#even more troublesome I think like… a sub-interest is developing too

[zippityzap]

Do you ever feel a dormant Special Interest start to reactivate, but you can’t engage in it as much as you’d like to because real life has responsibilities? 🙃

[miumiu-chan]

Miyase Go STORY 1 Chapter 10-1

Subbed video: STORY-1 10-1

———I wonder when it began.

The borderline between myself and all other events wasn’t clear.

Vaguely, as if to drift about existing.

......I.

..................I.

...—————Who was I?

-Mansion / Garden-

[MIYASE]: “Ah......My mom is there. Sitting in the garden chair.”

[KUJO]: “As according to the plan, she is alone in the garden.”

My face became stiff from the tension and anxiety.

“Let's go get your mother back,” Soma-san had said so.

I was on my way to that place where my mother was confined by Kujo Soichiro.

Sitting on the tandem seat of Soma-san's motorcycle.

Putting on my helmet that I got as a gift for my birthday.

......It was as if.

It was as if my brother was like a hero, I thought so from the bottom of my heart.

[MIYASE]: “——“

I gazed at my mother that was vaguely in my line of sight.

Purple verbena was in full bloom around her.

There were also a cluster of pink flowers in the Kujo Family garden.

[KUJO]: “......Go, shall we go?”

Thump, my heart quivered with pain.

[KUJO]: “Go?”

[MIYASE]: “......Soma-san. Can you call out to my mom first?”

[MIYASE]: “Mom......?”

[RYOKO]: “I don't want to see you again......-“

[MIYASE]: “......Please, Soma-san.”

[KUJO]: “———All right. I will be back.”

Soma-san was———...My hero's back was moving away.

At that time, I still remembered clearly the coldness of the rain that came down again.

Feeling the air suddenly sway, I lifted my gaze very slowly. (T/N: switched to Ryoko’s POV)

A young man with an intelligent look suddenly stood beside me.

How long had he been there......?

[KUJO]: “Ryoko-san.”

——Who are you? I replied.

[KUJO]: “I am Soma.”

[KUJO]: “Kujo Soichiro’s son.”

———...Eh?

Kujo Soichiro.........Soichiro..................Yes, you.

Son......, chi............ld, son...————Go.

Miyase Go.

Me.

Mother.

Father.

...——Father. Dad.

Dad.....................———Yes, you.

[RYOKO]: “Nh......Yes, your his............son......Soma,-san?”

[KUJO]: “Yes. I am Soma.”

[RYOKO]: “Ah......-“

[MIYASE]: (——Mom?)

Her eyes grew so wide that it seemed her eyes might fall out. I held my breath.

[RYOKO]: “aa......that means, I.....-, your moth——“

[KUJO]: “Ryoko-san, I do not hold a grudge against you.”

[RYOKO]: “——!”

[KUJO]: “You are not guilty from the beginning.”

[MIYASE]: (......?)

Immediately after Soma-san’s words, my mother's face dyed with a startling expression.

——But one beat later.

Mom had a very calm smile.

It was like the rain was slowly soaking into the dry, cracked ground.

Like the earth had regained its breath.

Like being allowed to sprout from the moist ground properly.

[KUJO]: “Please come with me. Go also needs you.”

[RYOKO]: “With you......and Go?”

My heart heated up when my mother said my name.

At the same time, the rain got stronger.

The conversation between the two people that was barely heard disappeared from my hearing.

[RYOKO]: “I have to prepare———Please come pick me up again tomorrow.”

[KUJO]: “Tomorrow my father’s monitoring is——“

[RYOKO]: “About Go, thank you. You were there by his side.”

[MIYASE]: “!”

My eyes met my mother’s.

She looked at me————...and smiled.

She looked so happy.

It was “my mom’s” face.

————That night, my mother quietly ended her life with an overdose of drugs.

-Warehouse-

[REI]: (No way......! Something like Miyase-san being connected to Kagetsugumi.)

[UEMURA]: “Anyway, this woman has a more decent face than I saw in the picture.”

[UEMURA]: “Did you get the sex appeal of a woman after being seduced by Miyase? DCD’s young miss.”

[REI]: “Nh......”

[MIYASE]: “Seduced you say, you will make a person feel bad, Uemura-san.”

[UEMURA]: “Haha. I wondered what would happen when I heard that the DCD’s woman would be put by your side to make her a convenient hand*——” (T/N: hand like one’s hand when playing cards)

[UEMURA]: “Well, it wasn’t bad.”

[UEMURA]: “But, there‘s no doubt it’s the fault of the irritating DCD that the transaction 3 days later was cancelled.”

[UEMURA]: “Oi, let's relieve our stress with this woman before giving her to the Korean side.”

[REI]: “!”

[MIYASE]: “Stress relief......is it.”

[UEMURA]: “The information was leaked because of your failure to manage your hand.”

[UEMURA]: “This woman and——The DCD and you, you have to prove you aren’t connected, Miyase.”

[MIYASE]: “Oh my, I am being suspected that much.”

[UEMURA]: “Whaat, you can still recover from it.”

[UEMURA]: “That’s why from now, I’ll do as I like with this woman.”

[MIYASE]: “I see.”

[REI]: (Uemura does not completely trust Miyase-san......)

It really seemed that it wasn’t a solid bond.

If Miyase-san had a legitimate connection with Kagetsugumi, it would be strange to give me information.

[REI]: (If that’s so, the development of Uemura doing as he likes with me is......)

——No, optimism was out of the question. I had just been told earlier.

“If you could have just been satisfied with the information I gave,” he said.

In other words, the materials received from Miyase-san and the opinions he gave me, it was “bait” to tame me (=DCD).

But the DCD’s investigative ability exceeded their expectations, and caused an inconvenience to their current situation.

That’s why after all Miyase-san, to the DCD...——to me, to the Kujo Family, it was more likely he had betrayed us.

[MIYASE]: “......That is a little troubling.”

[UEMURA]: “Ha. As I thought, do you refuse to deal with this woman?”

[UEMURA]: “Miyase, so you really are on the DCD’s side.”

[MIYASE]: “I want Uemura-san to trust me more than anyone else.”

[MIYASE]: “I taught you concrete measures to crush the Kujo Family, and even cooperated with you, enduring being in a humiliating position as a servant for many years.”

[MIYASE]: “That’s why, for Uemura-san...——for Kagetsugumi, I want a perfect success to be achieved.”

[UEMURA]: “......Are you trying to wheedle your way by talking out of this?”

[MIYASE]: “That isn’t it, it is an absolute condition presented by the Korean side that we do not add unnecessary hand marks to the “product”.”

[MIYASE]: “Uemura-san understands more than I do that the top there is a very nervous person, isn’t that so?”

[UEMURA]: “............”

[MIYASE]: “The transaction 3 days later was postponed due to my inadequacy.”

[MIYASE]: “As an apology, she is a product offered to the Korean side.”

[MIYASE]: “Her drug efficacy constitution is a valuable.”

[MIYASE]: “It will be an interesting living toy.”

[MIYASE]: “My opinion is that it is better to store it carefully, and not damage it.”

[UEMURA]: “............Tch. You’re a clever one, aren’t you.”

[MIYASE]: “Thank goodness. I thought that if it’s Uemura-san, you would understand.”

[MIYASE]: “The success of the Kujo Family erasure plan cannot be achieved without the cooperation from the Korean side.”

[MIYASE]: “And Kagetsugumi is a very important and respectable organization for me.”

[UEMURA]: “I’ll trust you, Miyase.”

[MIYASE]: “Yes, please trust me.”

[MIYASE]: “Because even I can't turn back now.”

[MIYASE]: “Kagetsugumi and I share the same fate.”

Who is...————this person?

-Apartment for the investigation-

[YUI]: “Izumi——!”

[SEKI]: “......Were we too late?”

[IMAOJI]: “The room has been vandalized......From inside the closet all the way to the bathroom.”

[NATSUME]: “Even on the balcony, the potted plants are messed up and in ruins.”

[SEKI]: “In the traces, you can see that useless actions and provocation were done to fuel the discoverer’s agitation.”

[SEKI]: “It’s not an accidental kind of robbery.”

[IMAOJI]: “Was it Kagetsugumi or the Korean side?”

[NATSUME]: “......Was it Miyase Go?”

[YUI]: “Izumi, stay safe. We’ll definitely go save you.”

-In the car-

Still restrained, I was “loaded” into the backseat of a car like “luggage”.

[MIYASE]: “Are there any places that hurt?”

From the kind question, an intense nausea came back erupting from the bottom of my stomach.

My whole body hurt because of the inconvenience.

But more than anything else, my heart hurt.

[MIYASE]: “If you gaze at me like that, you will make me shiver.”

[MIYASE]: “I’ve always wanted to see your face like that.”

[REI]: “H......”

The backseat door closed.

——A few minutes later.

Miyase-san got into the driver's seat after finishing the exchange with Uemura outside the car.

He looked back here.

[MIYASE]: “Please do not run wild or try to escape. Because it is troublesome.”

[MIYASE]: “You are an important hand for me.”

[MIYASE]: “I am very reluctant, but from here on, you will be my personal property.”

Troublesome. Hand. Property.

As if stepping on my individuality and will, Miyase-san stepped on the accelerator.

[REI]: (......We stopped?)

With my field of view rolled sideways, I couldn’t see exactly where we had arrived.

The driver's seat was unattended for a moment, then the backseat door opened immediately, and Miyase-san got in.

Looking down at me who was caught in a crippled position, he ridiculed with a smile.

[MIYASE]: “How was the ride?”

Choices:

Ignore

I can’t accept this.

Are you serious? (♡)

[REI]: “Miyase-san......are you really serious about this?”

[MIYASE]: “Oh? You still think there is a possibility that I am not really serious even after coming all this way.”

[MIYASE]: “You mustn’t trust people so easily.”

[REI]: “Is Miyase-san saying that?”

[MIYASE]: “I was convincing, wasn’t I?”

[REI]: “Treating people as products, it’s not ethical......-“

[MIYASE]: “That’s a good one. I love the word ethics.”

[MIYASE]: “It is exceptional hearing that from you who deceived me and infiltrated the Kujo Family.”

[REI]: “!!”

[MIYASE]: “Now then, from here on, I will take you to the storage location prepared by the Korean side......”

I glared at Miyase-san.

[MIYASE]: “——Hm, it doesn’t seem like you will stay quiet and be obedient.”

[MIYASE]: “............”

[MIYASE]: “......Haa, it’s a large baggage to carry by myself.”

[REI]: “——!”

I felt the sensation of a needle tip sinking into the soft skin of my neck.

In front of my eyes, the Miyase-san who sneered————...shook, blurred, and became hazy.

[REI]: “Nh............Miya, se......sa......”

[MIYASE]: “For a little while longer, you will be beside me more than anyone else.”

He gently caressed my cheek as if wrapping it up.

Miyase-san’s palm. His fingertips.

I had touched them several times, connected with them, and warmed up and trembled with them.

[MIYASE]: “Please stay in an enjoyable dream for a little bit of time.”

[MIYASE]: “When you wake up, you’ll meet with me*.” (T/N: uses ore instead of boku)

[thebackloggamer]

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

I love Castlevania. I’ve recently played most of the games in the series and have enjoyed them greatly. Lords of Shadow has always intrigued me, but now that I have actual real experience with the series, I knew I had to move it up my backlog.

Here is a game sporting the name of one of the most legendary and long lived video game franchises and yet it has very little to do with the games that came before it. Instead of the series’ now classic 2D-platformer-action-adventure-RPG style, this one is straight up a 3D action-adventure hack and slash game à la God of War or Devil May Cry.

Also, there’s a completely original story that reboots the series and has nothing to do with the lore and events that have transpired during the series’ history. There are certain nods to the old games for sure. We sill play as a Belmont; and the theme for enemies and locations is similar. We still have demons, vampires, werewolves and all manner of creatures of the night. Other than that, however, this is a completely new world with new characters, lore and plot.

Well, it may not be classic Castlevania but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a good game... Well I think that’s true and, overall, I found this to be a pretty good, albeit flawed, game. Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first.

The bad stuff

This game has many flaws gameplay wise. I think the most egregious one is the extensive use of invisible walls. At the earlier parts of the game, if felt like almost everywhere I tried to go there was an invisible wall. There was so much restriction of movement. That was beyond frustrating to me. And I never care too much, let alone complain, about things like these in games. But here, I felt it was just too much.

The worst part is that most of them are located in places where there’s no visual cue whatsoever that would tell you you can’t walk or jump  through. I would go as far as to say that some places were even inviting until you tried to go through and hit the damn wall. Anyway, the good thing is that this problem gets so much less severe as the game progresses. I don’t know if it was just me getting used to it but later in the game these issues were basically all but gone. Those early levels though... Ugh. Not a fan.

In this corridor, you can only walk over the blue area :(

The invisible walls problem is part of a bigger issue of the game not effectively communicating what actions the player can and can’t do at any given moment. This is specifically apparent with the rappel mechanic, where you are always able to climb up and down the rope but only sometimes you can and run along the wall to the left or right in a sort of swinging motion. The game never tells you or lets you know when you can and when you can not.

Also, another part that I really found troublesome was the camera work. This game is a 3rd person action game but you can’t freely control the camera. The camera is always fixed and, as you move from scene to scene it moves around. Sort of like classic Resident Evil (1, 2, 3 and Code Veronica) where the camera changes as you traverse corridors and rooms. The difference is that Resident Evil had pre-rendered backgrounds and system limitations that the developers had to deal with. I don’t understand why a 3D action game from last generation would decide to go with a camera design like that. Anyway, that’s beside the point. To be fair, games like Devil May Cry and God of War (games from which Lords of Shadow borrows a lot in terms of game design) also use this style of camera. The problem here was that sometimes I felt it was disorienting, prompting one to get lost in some of the more intricate levels. I don’t want to make this sound like it’s a big deal though, because it’s not. It’s nevertheless, something that bothered me from time to time.

The good stuff

Despite its (sometimes infuriating) flaws, I ended up greatly enjoying this game. I think the aspect where this game excels the most is in its overall presentation. The game looks truly great with gorgeous vistas and flashy special effects. There’s also great variety in environments: we’ve got swamps, towers, lost cities, caves and everything in between. The overall art direction is incredible, from the characters to the enemies to the levels. Everything looks beautiful.

Oh yeah take it all in.

Even the menus look great. The menus in this game are stylized as a book that you use to look up things like attack combos, enemies descriptions and weaknesses, weapons, sub-weapons and other collectibles. Everything is accompanied with some beautiful hand drawn art. For the combos, there are even small hand drawn animations that show Gabriel (the protagonist, who you play as) performing them. An overall a great execution.

The art in these menus is beautiful.

I specially like how much care was put into building the world. Not only are the characters expertly designed, but there’s also lore that further enhances both the world and the game’s plot by shedding light into how things are and how they used to be in this universe. It certainly looks like the developers put a ton of effort in building a strong foundation for a new series mythos. I think they succeeded in that.

Also the game’s plot itself is pretty enjoyable. With fun characters and situations and good twists and turns.

In terms of game mechanics, the game is your typical God of War-esque, action affair. There are weak and heavy attack buttons that when pushed repeatedly chain together into various combos that you unlock as you progress trough the game and get stronger. There are two types of magic: blue and red. Using the red one makes you hit harder while the blue one replenishes your health with each hit. These are expendable resources, so managing them smartly is in your best interest. Also, there’s a focus mechanic that kicks in if you fight without getting hit for a while. This makes enemies drop magic replenishing items which you need to chose if it goes to the blue or the red magic. 

There are also your usual dodge, block and counter mechanics. Counters are interesting. They are performed by blocking at the last minute before getting hit. Successful counters are rewarded by a boost in focus, but getting hit makes one lose all of their focus. This introduces a nice risk vs reward mechanic because you need to decide if you want to risk getting hit by trying to counter instead of just dodging.

All of these together make for a level of strategy that results in a game that rewards finesse, preventing the battles to degrading into mindless button mashing.

The combat system is pretty interesting overall. Just complex enough to have a good time but not be overwhelmed. It truly shines with some of the game’s most inventive bosses and enemies that put your skills to the test. Not everything is flawless here though as some of the bosses are just plain cheap making for some frustrating difficulty spikes. Other are just plain boring. Luckily most of them are pretty fun and unique.

At the end of the day, in spite of its flaws, I really enjoyed Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. It’s a beautiful looking game with some pretty cool environments and a fun combat style. It even got me interested in playing the sequel.

[proxylynn]

Dreemurr Academy #7 (Undertale Sans)

Dreemurr Academy, a prestigious closed-off college for monsters and humans alike of all ages and worlds. This includes myself, though I'm sort of a in-between. I'm Lynsie, the human anomaly. I'm a human, but I can do magic like monsters. I'm an oddball. That's the thing about making a school that is open to multiple alternate dimensions. Weird things are bound to show up. Even a bunch of the same person. From what I saw on orientation day, the same faces are scattered around all around. To fix these type of issues, everyone that has a multiple or doppelganger is given a school name so there's no confusion. Other than that, it's fairly normal. The hierarchy is the simple. The Deans are made up of the same people, skeleton monsters that go by the name of Gaster. One is a teacher of the Sciences, goes by Wingding. He's a kind and understanding man, but is known to pull a prank or two. They all speak in a typeface sign language but use telepathy magic so others understand. It's been said no one has ever heard their real voices and those that have are no longer at the academy. Another Gaster dean teaches Home Economics, he goes by Wingy. He's a bubbly sweet guy that loves his work. Nothing makes him smile more than seeing the joy on a student's face when they take pride in being able to do something they first thought they couldn't. Another Gaster dean teaches the studies of Magic, he is called Fall. At times, he can be cynical, malicious, and sarcastic. He has a commanding presence that exuded gravitas, authority and control, able to keep a class quiet without effort. Yet there is a kindness to him, it's rarely seen, but not unheard of. Another Gaster dean teaches History, his nickname is Dings. A cold, bitter, and sometimes childish man. He tends to hold grudges against troublesome students and is extremely spiteful toward those whom he dislikes. Yet those that can take his punishments are rewarded with his respect. He is a teacher that commands respect and who's grades are earned with doom hanging over your head. The Professors are also skeleton monsters, but not all are the same person. The Psychology professor is a guy named Papyrus but goes by Stretch. He's the favorite among students because he's so laid back. He chews a tooth pick in class to suppress his urge to smoke, but we all know he does so when on break. He's really good at reading students and helps out when able. All in all, he's the cool teacher. The Literature professor is a Papyrus that is called Fell. He is the one teacher everyone dreads. Very strict and old fashioned. He does not tolerate interruptions and will humiliate those he feel need to be taken down a notch. Such things take there toll on him and often squeezes a stress ball that he keeps in his desk. But he is a very passionate man when it comes to his work and takes his subject seriously, even though this makes him into a bit of a grammar nazi which is why many students get low grades. The Biology professor is a skeleton called Sans that sometimes goes by Classic, whatever that means. He is very cheesy and comes off as lazy, making puns that have people cringe yet secretly love them. He is very protective of his students and will go out of his way to help them. He does not tolerate bulling of any kind and can be quite scary. He's the second favorite among the students. The Physical Education professor is also a Sans that goes by Pain. He is also a stern and old school type of teacher, only he tends to be more cruel in humiliation of students that are unprepared. While his scope is all around, he prefers the darker side of the study. Using borderline violence to weed out the weak that think taking his class is a easy A. There is mercy in his dojo, but it must be earned with blood, sweat, and tears. The Students are broken into four groups based on which part of the four years they are currently in. The first years are called freshmen. Second years are sophomores. Third years are juniors. And fourth years are seniors. There are some variations on this topic, but this hierarchy of college students is still readily recognizable by everyone. Me? This isn't my first rodeo but not my last. I'm a sophomore and have gotten the gist of who's who and what's what. I get along with students and teachers. I've always been a middle ground type of girl. I didn't come looking for friends, but they just seemed to find me. Funny enough, my buddies are the brothers of the professors. Stretch's brother is a freshman, his name is Sans but goes by Rascal. Fell's brother, also a Sans, is a sophomore like me and goes by Edgy. Classic's brother is a Papyrus, a freshman that goes by Papy. And Pain's brother is a sophomore Papyrus by the name of Slim. I've always been a tomboy. I prefer the guys company. They're different and fun, even if they can be a bit odd sometimes. Rascal, as the nickname implies, is the school clown/prankster. He likes to test his limits and challenge authority, even dishevels his uniform to assert his individuality. He comes off as a slacker, but secretly very deep, clever, and loyal to a fault. He likes taking his brother's class so he can improve his skills with messing with people, mostly his brother as he disrupts his teachings when he sees a chance. Edgy is shy around new people and slow to open up, enjoying a laugh with friends when able. Though he appears weak or even nerdy because of his glasses, he is far more tougher than he leads on. He doesn't take crap from anyone. When alone, he's angsty and borders on straight up angry. Getting a pissy attitude when annoyed. Like his brother, he is very passionate about literature and does his best to impress his brother, going so far as to become the teacher's pet. Papy is easily the most loveable guy in the whole school. Very cheerful and optimistic, he tries his best no matter what. He doesn't like conflict and tries to keep his brother out of trouble when the teacher pulls a prank. I find it sweet of him to take his brother's class even though he doesn't particularly enjoy it, just so he can stay close to him. Like I said, this guy is a loveable soul. Slim is easy going. He doesn't take things too seriously and never breaks a sweat over hard exams. The only thing that breaks his cool is his smoking, he really gets tense if he goes too long without his fix. He's incredibly smart and instinctual, good traits to have when dealing with his brother. While he does attend his brother's class, he merely does so as a request of his brother who likes to make sure he doesn't slack off due to not being challenged enough. All of them are oddly related to each other in some form. Gaster's, Papyrus's, and Sans's are brothers. Yet I see them all as different people. I value them. They're helping me even if they don't know it. I am not so confident in myself. I tend to isolate myself, go at things lone wolf style. It's how I've always been. Then I met them and slowly my world began to expand bit by bit. I'm still not comfortable with others. But with them, I can step out from behind my mask for a bit, and really be myself around them. Today is a typical day. Classes have so far been good and it's the last one before that final bell says we can go home. It's a class I don't mind. Heck, it's actually very interesting to study and the professor is funny as all hell. I'm talking about Professor Classic's biology class, a sure fire way to tickle one's funny bone while leaning how the body works. And yes, that's something the good professor said once. Biology is the natural science that involves the study of life and living organisms, including their physical and chemical structure, function, development and evolution. Modern biology is a vast field, composed of many branches. Despite the broad scope and the complexity of the science, there are certain unifying concepts that consolidate it into a single, coherent field. In general, biology recognizes the cell as the basic unit of life, genes as the basic unit of heredity, and evolution as the engine that propels the creation of new species. It is also understood that all organisms survive by consuming and transforming energy and by regulating their internal environment. Sub-disciplines of biology are defined by the scale at which life is studied, the kinds of organisms studied, and the methods used to study them: biochemistry examines the rudimentary chemistry of life; molecular biology studies the complex interactions among biological molecules; cellular biology examines the basic building-block of all life, the cell; physiology examines the physical and chemical functions of tissues, organs, and organ systems; ecology examines how organisms interact in their environment; and evolutionary biology examines the processes that produced the diversity of life. The most common biology course taken is called Introductory Biology. A course such as this exposes students to a broad body of knowledge about biology and emphasizes molecular biology. Introductory Biology introduces students to the nature of life, including chemical foundations of life; plant, animal, monster and human cell structure and function; DNA and genetics; as well as magic evolution and soul ecology. One of the first things you'll likely encounter in an Introductory Biology course is the definition of life. This is not philosophical, but rather scientific, helping students categorize the differences between living things with self-sustaining processes and inanimate objects. Another key component to any biology course is cell theory, or the idea that the cell is the most basic building block of life. Students also examine how various living things are made up, how they grow, and how they are categorized scientifically by the Latin genus-species. Much of biology is dedicated to studying the theories as to how various living things have evolved and how they are believed to be related to one another through ancestors. Students also study the biosphere, or the world's ecosystems. But that crap can get so boring. The lab portion of biology requires us students to examine organisms under microscopes and dye cells to get a better look at their structure. Students must describe what they observe in written reports. Students may also study and dissect plants, insects and small animals. Most students enjoy the lab portion of their college biology class more than the classroom experience because it is hands-on, though there are the few that don't. Those students who don't want to cut into something but are given the choice of failing. If you want the grade then you have to get your hands dirty. What I find most cool about Classic's class is that he teaches both human and monster biology. The workings of the human form to me are not so complicated since I am a human. Human biology is an interdisciplinary area of study that examines humans through the influences and interplay of many diverse fields such as genetics, evolution, physiology, anatomy, epidemiology, anthropology, ecology, nutrition, population genetics and sociocultural influences. The human body is the entire structure of a human being. It is composed of many different types of cells that together create tissues and subsequently organ systems, yet is funny enough 80% water. They ensure homeostasis and the viability of the human body. It comprises a head, neck, trunk which includes the thorax and abdomen, arms and hands, legs and feet. The study of the human body involves anatomy, physiology, histology and embryology. The body varies anatomically in known ways. Physiology focuses on the systems and organs of the human body and their functions. Many systems and mechanisms interact in order to maintain homeostasis, with safe levels of substances such as sugar and oxygen in the blood. It's not complicated at all. What my main focus of study in class is Monster Biology. Monsters are simple and yet so complex compared to Humans. Monsters come in numerous shapes and sizes, although the notable species of monsters include skeletons, elementals, ghosts, and the ever rare Boss Monsters. Monsters SOULs are usually wholly white, with a couple of exceptions. A monster's body is mostly made of magic and is attuned to its SOUL. When a monster gets too old, they enter a state called "fallen down" or in human terms "near death". A monster in this state lies immobile and turns to dust upon death. When a monster dies for whatever reason, its body turns into dust. This dust is often spread onto the owner's favorite thing in funerals, so their essence lives on in them. Because monsters' bodies and SOULs are closely linked, when a monster dies, their SOUL is lost forever. Boss Monsters are an exception, as their SOULs exist outside their bodies for a few moments before shattering whereas Human SOUL persist after death much-much longer. Because of their magical nature, monsters' bodies cannot handle high concentrations of the human made enzyme called determination. While in some extremely rare instances monsters can produce their own version of this enzyme, it is mostly a human compound. When monsters are injected with it, their bodies liquefy and melt together to reform a semisolid form. These new beings are called Amalgamates, and there is no known way of restoring them to their original selves. Despite the negative implication of the word "monsters", monsters in are not an inherently evil species, the same with humanity. It is even said that monster SOULs are made of love, hope, and compassion. Monsters are also by far weaker than humans, both in physical combat and regarding the strength of their SOUL. This inadequacy is because monsters are mostly made of magic, which in turn makes them attuned to their SOUL. The damage a monster receives from an attacker is dependent on both the monster's will to fight and the attacker's will to hurt. Monsters, however, can obtain an "unfathomable" amount of power when they absorb the SOUL of a human. SOULs are a unifying point for both humans and monster as nothing else has them. But it is only monsters that can absorb other SOULs. Monsters can not absorb other monster SOULs and humans can not absorb either type. It's very odd in the grand scheme of things, but I can see it as a evolutionary balance point. Human's are physically stronger so to be on a equal level, Monsters gain power from absorption of human souls. Makes sense to me at least. However, there are things I still can't wrap my head around. Why did humans lose the ability to use magic? I know I can, but I'm in like a rare 2% so what's the deal? Monster food is said to be made of pure energy, as such monsters don't need to pass food and a chunk of monsters don't have bathrooms. Some don't even know what a toilet is. Do some monsters still retain bodily functions similar to humans or no? Since the essence of a monster is imbued on whatever it's dust falls on, if said dust were to fall on your hands does this mean the essence of that monster is imbued on you? Boss Monsters biology has them resulting in needing to have genetic offspring for parents to age and children to grow into maturity. This results in an impossible/incestuous/pedophilloic situations latter on, especially with cases of orphans and limited soul energy being compounded each generation. So what's up with that? For that matter, a good number of monsters are less than bodily capable of reproduction in the classical sense as they have no genitalia, or even internal organs in general. Such a prime example are the skeletons I call my best friends, teachers, and head masters. There is clearly a way they are reproducing, otherwise their kind wouldn't be around, so how are they doing it? How do skeletons do the sex and make baby bones?! Such crazy questions keep me up at night and it has me feeling weird for doing so. These are people in my life who I interact with on a daily basis. I see them almost like family. Yet I can't bring myself to act them such questions. Argh! Why did I have to be sick during sexual orientation week?! No why I have the guts to ask them about it. But I think the worst part of all this is these thoughts are distracting me. It's getting harder to pay attention. My notebooks for class are less detailed than I normal make them. I fear my grades will begin slipping if this keeps up. I'm in this school on a Academic Scholarship. Academic scholarships are also often referred to as merit scholarships, though a merit scholarship can mean anything that has some level of contest to it. These are for the students with the 4.0 GPAs, years as part of several extracurricular activities and the well-rounded applications. They typically have the highest payouts and are considered very prestigious as they are often national awards. While I could've gone with the Average Academic Performance Scholarship I didn't feel it was challenging enough for me. Average Academic Performance Scholarships do take academics into consideration, but focus on other factors as well, such as community service, leadership, the strength of your essay, etc. Point is...I really wish I had gone that route in moments like this. So lost in these thoughts am I that I haven't even realized that the bell has rang and I've been staring into space while scribbling into my notebook. I don't even notice the good professor is standing in front of me and waving his hand in my face. Only once he snapped his fingers a few times do I snap out of my zoned out trance. "Oh...Sorry sir. Was I disturbing class?" "heh, what class?" Looking around I can't help but blush embarrassed at myself. "Oops. My bad. *nervous snicker* How long did I miss the bell this time?" He checks his watch. "about twenty minutes, give or take." "Damn it. It's getting worse." "you okay kiddo? this is starting to become a thing." I sigh and rub my temples. "I'm sorry sir. I've just had a lot on my mind and it's really messing with me." "care to share what's on your mind? it might help." "I don't know. What I've been thinking about is quite messed up." "kiddo, you're looking at the bio skele proff. i have to teach you nuts about how things function. so don't worry about making me crack. it'll take a pretty big hit to bust my shell." I giggle. "Okay, but you better be strong enough to handle this. I've got a ton to unload on you." "do you mean a skele-ton?" "Ha! I knew you'd go there." "go where? i haven't moved." "Touché pun master. But for reals..." "i get it, no worries kiddo." He pulls up a chair and prepares himself. "okay...spill your beans." "Well to be frank..." "hi frank. i'm sans." "Heh, funny as always sir." "thank you, i'm here all week." "Jokes aside. *nervous pause* ...I know we're been studying the biology of Humans as of late. I get that is a requirement of the coarse. But I already know that stuff. What I'm made of, what makes it move, what's connected to what else, and all that other junk that makes a homosapien different from the others in our genus line. But the thing is, I'd love to really start going into a more in depth study of monster biology." He just smiles. "really? that's what's been buggin' ya? kiddo, we'll be going over monster stuff soon. just be patient." "I know that! I've already been reading ahead to get ready but it won't make sense to me." I open the monster biology book and point at circled bits. "There's so much in here that doesn't make sense. Surly you know more than this book." He's taken back by my little snap, but upon looking at the points I've been looking at a faint blue dusts his cheekbones and it takes him a moment to collect himself. "first, don't call me surly. my name is sans, remember?" "Noted." "second...uh...much of this was talked about during sexual orientation." "I was out sick that week." "oh." There's a awkward silence now, I was afraid this would be a issue. But damn it, I want answers. Best change the subject to my other points. "But what about SOULs?" "huh?" "Why are Human SOULs stronger than Monster SOULs? Why does determination help prolong a SOUL after the body has died? How the heck does the offspring of Boss Monsters leech SOUL power from its parents in order to grow and them age? Teach me oh wise one, you're my only hope." He blinks a few time before snickering. "okay, that...that was cute as heck." "I thank thee." "heh...but for those answers i need my big old book of secret secrets and that's in my desk. mind traveling down over there with me?" "Sure, no biggie." One short walk later. We're at his desk, him behind it getting his book and me standing in front of it. "let's see...oh! here it is." Wow...it really is a big book. "alright...ready for this?" "Ready teach." "i can't hear you." "Aye aye captain!" "*chuckles* you watch sponge bob?" "...Just read the book." "okay kiddo. *ahem* you can distinguish a monster soul by two main factors. firstly, a monster soul is shown to be upside-down compared to a normal human soul and secondly, it is a white color as opposed to the rainbow of colors a human soul can be." "Though there are a few rare cases of color in a Monster's SOUL." "very true. also monsters are composed of magic. magic is what holds them together. this is very distinctive from a human body which is much more physical. being mainly magic gives monsters a lot of interesting effects. one such feature is that monsters are proficient in magic based attacks. another is that their bodies can take a much wider array of forms." "I know this part sir." "you really weren't kiddin' about reading ahead on this." "I'm curious and eager to learn. It's what I do." "cute...anything goes for monsters because they do not have working organs to transfer physical matter into the system. that is also why monster food does not get digested in the traditional sense. it is also mostly composed of magic." "Man, I really got farther than this." "showoff. however, the main downside of a monster body is how weak it is compared to a human body. monster bodies are unstable with the addition of a large amount of determination. their bodies are not made to handle large amounts of it due to being less physical based. another effect is that when a monster losses hope, they also become much weaker. this is seen in how the last attack on a monster often does a lot more damage. lastly, the more the odds are against a monster, the less they want to fight, and the more the opponent wants to fight, the stronger attacks will be. i mean, a ten year old can kill a monster if they try hard enough. how messed up is that?" "True. Not really the most epic way to go either. 'So how'd you die?' 'A tiger ripped my throat out. You?' 'I pissed off the wrong tween.' Not something to go around telling people type deal." "you do realize your talking about my race, right?" "Hey, humans can be killed just as easily. See your pen? You can totally kill me with it. That's how lame humans are. Hell, even that paperclip can kill me." "*snort* now that's just weak. but back on topic...just because monsters are mostly magic does not mean they do not act in ways that aren't physical. there are still some physical traits that are present in monsters, just remember that they are held together by magic and when a monster dies, all the physical that was there turns to dust along with the magic." "Understood." "they can't really do much against someone who is willing to kill them and while monster magic attacks look cool and are hard to dodge, monsters don't really do much dodging themselves...well, except me. but really, it's just common sense to move away from something coming at you. right?" "Yeppers." "now the fun part...speculation time! what happens when a monster absorbs a human soul? well, what is believed to happen is that the two bodies actually fuse to create a creature made of both strong physical matter and strong magic. this would allow them to become very strong and resilient to attacks while still being able to control the visual aspects of their look and creating magical attacks." "And a very good reason why SOUL absorption is a forbidden thing." "so on to the first biology lesson here...humans are unique in the way that they are made out of water, and are physically much more dense then monsters. they are fleshy and thick on a molecular level, allowing them to be more durable, and their bodies don't disappear upon death, but simply decompose. their souls are incredibly powerful and can persist for a seemingly infinite amount of time after the body dies. now, human souls naturally have a liquid-concentration of determination within them, which is believed to give their souls the strength to persist after death. without determination, a human's soul would not last, and end up shattering after the human's body dies just like when a monster dies." "Go on." "monsters are creatures made up of magic instead of water. because their bodies are made up of magic, monsters can come in all shapes and sizes from animals to demonic entities. they don't bleed, but rather when wounded start to split apart and when fatally wounded crumble into a pile of fine dust. magical bindings are much more loose than water, so a monster's body can be much more fragile than a human's. without magic, a monster is just a pile of dust and a soul." "Fascinating." I lean on the desk, this is going to be awhile and so I make myself cozy for the long time I'll be on my feet. He notices and continues. "monster souls have little to no concentrations of determination, so their souls can't survive without a magical casing around them, and they shatter almost instantly upon the death of the body. of course, boss monsters are a special species of monster in the way that they have a stronger than normal magical bond onto their bodies which causes them to have little tougher physical makeup than other monsters. more importantly, their soul can survive a few seconds after its death, but it is still noteworthy as normal monsters' souls instantly disappear upon death. this might actually mean that boss monsters are born with a little determination in them." "That would make sense." "now, the important principle...a monster's body, because it is made up of magic, is attuned to their soul, which means that there is a symbiotic harmony between the body, which is really just dust shaped with magic, and their soul. now, this has several side effects. because of this alinement, monsters: #1, can use magic naturally and easily. while, for humans, its a specialized and acquired skill, take you for example. this magic can be used for a multitude of things from powering their homes to fighting and the way the magic is used is mostly dependent on the monster itself, for example, me and my brother papyrus are skeletal monsters and use bones as weapons. toriel and asgore dreemurr, the school founders and both boss monsters respectively, are able to create and manipulate fire. now, this doesn't mean that we monsters can't use weapons to enhance our magic. swords, shields, tridents, and so on are not usually magical in nature, but can be infused with or made our of magic and help put a shape to our combative magic giving it a focal point in battle." "Huh. That I did not know." His ever present grin grows. "happy to be of service my dear." "What?" "#2...are subject to their and others' emotions, mental states and wills. this is very important to understanding the struggle of life as a monster." He's just going to avoid that he called me dear...now who's being cute her. "this means that if they are sad, unhappy, lose hope, grow cynical and just be down right depressed as all hell, then they will physically become weaker and their magical bond will became less stable. this can make them much more vulnerable, and they can be killed much easier. this happens because a monster's soul is made up of hope, compassion and love which is why if they are heartbroken, lose hope, become sad or cold it endangers their molecular bond and compromises their bodies' defenses." "Sounds a lot like the medical condition called broken heart syndrome." "how so?" "Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, also known as stress cardiomyopathy or broken heart syndrome, is a type of non-ischemic cardiomyopathy in which there is a sudden temporary weakening of the muscular portion of the heart. This weakening may be triggered by emotional stress, such as the death of a loved one, a break-up, or constant anxiety. This leads to one of the common names, broken heart syndrome. Stress cardiomyopathy is now a well-recognized cause of acute heart failure, lethal ventricular arrhythmias, and ventricular rupture. The name 'Takotsubo syndrome' comes from the Japanese word for a kind of octopus trap, because the left ventricle takes on a shape resembling a fishing pot." That has him surprised. "wow...learn something new everyday. but back to business...this is also why staying positive is so important to us monsters; why we tell each other jokes, and stay close to friends and family. as creatures of pure love and emotion, a healthy monster is a happy monster." I can't help but giggle and he blushes a little bit. "another factor is if their attacker is consciously attempting to kill the monster they are fighting, their attacks will hurt the monster even worse, but also, if a monster drops their guard around another creature and they betray this trust, then it causes massive damage. that 'back-stab' actually ends up being much more lethal than any normal attack." "That's so messed up." "a good way to think about it is that metaphors, emotions and things with symbolic meanings can hurt monsters. so things like...if a monster is heartbroken/depressed/hopeless, they get weaker. if a monster trusts another being, and gets attacked by it, it wounds them much worse than normal. if a monster is attacked by someone with a powerful soul, either human or monster, who is attempting to kill the monster, it can easily be fatal. now, as for determination, and said all of the above to lead up to this...uh...there are pictures. so, um...if you wanna see them, ya can come stand over here with me. i-if you want to that is!" Why so nervous professor? In fact, why to a lot of his behavior? My curiosity is further tempted. "I think I'd like that." I stroll over to his side and he tries keeping his gaze to the book, but he can't fight the occasional glance my way. "uh...studied on extracted naturally-occurring liquid determination from human souls are said that determination was 'the will to keep living and the resolve to change fate'. so, this power is literally an emotional desire. the will to live keeps the soul alive in humans. now, a monster can have determination too. it doesn't manifest in the soul, like humans, but it instead manifests in the body and mind where a particularly strong-willed monster could create their own determination naturally if they refuse their own wounds. you see, most monsters would die like this..." He flips the pages to show the images of a normal monster getting hurt, losing hope, accepting death, and then dies in a scatter of dust. "while a determined monster is more like this..." The next images show a monster with determination getting hurt, becoming furious, denying their own wounds, body holding together longer, get hurts again, body can't maintain its shape, and then dies in a melting way. "Whoa!" "an interesting way to think about it is that a monster's dust is like dried sand and when killed, that sand scatters in the wind with little weight. determination-enriched monster bodies are like wet sand, mushing together and while taking damage, it takes more effort for it fall apart. too much determination makes the sand too loose and it starts to fall apart, like a sand castle getting torn down in the surf." "You paint a very interesting picture." "heh heh, i try...now, since monsters are already beings of emotions, their magical bonding that holds their bodies together get stronger through believing in themselves and having faith in their abilities. the downside of this is that almost all monsters are usually so swayed by their emotions that once they feel as if they are fighting a losing battle, they start to mentally give up and end up dying. however, a monster so strong-willed, they will fight through their body telling them they've already lost. you still following me on this kiddo?" "Every word sir. Please...Keep going." He blushes and so do I, not really intending for that to have come out as flirtatious as it did. "uh...so, a monster overdosing on determination is mainly a threat when they are weak or damaged. determination can heal your wounds, make you strong, but if you're a monster than it can tear you apart if you don't have enough inside you." "That's what she said." What is wrong with me?! Why am I seemingly flirting with my professor? It's not like he likes it. "heh...now that was really cute." ...Oh dear lord he likes it. "now, the difference between the amalgamates and a normal monster overdosing on determination is that the amalgamates weren't nearly as strong-willed as a monster willingly summoning determination, so that the level of determination they were injected with very quickly melted them down, while a normal monster filled with determination of its own had the mental strength to harness it and could use it to keep themselves alive, but if they were continually attacked then they would ultimately not survive." "Spooky." "so, the amalgamates had an artificial determination injection that brought them back to life, but they lacked the mental strength to maintain themselves. it's kind of like the whole 'you didn't gain love, but you gained love'. due to the fact that they lack this psychologically and emotionally drive, they had no determination for survival. that makes sense?" "Gained love the emotion and not LOVE as in the level of violence. Got it." "...god why are you so cute?" "S-sir?" "a monster's personality and state of mind can work for or against them in battle in a physical sense which is, for the most part, a unique phenomenon of monsters. determination can be created by extracting it from human souls or it can be made from a strong-willed emotional creature. the concept of determination, and the actual chemical determination are one and the same. which is why this right here is driving me crazy." "What?" He closes the book and turns to me. "i've seen the way you've been lookin' at me. every. single. day. ya know that this isn't somethin' i can just ignore." Crap, I've been busted. I get all flustered trying to figure out what to say next. "I've tried telling you as to why. Monster biology made no sense to me. And in fact, there's still a ton I don't understand. And yes, before you say it, I do mean a skele-ton of stuff. Your biology specifically. "wha...what?" I lean in and hold his hand. "You. How do you work? What makes you move? How is it you feel things like my touch? How are you able to 'bone'?" His face lights up with a deep blue hue. "uh...kiddo, i don't think..." "Lynsie." "huh?" "My name is Lynsie. You know this. Now...I want to hear you say it." He shivers slightly. "are ya askin' for a private lesson, lynsie?" A warmth begins pooling in my chest. "Maybe I am. Maybe I'm not. But for the sake of this conversation...Yeah. What of it?" "well...actually, i'm a little busy." He plays coy but I'm not that amused. "What?" "and i also have this thing to...do..." I let warmth in my chest get to me and gently I place my hand to his cheek, slowly caressing his jawline much to his stunned shock. "Are you sure you're too busy to school me?" He swallows a lump in his nonexistent throat. "i suppose i can teach you a thing or two." "Such as?" I dare him with a look and he is spurned to do something about this challenge. Slowly he puts a hand onto the one I have still upon his cheek, nuzzling it and giving soft kisses as his other hand comes to feel along my neck. "i might now a trick or treat. it all depends on which you pick." I purrs sweetly. "I'll take treat sir." "then i need you to follow my instructions." "As you wish." "first...close your eyes and lean into me." "Like this?" I close my eyes, leaning into him carefully before freezing still at the feeling of his mouth on mine. This kiss is soft and sweet, a build up for things to come. The warmth in me spills out, spreading throughout my body and consuming my soul. That's when his hands take a tighter hold of me and a sudden tongue brushes against my lips, making me gasp. "what's wrong?" "How do you have a tongue?" "heh...and here i thought you were paying attention. i'm a monster kiddo. my body is made of dust and magic, things that aren't bound to a solid convention of physicality like you are. with a little imagination, i can make a lot more than just a tongue, if you catch my drift." I flush with a maddening blush and he chuckles. "awww...why so shy all of a sudden? after all, you're the one that started this." He pulls me closer and has me straddle him in his seat as he licks my neck slowly, making me shiver. "you know...i've always wanted you. the way you look at me is always the same. like it was meant to be..." I shudder as he picks a spot in the crook of my neck and sucks on it. "'does she know? there's no way...how could she? can she see...that i want her?' i'd think these things to myself, because it was like you always knew...always knew i wanted you." "S-sir..." I don't have the heart to tell him otherwise, not that I want to right now, the things he's doing are making me feel so good and if it's making us both happy then no need to stop it. "call me sans dear...mmmm...i want to hear my name leave that sweet mouth of yours." "I don't know..." "oh? not gonna listen to teacher are you? well then...maybe i just need to show you how to pay closer attention~." He palms my chest and kneads into me like big cat, making me almost lose it. "Sans!" "there we go. see how easy it is when you listen to teacher?" "You know what you're doing, don't you?" "mmhmmm...one of the big perks of my field of study is learning all the ways the body works. what makes it tick and all the places that make you feel the most pleasure." "Then may I re-ask a question you have yet to answer?" "and which was it again?" "How does a skeleton make love?" Using those words seems to take him down a peg, but not enough to really do much. "well my ever eager to bone up on the subject gal, the answer is a two-parter. the first part is pretty much like what i did with the tongue. it's all in just how creative you get with your magic. observe." He nudges me back a bit and undoes his pants to show the bone underneath. I am confused till a blue glow forms around his pelvis, slowly a male member forms, thick and girthy. I'd feel weird about seeing a guy's junk if I wasn't so fascinated. "impressive?" "Considering I haven't seen many dicks in my life, yes. Very impressive." "how many have you seen?" "Just one." "...mine?" "Yep." He's shocked and yet happy about this. "So Sans...What's the other part of skele-sex?" "huh? oh! uh...this other method is a common one and anyone can do it. it's not a limited thing like this magic made manhood." "Please show me." He bites his tongue and holds me to his chest. "i swear if you get any cuter i'm gonna lose it right here and now." "So says the bone boy that has me looming over his magic boner." "*shudders* making it real hard to concentrate kiddo." "My bad you bone-afide bio bro." He laughs a bit and then takes a few deep breaths before a upside-down heart appears on his chest. "Is that...?" "yep. it's my soul. the very culmination of my being. in this method, you'd bring out your soul and we'd press the two together then rub them all other one another." "For real?" "yeah. then as the souls increase in pleasure, they'll begin to secret a lubricating goo. it intensifies the feelings plus it's also edible." "...I don't want to know why that would be a thing someone would want to know." "i know. but someone had to try. it's how we learn." "So true." "so...lynsie...do you want to, oh i don't know...test out this knowledge with a little experiment?" "I suppose, since you did help me, it's only fair that I return the favor~." I gently remove his glasses. Funny how he and other skeletons that wear glasses hold them on with simple tape. "You never really needed these things, did you?" "not really. but i gotta look my part, don't i?" "Honestly...I always found glasses to be rather attractive." "...god i want you. i want you now." He wastes no time, what little foreplay there was is enough needed for him as he reaches down and moves the guarding fabric of my panties out of his way. I don't really care for the uniforms. Girls have to wear skirts, I hate it because of perverts taking up-skirt pics. But in this moment, it makes things easier than if I were in pants. Lining himself to the entrance of my sex, he takes this moment to get me on his level and grinds into me. Such attentiveness has me swooning and I moan his name ever so softly as he manages to enter me. There's a sharp blunt pain that makes me hiss, but he's quick to bring his skills into action and rubs his knuckles into the small of my back as he nibbles my ear, causing me to relax into it all. "mmmmmm...you're better than i imagined. so soft, tight, and wonderfully hot...and the best part is, i'm your first." "Y-y-you can tell?" "heh, you told me. well, your body language and mannerisms did. plus, non-virgins don't ask about the mechanics of intercourse, they tend to learn that by doing it blindly." "Oh. *embarrassed giggles* Guess I'm just careful I suppose. Oh! Um...Will doing this get me...You know?" "what? pregnant? nah. this thing just shoots magic ectoplasm and not reproductive cells. now if we were soul mingling and we both wanted children, then the reproductive magic's would mix to create a third soul. a tiny little life that would be housed in your womb till incubation was done and presto, a baby." "Wow. That's...That's rather cool." "but no worries sweetheart, this is all in good fun. good, sexy, pleasure inducing fun~." He takes hold of my hips and starts rocking me on him. "Oooh Sans..." "hooo that feels so nice...hhnnm...you wield your h-hips with such finesse...ahhnn g-god..." I moan into his neck, holding to the top of his chair as my brace as he holds tight to my waste in support, not a lot of room doing this on a chair even if it is big, it would spoil things if I just fell off. "Hhnm...Ahnnnh...hhhhnn...oohh Sans..." "hhaahnnn...hhhnn...lynsie...mmmngh...harder..." "Like this?" "oooooh yessss...don't stop..." Hearing him moan out praises, feeling him randomly thrust and thus letting me be the one in control in this act, it fuels me. I heed every command that slips past that gorgeous everlasting smile of his and with every rewarding moan of my name I lose myself further into the depths of intoxicating lust. Such feeling. It envelops me. Casting my sound mind into euphoria fog. I don't even notice that his soul is still out in all this or when my own decides to join in all the fun, which due to our closeness, allows the two to touch and rub one another in all the right ways...which he definitely notices. "aahh y-yeah...ooh yeah...hhn...you're getting me so weak here...*sharp gasps* hhnm...god that's incredible...a-aahh...just h-how big of a difference it is s-sensation wise...hhnn g-good god don't s-stop you precious angel...hhhhhh!" This increase in stimuli, both in soul and body, it's madding. Everything's doubled. Double the pleasure and double the fun. The world begins to spin even in my shut eyes. Classic's grip on me is hard enough to leave marks but I'm completely numb to any pain. He's bucking his hips fast and hard in quickening need. It's all so much and so fast. I can't take it any more! "Aaaaah! Sans!" I come undone, my body releasing in climax and soul exploding in goo which is something I wasn't expecting would happen. But this only spurns Classic into his own messy and quite loud finish. "ohhn...uhgn...ghhn...o-oohh gonna...unhn...lynsie! hhnnm oh i'm gonna...hhnngn...a-auh ah lynsie t-there...there it is...a-ahhn i'm c-cuumming...hhnnn...uahhh...ahhh...hnmmm...mmmmmm." "*shaken* Y-you okay?" "damn...that was...heck, i got nothing. can't think straight enough to say what i want." "Funny. That makes me feel good hearing you say that." "awww." "So...What now? I mean, I'm not sure I'm able to let the chair go without falling. I have literally no strength left." "yeah, same here. heh...you really rattled my bones in all the best ways." I blush. "Well I have a good teacher to thank for that." He blushes in return and nuzzles under my chin with a contented grin. "you are an amazing student. and if you want...we can have more 'private' lessons." "I...I'd like that." I painfully release my death grip on the chair and snake my arms around him in a warm hug. "such a sweetheart you are. but as nice as this is, we should probably clean up." "True. The janitor would likely freak out seeing this stuff." "that and unless you want you to glow blue for the next week, you should probably wash that off." "Wait, what?!" "*laughs genuinely* i-i'm kidding! i'm kidding! that doesn't happen, i swear! *snickers* it evaporates over time but leaves a noticeable scent." "Geez...Scare the hell out of me why don't you." "sorry kiddo. but we really do need to clean up. if some of the other males in class get a whiff of this it could trigger them to go into heat early." "Understood. Last thing this school needs is a bunch of horny dogs running around looking to bone." We share laugh before peeling off each other and getting rid of any evidence that this happened. I still have questions that need answering regarding the biology of monsters. But I'm sure Classic can share the answers with me...So long as we can actually pay attention long enough to not end up entangled in each other's embrace.

[markoftheasphodel]

Finn

For the Ӝ gender, sexuality, romance headcanon meme.

Oh boy. Here we go with Part II of Pretty Boy Knights With Sugar-and-Ice Personalities and Questionable Love Lives. Part I, Lukas, can be found here. I make a couple of references to FE15 but don’t cite the details.

This. Gets. Long. Because I feel the need to justify everything.

So. With Finn we have the challenge of dealing with a character who actually got a lot of text & development for the SNES era instead of a couple of lines, a death quote, and a character ending. We have two full games with copious screen time in each, artbook scribbles, a short story, and snippets of creator headcanon. It’s the troublesome middle ground between minor SNES characters and the fully-developed but self-contained characters of, say, FE8 or FE15, because it’s like getting handed a couple of boxes of puzzle pieces and you might have to invoke the “alternate time lines and EVERYTHING is canon!” angle from FE13&14.

gender: I still think @runespoor7​ hit the nail on the g-damn head with “dmab knight” and if you really, really want to say dfab then point out Nanna’s adopted and Finn is as smooth-cheeked at 34 as he is at 15. (I don’t recommend this because then you gotta explain why he goes as far in presenting male as he does and the argument starts devouring its own tail IMO, but I wanted to point it out). But the long and short of it is, Finn’s identity is tied to his societal role, not his gender. He’s clearly been affected by the toxic patriarchy of Jugdral, but there’s something… weird… about it all.

sexuality: I’ll just say on the front end that it’s entirely plausible that in the mind of his creators, Finn never got with anyone, and that if he didn’t exist in the context of Fire Emblem: HetFest Baby Factory 1.0, we’d be having a different conversation on him. He’s not favored to win over any of the Gen1 ladies; he has not a single lovers’ conversation with them and in fact has event conversations only with Quan (who showers him with praise and presents but we’ll get to that). Skip chronologically to Leonster’s Fall and this does not in any way appear to be a young man who’s had a romance with Lachesis or any other noble lady, nor is this on his list of priorities. He’s this earnest, awkward kid who perturbs his One Close Friend with laughing/crying jags and his priorities vacillate between taking care of Baby Leif and, um, getting himself killed. There’s a LOT of weird going on here. Skip ahead to FE5 and its vague allegations about neglecting Lachesis. Skip to Gen2 of FE4, where he is left out of the HetFest. Skip to the FE5 character ending where he… wanders around in the desert for reasons unknown.

Of course he might be looking for what’s left of Quan, the lord who treated him so very well and who spoke of Finn with his dying breath, and who is clearly the titanic figure at the center of Finn’s psyche given how his life pretty much revolves around fulfilling Quan’s dreams and avenging Quan’s death. Given it takes him 17+ years that is some dedication.

(Seventeen. Years.)

Then again, there’s the moment wherein he learns that his One Close Friend, Glade, has not in fact been dead for the last decade. Finn forgets himself and lets out an “I have to see him!” at odds with everything else in his character… which gets him an earful regarding his cold treatment of women.

Oh yes, women. By some cosmic irony, the Gen1 character who seems least interested in women nets serial cohabitation with some of the most beautiful ladies in Jugdral after everyone else is dead. The multi-year relationship with Lachesis ended on a real bad note while the three-year co-parenting adventure with Eyvel seems to have been very positive and marked by a distinct lack of communication about deep and personal things.

Oh, and yes, he’s an icebox. Basically the fall of Leonster fucked him up and the change to his emotional expression was so profound a literal three-year-old (Leif) could pick up on it. Unlike Lukas, he doesn’t appear to be particularly self-aware about how he comes across and seems genuinely surprised when Selphina rebukes him for being cold to Lachesis. [ETA: Heroes!Finn appears to be self-aware on at least some level of his emotional problems.]

I don’t think this guy is straight. As with Lukas, IMO it’s just a matter of what not-straight category you want to put him in, and I personally say “bi” because I do enjoy shipping him with Lachesis and Eyvel and would prefer not to have those ships be an actual bad-faith exercise. If I were not personally invested in shipping him with a couple of fine ladies I would probably have a more restrictive answer. Again, the original context of Finn’s existence as a character is HetFest Baby Factory 1.0, and that skews things IMO but can’t completely erase the… oddities. It’s very hard to say he’s just “too young” to be chatting up ladies in Gen1 (hello Dew) and “too old” in Gen2 (hello Oifey). TL;DR I say bisexual with his relationships affected by icebox behavior and if y’all want to argue something else there is plenty and I mean PLENTY to work with.

Also you know those dom/sub graphs? Yeah he is swimming in the bottom of the Sub Zone. No arguments.

romantic: this is much easier. Biromantic, because in spite of how not-favored he is to pair with ladies in Gen1, if you did pair him with Edain or Ayra you get a scene in Chapter 7 where he refers to the lady in question with the word “ai” for love. Even if there’s a lot of embellishment of memories of a few months from half a lifetime ago, Finn thinks he loved them. There’s also the scene in FE5 where he surprises Eyvel by waxing romantic over the memory of a certain blonde archer. There’s ALSO that scene in FE4 if you paired him with Raquesis wherein Nanna asks the “But if you loved her, then why didn’t you?” sort of question and he doesn’t answer. He gets called out on his failings with Raquesis in both games and refuses to provide a defense. But he thinks he loved women, at least those particular women.

I’m pretty damn sure he loved Quan more. He carried a torch for the guy for the next twenty years.

[ETA: After seeing him in Heroes I don’t think any other interpretation beyond “He loved Quan more than basically anything” makes any sense.]

[terryblount]

Mortal Kombat 11 – Review

Mortal Kombat is more than a game: it is the closest thing we as gamers have to a counter-culture. It is an I.P. that has consistently laughed in the face of censorship boards by never compromising on giving fans the unfiltered carnage of close combat. This was literally (part of) the reason why there exists an ESRB rating system today.

What’s more, this violence is not just for looks – it is also about skill. The genius of Mortal Kombat’s formula has always lain in demonstrating the player’s fighting ability through how sadistically they can crush their opponent. You don’t just K.O. an opponent in this game; you FINISH THEM!!!

Is it weird to admire the way blood is animated in a game?

I am quite pleased to say that this 27-year-old spirit of Mortal Kombat is alive and well within the eleventh arrival. Let’s not beat around the bush here. This is essentially the perfect fighting game, and players and pros alike will surely regard it as one of the best this series has ever produced. This is because Mortal Kombat 11 manages to include every modern convention that works, while being mindful of the old-school novelties that cemented the I.P. in gaming culture.

Time and time again

In the single-player ‘kampaign’, Earthrealm yet again comes face to face with an apocalyptic threat. The story opens with a now corrupted Raiden (see MK XL) decapitating the elder god Shinnok as a message to anyone who dares to threaten his domain. This was was a most serious error in judgement as Shinnok turns out to be the son of a new character, Kronika – the guardian of time itself.

“But know this–the arc of the universe bends to my will.” – Kronika

Needless to say, Kronika is rather unhappy not just about her son being reduced to the usefulness of a bowling ball, but also due to the balance of good and evil now being uneven. She vows to restore equilibrium in the timeline up to the events of her son’s beheading, but is also aware that Raiden and the Earthrealm gang could present a troublesome thorn in her side in any dimension.

Kronika therefore merges the past and present together, and teleports an army of Netherrealm’s most formidable villains, like Baraka and Shao Kahn, from the past into the present as her insurance policy. As per usual, the player will represent the fight for Earthrealm’s fate from the perspective of Johnny Cage, Kotal Kahn, Kung Lao, and other classic and contemporary characters.

I get that the whole time travel motif has been done to death, but the team at NetherRealm have once again shown their practiced hand for storytelling. They have wisely used the motif of temporal distortion as a McGuffin to re-imagine and bring back some of the franchise’s most beloved figures for the modern gaming climate.

Johnny squared!

This makes for a deeply interesting plot with some exciting and unexpected alliances forming or breaking between characters from different time periods (because their major clashes haven’t happened yet). More than that, Netherrealm sets up the opportunity to introduce characters like Cetrion and Geras who have fighting abilities centred on the manipulation of time.

Overall the story really oozes the kind of cinematic quality that would make Marvel Studios sweat bullets. The combination of excellent graphics, captivating voice acting, and the return of favourite characters will most definitely have new fans engrossed, and old fans spiralling into nostalgia.

In with the old, out with the new

Objectively speaking, Mortal Kombat 11 plays it extremely safe. This game demonstrates the old adage that players are bound to enjoy what lies in their comfort zone, and it is not necessary for sequels to reinvent the wheel. Instead, MK 11 goes for the ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but make it a whole lot prettier’ approach.

Indeed,  MK 11 plays just as slick and precise as every game Netherrealm has developed thus far. What can be perfected has been tweaked, but a whole slew of small changes collectively add up to an experience that will still feel fresh and engaging to long-time players. Not much is new here, and I am very happy about that.

You get to see quite a lot of Sub Zero’s face in this game.

So aside from the single player campaign, the ‘Klassic Towers’ mode also makes a return in which the player must defeat a sequence of opponents to ascend up the tower. Except for infinite modes, these always end with Kronika as the final boss. Defeating her also gets you a brief cut scene that fills in some story details specific to the character you happen to be playing much like Tekken or Street Fighter.

You will not find the ‘Living Towers’ of the previous installment as Netherrealm has ditched this mode in favour of the ‘Towers of Time’. These differ from Klassic Towers in that opponents get more challenging as you approach the top, and players are also permitted to activate certain modifiers (they unlocked as loot) either for one match, or for the duration of the entire tower.

As an example, you can assign Jade one or two of Cyrax’s cyber webs to fire at her opponent stunning them momentarily. Alternatively, the match might have a vampire modifier in which the player’s health bar drains constantly to the opponent’s, so it is best to finish the match sooner rather than later. These towers can certainly get infamously punishing, but the game drowns you in rewards for completing them.

Lemme smash! This is who you will be playing in the Krypt. Note the three currencies in the bottom of the screen.

The Krypt is back again, of course. This time the event plays out on Shang Tsung’s island (see MK 2011) during which you open chests, smash vases and crush meteorites for some sweet loot and unlockable goodies. The Krypt also adopts a third person perspective now which only makes the act of swinging around Shao Kahn’s colossal hammer at vases and statues all the more gratifying.

Light puzzle solving is also a way of collecting some treasures, and it is clear that the developers really want the player to enjoy exploring for goodies to make your game more interesting. I have always been intrigued and, a little creeped out by this subsection of Mortal Kombat games, so it’s nice to see it return here. It’s really beginning to feel like a crucial component of the experience.

Kompletely Unreal

I have never been shy to express my admiration for the Unreal Engine, but what Netherrealm has achieved on a visual level in this game is outright astounding. Here we have a super modified version of the Unreal Engine 3 no less, throwing around particles and rendering high definition textures like it is trying to put Frostbite and Unity out of business.

Even though certain sections of the game have been mysteriously capped at 30fps (most of which can now be fixed by a mod), this game flows on the PC like butter down a centrefold’s butt cheek. In contrast to Mortal Kombat XL, the vibrant graphical tone of MK11 really throws the bountiful details of the visuals into sharp relief. I feel like the unique cast of characters that has always defined this series finally get the representation they deserve.

Damn this game is beautiful. This allows for particularly dramatic cut scenes.

The environments and fighting arenas have also been given the deluxe visual treatment through dramatic lighting and environmental effects. I found the arenas to have an enigmatic and refreshing feeling to them, and a particular favourite of mine became the decaying Shaolin temple where the corpses of dead monks observe your match. I clearly have issues.

They are noticeably the tightest fighting planes that Netherrealm has implemented within one of their games, but this has the pleasing outcome of somehow making the action feel closer… more immediate. The close-quarter combat also places more importance on finding openings in the opponent’s technique rather than just  flying from one combo to the next.

Combos are still just as important, but it is clear that MK 11 wants shorter, more potent moves to play a bigger role too. This means that the one guy with supersonic thumbs you always get paired with online is less safe than he thinks this time round. You know who you are!

The fatalities and other post-match tomfoolery have, naturally, also been given an obvious graphical upgrade. Seriously, seeing brains being splattered and bones being shattered in this level of realism is not at all for the faint of heart. Be that as it may, I nevertheless have a hard time imagining a more beautiful, albeit visceral fighting game.

The very definition of fighting chance

As I mentioned, the roster of fighters is a mixed bag of old and new characters including the original 7, but like all the other yobs on the internet, I feel like some characters leave a conspicuous absence. Where the hell is Goro!? I also miss, Takashi who had a snappy and responsive feel in his fighting that appealed to my playing style in the previous game.

Perhaps old Goro will get his chance with DLCs, but the roster is still a bit smaller than I would have liked. It is once again too obvious that most of us will be expected to fork out more of our hard earned cash as extra content later down the line. Netherrealm has chosen quality of quantity, but this rather anemic roster just smacks too much of leaving room for microtransactions.

At least Geras more than makes up for my four-armed favourite being conspicuously M.I.A. His time-travelling abilities allow him to execute a punch, blink back in time, and execute another attack before my opponent could even find a moment to move. I also liked the beefy, warlock look he had going on which looks particularly slick during fights. Definitely my favourite new character in this game.

Geras warping back in time behind his opponent. Cannot remember who the other is… uhm was…

It also helps that the developers have really gone the extra mile to give MK 11 a truly comprehensive and helpful tutorial segment. They even included a lesson on frame times and hit advantages – something I usually ignored and left to subconscious strategy until I actually paid attention to it in this game.

Best of all, for the really nasty combos and chained assaults the game will actually demo the move on screen with button prompts. I am embarrassed to admit that some combos in previous games took me upwards of an hour to get right. With this new system, it was ten tries tops. As such, newcomers to Mortal Kombat, and fighting games in general, will undoubtedly feel more welcome than ever before.

On the subject of techniques, MK 11 has swapped out X-ray moves for a new system called ‘Fatal Blows’. Like X-ray attacks, they are once-off, deadly attacks taking you microscopically close to your, or your opponent’s, cracking jaw and rupturing internal organs. Except there is one crucial difference: Fatal Blows can only be activated in the last third of your health.

In other words, if the player has only been maintaining a slight lead with their opponent throughout the fight, the last section becomes indescribably tense. You can no longer rely on short-distance techniques or longer combos to win because if you allow even one opportunity to have a Fatal Blow performed on you, you’re toast.

Let us have the talk

So what exactly is the deal with this grind getting everyone all upset? Well, the manner in which MK 11 deals with in-game currency makes us all want to gather our raincoats for the inevitable microtransaction storm that is surely going to hit soon. At the time of writing, MK 11 has very little to offer in the way of DLC on Steam.

Still, something tells me that this will change soon not just because this is the nature of our industry, but because fighting games are also particularly lucrative opportunities for monetisation. They always have been because it is so satisfying seeing no grey blocks on your roster, or adding some cosmetic personality to your favourite fighter.

This is my only major issue with MK 11 because it feels like there is simply too much being gated off from the player when you start the game. Every time I completed a fight, the game goes through a huge pomp and circumstance to inform me of all the different currencies I just earned. Not that the handouts are even that generous mind you.

You read that correctly. This time there is not just the Koins  used to unlock outfits, fatalities and modifiers for tower modes. Even in the Krypt, you now have to juggle multiple kinds of currency units like hearts and soul fragments if you want all off the riches the hidden content has to offer. Oh, and the Krypt chests are randomised so your friend may find a liquid metal suit for Sonya Blade in the same place you get concept art…

Playing around with some of the unlockable skins and finishing moves.

Even though I have never really cared much about cosmetic items in the games I play, I don’t like the sense of gaminess MK 11 creates with the endless pop-ups eagerly informing me how much I have earned. I am playing because I am having fun, and this just feels like Netherrealm is trying to force me into some scheme inevitably leading to microtransactions.

FINISH IT!!

In case that last section threw you off a bit, I want to state again that Mortal Kombat 11 is essentially fighting game perfection. This game is completely saturated with the kind of creative vision that has been the worked into the design of my favourite fighting games. This game looks great, sounds great and feels great.

If Netherrealm vow never to turn the superfluous currencies online into an evil plot of monetisation, I will not need another fighting game for the next ten years at least. Combined with an excellent story, this will become an essential classic in your Mortal Kombat collection.

Remember to check out our Mortal Kombat 11 performance analysis!

Tight and refined combat

Tutorial section

Story

Excellent visuals and sound

Design of new fighters

Temporal fighting abilities

Somewhat limited roster

Too focused on currencies

          Playtime: About 28 hours total. 10 hours on the single player campaign with much of the remaining time spent online.

Computer Specs: Windows 10 64-bit computer using Nvidia GTX 1070, i5 4690K CPU, 16GB RAM – Played using an Xbox Controller (Thanks to my friend Niel for lending me his!!)

Mortal Kombat 11 – Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[evelynjpeden]

Identifying Your Target Market’s Wants and Needs for Chiropractic Practices

 In the chiropractic services niche, most chiropractors are focusing upon a geographic location and general chiropractic services. This can work, but I want you to consider a slightly different strategy… Go deep into a target niche within your chiropractic services and this will bring you high quality, general chiropractic referrals.

Your Practice Must Have a Clearly Define Market Offering

Many chiropractic practices are essentially targeting anyone [already] interested in chiropractic services. While this is an effective strategy and we can help you reach this goal for your local marketing, it isn’t the only strategy to have in play.

Common Marketing Categories for Chiropractors

The standard categories that most chiropractors market to are as follows:

Marketing and SEO for Subluxation Focused Chiropractic Practices

Subluxation focused practices could be said to have a holistic, integral approach to lifestyle changes. A part of this lifestyle change could integrate chiropractic service as a preventative measure and an integrative approach to well being. However, the average person probably doesn’t know what subluxation is so this is a great opportunity to focus upon content creation that is relevant to the benefits that such an individual is seeking.

Examples of longevity and wellness topics could be ways to manage cognitive decline, avoiding depression, enhancing mobility, effective nutrition, hormone balancing, reducing cardiovascular disease risk, enhancing immune function, stress management and mindfulness practices.

By focusing online content towards these sub niches, your practice has now entered into areas that are directly within the context of your offerings, but probably not the first solution that someone interested in well being and longevity would think of as a way to experience the results they desire.

Back Pain Chiropractic Practice SEO

Back pain is a very common issue for many people, but most people who have experienced chiropractic treatments will go to their preferred chiropractor for such solutions. What you want to reach are the people who are unfamiliar with back pain solutions and those who are likely using over the counter medicine to attempt to treat their symptoms.

Here is a quick tip: go to google.com and type into the search field “my back hurts “ there is a space after the word ‘hurts’. This triggers the Google autocomplete function and Google will reveal common searches that use that phrase. Other variations are: “back pain when [space]” or “back aches when [space]”.

Now when you combine this sort of content with our local SEO services, your website becomes a powerhouse for local marketing that will drive people with the symptoms you treat to your website. Don’t just rely upon being the chiropractic practice people find when they are looking for chiropractors; instead, define the problems your target market is already searching for online outside of the context of chiropractic.

Driving Traffic to a Car Accident Injury Chiropractic Website

Chiropractors focusing upon helping car accident victims recover can also use a similar technique and discover what common problem-oriented search terms exist in addition to ranking for auto accident chiropractic services. Once again, Google autocomplete is very helpful and when combined with our chiropractic SEO services, your website articles and/or videos relating to “car accident treatments…”, “auto accident treatments…”, “car accident whiplash treatment…”, “car accident whiplash concussion…”, “car accident whiplash what to do…” are the perfect way to build trust, brand, and offer value. There are numerous additional keywords used in relation to auto accident injuries treatable within the chiropractic niche.

Boosting Visibility for Chronic Pain Focused Chiropractic Practices

Chronic pain is another massive market that chiropractors can serve. This can be addressed through chiropractic services, nutritional guidance/coaching, supplementation, exercise routines and more. There are numerous people suffering from fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel, piriformis syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, and many other afflictions that a chiropractor can help the patient to manage in a holistic manner.

Positioning Your Herniated Disc Chiropractic Practice At The Top of Google

Herniated discs affect countless people and they are looking for specific solutions online ranging from surgery to symptoms to exercises. “Can chiropractors treat herniated discs” is a long tail keyword phrase that your website should already be ranking for if this is a treatment you provide. But, so is “herniated disc treatment without surgery…” or “herniated disc lower back”.

This target market exercise isn’t complicated, but it tends to be over-complicated by the professionals who are thinking from their position of expertise outward. Instead, imagine placing yourself in your potential patient’s shoes; suffering from pain and not knowing technical terms. How would they describe what they want, feel or need?

Growing a Migraine Headache Chiropractic Practice Presence Online

Specializing in migraines is another excellent opportunity to help more people. Common autocomplete phrases include “migraine chiropractic adjustment…” or “migraine chiropractic adjustment [insert your city, state]. But even better yet, ranking “natural migraine relief…”, “migraine treatment”, “migraine remedies” in the context of your geographic market is another great way to penetrate the market and offer chiropractic as a solution.

Marketing and SEO for Neck Pain Focused Chiropractic Practices

Marketing can be a pain in the neck… Just kidding! But it really can be troublesome if you are promoting your services from the wrong perspective. As I have said before, putting yourself in the place of your prospective patient is the best way to reach them. Present the issue, demonstrate expertise, differentiate and offer a call to action.

People get neck pains for all sorts of different reasons. They might have slept wrong, had a sports injury, have a cold, have too much stress, etc. Each potential reason for neck pain can be an article. When well written, optimized, distributed and then boosted by a powerful internet marketing system such as the one Sapid Agency has, then you will reach your ideal target market.

Online Visibility for Chiropractic Practices Treating Sciatica

When it comes to treating sciatica, there are numerous causes, but the patient only wants one thing… A solution. Educational articles are interesting to people in healthcare related professions or people who are researching, but your target market wants the pain to go away.

“Fastest way to get over sciatica…”, “fast sciatica relief…”, and “sciatica quick recovery” are just a few of the autocomplete searches.

How to Market A Sports Injury Chiropractic Practice

Sports medicine is a booming industry and a great way to add value to your patients. However the best value your patients can ever receive from you is by not having to see you for sports related injuries in the first place. Every sports team in your area needs the expert advice, training and supplemental coaching that a chiropractor can share.

Obviously, your practice needs to be highly visible for sports injury treatments, but the other lesser discussed market is injury prevention. Not only can this bring you to the awareness of coaches, but gym owners, business owners and more. Injury prevention boot camps, workshops and training events are great ways to get in front of the people who need you. Not only can you help prevent injuries, but in the inevitable case one does occur, you will also be the first person that comes to mind for treatment.

A Specific Target Market Has Well-Defined Needs, Wants and Concerns

With your chiropractic practice’s marketing plan, targeting a specific niche does not mean you exclude people who are outside of your niche, it just helps you to focus your investment in marketing services and branding your practice within a specific area.

How to Select Your Chiropractic Target Market Demographics

Some important demographic factors to be clear about are the following. This doesn’t mean you can’t work with people outside of your target, it just means you focus the majority of your efforts on this group.

Age

Location

Gender

Income level

Education level

Marital or family status

Occupation

Ethnic background / language

Refining Your Demographic Niche To Create The Chiropractic Patient Avatar

Yes… kind of like the movie The Avatar… The persona or the hypothetical ideal client. What would this person be like? Identify his or her psychographics:

Personality

Attitudes

Values

Interests and/or hobbies

Lifestyle

Behavior / Activities

Sapid Agency Can Help You Reach Your Ideal Chiropractic Patients

When you become clear with who you are, who your practice serves, and the marketplace that you really enjoy working with or want to target then all the stars align. Sounds kind of woo woo, right? But there is some truth to this… Helping the people that come to you because you have demonstrated that you are an expert in one specific area will bring you more general clients per word of mouth.

When I was a teenager I played basketball and I had terrible bursitis in my knees. My dad had great success with the local chiropractor treating his back pain, and naturally, I ended up at the chiropractor’s office to treat my knees. It was an unconventional treatment for sure, but it worked and it was a better solution than becoming dependent upon anti-inflammatory medication at a young age.

We at Sapid Agency can help guide you in expanding your chiropractic practice and developing new traffic sources for your website.

We have done it for numerous clients and would love the opportunity to add you to our success list. Contact us today and our SEO consultants will review your website, market and keyword phrases we believe you should be targeting. Once we do this we will schedule a consulting call and review the path forward with you. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

The post Identifying Your Target Market’s Wants and Needs for Chiropractic Practices appeared first on Sapid Agency.

source https://www.sapidagency.com/identifying-your-target-markets-wants-and-needs-for-chiropractic-practices/ from Sapid Agency https://sapidagency.blogspot.com/2018/07/identifying-your-target-markets-wants.html

[joelsroman]

Identifying Your Target Markets Wants and Needs for Chiropractic Practices

 In the chiropractic services niche, most chiropractors are focusing upon a geographic location and general chiropractic services. This can work, but I want you to consider a slightly different strategy… Go deep into a target niche within your chiropractic services and this will bring you high quality, general chiropractic referrals.

Your Practice Must Have a Clearly Define Market Offering

Many chiropractic practices are essentially targeting anyone [already] interested in chiropractic services. While this is an effective strategy and we can help you reach this goal for your local marketing, it isn’t the only strategy to have in play.

Common Marketing Categories for Chiropractors

The standard categories that most chiropractors market to are as follows:

Marketing and SEO for Subluxation Focused Chiropractic Practices

Subluxation focused practices could be said to have a holistic, integral approach to lifestyle changes. A part of this lifestyle change could integrate chiropractic service as a preventative measure and an integrative approach to well being. However, the average person probably doesn’t know what subluxation is so this is a great opportunity to focus upon content creation that is relevant to the benefits that such an individual is seeking.

Examples of longevity and wellness topics could be ways to manage cognitive decline, avoiding depression, enhancing mobility, effective nutrition, hormone balancing, reducing cardiovascular disease risk, enhancing immune function, stress management and mindfulness practices.

By focusing online content towards these sub niches, your practice has now entered into areas that are directly within the context of your offerings, but probably not the first solution that someone interested in well being and longevity would think of as a way to experience the results they desire.

Back Pain Chiropractic Practice SEO

Back pain is a very common issue for many people, but most people who have experienced chiropractic treatments will go to their preferred chiropractor for such solutions. What you want to reach are the people who are unfamiliar with back pain solutions and those who are likely using over the counter medicine to attempt to treat their symptoms.

Here is a quick tip: go to google.com and type into the search field “my back hurts “ there is a space after the word ‘hurts’. This triggers the Google autocomplete function and Google will reveal common searches that use that phrase. Other variations are: “back pain when [space]” or “back aches when [space]”.

Now when you combine this sort of content with our local SEO services, your website becomes a powerhouse for local marketing that will drive people with the symptoms you treat to your website. Don’t just rely upon being the chiropractic practice people find when they are looking for chiropractors; instead, define the problems your target market is already searching for online outside of the context of chiropractic.

Driving Traffic to a Car Accident Injury Chiropractic Website

Chiropractors focusing upon helping car accident victims recover can also use a similar technique and discover what common problem-oriented search terms exist in addition to ranking for auto accident chiropractic services. Once again, Google autocomplete is very helpful and when combined with our chiropractic SEO services, your website articles and/or videos relating to “car accident treatments…”, “auto accident treatments…”, “car accident whiplash treatment…”, “car accident whiplash concussion…”, “car accident whiplash what to do…” are the perfect way to build trust, brand, and offer value. There are numerous additional keywords used in relation to auto accident injuries treatable within the chiropractic niche.

Boosting Visibility for Chronic Pain Focused Chiropractic Practices

Chronic pain is another massive market that chiropractors can serve. This can be addressed through chiropractic services, nutritional guidance/coaching, supplementation, exercise routines and more. There are numerous people suffering from fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel, piriformis syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, and many other afflictions that a chiropractor can help the patient to manage in a holistic manner.

Positioning Your Herniated Disc Chiropractic Practice At The Top of Google

Herniated discs affect countless people and they are looking for specific solutions online ranging from surgery to symptoms to exercises. “Can chiropractors treat herniated discs” is a long tail keyword phrase that your website should already be ranking for if this is a treatment you provide. But, so is “herniated disc treatment without surgery…” or “herniated disc lower back”.

This target market exercise isn’t complicated, but it tends to be over-complicated by the professionals who are thinking from their position of expertise outward. Instead, imagine placing yourself in your potential patient’s shoes; suffering from pain and not knowing technical terms. How would they describe what they want, feel or need?

Growing a Migraine Headache Chiropractic Practice Presence Online

Specializing in migraines is another excellent opportunity to help more people. Common autocomplete phrases include “migraine chiropractic adjustment…” or “migraine chiropractic adjustment [insert your city, state]. But even better yet, ranking “natural migraine relief…”, “migraine treatment”, “migraine remedies” in the context of your geographic market is another great way to penetrate the market and offer chiropractic as a solution.

Marketing and SEO for Neck Pain Focused Chiropractic Practices

Marketing can be a pain in the neck… Just kidding! But it really can be troublesome if you are promoting your services from the wrong perspective. As I have said before, putting yourself in the place of your prospective patient is the best way to reach them. Present the issue, demonstrate expertise, differentiate and offer a call to action.

People get neck pains for all sorts of different reasons. They might have slept wrong, had a sports injury, have a cold, have too much stress, etc. Each potential reason for neck pain can be an article. When well written, optimized, distributed and then boosted by a powerful internet marketing system such as the one Sapid Agency has, then you will reach your ideal target market.

Online Visibility for Chiropractic Practices Treating Sciatica

When it comes to treating sciatica, there are numerous causes, but the patient only wants one thing… A solution. Educational articles are interesting to people in healthcare related professions or people who are researching, but your target market wants the pain to go away.

“Fastest way to get over sciatica…”, “fast sciatica relief…”, and “sciatica quick recovery” are just a few of the autocomplete searches.

How to Market A Sports Injury Chiropractic Practice

Sports medicine is a booming industry and a great way to add value to your patients. However the best value your patients can ever receive from you is by not having to see you for sports related injuries in the first place. Every sports team in your area needs the expert advice, training and supplemental coaching that a chiropractor can share.

Obviously, your practice needs to be highly visible for sports injury treatments, but the other lesser discussed market is injury prevention. Not only can this bring you to the awareness of coaches, but gym owners, business owners and more. Injury prevention boot camps, workshops and training events are great ways to get in front of the people who need you. Not only can you help prevent injuries, but in the inevitable case one does occur, you will also be the first person that comes to mind for treatment.

A Specific Target Market Has Well-Defined Needs, Wants and Concerns

With your chiropractic practice’s marketing plan, targeting a specific niche does not mean you exclude people who are outside of your niche, it just helps you to focus your investment in marketing services and branding your practice within a specific area.

How to Select Your Chiropractic Target Market Demographics

Some important demographic factors to be clear about are the following. This doesn’t mean you can’t work with people outside of your target, it just means you focus the majority of your efforts on this group.

Age

Location

Gender

Income level

Education level

Marital or family status

Occupation

Ethnic background / language

Refining Your Demographic Niche To Create The Chiropractic Patient Avatar

Yes… kind of like the movie The Avatar… The persona or the hypothetical ideal client. What would this person be like? Identify his or her psychographics:

Personality

Attitudes

Values

Interests and/or hobbies

Lifestyle

Behavior / Activities

Sapid Agency Can Help You Reach Your Ideal Chiropractic Patients

When you become clear with who you are, who your practice serves, and the marketplace that you really enjoy working with or want to target then all the stars align. Sounds kind of woo woo, right? But there is some truth to this… Helping the people that come to you because you have demonstrated that you are an expert in one specific area will bring you more general clients per word of mouth.

When I was a teenager I played basketball and I had terrible bursitis in my knees. My dad had great success with the local chiropractor treating his back pain, and naturally, I ended up at the chiropractor’s office to treat my knees. It was an unconventional treatment for sure, but it worked and it was a better solution than becoming dependent upon anti-inflammatory medication at a young age.

We at Sapid Agency can help guide you in expanding your chiropractic practice and developing new traffic sources for your website.

We have done it for numerous clients and would love the opportunity to add you to our success list. Contact us today and our SEO consultants will review your website, market and keyword phrases we believe you should be targeting. Once we do this we will schedule a consulting call and review the path forward with you. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

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Identifying Your Target Market’s Wants and Needs for Chiropractic Practices

In the chiropractic services niche, most chiropractors are focusing upon a geographic location and general chiropractic services. This can work, but I want you to consider a slightly different strategy… Go deep into a target niche within your chiropractic services and this will bring you high quality, general chiropractic referrals.

Your Practice Must Have a Clearly Define Market Offering

Many chiropractic practices are essentially targeting anyone [already] interested in chiropractic services. While this is an effective strategy and we can help you reach this goal for your local marketing, it isn’t the only strategy to have in play.

Common Marketing Categories for Chiropractors

The standard categories that most chiropractors market to are as follows:

Marketing and SEO for Subluxation Focused Chiropractic Practices

Subluxation focused practices could be said to have a holistic, integral approach to lifestyle changes. A part of this lifestyle change could integrate chiropractic service as a preventative measure and an integrative approach to well being. However, the average person probably doesn’t know what subluxation is so this is a great opportunity to focus upon content creation that is relevant to the benefits that such an individual is seeking.

Examples of longevity and wellness topics could be ways to manage cognitive decline, avoiding depression, enhancing mobility, effective nutrition, hormone balancing, reducing cardiovascular disease risk, enhancing immune function, stress management and mindfulness practices.

By focusing online content towards these sub niches, your practice has now entered into areas that are directly within the context of your offerings, but probably not the first solution that someone interested in well being and longevity would think of as a way to experience the results they desire.

Back Pain Chiropractic Practice SEO

Back pain is a very common issue for many people, but most people who have experienced chiropractic treatments will go to their preferred chiropractor for such solutions. What you want to reach are the people who are unfamiliar with back pain solutions and those who are likely using over the counter medicine to attempt to treat their symptoms.

Here is a quick tip: go to google.com and type into the search field “my back hurts “ there is a space after the word ‘hurts’. This triggers the Google autocomplete function and Google will reveal common searches that use that phrase. Other variations are: “back pain when [space]” or “back aches when [space]”.

Now when you combine this sort of content with our local SEO services, your website becomes a powerhouse for local marketing that will drive people with the symptoms you treat to your website. Don’t just rely upon being the chiropractic practice people find when they are looking for chiropractors; instead, define the problems your target market is already searching for online outside of the context of chiropractic.

Driving Traffic to a Car Accident Injury Chiropractic Website

Chiropractors focusing upon helping car accident victims recover can also use a similar technique and discover what common problem-oriented search terms exist in addition to ranking for auto accident chiropractic services. Once again, Google autocomplete is very helpful and when combined with our chiropractic SEO services, your website articles and/or videos relating to “car accident treatments…”, “auto accident treatments…”, “car accident whiplash treatment…”, “car accident whiplash concussion…”, “car accident whiplash what to do…” are the perfect way to build trust, brand, and offer value. There are numerous additional keywords used in relation to auto accident injuries treatable within the chiropractic niche.

Boosting Visibility for Chronic Pain Focused Chiropractic Practices

Chronic pain is another massive market that chiropractors can serve. This can be addressed through chiropractic services, nutritional guidance/coaching, supplementation, exercise routines and more. There are numerous people suffering from fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel, piriformis syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, and many other afflictions that a chiropractor can help the patient to manage in a holistic manner.

Positioning Your Herniated Disc Chiropractic Practice At The Top of Google

Herniated discs affect countless people and they are looking for specific solutions online ranging from surgery to symptoms to exercises. “Can chiropractors treat herniated discs” is a long tail keyword phrase that your website should already be ranking for if this is a treatment you provide. But, so is “herniated disc treatment without surgery…” or “herniated disc lower back”.

This target market exercise isn’t complicated, but it tends to be over-complicated by the professionals who are thinking from their position of expertise outward. Instead, imagine placing yourself in your potential patient’s shoes; suffering from pain and not knowing technical terms. How would they describe what they want, feel or need?

Growing a Migraine Headache Chiropractic Practice Presence Online

Specializing in migraines is another excellent opportunity to help more people. Common autocomplete phrases include “migraine chiropractic adjustment…” or “migraine chiropractic adjustment [insert your city, state]. But even better yet, ranking “natural migraine relief…”, “migraine treatment”, “migraine remedies” in the context of your geographic market is another great way to penetrate the market and offer chiropractic as a solution.

Marketing and SEO for Neck Pain Focused Chiropractic Practices

Marketing can be a pain in the neck… Just kidding! But it really can be troublesome if you are promoting your services from the wrong perspective. As I have said before, putting yourself in the place of your prospective patient is the best way to reach them. Present the issue, demonstrate expertise, differentiate and offer a call to action.

People get neck pains for all sorts of different reasons. They might have slept wrong, had a sports injury, have a cold, have too much stress, etc. Each potential reason for neck pain can be an article. When well written, optimized, distributed and then boosted by a powerful internet marketing system such as the one Sapid Agency has, then you will reach your ideal target market.

Online Visibility for Chiropractic Practices Treating Sciatica

When it comes to treating sciatica, there are numerous causes, but the patient only wants one thing… A solution. Educational articles are interesting to people in healthcare related professions or people who are researching, but your target market wants the pain to go away.

“Fastest way to get over sciatica…”, “fast sciatica relief…”, and “sciatica quick recovery” are just a few of the autocomplete searches.

How to Market A Sports Injury Chiropractic Practice

Sports medicine is a booming industry and a great way to add value to your patients. However the best value your patients can ever receive from you is by not having to see you for sports related injuries in the first place. Every sports team in your area needs the expert advice, training and supplemental coaching that a chiropractor can share.

Obviously, your practice needs to be highly visible for sports injury treatments, but the other lesser discussed market is injury prevention. Not only can this bring you to the awareness of coaches, but gym owners, business owners and more. Injury prevention boot camps, workshops and training events are great ways to get in front of the people who need you. Not only can you help prevent injuries, but in the inevitable case one does occur, you will also be the first person that comes to mind for treatment.

A Specific Target Market Has Well-Defined Needs, Wants and Concerns

With your chiropractic practice’s marketing plan, targeting a specific niche does not mean you exclude people who are outside of your niche, it just helps you to focus your investment in marketing services and branding your practice within a specific area.

How to Select Your Chiropractic Target Market Demographics

Some important demographic factors to be clear about are the following. This doesn’t mean you can’t work with people outside of your target, it just means you focus the majority of your efforts on this group.

Age

Location

Gender

Income level

Education level

Marital or family status

Occupation

Ethnic background / language

Refining Your Demographic Niche To Create The Chiropractic Patient Avatar

Yes… kind of like the movie The Avatar… The persona or the hypothetical ideal client. What would this person be like? Identify his or her psychographics:

Personality

Attitudes

Values

Interests and/or hobbies

Lifestyle

Behavior / Activities

Sapid Agency Can Help You Reach Your Ideal Chiropractic Patients

When you become clear with who you are, who your practice serves, and the marketplace that you really enjoy working with or want to target then all the stars align. Sounds kind of woo woo, right? But there is some truth to this… Helping the people that come to you because you have demonstrated that you are an expert in one specific area will bring you more general clients per word of mouth.

When I was a teenager I played basketball and I had terrible bursitis in my knees. My dad had great success with the local chiropractor treating his back pain, and naturally, I ended up at the chiropractor’s office to treat my knees. It was an unconventional treatment for sure, but it worked and it was a better solution than becoming dependent upon anti-inflammatory medication at a young age.

We at Sapid Agency can help guide you in expanding your chiropractic practice and developing new traffic sources for your website.

We have done it for numerous clients and would love the opportunity to add you to our success list. Contact us today and our SEO consultants will review your website, market and keyword phrases we believe you should be targeting. Once we do this we will schedule a consulting call and review the path forward with you. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

The post Identifying Your Target Market’s Wants and Needs for Chiropractic Practices appeared first on Sapid Agency.

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