#plex pre-rolls

[robinette-green]

Late Night Day Dreams Chapter 11:

The Day After

You’re a Parts and Service Technician who’s been out for a week due to illness. An early morning phone call has you coming in at 6 am on your first day back instead of 10 pm like you had been planning on.

You just want to clock in, get set up and then seen your robot boys in the daycare but things don’t go as planned.

2,941 words

Princess Quest ending

Sun and Moon are 100% your boyfriends and it’s a secret but everyone knows

Punching my code into the keypad, I yawned, covering my mouth and squinting as my eyes watered.

6am was much, MUCH too early to be awake.

A phone call had startled me from sleep about 15 minutes ago. It was one of management’s automated voice messages, pre-recorded and riddled with breaks from a robotic AI voice.

“Hello, Faz Bear employee, NUMBER 13357. We are calling to inform you that you are needed to work MORNING SHIFT PARTS AND SERVICE TECHNICIAN. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your cooperation. Please arrive on time for your SIX AM shift. Thank you and have a good day.”

I’d been out sick for a week and today was my first day back. It was just starting much, MUCH earlier than I thought it would.

Jeff must have called out. He was the normal morning tech. It was odd though because usually he’d shoot me a text to give me a heads up if he knew he wouldn’t be able to come in.

Well if he was sick he’d probably be sleeping in so I’d text him later to make sure he was alright.

The keypad beeped, light glowing green for a moment before the large metal door that split the parking garage from the lobby started to lift.

Adjusting my bag on my shoulder, I took a long sip of coffee while I waited for the door to rise enough to walk under.

Neon lights reflected off the polished floors of the lobby, large LED screens played ads of the band on the pillars and walls, and staff bots mopped the floors and did security rounds. Everything as normal at Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizza Plex.

Well until I made it to the turn styles and noticed that the gates for the lower gift shop and the customer service counter were both raised.

…

They should have been lowered last night and the night guard wouldn’t have needed to raise them.

…

Okay, well, whatever.

Maybe one of the animatronics opened them and forgot to close them again.

Ducking into one of the ticket booths, I booted up one of the computers and clocked in for my shift. The computer played a little fan fair with children cheering in the background as the punch went through and I rolled my eyes. I don’t know who programmed it to do that but I wanted to have a conversation with them. We were just going to talk.

Taking another sip of coffee, I adjusted my bag again and started through the lobby and up the stairs to the elevators.

The plan was to go down to parts and service first and get set up then I’d check on the main four before going to the daycare to see Sun and Moon. I needed to at least pretend to do my job before I could see my favorite boys and once we’d gotten through the hugs and catching up I’m sure they’d enjoy coming with me on my rounds of the -

…

The elevator doors had opened and I was distracted by the upper half of Monty clawing his way across the atrium floor. Not even sparing me a glance.

“… the fuck???”

It took another long moment before I could pull myself out of my surprise and shock.

“MONTY!” I shouted, trotting to catch up to the torso crawling across the floor.

“Dude! What the fuck?”

He didn’t respond, continuing on his merry way, a growl periodically coming from his voice box.

I dropped to a knee and set my coffee aside so I could rummage through my bag. Luckily, my Faz wrench, a large, orange, two-pronged tool, was near the top.

Faz wrench in hand, I ran to Monty and practically tackled him, placing a knee in his back to press him to the floor. As the bot growled and scrabbled at the floor, ripping up carpet and scooting us jerkily forward, I forced the service hatch on the upper part of his back open and slammed the prongs of the Faz wrench into the slot I’d uncovered. With a twist of the wrench, Monty slumped to the floor as he rebooted.

What the hell happened last night???

As Monty started to boot back on, I moved to sit next to him on the floor, closing his service hatch as I did.

Monty blinked a few times then groaned, clutching at his head with what was left of his hands. Now that I was really looking at him I could see that the shells of his hands were also gone.

Did someone break him for his upgrade?

Were the others okay??

“Wha?” Monty shifted to look down at himself and then at me.

“What, in the swampy bottom Faz fuck happened to my legs!?” He demanded in his gruff cajun accent.

“Language. If I knew, I’d tell you. I just got here. Walked through the doors and found you crawling your way through the plex. I was hoping you could tell me.”

“ Hypocrite. You spend too much time in that daycare” Monty grumbled.

“Is everyone else alright?”

“Again, just got here,” I repeated, ignoring his jab at my own use of cuss words, before getting to my knees and grabbing the gator under his arms.

“Come here you overgrown backpack. Let’s get moving and find out.”

With Monty’s help and a good bit of struggle, I managed to get Monty into my back and stood. Turns out that he was still extremely heavy when only part of an upper body.

“You’ll grumble but we’re going to the daycare first.”

Monty did grumble a little bit, tightening his grip on my shoulders.

“Na, I get it. Need to check on your boys.”

Lugging the large gator along, I went back to the elevator to go back to the lobby. This route would be faster than going through Kids Cove and I wouldn’t have to walk as far with a heavy passenger on my back.

“Hey kid, put me down. I’ll crawl” Monty could tell I was already flagging.

“No. This is faster and I can have Sun and Moon carry you once we find them.”

The music in the elevator cut out and the announcer told us a Faz fact that was very clearly untrue.

Bears aren't extinct yet and most certainly don't eat pizza in the wild.

Monty and I waited silently for it to finish and now that we weren’t talking I could really feel his weight pulling me down, compressing my body.

“…Though if I change my mind you’ll be the first to know.”

Monty chuckled and the elevator doors opened and we were able to continue on.

We made it to the daycare check-in before I had to set Monty down but we were close enough that it didn’t matter.

I practically fell down, getting Monty to the floor without dropping him and my body felt oddly light and floaty as I stumbled to the 'side into fun' slide that went down into the daycare proper.

“SUN!” I called down the colorful plastic tube.

I’d been out for a week, they should be anxious wrecks to see me again.

The sudden crashing of an animatronic scrambling up the slide startled me and when Sun shot out, his arms wrapping around me I fell over, his weight crushing me.

“OH DEWDROP! I’m so glad, glad, GLAD! You’re back! So many things have gone WRONG! They made us get an upgrade WITHOUT YOU! It was HORRIBLE! And, and now Moon won’t talk to me! And he’s HURT an EMPLOYEE!! And we’ve had complaints! I’m not allowed to turn the light OFF anymore!! and, and, and OH MY GOD WHAT’S HAPPENED TO MONTY!!!” Holding me tight to his chest, Sun scrambled away from the torso of the gator that was crawling towards us.

“Woah! Easy!” I took Sun’s face into my hands, trying to calm him some.

“It’s alright.”

The large sunny animatronic melted into my touch, curling further around me.

Next time I get sick I’m going to let Sun and Moon squirrel me away in their room and let them care for me like they wanted because clearly I couldn’t leave for a moment without things falling apart… literally.

Monty sighed, resting his head on his hands as he looked at us over his sunglasses.

“We don’t know what happened to 'em,” Monty grumbled.

“I woke up like this. Your little human says they found me crawling through the atrium like this and gave me a reboot.”

It took a little longer to calm Sun down and after some coaxing and more hugs, I finally got him to let me go.

We decided that the first thing we would do was get Monty down to parts and service. I didn’t know what condition the others would be in and I might need Sun and Moon to carry them. That would be easier if they weren’t also carrying the gator.

I also wanted to check on Moon. From what Sun had said I had a feeling that something had gone wrong with whatever upgrade they’d gotten and I needed to make sure Moon was okay.

Sun scooped Monty up and carried him with one arm then snagged my hand, squeezing for reassurance.

Giving him a smile, I squeezed back.

I was going to fix this.

It didn’t take long to get down to parts and service. We placed Monty on one of the work tables and let him go into rest mode then I gently talked Sun into the repair tube. He was nervously pulling at a ray, the rest pulled into his face plate with worry.

“A-are you sure this is a good idea? Y-you haven’t seen the state of our room. H-he’s been destroying staff bots! I don’t want you to get hurt! What if something’s really REALLY wrong and he- and he-!”

“It’ll be okay, Sunny bunny,” I murmured, patting Sun’s hand as he sat in the large dentist-looking chair.

“You and I both know that Moon would never do anything to hurt me. We’re going to find out what they did wrong during your upgrade and I’m going to fix it. Promise. It’ll be okay.”

The door closed, sealing us in as I sat on my rolling stool and hooked up my laptop to the port in the back of Sun’s head.

“I’ll do a check on you first, then we’ll turn out the lights,” I said, already distracted by code as I dug through Sun’s files, Sun giving me a nervous affirmative.

They’d given Sun and Moon a battery that could outlast any of the other animatronic’s batteries but when they’d done this they’d turned off Sun and Moon’s ability to enter rest mode.

I grumbled something unsavory to myself as I turned it back on. Not being able to rest for a week was probably part of the reason Sun was so high-strung right now. Not resting on top of everything else going on.

Luckily everything else seemed to be in order…

“We’re going to take a long nap once we get everything sorted. Looks like you both need a snuggle and some rest.”

Sun took one of my hands in his, tilting his head slightly so he could look up at me with his white eyes.

“Please?” He asked, his voice so small.

I leaned down and pressed a kiss to his forehead.

“Absolutely.”

Now it was time to check on Moon.

Giving Sun’s hand a squeeze, I reached over and placed a finger on the light controls.

“Ready?” I asked softly and after a moment of hesitation, Sun nodded.

The lights in the repair tube went out and dimmed in the rest of Parts and Service. Sun’s body convulsed and he made a pained sound that had me lurching forward.

“SUN?!?” I called out but as soon as it had started, it stopped, Moon’s red eyes glowing in the dark.

“Are you alright!? That sounded like it hurt!” I ran my fingers along the edge of Moon’s face plate where Sun’s rays had retracted, looking to see if something was impeding the change there.

A hand grabbed my wrist and squeezed. Hard.

“Ahh,” I hissed, free hand instinctively going to Moon’s fingers to try and relieve some of the pressure as my eyes flew to Moon’s.

“Sssss-starlight?” Moon growled, voice glitching.

Suddenly, Moon jerked forward, gripping his face plate with a hand and crying out, his eyes flickering purple for a moment.

“Moon. Talk to me, buddy. What’s wrong?” I scrambled for my laptop, clicking away with my free hand through Moon’s coding, wincing as I tried to ignore the way my other wrist was being crushed.

“S-sommmmme-thing’ssss. Ii-t’sss in-n-n-n-n my head. Connn-t-trolling-” Moon managed to get out, doing his best to fight whatever was trying to rear its ugly head.

“Hold on honey, I got you,” I murmured, typing as fast as I could with one hand.

There was something in his code, probably the same thing that had been affecting Monty when I’d first found him. Moon needed a reboot, that should clear out the virus like it had with Monty.

Moon growled, the metal of his face plate creaking as his grip tightened down, the grip on my wrist just as tight.

“J-Just a little longer. Hold out for me if you can.” I managed to say through gritted teeth, trying to ignore the way my bones were creaking.

Grabbing my Faz wrench, I was just barely able to get the prongs into the slot on the back of Moon’s face plate. With a grunt, I turned the wrench and Moon suddenly went limp, eyes going dark.

I pulled my arm free from his grasp and cradled it to my chest. By some miracle, it was bruised but not broken.

Leaning closer, I tried to see what Moon’s optics were doing.

“Moon? How are you feeling sweetheart?”

Red eyes flickering back on, I had to sit back as their head did a spin and Sun’s rays joined Moon’s hat.

“Happy Birthday!” Eclipse gushed and I sighed, smiling down at the grinning robot.

If Eclipse was fronting then everything must be working smoothly. This part of the daycare attendant could only surface when Sun and Moon were working in harmony.

“Not my birthday, Eclipse. Did the reboot wipe the virus from your system?”

“Sure did! We’re in tip-top shape! And we’re able to communicate again just fine as you can see!” Eclipse gushed as he sat up, reaching out to pull me into a hug.

“Thank you, Star Shine!” He whispered into my hair. Then in a much smaller voice, he asked

“Is it… time for that cuddle?” He sounded so anxious and sad, I wanted to immediately agree but we still had work to do.

But then I would cuddle my poor boys for days and we’d have a week-long sleepover. They deserved it after what they’d been through.

After checking on Monty one more time, Sun, Moon, and I set out to find Roxy, Chica, and Freddy and check on DJ Music Man.

We found Roxy in her salon, sobbing uncontrollably as she tried to hide her face. Her eyes had been ripped from her head, wires hanging loose from the empty sockets. Her hair had been thoroughly messed up and it looked like her snout had been bent giving her a permanent snarl.

The shock from losing her eyes had forced an auto reboot, purging the virus but it had left Roxy a wreck, sobbing and raging about the boy that had taken her eyes from her.

Sun and I promised over and over that she was still the most beautiful and that I would easily be able to fix her. I even told her that we could add whatever she wanted to her shell. New hairstyle, new colors, different earrings, whatever she wanted. We’d make a spa day of it.

This seemed to calm her down some and Sun and I were able to get her to parts and service, letting her sit in a chair near Monty’s table as she whimpered softly.

So this Gregory had taken Monty’s hands and Roxy’s eyes. I had a feeling I knew what would be missing when we found Chica.

And I was right but it was worse than I’d thought.

She’d been smashed by the trash compactor but was somehow still mindlessly wandering around and shoving food into what was left of her mouth. Someone had pulled her voice box out and taken her beak with it leaving Chica with a large hole in her face. Her shell was cracked in serval places and she reeked of trash.

I ended up having to have Moon hold Chica down so I could open the service panel in her back and force a reboot with my Faz wrench.

Even once she was rebooted, Chica seemed dazed and confused. Moon was able to converse with her via sign language but, just like Monty, she had no memory of what had happened.

DJ Music Man seemed alright, all things considered. He seemed to have the robot equivalent of a headache, holding his head, lying sprawled out on his stage. DJ had a vague memory of a boy running about the arcade but couldn’t tell us more.

No matter how hard we looked, we couldn’t find any sign of Freddy. He appeared to have vanished along with the boy that had caused all this destruction.

If this is what happens when I leave for a week then I guess I can’t leave ever again.

Not that Sun or Moon would let me.

[ultimatelytired]

Helper pt. 3

word count: 7262

Fandom: FNAF Security Breach Pairing: Sundrop/Moondrop x Female!Reader Pronouns: She/Her Relationship: Romantic  Occupation: Daycare Helper Ability: Animatronic Moon Jellyfish

The character was modelled after a moon jellyfish, so they are an oceanic type animatronic that mostly resided in the daycare to assist when needed within the pizza plex. The appearance they adorn is that of a tall woman and the animalistic part of her design would be, other than a human-like face, they would have a large bell (the blob of a jellyfish is called a bell or hood) on top of their head that would act as a large hat, and attached to the underside of the bell are the tentacles and stingers. They are not stingers, they help the character locate children and feel for their surroundings. The bell on top of their head also glows in the dark.

Keys:

[F/N]: Female Name  [B/C]: Base Color  [S/C]: Secondary Color  [F/C]: Favorite Color  [E/C]: Eye Color

Warnings: spoilers to those who haven’t seen fnaf sb.

“Helper” pt. 1, pt. 2

“[F/N]~” said woman chuckled softly at the sing song voice coming from the child that sat in her lap, hearing the child trail her name off while leaning backwards so they could look up at her. [F/N] hums in response, placing her hand on their back and pushing them up gently so they wouldn’t fall “You’re not exactly… alive, right?” this question caught her off guard, she wasn’t really expecting to hear those words come out of a six year olds mouth, but she nods her head.

“If you mean I’m not exactly a human, then yes.” the child nods their head, looking forward and letting [F/N] brush their hair “Why do you ask? Does me not being a human make you uncomfortable?” she halts in her brushing once more when the child turned around.

“Nah uh! I like you, I like you a whole lot!” they exclaim as they hug her, she pats their back just as they pull themselves off her “It’s just that my mama told me that machines are incapable of falling in love.” [F/N]’s mood dampens a little, her hand caressing the small child’s back.

“Well… I wouldn’t say she’s wrong.” the child now tilts their head to the side in confusion.

“But aren’t you and Mister Sunny in love?” this question caused her to flinch, her internal fans starting up when she started overheating “Mister Moon as well! Sometimes, when you put us to sleep, I see you two acting like how my mama and papa act. I think it’s very romantic~” [F/N] pressed her lips into a thin line, her hand now beginning to fan her face.

“Don’t you know when people are being intimate it’s only right to give them privacy and not peek?” this caused the child to giggle, she then presses her hand onto her forehead, shaking it lightly “Goodness child, I would appreciate it if you would look in the other direction in the future.”

“Hehe, no promises.” [F/N] playfully rolls her eyes under her eyelids before beginning to tickle their stomach, their laughter was enough to get Sundrop’s attention and he came skipping over.

“Hey, hey, hey! How’s my favourite lady? Are you guys having fun over here?” a few of the children that were following Sundrop came over and started playing with [F/N], a few draping themselves over her shoulders and others settling themselves in her lap, the remaining few were playing with her hair and hat.

“We’re just talking, sunbite, ain’t that right?” the child covers their mouth, trying to contain their laughter.  “Must be a good conversation if y’all are laughing this much!” [F/N] noticed that most of the children were distracted amongst themselves, except for the one child that started it all, so she covered their eyes with one of their hands before reaching forward to cup his cheek and turn his face towards her so she could press and kiss to his cheek “Uwah— what was that for?” he asks, pressing his hand to his cheek while flustered.

“Just showing you that I love you.” the moment she dropped her hand from the child’s eyes, they noticed how lovey dovey they were acting again. They were pretty sure that if none of them were there, they would act even more affectionate, telling by how [F/N] held Sundrop’s smaller hand in her own and was gently caressing his knuckles before the both of them lace their fingers together.

“Oh, stop it, starshine. The children are still here…” she just giggles, her head perked up when a notification went off in her head.

“Oh, it seems like it’s nap time.” she starts to laugh when Sundrop pouted “Don’t worry, you’ll be back before you know it. Nap time only lasts an hour or so. And besides, it’s Moony’s turn.” she kisses the backside of her hand, when she lets go, she couldn’t help but blush a little when he pressed his own lips to where she kissed him.

“Alright, let’s round up all the children.”

“They’re not cattle, Sunny.” this caused them both to laugh. Of course there were the few children who didn’t want to settle down for nap time, but after being promised a snack time right after nap time was enough to get them to comply. [F/N] gives Sundrop a kiss on the forehead and coos sweet nothings into his ear to calm himself down, it always did hurt sometimes when the two would switch, but it’s been getting better. She was in the middle of playing a lullaby when the lights turned off and Moon appeared, she didn’t hesitate to welcome him with a kiss, to which he leaned into the affection before the two of them went to work.

Moondrop watched [F/N], watching as she sung beautifully to the sleeping children, he now come to love nap time. Children were a nightmare, especially the rowdy ones and those that just downright refused to sleep because they still had so much energy, but [F/N] made his job so much easier, and he even go to spend time with the animatronic woman that stilled his usually cold mechanical heart. He flinched slightly when he felt a stare so he looked down and saw the same young child smirking slightly at him, wriggling their eyebrows at him when they noticed the way he was staring at her. That child had a pillow thrown at them for that, causing them to laugh but shushed immediately when he leaned down and glared lightly at them.

“Silence child, and go to sleep. I want some time with her, so if you know what’s good for you, you’ll go to sleep and not speak a word.” they nod their head and zip their lips before rolling onto their side and closing their eyes to sleep, he nods his head as he stands up straight “Good.” he keeps his eyes on them for a second longer before skipping over to her.

“Are you done over there, Moony?” she giggles softly when he draped himself over her shoulder, leaning his cheek into hers.

“Yeah, they’re all sleeping soundly. Now it’s our alone time.” she giggles again, face turning a slight shade of red as he takes her hands a pulls her away from the nap area.

“Hehe, what are you doing, moonlight?” he leads her to the centre of the daycare and tells her not to move, he then proceeds to move everything out of the way until everything is clear. He then hurriedly returns to her and when he he reached her, he took a bow, one hand behind his back while the other was outstretched to her.

“Would you do me this honour and sharing a dance with me?” he raised his head and watched as her eyes opened, emotions swirled in those gorgeous galaxy like eyes and it was making him fall in love all over again, she then laughs and takes his hand.

“It would be my pleasure.” her other hand lays in his other hand and soon they were standing close together, however, she tilts her head in confusion when Moondrop was staring up at her “What's the matter?” he frowns slightly.

“… sometimes I forget how tall you are.” she snorts.

“That’s your concern?” she looks down at him and watches as he tries to think of a solution, his face then lights up when he got an idea and he snapped his fingers. He slips from her grip once more, raising a finger to tell her to wait once more and watch, and so she does. She holds her arms together and watched in mild confusion when he called down his cable and clipped it to his back, she slowly raised her head and laughed quietly to herself, covering her mouth with her hand when she understood what he was doing “Really?” he now hovered in front of her, one arm to his back while the other was outstretched to hers once more.

“May I?” she shakes her head but takes his hand.

“You may.” his already permanent smile grew as he held her close, now looking down at her, despite the fact it was the cable that was giving him that advantage. A melody started playing out of him and together the two of them slow danced around the daycare, she was giggling every so often because it was her that was leading them around but he would often twirl her around, what she loved the most was when he dipped her, hand firmly on her back and hand to hold her up and her hair and the strings of her bell hat was hanging beneath her and touching the ground, one leg kicked up as well.

“Have I ever told you how much I love you?” she looks up at him, her galaxy like eyes staring in his void black ones, she then snorts as he pulls her back up and so she let her head rest on his chest, hearing the gears in his body turn as she hummed softly.

“There isn’t a single day that doesn’t go by and I’m not deeply in love with you— with you both.” she looks up at him “I can’t be more happy that I was made to be yours.” he stares down at her before he starts laughing wholeheartedly, dipping her once more but this time he was leaning down, laughing into her neck.

“You have no idea how much this means to Sundrop and I!” she starts laughing with him, arms wrapped around his neck. When he pulled her up, he made sure to hold her tight as he lifted her off the ground and twirled her around and together the two of them danced for the rest of nap time until it was over “I’ll see you again soon, my love.” she giggles, giving him a final smooth until the lights turned back on, and when she pulled away, she as met with Sundrop.

“Hello, sunbite.” he giggles, cupping his cheek and waving his hand.

“Hello~” she rolled her eyes with a chuckle then went back to gathering snacks for the children while Sundrop woke them up, for the rest of the time until closing, [F/N] was monitoring the energy drained children and keeping them entertained with bracelet making while Sundrop was playing around with the more energised children.

“Miss [F/N]! Look at my bracelet.” a young girl cheered, rushing up to the animatronic woman and holding out the bracelet “How does it look?” she carefully takes the bracelet into her larger hands and inspects, the girl looks up at her with a nervous look before a bright smile washed onto her face when [F/N] smiled at her.

“It’s wonderful. You have a natural gift for jewellery making.” she takes the young girls hand and ties the bracelet around her wrist then gently kissed the top of her hand “It would greatly please me if you could teach me.”

“Y-Yes, certainly!” [F/N] already had numerous programs on jewellery making and various other programs, but having children teaching her in exchange was always nice. [F/N] made two friendship bracelets by the time the young girl made her second, the ones she made were themed after Sundrop and Moondrop and she couldn’t help but smile at her accomplishments “Are you going to give those to Mister Sun and Mister Moon?” she nods.

“Indeed, do you think they’ll like it?”  “Of course! They were made by none other than you, Miss [F/N]!” she nods once more, that light flush rising to her cheeks. [F/N] watched her stand to her feet and rush off, she was going to question what she was doing but giggled to herself when the girl grabbed Sundrop by his hand and was dragging him over to where she was sitting “Mister Sun, Mister Sun! Miss [F/N] has something to give you!”

“Something for me? Daw, you shouldn’t have!” she holds her hand out to him and he places his in hers, she then proceeds to tie the sun themed friendship bracelet around his wrist, being careful around about the bells around his wrist as well, but when it was done, he pulled the bracelet close to his face to inspect it.

“What do you think? I made matching ones for you and Moon.” she says, revealing the second one so he could see one that looked similar to his but was themed after Moon “Do you like it?” Sundrop let’s out a squeal of sorts as he stares at it before clapping his hands.

“Absolutely, and I believe Moon will like the one you give him.” she hums at that, holding the one she made for Moondrop in her hand.

“I do hope so.” time flew by so quickly that it was already the end of the day and parents were coming to pick up their young ones, it was Sundrop’s turn to start cleaning while [F/N] was there to monitor the guardians that were there to pick up the children. There have been a few incidences where complete strangers would try and take one of the children, but they never got far with her and Sundrop there to stop them, but that is a story for another time.

“Thank you again for taking good care of our child, we appreciate it.” [F/N] nods her head.

“It is our duty to take care of the children, and besides, he was a dear to have around.” she cooed softly while caressing the young boys cheek with the back of her hand, the boy giggled and leaned into her affection before being pulled away by his mother.

“Yes, well, we must get going now. Come on now.” 

“Aw, but mum! I wanna say bye to Miss [F/N].”

“No buts! Off we go.” he pouts as he’s ushered away but he makes the effort to take a quick glance back towards her to wave her goodbye, she smiled at the gesture and waves goodbye. It was obvious that some parents hated the fact that their children adored both her and Sun/Moon over them at times, telling by how a young child would cling to the both of them begging not stay, but of course, they’re not allowed to keep the children there for long.

“I swear, my son’s birthday was ruined tonight.” she heard a mother complain from afar while handing over another child to their guardian.

“Yeah, I wasn’t there to see the performance, but I heard that Freddy had a malfunction and collapsed during his performance.” her eyes shot open and she turned towards the gossiping mothers.

‘Freddy collapsed?’ she thought, that sounded impossible. Freddy has the most daily maintenance out of all the animatronics because he is the face and star of the Mega Pizza Plex, so she couldn’t accept the fact that he had a simple malfunction during his performance.

“Miss [F/N]?” she lets out a soft gasp then glanced down to see the young boy she was holding in her arms looking up at her in concern “Are you alright?” she blinks owlishly at him before closing her eyes and smiling at him.

“Why I’m alright, thank you for worrying about me.” she says, leaning down to place him on the ground, she grimaced a little when the boy still looked worried but simply gave him a light push on the back to get him to go to his father that was waiting for him “You better get going, we’re closing soon and your father is waiting.” she stands up straight and waves him goodbye and though he was hesitant, he hurried over to his father, holding his hand and waving her goodbye.

“See you again, Miss [F/N]!” she nods and watched them disappear, unbeknownst to herself, the grip on her hands grew tight to the point she could feel herself dent.

“I hope to see your faces soon!” [F/N] exclaimed happily as she waved the last family goodbye, she looked side to side in search for anyone else before turning on her heel and speed walking over to where Sundrop was, who had his back to her as he was at the table that had the equipment for the bracelet making “Sunny, darling! I need a favor of you.” she says, not noticing the way he hid the things on the table when she approached.

“Oh, starshine! What can I do for you?”

“Do you mind holding down the fort for me? I just heard that Freddy isn’t feeling well, and I thought I could check up on him. I hope you don’t mind.” she thought that he would disagree, he never liked them being so apart, so guess how surprised she was with how easily Sundrop agreed with her.

“You're absolutely right, sunbite! You’re such a good friend to worry about your other friends, so go on right ahead and pay that big ole teddy bear a visit just to see if he’s doing alright!” he says, going to so far as to pushing her out.

“A—Are you sure?” she questions, glancing back at him and being mindful of her step as not to tumble over “I’m not being troublesome, am I?” she adds, now out the door and holding it open to look at him, to which he shakes his head.

“Not at all! We got this, so go say hi to Freddy for us!” she pulls her hands back when he quite literally slammed the door in her face, she stares blankly at it for a couple seconds before snapping out of it, leaning backwards in confusion.

“… well, I didn’t expect that.” she stands there a second longer until she turned on her heel and made her way towards Rockstar Row, leaving Sundrop and Moondrop in the daycare.

“I didn’t expect her wanting to leave, but we’ll take her absence as our opportunity to make her a gift.” he cheers as he returns to the table, Moondrop nodded his head within their shared mind.

“There’s not a moment to lose!”

[with [f/n]]

“Look, mummy! Look, it’s the Daycare Assistant!” [F/N] heard a couple of the children call out, to which she greeted a few of the leaving guests before picking up the pace so she could see Freddy without having to see Vanessa. It was strongly advised that they didn’t roam around while the Pizza Plex was in the middle of closing, but she was just a little bit too anxious. She waved at the last child she saw then hopped into the elevator in the Atrium and pressed the floor to take her to Rockstar Row, she crossed her arms and tapped her foot on the ground a little impatiently. Finally the doors opened to the floor she needed and she stepped out, she glanced around and saw a couple Security and Caution Bots, greeting them with a wave before something caught her eye. Glancing over, she briefly saw the door to Freddy’s room open then close.

“How odd.” she muttered but shrugged her shoulders, she’ll see soon enough, she approached his door and it automatically opened as she approached it “Freddy!”

“Aahh!” she rolled her eyes when he screamed, what caught her attention was when she saw him quickly close his chest cavity, he turned around and saw [F/N] and quickly that panicked look disappeared and he raised his hand “Oh! Why hello there, [F/N]! What brings you here? You’re usually helping Sundrop clean up the Daycare at this time.” he fidgeted under her watchful eyes, hands carefully caressing his chest, she then sighed as she shook her head.

“I’m here to see you.” his head perked up.

“Me? What for?” she scoffed, taking a step forward and grabbing him by his forearms.

“I heard you malfunctioned and collapsed during your performance.” his eyes widened.

“How did you know?” she huffs.

“World travels fast amongst complaining parents.” she then shrugs, she sighs and caresses his arm with her thumbs “What I don’t understand is why YOU of all animatronics malfunctioned. Monty I understand, even Roxanne and Chica dearest, but you? Management takes extra care of you, so I’m confused as to why you malfunctioned.” she raised a brow when he slowly slipped out of her grip, his hands now holding her forearms.

“All I can say is that it was a simple slip up on my end, I thank you for your concern, friend, but I must rest.”  he retracts his arms and holds them “I haven’t fully recharged yet, and I feel awfully tired.” her head perks up and soon nods.

“Oh, yes! Forgive me, I’ll leave you to charge! I need to head back to the Daycare, I feel awful for leaving Sunny on his own to clean. You know how children can be, such a pain to clean up after at times.” he nods his head, pumping his fist.

“That must be a hassle, so you better get to it.” she nods, patting his arm and turning to leave but stopped when Freddy called out to her “But before you go… was a child missing from the Daycare any time today?” this caused her to pause, he watched her look up as her AI looked through the data of each child that attended the daycare that day.

“No. I did a thorough headcount and there wasn’t a single head missing.” she approaches him once more “May I ask why?” he noticed her move her eyes from his face and down to his chest cavity, poking it, he immediately raised his hands to cover his chest and turned away.

“No, was just wondering, is all.” she knew he was lying to her, but he must have a reason as to why, so she just let out a deep sigh as she shook her head.

“Alright, I’ll leave you to it.” she gives him a hug, holding tight before letting go and leaving him alone. Unbeknownst to her, he let out a breath of relief as his chest cavity opened up to reveal the missing head he was talking about, the young boy named Gregory that was hiding in his chest cavity the moment she stepped in.

“She’s gone now, superstar.” Gregory lets out a exaggerated sigh.

“Dang, that was a close one!” he exclaims, he rushes over to the window and saw her walking into the elevator doors “Who is she? I think I’ve heard of her, but I’ve never seen her before.” Freddy approached Gregory from behind and glances through the window to see the elevator doors closing just as he approached.

“She is the Daycare Assistant, she helps the Daycare Attendant care for the daycare. She is a wonderful friend, and I believe you would like her a lot, she is very fond of children and cares for them as if they were her own.” Gregory scoffed, throwing his head back as he rolled his eyes.

“If she could even have children, that is.” he waves his hand “She’s still just a machine, so she can’t exactly conceive a child.”

“W-Well, it’s that thought that counts, is it not?” he just shakes his head.

[at the daycare]

“Sunbite, darling?” [F/N] pushes the door to the daycare open and peeked her head inside, she was a little impressed that Sundrop cleaned up the daycare thoroughly while she was gone, but now she was a little concerned because she couldn’t see him “I’m back, Sunny!” she called out once again, her shoulders slumped, however, when she didn’t get an answer. She entered the daycare, placing her hands on her hips and was ready to call out to him again but gasped when he hung from above her, upside down and a wide smile on his face.

“You’re back, starshine! Welcome!” she smiles softly, nodding her head.

“I’m back.” he rights himself but made sure he was still hanging in front of her, hands behind his back as his hands held something “Sunbite?” he giggles softly, legs kicking gently in front of him.

“I have a surprise for you.” he muses, waving his finger around then pointed at her face.

“Aw~ how sweet.”  “Close your eyes…” he trailed off when he realised her eyes were already closed, how she saw without her eyes being open, he’ll never know… but whatever! “Well, um… make sure you can’t see!” she chuckles and covers her eyes with her hands.

“Alright, okay.” she heard him muttering to himself, probably talking with Moondrop, something then jingled in front of her that made her tilt her head.

“You can open your eyes now!” she does so by removing her hands from her face then opening her eyes, and there she saw a necklace Sundrop and Moondrop had made that was themed after her but had sun and moon beads mixed into it as well with her name “Moony and I made this for you, we hope you like it!” she takes it into her hands and inspects it closely, she then laughs softly and holds it closely.

“I love it, you two, I love it very much!” she gives them both a big smile and holds it out to them “Put it on for me?” they didn’t hesitate to swipe it from her, she removes her hat and moves her hair so they wouldn’t have trouble putting it on, and when they did, she grabbed a miniature mirror to look at it. She was made and styled in the Victorian era, so it didn’t match her at all, but she loved it nonetheless “It’s perfect.” Sundrop claps his hands.

“Terrific! We’re glad that you love it.” she continues to admire it before putting the mirror down and offering her hand to them.

“Hows about we call it a night? My battery is finally catching up to me and I desperately need to charge.” Sundrop nods his head.

“Oh, absolutely! We get to cuddle!” she chuckles at that, she wraps her arms around Sundrop’s waist and he lifts them over to their now shared room. She enters first and takes her place by the charging port, when Sundrop enters, he turned into Moondrop because the lights were off and he approached her.

“Can I get my gift?” she giggles.

“Of course.” she takes out the one she made for him and puts it on his other wrist, he marvels at them both before pulling her into a hug and together the three of them look at their matching jewellery “Now we all match.” she nods her head, nuzzling her nose against his head.

“We do.” she sits on her knees and one of the stingers attached to her hat slithered over to the charging port, she pats her lap and Moondrop didn’t hesitate to rest his head on her lap so they could snooze together.

“I’ll see you in the morning?” he smiles, nodding his head.

“Yes, and we’ll see you.” and with that, the moment that stinger plugged into the charging port, her system shut down and she was in charging mode. He takes a deep breath, wrapping his arms around her waist and burying his face plate into her lap, but not without taking one final glance at his and Sundrop’s bracelets. He couldn’t contain his bashful smile as he fell asleep in her lap, neither of the two unaware of the events that were going to take place throughout the night.

[an hour later]

EMERGENCY WAKE UP CALL.

DAYCARE LIGHTS OFF.

BOUNCER MODE… ACTIVATED.

PHYSICAL RESTRAINTS… DEACTIVATED.

[F/N]’s eyes opened, her system booting up at an hour they weren’t supposed too. When she was on recharge mode, it would take several hours for her to reach fully charged mode where she can last a few days without having to enter a charging station. But she had woken up from her slumber way to early, and the only reason that were to happen was when the daycare lights turned off at a time they weren’t supposed to… or if Moondrop was running amok, something like that hasn’t happened in the longest time. Similar to DJMM, Parts and Service installed a Bouncer Mode into her system that would activate when unruly guests make a scene, but it was used to subdue Moondrop when the staff couldn’t handle him.

“Sunny…?” she murmured out first, the stinger that connected itself to the plug disconnecting and returning to her as she slowly stood up and scanned the area for the animatronic “Moony? Where are you?” she closed her hand into a fist and grimaced when she felt her initial strength to take down animatronics like Monty was activated… something must be wrong, that restraint was activated for a reason. She exits their tent and noticed the lights in the daycare were indeed off, she looks at the time and was confused to see that the hourly mark for the power to convert to the charging stations hadn’t hit yet. With that in mind, she stepped out onto the balcony and looked around, only to hear Moon’s sinister chuckle.

“Naughty, naughty~ bad children must be punished.” her eyes immediately flew open as she slammed her hands onto the railing of the balcony, leaning over to see that he was chasing around a little boy who was frantically going through the playground and making a mess to distract him.

“Please! Just leave me alone!” her eyes locked onto the child and scanned him quickly before he disappeared into the playground while Moondrop cleaned up the mess he made.

CHECKING GUEST LIST… UNKNOWN.

CHECKING DAYCARE REGISTER… UNKNOWN.

CHECKING LOST AND FOUND… UNKNOWN.

CALCULATED RESULTS… LOST CHILD.

“Lost child?” she questioned, soon the conversation with Freddy came back to mind when he asked her if she was missing a child. She rolls her fingers along the railing, hearing it tap against the metal, but that child was completely unknown. There was no data of him anywhere, she shakes her head, that doesn’t matter that very moment, Moondrop was acting far more aggressive than he usually is and she was afraid he was going to do something neither of them were going to like. She calls down the cable just as she jumped over the railing, grabbing it and allowing it to lower her to the ground, she was careful to quietly land on the ground, as not to alert Moondrop of her presence.

“Dang it, where are those stupid generators?” Gregory hisses to himself, getting lost in the playground yet again “Why the heck are generators even in a children’s playground? Talk about a hazard.” he freezes up when he heard the bells on Moondrop’s costume jingle, oh god, he was crawling around in the playground as well.

“Where are you? Children aren’t allowed to stay after hours.” he pressed his back against the wall, covering his mouth to quiet his breathing but the beating in his heart beat so loudly it was giving him away “Come out, come out, wherever you are~” oh god did he want to just curl up into a ball and disappear, a small whimper escaped his lips when he saw Moondrop’s fingers appear around the corner of the wall. There was nowhere for him to go, he was trapped and that freak was going to get him. He closed his eyes and was ready for his life to flash before his eyes but they suddenly shot open when Moondrop let out a yelp, he looked over and saw that Moondrop was gone.

“H-Huh?” wiping away the stray tears, he looked around the corner and his eyes widened to see the same animatronic jellyfish that came to Freddy’s room holding Moondrop as if he were a cat.

“Moony? What are you doing playing around in the playground? You know that’s only designed for children, and don’t you remember the last time you went in there?” she giggles fondly at the memory, remembering how his limbs got stuck and he was screeching at her not to look “You know I can’t fit in there, so color me surprised when I had to yank you out of there.” yup, that’s what happened. The moment she saw the opportunity to grab him through one of the openings, she leaned in and pulled him out before he could see the young boy.

“You don’t understand, starshine. There’s a child!” he exclaims, throwing his arms up, to which she rolls her eyes while nodding her head.

“Right…” he sighed when he knew she didn’t believe him “Remember the last time you said that? And when we checked to see what it was it, it was only Roxanne and Montgomery playing tricks on you. Perhaps they’re doing it again.” he pouts as she lowers him down, she giggles to herself when he crossed his arms and started to sulk.

“I’m telling you, there’s a boy running around.” she smiles fondly at him, placing her hands on his shoulders and giving them a light squeeze, her eyes then went over to where Moondrop was and there she saw the boy. He flinched backwards and was going to hide but paused when he saw her jerking her head to her left, her stingers raising up and pointing in the same direction. He was confused at first but looked in the direction and there he saw another generator, she gave him a look of reassurance but quickly looked away when Moondrop looked at her.

“It’s not that I don’t believe you, but the last time we jumped to conclusions… we were barely let off with a warning.” this caused his shoulders to slump, she then turned him towards their room and gestures to it “Why don’t we go back to sleep? Perhaps you’re just anxious to see the children again that your AI is playing tricks with you.” with his back to the boy, Gregory peeked his head out from the play structure and his face lit up when her stingers pointed out all the generators, saving him the trouble of actually finding them.

“Maybe you’re right. The children have only recently started liking me again.” she smacks his arm, moving from time to time to block his view of Gregory as they continued to talk.

“They’ve always liked you, my love, they’re only shy.” she caresses his cheek and kisses his forehead “Now let’s go back and cuddle.” he giggles at that.

“Hehe, I like that idea for mu—” he was cut off when they both heard something fall, turning their heads, there they saw Gregory had accidentally tripped over a chair after he was staring at the two of them acting lovey dovey “So I wasn’t making it up!” he exclaims as starts making his way over to him, Gregory did not hesitate to pick himself up and run over to the other playground to get the last two generators.

“Ah, please! I don’t even want to be here!”

“Moon, what are you doing?!” [F/N] shouts as she chases after Moon, ducking down to avoid hitting a few of the obstacles in her way while Moon easily manoeuvred around them and was getting closer to Gregory “Moon! Stop right this instant!”

“Sorry, sweetheart, but no can do.” Gregory crawled into the playground and Moon was right behind him, [F/N] tried to grab him but she failed when he just slipped out of her reach and she couldn’t crawl in after him. She cursed under his lips, taking a step back and using her enhanced eyes to see through the dark and locate where both Moon and Gregory were in the playground.

“Moondrop, I swear if you hurt that boy you’re never going to hear the end of it from me!” she shouts, she managed to find Gregory and saw that he was backed into a corner after getting one of the two generators and Moon was hot on his tail “I will NEVER forgive you if you do anything to that boy, Moondrop! I swear on it!” this caused Moon to stutter in his movements, momentarily freezing in place, she took that opportunity to rush over to where Gregory was and pull him out of the playground instead.

“Hey! What’s wrong with that guy?!” she shook her head.

“I should be the one asking you that.” she whispered “My Moony doesn’t act like that, much less threaten a child and refuse to listen to me.” Gregory noticed black tears swell in her eyes as she stared at where Moon was before turning away and finding the last generator, however, she was tackled to the ground and evidently dropped Gregory.

“[F/N], dearest, hand over the child while I’m being nice.” she looked back and Moon and saw he was holding her by her waist, she glared at him as she pushed herself on her back.

“When my moonlight is being nice, he doesn’t threaten me!” she shouts and proceeds to kick him off, this time, she was going to keep Moon distracted while Gregory climbed into the playground to get the last generator “Little boy, if you climb in through the slide at the back, you’ll find the last generator!”

“The last in the back? Got it!” he quickly did as she said and followed her directions, her ears perked up when she heard a wire so she looked back and saw Moon connected the cable to his back and was planning on flying over her and after Gregory.

“Oh no you don’t!” she exclaims, kneeling down then jumping up and grabbing him by his waist. The cable wasn’t able to handle the weight and snapped, causing them both to fall to the ground. Moon gets up immediately and tries to get to Gregory once more but couldn’t when [F/N] picking him up, arms wrapping around his arms and his torso, keeping him apprehended “Moon, don’t make me break you.” he lets out a grunt when he felt her tighten her grip, his metal body starting to dent a little.

“I know you can, but I know you won’t. You love me too much to do that.” he feels her loosen her grip so he was going to slip out of her grip but suddenly she tightened her grip once more, making it impossible for him to free himself.

“True, but unfortunately for you, my system is telling me to do everything in my power to stop you from doing something stupid.” he glances back at her and saw that her iris’ were red instead of white “My feelings for you will be suppressed until you are under control.” finally, Gregory managed to get the last generator and the lights were switched back on. You glanced around then took a look at Moon only to see that he switched back to Sundrop, she lets out a sigh of relief and loosen her grip but hugs him instead.

“[F/N]? What are you doing awake? You’re supposed to be asleep.” she shook her head and buried her face into his neck.

“You and Moony were gone so I got worried…” they heard a creek so they turn and see Gregory trying to leave, now this set Sundrop off and stomped over to Gregory, [F/N] following behind him to make sure he didn’t do anything.

“Rule breaker, rule breaker!” he shouts, picking Gregory up and carrying him out of the daycare “You are BANNED from the daycare!” he adds, dropping him on the ground, [F/N] peeks her head out from behind him and waves Gregory goodbye.

“Have a good night, little boy.” she says.

“Security alert, security alert! Woo, woo, woo!” she pulls a face, looking down at him as they both retreat back into the daycare, him slamming the door behind him for good measure.

“Was that necessary?” he stomps his foot, crossing his arms.

“Absolutely!”

Headcanon:

watching him angrily write down BANNED in all caps on a wide white piece of paper was very entertaining.

several BANNED signs.

she couldn’t help but laugh that he seriously banned the boy from the daycare.

he told her not to laugh.

he also asked her to draw “angry eyebrows” and a “frown” on his face to display his anger.

she told him he was being over dramatic.

he told her she needed to take this seriously.

he then proceeded to cry to her that he just wanted to look after the boy but he turned the lights off and brought out moon.

she asked him if there was something wrong with moon because he was acting off.

he went silent.

she decided not to pry.

now, when the lights would go out and moon was lurking about searching for gregory, she would not be too far behind to keep moon under control.

when freddy and gregory were in the elevator and frantically pushing the buttons to get the elevator to close, [f/n] appeared and tackled him to the ground.

this had happened on several occasions, but it was very effective.

when [f/n] found gregory and freddy on their own, gregory, no matter how many times he was saved by her, was still just a little wary of her.

could you blame him? his life is literally on the line and the only one he can trust that moment was freddy.

he calmed down when [f/n] broke down crying about how that wasn’t her moon.

her moon was calm and kind, sure he was stern, but he would never hurt children no matter WHAT they do.

she even showed them the necklace they both made.

freddy let her cry into his shoulder and pat her back to calm her down.

now-

when freddy needed to charge, [f/n] would take over monitoring gregory.

she was a walking nightlight and you could see her from far away, she was also big so he could easily hide behind her.

if he was tired, they would find a place to rest and she would hide him under his bell hat and he would be out like a light.

a thing gregory also noticed was that where she was, none of the security bots would come over to where she was.

she said that the security bots won’t monitor the area where she is because she was more then enough to handle the situation that was happening there.

the same cannot be said for the animatronics.

that didn’t mean she didn’t bodyslam monty when he chased after gregory.

he forever stuck to her side.

[f/n] and freddy: the overprotective parents that will fight you on site if you dare hurt their child.

[carogdraws]

Idea 2: Vanessa is great with kids

Contrary to most fics, where "freed" Vanessa acts exactly the same as Vanny, just not evil; I believe that in the pre-Help Wanted era, Vanessa was actually great with children. My reasoning is as follows:

Fazbear Entertainment wants to improve their reputation before the VR game release and the pizzaplex opening. 

Decide to make each of their "branches" (companies that work for them) send one of their employees to schools to talk about their job as a way to "be transparent."

Vanessa's job is basically "play/ break video games," so Silver Parasol Games, the company that made FNAF VR in this universe, decides to send her out.

Vanessa finds working with the kids to be very enjoyable. She used to babysit kids when she was a teenager. Her positive and bubbly personality (as evidenced by the cut FNAF AR emails) makes the kids really like her. They are blown away by the idea that they can be paid to play video games.

Vanessa especially likes when some of those kids get that look of "I have found what I want to do with my life."

It's a win for everyone! Vanessa inspires some kids to get into tech, the children get a newfound love for technology, and Fazbear Entertainment's reputation goes up...slightly.

All this just serves to make the whole "Vanny" thing even worse, especially if some of her victims were those same kids Vanessa once talked with.

Hmmm, interesting for sure! And that final fact... ouch...

I have to say though, I know Fazbear's Entertainment work with children, but it would usually be just for the clientele at the pizzerias. The VR game is more made for young adults since children would usually be scared of horror games. Also was thinking that Fazbear's Entertainment was mainly cutting corners, and therefore didn't really care for anyone. They wouldn't have paid for extra training with children. (Well, at least that's what happens in my world. Also they built the Plex in less than 2 years in Afton's Return, which I now roll with it and just started making the company look far worse than in most SB AUs)

[greyias]

FIC: Chance Encounters - Chapter 4

Title: Chance Encounters Fandom: SWTOR Pairing: Theron Shan/f!Jedi Knight (pre-relationship) Rating: T Genre: Canon Divergent AU. Pre-Relationship, Slow Burn Synopsis: Even the smallest change can have large, unseen ripple effects. When Theron Shan books a voyage on the Esseles, he has no idea how a chance encounter with a Jedi Knight will change the course of his life. A canon divergent alternate universe examining what happens when Theron and the Hero of Tython meet much, much sooner. Author’s Notes and Spoilers: See Chapter 1.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Crossposted to AO3 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10

The lift doors opened to a bridge in chaos. Frenzied officers and crew hurried about, shouting at each other across the large space to be heard over the blaring alarms and the unsettling shudders of the ship. Theron hardly had time to take all of this in and process it before Highwind marched from the lift, chin held high and shoulders thrown back as if she owned the place.

She glided through the room, weaving around crew members rushing to their stations. Her grace and ease was a counterpoint to Theron as he struggling to keep his balance as he jogged after her. His boots clanked loudly on the metal plating of the deck, and the ship’s hull shuddered beneath him as it took on another barrage of fire. Near the bow, a console exploded from the impact and sent a large man flying across the deck.

Theron fared better, his landing awkward, but he was able to roll into the motion and spring back up to his feet. None of the swaying or rolling seemed to impede Highwind’s progress, and she reached the crew crowding around the downed officer several seconds before him.

A large red stain bloomed across the midsection of his uniform, his captain’s pips barely visible amid the deep crimson. A younger man — a lieutenant, likely the first officer — knelt at the larger man’s side, gently shaking him and pleading for his captain to hold on. However, from the lack of movement int he large man’s chest, it was clear he was already gone.

“He’s gone, sir.” Another large man, the ship’s navigator, shook his head sadly. “That makes you the senior officer.”

The first officer’s face drained of color as that realization set in. Fear slackened what would have been a pleasantly attractive face if one was the type to go for that clean-cut, well-groomed officer look. That wasn’t really Theron’s type to begin with, and while he couldn’t blame anyone for a moment of doubt, the absolute panic seeming to set in on the young officer was not comforting.

“What are your orders, Haken?” 

“Orders? What orders can I give, Plex?” First Officer Haken almost choked on the words as his eyes darted around the bridge, seeming desperate for another member of his crew to come up with a solution. “Weapons are out. Shields are out. Long-range communications are out!”

“We still have the engines,” Plex said.

“Fat lot of good that will do us with that tractor beam they have us in! We can’t do anything!”

Highwind’s lips pressed together in disapproval, a deep frown settling in across her features. Something seemed to shift in her entire demeanor as she took in the fear gripping the bridge crew, her eyes glinting like durasteel, spine straightening to her full-height — which wasn’t much considering Theron was close to a foot taller than her, but somehow, she made up for the difference with sheer force of presence.

There was something reassuring, almost calming, about the pure confidence she projected, and for a moment even Theron was pulled in under the spell before he forcibly shook it off. Most of the crew had been drawn in though, all eyes falling on the newcomers, and the rising tide of fear seemed to subside before a single word fell from her lips.

The Esseles’s new commanding officer did not seem swayed, the wild panic in his eyes having given way to a different sort of expression that still had an unpleasant edge to it that might become dangerous given enough time and circumstance. There was something about the man that didn’t quite sit right with Theron, and almost instinctually, he stepped up so he was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Highwind.

“The bridge is off-limits to passengers,” he spat. “We’re in the middle of a situation, so escort yourself out!”

Highwind’s hand raised in a calming fashion, her fingers moving slightly in a motion familiar to Theron, as he’d seen Ngani Zho do it many times during some of his childhood adventures.

 “As a Jedi, I came to offer my services in aid of this ship,” she intoned almost too calmly.

“We didn’t ask you for your help, Jedi,” Haken spat. “You and your sidekick can leave.”

“I’m Republic SIS,” Theron said flatly, “not anyone’s sidekick.”

“You smell like a bar,” Haken said. “Not a spy.”

“I’m not—wait, what do you think a spy smells like?” He shook his head, as he really didn’t want an answer to that. “You know what, never mind. Can we please focus on more important matters than spilled whiskey?”

“SIS?” Highwind cocked her head curiously, her surprise melting away some of that pure determination and resolve she had summoned.

“Strategic Intelligence Service.” He dropped his voice to a lower tone, not intending to broadcast any of her ignorance to the entire bridge. “How long have you been a Jedi? Ten minutes?”

“I know what the SIS is,” she volleyed back, brow furrowing at him in consternation. “And I am a Knight of the Republic, not a Padawan.”

Before the conversation could degenerate any further, a loud trill from the comms system cut through the tension in the room. If long-range communications were down, that meant the hailing signal was coming from the only nearby ship — the Imperial flagship that was looming off the bow. 

Haken visibly paled at the hail, but made a signal to the communications officer to put it through. Theron stepped back from the holoterminal’s view as the image shimmered to life. A tall, dark-haired Imperial officer stepped into view, half of his face marred by an unsightly mass of scars. His regal, imperious bearing was typical of most officers in the Empire, but it was clear that he was a Grand Moff based on the colorful array of rank insignia, the blues, reds, and yellows slightly muted by the holographic signal. That meant they were being addressed by one of the highest ranking members of the Imperial armed forces.

Great. This just kept getting better and better.

“This is Grand Moff Rycus Kilran of the Emporer’s Glory.” The lilting, proper cadence of the Kaasian accent could almost be described as pleasant or musical to the ears, but the cold, hard gleam in his eyes offset the image of friendly propriety. “We have disabled your defenses. Do not attempt any resistance.”

The entire bridge crew seemed frozen in place, so it was the Jedi who stepped forward, assuming that same commanding presence from before, as if donning a cloak. “We understand our predicament, Kilran, no one wishes for this to escalate any further. I am sure there is a peaceable solution.”

“Come, come. I think it is fairly obvious that friendly diplomacy was never an option.” Over the holo, a smug, predatory smile blossomed on Kilran’s face. “Now, it has come to the Empire’s attention that your ship is harboring a known anti-Imperial seditionist. One of your purported ‘ambassadors’, Vyn Asara.”

Haken finally seemed to find his voice. “I know every name on our passenger manifest. We aren’t transporting anyone by that name.”

“I don’t know if you’re lying or just incompetent.” Despite the insulting words, Kilran’s pleasant demeanor didn’t waver. “It doesn’t matter, really. My agents have confirmed the ‘ambassador’s’ presence.”

“You have spies aboard our ship?” Highwind asked, as if the notion had never occurred to her.

“Oh,” Kilran hummed with soft amusement, “you will find that I have eyes everywhere, my friend.”

While that wasn’t a surprise to Theron, a prickling sensation crawled down Theron’s spine all the same. He stayed on the edges of the bridge’s holocam, for now content to let the Jedi and bridge crew deal in diplomacy (or lack thereof in this case). He was still trying to slot all the pieces of the puzzle together.

While this might have been Theron’s first encounter with the Grand Moff, he knew Kilran’s name and reputation well from the extensive dossier the SIS had built over the years. The so-called “Butcher of Coruscant” was famous for his brutality — as well as the trail of bodies he left in his wake whenever he striked. If Kilran had gone through the trouble to plant spies on the Esseles and disable its defenses, rather than just blow it away in a surprise attack, it meant that he needed to take this Asara person alive for some reason.

And once Kilran got what he wanted, the rest of them would be space dust.

“Now, my soldiers are preparing to board your vessel. I suggest you let them do their job as any attempt to resist or prevent my men from arresting this terrorist will result in unpleasant consequences for everyone aboard your ship.”

“Unpleasant consequences?” Highwind echoed. “Exactly what kind of threat are you making, Kilran?”

“Oh, it is not a threat, my friend, but a promise. Good day.” With that, the line was cut on the far end and the holo fizzled out.

An uneasy silence filled the bridge in its wake. The heavy barrage of enemy fire had ceased, and it wouldn’t be long before Kilran’s men were aboard via either boarding craft or shuttle. 

“So what are our options?” Highwind broke through the silence.

“We can hand over this ambassador person,” Plex suggested. “If we can figure out who they are.”

“No,” Theron cut in, “the only reason we’re still alive is that they don’t have her yet.”

“But the Treaty of Coruscant—“

“No, he’s right,” Haken scrubbed a hand over his face. “Kilran is famous for his raids that dance right on the line of the treaty. He’s probably broken it dozens of times, but makes sure he leaves no witnesses alive.”

“Then we need to defend the ship,” Highwind nodded, as if it were the most obvious course of action.

“Yes, of course,” Haken said, and dropped his voice. “Look, I’m sorry about before. I’m just in over my head—we all are.”

“Fear is a natural reaction,” she said gently, “but we cannot allow it to paralyze us.”

“What we need,” Theron cut in, hoping to guide the conversation from platitudes back to useful solutions, “is to buy time until we can figure out a way to get out of here.”

Highwind gave him a curt nod. “That is wise. I will head to the primary airlock and make sure that no Imperial soldiers make it on board.”

“By yourself?” Theron asked incredulously. He would grant that her martial prowess against the droids had been impressive, but even he knew there was a difference between self-confidence and stupidity.

“I have Teeseven with me,” she said with a smile, and the little astromech let out a whistle in the affirmative. “He is quite capable.”

“And so am I.” Theron crossed his arms. “I’m coming too. Someone has to make sure no one gets a shot off at you when your back is turned.”

“I would have blocked that shot,” she said calmly. “The Force protects me.”

A humorless snort escaped him that in no way disguised his feelings. “It didn’t look like it.”

Haken coughed awkwardly and then cleared his throat, reminding the two of them of the presence of the rest of the bridge. For her part, Highwind seemed to flush ever so slightly, perhaps realizing she had just shattered that carefully crafted illusion she’d weaved of the calm, confident Jedi. Theron just huffed, but turned his attention back to the first officer.

 “Our long range comms are out,” Haken said, “but I still have contact with our security team. Other than Commander Narlock, most of them have seen little action, but right now, every blaster counts.”

Highwind dipped her head in gratitude, that brief flash of color having left her cheeks. “I am sure their assistance will prove most valuable.”

“It’s very brave for both of you to volunteer like this,” Haken said.

Theron shrugged. “It beats just sitting around like a sitting duck.” 

“Come on, Sparky,” Highwind turned to him, “let’s go save the ship!”

“My name isn’t—“ Theron let out an inarticulate noise of frustration. “Oh, never mind!”

The Jedi flashed a grin that was so mischievous that it made the freckles on her nose wrinkle. That same, light bubbling sensation in his gut momentarily distracted him, and for a moment he could feel the corners of his traitorous lips almost twitch into an answering smile. He shoved that reaction down with a scowl, determined to focus on the task at hand.

Next Chapter

[thinkragelive]

2021 : Ta-da!

Welcome to and goodbye from Chronospection!

This has been a year-long project in its rollout, and a 50-year project in the making ... well not really, but that sounds more impressive.

I’m including the response to a question I provided mid-year as this project was rolling out. This basically explains the essence of what, why, and how I was doing it.

ANONYMOUS: “How are you doing the choronospection thing? Like, how do you remember all the particular things you did in a year, which movies you watched, songs you listened to, where you traveled and with whom? When I think back on some memories, I can’t remember if it happened in 2015 or 2005.”

THE SHORT

I take a lot of pictures. I’m a nerd. I’m reflective. I like lists. I’m relatively creative. There was a pandemic.

I really don’t know how to explain this succinctly. I’m not the best writer so I’ll just put a bunch of points down that went into the process.

THE GRITTY A couple years ago I digitized all my pics and negatives. And I’ve tagged them all by year, name, category/event/location. This included letters, cards, certificates, mementos… And it’s great! Instead of being hidden in a box, I get to see them often and every time I load up new pics and categorize them.

In the early 90s, I was going through the process to be a cop. As a result, I needed to have all the details of all my past addresses, employment details, schooling, etc. I just kept it updated - helped anytime I needed to pull my resume together.

1991-1994 are a little messy. So are 2001-2004. Both eras were pre-digital, and times of flux in my life.

The pandemic has left us with a lot of time. I took the opportunity to come up with a creative project.

PROCESS I started out with categories, and filled them in with what I could remember - whatever jumped to mind. Then checked the dates of them.  I also downloaded my fb and livejournal when I dumped them, plus two personal websites I’ve archived; they provided a ton of material.

Music: I didn’t use any ‘best of [year]’ lists. I went through my catalogue and picked out songs or albums that I own. If they struck a nerve, they got added.

Movies: I own an extensive library and just went through my Plex listing by year and pulled stuff I liked, had a good memory of, or thought it was representative of the year. Most I’ve watched, some I still haven’t.

Events (Personal): My tagged pictures and memories filled in the most. Things I could remember, but not the details/years, I contacted old friends to corroborate details.

Events (World): Some things I remember. We all have moments that happened and can remember what we were doing at the time, where we were … I then skipped through the interwebs for events of that year.

BOTTOM LINE It was a lot of work. A lot of fun. It connected me with old friends, and allowed me to reflect on my 50 years, the memories, the lessons learned, and where I want to go from here.

IN REVIEW : https://thinkragelive.tumblr.com/archive/

[opinionatedwrestlingfan]

WRESTLE KINGDOM NIGHT 1 REVIEW

KOPW Rumble thingy 

Yeah yeah you know pre show stuff

1/5 

Hiromu Takahashi vs ELP

Hiromu looks beautiful as always. ELP is.... Like that. Hiromu starts with the sass and when ELP starts on the outside calling for Liger, Hiromu doesn’t have any of it and immediately dives after him. This is a great start. ELP reverses Hiromu’s sunset bomb with one of his own right off the bat! Great speed from these two. ELP mocks Kenny Omega and no one gives a shit lol. I don’t like ELP but not in the way I don’t like other heels, he’s not interesting to me but he is really athletic and conniving. This is hard to watch cause ELP is clearly slowing the pace of the match by targeting Hiromu’s limbs and I was expecting a much faster pace here. ELP gets Hiromu in the tree of woe and stands on him nuts.... I may be changing my mind here. Hiromu bites ELPs fingers to escape from his bullshit. Follows it up with an awesome cradle piledriver for 2. Hiromu reverses a Styles Clash for 2. ELP is trying a lot of callbacks to old Bullet club leaders and IDK how to feel about it honestly. ELP with a roll up for 2. ELP with an attempt at the one wing angel turned pile driver for 2. I might not be feeling it but the crowd is getting into it. ELP knocks down the ref and just PUNCHES Hiromu in the dick. Followed through by a hurricanrana and a frog splash for 2. ELP reverses a pin attempt into a Styles Clash for 2! Hiromu reverses a One Wing Angel into a buckle bomb followed by a time bomb but its countered for 2 by ELP! Hiromu counters CR2 for a 3 count! 

3/5??? idk obviously Hiromu can’t go at 100% and the aim of ELP was to injure the hand so that Ishimori can secure the win in their match. But this match was meh

Dangerous Tekkers (C) vs GOD IWGP Tag Team Match 

… I forgot Tama Tonga shaved..... my heart hurts. Listen.... I don’t like Taichi matches. That’s facts. This is gonna be a low effort review ok? I’m sorry. Dammit I do like ZSJ though.... We’ll see. I’m rooting for GOD obviously. Tekkers looks really aggressive here I’ll give them that, ZSJ always looks good and dirty but Taichi is really nasty in this match but GOD are consistently great. Their teamwork is second to only a few other tag teams. They are real strong here folks, lots of big combination moves from GOD. ZSJ is aggro as FUCK in this match, he really is managing GOD by himself most of the match on his own... cause Taichi SUCKS.

Favorite parts, ZSJ catches Tama Tonga by the leg mid air and rolls him up with his arm crossed head on the mat pin for 2. 

ZSJ SCREAMING “FUCK IT IT’S THE TOKYO DOME!” Before getting Taichi to Superplex him and Tonga Loa to the mat lol

GOD beats Dangerous Tekkers cause DUH 7 TIME 7 TIME 7 TIME!

3/5 It’s a good match and GOD won but like kind of a shit end no?

KENTA(US Champ Challenger) vs Satoshi Kojima

We start with Moxley giving a VERY intimidating promo threatening violence, as always. Kojima comes in, normal. Very bread dad. Very good. Kenta on the other hand... walks in with a damn Florida Bullet Club shirt.... ew. But the briefcase is still cool. Rocky says that the briefcase is essentially a championship which I agree with. He’s defended it and kept it right with him. It is VALUABLE.

Ok let’s get started. Kojima is out the gate strong but Kenta doesn’t want it, Kenta tells the ref to chill him out, Kenta is not impressed and Kojima is EAGER. They skirt each other for awhile until Kenta! leaves the ring. He goes to start shit with Tenzan but as soon as he get sin the ring Kojima immediately stomps him. Kojima locks in a headlock that Kenta struggles to get out of. 

Kojima sends Kenta to the outside and flexes those pecs for the crowd, they love him. Again Kenta picks on Tenzan but Kojima comes outside and Kenta throws Kojima into Tenzan then DDTs Kojima onto the floor! Kenta gets him in the ring and gets a 2 count. Another 2 count from Kenta. Kenta tortures Kojima on the ground with a leg scissor headlock but Kojima gets the ropes and Kenta needs tp be unfolded. Kenta kicks the head of Kojima, taunting him. Kojima gets up and they exchange big strikes until Kenta kicks him across the chest and brings him down. 

Kojima gets up and hits the big Mongolian chops to bring Kenta down! Machine gun chops in the corner followed by Kenta with the repeated elbows! Kojima however takes to the top rope and Kenta goes up with him. Kenta tries for the super plex and absolutely gets it. Kojima tolls away but Kenta charges with a big elbow then heads up to the top trope and fives to Kojima for a 2 count! Kenta tries for the suplex on the apron to Kojima who reverses it into a DDT to Kenta on the apron which absolutely ragdolls Kenta.

Kojima and Kenta struggle in the ring but Kenta nails a deep DDT on Kojima followed by a series of stalled dropkicks to Kojima in the corner FOLLOWED by a diving knee from the top rope to Kojima aaaand a 2 count! Kenta picks him up and tries for GTS but Kojima fights back, Kojima hits a big lariat to Kenta’s arm and then follows with a neck breaker and he takes off the elbow pad! Kenta reverses with a power slam before Kojima can nail him though! Kenta grabs his briefcase but Kojima punches it outta his hand, and Kenta eats a big lariat for  a 2 count! Kojima hypes up the crowd and gets Kenta up misses the lariat and Kenta hits a psycho knee to take Kojima down. What a great fucking pace here folks! Kojima fights Kenta with big elbows and strikes and Kenta goes down. Kenta gets up and hits a series of palm strikes followed by another psycho knee for a 2 count. Kenta sets up the GTS and LANDS IT! That’s all folks!

4/5 what a fucking solid match from Kojima here! Was NOT expecting that at all honestly. This was a great match and Kojima looks strong but Kenta proved even stronger as he had a lot more at stake. Great match. 

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Great O-Khan

Not totally interested in this one but if Tana is wrestling Great O Khan at Wrestle Kingdom he must be special right? The gear with Tana’s face on the mask is neat. I just don’t know how to feel about O Khans gear man, it’s so weird. Tana comes out as always looking like a bajillion bucks. Ok so they grapple for awhile and shift momentum till Tana is on the outside. Tana is trying to look weak here but it’s hard to go with it cause O Khan just doesn’t feel that dominating to me. O Khan takes him to the ramp and scoop slams him onto the ramp then leaves him outside for the count. O Khan has a chair in the ring and he’s patiently waiting for Tana who comes in at 18. O Khan gets Tana in a kneebar that Tana gets out of by grabbing the ropes. Tana gets a dragon screw in on O Khan. 

Tana leads with big elbow strikes and gets flung into the corner but he runs out full speed taking O Kahn down with 3 diving elbows in a row but his knees can’t take it. He scoop slams O Khan down and hits a somersault senton from the top rope for 2. O Khan catches Tana mid running dive and throws him face down on the mat. They trade big blows in the center of the ring back and forth until Tana hits a combo and O Khan follows with his own combo that ends in a kick that takes Tana down. Big mongolian chops from O Khan. He pushes Tana down. It’s supposed to be a big double handed thrust but I mean... it’s a push. O Khan picks Tana up and hits a weird STO for a 2 count. O Khan follows up with a gnarly knee bar but Tana gets the ropes. Tana comes back to great applause and blocks O Khans strikes followed by a twist and shout and a SLING BLADE!

Tana tries for the pin and gets 2. Tana get to the top rope and O Khan gets Tana’s face in the claw, followed up by a cobra twist! Tana tries to get to the rope but O Khan hits a big reverse suplex and a gets a 2 count. O Khan picks Tana up and hits another reverse suplex. O Khan grabs the chair and lays it down on the mat, O Khan locks the claw but Tana twist him outta the way. Tana grabs the chair! Then gently tosses it out of the ring lol BIG DRAGON SUPLEX FOR 2 from Tana who heads to the top rope and hits a high fly flow but doesn’t cover! He goes for another one that gets him the 3 count.

2/5 I mean... what did you expect? I feel bad for O Khan. Idk why he was brought in here but if they intended to make him look like a threat I just wasn’t buying it. Kinda wish I hadn’t done this whole write up for this honestly???

Ok that’s it for these matches, I went long on the Okada v. Ospreay match so that will be a seperate post! Same for the title match!

[hazyheel]

NJPW Best of the Super Juniors 2019 Day 10 Review.

Before the start of the review, I should acknowledge that TAKA Michinoku has been forced to withdraw from the tournament due to a foot injury on Day 9. So, I don’t want to just give everyone a bunch of point for the matches that he was forced to forfeit, so I will be increasing the points for the wrestlers that were supposed to go against him on the night. So, we start out of Dragon Lee moving up to 10.

First match of the night was Ryusuke Taguchi against Ren Narita. Narita refused to start with the double fist bump, and quickly took Taguchi to the mat. There was a lot of fundamental wrestling in the early going, and it was super cool to see Taguchi taking this match seriously. It took a long time to actually get into striking territory, where Narita just got too frustrated and beat him down. Of course, this gave Taguchi some time to fight back. They exchanged counters in holds, transitioning from ankle lock to sharpshooter over and over. Taguchi was able to get the win with a long ankle lock, but Narita lasted a long time in the hold. Ryusuke Taguchi: 10, Narita: 0.

Grade: B-. Good match with solid fundamental and technical wrestling. Narita seems to be experimenting with different styles, and it seems like he does well with both hard hitting action and slow technical wrestling. He seems like he will be a good wrestler, we just have to see if he gets over.

Next we had Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Jonathan Gresham. Gresham locked up Kanemaru by the neck and just refused to let go. He really tried to keep the wrestling on the mat, but Kanemaru was able to get strikes in here and there. Gresham focused on the arm as he normally does. They did the classic rolling around for the pin spot, but they did it for a really long time. Gresham had an awesome german suplex for a near fall. Kanemaru followed that up with a ref bump, and then swung the whiskey bottle at him. Gresham dodged it and locked in an octopus with the bottle still in Kanemaru’s hand, and he got the win. Gresham: 8, Kanemaru: 4.

Grade: B-. Good match, I liked the rollup sequences, and Gresham seems to really be feeling himself. I just love seeing Kanemaru lose, and Gresham gave me what I wanted. He really is the heel master. 

Then we had DOUKi vs. Rocky Romero. Rocky was coming off of his huge win against El Phantasmo. Douki started before the bell by attacking while Rocky was posing. Douki worked over Rocky’s knee that had been injured during the whole tournament. Douki exposed a turnbuckle, and continued to beat Rocky down, only for Rocky to jam him into the ringpost. Rocky hit his classic tornado DDT, followed by a falcon arrow into the armbar for a submission sequence. Douki hit a cool move where Rocky was in the gory special, and Douki dropped him straight on his knees. However, Rocky was able to fight back into it, and locked in an armbar for the win. Rocky: 6, Douki: 2. 

Grade: B. This was one of Douki’s better matches. He actually wrestled here, and shows that he has talent, he just isn’t really connecting. People wanted El Desperado, and he is just discount El Desperado. But this was pretty good, happy to see Rocky get another win and bring his total up. 

Into Marty Scurll vs. Titan. Scurll tried to keep things traditional, but Titan was able to use some very interesting offense to keep things in his favor, and he certainly had the advantage when they were going fast. Brodie King got a little involved by grabbing Titan’s foot, so Titan hit him with a big splash. Scurll went for the mask a little bit, getting inside Titan’s head. Titan was going super fast though, hitting thrust kicks and huge dropkicks, Scurll didn’t know what to do. He hit a package piledriver for a near fall, and eventually was able to hit the Black Plague for a near fall. Scurll: 8, Titan: 4.

Grade: B+. Another very good match. Titan really picked it up a lot, creating an interesting show where he took down Scurll with interesting technicality. His speed was super fast, and he was looking really good. Scurll was just able to get an interesting win here, a bit out of nowhere. However, Scurll should be booked strong as one of Ring of Honor’s top guys, so I get why they did that. Good stuff here.

Next up, Bandido vs. BUSHI in a battle of the Luchadores. Bushi actually offered a handshake, but quickly dropped the facade, and they started going fast and furious. At one point, Bandido went for a splash in the corner, and Bushi just stuck his feed out to intercept him. Bandido played to his advantages, and that was his strength game. Bushi was able to counter a 21 plex, sending Bandido through the ropes to hit his spike DDT and a fisherman neckbreaker for a near fall. At one point, Bushi hit a destroyer, and Bandido sold it crazy well, doing a headstand for a couple seconds, but just another near fall. Bushi then hit the MX for the shock win. Bushi: 8, Bandido: 6. 

Grade: B. Bandido’s selling made this match really good. He put over Bushi big right here. Bushi has been impressing me the entire tournament, but I never saw him as a top guy in the junior division. But if that is what they are building him to become, then I am all for it. Good match, good selling from Bandido and good offense from Bushi.

Then we had Shingo Takagi vs. Tiger Mask IV. Tiger Mask was being evasive throughout the match, because almost any strike was taking him to the ground. However, Tiger Mask used that to his advantage to try to pull Takagi into submission on the ground. Takagi wanted to take the match to the outside, but Tiger Mask refused, so Takagi destroyed the knee on the inside. Tiger Mask was actually able to hit the suplex off the top after a little bit of a struggle, but once again only a near fall.  He then hit a tiger driver for a near fall, reversing the kickout into an armbar, only to be powerbombed for his troubles. Tiger Mask even countered a pumping bomber into a crucifix bomb, and then reversed the kickout into a stretching armbar. Takagi hit several pumping bombers for some near falls, followed by Last of the Dragons for the win. Takagi: 14, Tiger Mask: 4.

Grade: B. Before this match, I really didn’t buy that Tiger Mask could even come close to winning, and by the end I thought he really good and might take it. Of course, he did not, but he put up a hell of a fight, and it was a good match. I like to see Tiger Mask still fighting, no matter how old he is.

Into El Phantasmo vs. YOH. Phantasmo was super pissed about his loss from the previous show, and Yoh is obviously friends with Rocky, so Phantasmo can now get a measure of revenge. Phantasmo attacked before the bell, and beat Yoh with just about everything he could. He threw the barricade on him, hit him with a shoe and threw him far into the crowd. Yoh tried to get a flash pin for the win. Phantasmo was beating down his opponent, and then disrespecting anyone that he could. He got mega heat from the crowd for everything he was doing, and getting boos from everyone. At one point, Phantasmo shoved Yoh into the ref, and grabbed his British Cruiserweight championship, but Phantasmo got caught. Phantasmo argued with Red Shoes, and Yoh rolled him up for another huge upset. Yoh: 8, Phantasmo: 10.

Grade: C+. I wasn’t a huge fan of this match, it felt a little slow. It lacked the fire from Phantasmo, who didn’t seem as pissed abut his previous loss as his pre match attack seemed like it would. They didn’t work super well together, but their Raw skill helped them out quite a bit.

Next up was Will Ospreay vs. Robbie Eagles. Ospreay was super fired up for this match, because he could take the lead in the block at this point. Before the match, Eagles threw a Japanese flag patch at Ospreay, on that Ospreay gave him after a match between them in Australia. Ospreay wanted the handshake, but Eagles refused it. Ospreay gave Eagles a lot of respect during the match, and though not as much, Eagles reciprocated it. They quickly started flying around the ring as fast as anyone had before them. Eagles was trying to prove himself with his match, trying to climb out of Ospreay’s shadow, flipping around in the same way that Ospreay used to when he was a true junior heavyweight. Eagles softened up Ospreay’s leg, limiting his speed and making it easier for his submission. The two exchanged strikes at an incredibly fast rate, and Eagles finished it off with a splash to Ospreay as he ran the ropes, sending them both tumbling to the floor, followed by sliced bread on the apron. Ospreay nearly got counted out, but Ospreay made it back, only to hit a springboard 450 spike rana for a near fall. Ospreay had Eagles on his knees, and was unsure about hitting the hidden blade, and Eagles collapsed as he was about to go for it. Right then, El Phantasmo ran out to be in Eagles’ corner, and Eagles was able to lock in a Ron Miller Special. Eagles went for a springboard dropkick, but Ospreay countered by dropkicking him out of the air. The two then battled on the top rope, and Eagles hit a rana off the top, but Ospreay landed on his feet, hurting his knee, only for Eagles to hit the springboard dropkick to the knee. The two desperately tried to hit their biggest moves, and Ospreay wanted to protect his knee. At one point, Eagles tried to hit a spanish fly, but Ospreay held his ground and countered it into a powerbomb for a near fall. Phantasmo tried to run interference, but Ospreay kicked him off the apron. Eagles then countered a shooting star press with the knees for a near fall, and the kickout gave the ref a bump. While the ref was down, Phantasmo nailed Ospreay in the knee with a chair, which allowed Eagles to hit the 450 on the leg and lock in the Ron Miller Special for the win. Eagles: 10, Ospreay: 10. After the match, Eagles seemed a bit upset about the intererence, and he walked out on his cohort. 

Grade: A-. Big win for Eagles, and that gives B block an interesting story of 4 top guys. The match itself told an awesome story of mentor vs. student, and a student that had gone astray as well. They flew around incredibly fast, harkening to the matches of old from Ospreay. Eagles really impressed here, and both of their selling was awesome. I’d love to see another match between the two, a more fair match. I didn’t mind the interference, I think it made sense. I also think that it is only a matter of time before Eagles leaves Bullet Club, because he just doesn’t seem to agree with the kind of stuff that they do. I don’t know if that will lead to a match against Phantasmo or Ishimori, but either would be great. Match of the night right here. 

And the main event, we had SHO vs. Taiji Ishimori.  Sho targetted the arm during this match, wanting the armbar submission later on it the match. Ishimori had a speed advantage here and stay on his opponent to overwhelm him, but Sho was trying to overpower Ishimori. The clash of styles was interesting and entertaining. At one point, Sho copied a spot of his tag partner, missing a dragon suplex so going for a german instead. Sho was able to hit Shock Arrow, but only for a near fall. In the ring, ishimori was able to tie Sho up in a series of submissions that seemed like would never end. In the finish, Ishimori flipped out of a shock arrow and nailed a bloody cross for the win. Ishimori: 12, Sho: 6

Grade: B+. This match was really good, but it didn’t quite have the urgency to be great. They beat each other with their best moves that they had, and you could feel the desperation from Ishimori. They had a lot of good back and forth, and I loved the counters out of the shock arrow, and it was just really good to watch. Sho and Ishimori know exactly how to deliver, and that they did in the main event. 

Losses: Dragon Lee

Overall Grade: B

Pros: Douki vs. Rocky; Scurll vs. Titan; Bandido vs. Bushi; Ospreay vs. Eagles; sho vs. ishimori

Cons: phantasmo vs. yoh

[danwhobrowses]

NXT Takeover: Stand and Deliver Day 1 - Review

It is Wrestlemania Week, and every company wants their shot

but alas, I can only do so much, so we’re gonna be sticking with Mania and Stand & Deliver for now. I do also have some other WWE post-mania stuff planned which I’ll also do for AEW Double or Nothing in May

but in spite of Dynamite still doing a decent ‘not gonna try to top it’ show, the night belongs to NXT so let’s get into it

Spoilers for Stand & Deliver Day 1, you have been warned

Pre Show I had to add this in because Sam Roberts really laid in thick the bravado, NXT is great but chill man. Seeing Io and Raquel enter the building was a good touch though. The Samoa Joe interviews were good too but damn I miss this man in the ring, it kinda threw me how well-spoken WALTER is, he’s kinda giving me the same vibe as Daniel Bruhl’s Zemo currently is in Falcon & The Winter Soldier, also interviewing Io proves that if the company’s hot on you promo game isn’t necessary to be a great champion, also Io has put Rey over more than the main roster has in the last 3 years. The shoehorned Prince Harry comment was not needed that’s not gonna get a pop but mercifully we moved on to other interviews, LA Knight still does a great promo and hearing that Mickie James will be on commentary for the pre-show match was interesting.

Zoey Stark def. Toni Storm (Pinfall via Inside Cradle) Zoey Stark has been making quite some noise since her NXT Debut, similar to Utami Hayashishita’s start in Stardom and Leyla Hirsch in AEW it was mainly revolving around Zoey getting over even in defeat to big names. She started fairly even with Toni Storm with some solid chain wrestling, Toni was able to keep Stark grounded with submissions, which worked well for Zoey to feed off the babyface comeback, landing a big superplex. A flurry of an exploder and running knee hit two but then Toni came back with an electric chair facebuster, Toni tried Storm Zero but failed, so went for the Germans, tried the Storm Zero again but Stark counters it into a cradle for 3. It was a decent pre-show match, Stark gets a rub from winning but I get the feeling the rub should be bigger, Toni Storm is still good but her stock has dropped since her heel turn designed merely to lose to Io, the match finished a bit abruptly too.

Main Card Nita Strauss then guitars the anthem, ‘Merica and stuff on a PPV themed around Pirate and Highwayman motifs, as well as an Adam Ant song. The Skull is awesome though.

Pete Dunne def. KUSHIDA (Pinfall via Bitter End) Technical masterclass would of course be an understatement for this match. A minute in it was quickfire joint manipulation and reversals. Dunne took the early advantage after catching KUSHIDA and landing an X-Plex onto the apron, the injured arm didn’t slow KUSHIDA too much who did the handspring elbow and the Muta pele kick on the ramp. Dunne tried for the Kimura and the Bitter End but KUSHIDA escaped twice over, the latter catching a Back to the Future (small package driver). Dunne resumed control though in handling the arm, it might just be me but the audio was cutting out at this point. Cross Armbreakers traded and escaped as the arm began to slowly come into play, but KUSHIDA started handling Dunne’s arm too, a Top Turnbuckle Hoverboard Lock Spanish Fly also led to an armbreaker escaped by the ropes, another Hoverboard lock almost led to a pin. Dunne manipulates the digits of the other hand, which hurts KUSHIDA’s punch attempt, stomps on both hands twice over and then a Bitter End finishes the night.

That did not feel like 10 minutes, it was a great and well-paced match, wish it went longer. I anticipated that Dunne would win but one has to worry for KUSHIDA, even on his best WWE run he’s not able to win a feud, he didn’t leave NJPW for that.

Bronson Reed wins the Eliminator Gauntlet (Pinfall via Tsunami Splash on Isaiah ‘Swerve’ Scott) At first I thought Leon Ruff had botched his entrance until Swerve showed up, looking far different to the Killshot of Lucha Underground. Before the bell rang Ruff got hit into the barricade a lot and then an ad!? Dude, come on, the bell rings and they’re outside the ring again... Of course, it’s hard to start a pace for a Gauntlet, Ruff hit a lovely twisting Cutter as commentary ignored how his NA Title win was mainly a segue in the Gargano/Priest feud, a super frankensteiner was the big move before the next man came in: Bronson Reed. Ruff’s dive is caught and thrown back in the ring, Swerve planted with a combo suplex/crossbody before Ruff foolishly tried to attack Reed again, getting sat on a few times before Reed german’d Ruff and Swerve at the same time. Grimes came in next, delaying his entrance to distract Reed and land a moonsault, he bribes Swerve for a partnership which works for a decent while, Ruff got a big ouch suplex on the turnbuckle pads after some very slippery escapes. The arrival of Dexter Lumis involved super creepy eyes inside the Skull model but we missed most of Swerve finishing off Ruff. Lumis cleaned house until Reed recovered from the ramp DDT, Lumis even lifting Reed on the second time of asking before another big ouch ring-out with Grimes. LA Knight was last, his diss promos not as good as his earlier promo as Reed cut him off short and cleaned up house himself. Knight does get a good spur including a quickfire superplex but pauses when Lumis shows up, Grimes’ cheap shot misses and the Silence is locked in, but Knight rolls him for 3. Bit deflating that really, Lumis was the only one with story against Gargano and he kinda got chump pinned because he didn’t wanna release his finisher. Knight fell quickly after though, Grimes and Reed teaming up to end him, Lumis then locking the Silence onto him - probably setting up a feud there.

The final three ended all chance of alliances, Reed comically flattening both men when after a delayed fall from a superkick. Grimes and Swerve both try a handful of tights to pin each other, but Swerve’s one pays off. Swerve also powerslams Reed onto the apron and then hits a 450 for 2, two House Calls don’t drop Reed, a third gets 2, but a slap wakes Reed up. Powerbomb, Beach Break (idk the technical name) and Tsunami Splash for 3.

Liked the match, Reed is a worthy winner but I just wish they dealt with Lumis and Grimes better, Gargano came out the ramp to stare down his opponent and we moved on to the next.

NXT UK Championship: WALTER (c) def. Tomasso Ciampa (Pinfall via Knife Edged Chop) Reminder that the UK title is WWE’s best looking active belt because good god it’s glorious.Ciampa stayed on the turnbuckle to stare down WALTER, completely unafraid of the mountain he faces. They lock up but WALTER uses his muscle, looking for those monster chops, one on the turnbuckle preludes a messy drop for Ciampa, Walter’s hand is injured though by the chop of the announce table gimmick breaking, Ciampa works on it but the champion’s big boot earns a reprieve, his submission attempts are futile with the injured hand though so he applies his power and weight to keep on top. A flurry of lariats finally chops WALTER down for an Air Raid Crash, but it’s only for a 2. WALTER northern lights reversal’s a Fairytale Ending for 2 but could not escape the second, still a 2 count though. WALTER’s submission attempts neutralized by the fingers again as Ciampa continues to lay into WALTER’s hands and head, an Avalanche Air Raid Crash then hits for 2 as well, Ciampa at a loss for what he can do, opting to throw his own blistering chops, WALTER gets nasty with a neck twist and two powerbombs but it’s 2 again, Sleeper Exploder and one massive chop gets the 3.

I had heard great things from this match, and it was very well done narratively and physically, but a chop as the finish? Dunno, Ciampa had already taken chops, 2 powerbombs in succession and yet what ends it is a chop from an injured hand? Feel like it could’ve ended more emphatically.

No Thatcher present either, instead we get a Franky Monet (Taya Valkyrie) promo and a Reed/Gargano backstage argument.

NXT Tag Championship: MSK def. Grizzled Young Veterans & Legando del Fantasma (Pinfall by Wes Lee on Zack Gibson via combo Spinebuster/Spinning Blockbuster) Another ad break during LDF’s entrance was disrespectful, the mask was awesome though. Gibson likely not in the best of moods with Liverpool’s 3-1 defeat to Real Madrid in the Champion’s League first leg but he still flies the colors. LDF control the match at the start with tag offence, Gibson going for MSK off the bat until LDF get in the way. Drake and Carter get some time in the ring but Lee remains on the apron awaiting the hot tag, after a dive LDF comes back to do a dual dive themselves, double Coast to Coast on Carter is broken by Gibson who gets dumped out by the duo and another commercial break (wtf come on!). LDF were getting some great combo moves and rotating in quick tags as Carter continues to be the feeder, Drake almost catches Wilde with a roll up though and Lee gets another hot tag, first clear the ring, then out the ring to Gibson, then to LDF, somersault Pele Kick, combo move for 2. Gibson and Drake almost catch Carter with a Doomsday Device on the outside but Lee nails Drake with a knee, GYV neutralize Lee by hurting the hand as well, Carter holding Lee’s hand to prevent a tap as LDF come back in. They clear the ring, hit the combo move but it’s 2! GYV and MSK take out LDF leaving the two left to fight, a double cutter by Carter takes Drake out of the ring, leading to MSK finishing Gibson with a twisted blockbuster/spinebuster combo. Very much earned for the new champions, exciting match, LDF got a lot of shine too I hope they win the titles later down the line.

NXT Women’s Championship: Raquel Gonzalez def. Io Shirai (c) (pinfall via One-Arm Powerbomb TITLE CHANGE) If Raquel Gonzalez doesn’t win rookie of the year for 2021 it’ll be a travesty, her current run has been built amazingly. Before we started though we see Steph in the crowd with Sarray (Sendai Girls and SEADLINNG’s Sareee). The tunnel cam of the two competitors and the names on the LEDs sold the huge Main Event feel of this match. Side note though, while NXT does tout the most stacked Women’s Division out of the major wrestling companies they shouldn’t peacock themselves, most of their talent are ready made acquisitions with a few like Ripley, Belair and Gonzalez who gritted to the top, just because your division is stacked doesn’t mean that there aren’t cracks, and let’s not forget that ROH barely has a women’s division and NJPW doesn’t have a division at all, if we’re comparing the actual competition Stardom still gives WWE a run for their money having made their stars in Natsupoi, Guilia, Utami, Konami, AZM, Tam Nakano and others.

The match kicks off with a flurry, picking up where they left off last NXT of Gonzalez just boomeranging Io with her size and strength and Io flying back with vigor and athleticism. The champion takes control with a dive out the ring but Dakota rakes her eyes, leading to Dakota being kicked out of ringside immediately. Io hits the apron moonsault but Gonzalez lawn darts her into the ring post, a lovely Dominator-esque move with extra flip brings the advantage fully in the hands of the challenger. Io uses her flexibility to frustrate Raquel and hits a picture perfect hurricanrana, misses the 619 but arm drags into another 619, Yoshi Tonic for 2, tries for the Moonsault but Raquel sets up the One Arm Powerbomb, Io wriggles it into a crossface which is ended by a rope break, Moonsault on the ramp and then a running meteora leads to Io doing the ‘jump off the NXT arena prop), after slowly rolling Raquel into the ring it’s the Moonsault, but it only gets 2! Raquel flattens Io with the One Arm Powerbomb outside of the ring, rolls Io in with some trash talk, Shotei is responded with a Lariat, One Arm Powerbomb and that’s 3!

That was a solid main event, recurring problem though: it was too short! That match went under 15 minutes and while it was jam packed with high spots and power moves we could’ve had more time with Raquel’s crowning moment. I feel like Io could’ve resisted more offence seeing as her Skull crossbody and Moonsault should even out Raquel’s two One Arm Powerbombs. Also they overdid the smoke on her celebration we could barely see her. That being said, this was definitely a worthy usurper to Shirai, Gonzalez at the top of the division will be an interesting new landscape after a year of Shirai as champion. She’s had a good run, I do wish it didn’t involve the Charlotte skulfuckery at the start but she has done well to keep on top of the division during the COVID era and she’s done a good job in making sure the next champion is over.

Conclusion Good wrestling is all you need, and NXT Stand and Deliver stood and delivered strongly on Night 1, there is of course room to top it but that may be the intention. Do wish that some matches went longer but I’m not mad at all with who won, so once more a job well done as NXT end their Wednesday Night Campaign on a high.

[vishers]

Using `mkvtoolnix` and `GNU Parallel` to Whip Some .ASS

I recently needed to work some mkvmerge=/=mkvpropedit magic for some anime. It's been a long time since the days when I started watching Bleach with my friends by sshing to one laptop from another and using mplayer in a terminal to play the show and the state of mkv support has come a very long way since then.

These days I prefer playing all my media through Plex which is just hard to describe in all its towering greatness. The show that I wanted to watch though had its ASS subtitles and accompanying fonts broken out from it's MKV files for reasons unknown to me. Because of this and the amazing malleability of MKV I decided to roll up my sleeves and fix the problem myself.

shopt -s extglob parallel -q --tagstring {/.} --line-buffer mkvmerge \ -o {.}_merged.mkv {} --language 0:eng {.}.en.ass \ --attachment-description '' \ --attachment-mime-type application/x-truetype-font \ --attach-file {//}/'fonts/A-OTF-FutoMinA101Pro-Bold.otf' \ … 147 similar lines … ::: Season*/!(*_merged).mkv

The main reasons I'm writing this up at all are several fold:

Often times what I'm doing with GNU Parallel is complex enough that it warrants an actual shell function or script or it's so simple that it more or less amounts to slapping one of the arguments onto the end. Because of this I've rarely explored parallel's native expansion support which this task gave me an opportunity to do.

The task was complex enough also that I learned about parallel's double expansion which I'm sure has been the source of many frustrating missteps in the past now that I know it's there. Essentially bash will process the arguments to parallel first obeying all the normal rules and then pass them to the exec of parallel, then parallel will pass them again to a subshell which will parse them again through all the normal rules. Keeping this all straight in your head is not easy but I think the essential rule is probably something like "If you actually notice the double expansion you should write a function/script for the behavior and otherwise you should probably be running with -q" or something similar but better worded than that.

It's fun to mess with mkv files. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

To review the script:

We're setting extglob because we want to be able to process only mkv files that haven't been _merged yet.

We're invoking parallel with -q because we don't want the subshell to word split our carefully constructed arguments again.

We're using --tagstring {/.} --line-buffer because we want to see our job output live so we know it's working (it takes a bit to make these changes to the matroska files). It's not directly documented AFAICT that --tagstring supports GNU Parallel expansion but I took a chance on it and was pleasantly surprised. This particular expansion is the basename-sans-extension version which seemed like a sensical tag for the logged lines.

This feature alone is worth using parallel for when you're really doing complex parallel work. It's a really efficient way to provide active log lines that are still comprehensible later on. --line-buffer just makes sure that you always get a full line from a job rather than the lines from the various jobs mixing mid-line.

-o {.}_merged.mkv is a nice way to express the bash-ism of ${x%.*}_merged.mkv.

--language 0:eng {.}.en.ass is a bit speculative as it's what I think I should have run but I didn't initially since I was working off an example that didn't include it. Nevertheless I think I'm interpreting the docs correctly. Originally I just didn't include the --language 0:eng bit so the subtitles were attached as an unknown language and I had to then go back through and correct that with an mkvpropedit run.

Then I used a bit of Emacs Keyboard Macro magic to transform the Dired fonts buffer into a series of attachment arguments so that the ASS subtitle track could be properly rendered. The parallel expansion there of {//} was also something I hadn't seen before and is how I managed to get away with this from the root of the seasons directory rather than needing to process the seasons one at a time. That one specifically expands to the dirname of the input line or as a bash-ism ${d%/*}.

Finally we're taking arguments from the extglob that matches all the Seasons mkv files excluding the _merged files which you can see are what the parallel tasks are actually producing.

With all this I was able to completely saturate my wired connection to my Synology and efficiently process the entire show. I love the smell of burning silicon in the morning.

I hope this little foray into parallel/mkvtoolnix land teaches you something like it taught me.

Happy scripting!

[lady-divine-writes]

Kurtbastian one-shot - “Not It” (Rated G)

Now that Blaine is living at Sebastian's house, he decides to become a member of Westerville Ice-plex's junior coaching team. On his first day as a coach, he discovers he has a lot to learn. (1036 words)

Part 30 of Outside Edge

Read on AO3

“Well, well, well … look who we have here?”

Their conversation interrupted by that remark, Kurt turns away from his boyfriend and in the direction Sebastian’s looking to see what’s suddenly grabbed his attention. Kurt smiles immediately when Blaine swivels to a stop beside him, dressed in a puffy, bright blue, ankle length, Westerville Ice-plex coach’s coat, so new that it still smells like the plastic it was packaged in.

“Hey!” Kurt greets him with open arms and a big hug, then proceeds to skate a slow circle around his friend, appraising him up and down. “Wow! You look pretty snazzy in your new coat!”

“Do I?” Blaine blushes at Kurt’s praise as he self-consciously tugs at the seams. His new coat fits him the way that style of coat fits the rest of the coaches, regardless of body type – like a cone, cinched at the neck, becoming gradually larger on the way down, then flared out at the hem, which is why most of the coach’s dress in layers and keep their coats unzipped.

Blaine has yet to get that memo. With his head peeking out above the collar and his arms hanging at his sides, he looks like a toddler wearing his first ever snowsuit. Kurt pictures him falling on his back, then flailing back and forth on the ice like a flipped turtle, unable to get back to his feet again without help. He bites his lower lip to keep from laughing out loud.

“Absolutely.” Kurt subtly helps him out by pulling down the zip half way, then giving him a wink so he doesn’t feel embarrassed for not knowing. “In fact, I think Sebastian may have some competition now with you around.”

“Competition?” Blaine peeks over Kurt’s shoulder in time to see Sebastian roll his eyes.

“For the coach that the pre-teen girls will fight tooth and nail to impress,” Chandler explains, tickled pink at having this opportunity to send a few subtle jabs in Sebastian’s direction.

“Yup,” Kurt agrees, if for no other reason than to re-direct his boyfriend’s laser eyes away from his giggling friend. “I predict you’re going to have your fill of nine- to sixteen-year-olds begging you to help them with their Chinese spirals.”

“You … you make that sound kind of dirty,” Blaine says as Kurt finishes adjusting his collar, finally succeeding in flattening a corner that was reluctant to do anything but curl into Blaine’s cheek.

Creeping up behind his boyfriend, Sebastian smirks. “Just wait.”

“Okay, guys!” Jane skates their way, holding a clipboard in her hands high for everyone to see. “We’ve got three workshops this morning, but since I know you’ve all only got one on your minds this morning, we’ll get that one out of the way …”

“Not it!” Kurt says before she’s even finished, putting his finger on his nose. Blaine’s eyebrows shoot straight up, not necessarily at the comment, or the fact that Kurt so emphatically barked it in his face, but at the gesture, the tip of his index finger resting on the bridge of his nose, apparently meant to solidify his stance over whatever it is.

“Not it!” Sebastian follows.

“Not it!”

“Not it!”

“Not it!”

“And that means you’re it, new guy,” Jane announces, bumping Blaine with her hip. “My condolences.” Blaine looks at the other coaches in front of him with their fingers on their noses to indicate that, whatever is going on, they are not it – Jane (whom he’d just met a few weeks ago, but whose wit and humor he was quickly becoming fond of), Mason (the twin brother of one of the ice dancing coaches, the pair of them so optimistic and plucky all of the time, Blaine is convinced they have to be cheerleaders), Chandler (who, as far as Blaine can tell, is Sebastian’s arch-nemesis), Kurt, and Sebastian – with a confused and (frankly) frightened look in contrast to the grins on their faces. He feels a little bit like a lamb surrounded by wolves, ripe for the slaughter.

“Wh-what do you mean – I’m it?” Blaine asks, looking to his best friend for help in this situation.

“You, my lucky friend, are going to be teaching Moves in the Field today,” Jane explains. “Novice six thru twelve.”

“Oh!” Blaine sighs in relief. “Well, that sounds like fun. What are they working on?”

“Twizzles,” Kurt says, looking mildly guilty.

“Pft!” Blaine says with a wave of his hand. “Those are easy! You guys had me worried for a second!”

“A-ha. Do you remember when you started learning Twizzles?” Sebastian asks, wrapping his arms around Kurt and hugging him from behind.

“Yeah!” Blaine laughs thinking back on it. “Oh God! I got so nauseous, I almost ralphed! Oh, I remember this one kid in my class actually did …” Blaine stops, his eyes going wide. “Oh ...”

“Uh, yeah.” Sebastian takes the clipboard from Jane and holds it so that Kurt can sign them up for their respective workshops.

“Don’t let them scare you, Blaine. It’s not that bad,” Chandler says, patting Blaine on the shoulder as he reaches for the clipboard. “You have a 50/50 chance that no one’s going to actually lose their lunch.”

“Though, there are about twenty-five kids signed up for that workshop this time,” Mason mentions. “And it’s after lunch. The odds are someone’s going to toss their pizza.”

“Just keep your eyes peeled for the telltale signs,” Jane suggests.

“Hand over mouth,” Sebastian says.

“Lips clamped shut and face turning green,” Kurt adds.

“Shifty eyes,” Chandler says, giving a brief demonstration. “If you notice any of that, keep your distance and you should be fine. Oh, and grab a towel.”

“For … for what?” Blaine asks, watching the coaches disperse, heading off to their respective areas of the rink.

“For the ice,” Mason calls over his shoulder. “If someone pukes, you’re gonna have to clean it up.”

“Eww!”

“Oh, and Blainers?”

“Yeah?” Blaine turns to Sebastian standing beside him with a mixture of pity and amusement curling the corners of his mouth.

“Lesson number one on the way things work around here - the next time someone yells not it, don’t wait for an explanation. Just say not it.”

[un-enfant-immature]

Plex launches a free, ad-supported streaming service in over 200 countries

Plex today is launching its own ad-supported streaming service, a rival to The Roku Channel, Tubi, Crackle, Vudu’s Movies on Us, and others that offer a way to stream movies and TV for free without a subscription. The service will feature several thousand movies and shows from studios like MGM, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, Lionsgate, and Legendary — deals which were previously announced leading up to today’s launch.

Though there are plenty of similar offerings on the market, what makes Plex’s new streaming service unique is its broad availability. Unlike many competitors, Plex has structured its deals in order to stream content outside the U.S. Plex told TechCrunch the majority of its content will stream in some 220 countries worldwide. This immediately makes it the largest ad-supported video service, in terms of reach — if you’re not counting platforms for user-generated video, like YouTube.

Like other free streaming services, Plex’s free content won’t require a subscription or any other commitments, but will instead be fully supported by ads.

Today, the service will feature both pre-roll ads and traditional ad breaks, but Plex promises an ad load that’s 50%-60% less than what you’d otherwise find on broadcast television. Currently, Plex is leveraging ad network partnerships to sell these ads, but says it may move into direct sales in 2020.

The service itself lives right within Plex’s media organization software. This app has evolved over the years to become more than just a DIY media player for home media. Today, Plex organizes your own media collections alongside podcasts, web shows, streaming news, and music courtesy of a TIDAL partnership. The free, ad-supported content will now appear on the Plex sidebar under a new “Movies & TV” heading.

In this section, the content is organized in a somewhat Netflix-style layout with image thumbnails for easy browsing and hubs for finding popular, trending or genre-specific content, for example.

Plex has also introduced several editorially curated hubs as well as those personalized to the user, based on their cross-platform, cross-content watch history.

In total, there are around 70 different hubs that could potentially show up here, Plex says.

Meanwhile, clicking through to each title will show you details like genre, rating, year, length, description and even critic scores and audience ratings from Rotten Tomatoes, among other metadata. The titles will stream in 1080p and you can mark items as played, as you can with personal media.

Sample titles available at launch include a number of classics, cult classics, and even award winners, like Rain Main, The Terminator, Overboard, Frequency, Evil Dead (1 & 2), Teen Wolf, plus music concerts and documentaries featuring Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj, Deadmau5, and more.

The content is available across Plex platforms, including Roku, Apple TV, Android TV, smart TVs, Android and iOS mobile platforms, Xbox, PlayStation, Amazon Fire TV, and others.

“Plex was born out of a passion for media and entertainment, and offering free ad-supported premium movies and TV shows is just the latest step in our mission to bring all your favorite content together in one place,” said Keith Valory, CEO of Plex, in a statement. “What started more than a decade ago as a passion project to make accessing media on connected devices easier has evolved into the most comprehensive streaming platform in the industry, used by millions of people around the world,” he added.

TechCrunch first broke the news regarding Plex’s plans to enter the ad-supported movies market back in January, when it described a strategy similar to that of The Roku Channel.

Today, Plex has 15 million registered households using its service. Though the service is profitable, the percentage of customers who pay for its advanced features through a Plex Pass subscription is much smaller. That’s driven Plex to find new ways to generate revenue from its free users — and ad-supported content is an obvious choice, in that case.

[michaelandy101-blog]

Fifteen Years Is a Long Time in SEO

New Post has been published on https://tiptopreview.com/fifteen-years-is-a-long-time-in-seo/

Fifteen Years Is a Long Time in SEO

I’ve been in an introspective mood lately.

Earlier this year (15 years after starting Distilled in 2005), we spun out a new company called SearchPilot to focus on our SEO A/B testing and meta-CMS technology (previously known as Distilled ODN), and merged the consulting and conferences part of the business with Brainlabs.

I’m now CEO of SearchPilot (which is primarily owned by the shareholders of Distilled), and am also SEO Partner at Brainlabs, so… I’m sorry everyone, but I’m very much staying in the SEO industry.

As such, it feels a bit like the end of a chapter for me rather than the end of the book, but it has still had me looking back over what’s changed and what hasn’t over the last 15 years I’ve been in the industry.

I can’t lay claim to being one of the first generation of SEO experts, but having been building websites since around 1996 and having seen the growth of Google from the beginning, I feel like maybe I’m second generation, and maybe I have some interesting stories to share with those who are newer to the game.

I’ve racked my brain to try and remember what felt significant at the time, and also looked back over the big trends through my time in the industry, to put together what I think makes an interesting reading list that most people working on the web today would do well to know about.

The big eras of search

I joked at the beginning of a presentation I gave in 2018 that the big eras of search oscillated between directives from the search engines and search engines rapidly backing away from those directives when they saw what webmasters actually did:

While that slide was a bit tongue-in-cheek, I do think that there’s something to thinking about the eras like:

Build websites: Do you have a website? Would you like a website? It’s hard to believe now, but in the early days of the web, a lot of folks needed to be persuaded to get their business online at all.

Keywords: Basic information retrieval became adversarial information retrieval as webmasters realized that they could game the system with keyword stuffing, hidden text, and more.

Links: As the scale of the web grew beyond user-curated directories, link-based algorithms for search began to dominate.

Not those links: Link-based algorithms began to give way to adversarial link-based algorithms as webmasters swapped, bought, and manipulated links across the web graph.

Content for the long tail: Alongside this era, the length of the long tail began to be better-understood by both webmasters and by Google themselves — and it was in the interest of both parties to create massive amounts of (often obscure) content and get it indexed for when it was needed.

Not that content: Perhaps predictably (see the trend here?), the average quality of content returned in search results dropped dramatically, and so we see the first machine learning ranking factors in the form of attempts to assess “quality” (alongside relevance and website authority).

Machine learning: Arguably everything from that point onwards has been an adventure into machine learning and artificial intelligence, and has also taken place during the careers of most marketers working in SEO today. So, while I love writing about that stuff, I’ll return to it another day.

History of SEO: crucial moments

Although I’m sure that there are interesting stories to be told about the pre-Google era of SEO, I’m not the right person to tell them (if you have a great resource, please do drop it in the comments), so let’s start early in the Google journey:

Google’s foundational technology

Even if you’re coming into SEO in 2020, in a world of machine-learned ranking factors, I’d still recommend going back and reading the surprisingly accessible early academic work:

If you weren’t using the web back then, it’s probably hard to imagine what a step-change improvement Google’s PageRank-based algorithm was over the “state-of-the-art” at the time (and it’s hard to remember, even for those of us that were):

Google’s IPO

In more “things that are hard to remember clearly,” at the time of Google’s IPO in 2004, very few people expected Google to become one of the most profitable companies ever. In the early days, the founders had talked of their disdain for advertising, and had experimented with keyword-based adverts somewhat reluctantly. Because of this attitude, even within the company, most employees didn’t know what a rocket ship they were building.

From this era, I’d recommend reading the founders’ IPO letter (see this great article from Danny Sullivan — who’s ironically now @SearchLiaison at Google):

“Our search results are the best we know how to produce. They are unbiased and objective, and we do not accept payment for them or for inclusion or more frequent updating.”

“Because we do not charge merchants for inclusion in Froogle [now Google shopping], our users can browse product categories or conduct product searches with confidence that the results we provide are relevant and unbiased.” — S1 Filing

In addition, In the Plex is an enjoyable book published in 2011 by Steven Levy. It tells the story of what then-CEO Eric Schmidt called (around the time of the IPO) “the hiding strategy”:

“Those who knew the secret … were instructed quite firmly to keep their mouths shut about it.”

“What Google was hiding was how it had cracked the code to making money on the Internet.”

Luckily for Google, for users, and even for organic search marketers, it turned out that this wasn’t actually incompatible with their pure ideals from the pre-IPO days because, as Levy recounts, “in repeated tests, searchers were happier with pages with ads than those where they were suppressed”. Phew!

Index everything

In April 2003, Google acquired a company called Applied Semantics and set in motion a series of events that I think might be the most underrated part of Google’s history.

Applied Semantics technology was integrated with their own contextual ad technology to form what became AdSense. Although the revenue from AdSense has always been dwarfed by AdWords (now just “Google Ads”), its importance in the history of SEO is hard to understate.

By democratizing the monetization of content on the web and enabling everyone to get paid for producing obscure content, it funded the creation of absurd amounts of that content.

Most of this content would have never been seen if it weren’t for the existence of a search engine that excelled in its ability to deliver great results for long tail searches, even if those searches were incredibly infrequent or had never been seen before.

In this way, Google’s search engine (and search advertising business) formed a powerful flywheel with its AdSense business, enabling the funding of the content creation it needed to differentiate itself with the largest and most complete index of the web.

As with so many chapters in the story, though, it also created a monster in the form of low quality or even auto-generated content that would ultimately lead to PR crises and massive efforts to fix.

If you’re interested in the index everything era, you can read more of my thoughts about it in slide 47+ of From the Horse’s Mouth.

Web spam

The first forms of spam on the internet were various forms of messages, which hit the mainstream as email spam. During the early 2000s, Google started talking about the problem they’d ultimately term “web spam” (the earliest mention I’ve seen of link spam is in an Amit Singhal presentation from 2005 entitled Challenges in running a Commercial Web Search Engine [PDF]).

I suspect that even people who start in SEO today might’ve heard of Matt Cutts — the first head of webspam — as he’s still referenced often despite not having worked at Google since 2014. I enjoyed this 2015 presentation that talks about his career trajectory at Google.

Search quality era

Over time, as a result of the opposing nature of webmasters trying to make money versus Google (and others) trying to make the best search engine they could, pure web spam wasn’t the only quality problem Google was facing. The cat-and-mouse game of spotting manipulation — particularly of on-page content, external links, and anchor text) — would be a defining feature of the next decade-plus of search.

It was after Singhal’s presentation above that Eric Schmidt (then Google’s CEO) said, “Brands are the solution, not the problem… Brands are how you sort out the cesspool”.

Those who are newer to the industry will likely have experienced some Google updates (such as recent “core updates”) first-hand, and have quite likely heard of a few specific older updates. But “Vince”, which came after “Florida” (the first major confirmed Google update), and rolled out shortly after Schmidt’s pronouncements on brand, was a particularly notable one for favoring big brands. If you haven’t followed all the history, you can read up on key past updates here:

A real reputational threat

As I mentioned above in the AdSense section, there were strong incentives for webmasters to create tons of content, thus targeting the blossoming long tail of search. If you had a strong enough domain, Google would crawl and index immense numbers of pages, and for obscure enough queries, any matching content would potentially rank. This triggered the rapid growth of so-called “content farms” that mined keyword data from anywhere they could, and spun out low-quality keyword-matching content. At the same time, websites were succeeding by allowing large databases of content to get indexed even as very thin pages, or by allowing huge numbers of pages of user-generated content to get indexed.

This was a real reputational threat to Google, and broke out of the search and SEO echo chamber. It had become such a bugbear of communities like Hacker News and StackOverflow, that Matt Cutts submitted a personal update to the Hacker News community when Google launched an update targeted at fixing one specific symptom — namely that scraper websites were routinely outranking the original content they were copying.

Shortly afterwards, Google rolled out the update initially named the “farmer update”. After it launched, we learned it had been made possible because of a breakthrough by an engineer called Panda, hence it was called the “big Panda” update internally at Google, and since then the SEO community has mainly called it the Panda update.

Although we speculated that the internal working of the update was one of the first real uses of machine learning in the core of the organic search algorithm at Google, the features it was modelling were more easily understood as human-centric quality factors, and so we began recommending SEO-targeted changes to our clients based on the results of human quality surveys.

Everything goes mobile-first

I gave a presentation at SearchLove London in 2014 where I talked about the unbelievable growth and scale of mobile and about how late we were to realizing quite how seriously Google was taking this. I highlighted the surprise many felt hearing that Google was designing mobile first:

“Towards the end of last year we launched some pretty big design improvements for search on mobile and tablet devices. Today we’ve carried over several of those changes to the desktop experience.” — Jon Wiley (lead engineer for Google Search speaking on Google+, which means there’s nowhere to link to as a perfect reference for the quote but it’s referenced here as well as in my presentation).

This surprise came despite the fact that, by the time I gave this presentation in 2014, we knew that mobile search had begun to cannibalize desktop search (and we’d seen the first drop in desktop search volumes):

And it came even though people were starting to say that the first year of Google making the majority of its revenue on mobile was less than two years away:

Writing this in 2020, it feels as though we have fully internalized how big a deal mobile is, but it’s interesting to remember that it took a while for it to sink in.

Machine learning becomes the norm

Since the Panda update, machine learning was mentioned more and more in the official communications from Google about algorithm updates, and it was implicated in even more. We know that, historically, there had been resistance from some quarters (including from Singhal) towards using machine learning in the core algorithm due to the way it prevented human engineers from explaining the results. In 2015, Sundar Pichai took over as CEO, moved Singhal aside (though this may have been for other reasons), and installed AI / ML fans in key roles.

It goes full-circle

Back before the Florida update (in fact, until Google rolled out an update they called Fritz in the summer of 2003), search results used to shuffle regularly in a process nicknamed the Google Dance:

Most things have been moving more real-time ever since, but recent “Core Updates” appear to have brought back this kind of dynamic where changes happen on Google’s schedule rather than based on the timelines of website changes. I’ve speculated that this is because “core updates” are really Google retraining a massive deep learning model that is very customized to the shape of the web at the time. Whatever the cause, our experience working with a wide range of clients is consistent with the official line from Google that:

Broad core updates tend to happen every few months. Content that was impacted by one might not recover — assuming improvements have been made — until the next broad core update is released.

Tying recent trends and discoveries like this back to ancient history like the Google Dance is just one of the ways in which knowing the history of SEO is “useful”.

If you’re interested in all this

I hope this journey through my memories has been interesting. For those of you who also worked in the industry through these years, what did I miss? What are the really big milestones you remember? Drop them in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter.

If you liked this walk down memory lane, you might also like my presentation From the Horse’s Mouth, where I attempt to use official and unofficial Google statements to unpack what is really going on behind the scenes, and try to give some tips for doing the same yourself:



To help us serve you better, please consider taking the 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey, which asks about who you are, what challenges you face, and what you’d like to see more of on the Moz Blog.

Take the Survey

Source link

[isearchgoood]

Fifteen Years Is a Long Time in SEO

Posted by willcritchlow

I’ve been in an introspective mood lately.

Earlier this year (15 years after starting Distilled in 2005), we spun out a new company called SearchPilot to focus on our SEO A/B testing and meta-CMS technology (previously known as Distilled ODN), and merged the consulting and conferences part of the business with Brainlabs.

I’m now CEO of SearchPilot (which is primarily owned by the shareholders of Distilled), and am also SEO Partner at Brainlabs, so… I’m sorry everyone, but I’m very much staying in the SEO industry.

As such, it feels a bit like the end of a chapter for me rather than the end of the book, but it has still had me looking back over what’s changed and what hasn’t over the last 15 years I’ve been in the industry.

I can’t lay claim to being one of the first generation of SEO experts, but having been building websites since around 1996 and having seen the growth of Google from the beginning, I feel like maybe I’m second generation, and maybe I have some interesting stories to share with those who are newer to the game.

I’ve racked my brain to try and remember what felt significant at the time, and also looked back over the big trends through my time in the industry, to put together what I think makes an interesting reading list that most people working on the web today would do well to know about.

The big eras of search

I joked at the beginning of a presentation I gave in 2018 that the big eras of search oscillated between directives from the search engines and search engines rapidly backing away from those directives when they saw what webmasters actually did:

While that slide was a bit tongue-in-cheek, I do think that there’s something to thinking about the eras like:

Build websites: Do you have a website? Would you like a website? It’s hard to believe now, but in the early days of the web, a lot of folks needed to be persuaded to get their business online at all.

Keywords: Basic information retrieval became adversarial information retrieval as webmasters realized that they could game the system with keyword stuffing, hidden text, and more.

Links: As the scale of the web grew beyond user-curated directories, link-based algorithms for search began to dominate.

Not those links: Link-based algorithms began to give way to adversarial link-based algorithms as webmasters swapped, bought, and manipulated links across the web graph.

Content for the long tail: Alongside this era, the length of the long tail began to be better-understood by both webmasters and by Google themselves — and it was in the interest of both parties to create massive amounts of (often obscure) content and get it indexed for when it was needed.

Not that content: Perhaps predictably (see the trend here?), the average quality of content returned in search results dropped dramatically, and so we see the first machine learning ranking factors in the form of attempts to assess “quality” (alongside relevance and website authority).

Machine learning: Arguably everything from that point onwards has been an adventure into machine learning and artificial intelligence, and has also taken place during the careers of most marketers working in SEO today. So, while I love writing about that stuff, I’ll return to it another day.

History of SEO: crucial moments

Although I’m sure that there are interesting stories to be told about the pre-Google era of SEO, I’m not the right person to tell them (if you have a great resource, please do drop it in the comments), so let’s start early in the Google journey:

Google’s foundational technology

Even if you’re coming into SEO in 2020, in a world of machine-learned ranking factors, I’d still recommend going back and reading the surprisingly accessible early academic work:

The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page [PDF]

Link Analysis in Web Information Retrieval [PDF]

Reasonable surfer (and the updated version)

If you weren’t using the web back then, it’s probably hard to imagine what a step-change improvement Google’s PageRank-based algorithm was over the “state-of-the-art” at the time (and it’s hard to remember, even for those of us that were):

Google’s IPO

In more “things that are hard to remember clearly,” at the time of Google’s IPO in 2004, very few people expected Google to become one of the most profitable companies ever. In the early days, the founders had talked of their disdain for advertising, and had experimented with keyword-based adverts somewhat reluctantly. Because of this attitude, even within the company, most employees didn’t know what a rocket ship they were building.

From this era, I’d recommend reading the founders’ IPO letter (see this great article from Danny Sullivan — who’s ironically now @SearchLiaison at Google):

“Our search results are the best we know how to produce. They are unbiased and objective, and we do not accept payment for them or for inclusion or more frequent updating.”

“Because we do not charge merchants for inclusion in Froogle [now Google shopping], our users can browse product categories or conduct product searches with confidence that the results we provide are relevant and unbiased.” — S1 Filing

In addition, In the Plex is an enjoyable book published in 2011 by Steven Levy. It tells the story of what then-CEO Eric Schmidt called (around the time of the IPO) “the hiding strategy”:

“Those who knew the secret … were instructed quite firmly to keep their mouths shut about it.”

“What Google was hiding was how it had cracked the code to making money on the Internet.”

Luckily for Google, for users, and even for organic search marketers, it turned out that this wasn’t actually incompatible with their pure ideals from the pre-IPO days because, as Levy recounts, “in repeated tests, searchers were happier with pages with ads than those where they were suppressed”. Phew!

Index everything

In April 2003, Google acquired a company called Applied Semantics and set in motion a series of events that I think might be the most underrated part of Google’s history.

Applied Semantics technology was integrated with their own contextual ad technology to form what became AdSense. Although the revenue from AdSense has always been dwarfed by AdWords (now just “Google Ads”), its importance in the history of SEO is hard to understate.

By democratizing the monetization of content on the web and enabling everyone to get paid for producing obscure content, it funded the creation of absurd amounts of that content.

Most of this content would have never been seen if it weren’t for the existence of a search engine that excelled in its ability to deliver great results for long tail searches, even if those searches were incredibly infrequent or had never been seen before.

In this way, Google’s search engine (and search advertising business) formed a powerful flywheel with its AdSense business, enabling the funding of the content creation it needed to differentiate itself with the largest and most complete index of the web.

As with so many chapters in the story, though, it also created a monster in the form of low quality or even auto-generated content that would ultimately lead to PR crises and massive efforts to fix.

If you’re interested in the index everything era, you can read more of my thoughts about it in slide 47+ of From the Horse’s Mouth.

Web spam

The first forms of spam on the internet were various forms of messages, which hit the mainstream as email spam. During the early 2000s, Google started talking about the problem they’d ultimately term “web spam” (the earliest mention I’ve seen of link spam is in an Amit Singhal presentation from 2005 entitled Challenges in running a Commercial Web Search Engine [PDF]).

I suspect that even people who start in SEO today might’ve heard of Matt Cutts — the first head of webspam — as he’s still referenced often despite not having worked at Google since 2014. I enjoyed this 2015 presentation that talks about his career trajectory at Google.

Search quality era

Over time, as a result of the opposing nature of webmasters trying to make money versus Google (and others) trying to make the best search engine they could, pure web spam wasn’t the only quality problem Google was facing. The cat-and-mouse game of spotting manipulation — particularly of on-page content, external links, and anchor text) — would be a defining feature of the next decade-plus of search.

It was after Singhal’s presentation above that Eric Schmidt (then Google’s CEO) said, “Brands are the solution, not the problem… Brands are how you sort out the cesspool”.

Those who are newer to the industry will likely have experienced some Google updates (such as recent “core updates”) first-hand, and have quite likely heard of a few specific older updates. But “Vince”, which came after “Florida” (the first major confirmed Google update), and rolled out shortly after Schmidt’s pronouncements on brand, was a particularly notable one for favoring big brands. If you haven’t followed all the history, you can read up on key past updates here:

A real reputational threat

As I mentioned above in the AdSense section, there were strong incentives for webmasters to create tons of content, thus targeting the blossoming long tail of search. If you had a strong enough domain, Google would crawl and index immense numbers of pages, and for obscure enough queries, any matching content would potentially rank. This triggered the rapid growth of so-called “content farms” that mined keyword data from anywhere they could, and spun out low-quality keyword-matching content. At the same time, websites were succeeding by allowing large databases of content to get indexed even as very thin pages, or by allowing huge numbers of pages of user-generated content to get indexed.

This was a real reputational threat to Google, and broke out of the search and SEO echo chamber. It had become such a bugbear of communities like Hacker News and StackOverflow, that Matt Cutts submitted a personal update to the Hacker News community when Google launched an update targeted at fixing one specific symptom — namely that scraper websites were routinely outranking the original content they were copying.

Shortly afterwards, Google rolled out the update initially named the “farmer update”. After it launched, we learned it had been made possible because of a breakthrough by an engineer called Panda, hence it was called the “big Panda” update internally at Google, and since then the SEO community has mainly called it the Panda update.

Although we speculated that the internal working of the update was one of the first real uses of machine learning in the core of the organic search algorithm at Google, the features it was modelling were more easily understood as human-centric quality factors, and so we began recommending SEO-targeted changes to our clients based on the results of human quality surveys.

Everything goes mobile-first

I gave a presentation at SearchLove London in 2014 where I talked about the unbelievable growth and scale of mobile and about how late we were to realizing quite how seriously Google was taking this. I highlighted the surprise many felt hearing that Google was designing mobile first:

“Towards the end of last year we launched some pretty big design improvements for search on mobile and tablet devices. Today we’ve carried over several of those changes to the desktop experience.” — Jon Wiley (lead engineer for Google Search speaking on Google+, which means there’s nowhere to link to as a perfect reference for the quote but it’s referenced here as well as in my presentation).

This surprise came despite the fact that, by the time I gave this presentation in 2014, we knew that mobile search had begun to cannibalize desktop search (and we’d seen the first drop in desktop search volumes):

And it came even though people were starting to say that the first year of Google making the majority of its revenue on mobile was less than two years away:

Writing this in 2020, it feels as though we have fully internalized how big a deal mobile is, but it’s interesting to remember that it took a while for it to sink in.

Machine learning becomes the norm

Since the Panda update, machine learning was mentioned more and more in the official communications from Google about algorithm updates, and it was implicated in even more. We know that, historically, there had been resistance from some quarters (including from Singhal) towards using machine learning in the core algorithm due to the way it prevented human engineers from explaining the results. In 2015, Sundar Pichai took over as CEO, moved Singhal aside (though this may have been for other reasons), and installed AI / ML fans in key roles.

It goes full-circle

Back before the Florida update (in fact, until Google rolled out an update they called Fritz in the summer of 2003), search results used to shuffle regularly in a process nicknamed the Google Dance:

Most things have been moving more real-time ever since, but recent “Core Updates” appear to have brought back this kind of dynamic where changes happen on Google’s schedule rather than based on the timelines of website changes. I’ve speculated that this is because “core updates” are really Google retraining a massive deep learning model that is very customized to the shape of the web at the time. Whatever the cause, our experience working with a wide range of clients is consistent with the official line from Google that:

Broad core updates tend to happen every few months. Content that was impacted by one might not recover — assuming improvements have been made — until the next broad core update is released.

Tying recent trends and discoveries like this back to ancient history like the Google Dance is just one of the ways in which knowing the history of SEO is “useful”.

If you’re interested in all this

I hope this journey through my memories has been interesting. For those of you who also worked in the industry through these years, what did I miss? What are the really big milestones you remember? Drop them in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter.

If you liked this walk down memory lane, you might also like my presentation From the Horse’s Mouth, where I attempt to use official and unofficial Google statements to unpack what is really going on behind the scenes, and try to give some tips for doing the same yourself:



SearchLove San Diego 2018 | Will Critchlow | From the Horse’s Mouth: What We Can Learn from Google’s Own Words from Distilled

To help us serve you better, please consider taking the 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey, which asks about who you are, what challenges you face, and what you'd like to see more of on the Moz Blog.

Take the Survey

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

via Blogger https://ift.tt/31WNCqt #blogger #bloggingtips #bloggerlife #bloggersgetsocial #ontheblog #writersofinstagram #writingprompt #instapoetry #writerscommunity #writersofig #writersblock #writerlife #writtenword #instawriters #spilledink #wordgasm #creativewriting #poetsofinstagram #blackoutpoetry #poetsofig

[evempierson]

Fifteen Years Is a Long Time in SEO

Posted by willcritchlow

I’ve been in an introspective mood lately.

Earlier this year (15 years after starting Distilled in 2005), we spun out a new company called SearchPilot to focus on our SEO A/B testing and meta-CMS technology (previously known as Distilled ODN), and merged the consulting and conferences part of the business with Brainlabs.

I’m now CEO of SearchPilot (which is primarily owned by the shareholders of Distilled), and am also SEO Partner at Brainlabs, so… I’m sorry everyone, but I’m very much staying in the SEO industry.

As such, it feels a bit like the end of a chapter for me rather than the end of the book, but it has still had me looking back over what’s changed and what hasn’t over the last 15 years I’ve been in the industry.

I can’t lay claim to being one of the first generation of SEO experts, but having been building websites since around 1996 and having seen the growth of Google from the beginning, I feel like maybe I’m second generation, and maybe I have some interesting stories to share with those who are newer to the game.

I’ve racked my brain to try and remember what felt significant at the time, and also looked back over the big trends through my time in the industry, to put together what I think makes an interesting reading list that most people working on the web today would do well to know about.

The big eras of search

I joked at the beginning of a presentation I gave in 2018 that the big eras of search oscillated between directives from the search engines and search engines rapidly backing away from those directives when they saw what webmasters actually did:

While that slide was a bit tongue-in-cheek, I do think that there’s something to thinking about the eras like:

Build websites: Do you have a website? Would you like a website? It’s hard to believe now, but in the early days of the web, a lot of folks needed to be persuaded to get their business online at all.

Keywords: Basic information retrieval became adversarial information retrieval as webmasters realized that they could game the system with keyword stuffing, hidden text, and more.

Links: As the scale of the web grew beyond user-curated directories, link-based algorithms for search began to dominate.

Not those links: Link-based algorithms began to give way to adversarial link-based algorithms as webmasters swapped, bought, and manipulated links across the web graph.

Content for the long tail: Alongside this era, the length of the long tail began to be better-understood by both webmasters and by Google themselves — and it was in the interest of both parties to create massive amounts of (often obscure) content and get it indexed for when it was needed.

Not that content: Perhaps predictably (see the trend here?), the average quality of content returned in search results dropped dramatically, and so we see the first machine learning ranking factors in the form of attempts to assess “quality” (alongside relevance and website authority).

Machine learning: Arguably everything from that point onwards has been an adventure into machine learning and artificial intelligence, and has also taken place during the careers of most marketers working in SEO today. So, while I love writing about that stuff, I’ll return to it another day.

History of SEO: crucial moments

Although I’m sure that there are interesting stories to be told about the pre-Google era of SEO, I’m not the right person to tell them (if you have a great resource, please do drop it in the comments), so let’s start early in the Google journey:

Google’s foundational technology

Even if you’re coming into SEO in 2020, in a world of machine-learned ranking factors, I’d still recommend going back and reading the surprisingly accessible early academic work:

The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page [PDF]

Link Analysis in Web Information Retrieval [PDF]

Reasonable surfer (and the updated version)

If you weren’t using the web back then, it’s probably hard to imagine what a step-change improvement Google’s PageRank-based algorithm was over the “state-of-the-art” at the time (and it’s hard to remember, even for those of us that were):

Google’s IPO

In more “things that are hard to remember clearly,” at the time of Google’s IPO in 2004, very few people expected Google to become one of the most profitable companies ever. In the early days, the founders had talked of their disdain for advertising, and had experimented with keyword-based adverts somewhat reluctantly. Because of this attitude, even within the company, most employees didn’t know what a rocket ship they were building.

From this era, I’d recommend reading the founders’ IPO letter (see this great article from Danny Sullivan — who’s ironically now @SearchLiaison at Google):

“Our search results are the best we know how to produce. They are unbiased and objective, and we do not accept payment for them or for inclusion or more frequent updating.”

“Because we do not charge merchants for inclusion in Froogle [now Google shopping], our users can browse product categories or conduct product searches with confidence that the results we provide are relevant and unbiased.” — S1 Filing

In addition, In the Plex is an enjoyable book published in 2011 by Steven Levy. It tells the story of what then-CEO Eric Schmidt called (around the time of the IPO) “the hiding strategy”:

“Those who knew the secret … were instructed quite firmly to keep their mouths shut about it.”

“What Google was hiding was how it had cracked the code to making money on the Internet.”

Luckily for Google, for users, and even for organic search marketers, it turned out that this wasn’t actually incompatible with their pure ideals from the pre-IPO days because, as Levy recounts, “in repeated tests, searchers were happier with pages with ads than those where they were suppressed”. Phew!

Index everything

In April 2003, Google acquired a company called Applied Semantics and set in motion a series of events that I think might be the most underrated part of Google’s history.

Applied Semantics technology was integrated with their own contextual ad technology to form what became AdSense. Although the revenue from AdSense has always been dwarfed by AdWords (now just “Google Ads”), its importance in the history of SEO is hard to understate.

By democratizing the monetization of content on the web and enabling everyone to get paid for producing obscure content, it funded the creation of absurd amounts of that content.

Most of this content would have never been seen if it weren’t for the existence of a search engine that excelled in its ability to deliver great results for long tail searches, even if those searches were incredibly infrequent or had never been seen before.

In this way, Google’s search engine (and search advertising business) formed a powerful flywheel with its AdSense business, enabling the funding of the content creation it needed to differentiate itself with the largest and most complete index of the web.

As with so many chapters in the story, though, it also created a monster in the form of low quality or even auto-generated content that would ultimately lead to PR crises and massive efforts to fix.

If you’re interested in the index everything era, you can read more of my thoughts about it in slide 47+ of From the Horse’s Mouth.

Web spam

The first forms of spam on the internet were various forms of messages, which hit the mainstream as email spam. During the early 2000s, Google started talking about the problem they’d ultimately term “web spam” (the earliest mention I’ve seen of link spam is in an Amit Singhal presentation from 2005 entitled Challenges in running a Commercial Web Search Engine [PDF]).

I suspect that even people who start in SEO today might’ve heard of Matt Cutts — the first head of webspam — as he’s still referenced often despite not having worked at Google since 2014. I enjoyed this 2015 presentation that talks about his career trajectory at Google.

Search quality era

Over time, as a result of the opposing nature of webmasters trying to make money versus Google (and others) trying to make the best search engine they could, pure web spam wasn’t the only quality problem Google was facing. The cat-and-mouse game of spotting manipulation — particularly of on-page content, external links, and anchor text) — would be a defining feature of the next decade-plus of search.

It was after Singhal’s presentation above that Eric Schmidt (then Google’s CEO) said, “Brands are the solution, not the problem… Brands are how you sort out the cesspool”.

Those who are newer to the industry will likely have experienced some Google updates (such as recent “core updates”) first-hand, and have quite likely heard of a few specific older updates. But “Vince”, which came after “Florida” (the first major confirmed Google update), and rolled out shortly after Schmidt’s pronouncements on brand, was a particularly notable one for favoring big brands. If you haven’t followed all the history, you can read up on key past updates here:

A real reputational threat

As I mentioned above in the AdSense section, there were strong incentives for webmasters to create tons of content, thus targeting the blossoming long tail of search. If you had a strong enough domain, Google would crawl and index immense numbers of pages, and for obscure enough queries, any matching content would potentially rank. This triggered the rapid growth of so-called “content farms” that mined keyword data from anywhere they could, and spun out low-quality keyword-matching content. At the same time, websites were succeeding by allowing large databases of content to get indexed even as very thin pages, or by allowing huge numbers of pages of user-generated content to get indexed.

This was a real reputational threat to Google, and broke out of the search and SEO echo chamber. It had become such a bugbear of communities like Hacker News and StackOverflow, that Matt Cutts submitted a personal update to the Hacker News community when Google launched an update targeted at fixing one specific symptom — namely that scraper websites were routinely outranking the original content they were copying.

Shortly afterwards, Google rolled out the update initially named the “farmer update”. After it launched, we learned it had been made possible because of a breakthrough by an engineer called Panda, hence it was called the “big Panda” update internally at Google, and since then the SEO community has mainly called it the Panda update.

Although we speculated that the internal working of the update was one of the first real uses of machine learning in the core of the organic search algorithm at Google, the features it was modelling were more easily understood as human-centric quality factors, and so we began recommending SEO-targeted changes to our clients based on the results of human quality surveys.

Everything goes mobile-first

I gave a presentation at SearchLove London in 2014 where I talked about the unbelievable growth and scale of mobile and about how late we were to realizing quite how seriously Google was taking this. I highlighted the surprise many felt hearing that Google was designing mobile first:

“Towards the end of last year we launched some pretty big design improvements for search on mobile and tablet devices. Today we’ve carried over several of those changes to the desktop experience.” — Jon Wiley (lead engineer for Google Search speaking on Google+, which means there’s nowhere to link to as a perfect reference for the quote but it’s referenced here as well as in my presentation).

This surprise came despite the fact that, by the time I gave this presentation in 2014, we knew that mobile search had begun to cannibalize desktop search (and we’d seen the first drop in desktop search volumes):

And it came even though people were starting to say that the first year of Google making the majority of its revenue on mobile was less than two years away:

Writing this in 2020, it feels as though we have fully internalized how big a deal mobile is, but it’s interesting to remember that it took a while for it to sink in.

Machine learning becomes the norm

Since the Panda update, machine learning was mentioned more and more in the official communications from Google about algorithm updates, and it was implicated in even more. We know that, historically, there had been resistance from some quarters (including from Singhal) towards using machine learning in the core algorithm due to the way it prevented human engineers from explaining the results. In 2015, Sundar Pichai took over as CEO, moved Singhal aside (though this may have been for other reasons), and installed AI / ML fans in key roles.

It goes full-circle

Back before the Florida update (in fact, until Google rolled out an update they called Fritz in the summer of 2003), search results used to shuffle regularly in a process nicknamed the Google Dance:

Most things have been moving more real-time ever since, but recent “Core Updates” appear to have brought back this kind of dynamic where changes happen on Google’s schedule rather than based on the timelines of website changes. I’ve speculated that this is because “core updates” are really Google retraining a massive deep learning model that is very customized to the shape of the web at the time. Whatever the cause, our experience working with a wide range of clients is consistent with the official line from Google that:

Broad core updates tend to happen every few months. Content that was impacted by one might not recover — assuming improvements have been made — until the next broad core update is released.

Tying recent trends and discoveries like this back to ancient history like the Google Dance is just one of the ways in which knowing the history of SEO is “useful”.

If you’re interested in all this

I hope this journey through my memories has been interesting. For those of you who also worked in the industry through these years, what did I miss? What are the really big milestones you remember? Drop them in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter.

If you liked this walk down memory lane, you might also like my presentation From the Horse’s Mouth, where I attempt to use official and unofficial Google statements to unpack what is really going on behind the scenes, and try to give some tips for doing the same yourself:



SearchLove San Diego 2018 | Will Critchlow | From the Horse’s Mouth: What We Can Learn from Google’s Own Words from Distilled

To help us serve you better, please consider taking the 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey, which asks about who you are, what challenges you face, and what you'd like to see more of on the Moz Blog.

Take the Survey

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[thanhtuandoan89]

Fifteen Years Is a Long Time in SEO

Posted by willcritchlow

I’ve been in an introspective mood lately.

Earlier this year (15 years after starting Distilled in 2005), we spun out a new company called SearchPilot to focus on our SEO A/B testing and meta-CMS technology (previously known as Distilled ODN), and merged the consulting and conferences part of the business with Brainlabs.

I’m now CEO of SearchPilot (which is primarily owned by the shareholders of Distilled), and am also SEO Partner at Brainlabs, so… I’m sorry everyone, but I’m very much staying in the SEO industry.

As such, it feels a bit like the end of a chapter for me rather than the end of the book, but it has still had me looking back over what’s changed and what hasn’t over the last 15 years I’ve been in the industry.

I can’t lay claim to being one of the first generation of SEO experts, but having been building websites since around 1996 and having seen the growth of Google from the beginning, I feel like maybe I’m second generation, and maybe I have some interesting stories to share with those who are newer to the game.

I’ve racked my brain to try and remember what felt significant at the time, and also looked back over the big trends through my time in the industry, to put together what I think makes an interesting reading list that most people working on the web today would do well to know about.

The big eras of search

I joked at the beginning of a presentation I gave in 2018 that the big eras of search oscillated between directives from the search engines and search engines rapidly backing away from those directives when they saw what webmasters actually did:

While that slide was a bit tongue-in-cheek, I do think that there’s something to thinking about the eras like:

Build websites: Do you have a website? Would you like a website? It’s hard to believe now, but in the early days of the web, a lot of folks needed to be persuaded to get their business online at all.

Keywords: Basic information retrieval became adversarial information retrieval as webmasters realized that they could game the system with keyword stuffing, hidden text, and more.

Links: As the scale of the web grew beyond user-curated directories, link-based algorithms for search began to dominate.

Not those links: Link-based algorithms began to give way to adversarial link-based algorithms as webmasters swapped, bought, and manipulated links across the web graph.

Content for the long tail: Alongside this era, the length of the long tail began to be better-understood by both webmasters and by Google themselves — and it was in the interest of both parties to create massive amounts of (often obscure) content and get it indexed for when it was needed.

Not that content: Perhaps predictably (see the trend here?), the average quality of content returned in search results dropped dramatically, and so we see the first machine learning ranking factors in the form of attempts to assess “quality” (alongside relevance and website authority).

Machine learning: Arguably everything from that point onwards has been an adventure into machine learning and artificial intelligence, and has also taken place during the careers of most marketers working in SEO today. So, while I love writing about that stuff, I’ll return to it another day.

History of SEO: crucial moments

Although I’m sure that there are interesting stories to be told about the pre-Google era of SEO, I’m not the right person to tell them (if you have a great resource, please do drop it in the comments), so let’s start early in the Google journey:

Google’s foundational technology

Even if you’re coming into SEO in 2020, in a world of machine-learned ranking factors, I’d still recommend going back and reading the surprisingly accessible early academic work:

The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page [PDF]

Link Analysis in Web Information Retrieval [PDF]

Reasonable surfer (and the updated version)

If you weren’t using the web back then, it’s probably hard to imagine what a step-change improvement Google’s PageRank-based algorithm was over the “state-of-the-art” at the time (and it’s hard to remember, even for those of us that were):

Google’s IPO

In more “things that are hard to remember clearly,” at the time of Google’s IPO in 2004, very few people expected Google to become one of the most profitable companies ever. In the early days, the founders had talked of their disdain for advertising, and had experimented with keyword-based adverts somewhat reluctantly. Because of this attitude, even within the company, most employees didn’t know what a rocket ship they were building.

From this era, I’d recommend reading the founders’ IPO letter (see this great article from Danny Sullivan — who’s ironically now @SearchLiaison at Google):

“Our search results are the best we know how to produce. They are unbiased and objective, and we do not accept payment for them or for inclusion or more frequent updating.”

“Because we do not charge merchants for inclusion in Froogle [now Google shopping], our users can browse product categories or conduct product searches with confidence that the results we provide are relevant and unbiased.” — S1 Filing

In addition, In the Plex is an enjoyable book published in 2011 by Steven Levy. It tells the story of what then-CEO Eric Schmidt called (around the time of the IPO) “the hiding strategy”:

“Those who knew the secret … were instructed quite firmly to keep their mouths shut about it.”

“What Google was hiding was how it had cracked the code to making money on the Internet.”

Luckily for Google, for users, and even for organic search marketers, it turned out that this wasn’t actually incompatible with their pure ideals from the pre-IPO days because, as Levy recounts, “in repeated tests, searchers were happier with pages with ads than those where they were suppressed”. Phew!

Index everything

In April 2003, Google acquired a company called Applied Semantics and set in motion a series of events that I think might be the most underrated part of Google’s history.

Applied Semantics technology was integrated with their own contextual ad technology to form what became AdSense. Although the revenue from AdSense has always been dwarfed by AdWords (now just “Google Ads”), its importance in the history of SEO is hard to understate.

By democratizing the monetization of content on the web and enabling everyone to get paid for producing obscure content, it funded the creation of absurd amounts of that content.

Most of this content would have never been seen if it weren’t for the existence of a search engine that excelled in its ability to deliver great results for long tail searches, even if those searches were incredibly infrequent or had never been seen before.

In this way, Google’s search engine (and search advertising business) formed a powerful flywheel with its AdSense business, enabling the funding of the content creation it needed to differentiate itself with the largest and most complete index of the web.

As with so many chapters in the story, though, it also created a monster in the form of low quality or even auto-generated content that would ultimately lead to PR crises and massive efforts to fix.

If you’re interested in the index everything era, you can read more of my thoughts about it in slide 47+ of From the Horse’s Mouth.

Web spam

The first forms of spam on the internet were various forms of messages, which hit the mainstream as email spam. During the early 2000s, Google started talking about the problem they’d ultimately term “web spam” (the earliest mention I’ve seen of link spam is in an Amit Singhal presentation from 2005 entitled Challenges in running a Commercial Web Search Engine [PDF]).

I suspect that even people who start in SEO today might’ve heard of Matt Cutts — the first head of webspam — as he’s still referenced often despite not having worked at Google since 2014. I enjoyed this 2015 presentation that talks about his career trajectory at Google.

Search quality era

Over time, as a result of the opposing nature of webmasters trying to make money versus Google (and others) trying to make the best search engine they could, pure web spam wasn’t the only quality problem Google was facing. The cat-and-mouse game of spotting manipulation — particularly of on-page content, external links, and anchor text) — would be a defining feature of the next decade-plus of search.

It was after Singhal’s presentation above that Eric Schmidt (then Google’s CEO) said, “Brands are the solution, not the problem… Brands are how you sort out the cesspool”.

Those who are newer to the industry will likely have experienced some Google updates (such as recent “core updates”) first-hand, and have quite likely heard of a few specific older updates. But “Vince”, which came after “Florida” (the first major confirmed Google update), and rolled out shortly after Schmidt’s pronouncements on brand, was a particularly notable one for favoring big brands. If you haven’t followed all the history, you can read up on key past updates here:

A real reputational threat

As I mentioned above in the AdSense section, there were strong incentives for webmasters to create tons of content, thus targeting the blossoming long tail of search. If you had a strong enough domain, Google would crawl and index immense numbers of pages, and for obscure enough queries, any matching content would potentially rank. This triggered the rapid growth of so-called “content farms” that mined keyword data from anywhere they could, and spun out low-quality keyword-matching content. At the same time, websites were succeeding by allowing large databases of content to get indexed even as very thin pages, or by allowing huge numbers of pages of user-generated content to get indexed.

This was a real reputational threat to Google, and broke out of the search and SEO echo chamber. It had become such a bugbear of communities like Hacker News and StackOverflow, that Matt Cutts submitted a personal update to the Hacker News community when Google launched an update targeted at fixing one specific symptom — namely that scraper websites were routinely outranking the original content they were copying.

Shortly afterwards, Google rolled out the update initially named the “farmer update”. After it launched, we learned it had been made possible because of a breakthrough by an engineer called Panda, hence it was called the “big Panda” update internally at Google, and since then the SEO community has mainly called it the Panda update.

Although we speculated that the internal working of the update was one of the first real uses of machine learning in the core of the organic search algorithm at Google, the features it was modelling were more easily understood as human-centric quality factors, and so we began recommending SEO-targeted changes to our clients based on the results of human quality surveys.

Everything goes mobile-first

I gave a presentation at SearchLove London in 2014 where I talked about the unbelievable growth and scale of mobile and about how late we were to realizing quite how seriously Google was taking this. I highlighted the surprise many felt hearing that Google was designing mobile first:

“Towards the end of last year we launched some pretty big design improvements for search on mobile and tablet devices. Today we’ve carried over several of those changes to the desktop experience.” — Jon Wiley (lead engineer for Google Search speaking on Google+, which means there’s nowhere to link to as a perfect reference for the quote but it’s referenced here as well as in my presentation).

This surprise came despite the fact that, by the time I gave this presentation in 2014, we knew that mobile search had begun to cannibalize desktop search (and we’d seen the first drop in desktop search volumes):

And it came even though people were starting to say that the first year of Google making the majority of its revenue on mobile was less than two years away:

Writing this in 2020, it feels as though we have fully internalized how big a deal mobile is, but it’s interesting to remember that it took a while for it to sink in.

Machine learning becomes the norm

Since the Panda update, machine learning was mentioned more and more in the official communications from Google about algorithm updates, and it was implicated in even more. We know that, historically, there had been resistance from some quarters (including from Singhal) towards using machine learning in the core algorithm due to the way it prevented human engineers from explaining the results. In 2015, Sundar Pichai took over as CEO, moved Singhal aside (though this may have been for other reasons), and installed AI / ML fans in key roles.

It goes full-circle

Back before the Florida update (in fact, until Google rolled out an update they called Fritz in the summer of 2003), search results used to shuffle regularly in a process nicknamed the Google Dance:

Most things have been moving more real-time ever since, but recent “Core Updates” appear to have brought back this kind of dynamic where changes happen on Google’s schedule rather than based on the timelines of website changes. I’ve speculated that this is because “core updates” are really Google retraining a massive deep learning model that is very customized to the shape of the web at the time. Whatever the cause, our experience working with a wide range of clients is consistent with the official line from Google that:

Broad core updates tend to happen every few months. Content that was impacted by one might not recover — assuming improvements have been made — until the next broad core update is released.

Tying recent trends and discoveries like this back to ancient history like the Google Dance is just one of the ways in which knowing the history of SEO is “useful”.

If you’re interested in all this

I hope this journey through my memories has been interesting. For those of you who also worked in the industry through these years, what did I miss? What are the really big milestones you remember? Drop them in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter.

If you liked this walk down memory lane, you might also like my presentation From the Horse’s Mouth, where I attempt to use official and unofficial Google statements to unpack what is really going on behind the scenes, and try to give some tips for doing the same yourself:



SearchLove San Diego 2018 | Will Critchlow | From the Horse’s Mouth: What We Can Learn from Google’s Own Words from Distilled

To help us serve you better, please consider taking the 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey, which asks about who you are, what challenges you face, and what you'd like to see more of on the Moz Blog.

Take the Survey

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!