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lovelyirony · 4 years ago

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Title: I wish i could forget you

Tony Stark was not supposed to be in the car when Howard and Maria Stark attended a Christmas holiday party for another company. In fact, Hydra had wanted him to stay home.

Unfortunately, Tony had ticked off Howard a bit too much, and so here he was in a tuxedo that was a bit too big, uncomfortably shiny shoes, and a temper that was close to blowing.

Thank god they were almost home.

When a car crashes, one almost can’t believe it. Tony can see the outside blurring, and he can hear glass crunching, and he hears things that he really doesn’t want to hear. He is fairly sure that Maria screamed.

A metal arm.

Huh.

Well, not the most typical. He also doesn’t think that the man knows he’s here.

Howard and Maria Stark are killed. Tony feels like shit because he couldn’t do anything. His forehead is bleeding and he didn’t want to move out of fear for himself, which seems selfish, but also maybe a survival instinct?

God, his bow-tie is still constricting air flow.

Once the man turns, Tony realizes that he wasn’t the target. They probably had no idea he was in the car, whoever “they” were.

He gets out of the car. The car door creaks, and the man whips around.

His eyes widen.

“You--what?”

The voice is surprisingly American.

Surprisingly? He’s not sure why it’s surprising, it’s not like an American can’t kill just look at history, but still, Kind of surprising.

"What, wasn’t supposed to be here?” Tony rasps out. He realizes now that he’s basically sent himself a death sentence as the man surges forward.

“What are you doing here?”

His eyes are piercing. Also very, very familiar with some photographs that Peggy has on her mantle and her desk.

James “Bucky” Barnes. Son of a bitch.

“What are you doing alive?” Tony asks. “I thought you were lost in a ravine in Europe somewhere.”

“What--huh?”

“Ravine. In Europe. You know who you are, right? Is this some kind of sick...what did they do to you?”

“I do not know what you are talking about.”

His eyes get cold again.

“Who are you?”

“I am the Asset.”

It is now that Tony realizes that every single shitty sci-fi book is probably right, and his disdain of “wacky science” and “magic” have all been for nothing, because here is Bucky Barnes, who apparently has no idea who he is.

Then Tony gets knocked on his ass. His body slams against the icy road, and Barnes is rushing towards a motorcycle.

And he’s alone. He can’t breathe, all the wind knocked out of his chest. He thinks he broke a couple of ribs.

No one believes him. At all. SHIELD brushes it aside.

“There’s no way Barnes could be alive. You were probably just seeing things,” they tell him. “Would you like us to find you a therapist?”

“No,” Tony says, and they ask why. He laughs, sipping on his water. “SHIELD has so much loyalty to itself, I’m afraid I’d be compromised.”

“Therapists aren’t supposed to divulge any information,” Nick Fury adds carefully. “And we’re a secret-keeping bunch. Nothing goes out that comes in.”

“Unless, of course, it’s necessary,” Tony drawls, staring at Fury. God, the leather outfit...that’s weird. “Then I’m out in the open, Nicky. And what fun is that unless I get to show off an outfit in full-coverage?”

“...I’ll have an agent escort you home. We’ll have guards overnight.”

“Don’t bother.”

“And why is that? Think you can handle it by yourself?”

“Fury, my family has made a career out of thinking a lot of things. You’re not being as detrimental as you think.”

He finger-waves, grinning and winking at agents on the way out.

Now comes paranoia. This is welcome, actually, because it’s allowing him to work up new security measures and hack into various security cameras around the world to see if he can find Barnes.

It’s like he’s a ghost. And fuck, maybe Fury was right. Tony doesn’t like that, but that may be it.

Merry fucking Christmas.

Years go by, and Tony keeps a tiny ear to any news about mysterious deaths that can’t be explained. A man that glows in lamp-light, has no identity. He’s not sure if it could be Barnes. God knows he’s no longer seventeen, and Barnes--it if it was Barnes--would be way older. He should’ve been an old man in 1991, but he wasn’t.

It kind of reminds him of the conspiracy theory that Walt Disney was kept cryogenically frozen, which is just ridiculous, because as far as he’s concerned, you’d need a bit more to you than just regular skin and bones.

And this is where it hits him.

Barnes was experimented on when he was captured by Hydra. Peggy told him that Rogers told her that he was repeating his dog tag number over and over, as if someone was trying to take him over.

Yeah, you’d need a bit more.

Like a fucking super soldier serum.

This then delves into Tony realizing that if Barnes is flash-frozen, then...well, could Rogers have survived? He always thought his dad was crazy, but a broken clock is right twice a week or however the hell that saying goes. He never used it, he wasn’t a broken clock.

(He was broken, but he’s not going to compare himself to a clock. Perhaps Model-T.)

They find Rogers. Tony realizes Howard did his math completely wrong for years, and probably never let anyone look at it because he was a World Super Genius. And a Colossal Dick.

Steve Rogers is one tough cookie to crack. Tony chips off some of the ice and puts it in a glass of scotch.

“Do you really think that’s the most appropriate thing to do?” Phil Coulson asks.

He’s shocked, but mainly because Tony has seen his Cap collection, and that man has so many limited edition cards and lunchboxes that it’s a bit crazy. But at least he knows how to decorate with it and not have it look like an absolute nutjob swept into his house and did it all in red-white-and-blue.

“Phil, my darling, when have I ever done anything the appropriate way?” Tony asks. He stares at the face that’s emerging out of the ice. “Besides, what else are you going to do with this ice, hm? Besides melt it all off?”

Steve is a miracle. Every scientist on earth wants to poke and prod at him.

Tony breaks him out of SHIELD in a week, because he swears to shit if one more scientist asks to take blood samples “to see how going under Arctic temperatures affects the bloodstream” (and also take DNA for cloning) he’s going to lose it.

Fury yells at him for two hours.

Steve flips Fury off from the couch, where he’s been channel-surfing for the better part of three hours.

“You’ve already corrupted him,” Fury scowls. “Rogers, we need to talk--”

“He’s retired,” Tony says.

(Steve is not, technically. Hasn’t said anything. But Tony is putting him on mandatory retirement for at least a year.)

“What’s...what the ever-loving fuck is that?” Steve asks.

An infomercial. For an automated chair. Mostly used for old people.

Tony grins.

“You wanna see how fast I can launch you out of one?”

“I’m going to say yes. Professionally.”

Ten miles an hour, and Steve goes flying across the room into a pile of pillows.

It’s not the end-all solution. God knows Steve calls him “Howard” and asks where a lot of nasty food is, and sometimes can’t tell the difference between what his brain is seeing and what is actually there.

But Tony gets him help. And Steve goes to art school.

It’s all very funny, actually. Steve rants about “modern art” and how “if he could kill any concept it would be abstract expressionism, what the fuck.”

Tony buys and then donates a Rothko in his honor.

Steve fumes, but finds it hilarious.

Then, there’s the attack on New York.

Norse god of mischief decides to end New York, blah blah blah.

Captain America reappears, everyone loses their shit, and Tony almost dies.

Then he gets four other roomies besides Steve, and he has to make a chore chart. Ugh.

Barnes reappears in France. Tony gets a fairly good image, and Natasha stills.

“You know about Winter Soldier?”

“Barnes? Yeah.”

“You know who he is?”

“James Barnes. At least, I think. He tried to kill me, wasn’t very successful at it.”

Steve overhears.

This leads to a chain of events that ends in Steve not coming to family dinner because he’d rather sit in his room and listen to Green Day or Glenn Miller or whatever the hell gets him even more upset.

“Listen, Steve, I’m sorry. But up until this picture? I was only about sixty percent sure I wasn’t full of beans.”

“Why is that the phrase you use?”

“What, full of beans? Bruce says I have to work on my cursing. Apparently, children are impressionable. Who knew?”

It’s not a total success. Steve still doesn’t like that Tony didn’t outright tell him, but Tony isn’t going to tell Steve that he has the mental stability of a single cashew.

So begins the hunt for Barnes. Which actually isn’t too bad.

He’s in DC. Not for any political clean-up, unfortunately. He’s trying to kill Fury. Tony doesn’t know why, at least until he looks up Pierce, who’s technically, mostly retired from SHIELD.

And yet still uses most resources that technically? He needs more than one authorization from multiple people.

God, people are getting bad at covering their tracks. Used to be harder to catch and see if someone was doing dirty deals.

(Okay, not like he can talk because Obie was...well, no use in discussing that now. He needs to focus.)

Nat and Steve are bad at lying. This kind of surprises him, because Steve is usually a successful liar. He’s convinced Clint that it’s not him who keeps eating his peanut-butter-fudge ice cream, but Thor.

And Natasha used to be Natalie Rushman. Then again, Tony was poisoned during that one, so that might just be on him.

Helicarriers go in the water.

Tony’s working on making sure most of the information doesn’t reach the general public, although he can’t stop it all.

Barnes falls off the face of the earth, and Steve wants to go on another treasure hunt.

“Let him come to us, or figure himself out.”

“This isn’t a college kid going backpacking in Europe for a year,” Nat snaps. “He’s...you know who he is, who he was, and what he can do.”

“Counterpoint: we don’t know if he secretly really wanted to see traditional decoration of Ukrainian Easter eggs,” Tony says. “God knows that I want to learn more about that.”

“Is everything a joke to you?”

"Only on federally mandated holidays,” Tony says with a shrug. “But let him be. Steve, it’s one thing that he didn’t kill you. It’s another thing that he hauled you up from the Potomac. I’m not sure I would’ve done that because who goes up alone to a helicarrier?”

“Historically nobody,” Natasha says. “Most people don’t have any helicarriers.”

“God, this situation sucks,” Tony says. “What if. We potentially. Ignore all of it and have spinach and artichoke dip? Hm?”

“With toasted bread?”

“I’m not an animal, Steve.”

“Your penchant for four a.m. coffee while you don’t realize you’re singing songs from the seventies says otherwise,” he responds.

“Well well well, if it isn’t the punishment of you getting the aux taken away for a week,” Tony taunts.

“Oh, come on!” Steve whines.

“Nope, just you having to listen to more of Bruce’s questionable tastes.”

“Fuck.”

Barnes comes stateside. The only reason Tony knows this is because Jarvis says that he may have spotted Barnes, but he’s not sure.

“J, you’re the most advanced system in the world, not to mention my son, and you like to hack into the Pentagon for funsies.”

“All of that could not have prepared me for this.”

Barnes is wearing a neon green tank top that is advertising Coco Beach in Florida.

“Can I laugh? Or is that sad?”

“Multitask, Sir.”

“Oh, true.”

Barnes is not in New York. Tony has to near-about put an electric fence around the whole state so that Steve doesn’t go on a road trip.

Hell, Tony doesn’t even trust him to go to coffee alone, but that’s a bit much.

“We have to wait,” Tony says.

Sam Wilson is a godsend. Also the funniest man Tony knows.

He is also emotionally healthy and very perceptive, so he has been noticing that Tony is nervous.

Because how do you face the man who killed your parents? Technically?

“Are you talking to your therapist?” Sam asks. “Just thinking you should.”

“Sam, we’re working on my issues from 2007. Believe it or not, it will be taking a full year.”

“I don’t like that I can never tell if you’re serious.”

“I know you remember the tabloids from 2007, I wrote a mesh vest. Clearly, I need so much help.”

Sam snorts.

“Maybe. Hey, I’ll catch you later. Clint and I are gonna go try and find some questionable shirts to crop.”

“Did his little protege convince you? Bishop, right?”

“Kate, yeah. She’s convinced our public image will go viral or something. Good luck with helping Steve and Nat with your super-soldier hunt.”

“Thanks. Let me know if you find a shirt with my face on it. I want it.”

Sam snorts.

“Will do.”

Bucky Barnes comes to New York in early May. The springtime is slowly but surely fading off, sun approaching more and more. Tony is enjoying coffee on a veranda, and then suddenly his waiter is nowhere to be found and he’s not entirely sure if his visitor takes credit or debit.

“Can I help you?”

“Maybe. Depends on if you’re gonna kill me or not.”

“I think Steve would be a bit broken up about it.”

“Do you care what he thinks?”

“On this situation? Yes. When it comes to culinary choices? No.”

There’s a ghost of a smile on his face. Tony’s trying extremely hard not to remember shattered glass and a motorcycle on ice.

“Can we, uh, table this conversation? For later. Espresso and all that, plus the added bonus of our shared history, so...”

“Shared history?”

“You don’t remember?” Tony asks. Bucky shakes his head. “Ah. Then this is truly a comedy of errors. Maybe. Um. Listen, I, uh...I gotta go. You need to talk to Nat or Steve or hell, maybe even Thor. Is Thor a good option?”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Barnes, I can’t exactly face you right now.”

And then he jumps off a balcony.

A fucking balcony.

Jesus H. Christ, his therapist is gonna be so excited for their next session.

The suit wraps itself around him, and he can finally breathe, and he’s thinking about calling Pepper and see if she would like to schedule him a vacation for maybe anywhere but New York and Iowa.

“Why not Iowa?” Pepper asks. “They have good antique stores. I’ve gotten quite a few good finds for clothes.”

“I can do shopping retail literally anywhere else, absolutely not.”

“Spoilsport. Steve know you’re leaving?”

“I didn’t even really tell Steve what happened with my parents.”

“Oh, your therapist called. She sounded concerned, but also intrigued.”

“It’s because Sally almost became an employee of NASA and still has a soft spot for aerodynamics.”

“What exactly did you do when faced with Barnes?”

“Check the front tabloid page tomorrow, just tell everyone I’m out of town.”

“Got it. And Tony?”

Her voice is soft.

“Yes, dear?”

He can feel her rolling her eyes. Affectionately, of course, but rolling all the same.

“Be safe, and come back. You know Rhodey and I miss you.”

“I miss you too.”

A week is spent in Malibu. He really is thinking about selling this place. But for now, it suffices.

Steve texts him.

bucky’s back. holy shit

be back in a week. radio silence.

got it. no more messages from me. thor tells me to tell you that he broke the sink

:((((

And that’s it. He’s sitting in the house for a week, has already called Sally once and explained how his suit works, and then listened to her talk about how “his reliance on the suit to help him escape unfavorable situations is not exactly the healthiest but also none of my clients have had to face someone who is of weird standing.”

It’s no secret that Tony doesn’t like Howard Stark. Who would’ve liked that sorry excuse for a father, a man who was so cold-hearted the Arctic looked like a tropical paradise?

Maria was...Maria was different.

She wasn’t a good mother. No, she was never a good mother. But she tried, and she didn’t deserve her fate.

And then there was the question of Bucky Barnes. Who wasn’t Bucky when he was there, but still so damn recognizable.

It’s kind of like when there’s a movie about a famous person, and another person plays them. Like Tom Hanks, essentially. Bucky played whoever the fuck they get Tom Hanks to play and it’s similar: you see the resemblance, but it’s not it.

So yeah.

There’s also the little tidbit that things get complicated when you involve personal feelings and rationality, and really? Tony misses New York. A lot. And he’s not going to let someone else overtake his life just because he’s uncomfortable.

So he flies back to New York.

He’s in a bad way, Barnes is.

“He remembered you,” Steve says. “What he did.”

“Ah, there’s that.”

“He doesn’t have to be here,” Natasha says. “I have a couple of SHIELD safe houses to choose from.”

“None would be adequate to house something like me,” comes the response.

Barnes looks remarkably shitty, as if he hasn’t slept in eighty years. And maybe he hasn’t.

“Jail would be more fitting.”

Tony rolls his eyes.

“You are literally the most dramatic person ever, and Bruce threatened to take over the government because Thor ate the last croissant. Put those on the grocery list, Steve

“We’re not gonna throw you in jail,” he continues on. “Not because you happened to be used as a goddamned Swiss army knife. I have issues, sure, but I’m not going to be going all Hannibal Lecter or whatever.”

“Who the hell is that?”

“Cannibal. I realized that that’s a terrible comparison, please forgive me.”

“Why a cannibal?”

“Couldn’t think of anything else but Anthony Hopkins, the actor. My mistake. Point is, we’re gonna have to go through some channels, and I’m introducing you to BARF, as well as a new person who’s gonna rock your world.”

“I’m pretty much well-acquainted with vomit.”

“No, not that,” Tony says. “Although we can cover that through my 2005 edition of partying if we really wanna dig up some old magazine interviews. No, I’m introducing you to something that’s going to change your life.”

After that, Tony doesn’t have much to do with Bucky’s life.

He serves as a permanent guilt trip, nothing says “well, shit” much like being a permanent guilt trip.

Sally tells him that they should talk it out. Do all that “and how do you feel?” questioning that makes his skin crawl and his eyes ascend to the ceiling.

I mean yeah, they share a living space. Tony has seen Bucky laugh and smile with Sam, talk with Bruce about a really interesting article about regeneration of plant cells or whatever, and Bucky enjoys videochatting with Wakandan royalty.

(It also helps that Shuri is blunt as ever, but so blisteringly smart. He’s reading her paper on regeneration of nanotechnology, and it just...it’s the Pieta of research, that paper.)

But he never speaks to Bucky. Well, he does. But it’s more along the lines of “hey Barnes” and “how are you?” which aren’t exactly the Most Thought Provoking Statements Ever Made.

Summer comes swiftly, and about near with a vengeance. Tony’s dealing with a heat wave and trying to figure out if going outside is even worth it, and then he and Bucky are alone in the kitchen.

Tony was debating getting a couple of popsicles from the freezer. Bucky is considering sabotaging Clint’s smoothie that was supposed to be special for tonight, but that he’ll most likely forget.

“Hey,” Bucky says. “Um, can we talk?”

Shit.

He’s been avoiding this, officially, for a month. Potentially more if you’re going to count a few choice events that have been brought up by his psyche.

“Sure thing, buttercup. What are we talking about. Economy, world crises, the great debate on financial advice?”

“Isn’t the third thing just the economy?”

“We can break it down over coffee.”

“Mm, maybe another time. No, I’m talking about us. About how I--I kind of ruined your life.”

Tony blinks.

“You didn’t ruin my life. If my life was ruined you’d be hit with so many lawsuits that I could make the rest of your life look like the third circle of Hell, or wherever it is that people go nowadays in Dante’s eyes. No, you didn’t ruin my life.”

“I still killed your parents.”

“If you hadn’t, someone else would’ve. Believe me, there were about fifteen others in line. Sometimes, myself included.”

“You can’t not take me seriously,” Bucky stresses. “I still did a terrible thing. I just want to make sure you know that you’re being too kind.”

“I most certainly am not,” Tony says. “Being too kind would have me feeding you grapes.”

Bucky’s face blanks.

“Don’t. I...I don’t wanna take advantage of your hospitality. I don’t want to remind you of what happened.”

“You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t wanted,” Tony says. “Believe me. And if you want to leave, you’re free to leave. I don’t want to make you feel like you need to stay here.”

“I...I want to make it up to you.”

“Then use BARF and review it,” Tony says. “I’m serious. I need user feedback, and you’re the best candidate for it. Also, please try to convince Steve to wear neon yellow. I just want to see if he’ll do it.”

Steve wears neon yellow. Tony laughs so hard he cries.

Bucky smiles.

It’s a nice smile, really. It’s wide and happy and wow. That’s all worth it.

And then BARF. Bucky just gives user feedback, nothing else. Tony doesn’t want to know anything else, but they start talking more.

Tony finds out that Bucky’s been doing crosswords to catch up on current events, and he’s bought taped recordings of World Series games.

He loves antique stores. He visits them and brings home little trinkets that he remembers in his own house, or what he remembered. He watched old commercials from the fifties and sixties, laughed as he remembered the Sears catalogs that would come in the mail.

“Me an’ my sisters would beg my mom for new clothes from the catalog, and she never would. Always sewed our pants and skirts so damn well, I probably could’ve used them for the next ten years.”

Tony laughs.

“Well, I can’t promise I can sew. But I could give you some armor that could last you twenty years, if you want. Steve told me you’re thinking about doing some distance missions.”

“Just observation, no armor required.”

“Sometimes it’s the simple missions that get the worst hits,” Tony says. “Believe me, I know how it goes. So, do you want some armor?”

Bucky smiles.

“Sure.”

“I’ll need feedback.”

“I’ll give it all I’ve got.”

Bucky is a goddamned dream to design for. He knows exactly what he needs, what areas are most likely to be pierced, and also has a flair for the dramatic: he requests an Iron Man helmet be embroidered on the back.

“You’re really just trying to be sweet on me, aren’t you?” Tony teases.

“My master plan to gain your fortune,” Bucky teases right back. “I’ll waste it all on champagne pools and the worst-looking but most expensive shoes I can find.”

Tony laughs.

“Sugar, that’d be incredible if you could spend all of my money on that. I’d commend you.”

Bucky smiles, and it shouldn’t be as nice of a smile as it is, but here Tony is with his opinions and his concerning thought that maybe he wants to see more of Bucky.

In the morning, there begins a routine. Tony is always up at eight o’clock. It’s a rare lull in Avenger-morning-routines: Nat, Steve, and Bruce are all done, and Thor and Clint won’t be in until ten o’clock at the earliest.

(What can he say? Thor’s a god and Clint...well. He needs a lot of beauty sleep.)

Tony makes coffee, and Bucky makes them both breakfast. Says that officially, it’s to test and make sure that his prosthetic is still performing under optimal conditions.

(They both know that’s not it.)

Tony always says he pours too much water, makes enough for two cups.

Steve calls them out on it.

“You two are being weird,” he says. “And not like Thor and Bruce trying to reenact that one show about ghosts and unsolved things.”

“That’s their form of courtship, don’t be fucking rude,” Clint remarks. Natasha snorts.

“What, us being weird?” Tony asks, pouring a bit more coffee into Bucky’s mug. He always uses too much creamer and then won’t finish his coffee unless there’s more. “Why do you say that?”

“It’s because you both do couple shit,” Bruce says, breezing into the kitchen. “Also, Steve, lovely to see that you have volunteered to be the next guest on Avengers: Unsolved. We’re planning on using you as a guilt-trip in order to access files about aliens.”

“Truth will be found!” Thor adds. “But also, yes. Bucky, I thought you were taking him on a date to the art museum on Saturday.”

Bucky turns red. So does Tony. It really is quite inconvenient.

“I mean, we could go on a date there,” Tony says. “If you’re okay with that.”

“You’re doing this in public?” Natasha asks, eyebrows raised. “Hm. Would not have called that.”

“You owe me fifteen dollars,” Bucky says. “Not you Tony, quit looking at me like that. Yes, it will be a date on Saturday, I’ll wear a nice shirt. Nat said that I couldn’t do anything that surprised her.”

“Technically, Tony surprised me.”

“I thought dates were mutual events, hm? Fifteen dollars. I’ll use it to buy the best bouquet in New York.”

“The best bouquet costs over a thousand dollars,” Thor answers.

“Not questioning how you know that, but I’m scared of you,” Bucky says. “Then I will get the best fifteen-dollar-bouquet in New York.”

Tony snorts, smiling.

“I guess I’ll spray a bit of my perfume on my pillow then, soldier.”

“I’ll pick you up at noon sharp,” Bucky says, grinning. He finishes his coffee. “We’ll make fun of Steve’s art exhibit together.”

#lovelyirony writes #holy shit this was longer than expected #thank you to angel for this inspiration #winteriron #avengers as a family #personally i like the fact that thor and bruce are doing avengers unsolved and have to force different avengers on #natasha romanoff #bruce banner #thor #bucky barnes #tony stark #howard stark #maria stark #sally the therapist

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artificialqueens · 4 years ago

Text

Don't Need a Flight to Get to Paradise (Crystal x Gigi) - A-tresia

Gigi methodically slices the tape open and digs inside. Her eyes widen and her face is suddenly hot and red. And even though there’s an obvious look of embarrassment seen on her face, she’s still thankful that the camera is focused on her and not on the contents of the package.

A/N: Some non-AU smut because (don’t deny it!) we want this and we absolutely deserve this. This is probably the filthiest thing I will ever attempt to put into words. Enjoy!

Gigi sets her phone on the table and presses the button to start her Live. She fixes her hair while she waits. “Hey, everyone!” she says still combing her fingers through her freshly curled hair. “It’s been a while since I’ve gone Live and I thought,” she emphasizes the last syllable with a nod, “since I have a little bit of free time that I could go do an unboxing for you guys.” She squints and reads through the comments as she waits for more people to join.

She picks up her phone and flips the camera to pan across the pile in front of her. “Okay, so, I’ve got quite a bit to open. There’s a couple of PR boxes and some merch from my season 12 sisters,” she explains, pointing to the boxes.

Struggling to open boxes with one hand, she decides to prop her phone against the wall and sit in front of it as she goes through the rest of the boxes. She’s already opened two make up PR boxes when she sees a familiar name on one of them, deciding this is what she’s opening next.

“Look, you guys! I have a package from my girlfriend,” she says playing up the Crygi clout. No one has to know the real tea, they can guess all they want.

Gigi holds up the box to the camera to point to the Crystal Methyd sticker plastered on the top. The comments are suddenly wild. “I wonder what’s inside,” she says, shaking the box. It sounds solid but it might just be packaging. “It’s probably new merch. Thanks, Crystal!”

Fuck.

Fuuuuuuck.

She smiles slyly at the camera and quickly grabs a new box to open, trying to cover up the internal panic she’s currently experiencing. “Sorry, you guys. It looks like it’s unreleased merch. Let’s wait for Crystal to release it before I share. Okay?”

The comments are even crazier than before. Asking what’s inside the box. And why she’s suddenly so red in the face. She knows her socials will be flooded with this.

Gigi ignores the comments and even though she only planned to be on Live to open maybe two boxes, she proceeds to open three more make up boxes and merch packages from Jan and Nicky. She’s hoping people will forget. But who is she kidding? Stans never forget.

“Thanks for keeping me company for the last, uh,” she looks over at her clock, “for the last hour and a half. I’ll catch you guys again soon!” Gigi winks and ends the Live.

Not even five minutes after she ends the Live, she gets a FaceTime call and Crystal’s fully-painted face floods her screen. “Gigi Goode, why are people tagging me in screenshots of your Live and asking me what I sent you?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know what you sent me,” Gigi glares.

Crystal raises a brow at her. “You don’t like it?”

“I mean, I haven’t gotten the chance to fully look at it yet.” She reaches into the box to pull out the contents — a bottle of lubricant, and… Gigi holds it up to the camera. “You got me a dildo.” Like it isn’t obvious what’s in her hand.

Crystal leans in closer to the camera. “Not just any dildo,” she smirks like she’s so proud of herself. “It’s a clone-a-willy.”

“A what?”

“A clone-a-willy,” Crystal repeats slowly.

Gigi’s eyes widen in realization. She takes a good look at the dildo in her hand. The length. The girth. The slight curve. The vein underneath. They all feel right. And real. But it’s cold and made of silicone and the person it’s supposed to be attached to is 1,600 miles away. She looks back at Crystal. “So you mean this is —”

“Mmhmm, balls included!” She definitely looks like she’s proud of herself, like she did the most groundbreaking thing on earth. “It’s even really close to my skin tone.”

Gigi laughs. “Were there other options?”

“Oh, I definitely thought of making it in an obnoxious glow-in-the-dark hot pink. I could make you one in pink if you want that, I still have the mold.” Crystal snorts as Gigi proceeds to inspect her new toy. “There’s a suction cup so you could use it on any flat surface,” she says this so very seriously you’d think she’s selling the product.

Gigi finds a button at the bottom. “Oh my god, Crystal. It’s a vibrator too?”

“Only the best for Gigi Goode.” They both snort. But clearly, Crystal is more amused. “Also, Geege, unreleased merch? Should we make a profit out of my dick? Am I a genius or am I a genius?”

“Hey, your dick is awesome. But I’m not sharing. I barely get any of it.” Crystal hasn’t stopped laughing since she suggested making multiple models to sell. Gigi thinks back to the last time they saw each other and realizes how long ago it’s been. With all the touring they’ve been doing, there just hasn’t been time to see each other in between. “Long-distance sucks,” she pouts.

“I know, baby,” Crystal sighs. Underneath her full clown makeup, Gigi knows she’s pouting too. “But we’re seeing each other in like two weeks so that’s something to look forward to, right?”

Gigi whines like a child. “But the last time I saw you was six weeks ago!”

“That’s why I cloned my dick for you. So you can fuck yourself with it and I can watch over FaceTime and you don’t have to miss me as much.”

“That does sound hot,” she considers. Gigi cocks her head to the side and bites her lower lip and looks up at Crystal from underneath her lashes. “Can we use it now?”

Crystal wiggles her brows at Gigi. “Do you want to?”

“I do,” she nods. She takes in Crystal’s face that’s taking up her screen and scrunches her nose. “But your mug really isn’t doing it for me.”

“Later, then?”

“For sure,” Gigi winks. “No, but seriously. I appreciate the sentiment. I just miss you.”

“I miss you too.”

“Should I send you a replica of my dick too?”

Crystal perks up at the suggestion, deciding then and there that she’ll send Gigi a kit — in maybe neon purple. “But it’s messy to make. It was like a science experiment!”

“Crystal. Elizabeth. Methyd,” she says, feigning shock. “Did you stick your dingaling in any of the science experiments you did in school?” Gigi can’t stop laughing at the mental image of Crystal sticking her erect penis into a model volcano.

“Shut up! It was hard to stay hard.”

—

Gigi couldn’t get anything else done for the rest of the day with the anticipation of what’s to come. Besides, she’s maintained a semi since they hung up and it didn’t really help with her already short attention span. She considered rubbing one out just for a little relief but decided to wait it out. It’s going to be better this way.

She’s already in bed, still semi-hard and freshly showered, with Crystal’s penis replica and a bottle of lube within arms reach when her phone buzzes in her hand.

Crystal: 2 mins. Get your laptop set up.

She doesn’t even bother to reply. She arranges her laptop, puts on her earphones (which, for a bit, she thinks of forgoing since her roommates are sure to hear her anyway), and positions herself on the bed checking to make sure that Crystal will be able to see everything.

In exactly two minutes, Crystal’s smiling face (void of makeup, thank god) fills her laptop screen. “Hey,” they both say at the same time. Gigi feels herself harden further at the look on Crystal’s face as she stares back at her.

“Geege, you shouldn’t have bothered with clothes. I didn’t!” Crystal moves back against her pillows as she pushes her laptop a little bit further from her to give Gigi the full view of her already hard penis. “Come on, I couldn’t be the only one naked here!”

“Sorry.” Gigi shakes herself out of her stupor at seeing Crystal naked, thumbing around the tip of her dick and quickly pulls her tank top over her head. She grips herself through the fabric of her underwear with a groan.

“Gigi,” Crystal breathes.

She slowly pulls her underwear down her legs, watching Crystals breath hitch. It makes her feel flushed and hot all over. “Happy?”

“Very.” She looks straight into Gigi’s eyes and wraps her hand around her cock, slowly stroking herself for Gigi to watch. “You look so good.” There isn’t a need for long introductions, they both know they’re on this call for one thing.

Gigi’s mouth feels dry. So instead of answering, she starts stroking, matching her pace with Crystal. They stroke in tandem for a while, eyes not leaving each other, before Crystal tells Gigi to get the lube. She watches Gigi squeeze a generous amount onto her fingers. “Ready?”

“Can’t wait,” she says as she shifts to spread her legs wider so Crystal has a better view. “Can’t wait to stretch myself out so I can take your cock.” Gigi fucking hates dirty talk but she just misses Crystal so much she doesn’t even have the energy to cringe at herself; instead, she reaches down to rub her fingers over her hole with warmed up lube.

Crystal stops touching herself. Instead she focuses on Gigi’s movements. She watches Gigi slowly slip a finger in, whimpering quietly at the sensation of a single digit sliding in and out of her.

“Go on,” Crystal urges.

Gigi adds another finger and feels herself stretch and clench around her fingers. “Feels so good,” she breathes out. It’s been three days since she’s masturbated and fucked herself and six weeks since she’s had Crystal’s actual dick. She pulls one knee up for more space and moves her fingers in and out, gradually increasing her pace, going deeper each time. Her other hand wraps around her cock and strokes in time with her fingers.

A third finger slips alongside the first two and Gigi feels fuller. “Crystal,” she moans.

Crystal’s cock jumps at the sound. She’s so painfully hard she firmly wraps her hand around the base of her cock, delaying getting even more worked up until Gigi has her Crystal dildo up in her ass. “You’re doing so well, Geege,” she encourages. “Get yourself nice and stretched.”

Gigi can’t wait to get Crystal’s fake cock inside her. She shudders in anticipation. “C-can — Crys, I need —“ She sounds wrecked. Gigi is easy to work up; so easy to get all wet and open and desperate.

“Fuck, Gigi. You have no idea what you fucking look like.” She watches Gigi’s hips jerk. “Are you ready for my cock, baby?” Gigi couldn’t even form a sentence. Her jaw is slack and she just nods in agreement. “Look at yourself, so slick and open, I could just slide right in.”

“I want you to.”

“Do your fingers feel good?”

“I-I, y-yes, yeah. I like yours better, though.”

Gigi removes her hand from her throbbing cock and pulls her fingers out. She reaches out for her dildo, licks up one side of it and winks at Crystal.

“Torture,” Crystal groans.

“I would much prefer if this were actually you.”

Gigi pulls her laptop closer and rolls over on her stomach, finding a little relief by rubbing herself against her sheets. She tilts her screen down and positions her new toy and herself so Crystal has full view of her mouth.

“You’re gonna want to start touching yourself,” she says before licking the tip of the dildo slowly. Crystal’s mouth hangs open, practically drooling at the sight, and just nods as she tries her best to mimic the movement of Gigi’s mouth and hands with her own hands.

Gigi maintains eye contact with Crystal while she wraps her lips around the toy and starts giving it a very enthusiastic blow job, easing her mouth down and coating it with saliva. She strokes her hand up and down the way she knows Crystal likes as she moves her lips up and down, stopping every so often to lick the shaft and head. At the back of her head, she knows how ridiculous she might look giving a cold silicone toy a blowjob but it feels so much like Crystal she doesn’t even give it another thought.

Crystal is stroking herself with her right hand in a regular fluid motion, matching Gigi’s pace. The fingers on her left hand pinches at her nipple piercing.

“So hot,” Gigi comments.

“Feels good,” Crystal whispers as she watches Gigi take all of it into her mouth, closing her eyes as she relaxes her throat and swallows around it. It’s obscene but Crystal can’t look away. “Fuck, need to be inside you.”

Gigi draws off the dildo with a smirk, pressing a kiss to the tip of the toy. She quickly gets up from the bed, taking the laptop, the bottle of lube, and the very wet toy with her.

“Where are you going?” Crystal asks.

She sets her laptop down. “This will be easier on the floor,” she explains.

Gigi reaches for the dildo and squirts extra lube onto the already saliva-slick surface. She gets on her knees and sticks the suction of the dildo directly on the floor underneath her.

“Wanna ride you,” she says positioning herself. Crystal not able to take her eyes away from Gigi’s hard dick pointing straight at her.

“Yeah, okay.” Crystal leans forward to get a better look at Gigi rising up a little bit on her knees, grabbing the shaft, and slowly lowering herself down on the silicone cock. “This is so hot, fuck.”

She doesn’t realize that she has her eyes closed until she feels the base of the toy pressed up against her and she slightly stumbles forward at the fullness. Gigi moans at the realization that she’s got it all in; so lewd that Crystal thinks Gigi just came right then.

“You okay, babe?”

“Fucking awesome,” Gigi breathes out. “Feels exactly like you. Not that the dildo is as good as the original, but still.“

Crystal laughs and this sets Gigi’s laughter off too. How very fitting for them to be laughing while doing this.

She waits for Gigi to calm down and adjust to the intrusion and only starts to touch herself again when Gigi starts moving.

Gigi begins to rock herself up and down on the shaft, encouraging Crystal to touch herself. She thinks she could come just like this — not touching herself, just fucking herself on the perfect replica of Crystal’s cock. She lets her own dick bounce against her body as she rides the toy in little short motions.

Gigi moans and whimpers as she watches Crystal languidly work a generously lubed hand over herself.

“I feel like I’m watching a porno,” Crystal comments as her hand starts to work faster on her own cock. Gigi tries to laugh but it quickly turns into an obscene moan. “Touch yourself, Gee,” Crystal encourages.

"Oh, fuck! Baby, I love your dick so much.” Gigi grips her own dick and pumps along with Crystal. She sets a steady pace bouncing on the dildo making her thighs burn. But that’s the least of her concerns. The burn just intensifies everything.

"Yeah?”

“Mmhmm,” she answers, biting her lower lip.

Crystal strokes her cock slowly, trying to make the sensation last, but the sight and sounds of Gigi pleasuring herself was just too much.

“G-Gigi,” Crystal stutters, struggling to find words. “I c-can’t —“

“Go on, baby. I want to see you come.” Crystal gasps out a breath and instinctively closes her eyes. “Eyes on me, babe,” Gigi croons, syncing her movement on the toy to Crystal’s hands.

She watches Crystal work herself over the edge, listening to her shaky breaths and pitchy moans. She didn’t know she could feel pleasure just by listening to Crystal moan like this, listening to her cry, and try to hold in her whines.

“Oohhh, fu-fuuuuck me,” Crystal moans. Suddenly her hand is moving so fast, Gigi doesn’t know where to focus her eyes — her face contorting with pleasure, her hand pinching her pierced nipple, her hips jerking upward, or the cum shooting over her spasming abdomen.

“Fuck, that was hot,” Crystal says as she pushes back hair that’s stuck to the sweat on her forehead, still panting. She looks back at Gigi who’s waiting for her to recover, still moving her hands over her still hard and throbbing dick with long strokes. “Your turn.”

Gigi leans back against her calves and bottoms out on the dildo. She wraps her hand firmly around her cock and thrusts up into her fist. “Fuck, it’s really — ah — i-it’s really too much. I’m really so — I can’t —” She’s no longer stroking but thrusting uncontrollably up into her hand. “S-so close,” she moans. “Gonna come. Fuck, I’m gonna —” Gigi cries out, eyes rolling back, as thick ropes of cum splatter all the way up her torso, some reaching all the way up to her chin.

Her orgasm is so intense, there’s a deep sense of calm that spreads throughout her body. She slowly lifts herself from the dildo and collapses on the floor, panting and jerking and not even bothering to clean up. She’ll deal with the sticky mess later.

She opens her eyes to see Crystal staring back at her in a daze. Gigi’s never felt the distance between them as sharply as she does now. All she wants is to hold Crystal and be held.

“Wow,” Crystal whispers. Gigi just nods, still too overwhelmed to speak.

For a moment they just stay there, a moment frozen in time, watching each other and drinking it all in.

“Crystal, I —“

“I know. I feel bad that I’m not there to do anything about it.”

“Two weeks.” Crystal nods in agreement. “I’m sticky,” Gigi points out.

“We should probably both clean up.”

“I’ll call you again in 15, yes?”

“Take your time.” Gigi nods.

They wave and blow kisses at each other before Crystal ends the call with a love you lingering in the air. Gigi sighs, equally satiated and sad. Two weeks.

#rpdr fanfiction #crystal methyd #gigi goode #crygi #canon compliant #smut #facetime sex #atresia #s12

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lady-wallace · 4 years ago

Text

Whumptober2020 Day 18: Panic! at the Disco (Supernatural)

Day Eighteen: Panic! at the Disco

Prompts Used: Panic attacks

Fandom: Supernatural (Season 8, tag to “The Great Escapist”)

Read on Ao3

Read on FF.net

~~~~~~~

"You're a spanner in the works. How many times am I going to have to drill into that brain of yours?"

"Cas?"

Castiel jumped, turning around to see Dean standing a few yards away in the library where Castiel had been sitting. He frowned.

"You good?"

Castiel blinked hard, forcing down the panic that welled up in his throat. His hand traveled toward his stomach, but all he felt under his shirt was a scar now that was pretty much healed. There was no comforting weight of the angel tablet there anymore. No reassurance that Naomi was not going to control him again. He'd heard her whispering in his head recently and he knew it was just his mind, just his memories induced by the trauma, but still…

"Cas, hey!"

He finally looked up to meet Dean's eyes, breaking out of his trance completely, swallowing hard.

"Are you good, man?" Dean asked again, taking a cautious step forward.

"Yes, I'm fine," Castiel said. "I was just…thinking."

Dean gave him a knowing look and Castiel straightened his shoulders to try to appear less affected.

"Okay, well, we've got a case, and Sammy's still pretty sick so I'm making him stay here. It's not far, so hopefully I'll be back by morning."

Castiel straightened further. "Dean, let me go with you. You shouldn't go alone."

Dean raised his eyebrows. "I don't exactly need a babysitter, and I don't know whether you're recovered enough yet…"

"I'm good," Castiel said firmly. Wanting, no, needing, to get out and do something. Anything to keep his mind off of Naomi and what she did to him.

Dean eyed him again, but finally nodded, and, of course, he should know what Castiel was going through.

"Okay, let me just tell Sam, and I'll meet you at the car."

Castiel breathed a sigh of relief, pressing his hand against his scar again before he headed out to the Impala.

About an hour later, they were pulling up in front of a dentist office.

"Is this where the victim was murdered?" Castiel asked.

"Yeah, the dentist himself, attacked during a routine cleaning," Dean replied. "Best guess is a vamp, but you never know."

He handed Castiel an FBI badge and they got out, heading inside.

They asked the other dentists and nurses who had been there that day some questions, and then went to see the crime scene.

The instant Castiel stepped into the room, he had to fight back another wave of panic.

The chair. It was just a chair. He knew this, and yet it looked so similar to the one Naomi had strapped him to, tortured him…

His mind produced the image of metal restraints on this chair, and the blood that coated it didn't help.

Moving on from that was the tray of tools that lay scattered on the floor. The drill…hanging off its cord, and covered in blood, resting over top of a dried red puddle on the floor.

"Yikes, maybe the dentist said he wouldn't take the guy's insurance," Dean quipped, crouching down.

"D-don't," Castiel choked out.

How many times am I going to have to drill into your head?

I want you to kill Dean Winchester, Castiel.

Castiel staggered back and tripped over a set of drawers, falling heavily. He gasped, unable to get his breath, he couldn't move—was Naomi taking him over again? He dragged himself into the corner, pressing himself against it as he fought for breath, unable to get the sound of the drill out of his head. The pain, and the dullness that overcame his mind when the other angles dragged him out of the chair and sent him back to earth…

"Cas!"

Someone touched him and he flipped, crying out as he fought to get away.

The hands instantly let go and the figure leaned back. "Hey, it's just me, it's Dean."

Dean? No, Dean shouldn't be here. But then, maybe it was one of the fake Deans. The hundreds of fake Deans that Castiel had been forced to slaughter. If that was the case, then he refused. He knew Naomi would torture him again, but he couldn't do it. Not again. Not again…

"Cas," the voice was quieter, and he heard a whimpering sound. Was it one of the Dean clones he had already injured? No…no, it was coming from him, he realized.

"Cas, listen to me, buddy, you just need to breathe, okay? Take a deep breath."

Castiel blinked, trying to see the figure more clearly, and as it came into focus, he saw it was Dean. The real Dean, he realized upon viewing his soul.

But if that was the case…

"D-Dean," he gasped. "We need to get out of here!" He surged forward, grabbing the elder Winchester by the sleeve, but Dean caught his shoulders and squeezed, grounding him.

"Cas, hey, listen to me. We're not in danger. We're investigating, remember? In the dentist office."

Castiel continued to breathe heavily, his hands gripping Dean's jacket tightly, heart fluttering in his chest and his head aching.

"Cas, we're just at the dentist office," Dean repeated.

Dentist office? Castiel looked around, seeing the white walls, the blood covered chair and torture implements. He slammed his eyes shut, gasping for breath as he shook.

"Cas." Dean's hands came up and slid from his shoulders to his face, holding it between his warm palms. "Cas, you're not in Heaven. You're right here, with me, okay? You're all right."

Castiel breathed again, and cracked his eyes open. This time all he could see was Dean's concerned eyes staring back at him.

"Hey, there you are," he said softly, smiling a little. "Can you try breathing a little slower?"

Castiel did, taking a deep breath as Dean matched it, coaxing him. He let it out shakily, but with the next one the room became clear again. He took another shuddering breath and swallowed hard.

"Not in heaven?" he asked, voice shaking. He couldn't even care at the moment.

"No," Dean told him firmly. "Just a dentist office."

Castiel took another breath and slumped, arms wrapping around himself as he started to shake.

Dean simply pulled him in close and wrapped his arms around him, rubbing his back as Castiel continued to focus on breathing and not panicking again.

"How are you doing? Better?" he asked quietly. "Think you can get out of here now?"

Castiel nodded against Dean's shoulder and the other man pulled away slightly before helping him up. He purposefully stood between Castiel and the chair, and ushered the angel out of the room and the office entirely.

The sun hit Castiel's face and he took a deep breath, feeling a little better out in the open here. Dean grabbed his keys and opened the Impala up. Castiel slumped into the passenger seat.

"Just sit there for a second." He went to get something and Castiel slumped, lowering his head into his hands.

"I'm sorry…I…I shouldn't have come. I suppose I'm still not ready."

Dean was crouching in front of him in the next second, handing him a bottle of water. "It's all right, man, really. I get it. It took me a long time to adjust after getting back from Hell, and even then, I wasn't being mind-controlled."

Castiel flinched and Dean sighed. "Look, sometimes you can't control how you'll act under certain circumstances, no matter how much you want to. It sucks ass, but sometimes that's just the way it is."

Castiel took a shuddering breath, staring at the bottle of water. "I just…keep thinking about the fact I don't have the tablet with me anymore. It was the only thing keeping Naomi out of my head, Dean. What if she can control me again now that it's gone?"

"She's not gonna. Not on my watch. Never again," Dean said firmly.

"You can't promise that," Castiel said tiredly.

"I can do my damn best," Dean said. "Look, Cas, you'll be okay, and so will Sam and I. You don't have to feel bad for having a panic attack or anything. But let me know if you start feeling like this, okay? You don't have to act tough, I just want to make sure you're okay."

"I thought I was, until…" Castiel thought about the scene in the dentist office again, and shuddered, gripping the water bottle until it crinkled under his hands.

"Yeah, I get it," Dean said grimly. "And like I said, it's okay. Just tell me if something is bothering you." He patted Castiel on the knee and stood, pulling his phone out of his pocket.

"What are you doing?" Castiel asked.

"Calling another hunter in on this. I'm taking you home."

Castiel felt his heart sink with guilt. "Dean, you don't need to do that…"

"I should have done it anyway, I've got a sick little brother and a recovering angel to look after. Not really the best time to go on a hunt."

Castiel stared at him for a long moment as Dean quickly talked to another hunter, telling him what they knew so far and the location. Then he got back into the car and turned the engine over.

"I think you deserve a night in. I'll make burgers," Dean told him.

Castiel sighed, and leaned back against the seat. Part of him still felt a little guilty that Dean had called off the hunt just because of him but…

Another part of him was grateful to have such good friends. He knew that even Naomi couldn't tear that from his head.

#whumptober2020 #no.18 #panic! at the disco #panic attacks #supernatural #famfiction #my fics #season 8 #8x21 the great escapist #castiel whump #dean and cas #protective dean #cas has trauma

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technicallyswagpizza · 5 years ago

Photo

RABBIT HOLE RECOLOURS AND RESCRIPTING TUTORIAL

Are you having difficulties getting the outrageously coloured rabbit holes to fit into your moody emo town? Or would you like to make your high street look like a Skittles factory had just exploded? Despair no more! Release your inner MacGyver and DIY!

Programs you need: S3oc S3pe Photoshop or Gimp (DDS plugins for Photoshop -> this and this, Gimp has this feature built in already)

// Disclaimer: This tutorial is picture and text heavy. I hate having to have bazillion different tutorials open because everyone always assumes you know what you are doing and I keep on closing tabs by accident, so this tutorial will run you through each and every step with (far too much) detail because I’m a simpleton and I need both pictures and text when learning new stuff! I have divided this into digestable parts, so you can skip ahead down the tutorial if you are familiar with some of the steps such as cloning. Pictures above are numbered and each step is explained below.

1. CLONING A RABBIT HOLE

1. Open S3oc, click Cloning and Normal objects.

2. Click Tools and Search, type in keywords such as bookspa or hospital. If you still can’t find what you are looking for, then the other option is to just scroll down the list of items and try locating the rabbit hole you need.

3. Once you have found your rabbit hole, click Clone or Fix.

4. Tick all the boxes I have ticked.

5. Edit the Catalog Name and Description, these are the things you see in game when you browse through the items and stuff. If you are not fussed, leave them as is.

6. Change the file name here (Some guides mention changing it, some skip it, but I have changed mine and nothing exploded so far!) and click Start. A window pops up asking where you want to save your package, I usually create separate folders for my projects on my desktop as I don’t want to accidentally mix my .DDS files with other rabbit hole files and stuff, but if chaos is your thing just save wherever.

2. RECOLOURING A RABBIT HOLE

7. Locate your newly created rabbit hole clone .package (You can create a backup copy of it somewhere if you think you will mess up somehow) and open it with S3pe. Look through the IMG tags and find a LOD image like this. Right click and Export to file. If you are organized like I am, you can save it in your project folder with your package file... Or place it wherever because of whatever method of madness you use when editing your files. I’m not your mother. Do whatevs.

8. Now depending on which program you use, open the .DDS file in Gimp or Photoshop, if you get a pop up window just go with default size and no mipmaps. This is the step where you let your creative juices flow and take over. Want to change everything? Or only one colour? Depending on the rabbit hole you have chosen to edit it could be a really simple one click thing fix, or if you picked a more complicated one like I did, you are going to spend some time on this step. I added my before and after picture edits I did in Photoshop as an example.

// Photoshop Tip! I’m not familiar with Gimp, so I’m not sure how well this works in there, but I abuse the hell out of Hue/Saturation and the colour picker in Photoshop to get rid of and edit the colours. Press the little hand icon in the Hue/Saturation pop up box and click the colour you want to change in the image and it picks it for you, then just use the three sliders to change your colours, easy! Be careful though! Sometimes it changes too many areas in one go, so you might have to use marquee tool to isolate the bits you want to edit so rest of the image doesn’t change (While using marquee tool you can press either Shift or Alt at the same time which allows you to add into or remove from your current selection!). Or use masks. Up to you. Then once you have selected the areas, create a new layer and hit the Hue/Saturation button and it will only impact the areas you have selected. Play with layer settings if you end up adding separate colours on top, for example my red paint layer looked best with linear light and 80% opacity.

9. Once you are satisfied with your colours and you have merged your layers, this next step is different with Photoshop and Gimp. With Photoshop you can use Save As option while with Gimp you have to use Export As. Either way, save or export over/replace the image you originally opened using the .DDS settings shown (Please correct me if I’m wrong with Gimp settings as I don’t really use it!). If you have been saving as psd or changing the file’s name, make sure the name is now EXACTLY the same as when you exported it earlier. However, I’d urge you to do backup copies before overwriting the file, in case you have coloured something wrong or if you think you might want to change something after doing a test. Just you know, to save you some hassle if shit hits the fan.

10. Back to S3pe, you will now replace the image you previously exported with the edited one. Click Resources (or right click the IMG file on list you are replacing, both ways work), Import from file and pick the newly edited file, click ok on the prompt. Your old IMG file should be crossed out on the list and new IMG added (Once you save the crossed out one simply disappears). Depending on what kind of edits you did to the LOD IMG, you have to repeat exporting, editing and importing each and every IMG file corresponding to the changes you did with the first one. Be extra careful with matching the colours between the IMG files, otherwise you get some funky rabbit holes when zooming in and out! For example for my rather edit heavy LOD image I had to edit another 5 IMG files all in all in the end (Different wall bits, bit of carpet, window trims, roof!).

3. MAKING IT BASE GAME COMPATIBLE

11. Done with your IMG files? Still in S3pe, locate OBJD file on the list, either hit enter or right click for Details.

12. Change the group number from whatever to 0. Save your package.

You are done and your rabbit hole is ready to go in game! Drop it with your other .packages in your Mod folder and test it, in edit and live mode in game. Are some parts of the building still showing old colours or are they changing drastically when you zoom in or out? It’s not the end of the world! You must have forgotten to edit one of the IMG files or the colours are not matching, double check that all the bits you edited in the first image match with rest of the IMG files. Even if you got the colours right there will be a slight chance due to how Sims 3 renders items, so don’t panic unless IT’S REALLY BAD! Just look at how other nonedited Sims 3 stuff renders and compare how yours behaves. // But wait! Maybe you want to make it a default replacement rather than a new individual rabbit hole like my tutorial does? For default replacements, follow this guide.

4. CHANGING THE RABBIT HOLE SCRIPT (OPTIONAL)

Like the look of your rabbit hole building, but don’t think it looks like a spa or a bookshop? Is it giving you a hospital and science lab vibe instead? Again, no need for anxiety! You can fix it! Sort of. It should work but be wary! If you use lets say the Annex script, you got to have University EP installed to make it work. Without the right expansion, you can’t have special careers. Just keep in mind that some scripts may not work with some buildings due to the specific animations and stuff, so test it before you release your masterpiece in the wild.

13. Open your .package in S3pe, locate OBJK file and right click Edit OBJK.

14. Replace the String bit with one of these scripts from the following list. Commit to changes and save your package. You are done!

Bookstore Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.Bookstore

Business and journalism Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.BusinessAndJournalismRabbitHole

City hall Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.CityHall

Criminal building Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.Hideout

Diner Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.Diner

Grocers Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.Grocery

Hospital Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.Hospital

Mausoleum Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.Mausoleum

Military Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.MilitaryBase

Movie studio Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.MovieSet

Police station Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.PoliceStation

School Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.SchoolRabbitHole

Science Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.ScienceLab

Spa Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.DaySpa

Sports stadium Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.Stadium

Theatre Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.Theatre

Vault Of Antiquity Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.VaultOfAntiquity

Subway Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.Subway

Fortune teller caravan Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.GypsyCaravan

Equestrian center Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.EquestrianCenter

Annex Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.Annex

Hospital & science combo Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.ComboHospitalScienceLab

School & stadium combo Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.ComboSchoolStadium

Book & spa combo Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.ComboBookstoreDaySpa

City hall, police & military combo Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.ComboCityhallPoliceMilitary

Business & bistro combo Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.RabbitHoles.ComboBusinessRestaurant

And I think that’s it. Let me know if you know a better way or I have made an error in this tutorial! Or if you want to fight me, I will meet you behind the mall by the bins for some asskicking.

#the sims 3 #ts3 #simblr #ts3 tutorial #ts3 rabbit hole recolour tutorial #ts3 base game compatible tutorial #ts3 cloning tutorial

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resetpermalik · 4 years ago

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Building a Landing Page

a freeCodeCamp Challenge

Warming the Engine

As I round the last corner of my third FCC challenge, a few initial assessments should be punctuated. This, overall, has been the most education of the three. Throughout this endeavor, I have made use of some skills (learned previously) and been able to execute them with more ease. Also, I have found myself adhering to new concepts a bit more effectively.

Over the following summary, I will lightly detail a list of features I utilized in the creation of my landing page (for a silly, hypothetical business called ‘Choose Your CHOOCHOO ’.) Here goes…

Figma and Components

I press on with Figma this time and make a point to learn the functionality of components. These are simply set by defining an element as such. After doing so, forging spawns (called instances) is straight-forward and allows for distinctions between the parent (component) and the spawns (instances) themselves.

Taking advantage of this tool makes it much quicker when building cards, buttons and so on. As my prototypes get larger, I will really be able to experience the full capabilities of this option.

Using Cloudinary to Host Images

With my first two FCC challenges, I assumed it was okay to leave my images unaccessible. It never crossed my mind — that they could be made available online via an image hosting site (either cloud or server-based.)

By using cloudinary.com, this could not be a more rudimentary task. After uploading my image from its local location, all that was left to do is rename and readjust quality for sake of image size and (website) loading performance. Both of these tasks are actionable via Cloudinary’s free service. Now, each of my projects include the appropriate images, from favicon, logos and multiple other graphic insertions.

Figma and Element Alignment

Inspect is a crucial device in Figma’s toolbelt. By using ‘inspect’, the red lines for spacing will appear and applying correct distances for each item across my canvas was very streamlined. In addition to the red line features, Inspect will show the font characteristics, colors and even code for finished products. More on this later…

Figma and Multiple Viewports

My first thought when designing mobile, tablet and desktop viewports with Figma was that I would have to manually draw up each screen. This was the wrong idea.

The right idea was in opening a new (blank) resolution and selecting the entire element (or highest parent element of my project,) then duplicating it and maneuvering it onto the next resolution screen.

After the new resolution was gifted a clone of the previous version, the last step was in slightly resizing everything to match. This was a much less pain-free process than my initial plan.

Anchor Jumping Within the Page

Here’s another one which I wasn’t entirely sure of how to pull off — though I had a general idea.

I knew if I wanted to use an (on-page) anchor to navigate somewhere else on that same (existing) page, I would have to reference the element somehow. The answer lied in setting my ‘href’ equal to the desired ‘id’ and that’s it. Now every click on those links directs the user to my intended location on the page — all (ids, of course) preceded by a lone hashtag.

Embedding a Youtube Video with HTML5

My primary attempt in placing a Youtube video in my landing page was to pop the address into a ‘video’ tag. I assumed all would work seamlessly. I was also very wrong.

In order to insert a Youtube video with HTML, a ‘video’ tag just won’t cut it — an ‘iframe’ tag is actually necessary.

That said, there is yet anther step before gaining complete functionality. Once the ‘iframe’ tag is set (and before pasting the Youtube address,) the watch portion of the address must be swapped for embed instead.

By using an ‘iframe’ and recalibrating the address to embed the video, everything should go swimmingly.

PX, EM, REM, CH, EX, %, VW and VH

I could spend some time here and fully articulate each property of these sizes, but I will leave that for another time. What’s most important about this notion (in this setting,) is that I have found it useful to understand how my relative units measure in terms of pixels. So, I have been using a calculator to better estimate how each unit will behave before assigning them to their respective text. This method has saved me a bunch of time in guessing what will fit where and why.

Instantiating H (tags), Articles and Sections

Much like my previous comment on delving deep — I could spend plenty of time going on about the semantics of these tags. In the future, I may do so. But here, I mean to make a more concise observation.

As I built this page, the importance of ‘sections’ (for grouping large portions of content) and ‘articles’ (for grouping the more succinct) makes plenty more sense.

In contrast, ‘h’ tags provide a type of semantic skeleton running down the page, for heading each bit of information.

Uppercase Fonts and Text Transform

I used ‘Playfair Display SC’ as one of my fonts on this project. This is a fully uppercase font. For purposes of browsers or instances where this font is not available, I wanted to ensure my casing was kept.

My solution was in using ‘text-transform’ to make all respective text uppercase (regardless) then setting the back-up font to ‘sans-serif’.

This was a fix to my issue; though, there may (of course) be a better answer to the problem.

Sticky!

A(n (numbered)) objective for this FCC challenge was to keep the navigation bar/header at the top of the page.

The first thing I reached for was a ‘fixed’ ‘position’ on my ‘header’ element. Though, after learning about ’position: sticky;’ I understand it to be a much better way of dealing with this demand.

By using ‘sticky’, no margins or extra code is vital to keep the header in place and from causing problems. This was one of the most clear cut, clean finds of the entire project.

Background vs Background-Color

I was not aware of the ‘background’ property until now. I was steadily using ‘background-color’, then stumbled into the ‘background’ property while researching another objective.

The ‘background-color’ property does just as promised — it sets the background to a specific color via CSS.

However, the ‘background’ property allows for several more values: color, image, repeat, attachment and position.

Box Sizing

I was faced with using many box element of different make-up and sizes. Upon putting together a few, I saw that some of them bled into places across the page for which I did not intend.

Then came ‘box-sizing’. Using this property merges the ‘padding’ and ‘border’ with the overall ‘width’ and ‘height’ of the element in question. After inserting these useful bits, everything squared up very nicely.

Hamburger

In my mobile resolution, I wrote code for a hamburger menu. That said, I won’t be going into detail here. I will (instead) write a full account on my approach to building this feature.

User Select

I learned with this challenge how to keep my elements from being (undesirably) selected. By placing the ‘user-select’ property, this is very achievable.

What’s more is -webkit is for Chrome and Safari functionality, -ms (for Microsoft) and -moz (for Mozilla Firefox).

In Conclusion

I have taken a little more time in constructing this project, but have learned that much more. This is the most well-crafted challenge I have completed (thus far.)

All things considered, I am pleased with the outcome, but am very ready to move onto the next for more information and creation. See you on the other side!

#freecodecamp #HTML5 #CSS3 #JavaScript #web development #uidesign #coding Figma

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sciencespies · 4 years ago

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Goodbye Passwords, Hello ‘Unbreakable’ Quantum IDs Containing 1,000 Trillion Atoms

https://sciencespies.com/news/goodbye-passwords-hello-unbreakable-quantum-ids-containing-1000-trillion-atoms/

Goodbye Passwords, Hello ‘Unbreakable’ Quantum IDs Containing 1,000 Trillion Atoms

Could atomic-scale ID tags be the next big thing for security?

getty

The problem with passwords is that they are just too vulnerable, be that from weak construction, reuse or data breaches. In the world of supply chain product authentication issues of theft and interception come to the fore when passwords are on the security debate agenda. Things are not a whole heap better when it comes to holograms or QR codes, to be honest, where imitation is rife.

Solving the supply chain counterfeit problem has taken on a whole new level of urgency in the new COVID-19 pandemic reality. Criminal enterprise has seized the despicable opportunity the global demand for medicines and medical supplies that the pandemic has presented, and the illicit trade in counterfeit goods has exploded as a result.

But what if there were an ‘unbreakable’ product authentication methodology that promised to make counterfeiting impossible?

Welcome to the atomic-scale digital ID world that might just be the next big thing when it comes to securing the supply chain.

Lancaster University start-up Quantum Base is a U.K. company that claims its patented Q-ID optical authentication tags are impossible to copy because each nano-scale device contains 1,000 trillion atoms. This, Quantum Base says, would take the most powerful scanning probe microscopes on the planet about the age of the universe, 13 billion years give or take, to produce an identical clone.

Recommended For You

What’s more, Quantum Base is working right now with a “major manufacturer” to mass-produce this authentication system from the future.

IsoLab at Lancaster University

photo Jill jennings

IsoLab at Lancaster University is a suite of 3 laboratories where vibration, noise and electromagnetic disturbance have been drastically reduced, creating an ultra-clean environment for measurement and characterization. This is where scientists have created a family of simple, practical, scalable security devices based on state-of-the art quantum technologies. Commercialized by spinout company Quantum Base, these include the ‘unclonable’ identity tags Q-ID

The problem with supply chain authentication

Let’s accept that current supply chain authentication solutions like anti-counterfeit tags or password-protection, which base their security credentials on being difficult to replicate or secrecy, are not as secure as they should be. The imitation, theft, hacking and interception arguments all come into play in this discussion, as I’ve already mentioned. Quantum Base’s atomic-scale devices don’t need passwords and, according to the company, are impervious to cloning.

Quantum Base claims these atomic-scale Q-ID tags are simply the most secure system ever made. I will question those claims of unbreakability and unclonability in due course, as I’m sure you would expect of me. But for now, let’s look at what Quantum Base is doing here.

MORE FROM FORBESMeet The Scrappy Space Startup Taking Quantum Security Into SpaceBy Davey Winder

Supply chain product authentication and tracking could be achieved with Q-ID optical tags that are created by “harnessing the randomness of quantum materials,” I was informed. In other words, the creation of unique atomic-scale digital IDs that are based upon the irregularities that can be found in one-atom-thick “2D materials” such as graphene.

Quantum physics amplifies the anomalies, which makes them impossible to fingerprint. Because of the nano-scale we are talking about here, less than 1000th of a human hair in size, they can easily be incorporated onto the surface of any product or tag, any QR-code or hologram to create a truly unique fingerprint.

Quantum Base also says that Q-IDs can be mass-produced using existing processes and incorporated into any material. To add to the Holy Grail status being summoned up here, faking of supply chains using lengthy artificial chains of organizations would become a thing of the past as every chain would be transparent: the Q-ID code can be scanned using a smartphone app to match it to the manufacturer database.

If a batch of goods were to be stolen, the graphene identity tags could simply be “switched off” at any point to ensure supply chain integrity.

Getting technical with authentication in the atomic world

The secret sauce behind the Q-IDs sits in the idea that, at the atomic scale, everything is unique: moving single atoms around to clone a specific tag structure is virtually impossible thanks to PUFs. Physically unclonable functions (PUFs) bring forward the idea that is using the no-cloning theorem from quantum mechanics, unique fingerprints can be derived. Just getting your head around PUFs would need another deep-dive article, but thankfully there’s an excellent PUF primer to be found here.

Quantum Base insists that optical quantum PUFs provide “100% absolute authentication” that simply cannot be cloned, copied or simulated because, and I’m repeating myself here I know, everything is unique at the atomic scale. Of course, this depends somewhat on your definition of unique, but I’m guessing most people would go along with 1,000,000,000,000,000 atoms being pretty damn hard to copy.

Damn hard to copy isn’t the same as unbreakable or unclonable, though, and those are what is being claimed by Quantum Base.

Naturally, being the cynical old hack that I am, I went and sought out boffins who could help me get to grips with all this. Let’s start with Dr. Mark Carney, a mathematician and security researcher with a particular interest in quantum security.

OK, let’s begin with PUFs used in authentication, which Dr. Carney describes as the notion that an individual chip can be characterized and then the responses from that chip can be compared along the supply chain to ensure it’s the same one. “Even if the attacker gains some data about the chip’s characterization,” Dr. Carney says, “they are bound to generate more error or variation than the chip, and in theory, you can detect this given a large enough sample.” This would be done through a process of challenge-response pairs or CRPs.

Overall, Dr. Carney felt that this could work quite well and it “would be nice if it did.” I’m sure you have already anticipated the but that’s coming: “but as with anything quantum,” Dr. Carney adds, “the security is intrinsically tied to the precise mechanics and physicality of the thing – and PUFs don’t have a great track record.” Indeed, there have been known side-channel attacks taking advantage of “lazy” implementations and some theoretical attacks using Machine Learning to predict the CRP values.

The Nanoscale Materials Microscopy pod is one of the three laboratories at IsoLab. It

Lancaster University

The Nanoscale Materials Microscopy pod is one of the three laboratories at IsoLab. It is used for atomic and molecular imaging studies, pushing the boundaries of ultra-high-resolution force imaging and measurement with atomic and molecular resolution far beyond current limits.

Next, I turned to Professor Ben Varcoe from Leeds University, who has a particular research interest in experimental quantum information and is an expert in cavity quantum electrodynamics and continuous-variable quantum key distribution. “I personally think that a PUF is an interesting concept, as it provides a unique identifier,” he says, “the problem as Mark has suggested is that if the identifier can be used in any type of ‘record and replay’ scenario, it is useless, or at least only useful the first time, while also being vulnerable to hardware attacks.”

Professor Varcoe tells me that while there have been some methods suggested in which the PUF is a complex function so harder to replicate, there would still be a time limit on the amount of security provided. “It’s better to have a code that changes with time,” he says, “even if it is quantum.”

That said, Professor Varcoe agrees that it “certainly seems to be the case that no two quantum dots are identical and therefore it would be hard to create a quantum dot with that exact property,” and the “concept of allowing a consumer to use a mobile phone to authenticate is extremely interesting.” His one quibble is that, for authentication application purposes, it’s essential that the signal cannot be replicated by a counterfeiter. “If the forgers aim is to create a copy of an artwork protected with the quantum dots,” he explains, “then the forger only needs to create a signal that would fool a smartphone – there is no reason to actually create a new set of quantum dots.”

One option, he suggests, would be to create a reflection (rainbow) hologram that mimics the pattern, which is challenging, but not impossible. Smartphone camera limitations could come into play here as fooling the camera is more achievable than replicating the quantum mechanics.

MORE FROM FORBESU.S. Government Says It’s Building A ‘Virtually Unhackable’ Quantum InternetBy Davey Winder

Quantum Base chief scientific officer responds

Armed with these opinions, I took them to Royal Society Research Fellow Professor Rob Young, who, as well as being the chief scientific officer for Quantum Base, is also director of the quantum technology center at Lancaster University.

Addressing the what’s quantum about Q-IDs angle, Professor Young says that in the Quantum Base optical and electronic Q-ID technology, “quantum physics dictates the behavior of the electrons in the materials, or in other words, we’re using quantum materials.”

Normally, he explains, as you reduce the size of a system it becomes increasingly challenging to measure variations in that system; you can see the difference between a person’s fingerprints, but you would need an optical microscope to tell the difference between two similar hairs, or an electron microscope to tell two pollen particles apart, “As the system gets smaller, you need more and more powerful tools to tell them apart,” he says.

This leads to what Professor Young refers to as being a paradox in anti-counterfeiting technologies: they are either easy to verify but also easy to clone (like holograms) or difficult to clone but also difficult to verify (like microdots), so few people can ever actually check them. “Quantum mechanical effects, however, get bigger as a system gets smaller,” Professor Young continues, “and if a system is small enough, you can actually measure differences with macroscopic tools, like a smartphone’s camera.”

Quantum dots will emit different colors of light depending on their diameter, with visible differences in the emission colors corresponding to variations of just a few atoms in width, the Professor tells me. “Our optical Q-ID works in this way,” he says: “We incorporate a layer of quantum material in a surface coating of a tag or product, which has a myriad of natural defects in it, each dot being different in size and also influencing neighboring dots.”

The smartphone app that Quantum Base has also developed, fires the flash on the phone to excite optical emission from the material, and then extracts a fingerprint from this randomness to uniquely identify each tag. By so doing, Professor Young says. “our product breaks the anti-counterfeiting paradox by being both sensitive to nano-scale variations and being easy to measure, using a phone with no additional hardware.”

So, from a technical perspective, this is a classical measurement of a quantum system: Quantum confinement (the particle in a box problem) is being employed to amplify the influence of nanometer variations in quantum materials.

MORE FROM FORBESHow Math Reveals ‘Person Woman Man Camera TV’ Doesn’t Ace The Password TestBy Davey Winder

Do PUFs have problems?

Professor Young agrees with Dr. Carney and Professor Varcoe that it’s absolutely true that PUFs have problems. “I’d argue the main alternative is storing secret key materials in memory,” he says, “which has more problems and suffers from poor implementation in many cases also.” Professor Young told me that some PUF companies are doing well, but would argue that the Quantum Base products have the edge on them all.

“Traditional PUFs base their uniqueness on the measurement of classical effects, which makes them cloneable and can lead to security issues,” he explains, “the electronic variant of our Q-ID is based on a standard semiconductor system, with a very thin (nanometer-scale again) layer in the middle.”

As with the optical variant, small fluctuations in the width and composition of this layer gives each device a unique response. “Technically,” Professor Young continues. “the bound states in a quantum well are very sensitive to the well’s makeup, we measure these electronically using a resonant tunneling diode.”

But what about PUFs being prone to ‘record and replay’ attacks? This is where the academic paths diverge. “We have an implementation that isn’t, and is post-quantum secure,” Professor Young insists. “Essentially, we embed an array of the electronic Q-ID elements in a device in which the current path through the array can be programmed,” he says. “The number of challenge-response pairs now scales non-linearly, such that with a modestly sized device we can have a vast entropy pool,” Professor Young explains, “this allows for implementations where CRPs cannot be reused (so can’t be replayed), and can be used as key material in a one-time pad, which is provably quantum secure.”

Scientists at the Lancaster University Quantum Optics Lab

Lancaster University

The Quantum Optics Lab at IsoLab is used to explore and exploit the quantum-mechanical behavior of light and its interaction with optical devices, materials and components.

It has become clear that there are two distinct versions of the Q-ID technology, optical and electronic. These are quite different in terms of the applications that Quantum Base is targeting. The optical Q-ID solution is the anti-counterfeit one as it’s cheap and easy to manufacture by relying upon those natural imperfections in the Q-IDs embedded within a coating and can be read by any smartphone.

“We don’t really see this one as a PUF as such,” Professor Young says, “as the challenge will always be the same, the phone is reading a fingerprint from the tag (and a little more) then checking it against a database or distributed ledger.” The electronic version, however, most definitely is regarded as a PUF “with a vast number of CRPs,” Professor Young says, “which could be used to provide the keys for cryptography, or indeed a one-time pad for secure comms.”

The optical Q-ID

The end-user is presented with an application that appears to simply take a photograph of the tag, to verify its fingerprint against a stored record. Still, it’s a bit more complicated than this, and an element of attestation is included. “The tag is framed by a QR code in which a record entry is encoded,” Professor Young explains, “so the application can request a specific database/DLT entry to check the fingerprint again, the QR code is also used to correct perspective and lighting.”

Pressing the ‘verify’ button triggers the application to take a series of images at different flash strengths, thus testing how the emitting material behaves in the different lighting conditions. “It looks for specific nonlinear properties, linked to the quantum dot’s zero-dimensional physics,” Professor Young says, “to verify that a quantum material generated the fingerprint which is measured.”

While he admits that any digital measurement can be fooled, “a complex hologram couldn’t reproduce the fingerprint and emission dynamics simultaneously.” Which means you’d need “either an active display (and coping with the flash would be very difficult) or to recreate a tag with dots with similar defects in a similar arrangement.”

Your smartphone camera isn’t capable of measuring single dot emission, but that’s not a problem, Professor Young says. “Typically, a tag is 1×1 cm, framed in a QR code, and measured from around 10cm by the phone.” Which produces 100,000 pixels, multiplied by the number of different flash intensities measured. Or a lot of data if you prefer, and that would, he says, “require a huge engineering feat to clone.”

Returning to the replay attack scenario, Professor Young tells me that there are two components to the measurement that the phone is carrying out: fingerprint extraction and a ‘quantum material’ test. The latter is assessed through measurements at different intensities so simple replay attacks can be prevented through rooted phones by “not authenticating the same measurement at the same brightness levels twice,” Professor Young explains, “as, in a real-world scenario, the ambient light level would always be slightly different for each measurement.”

The crucial point, according to Professor Young, isn’t actually that there is absolutely no way in which an attacker could target this technology, “it’s that we’re making that challenge as practically difficult as possible.”

And it’s that practicality point that’s of vital importance when looking at mass-market applications. “They’re simple and cheap to manufacture, and read, and extremely difficult to clone,” he concludes, whereas “most anti-counterfeiting solutions are as easy to clone as they are manufacture, and have very little security if they’re easily read.”

MORE FROM FORBESHow Hackers Use An Ordinary Light Bulb To Spy On Conversations 80 Feet AwayBy Davey Winder

The electronic Q-ID

Professor Young also told me more about the electronic Q-ID tags, for which there are several different implementation scenarios. “The entropy contained in our Q-ID array scales exponentially with the size of the array,” he says, “the challenge made relates to the path current travels through the array and the response is a convolution of the position of confined energy levels in the quantum wells in the RTDs.”

So, each device can have a vast number of challenges. “We can make it so that the number of challenges multiplied by the time required to measure each, the circuit’s RC constant, is longer than the age of the universe,” Professor Young claims. When making such a device, a small subset of its challenges are chosen randomly, preferably using the Quantum Base quantum random number generator, and stored.

“We do need to store enough data here for a lifetime’s communications from the device,” Professor Young says, “so this limits its use to applications that aren’t data-heavy, the Internet of Things, for example.” Communications to the device can then be secured by encrypting the communications using data from this stored one-time pad. Any interception attack would only see encrypted data and the information about the challenges; there’s nothing there to store and replay.

Are nano-scale PUFs the next big thing in supply chain security?

Dr. Mark Carney says that “optical dots for sure solve an interesting problem, are easy to measure, but with nano-scale construction.” They are certainly a step up from other molecular ID solutions that use arrays of polymers in specific constructs to generate unique identifiable molecules that fluoresce, such as ‘smartwater,’ for example.

In theory, those can be cloned with enough chemistry resources to throw at the problem. In contrast, optical dots can’t as “they are unique per specific, and I guess random, atomic-level variations inherent in manufacture,” Dr. Carney says.

“Overall,” Dr. Carney says, “I think Quantum Base has a nice solution. The big thing here, to me, is that they have made PUFs that are very manufacturer friendly, and can be used as ID tags in more applications, or as electronic multi-CRP capable verification chips.” With the right implementations, software, and protocols around them, Dr. Carney tells me, “there is likely a lot of potential.”

#News

#08-2020 Science News #2020 Science News #Earth Environment #earth science #Environment and Nature #Nature Science #News Science Spies #Our Nature #outrageous acts of science #planetary science #Science #Science Channel #science documentary #Science News #Science Spies #Science Spies News #Space Physics & Nature #Space Science #News

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vagueadulting-blog · 5 years ago

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Content Marketing Case Study | Repurposing Content How-to

Intro To The Content Marketing Case Study

Hi there, this is Nathan Conner.

This blog post is basically a content marketing case study, about how I was able to turn 1 article into essentially 13 pieces of content.

This process is known by many in the content marketing space as “Repurposing Content”, and it is a little known secret that marketers use to drive more traffic to their site. You are essentially taking an article and “re-packaging” it, and putting it in front of a different audience.

Repurposing content is highly recommended for several reasons.

The first reason is that it saves you a lot of time. Instead of spending 4-6 hours creating an entirely new blog post, you can spend maybe 30 minutes repurposing content, and then republishing it.

It also saves you money. Many professional webmasters and bloggers outsource a lot of their content to Hirewriters, and Iwriter, among several others. Getting an article from them can cost around $50 for long-form content. Repurposing content allows you to save money by not having to order content quite as much from those websites.

The third reason is that it actually allows you to put your content in front of thousands of new audiences without having to create brand new content. I consistently publish content to various sources where my target audience is searching for information, and also just hanging out. It is a great way to be found.

My top two favorite places to publish content are my Blog and YouTube. But you can also publish content as Guest Posts, Article Directories, and Online Communities where your target market likes to hang out.

What I typically recommend is that you link to your “money site”, or at least make a mention of it, if that community doesn’t allow links.

So now that I have given you a brief introduction, let’s get into the case study.

Step 1: Create The Blog Posts

So for this case study my content is going to be centered around a scam website that I found online called Facebook Ad Blaster.

The website claims to delivery thousands of visitors to your landing page, and they “Guarantee” sales or they we send you the traffic a second time.

I did some digging and I actually found 3 other websites that are essentially clones of Facebook Ad Blaster, claiming to do the same thing. They are even coming from the same vendor.

So the first step is to create an article giving my experience with the Facebook Ad Blaster, and then recommending better alternatives to getting quality traffic to their offers.

So here I have an article that I have created within my wordpress website detailing my experience with Facebook Ad Blaster.

I have taken some screenshots from the website, and placed them into the post.

I have also place some different calls to action in the post.

One of them is a link to Udimi, which is basically a Solo Ad marketplace.

I also give a link to the affiliate product that I sent my traffic to, called Trendds.

Also, I give an invitation to an online community I am part of called Wealthy Affiliate.

Lastly I have a viral sharing plugin on the bottom, that offers a free affiliate marketing training if they share the blog post with their friends.

After I have created this blog post, I then repurpose it to talk about the other clones of this website. I do this by simply creating new posts and changing a few of the words in the post, such as changing the name of Facebook Ad Blaster to Clickbank Solo Ad Blaster. Also make sure that the meta data is changed as well. This ensures that the posts are not crawled by google for the same keywords.

So basically by doing this I am able to create 4 seperate blogs posts from one article.

You Can View Each Blog Post Here:

Facebook Ad Blaster Scam

CB Solo Ad Blaster Scam

Targeted Affiliate Link Traffic Scam

20 Dollar Solo Ads Scam

This allows me to send 4 times as much search traffic to my blog. But we are not done yet. The next step is to convert my articles into videos, and I will talk about that in the next section.

Step 2: Transform The Blog Posts Into Videos

So we are now in the next section, which is about taking each of the blog posts and converting them into video that we can publish on YouTube. The software tool that I use to create the videos is called Content Samurai, and it is an incredibly simple tools that allows you to create videos from articles or blog posts. It can also do videos for social media, sales videos, videos for online courses, and property listing videos.

To create the video all you have to do is paste the blog post text into Content Samurai. It will automatically generate scenes based on words in each sentence. In this particular video I am taking some of the images that I used in the blog posts, and replacing some of the slides of the video.

After you have selected all the slides that you like, you them either select an automatically generated voice, or to do your own voice recording. In my experience it is really nice to have this option. Some days you cannot record your voice, and the autovoice can be customized to sound natural and very clear.

Something that I recommend if you want to make the voices sound more natural is lowering the speed of the voice to 93-95%. I have found this works for many of the auto-voices that they provide.

After the voice file has been completed you will simply preview the video, and generate. Once the video has been downloaded, you will download it to your computer. You just rinse and repeat this process for each of the 4 blog posts that were created. I usually don’t spend more than 15 -30 minutes per video in Content Samurai because it is so easy to use.

So you should have 4 videos after this section. The next section we will be moving over to YouTube and uploading the videos. I will also show you several important YouTube optimization techniques to drives a lot of traffic to your YouTube channel.

Here Are The YouTube Videos I Created:

Facebook Ad Blaster Scam

CB Solo Ad Blaster Scam

Targeted Affiliate Link Traffic Scam

20 Dollar Solo Ads Scam

Step 3: Uploading And Optimizing Your YouTube Videos

The next step after you have all the videos you have created from content samurai is to upload the videos into YouTube. To do this you have to obviously need to set up your own channel. I am not going to walk you through that process, but there are really a ton of videos you can search for on YouTube for setting up your channel.

What we will be going over is 4 major things. The first is your video title. I will be talking about how to make sure it stands out over your competition. The second thing is the video description. It is important that it has all the elements it needs for YouTube to know what the video is about as well as have the links you want to drive traffic to.

The third thing is the video tags, which is mostly prettys simple because they are basically derived from the keywords that were used to create the blog posts.

The 4th thing is the Video Thumbnail which is extremely important for getting viewers to your videos. I will be going into detail about this.

The Video Title

So when you care creating your video title. You always want to use the main keyword in the title once, and sometimes if you can use it twice naturally, you can do that. The next best piece of advice to use brackets or parenthesis after the main title with a catchy phrase. This has been proven to help increase the clickthrough rate of your video. Lastly, I recommend putting in one or two emoji that are closely related to either the content or flow naturally in the title. It can be as simple as replacing a normal exclaimation point with an emoji exclaimation point. Emojis really help make your videos stand out, and enhance the click through rate.

The Video Description

The description is the second thing that YouTube uses besides the title to learn what your video is all about. It is also the best place to place your links that you are trying to drive traffic to. I always recommend you have a call to action and your main website or link as the first two lines in the description. The reason is because the rest of the description is not visible, unless the viewer clicks to open up the description, which most of the time won’t happen. So the link you want to share with your viewer should be easy to spot in the description, and a strong call to action always should help motivate the click.

The next part is placing a spun version of the blog post into the description. Now you might not have heard of what spinning is. But it is really important, especially when you are repurposing content. Search Engines such as YouTube and Google don’t like duplicated content. Even if it is the content that you wrote yourself. So to be safe you have to run your blog post through a spinning software that changes the words and phrases so it will appear 80-90% unique compared to the orginal blog post. It will decrease the readability of the description just slightly but not that much.

The spinning software that I have been using for years is called Spin Rewriter, but there are a ton of different spinners out there to try. Spin Rewriter definitely is the most advanced and keeps the words and phrases the most readable, so it is definitely the one I recommend the most. Once the blog post has been spun, you just have to past it into the description.

The last section of the descrition is where you can place any disclaimer links, and also hashtags. The hashtags that you use should be highly related to the content, and the best recommendation on which ones you should use is to simply use the suggest feature when typing into the search box. It will help you come up with Hashtage ideas. Now you can only use three hashtags, so make sure you choose wisely.

The Video Tags

The next section is the video tags. These typically need to be the main keyword that you were targeting, as well as any other recommended keywords. Again I recommend using the suggest feature in the search box to come up with closely related tags to the main ones you chose.

The Video Thumbnail

The last step to creating the Youtube videos is to create the thumbnails. This is extremely important because a thumbnail that stands out is really going to help drive traffic to your videos. The tool that I really like for thumbnails is Thumbnail Blaster. It not only helps you create catchy thumbnails, but unlike some of the competitors it uses an Artificial Intelligence to figure out how effective your thumbnails will be and see if they are compliant with YouTube’s thumbnail policy.

Here Is A Screenshot Of Thumbnail Blaster:

So you should try to create at least one Thumbnail using thumbnail blaster for each video that you created, if not 2 for each video so that way you can try and split test, and make sure you publish them once they are done. Also one thing to keep in mind, if you are having trouble with publishing thumbnails you might not have verified your YouTube channel, so make sure you look up instructions on how to do that.

So that wraps up the YouTube section of this case study. The next part I will be showing you how to create even more pieces of content, so keep on reading.

Step 4: Content Through Documentation

So now we are in the next section of this case study, which is creating content through documentation. This blog post is a great example of how I am creating content by documenting my process as I go. The two pieces of software that I am using to document and are Content Samurai, and Screencast-o-matic. In particular I recommend utilizing the scripting feature in Screencast-o-matic so that way you can easily record yourself and stay on track without straying off topic.

So what we are going to do is publish the video once it is done recording to several places that support video uploads. You won’t be able to upload the same raw video to the same places, each video will need to be altered depending on where we will be uploading it. So in this video my plan is to upload the video to YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Wealthy Affiliate.

The raw video file will have to be altered for each of the places that I publish the video. I will have to create custom calls to action depending on where I publish it as well. For example I will be creating a different call to action for my YouTube video, because my links will be in the description. But on Facebook, my call to action will be in a different spot.

Also something worth mentioning, LinkedIn has a video file size limit so my video there will have to be broken down into several parts. That is great because you can either publish the second videos on your LinkedIn profile, or even send them to your website where the rest of the videos are.

The key takeaway is that each publishing platform has it’s own unique rules, and features within the site, so you have to tailor your video to each one of those websites. That is basically what repurposing content means in regard to videos.

Turn The Video Script Into A Blog Post

So at this point we have created 12 pieces of content from 1 article. The final content piece is a blog post, and like what I was saying before you can utilize the script you created in screencast-o-matic to create a detailed blog post that you can publish on your blog. Screencast-o-matic has an export feature which allows you to export the script into a text file.

Final Thoughts

So there you have it, I have shown you my process for content creation. I hope that you found it useful. This is really just the very beginning of content repurposing methods. I will be creating more content just like this, that will show you how to repurpose your content and amplify your reach. So stay tuned.

from Internet Marketing Aficionado https://internetmarketingaficionado.com/content-marketing-case-study/

#Internet Marketing Aficionado

0 notes

littlebeansplayhouse-blog · 5 years ago

Text

Content Marketing Case Study | Repurposing Content How-to

Intro To The Content Marketing Case Study

Hi there, this is Nathan Conner.

This blog post is basically a content marketing case study, about how I was able to turn 1 article into essentially 13 pieces of content.

Repurposing content is highly recommended for several reasons.

The first reason is that it saves you a lot of time. Instead of spending 4-6 hours creating an entirely new blog post, you can spend maybe 30 minutes repurposing content, and then republishing it.

What I typically recommend is that you link to your “money site”, or at least make a mention of it, if that community doesn’t allow links.

So now that I have given you a brief introduction, let’s get into the case study.

Step 1: Create The Blog Posts

So for this case study my content is going to be centered around a scam website that I found online called Facebook Ad Blaster.

The website claims to delivery thousands of visitors to your landing page, and they “Guarantee” sales or they we send you the traffic a second time.

I did some digging and I actually found 3 other websites that are essentially clones of Facebook Ad Blaster, claiming to do the same thing. They are even coming from the same vendor.

So the first step is to create an article giving my experience with the Facebook Ad Blaster, and then recommending better alternatives to getting quality traffic to their offers.

So here I have an article that I have created within my wordpress website detailing my experience with Facebook Ad Blaster.

I have taken some screenshots from the website, and placed them into the post.

I have also place some different calls to action in the post.

One of them is a link to Udimi, which is basically a Solo Ad marketplace.

I also give a link to the affiliate product that I sent my traffic to, called Trendds.

Also, I give an invitation to an online community I am part of called Wealthy Affiliate.

Lastly I have a viral sharing plugin on the bottom, that offers a free affiliate marketing training if they share the blog post with their friends.

So basically by doing this I am able to create 4 seperate blogs posts from one article.

You Can View Each Blog Post Here:

Facebook Ad Blaster Scam

CB Solo Ad Blaster Scam

Targeted Affiliate Link Traffic Scam

20 Dollar Solo Ads Scam

This allows me to send 4 times as much search traffic to my blog. But we are not done yet. The next step is to convert my articles into videos, and I will talk about that in the next section.

Step 2: Transform The Blog Posts Into Videos

Something that I recommend if you want to make the voices sound more natural is lowering the speed of the voice to 93-95%. I have found this works for many of the auto-voices that they provide.

Here Are The YouTube Videos I Created:

Facebook Ad Blaster Scam

CB Solo Ad Blaster Scam

Targeted Affiliate Link Traffic Scam

20 Dollar Solo Ads Scam

Step 3: Uploading And Optimizing Your YouTube Videos

The third thing is the video tags, which is mostly prettys simple because they are basically derived from the keywords that were used to create the blog posts.

The 4th thing is the Video Thumbnail which is extremely important for getting viewers to your videos. I will be going into detail about this.

The Video Title

The Video Description

The Video Tags

The Video Thumbnail

Here Is A Screenshot Of Thumbnail Blaster:

So that wraps up the YouTube section of this case study. The next part I will be showing you how to create even more pieces of content, so keep on reading.

Step 4: Content Through Documentation

Turn The Video Script Into A Blog Post

Final Thoughts

from Internet Marketing Aficionado https://internetmarketingaficionado.com/content-marketing-case-study/

#Internet Marketing Aficionado

0 notes

spideynow-blog · 5 years ago

Text

Content Marketing Case Study | Repurposing Content How-to

Intro To The Content Marketing Case Study

Hi there, this is Nathan Conner.

This blog post is basically a content marketing case study, about how I was able to turn 1 article into essentially 13 pieces of content.

Repurposing content is highly recommended for several reasons.

The first reason is that it saves you a lot of time. Instead of spending 4-6 hours creating an entirely new blog post, you can spend maybe 30 minutes repurposing content, and then republishing it.

What I typically recommend is that you link to your “money site”, or at least make a mention of it, if that community doesn’t allow links.

So now that I have given you a brief introduction, let’s get into the case study.

Step 1: Create The Blog Posts

So for this case study my content is going to be centered around a scam website that I found online called Facebook Ad Blaster.

The website claims to delivery thousands of visitors to your landing page, and they “Guarantee” sales or they we send you the traffic a second time.

I did some digging and I actually found 3 other websites that are essentially clones of Facebook Ad Blaster, claiming to do the same thing. They are even coming from the same vendor.

So the first step is to create an article giving my experience with the Facebook Ad Blaster, and then recommending better alternatives to getting quality traffic to their offers.

So here I have an article that I have created within my wordpress website detailing my experience with Facebook Ad Blaster.

I have taken some screenshots from the website, and placed them into the post.

I have also place some different calls to action in the post.

One of them is a link to Udimi, which is basically a Solo Ad marketplace.

I also give a link to the affiliate product that I sent my traffic to, called Trendds.

Also, I give an invitation to an online community I am part of called Wealthy Affiliate.

Lastly I have a viral sharing plugin on the bottom, that offers a free affiliate marketing training if they share the blog post with their friends.

So basically by doing this I am able to create 4 seperate blogs posts from one article.

You Can View Each Blog Post Here:

Facebook Ad Blaster Scam

CB Solo Ad Blaster Scam

Targeted Affiliate Link Traffic Scam

20 Dollar Solo Ads Scam

This allows me to send 4 times as much search traffic to my blog. But we are not done yet. The next step is to convert my articles into videos, and I will talk about that in the next section.

Step 2: Transform The Blog Posts Into Videos

Something that I recommend if you want to make the voices sound more natural is lowering the speed of the voice to 93-95%. I have found this works for many of the auto-voices that they provide.

Here Are The YouTube Videos I Created:

Facebook Ad Blaster Scam

CB Solo Ad Blaster Scam

Targeted Affiliate Link Traffic Scam

20 Dollar Solo Ads Scam

Step 3: Uploading And Optimizing Your YouTube Videos

The third thing is the video tags, which is mostly prettys simple because they are basically derived from the keywords that were used to create the blog posts.

The 4th thing is the Video Thumbnail which is extremely important for getting viewers to your videos. I will be going into detail about this.

The Video Title

The Video Description

The Video Tags

The Video Thumbnail

Here Is A Screenshot Of Thumbnail Blaster:

So that wraps up the YouTube section of this case study. The next part I will be showing you how to create even more pieces of content, so keep on reading.

Step 4: Content Through Documentation

Turn The Video Script Into A Blog Post

Final Thoughts

from Internet Marketing Aficionado https://internetmarketingaficionado.com/content-marketing-case-study/

#Internet Marketing Aficionado

0 notes

lanisews-blog · 5 years ago

Text

Content Marketing Case Study | Repurposing Content How-to

Intro To The Content Marketing Case Study

Hi there, this is Nathan Conner.

This blog post is basically a content marketing case study, about how I was able to turn 1 article into essentially 13 pieces of content.

Repurposing content is highly recommended for several reasons.

The first reason is that it saves you a lot of time. Instead of spending 4-6 hours creating an entirely new blog post, you can spend maybe 30 minutes repurposing content, and then republishing it.

What I typically recommend is that you link to your “money site”, or at least make a mention of it, if that community doesn’t allow links.

So now that I have given you a brief introduction, let’s get into the case study.

Step 1: Create The Blog Posts

So for this case study my content is going to be centered around a scam website that I found online called Facebook Ad Blaster.

The website claims to delivery thousands of visitors to your landing page, and they “Guarantee” sales or they we send you the traffic a second time.

I did some digging and I actually found 3 other websites that are essentially clones of Facebook Ad Blaster, claiming to do the same thing. They are even coming from the same vendor.

So the first step is to create an article giving my experience with the Facebook Ad Blaster, and then recommending better alternatives to getting quality traffic to their offers.

So here I have an article that I have created within my wordpress website detailing my experience with Facebook Ad Blaster.

I have taken some screenshots from the website, and placed them into the post.

I have also place some different calls to action in the post.

One of them is a link to Udimi, which is basically a Solo Ad marketplace.

I also give a link to the affiliate product that I sent my traffic to, called Trendds.

Also, I give an invitation to an online community I am part of called Wealthy Affiliate.

Lastly I have a viral sharing plugin on the bottom, that offers a free affiliate marketing training if they share the blog post with their friends.

So basically by doing this I am able to create 4 seperate blogs posts from one article.

You Can View Each Blog Post Here:

Facebook Ad Blaster Scam

CB Solo Ad Blaster Scam

Targeted Affiliate Link Traffic Scam

20 Dollar Solo Ads Scam

This allows me to send 4 times as much search traffic to my blog. But we are not done yet. The next step is to convert my articles into videos, and I will talk about that in the next section.

Step 2: Transform The Blog Posts Into Videos

Something that I recommend if you want to make the voices sound more natural is lowering the speed of the voice to 93-95%. I have found this works for many of the auto-voices that they provide.

Here Are The YouTube Videos I Created:

Facebook Ad Blaster Scam

CB Solo Ad Blaster Scam

Targeted Affiliate Link Traffic Scam

20 Dollar Solo Ads Scam

Step 3: Uploading And Optimizing Your YouTube Videos

The third thing is the video tags, which is mostly prettys simple because they are basically derived from the keywords that were used to create the blog posts.

The 4th thing is the Video Thumbnail which is extremely important for getting viewers to your videos. I will be going into detail about this.

The Video Title

The Video Description

The Video Tags

The Video Thumbnail

Here Is A Screenshot Of Thumbnail Blaster:

So that wraps up the YouTube section of this case study. The next part I will be showing you how to create even more pieces of content, so keep on reading.

Step 4: Content Through Documentation

Turn The Video Script Into A Blog Post

Final Thoughts

from Internet Marketing Aficionado https://internetmarketingaficionado.com/content-marketing-case-study/

#Internet Marketing Aficionado

0 notes

eurusholmmes · 8 years ago

Text

he’s a hero and my daddy// old man logan

THIS PROMPT MELTED MY HEART WHEN I SAW IT. Ya’ll are gonna kill me with these prompts. Masterlist is updated! Enjoy!

Awh. Sunshine & Whiskey left me smiling from ear to ear it was so sweet. I'm the anon who requested it by the way. I loved it. I've got another one for you :3 Laura's First Day At School. The reader (human) thought she would be the emotional one, but it turned out to be Logan, being too stubborn to admit it. Kinda humorous, but with a touch of fluff.

Your car rolled up in front of an Canadian elementary school that held a little under 150 students, one of which was your adopted daughter Laura Kinney. You and your husband Logan had risked both of your lives to get the mutant across the border, only to witness that she was the clone of her father. She displayed most of his qualities, but above all, she had his ferocity and his capacity to love.

So when you found yourselves outside for Laura’s first day of school, you half expected yourself anxious about sending her inside because she’d only ever been around other mutant children. “Laura, remember what I told you about how to treat human children?” You asked, resting your hands against her shoulders as you knelt to speak to her. Logan was casually leaning against the car watching the exchange from beneath his thick black winter hat.

“Much more fragile.” She repeated, almost as if she’d memorized your speech from the night before. “Don’t stick claws in them, will bleed to death. Be nice to teachers, and try to have fun being a normal kid.” Your grin widened as the brunette threw her arms around your neck to hug you tightly. “I love you!” Her eyes flickered up to Logan who too knelt down and embraced her before she decided to run inside amongst the crowd of elementary school kids. “Bye Daddy!”

“You look like your dog just died.” You remarked, pressing your hands against your hips as you turned to face Logan. Your eyes widened when you realized that his eyes were in fact glassy with tears as he stared longingly at the school doors. “Oh good lord, and I thought I was going to be the emotional one here. Are you actually crying?”

“No. The winds just-” His voice broke off as he ran his hands over his face. “Freezing. It’s freakin’ Antartica out here, thank you very much!” Your eyebrow rose in questioning as you inched closer and closer to the car, pinning him against the metal with your hands on either side of his head. “What are you-”

“Say it.” You whispered, your voice husky as your chapped lips grazed over the scarred skin of his face. “Tell me you’re an overprotective teddy bear that wants nothing more to keep your daughter away from humans. Especially human boys.”

Logans hands curled around your waist, his eyes flickering in both directions to be sure that the two of you were alone before capturing your lips in his own. His heart stuttered when you laughed breathlessly into his mouth as he attempted to deepen the kiss. “Fine.” He muttered dejectedly. “I’m an overprotective teddy bear who wants to keep his daughter safe from little monstrous boys. Sue me.”

“Says the Wolverine.” You retorted, breaking into hysterical laughter as he glared at you while you entered the drivers side of the car. The silver chain Laura had bought Logan for his birthday was still hanging over the rear-view mirror, the engraving very clearly legible even in the overcast weather that the cold had brought along with it.

There’s this little girl who stole my heart and she calls me Daddy

////////////////

What felt like an eternity to Logan was only hours for you. You were confident that Laura would fulfill the minimal 6 hour requirement of a school day as long as she was able to get along with the other kids.

You immediately knew Logan would never let you live it down when you got a call from the Principal, claiming that Laura had lashed out at another young female student in her class who had called Logan an monster and an animal. Lucky enough for the both of you that she’d had enough self control to not tear that child limb from limb with her claws.

“Who was right?” Logan remarked matter-of-factly, crossing his arms over his chest as the two of you walked inside the school only to find Laura outside the Principals office, her brown eyes that normally held so much warmth were now cold as ice as the Principal guided her towards you. “That’s right, you owe me an apology. I told you she wouldn’t make it.”

“I will apologize to you when pigs fly.” You snapped back. “I’m so sorry for the inconvenience, Mrs. Black. I can assure you it won’t happen again.” The Principal nodded firmly and vanished back into her office, leaving you with Laura who was staring at the ground with anger written across her face, the tips of her dual adamantium claws peaking out from beneath her fingers. “Alright sweetie, I need you to tell me what happened.”

“This girl found out I was the Wolverines daughter and she started saying really mean things.” Laura growled, most of her expressions hidden by a veil of healthy brown hair. “She called him a monster and an animal, and it’s not true. So I punched her for it.”

“What did you say to her when she insulted your daddy?”

Laura took a deep breath and repeated word for word her comeback to the other girl as you lead her to the car. “He’s a hero, and he’s my daddy!” Logan grinned widely as you pinched the bridge of your nose with your thumb and index finger and sighed deeply. When you opened your eyes, Laura was laughing hysterically as Logan lifted her onto her shoulders. “Look at me, Mama! Look at how high I am!”

Look at how far you’ve come, my darling.

“Are you going to apologize to me now?” Logan replied, gasping as a snowball appeared out of nowhere and collided against his face. You peered at the pair from the other side of the car as he met your eyes with a challenging look on his face. “I didn’t even do anything!”

“Win this snowball fight without your agility and claws, both of you. Then maybe I’ll apologize for your stupidity.” You demanded, wiggling your eyebrows as Laura and Logan looked at one another before flanking you around either side of the car.

The day ended with a family cuddling session around the fire, Laura fast asleep tucked between you and Logan as you sipped on your hot chocolate, your eyes focused on the dance of the flames in front of you. “I love her.” He whispered, running his fingers through her hair. “It’s nice to be someones hero. And it was better to kick you into next week when we won that snowball fight. Best thing I’ve seen all week.”

You turned to look at him and lightly flicked his nose. “You’re lucky you’re cute.” You grumbled, tucking yourself in beside Laura as your eyelids fluttered shut. The last image you fell asleep with was Logan gazing down at the two of you-- his girls, the best things that had ever happened to him as he slowly sipped the warm liquid in his hands.

As soon as the three of you had gotten back into the car, he’d taken the necklace Laura had bought him for his birthday and chained it around his neck, constantly repeating the engraving to himself in his mind as he watched the two of you bond over such a ridiculous snowball fight.

There’s this little girl who stole my heart

She calls me daddy

What good can a superhero do if there is no one to fight for?

Tag List

@house-of-penguin @drewkelliii

#old man logan #THIS WAS SO CUTE #I LOVE MY SMOL DAUGHTER #laura kinney #James Howlett #Xmen imagines #xmen oneshots #the wolverine #Logan 2017

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fireflyfish · 8 years ago

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To Do List

Tagged by @writegowrite! & others? Maybe? I don’t remember?

Do this: put down what you’re working on in as little or much detail as you want and then tag some friends to see what they’re working on.

I’m going to borrow a page from writegowrite and stick to fics/fan works for sanity’s sake.

Oh! And I would like to tag @rainglazed, @themikeymonster, @themadknightuniverse, @teapirate, @silvergryphon, @gryfinngal, @albaparthenicevelut And anyone else who needs a little help getting all their “to do”s onto paper, so to speak. Y’all are under no obligation to reblog of course but if you need the help/inspiration/are bored then consider yourself TAGGED.

1.) Make up plot cards for Tano & Kenobi. I want to have that fic plotted out so that I know exactly what I’m working towards. Writegowrite’s The World Undone was very meticulously planned out and while I’ll never be accused of over planning my work (hah!) I would like to be able to bring that level of forethought to the further adventures of our Time Traveling Space Daughter and her Tiny Padawan Sassy-Pants. I have some general ideas but I need to get it out of my head and see how it looks on paper.

2.) Edit, format and post the next chapter of Where Shall We Three Meet Again? Because I have a deep an abiding love for that fic. I feel like I walked that one right up to being interesting and we’re FINALLY going to get to watch an episode of Desire Before Dishonor! What is Desire Before Dishonor you ask? Only the BEST holodrama in the known galaxy! Podracer is a HUGE fan and he’s got quite the collection of merchandise. Also SATINE! I WANT THEM TO MEET SATINE DAMNIT! *cough*

3.) I need to sort through my extensive likes and start sorting them out to where they belong. There is no point in like a metric ton of images of Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen for “reference material” if I can’t search through them.

Also I have waaaay too many pretty dresses liked so I can’t ever find the inspiration I need.

4.) I got an ask once, wanting to know what all I have written and one day I am going to sit down, find every last blurb I’ve written and compile a master post. Also probably a Tano & Kenobi FAQ so that I have a place to direction repeat questions to. (i.e. When are you updating? 5:00 pm EST every Sunday unless I am dead, family emergency or I have met Ewan McGregor and spontaneously combusted.)

5.) Answer comments on AO3.

6.) ANSWER COMMENTS ON AO3.

7.) NO. SERIOUSLY. I NEED TO DO THIS. I HAVE SUCH SHAME. FORGIVE ME MY FABULOUS AND AMAZING READERS. I SWEAR I WILL GET TO YOU ALL. I refuse to be one of those people who doesn’t respond to comments. That’s not cool. I know how much that can take out of nervous, shy or anxious people. Believe it or not, I’m an introvert and I know how hard it is to reach out and engage and you deserve a thank you from me at the very least. You deserve more but I’m starting small and working from there. ^__^

8.) I’ve started some fan art of Anakin, Ahsoka and the three Obi-Wan’s (from We Three) and I would really like to finish those. Honestly I would love to have more time to draw but my commute is kind of a mess. =<

9.) Hang up some delicious Star Wars fan art I’ve purchased after I frame it.

10.) Get Started on Season 2 of Tano and Kenobi! ^___^b

Oh! BONUS!

Get Ahsoka, Anakin or one of our precious clone sons in Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes. I know Anakin is probably like... a year away but damnit! WHY WON’T YOU LET ME HAVE ECHO GAME?? WHYYYYYY??? I mean Fives, Rex and Cody I understand but Echo??? COME ON!

EDIT: BONUS NUMBER 2!!!

I have to start cranking out some promised tumblr prompts and that give me a title and I’ll tell you what I would write meme! AIYAAAAAA! So much to do!

#Auntie Fishy's Ridiculous To Do List #true facts about the trash heap

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mbaljeetsingh · 8 years ago

Text

Get Started Building Your Blog With Parse.js: Migration to Your Own Parse Server

What You'll Be Creating

Sadly, Parse.com is shutting down on 28 January 2017. In the previous series, I walked you through the entire journey of building a blog system from scratch. But everything was based on Parse.com, and if you are still using those techniques, your website will unfortunately stop working by then.

If you still like Parse.js (as do I), and want to continue using it, there's good news. The lovely folks there made it open source so we can run our own copy on all popular web hosting services. This tutorial aims to help you to make that change and migrate from Parse.com to your own Parse Server on Heroku.

I’m not an expert in back end, but this is the easiest way I found that worked. If you see any flaws and have better methods to share, definitely leave a comment below.

If you follow this episode, the server migration by itself won’t be too complicated. With Docker, it’s even quite easy to set up a local Parse Dashboard, so you can still see and play with your data with ease.

However, this tutorial series was made based on version 1.2.19 of Parse.js; in order to connect to a standalone Parse server, we need to update the application to run version 1.9.2. By version 1.5.0, Parse took out support for Backbone, and that means we need some major changes in the code. We will be adding Backbone back to the page, and using a mixture of Parse and Backbone there.

That’s quite a long intro, but don’t be too scared. You may need to debug here and there during the migration, but you should be fine. You can always check my source code or leave a comment below—I and this fantastic community here will try our best to help you.

Set Up and Migrate to Parse Server

First thing first, let’s start making a Parse Server. Parse already made this very easy with a detailed migration guide and a long list of sample applications on all popular platforms like Heroku, AWS, and Azure.

I will walk you through the easiest one that I know: the Heroku + mLab combo. It’s free to begin with, and you can always pay for better hardware and more storage within the same system. The only caveat is that the free version of Heroku would “sleep” after being idle for 30 minutes. So if users visit your site when the server is “sleeping”, they may have to wait for a few seconds for the server to wake up before they can see the data. (If you check the demo page for this project and it doesn’t render any blog content, that’s why. Give it a minute and refresh.)

This part is largely based on Heroku’s guide for Deploying a Parse Server and Parse’s own migration guide. I just picked the simplest, most foolproof path there.

Step 1: Sign Up and Create a New App on Heroku

If you don’t have a Heroku account yet, go ahead and make one. It’s a very popular platform for developing and hosting small web apps.

After you are registered, go to your Heroku Dashboard and create a new app—that will be your server.

Give it a name if you want:

Step 2: Add mLab MongoDB

Now you need a database to store the data. And let’s add mLab as an add-on.

Go to Resources > Add-ons, search for “mLab”, and add it:

Sandbox is enough for development—you can always upgrade and pay more to get more storage there.

Once you've added mLab, you can grab the MongoDB URI of it.

Go to Settings > Config Variables in your Heroku Dashboard and click on Reveal Config Vars.

There you can see the MongoDB URI for your database. Copy it, and now we can start migrating the database.

Step 3: Database Migration

Go to Parse.com and find the app you want to migrate. The open-source version of Parse Server only supports one app per server, so if you want to have multiple apps, you need to repeat this process and create multiple servers. Now just pick one.

Within that app, go to App Settings > General > App Management, and click on Migrate.

And then paste in the MongoDB URI you just copied, and begin migration.

Soon you should see this screen:

That means now you should have all your data in your mLab MongoDB. Easy enough, right?

But don’t finalize your app yet—let’s wait till we can see and play with that same data from our local Parse Dashboard, and then go back and finalize it.

Step 4: Deploy Parse Server

Now, with the database already migrated, we can deploy the Parse Server.

If you don’t have a GitHub account yet, go ahead and make one. It’s probably the most popular place where people share and manage their code.

With your GitHub account, fork the official Parse Server example repo.

Then, go back to your Heroku Dashboard. Under Deploy > Deployment method, choose GitHub and connect to your GitHub account.

After that, search for parse and find your parse-server-example repo and connect.

If everything works, you should see it being connected like this:

Now, scroll down to the bottom of the page. Under Manual Deploy, click Deploy Branch.

You will see your Parse Server being deployed, and soon you will see this screen:

Click on the View button and you will see this page:

That means your server is now happily running! And the URL you see is the URL of your server. You will need it later.

I know it feels unreal to see this simple line and know the server is up. But believe me, the powerhouse is running there. And your app can read and write from it already.

If you want to double-check, you can run something like this:

$ curl -X POST \ -H "X-Parse-Application-Id: myAppId" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{}' \ http://ift.tt/1nKbhEu .. {"result":"Hi"}%

Set Up a Local Parse Dashboard

If you are a command-line ninja, you will probably be fine from here. But if you are like me and enjoy the friendly interface of the Parse Dashboard, follow this part to set up your own Parse Dashboard on your local machine, so that you can visually see and play with your Parse data the way you are used to.

Again, you can install your dashboard in a handful of ways. I am just going to show you the simplest way in my experience, using Docker.

Step 1: Install Docker

If you don’t have Docker, install it first (Mac | Windows).

It puts an entire environment in a box, so you don’t need to follow the quite complicated local installation tutorial and jump through hoops in Terminal.

Step 2: Build Parse Dashboard Image

With your docker running, clone the Parse Dashboard repo to your computer and go into that repo.

$ git clone http://ift.tt/1Y7Gu0F Cloning into 'parse-dashboard'... remote: Counting objects: 3355, done. remote: Total 3355 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 3354 Receiving objects: 100% (3355/3355), 2.75 MiB | 2.17 MiB/s, done. Resolving deltas: 100% (1971/1971), done. $ cd parse-dashboard/

For absolute GitHub newbies, just download it as a zip file.

Unzip it and put it in a location you can remember. Open your terminal app if you are on Mac, type cd (you need a space after cd there) and drag the folder in.

Then hit Enter.

You should see something like this, and that means you are in the correct place.

~$ cd /Users/moyicat/temp/parse-dashboard-master ~/temp/parse-dashboard-master$

Now, you can quickly check if your Docker is installed correctly by pasting in this command:

docker -v

If it shows the version you are on, like this:

Docker version 1.12.5, build 7392c3b

It’s installed, and you can go on.

If instead, it says:

-bash: docker: command not found

You need to double-check if you have installed Docker correctly.

With Docker correctly installed, paste in this command and hit Enter:

docker build -t parse-dashboard .

That will build you a local image (feel free to ignore docker jargon) for Parse Dashboard.

You will see many lines scrolling. Don’t panic—just give it a while, and you will see it end with something like this:

Successfully built eda023ee596d

That means you are done—the image has been built successfully.

If you run the docker images command, you will see it there:

REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE parse-dashboard latest eda023ee596d About a minute ago 778.1 MB

Step 3: Connect Parse Dashboard to Parse Server

Now, that’s just an image, and it’s not a running server yet. When it runs, we want it to be connected to the Parse Server and the MongoDB we just built.

To do that, we first need to create a few keys in Heroku, so it can tell who to grant access to the data.

Go to your Heroku Dashboard and go to Settings > Config Variables again. This time, we need to add two variables there: APP_ID and MASTER_KEY. APP_ID can be anything easy to remember, while MASTER_KEY had better be a really long and complicated password.

Now with those keys, we can write a simple config file in the root directory of your Parse Dashboard folder. You can use everything from vim to TextEdit or Notepad—the goal is to make a plain text config.json file with this content:

{ "apps": [{ "serverURL": "your-app-url/parse", "appId": "your-app-id", "masterKey": "your-master-key", "appName": "your-app-name" }], "users": [{ "user":"user", "pass":"pass" }] }

And of course, replace your-app-url with the “View” link URL (the page that says “I dream of being a website”), but keep the /parse there at the end; replace your-app-id and your-master-key with the config variables you just added; and give your app a name and replace your-app-name with it.

Save the file and run the ls command in Terminal to make sure you put the config.json in the correct place.

~/temp/parse-dashboard-master$ ls CHANGELOG.md Dockerfile PIG/ Procfile bin/ package.json src/ webpack/ CONTRIBUTING.md LICENSE Parse-Dashboard/ README.md config.json scripts/ testing/''

If you see config.json in this list, you are good to move on.

Now run the pwd command to get the place you are in:

$ pwd /Users/moyicat/temp/parse-dashboard-master

Copy that path.

Then paste in this command to create a Docker container (again, you can ignore this jargon) and run your Parse Dashboard. Remember to replace my path with the path you just got.

docker run -d \ -p 8080:4040 \ -v /Users/moyicat/temp/parse-dashboard-master/config.json:/src/Parse-Dashboard/parse-dashboard-config.json \ -e PARSE_DASHBOARD_ALLOW_INSECURE_HTTP=1 \ --name parse-dashboard \ parse-dashboard

From top to bottom, this command does these things (which you can also ignore):

L1: Tell Docker to start a container L2: Make it run on port 8080, you can change it to any port you want L3: Get the config.json you just made as use it as the configuration L4: Enable HTTPS on your local (otherwise you will meet an error message) L5: Give it a name you can remember. You can change it to anything you want, too. L6: Tell Docker the image you want to use. parse-dashboard is the name we used in the docker build command earlier.

If everything runs through, it will return a long string to you with no error message. Like this:

4599aab0363d64373524cfa199dc0013a74955c9e35c1a43f7c5176363a45e1e

And now your Parse Dashboard is running! Check it out at http://localhost:8080/.

It might be slow and show a blank page initially, but just give it a couple of minutes and you will see a login screen:

Now you can log in with user as the username and pass as the password—it’s defined in the config.json in case you didn’t realize earlier. You can change them to whatever you want, too.

And you will see this familiar interface from your local machine and can play with your data (now in mLab MongoDB) the way you always do.

A couple of final notes on this local dashboard:

Firstly, you can stop and start this container from now on at any time with these two commands:

docker stop parse-dashboard docker start parse-dashboard

So when you restart your computer, you don’t need to follow the previous steps again, just tell it to start again.

And secondly, if you have multiple Parse servers, you don’t need to create multiple Parse dashboards. Just add multiple apps in the config.json like this:

{ "apps": [{ // info for first server "serverURL": "", "appId": "", "masterKey": "", "appName": "" }, { // info for second server "serverURL": "", "appId": "", "masterKey": "", "appName": "" }], "users": [...], }

Every time you make changes to config.json, you need to restart the Docker container:

docker restart parse-dashboard

And then you will see the changes you made.

Step 4: Finalize the Migration

Now play with your new Parse Dashboard, and if everything works, you can now go back to Parse.com and finalize the migration.

Then, if you check your applications and dashboard, you will find that they all magically point to your new server with no problem.

Update the Code to Run on Parse 1.9.2

This is great! I wish it could stay that way and we could end this tutorial early. But as I mentioned, your old Parse.js app is still relying on Parse.com servers to point it to the correct new server. And it will stop working after 28 January 2017.

To make it run forever (finger crossed) we need to stop using the JavaScript keys to point to the app (which relies on Parse.com to find out which database to point to), and directly point to our parse server.

Step 1: Update the JavaScript Libraries

First let’s update the Parse.js file we are using in index.html.

Instead of using the version 1.2.19:

Switch to the newest version:

Also, let’s add lodash and Backbone. Now that Parse has stopped supporting Backbone, we need to include it to keep using the Views and Router.

<script src="//cdn.jsdelivr.net/lodash/4.17.3/lodash.min.js"></script>  <script src="//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/backbone.js/1.3.3/backbone-min.js"></script>

Step 2: Point to Your Parse Server

Then, let’s go into site.js.

The first thing there is to update the Parse.initialize() function so it points to your own Parse Server.

Previously it may look like this:

Parse.initialize("HC87tn6aA7c3sYx9X0vwwLVXeqHDRMYYmrUBK5zv", "3piNGGnRMhvWo8u9pKD9TDc1MJlWhlvK78Vr3fHo");

Now, point it to your Parse server.

Parse.initialize("moyicat-parse-blog-git"); // Your App Name Parse.serverURL = 'http://ift.tt/2ks85Ab'; // Your Server URL

Step 3: From React to Backbone

Moving on, let’s do a quick update to change all the Parse.View, Parse.Router, and Parse.history to Backbone.View, Backbone.Router, and Backbone.history. Those are no longer supported by Parse, so we need to have a fallback.

It’s not the most pleasant thing in the world to mix and match Class like that, but if you want to make the least changes to your code and have it running, this might be the easiest way.

Step 4: From Collection to Query; From fetch to find

Now, one other thing that Parse stopped supporting is Collection. And it’s much more thorny than the other three. Switching from Parse.Collection to Backbone.Collection won’t work. We need to rewrite the logic using Parse queries.

I will use the Blogs collection as an example to show you how we can update our blog to work with the new Parse.js.

Previously, we first defined a Class for Blogs:

Blogs = Parse.Collection.extend({ model: Blog, query: (new Parse.Query(Blog)).descending('createdAt') });

And then in the BlogRouter.start() function we created an instance of that class to contain the collection of blocks.

this.blogs = new Blogs();

After that, we call fetch() on that collection to get blogs data. Like in BlogRouter.index():

this.blogs.fetch({ success: function(blogs) {...}, error: function(blogs, error) {...} });

Now, we can just delete that Class declaration and make BlogRouter.blogs a Parse query:

this.blogs = new Parse.Query(Blog).descending('createdAt');

And when we call it, instead of fetch() we use find().

this.blogs.find({ success: function(blogs) {...}, error: function(blogs, error) {...} });

This part may take a while since we have quite a few different use cases over this series. You may need to debug a little bit—at this point, even if the data is fetching correctly, the page won’t render correctly yet. If you prefer to see things render as you fix them, read through till the end, and then start changing your code and debugging.

Step 5: Check the View Objects

When all the data is fetching correctly, the next thing to check on is the data you pass into your View objects.

Previously, we could pass anything we wanted in to a View object. In this example, we passed the username directly into the blogsAdminView so we could greet users by their usernames.

var blogsAdminView = new BlogsAdminView({ username: currentUser.get('username'), collection: blogs });

This would also stop working when we change the View to be extended from the Backbone.View object. We can only pass in model and collection now.

So we need to pass in the currentUser as a model:

var blogsAdminView = new BlogsAdminView({ model: currentUser, collection: blogs });

And change the BlogsAdminView accordingly.

Again, you might need to test and debug around a little bit to make everything work.

Step 6: Update the Handlebar Templates to Adapt to the New Data Structure

And finally, between the version changes, the Parse Object data structure also changed a bit.

Before, every object looked like this:

{ objectId: '', title: '', ..., }

Now, this is the new structure:

{ id: '' // the objectId, attributes: { title: '', ..., }, ..., }

This means we need to update our Handlebar templates, too, to render the new data correctly:

For example, previously for the categories in the sidebar we wrote the following template:

Now we need to update to be and to be .

Now your page will render.

Again, if you don’t remember the logic of the site completely clearly, you might need to jump through some hoops a little bit here. If you get stuck, you can always check my source code.

Conclusion

There you have it. Hopefully it can help you save your data before Parse.com shuts down—or revive your code when you need it. You will lose all the data after 28 January 2017, but if you update the code, it will function again.

Again, I’m incredibly sad that Parse.com won’t be running any longer and this tutorial series won’t work for newcomers (unless they keep referring back to this final part). But hopefully it helped a few people to learn how to code a website.

From this point on, whether you choose to migrate or to learn a new language, it’s totally up to you. I hope it will be a little easier because you learnt some useful concepts here.

Best wishes! And leave me a comment if you find this series helpful.

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