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star-rust · 14 days ago

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My Thoughts On Deltarune Chapters 3 & 4

First of all - whew...what a masterpiece. Every time I think that Toby couldn't outdo himself, he goes and proves me so wrong I feel like I need to grovel...

This will contain spoilers - but I won't go into super detail, just things that I noticed/enjoyed/made me cry (thanks Toby...). I'm mainly doing this for myself to collect most of my thoughts, but maybe you guys who've finished can relate to these as well! I'll go chapter by chapter just to keep it a little organized. I'll put everything under the cut so people can scroll past it easily!

Chapter 3: Kill Your TV? More Like F-

With how chapter 2 ended with Kris creating a new dark world, I was so excited to load up the game and get right into it. Side note, I play on the switch, but does any other console/PC have the cute little dog loading screen when loading a chapter? It's the cutest thing ever ;u;

I was just minding my own business, walking around a strange stage area and then TENNA SHOWED UP and holy shit, the graphics are phenomenal! I know it takes a lot to program/design those kinds of things, and Toby has done optical illusions like that before (the Jevil fight being 2-D) but damn! The style also made me incredibly nostalgic for a game I used to play a ton as a kid - Urbz: Sims in the City (if you know, you know). I had a smile on my face for the entire rest of the chapter (besides from the very depressing beginning and ending) but Tenna stole my heart - possible competition with Papyrus??? (jk)(maybe)

Speaking of Papyrus...

WHERE IS HE TOBY???? HUH????

Ahem...anyways...

There was a brief moment where I got so lost I kept looping around the same room, the Quiz room, and it gave me a headache :( I eventually got to a room with a console...which by the way, I actually reloaded my save because I straight up thought that I was accidentally doing the weird route LMAO I didn't get S-rank for the first round, mainly because that cooking mini game kicked my ass hard the first time I did it...I'm not the best at video games...

The Tenna fight was by far one of my favorite boss battles yet - it reminded me of the Zant battle in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess when you fought Zant through the different dungeons/areas you'd done previously in a mesh-mash style. It was a pretty easy one, though.

Seeing the Knight AND fighting (or attempting to) this early was a bit surprising to me, but not an unwelcome one. I know what everyone is thinking, but I honestly think the design is meant to purposefully mislead us - I love seeing everyone's theories, but I think the Knight is either a character we have yet to meet...or one that we know but haven't seen yet (still holding out on the Papyrus is the Knight theory). After getting my ass kicked instantly, seeing Undyne made me cheer and then immediately panic because WHAT! AND THE SHELTER????? OPENING FOR KRIS????? AHHHH

Okay. I rate Chapter 3 a Tenna out of ten ;)

Chapter 4: Toby Tricks Me Into Going To Church And Liking It???

Another strong start, I loved Toriel doting on Kris like that - it was very sweet. I can tell Susie is really starting to come out of her shell more and be her true self, especially after Ralsei's speech of how they should make real friends...which oof - that hurt bad.

I didn't realize I would be jumping right into story by stopping by Noelle's house, but uh, oops? I'm sure I missed stuff in the town but I will make sure to look at it next time I play! But man, what the actual fuck was the whole sequence at Noelle's?! I was genuinely SO confused and shocked the entire time; but I really enjoyed Kris fighting us off with a hockey stick! Something to note: I am pretty sure I know what the code for the mayor is - especially since any other time the Holiday's have been involved, Christmas has been a significant motif. But it wouldn't let me enter a code :( So maybe I'm wrong.

Something I've also noticed with this part is the characterization people have of Carol, Noelle's mom and the Mayor. While yes, she is very cold and rude to Susie, but think about it this way - how would you feel if you saw a stranger messing with your missing (and possibly presumed dead) daughter's guitar? There is a very clear reason why Dess' room is left virtually untouched while the rest of the house is pristine. The thing I love most about Toby's writing is how he has such developed characters, even ones that you only see once or twice.

It was suspicious that she showed up unexpectedly after Kris had the call with the mystery person, but Asgore ALSO showed up...so who knows? I do think she has a larger role to play, but the interaction between her and Asgore kind of proves that there aren't any hard feeling between them, so now I'm not sure why Asgore is no longer on the police force...

Now, let's get onto the actual dark world.

Chapter 4 has the best soundtrack - hands down. When the choir part started? I stopped and just listened for a while; I am definitely playing the new tracks on repeat for a while. The stained glass was also gorgeous - it reminded me of the judgement hall in Undertale!

The Jack fight was a lot of fun, but it scared the hell out of me the first time I heard the 'YOUR TAKING TOO LONG'. Fun fact that I learned, you actually can take your time, he only says that once you get to a certain part of the map! I had to redo that fight a few times before I got the hang of it - it's my favorite mini boss fight.

Seeing Gerson was honestly a complete surprise - but now knowing that the dead can be in dark worlds under special circumstances....oh that could lead to some interesting implications. Which leads me to another question - if monsters in the light world can bleed, why was Kris so afraid of dust? I'm assuming 'dust' in the light world is simply being cremated, but still. We know for a fact that Susie does bleed (and so does Sans...), but maybe there are special circumstances where monsters instantly dust? Hm.

Susie opening a dark world in the same place and essentially proving the alternate world theory was fantastic - I'm still 1000% sure that the world of Undertale IS a dark world, but we will see as the game progresses. Both Susie and Ralsei had a lot of development this chapter, and it was so refreshing yet heartbreaking to see. The glass showing the prophecy really got me thinking...what possibly is the end? With the way Susie spoke and Ralsei's fear, I have a feeling it's either sacrifice of Ralsei, all three heroes, or the dark worlds are forever sealed, never to be created again. Just like before, I think it's just one of those things we have to wait and see.

Now, the titan. OH THE TITAN.

Maybe this could help other people, but after like, a million deaths, I found out a very good strategy. If you find yourself dying a lot like I did, the best strategy is to spam brighten, and DO NOT MOVE MUCH. The little shadow things will come to you regardless, so move as little as possible to prevent damage. Seriously, this saved me so much that there were turns where I took no damage at all! The fingers are a little more annoying - but manageable. I have no advice for climbing the titan, that shit sucked ;n;

The titan's design was SO BEAUTIFUL! It's been heavily implied that the save points that only WE can see (not Kris, US) would have something to do with the prophecy and such, but man, I love seeing Toby, Temmie and everyone on the team working so hard to give us such stunning visuals.

ALSO, GET DUNKED ON???!!! SHE SAID THE THING! THE THING! OH MY GOD

Chapter 4 felt so long yet so quick - I really didn't want it to end! The somber walk back to Kris' house made my heart so heavy, seeing Susie so defeated was awful...

And then, the scene with a drunk Toriel and Sans. Literally the best.

Though, I couldn't help but think how weird it was to see him so energetic, and then I remembered the idea that this is him before losing all of the people he loves...augh. The, uh, implied bits while Kris was trying to sleep was so fucking funny - though the third voice was kind of odd? Maybe I'm misremembering it, but it didn't sound like Susie's voice...I will rewatch/replay to double check.

Chapter 4 was a 100000/10 - seriously so good.

My final thoughts:

I had such a fantastic time playing these chapters - it was nice to see familiar and new characters, and Toby continues to put out bangers as always. If you are somehow reading this and haven't played these chapters/or played Deltarune at all - please, do yourself a favor and at least play the demo - it is free after all!

Thank you for anyone that listens to my rambling! I will have another post with my biggest theory as well.

#deltarune #deltarune spoilers #dr spoilers #sorry for the long ass post but I needed to get this all out #ignore any typos and grammatical errors i just kept typing lol

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galactic-jellyfishag · 7 months ago

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I couldn’t find these in my previous posts so… if I already posted these- my bad >~>

Edit- I changed their weapons to Clubs instead of Spades cuz I thought that made more sense. Plus added a sketch of their eyelights

Some reference drawings UwU

Clover and Trefoil belong to me

Clovertale Story-

Humans and monsters were cared for by a God, Gaster. But the god had trouble caring for all his humans and monsters. They did what they want, whenever they wanted cause they weren’t punished for their bad deeds. So the god decided to create two helpers.

Clover, a sans who would reward good behavior by bringing good luck to those who earned it, and Trefoil, a sans who would punish those who did wrong by cursing them with bad luck.

At first, it helped. People began doing more good and being rewarded with good luck and those who were punished- learned their lessons quickly. All was good for years. But eventually, people began blaming everything bad that happened to them on Trefoil, even when he didn’t have anything to do with it.

The breaking point was when the kingdom’s human prince, Chara, died unexpectedly. The king and queen blamed the being of bad luck for taking their child away from them, when in fact, the human was sick and died cause of the sickness. Soon word spread that the bad luck sans had murdered the prince and everyone began to hate him. Everyone threated the poor guy, threw things at him, even tried to kill him a few times, causing Trefoil to break down. His brother was his only comfort at the time.

Soon it was so bad, the god decided it was best to get rid of Trefoil so peace could be restored. Even though Clover pleaded not to lose his brother, the god had began the process of deletion, ignoring Trefoil’s cries of fear and pain.

He was almost gone, but trefoil refused to die, using everything in his power to teleport himself to safety, being sent out of the au, his code glitching from him starting to be deleted and ended up in a voided area. Out of anger and spite, he now travels around, cursing anyone he meets with bad luck.

The god was not happy that this “mistake” had been let out into the multiverse and sent his brother, Clover, to go capture him and bring him back so he could delete him. Clover has mixed feelings about this and is having trouble fighting Trefoil every time they meet.

Extra-

-Papyrus is Gaster’s actual son, Trefoil and Clover were created by Gaster so they’re like his sons.

-Trefoil and Clover were pretty much raised by all the monsters, being moved around a lot as kids and not really having a stable home life till they were adults.

- Gaster created humans and monsters separately at first, toriel n Asgore has Asriel and then found chara as a baby n adopted him. After he died, (Trefoil left the au) then Gaster created the other 6 humans to replace chara- but they all kept dying (while people thought it was cause of Trefoil- it was actually a disease that wiped out each human that Gaster didn’t know about). Toriel n Asgore divorced then Gaster created frisk as both another child and as an experiment to control the humans and monsters by using frisk’s power to reset. But cause frisk still had a mind of his own- he was disobeying Gaster- so Gaster created Kris, the perfect human puppet that he could control completely when the human soul is inside of him.

-Trefoil and Chara were pretty close, Chara pretty much having a crush on Trefoil even tho Trefoil only saw Chara as a friend. Chara and Asriel are only a couple years younger than Clover and Trefoil (Chara was 13 when he died, Asriel 14, Clover and Trefoil 15).

#undertale #undertale au #sans undertale #undertale ocs #clovertale #Clover Sans #Trefoil Sans

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dalmascan-requiem · 24 days ago

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Weirdly Specific Questions (Part 2)

Here's part two of these super specific questions. You might be asking "are there really six parts?" Yes, yes there are. That's why it took like a year to work through. So... yeah.

The answers are color-coded, so here's that:

[ Kris | Laurent | Both | OOC Note ]

Alright, to the questions!

If someone was impersonating them, what would friends/family ask or do to tell the difference?

~ The problem with Gale is that he's often changing up his looks/mannerisms a lot, so an imposter can easily get away with it if they manage to look enough like him in terms of eye/skin color and freckles. Laurent can call him by his forest name or look at the rings on Gale's fingers to spot anything off (an imposter would likely put the ring Laurent gave Gale on the wrong finger due to its size).

~ For Laurent, if the imposter manages to have a conversation with anyone it would out them.

What’s something that makes them laugh every single time? Be specific!

~ Generally watching the twins argue. He thinks it's cute.

~ Laurent thinks it's funny how Kris reacts when he gets tickled, and he's the only one who can get away with doing it without losing a limb.

When do they fake a smile? How often?

~ Kris will fake a smile if he thinks that's the appropriate response, or to unnerve someone. He'll do it fairly often, but those who know him well enough will know when his smile is genuine.

~ Laurent can't fake a smile—he's too earnest and 'stoic' to get away with it.

How do they put out a candle?

~ One of those candle snuffer things. He thinks it's fancy to use it.

~ Blows it out, like a normal person.

What’s the most obvious difference between their behavior at home, at work, with friends, and when they’re alone?

~ Kris generally gets quieter—he doesn't need to put up an act when at home or alone.

~ Laurent's less anxious, so he tends to be more talkative and at ease if he's home. He might even tease Kris sometimes, lol

What kinds of people do they have arguments with in their heads?

~ Most types.

What do they notice first in the mirror versus what most people first notice looking at them?

~ Are there any love marks that need covering up hair vs. his eyes

~ Just the general face area vs. his hair or eyes (Laurent would generally look at his fingernails first to make sure there's no dirt under them but that doesn't require a mirror lol)

Who do they love truly, 100% unconditionally (if anyone)?

~ Each other :)

What would they do if stuck in a room with the person they’ve been avoiding?

~ Staunchly pretend they're not there, no matter how ridiculous that is/looks.

Who do they like as a person but hate their work? Vice versa, whose work do they like but don’t like the person?

~ I don't think this one works with the boys' story, they don't interact with people on a level where there's a separation in their minds like that. Maybe more a feeling that people aren't their work/titles/etc than anything else. They certainly wouldn't want to be known for most of their old jobs or titles, lol.

Finally, here is the original post: Weirdly Specific But Helpful Character Building Questions

#weirdly specific questions #ffxiv oc #my oc #ff14 #final fantasy 14 #wol qotd #wolqotd #well the same vibe

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teensadventuresstudio · 4 years ago

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My NEW AU-Oficial- Undertale- ModelingTale

Eeva

she is a shy and gentle girl, who appeared out of nowhere in a blank space where her Universe is, she is a 20 year old girl, as innocent as a baby, loving and sweet.

When she walks she can leave a trail of flowers, however the flowers disappear after she steps somewhere else making a small 105cm trail of flowers, she can leave the permanent trail if she wants, due to her creative powers, she can create living and non-living beings and can give life to inanimate objects or sculptures, she creates living and non-living beings based on clay (inanimate sculptures), and by concentrating her energy at the base of her hand, she can create illusions with scribbles on sheets of paper where she blows them and a temporary being appears that can float or even do anything the creator wants (idea taken from the series Little Prince).

She spends a lot of energy and thirst (thirst: 50/50, hunger: 100/100) it will depend on the amount of object or the size of the being or object she is creating, if the thirst or hunger reaches 0 she may die of hunger or thirst.

She shines in her dark skin forms small bright stars, to light the way and when she is very happy her body can also fill with them.

She NEVER leaves the area where she was born.

She never opens her eyes, but if you get a chance, you'll see space and a beautiful nebula full of stars forming inside her eyes.

Favorite food: soup, fish, seafood or common sandwich

Papyrus!ModelingTale

Papyrus was killed by a frisk in some genocidal route of some of the Huniverses, and his bone dust was carried and carried into the universe of Eeva.

Eeva found the mound and wanted to play or do something with the powder, when she found her she ended up reviving Papyrus, when reliving his cut on the neck where he was attacked by Frisk became a dark scar, stunned he fell back scared wanting to know where he was , seeing the girl who was very similar to Frisk was afraid she would hurt him.

She didn't understand anything, he realized that she wasn't the Frisk that killed him, he gradually got to know her a little more and saw that she was as naive and innocent as a baby that will just be born, she didn't know anything about the show or of the human mute, neither the simple nor the basic she knew she had no name.

So she named it Eeva

He then devoted himself to teaching her, everything about humans and monsters, about human study (ie what things we learn every day in school math, science, biology, physics, physical education, chemistry, Portuguese, geography, arts and history), and the studies of the world show and other undertale universes.

He always wants to protect her, he's afraid she'll end up falling into the wrong hands, or prying eyes, or people who want to harm the girl or he wants to protect her and keep her a secret from every undertale universe and from all monsters and human. So no one hurts your best friend

She gave him a star tattoo, and said that every time he feels scared, insecure, sad, lonely, or weak he looks up at the stars and remembers he's not alone.

He sometimes goes out to buy food, water, craft items so she doesn't need to spend her energy creating something, buy and rent books, buy clothes and toys, but always with code names that are super hard to identify, he tries be very careful not to be discovered, also changing his clothes, but what he wears the most is an orange cap, leather blouse with lumas on the hood, an earthy orange blouse and wine pants.

(NO ONE KNOWS AND KNOWS THIS UNIVERSE OF UNDERTALE (NO ONE SANS, PAPYRUS (other than in this universe), NO TEMMIE, MONSTER, TORIEL, ASGORE, ASRIEL, KRIS,CHARA, FRISK, SUSIE, RAUSEI, FLOWER, NO ONE ! TO KNOW OR HAVE ALREADY ENTERED THIS UNIVERSE OR KNOW THE EXISTENCE OF IT(ONLY YOU VIEWER KNOW ABOUT THIS UNIVERSE)(STILL))

Boing!ModelingTale

Boing is Eeva's first creation, when she was learning about biology and about rabbits, she loved it so much that she ended up concentrating her energy and creating a , but not a normal rabbit, this rabbit is less measuring about 12 cm tall, the bunny loves to be close to his owner Eeva, and his guardian papyrus, he's smart and has his own conscience, he's quite smart, and he knows how much papyrus wants to protect Eeva and he helps him too

he doesn't like strangers

His powers boil down to opening rabbit holes the size desired by the rabbit, which disappear when he, someone or some object enters inside him, making him close, thus making the being, him or the object teleporting to wherever the rabbit wants (two that it's already gone there), to its universe, or hurling it back to the one who threw it (this goes for attacks as well), so it can keep people away from the ModelingTale universe. If you're lucky enough to be very sneaky you may have a 1% chance that the rabbit will walk you to the Modelingtale, but you will not be discovered or you can also try to enter his lair at the exact moment he enters it to be taken there, however you notice that the hole is only 12 centimeters in this case so good luck

He likes to eat: carrot stick

Eeva,Papyrus!ModelingTale and Boing!ModelingTale my ocs and my Undertale AU :@teensadventuresstudio and @modelingtale

#my au #my ocs #myart #my undertale au #mycharacter #undertale #my multiverse #annyokami #teensadventresstudio #art #omg #mystory #my story #story #my creation

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kyanitedragon · 4 years ago

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Hey! I saw you reblogged the post about Saiki and Kris. I was wondering, do you have any HCs yourself about them being Aplspec or Aspec? 😊 Or do you know any other characters or media?

Yeah, I do!

I headcanon Saiki as demi-platonic, since he starts the series as extremely asocial but ends up warming up to and appreciating his friends a lot by the end. But he still keeps his feelings to himself and retains quite a bit of his asocialness. All-around he's super relatable as an aromantic aplatonic myself! (I also headcanon Saiki as a non-partnering aroace.)

As for Kris, I think them being aplatonic-spec makes so much sense with what we know of their character. They care about Susie and view her as a friend, but they're not the type of person to show grand gestures of affection. Or even to show any sense of affection in ways that would be easy to see or pick up on. And there's a lot of underlying subtext of Kris being the Weird Kid and neurodivergent-coded, and the term Aplatonic was originally coined by a neurodivergent allo. I could see Kris being an apl with 0 platonic attraction, or in the grey area with little platonic attraction and not much desire to act on it. I'm not sure yet where on the aplatonic spectrum I see them. And actually, now that I think about it, even Kris' relationship with Noelle makes sense from an aplatonic point of view. Noelle viewed them as having grown apart, but Kris seems to very quickly go back to being good friends with her. I remember being surprised that your only options when asked were "yes we're friends" or "no we're something else." But now that I think about it, a lot of aplatonics don't really feel that time changes their relationships, so it makes sense that an aplatonic Kris would have considered them friends this entire time. (I also headcanon Kris as aromantic.)

I've also seen a few aplatonics mention Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic! It's been a while since I watched the series, but I do remember that Twilight Sparkle started out the series with not many friends and not desiring any either. Now, the whole series' lesson is basically to prove her wrong and show her how "magical" friendship is, so it's not really an aplatonic-friendly series, but Twilight Sparkle is still pretty relatable as an aplatonic.

I have a few aplatonic headcanons for Tokyo Ghoul characters. The author Ishida Sui tends to write introvert characters that actually feel like real introverts to me, and they don't ever have any character arcs about growing out of their introversion.

The main character of Tokyo Ghoul, Kaneki Ken, I see as aplatonic. At age 18, he's only ever had 1 friend, and it never seemed to bother him or make him lonely. And despite making tons of friends and found family throughout the series and getting better at social interactions, none of those relationships came from his own desire to make friends and instead came from outside circumstances. By the end of the series, he's still very introverted and closed-off, despite having gone through a lot of other character development. (I also headcanon him as a biromantic asexual!)

And his best friend, Hide, I headcanon him as grey-aplatonic. He's an extrovert and he's the kind of person you would assume has a million friends. But really, you find out that Kaneki is his only real friend. Everyone else he interacts with he seems to just view as an aquaintance, classmate, or coworker. I can't think of another extroverted character in media like that. (I also headcanon him as a lithromantic pan allo-aro!)

And finally, Tsukiyama I headcanon as demi-platonic. His whole main arc is actually about growing up being disconnected and alienated from others, a lot of people push him away and he's insecure about it but always deflects, and he learns that he actually likes having friends and people around once he joins a friend group. But it takes him half a year to warm up to his eventual friends and realize what they mean to him. (I also headcanon him as quoiromantic and quoisexual!)

And Ishida Sui actually has a new manga out now, Choujin X, which has a main character named Tokio with a similar introverted nature to Kaneki. One of the last chapters released actually talked about how Tokio doesn't have any dreams or ambitions in his life, and wondering if that's weird or bad. And that hit me quite hard, not just in a "i don't know what I'm doing with my life yet" kind of way, but also because i'm an aplatonic loveless aro and i don't always feel the same kind of desire or ambitions for my hobbies that other people do. So, I think I now headcanon him an an aplatonic loveless aro.

#aplatonic #apl #apl headcanons #aplatonic headcanons #aspec headcanons #my aspec headcanons #aro headcanons

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modelingtale · 4 years ago

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My NEW AU-Oficial- Undertale- ModelingTale

Eeva

she is a shy and gentle girl, who appeared out of nowhere in a blank space where her Universe is, she is a 20 year old girl, as innocent as a baby, loving and sweet.

She shines in her dark skin forms small bright stars, to light the way and when she is very happy her body can also fill with them.

She NEVER leaves the area where she was born.

She never opens her eyes, but if you get a chance, you'll see space and a beautiful nebula full of stars forming inside her eyes.

Favorite food: soup, fish, seafood or common sandwich

Papyrus!ModelingTale

Papyrus was killed by a frisk in some genocidal route of some of the Huniverses, and his bone dust was carried and carried into the universe of Eeva.

So she named it Eeva

She gave him a star tattoo, and said that every time he feels scared, insecure, sad, lonely, or weak he looks up at the stars and remembers he's not alone.

eBoing!ModelingTale

he doesn't like strangers

He likes to eat: carrot stick

Eeva,Papyrus!ModelingTale and Boing!ModelingTale my ocs and my Undertale AU : @teensadventuresstudio and @modelingtale

#my au #my ocs #myart #my undertale au #mycharacter #undertale #my multiverse #annyokami #teensadventresstudio #art #omg #mystory #my story #story #my creation

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kookakie-blog · 6 years ago

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Answer

PART FIVE

Acacia is a girl in highschool only trying to readjust herself to her new surroundings, while keeping her brother out of trouble. Everything has been a boring routine till she ends up on the wrong side of town at the wrong time, this is where she first meets Chen, although the circumstances aren’t the best.

Acacia’s POV

“You’ll drive yourself crazy reading that.”I quickly wipe my tears and close the file folder when I hear Jongdae’s voice behind me. “Its all I have.” I whisper as I stare down at the folder. Sehun brought another report on Andrew a few days ago and I had just brought myself to read it. “Come here.” I get up from the chair and come to stand in front of Jongdae who was leaning against the door frame to the bedroom. I allow him to trace my cheeks wiping away any stray tears before he pressing my head into his chest. “I could tell Junmyeon you aren’t feeling well. We don’t have to go.” I just shake my head as I wrap my arms around his waist. Jongdae just sighs before pulling me tighter. “We should probably get going then.”

I mumble a small ok and pull back to go get Jongdae’s hoodie. I slip it over my head and turn to see Jongdae smiling widely at me. “What?” He just shakes his head before he walks over to me. “Nothing we’re just gonna have to get you some smaller clothes.” I look down to see his hoodie came all the way down to my knees. “Oh.” I feel a small smile grow on my face when I see Jongdae throw his head back laughing. “We’ll go after the meeting puppy.” I nod my head as Jongdae places a hand on my back as he leads me out of the room.

Kris and Kai were the ones that picked us up. Kris greeted me with a smile and a playful shove while Kai remained silent. He would look at me through the rear view mirror but quickly looked away when I spot him staring. Ever since that night he’s kept his distance from me. Jongdae told me he felt guilty and that I should wait for him to approach me. I’m wondering if he ever would. “Alright puppy stay close to me.” I step out of the car and take Jongdae’s hand and look up at the tall skyscraper. Just what did this gang do?

I’m pulled from my thoughts when Jongdae leads me into the building Kris and Kai in front of us. As soon as we walk into the building, we’re greeted by Kyungsoo who was standing by some Asian women. “Is this her?” Kai playfully asks Kyungsoo only to be shut down with a glare. “Everyone else is downstairs. Junmyeon won’t be pleased you didn’t bring the girls.” I look confused as Kyungsoo sends questioning glances at both Kai and Kris. “They’re both grown women we can’t force them to do anything. Besides it’s not like Junmyeon doesn’t know them.” Kris places another cigarette in his mouth before winking at the shorter man who just proceeds to roll his eyes and stand in front of the woman standing beside him.

Jongdae snorts as he pulls me towards some elevators. He enters a code into a smaller looking one, the doors opening moments later. We step inside and begin our descent to “the design lab” whatever that was. As soon as the doors open we’re met with the low tone of music and the sound of chatter. Jongdae pulls me into the room as I stay slightly behind them. There was a bar in the corner a red headed girl serving drinks as a rather mean looking man stood behind her watching her like a hawk. Sehun was sitting in front of an array of computers a girl with wild hair sitting on his lap sipping on a cup of coffee as she whispered something in his ear earning a chuckle from him. In the corner was a rather childish looking man wearing some sort of mechanics uniform. He was smiling fondly at a Hispanic girl who just appeared to scold him as she wiped some grease off his face.

Over in the corner a pair of girls talking to each other one of them had dark chocolate skin while the others was sun kissed and sported cherry red lipstick. The two men beside them were a lot more quiet only muttering a few words to each other. One of the them was fairly tall with sharp calculated eyes and he seemed quite possessive over the dark skinned girl, his hands gripping her waist tight. The other was soft looking in a way and somewhat dejected from the whole atmosphere. I snap my attention to the couch in the room when I hear Chanyeol’s booming laugh. A small blond girl was placed in his lap his cheeks tinted red as she places a kiss on her cheek. That’s when I noticed Junmyeon in a similar position smiling at the woman beside him as he places his hand over her heart. She whispers something to him and that’s when he turns his attention towards Jongdae and I.

“Ah so glad you could make it. Took you long enough.” Jongdae accepts junmyeon’s hug as I stand awkwardly behind him. “Ah Acacia don’t be so shy.” I give Junmyeon a smile before pressing myself into Jongdae’s side. “She’s so young Junmyeon don’t push it.” The woman who was sitting beside him gives his suit sleeve a tug before she smiles at me. “My names Winry. It’s nice to meet you Acacia.” I give her a small smile in return as I peek my head up at her. I mean she was right. I was the youngest person here seeing that almost all of the occupants were drinking some form of alcohol. “Let’s get this meeting started.” Winry goes to take a seat on the couch as Junmyeon goes to stand in front of the room. Jongdae leads us towards the couch sitting me down beside Winry before sitting beside me.

“So first order of business. The date has been set for next month. All should go smoothly if we take the right precautions. Some of which will need to be added.” Junmyeon pauses to look around the room. “I'm arranging to have all of the girls stay in Jeju on race day. It’s our safest option.” My heart starts to beat rapidly. “Jongdae what is he talking about?” Jongdae just quiets me as he caresses my cheek before wrapping his arm around me. “Luhan, Kris, Chanyeol and I will be racing that day so we’ll have an alibi if need be. Tao will be posted with Xiumin in a building across from the finish line where my father will be posted. Kyungsoo will make sure my father is in the right position and Tao will take him out. One bullet. Clean and easy. Baekhyun and Kai will take him to Lay who will make it look like we did everything we could to keep him alive. Sehun will make sure any and all cameras in the area are jammed at the moment of the shot while Jongdae will make sure no bystanders see Tao or Xiumin...that’ll be the easy part but some new information has come to my attention.”

“What new information?” The mean looking man at the bar asks. “Sehun care to enlighten the rest of us.” Sehun clears his throat before standing up from his chair the girl sitting on his lap taking his spot. “Well sources tell me that the Tarins will be at the race. Rumors are spreading that Mr.Kim is trying to spark some deal with them regarding drug trade. It’s possible the Tarins could organize their own assassination or once Mr.Kim is taken out they might possibly try to gain control of our territory.” I feel Jongdae tightens his grip on me his face hardening. “So we need to make sure that doesn’t happen at any cost. Taking my father out will be the calm before the storm. We should be prepared for anything.”

There’s too many scenarios that could come into play. Minho wasn’t completely dumb..he’d think of something to undermine Junmyeon. But if we knew his move....”Just send me in.”

“Absolutely not.” Jongdae glares at me as I just stare straight at Junmyeon. “Think about it. Minho would never suspect that I even know of you. I know his daily schedule. Party. Get drunk. Sleep repeat. I’d have the perfect window to sneak into his office. I can get Sehun access to his computer. It’s a no brainer.” Junmyeon raises an eyebrow at me as Jongdae turns his glare on to the man in front of us. “Don’t you dare say fucking yes so help me god I’ll gut you right here.” I flinch at Jongdae’s tone as he pulls me to his chest. Junmyeon sighs before shaking his head. “It’s too risky. It would be better if you were the rest of the girls in Jeju.” I just pout as I sink into the man behind me. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t use that intelligence of yours in a different way.” My ears perk up at the mention of being useful. “If you could reconstruct Minho’s schedule we could orchestrate a small intelligence operation a week before the race.”

“Woah woah woah. There’s no way princess here can remember exactly what this man is going to do.” My anger boils up as I turn to face a clearly intoxicated man behind me. “I have an eidetic memory. I literally remember everything my eyes see. So I know for a fact Minho has a vacation planned in three weeks because I was snooping through his office the third Sunday of last month. That would be the perfect time Junmyeon.” I turn back as the man just mumbled something under his breath the red head smacking him upside the head.

“Alright Sehun and Kyungsoo will plan our next move. That’s all. Get ready.” Junmyeon walks over to Sehun, Winry going up to follow him as the rest of the room breaks off. “We’re leaving.” I gulp when I hear Jongdae’s hard voice whisper in my ear. I just nod as he pulls me up from the couch and pulls me to the elevator. “Good luck Acacia.” I glare at Kris as he just takes another puff from his cigarette smirking at me. As soon as the doors to the elevator close Jongdae wastes no time in pushing me against the wall slamming his hands on either side of my head. “Are you suicidal. You know it’s too dangerous for you to just show up out of nowhere. Minho isn’t dumb trust me I know. He would’ve found out in a heartbeat and he would’ve killed you like nothing.” What is he talking about? “Do you understand?!” I flinch as Jongdae raises his voice. “Do you understand?!” I feel tears sting my eyes as I answer yes quickly closing my eyes after.

I keep my eyes closed as Jongdae sighs. “I’m sorry puppy I just don’t want to lose you.” I nod as I bury my face in his chest. “It’s ok. Why don’t we get ice cream after getting you some clothes ok?” I mumble small ok as I sniffle and look up at him.

Jongdae’s POV

#exo #exo au #exo series #exo fanfic #exo tempo au #mafia au #chen series #chen exo #exo ot12 #kpop #kpop fanfiction #kpop reactions #Jongdae #exo scenerios

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jeremystrele · 5 years ago

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Get Your Christmas Shopping Sorted With 25% Off All Thames & Hudson Books!

Christmas Countdown

by Lucy Feagins, Editor

From left: Living Outside by Sharon Mackay ($70). MMXX by Cameron Bruhn ($80). Truth Bomb by Abigail Crompton ($49.99). Design Lives Here by Penny Craswell ($59.99). High Grade Living by Jacqui Lewis and Arran Russell ($49.99). A Century of Colour in Design by David Harrison ($39.99). Plants for the People by Erin Lovell Verinder ($39.99). Emily Kame Kngwarreye by Emily Kame Kngwarreye ($29.99). Nell by Nell ($29.99). Photo – Eve Wilson for The Design Files. Styling – Lucy Feagins. Art Direction – Annie Portelli.

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btsexomonstaxtrash1996 · 8 years ago

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werewolf AU pt 1....exo

so ive been working on this for a while now and i thought i would start posting it here too, i also have it on asian fanfiction but since im just now starting to continue writing it yall should read it first because i want your feedback on if i didi good and what not...since i stay up all night anyway...there will be a lot of posts of this and idk what to name the series, so someone give me ideas please.......

-baekhyun-

They were aliens to this planet and they knew that, but they needed to be secretive about it, because their planet was destroyed and they needed to hide among the locals.

They chores different countries and or different states so they weren’t grouped up. From what they understood was that they looked much like people from Asia, so they rolled with it, learning languages and their technologies, hiding their abilities.

It worked for over 100 years, hiding in plain sight. But then a girl found Baekhyun, a name in which they chose as a group, since they had a little different names, very intriguing, when she saw him the first time he was beyond beautiful to her, she did follow him for a long while, as he traveled the world, she found out what he was the first time she accidentally saw him use his ability, but still she felt so attached to the man in front of her, she also saw his true form, that of a wolf, but she never thought if him as a monster, she was attached to the man she had never even met.

One day he got a message from one of his pack members, saying that he was being followed, that they could have been exposed and when he turned around just to see her blonde hair disappearing into the darkness he panicked and ran, but she knew she had to follow him, explain herself, so she ran after him, in old stone alleyways she ran after him as all the lights went out or exploded, until he ran into a gate he couldn’t break so he turned around greeted by darkness until little balls of light dotted the area like stars so he could at least see his attacker.

“I don’t want to hurt you.” She says with her hands up but he was still holding onto the gate until he saw her for the first time, her blue eyes looking into his for the first time and he fell to his knees, he heard of mates back on his planet, they were ment to keep the population going, but how could he have a mate that isn’t even the same species as him, how could this earth girl be the one ment for him, and only him. She runs over to him and tries to see why he’s on the ground.

“Are you alright what happened?” She asks looking him over and baekhyun couldn’t take her touching him as his body is sensitive to her touch and so he grabs ahold of her and bites her, his meant to be claiming mark to fill her blood with his venom so that no other wolf will want her, it’s meant to be calming, but she screamed and he knew he did something wrong by making her his mate, not knowing what he could have done to her before she just passes out and he calls their healer, Lay.

“I don’t know what to do, this isn’t supposed to happen.” He cries into the phone holding the girl.

“I’ll call kai and have him teleport me to you, I’ve studied them and I can see what I can do.” He says before he hangs up and baekhyun is left to his own thoughts. His whole body hurts, the effect of being able to feel their mates emotions, his body is getting used to human emotions it seems.

Her skin feels hot to the touch as he tries to get her to wake up and she doesn’t, he thinks he could have killed her before kai is standing in front of him with lay kneeling beside him.

“Let me look at her.” He says softly and baekhyun gets up letting go of the girl, trusting lay with his life.

“What have I done, I wasn’t thinking I could have just killed my mate.” Baekhyun cries as kai brings him in for a hug to call the poor beta wolf down.

“I called suho he said to take her back to his place, so we can all watch over her.” Lay says and baekhyun nods before kai picks her up and baekhyun and lay hold onto his shoulder as he poofs to where suho sits on a couch looking quite angry but at the same time apologetic, because he knows they are breathtakingly beautiful, it’s in their genes, but baekhyun was found out, at the same time as finding his mate, it’s unfair to be quite so angry so suho takes a deep breath in.

“Is she the only one who saw you?” He asks and baekhyun nods, everyone else ignored him.

“She was the only person who followed me.” baekhyun states and suho nods.

“Good, I’m sorry about your mate, but lay will take good care of her.” Suho states and baekhyun nods looking down at the too hot girl.

“Get ice, we need to cool her down, I’ll put her in the tub.” Lay says lifting her into his arms and carrying her to the bathroom, normally omegas or even betas don’t get hot when they are bonded, but he’s guessing it would be the venom now cording through her veins.

He sets her in the bathtub and baekhyun takes her hand in his and kneels by it hoping to god he didn’t just kill her as lay turns on the cold water while kai brings in a bucket full of ice and dumps it in the water.

“This should keep her temperature down, we will have to leave her in it for a while.” Lay says as baekhyun grabs her head to hold it up above the water since she can’t do it by herself.

Kai disappears to get the other boys, bringing them back one at a time before he grabs Kris last and they all get the explanation from Suho about how now that they’re on earth they could be being drawn to mate with the humans to further on their species.

Baekhyun yells startled as Sara changed back and forth from wolf to human in her slumber making Lay run in to see the change too, looking at the girl in the tub with astonishment running back out.

“She’s transforming into a wolf and back, maybe the venom is changing her genetic code to match ours.” Lay says before all the boys run in to see the change as well and baekhyun is crying harder, the poor pup all confused because of the change in emotions and the fact he wasn’t thinking when he bit her.

“What if she doesn’t accept me now? I’ll die.” He says once she stays in solid form as a human looking back at Kris who comforts the younger alfa.

“You have to give her the choice, I know it’s hard but she has to accept you.” Kris says abd baekhyun nods before looking back at Sara who had been shifting for three hours straight who looks like she’s in pain. “And if she accepts you, she will bite you too and then you two will mate and hopefully have pups.” Kris adds the bright side hating seeing the normally cheerful wolf sad.

“She’s cooling down we should get her out and dry her off, she might wake up.” Lay says draining the tub and baekhyun helps lift her out if it laying her on a pile of towels and baekhyun dries her off seeing the scarred bite mark.

“She’s healed.” Baekhyun says happily pointing it out to Kris who nods patting him on the back.

She states and groans before she slowly opens her eyes to a scared baekhyun as her eyes shift from blue to red and back as her body relaxes.

“youre safe, I’ll explain everything…” baekhyun starts but Sara shakes her head.

“I know…I heard it all while I was asleep.” She states and baekhyun’s jaw drops. “I knew what you were when I followed you, I was going to accept you no matter what.” She states and he embraces her form.

“You have to bite him back.” Kris states awkwardly and she nods as baekhyun gives her his neck and she sinks her teeth into him and he sighs, because it feels good to have her bonded permanently to him.

“Kai take them somewhere other then here, her body will force her into heat and I dint know if the rest of us can handle that yet.” Kris says and kai nods taking them and landing them back in baekhyuns abandoned house by the lake and baekhyun smiles down at her as kai disappears with promises to get them after her heat is over.

“Are you sure you want all of this, something could go wrong if you get pregnant, or your body could randomly reject the change, maybe we shouldn’t rush this.” Baekhyun states and Sara just looks at him.

“Then just stay with me.” She says softly and he nods before he lifts her up and takes her to his bed to sleep.

He is The first in his pack to find his mate, who knows what will happen when the others find theirs, if the others find there’s

#baekhyun #werewolf au #exo werewolf au #chanyeol #kai #kris #suho #xiumin #tao #sehun #lay #chen #kyungsoo #luhan #werewolf #exo #exo fanfiction #exo au

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flauntpage · 7 years ago

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The “Philly Fan” Myth Will Never Die, Will It?

Toward the end of the Flyers’ dispiriting Game 6 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, a number of fans saw the looming specter of another premature playoff exit and decided they had enough – to drink. As Penguins winger Bryan Rust slid the puck into the Flyers’ empty net to put his team up by a score of 8-5, beer cans rained down on the Wells Fargo Center Ice.

“There’s heavy artillery flying all over down here,” analyst Pierre McGuire reported. A lengthy delay ensued as the Flyers ice crew worked quickly to clear the playing surface.

It didn’t take long for the criticisms to roll in from the social media universe. “Flyers fans throwing things on the ice: a playoff tradition like no other,” Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Mike Sielski tweeted. Even Pittsburgh radio host and columnist Mark Madden, who is a big fan of Crossing Broad, took a shot at the Flyers’ fan base:

It was great to see half the Wells Fargo scum-suckers leave early, &the other half embarrass themselves by throwing ***t. Flyers are good up front, disastrous in the back. Gudas got the Penguins back in the game.

— Mark Madden (@MarkMaddenX) April 22, 2018

Madden’s assessment was more or less in line with other Twitter reactions to the scene. And then there were the media takes, like this offering from Pittsburgh 97.3 The Fan’s Colin Dunlap. “Flyers fans are trash. Philadelphia fans, by and large, are trash,” Dunlap declared in a piece that could have used an editor. The Washington Post‘s Cindy Boren called the display “one of the most Philly fan things ever.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writer Jason Mackey reported that Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford was incensed by the antics of the crowd.

Left unmentioned in the various columns excoriating Flyers fans for their improper behavior was the inconvenient fact that Penguins partisans had committed the same sin during game 2 of the series:

Pitt fans throwing things on ice after ref’s call.

— Sam Carchidi (@BroadStBull) April 14, 2018

One does not have to stroll too far down memory lane to recall similar incidents occurring in Boston and Washington after Philadelphia game 7 wins in 2010 and 2008, respectively.

Outside of hockey, Cleveland has a particularly sordid history involving inebriated fans throwing debris on the field. New Yorkers littered venerable Yankee Stadium when a call went against the Bronx Bombers in the 2004 ALCS. And who can forget the tossed drink that sparked the Malice at the Palace in Detroit in 2004?

The above examples constitute a small sampling, but they lead me to wonder: why are Philadelphia fans the only group that gets stigmatized? We are consistently defined by the worst elements of the fan base. Bad fan behavior in other sports towns seems to be regarded as exceptional, whereas any incidents in Philly are treated as exemplary.

I hate to engage in “whataboutism,” in large part because it’s a rhetorical tool used to avoid accountability through deflection. Frankly, there is no excuse for throwing stuff on the ice, ever. It was a bad look, especially in the aftermath of the wristband incident during the Flyers-Capitals series in 2016. The fans who took part in it were completely in the wrong.

Of course, the referees missed a number of calls that cemented the Flyers’ fate. Kris Letang’s trip of Sean Couturier that led to the Penguins’ sixth goal was a particularly egregious no-call. It’s fair to be frustrated, but only to a point. Referees make mistakes. They’re bound by the same limitations that human subjectivity imposes on all of us. I would have hoped that the fans in attendance who launched their beers on the ice would be a little more sanguine in the face of defeat given the outstanding sports year the city has already experienced.

Nevertheless, when negative fan interactions that happen outside Philadelphia are either stored in the deepest recesses of our collective consciousness or completely ignored, I need to ask: what about it? Aren’t the Philadelphia scolds in the media guilty of the same crime of deflection when they actively feed the “Philly fan” narrative while ignoring the obvious reality that bad fan behavior is ubiquitous?

Perhaps the real problem lies with the formulation of sports narratives in general. The storylines we create around the games we watch drive much of the content we consume. The “Philly fan” bit is so entrenched in the sports talk universe that I would expect a practiced carnival barker like Skip Bayless to deliver a ten-minute off-the-cuff set on the subject that would closely resemble the mediocre content he usually provides.

With the “Philly fan” topic established, it’s simply a matter of finding anecdotes that support the thesis. Stories that align with the topic are highlighted, while others that add nuance or suggest bad fan behavior exists outside the 215 area code are discarded. The folks in the media who are perpetuating this charade may claim they are just reporting “the truth” or “the news,” but what they’re actually doing is engaging in a confirmation bias experiment.

The stories aren’t designed to enlighten or inform; they’re produced to enrage. They cater to people who enjoy living on their own islands of self-assurance, never daring to walk to the water’s edge where their knowledge ends and their ignorance begins. If a factoid or an argument aligns with your worldview, embrace it; if it challenges what you think you know, attack it as stupid or label it as fake.

Nuance seems an increasingly scarce commodity these days. Is it possible to condemn the activity that occurred at the Wells Fargo Center without feeding the “Philly fan” myth? Can someone attempt to contextualize the larger issue of fan conduct without being labeled an apologist? Are you allowed to explore both sides of an issue?

I can’t say for sure. What does seem apparent is that the “Philly fan” narrative is alive and well outside of Philadelphia despite the sports renaissance our city has enjoyed in 2018. Our detractors will demand we take responsibility for the bad apples among us, although they will never seriously contend with the state of their own orchards. So it goes.

The “Philly Fan” Myth Will Never Die, Will It? published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

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jonathanalumbaugh · 7 years ago

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What I learned

January 13th, 2018, 7th issue. A roundup of what I learned this week, sources linked. Published weekly. All blurbs written by yours truly unless otherwise noted. Grouped in quasi-random order.

Design

Land art is awesome. — 10 Female Land Artists You Should Know

There's free money out there for projects! — The Complete Guide to 2018 Artist Grants and - Artwork Archive

Better design can help guide the user to what they want to do, while leaving them in control. Bad design lets them flounder. — Hawaii missile alert: Blame terrible interface design for the Hawaii debacle — Quartz

Looking at a familiar environment through a photo can give us a new perspective. — January Cure 2018 Assignment 7 - Photograph Your Home - Apartment Therapy

Design-centered companies like IBM seem like the ideal, if there must be monoliths like them. — IBM’s Quest To Design The “New Helvetica”

Things that are interactive get more attention than things that are static. Things that are interactive in strange and unexpected ways, probably even more so. — Ikea’s New Ad Is A Pregnancy Test You Pee On. Really.

The impact of simple choices ("this font or that one?") is important. — The importance of typography in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

International fire code/OSHA guidelines for evacuation floor plans are a thing that exists. — Is there a Standard for Emergency Evacuation Maps? - NFPA Xchange

Basic principles of animation apply to more than just animated films. — Making CSS Animations Feel More Natural - CSS-Tricks

CNC made houses cause quite a stir in the comments section. — The PlyPad: CNC Machine Yourself A Tiny House - Hackaday

Design nostalgia looks to an era that never existed, a charicature of an era that wasn't as glorious as it's made out to be. — That font you hate is coming back in style - The Outline

Git

Yes, a section dedicated solely to all the things I learned about git.

Git is a powerful way of managing projects that have releases, ongoing development, and multiple team members. — A git Primer

Use "git checkout" to use files from a different branch in the current branch. — Git: checkout files or directories from another branch – clubmate.fi

This was supposed to help me deploy my website. — Git: copy all files in a directory from another branch - Stack Overflow

Git can also be used to automate deployment of web apps or websites, especially powerful when combined with post receive hooks. — Setting up Push-to-Deploy with git - Kris Jordan

Order of operations: git commit > git pull > merge whatever needs to be merged > push to server. — When do I need to do "git pull", before or after "git add, git commit"? - Stack Overflow

Finance

In systems of continually growing complexity, administration becomes more and more difficult. — An Alleged Theft of a Billion-Dollar Fund Grips ETF World - WSJ

A lot about retirement accounts. — Congratulations, Your Income Is Too High: Non-Deductible IRA Conversions - Part 2 - Seeking Alpha

Ethereum is a crypto-currency that is built to be used for smart contracts, which function as multi-signature accounts, manage agreements between users, store information about an app, and more. — How Do Ethereum Smart Contracts Work? - CoinDesk

Scandal

In a shitstorm of bad apologies for terrible assaults, a victim accepts her harasser's apology. — Dan Harmon’s apology to Megan Ganz was a moment of self-reckoning - Vox

Excerpt: “We are talking here about destroying all the ambiguity and the charm of relationships between men and women,” explained the writer Anne-Elisabeth Moutet... “We are French, we believe in gray areas. America is a different country. They do things in black and white and make very good computers. We don’t think human relationships should be treated like that.”

What I learned: I'm not really sure.

— Opinion: Catherine Deneuve and the French Feminist Difference

In the almost every one of the differing opinions about Ansari's wrongdoings, even the ones who decry his accuser, there is at least some shred of truth. — The Humiliation of Aziz Ansari

Social media

Facebook has shifted its focus from personal connection to advertising. Can it be saved? Probably only by killing it. — Facebook Can’t Be Fixed. — Facebook (FB) is using an old drug dealer tactic to keep its users hooked to News Feed

In a society anxious to be texted back, we value the ability to put off replying. — How It Became Normal to Ignore Texts and Emails

youtube

Algorithmic systems like Youtube feed off of its users preferences. If we don't like it, it's our fault. — Making a Better YouTube

There is a new dialectic, or at least one that has been brought to the fore by the over-availability of news: virtue signalling vs. engagement. Every inflammatory headline begs to be shared with righteous opinion attached, and every time one is it fans the flames of the 24 hour news cycle. Maybe before long, it'll be called the 1400 minute news cycle. — Seriously, You—Ok, We—Need To Stop Watching The News This Year

Massive systems like Youtube are now almost completely run by algorithms that are exploitative. It's not that there is aberrant behavior in the algorithm; it is built to be exploitative, and it's now being taken to its natural end. And yes, as users, we are complicit. — Something is wrong on the internet – James Bridle

We need to consider the root beliefs collectively held by society that have given rise to the services that now run our lives. — Lost Context: How Did We End Up Here?

Life

A catch-all category for stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else, or fits in too many other categories!

There are points in time that we're more likely to work to push beyond our current capabilities; perhaps by preparing for them, we could push even farther. — The Bizarre Motivating Power of Aging Into a New Decade

Spiciness is carried to our brains through nerves in the dermis on our tongues, not through taste buds. — Did You Know That "Spicy" is Not a Taste?

Alcohol hits the bloodstream very quickly (~90 seconds) but takes hours to be fully released into the bloodstream, so BAC can climb even after the last drink. — Here's Why You Vomit After Drinking Alcohol And How To Feel Better After Getting Sick

Discomfort and fear keep us from enjoying ourselves. When we experience them, slow down, check them at the door and forge ahead. — I Was the Youngest Person at the Dump - Kathleen Ann Thompson

The authors argue that inequality is almost the same as it has been for decades, the top 1% is simply receiving their large slice of the pie in salary, rather than in increasing shareholder value pre-Reagan tax changes. — A new study says much of the rise in inequality is an illusion. Should you believe it?

Making room for opportunity to occur is the first step to seizing opportunity. — Opportunity Knocks When You Least Expect It. - Kathleen Ann Thompson

What I learned: The internet is a utopia; it does not physically exist, it's a virtual space that enables the amplification of the moral outrage that is a tool of self-absolution. And now we are no longer able to shape the internet, what we made now shapes us. Excerpt one: "The utopian ideal of the internet—unregulated access to information, pure connectivity—now feels antiquated. Also antiquated: trying to determine if the internet is simply good or bad. Possible and necessary: thinking more deeply about how it’s rewiring our brains and warping our experience of time, about the vistas of reality it’s revealing and creating, and what to do with our positions therein, so that we do not go mad from it all nor flee altogether." Excerpt two: "Communicating every thought about every moral conflict has become so effortless, even obligatory, that it feels like nothing could possibly be informing our reactions beyond the conflicts themselves." Excerpt three: "The myriad reckonings we’re desperate for might be cultivated in the kind of safe space Kaufman describes. Not a literal dream state, but somewhere where you don’t feel watched or compelled to perform. Somewhere private, or where you’re listening to one person at a time rather than a ton of little representations of people all at once. Somewhere where the discomfort of moral responsibility can’t be mowed over with the stimulus of an outrageous story. Where, if you’re disturbed to come upon a transgressive thought of your own, the next move is to pick it apart, rather than to go online and project an image of yourself as perfectly evolved." — Rookie » Editor's Letter

Automating repetitive tasks using whatever tools at hand is a powerful way to reach past a productivity plateau. — Schedule Tasks on Linux Using Crontab

Giving our viewers "everything" is doing our audiences a disservice. Shows like Twin Peaks make us work to understand. — ‘Twin Peaks’ Episode 8 Explained: Recap & Top Theories

B teams at Google (teams that were not composed of top performers) made more significant contributions to the company than its A teams, once again proving that soft skills are incredibly important. — The surprising thing Google learned about its employees — and what it means for today’s students

Figure out your most productive hours and be prepared to work on your most important projects in that time. — Work During Your Hours of Peak Productivity

Google may not be explicitly evil, but it is starting to force web developers to do things the Google way. — Web developers publish open letter taking Google to task for locking up with web with AMP / Boing Boing

Psychology

I have no idea what's going on here. — Carl Jung Was Alt-Right

Contradicting perhaps decades of psychology, personality (as measured by OCEAN, or the "Big Five") shows downward trends in all traits except agreeableness. — Study of 50,000 people shows personality changes throughout life

A free "Big Five" or "OCEAN" test! — Understand Yourself - Personality Test

Beginnings, endings, and other psychological landmarks are powerful times to take advantage of in our lives. — You’re Most Likely to Do Something Extreme Right Before You Turn 30

#Weekly Digest

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marie85marketing · 8 years ago

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Tracking Offline Marketing Campaigns With Kissmetrics

Forrester estimates that companies allocate about 30% of their marketing budget to online.

It’s trending upwards, gaining roughly 1% per year.

That’s means that offline marketing spend will continue to outspend online for the next couple decades.

So if you’re like most companies spending the bulk of your marketing budgets on offline marketing campaigns, you’ll need to know how effective your offline efforts are. (That is why you came to this blog post in the first place, after all).

Here’s how you can intelligently set up those offline campaigns and track their returns in Kissmetrics.

Forms of Offline Marketing

Let’s try to name all the offline channels you can throw marketing dollars at.

There’s direct mail, radio, coupons, television, guerilla marketing, business cards, conferences, speaking engagements, sponsorships, and more.

Even if you’re utilizing just one of these channels, you’ll still need to track it just as diligently as your online marketing campaigns. Qualitative feedback is great (“a lot of people said great things about us at the most recent conference we sponsored”) but you’ll also need to measure (“we received 5k visits and 580 signups coming directly from the conference”).

Let’s look at how Kissmetrics can help you in measuring the quantitative data.

From Offline to Online

So, how do we track a potential customer that heard about you from an offline channel and moves from the awareness stage to the interest stage?

Let’s say your company, a chocolate company, just sponsored a big food trade show in Dallas this past January. You’re trying to get more of your product in retail stores around the country. To get the attention of attendees, your company logo was all over, along with a custom site you made just for attendees. This site contains some background on your company, your sourcing, and information for retail buyers.

Your banners across the conference were all pointing to this URL, telling attendees they get a free consultation by going to the site and filling out the information form.

As long as you’ve kept the URL short and easy-to-remember, tracking this shouldn’t be a problem. People type your URL into the address bar, hit enter, and browse, contact you, inquire.

Tracking it is relatively straightforward. Just pull up a funnel report viewing direct visits to see how many of them signed up, contacted you, etc.

But let’s add a wrinkle that makes this a bit more tricky: let’s say you’re offering free box of chocolates if visitors enter a coupon code when submitting an inquiry to talk to one of your salespersons.

What we basically want to know is – of all the people that submit an inquiry with us, how many of them are applying the discount code? How effective is the free chocolate at generating inquiries?

In this case, the funnel is – Visited conference site > Filled out inquiry form (with or without discount code).

With Kissmetrics, you can track when people apply a discount code. Here’s how we’d set it up using Kissmetrics:

Anytime someone visits our site for conferences attendees, an event in Kissmetrics called Visited conference site fires. So our first event in the funnel is for people that visited the conference site:

The second event fires when someone files out an inquiry. We called this event Submitted inquiry. We’ll set that as the 2nd event in the funnel report:

We’ll want to find the people that have and have not submitted the coupon code, so we’ll click the small arrow button and add the property “Coupon Code” with the coupon code being conference100:

We also want to find the people that didn’t enter the coupon code. For that, we’ll click this button:

And we’ll add an Or condition to this step, telling Kissmetrics to also find the people that did not have this coupon applied:

This will make it easy to compare the conversion rates for people that entered the coupon code vs those that didn’t.

So here’s how our funnel set up looks:

Now let’s get our data. Let’s first look at a simple conversion for those that visited the conference site and then submitted the inquiry.

This shows us we got about 2500 visits, and a little more than half of those submitted an inquiry. Now let’s look at how effective that coupon code was getting people to submit an inquiry.

So it looks like the bulk of conversions are coming with the coupon code applied.

Much lower conversions – meaning that the free box of chocolates were enough to get most people to submit an inquiry. We’ll now have to track these further down the funnel to see if they lead to meaningful conversations.

This example can stretch further – if you’re using direct mail, radio, billboards, or any display advertising you can point people to a URL and track the conversions with a coupon code. How many times on radio have you heard “enter coupon code to receive 15% off your first order”? As we’ve seen, using these coupon codes makes it much easier to track the effectiveness of these offline campaigns.

Shortened Domains

You may have a long domain name that can be too difficult to remember, too long to type, or not easy to hear (for those of you that advertise on radio).

For example, there’s a realtor in my area named Kris Lindahl. He frequently advertises on radio. His website, www.krislindahl.com, isn’t easy to remember (it’s a name) and Kris is usually spelled as Chris, which could lead many to type in the wrong URL. So via radio he advertises his url as soldwithkl.com, which is easier to remember than his actual name. Go to soldwithkl.com and you’ll be redirected to his officlal website landing page.

That can be a solid approach if your domain name isn’t memorable or very long. It also makes it very easy to track with Kissmetrics. Here’s how it works.

Let’s say you’re the Director of Marketing for a company called carworldautoparts.com. You are about to begin a radio campaign. The only issue is your domain name. It has a couple problems:

It’s long (who wants to type a domain that long?)

It’s not particularly easy to remember

You know that no matter what you offer, your long domain name is a roadblock for getting people to just visit your site. So you create a workaround by buying a shorter, easier to remember domain name that redirects to your main URL. This is the domain name you’ll advertise on radio.

Tracking your main funnel is pretty standard, but you’ll add a condition to the first step, telling Kissmetrics to only find the people that came from your shortened URL.

You can then fill out the rest of your funnel – viewed product, added product to cart, and purchased. This will give you a focused view on how your radio campaign is performing.

By the way – you can also do this with other domains – you can see how traffic from twitter, facebook, and other referral sites impact signups and conversions.

Conclusion

Tracking offline campaigns can be tricky if people aren’t buying on the spot.

But following the steps they’ll take to purchasing, and tracking each step along the way, will make it much easier.

Questions? Put them in the comments.

About the Author: Zach Bulygo (Twitter) is the Blog Manager for Kissmetrics.

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samiam03x · 8 years ago