t act smart when working in the construction industry because your work may cost someone their health, wellbeing or life itself. Once you get into the groove of using established lingo and follow your client’s rules, you will be much more effective at writing construction industry copy.

Implement tools to improve your copywriting

Writing tools are an important aspect of copywriting – they separate professionals from would-be writers. However, it’s often difficult to pinpoint exactly which tools to use for specific tasks.

In the case of construction industry copywriting, editing and formatting tools can make a huge difference. Let’s take a look at a few useful tools and services that can help you develop a better copy for your client:

ProWritingAid – One of the most popular editing tools, which supports different writing styles and both British and American English spelling.

ResumesCentre – This is a professional writing platform with a plethora of writers capable of helping you out. You can get quality pointers and assistance from graduated writers with expertise in different fields (construction industry included).

GetGoodGrade – Using a proofreading service while creating copy is just as important as with regular writing. GetGoodGrade is a platform dedicated to proofreading, editing and formatting of different types of writing. You can get good prices and quick turnaround on your project which means that your workflow won’t suffer at all.

Citatior – Your client might ask for citations to be implemented into their copy. There is no need to write that particular aspect of your copy by hand when free tools such as Citatior are available online. All you have to do is insert raw data into empty fields and choose the type of citation you want to generate.

HotEssayService – While the name might be misguiding, this is actually a very decent writing service capable of producing construction industry copy. You can use it when you need to delegate work due to an overflow or to simply check your writing before submission.

Test your copy

Lastly, the construction industry requires you to test your copy before publishing it. You can do this with a private test group or with collaboration from your client.

Whichever method you choose, make sure to present your copy to the group without any prior explanation. Focus on their reaction and subsequent actions to see if your copy makes sense in the context.

This is a far more effective way of testing whether or not you hit the nail on the head with your copy instead of hoping for the best. This will also add a layer of professionalism to your practice that the clients will appreciate. Take your time and test the waters before calling it a day.

In summation

In reality, the construction copywriting industry is not unlike other writing niches. It comes with its own set of rules and requirements just like any other type of work. What separates it however, is the added responsibility and awareness required from the writer. Writers that identify themselves with technical writing will be right at home when it comes to the construction industry. Those that are looking for creative release might want to check other copywriting niches out instead.

About The Author:

  James Daily is a professional writer and content manager at FlashEssay. When he is not involved in career-related tasks, he follows his other many interests, including astronomy, psychology, and cinema. Feel free to contact him via his personal blog Brainished.

The Information Shown Below Is From Fast Easy Accounting

OUTSOURCED ACCOUNTING FOR  THE BUSY CONTRACTOR IN A MOBILE ENVIRONMENT

Download The Contractors APP Now!

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Simply scan the QR code below or search for ‘MyAccountants’ in the App Store and enter the Access code: FEAHEROS to utilize the powerful App features and capabilities, and benefit from having our Construction Accounting App at your fingertips, 24/7.

Access code: FEAHEROS

Or click to download the Contractors APP now from the App or Android store

     Click here to download the App on iOS:

Click here to download the App on Android:

  I trust this podcast helps you understand that outsourcing your contractor's bookkeeping services to us is about more than just “doing the bookkeeping”; it is about taking a holistic approach to your entire construction company and helping support you as a contractor and as a person.

We Remove Contractor's Unique Paperwork Frustrations

We understand the good, bad and the ugly about owning and operating construction companies because we have had several of them and we sincerely care about you and your construction company!

That is all I have for now, and if you have listened to this far please do me the honor of commenting and rating the Podcast  www.FastEasyAccounting.com/podcast Tell me what you liked, did not like, tell it as you see it because your feedback is crucial and I thank you in advance.

You Deserve To Be Wealthy Because You Bring Value To Other People's Lives!

I trust this will be of value to you and your feedback is always welcome at www.FastEasyAccounting.com/podcast

This Is One more example of how Fast Easy Accounting is helping construction company owners across the USA including Alaska and Hawaii put more money in the bank to operate and grow your construction company. Construction accounting is not rocket science; it is a lot harder than that, and a lot more valuable to construction contractors like you so stop missing out and call Sharie 206-361-3950 or email sharie@fasteasyaccounting.com

Contractor Bookkeeping Done For You!

Thinking About Outsourcing Your Contractors Bookkeeping Services?

Click On The Link Below:

www.FastEasyAccounting.com/hs

This guide will help you learn what to look for in outsourced construction accounting.

Need Help Now?

Call Sharie 206-361-3950

sharie@fasteasyaccounting.com

Thank you very much, and I hope you understand we do care about you and all contractors regardless of whether or not you ever hire our services. Bye for now until our next episode here on the Contractors Success MAP Podcast.

About The Author:

          Our Workflow Removes Your Paperwork Frustrations

For Contractors Who Prefer

To Do Your Bookkeeping

Fast Easy Accounting Do-It-Yourself Construction Accounting Store Is Open

Most Contractors Setup QuickBooks Or Xero Online Accounting Using:

#1 EZ Step Interview inside QuickBooks Setup #2 Asked Their Tax Accountant To Setup QuickBooks #3 They Attended A How To Setup QuickBooks Class Or Seminar

And QuickBooks Does Not Work The Way They Want It Too!

The Answer:

#1 Click Here To Buy An Entire QuickBooks Setup For Your Specific Contracting Company

#2 Click Here To Buy Just The Chart Of Accounts For Your Specific Contracting Company

  Short List Of Construction Contractors We Serve

Asphalt ContractorAsphalt Contractor Brand New ContractorBrand New ContractorBrick And Stone ContractorBrick And Stone ContractorCabinet Installation ContractorCabinet Installation ContractorCarpentry ContractorCarpentry ContractorCarpet And Tile ContractorCarpet And Tile ContractorCommercial Tenant Improvement ContractorCommercial Tenant Improvement ContractorConcrete ContractorConcrete ContractorConstruction EmployeesConstruction EmployeesConstruction ManagerConstruction ManagerConstruction Support SpecialistConstruction Support SpecialistCustom Deck ContractorCustom Deck ContractorCustom Home BuilderCustom Home BuilderDemolition ContractorDemolition ContractorDrywall ContractorDrywall ContractorElectrical ContractorElectrical ContractorEmerging ContractorEmerging ContractorExcavation ContractorExcavation ContractorFinish Millwork ContractorFinish Millwork ContractorFlipper House ContractorFlipper House ContractorFlooring ContractorFlooring ContractorFoundation ContractorFoundation ContractorFraming ContractorFraming ContractorGeneral ContractorGeneral ContractorGlass Installation ContractorGlass Installation ContractorGutter ContractorGutter ContractorHandyman ContractorHandyman ContractorHot Tub ContractorHot Tub ContractorHVAC ContractorHVAC ContractorInsulation ContractorInsulation ContractorInterior Designer ContractorInterior Designer ContractorLand Development ContractorLand Development ContractorLandscape ContractorLandscape ContractorLawn And Yard Maintenance ContractorLawn And Yard Maintenance ContractorMasonry ContractorMasonry ContractorMold Remediation ContractorMold Remediation ContractorMoss Removal ContractorMoss Removal ContractorPainting ContractorPainting ContractorPlaster ContractorPlaster ContractorPlaster And Stucco ContractorPlaster And Stucco ContractorPlumbing ContractorPlumbing ContractorPressure Washing ContractorPressure Washing ContractorRemodel ContractorRemodel ContractorRenovation ContractorRenovation ContractorRestoration ContractorRestoration ContractorRoofing ContractorRoofing ContractorSiding ContractorSiding ContractorSpec Home BuilderSpec Home BuilderSpecialty ContractorSpecialty ContractorStone Mason ContractorStone Mason ContractorStucco ContractorStucco ContractorSubcontractorSubcontractorSwimming Pool ContractorSwimming Pool ContractorSwimming Pool And Hot Tub ContractorSwimming Pool And Hot Tub ContractorTile And Carpet ContractorTile And Carpet ContractorTrade ContractorTrade ContractorTree ContractorTree ContractorUnderground ContractorUnderground ContractorUtility ContractorUtility ContractorWaterproofing ContractorWaterproofing ContractorWindow ContractorWindow Contractor

Additional QuickBooks Templates, Resources, And Services

QuickBooks Set Up TemplatesSolopreneurQuickBooks Chart Of AccountsFree StuffQuickBooks Item Lists TemplatesConsulting

We Serve Over 100 Types Of Contractors So If Your Type Of Company Is Not Listed

Please Do Not Be Concerned Because If You Are A Contractor

There Is A Good Chance We Can Help You!

Call Now: 206-361-3950

  Additional QuickBooks Templates, Resources, And Services

QuickBooks Set Up Templates   Solopreneur

QuickBooks Chart Of Accounts     Free Stuff

QuickBooks Item Lists Templates     Consulting

  We Serve Over 100 Types Of Contractors So If Your Type Of Company Is Not Listed

Please Do Not Be Concerned Because If You Are A Contractor

There Is A Good Chance We Can Help You!

Call Now: 206-361-3950

If you are a blogger, who writes about construction we would like to hear from you.

https://www.fasteasyaccounting.com/guestblogger

                                                                                                Contractors_Success_MAP, Contractors_Success_Marketing_Accounting_Production, Contractor_Bookkeeping_Services, QuickBooks_For_Contractors, QuickBooks_For_Contractors,Contractors_Success_Map_six_Steps_to_Effective_Copywriting_in_the_Construction_Industry

Check out this episode about Contractors Marketing - Accounting - Production (M.A.P.)!

[jessicawlm-blog]

How to Boost Conversion Rate with Web Design?

The human attention span is mere 8 seconds, less than that of a goldfish i.e. 9 seconds. So, the fact is you have a very few seconds to convince the visitors to stay on your website. And if you miss that chance, they will leave the page and move to another website.

Here a proper web design plays a key role to grab the attention of the visitors and not only that but also converting the visitor into customers.

Top web development companies and web designers already know the secret of increasing conversion rate with the design and in few moments even you’ll know it. The following are the 10 web design tips and principles that will help you to boost your conversion rate.

1. Make Your Web Design Responsive

Users are 5X times more likely to abandon the task they are trying to complete if the site isn’t optimized for mobile use.

Users no longer visit the websites just on PCs/Desktops. In fact, the share of mobile traffic is more. In 2017 mobile traffic dominated the total global web traffic with 52.64%. This shows the importance of responsive websites. And if your website is not responsive, you’ll be losing a huge amount of audience.

Accessing a website designed for PC on mobile or other small screens can be an extremely annoying experience. Sluggish pages, zooming in to read the text, awkward buttons, etc. does not provide a pleasing user experience and as a result, the user will leave your website in no time.

Designing a responsive website provides a fulfilling user experience as the layout adjusts automatically according to the screen of the device. So next time you hire web developers or a web designing company, ask them to make your website responsive.

2. Use Faces

Using faces on your website attracts the user’s attention as they convey emotions. Humans empathize the faces and if it depicts a type of emotion, consumers are more likely to connect with the website.

Mirroring the feeling of the user with facial images creates an emotional connection between your brand and user. And emotions drive customer’s decision, This has been widely used by many advertising companies all over the world.

However, you must take care that the images also represent your brand. And try to avoid the stock photos. The following is a snap from Verizon website. The US telecommunication giant has used various faces portraying happy customers using their services.

3. Testimonials and Reviews

If you want to boost your credibility and establish trust with your customers, testimonial and reviews are must have on your webpage.

Testimonials and reviews work as a social proof. According to this principle,  we humans use other people’s information and experience to make our decisions.

For instance, if one of your colleagues has appreciated the food of newly opened restaurant in your neighbourhood, you are more likely to visit there. What if the same guy has scorned about its service? Would you be still excited to visit there?

So, add real testimonials of your services on the webpage. Make sure those are good ones and it will provide a shortcut to judgment for the users.

4. Call to Action Button

Call to action button is a crucial element of your website.  Any interaction between you and your users happens through it.

You really need to make sure that it as inviting as a red carpet welcoming the user to click on it. And of course, it should be clearly visible.

The position and colour of the call to action button plays an important role. Make sure the colour is highlighting and it is positioned at the right place considering the visual pattern of the user. This brings us to our next principle of content placement.

(Source-Netflix. Check the attractive colour and placement of the CTA button)

5. Content Placement

The placement of your content is a great tool to influence your customer’s decision. Research has shown that humans follow a visual pattern on the page.

The users read from the top-left side of the page and gradually move to the right. This forms an “F” pattern. Here the top-left portion of the page gets most of the attention.  The following heat map shows the reading pattern of the user. The red, orange and yellow area is where the user pays maximum attention.

(Source- nngroup.com)

(“F” pattern content placement)

However, the attention of the user gradually diminishes towards the bottom of the page. But if you add an image between the text, the attention of the visitor is renewed once again. This forms a “Z” pattern.  The following is Dropbox’s website forming a “Z” pattern for content placement. The CTA button is placed on the left side.

You can also use the rule of thirds to place the main elements of your website. If you have ever used a professional camera or even a camera on your smartphone, you must have seen a grid of nine square boxes. These boxes work as a guide for the photographer to place the elements in the boxes according to their importance and capture the photograph. Use the same to place the elements of your website according to their importance.

6. Unique Selling Point

The unique selling point of your website differentiates you from the huge pond of websites out there. To draw the user’s attention your web design must have a one of a kind design that separates you from the crowd. However, apart from drawing the user’s attention, make sure that your USP also sticks to the user’s mind.

7. Keep it Simple

76% of consumers say the most important factor in a website’s design is “the website makes it easy for me to find what I want.”

One of the most important principles of web designing is to make it simple for your visitors to get what they want on the website. I have heard many people complain about websites, “Why is it so hard to find a thing on this website.” And you never want to hear it from your visitors. This is one of the things that increases the bounce rate.

You need to make sure that they can easily navigate through the pages and get what they need. Try to step into the shoes of the visitor and understand how you can make it easier for them. Organised navigation pattern, uncluttered content, a neat design, etc.

Just remember- keep it simple.

8. Utilize the White Space/Negative Space

White space, often regarded as negative space in designing has a positive impact on the user.

A negative space is an area on the page that is kept vacant. It includes the space between the sidebars and content, header, text and paragraphs. All these negative space helps in making your website look neat, legible and easy on the eyes of the user.

Using a proper combination of negative and positive space can help to provide better user experience and convey your idea efficiently. One of the best examples of proper utilization of white space is Apple’s website. Take a look.

9. Consistency in Colour, Branding, Images and Fonts

One thing that can destroy your web design is inconsistency and it even looks unprofessional. A website depicts you as a brand in the digital world. So, any inconsistency in your web design will affect your brand image. Ensure that the elements of your page are consistent. The fonts style, type of images, colour scheme, logos, etc must be of the same style.

10.Choose the Right Colours

Colours tell a lot about you and your brand. They can attract the consumer’s attention and influence their buying behaviour. Consumers form an initial judgment of a product within in 90 seconds of interaction and 62%-90% of them are based on the colour.

Different colours have been proven to evoke different emotions in humans. So, using the right colour scheme while designing can represent your brand and mood of your website.

Using contrasting colours can make your essential elements such as the banner headlines, call to action button, testimonials, etc. stand out.  The principle that works here is – the thing that stands out is more likely to attract and remembered. So, you can use high contrasting colours in the background and catchy highlighting colours for the elements you want to draw attention.

Wrap Up

Now you know how your web design can boost your website conversion. Just implement the above principles and tips for your website and boom! You’ll observe more visitors and surprisingly more conversion rate.

Hope you are benefited reading it. We are Techuz, a top web development company in India. We have been providing web development services to our clients for almost half a decade now. If you have any questions or inquiries, feel free to get in touch with us.

source:https:https://www.techuz.com/blog/how-to-boost-conversion-rate-with-web-design/

[heyitsleialipio-blog]

GROUP REPORT

Our ICT teacher, Mam Sarah Cruz ask us to do a brief summary of our group report in our ICT class so here it is. Our topic is about Online platforms as tools for ICT Content and Development. I am the first reporter to present. 

It starts in giving the meaning of what PLATFORMS is all about. It is said that platforms are technologies that are grouped to be used as a base upon which other applications processes or technologies are developed. Learning platforms are essential to the vision of emerging ICT and learning for the future. 

And then next, the PURPOSES OF ONLINE PLATFORMS. First, create and share materials and information which can be accessed online. Second, publish plans and other resources online enabling users to access them anywhere. Third, access a variety of materials that can be customized to meet the needs of the users. Fourth, increase their ICT competence and confidence. Fifth, improve digital literacy. And then lastly, become active users by engaging themselves to the issues through online communication tools. 

The first given example of online platform was the PRESENTATION/VISUALIZATION. A primary goal of this is to communicate information clearly and efficiently via statistical graphics, plots and information graphics.

 Examples of Presentation/Visualization were the following:

A. Prezi – helping to reinvent the art of presentation.   

B. Zoho – an online project management app that helps you plan your work and keep track of your progress. 

C. Slideshare – to build quickly from concise well-presented content from top experts. 

D. Mindmeister – an online mind mapping tool that lets you capture, develop and share ideas visually. 

Another example of online platform was CLOUD COMPUTING. It is the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data rather than a local server or a personal computer. 

Example of cloud computing were the following:

A. Google Drive – keep all work in one source place with online file storage. Access the work whenever needed, from a laptop, tablet or phone.

B. Dropbox – keeps your files safe, synced, and easy to share. 

The third example of online platform was SOCIAL MEDIA. It is a computer-mediated tools that allow people, companies and other organizations to create, share, or exchange information, career interests, ideas, and pictures/videos in virtual communities and networks.  

An example of this were the following: 

A. Twitter – online social networking service that enables users to send and read short 140-character messages called “tweets”.  

B. Facebook – is a for-profit corporation and online social networking service.

C. Tumblr – a microblogging platform and social networking website. 

Another example of online platform was WEB PAGE CREATION. It encompasses a number of important elements including color, layout, and overall graphical appearance.

Examples of web page creation were:

A. Wix – a cloud-based web development platform that allows users to create HTML5 web sites and mobile sites through the use of their online drag and drop tools. 

B. Weebly – a web-hosting service featuring a drag-and-drop website builder. 

The fifth example of online platform was the FILE MANAGEMENT. It is the storing, naming, sorting and handling computer files. 

Example of this were the following:  A. Zamzar – a web application to convert files.

B. word2pdf – convert WORD files to PDF with this online tool. 

The last example of online platform was MAPPING. It is  a transformation taking the points of one space into the points of the same or another space. 

Examples of mapping were: A. Google Maps – a desktop web mapping service developed by Google. 

B. Wikimapia – an open-content collaborative mapping project, aimed at marking all geographical objects in the world and providing a useful description. 

The next topic of Online platforms as tools for ICT Content and Development was the Basic Web Design Principles and Elements which was reported by Malen.  It said that an effective website designing requires more that just gathering relevant information and posting it on web. It is like a good research presentation or paper that also demands such as much attention to the organization, selection, and presentation of material to the underlying research itself.  

It includes Concrete Elements in Making a Site that need to be considered in making a web. It states that before you begin you must consider the audience and goals and it is advisable to plan the site on paper first.

 Next, the Site Lay-Outing. You must strive for consistency, provide a rich set of links within the site, and don’t hide important information.

And then the  Web Medium. You must  provide opportunities for interaction, avoid text-only pages, don’t sacrifice elegance and provide a link for every URL used in the site. 

The next one was the Front Door. It is said that you must give a descriptive title of the site, include a brief introduction, and make the site’s home page as useful a starting point as possible. 

Accessibility was much needed because you must make sure the text used is legible, make sure the site is platform independent, consider the needs of the viewers.

And then finally the End Game. You must thoroughly test the site, and carefully proofread.

Here as some examples of web designs: 

Another topic was the Web Page Design Using Templates Online WYSIWYG Platforms. A website template is a pre-designed webpage, simply by adding your     text and customization to create your desired web page. A website template     usually built with HTML and CSS code, website templates allow anyone to     setup a website without having to hire a professional web developer or     designer. This allows anyone to build a reasonably priced personal or     business website that can then be listed in search engines so users can     search for your specific product or service. 

About HTML and CSS Design - HTML and CSS are both plain text code languages that used to allow web browsers to render webpages as designed. Html and CSS it adds more     detailed information in creating the web page. The current revision is HTML5 and CSS3 which is referred to as “web standards”.

The topic given to Emak was Types of Web Page Templates. First type of it was  PSD (Photoshop). PSD web templates can be simply use for adding your text to the design. PSD source file templates can come in handy when making drastic customizations (changing out images and navigational menus) to the website templates. And then the second one was the  HTML (WED PAGE). HTML format web templates are in html format it also consist of web pages and graphic design or images but has limited customization. HTML desired text to a web templates and you have you product. 

And it also tackled the Steps in Making a Website Using Web Templates. So here it is: 

Create an idea for a website. Important details on       what will be the desired web page.

 What is the business? What will be the audience of the website that can be profitable and practical at the same time?

Time is Money. Creating a website depends on a lot of factor such as the design, advanced features, maintenance, web hosting charges and lot more.

Register a domain name and choosing a web hosting provider. Select a company where the registration of the domain name and hosting of the website can be done.

Search major search engines for online companies dealing with website templates to create the website. There is an abundant of apparent web templates that can provide professional impression in creating your website, so have an eye for design.

Read the instruction provided for using the templates by the service providers. Understand the instruction that are comfortable with the directions give before finalizing anything.

Take time looking for a simple design layout that highlights of the business. Have an eye for design, avoid complex design to prevent users navigating with the website.

Create the website. When having the desired lay-out, purchase the wed templates to create the website.

Write down the text for the website and keep the pictures or graphics to be used in the website. By keeping the materials ready the process of creating a website will be easy to manage. Make sure the text and graphics that will be used is copyright free.

Keywords and having more keywords in the content can have a better search engine ranking.

Logo. Add company’s logo (if any), the images of the product and the relevant and informative content in the pre-defined templates design.

Test, Publish, and Submit. When satisfied with the work, proceed to the final testing of the website. When everything works publish the website. Lastly submit the work to major search engines and promote it.

Keywords. Having more keywords in the content can have a better search engine ranking.

I hope our classmates learned something from our report. And I will also surely take this learnings I’ve gained in our report.

[aaron-noodleman-blog]

Legibility

When we hear mention of legibility, we think of clarity and how easily a thing can be read – can be made out. We think of something like Robin Kinross’ example of a test for legibility given in his book Modern Typography. In this example, two typefaces (Didot versus Garamond) are held next to each other and incrementally distanced from an impartial reader until one of the two typefaces can no longer be seen (22-23).

 But legibility is not limited to this, nor are the tests of legibility always a matter of distance and discernibility. Kinross offers a helpful definition in chapter three, by which considerations for legibility might benefit: “…it was only when the general theoretical climate in psychology had changed that legibility could be accepted as the comprehension of meaning: not recognition, but reading” (32).

 More than just recognition, legibility came to be understood as practice toward the best method for engaging a reader: “The project of legibility research raised the prospect of a typography that could do something more than be beautiful: it might be effective” (33). Thinking about legibility in these terms – in in providing a pleasurable and fruitful experience for the reader engaging with the work – gives us a wider range of creativity that is made clearer through the implication of hard standards. That is, being effective is a general enough idea to allow for all sorts of exciting experimentation, yet, at the same time, to the point enough, that the person striving for legibility must also work within clear bounds that structure his care and respect for the reader (Kinross 34).

 In chapter three of Post-Digital Print, Alessandro Ludovico gives plenty of examples of how this careful creativity of legibility (fruitful pleasurable engagement with a text) can take place. There are probably many ways that we could think about legibility through Ludovico’s examples. I want to consider some conceptual as well as physical ideas that he provides.

 Humor and imagination are a pair of conceptual pathways for improving legibility. Ludovico cites the “brilliant 2009April Fools’ Day announcement, explaining that the highly respected British newspaper, the Guardian, had decided to switch entirely to Twitter” (57). While the story was ultimately exposed as being false, the humor of the stunt also exposes certain anxieties – as humor often does – concerning the rapidly technologizing world. Instead of merely putting together an article of a what-if? formula, the designer in this case has made the imagined to look legibly real, also exposing the taken for granted authority of announcement with such a look.

 Similarly, in chapter two, there is the example of the happy, though fake, special edition of the New York Times made by The Yes Men (51-53). In this case, legibility is configured through the imagination – wishful thinking even – of a group; while, at the same time, the imagination itself – again, wishful thinking – is made more legible. The possibility for such a happy day is better realized insofar as it is seen in material reality and bearing all the weight of the New York Times. This provides a clear example for how print can be a radical force for change, insofar as it can empower people to see a hoped for thought as legitimate.

Chapter two gives examples for affective legibility, or (say) holistic legibility – engaging the reader through more than just the eyes. I have in mind Fluxus and “‘Fluxus boxes’ filled with organized collections of games, concepts, plastic objects and miscellaneous printed materials” (39). Chapter three offers the example of “Marcus Weskamp’s online artwork Newsmap, a powerful visual representation of the news mediascape. Using data from Google News, the site’s mapping technique divides the screen into columns (topics) in which the size of each article’s headline is in direct proportion to its popularity” (65) This instance, while still considering legibility in a way that is focused on engaging the eyes, does so in a fresh way.

 Returning to the idea that publication can make an imagination or idea legible, the article “Typeface as Programme,” touches on a similar thought: namely, that through technology’s making publication more accessible to the masses, more people are now able to see themselves as writers and publishers; hence, a new idea of the self is made more possible, more legible: “Democratisation is another important part of these developments. The sudden general availability of processes through computerisation has continued to increase the number of people who have access to and start engaging in them.”

Furthermore, the two online articles for this week deal with legibility as it relates with process, beauty, and perfection. In the “Prints and the Pauper,” we get short, though detailed, recounting of China’s painstaking printing process. Stylistically and aesthetically, this process would remain a standard-bearer for some time; however, the amount of time and effort needed in order to bring about the end product was so much that a different a kind of legibility threatened success: namely, the fact that something unwritten for all its requirements is illegible in that it does not exist yet. For this reason, Gutenberg’s press would outshine all contenders for printing. Though perhaps not as beautiful, it was, nevertheless, more than capable at making the baseline requirement for mass legibility – that is, having a lot of output.

 Returning again to “Typeface as Programme,” we get the example of computer programmer and perfectionist, Donald Knuth: “When in 1977 due to financial restrictions the new edition of volume 2 (of The Art of Computer Programming) was to be reproduced with a new optical typesetting system rather than the already disappearing Monotype machines…he decided there was no point in continuing to write them since the finished products were just too painful to look at.” Complementary to Knuth’s work ethic toward a perfected visual presentation of his scientific content is the chart he provides in his book. The chart proceeds the table of contents and demonstrates how the reader should go about reading the book and completing its exercises, taking into account variables such as sleepiness and confusion. These considerations engage the concept of legibility on a more holistic level that, while more restrained or minimal, have a similar methodology to that of the earlier mentioned Fluxus boxes.

from The Art of Computer Programming, 1997 Addison-Wesley

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Informational/Expository: Learners write summaries, guidelines, procedures, recipes, notes/messages, labels, and lists. Persuasive: Pupils create persuasive textual content (e.

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g. simile, onomatopoeia), rhythm, dialogue, characterization, plot, and suitable format. Grade three: Producing Evaluation Third grade college students find out to reply constructively to others’ crafting and decide if their own crafting achieves its purposes. In Grade three, students also discover the most productive features of a piece of crafting employing conditions generated by the trainer and class.

Composing specifications endorse that each individual pupil preserve and overview a selection of his/her have published operate to watch advancement as a writer. Grade three: Published English Language Conventions Students in third quality are envisioned to produce with a lot more complex sentences, capitalization, and punctuation.

In specific, 3rd quality composing specifications specify these crucial markers of proficiency: Write more time and extra elaborate sentences and arrange their composing into larger units of text. Understand and be capable to use comprehensive and proper declarative, interrogative, very important, and exclamatory sentences.

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Identify subjects and verbs that are in settlement and determine and use pronouns, adjectives, compound terms, and posts properly in uncomplicated and compound sentences. Identify and use earlier, present, and future verb tenses effectively. Identify and use subjects and verbs appropriately in talking and composing easy sentences.

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Master often spelled patterns this sort of as consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) (hop), consonant-vowel-consonant-silent e (CVCe) (hope). Write with much more proficient spelling of a person-syllable words that have blends, contractions, compounds, spelling designs (e. g. qu, consonant doubling, changing the ending of a phrase from -y to -ies when forming the plural), and typical homophones (e. g. hair-hare). Spell words and phrases ending in -tion and -sion these as station and procession. Arrange phrases in alphabetic get.

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