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typewriterghcst · 5 years ago

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Title: Leave Us Your Stardust Rating: G like all my other fics l m ao Characters: Natoru, babby Lune, Natori. Mentions of other characters. Words: 2730-ish Summary: The World can be quite an intimidating, tough place for a seven-year-old, particularly after the sun goes down for the first time. Written for the 2020 TCR Birthday Bash, in particular the ‘Ghosts’ prompt. Notes: This is chock full of headcanons regarding these three, particularly during Lune’s childhood, so uh. Hopefully someone else finds this interesting or amusing like I do orz I will admit I’m hesitant on Natoru’s portrayal here because I’m not sure how most people interpret her (or him, if you prefer the dub, aha). I haven’t gotten the chance to write her that often on my RP blog, so this kinda feels to me like jumping headfirst into a shallow pool

&&&

Natoru plays a lot of roles. She is at once first-line defense and confidante, exorcist and companion. She weaves wild stories and tall tales while battling and eradicating the monsters that manage to sneak out of their imaginary environments to threaten her little ward’s security. She takes care of spiders and hornets. Checks the closet for less rational pests. Peers under the bed each night to shoo out the monsters, too.

It’s because of this, she thinks to herself later once her wits finally arrive, that she ends up being very gently nudged awake by a visibly shaken charcoal-colored kitten in the middle of the night during an extended visit to a neighboring but distant kingdom (the queen’s original home, in fact, a detail that still brings Natoru no small amount of confusion).

“...Natoru..?” Lune sounds hopeful but timid.

“Ehhh.” It’s vaguely questioning, she rationalizes, if a little muffled. She hasn’t quite found the motivation to lift her face from her sleepy haze just yet.

“Can I… can I sleep in here?”

“Why do y’ wanna sleep in ‘ere..?”

Lune fidgets, plays with the edges of his sleeves. “...be… because there’s a ghost in my room.”

Oh. It takes at least a solid minute for that childish (albeit straightforward, she’ll give him that) reasoning to sink in, but once it does, Natoru realizes she’s not getting off the hook that easily. Finally resigning herself to being awake and active again, she hauls herself up from her face-down, torpid position and searches for Lune in the darkness, rubbing at her eyes sleepily.

“Should I go throw him out?”

It takes Lune some time to answer, and when he does, he stares down at his feet as he speaks. “...N-No. I’d rather just stay in here.”

“Eh? How come?”

“...b-because… um. What if… what if the ghosts here are stronger than the ones at home?”

“There are no ghosts stronger than me,” Natoru brags. What a more sweet-natured, maternal cat might have claimed only in the interest of reassuring Lune, she seems to wholly believe, and not for the first time it becomes obvious just why the kitten has taken such a shine to her.

“Really..? How do you know?”

Natoru doesn’t falter, patting her chest with one paw and planting the other on her hip.

"Because I'm the strongest," she answers matter-of-factly.

Lune, still standing at the edge of the bed she'd chosen (though now noticeably with a straighter posture than before), seems to spend some time thinking that over. Finally, hesitantly, he says, “But this isn’t home. What if the ghosts here are stronger than the ones you know? What if the dark makes them stronger?”

Natoru pauses thoughtfully, but ultimately shakes her head. “Nah. I’ve been all over, Lune. And I was born in the human world-- it gets dark there, too. Still no match for me~” She gives him a sunny smile, patently cute as it always is because of her soft, chubby face, but the undercurrent of chaos can not be denied.

What had been a gradual and noticeable decrease in his fear appears to reach a plateau; Lune is convinced, his tail and ears perking back up.

“I’m so grateful! You’re super cool, Natoru!”

“Yep,” Natoru agrees as she hops off her bed to join him on their trek back to his room.

&&&

Lune begins to trail behind her the closer to his guest room they approach, but she neglects to comment on it. Instead, she tosses the beaded curtain in the doorway aside like a particularly bothersome obstacle, and strolls inside. In stark contrast, Lune tiptoes in behind her, looking furtively from one corner of the room to the next as if he expects to be ambushed. (Well, perhaps he does.)

“Okay, Ghost, you had your fun!” Natoru starts as boldly as she can, paws on her hips. “How’s that one song go? You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here! It’s bedtime for Lune.” Then, a little quieter but just as determined, and in a smug tone that shows she absolutely relishes saying it, “And if you don’t listen, then I’m gonna kick you in the head.”

To Lune, she adds, “That’s another great song. Recommend it.”

“It’s about kicking monsters in the head..?”

“Yeah,” Natoru says with a cheerful, heedless shrug.

The two of them are met with a stifling silence afterwards, as Natoru expected, but still she waits for Lune to give his approval. Creeping out from behind her, he pads softly further into the room, one, two steps at a time, again scrutinizing the corners. In the end, he doesn’t turn directly to face her, most likely mindful of the darkened void beneath the bed behind him, but he does look back to her.

“...will you check the bed and closet too..?”

“Of course.”

&&&

It’s after he’s tucked back into his own bed that Lune asks, “It gets dark in the human world?”

“Every night.”

“How long does a night last?”

Natoru pauses there.

“...I don’t remember.” She does remember it feeling quite long sometimes, though. It doesn’t seem pertinent to tell Lune. “Time feels different in the human world.”

“How so?”

Again, she pauses, this time in thought more so than in uncharacteristic caution.

The truth is, she thinks, maybe it’s not that time feels different in the human world, but simply that she had once been different. A long time ago, before she came to the Cat Kingdom. Those memories are odd— they don’t fit like they should. She thinks sometimes it may be akin to trying to play one of Natori’s beloved records in a CD player.

“It’s different because you can tell time has passed just by looking around at the sky and the ground, but it doesn’t actually feel like time has passed. It’s disorienting.”

“The ground changes, too?”

“Yeah!” She chirps. “Sometimes it snows, or it rains. Then you get mud. That stuff’s tons of fun.”

“I’ve seen pictures of it,” Lune starts thoughtfully. “It looks messy.”

“Mm. Natori would have a fit if you discovered how fun it is, too.”

“Maybe I’ll get to play with it, too, then. Someday.”

“Probably! You’ll have your own adventures in the human world, eventually.”

“I hope so,” Lune starts. “It sounds like such a funny place.”

Whatever Natoru might have planned to say to that, no doubt to agree, to tell him of the other oddities abound in the human world, it’s lost in obscurity, as, of all cats, Natori seems to see fit to enter at that time, peeking in through the beaded doorway with a look of subdued disapproval. In some distant part of her brain, the part that’s always faintly amused at her coworker’s finicky quirks, Natoru briefly entertains the idea that perhaps he’d been supernaturally summoned by the talk of mud.

“What on earth are the two of you doing awake at this hour..?”

Natoru answers easily enough, tone blithe as ever. “Don’t look at me, Lune’s the one who dragged me out of bed ‘cause of a ghost.”

Judging from Lune’s offended expression in return, he’s not at all appreciative of his idol throwing him under the bus. Natori, also, regards her with a disapproving frown, paws settling at his hips. To herself, Natoru thinks his current countenance lines up pretty solidly with that of the quintessential, matronly governess.

“Natoru, don’t go blaming your foible on the child.”

“But he did wake me up because of a ghost,” Natoru protests.

It’s at this exchange that Lune’s indignation seems to fade, so that he appears relatively chastened, shamed. “...I’m sorry, Natori, I did wake her up for that.”

Natori seems to… deflate, almost, padding to Lune’s bedside with a sigh. “It’s nothing that warrants an apology, my prince. You’re in no trouble.” Then, while busily straightening the crocheted blanket atop the comforter, “...another ghost, then..?”

Lune’s embarrassed silence says it all, he supposes. So it appears then that Natori decides to move past it without comment in response. A phase, he tells himself, brought about by recent stressors, and one that will fade as they do.

“Well. It is quite late, and there’s an early morning ahead of us all. We should all be more rested, you know. This isn’t the night for tall tales.”

“Hey, speaking of, how come you’re awake, Natori?” Natoru starts shrewdly.

An inquiry the grey cat was clearly not prepared for, as his first response to it is to open his mouth to voice his answer… only to close it again with a light snap once he realizes either he has no suitable excuse or that that suitable excuse is tremendously weak in theory.

“...It’s not important,” he eventually settles on, formal, demure. Leaving precious little room for followup clarifications, though he must know by now that such a thing will not stop Natoru.

“Natori, have you ever been to the human world?” Lune asks.

“Yes, occasionally,” Natori replies, head canted just slightly in curiosity at where Lune’s evident investigation is going.

“Do you have a favorite thing about it?”

“A favorite thing? Well, let me think…”

After a moment, all too aware of Lune’s expectant gaze on him and doing his best to ignore Natoru’s amused, knowing stare (yes, Natoru, he realizes he’s being massively hypocritical right now), Natori seems to decide on, “I suppose I’d say it’s probably the scenery— er, the variety in it, in particular.”

Lune nods excitedly. “The variety! That intrigues me so much, Natori. I’ve seen the pictures of the forests and mountains and the oceans— they’re all so huge, Natori, aren’t they? I can’t imagine how big the human world must be to have multiple oceans in it..!”

“I do imagine it must be hard for you,” Natori agrees indulgently with a laugh. Then, a touch diffidently, “...having seen but a fraction of it myself, I must admit it’s rather difficult for me, as well, at times.” His attention wanders to Natoru, who is still lounging propped up on her paws on the end of Lune’s bed like a proper house cat. She wears a thoughtful, somewhat faraway expression, and he wonders what it is she’s thinking of. But, unobtrusive and respectful as ever, Natori doesn’t pry. Instead, he asks, “Did you shoo out the ghost, then?”

Natoru snaps out of her apparent reverie, nodding a time or two and waving her paw in disregard. “Oh, yeah, he’s toast.” And to Lune, “I scared him off, didn’t I?”

“Yup! You said you’d kick him in the head if he came back.”

Ah, that earns her another long-suffering look from Natori, though he doesn’t voice his disapproval this time. Natoru just gives him another of her patented sunny smiles.

“...Well,” Natori starts readily. “If that’s the case, I think that’s enough ill-timed chatter to last us the night. Morning will arrive before you know it, and I’ll not oblige any requests to sleep in.” Spoken while gently tugging the comforter up over Lune’s shoulders, now that the crocheted blanket has been righted.

“Can I ask one last question, Natori?”

“Yes,” Natori answers primly, somewhat absently, if his concentration on Lune’s already straightened bedcovers is anything to go by.

“It’s about the human world again.” And there Lune hesitates, at least until Natori gives another acknowledging noise. “I keep reading about... how big the human world is, and you and Natoru say it is, too. And— and all the stuff that’s in it, things you can’t see here. Do you think… I mean, because it’s so… There’s so much in it, so do you think… someone could go there, but eventually run out of things to see?”

His voice has lowered to be so soft his two companions nearly miss his question in its entirety, and it along with his insistence on keeping his gaze glued to some indeterminate spot to his side tells them both this line of questioning is not just a child’s rambling, all-encompassing curiosity. Because of this, it seems the two of them struggle for an answer for some time— one that must be reassuring and optimistic, but also can not conclusively discuss the issue. It hasn’t been named yet; it has yet to be spoken aloud to Lune, and it is not the place of the royal advisor nor their vaguely-defined assistant to do so.

Paws lingering over the plush comforter where he’s folded it over Lune’s shoulders, Natori finally replies, timidly, “...Anything is possible.”

“Sure, there’s a lot to see. But nothing beats good old home,” is Natoru’s helpful addition. “A cat’s bound to get homesick at some point.”

Lune doesn’t respond for a few long minutes, but neither Natori nor Natoru move to prompt or hurry him, even when the silence begins to feel acutely oppressive, and Natoru almost wishes a real ghost would break the tension. Eventually, however, Lune gives a very small sigh, and his attention wanders from his earlier inconsequential spot to Natori’s face. It’s not quite his more usual bright and inquisitive demeanor, but it’s at least a step away from the nervous reserve he’d been exhibiting just moments before.

“...I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Yes. It’s certainly a fascinating place, but it’s no Cat Kingdom. The comforts of familiarity compel all of us to look homeward at least occasionally.”

Lune seems to think that over for a moment, glancing down to the hem of the blanket covering him once (Natoru thinks he must be imagining his own bed back at home, and his colorful bedroom, eternally bathed in sunlight). This time, when he looks to the two of them, it’s with a decidedly more self-assured air.

“Okay! So I’ll stay as familiar as I possibly can!”

Natoru laughs— she can’t help it. It’s such an endearingly straightforward conclusion to come to. Natori, however… she notices the way his expression tenses, the conflicted, nervous debate he must be waging on the inside. Lune has taken away the wrong message from all this, and it should be addressed and amended, but... it’s only getting later, and Natori had entered the conversation with a chiding lecture about the late hour. He looks tired, too, Natoru notes to herself, probably a crucial trigger for his indecisiveness.

“You got it, Lune,” she decides to chime in, pushing herself up onto her haunches now. “But I think it’s time to stick a fork in this one, because I’m ready to go back to dreamland.”

Lune’s eyes light up further. “Oh! Maybe I’ll dream of the human world.”

“Maybe!”

Natori seems to just accept this abrupt left turn in the conversation in his usual yielding way, but he does see fit to add, in a soft tone that comes perhaps dangerously close to pleading, “...Lune… it’s all well and good to desire to remain... recognizable, but…”

There he dithers for some time, at a loss for what he wants to say or how to say it, most likely, as he utters numerous false starts before finally appearing to give up. Instead, lips straightening to a thin line, he fixes the kitten with a sort of wistfully helpless smile, and gives a comically uncharacteristic shrug.

“...Well. It’s late, as we’ve all pointed out. Goodnight, my prince. Now that your room has been cleared of its phantoms, please don’t dawdle on your way back to the Land of Nod. The sun will rise before you know it.”

“I won’t, Natori.”

Natori inclines his head once in wordless approval as he turns to leave, gaze also lingering meaningfully on Natoru (one she again only returns a blithe smile to), before he leaves in much the same natural way he’d first arrived. Natoru takes the opportunity to hop off Lune’s bed and dust herself off, though even her own reasoning for doing so escapes her. Lune, meanwhile, appears somewhat thoughtful, if distantly uncertain.

“Is it really so close to morning? I’m sorry for waking you, a-and for keeping you up all this time.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. I’ll let you in on a secret, actually—” Here she glances behind her to confirm that Natori has, indeed, left, before continuing in a hushed but shrewdly amused manner, “I know Natori said he wouldn’t let us sleep in, but just keep in mind that what your dad says goes, and he hasn’t seen a morning in years.”

And so it was that Natoru gained another point from the child prince to set in her ‘cool’ pile.

#the cat returns #tcr birthday bash #i'm like two months too late but g o d i finally finished one #throws confetti #i originally had a much different idea for this fic thinking emoji #it would have been quite a bit longer #and i still like the idea so i may just Give In and write a whole other fic with this same basic premise but with a different ending and #Point #lmao

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haberdashing · 6 years ago

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A Bundle Of Questions (3/?)

Crowley suddenly loses his memory, which would be trouble enough if what he’d forgotten hadn’t happened to include a number of very pertinent tidbits about his current lifestyle and state of existence.

Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5

on AO3

After a moment, Raphael took a deep breath (that he didn’t strictly need, of course, but sometimes deep breaths were worth taking just the same) and composed himself a bit further, shrugging Aziraphale’s arm off of his shoulder and taking a step back to face the angel.

“Right. So. If you don’t know anything more about that-”

Aziraphale still couldn’t see Raphael’s eyes through the sunglasses, but he could swear he felt their gaze directed his way just the same, still sizing him up as he struggled to figure out his current situation.

“-I guess I should get to know this place better. Whatever ‘this place�� is.”

Aziraphale opened his mouth to respond, though he wasn’t entirely sure what his response was going to be, but Raphael either didn’t notice or didn’t care, as his own speech continued to plunge ahead without even a hint of hesitation.

“It’s awfully dark in here, for starters. Is that supposed to be some sort of mood lighting, or did someone forget to pay-”

“It’s because you’re wearing your sunglasses inside.” There was definitely a touch of exasperation in Aziraphale’s voice, because that seemed like the sort of thing that should have been easy enough to figure out with a bit of sitting and thinking things through rather than just throwing yet another question Aziraphale’s way, and perhaps a hint of satisfaction as well, as the angel had privately wondered for some time whether Crowley’s sunglasses actually affected his vision like regular sunglasses do for some time and only now, under some rather unlikely circumstances, had his answer.

“I am? That seems a little daft, doesn’t it?”

Aziraphale privately filed that remark away to be saved for the “to gently tease Crowley about when he’s back to normal (because he will be)” list that he suspected might be adding up at a rather quick rate if this went on for much longer.

“I mean, you can always... take them off, if you’d like.” Aziraphale mimed the gesture of taking sunglasses off, but didn’t dare to actually touch them; he got the sense that Crowley’s sunglasses were practically as much a part of him as his actual body was by now, and he would never think to touch them without getting explicit approval beforehand.

Raphael mimicked Aziraphale’s gesture and removed the sunglasses, letting them fall to the floor without giving them a second glance.

(Crowley wouldn’t have been quite so casual with them, Aziraphale knew. Crowley cared about his sunglasses, and while he always had plenty of spares handy he did his best to avoid having to actually use them. Just dropping them on the floor like that could get them scratched--or worse, cracked--though Aziraphale didn’t look too closely to assess the actual damage done.)

“Ah, yes, that’s better. Can actually see what I’m doing now, without those blasted things on. Now, let’s see...”

Raphael began to scan his surroundings in a manner that felt both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, somehow, and not altogether pleasant, for that matter.

“Got the telly.” Raphael pointed to it, and while it stayed off, Aziraphale could swear that some extra bits of static danced across the screen for a moment there. “Very sensible. Got to keep up with what the humans are doing.”

The way Raphael said “humans” was wrong. It felt so dismissive, so condescending, writing off all of humanity with a single tone of voice. He hadn’t ever talked about humans like that, had he?

Raphael stepped back a bit to get a better look at the chair upon which he had been sprawled out just a few minutes earlier. “Chair’s a bit ostentatious, but not in a bad way. I like it, really.”

“You should.” Aziraphale couldn’t help but add.

Raphael raised a single eyebrow, asking a question without having to say a word in the process.

“You’re the one who picked it out in the first place.”

Raphael nodded slightly, keeping his gaze fixed on the chair for a few more seconds before moving on.

“Over there... is that a greenhouse?”

“It is, yes.”

“Fascinating. Whose idea was that one?”

“Yours again. The greenhouse was all you.”

“Huh. Don’t see what’s so interesting about a bunch of plants-” Another thing to tease Crowley about someday right there. Add that to the list. “-but alright, I believe you.”

Raphael took a few steps towards the greenhouse before apparently changing his mind and heading back towards Aziraphale, who for his part was silently relieved that Raphael’s examination of the greenhouse hadn’t gone much further. Even the few steps that he had taken towards it had been enough to get the plants visibly shaking, though if Raphael had noticed their unnatural movement, he didn’t show it.

Raphael moved from room to room hastily and erratically after that, seeming to be looking for something but not knowing exactly what, spitting out question after question with little in the way of pauses in between.

The examination of the kitchen had been painless enough, at least, minus a bit of Aziraphale having to defend keeping food around the place.

The examination of the bedroom, on the other hand, was a great deal more awkward.

“There’s only one bed?”

The answer was obvious enough, but Aziraphale gave it out just the same. “That’s right.”

“But you said we both live here.”

Right. That.

Aziraphale hoped that Raphael wasn’t making too many logical leaps there, or if he was, that Aziraphale’s own response would put some of those assumptions to rest. This was not a conversation he was ready for just yet.

“Well, I don’t really sleep much myself.” Aziraphale hastened to reply, hoping he didn’t sound too flustered or hesitant.

It was true enough. Where Aziraphale had learned to love the human necessity of eating, Crowley had learned to love sleeping instead, and it seemed that neither of them entirely understood the attraction of the other’s human trait of choice, though they tried to pretend otherwise from time to time.

This didn’t, however, mean that Aziraphale didn’t from time to time use the bed in other ways.

(For one thing, the angel had spent many a night curled up by Crowley’s side as the demon slept, having zero intention of sleeping himself but just wanting to be by Crowley at all times, to be able to look over and see the demon next to him and be reassured that things really had worked out this well, that it hadn’t all been some elaborate daydream that was about to come crashing down any second now.)

Raphael paused for what felt like a little too long before finally responding, “...if you say so.”

Moving on to the bathroom seemed like a welcome respite after that, though it wasn’t all that much of a surprise that Raphael started off by questioning the room’s very existence, given that neither of them strictly needed to use it. He accepted “keeping up appearances” as an answer quickly enough, though, although the truth involved a bit more than that, including the occasional human visitors who actually did need its use (which had on one memorable occasion led to Crowley running to the nearest convenience store in the middle of the night because while they had thought to provide a bathroom, they initially hadn’t realized that such a bathroom would also require the presence of toilet paper) and more than one dramatic reenactment of what had gone down in a certain bathtub one day in Hell.

Aziraphale hadn’t, however, realized the ramifications of Raphael seeing himself in a mirror.

Raphael had wrinkled his nose at his appearance at first, making some comment about improper attire that would definitely go on the quickly-growing Crowley-teasing list, and that was all fine and dandy. But after that...

“My- my eyes.”

“Hmm?” Aziraphale’s attention had wandered a wee bit as he’d spotted a few ants roaming around the bathtub and was wondering how best to deal with the little creatures, but now he looked back at Raphael, seeing him staring at his reflection, into his own eyes.

His own yellow, snake-like eyes.

“S-something’s wrong with- with my eyes...”

Aziraphale’s heart plummeted as he realized the implications here, realized that Raphael must himself be realizing the implications, and let out a soft but passionate, “Oh dear.”

#good omens #good omens miniseries #good omens show #good omens fic #good omens fanfic #good omens fanfiction #good omens fanwork #good omens tv show #good omens tv series #aziraphale #crowley and aziraphale #aziraphale and crowley #crowley #personal #my writing

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alchemisland · 6 years ago

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Moors Mutt - III

Night fled day and I read the sky. Spying an uncharacteristically vernal mustard sliver, I imagined the light dying in another world past the clouds, opposing ours directly.

The storm, furious mute, spoke through man's works. Droplets exploded musically; dull on timber, shrill on sheet, like crackling fire on thatch.

Foot travel was impossible, even treacherous. Lar wouldn't have it besides. 'I know someone.' he said 'Unpaid tab, lovely spacious wagon. Hold tight.'

Unpaid tab, yes. Lovely wagon, no. Against the rising slope, his contraption strained. Its light frame shed water at every judder. We veered, almost fatally, several times and white knuckled I would renew my faith, but the man knew his charge and kept us steady. Soon the ground levelled and in relative peace, at hardly a trembling crawl, I gelded the day's larger duties into manageable tasks. Ten had a ring, a certain motivating roundness. Ten tasks set to Heracles condemned to misery by jealous Hera. Ten commandments from on high.

After a short time working my mind lost its typical easy-focus. Each sentence I read twice, three times. At common words I stared with newfound curiousity. One letter alone roused me from drowsy rifling. Immediately noted as pertinent by its wax rosette, I saw it was a bill of sale for several oxgangs including Talbot Church to be sold to Lady Sizemore, with a transitory period of two hundred years in which no litigious action could be sought by either party to dispute ownership.

There was little ambiguity as to the tone the author Henry Wales, the estate's executor, attempted to convey. Beside the Lady's seal and sinister scrawl the lawyer, presuming wont to associate with the Sizemore name, printed the his agency's crest, ruby pomegranates perched on a plate with a lidded eye acentre like a grecian shield motif.

Harder to discern, in an unpracticed hand, was the seller's signature, a reluctant cluster of slanting characters which keenly reflected the scribe’s defiance and fury at his enforced shifting, rudely contrasting the infernal airy loops of Mr. Wales and his evil brood at the Wales, DeLien & Hensonbore.

Perhaps fearing her legacy unworthy of envy, Lady Sizemore extended the empire's borders at considerable expense. In the same batch of papers I found also two drawings, one a surveyors border outline, the other an older document bearing the Holy seal, a plan of the churchyard. On this older sheet I found also records of antiquities in the hinterland. Aside from the cairn her lands encompassed two dolmens, four standing stones, eight middens and one fulacht fiadh, thought to date 3000 years - the cartographer noted. Originally the cairn, which stood now like a greatshield at the shoulder of her manse, was situated outside the kirkyard, itself in the shadow of the chapel.

The newer sheet, written by Lady Sizemore’s resident conceptual botanist, revealed prescient plans for its transfer; the route was marked in ticks from Talbot Church to the old hill, past the sucking bog and high grasses, which stood strong and wilted not for man or wind and made going hard as over jagged stone.

I wondered how many men it takes to move a thing like that, eerily reflecting the thoughts of my ancient forebears in their creation of graven idols. I couldn't find anything else. Checked every drawer, leafed alphabetically, held the sheets to a candle carefully and waited for any hidden ink to react, but I found only my own gnawing curiosity.

I wondered why she closed the church. Why move the stone at all if she owned the lands. Surely it must be easier to enforce a harsh penalty for trespassing to deter ramblers over time than move a massive stone. Above all else I hoped to never climb that hill to the church.

The day otherwise passed quickly. I worked mostly absent of mind. Near freedom the final banality seemed yet more soul destroying, but fortunately it was easily done. I signed the final field with flourish.

On the doorstep gazing out at the torrid tempest, for a brief moment Cairn Cottage seemed inviting. I cast a final backward glance. Inside Acrisian frames, there lay yesteryear's gentry in oils, frozen in perpetual offence.

As discussed, Charon on his chucking carriage arrived to ferry me back to Sperrin. Outside Lar's, wet as it was possible to be, some queer curiosity took me and I paused on the threshold. Fingering the doorhandle, I brought my ear to the wood. Lar joked, joyous overmuch at his own humour. I turned the handle and let the door swing open. All attention on me, I let them drink in the sight of the soaked city rat. 'In you come.' A wave of relief swept Lar, which he wrestled into a piteous pout. Relief more that his finances were secure than any concern for my wellbeing.

Two drinks waited, patient as unconfessed sinners. When I peeled off the mac he smiled and I offered reluctant dues.

We feasted like sentenced men. For to uphold our strength we ate lashings of gravy thickened by meat juices, steaming Yorkshire puddings, slabs of succulent pork, bog mushy peas, and custard to follow.

We reclined afterwards. Fergus slipped the bolt unbidden when the small crowd shifted, loudly dragging his stool the short distance to our barside council. We traded nothings, batting pleasantries back and forth with all the vigour of two exhausted tennis players; he shamelessly imparting tall tales of field endeavors and cabbage patch dalliances; I feigning amusement, ascribing his stories more laughter than their content deserved, desperate to avoid frank discussion. I was eaten witless. My mind in grave custardy.

'Are we, like lantern thieves, away with the light?' Lar undid the top button of his trousers and swelled an inch before my eyes.

'We are.' I answered curtly.

'Handled a gun before?' Lar braced for a hasty response, which I gladly supplied.

'I have and don't intend to again. I'm not sure about guns.' Lar's brow furrowed. 'I believe with alternate ends, disagreements often arise.' I thought carefully and to his credit he waited patiently. 'How can I put this.. I don't want a fox hunt.'

'I never said it was.' Lar replied. 'If I might be bold, why hate the gun and not its wielder? Is a rifle always an instrument of terror no matter the context? On the shoulder of an adventurer piercing the interior, emboldened by its weight, is it the selfsame tool dispensing random death in the hands of a deranged?'

He continued on in a similar fashion for several minutes. After zoning out, I had to nod with extra vigor to his next points, just enough to convey attentiveness but not agreement.

Foam pooled at the corners of his mouth. 'It's a fool that lowers caution in victory! Wear these chains. Be it upon your head.'

I tried to interject, 'Lar, really that's a bit dram-'

He continued unabated, 'Should the beast prove strengthful and beguiling and somehow catch us unawares, it won't make a good look for that book of yours.'

Admiring of his passion, I had none to share. 'Any given situation is more likely to end in a leaden exchange with guns present, vise a vie, sans guns we are overall safer, despite feeling less protected individually.'

'Your charisma won't stop a beast. If in some desolate future you find yourself alone, bloodied and fatigued, you'll embrace your firearm like a lost lover and thank Mars for the gift of battle.' Empassioned, Lar slapped the bar.

'Point taken. I'll pack one. Don't intend on using it though. My only stipulation is that I choose my own gun.'

Pulling aside a rug Lar revealed a hatch, the entryway to his private cave of wonders. Fergus tossed the heavy door aside to reveal stone steps and a low unlit corridor. As he descended, candlelight revealed walls streaked and sticky with the dregs of drams spilled in violent melees.

He fetched the swaddled armoury and laid it for my reluctant perusal. I felt something like guilt looking at them. I couldn't pinpoint the feeling. Not a betrayal of principals; I am indignant, but I know my principals only matter until they don't fit my schedule. Nothing is too sacred to reconsider. Still, there was a lingering sense that I had wronged someone. My unease was perhaps the consequence of past lives lived without conscience. When I rode with Cortez and greedily discharged my sizzling firearm into the chest of a scout; when I stood a wart-faced archer at Agincourt and rained death across the mire, athwart a river of Francish blood.

I chose a revolver, feeling its relative snugness more graceful than the longnecked pistols and bayonetted-rifles otherwise offered. Six shots, lightweight, swift off the hip.

Once the guns were again squirrelled away, we untensed with a fifth drink, and a sixth shortly thereafter.

'Have you a route in mind?' Lar slurred at length, his jaw shifting from side to side like a cow's chewing the cud.

'You tell me. You're the gun weilding adventurer.' I teased.

'I have some notions. Let's have one more drink. Don't go to bed bitter.' He fingered a bottle and seductively circled the cork, but his indecision had angered me.

'Notions are actions without legs! As joint expeditionaries, in name rather than eventual royalty I add, I offer no pronouncement on the route. What am I paying you for? Hardly your winning anecdotes. We're following your route to success or failure.' I departed, lifting the flap for myself this time.

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spoorti1509-blog · 6 years ago

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7 Ways Chatbots Can Improve Banking Experince for Users

What is a chat-bot? A chat-bot is software which can have a conversation with a person. Achatbott is designed in such a way that they listen and respond with relevant information associated with digital assistants who are equipped with voice and text activated and these chatBots can vary according to the back-end integration done by of AI Companies.

They are designed in such a way that today they are capable of assisting humans with almost everything. Saying that they can be our friend, philosopher, and guide won’t be wrong. Now a day we can easily notice these chat bots marking their presence around us in various ways. While some of the chat bots are simple in their design and some are designed and developed very complex and enough to surprise even a technical savvy individual with their capabilities.

Definitel,y we have entered either one of two things, that is the age of the chat bot, or else the age of hype and craze about AI chat bots .We can observe many banks and financial companies facing the same problems from year to year and unable to solve them because of their complexity level.

Let’s explore some intriguing details about mobile banking apps and web banking application:

• According to another report by Forbes, the Bank of America had cut many branches in 2016 to concentrate on mobile banking.

• Juniper examine led an examination which expressed that mobile managing an account clients will achieve 2 billion continuously 2020.

• There is a Hike of 40% of the complete number of mobile banking customers in the India. State Bank of India (SBI) included 4.2 million mobile customers.

• In the rundown of best three most utilized applications in the India, Banking apps are the third position holder. The review additionally reasoned that 91% of mobile app users prefer utilizing banking applications as opposed to visiting the physical branch.

Advantages of utilizing saving money applications:

Now a days these Banking applications are enormously prominent because of its portable and astounding advantages developed by mobile app development companies. The majority of the recent college grads favour utilizing online Banking apps. The physical work like fillingthe form, signing papers is totally kept away from with these Banking applications and web applications.

Bank users can get the advantage of moment managing an account and no need of holding up in long lines to deposit cash or to update passbook. These banking applications and web applications can do all these little tasks with just one click using apps.

Applications spare a great deal of time. On the off chance that the users pursue typical or offline techniques, definitely, their precious time will be wasted and expended. By sparing the time of clients, the banking applications can hold the clients.

These banking applications are accessible for 24×7. The client needs to pursue the timings of banks for performing little assignments. How wild that gets in the event that you need to go to the bank in their planning just to check account balance? However, with the assistance of banking apps, the customer can exchange cash whenever and from anyplace just like Google Pay.

Let’s see what innovation can be utilized to upgrade the customer experience in banking segment. The Banking applications offer help to clients who have any questions. These inquiries can be asked accessible if the need arises or message (chat). Either the banks offer live chat support. Or then again they offer AI chatbots.

As I said these Chatbots are machine learning technology which figures out how to answer questions by clients. To show the bots, Developers and AI apps development companies offer a huge number of guides to the machine. Every user has diverse or unique questions. These inquiries can be replied by a robot! Hence these bots are called as chatbots.

Chatbot for web advancement:

Quick reaction:

The Major advantage of these chatbot for Banking is that it offers a quick reaction. The machines learn through a huge number of examples, the bot is presently ready to offer a response to all questions progressively. The constant reaction by chatbots offers amazing client experience. Chatbots can offer quicker reaction than human administrators.

Ongoing critical thinking is vital for managing an account since banking tasks are essential. This component can enhance the client experience. Reaction time is better in chatbots. Chatbots can comprehend more inquiries in less time.

Performing various tasks:

The chatbots can offer a response to numerous inquiries at any given moment. On the off chance that the bank relies upon live chats system, there may be such huge numbers of unanswered inquiries. The live chat specialists are not fit for noting overabundance inquiries. Clients can get disappointed because of this experience and can rush to your rival bank too.

Chatbots can spare such circumstances. Best of all, one single chatbot can deal with various inquiries. You need not introduce more than one chatbot. A solitary chatbot can deal with the numerous questions in the meantime.

No human supervision:

Chatbots are prepared for a considerable length of time. It requires a great deal of investment to make a productive chatbot. Once the chatbot is prepared, there is no requirement for human supervision. Banks can spare the expense of assets for help. It is in any case hard to enlist talented skilled executives. In such cases, chatbots can be the best alternative. Chatbots takes a shot at its own as customized for a few hours. There are no odds of human mistakes in chatbots. Chatbots labor for a few hours with no kind of breaks.

Convenience:

Customers feel and think that it’s simple to communicate with chatbots. Chatbots offer prescient inquiries. Clients can tap on pertinent inquiries and there is no compelling reason to type anything. The banks need not spend cost on preparing specialists for offering superb chat administrations since these chatbots are already developed, trained and fed by programs by Artificial Intelligence services. Banks can offer training to chatbots moreover.

Accessibility:

Since bank applications can offer administrations 24×7, the help ought to be likewise for 24 hours. It is an extreme employment to discover gifted assets who can work in such shifts. Furthermore it adds to the expense. With chatbots, clients can interact without much of a difficulty whenever and find solutions to their inquiries progressively. Chatbots can work whenever and as long as you need them to work. On the off chance that a user of the bank is in another nation, he can undoubtedly contact with no geographic hindrances.

Cost effective:

The most important part is Cost effective as Banks can spare a ton of expense by offering chatbots. Since clients get constant answers, the maintenance increments and the risks of client misfortune diminishes. This eventually spares time. There is no requirement for enrolling assets for help. Since there is no expense of hiring and training a people, there is no expense of assets preparing. Chatbots are cost-proficient when contrasted with live chat operator costs.

Conclusion

Obviously, the banks get different types of queries each day. These questions can be with respect to password issues, account balance issues and so on all the banking inquiries are essential and need instant solutions. In such cases, the chat bots can comes in handy.

So one final sentence is these type of challenges will continue to escalate, therefore, it is must and should for the banking sectors to take utilize the Artificial Intelligence companies services which can assist and help to improve their day to day customer engagement and build customer loyalty too. All they need to do is research about different chat bot AI Development Companies that offers better services while understanding their basic requirements and finally build a banking application that runs successfully and fulfil their expectations.

#chatbot #AIchatbot #artifical intelligence #mobile app development company #artificial intelligence companies

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staceyaherring · 8 years ago

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The Advantages of Content Marketing

Continual content advertising flakes can become a sales glacier. The intent of using content marketing is to create an active and engaged audience. The simple fact that slightly more than half of the greatest content marketers measure content advertising ROI underscores this is a hard course of action.

You have to be strategic about how frequently you publish, where you distribute, and, above all, the standard of the content your produce. If you replied yes to the above questions, you get a very good object of content that you could use to advertise the goods or services you offer. Red Bulls content is largely entertaining.

In the event that you were not able to answer yes to all the questions you are going to want to tweak your content until you can. User intent is an essential portion of content advertising. When it has to do with marketing content, you just have a brief time to catch and maintain a reader's interest.

Content, it appears, has miraculously given brands a larger purpose. It has to be about something.

Weekly newsletters supply you with the possibility to distribute newly published content and keep your high performers before the appropriate audiences. It is crucial to bear in mind that your site isn't something that doesn't require an update. Your content ought to have an intent the aim of moving the user to action.

Luckily, there are some things you can do in order to create the process as simple as possible. Providentially, the data says otherwise. It's your content at the appropriate place and the correct time.

Successful content marketers will tell you establishing this connection with an audience at the perfect time and place is every bit as important, and is among the true awesome opportunities social media provides. After you get started paying attention to your content, it's important to have a good idea of the way the marketing program will progress over time. Branding is the procedure of producing the story.

By implementing a strategic program, you can make more effective content, permitting you to do more with less. When you have the whole content promoting strategy planned out, it's time for execution. Your content advertising strategy has to be aligned with your metrics to yield optimal outcomes.

Tracking and monitoring certain marketing and advertising metrics makes it possible to quantify the advancement of your promotion program. Every business differs. Crucially content marketing really isn't the end objective.

The important thing is to integrate it into the remainder of your advertising program, therefore it works together like cogs in a machine. An expert content advertising team will be able to help you break down the strategy into easy to deal with stages, every one of which works with the next. You will walk away with fantastic advice on how to make these identical menu trends successful in your operation.

Before sitting down to write any piece of content, it’s vital that you have a plan. The plan doesn’t just consist of the topic you’re going to cover, but much more:

The content: Map the content people actually want and need. Why should people read your article vs. someone else’s? What will you be saying that is new and different?

The influencers: Next, map out influencers who would be interested in this article. You can collect quotes from them, mention them, or simply add them to a list of people you’re going to tweet to or reach out to via email when the article is ready. The more personal you get with them, the more likely they are to share the article.

The media: Map out websites and publishers that would be interested in your article. Many publishers feature articles they find interesting or syndicate content. Reach out to them and let them know you’re writing a specific article they may be interested in. Reaching out beforehand will give you an indication if they’d like to see certain information in that article for them to share it or syndicate it.

The promotion: Writing the content is only 20% of the job. The other 80% is promotion. Don’t just rely on sharing it a couple of times on Twitter and LinkedIn. Have a list of all the sites, communities, and platforms you’re going to promote on. Talia Wolf, GetUpLift

Make it all about the audience

The biggest mistake I see is creating content that is focused on you, and not the audience. I hate to break it to you, but your readers don’t care about you! They care about solving their problems. The more you help your readers with what they care about, the more they’ll come back, read your posts, and become loyal readers. Sue Anne Dunlevie, Successful Blogging

Originally posted on Content Marketing Institute, read all the tips by visiting http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2017/05/create-content-audience-love

Some additional tips that can help you with article marketing:

Put your articles on your site first, unless forbidden. By doing this, your website will gain the attention of the search engines and you will rank more highly. Get the article indexed by the search engines on your site first and then send your articles out in the world to attract more customers.

Whenever you post a new article, be sure that it contains pertinent links to some of your other articles. By doing this, you will get more of your articles read and give your product or service more exposure. This sort of self-promotion, is one of the main advantages of article advertising.

Rewrite your article for each submission. To defeat the search engine's "no-duplicate" policies, simply slightly reword your article each time you submit it. Change it enough that it does not appear to be the same article, and the search engines will provide multiple back-links, one for each new submission you write.

Search out guest blogging positions. Blogs are often searching for someone to do a guest spot for them, and if you are lucky enough, or a good enough writer, you will be chosen to write an article for them. Use this position to plug your own website as well as the product you are writing about.

Adding images and a picture in your article makes it more personable and unique, and viewers like both of those features. Just remember that you need to either take the pictures yourself, or legally attain the rights to use someone elses.

Tell a personal story. Readers love learning more about the writer of an article, so if you can slip a personal story with relevancy into your article, do it! It makes your readers feel as if you are more trustworthy, since you are open to sharing your own stories with them.

One way to get the most out of article advertising is to write articles to help readers. Sharing expertise, revealing information and offering solutions to problems all help hold a reader's interest and give him or her a good impression of the author. Helpful articles build their author's reputation as a trustworthy source of information.

If you're writing for someone else's blog, make sure that you're still working within the respective market. If you're trying to sell weight-loss products, it's not the best idea to advertise your site on a software blog. The readership is just different and you may end up wasting your work for no return.

Content marketing ideas for 2017

Individual Achievement

Marketing Tools

Lists

How-To’s

Internal Operations

Industry Trends

Current Events

Seasonal

Theories & Opinions

Company Culture

Education

Research

Originally published on https://www.thedsmgroup.com/content-marketing-ideas/

The Advantages of Content Marketing published first on http://jimmyksalas.blogspot.com

#Digital Marketing #SEO #Web Design #PPC/SEM #Social Media Marketing #Local SEO

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