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scandalsavagefanfic · 3 years

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Hello! I am a huge fan of ur writing. I've loved everything I've read of yours. I've read alot of what you've posted, except for a couple of the tags that are squicky for me (so I'm very thankful you tag very thoroughly). No judgement for the squick, it's just not for me. & when I'm having a bad day, I usually just go thru ur ao3 and find something to reread. I think about Therapy's Bruce & Jason every damn day. While I obvs appreciate ur darker more "problematic" content (I really vibe with some of the themes you write about bc of my own trauma, & so it's very cathartic to read about in a fictional setting), I am truly a sucker for ur more happy content. The Happily Ever After verse also lives in my head rent free. Idk more wholesome stuff just seems more special when you write it. Anyways. I would die for you. But the point of this ask is cause I'm curious as to why you don't like Urban Legends? I'm sorry if you already talked about it here or on twitter and I missed it. I was just wondering because I really enjoy your take on things and would love to hear why you dislike it. I've been enjoying it so far personally, but I am always open to DC comics criticism.

Aw thank you so much! I'm so flattered by everything you just said. You're so sweet ❤❤❤❤❤

I haven't talked about Urban Legends here or twitter (I haven't been very active in either place lately. Just a lot going on and no energy 😔) but I'm happy to do it here.

Before I start though, I just want to add a standard disclaimer and make it clear that if you like it, there's nothing wrong with that and you don't have to let me ruin it for you lol. Like what you like.

That said, since you asked...

I said this when I was talking about it on discord, that there is a difference between hope and expectation. I always hope that a new story centered on Jason (or anyone really, but things have been especially egregious for Jay for 15 years) will be good or at least treat the character with a minimal level of respect (to be honest, the bar is super fucking low). But my expectations always temper my hope, to keep it from getting unrealistic. Because my expectations are based on experience.

The long history of Jason Todd, since even before his resurrection, has been one of retroactively trying to make him "a bad seed" in order to absolve Bruce of any responsibility in his death.

I don't even expect DC or their writers to start honoring the fact that Jason was not an angry, reckless Robin (and less of the later than Dick or Tim and definitely Damian). There plenty of ways that retcon can be folded into his history and be compelling and sympathetic. And if they're going to stick with that retcon, I'm only asking that they do it in one of those compelling and sympathetic ways because Jason was 15 when he died, heroically, in one of the most selfless acts in comics, to save a woman who literally handed him over to be brutally murdered. He was 12 when Bruce plucked him off the streets, he'd been homeless and fending for himself for at least two years. I personally think that Jason's story hits harder for him and Bruce if their original, canon relationship, of Jason as starry-eyed and eager to learn and absolutely devoted to Bruce and Bruce to Jason, is preserved. But Jason's origins does leave room for a meaningful interpretation of him as angry and frustrated at the lack of meaningful results of Bruce's methods.

And that's really where my irritation at stories like Batman: Urban Legends, Cheer and Batman The Adventure Continues has it's roots.

Every time one of these stories comes out, I think (or hope, rather) that this will be the one that remembers and respects the origins of the Jason and the Red Hood, that takes into account the changed sensibilities of comics readers in the 30 years since Jason's death and the subtle, 20 year, retroactive campaign to make him the "bad Robin". The "born bad" trope is played out and literally no one likes the message it implies. That some kids are just bad eggs and there's nothing parents or the adults around them can do. Especially when it's played as the kid's fault. If Jason's time as Robin is going to be characterized by anger, then it should be rooted in anger at the social injustices he witnessed as he grew up in an impoverished, crime-ridden, area and the horrors he faced raising himself when every day was a battle for survival. There are topical, meaningful, stories to tell with that backdrop.

But those are never the stories we get.

⚠⚠ Spoilers for Batman: Urban Legends, Cheer ⚠⚠

I'm particularly disappointed in Urban Legends because for the first issue, it looked like that was the kind of story we were going to get. I was put off by the first flashback of Jason being mesmerized by Bruce's guns, and I got that feeling in my gut that it was a bad sign. Jason depicted as impatient and overconfident and the scene with the guns is heavy-handed foreshadowing that got my spidey-sense tingling. I had a inkling then (in the first three pages) of how this story was going to play out, but it was early and I could still see many narrative paths that could lead to a satisfying story. My concerns were soothed somewhat and the little flame of my hope fanned, with the flashback of Alfred scolding Bruce, with Barbara's concern for Jason. A bit of worry returned with the way Jason ruthlessly pursued an addict who didn't appear to be a dealer and with the ending of the issue. The stuff with the addict sat wrong with me but the ending was tempered some by how despicable Tyler's dad was written. The scene was clearly set so that the reader could sympathize with Jason's decision and the scene with the addict could be brushed aside as a side-effect of comics over-the-top need for constant action, so I still held hope.

Issue 2 made me uncomfortable and it's where my hope starts to take a backseat to my expectations. I can dismiss Jason's self-deprecating internal monologue as unreliable narration, except that the flashback reinforces his thought process to explicitly show that it's not unreliable narration, and should be taken at face value. Jason faces physical abuse at the hands of his mother's drug dealer and when the flashback continues later, Jason kills the drug dealer. To be clear, this is a pre-Bruce Jason. His mom is still alive. He's like... 10. He kills this guy for shoving his head into a wall and implying Jason's mother paid for her drugs with sex. This is a scene that serves a single purpose. To show that Jason has always been prone to violence.

In the spirit of full disclosure, there is the small chance the drug dealer might not be dead. But the story obviously wants the reader to think he is, and it hasn't done anything to change that yet.

Starlin already did this story with The Diplomat’s Son in 1988 and he did it infinitely better. AND that’s still technically canon. So now I’m supposed to believe that Jason lost his cool bad enough to kill two douche bags before his sweet 16? Like it’s totally normal for abused kids raised in poverty, who’ve led hard and heartbreaking lives to just... haul off and kill people? That’s bullshit, and when taken with the Jason in the third issue, who is little more than an idiot thug, this story is really doubling down on some fucked up stereotypes.

Which brings us to the most recent issue. I went into this installment with very low expectations. I thought this story was going to be about Jason, through this experience with Tyler, a young boy with a similar background to Jason's, coming to the realization that Bruce's way is the best way and that Bruce did his best by Jason.

That would be annoying (in no small part because it takes increasingly absurd levels of plot armor to keep Bruce's no kill rule relevant, let alone irrefutably right). But I can probably live with that, if only because maybe if Jason officially falls back into line with the Bats crusade, maybe I'll get stories that treat him with respect, stories that don't relegate him to comic relief, dumb brute, or a background body with no lines in a story about the Joker burning Gotham (like Jason would just fucking stand there quietly for that).

And that may still be where the story is going, Jason realizing Bruce is right.

But holy shit do I not have the right words to describe how fucking insulting and gross issue three is.

From start to finish--including the flashback--Jason is written as cruel and fucking stupid. Like straight up dumb.

The entire issue is Bruce explaining the fucking basics to Jason like it's his first day. And Jason flies off the fucking handle and terrorizes a doctor he knows isn't a part of making the Cheerdrops, beats the shit out of some random addicts, and finally, when he can't accomplish anything on his own because he's a dumb brute he calls Barbara for help and rushes in with no information where he's promptly incapacitated and must now wait to be rescued by Batman.

This panel is the least of the issues sins but I can’t screenshot the entire story but it’s representative of the tone for the whole issue (and retroactively tainted the prior two issues).

This is beyond insulting. The only conclusions Jason comes to in this issue are the ones Bruce leads him to by talking to him like he can’t make the simplest connections. And like... in this story Jason can’t make the simplest connections.

This (and the Jason throughout the entirety of this issue) is a far cry from the Jason we fell in love with in Under the Red Hood, who was competent and strategic and intelligent enough to seize control of Gotham’s underworld from Black Mask (who’s no fucking slouch, he’s the first and only person to unify organized crime in Gotham) AND elude and manipulate Bruce until the time and place of his choosing.

This is a far cry from even the Red Hood and the Outlaws Jason who is competent enough to fight the League of Shadows and Ra’s al Ghul (among very dangerous and skilled others) and smart enough to create antidotes for mind control nanotech viruses.

As he should be, by the way. Jason Todd is one of the best, most comprehensively trained fighters in DC’s stable of non powered vigilantes. He’s not irrational or hot headed. He’s pragmatic, tactically minded, and patient. He’s a detective. Right now. Has been since he was 12. Bruce doesn’t have to make him one because he already is.

Jason is not a stupid thug who uses his fists because his brain doesn’t work. And I can’t tell you how so very exhausted I am by this narrative.

This is actually the most egregious example of Jason’s skills and intelligence being not just undermined but dismissed entirely. Even Morrison’s Jason had some degree of competency.

The one, single redeeming factor of this story is the art. It’s beautiful. And Marcus To is a godsend he seems to be one of only a couple of artists who remember that Jason was a child when he was Robin and I’m literally only buying this book because of him.

Anyway, I’m sorry. I didn’t want that to come out so... um... passionately lol. I’m just very very tired. My intention with this isn’t to ruin it for you, if you like it, that’s fine.

But this issue shot this story to the top of my "Vehemently Despise” list. 1) Batman: Urban Legends (Cheer), 2) Battle for the Cowl/Morrison’s Batman and Robin, 3) Batman The Adventure Continues.

I hope the next issues somehow salvage this dumpster fire. But I’m not expecting it.

(Damnit. That sounded harsh again. To reiterate, I’m not trying to judge anyone who enjoys it, I just personally hate it and you asked me why lol 😅)

#Batman #red hood #batman: urban legends #nice art #shit story #or at least shit characterization #jason todd deserves better #this response got long and I didn't edit it #please forgive any errors #and/or unclear spots #spoilers

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sddigitalmarketer · 2 years

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INSTAGRAM GROWTH HACK

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#instagram #instagram hack #instagram growth #instagram tips #instagram tiktok #instagram guide

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stanknotstark · 3 years

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Astral Pt. 5 (Loki x Reader)

I actually wrote the first part today cuz this was extremely short before because i wasn’t sure if i should put fillers! In the end i decided to keep it plot heavy but also tried to not make it boring even if this is the first time the two argue and it goes incredibly side ways in ways Loki didn’t imagine lol

You had come to your safe room to speak with Loki on a sensitive matter, a choice, that you had to make soon. In three days it would be your 18th birthday, not that that was the relevant matter. Shield had contacted you one day through your phone. You had spoken to a nice gentleman by the name of Coulson. He had given you an offer you couldn’t refuse.

Call this number. That had been the text that you had received. Too curious for your own good, you did.

Coulson had addressed himself as an operative under Shield, Strategic Homeland blah blah blah the name was a mouthful. He had offered to give you a job somewhat dangerous but the hazard pay was well enough to keep you comfortable. You were actually going to decline it but Coulson stopped you and said he could offer a higher education and a place to live if that was your concern.

Hook, line, and sinker. Anyplace, away from this horrid house, was loads better. Your parents had calmed recently now that you actually stood up for yourself and knew how to fight but the memories in this forsaken house dragged your spirit down too much. Not to mention the haunting nightmares you had on the regular.

However, you wanted to speak to Loki about this all. More or less you just wanted his blessing, you already knew what you were going to do. You already had the feeling in your gut that the conversation wasn’t going to end well. You prided yourself in knowing Loki through and through, him you too, and you know Loki is hard about trusting anyone. Not to mention his paranoia reached unsurmountable proportions. You were pretty sure Loki would make a plan A and stick to it but would try to think of every possible outcome and end up having the entire alphabet as a backup plan. He was good at adapting to what the situation called for.

When Loki entered the room he realized how you tensed the closer he got so he stayed away, the hurt look on his face almost caused you to run and hug him but if he touched you you knew you wouldn’t be able to leave him.

The conversation started nice enough even if you both stood across the room from each other, you with your hands dangling at your sides not really knowing what to do with them. You had asked how his family was treating him and he had answered positively enough that you didn’t feel the need to intervene. Then, because you were too scared to bring up the sensitive topic, asked him how the weather was. That caused Loki to squint at you suspiciously. You have never once asked such a insignificant question.

“What are you hiding?”

“They want me to work for them once I turn 18,” You told Loki who stood across the room from you confused, “Shield.” He frowned and shook his head, moved to stand across the table you had hid behind.

“Don’t. We don’t know anything about this Shield corporation. It sounds like they want to use you as a weapon.” Loki said boldly, his hand resting on the chair now white knuckled.

“I told them I would join them if they gave me a place to live.”

Loki’s wandering eyes snapped to yours.

“Tell them you changed your mind.”

“No.” You said frowning at Loki. “You know what I have to live with every day, can you blame me for wanting to get out as soon as I possibly can?”

“Your living situation isn’t desirable but you don’t know anything about Shield. Your living situation may be more safe than what they’re offering.” Loki said, his voice starting to raise.

“I’m going with them, they seem ok enough.” You said with a finality in your tone. Loki wasn’t going to change your mind. You kept up the staring contest he started. Both of you becoming more angry the longer you looked at each other. Loki was the first to break the eye contact.

“I will not watch you hurt yourself, if you go, it is without my support, do not come back here to cry if they turn out to be something worse than you’re expecting.” Loki challenged, his eyes coming back to yours. He thought the ultimatum would make you change your mind, he must have thought you’d do anything to stay with him, but all it did was encourage you to leave out of stubbornness.

You really like Loki, he’s been the best best friend you could ever ask for but that doesn’t mean you’re willing to endure the memories of your house longer with unknown hope as to whether Loki would come save you or not. He had said soon but he had also said soon about Thor’s coronation and that still hadn’t happened, to your knowledge. He was a God that had lived over 1000 years, it’s only natural that his view on the word soon was so vastly different from your definition of soon. It was time you started taking your life into your own hands, you shouldn’t need someone to save you, you needed to save yourself. You needed to prove, to whom you’ve no idea, that you could do this without help.

You let out a angry chuckle, “Fine. you know I don’t like ultimatums but I will not hesitate to make a choice. Good bye, Loki.”

The last thing you saw was Loki’s wide eyes and his hand trying to grab you from across the table but you had closed your eyes and willed yourself away. If he had been fast enough to grab you, you would have stayed, told him he was right.

But...

He wasn’t fast enough.

Laying on your bed you took a few deep breaths but couldn’t force your tears to not fall. You curled up on your side into a fetal position and cried the hardest you had cried in years. You could never go back to Loki.

Once you had calmed you called Coulson and gave him your answer. You started to pack what little you appreciated and shoved your feelings of Loki out of you mind for now.

Pt. 4/Pt. 5/?

Tag list: @justfangirlthingies @emelieh99

#loki x reader #loki odinson #loki #my writing #astral pt5 #astral #We're finally reaching the areas ive seen played out in my head so im more comfortable and less awkward about my writing #idk if you can tell lol probably not but oh well!

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buckstaposition · 4 years

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I cling to your lips like gloss (3)

a Javier Peña x OFC story

also on AO3

author: @youhavereachedtheendofpie 👋

tags&warnings: spoilers for season 3, wonky timelines & odd pacing, drinking, swearing, mentions of sex work, mentions of canon-typical violence, Miss Salome is back!, some mild domesticity, partial nudity, a lil’ bit of sexual & romantic tension, soft&protective!Javi today tomorrow and forever

words: 8906 🙃🤡🙃🤡

summary: “The United States government is buying you a dress because you being at that party is of strategic importance to this investigation.”

Author’s note: Thank you SO SO much everyone who read, reblogged, and commented! It means so much to me and I want you to know that I read those comments and reviews at least every other day

Also this chapter was originally going to feature more as I was planning to move into the actual plot of the season, but then it just got longer and longer and I wanted to keep it under 10k words so that has all been moved to the beginning of ch4 instead. Anyway, remember it’s okay to take breaks in between, stay hydrated, and enjoy!

—

Tag list: @keeper0fthestars @opheliaelysia @dindjarindiaries @fromthedeskoftheraven @shikin83 @cinewhore @maddoggrahaml

(message me if you want to be added to the list)

beautiful moodboard made by @huliabitch

Masterlist

Prologue • Chapter 1 - The Informant • Chapter 2 - A Wedding and Four Funerals

Chapter 3 - Swallow Pride and Anger

He made a habit of checking in with Miss Rivas regularly, usually on Wednesday evenings. It was late enough in the week for her to have gathered something to tell him, and for him to need interactions beyond dealing with pissy bureaucrats and the chorus of 'yes boss'es from his agents. That and he made the conscious choice to never bother her on Thursdays, seeing as how often she'd come back from a work day in the double digits, only to rise again with the sun on Friday mornings for her frequent trips back to Medellín.

On this Wednesday, his self-imposed cigarette embargo inside his office combined with a slow and frustrating day had led him to go back to his apartment at an uncharacteristically early hour. He threw his jacket, wallet and keys down on the table, then loosened his tie and grabbed a beer from his fridge. He took a slow pull from the bottle, allowing himself to slump a bit against the kitchen counter. This apartment, while never what he would call a home, was still a sanctuary of sorts, even if most days he only came here to sleep and change clothes. He finished about half the bottle before clicking the bent cap back on haphazardly and placing it back in the fridge. He checked his watch and decided that a shower would, if not make him feel better, at least wash off the stale dryness of the embassy complex's aircon.

His hair still damp, he exited the bathroom about half an hour later. He padded across the floor barefoot, shuffling around the few rooms a bit, pulling on a clean t-shirt and preparing a small meal in the kitchen. He didn't have much except for the usual staples, chosen by how easy they were to prepare and by how effectively they would fill his stomach, rather than for any considerations of taste. The only thing he allowed himself to indulge in was the selection of fresh fruit he picked up at the street market down the road. By the time he'd gotten something in his stomach it was nearing seven. Javier reckoned she would be home by now and would have had enough time to settle in. He grabbed his fruit plate and trudged over to his wall-mounted landline phone. After placing the plate on the low side table, he dialled the satphone's number and waited for the line to connect.

"Agent Peña, good evening!" The sound quality was much better than with those tinny phone cells. It allowed him to hear how pleased she sounded as she greeted him, and how slightly out of breath.

"I hope I'm not disturbing you, Miss Rivas. I can call back later?" It occurred to him that she might be in the process of making dinner herself.

"Oh no, it's alright!" He heard the shuffling of steps and the hum of music in the background. "Hang on, let me finish on the landline, then I'm all yours." She must have set the satphone down right next to her stereo system. He could hear music more clearly now, still distant like not all of it survived the transmission, but distinct enough to make out a string section paired with electric guitar and words in an unfamiliar language.

"Interesting music selection." He mused as she came back on the line.

"Huh? Oh yes, Angelika let me borrow some of her tapes. Newly historical contraband from behind the Iron Curtain." She laughed quietly, and Javier thought of how for some of his former CIA colleagues, that might have been reason enough to drag her in for an interrogation. He sneered at the notion, glad it was no longer relevant. "Not that I understand anything, but that's why music is called the universal language, I suppose."

"Your German friend." Javier hummed thoughtfully. He'd had to look up what that Stasi remark meant, embarassingly enough. Despite the added information included, he'd been made to change it to 'Calí KBG' in his preliminary report on the matter.

"Yes. I'm sorry I couldn't convince her to help more. It's half the way she was brought up and half fear. I guess the thought of going up against a powerful drug cartel and helping the American government at the same time is just a bit too much. And with her and Julio now trying for a baby she just really doesn't want to risk it, you know?"

"It's okay." Javier said reflexively, allowing himself to sit on the floor by his phone, his back against the wall. Angelika Florez-something-long-and-German-with-lots-of-umlauts that he wasn't even going to attempt to pronounce worked at the Calí phone company and would have been an invaluable asset, but then again she'd already placed herself in danger by allowing Diana to relay what she knew. Javier wasn't going to force anyone to become an informant. "Anything new on your end?"

"New corner office."

"Nice."

"Oh, very." He heard more soft rustling over the line, as if she was moving around, and then some light clicking noises that might have been a large window or door being opened. "Miguel Rodríguez did stop by yesterday. Unannounced, of course. Cut into my lunch break."

Javier straightened, the hand with a piece of orange sinking back down from his lips. "Oh? What did he want?" Unfortunately it was nothing he could be nailed down for. The Rodríguez brothers did own that bank and had every right to be there, every once in a while.

"Wanted to talk about the tax evasion scheme I devised. I swear, there's nothing rich people hate more than paying their taxes!" Her huff made him laugh softly, despite everything. "Nothing of substance to report, sadly."

"We'll get them." Javier promised. "With your help, they'll go down like a bag of rocks in water."

She hummed, tapping her nails against the phone casing absently. He could hear the light click of it over the line. Javier let himself enjoy the reprieve this unassuming silence offered.

"I've been wondering," she started again after a moment, pensive, "how you met Gabriela. Was it when she was still at the brothel or after?"

Actually screw reprieve. Javier felt like all his blood was now rushing to his ears and neck. "Umm..." he said, eloquently. "W-why d'you want to know?" And hadn't the other woman told her that detail, since they apparently shared everything? He had made it until now in forcibly not dwelling on what exactly this 'everything' would entail.

"Sorry no, that came out wrong. I was just wondering if she'd ever been in any way involved in your... work. I'm sorry, this isn't... I just- I worry."

Javier exhaled slowly, thinking back on the night he'd chanced upon the stunning redhead at a bar. He hadn't planned on it becoming a regular thing, and then before he knew it, the sporadic nights he spent with her were the only thing removed from the stress of his job. "No, never."

"Dammit."

That was... not what he'd expected. He frowned a moment before it dawned on him.

"You're worried that by involving her when Maritza asked you for help you put her in danger."

"...Yes." She sounded glum now, not pleased and at ease enough to attempt to joke with him like before. He hated it.

"Hey, it's alright. Nothing happened to her." At least to her. At least one person had come out of that nightmare mostly unscathed. It was something to be grateful for. "They're gone now. Escobar and his men are gone. She's safe."

"Thank you, Agent Peña. I just-" Her voice sounded so small, suddenly. He frowned, plate of fruit long forgotten. "I couldn't bear it if I lost her, too. And while I didn't live in Medellín for all of it I ...you hear things."

Unbidden, his mind flashed to the brothel on 23rd street in Envigado, all the women executed, La Quica putting bullets through their brains because one of them had been brave enough to call the Search Bloc and DEA on him. He thought of Helena. He thought of the dozens more who had the violence in their lives compounded tenfold because they'd dared to defy the narcos' terror. And often enough, through him. Sometimes the guilt ate Javier alive.

"Hang on a moment." He said, already heaving himself up and striding over to the kitchen, grabbing his unfinished beer from the fridge, then doubling back over to the bar and grabbing a glass and a bottle of whiskey. Mixing the two was probably not a good idea. As much as drinking in general. He didn't care right now. Javier tried to be a better man than he had been, but there were times when he slipped.

He poured himself a glass of the liquor as he sat back down and snatched the phone receiver back up from where it swung against the wall.

"I'm back." He announced simply and took a swig.

"I shouldn't have brought it up." She sighed long and drawn. "I'm sorry for... I suppose I just wanted to make myself feel better. That if something had happened to Gabi it wouldn't have been my fault, too. I didn't think- I cannot begin to imagine, Agent Peña-"

"It's alright." Javier said, reflexively. The beer bottle was just one generous sip away from being empty now. His fingers played with the rim of it absently as he stretched his legs out in front of him, the tumbler of whiskey at his side.

"It's not alright." Miss Rivas insisted, sounding even more distraught. He hated that, too.

"Maybe. Maybe not. It is what it is." He scrubbed a palm over his face, rubbing at his burning eyes. The alcohol was beginning to swirl through his bloodstream. It helped, he supposed, that there was a sort of artificial distance through the telephone line. Otherwise the next words would likely never have left his lips.

"Can I tell you something?" Javier Peña wasn't a religious man, but there were times when he saw the sense of a confessional.

"Of course." Her voice was just the slightest bit shaky. "Should I get myself a drink, too?"

"If you want." He threw back the last bit of beer, following it up immediately with a gulp of whiskey, then pressed the still cold bottle against his flushed neck. He hesitated a moment, listening intently to the shuffling and rustling on the other end of the line. He felt his shoulders tighten and draw up, let his head fall back against the wall with a soft 'thud', his fingertips tracing the rim of the glass until he heard her soft affirmative.

This was not a time to let shame hinder him. Hell, the fact that he paid women for sex was the first thing she ever knew about him.

"You should know that I have a kind of... reputation." Javier began slowly. Like she didn't know that already. Like she couldn't guess. Like maybe this illusion where he could make this a confession instead of a confirmation was somehow more dignified.

He'd gotten the idea a few months into coming down here. Or rather the idea had found him in the shape of a lovely, doe-eyed brunette who'd introduced herself as 'Aurélia'. And Javier had been hungry and lonely, his shame at his ruined wedding fresh and the frustration of running after leads into empty corners even fresher. And he doesn't even remember how he ended up inside her room, and while under no illusion that what was about to transpire was merely a business deal, a service rendered and compensated for, he'd found himself talking. Javier wasn't a talker, but she'd been so sweet in the way she carded her slender fingers through his hair and let him ramble on, probably wasting her time.

"That's who you're here for?" Javier remembered still, with such distinct clarity, how her fingers had stuttered against his scalp. Javier had lifted his far-too-heavy head from her comfortable bosom and peered up at her, wondering whether disclosing all this had been a mistake. What kind of idiot walks into a brothel in Medellín half drunk and says he's a cop looking to take down Pablo fucking Escobar plus associates?

"They come here sometimes. Those sicarios I mean." Aurélia had said, resuming her caresses. Sweet girl. Sweet, sad girl who kissed so softly.

"Oh yeah?" Just his luck. "Not tonight though, hopefully." Suddenly he wasn't quite as drunk or tired anymore.

"Not tonight, no. At least not that I know of. Anyway, it's not- I shouldn't tell you this." She'd tilted his head up and pressed a lingering kiss to his lips. That girl could kiss like she was in love with you.

That was that. Four days later he'd come back, with a proposal wrung from his superiors. Any information that could lead to the capture of one of the Cartel's sicarios for a generous chunk of solid American cash.

"Aurélia?" Miss Rivas asked in a voice as if she was running calculations. "With curls or with a birthmark?"

"Umm, birthmark." A mole on her left cheek, just under the eye, like a rococo lady in every period piece about the French, except real.

"Oh! Catalina Vasquez!"

"You know her?" Of course she knew her. Apparently Medellín was actually a damn village and not a city of millions.

"Yeah, the family lived just down the street growing up. I used to babysit them sometimes, her and her younger sisters."

Javier hummed, unsure of how to reply. He pinned the receiver between his head and shoulder and shoved the freed hand up under the collar of his shirt to rub at the tension in the back of his neck.

"Sorry for interrupting, do go on."

It had taken some convincing. A whole lot of planning, too. But by the end of it he had one of Gacha's sicarios in custody. A large, brutish man who'd nicknamed himself 'Cobra'. Low-level and not especially bright, as it turned out, but not completely worthless. Javier had gone back to the brothel that night to give Aurélia her reward, and then he'd come back again the night after, when the high of success had worn off and he'd craved being kissed again like it meant something. Only, she'd been gone. Left without a trace, her erstwhile colleagues unwilling to divulge the whats and wheres and whys. Frustrated and anxious and in no small part betrayed, he'd drowned himself in a willing bottle blonde who could do extremely interesting things with her mouth. And that was that, the start of a career and a reputation. Not that he ever expected to be 'serviced' when he was there in a professional capacity. But when they offered, he found himself too weak to refuse. And they almost always offered. For whatever reason.

Professional pride perhaps.

"What happened to her?" It had been years but he had to ask, just on the off chance.

"She took your money and cut loose, moved to the coast and got a job at a baker's. Last thing I heard she was married and had another baby on the way."

"Good. That's ...good." He'd wondered, all these years... "Thank you."

"I didn't do anything."

"For listening. For letting me ...unload." For lifting a bit of guilt and uncertainty off of me. "Just... you don't have to do that. So thank you."

A short rustling, the squeak and groan of a chair, then: "I will listen to whatever you want to tell me, Agent Peña."

Javier released a sigh, deep and weary, and set aside his glass and the bottle that was significantly lighter than it had been. His mind was somewhere in that soupy stage now, floating aimlessly on some sort of thick fog. It dulled the creeping pain in his back that told him he was too old to be sitting on the floor now. He mumbled something indistinct, rubbed his eyes and shook his head in an attempt to clear the haze.

"Well, in any case, now you know." He'd only need to tell her about Lorraine, Helena, and Carillo, and he'd have shared all of his major sins. Huh.

"What are you asking for?"

Absolution. "A verdict?"

"I have no intention of judging you, Agent Peña. Not for this. You acquainted yourself with all the working girls in Bogotá and Medellín, and I married a man I did not love and stayed with him for years."

"That's hardly the same."

"Isn't it?" Her voice was soft and rueful, brimming with words not ready to be spoken quite yet. He sensed it, and agreed, and therefore decided that it was time to cut this heart-to-heart off here for both their sakes.

"Hell, I don't know. Maybe, in a way." He was way too drunk for this. He shouldn't have drunk this much. Where had his threshold gone? It's like he'd spent years tempering his liver for nothing.

"Well then, I'll let you know whether or not it'll be worth for you to come down to Medellín next weekend. Sleep well. And drink some water before then."

Javier glanced at the clock mounted on the oppsite wall. When the hell had it gotten this late? No wonder his ass was numb and his back was killing him. There was a moment when the strangest words were just hanging on to the tip of his tongue, ready to plummet off. That it would always be worth it to see her. Even just to take a turn about a park with her and the kid. Javier swallowed thickly. Gathered his professionalism and detachment.

"Until then, Miss Rivas. Good night." --- --- --- The phone rings insistently in a way that tells him it's been at it a while. Javier sighed while sliding the glass door of his office shut behind him. He hadn't planned on being all but ambushed by one of Stechner's CIA stooges under the guise of 'inter-agency liasing', and that was after getting caught up with a lenghty presentation one of his newly transferred agents had prepared for him. Feistl, he'd said his name was. The presentation was full of good ideas, too, just too involved. Javier had told the guy as much. If you can get your point across with ten words there's no point using fifty.

Javier picked up the receiver, one hand rubbing at the dull throbbing that was just starting to build in his temple.

"Peña."

"You're still at your office? It's past eight, you should go home." He smiles despite himself, and the chiding tone.

"Got delayed." He offered by way of an explanation. She harrumphed softly.

"Not that I'm not delighted to hear from you, but what's the occasion?" She rarely called him, he usually called her. She certainly didn't call on Thursday nights because when she wasn't preparing to drive up to Medellín she was usually exhausted enough at this point in the week to turn in early.

"I hope you're sitting down."

Javier perched himself on the edge of his desk where it wasn't piled high with reports and mind-numbing paperwork awaiting his signature. "I am."

"They're having a party and I've been invited. Friday next week. They'll all be there; Santacruz is apparently coming down from New York for it. The chief accountant, the money launderer, everyone. And their wives, or other-"

Javier's foot slipped a bit where he'd foolishly leaned a significant percentage of his weight on it. He caught himself as the desk gave a loud groan, slipping a bit on the linoleum floor. He righted himself quickly, sitting more firmly on the edge of the desk.

"What do you know?"

"Apparently there's going to be some sort of important announcement, but no one knows what it is, not even Miguel. Gilberto called it. All I know is that all four of them will be there, as well as everyone important in the organization. And then some. Likely every politician and law enforcement official in their pocket. Other cartels, too, but I don't know who exactly-"

"Miss Rivas, stop." Javier said firmly. Her voice had gotten that rambling, frantic quality that wore thin its natural pleasant rasp. "That's plenty. This is..." he twisted around and fished for his desk calendar, grabbing the nearest pen to circle the day, "This is huge. It could even be just the break we need."

She was silent for a moment, only her long, deliberate breaths crackling over the line. "You think so?"

"I think regardless of what it is, if it's important enough for a gathering this big, then yes."

"I don't suppose you could raid the party and arrest them all just like that?" She mused.

"Only in my dreams, Miss Rivas." He allowed himself a second to picture it: surroundig what was no doubt a very large and fancy property, riding in like the cavalry, the dumbstruck faces as the Gentlemen of Calí and their associates realized their luck had run out, clapping the handcuffs on them - he'd want to do it himself, hear the gratifying click of metal on metal that would wipe the self-satisfied smirks off their faces.

The warrants for the Calí godfathers existed, that wasn't the problem. The problems started with finding the location, circumventing their no doubt expert security, getting the lot of them without anyone escaping... Then there was the trouble of getting a search warrant for the property, even if they did know the address, and it was going to be a whole lot more complicated if the guy who signed those warrants was at that party himself. Then there was the fact that for all the valuable intel Miss Rivas had provided already, it wasn't nearly enough to nail the godfathers beyond what their army of slippery attorneys could weasel them right back out of. What they really needed was for someone to talk. Someone who had been there for longer and knew the operations of the cartel more intimately than Miss Rivas ever could (or than he would want her to, if Javier was being honest). The mysterious money launderer perhaps, or the chief accountant. Either would be good, both would be better - then again, the immunity deals that usually came with these kinds of cooperations didn't sit too well with Javier.

"Hell, I don't even have a plus one. Do I really have to go? I could pretend to be sick." She sighed and scoffed, and muttered something about not having anything to wear.

"I think you know." And if these people didn't know his face (and would put a bullet through it on sight) he'd gladly offer to be her plus one, if only to keep her safe. He hated knowing she'd be all alone there, among the wolves. It didn't make what he still had to ask of her any easier.

"Yes, I know. Miguel called me the 'third corner of their finance trifecta'." A bitter laugh, not that Javier needed that cue to know. He could tell from her voice alone how much she despised it. "In any case, now you know, so you can make whatever arrangements you need. I'll see you tomorrow?" Ah yes, about that.

"I'm afraid I can't make lunch. Urgent meeting called by the ambassador." Urgent and useless, but when the new president and minister of justice wanted a briefing he had to oblige. "Sorry."

"That's alright. Dinner then? My aunt will be in the hospital overnight."

"I'll see what I can do." There was just one more thing. "Miss Rivas?"

"Yes?"

"Would you be willing to wear a wire? To the party?"

"Well, I was thinking a cocktail dress would be more appropriate-"

Javier scoffed. "You know what I mean." He could picture her grin on the other end of the line, pleased at her little joke.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I suppose I might as well, seeing as I'm not getting out of this-"

"Thank you."

"Best bring the necessary ...equipment with you. I need to go dress shopping this weekend."

He promised that he would. He promised to call as soon as he knew when he'd be in Medellín. And he promised to go home for the day as soon as they said their good-byes.

He intended to do just that; he only needed to file away some things first.

"Boss?" Another one of the new transfers poked his head in after knocking. Why was he still here at this hour? Javier struggled to recall his name.

"Yeah, what is it, uh..." He did feel bad about it, too. A little bit at least.

"Van Ness, sir."

"What is it, Van Ness?"

"Duffy just faxed this over." Van Ness leaned further into Javier's office, holding himself steady on the doorframe, and handed him the flimsy sheet of paper. "They've gotten a lead through Cornerstone."

--- --- ---

Dinner instead turned into an apologetic phonecall during a meeting break and then a red eye flight out to Medellín. Then there's another meeting at the Search Bloc home base with Colombian National Police representatives and the only high point of it is that he briefly sees Hugo Jr who looks well. So by the time Javier finally starts out to Envigado it's lunchtime again. He makes it there just slightly after.

He walked up to the small house, past the flowerbeds on the windowsills, and knocked on the door. That side of the house was south-facing and it was a hot, cloudless day that has him sweating in his suit in no time. He's just about to knock again, thinking perhaps the first time he'd been too soft to be heard so as not to disturb the aunt who must be resting after her overnight stay at the hospital, but then he hears the quick tap of feet and the door is yanked open by an out-of-breath Diana. "Hey."

She was wearing a wide smile and cut-off denim shorts with a simple blue cotton blouse and her hair was loose and much longer than when they'd first met. It seemed like no time at all had passed since then when in reality it had been close to a year now.

"Hi," Javier breathed, "Sorry for the delay."

She waved it off. "Come on in, I saved you a plate." She turned and walked back the short and narrow hallway. Stop gawking at her legs.

"That's not necessary." He tried to deflect, toeing off his shoes near the door and loosening his tie and shirt collar, just the top button.

"Nonsense, unless you've eaten?" She looked over her shoulder before turning into the small kitchen.

"I haven't, no." Javier conceded, following behind. It wasn't exactly spacious, a round table squished to one wall with just enough space for three chairs. Little Salome sat at one, drawing with an array of colorful crayons. She acknowledged him silently before going back to her drawing and Javier sat down.

"Coffee?" Diana asked over the hum of the microwave, already pulling two mugs from a cupboard.

"Please." Javier stretched his legs out as far as he could without becoming a tripping hazard. "How's your aunt?"

"Resting now. She's been better recently, but overall she's been declining so I don't know-" She gave a helpless shrug, then brought over the mugs, shortly followed by the steaming plate which she set in front of him. He'd learned a while ago that even the most minute resistance was futile anyway. Besides, he actually was really rather hungry. Catering wasn't a priority for the CNP.

He waited until she sat down in the chair opposite to start eating. They talked quietly, not exactly smalltalk, but nothing too heavy either. It was strange sort of almost-domesticity if one looked over the fact that he was being snuck in like a teenage delinquent boyfriend whenever the aunt was out or asleep (which was fine by him as he had no desire to meet the woman whose only daughter he'd gotten killed).

"So how does that whole wire situation work in real life?" Diana asked after she'd cleared away the dishes (and physically slapping his hand away when he moved to help).

"Well it's... there's a literal wire, a microphone on one end, and a recording device on the other. And a battery." Javier began haltingly.

"And it needs to be concealed under the clothes, obviously."

"Obviously."

"Hmm, I see. How big?" She sat back down again, brushing a hand through Salome's hair affectionately. "And how do I secure it under the dress? I need to know these things so I can pick out one that'll cover it all, you see."

Javier nodded. "Did you want to leave soon? Because I was thinking it's probably easiest if I just came along."

At this, she seemed surprised, but recovered quickly. "You sure?"

He sipped the last of his now tepid coffee and nodded again. "Yeah, let's go buy you a dress."

"There's no need to buy me a dress, Agent Peña." He recognized that tone by now, how testy she got at any allusion of charity. It was an ingrained reflex that he knew better than to be irked by.

"The United States government is buying you a dress because you being at that party is of strategic importance to this investigation." He stood to put the empty mug in the sink before she could beat him to it, then returned to the table, standing behind the seat he'd previously occupied and gripping the back of it. "Besides, more of American taxpayer money is spent on worse things." Like Stechner's salary, he thought. She gave him a look that said they'd have more words on this, probably when they reached the checkout, then stood, saying she'd go say goodbye to her aunt.

Javier nodded, watching her leave. A little noise caught his attention. Salome still didn't speak much, but she knew how to make herself known nonetheless. "What is it, Miss Salome?" Javier stooped to get closer to eye level with the kid. She looked up at him with her big brown eyes and held up a scrap of the paper she'd been drawing on.

"Oh, what's this?" She shook the paper insistently in her tiny fist, an adorable frown creasing between her brows, as if miffed that he was being slow. And it's... he's gotten more relaxed around the little girl by now, but it still always lingers that he's part of the reason she's an orphan, and traumatised into a selective mutism that apparently even the average counselor or child psychiatrist doesn't quite know how to deal with to boot, that leaves him with a lingering apprehension that manifests in the kind of awkward hesitation that now has her scrambling off the chair and patting his leg as she holds the paper up for him to take.

"Want me to take a look?" He bends and takes it gently. Is answered by a sort of long-suffering sigh. The scrap is barely the size of his palm, covered in colorful blobs of red and orange and yellow and blue, pink and green and purple swirls in between.

"Very pretty." He decrees and attempts to hand it back just as Miss Rivas is poking her head back the room.

"Can you please grab the car seat?"

"Huh?" It's not very eloquent, but then again he's engaged in a game of impromptu reverse tug-of-war with a toddler. "She's coming with?" She's also pushing the paper back at him again, pouting.

"Yes of course she is. The car seat? It's on the shelf behind you." There is no argument to be had with the women in this family, so he doesn't even attempt it, just straightens and looks for the car seat which is indeed in the described spot. "And that drawing is for you so just take it."

"For me?" It's still clutched in his hand, and Salome is heaving a huff as if to say 'Duh. Idiot.' His throat feels tight all of a sudden. "Well, thank you very much." He makes a show of tucking it very carefully into the pocket of his suit jacket, then turns to retrieve the car seat. Together they make their way out. It takes a moment to set up the car seat in the back, another to wrestle the stroller into the trunk, but eventually they're on their way downtown.

--- --- ---

They have entered a world of ruffles. And sequins. For a moment Javier thinks he's having flashbacks to Lorraine's endless sessions discussing bridesmaid's dresses all those years ago. He exchanges a look with Miss Rivas, her expression stony and tense.

"Alright, quick in and out. If at all possible, I want to be out of here again before Salome wakes up." Javier nodded, tightening his grip on the stroller handles. Salome had dozed off in the car on the drive over and was now out cold, not even stirring throughout the transferral from car seat to stroller. Javier eyed the sea of satins and gulped, then turned to the woman at his side. "What's your plan?"

"I'm going to find a shop assistant." She narrowed her eyes, gaze flitting over the masses of racks.

"Good plan." Javier mumbled. He had an inkling that they'd be here forever if they attempted to brave this ocean of dresses alone.

"Right, you can..." she trailed off as her eyes fixed on a woman some feet away, her head just bobbing up from between two racks where she was rearranging some very bright red and very small garments, "...um, wait by the changing rooms?"

"It's fine." Javier replied, starting to push the stroller in that direction. If nothing else he figured he could function as a temporary clothing rack or something. On instinct, he scans the perimeter while Miss Rivas elucidates to the shop assistant what she is looking for and the younger woman, perhaps in her mid- to late twenties, snaps her fingers in triumph before announcing that she has 'just what you're looking for' and starts marching away. They follow her like ducklings from rack to rack, and a good ten minutes later they have an armful of cocktail dresses of varying lengths, cuts, and colors. It's the kind of brutal efficiency that even Search Bloc could only dream of, all in the petite shape of this eager retail employee with a side pony.

"Let me know if you need help." She chirps as she deftly deposits them in the changing room area before returning to her other tasks.

It's an almost enclosed space, five curtained cabins in an open half-circle arrangement with a long-ish bench in the middle and some tall mirrors on the spaces between. He wheels the stroller beside the bench and sits a moment later, so that the both of them are facing the changing room where the shop assistant had hung up the dress selection. Shrugs off his suit jacket, then drapes it carefully over the sleeping child to block out the light and muffle the noise of shoppers. Miss Rivas looked at him expectantly, one hand on the curtain that was half drawn.

"What?"

"You're gonna have to show me how to put on the wire thingy." She jerked her head towards the changing room. Javier gulped, the implication dawning on him. Looked at the stroller helplessly. There was nothing but an effectively timed baby snore and a twitch of one little ladybug-socked foot.

"Come on, the sooner we get this over with the sooner we can leave." As previously stated, there is no arguing with the women of this family, especially when they're right, so he resigns himself, dives for the case that holds the machinery, and stands. Miss Rivas stepped aside, drawing up the curtain after a furtive glance around. "We're both adults."

"Yeah." Javier agreed, his throat tight. At least these cabins were decently sized or they'd be squished in there like sardines in a can.

Javier turned away to give her some privacy, fiddling with the wire instead, pretending it had gotten more tangled than it was. At her soft confirmation that she's ready he turns around, making a conscious effort not to look... anywhere really. At least she'd only chucked her top; the shorts are still on.

"Agent Peña, I would assume that you have seen women in their underwear before." She sounded amused, and clearly more relaxed about this than he could ever pretend to be. He gives a terse nod, making his eyeline give a wide berth until his gaze lands squarely on her face where a bemused smirk just barely masks something more uncertain.

"Sorry, there is a real dearth of female agents or this would be much less awkward." Javier stepped closer, holding the wire in his hands like the world's flimsiest shield. She's right of course, the sight of a woman's brassiere hasn't been new to him since he was a teenager sneakily perusing clothing catalogues in his bedroom after dark. Hers isn't even... it's... functional, off-white, unwired and unembellished, and reveals just the edge of a tan line, something he quickly drags his gaze away from. The problem is of course, that the path his eyes take is further down her body, suddenly snagging on a raised line down at the very edge of her ribcage on the left side.

"What's this?" His thumb drags across the raised skin instinctually. It's a thin, straight line of scar tissue, around half the length of his index finger and sitting right on the lowest rib. Diana gasped softly and he snatched his hand away like he'd touched one of the electric fences back on the ranch. "Sorry."

"It's fine, it's just a scar." She took a steadying breath and retraced the path his finger had just taken on her skin with her own, pensive. "I got caught in a shootout on my way home when I was home for summer from university once. It's just a graze." Just a graze that would have been more than that if it had hit just a few inches to the side. Javier felt faint at the thought.

"Do you have any?"

"Huh?" His brain is lagging on something, hence the eloquent reply.

"You said you get shot at a lot in this job. Ever been hit?" She ducks her head a little, looking up at him through her lashes from where she's leaning back against the wall. "Come on, I showed you mine, you show me yours." It's clearly a joke, and one she obviously regrets as soon as the words are out, judging by the pained expression that comes right after the statement.

"Just one." Javier said, tapping his leg about a handwidth above the knee. "Went right through. Apparently missed the main artery by less than half an inch."

"Hmm, " she hummed, "Looks like we're both lucky then."

"Yeah," Javier agreed, his voice soft and low, "lucky."

The changing rooms really were not cramped, but with two fully grown adults inside, they were just about spacious enough. They stood barely an arm's length apart, mirror to one side and thick faux-velvet curtain to the other. Javier felt heat prickle from the base of his neck downwards, and he wasn't even the one with half his chest out. He'd only rolled up his shirtsleeves to his elbows, leaving his forearms bare.

Her hand brushed over one gently, curling around his wrist and startling him out of whatever feverish reverie he'd zoned out into.

"So," she trailed her fingertips further down, over his knuckles and the wire slung around them, before tapping against the small black cylinder that housed the recording device and battery, "does this thing get hot?"

Pull yourself together and be fucking professional! "It shouldn't."

"Right, well let's get it on then."

He handed her the microphone end first. Explained ideal placement, the closer to the face the better. This was a modified necktie bug, small and discreet, secured against the skin with tape if necessary. She took it, pinned the mic to the strap of her bra, high up on the shoulder. The wire itself was long enough to wind around her torso once with some slack. The slim casing that held the battery and recording device she tucked into her bra for now. Listened intently as he explained how to turn the device on and off.

"I'll keep this on for the rest of the day, just to get used to the feeling." Her smile was a bit wobbly as she spoke.

"Yeah, that's ...uh, a good idea." Javier fidgeted a moment, not sure what to do with his hands. "Right, I'll leave you to your-"

She gripped his hands just as he was about to turn and leave. Alarmed, he stilled. Watched he lip wobble and the rims of her eyes redden under furrowed brows. "Hey, what is it?, What's wrong?"

She heaved a deep and shaky breath that ended in an even shakier laugh. "I'm sorry I'm just... I'm scared."

"You don't have to do this if you don't feel safe." Javier was quick to offer. "You've helped us so much already."

She swallowed hard. "No, I do want to! Do this, help you. I want to bring them down! Besides, I'm going to be there anyway, so it would be a waste not to-"

She was trembling now, unaware of her own body's reaction until it was brought into sharp relief by his large warm hands on her shoulders.

"Hey," he said, thumbs rubbing gently at her collarbones, "It's going to be alright. I won't let anything happen to you, okay?"

She knew, realistically, that there was only so far he could carry a promise like that, but her nerves calmed nonetheless. It was silly, really. This relationship was just a professional alliance, no matter how many deep secrets they'd shared with one another. Officially of course they couldn't ever be associated, at least as long as any of the 'Gentlemen' of Calí still roamed free. And yet, she trusted him.

"I know. I'm sorry." She babbled, nerves imploring her to externalize her anxiety through words. "I came to you; I wanted this... want this. I'm in. I'll try to be brave."

He squeezed her shoulders gently. "You're one of the bravest people I know." And that was the crux of it, wasn't it? Because deep down he didn't want her to be brave. Helena had been brave too, and what did it get her?

"I'm just… I'm tired of being afraid." She steadied herself on him, hands gripping his biceps now.

"Sometimes being afraid is what keeps us alive." He murmured, bringing one hand up to tilt her face to meet his gaze. "Listen to me. I will do whatever it takes to make sure you're safe, okay? Whatever I can, I promise. I can't have you on my conscience as well." The last part was whispered so softly that she barely caught it, but she nodded, pulling herself together and schooling her breathing.

"Thank you." She squeezed her hands once and let go. Javier searched her face for a moment longer, thumb brushing over her cheekbone absently, before he remembered himself and drew back.

"You gonna be okay?"

"Yeah," she nodded, "yeah I'll be fine."

"Okay." Javier breathed, straightening, hand going for the curtain. "I'll wait outside."

Her answering smile was still shaky, but not quite as much so.

When Javier ducked out of the changing room his first glance is towards the stroller, where Salome is still napping peacefully. His second glance is directed towards the shop assistant sorting through the returns rack, directed there by the woman's disapproving huff. It's not the same one who helped them pick out dresses, but a slightly older woman, one who carries the gravitas of authority derived by experience with her.

"Did your wife need help?" She quips while untangling garments from hangers. Out of all that's happened over the past quarter of an hour or so, this is what really makes Javier's ears burn.

"Yes, with the um... zipper." He stutters, wishing for the first time that day since leaving the base that he could have a smoke.

"Hmm," the shop assistant resumed her folding, "You would not believe the kinds of things people get up to in there." Her disapproving stare moved to the stroller where Salome was still blissfully asleep under his blazer. He snatches the garment away guiltily, but Salome doesn't even stir, just slumbers on cutely. At last, the woman's eyes soften.

"Yes, well... call me or any of my colleagues if you need further... assistance."

"Thanks." He clears his throat and sits as she sails off with an armful of clothes. Miss Rivas poked her head out not a second later.

"I'm sorry, your what?"

At least she was laughing again, even if her eyes were still slightly red-rimmed and watery.

"Sorry, next time I'll be sure to clarify that you are my confidential informant and we're taking down the world's biggest drug cartel together." He retorts, and she breaks out into a wide grin accompanied by a snorty burst of laughter.

"Well, if you put it like that it sounds almost romantic." Now it's his turn to snort. "I do actually need help with this zipper, though."

She stepped half out of the little alcove, clad in a floor-length, wine-red halter gown with intricate beading all over, and a slit so high it makes his brain short-circuit. Which causes him to just stare at her dumbly for a long moment, even after she's already turned to present the high back of it.

"Agent Peña?" She throws over her shoulder, somewhere between amused and slightly concerned. He jumps and strides over, fingers fidgeting with the zipper tab until he gets a decent grip and starts to pull it up the rest of the way.

"Uh, no I meant down." Her voice is as strained as he feels. He pulls the tab down, desperately trying not to focus on the skin being revealed as he does. She releases a relieved breath when he's done and turns, stepping back inside the changing room.

"Thanks."

"This one good?" He asks with a non-committal shrug, nodding towards the dress without really looking at it.

"No, I think I do need to be able to breathe. And also I'd like to be able to walk without flashing everyone. I do work with these people, after all." She smiled, one hand on the curtain ready to draw it back shut. "I'll be quick with the rest, but you can take Salome for a turn if you want, maybe have a smoke outside? We can meet back here or by the registers."

They both look at the little girl's sleeping form simultaneously, watch her eyes move rapidly under her lids as she is lost in dreams.

"Thanks, but it's alright. I can stay in case you need further...help."

It really isn't long after that. She hurries, but they also make light conversation while she tries on another five or six dresses. She doesn't come out with most of them but narrates all their flaws very entertainingly. Javier once again enjoys how forward she is, not censoring herself in the least as she complains about everything from odd sizing to itchy material to unfortunate placement of embellishments.

"Okay, last one." She announces and then draws back the curtain with a flourish and Javier... just gapes. The dress is midnight blue, so dark it looks almost black until light hits the silky fabric and reflects off of it. The color compliments the deep bronze tan of her skin like it had been chosen specifically for her. It's slim-cut, body-hugging and high-collared with thin spaghetti straps and subtle beading on the bodice. A tasteful slit goes to just above the knee and the hem brushes just over the tops of her feet.

"I think this will work."

'Oh it definitely works.' Luckily Javier's mouth is currently too dry for these words to slip out, so he just nods, clearing his throat awkwardly.

"Great! Let me change back real quick and let's get out of here."

He's just adjusting his suit jacket to lie over the still blissfully sleeping toddler like a blanket when Diana steps back out, back on her shorts and top.

"Looks like the American taxpayers are in luck. It's discounted." She said as she read the tag, then draped the blue dress over the top of the stroller. "Twenty percent. Not bad."

Javier snorted. Took the other dresses and hung them up on the returns rack. Grabbed the stroller handles and gently set the vehicle in motion. Salome stirred a moment, then bunched a chubby hand in the fabric sheltering her from the chilly air-conditioning and settled back down. Diana's gaze is soft upon her niece, and soft still when she raises her eyes to meet Javier's.

They make their way down to the registers, walking from the top floor of the department store downwards, weaving around racks and shelves and other shoppers. Javier is pushing the stroller, Miss Rivas at his side where possible, her hand loosely hooked into the crook of his elbow again as she likes to do. It's two floors down, as they traverse the men's section, that she suddenly sidetracks, half disentangling herself, half pulling him over to a wall display. Neckties. He raises a questioning eyebrow.

"Since we're here already." She shrugs, like that explains everything. It doesn't. The eyebrw remains up and quizzical.

"Explain."

There's a dangerous glint in her eye as she lets her fingertips glide over the assorted fabrics.

"Gabi said you only have ugly ties." Has she now.

"She's only seen two!" Javier protests without heat. She eyes him critically, eyes the tie he put on this morning at the asscrack of dawn for his damn meetings. He has half a mind to argue that he didn't feel like dressing up all pretty for some pissy general at half past four in the morning.

"Was this one of them?" Though truth be told perhaps his tie selection is a bit... outdated. This one is several brownish tones in a very 70s pattern, if he's being honest.

"No?" But this one was also one of the old ones that had been gifts from Lorraine he'd never gotten rid of.

"Then you have three ugly ties." There is no arguing with this woman. So, he submits. "You'll have to make announcements on national television sooner or later; you'll need to look decent."

"I'm not arguing, am I?" He figures what's the point. What's the worst that could happen. And she knows she's won, too. Gleefully starts peering through the selection before them.

"Is this revenge? For this?" He motioned to the dress still draped over the stroller, his meaning clear between them. Is this for making you go to a party with the world's most powerful drug bosses with a wire up your boobs.

"No." She lied, picking up a solid charcoal tie and holding it up to his collar. "Of course not."

She picks out four, two solid and two patterned.

By the time he parks the car back on a side street in Envigado Salome is awake and very grumpy. A snack of peach slices and crackers mollifies her somewhat, but just enough to get her in the house and distracted by her toys before throwing a fit. Javier carried in the car seat and then the stroller, after Diana's signal that the coast was clear, and lastly he grabs her shopping bag and stuffs the last item on his itinerary for this visit inside, before he forgets again.

"Another coffee?" He wants to, he really does, but if he ingests any caffeine now he knows he won't sleep until well after midnight. So he shakes his head, apologetic. He's tired, sure, but he'll power through until he reaches his hotel (and then promptly collapse on the bed there.)

"I have one last... I brought you something, just in case." He hands her the bag, and she looks at him quizzically. Until she looks inside, that is.

"What's this?" She holds the garment up in question, turns it in her hands a a few times. Javier clears his throat.

"Bulletproof vest."

She gulps. Pales imperceptibly, eyes flitting between him and the vest.

"You really think this is neces-"

"Just in case." He insists. It probably wouldn't- it's a newer model, thinner and more discreet than the tac vests they use out in the field, but likely still too bulky to be hidden under her normal work clothes, even though she favors looser cuts. He takes it from her gently, motions for her to put her arms up so he can lower the vest over her head and do it up at the sides. Explains how it needs to be secured tight to the body so it doesn't shift.

"It won't work under my normal work clothes." Miss Rivas frowns, hands smoothing down over the front of it, calculating. Probably going through her wardrobe mentally. Doing an admirable job of not letting fear grip her again like that earlier hiccup. "It's too bulky."

"No, you're right." Javier conceded, hands still at her sides where his fingers are hooked into the clasps of the vest. "You should still take it. Who knows when it'll come in handy."

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Author’s note cont’d: this is the song Javi is hearing over the phone in the first scene btw

youtube

learn about bugs and wires here (though I do admit that I am playing a bit fast and loose with this here ;)

this is what I based the first dress on:

and here’s the final dress:

and yes, I hate about 90% of the ties they have him wear in the show and that is how that bit came about. Sorry to throw Lorraine under the bus a bit there but I’m sure they were fashionable at the time :/

Next Chapter

#narcos (tv)#narcos #narcos fanfic #I cling to your lips like gloss (series)#like gloss tag #javier pena x ofc #javier peña #javier peña fanfic #my writing #multipart #series #part 3

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scoutception · 4 years

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AI: The Somnium Files review

While it wasn’t the first visual novel series I played, the Zero Escape trilogy- Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, Virtue’s Last Reward, and Zero Time Dilemma- is what made me interested in exploring more visual novels in general. Featuring a creative mix of normal visual novel sections and puzzle room sections, with stories involving fascinating pseudo science theories, colorful and interesting characters, fast, tense pacing, and great music, the series is an insane adventure that’s absolutely worth a try. The series also got me interested in the other works of Kotaro Uchikoshi, the director and writer of the series, which led me to the subject of today’s review, and his most recent work: AI: The Somnium Files, which proves to be quite the change of pace, to say the least.

Story: Kaname Date is a member of the Advanced Brain Investigation Squad (ABIS), a special, secret division of the Metropolitan Police Department. Using a device known as the Psync Machine, Date can explore the subconscious of another person by entering their Somnium, a dream world which often holds secrets they would not reveal otherwise. 6 years ago, Date lost his left eye and all of his memories, left with no link to his past, not even his real name, except for Boss, his superior in ABIS and longtime friend. His left eye was replaced by an advanced AI called Aiba, capable of functions such as night vision and x-ray, as well as serving as Date’s avatar within Somnium.

One gloomy November night, Date is called in to investigate a murder victim found in an abandoned amusement park, having suffered multiple stab wounds, tied to a merry-go-horse and missing her left eyeball. The victim is Shoko Nadami, an acquaintance of Date’s, and the ex-wife of Renju Okiura, Date’s best friend and president of the entertainment company Lemniscate. Date’s initial investigation proves unfruitful, and comes to a halt completely when he discovers someone within the merry-go-round’s central column, traumatized to the point of being unable to speak and cradling a bloody ice pick: Mizuki Okiura, the 12 year old daughter of Shoko and Renju, whom Date took into his care 4 years ago.

Date continues the investigation the days afterwards, meeting Mizuki’s friends, the internet idol Iris Sagan, aka A-Set, and the otaku and aspiring light novel author Ota Matshushita, Iris’ mother Hitomi, and Moma Kumakura, leader of the Kumakura yakuza gang. Though Date finds a number of odd connections and occurrences, such as Renju falling out of contact, a call from a mysterious prisoner only known as #89, who claims to know the identity of the killer, and a large number of incidents among the Sagans, the Kumakuras, and others, all of which seem to date back to 6 years ago, he finds little in the way of actual evidence. Left with no other recourse, Date begins to Psync with both suspects and witnesses in the hopes of preventing the killer from striking again.

While it’s a fairly standard plot on the surface, it’s very well done nonetheless. The various mysteries and plotlines are all compelling, and are all given a good amount of focus. Adding to this is the use of a route system, similar to Zero Escape, complete with a flowchart allowing you to easily go to any point in the story. Completing certain Somniums in different ways alters the course of Date’s investigation, causing certain plotlines and characters to gain or lose relevance depending on the route. While every route needs to be completed, each one containing their own reveals and clues, there’s only 5 in total, making keeping track of the distinctive events in each fairly simple. The pacing is also well done, taking its time and allowing you to get used to the characters, while throwing just enough new hints throughout to keep it interesting.

Speaking of the characters, the cast is easily my favorite part of the game. The characters are very, odd and colorful, pretty much to be expected from Uchikoshi. Date himself is a pretty entertaining protagonist, with a tendency for perversion, making bad puns, and coming up with very odd and often ineffectual ideas for progressing in Somnium, going against his serious demeanor and appearance. The supporting cast doesn’t slack either. From the rational, yet sassy Aiba, who turns much sillier within Somnium as well, to the peppy and friendly Iris, to the playful Boss, whose office is an absolute mess decorated with just about any nonsense you could imagine, to my favorite of the cast, Mizuki, the mature, sarcastic, and inexplicably strong kid who spends a good deal of her time arguing with the rather distant Date. It’s hard to dislike most of the characters, with even the most minor of them being good for a laugh or two.

That’s not to say they’re just goofy, though. Almost everyone carries some sort of baggage or secret with that adds a good deal of depth to them, and the various routes give them a lot of development. The game can be pretty damn emotional at points, and the routes focusing more on the characters than the story are the biggest source of them, especially Mizuki’s route. The lighter tone the game takes most of the time actually helps this. Most of the time, interacting with random objects trigger dumb jokes and commentary from Date and the others, and the relaxed pacing and atmosphere, at least earlier on, make it easier to get gradually attached to the cast. Once things do become more serious, the game starts cutting down the jokes, and stops them outright for the most serious of scenarios, meaning it rarely actually becomes jarring. It’s not often a game can juggle a tone as well as this one.

Overall, the writing of the game is superb, and while it’s quite different in tone and setting, it still has enough of the feel of Zero Escape to feel familiar to those who played it.

Gameplay: While I call AI: The Somnium Files a visual novel just for the sake of simplicity, it definitely more has the feel of an adventure game. There’s two types of gameplay segments, investigations and Somniums. During investigations, Date travels to various locations, talking with various characters or investigating important object. Your only control here is controlling Date’s view, and selecting different dialogue options or objects to investigate. Date often has to investigate several locations during a segment, and while you often have to visit them all, you’re given the freedom of picking where to go in whatever order you choose most of the time, giving just enough nonlinearity to not feel like a chore.

The real meat of the gameplay takes place during the Somnium sections, which are comparable to the escape rooms in Zero Escape. Within Somnium, Date and Aiba must break the various mental locks the information they are seeking are hidden behind, which involves interacting with various objects according to the logic of each Somnium. Basically, they’re purely logic puzzles, and it’s actually quite fun figuring out how everything is supposed to work.

Of course, not everything can be that easy. Every Somnium has a hard time limit of 6 minutes. Going over it causes Date’s consciousness to be absorbed into the subject’s, causing a game over. All interactions also cost time, and many incorrect decisions can drain your time pretty significantly. Thankfully, the game has many mitigating factors that keep this from just being stressful. Firstly, time only drains when you’re making choices, or actually moving around. Standing still causes only milliseconds to pass, allowing you to get a clear look around without wasting time. Additionally, all objects you can interact with have a purple outline surrounding them, and are given name tags as well, meaning you don’t have to just wander around, running up to every object in the hopes this one is usable. Not every interactable object actually has a purpose, however, with some only existing to waste your time, so you’re not completely in the clear. The progress meter on the left also gives hints, if sometimes vague ones, as to what you have to do to progress, so you’re not just fumbling in the dark in that regard, either.

Another important feature at the TIMIEs, objects you gain when you interact with objects. These cut the time actions take to perform by varying amounts, or make it take a fixed amount of time. Good use of TIMIEs can save you a lot of time, and a lot of later Sominums enforce it, making it rather strategic. Sometimes, just rushing to the correct solution burns way too much time on its own. You may have to do something you know is wrong, but takes little time and grants a good TIMIE, to be able to save more time on a much costlier action. This aspect isn’t entirely simple either, however. Not all actions display what kind of TIMIE you’ll get, making it a gamble at times, and some, including mandatory actions, give negative TIMIEs, that actually increase the amount of time an action will take, and force you to use them the action after you get them, often forcing you to do something incorrect, but with low time cost, just so you won’t game over.

Each Somnium also has two conditions that unlock album entries, which provide pictures and concept art. The first is for clearing a Somnium with more than 1 second left, as you’re actually allowed to go over the time limit if the final correct action is what pushes you over. The second is for finding special eye shaped items within the Somniums, which are often hidden out of the way. Finally, even if you’re struggling with certain sections, you’re granted 3 retries per Somnium, which allow you to return to a previous part of the section, with all the time you had left at that time, allowing you to optimize and save even more time, though it costs more retries the further back you go. Finally, even if you can’t win, you can simply restart the Somnium section with no penalty, and are even allowed to do so at any time in the menu. Overall, the Somnium sections are actually a lot of fun. Between the interesting logic and strategicness of it, not to mention some of the funniest dialogue in the game between Date and Aiba, they’re some of the most enjoyable parts of the game.

Finally, the game features a few “action segments” during the investigation segments, where Date will be faced with an actual physical threat. Aiba formulates plans to deal with the situation, and you just need to handle each step by pressing a button prompt, like a QTE, or hovering the cursor over a certain area for a long enough time. It’s not exactly difficult, but they serve their purpose. There’s also a few interrogations segments, where you must present relevant evidence to someone in order to prove a point. You can just randomly pick until you get the right one with no in game penalty, but there are achievements for clearing these sections and the action sections with no mistakes.

Graphics: AI: The Sominum Files is a surprisingly pretty game. It has a similar art style to Zero Time Dilemma, which, to put it bluntly, was downright awful in the visuals department, with unemotive character models and terrible animations that killed almost all of its attempts at being unsettling. While a few of the animations in this game can still look janky, it is on a whole much. much improved. The characters are much more expressive, helped by the designs by Yusuke Kozaki, best known for games like No More Heroes and Fire Emblem Awakening, fitting the style much better, while still being distinctive in their own right. The locations have a lot of detail to them, and the lighting is very well done. The highlight of the visuals, though, are the Somniums, which manage to give existing locations very distinctive, well, dream like qualities to them, such as shifting colors or heavy lighting, and are always a joy to explore.

Sound: AI features a downright fantastic soundtrack by Keisuke Ito. It manages to capture a similar feel to Zero Escape’s music at points, despite being a different composer, but still manages to stand out. Every song manages to fit the situation perfectly, while also being very catchy on their own, especially the Somnium themes. The music, combined with the visuals, give the game a very strong atmosphere. Whatever mood the game is attempting to set, nostalgic, tense, peaceful, or unsettling, it nails it very, very well, and had me immersed very easily.

The game also features some fantastic English voice acting. Greg Chun as Date and Erika Harlacher as Aiba are the main stars of the show, with their performances capturing their characters perfectly, but the rest of the cast is just as good. Jackie Lastra as Iris, Zach Aguilar as Ota, Corina Boettger as Mizuki, Allegra Clark as Boss, Kaiji Tang as Moma, pretty much everyone does a great job.

Conclusion: Overall, AI: The Somnium Files is something I highly recommend to most people, even those who haven’t touched another Uchikoshi game. It’s a fascinating, emotional, and satisfying experience that successfully manages to devote attention to just about everything it brings up, and doesn’t overstay its welcome. Honestly, I enjoyed it even more than any Zero Escape game, and considered I still look on those very fondly, that’s an achievement. With that, this review finally comes to a close. I shall likely be checking out the games Uchikoshi worked on before even Zero Escape: Never 7, Ever 17, and Remember 11. Till next time. -Scout

#ai the somnium files #kotaro uchikoshi #visual novel #game review #long post

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sailorportia · 5 years

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Femslash February 2020, Day 4

Fandom: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Pairing: Glimmer/Catra Prompt: Punk/Pastel

approx. 2,100 words, rated T

also available on AO3

Summary: Catra and Glimmer are forced to work together on a group assignment, and it's almost a competition to see who's more annoyed by this arrangement.

Tags: University AU, Swearing, Alcohol, Drunken Kissing

Catra was holding court in her corner of the student union building's cafeteria. "I can't believe Professor Prime stuck me with Sparkles for a group project!" She slammed her fist on the table, rattling everyone's lunch trays. "Anyone else would've been better than Sparkles!"

"I'm confused," Entrapta said, picking up tiny sandwiches from her lunchbox. "Who's Sparkles? Oh, do we have a new friend!?"

"Oh, um, that's what she calls Glimmer," Scorpia said. "Because, well, y'know," she leaned in and whispered, "Catra doesn't like her very much."

"Oooooooh!"

Catra ignored the exchange, lost in her own petty misery. "That girl is the worst. Total control freak. She never shuts up in class, always arguing with the profs and making everything a debate. She's not even that smart. I bet she only got in because her mother's got tenure." Her hatred toward Glimmer in no way stemmed from the fact that princess was now closer to Adora than Catra was. They were even roommates now. Not that it bothered Catra at all.

"Um, just out curiosity," Scorpia said, "this might not be important, but have you ever really talked to her? Like, other than insulting each other?"

Catra gave her a blank look. "Why would I need to do that? I don't need to learn her favourite colour to know I hate her." Knowing Sparkles, it was probably pink. Or worse, hot pink.

Entrapta frowned. "That's not a very scientific approach."

"I'm a political science major. Everyone knows that's a fake science."

"Okay," Scorpia said. "But she's one of Adora's friends. Isn't that enough reason to try to get along with her?"

"I don't want to get along with Adora's friends." Catra uttered the words as if they were a rule. If Scorpia and Entrapta had been feeling sassy, they could've pointed out that Catra was also one of Adora's friends, and that would explain why she didn't get along with herself.

"I'm just saying," Scorpia said with a shrug. "Maybe if you give her a chance, you'll find something you like about her. Or, uh, something you don't hate at least. Who knows? You might have more in common than you think."

"As if!" Catra and Glimmer couldn't have been less alike. First off, their appearances were complete opposites. Catra's punk style had attitude, conveyed through dark colours, unruly hair, spiked accessories, the patches on her jacket and other modifications to her clothing, such as stylish, strategically placed holes she tore with her own claws. Glimmer, in contrast, was a pastel disaster whose brightly-coloured outfits hurt to look at. Her hair was literally pink, like she was made of bubblegum or something. Secondly, Glimmer was a sanctimonious goody two-shoes, whereas Catra just didn't give a fuck. No way in hell were they going to get along.

"Well, you better figure out how you're going to talk to Glimmer," Entrapta said, "because she's headed this way."

A group of three approached their table: Adora and Bow, led by a pissed off Glimmer. Catra might have found it intimidating if she weren't wearing the softest possible shade of lavender. Her new haircut was something of an improvement. She was almost hot—but Catra wasn't into bossy girls.

"Hey, Catra," Adora said nervously as the group reached the table.

Glimmer cut Catra off before she could say her customary greeting. "If you screw up this assignment for me, I'm going ruin you."

Bow grimaced. "Glimmer! We literally just went over this!"

"You could at least pretend to be nice," Adora said.

"Why do I have to be nice?" Glimmer pointed at Catra accusingly. "If you heard the way she talks in class you'd get it. She's a war criminal waiting to happen."

Catra snorted. "Says the girl who's a shill for the monarchy."

Bow stepped between them. "Guys, guys, cool it. We don't want another fist fight on our hands."

"It was one time!" Glimmer protested. "And it was hardly my fault. Nyan Cat over here was being a belligerent drunk."

"Don't blame me for that incident," Catra said. "You threw the first punch after like six Shirley Temples."

"Who wouldn't punch you when you're so obnoxious?" Glimmer let out an agonized groan. "Just get your ass to me and Adora's dorm room tonight by six o'clock, or I'll come looking for you."

"Whatever." Catra stuck her tongue out as Glimmer stalked off, her friends running off after her. She didn't need any more proof that the two of them were incompatible at every level. Maybe she'd fail this assignment on purpose just to piss her off.

Glimmer was already regretting her decision to work on the group project in her dorm room. Her reasoning had been that she didn't want to be seen in public with Catra, but she hadn't anticipated how much having Catra in her living space made her skin crawl.

They were sitting on Glimmer's side of the room. Catra had attempted to make herself at home on Adora's bed, but Glimmer put that to a stop immediately.

"You don't shed, do you?" Glimmer asked, eyeing Catra's wild mane of fur. "I don't want to be picking your hairs off my clothes for the next month."

"That's an anti-cat microaggression," Catra said. "Not very politically correct of you. Besides, it can't be as bad as all the glitter you leave behind, Sparkles."

"That's not my name! And I do not wear that much glitter." Sure, Glimmer preferred sparkly eye shadow some days, and some of her clothes did have glittery details on them, but glitter wasn't her thing. "You're in no place to criticize how I look." She sneered at Catra's outfit, specifically the tears in her pants. "Nice jeans, were they 50% off?"

"Haha. Very funny. I'm sure you bought your clothes at 200% the price just to show off how bougie you are."

"Listen you—" Glimmer groaned through her teeth. She knew Catra was just trying to get under her skin. All she had to do was be the bigger person and let this go. "The sooner we start this assignment, the sooner we'll be done and out of each other's hair."

"Finally something we can agree on," Catra said. "What's the topic again?"

"We're supposed to pick one from this list." Glimmer retrieved the relevant paper from her desk and read them off. "There's one about arguments for and against raising the minimum wage."

"Eh? That sounds dangerously like math. Economics sucks."

"Fair. Next is one about the role of money in politics."

"Still too much math."

"Suggestions for electoral reform?

Catra laughed. "Maybe get rid of elections altogether? Then everyone's equally unhappy with the result."

Glimmer could've sworn she had some patience, but it was running out faster than she'd anticipated. "There's one about the ethics of torture."

"That one's easy. Whatever gets the job done is fine with me."

Never mind writing an assignment together, they were never going to find a topic they could agree on due to Catra having the moral centre of a Saturday morning cartoon villain. "Torture doesn't even work! The premise is flawed."

"Really? It's working on me right now."

Glimmer groaned. "Is this a joke to you? This assignment is for 10% of our mark! You might not care about your own future, but I do."

Catra smirked. "What's wrong? Afraid that Professor Mommy will be disappointed if her little princess flunks a class?"

"You don't have any idea what it's like studying at a college where your mother is one of the professors. Having to measure up to those expectations all the time."

"Hey, at least people expect something from you. You can't imagine what it's like to grow up in Adora's perfect shadow."

"Yeah, well now she's my perfect roommate, and I'm going to lose it if I have to hear one more time that Adora got on the dean's list last year and I didn't."

"Oh yeah? Well I would've gotten on the list too if I didn't have to deal with Professor Hordak's inferiority complex."

The conversation carried on way longer than it should've. It turned out the only way they could avoid bitching at each other was by bitching to each other instead. Before long they ordered a pizza and cracked open a couple of cold ones, the assignment lying forgotten on Glimmer's desk.

By the time they ran out of things to complain about, they were both a little beyond tipsy. They had moved to sitting on Glimmer's bed, leaning against each other. Glimmer was very aware of the fact that she had never been this close to Catra before, physically or emotionally. Not wanting to linger on those thoughts, she said the first thing that came to mind.

"Hey, is it true that you wore a tux to your high school prom?"

Catra smirked. She put her empty beer can down and got out her phone. "Feast your eyes."

Feast, Glimmer did. She was tempted to ask Catra to send her the pictures. "Daaaaaaaaaaamn," Glimmer said. "Adora's so lucky. I went to mine with Bow as a friend-date, but she got to dance with the hottest girl at the prom."

If they were any farther apart, she wouldn't have picked up on the other girl's reaction: a low, rumbling sound in her chest.

"Oh my god." Glimmer couldn't believe her ears. "Are you purring?"

"No!" Catra stuffed her phone back in her pocket and crossed her arms over her chest, as if that would cover up the sound she'd already made. "You're imagining things. All that glitter must've gone to your head."

"Oh, looks like someone isn't used to hearing people say nice things about her." This was too good. "So that's how I get under your skin."

Catra's face looked like it couldn't decide if she were furious or embarrassed. "Screw off, Sparkles."

"Aw, you can dish it out but you can't take it? That's so cute." Glimmer honestly didn't know why she was winding Catra up. Maybe she wanted to see what would happen when she finally sprung.

Catra stood up, but didn't step away from the bed. "Isn't Adora going to be coming back soon? I should probably go..."

Glimmer grabbed Catra's arm and pulled her back down. "We've talked enough about Adora. Let's talk about you."

"I don't want to talk," Catra said. "I don't want Adora to walk in and see me getting along with you!"

"You care too much about what Adora thinks. Are you that hung up on your old prom date?"

"I am not! Screw you! I'm always getting the girls. I don't need to chase after Adora. I've got pull!"

Glimmer smirked. "I'll believe it when I see it."

Catra had hit her limit. The cat finally pounced. "You asked for it."

In one swift motion, Catra pushed Glimmer down and pinned her to the bed. There was a moment's pause before their lips crashed together.

Oh my god, Glimmer thought as she tasted the alcohol on Catra's breath, is Catra kissing me? Am I kissing her back? Even being tipsy wasn't enough to excuse this. But Glimmer didn't really care. She needed to blow off steam, and making out with a bitchy catgirl serviced that need.

The kissing kept getting messier and messier, which was a nice analogue to their interpersonal relationship. Glimmer vaguely acknowledged that she'd never live it down if anyone found out about this, but it wasn't like Catra was going to brag about it either. They were in the clear—

"Oh my god. I didn't expect you guys to get along this well."

Glimmer and Catra sobered up instantly. They broke apart, Catra springing away as if she'd suffered an electric shock. In absolute horror they turned in unison to see Adora standing in the doorway, barely containing her amusement.

"This isn't what it looks like!" Glimmer said.

"It's actually exactly what it looks like," Catra said. "Kill me."

Adora laughed so hard she snorted. "Looks like you guys had a party," she said, looking at the empty pizza box and beer cans. "You guys must've finished up that assignment pretty quickly." She raised an eyebrow at the sight of the pair's blank looks. "You did work on the assignment, right?"

As if a switch had been thrown, Glimmer and Catra were back at each other's throats as if nothing had happened. "This is all your fault!"

#she ra #spop #glitra #glimmer #catra #fanfiction #my fanfiction #femslash #femslash february #FauxGhostsFSF

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sdagdi77-blog · 4 years

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What is SEO and the way It Works for little Businesses

Want to find out about SEO marketing and the way it works? We’ve made this easy guide to show you more about SEO meaning, SEO optimization, and SEO marketing.

One of the most important questions that we get from our clients here at LYFE marketing is – what's SEO and the way does it work? For businesses that are just beginning to build their website or browsing an internet site redesign, program optimization or SEO can feel a touch intimidating.

But it doesn’t need to be that way.

Even if you are doing not have an experienced in-house SEO associate, you'll still start making some positive changes which will assist you improve your program optimization. With a touch SEO knowledge under your belt, you'll get on your thanks to improving your brand’s program ranking in no time.

Below, we’ll provide a solution to the million dollar question – what's SEO and the way it works? We’ll also cover a number of the fundamentals of SEO in order that you'll better understand how it impacts your business and what you would like to try to to to be in fine condition .

If you’re here, you’re probably wondering what's SEO and the way it works. Let’s dig deeper.

SEO Definition and the way SEO Marketing Works

Here’s what SEO means: SEO is an acronym that stands for program optimization, which is that the process of optimizing your website to urge organic, or un-paid, traffic from the program results page.

In other words, SEO involves ensuring changes to your website design and content that make your site more attractive to an enquiry engine. you are doing this in hopes that the program will display your website as a top result on the program results page.

Though SEO marketing can seem complex thanks to the various factors which will impact your ranking, the method for program optimization is simpler than it appears to be.

Search engines want to supply the simplest service for his or her users. this suggests delivering results on the program pages that aren't only top quality but also relevant to what the searcher is trying to find .

In order to try to to this, search engines will scan, or crawl, different websites to raised understand what the location is about. This helps them deliver more relevant results to those that are checking out certain topics or keywords.

Similarly, the search engines will scan the location to work out how easy it's to navigate and skim , rewarding user-friendly sites with higher rankings on the program results page.

SEO is that the process that organizations undergo to assist confirm that their site ranks high within the search engines for relevant keywords and phrases. as an example , let’s say that you simply have a piece of writing about the way to build a birdhouse.

In order to urge your content ahead of the proper people, you would like to undertake to optimize your this blog post in order that it'll show up as a top result for anyone who searches for the phrase “build a birdhouse.”

There are many benefits of SEO for your business. By improving your SEO, you'll work to expand your visibility on the search engines. This helps you reach and have interaction more potential customers. By creating more engaging and effective SEO-focused content, you'll increase your chances of bringing in additional targeted organic traffic.

Factors That Impact SEO

Now that you simply know what's SEO and the way it works, but you'll be wondering “how do I do SEO marketing?” or “does SEO optimization work?” the reality of the matter is that SEO marketing actually works, and proper implementation can help anyone generate greats results.

Let’s take a glance at a number of the factors which will impact your program optimization ranking. program giant, Google will never divulge the precise algorithm they use to rank sites. However, we do have a reasonably good understanding of a number of the factors that impact program results page (SERP) rankings. These factors include both on-page and off-page factors, which we'll discuss below.

Factors that Affect On-page and Off-page SEO

1. Content Marketing

Before we dive into a number of the factors of on and off-page SEO, let’s mention content. Content is effective in both attracting the search engines and helping your organization make connections with site visitors.

The more quality, relevant content pieces that you simply wear your site, the more likely program s are going to be to rank your pages higher on the search engine results page.

Similarly, the more engaging and effective content you've got on your site, the more likely your visitors are going to be to spend some quality time on your website and perhaps even make a sale .

The secret to making content that's optimized for both the search engines and your human site visitors is to make a spread of various sorts of content pieces that are well-written and on topics that are most relevant to your audience.

Another important thing to think about when creating content for your site is SEO keywords and phrases. These are relevant words and phrases that an enquiry engine user might type in when trying to find answers to their questions or relevant products and services.

When you create content around these keywords and phrases, you improve your chances of ranking higher for these keywords on the program results page.

Yet another factor which will impact your content, and thus your program ranking, is how fresh your content is. Freshness basically refers to how often your organization posts new content to your site.

However, creating fresh content isn't the sole thanks to keep your content fresh. you'll also shower your content by updating posts, rewriting them to form them simpler , or adding new information and statistics over time.

Though creating content takes time and resources, it'll quite pay off within the end. Search engines love great content and consumers need quality content to raised understand the worth your organization can provide.

Start off by creating a couple of blog posts and work to create a following on social media. Once you've got a gaggle of loyal fans and followers, your organization can work to make differing types of media to draw in and have interaction new leads.

2. On-Page SEO

The on-page SEO factors are those elements that happen on your website. These are the items that you simply have complete control over, meaning that you simply can work to enhance these factors over time by following best practices for SEO. This goes beyond just your content marketing to the deeper levels of your site’s HTML.

Here are just a couple of of the on-page SEO factors which will assist you improve your search ranking:

Title Tag – The title append each page tells the search engines what your page is about. this could be 70 characters or less, including both the keyword your content focuses on and your business name.

Meta Description – The meta description on your website tells search engines a touch bit more about what each page is about. this is often also employed by your human visitors to raised understand what the page is about and if it’s relevant. this could include your keyword and also provide enough details to inform the reader what the content is about.

Sub-headings – Not only do sub-headings make your content easier for visitors to read, but it also can help improve your SEO. you'll use H1, H2, and H3 tags to assist search engines better understand what your content is about.

Internal Links – Building internal links, or hyperlinks to other content on your site, can help search engines learn more about your site. for instance , if you're writing a post about the worth of a selected product or service, you'll link to the merchandise or service page in your blog post.

Image Name and ALT Tags – If you're using images on your website or within your blog content, you'll also want to incorporate your keyword or phrase within the image name and alt tag. this may help search engines better index your images, which can appear when users perform a picture look for a particular keyword or phrase.

When strategically placing your SEO keywords and phrases on your pages, it’s important to avoid over-optimization. Google and other search engines will penalize your page if it attempts to use keywords too repeatedly throughout the content.

In addition, you would like to form sure that every piece of content focuses on only one or two keywords. This helps make sure that your content is restricted and relevant. Trying to tackle too many keywords directly may negatively impact your program optimization because it often makes for un-focused and thin content.

While site content plays an important role in your program rankings, it’s also important to think about your site architecture. you would like to use an internet site design that creates it easy for search engines to scan or crawl your pages and content.

Building internal links between your pages, creating a sitemap and submitting your sitemap to look engines can both help improve your site’s crawlability and provides your search engines a far better understanding of your content.

Yet another concern when it involves your site’s architecture is whether or not or not your website is mobile-friendly. Many consumers are checking out information and makes on their mobile devices.

You need to form sure that these users are ready to view, read, and navigate your website from their mobile device. Not only does this impact the user experience, but it also can affect your SEO.

3. Off-Page SEO

In addition to the on-page SEO elements that your organization has control over, there also are off-page SEO factors which will impact your ranking. Though you are doing not have direct control over these off-page factors, there are ways in which you'll improve your chances of getting these factors compute in your favor. (But more that later!)

Here are a couple of of the various off-page SEO factors which will impact your program rankings:

Trust – Trust is becoming an increasingly important think about a site’s Google ranking. this is often how Google determines whether you've got a legitimate site that visitors can trust. one among the simplest ways to enhance trust is by building quality backlinks from sites that have authority.

Links – one among the foremost popular ways to create off-page SEO is thru backlinks. you would like to take care here as spamming sites together with your links may be a quick and straightforward thanks to get your site banned from the search engines. Instead, take the time to create relationships with influencers and fans who create quality content and can link back to your site in their own content.

Social – Another important off-page SEO factor are social signals, like likes and shares. When it involves boosting SEO, you would like to seem for quality shares from influencers. The more quality content you publish, the more likely you'll be to urge people to share your content with others.

Though you are doing not have direct control over what happens outside of your organization, you'll increase your chances of improving off-page SEO just by creating quality content that others will find valuable.

The more relevant and interesting your content is, the more likely others are going to be to link to your content and share it on social media. The more people trust your content, the more the search engines will also .

Black Hat vs. White Hat SEO

When it involves SEO, there are two different approaches that organizations fancy optimizing their sites for the search engines – black hat vs. white hat SEO.

Some organizations are only curious about SEO in order that they will rank their content quickly and make some money within the short-term. Black hat SEO involves tactics that specialise in optimizing content just for the search engines.

This means that organizations aren't considering the human visitors which will read and navigate their site content. These organizations will bend or break the principles so as to enhance their site rankings to form a fast buck.

In the end, this approach to SEO produces pages that are often difficult for people to read and appearance an entire lot like spam. Though the sites may rank more quickly than people who are optimized properly, these sites are often penalized or banned by search engines rather quickly.

Overall, this get-rich-quick approach to SEO ruins the organization’s chance of building a site that's sustainable and ready to usher in new leads for years to return .

On the opposite hand, white hat SEO is an efficient approach to optimizing your website for search engines and building a sustainable business online. This approach to look engine optimization involves that specialize in the human audience which will be clicking on and reading the site’s content.

The goal of this sort of SEO is to supply the simplest content possible on a site that’s easy to read and navigate while also following the search engine’s rules for optimization.

It’s important to notice that though black hat SEO tactics might assist you rank quickly, it's inevitable that the search engines will eventually find out what you're doing and penalize your site.

Depending on the severity of the offense, your site might not be ready to come from the penalties. the sole thanks to build a sustainable online business which will usher in more organic traffic over time is to follow SEO best practices and make effective content that your visitors will find valuable.

What is SEO and the way it Works: Final Takeaways

After learning more about what's SEO and the way it works, you'll now work to form changes to your site so as to enhance your SEO and boost your rankings on the program results page.

Remember, there are tons of things that impact your SEO ranking, but the foremost important thing to think about is whether or not your content is effective and relevant to your intended audience.

Keep in mind that program optimization takes time to figure its magic. You won’t experience the advantages of SEO overnight. In fact, it's going to take months to enjoy the results of your diligence .

However, following SEO best practices by creating quality content that’s focused on helping your human visitors is that the best thanks to build a sustainable online business which will still usher in new organic site traffic for years to return .

Need help building your SEO? If you’re not proud of your program rankings, it's going to be time to call in an Atlanta SEO company. The talented team at LYFE marketing provides quality SEO services which will assist you improve your program rankings and convey in additional relevant organic traffic to your website.

#seo #seo marketing #news #business #movies

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akshay-s · 5 years

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Top Strategic Digital Marketing Skills To Learn

Digital Marketing Skills

We live in a world that is dominated by various technological advances. Today, we are connected all the time with the help of the internet through smartphones and tablets. The main advantage of this is quite visible when it comes to business. Not only are there technologies to help your business function at ease, but you can also connect with consumers anytime you want. The digital world indeed opens the doors to a vast number of opportunities.

If your business consists of a product or service, then it is equally important to market it in such a way that you can reach out to potential consumers. Digital marketing has taken the business world by storm. People develop the skills through best online digital marketing courses which might consist of a large number of tools, platforms, and tactics to learn. Still, these also market your product in such a way that it's 100% effective. Here are some of the digital marketing skills you need to possess to stand out in the industry.

1. SEO

Search Engine Optimization or SEO, as the name suggests, is a way of making your website prominent in search engines like Google and Yahoo. Organic searches are more common than paid searches, and due to this reason, one needs to stay on top of the game, if your website needs to be seen by the consumers. With SEO tactics like content marketing, guest blogging, and link building, this can be achieved. However, the Google algorithm constantly updates itself, and one needs to also know about HI and H2 tags, keywords, to remain relevant even when the search engine updates them. SEO experts are highly in demand in the marketing field and learning this skill would help you in the long run in digital marketing.

2. Analytics

When it comes to the marketing field, it is quite important to run tests, trach data and analyzed it to know whether a campaign can be successful or not. While there are tools to do the analysis, you need to understand how it works and interpret the results.

Online Digital marketing certificate programs help you build information that is generated. You can measure exactly how effective a campaign would be to your client. Further, one would also need to do data cleansing from time to time to remove incomplete data from the database, which if not, would affect the marketing decisions.

3. Social Media Specialist

Social media is the best way to reach out to your target audience. This is because social media is a platform where there are a wide number of audiences and is an excellent platform to create content that would engage people with your business. There is a lot to social media marketing than just posting random things. One needs to look into designing engaging content, copywriting, building ads, boosting posts, hashtags and analyzing the reach of it. Social media platforms update itself constantly and being updated with the latest trends is also quite important when it comes to social media marketing.

4. Content Management

Anyone can create content, but it takes real skill to create content that would be engaging. When it comes to creating content for digital marketing, it can be text-based, image-based, video, or even podcasts. The key is in delivering the right message to the right audience. Further, you will need to have an idea about SEO and google analytics as well. The advantage of knowing how to create the perfect is content is that you can market it to companies.

5. CRM Skills

Customer relation management is all about managing the relations you have with the existing and potential customers. By providing a good customer experience, you encourage them to choose your product. Not only do you need to possess good communication skills for this, but you should also be able to have effective customer interactions and connect with them. Further, you must also be able to identify your potential customers and promote the brand.

6. PPC

Pay per click ads has been in the marketing industry for quite a few years, and the demand for it has never gone down. PPC helps in bringing quality traffic to your website and boosting the online presence. While it might sound simple, one needs to have a good understanding of marketing strategies, math and analytics to actually execute PPC. You would also need to know all about Google ads and Ad Words actually to get approved and post the ads. The advantage of PPC is that it is cost-effective and one of the best ways to still attracts customers.

7. Email Marketing

Email marketing might be considered an old technique, but it is still used to maintain relationships with customers. One of the effective ways of email marketing is through newsletters. By creating content that is engaging and relevant, the customer is updated about the latest products your company has to offer. While one might think email marketing is all about just creating content and mailing, it definitely is not. You need to define the content, test it and later measure it for the number of click rates and make reports. With a good strategy, email marketing is still a way of reaching out.

8. Mobile Marketing

Today, it's quite rare to find someone who doesn't own a smartphone. More than using laptops and desktops, it was found in a study that millennials use their mobile to do google searches and initial research. With such high use of mobile, the scope for mobile marketing for business is also huge. One can start mobile marketing by optimizing the websites, making it mobile friendly as well. Further, creating content that can be mobile friendly also helps in catching the attention of your audience. There is a real skill required in mobile marketing. From launching apps to social media advertising, mobile marketing is an essential tool.

Most of these skills might seem hard, but it is actually easy to learn and understand. Learn digital marketing and enhance the scope that helps you get into even significant companies.

#skills #greatlearning #digital marketing #mobile marketing #seo #content management #analytics #online courses #e- learning

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kirankowda · 5 years

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Beginners guide to Google Ads for eCommerce

In order to do eCommerce effectively, branding is key! It is crucial to get ahead of the game and position yourself as a brand, as effectively as possible. This does not just include the way you do it, but the absolute best possible time. This positioning, when done effectively, is what will gain you — and your brand, the best possible search engine results and help your rank as high as possible.

SEO, particularly strong SEO, is a crucial part of the branding and can help separate your brand from the thousands of others listed among the many websites available on the internet, and the many that pop up in Google search results.

And that’s why you need Google Ads for eCommerce. A great way to drive traffic to your site, Google Ads helps you stand out among the huge selection of websites available to the average internet user.

What is Google Ads?

Google Ads is the search giant’s online advertising platform, on which content providers, advertisers, websites and brands can, for a fee, see services, listings for local businesses and content across formats given priority in terms of Google Search results.

Google Ads are panels you are likely to have seen while browsing the internet, above your search results or search terms. When you search for a particular phrase: for example, in this case, perhaps “how to use Google Ads”, you will see your relevant search results, but above the regular listings, you will also see listings marked with the tag “Sponsored results”. As the name might suggest, these are the results that have been paid for on Google Ads, and they are prioritized and placed above regular search results on SEO ranking.

On Google Ads, digital advertisers pay for keywords for which they want to rank on Google. If a user clicks on that particular ad, it is only then that the advertiser pays, since their bids are based on clicks, rather than outright payment

Why do you need Google Ads?

Simply put, you need Google Ads to be seen. Online marketing is where it’s at right now, and missing out on the online marketing train would mean missing out on a majority of your revenue in the eCommerce market of 2019.

Need #1: Visibility

Google Ads ensures that your eCommerce business receives immediate, significant viewership on search engine results. Regular SEO can be a tricky beast to master, and even the most expertly curated SEO might still not make the top results or even the first page on Google search. Ads ensure that your eCommerce business is the first thing a potential user sees when they are browsing a particular keyword or set of keywords, also making sure you do not get buried in the quagmire of products available, and businesses advertising online.

Need #2: Targeting

Targeting is crucial as a business, as you want to ensure that your content and ads are reaching their relevant viewership and audience. Mass targeting, or not targeting at all, means that your content reaches a larger audience, but one that may not necessarily be relevant to your product. That means it is less likely your page views or clicks will convert to sales, essentially wasting your expense.

Google Ads ensures that your ads are effectively targeted, whether geographically or otherwise, and reaching the best possible audience: whether that is in terms of location, it means your ads reaching the audience they are meant to, maximizing your income.

Need #3: Feedback

Google Ads is an incredibly useful tool in terms of understanding how to structure, build, restructure and adapt your online marketing strategy. It can help you redesign your advertising strategy, how you approach it, budgets and more from start to finish.

Google Ads reports to you on the performance of specific keywords, how they are doing online in terms of success, and how many users are clicking through to your ads. That means you can regroup and strategize as a brand and a company, and see closely exactly what is working for you in terms of strategy, and what isn’t.

With Ads, you can clearly see the success and failure of your Ads, your click-through rate and more, giving you a honed, refined strategy with an increased probability of effective results.

Need #4: Restructuring your budget

With honing your keywords comes restructuring your budget. Assuming you spend X amount of money on Ads, no specific keywords, you might find that it is not as effective as you had anticipated; on the contrary, you may find that Ads has been even more successful than you anticipated.

How do you create an ad in Google Ads?

Method #1: The default step by step way

The first step is always the most obvious.

To begin with, as a business owner, brand manager or marketing manager, create an account with Google Ads.

Once that is done, either open an existing campaign or start a new one.

In the ‘Path’ area, enter your destination URL, headline text, product description, and other text.

Use the automatically generated ‘Ad Preview’ tab to see how your ad will look on mobile and desktop.

Click ‘Save’ once you’re satisfied with the results.

To create an ideal ad, you first need to know exactly what your ad is going to be for, and about. As an eCommerce business, you need to have completed comprehensive research on what your keywords are, and how they function, which will, in turn, help you decide on your Ads.

You also have to ensure all your relevant information — product data, for example, is part of your headline. Then, you need to ensure all of your information matches your data, your website, and connects back to your landing page. Inter connectivity is crucial, and even a small miss here will make you miss out on valuable ad revenue.

There is also a significant amount of very precise, very minute quality checking that goes into an effective ad campaign, and that goes down to the most minute level: including spaces, capitalization. The requirements for text in ads are very specific and very concise, and even the smallest error could seriously impact your Ad campaign. Keep in mind that Google Shopping Ads work differently- they’re image-based and don’t use as much text.

Finally, ensure your site is mobile friendly: Google’s SEO algorithms promote mobile-friendliness over all else; even if your content — and web page — are tailored optimally, a lack of mobile-friendliness will mean a trip down the rankings.

Method #2: The AdNabu way

Building an SEO friendly ad-campaign as an eCommerce business isn’t an easy task — there are a lot of hoops to jump through, and a lot of small details to pay attention to.

Or, you could just use AdNabu and let it do the work for you! Software tailored to make your Google Ads campaign as seamless as possible, AdNabu handles everything from start to finish, maximizing your Google Ads profit as much as possible!

As an eCommerce business, your first and biggest priority must be the day-to-day functioning of your business, leaving you little time to sort through the most minute logistics of effective advertising for each of your products. Keeping inventory and running advertisements is time-consuming, requires attention to detail, expertise, and bandwidth that you, as a business owner, may not necessarily have; and that is where AdNabu comes in!

AdNabu takes charge of handling advertising for each of the products in your inventory and will run consistent checks to look at which ones are performing most effectively, pinpointing each. This enables you to tailor your ads as closely as possible, getting you, like an eCommerce business, the biggest bang for your buck.

As previously mentioned, targeted advertising is crucial for any eCommerce business to survive, and at AdNabu, we handle all of that for you! AdNabu takes charge of your entire campaign, whether that is cataloging and advertising, or collecting and collating advertising data on your products. That data will help you hone your ad campaign, meaning that you get the most optimal results for the amount you have decided to spend on your advertising budget.

AdNabu is also not a one-time check: they continuously optimize your campaign, automatically adjusting keyword bids on Google Ads and helping you center on new opportunities and ways in which to hone, improve and expand your campaigns.

You have all of your advertising, your budgets managed effectively, without the need to spend your time and attention focused entirely on your Google Ads campaign!

What are some best practice pointers to adopt for Google Ads?

Considering you’ll be spending a significant amount of your budget on your marketing campaign, particularly on online ads, you want to do it in the best possible way to maximize your profits from that expenditure!

Best Practice #1: Choose the right keywords.

Make sure your keywords align with your business goals and your products and services. They should reflect user queries to their best but also must be individually held accountable for the particular business goal they contribute to, be it generating traffic, increasing your conversion rate or simply spreading the word through impressions.

Best Practice #2: Use negative keywords.

A negative keyword is one that you don’t want to match with. Setting these keywords while creating ads will help to streamline traffic and avoid clicks from users who aren’t going to convert into customers. The number of negative keywords doesn’t matter; as long as each keyword is impactful, a list of negative keywords could be crisp or exhaustive.

Best Practice #3: Write effective ad copy.

Make sure your description and title focus on user benefits to make them click on your ad. Ad copy needs to be creative but still, contain the right keywords which will drive your ad up the rankings. Include one clear call to action; avoid generic sentences which are a waste of ad space. That said, consider not including more than one call-to-action because this could demotivate any leads you were about to get.

Best Practice #4: Use ad extensions.

Implementing ad extensions means setting up your ads for future success. Ads with multiple extensions, like location, price, email or phone number, generally perform much better than those with a single extension. They’re useful, too, and help you get noticed by users, especially if you’re running a brick-and-mortar store as well.

Best Practice #5: Test your text.

If you set up a campaign draft in your Google Ads account, you can test the effectiveness of your ad- in particular, the description and headline. The simulated fluctuation in performance can help you hone ad text to make it more compelling, attractive and possible more SEO-friendly. If possible, focus your tests on high-performance campaigns or high-value campaigns.

Best Practice #6: Allow automated bid adjustments.

To drive profits and effectively segment ad spend, use an automated bidding strategy to free up your time focusing on adjusting bids and fuel long-term profits at the same time. This way you can come back regularly to analyze performance, measure results and adjust spending accordingly.

Best Practice #7: Use the Quality Score to guide adjustments.

This general diagnostic metric can be used to analyze specific keywords and ad quality and make changes to your keyword planner and strategy if required. Higher-quality ads are automatically given higher Ad Ranks, and each step up in ranking comes with a host of benefits including a higher click-through rate, lower CPC, eligibility for ad extensions and improved visibility.

Best Practice #8: Increase harmony with your product feed.

On Google Merchant Center, businesses can upload product data in required formats. Information from this can be used to dynamically generate ads when required, but in general, it needs to be congruent with the text ads you’re putting out. Google also penalizes ads that don’t fully correspond with the business product feed by not allowing them to show up in results.

Best Practice #9: Use ad groups to organize ads.

To club similar ads or ads of one product category, you can create ad groups. Regularly maintained ad groups can also be assigned Custom Labels; bids and adjustments can be made on the ad group level as well. This also helps to monitor ad spend and daily budget.

Best Practice #10: Optimize your landing page.

All efforts spent on optimizing ads will prove to be futile if your landing page isn’t in its best shape. This means that all images must be of high quality, web content must be accurate and readable, links must be live and working, load speeds should be lightning-fast and redirects kept to a minimum.

Things to look out for while creating Google Ads for your online store

Adhere to Google’s policies. Google has strict requirements for advertising on its search network. Broadly, these are divided into ‘Prohibited content’, ‘prohibited practices’, ‘restricted content’ and ***‘editorial and technical’***requirements. Ensure that the ads you’re placing or products you’re advertising don’t flout any of these policies because it leads to ad disapproval and possible account suspension.

There are two main Google networks. Advertisers using Google Ads can choose to display their ads and target users across two main networks- Search ads Network and Display Network. Search network allows pay-per-click advertising and involves bidding on keywords. Display Network allows advertisers to publish a banner-style display ad across certain platforms in restricted countries. Both networks function differently, so ensure your ad is optimized for the right one.

Conclusion:

Google Ads surfaced to the surprise and delight of advertisers and eCommerce stores looking to make waves in their respective industries. Despite having undergone several updates and tweaks, it remains the most powerful tool and influencer in online advertising today.

Source: AdNabu

#AdNabu #Google Ads #eCommerce #ecommerce marketing

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mittensmorgul · 6 years

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Going back through some of my liveblogging posts from 14.01, and rewatching it a couple times today, there’s a few things I wanted to at least point out in a more coherent fashion than my garbled liveblogging (and a couple of things I didn’t even notice the first time around), I’ve now watched it four times through all told, I think. So let’s call these my rewatch notes:

1. Jamil shuts off his phone’s alarm, and it’s replaced by beach sounds-- seagulls and the ocean rolling against the shore. More fake beach vacation promises. Do I need to make BeachBaiting a tag like grenadebaiting was back in s12?

2. Michael looking down at Jamil on the floor and telling him what he wants is “A Better World,” much like Mick Davies in 12.09:

Mick: Let me paint you a picture of a world without monsters or demons or any of those little buggers that go bump in the night. Of a world where no one has to die because of the supernatural. Of a new world, a better world.

This is so interesting first off because Mick is short for Michael, but the “better world” each of them foresaw and worked for is so vastly different. Mick’s involved the eradication of all monsters for their “impurity,” while Michael’s involves the eradication of humans BY monsters, because their desire to simply eat is “pure.” Their ultimate goals might be opposites, but their methods and even rhetoric are all from the same sort of playbook.

3. Sam’s blue plaid and orange jacket has shades of the two conflicting colors of the new title card... the orange blown offscreen and replaced with the shiny blue grace light. This is neither here nor there, just an interesting observation about a color scheme that’s clearly thematically relevant. Plus any excuse to make conversation about the orange jacket relevant, just to annoy Lizbob. :P

4. Bobby quoting Rocky, and Jack thinking it’s Gandhi. :P (yes, I watched the rest of that scene with the rocky music playing in my head)

5. Cas hadn’t even been at Motown Meats long enough to order a glass of water for himself when Kip walked in. And Kip expressed surprise and interest in the fact he’d lost a Winchester (along with innuendo and a taunt about Dean specifically). But by his later statements about having been asked what he wants recently, it’s clear that he’d had a little chat with Dinkle. But... did Kip realize he was standing face to face with Dean Winchester? Or was he only aware he was talking to Michael, not recognizing the vessel? Because I think if he HAD recognized that Michael was wearing Dean, his taunts to Castiel would’ve been very different, you know? Not about how irresponsible it was to lose the Winchester he was attached at the everything to, but about his favorite Winchester running around with another angel... If Kip had known that, I think he wouldn’t have passed up the opportunity to deliver that much deeper dig at Cas. So since we’ll never actually know now that he’s dead, that’s what I’m assuming. :P

6. The way Castiel was beaten to the ground by that group of demons is visually reminiscent to the way the character only known as “Scarf Angel” was beaten by Metatron’s human devotees in 9.23, when he was playing the role of “Marv the Healer.” This is also a nice callback to the differences between Marv and Sister Jo-- yes they’re both angels attempting to secure their own means by using their angel powers to cultivate a human following, but heck compared to Marv’s goals (fomenting human suffering and violence in his defense), at least Sister Jo is just trying to make herself comfortable on Earth, you know? It’s a kinder, gentler, less megalomaniacal approach. But still, Scarf Angel was beaten down the same way Cas was-- BY HUMANS NO LESS, not even demons, so there’s another dollar in the “not OOC” jar for that scene. At least no one rolled an angel blade into the mix this time around, because Scarf Angel got himself dead by those humans in 9.23, just for trying to speak the truth about Metatron.

7. There’s some creepy similarities between Michael’s little speech to Sister Jo-- even his affect and the softness and cadence of his words-- that’s reminiscent of Amara’s talks with Dean back in s11, with the whole “give up your smallness, your humanity,” etc. What they’re asking isn’t even really all that similar, but the sinister surety has the same shades to it.

8. Nick. Re-introduced here with Lucifer’s temptation of him to say yes way back in 5.01. The flashbacks we’re shown are of Lucifer using his murdered wife, and horrifying memories of his murdered child in its crib, dripping blood. Nick was angry at God for letting that happen to his family, and Lucifer promised him justice and peace. (so much for that!). His memories flash to the blood-filled crib, and he says yes. Because of his own murdered child and his need for justice over that. Can you even IMAGINE what it must’ve been like for Nick if he’s been even a little bit aware of what’s happened since Lucifer was forced back into his vessel? All of Lucifer’s manipulative games with Jack-- his own son-- when Nick essentially gave up EVERYTHING and agreed to be Lucifer’s vessel for the promise of justice for his own lost child? How... horrific for Nick. And then knowing what Lucifer did to Jack, how he nearly killed Jack, taking Jack’s grace for his own needs and now seeing how hurt Jack is over all of this and yet... there is no justice anywhere, and no peace for either of them. Even with Lucifer dead. It’s just... owie. With Nick here now, I hope at least some of this gets addressed, in addition to Sam’s trauma with Lucifer... Lucifer spread an awful lot of trauma around, and it would be nice to get at least a little bit of attention on that fact.

9. Mary’s speech to Sam in the car about the fact she has to keep thinking positively FOR DEAN’S SAKE, instead of giving in to despair or coming at this from a position of negativity, sums up everything she’s had to come to terms with since she was brought back to life in 11.23. And if you can hear that and see that and not understand that she’s basically stepped into Dean’s shoes here, and think Mary is a “bad character” still, I guess I have no hope of ever convincing you otherwise. *throws up hands* *regrets eating hands*

10. Bobby’s little pep talk to Jack in the car on the way to Detroit, acknowledging how many times Jack saved him in the other world and reassuring Jack that he has his back now (Maggie too, since they show her face during this conversation), is everything. This might not be the same Bobby who taught Sam and Dean about capital F Family that don’t end in blood, but hell if he isn’t close enough. Family now transcends alternate universes.

11. As Sam walks into Motown Meats, he tells his four sheeps “You know what to do.” Much has already been written about the Beyonce line, so I’m gonna leave it for now, but after that grandiose lil speech, Sam completely ignores Kip, even walks around him, to talk to Cas. :’) I just love how entirely dismissive Sam is of Kip, not even shaking his hand, being utterly informal with his, “Cool. Kip.” retort to Kip’s continued affectations and flattery and all of that.

12. The demons found Maggie and Jack outside, who didn’t even put up a fight. Were they even armed? Or were they supposed to just be “bait” to let Kip think that this was Sam’s best backup, to play down Sam’s skills and assets? Especially since Bobby and Mary weren’t captured. I think they were supposed to sweep for lookouts or guards outside, to create a diversion so Mary and Bobby could have a clear path to the door with their arsenal, without alerting all the demons inside. Clever. :)

13. Kip says the line, “I’m a demon, that’s how we do.” And honestly in that moment I could only think of Dean in 9.13 during their job interview at the Canyon Valley Spa:

MARITZA: And you boys are both certified personal trainers? DEAN: Yeah. Yeah, personal training brothers. Kind of like Hans and Franz, but, uh, less German. LARRY: And you're certified in... DEAN: Makin' people sweat! Yeah. Kickin' ass and takin' names! [He slams his hand on the table] That's how we do! SAM: Uh...Uh, to clarify, uh, what my brother's trying to say is, we both have a passion for fitness and helping people.

And I can only imagine Sam was groaning on the inside at the memory of that incident. :P

14. Sam’s still not having any of Kip’s affected hospitality, and refuses to sit. Like, seriously, everything about what’s happening here is a strategic bluff. This is all a power play, the likes of which typically fell to Dean in the past. I mean, think of 13.15, and Dean’s posturing with the Mafia boss guy, while Sam squirmed uncomfortably thinking they were about to be murdered at any second for their insolence. But here Sam is, playing that game with Dean’s usual cavalier attitude and brilliant poker face. I mean, he’s not as quippy as Dean, but who is, right? This is Sam Samming his way through Dean’s usual shtick though, and I appreciate that.

15. Idiot Kip, basically handed over all the power in that room to Sam the moment he announced that he might not be afraid of Sam, but all his minion demons were... I mean... There you go...

16. Jack runs in during the fight, unarmed, to have Bobby’s back when a demon had him down. :’) Even better, Bobby’s muttered reply to Jack’s two-fisted defense? “Aw, balls.” :’)

17. Through all of this, all of his loved ones who’d come to rescue him, Cas is chained to a chair, unable to even MOVE, or DUCK OUT OF THE WAY, or offer any support at all because of the cuffs binding him to the chair. He has to watch all of this go down, helpless to do anything to defend his loved ones as they’re beaten and hurt because of him. OW. Bonus: this is metaphorically the position that DEAN is in as well. He’s chained in place, too, wherever Michael drags him while his family searches for him and tries to free him. Honestly I wonder if Dean even hopes his family never finds him, dreading what Michael might do to them with his own hands, you know? YIKES. Okay enough of that kind of thinking. I’ll save that for next week... >.> But back to Cas, at least at the end, the worst any of his family suffered was a punch in the face.

18. ONE WORD FROM SAM IS ENOUGH to stop all the fighting once he’s killed Kip. Because Kip had been right. All those other demons are afraid of Sam. They’re probably even more afraid now that their chosen leader is dead at Sam’s hand.

19. I already wrote something up about Sam’s declaration here, as well as his hubris, which I’m looking forward to seeing the consequences of going forward.

20. Sitting in the same spots where Dean and Cas once had a heartbreaking conversation back in 9.10, about doing the wrong things for the right reasons, and being willing to do anything to save Sam from Gadreel, Sam and Cas have a conversation about doing the wrong things for the right reasons, and doing anything to save Dean from Michael.

21. Sam reassuring Jack about it being okay that he doesn’t have his powers now, that he’s not helpless nor useless, because he has Cas, and all the rest of his family. Cas suggests his grace “SHOULD regenerate in time,” but that’s not the same as “definitely will regenerate.” But Jack just feels like he can’t succeed at anything... hmmm... this entire setup feels familiar...

22. oh, right! This whole, you have me, you have your family, and together we’re going to find Dean and beat Michael, and we’re gonna do it together, because that’s what we do. This is... this is exactly what Dean told a disconsolate and desperate Cas in 12.19. And Cas may never have heard Dean give a very similar speech to Sam at the end of 11.15, because that one had included finding Cas himself when he was possessed by Lucifer, but:

Dean: And that's how we're gonna win. And we're gonna win. We're gonna save Cas, we're gonna ice the Devil, and we're gonna shank the Darkness. And anyone that gets in our way. Well, God help 'em.

23. Sister Jo’s call. Which I wasn’t gonna mention except I had the audacity to quote that line from 11.15, and it pinged my memory of Jo’s first little conversation at the beginning of this episode. At the church, she’s seeing off the people she’d healed that night, and a man stops to thank her for saving his life. His wife thanks her, and says, “God bless you.” Jo replies, “He does, every day.” So when I typed “Well, God help ‘em.” As I let the end of the episode play out, and it’s Jo who calls to tell Sam about Dinkle, well, I can’t help but think that might be a bit of a divine intervention there.

#spn s14 spoilers #spn 14.01 #spn 12.19 #spn 11.15 #spn 9.10 #spn 13.15 #spn 9.13 #spn 5.01 #spn 9.23 #spn 12.09

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cdnsolution · 5 years

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7 Trends that Outline the Tomorrow of Mobile App Development

Mobile applications continue to dominate business marketing efforts in all industries. Corporate giants and small businesses are equally exploiting mobile applications for branding, improving customer engagement, and driving growth and sales. Mobile applications have become a necessity for large and small businesses- a way for them to connect with their users. If you want to develop mobile applications for your business so you can contact to the best Mobile Application Development Company.

According to a report by Statista, consumers will predictably download 352.9 billion mobile apps to their connected devices.

Smartphone app development trends have drastically shifted in the last five years. Due to changing buyer habits, businesses have ramped up their mobile apps to reflect buyer relevance in this digital age. Simplistic, faster, and more efficient apps have taken the front seat, while heavy mobile apps with a host of functionalities have faded into the distance.

Businesses today are striving to make their websites even more mobile-friendly, given the fact that a majority of site visitors enter through a mobile device.

However, an effective mobile app strategy takes more than a responsive website. Therefore, here are seven hot trends in mobile app development for you to stay ahead of any competition.

Cross-Platform Smartphone Applications

Businesses today want to reach every nook and corner, and every kind of buyer. This becomes possible with a cross platform smartphone app- one which can be cost-effectively deployed across multiple mobile platforms.

While cross platform apps save time and money, they are a faster way to reach a wide audience. For this benefit alone, companies would be willing to get cross-platform apps developed and deployed to improve sales.

iOS dominates as the high-end market with users who have the willingness and capacity to spend on smartphone apps. Android brings with it a humongous user base of consumers who value affordability and ease of use.

Windows is still growing as a market for business apps. But, any businesses wanting to reach out to the maximum buyers would feel compelled to take advantage of all three platforms through cross-platform development

and designing now and more so in the future.

Mobile App Development Technologies AI and ML

Smartphone applications developers are starting to have an affinity towards these emerging and already soaring technologies- artificial intelligence and machine learning. AI and ML have dug deeper into mobile app development and the trend is nowhere slowing down.

Virtual assistants such as Siri and Alexa are proof that mobile app development is now incomplete without AI and ML. As years pass us by, the importance of a virtual assistant on your mobile device- one who takes care of all utility tasks- will only increase. Already, VAs have rendered us habitual of having someone perform menial tasks for us.

Would we break our habit anytime soon? Not unless it comes with a security price tag.

By this measure, AI and ML will inevitably become inseparable aspects of smartphone applications.

Wearables and IoT in Smartphone App Development

Wearables have become a major hit amongst consumers and are also used in organizations as part of the workplace culture. Wearable devices have created a space and demand for themselves in the business landscape, one that won’t fade away anytime soon.

Mobile app development trends are incomplete without considering what effect they might have on wearables of tomorrow. Industries that have dug comparatively deeper into wearable usage are healthcare, fitness, and horology.

For other industries, there is still time before they get serious about wearables. Even so, this year promises to bring us more wearable devices apps- in a bid for businesses to reach that small userbase of wearable device owners that is steadily expanding.

Chatbots in Smartphone Application Development

According to Statista, the global chatbots market will expand to $1250 million by 2025. Chatbots are apparently solidified into the digital reality of businesses today. Customers prefer to interact with chatbots to carry out small tasks through self-service, studies have shown.

Businesses are utilizing chatbots to carry initial customer service conversations- a trend that also saves employee time and allows reps to focus on more important tasks.

Within mobile apps, chatbots create a welcoming atmosphere and break the ice for prospects to initiate discussions and begin collaboration. Thanks to the advancements in AI, it does not take a lot of effort for smartphone app developers to integrate interactive and intuitive chatbots into apps.

Enterprise Smartphone App Development

Enterprise apps are improving in both quality and quantity consistently. Organizations are striving to better their employees’ performance and productivity, engage better with their customers, collaborate with clients, etc., through cutting-edge enterprise grade applications.

For this reason and many others, enterprise apps are getting more and more feature-rich and robust with every passing year. Moreover, security arrangements for enterprise grade apps are improving, thus leading to an atmosphere of trust between business executives, employees, clients, and customers.

Since employees today are habitual of using their mobile phones to get work done, organizations are leveraging this behavior by allowing them to carry on tasks through their mobile devices, on the go.

AR and VR-enabled Smartphone Applications

Immersive experiences? Yes, please. With the wide though short-lived success of Pokemon Go, businesses got a sense of expanding on AR and VR efforts beyond gaming.

Today, interior designing businesses are using these reality-bending technologies to give their customers a view of their property post re/design. Industries are loving the way AR and VR can create experiences that become a part of reality for customers.

AR and VR are also being used in the advertising industry to make marketing material that lasts for long in any viewer’s mind. Mobile applications that allow for artificial reality experiences will undoubtedly continue to be one of the hot trends this year.

Blockchain Smartphone Applications

Mobile wallets and smart contracts based on Blockchain are on the rise. Mobile apps that allow for a secure payment gateway to exchange currency will continue dominating financial exchange.

Blockchain based smart wallets are allowing businesses to open their customers to a whole new world of ledger maintenance, payment methods, and tracking. Through state-of-the-art mobile apps based on Blockchain, institutions are allowing customers to leverage secure and encrypted payment channel.

On-demand apps, instant apps, and in-app security are some other trends that will flock the attention of smartphone app developers. These trends point us towards a faster and more efficient mobile app development ecosystem- one that will focus on solving pressing industry challenges for businesses.

Partner with a Credible Smartphone App Development Company

Mobile app development is not an inexpensive process. And so, when mobile apps fail (99.99 percent of the time- according to Gartner), they leave the top management depressed and with huge losses of time and money.

Choose your development partner wisely. At CDN Solutions Group, we make sure you don’t lose your hard-earned cash on a doomed mobile app. We comprehensive learn about your business requirements, proactively add to your plan, and strategically execute the cycle of smartphone app development

Our smartphone app developers are proficient in handling complex business or enterprise grade requirements and develop solutions leveraging leading technologies such as AR, VR, AI, ML, IoT, Blockchain, Beacon, etc.

CDN Solutions Group provides best Mobile app development services USA

Looking for a team of expert smartphone application developers? Reach out to us today!

#Mobile Application Development Company #Mobile Development Services #Mobile Application Development Company USA #Mobile app development services USA

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sharwareeshinde11-blog · 6 years

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Future Of Data Science

What is data science?

Data science is a field that uses scientific method, process, algorithms and system to extract knowledge from data in various forms, structural, unstructured it is similar to data mining.

Data science is a concept to unify statistic, data analysis, machine learning and their related method in order to understand actual phenomena with data .It employs theory and techniques drawn from many field within the context of mathematics, statistics, information science and computer science

How to learn data science

Data science is a very practical field, and so it’s so important to apply theoretical knowledge that you have gathered. For example, when you learn starts, don’t just sit and read about it .see how it can be done with a programming language such as python, which a very popular language for beginners, find a data set and apply these concept on the data. Including other language like

1 linear algebra and calculus –for these refer to the book called advanced engineering mathematics by kreyszig. The various topics that you need to brush up your understanding in are hyper parameters, regularization function, cluster analyses are few topics under this domain and which is important for machine learning

2 vector calculus

3 Statistics—go on learning statistics on various sites like udacity, khan academy, courser. They provide detailed overview on this topic which is a vital topic under data science.

4 programming language---The most widely preferred open source statistical tools are ‘R’ and ‘Python’.

FOR R--start learning libraries like dplyr, tidyr, data table for data manipulation and ggplot2 for visualization which has the same syntax as R.in fact the visualization in ggplot2 is way better than that of matplotib

Go to kaggle and download data sets so that you can practice the concept that you have studied and build project and put up on your Git profile

How To Prepare for the Future of Data Science

There are many ways companies can and should prepare for the future of data science. These include creating a culture for using machine learning models and their output, standardize and digitize processes, experimenting with a cloud infrastructure solution, have an agile approach to data science projects and creating dedicated data science units. Being able to execute on some of these points will increase the likelihood of succeeding in a highly digitized world.

A Data Science Unit

In my previous role I was working as a data scientist for an insurance company. One of the smart moves they made was to create an analytics unit, which worked across company verticals.

This made it easier for us to reuse our skills and models on a variety of data sets. It was also a signal to the rest of the company that we had a focus on data science and that this was a prioritized issue. If a company has a certain size, creating a dedicated data science unit is definitely the right move to make.

Standardization

Standardization of processes is also important. This will make it easier to digitize and perhaps automate these processes in the future. Automation is a key driver for growth, making it much easier to scale. An added bonus is that the data collected from automated processes is usually a lot less messy and less error prone than data collected from manual processes. Since an important enabler of data science models is access to good data, this will help make the models better.

Adoption of Data Science

There should also be a culture in the company for adopting the use of machine learning algorithms and using their output in business decisions. This is of course often easier said than done since many employees might fear that the algorithms are making them obsolete.

It is therefore critical that there be a strong focus on how employees can use their existing skill set alongside algorithms to make more high-level and tactical business decisions, as this combination of human and machine is likely to be the future of work in many occupations. It will probably be more than a few years before the machine learning algorithms are able to navigate alone and make superhuman decisions in an open world setting, meaning mass unemployment due to the rise of the machines is not a likely scenario in the near future.

Always Experiment

With new data being generated from IoT sources, it is important to explore new data sets and see how they can be used to augment your existing models. There is a constant flow of new data waiting to be discovered.

Perhaps including two new variables from an obscure data set into your model will increase the precision of the leads generating model by 5% — and perhaps not. The point is to always experiment and not be afraid to fail. Like all other scientific inquires, failed attempts abound, and the winners are those who keep on trying.

Create an environment that promotes experimentation and that tries to make incremental improvements to existing business processes. This will make it easier for data scientist to introduce new models and will also set the focus on the smaller improvements, which are a lot less risky than the larger grand visions. Remember, data science is still a lot like software development and the more complex the project becomes the more likely it is to fail.

Try building an app that your customers or suppliers can use to interact with your services. This will make it easier to gather relevant data. Create incentives to promote usage of the app which will increase the amount of data being generated. It is also imperative that the UX of the app be appealing and promotes use.

We might need to venture outside of our comfort zones to take on the opportunities and challenges that this digital gold brings. As the amount of data continues to grow, machine learning algorithms get smarter and our computational abilities improve, we will need to adapt. Hopefully, by creating a strong environment for using data science your company will be better prepared for what the future will bring.

Applications / Uses of Data Science

Using data science, companies have become intelligent enough to push & sell products as per customer’s purchasing power & interest. Here’s how they are ruling our hearts and minds:

Internet Search

When we speak of search, we think ‘Google’. Right? But there are many other search engines like Yahoo, Bing, Ask, AOL, Duckduckgo etc. All these search engines (including Google) make use of data science algorithms to deliver the best result for our searched query in fraction of seconds. Considering the fact that, Google processes more than 20 petabytes of data every day. Had there been no data science, Google wouldn’t have been the ‘Google’ we know today.

Digital Advertisements (Targeted Advertising and re-targeting)

If you thought Search would have been the biggest application of data science and machine learning, here is a challenger – the entire digital marketing spectrum. Starting from the display banners on various websites to the digital bill boards at the airports – almost all of them are decided by using data science algorithms.

This is the reason why digital ads have been able to get a lot higher CTR than traditional advertisements. They can be targeted based on users past behavior.

Speech Recognition

Some of the best example of speech recognition products are Google Voice, Siri, Cortana etc. Using speech recognition feature, even if you are not in position to type a message, your life wouldn’t stop. Simply speak out the message and it will be converted to text. However, at times, you would realize, speech recognition doesn’t perform accurately.

Image Recognition

You upload your image with friends on Facebook and you start getting suggestions to tag your friends. This automatic tag suggestion feature uses face recognition algorithm. Similarly, while using whats app web, you scan a bar code in your web browser using your mobile phone. In addition, Google provides you the option to search for images by uploading them. It uses image recognition and provides related search results.

Gaming

EA Sports, Zynga, Sony, Nintendo, Activision-Blizzard have led gaming experience to the next level using data science. Games are now designed using machine learning algorithms which improve / upgrade themselves as the player moves up to a higher level. In motion gaming also, your opponent (computer) analyzes your previous moves and accordingly shapes up its game.

Fraud and Risk Detection

One of the first applications of data science originated from Finance discipline. Companies were fed up of bad debts and losses every year. However, they had a lot of data which use to get collected during the initial paper work while sanctioning loans. They decided to bring in data science practices in order to rescue them out of losses. Over the years, banking companies learned to divide and conquer data via customer profiling, past expenditures and other essential variables to analyze the probabilities of risk and default. Moreover, it also helped them to push their banking products based on customer’s purchasing power

Airline Route Planning

Airline Industry across the world is known to bear heavy losses. Except a few airline service providers, companies are struggling to maintain their occupancy ratio and operating profits. With high rise in air fuel prices and need to offer heavy discounts to customers has further made the situation worse. It wasn’t for long when airlines companies started using data science to identify the strategic areas of improvements. Now using data science, the airline companies can:

1. Predict flight delay

2. Decide which class of airplanes to buy

3. Whether to directly land at the destination, or take a halt in between (For example: A flight can have a direct route from New Delhi to New York. Alternatively, it can also choose to halt in any country.)

4. Effectively drive customer loyalty programs

Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines are among the top companies who’ve embraced data science to bring changes in their way of working

Coming Up In Future

Though, not much has been reveled about them except the prototypes, and neither I know when they would be available for a common man’s disposal. Hence, We need to wait and watch how far Google can become successful in their self driving cars project.

Self Driving Cars

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