#like it makes sense for messenger or photo/video based things

[kradnie]

I hate you screenshots of long text I hate you screenshots of long white text on black background I hate you screenshots of purple text on black background i hate you screenshots of dark purple tags on a black background WRITE IT OUT IN THE POST BODY FOR FUCKS SAKE

[dilliebar]

The Story of Dinah: A TLOUP2 Theory

Hey guys! So during this quarantine I’ve been looking for stuff to do to keep myself busy, and among playing The Last of Us for the billionth time I also decided to continue analyzing the content we’ve gotten so far. Tbh I gave up a while ago trying to find out what’s gonna happen in TLOU2, but after one google search, though, I actually think I’ve found a pretty solid theory that explains a lot of what we saw in the trailers/screenshots/etc.

!!! Note that this does include content from the leaked gameplay videos and from the leaked screenshot that surfaced a while ago. only read on if you’re okay with knowing spoilers !!!

**Note: I was not raised around a specific religion and my only knowledge of the subject has come from what I’ve read on the internet and the information I’ve gained from different Jewish and Christian interpretations of the passages talked about in this theory. None of these are my personal opinions and please correct me if anything is misinformed. Thank you.

So the majority of us know that something is going to happen to Dina and/or Ellie, and the first question is, what?

Well, obviously what’s different from the original game and p2 is that p2 is going to have to do a lot more with religion, as Dina is confirmed to be Jewish and we also have the Christian group, the Seraphites. The theme of religion is pretty much the basis of this theory, and it all starts with the origin of Dina’s name.

Now when you probably saw the title of this post you were like “yo that’s not how you spell her name”, and that, my friend, is where you’re wrong. After digging a little bit into the origination of Dina’s name, I found that it stemmed from the Hebrew name, Dinah. The first famous holder of this name was a woman who had a small, yet significant role in one of the books of the Jewish bible (or the Torah, please correct me if I’m wrong). Now, I would’ve written this off as a coincidence, but after looking into the story of Dinah I noticed some similarities between her story and bb Dina.

The passage basically tells the story of Dinah, who ventures out to meet the people of the world, and while doing so is sexually assaulted by the prince of Shechem. When her two brothers hear about this, they’re enraged, and slaughter all of the men in the city and rescue her.

The reason this caught my eye is because Dina and/or Ellie being sexually assaulted is a pretty common theory among the fandom right now, and after applying this to the trailers, screenshots, leaked footage, and the leaked screenshot, it makes a lot of sense, especially with Dina being Jewish. So without further ado, let’s look at what this means for the story.

                                               I. What Happened

So if we’re following the original story of Dinah, the first thing that would happen is that Ellie and Dina head out on patrol the night after their kiss. Obviously this would mostly serve as a tutorial-like introduction, but it would also serve as the setup for the rest of the game. This is where the basement scene comes in, in which both of them are attacked and/or assaulted, and for whatever reason, they take Dina and Ellie escapes.

A lot of people have been speculating that the game revolves around the sole idea of revenge, and while Ellie’s clearly pretty jazzed off about whatever happened in the gameplay and release date trailers, it’s likely more of a “side quest” aside from her actual goal: to get Dina back. Naughty Dog games in the past, including The Last of Us, have always had a certain goal in mind that you’re working towards throughout the game. This also aligns with the story of Dinah, as she isn’t killed, but taken.

In addition to the supporting story, much of the leaked footage aligns with this, as well. For example, in the leaked gameplay in which Ellie wakes up bruised and beaten in a theater and calls out for Dina and Jesse, but why would Dina be there? If Ellie’s main goal is to get revenge on the group who wronged them, then neither Dina nor Jesse being there would make a whole lot of sense unless they all just want to have one big traumatic experience together; however, if Dina was taken, it would make sense as to why Ellie and Jesse would go after her, because they both have strong feelings for her, want to get her back, and want to seek vengeance. At the same time, by the cuts and bruises littering Ellie’s back, we can see that something clearly went down very recently, which was likely the rescue of Dina. We can also confirm that this wasn’t a dream or some wacky acid trip, too, because in the leaked screenshot we can see Ellie and Dina exploring Capitol Hill in Seattle together.

Now of course we all want to know that Ellie and Dina live happily ever-after, and this might (?) be true according to the story of Dinah, in which both of the brothers (represented here by Ellie and Jesse) return safely home with Dinah. Since this is where the story ends, is this where the game takes a twist? Possibly, but we’ll never know for sure until we play it. 

                                               II. Whodunnit?

Alright, so I’m gonna break this down into the two groups that are confirmed to be in The Last of Us 2: the Seraphites and the WLF. Though none of this is stemmed from the story of Dinah, the biblical meanings behind their names matched up pretty darn well with what we know about them already. 

Now, the thing is, after trying to look up the Hebrew origination of the word “seraphite”, I found that it wasn’t actually a word at all. What I did find, however, was the definition of the word “seraph” which is “of the highest order of the nine-fold celestial hierarchy, associated with light, ardor, and purity”, with another description being a “six-winged angel”. The Latin suffix, “-ite”, means to be a follower. In other words, the Seraphites see themselves as either messengers or followers of god. This description makes a lot of sense, as in the trailer with the mystery-woman, the Seraphites say to “clip her wings” in reference to Yara.

When it comes to the WLF, the meaning behind their name is much more simple. As we can recall from the gameplay trailer, we hear the Seraphites shout out “WOLF!”. In addition to this, poster released shortly after the mystery-woman trailer portrays a wolf shaped by flames. Thus, I decided to look up the biblical meaning of a wolf, as the two groups are likely at odds. Unsurprisingly, the term “wolf” is generally used to describe those who pray on the weak.

After looking at these two groups, I concluded that the culprit is ultimately the WLF for a few reasons:

1. The meaning of the wolf in a biblical context (which was first mentioned to describe one of Dinah’s other brothers, by the way)

2. In the release date trailer, we can definitely see the attire of those who attacked the two. They’re wearing jackets; the man who initially attacked Ellie is wearing a cap. If we look at the gameplay trailer, the Seraphites distinctly wear robes, and so they are likely out of the question.

3. In the release date trailer, Tommy says “you don’t know how large that group is; how armed” all the while displaying a group of men with guns, and one verrrryyy important dude that I haven’t really seen a lot of people talking about. And that is this guy: 

OK, I know, it doesn’t seem like that big of a revelation but take a look at this guy’s face, and then scroll back up to the beginning of this section. Look similar? They’ve got the same hair, skin tone, attire, etc. In addition, the people with guns in the photo also have similar attire and weaponry to those in the release date trailer. At the same time, in the basement scene, we can also see a man in similar attire and a similar skin tone holding Ellie down (though to be fair, we can’t see his face, and so this may not be the same guy, but the attire definitely separates them from the Seraphites). 

Did maybe the Seraphites get a lil’ chilly and decide to wear jackets if the attacked Ellie and Dina? Maybe, but my bet’s on the WLF.

                                   III. Patching Up the Plotholes

Alright, so this theory definitely leaves a couple of plotholes that I wanna possibly cover (though it should be noted that these are speculation):  

1. As we see multiple times in both the screenshots and gameplay, Ellie entered Seattle alone. Where did Jesse come in?

2. Joel is in multiple screenshots, and also talks to Ellie in the release date trailer. What does he got to do with this?

So first of all, answering the question of where Jesse came in is fairly easy to answer, and it’s that he followed Ellie. As seen in the release date trailer, about a handful of people in Jackson left to go out on patrol other than Ellie and Dina, one of them being Jesse. Given the incident that happened in the basement, I’m guessing Ellie didn’t decide to keep scavenging for supplies and returned to Jackson early in order to recover and spread the news, which means Jesse likely wouldn’t have been back yet, and didn’t hear the news and go after Dina until he returned to Jackson. Then the question of the change in seasons comes into play. If this theory is true, I’m guessing that the basement scene took place near the end of winter, while Ellie/Jesse going to Seattle took place in early Spring, or that Ellie/Jesse left as soon as possible and the journey took longer than expected due to multiple obstacles like what happened in the first game. 

Now, when it comes to Joel, I returned specifically to the story of Dinah. A while after the incident, when Jacob (the father of both Dinah and the brothers) is blessing his children, he expresses his disappointment in the two brothers as “in their anger they slew men” and “cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel”. Based on this, I believe that the multiple screenshots from the game are in the context of Joel expressing his disappointment in Ellie, as she likely went out of her way to kill more people than she had to in order to get to Dina. This also correlates to the reveal trailer in which Joel says “you really gonna go through with this?” and Ellie replies, “I’m gonna find, and I’m gonna kill, every last one of them”. 

                                                  ~Conclusion~

Alrighty, so that’s pretty much it. Again, I don’t know if a lot of the biblical stuff is accurate since I wasn’t raised in a strictly Jewish nor Christian household, but I was intrigued by some interpretations and frankly I really wanted to get this out and see what everyone else thought about it. Please, if you have any additional thoughts about this, correct something I said, or point out any other plotholes, leave a comment! I’m in desperate need for some TLOU2 action.

[charliesopus]

I love reading people's stories of how their Deities found them, or they found their Deities and so I thought I'd share mine for others to read.

So I started to open up to the idea of the Old Gods after being atheistic for most of my life. I did always think the concept of multiple gods made more sense to me but didn't know it was... okay to worship them (it shouldn't have mattered but you know). So instead of pursuing that, and only ever hearing that the Christian God was acceptable (not from my parents, they always let me make my own choices, I just mean in general), I just chose not to believe in any higher power. It just didn't sit well with me.

Then months ago, I started to research into healing crystals, which evolved into learning about witchcraft, along with me meeting someone incredibly well-versed in all things spiritual who helped to open my mind to new concepts, accept things that I had deemed non-existent and answer difficult questions I had; I started to open up spiritually and I learned a LOT about polytheism and just how accepted it is.

Initially I started in the Egyptian pantheon, I mean, I loved Egypt since I was a kid. But after much research on all the Egyptian Gods, none really felt right to me. I really liked Bast, but it never actually clicked, you know? Then somehow the Greeks caught my attention. I don't honestly know how, or what did it but it did, so after getting attached to the Greeks, I then got attached to Athena. I felt I resonated most with Her. But after months of reaching out to Her I got no response at all and was feeling really down and well, disappointed to be honest. I didn't know what was wrong with me, why she couldn't hear me, why I couldn't hear her, or why she didn't want to work with me.

Then one day I was outside in my yard with my son,  and suddenly,  out of absolutely nowhere, this HUGE mass of hawks came circling overhead (I'm like 80% sure they were hawks) and I mean, it was a lot, it was a terrifyingly beautiful sight. Then they abruptly left, just as suddenly as they came. They were only there a very, very short time. I definitely felt it was a sign but had zero ideas on what it could mean. I asked my spiritually-inclined friend, but he said he couldn't say for sure, but just to be more aware from then on. I started researching hawks. I now feel that swarm of hawks had to be Apollo's first sign to me after reading a bunch of places that hawks are messengers of sun deities and that He's often associated with hawks as well as the ravens and crows. 

Then I stared noticing His name popping up in my head all the time, or I'd catch myself thinking of Him with having no idea where the thought originated from. This went on for a few weeks and I kind of kept shoving it off because honestly I'd never even considered working with Apollo. 

Then, now this is the craziest (and the hawks were crazy), I was putting my son to bed one night and he headbutted me right in the nose (by accident. Toddlers, it happens) so then I was just laying there in bed with him while he fell asleep, my nose and head throbbing something fierce and I took the opportunity of quiet to try reaching out. 

At this time I was still trying to get Athena's attention so I asked Her to please give me some indication She'd like to work with me. Feeling very unsatisfied I started talking to Apollo. Just kind of like to say hey,  see what's been going on since He's been in my thoughts so much.

Then,  suddenly,  there was this... click? in my head. Like, an audible snapping sound. I can't describe this well,  it's difficult. Obviously a snapping in your mind sounds bad,  but it was very subtle, not dangerous sounding or anything. Nonetheless,  my throbbing nose and head instantly went away! In fact, I hadn't felt so good and clear headed in a long,  long time.

That was my moment.  My revelation. My epiphany. It was truly an indescribable experience. Apollo is the God of healing after all.  Who else could it be? I knew I needed to stop shrugging off those thoughts and acknowledge Him. I mean, He really couldn't have been more clear with me.

And here we are, He's brought so much light and warmth to my life since then.  I'm so grateful He chose me. And can't imagine that I'd ever thought Apollo wasn't for me. Not to mention how incredibly honored I feel that He chose me. I am so excited to see what guidance He has for me,  what I can learn from Him. 

It was very emotional for me to accept that Athena didn't want to work with me,  and I had a very emotional sit down the next day with Her and I thanked Her wholeheartedly for anything She has helped me with,  known or unknown,  while sobbing and letting all of those emotions out. I can't help but feel that perhaps I'm just not ready for whatever wisdom She has for me. Or perhaps She feels I am just fine and there's nothing I need Her guidance for. 

Either way,  that allowed me to open myself up completely to working with Apollo and trying to communicate with Him and learn from Him.

I'm not great at communicating yet; I have a lot of barriers to break through from all those years of insisting there is no Divine being, but I am working on it,  and I'm so excited to see what the future holds with Him. ☀️

*This is the video I managed to capture of the birds. This was at the end as they started to disperse, so there were more a few seconds prior, and more all around outside the frame too. I just focused on the most concentrated spot. It was a sight to see!

**If anyone can identify these birds as something other than hawks, please enlighten me! I am no bird expert. I assumed they're hawks based on seeing hawks often in my area, and from cross-referencing their size and wing shape from the video and photos online as best I could.

[tgu1994]

Ex #3 - Introduction

So though this is not in numerical order, I’m going to first introduce you to ex #3, of whom I’ll probably refer to as “Ex #3,” or “my French boyfriend.” If you know me, you’ll instantly know who this is. If you don’t, this is as much as you’ll ever know. 

We met in an online depression chat room. I was a moderator, he was a frequent user. We chatted for a while, we would PM one another out of main chat. I first saw him on a web-based video client where a lot of us from the chat would use video and voice to connect as well as the chat room. I fell in love pretty slowly at first, but then it just happened. I felt it very strongly, I was very attracted to how he looked, how he talked, the sound of his voice and laughter, his mannerisms. He always showed his emotions on his face, very powerfully so sometimes. It was important to me that we had transparency, and there it was. I first asked him out and was declined, I think he didn’t feel the same at first, nor did he want a long-distance relationship - he literally lives in France, and I’m on the east coast of the US. A few weeks later, he asked me out, and I said yes. Now those of you who have been in or are in a LDR know that is can be very difficult, very stressful - no matter if the distance is 100 miles or an entire ocean/country away. Not seeing your partner, holding their hand, eating popcorn, going on walks together - that takes away a lot of the relationship. But in turn you gain that intellectual intimacy, that closeness you only get from talking for hours and hours on end. 

We were only dating for a few short months when I convinced my mom to let him come visit for the month of Christmas into January. He got his passport, the money, his ticket, and flew here. I was so ecstatic to finally meet him, to be in his arms, I almost knocked him over. We had lasagna for dinner - it was a really good lasagna, he ate like three plates of it. The next few weeks were a whirlwind of emotions and things to do together. We started fighting a lot though, and I felt he was all over me all the time, and not in the way I wanted him to be. I went to my mom and said “I don’t think I want him to stay. We aren’t getting along. How can I talk to him about this?” She made up some story of how he should go home early, that he couldn’t stay. It really broke both of our hearts. I never knew saying goodbye to someone could hurt that bad, but it was devastating. I can’t remember what I did two days ago, but I can tell you that that was pretty much one of the worst evenings of my life. 

We continued to connect online between the chat room, Skype, and FB messenger. We would leave our computers on overnight so we could “sleep” together, and see one another once we were awake. We sent photos and videos to each other to try and stay in contact as much as possible. I regret sending him home early, I wonder now if we had worked through some of those problems I felt I had with him, would he now be living here with me in the US? Would we have a place together? Or would we have naturally fallen away from one another like we have now, and then he is stranded in a country where he has no family? I can’t be sure what the answer is, because I only know what’s happened so far between us. I miss those weeks we spent together, I think of them often - the good and the bad. 

Having an ex that is still your friend can be challenging in and of itself. We still have that intimacy to a point, and definitely the communication and transparency is even better now than when we were dating. But hearing him talk about his newest relationships, his ups and downs, his triumphs and fails - I can’t help but wonder what it’d be like if I was a closer part of his life, how I’d be able to support him more, have a better bond. I just have a lot of confusion over this relationship, though not as much as Ex #2 - that one is probably the most long-winded story of the three. 

As for the man from France - we still talk. You’ll hear more about him. He’s been there for me through a lot of hard things in my adult life so far. I appreciate what he’s done for me, but also harbor ill feelings in regards to things or conversations we had experienced together. It’s a very complicated situation in my head, and I don’t know if it’ll ever make any more sense. 

[onisiondrama]

(Note: I’m not repeating stories he’s told before and just putting them in parenthesis. I have a lot more videos to go until I’m caught up so that would save me a lot of time. If he gives details I never heard from him before, I will type those.)

“The New Onision Gossip (^_^)” September 26, 2020 - Speaks

- He says he assumes there’s a new rumor because he was spammed on Twitch with comments implying he struck someone he’s married to. He says he addresses every rumor because it interests him and because if he doesn’t people think they are facts. - He doesn’t know where the rumor came from. He finds it the same as the stuff he’s dealt with for some time. People not needing proof, just going off of feelings. The masses bombarded his stream and said it was reality. If you’re in your late 20′s or older, you get fed up with high school drama. - Says Kai was ahead a grade when he was in high school, so he was a senior when they met. He told Kai the other day that if Kai never jumped a grade, he never would have talked to him. He wouldn’t date a high schooler. He was 26 and Kai was 9 years younger than him. - Says he once screwed up and said he spoke to Kai’s dad and his dad told him to come back in 10 years when Kai is 25. He says it doesn’t make sense and it was idiocy on his part. He says there are at least 40 witnesses that know they never spoke until later. The first time he thinks Kai tweeted him was October 2011. He says they started talking around the time Shiloh cheated on him. - (Shiloh cheated story) He says after they broke up, Shiloh made an essay about how great of a boyfriend he was. [I think he’s talking about this?] He says she was trying to woo him back after he left her. He made a song, Her Lies, instead of taking her back. He tells his audience to stream it on Spotify. Says Shiloh would try to threaten suicide when he broke up with her. He admits he did the same over his alimony payments. (Alimony story, divorce story, Skye was lazy and depressed) - Says when he first met Skye she was a social outcast. She reminded him of Wednesday Addams. He first saw her in a gymnasium, they were in the same class. He found her different than everyone else and he thought that was interesting. He walked over to her and she acted like he was a d-bag for trying to talk to her. “Typical girl emo-ness.” He waited it out and she warmed up to him. One day she invited him over to her house over AOL instant messenger. Her sister opened the door and he thought “oh my god! She looks so happy! She looks so full of life!” He says he thought her sister was her. He saw Skye walk into the picture and she was emo as ever. Same mopey, depressed person. He says for some reason he wanted to be the guy that will hang out with her, make her happy, and make her save herself from herself. - They dated for a month and he broke up with her because he realized he’d never make her happy no matter how hard he tried. He went to basic training and while he was there he decided to ask her to marry her to get more military benefits. He says she was his closest friend and he wanted to travel with her. He says it was fun. He’s kind of glad he married her, but he’s not happy about how it ended because of the alimony. (more alimony story, they took his stuff from his house story) - All of his experiences helped him learn a lot about people. He realizes most people are selfish. They live in their heads and they don’t think about other people. He doesn’t play hero anymore to protect himself. - He says he left his ex-wife for a girl because he was excited she was a Canadian pop star. He says it was very shallow and superficial. He says he was in love with her because of how exciting and interesting she was. It was one of the most intense relationships he’s been in. He says there was a supernatural element, she was one of those women that would say they knew each other in a past life. He thinks that was something she said in that goodbye letter she wrote for him after she cheated. She said maybe they’ll be together in the next life. It made him want to puke because she just cheated. - He had to call the cops on her so many times and he convinced himself it was normal. People who stay in relationships like that stay because they are told no one else will want them. He actually says Shiloh’s name and says she told him no one would love him as much as she loved him. He says it’s not quite the same. He says people who hated him loved him more than Shiloh because she got pregnant with another man’s baby. - (Shiloh body slamming the door story) He says when he pushed her with one arm through the door she dramatically fell to the floor and called him abusive. Since she called him abusive, he called the cops to ask them what they think. He says he thinks they saw the hysteria in her and the calm in him. He just broke up with her and wanted space and to sleep in his own room. He asks what you would think if Shiloh was the one holding the door and he was the one trying to body slam his way in. She would be the one pushing him with one arm away from the door so she could lock it. He says you would think of “here’s Johnny” from The Shinning. Insane mental imbalance. When you switch the genders, the guy is always wrong. He says the cops took his side. They took Shiloh aside and he could still hear them. They told her to stay away from him and leave him alone. They told her to give him space and to let him sleep in his room and she did. He says he thinks he let her sleep in the same room after because he felt bad for calling the cops. - He says there is a really weird thing she did to get him to have affection for her. He says he went to Lover’s Package with her because she was complaining that she had physical needs. He said he’s not willing to sleep with her or date her because it’s too toxic, but he’ll buy her something. He says while he was there he saw a mannequin and he thought to himself, “do women really get that skinny?” because he was with 170lb, 5 foot Shiloh for so long. He says it was normal to him that she was the same weight as him, but 11 inches shorter. He says that’s medically obese. He says he appreciated her physical form. She asked if she should lose weight he would tell her it’s not an issue. Says one time she asked him if she was obese and he said she was and she freaked out. He started crying because she said she was going to end her life because of that. He says it was rude to say even though it was science. - She told him she could get as skinny as the mannequin if he wanted her to. He says he didn’t know what to say because it wasn’t an awful idea for him to be with someone that shape. He says he got her a d-i-l-d-o, he thinks it was a vibrator. She tried to use it in the tub. She calls him in and she tells him it’s not the same when she does it on her own and she asks for help. He says they were broken up but, but they were both adults so he tried to help. He doesn’t remember how it went, but they wound up dating again. He thinks it was her strategy. - He has the Remember Love tattoos because she would guilt trip him. [hentai break up story] He didn’t want to get her name because he didn’t think the relationship would last forever. He says he got the tattoos on his wrists to remind him not to watch hentai because he uses his hands to jerk off. - He says one time he was playing Mortal Kombat and she put her mouth on him. She noticed he got more aroused when Sheeva came out. He says he’s not even attracted to Sheeva, but he was so deprived from not being able to watch internet porn. - [Shiloh & his ex-sister-in-law’s adult photos story] - He says he had chemistry with his ex-sister-in-law, but they never had anything. Their age gap was not appropriate in his mind. He was 18 when she was 15. He says it might have been legal, but he didn’t feel it was appropriate. [ex-mother-in-law scammed a website story] - His ex-grandma in law said she would shoot the president. His ex-mother-in-law said she’d supply the gun. His ex-sister-in-law said she’d supply the bullet. He says these were white people talking about a black person. - He says this is heavy content, but he has no reason not to talk about it. He thinks his ex-sil was brainwashed politically by her mom. He says he was hateful toward George Bush because he was in-part responsible for over 1 million innocent Iraqi deaths. He says he killed more people than the current president. - Says one time his ex-mil let his ex-sil and her friend drink. She told them not to drink the whole bottle. They were not old enough to drink, but he didn’t stop them because it would destroy his relationship with everyone in that household. His ex-wife would make sure they were ok and didn’t hurt themselves. They would take turns distracting his ex-wife so the other one would be alone with him and hug him. He says he was not married to his ex-wife yet. He thought the hugs were fine. Says when he was alone in the bathroom with his ex-sil she tried to kiss him. He turned his head because of their age gap. That night they all laid in the front room on the carpet except for his ex-wife. She asked why they were laying on the ground and he told her not to worry about it. He says he was holding hands with his ex-sil. He says this gives you an idea of his moral compass. Hugging and holding hands are ok. Kissing is not not ok. He says when he was at Osan Air Base, the Korean marines were holding hands while skip marching. That’s when he realized he liked the Korean military more because there was love in that group. They cared about each other.  - He fell asleep holding her hand under the blankets. When he woke up, she said “what the F?” He guesses when she was drink she thought she wanted to hold hands with him.  - He says you can jump to judgments about him, but he tells you so deeply who he is, a guy who refused to kiss someone that was intoxicated with a three year age gap. He says holding hands is platonic. If it was sexual, mothers wouldn’t hold hands with their kids. Hugs are fine. - He says there was a gay guy who came over their house. He hugged and held hands with Kai. Platonic people do that all the time. - He’s not sure if he dated his ex yet when that drinking story happened. - He says he and his ex-sil played video games together and hung out a lot, but after that incident, he wrote her an email. He wrote there’s a chemistry between them, but it’s not something he can’t pursue. He wants her to know she’s a special person to him, but it can’t be a thing. She hated him from that point on. He felt like she was an awesome person. - They made videos together later on and she was so funny. She was so cool, talented, edgy. He says she could be praised by the masses. She’s like the female LeafyIsHere in a lot of ways. He offered to pay her to be in his videos long after he divorced her sister. It was exciting working with her. - He says he never beat Shiloh. He called her for domestic issues and they always sided with him. He says it’s rare when the cops take the man’s side. Women cry and men yell, but it was the opposite. Shiloh wrapped her arms around him because she was trying to stop him from calling the cops. The phone fell out of his hand. He did successfully called the cops. They told him to move so he wouldn't be there when she got back from her mental evaluation after she threatened to frame him for murder. - He says in the past there’s a reason why the mass majority always took his side. It’s because he’d make videos like this to tell people how it was. - Says the Twitch chat was saying, “you beat your wife.” He told them, “what wife? I’m married to a dude.” He says it was a weird stream and he wore a mustache and sunglasses while rocking out to Rammstein.

[roswelldetails]

RNM 2x08 - Say It Ain't So

EPISODE SUMMARY:

JAMIE CLAYTON GUEST STARS — Despite promising Liz (Jeanine Mason) that he’ll take things easy with his new heart, Max (Nathan Dean) sets out to find Cameron after learning that she’s gone missing. Michael (Michael Vlamis) grows concerned about Maria (Heather Hemmens) after a surprising discovery about her family history leaves her vulnerable. Elsewhere, ready to move on, Alex (Tyler Blackburn) goes on a date with Forrest (guest star Christian Antidormi), and Rosa (Amber Midthunder) makes a decision about her future. Rachel Raimist directed the episode written by Eva McKenna & Christopher Hollier (#208). Original airdate 5/4/2020. 

DETAILS:

Rosa's secret identity:

"...Cousin Rosalinda from Arizona. My mom married a minor league baseball player, but when he got relocated to a team in Florida…"

"Okay, you know what, let's just go with, they're dead."

This is a Twilight reference.

Rosa about the Mean Girl's art in the cave:

"That reminds me of Stephen Powers before he sold out."

Stephen Powers is a former street artist who went commercial. Some examples of his older work here:

Other examples of his newer, more commercial work here:

By the way, speaking of the cave:

And this is some fabulous visual storytelling right here:

Max is working at the Wild Pony. Temporarily, of course.

"Turns out debt collectors don't care if you've been half dead in a glowing pod for a few months."

So much for the headcanon that Max "I've been driving the same car since high school and am a homeowner before 30" Evans is good with his money. 😆 Debt collectors don't show up that fast… not that I know from experience or anything.  😳 *backs slowly away*

Iris refers to the cave as the go to hang spot for all the artsy weirdos. So it isn't like it was specifically Rosa's cave/hidden spot.

It's the first time we've seen this particular cave other than in 2008 flashbacks.

Iris Sanchez & Rosa Ortecho. Flower, Mexican family name. 😭 The hint is there!

Also 👀 from:

The iris earned its name from the ancient Greek Goddess Iris, a messenger to the gods who was thought to use the rainbow as a bridge between heaven and earth...these flowers were named to honor the Rainbow Goddess and bring favor upon the earth.

Mimi made Maria take back the necklace.

"She said that it was too late for her and that I needed it more."

Michael has seen the necklace before, but he didn't know what the flower was when he fixed the clasp and returned it to her in 1x10.  It was 1x11 when they learned of the existence of the anti alien pollen. Michael reminds us:

"I know this flower.  Its pollen has a paralytic effect on alien abilities."

Once Maria takes it off, she can name every card Michael pulls from the deck.

Maria lists off a bunch of necklace facts from past episodes that fandom has previously noted...

Her powers were heightened when Michael had the necklace in 1x10. 

She wasn't wearing it when Noah invaded her at the gala.

And she wasn't wearing it at Woman As Warrior in 2x02 when she sensed that Isobel was pregnant.

"Kyle said you aren't an alien."

Fact. Kyle did say that.  It doesn't mean that it's a fact that Maria doesn't have alien DNA in her though.

Kyle determined that her blood doesn't carry the alien protein that's in the Pod Squad and Rosa. He is making an assumption that the protein is tied to being an alien.

He said he ran other tests, but the results would take longer to come in. 

Also, just a personal theory, what else do Rosa and the Pod Squad (and Noah) all have in common? They all spent significant time marinating in a pod full of goo. Rosa (10 years), Pod Squad (at least 50 years), Noah (60 years). Kyle has not studied any samples of alien biology from an alien who didn't spend time in pod goo. It's possible the protein is related to the pod goo, moreso than the alien biology. Again, just speculation on my part.

Maria confirms that her mom started getting sick when she was 18, just after she passed the necklace on to Maria.

"If this prevents you from having more episodes, it probably stops the neurodegeneration process too. It's not kryptonite, Maria. This is preventative medicine. Keep it on."

In 2x06 it was established that in addition to Sanders' place being a junkyard and a mechanic/auto shop, they also do tow truck service.  Now that comes into play again as Michael was hired to bring Cam's car back to Roswell for the investigation into her disappearance.  He brought it to the junk yard first though to give Max and Liz an hour to check the car for clues before the sheriff's department comes to collect it.

Max is smart too, in his own way. He quickly identified that "Agent Powell" was driving a rental car and that her gun wasn't government issue. 

However, it's only when he sees her tattoo (which Cam told him about in 1x07) that he confirms that she's actually Charlie Cameron!

(10 points to fandom!)

Max & Liz's conversation with Charlie is mostly just reminding us what we know about Charlie and Jenna's relationship. 

Liz indicates that Jenna had been looking for Charlie for months.  Charlie responds that she didn't want to be found (both things we learned in 2x04 through Cam's discussion with Jesse Manes.

Max indicates that Jenna thought that Charlie hated her, a call back to us first learning about Charlie and the matching tattoos in 1x07.

"I worked on a controversial project a while back. A lot of dangerous people want to know what I know."

(Again, stuff we learned in 2x04).

They learn through Cam's text history that she was looking for Jesse Manes (which we already knew, because...2x04).

"I'm just a guy standing in front of a tourist trap asking a history buff to shoot him with high velocity paint."

Tongue-in-cheek reference to the movie Notting Hill.

"So, you're cool playing war? Doesn't bring anything up?"

"Oh, yeah, my PTSD triggers are a little more complicated. Suffice to say, this war zone is the only place that my family actually got along when I was a kid."

"Yeah, some of my old platoon buddies actually play in leagues."

"I didn't know that you served."

"Yeah I wouldn't go bragging about it to a guy with a Purple Heart. I might have googled you."

New information… both that Forrest served, that he looked into Alex (which could be innocent OR sketchy…).

And of course this is the first open discussion about Alex's PTSD issues.

Cowboys versus aliens paintball… Alex is the cowboy, so Forrest must be the alien.

The call that interrupted Forrest's attempt to kiss Alex was from the hospital. Hence why Alex goes there to see Jesse.

"Look, if I had a little lucky charm that could stop people like Noah from messing with me, I would have that surgically implanted into my décolletage."

Have to admit, I wasn't sure what décolletage meant, so in case anyone else isn't familiar: 

"These abilities are a part of me. I'm not gonna just throw away the chance to learn about who I am. That make sense to you?"

"Yeah, actually, it does."

"You've gotten stronger this year, right?  Can you teach me to train? Learn how to control it all?"

"Look, it took a lot of practice before I could do anything without puking and guzzling acetone to kill the pain.  And you can't practice, because according to Kyle, every time you do it eats your brain."

"Look, I'll stop before it goes that far, okay? I know the signs. Besides, if you help me, maybe I can help you. There must be something that you want to know about your future."

"What about my past?"

Max meeting with Jesse at the Crashdown. This is super interesting because it's the first time Max has sat down, face to face, with a hostile human who knows he's an alien. 

"My uncle used to bring me here. That was back when it catered to a more civil clientele. People who actually respected the history of this town."

This is likely foreshadowing what's to come next week, based on the promo pics released.

Again, similar to the scene with Charlie at the junkyard, much of this exchange between Max and Jesse is just reminding us of stuff we learned in 1x04.

"The last time I saw her she came to me with questions about her sister.  And I told her that the people most interested in Charlie's device were a black ops group based out of Los Alamos. They're called Deep Sky. This is their logo. Paramilitary. And I told Jenna that what she was getting into was gonna be dangerous. But apparently she didn't listen.

Note: in case any of you are unaware, in Los Alamos there's a US DOE lab that has a long, sketchy history of weapons development.  Makes perfect since that it's where a paramilitary organization interested in Charlie's research would be based there.

The Deep Sky Logo

I compared this to a number of screenshots of alien symbols (like the ones we saw in Jim Valenti's letters in 1x12) and there were no matches.

However, fandom has already noted that the logo matches Trevor's ring in 2x06 (see that episode's details post for the photo).

"Charlie Cameron's mind is a unique specimen. Kind of like you. And there's always someone in the shadows waiting to crack those open."

"What did you do to Jenna?"

"I told her the truth. Which is more than you ever did. You're kind of a wolf in sheep's clothing, aren't you?"

"And what are you? Do you feel like a hero? All those people you tortured, all those people you killed. Turns out none of them were an enemy.  They were refugees. So you're not just a murderer, you're a failure."

"Yeah, I know. I am. But I tell you, something shifted in my brain when I had the stroke.  All the hate's gone out of me. All the fight. Caulfield is over and my son Flint has been reassigned. Look at me. I can barely walk."

Liz and Charlie in the car:

"Waitressing's really got to blow when you've grown a fully functioning heart muscle in a lab.  Or are you not the same Elizabeth Ortecho who co-authored a 2013 paper on cellular reprogramming? Some people build model trains; I do my homework.  Your boyfriend seems more like the train type."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"We've discovered new worlds and changed the course of mankind from a microscope. Should I go Netflix and chill with my boyfriend or stay in the lab, architecting the future?"

"No offense, but if it's true that you've been in prison and in hiding, it does not seem like you've seen much of the inside of a lab either."

"I went too far.  I thought I was building something with real value. The thing is, anything that has the potential to create real change, it scares people. And anything that scares people is inherently dangerous no matter what your intention is."

"You could start over. Get a new identity, work at a research university."

"I've done extraordinary things. Everything ordinary is ruined now."

More exposition that we already know as Max catches Charlie and Liz up on what he learns from Jesse.

"He said Cam is headed to Los Alamos to investigate a group called Deep Sky. Does that mean anything to you?"

"No. Let me reach out to some of my military contacts, do some recon. Give me a day, we'll go from there."

Liz and Michael, in the lab, on The Science:

"I'm looking for the sample of yellow pollen."

"The stuff I swept off the floor after throwing it at Noah? I don't know. I didn't see it while we were packing up."

"Well it was here a few months back.  Did I miss an experiment where it grew legs and a fondness for the outdoors?"

"Could have been accidentally thrown away. Sample was too oxidized to be of much use, and I've been trying to get my hands on fresh flowers, but it's impossible. I think they might be extinct. Why are you freaking out?"

"Because I have a math problem. There's only one flower in Maria's necklace, but there are two DeLuca women and apparently the flower is the key to preventing their illness. This is everything from the Caulfield drives and the experiments done on Maria's grandmother. A lot of it was lost in a lab fire in the '80s, but…"

"I'll take a look."

(Aside… 👀 Lab fire in the '80s. I have a feeling that's more foreshadowing.)

"I just want you to see if anything done could be undone. I don't want you to, like, Dr. Frankenstein it. The experiments were very bad."

"My days as an alien scientist are officially over."

"Why don't I believe you?"

"'Cause it's hard not to think about the far-reaching implications of this kind of research. You don't get sick on this planet. If I could figure out why, I could eradicate all illness."

"But you can't. Because that would expose us."

"Which I would obviously never do. It's over."

Arturo's text to Liz:

Have you seen our little mouse?

"Rosalinda" is late for her first shift.

Isobel and Maria go to Michael's trailer and Isobel shows Maria the newspaper clip of Michael's mom to try to trigger a vision.

"It's not working. And I don't feel great going through this stuff without Michael knowing."

"Why not? One day this palace might all be yours."

"It's not working.  I have a business to run, and you need to go Instagram something."

"Says the social media revitalizer. Listen, word to the wise, every time Max saw Liz in a skirt and tried not to pop a bulb, he wound up setting off a fire alarm. Everytime I push myself too hard, I miss time, or wind up accidentally realizing that my mom still thinks about her ex-boyfriend Rocco, like, in vivid detail."

"Okay, where are you going with this?"

"Effort doesn't equal control. So if you want to do this you're gonna have to embrace your inner ice queen and let it go."

"I'm not great at letting things go."

"Yeah, I know.  That's hard…"

Maria's vision:

Triggered by a t-shirt hanging in the trailer.

Louise is hanging laundry

Walt runs up to her and gives her a little windmill with her name on it. (Initially I thought her name was pressed or punched into the metal, but on second viewing, it looks like it might be puff paint or something similar.)

Walt runs off to find Nora and Louise goes back to hanging laundry.

After the vision Maria's nose starts bleeding.

Max goes after Charlie to stop her from turning herself in.

I wonder if his tire screeching action guy driving is supposed to be emphasizing to the audience that he's not being as cautious as he should be? 

Deep Sky said that if Charlie "...wasn't at Sutter's grain depot by 11pm, that they would torture (Cam) to death."

Charlie heard on the call:

A train rolling by

A demonic laugh

And somehow that's enough for Max to magically know exactly where Cam is.

Alex and Jesse at the hospital:

"Hey, they said that you mixed whiskey with your medications.  That's not like you."

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"I don't know. I mean, you're my father. I can't seem to shake you."

"Yeah. I failed."

"Yes. But in what way specifically?"

"Uncle Tripp. I let him down. I never could figure out what he needed of me. And tonight I went to the bunker.  And I keep trying to crack the code."

"Liz said that you spoke to Max Evans. She said that you were half decent to him. Is that what this is about?"

"One of them killed Tripp, you know."

"An alien? Yeah. Then he hunted them. He dragged them to a torture chamber. I'm not surprised one of them…" 

Jesse slams his cane.

"He was the best man I ever knew.

Jesse tries to stand and falls into Alex, then continues to walk away.

The location that Deep Sky is holding Cam looks like a rodeo or horse arena or racetrack with a big grandstand.

There are nearby train tracks, and a warehouse where a mechanic repairs old carnival rides.

As Max and Charlie are scoping out the area you can hear both sounds softly in the background.

The sniper was watching and shooting at them from the grandstand.

Charlie is shot in the leg.

"Let me go get her."

"No. Deep Sky wants me alive. Your brain is worth considerably less to them which means it'll be splattered all over the dirt."

(Oh the irony...confirming that Charlie doesn't know that Max is an alien.)

"If anything goes wrong, call Liz. No doctors."

Max does shoot the sniper!

And then uses his powers to knock out the power (and instantly feeling it in his heart when he starts to use his powers!!!!!!) which, as @angsty-aliens very eloquently pointed out, is absurd because there was a big red lever that would have done the same thing. *facepalm*

Cam on her kidnapping:

"The last thing I remember is this weird sound. It made the hairs on my arm stand up. And this bright light, and the pain in the back of my neck like you wouldn't believe."

Cam's burn is fractals.  Like Liz's burn from Max's powers in 1x03. Top is Liz's fresh burn in 1x03, bottom is Cam's not-so-fresh burn in 2x08. Keep in mind, we don't know how long Cam was missing for.

Rosa and Iris at the "art show".

"So you said you're from Roswell?"

"Oh, I was from Roswell.  I got out and went to art school as soon as I graduated. I work for an artist now. I help her run her gallery. Yeah, I used to want to be a painter, but then I realized I loved curating art way more than I ever loved making it."

👀 I wonder what this says about Rosa's internal motivation. If Iris is the life she wishes that she had, does she not want to be a painter? Or is that her internal insecurity rearing its head.  Like, she can't even dream about that possibility because it's what she really wants above all else.  Which is why Iris then motivates her to paint and prove to her inner self that she is an artist? 

Speaking of which, here's Rosa's painting from the episode. Mucho gracias to @rosaortecho for giffing it for me since it wasn't cap-able in a single shot.

Iris's assessment of Rosa's art:

"This piece is you outrunning your demons. This is amazing. That's what you have to do.  You have to capture them and rattle the cage.  This is art. This is what you're meant to do, Rosa!"

Rosa's hallucination starts to fall apart as they dance.  She starts coughing and having trouble breathing.

"Your star sign's just out of whack."

Play on lyrics from God of Wine by Third Eye Blind, which was heavily referenced in 1x02. 

The direct quote is "your star sign's out of whack" and the next lyric is "a fraudulent zodiac"

Which, of course, is what Rosa had written on her hand before she died in 2008 and is a reference to Ophiuchus, which was Noah's zodiac obsession.

And then Liz finds her overdosing in the cave. 

The coughing in Rosa's hallucination was from smoke inhalation.  Because while passed out she started a fire with her powers.

Feels like a good time to point out that it's the same cave that she died in back in 2008, and she would have died there again if Liz hadn't found her. 😭

At the hospital Rosa tells Liz that she wants to go to rehab, but she knows she can't since she can't control her powers. 

Liz gives her Maria's necklace to borrow since it will suppress her powers and allow her to go to rehab.

Alex and Forrest at the Wild Pony:

"I still have my dad's voice in my head telling me that being seen with a man in public is an embarrassment. To my name and my uniform."

"Well, there's nothing like a dad voice to mess up a perfectly good date."

"It's also just that...I mean, Roswell's so conservative. This bar is filled with cowboys. If you want to go someplace private…"

"Look, I like you. But I don't want to climb into somebody else's closet."

"I cannot tell you how badly I want to be done with this frickin' closet."

"But you're not. And that's okay. Really. Listen, if that voice in your head ever shuts up, give me a call. Because between you and me, making out with a hot guy in public is only made hotter when it pisses off all the bigots and homophobes."

Charlie took off and left a note for Jenna. According to Jenna it says she's gonna disappear again and not to look for her.

Arturo is taking Rosa to a rehab center that Kyle set her up with "a few hours away".

Max tells Liz "let's go home." So… did she move in with him??

Liz says no though.  She says she has to open the diner and cry alone.  But instead she goes to the secret lab.  

Both Max and Liz were evading the truth a little bit here.  Liz didn't tell Max that she wanted to go to the secret lab.  Max didn't tell Liz that his heart did wonk out after using his powers and he did overdo it going after Cam. Bad Echo!!

Liz goes back to packing the secret lab up initially, but then her eyes fall into the Caulfield folders, and she stops. 

She unpacks her stolen equipment (genetic sequencer?), puts on her lab coat, and sits down to start reading the file.

Isobel brings Michael beer as a peace offering, since she's coming to admit that she helped Maria trigger a vision.  She thinks Michael will be mad, but he isn't because he and Maria already worked it out.

So Isobel tells him about the vision and seeing Louise, and specifically about Walt giving Louise the windmill. 

Michael immediately reacts, goes to a shelf, and grabs a similar windmill.

Turns out Walt is Sanders.  He pulls up in his car and Michael immediately confronts Sanders.

"It was you. You're Walt. You're the little boy in the photo.  You knew my mother."

And Sanders nods.

10 more points to fandom.

Max goes to Charlie's hotel to confront her about turning herself in to Deep Sky.

The windmill in both scenes. Until I put this together I didn't think they were the same one (because Louise's name isn't on Michael's. But other details (like the word weight on one of the legs) are the same.

"You think Deep Sky needs to have Jenna by the throat to kill her? Okay, the only way that I can protect her is from the inside."

Then the "abduction scene" happens.

It mirrors what happened to Jenna in 2x04, only to Max and Charlie.

MUSIC:

1.  Hole "Celebrity Skin"

2.  Lukas Nelson & Promise Of The Real "Die Alone"

3.  Shelly Fairchild "Worry No More"

4.  Marc Danzeisen "Some Things Last Forever"

5.  Joey Sykes "Sign Of The Times"

6.  I AM ORFA "Like That Look"

7.  Danny Ayer "Set Us Free"

8.  Hamish Anderson "Trouble"

9.  OMC "How Bizarre"

10.  Muscadine Bloodline "Movin' On"

11.  Little May "Hide"

[inkdomain]

Step By Step Guide To Set Up Your Facebook Shop

The phrase Facebook Shop is not a favorite of most e-commerce websites. And, like Murphy’s Law, they seem to happen at the worst possible moment…when you least expect it.

I’m sure you are aware of the BIG announcement made by Facebook’s owner, Mark Zuckerberg. You may not be aware of how you can use this new feature to improve your business and compete with the big guns.

Facebook launched its own virtual shop, a new feature which will allow businesses to be able to sell to customers through Shops, potentially posing a challenge to e-commerce rivals such as Etsy and Amazon.

This is good news if you solely wish to have a physical storefront in front of foot traffic. Besides, the golden rule of every business is to meet your customers where they are.

If the idea of creating an online store on Facebook has been going around your head for a while, in this guide, all your possible questions will be answered:

What is Facebook Shop?

Facebook Shops is a simple version of your online store that lives inside the Facebook and Instagram mobile apps. These virtual shops make it easy for billions of users to find, browse, and buy your products in the apps they use daily to discover new experiences.

Facebook Shops will make it easy for businesses to set up a single online store for customers to access on both Facebook and Instagram.

Shops will be primarily aimed at businesses, allowing them to sell to customers on the app.

Why Should I Sell On Facebook?

Selling on Facebook is such a good idea!

Keeping up with the competition in a world filled with multi-platform companies is hard unless you don’t want to expand your business to where your customers hang out the most.

And it just so happens that Facebook is one of the places online where people spend the majority of their time.

With more than 2 billion active users on Facebook, imagine the impact of such a powerful tool and traffic would do on your business.

Actually, an average of 40+ minutes is spent by a Facebook user per day on the popular social network – and a large share of that goes towards shopping on Facebook.

That’s quite a bit of time considering this happens on a daily basis!

Without counting the time, many of us spend clicking on links and liking posts on Facebook throughout the workday.

Hence, this is a great time to take advantage of the new Facebook as a selling platform!

Pros and Cons of Having a Facebook Shop

It sounds good to have an online Facebook shop. But the question in everyone’s mind is, how profitable is it to sell more products among viral videos about cats, songs, and photos of family members?

Let’s start weighing it all out.

Pros

Every potential client, or almost all of them, are on Facebook—and we want to be where clients are, don’t we?

It is free; this is always a plus.

It is easy to set up with a few clicks.

You can easily share your product links as if they were a normal post once you have created your products and offers.

A marketplace where you can showcase your new products to attract customers to your shop.

Product tagging features that enable you to publish a picture where one of your products appears, you will be able to tag them so users can click on them.

The shopping feature will also eventually appear on WhatsApp and the company’s other messaging apps and integrate with live streams.

Once a buyer decides they want to spend money, they will usually be directed to the company’s website to complete the transaction.

And if problems arise or a buyer wants to ask questions, they can do so through Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or Instagram Direct messages, some of which are already used by companies for that purpose.

Cons

It takes time: although it is easy to set up, if you use a native tool, you will need to spend some time on updating prices and images.

Low visibility: unless you share and change your products a lot, at least for the moment, only a few people know about Facebook Shop.

The payment is made on your website. So if you’re in the USA, using Stripe or PayPal can already complete the purchase without leaving Facebook, but it is still not possible in Europe.

What’s Great About A Facebook Shop Page?

With the Facebook page, you don’t even need to have any preexisting store – and if you want, all your operations can be done via Facebook.

But the benefits don’t end there. With a Facebook Shop page, you can:

Easily add an unlimited number of products,

Organize your products into collections and categories,

Communicate with your customers through the page directly,

See stats on your sales, visits, and more,

Get your products appearing in Facebook Marketplace, giving you access to a much larger base of potential customers.

Just the last thing from this list is a good enough reason to look into this whole Facebook Shop page on its own!

How Much is Facebook Shop Fees?

Creating a Facebook Shop is free and straightforward.

You can easily choose the products you want to feature from your catalog and then customize your shop’s look and feel with a cover image and accent colors that showcase your brand.

This simply means no matter your size or budget; you can bring your business online and connect with customers wherever and whenever it’s convenient for them.

In doesn’t stop there, you can bring your products or services to Facebook market with a shopping experience that feels native to each platform, on any device.

Showcase your distinct brand and products by customizing the colors and layout of your Facebook Shop and organizing product collections into featured tiles to match your store’s look and feel.

Nearly a million businesses in the UK and around the world can now set up a single online store to sell products, with no fee, on Facebook and Instagram.

The initial stage of the Facebook Shops rollout has been brought forward and extended because of Covid-19.

The stores will appear on business pages, Instagram profiles, and targeted ads.

The company has already used a no-fees approach in its Facebook Marketplace for personal classifieds.

“IT’S BIGGER THAN USUAL JUST BECAUSE WE WANT TO MAKE SURE WE’RE MOVING QUICKLY TO GET THESE TOOLS IN THE HANDS OF AS MANY BUSINESSES WHEREVER THEY ARE, BIG OR SMALL, TO HELP THEM SURVIVE DURING THIS TIME,” FACEBOOK’S LAYLA AMJADI SAID.

And product manager George Lee said it had been in the pipeline for at least half a year.

“Obviously, given the current situation, we have accelerated a lot of our efforts,” he said.

“We’re in a unique position to be able to contribute to the survival of a bunch of these businesses.”

The rollout is part of a wider range of changes planned for shopping across Facebook’s products, including:

A loyalty scheme that will link things such as points from local coffee shops to Facebook

A Shop button, where products and brands will be showcased, on Instagram’s main navigation bar.

Anthony Ha, a senior writer at technology news site TechCrunch, said “the pandemic lockdown might have worked in Facebook’s favor.”

“After all, if your favorite store has changed their hours, or switched to online delivery or doorstep pickup, they’ve almost certainly posted about it on Facebook or Instagram,” he said.

So it makes sense for Facebook to make the purchase process as easy as possible from those profiles.

From a business perspective, the obvious goal is to drive more advertising.

“BUT IT’S ALSO WORTH REMEMBERING THAT THE PANDEMIC’S ECONOMIC FALLOUT WILL LIKELY KILL OFF MANY SMALL BUSINESSES, INCLUDING THOSE THAT POST AND ADVERTISE ON FACEBOOK. SO THE COMPANY HAS A STAKE IN HELPING THOSE BUSINESSES SURVIVE IN ANY WAY IT CAN.” RELA

How do I set up a Facebook Store?

Selling your products via Facebook store is fast and easy, and there are two ways to do it:

One of the basic ways is a Facebook Store with product listings and directly connect your payment option to the cart on the platform. This simply means there won’t be a need for your customers to leave the platform to buy your product, and you won’t need external platforms.

Alternatively, you can make use of e-commerce websites, like Shopify, BigCommerce, Woo, Channel Advisor, and create a web store on Facebook. Thus, enabling you to link your products on the e-commerce websites to your Facebook Store page.

The second option is most preferred because it extends your online presence to different platforms, which is better for your business.

Note that selling products using your personal account is against Facebook terms.

 An example of a Facebook shop

How to Create a Facebook Shop

Creating a Facebook shop isn’t the most daunting task in the world. On the other hand, it’s pretty easy.

When creating your shop, the number of steps you take will depend on the template of your business page, which you can change at any time.

Step 1. How To Change Your Template

Facebook automatically select a Standard Template for you when creating a business page.

What you need to do is to change the template to Shopping. This step is only necessary if you don’t see the Shop tab below your Facebook page cover photo. Just click Settings at the top of the Page > Templates and Tabs in the left column > Edit next to your template > View Details > Apply Template > OK.

Here’s how it looks in practice:

An Example of a Facebook Shop Page Templates

After you’ve changed the template, you’re welcome to take the following steps.

Step 2. Click on ‘Shop’ in the Left Menu

Following the Add Shop Section link, you’ll find the information that this section allows you to do. Click to continue upon reading.

Making a Facebook shop

Step 3. Agree to Facebook’s Merchant Terms and Policies

After you click the Add Shop Section button, Facebook’s Merchant Terms and Policies will appear. Don’t forget to read them carefully before agreeing. They might include useful information about what you’re allowed to sell on Facebook and how you should solve any problems that appear with return and refund policies, for example.

Facebook shop policy

Step 4. How to Select Checkout Method

After you’ve agreed to the terms and policies, you can proceed to select the type of checkout you prefer. Simply put, when opening your Facebook Shop, choose your payment method. Typically, there’re two methods of checkout on Facebook – Check Out on Another Website and Message to Buy.

Check Out to Another Website simply allows you to send your customers to other e-commerce websites where they will complete their purchases.

Checkout Method

Choosing this checkout method means that you will have the URL of the e-commerce website when listing your products and filling in the underlying form.

Step 5. Choose the Currency for Your Shop and Hit Save

Now, you have decided on your payment method. It’s time to choose your choice of currency that will appear on the product description after you add it completely.

Facebook shop currency

Note: Should you choose the wrong currency or wish to change your checkout method, you will need to delete your shop and create another one. This means all the products listed in the shop will be deleted.

Delete your shop, click on the Shop Tab, find the gear icon in the right-up corner, and choose Delete.

how to delete a Facebook store

Step 6. Describe What You’re Going to Sell

Congratulations!

Now you can fill in some general information about the products you’re selling and add them to the shop. A little box will appear, where you can describe what you’re going to sell in 200 characters.

describe what your Facebook shop sells

Step 7. How to Add Products to Facebook Shop

After you’ve added a little description of what you’re going to sell, you can add your first product.

This is doable from your computer, and you can only sell physical products, according to Facebook guidelines.

The box you’ll see will look like this (in case you’ve chosen Message to Buy as your checkout method). You’ll see completely intuitive and user-oriented on-screen instructions. The form requires adding a photo, name, price, description, and visibility of your product. Also, there are some other toggles you can play with.

how to add products to your Facebook shop

But here are some rules and best practices to complete your Facebook online store. You won’t be able to publish a product without adding at least one photo. Please note that customers will be happy to see more than one. The best dimension for a photo would be a square image of 1024 x 1024 pixels, according to Facebook’s recommended photo guidelines.

product pictures for Facebook shops

It’s also possible to add a video of your product.

Let’s see what you can do next.

Clearly, put down the name of your product.

Fill in the price. You can mention only one price, but if you decide to choose “This product is on sale,” you can change it. This way, your clients will see how much they save.

Describe your product or tell about its advantages in short sentences, preferably with bullet points.

Avoid company-specific information.

Don’t use URLs or emojis; both will be broken in the description. According to Facebook, the descriptions cannot contain phone numbers, email addresses, long titles, excessive punctuation, capitalized letters, or in lowercase, book or movie spoilers, or external links.

In Edit Options, you can add options describing the size and color of your product.

There, you can also choose your shipping information and policy.

After you click the Save button, Facebook begins to Process your product. It may take up to 24 hours to review if it complies with Facebook policies.

Share the product on your page. When you have created a product, you can publish an announcement telling people what’s new in your shop. If you add many products, it’s better not to share them on the page all at once. You will be able to do this later.

Step 8. Add Collections

Facebook allows you to create collections if you want to sell many products of different types. Categorized collections make navigation easier for buyers and improve the shopping experience.

This feature becomes visible when you’ve already added some products. The next thing you’ll have to is to create a name for your collection, add products, and choose “Feature this Collection” to make it stand out in your shop.

Nordgreen, a Danish brand of watches, for example, has collections of women’s and men’s watches separated on their Facebook online store. Check it out:

Facebook shop collection

  Step 9. Change the CTA Button

Facebook does a lot of things automatically, and setting your CTA is no exception. It creates your call to action button on the right corner under your background image that leads to the shop on your page.

Famous brands like Tiffany & Co. use a simple message in their CTAs: Shop Now. However, when you’ve set up a store on Facebook, you can easily change the CTA button and even link your website to it. It’s up to you!

Shop Now button on Facebook

Frequently Asked Questions on Creating Facebook Shop

What are the Products I Can’t Sell on a Facebook Shop?

Facebook has a list of prohibited items. Some of the unapproved products include prescription drugs, weapons, animals, alcohol, and anything that promotes discrimination.

You check Facebook Community Guidelines to understand their policies.

Which payment types does Facebook accept?

This depends on where you are. For US stores, where customers can checkout directly on your Facebook page, your money will come through either Stripe or PayPal.

If you’re outside the US, you will need to arrange a different payment method. This could be a bank transfer, cash, or telephone payment. This is easiest if you allow customers to contact your page through Messenger.

Can I sell digital goods on my Facebook Store?

Sadly, the answer is no!

This is another important reason for not relying on Facebook for your online business. You can only sell physical products through your Facebook Store.

But with websites like Shopify, BigCommerce, Woocommerce, you can easily sell both physical and digital products!

How do you increase your conversions from a Facebook Store?

To increase your conversions from your Facebook Store, you need to grow your Facebook audience. This can be done through paid ads, promoting Facebook posts – if you have the budget – or simply through increasing your Facebook activity.

You could also try searching for Facebook groups related to your store and post about your store in those, which may help increase your traffic and boost your conversions.

What are the image requirements for product photos on a Facebook Shop page?

Your best bet is to check out Facebook’s guidelines for listing products – since the requirements change on occasion.

There are also several things to worry about, such as dimensions, image formatting, and backdrops. For instance, at the time of this article, Facebook recommends having image resolutions at 1024 x 1024 or higher, along with white backgrounds and square images.

Why my customers can’t purchase multiple products in one shopping cart?

This all depends on your own website and payment processor. Facebook doesn’t offer its native shopping cart in some regions, so transactions are redirected to your own shopping cart and payment processor. That said, Facebook is rolling out these features to new countries as we speak.

Your store is not available in countries other than your own.

The privacy settings of your whole page might be set incorrectly. An easy mistake to make. Go to the Settings of your page and make sure that the Page Visibility parameter is set to Page published.

Do I have to add my products manually?

That depends on a couple of factors. Here’s the gist of it:

If you’ve set up your Shop page via an external e-commerce tool like Shopify or BigCommerce, everything should be synchronized automatically.

This means that Facebook has information on how to link your shop and sync all of the products with the Facebook Shop page.

If you’ve set up your Shop page manually, then yes, you do have to continue adding your products manually. The same goes for updating any details about them (price, availability, descriptions, etc.).

What are the Requirements to have a shop on Facebook?

Your Facebook shop must:

Sell physical items

Agree with our Merchant Terms

What are the Benefits of having a Facebook Shop Page?

Facebook Shops have different features depending on your location. They can be valuable to you because you can:

Add as many products as you want: You don’t need to upload a product catalog anywhere else first, and there’s no limit on how many products you can add.

Customize your product inventory: You can organize your products into different collections so your customers can browse your shop by category.

Communicate with customers: Your customers can message the shop on your Page with questions.

Get insights: You can see views, clicks, and purchases for each of your products.

Is Facebook Shop a good platform to sell products?

F-commerce is a powerful source of income and traffic. It isn’t really the most profitable way to sell your products if you depend 100% on Facebook. Of course, it’s free and straightforward to set up, but it’s still a social network and not an actual online platform to sell products.

Then, there’s also the algorithm where Facebook makes constant changes to it, so you’ll always have to adjust your strategy.

Overall, if you really want to build a strong brand reputation for your business, it is important to have to own your personal online store.

In the end, having a Facebook store is really worth it as it is one of the most useful tools to promote your products, but if you wish to have some extra options to personalize your online brand, make sure to do thorough research and find the best platform that will suit your needs.

Congratulations!

You now know everything you need to know about setting up a Facebook Shop. Indeed, if universities handed out PhDs in the field of Facebook, you’d have one by now!

Yes, just knowing all the tips and strategies is quite an accomplishment. But the truth is, packing away all this information in your noggin won’t do you any good if you don’t use it. And that’s why I suggest you take action – starting right now – by creating your Facebook Shop. Because the sooner you get started, the sooner you can turn this “Ph.D. in Facebook” into real results!

If you have any questions about setting up a Facebook Shop page, leave a comment in the section below. If you’ve successfully established your Facebook store, feel free to leave a link for others to visit and check out the techniques you’ve used to make your page unique.

[justauthoring]

No Reason To (4/50)

Prompt: “And I guess… when it comes down to it, I trust you.”

It has come to my attention that by adding links to my posts, it stops that post from being seen in the tags tagged. So, sadly, I will no longer be able to tag previous parts of NRT on new chapters. BUT all part can be found easily on my “No Reason To Series MasterList!”

A/N: I am absolutely blown away from the positive feedback i’ve received. It both baffles me and makes me really happy - so thank you all so, so, so much! You’re sweet and supportive comments only inspire me to write more frequently, so please, keep at it and i’ll keep being consistent!

Send me a little comment in the ask section or leave it below on what you thought of this chapter. As usual, I hope you all enjoyed!

AGAIN, remember if you’d like me to continue this series, just leave a little comment or an ask letting me know. I will NOT continue the series if no one wants me to.

Please don’t plagiarize my work - I spend a lot of my time writing, copying and pasting destroys that. If you want to repost my work. please ask first - but even then I might say no.

Pairing: Stiles x McCall!Reader

Based off of: Teen Wolf 01x06 and 01x07

Tag List: @potterheadbbc - @sunsetblake - @mythicalamphitrite - @loverofwaytoomanythings618 - @creamychickenuggets - @mnk - @gazebros- @colie87 - @quilliamfears - @quellum - @pessimisticbullshite - @desired-love-@thinkwritexpress-official - @kaylinfayezink - @maiabiovillage - @tr1chst3r - @arkcangel - @quirkytwinkles - @thegirlwhoimagined - @noones-girl1980 - @illumminated - @fairchild345 - @all-will-be-well-love - @animemes-trash - @starryrevelations - @literallyhelpme - @theskytraveler - @jinandtion1c - @ilovemymoose - @bibliophilesquared - @stilessarcasmqueen - @mersuperwholocked-lowlife - @newtsshelbys - @wyattgoleft - @pancakefancake - @saturno-in-the-night - @pizzamelon7384 - @riskregretting If you’d like to be tagged, just let me know! Any in italics are those Tumblr won’t let me tag!

The sound of murmured talking woke you from your sleep. Blinking, you picked your head up from your pillow, turning it to the left to glance at the clock. It was half past midnight.

What the hell was Scott doing at half past midnight?

You attempted to ignore it, but after everything that’s happened the past few days, not to mention that you’ve barely seen your brother in those past few days, you find it hard to ignore. Your dick of a brother never actually even asked if you were okay after what happened with Jackson in the video store. You wondered if he ever actually would.

“Ugh,” you groan, pushing yourself up and onto your feet with a frown. You quietly open up your bedroom door, careful not to wake up your mother given that she has an early shift in the morning, instead of an late shift, and creep past her bedroom. Though, you can’t help but peek into her bedroom a little, smiling softly to yourself at her sleeping peacefully.

You wonder, in that moment, how she’d react if she knew what Scott was.

Shaking your head, you turn back towards your brothers bedroom, taking the last few steps over to it. You debate on just opening the door, but realize it’s probably better if you knock. So, raising your hand, you do just that, calling out a quiet; “Scott?” in question.

There’s a moment of scuffling before Scott is whisper-yelling back; “busy!”

Your brows furrowed, lips tightening into a straight line. “What the...” You mumble, grabbing a hold of the door knob. “Come on, Scott. I know I heard you-” 

The moment you open the door even just a little, a weight is pushed against it, shutting once more. You blink, lips parted in surprise as you glance up at the door, as if imagining you can see right through it and glare at Scott. “Scott?”

“Not the time, Y/N,” he calls back, his voice gruff.

A deeper, almost recognizable voice responds before you even have the chance to; “is that your sister?”

Eyes narrowing in confusion, you hear Scott shush the man before speaking back at you; “just... just go, Y/N. I’ll see you in the morning.”

You open your mouth to argue, but pause, letting go of the door knob and taking a few steps back. You wait, knowing Scott is listening to make sure you’ve left, hoping that if he just doesn’t care that much, you’ll be able to listen in.

“Just let her in,” the deeper voice says again. Your eyes widen, finally able to recognize the voice - that’s Derek. “It’s not like she doesn’t know who-”

“Shh,” Scott snaps again, “she’s still there.”

Frowning, you shake your head, turning around and heading off back into the direction of your bed. Still, you can’t help but wonder what Derek is doing in Scott’s bedroom, and what else Scott is hiding from you.

-

“The what of who?”

“The beast of Gevaudan,” Allison replies, leaning forward in her seat to turn and look at both you and Lydia. You barely pick up your own head in response, picking at your food distractedly. “Listen. ‘A quadruped wolf-like monster, prowling the Auvergne and south Dordorgne areas of France during the year 1764 and 1767.”

“La Bete killed over a hundred people. Becoming so infamous that the King Louie the fifteenth sent one of his best hunters to try and kill it’.”

“Boring,” Lydia response, shaking her head at Allison.

She only continues; “’Even the church eventually declared the monster a messenger of Satan.’”

“Hmm,” Lydia pauses in thought, “still boring.”

“‘Cryptozoologists believe may have been a subspecies of hoofed predator, possibly a mesonychid.”

“‘Slipping into a coma’ bored.”

“’While others believe it was a powerful sorcerer who could shape-shift into a man-eating monster,’“

“Gotta admit,” you speak up, meeting Lydia’s eyes. “It’s kinda of boring. Does any of this have anything to do with your family?” 

“This,” Allison nods, turning back to her book. “‘It is believed that La Bete was finally trapped and killed by a renown hunter who claimed his wife and four children were the first to fall pray to the creature.’“

“And what does that have to do with your family?” You repeat, raising a brow.

Allison’s laughs lightly, blinking up at you; “his name was Argent.”

“Your ancestors killed a big wolf,” Lydia dismisses, shaking her head; “so what?”

“Not just a big wolf,” Allison corrects. Looking down at her book, she flips through a page, before turning it around towards you and Lydia. “Take a look at this picture,” she says, pointing at said photo. Following her lead, you glance at it, trying to understand what she’s getting at. “What does it look like to you guys?”

Leaning forward, you feel your heart race somewhat when you see the same red eyes that you saw that night with Jackson. They’re staring back at you just like they had that night, and the fork in your hand drops with a shaky breath, your eyes widening. It feels like you’ve been staring into that same image for days, stuck in your mind, and it isn’t until Allison sets a hand on your arm do you snap out of your stupor.

You blink, rubbing at your eyes in distress as Lydia answers. “It looks... like a big... wolf.” What you don’t know though, is she was just as scared of the image as you, just in a different way. At least you know, in a realistic sense, what that is. And what that thing was that night at the DVD store. All Lydia is that it’s a werewolf, and up until a few days ago, she probably thought they never existed.

Sending the two of you one last smile, Lydia stands up, picking up her tray, obviously done with the conversation; “see you in history.”

Allison turns into the bench, facing you. She sets down her book, flipping through a few more pages as silence falls over the two of you. As the two of you just sit there, you start picking at your food once again, not really finding the appetite within you to eat it.

You get lost in your thoughts. Thinking back to everything that’s happened, and trying to pinpoint when everything went so wrong.

But what’s really on your mind is last night and why Scott shut you out like that. He’s been doing that a lot recently, and it’s not the first time you and him have been out of tune in a twin sense. It just feels different this time. Feels like he doesn’t trust you enough, or have enough faith in you to tell you everything. And the worst part is Stiles is doing the exact same thing.

“Y/N?”

Blinking, you look up from your food, meeting Allison’s eyes once again; “hmm?”

Her lips curve downwards, a frown befalling her features. “Is everything okay?” Her voice is soft, concerned and for some reason, it takes everything within you not to just spill out the truth. You know you can’t for Scott’s sake. But, oh God, do you want to...

Just to have someone to talk to about it all, that isn’t Scott or Stiles. 

“Yeah,” you nod, swallowing thickly. “Yeah, i’m fine.”

“Really?” She questions, raising a brow. “That’s the second time you’ve zoned out. Not to mention you haven’t even taken a bite out of your food. What’s on your mind?”

You hate it, but you can’t help but glance behind yourself, meeting Scott’s eyes from afar. He’s hid some of his face behind a world history book, but you’re still able to meet his eyes. 

Sighing, you turn back to Allison; “just a little tired.”

Allison seems unsure and suspicious, obviously not missing the way you glanced Stiles and Scott’s way, but not wanting to push the issue, she shrugs. “If you’re sure.”

Just as you’re about to reply, you are interrupted by Stiles saying; “uh-huh. Oh, yeah,” causing you to turn around in confusion. It catches Allison’s attention as well, and you both watch as Stiles hastily stands up, grabbing his books off the table, as well as the book in Scott’s hands and his backpack.

Making a last minute decision, you follow Stiles lead, standing up yourself and racing after him. You miss the panic that falls over Scott’s face, or the way Allison is calling for his name, too preoccupied with Stiles.

“Stiles!” You call, “wait up!”

He listens, surprisingly, this time, turning to face you. His face softens somewhat at the sight of you, and the moment you reach him, you’re reminded of the awkward tension from the last time the two of you spoke.

Pushing that aside, you plaster a smile on your lips, meeting his gaze. “Where are you going?”

“Uh, actually,” Stiles blinks, looking around the hallway. Your heart falls when you realize he’s about to come up with an excuse.

“Okay, you know what? Never-mind.” Holding up your hands, you shaking your head up at Stiles, taking a few steps backwards. Just as you’re about to turn your back on him and head off though, Stiles grabs a hold of your wrist, halting your movements.

“I’m sorry,” he shakes his head. “I’m about to try and teach Scott how to control his powers before Derek’s able to. We’re about to go to the lacrosse field.”

A genuine smile falls on your lips, “i’ll come.”

-

“What is Y/N doing here?”

“Y/N is here to help you,” you answer for Stiles, sending your brother a cold smile. “And she’s not leaving.”

Scott blinks at you, glancing at Stiles who only shrugs, before meeting your eyes again. He opens his lips to argue, but one look at your face and he knows now isn’t the time.

Once that’s dealt with, Stiles butts in; “okay,” he nods, setting down the duffel bag and lacrosse stick onto one of the benches of the bleachers. Taking a seat himself, he reaches into the bag, pulling something out; “now... put this on.”

Handing it over to Scott, said boy hesitantly grabs a hold of it. “Isn’t this one of the heart rate monitors for the track team?”

“Yeah,” Stiles nods, “I borrowed it.”

You take a step forward, taking a seat next to Stiles and in front of Scott, setting your hands in your lap. Turning to Stiles, you send him a pitiful smile; “stole it.”

“Temporarily misappropriated,” Stiles corrects, before turning his attention back on Scott. “Coach uses it to monitor his heart rate with his phone while he jogs, and you’re gonna wear it for the rest of the day.”

“Isn’t that coaches phone?” Scott asks, brows furrowed.

“That, I stole.”

Shaking your head, you can’t but ask; “why?”

“All right, well, your heart rate goes up when you go wolf, right?” Stiles asks, to which Scott confirms. “When you’re playing lacrosse, when you’re with Allison, whenever you get angry. Maybe learning to control it is tied to learning to control your heart rate.” 

Woah, you think, that’s actually pretty good.

“Like the Incredible Hulk,” Scott smiles.

“Kinda like the Incredible Hulk, yeah.”

“No,” Scott mumbles, “i’m like the Incredible Hulk.”

“Just shut up and put the strap on,” you grumble, shaking your head.

-

“This isn’t exactly how I wanted to spend my free period,” Scott mumbles, glancing behind his shoulder with his hands tied behind his back. You can’t help but laugh a little, biting your lip as Stiles only ignores him, picking up the duffel bag and backing away from Scott.

“All right,” Stiles calls, “you ready?”

“No,” Scott sighs.

“Remember,” you call, raising your voice as you grin widely. You are definitely enjoying this. “Don’t get angry!”

Stiles drops the duffel bag next to you, leaning down to turn on the heart rate app that coach uses.

“I’m starting to think this was a really bad idea,” Scott mumbles to himself, staring at the two of you worried. Stiles doesn’t seem to really care as he picks up the lacrosse stick, scooping one of the balls he’d place before him into the net and swinging his arm back. With aim you didn’t even know the boy had, he manages to hit Scott directly in the stomach, groaning loudly.

Stiles giggles to himself, repeating the process again and landing a hit on Scott’s chest. He sends him stumbling back, another loud groan leaving his lips. Without even giving him time to collect himself, Stiles does it again, throwing it a little bit harder this time.

“Okay,” Scott huffs, “that one... kind of hurt.”

“Quiet,” Stiles dismisses. “Remember, you’re suppose to be thinking about your heart rate, okay? Thinking about staying calm.”

Scott nods, bouncing on his feet; “staying calm. Staying totally calm. There’s not balls flying at my fac-”

You let out a chuckle, holding your hands by your lips as Stiles manages to hit Scott right on the cheek. Stiles turns to you then, a wide grin on his face, extending the lacrosse stick over to you; “wanna hit?”

“I’d love one,” you grin, stepping forward and taking the lacrosse stick out of Stiles hands. Scooping the ball into the net, you grin up at Scott who groans loudly once again.

“Really?” He whines, “you too, Y/N?”

You don’t reply, only shake your head before swinging your arm back and hitting him directly in the shoulder. He stumbles back, losing his footing as Stiles turns to you, high-fiving you.

You do it once more, hitting Scott at the top of the head, before shaking your head with a soft chuckle. “I better hand it back to you before I really hurt him,” you mumble to Stiles, sending him a grin.

Taking the lacrosse stick from you, Stiles wastes no time in continuing.

“Oh!” Scott cries, “son of a bitch!”

“You know what?” Stiles calls aloud, “I think my aim is actually improving.”

“I’d agree,” you laugh, smirking.

“Wonder why,” Scott snaps, and in response you hear the heart rate beep in response.

“Hey, hey,” you call, “don’t get angry.”

“I’m not getting angry.”

A few hard hits later, you can tell Scott’s starting to get increasingly annoyed and you imagine, sore.

“Stop,” he calls, but Stiles doesn’t listen. “Just wait. Wait, just hold on.”

The last hit sends to Scott to his knees, and your eyes widen when he never picks up his head. It’s then that you notice the phone beeping loudly and increasingly fast, causing you and Stiles to crouch down and look at it. Sure enough, Scott’s heart is racing madly.

“Scott?” Stiles calls, voice soft with hesitancy.

You flinch when Scott rips the duct tape holding his wrists together, gripping the grass beneath him. His chest is rising and falling rapidly, and you feel your own heart increase in panic.

Then, after a terrifying moment later, Scott’s heart begins to slow down.

Glancing over at Stiles, you both silently agree to head over to Scott, creeping forward. Stiles extends his hand forward, setting it on Scott’s shoulder before said boy rolls over. 

“Scott,” you whisper, “you started to change.”

“My anger,” he breathes, “but it was more than that. It was like, the angrier I got, the stronger I felt.”

“So, it is anger, then. Derek’s right.”

Letting out a heavy exhale, Scott shakes his head; “I can’t be around Allison.”

“Just because she makes you happy?” You question, confused.

“No, because she makes me weak.”

-

A sudden pounding on your door pulled your attention away from your homework. Blinking, you glanced up from your position at the kitchen table, turning your head around to glance at the front door. It was a little past ten o’clock. Who the hell was here at ten’o’clock?

The knocking only continued, growing a tad bit more urgent the more you left it.

Sighing, you pushed yourself up to your feet, heading to the front door. “I’ll get it!” You called, Melissa replying with an ‘okay’ in response. Continuing your way over to the front door, you unlocked it with another sigh before pulling open the door. You’re not sure what you expected, but Allison and Jackson definitely wasn’t it.

“Hello?” You mumble, raising a brow.

“Hey,” Allison smiles, leaning in past Jackson. Although she’s smiling, you can tell there’s something behind the lids of her eyes. “Is Scott here?”

“Shouldn’t he be on a date with you?” You question, cocking your hip out.

“Precisely why we are here,” Jackson speaks up, rolling his eyes. “He isn’t home?”

“Nope,” you shake your head, shrugging, “haven’t seen him since school.”

Allison is about to reply before her phone going off interrupts her. She sends both you and Jackson a confused glance, before pulling it out of her back pocket and switching it on. You turn to Jackson as you wait, somewhat unsure of what to do.

Then, Allison’s sliding her phone back into her pocket and turning to Jackson; “we’re going to the school.”

“Wait,” Jackson blinks, shaking his head. “Why?”

“Come on,” she urges, ignoring Jackson’s question, before turning to you. “You too, Y/N.”

You hesitate a moment, glancing back in the direction of your homework before looking back at your two friends before you. Shrugging, you lean over to the coat hook, grabbing your jacket; “anything’s better than homework.”

A short drive later, and you’re at the school.

You wait for Jackson to step out, pulling the seat forward so Allison, then you, can crawl out of the back seat. The moment you’re on your feet, you turn to the school, raising a brow.

“What’re we doing here anyway?” Jackson asks, shoulders dropping with defeat.

Glancing down at her phone, Allison pauses a moment before flipping her phone screen to you and Jackson. “All I got was this.” Leaning forward, you read the text Scott apparently sent to Allison.

Meet me at the school. URGENT.

Furrowing your brows, you lean back, glancing up at the school once more. That seems a bit odd.

“They lock the doors at night, you know?” Lydia reminds, glancing up at the three of you through the drivers window.

“That ones open,” Allison calls, pointing forward before stepping past you and Jackson and heading over. You glance at Jackson one final time, before the two of you follow after Allison.

“You don’t need me to state the obvious, right?” Jackson questions, halting Allison as she turns around to look at the both of you. You can’t help but bite your lips at his words, glancing at the opened door in worry.

“That it looks like they broke into the school?” Allison responds, shaking her head. “No, pretty obvious.”

“Want me to come with you?” Jackson offers, and you turn to him in confusion. That was oddly chivalrous. Jackson was nice to a very few selected people. Somehow you managed to fall into that category, and up until now, you thought Allison hadn’t been apart of it.

Shaking her head, Allison crosses her arm over her chest. “Mm, it’s okay.”

“Well, i’m coming with you,” you butt in, stepping past Allison to head up the stairs. You hear Jackson call after Allison, and choosing to ignore him, you continue to make your way up the steps and over to the opened entrance, crossing your arms over your chest in nervousness.

“Y/N.”

Jumping a little, you spin your head around, setting a hand against your chest. “Jesus,” you breathe, sending Allison a small smile. “You scared me half to death.”

Flashing the light onto her face, Allison laughs; “boo.”

Shaking your head, you snatch the flashlight from her hands, walking through the door. “Let’s go.”

-

“It’s cold in here,” you whisper, tensing up in the arms.

Allison mumbles in agreement, continuing to look around the pool in concern. You can’t help but do the same. You have no idea exactly what happened here or why Scott and you’re guessing Stiles are here, and you can’t even begin to think why. But you know it has to do with something supernatural. And along with you being concerned with their safety, you can’t help but worry what you just walked into.

The both of you jump once Allison’s phones ring, you nearly dropping the flashlight in response.

“Answer it,” you urge after a moment of Allison just staring at it.

“It’s Lydia.”

You nod, turning around to continuing looking around as she starts speaking. 

“Hello,” you hear her respond. “Yeah, we can’t seem to find them.” Another moment of silence. “Okay, give us a second and we’ll be there.”

Turning to you, Allison nods; “we have to head back in a minute.”

“Sounds good,” you smile.

The two of you are once again interrupted by the sound of Allison’s phone ringing. If you were confused before, you are absolutely baffled now. Turning to Allison, you raise your brow, silently asking who it is.

“Stiles,” she mumbles, brows furrowing.

“What?”

Answering her phone, Allison presses her phone against her ear; “Stiles?”

You don’t hear what he says in response, but a moment later Allison replies; “we’re in the school looking for you, why weren’t you at my place?”

Once again, you don’t know what is said in response, but you take the few short steps over to Allison, curious.

“With Y/N on the first floor.”

Allison’s eyes widen and she glances around herself; “the swimming pools.”

Allison grabs a hold of your wrist, causing you to look up at her concern. “Okay, okay,” she replies, “we’re coming.” Suddenly, you’re being pulled forward by the wrist, nearly stumbling over your own feet.

“Wait, where are we going!”

-

“Why did you come? What are you doing here?”

Blinking, you slow to a stop next to Allison, glancing at both Stiles and Scott in bafflement.

“Because you asked me to.”

Scott’s face scrunches up in confusion; “I asked you to?”

“You texted her,” you mumble, shrugging your shoulders.

Both Scott and Stiles reel over to you; “and you. What are you doing here, Y/N?”

“Allison came to our house searching for you,” you explain, narrowing your eyes. “Then you texted her. Obviously, I came along.”

“Okay,” Stiles suddenly speaks, holding up his hands by his head. “What text?”

Turning to Allison, you patiently wait for her to pull up the text message on her phone before flipping it around for Scott and Stiles to see. You feel your heart drop though when Scott glances up at the two of you, lips parted.

“Why do I get the feeling you didn’t send this message?” 

“Because I didn’t.”

“Did you drive here?” Stiles asks, stepping forward.

“Jackson did,” you shrug.

Scott steps back in panic, turning to Stiles in alarm; “Jackson’s here too?”

“And Lydia,” Allison adds, raising her voice. “What’s going on? Who sent this text?” As Allison speaks, her phone starts ringing once again, causing her to trail with her words, answering it. “Where are you?”

As soon as Allison finishes speaking, the sound of a door opening quickly echoes. You spin around, meeting Lydia and Jackson’s gaze. Rushing over to you, Lydia shoves her phone into her purse, breathing out; “finally. Can we go now?”

You nod, falling by Stiles side.

A second later, a loud thud echoes from over your heads. Without thinking, you shuffle closer to Stiles, feeling your heart rate start to pick up.

You’re not sure what’s happening, all you know that it’s bad. But then, Scott’s turning his head to face you all, and his eyes are wide with panic. Then,

“Run!”

You don’t dare glance behind yourself, nearly stumbling over your feet as the six of you start sprinting forwards. Whatever it is, you can tell that it isn’t human by the loud thuds and inhuman growls that leave the creatures lips. You make sure not to leave Stiles side, feeling your entire body tense with panic.

The lot of you burst through a set of doors, and the moment you’re all through, Scott wastes no time shutting and locking them behind you. 

Feeling your heart pound against your chest, your breath rapid and uneven, you pace inside the classroom, fists clenched in distress.

“Help me get this in front of the door,” you hear Scott bellow to Jackson, referring to the teachers desk.

“Wait, no,” Stiles calls, bringing your attention on him. “Not here.”

“Scott,” Allison cries, “what was that?”

“What came out of the ceiling!”

“Will you just help me?” Scott screams in response, voice raw.

You hesitate, focused on Stiles who is desperately trying to get everyone to listen to him. “Guys... Can we just wait a second? You guys, listen to me, w-- Can we wait a second? Guys? Stiles talking.”

No one but you listens as the four of them continue to barricade the door to the extreme.

“Hello!” You call, shaking your head in distress. “Guys! Listen!”

They fail to listen to you either, and turning to Stiles, you hear him huff before taking a step forward; “hello!”

The four of them snap to the two of you, Stiles’s shoulders falling in defeat. “Okay, nice work.” He huffs, “really beautiful job, everyone. Now, what should we do about the twenty foot wall of windows?” And to add to his point, Stiles side steps, gesturing to said windows.

Rubbing your hands against your face, you sigh; “idiots...”

“Can someone please explain to me what is going on?” Allison cries, latching onto Scott’s arm. “Because i’m freaking out here. And I would like to know why.” Scott only stares back at her in response, lips parting in uncertainty. “Scott?”

He only rips his arm from her gasp, stepping forward before slumping against one of the desks.

Shaking your head, you pace on the spot. This is so not the time to be keeping secrets Allison, if the group of three completely freaked out and scared people, and you, are anything to go by. And yet, both Stiles and Scott refrain from giving the four of you any answers.

Scott just remains silent, and with a groan of frustration, you turn to Stiles. “Is anyone going to answer us? Because i’d really like to know what’s going on myself.”

Stiles looks at you, body still, before he takes a deep breath, stepping forward. “Somebody killed the janitor.”

“What?”

“Yeah,” he nods, “the janitors dead.”

Allison attempts at a smile, hoping it’s all some sort of sick joke. “What is he talking about? Is this a joke?”

“Wha-,” Jackson stammers, “who killed him?”

“Non, no, no, no. This was supposed to be over,” Lydia panics, eyes wide with fear. “The mountain li-”

“Don’t you get it,” Jackson interrupts. “There wasn’t a mountain lion.”

“Who was it?” You screeched, “what does he want?”

Fumbling, Allison’s whispers; “what’s happening?”

All the while, Scott keeps his back turned to the five of you, silent. A bout of anger floods your entire being at his lack of response. Can’t he ever just answer you? Tell you something?

“Scott!”

“I-I don’t know,” Scott stammers, finally answering and turning around to face you all. “I-I just... If we go out there, he’s... he’s gonna kill us.”

“Us?” Lydia screeches, “he’s gonna kills us?”

“Who?” Allison repeats, turning to Stiles when she knows Scott won’t answer her. “Who is it?”

Stiles only turns to Scott, seemingly waiting for him to answer. During the moment of silence, you inch closer to Stiles, touching his arm in an attempt to get an answer out of him. He only keeps his eyes trained on Scott, willing him to answer the question he apparently doesn’t have answers for.

“Derek,” Scott suddenly calls, “it’s Derek Hale.”

What?

“Derek killed the janitor?”

“Wha... Are you sure?”

“I saw him,” Scott admits.

“The mountain li-”

“All of them?” Allison interrupts Lydia.

“Yeah,” Scott nods, “starting with his own sister.”

“The bus driver?”

“And the guy in the video store,” Scott confirms, and you furrow your brows. That doesn’t make any sense. You were there in the video store. That couldn’t have been Derek. “It’s been Derek the whole time. He’s in here with us.”

“No,” you whisper under your breath, shaking your head. “That isn’t right.”

You feel Stiles’s eyes fall on you, and you snap your own to his, pushing for answers. You receive none.

Only silence follows your words, before Scott straightens his back; “and if we don’t get out now...” He turns, facing the five of you. “He’s going to kill us too.”

-

“Call the cops.”

“No,” Stiles responds, not even turning to face Jackson.

“Wh-What do you mean no?” Jackson huffs in response, shaking his hand out at Stiles.

“I mean no,” Stiles repeats. “You wanna hear it in spanish? No.” He finishes off with a slight accent before continuing. “Look, Derek killed three people, okay? We don’t know what he’s armed with.”

There’s a moment of silence before Jackson continues; “your dad is armed with an entire sheriff’s department. Call him.”

“I’m calling,” Lydia says, stepping forward with her phone in her hand. Stiles is quick to leave your side, rushing after her. “No, Lydia, would you just hold on a second.” Before he can reach her though, Jackson steps forward, grabbing a hold of Stiles by the shirt and pushing him back.

“Hey,” you call, affronted, as you step forward, pulling Jackson’s grip off of Stiles. He sends you a narrowed look, to which you respond with one of your own, crossing your arms over your chest.

“Yes,” you hear Lydia, pulling your attention off of Jackson and onto her. “We’re at Beacon Hills high school. We’re trapped, and we need you to--” Her words suddenly halt, causing you to furrow your brows in response. “But--” Pulling the phone away from her ear, Lydia glances down at her phone, stunned. “She hung up on me.”

“The police hung up on you?” You question, doubting her words.

“She said they got a tip warning them that there are gonna be prank calls about a break-in to the high school,” Lydia explains, voice pitched with panic. “She said if I called again that they’re gonna trace it and have me arrested.”

“Okay,” Allison urges, “then call again!”

“No,” Stiles sighs, “they won’t trace a cell. Then they’ll send a car to your house before they send anyone here.”

“What the-” Allison stammers, shaking her head. “What-- What is this? Why does Derek wanna kill us? Why is he killing anyone?”

“That’s what i’d like to know,” you mumble under your breath.

After another moment of silence, everyone’s eyes falls on Scott’s who’s own widen in response. “Why’s everyone looking at me?”

“Is he the one that sent her the text?” Lydia questions, referring to the message Allison received early.

“No,” Scott panics, “I mean, I don’t know.”

“Is he the one who called the police?” Allison adds.

“I don’t know!” 

“Alright,” Stiles interrupts, easing the tension. “Why don’t we ease back on the throb, yeah?” Setting his hands on Scott’s shoulders, Stiles gently guides the boy back. You glance back at Jackson, Allison and Lydia, before following after the two them, eyes narrowed.

Once the three of you are far away in enough, you glare at them; “the two of you better explain to me what the hell is going on,” you whisper angrily. “Because you both know I know it wasn’t Derek.”

“It’s Scott’s beta,” Stiles quickly explains to you, “Derek... Derek’s dead...”

“Jesus...” You breathe, setting your head in your hands. 

“We think he’s dead,” Scott corrects.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Stiles suddenly snaps, reeling around to face Scott. “Good job throwing Derek under the bus. Nicely done.”

“I didn’t know what else to say,” Scott replies, voice urgent. “I had to say something! And if he’s dead, then... it-it doesn’t matter, right? E-Except if he’s not,” sighing, Scott shakes his head. “I totally just bit her head off.”

“And she’ll totally get over it,” you huff, shaking your head up at Scott. Is that really what he’s worrying about right now? Getting mad at Allison when your lives are in danger? “Bigger issues at hand here, like how do we get out alive?”

Scott turns to you, eyes wide; “but we are alive. It could’ve killed us already. It’s like it’s corning us or something.”

“So what?” Stiles murmurs, “he wants to eat us all at the same time?”

“No! Derek said it wants revenge.”

“Against who?” You ask, shrugging your shoulders.

Pausing in thought, Scott offers; “Allison’s family?”

Stiles lips part, as your eyes widen. “Maybe that’s what the text was about.” Scott tilts his head, silently asking Stiles to clarify. “Someone had to send it.”

“Okay, okay,” Jackson interrupts, pulling your gazes on him. “New plan. Stiles calls his useless dad and tells him to send someone with a gun and decent aim. Are we good with that?”

Glancing back and forth between Stiles and Jackson, you sigh. It’s pretty obvious Stiles doesn’t want to get his dad involved less he get hurt, but Jackson is right. You can’t just sit here waiting for Derek to burst through this windows or somehow break down the barricade.

“He’s right,” Scott boomed, “tell him the truth if you have to, just call him.”

Staring at Scott with a dumbfounded expression, Stiles shakes his head; “i’m not watching my dad get eaten alive.” He shrugs, stepping past you and Scott. You flinch though when Jackson lunges forward, grabbing a hold of Stiles’s shoulder.

“Alright, give me the phone.”

Your eyes widen in disbelief when Stiles reels around, punching Jackson directly in the cheek, causing the boy to go stumbling back, losing his footing. 

“Jackson!” Allison cries, running up to the boy. “Are you okay? Hey, are you okay?” She glances back at Stiles, lips parted in disbelief. You can’t help but do the same. Though you don’t necessarily blame Stiles, you would’ve never expected him to do that.

At the glances he receives, Stiles huffs, pulling out his phone and calling his dad. You wait a moment, Stiles eventually saying; “dad, hey, it’s me. And it’s your voicemail. Look, I need you to call me back now. Like, right now.”

You jump, head reeling around to face the door as a loud banging echoes. It only continues, becoming more rapid and sporadic by the second. Everyone backs up in response, and you find yourself in between both Scott and Stiles as the latter continues speaking; “we’re at the school, okay? We’re at the school.”

Your eyes widen when you see the barricade failing.

“Oh, my God. Oh, my God.”

“The kitchen,” Stiles suddenly says, “the kitchen suddenly leads to the stairwell.”

“Which only goes up!”

“Up is better than here.”

-

“I’m getting the key.”

Eyes widening, you whip around to face your brother, already knowing that that’s a terrible idea.

“Are you serious?” Allison breathes, voice quiet with uncertainty. 

“Well,” Scott swallows thickly, “it’s the best plan. We wanna get out of here.”

“You can’t go out there unarmed,” Allison whispers urgently in response. 

Scott hesitates a moment, glancing around for something he can use. Grabbing one of the pointer sticks that teacher’s use, he faces everyone else. Like you, everyone’s heads fall. This is such a bad idea. 

“Well, it’s better than nothing.”

Shaking your head, you take a step forward; “there’s gotta be something else.”

“There is,” Lydia replies, causing you to turn to her. Tilting her forward, she gestures to something, the five of you taking a moment before you turn your heads to the chemistry lab cabinet.

“What are we gonna do?” Stiles blurts, “throw acid on him?”

“No,” Lydia snaps, “like a fire bomb. Everything you need is in there to make a self-igniting molotov cocktail.”

“Self-igniting--”

“--Molotov cocktail.”

Another moment of silence passes, everyone staring at Lydia in disbelief.

“What?” She questions in response, breath spiking. “I read it somewhere.”

“We don’t have a key for that either,” Stiles reminds.

Huffing, Jackson rolls his eyes, slamming his elbow into the glass of the cabinet, breaking it.

“Well, looks like we’re doing it.”

-

“All right, can we not argue for half a second here?”

“Where’s Scott?” Allison sniffles, pacing on the spot. “He should be back by now.”

“Shes’ right,” you huff, biting your lip worriedly.  As soon as you finish speaking, there’s the slightest sound of the lock clicking, causing you to turn around. Just as you’re about to step forward, Allison pushes past you, slamming her fist on the door; “Scott. Scott! Scott!”

Shaking your head, you back up, utterly confused as to why Allison can’t get the door open. What did Scott do?

“Stop,” Lydia mumbles, Allison not hearing her. “Stop!” Halting, Allison whips around to face Lydia, eyes wide. “Do you hear that?” Furrowing your breath, you listen closely. “Listen.”

Police sirens... faint, but they’re there.

Rushing forward, the five of you crowd around one window, a breath of relief leaving your lips when you see a police car pull up next to Stiles’s jeep, followed by another.

-

“I’m okay. Thank you, Mr. Stilinski.”

Said man sends you a bright smile, though a tired one, nodding his head. “You two have a good night. Stay safe.”

Scott smiles, while you turn your attention on Stiles, sending him a wave and a small smile. He replies with the same, and then you’re leaning back, watching the Sheriff’s car drive away.

The moment the car’s gone, you turn around, without even batting Scott a look, intent on making it inside as quick as possible. You’re stopped, though, by Scott’s hand falling on your arm, halting your movements. You pause a moment before turning to face him, taking a deep breath to calm your nerves.

“Y/N-”

“Don’t,” you breathe, glancing down at your feet. “Just don’t.”

“Just let me expl-”

“So you can lie?” You cry, turning around to face him. You hate it, but you can’t help the way your eyes water in response, every emotion that you’ve been keeping buried and hidden all tumbling over the surface. “Or, rather, just not tell me the whole truth?”

Scott looks confused, distress. You know that Allison just broke up with him, it was pretty obvious by the way he got into the car earlier. And maybe this isn’t the time to be dumping all of your frustrations on him. But you can’t keep it hidden anymore. You can’t keep pretending like everything’s okay.

“Please,” Scott whispers, voice desperate. “Just let me explain. Everything.”

“No,” you repeat, putting emphasis on the word. “You act like i’m incapable of helping you. That i’m not good enough to help you. And yet, i’m always there. Always doing my best. I’m your sister, Scott, but lately, it feels like i’m nothing to you.”

A tear falls past your defenses, one you hastily wipe away at.

Scott doesn’t respond. Instead, his lips remained part, eyes wide with distress.

Sighing, you let your shoulders drop; “we better get inside. Mom’s probably worried sick.”

And without another word, you turn, heading up the steps to your front door.

-

let me know what you thought? remember, reblogging always helps!

i sort of struggled writing this chapter, so i hope it’s enjoyable nonetheless!

[onemonitarandroidapp]

To unlock all the mysteries of your kid’s internet usage, you need to use a Hidden Spy App

The Internet can be a confusing place for the parents as it is extended beyond infinity. Sometimes parents get lost in the quest of tracking the internet activities of their kids. It becomes very difficult for them to analyse the best tracking apps which can unlock every mystery of their kids’ internet usage. Parents want to be hundred percent sure of the safety measure they take for their kids. To satisfy the needs of the parents, Hidden Spy App is the answer to all their online needs.

The major problem for the parents is that they sometimes have no idea of what could be dangerous for their kids. One reason for this problem is that there is a very thin line between danger and safety that needs to be put on check. Hidden Spy App helps the parents to keep the odds in their favour. To decide what is wrong and what is right, parents need to update themselves of all the bad things on the internet. So, in order to know every mystery of their children’s internet usage, parents need to continuously upgrade their online awareness.

Detection of the suspicious websites is just as important as upgrading yourself. Parents need to teach their kids how to evaluate the tricks of the online fraudsters. This could only be done when the parents are themselves updated of the dangers that online predators create. CHYLDMONITOR is a Hidden spy app for Android which helps the parents to check every mystery of the internet usage of their kids. They also get access to all the social media accounts of the kid through this Hidden Spy App.

Kids these days are always on the internet, they are constantly in front of their phone screens. They are mostly on the internet, doing something or the other. Maybe they are playing games, surfing through social media, chatting with friends or even searching for some information. Teenagers use the internet more than adults these days. In times like these, parents need to educate their kids about the after effects of excess internet usage and also the ill effects of talking and meeting with strangers online.

Hidden Spy App helps the parents in continuously monitoring their kid’s activities so that they are always ready to face bad situations, if they happen to occur at such time. CHYLDMONITOR is one of a kind, Hidden Spy App which helps in monitoring each and every activity of the target phone. It monitors every activity and puts the parents in the right position to tackle and solve any kind of mysteries which can put their family in danger.

Kids can indulge into various types of dangers online. To save them from those dangers, CHYLDMONITOR’s Hidden Spy App is required.

The major social network used by the teenagers and the reasons for it

Facebook

Social media networks have engrossed our society in a way that it has become almost impossible to get rid of it. Social media has crossed the lines of usage and everyone is using it by crossing those limits. Facebook is so popular among the kids that sometimes it gets dangerous for them. Kids need to be on a check if they are using Facebook. Parents are continuously feeling the need for a Hidden Spy App that can track every Facebook activity of their kids, without giving the kids any idea. This enhances the purpose of CHYLDMONITOR’s Hidden Spy App, even more.

WhatsApp Messenger

Teenagers mostly like using WhatsApp because it allows them to chat with the strangers that they meet online. They make friends who are total strangers and begin trusting them without even meeting them once in the real life. Hidden Spy App enables the parents to ensure that their kids do not share some manipulating information with strangers. Kids share some personal information with total strangers and that can easily put them in danger. And this danger can go unchecked if parents do not have a Hidden Spy App which can help the parents to sense the danger beforehand.

Instagram

The popularity of Instagram owes to the simple interface of its mobile application. The user base of Instagram is very high but not as high as its parent company, Facebook. Whoever has an Instagram account, uses the social network at least one time a day. Instagram has the easiest and simple interface which allows the users to share their photos and videos without any difficulty. The simple user interface attracts most of the internet users, especially the kids. Hidden Spy App is what the parents need if their kid is using Instagram.

Hike Messenger

Hike Messenger introduced the feature of hidden chat in its mobile application. It was one of the first, widely known messaging apps to do so. This feature was the major factor behind its popularity among the teenagers. This feature of Hike troubled the parents, the most. They wanted to know how they can track their kid’s Hike account and how they can see the hidden chats on it. Hidden Spy App came to the rescue of such parents who wanted to solve the mystery of hike usage of their kids.

CHYLDMONITOR is a Hidden Spy App, which lets the parents to track each and every activity of their child’s Hike account, even the hidden chats. The parents can track the exact date and time of all the hidden and unhidden chats through this Hidden Spy App.

What makes CHYLDMONITOR different from other Hidden Spy Apps?

CHYLDMONITOR delivers nothing but perfection to its users. The 30 features which are boasted by this Hidden Spy App are advanced, technical, accurate and efficient. They never fail to carry out the exact job for which they are designed. CHYLDMONITOR gives an all-in-one solution to the users. The features of CHYLDMONITOR makes it stand differently in line with other Hidden Spy Apps. The excellent post-purchase service of CHYLDMONITOR makes it different from the rest of the Hidden Spy Apps. All these things when combined together makes the best Hidden Spy App which never fails to match the standards.

[saastrac]

Ingramer Review: A Complete Suite for your Insta Needs

In this Ingramer review, we will tell you how you can make your presence felt on Instagram, one of the largest social media platforms. Currently, Instagram has over a billion users that you can reach out to every single month. Now that is huge, but gaining the right exposure on this platform isn’t easy. That’s simply because it requires time and dedication.

So, if you haven’t been able to tap in from its vast potential, then there’s something you need to set right. Several things can go wrong while managing Instagram profiles — irregular posting, wrong hashtags, or something else. Regardless of what it is, this Ingramer Review 2021 will tell you how you can fix it and maximize your reach with its free tools and then manage it with the premium tools.

At every stage of your Instagram profile’s popularity, there are different challenges that you must encounter, and Ingramer has it all covered up for you. During the initial stages, you need to establish a following, which isn’t easy because, unlike other social media platforms, Instagram is way too dynamic.

As your social media popularity soars, your challenge is to manage your profile by communicating with your following regularly. So, you need to have the right tools in place, and that’s what Ingramer is all about. So, if you are an Instagram Influencer, small or mid-sized business, then here’s a complete toolkit for all your Insta needs.

What is Ingramer?

Ingramer is an Instagram bot that mimics human actions and helps automate several time-consuming tasks that are required to manage your Instagram profile efficiently. It offers stage-wise solutions that you can opt for and automate various tasks. This sort of classification puts you in the driver’s seat and lets you choose the services you need, which may be tricky, but we’ll guide you through it.

It is a free hashtag generator, Instagram photo downloader, social media posts manager, and more. You can also manage your following, like or follow others, respond to comments, etc. Besides these actions, you can also use Ingramer to research on trending topics in your niche and schedule posts.

Overall, Ingramer makes managing your Instagram posts uncomplicated and hassle-free. With that said, let us now dive into some of the most exciting features of Ingramer that can boost your following and help you manage your soaring popularity.

Ingramer’s Dashboard

Ingramer has a comprehensive but straightforward dashboard that gives you a quick summary of all the Instagram accounts that you connect to it. You can manage unlimited Instagram accounts from this dashboard but would have to pay subscription fees on a per-account basis. Through this dashboard, you can get a quick snapshot of all the activities that this bot can perform.

That includes a quick summary of the total number of likes, follows, unfollows, and more. You can also check out the comments, feed activity, and the view history which tells you about all the content that the bot has viewed from your Instagram profile. So, although Ingramer’s bot manages your Instagram profile, you are still in control of what’s going on.

Download Media

Instagram is a media-rich platform with lots of exciting visual content to explore. However, it does not allow you to save your very own photos and videos, which is essential for backing up and editing purposes. It is necessary for those who post content across various social media profiles.

Also, backing up your content using this free Instagram photo downloader can come handy if your Instagram profile is pulled down for some reason. It could happen due to security breaches or due to violation of an Instagram policy.

By using this Instagram picture downloader, you can backup your content effortlessly. You can also re-edit or repurpose them. Moreover, to use this particular feature, you don’t have to register or verify your account details. Ingramer is a free Instagram photo downloader that lets you download visual content easily without any loss of quality.

So, if you are concerned about the image quality, then shed those worries because no matter which device you use, this free Instagram photo downloader ensures that the quality is intact. As Ingramer is a web service, you can go ahead and save images and videos wherever you want — Computer, Mobile devices, Tablets, or anywhere else.

Free Hashtag Generator

Ingramer offers a free hashtag generator, which makes it extremely convenient to find the right hashtags for your Instagram posts. You can explore Hashtags based on keywords, images, or URL, which allows enough flexibility to search hashtags based on whichever type of content you wish to post.

The keyword search option lets you put in five keywords at once, making your hashtag search much faster and productive. You also have the option to search Hashtags in languages other than English and find the best ones from the most up-to-date Hashtag Database. You can also check useful metrics for Hashtags and choose the best ones to drive more engagement.

Instagram lets you use up to thirty hashtags, but you need to limit them as adding too many could make your posts appear spammy. So, to keep it clean, you need to restrict it to a maximum of five hashtags, so picking the right ones is essential. Doing that requires you to spend hours looking up for the best ones, or requires you to hire resources to do that for you.

However, with Ingramer’s free hashtag generator, you can do this within minutes. If you aren’t a pro or are managing multiple promotional campaigns, with very little time to spare on digging out hashtags, then you can save up hours by automating it. To automate your hashtag search, you must invest in the managed hashtags module offered by Ingramer, which we shall discuss later on.

Pricing

Ingramer’s pricing model is based on four modules — Promotion, Direct, Scheduled Posting, and Hashtag Generator. You can choose all or any of the four modules, which is priced on a per-account pricing model. Each module is designed based on which stage you are in and what you wish to do. Let us now check out each of the modules and how you can get the most out of it.

Promotion Module

Instagram is unlike any other social media platform and demands quick action. So if you want to automate all of that, then here’s a bot ready to do your bidding. You can set the rules, and Ingramer will auto like, follow, or unfollow based on those rules. By using this tool, you can automate a maximum of 1250 actions per day.

Although it could be more than that, Ingramer limits it as it’s designed to mimic a human as closely as possible to avoid violation of Instagram’s rules. Sounds exciting but not used to bots? No worries! When you subscribe to Ingramer’s Promotion module, you receive personalized assistance from Ingramer’s team to help you through your promotion.

Costs $37 per account for two weeks

Priced at $57 per account for one month

Costs $144 per account for three months

Direct Messenger

No Ingramer review can be complete without a mention of its powerful and highly customizable direct messenger. It lets you respond to reactions from all your followers through a single window. You can customize your responses by using key distinguishers such as tags and labels.

It makes it extremely convenient to respond to various product or service-related inquiries from followers. Plus, having all of them in a single chat window makes the entire process more productive. Also, you can send bulk auto-messages through the direct messenger. Which means you can quickly introduce your followers to your brand-new offering with a single message.

Priced at $19 per account for two weeks

Costs $29 per account for one month

Priced at $74 per account for three months

Scheduled Posting Module

Ingramer offers a post scheduler module that you can use to schedule photos, stories, carousel, or videos. Simply upload any type of content, use the free hashtag generator to pick the best Hashtags, and then add locations. Finally, set the schedule, and you are done!

In fact, you can even automate planning the schedule by letting Ingramer’s powerful scheduler pick the right time for you. Doing this can help you save several hours. This module is ideal for those who are in the initial stages of setting up their social media presence and have minimal requirements. So, by investing in this Instagram Scheduler, such businesses can schedule multiple posts at once. As a result, they end up saving a lot of time and drive more engagement through consistent posts.

Priced at $12 per account for two weeks

Costs $18 per account for one month

Priced at $46 per account for three months

Automated Hashtag Generator

Although Ingramer offers a free hashtag generator that you can use without registration or verification, that’s not it. Ingramer goes a step forward and gives businesses with an automated Hashtag generator. It can indeed automate a more significant part of Instagram profile management. This automated hashtag module finds you the most engaging hashtags from the ones that are currently trending.

You also get to check out visualized analytics of the hashtags before picking them, which is an incredibly powerful feature. You can then formulate your hashtag strategy depending on its difficulty level and the number of posts that the hashtag receives.

Also Read,

SocialCaptain: Leading AI-Based Solution To Get Your Instagram Poppin

Conclusion

You can choose one module or a combination of two or more modules, depending on your current needs. However, in our opinion, those who are just starting off with their Instagram journey must opt for the Promotion module. Once they have a few hundred followers, then opt for a combination of the Promotion and Scheduled Posting module.

Once you have a considerable following, it makes sense to opt for the Direct Messaging module. Because until then you barely have anyone to direct message. So, purchasing it may not be required. However, it’s different when you already have a few hundred followers and wish to keep up with them. We then recommend that you start with the Direct Messaging module.

On the other hand, if you have an established Instagram profile with a team of content creators generating regular content, then you simply cannot rely on one module. You will need all four because you must manage the likes and follows, send direct messages in bulk, schedule posts, and also find the best hashtags for your posts.

In doing so, Ingram’s free hashtag generator may not suffice unless you have the time for it. Therefore, switching to the Automated Hashtag Generator module, which automatically identifies the best hashtags based on your content, is recommended.

Originally Published On: SaasTrac

About The Author ​ SaasTrac is one of the trusted places where users can find reviews on different Saas Products, Software, and Platforms. Our major goal is to let users know the detailed and the most helpful information possible about every product — the good, the bad, and the ugly in the SaaS space.

[hobbitsmith5]

10 high-quality messenger apps and chat apps for Android

Slowly but sincerely, the world is transferring away from SMS and MMS as the default manner to text message human beings. It began years ago with apps like AOL Instant Messenger and has developed into a plethora of options that every one work really nicely. The evolution without a doubt kicked it up a notch over the previous couple of years. You have basically greater delete google calendar alternatives now than you’ll ever need.

However, the quality messenger app is the one you may persuade all your pals and family to apply. Chances are you’ll end up with extra than the sort of. Which messenger apps are the high-quality? In this listing, we’ll explore the fine messenger apps and chat apps for Android. Since there may be a popularity element to messenger apps, this listing won’t alternate very regularly. Find the great new apps Join over one hundred fifty,000 readers to get a weekly digest of the exceptional apps!

Enter your electronic mail SIGN UP NOW By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and renowned the statistics practices in our Privacy Policy. You can also unsubscribe at any time. Band Discord Facebook Messenger (and Messenger Lite) Kik Slack Skype Snapchat Telegram Viber Messenger WhatsApp HERE ARE SOME MORE CHAT APPS AND MESSENGER APPS YOU MIGHT LIKE! 10 excellent video chat apps for Android 10 first-rate texting apps and SMS apps for Android Band Price: Free with in-app purchases

Band is an up-and-coming chat app for organizations. You can create all of the companies you want to and invite all the human beings you need to them. The builders endorse this app to people on sports activities groups, college corporations, gaming clans, work agencies, and anything like that. Everybody joins in, chats it up, and has a terrific time. You can prepare your corporations into diverse channels just like apps like Discord and Slack. You also can directly message individuals and upload calendar events for group sports. It labored well in our checking out and it’s free to apply.

DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY!

Discord Price: Free / $9.99 per month / $99.99 in keeping with year

Discord is effortlessly many of the first-rate messenger apps for gamers. It features go-platform help among maximum mobile smartphone and laptop running structures. There is also a web purchaser for those platforms without a local app. The app additionally features voice chat, more than one text chats, GIF guide, and extra. People at the provider can create their personal servers or join others as they need. It’s by and large for gaming. However, a few human beings use it only for its extremely good organizational machine and above common voice chat abilties. The service is loose to use for all of us. However, you may unencumber some cosmetic extras with the Discord Nitro subscription.

DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY!

Facebook Messenger (Lite) Price: Free

Facebook Messenger is a few of the most famous messenger apps. Facebook has  chat apps for this. The regular one consists of all of the capabilities like chat heads, stickers, and other features. The Lite model is only a primary chat app with some distance fewer frills. Those closely invested inside the Facebook Messenger experience may want the normal app. However, people who don’t need to cope with Facebook’s nonsense must use the Lite model. Facebook is in the end introducing ads to these chat apps. However, they're otherwise loose to apply. Facebook had a few safety issues earlier in 2018. We don’t believe the social network turning into inappropriate due to that, though. Many humans will nonetheless use Facebook.

DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY! Facebook Messenger screenshot 2020

Credit: Joe Hindy / Android Authority Kik Price: Free with in-app purchases

Kik is some other famous messenger app. It lets you choose a display name rather than a real call or a telephone quantity. That gives it a surprisingly vintage faculty feeling. The app is specifically famous with casual cellular gamers and those who like random chatting on the whole. The app additionally consists of stickers, emoji, organization chats, video chats, subject matters, and Material Design. The in-app purchases give you extra sticker packs and different stuff like that. Another desirable chat app in this style is GroupMe. It has the various identical features and caters to the equal kind of people.

DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY! Kik screenshot 2020

Slack Price: Free / $6.67-$12.50 per customers (enterprise use most effective)

Slack is one of the better chat apps for enterprise. It has a really clean and professional appearance and sense. Groups can create channels, behavior voice calls, and extra. The app additionally capabilities assist for third party apps like Giphy, Google Drive, Asana, and other amusing or effective equipment. Users also can join more than one Slack servers. It’s kind of like a more professional model of Discord, definitely. Like Discord, it’s additionally completely loose with no in-app purchases. Those with large groups that want greater features can pay an elective subscription fee for additonal stuff.

DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY!

WE HAVE SOME MORE RELATED APP LISTS TO CHECK OUT HERE! 15 great Android apps to be had right now five high-quality dialer apps and contacts apps for Android Skype Price: Free with in-app purchases

Skype is one of the most recognizable messenger apps ever. Everybody knows what Skype is and what it’s approximately. You can textual content chat, video call, and voice name different members. You may even call humans on a real phone variety with a nominal fee. The app includes a few extra capabilities that could or may not be useful. It relies upon on what you need. Still, this has first-rate pass-platform aid, assist for multiple chats, and support for most report sorts, consisting of files, GIFs, and different stuff. It’s a rock strong alternative and there's a Lite model if you want Skype but don’t want all of the capabilities.

DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY! Skype - best messenger apps

Snapchat Price: Free

Snapchat is one of the extra unique messenger apps. It supports quite a few things, including voice calls, video messages, photo messages, and text messages. The provider deletes messages after viewing. That approach there may be no history to speak of outdoor of a streak counter. There are also Snapchat Stories. That lets people ship proverbial reputation updates that each one in their fans can view. They expire in 24 hours. Many of the app’s functions are imitated by using other apps (Instagram, generally). However, Snapchat remains pretty popular among the younger parents and it’s without a doubt some thing exclusive.

DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY! Snapchat screenshot 2020 2

Telegram or Signal Private Messenger Price: Free

Telegram is many of the maximum famous messenger apps for privacy. It boasts 256-bit symmetrical AES encryption, 2048-bit RSA encryption, and extra. That makes it most of the safest messaging offerings out there. The app additionally has record sharing, move-platform guide, group chats, GIF support, and greater. It grew in recognition very quickly. That made it difficult to choose before everything. However, heaps of human beings use the carrier now. Signal Private Messenger is every other decent app in this area. Both positioned safety and privateness specially else. However, each app’s consumer base has hugely one of a kind thoughts as to which one is higher. They each send messages, even though, and that they’re both suitable sufficient to be right here in comparison to competitors like LINE or non-encrypted chat apps.

DOWNLOAD ON GOOGLE PLAY! Telegram screenshot satisfactory messenger apps

Viber Messenger Price: Free with in-app purchases

Viber isn’t big in some components of the arena. However, it’s a few of the most popular messenger apps ever. It boasts a complete enjoy, which include messages, calls, a self-destruct chat, institution chats, video messages, video chats, and extra. It additionally includes some extras like stickers, global news, and extra. Most of the decal packs cost more, as a result the in-app purchases. This is virtually a fairly well-rounded chat enjoy. However, it is a touch heavier than most chat apps. Those that need a purifier, more minimum revel in might also want to keep away from this one. Additionally, this one sees most of its recognition from nations outside of the US. That’s now not a large deal, but only a heads up.

[sociallexpert]

Facebook Ad Trends To Maximize Facebook Ads Budget in 2021

If you are willing to seek success on Facebook this 2021, then instead of simply focusing on the content, it's highly important to consider various other things that include Facebook Ads Budget, Facebook trends, etc.

But why?

Because in order to get a large number of audience on Facebook, you have to first deal with the upcomings. Remember, Facebook comes with a large number of opportunities that helps marketers showcase their products or services efficiently, but only with proper knowledge of Facebook trends, setting ad budgets, and having a keen knowledge about the best Facebook advertising software. Therefore this 2021, it is super essential to plan a robust Facebook marketing strategy. 

To help you a bit, we rounded up these crucial trends below that will influence operating ads on Facebook. 

Facebook Trends For 2021

Trend #1: Based on Market, eCommerce Will Boom or Bust.

The boom and bust are based on eCommerce markets which are extremely influenced by this 2020 pandemic. Whereas, some companies are seeing tremendous success, while others are experiencing out of date results. 

For eg, it's a tight spot, for the tuxedo rentals and formalwear. Whereas, if you're dealing with home cooking supplies or home office appliances, it is currently a perfect time to turn up your Facebook marketing, as things are probably trending.

Consumer demand meets the "new norms" of customer behaviour, and brands on Facebook need to respond accordingly. So, to catch these profits, brands in eCommerce should follow a few things like: 

During the pandemic, online advertising is in high demand

After all, eCommerce is not just about purchases and earnings, therefore searches for beneficial opportunities. 

Many users spend most of their time on electronic devices, as in this pandemic, so make sure the commercials are mobile-friendly or look for some of the mobile-only advertisement tactics.

Trend #2: The cost of Facebook advertising will keep growing.

Facebook advertisements are still economical! But according to most marketers, prices are increasingly growing year after year, and therefore, many businesses are concerned. In fact, marketers need to analyze their Facebook Ads Budget, evaluate their advertisements incessantly, and find actionable knowledge about their relevant audiences, which can all be achieved by Facebook Ads Manager or any social media automation software.

Trend #3: Facebook Ad Formats Will Continue To Rise.

Facebook has continually developed the available marketing techniques throughout its evolution and is trying to commercialize the website without affecting the user experience. The business offers eight distinct advertising formats as of 2020:

Photo ads

Video ads

Messenger ads

Story ads

Slideshow ads

Carousel ads

Playable ads

Collection ads

While time goes on, users can foresee this list to increase, and the nature of mediums covers shift and progress. 

Trend #4: Use of Video Format Will Grow For Better Engagement.

One of the odd facts about Facebook video advertising is that, at least at first, it doesn't seem like other Facebook ads. And some of the marketers present it so well that it doesn't particularly matter to audiences that they are advertised to them. It is partially due to how Facebook embeds such advertisements in the flow of in-stream," in feeds, and stories, a regular customer experience. Also on Facebook, video marketing is indeed very customizable, with possibilities for most budgets and targets. 

Trend #5: Smartphones Plays a Significant Role

As 93% of the advertisement revenue of Facebook comes from smartphone ads; that implies you have to reject the desktop ads, if you're a businessperson because to achieve success smartphone is the way to go first. Because there are many differences available between desktop and mobile Facebook advertisements, characteristics include: 

Smart devices are more robust and can store more memory.  

There might not be a lot of time for companies to reach these users so, using catchy and short mobile ads is very beneficial.

Mobile advertising must be unobtrusive, and on the site, they must automatically integrate with the background.  

The main characteristic that differentiates smartphone ads from desktop ads is that they have a better opportunity to target users.

Bonus Trend #6: From Facebook News Feed to Facebook Story Ads

Facebook is changing the spotlight on stories after over a decade of Facebook's News Stream becoming associated with the website itself. A lot of individuals didn't seem interested when Facebook first launched Stories. But the numbers don't lie: with this feature, 500 million regular users are interested.

Facebook Stories are photos, videos, and posts that are available on full-screen only for 24 hours. And on Facebook Stories, pictures appear for 5 seconds, and video is enabled for 20 seconds. Moreover, depending on your priorities, Facebook Stories advertisements can be either mobile-shot or studio-shot, and Facebook suggests using a fusion of both campaigns.

Conclusion

Trends in Facebook Ads for 2021 would be both favourable and unfavourable.

The unfavourable news is that Facebook needs brands to surrender cash to get an incentive from its foundation. The unfortunate thing is that. It makes sense that if you're a company that is pretty much Facebook, you want to commercialize everything you can.

But the positive part is that Facebook aims to be popular with its marketers so they can continue making that money. This includes better techniques to support the efficacy of promotional campaigns and offer brands more chances to engage with their target audience.

So, you can say, it's a win-win solution! Now only you have to set your Facebook Ads Budget, get the detailed information regarding Facebook stories, video ads, smartphone customization, and then you are good to go.

[sudanesestoic]

A Fleeting Fortnight

Oftentimes we visit places, meet with people and, by mere happenstance, encounter events which occupy a short space of time, yet they eerily inhabit exceptional spots in the far reaches of our memories. Rarely invading our awareness, whenever these ephemeral past moments come to the fore, whether involuntarily or by whatever triggers their recall, we can be forgiven for mistaking them for figments of our own imagination before the switch is flicked in a fraction of a second to realize that they actually took place in that illusory part of our consciousness we refer to as the past. Intriguingly, they trigger an even more acute nostalgia than our long term life-defining experiences. A mere glance at a photo steals us away from the present to relive a moment that lies buried in the distant past with an imperceptible sense of longing. And even though traversing the path that lead us back to this moment then becomes truly appealing, an implacable sense of wistfulness strikes us to counterpoint the genuine desire to succumb to it. Upon discerning that those moments and the way they made us feel then are long gone, an overwhelming gloominess haunts us; specially if the people involved are no longer around or the venues, for whatever reason, won't be seen or visited again. And so as a hedge against this wistfulness I have subconsciously developed a penchant for keeping my past locked away and just staying in good terms with the spontaneity of life right where my 'present' cursor is pointing at. At this very moment, however, an air of valiance surrounds me as I am about to take the audacious step of reliving a bittersweet experience and willingly bear its inherent melancholy: a two-week trip to Thailand to meet with my Thai ex-girlfriend which, according to what the inexorable rigidity of the mirrors of my past reflect, happened for real. Obviously, it will be a burdensome task to conjure up, at length, years of a long distance relationship. Hence I feel it will suffice to provide an abridged account, if you will, of this tempestuous relationship by revisiting its landmarks and turning points and then segue to the lowdown of the only trip I took to see her in the flesh.

💠💠💠

As it is superfluous to point out our inability to foresee the coming to existence of the myriad experiences that would later coalesce to shape our lives, little did I know that this arbitrary encounter would pivot me towards something deeply profound.

It was a quiet evening in the winter of 2012 at my friend's apartment in Chennai, India, where I had spent five years as a student and earned my bachelor degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering. Out of sheer boredom I whipped out my cellphone and started browsing through my facebook feed. Contrarily, I never was a facebook admirer; as a matter of fact, I despised it to the point that I eventually deleted my account. But it was a time when social media started to get rampant, perfectly coinciding with the outset of the smart phone era and thus being excited about my first ever smart phone, I didn't mind using it for whatever purpose merely for the sake of holding it in my hand. Ironically, it – facebook – proved instrumental in bringing about one of the most notable highlights of my life.... I digress! While scrolling down I paused at a post from a page — I vividly recall its name to be 'positive thinking' — that I was following at the time. I posted a comment and went through the already posted comments before hers in particular caught my attention. I instantly gave it a 'like' and sent her a friend request as I had a feeling she could make a perfect acquaintance. Shortly afterwards she accepted my request and started texting me on my facebook messenger. She seemed rude right off the bat – or feigned rudeness as I could tell – to which I was nonchalant; It actually struck me as funny more than anything. I shrugged off her discourteous remarks and kept responding in a rather cool and indifferent manner. My patience was rewarded though as the convo picked up and before I knew it her manner shifted to one of personable and we started to get along pretty well. I had learned that she was originally from Thailand but resided and worked in Australia (she still does). We came to know briefly about each other and went on to share our thoughts and views in some random topics. We connected sporadically since then but the eagerness to check in and catch up was evident regardless of who reached out first. Five months had elapsed since then. Feeling too gung ho about finally reuniting with my beloved ones after a period of separation that stretched to five odd years, I made my anticipated return to my home country, Sudan, on May 2013 only days after I had obtained and attested my certificates. As it is superfluous to point out our inability to foresee the coming to existence of the myriad experiences that would later coalesce to shape our lives, little did I know that this arbitrary encounter would pivot me towards something deeply profound.

A few weeks after my homecoming we exchanged our contact numbers and other social media accounts and the intimacy between us started to deepen at a rapid pace. There was a burgeoning enthusiasm to chat for longer hours, letting each topic resolve of its own volition before switching to the next one without a trace of boredom. There was a sense that what was going on between us was starting to morph into something which is more than just a mere acquaintance; a subtle uncontrollable attraction. We both seemingly had a visceral conviction that something profound was unfolding judging by the progression of things. A sufficient period of getting to know each other and allowing our feelings to fully mature ran its course before we built up enough courage to open up to each other about our feelings which were equally, and not surprisingly at this point, reciprocated.

And so throwing caution to the winds we took things to the next level. A full-blown long distance relationship finally materialized precisely a year after we first met online. Falling head over heels for each other, despite the seven-hour time difference we would text or video call for hours on end completely oblivious to our surroundings until she would realize it was an hour or two past midnight on her end and that it was time she went to bed (not before saying to each other 'I love you' a multiple times). Likewise, I would stay up past midnight so we could catch up and confab for sometime before I went to bed. The quintessential honeymoon phase that most relationships go through in their nascent stages — an overwhelming excitement amplified by the state of being half-way around the world apart and yet yearning to be within an arm's reach.

• • •

Twists And Turns

Like being awakened all of a sudden in the midst of a beautiful dream by whatever damnable reason, the honeymoon did not last long before a downside to this relationship began to manifest. I was utterly discombobulated as I noticed her demeanor change as suddenly and as unexpectedly. She became temperamental and volatile in a way I would have never imagined she would as if this side to her was obscured by her alluring facade all along, laying in wait for the right time to be unleashed. I was increasingly driven up the wall with her inexplicable immaturity and my attempts to placate her were virtually futile leaving me sometimes with no other option but to ignore her. It was only when I reached the end of my rope, which was more often the case, did she switch back to her charming mode. What truly perplexed me was that after all the frustration she put me through she could always ever so cunningly make me feel good — as though she knew she was my weakness — and my goodness was she industrious when it came to that. I could have sworn she drew pleasure from roiling things deliberately just to keep me perturbed and exasperated. At times I felt the urge to give her a piece of my mind but instead ended up biting back my words as a tradeoff for the contentment I felt from the consolatory recognition that things were back to normal. In retrospect, by doing so I had unwittingly pedestalized her and gave her permission to step all over me. I never looked at it this way until I was later bit by the sobering reality that she was not anything like the picture I painted for her. Anyway, I grew impatient with her incessant emotionally draining gear-switching and reached a point where I was stuck in limbo unable to decide whether I should exert more effort to fix our issues or just take a break from the relationship with a scant hope of rebuilding attraction. Far be it from me to blame her, but her relentless uncalled-for discourtesy made it difficult to resolve what I can only regard, at worst, as misunderstandings – which usually didn't even amount to much to antagonize her. That being said, through the unceasing clashes and reconciliations my love for her was maintained in the backdrop and the hope that things would settle in due time never dissipated.

In the midst of this turmoil — and I wouldn't have asked for a more suitable timing — an unbidden grace happened out of the blue when I finally secured my long-awaited position in my own field of study in a Dubai-based contracting and maintenance company on October 2015 after having spent two arid years in Sudan as a freelance teacher in Maths and English. To my delight, not only was this development a palpable enhancement for me career wise but it also enlivened the relationship and got her ever so thrilled after an eternity of fogginess had taken its toll. The erratic and inconveniencing hot-and-cold patterns suddenly turned into an overdose of charm and sweetness (conspicuously as a reward for this achievement). The honeymoon was resuscitated, only this time it was more intense and lasted a little longer. With this significant step in my life, it is reasonable to think that the relationship must be on the right trajectory now that I was on the way to becoming financially more stable, which should rationalize more maturity from her end so we can seriously start planning our future together. The only thing is, I always seemed to be blinded to the fact that as far as she is concerned no matter how amazing things might appear to be, the shit might just hit the fan at any moment.

Alas, that is exactly what happened!

Only two months into my new job in Dubai another dramatic episode struck and rattled my world. Even though I was in a state of utter shock my thought process was "Well, it is par for the course", while adopting a sanguine mood as a coping mechanism to tackle my disillusionment. Unlike the customary narrative of our previous arguments, I allowed myself this time around to put my foot down and show some fierceness, thinking that a deep conversation where everything is laid out on the table to be dealt with once and for all might just go a long way. Strangely enough I was not surprised by her lukewarm cooperation to reach a compromise. After a sour dispute caused by yet another trivial reason I tried to play things down but she was too stubborn to let go and in just a couple of days I was in for a big surprise. She caught me off-guard when I found out, while I was on duty, that she actually blocked me. To say I could feel the blood in my veins wouldn’t begin to describe the state of lividness that overwhelmed me at the time. "This is just about the last straw", I thought to myself. For the first time ever I had truly contemplated a breakup, having endured a lot already, with no intention whatsoever of reaching out to her as a last-ditch attempt to save the relationship. Besides, I knew full well if I called her she would not pick up. In fact, if anything, she owed me closure since she was the one who pulled away, but that too seemed far-fetched given her disposition.

Paradoxically, despite my resolute stance of not pursuing her, a part of me hoped that she would reach out sooner. Facing up to the fact that it might well be the end of the road for us admittedly left me beyond shaken up and despondent, specially after how we had so naively romanticized our future. Almost two weeks of unyielding silence mixed with an agonizing wait for her call or text message, I conceded that it was a reality check. I somehow convinced myself it was about time anyways and parting ways was perhaps the most optimum resort now that the relationship had seemingly reached a stalemate. Keeping a stiff upper lip, I removed her contact number, our chat threads, photos, voice recordings, videos and pretty much everything that reminded me of her from my phone. I consider myself blessed to have the mental strength that enabled me to assert myself with the belief that she was not the be-all and end-all and thus making it easier to leave the disenchantment behind me and move on.

• • •

An Unforeseen Return

Just as I resigned myself to the fact that I might never hear from her again in this lifetime, she appears as abruptly as she cut me off!

Separated by the width of an entire continent, it will be fitting to assume that my feelings for her will slowly but surely fizzle out and in time I will be well over her. Completely subsumed in the fast metropolitan life — the challenges at work, the commutes, the quotidian indoor and outdoor activities and the occasional convivial social activities — seven months were sufficient to erase any lingering thoughts and memories of her. I seemed to be doing pretty well getting myself accustomed to being single and enjoying life with a sense of freedom whìch was marred by the disquietude that I had endured for most of the time we were together. Things stayed that way until one evening when the unpredictable happened. As I was on the metro on the way back home from work, all exhausted, leaning against a pole and looking out the window with my headphones on, my phone rang. I looked down at the phone screen and raised an eyebrow when I observed that it was an unknown number starting with +61. I was completely flummoxed knowing that the call was definitely from Australia. "Is it her?" I asked under my breath, "who else could it be? I do not know a single soul in Australia other than her". I froze for a few seconds before I hesitantly took the call. My heart skipped a beat when she cleared her throat and said 'hello' in a low voice. Just as I resigned myself to the fact that I might never hear from her again in this lifetime, she appears as abruptly as she cut me off! The timidness in her voice was evident and she spoke with intermittent pauses between her words. Although deep down there was an obscure satisfaction, I tried hard to sound cold and unfazed. I blamed her for the way she ghosted me to which she offered an unconvincing justification. But that did not matter much to me as I could tell from her tone she was desperate to patch things up and be back in my good graces. She made it clear that she still loved me and thought about me throughout the whole time we were separated and that she was more than willing to pick up where we left off. I must admit that was enough to make me feel vindicated and triumphant. Despite the hard feelings that swept me in the past, she managed to talk me into turning over a new leaf. I guess afterall I had fooled myself into believing that my feelings for her must have subsided when in reality I was viscerally missing her, but that subtle feeling was numbed by the day-to-day hustle and bustle until this call happened only to rekindle what was buried deep inside of me.

After almost two hours of talking — starting from the moment I was on the metro, all through the fifteen-minute walk to my building from the metro station and having to stand outside the building for more than an hour — she succeeded in stabbing her hooks into me. Unable to resist the temptation of winning her back, I took a leap of faith and decided to give her a clean slate for which, in hindsight, I consider myself a sinner. Looking back at this decision, I resembled a rehabilitated drug addict who pined for one last dose when it became in their reach. The fact that she could lure me back so effortlessly after having ghosted me for months speaks volumes of how manipulative she was and how I always played second fiddle when it came to determining the flow of the relationship.

Lo and behold, the reconciliation proved different this time! She showed great zeal to take the major step of meeting up which made me believe that she came back with a serious consideration to fully commit. Also, the realization that our feelings, against all the odds, were still very much alive lead me to the firm conviction that we were definitely meant to be together. With my annual leave looming, she suggested it would be the perfect opportunity. We vacillated at first as to whether she should apply for me to visit her in Australia or whether she should fly to Dubai. We finally agreed to meet halfway in her home country, Thailand, as in doing so we would tremendously economize on our travelling expenses. We coordinated to arrive at the same day and we were fortunate enough that the arrival, at Bangkok, of the flights we booked were only about forty minutes apart. I had successfully obtained the visa three weeks prior to our scheduled flights — which were meant to coincide with the first day of my two-week leave. We talked over and over in the last few days leading up to our imminent meeting about how upbeat we were and how we could not wait for that moment to arrive. It was immensely astonishing how things escalated from months of absolutely no contact to actually travelling to see each other in a span of weeks.    

• • •

The long-awaited moment finally arrives

Four years of an emotional rollercoaster boiled down to the evening of Friday, October 28th when we touched down at Bangkok International Airport. I recall it was around the time the king of Thailand who was highly revered by the vast majority across the country passed away and so, just as she asked me to, I donned a black shirt, a black suit jacket and a grey pair of trousers. I stood near the exit gate where she should be awaiting me (she arrived earlier than I did). To say I was at once excited and extremely nervous as I was looking around to spot her is one heck of an understatement... There she was! Sporting a black dress that accentuated her figure, she was fairly exhilarated as she crept up on me all of a sudden and hugged me while her cousin was filming the incredible moment. Her cousin then stepped up and put a garland around my neck as a welcoming gesture. It felt surreal. We were both thrown into a state of euphoria as if no one else was at the airport in that instant other than the two of us. Shortly after we snapped back to our consciousness we met with a friend of hers, a Sydney-based Thai-Australian transgender model, who also happened to fly in from Australia that same evening. To wrap up that spectacular occasion the four of us dined in a restaurant inside the airport. I relished every second talking to her and watching them schmooze in Thai while enjoying every mouthful of my noodles.

After the meal, we parted ways with her friend and took a cab to a hotel which she had already booked beforehand. Her cousin sat in the passenger seat. I sat by the right window while she was lying down with her head resting on my lab and her legs half stretched to occupy the width of the back seat. We didn't talk much on the way. It was more of making eye contact and smiling while I was caressing her brown to golden dip-dyed chin-cut straight hair. I suppose we were still acclimating ourselves to the reality of being able to actually touch one another after having gone through a seemingly endless abyss of gadget communications — characterized by a cycle of emotions that passes through the whole spectrum — made it difficult to envisage that this moment was likely to materialize. We reached the hotel in about fifteen minutes. Her cousin wished us good night and took off in the same cab to her home which is quite a ways from the hotel. As we stepped into our room, in the spur of the moment, we hugged tightly, plumped ourselves down on the bed and I proceeded to plant a long, passionate kiss on her lips. It was already nighttime, so obviously after a long journey and a constellation of feelings, bathing and a long sound sleep would do us good. Something else however - conceivably more likely to happen - was sandwiched between them. Apparently the craving we had for each other couldn’t be subdued by the exhaustion. The moment we came out of the shower we went to that cozy bed, failing to hide our uncontrollable desire for each other’s flesh, and started making love. It was worth every second despite the effect of the combination of exhaustion and excitement of our long-awaited meeting. That was just about the last thing we did in that dream-like evening; The first of what would later turn out to be a memorable fortnight. Here is the most intriguing part though, that fortnight was typically a compressed version of the three preceeding years during which we were distanced by thousands of miles. All the fascinating moments in this short vacation were cancelled out by intermittently recurring tensions and heated conversations. Not surprisingly though provided her disposition.

We spent our first three days in Bangkok. The first day in particular was the most notable. Accompanied by her cousin, we took a train to the city center, wandered around and then had an early lunch in a food court. I wasn’t familiar with the names of the places we've been to for all the signposts, the maps on the train stations and even the announcements were in Thai (and why bother much when she is around?). After the meal, we hit an aquarium which I recall to be just nearby where we spent hours on end - one of the most mesmerizing and captivating you can ever come across. Excitement was never killed for a second given the succession of things we did from boat riding, to watching the penguins swimming and shootig themselves out of water in terrifying speed and sauntering in a labyrinth of tunnels where glass barriers separated us from innumerable types of fish and mammals in basically all directions. We were ever so ecstatic, took pictures, held hands and even kissed. Hours passed before we realized it was time for us to return home, not before we loitered for quite sometime in the city streets and bought a few things though. It rained heavily just as we took the train back. Timely right!

The next day I invited her for lunch in an Arabic restaurant. You can very rarely come across Arabic restaurants especially in that region, but we were lucky to find one a few hundred meters away. Just as I mentioned earlier, it wasn’t meant to be pretty all the way. Her mood was far from right ever since we woke up. In fact, she was the complete opposite of the lively person she was the day before. Well, that is indeed par for the course. She blamed me for waking up late that morning and hence missing breakfast at the hotel's buffet. Only after we finished the meal and left the restaurant she started to interact with me normally. I seriously expected her to at least try to act nice and behave in a more appropriate way for the sake of this short vacation and above all 'our very first meeting'. But alas, expectations aren’t always met. She just cannot control her mood swings no matter what the circumstance or situation might be. I was shocked to realize how hostile and inconsiderate she could get, making a fuss out of trivial things and refusing to talk to me for hours (or even a whole day! It happened!), whether we were shopping, dining, taking a walk or even lying on bed!

On the third day she suggested we go to Rayong which is a four-hour road trip from Bangkok. The town where she grew up and spent most of her early years and also where her family’s business and some of their properties are established. We took a mini bus from the bus terminal around fourish and reached Rayong at night time. She made a reservation beforehand in a very decent condo where we spent the remaining days of our vacation. A period I may describe as exquisite and also equally stressful and dramatic. On the one hand, we saw places and did plenty of activities that I truly enjoyed. On the other hand, our quarrels were so heated that I decided to return to Dubai a week before my actual return date to end this nightmare once and for all. I made this rash decision because I couldn’t bare the incessant irrational quarrels. I went by myself to the agency and booked a flight back to Dubai on the evening of the very next day. Only while we were having lunch the next day, only hours before my flight, she made efforts to convince me not to go. She cried after the meal insisting that she was just being emotional and that she didn't expect me to react so fiercely and take the drastic step of leaving without a second thought. I am amazed how she could switch gears between her personalities and roil my emotions in the process.

I must admit her tears and confessions got me a little lenient and sympathetic and compelled me to retract my decision and continue staying for the remaining days of my supposed vacation. As she triumphed, which is usually the case, she contacted the agency and postponed the flight date for another week (the actual return date I previously booked) and of course paid the booking cost in consequence. This incident was a turning point I must say. And it happened unfortunately after a string of squabbles over silly matters spoiled moments that could add up to the remarkable memories. I fully reconciled myself to the fact that she would never change and in any second her mood might just swing the other way just like a pendulum to start another fuss out of the blues. Things started to get better and yet deep down I was still very cautious and alert around her. Anyone in their right frame of mind would agree that such kind of affairs is far from what is generally perceived as ‘love’ where a couple can reciprocate their feelings candidly while working out things together. I just couldn’t find my rhythm around her and felt like I wasn’t myself most of the time as though she is some sort of emotional vampire. 

The following days amazingly passed without any trouble that I could think of. Not only were our daytimes wonderful, but even between the sheets we had mind blowing sex and cuddled and talked till we fell asleep. Not incidentally, as our quarrels significantly lessened, the inclination for sex intensified and even our climaxes got more pleasurable.

She took me to the plaza where their business is set up in a fine evening. A well-established electrical shop managed by her mom and sister-in-law and a repair shop run by her brother side by side. We then went to a quiet restaurant bar, along with her brother and two of his pals, in motorbikes (I rode with her brother and she rode with one of his pals while the other rode on his own), had dinner and heineken beer to wash it down and played some games to keep things interesting. It goes to show you that verbal communication isn't the only imperative means to having a meaningful connection between people. Afterall smiles and friendly gestures are part of the rudimentary universal human interactions.

The fact that the frequency of conflicts has palpably diminished was such a relief for me and allowed me to find more meaning in connecting with the person I traveled thousands of miles to spend time with. Although her mood swings could be a worrisome distraction, her spontaneity meant excitement was always in the air and coming up with ideas to occupy the daytime was never a concern; shopping in malls, buying fruits and vegetables from local markets, going out for traditional meals or simply strolling hand-in-hand and having dinner in a cozy wooden hut by the beach.

Of course the evening she hired a bike and took me for an exquisite dinner in a hotel perfectly situated in a hill is still and will ever remain fresh in my mind. It was a spectacular ride in an enchanting road that led to the hill. Eerily, we rarely came across a vehicle along that road as though we were heading towards some abandoned village uphill, giving her the freedom of turning around to flash a smile every now and then. Well, ruin was the complete opposite of what I saw when we reached. The entrance to the hotel was a museum of some sort where some old-fashioned cars were standing to the side. We proceeded through a long passage where antique pieces and pictures were kept in shelves along the way. The quietude and heavenly ambiance of that place almost felt like a temple that alters your consciousness altogether, so mesmerizing in a way that is tremendously suggestive of taking some snaps, which we did. The passageway led to a spacious dining area that is situated out in the open for the hotel residents with a different range of cozy dining sets overlooking the eye-catching heights in the vicinity, the lush greenery and a coastline (not sure what that body of water was exactly). As we sat, I took a moment to glance at the windows and balconies of the hotel rooms and saw no one standing in the balcony or any light emerging from the windows despite the fading away of the sun in the horizon. There was no sign that those rooms were occupied as though it was some sort of a ghost hotel. Had it not been for the several waiters standing outside I would have easily thought that the unoccupied tables around us are in fact occupied by ghosts. Perhaps the road leading to the hill and the hotel that evening were deliberately emptied out in anticipation of our visit to complement the lovely atmosphere with an undistracted romantic dinner. 

Time – seemingly dilating and contracting with the succession of wonderful and stressful moments – passed and I was suddenly awakened to the fact that in less than 24 hours we will part ways. The next day would be my flight and hers would be a few days later. The one thing I regretted as I reached this realization is that we failed to have meaningful conversations through all these days, conversations that would decide our very possible bond in the near future. All we ever did was going out, eating, fighting, reconciling, having sex and sleeping. Fourteen chaotic days ended up with a quiet dinner and evening with the only exciting prospect of sex later on in our last night.

I always had the impression that the day of travelling is a short one bearing in mind the preparation time which always seem insufficient, the final packing, the trip to the airport itself and the check-in and departure procedures. Surprisingly, after days of serenity, squabbles erupted again in the dying moments as we were all set to start our journey to the airport. The last few hours I thought would suitable for a meaningful discussion were tainted by a meaningless argument over yet another trivial matter, just what I could do without. Throughout the journey she was picking at me and I was responding, a familiar vignette that was only intervened by brief moments of silence when she was well aware that a few hours are separating us from my departure. Her cousin met with us at the airport as soon as we arrived and we went to a cafeteria for some desserts and coffee. We were all talking, laughing and taking pictures but at the same time deep down I felt shattered and lost. Nothing sapped my energy and tortured me emotionally in my life as much as she did. Just how inconsiderate of her to ruin the atmosphere so callously and flagrantly and send me back home in such a miserable mood. Every time I looked upon her the only words that crossed my mind were “you are not the one for me! I deserve better than this”. I kept looking at my wrist, counting the minutes to start my check-in process, feeling so eager to say goodbye. I felt an inner peace as I hugged her, kissed her goodbye and gazed at her eyes that that was arguably the last time we ever touch.                                                                                

A fine evening by the beach...

With an eye to the idiosyncratic way in which our paths have merged for a period of time and then diverged I wonder whether our past and current circumstances, the places we go to, the people we meet and our interactions with them came to exist by accident or by an intelligent design that forms the paths which we are peremptorily assigned to traverse. My firm conviction, however, is that whatever we shared - the lengthy phone conversations, the unstable long distance relationship that still managed to prevail despite the many arguments and uncertainties until we met, the things we did, the meals we had, the places we’ve been to, the very beds we made love on, and our final breakup - were all meant to happen as they came and in them are surely lessons to be heeded. That fortnight was an adventure unlike any other I’ve encountered. Nevertheless, it is but an illusion now just like last hour, my final year in university, and my tenth birthday. If life is perceived this way, then we can describe it as a series of grievances over dead experiences falling away like sheer cliffs. The aliveness of the moment, however - regardless of its beauty or dreadfulness - with our eyes fixated on the moments ahead, is a consolatory recognition that will perennially keep nullifying these grievances with newfound hope and drive for fresh experiences.              

[zentherainbowunicorn]

Everlasting Party - Mystic Messenger Time Loop AU (pt 34)

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Summary: You’re caught in a time loop during the 11 days leading up to the RFA’s party unless you can do… what, exactly?

13+ No spoilers so far as I can tell this time!

Huge thanks to Masdevallia on AO3 for beta-ing this again ^^ For those of you who've been with this fic for a while, you'll get to see how I'm doing the chatroom sections now (as embedded videos). Let me know what you think! Also, I suppose now is as good a time as any to mention that although I post it here, AO3′s formatting and setup generally means it’s the preferred way to read this fic. You can find it on AO3 here!

Next chapter is ready to go - I really wanna see this through! - and I'm hoping to update once a week or so. Wish me luck, and thank you so, so much to you readers who've come back to read this and leave lovely comments and notes in the tags even though I started this fic a year ago. It really makes me happy knowing you guys keep reading even after all this time :')

Cold. You feel cold when you wake up, gasping for air. Your clothes are damp against your skin from sweating as you open your eyes to stare at the ceiling of your old apartment.

Shit. Dammit. A muffled sob clogs up your throat and you press your face into your pillow to let out a cry of frustration. You hate that you let Unknown control your emotions like this. You hate the fear and the trepidation. You hate the uncertainty and the paranoia. You hate that, at the same time, there’s this curiosity deep down, wondering who this mystery figure is and why he seems to be so important to your loops.

He wouldn’t give you his name… but somehow he and Seven know each other. That, at least, is some useful information.

Bzzt bzzt.

Should you go back to the last loop and see if you can do things right? Was there even a “right” way to do that loop? Frankly, you aren’t entirely sure how you’d gotten the days to continue in the first place. Your best guess is that it had something to do with talking to Jumin enough that V listened when you warned him about not going on a trip.

Jumin… you suppose he’s back to “normal” now that the days have started over. You can’t help but feel a sense of guilt over how things turned out last time. Maybe if you’d just been more patient, or if you’d been able to understand him better, or if… if you hadn’t gone through years of the same days over and over... maybe you could have been the kind of person he needed.

Bzzt bzzt.

You rub the back of your hand across your face to get rid of the wetness there and glance at your phone. If only Unknown would wait a little bit longer…

   ***

Your stomach growls as you lie on the bed at Rika’s apartment. You know the RFA members would disapprove, but you haven’t eaten much of anything today. In fact, you’ve done very little aside from relocating to Rika’s apartment as per Unknown’s wishes. You haven’t really interacted with anyone after joining the RFA, nor picked up your phone calls. You already know what everyone is going to say.

Maybe if you were as good at hacking as Seven, you could write a program that replied to everyone’s messages for you. Maybe there’s some combination of events, some sequence of replies you haven’t done, and that’s why you’re stuck in this loop. Maybe the only way to get out is to systematically try every possible option available to you, since your trial-and-error method sure as hell isn’t doing you any favours.

You sigh and roll onto your side. As if you could make a program like that, anyway. It would have to have some semblance of intelligence to reply to all the messages in a coherent manner, and you’d have to program it all in one go since nothing carried over between loops…

Well, that isn’t completely true. Your memories carry over between loops, which is why you’re stuck in this hell in the first place. You glance at the desk on the other side of the room. Your gaze falls to that one stupid drawer with contents so important that apparently it is acceptable to put people’s lives in danger to protect them. Someday you’ll figure out what’s in there.

Or, well… maybe that’s what you should start focusing on next. It’s not the first time you’ve considered trying to find out what was inside - not by a long shot - but maybe it really is time to spend a series of loops learning how to open it without setting off the alarm. Which probably means… hacking.

You'd be lying if you said the thought didn't frighten you at least a little bit. Your previous attempt hadn't exactly gone well. But what do you have to lose? Almost nothing, at this point. There really isn't anything to be worried about. You can always try again.

You ignore the knot in your stomach and wipe your clammy palms on your pants as you sit up. What better time than now, right? Nothing to lose. You won't be anywhere close to figuring out how to hack the drawer for a long time, anyway. That will be enough time to get rid of this feeling you get whenever you think about what happened the last time you tried to get into the drawer…

You pull your ancient laptop out of your bag and drum your fingers on the keys as you wait for it to boot up. You’ll probably have to get a better computer if you get really serious about hacking. Likely a desktop computer instead of a laptop. What does Seven use? ...What does Unknown use? It’s possible Unknown is the better hacker, seeing as he’s been able to hack into the RFA chatroom several times, not to mention the ‘special security system’.

You type in your laptop password after the login screen shows up and sigh. As if you’d ever be able to ask Unknown about his hacking skills anyway. What are you gonna do, casually bring up the topic when he comes to kidnap you? Stake out the chatroom on the fourth day when he hacks in and politely ask how he accessed it?

Or, well, maybe that’s not too far off-base. Not the politely asking him part, but perhaps it’s worth looking into that short period on the fourth day when he hacks into the chatroom. What if you could use that to track him, somehow? He has to access the chatroom from somewhere, right? If you had the right tools and knew what to look for, surely there would be a way. Or if Seven would just tell you who Unknown is, things would be easier… but you're not sure how to get him to trust you enough for that yet.

So, two possible leads then. First, learn how to hack. Then, depending on what’s easier, either find out what’s in the desk drawer, or see if you can trace Unknown’s location and figure out what his organization is up to yourself. You should probably put some more effort into talking to Seven during some of these loops, too, because if you can figure out how to get him to trust you, he might save you the trouble of hacking into everything on your own—

You realize what you’re thinking and freeze, your fingers hovering over the keyboard of your laptop. No, no, you shouldn’t think of Seven like that, like a puzzle to figure out, a tool to exploit, instead of a person. Sure, if he trusts you enough to reveal his relation to Unknown, or if he helps you find out more about the organization he belongs to, great. But that shouldn’t be the reason you talk to him more. No, you should just try to get to know him better. You’ll find your own solution to the problem with Unknown.

You glance at the time. It’s not quite 5pm… Seven should be online, then. At this hour, usually he talks a little about how he can't focus, and often he'll mention Rika, sounding almost somber for all of three seconds before he posts a photo of himself dressed up as a girl, then goes back to posting nonsense again. It's quite different from the way he sounded when you talked to him on the phone less than twenty-four hours ago…

Setting your laptop aside for now, you pick up your phone and tap to log into the RFA chatroom. Right on cue, Seven logs in as well.

Just as you finish logging out of the RFA chatroom, your phone buzzes and Seven’s profile picture appears on your screen. He hasn’t changed it from what you’ve come to think of as his ‘default’ photo, the first profile picture you’ve seen him use. You swipe to answer the call.

“Hi, Seven.”

“Meoooooooooow~”

You pause and pull your phone slightly away from your ear to look down at it. O...kay…

“M-meow?” you reply tentatively.

“Oh? Is that you, my precious Elly~?” There’s a smile in his voice and you try to force your own mouth into a similar expression. Just play along. Loosen up.

“Meow, meow,” you say.

Seven chortles. “Oh? You miss me, too? Jumin’s so mean, isn’t he… keeping us apart like this…”

...Does he expect you to just keep meowing? How long are you supposed to keep this up for?

“I’m… meow… glad that you called, meow.”

“Of course!” Seven says. Phew, he seems to have dropped the cat thing for now. “How fare things at the abode of our lady Rika?”

“They… it’s... faring well. How fare things with you?”

“Ahh…” He sighs. “There’s always plenty to do. But no worries! I, Seven Zero Seven, can take care of it!”

It’s easy to forget how much Seven does for the RFA when he’s always kidding around in the chatrooms. “I hope you call me sometimes to take a break,” you say, and despite everything you really mean it. Under all those memes and jokes is someone who genuinely cares about the RFA members; someone you really haven’t taken the time to get to know until now.  “Superheroes need to rest, too,” you say.

“Uwaaah~” he says. “So thoughtful. You seem like a nice person. I’m sorry I have to do more research on you…”

“I don’t mind. You’re making sure I’m not a threat to the RFA, right? Do what you need to.”

“Yup!” There’s a rustling sound, and you hear a few clicks from a computer mouse. “Um… I have lots of work to do so I need to hang up…. Thanks for talking with me.”

“I understand. Good luck!”

“Thank you! Have a nice night!”

There’s a click, then silence. You lower your hand from your ear and tap the corner of your phone against one of your legs mindlessly. It hadn’t been a bad conversation, all things considered. And you’re sure to get the hang of his sense of humour sooner or later.

You pull your laptop closer again and open up your web browser. Perhaps this won’t be so bad, after all.

<- Previous Chapter | Chapter Index | Next Chapter ->

I always love hearing what you think, so leave a comment or send me an ask! Here’s a link to the masterpost of all my Mystic Messenger fics. Thank you very much for reading! ♥

[un-enfant-immature]

Amazon Echo gets more family-friendly

Amazon is making its Echo line of devices more family-friendly. The company had already launched an Echo aimed at parents and kids by bundling in FreeTime and giving the device a colorful look-and-feel. Today, it launched more devices ideal for kids’ rooms, while shipping them with features and accessories that make them not just toys, but practical household communication tools.

While the Echo Dot Kids Edition was designed to put an Alexa-powered speaker in the kids’ room, the newest Echo Show could be the next step for kids who want more than a Dot. The newly announced Echo Show 8 is the mid-sized missing piece to the Echo Show lineup, which now also includes the original 10″ device and the more recent, tinier and cheaper Echo Show 5.

With the slightly bigger screen, but still affordably priced at $129, the Echo Show 8 makes sense for doing things like watching videos or chatting with friends and family on video calls, which are more appropriate for those beyond the preschool set.

On that last point, Amazon has addressed one of parents’ concerns with Alexa’s calling capabilities: it’s introducing a new service called “Alexa Communications for Kids.” This allows parents to whitelist specific family members or friends the child can talk to — and the other party has to opt-in too.

That means parents can approve the child to call or video chat with grandma and grandpa any time they choose — or vice versa — but not with strangers. For tweens and teens, it means a set of approved friends could also be allowed the same benefit. In other words, it offers similar functionality to Facebook Portal’s support of Messenger and WhatsApp….but it’s not, you know, from Facebook.

With a screen-based device, kids can also use the new Echo Show 8 to play games or watch videos.

Alongside the launch of the Echo Show 8, Amazon is bringing its parental control system and kid-friendly subscription library FreeTime to all Echo Show devices. This will allow kids to watch only FreeTime-approved videos, decorate photos with stickers, sing along with the lyrics to their favorite music and more.

Meanwhile, the popular household feature drop-in is getting an upgrade, too. Parents often “drop-in” on kids to tell them to come to dinner or come downstairs, for example – the way intercom systems built into homes allowed for in the past.

A new drop-in feature will let Echo owners drop-in on everyone in the family, and have them all appear in a mosaic on the screen, Brady Bunch-style, on Echo Shows with a screen.

Beyond the smart screen itself, Amazon is also angling its way into the education market with a new API that will connect its Alexa devices to ed-tech systems, including Learning Management Systems (LMS), Student Information Systems (SIS), Classroom Management providers, and massively open online course (MOOC) platforms.

When the supported skills ship later this year, parents of children 13 and up will be able to ask things like “Alexa, what did Kaylee do in school today?” while kids could ask “Alexa, what is my homework tonight?”

This feature will require participation from ed-tech software developers, but Amazon has lined up several partners on that front, including Kickboard, ParentSquare, Coursera, Canvas, and Blackboard.

Finally, there’s a new device that’s just for fun — the Echo Glow. It doesn’t have a purpose, exactly, beyond the fact that little kids will think it’s cool. Essentially a night light, the glowing orb can play in sync to the music, change colors when tapped, or run special modes — like one that blinks through all the colors, or another “campfire” mode with colors similar to those of a campfire.

This would be a great accessory for kids’ rooms but it’s going to be limited by the price: $30. Given it doesn’t have much functionality — it’s a toy — parents will probably stick to cheaper nightlights instead.

[margaretbeagle]

Inside the Facebook Ads of Your Competitors: How to Research, What to Learn

If you’re looking for inspiration for your next great Facebook ad, then we’ve got you covered with this post!

We’re diving into the Facebook Ad Library to give you tips on how to research the ads of your competitors and how to find inspiration from some of the most creative and effective Facebook advertisers out there. We’ll share some specific tips on how to get meaningful Facebook ad results, and we’re hopeful you’ll leave with a list of ideas that you can test today.

Let me know if this resonates with you: Social media sometimes feel like more art than science. 

That’s a bit hard to admit since our Buffer podcast is called The Science of Social Media! 

But it’s true. There are strategies and tactics, especially on the brand side of things, that can be hard to measure and hard to quantify. Still, we want to do our best to give you the specifics on what works and why — and we have an especially cool way of doing that when it comes to Facebook ads.

The state of Facebook advertising

You’ve probably heard public perception shifting a little bit in recent months regarding Facebook. Despite this change, the advertising potential of Facebook remains huge. When we talk about Facebook, we’re really talking about Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Whatsapp — all the assorted properties that Facebook owns. This year, Facebook is nearing 2 billion users on its platforms — that’s nearly 1 in every 3 people over the age of 13 in the world. 

Moreso, Facebook ads still get clicks. According to stats as of April of this year, the average Facebook user clicks on 11 ads in 30 days.

Anecdotally, those click numbers sound great, though they have been better. Cost per click on Facebook is as high as 15 cents versus 12 cents a year ago, and clickthrough rate for brand ads was at 1.6 percent at the start of the year and is now closer to 1.1 percent.

So the takeaway here is that Facebook has a huge potential audience, people still click Facebook ads all the time, and the competition is strong for who gets those clicks. 

Now we can bring in the science!

Takeaway: Use Facebook Ad Library to see how other Pages are advertising

With this new tool, you can enter the name of any Facebook Page, and it will show you all the ads that the page has, both active and inactive.

The tool has a lot of features built around political and issue-based ads in order to provide transparency on who pays for what. Marketers can benefit from it, of course, by using the tool to do some research and gain inspiration from the brands that are doing great things with Instagram ads. For instance, if you pull up Airbnb on the Facebook Ads Library tool, you’ll see that they currently have over 930 ads running in the U.S. alone. Additionally, you can see that they’ve spent $58,000 on political or issue-based ads since May 2018. 

Fascinating stuff.

So we’ve put some time into using this tool to come up with some best practices for Facebook ads along with some research on the ‘net to see what other advice is out there.  If you have any favorite ad examples you love, feel free to share with us on social media using the hashtag #bufferpodcast. We’d love to hear them. 

Tips for Facebook image ads

We’ve seen a couple of popular varieties of images in our Facebook Ads Library research. First, some successful brands use images that re-enforce the copy claims in the ad’s text and call-to-action. For instance, Lululemon’s ads for a ventilated shirt show a man exercising while wearing the shirt — and looking cool and ventilated while he does it.

Of course, it may not always be possible to come up with like-for-like images, especially if you don’t have a physical product. We find this a lot with our social ads at Buffer since we sell software. 

In that case, we’ve seen a lot of brands go for either an attractive image that catches attention while relating somewhat to the image copy — for instance, AirTable used a dog photo, which is always a winner. Or, if you can swing it, we’ve seen brands like Headspace have great success with illustrations and graphics. 

Vibrant imagery can be really effective on Facebook. If you’re making graphics, you can do this with color, like The Guardian has with its ads. They placed their weekly magazine on a bright yellow background for some ads. We’ll link to it in the show notes so you can see it. It’s striking!

Get an in-depth view of global issues with The Guardian’s essential weekly magazine. Subscribe today and get 6 issues for $6 with free worldwide delivery.

Posted by Guardian Weekly on Thursday, January 31, 2019

One way that seems to work well with testing which images could be ad-worthy is to use organic posts as a testing ground. A lot of our very best ads at Buffer have started as organic posts to our Page. We boost high-performing content — especially content that has high engagement rates — and we’re able to learn what type of visuals and copy resonate with the Facebook community. 

Tips for Facebook ad copywriting

With image ads — and every other type of Facebook ad, really — one of the most important elements after the visuals will be your call-to-action. What words will you use to convince someone to click or tap?

You’ll find a lot of great inspiration with copywriting, too, when you spend some time in Facebook Ads Library. Here are a few of our favorite discoveries.

You can point your call-to-action to a Facebook Event. This comes with a bunch of benefits: people get to stay on Facebook rather than leave to a new site, which may boost your click rate. Those who RSVP can act as a form of viral promotion since their “Yes” replies may send the event into their feed and surface the event on their friends’ feeds. And of course, in tying the even back to your Facebook page, you get the added bonus of extra exposure for your page itself, which will hopefully bring you some more follows.

You can put social proof in your copy, sometimes even making the call-to-action as explicit as “See the reviews” or “1,000-plus Google Reviews.”

And along with reviews, we’ve seen a lot of brands embracing the Instant Experience storefront, which allows people to stay on Facebook but still browse your products through an experience that you can customize. Instant Experiences can be used with almost all Facebook ad formats–Carousel, Single Image, Video, Slideshow and Collection. The one thing to keep in mind is that it’s mobile-only for now.

Ultimately, the best calls-to-action we’ve seen written are those that take you to a page that matches the text in the call-to-action itself, creating a sense of continuity for the customer. Whenever possible, we highly recommend building a custom landing page experience that matches the messaging of your ad.

Tips for Facebook video ads

Another popular type of Facebook ad is video. There are a couple of main tips we’ve noticed when it comes to video ads on Facebook.

First, brands create videos that can be effective with the sound turned off. Data shows that as much as 85 percent of Facebook videos are watched without sound, so it’s imperative that whatever video you use in your advertising that it can get its point across through visuals alone.  You can do this purely by visuals — say, if you’re a clothing brand and want to show off your outfits, or if you’re a food or cooking product and can show your stuff at work in the kitchen. If you really do need words, though, there’s always captions. We’ve seen a lot of effective ads that go with captions to support the story of their ad.

Another common best practice is to use square video rather than landscape video. This is especially important when you consider the viewing experience across mobile and desktop — landscape videos just don’t work as well on phones. 

We ran a study about this and found that square video outperformed landscape video on every social media network in terms of video views, engagement, and completion rate.In some cases, square video resulted in 30-35% higher video views and an 80-100% increase in engagement.

If you happen to be running just a mobile ad, then you might consider a vertical format instead. Otherwise, we suggest keeping your videos square so that they work great everywhere.  

Tips for Facebook carousel ads and lead ads

Carousel ads are another neat way to tell a story with Facebook ads. 

One of the best ways we’ve seen this work is to visually tie the images together, either thematically  by choosing similar images or quite explicitly by cutting up a single image into multiple frames or using graphic design elements that carry over from one carousel image to the next. With carousel ads, you can apply many of the same techniques as with the image ads we discussed earlier: use images that relate to the copy, be vibrant, be engaging. 

That’s probably good advice for any visual you use on any of the different Facebook ad types. 

Take Lead Ads for instance.

In addition to the visual marketing tips, we’ve seen brands really make the most of this ad type by being smart about the way they set up the lead capture forms. Facebook will autofill certain types of information, which makes these lead forms as easy-as-can-be for the people signing up. Brands use this to their advantage by only asking for the essential information. We’ve seen some companies only ask for email addresses — say, if you’re wanting to send an e-book.For others, especially those with brick-and-mortar locations or regional events, we’ve seen simple forms with email, city, and country. 

As you’re scrolling through Facebook Ads Library, one thing you’re likely to notice is that many of the ads show text that says the ad you’re looking at has multiple versions. 

Tool: Dynamic creative ads

This Facebook ads feature will automatically optimize and deliver the highest-performing combinations of visuals and copy. You simply give Facebook a bunch of options to choose from, and Facebook will serve variations across its ad network until it finds the best-performing combinations. These combos then get served more widely as the winning ads.

You can apply dynamic creative ads to Conversion, Traffic, Video Views, Reach, Brand Awareness, and App Install campaigns. Pretty much anything you could hope for.

And when you’re coming up with options, the limits for creative are 10 images or videos and 5 options for each of body text, title, description, and call-to-action.  

Tool: Text overlay

Another favorite tool of ours — and one we see put to good use very often in the Facebook Ad Library ads — is the Text Overlay Tool.

You can upload your ad to this tool, and it will tell you whether your ad contains a High, Medium, or Low amount of text. This is important because the amount of text can affect the reach of your ad.

Ideally, Facebook prefers visuals that have little to no text. You’ll see this in the ads of top brands — they all have bright and stunning visuals with very little text.Still, if your ad image does need some text on it — say, with a brand message or tagline — you can test it on the Text Overlay tool first.

After uploading, the tool will give your image a score of High, Medium, Low, or OK. High-text images may not run at all.Medium-text images may have much lower reach.Low-text images may have slightly lower reach.And OK images should run as expected.

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About The Science of Social Media podcast

The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing tactics from brands and influencers in every industry. If you’re a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you’re sure to find something useful in each and every episode.  It’s our hope that you’ll join our 27,000+ weekly iTunes listeners and rock your social media channels as a result!

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