#Quick Side Hustle Demo

[marketingprofitmedia]

Quick Side Hustle Review – 1 Click Get Profit Daily

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Quick Side Hustle Review: What Is It?

Quick Side Hustle Review: Overview

Creator: Jason Fulton

Product: Quick Side Hustle

Date Of Launch: 2024-Feb-01

Time Of Launch: 09:00 EST

Front-End Price: $17

Official Website: Click Here

Product Type: Video, Software (Online)

Support: Effective Response

Discount : Get The Best Discount Right Now!

Recommended: Highly Recommended

Skill Level Required: All Levels

Refund: YES, 60 Days Money-Back Guarantee

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Quick Side Hustle Review: Key Features

Cha-Ching! 1-Click No Selling Systems Pays Us Daily

This “Loophole” App Exploits The System To Make You Money

Sit Back and Relax — This App Runs 100% On Autopilot

Our Testers Banked Real Cash On Day 1, Even With No Experience

Fastest, Easiest Side Hustle Ever — Beats Driving for Uber!

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Run This Money Machine From Anywhere, Any Device

Scale It To 6 Figures With Our Secret Sauce Strategy

$0 Investment — The App Does All The Heavy Lifting

Takes Only 5 Mins To Setup Then You’re Good To Go

You’re Protected By A 60 Day Money Back Guarantee

Quick Side Hustle Review: How Does It Work?

Quick Side Hustle Review: Why You Need To Get It Now?

The Price Is Going Up Soon

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There’s Not Learning Curve Or Work Required

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There Are No Monthly Or Hidden Fees

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Quick Side Hustle Review: Verify User Feedback

Quick Side Hustle Review: Who Should Use It?

Online Newbies

Teenagers

College Students

People In Their 20s

Housewives

Stay At Home Dads

Busy People

The Family Man

Old Age Pensioners

Unemployed People

Quick Side Hustle Review: OTO And Pricing

Front End Price: Quick Side Hustle ($17)

OTO 1: Quick Side Hustle Unlimited ($67)

OTO 2: Quick Side Hustle Done For You ($297)

OTO 3: Quick Side Hustle Quick Cash Magnet ($97)

OTO 4: Quick Side Hustle Autopilot ($47)

OTO 5: Quick Side Hustle Turnkey Buyer Traffic ($147)

OTO 6: Quick Side Hustle Biz In A Box DS ($47)

OTO 7: Quick Side Hustle 100x Profit Booster ($77)

OTO 8: Quick Side Hustle Affiliate Cashout Profits ($97)

OTO 9: Quick Side Hustle Turnkey Buyer Traffic DS ($77)

Quick Side Hustle Review: My Special Bonus Bundle

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Quick Side Hustle Review: Free Bonuses

Bonus #1: Do You Have What It Takes? $2K Per Day LIVE Invite (VALUE — $1997)

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I’ve been cornered into revealing my secret to using automation tools like Quick Side Hustle in my online business to make $2k+ per day.

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When you get this bonus, you can copy it in less than 24 hours and get results fast.

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Although we could get away with charging more for Quick Side Hustle, we want this to be accessible to everyone.

Quick Side Hustle Review: Conclusion

Quick Side Hustle enticing claims of effortless earnings and guaranteed high-paying jobs with top companies might seem like a shortcut to financial freedom. However, upon closer inspection, the lack of transparency, unsubstantiated claims, and unrealistic promises raise significant red flags. Remember, sustainable income generation rarely comes without effort, skills, and dedication. Instead of falling prey to Quick Side Hustle’s dubious claims, explore alternative side hustles that require your skills, dedication, and a commitment to continuous learning. The path to financial freedom might not be effortless, but with the right approach and realistic expectations, you can achieve your goals through genuine hard work and exploration of proven side hustle opportunities.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q. What Is Quick Side Hustle?

Quick Side Hustle is a complete system that finally makes it easy to generate cash to cover post-holiday expenses, fund passion projects, or deal with emergency bills.

Q. Is This Beginner-Friendly?

Yes, this system is mostly automated and the heavy lifting is done for you. No tech skills are required. Just activate this and within minutes you’ll be in a position to connect millions of hungry job seekers with jobs from companies like Amazon, UPS, and more!

Q. Is There A Money Back Guarantee?

Yes, you get a full 60 days to make sure this is for you, and if you change your mind for any reason, just let us know for a full refund.

Q. How Does Quick Side Hustle Work?

Quick Side Hustle leverages a powerful software app to connect job seekers with the world’s top employers and you get paid commissions for everyone that’s hired.

Q. Is There A Monthly Fee?

We have waived the monthly fee for a limited time. To get started now is just a one-time payment!

Q. How do I get Quick Side Hustle at the lowest price possible?

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Thank for reading my Quick Side Hustle Review till the end. Hope it will help you to make purchase decision perfectly.

Note: Yes, this is a paid tool, however the one-time fee is $17 for lifetime

[sweetdejun]

dear you.

trope: optional bias x fem!reader, arranged marriage, angst/fluff

synopsis: An all-too-well story through a series of letters she wrote to him, as they navigated a withering love story that had yet to see its eternal bloom.

word count: 3.7k, unedited (typical)

AHHH so excited that this is finally done!! I haven't posted in a LONG time so I'm nervous to see how this goes. thanks for reading, hope to see you soon xoxo

Dear you, 

Today was the first time we met. I couldn't hear much of the loud conversation our parents were having while, well, I tried to keep the thundering beats of my heart quiet. Stolen glances were all I had the courage to give you, and when our eyes locked for a brief moment, I could’ve sworn I saw a tinge of honey in those gorgeous eyes of yours. Perhaps it was the effect of the lighting, but I doubt it. 

I wonder what your hobbies are? What kind of music do you listen to? How do you take your coffee or tea? Is there a place in the world you wanna go to? Do you want the right side or the left side of the bed? Just thinking about the two of us sharing a bed makes me blush. These next few months are going to be dedicated to celebrating us, and I can’t wait for the day I get to become your wife. 

Patiently waiting,

Me

Dear you,

The wedding festivities are ticking closer and closer. We got to exchange numbers so every now and then when I get the chance I send you small texts here and there. Your responses are slow, if at all, but I bet it’s because you’re busy with work. It’s no big deal, I totally get it. 

Did you know, my friends ask about you all the time? I have to say that you’re always busy, so you don’t have time to talk or spend time with me. There’s always a flash of sympathy on their faces when I mention this, but I don’t care. As long as you respond to me, that’s all I care about. 

I’ve been trying to learn more and more about you through your mom and sister, who have been nothing but kind to me since day one. I didn’t think you were the type to be in a band in high school, but I got ahold of one of your demos (courtesy of your sister) and I listened to it in the car one day. Pretty good, I would say. Your voice sounded so cute… a little bit of that childhood innocence is mixed in with the majority of the baritone found in your voice today. 

Eager to meet you,

Me

Dear you,

When we sat down for dinner, you didn’t talk much. A couple of quick exchanges were all we had, but mostly I spent the evening picking at my food and looking around to watch the couples smile happily and enjoy their lovers’ presence. I moved one piece of broccoli around back and forth for a good ten minutes, while you quietly ate your dinner, one hand glued to your cell phone and mindless scrolling.

I saw a lady walk behind you towards the bathroom, and a quick look at your phone was all she needed to give me a look of pity before disappearing behind me. I excused myself to go the bathroom, and as soon as I leaned against the sink, my hands gripping the cold, wet porcelain, the woman was exiting the stall. I didn’t miss that strange look on her face when she approached the sink next to me to wash her hands. I tried to take a few deep breaths when she turned to me, a paper towel aggressively ripped from the automatic machine. She was hesitant, but eventually, before leaving she said to me, “take care dear, he’s not worth your time.” I don’t know why she’d said that. 

Confused and a little hurt,

Me

Dear you,

The countdown is getting shorter. It’s now a matter of days, and if things weren’t crazy enough, the hustle and bustle around the house have definitely been made very obvious now. I’ve had my bachelorette party, and a few other small dinners courtesy of my friends, but I feel that now I must be the blushing bride everyone wants me to be. At least for the next few days, that is. Once we get married, things will be different. I know they will. I hope that whatever doubts and hesitations I am feeling now are nothing but mere wedding jitters. 

I have to get my nails done, my hair colored and every inch of my body scrubbed and polished. My facial needs to be done, too. It’s funny, the last time I must’ve put this much effort into looking prim and perfect must’ve been for my senior prom, and it’s been years since that day. Did you go to prom as well? I have to remember to show you those dreadful photos, but back in those days, there was a spark of hope that love existed out there for me. Even if the guy I went with was nothing more than a friend, I hoped that my destiny had love written for me at some point, when I’d grow into a woman. I hope that time’s finally arrived.

Excited about what’s to come,

Me

Dear you, 

The wedding is over. You looked dashing, as always, and I was told that I looked beautiful. My parents cried today, and I think it didn’t hit me until now that I really am a married woman now. You’re gone to play pool with your groomsmen, you just told me that you would be back in a bit. It’s been an hour and a half, and I got impatient and changed out of my gorgeous but annoying dress into something more breathable. I took the dozens of bobby pins out from my hair, and as I wiped the makeup away, I couldn’t help but remember the fake smile I’d put up for everyone; the pictures, your friends and family, and my friends and family. The facade is already setting in that we’re a happy couple… are we really? You didn’t even feel the need to spend tonight, of all nights, with me. I must be that ugly, huh?  

Maybe pessimism isn’t how we wanna start this new chapter of our lives. I’ll try to make an effort to be more present in your life because I don’t wanna lose something without giving it a chance. 

I hear your laughter downstairs. Wonder what that’s about.

Just stood by the door, but what I heard was enough to lull me into the security of my dreams. “I can’t believe we’re married… I know nothing about her, and frankly, could care less about her.”

Heartbroken on the night that was supposed to be cherished,

Me

Dear you,

Things have been up and down. On one end, when you’re around, we talk a little. Getting to know you has far exceeded my expectations, even though it’s little by little. In the beginning, you didn’t even want to sleep in the same bed as me, but one day, when I had enough I decided to confront you about it. The strongest I’d ever been, I will say, but it was liberating. You had no idea of the feeling of a burden being lifted from my shoulders that day. That conversation clearly had an effect on you, as you had started sleeping next to me since that day. but some people only deserve good, dare I say perfect, things in small doses.

I usually don’t wake up next to you. Feels like how it did when we first got married, which feels like ages even though it’s only been a few weeks. The faint dips in the bed from your body are almost completely faded by the time I wake up. The remnants of a freshly brewed pot of coffee lie in the coffee maker downstairs. I find myself repeating the same routine; making another batch of coffee, quietly having breakfast, and maybe rearranging the living room furniture to see if you’ll notice it when you get home. I do the laundry, cook a little, and work a little. 

I actually did something a little interesting today, though. When I went grocery shopping I was surprised to see handwriting that wasn’t mine. I couldn’t read what you wrote, though. Your penmanship is not great but I guess in the corporate world, you don’t really see the need to handwrite things anymore. I hesitated on calling you before I eventually deciphered what you wrote. Turns out, you just need to look at it a little longer and give it some time because before you know it, it’ll unravel right in front of you. Maybe there’s hope in me that you’ll do the same.

Slowly feeling the fatigue of the night,

Me 

Dear you,

Today was a bit different than the rest of the mundane days I’d spent in this empty house. I was sipping on my tea in the final hours of afternoon, reading a book when suddenly your footsteps started to echo against the marble floor. My gaze turned up to look at your figure that leaned against the doorframe, hands in your pockets. I raised my eyebrows, doggy-earring my page and setting the paperback to the side. “Hey, what’s up?” “Uh, nothing much,” you started. “I was wondering if you wanted to go grab something to eat.” I blinked back. This is the first time you’ve voluntarily offered to take me to dinner. Naturally I’ve grown a little skeptical after hearing the empty promises, but my heart has yearned for your calls. I hesitantly let my heart win over my head, and take you up on your offer. 

I took out the perfect outfit, gold earrings and wore a blood red lipstick. The last time I wore a shade like this… I can’t remember. Not even on our wedding day did I go with a bold shade as this one. 

When I got ready, you look up from your phone for a second and for the first time, you did a double take and took in my appearance properly. I felt shy under your gaze for a moment, but my brain was refusing to believe that this was happening. “You look nice, y/n.” I shift my gaze up through my eyelashes for a second and reply with a curt ‘thank you’. 

Everything between going to the restaurant (which has a beautiful seaside view, a live musician and there’s a warmth accompanying the brisk autumn breeze), ordering the food, eating the food and going home, we had a conversation longer than we’ve ever had before. 

The words exchanged were still formal, at least on my end, because deep in my heart I want you to experience what I experienced these last few months. I think you have a way of letting your frustration peek through more easily though, because I could sense your impatience with my one sentence responses to your questions and not as much reciprocation. My frustration’s getting to me too. 

Wondering what’s gonna happen next,

Me

Dear you,

We walked into the house tonight and you gritted your teeth, “I’m just trying to get to know you better. Why are you making this so hard?” That made me stop in my tracks. I’m confused now, because this entire time you were the one making things hard for me. I wanted to reach out and touch you, hold you, tell you that there was always a soft spot in my heart for you. But I couldn’t. Not anymore. “You were the one that pushed me away, and I just could not keep putting in an effort to try to win someone over that never wanted to be mine in the first place,” is all I can tell you. Tears ran down my face and the pain that I buried away reappeared on the surface of my heart with a vengeance. “I wasn’t ready!” I hear you exclaim as I walk away. There’s a tone of disappointment I’m picking up from your voice, almost like you’re confused as to why I’m walking away. “Well, good. I’m glad we’re finally on the same page for once,” my shaky voice responded and I shut the door to our room.

Crying myself to sleep,

Me

Dear you,

It’s been a couple of days since our argument. We’ve gone back to our terse exchanges, the lackluster life I grew to tolerate reentered my life. One day, much like before, while I was tending to my plants you came from around a corner, and grabbed a seat before me. “Look up at me for a second.” There’s something new in your voice, a sort of fragility that has my broken heart skipping a beat. I met your gaze and paled when I took in your appearance. Not that you’d been crying or anything but I could tell the stress over the last few days started to bring out an aged quality in your features. Subtle dark circles and a shadow of a stubble along your jaw. “I want to take this moment to say a couple of things,” you started. “I want to firstly apologize for how formal I was in the beginning. The truth was I never thought I would be involved in an arranged marriage. I was confident that I’d find someone myself, and when it didn’t work out the way I wanted it to, I let my ego come in the way of even starting off on the right foot with you.” I thought back to the very beginning, your words and actions aligned with you showing no interest. Perhaps what you say is true, so I nod to let you know I hear you. “I also want to give us a chance to start over. Like I said, it was a rocky start and I don’t think our families will be too happy if we keep things going this way. I’ll put in more of an effort, but this is a two way street. Are you willing to do the same?” 

Truth of the matter is, I’ve grown tired of living this way. We became two strangers, two roommates under the same roof instead of husband and wife. I know that even though I don’t show it much, there’s still a part of me that’s mad for you. I want to revive her. I want my happily ever after. If this is what will lead to that, I’m willing to give it a shot. “Yes.”

Looking forward to starting fresh,

Me

Dear you,

Things have been getting better. I learned about the company you work for and what you do there. I had an idea of when you left for the office and when you came back home. Now that your alarm is something I can hear now, I have started to mold my routine to fit yours a bit better. This is how things go now: your alarm goes off and you go and shower, while I get up and get a pot of coffee going and pull your pre-packed lunch from the fridge. By the time I get to pulling out your breakfast stuff, I hear you come down the stairs. You make our coffee, which has taken you several tries to get it right for me, and I go brush my teeth and wash my face. I come down and you’ve made your breakfast and mine. We enjoy breakfast silently, albeit on the same table, which is progress in itself. You’ve asked me how the coffee was today, and it’s a bit on the bitter side but it’s gotten much better since day one. On day one, I had to pretend to like the coffee and then I waited for you to leave so that I could remake it.

When you get back from work at the end of the day, I usually have dinner ready so that all you have to do it wash up really quick and join me for dinner on the table. Our conversations pick up a bit at this point. You tell me about anything exciting or crazy that happened at work that day, and I tell you bits and pieces about my work from home situations. You’ve made it a point to learn more about me too, so now you know that my favorite color is forest green, I have a fondness for interior design and that I’ve always wanted to go to Europe. Your favorite color is blue, you enjoy the occasional mystery novel and you have a guilty pleasure of 90s rom-coms. 

Beginning to wonder when we’ll have our 90s rom-com moment,

Me

Dear you, 

You have started becoming more open and friendly, and now we’re becoming friends. I find your lingering gaze on me from time to time as I complete a chore or fix my hair in the mirror. I can’t find it in me to connect my eyes with your own yet, but slowly and surely I’m getting there. I feel too shy, is that so bad? I suggested that we sit down and watch a 90s rom-com tonight, which I know you won’t object to after the latest revelation. You’ve gone to the kitchen to warm up some popcorn whilst I had time to sneak out to write this letter. I wonder if you’ll ever find these, I’ve hidden them quite well and I know you won’t look there. My wedding ring is glistening under the desk light as I finish this letter to you. Today it seems extra radiant.

Hearing you call my name with that dulcet voice,

Me

Dear you,

It’s been a while. Our mini vacation to that cute little town is over now, we’ve just returned home. I finally got to see the many sides there are to you. Your adventurous side that wants to try any new food, your mortified side when you almost slipped down the hill during our morning hike, your gentle and soft side when a little girl was standing in front of us in line for ice cream. I’ve started showing you sides of me, where I laugh the loudest at a comedy show, or make stupid puns when I read street signs or stare in awe as fresh snow falls from the sky over our heads. 

Tonight you asked to kiss me. Before today the last time we kissed was for the camera on our wedding day. The air was different tonight, though. You tucked a piece of hair behind my ear and asked for permission before leaning in closer. When our lips touched, a gasp left my lungs and my world stopped. My hands froze, hovering over your face and I slowly reached in till I felt the warmth of your cheeks across my fingers. Perhaps the chill in my touch caused you to pull back in shock, but you hesitated to let go. Your hands firmly held my hips with a fragile touch, like you were scared to hurt me, maybe again. Your eyes shined back at me and I’m reminded of the moment I first laid eyes on you. That tinge of honey came back to me and is now glistening with the same want and desire I used to see in my own reflection.  

My heart has had its time to heal. It’s slowly letting me love you again. I’m mortified that I’ll regret it if things go wrong, I don’t have the capacity to get hurt again. I don’t know what to do. You’ve noticed when I grow quiet and have started asking if I was okay. I put on a small smile and tell you I’m fine, but I have a feeling you see right through me. 

Scared to put my heart on my sleeve yet again,

Me

Dear you, 

You found them today. All of the letters. I thought I had done a pretty good job hiding them but out of sheer luck, when I found myself out of the house coincidentally while you were at home, you found the letters. You read every single one of them, you told me. That’s why when I came home and found you sitting on the couch, the letters in your hands as you read through them my heart stopped. You noticed the door closing and looked up at me, the red rims of your eyes telling me these letters have affected you in a way I don’t want to think about. “I didn’t mean to, I’m, uh, you weren't…” I started, rambling while avoiding your gaze, embarrassed and ashamed that you’ve discovered a vulnerable side of me that you could have hated. You could have left me tonight. We could have been over. But instead, you put the letters down and rushed over to hug me. Hold me tighter than I’ve ever been held before. 

“I’m sorry for everything, my love,” you started and my heart stuttered at the term of endearment. “I have never known someone as sweet, kind, innocent and breathtakingly beautiful as you. Please don’t be ashamed, I shouldn’t have opened these up,” Now you were the one rambling. I looked up at you, tears gathering at the margins of my eyelids. Waiting to slip and fall so you can catch them with the calloused pads of your thumbs. Your hands holding my face, cradling me gently, I wetly smiled, “they were addressed to you for a reason, honey. It was destiny for you to see them one day. I thought my world would come crashing down at the thought of you finding these letters, but I believe you. I’m ready to give you my heart in completion once again, because now I know. You are not going to hurt me like you did before. I trust you and love you.” With that, our mouths connected once more, and we spent the whole night talking about the letters. I am glad our lives brought us together like this, for now we will spend the eternity of our lives hand in hand, facing the world together as one strong team. With love, happiness and companionship at each step of the journey, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Confident that this is my last letter to you,

Me

(p.s. You just read the ends of this letter and whined for me to keep writing to you. I’ll start giving them to you directly starting from this one, my dear)

[field-promax]

8 Tips for Starting a Snow Removal Business This Winter

Winter is coming! And so is your chance to make some profit.

Setting up a Snow Removal business is a great opportunity for outdoor contractors to expand their business this winter season. In fact, researchers found that the snow plowing industry raked in about $19 billion in revenue last year. And, the industry continues to grow by 0.7% every year. So, if you are looking for a profitable business idea or thinking of making some extra cash with a side hustle, snow removal can be your ticket to success.

To make this possible, however, you need to know how to start a snow removal business.

Kickstart Your Journey to Making a Profit with Field Promax Snow Removal Business Software. Sign Up Now.

The snow industry is substantially different from many other field service industries, which means you’ll likely have less competition. But with that said, your knowledge and resources are also just as limited as theirs. This makes it hard when you’re inexperienced trying to start your snow removal business. Therefore, if you want to start a profitable snow removal business, you’ll have to know more than your competitors do.

To help you with the task, we have put together a step-by-step guide. Go through the blog and you will have a clear idea of what it takes to start your snow plowing business. So, why wait? Suit up and get going.

1. Determine the Services You’ll Offer

Before you do anything else, you need to know what types of snow removal services you’re going to offer. Think about your area and how much snowfall and ice you get every year. Do you get more snow or ice? Knowing this will help you decide if you want to do snow or ice, or both at the same time.

Then, decide if you’re going to do residential or commercial accounts. Residential and commercial snow accounts could require different types of equipment. In other words, if you start by doing both, then you may have to buy twice as much equipment. As you’re first starting, you don’t want to do both. You should consider picking one or the other. You can expand into other types of accounts later on.

If you own a lawn care business too, you should probably pick the type of accounts you work with in lawn care (residential or commercial). Oftentimes, those same clients can become your snow clients too.

Manage Both Your Lawn Care and Snow Removal Businesses with the Same Software. Book A FREE DEMO with Field Promax to Learn More.

2. Make Sure You Are Licensed

To launch a snow plowing company, you need to acquire certain licenses and permits and follow the regulations of several state transport and small business bodies. Suppose you are planning to start a business in the U.S. In that case, there are government bodies that can help you with these legalities for starting a snow removal business. So, fill up their quick form and find the exact regulations and license requirements, and legalize your status as a snow removal business owner.

3. Get The Right Inventory

There are no snow plow businesses without the right snow removal equipment. You need to purchase tow trucks or tractors equipped with plowing tools. Also, you’ll need other materials like a snowblower, rock salt, salt sprayer, etc. Before starting any jobs make sure that you take stock of your current equipment and supplies. Find out what you will need to carry out a job in one residential driveway or one storefront or a small store parking lot. Have a look at your truck; is it in proper working condition? If not, consider taking it to a mechanic for maintenance.

In addition to your regular equipment, always have a backup inventory ready to go. It is possible that when you get an order for snow removal, your truck or some other equipment won’t work. At such a time, you must have a backup for these vehicles or plowing equipment.

After each job, it’s also a good idea to do a status check on all your equipment and supplies in order to prepare for the next job.

4. Figure Out Your Expenses

Snow plowing equipment can be very expensive, so it’s very important to make sure you’ll be able to pick up enough clients to cover these startup costs. From the very start, it’s vital that you manage your business expenses. You can also consider options like a business credit card or a loan to help you get started.

Also, put together a backup finance plan, and don’t forget to determine how much money should be set aside for repairs. This is the one thing that is going to cost you a fortune, if not managed properly.

5. Charge the Right Price

Since you need to find a good target market to grow your customer base, you also need to charge the right price. Determine the cost of all the materials, equipment and supplies needed for your business. Find out where you can get the best deals by buying them in bulk. Charging competitively will help you stand out from the competition. In addition, have a clear pricing structure so that customers know what to expect from your services.

6. Advertise Locally, and For Free

For a snow plow business, there’s no need to invest a major budget for advertising. Instead, take advantage of local advertising opportunities, after all this is where the bulk of your clientele will come from. The first step to building a strong online presence is to have your own snow removal company website. Use SEO techniques to optimize your site for “near me” searches online. You can also earn from advertisements shown on your website for other winter products and services.

You must set up a Google My Business account to make your brand more visible to potential customers and create similar accounts on websites like Yext, Facebook and Craigslist.

Word-of-mouth referrals are another great (also free) free marketing opportunity for your snow plowing business. Send out customer feedback surveys and encourage happy clients to write positive reviews online and on social media.

7. Have An Off-Season Plan

The snow plowing business is a seasonal business (obviously!), which only works in winter. So you can’t depend on this business model to earn you round-the-year revenue. The ideal thought is to get a job that entails your pickup truck for the rest of the year.

You can do freelance logistics jobs like helping people move small furniture, giving out your pickup truck for rent, getting a part-time logistics job with local stores, etc.

8. Sign Up for Snow Removal Business Software

The best tip for snow removal businesses this year is to go paperless. No matter what else you are doing to take your business off the ground, you will reach nowhere if you don’t automate your process. In this age of digital technology, this is the best competitive advantage you can leverage for your business. And that’s why we suggest signing up for the best snow removal business software.

Essentially, snow removal software is a type of field service management software specifically designed for snow removal companies. It systematically streamlines and standardizes your business processes, adding more efficiency and scalability to the entire operation.

In simple words, snow removal software will help you control your business operations with just a few clicks on your computer or smartphone. Starting from work order management and creating estimates for your customers to monitoring, billing and invoicing– it takes care of your business every step of the way.

By automating the processes, this cutting-edge software solution enhances your business performance, improves productivity, reduces overhead costs, and more importantly, increases profitability. No wonder it is gaining popularity among small and medium businesses all over the world.

Wrapping Up

Snow may seem an irksome problem for the residents, but for you, as an entrepreneur, it is equivalent to white money falling from the sky. You know this fact already, and that’s why you are considering starting a snow plow business of your own.

As you start preparing for launching your business, make sure you take these suggestions into account seriously. They are crucial to maintaining your profitability in this limited-season business venture.

Since both your time and budget are limited, it is important that you make the most of your resources. And the best method for resource optimization in a snow removal business is to leverage snow removal business software. The advantages of this advanced digital tool are boundless. For example:

Provide a complete mobile experience to your clients, no hassle just place a requirement.

Take advantage of key analyses and reports on your entire snow plow business.

Easily organize tasks and get efficient routes for working.

You can outsource requirements to other snow plow drivers and earn commissions.

Manage invoices and get paid faster by digital payment means.

Keep important business details organized and accessible at all times.

For More Information, contact Field Promax.

Originally Published on our website - https://www.fieldpromax.com/blog/ideas-to-start-a-snow-removal-business/

[vorgues]

50 Best Ways To Make Money Online

Making extra money doesn’t have to be hard. You don't always have to spend money to make money. There are lots of money-making opportunities out there.

One of the best things you can do to make money fast is to invest in your networking at work, spend time learning as much as possible, and get a raise or promotion. This alone could help you to make an extra $100 a day in no time. and get a raise or promotion. This alone could help you to make an extra $100 a day in no time. I am not going to lie: the reality is that you will have to put in some work to earn cash. But there are some clever real ways to make money out there if you are up for the challenge! This is what making more money can do for you:

Help you to save money and pay off your debt.

Pay your bills at the end of the month.

Help you stop living paycheck to paycheck.

Allow you to reach financial freedom.

It can even help you to leave a job you hate.

Plus, you could retire sooner if you want to. But remember: If you want to reach your goal of making $100 or more a day online (or offline), simply combine a number of these money-making ideas.

Whether you’re between jobs, a stay-at-home parent or just want to make some extra money without leaving the house, these work-from-home jobs and tasks can boost your income, helping you make ends meet, pay down debt or reach savings goals. Legitimate work-from-home jobs do exist but beware of scams that require you to pay upfront for the chance to earn extra money. Instead, check out these ways you can easily make extra money from home.

Let’s dive into it: here are the best ways to make money in 2021. No matter what your skills are, you can find something that’s right up your alley.

1. Sell Stock Photographs If you have a knack for capturing the perfect shot, you could turn those pictures into extra money. Sites like Shutterstock, Fotolia and Adobe Stock enable users to upload images and get paid when people purchase them. You’ll receive a fraction of the sales price — and a good picture can earn you thousands of dollars if it’s downloaded a lot. You must have the exclusive rights to the photos, and you must include signed releases for any recognizable people or private property in the images. 2. Use the Right Account for Your Money You shouldn’t settle for any old checking account when you’re looking for somewhere to keep your money. Instead, you should find one that pays you back. PenFed’s Access America Checking account does just that thanks to its annual percentage yield of 0.20% or 0.40%1 — depending on the daily balance — with a monthly direct deposit of $500 or more. By using an account that pays a higher APY, your money will grow more quickly while it sits until you need it. And if you’re able to avoid monthly fees, there’s no reason not to take advantage of a perk like this. 1APY (annual percentage yield) is accurate as of Sept. 18, 2020, and is subject to change at any time. Federally insured by NCUA. 3. Pet Sit If you love animals, getting paid to watch other people’s pets is a dream job. Sites like Rover connect pet sitters with pet owners. You’ll need to set up a profile explaining why you’d be a great pet sitter, but once you’re approved, you can set your own rates and hours. You could earn up to $1,000 per month, according to Rover. 4. Transcribe Audio Clips If you can type quickly and accurately, you can earn money by transcribing audio clips in your free time and turn it into a sweet side hustle. Companies like TranscribeMe! pay about $20 per hour, and top earners can earn $2,200 a month from these work-from-home jobs. If you have a specialized background like medical or legal training, you can earn higher rates. 5. Sell Unused Stuff If you’re looking for quick cash, consider selling items around your house, including your CDs, DVDs, games or books on the site Decluttr. Just enter the barcode, and Decluttr will tell you how much it’ll pay you for it. 6. Take Paid Surveys Online Various online websites will pay you for sharing your opinions on a range of topics. For example, e-Rewards is open to anyone older than 13. You’ll earn e-Rewards currency for each survey you complete, which you can redeem for gift cards. Other options include GlobalTestMarket and Harris Poll Online. The amount you make depends on how many paid surveys you’re eligible for and how quickly you complete them. 7. Become a Remote Sales Agent If you have a smooth voice and like talking to customers, sign up as a sales agent. You’ll take calls like you would in a physical call center, but some sales agent positions are remote jobs. For example, you can sign up with the company LiveOps to take calls for 30-minute blocks. First, you must apply, be accepted and complete a company training course, which takes about two weeks. Depending on the job, you could be paid an average of 25 cents per minute and/or commission and receive incentives for selling certain products. 8. Make an Online Business Out of Creating Online Courses If you have specialized knowledge, use it to create an online course. If you partner with a site like Udemy, you can set your price — between $20 and $200 per course — and keep a portion of the earnings based on whether you drive the traffic to the site or Udemy’s advertising attracts the students. 9. Surf the Internet There are dozens of ways to win money online. For example, companies want to know what you’re doing online, so they pay data aggregators like Nielsen to collect that information. To do this, Nielsen incentivizes people to share details about their computer and mobile phone usage by installing an app. You can earn rewards for each mobile device, plus sweepstakes entries. Nielsen gives away $10,000 each month to its Computer and Mobile Panel participants. 10. Serve as

an E-Juror You can make extra cash by serving as a mock juror so attorneys can practice their arguments and judge the value of their cases. Sites like eJury recruit U.S. citizens over 18 who haven’t been convicted of a felony. You can’t be an attorney, paralegal or legal assistant — or closely related to an attorney or employed by a law firm. Expect to make between $5 and $10 for each verdict. 11. Rent Out Your Car Renting out your car is one of the many ways you can make money off of tourists in your city. When you’re sitting at home, you’re not using your car, so consider making money from home by renting it to someone else. Companies like Getaround enable you to offer your car to someone who wants to rent it when you’re not using it. Getaround offers car owners top-rated insurance and 24/7 roadside assistance — so you’re fully protected. Active car owners can earn about $10,000 per year, according to Getaround. Smart Money Moves: 35 Useless Expenses You Need To Slash From Your Budget Now 12. Get Cash Back When You Shop Sign up with Ebates to get cash back when you shop online. Ebates has negotiated deals with more than 2,500 companies. Each time you click through the Ebates site to partner sites, the company pays a referral fee to Ebates, and Ebates shares it with you. You can also earn $25 for each friend you refer to Ebates. 13. Become an English Proficiency Test Grader To test for English proficiency, foreign students take tests that include writing paragraphs, which need to be scored. Companies like EditFast need people to grade the tests, and you can earn between $18 and $25 per hour. You must be a native or native-like English speaker, have a four-year college degree, pass proficiency exams and complete the training. Then, after making this extra money, you can grow it even more by putting it in a checking account like the one from PenFed. With an APY that can pay up to 10 times1 more than the average checking account, it can do more for your money. If you’re looking for an easy way to improve your financial situation, don’t overlook something as simple as your checking account. 1Sourced directly from: www.fdic.gov/regulations/resources/rates as of Sept. 18, 2020. 14. Host Dinner for Guests If you like to cook — and others like to eat your food — you could make money by hosting dinners at your home. Companies like Eatwith coordinate guests for your dinner parties. You must apply and host a demo event so the company can verify your culinary and hosting abilities. If you’re accepted, you’ll be on your way to making up to $1,100 per dinner. 15. Recycle for Cash Recycling helps the Earth by reducing pollution, but it can also put some cash in your pocket. Some states implement a bottle deposit you can get back when you turn in the used bottles at a collection center. For example, in California, you can earn 5 cents for most glass and aluminum cans and 10 cents for 24-ounce or larger bottles. 16. Watch Promotional Videos Some companies put together videos they want consumers to watch — and sites like InboxDollars find and reward consumers willing to do it. You’ll earn a little cash for each video you watch. If there aren’t any videos available to watch, InboxDollars also pays members to take surveys and online shop. 17. Turn Your Home Into a Bed and Breakfast If you don’t mind sharing your home with people, you can sign up to rent it to vacationers. On sites like Airbnb, you can list your space, set your rate and wait for guests to sign up. You have the flexibility to rent when you want and close up shop when you want your house to yourself. 18. Share Your Spending History Companies want to know what you’re spending money on. Snap pictures of your receipts, and upload them to the ReceiptPal app to earn entries into sweepstakes and points you can redeem for gift cards. 19. Test Websites If you like surfing the internet, consider becoming a website tester for UserTesting. Companies that are launching new sites will pay you to provide feedback about them and perform tasks to make sure they’re

functioning properly. You can expect to make $10 for each website you review. 20. Sell Coupons Online If you have any coupons around you know you won’t use, someone else might be willing to pay for them. For example, if someone is planning to buy a new laptop, a 10-percent-off coupon could save them a substantial amount, which might motivate them to pay you a portion of what they’d save to get the coupon. EBay does have some restrictions on coupon sales, however. You can never sell coupons for free items, and you can sell only 25 coupons — or up to $100 worth — each month. 21. Trade Cryptocurrencies Cryptocurrencies are currencies electronically created and controlled in a decentralized manner instead of by a government. Types of cryptocurrencies include Bitcoin and Litecoin. Trading cryptocurrencies can be lucrative — Bitcoin went up considerably between January 2017 and December 2017. Trading cryptocurrencies has its risks. If the price plummets — as Bitcoin’s price has in the past — you could lose your investment. 22. Create Slogans for Companies Companies love catchy slogans because they help sell products. If you have a knack for coming up with creative sayings, enter slogan contests. At Slogan Slingers, companies offer a reward of between $200 and $999 for slogans. If a company selects your slogan as the winner, you keep the prize, minus a small administration fee. 23. Lend Money to People If you have extra money, you can earn an average of 4% to 6% per year in profit by investing in peer-to-peer lending. Sites like LendingClub allow you to invest in small portions of loans — as little as $25 per loan — to other people. If the borrower defaults, however, you lose your investment. You must make a minimum opening deposit of $1,000 and meet the suitability requirements set by your state. For many states, that means you must have an annual income of at least $70,000 or a net worth of at least $250,000. 24. Tutor Students Online If you have a knack for explaining difficult subjects and helping students get better grades, consider tutoring online. You can find your own students and set your own rates to create an online business, or you can sign up to tutor with an existing company like Tutor.com. Tutor.com requires you to be at least a college sophomore, and you must be a subject matter expert in the areas you want to tutor. You must work at least five hours per week at Tutor.com. The site does not list the pay for tutors on its website, but with Chegg you can make $20 or more per hour of tutoring. 25. Host Direct-Sales Parties Direct sales companies like Mary Kay pay representatives to host parties and sell their products. You host events and invite friends, family and neighbors over to see and buy a company’s products — and you keep a portion of the sales. If you work for a single-level, direct-sales company, you can expect to earn an average commission of 20% to 25% of what you sell. 26. Rent Out Office Space in Your Home If you have home office space you don’t need to use, it could be worth money to someone who wants an office outside of their home but doesn’t want the associated cost or inflexibility of a traditional office space lease. You can set your own prices and decide when and for how long you want to rent your space. 27. Provide Tech Support Online If you get excited about fixing computer problems, sign up to get rewarded for being tech-savvy. Through companies like Upwork, you can complete lucrative freelance gigs online to earn cash and rewards by helping people fix their technology products. 28. Search the Web With Bing Switching your search engine is an easy way to make money from home. Microsoft, for example, will reward you for using Bing to search the internet. You earn points for activities like searches, which you can redeem for movies, games and gift cards. 29. Become a Virtual Fitness Instructor If you like helping people get in shape but don’t like traveling to the gym or other people’s homes, consider marketing yourself as a virtual fitness instructor. You might need to get

certifications to gain credibility with clients so you can oversee their workouts via webcam or other technology. Alternatively, you can have short, online meetings with clients and provide them with workouts to do on their own. Either way, you can work from home. 30. Sell Your Hair If your friends tell you they wish they had your hair, you might have a source of income growing right on your head. Sites like HairSellon provide an easy way to make money from home: You can list your hair for sale, and the site even has a calculator to help you set a reasonable price depending on its length, thickness and color. 31. Be a Virtual Assistant People will pay you to assist them with a range of tasks from canceling cable to scheduling appointments. “Virtual business assistance is an opportunity with so much variety and need that many people are able to find a place here,” said Angie Nelson of The Work At Home Wife. “In-demand skills can run the gamut from customer service and email management to optimizing eBay listings and setting up email funnels.” At Fancy Hands, the pay ranges from $3 to $7 per task — the faster you complete tasks, the higher your earning potential. 32. Sign Up for Credit Cards Credit card companies want to get their cards in your hands, and they often offer substantial bonuses to sign up. Many sign-up bonuses for credit cards are in excess of $1,000 — but you might have to spend a certain amount in a short period of time to qualify. Check that the card’s annual fee doesn’t offset the sign-up bonus. 33. Perform Tasks on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk Website Amazon has created a huge marketplace for tasks that require human intelligence for completion: Amazon Mechanical Turk. Businesses post tasks and how much the pay is for completing them. Tasks include identifying pictures or videos, transcribing audio recordings and conducting research. Depending on the task, you might have to prove your qualifications before you can claim it. The faster you complete tasks, the more you can make. 34. Adjust Your Home’s Temperature You can increase your bottom line by reducing your heating and cooling costs. Even if you’re always home, you can save up to 14% on your electricity bill if you set your thermostat 2 degrees higher and use a ceiling fan, according to Energy Star. You can also save money by dialing back the heat or air conditioning while you’re asleep. 35. Make and Sell Crafts If you’re a crafty person, selling some of your online handiwork might top your list of ways to make money at home. Sites like Etsy make it easy: You pay no monthly fee, just a 20-cent listing fee. Once your item sells, Etsy takes a 5% transaction fee, making selling you handmade creations and vintage goods in your Etsy shop, mostly painless. 36. Sell Video Footage to News Shows If you often find yourself in the right place at the right time to capture big events, let your video camera roll. News shows will pay you to use the footage for their broadcasts. You can use a site like ScoopBroker to sell your footage to a media outlet for exclusive or nonexclusive rights to it. 37. Write a Book Thanks to the advent of online publishing, you don’t need to have a connection with a big publishing house to deliver your story to the public. In fact, you can publish an e-book digitally through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. You can set your own price and earn up to 70% of it in royalty payments. 38. Pay Your Car Insurance in Full Instead of relying on monthly payments, save up to $120 a year by paying your annual car insurance premium in full, according to Lifehacker. As long as your insurance company has a website, you can boost your bottom line from the comfort of your favorite chair. More Opportunities: These Side Jobs Will Be the Most Popular in the US 39. Empty Your Closet If you have a closet full of clothes that you rarely wear, resell those clothes and put some cash in your pocket. Sites like Tradesy allow you to list items that are in great condition as well as authentic. You won’t pay a listing fee, but you will pay a 19.8%

commission on sold items totaling $50 or more and a flat fee of $7.50 on sold items totaling less than $50. 40. Assist With Political Action Campaigns If you’re a good communicator, consider putting your skills to work as a writer or organizer for political change as a way to make money from home. Sites like NextWave Advocacy recruit qualified applicants — often those with a background in writing who are interested in politics — and train them to work for clients on a range of political issues. 41. Negotiate Your Interest Rates If you have credit card balances, calling your credit card company to try to lower your interest rate works 80% of the time, according to CNBC. Even a small decrease in your rate can save you money. For example, say you carry a $10,000 balance: A 3% rate reduction would save you $300. Leverage how long you’ve been a customer and how you pay on time to increase your chances of success. 42. Use an App To Find Price Rebates Many stores have price guarantees, but it’s a hassle to track them all down and potentially even more of a hassle to file the paperwork. Now, you can get price rebates from the comfort of your own home. For example, sign up for Paribus via email, and the service will track the rebates you’re owed by scanning the receipts sent to your email address. It will seek out the lower price and request a rebate on your behalf if you qualify. 43. Review Computer Software Nobody wants to buy software only to find out it doesn’t work well. To help people avoid that disaster, you can write software reviews and get paid for them. SoftwareJudge will pay you up to $50 per review. 44. Watch TV You can make money from home watching TV: Download the Viggle app and earn one point for every minute you watch shows on subscription services like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, plus bonuses for certain shows. You can redeem points for cash or gift cards. Although it might not be the most profitable activity, if you’re going to watch TV anyway, you might as well get rewarded with this easy way to make money from home. 45. Answer Questions via Text If you’re good at finding answers quickly, consider becoming a member at 1Q, a site that enables customers to ask questions and get answers quickly. After you’ve signed up, you’ll receive 50 cents per answer. The number of questions you receive depends on your demographics and location, so keep your profile updated so you don’t miss out on questions. 46. Create an Online Business Translating Foreign Documents If you speak more than one language, you can make money working from home translating documents. ProZ.com acts as a marketplace for translators to connect with people and companies who need translation services. On ProZ.com, clients request applications for translations and select the translator they want to conduct at-home jobs. 47. Take Stock of Your Memberships Cutting unnecessary memberships is as valuable to your budget as generating extra income. Go through all of your current memberships and subscriptions to make sure they’re worth what you’re paying. To help find lurking expenses, consider an app like Trim, which shows your recurring costs and can even cancel subscriptions for you. 48. Share Your Knowledge If you have specialized knowledge, you can monetize it by signing up as an expert to help others online. For example, JustAnswer will pay you to share your expertise. You must apply for each category you feel you’re qualified to provide answers for, and you need to have a degree or certification in that area. The amount you earn depends on how in-demand your area of expertise is. 49. Bet On Your Ability To Get In Shape Did you know you can get paid to sweat? Getting healthy can help you win money by competing in health challenges. Sites like DietBet allow you to compete with others in weight loss challenges. You must upload pictures to verify your starting and finishing weight. You’ll pay an entry fee, but the fees go into a pot that everyone who meets the goal splits. You’ll never lose money as long as you meet your goal. 50. Accept

Packages for Neighbors If you’ve ever missed a package, you know how difficult it can be to reschedule your delivery. That’s why people use eNeighbr to get packages accepted for them. If you’re going to be home anyway, consider signing up to receive packages for your neighbors. Packages will be sent directly to you, and the customer will pick them up. You can expect to make $3.50 per package.

[sandersbayhq]

[Marley Rose] ✖ [26] ✖ [pansexual] ✖ [the songbird]

dob: march 12 occupation: music teacher at st james school of performing arts & part time at rose’s bakery faceclaim: melissa benoist pronouns: she/her

depression tw has dealt with anxiety/depression and body issues for as long as she can remember, some therapists have pointed out how it started around when her dad left and marley chooses to bottle up that fun fact and put it on a high shelf.

eating disorder tw started skipping meals/over exerting herself in high school but luckily was caught before suffering any serious and life-altering side effects. she credits her supportive family for her quick recovery.

dabbles in watercolour particularly when visual journaling (a technique she picked up in therapy and now uses in her lyric journals as well).

is a messy writer and this is best proven on the pages of her many notebooks, each filled with half-written song lyrics and ideas, but a majority of which are barely legible. she claims this is because she needs to get the ideas out of her head and onto paper before she forgets them.

prefers pen and paper to computers and tablets, and really only gets on her computer when she has serious work to do.

however she does have a slight addiction to her phone and can often be found playing best fiends and kitty collector, wizards unite and pokémon go!

she’s also a big fan of scrabble go (despite the fact that she is only okay at it), if you’re a true friend you’ve had countless game invites and are poked regularly to continue.

loves musical theatre, makes one trip to new york every year to see a handful of shows.

credits her mother for her love of music, appreciation for good lyrics and overall musical sensibilities. if she hadn’t filled their home with the classics (joni mitchell, tom waits, carole king, etc.) who knows what her relationship would be with music!

her love of baking from comes from mom too. when she is dealing with big feelings she doesn’t know how to express she will bake them into a pie. and then deliver that pie to the person who has her in her feels.

still struggles with body image and feelings of anxiety and self-worth, but makes a conscious effort every day not to let it rule her life. her experiences have made her a champion for body positivity and mental health awareness and she considers herself to be an advocate for her students. she will not see them go through what she did.

Cannot say no to a got chocolate (though why would she want to?).

moved briefly to la to make a real go at selling her music and/or getting a record deal. while she hustled, making meetings with anyone in the music industry who would give her the time of day she also worked as a nanny to two beautiful young girls. she couldn’t believe her good luck when she discovered her employer was a record exec who worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry. and when he agreed to listen to some of her stuff and maybe even help her with a demo? she was over the moon! until one night, after sharing some very personal original songs, he made it very clear if she wanted any favors from him she’d have to do one for him in return. after only five months, marley found herself running back to her family home feeling violated, ashamed, and very sure she didn’t have what it too. still too embarrassed and ashamed, she hasn’t told one of them the real reason she came home and as far as they are concerned she simply realized it was impractical to move out to la without a backup job.

went to college in sander’s bay so she could help out with the bakery. her mother didn’t approve of her giving up her dreams but marley insists (even as she finds herself putting down roots as a teacher) she hasn’t given up on them, they are just on hold.

still wants to make it back to la one day and give songwriting a real shot. she also wants to travel europe, asia and india.

doesn’t know how to take compliments and will often distract by enthusiastically returning the sentiments to the giver.  

is a cat mom to three-year-old katniss everpurr.

is a hopeless romantic.

[energonalucard]

Heterogeneous (pt. 1)

A story made after the discovery of the Dynamite Abs by @medics-secret-shipfic-folder and me wanting Demo and Medic flexing on some foes in matching cosmetics... And then I added plot and relationships (later). 

Rating: T (violence, but more so next chapter)

Pairing: Demoman/Medic/Sniper/Spy (Poly), hinted Heavy/Medic

Characters: A lot, but all classes are here so... we can check off those boxes. 

¸.•*¨*•.¸♡.•*¨*•.¸♡.•*¨*•.¸ ¸.•*¨*•.¸♡.•*¨*•.¸♡.•*¨*•.¸  ¸.•*¨*•.¸♡.•*¨*•.¸♡.•*¨

The room where they all sat held a lot of commotion, the dining area loud with chatter and mutters as conversations about strategies and pulling their weight today filled the walking masses as they exited to file in for the war games they had planned for today. As the long-standing defenses for this location, the RED team hoped to come out victors today in light of some of the BLU's being shipped out after their last failure.

Truth be told, the site dubbed "Sawmill" could be infuriating and tiresome to deal with when the defenses that RED had figured worked long ago where airtight in synergy. Long standing allies or simply bitter alliance set aside for the RED team, they worked together as best they can.

The only RED Spy huffed, flipping his zippo out to light his newly rolled clove as he followed his team to the teleporters to the battlefield. The duo Scout's in front of him shoving and leaning on each other as one pulled down his Flipped Trilby where his friend had tried to flick it off. The Spy tried to make his way past them without gaining attention, but his cloves and mightier stature gained the attention of the two Scout's.

"Nice hustle yesterday suit-n-tie, gave the Engie's hell." The obnoxious friend wearing to much said, but notably he was wearing the Flapjack. Its undershirt colored Zephaniah's Greed, much to the Spy's jargon. "Hopefully you scared all those Engie's away last night onto that train that came. It'll be Scout's outta hell then!"

Gods, he was obnoxious. Even with his friend being a bit on the tame side, Flapjack himself was enough to make Spy's mood plummet. So he kept walking for the teleporters and tucked away his zippo in hope for some peace. Well, you can never have peace with twelve men, but at least it wasn't a Scout he'd be listening to.

His shoes made hollow but prominent taps across the wooden floor as he entered the empty room with four teleporters lining the wall with pipes and rods sticking out into the wall. The Heavy wearing a Sinner's Shade was laughing at his Medic wearing his Grimm Hatte and Medi-Mask. The Doctor's eyes, before disappearing, were jovial and squinted in his hidden grin at his partner. The team's single Engineer also disappeared before Spy could get a good look at him but their Demoman took his place and went on the respective teleporter next, not as intoxicated as usual with his eyes darting about like they always did when not under the influence. Anxious fool. But he was a top of the line Demolitions Expert, so they take what they can get. From the last teleporter, their only Sniper was standing in his full on water work clothing line, wearing Wet Works and Cammie Jammies.

Spy hated he could remember their names at all. But he was the one who intercepts packages for the team to make sure they are getting and receiving normal mail; not sending private information for Mann Co. and all. 

The Sniper disappeared and before the two Soldier's could get up from sitting on the floor, Spy breezed past them to get there first. The oldest Soldier, here before even Spy himself, just flopped back down and sighed. The other, not as courteous as his friend and not as smart as to not pick fights, got up and pointed at Spy as he stood on the teleporter with his teeth bared. 

"Very gentlemanly, Frenchie. Very classy!" He said as condescending as he could, trying to provoke his teammates ire or a negative response.

Ever the gentleman himself, it seems. Spy sighed and drew his hand up to try to pluck his clove from his mouth, but stopped as he looked at his allies. This Soldier wasn't a helmet wearing type, it was common knowledge after the man had gotten a crate and traded away any helmet type cosmetics. (They long found out Soldier's helmet WAS a cosmetic, not an actual piece of army wear. Sniper's headshots proved it by tearing through them.) He'd mostly wore the Skullcap or Hat With No Name. But today, he had a simple bandana and his usual Mistaken Movember-esk beard was shaved to a single stripe down his chin. He looked like a thug and Spy had no idea what he was doing with it anyways. Had he missed a check stub going to Mann Co. for hats? Had he missed the Soldier raving about a case?

He had little time to ponder it as he was teleported through and awaiting the respawn system to arrange them all in order for the fighting to begin.

                                 ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄

After about thirty minutes of waiting, the RED team was quickly popped into their places inside the spawn of Sawmill, all twelve members standing in rows where they were dropped. Some continued the conversations in which they had started while waiting in the war room; guilty as charged belonging to the Medic and Heavy and the two Scout's swiftly switching between their primaries and secondaries in anticipation for action. Spy reloaded his revolver to pass a few seconds as they awaited the door to open and their feet to march.

Today was King of the Hill, so hopefully the Sniper had fun.

In his daze of reloading to skip the taunts around him, he missed the last few numbers in the Administrator's countdown and missed the front wave running past him. The Engineer pulling out his PDA and flicking the side past him before he ran forward and cloaked out the door. Sniper jumped off the team's spawn battlements and followed in after their Demoman and bandana Soldier. The Spy ran across the small banister and onto the rooftops on the tail of his teammate Scouts. One split off for the center point in the barn while the other continued to run the rooftops, probably hoping to jump a Sniper or Soldier with his Force-a-Nature.

Spy followed neither of them and fell from the rooftops onto the muddy ground, marching his way across the small makeshift bridge across the small pond breaking the bases apart. This is where he cloaked, his Cloak and Dagger draining as he ran into a more enemies infested territory and spotting a small group around a BLU Medic. 

The sounds of gunfire and explosions suddenly started outside of his range of sight, making the ambience of the alpine mountain mill almost flush away with the sudden pops in his ears. The roaring of the BLU Pyro's casually flame spurting Phlog didn't help as he ran forward with an ally BLU Engineer. 

So, the Scout's weren't going to reign supreme this match, oh well. They'll just have to be smarter today. 

The group surrounding the Medic consisted of a Heavy, Soldier, and a Sniper all making their way to the front lines from probably building a Uber off of the Soldier rocket jumping in place by their own spawn. The Medic, notably, was handling a stock Uber handle with presumably enough charge to hit an Uber after some damage was taken by peaking RED Team on point. 

But it was too risky to stop this push. Yes, team's usually celebrated when Spy's risk their life for taking out a Uber push. Sure, no thanks were ever given but that was a given itself. He was no Engineer nor a Medic, so that was that. And Spy couldn't deal with that today, he just hoped his own team's Pyro was smart enough not to die before the enemy push. 

Spy just kept walking, no sign of his own counterpart and the only Sniper he had seen was with the Uber Medic's posse. He hoped not, it'd be nice to not have to be the action Spy who dropped from the top of stairs and roofs on unsuspecting power classes to get kills. 

He really hoped he didn't have to resort to camping ammo and health packs for kills either. There was only so far he'd fall. 

That shipment of new BLU's better have something for him or he'd be very disappointed and move onto the Diamondback and Dead Ringer for active participation. 

Soon enough, he ran the length behind the enemy lines and found little of anyone to pick off by standing near the ammo and health pack near the spawn. The gun fire and sizzling fire only interrupted by bombs going off and the occasional boom of a Sniper rifle piercing the air with a heavy bass.

The Spy sunk his kunai into the back of a Soldier running from BLU spawn swinging his Disciplinary Action like anyone was around, the Soldier's weight falling forward fast from his long strides and splatting in the mud and water from the recent rains. Spy stepped back from the body to retreat and actually make plays on point now he had enough health to withstand a bit of enemy fire (for when the Pyro came around or a sentry locked onto him before he could pop away from sight). He heard duel footsteps too heavy to be his clapping across the wooden battlements above and behind him. 

He cloaked as fast as he could and ran forward until he knew he was fully under cloak and back pedaled as fast as he could against the wall of the barn outside of BLU. A Demoman came charging with an Eyelander, swinging as fast and hard as he could to look for the Spy. A Medic, Quick Fix equipped, kept pace with his patient and upon arriving to the Spy's old position whipped out his Ubersaw to start slashing around the pack.

When Spy got far enough back to consider himself safe from just random Spy checking, he took a look at the Demo and Medic pair and he almost had to spit out his clove from… whatever he almost let spill out of his vocal cords. 

The BLU Medic's headgear wasn't anything new like the RED Soldier's bandana, his head was clean of any hats and he simply had a Mutton Man style sideburns. He was starting to grow other facial hair too with a dark shadow on his jaw. And the Medic wore the Burly Beast, and the soft rain and wind were not helping draw away any attention as the man violently swung around his saw. The Burly Beast was not new, a cosmetic specifically tied open and manufactured to show off a Medic's assets by the big Australian man upstairs. The only class cosmetic to show anything overly masculine about the features of the equipped area, specifically to be provocative. 

Until today it seemed. The Demoman was also in his… own version of the Burly Beast. The entire middle part made in the Demoman's classic jumper, but ripped in half and fake shredded across the ripped sides to make the impression of tearing look real. His shoulder length sleeves were also "ripped" as well, but cut off at the shoulders with tears and ended at his elbow where a bit of remains were left dangling. Worst of all, he was wearing the Cool Breeze below his top cosmetic, adding to the vulnerability of his skin. 

Spy had been shocked so much he hit his back on the BLU team's barn, almost slipping in mud as the clove from his mouth finally couldn't stay in and hit the grass under him. He panicked and took off to the right, away from their spawn and he heard the sound of a distance Soldier spawning from the window. But the clattering of his weight hitting the barn did not go without the Demo and Medic hearing him, as they had already toned out all the war ahead of them and simply focused on him. A BLU Scout spawned shortly into their endeavors as they called out Spy to alert him, and the boy took a few pop shots around the corners before running off past them. 

Spy, when he dropped his clove and basically gave away his place, had found his way out immediately and took it. Well, he took himself as far as he could. The more distance he traveled, the less cloak he had and he didn't dare sit on top of the ammo kits for any help with those two watching for him. He stood on the trunks in the corners of the map behind the planks of wood, watching them from thirty feet away as they slowly gave up their chase. And once the Medic trained back on his pocket with his QuickFix, Demoman soon gave up as well. Putting his sword away for his grenade launcher.

As he started to load it, he looked at the ground and started to stomp on something. The Demo took his boot, and shoved it three times next to the barn before smothering whatever it was under his foot. The Medic ushered him forward and the Demo ran after him, being slower by nature.

Spy stood there, waiting for his cloak to regenerate. But really, his heart was pounding and his legs felt not under his control. He stayed there and just waited until an unlucky Engineer came over for metal away from his nest (if he even had one). The swiftness his legs suddenly gave him to make his way behind the lonely Engineer to stab and gained back his advantage knocked his senses back into place. 

His job! His team! He had something better to do then think of the obscene amount of hair he just saw.

[harryandmolly]

i could write it better than you ever felt it - three

summary: fuck growing up. this is freedom, this is life, this is youth – 2007 Warped Tour style.

warnings: Language, underage drinking, Merriment (TM)

word count: 3k

Val woke up with a boy on her mind.

She bathes in the feeling of it, the comfort it brings her. She has a crush. After the year she’s had, she wasn’t sure she’d be allowed another. It feels like a little gift.

A little gift in a big, perfect, 6’2” package.

Speaking of package…

Val sinks her orthodontist-perfected front teeth into her bottom lip to tamp down her filthy smile. She closes her eyes and imagines the way he felt underneath her last night when they were rolling around in the dirt. His whole body was hard, and not in the way she’s used to. He clearly takes excellent care of himself, which is always sexy. He was all firm muscle wrapped in strong tendons and ligaments under a curtain of surprisingly soft skin. And, when she got a hand up under his shirt, moaning into his open mouth as she traced the defined lines of his abs, she found a nice dusting of chest hair that got her even a little wetter than she already was.

So yeah, he was hard in more ways than one. And Val can’t stop thinking about it.

She fell asleep in Pomona after a romp with her bounding bunny and woke up in Ventura for another round. It didn’t even occur to her until after her third orgasm of the past 24 hours that this is the first time she’s gotten a full eight hours of sleep in… oh, no, she refuses to think about how long it’s been.

What she’d like to stop thinking about, what she shouldn’t really be so impressed by, is how willing he was to stay put under her and let her explore him, drifting his hands over her body as he liked without demanding, without pushing any limits. I mean, really, how low are her standards that she’s actually charmed by respect and consent? That thinking about it makes her blush?

Well, Val cut her teeth on the boys of Warped Tour. So. Those standards? They’re pretty fuckin’ low.

What a nice thing, though, to have a crush. A nice little summer crush. A boy that makes her heart flutter when he skates by, a face to watch in a crowd when she’s had a few and is simmering for him under the cool June moon. A gift, indeed.

She’s pondering possibilities of flirtation, of stolen kisses, of pink cheeks and bashful glances when her bunk curtain flies open and something crawls inside.

Bea burrows her face into Val’s neck as Val wordlessly scooches further into the bunk to make room. Not that they need much. Bea is the size of a peapod.

“Honey bunch,” Bea greets, nuzzling Val’s hair which still smells faintly of bonfire smoke. It’s so signature Warped, it makes Bea grin.

After a moment of comfortable silence, Bea looks up at Val in wonder. “Did you sleep through the night?”

Val wears a proud smirk and tips an eyebrow at her. “I did.”

“Shit, that’s new. The Mendes kid must’ve really worn you out,” Bea yawns, feigning casual. Val chuckles, bouncing Bea against her side.

“Mmmm, what a man what a man what a man…” Val begins.

“What a mighty good mannnnnn,” Bea finishes, laughing.

The girls giggle together until Bea stops, kicking her bare foot at something brushing against it from outside Val’s bunk curtain.

“Guys, it’s Naveen,” a voice calls, making them both smile and settle, “Val, could you… I mean, I’m sorry, I know it’s early…”

Val makes a pitiful face and drags the curtain back, squinting at her friend.

“Naveen, only you could make it sound like you’re inconveniencing me by asking me to do my job. Bless your heart. I’ll be right out.”

Naveen sheepishly stumbles away probably to start unloading Val’s boxes, which she should be doing herself. She just wanted to… bask a little longer.

“No, so really, how was it?” Bea prompts.

Val shrugs. “We made out for almost an hour. I bet my lips are still swollen. It was… in a word, delicious.”

Bea groans and rolls out of the bunk, landing on her feet like a cat somehow. She shoots Val a displeased look. “Seriously? No fucking? You had a body like that at your disposal and you didn’t let him fuck you?”

Val crawls out behind Bea in Soffe shorts and a My Chem shirt that once belonged to an ex-fling. Her joints creak slightly. Maybe she’s getting too old for this touring junk after all.

“I was craving kisses. You ever get that? Where the only thing that will satisfy you is kissing? I’m talking about good, long, hot, full body kisses. The kind that swallow you up and never seem to spit you back out again,” Val muses, leaning back against the wall rattling with the overworked AC unit.

Bea stares at her, deadpan. “I only crave dick.”

Val sighs and nods, seeing her point. She shoos her friend off the bus to change and reluctantly greet the day.

And reluctant she is because it’s 100 in the shade on the second day of Warped in Ventura, California and Jesus Christ, how do people do this for a whole summer? How did she do this living in a van? She’s gone soft. Throughout the morning, she closes her eyes and thinks of England. She imagines sprinkling rain, warm Scottish wool sweaters, mugs of builders tea by the fire in student housing.

Those thoughts don’t make her any cooler though. Neither do the periodical rushes of teenagers flooding her tent to throw their babysitting money at her in exchange for American Apparel tees and hoodies.

Val isn’t Bea, but she’s a damn good merch girl. She stays cool under pressure, she’s well organized, well prepared and knows when to call for back up. Which is why, when it’s 1pm and her line is 20 deep at least and the girl in front of her is insisting she handed Val 20 ones for that beanie hat and Val must’ve just dropped one, she’s never been happier to see her stupid brother.

Raf swings out to greet his minions like he’s Freddy fuckin’ Mercury, doling out cheek kisses and hugs and Sharpied autographs on various body parts. It gives Val a second to breathe, to regroup, to take care of a few straggling merchgoers before his work is done and he can turn back to her triumphantly like a hero or some shit.

She slumps into her chair and makes a face. He imitates it back flawlessly.

“Thanks, or something,” she sighs, tilting her nose up in the air. He falls into the chair next to her, sweaty from their set.

“How’s it been this morning?” he hums, picking at the fraying holes in his jeans. Raf likes to think of himself as old school – he doesn’t buy holey jeans. He buys jeans and lets them get holey by sheer force of rockstar will.

“Fine. It was nice this morning; I started a sing-a-long with the girls in line who knew every word to Yellow Pages.”

Raf looks impressed. Yellow Pages was an unreleased demo, one of the first solo songs Raf ever wrote. Only the Youtubiest Youtubers have hunted it down. They can both respect that hustle.

They’re quiet for a moment, enjoying the lull, when Raf perks up.

“H-hey, look who it is,” he chuckles, nodding across from them to an extraordinarily tall figure behind the Bayside merch tent looking sweaty and a little lost. Val winces.

“Raf, come on—”

“HEY! SHAWN!” Raf barks, holding up one long dark arm to wave him down. Val groans low out of her nose but shows no indication on her face.

Shawn flails for a second as he spins, not terribly graceful on those big feet of his. He spots where he’s needed and goes white as a sheet. Val smacks her lips.

“You know, he probably thinks you’re going to try to fight him for my honor.”

Raf keeps a friendly, welcoming gaze on Shawn, waving more insistently, “That ship has long since sailed. SHAWN!”

Val holds her head high as Shawn walks over, a little slower than what’s normal, looking extremely hesitant. Raf is eating it the fuck up.

“Hey, buddy, how was your first barbecue?” Raf laughs, feigning ignorance.

Val lifts an eyebrow. Shawn’s eyes snap to hers in a panic.

“Uhm, fine—good, yeah, it was good. Great, even.”

“Great!” Raf repeats, too much vigor in his voice. It’s giving Val a headache, “Great, that’s so great. I’m so glad you enjoyed yourself.”

Shawn nods solemnly, eyes wide, waiting to be scolded by one of the Moreno twins. Val sighs.

“I need to pee, come walk with me,” she insists, shooting her brother a look. Raf smirks and holds his hands up in surrender, staying at his post.

Shawn keeps up with Val’s enormous steps quite handily. He doesn’t even seem to notice how fast she walks, but it’s the first thing a lot of people notice about her.

“So… last night…” Shawn begins.

Val tilts her head, looking at him expectantly. He’s clearly waiting for her to step in and make a comment. Whenever boys start a thought like that, it’s what they want.

Maybe Val’s a little more like Raf than she realized. She likes making him squirm.

“Hm?” she prompts, nodding.

He huffs a gentle breath. “Last night was cool.”

She can’t say she’s surprised. Was she expecting song lyrics to come flooding out of his perfect, soft mouth that she knows very intimately now?

“Last night was cool,” she agrees, stepping a little closer to them as they walk back toward the port-o-potties.

“Are you… uhm, do you think you’re going to the one tonight on the beach?”

She drowns in the sweetness of it for a minute, feels like a cute boy is walking her to her locker and asking her if she’s going to the malt shop after school. She should be wearing a poodle skirt and swooning to match the look on her face right now.

“The Ventura barbecue is always one of the best of the year. What happens on the beach stays on the beach,” she teases, elbowing him playfully. He loosens up a little, chuckling.

“Cool, yeah,” Shawn says, “Maybe we can hang out again, then.”

Val tamps down a smile and tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. He watches it get hooked away and watches it fall back into place against her cheek. He scrubs the back of his neck with his hand as they arrive by the maze of port-o-potties.

Not the most romantic setting, but…

Shawn suddenly tucks a hand against Val’s neck and kisses her. It’s quick, he only lingers for a split piece of a moment to suck a little at her lower lip before he pulls back. His eyes are dancing and he’s got color in his cheeks that can’t be attributed to the heat of the California morning.

“See you tonight,” he says, walking backwards for a few feet before turning and jogging off toward the Forefront van. She watches him go with an amused chuckle and a glance at the seat of his pants.

+

Val tips back and forth with her arm around Steve from New Found Glory and Bea on her other side. She’s filled to the brim with tequila, salt and lime eagerly fed to her by the NFG boys, some of her oldest scene friends.

“I don’t care what you think, I like that new Hannah Montana song,” Val yells into Steve’s ear over the boppy rhythm of “We’re At the Top Of the World” by the Juliana Theory.

Steve rolls his eyes, feigning disappointment. “You’re better than that, Moreno.”

“I most certainly am not!” she laughs, knocking her Corona against his in a lazy, drunken cheers.

It’s 9pm and it feels like the sun has only just set. It’s a little cool so close to the beach so she’s snuggled into Steve for warmth even if he’s more of a brother to her than her own brother sometimes. Her fuzzy brain reminds her to look for Shawn and the Forefront boys again because they haven’t shown up yet and she finds herself feeling a little girlishly eager.

A raucous behind them makes her turn under Steve’s arm. She feels Bea poking her arm but ignores her, smiling smoothly.

Francis has launched himself onto Shawn’s back as they stride down the hill from the vans and buses in a phalanx of men in women’s jeans. Seth is laughing with his hand on his stomach. The others are ignoring them as though it’s something that happens at this same time every day.

Shawn screams, laughs as he kneels and flips Francis over his head to slam into the ground. The barbecue goers all “oooooooh” in sympathetic pain as Francis coughs and tries to regain his breath. Shawn rolls his eyes and helps him up. As soon as Francis is on his feet, he’s leaping onto Shawn’s back again.

Val licks a drop of beer from the corner of her lips and shrugs out from under Steve’s arm, shivering a little. She stumbles past Bea’s clingy arms and “no, noooooo!”s in favor of walking straight into Shawn’s path as he resigns to his new cling-on.

“Hi,” she blurts with a grin, cocking her head at him. Shawn skids to a stop. Francis bounces against his back with a muffled groan.

“Hey,” he murmurs, tightening his grip around Francis’s knees. Francis drunkenly laughs, cheek resting against Shawn’s shoulder. Val looks over at him with a smirk.

“You boys look a little worse for wear.”

“No one came to our set,” Francis sighs.

“That’s not true,” Shawn argues.

“14 people came to our set,” Francis corrects, wrinkling his nose.

Shawn shrugs. “Yeah, that’s about right.”

“We all play to empty rooms sometimes,” she reminds them, nodding past them to the Streets boys throwing Raf into the ocean. Shawn follows her gaze and laughs.

“Can he swim?”

She shakes her head. “Not when he’s more vodka than boy.”

She looks back at Shawn and smiles. He’s a little sunburnt and doubly flushed from whatever booze they pity-drank after their meager set. He smells like a fresh shower and Val can’t help but wonder if it’s for her.

She thrusts her chin in Francis’s direction. “Ditch your sloth boy and come drink with us.”

Shawn unceremoniously drops Francis, who hangs around his neck for a second before thumping into the sand below them with a groan.

“Us?” Shawn asks.

Val nods to NFG and Bea. Shawn’s eyes go comically wide.

“Oh shit,” he breathes.

“C’mon, celebrities are just like us,” she teases, taking his big, warm hand in hers and tugging him toward her friends.

Shawn wants to protest, wants to dig his heels in and shake his head like a toddler, but he thinks after last night he’d follow this woman straight into a wildfire. He pastes on an anxious smile as she introduces him to everyone. The tiny merch girl, Bea, seems especially interested in him, elbowing Val every chance she got like a middle schooler. It makes Shawn wonder if maybe Val has been talking about him. He shivers at the idea.

Shawn and Val sit together in the sand. As the hours grow later, Shawn gets chattier, bonds with Chad and Jordan while Val watches and occasionally moves curls out of his eyes like a total girlfriend but she doesn’t care because she’s lit. A joint is passed around and everything slows down a little.

Shawn is leaning back on his hands, one of which is behind Val so they’re almost, just ever-so-casually intertwined. She leans into his ear to talk sometimes and he feels the hair on his neck stand up from her hot breath on his skin. Her fingers sneak toward his and brush against each other in the sand. Shawn’s skin prickles with need. He chews on his lower lip until Val nudges him.

“I’m ready to go,” she announces quietly. Her eyes look molten and black in the beach bonfire light. His stomach churns. He nods quickly and stands despite all the liquor in his system. He takes her hands and pulls her up with him.

She loops an arm around his waist as she makes her goodbyes. He feels awkward holding her like this, like they’re wearing a sign together that says “we’re leaving to fuck now, have a good night.” But when she slides her hand in the back pocket of his jeans, the worry is gone. He grows antsy as she waves goodbye. When he finally has her leading away from the barbecue, away from the rushing crash of the Pacific and the dull drone of Good Charlotte on the stereo, he places his lips by her ear to speak.

“Your place or mine?”

He’s a little proud of that line.

Val curls into his body and rests a hand on his stomach through his black t-shirt.

“Yours.”

+

Val blinks. It’s quiet. The bluish tint of dawn comes in through the windows.

She tries to lift her head too quickly and finds her cheek is stuck to his bare chest. She winces as her skin peels away from his. She plants her hands on either side of him to push herself up and take stock of the situation.

It’s early, but buses haven’t started leaving for the next stop in Mountain View yet. She is wearing her t-shirt and skimpy pink panties. Her jeans are pooled on the floor of the van next to her. Shawn is deeply asleep beneath her in a pair of boxer briefs. The Forefront boys have all returned to the bus and have therefore seen her in this state of being, passed out on top of their lead singer. Their tour manager Andrew is elsewhere.

Val looks down at Shawn. He looks younger, somehow, as he sleeps. She sweeps some cherubic curls off his forehead and drags a hand down his chest appreciatively. As quietly as she can, she gathers her shoes and jeans in hand and opens the sliding door to the van.

Like a thief in the night, she steals back to the dark silence of the Streets bus, crawls into her bunk and falls into a fitful sleep.

Taglist: @smallerinfinities @the-claire-bitch-project @stillinskislydia @achinglyshawn @infiniteshawn​ @alone-in-madness​ @alone-in-madness @singanddreamanyway @accioalena @randi-eve @shawnitsmutual

[squiddybeifong]

A Page Turner

Fun fact: if you go to @ravensflockofrobins and search Bette’s name, there’s one (1) post at the time I’m posting this. And it’s not even a shippy thing rip this drowning paper boat

--

She didn’t know what compelled her to take a quick vacation, exactly.

Maybe it was the lack of crime. Maybe it was the disgustingly scorching heat that summer brought. Maybe it was that she needed a break before she accidentally zapped the TV and the horrid romance movie that Starfire was playing.

Whatever the reason, Raven made up her mind. opened her eyes and moved Silkie off her lap, teleporting to her room. She considered her options and started a particular spell, one that she’d admittedly used many times before. One of the few (very few, incredibly miniscule) perks of being Trigon’s daughter: interdimensional travel.

Sliding through the dimensions as easily as flipping pages of a book, a particular timeline called to her. It smelled of bookstores and crumpled daisies and Raven blinked as she stepped into this particular universe.

The Golden Age, she reminded herself, taking in the not-so-golden scenery around her. The world around her was the sheer definition of nostalgia: the colors muted in the most charming of ways, the whimsy of the backgrounds (she simply took the buildings fading into space at the edges as a perk), the blocked off rectangles where additions would be written.

Surely more of a comic book feel than the animated life she knew, but it felt right.

What didn’t feel right was the lack of yellow. Sure, some of the stores had signs with bold letters the color of pineapple flesh. And, yeah, the lemon paint job on some of the cars was impressive. But aside from the sprinkling of pollen from the just barely blooming flowers, Golden Age Gotham wasn’t the most golden of scenes.

Honestly, with such a heavy title this ‘golden age’ was falling flat.

Raven pulled her cloak around herself and sunk into the shadows, casually setting out to explore. She avoided the areas she already knew and delved into the thick of the city, grateful that their emotions didn’t press on her as strongly as her own dimension’s did. Food vendors, students clamoring on the sidewalks as they got the most of that wonderful time between school being let out and their parents calling them in for dinner, even some rats who scurried out from the sewers, all but sunbathing as they dragged dropped pieces of food and cigarette buds back to their hovels.

Not too different from the Gotham Raven knew, but she still stayed hidden, watching all that she could. A pout involuntarily curled her lips at the sight of her favorite pretzel food-truck, replaced with a dual newspaper and ‘shoe polishing on the go!’ stand.

There was a simultaneous groan from all the kids as a clock rang, their disappointment mingling with the adults’ sighs of relief.

Raven felt the muted mix of their emotions, her lips quirking up at how similar people were in their complaints, dimensionally different or not: “Man I can’t wait to get home,” a mustached man breathed as he observed his freshly polished loafers and tucked the afternoon paper under his arm; “What? You’re betting on the Yankees? Get outta here, ya freakin’ jag!” an incredulous teen cried at his friend, shoving his shoulder in horrified disbelief; “I swear, Debbie, all he ever says is ‘Aspic’s lookin’ good as you.’ Not tasty, or even pretty, but good! That carrot cake looks good but my aspics are gorgeous. The nerve of that man!” a big-haired woman bemoaned to her pencil skirt-clad companion.

Raven’s head tilted in confusion; what was aspic?

Before she could dwell on whatever food trends she obviously wasn’t privy to, the Bat symbol lit up the sky. At its appearance the crowd seemed to hustle home even quicker, the conversations muting to a murmur as the clouds darkened over Gotham.

The symbol was bright against the sky; one flicker, only a simple fix if this dimension was the same as her home. Raven hummed at the sight and melted even further into the inked on shadows, following the panels as she landed just beyond a bank.

An explosion sounded halfway across the city.

Half of the officers hesitated and the other half jumped into their cruisers, speeding towards the pillar of smoke. The rest glanced among themselves and followed. Raven frowned at them; it was probably a diversion.

Sure enough, she felt the giddy nerves of the bank robbers inside a few seconds later. The Titan laid her cheek in her fist and merely watched as they scrambled about, her head turning as she felt Batman’s unmistakable aura enter the page. A brow raised at the youth of his visible face, then her eyes widened to a comical size.

Oh. Oh.

The demoness froze in her spot, watching as Batman went gliding over the rooftops. But Robin wasn’t by his side. Neither was either of the Batgirls that she knew. No, this one must have been one she’d never met. Surprisingly, she didn’t display the Bat symbol on her chest at all; in fact, her crimsons and emeralds were a stark contrast to the rest of the comic, but her fit was odd.

Not quite made for being Batgirl, but inexplicably belonging in this golden age. How odd.

But her hair…

Raven swallowed the air in her throat. Well, that certainly answered why this place was the golden age.

Admonishing herself at the beginnings of a schoolyard crush that she could feel starting, Raven shifted in her spot. This wasn’t her dimension, she could potentially indulge with screwing everything up, right?

So, despite wanting to keep a low profile as she watched them fight, the empath turned into a bird and phased in just behind them, watching as this Batgirl fought. Not quite as endlessly sarcastic as Steph, not as eagerly critical as Babs, not as intense or skilled as Cass, but as excited as any Batgirl for the ability to fight alongside the Batman.

She didn’t even seemed fazed when bolded words popped up in unison with their punched and kicks. Both she and this Batman slid along the BAM!s, BIFF!s, POW!s, and WHAM!s that described their attacks without any hesitation, and within a few pages all the bank robbers were apprehended.

The blonde nodded at the police as they cuffed the men, tossing her pine cape over her shoulders. “Aw, too bad Robin missed this,” Batgirl grinned up at the cloaked vigilante, her bright smile making Raven’s heart flutter.

“We should team up more often, Batman!”

He glanced down at his sidekick for this fight, “Batwoman needs you far more than I do.”

The rejection didn’t deter her, although her grin did falter. Her hands went to her hips, “Then at least until Robin’s arm heals up. You shouldn’t have to fight alone.”

The dark knight’s head tilted in silent agreement.. “Hmmm, very well.” His masked eyes took in the groaning bodies and the sound of approaching police sirens, “Go continue patrol while I find out what these robbers know about that explosion.”

“On it!” She gave him a salute and sprinted off, a flash of blonde hair and christmas colors. She got a block away without trouble, her eyes glancing at the police as they zoomed by and her fingers curling into fists as she noted a bird following her.

Batgirl frowned. She zig-zagged through the panels but no amount of speed lines or ducking into the fading buildings stopped the little avian. So, the Gothamite dove just behind the city’s library. The secluded setting made the bird sloppy and the hero tossed two smoking batarangs, leaping and pinning the raven in place. There was a shift like one page flipping to the next and the bird’s eyes turned red. Batgirl gasped and jumped back, her fists up in a fighting stance as the bird morphed into a woman.

Blue eyes blinked, skeptical and amazed at the plum cloak and stunning lilac eyes. No, not a woman. A teenage girl, just about her own age. But Batgirl didn’t let this mystery girl’s looks perplex her for too long; she immediately sized Raven up, carefully watching how the shadows followed her every move.

This little excursion certainly wasn’t going to plan but something in the Gothamite’s face made the demoness decide to be honest, consequences be damned. A sigh escaped, then she awkwardly met the blonde’s gaze, “Uh, hello. I’m Raven.”

A stormy glare was her answer, then a terse introduction, “Bat-Girl.”

They both jumped as the Bat’s comm blared out. The empath let out a sigh, her words a bit strained, “I promise I’m not a threat.”

Bat-Girl narrowed her eyes and took out her comm. She kept the mystic out of the screen’s view as she nodded at Batman’s instructions. She noted how Raven paused as she quickly gave Batman her report, her stoic features blanching at the sound of the hero’s voice.

Raven bit back a shudder at how young the dark knight was, Certainly not quite to the point of being the gruff, sandpapery tough guy that he was in her dimension. For the first time Raven wondered if the Golden Age was on the same age basis as her reality was.

Bat-Girl signed off and tucked her comm away, muffling the one link back to the BatCave under three layers of pockets. Raven shook her head at the familiar sight, quietly musing to herself, “Figures Bruce would still be so obsessive this early on.”

She just barely dodged the kick Bat-Girl aimed her way, strands of black magic swirling around them and pinning the mortal to the bricks. Raven stayed out of arms’ reach and narrowed her eyes at the hero, trying not to spend any time taking too much stock in how defined her bare forearms were.

Refocusing, amethyst eyes searched the vigilante’s face. Raven crossed her arms over her chest, making sure that her magic didn’t squeeze the blonde to the point of discomfort. “Does Robin exist?”

A derisive snort was her answer, “You mean birds?”

“I mean Dick Grayson.”

Bat-Girl’s eyes glared behind her mask, the muscles in her arm twitching. Raven took that as an invitation to speak, “I’m a part of his team.”

“In the future?”

Raven shrugged, “Something like that.” She considered pulling back but the pulse of Bat-Girl’s emotions kept her close. The demoness raised a brow, “You don’t seem too surprised.”

“This is the golden age,” Her voice raised half a pitch as she let out an exasperated laugh, shifting under the tendril of magic pressed painfully snug to her throat. “We still get a narrator during our fights sometimes.”

She looked her animated visitor over, “Didn’t think Richie would team up with a…” She paused, taking a moment to consider just what kind of powers described Raven. “A spirit of some sort--no…” Her lips spread as she guessed, “A demon?”

“You’re perceptive.”

Blue eyes rolled but Bat-Girl didn’t stop the cocky grin from brightening her face, nonchalant to the hold she was in, “And you aren’t a threat.”

“I’m not.” The shadows that held her slunk away, “Dick and I are heroes in our dimension.”

She could feel the concern seeping out of the heroine, but still the blonde let out a sigh and rolled her fingers. If this Raven character really was a teammate of Richie’s, then perhaps she could let her guard down just a little. Although Batwoman and Batman would be disappointed in how quickly she was trusting this pretty face.

Bat-Girl rolled her jaw, “Well in this dimension I’m Bette. Bette Kane.”

Recognition lit up amethyst eyes but Raven didn’t speak and Bette didn’t question her. In fact, the not-yet retconned hero seemed to be opening up to the prospect of Raven being in her dimension, if just for a visit.

So the empath decided to test her luck. She jerked a thumb over her shoulder, “Would you mind showing me around, Bette? I’m not used to having to turn the page.”

“Pfft,” Bat-Girl snorted and Raven got the impression that she realized her words weren’t a metaphor. Instead, the teen readjusted her mask and motioned for Raven to follow, “Already got one sack of feathers to look after.”

“Well this one can take care of herself just fine.”

Her sleeved shoulders straightened at Raven’s words, affronted at the mere idea of not helping someone she could, “Doesn’t mean you should.”

“Spoken like a true bird, Miss Kane.”

Bette raised a brow, the movement moving her mask. But Raven didn’t explain and she shrugged, “Anywhere you want to see?”

“Anyplace with you there is fine with me.”

Bat-Girl ran a tongue over her teeth at the demon’s shameless attempt at flirting, trying and failing to keep a straight (hah!) face. An idea came to mind and her eyes lit up, watching as Raven’s gaze flicked to her mouth.

“You’re okay with other birds, right?”  

When the superpowered teen merely shrugged she continued, “There’s a bunch of nests over on the gates around Wedgwood Museum. Gotham Academy’s music class has been holding their practices out in front.”

Raven smirked at that, “Taking advantage of tourist season?”

“Hey, tubas are expensive!” The blonde chuckled as she motioned for the Titan to follow her, the two of them easily gliding past the stiff backgrounds. Bette grinned at her flying guest as a flick of magic kept her grapple hook from falling out of a crumbling rooftop.

The sound of music got louder as they neared the gated house. Violet eyes shut as she tried to place where she’d heard that jazzy tune before, her attention on Bat-Girl as she murmured, “But they’ve really been getting better. Sometimes I like to listen in, feed some birds when crime is pretty low.” 

Raven clicked her tongue at that. “Well I have some free time for a picnic, if you’d want.”

She glanced at Bette from the corner of her eye and felt that urge to be honest curl in her stomach again. A breath quickly escaped her before she was reminded of Batman’s instructions, “I read ahead. Apparently the robbers bought off the Riddler for a few of his bombs. Just a classic distraction case so they could get away clean.”

Bat-Girl tilted her head as Wedgwood came into view, lengthening her grappling hook until she skipped onto the ground. The two made their way towards the house in silence as Bette mused over her words, the mage’s shadows mingling with the tree’s shade to keep them from being spotted by any civilians.

“A picnic does sound nice,” Bette aimed a lazy smile Raven’s way, fiddling with the green triangles that adorned the ends of her sleeves. A gasp escaped as a disk of black magic appeared under her feet, lifting them up and levitating up to the large tree that hung just outside of Wedgewood’s gates.

Bat-Girl leaned against the mystic’s shoulder as they got settled just beyond the tree’s branches, hidden by the tulip tree’s waxy leaves. The tuba-heavy refrain started up again and Raven let herself get comfortable, clinging to the calming nerves that washed out of Bette. Her eyes slid open at the wave of nervousness and she turned to the Gothamite, “Is something wrong?”

She started to pull away, horrified that she might have made Bette uncomfortable. Bat-Girl’s hand wrapped around her wrist, preventing her from going too far. The blonde licked her lips, her words coming out faster than normal, “No, this is okay. But do you have to go after this?”

“Yeah, it’s probably getting late back at the Tower.” The cloaked teen sighed, sliding her hand down until her palm pressed against Bette’s. She weakly smiled, a lilt in her voice, “But I can always come back.”

Bette squeezed their hands, “Just to see me?”

“Just to see you.”

“Hmm,” Bat-Girl felt her smile widen as she guessed, “Perks of being a demon?”

She felt a heat curl up her face as Raven’s eyes flicked from her eyes to her lips and back again, “Something like that.”

[dprdabin]

Korea's Rising Rap Star DPR LIVE Looks Back on 2017 and Talks New Plans: Exclusive Video & Interview

With an onslaught of addictive bangers and visually-captivating videos in 2017, DPR LIVE has ascended from an elusive, underground rapper to one of the most talked about and celebrated new voices emerging in Korea's rapidly growing hip-hop scene.

Since gaining recognition through knockout bars and a scene-stealing performance on the critically acclaimed viral hit "Eung Freestyle," DPR LIVE―real name Hong Da Bin―has excelled thanks to his chart accolades and internet co-signs.

The 25-year-old spawned two impressive EPs via his explosive debut EP Coming to You Live from March 2017 and stellar follow-up Her in December, the latter peaking at No. 8 on Billboard's World Album chart, despite no big-name features. DPR LIVE also played to sold-out crowds in Korea and London last year, scored a promotional video campaign with Nike, and racked up millions of views on YouTube, all helping him garner a legion of excited fans all across the globe.

Yet what really sets the charismatic rapper apart as one of the more interesting come-ups in 2017 is the fact that he has achieved all this as a completely independent artist -- a rarity in Korea's highly-competitive music scene.

DPR LIVE and his crew Dream Perfect Regime -- a creative collective better known as DPR -- have relentlessly hustled with nothing but talent and determination, all in the name of keeping LIVE’s budding rap career authentic and true to the crew's message. Never bowing to industry standards, the collective's focus on positioning DPR LIVE onto the mainstream radar has already paid off in a big way: The crew received their first major monetary investment in late 201, which helped fund a new Seoul studio.

While DPR LIVE has already made accomplishments most of his indie peers can only dream of, the young talent is eyeing 2018 with higher aspirations. Gaining stateside traction for his witty flow flips between Korean and English and forward-thinking ear, LIVE earned a slot on this year's massively-anticipated, sixth annual "Korea Spotlight" showcase at SXSW 2018 among some of Korean music’s biggest names -- like R&B phenom Crush, rock sensation Hyukoh and powerhouse diva Lee Hi -- all taking place on March 16 at the Belmont in Austin, Tex.

Ahead of his debut U.S. show, DPR LIVE exclusively sat down with Billboard Koreafor his first-ever, in-depth artist interview at his new studio to share his personal struggles, creative vision and goals.

Watch DPR LIVE’s recap video and read full interview below.

What were some of the challenges you faced in the industry as an indie artist without an actual label?

Oh man, where do I even start? We had a shit-ton of challenges. First of all, financing everything on our own was the hardest thing we had to overcome. We started with zero capital. No investor, no fancy equipment, no nothing. That’s why we had to start as a visual team, but that was probably the smartest move we made, to think about it now. Not only did we get a chance to showcase our talent, but it also helped to connect with other musicians and entertainment labels. It was a good way of learning the ropes of the Korean music industry; how it worked, how we needed to evolve to get to the next level, etc.

For a good two years, DPR REM [creative director] and DPR IAN [visual director] busted their asses shooting materials for other artists in order to help fund any and all of our projects during that time. And the more I think about it now, the more I’m grateful for that, you know? Cause I know it takes a lot of trust and commitment. They were sacrificing a lot, and that’s what fueled me when I was making music. I knew I not only had to do it for myself, but more importantly, for my team.

The second biggest challenge, I guess, was the fact that we were completely clueless. [Laughs.] I didn’t even know what it meant to "mix songs," or how to get distribution for my music. It was all trial and error, because none of us had any prior experience. We had no money or any real knowledge as to how this [music industry] really works― all we had was just a whole lot of untamed passion and a dream. If one approach didn’t work, we would learn from it and move onto the next one. We learned a lot in those years. That experience is what helped us launch our own company. Now, we get to run our own show and do exactly what we want to do. No one tells us what to do, what to make or how to do it. If we like it as a team, then we do it. That kind of freedom is truly incredible. Our struggles brought us closer together and I’m proud that we have accomplished this as a team.

What is your and DPR’s greatest strength and weakness?

Our greatest strength is that whatever we do, it’s organic. We also know each other so well now to the point where we can easily align our thoughts in such a quick way that it allows us to get straight to work. There’s really no buffer period or queue. We have our own system that works efficiently for all of us. But on the other hand, we can improve and learn how to expand and grow our team. We’re known to be mysterious and unpredictable, and we like that because it keeps our fans in suspense and on edge, but it makes it harder for all of us to bring in new members, because we are such a tight-knit group. However, I’m confident we’ll get into the hang of things in due time.

Last year was great year for you. What are some of the most memorable moments?

2017 has been a life-changing year for me and my team. I released two albums, moved into a brand-new, dope studio, got to travel to some awesome places and work with some amazing people. I honestly couldn't have wished for more. Although all these moments were significantly memorable, I’d have to say getting our studio was probably the most memorable moment of 2017 for DPR. Might not sound like a big deal to some, but you have to understand, we used to hold meetings ranging from coffee shops to even local karaoke rooms on a regular basis just to get some privacy at times. Now that we have a place we can all call home, with separate recording, producing and meetings rooms; it’s surreal, to be honest. Really goes to show what can be achieved.  

Any mistakes or regrets?

No, I don’t have regrets. Everything I’ve experienced was for a specific purpose, and I really believe in that. Literally everything. Although, I had a fair share of upsets and disappointments, now that I look back on it, I'm starting to see how it all came together. Each experience was meant to happen at that exact moment so that we can draw a bigger picture. I'm a huge believer in the whole "everything happens for a reason" quote and so is my team. DPR was basically founded upon that motto. We all happened to meet by chance if you think about it. A bunch of kids, who grew up in all corners of the world, somehow met up in Seoul and eventually came together to do what we do now as DPR.

Your debut EP Coming to You Live boasts guest features from some of the top names in the industry. How did you get them to collaborate?

It was a mix of good timing and mutual respect, I guess. DPR was slowly getting recognized in the industry as an up-and-coming visual team and that really helped my musical career and credibility. While I was in the studio recording demos, IAN and REM were hustling on the video side and doing whatever they could do to spread our brand name. It also helped us earn some money to finance whatever we wanted to do in-house. [Laughs.] Also, being featured on "Eung Freestyle," which was also produced and directed by my team, gave us a good boost. It helped start a lot of conversations with artists in general.

Your recent release Her has also been successful. What did you want to resonate with this project?

Her is a more genre-specific compilation of songs than my first EP. I wanted to get more personal and intimate with my listeners on themes relating to love and relationships.

Where does your musical inspiration come from?

For me, inspiration comes in many angles. I’d say half of it comes from just an array of talented musicians and their music. The internet in itself is inspiring sometimes. On the other hand, a lot my inspiration comes from my experiences in life and the things I place value on.

Why and how did you start making music?

I started making music when I was stationed in the Korean army. I went relatively early for my age, and I had a lot of free time on my hands so I would start writing whenever I had the chance. That’s where my passion slowly grew. It was a good time for me to reflect on my future;  I had a lot of thoughts/things I wanted to say. That’s where I really picked up writing song lyrics.

What goals do you have for 2018?

I can probably make a huge list of what goals I want to hit in 2018, but ultimately, I really just want my team to stay healthy, committed and passionate. That’s not only for 2018, but that’s really a lifetime goal I have.

And what's the biggest drive that motivates you?

I just want to release quality music and materials.  I hope we [DPR] never get lazy or complacent, and continue to challenge each other so that we can continuously push boundaries. It’s not easy to impress people these days, but to rise above that, and to see that stamp of approval and recognition from people is where all my adrenaline rush comes from. It drives me and my team to go beyond.

Where do you see yourself in the next few years?

Hopefully in the next few years, I’ll not only be a better artist myself but I hope to see our team grow and continue to do more exciting things together. Whether it be a visual thing, or a music thing, or something completely different, I just want to see us all succeed together. That’s really the main point.

In the end, it's not really the legacy that I leave behind, but the impact we make as a team. There aren’t that many teams like us in Korea and for that reason, it’d be really dope if we could almost set a benchmark or an example for the next up-and-coming generation of creatives to think outside the box and really learn to DIY. In the end, that’s what we did and it's been the best decision we’ve made.

© Jessica Oak @ Billboard

[clarencenicholsonata]

16 Inspiring Examples of the Best Shopify Stores

The number of people shopping online has almost doubled in the last seven years, with 2021 boasting an estimated 2.14 billion global online shoppers. That’s about a quarter of the world’s population! While it’s clear that e-commerce is a growing market that shouldn’t be ignored, setting up an online shop can be tricky.

With their beginner-friendly platform, Shopify decided to make this process easy and accessible. But while having an online presence with good products is the first step, your Shopify store needs to be visually appealing to draw in customers and entice them to buy.

To help, we’ve compiled a list of 20 of the best examples of Shopify stores, ranging from snack retailers to cosmetics. Hopefully, they will provide you with inspiration for your store to stand out from the crowd.

Table of Contents:

Allbirds

Pipcorn

Jeffree Star Cosmetics

Taylor Stitch

Meow Meow Tweet

Tattly

Gymshark

Beardbrand

HELM Boots

Wolf Circus

Hiut Denim Co.

Bremont

BLK & Bold

Biolite

Press London

Burga

Wishpond + Shopify + 300 Integrations

Never worry about software incompatibility.

Add your other favorite tools! Slack, Eventbrite, GotoWebinar: from the big players to specialized apps, we've ensured our software is compatible with the best of the market to make your workflow as seamless as possible.

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1. Allbirds

Founded by footballer Tim Brown and engineer Zoey Zwillinger, Allbirds is a footwear company putting natural materials and sustainability first. Merging comfort and consciousness, their threads are made from wool and eucalyptus, feature simple designs and packaging made from 90% post-consumer recycled cardboard.

With a clean interface, bold photography, and animations that highlight the companies sustainability focus, Allbirds’ website is visually pleasing. Allowing shoppers to interact with products and some of the companies’ stories from the home page simplifies the shopping experience. The website is consistent throughout, opting for larger product images to avoid over-cluttering the page.

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2. Pipcorn

The idea for Pipcorn came in 2012 when Jeff Martin was helping his sister Jen move. Having packed everything up except a bag of heirloom popcorn kernels, Jen had found in a health food store where she worked. Once popped, it turned out to be the most delicious popcorn they’d ever had. Having taken such a liking to it, they tracked down the Indiana farmer who grew it, and together with Jeff’s wife, Teresa, they created a new company, Pipsnacks which makes a range of heirloom snacks.

Featuring fun animations, a beautiful design, and a simple layout, Pipcorns’ Shopify store is engaging and easy on the eyes. Focusing on a few key products and a bit about themselves, the main page is isn’t too busy. The website is easy to navigate, and you can quickly locate the right products thanks to the categorized menu. Another great feature is encouraging users to sign up for the newsletter by offering a 10% discount on the first purchase.

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3. Jeffree Star Cosmetics

The cosmetics brand of makeup artist, fashion designer, and model Jeffree Star, Jeffree Star Cosmetics is arguably among the most popular Shopify cosmetics stores. The hot-pink website features plenty of holiday and special editions for their customers, as well as free U.S. shipping for products over $100.

With the homepage boasting a bold carousel highlighting product ranges, you can also buy featured products straight from the homepage. With a simple menu that lets you choose between the shop, bundles, and gift cards, the website is easy to navigate, while a prominent search bar makes it easy to find what you can’t locate yourself.

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4. Taylor Stitch

Launched in 2010, Taylor Stitch sells custom and tailored menswear, aiming to make sophisticated dressing affordable. It is famous for its workshops. Based in San Francisco, California, they strive to craft responsibly-built staples designed to look and function just as well in the city as they do in the great outdoors. Their mission is to challenge how the clothing industry operates by improving the way they source, sew, and sell.

As with many fashion brands, the website relies heavily on strong photography to highlight the products. The shop menu allows you to directly navigate to popular items or category pages, cutting down the steps needed to buy. The product pages are clean, with the focus on the clothing.

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5. Meow Meow Tweet

Founded by life and business partners Tara Pelletier and Jeff Kurosaki, Meow Meow Tweet an organic vegan skincare company known for its products made from natural ingredients and its sustainable packaging featuring playful illustrations drawn by Jeff. They donate to and support organizations that align with their values and offer a bulk refill program to reduce packaging and waste.

Featuring the same playful designs as found on the packaging, Meow Meow Tweet’s Shopify store offers you the ability to buy featured products from the homepage and see the most recent blog posts. The menu is also simple, with options for the shop, blog, the about section, as well as other information. The product pages match the design of the products themselves and give you usage tips and other product information.

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6. Tattly

Tattly started as a side hobby for designer Tina Roth-Eisenburg but has morphed into a growing temporary tattoo business. Started in 2015, it has shipped more than 2.6 million temporary tattoos ranging from $5 to $15 per sale.

Saturated photos take center stage on this Shopify store, with the homepage allowing you to shop a large number of collections and featured items. The product pages show not only the designs themselves but also applied to models, giving you an idea of how it will look. The menu allows you to navigate to new, custom, and all designs and find out more about the company and artists.

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7. Gymshark

Gymshark was started by a group of teenagers in 2012 as a screen-printing operation in a garage. Since then it has grown into one of the most successful fitness Shopify stores. With over five million followers on Instagram, the brand also knows how to utilize social media.

The homepage features striking photography, featured items that you can easily add to the cart in the correct size, and a video of their latest range. Product pages show the garments on a model and used in exercise, showcasing its range of movement and quality. The menu is simple, with the main options being womens’ and mens’ ranges.

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8. Beardbrand

What started to unite the beard-growing community in 2012, Beardbrand has grown into one of the most popular male-grooming Shopify stores. Having gotten their start with content marketing, the focus of their homepage isn’t to sell products but to strengthen their brand image further.

Unlike many other online stores, Beardbrand doesn’t feature any products on its homepage; instead, it has one call to action, asking users to help ‘find their fragrance to avoid ‘scent confusion’ or the use of different smelling products. While they have a hamburger menu on the far left-hand side of the page, it is unobtrusive and not distracting.

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Wishpond + Shopify + 300 Integrations

Never worry about software incompatibility.

Add your other favorite tools! Slack, Eventbrite, GotoWebinar: from the big players to specialized apps, we've ensured our software is compatible with the best of the market to make your workflow as seamless as possible.

Learn more See demo

9. HELM Boots

HELM Boots was founded in 2009 with the intention of making boots that were straightforward and built to last. Since then, they’ve spent every day perfecting the modern men’s boot. Their goal is to create a versatile, timeless, functional boot and can be worn in the workshop or boardroom.

The website’s design echoes the clean elegance of their boots, with rich photography highlighting their products. The homepage features their best sellers and a button to shop their entire collection, and an embedded video gives more information about their latest shoe. The product pages continue this clean design with the shoes displayed on white background for maximum contrast.

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10. Wolf Circus

Based in Vancouver, BC, Wolf Circus is a Shopify store with a line of handmade jewelry products. All of their products are made using either recycled sterling silver or recycled bronze that’s coated in a high-grade 14k gold plating, which they market as “attainable luxury.” They aim to ‘inspire others to embrace their confidence during their daily hustle.”

Featuring photography worthy of a fashion magazine, the homepage of Wolf Circus’ Shopify store focuses on current collections with a small about section at the bottom. The menu gives you a few different options for shopping, either new, gifts or all, as well as an about and featured content link. The product pages are clean but bold, with product images taking up a large chunk of the page. For added engagement, the store also features a chatbot.

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11. Hiut Denim Co.

Cardigan, Wales used to be home to the biggest jeans factory in the UK. In 2011 Hiut Denim Co. was founded there to take advantage of the jean-making skills and know-how that remained with many locals. The company is dedicated to making the best jeans and focuses on details, satisfaction, and quality.

Hiut Denim’s Shopify store is clean and easy to navigate thanks to a menu that divides between product and content but shows the categories in each without needing to hover over it. The homepage highlights the most recent collection and gives quick access to mens’ and womens’ products, as well as a featured product, prints, and returns. The product pages continue this clean look, with product images taking center stage.

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12. Bremont

British luxury watchmaker Bremont produces beautifully engineered chronometers. With an annual production of approximately 8,000-10,000 pieces, the companies key pillars are British engineering, aviation & military, and adventure. Founded in 2002, their goal is to make beautifully crafted pilot’s watches of exceptional quality. They are inspired by a love of flying historic aircraft, of watches, and all things mechanical.

Bremont puts its latest collection at the top of its Shopify store, listing its unique selling points directly underneath. You are given the option to discover the newest releases or update your existing watch, as well as directly shop the best-selling watches from the homepage. A chatbot is available to assist you should you have any questions. The product pages use large header images and clean product images to reinforce the boldness of their products.

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13. BLK & Bold

Founded by Pernell Cezar Jr. and Rod Johnson, the purpose behind BLK & Bold is to help local communities through the sale of caffeinated beverages. It does this by leveraging wholesale and direct-to-consumer to equip young people with tools to overcome unfortunate circumstances. They also pledge 5% of profits to initiatives that sustain youth programs, enhance workforce development, and eradicate youth homelessness.

BLK & Bold’s Shopify store utilizes a clean and simple design. Offering a 15% discount for newsletter signup via a chatbot, the rest of the homepage focuses on highlighting its newest products, a video explaining its unique selling point, and informing consumers which stores stock the product. This minimalism is continued on the product page, which features simple product images, information, and reviews.

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14. Biolite

Biolite creates affordable, durable products that harness surrounding energy to cook, charge, and light daily life for off-grid households. Their vision is to provide 20 million people with access to clean energy and avoid 3 million tons of CO2e by 2025.

Their Shopify store echoes the technology that’s incorporated into their products, with a high-tech design language. The product pages are efficient in design, allowing you to view products both in a studio setting and in use outdoors, and even video of it in action. The menu gives options for the different product categories or to shop all in one place.

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15. PRESS

Founded in 2014, today PRESS is proud to be an online delivery service and working with over 700 independent stockists all over the UK. The idea was born when PRESS co-founders Georgie and Ed developed a love for cold-pressed juice as a healthy part of their diets. They brought the concept back to London and sold their first juices out of a bathtub in Old Street tube station. Their mission? To become the biggest health food brand globally.

The layout of their Shopify store is simple, with the menu allowing you to shop their programs or products, as well as learn more about them. In line with the clean and healthy image of their product, their homepage design is sleek. With options to find out more about their programs, reviews of their products, and links to their blog on the homepage, it’s easy to dive into their world and find out more.

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16. Burga

Burga sells luxury phone and laptop cases, as well as leather card and passport covers. With a range of stylish accessories, this Shopify Store attempts to display fitting cases for your device if you visit it on your smartphone.

With a design reminiscent of a jewelry store, Burga’s website is as stylish as its products. The focus of the homepage is to highlight specials and allow you to shop for a range of different accessories directly. Product pages feature standard product images and user-generated ones, adding a personal touch to the pages.

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How to Sell on Shopify: 7 Easy Steps to Sell Your Products Like a Pro

Summary

As you can see, there isn’t one strategy that works for all Shopify stores. You need to adapt your design to your product. Things to consider include who your target market is, how your product would be used, and how easy it is to navigate through your website. The closer your Shopify store feels to your actual product in design, the more customers will be able to connect with your brand.

Did you see any designs that caught your eye and inspired you to start or update your Shopify store? I’d love to hear about your stories!

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[bambaooo]

Like I've said before for like everything, everything is a work in progress. I guess I'll just say it here cause it doesn't really matter. I've been trying to find a side hustle to make extra cash and then i looked deeper into day trading. Looking into it, it's not s get rich quick scheme, but it's a skill that can be learn and if learned and executed correctly it can be very profitable. I've been at it trading the practice demo and I've learned so much already. Like i bought some online classes about it, and it strongly emphasizes the psychology of trading. Like you have to become robotic and emotionless to trade successfully. Like i said its only been a week and I've learned so much but I want to keep learning more. But i got work and school and shit, but I'm doing what I can when I have a little bit of free time. But I'm not saying I'm gonna get rich off it. But i know down the line it could definitely help.

[infoaffili]

Essential Elements for Affiliate Income Reddit

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Elements for Affiliate Income

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[holytheoristtastemaker]

Step One – Start with a blank page

Squarespace 7.1 has a more streamlined setup process for styling your site and adding content. There is no need to start with a specific template. If you are wondering if your website is on Squarespace 7.0 or 7.1 – simply identify where the demo expansion arrow is. Left is Squarespace 7.0, right is Squarespace 7.1:

Squarespace 7.1 demo arrow is on the right

When logged in, using the main Squarespace left navigation, head to Pages → Main Navigation, then click the + icon. When prompted select the Blank Page option out the Pages options:

Select a blank Squarespace page

For better context in the tutorial we are putting together a website for a New Orleans dog walking side hustle by (an ambitious but fictitious) Sarah Young. After you’ve added your new page, name it accordingly. I’m simply naming mine Sarah Young as I’m planning to make this the only page on my site. Squarespace 7.1 has a new Edit button shown here:

Squarespace edit page button

Once clicked, the page editor opens up.

Step Two – Add page sections

Now your blank page should have a standard header and footer, with a big empty area in the middle. This is where we are going to add our page sections. Squarespace 7.1 boasts beautifully pre-built page sections to create layouts with text, images and galleries – saving us a ton of time:

Squarespace 7.1 page sections preview

Let’s take a step back for a second to consider what content we are going to need in our Landing Page to convince potential clients to hire Sarah. These are the questions they could possibly have and the content needed to answer:

Who is this person? – Introduction/About

How much do they charge? – Rates

Can we trust them? – Testimonials

How can we get hold of them? – Contact Form

And that’s it, those are our 4 Landing Page sections. Let’s add our first section by clicking the Add Page Content button:

This kicks off the page sections pop-up. For the introduction/about section I really like the look of this overlapping design:

Adding a headline page section

Just click the item to insert the design. If you would like to get more detail on the content editing and styling, I’d strongly recommend watching the embedded video above. Simply put, each element is editable inline. Meaning you hover over elements and select the edit icons. Then continue to go through the options available. In the Content tab (shown here) you can change the background image. In the next Design tab you can change the alignments and the button text + link (I’m going to show you how to link to the various sections within the long-scrolling page at the end of this tutorial).

Content inline editing

After some quick edits and uploading the pic of Sarah, our intro looks like this:

Sarah Young Landing Page - introduction content block

Next is the Rates section. Add another section by clicking the blue + icon below the section we just added. In the Text sections, I quite like this minimal layout which could have the price to the left:

Adding a text page section

This Rates section feels quite bare with the white background, so we can change the aesthetic using the color scheme options to the right:

Changing section design aesthetic

A few minor content edits along with the Accent Dark color scheme option really did the trick:

Sarah Young Landing Page - rates content block

Next up is Testimonials. Within the Quote page section options I like this layout with 4 clear testimonials in 2 columns:

Adding a quote page section

Considering how often people skim website content, it is good practice to highlight the main takeaway using bold text. Another tip is including the location of the New Orleans clients (next to their name) – adding local authenticity to the Landing Page:

Sarah Young Landing Page - testimonials content block

Finishing up Sarah’s Landing Page is the footer contact form. Out the Contact page section options, I like the first option with the form to the right:

Adding a contact page section

Just like the Rates section above, I think the white background is a bit bland, so I’m going to change it to the Accent Dark color scheme:

Sarah Young Landing Page - contact content block

Having alternate color sections also divides up the page content a bit better for the visitor. That’s it for the Landing Page content! Let’s take a step back and have a look at the Landing Page:

Step Three – Fix the header position

Ideally we’d like the header navigation to remain fixed while the visitor scrolls. This allows the visitor to easily navigate between page sections at any time. To kick off the header options, hover over the header area and hit the big Edit Site Header button. This opens up an option panel to the right. This panel is where you would upload your logo if needed but I’m happy with the default, plain-text “Sarah Young” for this Landing Page. Within the header option list, open up the Style options. Now enable the Fixed Position option:

Enabling a Fixed Position header navigation

Step Four – Add header links to page section

We want the user to click a website header link and be transported to the relative section. Example: clicking the Testimonials header link, scrolls the user to the Testimonials section within the Landing Page. To begin, the need to remove the default header links set by Squarespace. Simply drag those links out of the Main Navigation area and into the Not Linked area:

Then we need to add custom links to the Main Navigation area. In this use-case I’m adding links to Rates and Testimonials. Click the Main Navigation + icon then select the Link option at the bottom. For the Rates link, enter in the Link Title Rates and under the Link URL setting, enter in #rates like this:

Adding custom links to header navigation

Repeat for Testimonials, ensuring #testimonials is the link URL. Same will go for the Contact button. Head back to the header options from earlier but steer to the Elements option. Set the button link to #contact like this:

Adding custom links to header buttons

Lastly, the same applies for the Read Testimonials button featured in the intro section. Click the edit icon, switch to the Design tab and set the URL to #testimonials like this:

Adding custom links to buttons

Step Five – Add section Anchor links

Think of anchors as positions within our long-scrolling webpage. Anchors are assigned a name like ‘projects’. We can navigation to these anchor positions by linking to the anchor name with a hashtag (#) prefix. Example #projects To add an anchor link, we need to add a tiny bit of custom code above the relevant section, it’s real easy. When editing the page, hover your tear drop cursor above the section to kick off the content block option panel. Select the Code block and proceed to enter in an anchor link matching the links set in the previous step. Example:

Adding anchor links using a custom code content block

Simply repeat for the Rates section: <a name="rates"></a> and the Contact section: <a name="contact"></a> Once completed your website header links (set in Step Four) should now change your Landing Page position when clicked.

Bonus Tip Six – Adding smooth scroll

To enable that graceful smooth scroll motion when clicking links, head over to Design → Custom CSS in the main Squarespace menu and paste in the following code: html { scroll-behavior: smooth; } … and that’s it! Our long-scrolling Landing Page now features a fixed header navigation that smooth scrolls to the relevant sections:

FAQ: What are the benefits of using Squarespace?

Squarespace is a leading online website builder. What sets them apart from the rest is their superior level of design and customer support. They have a huge support team and are available 24/7. Other main benefits are:

No Website Hosting Needed - their platform is fast and secure

Online Content Management - all edits are done within your browser, no software needed

Easily Drag and Drop Images - unlimited galleries with unlimited bandwidth

Free Domain Name - when registering for your first website, if you pay annually (renews at standard rate)

Beautifully Responsive - all templates work for all devices, so you only have to design your website once. Test and preview how your website will appear on a range of screen sizes.

Blog Sections - can easily be added to start sharing your journey

Commerce Solutions - are an upgrade away if you want to start selling products

Email Marketing - gather email addresses, send marketing emails and analyze the reader email activity

[cellphonespecialist]

Performance and iOS 13 of Apple iPhone 11

As could be, Apple's new working system is flaunted to the fullest in its new iPhones – this time around its iOS 13, and the Apple iPhone 11 packs some clever highlights subsequently.

The primary thing we truly like is that the OS presently has all the more balanced, astute small warnings. That implies that when you change the telephone to quiet, or you change the volume, the little component that springs up to mention to you what's going on is increasingly helpful and furthermore intelligent.

That is to say, for instance, that squeezing a solitary volume key raises a pleasant slider that you can control with a finger, as opposed to a container that covers the screen. It sounds minor, yet such things will improve the manner in which you associate with your telephone everyday.

FaceID has likewise had a truly necessary overhaul – the field of perspective on the camera has been improved a reasonable piece, so you can look at your telephone from your situate and open it. While you may in any case need to draw your face nearer or lift the telephone marginally, it's a major update from what appeared on the Apple iPhone X two years prior.

This component isn't the aftereffect of new equipment however, and it'll be going to all iPhones propelled as of late – it's only an instance of Apple utilizing the data got by existing sensors.

A few other new highlights we enjoyed (not restrictive to the iPhone 11, yet supportive in any case): swipe composing when utilizing the console, new Memoji stickers, and control of the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth alternatives from Control Center.

The better approach for composing is incredible when you're attempting to do things one-gave – while conveying shopping, for example. The Memoji stickers should be gotten to from the side of the console when forming a letter (they're difficult to see when you first open your informing application), and offer something progressively close to home: a picture of your own face to accentuate your clever exposition with buddies.

The capacity to change Wi-Fi systems from inside the Control Center is an extremely helpful one – presently you no longer need to open up the Settings menu to switch.

That is iOS 13 secured, about the iPhone 11 itself so shouldn't something be said? Apple's new A13 Bionic chipset the new handset packs, and – sets it with 4GB of RAM as per spec spills.

In any case, that is fairly expressing the self-evident – cell phones turned out to be ground-breaking enough to react in a split second to all your impulses years prior, and it's in the subtleties where we see the contrasts between the only great handsets and the absolute best. We played on the Apple iPhone 11 the demo game looked extraordinary – Pascal's Wager –, with all way of shadows and reflections gleaming about the screen, and ran smoothly.

Our experience playing other, less-ground-breaking games on the handset was similarly as we anticipated: everything looking brilliant and clear, with nothing in the method for moderate down, and hustling games with view re-rendering rapidly as we moved, and visual components like water sprinkled about alluringly..

The Apple iPhone 11 wasn't exactly so fast over all undertakings – sparing photographs or video to the camera roll once in a while took a second or two, yet of course you're preparing a lot of information (particularly for Night mode or 4K video), so that is maybe not out of the ordinary; in any case, a few people may anticipate that presentation should be moment constantly.

All through our testing we didn't see any genuine issues with the Apple iPhone 11 – it's a savvy and quick handset, and conveys obviously better execution than also estimated telephones available, just as pressing an increasingly develop application inventory to expand your experience.

There is one change that we need to feature: similarly as with the iPhone XR, there's no 3D Touch on offer with the Apple iPhone 11, so squeezing more enthusiastically on the screen won't yield any new menus or extra usefulness. Rather, it's a long-press-and-hang tight for new menus, or reviews of things like site pages or Live Photos.

That is fine, and the execution functions admirably when you become acclimated to the 'cadence' of pausing – yet it implies that when you hold down on symbols on the home screen you'll currently need to pick the alternative to improve applications (or squirm your finger on the screen marginally), as opposed to it simply happening normally.

[bloodsweatandcum-blog1]

Danger

Jonghyun X Reader X Taemin

Word Count: 1,237

Summary: Taemin confronts you about an incident.

A/N: This is part two of The Hustle, but if you didn’t read that I don’t think its too big a big deal; there really isn’t much Jonghyun in this part, but don’t worry there will be later.

Warnings: Pretty Angsty, Guns, implied smut, drinking, cursing

It was dark. Too dark for a hotel, even in the dead of night.

You and Jonghyun just arrived back at the hotel after celebrating your success with real shots at the local club. You were grinding with some guy who chickened out when you offered to bring him back to the hotel, but Jonghyun was practically fucking the girl he danced with while going up the elevator. They were both drunk, and asked you if you wanted to join, but you weren’t in the mood and decided to grab something from the vending machine down the hall from your suite. Even with all the money you could imagine, your stingy self could not pay $10 for a bag of nuts, simply based on the convenience of it being in your room.

You were still a little drunk, so it made sense that you didn’t hear his footsteps behind or notice the lights being turned off. It made sense that you couldn’t fight him off.

You gasped as a pair of strong hands pushed you against the vending machine, slamming your body full force into the cold machine. His body pressed up against yours from behind, trapping you with your arms folded in front of you, with no way to escape.

“Hey baby,” one hand traced the side of your body from your ribs until it rested on your hip. The other reached behind him, and returned. “Miss me?” he whispered into your ear, his hot breath giving you shivers as you remembered his perfect features. His leg slid between yours, as clicked the safety on his gun, and brought it to your chin.

You laughed. He was the first person to come for either you or Jonghyun after you’d scammed them out of their money. They were either too rich, or too embarrassed to do anything. Usually the latter. He, however, did not find the situation funny. In every possible way, he pushed into you harder; from the back, from the side, and with the barrel of his gun. You’d probably have a big fat bruise on your chin in the morning. You rolled your eyes, thinking about how difficult it would be to cover it up with makeup.

“Do you need something Tae?” you made your voice sweet, aiming to please the handsome figure crushing your body. You paid close attention to his stance. Even with all the trouble you caused him, he was obviously attracted to you (it was especially obvious since you knew it wasn’t a gun you were feeling in his pants). Pushing your ass further into his crotch, you asked once again, “Anything I can do for you?”

Moving your hips back gave you enough room to free one of your hands, which he was quick to grab. Too quick for a normal person. With speed clearly acquired from training, he switched out his gun with a pair of hand cuffs and restricted your arms behind you. Now your eyes widened in fear. You wondered, is this guy a cop? If he was, you were fucked. He pushed the gun back into your skin, his other hand making its way around your torso. “How about you tell me how you managed to scam me and then steal twenty grand,” he pushed harder into you, and you bit your lip in attempt not to moan from the feeling, “from my bank account, with absolutely no trace.” You snickered, remembering the spectacle that occurred.

You’d teased him long enough. You asked the man behind the counter for something pretty to drink, something with a straw. You sucked on it while he watched you, your legs crossing and un-crossing. You dress rising up slowly, but steadily as time ticked on. Casual glances in his direction threw him off his game, which even at his peak was nothing compared to yours or Jonghyun’s.

“Jonghyun-ah,” you said loudly, “can you teach me pool?”

“Sure baby, why don’t you go find a table. I’ll be there in a few,” he winked at you and returned to eating the food he’d ordered. Once again, you hopped off the bar stool, and made your way through the crowd of suited men.

Before you could reach the empty table located right behind Taemin’s, you were stopped in your tracks by that very person.

“I could teach you,” he smiled while shamelessly looking you up and down. The three other men at the table stared at you, seemingly surprised by Taemin’s sudden action. They also took a couple of guilty peeks at you. Nodding your head sure, you brought out a hand to shake his.

“I’m Y/N.”

“Taemin,” he smiled warmly, taking your hand in his and bringing it up to his lips. You blushed.

“So, what do you know about playing billiards?” he asked you, gesturing for one of the men to leave the table and give you his stick.

“I thought we were playing pool?” You giggled, lightly hitting Taemin’s chest. He laughed as well.

“Well, I guess we’ll start from the basics.” The two other men started setting up the table, working their way around to each of the sockets and pulling out balls. While they finished racking them up, Taemin explained the rules to you. Of course, you weren’t listening. You drowned out his speech with thoughts of the two men across the table from you, trying to read them, gauge their skill level, how easily they could be distracted.

“So as for actually hitting the ball… I’m assuming you’ll also need some help with that?” The blonde raised his eyebrow at you, making you blush a bit. “Okay, so let’s do a practice round,” he said to everyone surrounding the table. The two other, irrelevant men nodded, never taking their eyes off of you. To start, he decided to demo how to hit a ball properly. He bent down and explained his hold on the stick, how the tip rested on his fingers, blah blah blah. You played a little mind game with the taller man across the table, making eye contact with him, biting you lip. His face turned red, as you returned your attention back to Taemin who was about to break the perfectly compiled triangle of balls in the center of the table.

“Woooowww!” You praised his mediocracy, which he enjoyed thoroughly. As the other team took their turn, he explained to you how to position yourself. Once again, you tuned him out and played your game again, causing the poor man to mess up his shot completely.

“My turn!” You hopped over to where the cue ball had settled. Completely ignoring everything he’d just tried to tell you, you ended up only hitting the felt.

“Here lemme show you,” he took a step behind you and started adjusting your arms. He leaned over you, pressing his crotch into your ass so he could fix your hands. You looked up at him and showed a small smile.

“Are you gonna answer me or what?” He flipped you around and slammed your back against the vending machine. He knew the rest of the hallway was vacant, so he didn’t care about any noise he was making. You could finally see his face; his beautiful, sharp face that was framed by soft blonde locks. But the look in his eyes was one you wouldn’t have messed with.

Unless you were looking for a little danger.

[loftyloftyloftyloftylofty]

September/October Q&A

Taking a quick break from documentation to share some stuff that I’ve been talking with friends about and to answer some questions that have popped up in direct messages, Discord, social media, etc.

Topics include other projects, game project scope, and past things like the Kickstarter campaign.

Click the Keep reading button below if you’re interested!

Q: What’s the plan after Cat Story?

A: I honestly have no idea. I might try my hand at a 3D game project? Someday I want to run my own MMO project. Everything else up to that point is sort of just me preparing for that project.

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Q: Thoughts on mobile games?

A: Mixed. I would like to experiment with making mobile games, but I don’t know how to protect my projects from being disassembled and broken. My assumption is that you just build a client that shows the user information, and all the important stuff happens serverside. More on that when I start playing around with mobile projects I guess?

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Q: How many minigames are planned for Cat Story?

A: I think 14? Maybe more than that depending on feedback. I’m actually having a blast programming the minigames because they’re small, easy projects that take me a few hours to crank out the code for. From there, it’s all assets.

Side thought - I am pretty sure these minigames are the appropriate scope for a first project. Cat Story is very ambitious. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Q: Why so much focus on mod support?

A: I get this question a lot. Being able to mod a game properly makes it last a lot longer. I really want this game to be something that people are still playing several years from now.

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Q: Easter eggs?

A: I expect people to still be finding hidden things in this game several years from now. There’s a lot of stuff to find.

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Q: Do you have an actual plot or motif or central idea for the game yet?

A: Yes. Cat Story has several themes that I’ll be happy to go into more detail about after the game releases. 

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Q: Are you going to have achievements or Steam trading cards?

A: Yes and yes. Achievements are already working. Trading cards are planned.

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Q: How long have you been working on this project?

A: Specifically for Cat Story, it’ll be 3 years this month. Some of these SDL functions have dates from 2012, when I was working on other projects that I eventually scrapped, and have been ported from SDL 1.2.5 to SDL2. 

It’s sort of terrifying to admit that some of the recycled code in this project is 6 years old.

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Q: How do you measure your progress when compared to other games’ development schedules? 

A: I try not to do that. Since I’m doing most of this stuff by myself, it’s not really fair to compare how fast I’m going against how fast a team of people on some other project is going. I also feel that I fall into a weird boat with progress pacing because I’m specialized in programming and it takes me a long time to do simple art.

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Q: Why aren’t you streaming on Twitch anymore?

A: Partially because I’ve been getting settled in a new house, partially because I have a full-time job now, and partially because I want to redo the visual presentation of the stream with new art and popups and alert noises and etc. This visual overhaul is still a huge work in progress, but here’s what some of the new Twitch popups look like!

I expect the Twitch streaming schedule to get back into full swing mid-November or early December. 

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Q: “Some things catch on and get popular and are successful and some things don’t and theres not much in the way of being able to tell what those will be until you try them. Seems like you tried catplat and it had lukewarm success so probably wrap it up and think of something else. Tally it up to learning experience.”

A: I disagree with this and there are three points I want to bring up about it before moving on.

1. With an advertising budget of zero, Cat Story’s Kickstarter managed to grab $3285 in pledges. I think Cat Story’s Kickstarter could have been successful if I had committed harder to promoting it while the Kickstarter was active, but I prettymuch hit the launch button and went into a figurative coma instead because I had run myself ragged getting it ready. Definitely a learning experience - the hustle doesn’t even start until you launch. This is why I’m making sure I have an updated demo before launching my Patreon - I learned from the Kickstarter.

2. Overall, Cat Story had about a 56% yes rating for votes (1700ish votes) on Greenlight. If more than half of the people that look at a game project are willing to buy it (from a functionally random sampling of the Steam population with a small bias toward wanting to check out new projects, probably less than 6% bias though), I’d say that’s worth going for.

3. The feedback that I received from Kickstarter and Greenlight has allowed me to make a better game that’s more suited for my target audience, which means that if I went through the same processes again with what I have now, I’d probably get better results.

So, yeah. I’m sticking to this project until it is complete.

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Q: How has the scope of your project changed since it started?

A: I could (and probably eventually will) write a book about how this project has changed since I first started working on it. Cat Story was never intended to be as big as it has become. It was never intended to have weapons. It wasn’t even originally intended to take place underground!

I’ve rewritten the inventory system from scratch 4 times now. A crafting system has been added, finished, and removed from the game engine. Here are some ancient assets from when I was first designing the main menu:

Start speedrun button.

Inventory was available at all times, even from the start menu.

“Adventure Mode”

Crafting menu.

An entire (finished and working) system of using special moves and attacks as a combination of holding right mouse and inputting jumps, clicks, and arrow keys has been removed from the game engine. Some of you guys might remember this?

TL;DR - When this project started it was going to be a small cute story about helping some cats on a tiny island do some errands so they could all watch a meteor shower together. In the process of making the game, cool ideas kept happening so I kept changing things.

So, here we are, three years later. Entirely different setting. Entirely different gameplay. Entirely different cast of characters. Completely overhauled set of mechanics for interactions and puzzle solving. 

It’s been a ride.

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Q: Why isn’t the level editor part of the game engine?

A: I ask myself that a lot. At this point it’d be too much work to add it to the existing engine. I’m going to make a better standalone editor eventually, because I’m not terribly enthusiastic about the current one, which has become completely unmaintainable.

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Q: What was the most annoying bug in your project?

A: The one that taught me the importance of copy constructors.

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Q: Do you want your game on [insert platform here]?

A: Maybe? Cat Story was sort of intended for PC. If newer game consoles come out with keyboards designed to interact with games we’ll see. 

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I’ve still got a long list of questions that need answering, but this post is getting a little ridiculous, so I’m gonna get back to work! 

Send me questions! I like answering them! For those of you who didn’t get an answer this time around - I haven’t forgotten about you and I’ll get you in the next Q&A (probably).

Cheers everybody!

( Also here’s the link to the Discord again: https://discord.gg/kw8Jbax )