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Day 4, (Paris: Downtown; Châtelet, Notre-Dame, Louvre, Champs-Élysées, Trocadéro), 28-9-2019

Written by Ahmed Hassan, edited and corrected by Aya Ashraf.

After a well deserved sleep, I woke up later than usual. Finally I’m having a full downtown day! Showered and got myself ready, started my trip by going to Montmartre to meet Mohamed near his hostel.

I had to pass through Gare du Nord where I usually change for a metro, but for a change I took a bus to have a different experience. I arrived and Mohamed wasn’t ready. He had had breakfast already, so I went to a nearby Carrefour market to get breakfast. For anyone who’s travelling on budget, supermarkets are a big deal when it comes to saving money. I always go there and pay less than 5 euros for a baguette, cheese or luncheon meat, water and drink.

We Later met and began our tour from Châtelet. We passed by an old church which is called Église Saint-Eustache. I wanted to visit this since 2018 as I didn’t have the time back then.

Everything inside looked absolutely flawless, and it did remind me of Notre Dame as it was sharing the same Gothic style of interior and exterior architecture. The thing I can’t describe about churches is how quiet it feels inside, as normal street noises can never get inside and hinder worshipers from their religious routines.

It also had very beautiful statues and very detailed objects inside, which is what Gothic churches is all about.

This is where mass is being held, and it looked stunning as well.

Last but not least, the pipe organ.

We exited to find ourselves in what looked like a street festival with loud music, the streets were totally blocked for cars and only pedestrians were allowed. We had our share from that by having two free Red Bull drinks. We continued walking till we’re right behind the Louvre and getting closer to the Seine.

We were crossing the Seine when we were stopped by one of the beautiful scenes you can always see around Paris; a couple having a wedding photo shoot.

Passing through the island to the other bank, we took a d-tour to pass by the City Palace and see Paris’s oldest public clock. The clock was part of Palais de la Cité, which during the French Revolution served as a courthouse and prison, where Marie Antoinette and other prisoners were held by the revolutionists.

And of course, the famous golden gate for Palais de Justice de Paris.

We continued walking the same street and crossed Pont Saint-Michel, that’s when Mohamed had his first look at Notre Dame Cathedral. I remember the mixed feelings he had seeing it as he was excited seeing it like nothing has happened, yet sad for not being able to have the full experience of appreciating the building from inside.

Then we passed by Fountain Saint Michel in our way to the Latin Quarter.

We continued walking down the Boulevard Saint-Michel, and we were stopped by this scene that reminded me of what it feels to be single in Paris :(

Later we passed by the Pantheon, which is one of the places I strongly remember from my past trip.

Later I received a call from a friend in Paris to meet for a drink near Châtelet. Both me and Mohamed had plans to go inside Le Jardin du Luxembourg, but I left Mohamed to discover it himself and discover such a beautiful place on his own as a solo traveler.

I took the Metro to Châtelet to meet Ahmed, had a drink together in a very beautiful place called Chez Gladines Halles. We later had a walk in around Châtelet listening to his experience about what it mean to be an Egyptian living in Paris.

We passed by Centre Pompidou, a significantly known modern European art venue and museum.

The neighborhood also was near Le Marais, which is known for being both a Jewish and an LGBT district. A very Important part of my trips is to observe and compare every cultural difference.

We later split our ways near Hôtel de Ville, and the building still looks as fine as it looked in the first night.

I gotta say that one of the perks of Paris, and Europe, is that you can have multiple experiences with buildings at different parts of the day. Weather variety is also a plus for making that happen easily. Sunny, cloudy, rainy or even just at night with normal building lighting, it's always a treat for the eyes and the camera capturing it.

That being said, here are some close and clear photos of Notre Dame Cathedral from multiple angles, showing of course the status of the restoration works I found back then.

And as always, I was glad it was standing still looking all beautiful in the heart of city, drawing a very important role to the skyline of Paris.

I was supposed to get back to Mohamed, but he moved to the Louvre. That’s when a good idea popped up in my head about using another mean of transportation: Lime. Lime is a service that allows you to transport via scooters all around the city via a per-second rate that you’re paying using your credit card. Installing the app and finding a scooter with a good battery was easy, started driving and had a funny and fun experience for multiple reasons:

- The scooter’s wheels were small with no suspensions, which made the ride shakier because the vehicle accordingly picked up all the vibrations from the road, specially on Paris’s non-asphalt-paved roads.

- I didn’t have any idea where to drive! Some streets have bike lanes and some streets don’t have it. That’s when another inquiry hit me up: Can I drive that on sidewalks?

- An embarrassing moment: When I was finally reaching the Louvre, I made the mistake of my life by driving against a one-way-street on the Seine, right opposite of the Louvre.  I don’t know how in my mind that made sense that it’s okay doing that, but an alarming sound of a police vehicle coming right in front of me alarmed the hell out of me. A policeman was literally waving at me, and when the car got near: he opened the window and shouted really loud in french, with what I believe was a swear word. I felt embarrassed and ended the trip right there to cross the street and meet Mohamed in front of the glass pyramid.

We took some photos there, that’s when Mohamed started telling me about his experience of sitting in a park in Europe. He started by illustrating how people can wear a suite or be absolutely ready to make their day just by sitting on a bench and having a drink or a sandwich. He was talking when we were literally walking towards Jardin des Tuileries. He pointed out that parks allow the city to breathe because you see less buildings, and more nature and people. Jardin des Tuileries was centered by a big fountain, and contains a lot of beautiful statues and trees.

The park also faces the Egyptian obelisk of Place de la Concorde, which is one of Paris’s iconic landmarks. Concorde is one of Paris’s oldest squares, with a lot of beautiful architectural light poles and sculptures, making it an important asset of the Parisian scene.

Concorde is also at the head of Paris’s most famous street, Avenue des Champs-Élysées. We took some time visiting stores and had our first meal together in years! I didn’t take a lot of pictures because I honestly think Champs-Élysées is overrated.

We later d-toured to side streets leading to Trocadéro, to surprise Mohamed with that stunning Eiffel Tower view at night. He stood there in awe and couldn’t believe he’s alive and seeing one of the most famous landmarks on earth! By the way, that night I took my most beautiful picture ever of Eiffel tower!

What I really like about the ending of each day are those minutes in the metro or RER that I start editing and posting the daily photos and stories of my day. I might spam most of my friend’s timelines, but at least I’m documenting a day-by-day memory for myself to preserve it. I’m keeping myself away from social media most of the day and using my mobile only for photos.

So yeah, I’m back home resting, preparing for another day of my beloved Paris, appreciating the sky through the roof’s window till my eyes are shut.

As someone who’s writing that with 85 days passed of quarantining in 2020, It fills me with both happiness and sorrow. I was there, carelessly enjoying moments and taking photos while the future me is stuck at home having no clue how the future is gonna look like. Hoping for the best took a while and a series of repetitive days, but do we have a choice?

[fromthedeskofelizabeththird]

Fracture 7/10

Please note that this chapter references torture, drugging and character death. I sobbed some ugly tears writing this. It honestly hurt me

If you like Juyeon, go love on @yoosungshoodie, since Juyeon is her OC. The banner comes from @kiserusmoke!

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Epilogue | AO3| Masterlist

Three months ago

Nari’s train was running late. She frowned at the timetable, muttering to herself that of course it was . She had chosen to take it as an experiment, one that she was careful to lie to her family and friends about. As far as they knew, she was doing it for the environment, when in reality she was considering selling her car. She doubted she would be unemployed for long, but if that proved to be the case, using the bullet train would be easier on her finances than a car.

She took a seat as she waited for the next train, taking her phone from her pocket. She had been checking the business and job listings of three different news sites and loaded up the first, frowning almost immediately when the page finally loaded.

KOREA’S MOST ELIGIBLE BACHELOR: an exclusive interview with the heir to C&R

She could not deny that he was handsome, but the carefully posed photograph inside of his office only added insult to injury. It was difficult not to imagine those stern features dismissing her from C&R.

Nari opened her emails instead, scrolling through the usual spam and lingering over a particularly curious entry.

Paradise awaits you, Nari Song

With a smirk, she opened the e-mail, expecting some kind of shopping coupon or horoscope spam. The actual e-mail was even more cryptic, though, and she read over it several times to try and gauge its meaning.

Don’t you want to escape from this filthy world?

This is an invitation to paradise.

Are you suffering from your past?

We will help the pain go away.

A world filled with pleasure…

A world filled with truth…

A world with no tears….

A world with no rejections…

Accept the angel’s invitation and enter the mysterious messenger.

There was a link at the bottom and Nari clicked it, curious of the messenger and quietly acknowledging the clever marketing at play. No matter how many pretty words an advertisement had, there was no match for a person’s natural curiosity. The appstore entry was equally as vague, listed as the angel’s invitation with no screenshots. Two people before her had offered reviews, claiming their lives were changed as a result of the app, offering no further details than that. Nari read over the page twice before clicking download. She had nothing better to do, after all.

Her train arrived as the app finished downloading and she watched her screen as she gripped the nearest railing. By the first stop, she had created a login and proceeded to the opening screen, which offered no answers either, looking exactly like a messenger platform, with icons for e-mail and some form of texting function. She tapped at each, taking in the empty contact pages and coming to the conclusion that it was some kind of chat room, even if no one appeared to be online.

She was about to put her phone away, deciding to take another look later on, when the screen went blank, displaying green letters of code that she did not recognise.

Three months later

“What foods do you like?” Ray asked, arranging a fresh napkin on a saucer for his guest.

“Hmm?”

Judging from her expression, she was curious of his motives and he couldn’t find it in himself to blame her. The elixir of salvation was, after all, bitter on the senses and he did not want her to suffer any more than was necessary. The very thought of her face crumbling into one of agony left his heart skipping beats and palms clammy.

He had never been able to stand the thought of her coming to harm; had picked her out from hundreds based on that fact alone. She was different to the others: fragile and mysterious and completely out of place in the ordinary world.

“Ah! I’m sorry to ask such a strange question,” he said, “I just wondered if my cooking suited your tastes. If you’d rather something else, I can go and prepare it for you.”

“Oh,” she said, “please don’t worry! Everything here is…”

She gestured at the table, at all of the pastries and soups and other dishes that he had prepared for her.

“This is more than enough.”

“I’m so happy you think so! Although…I must say I am still curious. I’ve never had the chance to cook for someone like you before.”

“Someone like me?”

Ray blushed, realising too late that his words might come across as offensive.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to insult you!”

“You didn’t,” said Nari, her smile softening into one of sympathy. “Hmmm…let me think.”

She never got the chance to tell him, however, for C607 entered the garden and shattered the relative peace.

“Miss Song!” She called, waving and running towards the pavilion as fast as her heels would allow. “Miss Song, good morning!”

C607 had taken to her role as Assistant Park almost too well. Most of the clothes she used when in character came from her own personal collection, which she had abandoned upon her initiation into Mint Eye. The boldness of it made Ray’s toes curl; C607 discarded her beliefs as quickly as her clothes and her love for the paradise was transparently insincere.

“You weren’t in your room,” breathed C607, “I’ve been looking for you.”

She took a seat at the table and helped herself to a cup of coffee, quite deliberately not acknowledging him. He knew it was deliberate; that Miss Park had no reason to interact with him and going out of her way to do so might arouse suspicions, yet he would be lying if he said it didn’t bother him.

“Have you heard from Driver Kim?”

Nari was straight to business and Ray spotted the mean edge to C607’s smile even if she didn’t.

“I spoke to him just a few minutes ago, actually. He’s really sorry about the delay.”

“Is he…” Nari hesitated, thumbs tracing the edge of her cup, “alright?”

“Of course he is! He’s never been better.”

C607 took a sip of her coffee, leaning forward as if to whisper a secret.

“Actually,” she said, “he told me to tell you that we can leave as soon as you finish breakfast.”

Ray pretended he didn’t notice the joy in Nari’s eyes; the way she gulped down the rest of her coffee and dusted crumbs from her lap. He pretended he didn’t notice C607 reaching for her hand and guiding her away from the pavilion; away from him.

And he absolutely pretended he did not see C607 sneering over her shoulder at him.

Nari couldn’t believe her luck any more than she could hide her excitement to go home.

She all but threw her belongings together to the amusement of Juyeon, who lingered in the doorway and pointed out the things she missed.

“At this rate, that Ray guy will think you’re running away from him,” she laughed. “He is a little weird, don’t you think?”

Nari disapprovingly glanced up from her purse.

“He’s a little… enthusiastic,” she said, “but he means well.”

“Haven’t you seen those long lingering looks he gives you? I think he has a crush on you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

“I’m not being ridiculous! It’s clear to anyone!”

Nari sighed, turning to chastise Juyeon, only to freeze at the sight of her swooping forward with a cloth in her hand. It smelled of something, something sweet and artificial, and she writhed against Juyeon’s grasp, digging her nails into the nearest arm and throwing back her head to try and loosen the one gripping her hair.

She realised it was chloroform only moments before her eyes fell shut and her body limp. She stared at her own outstretched hand, reaching and flailing, convinced she would remember Juyeon’s smile forever.

Jumin’s upcoming wedding had had something of a ripple effect on C&R. For the majority of employees it was gossip; hushed comments and carefully hidden tabloids. For the other select few, it was extra work. Almost overnight, the country had grown fascinated with Nari Song, whether it was the clothes she wore, her origins, the hidden truth of her relationship with Jumin; there was some part of her that intrigued everyone.

Suddenly the PR department had not only the prospect of a scandal to deal with, but weeks of careful research into a person that ordinarily would take months. They needed answers for any given official statement and ideas for how best to build her public image, whether it was denying the engagement came as a result of a pregnancy or scripting her replies to interview questions.

On the receiving end of arguably the highest amount of fallout was one Jaehee Kang, who found herself in an endless cycle of adjusting schedules, advising the PR department, passing on memos and more.

She had come to dread it whenever Jumin called her to his office because it never preceded anything good. This time around was no exception to the rule and she mentally reshuffled all of her recent e-mails and phone calls in an attempt to gauge exactly what Jumin was about to tell her. It seemed almost optimistic to wonder if he had a new pet project in mind.

“Mr Han?” She said, after knocking at his door. “You asked to see me?”

Jumin was in the process of flipping through the pages of one of the files from the mountain at his desk.

“Ah, Assistant Kang,” he said and waved her over, though never looked up from the file. “I have a task for you. It’s of the utmost priority.”

“Of course,” she said, pulling out the notebook she had been keeping her pocket. The constant adjustments and additions and reshuffles were difficult to keep up with at the best of times and she had taken to scribbling them down where possible.

“I need you to make a cancellation.”

“A cancellation,” she said, pen at the ready. “Of which particular appointment?”

“All of them.”

Jaehee glanced up from her notebook.

“P-pardon?”

Surely she had misheard, though that hope rapidly dissolved as he finally set aside the file in his hands.

“Sorry…that was vague,” he said. “I would like for you to cancel everything in regards to my engagement. My regular business appointments may remain the same.”

He said it casually, though Jaehee could only stare. He had finalised the design for the cufflinks he would wear on his wedding day only the night before and cancelling months of work in a single day never happened without a good reason. She wondered if she ought to ask about Nari, though decided against it. If the worst truly had happened, then reminding Jumin of the incident would only make matters worse.

Instead she accepted his task and pulled her phone from her pocket after sitting back down at her own desk.

Nari….is everything okay?

Ray had spent most of the evening and some of the morning preparing dishes for Nari’s breakfast. He had chosen each and every one based on things he had watched her eat through hacked security cameras in the penthouse she called home. He had cast his mind back to mornings in which she made coffee and wrapped her arms around Jumin’s shoulders, stepping up onto her tiptoes for kisses as he picked up his cup. He had remembered chefs entering the premises and anxiously waiting at the side of their dining table until dismissed. He also remembered Nari reaching into the back of the kitchen cupboard for sugary cereal: the same sugary cereal that Jumin occasionally reached for when he ate breakfast alone.

Ray wasn’t sure when exactly he had mentally inserted himself into every situation; cooking Nari pancakes instead of Jumin Han. He was not sure when he had decided she was miserable and only he could make her smile. They were selfish thoughts, out of line with the Saviour’s teachings, but his mind drifted nonetheless.

After Nari left with Juyeon, he returned to the kitchen, sinking his hands into the steaming dishwater and scrubbing each plate at a time. Technically speaking, he did not need to undertake such a task himself. Any given believer would happily have accepted any such order. He wanted to clear his thoughts, though, wanted to scrub the scrub the plates clean where he could not his mind. He wanted to wash away Nari’s happy expression at the prospect of returning home.

He had always condemned Juyeon and her selfishness; her desire for approval more so than paradise. The irony of it was clear to him now that he wanted Nari to smile and laugh for no one but him. He wanted her to smooth the creases out of his shirt, rearrange his tie, rush to greet him when he walked through the door. Even the sting of the hot water could not erase it.

The previous night he had reached for elixir, desperate to quieten his mind and focus. It was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the dark thoughts at the back of his mind, though. The whispers that repeated everything he did not want to hear.

The saviour will use her to convert Jumin Han.

He scrubbed harder.

She will choose him at the everlasting party

Harder, he scrubbed harder.

Even in paradise, she won’t love you.

He stopped, the water from the sink spilling onto the floor.

You’re wrong, he thought to himself. You’re wrong and I’m not listening to you anymore.

He squeezed his eyes open and shut, reaching to place the dish he had been washing alongside all of the others. There was no dish, though, only his hands; hands that he had so vigorously scrubbed that they were bleeding.

I won’t listen

His squeezed his hands into fists, the sting of his broken skin satisfying on the senses.

I won’t listen.

I won’t

Posing undercover as an acolyte came with an equal amount of perks and downsides. Nobody questioned Jihyun’s ignorance on the matter of their special guest and he found that some believers had curiosities of their own. It was, however, increasingly difficult to continue feigning ignorance. Even as someone outside of the castle for an extended period of time, he should have known which rooms were normally out of bounds. Twice they caught him at the stairwell and twice he lied about his presence there. Finally, on the third attempt, he changed his tactics and told a half truth.

“I want to see her,” he said, shrugging off the believer’s hand on his shoulder. “The Saviour thinks she is special…I want to see it for myself.”

It was a risky move, considering, but ultimately one that paid off. The three of them climbed the stairs to an empty floor, eerily silent to the point that everything they said and did left an echo.

“I heard her ceremony is tonight,” said one of his group, a woman, whose pretty face lay obscured by her hood. “I overheard Mister Ray telling Miss Jenny that the elixir would be ready once he added the final touches.”

Elixir

Just the word sent shivers up his spine. He knew the implications even if he did not the finer details. Jihyun stopped in his tracks, wanting nothing more than to steal Nari away from that terrible place. He opened his mouth to demand they take him to the saviour; to tell them that he was no believer. Before he could, though, footsteps rang out in the empty corridor and his heart skipped a beat.

A handful of other believers were coming towards them, led by a woman in a magenta uniform. He knew her face, despite the fact that he had only seen her on a couple of occasions.

Back when he was still recovering from his eye surgery at Jumin’s penthouse, he had taken every chance to help Nari adjust to her new role. Sometimes that amounted to describing the personality of interviewers or the places she should avoid if she didn’t want to be swarmed by the media. At other times, his help arrived in the form of making tea and reading through the seemingly endless lists of things that needed her attention.

On a few of those occasions, Nari’s assistant had visited the penthouse, though for the most part he only ever encountered her as a disembodied voice on the other end of the phone. The few times he had seen her, she had been clutching bubble tea or informing Nari of appointments added to her schedule at the last moment. He was sure he had seen her at one of his exhibitions too, though the last time he had had one he and Rika were still together, so he was sure he must have been mistaken.

The more he thought about it, the more it made sense for Rika to plant someone like her so close to Nari and he wondered exactly how long she had been planning such a move. How long had Juyeon known about Rika’s plans? In any case, he realised that she must have been the ‘Miss Jenny’ the other acolytes had spoken of.

He clenched his hands into fists at what followed her; she led a number of hooded believers, one of whom cradled a body in their arms.

No. Not a body. Nari.

The acolyte held her with the same amount of care one would expect of a ragdoll, allowing one of her arms to dangle to the floor as the other lay crushed against their body.

All he could think about was her laughter all of those months ago. The three of them once played poker; Nari setting down her earrings and Jumin a book from his shelf. He had long wondered what to bet himself and ultimately set down an IOU.

“An IOU?” Jumin had said, examining the paper.

“Yes,” he said. “Whoever wins this can ask one thing of me in the future.”

“That’s potentially dangerous.”

“Are you suggesting either of us would take advantage of him?” Nari had laughed and, beaten, Jumin shuffled the cards.

Unsurprisingly, she won, and Jihyun knew from Jumin’s soft smile as she turned the pages of her new book that he was not the only one who had allowed her to win.

Of late, her laughter only left him guilty. It was his fault that she had been tricked into the apartment; his fault that she lay unconscious in front of him. Every time she laughed, he remembered Jumin’s lips against his own and his own deep, dark need to believe she could not be trusted.

He remembered Jumin’s insistences as they sat on the roof of the penthouse that they tell her about the kiss they had shared. He wanted her to know everything, and it was Jihyun who protested. He hated change, yet wanted everything to. He did not want to hurt her even slightly, yet wanted to steal away everything she held dear.

He was the one who couldn’t be trusted; Nari’s bright smile when she returned to the penthouse only serving as a cruel reminder of his betrayal. She was so eager to know if they had enjoyed the meteor shower and he realised too late her full intentions. It was no coincidence that she had left them alone together; that she had orchestrated everything in the hopes that they would repair their friendship.

He could not bring himself to regret the kiss, but he was sure he would regret the betrayal for the rest of his life.

“Juyeon,” he called, dragging down the hood of his cloak.

She seemed surprised that anyone had called out to her by name, though the shock left her as soon as she saw him standing there.

“Let her go,” he said, gaze drifting from her to Nari, his trembling hands breaking any illusion of composure.

“Well, well, well,” said Juyeon, approaching him in the same slow, practised fashion a tiger might. “What have we here?”

They took him to a cell in the basement. Jihyun knew from observations and conversations with acolytes that up until recently, such a thing was rarely done; it was the norm to take prisoners and any intruders before the saviour until they were cleansed and no longer deemed dangerous or, alternatively, died in captivity. For him to be isolated so quickly meant only one thing: he was considered an enemy of the organisation and if Rika came to see him at all, it would be to announce whatever torture she had in mind for him.

The guards draped a hood over his head that smelled mouldy, as if it was designated for drownings, and he choked at the smell as they pushed his shoulder to get him moving. They probably only walked down a couple of short flights of stairs, but it felt like he walked for miles. Finally, the guard tugged the cloak from his head and kicked him into the back of his new prison, locking it behind them with a mutter that they would come back once they had received orders.

“Come back and let me out of here,” Jihyun threw his body against the bars. “Tell the saviour to come!”

They did not acknowledge him, though, no matter how hard he shook the bars. He slumped to the floor despairingly, considering Nari’s limp body in the acolyte’s arms. In retrospect everything was obvious to him; he should never have suspected her, should never have fallen into the trap of questioning her intentions solely because she had won the heart of his friend. He should have told her everything from the beginning instead of succumbing to jealousy.

He wondered if he would ever get the chance to explain her current circumstances; if he would ever be able to take her hands in his and explain how he had kissed Jumin on the roof of the penthouse. The latter scared him most of all and he could not bear to imagine her reaction. In his heart, she would always be happy and smiling, brewing good coffee and pouring bad wine. She would always be the one who laughed at his double entendres and scolded him for missing meals.

And in that moment, just like Ray before him, he realised his love for her like a storm cloud overhead.

“M….Mathter V, thir,” someone mumbled in the adjoining cell, dragging him out of his thoughts. He peered into the darkness to make out the owner and gasped when he saw.

“Driver Kim!”

This was not the Driver Kim of days past, however. This man drooled blood and had cuts across his temples.

“What happened to you?” Jihyun said, holding onto the bars that separated them. “Who did this?”

Driver Kim’s eyes glazed over at the memory and Jihyun regretted asking him.

“I’ll get you out of here,” said Jihyun, seeing the occupants of the other cells for the first time. He recognised them all; had seen their faces in Luciel’s files. They were all members of the agency and all MIA. The ones that weren’t unconscious groaned in pain at their injuries, some even chained to the floor of their cell.

“I’ll save you,” Jihyun muttered. “I’ll save you all.”

Somehow.

Nari’s senses were muffled when she opened her eyes. For a moment, she thought she was back in the penthouse and half expected Jumin to be beside her.

It came as something of a surprise when she found herself tied to a chair in a strange room, arms bound behind her back and someone, whose voice she only half recognised, muttering that she was waking up.

Nari lifted her head, instantly regretting it as a sharp headache flooded her senses. She hissed with pain, leaning over until she could see straight ahead before making a second attempt to sit up.

Juyeon was standing on the other side of the room… or at least she thought it was Juyeon. This Juyeon had on a strange magenta uniform with a rose fixed to her blazer. What’s more, even though that Juyeon stared her in the face, there was no hint of recognition in her features.

“Ju…Juyeon?”

Juyeon did not reply. It was someone else who reached for her face: someone with sharp nails and a black mask that obscured their features.

“Welcome to paradise, Nari Song.”

They reached to clamp their hand down over her nose, clutching a vial of a bright blue liquid in the other. Nari clenched her mouth shut, unable to tear her eyes away from Juyeon, who watched her struggle without a reaction. Beside her stood Ray, who fiddled with his hands and avoided her gaze.

Her chest burned and she gasped for air, giving her assailant the opportunity to force the bottle against her lips. The liquid inside was bitter, burning her throat and insides, through when she tried to spit it out the masked stranger slammed her hand over her lips, forcing them shut until she had no choice but to swallow.

“What have you….done to me?” She asked, trying to spit out the remainder of the liquid, stomach churning so forcefully that she was sure she was going to throw up.  

“Please,” she murmured, the shakiness of her hands transferring into her voice. “Let me go.”

“Don’t look so sad,” they said, so close that their breath was warm against her face. “I would never hurt someone so precious to Ray.”

Nari’s heart skipped a beat and Ray called out from the other side of the room.

“Saviour-”

“You may leave.”

Nari’s thoughts had been muddled and confused even before having a chemical forced down her throat and she dug her nails into her palms in an attempt to stop the room spinning. She remembered Juyeon’s words only a short time earlier:

At this rate, that Ray guy will think you’re running away from him. He is a little weird, don’t you think?

Haven’t you seen those long lingering looks he gives you? I think he has a crush on you.

As Ray and Juyeon left the room, Ray’s hands twitching and his expression one of concern, Nari could not help but think about how comforting it was that at least one part of her stay had been real. Perhaps it was the drug, or her own fear, but when the door closed it echoed in her senses. What was going to happen to her now? She wished Juyeon and Ray would just come back, for even if their intentions were far from pleasant, she would at the very least recognise their faces. There was something strange about their ‘saviour’; a kind of familiarity that she did not understand.

“You have such beautiful eyes,” said the saviour, “I can see why Jumin favours you.”

Nari’s heart skipped a beat.

“What do you know about Jumin?”

“I know that Jumin is the CEO in-line,” said the saviour. “I know that he prefers the finer things in life… Egyptian cotton, aged whiskeys…intelligent women. Most importantly, I know that he wouldn’t let just anybody into his inner circle. Tell me, how do you find my RFA?”

Up until that point, C&R was the most obvious reason she had been kidnapped. She had, of course, forgotten that without enemies to the RFA she might never have arrived in the apartment all of those months ago.

“ Your RFA?” She said, realisation rapidly sinking in.

She finally understood why the masked woman looked familiar. Even with the mask on, her resemblance to the girl in V’s photographs was obvious.

“No,” said Nari. “You- you’re dead!”

“That’s what V told you,” said Rika, “and you must not believe his lies.”

Nari was not so naive as to think V had never lied to or kept information from her. She had watched him play poker, after all. He had an excellent poker face even as he let her win.

“I’m sure he had his reasons.”

“It seems he has already poisoned you,” laughed Rika. “I wonder what sweet promises he whispered in your ear to make you trust him so much.”

“He didn’t whisper anything! I know he’s a good man.”

Rika sighed, clearly unimpressed with her answer.

“Tell me Miss Song,” she said softly, placing a hand on Nari’s shoulder, “what are you afraid of? Shall I guess?”

“I…no…I-”

“Hmmmm,” Rika searched her face. “You stayed with the RFA even after there was no need for you to. You attend every meeting Jumin asks of you… could it be?”

She smiled cruelly, sending shivers down Nari’s spine.

“Are you afraid of being alone?”

Suddenly Nari was fourteen again, sticking pictures of idols she did not even like to the inside of her locker. Rika pressed a finger against her lips, coming to a conclusion before she could confirm or deny it.

“Sssssh, it’s okay,” she said. “In this place, no one will leave you. We will be kinder to you than the RFA. Nobody here will dictate how you dress or what you eat. We will not lie to you or ignore you, like Jumin and the rest of the RFA.”

Nari thrashed, eager to shake off Rika’s touch.

“I LOVE Jumin,” she protested. “I want to make him happy.”

Even as she said it, she knew how it sounded. She would not have believed her either.

“You’re very kind,” said Rika. “And so simple minded. What makes you so sure that he cares for you?”

Ordinarily, Nari would have been offended by such an insinuation. Ever since news of her engagement went public, she had scowled at so many articles about the status of her private life that Jumin had stroked her hair and warned her that she would age prematurely. Now, though, all she could think about was the clatter of her engagement ring against the kitchen tiles and Jumin’s words on the messenger.

Perhaps I only loved you because I thought you were something more. Perhaps you were always meant to be a stranger to the RFA. I think… that if I had not proposed to you so publicly, in such a way, I might never have married you.

Every breath left her mind and body fluttering, as if she bobbed up and down on a stormy sea. She hated herself and her own naivety. How had she never realised that she was being manipulated? How had she allowed herself into such a situation?

“He loves me!” She spat, closing her eyes. She refused to believe Jumin’s affection was a dream; just another stain in her ivory tower.

Rika seemed delighted by her responses, reaching out a finger to catch her tears.

“Jumin…loves me,” said Nari, more to herself than to Rika. “He loves me.”

He loves me.

She remembered Sarah Choi’s horrified expression as he leaned in for their first kiss; a kiss that tasted of pancakes and gave her butterflies.

She remembered how her hand trembled when he fell to one knee at the party.

She remembered the scent of roses against her skin as he sat behind her in the bathtub to wash her back.

He loves me .

She also remembered his expression in their last argument; the sound of him moving around the kitchen as she waited for him to knock on her bedroom door.

He loves me

He loves

He

She repeated it even as everything went black and her head lolled over onto her chest.

“Don’t worry,” said Rika, stroking her hair. “I’m not the same as them. I want you exactly as you are.”

She cupped a hand around Nari’s face, feeling for her breath against her skin. She had made such a powerful elixir and many people were not strong enough to survive the ordinary batches. Those that did came out transformed, butterflies from a painful chrysalis, wiser for their introduction into the truth of the world.

Nari’s breaths did not come, however. Rika’s hand remained as cold as it had always been. With a frown, she pressed her fingers against the other woman’s neck, feeling for a pulse where there was none.

She let go of Nari’s head, then, sighing deeply and crossing the room to pour herself a cup of tea.

Perhaps they were not so similar after all.

Three months earlier

[digitalmark18-blog]

Social Media Roundup: Facebook Election Preparation, Instagram Emoji Shortcuts, Pinterest Hits 250M

New Post has been published on https://britishdigitalmarketingnews.com/social-media-roundup-facebook-election-preparation-instagram-emoji-shortcuts-pinterest-hits-250m/

Social Media Roundup: Facebook Election Preparation, Instagram Emoji Shortcuts, Pinterest Hits 250M

Social media icons appearing on the display of a smartphone (Photo by Muhammed Selim Korkutata/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

“Social Media Roundup” is a weekly roundup of news pertaining to all of your favorite websites and applications used for social networking. Published on Sundays, “Social Media Roundup” will help you stay up-to-date on all the important social media news you need to know.

Facebook

Lite App Now Has A Community Help Crisis Response Tool

Facebook announced that it is rolling out a disaster response tool called Community Help for the Facebook Lite app. Community Help enables users to share updates, communicate with others and find shelters during a crisis. And Community Help will be available on Facebook Lite across 100 countries.

“Our priority is to build tools that provide people with ways to get the help they need to recover and rebuild after a crisis,” said Facebook’s Crisis Response Product Manager Jeong-Suh Choi. “By making Community Help available on Facebook Lite, even more people can get the help they need in times of crisis.”

Facebook Lite is a lightweight version of the Facebook app. Facebook Lite uses less data — which is optimized for areas with low connectivity — and it has a small file size.

SapFix AI

Facebook has created a new artificial intelligence tool called SapFix. SapFix is able to automatically generate fixes for bugs and then propose them to engineers for approval. With SapFix, smaller teams at Facebook will be able to build products with higher quality at a faster pace.

“SapFix has been used to accelerate the process of shipping robust, stable code updates to millions of devices using the Facebook Android app — the first such use of AI-powered testing and debugging tools in production at this scale,” said Facebook in a blog post. “We intend to share SapFix with the engineering community, as it is the next step in the evolution of automating debugging, with the potential to boost the production and stability of new code for a wide range of companies and research organizations.”

Zuckerberg Explains Election Preparation

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently wrote a note about how the company is preparing to defend against potential election interference issues. Zuckerberg also said that this will be the first in a series of notes outlining how he is thinking about the issues and the progress that is being made.

“These are incredibly complex and important problems, and this has been an intense year. I am bringing the same focus and rigor to addressing these issues that I’ve brought to previous product challenges like shifting our services to mobile,” wrote Zuckerberg. “These issues are even harder because people don’t agree on what a good outcome looks like, or what tradeoffs are acceptable to make. When it comes to free expression, thoughtful people come to different conclusions about the right balances. When it comes to implementing a solution, certainly some investors disagree with my approach to invest so much in security.”

In the note, Zuckerberg acknowledged that Facebook considered whether to ban political ads altogether. But the company decided against it because they believe in giving people a voice. And they did not want to take away an important tool many groups use for engaging in the political process. Zuckerberg said that this decision was not due to money because the company no longer makes any meaningful profit on political ads since the verification process is costly.

And Zuckerberg also said that one of the advantages Facebook has is that users must have a real identity. This means they have a notion of what is an authentic account. This can be more challenging with Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, YouTube, iMessage or other services where real identities do not have to be provided.

“So if the content shared doesn’t violate any policy, which is often the case, and you have no clear notion of what constitutes a fake account, that makes enforcement significantly harder. Fortunately, our systems are shared, so when we find bad actors on Facebook, we can also remove accounts linked to them on Instagram and WhatsApp as well. And where we can share information with other companies, we can also help them remove fake accounts too,” added Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg may have written this in response to a suggestion that was made while he was testifying on Capitol Hill in April. A senator had suggested that Facebook gets split into different components since the company has gotten very big. And several progressive organizations have been looking for Facebook to get its power checked by separating its social networks into independent entities. 

New Technology For Detecting Hate Speech

Facebook has developed new technology for detecting hate speech called Rosetta AI. Often times, text in various forms appear on a number of photos shared on Facebook and Instagram. So the company deployed a machine learning system that is able to extract text from more than a billion public images and video frames in a wide variety of languages.

”Our approach for training data is a mixture of human-annotated public images with words and their locations as well as synthetic generation of text on public images. As we expand to more languages, manual annotation of images becomes increasing time-consuming,” said a team of Facebook AI researchers in a blog post. “Moreover, the data distribution of textual images on Facebook and Instagram change quite rapidly and those who try to use text overlaid on images for spam or other inappropriate content continue to adapt their techniques. For these reasons, we chose to invest in a fast synthetic engine for dataset generation.”

Instagram

Emoji Shortcut Bar

That feeling when your favorite emojis are right in front of you pic.twitter.com/QPF8eGc5yD

— Instagram (@instagram) September 6, 2018

Earlier this year, Instagram started testing out an emoji shortcut bar. And now it is rolling out on Android and iOS. The shortcut bar shows emoji that you use the most on Instagram.

After you update to the latest version of Instagram, you will notice the emoji shortcut bar when you are preparing to write a comment.

The feature is being rolled out gradually so you might not see it today. But it should be available for everyone soon.

Pinterest

250 Million Users

This past week, Pinterest announced that it has surpassed 250 million monthly active users. This is up from 200 million in September 2017 and 100 million in September 2015. Over 80% of new signups are from outside of the U.S.

“We hear it again and again. Pinners across the globe describe Pinterest as their own positive corner of the internet. It’s where they go to learn about their personal tastes, and get the confidence to try new things,” said Pinterest co-founder and chief product officer Evan Sharp. “According to a Nielsen study, 98% of Pinners go out and try ideas they find on Pinterest—way more than the 71% social media platform average. Other apps are about connecting with friends and inviting more people to join. Pinterest is your place to reconnect with yourself.”

Over 175 billion pins have been created by users, which is up from 100 billion a year ago. Some of the most popular uses are pinning products they love, style ideas, art and DIY projects.

Earlier this year, Forbes reporter Kathleen Chaykowski wrote an article about how Pinterest hired former Square and Google executive Francoise Brougher as the first COO of the company. This move signals that Pinterest may be preparing for an IPO in 2019. And it has been reported that Pinterest is expected to double its ad revenue to nearly $1 billion.

Snap

CSO Imran Khan Is Stepping Down

According to an SEC filing, Snap’s chief strategy officer Imran Khan is going to be stepping down. Khan submitted his resignation on September 6th as he will be pursuing other opportunities.

Khan will continue to serve as chief strategy officer for an interim period in order to assist with an effective transition of his duties. His last day of work has not been determined yet.

The filing says that Khan is not leaving Snap over any disagreements with the company.

Spotify

Download Limit Upped To 10,000

Spotify has increased its 3,333 song download limit in the latest software update. According to Rolling Stone, the limit has been increased to 10,000. This new limit is per device for five devices.

This feature is especially useful for people who have long commutes or travel often. And it can also be handy while you are in the gym.

“At Spotify, we’re always working on improving the experience for our users. We can now confirm that we have increased the number of offline tracks per device — from 3,333 on three devices to 10,000 tracks per device for up to five devices,” said a Spotify spokesperson via Rolling Stone.

YouTube

Popular Little Baby Channel Gets Acquired

Little Baby Bum, a popular YouTube channel, has been acquired by Moonbug according to a Bloomberg report. Little Baby Bum has seen all of its nursery rhyme videos viewed billions of times on YouTube. One of the channel’s hour-long videos has been watched over 2 billion times.

Little Baby Bum is the ninth most watched channel on YouTube. And the channel has more than 16 million subscribers. In total, Little Baby Bum’s videos have been viewed 17.5 billion views.

One of Moonbug’s founders Rene Rechtman is also known for overseeing the acquisition of Maker Studios for more than $650 million by Disney back in 2015.

The value of the deal was undisclosed.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/amitchowdhry/2018/09/16/social-media-roundup-facebook-election-preparation-instagram-emoji-shortcuts-pinterest-hits-250m/

[chrissyrholmes]

Getting Traction for Your Newly Launched Website

Website Launch Day. How it Goes, Every.. Single.. Time..

Day 1. Your site is now live. It is the best thing ever. Install Google Analytics. Remember to write a privacy page and disclaimer page about Analytics and cookies. Sit glued to your Analytics account for the rest of the day tweaking every aspect in the Analytics console. Oh yeah, while we’re at it, don’t forget to add the site to Google search console too. Great. Done. Sit back and relax. Have a beer. You have done well young Padawan.

Day 2. Enthusiastically dive into your Analytics account. “Hmm, not many views today. Ok I will give it some time.”

Day 3. Open Analytics. “Oh I have a couple of clicks. No, wait – those were me. Doh.” Hound a bit on social media about how great your site is… Check back on Analytics.

Day 4. WHY YOU NO VISIT MY SITE?!?!?!?

Day 5. Distress, sadness, and an overwhelming feeling of failure. “Maybe I’m not cut out for this web design lark?”

The Freelance Designer Toolbox Unlimited Downloads: 500,000+ Web Templates, Icon Sets, Themes & Design Assets

DOWNLOAD NOW

Newsflash

You are in this for the long haul and I am afraid to say there are no easy routes to success here. I am here to tell you it’s going to be tough. Perhaps tougher than you think. Have you got what it takes to succeed? Good! I admire your determination. Now, read on and find out about tried and tested ways to get traction for your website.

I hate to say this, but without visitors your website is dead

No matter how innovative the product or service is, or how asthetically pleasing the design, if people are not visiting your website the simple fact is – it is a dead website. The thing is though, you think your site is brilliant, and do you know what? It probably is! But who cares?! Who knows about it? Why should a perfect stranger be interested in it?

You could use social media or send out press releases, but with so many brands clamouring for attention, those messages can often have little effect.

Without Good Content Your Website is Dead

Again, it could be visually the best thing ever, but if there is no content, nothing of real substance, it is a dead website. Content is everything. Think carefully about headlines for page articles. Keyword research will help you a little here but use it as a guide only.

If your site is not primarily a blog, think about adding a blog section. It can be tough and hard work, but a blog is very important . Write at least 1 or 2 articles about your field every week. Let the world know you are an expert in your field. If you are not an expert, give them another reason to visit. Matthew Inman gets visitors by making people laugh. It might not work for everybody, but it sure worked for him. (5 million monthly views).

Give people what they want. Make your ‘about page’ about the visitor, not about you, i.e. written with them in mind. Enlist the help of a skilled copywriter if you feel out of your comfort zone. Most web designers probably are in this regard. They can make a site work well and look nice, analysing the code in depth. As for writing about themselves and their business in a compelling and engaging way, that’s another matter entirely.

First Things to do After Your Site is Launched

Get your site indexed. Submit your url to Google. You should also consider submitting it to Bing and Yahoo as well. You don’t necessarily have to do this as the search engines will pick up your website in time. However, this step will often speed up the process. (We give Google particular attention as they are the biggest player with over 70% of the world’s market share of search.)

Submit a sitemap in the Google search console and check that there are no issues with the site and that your site has a robots.txt file.

Keep calm. Frantically changing things around too soon won’t do you any favours in the search results, especially if it is a newly registered domain. Give it some time. Keep drip feeding new, quality articles periodically over the next couple of weeks.

Pitfalls to Avoid

1) Write for your users, not for robots. It’s ok to listen to SEO advice but if you are not careful your articles will lose their appeal and become spammy and your readers will not appreciate it. This has been said before, and many so called SEO experts that have fixated on certain things are having to constantly re-evaluate their approach.

If you want your site to do well in the long term, filling your page and site with spam is not going to work. Google is constantly looking at this. Do it right and you will be rewarded. Write content for your user first, and for search engines second.

2) Avoid any tool that says it is easy, quick, or cheap. Anyone making you promises in that regard will only do you harm in the long run.

Tried and Tested Tips that Work

Here are some top tips from people at the top of their game who have either tried this or witnessed first hand what happens when people do. These are not just my words, they are things that have been proven to work.

1) Invest in a short, aesthetically pleasing video.

“If there’s one thing every startup should invest in, it should be a short, aesthetically pleasing video that explains exactly how its product works. As a journalist covering startups, I guarantee no amount of selling a concept over the phone is as effective as a well-produced video that clearly communicates the benefit of the app or software. If there’s a good video, I almost always embed it in my article. Bonus points if it’s funny.” Omar Akhtar is the senior editor for The Hub, based in San Francisco

2) Write an article for a popular online resource in a similar field. Often you will get a credit and link to your website.

3) Offer something for FREE: Like an ebook, website template or plugin (maybe you have some code for a project that never saw the light of day) and then aggressively promote it. It will definitely attract a lot of new visitors. For web designers, try to get a free theme featured on WordPress.org and make sure to link to your website, or create a free theme in a niche that people are looking for and feature it prominently directly on your site. It will help immensely.

4) Submit your page to StumbleUpon. Be prepared to expect a high bounce rate, but it can create interest (sometimes a lot of interest at once). That said, it can be very hit and miss, so there are no guarantees here. People have also reported success with their paid results, but here we are particularly looking at organic methods.

Other Tips

Performance. Look at page speed (or site speed). Yes Google has made page speed part of its search algoritm, so it’s going to affect your search engine results (to what degree I am not sure, but it’s a fact). However, more importantly, people aren’t likely to stick around or come back for more if your page takes an eternity to load. This applies even more so to mobile. Start with your theme, keep it clean and functional. Don’t do with an image that could be done with css. Optimise images (especially for small screen widths). Look carefully at your typography and ensure it reads well on all devices.

HTTPS? Regarding search engine results, the jury is still out on this one for many people. Clearly if you are selling online or passing sensitive information an SSL is a must. Since you are just starting out you won’t have the worry of losing your position in Google so it’s probably a good idea to start with HTTPS from the off rather than have to switch down the line. The web is certainly moving that way, and it will show that you value your visitors security, which is always a good thing, and can go a long way to building trust.

Link building. Just to be clear here, we are talking about building meaningful relationships with other website owners and working to build a meaningful brand online. This takes time. We are not talking about artificial manipulation of the search engines with spammy link building campaigns.

Get social. Love it or loathe it, you cannot really afford to ignore social media. Promote your website on Twitter and Facebook. Whilst you may want to utilise some automated tools for sharing your articles (time is precious after all) remember to keep the human element, engaging with your followers whenever possible.

Learn from your mistakes. Of course, success comes from doing things “right”, but when you are just starting out you will likely make many mistakes. Don’t let fear of failure stop you. Successful people have often made a lot of mistakes, but the key thing is that they don’t quit. They keep moving until they arrive at their goal.

Above all else – Be patient, be persistent and keep positive.

Let’s face it, there are not many overnight sensations when it comes to a website. There may be the odd exception of course, but if you are like the vast majority of us, it is going to take time. Try to avoid the temptation to take shortcuts – to the dark side you will stray!

Ok, there is nothing new here. It has all been said before many times, but it is worth repeating. Be determined, and your hard work will pay off. 3-6 months of following the above advice and your site is bound to be getting relevant traffic and traction.

from Web Designing https://1stwebdesigner.com/getting-traction-newly-launched-website/

[hydrus]

Version 252

windows

zip

exe

os x

app

tar.gz

linux

tar.gz

source

tar.gz

I had a busy but great week. I fixed some things, moved some long-term jobs forward, and made an important improvement to the shortcut engine.

duplicate filter

Skip this if you aren't interested in testing the dupe filter in an unfinished and currently frustrating state!

I did not have time to add the content merge options, but I have added the batch processing workflow, which I am generally pretty pleased with. I have simplified last week's complicated shortcuts and set middle-click now to 'go back one', just like the archive/delete filter. If you are enthusiastic about testing this, please try the duplicate filter out again and let me know if it makes sense.

Unfortunately, while I was testing this more this afternoon, I discovered the neat new algorithm I have for presenting more useful pairs in order is running super slow on real world clients with tens of thousands of potential dupe pairs. It takes my client 1-20s to launch the dupe filter now, which is obviously something I need to fix for next week.

But if you are prepared to sit at 100% CPU for a little bit, please try the dupe filter for a little bit. If you like, you can report how many 'potential matches' you have and how long it took to launch.

I am confident I can get the merge and delete content options ready for next week, at which point this should be a functional prototype!

shortcuts overhaul ongoing

In doing some duplicate filter stuff, I first needed to do a bit more on the new shortcut engine I have been cooking up. This job started being simple and then spiralled out into a significant rewrite/update of the core shortcut processing systems across the program.

The upshot here is that I have converted the old shortcuts in the file->options dialog to a new and better engine and I have completely replaced 'custom filters' with a single button that just turns a media viewer's shortcut sets on and off dynamically.

The 'shortcuts' page of file->options is gone, and now there is a dedicated and centralised file->shortcuts. The old 'options' shortcuts have been split into multiple smaller 'reserved' sets that are only active in certain contexts. For instance, the 'media_viewer' shortcuts are active on any media viewer canvas, including the preview window. Sometimes multiple shortcut sets can be active at the same time.

The change was so significant that I have reset all these main shortcuts back to default. There are some new defaults, as well--ctrl+r now does 'remove_file_from_view'.

In the same manage shortcuts dialog you can create new 'custom shortcuts' sets that you can turn on and off using the new keyboard button icon on any media viewer's top hover window. These custom shortcuts support content 'commands', so you can make 'ctrl+t' mean 'give the file "tag later" on "local tags"' or '1' mean 'give the file "1/5" on rating service "my rating"'.

If you used the old 'custom filter' system, you should be familiar with this stuff. Your old custom filter sets are now 'custom shortcuts'. Since custom shortcuts sit on top of the existing shortcuts, you should go into your custom sets and clear out old and invalid 'regular' actions (like 'archive' and 'frame_back') that custom filters inherited from the old 'default' set.

There is more I want to do with this system. Not everything is working yet, but I expect to finish off this update step over the next few weeks. I would appreciate feedback. If you want to recreate your preferred 'reserved' shortcuts, you can, but I will likely be resetting the whole system again in the near future, so you may wish to wait.

arch linux gif crash

Users on the Arch Linux package (or who otherwise run from source) may have encountered a crash when viewing any gif. This was due to an imperfect opencv/ffmpeg release. The problem is now apparently fixed and a new version of opencv is out, so if you have had this, please update your libraries again!

full list

the duplicate filter now processes pairs in batches and hence supports 'back' actions to revisit decisions. you will be prompted every fifty or so pairs to commit and checkpoint your progress

the duplicate filter now presents related pairs together, rather than picking at random

fixed a bug in duplicate filter shortcuts initialisation

simplified duplicate filter default shortcuts (these will be overwritten on update) to only use simple left- and right-click for 'this is better' and 'alternates', since those are by far the most common actions. middle-click now goes back, like the archive/delete filter

converted old 'main shortcuts' system to the new shortcuts system, also splitting it up into 'media', 'main_gui', 'media_viewer', and 'media_viewer_browser' constituent parts that will be applied in different contexts

because the change is so significant, all clients will have their old 'options' shortcuts reset to the new default--I expect to expand shortcuts further in the next few weeks, so this default-overwriting will likely happen again, so you will likely wish to wait before recustomising your basic shortcuts

completely eliminated the old main shortcuts system--all references now bodge with the new system to varying neatness

as the old main shortcuts system no longer exists, the 'shortcuts' page on file->options is gone--all shortcuts are now managed through file->shortcuts, which is a completely revamped version of the custom filter shortcuts editing dialog

selecting shortcut commands is significantly simpler for the reserved shortcut sets

all media viewers with hover windows now have a 'keyboard' shortcuts icon button on their top hover window--it links to the manage shortcuts dialog as well as the current active custom shortcut sets and default custom shortcut sets

as the above system supercedes the old custom filter system, custom filters are completely removed from the program! your existing custom shortcut sets will survive, but you probably want to purge them of all the redundant junk they still have

all the media canvases use the new shortcuts system

the canvas frame uses the new shortcuts system

the thumbnails canvas uses the new shortcuts system

the main gui uses the new shortcuts system

some other misc places use the new shortcuts system

most simple shortcut command actions have been renamed to be more readable

some shortcut actions, like zoom stuff, is no longer hardcoded!

mouse shortcuts are still not widely supported!

the shortcut command edit dialog now throws a veto-driven error message if you try to ok on an invalid command (a blank services choice or action string, that sort of thing)

ctrl+r is now 'remove_files_from_view' by default. the old 'show_hide_splitters' is now ctrl+shift+r by default

the preview canvas, if focused, now responds to many normal media viewer shortcuts (content stuff like archive/manage tags, and canvas-specific like frame back/forth, zooming and panning)

the new shortcut system now interprets double-clicks of any mouse button to be a second single click

the new shortcut system correctly 'flips' ratings on and off, rather than always 'setting' to the chosen value. optional 'set only' support will come in the near future

more shortcuts will correctly and reliably propagate to canvases when any part of a hover frame has focus

fixed a conflict between the new shortcut system and taglists, which were no longer accepting otherwise interesting keys, like enter

created a shortcuts manager cache that deals with a bunch of the shortcut workflow centrally

completely eliminated the old accelerator table/menu command system for the main gui window

lots of misc shortcut-related work

fixed wildcard file search predicates that are on a specific file service and have no namespace (like 'mar*')

certain routines that can cause mass refreshing of the menubar (like import folders) will now not spam (and often queue this spam up and hang the gui) the menu so much. the menubar will now always collapse multple overlapping refresh calls to reduce cpu load

fixed a focus-None issue in the new hover window focus detection code

improved some more focus detection and comparison logic--quick rating-scrolling in the media viewer should be less janked

improved 'touch' drag event detection and improved media canvas cursor hide/show logic in general

fixed '&' display in notebook page names

fixed '&' display in some common dialogs' text

wrote a new statictext class that deals with '&' better and in future will autowrap and maybe some other stuff and then switched most of the simple instances of wx.statictext over

updated some out-of-date server help r.e. admin service initialisation

converted a little of the help on custom filter->custom shortcuts. I'll do more in future

wrote a simple checkboxlist dialog

misc cleanup

next week

I want to get the duplicate filter ready for proper use and wider testing.