#the writing quality itself immediately sells you on it
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kingtheghast · 1 year ago
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fis 🐠 likes sushi
(what?? you haven’t read “there are many downsides to being a marine biologist” aka fis au by @martynsimp69 yet??? i think you should read it. just sayin.)
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dragonflight203 · 7 months ago
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Mass Effect 3 replay, post Rannoch:
-Since the coup, both the asari and salarians have started to contribute to the Crucible.
I suppose the coup made it apparent there was no way to avoid the war.
-Hackett picked Shepard because Shepard knows how to kill Reapers.
More than that, Shepard can persuade their team to follow them into hell.
Both important qualities in a leader righting a war against the Reapers.
-In the war assets, the game suddenly remembers that geth ships are piloted by geth that have uploaded themselves to the ship.
So what’s with all the platforms piloting geth fighters in prior cutscenes???
-Edi says that until just prior to the end, Legion was an avatar of the geth consensus.
Once he started to use “I”, his personality had settled and he was a person.
I hate the Reaper code subplot so much.
Just because a person is not what you are accustomed to does not mean they are not a person. They are different and that is okay.
-Ugh, the synthetic writing in ME3 took a massive downturn.
Edi says that the quarians’ mistake was making the geth too different from them. (This bullshit again…)
As a networked intelligence, the geth tend toward cooperation.
If intelligence is centralized as with Edi, personality emerges and synthetics develop preferences. Preferences can include valuing individuals.
So the geth killed the quarians because they were not individuals.
Let’s just ignore:
-the quarians attacked first
-the geth fought back initially to protect other geth, then later the geth as a whole
-individual units offered themselves up to protect quarians protecting them
-we see units expressing concern about individual creators
-the geth ultimately let the quarians go when they could have finished them off.
And the last four points are established in ME3!
There’s something interesting that could be done with the geth placing far less value on individuals than organics do because the geth are a collective. Even in the context of the Morning War, that may be related to the extent of quarian casualties; we know little of the war itself, so that is open for interpretation.
However, I do NOT feel that’s why they attacked the quarians. They attacked the quarians because the quarians wanted to murder all the geth.
Any of the Mass Effect races would have defended themselves in that position. It has nothing to do with networked intelligence.
-Garrus: Now, if you can pacify the Reapers we’ll make you saint.
Careful, Garrus. I may take you up on that.
-When speaking to Liara, Tali notes that the geth are no longer their servants. They might be allies; wounds are too fresh to be friends yet.
-Tali says she used to send any new technology she found back to the fleet.
*side eyes Normandy’s stealth technology which the quarians mysteriously obtained*
Hmm.
-The geth have immediately started helping the quarians with, well, everything.
While that’s a positive sign, I do have some concerns this will result in someone attempting to take advantage and pissing the geth off again.
Therapy for everyone. And really, really good diplomats.
-Tali: No. I’d have killed the geth with no regrets. And I’d have been wrong. Thank you.
That’s growth.
-People keep saying the geth and the quarians will assist with the Crucible, but they give no war assets for that. The only war assets they provide are for their military power.
Notably, the quarians’ research fleet is missing from the war assets. The civilian, heavy, and patrol fleets are included.
You’d think the research fleet would be providing new weapons or assisting with the Crucible…
Citadel
-Tali is extremely mature about dealing with the turian clerk who was a total ass to her.
Good for her.
-Tali: Everything looks so peaceful. In here, you can almost forget about the war.
Tali, there’s still smoke from damage and broken glass everywhere. What do you consider “peaceful”?
-You get credits for giving the refugee the Prothean Sphere.
Rather ironic, as the point is for him to sell it to the Alliance so he can pay for food for his family.
-Game, at least tell me what system Dekuuna is in. Is that too much?
Codex
-The Get Spitfire may have been developed to destroy geth.
The schism the entry references makes me think of the heretic/true geth split.
However, that was resolved in ME2. This is ME3. So what’s the current schism causing the spitfire to be left lying around?
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obsidiangx · 10 months ago
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I will keep complaining about Getter Robo High's translation status until someone does the whole thing or I die, whichever happens first. It's not terribly long as manga goes, and has high quality raws easily accessible online. It may seem confusing as to why I care so much about a manga I can't read, considering dubiously canon Getter spinoffs can be extremely hit or miss. Let's go over the bullet points:
"High" is a strange romanization of "Hai," a mahjong reference. Not only is this a strangely mahjong-oriented mecha manga, but the three main characters are adults. It is not in high school, as the name would imply.
This is the only Getter manga I know of that stars three women (rather than men) as the Getter Machine pilots. They are a feral gambling addict, a sadako-styled horror ghost, and a buff robot woman.
The robos are genuinely unhinged but rad feminized variations on the original designs. As a mecha fan I say this with my whole heart, these really feel like someone wanted to fuck the robot, and I love them for it. Speaking of which,
Drill Jill.
Back when I was a teenager, I read quite a lot of hentai scanlated on the internet platonically. My first tumblr was actually an immature, edgy and frankly nasty little hentai blog that I'm happy to have nothing to do with anymore. But that means that when a particular name pops up on the art for an official Getter Robo manga, I have a fun little story to tell you.
Drill Jill is a hentai author, first and foremost. I won't speak to his character, because I don't speak japanese, but know that he specializes in noncon (or "mind break" as the online hentai community would call it) manga. Specifically, he often replaces violence with sex scenes, expressing a battle or argument physically, with a clear victor and plot resolution at the end.
The thing that makes his name really memorable to me, however, is his paneling. Granted, some pages are difficult to follow, with the busyness of the art and complete irreverence for panel borders, but their flow usually remains intact. At times, it can really feel like every single page has something to appreciate and analyze. I haven't found another artist who does it quite like this, in any genre of comics.
I can't say for sure, but I'm guessing that Drill Jill was hired to do the art for Getter Robo Hai because of his multi-chapter genderbent Getter Robo doujin, in which girl versions of the three original Getter Machine pilots get into some situations i'm sure you can predict if you've been reading up to this point. But a love for more than just weird fucking bleeds in through the edges of each chapter.
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Hopefully it's immediately obvious here: Getter 3 reaching for the third panel. The beam blasting through the entire second page. The sword cutting through two panels, foreshadowing itself. These are CONSECUTIVE pages. The ero scenes are over in this chapter, but so much was still poured into these moments.
It's a hard sell to recommend people hentai, much less this kind of potentially upsetting hentai, just to gush at its paneling and page composition. So I'd like to have something a little more safe for work to suggest, and a cool robot story as well.
Keep in mind as well that Getter Robo Hai is drawn by Drill Jill, but it is not written by him. Rather, the story is by Bingo Morihashi, the scenario writer for Devil May Cry 3, 4, and 5. I'm not enough of a fan of that series to really gush over it in this post, but that may be an interesting lil detail for u (;. It's the writer and artist together who make this comic what it is, and folks who don't speak Japanese don't have access to that right now.
If you still don't care, maybe you never will. That's fine, we all have our own passions. If you do care, YELL WITH ME, SPREAD THE WORD, RAISE FUNDS FOR TRANSLATOR COMMISSIONS, FORCE EVERYONE TO LOOK AT GETTER 1'S FAT ASS AND BANKO BENIMARU'S SHARK TEETH.
Thanks for reading! After all my talk about paneling and writing, I still would just really like to read a cool robot story about evil women. I think everyone deserves that. So I'll leave you on the last two translated pages of Getter Robo High as of this post. This is what we're missing.
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mrkhan75090 · 1 year ago
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Booqs Review - A Single Word & Make $584 Daily
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Booqs Review – Product Overview
Product Name: Booqs
Creator: Seyi Adeleke
Official Website: Click Here
Release Date: December 12, 2023
Release Time: 11:00 AM EST
Price: $17
Category: Software
Money-Back Guarantee: 30 Days
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Booqs Review – Product Creator
Seyi Adeleke, the mastermind behind this product, is an entrepreneur, business coach, and digital marketer renowned for his proficiency in online marketing and e-commerce. With over a decade of experience in the online business industry, he has successfully established multiple thriving online ventures across diverse niches.
As a prolific product creator, Seyi has introduced numerous digital products that have empowered thousands of individuals to initiate and expand their online businesses.
Booqs Review – What is Booqs?
Booqs represents an innovative application asserting itself as the world’s inaugural AI-powered platform designed for the seamless creation and marketing of eBooks, Flipbooks, Reports, Whitepapers, and Sales Presentations. Notably, the app is pre-loaded with 100% human-like content, ensuring a standard of quality and authenticity.
A distinctive feature of Booqs is its integrated marketplace, providing users with the opportunity to sell their creations and receive immediate payments through various methods such as Paypal, Stripe, Cards, and Bank Accounts.
The app’s versatility is a highlight, as it can swiftly transform diverse inputs—whether keywords, URLs, blog posts, websites, articles, questions, or spoken words—into meticulously designed eBooks or Flipbooks. Booqs proudly promotes itself as the “World’s First Voice-To-eBook App,” skillfully converting spoken words into visually stunning eBooks and flipbooks.
Booqs Review – How Does Booqs Work?
Step 1:
Login
Login to Booqs Cloud-Based Dashboard
Step 2:
Create
Enter One Keyword And Instantly Generate a Fully Designed eBook, Reports, Flipbook, PDF, Lead Magnet, And More
Step 3:
Syndicate
With One Click, Let AI Syndicate Your eBook Across  Tons Of Buyers In Any Niche…
Step 4:
Profit
Yup that’s it. For Each eBook We Create, We Get Automated Sales Like This: 
Features and Benefits Of Booqs
1 Click AI eBook Generator
Creating an eBook used to be a very hard task…
Researching, formatting, writing, proofreading, and then designing But all of that is gone with Booqs…
All you have to do is enter one keyword… And the AI within Booqs will do everything on your behalf.
100% Human-Like Content
You don’t have to worry about Google or anyone detecting that your content is AI generated…
Booqs doesn’t generate lousy content… 
It’s the only AI app that can generate 100% human-like content… 
That other pay hundreds of dollars for it… 
Plagiarism Free Content
Your content is 100% unique to you… 
Booqs doesn’t scrape or reuse content… 
Why would we?
We have the best AI engine in the world that will create unique content on demand for us…
1-Click FlipBook Designer
Creating content is only the first step… 
But a plain ebook is boring to the readers… 
And it won’t do you much good… 
But what if you can take that unique content and turn them into beautiful  flipbooks or fully designed eBooks 
You don’t need any designing skills or any special tools… 
Again, AI does that for us. 
AI Researcher
Doesn’t matter what niche you’re in… 
AI can research and create the best content possible… 
The content is so good, a human can’t replicate it… 
You don’t have to do any research… 
Generate FlipBooks, Presentations, PDFs, eBooks, Sales Materials, And More 
Booqs doesn’t create just eBooks… 
With Booqs you can create much much more
All in less than 40 seconds… 
3D eCover Generator
Instantly create 3D eCover for your eBook without any designing skills 
You don’t need photoshop, Canva, or even hiring a designer… 
All it takes is just a couple of seconds 
And you will have a professional 3d eCover ready.
Create AI Story Books…
Ever wanted to launch your own Storybook series?
Now you can with Booqs… 
Booqs will turn any niche you want into a full storybook
That you can immediately publish to amazon or anywhere you want 
Instantly Create Story Illustrations
What’s a story without illustration and graphics to keep the reader entertained? 
This is what Booqs can do for you with the power of AI 
Choose From Pre Made eBooks
Don’t wanna generate a new eBook?
Cool, just choose from our 100m+ ready-made articles
In over 220 niches
Prefill Your eBook With Your Link
AI will detect where exactly to insert any link you wanna promote into the eBook… 
You can use it to promote: 
Your affiliate link
Your product
Your eCom store
Your local business 
Your coaching business 
Or anything…
DFY High-Ticket Offers
Even if you don’t have something to promote… 
Booqs comes with DFY high ticket offers that pay $997 per sale 
And you can integrate it with your eBook with no effort
Create AI FAQ eBooks 
Create an entire eBook based on any question… 
Just ask Booqs any question… 
And it will turn that answer into a full eBook… 
That’s the power of AI
Voice To eBook
Turn your thoughts into eBooks… 
Booqs Comes with voice recognition 10x better than Siri and Alexa
Use it to create an eBook even faster than writing a keyword 
Built-In Marketplace
Don’t wanna publish on Amazon? Or you think it’s not enough?
That’s no issue, Booqs comes with a built-in marketplace that you can sell your eBooks on… 
And earn big paydays from it… 
This marketplace is visited by lots of users every month and you can easily integrate your Paypal, Stripe, Cards or Bank account to receive payment… 
And you get to keep 100% of the profit.
DFY 50+ Syndication
What’s good for an eBook if you don’t get traffic and sales from it?
This is why we integrated the most robust AI traffic generation feature… 
With just a few clicks, you will get your eBook or flipbook in front of readily-active readers… 
Who will happily read and click on your link 
Without paying a penny on ads.
DFY Traffic Funnels 
It doesn’t matter if you wanna publish your eBook or not… 
With this feature… 
You can let AI determine which is the best traffic for you… 
And start redirecting it toward you…
With zero effort on your end
With zero dollars spent on ads
50+ AI Features Better Than ChatGPT 4
Booqs is NOT “another eBook generator” 
Booqs is an AI brain that will do everything for you… 
It with a better language model than chatGPT 4 
Which will: 
Answer any question
Generate articles 
Design posters/graphics 
Create social media plans 
Write ads
Summarize any content
Write emails for you
And so much more
Booqs Review – Who Can Use Booqs?
Email marketers
Affiliate marketers
CPA marketer
Coaches
Ecommerce
Crypto
Blogger
Influencers
Course owners
Local businesses
Booqs Review – How Does It Work?
Booqs leverages a better language AI model than ChatGPT4…
It will automatically turn… almost anything… into a full eBook.
Just enter a URL you like, a website or a blog… Or even just a keyword…
And Booqs will automatically turn it into an eBook or FlipBook…
But it gets better… You can even use your voice to create your eBook… It works just like Siri and Alexa… Only better…
Within seconds… you will have a fully designed E-Book that comes with it’s own unique header, footer and even the E-Cover…
Then you’re free to export it ANYWHERE…
Booqs OTO and My Special Bonuses
Funnels…
FE – ($17)
OTO 1: Unlimited ($67) 
OTO2: DoneForYou ($297) 
OTO3: Automation ($47) OTO 4 : Swift Profits ($47)
OTO5: Limitless Traffic ($97)   
OTO 6: Agency ($167)  
OTO 7: Franchise Edition ($97)  
OTO 8: Multiple Income ($47)
General Bonuses Bonuses Will Be Delivered In The Members’ Area
Booqs 6-Figure In 60 Days LIVE Event Get VIP access to our live mastermind event and copy n’ paste our Booqs underground system we use to make 6-figures in 60 days. This alone is worth 5x what you will pay today, and it’s yours for free!​ (Value $1997) Booqs Marketplace Traffic Booster More Traffic = More Sales. Discover The Top-Secret Tips And Strategies To Get Tons Of Traffic To Your Booqs Marketplace, and Boost Your Sales! ​ Sell more Flipbooks, Ebooks, PDF files, Articles and so on created by the Booqs App, and also make huge profits. Use this system to solve all your traffic problems and get an avalanche of targeted visitors bombarding your marketplace day in & day out (Value $997)
Booqs Social Media Automation
If you have a social media account You can get paid on automation using Booqs to attract millions of these social media users to your eBook marketplace without doing extra work or trying to pitch anybody.
This Automation works on virtually every social media account integrated with your Booqs app. Booqs Internet Marketing Goldmine Discover the easiest way to create a profitable online business that makes you money while you sleep & how to scale up your results to from 3-4-5-6 figures/month.​ (Value $997) Web Design Agency Turnkey Business Kit Web Design Agency Turnkey Business Kit is a tool pack that equips you completely for your Web Design Agency Business.
Proposal
Mega Website
Graphics Kit
Telemarketing & Email Swipes
Movies and TV Shows Affiliate Software
Discovering new movies and TV shows has never been this great, now with the MovieStore script you can have an instant and fully automated movies and TV shows affiliate website filled with the latest and most popular movies and TV shows.
For iTunes affiliates and Amazon affiliates the MovieStore script offers a great way to promote movies and TV shows and earn a commission on revenue generated by clicks initiated from your website, just input your affiliate id in the settings file and all the links to iTunes or Amazon will have your affiliate id attached to them so your sales will be counted.
Do not worry if you are not an iTunes or Amazon affiliate, with different sizes of advertisement spots in place you can promote any other affiliate program on any networks
Video Quiz Game
An Easy to use system that creates interactive video quiz pages using wordpress.
Engage your visitors by offering rewards for getting high scores with social shares with viral Quizzes.
Branding Secrets
Discover How To Successfully Market Your Brand Online. What separates a newbie from a veteran marketer is a brand. Learn how to close the gap between the veteran and you by building your brand from scratch with Branding Secrets. Stock Image Blow Out
A huge collection of over 1500 professional royalty stock images you can use to create compelling graphics for your products or that of your client.
DigitMart
Sell eBooks, WordPress Themes, HTML Templates, PHP Softwares, Images , Graphics, Vector Logos or anything On Your Own Digital Products Marketplace.
DigitMart is a fully responsive digital products marketplace. It’s suitable for the digital product marketplace. DigitKart marketplace to sell digital goods like Fonts, WordPress Themes, HTML Templates, PHP Softwares, Images , Graphics, Vector Logos or anything, and it’s based on multi vendor option also, where multiple authors will register and submit their items for sale, so you will get commision. It is packed with lots of features.
The Ultimate Multi Level Marketing Secrets
Learn about multi-level marketing and how it can help you and your business develop exponentially. 
List Building Expert
Be an email list expert and drive your internet business to success. Find out here:
Internet Marketing Fast Start
Jumpstart your internet marketing business. Learn the core concepts here.
Affiliate Marketing Secrets
Is affiliate marketing for you? Learn trade secrets in affiliate marketing and start earning money without lifting a finger.
30DaysToBiggerEmailList-Ebook
A bigger list equates to bigger earnings. Start your 30-day email list building now!
ChatbotMarketingMastery
Chatbox Marketing made easy. Integrate your own chatbox to your business now. Here’s how:
Building The Perfect Sales Funnel
Build the perfect Sales funnel for your business. Learn the how’s and the why’s here.
Blogging-for-profit
Write your heart out and profit from it. Make money from your blogs now. 
Email list building blueprint
Learn the ins and outs of email list building. This will show you the proper ways to begin building your list, forming a relationship with them, and getting them to trust you so that they will be more likely to purchase products and services you recommend to them.
Copywriting-Crackdown
Sales Page Skills for the New Marketer – create the perfect sales pitch to get long term sales.
Booqs Review – Frequently Asked Questions On Booqs
Do I need any experience to get started?
None, all you need is just an internet connection. And you’re good to go
Is there any monthly cost?
Depends, If you act now, NONE. But if you wait, you might end up paying $997/mo. It’s up to you.
How long does it take to make money?
Our average member made their first sale the same day they got access to Booqs
Do I need to purchase anything else for it to work?
Nop, Booqs is the complete thing. You get everything you need to make it work. Nothing is left behind.
What if I failed?
While that is unlikely, we removed all the risk for you. If you tried Booqs and failed, we will refund you every cent you paid. And send you a bunch of bonuses on top of that just to apologize for wasting your time.
How can I get started?
Awesome, I like your excitement, All you have to do is click any of the buy buttons on the page, and secure your copy of Booqs at a one-time fee
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marketingprofitmedia · 5 months ago
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Insta Book AI Review – Create Best-Seller eBooks In Any Niche & Any Platform
Welcome to my Insta Book AI Review, This is a genuine user-based Insta Book AI review, in which I will discuss the features, upgrades, price, demo, and bonuses, how Insta Book AI can benefit you, and my own personal opinion. You can create, publish, and sell limitless “high-in-demand” best-seller eBooks and FlipBooks in 100+ different languages, and sell them on Amazon, Etsy, and eBay in 60 seconds!
Let’s be honest. We are all here to make money. It’s the only reason you are reading this email right now, and that’s actually a good thing, because what I’m about to show you will give you exactly that. Just now, the door has finally opened to the largest and most robust AI app of 2024. Insta Book AI It’s the world’s first AI app that allows you to turn any keyword into a jaw-dropping and addictive ebook, flipbook, puzzle, or anything you like, all without you doing any of the work. Yes, you read that right. Without you writing a single word, without you designing anything, without you promoting anything, you won’t do any of the work and still make hundreds of dollars every single day, no problem.
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What Is Insta Book AI?
Insta Book AI is a cutting-edge, AI-powered platform designed to help authors and publishers optimize their books for maximum visibility, engagement, and sales across various platforms, such as eBooks, flipbooks, puzzles and kidbook. The platform offers a comprehensive suite of tools that assist with every stage of the book creation process, including content generation, keyword research, cover design, market analysis, and launch strategies.
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By leveraging advanced AI technology, Insta Book AI provides data-driven insights and personalized recommendations to help users craft compelling books, optimize them for search algorithms, and execute effective marketing campaigns. Whether you’re a first-time author aiming for bestseller status or an experienced publisher looking to enhance your catalog’s performance, Insta Book AI offers an affordable and powerful solution to navigate the competitive world of self-publishing.
Insta Book AI Review: Overview
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Product Name: Insta Book AI
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Insta Book AI Review: About Authors
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Clicks Botz has built itself as a top vendor with a strong reputation in affiliate marketing and software developer . With a record of successful product launches, including DomainLab AI, PuzzleBooks AI,VidBooks AI, InsightHub, Code Craft AI, AI News Pro, AI Self Drive, WebCore, Store Ai, Ai Core, CloudHub and WebbyAi this experienced vendor has continuously supplied high-quality solutions at low pricing.
Customers have continually been pleased with the outstanding outcomes generated from the utilization of these solutions. In the next section of our Insta Book AI review, we’ll look at its special features that define it from its competitors.
Insta Book AI Review: Key Features
100% Cloud-Based Software Suite
7 Unique Ways To Create Ebooks/Flip-books
Create Ebooks/Flipbooks with ChatGPT & OPEN AI Without Writing a Single Word
Done For You Professional Ebooks/Flipbook Templates
Customize Design & Layout In Seconds Using Our Visual Designer
AUTO Lead Gen System Built-In
Monetize & Share Your Ebook/Flipbook In 1 Click
Create Stunning EBook/Flipbook Covers That Grab Attention Immediately
Collect Leads With Ease & Integrate Into Your Favorite Autoresponder (to 25,000 Leads)
Automatic-Mailer & A Done For You Sequence To Make Commissions From Every Flipbook You Create!
1-Click Social Sharing To Get More Traffic & Leads
A Massive Library Of Over 50,000 Ready To Monetize Ebooks
Embed What You Create On Any Website
Inbuilt Cover Creator Feature
Pre-Made Books In Dozens Of Niches
Unlimited One-Click Download
ZERO Skills App
Multi-Lingual Support
Commercial License Included
Over 1 Million Articles Inbuilt For You To Create Flipbooks Instantly
Insta Book AI Review: How Does It Work?
You Are Just 3 Clicks All That It Takes
Step 01: Login
Click on any of the buy buttons on this page, and create your account with InstaBookasAI (it takes less than 9 seconds).
Step 02: Enter
Pick any keyword you like, or select any niche you desire. That’s all that you need to do.
Step 03: Publish & Profit
Within 90 seconds, you will have a JAW-DROPPING eBook, FlipBook, Crossword, KidsBooks, and more Each time we publish our creation with InstaBookAI we make money like this.
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Insta Book AI Review: Can Do For You
Create eBook, FlipBook, Puzzle, Crossword, Or Anything else in 90 seconds or less…
Our content is readable, engaging, and most importantly addictive to the readers
Mind-Blowing DFY Templates For Guaranteed Top Seller Status!
Pre-Made Books In Dozens Of Niches
Inbuilt Cover Creator Feature
Embed What You Create On Any Website
A Massive Library Of Over 50,000 Ready To Monetize Ebooks
1-Click Social Sharing To Get More Traffic & Leads
Automatic-Mailer & A Done For You Sequence To Make Commissions From Every Flipbook You Create!
Create Flipbooks with ChatGPT & OPEN AI Without Writing a Single Word
Stunning and jaw-dropping designs that look like it’s done by a 7-figure studio
Fully cloud-based and works on any device
Pay only a small ONE-TIME FEE!
30 money-back guarantees
Users Say About Insta Book AI
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Insta Book AI Review: Who Should Use It?
Affiliate Marketers
Digital Product Sellers
Freelancers
Business Owners
Entrepreneurs
Podcasters
Marketers
Vloggers
Author
Bloggers & Website owners
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And Many Others
Insta Book AI Review: Why You Buy Insta Book AI?
You should consider buying Insta Book AI because it provides an all-in-one solution for achieving bestseller status on any platform. With its AI-driven tools for content creation, keyword optimization, market analysis, and marketing strategies, Insta Book AI helps you save time, increase your book’s visibility, and enhance sales, making it a valuable investment for both new and experienced authors.
Insta Book AI Review: OTO’s And Pricing
Front End price: Insta Book AI ($17)
OTO 1: Unlimited Edition ($37)
OTO 2: Automation Edition ($97)
OTO 3: DFY Edition ($77)
OTO 4: 1-Hour Profit ($77)
OTO 5: 1-Click Traffic Booster ($77)
OTO 6: ChatGPT Edition ($47)
OTO 7: Reseller Edition ($297)
OTO 8: Agency License (67)
>>> Click Here to Visit Insta Book AI and Get Access Now >>
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Insta Book AI Free Premium Bonuses
Bonus #1: 3,000 ChatGPT Prompts (Value: $197)
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youvegottohelpyourself · 2 years ago
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Blind Optimization
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In this tweet John Carmack, “King of the Nerds” demonstrates a key error of the tech enthusiast mindset, the desire to “optimize” and “minmax” every aspect of life. No thought is given to what the repercussions of such optimizations may be as optimization is considered a good in and of itself. Consider what would actually happen if this were to be done. There are a minority of readers that for whatever reason, “get stuck” at a certain point, so in order to help them out you change things to cater to their tastes and abilities, and now more people can “pass” than before. Does this sound familiar to you? It should, as this is really just another popular argument with the terms switched around.
When standards of education are lowered to accommodate poor performing students at the expense of high performing ones, the tech bro cries out in pain (they’re very good at taking tests you see.) Yet when put in the position of the struggling reader they immediately want the bar lowered to cater to them. This makes sense as techbros don’t read. “Um, there’s no “alpha” in reading, ROI is too low, books are for midwits. I’ll read a summary of the most important points.” Anyway, the result of such a policy is a watering down of the book, an erasure of artistic intent, and general homogenization to cater to the lowest common denominator.
For example, consider the works of Shakespeare. It turns out that reading the archaic English of Shakespeare is quite difficult for the uninitiated. Perhaps Carmack might suggest that we allow an AI “translate” Shakespeare into modern English so it is more accessible to the casual reader. This simplification of language would kill part of what makes Shakespeare unique and worth reading in the first place.
The desire for optimization is really just another manifestation of the cardinal sin of the tech enthusiast’s mindset, that of “quantity > quality.” More people are reading our books now! That must be a good thing right? It doesn’t even cross Carmack’s mind that not all readers are equal and that while you might have lost 1000 fewer readers in total, those you did lose were the best among them. Carmack's approach is entirely incorrect, it should actually be the opposite. There should be more people getting “stuck,” and if anything you should be writing to the tastes of those that don't get stuck. But hey, while we’re at it why stop with “getting stuck”? Let’s try to increase, rather than maintain our readership! The most popular selling books of the modern era include 50 Shades of Gray and Harry Potter, so we should take some notes.
“Well Mr. Carmack, our AI model says that reader engagement is quite low at this point… it recommends we should throw in an S&M sex scene?”
“Genius! We can follow it up with an epic wizard duel…”
”Uh sir, isn’t this a historical novel about the Battle of the Alamo…?”
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fatedtime · 3 years ago
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the point of fate is not to be mythologically accurate. it’s literally never been the point, ever. it’s hard-baked into the lore, where rumor and superstition are far more important to how a servant manifests than actual historical fact. the point of fate is to use mythology as a base to creating cool/thematically interesting characters that have sick-ass anime battles against each other, along with conveying narratives about the fundamental worth of humanity.
you can make arguments that specific characters don’t do the job of being interesting because of how they’re written, which is fair! you can also make the argument that certain characters should be more accurate because their representation in particular matters due to their relative obscurity or their status as real people (especially if said person in some way experienced disenfranchisement in their life.) these are both valid points worthy of criticism, and i have my own disappointments with fate’s approach to certain topics due to this, especially in cases where it feels like the actual presentation runs counter to the narrative of the original in a way that feels offensive.
but in the grand scheme of things, ‘x thing sucks because it’s not historically accurate’ is a ridiculous statement to make about fate, because the franchise frankly doesn’t give a shit. this isn’t a flaw, it just isn’t the interest of the narrative. it’s like complaining that cubism sucks because the cow doesn’t look like a realistic cow, which is hilariously missing the point of the art-form. from the very beginning, the series has never been about getting everything factually ‘right’.
‘mistakes’ or ‘inaccuracies’ also aren’t necessarily due to a lack of education, like i’ve seen detractors of the series claim, but are instead more likely due to having other priorities which don’t happen to line up with ‘accuracy’. immediately attributing lack of education to personal distaste for a design choice is honestly in poor taste itself. insulting someone’s intelligence leads to bad faith media criticism.  it’s equivalent to saying salvador dalí sucks at anatomy when really he just wants to draw some fucked up little guys.
not every piece of media has the priorities you might have, and just because it’s not catered to you doesn’t mean it’s bad or that the person who created it is stupid/lazy. hell, monetary factors certainly come into play as well -- i’m sure there were choices that were specifically made to make a character ‘sell better’, because ultimately people want to eat. it takes talent to create characters that someone will fall in love with, and even if you don’t fall in love with them, they might just be someone else’s treasured, important blorbo. the plot point that doesn’t aesthetically appeal to you might be exactly catered to someone else, and that’s a completely different issue than writing quality or the education level of the creators.
this post is me defending hans christian anderson being a fucked up little alcoholic and gods being space aliens, by the way, not antisemitism or putting children in bikinis. fuck that shit.
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recurring-polynya · 2 years ago
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Are there any Bleach characters who never interacted that you wish had done so?
There are a couple different ways to interpret this question, and I'll try to go through them:
Would I add on-screen, canon interactions to the manga?
As far as I know, Renji and Orihime never say a single line to one another. This is an egregious oversight, and I would fix it immediately.
This is my only answer. I'm sure if I re-read the entire manga, I could find another few, but this is the only one that grates on me.
Bleach is a great manga, but it has a million characters and while I love a big and rich universe, its sprawling size and inability to focus on a core group is the place where it falls down to me.
What about filler, then? Would you add filler?
So, it's no secret that I am a great fan of Bleach filler. I love that it gives this additional depth to the world-building and adds to the sense that also these characters have rich and interesting lives, but also, they're out of canon, so I, as a reader, am welcome to pick and choose which parts I care about.
It's all the case that Bleach filler covers the space of most of the character interactions I want, which are generally of the quality "you know they interact, we've just never seen it". There's a ton more Karakura Kids and Karakura Kids + Rukia and Renji content in the filler, which makes it clear that Renji and Orihime like each other just fine. I think that the primary interactions I crave are between various Gotei characters. Gifts filler (including movies, omake and light novels) have given me include:
Iba giving Kira bad advice at the bar while Renji wishes to be excluded from this narrative
Byakuya has to go to Squad 12 and sit in a horrible Squad 12 chair and appears to be holding his breath the entire time he's there
Nanao, Ikkaku, and Hanatarou roaming the sewers
The majority of the lieutenant-class getting in a huge pissing contest in not one, but TWO New Year's episodes
Multiple Squad 10 potlucks
Kyouraku telling Kurotsuchi he's going to Hell
The tea-based beef between the management of Squads 1 and 8
Nanao telling Hisagi his cooking sucks
The time Renji started a beef with Omaeda and called him an otter-face (translations vary and I think the correct one is "onion head", but it was "otter face" in the shady dub of Diamond Dust Rebellion my husband found and it is very precious to me)
Byakuya, Toushirou and some other captains spent the night at Kuukaku's arm-house once and Byakuya built a giant wooden Wakame Ambassador in her backyard???
I could probably sit here all day doing this. Anyway, these are the sorts of interactions I love and crave. If you told me to create a new filler episode with an interaction between characters we've never seen, I'm not even sure what I'd pick. Surprise me. Maybe I'll love it, and even if I don't, probably someone else will.
Well, what about fanfic?
The upshot of everything I have said so far is that the Bleach universe feels very permissive to me. I feel very welcome to write in it, especially about the minor characters, in a way I do not with many books and media properties I like.
If I want to see two characters interact, I simply write it. If I get the idea in my head that two characters would have some interesting chemistry, I just sort of stow it in my mental cheek pouch, and at some point in the future, an opportunity presents itself. As I said before, my primary interest is interactions between the characters who live in Soul Society, which usually isn't that hard to wrangle, but there's also the entire dimension of alternate universes when I need to move someone across time or space or death or something.
I like to read fanfic, too, obviously. Seeing unusual combinations of characters in the tags is a big selling point to me. This is more of a process of serendipity to me, though. I will very occasionally search for a paired set of tags, just to see if anyone has done it, but mostly I like to see what other people do.
Explicit non-interactions that I wish were different
There is one thing that I do dislike that I would use my free wishes to undo, which is when canon tells us explicitly that characters don't know each other, when I know in my heart that they should. There are two particular examples of this that make me want to scream:
In the first lieutenants' meeting, early in the Soul Society Arc, Renji claims to have forgotten who Rangiku's captain is. I guess the point was to show how divided the squads are and also that Renji is a baby vice-captain, but it's stupid because a) Renji has been friends with Hinamori forever, b) Renji spent forty years obsessing over how to beat Byakuya and writes a swordfighting column in the newspaper and you tell me he doesn't even know who the other captains are?, and c) Hitsugaya comes by about 10 chapters later to comment on Renji getting beat up by Ichigo and calls him by his given name. ANYWAY, this is a personal hobby horse of mine and I usually just pretend it never happened.
Ukitake doesn't recognize Ganju, and in particular, doesn't seem particularly concerned when Byakuya beats the crap out of him. In this case, it's certainly reasonable that Ukitake would never have met the younger brother of his former vice-captain, but that's the sort of character thing where I would like to think that Ukitake maintained some connection to the exiled Shiba, that he felt, I dunno, some guilt or responsibility to them. This scene is actually just a symptom of the entire Ichigo-looks-like-Kaien thing collapsing under its own weight. Ukitake and Byakuya stand there having a conversation about how much Ichigo looks like Kaien while there's a heap of meat on the ground in pants with giant Shiba sigils on them (to say nothing of the fact that neither Kuukaku nor Ganju seem to notice any family resemblance in Ichigo). It's bad. I don't like it.
Oh, maybe this is along the same lines, but this feels very similar in my heart to the scene in the TYBW where Renji has some goofy banter with Bazz-B, even though Bazz blew a hole in one of Renji's closest friends. I guess this is less of a case of a missing interaction, and more of a case of missing information (it's not clear how much anyone knows what's been going on in the war, maybe Renji doesn't even know Kira's been hurt, but this doesn't make me feel better). I guess what I want is an interaction between Renji and someone who can give him some sort of war status briefing, so he won't look like a callous buffoon later on.
After going through all of this, I think a thing I have realized is that "X and Y should interact" is empty to me. I want to see the shape the interaction takes. I am also a person who doesn't particularly care for freefloating headcanons, I'd rather work my ideas into stories. So, I'm sorry if I managed to almost entirely avoid answering the question. If you want to know which characters I want to see interact, you can go read my fanfiction, because that's where I put it.
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blorbosexterminator · 2 years ago
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I believe a lot of fanfic writers would be massively disappointed if they were to try and publish their fanfics (having changed the most identifying characteristics to present it as original work). bc one of the reasons why we never say anything when someone's writing is full of spelling mistakes or bad grammar or, imo the most serious flaws - plots, characters, the low quality of the story itself, the themes, the subtext, the deeper meaning, etc - the reason, besides the whole participating in fandom communities and the fact it's free, is that we easily overlook some of those things because we get to read more about the characters we already love. I know my ff standards are fairly low. and who hasn't found themselves in a situation where they've read through everything they initially wanted to read and then started reading even the fics they first disregarded bc they can't get enough of their otp. do you know how many times I've scrolled past some especially cringy parts of fanfics, but I still love them. when you publish it, you immediately lose that aspect and most reviewers and readers won't be particularly generous. I just think publishing ff has a very high chance of being a mistake, and if publishing houses are approaching ff writers, I don't think they're looking for high quality and I wonder how much they'd invest in serious editing. IMO those who write ff and want to be published should consider working on an original piece of work, or at least reworking their ff significantly. thanks for reading through my message.
Again, I can't say I disagree at all. Fanfiction doesn't hold a grasp in all of those aspects you mentioned against actual published books [and of course nothing at all against the few of those books we would actually dare to call literature] and we allow it and are fine with it, not just because it's free and about the community and about the basic delight in sharing more of the characters we care about, but because none of those things are the primarily function of fanfiction. You don't judge Ikea and an apartment you're going to rent in the same mannar. Ikea isn't a house. At least to me, fanfiction is only about the source material. If there is a fic that has a well-thought out plot and decent prose, but the characters are mischaracterized and/or the dynamics are inherently misunderstood, then it still fails at being a good fic to me. Because, simply, if what I'm looking for is a good plot and decent prose, then I'll just pick any, even a mediocre, book [and it'll be better than said fic]. So not only does fanfiction fail by large at competing in those elements, in the average ratio of good to bad fics, it's also the fact that even a good fic that does all of those things decently still won't hold a chance against an actual good book.
It's the same from a writing's perspective too. It's not exactly about effort but what sort of effort it is. If I feel like it, I can just post a fic because I want it out without spending millenia editing it. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. But the point is, with fanfic I have the choice and it won't matter. And it's not just about the editing, the grammar, etc.
Anyway, yeah. They aren't looking for quality. It's still a capitalisic endeavor. Bad books, unfortunately, do sell. Fifty Shades of Grey made millions to an average fanfic writer. Doesn't make it a good book [and I doubt even a good fic before that]. And it's understandable with this current twitter and tiktok book market; honestly the things twitter authors write and tiktokers promote aren't at all that much better than fanfics. They are well aware of what makes them money, and if they're pursuing ao3 writers then they know the money they'll put in editing, they will get back tenfold. But if anyone thinks that's a win for fanfiction, they are mistaken. It's just an insane downgrade in published literature. And dare I say [while risking sounding like a Harold Bloom-like boomer] it's an insane downgrade in the generation/public's reading taste.
#people can do whatever they like though lol#and I'm not sure whether 'blaming' Twitter Tiktok and the only-fanfic reading public swarming out at all once for this shitshow is the righ#move#I'm sure the reasons and explanations are much more complex and those might only be the apparent symptoms but not what lies underneath#but they sure are making things much worse#least of what's truly insipid about this is that it's making people mostly teenagers really really comfortable with complete#anti-intellectualism and selling to them that is this is the good thing actually you're doing so great. go burn those terrible books your#hc teachers made you read#and no you're not#there is a world of difference between grappling with difficult texts because you understand that the grappling is worthwhile and between#manipulating yourself into thinking they aren't worth anything just because it would be easier for you to believe though#but anyway obviously there are exceptions#nothing is without exception#and I do believe a lot of fanfic writers [at least in my own experience my favorite ones] are more than capable of writing publishable work#but the point is fanfiction loses the one thing that makes it actually standout by getting published. and then it'll be put in a horrible#comparison with other works and get torn down#like writing a fanfiction most of the time you take a readymade situation [whether canon or a specific au] and what you do is put different#characters in#and you don't really have to do anything other than that. the twist and spin IS the characters#but publish that and those are just regular characters inna regular situation to readers and critics#and since we're talking about most fanfic s not the rarities; there won't be much to the book that excuses its lack of originality in plot#it's a pretty complex topic anyway#this is in no way a disregard of fanfics though#I love both writing and reading it#as its own thing#not as a replacement of or as literature#this is the bottomline
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bwbatta · 4 years ago
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two - persuasion
Abstract: Draco and you are just friends so doing him a favour and pretending to be his girlfriend wouldn’t effect your friendship, right?
Pairing: Draco Malfoy x reader
Warnings: some swears but that’s all!
Word count: 2623
A/N: let’s go for part 2 then?! Thank you so much for all your lovely comments! Everyone who has asked to be on the taglist has been added and if you would like to be on the list, just send me a message! Dividers are by the super talented @firefly-graphics 🤩
Series Masterlist | Main Masterlist
Part 1 | Part 3
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The plan was set.
Draco and you had talked some more about what being ‘in a relationship’ entailed, whilst at the same time avidly avoiding Pansy in your free time. In fact, you were surprised with how little you’d have to change the dynamic between the two of you.
The first point was friendship, which was easy enough you thought. There’s no point in starting a fake relationship if you don’t get on well in the first place.
Second, communication. You agreed to be open and honest with each other, this whole plan wouldn’t work if you weren’t telling each other everything.
And finally third, intimacy.
This one was obvious enough and it was more than just hand holding or sharing the odd kiss or two, you knew that. It was about selling your relationship to be believable to everyone else around you, including your closest friends.
One of which was Hermione.
The plan on paper was simple, you both said you’d start off small and work your way into being a couple, so why did you feel this pit of anxiety in your stomach?
Nerves? Sure, you chalked it down to that.
So when you entered the Great Hall the next morning, late and in desperate need of caffeine, you somehow didn’t expect your ‘boyfriend’ to approach you with a steaming mug of coffee.
You completely missed the blonde boy too as you took your normal seat with a frantic expression on your face. Your roommates didn’t wake you up like they usually did so when you woke and found no one there, you almost screamed when you checked the time.
“Coffee coffee coffee” the mantra on your tongue “where the hell is the coffee?!”
Hermione looked amused as she packed up the book she was previously reading into her bag.
“Ron finished it moments ago, there’s no more”
“What?!” You blanched “there’s none?”
Hermione shook her head, the answer a definite no.
With energy lacking and spirit deflated, you grabbed a couple slices of toast and buttered them quickly, at least trying to put some food in your stomach even if it wasn’t your usual caffeine shot.
However when Hermione froze slightly, eyes narrowly following something behind you with a glare, you frowned at her confused. That was until Draco perched on the seat next to you, holding a mug of coffee between his hands.
“Granger” he greeted in a civil manner causing the witch to freeze in shock, half expecting an offhand snide comment about her blood status. He then turned to you and offered the coffee, “thought you might need this”
“But I thought there was none left!”
“I saved you it”
“You saved me a coffee?”
“Kept it warm too”
You could’ve cried when you took the mug from him and immediately the drink warmed your hands. Eagerly taking a sip, you found the coffee itself was exactly to your liking.
You went to point it out but before a word could leave your lips, Draco rolled his eyes at you with a smile.
“What? You thought I didn’t know how you took your coffee?”
The question was rhetorical, not that you cared. Exhaustion was the only thing you felt that morning up until then, quickly being replaced with utter fondness for the Malfoy boy next to you.
“Thank you” you told him as he grinned back at you
“Don’t mention it”
Draco raised his hand and swiped away a lock of hair which had fallen out of your two second attempt to pin it back this morning in your rush.
Your breath hitched slightly as his eyes found yours and he leaned in towards your ear.
“How am I doing?”
Your brain stalled.
Right.
Of course.
He was acting like he cared about you in front of Hermione.
To convince Hermione.
Who of course, confirmed with a quick glance, was looking between the two of you with suspicion in her eyes.
Quickly painting a smile across your face like he’d said something sweet, you pulled back and shot him a dazzling smile.
“Alright, I guess” you said, vague enough so Hermione wouldn’t clock onto what he really said.
“Good” he grinned back at you before standing from the seat. “I’ll see you after class later, yeah?”
You nodded at him, and with a fond smile at you and a courteous nod to Hermione, he left the two of you be, heading to his first class.
With the thought in the back of your mind that you should probably also get to class, you were stopped by a substantially confused Hermione who looked at you like you’d grown another head.
“Was I just in some parallel universe?”
“What?”
“‘What?’ Seriously, that’s how you’re going to answer that question?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about” you shrugged your shoulders before standing and picking up your bag and the mug of coffee from Draco.
“What aren’t you telling me?” The Granger girl continued to interrogate you as she too stood, though with a lot more vigor.
“There’s a lot of things I’m not telling you Hermione, but if it’s anything to do with Draco, I don’t know what you mean”
Striding out the Great Hall, she quickly followed you, pestering for more information which you avoided expertly until you got to your first class you shared.
“Why did Malfoy get you coffee?”
“Because it was a nice thing to do”
“Why was he civil with me?”
“Maybe he’s seen the light”
“(Y/N)! Tell me! I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight otherwise and you know it!”
With a sigh you turned to face her.
Putting on a performance like it was tough for you to keep a secret, you ‘umm’d and ‘ahh’d under her questioning until you really had had enough of the interrogation.
“Okay, fine, we may or may not be dating” you said like it wasn’t a big deal
“What?!”
“Miss Granger!” Professor McGonagall’s voice snapped “if you’re so done with your conversation, perhaps you could start writing your essay?”
“Yes, Professor. Sorry, Professor”
With a glare shot your way, meaning she’d grill you later for information, the bookworm turned back to her work and started writing furiously.
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It was later that day that you found out that Lavender Brown had overheard your conversation with Hermione and so naturally, the gossip that you and Draco were dating was spread across the entire school.
Some believed the rumour, others didn’t so much. This of course included Blaise, the Weasley twins, and of course, the ever stubborn Pansy.
When the boys finally cornered each respective friend, they of course had some questions that needed to be addressed. 
Blaise cornered Draco first at Lunch. 
The Malfoy boy had just started to tuck into his food when a book slammed down on the table next to him, startling the boy. 
Blaise pinned him with a hard look.
“Is it true you’re dating (Y/N)?”
“How’d you hear that?!”
“Word gets around fast... so, is it true?”
“Yes it’s true” Draco rolled his eyes at his friend
He was honestly shocked at how quickly the rumour had gone round the castle, though he suspected some of the Gryffindor girls were behind it. They always seemed like they pounced on any gossip going.
This also meant, Pansy had probably heard it by now.
Draco’s interest peaked.
“Who’d you hear it from?” The blonde asked his friend
“Bulstrode of all people” Blaise rolled his eyes “thought I might’ve found out from my friend himself but apparently not”
“Sorry man, it only really happened yesterday”
Blaise waved his apology off
“So tell me, is this for real? It’s not a prank or anything, she knows you think you’re going out with her right?”
“Yes, (Y/N) knows we’re going out” Draco rolled his eyes in exasperation “she’s also not being forced or blackmailed into going out with me if that puts your mind at rest”
This wasn’t technically true and Draco fought the urge to cringe slightly as he remembered the deal he had made with you.
Despite the other copious Christmas presents he had to get you, being civil to Granger wasn’t so bad he remarked. They only shared a few classes, all of which were with you present, so all he really had to do was ignore the fact the muggleborn witch existed and he’d keep his side of the deal up.
“Good” Blaise huffed, finally sitting down next to him “can I ask you something though?”
“You just did”
“Smart arse” Blaise rolled his eyes but continued on “what made you ask her out?”
Draco paused.
You hadn’t actually discussed this so there wasn’t a definite plan on what response to give. The boy trusted himself to come up with a decent answer though so instead of panicking, he said the first thing that popped into his head.
“I’ve been in love with her for years”
Well... he didn’t expect that to be his response.
“You have?” Blaise asked also taken aback
“Umm, yeah, sure, she’s the one for me you know?”
Draco kicked himself once again
Why couldn’t he think straight?!
“She’s just... she’s so funny, you know? One of the funniest people I’ve ever met. Her laugh, man, is enough to make me laugh even harder because have you heard it?! It’s hilarious!”
Unconsciously, Draco began to smile at the thought of you.
“Also, she’s super talented at anything she does, which would be wildly annoying if she wasn’t so modest about it. She’s also the most sarcastic person I’ve ever met, yet also the kindest. She’s got so many good qualities it’s hard to even think about anything bad about her.”
Draco stopped, breaking out of his train of thought.
Now that... that, he really hasn’t expect to be his response.
“I’m glad you’re happy then, Draco” the Zabini boy smiled at him “seems like you really like her”
“Yeah... I do”
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You were pounced upon by both the Weasley twins not much later on, both demanding answers.
“You’re dating Malfoy?!”
“As in Draco Malfoy? The ferret?”
“He’s not a ferret!” You rolled your eyes at the pair. “And yes I am. Why? Do you not believe the castle gossip?”
“We heard it-“ Fred began
“Still working on believing it” George finished
You rolled your eyes and continued on to the library, your original destination before you got jumped by the identical redheads.
“Believe what you want” you shrugged trying to play it off.
“See (Y/N), here’s the thing, I don’t know if I believe you’re actually going out with him” Fred stated causing you to frown.
“What do you mean?”
“Freddie here believes you guys are faking it for some reason” George chucked an arm round your shoulders as they continued to walk with you.
“Why would we be faking it?!” You laughed like the idea was ridiculous.
“I just know you wouldn’t go for him” Fred shrugged “your standards are too high.”
“My standards are too high?!”
You were mildly offended at the suggestion, no matter how correct Fred was about the two of you faking your relationship.
Reaching the library quickly, you turned to the boys who had halted at the sight of the only room in the castle they adamantly wouldn’t enter.
“Well, unless your plan is to follow me into the forbidden room of books, I’ll see you guys later?”
Not waiting for an answer you swung open the door, mind now focused on studying for that test you had coming up in Herbology later that week.
“I still don’t believe you!” Fred shouted after you before the door closed shut behind you
All you could do was roll your eyes.
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It was dinner later that evening when you saw your ‘boyfriend’ again since breakfast when he’d given you the coffee.
By now, you two were the talk of the castle which is why you weren’t surprised to see a fuming brunette strut up to you. The Slytherin girl looked as if she should have smoke coming out her ears you thought, not that you’d tell her that and anger her even more.
“(Y/N)” Pansy sniffed almost impatiently as she reached you.
“Pansy” you replied innocently which seen fo infuriate her more.
“I heard you’re supposedly dating my boyfriend?”
“Your boyfriend?”
You couldn’t help but phrase the question like you really didn’t know what she was talking about.
“Draco!”
“...Draco?”
“Draco Malfoy!” She practically growled at you
“Ohh, Draco as in my boyfriend?”
“Yes! Wait no-“
You snorted at her slip up and ignored her as you sidestepped and entered the Great Hall spying the familiar mop of platinum blonde hair, sending him a smile,
Before you could make your way over to him though, a hand grabbed your arm with nails roughly digging into your skin.
“Hey, I wasn’t done talking to you” Pansy seethed
“Well I was done talking to you” you shrugged truely bored with the girl “I’d appreciate it now though if you let go of my arm.”
“No, I’m not finishe-“
“Yes you are” Draco cut her off this time
Pansy’s expression looked like her brain had short circuited for a moment before she gathered herself and smiled flirtily at the boy.
“Hey Drakey baby”
“Firstly, for the millionth time, don’t call me that” Draco narrowed his eyes at her into a glare. “Secondly, (Y/N) also asked you to let go of her arm so I suggest you do so.”
At once, like your arm was on fire, Pansy dropped her grip which she had forgotten about as soon as the Malfoy had entered the conversation.
You rubbed your arm as you pulled it to your chest. Pansy’s nails had dug deep and actually split the skin on your arm slightly by the force she had held you by.
“And finally, I’d appreciate it if you’d fuck off and didn’t harass my girlfriend, especially about lies that we’re somehow involved.”
With that being said, Draco wrapped his arm around your waist and escorted you over to the spot he was originally sitting at, letting you take his seat while he forced Crabbe to move down a space so he could sit next to you.
“Thanks for that” you sent him a smile “though I can handle Pansy”
“I know” he replied with a grin of his own “I just needed to get that off my chest. Let me see your arm.”
“It’s nothing-“
“(Y/N)”
With a sigh you reluctantly held out your arm so he could see the damage Pansy had done. Spotting the crescent shaped breaks in your skin, his jaw clenched in anger.
“Psychotic bitch” he mumbled under his breath barely loud enough for you to hear, “episkey”.
The wounds sewed themselves back together in no time and you send him a grateful smile.
“Heard you got cornered by Blaise earlier”.
“Heard the same about you with the Weasley twins”.
“Mmm” you shrugged “there was bound to be a few that didn’t just automatically believe we’re dating. Some might need a little more persuasion, especially Pansy. Also it is still only the first day since the gossip broke though, it might just be that we wait for the news to settle.”
“I guess” he rolled his eyes playing with the pasta on his plate with his fork, before pausing slightly, setting it down and turning to you.
His eyes glanced round the hall quickly before snapping back to you with a grin. Leaning towards you, he wrapped an arm around your waist to pull you slightly closer to him as his lips became level with your ear.
You fought the urge to shiver.
“Or... it just means we’ll have to make it all the more believable, Sweetheart.”
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Series Taglist:
(If you’re in bold, tumblr wouldn’t let me tag you ☹️, otherwise if you want to be added, let me know! 🤩):
@weasleytwinswheezes @azkabanlexi @streetfighterrichie @queen-of-the-coven @gdee703 @thatguppienamedbae @crumpets-are-better-with-jam @savcks @remmyswritings @thescarletknight2014 @w0nderr @heyiheardyouwereawildone36 @moonlightorbit @ceeellewrites @nicole-prz @depressedchilipepper @swiftlymoniquesblog
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mostlysignssomeportents · 4 years ago
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The zombie economy and digital arm-breakers
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It's a zombie economy. For 40 years, we've eroded the wages of workers and transfered their share of profit and productivity to owners of capital. This is a problem, because people need money to buy things, and if they run out of money, they stop buying and profits vanish.
Time and again, capitalism has kicked any reckoning over this down the road. First came the great liquidation: pension cashouts, raided savings, reverse mortgages. Then came consumer borrowing, a tidal wave of unrepayable debt.
That's the zombie part: all the unpayable debt, which has been turned into bonds that enrich debt-holders. As Michael Hudson has told us again and again, debt that can't be paid, won't be paid. Our debt-based economy is the walking dead, a zombie.
We can either stabilize the economy (by forgiving debts, so that producers can pay for necessities and go on producing); or we can stabilize finance (by coercing debtors into destroying their lives in order to keep up on payments):
https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/24/grandparents-optional-party/#jubilee
Think of the loan-shark's arm-breaker: he wants to collect on debt, so he threatens to break your arm. You steal your kid's college fund. You secretly mortgage the house. You sell your wedding-ring. You end up divorced and homeless. You still owe. So he breaks your arm.
Now you're divorced, homeless, and you've lost your ability to earn, and you've got medical bills. He threatens to break your other arm. You start breaking into cars to steal the toll money in the ashtrays. You go to jail. Finally the arm-breaker and his boss are out of luck.
Debts that can't be paid, won't be paid. But as loan-sharks know, fortunes can be collected by applying the right incentives.
Give debtors the choice of immediate ruin from nonpayment, and making a payment today and ruining their lives tomorrow, and they're pay.
They'll pay...until they can't. Because debts that can't be paid, won't be paid.
The zombie economy is the subprime economy. "Subprime" came into collective consciousness thanks to the great financial crisis, where banks tricked poor homebuyers into predatory loans.
The banks knew that the loans couldn't be repaid - they had "balloon" clauses that jacked up payments beyond the borrowers' ability to repay a few years into the mortgage - but they also knew that threats of homelessness are powerful motivators.
The inscrutable equations used to "guarantee" subprime bonds all shared an unspoken assumption: people who face homelessness will go to extraordinary lengths to pay their mortgages. Behind every subprime loan is an arm-breaker.
The zombie economy shambles on. Obama's loan-shark bailout and the eviction crisis let the architects of subprime buy up whole towns' worth of homes and turn them into hugely profitable slums: high-rent, low-quality deathtraps.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-housing-invitation/
Wall St landlords package rents from subprime rentals into bonds, backed by the loan-shark's guarantee: arm-breakers will evict the shit out of anyone who stops paying.
America-a land where eviction was once a rarity-now faces an eviction epidemic.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/08/forced-out
The foreclosure crisis was only possible because Wall St and the courts collaborated to streamline the historically complicated and time-consuming process of taking away someone's home. Same goes for the eviction epidemic.
It's a simple equation: the more loan-sharks spend on arm-breakers, the lower the expected profits.
Improvements to arm-breaking processes - cost-savings on traditional coercion or innovative new forms of terror - are powerful engines for unlocking new debt markets.
When innovation calls, tech answers. Our devices are increasingly "smart," and inside every smart device is a potential arm-breaker. Digital arm-breakers have been around since the first DRM systems, but they really took off in 2008.
That's when subprime car loans boomed. People who lost everything in the GFC still needed to get to work, and thanks to chronic US underinvestment in transit, that means owning a car. So loan-sharks and tech teamed up to deliver a new lost-cost, high-efficiency arm-breaker.
They leveraged the nation's mature wireless network to install cellular killswitches in cars. You could extend an unrepayable loan to a desperate person, and use an unmutable second stereo system to bombard them with earsplitting overdue notices.
https://edition.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/04/17/aa.bills.shut.engine.down/index.html
If they didn't pay, you could remotely cut off the ignition and send a precise location to your repo man.
Smart killswitches let you impose fine-grained control over debtors - say, enforcing a rule against driving over the county line.
https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/09/24/miss-a-payment-good-luck-moving-that-car/
Within a decade, the bond-market for payments from subprime car drivers was edging up on $1T; not because borrowers didn't default, but because they defaulted later, and the car could be easily re-leased to another desperate person.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U2eDJnwz_s
The zombie economy shambled on. Tech built undeletable, always-on kill-switches, lo-jacks, and spyware into an ever-expanding constellation of devices, like laptops.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/04/rental-company-control/478365/
Rent-to-own subprime laptops were tepicenter of innovation in digital arm-breaking. Laptops shipped with spyware for covert operation of cameras and mic and access ot files.
That went beyond repoing a laptop! Lenders could make and share covert sex-tapes of their customers!
They spied on children, plundered MP3 collections, stole passwords, read email. It was beyond the wildest dreams of analog loan-sharks.
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2012/09/ftc-halts-computer-spying
To make a good digital arm-breaker, you need always-on network connectivity, a device that people really depend on, and a strong presumption that the device has core software that its owner is never allowed to remove.
Basically, a smartphone.
Mobile carriers were early to this party. They collaborated with device manufacturers to create a "subsidized phone" market. They would "give" you a phone in exchange for a long-term, abusive contract, and then repo it by terminating service if you missed payments.
This was only possible because the manufacturers helped, creating phones that could be locked to a single network, so you couldn't un-repo your phone by sliding in someone else's phone.
They relied on the "anti-circumvention" laws that the music industry lobbied for in the late 90s (like Section 1201 of the DMCA) to make it a felony to unlock these phones. Arm-breaking is a lot easier if it's a felony to evade the arm-breaker.
The smarter the phones got, the more subprime opportunities there were. Remember, there's a new market in every arm-breaking innovation and in every arm-breaking efficiency.
Which brings me to India.
India has a huge subprime market. As one of the world's inequality capitals, whose national government runs on performative culture war bullshit and giveaways to the super-rich, it's a land ripe for subprime innovation.
Phone manufacturers like Samsung are key to India's vast collateralized subprime smartphone market: first-time buyers get their phones on the installment plans at predatory interest rates so high that most will default
https://restofworld.org/2021/loans-that-hijack-your-phone-are-coming-to-india/
Remember: subprime isn't about debts being repaid in full. It's about making borrowers so desperate that they ruin their lives to make payments before they default.
Samsung's uninstallable arm-breaker app allows lenders to brick a smartphone without help from a carrier.
Writing for Rest of World, Nilesh Christopher describes an "escalating series of annoyances" culminating with a full lockout for failure to repay:
*  audiovisual prompts in regional languages as reminders
* changing the wallpaper on their cellphones
That escalates to coercion based on analysis of the users' device activity:
* For "a prolific selfie-taker," notifications every time the camera is invoked
* frequently used messaging and social apps like Facebook or Instagram are progressively blocked
One step at a time, the phone is made progressively less usable, until it is fully bricked.
It's a fully automated, self-configuring arm-breaker, one that substitutes a thug's unscientific ladder of mounting terror with bloodless, statistical science.
This is probably a good point to mention the Shitty Technology Adoption Curve: any disciplinary technology is tried out on powerless people first, and gradually works its way up the privilege gradient to encompass the whole world.
https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/24/gwb-rumsfeld-monsters/#bossware
Debt, after all, is consuming all of us except for the lucky few at the very top of the wealth distribution who have not faced wage stagnation and forced liquidations.
The covid crisis pushed whole countries into subprime status. Pfizer has told poor countries that they can only get access to vaccines if they stake their sovereign assets as collateral to settle claims related to its products:
https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2021-02-23/held-to-ransom-pfizer-demands-governments-gamble-with-state-assets-to-secure-vaccine-deal
And the shitty-tech adoption curve is putting arm-breaking tech into every kind of device, spreading with alarming speed from the bottom of the social order to its apex.
Miss your Tesla payments and your car will lock itself, summon a repo man, back itself out of the parking lot, honk its horn, and unlock its doors for the repo man.
https://tiremeetsroad.com/2021/03/18/tesla-allegedly-remotely-unlocks-model-3-owners-car-uses-smart-summon-to-help-repo-agent/
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As subprime climbs the shitty tech adoption curve, it gets a new name: "software as a service." In a SaaS world, you cannot own the tools of your profession. Adobe Photoshop becomes Adobe Creative Cloud, and any designer who stops monthly payments becomes economic roadkill.
What's more, software is the ghost in the shell, the animating spirit within physical devices. Remove software from a smart device and you don't have a dumb device, you have a brick.
This lets the arm-breakers exert pressure over larger, more powerful entities...like Hoboken, NJ. Hoboken had a payment dispute with the software vendor for its robotic parking garage, so the vendor bricked the garage and took all the cars hostage.
https://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71554-0.html
The strange mutations of arm-breaker tech bodes ill, especially in light of Chekhov's Law: "A phaser on the bulkhead in Act One will go off by Act Three."
The universal spread of devices *designed* to be remotely repoed - bricked, downgraded, turned into surveillance tools - means that oppressive governments that coerce manufacturers will have the power to reach into our homes, cars and pockets to attack us.
Same goes for unscrupulous insiders - like the subprime laptop jokers making nonconsensual sex-tapes with their customers' webcams - and criminals who can pressure insiders into acting on their behalf.
Nevertheless, subprime arm-breaking is bound to spread, and spread, and spread. Covid forced millions to liquidate everything, left them in precarious, sub-minimum-wage gig work, and there's the millions of evictions waiting for the moratorium to end.
Debts that can't be paid, won't be paid. And yet, people must participate in the zombie economy: they're not going to dig a hole, climb in, and pull the dirt in on top of themselves. There is strong demand for credit on any terms. Any.
Arm-breaker tech unlocks new markets by delaying defaults on unpayable debts. The zombie economy shambles on.
Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg
Sachab (modified): https://www.flickr.com/photos/sachab/1422847855/
CC BY: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en
Kat Northern Lights Man (modified): https://www.flickr.com/photos/orangegreenblue/11375767914/
CC BY-NC: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/
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livlepretre · 3 years ago
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Are there any real life moments or feelings that have made their way or informed scenes in any of your fics? Not asking about anything very deep or personal (unless you want to go there). For example, something as small as knowing specific places or sensations and using that to inform scenes better.
Oh tons and tons!
I did get lucky in two respects with writing tvd fic specifically--
I'm actually a painter in real life, so all of those details about using oil paints are from long years of personal experience, as well as all of the parts about drawing. The show is dreadfully wrong about the technicalities of how paint works, like, in just about every scenario, so it does grant me some satisfaction to write about it for real. (and to pretend that Klaus isn't an awful painter) (Writing about Elena as a writer is so much the same, though-- it's special as a writer to get to access a character who also writes, because there's that immediate connection to the process and the feelings that go with it)
The other is that the Originals happens to be set in Nola (for some reason), which I know better than any other place on earth. When I write about that, I'm really writing a love letter.
In general, I try to write about the places I really know well-- Nola and NYC are both pretty drawn out as portraits of those places just because I've spent so much time there (but, ummm, notice that all they seem to do in NY is drink and look at art, which is basically how I spent my 20s there ha) I picked Barcelona for SWBS in particular because I've actually been there, so I could write about my impressions of it (which get heightened in memory... and maybe that's a good thing for fiction) so much better than if I had picked, say, Marseilles where I've never been. That also extends to writing about the feelings certain places evoke-- the descriptions from the Met and the Frick, the air of nostalgia about them, the descriptions of the hall of broken Greek statuary, are all taken from a journal I was working in back when I was spending the winter in New York City and having a bizarrely melancholy time spending all day by myself at the Met.
Experience in the landscape is part of that. Every rural place feels different, and drawing on the physicality of the locations I've spent a lot of time hiking in like New Hampshire for example has really grounded the work. Also, paying attention to the things that are interesting-- I paint landscapes, mostly, so the shape of the land, the color and quality of the lighting, the kinds of flowers and trees and rocks, even the weight or lightness of the air itself, are all things which draw my attention anyway, so it's very natural for me to want to add them to fic-- and they all evoke really powerful sense memory for me, so I try to overlay that with any writing about emotions or introspection.
A lot of the details that fill the story in are just taken from personal interests-- like the books Elena reads in the library are almost all books I've read and loved, and which are influences one way or another on that story. Same for the hapless cooking experiments.
There's obviously also a ton in FE that I've gotten from talking to other people-- I personally have a knack for killing all plants I touch, but my mentor loves to garden, and invites me to paint in his garden all the time, so that's taken from him; I'm far too impatient for yoga or meditation, but again, that's the sort of thing my sister really benefits from, so I've talked to her about the experience of it a lot.
I think the creeping around old houses and snooping through shut in antique curiosities is like a very prime memory from my childhood. My grandfather had this ancient enormous ramshackle house from the 1860s that definitely used to be lots of different smaller buildings but were at some point seamed together; now, my grandmother was a legitimate hoarder (I'm being completely literal, like she makes the hoarders on TLC look like jokes), and there were lots of rooms that were shut off from the main part of the house because they were so full of dusty old interesting things, as well as a few outbuildings like that. My grandfather was very old, in his 90s, when I was a child, too old for him to really keep the house up, so my cousins and siblings and I used to run wild all through this house playing hide and go seek in those shut off rooms and corridors and finding lots of weird and inexplicable objects my grandmother had bought at auction back in the 50s and 60s and piled up high at the house. There were six hundred year old vases mixed in with old record players from the 60s, sewing kits from the 30s and boxes full of letters my great-grandfather had written and little statuettes from India and China and Vietnam sitting atop little two hundred year old painted tables. Just the wildest mix of mundane artifacts from my grandparents' actual lives mixed in with all of these beautiful old objects my grandmother used to collect. I think a lot of Elena's creeping around and hunting through drawers and going down corridors to peer into secret rooms probably stems from that childhood immersed in my grandfather's house, and then all of the time I spent as a teenager helping my mom go through it all and try to make sense of it after he died-- there's probably a weird level of specificity to the names and mechanics of different antique objects and furnitures in FE because I had to learn all about it to help my mom categorize and sell all of those things.
And that kind of takes me to one of the main things I really wanted to write about in this fic-- a detailed and empathetic dive into depression. It's never sat well with me that depression is so often so poorly depicted in media, especially on tv, and that it gets treated like a story arc (tvd season 4 is one of the worst offenders in this regard-- Elena's depression and grief from her brother dying is like a 4 episode arc and it's offensive). I had very severe depression as a teenager, compounded with a lot of grief, and I will probably always be melancholy because some things are just indelible. As a teenager, I was very much so hemmed in by death, and I was very frightened all the time; I was really broken by that experience, and I used to think the loneliness had sunk so deep inside of me that I couldn't even feel lonely anymore, or wish for anyone else. I was probably about 26 before I finally healed from this. These feelings are all probably major reasons why I'm drawn to Elena Gilbert as a protagonist, and why I read her as I do-- I know there are a lot of people who disagree with my interpretation of her, and it's possible that I am so convinced of my character reading of her because I was 20 and still battling in the heart of all of that trauma from my teen years and I felt a resonance with her. So, in writing FE in particularly, and SWBS to a lesser extent, I wanted to write about depression as honestly, openly, and lovingly toward the depressed as I could. I also wanted to write about loneliness, and grief, and what it's like to emerge from those things-- slowly, painfully, with lots of stumbles and hard, hard days. I can recognize that the depictions of depression in FE are ultimately just a reflection of my own personal experience wrestling with it-- but I'm trying to tell an ultimately hopeful story, capable of staring down into the deepest darkness and still clawing its way up into the light. Learning to write honestly about these feelings was hard-- I was so used to protecting myself and pretending that I wasn't something that had once been smashed to pieces that I found myself downplaying the emotions in my writing, being less honest. There came a point there where I realized this story was only ever going to be what I wanted it to be if I did get really honest, as much as possible. I often think of this story as being especially dedicated to the readers who recognize that experience-- and I hope it does, ultimately, read as a story about healing, as dark as it is.
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kotoyin · 3 years ago
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📋 :eyes:
❥ WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR ▸ open!
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FOSSIL DIG EVENT ▸ i have been thinking about this one for literal YEARS!! i want lyra to conduct a dig at mt moon!! on the surface it’s to find evidence of ancient human’s interacting with clefairy, to see how the two may have interacted. it’s second secret purpose is to see if mt moon’s mystical qualities and the unown might be related.
but the real fun part of this event is that it will act like a game! if people write dabbles based on what their muse is doing in the dig, or start threads that directly involve it, they’ll receive excavation points. the dig site itself will be represented by a grid, and players can use their points to dig up squares, which contain fossils, rare artefacts or other valuable items!! lyra & her team will award muses with merit points for handing them over. everyone whose merit points hit certain milestones will win a little prize!! probably some art or graphics from me.
i’m also playing with the idea that instead of giving the artefacts in, you can sell them to my shady pawnbroker. choei castor alice, who will pay your muse handsomely. ooc this will mean you get a silly doodle, meme edit, some smaller prize. immediate gratification as opposed to working for a larger reward in the end.
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rii-bows · 3 years ago
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Impulsive Dates
(Taking a break from being horny to write cute hc cause i’m sad. kinda unorganized, this is just brainrot)
Characters Included: 707, Jumin, V, Saeran
Tags & TW/CW: none, just fluff!
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Saeyoung/707
He’s been working a lot lately and hasn't had much time with you. He didn't realize what time it was and that he hadn't spent time with you until you had timidly entered his room asking if he’d still have lunch with you that day. He looked at the time and realized that it was well into the afternoon...you’ve already been waiting for a bit. He decided to make it up to you and take you out.
There wasn't a specific “date location”, but let's say the main goal was to get ice cream. I say that because there are many detours in between actually going. You guys saw an interesting shop with cool figures, there was a flower lady giving out flowers, the red bean paste guy was on the way… the “real” date was the walk itself.
Seven actually didn't plan to have many detours in between because he actually had more work to do... but after you guys accidentally got distracted by the pet shop nearby, he realized how genuinely happy you seemed spending time with him. After that, he made an effort to take any stop he could. You guys actually had to rush in the end because despite leaving plenty of hours before the place closed, you guys made so many stops that you didn't even realize the place selling them was close to closing until about 10 minutes before.
When you guys finally got the ice cream, he felt a bit sad that you guys had reached the end of your journey. He wanted the night to last a bit longer, even if that meant neglecting work. He had to think of something else to do before the night ended because he wanted to spend more time with you, so he took you on a “detour” through an open space where you guys spent the rest of the night star gazing. The both of you didn't make it back home until the early mornings.
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Jumin
Nothing had gone his way that day. Work was unnecessarily long, there was extra traffic, and worst of all, you had woken up late today so he didn't get the chance to spend the morning with you. He had told his driver almost immediately that he would be going out tonight. You had been notified by one of his workers that someone would be coming up to help you get ready for a date.
He’s going with the classic dinner date. Fanciest restaurant nearby with your favorite food while also reserving a whole section just for yourselves. He’s already had a bad day, he’d be damned if the date was interrupted by others or wasn’t best quality. You told him that you don’t mind the quality and that you're content with just being with him, but he insists on only the best. He’s in the mood for spoiling you and though sitting on his patio or yard drinking wine was something he enjoyed, he wanted something special for you.
Being around you was something that always cheered him up. You were the love of his life and the fact that he was able to come home to someone as perfect as you waiting for him with open arms was something he was truly thankful for. However, spoiling you was a whole different story. He knows no gift will ever match the love he has for you, but he will of course try his damn hardest. Which is why he only gives you the very best. Maybe that's why he resorts to spoiling you when he has a bad day, it’s a reminder that you're around for him to love.
He didn't admit it at first but after being his spouse for so long, you kind of already knew something was wrong. You knew that him spoiling you was a way to make him feel better but you insisted on doing something for him. When you guys got home, you invited him to a warm bath together. Something to wind down a stressful day with.
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V (After ending)
V had just come back from a long trip. He wanted to be home sooner but luck was just not on his side. He originally was going to spend the day with you relaxing but arriving home and seeing you rush to hug him was all he needed to change his mind. He decided to take you on a date that very morning.
V takes you to the museum, specifically a more kid/art focused and interactive one. Similar to Saeyoung, you guys preferred a date that wasn't focused on just one goal and had more of an adventure element to it. You liked the variety of exhibits and he liked watching you. It was a win win. You would take his hand and drag him around from exhibit to exhibit and he knew from this moment that he made the right choice for once.
You look so beautiful with your face illuminated with joy and curiosity. Watching you smile was something he thoroughly enjoyed and wanted to see forever. He couldn't help but snap a couple of photos. Most of them you were aware of and posed in front of whatever you were showing him,while others you goofily made fun of. His favorites, however, were the ones where you were so captured by the exhibit that you didn't realize he was taking a photo.
When you guys arrived home, the both of you spent the time looking through photos and picking which ones to keep. Looking through the photos together, you were able to see the ones he took while you weren't paying attention. He was a bit embarrassed about it but you found it endearing that he looked at you this way. He mostly picked out the ones where you were distracted while you picked the few that he joined in with.
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Saeran
You simply mentioned that it’d been a while since you guys have been on a date and he said “well why not go on one now”. He didn't realize you guys hadn’t gone on a date in a while because you guys spend so much time together anyways. Nevertheless, he still agreed to it. It'd be fun to go out for once.
He’s taking you on a classic picnic. It’s the perfect option in his opinion. It's nothing but undivided attention to each other from the very start. Preparing the food, packing, finding the perfect spot, all of that required togetherness. Out of all the dates, this one was probably the least impulsive because he’s already thought of this idea hundreds of times. He was just waiting for the perfect time to bring it up.
He insisted on setting up in a spot where not many people could see them. You guys took turns feeding each other and discussing mundane things. It was no different than any other conversation back at home, the only difference was that you guys didn't have to worry about anything else such as work or chores. You guys sat out until the late afternoon before taking the slow walk back home.
Despite already spending a lot of time together, there was something special about making a deal about going on a date. Being in the secluded area with no other distractions was something you guys didn't get often. It was much different than just having a meal together because there was always something else going on. He enjoyed getting this time together to just appreciate each other's love.
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marketingprofitmedia · 9 months ago
Text
AcquireWeb AI Review – Get Unlimited Traffic & Make $543.77 Daily! (Obed S.A)
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AcquireWeb AI offers functionalities to create marketing assets like sales pages and email templates, potentially saving time with pre-built options and AI-powered content generation. While it promises benefits like time and cost savings with its automation features, it’s important to be aware of potential drawbacks like limited control over the AI’s decision-making and the need to ensure the quality of generated content aligns with your brand.
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AcquireWeb AI was founded by Obed S.A. and Mustapha Hassan. Obed S.A. specializes in AI and software development, whereas Mustapha Hassan is a marketing and company startup expert. They created the first “all-in-one” AI tool to transform digital marketing and lead generation. Their expertise and enthusiasm for cutting-edge technology have resulted to AcquireWeb AI, which helps users quickly earn from lucrative advertising, offers, leads, websites, and marketing materials. Find them on Orion and ProfitRocket to see how their products help consumers generate money online.
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AcquireWeb AI Review: Verify User Feedback
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Cons:
You cannot use this product without an active internet connection.
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AcquireWeb AI presents a feature set designed to automate marketing tasks and expedite campaign creation. While the platform offers functionalities like ad analysis and website building, remember to prioritize ethical considerations and ensure the generated content aligns with your brand voice. Carefully evaluate your marketing needs, budget, and content quality requirements before deciding if AcquireWeb AI is the right fit for your business. Consider exploring alternative marketing automation platforms like Unbounce or Active Campaign to find the solution that best complements your marketing strategy.
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Check Out My Previous Reviews: EcoverPalAi Review, Comet App Review, WebWise Review, ProfitCell Review, Gen AI Review, MobiApp AI Review.
Thank for reading my AcquireWeb AI Review till the end. Hope it will help you to make purchase decision perfectly.
Disclaimer:
This review is based on publicly available information and is not intended as an endorsement or promotion of AcquireWeb AI. Users should conduct their own research and due diligence before making any purchasing decisions.
Note: Yes, this is a paid software, however the one-time fee is $17 for lifetime
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passionate-reply · 4 years ago
Video
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This week on Great Albums: they’ve been called Duran Duran for art school nerds, and a whole lot worse, but you probably know them as...Japan! Find out what made their last album their best work, and how they landed one of the most unusual and experimental pop hits in history. Transcript after the break!
Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! Today, I’ll be taking a look at an album that proved to be its creators’ hard-earned mainstream breakthrough, as well as their final release as a group: Tin Drum, by Japan. Japan had gotten their start in the mid-1970s, as a glam rock act, and as the 70s melted into the 80s, they kept up with the times, gradually sidling into the “New Romantic” scene--a movement which, in turn, owed many debts to glam pioneers like Roxy Music and David Bowie. By their fourth LP, 1980’s Gentlemen Take Polaroids, they had arrived at a lightly electronic pop sound that fit right in with the musical landscape of the early 80s.
Music: “Gentlemen Take Polaroids”
The following year, Japan would release Tin Drum, but it’s not exactly the album you would expect it to be--at least, not entirely.
Music: “The Art of Parties”
The most immediately striking feature of Tin Drum is its unique instrumentation. The rich and distinctive sounds of Chinese horns and African flutes jump out immediately, producing a powerful and distinctive accent upon what’s otherwise a somewhat conventional rock band arrangement. I feel like the “exotic” instruments here actually function in a similar manner to how the bands of this era who remained grounded in rock often approached synthesisers--that is, they add flourish and flair to the hooks, and bring an inherent timbral interest to the music, but ultimately, they’re used in a more condimental manner. Underneath all of this exoticism lurk the bones of pop excellence: the ineffable brilliance of a great hook, and some wondrously groovy basslines--the contribution of core member Mick Karn, on his distinctive fretless bass. Artsy as it is, it’s not so hard to believe that Tin Drum was the album that finally pushed Japan from cult darlings to artists with a major hit single to their name. But, when you hear what that single was, you may well be surprised.
Music: “Ghosts”
“Ghosts” is certainly a singular track, that stands out even on this fairly unconventional album. Its complete lack of percussion contributes immensely to its uncertain, unpredictable atmosphere of invisible menace--a bold move, for sure, but one that really delivers on the song’s premise. While “Ghosts” is fascinating and unforgettable, it’s far from the most obvious hit single you’ll find on Tin Drum. If I had to guess, I’d probably have pegged the lead single, “Visions of China,” as most likely to succeed.
Music: “Visions of China”
The dreamy “Visions of China” seems to center the idea that what we’re experiencing is a fantasy vision of Asia and not the real thing. Japan may have been a bunch of White, British guys playing around with Oriental aesthetics, but at least they appear to have been somewhat self-aware about it. Or, at least, we can come to that conclusion if we read the lyrics closely. It’s also very possible for a more casual listener to gloss over that aspect, especially when it’s so easy to get swept up in that triumphant refrain. While some critics might describe Tin Drum’s Orientalism as wholly or partially “ironic,” I think that idea forms the beginning of a conversation on how these themes are used, and not the end of one. The album’s closing track, “Cantonese Boy,” is much harder to take at face value.
Music: “Cantonese Boy”
Just how do you write a compelling song about a subject as controversial as Maoism? Many artistic portrayals of totalitarian regimes fail to resist the urge to play up their clownish and absurd appearances--Laibach being a prominent musical example. That can be valuable, but it’s also, comparatively, somewhat easy. “Cantonese Boy” is designed to lead us to sympathize with the beauty of the Communist dream, and presents an insidiously stirring vision of glory. But it’s hard to imagine listeners nodding along with it, and singing about the Red Army, despite its anthemic charms and driving, martial percussion. I think “Cantonese Boy” is the track that most successfully balances irony and sincerity, and it pays off.
Tin Drum’s cover features frontman David Sylvian in a lonely, austere dwelling. The New Romantic movement is often dismissed on the grounds of being style over substance, for its elabourate wardrobe and makeup aesthetics, but much as the music breaks expectations, the sparse surroundings here set this album apart as something more subtle or contemplative. The first thing one notices is this drab colour palette, which is particularly ascetic by 1980s standards, but the more you look at it, the more the little details of this interior scene stand out: the bare lightbulb, and the tears at the edges of this portrait of Mao, make it feel particularly threadbare.
It’s somewhat ironic that this album is most famous for a song with no drums at all, but is titled “Tin Drum.” That aside, though, I think it’s an interesting title overall. The expression “to bang a tin drum” signifies creating clamour and commotion to call attention to something, most often, a social or political cause. It seems to be used in that sense in the lyrics of “Cantonese Boy,” and straightforwardly so. But the title also calls attention to the album’s instrumentation, which is of course one of its most noteworthy qualities, and it centers the instrument itself, as a physical object. A thing is simply a thing, an inanimate object to be used and abused however human beings see fit. In a way, the title gives tacit permission for the album’s re-interpretations of exotic instruments.
Ultimately, I do think it’s hard to reckon with the impact of Tin Drum without asking some difficult questions about culture and race. In the early 1980s, Orientalism was all over pop, particularly in the New Wave and New Romantic scenes. A lot of hit singles from this era contain much more overtly upsetting caricatures and stereotypes of Asian people and their culture than anything you’ll find here. But just because Tin Drum is a bit better than that, and sells us what it does with more class and panache, doesn’t render it above criticism. Nor does the fact that Japan were well received by listeners in the country of Japan, and collaborated (elsewhere) with Japanese artists like Ryuichi Sakamoto. It’s still essentially an album that uses instruments and themes perceived as foreign and exotic, in an attempt to whisk us away to the world of the Other, and I don’t think it could possibly be made in this day and age. While I do think Tin Drum is a Great Album, and simply tossing it aside as “problematic” is no solution, I think it’s worth examining the ideas and associations underpinning how and why these artistic decisions were made. This isn’t an easy conversation to have, but it’s a necessary one, and one that I wish wasn’t so markedly absent among fans of the music.
As I mentioned in the introduction, Tin Drum would prove to be Japan’s final studio album as a group, and they would split up to pursue their separate ambitions shortly after. Percussionist Steve Jansen and synthesist Richard Barbieri would form “The Dolphin Brothers,” and take more influence from the synth-pop stylings of Gentlemen Take Polaroids, but Tin Drum’s evocative, experimental soundscapes would serve as the blueprint for the solo work of both Mick Karn and David Sylvian.
Music: “Pop Song”
My favourite track on Tin Drum is “Still Life in Mobile Homes.” It’s a track with a hell of a hook, and probably the single song that drifts through my mind at random times more than any other, which is saying something. But what really pushes it over the top for me is its eerie, surprisingly dissonant breakdown. In one track, it seems to distill all of the tension between avant-garde strangeness and pop par excellence that wrestle one another throughout the album. As always, thanks for listening!
Music: “Still Life in Mobile Homes”
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