#pretty much every other cpc character

[alexandersimpleton]

Together

AlexanderSimpleton

Summary:

Freddy comfort fic because he needs one

Gwen shot up in her bed.

She was awake. She was actually awake!

She looked around to see who woke her up, but nobody was there. She was alone in her room. And bleeding. Crap. That was a lot of blood.

She looked around her, and saw the thorns she had just emerged from, along with some very panicked birds flying around her.

She figured she should go outside. Her family would probably have bandages. And, after she got healed up, she could make things up with Frederick. She might've not had.. the most healthy relationship before, but it could get better. Unless Frederick was pretending the whole time like Lance said...

Whatever! She'd burn that bridge when she got to it! Now was the time to make sure she didn't die!

Gwen pulled her legs close to her chest so as to minimize the damage, and slowly moved them towards the floor. She told up, and she ran out the door.

As she emerged, there was the real world equivalent of a record brake.

The girl looked around. There were Maria and Lorena tied up, Leland and his eldest two sons, the CPC, Frederick huddled up in a carriage that had been run through the wall, many, many soldiers, Jamie, and Leopold, all that appear to have been fighting each other, but were now staring directly at Gwen.

They kind of just looked at each other flabbergasted for a moment, before Maria, Jamie and Lorena all ran up to Gwen, getting in a group hug and crying in relief

"GWEEEEEEEEN WE MISSED YOU" they all screamed in unison. You'd think they were being dramatic, but that's just how Gwen's siblings cried.

Gwen smiled in relief to finally have her siblings back. She missed them.

And then she looked back at the crowd.

Everyone else was just standing there, awkwardly staring at each other. That was, except Frederick, who was still staring at Gwen. His eyes were practically shining with shock and relief, and literally shining with tears. But they felt like they were missing something else. Something she couldn't quite place.

After a while, the siblings broke off their hug, which Gwen hadn't even realized her sisters had been tied up for the duration of. They also saw the extreme awkwardness of the scene, and Lorena snorted.

"Uhmmmmm..." Leland broke the silence. Gwen's siblings glared at him.

"H-hey. What did Leland do to you?"

The pastel siblings slowly turned to look at Gwen like she had just thrown a puppy in the ocean.

"Hehe. You missed a lot." Frederick said from the carriage. Lorena, Maria and Jamie all turned their heads to glare at the boy harder than they were glaring at Leland. He shrunk back almost immediately.

But, When he said it, Gwen noticed something about his tone. He looked worn. His laughed was wet, like he had been crying. His eyes looked empty, like all that hopeful light had been ripped out of him. And he looked like he would really benefit from some hot coco and a warm blanket. But, the CPC would have taken care of that. She saw how they reacted when Frederick called her ugly. Surely they would have helped, at least a little bit. Right?

One of Leland's guards grabbed the girl's wrist while she wasn't paying attention. It was immediately smacked by a broom from Curtis.

"Gwen!" Prez called out. "Get in the carriage!"

"Huh!?" She responded "I don't know what's going on, but I wasn't to help!"

"You're helping by being in the carriage." Frederick weakly cried out. She could barely hear him. "Unless you have some hidden fighting talent we don't know about, staying on the battle field would pose more risk to your safety that it would actual help. If you stay somewhere safe, nobody has to go out of their way to protect you. That's why I'm here."

Frederick's argument seemingly convinced Gwen, and she begrudgingly moved to the carriage.

As she got in the front, next to Frederick, he curled up a little. Gwen was about to ask why, when she heard him muttering frantic apologies under his breath.

"I'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorry" he said over and over.

Gwen reached over and touched his arm lightly.

Frederick flinched violently and scooted away.

"I'm sorry Gwen! I didn't think you'd hear, and I was really frustrated, and I didn't think you'd be hurt that much! I was just an idiot! A stupid.. an idiotic loser!

The way he said the loser felt like it had more weight to it than other things he said. The way he looked away from her seemed familiar. While she was gone...

"Did someone.. say something to you?" Gwen asked, a slight bit of horror in her voice.

Frederick's eyes widened. Bingo.

"I- uh-"

Gwen held his hand. "You can tell me. Just if you want though."

Frederick hesitated. "After we got home, after that gala, father was.. mad, to say the least. I don't know what he did to Blaine and Lance, but the first thing he did was grab my wrist and carry me down some secret passageway into..." Frederick flinched a slight bit, and Gwen squeezed his hand harder. "Into.." his voice was barely legible over the righting outside. "A dungeon. He just tossed me in. For what it think was around half a month. It was hard to tell. The only real light I got was a skylight at the very top. And I couldn't ask anyone, because nobody ever came to visit."

Gwen has a question, and she wasn't sure she wanted the answer to. "If nobody came to your dungeon, than how did you get food or water?"

Frederick tensed up, and he clutched the bottom of his seat with his hand. "I.. let's just say there are less rats in that dungeon now..." The boy looked away, and giggled a little, as if he really didn't want to say that.

Gwen took notice now, that he looked a bit smaller, his skin was incredibly pale.

"Have you caught anything Frederick!? Rats carry tons of diseases! Should we take you to the doctor!?"

"Eh!" Frederick's eyes shot open in alarm. "I don't think so, but I probably should go to a doctor now that I think about it.." the boy gave her that awkward chuckle again. Like he'd rather be litterally ANYWHERE else.

"But anyways!" The boy interrupted himself. "Father and Blaine and Lance finally came! I was so relieved to see them! I thought that they'd finally let me out. But.. they just told me that.. everything had been a lie..."

"What!?" Gwen didn't know this! There had to have been something there with her sisters!

"They said that it had all only been for power, and that father had some kind of plan that wasn't worth telling me."

That wasn't worth telling me part struck Gwen the wrong way.

"Of course. I didn't think that was possible. I saw them. Blaine was talking about how he loved Maria. And at the very least, I thought Lance loved Lorena. He was practically swooning over her, both at you castle, and at home." Frederick smiled, refecting back on the memories of watching his brother hug the flowers Lorena had grown for him. But his smile dropped as fast as it had come. "I- tried to say it, but Blaine- Blaine said.."

Gwen waited patiently for Frederick to get it out.

"I... Still remember it. Word for word. 'Shut up Frederick! How do you know what was real or not? You think I wanted to waste all my time pretending to like you? That was the hardest part of this whole act! Holding your hand though ever stupid step.." Frederick began looking past her, his worn eyes shining once again. Not like the sun that they shined like when he talked about his favorite stories though. More like a wilted flower with glossy varnish painted on top. "..saving you from constantly sabotaging everything.." they shone not like the oceans they shined like when he was baking with her, but like a long dean fish, with the sunlight on it's scales. "..and propping you up with baseless confidence, so you felt like a true plaid prince.. did you actually think we felt that way about you?" They shone, not like freshly fallen snow, but of a snowman about to melt into the grass, the sun's rays reflecting off it. "Of course not, Frederick. You're a Loser. And if there's one good things that came out of the disaster you caused, it's that there's no question left who belongs at the top and who should stay on the very bottom." His eyes shone with tears.

Gwen squeezed his hand, and he snapped back to reality.

"O- Oh! Uhm.. They said something about soldiers being here, and they left. I managed to get out with Laverne's help, and we made it to the CPC to warn them. When I got there, I was hoping that maybe they'd be there, when nobody else was. That maybe they'd, I don't know, give me a hug, and reassure me, like it seems like they did with you. But.. they kind of just ignored me." Frederick looked back and saw that Gwen had an oddly.. offended look on her face? Frederick didn't understand why. "I tried to warn them, but nobody really listened. I tried to tell them what happened, too. Two of them were talking to me when I told them. I think their names were.. Syrah and Monika. I hope I'm getting that right. I told them what my brothers said."

Frederick paused for a moment. "They said that it was ridiculous."

Gwen clutched her nightgown hard, paying no mind to the thorns still stuck on it.

"They said that they knew he liked me, and that I was probably just misinterpreting what they said. They didn't even care to ask... I had thought that maybe, this wasn't okay. Maybe love was happier than I thought it was. Maybe love could be like when I'm around you, or around Whitney. Maybe my family were just jerks. They never really liked me, after all. But, now that the CPC said it... They helped you so much. They know about this stuff, they know about all this self worth stuff that I've never been taught. So, now that the CPC says I'm being dramatic... Well, that hope is dead now. I've finally come to terms with the fact that I'm an insignificant, worthless, meaningless, idiotic loser-"

Gwen hugged Frederick. She hugged him as hard as she could. She squeezed him until her arms were going to give out.

The tears started flowing before Frederick could even process what was going on. He wrapped his arms back around Gwen, reciprocating the tightness of the hug. He cried into the top of her head. She smelled like pastries.

They stayed like that for a while, just hugging, until Frederick broke it up. As he did, Gwen said something to him. "You are not a loser, Frederick." She said it with conviction, a certainty that he hadn't seen out of her before.

Frederick nodded, and gave a small smile. It exposed a bit of his teeth, which were still bloody from... Oh God.

The weight of what had really happened to him sank in for Gwen at just that moment.

"Can I... Tell the club?"

"But I already told the club."

"Well I don't think it sank in for them." Gwen said through gritted teeth. She seemed angry. Was Frederick doing something wrong?

"Sorry." He said on impulse.

"No! You didn't do anything wrong. I'm angry at the CPC, not you."

Frederick nodded again.

"Can I tell them?"

"What?"

"Can I tell them... what happened?"

After a little bit of hesitation, Frederick said yes.

Gwen looked out over the crowd, only to realize that fighting was begining to come to a halt. Oddly, Blaine and Lance had joined the CPC's side. They watched a little longer, and eventually, Leland's forces got ran out. Blaine and Lance had a good hug and a cry, while Gwen walked towards the CPC looking very peeved.

As she left, Frederick noticed something where she was sitting. Was that a bloodstain!?

"Were you bleeding that whole time!?" Frederick exclaimed in surprise. The club looked over to Gwen, only to realize that she was, indeed, bleeding.

The club and Gwen's family fretted over her (now scabbed over) cuts, but Gwen still had the CPC to confront. They came to a compromise where Gwen would confront them while they made sure she didn't die.

Eventually, Gwen and Prez came back to the carriage. Frederick was about to ask how it went, when Prez picked him up and hugged him tightly. The hug was rather short though, as she place him back on the seat.

Gwen recognized the expression she had as the lecture face, but before she could start, another girl, Abbi, dragged Blaine and Lance over by their arms. They looked like they very much did NOT want to be there, but not in the way Frederick thought they would. They didn't look like they didn't care. They looked like they really cared. Frederick figured that was what he looked like when his and Gwen's conversation started.

The boys looked at Frederick, like he was going to explode in their faces. Neither of them would have blamed him. But, that explosion never came. He just looked away.

Somehow that made them feel worse.

Eventually, the two broke the silence. They both said "I'm sorry" at the same time, seemingly on accident. They also both bowed, down on one knee. Frederick felt like he was on a throne, looking down on them like this.

In the plaid royal family, a bow like that was an admission of wrongness or guilt. It was essentially saying "I was wrong, you were right", or "I screwed up, please forgive me".

"What I said... It was horrible. I thought it would keep you safe from father but.. clearly it didn't. It just made everything worse."

Lance nodded in agreement. He didn't actually have anything direct to apologize for, but that doesn't change that he was a jerk to Frederick.

"And, not only that. How I treated you before that as well."

Frederick looked up in surprise. Blaine hadn't done anything to him.

"I frankly treated you like garbage. Judging by your expression, not even you realized how cruel I really was. I always disregarded you, and disrespected you. I always found a way to make the conversation about me, and I berated you, and heck, I even beat you on occasion! I really thought that was okay. I thought that I was the center of the universe, and that I was the only one who mattered. It was shameful really. But seeing all this... Seeing how these princesses love each other so much, seeing the CPC supporting each other, and seeing the horrible things that father- no, Leland was doing, and seeing how much I hurt you.. I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry. I'd understand if you never wanted to see me again."

Frederick smiled. He felt bad for it, of course. Blaine was being so vulnerable in front of him and he was smiling. But, he just felt so.. validated. Knowing now that he wasn't being dramatic, that there was a reason that he was feeling the things he did.. it felt so satisfying, like a weight being lifted off his chest.

Blaine waited for a response. He didn't know how Frederick would react.

Frederick.. honestly didn't know. He loved his brother, and it seemed clear he was trying to change, but he was just.. so exhausted right now.

Prez saw his conflicted look, and she walked closer. Frederick quietly told her about his conflicted feelings, and she suggested something. The conversation was so quiet that nobody else could hear. Frederick nodded. Prez nodded back.

Frederick told the boy "Maybe.. we should stay away from each other. Only for a little while, like a month, or maybe even a week. I want you around Blaine, but I just need to e to.. process this, I guess?"

Blaine nodded. "Thank you. For being so forgiving, I mean. I really do hope I can get better about my treatment of you. You deserve a good brother." Blaine walked, a small smile on his face. Frederick saw him walking back to Whitney. He supposed he shouldn't be that surprised. When Frederick thought about it, he figured they'd get along. Lance was about to walk away with his brother when he gave Frederick a tight hug.

Lance whispered in his ear "I saw your little 'conversation' with Gwen earlier. Don't expect to be free of torment next month." Frederick let out a sound of surprise, and blushed. "But seriously. I'm really happy that you're happy with her. I am so glad you found some people who love you like you deserve little bro."

Before Frederick could respond, Lance put him back down, and he moved on with his brother.

It was getting really late. Frederick figured he should probably resolve things with Gwen's siblings while he was here. He walked up to the girls + Jamie, who all glared, but softer.

Maria rushed up to him "Look, we saw all of that, and it's clear you love her now, but what you did was very, very bad, and if you ever do it again than-" she made a hissing sound with her teeth, while dragging the nail of her thumb across her neck.

Frederick got the message.

The boy walked back to the center of the castle, meeting both of his brothers.

That was when the two older ones realized.

They should have thought this through.

"Do we.. have to go back there?" Blaine took a step back as he said it, and Lance jolted up in surprised fear, like he'd just realized.

All three boys started internally panicking.

That was, until one more person walked into the room. Her name was Isolde.

"Mother!?" All three plaid princes called out at once. She had come with several guards.

"Isolde?" Jamie walked up to her. "You said you had something else to get done. Is it done now?"

Isolde nodded

"What was it?" Jamie asked

"I staged a revolution." Isolde responded, casually

So casual in fact, that it took most everyone in the room a couple seconds to register her words.

They seeming all voiced them at the same time though.

"What!? How!?"

"Well, I had this little project going for a while. We figured either he'd win, and come in from outside the kingdom with less troops, and cargo that he has to keep from running away, or he could lose and come back with very minimal troops. Either way, we could use the home turf advantage and Leland's army's weakened state to take them off guard, so we defeated them, and I'm currently the solo queen. Any questions?"

Lance, along with many others, didn't comprehend a single word of that.

Blaine unconsciously muttered "So that's where Frederick get's his leader skills from."

He did ask an actual question though.

"Uhm... What.. happened to fath- Leland?"

"Oh, he's in prison."

"Mother ex machina" Frederick muttered under his breath.

Both brothers looked at him.

Frederick blushed furiously. Normally he doesn't just spout book references like that! What was wrong with him today!

"So, it seems you boys have finally switched sides?" Isolde asked

Blaine and Lance nodded

"I was always on this side." Frederick said.

"Good." Their mother told them. "I did not want to lock my own son's in prison."

"But, now that he's gone, do you boys want to come back with me?" Isolde asked. Blaine and Lance nodded instantaneously. Frederick was more iffy.

"Them and Frederick have got something worked out." Prez said

Blaine nodded. "Our relationship,even before this wasn't very good, so we've agreed to not see each other for around a month. Just so that we each have time to rest."

Isolde listened carefully.

"But then where would you live Frederick?" The woman asked.

Like, half of the CPC that had come possessively clinged onto Frederick.

"With the Cursed Princess Club? I understand"

The entire club looked surprised.

"What, you think I didn't figure out your club by now? I just didn't care to say anything." The woman turned away "But if you ever do anything like when you met him to my son again, I will personally see to it that your club is disbanded."

The entire club nodded. Or well, the half of the club that was clinging to Frederick. The other half was gone. Where did they go?

Isolde and her eldest sons left, each giving a wave as the did. It was getting late.

"Welp!" Prez said. "Curtis should have a carriage prepared by now." Prez walked out the side door, leading the club, and Frederick. Gwen also followed her by instinct, but Maria grabbed her.

"Gwen?" Jamie asked

"Look I-" Gwen made sure Frederick was out the door "Frederick has been through a lot in the last few weeks. He just.. needs me there for him right now."

Jamie seemingly got it, making Maria let go of Gwen's hand.

"Okay, but if anyone does anything to you, tell us, so we can kill them."

Gwen giggled. "Okay."

Gwen walked out the side door, and got in the carriage next to Frederick. Syrah had told Curtis to 'accidentally' get one to small so everyone was squished next to each other, forcing Frederick to be next to Gwen. In vengeance Frederick had forced Syrah to be next to Saffron.

On the bumpy ride home, they talked. Apparently Syrah and Monika had to come to daily lectures for a week. After hearing how they effected Frederick, they decided that they got off easy and took it

While everyone else was talking to each other, Frederick took the chance to ask Gwen "How much did you tell them?"

"Just what I had to. I said that Blaine said something horrible and Leland locked you in a dungeon. That's it."

Frederick smiled at her. "Thanks."

They eventually made it back to a bunch of pillow forts and books scattered everywhere.

"Surprise!"

So that's where the rest of the CPC went.

It was like a book fair at school. There were bookshelves all over, with pillows in between. There were cutouts of dragons and knights and sailors and pirate ships.

Curtis had thought it might be rather childish, but Frederick's eyes shone like diamonds when he saw it. He looked at Prez, as if asking for permission, before running in like a child at a candy store.

He looked on the shelves, and ALL his favorites were there. Did the CPC have a supernatural book sense or something!? (It was less a sixth sense and more Curtis stopping their mother on her way in, but Freddy didn't need to know that.)

Curtis had made hot coco, and most of the CPC members grabbed a mug, and some sprinkled marshmallows in as well. Frederick had the most in his mug.

He was grinning like a child, looking through the wooden shelves. That's when Prez noticed something odd on his teeth.

"Hey kiddo, is that blood?" Prez moved closer to inspect his teeth, and there were indeed blood stains.

The boy blushed. He tried to explain, but Prez was still opening his mouth.

The woman let go, and Frederick started talking.

"When Gwen told you about.. the last two weeks, she told you about that dungeon, right?"

Prez nodded.

"Well, nobody really came down there. And I mean nobody. So, I didn't really get food or water or anything."

Prez didn't like where this was going.

"But, I needed food to live. And.. uh..." Frederick covered his eyes. He didn't want to see Prez's expression. "There were a lot of.. rats down there, and.. uhmm... Y'know..." Frederick trailed off, but Prez got the point.

She grabbed the boy, and she pulled him inside, where Curtis was.

"Curtis, I figured out why he's so pale." Prez said. Across the counter was Curtis. "It turns out he's been surviving off of rats for the past half a month."

Curtis froze.

He immediately started getting out ingredients. Flour, sugar, etc.

Prez took the boy to the bathroom next.

"We keep extra toothbrushes. Here, I don't think anyone in the club uses this shade of green."

Frederick took the toothbrush and toothpaste, and stated wordlessly brushing. It felt good, so good, to get all of that rat hair and meat out of his teeth.

He walked outside the bathroom, seeing Curtis and Gwen mixing something or other. He waved at them, and they waved back, before he continued outside.

When he got there, a couple of the members had actually gotten into the books. His eyes were glittering less light a diamond now and more like a flashlight.

He saw Monika laying on the floor reading a visual novel.

He crouched down, and started discussing the book with her. He had come up with so many theories about it, both when he was a kid, and as he grew older. It was nice to have a second opinion.

After a while of that, Gwen and Curtis came out of the kitchen with some trays. They were stacked to the brim wíth cinnamon rolls with a honey glaze. They didn't know what Frederick liked, so they played it safe. Everyone like cinnamon rolls.

Frederick eyed at the food from far away. He hadn't eaten anything in so long.

As soon as the trays were on the table, the CPC all crowded to get a taste of Gwen's amazing cooking. Frederick got first dibs though.

He moved back to Monika with the gooey confection in hand, and when he took a bit, he almost cried.

It really did taste amazing on it's own, and given he's been surviving off of rats meat for half a month, he finished that roll very quickly.

And another, and another. Until the club had consumed all of Gwen and Curtis's confections.

And, after all was said and done, they put the bookshelves away, put most of the books in boxes, and most of the club left, with exception of those who lived there like Nell and Whitney. And now Frederick, he remembered, and Prez, Whitney, and Nell guided him to his new room.

It had a brown wood floor, and the wall paper made it look like it was on top of a pirate ship. The bed frame had a steering wheel sticking out, and all over there were bookshelves with many of his favorites, but more room for other favorites he would find after.

"So, do you like it?"

Frederick gave his wide, happy, contagious smile, and the three took it as a yes.

They all left to go to bed, and Frederick did too.

For the first time in a long, long time, Frederick had a happy dream last night. Of friendly monsters and honey glazed cinnamon rolls.

Part 1 of CPC member Frederick

(may or may not make more sequels to this

[randomgentlefolk]

🍰🎲🔨

I'm finally back alive! Slowly trying to be like my old self again :]

🍰 = favorite food from cpc?

Ooh lots! But especially the desserts :D

I really REALLY wanna try Gwen's fancy dinner apple pie! I don't even like apple that much but damn. It looks SO GOOD. I mean look at it

It looks bussin. I mean, vanilla gelato on a pie crust?? Topped with apple, whipped cream (?), and cinnamon stick??? Yes please. I'm already imagining the taste of cinnamon right now.

Wait is that cinnamon stick? Or some kinda chocolate stick?? Either way both of them are great.

Other than that, I literally just want to taste all of the desserts. The brownies, the scones, the gingerbread house, ALL OF THEM. Also this

I understand Isolde in these matters. How can you look at these desserts and resist to eat them?? I fricking love desserts.

•●•

🎲 = character you related to?

Well, my immediate answer would be Frederick, haha. But! I honestly relate to every characters, though just some bits and pieces of them. But my ultimate answer would be Frederick and Monika, I think? Monika because I love collecting things and I'm most likely a hoarder. The amount of useless things piling up in my room is amazing, really. But I can't just throw them away! What if one day they turns out to be important? Plus they're pretty! And they help me feel not lonely. Also chapter 76 lives rent free in my heart. As for Frederick, the fact that he always lives in the fantasy of his book. The fact that he used to be a cheerful child who infodump about things he love. But due to being rejected by his surrounding, he stopped. That hits hard, man.

...Also my hair often shapes itself like a broomstick XD

•●•

🔨 = favorite quote?

Aw man, there's a lot! But one of them is this

I love it

Well, that's it for now! I'm gonna try and finish my drafts, and also some of the asks!

Mono out! (But still in to hear your thoughts)

[ayameyumesaki]

SO LISTEN, MY TOKYO BABYLON CPC VERSION HAS COME HOME 🥺 So I must do this

Tokyo Babylon - CLAMP Premium Collection - Commentary

FIRST OF ALL, THE RED IN VOLUME 1 IS INDEED, MY FAVORITE RED. My camera doesn't do justice. And Subaru here is super cute, and handsome! I really love Subaru's vibes from CLAMP's recent artworks. Also, when he is alone or with Seishiro in CPC cover, he looks pretty much 15/16 y.o. to me, but he gets extra cuter when he is with Hokuto. Anyways, Volume 1 is amazing and even for the sake of collection, please buy it.

(I want to add that CLAMP did say that xxxHOLiC's symbol is pipe's smoke, and they decided that Tokyo Babylon's will be crown. It's kinda strange because it's clear that TB's symbol is a cross, seeing how it appears in original covers and Subaru/Hokuto's clothes, but I think they probably chose cross for X since they also have cross as one of their symbol, a heavier one compared to TB, but maybe also due to other reasons.)

I will comment every chapters and talk about some interesting, cute, or parts I want to highlight! First, I read the chapter 0, T.Y.O and the first thing I noticed is since Subaru used a fedora here, whenever he jumps or evading something, he keeps his hand on his fedora so it doesn't fall, and that's just... so cute of him 🥺 In case you forgot, we have character introduction and two cases in this chapter: the case of cheating entertainment figure, and Chanel suit.

Hokuto and Seishiro: talk about Subaru chose to exorcise (is this even a word in English) because of the girl's sake, not the man.

Subaru: Play with lil (unfortunate) dog

Hokuto: You don't need to hide (your relationship). Sei-chan said he falls in love with at the first sight!

The queen has spoken the truth. This man, indeed, falls in love with Subaru on the first sight and since then, hasn't been able to let him go even after his death. This man!

Subaru really gave the dog a red-bean paste bread 😭 I'm soft

Subaru: I'm just a normal onmyoji

Hokuto: EVEN ONMYOJI ITSELF ISN'T NORMAL AT ALL!

Honestly, the first half of her appearance in this chapter is just her screaming 😭

Subaru evading the lady's attacks and the notes next to him said "the nails of an office lady who did coating when manicure is strong" 😭 I'm dying

And in this panel, finally, we are shown how a normal 16 years old boy would react when he realized that he needs to take off the jacket. Hilariously panicked. Probably the only moment that's normal out of all Subaru's personality burned in my memory. This is so so so cute...

Then this is one panel that I have no recollection at all, and after reading the translation again, I was confused whether it was the translation that decided to exaggerate things or the text is actually changed from original to CPC version. Then again, I don't think CLAMP members said about changing the text, only Mokona-sensei reworked some background drawings. Then again, it doesn't differ that much though.

Hokuto said "That's right! In front of human's power (selfishness), even monsters and ghosts are powerless. Things like environment destruction or riots in Eastern European is like a lullaby for Japanese girls!!". It's funny because this is released in 1990 (the first tankobon is released in 1991 but the chapter is written/released in 1990) and Uni Soviet was still a thing, and now it's being re-released in 2022 and there is another war raging in Eastern Europe. Time is only repeating themselves in a loophole, isn't it?

There is another panel that differs from the translation I read, which is what Seishiro said after Subaru told Hokuto that her thinking is scary. He said "in front of girls, no matter what logic or theory (you said), it will bounce back because they have an invicible barrier (which means girls won't listen to what you said no matter how logical or theoritical it is)". I think this panel is funny, because Seishiro literally described Hokuto in one sentence, and it's funnier because Seishiro is probably defeated due to the very line he said himself (not listening to Hokuto's warning of her curse. And Seishiro isn't even a girl.

And Hokuto's respond is "You understand such thing, Sei-chan!" Oh my. He did.

Additionally, I want to add that you can feel how hard Hokuto ships Seishiro and Subaru better in the Japanese version. She is so excited to that and we can never be her for SeiSub 😞 She just loved these two.

Also, I can't put another picture but, the final line for T.Y.O chapter, and the very tagline for Tokyo Babylon is 「あなたは東京をきらいですか。」, which means "Do you hate "Tokyo"?". Subaru did say he loves Tokyo by the end of this chapter though it's because different reason from Seishiro, but the question is, by the end of Tokyo Babylon, does Subaru's opinion stay still or changed?

EDIT: I’m so genious to link the newest commentary to the first one, but never direct it to the next one, SO click here for the next part!

[everygame]

Lords Of Midnight (ZX Spectrum)

Developed/Published by: Mike Singleton / Beyond Software Released: 5/1984 Completed: 12/11/2021 Completion: Destroyed the Ice Crown with Fawkrin on Day 12. 22 Lords under my command. Trophies / Achievements: n/a

It’s rare to say I’m stunned by something, and it’s pretty surprising to say I’m stunned by a ZX Spectrum game from 1984, but holy hell am I stunned by Lords of Midnight.

I’m so stunned by Lords of Midnight I immediately regret not playing it properly earlier (for reasons I’ll detail) because it absolutely deserves a place on the Insert Credit list of Best British Games. It actually gets a tiny mention (alongside Mike Singleton’s later game Midwinter) during our discussion of Damocles, but it deserved so much more. So let’s just all agree that Sonic R isn’t on that list any more and Lords of Midnight is.

So why didn’t I play it properly earlier? Well, because I’ve always been completely baffled by it. I was sure I’d played it on Amstrad CPC--and I may well have--but I can’t see it having been put on any Amstrad Action covertapes of the period where I was religiously buying Amstrad Action, so I am pretty sure it must have been put on a PC Gamer (maybe PC Format?) coverdisk (or coverdisc?) at some point in the mid-late nineties in the form of one of Chris Wild’s ports, either DOS or Windows. It made no sense to me then either.

So let’s discuss what Lords of Midnight is before we get to why it baffled me and why now it astounds me. Lords of Midnight is a big ol’ rip-off of Lord of The Rings, basically, where a “fellowship” featuring an Aragorn, Gandalf, Frodo and Legolas are tasked with two different possible solutions to defeating a Sauron: either by successfully attacking and taking the citadel his forces stream from, or by destroying his one ring analogue (the “ice crown”) which can only be done by the Frodo in combination with another character (possibly the Gollum that’s kicking about, if you can find him.) You lose if the Sauron takes the “citadel of Xajorkith”, or the Aragorn and Frodo are killed.

These characters all have their own names: Luxor, Morkin; the baddie is called Doomdark, but honestly, it’s quickest to make sense of it if you just think of it all via the Lord of the Rings. But here’s where things get crazy. The game begins and Luxor (Aragorn), Morkin (Frodo), Corleth (Legolas) and Rothron (Gandalf) are all standing about a tower on the east side of the map, and the game goes: ok, play me.

And you’re like “wait what?”

You see, Lords of Midnight comes from an era when no one really beholden to any genre, and, to be honest, probably didn’t know what else had even come out. So sure, by this point Wizardry’s come out; Ultima has reached it’s third instalment; but if you’re a guy like Mike Singleton working on the ZX Spectrum, you might not even know that, never mind be thinking “ok, well, I do dungeons like this and character development like that”.

Instead what you do is you decide every character will view the world in first-person, be able to turn in eight directions, ensure the graphics always show a relative viewpoint that extends as far into the background as possible, and design a huge open world with plains and mountains and nothing even slightly like a corridor to traverse.

It is, in its own way, a work of actual genius, it just works extremely differently from anything I experienced then and to be honest have experienced now. It has some echos of a board game: you move each character until they run out of movement/action points and “night falls” for them, once that’s done you end your turn and the forces of Doomdark move. And move they do! It’s a simplistic AI, but you’re in a race against time: either to move Morkin into position to nick and destroy the Ice Crown, or to get the other characters to recruit enough lords that you can defend and then push back Doomdark’s forces (or more likely, try to do both.) If you just stood still, you could literally watch the forces move across the map, sacking fortress after fortress.

Well, sort of. You see, the original Lords of Midnight only came with a paper map that roughly marked out where everything was, so you were forced to map something that (honestly) feels ten times more complex than a wizardry map even with warps and wrapping and all that shit. If you weren’t extremely dedicated, you’d just wander the map, get lost, and die--not helped by the fact that every screen had to redraw, meaning that you could quickly lose the sense of where you actually stood. So you had better get the graph paper out.

But of course, it’s 2021 and sack that. So I didn’t actually play this on the Spectrum, I played this via Chris Wild’s most recent build of his PC version, which is extremely faithful to the original though might have some bugs (there’s a GOG thread that claims that the battle calculations are off, and either it’s a bug or I missed something in the UI but I feel like there was more information available to me on things like the amount of enemies at a character’s location I could never find, which made the game a bit harder.). The reason to play Chris Wild’s version, bugs or not, is that it includes an amazing automap that fills itself in across successive games and means you can click about each character, know where they are and where they’re actually going.

I think there’s a really good argument to be made, however, that that’s actually a little unfaithful. You see, Lords of Midnight is very much about the experience of, I guess, “real” medieval warfare. A commander might have a crappy map, sure, but he sees the battle from the ground. He doesn’t look at a map and see an enemy approaching; he looks to the east, and tries to work out how many regiments are approaching.

I suspect that’s why the map doesn’t record where Doomdark’s regiments are (even if you can see them) and only tracks things like where wolves and horses are (which don’t move) and while I kind of wish I did, but I respect the decision to keep the thematic spirit of the original while updating it so looking around makes more sense.

That said, this game is taxing. Recruiting lords is as simple as meeting them with a character that they are willing to speak to, building their armies as simple as hitting “recruit” in keeps and citadels, and entering combat as simple as walking to face an enemy army and hitting attack--at which point the combat continues across days until you choose to run away or one side dies. If you’re playing for a military victory, you’ll be tracking the movement of up to 32 lords, each with individual numbers of warriors and riders, facing off against enemies that you also have to track mentally. In my winning game, I was tracking 22 lords and only a couple of active battle grounds, with the majority of my lords just retreating to the citadel of Xajorkith to defend it.

(Chris Wild’s PC version also doesn’t actually have an ability to save, too, increasing the absolute stress of a game where overnight an army can suddenly kill one of the two most important characters. You can restart a day, and take back a single move, but… woof.)

Alright, maybe I’m not selling this to you. Singleton positioned this as an “epic game” rather than something as simple as an RPG, and once you grasp the systems and understand how to navigate the world, it’s undoubtedly the best description. There’s something so much bigger to the story that you tell in a playthrough of Lords of Midnight than there is to (say) the average roguelike, where the story you tell often hews closer to diagetic (“I walked into a trap that spawned this enemy and I died”). Here, I failed loads of games trying to defend the mountain-ridged choke-point above the plains of Blood, but in my successful game I had my miltary forces withdraw to Xajorkith, keeping a secondary force at the Fortress of Kumar (yes!!!!) ready to strike. Morkin recruited Lord Shadows to defend him while Rothron went to recruit the legendary dragon Farflame. Lord Shadows got entangled in a battle in the plains of Ogrim, meaning Morkin had to wind his way around the mountains, eventually recruiting the skulkrin Fawkrin who followed behind him--close but not too close, much like Gollum. I intended Farflame to destroy the ice crown, but right before the tower of Doom Morkin found himself facing a regiment of Doomdark’s men; Farflame flew from Lord Shadow’s side to take them on, dying in the process but allowing Morkin to escape, get the ice crown to Fawkrin, who destroyed it.

Ok, look, it’s not Shakespeare; it’s not even Tolkien. But that’s not all to the story--I haven’t told you all about Corleths’ desperate flight to unite the Fey against Doomdark, ending in (likely doomed) battle of Kor keep, or… I’ll stop.

It’s wonderful. I’ve talked many a time on this site about how these early games are imagination engines, and I understand now why people obsess over this game still nearly 40 years later. It could desperately do with giving the player more information in a more succinct UI, but if you suddenly cluttered the main screen with all that info it wouldn’t just be these wild, spectrum vistas full of possibility. It’s a bit hard to recommend Lords of Midnight to any but the historian, but if you want to be amazed at what was possible, and imagine another future (imagine if this had become a huge hit in Japan instead of Wizardry?) you’ve got to experience this once. Just remember that it’s a first-person video game. I genuinely think that I couldn’t grasp that on that first screen you’re viewing the world through Luxor’s eyes back in the day!

Will I ever play it again? So, look, I’ll be honest: I probably won’t play this again, simply because as I said above trying for a military victory is so mentally taxing and also brutally long (I was amused to see the difference between an optimal ice crown victory and a completionist military victory youtube videos: fifteen minutes vs. over six hours) that unless a new version of this was to dilute the concept with a tactical map with full information I don’t think I’ll ever do it. However, Doomdark’s Revenge was out at the end of 1984, so I’ll play it, why not!

Final Thought: Mike Singleton very sadly passed away in 2012, and Lords of Midnight is another game with a complicated lack of a legacy, as a singular vision that broke the boundaries of its hardware to the point where no was really capable of ripping it off. I mean, it’s probably more sensible to just make an adventure game, or an RPG, or a war game. But here’s to a guy who went for it anyway and fucking smashed it. Support Every Game I’ve Finished on ko-fi, either via a one-off donation (pay what you like) or by joining as a supporter at just $1 a month and get articles like this a week early.

[redantsunderneath]

Marlene Dietrich/Josef von Sternberg marathon: The Blue Angel, Morocco (1930), Dishonored, and Shanghai Express (1931)

I watched all of these films, the Blue Angel in German (which surprisingly didn’t hurt, though I might have missed some puns), so I could be prepped for the great movie podcast “There’s Sometimes a Buggy” that is covering the collaboration that made Marlene Deitrich as we know her. I don’t have a lot of exposure (more on my movie history later) to the early talkie years so these movies were a bit surprising to me on a lot of fronts, not the least reason for which was that I wasn’t brought up in rape culture, I guess (is this what people mean when they say that? cause, jeesh! every movie, the threat is just there). Funny enough, I felt that The Blue Angel was the only one that was really political to me along axes that felt vital, which is peculiar as the other three were about political conflict of factions/nations and make statements about war, nationalism, and the other, but I guess they don’t seem political in a sense that fits with current discourse. I didn’t see the CPC officer in Shanghai Express as pro communist but as a tentative stab at ambivalent nuance of the other’s perspective, a tipping of the hand that there’s a western-centracism in his absurd rape code (this is a common feature through the films of a “first claim” that a certain type of man has on a woman that has nothing to do with what she wants), and as ultimately an example of the brutality of violent conflict (more pointed because he’s been fleshed out).  But I admit, by the films' equalizing the other side (the Russians, the CPC and even the Tunisian rebels if only by making the French Foreign Legion look so terrible) that is in itself a statement.  Kubrick’s Paths of Glory seems to pick up where this leaves off.

The Blue Angel is the film I have the most to say about, and was the most interesting conceptually, but was hard to sync with for technical reasons (me not speaking German maybe being one of them).  Through the films, we watch Dietrich get better at being a talkie actress and the Blue Angel doesn’t push her that hard, but this may be more a function of the camerawork and editing than anything else.  Jannings somehow works better with her as a leading man than anyone but Dishonored’s McLaglen because he can fill the space created by her silent movie style of encapsulated performative moments then stasis/posing, though the let it breathe editing doesn’t help (I almost think her hand on ribcage pose starts as a need for her to have something to do when reacting that seems like a reaction).  Morocco’s Gary Cooper sometimes seems like he’s in a different space than her and Shanghai’s Brook is super clipped (though she’s better adapted by then).

In Blue Angel, the effort to create composite Mise-en-scène with the ominous foreground frames is terrific (those anchors hanging down! the professor’s approach to the club!) and we have some of that German expressionist inner state stuff going on, especially at the end (the shadow of the chandelier!) but the cameraman doesn’t seem to know where to be and maybe that explains the ostensibly crappy blocking.  The cinematography on the others is much better – the superimposed tracking shots in Morocco are phenomenal – and have just as many knockout myth buildingly shot scenes (too many to mention but her in a tux in Morocco,  the final escape in Dishonored, the prayer in Shanghai Express).  All the movies have enough differences in approach that you could think they were done by a different team (were the external shots in Morocco the ones shot by Peckinpah’s eventual AD, Lucien Ballard?).

There are all sorts of motifs running through the films: clocks (and calendars), racially insensitive dolls, men’s hats on women, skein-like drapes sometimes burned by irons vs drawn opaque shades, a man eavesdropping to get mood altering information from behind a louvered door, clowns/harlequins, throwing stuff that will need to be cleaned up on the floor/wall, makeup application in a number of functions (e.g. highlighting her performative nature, emasculation of men), sitting/sprawling on things as an act of feminine claiming of the space, guttural and animal noises as announcement we’re in a libidinal space positive or negative, the stockings, the kept animals, and all sorts of recurring human archetypes.   But it’s The Blue Angel, with its full bore usage of these things plus more (eggs, nautical detritus, clock figurines, etc, that the subliminal story is the most present (though Dishonored is pretty potent).

The reason why I say Blue Angel is the most socio-political is that as a 2019 person on the internet who sees the culture war, is aware of the history of Weimar imagery as handled post Nazi, and knows what’s coming (spoilers for Hitler), the statement being made looks really complicated with a first pass of: the intelligencia’s embrace of the subaltern as primarily an instrument-possession both losses them cultural power and leaves them outside of the outgroup too, which is how, maybe, regressive populism (the students as rabble) wins. Granted this is an Iser-type hermeneutical hot take and it is complicated by the possibility that Jannings codes as pre-Hitler German populace’s growing conflation of left wing and Jewish as “dark other” (problematic, hard to bring the 1930 and 2019 horizons together on this, mileage may vary, but a case can be made) which would almost make this an anti-radical (on both sides) statement that meshes with the other movies’ anti-violence, anti group/idea allegiance, pro-people take. This is just the "bad decision" version. As for Jannings, the lumpen here is fine with him as long as he performs correctly.  Maybe this is an artifact of Dietrich not being the protagonist by a director who wants her to be.  The thing that really overlays this from a now standpoint, though, is the rhyming with a kind of 4chan framing where he has lost his “rightful” power, is “cucked,” and has an entitled-male rage tm (i.e. this can be read as an anti incel-ideology movie). The other movies don’t have this kind of congruence for the most part.

But the way the symbols work is pretty neat.  His descent from prominent social capital to internationally renowned cock-a-doodle-do jester is marked by the change in the relationship with eggs as sexual enticement vs humiliation (and the humiliation was there from the beginning to be sure).  The clown is there as a warning/future self.  The special clocks that eerily suggests his/society’s demons are coming and no one can stop the forward mechanism of time. The caged bird is as you would expect.  The dolls are a sort of self possession that she does test runs giving away.  There’s too much to talk about.

Morocco has Cooper’s charisma going for it (which works best with Dietrich’s when they cut back and forth), the best non-closeup camerawork (the exteriors are great), large scale staging, and that cool woman in a tux mythmaking performance piece.  It contains Cooper’s great non-verbal performance in the scene where he eventually writes “changed my mind” on the mirror (you can see him decide).   The last scene of her trudging across the desert and throwing away her heals is great, and there is so much motion in the frame so often – the superimposition of movement that turns a dissolve into a long transitional double shot, the scene where she looks for him in the marching parade, etc. The relief map was hinky, though.  

Dishonored was my favorite of the four. I liked all these films but, broken down, it had a couple of “bests” in it, but was #2 for everything else.  It had the best-functioning male lead (the always in a mask non-naturalistic thing was perfect as that how she is and it balanced the space well) and a greater share of my very favorite scenes: the final escape scene, the party, the firing squad, and any any fucking piano playing (the first shot of her playing piano is my favorite shot of all the films).  It’s the second best as a subliminal story (after Blue Angel), was the only one other than Shanghai Express that seemed like it had a screenplay - a story story rather than a loose idea, the idea of certain shots, the actors types, and dialogue. It had the most convincing sweep other than Morocco. The cat was a nice setting free of agency, progressing the doll as totem of self/other possession but with a mind of its own, with the power to ruin everything.  This movie really vibed with me perfectly.  

For Shanghai Express, see above, but I have to say I love the Disney villainess (before there were Disney villainesses) dress.  The multi note secondary characters with actual performances and arcs was unique... the pastor who changes his mind on what is morally good is terrific, as are the exchanges between two fully fleshed out prostitutes and an old prude.  My list is close, but If I had to order it would be Dishonored, Blue Angel, Shanghai, then Morocco, but it’s tough because the great things about each vary so much (I kept dithering on the bottom three more than #1, I considered putting Morocco 2nd).

It’s odd I’ve written this much and I haven’t broached the gender archetype pushing and pulling here, mainly because this seems pretty well mined territory.  I’m under-read on this and feel like my take would be super cold -- cross dressing, Gary Cooper with a flower behind his ear, the unflinching depiction of how tough a time women have it while still depicting a kind of unique female cruelty to men, and the constant sexist statements undermined by the POV and what actually happened.  Hopefully my naive viewpoint, coming at this fresh eyes will be valuable. So, like, are all these movies from this time period about class?  It kind of reminds me of Impro, the Keith Johnstone book, which basically boils all theatrical character interaction to being about status.  

Anyway, I’ve ignored my exegesis of Taylor Swift’s Lover to write this, so I must be back to work.  

[transformingyourlives]

Meaning Is The New Luxury

“We’re here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”

—Henry Charles Bukowski

Most of you have at least heard of the movie Meet Joe Black. In the movie Death arrives at the home of a media mogul in the body of the young man, and given the moguls "competence, experience, and wisdom.” Death says that for as long as he will be Death’s guide on earth, the man will not have to die. The movie begins in earnest as the mogul introduces Death to his family as Joe Black. As the mogul’s final birthday arrives at the end of the movie, the mogul appeals to Death, Joe Black, to recognize the meaning of true love and all it encompasses, especially honesty and sacrifice. Imagine that conversation.

And that image brings me to the thoughts about another writer, a mortal writer indeed, the author and poet Charles Bukowski. Charles was an unabashed drinker, Lothario, and all-around disaster in life. He lived one of the taboo male fantasies; the uninhibited bachelor, slobby, anti-social, and utterly free, drunk on the stage at his poetry readings and verbally abusive to his audiences. He was pretty much out of control most of the time. He gambled most of his money away and had an ill-fated habit of exposing himself in public. Hey, boys will be boys.

All of this being said, in spite of Bukowski’s ghastly lifestyle, he was a deeply contemplative and brooding man with more character than half the people you meet or those in the books you read today. Charles spent most of his life poor, plastered, and losing job after job. He was a poet at heart, not a clerk. He wound up filing letters in a post office when he got his first book offer. All his life he wrote continuously, and he was published from time to time, but until his book he remained a relative unknown, a loser. He wrote for more than a generation before finally getting that first book deal. It was pitiful. When accepting it, he wrote, “I have one of two choices: stay in the post office and go crazy, or stay out here and play at writer and starve. I have decided to starve.” But it was a deal all the same.

His writings about his anxieties, his fiascos, his doubts, his self-destructive behavior, and emotional dysfunctional remain unmatched even today. He wrote about the best and worst of himself without so much as a flinch, without shifting his eyes or even muttering a “sorry about that” as a postscript. He wrote about both shame and pride without qualification. Bukowski shares that his father beat him with a razor strop three times a week from the ages of six to eleven. He said that it helped his writing, as he came to understand undeserved pain. The depression bolstered his rage as he grew, and gave him much of his voice and material for his writings. His writing was painfully even tempered; a hushed grip of the atrocious and yet lovely man that he was.

What Bukowski understood, that most individuals don’t, is that the best things in life can sometimes be unpleasant. You have all heard it said that “life is messy.” Surely we can all admit that we’re all screwed up a little, in our own special snowflake sort of way. As for Charles, he never comprehended the baby boomer preoccupation with peace and happiness or the naiveté that rode in with it. He knew from his own life that you don’t get one side of the nickel without the other side. Heads and tails come as one deal. You can’t have love without suffering. You don’t get meaning and insightfulness without some sacrifice; sometimes a lot of sacrifice.

 What Bukowski understood,

that most individuals don’t,

is that the

best things in life

can sometimes be unpleasant.

 As a life coach, the concept of “life purpose” is something that I know a great deal about and has verily exploded in popularity in recent decades. People don’t just want to make money or build a safe career. People want to do something important. People want to be noticed. People want to be looked up to. People want meaning.

Meaning is the new luxury.

But like any other luxury, if we aren’t careful, we come to idealize it rather than enjoy it. People have come to think that all you have to do is find “that thing,” that one friggin’ thing! That thing that you are “meant” to do, and suddenly, everything will just magically drop into place. Then you’ll be enchantingly happy and do this special thing until the day you die, always feeling fulfilled and happy, petting the elephants and enjoying the sunrises while making zillions of dollars in your pajamas from home. But oh-shit, we really do need that one thing; if only we knew what we were meant to do, then everything would fit into place. Whew! It makes you break out in a sweat just thinking about it, right?

I can confirm that it’s possible to work with a coach to tease out those good ideas to help you get started. To help you find meaning and purpose in what will turn out to be quite a bit more than a five-day coaching retreat. It will be a fucking hike through weedy swamps in heavy rain and lightning striking all around you. And you’d better love it, this thing you seek. You better friggin’ ache for this thing. It has to be first on your list of lists; and yes, don’t forget you have to LOVE IT.

Bukowski once wrote, “What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.” (Spoiler Alert: did you notice his assumption that you would be willing to walk through it?) Finding the passion and a purpose in your life is often via trial and error, a trial-by-fire sort of thing. You don’t just wake up one day and find yourself thrilled to be doing one thing forever and ever. Like death, it’s an endless Meet Joe Black learning experience, work-in-progress. You have to try something, notice how it feels, assess and modify your direction, and then try again, and again, and again. Rarely does anyone get it right on the first try, or the 10th or sometimes even the 300th. And then, if/when you finally do get things the way you want them, what you want is likely to change. Because the world changes, you change, the thing you select changes.

 You have to try something,

notice how it feels,

assess and modify

your direction,

and then try again,

and again, and again.

 Doing What You Love

The reality that doing what you love is not the same as loving what you do was something that Bukowski understood better than most people. There’s an essential sacrifice involved in it. It is part of life. Just like choosing a life partner, it’s not choosing someone who makes you unicorn and tree-fairy happy with every breath you take;  it’s choosing somebody you will want to be with even when they’re pissing you off or when you’re lost.

Look folks, it won’t feel like work but, instead like something unavoidable, like you almost have no choice in the matter. It’s purely who you are, hot mess and all. It’s your vehicle that you choose to ride towards death with. And you know what? You will notice that you are thrilled to let it take you there. How else could you ever travel?  And yet, you’re under no illusions that it won’t be a rough ride and you accept from the start that there will be surprises along the way. Here are some examples of what I mean:

Your study of coaching may lead you to writing which might turn into a career in books and articles and then you may decide at age 65 that blogging has been corrupted by advertising interests and you spend the rest of your days writing a book that you never publish—or maybe you do from your patio in Bonnieux, France.

Your interest in the gym may lead you to a deeper interest in training and yoga, which then gets you into personal training, working with people on body improvement and wellness. This leads you into a life as trainer, but after dealing with the surface-level issues of your clients, you discover that the body molds itself to match repressed emotions. So you take your coaching certificate that you worked on for years, say screw it, and open up a physical training and NLP coaching business in California where you dedicate the last of your days to promoting mind-body awareness.

Rarely do we experience love at first sight. An even smaller number will experience passion and consequence at first experience. As with a relationship, you really do have to build it from scratch, piece-by-piece, learning from each earlier mistake, until after years of lumber, brick, mortar, tears, and sweat, lots of sweat, it stands on its own, sheltering you from all that comes. And once we’re there, like a jet in a long, slow glide to the ground, we let it take us to our graves. That is a good thing.

So when Joe Black does come, and he will indeed come, how will he take you?

 SPEAK WITH A LIFE COACH IN BATON ROUGE

Frank Hopkins is a life coach in Baton Rouge who is certified as a Professional Coach (CPC) by the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC). Frank has helped numerous people to go through emotional change in a way that is positively transformative. You can see Frank's other website, www.frankhopkinlifecoach.com on line as well.

[the-queen-of-ships]

People like fictional characters who are villains.

But tbh cpc makes it pretty hard for me to like the villains, but somehow cpc still somehow makes me like them whether unchanged or not.

However there are a couple characters I don't like Blaine's fan girl bc tbh she aint that entertaining and was more infuriating than anything and Dandridge, well, I just dont think he's a charming character, he feels like a basic anime protag, the kind that I don't like but that's just my opinion.

Ofc I know myself and I can and will be crushing on the most toxic men of fiction. Girl I like Blaine and Whitney, I dont even hate Leland as much as the other people.

Also it's particularly more frustrating when cpc fans irrationally hate on characters (fans that doesn't acknowledge their literal arcs and behavior) like Blaine and Lance bc ugh how hypocritical and one dimensional can you get?? Opinions are opinions, I can't change that but! The least you can do is understand the character and not throw assumptions especially considering how cpc's point of the story is literally right there in every arc.

Hey, am I the only one who really doesn't like Blaine's fan girl? Like, specifically the one who threw those waffle notes?

I feel like everyone in this fandom is just treating her as "quirky fan girl that'll never get the boy lol", and I really don't agree. She tried to ruin Blaine's relationship with Maria because she wanted Blaine for herself. She spread rumors and essentially ruined Frederick's life (or the the very least could have) because it might get Blaine to break up his happy relationship. And then she has the GOD DAMN NERVE to go up and try to date him.

It was SO SATISFYING to see her get crushed by Blaine, and I won't let any posts saying she's the same as Susanna convince me otherwise. Susanna was a love rival, this fan girl is an obsessive stalker that treats Blaine like a prize to be won, and if she ruins his life or the life of his uninvolved brothers in the process of doing so, than so be it.

She's just the kind of character that I feel like would be seen a lot less happily if the genders were swapped

[antiques-for-geeks]

Game Review : Space Harrier

Elite Systems / 1987 / Originally £9.99 / Commodore 64

In Space Harrier, save the ‘Fantasy Zone’ from certain destruction by flying into the screen and blasting stuff until you meet a bigger thing to blast at the end of the level. Then blast more stuff while looking at a differently coloured background!

The rate at which graphics and sound advanced in the arcades in the early 1980’s was genuinely astounding. As a kid I only made contact with this exciting world a few times a year, and I would be greeted with something new and potentially jaw dropping on nearly every occasion. A case in point: try comparing SEGA’s 1981 driving game Turbo with their 1985 fantastical 3D shooter Space Harrier. Turbo was a really impressive game for ‘81, but it was made to look colourless, jerky and ridiculously limited within just a few short years. 

Space Harrier was a notable early entry in SEGA’s ‘super scaler’ series of arcade games, which used hardware sprite scaling effects to provide a convincing into-the-screen 3D effect without the need to render a real 3D space.

In the arcade. Fast, smooth and colourful!

The effect of movement is amplified here by a smoothly animated checkerboard ground pattern. It’s a very simple game at heart; you view your flying character from behind as they weave in and out of columns and trees, trading shots with enemies that dance in front of them. At the end of each level you come to a dead stop and face off against a larger boss; basically a mobile bullet sponge who guards the way to the next level. 

Every few stages you get to ride a dragon and smash into trees to earn points. The battle is played out to a memorable theme tune, and has a few scattered speech samples thrown in for good measure (‘welcome to the fantasy zone!’).

From the very beginning, reproducing a game like Space Harrier on the C64 was a bit of a non-starter. Where 8-bit home computers could often produce a reasonable facsimile of arcade games at the beginning of their life-span, they were soon completely out-paced by the sounds and visuals offered in the arcade.

Despite this fact, arcade licenses remained sure sellers on home systems which could never do them justice.

You'll forget the sun in his jealous sky as we walk in fields of brown.  

The impossible job of converting such a technically advanced game to the C64 was handled by Chris Butler, whose efforts on the beige box I generally have a lot of time for. He produced very playable (if truncated) versions of Commando and ‘Ghosts and Goblins’. He also went on to make several other madly ambitious C64 conversions of SEGA’s super scaler arcade games, with some degree of success. His games though, had a definite tendency to look plain and functional. If you take a candy coloured fantasy like Space Harrier and replace 90% of the colour with turd-brown and battleship grey it’s hard to hand out plaudits for what’s left.

And yet, if you squint… and approach it with a lot of charity… this *is* a half decent effort for the time. It’s nice and fast and contains all the essential gameplay elements of dodging and shooting in a 3D space. It’s a shorter game, with much less variety in enemies, no dragon riding bonus sections and no character speech, but the graphical effect that renders the enemies and obstacles as they get closer until nearly filling the screen has been done fairly effectively.

It’s certainly much better than the laughably feeble Amstrad CPC effort, which rendered all the enemies and obstacles with vector graphics to keep the speed up. It’s also much less likely to give you a seizure than the Spectrum port, throwing its shaded monochrome sprites and horrible colour clash right into your retinas. 

The conversion is obviously a rush job; apparently Chris was given a stupidly short deadline and it would have been much better if he’d been allowed the time to finish. This is evidenced by the later US release which added a raster bar effect on the ground and tidied up the sprite work. 

U.S. Space Harrier. A slap in the face to British gamers!

Ultimately, what sinks this game on the C64 is that fact that in the arcade it was more of an attempt at sensory overload than a deep and engaging game. The deluxe cabinet even threw the player about courtesy of a hydraulic chair! It was about as imaginatively made a sensory overload as you were going to get back then, and I still retain a lot of fondness for it, but strip it of its theme park ride trappings and there isn’t really a whole lot left to keep you entertained.

Buying it today

This was a successful mainstream release, and there are plentiful cassette copies available for a few pounds.

Commentariat

Tim: The odd thing is, for years I never saw an actual Space Harrier arcade machine. Our local leisure centre was the point of reference for such things and while it was fine for Double Dragon, Thunderblade, Xenophobe, Outrun and Operation Wolf, they never seemed to ever get Space Harrier. So in my mind, this game has always really been a mish-mash of low res graphics and turgid colours. Oddly, it’s the arcade that feels wrong. Messed up, I know. 

The C64’s version is alright; it whips along at a decent pace and the music, what there is of it, is nicely done. True it’s nowhere near arcade accurate and at times makes little sense, but it’s a solid attempt even if it quickly bounces against the limitations of the hardware it’s running on. Compare it to some other versions and the arcade and sadly, it’s nothing to write home about.

Pop: When I think of Space Harrier, I’m always transported back to a specific moment in my childhood. Some of my friends were keen mountain bikers, and since I’d just been given a cheap imitation of a mountain bike I decided to join them on one of their weekend trips. This quickly resulted in me travelling at speed down a gravelly hill on my arse. Luckily Tim lived nearby; his mum was a nurse and with her expert help I survived. I remember coming home that evening battered and bruised and playing my new copy of Space Harrier for the first time. I can’t remember enjoying it that much, but it was certainly a surreal experience, still vivid in my mind.

In retrospect, this wasn’t much cop. The C64 was plagued by over-ambitious arcade conversions. There’s just not enough gameplay here, and it’s all quite unattractive to look at.

Meat: The graphics are ugly, the main character runs like he’s shat himself, there’s minimal gameplay, half the levels are missing, the bonus stages are missing, the synthesized speech is missing. Other than that it’s fine.

Score card

Presentation  5/10

A standard cassette jewel case with inlay instructions. The cover artwork is attractive courtesy of the original arcade game. There’s very little that’s special about the in-game presentation, with a very bare title screen. This has all the hall-marks of a rush job.

Originality 6/10

From a graphical design standpoint the arcade game was very original. The gameplay itself was only an iteration on what had come before. There weren’t too many games attempting this into-the-screen viewpoint on the C64 at the time, given how difficult it was to pull off successfully.

Graphics 5/10

They’re fast, but much more jerky than in the arcade thanks to the lack of any custom sprite scaling hardware in the humble ‘64. The effect just about works, but the lack of any ground animation is a let down. Everything is splotchy and ugly, and there’s far too much brown! 

Hookability 6/10

Very easy to get into, and nothing much to explain. There’s a certain appeal to seeing what comes next, for a while at least.

Sound 7/10

A well made rendition of the arcade Space Harrier theme plays on every level, with a separate end-of-level boss tune. The spot effects are pitiful, however. The C64 surely could have handled the synthesized speech, though this may have been cut due to memory constraints and to avoid having to make the game a tape multi-load.

Lastability 3/10

Space Harrier is not a deep game. There isn’t even as much incentive to see later levels as in the arcade, because the background and enemy variety has been cut right back.

Value for Money 3/10

1987 was something of a vintage year for the C64, with the release of original titles such as Wizball, IK+ and The Last Ninja. There really isn’t enough here to make this a worthy purchase at full price.

Overall 4/10

While this was a brave attempt at home conversion of Space Harrier, it was a minor disappointment at the time. It may have been the best on an 8-bit computer, but that’s clearing a pretty low bar. It also rankles that we got something half finished where the U.S. saw a significantly more polished release.

If you really feel the need to play an 8-bit conversion today, we would recommend the efforts on the Master System or PC Engine. There’s also a highly impressive modern homebrew for Atari computers.

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New Post has been published on https://popadup.com/pop-under-ad-network/

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Pop-under Advertising

10X higher performance than any other ad format Start from $0.01 CPC High CTR + Low CPC = Better ROI

What is Push Notification?

Push Notification is an innovative and user-friendly way to connect with your targeted audience. You can significantly increase engagement with your content and provide positive user experience to your customers.

A push notification is a text or rich media message, sent from third-party applications once the user opts in to receive them.

The strategy behind push notification is to offer value whether it be content, coupons, or time-sensitive alerts, bringing the user back to engage with the application.

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95%

VIEWABILITY

$0.01

COST PER CLICK

200M+

SUBSCRIBERS

100%

REAL USERS

Traffic from push notifications converts for all popular verticals

all mainstream verticals

Apps

Boost downloads on App Store and Google Play.

e-Shops

Drive online purchases on e-shops and affiliate links.

Gambling

Promote casinos, sports betting and gaming offers.

Health

Advertise weight loss and nutrition products.

Dating

Find new members for dating and relationships websites.

Blockchain

Promote tokens, cryptocurrencies and ICOs.

Binary

Promote binary options and forex trading platforms.

Sweepstakes

Find new winners for contests and giveaways.

Targeting Options

Geo Targeting

Receive visitors from specific countries, states, cities or DMA regions.

Domain Targeting

Receive traffic from targeted domain names and sources only.

Device Targeting

Target mobile, tablet and desktop devices via operating systems.

Carrier Targeting

Target audience by specific carriers and Wi-Fi connections.

App Targeting

Make a whitelist and receive visitors from targeted apps only.

Category Targeting

Target your product or service for specific industries or topics.

Browser Targeting

Get visitors from specific browsers or make an exclusion list.

Supply Targeting

Run your campaigns on Web or In-app inventory types.

How Does Rich Push Works?

Users, that allowed to receive push notifications will see your push ads. A push ad contains Title, Description and Image. When a user taps notification, he gets redirected to your app or website.

1. Users allow to receive notifications

Users give their permission to receive notifications.

2. Users see push ads on locked screen

Users see push ads and tap to learn more about your offer.

3. Users go to your offer page

Users tap push ads and go to offer page.

Advertise in three steps: Sign up, deposit money and start getting traffic. It’s so easy!

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CASE STUDY 01

Online Game

101% ROI

Here is a case study from one of our affiliates, who tested push-notification advertising

Client: Browser Online GameGoal: Sign Ups

INDICATORS

ROI:

101%

Revenue:

2829$

SPEND:

1408$

ABOUT

Decided to test game installs on push-notification advertising. Browser games go well with native format so started from those in particular. Found a decent offer on Dragon Awaken with good payouts and a couple of landing pages. Saw it in a couple of affiliate networks, which is nice.

Had some experience with games, got lots of different prelandings (with fantasy girls and short quizzes mostly), so managed to launch campaigns pretty easily. I rarely make prelandings by myself, usually use spy-services and edit those to better fit the offer. (BTW, had to lead traffic straight to the landing, EPC appeared to be higher)

TESTED

Game posters

Gameplay screenshots

Other games screenshots (Heroes 3 performed nicely)

Classic – sexy girls from games

Statistics

Didn’t have to stop anything, since all subscribers lists had positive ROI. Here’s what I spent on push ads:

And here are affiliate network stats:

push-advertising is very much different from regular native ads. Format is a bit similar, but never the less. I recommend to change creatives at least once every 3 days. You’ll get maximum relevant audience that way.

CASE STUDY 02

LOAN COMPANY

101% ROI

Here is a case study from one of our advertisers, who used push-notification ad format.Client: Loan companyGoal: Loan App Installs

INDICATORS

Clicks:

148950

Conversions:

3180

Cost per conversion:

$0,47

SPENT:

$1500

SOLUTION

Push-notification advertising

5 creatives made

eCPC: 0.01

Monitoring and additional tuning.

CASE STUDY 03

ICO Presale

Cost per lead: $11

Tech company ICO presale campaign case study. Company ran out of leads from Facebook and Adwords, so they began looking for other channels.

Client: Blockchain-Tech CompanyGoal: ICO presale leads

INDICATORS

Clicks:

209 388

Conversions:

3 098

Cost per conversion:

$11

SPENT:

$34 098

SOLUTION

Targeting: Tier 1 countries, Worldwide

15 creatives made

CPC: $0.16

Monitoring and additional tuning.

User segments testing.

CASE STUDY 04

Gambling

ROI: 110%

Client: Online Casino OfferGoal: Sign ups and deposits

INDICATORS

ROI:

110%

Revenue:

$9517,2

SPEND:

$4532

SOLUTION

Targeting: Germany

Push-notification advertising

6 creatives made

eCPC: $0.1

Monitoring and additional tuning.

POP AD UP push notifications delivered decent lead generation effect and performed as good as Google AdWords and Facebook Ads. Customer was satisfied with the result and continued using the platform. SIGN ME UP NOW

How to Write a Good Push Ads Copy?

Push titles and descriptions require some creativity in order to be effective. This doesn’t mean you should channel your inner Walt Whitman and get all artistic about it. The trick is in crafting your Push Ads copy so that it fits the narrow character limit and convinces the user to open your ad.

To make things easier for you, we’ve compiled a few Push Ads examples for some of the best converting verticals in our platform.

Let’s begin, though, with a “power word” cheat sheet. Here’s a list of words that typically work well for building up the sense of urgency, delivering value, offering exclusivity and provoking emotions:

Believe it or not, there are also some emojis that seem to increase your conversion rates. You can go back to our Power Word chart as well as the emojis above when creating your push ads copy and see how much they improve your advertising results.

MOBILE DOWNLOADS: UTILITY & GAMES

Let’s start with a utility app. Imagine you’re promoting a battery-optimizing app. We used an illustration of a fully-charged battery, a straight-to-the-point title (with a battery emoji), and clearly stated a benefit of downloading the app (90 extra minutes on your battery), plus an obligatory CTA.

In the case of a mobile game offer (let’s call this game Mobile Heroes 3) we’ve put the CTA in the title and focused on writing a description that encourages the recipient to download the game. What do gamers want? A challenge! So we gave them one.

CASINO & SPORTS BETTING

Here we assumed a sign-up-centric offer that rewards a user with a bonus and you, the advertiser, with a payout. The bonus is the key reason for the potential sign up, so we promoted it in the title (notice the emoji), and described the details in the description.

Sports betting works in a similar manner. Note, however, how we build up the sense of urgency with “limited offer”.

BINARY & CRYPTO

With binary offers, you want to base your message on the opportunity to cash in while downplaying the risk. Positive forecasts and other insights can create FOMO (fear of missing out) and help convince a recipient that investing now is a smart business decision.

Crypto offers don’t differ that much from binary when it comes to creating push copy. You might want to emphasize the potential gains. In our example, we used a statistic that encourages a recipient to invest in a given cryptocurrency. By the way, odd numbers tend to be more convincing. Don’t ask us why. It is what it is

E-COMMERCE & TRAVEL

In e-commerce, it’s often all about the offer itself, but you can improve your chances of getting more conversions by applying an enticing image and emphasizing the benefit. You need all the firepower you can get, so use some “power words” and emojis.

Same applies to travel. Although here, we decided to impose a sense of urgency by using phrases like “sale”, “exclusive offer” and a sandglass emoji.

THE DOs AND DON’Ts OF DATING

The dating vertical combined with Push Ads has been bringing our customers some outstanding results. Remember, however, that Push Ads are non-adult traffic only, which means you have to play by some rules. No nudity, no obscene stuff, and watch your language too.

Here’s an example which our compliance team would happily approve:

Advertise in three steps: Sign up, deposit money and start getting traffic. It’s so easy!

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how to build a campaign

click “New Campaign”

Select Push Basic Setting

Tip: You can now use emojis in push-advertising! Studies say emojis can boost your CTR up to 57% for pushes.

1. Enter the Destination URL of the website you want to advertise. 2. Add Google Analytics tracking code if you would like to track sources, domain or medium. 3. Select Call to action (Goal of your creative) 4. Add your Brand Logo 5. Provide an Image you would like to advertise

Push notification ad creative requirements: • Preview image: 192×192 px • Expanded image: 492х328 px • Text title: 30 symbols max • Text description: 45 symbols max

Targeting options available: • Mobile: Android Phone, Android Tablet, Android browsers (Chrome, Samsung etc.) • Desktop: Windows, MacOS

Advance Setting

To track Conversion use our Pixel or Post Back Conversion Tool

Place Your Bid from $0.01 minimum bid

Select your daily budget

Select the GEO

Select a Data Center 

For better performance we recommend to create 2 campaign with a data center per each campaign, and compare results

Verticals

And Finally Select a Category, we have over 50+ Categories to select from your vertical for better targeting.

Push notification ad creative requirements:

Preview image: 192×192 px

Expanded image: 492х328 px

Text title: 30 symbols max

Text description: 45 symbols max

Targeting options available:

Mobile: Android Phone, Android Tablet, Android browsers (Chrome, Samsung etc.)

Desktop: Windows, MacOS

Geo

Push notification ad creative requirements:

Preview image: 192×192 px

Expanded image: 492х328 px

Text title: 30 symbols max

Text description: 45 symbols max

Targeting options available:

Mobile: Android Phone, Android Tablet, Android browsers (Chrome, Samsung etc.)

Desktop: Windows, MacOS

Geo

Datacenter

selection of the server (data center 1 refers to USA and East regions, data center 2 refers to Europe).

Subscribers list ID

list of available publishers sending push notifications traffic. For better performance we recommend to run on all list.

Why choose push notification ads?

REAL BOT FREE TRAFFIC, EXCEPTIONAL REACH,CUSTOMER AQUISITIONS EFFORTS, ENGAGED AUDIENCE, HIGHER RETENTION AND INSTANT DELIVERY, INCREASE ROI UP TO 104%

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How to Use Facebook Carousel Ads to Dramatically Lower CPC

If you’re going to splash some cash on social ads, Facebook is the place to do it.

The power of the platform is well-documented, especially given that 93% of marketers are already on board with Facebook ads. Meanwhile, the ability to drill down and target hyper-specific audiences through display ads and Facebook remarketing is second-to-none versus other social networks.

That said, there’s always the issue of the price tag when it comes to social advertising.

“But Facebook ads are expensive.”

And hey, you’re not necessarily wrong.

Pricing out your Facebook ads can quickly add up for those unfamiliar with the platform’s many features and functionalities. So if you’re interested in keeping your budget in check and your cost-per-click (CPC) down, are you stuck?

Not at all. In fact, we’ve broken down one of Facebook’s most effective forms of advertising to guarantee you get the most bang for your buck.

Enter the era of Facebook carousel ads.

What Are Facebook Carousel Ads?

Facebook carousel ads are an ad format that allows you to combine 3-5 ads into a single scrollable ad unit.

You’ve probably seen carousel ads pop up in your newsfeed but perhaps you didn’t know them by name. Spend about five seconds scrolling through your Facebook and chances are you’ll run into something like this from Warby Parker:

Ta-da. That’s a carousel ad.

Facebook rolled out carousel ads in 2015, so these types of campaigns are still relatively young. Even so, Facebook carousel ads boast some impressive stats in terms of clicks and conversions. In fact, Facebook themselves claim that these types of ads drive a 30% to 50% lower cost-per-conversion and a 20% to 30% cost-per-click versus single image ads.

Impressive, right?

On the surface, Facebook carousel ads seem pretty straightforward. So what’s all the hype about, then? What elements of these ads cause them to perform so well? For starters:

They’re visual: Carousel ads provide marketers with multiple opportunities to catch the eye of scrollers by showing off multiple products or images versus a single static photo.

They’re interactive: Even something as subtle as clicking an arrow means your prospects spend more time engaging with your brand and its imagery.

They’re fun: Okay, calling any type of ad “fun” might sound a bit corny, but many brands truly manage to get creative with their Facebook carousel ads. Here’s an awesome example from Mazda Canada:

Who Are Facebook Carousel Ads Meant For?

Carousel ads are fair game for just about any type of marketing campaign or industry, but bear in mind that not all industries are created equal in terms of Facebook ad performance.

According to a 2017 Wordstream study, the average CTR across all Facebook ads is 0.90% while the average CPC is $1.72. The top-performing industries such apparel, retail, fitness and beauty also represent industries that dominate carousel ads. That’s probably why brands such as H&M run so many carousels:

However, that doesn’t mean you can’t leverage Facebook carousel ads if you aren’t part of these particular industries. Remember: carousel ads are simply a piece of Facebook’s advertising platform at large. Any brand can run them as long as you’re familiar with the platform’s best practices.

Generally speaking, Facebook carousel ads are likely a good fit for marketers that meet any of the following criteria:

You have a visually striking product or brand identity (bold fashion pieces, sleek electronics, loud colors, etc.)

You sell a variety of different products that you want to show off versus honing in on a single promotion

You’ve never run ads on Facebook before and want to start with something simple

That last point is arguably the most important. Whereas there is a much higher time commitment and room for error when it comes to running, say, video ads on Facebook, carousel ads can be set up in a snap.

If you have photos, a few lines of copy and a product to sell, you’re good to go with Facebook carousel ads. The important piece of the puzzle is simply having something to promote that catches the eyes of prospects within their newsfeeds.

But before we can get to that, we need to delve into the setup process.

How to Setup a Facebook Carousel Ad

Alright, so let’s say you’re sold on Facebook carousel ads and you’re ready to set up your own. What does the process look like?

At first glance, Facebook’s ad creator can be daunting to say the least. Let’s break down the setup process step-by-step.

As the case with any ad, start at the Ads Manager. You’ll need to select the objective of your ad, whether it be traffic, lead generation or store visits:

Next, create the audience for your ad or choose from an existing one if you’ve run an ad before. For the purpose of this example, we’ll use a fictional audience (and budget) just to get things moving.

Now, here’s where you actually get to choose which type of ad you’re looking to run. Simply select “Carousel” as noted below:

Then, you’ll be introduced to a preview of your ad based on the type of carousel placement you’ve specified (in this case, Desktop News Feed). Here you can experiment with imagery, copy and any other aspects of your Facebook carousel ads:

Again, the setup process is fairly straightforward. There are also more advanced options such as Facebook pixel tracking for retargeted ads and lead opt-in forms. Facebook also has their own list of specifications for optimized carousel ads, noting that:

Images should be a square 600 by 600 pixels

You’re limited to 90 characters of text for your ad “post” (think: the “status” copy)

You’re also limited to 40 characters for headlines (bolded copy that appears under your images) and 20 characters for ad descriptions (optional copy beneath your headlines). See all the character counts for Facebook ads here.

While there are quite a few variables to any given carousel ad, they’re elementary as far as most paid ads go.

But how can you predict whether or not your Facebook carousel ad will actually perform? If you’re on the hunt to make every click count, it’s crucial to understand how to optimize your Facebook ads for clicks, conversions and engagement.

The 6 Do’s the Don’ts for Fine-Tuning Your Facebook Carousel Ads

Outlined below are six best practices and pitfalls to consider when crafting your ads.

1. Do: Pick Thematic Photos

Ideally, the photos for your carousel should be related in some way, shape or form. Perhaps they show off a similar series of products, tell a story or represent individual pieces of a larger photo. Here’s one of Facebook’s favorite examples of a multiple-image layout:

2. Don’t: Pick Photos at Random

Simply put, carousel ads aren’t an excuse to post random photos related to your business. A series of unrelated photos won’t do much but confuse viewers and result in money down the drain.

3. Do: Mind Your Color Scheme

Colors definitely count if you’re trying to catch the attention of someone randomly scrolling through their Facebook feed. Although you don’t necessarily have to gravitate towards loud or bright colors, doing so will certainly draw more eyeballs to your ads. Check out this colorful carousel from Harley Davidson for inspiration:

4. Don’t: Run an Ad Without a Goal in Mind

If you don’t have a distinct goal in mind prior to running your ad, you’re essentially flying blind. Not only do you run the risk of your ad not making sense, but you also defeat the whole purpose of running ads in the first place. For example, you might be looking to:

Build buzz and attention around a new product launch

Encourage more subscribers to your email list

Generate leads from a discount or promotion

Any of these options are prime for carousel ads, as long as you know what your goal is prior to getting started.

5. Do: Pay Attention to Your Copy

You certainly have to be economical with your copy given Facebook’s character limits, but look at these limitations as more incentive to make every word count. Try to avoid generic “Click here!” copy and opt for something more in line with your brand’s messaging.

Check out how Pura Vida Bracelets emphasizes a helping hand in their title copy while also promoting free shipping in their headlines:

6. Don’t: Present Yourself as a Salesperson

Don’t squander your ads by going way too heavy on the sales pitch. Just because you’re running a sales-based ad doesn’t give you license to be heavy-handed. Those who aren’t familiar with your brand may mistake you for a spammer if all they see is “BUY NOW!” or “EPIC SALE!”

So much of the beauty of Facebook carousel ads is that you have all the freedom in the world. As these types of campaigns are relatively young, marketers have plenty of freedom and room to experiment. As long as you stick to the best practices outlined above, you’re golden.

How Do You Feel About Facebook Carousel Ads?

Whether you’re looking to spend money on social ads for the first time or simply step up your paid ad game of Facebook, carousel ads are ideal for those looking to keep their CPC down. Cheap to run while remarkably effective in terms of engagement and ROI: what more could a marketer ask for?

Any Facebook carousel ads catch your eye lately? Do you prefer carousel ads to the other types of paid social marketing out there today? Let us know in the comments below!

This post How to Use Facebook Carousel Ads to Dramatically Lower CPC originally appeared on Sprout Social.

from SM Tips By Minnie https://sproutsocial.com/insights/facebook-carousel-ads/

[ordinaryplanet-blog1]

Adwords Management For Startups

You have setup your startup and today wish to advertise online using a set advertising budget.

Google AdWords, is a pay per click marketing that offers small businesses the chance to get the word out about their products or services to targeted groups of individuals who are interested. You may start using a tiny funds, as little as $100 (to actually get results), Google AdWords is exceptionally valuable in obtaining the best web traffic to your products and services.

Here's The Best Way To Profit from Google Adwords (PPC) Marketing:

Select wherever your advertisement shows up in search. Select targeted key words. Create advertising copy (what prospective customers will find on search). Establish your cost per click (CPC) funds. Get charged JUST when someone clicks on the Google/associate advertising. Have advertisements appear as well as content that fits with your business. Reach new customers you otherwise would not reach with organic search. Target particular groups including cellular users In February 2013, Google AdWords was upgraded so advertisers can begin targeting cellular using the capacity to decide on a particular device, including an IOS or Android. It's possible for you to place a goal time of day to your ads to show on search. This upgrade is known as "Improved Efforts".

It's possible for you to see advertisements showing up - about the Most Effective and bottom of Google's search results page underneath the words "sponsored links and ADVERTISING in green".

How high in the list your advertisement appears depends on how closely your key words fit a user's search term, and the way much you are ready to bid for every single click to your own web site. *

Thus how can you begin with Google AdWords?

Just follow these three steps to begin with a totally free account:

Creating an Adwords account is fast:

Visit: Click the button that says "Begin Now" Put in your account details (email, password, money and time zone) Log in your e-mail, start the email from Google AdWords, and verify your e-mail address to link your accounts.

Measure 2: Create Your First Adwords Advertising Copy

Creating an advertisement in Adwords can be pretty straightforward, but you will desire to think about a couple of matters that'll assist you to form a compelling advertising copy that individuals will click to see your website.

After verifying your email in Step 1, Google will take one to a page which allows one to produce your first advertisement copy. It's possible for you to opt for a text or screen ad campaign. The screen advertisements appear as graphics with text (So you'll need to own pictures for your own advertising)having a template.

To greatly help to keep you on course for success, we are going to concentrate on Text Advertising Exclusively, but both have similar set ups when you go to other steps of the effort set up.

Select a text advertising.

Put in a headline -- Your headline shows in bold and can be used to capture the searchers focus, so attempt to capture the readers attention with this particular line. This line supplies added info in the headline.

In the event you had been browsing to your product, what would allow you to click on the link with all the intention to purchase?

Use up to 35 characters to the initial line.

It is somewhere so as to add additional info that could not have fit on the primary line.

You can even make use of a call-to-actions rag here, including "save 20% off in the event you purchase now." You've 35 characters to make use of on this particular line also.

Screen URL: Set address for your own internet site as you would like it to appear on search. It's most beneficial to leave out the "http://" and just use "" for advertising look.

Address/Final URL: Here is the real URL address to your own internet site landing page. For example www.nethelpdesk.com/psa-software/

You may also pick https://. In the clean box, fill in the remainder of your web site address. Be certain the link is functioning correctly and can take the visitor to the exact landing page. You do not need to pay for clicks that do not really land on your web site due poor linking or no direct landing page for the advertising copy.

Carefully review the advertising previews for both Top and bottom advertisements. You may choose to request the aid of someone else to test for typos or grammatical mistakes for you print your advertisements.

Click the blue "Save Advertisement" button to save your valuable advertising copy.

After finishing your Advertising and also you just like how the advertising looks, it is possible to prepare to run it but you will have to activate your account first.

To print your finished advertising and activate your account, you will require to do the following;

To Activate-account > Click on the words "input your billing info" within the red box on top. Fill in your organization info. Your state should already be recorded.

Choose the best way to pay.

Google recommends automatic payments, but in the event you click the incorrect thing, you may find yourself paying greater than you initially planned on, which may actually hurt someone on a small marketing budget.

In the event that you are beginning on a little budget, it could be more straightforward to focus on manual payments, even in the event that you should wait to allow them to clear before your advertising goes live.