#Ticket Booking Platform

[tktbyindia]

Users can visit the Tktby website or mobile app, navigate to the Wet N Wild water park section, and select their desired date and ticket options. They can choose from various ticket types such as single-day passes, season passes, or special event tickets. After selecting the desired tickets, users can proceed to payment and secure their booking online. Tktby offers a seamless booking experience, ensuring customers can easily plan their visit to Wet N Wild water park.

[helpful-insight]

Explore Helpful Insight's in-depth guide to creating a travel aggregator website lik Skyscanner. This resource covers essential aspects such as user-friendly design, real-time search capabilities, integration with global distribution systems, and cost considerations. Ideal for entrepreneurs aiming to enter the online travel market in 2025.

[eventtitans]

The Anatomy of a Perfect Event Page: Boost Your Attendance with Tickets99

The deal occurs when your Event Page grabs eyeballs and pushes them into buying the tickets; the rest is just half the work done in creating the event. This is where a great Event Page holds the difference to your getting live audiences or going home empty. At Tickets99, we master the art of making compelling event pages to pull in, engage, and convert site visitors into attendees.

In this article, we are going to perform surgery on the anatomy of an ideal event page and identify the key elements that can get your event to turn into success. The best part is we'll showcase a firm brimming with features: Event management software firm platform, which is going to help you to design an event website doing all this and a lot more.

Inviting Title and Description of Event

Title:

The event title is the first bit visitors will see, so make it savvy, informative, and attention-getting. It should give your visitor an instant feel for what your event is all about.

Example: "Summer Beats Festival: Get Ready for a Night to Remember with Great Music and Loads of Fun"

Description:

Give a brief, attractive description noting the event type, major attractions, date, time, and location.

Sample: "Come and join the Summer Beats Festival, a night full of electrifying performances from the finest DJs, gourmet food trucks, thrilling activities, and fun. Cannot wait to welcome August 20th, 6 PM to midnight, Central Park."

2. High-Resolution Visuals

Images are bound to make all eyes wander at best and puzzle together a bright, active image of your event. Apply our favorite high-resolution photographs and playful video clips to pique their interest in what they're here for.

How to implement:

Upload pictures of past events.

Upload any videos that may offer the user 'behind-the-scenes' of the performances/ activity/speaker.

3. Comprehensive Event Schedule

An event agenda will enable your attendees to plan their day. It also creates suspense for each particular session, performer, or activity tied up to the day. For instance:

6:00 PM: Gates Open

6:30 pm – 7:30 pm: Opening Act : The Local Band

8:00 PM - 10:00 PM: Headline Performance - DJ Awesome

10:30 PM -12:00 Midnight: After Party with Special Guest

4. Speaker and Performer Information

Feature each of the other key speakers or performers at your event. Included would be their bio, image and social media or website link.

Example:

DJ Awesome: A world-class DJ that has lit up global stages with his high-octane shows and that boasts a string of top-rated hits on music charts.

5. Showcase Sponsors and partners

Adding sponsors and partners will help build reliability and support to your event. If they showcase it on the event page, it might add some great relations with potential sponsors for the future events you would host.

Example:

Sponsored by:

XYZ Beverages

ABC Clothing

123 Tech Solutions

6. Social Media Integration

Add links to social media handles to drive more engagement and reach. Also, enable sharing buttons so that the attendees can share your event with its network/profile, quite easily.

Best Practices:

Show live feeds of social media.

Create a buzz by using event-specific hashtags.

7. Event-Specific Website

When you have such an array of elements on one page for any event, it could get overwhelming, except that it is pretty easy to do when using Tickets99. It gives you a totally end-to-end event website that eases registration, manages digital campaigns, and tracks engagements of attendees in real-time.

Key Features:

Multimedia Showcase: Display high-quality images and videos to entice them on what is coming their way.

Social Handles Integration: Add and display your social media handles for increased user interaction.

Past Events and Speaker Details: Show past event accomplishments and a big brief for a speaker/performer.

Sponsor Highlights: Bring sponsors up on stage for maximum credibility and to have a good relationship with them.

Upcoming Agenda Display: Includes a detailed session itinerary to allow your user to view a glimpse of the event in advance.

With Tickets99, registering for an event really couldn't be easier. Now you can prepare custom agendas for your event, conduct digital campaigns E2E for your event, and monitor the real-time engagement of the attendees in the events being managed within your organization. All the event's information is in one place and readily available at the attendees' fingertips, reducing the hurdles to keep abreast of it all and remaining in a rush.

8. CTA Clearing

Your landing page, as with everything else, should have only one clear and compelling call to action. Again, in this way, it's very easy for that site visitor to go ahead and buy tickets or register, so put a clear and visually appealing CTA right on the page.

Eg.

Get Your Tickets Now!

Register Today and Save!

Conclusion

Preaching appointments and event pages is one model toward making your event a success. This does not only preach attendance but incorporates the features aforementioned and uses the great features set out on Tickets99; you get an event page that not only attracts but also engages and finally converts visitors into attendees.

Ready to elevate your next event? Click on through to Tickets99 today to get started building out your perfect event page.

[showbizgloballtd]

Discover and Secure Your Tickets with Showbiz Global

Showbiz Global is your premier destination for accessing top-tier live entertainment events. Whether you're a fan of music festivals, theatrical performances, or cultural celebrations, Showbiz Global offers a seamless platform to purchase tickets for a diverse range of events.

IndiVibes Food and Music Festival: One of the standout events on the Showbiz Global calendar is the IndiVibes Food and Music Festival, also known as Goa Day. Scheduled for July 20th, 2025, in West London, this festival promises an immersive experience blending vibrant music, delectable cuisine, and rich cultural performances. Attendees can expect an afternoon filled with entertainment, making it a must-attend event for those seeking a lively and festive atmosphere.

Why Choose Showbiz Global?

Diverse Event Selection: From international music tours to local theatre productions, Showbiz Global curates a wide array of events to cater to various tastes and preferences.

User-Friendly Interface: The website is designed for ease of navigation, allowing users to browse events, select desired tickets, and complete purchases effortlessly.

Secure Transactions: Showbiz Global prioritizes customer security, ensuring that all ticket purchases are processed through secure payment gateways.

Customer Support: A dedicated support team is available to assist with any inquiries or issues, ensuring a smooth ticket-buying experience.

How to Purchase Tickets

To secure your tickets for the IndiVibes Food and Music Festival or any other upcoming events, visit the Showbiz Global Buy Tickets page. Simply select the event of interest, choose your preferred ticket type, and follow the prompts to complete your purchase. With Showbiz Global, accessing world-class entertainment has never been easier.

Conclusion

Whether you're planning to attend a major festival or a local performance, Showbiz Global serves as a reliable and convenient platform for all your ticketing needs. Stay updated with the latest events and secure your tickets early to ensure you don't miss out on unforgettable experiences.

Visit us at - https://www.showbiz.global/buy-tickets

[ticketque]

How to Choose the Right Ticketing Solution for Your Even

In today’s fast-paced world, event planning can be a stressful and time-consuming process. From managing attendees to handling payments, there’s a lot to consider. One of the key elements of organizing an event is choosing the right ticketing solution. With the rise of digital platforms, the ticketing landscape has evolved significantly, offering event organizers more options than ever before. This article explores how you can make the best choice for your event using TicketsQue, a comprehensive solution designed to streamline the ticketing process.

1. Understand Your Event Needs

Before selecting a ticketing solution, take a step back and understand your specific event requirements. Is it a small gathering, a large conference, or a concert with multiple ticket types? Understanding your event’s scale, duration, and type is crucial in determining what features you need in a ticketing platform.

TicketsQue offers tailored solutions for different event types, from conferences and seminars to festivals and concerts. The flexibility of our platform allows you to customize the ticket types (e.g., VIP, Early Bird, General Admission), providing a seamless experience for both you and your attendees.

2. Ease of Use for Attendees and Organizers

A key factor to consider when choosing a ticketing solution is its ease of use. A complicated platform can frustrate attendees and create unnecessary stress for the event organizer. Look for a solution that offers a simple, intuitive user interface for both ticket buyers and event organizers.

TicketsQue prioritizes user experience with its straightforward interface that allows attendees to easily browse events, choose ticket types, and complete their purchase in a few simple steps. For event organizers, managing tickets, viewing attendee lists, and customizing events is quick and efficient through the TicketsQue dashboard.

3. Payment Processing and Security

When it comes to ticketing, the payment process is crucial. Ensure that your ticketing platform integrates with secure payment gateways and offers multiple payment options (e.g., credit cards, mobile wallets) to cater to a wide audience.

TicketsQue supports a variety of payment methods, ensuring that your customers can purchase tickets with ease. With built-in security protocols, you can be confident that transactions are processed safely and efficiently.

4. Scalability and Flexibility

As your event grows, your ticketing system should be able to scale with it. Whether you’re selling a few tickets or managing thousands of attendees, a flexible ticketing solution can accommodate your needs without compromising on performance.

TicketsQue scales seamlessly to handle both small and large events. Whether you're hosting a local workshop or a nationwide festival, the platform adapts to the demands of your event. Plus, with advanced features like real-time analytics and seat reservations, you can ensure smooth operations at every stage.

5. Customization and Branding

Custom branding is an important aspect of event planning. Having the ability to customize your ticketing page ensures that it aligns with your event’s theme, making it a more engaging and professional experience for attendees.

With TicketsQue, you can easily brand your ticketing pages, from the design to the text and images. Tailoring your ticketing experience helps enhance the overall brand image of your event and makes the process more memorable for your attendees.

6. Customer Support

No matter how advanced your ticketing solution is, issues can arise at any time. Reliable customer support is essential to resolving problems quickly and minimizing disruptions.

TicketsQue provides exceptional customer support, with a dedicated team available to assist you at every step. Whether you need help setting up your event, managing ticket sales, or troubleshooting an issue, our team is ready to provide prompt and helpful assistance.

7. Analytics and Reporting

Data is a powerful tool when managing events. Insights into ticket sales, attendee demographics, and other event metrics can help you plan future events more effectively.

TicketsQue offers robust analytics and reporting features, allowing you to track sales, measure marketing efforts, and gather valuable feedback. These insights can help you make informed decisions and ensure that each event you organize is a success.

Conclusion

Choosing the right ticketing solution is an essential part of organizing a successful event. By understanding your event’s specific needs and selecting a platform that offers flexibility, ease of use, security, and excellent customer support, you can ensure a smooth and enjoyable experience for both organizers and attendees.

With TicketsQue, you get all these benefits in one platform. Our comprehensive solution is designed to simplify ticket sales, improve attendee experience, and help you focus on delivering an unforgettable event.

Ready to take your event to the next level? Explore TicketsQue today and discover the future of event ticketing!

[dashligne]

Ticketmaster: Your Trusted Marketplace for Unforgettable Events

Ticketmaster: Your Trusted Marketplace for Unforgettable Events

Are you searching for a reliable platform to purchase tickets for your favorite events? Ticketmaster is the official ticket marketplace for thousands of global events, including concerts, sports, and theater. Whether you’re a fan of live music, thrilling sports games, or mesmerizing theatrical performances, Ticketmaster ensures a seamless and secure ticket-buying experience.

Why Choose Ticketmaster?

Ticketmaster collaborates with top artists, sports teams, and leagues to offer fans a trusted platform. Here are some of the key benefits of using Ticketmaster:

100% Authentic Tickets: Every ticket purchased through Ticketmaster is guaranteed to be genuine, giving you peace of mind.

Reliable Refund Policy: Enjoy clear and fair refund policies in case of event changes or cancellations.

Dedicated Fan Support: Ticketmaster’s customer service team is always ready to assist with any questions or concerns.

The Best Way to Enjoy Live Events

Ticketmaster makes it easy to secure tickets for a wide range of events:

Sports: Cheer on your favorite teams in the NFL, NBA, NHL, and more.

Concerts: Experience live performances from the world’s top musicians and bands.

Theater: Enjoy captivating plays and musicals at renowned venues.

Safe and Secure Ticketing

When you choose Ticketmaster, you’re choosing safety and reliability. With advanced security measures and a commitment to authenticity, Ticketmaster ensures that your ticket-buying process is worry-free.

Get Ready for Unforgettable Experiences

Ticketmaster isn’t just about tickets — it’s about creating memories. Whether you’re planning to attend a high-energy sports event, a breathtaking concert, or a magical theater show, Ticketmaster is your go-to platform for all things entertainment.

Don’t wait! Secure your tickets today and get ready to be part of something extraordinary.

Buy Tickets Now!

With Ticketmaster, the world’s greatest events are just a click away.

[bookmyferry]

Convenient and Reliable Ferry Ticket Booking Platform – Bookmyferry

Discover seamless travel with Bookmyferry, the premier ferry ticket booking platform designed to make your journey easy and stress-free. Whether you’re planning a weekend getaway or an extended vacation, Bookmyferry offers the best ticket options for a range of routes, helping you secure your seats at the most competitive prices. Our user-friendly interface ensures quick and hassle-free bookings with real-time availability updates, making it easy to plan your travel on the go. Plus, enjoy exclusive offers and secure payment options that keep your transactions safe. Trust Bookmyferry to connect you to your favorite destinations effortlessly. No more long waits or complicated processes—just a fast, reliable, and user-focused experience. Choose Bookmyferry for your next journey and start your adventure with confidence.

[fareporto]

Compare Flights At FarePorto: Keep The Best From The Rest

Do you think getting a flight that suits your purpose well and comes within your budget can just be a matter of luck? It’s time to change the game. With FarePorto, you can be lucky all the time. You don’t need to hassle through the slow-loading pages, complex search engines, and fear the security of your personal data.

Our comprehensive, secure, and reliable flight booking platform ensures you have an effortless experience comparing, finding, and booking a budget-friendly travel. All you need to do is apply the filters that match your preferences, and FarePorto will bring forth specific results after a rigorous scan through myriad flight sources.

Now, finding flights won’t be a pain in your neck anymore. Learn how FarePorto makes flight finding better and how you can use it to plan your tours efficiently.

Challenges Of Finding Flights

If you have ever searched for a flight, you can relate to these difficulties that create hindrances in finding a suitable budget-friendly flight.

Unpredictable fluctuations in airfares

Hidden costs of flight booking websites

Unavailability of last-minute flights

Complex flight-finding portals

Rigid air booking plans

Limited options on airlines

Technical glitches on air travel booking sites

Safety risk of payment and personal information

Unclear policies of air ticket booking platforms

Poor functioning flight search engines

The list goes on and on. If you don’t want to get tangled in this loading loop that slows down your air tours, consider FarePorto. Here’s how it serves as the best website to compare a range of flight options and find your affordable air ticket easily.

FarePorto: Your Easy Flight Finding Solution

FarePorto will take you directly to your ideal flight, bridging over all the obstacles you may have to face otherwise.

User-friendly interface: Its seamless and minimalistic web design allows you to glide across the various flight options effortlessly, follow the ticket booking steps, and speedily create your reservations.

Comprehensive Search: This air travel portal scans through multiple airlines and flight search engines and aggregates the data to display a wide range of inexpensive flight options.

Flight comparison tools: FarePorto shows the best flight deals based on your search and even allows you to compare different travel plans manually as well.

Advanced filters: Through our flight booking portal, you can personalize your flight search by modifying your ticket through various filters such as choosing flight departure and arrival date, one-way, round trip or layover, preferred airlines, airfare range, and more.

Flight price updates and alerts: You can utilize FarePorto’s alert system to receive notifications whenever air ticket prices fall, or a new flight deal or special discounts are released.

Real-Time Pricing: One of the most useful highlights of FarePorto is that it makes live updates to its flight prices. Hence, you don’t have to worry about fluctuations in airfares.

Secured and private: Our flight booking portal is encrypted ensuring transparency and security with all your transactions and personal data. It doesn’t have any hidden charges involved at the time of flight booking.

Get Started With Searching Flights On FarePorto

FarePorto is an incredible flight booking platform that saves your time and conserves your funds by making flight searching easy and accessible. This walkthrough will show you how to make the most of this portal to compare a range of flight deals to find your perfect flight.

Visit FarePorto: The first step will be, of course, getting to the FarePorto website.

Enter Your Trip Details: As you land on its page, you will right away find a prompt asking about flight details. You need to fill in the information required and click search.

Trip Type: one-way or round trip.

Arrival and departure destinations.

Travel dates.

Number of travelers

Flight type: economy, premium economy, business, or first class.

Filter Your Flight Results: The next page will display a range of flight options. For a more precise search, you can modify your flight using filters such as:

Price range

Flight duration

Number of layovers

Departure and arrival duration

Preferred Airlines

Compare Flight Options: Review the updated list of available airlines and compare them to find the one that suits your preferences.

Select And Book Your Flight: Found your flight? Seal the deal by continuing with the flight booking process.

FarePorto’s Professional Assistance

You can reach out to FarePorto’s customer service to receive guidance and secure the best flight deal or get tips to use FarePorto to find your ideal cheap flight.

Search, Filter, Compare, Book

You just need to follow the steps of searching, filtering, and comparing cheap flights at FarePorto, and it will lead you to your ideal flight for booking. Our comprehensive flight search engine makes it sound simple, not just in paper but in practical, too. 

Our website delivers flight results that are summarized from thorough research across myriad airlines and booking sites. It offers you abundant cheap flight options to choose from, which you won’t get from surfing other travel booking alternatives. Isn’t this enough to prove this flight finder is the best platform for planning an air trip?

Go ahead and begin your flight search at FarePorto now!

[rafesangelita]

♡ “have you ever tried this one?” in which kook!sweetheart!reader convinces rafe to take her to go see one of her favorite artists, and as a ‘thank you’ she and rafe have to do whatever position sabrina demo’s for her song “juno”..

warnings: fluff, unprotected sex, dirty talk, praise, breeding kink (?)

a/n: so sad because i didn’t get to see sabrina on tour, and she has had me in the meanest chokehold lately :( click this link to see what position i’m referring to <3

when the dates dropped for sabrina’s ‘short n’ sweet’ tour, rafe wasted no time in buying you two tickets. of course, you didn’t know this and begged him for weeks until he finally told you yes, your flight and hotel room already booked for a nice little weekend getaway. rafe helped you make your concert outfit, both of you spending hours on the whole ensemble. the end result was absolutely stunning and rafe couldn’t stop taking pictures of you.

he posted one on the night of the concert, captioning it ‘my little popstar princess <3’ and you two were off to the stadium. while you knew wearing sparkly white platform boots wouldn’t be the best choice to walk in, you stuck it through, and as soon as the lights dimmed and the music started, any kind of discomfort you felt had melted away as you were far too distracted singing along to every song that boomed through the venue.

babydoll lingerie top with pink fluffy trim, dedazzled stockings, glittery makeup, your hair freshly done, rafe swore you never looked prettier. even though he was against wearing anything that sparkled, he decided to wear a plain pink t-shirt to match with you in his own little way. he kept his arms wrapped around your waist as you two sung, having learned the lyrics to every song since you insisted on being in charge of the aux cord whenever you two were in his truck.

eventually, you two were swaying softly, rafe’s chin resting in the curve of your neck as you stroked the skin of his arm. “thank you for bringing me here.” you smiled up at him, connecting your lips as the intro to ‘juno’ started playing. rafe hummed, leaning down so you could hear him. “you know i had to bring you, baby.. what do you say you thank me another way when we get back to our room?” your cheeks heated as you laughed softly.

“yeah, i’d like that,” you pecked his cheek, “how about we do the position she does for the song?” rafe smiled, both of you fixing your attention on the stage. you waited with anticipation, your heart beating in your ears when she bent over and touched her toes. rafe cheered, making you laugh as he couldn’t wait to get you back to the hotel. luckily for him, there was only a few more songs left before the show ended and the two of you rushed out of there.

it wasn’t long after you two walked through the door that rafe had your boots thrown in a forgotten corner, his fingers digging into the skin of your hips as he took you roughly from behind. you struggled to keep your hands placed on your perfectly pedicured toes, your knees threatening to give out from under you while rafe thrusted into you at an unforgiving pace. “holy fuck, you’re taking it so fuckin’ good, gorgeous, ‘might just let you get off your tippy toes and put you on your back instead.”

you cried out, taking your bottom lip between your teeth as his pelvis smacked against the back of your ass. “can’t, rafe!” you shrieked, nearly doubling over before your boyfriend reached down and grabbed your arms, holding you by your wrists as you hung helplessly from his grip. he was fucking you stupid, and your lack of thoughts was proof of it. you couldn’t think, the feeling of rafe’s cock stroking that soft gummy spot inside of you made you whimper pathetically.

finally, you couldn’t hold yourself up anymore, your knees meeting the carpeted floor. rafe picked you up, cursing under his breath as he encouraged you to get back in position. “promise i’ll have you in bed soon, pretty, you could hold out for me, yeah?” you shuddered, looking at him from behind your shoulder with that fucked-out gaze he loved so much. you had tears in your eyes, your body glitter still sparkling under the soft lighting.

giving him a little nod, you reached down once again, holding onto your ankles for dear life as rafe circled an arm under your hips, holding you up as his fingers started working on your clit. “oh!” you were in hysterics, your blood rushing to your head as he landed a harsh smack to your backside. “come on, baby, ‘wanna feel this pussy squeeze around me.” you moaned at his words, your orgasm just in arm’s reach as rafe’s thrusts grew uncalculated. “rafe?” you could barely speak, the band in your stomach threatening to snap at any moment.

“talk to me.” he groaned, teetering the edge of pure euphoria. “make me juno?” you giggled for a split second, the insinuation only turning rafe on even more. “fuck, yeah? ‘want me to fill you up, give you a baby?” you let out a distorted “mhmm!’, the two of you gasping when your highs took you both to cloud nine. rafe pulled you back up, your chest rising and falling while your legs shook with your orgasm. pressing wet kisses to your neck, rafe did exactly as he said, his hips stuttering as hot, thick ropes of cum painted your velvety walls.

you two stayed like this, pressed against one another until your breathing slowed, the aftershocks subsiding before rafe laid you both down in bed. “we should have a ‘short n’ sweet’ themed baby shower.. we could serve espressos.” rafe laughed, draping an arm over your tummy. “we’ll see.” he hummed. your eyes fluttered shut as you breathed him in, his cologne still heavy on his skin. “you know what we should try when we get back home?” rafe traced shapes into your side, mumbling a ‘what’s that?’

“pink fuzzy handcuffs.”

[crookedfandomquill]

This is very situational, and sadly may not be realistic for everyone, but I need y’all to understand that a very important part of political activism is fucking talking to your conservative or moderate friends and family.

My dad voted for Trump in 2016. He’s a middle class white evangelical from Arkansas. He raised me with conservative Christian values, just like his parents raised him. When he voted Trump, he was holding his nose, but he didn’t feel too bad about it, and went on to vote red down the ticket in the 2018 midterms, as well.

But I started college in 2017. Higher education and independence changed everything for me, and I went home over holidays and summers with fire in my belly and a thousand arguments ready at the drop of a hat, to my father’s dismay.

I remember crying in my room after emotional, intense arguments with him. I told him over and over that I felt betrayed by his choice to vote for a man who admitted to sexually assaulting women, who built his platform on dehumanizing immigrants and the disabled, who spread overtly-racist rhetoric, who flouted the values of kindness and self-discipline that I’d been raised on. And my dad always had some justification about the “greater good”: fighting against abortion, bolstering the economy, getting other Christian politicians into office.

But over time, as we grew further apart and I lost my will to discuss anything with him at all, he softened. He started asking me why I thought the way I did about the things we disagreed about. He would listen to my answers without interruption, and mull them over afterward instead of expressing his own opinion. And all the while, he watched the Trump presidency become cruel and absurd and devastating.

The first time he openly expressed regret to me, I had come home for a weekend after Kavanaugh was confirmed to SCOTUS. My dad realized he had helped elect a man who preyed on women… and that man had opened the door to more predators. I can’t tell you what it felt like for him to admit that he’d made a mistake, not just in voting for Trump but in defending him for so long. We kept arguing, but it was more debating than fighting. I knew he was capable of seeing my side of things, even if it took a while, and he knew I wasn’t just a sensitive college student with shallow new ideas about the world.

And then 2020 hit. Specifically, George Floyd was murdered, and the events that followed played out on the national stage. My dad was incredibly shaken by it. He asked me if I had any books from college about racial issues. I loaned him The New Jim Crow, one of the required readings for my Race and the Law class. Then I gave him Just Mercy. Then he watched the documentary 13th. Then he joined a racial harmony group he learned about through one of the few Black families at our church and insisted our whole family come. He held up signs at a protest against Confederate monuments in our conservative southern town. In three years, he went from defending Trump’s comments about “Black-on-Black crime” to publicly advocating for racial justice and opposing the death penalty.

We went together to vote in the 2020 primaries. I couldn’t help asking who he’d voted for; I didn’t even know if he’d asked for the Republican or Democratic ticket. He admitted he’d voted for Bernie. fucking. Sanders, then made me promise not to tell my grandma he’d voted liberal. When the election rolled around in November, he voted Biden. I’m sure he held his nose to do it, just like he held his nose voting in 2016. But I know he doesn’t regret it.

I am, of course, unbelievably lucky to have a parent who loved me enough, and was empathetic enough, to choose his relationship with me over his strongly-held opinions. He kept searching for truth because, as much as he’ll deny it, he’s a very smart and curious person. No degree of intelligence or curiosity makes you immune to propaganda, especially if you were raised not to question the party line. It’s easy to dismiss our conservative, conspiracy-pilled loved ones as stupid, hypocritical, and cruel. Sometimes they are. But sometimes they aren’t. Sometimes they will bend to keep their relationships from breaking. Sometimes, if they can be made to understand that their beliefs and actions are harming someone they love, they will make concessions. And sometimes they just need one person in their life to put a foot down, to be vulnerable and assertive and argumentative, to bring the impact of their politics close to home.

As the most important election of our lifetimes approaches, do not put peace over progress. If you have someone like my dad, someone who is good-willed and smart and loves you more than their own opinions, tell them how you feel. Tell them what their choices will mean for you, for your friends, for your community. Tell them what they could lose: your trust, your affection, your respect. Don’t avoid conflict if it could be productive. Because my conflict with my dad didn’t just win him over–it won over my moderate mom and one of my conservative brothers. And it put us in community with other like-minded people and led my parents to a healthier and kinder faith.

All of this to say, there is hope in conflict. There is hope in our relationships with people who think differently from us. There is hope in exposing your fear and anger and pain to people you love. And hope is a form of activism.

[codewareltd]

Forget the old way of organizing your events. Change the game with an efficient online event booking system.

Plan events, sell tickets, build booking pages, manage attendees lists, and do tons of more stuff with Codeware Event Ticketing Software.

Features of online event ticketing software - Streamlined event setup - Customized Ticketing - Multiple payment gateways - Ticket validation checker - Manage ticket sales - Event Check-In - Analytics and reporting etc.

Learn more at https://www.codewareltd.com/produc.../event-ticketing-system

[deusfoundry]

sylus making sure his kpop fan girlfriend doesn't have to drop a dime nor stress over attending her fav's concert.

ticketing day is spent with a ton of devices sprawled on the living room floor of his mansion all waiting to get into the queue. he's even got luke and kieran in on it. and if for some reason his outrageously fast internet speed fails and you don't manage to secure a ticket, he's already pulling the strings and using his connections to get you that front row seat. he puts himself in charge of everything—booking accomodations, planning your itinerary, making sure his private jet is ready so that all you have to worry about is what you'll wear, and even that is taken care of by his black card.

he's with you throughout the entire day of the concert. he holds onto two bags—one filled with your essentials and the other with freebies and trinkets you've collected from fellow fans—as he follows you around the venue with that lovesick smile of his. he only ever leaves your side when he goes to buy you some snacks and water.

and best believe he learned most of the songs your favs are performing so he can sing along with you during the concert itself, which he records the entirety of on his tablet so you're free to enjoy the show without having to worry about not having photos and videos to remember it by.

the night ends with you on his back, your platform boots on one of his hands as he carries you to the parking lot. he listens as you recount the entire night to him in excitement, chuckles as you squeal and squirm in the passenger seat over every time you swear your bias made eye contact with you as though he wasn't there to see it all.

you fall asleep eventually, to the low hum of traffic and his hand drawing circles over your thigh. and as sylus eyes your sleeping figure, he swears he'll do it all over again just to see that small smile that blooms on your face.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Prime’s enshittified advertising

Prime's gonna add more ads. They brought in ads in January, and people didn't cancel their Prime subscriptions, so Amazon figures that they can make Prime even worse and make more money:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/10/amazon-prime-video-is-getting-more-ads-next-year/

The cruelty isn't the point. Money is the point. Every ad that Amazon shows you shifts value away from you – your time, your attention – to the company's shareholders.

That's the crux of enshittification. Companies don't enshittify – making their once-useful products monotonically worse – because it amuses them to erode the quality of their offerings. They enshittify them because their products are zero-sum: the things that make them valuable to you (watching videos without ads) make things less valuable to them (because they can't monetize your attention).

This isn't new. The internet has always been dominated by intermediaries – platforms – because there are lots more people who want to use the internet than are capable of building the internet. There's more people who want to write blogs than can make a blogging app. There's more people who want to play and listen to music than can host a music streaming service. There's more people who want to write and read ebooks than want to operate an ebook store or sell an ebooks reader.

Despite all the early internet rhetoric about the glories of disintermediation, intermediaries are good, actually:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/12/direct-the-problem-of-middlemen/

The problem isn't with intermediaries per se. The problem arises when intermediaries grow so powerful that they usurp the relationship between the parties they connect. The problem with Uber isn't the use of mobile phones to tell taxis that you're standing on a street somewhere and would like a cab, please. The problem is rampant worker misclassification, regulatory arbitrage, starvation wages, and price-gouging:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/29/geometry-hates-uber/#toronto-the-gullible

There's no problem with publishers, distributors, retailers, printers, and all the other parts of the bookselling ecosystem. While there are a few, rare authors who are capable of performing all of these functions – basically gnawing their books out of whole logs with their teeth – most writers can't, and even the ones who can, don't want to:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/19/crad-kilodney-was-an-outlier/#intermediation

When early internet boosters spoke of disintermediation, what they mostly meant was that it would be harder for intermediaries to capture those relationships – between sellers and buyers, creators and audiences, workers and customers. As Rebecca Giblin and I wrote in our 2022 book Chokepoint Capitalism, intermediaries in every sector rely on chokepoints, narrows where they can erect tollbooths:

https://chokepointcapitalism.com/

When chokepoints exist, they multiply up and down the supply chain. In the golden age of physical, recorded music, you had several chokepoints that reinforced one another. Limited radio airwaves gave radio stations power over record labels, who had to secretly, illegally bid for prime airspace ("payola"). Retail consolidation – the growth of big record chains – drove consolidation in the distributors who sold to the chains, and the more concentrated distributors became, the more they could squeeze retailers, which drove even more consolidation in record stores. The bigger a label was, the more power it had to shove back against the muscle of the stores and the distributors (and the pressing plants, etc). Consolidation in labels also drove consolidation in talent agencies, whose large client rosters gave them power to resist the squeeze from the labels. Consolidation in venues drives consolidation in ticketing and promotion – and vice-versa.

But there's two parties to this supply chain who can't consolidate: musicians and their fans. With limits on "sectoral bargaining" (where unions can represent workers against all the companies in a sector), musicians' unions were limited in their power against key parts of the supply chain, so the creative workers who made the music were easy pickings for labels, talent reps, promoters, ticketers, venues, retailers, etc. Music fans are diffused and dispersed, and organized fan clubs were usually run by the labels, who weren't about to allow those clubs to be used against the labels.

This is a perfect case-study in the problems of powerful intermediaries, who move from facilitator to parasite, paying workers less while degrading their products, and then charge customers more for those enshittified products.

The excitement about "disintermediation" wasn't so much about eliminating intermediaries as it was about disciplining them. If there were lots of ways to market a product or service, sell it, collect payment for it, and deliver it, then the natural inclination of intermediaries to turn predator would be curbed by the difficulty of corralling their prey into chokepoints.

Now that we're a quarter century on from the Napster Wars, we can see how that worked out. Decades of failure to enforce antitrust law allowed a few companies to effectively capture the internet, buying out rivals who were willing to sell, and bankrupting those who wouldn't with illegal tactics like predatory pricing (think of Uber losing $31 billion by subsidizing $0.41 out of every dollar they charged for taxi rides for more than a decade).

The market power that platforms gained through consolidation translated into political power. When a few companies dominate a sector, they're able to come to agreement on common strategies for dealing with their regulators, and they've got plenty of excess profits to spend on those strategies. First and foremost, platforms used their power to get more power, lobbying for even less antitrust enforcement. Additionally, platforms mobilized gigantic sums to secure the right to screw customers (for example, by making binding arbitration clauses in terms of service enforceable) and workers (think of the $225m Uber and Lyft spent on California's Prop 22, which formalized their worker misclassification swindle).

So big platforms were able to insulate themselves from the risk of competition ("five giant websites, filled with screenshots of the other four" – Tom Eastman), and from regulation. They were also able to expand and mobilize IP law to prevent anyone from breaking their chokepoints or undoing the abuses that these enabled. This is a good place to get specific about how Prime Video works.

There's two ways to get Prime videos: over an app, or in your browser. Both of these streams are encrypted, and that's really important here, because of a law – Section 1201 of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act – which makes it really illegal to break this kind of encryption (commonly called "Digital Rights Management" or "DRM"). Practically speaking, that means that if a company encrypts its videos, no one is allowed to do anything to those videos, even things that are legal, without the company's permission, because doing all those legal things requires breaking the DRM, and breaking the DRM is a felony (five years in prison, $500k fine, for a first offense).

Copyright law actually gives subscribers to services like Prime a lot of rights, and it empowers businesses that offer tools to exercise those rights. Back in 1976, Sony rolled out the Betamax, the first major home video recorder. After an eight-year court battle, the Supreme Court weighed in on VCRs and ruled that it was legal for all of us to record videos at home, both to watch them later, and to build a library of our favorite shows. They also ruled that it was legal for Sony – and by that time, every other electronics company – to make VHS systems, even if those systems could be used in ways that violated copyright because they were "capable of sustaining a substantial non-infringing use" (letting you tape shows off your TV).

Now, this was more than a decade before the DMCA – and its prohibition on breaking DRM – passed, but even after the DMCA came into effect, there was a lot of media that didn't have DRM, so a new generation of tech companies were able to make tools that were "capable of sustaining a substantial non-infringing use" and that didn't have to break any DRM to do it.

Think of the Ipod and Itunes, which, together, were sold as a way to rip CDs (which weren't encrypted), and play them back from both your desktop computer and a wildly successful pocket-sized portable device. Itunes even let you stream from one computer to another. The record industry hated this, but they couldn't do anything about it, thanks to the Supreme Court's Betamax ruling.

Indeed, they eventually swallowed their bile and started selling their products through the Itunes Music Store. These tracks had DRM and were thus permanently locked to Apple's ecosystem, and Apple immediately used that power to squeeze the labels, who decided they didn't like DRM after all, and licensed all those same tracks to Amazon's DRM-free MP3 store, whose slogan was "DRM: Don't Restrict Me":

https://memex.craphound.com/2008/02/01/amazons-anti-drm-tee/

Apple played a funny double role here. In marketing Itunes/Ipods ("Rip, Mix, Burn"), they were the world's biggest cheerleaders for all the things you were allowed to do with copyrighted works, even when the copyright holder objected. But with the Itunes Music Store and its mandatory DRM, the company was also one of the world's biggest cheerleaders for wrapping copyrighted works in a thin skin of IP that would allow copyright holders to shut down products like the Ipod and Itunes.

Microsoft, predictably enough, focused on the "lock everything to our platform" strategy. Then-CEO Steve Ballmer went on record calling every Ipod owner a "thief" and arguing that every record company should wrap music in Microsoft's Zune DRM, which would allow them to restrict anything they didn't like, even if copyright allowed it (and would also give Microsoft the same abusive leverage over labels that they famously exercised over Windows software companies):

https://web.archive.org/web/20050113051129/http://management.silicon.com/itpro/0,39024675,39124642,00.htm

In the end, Amazon's approach won. Apple dropped DRM, and Microsoft retired the Zune and shut down its DRM servers, screwing anyone who'd ever bought a Zune track by rendering that music permanently unplayable.

Around the same time as all this was going on, another company was making history by making uses of copyrighted works that the law allowed, but which the copyright holders hated. That company was Tivo, who products did for personal video recorders (PVRs) what Apple's Ipod did for digital portable music players. With a Tivo, you could record any show over cable (which was too expensive and complicated to encrypt) and terrestrial broadcast (which is illegal to encrypt, since those are the public's airwaves, on loan to the TV stations).

That meant that you could record any show, and keep it forever. What's more, you could very easily skip through ads (and rival players quickly emerged that did automatic ad-skipping). All of this was legal, but of course the cable companies and broadcasters hated it. Like Ballmer, TV execs called Tivo owners "thieves."

But Tivo didn't usher in the ad-supported TV apocalypse that furious, spittle-flecked industry reps insisted it would. Rather, it disciplined the TV and cable operators. Tivo owners actually sought out ads that were funny and well-made enough to go viral. Meanwhile, every time the industry decided to increase the amount of advertising in a show, they also increased the likelihood that their viewers would seek out a Tivo, or worse, one of those auto-ad-skipping PVRs.

Given all the stink that TV execs raised over PVRs, you'd think that these represented a novel threat. But in fact, the TV industry's appetite for ads had been disciplined by viewers' access to new technology since 1956, when the first TV remotes appeared on the market (executives declared that anyone who changed the channel during an ad-break was a thief). Then came the mute button. Then the wireless remote. Meanwhile, a common VCR use-case – raised in the Supreme Court case – was fast-forwarding ads.

At each stage, TV adapted. Ads in TV shows represented a kind of offer: "Will you watch this many of these ads in return for a free TV show?" And the remote, the mute button, the wireless remote, the VCR, the PVR, and the ad-skipping PVR all represented a counter-offer. As economists would put it, the ability of viewers to make these counteroffers "shifted the equilibrium." If viewers had no defensive technology, they might tolerate more ads, but once they were able to enforce their preferences with technology, the industry couldn't enshittify its product to the liminal cusp of "so many ads that the viewer is right on the brink of turning off the TV (but not quite)."

This is the same equilibrium-shifting dynamic that we see on the open web, where more than 50% of users have installed an ad-blocker. The industry says, "Will you allow this many 'sign up to our mailing list' interrupters, pop ups, pop unders, autoplaying videos and other stuff that users hate but shareholders benefit from" and the ad-blocker makes a counteroffer: "How about 'nah?'":

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/07/adblocking-how-about-nah

TV remotes, PVRs and ad-blockers are all examples of "adversarial interoperability" – a new product that plugs into an existing one, extending or modifying its functions without permission from (or even over the objections of) the original manufacturer:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability

Adversarial interop creates a powerful disciplining force on platform owners. Once a user grows so frustrated with a product's enshittification that they research, seek out, acquire and learn to use an adversarial interop tool, it's really game over. The printer owner who figures out where to get third-party ink is gone forever. Every time a company like HP raises its prices, they have to account for the number of customers who will finally figure out how to use generic ink and never, ever send another cent to HP.

This is where DMCA 1201 comes into play. Once a product is skinned with DRM, its manufacturers gain the right to prevent you from doing legal things, and can use the public's courts and law-enforcement apparatus to punish you for trying. Take HP: as soon as they started adding DRM to their cartridges, they gained the legal power to shut down companies that cloned, refilled or remanufactured their cartridges, and started raising the price of ink – which today sits at more than $10,000/gallon:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/30/life-finds-a-way/#ink-stained-wretches

Using third party ink in your printer isn't illegal (it's your printer, right?). But making third party ink for your printer becomes illegal once you have to break DRM to do so, and so HP gets to transform tinted water into literally the most expensive fluid on Earth. The ink you use to print your kid's homework costs more than vintage Veuve Cliquot or sperm from a Kentucky Derby-winning thoroughbred.

Adversarial interoperability is a powerful tool for shifting the equilibrium between producers, intermediaries and buyers. DRM is an even more powerful way of wrenching that equilibrium back towards the intermediary, reducing the share that buyers and sellers are able to eke out of the transaction.

Prime Video, of course, is delivered via an app, which means it has DRM. That means that subscribers don't get to exercise the rights afforded to them by copyright – only the rights that Amazon permits them to have. There's no Tivo for Prime, because it would have to break the DRM to record the shows you stream from Prime. That allows Prime to pull all kinds of shady shit. For example, every year around this time, Amazon pulls popular Christmas movies from its free-to-watch tier and moves them into pay-per-view, only restoring them in the spring:

https://www.reddit.com/r/vudu/comments/1bpzanx/looks_like_amazon_removed_the_free_titles_from/

And of course, Prime sticks ads in its videos. You can't skip these ads – not because it's technically challenging to make a 30-second advance button for a video stream, and doing so wouldn't violate anyone's copyright – but because Amazon doesn't permit you to do so, and the fact that the video is wrapped in DRM makes it a felony to even try.

This means that Amazon gets to seek a different equilibrium than TV companies have had to accept since 1956 and the invention of the TV remote. Amazon doesn't have to limit the quantity, volume, and invasiveness of its ads to "less the amount that would drive our subscribers to install and use an ad-skipping plugin." Instead, they can shoot for the much more lucrative equilibrium of "so obnoxious that the viewer is almost ready to cancel their subscription (but not quite)."

That's pretty much exactly how Kelly Day, the Amazon exec in charge of Prime Video, put it to the Financial Times: they're increasing the number of ads because "we haven’t really seen a groundswell of people churning out or cancelling":

https://www.ft.com/content/f8112991-820c-4e09-bcf4-23b5e0f190a5

At this point, attentive readers might be asking themselves, "Doesn't Amazon have to worry about Prime viewers who watch in their browsers?" After all browsers are built on open standards, and anyone can make one, so there should be browsers that can auto-skip Prime ads, right?

Wrong, alas. Back in 2017, the W3C – the organization that makes the most important browser standards – caved to pressure from the entertainment industry and the largest browser companies and created "Encrypted Media Extensions" (EME), a "standard" for video DRM that blocks all adversarial interoperability:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/09/open-letter-w3c-director-ceo-team-and-membership

This had the almost immediate effect of making it impossible to create an independent browser without licensing proprietary tech from Google – now a convicted monopolist! – who won't give you a license if you implement recording, ad-skipping, or any other legal (but dispreferred) feature:

https://blog.samuelmaddock.com/posts/the-end-of-indie-web-browsers/

This means that for Amazon, there's no way to shift value away from the platform to you. The company has locked you in, and has locked out anyone who might offer you a better deal. Companies that know you are technologically defenseless are endlessly inventive in finding ways to make things worse for you to make things better for them. Take Youtube, another DRM-video-serving platform that has jacked up the number of ads you have to sit through in order to watch a video – even as they slash payments to performers. They've got a new move: they're gonna start showing you ads while your video is paused:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/09/20/youtube-pause-ads-rollout/75306204007/

That is the kind of fuckery you only come up with when your victory condition is "a service that's almost so bad our customers quit (but not quite)."

In Amazon's case, the math is even worse. After all, Youtube may have near-total market dominance over a certain segment of the video market, but Prime Video is bundled with Prime Delivery, which the vast majority of US households subscribe to. You have to give up a lot to cancel your Prime subscription – especially since Amazon's predatory pricing devastated the rest of the retail sector:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/enshittification/#relentless-payola

Amazon's founding principle was "customer obsession." Ex-Amazoners tell me that this was more than an empty platitude: arguments over product design were won or lost based on whether they could satisfy the "customer obsession" litmus test. Now, everyone falls short of their ideals, but sticking to your ideals isn't merely a matter of internal discipline, of willpower. Living up to your ideals is a matter of external discipline, too. When Amazon no longer had to contend with competitors or regulators, when it was able to use DRM to control its customers and use the law to prevent them from using its products in legal ways, it lost those external sources of discipline.

Amazon suppliers have long complained of the company's high-handed treatment of the vendors who supplied it with goods. Its workers have complained bitterly and loudly about the dangerous and oppressive conditions in its warehouses and delivery vans. But Amazon's customers have consistently given Amazon high marks on quality and trustworthiness.

The reason Amazon treated its workers and suppliers badly and its customers well wasn't that it liked customers and hated workers and suppliers. Amazon was engaged in a cold-blooded calculus: it understood that treating customers well would give it control over those customers, and that this would translate market power to retain suppliers even as it ripped them off and screwed them over.

But now, Amazon has clearly concluded that it no longer needs to keep customers happy in order to retain them. Instead, it's shooting for "keeping customers so angry that they're almost ready to take their business elsewhere (but not quite)." You see this in the steady decline of Amazon product search, which preferences the products that pay the biggest bribes for search placement over the best matches:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens

And you see it in the steady enshittification of Prime Video. Amazon's character never changed. The company always had a predatory side. But now that monopoly and IP law have insulated it from consequences for its actions, there's no longer any reason to keep the predator in check.

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/03/mother-may-i/#minmax

[eventtitans]

Top Event Management Software in the USA

EventTitans has become a top choice in the USA due to its versatility and focus on enhancing the overall event experience. Its intuitive interface, combined with a comprehensive feature set, makes it an ideal solution for organizers seeking to streamline operations and deliver standout events.

The emphasis on engagement and interactivity sets EventTitans apart. By integrating gamification and real-time analytics, the platform ensures that events are not only well-organized but also memorable and enjoyable for participants.

Moreover, its capability to support both virtual and in-person events makes it a versatile tool in today's hybrid event landscape. EventTitans' seamless integration with virtual event tools like Zoom enables organizers to effortlessly transition between different event formats.

Success Stories and Testimonials:

EventTitans has played a pivotal role in the success of numerous events across the USA. Organizers praise the software for its ease of use, comprehensive features, and outstanding customer support. Testimonials highlight how EventTitans has streamlined registration processes, boosted attendee engagement, and provided crucial insights for future event planning. If you're looking for a top-tier event management solution, EventTitans is certainly worth exploring.

[tteokdoroki]

☆༉ — RYOMEN SUKUNA. santa’s little helper.

about. dressing up as slutty santa warrants some unwanted attention, luckily, sukuna is there to play santa’s grumpy little helper. merry christmas.

warnings. minors, blank and ageless blogs do not interact! sfw, fluff, meet cute, reader gets harassed/cat-called, reader is wearing a dress, modern!sukuna, fem!reader. it’s still christmas somewhere - enjoy !! (1K).

you meet modern bf!sukuna at a train station on christmas eve.

all your friends have gone home with guys that they fancied from the club, all the ubers in the area are either booked out or have sky high prices just to get you thirty minutes away not to mention the fact that it’s ice cold and your stupid mean girls themed santa outfit keeps riding up.

if you huff hard enough a cloud of smoke appears in place of your breath — like that of a mighty dragon, accumulating in the night air. it entertains you for all but a moment and doesn’t waste enough time for your train to come faster.

it’s not due for another thirteen minutes.

in that time you watch gangs of girls, groups of guys and just about anybody come and go from the station. your platform isn’t packed but it’s not too empty to the point where you feel unsafe.

“hey pretty girl.” ugh. as if your night couldn’t get any worse, a dingy looking stranger appears from nowhere — breathing down your neck, nastily drinking you in as if you’re a free shot at a bar. like you’re easy.

waving your hand away, you focus your gaze on the platform across the track and pray that someone notices your predicament. “no thank you.”

“oh come on gorgeous, give a guy a chance!” they press, crossing all of your boundaries to be in your space. even as you try to walk away, you can still feel the ghost of their sleazy words against the bare and exposed parts of your skin.. “where are you going all dressed like that, with no one to admire you?”

on instinct, you pull down your skirts as if to hide yourself from greedy eyes — storming down the platform. “none of your business!”

“hey now, little miss santa! don’t you wanna know? i’ve got a sleigh you can ride!”

“not interested! i’m all good.”

“why? you got a boyfriend?”

“yeah, i do.” you lie smoothly.

“then where is he?” the stranger mocks and closes in on you — you look around pathetically, waiting for some good passer-by to come and help you.

a heavy hand land’s on the stranger’s shoulder — making them jump in shock. you watch as the hand squeezes down, almost tight enough to break bone. “right here,” says a gravelly, husky voice that instantly fills you with warmth and relief. stepping aside, your hero reveals himself — tall with rippling muscles and spiralling black tattoos, lazy blood red eyes and a snarl that reveals sharp fangs and canines. all topped off my tufts of soft pink hair, which don’t do anything to dim his threatening aura. “you got a problem?”

“n-no! sorry man, i didn’t—“

“fuck off, will ya?” your hero spits out venomously and the stranger nods — practically disappearing into thin air after that. your shoulders sag and tensions dissipate from your body. “you okay…miss?”

tentatively, you give the pink-haired man your name — you owe him that much after he’d more or less saved your skin. “all good, thanks to you…”

“sukuna.” he doesn’t look at you, instead pulling a pack of cigarettes from his back pocket and lighting one with a flicker of a flame. it’s like he feels you watching him in dismay, and laughs as he takes a drag. it’s kind of sexy, you’ll admit — the way he throws his head back let’s you see the thick lines of black ink extending down his neck. “ticket office is closed and security is shit here. small station. no one’s watching me smoke.”

“right…thanks, sukuna.”

he finally turns to you, deep and blood red eyes drinking you in — almost scrutinising you. you squirm under his gaze, heat prickling at the back of your neck and providing some protection from the cold. “where were you off too?”

“christmas party with some friends.”

“where are they now?”

“sucking face somewhere, and no, they didn’t offer me an Uber before they left.”

sukuna taps the ash from his cigarette and it falls away in the icy breeze. “shit night.”

wringing your fingers, you shrug a little bit. “i guess it could have been worse. so thank you for helping out,” you hum appreciatively. “all i have to do now is wait for this stupid train.”

a beat of silence passes between you both, only broken by your chattering teeth and sukuna’s occasional sniff between puffs of smoke. you hate smokers, but you don’t ask him to stop. not after he’d helped you and is willing to be your human shield until your train comes. anyone else would have left by now.

“i can give you a ride home, if you want?”

you frown… was he, trying to make a move on you?

“if you have a car why are you at a train station.”

sukuna smirks slowly, dropping his cig to the floor and crushing it under his sneaker. you don’t remind him that there’s a law against smoking on the platform. “i’m waiting for my little brother to get home from a trip with his friends. we don’t live too far from here and i offered to pick him up from the station.” he shrugs.

you blink up at him with wide eyes. you’d never imagine a man that looks and carries himself like he does to care so deeply for someone else. you suppose you’re judging a book by his cover.

you’re dressed like slutty santa, so you honestly have no right to do so.

“what’s your brother’s name?”

“yuuji. it’s just us, no parents. that’s why i’m picking him up.” sukuna turns to you, running a hand through his messy pink undercut. “look, i promise i’m not some creep. y’just look cold and i’m not about to let some girl get fucked over by weirdos at this time of night. i won’t touch you, but you can sit in the back with yuuji if it makes you feel better. people usually prefer his stupid face over mine anyways.” he mumbles that last part to himself, but is pleasantly surprised by the cute flutter of laughter that escapes you. “what’s s’funny?”

with a hand resting on your bare stomach, you try to contain yourself. “is it the tattoos or the fact that you have resting bitch face?”

“both.” sukuna sniggers in response, shoving his cold hands deep into his pockets. “so, you takin’ up the offer or what?”

“yeah, thank you…sukuna,” you smile, subtly sliding up beside him for warmth on the chilly platform. “i’d like to meet yuuji for myself, see which brother i prefer.”

“oh fuck you.”

“maybe some other time.”

and even though he’s sure that you’re joking, sukuna detects a glint of honestly in your sparkling eyes as the train finally approaches — it’s yellowing light from inside the carriage only illuminating that spark. you turn your head, trying to spot yuuji while he ponders your words.

sukuna is definitely going to ask for your number after he drops you home. he’ll have to thank that brat of a baby brother yuuji for the opportunity next — without him begging for sukuna to come get him, this would have never happened.

you would have never met.

it’d be a great christmas story to tell the grandkids too. so he’d really have to thank yuuji, even though sukuna would never hear the end of it.

꒰ end. — all rights reserved © tteokdoroki 2023. do not copy, repost, translate & recommend elsewhere.

[ticketque]

How TicketsQue Helps Pubs Grow Their Weekend Crowd

Bengaluru’s nightlife is vibrant, fast-paced, and competitive. From cozy neighborhood bars to high-energy nightclubs, venues across the city are constantly exploring ways to attract more guests—especially on weekends. In this highly competitive landscape, event ticketing platforms in India have become crucial for growth. Among them, TicketsQue is helping pubs rethink how they handle events, reservations, and promotions.

Here’s how pubs across the city are using TicketsQue to consistently grow their weekend crowd and create buzz around their venues.

Simplifying Online Event Tickets

Most weekend-goers today prefer digital convenience. They want to buy event tickets online, check availability, and reserve tables without having to make a phone call. TicketsQue offers a smooth solution for this with its user-friendly online booking system.

By enabling online event ticket sales, pubs can:

Reach more customers on platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp

Showcase their events under Trending Events in Bengaluru

Eliminate entry confusion with QR code-based digital tickets

This shift not only enhances customer experience but also increases pre-bookings and helps manage crowds more efficiently.

Promoting Club & Nightlife Events More Effectively

From club events in Bengaluru to live band nights, every event needs visibility to succeed. TicketsQue supports venues with tools to list and promote events across multiple platforms. Events hosted through TicketsQue also appear under Bengaluru Events listings, increasing discoverability among party-goers looking for the best weekend plans.

Whether it’s a DJ night, stand-up comedy, or a beer festival, pubs can:

Create branded digital event pages

Offer early bird discounts or couple passes

Share campaigns that drive traffic from social media to the booking page

This makes TicketsQue one of the best event booking platforms in India for nightlife venues.

Smarter Table Management for Weekend Rush

Weekends often bring overwhelming footfall. With TicketsQue, pubs can manage this surge using an intuitive floor plan and slot management system. Instead of handling bookings via phone or WhatsApp, venues can:

Display table availability in real-time

Set up time slots for high-demand periods

Allow customers to reserve tables as they buy tickets for events in Bengaluru

This reduces wait times, enhances guest satisfaction, and ensures that large groups and VIP customers always have a spot.

Boosting Attendance with Digital Coupons

One of the most effective ways to increase last-minute bookings is through digital coupons. Whether it’s “Free Entry Before 8 PM” or “Buy 1 Get 1 on Select Cocktails,” these limited-time offers encourage bookings and walk-ins.

TicketsQue makes it easy to:

Create and distribute time-bound coupon codes

Run geo-targeted promotions

Measure redemption and effectiveness through built-in analytics

For pubs trying to stand out during festival & music concerts in Bengaluru, this is an excellent strategy to capture extra footfall.

Real-Time Analytics to Understand What Works

Data is crucial when planning recurring events. With TicketsQue’s in-built analytics dashboard, pub owners can:

Monitor booking trends by day and time

Track which campaigns drove the most sales

Understand customer behavior during live events in Bengaluru

This helps venues make informed decisions about pricing, timing, and the kind of events they should host next.

Why It’s a Game-Changer for Bengaluru’s Pubs

In a city that thrives on weekend vibes and social plans, TicketsQue gives pubs a competitive edge. It combines online event tickets, real-time booking, promotion tools, and analytics—all in one platform.

From concerts and live shows in Bengaluru to weekly club events Bengaluru patrons love, pubs using TicketsQue are seeing improved attendance, better crowd management, and higher revenues.