piacairod

[tj-crochets]

Frogs!!!!!!

[queenofimagines]

Last Request

Request: “Hey can you pls write an imagine where she is Tony’s daughter and after end game she can’t cope with his death but Bucky is always there for her and he’s in love with her since the event of WS and before Steve went back in time he made Bucky promise him he will confess his feeling for her so now he finally has courage to do so (p.s. she’s been secretly in love with him the whole time too) 🙏🏻🧡” by @awmynarry

Warnings: none (sadness??)

Word Count: 1,181

Tony had done it, he saved everyone, but at what cost? Your father had saved the world but left you without yours. You and your family had lost him and watching everyone else unite again was like adding insult to injury. You had your own reunions that were bittersweet within themselves, happy that they were back but sad at the reason why. Bucky had come back and fought alongside you and your family. He sought you out immediately after you had won and held you close as you cried, refusing to look at your father’s lifeless body. Since then Bucky had stayed with you, refusing to leave you alone even when Pepper let him know that you were in no mood for company.

Bucky was completely in love with you, ever since you had met way back in his Winter Soldier days. When Steve came to you about his predicament with the super-soldier you had immediately jumped on board, having a soft spot for Steve ever since he came out of the ice. Steve was like an uncle to you and had often helped you get out of trouble with your dad and with various others. You were your father’s daughter after all, so Steve knew that you would need all the help you could get and was always ready and waiting when you called on him. This time though, Steve needed your help so you only felt it fair to return the favor.

You and the ex-assassin had become close, closer than anyone else you had ever met in such a short time. Slowly over time, you had stopped calling Steve when you needed someone to talk to and began calling Bucky and vice versa. At first, you felt bad, feeling like you had abandoned Steve a little and like you were putting too much pressure on Bucky while he was still recovering until Steve had told you how much the normalcy of having you call to complain about some stupid drama that was happening in school was really helping him.

You were young, much too young for him you thought. He had thought so too initially, knowing that him dating not only a Stark but one that was almost 10 years younger than him would cause public outcry that he didn’t think either of you could handle. When he came back and found that he hadn’t aged in the last 5 years and you had grown into the beautiful woman he knew you would become his heart began to swell with the hope that maybe there would be a chance at a future with you, before it promptly broke at the sight of you sobbing over the lifeless body of your father. It broke further watching you sit on the couch of your new home with Morgan in your arms, you silently crying into Pepper’s shoulder. That day, Steve had made Bucky promise to tell you how he had felt, reassuring him that everything would be fine and even telling him about how the only other person you had mourned as much as Tony was him. But how could Bucky complicate things when they were already so twisted now? If you didn’t feel the same he wasn’t sure if you would ever want to see him again, and if you did then how would he know that your words were true and not just a product of your vulnerability? He couldn’t risk it, especially not when you needed him, so for better or worse, he bottled up his feeling and placed them on a little shelf at the back of his heart to collect dust.

You loved Bucky just as much as he loved you, but you didn’t feel it right to pursue anything. You were more than ecstatic to learn that when Bucky came back he was only 3 years older than you now, but when your father died you felt guilty for being happy every time Bucky had come around to check on you and spend time with you. You felt guilty at how your heart had swelled at the sight of Bucky playing with Morgan while you guys were babysitting. You felt so guilty for having hope, so you never said anything. And besides, you couldn’t handle another blow to your heart so you figured it would be better to never know, even if it was a 50/50 chance that he felt the same.

Your days were mostly the same. You would wonder aimlessly through the house, stopping every once in a while to stare at the door to the lab. You were so used to hearing your dad tinker and curse in there that now, the silence that you used to wish for at midnight seemed mocking, a painful reminder that he wasn’t behind that door. The mornings were the worst, just when you would wake up because there would be 5 seconds of blissful ignorance before reality finally set in, and it was like watching him die all over again because it never ever got easier. Today though, today was different. Today was the day that you would finally walk into the lab, your dad’s former domain. You had a small desk in the corner of his lab. The sides of your mouth twitched at the memory of you begging your father for your own lab. He had joked and said that you could have his when he died. Ironic. You stood in front of the lab for a good 20 minutes before Bucky stood next to you.

“You don’t have to do this today,” He said, gently grabbing your hand. “If you’re not ready you don’t have to.”

“I know,” You replied. “But I think I am ready.”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

“No. No, I think I need to do this alone.” You turned to him, giving him a small smile before resting your hand on the handle of the door.

“I’ll be right here if you need me.” He gave your hand a gentle squeeze before letting go. You took a deep breath before slowly turning the handle and walking in. It was overwhelming, to say the least. You walked around the lab, gently touching the prototypes and he had made over the years. When you looked at his desk, you saw a space cleared in the middle, a helmet resting in the emptied space with a note leaned against it. It was the first helmet of many that you had made with your father for your suit. You slowly walked around the desk and read the note.

Just in case I don’t make it. Press play, cupcake.

Your eyes began welling with tears as you looked at your helmet. You did as his note asked, moving out of the way as your helmet projected an image onto the wall behind you. The video opened with Tony sitting on his chair at the same desk your helmet was resting on.

“Hey, cupcake. If your seeing this then it probably means I’m dead. I recorded a message for you, Morgan, and Pepper, which I’m sure Happy would have played, or at least tried to play, for you guys.” Tony laughed, continuing to poke fun at Happy for being technologically inept. You laughed along with him.

“But this one’s just for you. I’m sorry, cupcake. I’m sorry I won’t be there to see you grow into the amazing person I know you’ll be. And that I won’t be there to help you make improvements on your suit or take you out for ice cream at midnight. But I’ll be around, I promise. I’ll be there the next time you make a breakthrough in Peter’s web fluid, which by the way I know you help him with because you are horrible at keeping secrets. And I’ll be there on your wedding day to walk you down the aisle. Speaking of which, ask Barnes out, would you? I’ve spent so much time watching you drool over that man. Just do it, okay? And before you think about doubting whether or not he feels the same as I know you are, trust me when I tell you he does.” There was a knock and then a muffled voice that sounded vaguely like Steve’s.

“I gotta go, cupcake. I’ll see you later.” He winked at the camera before reaching over to the helmet. The video cut out and you were left speechless. You looked towards the door of the lab and made your way to it. He’s right there, on the other side of the door. Were you really going to do this? You had to, right? It was basically your dad’s last request. You spent another few minutes siking yourself up before throwing the door open and marching over to where Bucky stood.

“Hey, how’d it-”

“Let’s go out!” You practically shouted it in his face. “Like on a date.”

“I-uh, yeah. Yeah, that sounds nice.” He was smiling uncontrollably.

“Cool. Um, I-I’ll see you at 7 then?” Bucky nodded and you gently pushed passed him to get to your room, excited for your long-awaited date.

[darthlorddiamond]

Part of

This is the epilogue of the Black Diamond story, if you want to read the previous episode you can check my Masterlist.

Summary: Be a part of the First Order was certainly not what Black Diamond thought it would be and, after a time of isolation at Starkiller Base, she decided that it was time to take things in charge.

Words: 3,735

Reading Time: 15 min

Category: Bio

Warnings: None

__________________

Part of

The reception I had upon arrival at Starkiller Base was the opposite of warm. Not that I was expecting fanfare upon entry, much less a presentation parade, but after all the trouble Hux and Phasma went through to find me, at least I thought I would be presented to the other generals and high ranks of the Order. I traveled light, my luggage consisted of my collection of sabers, the hurdy-gurdy and a suitcase with my best suits, I assumed that being at my destination I would be provided with the other items for my basic needs, I shouldn´t have made such an assumption.

Immediately, upon my arrival, I was directed to my quarters, which were much more modest to the luxury I was already accustomed to having; It was a medium-sized room, with a small living-dining room, a rather small kitchen, a single bed in the back and an extremely small bathroom, with no windows. I didn´t miss the opportunity to demonstrate my discontent to Hux, letting him know that if, he was going to have me on that cold planet, which already seemed extremely annoying to me because of its resemblance to Hoth, the least he could do its make me feel at home. 

My comment caused him to thunder his mouth and mutter under his breath, however, my posture was stronger, for no reason was I going to live in that place, fact that I showed him crossing my arms without putting a foot inside. After a few minutes of constant complaints from him, he had no choice but to agree to my whims, requesting a new location for my quarters, close to his, and a list of all the items I wanted, it was indisputable that, although the idea of ​​giving me special treatment was not much to his liking, but he knew perfectly well that I wasn´t going to access to his types of treatments, since at any moment I could grab a ship and leave them behind because they had no power over me.

My first week I spent it walking around the entire base, locating where the areas of my interest were, likewise, I took the opportunity to explore the outside of it, once again entering the forest and the snow. It had been a long time since I had had such direct contact with the cold in that way, and, what in my youth I found extremely aberrant by the memory of betrayal, now I found it extremely pleasant. I restarted my meditations inside the forest, trying to reconnect with those things that I tried to avoid and forget in my youth; By this point I had already understood that, if this was the path I was going to take, I would gain nothing by blocking and ignoring all the pain I felt in Hoth, on the contrary, I had to find a way to elevate it and integrate it in to myself as a functional part of the person I was now.

During my tours I managed to perfectly locate where the Command Bridge, the Hux office, the training room, the dining room, and the Med Bay were; outside these places, the other spaces weren´t of my interest. Until then, almost all my communication was with Hux, who wasn´t in the least pleased to have to be my liaison with his superiors, and to be honest, I quite enjoyed complicating things, forcing him to look for me all over the place. 

Our communication was quite unstable, depending on the mood in which we woke up was the type of words we vocalized, I wasn´t going to deny that, just by sharing the same workspace, I liked the man, on the contrary, I never lost an opportunity to point out that his presence seemed unpleasant to me, a fact that he returned, making an endless circle by trying to demonstrate who of the two imposed greater authority. Until that moment I didn´t know who the Supreme Leader was, nor had I been introduced to the other members of the Command Bridge and not to mention the precious son of Leia, in that place, at that time, we were simply Hux and I, ironic.

Within a month of arriving, I made the training room my second home; I spent most of the day there, which Hux liked quite a lot since it was much easier for him to find me. I soon learned that this space had very defined schedules. In the early hours of the morning, the largest and most common room was used by the troops, while the private rooms were reserved by someone whom I didn´t know; In the middle of the morning, lieutenants and captains came, from mid-day until afternoon, occasionally Phasma come with a group of soldiers to train them in combat, and at night, eventually, the high command made use of the facilities. For me, the training room was a very curious parade of people, whom I could observe all day to get to know more of them without the need to speak a single word to them. 

I must admit that, at first, I was spending my time within the hours that I knew Phasma would be present, just to make her uncomfortable with my presence; During these hours I took the opportunity to do a few exercises while observing how she did her work, and I must admit that I was quite surprised at what I saw, without a doubt her combat style had improved a lot and all her troops showed her impressive respect; I may have been a little jealous at first to see her that way, but leaving my pride aside, I was quite amusing, to put it in some way, to see the person she had become, yet that I didn´t leave aside the resentment that I still felt towards her person and that, I was very sure, would never leave.

One afternoon, I was in the training room doing a few exercises with one of my sabers, the room was empty, it was one of those few occasions when everyone was doing some other important activity, of which I was unaware and they didn´t take up their time to train. 

Finishing my routine, I walked to a bench where I sat down to rest for a moment, took a drink from my water bottle and grabbed one of the towels I was carrying to wipe the sweat off my forehead when someone approached me "I've been thinking for days on you…” I looked up to find Phasma standing in front of me, I didn´t quite understand what she wanted or how she dared to approach me, so I decided to ignore her and I continued to wipe my face "I understand perfectly that you aren´t in the least interested in what I have to say..." in fact, I didn´t care about what she had to say and I was beginning to irritate by her mere presence "What do you want? Stop wasting my time and speak clearly" was the only thing I said to her as I took my bottle again to take another sip, I could see how she hesitated to continue speaking, her whole body showed hesitant signs "I´m not coming to apologize for anything, as you said I did what I had to do to get to where I´m now..." I rested my elbows on my knees while my gaze remained fixed on her, who wore her chrome armor and held her helmet under one of her arms "You still don't like me at all and I still don't understand how you got to where you´re..." I gave a small mocking laugh that made her purse her mouth a little "I been watching your way of training while we were here..." I began to thunder the bones of my hands and her eyes strayed to observe it, adopting a defensive posture, I suppose she thought that at any moment I would come on top of her, however, seeing that I remained in my place, she continued with his speech "I must admit, it's pretty impressive...".

She swallowed so deeply that a hollow sound came from her throat, she must have had a hard time admitting something like that, she certainly had to put her pride aside enough to introduce herself to me and speak me like that, a fact that I was enjoying too much and, although I too saw in her a breakthrough, I would never tell her "Do you think that with your non-apology and your flattery you´ll ingratiate yourself with me?" Phasma fixed her eyes on mine again with notorious annoyance "Not at all, I still feel a deep disgust and hate to your person" another small laugh and a smile were painted on my lips "The feeling is mutual" she just remained standing quietly for a few more seconds, maybe her pride was coming back and it would no longer allow her to finish speaking, so I decided to dig a little more into that temporary sore to see if I could discover something else “I don't understand the purpose of coming here to tell me this, what are you waiting for?” she shook her head a little and ran one of her hands to wipe off some of the sweat that was forming on her forehead "Maybe I didn't think very well about going here..." I raised one of my eyebrows, she, unsure of something that she was doing? "What do you want Phasma?" I put the most serious and annoyed expression I could "I thought, maybe, I could find another ally in you, apart from Hux..." now it was not a small laugh, it was a huge laugh that I let out while my back was completely arched, throwing my body back for an instant before returning to a straight posture and fixing my eyes on hers again with a highly inquisitive look "Ally me, with you? With the person who murdered the man, I was going to marry? You didn´t think about it well…” that must have been the drop that spilled her glass, because she held her helmet tightly, turned around and started walking towards the exit with a firm step, but before she reached the door I interrupted her way "But yes, I would like someone who knows how this place works, and who can articulate more than three words, unlike Hux".

Immediately she turned to see me while a mischievous smile was painted on my lips "Just to clarify, we still hate each other, correct?" she pointed at me with one of her fingers “Of course Captain” it was the first time since all this began, that I had seen her smile, I couldn't let her go out with that petulant victory spirit, so I stopped and started walking to her while she put on her helmet, preparing to leave "Captain, one more thing..." I began to rub her armor with one of my hands, while looking at my reflection in it "If I discover that all this little game of the ally has another background, well…” I fixed my eyes on the visor of her helmet and gave her the best of my smiles “I hope you likes music” and taking a few steps back, without turning her back on me, she resumed her way and left the room.

After my little reunion with Phasma, I received a datapad in my room, which helped me a lot to liven up my days, and to inquire information about the Order, it was evident that she had been in charge of sending me this present. Also, I intensify my little walks around the base, taking advantage of the new information I had, covering new areas that I didn´t know. In this new scoutings, I began to encounter a group of men who had some relationship with the Force. Most of our encounters were light glances in the hallways, nothing ever went beyond that. Since, at that time, I was still blocking part of my abilities, they never paid me too much attention, surely for them I was only an officer or something similar, although I could see that sometimes I caused them discomfort or curiosity, because my clothing was radically opposed to dress code of the other members or soldiers. It seemed quite striking to me that this whole group always dressed in black with helmets covering their identity and none of them emitted any word, without a doubt they were some kind of elite group, which reminded me of my men in Harloff Minor.

Laughingly, sometimes, in my head I found the presence of that gang comical and, in my mind, I formed the idea that the Supreme Leader perhaps liked to collect Force users, as a kind of bizarre and personal zoo, about which he could exert absolute strength and power to demonstrate his superiority, surely trying to hide some kind of complex, but although that thought entertained me a lot, I knew that, within that group of men, there was surely Ben, so I began to track them down at the distance to make our meetings, I don't know, part of this futile effort was due to my immense boredom and another part was due to the need to locate him, to know who he was, to be able to approach him, which, at that time, turned out to be completely useless.

I chose to stop wasting my energy trying to find someone I didn't even know who he was, I supposed, he would eventually introduce himself to me, so I went back to my meditations, which were deepening, it was evident that being surrounded by others Force-users had awakened in me some kind of connection or bond that potentiated all my actions. In the beginning, I didn´t know very well how it was happening or the consequences that this could bring, so I decided to handle this situation as cautiously as possible. Little by little, I was able to identify that the source that intertwined with me at night, during my meditations, came from a single person and not from a group as I originally thought, however, I didn´t know very well who it could be, and although this made me feel somewhat frustrated, at the same time I could feel relief: if I didn´t know whose energy was brushing against mine, it was very likely that the other person couldn´t identify my presence, so at that moment I felt comfortable and safe using this bond as a potentiator of my energy, curious to see where this type of exercise could take me.

After a month more without activity or contact with other people, I got tired of waiting that someone introduce me properly, I had reached the limit of my patience and my discomfort was starting to grow every day, I needed to start doing something more than fooling around in the training room or hanging around the halls, so I decided to break into the Command Bridge to introduce myself. I dressed in one of my best suits, leather pants with a long raincoat open to my hip and with a small corset at my waist, a belt where I attached one of my sabers and long knee boots with silver details, I refined my makeup, something simple, red lips and a black outline; once ready, I left my room and walked to my destination.

Everyone was busy in their work, there was enough activity on the Command Bridge, I took a quick look around me to see who was there, I was extremely excited, without a doubt my actions were going to cause a scandal among all those present and there would be no way for them to continue to ignore me after this, so I positioned myself in the center of the room and cleared my throat, causing a few people to turn to see me "Good afternoon gentlemen..." this was going to be so much fun "My name is Black Diamond and I´m...", suddenly a hand grabbed my arm tightly and I turned to see who was. 

By the gods! Hux's face was priceless! He was completely red and I could see how some veins were formed in his hundreds “What are you thinking about? Are you crazy?” he pressed his face to mine to such a degree that I could feel the heat that his words emanated through his mouth "No, I'm just bored" I rolled my eyes, the pressure his hand exerted on my arm was getting stronger, he was extremely angry and quickly started pulling me across the Command Bridge, at no time did he stop holding my arm "Hux!" I raised my voice as I tried to wriggle out of his hold, which lasted until we reached his office. The door opened and he pushed me inside. 

How did he dare to treat me like that? I was beginning to get quite annoyed by the way he was behaving, once both inside and with the door closed, he approached me, his body was only inches from mine, he radiated fury, he was uncontrolled, undoubtedly my actions were going to bring him consequences and momentarily my anger low to give way to a pleasant feeling of success. Maybe things didn't go as I thought, but seeing him that way, on the verge of losing his temper, made me quite happy. “Bored? Don't you know what you just did?" here comes one of his litanies about order and discipline "Honestly, I don't care" I replied as I crossed my arms and took a breath, demonstrating the nuisance he caused by his supposed punishment.

Hux separated from me and walked to his desk, where he took a seat. A few minutes of silence passed, so I take the time to snoop around his office, everything was impeccable and extremely ordered, I stopped at one of his bookshelves to see what he had, I was quite surprised to see that the General was also a lover of literature. 

As I took out some books to see their titles, I could feel his gaze staring at me again, apparently he was curious about the way his shelves captured my attention. “What do you want? Is it not more than enough that I already fulfilled all your whims?” still holding one of the books I took, I went to one of the seats that were in front his desk and without taking my attention from its pages, I replied "No, as I already told you, I´m bored" Hux brought one of his hands to his face, where he rubbed the bridge of his nose "And what am I supposed to do?" I looked at him askance, still with the book in my hands "Starting, I would like to meet the rest of the High Command..." his eyes widened "And after that, I would love to have something to do... Hmm... What's its call? Oh yeah! A job" I closed the book in unison with his scream "No!" I stood up from my place and walked to his desk where I left the book "Then I don't know what I'm doing here..." I leaned over his desk so that our noses were inches away, staring into his eyes, causing him discomfort, I could see how a few drops of sweat ran down his forehead "Obviously I don't have any kind of role here..." I brought one of my hands to his chin and ran one of my fingers over the line of his jaw as he swallowed and started to blush "Then, you don't need my presence..." I separated from him to sit on his desk.

I could see how his eyes again traveled the curves of my body, I smiled slightly, I had his full attention so I followed the game a little more, with one of my hands I stroked gently, smoothing, the surface of his desk with my fingers, Hux only brought one of his hands to the knot in his tie "I think I'll go back to Harloff Minor" I whispered as I turned to playfully look at him "No!" all the color disappeared from his face in an instant and he started to babble.

I took advantage of the fact that he was debating between maintaining a serious posture while his eyes were still fixed on my body, so I slowly unbuttoned a few buttons on the top of my blouse, pretending that I had some heat "Alright..." he threw his whole body on the back of his chair while closing his eyes and holding his nose again "But you will work under my charge. I will give you a team to train, just like your men" I got up from the desk in an I jump from to see him head-on “Perfect! You see? It wasn't that difficult. When do we start, boss?” I giggled along with my last word "Tomorrow. I´ll reserve one of the training rooms..." he kept trying to regain his composure while I adjusted my raincoat "It will be not necessary, we will train in the forest..." he turned to look at me in confusion "Tomorrow, 0600 hrs in the meadow at the north exit, make sure them be punctual, I don't like to waste my time” I had achieved what I wanted so I didn't have anything else to do in his office, so I turned around and went to the door “One more thing…” he got up from his place and surrounded his desk, where he supported his hip in the same place where I had sat, I looked at him raising one of my eyebrows, I was waiting to know his conditions "You´ll report all your activities and results exclusively to me, is this it clear?” I nodded and left his office with a feeling of victory and excitement, I had accomplished my mission and incidentally had made the General quite uncomfortable.

It may not be the best of jobs or the best of assignments, but at last, I had something to do: a whole troop under my charge and it was the perfect opportunity to demonstrate all of them my skills.

Finally, after 2 months of arriving at this place, it could be said that I was part of the First Order.

Note: I would like to especially thank @kyloren-theprince​, @thetorturerwrites & @kylorengarbagedump​​​ who took time to read this first part of my saga and sent me observations with all the patience in the world.

[takingcourage]

Additions: Part 4

Pairing: Jaime x MC

Word Count: 4,050

Summary: With an important breakthrough and their first holiday season as a family of five, things start looking up for the Lewis household.

November, 2027

I’ve got the details for Thanksgiving. Sending them to your email soon.

Arden dragged a thumb to unlock the screen and sent a quick response to Ellen’s message. After slipping her phone back into the purse at her feet, she attempted to get back to proofreading the document in front of her, but distractions thwarted her efforts. 

She’d always been partial toward any day that brought communities together, and Thanksgiving certainly fit the bill. But this year, she was interested in one very specific group of people and not the whole of Northbridge.

Their little family had seen a handful of holidays in the past few months -- Jaime’s and Will’s birthdays, Labor Day, Halloween. Each had been thoroughly enjoyable in its own right, but Thanksgiving was taking things to a whole different level. 

Lips curving softly with her anticipation, she reviewed her calendar, making a few adjustments to clear time for next week’s session. She saw her inbox increase in another tab and popped over to check the files from Ellen.

She was still skimming over the plans when the door opened at the other end of the waiting room. Alex walked toward her, trailed by a middle-aged man who raised a hand to her in greeting.

With a smile, she closed the laptop and rose to meet them both. After exchanging a few words with the therapist and scheduling a subsequent session, she and Alex quietly made their way down to their car. 

Arden hated parallel parking, but it was a necessary evil in this part of the city. Giving all of her attention to the backup camera and the view out her window, it was easy to ignore the silent passenger at her side.

She stole a quick glance after merging into the flow of traffic.

Her son’s mouth was firmly shut, his gaze fixed on the progression of vehicles beside them. 

Alex was never talkative coming out of these sessions. He wasn’t very talkative in general, but it seemed especially unfair for him to be so close-lipped on the heels of a session where she knew he’d spoken freely to someone else. Grateful as she was for the improvement they’d noticed in the past six weeks, an inkling of jealousy always rose during their drive home. 

Often, her natural curiosity got the better of her. She’d ask a probing question in return for a few syllables, followed by total quiet for the rest of the afternoon. She wasn’t making that mistake today. 

Bottling up her impulse to speak, she adjusted the radio and waited until they’d made it to their neighborhood to even attempt conversation. “I’m really proud of you, Alex.”

The boy muttered a thanks against his palm.

“Mr. Spencer said that he gave you an assignment for your next meeting. Can we talk about it?”

“I guess.”

“He said he wants you to write some things down?”

“Yeah.”

“What did he ask you to write about?”

“Stuff.”

Arden gnawed the inside of her cheek to hold her instincts in check. Carefully measuring her breath, she turned onto their street. These appointments allowed her to have a bit of time alone with her oldest son, but without his siblings around, getting him to open up was nearly impossible.

“Okay. How would you feel about starting on it now while I make some cookies?”

Framing her requests as suggestions rather than commands had been one of Dr. Spencer’s recommendations after their initial meeting. It was only a small change, but the results had been surprisingly fruitful.

“Sure.” He tried to keep his response noncommittal, though she thought she saw the shadow of a smile cross his lips as they drove into the garage.

By the time she’d cracked a pair of eggs into the powdered mix, Alex had already neatly penned through the first several lines in his notebook. 

Relieved that he’d engaged in the work so quickly, Arden cued up a playlist on her phone and connected to the bluetooth speaker on the windowsill. The music served as not only a buffer from the silence that she knew was awkward for both of them, but it also helped to keep her mind from wandering to boy’s thoughts. Much as she wanted to know what was going on in the next room over, she hated the idea of taking shortcuts. 

Five months. They’d been trying to navigate his barriers for the entire time he’d been living with them. Thankfully, he hadn’t run away again since the night he’d fled to the docks, and he’d been doing a much better job of regulating his emotions over the past month. He even had a decent attitude most of the time. 

But he was still so distant. 

It made sense, really. Even disregarding all other circumstances of his life, his siblings were naturally the ones who used to receiving attention. With his sister’s eagerness to please and his brother’s sociability, it was easy for Alex to fade into the background. She just didn’t want him to stay there.

“Arden?”

Bowl in hand, she popped her head through the archway to see a perplexed face staring back. “Yes?”

“I’m stuck on a word.”

Her brow creased as she took the seat across from him. “Can you tell me how you’re using it? Or explain what it means?”

Alex stared at the paper before him, twisting the mechanical pencil between his hands. After several moments of thinking, he produced, “It’s like when lots of things are happening all at once and you don’t know what to do.”

Pandemonium? 

No, obviously it’s not that, she chided herself. No fifth grader goes searching for that word. “Chaos, maybe?”

“No, it’s how you feel.”

“Anxious? Frozen? Overwhelmed? Dis–”

“Overwhelmed!”

Arden felt the tingle of pride as his face lit in recognition. She might not be a perfect parent, but she fared pretty well as a human thesaurus. 

“That’s it! How do you spell it?” He scribbled furiously while she rattled off letters at a moderate pace. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Let me know if I can help with anything else.” With a reassuring smile, she turned back to the kitchen and went back to stirring the thick dough.

When he called a second time, she’d just crawled into the bottom cabinet to find a cookie sheet.

“I’ve got another one!”

The pitch of his tone mirrored her intrigue. She could play find-the-word all afternoon if that was what he wanted to do. “Sure thing! I’ll be there in just a sec.”

Alex was looking up at her, pencil poised. This time, he was ready with a description as soon as she stood before him. “What’s the word for when somebody can’t stop doing something?”

“Umm…” She’d been stringing words together for a living for the past ten years, and she’d be darned if an eleven-year-old child stumped her over a definition. “Uncontrolled?”

“No, like they can’t stop drinking or doing pills or something.”

The ease with which he provided the correction halted her breath. “Like an addiction?” Her last word was tentative, everything in her hoping that her guess was wrong.

“Yeah.” He started spelling the word under his breath, jotting down the letters in quick succession. 

Since he paid her no mind, she went back to lining the baking sheet, but this time her thoughts remained in the next room over. He was writing about his past. She knew he was. Temptation mounting, she increased the volume of her music to try to remove at least one of its sources.

“Can you help me again?”

Arden scraped down the sides of the bowl a bit too forcefully, nervous energy getting the better of her. 

“I’ll be right there.”

This time, she risked sitting next to him. Strictly speaking, she wasn’t sitting, just resting a knee on the chair. She didn’t want her presence to come off as any kind of threat, but she didn’t want to squander this opportunity to strengthen his trust in her. Second guessing her decision, she almost missed his query. 

“What’s the opposite of love?”

The simple question threw her off kilter, and her eyes narrowed as she considered his inquisitive face. “Hate?”

“Obviously. I know that. But like, what is it when someone doesn’t love somebody anymore?”

“You mean falling out of love?”

“No.” Maybe they did hate each other…

Tensing, Arden slid all the way into the chair beside her son. “Do you want to read me the rest of the sentence? Sometimes that helps.”

He shook his head mutely, tugging at the clip of his pencil. 

“Alex, can you talk to me about what you’re writing for Dr. Spencer? Is it about something that happened to you?”

Slowly, he nodded.

Even if he wasn’t willing to talk about it, she didn’t want to lose the potential of the moment. She had to leave him with some assurance that whatever had happened in his past would never happen again. “Alex, you know that Jaime and I love you. I know that the adoption won’t be official for a while, but you’re part of our family. No matter what, we’re going to take care of you, okay?”

He leaned away as though he’d been struck. That’s what my real mom said too.

Arden’s throat tightened as she watched the tears gather in his eyes. Dropping his pencil, he tried to smack them away, but they flowed hot and fast.

Cookies forgotten, she scooted her chair close enough for him to feel that she was there. Although she didn’t risk touching him, leaving him alone in that state would have been impossible. 

“You don’t have to answer this question if you don’t want to, but did he ask you to write about your parents?”

“Uh-huh,” he hiccuped through the onslaught of tears. “He wanted me to write about when I was home with them.”

Arden’s own eyes were streaming by the time he got the sentence out, and it was all she could do to keep from pulling him into her arms.

He’d never let his guard down with her -- never seemed this vulnerable before. Any snatches of weakness that she’d found had been the result of overhearing his thoughts, not because he’d actually allowed them to show on the outside. 

A series of rising breaths came from deep in his chest, working up the power to say something. Suddenly, it all tumbled out, thoughts releasing as though they’d been pent up behind a dam. “She we’d be okay and that she’d come back. She promised she’d come back for us.” His words were barely discernible through the thick layer of tears. “But she hasn’t come back.”

Arden pressed her eyelids firmly shut to keep her head from splitting. We’ve talked about this. He knows she terminated her parental rights days after the kids entered the system. He knew when they came to live with us that this was going to be a permanent arrangement.

But that probably wasn’t what he needed to hear. 

“Alex…” she started, but words utterly failed her. Taking the leap, she slid one arm around his shoulders. When there was no dissuading thought or action, she balanced on the edge of her chair drew him to her side. Though he remained almost completely still, it was enough. His head rested on her shoulder as his tears continued in a steady stream. 

It was Jinx who eventually brought them back to reality, her cold, wet nose bumping against the elbow Arden had propped on the table.

What a mess! You both look terrible. 

With a breathy laugh, Alex left Arden’s side and righted himself in the chair. “Hello, Jinx,” he greeted, stretching out a hand to pet her sloped back. Halfway down, he paused and turned toward Arden. “Is she supposed to be on the table?”

“Not at all. But maybe we’ll make an exception today,” she decided, watching with interest as the creature stepped closer to the boy instead of darting away. Selfish as her motivations often were, Jinx did have a genuine caring streak when she sensed others in distress.  

The cat butted her head into his palm, purring loudly at his attentive petting. “Should we finish the cookies?” he asked, using his free hand to scrub the tears from his cheeks. “I think I’m finished writing for now.” 

“That sounds like a great idea. You can help me with them if you wash your hands.” 

Delivering a final pat to Jinx’s grizzled crown, he took his notebook and left the room.

Arden’s smile broke as she heard him turn the corner into the hall. What just happened?

Whatever it was, it wasn’t going to solve all of their problems. But at least it felt like a start. 

Retrieving her phone from the nearby counter, she tapped out a message for Jaime: You’ll never believe what just happened with Alex. I can’t wait to tell you tonight over that bottle of wine we’ve been saving.

_____

December, 2027

“You can’t win Monopoly with just the railroads,” Alex whined, rifling through his stack of money in search of hundreds. Making his way to the end with a huff, he yanked out a set of papers.

Arden gladly received the four blue bills he extended across the table. “Then that just means there’s one less person for you to beat. I don’t see why you’re complaining if there’s no way I can win.”

Will’s short arm flung out in front of her, reaching for the dice. She nudged them closer, then watched his roll.

“Oh, man.” The words were barely recognizable around the yawn that divided them.

Sophia tapped a finger on the Luxury Tax square. “You need to move here.” At Jaime’s raised eyebrow, she withdrew the hand and slipped it under her thigh. “Sorry. You can do it yourself.”

Ribcage propped on the edge of the table, Will leaned over the board and moved his terrier across the requisite spaces in a series of hops. “I didn’t want to land on the ring again. Do we have to keep playing?”

Jaime took a long drink from his mug, exchanging glances with Arden from his end of the table. There’s a reason we went so long before getting a copy of this game.

Arden swiped a lock of hair away from her forehead, giving him opportunity to speak. One of them needed to take the high road, and it was beginning to look like he wouldn’t be the one to do it. “Will, are you sure? You’ve been looking forward to trying out all of the games you got for Christmas.”

“This one is boring,” he pronounced simply, rubbing his face across the forearm that was still stretched toward the game board.

“Is everyone else bored too?” Jaime queried. “I don’t want to cut it short if people are having fun, but it also doesn’t make sense for us to keep at it if everyone’s miserable.”

“I’m bored,” Sophia confirmed with a nod.

“It’s stupid. We should do something else.”

With the consensus from all three kids, it was easy to see that soldiering on would be pointless.

Jaime cocked his head to peep in at the stovetop clock. “Maybe it’s time for us to pick out a movie. It’s after 9:30. By the time we’ve made some popcorn and started watching something, we’ll be pretty close to midnight by time it’s over.”

Alex pulled in all of the money he could reach and filed it away in his banker box. “Can we watch one of my new Marvel ones?”

“Yeah!” Exhaustion overcome by excitement, Will tossed his stack of bills in the air.

“Hey, pick those up!”

Arden pushed in her chair and folded her arms over the back, rolling her eyes at the brothers’ innocent shenanigans. “You up for superheroes, Sophia?”

The thoughtful hazel eyes rose to meet hers. “Yeah.” They darted back to the cell phone in her hands, but her thoughts suggested her mind still hadn’t moved on yet. That one actor is pretty cute. Maybe he’ll take his shirt off…

Turning over her shoulder to hide the smirk that was cracking her lips, Arden checked Jaime’s progress in the kitchen. 

_____

By the time the film had drawn to a close, Arden was comfortable enough on the couch to rethink their plans for ringing in the new year. Casting a look across the room, she found Alex and Sophia still very much awake, attention divided between their phones and the television in front of them. Jaime offered her the remaining popcorn from their shared bowl, but she declined.

Once the screen had faded to black, Arden carefully moved the bony shin that had been digging into her calf for the better part of the last hour. Unfazed, Will remained asleep on the other end of the couch. As the credits rolled, she made her way to the kitchen to find the pots and pans that she’d already slated for the task ahead.

11:54

Jaime was gently nudging Will’s shoulder when she returned with their noisemakers. 

“Coats on, everybody,” she admonished, passing a pot and wooden spoon to each child.

Still jumbled from sleep, Will gave her an uncertain frown. With a yawn, he took the objects from her hands.

“Why are we doing this again?” Alex lifted his saucepan and wooden spoon to reinforce his skepticism. His coat dangled from the one sleeve that had made it over his arm. 

“It’s a tradition.” Jaime’s staunch answer was punctuated by a vigorous shake of his own spoon. "It’s also a lot of fun.”

“Next year, we should have fireworks!” Will suggested a little too loudly. 

Arden inclined a brow, thanking her better sense for keeping her youngest to such a rigid bedtime schedule. Tired Will was proving to have even fewer inhibitions than his rested counterpart. “We can talk about that later. For now, we need to get outside!”

The five of them huddled together on the front porch, several sets of teeth chattering as Jaime counted down the seconds before midnight.

“Happy New Year!” they rang out in rambling chorus before drowning out the well wishes with their noisemakers. Sophia’s eyes widened in surprise at the flurry of sound they produced. With the lack of sleep, Will’s easy smile was even more exaggerated than usual. Even Alex renounced his former inhibitions, delivering an occasional smack to Will’s pan instead of his own. 

I love you, Arden.

On hearing Jaime’s thought, she paused beating her spoon and rose up to meet her husband’s full lips. His kiss was gentle and slow, rich in the celebration of a year well spent. Feeling his smile before he pulled away, she couldn’t help matching it with one of her own. 

In spite of everything they’d told the kids about the glories of board games and banging on pots and pans, midnight kisses were actually her favorite part of the yearly celebration. If there was a better way to start each revolution around the sun, she had yet to discover it.

“This is really loud,” Sophia complained, tapping her spoon daintily against the rim of her pot. “I should have worn earplugs.”

“Next year,” Jaime suggested, and she smiled in return. He checked his watch. “It’s almost 12:02. Time to wind things down!”

Will fumbled over his spoon, but Sophia swooped down to catch it before it could roll into the bushes. Blinking rapidly, the boy held out a hand to take the object back. Sophia surrendered it, but kept a cautious eye on her younger sibling. 

“And that’s our cue to go inside and get ready for bed,” Jaime announced, propping open the door so that he could follow the rest of the family into the house. 

While the kids brushed their teeth, Jaime collected pans and returned them to their proper shelves in the kitchen. Arden trailed him aimlessly, leaning against the doorjamb with a yawn.

“Let’s get you to bed, Ms. Sleepy.”

“That’s Mrs. Sleepy,” she insisted as she fought to keep her mouth closed. 

“I think we’re a whole family of sleepies right now.” With a low chuckle, he took her arm. “C’mon, let’s go say goodnight so we can all get to bed.” 

_____

Arden stood before the mirror with watery eyes, yawn building as she watched Jaime strip down to his boxers. He tossed his dirty clothes into the hamper, sending her a curious look through the glass. 

“Do you remember that year when you were sick and we couldn’t celebrate New Year’s together?”

“Uh-huh,” he answered, putting away his toothbrush. “And after you pulled the surgical-mask thing when I had the flu, I don’t really blame our parents for keeping us on opposite sides of the fence.”

“True.” She paused for a yawn, leaning close to the glass to examine her bloodshot eyes. “I tried to be extra loud so you could hear me all the way from my porch.”

“For the record, I was so doped up on cold medicine that I slept through the whole thing.”

“Well, I’m still sorry I did it. There you were, trying to sleep, and I was clanging like a drawer full of silverware.”

“You need some rest, babe.” 

“I know, I know.” She took the pack of floss he slid toward her and cut a length. “That simile didn’t even make sense.” 

He crossed behind her to throw his own floss in the trash can. As he passed, he kissed her shoulder through the flannel of her pajamas. “It’s bedtime,” he pronounced simply. 

“It’s barely midnight and I’m completely useless. I feel like an old lady.”

“I guess we’ll just have to be old, tired people together, because I’m exhausted too.”

“Then let’s get you to bed, Mr. Sleepy.” There was a weary lilt to her voice as she wound the floss between two fingers. 

“I’m just waiting for you,” he assured. 

Arden finished flossing and made a show of prepping her toothbrush. “I know the kids were grilling each other about their resolutions for the year, but I never asked if you had one.”

While he considered his answer, she set about brushing, her weary hand slipping into the accustomed motion with ease. At her insistent face, he finally spoke. 

“Nah, not this year. Unless helping Alex keep his is a resolution.”

She spat her toothpaste into the sink. “You mean what he said about doing better in school? That wasn’t his real resolution.” Catching his frown in the mirror, she clarified, “What he really wants is to stay in one place for the whole year.”

“I hate it that he’s still thinking like that.”

“I know, but I get it.” She ambled to the bed and tossed the covers back. “Maybe things will start to change once the adoption is official.”

“Either way, he’s not going anywhere.”

“Absolutely not.”

“He’s stuck with us forever.” Jaime flicked the overhead light and joined her, careful to keep his icy toes as far on his side as possible. 

Arden burrowed closer anyway, eager to share what warmth he did possess. He scooted over to free some space on his pillow, which she eagerly claimed. 

“What about you, my love? Any resolutions of your own?”

Eyes closing in consideration, she giggled at the first thought that came to mind. “I should probably stop drinking so much coffee...” 

“We both know that’s never going to happen.”

“Yeah... Other than that, I don’t know that anything needs to change, really. I’m pretty happy with everything the way it is.”

“I am too. G’night, Arden.” 

She tugged his arm around her stomach, her fingers curling over the hinge of his wrist to keep him in place. “G’night.” Breathing deeply of his woodsy scent, her mind ceased its drifting, settling finally on thoughts of the man beside her. 

“Jaime?” She felt him jolt as she broke the silence. 

“Huh?” he asked with a croaky voice. 

“Changed my mind. We need more dates this year.”

“Can we talk about it in the morning?”

“Uh-huh. G’night again. Can’t wait to spend another year with you.” 

The arm tightened at her waist, and she finally allowed herself to surrender to sleep. 

[writingfromkitchenator]

Thorin ~ Please don’t...

Complete the sentence 500 Followers Challenge.

Requested by Anon.

Everyone knew that the recovery of Erebor and Dale would be slow, that both peoples would need time to recover, to rebuild and gather themselves again.

But no one could really expect the effect on certain individuals.

Bard seemed to take things on easily, if a little reluctantly, people happy to see him in the leadership role after the disaster of Lake Town.

Fili and Kili took some time to recover, their wounds great, but eventually they were on their feet, although they still had to take things slowly, but they didn’t complain, they were just grateful that they, and each other, were alive.

The one taking it hardest though, was Thorin. Injured, he was taking time to recover, but the few people who he would talk to, quickly realised that more was going on, and after discussion, most assumed that it was a return into the gold sickness, meaning there was a lot of concern for the future of Erebor.

When you arrived with Dis, you were both quick to hear of Thorin’s condition, and despite the warnings, you headed straight there.

A gentle knock on the door and a quiet voice telling you to go away was all the answer you needed.

You pushed the door open and stepped inside.

“I said to go away.”  Thorin said gruffly, hidden in the dark on his bed, buried under blankets.

“And hello to you too.”  You said, closing the door behind you, Thorin freezing.  “I would’ve thought that you would have a much cheerier reaction after all this time.”

“Y/N.”  Thorin’s voice cracked, watching you as you moved to the fire, stoking it and ensuring that warmth was spreading through the room.  “When did you get here?”

“Not too long ago.”  You said, smiling at him warmly.  “Long enough to ask how you were and then come straight to you.”

He shifts uncomfortably. “You should not have.”

“And why is that?” You ask, moving to sit on the edge of the bed.  “Everyone sounded so worried Thorin, and I have been more than worried, what else did you expect me to do?”

Thorin refused to meet your eye.  “Leave me be. I am not worth that Y/N.”

You blinked, almost stunned to hear this from Thorin.  You moved closer and reach for his hand, but he moves it out of the way, which hurt, but it was clear he was hurting more.  “Thorin, I’m not sure what has happened, but as always, I am here for you and not going anywhere.”

“And I’m telling you, you do not have to be.”  He growled.

Sighing, you pat the bed. “Well, tough my love, because you are stuck with me and I intend to help you with whatever you are dealing with.”

Much to Thorin’s annoyance, you ensured that you weren’t going anywhere, no matter how much he grumbled or remained silent when you were around, doing things to make him more comfortable.

In that time, you began to learn more of what happened, many from the quest seemingly reluctant to tell you, even Dis was growing frustrated by it, and, in the end, you both pinned Dwalin down until he told you everything.

It made more sense to you now, and this gave you even greater concern.  Dis was worried too, wanting nothing more for Thorin to be back on his feet and running Erebor like you both knew he could.

But it did confirm something for you.  This was not gold sickness, this was something more that Thorin was suffering, and it was slowly breaking your heart seeing him down like this.

At least he was getting out of bed now though, you took that as some sort of improvement.

The hard part was going to be getting Thorin to talk.

You went in with breakfast, keeping up the same routine that you had since the day you got back, Thorin’s favourite tea steaming hot.  You were chewing your lip in nervousness, worried how he was going to react all this.

Not bothering to knock, you opened the door, finding Thorin already up and sitting staring at the fire.

You put the breakfast on the table.  “Good morning Thorin, feeling better?”

Thorin grunts in response, the lines under his eyes dark.

You hum, bringing him a cup of tea and then sitting opposite him with your own cup, much to his surprise.

Smiling, you take a drink. “Dis gave me the off so I can spend some time with you, give you some proper company seeing as you’ve been so cooped up in here.”

“You do not have to.” He grumbled quietly.

“No, I don’t,” You take another drink.  “But because I love you, I’m willing to put myself through that.”

Thorin grunts, but makes no other response.

Sighing, you place your tea down and sit back in the chair, looking at Thorin.  The grey seemed heavier in his hair these days and light that usually shone in his eyes was dimmed.

“Thorin,” Your voice was quiet, concerned.  “I want you to talk to me.  Please. Tell me what is wrong.  You cannot spend the rest of your days in here.”

“Why?”  He asked, just as quiet.  “Fili can take care of Erebor.”

This made you frown.  “Fili?  He is certainly more than capable, however I know for a fact that he will not when his uncle is more than capable, no matter what he seems to think.”

“I am in no state to be ruling Y/N,” Thorin’s voice started to raise, the cup shaking in his hand.  “And I doubt anyone would follow me anyway.”

“Because of what happened?” You asked quietly, making him tense. “Because of the gold sickness?”

The desperate glance at you proved you were right.

“Thorin, do you think that everyone will judge you for one moment of weakness?”  You asked.

The cup was on the floor as he stood, tea spilling as he breathed heavily.  “A king should not be weak.”

“One moment does not define a king.”  You continued. “And I think your actions after that proved how much you are truly worth, that you can fight through something like that and still come out on top, especially against one of the greatest adversaries that we have ever faced.”

Thorin stared at you, the flicker of fire in his eyes, breathing hard still, hands clenching.  “Y/N, please, you do not know-”

“I know enough.”  You said and smiled.  “And if you think that it makes me love you any less, then you are also wrong.”

It seemed like all of Thorin was shaking now and he closes his eyes and shakes his head wildly.  “No Y/N, you can’t…I-I c-can’t let you.”

You stand, taking his face gently between your hands.  “Thorin…” You waited until his eyes opened to look at you, showing nothing but vulnerability.  “Please don’t let the past get in the way of the joy you have rightfully earned.  Don’t let all this control you.  We are all here for you.  I am here for you.”

The sob that broke free from him was a relief, and before you knew it, he was sobbing, sinking into your arms and you cradled him against you, placing kisses against his head while telling him it was okay, rocking him gently.

You knew that things would take time still, but at least this was a small breakthrough for the two of you.

[imaginingmyloki]

You’ve Made a Grave Mistake.

Requested by Anon:  Will you write a one shot where the reader and Loki are together, and she is held captive by shield in an attempt to get information about the avengers? Thanks!

Pairing: Reader x Loki

Word Count :1397 (oops! I swear when essays had to be 1000 words long it seemed impossible yet narrowing this down to 1397 was so hard lol )

A/N: Ok. I will probably make a part 2 to this. It is already really long for a requested imagine.. I just had so much I wanted for this story lol. this is only my second Loki imagine/blurb thing, hopefully I’ll get better the more I write. Feedback is always appreciated if there are ways you think I can improve, just please be nice about it haha. 

I woke with a jump and looked around the tiny room I was in trying to figure out where the hell I was. The last thing I remembered was relaxing on the couch at the tower with everyone watching a movie on our extremely rare day off. My head had been resting gently in Loki’s lap as he played with my hair absentmindedly. He had finally settled into life with the Avengers, he had finally allowed himself to become one of us and started to trust more people than just Thor and I. I remember getting a vision of something that had caused me to sit up suddenly and turn to warn everyone and then it all went black and I woke up here, tied to this chair. “If I have to be tied to a chair you could have at least made it comfortable... Does anyone want to tell me why the hell you ruined my perfectly good day off.” I yelled into the empty room, knowing I was being watched from somewhere.

 The door opened revealing a man in a suit, with a S.H.I.E.L.D. name badge attached. I didn’t recognize him so he must have been a newer agent. “(Y/N) we brought you here to talk. I truly hope you cooperate and we can do this the nice way. We need information on you and your friends.” I rolled my eyes and tried to burn the ropes but was unable to use my powers. I looked at him and he smiled saying, “We have some pretty advanced technology in this cell. It blocks powers, like yours, from being used. So you wont be able to manipulate fire like you usually do. Speaking of your powers,last time we had tabs on them, you only had the ability to produce fire, however the ride here taught us about more of your abilities. We had to dose you again to put you back under, never seen anyone wake up from that sedative as quickly as you did.” He waited for an answer I wasn't going to give him, S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t need to know about my new abilities, I still haven’t learned to control them completely myself. I only had 3 that I was aware of,  I can see short visions of coming danger, however I just discovered that one and I can only see it about 20 seconds ahead of time, I can produce flames and the last, and scariest, ability I had discovered I is one I never use. At least consciously. Loki had waken me many times in the middle of the night because in my sleeping, unconscious state, I had somehow pinned him to the ceiling and some kind of psychological manipulation was occurring, making him believe he was in agonizing pain. Waking to his screams of pain has caused me many sleepless nights, afraid I would lose control. I looked at the agent and told him, “Listen, I’m not giving you a list of everyone’s abilities. I’m not giving you anything. You do what you have to do.” He looked at me with annoyance and started to get up from his chair when the door busted open revealing a murderous looking Loki. “You have made a grave mistake.” He said in the most threatening voice I have ever heard come from his mouth. He walked into the room grabbed the agent and threw him against the wall, knocking him out. An alarm started going off in the halls, Loki untied me and we started running, as we were running, I started to feel off. I looked at my hands and realized my flames were growing larger and larger. “Loki something’s wrong! I cant control it!” I was starting to panic. We rounded the corner and reunited with the rest of the group, everyone looking at my hands in confusion and fear. They managed to get me back to the tower and, by my own request, put me in a cell so I wouldn't accidentally hurt anyone. I still couldn't get my flames under control and the more upset I got, the larger they would become. Loki was sitting outside the clear glass wall reading to me to try and calm me. Eventually, I managed to calm the flames enough that they were only in the palms of my hands, and I drifted to sleep listening to Loki’s calming voice.

 I could hear muffled voices shouting at someone to wake up but couldn't quite make out who they were talking to when I heard a clear voice breakthrough. Loki was screaming “(Y/N)! Wake up! Come on, you need to get up! NOW!” I sat up and opened my eyes to a room on fire. The chair and table that had been in the cell were left in a smoldering pile on the ground, the floor was covered in flames, the electric box that controlled the opening of the door had been burnt to a crisp, forcing the door to stay in a locked position, leaving me stuck in here until Tony could over ride the system. I looked through the glass at my friends who all looked terrified. I made eye contact with Loki and he managed to calm his expression, put his hand on the glass and try to soothe me enough to control the flames. I crawled to the glass and put my hand against it in the same position Loki had his. Slowly the flames disappeared and Tony managed to unlock the door, enabling Thor to push it open. Loki ran to me and tried to pull me into his arms but I backed away, terrified of hurting him. “Please, Loki. I don’t want to hurt you.” He looked at me sadly and nodded. Tony entered the room and said, “Let's get you to the lab and figure out whats going on.” I agreed and started to get up. I heard Natasha gasp and looked at her in confusion. Loki rushed to my side and said “Hold still, there's something on your neck.” He looked at my neck, called Tony over to look at it and then held up a mirror so I could see  why everyone was so damn interested in my neck. There was a large red spot surrounded by what looked like black veins. “That must be where they dosed me with whatever sedative they gave me. The agent even said they had to redose me during the ride over because I started to wake up.” I started to think of all the things that could be happening to me. Did they poison me? Was it an allergic reaction? Was the lack of control due to the sedative still wearing off? Tony took me to the lab and ran more tests than I can count and still had no answer. I started to worry about why I still hadn't gotten control back and everywhere I walked, little flames would sprout, causing me to just decide to go back into the cell where I had already done damage. We left the door open and Loki and I sat inside. He refused to leave my side no matter how much I pleaded with him for his own safety. I refused to sleep when Loki suggested I rest, resulting in him giving me one of his signature, displeased looks, mixed with a look of concern. He got up, kissed the top of my head and said, “I'll be right back, Love. I am going to make us some tea” I was left alone for a few minutes when I felt a vibration in my pocket. I looked at my phone and saw a text from a blocked number. “Ready to talk yet? Lack of control is only the first side effect. It gets much worse. If you want to stay yourself and you want to save your friends from yourself, I suggest you find a way to come back and tell me what I want to know.” My stomach dropped as I read the text and I didn't even notice Loki standing behind me reading over my shoulder, making me jump when he spoke. “I will fix this, (Y/N). I promise.” And with a kiss on my head, he vanished despite my pleading for him to wait for the group to make a plan. With my flames growing again, I left my cell to tell the others what had just happened.

[reviewape-blog]

Mike Warren Sports

https://www.reviewape.com/?p=5312 Mike Warren Sports - Product Name: Mike Warren Sports Click here to get Mike Warren Sports at discounted price while it’s still available… All orders are protected by SSL encryption – the highest industry standard for online security from trusted vendors. Mike Warren Sports is backed with a 60 Day No Questions Asked Money Back Guarantee. If within the first 60 days of receipt you are not satisfied with Wake Up Lean™, you can request a refund by sending an email to the address given inside the product and we will immediately refund your entire purchase price, with no questions asked. Description: Now, Mike Warren is back, stronger than ever, because of the most powerful handicapping breakthrough of the last 50 years… In 1979, Mike Warren’s Lock of the Year was South Carolina over Wake Forest. The line opened at Wake (-3)! Within two hours of releasing Game Cocks as the play, South Carolina had moved to -5, an 8 point swing. They won by 21, 35-14. When “Legends” collide then myths are created. And Mike Warren’s heads up battles with the renowned linemaker Bob Martin, of the Union Plaza, were indeed epic. In 8 years of Bowls and Playoffs, Mike Warren beat Martin’s best lines 77% of the time. Jimmy “the Greek” Snyder had a reputation all his own for picking winners, but on the TV Show “Beat The Pros” and in his own plays, Jimmy always sought out Mike’s opinion before he finalized his picks. People still talk about Jimmy “The Greek” and those who knew “The Greek” know the one handicapper he respected above all was Mike Warren. In 1983, Mike Warren’s Formula for Winning was captured in one of the first handheld computers, THE MIKE WARREN FOOTBALL ANALYZER, an algorithm that combined hard data with Mike’s “gut instincts” for winning. It was the MOST SUCCESSFUL robot device in the history of sports betting…. …But, it was too successful! As Mike Warren notes, “The analyzer gave the true strength of the teams playing each other and predicted a final score. It was so accurate that beating the spread was easier than taking an Oreo from a 2-year-old, but the linesmakers wised up and began to adjust the spreads when ‘Analyzer Money’ hit. I had to take it off the market because who got down late after the lines changed either had ‘no play’ or had lost their edge.” After a nearly 40 year winning run, the “Wizard of Winning” retired. He’s been just picking games for himself and friends the last few years. But even then, his reputation was so strong and no one from the generation of handicappers could equal his record so he was sought out by many anywhere he went, from the movies to the grocery store to a restaurant or inside a sports book. He couldn’t stay retired, it seems. Everyone wanted Mike Warren’s picks on college and NFL football. His national contact list at training camps and stadiums around the country was still intact, his data base was updated by math wizards and, of course, he never lost his own innate sense of making “the right choice” between 2 teams. A few years ago, a team of Computer Science “genius” students from a major university broke the code for crushing the tables in Las Vegas at blackjack, poker and baccarat. They turned the “House’s advantage” into a liability. Using sound mathematical models they knew when to bet “strong,” when to back off and when to pass. Over the course of a year, they took MILLIONS each from casinos in Las Vegas and helped to put out the lights in more than one Atlantic City venue. This ‘cartel’ for all the cash then turned to betting professional football and working on a system to beat the spread. They focused on such esoteric mathematical theories as “advanced regression equations and advanced analytic hypotheses using modern technology often reserved for NASA projects. Gradually they developed their own proprietary algorithms to beat the spread. But, their system lacked something—a soul, a “gut instinct for winning. Yes, it had the raw data and a way to analyze it, but unlike cards or dice, which have no peaks and valleys, football is played by human beings and they were stymied by the often erratic play that was either way above or way below a team’s usual performance. In their research, the students had studied some of the great handicappers and when they spotted Mike Warren in a Las Vegas sports book they jumped at the opportunity to talk to the man who created the “Theory of Peaks and Valleys,” which states that when a team play with extra emotion and over its collective head that there is a strong likelihood of a letdown and fall off in efficiency the next week. Comparing their notes, Mike Warren’s knowledge and the Football Analyzer equations, this new “partnership” created the IWIN SYSTEM. **Predicts a Final Score That Can Be Compared To the Spread **Rates a Chance of Winning from 70% to over 92% **Provides Money Management Principles Based on % BETA TESTED AT 80% WINNERS2012 AND 2013 IN THE NFL Starting with the National Football League, the IWIN SYSTEM was 36-7 in 2012, 84%. In 2013, that number dipped slightly to 41-11 during the regular season, 78.8%. The 2 year average was better than 80%. And, 2013’s testing of College Football was nearly as good, 93-37 or 71.5%, which is pure profit. The difference between college and pro stems from the uneven competitiveness of many teams and the fall off in talent between the 1st string and substitutes when injuries occur. 70% Chance of winning …..9 Wins…3 losses 75% 80% Chance of winning……16 Wins…3 Losses 84.2% 90% Chance of winning……6 Wins….1 Loss 85.7% 92% Chance of winning……5 Wins….0 Losses 100% Based on the accurate percentage of winning projection, bettors can manage their money. To make it easy, Mike Warren broke it down into Units so players know exactly how much to play on each selections. 2014 1ST WEEK COLLEGE RESULTS The IWIN System went LIVE in the opening weekend of this season. Here’s the actual selections released to clients, the IWIN “Real Number” prediction and the results as told my Mike Warren: 5 Units, 92% Chance of Winning Game Oklahoma State (+17) over No. 1 Ranked Florida State Result: WINNER! IWIN had the game +1. Cowboys were under-rated, but the formula said they could exploit the Florida State secondary for some big games. Final Score: Florida State 37-Oklahoma State 31 3 Unit 80% Chance of Winning Game LSU (+3 ½) over Wisconsin Result: WINNER! The IWIN System said the “true line” should have been LSU -4. That was a 7 ½ point difference. The SEC is much stronger than the Big 10 in recent years and the unique ability of this system to factor in Conference Strengths was a key point in this game. Final Score: LSU 38 Wisconsin 34 3 Unit 80% Chance of Winning Game Virginia (+18 ½) over No. 7 UCLA Result: WINNER! The uniformed bettors saw a No. 7 ranking for UCLA and went nuts. Virginia in the ACC, which is perceived to be a weaker conference. The IWIN algorithm pinpointed a progressive improvement in Virginia last year that if carried over would keep this game close. I had it as UCLA -7, a different of 11 ½ from the actual line. Final score: UCLA 28 Virginia 21 2 Unit 70% Chance of Winning Game Navy (+13 ½) over Ohio State Result: Lost We’re using the FINAL LINE in this game, which over the summer was Navy plus 19 ½ but dropped like an anchor after Ohio State’s all star quarterback went down for the season. Early Navy bettors won at plus 19 ½, but we’re honest and taking this as a loss because we know the majority of players wait until the night before or actual game day to make their bets. The emotional factor in this game was smoked out by the IWIN system which had Ohio State -14 as the true number. If the line stays where it opened, we would have won. Final score: Ohio State 34 Navy 17 NOW THAT YOU’VE SEEN THE IWIN SYSTEM THAT COMBINES MIKE WARREN’S FAMOUS ANALYZER CODE WITH MODERN ALGORITHMS ARE YOU READY TO WIN BIG TODAY, TOMORROW, FOREVER? Member Login |Our Performance | Get Free Pick | Testimonials | Contact Us | Affiliates ClickBank is a registered trademark of Keynetics Inc., a Delaware corporation. www.mikewarrensports.com is not affiliated with Keynetics Inc.in any way, nor does Keynetics Inc. sponsor or approve any www.mikewarrensports.com products. Keynetics Inc. expresses no opinion as to the correctness of any of the statements made by www.mikewarrensports.com in the materials on this Web page. Any income claims are typical of top performers not all users and your results will vary. These results are as reported in testimonials from members using the mikewarrensports. Check Terms & Conditions and Disclaimer for full information. By purchasing any of our products, you agree to the mikewarrensports Terms & Conditions. © 2015 MikeWarrenSports.com – All Rights Reserved. Click here to get Mike Warren Sports at discounted price while it’s still available… All orders are protected by SSL encryption – the highest industry standard for online security from trusted vendors. Mike Warren Sports is backed with a 60 Day No Questions Asked Money Back Guarantee. If within the first 60 days of receipt you are not satisfied with Wake Up Lean™, you can request a refund by sending an email to the address given inside the product and we will immediately refund your entire purchase price, with no questions asked. - ReviewApe - https://www.reviewape.com/?p=5312

[ianmkeenan]

Rick Simpson – The Marijuana Cancer Cure

Rick Simpson – The Marijuana Cancer Cure:

Introduction to Marijuana

Hemp Oil

Creating and Distributing the Cure

Trouble with the Law

Marijuana Advocacy & Testimonials

Use and Dosage

Rick Simpson is known for his remarkable influence in the health and marijuana industry. Sometimes bad news can lead to golden opportunities, which is definitely the case in Rick’s situation. His personal battle with cancer took him down a path of discovering that marijuana cures cancer.

According to Simpson, it is hemp oil specifically that holds the cure to all forms of cancer, along with several other diseases. Due to him bringing to light marijuana’s potent cancer healing powers, he has helped change the lives of many people worldwide.

Introduction to Marijuana

Introduction to Marijuana – Image powered by Scienceoholic.com

Rick Simpson was born in 1949 in Canada. In 1997 he began to suffer from a brain injury that resulted in intense ringing in his ears. He tried all the medicine prescribed by doctors to no avail. One day he decided to give marijuana a try after watching a program about medical marijuana. After smoking weed, he noticed a huge relief that was far greater than any prescribed medication he used. Simpson went to his doctor to get a medical marijuana prescription but was denied.

Hemp Oil

Unfortunately, his condition grew worse over time. Remembering how smoking marijuana gave him relief, he began researching the effects of a cannabinoid concentrate in the form of an oil. Using the female flowers of marijuana plants he made an extraction that he could consume orally on a daily basis. This led to improved sleep, lower blood pressure, weight loss and an ability to experience a better quality of life.

In 2003 Rick received news that he had basal cell carcinoma skin cancer. The signs of this illness were visible on his body with cancer spots showing on his face and neck. This diagnosis changed his life and soon the lives of many others from that day on.

Rick started off with the traditional medical approach of getting surgery to help with the condition. However, this failed to get proper results, and cancer would reappear right after the surgery. After failed surgery attempts he decided to go with a different approach. He was already orally consuming oil taken from a cannabis plant for about a year for a different reason. However, now that he had cancer, he remembered hearing about THC found in cannabis having the ability to kill cancer in mice. Rick heard this report while listening to the radio in his car in Nova Scotia.

Hemp Oil – Image powered by Ameliasorganics.com

Studies coming from the University of Virginia also determined that multiple chemicals in marijuana served to fight cancerous tissue in mice and taken from them. Thinking about this information, Simpson thought to himself, why not try this for himself since apparently there has been success with mice.

Simpson had great experiences with hemp oil in the past with it alleviating pain, lowering high blood pressure and getting rid of headaches.

His strategy was to put the cannabis oil on the cancer spots using bandages that he rubbed the oil on. Rick left the bandages on the skin cancer for up to 4 days then removed it to check for progress. He was thrilled to see that the cancer spots were completely gone. It was clear that the cannabis oil had been a success and he was cured.

Creating and Distributing the Cure

After Rick’s great discovery he was eager to share the good news with his doctor; however, he was not greeted with listening ears. His doctors had no interest in the source behind his successful results and completely rejected it. Rick went as far as to reach out to the cancer organizations for help. Unfortunately, he was still met with deaf ears.

He was left with no choice but to venture out on his own.

At this point, he had a niche market he could focus on helping, so he started experimenting with growing marijuana in his own backyard to make hemp oil. Rick made this oil available at no charge to all who requested his help. His supporters continuously grew in numbers very quickly as the word spread about the cure.

Creating and Distributing the Cure – Image powered by Ballparkdispensary.com

He treated several people suffering from various skin conditions such as psoriasis and melanoma. Rick’s hemp oil was successful in cancer patients and diabetics alike. His treatments with multiple patients showed that to experience total healing, a dose of 60 grams of oil would be necessary for the most severe ailments.

Simpson is no medically trained expert and can’t provide substantiated proof of his claims. He is a passionate advocate who strongly believes in the power of marijuana because of his own experiences and numerous testimonials from other people.

Trouble with the Law

Rick’s kind heart and desire to help didn’t always go smoothly. He had to deal with his home being raided several times and more than 2,600 marijuana plants destroyed. Simpson was questioned about his activity many times by the Canadian police and eventually imprisoned.

Trouble with the Law – Image powered by Medicalcannabis.co.za

After being awarded “Freedom fighter of the year” by High Times magazine, Rick had yet another run-in with the Canadian police. This did not cause him to lose his momentum and drive to distribute this healing oil to others. He made the decision to move to Europe to escape being treated like a criminal in Canada. There he continued his great work producing his cannabis oil.

Marijuana Advocacy & Testimonials

His work has been so great that his story was in a documentary on YouTube, “Run From the Cure,” in 2008. This film does a fantastic job of documenting Simpson’s discovery as well as great knowledge of marijuana in general.

Over the course of several years, Rick’s hemp oil has been given to over 5,000 people, not including the large numbers of people worldwide who have used cannabis on their own to heal because of his story. These patients suffered from bacterial and viral diseases, glaucoma, warts, chronic pain, melanoma, leukemia, diabetes, and cancer. Around 70% of those treated were cured of cancer.

Even those who were too far along in their stage of cancer were at least able to experience a better quality of life before passing away.

Marijuana Advocacy & Testimonials – Image powered by Healthyhempoil.com

Simpson and other cannabis advocates have stated that they believe there is a Big Pharma/Big Government conspiracy to withhold any and all research or medical breakthroughs regarding how effective cannabis is for healing an array of conditions. Many believe the medical industry makes more money keeping people sick. Rather this is true or not, many are still waiting for the medical industry to back up the numerous claims testifying to the miraculous powers of cannabis in curing cancer.

To this day you can still easily find several testimonies from patients all over the media regarding Rick’s cannabis oil. One example is from 24-year-old Kristina Marie who was diagnosed with a brain tumor that the doctors said would be impossible to cure. Luckily for Kristina, she did not stop there and decided to try Rick’s cannabis oil treatment for her condition. She opted for this over chemotherapy, and it ended up being the right decision because her tumor has since decreased dramatically in size.

Both adults and children are benefiting from Rick’s treatment. One example of the oils powerful effects for children is a 7-year-old girl from Oregon, Mykayla Comstock, who battles leukemia.

Babies have even been reported to have successfully been treated using the cannabis oil. Doctor William Courtney was able to completely get rid of a serious brain tumor in an 8-month infant. This was all done only using hemp oil.

Use and Dosage

Rick provides a very specific regimen to follow for successful results. Patients require about 500 grams of top-notch totally dry marijuana buds in order to produce about 60 grams of his hemp oil. This dosage is good for a 90-day treatment. There are some cases where it may be necessary to increase the dosage up to about 120-180 grams, which is fine.

Rick’s oil can be smoked, ingested, vaporized, applied directly to the skin, mixed into products or used as a suppository.

According to Rick, it is best to stick with cannabis strains that contain the highest THC level. Keep in mind that for patients dealing with depression, Sativa is best. For all other diseases, Indica strains are best due to its ability to help the patient relax.

Three small intakes each day the size of a rice grain is all that is needed at first. Over time the dosage will double every four days until the patient is receiving 1 gram per day after a 5-week period.

Use and Dosage – Image powered by Blogsnow.com

While taking the cannabis oil in very large doses will not do any harm, patients can expect to experience extreme sleepiness. Once you have completed your treatment, it is suggested that patients continue consuming cannabis oil to make sure there is no chance of relapse of any kind.

Since this oil is successful at reducing high blood pressure, it is unnecessary to continue taking medications that lower blood pressure.

Rick has so generously offered a helping hand to the community to help cure a variety of ailments. His recommendations, details on how to make your own version of Rick Simpson’s Oil (RSO), usage and dosage for specific conditions can be found all over the media.

The post Rick Simpson – The Marijuana Cancer Cure appeared first on I Love Growing Marijuana.

[samiam03x]

How To Gather Split-Test Ideas For Your Copy Using Post-Conversion Questionnaires

Marketers often struggle to come up with new ideas and angles to improve their marketing campaigns.

So in this post, I’m going to show you an effective way of collecting the insights and ideas you need to create breakthroughs, by using post-conversion questionnaires.

Why I Started Using Post-Conversion Questionnaires in my Campaigns

A little while ago, I was helping some clients generate leads online with paid advertising.

We were operating in a fairly competitive niche, so I found myself constantly having to come up with new angles and ideas in order to keep my copy ‘fresh’ and to battle campaign fatigue.

After a while though, I ran out of ideas and I knew I had to go back and study my market in more detail.

However, this was a challenge.

There weren’t many resources online (e.g. online forums and blogs) that were available for my particular target market.

And I simply couldn’t rely on my clients to give me the information I needed.

My clients were too busy running their own businesses and even if they did have the time to speak to me, they would end up filtering information through their perspective and language, thereby defeating the whole point of the research.

What I needed was a way to listen to the market directly.

Now, at the time, I had call tracking software setup on the landing pages I had created for my client.

That way, I could track the number of people who called my client directly instead of submitting their details via the form on the landing page.

But the call tracking software had an unintentional benefit: it also recorded those phone calls and literally allowed me to listen into the conversations my market was having.

This seemed like the answer I needed.

Except there was one problem: only a very small percentage of leads ever called the number (less than 5%).

Most people simply submitted their details via the form on the page and waited to be followed up.

Since I didn’t have call recording setup for outbound calls on my client’s end (which would have been virtually impossible to do), I was missing out on an enormous number of conversations and in turn, the rich data I needed to improve my campaign.

It was then when I came up with an idea: Why not include an additional step in my funnel to capture information directly from the prospects that submitted their details on the landing page?

Well, that’s exactly what I did.

I added a brief, optional questionnaire after a prospect submitted their contact details.

Though the questionnaire was optional, 75-85% of people ended up filling it out (some in great detail).

This quickly gave me the information and insight I needed to come up with new ideas and angles in my campaigns.

And because these ideas came straight from the marketplace, I knew they each had a very good chance of succeeding.

Why the Questionnaire is Shown After the Conversion

Using questionnaires to survey leads and prospects is not a new technique by any means.

In fact, since Ryan Levesque released his book, ‘Ask’, the use of questionnaires has exploded across the world of internet marketing.

However, in most cases, questionnaires are placed before the conversion.

The reason for this is usually to increase the conversion rate by tailoring the funnel according to the answers provided by the prospect.

In our case, however, the primary goal of the questionnaire is to collect information, not boost conversions.

In fact, we do not want to alter the performance of the funnel at all until we have collected the information we need to make a well-informed change.

Now, another reason why we put the questionnaire after the conversion is because the people who convert tend to be the ‘hottest prospects.’

They resonate with the appeals in your copy, are motivated enough to take action and are therefore the ideal people to survey.

You may be asking then, “why don’t we put the questionnaire on the initial lead capture form?”

As mentioned before, we do not want to impact the performance of the funnel until we have collected the information we need, and adding more fields to a form will nearly always decrease the conversion rate.

Putting the questionnaire after conversion allows us to leave the conversion rate of the funnel untouched while still allowing us to collect the information we need to improve it over time.

Putting the questionnaire after a lead submits essential contact details allows us to collect information while retaining the performance of the funnel.

In practice, I’ve found that 75-85% of people converting end up answering the questionnaire anyway, even though it is optional, which provides more than enough data to work with.

75-85% of leads usually end up answering the questionnaire

Advantage Over Other Market Research Methods

Post-conversion questionnaires have a few advantages over other market research methods.

You can collect information on your target market very quickly. It should only take you around an hour to add an additional page with a questionnaire into your funnel. After it is setup, you can start collecting a significant amount of data on your target market very quickly. For example, if you have a funnel that generates 100 leads a week; you will end up with around 75 – 85 completed questionnaires after a week.

You can collect information for virtually no additional cost or effort. You are already spending money to generate leads with your funnel. The post-conversion questionnaire allows you to tap into this existing asset and capture the information you need at virtually no additional effort or cost.

You are collecting quality information. When someone converts (whether it’s to request a consult or download a lead magnet), they are in a state of action. They are consciously feeling the pains, frustrations and desires as demonstrated by their motivation to act. By capturing their thoughts while they are in this state, you will gather very accurate insights that can be used to recreate this state in other people in your target market.

What Questions to Ask

In your questionnaire, you can ask closed-ended questions to get a better idea of who the person filling it out is.

However, open-ended questions are what will end up providing the most useful information for improving your campaign.

Open-ended questions encourage people to express their problems, frustrations and desires in detail, without any constraints.

This is especially important because we want to not only capture what problems and desires our market has, but the way they articulate them.

Two open-ended questions I often like to use are:

Tell me a little about your situation

What is your biggest challenge with XYZ?

An example post-conversion questionnaire with closed and open-ended questions

“Tell me a little about your situation” is a very open-ended question that doesn’t specify what information is desired from the respondent.

It simply allows the prospect to talk about anything they think is relevant to their situation, whether positive or negative.

This could include how they ended up where they are now, their motivation for wanting to make a change, their current problems and frustrations, their goals or any other relevant details about their situation.

“What is your biggest challenge with XYZ” on the other hand, asks more specifically about the negative issues the prospect is experiencing.

The reason why we ask about the problems and challenges they are facing is two-fold.

Firstly, the human brain has evolved to react more strongly to negative stimuli than to positive stimuli. Pain can therefore often be a stronger motivator for action than wants and pleasures.

By uncovering what problems, pains and challenges our prospects are experiencing, we can use them in our copy to motivate them to buy our product or service as the solution.

Secondly, people often find it difficult to articulate exactly what it is they want in detail and with accuracy – especially if they have never achieved or experienced it.

However, people find it very easy to articulate their exact problems, pains, frustrations and challenges since they are experiencing it in the present.

How I Used Questionnaire Answers to Create New Copy

Here is a Facebook ad I ran to help a client generate first-time homebuyer leads:

The control ad

As you can see, the bulk of the copy is focused on an individual’s financial situation. For example, having limited savings for a down payment, poor credit score or a complicated employment situation.

I used the post-conversion questionnaire as shown in the previous section to gather new ideas and angles for the campaign.

Here are some actual answers to the question “Tell Me A Little About Your Situation” on the questionnaire:

Sample of real answers collected from a post-conversion questionnaire.

Even from this small sample of responses, you can see a variety of ideas, angles and phrases, including:

Being “tired of renting” and wanting a place of their own

Buying a house in order to “establish a base” and give their family a stable environment to live in

Battling against rising rent

Feeling “ready to buy”

Issues with their current landlord

Finally discovering the area they want to live in for the rest of their life and wanting to buy a home there

Wanting to buy but having financial barriers holding them back (not much money available for a down payment, low credit score, bankruptcy)

Already paying a lot for rent and wanting to use the money to pay off their own home instead

From the answers in the questionnaire, I was able to ‘feed’ some of the ideas back into the copy of a new test ad:

The new test ad

Here is a comparison of how the new ad (“TNew”) performed against the old (“TCon”):

How the new ad performed against the control.

The new ad performed well, achieving a similar cost per lead to the control after a short period of time (the cost per lead tended to stabilize after a few conversions and would stay at roughly the same cost for more than 50 conversions. So even though the number of conversions of the new ad at this point was far less than the control, I knew this ad was good).

Though I was not able to significantly reduce the cost per lead with the new ad, the fact that it performed similarly to the control ad despite containing different ideas, confirmed the effectiveness of the post-conversion questionnaire.

It also meant that I had a new converting ad which I could put into rotation to extend the life of my campaign while still maintaining my lead cost targets (since the ROI on the leads was already very high for my client, making sure I could extend the life of the campaign as much as possible and deliver a consistent volume of leads, actually mattered more than decreasing the cost per lead).

Conclusion

Post-conversion questionnaires can be used in virtually any online marketing campaign that requires people to convert. They are a quick and effective tool for discovering new angles, ideas and ways of articulating your market’s hopes, fears and dreams.

Try adding them to your campaigns today. It will only take an hour or two and the information you gain from them will be well worth the time spent.

About the Author: Nathaniel is a digital marketer who specializes in lead generation with Facebook Ads. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

http://ift.tt/2mu9gz5 from MarketingRSS http://ift.tt/2mQiIxn via Youtube

[marie85marketing]

How To Gather Split-Test Ideas For Your Copy Using Post-Conversion Questionnaires

Marketers often struggle to come up with new ideas and angles to improve their marketing campaigns.

So in this post, I’m going to show you an effective way of collecting the insights and ideas you need to create breakthroughs, by using post-conversion questionnaires.

Why I Started Using Post-Conversion Questionnaires in my Campaigns

A little while ago, I was helping some clients generate leads online with paid advertising.

We were operating in a fairly competitive niche, so I found myself constantly having to come up with new angles and ideas in order to keep my copy ‘fresh’ and to battle campaign fatigue.

After a while though, I ran out of ideas and I knew I had to go back and study my market in more detail.

However, this was a challenge.

There weren’t many resources online (e.g. online forums and blogs) that were available for my particular target market.

And I simply couldn’t rely on my clients to give me the information I needed.

My clients were too busy running their own businesses and even if they did have the time to speak to me, they would end up filtering information through their perspective and language, thereby defeating the whole point of the research.

What I needed was a way to listen to the market directly.

Now, at the time, I had call tracking software setup on the landing pages I had created for my client.

That way, I could track the number of people who called my client directly instead of submitting their details via the form on the landing page.

But the call tracking software had an unintentional benefit: it also recorded those phone calls and literally allowed me to listen into the conversations my market was having.

This seemed like the answer I needed.

Except there was one problem: only a very small percentage of leads ever called the number (less than 5%).

Most people simply submitted their details via the form on the page and waited to be followed up.

Since I didn’t have call recording setup for outbound calls on my client’s end (which would have been virtually impossible to do), I was missing out on an enormous number of conversations and in turn, the rich data I needed to improve my campaign.

It was then when I came up with an idea: Why not include an additional step in my funnel to capture information directly from the prospects that submitted their details on the landing page?

Well, that’s exactly what I did.

I added a brief, optional questionnaire after a prospect submitted their contact details.

Though the questionnaire was optional, 75-85% of people ended up filling it out (some in great detail).

This quickly gave me the information and insight I needed to come up with new ideas and angles in my campaigns.

And because these ideas came straight from the marketplace, I knew they each had a very good chance of succeeding.

Why the Questionnaire is Shown After the Conversion

Using questionnaires to survey leads and prospects is not a new technique by any means.

In fact, since Ryan Levesque released his book, ‘Ask’, the use of questionnaires has exploded across the world of internet marketing.

However, in most cases, questionnaires are placed before the conversion.

The reason for this is usually to increase the conversion rate by tailoring the funnel according to the answers provided by the prospect.

In our case, however, the primary goal of the questionnaire is to collect information, not boost conversions.

In fact, we do not want to alter the performance of the funnel at all until we have collected the information we need to make a well-informed change.

Now, another reason why we put the questionnaire after the conversion is because the people who convert tend to be the ‘hottest prospects.’

They resonate with the appeals in your copy, are motivated enough to take action and are therefore the ideal people to survey.

You may be asking then, “why don’t we put the questionnaire on the initial lead capture form?”

As mentioned before, we do not want to impact the performance of the funnel until we have collected the information we need, and adding more fields to a form will nearly always decrease the conversion rate.

Putting the questionnaire after conversion allows us to leave the conversion rate of the funnel untouched while still allowing us to collect the information we need to improve it over time.

Putting the questionnaire after a lead submits essential contact details allows us to collect information while retaining the performance of the funnel.

In practice, I’ve found that 75-85% of people converting end up answering the questionnaire anyway, even though it is optional, which provides more than enough data to work with.

75-85% of leads usually end up answering the questionnaire

Advantage Over Other Market Research Methods

Post-conversion questionnaires have a few advantages over other market research methods.

You can collect information on your target market very quickly. It should only take you around an hour to add an additional page with a questionnaire into your funnel. After it is setup, you can start collecting a significant amount of data on your target market very quickly. For example, if you have a funnel that generates 100 leads a week; you will end up with around 75 – 85 completed questionnaires after a week.

You can collect information for virtually no additional cost or effort. You are already spending money to generate leads with your funnel. The post-conversion questionnaire allows you to tap into this existing asset and capture the information you need at virtually no additional effort or cost.

You are collecting quality information. When someone converts (whether it’s to request a consult or download a lead magnet), they are in a state of action. They are consciously feeling the pains, frustrations and desires as demonstrated by their motivation to act. By capturing their thoughts while they are in this state, you will gather very accurate insights that can be used to recreate this state in other people in your target market.

What Questions to Ask

In your questionnaire, you can ask closed-ended questions to get a better idea of who the person filling it out is.

However, open-ended questions are what will end up providing the most useful information for improving your campaign.

Open-ended questions encourage people to express their problems, frustrations and desires in detail, without any constraints.

This is especially important because we want to not only capture what problems and desires our market has, but the way they articulate them.

Two open-ended questions I often like to use are:

Tell me a little about your situation

What is your biggest challenge with XYZ?

An example post-conversion questionnaire with closed and open-ended questions

“Tell me a little about your situation” is a very open-ended question that doesn’t specify what information is desired from the respondent.

It simply allows the prospect to talk about anything they think is relevant to their situation, whether positive or negative.

This could include how they ended up where they are now, their motivation for wanting to make a change, their current problems and frustrations, their goals or any other relevant details about their situation.

“What is your biggest challenge with XYZ” on the other hand, asks more specifically about the negative issues the prospect is experiencing.

The reason why we ask about the problems and challenges they are facing is two-fold.

Firstly, the human brain has evolved to react more strongly to negative stimuli than to positive stimuli. Pain can therefore often be a stronger motivator for action than wants and pleasures.

By uncovering what problems, pains and challenges our prospects are experiencing, we can use them in our copy to motivate them to buy our product or service as the solution.

Secondly, people often find it difficult to articulate exactly what it is they want in detail and with accuracy – especially if they have never achieved or experienced it.

However, people find it very easy to articulate their exact problems, pains, frustrations and challenges since they are experiencing it in the present.

How I Used Questionnaire Answers to Create New Copy

Here is a Facebook ad I ran to help a client generate first-time homebuyer leads:

The control ad

As you can see, the bulk of the copy is focused on an individual’s financial situation. For example, having limited savings for a down payment, poor credit score or a complicated employment situation.

I used the post-conversion questionnaire as shown in the previous section to gather new ideas and angles for the campaign.

Here are some actual answers to the question “Tell Me A Little About Your Situation” on the questionnaire:

Sample of real answers collected from a post-conversion questionnaire.

Even from this small sample of responses, you can see a variety of ideas, angles and phrases, including:

Being “tired of renting” and wanting a place of their own

Buying a house in order to “establish a base” and give their family a stable environment to live in

Battling against rising rent

Feeling “ready to buy”

Issues with their current landlord

Finally discovering the area they want to live in for the rest of their life and wanting to buy a home there

Wanting to buy but having financial barriers holding them back (not much money available for a down payment, low credit score, bankruptcy)

Already paying a lot for rent and wanting to use the money to pay off their own home instead

From the answers in the questionnaire, I was able to ‘feed’ some of the ideas back into the copy of a new test ad:

The new test ad

Here is a comparison of how the new ad (“TNew”) performed against the old (“TCon”):

How the new ad performed against the control.

The new ad performed well, achieving a similar cost per lead to the control after a short period of time (the cost per lead tended to stabilize after a few conversions and would stay at roughly the same cost for more than 50 conversions. So even though the number of conversions of the new ad at this point was far less than the control, I knew this ad was good).

Though I was not able to significantly reduce the cost per lead with the new ad, the fact that it performed similarly to the control ad despite containing different ideas, confirmed the effectiveness of the post-conversion questionnaire.

It also meant that I had a new converting ad which I could put into rotation to extend the life of my campaign while still maintaining my lead cost targets (since the ROI on the leads was already very high for my client, making sure I could extend the life of the campaign as much as possible and deliver a consistent volume of leads, actually mattered more than decreasing the cost per lead).

Conclusion

Post-conversion questionnaires can be used in virtually any online marketing campaign that requires people to convert. They are a quick and effective tool for discovering new angles, ideas and ways of articulating your market’s hopes, fears and dreams.

Try adding them to your campaigns today. It will only take an hour or two and the information you gain from them will be well worth the time spent.

About the Author: Nathaniel is a digital marketer who specializes in lead generation with Facebook Ads. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

[ericsburden-blog]

How To Gather Split-Test Ideas For Your Copy Using Post-Conversion Questionnaires

Marketers often struggle to come up with new ideas and angles to improve their marketing campaigns.

So in this post, I’m going to show you an effective way of collecting the insights and ideas you need to create breakthroughs, by using post-conversion questionnaires.

Why I Started Using Post-Conversion Questionnaires in my Campaigns

A little while ago, I was helping some clients generate leads online with paid advertising.

We were operating in a fairly competitive niche, so I found myself constantly having to come up with new angles and ideas in order to keep my copy ‘fresh’ and to battle campaign fatigue.

After a while though, I ran out of ideas and I knew I had to go back and study my market in more detail.

However, this was a challenge.

There weren’t many resources online (e.g. online forums and blogs) that were available for my particular target market.

And I simply couldn’t rely on my clients to give me the information I needed.

My clients were too busy running their own businesses and even if they did have the time to speak to me, they would end up filtering information through their perspective and language, thereby defeating the whole point of the research.

What I needed was a way to listen to the market directly.

Now, at the time, I had call tracking software setup on the landing pages I had created for my client.

That way, I could track the number of people who called my client directly instead of submitting their details via the form on the landing page.

But the call tracking software had an unintentional benefit: it also recorded those phone calls and literally allowed me to listen into the conversations my market was having.

This seemed like the answer I needed.

Except there was one problem: only a very small percentage of leads ever called the number (less than 5%).

Most people simply submitted their details via the form on the page and waited to be followed up.

Since I didn’t have call recording setup for outbound calls on my client’s end (which would have been virtually impossible to do), I was missing out on an enormous number of conversations and in turn, the rich data I needed to improve my campaign.

It was then when I came up with an idea: Why not include an additional step in my funnel to capture information directly from the prospects that submitted their details on the landing page?

Well, that’s exactly what I did.

I added a brief, optional questionnaire after a prospect submitted their contact details.

Though the questionnaire was optional, 75-85% of people ended up filling it out (some in great detail).

This quickly gave me the information and insight I needed to come up with new ideas and angles in my campaigns.

And because these ideas came straight from the marketplace, I knew they each had a very good chance of succeeding.

Why the Questionnaire is Shown After the Conversion

Using questionnaires to survey leads and prospects is not a new technique by any means.

In fact, since Ryan Levesque released his book, ‘Ask’, the use of questionnaires has exploded across the world of internet marketing.

However, in most cases, questionnaires are placed before the conversion.

The reason for this is usually to increase the conversion rate by tailoring the funnel according to the answers provided by the prospect.

In our case, however, the primary goal of the questionnaire is to collect information, not boost conversions.

In fact, we do not want to alter the performance of the funnel at all until we have collected the information we need to make a well-informed change.

Now, another reason why we put the questionnaire after the conversion is because the people who convert tend to be the ‘hottest prospects.’

They resonate with the appeals in your copy, are motivated enough to take action and are therefore the ideal people to survey.

You may be asking then, “why don’t we put the questionnaire on the initial lead capture form?”

As mentioned before, we do not want to impact the performance of the funnel until we have collected the information we need, and adding more fields to a form will nearly always decrease the conversion rate.

Putting the questionnaire after conversion allows us to leave the conversion rate of the funnel untouched while still allowing us to collect the information we need to improve it over time.

Putting the questionnaire after a lead submits essential contact details allows us to collect information while retaining the performance of the funnel.

In practice, I’ve found that 75-85% of people converting end up answering the questionnaire anyway, even though it is optional, which provides more than enough data to work with.

75-85% of leads usually end up answering the questionnaire

Advantage Over Other Market Research Methods

Post-conversion questionnaires have a few advantages over other market research methods.

You can collect information on your target market very quickly. It should only take you around an hour to add an additional page with a questionnaire into your funnel. After it is setup, you can start collecting a significant amount of data on your target market very quickly. For example, if you have a funnel that generates 100 leads a week; you will end up with around 75 – 85 completed questionnaires after a week.

You can collect information for virtually no additional cost or effort. You are already spending money to generate leads with your funnel. The post-conversion questionnaire allows you to tap into this existing asset and capture the information you need at virtually no additional effort or cost.

You are collecting quality information. When someone converts (whether it’s to request a consult or download a lead magnet), they are in a state of action. They are consciously feeling the pains, frustrations and desires as demonstrated by their motivation to act. By capturing their thoughts while they are in this state, you will gather very accurate insights that can be used to recreate this state in other people in your target market.

What Questions to Ask

In your questionnaire, you can ask closed-ended questions to get a better idea of who the person filling it out is.

However, open-ended questions are what will end up providing the most useful information for improving your campaign.

Open-ended questions encourage people to express their problems, frustrations and desires in detail, without any constraints.

This is especially important because we want to not only capture what problems and desires our market has, but the way they articulate them.

Two open-ended questions I often like to use are:

Tell me a little about your situation

What is your biggest challenge with XYZ?

An example post-conversion questionnaire with closed and open-ended questions

“Tell me a little about your situation” is a very open-ended question that doesn’t specify what information is desired from the respondent.

It simply allows the prospect to talk about anything they think is relevant to their situation, whether positive or negative.

This could include how they ended up where they are now, their motivation for wanting to make a change, their current problems and frustrations, their goals or any other relevant details about their situation.

“What is your biggest challenge with XYZ” on the other hand, asks more specifically about the negative issues the prospect is experiencing.

The reason why we ask about the problems and challenges they are facing is two-fold.

Firstly, the human brain has evolved to react more strongly to negative stimuli than to positive stimuli. Pain can therefore often be a stronger motivator for action than wants and pleasures.

By uncovering what problems, pains and challenges our prospects are experiencing, we can use them in our copy to motivate them to buy our product or service as the solution.

Secondly, people often find it difficult to articulate exactly what it is they want in detail and with accuracy – especially if they have never achieved or experienced it.

However, people find it very easy to articulate their exact problems, pains, frustrations and challenges since they are experiencing it in the present.

How I Used Questionnaire Answers to Create New Copy

Here is a Facebook ad I ran to help a client generate first-time homebuyer leads:

The control ad

As you can see, the bulk of the copy is focused on an individual’s financial situation. For example, having limited savings for a down payment, poor credit score or a complicated employment situation.

I used the post-conversion questionnaire as shown in the previous section to gather new ideas and angles for the campaign.

Here are some actual answers to the question “Tell Me A Little About Your Situation” on the questionnaire:

Sample of real answers collected from a post-conversion questionnaire.

Even from this small sample of responses, you can see a variety of ideas, angles and phrases, including:

Being “tired of renting” and wanting a place of their own

Buying a house in order to “establish a base” and give their family a stable environment to live in

Battling against rising rent

Feeling “ready to buy”

Issues with their current landlord

Finally discovering the area they want to live in for the rest of their life and wanting to buy a home there

Wanting to buy but having financial barriers holding them back (not much money available for a down payment, low credit score, bankruptcy)

Already paying a lot for rent and wanting to use the money to pay off their own home instead

From the answers in the questionnaire, I was able to ‘feed’ some of the ideas back into the copy of a new test ad:

The new test ad

Here is a comparison of how the new ad (“TNew”) performed against the old (“TCon”):

How the new ad performed against the control.

The new ad performed well, achieving a similar cost per lead to the control after a short period of time (the cost per lead tended to stabilize after a few conversions and would stay at roughly the same cost for more than 50 conversions. So even though the number of conversions of the new ad at this point was far less than the control, I knew this ad was good).

Though I was not able to significantly reduce the cost per lead with the new ad, the fact that it performed similarly to the control ad despite containing different ideas, confirmed the effectiveness of the post-conversion questionnaire.

It also meant that I had a new converting ad which I could put into rotation to extend the life of my campaign while still maintaining my lead cost targets (since the ROI on the leads was already very high for my client, making sure I could extend the life of the campaign as much as possible and deliver a consistent volume of leads, actually mattered more than decreasing the cost per lead).

Conclusion

Post-conversion questionnaires can be used in virtually any online marketing campaign that requires people to convert. They are a quick and effective tool for discovering new angles, ideas and ways of articulating your market’s hopes, fears and dreams.

Try adding them to your campaigns today. It will only take an hour or two and the information you gain from them will be well worth the time spent.

About the Author: Nathaniel is a digital marketer who specializes in lead generation with Facebook Ads. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

How To Gather Split-Test Ideas For Your Copy Using Post-Conversion Questionnaires