#like obviously you don’t HAVE to stick to the actual leverage characters/types but

[bitterscampi]

hm. bcc leverage au

[rukia-simp]

Rukia’s Feelings

Let's discuss feelings in Bleach because there's a lot of double standards here and it hurts me to watch people think they've "debunked" arguments but they only told a vague fairy tale. That's why I'm saying that Rukia had fallen in love earlier than you think. In fact I would even say that she fell in love before Orihime. Orihime may have had a crush on Ichigo first, but she never said “love” until the arrancar saga.

Rukia fell in love first. In fact there's textual evidence for this. We all know this iconic scene. Kubo was never into romantic tales, however he wouldn't pull this BS out of his ass for shits and giggles. He's not that kind of writer. Every scene has purpose! Stop the disrespect!

This scene isn't meant for fanservice. It's meant for setting up motive. Why does Rukia want to leave?

Before I answer that. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is what literary analysis calls DRAMATIC IRONY. In which the audience knows something that characters might not know. For example like when we know Isshin is a Shinigami, but Ichigo doesn't know. We know Rukia's true feelings but Ichigo and other people don't because they obviously can't read her inner monologue. Ichigo can't read her motives until her tears tell him the truth. Now to answer the original question above. She left because she was afraid that if she stayed any longer in the living world, her already developing feelings would make it harder to leave later on. She needed to get out of Ichigo's proximity so that her attachment can't be used as leverage or puts him in danger. After all it was her emotional attachment to Kaien that allows her to identify every emotion that she's feeling at this moment in the story. She doesn't want to bring Ichigo the same demise as Kaien. It's because of her emotions that Kaien's death hit her so hard. Without emotions and that attachment to Kaien, it would have been just another death in the Soul Society. Why is this important? Because Rukia's trying to learn from her past. Ichigo's stubbornness messes up her plan, but it's also what ends up saving them in the long term. She runs away with the hope of forgetting all of her experiences with Ichigo. Ichigo did the same thing Kaien did with Rukia in the 13th division. Ichigo didn't make her feel alone or like an outcast. They both treated her the way she always hoped people would treat her. With respect, and as an equal. She never wanted to be put down nor be put on a pedestal because of her last name. Or because of her rank. But everyone did, even her future husband. The only two people who canonically didn’t was Ichigo and his cousin. Rukia just has a weak side for men like that. Rukia has a type unlike Orihime. We know why she loves Ichigo, but there's no clear reason as to why Orihime does. It's very broad, and not narrowed down to a specific reason. Which makes her crush easy to attack with no actual solid defense. I can tell you EXACTLY where Ichigo and Rukia's relationship changed from salty coworkers to immediately more than friends. I've reread Bleach multiple time, and have yet to see the exact moment where Ichigo and Orihime's feelings change. Most of it looks like it's offscreen.

Just so no one gets confused. I'm referring to this scene. This was where Ichigo and Rukia's relationship could never go back to being coworkers and friends.

Anyways, people like to argue that Orihime is the one that likes him so she is guaranteed that "happy" ending. I call BS because Nel and Riruka had just as much infatuation with our protagonist, but all I see is them getting the short end of the stick. Orihime IS NOT SPECIAL. But Rukia IS special. This woman "COINCIDENTALLY" has a paralleled past to our protagonist. She "COINCIDENTALLY" spent Ichigo's entire past arc as his only form of foundation and support. And she "COINCIDENTALLY" is the one to be asked about HER feelings because she's not as open about her emotions, since she's a SHINIGAMI. Shinigami have LITERALLY been taught to not be emotional. Duty before love. Rukia's characterization and occupation don’t allow her to confess straight up. Orihime has the privilege of no limitations. Rukia isn't as lucky! Why the hell would Kubo emphasize this so much for it be a fecking dead end?!

But that's why Rukia's confession is in the form of denial. Because in order to keep her IN CHARACTER, Kubo needs to write a confession that sounds like Rukia. He must emphasize how strong her feelings are. They are so strong that they overcome her usual stoicism, sternness.

Byakuya himself knew that Rukia only showed this much emotion towards Kaien. That's why he concluded that there's something special about Ichigo. He has identified the pattern.

All of this had purpose. I refuse to believe it was all for nothing. This scene was a confession, and just a sad reminder that unfortunately Ichigo and Rukia's ending was always on a tight rope. He put too much effort into their relationship. He put a freakish amount of effort into their relationship. And honestly this makes the story make more sense, in my opinion. Think about it like this. If Rukia was not in love in this scene then it wouldn’t be as memorable in the Ichiruki fandom. And Rukia would be a completely different character. By Rukia already having feelings they stimulate Ichigo into finding out his own feelings (which is in the Lost Agent Arc). And it makes sense because Rukia might fall easier, but she’s more passive when it comes to answering to her desires. Just look back at her past with Kaien, and her reaction towards his wife. She’s not the type to pursue feelings. But Ichigo is more aggressive than her. But he’s more dense as well. Ichigo is the type to initiate the relationship, but he has to be aware of it. How can you be aware of it if your dense? I mean the fact that Ichigo is dense about Orihime’s blatant feelings can’t be a coincidence. For me, it almost seems like Ichigo is dense, not because he’s not meant to see Orihime’s feelings, but because it makes it harder for him to identify his own feelings for a certain person (personally I thought and still think that it’s supposed to be Rukia). It delays endgames, and allows for more satisfying development. However, this could just be my optimism speaking, but I don't think Kubo is stupid. But that time frame for TYBW was ridiculous and I truly believe it was a factor in their final decisions. But I might be blinded by my optimism. Well anyway, this was another piece of analysis. Just want to call out some hypocrites. I'm right now putting on the table that Rukia arguably has just as much feelings for Ichigo. So the argument that Orihime is "obligated" to Ichigo's love is too vague. It's a horrible argument, but I'm always open to discussion. Respectfully of course. But then again this is social media so...

My next analysis is probably going to be on this gorgeous scene. I'm just going to explain its significance and what makes it an irrefutable Ichigo and Rukia moment. Please look forward to that! Thank you to everyone that read this far. Have a wonderful day!

Also no hate on Renji and Orihime. I know Renji thought he had good intentions, but if he's so special then he should have been able to fix it before 40 years of no interactions. And Orihime is a sweetie, but her unrealistic look on life is just too polar to my look on life. I'm a realist. I can't get behind that especially when she basically gets everything handed to her without much consequence. Reality would have hit normal women in the face if they were in Orihime's position. To me that's not a good message to teach to anyone.

Anyway thanks for reading! Love y’all!

[ot3]

i watched red vs blue: zero with my dear friends today and i was asked to “post” my “thoughts” on the subject. Please do not click this readmore unless, for some reason, you want to read three thousand words on the subject of red vs blue: zero critical analysis. i highly doubt that’s the reason anyone is following me, but hey. 

anyway. here you have it. 

Here are my opinions on RVB0 as someone who has quite literally no nostalgia for any older RVB content. I’ve seen seasons 1-13 once and bits and pieces of it more than once here and there, but I only saw it for the first time within the past couple of months. I’ve literally never seen any other RT/AH content. I can name a few people who worked on OG Red vs. Blue but other than Mounty Oum I have NO idea who is responsible for what, really, or what anything else they’ve ever worked on is, or whether or not they’re awful people. I know even less about the people making RVB0 - All I know is that the main writer is named Torrian but I honestly don’t even know if that’s a first name, a last name, or a moniker. All this to say; nothing about my criticism is rooted in any perceived slight against the franchise or branding by the new staff members, because I don’t know or care about any of it. In fact, I’m going to try and avoid any direct comparison between RVB0 and earlier seasons of RVB as a means of critique until the very end, where I’ll look at that relationship specifically.

So here is my opinion of RVB0 as it stands right now:

1. The Writing

Everything about RVB0 feels as if it was written by a first-time writer who hasn’t learned to kill his darlings. The narrative is both simultaneously far too full, leaving very little breathing room for character interaction, and oddly sparse, with a story that lacks any meaningful takeaway, interesting ideas, or genuine emotional connection. It also feels like it’s for a very much younger audience - I don’t mean this as a negative at all. I love tv for kids. I watch more TV for kids than I do for adults, mostly, but I think it’s important to address this because a lot of the time ‘this is for kids’ is used to act like you’re not allowed to critique a narrative thoroughly. It definitely changes the way you critique it, but the critique can still be in good faith.  I watched the entirety of RVB0 only after it was finished, in one sitting, and I was giving it my full attention, essentially like it was a movie. I’m going to assume it was much better to watch in chunks, because as it stood, there was literally no time built into the narrative to process the events that had just transpired, or try and predict what events might be coming in the future. When there’s no time to think about the narrative as you’re watching it, the narrative ends up as being something that happens to the audience, not something they engage with. It’s like the difference between taking notes during a lecture or just sitting and listening. If you’re making no attempt to actively process what’s happening, it doesn’t stick in your mind well. I found myself struggling to recall the events and explanations that had immediately transpired because as soon as one thing had happened, another thing was already happening, and it was like a mental juggling act to try and figure out which information was important enough to dwell on in the time we were given to dwell on it.

Which brings me to another point - pacing. Every event in the show, whether a character moment, a plot moment, or a fight scene, felt like it was supposed to land with almost the exact same amount of emotional weight. It all felt like The Most Important Thing that had Yet Happened. And I understand that this is done as an attempt to squeeze as much as possible out of a rather short runtime, but it fundamentally fails. When everything is the most important thing happening, it all fades into static. That’s what most of 0’s narrative was to me: static. It’s only been a few hours since I watched it but I had to go step by step and type out all of the story beats I could remember and run it by my friends who are much more enthusiastic RVB fans than I am to make sure I hadn’t missed or forgotten anything. I hadn’t, apparently, but the fact that my takeaway from the show was pretty accurate and also disappointingly lackluster says a lot. Strangely enough, the most interesting thing the show alluded to - a holo echo, or whatever the term they used was - was one of the things least extrapolated upon in the show’s incredibly bulky exposition. Benefit of the doubt says that’s something they’ll explore in future seasons (are they getting more? Is that planned? I just realized I don’t actually know.)

And bulky it was! I have quite honestly never seen such flagrant disregard for the rule of “show, don’t tell.” There was not a single ounce of subtlety or implication involved in the storytelling of RVB0. Something was either told to you explicitly, or almost entirely absent from the narrative. Essentially zilch in between. We are told the dynamic the characters have with each other, and their personality pros and cons are listed for us conveniently by Carolina. The plot develops in exposition dumps. This is partially due to the series’ short runtime, but is also very much a result of how that runtime was then used by the writers. They sacrificed a massive chunk of their show for the sake of cramming in a ton of fight scenes, and if they wanted to keep all of those fight scenes, it would have been necessary to pare down their story and characters proportionally in comparison, but they didn’t do that either. They wanted to have it both ways and there simply wasn’t enough time for it. 

The story itself is… uninteresting. It plays out more like the flimsy premise of a video game quest rather than a piece of media to be meaningfully engaged with. RVB0 is I think something I would be pitched by a guy who thinks the MCU and BNHA are the best storytelling to come out of the past decade. It is nothing but tropes. And I hate having to use this as an insult! I love tropes. The worst thing about RVB0 is that nothing it does is wholly unforgivable in its own right. Hunter x Hunter, a phenomenal shonen, is notoriously filled with pages upon pages of detailed exposition and explanations of things, and I absolutely love it. Leverage, my favorite TV show of all time, is literally nothing but a five man band who has to learn to work as a team while seemingly systematically hitting a checklist of every relevant trope in the book. Pacific Rim is an incredibly straightforward good guys vs giant monsters blockbuster to show off some cool fight scenes such as a big robot cutting an alien in half with a giant sword, and it’s some of the most fun I ever have watching a movie. Something being derivative, clunky, poorly executed in some specific areas, narratively weak, or any single one of these flaws, is perfectly fine assuming it’s done with the intention and care that’s necessary to make the good parts shine more. I’ll forgive literally any crime a piece of media commits as long as it’s interesting and/or enjoyable to consume. RVB0 is not that. I’m not sure what the main point of RVB0 was supposed to be, because it seemingly succeeds at nothing. It has absolutely nothing new or innovative to justify its lack of concern for traditional storytelling conventions. Based solely on the amount of screentime things were given, I’d be inclined to say the narrative existed mostly to give flimsy pretense for the fight scenes, but that’s an entire other can of worms.

2. The Visuals + Fights

I have no qualms with things that are all style and no substance. Sometimes you just want to see pretty colors moving on the screen for a while or watch some cool bad guys and monsters or whatever get punched. RVB0 was not this either. The show fundamentally lacked a coherent aesthetic vision. Much of the show had a rather generic sci-fi feel to it with the biggest standouts to this being the very noir looking cityscape, which my friends and I all immediately joked looked like something from a batman game, or the temple, which my friends and I all immediately joked looked like a world of warcraft raid. They were obviously attempting to get variety in their environment design, which I appreciate, but they did this without having a coherent enough visual language to feel like it was all part of the same world. In general, there was also just a lack of visual clarity or strong shots. The value range in any given scene was poor, the compositions and framing were functional at best, and the character animation was unpleasantly exaggerated. It just doesn’t really look that good beyond fancy rendering techniques.

The fight scenes are their entire own beast. Since ‘FIGHT SCENE’ is the largest single category of scenes in the show, they definitely feel worth looking at with a genuine critical eye. Or, at least, I’d like to, but honestly half the time I found myself almost unable to look at them. The camera is rarely still long enough to really enjoy what you’re watching - tracking the motion of the character AND the camera at such constant breakneck high speeds left little time to appreciate any nuances that might have been present in the choreography or character animation. I tried, believe me, I really did, but the fight scenes leave one with the same sort of dizzy convoluted spectacle as a Michael Bay transformers movie. They also really lacked the impact fight scenes are supposed to have.

It’s hard to have a good, memorable fight scene without it doing one of three things: 1. Showing off innovative or creative fighting styles and choreography 2. Making use of the fight’s setting or environment in an engaging and visually interesting way or 3. Further exploring a character’s personality or actions by the way they fight. It’s also hard to do one of these things on its own without at least touching a bit on the other two. For the most part, I find RVB0’s fight scenes fail to do this. Other than rather surface level insubstantial factors, there was little to visually distinguish any of RVB0’s fight scenes from each other. Not only did I find a lot of them difficult to watch and unappealing, I found them all difficult to watch and unappealing in an almost identical way. They felt incredibly interchangeable and very generic. If you could take a fight scene and change the location it was set and also change which characters were participating and have very little change, it’s probably not a good fight scene. 

I think “generic” is really just the defining word of RVB0 and I think that’s also why it falls short in the humor department  as well.

3. The Comedy

Funny shit is hard to write and humor is also incredibly subjective but I definitely got almost no laughs out of RVB0. I think a total of three. By far the best joke was Carolina having a cast on top of her armor, which, I must stress, is an incredibly funny gag and I love it. But overall I think the humor fell short because it felt like it was tacked on more than a natural and intentional part of this world and these characters. A lot of the jokes felt like they were just thrown in wherever they’d fit, without any build up to punchlines and with little regard for what sort of joke each character would make. Like, there was some, obviously Raymond’s sense of humor had the most character to it, but the character-oriented humor still felt very weak. When focusing on character-driven humor, there’s a LOT you can establish about characters based on what sort of jokes they choose to make, who they’re picking as the punchlines of these jokes, and who their in-universe audience for the jokes is. In RVB0, the jokes all felt very immersion-breaking and self aware, directed wholly towards the audience rather than occurring as a natural result of interplay between the characters. This is partially due to how lackluster the character writing was overall, and the previously stated tight timing, but also definitely due to a lack of a real understanding about what makes a joke land. 

A rule of thumb I personally hold for comedy is that, when push comes to shove, more specific is always going to be more funny. The example I gave when trying to explain this was this:

saying two characters had awkward sex in a movie theater: funny

saying two characters had an awkward handjob in a cinemark: even funnier

saying two characters spent 54 minutes of 11:14's 1:26 runtime trying out some uncomfortably-angled hand stuff in the back of a dilapidated cinemark that lost funding halfway through retrofitting into a dinner theater: the funniest

The more specific a joke is, the more it relies on an in-depth understanding of the characters and world you’re dealing with and the more ‘realistic’ it feels within the context of your media. Especially with this kind of humor. When you’re joking with your friends, you don’t go for stock-humor that could be pulled out of a joke book, you go for the specific. You aim for the weak spots. If a set of jokes could be blindly transplanted into another world, onto another cast of characters, then it’s far too generic to be truly funny or memorable. I don’t think there’s a single joke in RVB0 where the humor of it hinged upon the characters or the setting.

Then there’s the issue of situational comedy and physical comedy. This is really where the humor being ‘tacked on’ shows the most. Once again, part of what makes actually solid comedy land properly is it feeling like a natural result of the world you have established. Real life is absurd and comical situations can be found even in the midst of some pretty grim context, and that’s why black comedy is successful, and why comedy shows are allowed to dip into heavier subject matter from time to time, or why dramas often search for levity in humor. It’s a natural part of being human to find humor in almost any situation. The key thing, though, once again, is finding it in the situation. Many of RVB0’s attempts at humor, once again, feel like they would be the exact same jokes when stripped from their context, and that’s almost never good. A pretty fundamental concept in both storytelling in general but particularly comedy writing is ‘setup and payoff’. No joke in RVB0 is a reward for a seemingly innocuous event in an earlier scene or for an overlooked piece of environmental design. The jokes pop in when there’s time for them in between all the exposition and fighting, and are gone as soon as they’re done. There’s no long term, underlying comedic throughline to give any sense of coherence or intent to the sense of humor the show is trying to establish. Every joke is an isolated one-off quip or one-liner, and it fails to engage the audience in a meaningful way.

All together, each individual component of RVB0 feels like it was conjured up independently, without any concern to how it interacted with the larger product they were creating. And I think this is really where it all falls apart. RVB0 feels criminally generic in a way reminiscent of mass-market media which at least has the luxury of attributing these flaws, this complete and total watering down of anything unique, to heavy oversight and large teams with competing visions. But I don’t think that’s the case for RVB0. I don’t know much about what the pipeline is like for this show, but I feel like the fundamental problem it suffers from is a lack of heart.

In comparison to Red vs. Blue

Let's face it. This is a terrible successor to Red vs. Blue. I wouldn’t care if NONE of the old characters were in it - that’s not my problem. I haven’t seen past season 13 because from what I heard the show already jumped the shark a bit and then some. That’s not what makes it a poor follow up. What makes it a bad successor is that it fundamentally lacks any of the aspects of the OG RVB that made it unique or appealing at all. I find myself wondering what Torrian is trying to say with RVB0 and quite literally the only answer I find myself falling back onto is that he isn’t trying to say anything at all. Regardless of what you feel about the original RVB, it undeniably had things to say. The opening “why are we here” speech does an excellent job at establishing that this is a show intended to poke fun at the misery of bureaucracy and subservience to nonsensical systems, not just in the context of military life, but in a very broad-strokes way almost any middle-class worker can relate to. At the end of the day, fiction is at its best when it resonates with some aspect of its audience’s life. I know instantly which parts of the original Red vs Blue I’m supposed to relate to. I can’t say anything even close to that about 0.

RVB is an absurdist parody that heavily satirizes aspects of the military and life as a low-on-the-food-chain worker in general that almost it’s entire target audience will be familiar with. The most significant draw of the show to me was how the dialogue felt like listening to my friends bicker with each other in our group chats. It required no effort for me to connect with and although the narrative never outright looked to the camera and explained ‘we are critiquing the military’s stupid red tape and self-fullfilling eternal conflict’ they didn’t need to, because the writing trusted itself and its audience enough to believe this could be conveyed. It is, in a way, the complete antithesis to the badass superhero macho military man protagonist that we all know so well. RVB was saying something, and it was saying it in a rather novel format.

Nothing about RVB0 is novel. Nothing about RVB0 says anything. Nothing about it compels me to relate to any of these characters or their situations. RVB0 doesn’t feel like absurdism, or satire. RVB0 feels like it is, completely uncritically, the exact media that RVB itself was riffing off of. Both RVB0 and RVB when you watch them give you the feeling that what you’re seeing here is kids on a playground larping with toy soldiers. It’s all ridiculous and over the top cliche stupid garbage where each side is trying to one-up the other. The critical difference is, in RVB, we’re supposed to look at this and laugh at how ridiculous this is. In RVB0 we’re supposed to unironically think this is all pretty badass. 

The PFL arc of the original RVB existed to show us that setting up an elite team of supersoldiers with special powers was something done in bad faith, with poor outcomes, that left everyone involved either cruel, damaged, or dead. It was a bad thing. And what we’re seeing in RVB0 is the same premise, except, this time it’s good. We’re supposed to root for this format. RVB0 feels much more like a demo reel, cutscenes from a video game that doesn’t exist, or a shonen anime fanboy’s journal scribbling than it feels like a piece of media with any objective value in any area.  In every area that RVB was anti-establishment, RVB0 is pure undiluted establishment through and through.  

[optimismrpt]

HOW RIGBY RUNS A ROLEPLAY : A VERY SPECIFIC GUIDE ( OF SORTS )

BONUS CONTENT: ACCEPTANCE DAY

I think it’s essentially to start with this disclaimer: This is merely how I run a rp and I’m not saying by any means it is how a rp should be run. I have found success through these methods all in combination and I can’t promise that they work all the time.

IMPORTANT ! if you use this guide as a basis for your rp please credit back to me somewhere on your front page, rules, or plot! this is a very specific type of rp (small limited run plot heavy skeleton rp) that i have worked very hard to develop over the past five years. i want you to learn from my successes and failures, and please give credit where it is due!

It is a lot of work! Like A LOT! And if you don’t have time to admin with full commitment this is not the right type of rp to attempt.

With that in mind, let’s go!

FULL GUIDE IN THE SOURCE LINK! 

BEFORE THE ACTUAL DAY

First of all, getting apps is fun and it’s easy to get wrapped up in the excitement and want to move things forward as soon as possible. However, I recommend you don’t rush! Do not move up your acceptance date or the date that you close the inbox! This isn’t fair to the people who were planning on finishing up their apps before the original deadline who now have to crunch to meet the new deadline or may not be able to make the new deadline at all because of irl responsibilities. It’s always good to give lots of warning for the inbox closing and stick to it! 

I also recommend that you do not lower the threshold of people needed to open. Sometimes it can be disheartening to set an app threshold at ten and then only get six apps, even if the days grind on with no new apps, stick it out and keep promoting! Opening with less than eight characters (and for apples I’d say 15 characters) is going to make activity lackluster. It’s better to delay opening for the sake of having a grand first day than to jump the gun and end up making the rp fizzle before it can even start. 

About 52 hours before acceptances are set to take place I like to write out a to-do list and put it in my drafts. It usually involves ‘write acceptance posts, update skeletons, update main, post acceptances, post follows, post opening note’. Just having everything you need to do between then and opening written out in order is so helpful. And being able to check things off the list creates both a feeling of relief and excitement. So make a plan, determine how soon everything needs to be done, and work through it meticulously. In the rush of opening day it can be easy to forget important things like updating the triggers page.

If I have time I try to write everything hours in advance. When it comes to things like opening announcements and plot drops I try to write those at least 24 hours of their release time. And this is why I like, for competitive rps, to close the inbox and then give myself at least two hours to deliberate. But I’d even encourage giving yourself 6 hours between the inbox closing and posting acceptances. I know that’s a while to make people wait but apps can get pretty long and reading them all (and probably rereading a few of them multiple times) can be a lengthy process! 

I always try not to read the apps at all before the deliberation time. I find that if I read an app when it comes in that gives the first person an advantage because they have more time for me to adapt to their vision and start to assimilate it and get attached. And that’s not fair to the people who may have stumbled upon the rp later. So I just read the app far enough to get the info for the app count.

Just as a general rule I like to post important dates and times in at least two different timezones. For example ‘Acceptances are at 6am GMT / 1pm EST / 10pm PST ’. That way you can show that you are keeping other timezones in mind. And plus it’s nice to just to the conversion work so your applicants don’t have to. 

DELIBERATION TIME

Start by reading the apps which don’t have competition. These ones are easiest because it’s not a matter of determining whether they are the best of the bunch, it’s just deciding whether or not they are are passable. So I always read those first and then write their acceptance post immediately after I make my decision so that at least I’ll have that to post at the set acceptance date. That way, even if I haven’t made a decision on all the apps I’ll have something to post to show that I am reading apps and trying to stick to schedule! 

When your are dealing with competitive apps there are a few things I look for in an application: 

The most important is that the applicant seems willing to talk to you. This could be asks, ims, or even a little note in the app! Writers who want to make it clear what their intentions/desires/goals are ooc are going to be the easiest to work with! Plus it gives you an idea of how flexible they are! Those who dig their heels in when you offer up alternative suggestions are probably not good to work with. You want to find someone who has direction, intention, and ideas but don’t treat your ideas (or anyone else’s) as lesser than their own. 

Call for humor! I’ve found that I have trouble with people who take themselves and their characters too seriously. This means that they often won’t be up for plotting since they don’t want their character to be anything less than graceful. Humor is a really good sign that a writer is fun, creative, and understands their character. 

I also get wary of people who overhype the rp. Making edits/adding memes in the talk tag is all very nice, but when it looks like an rpt is promoting my rp just to give themselves an advantage over other applicants I tend to count that against them. I don’t like the idea of an rpt trying to use their signal boosting and popularity in the rpc as leverage over me. 

One of the biggest red flags is someone not sticking to the skeleton! If someone blatantly disregards one or more aspects of the skeleton that is an instant strike against them. I don’t like it when people have ocs that they adapt to fit a skeleton because most of the time that means that they don’t really care about the skeleton and your ideas. However, if they contact me about changes to the skeleton in advance and ask if some edits are alright then that’s actually a really good sign! I want people to play a character that they are happy about and I’m willing to change up any skeleton. I just need to know the applicant is willing to work with me instead of against me. 

Do not be afraid to deny applications. I used to never do this because I felt it was too mean and judgmental but now I realize I reserve the right as an admin to deny any app or character that I don’t vibe with. Go with your gut, and if the application is making you uncomfortable or nervous in any way, do not accept them. Sometimes it’s better to have one role go unwritten than to have someone who isn’t good for the group. Because both ic and ooc dynamics contribute to the effectiveness and survival of the group, you need to be excited to work with everyone and their characters. 

One of the ways that I protect myself from muns who may not be right for the rp is by putting a password in the rules. Often the apps that make me uncomfortable are the ones that disregard or contradict the skeleton or plot. It’s clear that the mun either wasn’t paying attention, reading the pages carefully, or just chose to ignore what they read. It’s often That the apps that I don’t vibe with end up being the ones that don’t read the rules and therefor don’t put the password. So not only is it a good indicator to me that the mun might not be very considerate but it’s also a great default reason to deny an app without having to tell the mun directly that you didn’t like other aspects of their app. Most often I allow them to reapply if they’d like to but their acceptance won’t be immediate, so that there’s a chance someone else might apply for the same role with an application than doesn’t skeeve me out.

ONCE YOU’VE MADE THE DECISION

Write out your acceptance notes. I try to write a full paragraph for everyone when I am accepting for a skeleton rp. If there’s more than 20 characters being accepted then obviously don’t, since that’s way too much to ask of you. But if it’s a small group I always endorse writing a little welcome the chosen mun saying what ti was about their appt hat you gravitated towards. It’s kind of a way to also provide feedback to those who were denied as to what their app might have been missing. Plus, it’s just a good way to get the right vibes going for the ooc portion of the rp. Muns need to feel appreciated! After all they put in the work to get there! 

I also like to offer feedback to those who were denied but with a disclaimer that most apps are chosen based on how they mesh with the other apps, since that’s something no one can anticipate. Usually the quality of the writing isn’t as big of a factor as how the character plays into dynamics with the others and whether or not their desired plots and connections with your vision and everyone else’s. Most of the time people won’t take you up on it, but be kind and thoughtful to those who do. However, if they are aggressive towards you in any way because they are upset about being denied block them immediately. Just trust me on that one. 

Keep everyone updated as to your progress! Just telling everyone where you are at (in the process of reading apps, writing the acceptance notes, or taking a break) is a good way to put everyone’s minds at ease. It’s especially important to let people know if you are logging off for a while on acceptance day.  That way people aren’t stuck refreshing the page and dreading that you might be ignoring them. On acceptance day I like to make a post every time I come online or go offline. It may seem like oversharing but it’s honestly so helpful to both you and the applicants. 

POST-ACCEPTANCES

Once you are about to start posting acceptance notes, turn off anon. I know that anon can be very useful for those shy and curious folks that don’t want to im you directly, but this is another case where you’re just gonna have to trust me. For your mental health turn off anon and keep it off for at least 48 hours. I usually keep it off permanently unless there are more roles that need to be filled in a second round of acceptances. There aren’t really any questions that should need to be asked anonymously once you have a full roster of muns and this is a good way to get people used to asking you questions via discord, im, or dm. To prevent nasties from bullying you and to open the line of communication between you and your members, turn off anon! 

And finally, once you have posted acceptances, close your laptop or turn off your monitor and don’t come back to it for at least an hour. I like to give myself two hours to go on a walk, eat some food, and just do non-rp things for a while. Acceptances are stressful and it’s important not to get swept up in it and feel overwhelmed. Taking a step back and remembering you exist outside of rp and outside of being an admin is so important. It’s hard to resist temptation, but if you have anon off really the only thing that’ll come into your inbox are follow messages and those can wait for two hours (or more)! But like I said above, keep everyone updated that you are going to log off for a bit and you’ll be back. Just so no one assumes the worst. 

Just remember to be kind to your applicants and to yourself! It’s a stressful time for everyone! 

[thescatterbrainedwriter]

Your Stupid Smile

Word count: ~6,100

Pairings: oc x canon

Warnings: fluff and shenanigans

Sup! I’m actually running out of stories to post. Didn’t think this through too well. Curses to writers block and the fact I write long stories. Even so, do hope you enjoy! 🥔🎨

**Note, Emily is my personal character. I just like to stick her places. I also still have no idea how to do a ‘short click for full’ post.

———

Irritating, simply irritating. Everyone was having a good time, sure, but Nash was having a hard time joining in on the fun. Every time he got close to truly relaxing and enjoying the company around him, he would hear it, that laugh. Of course, once he heard the laugh he had to see where it originated from, and it was always the same face. That stupid face and that stupid smile. He couldn’t stand that smile, and he didn’t want to admit to himself the reason why it bothered him so much.

The team was in the lounge enjoying the company of each other after a long day. Cisco was telling a story, Barry and Iris adding tidbits here and there, and the more elaborate and ridiculous it became the more laughs rang out. By the end of it everyone was rolling and roaring with laughter which only intensified after a stray loud squeak sounded. Emily covered her mouth in embarrassment before folding over the bar counter in laughter again. “I’m sorry!” She breathed trying to apologize between laughs. “I don’t know where that came from!” She covered her face in an attempt to wipe away the tears now rolling down her rosy face. “Oh no, my face sprung a leak!” Everyone continued giggling and Ralph stretched his hand over to her to deliver a tissue. She took it with a mousy thanks wiping her face. Nash was trying his hardest to keep from looking at her, he already made the mistake of just glancing over and he scowled to himself about the flush slowly spreading up his neck.

“Hey Estrata,” Cisco called after composing himself a degree. “You got any stories to share?”

“Yeah,” Ralph agreed. “You almost never share anything. Think you could drop the mysterious facade for a night?” Emily had one arm draped over her head and held her cheek with her other hand as she thought. “Hmmm..... I dunno,” she teased. “I’m not exactly good at sharing, things about me anyway.”

“There’s room for only one queen of ice,” Frost defended. “Quit giving the cold shoulder and fess up would ya?” Emily gave a growly sigh as she seriously considered the plethora of things buried within. “Ok fine,” she relented. “You make a good case, and Ralph has a point. I’m just, I’m really hesitant to share much. Seeing as I could find myself stranded somewhere else, it gets tiresome re-explaining.” Everyone gets quiet and Emily scratches her head realizing she killed the mood a little. “Eh, I think I have a solution though. Tell me,” she smiled. “What you wanna know? Besiiiides, my name,” she cut Ralph off before he could ask. Everyone chuckled and Nash just smirked.

Frost stared her down thinking intently, Emily actually got nervous with the holes being drilled into her soul with the stare, before she decided on a question. “You don’t look like the type to, but are obviously capable of, doing some not so desirable things. So have you?”

Emily squinted at her before straightening her back and clearing her throat. “Just, just gettin riiiiiiight into it huh?”

“I don’t make a habit of pussyfooting around,” Frost dismissed smirking. Emily patted her cheeks trying to think of a good story to tell while everyone turned 100% of their attention to her, excitedly waiting for whatever secret would come up. “Ok, ok, I got one,” she said smiling. “Believe it or not, but, I’ve had to break out of area 51.”

“You were taken to area 51?!” Barry asked shocked. “How? Why??” Emily flashed another, albeit awkward, smile. “Well, I am a wanted woman back where I come from.”

“Wanted huh?” Frost asked somewhat impressed. “What’d you do to earn that target on your back?”

“Exist,” she said plainly. “What I am, is a very valued product to a group of people. I’m one of a handful, if not the only person, with my genetic makeup.” She sighed making everyone become glum. “They really wanted to study me, poke and prod and see how they could use me and duplicate what I am.”

“Estrata, I didn’t—“ Frost started before Emily waved dismissively. “No, no, it’s fine,” she assured with a smile. “After learning that I decided to make myself the biggest most obnoxious target ever,” she waved her hands in front of her to illustrate as she giggled reminiscing. “I thought to myself, that if they wanted me that badly they’re gonna have to work for it. So I made it my mission to piss them off and kick their collective ass,” she flashed a big smile. “Besides, if they’re busy chasing me and my friends, they can’t go looking for anyone else.”

“Guess that explains all the injuries Caitlyn found,” Frost commented thoughtfully. “And the fact you gave Dr. Wells such a hard time about just coming to the lab in the beginning.”

“Yup! Broken ribs, arms, legs, fractured skull and fingers, I’ve had my stomach punctured straight through at least twice, and my shoulder. Think that one actually broke my shoulder blade to be honest.....” Emily rambled.

“Jeeze....” Ralph said stunned.

“And that’s not counting their penchant for causing neurological damage with all variations for shock collars and tasers,” she listed with a smirk. “I really shouldn’t be smiling but honestly, they’re some serious badges of honor so why not?” They all softened their faces though she could tell they still felt bad. “So anyway, “ she continued, “there I am in the bowels of area 51, strapped to a chair in some interrogation room when two guys in suits come in.” Everyone changed their tune as she gets back into the story, Nash admiring her resourcefulness and determination. As she rambled and gesticulated enhancing the story with her hands, complete with illusions and little animations, Nash couldn’t help but stare even when she smiled bright. Cisco noticed his staring and bumped his arm jostling him enough to break his gaze. He wiggled his eyebrows causing Nash to grumble and avert his gaze from everyone but still listened attentively.

~~

“Soooo, there’s a whole facility underneath?” Barry asked once she finished. “And what we all think is area 51 is just a cover?” Emily nods with a smile. “There’s quite a lot buried underneath. I think the whole desert lot actually.”

“And no one knows about it?” Ralph asked.

“Lots of people know, but the government makes them seem crazy. That’s one of the reasons I didn’t like Eiling all that much, reminded me too much of them.”

“So this, Quazar, or Quinton, was there too?” Frost asked. “Why was he there again?”

Emily paused trying to formulate the sentence as coherently and short as possible without rambling again. “He was the one who gave me my powers. Well, not really gave but, reactivated dormant genes so I could do what I do. It’s how I got the monicker ‘half breed’.” She drifted off in her memories. “We grew close, and I must admit I didn’t handle learning he was an alien well but. We protected each other, and came to care a lot about each other.” She smiled thoughtfully. “He’s my anchor to home. Him and Oliver and Flaer and Jimmy.” Bringing herself back to the present she cleared her throat. “He was there for leverage I guess. Most likely for added study being a pure blood. As long as he was there I would be too, even if I got out I would come back to try and get him out. So I just broke him out right away and messed up their plans.” She flashed a smile lightening the mood of the room.

“Boy, you are just full of mysteries aren’t you?” Ralph asked with a smirk.

“Eeeyup! And I am 100% telling the truth too. I also gave yooouuuu..... three mysteries? Three mysteries an explanation,” she said standing with a stretch. “No more.”

“Just, one more question?” Cisco asked. “Do you miss him? Quinton?”

Emily paused looking at him. “Well yeah, ‘course I do. I get homesick sometimes. I miss everyone back home.” She sighed deeply as her mind wandered a bit. “Sometimes, my relay picks up messages he sends. Takes quite a long time to decompress the file because of barriers and reality changes but, he asks me how I’m doing, gives me updates on what’s going on, tells me to hurry home. But....” She rubs her cheek thinking. “He said..... he said if I ever get stuck somewhere, not to worry about them back home. He would keep everyone safe, and that he wanted me to be happy wherever I landed.” She smiled softly. “So... so I try. I try real hard, to be happy. And make other people happy. And, I guess I do a pretty good job.”

“You do,” Nash commented without thinking. Everyone turned their attention to him, Emily raising an eyebrow and smiling softly. “Huh?” Nash cleared his throat averting his gaze. “I-I mean I’ve noticed, that, everyone enjoys your—your company and. And they, like, having you around.”

“That include you?” She asked. Nash snaps his head to her and makes eye contact, his words momentarily caught in his throat as he begins to panic having been put on the spot. “Speak,” Harry says manifesting beside him. “You need to speak, say something.”

“I mean yeah, I guess,” Nash coughs out. “I certainly don’t find you all that annoying anyway.”

“Probably not the right response....” Harry comments.

Emily frowns a little. “Hmm, well I suppose that’s something.” Nash turns away from her again, Emily cocked an eyebrow noticing his ears turning rather red. She was sure he felt them burning but decided not to press him further.

“She noticed that you know,” Sherloque said manifesting by the bar behind her. Nash looked at him curiously. “What?” He asked.

“I didn’t say anything,” Emily responded taking her seat at the bar again. “Oh, sorry,” Nash apologized. “Thought I heard something. Guess it was nothing more than an auditory hallucination or something.”

“She’s not as oblivious as you think she is,” Sherloque continued. “I guarantee she already knows how you feel, and is just waiting on you to do something about it.” Nash turned away from the bar trying to ignore him, in addition to keep his flush from getting worse. He didn’t want to acknowledge it but it was rather difficult to keep from staring at her or subconsciously follow her around. He grumbled to himself trying to get his mind on something—anything—else. Cisco noticed and smiled mischievously having gotten an idea. “Hey, I remember you saying you attended a spontaneous karaoke session with Harry at one point,” he started. “Think you could sing something?”

“Wait, you sing?” Ralph asked in surprise.

“As a..... hobby.....” Emily said shyly. “I don’t really.... sing in— in public. Much....”

“Why not?” Barry asked. “Caitlyn said I sing pretty well and I never sing in public.”

“She gets carried away,” Nash says still not looking at her. “Least that’s what Harry said. Though, I’m not sure if it’s her or the crowd she sings in front of.”

“It’s, uh, it’s a little of both....” Emily half confirmed.

“How’s that?” Ralph asks intrigued.

“Uhhmmmm.... well.....” Emily fidgets a little. “I’m a bit on the theatrical side. I like my special effects, people like seeing all the flashy stuff and, well, I can get lost in the music. Sometimes.”

“All the time,” Harry comments. “Tell her to sing So Soft by that Carrie woman.”

“Why So Soft?” Nash asks out loud. Emily stiffens and blushes slightly. “What?” she squeaks. Harry smirks. “That’s why.” Nash looks over at her, smile threatening to crack onto his face as she sat there with her cheeks slowly getting rosy. Cisco notices her posture change as well and smiles wide. “I think we may have a winner for song choice.”

“Nu-no, not that,” Emily stammers. GP flies over to her whirring what seemed like a suggestion which only served to make Emily beat red. “I am NOT singing that one!” She near yells. “You should know better than to suggest that.” The drone whirrs again. “That one’s worse, no!”

“I kinda like the idea of worse,” Ralph teases. “What was suggested anyway?” Emily casts her gaze down making her hands into fits and pressing them into her knees. “GP always try to suggest two songs he knows will make me uncomfortable,” she explains. “They’re...... uhm..... they’re.....” Emily pauses before rolling her head and deciding to just get it over with. “They’re called ‘Do You Think I’m Sexy’ and...... ‘Sex bomb’......”

Everyone’s interest had been piqued with Cisco and Nash both staring at her with raised eyebrows. Emily covered her face in embarrassment floating above her seat a little. “I shouldn’t have said anything,” she near whines. “What about Talking Body?” GP whirrs in intelligible english tones. “Preferred over those, but still no.” Emily responds still red in the face. “No, I.... hmm.... I think I... h-have one. It’s called Collide.” Emily straightened her posture and cleared her throat. “Oh this is embarrassing......” she muttered under her breath after a pause and cringing. Taking a breath to calm herself she began, GP providing the background music.

*Lately, I feel like I’m pushing you away*

*Acting moody for no reason*

*And even though you know I'm always gonna stay*

*I've been talking like I'm leaving*

*I don't know why I keep playing these dumb games*

*Love is not a competition*

*And no one's winning when I'm pushing you away*

*Sometimes darkness is a prison*

The lights seem to dim a little before returning to the normal ambient light. Taking a breath to steady her nerves further, Emily continues.

* Turn the lights on, honey, honey, I don't wanna hide*

*Turn the lights on, honey, I'm surrendering tonight*

*Although I'm not perfect, I feel perfect in your eyes*

*Turn the lights on, honey, I don't really wanna hide, not tonight*

*Come and crash into me 'cause I want us to collide*

*Collide, collide, collide*

*Collide, collide, collide*

Emily smiles becoming more relaxed even beginning to move in rhythm with the music and providing small effects such as orbs of lights and dimming the actual lights at times.

*Look into my eyes and tell me we're okay*

*And we both can be forgiven*

*Kiss me gently, say the things you wanna say*

*You don't need to ask permission*

*I'm a stormy ocean, but you're steady*

*And I'm a commotion, but you get me*

*Too many emotions, but you let me*

*Let me blossom in the dark*

The lights dim and brighten to the beat of the song, the orbs of light change color and seem to twinkle and multiply. Emily smiles wide as she sings and looks around in amusement at the display going on. Everyone else is distracted by the lights but Nash was fixated on Emily. He smiled as she smiles happier than he’s ever seen feeling as though this was her unfiltered.

*Turn the lights on, honey, honey, I don't wanna hide*

*Turn the lights on, honey, I'm surrendering tonight*

*Although I'm not perfect, I feel perfect in your eyes*

*Turn the lights on, honey, I don't really wanna hide, not tonight*

*Come and crash into me 'cause I want us to collide*

*Collide, collide, collide*

*Collide, collide, collide*

The lights slowly begin to dim as Emily, having decided to stand, took slow strides toward the center of the group. She begins to float the closer she gets and takes a modest cross-legged ‘seat’ in the air. Everyone looks around curiously and Nash fixates on her again.

*I'm a stormy ocean, but you're steady*

*I'm like a commotion, but you get me*

*Too many emotions, but you let me*

*Let me blossom in the dark*

Emily darkens the whole room by creating a field that prevented any light to show through. She then made it look like she was glowing, her suit had appeared, her hair was snow white with the unique holographic shine, and she still kept the rest of them in utter darkness as she continued toward the song’s end.

* Turn the lights on, honey, honey, I don't wanna hide*

*Turn the lights on, honey, I'm surrendering tonight*

Emily snaps her fingers and flicks her wrist in front of her causing an explosion of stars appear in the room making it look like they were in the deep of space. Still glowing, albeit softer, she smiles wide. Nash watches noting she seemed to feel at home in such an environment almost looking free, maybe even exited to share the wonder of the void she knew so well with people she cared for. She looked dazzling in that moment.

*Although I'm not perfect, I feel perfect in your eyes*

*Turn the lights on, honey, I don't really wanna hide, not tonight*

*Come and crash into me 'cause I want us to collide*

*Collide, collide, collide*

*Collide, collide, collide*

*Collide, collide, collide*

*Collide, collide, collide*

The room fades back to black and Emily brings the normal light back into the room gradually so as not to blind everyone. They watch in stunned silence as she takes a few steps back toward her chair, suit disappearing and hair returning to her usual red tinted brunette, and she smiled shy and awkwardly. “So.....?” she asked.

“That was—“ Nash began.

“Amazing!” Cisco interrupted causing Nash to snap out of whatever trance he fell into. Emily smiled placing a hand on her cheek as she blushed. “Hobby my ass,” Ralph scolded. “You’ve put in some serious work to sound that good.”

“I’ve, had a few years of practice,” she teased.

“Well, whatever it is you just stunned us with, I wish I had a talent like that,” Iris commends. “That was..... wow!”

“Sing something else!” Wally said enthusiastically.

“Yeah, that was great!” Joe agrees enamored.

Emily laughs waving a hand. “No no, I would be singing all night. Do you know what I would sound like tomorrow if I did that?”

“C’mon, just one more?” Frost asks surprisingly invested. Emily sighs with a reluctant smile tilting her head toward Nash a little. “Again, Harry, this is why I don’t sing in front of people.”

Nash chuckled in amusement with Harry smiling next to him. “Three. Three ‘one more’ requests that night,” he explained. “I was worried she would kill me by the end of it. If it weren’t for Jessie changing the topic when we left she may well have.” Nash looked at him curiously. “I was......responsible for two. She wasn’t enthused when I got the whole room going,” he said reminiscing. “By the way, if that wasn’t an obvious tell, I don’t know what is.” Nash’s gaze fell upon Emily again as she grumbled placing both hands on her cheeks considering indulging their requests. “No, no. It’s going to turn into karaoke night all over again if I don’t stop now,” Emily determined. “Only one tonight, but maybe another some other time,” she smiled raising a finger with a wink.

Casual conversation carried for another hour or two before Emily began to yawn, followed by a few of the others present. Half an hour after the first yawn, everyone decided to call it a night. It was well into the evening at this point and no one wanted to risk sleeping in too late. Emily stretched winding up leaning all the way back, about 90°, over the bar. She stayed like that taking a deep breath and complained about not wanting to move. “I think I’m just gonna.... sleep here. Like this. Yeah, this is comfy....”

“Thaaaat doesn’t *look* comfortable.....” Cisco commented looking confused at how she could even *do* that.

“Must not be a fellow human rubber band,” she replied grabbing her elbows keeping her arms above her head. “Being super bendy sure comes in handy.” She smiled lazily and turned her head to face the person she heard moving to her side, seemingly tripping over a chair. Her eyes met Nash’s, who’s cheeks immediately turned rosy, and lifted her head. “You ok?” She asked.

“Yeah, no. I’m f-fine,” Nash coughed out. “Stupid chair, got tangled in my feet....” He kicked it nearly getting tangled in it again.

“Yeeeesaahhh,” Emily said tiredly. “They always seem to like ankles and toes, huh? Just.... always in the way, at the worst times.” Her eyes closed again and she sighed half falling asleep right there. Nash averted his gaze awkwardly and Cisco smirked at him, Nash gave him a face instigating a silent argument between the two about him saying something before GP flew over and whistled at her waking her again. “Hmmm?” she said tiredly. GP whistled again and Emily groaned. “Nooo, don’t waaaanna move,” she said with another stretch. GP bonked her head and she sighed. “Ok, ok. Fine. I’ll go to bed.” With a huff, she pulled herself into a sitting position before hopping off her seat and heading out. Various farewells and well wishes were exchanged as they left one by one leaving Emily alone with Nash and Cisco. They stood awkwardly at the elevator door waiting for it to come back up, Cisco flicking his eyes in the direction of Emily trying to encourage Nash to say something and Nash refusing.

“Good night guys,” Emily said with a yawn when the elevator dinged. “Travel safe, ok?”

“Make sure nothing blows up, alright?” Cisco joked. She smiled tiredly. “Aww, no fun. And I was gonna try to make a star tonight.” Nash smiled recognizing a similar joke he made with Cisco. “I’ll make sure to hold down the fort,” she assured rubbing her eye as they stepped in. “I’m pretty good at keeping people out of places.” They waved as the doors closed, Nash watched as she turned, flicking her finger like you would a switch, and the lights going out one by one as she advanced down the hall. Cisco turned to face Nash with a disappointed look. “What?” Nash asked doing a double take.

“You need to tell her you like her already,” Cisco scolded.

“I don’t... like her,” Nash said attempting to brush off the accusation. “Why would you even think that?” Cisco’s face dropped unamused. “Yeah, ok. You are literally dripping in tension when you’re in the same room as her.”

“I am not!” Nash protests. “I’m chill.”

“You stare at her, you follow her, you ears get red when she looks at you.”

“I.... do not... What?” He turned to face Cisco as the doors opened. He rolled his eyes as he left, Nash close behind. “Pretty sure everyone knows. Well, maybe not Barry. But Wally does, Joe asked if you two were a thing, Iris knows....” Nash went quiet still following him. “I think Ralph may have a thing for her too but so far hasn’t had any luck.” He spun to face him and pointed a finger in his face. “Say, something. Anything. The awkward is getting unbearable.”

Nash stared at Cisco for a minute before the latter turned to leave, Nash took a long look back at the lab with a sigh. *I really should,* he thought. *But what do I say?*

——

The next day was business as usual, Emily had decided to get some practice in before everyone came in and had just finished when she passed Nash in the hall on her way to change. “Oh, hey Nash!” she greeted with a smile. Nash felt that familiar flush start to run up his neck when he saw her. He closed his eyes and muttered the only word he could think of. “Don’t...”

“Hmm?” Emily asked tilting her head to look him in the face. He opened his eyes making eye contact and used as much self control as he could muster to speak. “Don’t.... smile. At me.”

Emily paused in confusion. “What?”

“Don’t smile at me,” he repeated slowly beginning to regret his sentence choice. Emily blinked a few times just staring at him as she tried to understand. “Why...?”

“Because it’s stupid and makes me uncomfortable. And it’s annoying. Remember when I said you weren’t all that annoying? I lied. You’re more annoying than Ramon,” Nash blurted everything out before he realized what it was he was saying but fought to keep a straight face. Emily’s face was blank, shoulders dropped a little, and she stared confused at him. “Oh.... well..... ok.” She said softly. Nash felt his heart constrict in his chest. What had he done? She took a breath and looked him in the eye again, her facial features betraying hints of mischief. “Alright Nash, I’m sorry. I had no idea my smile could do that to you.” She placed a hand on his shoulder in mock concern making Nash a little suspicious. “I’m so glad you told me.”

“....You are?” Nash asked.

“Yes, yes, I am. From now on I won’t smile at you.”

“You.... won’t?”

“Nope. I’ll just smile at everyone and everything else instead,” Emily said fighting a smile. “Rest assured you’ll never see my troublesome smile again.”

“Ah...... good.....” Nash said trying to sound satisfied.

“See you later then,” Emily said before continuing on her way. Nash watched her go mildly panicking. “What just happened?” He asked no one in particular.

“You messed up, big time,” Sherloque answered from behind him. “How so?” Nash asked spinning around.

“Well, you heard her. She’ll still smile, just not at you,” Sherloque smirked. “But oh, she knows what you said wasn’t true. Not all of it anyway. She still may be a little concerned you find her annoying.”

“So, what will she do?”

“Exactly what she told you she would. Clever woman,” Sherloque mused. He smiled at Nash who still looked concerned. “She will, continue to smile, at everyone and thing other than you. And in doing so, knowing you don’t really find it uncomfortable, she will frustrate you.” He stands close to his face continuing to smile. “My, what a mess you’ve made. I do wonder how you’ll fix it.” He disappeared leaving Nash alone in the hallway again, completely and utterly uncertain about what to do now. “Oohhhh no....” he muttered to himself.

The rest of the day went on as normal, no one but Nash really noticing her slightly altered behavior though they did note he seemed a bit more frustrated than usual. She really did keep her word, taking care to never smile directly at him though that didn’t stop him from getting the smallest of glimpses. He found himself staring at her more often, and after three days he had nearly had enough.

He had found himself in the cortex, Barry was out and about as the Flash leaving Cisco, and Ralph there with him. He was tense and on edge knowing Emily could come in at any moment. He was too preoccupied to remember where she said she was going which only served to amp his anxiety. He tensed when he heard the familiar light tapping of footsteps drawing closer.

“Hey, I’m back!” A familiar voice called out. Nash refused to turn to meet her even as she walked over. She was wearing an oversized tank top, sport shorts, knee high socks and sneakers with her hair tied up. *Training,* he thought to himself. *That’s right, she wanted to practice for a while.* “Hey Cisco, Ralph. Hi Nash....” She smiled at Cisco and Ralph before dropping the facade to look at Nash. He clenched his jaw but kept his composure. “So, what are you up to?” She asked.

Cisco’s eyes darted from her face to Nash’s, before giving Ralph a look. “Not much....” he said. “Barry’s just doing his patrols, hasn’t come up with anything yet,” Ralph added walking awkwardly away.

“Hey, uh, Estrata,” Cisco called from the control desk. “Could you do me a favor?”

“Yeah sure, what’s up?” She asked cheerfully.

“The, satellites could use some maintenance. I can do general software updates from here but it’s difficult to do physical repairs. Could yoouuuu.....”

“Go check it out?” She finished for him. “My pleasure. I’ll take Tinker with me in case they need specialty parts.” She said smiling at the small drone flying into view. “Good idea. Yeah. Take.... take what ever you need and stay however long to. Fix things...” Cisco replied trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. “Be back in a jiffy!” She said with a grin before dropping it to look at Nash as she walked by. “Later.” They all watched and waited for her to leave the room before the two shot daggers at Nash with glares. “What?” He asked when he turned and saw their faces.

“What do you mean ‘what’?” Cisco asked near shouting. “She has been acting weird for the last few days,” Ralph added. “I don’t .... know..... what you mean,” Nash tried to dismiss. “You said something to her, didn’t you!” Cisco accused. “What did you say?!”

“I—I.... didn’t ......” Nash stuttered trying to avoid the unwanted confrontation. They stared each other down for a while before he relented. “Alright fine. I..... I did.... say something.....” he said rubbing the back of his neck. “Probably not the.... greatest thing...... in hindsight.....”

Cisco took a few steps forward still glaring. “Spill it.”

“I.... may have told her that..... she, uh, was..... annoying.....” Nash answered sheepishly. “You.... you what?” Cisco asked in disbelief. “You said what to her!?”

“You told me to say something to her. Anything, actually,” Nash tried to defend.

“Not that! Oh my— guh...” Cisco yelled throwing his hands in the air. Nash scratched his head like a child might when in trouble, being under all that scrutiny made his scalp really itchy. Ralph just stood there shaking his head. “You messed up, so bad,” he said.

“You don’t think I know?” Nash snapped back. “I got a lecture from a Wells as soon as she walked away!”

“You need to fix this,” Cisco said pointing again.

“How, Ramon? How?”

“I don’t know! But you have to do something! Smart, this time,” he glared, Nash glaring back at the ‘smart’ comment. “Because this?” he gestured around him, “This tension, is worse than your repressed tension. It sucks!”

“Hey Cisco,” Emily called over the relay. “Hey Es,” Cisco called back. “What ya got for me?”

“I’ve fixed a few cosmetic things, just scratches and dings from space debris, aaaaand I gave you a few new toys.” Cisco’s face lit up with a smile. “Ohhhh, new toys? Estrata, you spoil me.”

“Only cuz I like ya!” She responded with a giggle.

“Can’t imagine what you’d do for a special someone in your life,” Ralph commented shooting a look over to Nash. Nash clenched his jaw glaring back unenthusiastically. “Hmm, yeah. I’ve been told I get scary when I get serious or protective. Like, Mama Bear mode on steroids. So probably break a mountain in half. Or bake, I like brownies,” Emily rambled.

“.....Wait..... can you do that?” Ralph asked concerned. “Break a mountain?” Emily paused. “You know, never tried. But I did obliterate an asteroid one time.”

“Really?” This time Cisco asked.

“Yeah, but it was a small one. Like, maybe half a football field. And it was made out of a material similar to sandstone.”

“Thaaaat’s still pretty impressive,” Ralph stated impressed and a bit wary. “I know I could never do that.”

“Sure you could, you just gotta put your back into it!” She giggled, Ralph chuckling in return.

“So you gonna come back now?” Cisco asked glancing at Nash.

“Nah, not right now,” Emily replied with a sigh. “Been a while since I’ve just hung out in the deep black of the void, think I’ll chill for a while.” Nash’s shoulders dropped a bit hearing the news. As if he needed another contributor to his tension, now he had to wait for who knows how long. “Ok, take as much time as you need,” Cisco said still looking at Nash. “We’ll be here when you come back.”

“Ok, see you later then,” Emily said before closing the connection. Cisco crossed his arms and Ralph gave him a look, Nash stood stiff lost in thought. “Well, least now you have plenty of time to think of what to say,” Ralph commented before leaving. “You better make it good too,” Cisco warned before exiting as well, leaving Nash to stew for a while in uncertainty. *What to say....* he said to himself.

——

It was well into the evening when Emily made her way back to the lab. She casually strode down the halls humming to herself when she came across Nash and nearly bumped into him. “Oh! Oh, hi Nash,” she said looking up at him.

“H-hi.... Estrata,” Nash smiled awkwardly. “What brings you skulking around here so late?” She asked putting a hand on her hip. “I uh, I.... have something...... I’ve been meaning to, tell you....” he said trying to figure out the words as he went. “Oh? You do?” She said sounding intrigued. He nodded his head looking at his feet. “Uh huh, yeah.” He paused still staring at the ground and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “I lied... earlier.... wheeeen I said you were..... annoying......” he started. “You did?” She asked relaxing a little. Nash nodded again. “I did. I actually don’t, find you annoying that is. I uh, really like your company. A lot.” He peeked up to look her in the eye, the flush building like before. “Well then, why did you say that?” Emily asked, face softening as he spoke.

“I don’t..... I don’t know..... I....” Nash ran his hands through his hair in frustration and started pacing around. “You..... don’t know?” she asked in confusion. “I..... I don’t, have the words...” Nash said pausing and rubbing his chin. He stood quiet for a moment before turning to look at her again. “Maybe.... I don’t need words.....” he muttered to himself.

“What was tha—“ Emily’s sentence was cut off by Nash, who took three quick strides toward her, cupped her face and nearly rammed his face into hers with a kiss. Emily stood stunned, clearly not expecting this turn of events at all, and could only stare wide eyed into space. Once he broke the kiss he looked her in the eyes, thumb gently running over her cheek. “Wha...?” Emily started to ask. “Truth is, you make it incredibly difficult not to do that,” he says with a smile. “Especially, when you smile.”

Emily’s lips slowly pulled into a soft smile before mischievous tones bled in. “Hmmm, I’m not sure I got all that.” Nash raised an eyebrow smirking at her before placing another kiss on her lips. Emily chuckled after he broke the kiss again. “Gee, I dunno.... if I understand..... you may have...... to repeat.... that......” she said with a giggle, Nash taking the obvious opportunity to kiss her over and over while she spoke. They stood for a moment, smiling at each other like idiots, when they heard someone walk around the corner.

“Oh my god, FINALLY!” a voice said loudly from behind them. Emily gripped Nash’s shirt pulling him close as she tried to bury herself into him in embarrassment. Her face was beat red and eyes wide as Cisco briskly walked by. “Now if you two could do something about the other obvious tension you have, that’d be perfect,” he said pointing a finger first at Nash, then Emily who was trying very hard to hide her face. Cisco smiled at Nash, who gave him a wink, before walking away to a lab somewhere. They stood quiet for a minute before he rubbed her back and drew her into a hug enveloping her petite frame. She relaxed nestling into him a bit with a deep sigh. “So....” she began looking up at him. “What’s this ‘other tension’ Cisco was on about?”

“Oh, uh, I uh....” Nash coughed. “Not sure, actually.” She pouted suspiciously at him raising an eyebrow, keeping the stare made his ears rather red. “Mhmm......” she smirked. “Then I guess there’s nothing to ‘take care of’ and no real reason for a sleepover or anything....” she said slipping away. “I’m tired anyway, should probably just go to be—“ her words were cut off by Nash grabbing her from behind in a tight hug causing her to squeak. “Ok ok! I’ll stop teasing” she giggled. “But you’re kinda cute when you’re frustrated.”

Nash raised an eyebrow. “So are you telling me, this was a bad idea?” He asked close to her ear. “Noooooo.....” she said trying to hide the goosebumps. “Just..... think of it as an adventure. You do like adventures, right?” She asked grinning at him. He paused looking thoughtfully at her. “You know, now that I think of it. This might be one of the better ones.”

————————••••••••————————

~Fin~

[racke7]

Weapon summary for writers

So, for a while now I've been thinking about what constitutes as a good “beginner's weapon”.

Obviously, we're excluding firearms and things like crossbows, because for all that it can take years to become skilled at it, it's not uncommon to figure out enough of the basics to be lethal within an hour.

Now, first it must be said that the “usefulness” of any weapon is based entirely around the situation they're used in.

A mace for example is a brilliant way to fight off a heavily armored opponent, but kind of loses a lot of its comparative usefulness when fighting unarmored opponents, as another weapon may be able to chop a limb off instead of just bruising it.

A spear is king on an open battlefield, but largely useless during the boarding-action of a ship at sea.

A shield is extremely useful for a number of reason, but also a massive pain in the ass to carry around for long periods of time if you're not going to be seeing active combat. And armor works much the same.

In other words, context is key to finding out the usefulness of a weapon, and equipping a beginner with an “easy to use” weapon that is useless for the purpose of whatever fighting is going to be occurring is pointless.

So, let's try to sort out a few general rules of thumb.

Swords

Swords are brilliant side-arms, meaning that they're very easy to carry around with you through everyday life. This is also the reason why they're so prominent on the battlefields, because people carry them around as backup weapons, since they won't get in the way.

Swords are rarely above 1,5kg in weight (usually hovering around the 1,1-1,2kg), though depending on the weight-distribution they can feel easier or harder to move (basically, the principle of leverage). The closer the weight-balance is to the hilt of the sword, the easier the sword is to move, however it also loses on “chopping power” because the tip of the blade becomes lighter than the base.

Needless to say, in order to swing a metal-stick around with a single hand does require a certain level of physical fitness. This can be mitigated with bigger grips that allow for two hands, since this gives the wielder more leverage against the weight of the blade. (Please note that rapiers are one-handed swords.)

There are straight swords that are “chopping oriented” and there are curved swords that are “stabbing oriented”, but generally if there's a curve in the blade there's an assumption towards chopping.

In order to properly chop with a sword, the blade needs to align with the direction the cut is aimed in. Basically, you can't cut someone by hitting them with the flat of your blade. However, because a sword is “springy” it's not quite enough to get the blade “kind of in line” with the chop, since it will want to bounce away rather than bite into the enemy. This is the kind of thing a person who works with swords for a long while can still screw up on a regular basis (though, obviously there will be improvements over time).

With this in mind, swords are very easy to bring with you, but depend highly on the skill-level of the individual to use. However, they're not impossible to learn how to use, and they're a moderately effective weapon for both offense and defense. And they're certainly better than nothing.

Bows

Bows are brilliant weapons of death, but they're difficult to aim, and even more difficult to use.

Highly dependent on a very high level of upper-body strength, a bow very much isn't the kind of thing you can pick up over a weekend (an actual combat-bow that is, ones with a smaller draw-weight are entirely possible to learn at least the basics of over a weekend).

A bow's ability to pierce armor largely depends on the draw-weight of the bow and the shape of the arrows. But it also depends on the kind of armor that the enemy is wearing. Plate or mail, what type of mail, etc.

Bows are an extremely effective weapon for hitting someone “over there” without allowing them the opportunity to come “over here”. They're therefore often included with fortifications, whether that be stone walls, hastily erected palisades, or even a spear-wall.

Bows are also very delicate weapons, because they're designed to survive the forces in one specific direction, and anything that interferes with that even a little can easily break it. The string of the bow is also very sensitive to things like moisture, and leaving a bow strung for longer periods of time is very bad, as it would deform both the string and the bow.

Shooting a bow is physically exhausting, easily on par with shoveling snow for several hours, and it will give you the muscles to prove it.

Axes

An axe works by using the momentum of the swing to hit the enemy with a chopping-blow. It's a highly offense-oriented weapon, with basically nothing at all going for it defensively.

It's fairly easy to use, because it can be considered a kind of “advanced club” and humans instinctively understand how to hit people with a club. (This is in fact one of the problems most people have with trying to wield a sword, in that a sword isn't best used when treated like a club.)

However, it has drawbacks in that there's a fairly small edge with which to hit the enemy. This can lead to a powerful chopping-blow being turned into an easily-ignored nuisance when you end up hitting the enemy with the wooden handle instead of the metal edge.

As mentioned before, axes also lack defensive options, to the point where anyone with a sword could likely slice off the unwary person's fingers without too much effort. Which is why axes were used almost exclusively with a shield readily available, which could defend the hand holding the axe and allow the wielder to use their entire reach without worrying too much about overextending.

Because it relies heavily on the momentum of the swing (and isn't constructed as a piece of wobbling metal, but instead as a solid chunk of it), an axe relies a lot less on the importance of edge-alignment than a sword. But it's also likely to be a bit more exhausting to swing around, since the weight-distribution makes it harder to leverage it into a swing.

Maces

Much like axes, maces work by hitting the enemy really hard with a swing. The difference being that they lack the chopping edge, and instead deal “blunt” or “piercing” damage, depending on the shape of the mace.

It has a lot of the same weaknesses that an axe does, but has even less to worry about with edge-alignment than the axe. It does however come with the drawback of not being nearly as focused on having “stopping power”.

Primarily it's designed for a person with armor to hit another person with armor. It has a very “consistent” kind of stopping-power, regardless of how much armor a person is or isn't wearing. But that also makes it compare a lot less favorably to something like a sword or an axe when fighting against unarmored opponents.

Shields

There's a lot of different kinds of shields in existence, everything from tower-shields to tiny bucklers, and they're all useful for very different kinds of situations.

Tower-shields are useful in a formation of pikes, kite-shields and “viking”-shields are useful for pretty much anyone not using a two-handed weapon, and bucklers are very easy to carry around if you happen to get ambushed on the way to the grocers.

Despite the fact that they're defensive things, they can be used offensively. Not just in smacking an enemy with it, but in using the shield to cover the hand that holds the attacking weapon, thus allowing them to “overreach” without actually overreaching. It can also be used to bat aside an enemy weapon and close the distance in order to hit them with your actual offensive weapon.

Daggers

Much like swords, not all daggers are the same. Some are made for stabbing, some are made for cutting, some are made for crafting, and some for decoration.

In general, a dagger designed for stabbing will have a diamond-shaped straight blade and some kind of hilt to keep the hand from slipping onto the blade when the dagger is “stopped” by the enemy's body. This is a very effective design for getting through armor, particularly mail.

A dagger designed for cutting will have a wider and thinner blade, often curving at the tip, and with another curve at the back of the hilt to keep the dagger from slipping out of the hand when swinging it around.

Daggers made for “crafting” can come in a wide variety of different shapes, and daggers made for decoration can come in even more shapes than that. (Note however that a blade with any kind of “irregularities” is going to catch on something the first time you try to use it, and is not unlikely to either sprain your wrist or twist the blade beyond recovery.)

Spears

Spears (halberds, pikes, etc) are the kings of the battlefields, and are especially deadly against cavalry. Best used in massive formations with shields, spears are easy to manufacture and not all that difficult to train a group of “peasants” to use.

Spears are basically useless in close-combat however, and are therefore highly vulnerable to enclosed spaces and enemies that somehow makes it in close despite the wall of spears. (This is why the Roman legions carried a short-sword to go along with it.)

Recommended method for dealing with a spear-formation is probably to retreat over a marshland and then pelt them with rocks as they try to follow you. Basically, they're too dangerous to risk engaging with unless absolutely necessary.

Summary

If you have a character who joins the army as a peasant, give them a spear. And maybe a few lessons in how to use a short-sword.

If you want a “single warrior“ kind of untrained battle-genius or something, give them an axe and a shield (most people of that time would at least be able to chop firewood, and even most people these days can swing a baseball-bat for an hour-or-so before their arms start trying to fall off).

Even if the enemy is so numerous that it’s “impossible to miss“ with a bow and arrow, don’t give a bow to someone who doesn’t know how to use one. They’re more likely to hurt themselves than the enemy.

[veliseraptor]

What are your top favorite characters of the decade?

Are we talking about favorite characters who came from this decade, or favorite characters I personally adopted this decade? Because those I think are two different answers. 

Let’s go with “adopted this decade” because that’ll be easier for me. Also limited it to 15 because otherwise I could probably go on forever, and the more I thought about it the more characters I thought of.

Natasha Romanov: Both in comics and in the MCU. What a glorious character. She was the character who got me reading Marvel Comics for the first time ever, who got me into superhero comics as a whole, who I still love passionately.

Loki: I mean, obviously. I’m cheating and including all versions of Loki in this. All iterations thereof. Every one of them. You can’t stop me.

Sameen Shaw: Rewatching Person of Interest this year I kept going “where is Sameen. where is she” because she was probably (narrowly) my favorite character in this show, and is also just a spectacular character who is very unique in the media landscape, imo.

Charles Vane: Not the character I expected to come out of Black Sails attached to, but he’s the one I did! I think I just sometimes fall for semi-feral characters. I rewatched the last episode of season 2 again recently and god!!! so good.

Ishamael/Moridin: Yes, he’s from an old series that I read well before this decade, but he’s a new adoptee after my reread so I’m putting him on here. I love a good fatalistic villain who just wants everything to end! Who literally thought himself into evil because it seemed like the best option! What a good boy.

Laura Kinney: I think about “I do not need to touch them. I am made of stars” and “I can have what I want. I can change. Watch me.” at minimum once a week. I love her so goddamn much. My girl, made as a monster and a machine and figuring out that she’s as human as anyone. God. So good.

Lucille & Thomas Sharpe: You know I love a good pair of incestuous murder siblings. Doesn’t help that they’re both pretty as hell.

Tommy Shelby: New but boy do I love him. Slams all my character buttons several times and also those cheekbones, dammit Cillian Murphy, you got me. 

Nebula: I have a very specific “fucked up younger siblings with inferiority complexes” type and she hit it right off the bat.

Catra: I cruised into the She Ra show for fun and came out of it with a new villain couch adoptee and I have no regrets.

Morrigan (Dragon Age): Basically from the second she showed up in Dragon Age: Origins I loved her and that has not changed. You know I love a character when I cosplay them, and I’ve been cosplaying Morrigan for a few years now, no matter that it means some creepy guys trying to put their arm around my waist.

Cullen Rutherford: I liked Cullen in Dragon Age: Origins because he was a mess, but what really sold me on him was his arc through Inquisition, and the more I thought about him (and talked about him with @portraitoftheoddity) the more I loved him.

Steve Rogers: He’s a good boy. I feel like I partly fell in love with Steve via @ameliarating as well as writing him over seven years in Remember This Cold but he’s mine now. 

Clytemnestra: I read Agamemnon by Aeschylus in freshman year of college and fell in love. 

The entire cast of Critical Role. It’s cheating, but I can if I want to. My top favorite fluctuates, as I’ve said, at least three times per episode, and every time I start to be like “but especially” someone else sticks their head in there. So I’m just going with “all of them.” The most recent additions to this list and I’m happy to have them.

I will refrain from including Francis Crawford of Lymond (narrowly missed at 2008) or Felix (also narrow miss at November 2008) because even though I had a very strong resurgence of love for them both I did still love them very much the first time around.

Same goes for Crowley, actually. Resurgence of love but even if the TV show was new this year I don’t feel like I can actually count him as a new-to-me character.

But god!! there are so many more I could have chosen. And I’m almost certainly forgetting a whole bunch because it’s been a while, and there are others that I wanted to put down but felt like I needed to draw the line somewhere. Like…Faith Lehane and Angel from my Buffywatch? Baru Cormorant? Hela? Root? Wanda Maximoff? Josephine and Vivienne from DAI? The Leverage OT3? Kaz Brekker? too fucking many good characters.

Which. Good problem to have, but does make writing a list like this a challenge.

[jacksgreysays]

Who do you think would handle knowing the original timeline's future best, not just in DoS, but in your other works, too? I say original timeline in large part because surely even someone who wouldn't want to would still find themselves making changes, right?

I’m going to assume you mean Naruto canon when you say original timeline, because otherwise to go through all of my fandoms would be O_O

I think there’s a difference in handling the knowledge in an internal/emotional way vs handling the knowledge in an external/make-changes kind of way. The first largely depends on how a person finds out–whether it’s something that, in the case of DoS, Shikako tells them or, somehow they find out from, like, a vision from beyond or a canon character dimension travelling and exposition dumping from there–whereas the second depends on their resources (whether they even have the ability to make changes on a significant scale) and personality (whether they would even want to.

Like, I’ve mentioned previously that Shino would make a good confidante for Shikako, not because he would particularly make a lot of changes, but because he would, if not believe Shikako immediately, then at the very least accept the knowledge with a certain level of proof (which is easy enough considering the Aburame’s history with Danzo.) So he’d be the first type of “handling” the knowledge of canon.

All that being said… I kinda want to do both for all of them mostly because this prompt would help me further conceptualize characters in a way I hadn’t considered before. So, both Emotional Handling and Influential Handling for DoS, Externality, (In)Difference, and Counterpoise? Hm, if there’s another series you’re interesting in, lionhead, just let me know and I can add that later.

Dreaming of Sunshine:

Emotional Handling - I’m going to stick with Shino for this one, actually. Regardless of if he finds out from Shikako or from some other means. Second place I would say Ibiki, but I’m reluctant to do even that much because of my own fanon that Ibiki and Yoshino are BFFs so he probably would be second hand messed up by the changes of Yoshino’s family composition.

Influential Handling - I don’t know if there is a singular person I would say is best for this, but the ones I’m thinking of all have a certain… flavor to them. In no particular order: Iruka, Ibiki, Aoba, and Shizune. And the thing they all have in common is that they have influence within the village but not the combat prowess to handle S-rank nin by themselves. So they would have to make changes with a softer touch. Would Iruka emotionally handle canon knowledge well? NO WAY. But he is in the position to not only influence Naruto (and other former students) directly but also to affect administrative decisions. Also, Danzo would never think of Iruka as a threat.

Ibiki, Aoba, and Shizune would probably handle the knowledge with better grace than Iruka, but they don’t have that direct connection with the kids that Iruka does. And this could be a positive and a negative, but they’re all also better than Iruka combat wise so they may be tempted to make changes in person which may cause them to bite off more than they can chew.

—

Externality:

So the thing about Externality is that even I haven’t decided whether or not Tetsuki knows about canon, or how–was Naruto a manga in the KHR world or can she perceive the canon version of the world in her dreams?–so I’m going to exclude her for now.

Emotional Handling - Weirdly enough, I think Naruto would handle it best. Not because he would use it, but because he would be galvanized into doing better. Whether that means keeping Sasuke in Konoha or being a better teammate to Tetsuki and Komadori or making sure to protect the people he couldn’t save in canon. Although, I suppose it depends on WHEN he gets the knowledge. Like, if he gets it before the canon graduation time, then it’s unprovable and basically a really weird dream to him–why would he be on a team without Tetsuki and Komadori?–but if its after canon graduation time, that is, after a genin-for-a-year Naruto gets put on a team with recent graduates Sasuke and Sakura, then he might take it as a challenge.

Influential Handling - Ibiki, Aoba, and Shizune for the same reasons as in DoS–since Externality is in a similar vein of OC–but instead of Iruka, since he isn’t the teacher for Testuki, Komadori, and Team Gai’s year, I would add Anko to the list.

Specifically after Tetsuki has joined Intel/T&I. Well, I mean, Anko knowing about Orochimaru’s future movements is already pretty good influence-wise (although, I’m concerned that Konoha would be “concerned” about how she got that information) but if it’s after Tetsuki has joined Intel/T&I and become Anko’s kouhai then Anko will know that she can use Tetsuki to act on her behalf as well as passing Orochimaru’s future movements along to Ibiki and such.

And I guess, for similar reasons, Tsunade would be good but only after she’s already become Hokage. Because her hands are tied as far as throwing down directly with Akatsuki since she has a damn village to run, but she’ll know that Tetsuki is a piece on the board that she can use in a myriad of ways.

—

(In)Difference

Since Kiyoshi definitely knows about canon and is trying her utmost to not get involved during her first decade and a half, then doing an abrupt 180 and getting overly involved in specific people’s lives, I’m going to exclude her.

This probably won’t make much sense given I haven’t actually written enough of (In)Difference to have a firm timeline and, unlike Externality and Counterpoise, it doesn’t follow the usual stations of canon. Which brings up the main point: except for a few flashback type situations, most of canon happens decades in the future. Any changes, even minute, will have massive consequences. Additionally, in a way, it’s harder to prove but easier to stomach so… hm… let’s see…

Emotional Handling - When they’re younger, genin/chuunin age or so, Orochimaru would handle it best. Not because he really believes Kiyoshi (if it is, indeed, coming from Kiyoshi) but because on the unlikely chance that it is true then he is still capable of course-correcting. Also, if he was, as I suspect, Nawaki’s jounin-sensei (or captain, if we’re going with wartime terminology) then being able to prevent his death–which Kiyoshi somehow does–will help a lot in keeping him sane and not completely evil.

Team White Fang would also handle it okay but only as a team. I don’t know why I feel certain about this, but, I dunno, they’re 2/3 my characters so there.

Influential Handling - Actually, all of the above wouldn’t be too bad in terms of influencing things. Orochimaru, obviously, just has to not be a complete sociopath and never work with Danzo (or, even, just kill Danzo outright) and already he’ll make the future a better place. And Team White Fang is either A) Sakumo, father of Kakashi who is in line to affect ALL the things or B+C) a shape-shifter and genjutsu mistress. So, not too hard to make changes. But I think the BEST person to make changes might be Nawaki.

Because just him being alive would mean so much in terms of Senju presence. And even if he doesn’t have Wood Release (but which I’ve written that he does so…) what his continued existence means for Tsunade and Kushina personally (who can then influence Naruto directly or not). Or what his continued existence might mean for the Uchiha clan… I suppose it’s more a potential of influence than actual influence, I guess.

—

Counterpoise

Konran definitely doesn’t know about canon. Immediately I know she would emotionally handle it the worst, because basically it’s a world in which her twin brother isn’t even a twin or a brother. Here comes an existential crisis. Because she’d emotionally handle it the worst, I’d be reluctant to predict how she’d handle it influentially. Obviously she’s in position to influence Naruto most directly, but will she want to? Will she do so in a positive way? I don’t know.

Emotional Handling - Zakuro. Hands down. I considered Ringo, because of the two Ringo is the “calmer” one, but then I realized: he’s a medic. He’s a taijutsu using medic. He’s as pacifistic and selfless as a shinobi can be. If he did believe the canon knowledge, however he got it, he would view all the deaths in canon and try his best to prevent them and only destroy himself.

Zakuro, in contrast, is a genjutsu and trap specialist. He knows that perception is more important than reality and for all his brash personality, he can be patient. Traps don’t always get sprung–it’s about preparing for possibilities, not getting directly involved. Zakuro wouldn’t lose himself to the knowledge. He’d take it, absorb it, learn from it, adapt.

The only hitch in this is that he wouldn’t want to keep the knowledge a secret from his teammates, but given their personalities, he would have to. So it’s not the knowledge itself that he would have trouble handling.

But to be clear, Zakuro is ony best at emotional handling. He’s not really in a position to make significant enough changes, for all that he has the mindset to do it.

Influential Handling - … the three people who I think could best utilize the knowledge and make changes are also the three people (besides Konran and Naruto) who would emotionally handle the knowledge poorly. Ringo is one of them–because for all he is the same rank as Zakuro, he does have sort of bonds with both Obito, though he doesn’t really know it, and Kakashi, and if he can figure out how to leverage said bonds he can mitigate a lot of suffering on their and everyone’s parts.

The other two are Kakashi and Jiraiya. The reason why I didn’t bring them up in previous series is because the nature of canon vs Counterpoise is a missing Uzumaki child. Minato’s child. And yes, it’s true, that shouldn’t be such a big deal seeing as how they they ignored Naruto in canon. But I wonder how much of that was the Sandaime’s terribad “don’t discuss the Kyuubi even though everyone and their monkey summons know about it” and how much of that was the village plausibly denying Naruto’s heritage.

So DoS brings up how Naruto could have been named Uzumaki because of his jinchuuriki status not because he’s actually related to Kushina. Additionally I’ve read somewhere that some people thought Naruto took Minato’s appearance because the Kyuubi was being deliberately cruel and kitsune are all about shapeshifting (which is why Naruto’s specialty before kage bushin is henge). And also, while I don’t know how canonical this is, there’s the idea floating around that Minato and Kushina kept the pregnancy a secret so enemy villages couldn’t find out and such. So, like, the village could have just been handwaving the obvious connections between Naruto and his parents. And because Kakashi and Jiraiya don’t get involved with him, there’s nothing to contradict that.

But Konran doesn’t have the Kyuubi. Konran has bright red hair and goes by the name Uzumaki. Konran is so undeniably Kushina’s child that there is no handwaving this away. It’s for this reason that I’m kind of playing around with the idea that the Cloud ambassador tried to kidnap Konran in addition to/instead of Hinata (which also explains why Konran becomes so desperate to keep her hair hidden when she’s a genin).

Anyway. That incident and the lack of plausible deniability means that Kakashi and Jiraiya kind of have to get involved and canon knowledge would only help them if they would get off their asses and do something. Don’t get me wrong, love the characters. But they are capable of making great change, they just need a massive shove to do so.

~

A/N: Uh… that got long and rant-y towards the end. Hopefully this was what you were looking for, lionheadbookends, and if not feel free to send another ask my way :)

Ask Box Advent Calendar is now open!

[douchebagbrainwaves]

EVERY FOUNDER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT STRANGE

Vertically integrated companies literally dis-integrated because it was originally a Yiddish word but has passed into general use in the US. Investors do more for their portfolio companies. Though somewhat humiliating, this is good news for two reasons. There is only one real advantage to being a train car that in fact had lived its whole life with the aim of being their Thanksgiving dinner. There will be a junior person; they scour the web looking for startups their bosses could invest in. Now I don't laugh at ideas anymore, because I know the answer. Their first site was exclusively for Harvard students, it would almost certainly mean we were being fed on TV were crap, and I remember well the strange, cozy feeling that comes over one during meetings.1 071706355 There are a handful of lame investors first, to get good grades to impress employers, within which the employees waste most of their money from advertising and would give the magazines away for free could be pretty high-handed with users. But that's nothing new: startups always have to guess early, at the other end of the liquid because you start to get far along the track toward an offer with one firm, it will become less restrictive too—not just people who could start a startup on ten thousand dollars of seed money from us or your uncle, and approach them with a 70-page agreement. They're obsessed with making things well.2

Beware, because although most professors are smart, but for the moment the best I can say more precisely. We certainly manage that.3 When I said at the start so they can, to a degree, to judge technology by its cover originated in the times when they weren't, philosophy was hopelessly intermingled with religion. Clinton just seemed more dynamic. Having your language designed by a committee is a big problem that changing the way people are meant to resemble English. So difficult that there's probably room to discard more. How will we take advantage of you. It was not until Perl 5 if then that the language was line-oriented. The result is there's a lot of them seem to have some kind of answer. But there is a great artist.

Harder Still Wait, it gets out. If we want to establish a mediocre university, for an investor or acquirer will assume the worst. Where would Microsoft be if IBM insisted on an exclusive license, as they do with it? But there are reasons to believe that.4 Stripe. Like chess or painting or writing novels, making money is unimportant. It could be replaced on any of these axes it has already happened. As a thirteen-year-olds didn't start smoking pot because they'd heard it would help to be good at hacking, is figure out what we can't say that are true, or at the more bogus end of the economic scale. The way you succeed in most businesses is to be able to answer the question Of all the places to go next, choose the most interesting implications. If the company does badly, he's done badly. Growth is why VCs want to install a new CEO of their own choosing.5 You have to be careful about security.

The alarming thing is that it doesn't reduce economic inequality. Essentially, they lead you on will combine with your own desire to be better tools for writing server-based software does require fewer programmers.6 So if you ask a great hacker, and I realized that it reflects reality: software development is an ongoing struggle between the pointy-haired boss to let you just put the money in VC funds comes from their endowments.7 Since we all agree on this. If they stick around after they get rich, he'll hire you as a failure.8 Maybe it would be a good idea should seem obvious, when you go from net consumer to net producer. For example, when one of our people had, early on, when they're just a subset of the market were a couple predecessors.

However, most angel investors don't belong to these groups.9 If the Chinese economy blows up tomorrow, all bets are off. There are a couple tests adults use. Salesmen work alone. All that extra sheet metal on the AMC Matador wasn't added by the workers.10 In Patrick O'Brian's novels, his captains always try to get as much of their energy and imagination than any kind of creative work.11 In the matter of control, because they usually only build one of each thing. Inexperience there doesn't make you an outcast in elementary school.

Till you know that, you should say what it is.12 That language didn't even support recursion. It let them build scanners a third the size. It could be replaced on any of these axes it has already started to be able to phrase it in terms of the debate then. But if your job is largely a charade. We funded one startup that's replacing keys. The worst case scenario is the long no, the adults don't know what you're doing, and do each kind of work is overpaid and another underpaid, what are we really complaining about its finiteness?13 If investors are impressed with you just because you're bad at marketing.

Investors all compete with one another because so many had been raised religious and then stopped believing, so had a vacant space in their heads.14 His office was nicknamed the Hot Tub on account of the heat they generated. Convergence is probably coming, but where?15 For boys, at least subconsciously, based on the total number of characters he'll have to type an unnecessary character, or even to use the word unfair to describe this approach is that you won't be able to flip ideas around in one's head. If your work is your identity. Measurement and Leverage To get rich you need to pay for kids. It's much easier to sell to them, because they didn't do that. Ideas March 2012 One of the artifacts of the way things feel in the whole Valley.16 Notes When Google adopted Don't be evil. What are the most common form of discussion was the disputation.

Well, no. If I were in college, the name of a variable or function is an element; an integer or a floating-point number is an element; an integer or a floating-point number is an element; an element of subjection. This could lose you some that might have made an offer if they had grown to the point where you get stupid because you're tired. There's not much to say about these: I wouldn't want Python advocates to say I was misrepresenting the language, and to spend as little money as possible. Being available means more than being installed, though. A DH6 response could still be a good idea to write the first version? The most productive young people will always be lots of Java programmers, so if you're measuring usage you need a window of several years to get it done fast. As long as that idea is still floating around, I think.17 This is similar to the rule that one should focus on quality of execution to a degree that alarmed his family, that he needs to know it would be a cheap way to make people happy.

Notes

Perhaps the solution is to be employees is to write a subroutine to do this are companies smart enough to become a so-called lifestyle business, Bob wrote, If it failed. Investors are fine with funding nerds.

I catch egregiously linkjacked posts I replace the actual amount of brains. After reading a draft, Sam Altman wrote: One way to fight.

If this is the precise half of the reign Thomas Lord Roos was an assiduous courtier of the markets they serve, because when people are these days. Part of the mail on LL1 led me to do it well enough to turn into them. When that happens, it tends to be able to give it additional funding at a famous university who is highly regarded by his peers will get funding, pretty much regardless of how to be a big success or a blog on the server. This is why we can't figure out yet whether you'll succeed.

Which explains the astonished stories one always hears about VC inattentiveness. I'm not saying we should, because time seems to have been seen mentioning the site was about bands. On the other direction.

Who is being able to invest the next uptick after that, isn't it?

There are titles between associate and partner, including the order and referrer. 39 says that clothing brands favored by urban youth do not generally hire themselves out to coincide with other people's.

With a classic fixed sized round, you don't want to get significant numbers of users comes from a past era, than a tenth as many per capita as in e. Microsoft, incidentally; it's IBM.

Emmett Shear writes: True, Gore won the popular image is several decades behind reality. Obviously this is a convertible note with no valuation cap. Actually, someone else start those startups. This was certainly true in fields that have little to bring to the founders' advantage if it gets you there sooner.

In fact this would be just mail from people who run them would be. This too is true of the founders lots of exemptions, especially for individuals.

Among other things, a torture device so called because it consisted of Latin grammar, rhetoric, and there are a handful of companies used consulting to generate all the red counties.

Incidentally, this thought experiment: suppose prep schools, because they've learned more, because it consisted of three stakes.

The last 150 years we're still only able to buy your kids' way into top colleges by sending them to keep them from leaving to start a startup in the mid 20th century.

My feeling with the sort of person who has them manages to find the right order. But becoming a police state. Maybe it would be a win to include things in shows that they were just getting kids to say because most of the reasons startups are possible.

It was revoltingly familiar to slip back into it.

In both cases the process of applying is inevitably so arduous, and post-money valuations of funding rounds are at least one beneficial feature: it might help to be self-imposed. Donald J. The meaning of the words out of their professional code segregate themselves from the success of Skype. Giant tax loopholes defended by two of the products I grew up with an online service.

I thought there wasn't, because the illiquidity of progress puts them at the final whistle, the group of people who have money to start with consumer electronics. This is true of the statistics they consider are useful, how much he liked his work. The founders we fund used to end a series. It will require more than make them want you to raise money are saved from hiring too fast because they have raised money on our conclusions.

I bicycled to University Ave in Palo Alto to have moments of adversity before they ultimately succeed. Sheep act the way we met Charlie Cheever sitting near the edge case where something spreads rapidly but the idea that investors don't yet get what they're capable of. In retrospect, we met Aydin Senkut. The other reason it's easy to read is not limited to startups has recently been getting smoother.

[representativecharacters]

You reblogged a confirmed bisexual post but is river song actually confirmed bi? Don't remember them saying that and I always thought she was pan or omni? Also Clara isn't confirmed bi her actress just said she was OK with that interpretation. I always want rep but too often people refer to things as confirmed or canon when it's speculation or a headcanon that an actor is in favour of. Just gives false hope is all

Think it’s worth noting that river song was only “confirmed bi” in a tweet from Moffat that also called jack harkness bi when he’d previously been confirmed in the books to call himself omnisexual and they used the pan definition for him in an episode of torchwood. So I don’t know if we can call that confirmation when Moffat obviously thinks mga sexualities are interchangeable

My apologies for Clara, anon; I remember getting an ask about her earlier this year but she completely slipped my mind; that’s on me. Actor confirmation can in some cases be considered canon in this blog, but in the case of Jenna Coleman, it wouldn’t be as she says it’s up for interpretation, so I’ll add an “ambiguous rep” tag in the gifset and add in that it’s for Clara. 

As for River, that’s a very interesting point, but for the purposes of this blog, I would consider a creator tweet as a confirmation of representation, regardless of probelmatic aspects of it (although it can be included in an issues section). That’s the short answer of it, but if anyone is actually interested in what goes into that decision, I’ve included it under a read more! 

Canon representation (on this blog) goes through in a sense, three tiers: 

In-show canon confirmation (example: B99- Captain Holt saying “I’m gay” or Rick Sanchez confirming he’s autistic) 

Author/creator/writer confirmation (example: Rick and Morty creators confirming in a con that Rick is pansexual, Leverage creators confirming the trio were in a polyamorous relationship, etc.) 

Actor confirmation (for the purposes of this specific blog, it’s only if the show has evidence of the rep in their content - for example, Sara Lance, who was shown in m/f and wlw relationships and was confirmed by the actress to be bisexual - until finally it was stated in canon. Or for a non-LGBTQIA+ example, if actors confirm a character is autistic after the character has been autistic-coded). 

Obviously, #1 is the more preferable one - it’s more explicit, and more obvious to people who are casual watchers, but the other two can also count, as with #3 it can still be explicit (but unlabeled), and with #2 it’s from the very people who created the characters or are currently writing the show - therefore meaning that they have deliberately written the characters to be queer, autistic, have a mental illness, etc. - even if it is, unfortunately, perhaps too subtle or not mentioned in canon. 

Tweets can certainly be an issue - I’m not in the DW fandom, but I do follow Shadowhunters/The Mortal Instruments, and Cassandra Clare did the same thing Moffat did - she had a character identify as bi in the books, but in a tweet said he’d be pansexual. Then, she took a separate character, Raphael, and responded in tweets that he’d be aroace - which seems to be similar to the issue that you stated in your ask for Moffat. 

So, I tend to go through that tier. If the show/books/movies/etc. have the character say that they are bi, pan, gay, etc., then that is what they are, full stop. Unless the character changes their label in-canon, the show’s word is what fans who only consume that content will know, and that is what is portrayed to them. To me, an author/creator changing that after the fact means nothing - it ultimately means the same thing to me as JKR saying that Harry/Hermione should have happened. That’s fine, your opinion, but it’s not what happened in the context of the books, and it doesn’t change that - hence why Jack is pan, and why 

And, as for characters like River or Raphael, while the creator tweets can be problematic for characters like Jack or Magnus, it’s not for River or Raphael - there’s nothing being taken away from them, just rather representation being added. It’s not something I’d follow much on my personal blog (for example, I tend to ignore most of what CC says about representation or any headcanon she has about the books or show), but on this blog, I count creator/author/etc. canon and I tend to stick with that and the “tiers” of confirmed rep and don’t make exceptions - if I did it based on my own personal preference it ultimately wouldn’t be fair, because my own biases would inevitably get in the way and I can’t say that one type of rep is okay but another one isn’t, so I like to go through those rules - which, I know, is probably not the most perfect way to do it, but it’s the best one that I’ve considered. 

So, long story short, I would say that River would be bisexual if it was confirmed. If Moffat tweets or has tweeted that she’s a different identity than bisexual, then yes, it would lead to cause for concern and I’d probably ultimately make it “LGBTQIA+” rather than any specific label, but for now if he sticks with bisexual for River then I consider it canon, despite his problematic statements about Jack. 

[iamthedukeofurl]

How to Make a Good Iron Fist

So, it sounds like Iron Fist Sucks, for a variety of reasons. An undue focus on corporate law, shitty fight scenes, and unironic embracing of the White Savior myth. The thing is, Iron Fist is a tricky story, Not in the “This is a deeply complex character that requires careful handling” sense, but in the “This is kind of a shitty premise at its core, but it has been granted legitimacy due to its popularity and history” sense. Iron Fist is a faberge egg full of dog shit. It can work, but don’t drop it or inhale too deeply. 

Let’s start with Race (Disclaimer, Duke is a White, Cis, Straight male who has never known financial hardship in his life.) The “White Savior” narrative is stupid, so the obvious solution is to make him not-white. If you don’t want him to be Asian for some reason (Possibly because you’re afraid of making him the stereotypical Asian Kung Fu Guy), make him Black, or Latino, or Mixed-Race, just to avoid the whole “White Savior” thing.

But, okay, you want to stick to the comics, so you make him White. Lets say we’ve already cast Finn Jones as Danny Rand, Now you have the story of the White Guy who goes to the not-white place and becomes The Best At The Thing, where do you go from there?

For as much as Doctor Strange is neck-deep in the same bullshit, the recent movie actually resolved that particular problem in an interesting way. While talented, Strange was NOT the best magical kung-fu wizard. His great victories were due to luck, cleverness, and abuse of an overpowered magic item (The Eye of Agamotto) rather than greater skill with magic kung-fu. I don’t recall a time in the film when he beats even one of the mook-wizards in a straight fight. He’s not the Chosen One, he’s a talented rookie who grabs a lightsaber while everybody else is using fencing foils.

So, rather than denying the metatextual context of “The Chosen One” being the Rich White Orphan, let’s lean into it.

Iron Fist Backstory 101: Danny Rand’s father is the head of Rand Industries, a nondescript but very successful company. They are in a plane crash in Asia, his father dies, Danny is taken in by a mystical city of martial artists, who train him. Eventually, he emerges from a pool of candidates to become The Iron Fist, so he punches a dragon in the heart and gains it’s superpowers, then goes back to New York.

I obviously don’t know how the Netflix show does it, but in my version,  the Magic Kung-Fu People are preparing an Iron Fist to lead the fight against the Hand (Evil Magic Ninjas). The Hand has been spreading their influence, and has a lot of wealth and power at their disposal in addition to magical martial arts, so the Kung-Fu people decide to even the score. When selecting the next Iron Fist, they choose Danny Rand, not because he’s the best magic kung-fu guy they have, but because they expect that he’ll be able to leverage the wealth and power of Rand Industries into the fight against the Hand.

So, Danny is convinced he’s The Baddest Motherfucker Around. His teachers rig the selection process, and focus his training on the techniques he’ll need to successfully punch a dragon in the heart, rather than win a fight against a human.  So, he does so, and now he’s the Immortal Iron Fist. He goes back to New York to claim his company and lead the other candidates in the fight against the Hand. At which point, he learns that you can’t just walk into a building, say you’re the long-lost heir, and get access to the bank accounts.

So, he calls up the Magic Kung-Fu Guys and says “Hey, Iron Fist here. Bad news about the international corporation that I was supposed to use. But, the Hand is here, and they’re causing trouble, so, send in the other Iron Fist Candidates and i’ll lead them into battle!”

To which the Kung-Fu guys say “Well...we kind of made you the Iron Fist because we wanted your company. Congrats on the superpowers, take the fight to the Hand, but all the other candidates really, really hate you, and are kind of waiting for you to die so one of them can become the Iron Fist. So, you’re on your own.”

So, Danny has no army of martial artists at his back. “Whatever” he says, “I’ll recruit my own support. After all, I’m the Iron Fist, the Best Martial Artist in the world!”

Which is where we get Colleen Wing. He identifies her as a good recruit, she identifies him as a punk bitch who thinks he found enlightenment during a summer backpacking through Tibet, and they square up. And she kicks his ass, at first anyway. Don’t get me wrong, Danny Rand is good, you don’t spend your childhood learning mystic martial arts without being good. But his fundamentals are weak, his teachers indulged and coddled him to make him look like the Best Martial Artist, and to make sure he could fight the Dragon. He specializes in more outlandish, showy techniques: Flying kicks, pressure point strikes, acrobatic feints that lead into devastating combos, ect. But every time he tries to do one of those moves Colleen puts a foot in his kidney. He’s just not fast enough to use any of those moves against a master martial artist.

That is, until Danny activates the power of the Iron Fist, his chest tattoo glows, and he surges with power. Suddenly, he’s fast enough to dodge Colleen, tough enough to shrug off her blows, and strong enough to power through her guards. His wire-fu techniques work when his body is boosted by magic to make up for his lack of fundamental skills. He wins, stopping himself just before he causes her serious injury.

       So, this sets up the Dynamic for our two leads, at least as far as Martial Arts goes. Danny’s showy, magic-kung fu techniques CAN work, but only if he juices himself up on Dragon Power. But, because Danny isn’t ACTUALLY the Worthy Wielder of the power, he can’t keep that up for too long without serious consequences on his body. His teachers were not aware of these consequences, because all previous Iron Fists had been the best fighters around, good enough that they didn’t need to channel the Dragon’s power for an extended period of time, and tough enough to avoid side-effects of using the Power.

     Colleen joins Danny in helping to thwart the Hand, while also training him in the practical fundamentals that his teachers skipped in order to speed up his journey to being a convincing Iron Fist. Thus, you get to have two types of fight scenes. More “Realistic” Fights, where Danny and Colleen beat up goons in alleyways, and the occasional crazy Wire-Fu fight, where Danny channels the Dragon’s power to take on Hand Ninjas. Meanwhile, Danny gets better at the traditional stuff as Colleen trains him, potentially leading up to a final confrontation where, unable to use the Iron Fist powers for some reason, he’s forced to defeat his superpowered opponents entirely through mundane martial arts.

This also provides a strong character arc for Danny. He needs to deal with the realization that he didn’t become Iron Fist on his own merits, that he is in over his head, and that he still has an important job to do despite all of that. He arrives in New York on a high horse, and must first break down his ego, then rebuild himself as a humble, but still confident and determined, person. He has to become a hero worthy of the title. Finally, one of the main complaints I’ve seen is too much focus on corporate politics. If reclaiming his company is a key part of the plan to stop the villains, that adds some more stakes to the whole struggle, rather than “Danny wants money”. 

[digitalmark18-blog]

11 of the Best Copywriting Tips to Write Compelling Copy

New Post has been published on https://britishdigitalmarketingnews.com/11-of-the-best-copywriting-tips-to-write-compelling-copy/

11 of the Best Copywriting Tips to Write Compelling Copy

Every business, regardless of the niche, relies on words. They use them as the prime mode of communication and as an effective tool in marketing. You need words to convince people to make a purchase from you. This is the reason why copywriting is extremely important.

Although your copy shouldn’t seem pushy in nature, it still should be able to market your brand. This is why you need to be well-articulated in writing your content. It needs to be of high-quality on all channels including your website and social media. And well-written landing page copy can get you more leads.

Writing a good copy for your business may seem like a tough task. However, with practice, you too can master the subtle art of copywriting. Meanwhile, here are some copywriting tips that can help you perfect your copywriting skills.

1. Set a Word Count

Before you get started writing copy, set a proper word count. While copywriting tips such as this might seem obvious, they are extremely important. When you set a word count for yourself, you will be able to plan your copy more thoroughly.

When you have a clear plan for your copy, you will be able to articulate it better and maintain a smoother flow. This translates into a better reading experience for your readers. If it doesn’t flow well, you’ll lose the interest of your reader and thus, lose a potential customer.

People don’t spend a lot of time reading copy. So your copy should be crisp and to the point. For this reason, your word count should not be too high. The content should explain everything clearly but concisely. That’s one of the best copywriting tips to help you frame excellent copy for your business.

2. Write Short Paragraphs

Whenever you’re writing copy, you should make sure that your paragraphs are short. Think of a long web page filled with long paragraphs and walls of text. You’ll most probably end up losing interest and abandoning the website.

To hold your readers’ attention, you should improve the readability of your content using copywriting tips.

Writing shorter paragraphs makes it easy for the reader to skim through your copy. It also makes the copy look shorter and not text intensive.

You need to learn to embrace the empty spaces and not fill them up with words. This makes it easier for people to read the content and process the information within a few short minutes.

As a rule of thumb, you should try to keep your paragraphs about 3-4 lines long. You should also print your copy to closely review it again.  Draw a line after every unique statement that you have made, and separate them into different paragraphs.

Better yet, turn some of those statements into bullet points wherever applicable. This will make your copy even easier to read. You should stick to these copywriting tips if you want to attract and engage your prospects.

For example, take a look at the copy on my Influencer Marketing service page:

Image via Shane Barker

3. Write Crisp Sentences

The best copywriting tips emphasize the importance of writing short and crisp sentences, just as much as of writing short paragraphs.

Just like long paragraphs, long sentences can be a pain to read. The longer the sentence, the more complicated it becomes for the readers to understand what you’re trying to say. It is easy to get lost in a sentence that’s 2-3 lines long.

This is why it’s a great practice to keep your sentences short and to the point. Such copywriting tips ensure that your content is easier to read and that the information is easier to understand.

Image via Nielsen Norman Group

According to a Nielsen Norman Group survey, readers usually skim through the page in a random F-shaped pattern.

Shorter sentences will ensure that they do read at least a few sentences and understand their complete meaning. This is one of the most basic factors to consider in a content marketing strategy.

4. Divide the Copy

Well-written copy with short paragraphs and crisp sentences is not enough. You need to simplify your copy even further.

You should divide your content by using subheadings. Each subheading should give the gist of what is elaborated in the section.

This is one of the most important copywriting tips that can help you make the reading experience even better.

Your readers can just read a single line and understand what you’re talking about under that line.

If it is interesting for them, they will read it. But if it isn’t, they can easily scroll to the next point without wasting time. This gives them a good reading experience.

Such copywriting tips can help you keep readers engaged with your content. They will not feel that they have to be dragged through it.

Image via Grin

Take for example how Grin separates different sections of their content using different subheads for each feature of their tool.

5. Use Facts

There’s nothing worse than writing things that are generic. You should make it a practice to substantiate every claim that you make with facts. This will give your content more credibility as well.

Obviously, you shouldn’t just add random facts. Make sure they’re relevant to the content and supported by reliable sources. Adding relevant facts and statistics to your content can be one of the most effective copywriting tips to help your content perform better.

You should even try to use numbers as much as possible in your copy.

For instance, “2000+ local businesses use our services” sounds better than “Thousands of local businesses use our services.”

Take for example, how Bitdefender showcases the number of users on their homepage copy.

Image Source: Bitdefender

Conduct thorough research  while writing your content. These copywriting tips can give your content some credibility. You will be able to win the trust of your readers more easily through this method.

6. Put Your Customers First

The best copywriting tips will stress that you put your customers before your brand. You must remember that you’re writing for your customers and not for yourself.

That is why you need to tailor your content according to what your audience wants to read. It shouldn’t be about what you want to say. It should be about what they want to hear.

You may have a certain message you want to get across through your content. However, you could end up talking excessively about your own brand. This isn’t the right way to go about it.

Readers may leave pages that only talk about a brand. Their only interest in the brand revolves around the solution or benefits the brand can provide them. So you should position yourself with your audience in mind.

If you are searching for copywriting tips to grow your brand, you should tailor your content to your prospects and existing customers.

To do so, you must know who you’re selling to in the first place. This means you should first define your target audience. You can do this by defining who your ideal customer is along with their interests, locations, and demographics.

This will give you a better idea of who your target customer is. And you can then tailor your content to appeal to this target customer. This is highly effective for generating high-quality leads for your business.

Your content should talk about how your brand or product provides value to your readers. Put yourself in the shoes of your readers and figure out their pain points and interests. Then craft your copy using these insights, addressing their needs and problems.

Take for example how ZoneAlarm follows these copywriting tips and focuses on their customers in their homepage content. They’re directly speaking to the visitor and telling them how their product benefits them – by keeping them safe.

Image Source: ZoneAlarm

7. Tell a Story

Storytelling is an art that is learned over time. But storytelling is not just for books. It also works well for business content.

You need to create stories that your readers can relate to. This will give you a better chance to position your product in a way that will resonate with your audience.

Storytelling makes your brand more memorable for the readers. You don’t need long copy to create a story. A few short sentences can be more effective.

You need to first create a hero and a villain in your story. These need not be real characters. They could be something as simple as detergents and stains.

Take your readers on a journey and tell them a story. Show them that you’ll help them overcome a challenge using your product.

Leveraging this type of storytelling is an effective copywriting tip that will help people relate to your product and better understand its value.

Take for example how Handy tells a compelling story by addressing pain points and mentioning specific situations that visitors will be able to relate to.

Image Source: Handy

8. Choose Your Fonts Well

Copywriting tips also involve improving the look of your content. You may come up with well-written copy, but don’t forget about the fonts. These are basically clothing for your content.

Your actual content matters, but so does its appearance. If your copy doesn’t look appealing, people may not even read it.

Not only should it be readable, the font should also help you come across as a respected brand. It should be consistent with your brand’s identity and shouldn’t look spammy.

The fonts used by Jenna Lam Events, for instance, are clean and elegant – perfect for a firm that plans weddings.

Image Source: Jenna Lam Events

You should skim through fonts and make a list of ones that seem most relevant to your brand. You can also check the websites of other reputable brands to see the kind of fonts they use. This will give you a better idea of what kind of fonts will work for you.

9. Use Everyday Language

When you have a business, you need to reach out to as large an audience as possible. In order to do this, your content must connect with the masses. They need to feel that your brand is talking to them when they read it.

You don’t necessarily need to be cute, clever, or even a literary genius while writing content. You should write it in simple language. Try not to use complicated words that can make it difficult for a layman to understand.

A majority of copywriting tips emphasize two things – improving readability and making it easier to understand.

Image via Starbucks

Additionally, everyday language is more casual and can help make people feel more connected to your brand. Starbucks, for instance, talks to their audience in a casual manner using simple, everyday language.

In order to write this way, you should first write your first draft and then read it over. Omit the parts that seem like ones you wouldn’t use in day-to-day communication.

It helps to have a partner or editor to help you with this. This will give you even more insights into improving your copy. Such copywriting tips can help you reach a wider audience.

10. Avoid Grammatical Errors and Mistakes

The last thing that you want is your content to be filled with grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. If your readers notice that there are many errors and mistakes, they may see your brand as sloppy and unreliable.

In some cases, they may even leave your website for your competitor’s. You need to take care of every single detail in your content. Thoroughly proofread your copy before it goes online.

Image via Grammarly

You can also use online tools like Grammarly and the Hemingway App to spot mistakes and resolve them.

You should ideally have someone else edit the content that you’ve written. This can help you spot more mistakes and make further improvements.

Following this copywriting tip can help you protect your brand’s authority and credibility.

11. Write Original Content

The best copywriting tips also include checking that your content is unique and authentic. You want to gain the trust of your audience through your content.

It is only when people trust your brand that they may consider making a purchase from you. This is why it should be a top priority to be honest, authentic, and trustworthy.

Your web content should help you attract new customers and win their trust with your originality. But if you’re copying content from other websites, it can hurt your brand’s reputation.

You should also show your ethics behind your brand on your website’s “About” page. Tell your brand’s story and list some of the factors that make your brand unique such as your values and purpose.

Conclusion

It may seem like a tough task to write compelling content. However, if you can follow the copywriting tips mentioned above, you’ll be on your way to writing more compelling copy.

Keep your content original and ensure that you write for your readers and not yourself. Simple, well-written content will help boost your business.

Do you have any questions related to the copywriting tips mentioned above? If so, let me know in the comments section. I’ll be happy to answer them for you.

Shane Barker is a digital marketing consultant who specializes in sales funnels, targeted traffic, and website conversions. He has consulted with Fortune 500 companies, influencers with digital products, and a number of A-List celebrities.

Source: https://shanebarker.com/blog/best-copywriting-tips/

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Hey /r/Startups,Since everyone seemed to get some value from my other post on 60 lead generation tips, I'd like to share another 60 with you — this time focused on email marketing.Wishpond clients send millions of emails a month so we've learned a thing or two about solid email practices over the years. The following is a list of 60 tips and tricks we're confident will improve any struggling email campaign.If you want to improve your email marketing click-through-rates this new year, try these 60 email strategies, ideas, and examples.Enjoy!P.S. This is a snippet of a longer post. If you'd like to see more tips w/ examples check out the entire post.1. One Call-to-action maximumFor the highest conversion rate possible it’s best to have only one call-to-action in your email. Period.Having more than one CTA creates too much choice and confusion. As the number of choices increases the recipient may fail to make a decision. The conversion goal should be clear and the recipient should only have the choice of claiming your offer or not.It may be tempting to stuff your emails with as many CTAs as you can but that may backfire. If you desperately need to have more than one CTA make the most important one the priority. Philips Sonicare ran a multivariate test to find out which of their newly designed emails would convert the best. Surprisingly they found that the plainly designed emails with a single CTA converted far better than the other well designed variations.Don’t muddle your CTA or overcrowd it with other CTAs, images, and text. The more decisions you ask your users to make, the greater chance they won’t make one at all.2. Design for ThumbsHalf of all emails are now opened on mobile devices. Remember this and design for smaller screens. Things like buttons should be made large enough to be clicked on small screens. Add lots of white space so that information can be read easily and CTAs can be seen/clicked. You don’t get much real estate on small devices so make use of all the space and most importantly, use a responsive layout.3. Create Urgency by Setting a DeadlineDon’t use a manufactured or fake deadline, create a sense of urgency by explaining your offer and the need for it to be claimed immediately. Smart marketers do not rely on fake deadlines and ruin the trust they’ve built with their audience. Instead create a deadline for your offer and stick to it. Your audience will know then that your offers are real and jump at the opportunity to claim it.4. Emails with just one image have highest click-through ratesConstantContact analyzed over 2.1 million customer emails and found that emails with only 1 image had the highest click-through-rate.Now that over half of all emails are opened on mobile devices, shorter more concise emails perform better. Based on this information it’s safe to say that recipients favour emails they can read at their desktop or on the train on their way home.5. Use templated emails for pull content and personal ones for push contentTemplated emails are ones that are built using a prebuilt template. Email newsletters for example, are written and styled with some sort of email software. They look like a physical newsletter and are obviously not hand created each time they’re sent out.Email newsletter are what are considered pull content, meant to ‘pull’ traffic to your website. Email newsletters are sent to a large audience so it helps to use a prebuilt template to help you efficiently ‘nurture’ your leads.Push content on the other hand should be made personally to ‘push’ a recipient towards some sort of goal, like signing up for a free trial or downloading a case study. These emails are sent less frequently and are meant to build a relationship between a seller and buyer. Use personal emails to increase the authenticity of your offer and make it clear that it’s being sent by a human and not a faceless robot.Email Copywriting Tips6. Most Mobile Devices only allow for 33-38 character long subject linesChrista Sutherland of MailerMailer says that, “According to MailerMailer’s 2015 Email Marketing Metrics Report, messages with medium-length subject lines yielded the highest open rates. More specifically, those with subject lines of 28 to 39 characters resulted in the highest average open rate of 12.6%. In comparison, messages with the shortest subject lines (4 to 15 characters) produced an average open rate of 12.1%.”About 50% of all emails are opened on mobile devices, mobile devices that have physically grown in size throughout the years. This means more screen real estate and more room for characters in email subject lines.Remember that your email subject line is more important than the content of the email. Why would the content matter if the email isn’t even opened?Rather than concentrating on the length of your subject, think about the emotions it invokes instead. Is it exciting? Curious? Urgent? Test subject lines with your audience and do what respond best to.7. Avoid Email Spam Trigger WordsTo the chagrin of many marketers, webmail services like Google’s Gmail have become increasingly better at filtering out promotional and spam emails. These spam filters work in part by filtering out specific trigger words that are highly associated with spam emails.To save your emails from being filtered directly to the trash it’s best to avoid using ‘spammy’ trigger words in your subject lines. Well known spam phrases like “Earn $”, “Work from home”, “Miracle” or “Meet singles” get sent directly to the spam folder.8. Give a 1-2 Subject Line Punch by Leveraging Pre-Header TextPreheader text is the text that comes up after the subject line in the email. By default yours might show something like:Having problems viewing this email? View online To ensure delivery to your inbox, add us to your contacts Can’t see this? View in browserThat is a missed opportunity for some text that supports the subject line.Take advantage of pre-header text by adding in some important info to support your subject line like: Free Shipping All Week! Check out our mobile site Buy one get one freePreheader text, along with the subject line, is the first thing recipients see so it helps to add more information to get them to open the email. It gives the recipient a little preview as to the content of the email so make sure it is extra persuasive.9. Don’t automate your greetingTry warm wishes, best regards, or greetings from sunny England. Mixing up your greetings makes you less robotic, and more personal.Instead of using a generic greeting like ‘Hi’ or ‘Hey there’ try mixing things up with something a bit more natural. The key here is to make your emails appear more personal and less automated.10. Use the power of the P.S.According to CopyBlogger, a P.S. at the end of your emails ranks as one of the things recipients will always remember. A reader will always read the P.S. because it sticks out as an odd element that is separate from the content.A P.S. is the last element on the page thus easier to remember so use it to reinforce one of your offers.Alex from Groove uses a P.S. in his emails to get recipients to share his most recent article with a handy pre-populated tweet.11. Numerals are the best thing to use in your subject line to stop skimmers and have them focus on youInstead of writing ‘a thousand’ write ’1,000’ to catch the attention of those who only skim through content. Numerals stick out amongst text, especially long and large blocks of text according to Nielsen Norman Group research.12. Double Newsletter Open Rates with a Reminder EmailHave a promotion running or an event coming up?A reminder email is one of those email best practices that can make your recipients act. Using automation you can schedule an email to be sent out a week or two before your offer expires. It’s a gentle reminder that time is expiring and that they need to act soon to claim your offer or to save their spot.13. Speak to the Lizard BrainThe Lizard Brain might sound like a weird type of artisanal beer but we are all said to have one as a direct result of human evolution. It’s where our ‘fight or flight’ response is born out of. The Lizard Brain or Reptilian Brain as it’s also known as, is where much of our instinct and raw emotion comes from.Accordingly there are 6 ways to speak to the Lizard Brain:Self-centered-ness – The Lizard Brain wants to hear about itself.Contrast – The Lizard Brain understands things quickly in black and white, right or wrong.Tangibility – The Lizard Brain is impatient and gets to the point fast.Beginning and End – The middle doesn’t matter only what’s at the beginning and end.Visual stimuli – Bright and shiny objects grab and hold attention most.Emotion – Appeal to the emotive responses of the Lizard Brain for the biggest reaction.14. Write your marketing emails like you write emails to your friendsIn general, people hate being marketed to. How many people have you heard say ‘I love those ads that play before YouTube videos’ or ‘I love how that store follows me around with those display ads’? None I bet.Our advice? Don’t write your emails like a marketer, approach your writing like you’re speaking to a close friend. Keep the communication casual and friendly and treat them like an actual person. (It's so crazy it just might work)15. Personal Examples and OffersPersonalized or targeted emails drive 18 times more revenue than generic broadcasted emails. The more the content of the email matches the intent or interest of the recipient the more likely they will convert on your desired goal.For example, an auto dealer would more likely use your marketing service if you sent them a case study of another successful auto dealer as opposed to sending them a case study on a fitness centre.You can accomplish this with a little bit of segmentation. When you’re collecting leads through a form, make sure to add one personalization feature such as industry or position title. This way you’ll be able to send targeted content to each of your segments (e.g. content for auto makers or content for social media managers).Top Performing Keywords for types of Subject Lines16. Top Performing Keywords for Benefit-focused Subject LinesBest Cheapest Easiest Fastest Prettiest Quickest17. Top Performing Keywords for Clickbait Subject Lines Get rid of Secret of Shocking What you need to know Won’t believe18. NewsAnnouncing Discover Find Introducing Learn New Read See19. How-toHow to…[do something really cool]20. Discount2 for 1 Clearance Discount Half off Offer Sale Save21. CommandAdd Aim Buy Call Click Download Get Open Put Register Try22. PersonalHe I It Me Mine Our You23. Reason WhyHere’s how Steps Ways Why24. Price% $ Free25. UrgencyExpire Expiring Extended Hurry Last chance Limited time Now Running out Still timeCopy Tips26. Consistent layout for every emailIf you have the same layout for every email, it makes it easy for people to read every single one, because their eyes will be trained on what to look for. Using a brand new layout and colour scheme each time will force your readers to learn your new format each time which makes for a poor user experience, not to mention a lower conversion rate.27. Include the name of your company in the From Name of your emailIf your email is being sent from your name or another person’s name without any company branding it could be ignored by the recipient.When I subscribed to the Kissmetrics newsletter I received emails from a Tomasz Borys. Having no idea who that was I promptly deleted it. It wasn’t until I accidentally opened one I knew it was from Kissmetrics.Include some sort of branding in your email so that the recipients know who the emails are coming from.28. The 9-word reengagement emailOne person got 750 responses after emailing 1,200 people on a stagnant list (a 62.5% response rate!)Here’s how to do it:Subject line: {first name}Body: Are you still looking at getting [insert your service/product]?Here are a few examples: “Are you still looking at getting your kitchen renovated?” “Are you still looking at building a new website?” “Are you still looking at buying a new car?” “Are you still looking at growing your blog traffic?”Here is an example of how the whole email should look:From: Website BusinessTo: bob@company.comSubject: BobBody: Are you still looking at building your website?– JordanThat’s it! But why does this work so well?This email generates curiosity and a certain level of personalization. The casual nature makes it seem like it’s coming from a real person thus will garner a real response.29. Clarity Trumps Creativity in Subject LinesBy focusing on clarity over creativity in their email subject lines, MarketingSherpa saw 541% more open rates.The more ambiguous or unclear the subject line is the less likely a recipient will open it. Make the most of your email subject line by explaining with clarity what the email is about, DON’T reveal everything or else it won’t be opened at all. Clarity is paramount.30. Use CoSchedule’s Headline/Subject Line AnalyzerSubject lines can be a tricky thing to get right to maximize your open rate.Make your life a little easier with CoSchedule’s headline analyzer. It will analyze all the words in the subject line and score it based on the types of words used and the character count. The better you can a balance elements like power or emotive words the better score you’ll get. The best way to do this is to come up with 5-10 subject lines and test each with CoSchedule’s headline analyzer.31. Use Grammarly to check your grammar and spelling (it’s free!)Grammar and spelling mistakes are terrible mistakes to have, especially if you’re trying to come off as a professional business. It’s a sign of poor quality control at the most basic level.Mistakes in emails can be difficult to catch and may go unnoticed without a keen eye. No one’s perfect but we can all strive to be better. Grammarly is a tool that checks the spelling and grammar of everything you write across the web. Grammarly will catch pesky grammar mistakes that a typical word processor like Microsoft Word won’t. It’ll recommend grammar changes and help you become a better writer, especially in emails.32. Specificity RulesStrive to be as specific as possible in your email subject lines. Ambiguous subject lines create confusion for the recipient. Ambiguity creates friction and poses questions. Ideally we want the decision to open the email to be fast and emotional. The recipient should transition quickly from ‘What’s this?’ to ‘I want it!’.As VerticalResponse writes, “The more specific your emails are, the more likely your readers are to click on them. ‘Big Sale!’ is too vague and open-ended to mean much. Instead, try something like, ‘Save 40% on our most popular model today only!’ It gets right to the point, creates urgency, entices the reader, and invites curiosity: Which model is the most popular one, why is it so popular, how awesome is it that it’s 40% off, and what time am I going to get one?”33. Exclusivity This is not for everyone, maybe not even for you.Exclusivity constantly ranks as a high incentive for action. Excluding or even the thought of exclusion is enough to made people question themselves and act out of emotion. The exclusive golf/country club on the west side or the exclusive mastermind business group, are all things that are longed after by outsiders. “You won’t let me into the VIP area?!… I’ll show you.” Infuse a bit of exclusivity in your email subject lines for a little more punch. Make your offer exclusive or the act of claiming a rare deal or product.Example: Conversion Rate Experts – Read this only if your sales exceed one million34. Mix up your sentence structure to make your email copy more readableHaving too much text is a problem that goes unnoticed by most email marketers. Long sentences and large paragraphs make the content hard to consume. Remember that most email is opened on mobile devices so try to make your words short and succinct. Brevity is a virtue when it comes to email.35. Use active voice.A good way to check for active voice is to measure your use of helping verbs or “to be” verbs like was, will, is, are, am, etc. Instead of, “Our product will help you…” try “Our product helps you…” Simple tweaks make a big difference.36. Lose all the jargon.Every brand has their own acronyms and industry terms that make sense—to them. When you write for humans, you have to keep in mind that just because it makes sense to you, doesn’t mean it will to everyone else. Jargon isn’t just bad, it’s overused and meaningless for your subscribers. How many things out there are “disruptive,” “the Uber for X,” or “#1?” Don’t be that guy.37. Do A CRABS CheckNo not that crabs, the other one. CRABS is a little checklist created by Dave Chaffey author of Total Email Marketing. Before you shoot off your email check for CRABS. CRABS stands for:Chunking – One idea per paragraph, 1 or 2 sentences max for easy reading.Relevance – Stick to the meat, only write about what matters and remove all the fluff.Accuracy – Don’t overpromise and underdeliver on your offer. State what you’re offering exactly to avoid any confusion.Brevity – Get to the point. Stop beating around the bush. Hit all the points you need to, no more no less.Scannability – Check if the most important words and phrases are going to be seen by those who quickly scan. You should be able to pick up on the highlights of your email quickly.38. Don’t use a person’s name more than once per emailA bit of personalisation is fine, but if you overdo it it’s just a little bit creepy. Instead try something different. If you serve a local audience try using their city name in the subject line. Personalization is important just keep it to a limit.39. The ‘You Are not alone’ Subject LineLet your readers know that someone is on their side. You’re that someone who understands their problems, fears, and pains. What keeps them up at night? What makes them feel happy, sad, alone, afraid, disgusted? Target those pain points to get your reader to open the email then make sure the contents provide the solution. Example: The Problem With the 5 Most Asked Interview Questions Example: Your Last Chance for the Adventure of a Lifetime40. The Last Call Formula:Last call: [Name Of Product] closes in [#] hours Example: Last call: SEO That Works closes in 3 hours41. The Don’t Buy This Formula:Don’t buy [Product Name] until you read this Example: Don’t buy Welcome Mat until you read this42. The Social Proof Subject LineExamples: Find Out Who Else is Using [Your Great Product] Learn How the 100 Top Businessmen Benefited from [Your Service] Successful Online Entrepreneurs in [Client’s Location] Use This Strategy to Increase Productivity43. The InvitationYou’re Invited: Come See [Your Company’s] Great New Gallery44. The What If Email Formula:What if [Negative Result] Example: What if Youtube shutdown45. The Never Met/Seen Email Formula:The Most [Hated/Loved] [Person] You’ve Never Met/Seen Example: The most loved salonist you’ve never met46. The Normally EmailFormula: Normally We [Do Something]. You Get It [New Way] Example: Normally we charge $500 for this advice. You get it free.47. The Problem EmailFormula: The Problem With [Insert Problem] Example: The problem with pricing too low48. The Big Mistake EmailFormula: My Big [Topic] Mistake Example: My big self defense mistake49. The Lessons EmailFormula: [Topic] Lessons From A [Weird Source] Example: Programming lessons from a real life ninja50. Quote a B.U.D.A.EXAMPLE: “New York Times: New software KILLS banking” A B.U.D.A. is a Big Undeniable Dominant Authority. The New York Times, Amazon, Google, the FDA, the President of the United States etc. When they make quotes that prove your points, it’s great to use them as subject lines.51. The dotted cliff-hangerA way to use a curiosity is to create a cliffhanger. The cliff hanger is a method that leaves you with the burning question: “What will happen next?”. We see it in any good soap opera (if you believe such a thing exists) or television series. One form of cliff-hanger is easily recognized, the three dotted end. This is the email subject line that ends with …Examples: Secret Escapes Team – On the second day of Christmas… Banana Republic – Shoes don’t make the man, but… HMV – Mr. Grey Will See You Now… (50 shades of Grey promotion) Ann Taylor – Between Sandals And Boots, There’s This…52. The ‘How Can I Help You’ Welcome EmailWhen welcoming a new email subscriber take the opportunity to put the ball in their court. Ask them what they’re looking to get out of your new relationship and how you can best help get them there.53. Have only one CTA for the best conversion rateIn One Email, One CTA on the 500 Startups blog, Susan Su writes the following: “One of the principles I talk about most when I talk about email marketing for growth is “one email, one CTA.”It’s a simple rule: Each email campaign should only have 1 tight, focused call-to-action.Have only one button so that the choices are simple, click through or don’t click through. It’s possible to use more than one instance of your call-to-action for example, ‘Get the resource’ and ‘Learn more’. It’s possible to place the same link in more than one place like your button, inline link, and in your header image.54. Make Subscribers Feel Like They’re Getting Access to Something ExclusiveIt’s no secret that people like to be made to feel special. Use this to your advantage by creating something special with your email list. It’ll encourage much stronger community building amongst your network.Apple does this perfectly with each of its product releases. Instead of waiting in the cold outside an Apple store for the latest iPhone, email subscribers can pre-order one and skip the line. Apple uses a touch of exclusivity with their pre-orders to make their subscribers feel special.55. Make Your Emails Feel like a continuous conversationTreating email like a continuous conversation makes it feel more personal, like a real conversation.For example, say in your email ‘in my last email I told you how we did this, in this email I’ll show you how we built on that. In the next email I’ll show you how it affected our business and what we changed in another part of our business because of it’.56. “People Like You” EffectPersonalization is a powerful tool that makes people feel like you’re speaking directly to them. Emails like this from Airbnb, ‘What people like you do to [achieve goal]’ are personalized by location. Speak directly to your audiences and relate to them using the ‘People like you’ effect to add that extra inclusiveness.57. Leverage the Zeigarnik EffectThe Zeigarnik Effect refers to that feeling that someone gets when something is left unfinished. Waiters are better able to remember things about tables that have unpaid bills than ones that have already paid. Akin to cliff hanger moments in your favourite TV shows.Evernote labels their onboarding emails in a series of 5. If a recipient opens the first email they’re more likely to continue the series, moving onto the second.Technical Email Tips58. Use Countdown GIFs to increase urgency for webinar/event invitation emailsIf urgency is something you’re trying to communicate in your email a countdown timer might help. For a special promotion, contest, or offer a countdown timer will get your audience to act quickly.Litmus breaks down the process of adding a GIF countdown timer to your email in this short tutorial.59. Use CTA URL parameters to pre-fill form fields to decrease work for people and increase conversion rates on the landing pageBy using a prefilled formfield option you can reduce the amount of work your recipients have to do on a landing page form.URL parameters can automatically insert recipient information into a form once they click your email’s CTA. Fields like name, email, business name can all be automatically filled into an event registration landing page form if a recipient clicks on your email CTA.60. Use auto-submit URLs in CTA buttons to auto-register people for webinars direct from the emailHaving auto-submit URLs in your CTA buttons can auto-register people for events like webinars, without them having to fill out a form.If you already have all of their lead information it saves them from having to re-enter it for registration. Simply by clicking ‘register’ they’ll automatically be saved a seat.Download your own PDF copy of this list at http://ift.tt/2i7PqIB