#I need to be able to download the images in my brain directly into other people's brains

[girlscience]

someone do collaborative worldbuilding with me. please 🥺

[hopechan16]

I don't know if you get this alot but I really think you should anyway

I just wanted to say that I really love your art and how you paint the backgrounds and characters

The way you draw Joker and batman is just mind blowing because I honestly don't know how you do it so comic like! Your art style is very beautiful and the way you shade and use lighting!

(Would you be willing to share any tips you've learned that help you when coloring/painting?) I struggle with it alot ^^;

I do hope you have a fantabulous day or night though!

Hello, nice to meet you. I'm very happy to read your message, thank you very much !♥︎ I haven't forgotten you, and I immediately saw your message. Sorry if I took so long to answer you it's only because I wanted it to be done well. And no, I rarely receive this kind of message ( And that's a real shame, I'd love that more HAHAHA ! )

So, about my answer. I have no problem sharing with you my artistics tricks, even though I don't really have any secrets. I only have « rituals » of tools I discovered over years of learning :

Firstly, my main tool besides my graphic tablet is the app Clip Studio Paint ( previously named Manga Studio ) which is truly at the center of my creations. It's a really good app, easy to use and especially made for illustrations and comics. I'm telling you this because I used to draw with other apps like Photoshop for many years. However, Clip Studio Paint is VERY MUCH MORE built for comics, and I'm insisting on the word « comics ». Moreover it's a very accesible app. It costs more or less 50€ per year ( I don't know the dollar price but it might be something similar ). Which is very cheaper than Photoshop for a result as professional. Many comic artists use it, such as J.Jiménez for example.

Add to it the very interesting asset that is the data base of downloadable tools ( brushes, textures, etc ) which are majoritarely created by artists themselves. It's a truly extraordinary concept .

Third asset is the « perspective » tool which allows you to set your vanishing points on your canva and to fix your strokes based on that. It's truly awesome even though this particular tool is a bit tricky to use at first. I don't know yet how to use it properly but I'm working on it ^^

There are many others things I don't know about this app but I'm slowly but surely learning. What's amazing is the accessibility of a ton of easy tutorials. There are as much tutorial on blogs than in videos, so it's easy to find what you need. And even though I personnally never do it, you can ask questions directly to the community, I'm sure there will be many people ready to help you if you need ^^

That's it for the app. Regarding my second trick, it's the observation and references.

I never work without it, it's my daily routine. I spend my time studying images whereas they come from Pinterest, comics, movies or real life with or without pictures. The best to improve is by naked eye, so you have to make your 3D brain work more than on a flat 2D reference.

(Comic is an art very linked to the cinema field so I would suggest you to obsere cinematographic pictures. The framing, rythm, lights always have a meaning. A narrativ purpose. Of course, you need to readapt it for your comic canva. But if you understand the cinematographic image, you understand the comic image. It works also for animation.)

To get back to what I was saying, I carefully watch every single drawing coming on my Instragram, twitter, Tumblr (etc) feed. I study how they created the texture, how their framing gives dynamic to the picture, if they use blurry tools to give the illusion of perspective... And most of all I don't hesitate to take the best models/inspirations. It can be frustrating to not be able to recreate what they do, but it's by observing and studying the best that you'll orient your artistic glance and by extension your personnal productivity. Chose artists who suits you. When I say the best, I don't mean « the best people chose to be the best » but the best for your goal and personnal taste. Even though great talent is generally recognised by the mass ^^

I'll give you an example to be more precise on what I'm trying to explain. Let's take Batman universe as it's what I'm currently working on and the reason why you asked for advice. I mainly observe J.Jiménez's current work because it's obvious that's he's a good performer and it would be silly to miss what we could get from him. He's not be my favorite artist, he's not the one I identify the most with nor produces the art that gets through me the most. I really admire his work but it doesn't get to my heart. I'm much more touched by S.G Murphy's art which I find very poetic, classy and cinematographic. It's objectively less anatomically accurate than Jiménez's work, but much more deep and trascending to me. The characters give sme more emotions. It might be linked to the way he inks, the way he subtly suggests the scenes. And sometines suggest is much more better than show. Inbetween there is Dan Mora who simply is amazing, and is the most accurate of what I'd like to produce and sincerely, that's because it's both accurate, dynamic and almost cartoony in their strokes, close to BTAS which is in my opinion the best representation of Batman. It has an aesthetic which could lead to humour, drama or tragedy.

In fact as you can see, I like being able to switch tone in my narrative, going from tragic to comic to thriller etc.

Regarding the background, how not to be amazed by Scalera's work * O *

To conclude this part, finding artists which connects to yourself is important, but some that don't connect to you also have things you could learn from. I think it's important to have artists you like to get inspiration from because otherwise it will quickly become boring. And it will show on your work. But don't close too many doors by strictly sticking to artsits you fancy.

By the way, it also goes for the tools you use. Using your favorite brushes is great but never stop testing new brushes. Personnally, I use a bit of everything on Clip Studio Paint based on the results I want. I make tests and it works more or less depending on the moment and sometimes you discover things you could then use in many situations.

About the basic-technic-tutorial-like.

I'm not a teacher, nor a good reference and I'd never claim that but I can talk about my experience.

I have a very easy technique.

I draw on a paper sheet. The base has to be accurate. The most accurate this steps is, the more are the chances for your drawing to be good. It's like a house : the roof wont stay if the walls are bent. Anyways, makeup doesn't work on drawings xD

I always scan on 300ppp. On Clip Studio, I render the image based on what I'm going to do with it : comic ? Illustration ? For Tumblr ? Instagram ? Etc. I always work on 300ppp because you never know if you're going to print it someday. Always think about it it's important ! Btw, I don't have this problem on my others social networks, but I always feel like my drawings get blurry on Tumblr ? Maybe the file is too big ? I thought about screenshoting it but at the same time I like you being able to zoom to appreciate the drawing and get all the details, or read easily a comic. Anyways, I got carried XD

I organise my layers. From bottom to the top :

• Base layer ( white sheet )

• Raw layer ( the scan )

• Background layer ( plain base color to set the atmosphere )

• Detailed background layers

• Color characters layers ( basic shadows, clothes, textures, skin etc )

• Line layer

• Shadows layer ( generally on « multiply » mode )

• Retouch canva

• Lights layer ( sometimes this one goes under the retouch canva )

• White point layer ( pure colors, saturated )

Voilà ^^ The last ones are variable from a drawing to another but it's a base.

Don't forget to decompose the layer's organisation based on the differents grounds :

background, 2) middle-ground, 3) foreground etc. From the farest to the closest, ALWAYS  in that order.

About the shadows and lights, it's very complex to explain tbh. I suggest to watch digital painting videos. I'd also suggest to learn about watercolor because digital art works for many as an opposite of the watercolor.

Watercolor mainly works with transparences, from the least to the most opaque, whereas the digital coloring mainly works from the most dark to the lightest color. But I personnally also work on layer's transparency like with watercolor. It's usefull to have watercolor bases to understand. Personnally it helped me a lot.

Don't get confused between light/dark with transparency/opacity. These are differents things. But you might already know that ^^

Hehe, go take a look on colours theory, it's very interesting. The complementary, the primary, see how much magical effects you can do with it and then learn about digital colours.

Exemple : Complementary colour of purple = yellow

Complementary colour of blue = orange

Complementary colour of red = green etc.

Personnal thought : I almost never use the other layers modes which are fake friends to me. It's easy to have fun wih, but I only use the « Multiply » and « Overlay » or oven « Soft light » mode.

Another one is to make sketches of objects or people in the dark with a very straight forward light. You can see all the shadows appear and it's an great way to learn how lights and shadows work. How they land on a body, how they create differents moods based on their position etc.

I think I told you everything I needed to about my personnal tricks that I use for my art. There is no miracle secret, only passion and many many many experimentations !

Initially, it's @randishm as you may have seen who asked me this very interesting question and I thank them for that. I hope it helped them for their passionate art quest, but I thought it would be a shame not to share it with the rest of y'all ! Firstly because it's impossible to answer roughly to the question about the moods, colours and shadowing of a drawing. You know it : if there was one magic trick to learn there already would have been a youtube video selling it XD

But that's not the case because that's not how it works. That might be what's make the beauty of it. I like to compare it with sports, because that's exctly how it is. It's almost a way of living to generate the eye experience that is our main tool to create. Even more than our hand. More important than any brush, app, tool, layers etc. And as an athlete needs to train everyday, artists need to do exactly the same. Yes, that's the least fun part of the game.

I think that this is actually the said secret. Working everyday XD

To conclude, I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart Lynxina who translated ( badly, signed Lynxina XD ) , she does an amazing work and without her I wouldn't even be able to answer to you as bad is my english ( my bad lol ). It's also her who translates all of my comics or prompts I post I share with you. So honestly, she is my Goddess ^^ ( Awwww T.T 

 - Lynxina )

You can check her account @batsylovesjoky on Tumblr or Lynxina on AO3, she started an awesome Batjokes fanfiction, under the piano theme. It's sensual and chaotic, original. It leaves Maroni images in our head and not gonna lie... Piano suits very well our Batjokes. Chapters are shorts but well written, with the perfect amount of details so that you won't get bored. I'm pretty sure you'll like it if that's not already the case ^^

[egg-shark]

Cupe: on the Road to Recovery

TW: suicide, mental illness, self-harm

Hey y’all.

Recently I took part in a national scholarship competition to create a product that would impact the world for the better. The idea was to find a problem that needed solving and to work out a solution that would move towards that goal. Products varied anywhere from water filtration systems to drowning detection devices to fire prevention products to apps.

A friend of mine suggested we tackle mental illness, and we bounced ideas off each other until we came upon Cupe (also their idea). It’s an app designed to help people of all ages, but in particular teenagers and adolescents, to recuperate from mental-health-related struggles.

Thus Cupe was born, a place where users can go for help, for advice, or for distraction from what’s going on in their minds.

Cupe includes:

suicide prevention hotlines

information regarding various mental illnesses (including diagnosis and symptoms)

advice on how to seek help

help on calming down from a panic attack or avoiding one in the first place

an extensive page on different coping mechanisms and their benefit on not only the brain but on the body as well

calming gifs and images for those who prefer visual stimulation

a page dedicated to music and ambient noise for those who prefer auditory stimulation

grounding techniques for those who prefer other sensory stimulation techniques

reminders to take care of oneself through eating, hydrating, and exercising

a note-taking page where users can log their triggers or positive reinforcement or notes for themselves or their doctor/therapist

and the constant reminder that no one has to walk this road alone.

Cupe was designed as a safe place for all people, regardless of age, gender, disability, race, color, religion, or sexual orientation. It is primarily available in English as my resources were limited and I only speak English myself, but I would be completely open to translating should anyone be willing to help with that process.

If you know me, I’m really not one for advertising. However, I was encouraged by several of my friends to get this out there and share it with whoever might need it. If you’re interested in downloading Cupe or sharing it with others, information is below the cut.

Cupe is completely accessible on browser, but it may be easiest to download as a mobile device application. This link takes you directly to this page on desktop:

OR to this page on mobile:

On iOS Safari, the above message will appear prompting you to click the “Share” button and then scroll down until you find “Add to Home Screen”. As expected, this will then download Cupe to your home screen and it will be available just as any other app would be.

The Android page will look very similar and should prompt you to a download similar to that of iOS. There have been a few scenarios where this was not the case, and I will continue to look into it and post an update and walkthrough as soon as I am able.

I’m tagging a few friends and some popular blogs I know since my reach is fairly limited and I think this could benefit a lot of people. Please spread the word if you know of anyone who could benefit from this app, and thank you so much for your time. It means a lot to me personally :)

@little-boats-on-a-lake @one-time-i-dreamt @biggest-gaudiest-patronuses @she-who-fights-and-writes @cecilsstorycorner @notugalan @heywriters @pukicho @bookishdiplodocus @badjokesbyjeff @prokopetz @pancake0606​

[vkelleyart]

I've been following your SnowBaz art for like forever😂& I'm just like, "Rainbow! Hire Venessa to do a Carry On graphic novel like RN!!" Just directly inject into my brain!!! I donated to the GoldenDays zine, but I was super disappointed to find out that you can't sell your fanart & that only a select # of people can win stickers. Is there any future possibility of getting my hands on physical copies of your art? I respect your situation & don't want to pressure you, but my heart knows no logic!

Hello!!! I’m so happy you’ve been enjoying my work! Thank you so much for such lovely compliments! 

Regarding owning my work, well there’s good news and bad news. 

The Bad News: I can’t sell because it’s too legally gray for a government contractor like myself to get involved in. Especially because I enjoy drawing lots of canon stuff and because it’s not really possible to pretend these dudes aren’t who they are (i.e. Rainbow’s intellectual property).

The Good News: There are a few good news things, actually...

1) A print of my artwork is available on DFTBA Records in Rainbow Rowell’s Carry On/Wayward Son store! And the best thing about it is that it’s part of a glorious print set that includes CO/WS art from other beloved artists including Lauren Baldo, Susanna Rumiz, @silkwhale, @gulliblegoldfish, and @dancingwdinosaurs. Purchasing it is also a really nice way to give back to the artists who draw your favorite characters for free. See below for the images included in the set: (Mine is the middle-left image of Baz leaving the Jag on the side of the road).

Click here to buy your print set!

2) You can also download the hi-res art. I’ve placed the hi-resolution images of the rest of my work (with the exception of some recent ones I still need to upload) in a public Dropbox folder. You can download the pictures here, then load them to Shutterfly, Snapfish or coordinate with your local printer to get your own high-quality print.

Click to open the DropBox Folder. 

3) STICKERS:  Um... I bought a LOT of stickers. I’ve given 20 of them to @goldendayszine for use as prizes for the raffle. Once the Zine has been fulfilled and the raffle winners have gotten their goodies, I hope to figure out a way to make the remaining stickers available for anyone else who wants one. There are about 100 left. :)

4) Future giveaways! There’s a good chance that I’ll be able to do another giveaway in the future with signed art. It may take a while (giveaways are *cough* slightly expensive), but it’ll happen.

This is, regrettably, the best I can do for the moment. Thanks so much for your interest and for being so supportive of my art!

[jbbuckybarnes]

Zerfall - 6/14

Pairing: Bucky x named!Reader (Agent Andromeda) Summary: After Hydra drops virus bombs in 7 major American cities in the height of summer, the team is locked in their emergency bunker for weeks. The virus commonly called the Summer Poison successfully brought the infrastructure to a halt in all big cities. When the virus slowly starts burning itself out SHIELD Agents and Avengers are sent out to bring back order into the cities and the international relationships. Not without hurdles. Warnings for this chapter: Pandemic, crime, canon typical violence, flirting, picturing killing as a positive thing, weird grammar. Not beta read. **Image credit goes to Ubisoft.

Zerfall Masterlist || M a s t e r l i s t

You’d been walking for about half a block when you were yanked towards a bus to hide behind. “There’s five of them, northeast,” he whispered and got the AR off his back. You scanned the area, “It’s not five. It’s 8, great,” you mumbled. “I go left, you go right,” he ordered and after a little countdown by hand you slowly sneaked your way from car to car until you were both close enough. You took the safety off two pistols before looking over and nodding. Both of you came out of your covers in perfect sync, killing 5 of them instantly. Three of them run to get cover and you ran EADA again to know where all of them were exactly. An easier thing to do if you had those damn contact lenses. “Damn agents!” One of them yelled. “Shut up, whiny baby,” you yelled back, getting out of cover in time to land a perfect headshot. “The Vultures will come for you, bitch!” Another one yelled. “Sorry, can’t hear you over how good I’ll land a headshot on you.” You smirked and landed the next one in sync with Bucky. “Don’t call my partner a bitch,” he said before walking to the cover of the last one, grabbing him with his metal arm and holding him up. “Help us or die,” he growled up at the young man. “No,” he croaked before going unconscious and being thrown onto the floor and hit in the heart by another shot. “I see, you like a little bit of the drama too.” You chuckled before helping him search through their weapons and ammunition. “Always.” He grinned over, picking up a few cartridges of ammo and chugging them into his bag on the back of his tactical belt. “Let’s get going then. We need to get to a safe house today.” You smiled and cut the dog tags off the dead bodies that had them. His brow went up, “Wanna count how many people betrayed their country. And maybe these come in handy if they have a boss that actually cares about them.” “Forget it, only psychopaths would start something like this.” He kicked the man that had insulted her earlier. It seemed to really annoy him. Maybe it was just his 40s brain that wanted the respect for a woman, cause he definitely had a foul mouth in the army and didn’t expect her to not curse like a sailor. He actually was kinda excited about that part for some reason.

On the way to the safe house you came across some groups of three, taking them down easily in less than a few seconds. You were already starting to work in perfect sync when it came to combat. You made note of the buildings that were clearly guarded and when you got to the Consulate General of Mexico you made note of all the guards and scanned the area. 12 people that you could see and scan for. “Guarding duty is the most boring thing ever.” One of them mumbled to the other and you looked over at Bucky who winked back at you while getting a grenade from his belt. “Hm, at least it isn’t patrolling.” Something clinked onto the floor in between the two guards on the left and the one on the right. Before they could even start a word there was an explosion and you got out your AR and he got out his. “Showtime.” you grinned while taking aim at all the suddenly alert and confused guards. One, two, three, four, five, all dead in less than a minute. 4 left in their cover. Bucky took the marksman rifle from his back and aimed up at where they were hiding. Hitting them with astonishing accuracy, hearing a thud after each one. “Wow, that was impressive, Barnes,” you said surprised at the actual level of skill he had from his tortured years. “Glad I can use it for good now,” he answered as if he was able to read your thoughts at that moment. “I’m glad too.” You smiled over at him before you both stormed into the building, checking for more guards inside and taking 4 out with silencers on your pistols or a knife into their throat. “I really got the best agent as a partner, huh?” He grinned as you walked toward a safety door. “I guess you do.” You grinned back before hacking the door open. As he wanted to close the door behind you, you gestured him to stop. “Loot the dudes outside and bring as much of the weapons and ammo inside of here for other agents,” you ordered him and got a serious nod back. Your eyes scanned the room for a laptop or computer with a drive attached to it and after a while of looking around you found it. “Gotcha.” You smirked hacking your way through the information, downloading it onto your EADA. While it was doing that you finally took the backpack that was sitting in a locker and went through it. “Finally.” You breathed out exhausted, getting a look from Bucky that was just dumping some guns into the room. You got out the SAID agent vest that was going to regenerate by itself and put it around your chest. Then you made a dig through the side pockets for the contact lenses, getting another weirded out look from your partner. “What the hell are you doing?” He finally spoke out what went through his head. “These link up to the watch and I can see where enemies are hiding and where friendlies are if they fight with us. I also have a scope attachment that can do that if you ever need that,” you explained to him with a proud smile on your face. He shook his head grinning, “You’re a nerd.” After you got both of your backpacks situated into one and everything was done with your equipment, you wandered back to the computer that had finished with the drive a few minutes before. “Holy shit,” you muttered at the screen and Bucky’s steps led next to you. “The red parts are enemy bases, the symbols above them are the factions of enemies, these are the shadow zones in dark purple and...there we have a settlement, a big one.” You pointed at the library closer to the Empire State Building, about two blocks down from where you were currently situated. He looked up from the map with a hopeful face directly at you, “Then let’s get there and help those people.” If there was one thing you had already learned about him, it was that he wanted nobody to suffer from something Hydra did to them and he’d do anything to help people right now.

“Why do I have the feeling that this day will be a long one?” He speculated while you walked down the first block. “Well, we’ll get a ton of new information on the current situation from them. That’s gonna be pushing us from now on, ain’t it?” You smiled at the road ahead. “Guess you’re right. I’m just afraid we can’t help that much,” he mumbled. “We can, don’t get into your own head about it.” Your hand landed on his shoulder. “I try.” He gave you a soft smile of appreciation. “I mean, key points of enemies to take over seems like a lot of fun to me if all of them are this bad at their job.” You giggled. “They are the worst, aren’t they?” He laughed. “Horrible, Bucky. Absolutely horrible.” You chuckled and then both of you calmed down again and went back into Avengers mode. “Check every backpack you find on the way, Bucky. They might need what’s in there,” you told him, knowing there might be tech, textiles and other things in them. They were everywhere on the side of the streets and in house entrances. By the dawn both of you finally reach the settlement, visible from afar by the guard towers and big gates they made with trucks and billboards. You saw them aim at both of you for a while before you heard someone yell and the weapons went down. “He yelled to get their boss.” Bucky translated next to you. “Thanks, super hearing dork.” You nudged him and had an arm on the small of your back a second later. “Probably a vet. I bet on it.” He looked down at you, feeling oddly protective towards you because of a possibly very stressed out military man. “He’ll have to follow my lead tho. It’s my specialty to unapocalypse.” You heard him chuckle as a few guards came towards you. “So good to see you, Agent. Hello, Mr. Barnes.” A young man welcomed you. “We’re glad we finally found you.” You smiled at them and scanned their equipment for a second. “Our Captain will be glad to finally see you too.” A girl smiled and nudged her head towards the gate. “A Captain, not bad.” Bucky nudged you as you walked in. “Probably the only reason this is still holding up. Let’s be honest, Buck,” you said looking around while walking into the library part of the building. What was a museum before was now used as a home. The bookshelves were freed from their glass casing. There were beds all around and a corner with food and water. “It’s probably nice to have all these books to distract you. Especially for the children,” you mumbled before a big door opened.

A big bulky man came through the door, not as scary as Bucky could look, but intimidating enough to keep this place together, you assumed. “Agent! Sergeant! Richard Davis. Nice to finally see you. What took so long?” He laughed and shook hands with both of you. “Stark didn’t let us out of his bunker until it was safe enough and some idiots were guarding the place our safe house was in. How’s it going here and where do you need the most help?” He chuckled, “That list is long. I did as much as possible with my Air Force and Agent background to train the men and women around here, but it’s only enough to defend this place and get the occasional food. We need as many buildings as possible around here cleared to have more supplies to make this a self-sufficient little tribe. We thankfully have the doctor's office across the street occupied but we need more stuff to make this a solid foundation. The school around the corner on 35th is still full of Vulture idiots. Could you clear that up? Would definitely earn complete trust from the skeptics here.” He looked around in the room. “With a bit of ammo and help from a few of your people, we can do that in about...30 minutes.” You looked up from your watch and saw a surprised but happy face. “I’ll get my men ready. Patricia? Show them where they can find ammo and other weapons.”

About 45 minutes later you were surrounding the school, EADA scanning the surroundings for anyone and anything. “You all stay back and let us do the main work, understood?” You looked back at the amateur shooters. “Yes, Agent.” One of them whispered. “Bucky?” You looked over and he looked up, “Go.” He took down two men with silenced guns, then gave another one a knife and kicked the fourth one into the next bush. It was magnificent to watch him do all of this with no sound coming from him. “That’s not a Sergeant. That’s a General, my dear.” Captain Davis watched the almost beautiful choreography of kills in front of him. “He’s something, isn’t he?” You grinned before getting up and following Bucky through the door he had opened up. “Getting the hallway safe, then you can do the rooms with your shotguns. Be safe,” you whispered into the earpiece. “Got it.”

Reblog if you liked this (or Alpine will haunt you!)

[chemicalmagecraft]

Foresight is 20/20 Chapter 11

I smiled even before we reached the gates. "It looks like we have a welcome party," I noted, then licked my lips.

"How can you tell?" Gai asked.

"Chakra sensing."

As soon as we were inside the gates of the village, I was tackled by a very energetic blonde. "Kouki!" Naruto yelled as he did his level best to crush me like a tin can.

I awkwardly patted him on the back. "Heyyy, bud. Could I please breathe?" I choked out. I gasped for my breath after he released me from his adamantium grasp. "Stupid freakish Uzumaki strength," I grumbled in between breaths.

"What was that?" Tenten angrily asked me.

I rolled my eyes. "Not directed at you."

"Hey Kouki," Naruto said, "why are you all brown?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Okay first off I think technically it's more 'bronze' than 'brown,'" I said, "and b, it's called a tan."

"How did you get so tan in only a few days?" Dad asked me. "Didn't you have a parasol?"

I sheepishly put my hand behind my head. "Well..."

~~~~ku

I sighed as I lounged on the thankfully clean floor in front of the window.

"Are you sunbathing!?" Temari asked me.

"Soooo waaaarm~" I replied.

"I swear you're a cat or something."

I grinned a catlike grin. "Meow~" She sighed and stormed off.

~~~~ku

"...I guess I get tan really easily?" Okay to be fair I do. And it stays for a while, even if I stay inside most of the time. When my brother, whose complexion is almost exactly the same as mine, got a similarly dark tan from being a lifeguard, my mom noted that it was probably due to our "gypsy blood." I wouldn't put it that way myself, mostly due to the fact that the word "gypsy" is actually kinda offensive what the heck mom, but I guess it's a plausible reason... I was thankful, though, that the sun didn't give me any more freckles. No offense to people with a lot of freckles, but I'm fine with only having like ten freckles on my face that mostly just look like a bunch of beauty marks, thank you very much.

"Welcome back, niisan," Hinata said with a smile. I couldn't help but notice that Kurama didn't at all look like he was annoyed with Hinata carrying him.

"Sup, Hina-chan. Did Kurama-chan tell you guys I'd be here?"

He huffed and turned his head away from me, the tsundere.

"Love you too, bud!"

"So what are you going to do now that you're back?" Neji asked me.

I shrugged. "First I'm going to take a bath, then I'll probably take a nap or something. I'm pooped."

"Surprising to hear that from you," Ai commented.

"Even I have my limits, Ai. Working on the seal was fun, but I'm glad it's over and done with." I yawned. "Now if you guys don't mind, I'd like to go take a nice, long bath now." I waved goodbye. "Thanks for coming to greet me!"

kukukuku~

I yawned, sat up in my bed, licked my lips, and stretched my arms. Then I fell back to sleep.

kukukuku~

"Okay, time to work now," I said after I rolled out of bed. Before doing anything, though, I checked out my window. It was nighttime. I shrugged. "Not that much of a problem to someone with twenty four-plus hour days." I licked my lips. "Right, let's get crackin'." I assumed a meditative position on the floor and reached inward, to my chakra. Mostly the red stuff, but also some of the blue. Just as a human touched by the red (I.E. me or the jinchuriki) has to have over a certain amount of red chakra in them to not die, it seemed that beings made from the red needed at least some blue in them to function. To be honest, I should've figured that out sooner, what with how the Biju Dama uses blue chakra. 'Course, I did figure it out when I sensed not only another biju, but Karura, who was a non-biju red chakra spirit. And with that revelation came some important progress on an idea that I'd had. And over the ride home, I'd honed and perfected that jutsu, one that I was now ready to use. Sure, I'd been wary of potential danger, but I felt a lot better after a message from my future self, or at least a future self... Future vision can get pretty freaky.

And so, I grabbed hold of almost all of my red chakra, just leaving a comfortable yet small amount over the minimum amount I needed to live, as well as enough blue chakra to sustain a demon of that power level. I used yin-yang release and some of the mechanics behind clone jutsus in general to mold that chakra into the proper shape. When I was done, the chakra moved on its own.

I opened my eyes to see my shadow turn pitch-black, then split off into two, one normal and one still a me-shaped abyss. The ebon shadow moved and stretched so that it was across the room from me. The shadow... rose, changing in shape and color to form what felt like an alternate-universe mirror. First off, shadow me looked even more girly than I did. Sure, that wasn't saying much what with how I was still way prepubescent and had girly hair, but she had longer hair and a skirt with leggings, so there's that. Plus she looked a little shorter than me. Second off, she had what appeared to be fox ears and a tail, likely an artifact from Kurama even though they didn't look exactly like his. Third, she was both a pallette swap and mirror image of me. While her complexion was roughly the same as mine, her eye markings were white with black dots instead of black with white dots, her clothes were dark red instead of blue, her hair was a shade of blue so dark it was almost black, and her eyes were red with slit pupils. As for the mirror part, her bangs were parted to the right instead of the left and each of her freckles were situated to be on the opposite side of her face from mine. Though she had fox ears instead of human ears, I could see she still had a rendition of the nubby nub nub thing on her right ear as opposed to my left.

"I am thou, thou art I," she said in almost my voice. Man, that was weird. "Sup, me."

"Sup," I responded, then relaxed my posture. She did the same, though she was mindful of her skirt. I was already kind of sure of the answer, but... "Hey, just to be clear here, you're supposed to be a girl, ja?"

She nodded. "Ja." She blushed. "I have more control over my form than just using the transformation jutsu and I figured I should differentiate myself as much as I can from you, so..." I feel like something could be said about me that "I" felt the need to justify that even to myself...

"I take it you picked out your own name too, right?"

"Yup." She grinned. "To counter your light-light hope-and-fortune name, I picked Chikage."

"Thousand Views?" I asked jokingly.

She facepalmed and groaned. "Okay yes, I guess that that's the traditional reading, but I meant more along the lines of Thousand Shadows. Or even Blood Shadow. Heck, Shadow of the Earth is kinda cool too."

"So does that mean I have your permission to keep 'Kouki?'" I asked.

She gave me a deadpan stare. "Dude, I literally said that I picked a name to balance out yours."

"Yeah, but if you think about it, 'Kouki' is us, not me. The guy that is us combined is Kouki."

She shrugged. "Would be pretty weird if you randomly started to go by another name. You're Kouki Prime and I'm totally at peace with that. Let's stop talking about semantics and see what this jutsu of ours does, exactly."

I nodded and clenched my fist. "I think I got weaker..." I unclenched my fist and did a few small stretches.

"Makes sense," Chikage said. "Even if you aren't using it, your red chakra still enhances you. Still, that also means you should have more control now."

"Right," I said. I held my hand out and tried to make some wind chakra. It felt a little off without my red chakra, but I got the hang of it surprisingly fast. Much faster than I'd managed the last time I'd tried it, wire-thin threads of wind chakra burst from my fingers, curling around my new double/clone/sister maybe? "Sorry, but you understand what I'm doing, right?

She snorted. Curiously, a small puff of smoke came from her nose when she did. "Dude, I'm you. Of course I know. Just make sure to ask future you first to make sure it doesn't screw us both over."

"Right, was going to do that anyway." I activated my eyes for just long enough to get a message coded to a version of myself in the exact situation I was in.

"Yup. Go ahead."

I didn't want to completely spoil every single highly-dangerous-yet-incredibly-interesting experiment I did, but I knew it'd be stupid to actually do them without using the Shoraigan to make sure I didn't end up turning Konoha into a crater. And so in my time of need, I discovered another power of the Shoraigan that was just as good as the ability to tell the future. At least, I'm assuming that's what happened in about a thousand other timelines that I never went down. Or I guess I did go down them, but just not the me that is me? Man, anything involving time travel gives people headaches, doesn't it. I could only time-warp information and yet I still got headaches.

Where was I?

Oh right. Main Shoraigan power number three. Or maybe just another version of the first main power? In addition to being able to download future information directly into my brain, I found out I could send my past self and/or selves information when I randomly got thousands of very similar chronopathic messages saying something roughly along the lines of "Holy crud we can send messages to our past selves!" and some telling me to stop sending messages back to past me, which was very hypocritical of future me, but I complied. I wonder if there's a version of me who found out about the Shoraigan by having that future message sent back by an alternate version of-

"You're getting off track," Chikage said, her eyes now a slit variant of the Shoraigan. Guess that meant she could use it too despite not having my eyes(?). "Stop telling the fans about our cool new power and kill me already."

"Right, sorry." I closed my hand into a fist, causing the Wind Release: Razor Wire to chop her into pieces. Instead of blood going everywhere, though, the cuts became red chakra which reformed back into her body with some loss.

"That hurt," she muttered. "But it seems we won't find out what happens when I die if we use that. Maybe try fire?" She was made from an aggregation of the powers of Kurama (fire/wind) and Shukaku (earth/wind), so while there was some fire in her it wasn't out of the question that fire would hurt her a lot more than wind...

I nodded and we both stood up. I guess maybe it was customary to use fire chakra from the lungs, and yes that was apparently how you got the most power, but I liked the idea of channeling it through my hands better, plus that way I could try to add lightning to it despite not knowing how to do it too well. I knew fire from the hands was possible from the flashback to the time of Ninshu, so theoretically... "Do not try this at home, kids." I made a few hand seals, then held my hand like how Kakashi does with the Chidori. An unfortunately uncoordinated ball of fire and lightning chakra emerged from my palm, as well as the slightest whiff of burning flesh.

Ow.

Chikage waved her arm in front of her torso, creating either a bullseye target or the illusion of a bullseye target. I thrust the ball of plasma right into the center of the target. Her body destabilized almost as soon as the probably-poorly-thought-out concoction of chakra touched her. While some was... ruined, I guess, by the attack, the majority of the chakra Chikage was made from was sucked back into my body. With the chakra came her memories, which was... interesting. I feel like I should note, though, that getting pyrolectrocuted hurts like the dickens.

"Is everything okay?" Uncle asked as he barged in. "I heard crackling sounds."

I casually stuck my hands in my pockets. "Yeah. I tried to use lightning release. Do you think you could ask Dad if I could get official training? That kinda hurt."

He looked concerned. "Are you hurt?"

I gave him a thumbs-up with my unburned hand. "Yeah, just a little stinging. Nothing a little healing factor won't cure. You should see the other guy."

"O...kay..." He thankfully left without much question, allowing me to take the other hand out and assess the damage. The friction from just taking it out of my pocket stung.

"Eeee..." I winced. I mean, it didn't look like it was too bad of a second degree burn, but... it was blackened. I really hoped that was just soot. I applied some red chakra to it and it thankfully just flaked off and didn't scar or anything. "Not doing that again, at least without adult supervision. Hope my pocket isn't ruined..." I tilted my head a bit. "Now before I can forget, I should probably do this." I activated my Shoraigan and sent a message coded to two certain iterations of my past self. Sure, it'd have happened anyway because of diverging timelines, but insert dead Daves joke here. "Right," I said. "Now that that's over. Chikage, out." She didn't do anything. I blinked. I could definitely feel her somewhere in me, but...

Oh.

I was Chikage. Well that was interesting. I concentrated on what I'd done before and felt a small snap in the back of my head.

"I'm back," she said in my head. Red chakra flowed from my body, forming Chikage, arms crossed and leaning back onto thin air. "Is that what it feels like to fuse?" she asked.

I shrugged. "I guess maybe with Pink Steven it was, just with less nearly dying and womanchildish giants."

She chuckled and picked me up. "C'mon, we gotta do it now."

I smiled and hugged her, laughing. She hugged me back. We started laughing and spinning each other until we just melted back together. "Ah, good times," I said. "Now we should probably get a training ground so I can see what I... you... we... can do..." I sighed. "Man, this is going to be weird..."

[summahsunlight]

We Belong to the Stars, CH.1

Word Count: 2828

Pairing: Poe/OFC

Characters: Poe Dameron, Leia Organa, BB-8, Kaleb Skywalker (OC), Evelyn Skywalker (OC), Karé Kun, Iolo Arana, Kylo Ren 

A Resistance spy has sent vital information about the First Order’s super weapon before his untimely death at the hands of Kylo Ren. Now, it's a race against time to obtain the information before the First Order destroys it. Leia sends members of the Resistance's top squadron in the hopes that they can track the information down before its too late.

A/N: This story takes place in the verse that my Drabble series ( Pathways ) verse sets up. You don't need to read those to necessarily to understand what's going on in this story however.  I hope you enjoy it!

AO3

Unknown Regions, 33 ABY

There was no time for escape once the first Star Destroyer showed up in system.

His only hope of getting the information he possessed to the Resistance, then he had to transmit it.  Since no one knew their exact location, there was no way it would reach them directly; he was going to have to get creative.  Plugging in the code for one of his more trusted contacts from his days in the New Republic's Intelligence Core, he slipped the disc into the computer, frantically downloading the information he had gathered for the last six months.  It had been General Organa’s idea to get some on the inside, Lothor had been one of the Republic’s top-notch spies—it only made sense for him to infiltrate the First Order.

He'd made it pretty far up the ranks until Kylo Ren suspected him.

Screaming outside the door announced the arrival of the enemy. Lothor looked at the screen, desperately.  Still fifty percent of the information needed to be downloaded.  He knew that it would take those bucketheads a while to break through the coded door, he just hoped it was enough.   Thirty-five percent.  Something began to cut through the heavy armor of the door, the tip of a red light saber. Lothor could feel the fear running through him—through the tiny little outpost he had taken refuge in when fleeing the First Order.

Kylo Ren, the demon behind a metal mask.

Twenty-five percent.  Lothor unholstered his blaster and aimed it at the door.  He knew it would not hold off Kylo, he’d seen the man stop blast bolts mid-air, but it would provide a distraction, perhaps one long enough for the rest of the information to send to the Senator.

One hand on the controls of the computer, one eye watching as it ticked down, while the other hand held the blaster, the other eye watched as the metal of the door fell away.  Kylo stepped into the room, face hidden behind a mask. “Agent Lothor. The plans—you will stop that transmission immediately.”

“Make me,” Lothor snapped, firing at the dark side user. He wasn’t surprised when Kylo easily deflected the blasts with his saber.

“My patience is wearing thin,” Kylo snarled, holding his hand out and snatching Lothor in a paralyzing grasp. “The plans—now!”

Lothor managed to glance at the computer, even if he was being held against his will with the Force.  It was blinking: transmission sent.  “You’re too late, Ren.  The plans are in the hands of the Resistance.”

Kylo hissed, tightening his hold on the spy. “I will just trace the transmission.”

As if on cue, the computer console overheated, wires sparking and igniting, sending small plumes of smoke into the air. Lothor managed a weak smile. “Doesn’t seem like you’ll be able to. You can certainly give it a try, but I highly doubt you'll be successful.  Even if you are, good luck breaking through all the encryption codes.”

“I will get those plans back, traitor,” Kylo said.

“Like I said; good luck,” Lothor snapped.

Those were his last words. Kylo Ren cut him down and left his body behind.

Resistance Transport Ship

It was incredibly difficult to sleep on a transport ship.

Commander Poe Dameron—formally of the New Republic Navy, now a full-fledged member of the Resistance—had given up an hour ago to catch some shut eye. He laid on a bottom bunk, one arm behind his head, eyes staring up at the sleeping form of one of his lieutenants.  He regarded Iolo Arana and Karé Kun as family; he was both happy and relieved that they were joining him on this journey.  All three were tired of their hands being tied, of being told not to engage the First Order.  Well, the Navy’s lack of response had cost Lieutenant Muran his life and would have cost Poe his commission if Leia Organa had not taken notice.

Rolling over onto his side, Poe took a deep, steadying breath. He’d been shocked to see Leia when he landed back on Mirrin Prime after directly disobeying Lonno Deso’s orders. It had been five years since he’d seen her, five years since she formed the Resistance—five years since he’d walked away from the woman he loved without ever letting her know how he truly felt.  Squeezing his eyes shut, Poe fought his emotions, fought to push the image of Evelyn’s face the night they said goodbye from his mind.  He felt the same twist in his gut, the same clench of his heart, whenever he thought about her. He’d been so young and stupid five years ago, walking away from her at her most vulnerable hour because he had some stupid oath to the Republic to honor…

“You thinking about her?” Iolo mumbled next to him.

“Every waking hour,” Poe mumbled back.

Iolo sat up on his bunk.  The Kershian had been there when things had all gone to hell five years ago, he’d been there when they had gone to hell five days ago.  “Have you thought about what you’re going to say to her when you see her?”

Poe winced. No, he had not thought about it, even though he knew it was going to be unavoidable.  She would be there; she would be fighting right alongside her aunt to protect the galaxy from tyranny. “What can I say to her? I left, Iolo…”

The other man sighed, pushing his hair back. “How about starting with I’m sorry.”

His chest tightened. “Yeah… that probably is a good place to start.”

Karé shifted above him, her voice sleepily calling down, “And then you should probably tell her what an idiot you are, you know, for walking away from her like that—after she pleaded with you to join her, to fight with her.”

“And after giving her that really expensive, beautiful pendant,” Iolo added.

“Right. I forgot about the kyber crystal,” Karé said.  “Stars, Poe, you suck at the romance thing.”

“Alright, alright, I get it,” Poe whispered, harshly, noticing that their conversation was disturbing the recruits that had managed to fall asleep on the transport. “I suck at romance.”

Iolo glanced at the commander, then up at Karé.  In the last five years, they’d watched as Poe pined away for Evelyn, even making some desperate attempts to move on from her that never really panned out because, quite frankly, Poe had never stopped loving Evelyn.  “Maybe you should also throw in there that you love her,” he said, then shrugged his shoulders, “you know, just a suggestion.”

Poe rolled onto his back once again, rubbing his hands over his face. What if she’s moved on? What if she doesn’t love me? These thoughts had plagued him for a while now, but more so since he agreed to go with Leia back to the Resistance.  “I don’t know if that’s what she wants to hear… it’s been five years Iolo, anything could have happened in those five years.”

Karé clicked her tongue. “You think she’s moved on? Well… I guess with how you left things… I don’t say I blame her if she did.”

Neither do I, Poe thought, instantly hating himself. I broke her heart, I made her believe that the Republic was more important than she was.  Kun is right—you are an idiot. 

It was with this thought on the brain that Poe fell into a restless sleep.  He was woken by the transport coming out of hyperspace and the lights going from dim to harsh.  Inwardly groaning, Poe climbed out from underneath his bunk, grabbing his duffel at his feet.  He slung the bag over his shoulder and woke BB-8 from his low power mode.  The droid buzzed to life, asking if they had arrived at their new destination.  “We have for now, buddy, let’s go.”

BB-8 followed behind the three pilots, his photoreceptor taking in the scene.  They were on a bright, shiny, refitted Mon Calamari cruiser.  In the hanger there were various makes of starfighters, mostly slightly older models of X-wings.  He was happy that his master had not left him behind, that he believed he could do some good for the Resistance as well. 

A slender, very young woman with dark hair, met the three pilots at the end of the ramp.  Poe tossed her a smile. “Hi Korrie,” he said, recalling the nickname that Leia had often used with her. “Are you the welcoming committee?”

Korr Sella pulled her lips into a small smile. “Commander. Yes, I guess you could say in a way I am the welcoming committee.  General Organa wanted to meet with you as soon as you arrived. I’m here to take you to her. Lieutenant Kun, Lieutenant Arana, someone will be along to help you get settled into your quarters. I’m sure you’re all tired from your trip.  I know how difficult it can be to sleep on those transports.”

Poe glanced at his squad, gave them a slight nod that it was okay, and then left the hanger with Korr—BB-8 following closing behind him.  They were led through the stark white corridors until they reached the General’s private office.   The young woman entered a code in the keypad, and the doors opened.

“Commander Dameron has arrived, General,” Korr announced as they stepped into her space.

“About time,” Leia Organa quipped from behind her desk. She rose her whisky brown eyes to his and smiled, “What took you so long, Poe?”

“Stubbornness?” Poe offered, because he didn’t have any other explanation.

Leia chuckled. “I guess that’s good as any explanation as I’m ever going to get.”

Poe smiled, sadly. “Maybe I just needed to see things for myself.”

“Perhaps.  And now that you’ve seen these things do you see what I was talking about five years ago?”

“Yes ma’am, and I’m sorry that I didn’t see it sooner.”

“I’m not sure I’m the one that you really need to be apologizing to, Poe,” Leia said, softly.

“I know,” Poe replied in a near whisper, casting his eyes downward.

Leia took a deep breath, sympathy filling her brown eyes. “I’m sorry, Poe, about Lieutenant Muran.  He was a good pilot.”

Poe nodded in agreement. “An even better man.”

BB-8 warbled in agreement, which caused Leia to smile. “I see you still have your droid.”

“Wouldn’t trade him for anything in the galaxy, ma’am,” Poe said, with fondness. “He’s saved my life quite a few times.”

“And for that the Resistance is thankful,” Leia commented. “I don’t know how much Korrie was able to tell you, but we lost our wing commander a few weeks ago, my fighter squadrons have been a royal mess and we haven’t been able to send anyone out on any missions, except recruiting.  I’ve thought about giving the job to Kaleb or Evelyn, but they don’t have military training—can outfly most of our pilots—but lack the strategic planning, formation knowledge.”

Poe remained neutral.  He had no doubt that Kaleb or Evelyn Skywalker had the piloting skills to be wing commander, however, Leia was right—neither of them had been trained by the military. “Is this like the old days, when you would comm me and ask for advice on pilots and if I thought they were up for the job?”

Leia smiled and shrugged her shoulders.  “Something like that,” she said. “Lieutenant Kun and Arana are due promotions, both capable leaders in their own right.  I have about twelve pilots that just entered the ranks and I think they could whip them into shape fast.”

He titled his head to the side, glanced at BB-8, and nodded in agreement with the General. “Both are fine pilots, would make great squadron leaders. Although, I’d hate to lose them… it’s time for them to move up in the ranks.  They’ve more than earned it.”

She continued to smile at him. “I’m glad to hear you say that, Poe. Because I feel you need to move up in the ranks as well—you’ve more than earned it.  I only wish I could see the look on the brass' faces when they find out what I’ve done.  You angered a lot of people higher up.”

“I did what I thought was right, ma’am.”

“I know.  And stop calling me ma’am.”

“Do you prefer General?”

“I prefer Leia.”

Poe smiled, shyly. He felt that he needed to earn her respect back before he ever started calling her Leia. “Give me more time with that, General.”

Leia shook her head and handed him a data pad. “We’re going to be working together a lot, Commander Dameron, if you’re going to be our wing commander.”

His dark brown eyes went wide for a second.  Poe could hear BB-8 beeping and warbling, brushing his dome against the pilot’s calf. “Ma’am—General—Leia…are you sure?” he stammered, not sure what to call her or what to say, exactly.

She grinned at him and stretched her hand out, offering a firm handshake. “I never make decisions lightly, Poe.  As I told you on Mirrin Prime, we need passionate right about now, someone devoted to doing the right thing at all times, even if that means getting a little reckless here and there.  So, congratulations. Now, your first official order of business—go to your quarters, get some rest.  I’ll see you in the morning at zero seven hundred to meet with the others.”

“Yes ma’am,” Poe said with a slight grin, finally feeling like he was actually doing something about the First Order.

“Poe,” Leia called to him just before Korr led him to his quarters, “you need to talk to her, and soon; you’ve already waited five years too many, don’t you think?”

Yes, I probably should have chased after that transport five years ago; said goodbye to the Navy—but Papa, how could I turn my back on him? Poe knew that was a ridiculous excuse, his father would have supported his decision no matter what.  “Does she even want to…see me?”

Leia sized him up for a moment, how the usually cool, confident young man was so absolutely unsure of himself when it came to speaking to her niece. “I don’t have the answer to that question.  I can tell you that in the months after we left Hosnian Prime, she kept trying to find answers as to why you walked away.”

Poe winced, his eyes catching sight of BB-8. “Did you tell her because I was a coward?”

“I didn’t tell her anything. Other than you had your reasons for staying behind.”

“I put my oath before her.”

“Common mistake that a lot of good leaders make, Poe.”

“General Organa… I never meant… I didn’t want to hurt her.”

Her stance softened, a motherly look coming to her eyes. Leia knew this, he did not need to tell her.  Poe had been there the night the Jedi Temple had been destroyed, he’d been there when Evelyn and Kaleb had revealed that it was her own son that had perpetrated it all and if circumstances were slightly different, perhaps Poe would have been there when she formed the Resistance.  However, that was all in the past.  “Just talk to her, Commander. You both need closure.”

His shoulders slumped, slightly, and he nodded, looking more exhausted than he had five minutes ago.  Poe heard Leia order him to get some sleep once again, and he was off, following Korr. She made small talk; he could tell she was feeling slightly uncomfortable given all the history that Poe shared with Leia and her family. BB-8 certainly perked up when the young woman mentioned that they had already placed a charging station on Poe’s quarters for him.  Poe smiled, tiredly. “Thanks. He really hates charging in the hanger.  Too cold for him.”

Korr shot him a funny look. “Do droids feel temperature?”

Poe shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know.  It’s just what he’s told me. Besides, he’s my pal, and I kinda hate the idea of him alone in that hanger.”

“There are other droids charging in the hanger,” Korr pointed out.

“Yeah but none as special as BeeBee,” Poe supplied, scratching his droid for good measure.

She rolled her eyes and left him for the night outside of his new living space.  He took a deep breath and keyed the code in.  Stepping inside he could make out a small sitting area with a sofa, chair, and table; there was a desk on the far-right side, and on the left a door to the refresher and his bedroom.  Next to the sofa he could see BB-8’s charging station. 

Poe heaved a sigh as the door closed behind him. “Home sweet home,” he murmured to the droid. 

BB-8 brushed against him, softly beeping.

“I’m fine, buddy, tired,” Poe assured the droid. He dropped his bag down near the sofa. “Why don’t you plug in for the night? Sounds like we have a busy day tomorrow.”

[jmtorres]

Did it, because I would rather tumblr make money this way than off of post+ BS. Part of me feels like it's a high cost but good grief I pay $5 a month for MarioKart Gold, like, it's worth it to me? I am on tumblr approximately every day, it is one of the ways I feed my ADHD brain enough varied input not to crawl the walls, so it was a worthwhile investment for me.

[image description: screencap of "Ad-Free Browsing" tab of Tumblr settings on desktop/browser view, showing "Your subscription is active" in a green highlight box, describing the plan as "Enjoy Tumblr without interruptions from ads" and "$39.99/year" with a button below to "Cancel subscription"; a "Payment method" description with credit card information blacked out by the screencapper for user security, showing a date of February 25, 2023 for the next payment; and a button at the bottom to "Contact support" if you "Need some help with your subscription?" /end id]

Couldn't do it through the iOS app, had to do it in the browser, but that means apple doesn't take a (n enormous) cut, and more money goes to keeping the tumblr servers from doing a whoopsy or whatever the silly error message is.

I suspect some people are having a kneejerk negative reaction to the idea of a subscription service because we're starting to have more prominent conversations about how the digital world and digital providers want us to pay for a subscription rather than buying media outright (ie Adobe and Microsoft switching to a model where you have to pay monthly to access their software and your files, and streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Spotify, instead of just buying DVDs/blu-rays/CDs/or even non-physical purchases like off of BandCamp, although there's also something to be said about if you don't download your digital purchases and expect to be able to get them out of the cloud from whatever device then you're at the mercy of the media provider anyway). (Sidenote: is my comparison of MarioKart Gold essentially doing what Adobe does re making you subscribe for software? Sort of, but. MarioKart updates with new race tracks/variations of race tracks every 2 weeks, periodically comes out with new drivers, carts, etc, and also has a live component where you race against other users. And technically you can get most of that without paying anything! But my point is they're actually making the game interesting on an ongoing basis, rather than it being a static piece of software that COULD be a single purchase, and that's how I justify subscribing to them.)

SO THEN, Tumblr. What does Tumblr offer that makes it worth a subscription rather than a one-off purchase (possibly elsewhere)? Tumblr is not merely a media storage system, although the immense amount of images and video people upload on here is part of why they need significant funds to function. It's also (micro)blogging/interaction. Their service is a real-time, (approximately) social media service, not just media/software rental like the subscription services you may have seen rants telling you to get rid of. Tumblr is a way I get varied viewpoints and interests from users I have chosen to follow, not from an algorithm designed to get clicks out of me like on youtube or tiktok or instagram or twitter. (Obviously Tumblr does have "best stuff first" and "because you liked" which we do not want, but hey, they are settings you can TURN OFF.) Tumblr is a hub where I get to see what you are all watching and reading and drawing and making and analyzing and writing. This is not readily duplicable by following your individual RSS feeds the way something like Spotify is duplicable by buying the music you want directly from the actual artists. I mean, SOME of you have your own sites and sell the art you make, but I don't think most of the people I follow are monetized actually, and by and large, the general internet user no longer has (or knows the meaning of) an RSS feed, and I'm not sure the general internet user ever did or if I was in a weird niche in the early 2000s. I can't aggregate you all to view easily without this service, so Tumblr is actually doing me a service.

Both MarioKart and Tumblr are doing something I like: you CAN get most of the functionality for free, they're not requiring you to pay. I think, unfortunately, that also means that a lot of people devalue the functionality that's provided, because there's a mentality of, if I can get it for free, it's not worth anything, is it? But before you decry Tumblr offering a subscription for ad-free service, remember a) no one is making you pay for it, you can just choose not to spend money on it if you don't think it's worth it to you or if money's tight, and you can still get most of the functionality of Tumblr, and b) Tumblr DOES have functionality most of us like or we wouldn't be here. We like having our dashboard in reverse chronological order. We like the tag system. We like the ability to post high-quality pictures, videos, and long text posts. We like being able to reply to posts. We like being able to send asks (and some people like being able to receive them!). We like the communities of users we've chosen to follow, that Tumblr allows us to connect to. We like not being relentlessly tracked like on Facebook, and frankly, paying for a subscription DIRECTLY allows that to keep being a thing, because the other main option for income for a site like Tumblr is relentless tracking used for targeted ads. Like Facebook does.

Sure, there are problems with Tumblr. It's not perfect. It could stand improvement. It's made mistakes in the past (though not all of them are its fault--if you want to get upset about certain types images and words no longer being allowed here, you need to get mad at Apple's walled-garden philosophy about their app store, and about United States legislation limiting what's allowed on the internet. I'm not being super specific here so my comments don't get shadow-banned due to "bad" keyword usage. And that's a 'feature' of Tumblr that is super terrible but you can definitely point the finger at Apple throwing a tantrum and Tumblr trying to keep questionable posts from popping up in Apple's test searches so that the Tumblr app can stay in the iOS store. I've read about Apple/the iOS App Store limitations being extremely up for interpretation to the individual Apple tester, like, it's inconsistent and therefore extremely difficult to meet the standards because the standards are not standardized. Tumblr is basically doing the best that it can on that front).

But my point is, for all of the problems with Tumblr, you and I are still here using it, it has enough features that make it worth using to us. And it's up to you if those features are worth paying for, for your own use case and budget and priorities, but please acknowledge that there are positive features, even if you choose to take advantage of the option to continue using them for free.

And if you do become a paying subscriber? That means Tumblr is more likely to listen to you and me about future changes and future problems.

This is 100% new and 100% Tumblr with 0% ads.

If you love ads, then this post is not for you. If you love Tumblr but hate ads and want the one to continue without having to endure the other, then this post is literally for you. Hello, you.

As of today, you can set up ad-free browsing on your personal desktop computer, from anywhere in the world, and then enjoy the same effervescent Tumblr you know and love (yes, including mobile) without the interruption of ads. Scroll away.

Some caveats:

It’s $4.99 for a month of pure, unadulterated nonsense.

If you like a discount, you can get 33% off (that’s four months for free) at $39.99 for a whole year. Imagine.

This is opt-in. You don’t have to do this. We won’t make you.

How do you opt in?

Easy! Just go to your Account Settings on desktop and hit "Go Ad-Free." From there, you can choose to pay monthly or yearly:

And that’s it! You’ll be able to enjoy your favorite blogs and posts without any pesky ads getting in the way.

That’s all for now, Tumblr. Back to your blorbos.

[ryouverua]

Trial 4 - Post-Trial (Pre-Execution)

Investigation 1 / 2

Trial: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW FEW SHITS I GIVE ABOUT YOUR PREGNANCY DRAMA RIGHT NOW

Glad you care as much as I do, Monokuma.

... Nothing? He’s completely stone faced. What does that mean? Is he shaken at how Shuichi wrest control from him at the very end? Is it regret? Taking the time to mull things over, or brace himself? Something else? I’m pretty convinced he showed a lot more of his true self in this trial than he usually does, so he may be trying to calm himself down. Hmm....

Nice reflex, Kokichi!

H-He’s just going to roll with that? Well, I guess he did get the murder he was hoping for...

MY CUTE LIPS

how dare you make me laugh during such a trying time

Wait, are you saying the memories are being held separately now? You’d think the avatar error would corrupt that kind of data. I guess I might be overthinking things though - I suppose the memory data could be being held separately until Gonta goes back in and is able to retrieve them properly? ... Yeah I’m definitely overthinking this.

OH WELL OKAY NEVER MIND THAT’S APPARENTLY SPOT ON

no way

NO WAY WE HAVE AN ALTER EGO GONTA

ahem, my apologies, ~Gonta Alter Ego~

Well shit, there’s that second self Gonta had been lacking!

FML THEY’RE SO CUTE

WHY DID THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN PRE-EXECUTION UGH

So we’re establishing that they have the power to do this kind of work, huh? I guess... having a mini-killing game simulator inside another killing game simulator would be too much? I do remember that one image of Kaede with that helmet on her head, but...

Wait so - wait wait wait, doesn’t that mean Gonta Alter Ego knew that real boy Gonta wouldn’t be able to remember what happened in the world?

No seriously, give me a second to think about this -

- I’m 99% sure Gonta wasn’t lying to us when he said he didn’t realize he switched the cables. He did make it sound like it sound like he was following what Himiko was saying.

- Could Kokichi have tricked him into switching them? But then that would a) mean that Kokichi knew what the error would be and how it would affect Gonta and b) fly in the face of everything we saw in the last half of the trial, including absolutely losing it on Gonta when he was incapable of defending himself. He was also sitting on the opposite side of the room, and I’m pretty sure everyone would have kept Kokichi from physically putting together his helmet because, well, come on.

- Is Gonta Alter Ego’s existence dependent on the error, as I mentioned earlier? Monokuma said that he was created using the simulated thought patterns of Gonta via his previous login and combine them with the leftover memories. I wonder if they could do that with anyone else? Or or or -

- Monokuma has very, very easy access to this stuff! What does it say about Monokuma and the whole situation that he has the memory and personalty files on hand like this? Could the computer really be powerful enough for them to have completely - well - scanned their brains in a way that allows him to just pull up Gonta again, after the fact, without Gonta being directly plugged in?

- I... just... keep returning to seeing Kaede and Shuichi in that helmet from way back when, you know? That was supposed to be them losing their talents, but if that’s true (and it isn’t my semi-crack theory about them having downloaded the personalities/memories/etc of previous dead? Ultimates or something - “I want to die”), then that would mean their talents, their beings - because I think it’s fair to say their talent informs their personalities, and vice versa - are literal digital files floating around somewhere that had to be accessible in order for them to be ‘returned’ to them - and man, if Monokuma had access to those, that would help solve how he planned to act on that Necronomicon motive if Angie was able to go through with it!

Interesting how this has been the motive in the first, second and now this chapter, huh? Kirumi might not have included the class in her ‘everyone’, but that was definitely what moved her hand.

meanwhile Korekiyo Shinguuji, you special, awful, special boy...

His weakest points, of course, are always painfully exposed during the trials, and there have been plenty of people willing to comment on them, even when they’re thinking they are being kind about it (and of course, not all of them are). His strengths - rendered useless, nearly immediately.

And his talent - well, other than pointing out the distinct lack of insects in the area, the only time it was ‘used’ was in the disastrous Insect Meet-n-Greet. When it rains, it pours.

Maybe that’s what Gonta needed - not just someone to listen, but someone who could relate to him so strongly. But of course, at this late hour...

Damn, and it changed from ‘able to’ to ‘willing to’.

And there it is - straight from the horse’s mouth. No wait, that’s not right - we got it from the horse’s mouth earlier, but our resident horse is an admitted liar -

I don’t know if he’s so much ‘bad’ as he is being cagey about his reasons.

Wait you what??? So the card key is for a place we haven’t been able to access yet? Where, then? An area of the school we haven’t unlocked yet? A viewing tower - or hell, Kaito’s lab? That would be the prime place to have a (powerful) telescope and we haven’t gotten it yet -  

“Save everyone” - it sounds... less believable from you, but at the same time... I’m just, are you saying it for Gonta’s sake? To trick us? Or are these your real thoughts? You’re a smart guy, Kokichi - you have to know that getting past the obstacle that is Miu here is only a short-term win. From this point on, you’re going to have to live with everyone left, and Gonta isn’t going to be here to protect you...

And hell, if these are - were - your real thoughts, at the time, does that mean you really were thrown off enough in the trial that you threw everything you and Gonta planned to the wind?

So, the meeting we got to peek in on... Man, I really, really want to know how Kokichi was able to figure out Miu was gunning for him. Maybe they’ll explain that next chapter? He’s perceptive, but there’s gotta be a limit - right?

Oh, so that’s - completely - hm. At first it seemed like the motive was ‘the right to see it’ - something for the classmates to fight, or kill over. But now, the way Monokuma is talking - he’s making it sound like seeing the outside itself is enough to drive someone to murder. I am... totally... biased by my VLR-loving ass and still thinking it has to do with them being in space/on a ship, and them either being far, far away from Earth or them being able to see the devastated ruins of Earth after being pelted by meteors.

So, uh, I feel like that motive would work with everyone except... maybe Kaito lmao. N-Not that I think he wouldn't be upset, but I imagine he’d be like, oh fUCK YES WE’RE IN SPACE! And oh, that’s definitely not Earth. There’s no way the Earth was destroyed. It’s totally fine, we just can’t see if from where we are! insert monokuma hitting his head against the wall in the background

So there actually was something in the simulation after all of that? I was 99% at this point that it was all a lie too!

Why do you insist that the motive and the case itself are separate???? Sure, knowing the exact mechanics are important, but knowing what moves the hand and heart in the end are pretty damn important!

This... this had to be when they left near the beginning. Does that mean they were carrying the Flashback Light with them the whole time after that???

OH you little stinker

By the way:

vs

Interesting choice in wording by both of them. Earlier Kokichi said he ‘showed’ Gonta, and here he says he ‘entrusted him with it” - both very much a way of talking about Gonta as if he was at least near him, if not equal to him. However, Kaito is using the term ‘exposed to’ which is very... well, passive, and really makes Gonta out to be the victim. So who do we believe? Kaito’s side, where Gonta is just a hapless victim in all of this? Or Kokichi’s side, where Gonta was a willing perpetrator? We’re going to get more on that, but I think the way they talk about Gonta is so interesting - it’s clear a lot of the classmates ended up putting Gonta on a pedestal via infantilization, something we’ve brought up before, and I (RELUCTANTLY) love how that was used against them all as a weapon.

Also damn it I definitely checked all over the map and found nothing but that was only because Kokichi got to it first >:( 

It’s always interesting to watch how Kokichi uses his status as a liar to get what he wants.

All of the sayings I want to use right now involve horses for some reason, and I swear that isn’t intentional, but what comes to mind immediately is, “you can lead a horse to water, but can’t make it drink.” And of course the inverse is right here - Kokichi led Gonta to the light and chose the exact words that he knew would make him pick it up himself, but unlike what Kaito said ‘Gonta was exposed to it’, which paints the picture of Kokichi unexpectedly blasting him with the light - Gonta practically runs over before shining it on himself. With that said, I’m absolutely not absolving Kokichi of wrongdoing - he is fully aware of how desperately Gonta wants to feel useful. Feelsbadman.jpg

METEORS? RADICAL 6? HINAMIZAWA SYNDROME EPIDEMIC???

FUCKING BRUTAL

But... damn it. No, this makes sense. This was the motive I was struggling with outside of ‘killing in defence of someone else’. Ah, damn it, damn it, Gonta...

ISN’T

WAIT

ISN’T THAT WHAT SHUICHI REMEMBERED HIMSELF SAYING

Man, I can’t imagine how shocking it would be to see someone who is you, with just a few hours of extra memories and a bit more insight separating you, saying something like that.

And he was able to find some reprieve last chapter via Angie, but then she died... Oh, Angie, you were divisive and manipulative as hell and I even found times when you rubbed me the wrong way, but I’m still mad about you going out the way you did. You earned that halo and those wings on your portrait, damn it!

Seeing Gonta like this is breaking my heart. oTL But damn it, ‘outside is hell’. That’s... leading exactly where I think it is, huh...

I’m just struggling with how convenient it was for him to target Miu, who was coming after him! I guess he knew that Miu was creating circumstances for her to murder him away from prying eyes which, of course, worked out in the opposite direction, but still - !

This is a terrible time to push the ‘Gonta is martyring himself for us’ line strategically speaking, which... could mean that either this is from the heart (evidence for - his current sprite, which seems to only accompany the most weighty lines and is far different than his usual crying sprite / evidence against - the way he attacked Gonta in the trial... unless now that the trial is over and the execution is looming, he’s realized their time together is limited?) or this is his way of thanking Gonta for his service, by trying to get him the recognition he craved before he dies? Or something else entirely?

Is this... real, Kokichi??? Is this real??? And possibly a much better use of the ‘despair’ mechanic than DR3 could ever hope to use???

still a stupid name

The shocking thing is how simple this all is when you look at it. The complications came from Miu’s murder plan, and the only thing that implicated Gonta is the avatar setting on Kokichi’s avatar. Without that one clue, they would have absolutely would have implicated Kokichi.

I do enjoy that in the face of ‘death’, he’s still able to make jokes like this. Then again, maybe it’s only because of having Gonta as back-up that he can... 

Yeah, she is not happy about being called out. She’s pretty resolute despite that, which speaks to how confident she is in her work.

Of course, Miu being Miu, she has to say it out loud because her general insecurity is next level.

Aaha never mind about what I said before - this is absolutely because he has Gonta on back up. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was his signal to Gonta to come and ‘save’ him.

Isn’t it amazing that we have now had two killers who both want to get out to ‘help everyone’ and believe they alone can do that in a way no one else can?

He actually made a remark about how Miu’s reason was just an excuse, which - man, ‘your murder isn’t valid but ours is?’ That sure as hell wouldn’t fly in court.

Ugh, and this is why I’m super curious about if the faces they make in the simulation can be manipulated by the user of the avatar or if they are directly informed by how they’re feeling and can’t be controlled. This is a very angry face or someone who has previously described this as a ‘fun killing game’! Is it authentic or not?

I’m not sure if it’s nice of Kokichi to tell Gonta and everyone else that Gonta was able to come up with that plan or not. On the one hand, it really rubs in the fact that everyone was underestimating him. On the other hand, it further dirties his hands to have participated in the cover-up afterwards.

Again... is this more kindness on his part or not? This isn’t a team that real Gonta would ever want to be on, but on the other hand he is validating Gonta as an equal in a way that he was never able to in the regular school life..

Yeah, actually though... fair.

I-I don’t know if I would go so far as saying tricked, Kaito! God, I do love you, but you are making incredibly rash and biased decisions right now!

Real!Gonta is miserable because he killed Miu and Gonta Alter Ego is miserable because he made everyone suffer needlessly and he’s assuming they will continue to suffer as they outlive him and everything is such a damn mess right now fml

Meanwhile Shuichi’s heart is being torn in half which, you know, #relatable

Notably absent: ‘us’. Not please forgive us, please forgive him.

Interestingly enough, it’s changed from ‘their plan’ to ‘Gonta’s plan’ now that he’s casting it in a sympathetic way.

And here we are, on the opposite side of the ‘truth and lies’ theme - being presented with a case where maybe it is better to not know. I can see why Umineko fans really enjoy DRV3 - replace ‘lies’ with ‘fantasy’ or ‘magic’ and we’ve got that same battle being fought out here. Actually, now that I think about it, both had a ‘lower level’ game master obscuring the truth with fantasy/lies with a ‘higher level’ game master pushing the protagonist(s) to find the terrible, bloody truth...

This sprite is a bit closer to his ‘crocodile tears’ sprite so I’m a bit wary, but - hm...

I wonder if their deaths would have been instantaneous, similarly to VLR and their poisoned bracelets, or if it would be a spectacle. Oooh, a terrible thought - if everyone aside from the culprit was dragged off to their own personalized execution...

The fact that Gonta Alter Ego is willing to jump to Kokichi’s aid would mean more if he hadn’t also been so fast to help Kokichi out in Chapter 2. :(

“Role of the villain”, huh? This... if all of this and everything coming after are his true feelings, then...

Shuichi has his role as the detective, and he has his role as the Supreme Leader - but who but you yourself imposed that burden on you???

He’s really trying to create a clear line between Gonta and himself - Gonta is a martyr, who took it upon himself to do a terrible deed on behalf of Kokichi, while Kokichi, the villain extraordinaire, was the bastard who pushed the burden all onto Gonta. How the hell is he going to survive the next chapter??? I swear I keep saying, Kokichi, are you trying to make yourself a bigger target - but seriously, Kokichi, are you trying to make yourself a bigger target here???

He is really not used to anyone coming to bat for him! Especially after that bit about ‘everyone hating him’ this must be like a punch to the gut. 

You will always be a gentleman to me!!!

AH NO FUCK I MEAN WE ALL KNEW THIS WAS COMING BUT -

Shuichi is me right now because - is this, real? Are you legitimately saying that? I... I’m pretty sure you were the one who brought up how Monokuma would never let one of us switch out for the blackened in Kirumi’s trial, or am I just misremembering??? Is it okay for me to be questioning your sincerity right now? I feel awful, but -

He... Maybe he was prepared to get executed, if they landed on him as the criminal. Would Monokuma have let them choose Kokichi as the killer if they got it wrong, or would he really have killed everyone else and left Gonta alive? What if they had tied in the votes? Would Monokuma have executed both of them?

T... This just brings me back to Kaede, but this time it’s directed at Kokichi specifically as well as everyone else...

K... Kokichi turnaround? Maybe? M... Maybe he’ll... actually pull a Kuzuryuu and work with....... us......... why does that not seem likely at all......

I REALLY DON’T GIVE TWO SHITS ABOUT YOU TWO CAN YOU NOT

H-He has a specific “Gonta!!!” audio clip?! A-And his face here, omg - 

Even now he’s just thinking about what he wasn’t able to do as;lkdfj

NO KOKICHI ACTUALLY CRYING FOR GONTA IS MAKING THIS 100 TIMES WORSE

NO THIS ISN’T - DON’T LET THOSE BE HIS LAST WORDS - NO FUCK NO NO ASL;DFKJ -

WHELP - 

You may be wondering why the screenshots cut off here. The answer is - oh dear god Monophanie just went full ALIEN on us and mY GOD YOU’RE GOING TO KILL OFF GONTA, BUT ALSO HAVE A FUCKING SCYTHER RIP OUT OF HER STOMACH AND GO ON A MURDER RAMPAGE

yeah I was, uh, physically unable to keep screenshotting though the execution

but I can still give you my general thoughts ranging from the eloquent to the general brain babbling:

whY is she getting so big the pregnancy thing is gross enough but -

Oh god she’s swelling up, Gonta’s face is swelling up, everything is terrible -

WHY. WHY OH GOD WHY WHO CAME UP WITH THIS EXECUTION IDEA

Rest in fucking pieces Monophanie/Monotaro, I didn’t expect you both to die but I’m not mad about it

Evil Scyther fUCK NO i-it... ran Gonta through....

And now they’ve been set on fire for NO FUCKING REASON DAMN IT YOU’RE ALREADY STINGING HIM AND HE’S BEEN STABBED - I-I suppose it could be seen as a reverse Celes, considering she was going to go out via fire then was unexpectedly hit by that truck

For that matter this was also very - well, they killed Alter Ego in the first chapter 4, so that’s the obvious reference, but all those insect shots was a bit ‘A Million Fungoes’ too, yeah?

[continuations]

World After Capital: Bots for All of Us (Informational Freedom)

NOTE: I have been posting excerpts from my book World After Capital. Currently we are on the Informational Freedom section and the previous excerpt was on Internet Access. Today looks at the right to be represented by a bot (code that works on your behalf).

Bots for All of Us

Once you have access to the Internet, you need software to connect to its many information sources and services. When Sir Tim Berners-Lee first invented the World Wide Web in 1989 to make information sharing on the Internet easier, he did something very important [95]. He specified an open protocol, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol or HTTP, that anyone could use to make information available and to access such information. By specifying the protocol, Berners-Lee opened the way for anyone to build software, so-called web servers and browsers that would be compatible with this protocol. Many did, including, famously, Marc Andreessen with Netscape. Many of the web servers and browsers were available as open source and/or for free.

The combination of an open protocol and free software meant two things: Permissionless publishing and complete user control. If you wanted to add a page to the web, you didn't have to ask anyone's permission. You could just download a web server (e.g. the open source Apache), run it on a computer connected to the Internet, and add content in the HTML format. Voila, you had a website up and running that anyone from anywhere in the world could visit with a web browser running on his or her computer (at the time there were no smartphones yet). Not surprisingly, content available on the web proliferated rapidly. Want to post a picture of your cat? Upload it to your webserver. Want to write something about the latest progress on your research project? No need to convince an academic publisher of the merits. Just put up a web page.

People accessing the web benefited from their ability to completely control their own web browser. In fact, in the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the web browser is referred to as a “user agent” that accesses the Web on behalf of the user. Want to see the raw HTML as delivered by the server? Right click on your screen and use “view source.” Want to see only text? Instruct your user agent to turn off all images. Want to fill out a web form but keep a copy of what you are submitting for yourself? Create a script to have your browser save all form submissions locally as well.

Over time, popular platforms on the web have interfered with some of the freedom and autonomy that early users of the web used to enjoy. I went on Facebook the other day to find a witty note I had written some time ago on a friend's wall. It turns out that Facebook makes finding your own wall posts quite difficult. You can't actually search all the wall posts you have written in one go; rather, you have to go friend by friend and scan manually backwards in time. Facebook has all the data, but for whatever reason, they've decided not to make it easily searchable. I'm not suggesting any misconduct on Facebook's part—that's just how they've set it up. The point, though, is that you experience Facebook the way Facebook wants you to experience it. You cannot really program Facebook differently for yourself. If you don't like how Facebook's algorithms prioritize your friends' posts in your newsfeed, then tough luck, there is nothing you can do.

Or is there? Imagine what would happen if everything you did on Facebook was mediated by a software program—a “bot”—that you controlled. You could instruct this bot to go through and automate for you the cumbersome steps that Facebook lays out for finding past wall posts. Even better, if you had been using this bot all along, the bot could have kept your own archive of wall posts in your own data store (e.g., a Dropbox folder); then you could simply instruct the bot to search your own archive. Now imagine we all used bots to interact with Facebook. If we didn't like how our newsfeed was prioritized, we could simply ask our friends to instruct their bots to send us status updates directly so that we can form our own feeds. With Facebook on the web this was entirely possible because of the open protocol, but it is no longer possible in a world of proprietary and closed apps on mobile phones.

Although this Facebook example might sound trivial, bots have profound implications for power in a networked world. Consider on-demand car services provided by companies such as Uber and Lyft. If you are a driver today for these services, you know that each of these services provides a separate app for you to use. And yes you could try to run both apps on one phone or even have two phones. But the closed nature of these apps means you cannot use the compute power of your phone to evaluate competing offers from the networks and optimize on your behalf. What would happen, though, if you had access to bots that could interact on your behalf with these networks? That would allow you to simultaneously participate in all of these marketplaces, and to automatically play one off against the other.

Using a bot, you could set your own criteria for which rides you want to accept. Those criteria could include whether a commission charged by a given network is below a certain threshold. The bot, then, would allow you to accept rides that maximize the net fare you receive. Ride sharing companies would no longer be able to charge excessive commissions, since new networks could easily arise to undercut those commissions. For instance, a network could arise that is cooperatively owned by drivers and that charges just enough commission to cover its costs. Likewise, as a passenger using a bot could allow you to simultaneously evaluate the prices between different car services and choose the service with the lowest price for your current trip. The mere possibility that a network like this could exist would substantially reduce the power of the existing networks.

We could also use bots as an alternative to anti-trust regulation to counter the overwhelming power of technology giants like Google or Facebook without foregoing the benefits of their large networks. These companies derive much of their revenue from advertising, and on mobile devices, consumers currently have no way of blocking the ads. But what if they did? What if users could change mobile apps to add Ad-Blocking functionality just as they can with web browsers?

Many people decry ad-blocking as an attack on journalism that dooms the independent web, but that's an overly pessimistic view. In the early days, the web was full of ad-free content published by individuals. In fact, individuals first populated the web with content long before institutions joined in. When they did, they brought with them their offline business models, including paid subscriptions and of course advertising. Along with the emergence of platforms such as Facebook and Twitter with strong network effects, this resulted in a centralization of the web. More and more content was produced either on a platform or moved behind a paywall.

Ad-blocking is an assertion of power by the end-user, and that is a good thing in all respects. Just as a judge recently found that taxi companies have no special right to see their business model protected, neither do ad-supported publishers [96]. And while in the short term this might prompt publishers to flee to apps, in the long run it will mean more growth for content that is paid for by end-users, for instance through a subscription, or even crowdfunded (possibly through a service such as Patreon).

To curtail the centralizing power of network effects more generally, we should shift power to the end-users by allowing them to have user agents for mobile apps, too. The reason users don't wield the same power on mobile is that native apps relegate end-users once again to interacting with services just using our eyes, ears, brain and fingers. No code can execute on our behalf, while the centralized providers use hundreds of thousands of servers and millions of lines of code. Like a web browser, a mobile user-agent could do things such as strip ads, keep copies of my responses to services, let me participate simultaneously in multiple services (and bridge those services for me), and so on. The way to help end-users is not to have government smash big tech companies, but rather for government to empower individuals to have code that executes on their behalf.

What would it take to make bots a reality? One approach would be to require companies like Uber, Google, and Facebook to expose all of their functionality, not just through standard human usable interfaces such as apps and web sites, but also through so-called Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). An API is for a bot what an app is for a human. The bot can use it to carry out operations, such as posting a status update on a user's behalf. In fact, companies such as Facebook and Twitter have APIs, but they tend to have limited capabilities. Also, companies presently have the right to control access so that they can shut down bots, even when a user has clearly authorized a bot to act on his or her behalf.

Why can't I simply write code today that interfaces on my behalf with say Facebook? After all, Facebook's own app uses an API to talk to their servers. Well in order to do so I would have to “hack” the existing Facebook app to figure out what the API calls are and also how to authenticate myself to those calls. Unfortunately, there are three separate laws on the books that make those necessary steps illegal.

The first is the anti-circumvention provision of the DMCA. The second is the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). The third is the legal construction that by clicking “I accept” on a EULA (End User License Agreement) or a set of Terms of Service I am actually legally bound. The last one is a civil matter, but criminal convictions under the first two carry mandatory prison sentences.

So if we were willing to remove all three of these legal obstacles, then hacking an app to give you programmatic access to systems would be possible. Now people might object to that saying those provisions were created in the first place to solve important problems. That's not entirely clear though. The anti circumvention provision of the DMCA was created specifically to allow the creation of DRM systems for copyright enforcement. So what you think of this depends on what you believe about the extent of copyright (a subject we will look at in the next section).

The CFAA too could be tightened up substantially without limiting its potential for prosecuting real fraud and abuse. The same goes for what kind of restriction on usage a company should be able to impose via a EULA or a TOS. In each case if I only take actions that are also available inside the company's app but just happen to take these actions programmatically (as opposed to manually) why should that constitute a violation?

But, don't companies need to protect their encryption keys? Aren't “bot nets” the culprits behind all those so-called DDOS (distributed denial of service) attacks? Yes, there are a lot of compromised machines in the world, including set top boxes and home routers that some are using for nefarious purposes. Yet that only demonstrates how ineffective the existing laws are at stopping illegal bots. Because those laws don't work, companies have already developed the technological infrastructure to deal with the traffic from bots.

How would we prevent people from adopting bots that turn out to be malicious code? Open source seems like the best answer here. Many people could inspect a piece of code to make sure it does what it claims. But that's not the only answer. Once people can legally be represented by bots, many markets currently dominated by large companies will face competition from smaller startups.

Legalizing representation by a bot would eat into the revenues of large companies, and we might worry that they would respond by slowing their investment in infrastructure. I highly doubt this would happen. Uber, for instance, was recently valued at $50 billion. The company's “takerate” (the percentage of the total amount paid for rides that they keep) is 20%. If competition forced that rate down to 5%, Uber's value would fall to $10 billion as a first approximation. That is still a huge number, leaving Uber with ample room to grow. As even this bit of cursory math suggests, capital would still be available for investment, and those investments would still be made.

That's not to say that no limitations should exist on bots. A bot representing me should have access to any functionality that I can access through a company's website or apps. It shouldn't be able to do something that I can't do, such as pretend to be another user or gain access to private posts by others. Companies can use technology to enforce such access limits for bots; there is no need to rely on regulation.

Even if I have convinced you of the merits of bots, you might still wonder how we might ever get there from here. The answer is that we can start very small. We could run an experiment with the right to be represented by a bot in a city like New York. New York's municipal authorities control how on demand transportation services operate. The city could say, “If you want to operate here, you have to let drivers interact with your service programmatically.” And I'm pretty sure, given how big a market New York City is, these services would agree.

[firsthopemedia]

Forget Conventional Dream Interpretation: Learn to Cultivate Your Dreams Today! FIRST HOPE MEDIA One of my favorite quotes of all time and I am sure many of you share my thoughts, is the speech by Martin Luther King at the civil rights march in Washington, 1963, which went like this: "I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood..." "I have a dream..." Indeed. Inspiring stuff. I want to discuss our dreams in a very practical way today. I want to talk about how to cultivate your dreaming. It really is a tremendously valuable thing to do. I want to steer away from conventional dream interpretation and will explain why. As of today, pay attention to your dreaming and your daydreaming. Dreams are important to us in many ways, because they do the following: Firstly, when you dream you actively process information and feelings. Secondly, dreams are always involving many senses, so the highly sensory experience is very rich. It is quite rare for us to use all our senses at once as we do when we dream. Thirdly, dreams give us valuable information about what is going on in our lives, whether directly or more often in a disguised or symbolic form. Fourthly, dreams are strongly sequenced, though often in a way which is emotionally rather than logically organised. Finally, dreams draw upon a rich range of unconscious, associative, creative links between many kinds of information. Some people remember their dreams; others tend to forget all but the most dramatic bits as soon as they wake. When you dream or daydream, take time to replay as much of it as you can in your mind before the events of the day overlay it. Relive the story of that dream. Remind yourself of the events, pictures, sensations and other sensory information it involved. This dream was the product of your mind. Marvel at your own creativity! This is amazing stuff here; get excited by it. If you get into the habit of asking yourself when you wake, “what did I dream?” you may at first only remember a few particularly strong feelings or vivid images: write them down and review it regularly. I actually used to write a dream journal and wrote everything down as soon as I opened my eyes each morning. It provided me with such inspiration when I required it. Naturally, lots of you may want to start with dream interpretation straight away. Resist the urge for dream interpretation, ok? Do your best not to assume that there is necessarily a single clear meaning which can be interpreted according to psychological theories or books on dream significance or dream interpretation. How can your dreams have the same meaning as someone else? Is your brain the same as that persons? For now, ease off the dream interpretation. I have found that the most useful assumption to make about dreams is that they have some kind of significance for you, the dreamer: they come from your internal, unconscious mind’s storehouse of feelings, experiences and images, and are an active and useful way of processing that is quite different from – and just as useful as – the processing that belongs to the logical conscious part of your mind. Often a strong feeling will be your first clue to the meaning a dream has for you: so note it, and wonder about it, but don’t try to rush to tie it down by conscious analysis. The real work of the dream is often done simply in the dreaming of it: the conscious mind does not always have to understand, and when it tries to translate dreams into its own terms it may be limiting it, just as poetry translated from another language usually loses something of its more subtle tapestry of meanings. Think about the value of dreams. Dreams demonstrate a different level of mental functioning from conscious, disciplined thought. When you pay attention to them, and even cultivate them, you are learning to become familiar with, to trust and to draw upon a fuller range of your own mental resources: in other words, you are using more of what you’ve got. Hey, this stuff is going to keep happening, so why not really use it. The mind works both consciously and unconsciously. Conscious thought is formally taught in our education system. Its strength is its systematic and disciplined way of handling information. Its limitation is that it tends to be rule-bound and too narrow in its problem-solving approach. The brain also processes information at an unconscious level: mostly, this is associative and depends on links, similarities and feelings. This processing produces dreams, as well as much of our other “creative” or “expressive” experience. That is why we are often surprised by the spontaneous connections we make or insights we have, and by our imaginative inspiration: it is not what we would have come up with consciously at all, yet it seems somehow completely “right”. This way of thinking works “laterally” – it expands, goes sideways and finds multiple avenues rather than just one. We need both kinds of functioning if we are to make the most of our brain power. Logic and intuition, discipline and divergence, are all vital tools that enrich and enable us. But whereas we are used to working with the conscious mind, in part because we are aware of it and can monitor it as it works, many people are less at ease trusting and using the unconscious processes. Paying attention to your dreams, and deliberately cultivating daydreaming, are both ways of stretching yourself into this area. So let us have a look at the value of deliberate daydreaming. Where dreams come unbidden, you may find it useful to deliberately evoke the conditions for daydreaming, if, like many people, you have not really valued the activity before now. How is it valuable? Daydreaming brings us escape and relaxation; visions of the future that inspire and help us to bring about what we have dreamed of; solutions to apparently unsolvable problems; inventions and creative possibilities. Daydream states allow the unconscious, associative parts of the mind to work in their own playful and imaginative ways, bringing not only pleasure but results that our usual deliberate, attentive, rational thought does not. We need space in our lives for both ways of processing if we are to realise ourselves as fully as possible. The key to daydreaming is to be in that right state. If you want to practice, please visit my website and download the free hypnosis session there, or learn self-hypnosis, read my book "The Secrets of Self-Hypnosis" or invest in the self-hypnosis masterclass audio programme, there is nothing else as good in the world today, really there isn’t. There is a kind of automatic abstractedness that goes along with daydreaming. Mostly it just seems to happen – but when you know about creating and changing states, you can choose to make it happen. Here are some ways you can cultivate and work with your daydreams: Firstly, notice when you have been daydreaming. Is there any pattern of circumstances that helps bring about your particular daydreaming state? Some people find that repetitive, relatively automatic, activities such as jogging, ironing or walking create the right state. Perhaps it is a warm bath, swimming a few lengths, or sitting in the garden. Or it may be swaying to the movement of a train, staring into space, looking out of the window of a bus on the way to work, or going on a long drive. Once you find what helps you daydream, use it and make space for it in your life on a regular basis, imagine that you are in that experience, recreate those circumstances inside of your mind. Let daydreaming come to you, and notice what kinds of windows it opens from our ordinary world into what other kinds of possibilities. Some of your best ideas and inspirations may come at these times. Secondly, next time you have a decision to make, or a problem to solve, or a challenge to overcome, you can set up the circumstances so that you can trigger your daydreaming state – and allow yourself to explore your problem or decision in this way. When you have done so, make some notes of what you experienced and discovered. Add that to your conscious thinking on the subject: you now have much more information, and the advantage of having engaged more of your mental resources. Thirdly, for today, forget dream interpretation. That is a conscious and limiting thing to do. Did I make myself clear? Forget conventional dream interpretation. For now use your dreams in personal ways to you.

[youdecode]

Something that Seems Bad But is actually Good | Adopt 4 ‘Bad’ behaviors

Aren’t you tired of being too good? I am. But, you are also shy to be bad? Why? Society will punish you — with actions, words, and stares.

Imagine you’re Noland from Castaway, locked in an island.

In the midst of a solitary life full of uncertainties, you wish to get a tattoo, drive on the road’s the wrong side, smoke inside an elevator, play awful pranks, and party till late — only if you could go back where existence is.

But what if you’re not as lucky as Noland — who actually got a chance to relive? What if you spot angels before adopting so-called “bad” behaviors and depart with “I wish”?

Pity.

“We live, or we die by the clock!” Noland shouts. “We never turn our back on it, and we never, ever allow ourselves the sin of losing track of time.”

So, time is all you have.

Doing what society wants you to do, often, devoid you of real fun, wasting your precious time, stealing the joy of weird experiences.

So, there is no harm in being a little naughty and doing things which, otherwise, are seen as threatening.

Yes, to be polite is suggestive; to be productive is appreciated.

But today I’ll advise you to be bad because being “bad” doesn’t take much. Don’t trust me?

See for yourself, as unappreciative social behaviors peppered in this post suggest violating some restrictive social expectations. Let’s dive:

  1. Let Your Tongue Twirl

I have never sworn in public, like never. In third grade, I called my class fellow “stupid”, and that mama’s boy complained to the class teacher, destroying my image partially.

From that day, yes, life traveled a great deal — but the incident remained precisely in its place. I ensured to always maintain animosity against badmouthing.

Especially, swearing. But, as of writing now, my brain is nudging to change this hostility — all credit to the studies confirming how swearing helps one overcome frustration.

I used to roll my eyeballs on people who when stuck in traffic swear at others — but now I’m sure it helped them, as according to recent research, swearing helps people cope with anger.

Further, Richard Stephens of Keele University (UK), in his study published in Neuroreport, explains,

“There are many well-documented benefits of swearing, including improving pain tolerance, boosting physical strength, and helping social cohesion.”

Stephen carried out an interesting experiment where swearing helped in reducing and enduring pain.

People were asked to put their hand in an ice bucket; those who swore all the while were able to pull the challenge for two minutes, nearly double the time, than those who remained good mouth.

But, Stephen also explained how mainly occasional swearing helps alleviate the pain.

So make it only a casual habit, strategically deployed. Logic? Well, over-swearing will make it lose its emotional power, making it less effective in alleviating pain — after all, swearing is a dynamic language.

Don’t you think we need more such studies? Caught you!

According to another study published in the Leadership and Organization Development Journal by Yehuda Baruch of the University of East Anglia, swearing enables employees to channel frustration and develop strong social relations.

Take away: Swear, but strategically. 

  2. Get Disgusting

This one is probably the most disgusting. Weird. Strange. You name an awful feeling, and it is it.

But there has been research, so it’s worth a share. In 2008, Friedrich Bischinger, an Austrian lung specialist, explained how eating snot helps strengthen the immune system. He goes on telling,

“People who pick their nose and eat it,” he said, “get a natural boost to their immune system for free. I would recommend a new approach where children are encouraged to pick their noses. It is a completely natural response and medically a good idea as well.”

What is science?

Well, research says bacteria deposited on the nose when it hits the intestine acts as a medicine.

Bischinger was not alone. Even biochemist, Scott Napper of the University of Saskatchewan, shared a similar viewpoint, theorizing how hygiene improvement boosts allergies, so eating snot may strengthen the immune system by ingesting a few harmless germs into the body.

Interestingly, the same idea can be deployed on a lesser level of disgusting activity: nail-biting. I never had a habit of biting my nails.

Like never. But I had ample friends, always angry at their fingernails’ crooked appeal and stunted growth — clearly, they were nail-biters.

No matter how biting nails may appear displeasing socially, but medically, it’s right for you.

How so? Well, the biting inject germs directly into the orifice. Bringing in newer germs into the body strengthens your immune system as it repeatedly then fends off bacteria.

Additionally, according to Amy Standen of npr.org, nail-biting is now considered an act of “pathological grooming.” Amy interviewed Carol Mathews, a psychiatrist, who explained to her how nail-biting acts as a reward.

When met with anxiety, biting the right nail feels good. Mathew explains how it is an advantageous relief method over vices like smoking cigarettes.

I might be on the verge of losing my pretty nails — as the study of it being a stress reliever, illuminated me.

Take away: It’s alright to bite your nails for strengthening your immune system — but, occasionally. 

  3. Turn Into a Dull Useless Soul

Have you ever been subject to self-pity when boredom sucked the soul out of you?

After digesting this research, you probably would not, as boredom is psychologically useful.

Van Tilburg, from the University of Limerick, tells the Guardian:

“Boredom makes people long for different and purposeful activities, and as a result, they turn towards more challenging and meaningful activities, turning towards what they perceive to be meaningful in life.”

Interestingly, Adrian Savage, an editor at Lifehack, adds,

“Boredom stimulates the search for better ways to do things like nothing else does.”

Another study made people watch dull, boring videos, resulting in their increased performance in creative tasks.

So next time, when you feel an utterly useless person in boredom, think twice — as you are doing nothing but triggering your creativity.

Now I reflect why all the creative ideas always land in my mind when I have absolutely nothing to do — and the very reason why people’s random videos made during boredom go viral.

Takeaway: No matter how much society labels you as a useless couch potato, get intentionally bored for your next inspiration.

  4. Become that Rude Movie Character & Chew

Why in every movie is a shady character always chewing gum?

I don’t get why people don’t consider it a pretty sight and associate it with mannerless.

An interesting study, instead, showcases how it has cognitive benefits.

Chew it before performing any cognitive task to increase the blood oxygen level. In the book Senescence and Senescence-Related Disorders, Kin-ya Kubo expounds on how chewing gum helps with stress-related disorders.

I can vouch for this.

Even if I forget to keep a gum with me, my best friend always carries it with her because it wonders for anxiety, stress, nausea, nervousness, and whatnot!

Studies have also proved how chewing gum boosts thinking and alertness by 10% as nearly eight brain areas get affected, mostly concerning movement and attention.

Andy Smith of Cardiff University sums up:

“The effects of chewing on reaction time are profound. Perhaps football managers arrived at the idea of chewing gum by accident, but they seem to be on the right track.”

Takeaway: Ditch the etiquettes and smack the gum in.

Final words for Something that Seems Bad But is actually Good

Why adopt any of the techniques laid above?

It’s always good to have a change. Life is short. Tasting “not so acceptable” behaviors frequently add spice to your life — even if momentarily.

Remember good behavior exists because of “Bad”, so do not dismiss the idea of bad behaviors completely.

Rather explore bad behaviors, which sometimes can be good for you.

Violate some outworn social behaviors classified as bad and be intentional about it.

Remember, it’s good to be bad with awareness rather than being good without awareness.

So next time when your brain requests you to try something terrible, give it a thought, at least — before rebelling.

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[chemicalmagecraft]

I Would Totally Kick Jiraiya’s Butt Chapter 11

I smiled even before we reached the gates. "It looks like we have a welcome party," I noted, then licked my lips.

"How can you tell?" Gai asked.

"Chakra sensing."

As soon as we were inside the gates of the village, I was tackled by a very energetic blonde. "Kouki!" Naruto yelled as he did his level best to crush me like a tin can.

I awkwardly patted him on the back. "Heyyy, bud. Could I please breathe?" I choked out. I gasped for my breath after he released me from his adamantium grasp. "Stupid freakish Uzumaki strength," I grumbled in between breaths.

"What was that?" Tenten angrily asked me.

I rolled my eyes. "Not directed at you."

"Hey Kouki," Naruto said, "why are you all brown?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Okay first off I think technically it's more 'bronze' than 'brown,'" I said, "and b, it's called a tan."

"How did you get so tan in only a few days?" Dad asked me. "Didn't you have a parasol?"

I sheepishly put my hand behind my head. "Well..."

~~~~ku

I sighed as I lounged on the thankfully clean floor in front of the window.

"Are you sunbathing!?" Temari asked me.

"Soooo waaaarm~" I replied.

"I swear you're a cat or something."

I grinned a catlike grin. "Meow~" She sighed and stormed off.

~~~~ku

"...I guess I get tan really easily?" Okay to be fair I do. And it stays for a while, even if I stay inside most of the time. When my brother, whose complexion is almost exactly the same as mine, got a similarly dark tan from being a lifeguard, my mom noted that it was probably due to our "gypsy blood." I wouldn't put it that way myself, mostly due to the fact that the word "gypsy" is actually kind of offensive what the heck mom, but I guess it's a plausible reason... I was thankful, though, that the sun didn't give me any more freckles. No offense to people with a lot of freckles, but I'm fine with only having like ten freckles on my face that mostly just look like a bunch of beauty marks, thank you very much.

"Welcome back, niisan," Hinata said with a smile. I couldn't help but notice that Kurama didn't at all look like he was annoyed with Hinata carrying him.

"Sup, Hina-chan. Did Kurama-chan tell you guys I'd be here?" He huffed and turned his head away from me. "Love you too, bud!"

"So what are you going to do now that you're back?" Neji asked me.

I shrugged. "First I'm going to take a bath, then I'll probably take a nap or something. I'm pooped."

"Surprising to hear that from you," Ai commented.

"Even I have my limits, Ai. Working on the seal was fun, but I'm glad it's over and done with." I yawned. "Now if you guys don't mind, I'd like to go take a nice, long bath now." I waved goodbye. "Thanks for coming to greet me!"

kukukuku~

I yawned, sat up in my bed, licked my lips, and stretched my arms. Then I fell back to sleep.

kukukuku~

"Okay, time to work now," I said after I rolled out of bed. Before doing anything, though, I checked out my window. It was nighttime. I shrugged. "Not that much of a problem to someone with twenty four-plus hour days." I licked my lips. "Right, let's get crackin'." I assumed a meditative position on the floor and reached inward, to my chakra. Mostly the red stuff, but also some of the blue. Just as a human touched by the red (I.E. me or the jinchuriki) has to have over a certain amount of red chakra in them to not die, it seemed that beings made from the red needed at least some blue in them to function. 

To be honest, I should've figured that out sooner, what with how the Bijū Dama uses blue chakra. 'Course, I did figure it out when I sensed not only another Bijū, but Karura, who was a non-bijū red chakra spirit. And with that revelation came some important progress on an idea that I'd had. And over the ride home, I'd honed and perfected that jutsu, one that I was now ready to use. Sure, I'd been wary of potential danger, but I felt a lot better after a message from my future self, or at least a future self... Future vision can get pretty freaky. And so, I grabbed hold of almost all of my red chakra, just leaving a comfortable yet small amount over the minimum amount I needed to live, as well as enough blue chakra to sustain a demon of that power level. I used yin-yang release and the general idea of clone jutsus in general to mold that chakra into the proper shape. When I was done, the chakra moved on its own.

I opened my eyes to see my shadow turn pitch-black, then split off into two, one normal and one still a me-shaped abyss. The ebon shadow moved and stretched so that it was across the room from me. The shadow... rose, changing in shape and color to form what felt like an alternate-universe mirror. First off, shadow me looked even more girly than I did. Sure, that wasn't saying much what with how I was still way prepubescent and had girly hair, but she had longer hair and a skirt with leggings, so there's that. Second off, she had what appeared to be fox ears and a tail, likely an artifact from Kurama even though they didn't look exactly like his. Third, she was both a pallette swap and mirror image of me. While her complexion was the same as mine, her eye markings were white with black dots instead of black with white dots, her clothes were dark red instead of blue, her hair was a shade of blue so dark it was almost black, and her eyes were red with slit pupils. As for the mirror part, her bangs were parted to the right instead of the left, that one freckle of mine that looked like a beauty mark to the left side of my lip was over on the right, and that other freckle that used to be a second beauty freckle near my left eye back in the Before Times when I wasn't a magical toddler being the only freckle by my right eye were the most obvious clues. Though she had fox ears instead of human ears, I could see she still had a rendition of the nubby nub nub thing on her right ear.

"I am thou, thou art I," she said in almost my voice. Man, that was weird. "Sup, me."

"Sup," I responded, then relaxed my posture. She did the same, though she was mindful of her skirt. I was already kind of sure of the answer, but... "Hey, just to be clear here, you're supposed to be a girl, ja?"

She nodded. "Ja. I have more control over my form than just using the transformation jutsu and I figured I should differentiate myself as much as I can from you, so..."

"I take it you picked your own name too, right?"

"Yup." She grinned. "To counter your light-light hope-and-fortune name, I picked Chikage."

"Thousand Views?" I asked jokingly.

She facepalmed and groaned. "Okay yes, I guess that that's the traditional reading, but I meant more along the lines of Thousand Shadows. Or even Blood Shadow. Heck, Shadow of the Earth is kinda cool too."

"So does that mean I have your permission to keep 'Kouki?'" I asked.

She gave me a deadpan stare. "Dude, I literally said that I picked a name to balance out yours."

"Yeah, but if you think about it, 'Kouki' is us, not me. The guy that is us combined is Kouki."

She shrugged. "Would be pretty weird if you randomly started to go by another name. You're Kouki Prime and I'm totally at peace with that. Let's stop talking about semantics and see what this jutsu of ours does, exactly."

I nodded and clenched my fist. "I think I got weaker..." I unclenched my fist and did a few small stretches.

"Makes sense," Chikage said. "Even if you aren't using it, your red chakra still enhances you. Still, that also means you should have more control now."

"Right," I said. I held my hand out and tried to make some wind chakra. It felt a little off without my red chakra, but I got the hang of it surprisingly fast. Much faster than I'd managed the last time I'd tried it, wire-thin threads of wind chakra burst from my fingers, curling around my new double/clone/sister maybe? "Sorry, but you understand what I'm doing, right?

She snorted. Curiously, a small bit of smoke came from her nose when she did. "Dude, I'm you. Of course I know. Just make sure to ask future you first to make sure it doesn't screw us both over."

"Right, was going to do that anyway." I activated my eyes for just long enough to get a message coded to a version of myself in the exact situation I was in.

"Yup. Go ahead."

I didn't want to completely spoil every single highly-dangerous-yet-incredibly-interesting experiment I did, but I knew it'd be stupid to actually do them without using the Shōraigan to make sure I didn't end up turning Konoha into a crater. And so in my time of need, I discovered another power of the Shōraigan that was just as good as the ability to tell the future. At least, I'm assuming that's what happened in about a thousand other timelines that I never went down. Or I guess I did go down them, but just not the me that is me? Man, anything involving time travel gives people headaches, doesn't it. I could only time-warp information and yet I still got headaches.

Where was I?

Oh right. Main Shōraigan power number three. Or just another version of the first main power. In addition to being able to download future information directly into my brain, I found out I could send my past self and/or selves information when I randomly got thousands of very similar chronopathic messages saying something roughly along the lines of "Holy crud dude we can send messages to our past selves!" and some telling me to stop sending messages back to past me, which was very hypocritical of future me, but I complied. I wonder if there's a version of me who found out about the Shōraigan by having that future message sent back by an alternate version of-

"You're getting off track," Chikage said, her eyes now a slit variant of the Shōraigan. "Stop telling the fans about our new power and kill me already."

"Right, sorry." I closed my hand into a fist, causing the Wind Release: Razor Wire to chop her into pieces. Instead of blood going everywhere, though, the cuts became red chakra which reformed back into her body with some loss.

"That hurt," she muttered. "But it seems we won't find out what happens when I die if we use that. Maybe try fire?"

I nodded and we both stood up. I guess maybe it was customary to use fire chakra from the lungs, and yes that was apparently how you got the most power, but I liked the idea of channeling it through my hands better, plus that way I could try to add lightning to it despite not knowing how to do it too well. I knew fire from the hands was possible from the flashback to the time of Ninshu, so theoretically... "Do not try this at home, kids." I made a few hand seals, then held my hand like how Kakashi does with the Chidori. An unfortunately uncoordinated ball of fire and lightning chakra emerged from my palm, as well as the slightest whiff of burning flesh.

Ow.

Chikage waved her arm in front of her torso, creating either a bullseye target or the illusion of a bullseye target. I thrust the ball of plasma right into the center of the target. Her body destabilized almost as soon as the probably-poorly-thought-out concoction of chakra touched her. While some was... ruined, I guess, by the attack, the majority of the chakra Chikage was made from was sucked back into my body. With the chakra came her memories, which was... interesting. I feel like I should note, though, that getting pyrolectrocuted hurts like the dickens.

"Is everything okay?" Uncle asked as he barged in. "I heard crackling sounds."

I casually stuck my hands in my pockets. "Yeah. I tried to use lightning release. Do you think you could ask Dad if I could get official training? That kinda hurt."

He looked concerned. "Are you hurt?"

I gave him a thumbs-up with my unburned hand. "Yeah, just a little stinging. Nothing a little healing factor won't cure. You should see the other guy."

"O...kay..." He thankfully left without much question, allowing me to take the other hand out and assess the damage. The friction from just taking it out of my pocket stung.

"Eeee..." I winced. I mean, it didn't look like it was too bad of a second degree burn, but... it was blackened. I really hoped that was just soot. I applied some red chakra to it and it thankfully just flaked off and didn't scar or anything. "Not doing that again, at least without adult supervision. Hope my pocket isn't ruined..." I tilted my head a bit. "Now before I can forget, I should probably do this." I activated my Shōraigan and sent a message coded to two certain iterations of my past self. Sure, it'd have happened anyway because of diverging timelines, but insert dead Daves joke here. "Right," I said. "Now that that's over. Chikage, out." She didn't do anything. I blinked. I could definitely feel her somewhere in me, but...

Oh.

I was Chikage. Well that was interesting. I concentrated on what I'd done before and felt a small snap in the back of my head. "I'm back," she said. Red chakra flowed from my body, forming Chikage, arms crossed and leaning back onto thin air. "Is that what it feels like to fuse?" she asked.

I shrugged. "I guess maybe with Pink Steven it was, just with less nearly dying and womanchildish giants."

She chuckled and picked me up. "C'mon, we gotta do it now."

I smiled and hugged her, laughing. She hugged me back. We started laughing and spinning each other until we just melted back together. "Ah, good times," I said. "Now we should probably get a training ground so I can see what I... you... we... can do..." I sighed. "Man, this is going to be weird."

kukukuku~

A/N: So yeah, two formatting quirks that are going to happen at least some of the time from now on. First, ~~~~ku is used whenever the narrative enters or exits a flashback. Second, while almost all of this is going to be from a first-person perspective, now there's going to be more than one narrator. Who is the same person. To avoid confusion, I'd like to clarify now that Kouki prime is the default and anyone else will be noted. And next chapter we get to see more special super awesome powers. And Konoha will almost get destroyed!

[oliverphisher]

Will Kostakis

Will Kostakis is a writer of all things, from celebrity news stories that score cease and desist letters, to tweets for professional wrestlers. That said, he’s best known for his award-winning YA novels. His first novel, Loathing Lola, was released when he was just nineteen. His second, The First Third, won the 2014 Gold Inky Award. It was also shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year and Australian Prime Minister’s Literary awards, among others. The Sidekicks was his third novel for young adults, and his American debut. It went on the win the IBBY Australia Ena Noel Award.

The First Third By Will Kostakis Buy on Amazon

As a high school student, Will won Sydney Morning Herald Young Writer of the Year for a collection of short stories. He has since contributed to numerous anthologies, including Begin, End, Begin: A #LoveOzYA Anthology.

What are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life?

The Whole Business with Kiffo & the Pitbull By Barry Jonsberg

The Whole Business With Kiffo And The Pitbull by Barry Jonsberg. I read this when I was in high school. The voice was so authentic I thought an Australian teenager was talking directly to me. I knew that if I was going to be a YA author, I wanted to write a book like it.

Notes from the Teenage Underground By Simmone Howell

Notes From The Teenage Underground by Simmone Howell. After first meeting my publisher, I was given a stack of books to read. This was one of them. From the first page, I knew I was going to be a life-long fan of Simmone's writing. She gets straight to the point, and her prose is so sharp it cuts to the truth of everything.

Witches Abroad (Discworld) By Terry Pratchett

Any Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett featuring the witches. I've read Pratchett since I was 12, and he is the benchmark. If I become half the writer he was, then I'll be content with a life well spent.

What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months (or in recent memory)?

A subscription to Audible (which might add up to more than $100 over 6 months, but if I ignore my credit card statement, it doesn't). The time I used to waste listening to political podcasts is now spent immersing myself in worlds that inspire me to create.

How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?

My first book underwhelmed commercially, and after it disappeared from store shelves within months, I set out on the road with a box of books to connect with prospective readers myself. It was a baptism by fire, but I came out the end of it with so many skills that still help me to this day.

Are there any quotes you think of often or live your life by?

Julia Cameron's concept of "filling the well" (via YA author Dhonielle Clayton) is something that I've come to live by recently as I try to write more often:Art is an image-using system. In order to create, we draw from our inner well. This inner well, an artistic reservoir, is ideally like a well-stocked trout pond. We've got big fish, little fish, fat fish, skinny fish-- an abundance of artistic fish to fry. As artists, we must realize that we have to maintain this artistic ecosystem.If we don't give some attention to upkeep, our well is apt to become depleted, stagnant, or blocked. Any extended period of piece of work draws heavily on our artistic well. As artists we must learn to be self-nourishing. We must become alert enough to consciously replenish our creative resources as we draw on them-- to restock the trout pond, so to speak. I call this process filling the well. (https://ift.tt/3hq6Meg)

What is one of the best investment in a writing resource you’ve ever made?

Nothing beats the trusty pen and pad that I keep in my bag. Sure, sending emails to yourself from your phone is a great way to jot ideas down anywhere, anytime, but nothing beats what I produce when writing by hand. It sounds weird, but my brain just works differently when I do.

What is an unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love?

My unusual habit is, when I don't feel like I understand my character well enough, I record audio with my phone and waltz around the apartment, talking in character about my wants. I discard 90 per cent of it, but I almost always discover something about them.

In the last five years, what new belief, behaviour, or habit has most improved your life?

One new belief: 'Your prose doesn't have to be perfect, it has to connect.' Sometimes, a grammatically perfect sentence isn't what you need.

What advice would you give to a smart, driven aspiring author? What advice should they ignore?

As somebody who was intent on publication at 12, driven to send novels to publishers way before I was ready, I would tell them to wait. I know the desire to be an author can feel all-consuming, but having the desire doesn't mean you're ready. I wasn't ready when I signed a book deal at 17, I wasn't ready when that book was released when I was 19, and it showed in my work, I think. Take the time to find your voice and what you want to use it for. Achieving your dream sooner isn't necessarily better.

They should ignore any advice that doesn't work for them. The wonderful and frustrating thing about creative writing advice is, what works for one person might not work for another. Accept every piece of advice, trial it, but if it doesn't work for you, it's okay to discard it.

What are bad recommendations for aspiring authors, that you hear in your often?

It isn't really a bad recommendation but ... there's an entire industry built around aspiring authors. Just know that you don't need to pay to get published. You don't pay a publisher to consider or publish your work. You don't need to have your work professionally edited before you submit. Join a critique group! Swap manuscripts with a friend! Read a lot! Download free podcasts! You. Don't. Need. To. Pay. To. Be. Qualified. To. Create. Art.

In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to (distractions, invitations, etc.)?

Unpaid labour in all its forms. I am still open to providing my services for free for deserving causes, and I still do, but there's nothing like having to pay rent in Sydney to force you to stop seeing payment in exposure as anything other than exploitation.

What marketing tactics should authors avoid?

"Buy my book, buy my book, buy my book!" on social media. It doesn't work. Never has. Use social media to connect with your readers personally. The hard sell is irritating. If you don't like it when someone does it to you, don't do it to others.

What new approach helped you achieve your goals?

Setting realistic goals. No longer setting the massive "write 2000 words today" and then feeling disappointed. Aiming to write 300 and being satisfied and inspired to write more ... usually results in writing more.

When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, or have lost your focus temporarily, what do you do?

Whenever I'm blocked creatively, even if under an intense deadline, I walk away and go do something (usually gym or play Pokemon Go), something that forces me to have some distance from my work, so when I return, I'm better able to tackle the problem.

Any other tips?

Read! Read! Read! Read! Be an active member of the literary community. Go to book launches. Listen to authors speak. Read! Read! Read! Read! Recommend books to others. Buy books for others. Fill your well!

________

Enjoyed this Q&A? Want to discuss in more depth? Join Community Writers. You'll get access to 100+ exclusive writing tips. Q&As with successful authors, an exclusive ebook on building an audience and much more. Sign-up for free as a community writer here

source https://www.thecommunitywriter.com/blog/will-kostakis

[williamlwolf89]

How to Write a Case Study: Step-by-Step Guide (+ Examples)

If you want to learn how to write a case study that engages prospective clients, demonstrates you can solve real business problems, and showcases the results you deliver, this guide will help.

We’ll give you a proven template to follow, show you how to conduct an engaging interview, and give you several examples and tips for best practices.

Let’s start with the basics.

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What is a Case Study?

A business case study is simply a story about how you successfully delivered a solution to your client.

Case studies start with background information about the customer, describe problems they were facing, present the solutions you developed, and explain how those solutions positively impacted the customer’s business.

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Do Marketing Case Studies Really Work?

Absolutely. A well-written case study puts prospective clients into the shoes of your paying clients, encouraging them to engage with you. Plus, they:

Get shared “behind the lines” with decision makers you may not know;

Leverage the power of “social proof” to encourage prospective clients to take a chance with your company;

Build trust and foster likeability;

Lessen the perceived risk of doing business with you and offer proof that your business can deliver results;

Help prospects become aware of unrecognized problems;

Show prospects experiencing similar problems that possible solutions are available (and you can provide said solutions);

Make it easier for your target audience to find you when using Google and other search engines.

Case studies serve your clients too. For example, they can generate positive publicity and highlight the accomplishments of line staff to the management team. Your company might even throw in a new product/service discount, or a gift as an added bonus.

But don’t just take my word for it. Let’s look at a few statistics and success stories:

In the B2B setting, events help generate the most leads, while case studies help convert and accelerate the most leads. (…) In a survey of B2B marketers, they listed case studies as their 3rd best way to nurture leads.

Blue Corona, 75+ B2B Marketing Statistics to Know in 2020

49% of B2B buyers said they now rely more on content to research and make purchase decisions. 2018 Content Preferences Survey Report

Case studies are one of the top five content types used to move IT purchasers through the buy cycle.

TechTarget, Marketing Strategies vs. IT Buyer Demands

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5 Winning Case Study Examples to Model

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of how to write a case study, let’s go over a few examples of what an excellent one looks like.

The five case studies listed below are well-written, well-designed, and incorporate a time-tested structure.

1. Lane Terralever and Pinnacle at Promontory

This case study from Lane Terralever incorporates images to support the content and effectively uses subheadings to make the piece scannable.

2. WalkMe Mobile and Hulyo

This case study from WalkMe Mobile leads with an engaging headline and the three most important results the client was able to generate.

In the first paragraph, the writer expands the list of accomplishments encouraging readers to learn more.

3. CurationSuite Listening Engine

This is an example of a well-designed printable case study. The client, key problem, and solution are called out in the left column and summarized succinctly.

4. Brain Traffic and ASAE

This long format case study (6 pages) from Brain Traffic summarizes the challenges, solutions, and results prominently in the left column. It uses testimonials and headshots of the case study participants very effectively.

5. Adobe and Home Depot

This case study from Adobe and Home Depot is a great example of combining video, attention-getting graphics, and long form writing. It also uses testimonials and headshots well.

Now that we’ve gone over the basics and showed a few great case study examples you can use as inspiration, let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.

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A Case Study Structure That Pros Use

Let’s break down the structure of a compelling case study:

Choose Your Case Study Format

In this guide, we focus on written case studies. They’re affordable to create, and they have a proven track record. However, written case studies are just one of four case study formats to consider:

Written

Video

Podcast

Infographic

If you have the resources, video (like the Adobe and Home Depot example above) and podcast case studies can be very compelling. Hearing a client discuss in his or her own words how your company helped is an effective content marketing tool.

Infographic case studies are usually one-page images that summarize the challenge, solution, and results. They tend to work well on social media.

Follow a Tried-and-True Case Study Template

The success story structure we’re using incorporates a “narrative” or “story arc” designed to suck readers in and captivate their interest.

Note: I recommend creating a blog post or landing page on your website that includes the text from your case study, along with a downloadable PDF. Doing so helps people find your content when they perform Google and other web searches.

There are a few simple SEO strategies that you can apply to your blog post that will optimize your chances of being found. I’ll include those tips below.

Craft a Compelling Headline

The headline should capture your audience’s attention quickly. Include the most important result you achieved, the client’s name, and your company’s name. Create several examples, mull them over a bit, then pick the best one. And, yes, this means writing the headline is done at the very end.

SEO Tip: Let’s say your firm provided “video editing services” and you want to target this primary keyword. Include it, your company name, and your client’s name in the case study title.

Write the Executive Summary

This is a mini-narrative using an abbreviated version of the Challenge + Solution + Results model (3-4 short paragraphs). Write this after you complete the case study.

SEO Tip: Include your primary keyword in the first paragraph of the Executive Summary.

Provide the Client’s Background

Introduce your client to the reader and create context for the story.

List the Customer’s Challenges and Problems

Vividly describe the situation and problems the customer was dealing with, before working with you.

SEO Tip: To rank on page one of Google for our target keyword, review the questions listed in the “People also ask” section at the top of Google’s search results. If you can include some of these questions and their answers into your case study, do so. Just make sure they fit with the flow of your narrative.

Detail Your Solutions

Explain the product or service your company provided, and spell out how it alleviated the client’s problems. Recap how the solution was delivered and implemented. Describe any training needed and the customer’s work effort.

Show Your Results

Detail what you accomplished for the customer and the impact your product/service made. Objective, measurable results that resonate with your target audience are best.

List Future Plans

Share how your client might work with your company in the future.

Give a Call-to-Action

Clearly detail what you want the reader to do at the end of your case study.

Talk About You

Include a “press release-like” description of your client’s organization, with a link to their website. For your printable document, add an “About” section with your contact information.

And that’s it. That’s the basic structure of a case study.

Now, let’s go over how to get the information you’ll use in your case study.

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How to Conduct an Engaging Case Study Interview

One of the best parts of creating a case study is talking with your client about the experience. This is a fun and productive way to learn what your company did well, and what it can improve on, directly from your customer’s perspective.

Here are some suggestions for conducting great case study interviews:

When Choosing a Case Study Subject, Pick a Raving Fan

Your sales and marketing team should know which clients are vocal advocates willing to talk about their experiences. Your customer service and technical support teams should be able to contribute suggestions.

Clients who are experts with your product/service make solid case study candidates. If you sponsor an online community, look for product champions who post consistently and help others.

When selecting a candidate, think about customer stories that would appeal to your target audience. For example, let’s say your sales team is consistently bumping into prospects who are excited about your solution, but are slow to pull the trigger and do business with you.

In this instance, finding a client who felt the same way, but overcame their reluctance and contracted with you anyway, would be a good story to capture and share.

Prepping for the Interview

If you’ve ever seen an Oprah interview, you’ve seen a master who can get almost anyone to open up and talk. Part of the reason is that she and her team are disciplined about planning.

Before conducting a case study interview, talk to your own team about the following:

What’s unique about the client (location, size, industry, etc.) that will resonate with our prospects?

Why did the customer select us?

How did we help the client?

What’s unique about this customer’s experience?

What problems did we solve?

Were any measurable, objective results generated?

What do we want readers to do after reading this case study analysis?

Pro Tip: Tee up your client. Send them the questions in advance.

Providing questions to clients before the interview helps them prepare, gather input from other colleagues if needed, and feel more comfortable because they know what to expect.

In a moment, I’ll give you an exhaustive list of interview questions. But don’t send them all. Instead, pare the list down to one or two questions in each section and personalize them for your customer.

Nailing the Client Interview

Decide how you’ll conduct the interview. Will you call the client, use Skype or Facetime, or meet in person? Whatever mode you choose, plan the process in advance.

Make sure you record the conversation. It’s tough to lead an interview, listen to your contact’s responses, keep the conversation flowing, write notes, and capture all that the person is saying.

A recording will make it easier to write the client’s story later. It’s also useful for other departments in your company (management, sales, development, etc.) to hear real customer feedback.

Use open-ended questions that spur your contact to talk and share. Here are some real-life examples:

Introduction

Recap the purpose of the call. Confirm how much time your contact has to talk (30-45 minutes is preferable).

Confirm the company’s location, number of employees, years in business, industry, etc.

What’s the contact’s background, title, time with the company, primary responsibilities, and so on?

Initial Challenges

Describe the situation at your company before engaging with us?

What were the initial problems you wanted to solve?

What was the impact of those problems?

When did you realize you had to take some action?

What solutions did you try?

Solutions

What solutions did you implement?

What process did you go through to make a purchase?

How did the implementation go?

How would you describe the work effort required of your team?

If training was involved, how did that go?

Results, Improvements, Progress

When did you start seeing improvements?

What were the most valuable results?

What did your team like best about working with us?

Would you recommend our solution/company? Why?

Future Plans

How do you see our companies working together in the future?

Honest Feedback

Our company is very focused on continual improvement. What could we have done differently to make this an even better experience?

What would you like us to add or change in our product/service?

During the interview, use your contact’s responses to guide the conversation.

Once the interview is complete, it’s time to write your case study.

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How to Write a Case Study… Effortlessly

Case study writing is not nearly as difficult as many people make it out to be. And you don’t have to be Stephen King to do professional work. Here are a few tips:

Use the case study structure that we outlined earlier, but write these sections first: company background, challenges, solutions, and results.

Write the headline, executive summary, future plans, and call-to-action (CTA) last.

In each section, include as much content from your interview as you can. Don’t worry about editing at this point

Tell the story by discussing their trials and tribulations.

Stay focused on the client and the results they achieved.

Make their organization and employees shine.

When including information about your company, frame your efforts in a supporting role.

Also, make sure to do the following:

Add Testimonials, Quotes, and Visuals

The more you can use your contact’s words to describe the engagement, the better. Weave direct quotes throughout your narrative.

Strive to be conversational when you’re writing case studies, as if you’re talking to a peer.

Include images in your case study that visually represent the content and break up the text. Photos of the company, your contact, and other employees are ideal.

If you need to incorporate stock photos, here are three resources:

Depositphotos

Unsplash

Canva

Proofread and Tighten Your Writing

Make sure there are no grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors. If you need help, consider using Grammarly.

My high school English teacher’s mantra was “tighten your writing.” She taught that impactful writing is concise and free of weak, unnecessary words. This takes effort and discipline, but will make your writing stronger.

Also, keep in mind that we live in an attention-diverted society. Before your audience will dive in and read each paragraph, they’ll first scan your work. Use subheadings to summarize information, convey meaning quickly, and pull the reader in.

Be Sure to Use Best Practices

Consider applying the following best practices to your case study:

Stay laser-focused on your client and the results they were able to achieve.

Even if your audience is technical, minimize the use of industry jargon. If you use acronyms, explain them.

Leave out the selling and advertising.

Don’t write like a Shakespearean wannabe. Write how people speak. Write to be understood.

Clear and concise writing is not only more understandable, it inspires trust. Don’t ramble.

Weave your paragraphs together so that each sentence is dependent on the one before and after it.

Include a specific case study call-to-action (CTA).

A recommended case study length is 2-4 pages.

Commit to building a library of case studies.

Get Client Approval

After you have a final draft, send it to the client for review and approval. Incorporate any edits they suggest.

Use or modify the following “Consent to Publish” form to get the client’s written sign-off:

Consent to Publish

Case Study Title:

Author:

I hereby confirm that I have reviewed the case study listed above and on behalf of the [Company Name], I provide full permission for the work to be published, in whole or in part, for the life of the work, in all languages and all formats by [Company publishing the case study].

By signing this form, I affirm that I am authorized to grant full permission.

Name:

Title:

Company Name:

Address:

E-mail Address:

Signature:

Date:

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Common Case Study Questions (& Answers)

We’ll wrap things up with a quick Q&A. If you have a question I didn’t answer, be sure to leave it in a blog comment below.

Should I worry about print versions of my case studies?

Absolutely.

As we saw in the CurationSuite and Brain Traffic examples earlier, case studies get downloaded, printed, and shared. Prospects can and will judge your book by its cover.

So, make sure your printed case study is eye-catching and professionally designed. Hire a designer if necessary.

Why are good case studies so effective?

Case studies work because people trust them.

They’re not ads, they’re not press releases, and they’re not about how stellar your company is.

Plus, everyone likes spellbinding stories with a hero [your client], a conflict [challenges], and a riveting resolution [best solution and results].

How do I promote my case study?

After you’ve written your case study and received the client’s approval to use it, you’ll want to get it in front of as many eyes as possible.

Try the following:

Make sure your case studies can be easily found on your company’s homepage.

Tweet and share the case study on your various social media accounts.

Have your sales team use the case study as a reason to call on potential customers. For example: “Hi [prospect], we just published a case study on Company A. They were facing some of the same challenges I believe your firm is dealing with. I’m going to e-mail you a copy. Let me know what you think.”

Distribute printed copies at trade shows, seminars, or during sales presentations.

If you’re bidding on a job and have to submit a quote or a Request for Proposal (RFP), include relevant case studies as supporting documents.

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Ready to Write a Case Study That Converts?

If you want to stand out and you want to win business, case studies should be an integral part of your sales and marketing efforts.

Hopefully, this guide answered some of your questions and laid out a path that will make it faster and easier for your team to create professional, sales-generating content.

Now it’s time to take action and get started. Gather your staff, select a client, and ask a contact to participate. Plan your interview and lead an engaging conversation. Write up your client’s story, make them shine, and then share it.

Get better at the case study process by doing it more frequently. Challenge yourself to write at least one case study every two months.

As you do, you’ll be building a valuable repository of meaningful, powerful content. These success stories will serve your business in countless ways, and for years to come.

The post How to Write a Case Study: Step-by-Step Guide (+ Examples) appeared first on Smart Blogger.

from SEO and SM Tips https://smartblogger.com/how-to-write-a-case-study/

[wallpaperpainting]

13 Easy Ways To Facilitate Sunset Tonight | sunset tonight

Chrishell Stause is blockage able and affective on.

Sunset fishing express is a great trip! – Naples Fishing .. | sunset tonight

Last November, PEOPLE accepted the Selling Sunset star, 38, and Justin Hartley, 43, breach afterwards two years of alliance aback the This Is Us actor aback filed for divorce.

Today, though, “she’s accomplishing a lot better,” says Stause’s Selling Sunset costar Mary Fitzgerald.

“She’s such a able woman, I wouldn’t accept been able to go through it like she did in the accessible eye, but she’s actual strong, and she’s aloof so common and a accurate person, which is adamantine to acquisition actuality in L.A.,” says Fitzgerald.

RELATED: Selling Sunset Is Returning to Netflix: See the Official Division 2 Trailer!

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Dan Macmedan/Wireimage

Steve Granitz/WireImage Chrishell Stause and Justin Hartley

Back in December, a antecedent provided some acumen on the abominable divorce.

“Yes, they’d had some problems, but she absolutely never anticipation he would aloof go and aback book for divorce, and not alike try to save things,” the antecedent told PEOPLE at the time. “Chrishell had been in added austere relationships in the accomplished … and didn’t booty them added because she was consistently determined that aback she got married, it would be always — she was alone activity to do this once.”

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The cabal added, “It’s partly why she and Justin waited so continued to get married: she capital to be abiding that aback they said their vows, they meant them. And she did — she would accept backward forever.”

Lindy Lin/NETFLIX

RELATED: Selling Sunset’s Mary Fitzgerald & Romain Bonnet Are Married: Inside Their Fall Wedding Album

The additional division of Selling Sunset drops Friday, May 22. In accession to a behind-the-scenes attending at bright Los Angeles absolute acreage and appointment rivalries at affluence allowance The Oppenheim Group, the new episodes acquisition Stause’s accord with Fitzgerald growing.

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“She and I admit in anniversary added a lot and I’m animated I could be there for her. She’s been there for me aback I go through ups and downs,” Fitzgerald adds. “We’ve got anniversary other’s back.”

Story continues

The afterpiece adventure additionally has admirers clamoring for more, with a abruptness brain-teaser for division 3 actuality appear — in which the annihilation of Stause and Hartley’s relationship appears to be at the centermost of the drama.

The afterpiece adventure ends with a atramentous awning afore announcement the words “still to come.” It again cuts to highlights from the accessible division — including account advantage of Stause and Hartley’s annulment — and Stause in tears.

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Selling Sunset division two is now alive on Netflix.

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