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sluttyten · 5 years

Text

baby. || Part ii

summary: you haven’t been able to stop thinking about the time you and johnny had mark in bed, a sweet and desperate baby boy for the both of you, and you would do anything to have him back there again. Part 1

words: 8,659

pairing: johnny x reader, mark x reader, johnny x mark

tags: smut, fluff, threesome, sub!mark, dom!johnny, switch!reader, cunnilingus, multiple orgasms, blowjobs, cum kink?, polyamory, mention of daddy kink

Inviting Mark back into bed with you and Johnny was almost constantly on your mind. You’d had fun that night, being watched by one of them while the other made you feel good. You’d enjoyed getting Mark all riled up without him being allowed to cum. You’d liked it all.

But it had been months since that night. Months since you’d woken up to find Mark already gone, and he hadn’t returned to the dorm until after the others returned days later.

It took him quite a while, Johnny told you, until Mark could look him in the eyes without blushing ten different shades of red.

So you and Johnny kept your distance. Johnny told you he was careful to avoid mentioning that night ever, and Mark didn’t bring it up either. He found a girlfriend (or as close to a girlfriend as what he could find—more of a fuckbuddy according to Johnny) from a girl group and was sure to tell all the guys stories about his sexy encounters with her, about how he could dom her so well, spank her, tie her up, give her so many orgasms on his cock.

“It’s gotten annoying.” Johnny tells you one day when you’ve met him for lunch at the practice rooms. Yuta and Jungwoo are sitting with the pair of you too, while Mark is across the room bragging about getting his girl to call him daddy the night before. You keep noticing him looking in the direction of where the four of you are sitting, picking through the food you’d brought.

“I’m pretty sure he’s lying about half of it, if not more.” Yuta says.

Jungwoo hums in agreement and nods, but his mouth is too full of food to say anything else.

Yuta looks over his shoulder at Mark and Taeyong and the others. “I asked him where they’re having all of this sex he claims they’re having, since he’s not bringing her to our dorm, and if she’s in a girl group then I doubt he’s going to a dorm full of girls to fuck either. He just kinda blushed and changed the subject. I don’t know why he’s lying but I think he’s making it all up.”

And hours later, as Johnny walks you to your car through the amber-glazed night, your shadows intertwined as well as your fingers, you ask, “Do you really think Mark’s lying about his girlfriend?”

Johnny laughs. “Probably. I have my theories.”

“Care to share them?” You knock your shoulder into his. “Penny for your thoughts?”

Suddenly Johnny spins you around, twirling you in a circle with your joined hands held over your heads, and then your back is against a nearby wall, still warm from the summer sun. “How about a kiss for my thoughts instead?” Johnny lowers his head toward yours.

You nod and bite your lip. “That sounds fair.”

You raise up on your toes and pour your all into kissing your boyfriend, and when you’re done, you’re both left breathless.

“The theories?” You sink back down flat-soled, looking up into Johnny’s eyes.

“Right.” He nods, and without moving back from you at all, he says, “I think Mark’s lying about it all. Maybe he’s slept with someone once or a few times since his night with us, but I don’t think he’s got a girlfriend or even a fuckbuddy, and he’s most likely lying about everything that they’ve done. You saw Mark. He’s a baby boy, he loves being taken care of. He’s not the dominant daddy that he keeps trying to paint himself as. I think he’s just trying to give himself an image because he’s scared of the truth. He’s scared of how much he liked that night with us.”

He drops his forehead against yours. “I think we should give him another night like that one, don’t you, baby?”

“Definitely.” You can already feel the thrill, the build up of excitement from the last few months bursting forth in just one second. “How are we going to do that?”

“I may have a plan or two I’ve been thinking of.” Johnny steps back, and you follow, ready to go wherever he leads.

Mark, can’t you just pick her up on your way home tonight?

You know those words are exactly the ones that Johnny said to Mark before he left earlier that evening.

Why can’t you? was certainly Mark’s response.

Because, I have that thing that’s running until late tonight, and I’m going to be on the opposite side of the city. You have to go right by her apartment on your way to the dorm from here, and I don’t want her coming over later all by herself. It’s a dangerous city. Would you really have me go so far out of my way later or have my girlfriend traversing the city all alone at night?

Johnny had texted you as soon as his persuasion worked, telling you that Mark would be there to pick you up at your apartment soon. The plan was a-go.

For the first time in a while, the guys had a brief break from their busy schedules. Not a long one, but long enough that they could all take that time to be away from each other. For most of the members, that meant taking their few days to go home and spend time with their families and cool down from the idol life. For Johnny, and Mark as well, that meant just staying at the dorm and relaxing because Canada and Chicago are always too far away to head home for the weekend. They’d pretty much get there, take a breath, and have to turn right back around.

So, the situation was quite similar to that of the last time you and Johnny brought Mark into bed, although this time was anything but a mistake.

You’re still in the middle of packing your overnight bag when Mark arrives.

Your phone buzzes with an “I’m here” text, and few minutes later, there’s a hesitant knock on your door.

“Hey, Mark, sorry I’m not quite finished yet. Come in. Sit down. Is there anything I can get you?” You move across the open space of your apartment to your bedroom door which is standing wide open, giving Mark a clear view to your bed and the strategically placed bag (with visible lacy panties and bra), mussed sheets, and vibrator that you’ve left out.

You watch as he turns his head away from your bedroom, his ears turning red. “I’m fine. So, uh, are you planning to spend our whole break at the dorm with Johnny hyung?”

“Oh, I’m not sure about that.” You quickly throw the last few things into your bag, pause to consider packing the vibrator, and then you ask Mark, “What about you? Are you planning to stay at the dorm the whole break, or are you going to hang out with your girlfriend?”

Mark’s head snaps toward you. “She’s not--- She’s not really my girlfriend. I’m not really interested in a relationship, just more of a distraction, I guess.”

You zip your bag shut, draw it over your shoulder and then step out of your room, cocking your head to the side a bit as you watch Mark. “Distraction from what?”

He swallows, his eyes flicking up and down your body. “Life, you know. Are you ready?”

“Yeah. I’m starving. Do you wanna grab a bite to eat on our way back?” You want to put him at ease because suddenly Mark looks very tense. He agrees as you walk out the door of your apartment, locking it securely behind you.

So you set off, walking through the evening with Mark. It’s a temperate summer night, the sky a beautiful pale blue and pastel purple laced through with pink and lavender clouds. It’s one of those evenings that makes you want to stay in it a little longer, to taste the clouds and breathe in the sweet air. It’s an evening like this that promises an even better night.

You tell Mark as much as you’re sitting together at a small outdoor street shop, eating ramen and chicken and a few other dishes.

“You think so?” He asks.

“I know so.” You pick up a piece of chicken and hold it up in front of him. “Here, eat this.”

Mark balks for a moment, leaning back and going nearly cross-eyed as he looks at the piece of chicken.

“Oh, come on,” You tease, and, waving it around in the air, you make airplane noises. “Open up, come on, baby.”

He had been opening up his mouth, laughing as he went to accept the chicken, but at your teasing nickname, his mouth snaps shut and he sits back. Maybe that was a bit too much.

“Sorry.” You apologize, keeping the chicken for yourself. Things are quiet again for a few moments after that. You barely say a word to each other until you’re back at the dorm, still empty except for Taeil who’s finishing packing his bags before he heads home.

And after Taeil spends a good five minutes trying to wrestle Mark to the floor to press a simple kiss to his cheek (which he succeeds at with a victorious cry and a disgusted shout from Mark), Taeil leaves the two of you alone.

You curl up on one end of the sofa, Mark on the other, neither of you speaking while Mark tabs through Netflix, searching for something to watch.

“What time is Johnny hyung going to be back?” Mark asks once he chooses a show.

“I think he said his meeting thing was running until about nine maybe?” You glance at the time on your phone. It’s only around seven o’clock. On a normal schedule, the guys would only just now be about halfway through practicing, and you can feel the unused energy buzzing off of Mark from here. “You don’t have to wait around here if you have other plans, like, meeting up with you girlfriend.”

He starts to shake his head, but then hesitates, clears his throat. “Can I tell you something? Something that you can’t tell anyone else, not even Johnny. Especially not Johnny.” He twists on the sofa to face you. “I feel like I can trust you, and please don’t let me be wrong about that.”

“You can trust me.” You scoot closer and lay a hand over one of his on his knee. This time he doesn’t jerk away from you as he had while you were eating. “What do you want to tell me, Mark?”

You’re distinctly reminded of that night, the last time you were actually this close to Mark. He doesn’t meet your eye, his gaze dancing around the room, never resting on any one thing for too long.

“Mark,” You cup his cheek in your hand, tugging his gaze back to yours. “Talk to me. You don’t need to be so nervous, just talk to me. What were you--”

“So I don’t actually have a girlfriend. Well, there was a girl that I hooked up with once since... since that night.” Mark stares right into your eyes, his voice wavering just a little bit as he speaks. “It was nice, I guess, but it wasn’t nearly enough. It wasn’t how you and Johnny hyung gave it to me, and I haven’t been able to feel like that since then. And I’ve been struggling with that.

“I’m a man, I shouldn’t enjoy being treated like that, being babied and toyed with and told what to do. I should be in control, and I definitely shouldn’t want to be treated like that by Johnny. I’m straight! I’ve always only been into girls. I’m into you.”

He trembles a bit, and you bring your other hand up to his other cheek.

Mark relaxes, melting into your touch. Just a soft boy who wants to be shown affection.

“It’s okay, Mark. Everything you feel, it’s good. You’ve been avoiding Johnny and I since then, is it because of this? How you feel about that night?”

“Yes,” His breath shudders out.

You push your fingers up into Mark’s hair, and at the feel of your fingertips dragging through his hair, he closes his eyes and sighs, leaning into your hand, somewhat like a kitten.

“Like this. I like this kind of feeling.” Mark murmurs. “Weird, isn’t it?”

“I wouldn’t be doing it if I thought it was weird, Mark.” You cradle the back of his head, and as you move to recline on the sofa, you guide his head to your shoulder. “We can stay like this for a while if it’ll make you feel better.”

Mark moves with you until you’re both lying on the sofa, you flat on your back, Mark tucked against your side with his head on your shoulder. You’re sure that you look very cuddly together (because you are), and Mark shifts slightly uncomfortably.

“What if Johnny hyung walks in?”

You shake you head and keep combing your fingers through Mark’s hair. “He won’t mind. Relax, Mark, baby. We’ll take good care of you.”

Mark’s dozing when Johnny arrives, striding through the door of the dorm, passing right by without even noticing you and Mark. It’s only once he’s reached his bedroom and finds it empty that he loops back around in search of you. And he finds you just like that on the sofa, Mark curled up with his head on your chest, his eyes closed, and your hand on his hair even though you’re no longer running your fingers through it.

“What is this?” Johnny whispers, leaning down to kiss you briefly.

“I promised him I wouldn’t tell you what he told me.” You reply. “But I think you can pretty well guess.”

Johnny stares down at Mark’s sleeping face for a moment. “Did you ask him?”

You shake your head no.

After Mark’s confession, it didn’t seem quite right to just spring your question on him right then. The poor boy would probably be overwhelmed if you’d immediately asked him if he wanted it to happen again, right then that night as soon as Johnny got home. So you held your tongue. You could wait just a bit longer to invite Mark into bed with the two of you if it meant he would be more comfortable with the idea of returning to it.

Johnny reaches down to touch Mark, but before he even makes contact, Mark opens his eyes. He tilts his head back, looking first to you, and then he sees Johnny.

“Oh, shit!” He bolts upright, springing off the sofa and onto his feet.

“Relax, Mark,” Johnny laughs. You reach for Mark’s hand, and he gives it, letting you slowly draw him back to sit down on the edge of the sofa by your knees. “She makes a really nice pillow doesn’t she?”

Mark nods.

“You’re so cute.” You stroke your hand over the back of his. “You know, Mark, Johnny and I have been thinking...”

He stiffens and is already shaking his head before you can even get the words out.

“Mark, it’s okay.” You can already see the panic rising in his eyes. His fear of appearing unmanly in wanting to be dominated, in wanting another man, and in wanting anything that the two of you can offer him. He told you all about his fears, but that doesn’t make you less interested in having him back in bed. If anything it makes you want him more, just to show him the truth.

“We want to take care of you.” Johnny says. “I can’t even tell you how many times since that night, we’ve talked about repeating it. She liked getting to be in control, I liked watching her control someone else. We both liked that it was you, Mark.” He leans against the arm of the sofa. “And if you wanted to do it again, my door’s always open.”

And with that said, Johnny walks off. You know he’s expecting you to follow, but you stay behind for a moment.

“Haven’t you thought about being with us again? We’d go easier on you this time if you wanted.” You tap his hand, and Mark turns it over for you, exposing his palm. “Maybe this time you could get a kiss, if you’re really good.”

He bites his lip, but says nothing.

“Come to bed!” Johnny calls, and you sigh and stand up, leaving Mark on the sofa.

“If you change your mind, you know where to find us. Like Johnny said, his door’s always open.” You cup Mark’s cheek again, stroking your thumb over his cheekbone, and still he says nothing, so you walk away.

Johnny’s waiting, sitting on the bed in just his underwear. “So? What did he say?”

“Nothing. He didn’t say anything.”

“No, I mean earlier. What did he tell you that you wouldn’t tell me in front of him?” Johnny leans back to watch while you take your clothes off to slip into something more comfortable, which in this case means no bra, just panties and an overlarge sweatshirt of Johnny’s.

“Can’t tell you. I promised him.” You slide into bed, curling up on your side to face Johnny. “But, I will tell you that he told me he likes me.”

“Of course he likes you,” Johnny slumps down beside you, tucking an arm behind his head and staring up at the ceiling. “What’s not to like.”

You smile and slot yourself against Johnny’s side, draping a leg over one of his and leaning up so you’re face-to-face. “That’s the correct response, Mr. Suh.” You duck down to kiss him, just a small, short and mostly innocent kiss, but Johnny turns it into something more with a low moan. He shifts his leg just a bit, but it’s enough to have his thigh pressing right against your center. And then he licks at the seam of your lips.

You roll your hips just a bit, almost subconsciously seeking the friction, the pleasure. You open your mouth to him and Johnny dips forward, his hands on your hips, his lips on yours. What you intended to be a sweet kiss turns hot and hungry in an instant.

The feel of Johnny’s thick, muscular thigh between your legs, pressing against your pussy through just the thin panties you’re wearing. It feels so good, and you can’t hold in a whimper, just grinding your clit against his thigh, circling your hips right there.

A quiet knock. An equally quiet clearing of a throat.

You slip away from Johnny and look over at the door.

Mark’s standing in the wide-open doorway, staring right at the pair of you entangled on the bed.

“Did you change your mind?” Johnny asks, already scooting a bit to the side to make room for Mark if he should decide to leave the safety of the doorway and join you both in bed. When Mark hesitates, Johnny sits up and you watch your boyfriend’s face as he shifts from relaxed, casual Johnny to a more serious version of himself. His face and his voice both grow soft as he says, “Mark, I don’t know what you’re afraid of, but you can trust me.”

“I know I can trust you.” Mark looks so sweet and soft, innocent and nervous as he steps away from the doorway, but he’s coming closer slowly, like an animal that any sudden moves could frighten off. “I just have some reservations about myself.”

You’re still tucked against Johnny’s side, and when Mark reaches the edge of the bed, Johnny scoots closer to you, his thigh once more fitting just right between your legs although a bit differently now as you’re on your side.

Mark sits cautiously on the bed, takes a deep breath, and then says, “Can we do this again? I want to do it again, after what you said to me earlier,” His eyes meet yours, holding your gaze. “I think I want something like the last time again. I think I can be okay with those things.”

You feel Johnny’s curious gaze flitting between you two, but you don’t give away Mark’s fears from earlier, and he says nothing either. So you move on, even when you feel Johnny’s thigh shifting, insistently pressing between your legs as if he can get answers out of you that way.

“And what were your favorite parts from last time?” You ask Mark, slowly rolling your hips against Johnny’s thigh, needing something if he’s going to be doing this to you. He turns his head toward you, but you keep your eyes on Mark, waiting for his answer.

Mark lowers his gaze to where Johnny’s thigh fits between your legs. “I liked watching. When Johnny hyung touched you and, well, when he fucked you in front of me, I liked that. I sort of liked when you didn’t let me cum, but not as much as you did then, like I really felt like dying by the time you finally let me, hyung.”

“So you want to watch us again?” Johnny asks, sliding a hand down to the small of your back. “And what? You want us to not let you cum? Or maybe we could make you cum so many times that you’re begging us to stop?” Mark’s eyes go wide, and after a moment of hesitation he nods. Johnny smiles, “Good. And do you want to kiss her this time? Eat her out again? Fuck her, maybe even after I’ve already fucked her? You probably like sloppy seconds, don’t you, baby?”

“Yes, please.” Mark shivers. “And, Johnny hyung....?”

Johnny nods.

“Last time, toward the end, well, actually it was at the end of it all. When you jerked me off to let me cum,” At this point, Mark’s face flared up, an adorable blush as he pushed the words out. “I really liked that part too. That’s what I told her earlier. I’m straight, I’ve only ever been attracted to girls, but there’s a part of me that really likes you specifically, hyung.”

Johnny looks at Mark silently for a few seconds, and you stop your movements, holding your breath to see what will happen.

Johnny nods. “Alright, that makes things easier and better, knowing I can touch you too. First you can watch because this horny girl has been humping my thigh since before you came in here.” Johnny slaps his hand down against your thigh, and you jolt with a pleased whimper. “But then, baby, I’ll take good care of you too.”

Mark does a little shiver and then nods jerkily.

“Good. Now, come here.”

Johnny lifts you into his lap, so you’re straddling his thigh as he pushes himself up so he’s sitting up more. He beckons Mark closer too, and the younger boy obeys. His fingers tangle in his lap as he watches the way you start moving over Johnny’s thigh, grinding your clit back and forth, little flashes of your panties visible to the pair of them.

Now your boyfriend has a fantastic pair of thighs. You’ve told him that repeatedly when he bends you over them to spank you, when he bounces you on his knee and tells you to call him Daddy, and in everyday life when he wears shorts or tight pants or when he stands naked in front of you. His thick, beautiful thighs are enough to make your breath catch in your throat.

So now, as you feel the muscle under you, your pussy growing wet and soaking through your panties against his skin, you close your eyes and just savor the feeling.

Johnny slips a hand under your sweatshirt, pushing his fingers up your back, around your ribs to your chest. He takes a handful of your tit, massaging it while you ride his thigh. You moan and tilt your head back, dipping your hips forward to really get that good friction of your clit against your thigh.

Mark makes a soft sound, and you hear Johnny chuckle. “She looks beautiful, doesn’t she, Mark? Riding my thigh like a whore.”

You moan and roll your head back as Johnny pinches your nipple between two fingers. “Johnny.”

“Listen to her.” Johnny tuts. “Mark, baby, why don’t you kiss her, keep her quiet for me?”

And an instant later, you feel a pair of lips, warm and hesitant on your throat.

You gasp louder than before, moving your hips faster as Mark licks and kisses across your throat, pausing for a moment to suck down near your collarbone. Your hand fly up to his hair, tangling in his pretty brown gentle curls. “Mark, Johnny. Don’t stop.”

Johnny flexes his thigh, bouncing it up a bit as you grind down. With your hand that’s not involved with Mark’s hair (holding him right there against your throat because his lips are magic--you haven’t forgotten how amazing your orgasm by his tongue had been last time), you grip at Johnny’s shoulder and moan again.

“I thought I told you to keep her quiet, Mark.” Johnny murmurs. “If anything, you’ve made her louder.”

Mark hums against your throat, and then his lips start moving against, burning up your throat although that spot he’d been working on tingles and stings. When you feel his breath on your lips, you open your eyes, and there he is. Right there in front of you.

Mark’s lips are soft, pliant, willing to take the lead or be led. So you take the lead, pressing forward with the kiss. Mark grunts, opening his mouth to you.

Johnny’s hand drops to your hip, gripping tightly as he starts guiding your hips in riding his thigh. You whimper, clutching Johnny’s shoulder and Mark’s hair, humping Johnny’s thigh like a little wanton thing, kissing Mark like he’s all the air you need to breathe.

Your orgasm stutters through you, an electric thing that has you breaking the kiss and collapsing forward against Johnny.

He strokes your hair, still rubbing you against his thigh.

“Soaked my thigh, baby girl.” He murmurs against your ear. And then, in a louder voice, “Did you like that, Mark?”

“Yes.” His voice sounds strained, and you turn to look at him.

Mark Lee looks fucked already and all you’ve done is kiss him a bit. His hair stands in wild directions, his eyes are heavy and dark with lust, his lips have that clear look of having been kissed. They look so soft and pillowy now, and you want nothing more than to feel them between your legs again.

“Oh my god,” You groan, pushing yourself up from Johnny’s chest. “Can he please eat me out again? Please, Johnny?”

He nods. “Go ahead.”

You scramble from Johnny’s lap, wrestling with your panties and also trying to move Mark into the position where you want him. You feel Johnny’s hand at your knee, helping you take your panties off as you get Mark onto his back. There’s a desperateness surging through you, and you know that both Johnny and Mark can see it. They watch you with curiosity and arousal, amusement too on Johnny’s part.

You push Mark down flat onto his back, straddling his waist so you can kiss him again. Mark’s tongue twists with yours, a messy kiss that has you both moaning, then you’re breaking the kiss, crawling up his body to kneel over him and sit right on his face.

He doesn’t waste an instant, lapping against your pussy in just the way that you like.

“Fuck, Mark.” You fall forward over his face, burying your face in the sheets. His hands come up to your ass, holding you down against his mouth while he eats your out. All you can do is moan and praise him, his tongue dancing against your clit, licking up your wetness, cleaning up the taste of your previous orgasm from your pussy lips.

Mark’s tongue carries you right into a second orgasm so soon after your first. And he keeps licking, insatiable, holding you down and slurping at your pussy until you’re crying out, dragging yourself away from his face.

You flop over onto your back, his head somewhere on the bed between your legs, and you move carefully to avoid kicking him in the face. That would be a mood ruiner.

“Good boy,” Johnny hums, and you lift your head from the bed to see as Johnny puts a hand to Mark’s cheek. He drags his thumb over Mark’s puffy lips, glistening with your cum and his saliva. “You ate her out so well, look at her. She can barely move.”

They both turn their attention to you, Mark sitting up slightly to gaze down at you. His eyes fall to your cunt again. You slide your hand down your body, carefully covering yourself, not because you don’t want his eyes on you, but because he looks hungry for more and you’re too sensitive to take it right now.

But luckily, Johnny is up for distracting.

“Baby, do you want your reward now?” Johnny caresses Mark’s chin. Mark lifts up into Johnny’s touch, not saying a word, not even giving a nod toward yes, but the way that his lips part and his eyes zero in on Johnny’s lips is all the answer needed.

Their lips meet slowly. Johnny hesitating to give Mark the chance to back out, Mark moving slow because this is a big step for him.

Johnny kisses slow, sweet, easing Mark into it.

Slowly, Mark slumps back down into the mattress, Johnny following, pressing himself over Mark, kissing away the quiet noises Mark makes.

“What are we going to do to him this time?” You ask Johnny. You don’t dare touch him, not yet, not while he’s devoting all of his attention to Mark, but you do sit up fully and fold your legs, tugging the sweatshirt down to cover you against the slight chill of the room.

Johnny kisses Mark slower again, and then when he starts to pull away, Mark whines in complaint, his teeth catching on Johnny’s bottom lip in an attempt to get him to stay.

His shoulders hit the bed when Johnny presses him down, holding him against the bed. “Needy, Mark. Be patient or you won’t be getting that reward after all.”

“But you promised!” Mark bucks his hips up, but Johnny pins those down too, sitting over Mark so he’s completely pinned to the bed.

“Promises can be broken, baby. Especially if you’re being disobedient. Got it?” Johnny asks. Mark nods. Johnny turns to you and asks, “Now, baby, what do you want to do?”

You look down at Mark, at the pink of his blush, his hungry eyes, the way that his hips still squirm under Johnny. The fronts of their pants line up pretty well and you can see Johnny’s erection bulging the front of his underwear, and even though Mark is still fully dressed in a shirt and jeans, you can see that he’s pretty hard as well.

“I could suck him off?” You suggest.

Johnny snorts out a laugh, “Right, so then you’ve both cum and I’ve gotten nothing? I don’t think so. Pick something else.”

“Jerk off together. I don’t know?” You fold your arms, pouting slightly at Johnny shutting down your idea. Mark’s eaten you out twice and you only barely sucked his dick the last time. You would like to return the favor, but Johnny has a point. Why should he have to wait when both of you will have gotten good orgasms.

“Don’t pout. I think I’ve got something we’ll all like.” Johnny lets Mark up, the younger squirming free instantly, and his hand flies down to his dick. Johnny swats his hand away. “Don’t touch yourself. That’s the number one rule. You can’t touch yourself unless I say so, alright? And tonight, you’re not cumming, Mark Lee, not until after I have.”

Mark withdraws his hand with a nod.

“Good. Take your clothes off, Mark. You’re the only one fully dressed and it’s weird.” Johnny sits back against the headboard, lifting his hips up to take his underwear off, making him the first to be fully nude. You don’t let him stay alone in that for very long, soon you’ve pulled the sweatshirt off, letting it pile at the end of the bed where your panties are, and a moment later, Mark’s shirt joins them.

He kneels on the bed, his hair a mess that makes you want to run your fingers through it, and when he reaches for the button fastening his jeans closed, you can’t sit back and watch anymore.

You kneel up in front of him, one hand on the back of his neck, tugging his mouth against yours, and the other hand you put on his chest, over his raging heartbeat. When his heartbeat starts to calm slightly, beating quickly from excitement rather than the nervous of a moment before, you start trailing your hand downwards, down his chest, over his toned stomach.

Your fingers dip against the denim, and you unfasten his jeans with one hand, then dip your hand inside.

Mark moans, pushing his hips forward into your touch. You smile into the kiss, dropping your hand from his neck to help yourself push his pants and underwear down to his knees while still touching his cock. Mark flails a little awkwardly as he tries to kick the restraining fabric away from his knee, and you laugh and help him again, conveniently lowering yourself down his body until you’re faced with his cock, right at mouth-level.

You can’t help yourself, weak with lust. His cock is right there so you take him into your mouth.

You feel Johnny’s hands at the same time. One delves into your hair, fingers twisting in warning but gently. The other hand snaps against your ass.

“Didn’t I tell you that you couldn’t give him a blowjob?” Johnny asks. His hand in your hair presses you forward, lower on Mark’s cock until he’s deep down your throat and you’re choking around him. “I said that Mark couldn’t cum before me, but here you are, torturing the poor baby. Who’s going to face the punishment if he cums before me? Him? Or you?”

You whine and wiggle your ass back against his hand. Johnny’s fingers brush against your pussy. You’re soaking wet again, ready to be fucked, to feel Johnny’s fingers inside you at the least.

He lets up, and you pull back off Mark’s cock, gasping for breath.

“Mark, come here.” Johnny falls back into his place near the headboard, pats the area of bed between his spread legs. “Facing me, baby.”

Mark does just as Johnny asks, moving up the bed so he’s sitting between Johnny’s legs, facing him, his legs over Johnny’s.

This is the first time you’ve seen their dicks side-by-side, able to actually compare them to each other. You were right in your assessment the first time around. Johnny is much bigger, thicker and longer. Mark seems to notice that right now too, a pink flush crossing his cheeks.

Johnny holds his hand up between them. “Spit?”

Mark’s eyes go wide. “What?”

“Just spit, Mark. Look.” You take Johnny’s hand and bring it toward your mouth, spitting. “Unless you like it dry.”

Johnny takes hold of his cock, using your spit as slick, running his hand up and down. His knuckles brush against the underside of Mark’s erection, they’re so close together. Mark’s still wet from your mouth around him, plus he’s leaking from the tip, and when you touch him with just your fingertips, Mark bites his lip.

Johnny’s fingers caress yours, curling them around Mark’s cock and then Johnny takes your other hand and puts it around his. “Jerk us off.”

To make sure that they’re both wet enough, you lower your head over where their cocks meet, pressed together between your hands.

“That’s not what I told you to--” Johnny’s words cut off when he feels your mouth on him, drooling down his length. Johnny’s length stretches your lips and you sink down until your lips meet your fingers, until Mark’s cock touches your cheek, smearing wetness over your skin.

“Your lips...” Mark’s mumble turns into a moan as you start moving your hand over him. “So pretty. How does she fit you all the way in her mouth, hyung? You’re so big and she’s....”

“Tiny.” Johnny holds his hand on the back of your head, keeping you down on him. “But she’s a good girl. She could probably take both of us, Mark.”

You moan around him, loving the mental image of Johnny and Mark sharing you, sharing your mouth, your pussy, any part of you at all really. And you can tell Mark likes that idea too. He swears, his cock twitches and he pushes his hips up into the ring of your fingers around him.

Johnny lets you up when you tap his thigh, and as soon as you’re gasping for breath, he bucks up into your touch too. You’ve got your hands wrapped around both of their dicks, jerking up and down on both of them who are now slick, the movement easy.

In no time at all, Mark is moaning loudly, and when Johnny slides his hands up Mark’s chest, thumbing over his nipples, the sound only increases.

“Mmm, Mark,” You lean in close and kiss his throat, ghosting your lips over his Adam’s apple. “Are you going to cum for us? Johnny’s going to have to punish you, baby. But it’ll be worth it. Cum for me.” You drag your teeth lightly over his throat, squeezing both dicks in your hands together.

Johnny remains still, but Mark, ever the needy baby boy you and Johnny both want him to be, can’t sit still. He rocks his hips, his body twitching under yours and Johnny’s touches. You kissing his neck, Johnny touching his nipples, your hand jerking him off against Johnny.

“Fuck!” Mark cries out, and as if you’d agreed on it, you and Johnny immediately withdraw, leaving Mark right there on the edge. “No, no, no! Not again. Please don’t make me wait again.”

“But you get so cute when you’re flushed from the need.” Johnny teases. He edges forward to kiss Mark again. “And don’t you think it feels better to cum after you’ve been taken to the edge multiple times, baby? If we let that build inside you and give it to you really good?”

You watch as Johnny lightly runs his fingers over Mark, the poor, sweet boy’s thighs quivering with need.

“Hyung.” He moans, his hand dropping to Johnny’s wrist. “Please, hyung.”

Johnny shakes his head, unable to keep a smile off his face while he watches Mark growing more desperate, whining louder and louder. It’s a good thing you’ve got the dorm to yourselves. As Johnny twists his wrist, wrapping his hand around Mark and toying with him again, Mark’s sounds get higher pitched and you kneel up, take his face in your hands, and cover his mouth with yours to muffle his desperate sounds.

You can tell he keeps touching Mark, pushing the younger boy to the brink of his orgasm. Mark voices his complaints directly against your lips, unable to reach Johnny’s ears. Then Mark’s body tenses, his hands jump to your arms, a loud groan.

Johnny backs off, tutting as he puts a hand on your hip and backs your ass toward him.

“I’m sorry!” Mark cries, and you look down at his lap. His cock is still an angry shade of red, a single bolt of cum drips down his cock, apparently the only amount he’d let go. He’s still twitchy and wound up, still in need of achieving an orgasm. “I didn’t cum though, Johnny. Please, let me make you cum. I just want to be allowed to too. I’ll do whatever you want.”

Johnny slips his fingers down between your legs, sliding his long fingers right inside you. You sink down, gripping at Mark’s shoulders, and you turn your head toward Johnny. His eyes are riveted on Mark.

“Think you’d like to fuck her, Mark? Or watch me fuck her?” Johnny asks. You know what your choice would be, but he’s not asking you. He’s asking Mark. “Baby?”

Mark makes an indecisive whining sound, his hands fluttering to touch both you and Johnny. His fingers slide against Johnny’s though not quite entering you, and then you feel his hand again, brushing down your thigh and then moving back and you hear Johnny suck in a sharp breath. “Both. Can we do both?”

You thrust down on Johnny’s fingers. “Yeah, baby. That sounds so good.”

“Both,” Johnny agrees. “But me first.”

Johnny’s hands go to your hips, pulling you back and down, sliding you right onto his cock. Your squeal of surprise morphs into a sound of pleasure, Johnny stretching your walls, fitting you so perfectly.

You’re still facing Mark, a lot like the last time, only this time he’s not got his arms bound behind him, he’s not watching from a distance. He’s right in front of you now, so there’s nothing stopping him from touching your chest, sucking a nipple into your mouth like the baby boy that he is.

“So wet, baby girl.” Johnny pushes his hips up into you, his hands pulling you down as tightly against him as possible. Mark sucks on a nipple, his gaze lifted to meet your eyes, and as Johnny presses his cheek against yours to look down at Mark, he coos, “And you, baby. Mark, look at me. You look hungry, why don’t you...”

When Johnny presses his hand to the back of Mark’s head, urging his mouth lower and lower, Mark goes easily.

The feeling of his lips closing around your clit while Johnny pistons his hips forward, fucking you roughly without a care for how he’s pushing you against Mark’s face. Meanwhile, you’re just lost in the pleasure of it, Mark’s quick and talented tongue, Johnny’s width and length.

“I love doing this.” You moan. “The first time was so good, and now, like this. Mark, baby, you are so good at this. Could have your mouth on my pussy for forever.” Mark hums and licks back around where Johnny’s thrusting into you before he’s back at your clit. You twist your fingers down in his hair. “Just like that. You eat pussy better than-- Johnny!”

You yelped his name, his hand coming down hard on your ass. Johnny hand comes around to grip your chin, squishing your cheeks between his fingers. “Do we need to gag you? What are you so chatty for?”

Two fingers slide against your lips, and you open your mouth, letting Johnny plug your mouth with his fingers. You grind down on Johnny’s cock, Mark’s mouth, suck on Johnny’s fingers like it’s what you were made for.

“Gonna be a good girl? Gonna cum for me and Mark?” Johnny presses his lips against your ear. “If he’s as good with his mouth as you were just moaning about, then cum for him. Or is it my cock that’s gonna take you over the edge, baby?”

You twist your fingers in Mark’s hair and he sucks harder at your clit as if he knows exactly the trouble he’s going to get you in for this.

Your orgasm bursts through you, sending spots across your vision, your body shakes, clenching and bucking. Mark sits back, licking his lips as he looks up at the pair of you.

“Good?” He asks.

“Very good, baby.” Johnny puts a hand between your legs, lightly stroking you. “Look what you’ve done to her. Good boy.”

Mark hums and sits up, your cum glistening on his lips. “Can I get a reward?”

“Can’t cum until after I do,” Johnny repeats. “Then you can have my sloppy seconds, she’d like that.”

And that you would. The idea of having Mark inside of you after Johnny, having Mark fuck the cum back into you, humping you desperate to cum after so long.

You roll your head back on Johnny’s shoulder, working your hips down on his cock, slowing things down, and Johnny adjusts to your pace. Taking it slow, really making sure you’re stuffed full, feeling ever inch of him, and you know just what he wants, what he needs to hear and it’s the full truth that overwhelms you in that moment when he wraps around you, tucking his face against your throat.

“You’re so big!” You groan as Johnny bites your throat, his body completely dwarfing you. You’ve been together for ages, but still there are those moments where you’re just made aware of how large your boyfriend is. All around big, broad, absolutely beautiful.

His hands rove over your body, his hips roll against yours, and you reach back for him, to touch him and feel him and have Johnny on every last inch of you.

“Johnny,” You sigh his name. He trails kisses over your throat, pinches your nipples between his fingers. You can feel another orgasm already rising up in you again. “Johnny, god.”

He bites down on your shoulder, teeth digging in to leave his mark, muffling his grunt at the same time. You grind down on him, clenching your walls, milking him so he fills you with as much of his cum as you can get.

For another moment, he keeps thrusting, pushing it all deep inside you, riding out the waves of his pleasure. But then it’s over.

“Here’s your sloppy seconds, Mark.” Johnny kneels back, and you groan at the loss of him inside you. You can feel his cum starting to drip out of you, and as Mark hesitates, looking around the bed as if searching for something, you tell him, “No condom, Mark. It’s fine, just fuck me, baby.”

And Mark listens.

“Oh, shit!” He groans, easing into you, feeling you tight and warm and wet, filled with Johnny’s cum. “Mmmm, feels so good. You feel so good.”

“God, Mark, you make me feel so good too, baby.” You wrap your arms around him, your fingers tugging at his hair, pulling his head to your chest. Mark kisses along your shoulder, Johnny brushes your hair away from your neck, licking and sucking and biting, not quite done marking you up.

Mark’s breath clouds hot against your skin, quietly moaning as he humps into you. You can feel Johnny’s cum leaking out down Mark’s cock and balls. You grind down when he humps up and if you so much as squeeze your pussy even slightly Mark starts trembling like a leaf.

Johnny’s rising behind you, his cock growing heavy against the back of your thigh once more. You wonder what it would be like to have them both inside you at the same time, both of them stretching your cunt wide, both bare and so thick inside you.

So sensitive are you from the last few orgasms, that it just takes that arousing though, the burn of Johnny’s lips on the juncture of your shoulder, and Mark thrusting in just right against your G spot, and you unravel again.

And Mark goes off, like a geyser triggered by the tremors of your pussy around him. You sit down on his thighs, his cock fully sheathed inside you, cumming in you just as you’d wanted him to the last time.

“Holy shit.” Johnny gasps behind you. “Did you already cum?”

You moan in answer, grinding on Mark, and you feel so full with two loads inside you. Johnny’s hand loops around to your belly, pressing in until you and Mark groan, then he lets up and you fall back against him, Johnny pulls you off of Mark, but Mark follows like a puppy.

He curls up beside you and Johnny, and when Johnny lets you roll off to the side, you feel the cum start leaking out, dripping from your lips and you squirm and wrinkle your nose.

Johnny shifts down the bed, pushes your legs apart, and eagerly starts licking, cleaning up the mess between your legs, pushing the cum back inside with his fingers. And Johnny’s good at eating pussy, you don’t want that to be misunderstood, but Mark is somehow just better at it. And because you like to tease your boyfriend, that’s exactly what you tell him.

“Mark really is better at this part, you know?” You roll your hips against Johnny’s mouth anyway. “It’s all in the tongue, I think.”

Johnny glares up at you, continuing what he’s doing anyway. You love the way he takes his time, enjoys this meal, and when your legs shiver and shake on either side of his head, threatening to close in, he pushes them farther apart. And when you cum this time, your body lifts off the bed except for your hips which Johnny keeps pinned down, sucking your clit through it, through the aftershocks as you ease back down.

As soon as he lets up on your legs, you roll onto your side.

“Anyway, who’s hungry?” Johnny pats your bottom and you just wiggle closer to Mark, tucking your face against his neck and squeezing your arm around his waist. “I’m going to order pizza. Sleep til it gets here, I’ll come wake you both.”

The bed shakes a little as he climbs off, and you sigh and feel Mark sinking against you, both of you relaxing into the sleepy feeling that follows your orgasms.

And then there’s a hand on your shoulder, the bed shifting slightly. Johnny kisses your cheek and then Mark’s. “You were both amazing. Absolutely amazing. Clean up and naps and pizza. Sounds good?”

You mumble something you hope sounds like an agreement.

You fade in and out for the next few minutes. Brought back from the brink of sleep when your boyfriend returns to wipe at what remains of the mess between your legs with a wet cloth, and again a moment later you wake when Mark huffs and puffs and turns over in your arms to put his head on your chest.

If you weren’t so tired, maybe the feeling of his lips brushing your breast would be enough to get you going again, but just the warm comforting weight of Mark on your chest, tucked against your side, your sweet baby, is enough to lull you to sleep.

Mark doesn’t leave the bed this time. None of you do.

That night you eat pizza in bed and then sleep all tangled together. You wake up the following morning with Mark tucked between you and Johnny. He stays by your side when you and Johnny shower, happily watches you get to your knees to suck him off while Johnny kisses him and keeps his shoulders pinned to the shower wall.

You three lounge around the dorm all day, and the next you go out shopping, to grab a bite.

Everything is bright and warm and happy. You’re all giddy and full of laughter when you sit in the shopping cart and they push you around in it.

Those few days when it’s just the three of you, it’s like nothing else. You feel loved and in love. And by the last day where it’s just you and Mark and Johnny, you know what you want. You want both of them to be yours, and you want to be theirs.

“Be our baby.” You whisper to Mark, holding him close while Johnny’s asleep with his cheek pressed against your shoulder. “Don’t start hiding from us again like you did before, baby. Join us, we can make it work with the three of us.”

Mark, who was most of the way asleep until you began talking, nods. “Sounds good. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Nowhere at all, baby.” Johnny murmurs. “You’re ours now and always.”

a/n: there was a scene in this that I never got around to writing, but I couldn’t seem to get it to fit in there even though I really liked the idea, so you can check twitter to see the video that gave me the idea. honestly it’s not everything I wanted it to be, but it felt like a really good place to end it. anyway, I hope you liked this long awaited sequel, and that it wasn’t too disappointing after baby part 1. any feedback, reblogs, and stuff like that will be forever appreciated 💗

#johnny smut #mark smut #johnmark #nct #nct smut #there are probably spelling and/or grammar mistakes so let me know if you spot any that need to be fixed

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princepondincherry · 3 years

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Wish RWBY was better? Try ATLA

To start: Yes, I’m aware ATLA and even LoK probably have much larger fandoms than RWBY already. I think they also have more content and were produced with a larger budget, which means we have to give RWBY some slack. It doesn’t mean criticism isn’t valid.

Since Avatar came out on Netflix, I watched both shows, and I can’t help drawing parallels with RWBY since they’re both animated shows I’ve loved about badass kids/teens with magic powers. And Avatar is SO MUCH better. For instance, inter-party conflict. The Gaang argue ALL THE TIME, and it’s just presented as the normal state of affairs, not some dramatic, crazy detail when one sibling has a slight disagreement with the other sibling. And as much flak as the Mako relationship drama gets in Legend of Korra, at least it had substance to it. We still don’t really know what the problem is with Ren and Nora. Oh, and The Last Airbender handled an unwanted kiss forced on someone who didn’t think it was the right time for romance SO MUCH better, with an immediate, “I SAID I was confused!” and the instigator having a scene right after where they called themselves an idiot, instead of the Renora kiss being presented as romantic or something.

Now I kinda want to write a list of things I feel Avatar does better. There’s a poorly-argued word vomit below the cut:

- The dead mother thing--Salem mentions Summer once with no details, and Ruby completely breaks down? What? Like, grief is fine, but this has literally no foreshadowing since the songs don’t count as full canon, and it made no sense given Ruby’s established (ha) character and the situation. Katara would have flown into a rage, and it would have been so much better.

- Arguments with adults on your side--Pakku was set up as an asshole teacher from the start, and he when confronted with the consequences of his misogyny, he changed his ways for the better. Zuko arguing with Iroh is never intended to have Zuko be in the right. Korra argues with Tenzin all the time, and usually they’re both right, but have to come to a better understanding of each other’s perspective that helps them grow as people. In fact, this conflict drives a lot of the story for the first two books of LoK. Unfortunately, RWBY seems incapable of this sort of nuance. Qrow is just drunk until he isn’t, but then later gets Clover killed, and Ozpin is supposedly just awful.

- Arguments with adults who should be on your side but aren’t--Long Feng SHOULD be on the same side as the heroes, defending the Earth Kingdom, but he isn’t for pretty stupid reasons. But, unlike Ironwood shooting people like a maniac, Long Feng is against the heroes for stupid reasons that (mostly) make sense in-universe: he wants to remain in power. (I still don’t understand why he didn’t just quietly explain that he had the real power in the city, not the king, and shuffle the kids off to whoever was running the military defenses that allowed him to pretend there was no war. I guess he thought if he just gave them the cold shoulder long enough, they’d go away?) Whatever problems there were with Long Feng’s storyline, at least he was consistently written as a bad guy. In contrast, Ironwood is inconsistently written as a good guy who has all the trappings of a tyrant but doesn’t act like it AT ALL, except when he occasionally does something extreme like shoot Oscar. He’s written (I guess unintentionally?) as a subversion of the military tyrant, except when he suddenly acts like one again. It’s like they were shooting for a Tarrlok (sketchy government official who’s both bad for the obvious reasons AND worse than he appears beneath the surface, even though he often works for the side of good) but actually wrote Suyin (someone who could easily be a totalitarian dictator, but decided not to be because of her moral principles, and is actually nice), except occasionally she attacks her allies for disagreeing with her.

- Costume design--I loved Ruby’s, Weiss’s, Ozpin’s, Qrow’s, and a few other original costumes, and Ruby’s had some very solid costumes. However, Volume 7 was terrible. The animation looked weird on Weiss’s braid, Jaune’s hair was awful, and a bunch of them weren’t really dressed for the weather. In contrast, the Avatar characters change outfits whenever it’s appropriate. You know, like real people. (If this is a “3D animation makes outfit changes harder than 2D animation” thing, then maybe 2D animation is just a superior art form when you’re on a budget.)

- Consistent power levels--Katara starts weak and gets stronger. Aang starts as only an airbender and consistently gets better at everything else. Toph invents metalbending and gradually gets more proficient with it. In contrast, RWBY’s Volume 1-3 feats are often better than their later feats, and Aura strength blatantly depends on plot. Yang’s gotten *slightly* better at fighting, Weiss learned a new skill and promptly got her butt kicked by focusing on it too much, Ruby supposedly learned hand-to-hand combat but really just did a headbutt, and RWBY SOMEHOW beat the most premiere team in Atlas after training with them for a few weeks. Sure, Toph, Katara, Azula, Aang, and Sokka are all ridiculous prodigies, but they’re established as such from the beginning. Katara still loses soundly to Pakku before he trains her. (Despite the memes about her kicking the ass of the patriarchy, he’s obviously going easy on her and still crushes her.) Aang gets beaten by Ozai without his OP special ability. Azula gets beaten easily the one time we see her go up against an adult (Iroh, on the ship in the beginning of book 2). And Toph is more like Pyrrha than anyone on Team RWBY. Honestly, this is one of my weaker points, but I still stand by the fact that the Avatar kids’ victories felt much more earned.

- Bad Fights--Yes, I know, heresy. I actually think the best of RWBY’s fights (RWBY vs. Torchwick’s mech, Ozpin vs. Cinder, Pyrrha vs. Cinder, RWBY vs. the Nevermore, Qrow vs. Tyrian) are somewhat more exciting, visually interesting, and (sometimes) emotionally charged than even the best of Avatar’s fights (Aang vs. Ozai, Zuko vs. Azula, Kya vs. Zaheer, Korra vs. Zaheer, Tenzin and his siblings vs. Red Lotus, Suyin vs. Kuvira). But my actual point is that RWBY’s bad fights are BAD, whereas I can’t even think of what the worst Avatar fights are. Sokka vs. Zuko in episode 1 was pretty bad, but that was more of a gag than a fight. Umm...Big Glowy Korra vs. Unavaatu was kinda cheesy, but I still liked it. Meelo fartbending vs. the Equalists? Idk. Meanwhile, RWBY has the Scuffle of Haven, that time Ilia seriously hurt Sun somehow, Qrow vs. Tyrian vs. Clover (visually impressive, but made NO FUCKING SENSE), Oscar landing a massively-telegraphed blow on Neo...well, okay. Maybe there weren’t that many awful fights. I still think I came away from more RWBY fights disappointed, but I can’t really argue my case very well.

- LGBT representation, normalized to the time period--Yes, Korrasami never got past handholding in the finale, but somehow Yang and Blake haven’t either? Even though it’s 2020? Actually, this is a symptom of a larger problem:

- Romantic relationships being ignored--Why won’t RWBY explicitly confirm anything? The RWBY cast are closer in age to the LoK cast than the ATLA cast, but it feels the other way around. Kataang was both heavily present in ATLA the whole time and by no means taking over the plot. And, okay, there was Jaune/Pyrrha, but she’s dead now, so the most-developed ship is Renora. Who held hands, then didn’t talk about their relationship at all for a full volume, and then had a nonconsensual kiss handled worse than the Kataang kiss in Ember Island Players. I’m glad there haven’t been any Romantic Plot Tumors in RWBY, but something would be nice. Or just don’t bring it up at all if you’re never going to develop the relationships.

- Sibling relationships--Yang and Ruby were great as sisters in the early volumes, but lately it’s just been Yang deciding to yoke herself to Ruby’s judgement, until suddenly she’s not anymore. I feel like they barely talked in Volume 7.

- Villains--If Salem wants to kill everyone and collect the Relics, why hasn’t she? She’s invincible! Ozai at least was still human, but he left to handle things himself as soon as he got a power-up. More vaguely, I just find Avatar’s villains more interesting than RWBY’s most of the time.

I’m aware that some/most of these are unfair. It’s more intended as an incoherent rambling to get my views out of my head than as any sort of persuasive argument.

#rwby #atla #rwde #TLOK

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twiststreet · 3 years

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Possessor (2020): I saw Cronenberg Jr.’s cyberpunk movie (which paired in an interesting way with that new Duncan Jones - Alex de Campi cyberpunk graphic novel Madi, which I think was supposed to be the third in the trilogy with Moon and Mute, which I read earlier that day-- they kind of form an interesting double feature). The movie’s got some stuff, though it’s not perfect-- and it’s hard to be Cronenberg’s kid because I’m not going to pretend I didn’t have my arms crossed, saying “Existenz, though.” But it’s got some stuff in there, even if he’s not where his old man was at, yet. And they stacked it with fun actors to watch, certainly (even in the small parts-- Tanis from Letterkenny shows up-- I liked her more than the other girl with the small part in there).

I feel like it was one of those movies that work for me aesthetically and storywise, but I struggled with more for thematic reasons: it kind of loses track of the metaphor it starts with that I found interesting, which is the sort of classic possession-but-sci-fi thing but done as a kind of a metaphor for the psychological impact of drone warfare. Or it tries to do that but also tries to do some another thing, that’s just not as articulated. Or at a certain point, I wasn’t as plugged in as I think the move wanted me to be.

(Both it and the Duncan Jones trilogy feel very descended from New Rose Hotel, to me, the William Gibson story ... I think Abel Ferrera made a movie of it but I never saw it... or maybe reading that as a teen was just my formative “the betrayal is inherent to capitalism” story from science fiction...)

But it was nice enough. It was a nice try...? Or I felt like very sad after it was over that I wasn’t staggering out of a movie theater into a sunny day on a 2pm on a Sunday. Or that I didn’t get to be in a theater where most of the audience was silent except like one other alone middle-aged man whisper-yelling “whaaaaat?” behind me at like a climactic moment. I missed him so much.

Django Unchained (2012): I hadn’t seen this since 2012. I’d really forgotten how much I liked that one, just as a superhero origin story if nothing else. Just Sam Jackson! Goddamn, Sam Jackson in that. Black people have probably never heard a white guy say the n-word while imitating a black guy’s voice, as much as people working on that movie had to, but I appreciate they took one for the team, it was worth it. So much of that movie is “let’s get an audience hooting and hollering”, in a way that I don’t think he ever did as much on anything else, you could argue Once Upon but the real ending of that is saaaad, or not even Kill Bill (the second Kill Bill is a lot of the Bride having to be reborn and kill her old self in order to fulfill her quest, so it doesn’t have the “just cheer at the end” quality Django has). I don’t think Django reaches as far as Kill Bill cause it’s just ... the Origin of The Movie Superhero Django... it’s more of a comic book, but... a fun one! I say that cheerfully!

Holidate (2020): this time, the romantic comedy is about the blonde girl from Nerve and American Horror Story yelling “no one wants to fuck me because I’m awkward”, which is really hard to believe on this one because she’s not a terrible looking girl, whatshername. She looks nice! I had a hard time believing that men refused to fuck her, out of principal.

It’s one of those movies about hot young people who spend all their time with each other but refuse to fuck. Will they fuck??? I mean, probably, otherwise they’d have to settle for someone less conventionally attractive. Booooo! The movie was not persuasive that there was some great issue preventing them from boning, which is pretty critical for a movie like this. The guy wasn’t any good generally, though, I didn’t like him at all (and his “best friend” character was one of my least favorite guys that Netflix repeatedly casts in its movies), and at the end of the movie, he didn’t really do anything to win back the girl. I want to see them both fight for a relationship, and instead he’s just like “oh okay, well, I guess I’m willing to fuck this hot girl that landed in my lap.” That doesn’t seem romantic! Some of the “actually romantic comedies can have r-rated humor in them” parts were a little too much, also. In this essay I will explain why the laxative humor in Bridesmaids was successful whereas in this movie, it disrupted the

Beyond Skylines (2017): I found these unusually enthusiastic letterbox’d reviews of this sequel to Skyline (the other Los Angeles alien invasion movie that came out in 2010, that wasn’t Battle: Los Angeles starring Two Face), so I watched the movie. Frank Grillo slops around a HR Giger set until teaming up with The Raid guys to stab 8-feet tall aliens with knives and silat martial arts, which was honestly satisfying, I’m not very sophisticated. At one point, a shotgun-toting Hispanic LA cop yells “Hola, Puta” at a building-sized alien kaiju, who immediately eats his brains. It was a very difficult movie to predict because it starts in the subways of Los Angeles, so I really didn’t see Frank Grillo teaming up with the Raid guys to save a matte painting of an Indonesian temple coming. I don’t think I’m as enthusiastic as the letterbox’d dudes, but I can’t say it was dull. The New York Times praised its “near-lunatic genre-hopping.”

Every movie on Netflix has alien invasions in it, though, holy shit. When I went looking for this, Netflix recommended every single other movie on its service to me. It’s their specialty!! Why do we keep making so many of these movies???

#movies i saw in 2020

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questsofagoddess · 3 years

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Professional Communication Foundations Blog

From Systems to Social Networks

Systems thinking is a new concept for me, I’ve never thought of problems in a circular way like in the feedback loop. This way of thinking really fascinated me as it showed me how a communication problem isn’t always straightforward and until now I’ve always thought of communication problems in a linear way. Applying the connection circle to the first assessment definitely helped me see connections I wouldn’t have in the past. I struggled to draw the circle at first however watching the example of how they use it in kindergartens actually really helped me to grasp it, being put in such simplistic terms and understand the conflict resolutions feedback loops present.

The other systems thinking tools were a lot more clear cut like the stock and flow map what goes in and what comes out which is rather straight forward. The ladder of inference made sense to me however it was a bit more challenging to create. The ladder of inference also really helped me find solutions for the PR challenge presented in assessment one.

I didn’t realise that systems thinking not only helps communication problems but can also assist in making connections and understanding communication in a deeper way. Applying the systems thinking exercises to a social media influencer really made me understand what value they provide to their followers and understand the relationship between their followers and them on a deeper level. The Behaviour over Time Graph really helped identify and categorise the relationship with their followers and how it can change over time. I didn’t realise how effective these exercises would be for examining and defining communications relationships for business purposes and how useful they can be in a commercial sense. I would really love to implement these for my own social media business accounts and to help build the relationship with my followers over time.

2. Pitching as Storytelling

This was definitely one of my favourite workshops as I really enjoy storytelling, being a creative person. I liked the point about when pitching and not just introducing a problem to the client because it can be rather off putting. However I like to think of the act of storytelling in a pitch as performative. Something that I’ve learnt from being a musician and voice coach is that if you are enthusiastic or passionate about something it is contagious and your audience will reflect that passion.

I was really proud of the story I brainstormed for our pitch about the dreaded group assignment as I think it’s highly relatable for uni students, which is the clientele that the library project was aimed for. I also think using that story on our initial pitch really helped us to launch our ideas at the client instead of dragging on about the problem. I definitely think pitching is one of my stronger skills so I would really love to use pitching to further my career. As an artist it’s definitely something that I have to do a lot in a performative sense and also in the industry.

I can definitely see why people relate to stories and why our attention span is changing like in some of the readings for this course work have suggested. We can watch netflix for hours (probably due to its narrative nature) whereas we can’t focus for long periods of time in a meeting. So it definitely is an indicator that we need to change how we do things now to accommodate for this and implement the story based method of pitching.

I also really enjoyed the exercise on reframing the conversation because I think that’s a highly important skill to have particularly in developing the growth mindset. If you can reframe a negative into a positive it can only help you to learn and build upon your mistakes and also it’s a positive spin is a more attractive quality in pitching and I think clients are more likely to go for that.

3. Podcasting

This was definitely one of the most important topics for me as I’ve recently started recording my own podcasting and also because I would like to do it professionally in my career and possibly even go further as to enter the radio industry. I learnt a lot about podcasting that I didn’t know about such as the history, the many different types and that it’s an unregulated industry. I found the exercises very beneficial, I arrogantly assumed that the group podcast exercise would be incredibly easy however it was not. A big part of this was lack of planning and also not having our cameras on so we either ended up talking over each other or no one would talk at all. I think this workshop really taught me how to plan a podcast as well, I really enjoyed the tips at the end of the Caroline Crampton reading. Particularly the making a timetable and sticking to it, I’ve found recording my own podcasts they can very easily go over time and I think podcasts that are too long can get a bit boring after the first half hour.

The common mistakes to avoid in the podcast article are all definitely things I want to apply to my own podcast. I clearly haven’t done enough planning like it suggests. It even suggested to do a month of planning before recording at all, which is what I’m lacking in my own podcasting efforts. I am yet to release the podcast too and I noticed that the second tip was to release it on a planned schedule to allow regularity for listeners to engage with the content. The other tip it gave which is something I also will ensure to do, is to promote the podcast, which wasn’t something I also haven’t considered in the planning process. I would really like to build it up and then use the podcast as learning exercise and experience to help give me a foot into the radio industry.

4. Online Communities

I think online communities are one of the best things to come out of the digital age. It gives people a shared connection. I myself am part of lots of online communities which have rules and regulations. I think these rules are also essential as they can help to avoid some of the negative communication that is a side effect of the digital age.

These communities can help us to connect with people even from behind our screens which is a definite needed form of communication especially since our social media isolates us. Particularly in the last year with the coronavirus pandemic, online communities have played a more important role than ever. Whether it be meme communities or self help or even online communities in which you can find furniture in your area. I think they all have a part to play in helping keep us connected. I have actually found lots of other musicians and work due to the online communities I’m a part of and they have even resulted in great friendships so they are definitely not to be overlooked in the communication world. Social Networks definitely use ‘homophily’ in connecting us which can really give us a one sided view of the world and really narrow down our beliefs. Whereas in online communities, yes we are connected in a sense by our ‘homophily’ however that brings also us together. It can definitely be a glass half full or glass half empty situation. Whereas the algorithm that social networks use overall can encourage this more negative connotation of closing off ourselves to and living in our own filter bubble. This workshop really highlighted the importance of getting perspective by being part of a the much larger global community which helps us to grow as individuals. We can see from Hofstede’s six dimensions of national culture how our society and business as a nation is defined and why we are the way we are and where we fit in, in terms of our global community and why it’s important to see beyond our nation.

5. Internet History & Economy

This was a really interesting lecture as I knew some information about the history of cassette tapes and CDs but I didn’t know that CDs were made the same size as tapes so they could be placed in cars. It was interesting to see the commercial side and how it cancels out other business models like CDs to cassettes, Ipods to CDs. I never actually thought much about how the internet takes a massive toll on the environment which ultimately makes total sense. The photos that were shown of the Google Data Centre actually quite shocked me, I didn’t realise the full extent of it.

I knew that the communication parameters today have been turned upside down because of our technology which feels frustrating at times. Even after reading the article about social media not actually being social, it makes me question how this affects our growth as humans, surely depriving us of face to face conversations would take its toll in various forms.

It scares me that our communication and technological advancements are born out of corporate greed no matter what the cost is to us as humans. Listening to Zeynep Tufekci’s ted talk and hearing about persuasion architectures in the digital world which are handcrafted for the user just confirms this fear. While watching the talk, all I could think of was ‘The Social Dilemma’ and how our data is now being used against us with algorithms. I actually read a quote around New Years that said ‘Say your 2021 goals out loud so at least the Instagram Algorithm will hear you’. It scares me the lack of knowledge we have as humans about the technology that we use every day. Listening to Zeynep Tufekci talk really demonstrates the digital dystopia we are currently living in and how it can be used to control and keep us under surveillance.

6. The Public Sphere in the Networked Age

It was interesting to see where the notion of the ‘public sphere’ came from, I found the Greek history quite a revelation in being able to look at where our communication means today were born from. Even though we now live in a digital world that threatens our human means of communication, I think that no matter how far we dive into technology, it will never take away our baseline need for face to face communication. It’s really obvious to see the filter bubbles and echo chambers that we face day to day in the digital world. The blurring of the public and private that has been brought on by the internet is quite evident particularly in the case of the celebrity. The 2000s gave us a regular look into the private lives of celebrities courtesy of the internet and now we can see that the idea of the celebrity has nearly been destroyed by the very thing that aided it, this blurring of public and private. Now anyone with a camera can build their own personal brand or empire by inviting their followers into their private life. The idea of the Public sphere is now clearly a rather complicated concept courtesy of the internet.

The internet definitely brings on a whole new world of dilemmas that we didn’t have in the days of Ancient Greece. I’d like to think that class wars have been destroyed and we all as humans have more of a voice now with the internet however that would be naive of me. Seeing some of those ‘internet’ dark spots in the Internet History & Economy workshop proved clearly that we don’t all have equal access to this communication means. Even our filter bubbles and echo chambers destroy our idea of reality or at least warp it. The internet has become the stomping grounds for trolling, abusive language and a whole array of communication issues. The unhealthy ideas of cancel culture, which we can see happening right in front of us to Justin Timberlake in regards to his involvement in the Britney Spears documentary.

7. Ethics and Communication Practice

When talking about ethics in communication and the media, we are living in a time of polar opposites. Yes the practice of journalism lives under the microscope however for an unregulated industry it contradicts itself. Journalism practices reflect where we are in society however where we are is political correctness gone mad. Journalistic practices of late have promoted; cancel culture, disinformation and a vast array of other toxic practices in order to appear to be ‘politically correct’. After studying the introduction to journalism, it gave me a whole new respect for journalism and the ethics that hard news abides by however there are endless amounts of journalism practice that violate that very code of ethics. The workshop highlighted how advertising itself just reflects the society that we’re living in and we can see from social media, technology and the internet as a whole that we are living in a time of corporate greed. Where our data is bought and sold and used against us in prolific advertising.

The irony is companies have to maintain their corporate social responsibility as we place them under the microscope however media practices have got free reign and act as the authority in our society. Their commercial focus often results in clickbait tactics and violating their own code of ethics in order to drum up salacious press. The media becomes the microscope for companies, brands and organisations and society yet somehow the media is nearly exempt from this microscope.

In some ways our new media and digital landscape is also an explosive territory of landmines for journalistic practices. The unparalleled global reach via social networks also brings about a heavy responsibility on journalists in informing the publics like during the covid crisis. However we can see that that some forms of media who ignored this unseen ethical code by spreading disinformation and conspiracy theories only adding panic to the global crisis we are currently facing.

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thenightling · 4 years

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The Dodged Bullet

Warning: This is deliberately bad!

The dodged bullet:

The following is the horrific notion of what would have happened if The CW, Fox, or Syfy adapted Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman instead of Netflix. This is going to poke fun of common tropes of Fox and CW shows. See if you can spot them all.

I am going to deliberately write this very, very badly.

The generically attractive young man in his early-twenties walked toward the crime scene. He wore a long leather jacket, designer sneakers, expensive brand-name jeans, and a stylish and perfectly fitted black polo style shirt under the jacket. It was rumpled but just so as to hint at what a great body he had under it. He had thick, dark brown hair. Brown eyes, a smoldering gaze and a dazzling smile. He’s Caucasian and generically attractive. He’s thin but not rake thin, more like sexy male model thin. He’s got muscle tone.

At the moment he looked stoic, hands resting in his pockets. He crosses the yellow crime scene tape without anyone stopping him. No one questions his presence but he is not invisible. This is “grounded” in reality, folks.

The Sandman solves crimes! The Sandman is a private investigator with a secret. He is a real Sandman! Hidden in his jacket is a leather pouch which will probably get used maybe once or twice an episode (budgetary reasons). And he gets confused by certain social cues and pop culture references but otherwise he’s just a generic hot guy.

He’s probably portrayed by a Tom Mison type. He might be American. There’s an English accent but it’s so slight (so hidden by Americanisms) that it’s almost undetectable. He approaches the pretty, ninety-pound, college age female detective with perfect, blond hair. She looks up at him.

“Hey, Murphy.” She says in a friendly tone. Yes, Murphy is his alias. She thinks he’s just eccentric and thinks he’s The Sandman but he gets results!

“Detective Walker.” He smiled with obvious affection. He crushes on her, pines for her. But she mustn’t ever know the truth. It is forbidden for one of his kind to be with a mortal. Even if she is a Vortex. And her great power may one day destroy the world… or save it! That’s the real reason he was here, to watch her. He had never expected to fall in love with her…

The show has almost no scenes in The Dreaming and when there are it’s about 90% CG over green screen, like the Enchanted Forest sets of Once Upon a Time, or the under-whelming Hell of Lucifer. There’s probably a throne room with a starry night sky behind it, and an under-whelming “vast” library on par with Belle’s library in Once Upon a Time that will be shown very rarely.

“We’ve got another one.” She said gravely. “Eyes torn out. Pretty girl. Whoever this creep is- this predator must be stopped!” The implication here is the victims are all damsels who have been targeted by an evil man targeting them for misogynistic reasons. But don’t worry! The show is totally not sexist! Detective Rose Walker kicks ass! And in season four she’ll be raising her own long-lost little brother! Even though it’ll take her at least five seasons to learn Murphy’s secret (if she ever does).

“I thought the ‘me too’ movement would have at least reduced some of this.” She said with a shake of her head in disappointment at the world.

The line of dialogue doesn’t actually really make sense under easy scrutiny. Why would “Me too” actually make a serial killer reconsider his life choices? Oh, well, the audience doesn’t have enough time to question it.

“Me too?” The adorable, awkward, pretty “Murphy” questions.

“Boy! Where have you been? In a cave?” “Actually I was trapped inside a prison cell for a hundred and five years and before that I resided in another dimension.”

She rolls her eyes. “Not this again. Tell me you can at least figure something out with your ‘Dream powers’” she said cynically. He might have been insane and socially inept but he got results!

Morpheus knelt down next to the body and placed his hands on the corpse. There isn’t even any SFX for this. He’s just sensing something. He grunts in a sexy portrayal of sexy CW level pain.

“What? What is it?”

“I think I know who did this…”

“Who?”

“Corinthian…”

(Opening credits here. Maybe the opening riff of Enter Sandman by Metallica. No, wait, Fox and CW can’t afford that. It’s Mr. Sandman by the Charlottes! It kills the mood but everyone knows the song. You’ll be sick of it by episode five if you weren’t already. And it will get a LOT of use since the song is cheap / practically public domain.)

The next scene is not present day. It’s a flashback. And by flashback I mean a hastily put together set in Vancouver Canada. It’s probably someone’s private stables being passed off as a medieval village. No, wait. Its eighteenth century. There’s a sexy other character wearing slightly anachronistic style sunglasses hiding his eyes (No CG here, the production team figures the glasses are enough). In fact his eyes might not even be weird at all. He just likes sunglasses! There, that’s better, no wasted money here. He’s wearing a badly fitted white wig over white hair.

“My king,” the sunglassed man says with a bow. We have to be blunt for our easily distracted audience, so there’s the reminder that this is the dream king. “Thank you for letting me accompany you to the waking world. There are such delicious things here.”

“Yes, the food is rather pleasant.” Morpheus replies. His costume is decently fitted but obviously borrowed from another show, possibly a left over from Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Those props and some period costumes still get use. Isn’t Morpheus adorably oblivious, though?

Morpheus is wearing a dark blue frock coat and lace. His trousers are exceptionally tight to show off the actor’s perfect ass.

The Corinthian’s costume is cream colored. There was a behind the scenes fight and as small victory for the one crew member who actually read Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman in getting the cream outfit. Others working on the show wanted the costume to be black to make it more obvious he was the bad guy.

An attractive, tall, black man (probably American), under the age of thirty, is behind Morpheus. This is his loyal manservant, Lucien. But it’s totally not racist making the dreaming librarian / butler black when the show hasn’t had any black characters yet. No, it’s inclusive!

The attractive black man speaks. “My Lord, I think he intends to do harm to the mortals here.”

“Nonsense, Lucien. I’m certain it’s fine.”

The Corinthian wandered away from his master and he soon drags off attractive young female into an alley, hand over her mouth. No, The Corinthian isn’t gay anymore in this version. But it’s okay. Hob Gadling, Morpheus’ immortal friend (who now runs a bar for some reason) is gay! He’s very gay. In fact that’s the extent of his entire personality. But isn’t this diverse and inclusive?! And there’s no more problematic gay nightmare, even though in the original comics The Corinthian gets uncreated and the second Corinthian is a relatively decent guy for a nightmare.

After some persuasion Morpheus finally listens to Lucien and walks down into the alley. He stops in his tracks when he sees The Corinthian has killed the girl and his licking his fingers, having obviously already eaten her eyeballs (gotta keep that TV-14 rating!) He lets out a gasp. “Corinthian, what have you done?”

We cut back to present day and “Murphy” is walking into the bar owned by his friend, Hob Gadling . Hob sees him and smiles. “Murph, oh, honey, you look like Hell! Come sit down and tell me all about it. You know I love juicy gossip.” He says in a naisly, lisping voice.

Imagine this scene was written by some very straight guy whose only exposure to gay people were 1990s Will and Grace reruns.

Hob places a shot glass in front of Morpheus and Morpheus downs it quickly. “Have you seen Matthew?”

Matthew was Morpheus’ straight human friend and roommate. He had learned Morpheus’ secret in the pilot episode when Morpheus rescued him from a car accident using his dream magick. Ha! And you thought we’d have talking birds in this thing. Lol! No! Grounded, remember?

“Matt? Oh, sweetie, you can do better than him. I keep telling you, he’s just not your type.”

Morpheus raises an eyebrow but says nothing about the implication about his sexual identity. There will be a LOT of queer baiting on this show without confirmation in regard to his sexuality.

“I need to talk to him. One of my nightmares is loose in the city.” You can tell this was written by a New Yorker because they take for granted “The City” to mean New York.

“One of your Nightmares? Why couldn’t it be one of those sexy wet dreams?” Get it? Because if the character’s gay he has to always be horny!!! Ha-freakin’ –ha.

(Please know I don’t actually feel this way. I’m mocking bad TV writing. This whole thing is a spoof.)

There’s an awkward pause intended for the viewers to laugh.

“I don’t believe any water nymphs have escaped The Dream dimension.” Morpheus replied in confusion.

He calls it The Dream Dimension in the show because “The Dreaming” didn’t sound hip enough according to some executive.

“I’m afraid it’s The Corinthian. So now I have two problems.”

Hob nodded sympathetically. “The detective you might have to kill…”

“And now this.” This is an idiot proofed recap for people turning on the show late or just watching it in passing while doing other things or playing on their phone. CW does this sort of in-story forced, shoe-horned exposition all the time.

The episode plays out a little bit like an episode of Lucifer mashed into an episode of True Blood.

While they’re trying to find the killer, Detective Rose Walker meets Murphy’s roommate, Matthew, and the two hit it off while chatting about Murphy’s weirdness. They decide to start to date. As Morpheus has feelings for Rose that he won’t admit to this causes a strain between him and Matthew Raven (There’s that bird reference! What? That should be Lucien’s last name? Naw!) And between him and Rose Walker.

Morpheus lashes out rather than admit to what he is truly angry at and he and Matthew argue over something petty and this leads to recovering alcoholic Matthew to start drinking again as sad music begins to play.

Morpheus eventually finds The Corinthian and is forced to destroy him. He had to kill his own creation so he is kneeling in angst crying prettily while the sand left over from the uncreation slides through his fingers. Some new female cover of Queen’s Who Wants to live Forever? Is playing in the background. The original version is “too old” and too expensive for use. So here’s a very generic sounding cover done in a style that makes it blend in with every other pop song played during the forty five minute mark of a CW show’s run time (including commercial breaks).

The song plays as we cut to Matthew drinking alone sexily in an alley. He’s sweaty and wet, but he just looks like a wet fashion model. Morpheus is sexy crying over the sand that was the Corinthian, and Rose going to sleep prettily in her bed, no bed head here. Oh, and she sleeps in perfect makeup! There’s no scene where she even remotely looks like she’s out of makeup.

She’s having strange dreams but they look pretty mundane. Like real-world mundane. It’s her living room set that we probably saw a few minutes ago, just dimmer lighting and some haze to make it clear this is a dream. Because even with a show about The Dream Lord, dreams have to have an old fashioned camera fringe haze. Murphy is there with his back to her. He looks sad. He turns to look at her and she gasps. She sees a star (lense flare) from Murphy’s eyes in the dream as he looks at her in surprise like he wasn’t expecting her to see him. She wakes up with a gasp, and everyone in her apartment building also wakes up at the same time, signifying that their dreams were connected.

And so ends what was probably the third episode of CW (or Fox’s) The Sandman.

And that is pretty much how CW or Fox would have done The Sandman.

#The Sandman fan fiction #The Dodged Bullet

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littlelovelyspiderling · 5 years

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Doc Oc

This has been stuck in my brain so I had to write it...sorry for not answering a lot of requests, I promise to get to them soon!! (also if you want to be tagged on my writing stuff just let me know!)

Peter is captured by Doctor Octopus. While trying to get the young hero to talk, the evil scientists learns a few interesting facts about New York’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

word count: 4,100

Peter had faced Doc Oc plenty of times before, but never four nights in a row. He was in the middle of a much-needed nap when the psycho eight-limbed scientist suddenly popped up on the news again, terrorizing the citizens of downtown Queens again, and demanding an audience with Spider-Man—again. This guy would not give him a break. Peter had bested him four times, but four times he had slipped from his and the police’s grasp. On top of early school days, mounds of homework, and a slew of new Avengers missions, it was really wearing him down. Peter groaned, threw on his spandex suit, and begrudgingly swung out to the scene, blinking the sleepiness from his eyes.

Doctor Octopus chucked a car down the street, narrowly missing a group of terrified bystanders. His metal arms spit sparks across the pavement with every massive step.

“Bring me Spider-Man!” he cried, laughing maniacally. Spider-Man flipped off a building and on to a streetlamp, stifling a yawn.

“Alright, alright, I’m here, freak show.” Doc Oc turned on him, grinning fiendishly. Peter scrubbed a hand over his face. “Seriously man, how many times are we gonna do this? Can’t you just go to jail already? Or take a day off? Start a new Netflix series maybe? I’ve heard Nailed It is stellar. Or, I don’t know, do something more constructive with your time besides dragging a very grumpy superhero out of bed every night to whoop your ass for the millionth time this week?”

“Do not fret, arachnid,” Octavius assured him, rising high on his mechanical limbs. “This ends tonight.”

“Yeah, well, that’s what you said yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that, so don’t mind me as I continue to fret most ardent—ah!”

A tentacle swung at him, whooshing beneath his feet as he leapt over it. Spider-Man whipped around the light post and dropped to the ground, landing low to the asphalt. Not even a second later, another arm came flying for his face. He rolled this time, the clawed hand barely nicking his shoulder as it whipped overhead. The sharp sting made him hiss. He sprung on to the side of a building and fired a glob of webbing mid-leap, but it missed the evil doctor by a mile. His movements felt sluggish, uncoordinated. Oh crap. The consequences of three nights without proper sleep were really starting to take their toll—and it was not cheap.

He shook his head, fighting to clear the fog from his brain, but it refused to dissipate. His muscles, too, felt tired and limp. Spider-Man ran along the side of the building and threw himself at Octavius, fist wound back, teeth gritted, only to get knocked sideways and thrown into a wall. His head hit first, sending a jolt rattling through his skull. He slumped to the ground, jarred and dazed, the fog creeping into the edges of his vision. A shadow loomed over him, smiling like the grim reaper coming to claim his soul.

“My, my, Spider-Man. One hit, and you’re already out for the count? I expected better from you.”

“You…planned this,” Peter realized, staggering to his feet. “Drawing me out late every night…never letting me rest.” His eyes felt heavy in his head. All he wanted was to sleep. The world was spinning like a carousel. “Y-you…son of a—”

A tentacle whacked him on the temple. Spider-Man was out before he hit the ground.

Light was what finally woke him. Harsh, white, aimed directly in his eyes. He blinked and squinted, groaning in protest, scrunching up his nose and furrowing his brow.

“Took you long enough,” a familiar voiced groused. “I was almost worried I had rendered you comatose.”

The light moved away. Hesitantly, he opened his eyes, letting himself take in the room. Doc Oc was standing in front of him, looking irritated. Gradually, his brain switched back on, and the situation dawned on him. Oh no. Oh god. He…he had been kidnapped. By Doctor frickin' Octopus. That was red flag number one.

Next, Peter gazed around, noting the boring gray walls and strange equipment lining the tables. It seemed he was in some sort of lab, the dark and clammy and evil secret lair type. Red flag number two.

Red flag number three came when he tried to move. Because, well, he couldn’t. Peter looked down and discovered he was suspended upright on a large metal board in the shape of an ‘X’. His arms and legs were pinned to the board by thick metal clasps, thicker than the width of his wrists. The realization launched his heart into his throat. Spider-Man was captured and restrained. By his absolute worst nemesis. A man who spent more time plotting to murder him than most normal people spent working a day job. Terror welled like lava in his stomach. Peter couldn’t stop himself from immediately trying to wrench free. He knew he looked pathetic, weak, desperate, but he hated the feeling of being trapped. And he was dead if he didn't escape.

Yet try as he might, the bonds were too strong. Doctor Octopus chuckled.

“Valiant efforts, arachnid. But I’m afraid you’ve been caught. Not even the Hulk could break those restraints. No use wasting your energy on so hopeless a feat.”

Eventually, Peter stopped struggling, gasping in frustration. “L-let me go,” he growled. He cursed the tremble in his voice.

“I’ve spent this entire week orchestrating your capture, and then I’ve had to sit here waiting for you to wake up for the past twelve hours. I’ll pass, thanks.”

Spider-Man swallowed. I’ve been asleep for twelve hours? At least he’d gained back some of the rest he’d lost. His newfound alertness and the lack of pain in his skull seemed to confirm Doc’s claim. Still, what good did that do for him now? He lowered his head, fear throbbing through his system in sync with his rapid heartbeat. Peter Parker was totally and utterly screwed.

“What do you want? Why haven’t you just killed me?”

“Curious how all your childish quips dry up so quickly once you find yourself beat,” Octavius sneered, approaching him. Peter pressed as close to the metal ‘X’ as he could, unable to back away. “I like seeing this side of you. Helpless, trapped, too terrified to even crack your pathetic little jokes. Completely at my will and mercy. Why, I could slice open your gut and let your entrails spill across the floor, and all you could is watch. Isn’t this exciting?”

His breaths came out in choppy huffs. He pulled ferociously at his bonds. They didn’t budge.

Peter Parker was on his deathbed. That was certain. But Spider-Man couldn't let him win. Not yet.

“Very exciting,” Peter eventually agreed, slumping against the boards, forcing his voice to level out. “I’ve, uh—I’ve always wanted to know if my third grade science teacher has been right all these years—that I’m perfect both inside and out.”

The side of Doc Oc’s mouth twitched. “Hm. The comedian returns. Amusing.” He rose up on two of his metal limbs to stand eye-level with Spider-Man. “But trust me, arachnid: he won’t last long.”

Peter waited for him to stab him, strike him, skewer him like a shish kabob. Instead, the evil scientist turned away, meandering up to a table across the room. Peter breathed a slow sigh of relief.

“And to answer your earlier questions, I was paid a handsome sum of cash to capture you from a person I’d best not name. Quite a handsome sum, enough to fund my research for years. Half up front, and the next half once I hand you over to him.” He sifted through the tools on the table, examining each one with delicate and ominous interest. Peter watched, fear shivering across his skin. “But this person is not expecting your presence until tomorrow morning, which gives me plenty of time to ask you some of my burning questions, and to pull the truth out of you using a few…persuasion methods.”

Mr. Stark had warned him that this might happen some day. The more he tried to protect the world, the more powerful the enemies that would rise against him. Nearly all of the Avengers had been in this position at some point in their career. Now it was his turn to be strong. Spider-Man summoned all the courage he could muster up from within his little body.

“Sorry, but your bedside manners suck, Doc. I’m not telling you anything.”

Doctor Octopus lifted a drill-like contraption from the table, a sinister grin on his lips. “We shall see how stubborn your resolve is after I tear the muscle from your bones fiber by individual fi—”

The ring of a cell phone interrupted him, causing both Peter and Otto to jump. Octavius grumbled to himself, yanking the phone from his pocket, and frowned at the screen before answering.

“Hello?” he snapped, then immediately sobered up. “Oh, um, hello sir. I wasn’t expecting to hear from you. Yes, yesterday evening. The plan worked marvelously.”

“Who’s that?” Peter asked. Doctor Octopus ignored him.

“Yes, of course. I’ll have him to you tomorrow. Where’s he now? Here, in my lab, preparing to face the interrogation of a lifetime.”

Doc Oc shot a smug glare in his direction, making Peter stiffen, then turned back towards the wall.

“Harm him? Well, obviously, sir. How else am I to get him to talk?”

A voice warbled back at him from the phone. Otto’s expression immediately fell, replaced by anger and confusion.

“What? But sir, you never said…ugh.” He dumped the drill on the table, pouting like a child. “Alright. Yes, I understand. Not a scratch. See you tomorrow.”

Octavius slipped the phone back into his coat, then slowly turned to face him. He flexed his hands at him sides and held his shoulders tight.

“It seems you’ve had a stroke of luck, arachnid. The man who wants you needs you fully intact. While you are in my custody, I can’t harm you.”

Peter lit up. “Wait, really? Ha! Suck it, Doc!” Then he frowned, tilting his head to the side. “Wait, why?”

“He didn’t say. But I wouldn’t celebrate so hastily, Spider-Man.” He lifted closer to him. His eyes were cold and dark. “There are plenty of means of torture that don’t require bodily harm.”

This was his chance to think his way out of here. He had to buy himself some time. Peter cleared his throat.

“Well, you better hurry and come up with one, Doc. You know, before the Avengers show up here and kick your ass.”

Otto rolled his eyes. “The Avengers will never find this place, you idiot.”

“Yes they will. They’ll track my phone.”

“I destroyed your phone as soon as I caught you.”

Peter’s jaw dropped. “What? Doc! Not cool, man. I know it was a piece of crap, but it was my piece of crap!”

“Shut it, you blabbering moron!”

Peter grinned. Now he was back in the game.

“My suit has a tracker too, genius. They’re going to find me, and I promise they won’t go easy on you, even if you are a fat, ugly loser living in a garbage can.”

The doctor scoffed. “You’re lying. I disabled your suit. And if there was, my sensors would have picked it up.”

“Not this one. Tony Stark made it. It’s teeny-tiny and puts out a signal only he can track.”

Peter was lying, of course. Tony hadn’t made any tracker of the kind, at least not to his knowledge. If his suit was offline, which seemed to be the case, the tracker that was in it was offline too. Still, Doc Oc didn’t need to know that. Slowly, the color drained from the scientist’s face.

“Where is it?” he hissed. His metal arms flew at Spider-Man, searching for the hidden device. “Tell me where it is, now!”

The two mechanical claws started grabbing at Peter’s legs and midsection in their hunt for tracker, causing him to cringe. The sensation was not what he was expecting, and before he knew it, a massive wave of laughter was building behind his lips. He managed to stay quiet for a few more seconds, clenching his jaw, coiling his muscles, until one of the tentacles squeezed his side. Spider-Man flinched and yelped, making Octavius start.

“What was that? Is the tracker there?” His metal claw tweaked the same spot. Peter squeaked.

“Quihit it! It’s too small to find!”

“Then why are you so jumpy all of a sudden?”

Spider-Man didn’t answer, his face heating up beneath his mask. Doc Oc narrowed his eyes. To Peter’s dismay, the prongs returned to his ribs and began kneading at them experimentally. Despite his attempts to fight it, high-pitched giggles slipped through his defenses — and once the seal was broken, he couldn’t make them stop. Doc blinked in surprise as Peter jerked away from the contact.

“Ahaha hey! Stohop it, you psycho!” He giggled and squirmed until Octavius withdrew his arm, leaving him panting and flushed pink.

“Ah, I see now. You’re not worried about me finding any device. You’re just ticklish.”

The redness in his cheeks bled through the rest of his body. After having Tony Stark discover how unbearably sensitive he was, Peter thought the worst of the embarrassment was behind him. What could possibly be more humiliating than having your biggest idol find out that one poke to the tummy rendered Spider-Man a giggly, useless blob?

Your biggest nemesis, that’s what.

Peter suddenly felt hyperaware of how vulnerable he was. Doctor Octopus could sense his discomfort, which mirrored how he’d been acting earlier: twitchy, anxious, devoid of chatter or childish jokes. An evilly knowing glint entered the scientist’s eyes.

“You seem tense, Spider-Man. I told you I’m not allowed to harm you, so why are on edge again?”

The young hero swallowed, shifting against the ‘X’. “W-well, that doesn’t change the fact that I’m imprisoned by a maniac and strapped to a freezing cold board like a dead carcass about to get an autopsy. You try getting comfortable on this thing. Not exactly the spa day I’ve been meaning to treat myself with, Doc.”

“You were acting perfectly at ease until I brushed you here.” He pointed towards the spot with one of his mechanical claws, causing Spider-Man to flinch sharply. “Are you really that sensitive?”

Peter stared sideways with a nervous cough. “Uh…no…?”

“So you don’t mind if I do this?”

Before he could squeak out a protest, the metal prongs zipped to his side. It was comical how violently the contact made him jump, and how quickly laughter succeeded it.

“Ack! Oho c-crahap! Nohoho!” Good god, he was in trouble. Now that he was tickling him on purpose, it was so much worse. The robotic fingers were stiff and icy, kneading his ticklish torso with machine-like precision and cruelty. Different than how hands felt, but no less maddening—perhaps even more so. As they moved up his side, pinching each individual rib, Peter’s laughter climbed.

“Now that I think about it, this works out marvelously. Although the method is rather…unconventional, I can still get you to talk without having to physically harm you.” He dropped the claw back down to his belly, making Spider-Man wince and squeal. “Now tell me, arachnid: where does Stark keep his research on nano-technology, and how can I get ahold of it?”

Uh-oh. Peter had been hoping he’d ask him something he had no clue about, like where Hawkeye had been for the last two years or what size underwear the Hulk wore. Unfortunately, he knew the exact location of the hard drive Mr. Stark kept all of his nano-tech information on, because he’d been letting Peter work on it with him in the lab.

But he couldn’t let Doc Oc know that.

“W-whahat? I dohohon’t know! I have noho idea!” He angled his body as far from mechanical fingers as he could manage, giggling hysterically. “This ihis rihidiculous! Let me gohoho!”

Octavius smiled at the helpless hero. “Not until you tell me what I want to know.”

To Peter’s horror, a second metal hand pounced on his defenseless torso, squeezing his other side and tickling his tummy. Now there was absolutely no escaping the tickle torture, and it was twice as unbearable. Poor Spider-Man shrieked and laughed, thrashing and jerking and throwing his head back.

“Nohohohaha! Ahahahahasshole!” He hated how much Doc’s evil plan was working. He was already desperate to make the cruel tickling stop. The metal prongs continued to knead and claw at the teen’s sensitive midsection, increasing their speed and intensity with every passing second. Peter’s sides ached as he giggled wildly, endlessly.

“Cursing?” Octavius teased. “That’s awfully out-of-character for our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.” He moved both arms to his ribs, drilling them with tickles and sending the superhero into a twitchy frenzy. He had to admit, it was odd to see the renowned wall-crawler reduced to such a pathetically helpless position. It was even odder to see how effective tickle torture was on someone with such a high pain tolerance. In all of their brawls and battles, he had never considered utilizing so frivolous a tactic. There was something strangely…endearing about it. Spider-Man could take four nights of beat-downs, but hardly two minutes of tickling? His laughter was so high-pitched and childlike; it made the doctor begin to wonder how old he actually was.

Meanwhile, Peter was hanging on by fraying threads. He bucked and squirmed and shook his head, giggles pouring from his lips. “Dohoc plehehehehehease!” he cried. He wasn’t sure if begging for mercy would increase or dampen Doc Oc’s thirst for brutality, but at this point, it was his only option. “I d-dohon’t know ahanythihing! Mihister Stahahark hasn’t shohohown me! I dohohon’t—I cahan’t—oho gahahaEEEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAA!”

Mid-sentence, Doc’s sinister claws crept up to his armpits and started scribbling experimentally against the hollows. Spider-Man all but lost it, wrenching with every ounce of his strength and peeling into loud, hiccup-filled bouts of uncontrollable laughter. Octavius couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Oh dear, have I found your weak spot?” he asked. The deadly prongs burrowed deeper into his underarms, eliciting yelps and squeaks from the poor hero. “Maybe I’ll just hang around here until you start talking.”

Peter was certain he would die if the tickling didn’t stop. Maybe he could survive a few more minutes of it in other places — belly, sides, ribs — but his armpits? Nope. They were too damn sensitive for him to bear. Where the hell were the Avengers? A part of him hoped they didn’t come, because this would be very embarrassing to have to explain. The rest of him was too worn down to care.

He had to tell him. He had to. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t!

“STAHAPSTAHAHAPSTAHAHAHAP!” he pleaded through tears. “I SWEHEHEHEAR! I DOHOHON’T KNOHOHOHOW! AHAHAHAHAHADOHOHOCSHIHIHIHIHITPLEHEHEHEHEASE!” His words were swallowed by painful hiccups that racked his entire frame. At this point, he could hardly even make a sound, he was laughing so hard. Octavius shook his head amusedly.

“I’m not an idiot, arachnid,” he said. The tentacles suddenly withdrew from his underarms, leaving Peter dazed and reeling with incredible relief. “I know you know where they are.”

Weak giggles spilled continuously from his mouth as he fought to catch his breath. “Ehehe…ahehehe…oho my god.” He hung limply from the metal ‘X’. “Noho, I…no I dohon’t…”

“You do,” Doc insisted. “It’s funny how effective this is on you. It’s almost cute.”

Peter wanted to punch his smug face in so bad right now. If he could just get out of these stupid restraints…

Before he had a chance to try, one of Octavius’ metal arms reached up and grabbed hold of his mask.

“I nearly forgot; I can see who you are now. Why wasn’t that the first thing I did? Silly me.”

Panic flooded Peter’s system. “No—Doc—wait—!”

It was no use. In an instant, Octavius ripped the mask from his head. Just like that, his cover was blown. Slowly, he met Doc’s gaze, eyes wide and afraid.

After soaking in the true face of his archenemy, Doc felt a sick twist in his stomach. “You’re…a child,” he finally said. The Spider-Man mask fell from his claw.

Peter’s face was still red from laughing; his eyes still shone with tears. He was at a loss for words.

“You’re telling me I’ve been fighting a child all this time? Spider-Man is just some kid? I was planning to break every bone in your body, for crap’s sake. I was going to sell you to be experimented on.”

Peter swallowed and stared at the floor. “I’m not…a child…”

“How old are you?” he asked. When Spider-Man didn’t answer, his metal hands jumped back to his torso. Peter shrieked.

“AHAHAHEHAHAHAHA!” His laughter was even more adorable when his face was visible, and you could see the giant smile that overtook his features. “NOHOHOHAHAHAHAHAHEHEHEHACAHAHAHAHAN’T!”

“If you tell me, I’ll release you,” Doc said. Peter didn't care that he was probably lying. He immediately crumbled.

“FIHIHEFIFTEHEHEHEEN! I’M FIHIHIFTEHEHEHEHEEHEEN!” He realized too late he could’ve just lied. But Doctor Octopus had seen his face; by now he could probably look him up and easily find the answer.

Slowly, the mechanical tentacles relinquished their tickle attack. Peter melted with relief, giggling breathlessly.

“You’re fifteen?” Doc Oc gawked. Spider-Man didn’t understand why it was so shocking. An eight-year-old was a child, not him! Huffing in frustration, Octavius slammed one of his arms against the panel of buttons in front of him.

With a click, the clasps on his wrists and ankles suddenly opened. Peter dropped to the ground, landing on his hands and knees.

“A teenager has no business being involved with superheroes or criminals or anything like this. Even I know that. Go home, and never interfere with my operations again.”

Peter fought to shake the remaining laughter from his voice. “Y-you, heh, can’t really expect me to listen to you, can you Doc? I’m not gonna stop fighting you just cuz you suddenly decided to develop some weird, skewed morality.”

Octavius hinted a smile. “Are you sure about that, Spidey?” he asked, feigning innocence. Before Peter could react in time, four metal limbs lunged at him, pinning him to the ground and tickling his tummy and underarms with merciless cruelty. Spider-Man exploded into hysterical laughter, kicking and squirming but unable to escape the evil scientist’s hold. No matter how much he tickled him, the young hero’s tolerance for it never grew.

“Because if you don’t listen, then perhaps I’ll just have to do this every time you show up to try and stop me. Not a very heroic look on you, is it?”

Not even Spider-Man’s greatest nemesis was immune to the web-slinger’s endearing aura. Like everyone else that knew him, Doc couldn’t get over how adorable the kid was when he was reduced to a puddle of helpless laughter.

As Spider-Man giggled and squealed and struggled vainly to break free, a crash sounded from the room next door. Octavius fled the evil lair as quick as a flash; Peter didn’t even see which way he went. He laid flat on the floor, trying to catch his breath, hugging his aching sides.

The back door burst from its hinges and careened across the floor. Peter jolted upright as Iron Man, Black Widow, War Machine, and Cap came rushing into the room.

“Peter?” Tony cried, the helmet dissolving off his face. He landed beside him and laid a hand on his back. “Kid, are you alright?”

“Is he hurt?” Cap asked, jogging up to join the group. Tony gave Peter’s shoulders a shake.

“Kid, answer me. Are you okay?”

He was having trouble processing everything that had just transpired. When he opened his mouth, his ears reddened.

“I, uh, yeah. I’m fine.” He blinked, rubbing unconsciously at his giggle-filled belly. “How’d you find me? Doc disabled my suit.”

“You think I left your suit with just one tracker? After that stunt you pulled with the ferry?” He helped him to his feet, wrapping an arm around his back.

“Where is it?” Peter asked.

“Lucky for you, it’s too small to find.” Tony poked him playfully in the tummy, as he’d started doing now that he knew how well it worked in cheering the kid up. Peter yelped with laughter and buried himself into Stark’s side.

“Plehease please plehehease don’t,” he wheezed listlessly. Once the giggling started up again, he couldn’t make it stop. “I cahan’t—you don’t—eheheh.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Tony chuckled. Peter was giggling too much to reply.

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gonegonegonegone321-blog · 5 years

Text

The Art Loop

I have heard many, so many people tell me, “Art is not a proper work. It’s a hobby, not a career.”

Before you can start, hear me out.

What do you do to relax? Hm? Do you take a walk? Maybe, that’s for exercise. Or combatting some kind of turmoil that you have and clearing your mind. Sure. It could be that you go to sleep, since your mind can’t handle your day.

What else...? Netflix! That’s art. Netflix makes so much money just for your entertainment. Anything else? Poetry? Theatre? All art forms that you are impressed by.

What else is there...? Hmm... Maybe those serials you like to watch? All actors, directors, film makers, etc. All are artists in some shape or form.

Let’s see... Music? The one thing that immediately puts the brakes on our bursting point wherever we are? The one thing that doesn’t wear away from each of our cultures?

“But I don’t read books or watch movies. I only read newspapers.” Well news flash (pun intended), those are art too. Yup... they are. They use persuasive languages and complex trickster words in order to gain proper recognition and twist your mind in some ways. They are the main culprit as a media biases.

Now let’s talk about animation. When you all were kids, you used to watch cartoons. Don’t lie. You probably watched “Tom and Jerry” or even something like “Oggy and the Cockroaches”.

You watched “Popeye” and other shows of the like. You enjoyed cartoons and animation that showed you the violence happening in the real world: toxic masculinity to impress a woman in distress, the “cat and mouse” trope. So much more.

Now? The world is more lenient with what we can and can’t do. Just last year (2018), “Steven Universe” is the first ever animated show to showcase a canon lesbian kiss in animation. There is also “The Amazing World of Gumball”, which used dark satirical comedy to emphasise the point of the hypocrisies and issues in the world. It smacks the truth in a way that makes us laugh and question why we laughed. (Bertolt Brecht’s Spass)

I’ve been so afraid of expression in myself, that I’ve taken it to levels of arts. I expressed who I was in my Grade 11 and 12 theatre classes. I’ve learnt that “less is more”. The important pieces are necessary, and anything you can cut out without changing it, is anything that won’t grab your audience’s attention.

That issue of expression mainly comes from extended familial pressure: maintaining a “reputation by going to be an engineer or lawyer, whilst going on to marry a very sweet and calm person of the opposite sex from my nationality, and have nice beautiful kids who will get perfect grades and be very attractive.”

Whilst I’m here. A queer eighteen year old who wants to study animation and screenwriting, who wants to marry the man who treats me right and is honest with me. (As I personally identify as 5 on the Kinsey Scale).

I’m not even sure if I want kids, but if I do, then I want them to be honest and truthful to me. I want them to make me proud by distinguishing what’s right and what’s wrong. I want them to grow as people, accepting others for who they are. Not feeling like I was never there for them. I want them to get the best grades they can possibly get, if they are not trying their hardest, that’s a different story. I want them to tell me when they are over worked in school or just tired of being someone who they aren’t. I want them to be... well, them.

I bet you’re wondering what the saddest part about all this is now. You probably think that this is because I’m a woman and I will be delicate to my hypothetical kids. Well you’re wrong. I’m a male just like the rest of those jerkwads out there. If that’s what happened, just think what media has done to us to think in this way. To think that me being open with my kids is rare in parents, both media and real life.

Media doesn’t change overnight. It doesn’t. It takes n steps forward, and n-1 steps back. Each step pushes ourselves in a better direction, and puts less pressure on the future generation to come.

And I know what you’re thinking... “Why should I worry about them? They can handle it themselves when their time comes. It’s not my problem.” Well, NEWS FLASH HONEY!! This generation right now, is the last generation that can do anything. We are also the ones that complained about how the past generations treated the world and how it’s now gone to shit.

Do you really wanna be the shit givers like they were?

And I don’t want a world where my own, my sisters’ or brothers’ kids grow up thinking they have to repress themselves. Believe me. It was tough coming out, I had backup plans in case I was disowned.

I don’t want a world like that. I want a world where even little kids can be who they are. I want teenagers to understand that heterosexuality isn’t a norm, but an option. That gender isn’t based around your genitalia, but rather what you have most comfort in. That reputation is important, but it matters the least when it comes to my family and loved ones repressing themselves for it. I want a world where you homosexuality and gender as vague topics don’t have to censored in places like UK.

Kids are smarter than you think. They can hold intellectual conversations if you don’t just “dumb down” yourself to “their level”. Otherwise they’ll just think you’re the dumb one. They have stories in their heads, they have lives of people to share. They have their own beliefs. You’re repressing them by making them feel dumb and they don’t know anything.

But if I’m being honest here, your kid may be still your baby in your head, but they’re adolescents/adults. They’ve been trained to sit quietly in a boxed room for over a decade and a half of their life. They’ve experimented with what they want and what they don’t want. They don’t like chemistry? Don’t be a doctor. Like psychology instead? Go for it! You don’t like music? That’s okay. But you like drawing? Be an artist or an animator. Do you not like writing creatively? That’s fine too. You like writing persuasively? Fine! Become a secretary or even a journalist.

Who you will be in the future is not someone’s decision. You will be doing that for the rest of your life. So... are you ready to stay silent? Or are you willing to throw your heart to someone at full force?

Now this part is important for you parents as well.

Art is not something that can be reached a business easily. I agree. It’s is very difficult to sell art because you need to make a product that you can sell. Believe me, as a student who did theatre and business management, I know that you need to be market oriented rather than product oriented.

However, it was also the great artists that changed everything. Shakespeare couldn’t speak proper English, yet he is taught in schools across the world. Oprah has failed so many times, but she has picked herself up.

I believe it was Say’s Law that says “The lower the supply, the higher the demand.”

Your child doesn’t need to revolutionise this place. They really don’t. What they need to do, is be themselves. If you’re not listening, then I feel sorry for you. Being with a little light that you call your child is not to mould them from clay, but rather to discover their own nooks and crannies from their shape and size.

Being proud if who they are: queer or straight, black, white or Asian, a linguist or a monolingual, an artist or a mathematician, a person who enjoys the royal nights on a bed of clouds or a simple being who likes to sleep on their floor at night.

Meanwhile, I’ll just be waiting here. With my popcorn in hand. To see the day that art will be no more simply because everyone will be doctors, lawyers, or the like. Look at them all being hypocrites, saying “take art because there’s a high investment and market growth”, “learn music to hold the ends of our culture”, or even better “at least you can do something with art.”

That will be the day that I will laugh at the apocalypse around me.

No need for films right?

No need for books right?

I mean, our world is so fucked up, that it’s entertaining to watch.

And that... is the saddest thing of all.

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daphnegeeksout · 5 years

Text

If You Were Here (2/9) [Tony Stark x Reader]

Read it on AO3

By: daphnethewriter

It’s hard to live this way… to only see someone through the other side of a screen. Tony stumbles across a computer bug that’s more than just a bug. You need his help, but first you need to win his trust. Hopefully you can do it before time runs out.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Words: 3,815 Chapters: 2/9 Language: English

Chapter 2

So, in his attempt to destroy it, Tony released the Cheshire into the rest of his system. Brilliant. And now it's making itself right at home. It's everywhere—the cameras, the PA system, the bots—wreaking subtle, but irritating, havoc. It watches him, tailoring its actions to his presence so it is all but undetectable for everyone but Tony.

Beyoncé blasts through the speakers in the background, as it does every time he's in the lab now. Tony stares at the holographic representation he created of the Cheshire's codebase. It's an approximation of what he trapped in the server, before it metastasized to the rest of the system. It's still… well… he wishes that he wrote it.

"Let's see what you're made of." He approaches the visualization to pick it into its components. Not that he knows where to start. The code is so intricately entwined, there's no easy access point to divide the functionality. He spins the visualization and enlarges part for easier access.

The hologram shimmers and reforms, taking a human shape. Tony takes a step back. He recognizes you from your pictures, from the security video, from the hospital. Now you stand in front of him, shimmering with the reflected light of the hologram, as if you were really in his lab, barefoot in a Nirvana concert tee and ripped jean shorts.

"Amazing." Tony circles the hologram. You turn with him, so he's always facing you. Your expression is subtly amused, so lifelike. The program must be using the input from the security cameras to judge his behavior and adjust the hologram in response. But for it to create appropriate visual cues… there is a reason he never gave his AIs a visual form. The amount of coding would be monumental.

Tony returns to his workbench, pulling up a set of diagnostics to run over the program. Now that it's staying in one place, he might be able to get a handle on it. The monitor remains unresponsive.

<It's rude to ignore me when I'm talking to you. I need your help.>

"What could you possibly need?" he asks, trying and failing to elicit a response from FRIDAY. "You're a bunch of code."

"So, you're a neural network." Of course it's a neural network. Groups all over the country were developing them. No one was close to anything like this, though. "Who made you? Caltech? Stanford?"

<No one made me.> Your voice contains a hint of impatience. <I'm a person, not a program.>

"So you say. Where are you based? How many servers do you need to run? They must have a massive cooling—"

<You've seen where I was based. I led you there.>

Tony's hands still over the keys. "The long-term care ward?"

"There was nothing there."

"The girl?"

<Woman,> you correct him. <And, yes. You think I chose this visualization at random?>

"That's not possible."

<Yeah, I get that it looks that way.>

"That's not—"

<Look. I just need your help. I need you to get me back in my body.>

Every alarm bell in Tony's head goes off. An AI looking for a physical form. An artificial consciousness too powerful, too intricate to be manmade. A chill runs up his spine. He hits the command to flush the system without responding.

The room goes dark and the music cuts out. Your hologram flickers from sight.

To Tony's dismay, the system flush doesn't keep you out for long. You come back whenever Tony purges you, faster each time, as if you're learning the passages through the security by heart. He tries new tactics: guard dog protocols and a firewall with shifting defenses (that accidentally blocks Netflix and sends an irritated Clint into Tony's lab). You're persistent.

You favor the hologram view now, making your presence felt more forcefully than you had before. Sometimes you plead with him, always coming back to the same topic, but mostly you sit on the periphery of the lab, monitoring him as he looks for new ways to eliminate your annoyance.

That's what you are: an annoyance. You don't do anything to outright jeopardize anything, but Tony feels the red herring. You can be a distraction. He knows you're capable of stealth—you managed to stay off his radar for weeks. You could be employing a similar tactic this time.

Most of the time, Tony ignores you, focusing instead on his work. Today he can't. Your holographic form lounges across the bench where he works, shorts and a crop top giving a generous view of your tattoos and a set of shiny dermal piercings along your ribcage that he had definitely not noticed when he saw you at the hospital. He stands to get away from you.

<You're just going to pretend I'm not here?> You reappear in front of him as he crosses to the suit.

He stops short, unable to suppress the reflex to keep from walking through you. "You're not here. You're not anything. And I'm getting sick of looking at you." He sidesteps you to reach the suit.

You reappear at his side, leaning against the shoulder of the suit, suddenly clad in nothing but lingerie. <You don't like looking at me?> you ask. You make a big show of looking yourself over, doing a spin for him. Tony… well, he can't really lie that it's appealing. The screwdriver slips from his hand. Normally, this would be all kinds of up his alley. Tony loves the assertive power play. And the lingerie isn't bad either. But you are a hologram of a woman who is lying comatose a hundred miles away. You're just there to manipulate him.

"Not my type." He turns away, abandoning the suit in favor of his workbench.

<What if I look like this?> The voice changes and a knife slices through Tony's heart. He doesn't want to look—he really doesn't—because he knows what he'll see. But he can't stop himself, so he turns. It's Pepper. Down to the last detail. From the tips of her stiletto heels to the hem of her perfectly pressed dress to the quirk of her lips to the stray wisp of hair that never stays in her ponytail. <You'd help me. Right, Tony?>

He swallows. "You're not real." The walls are suddenly much closer than they'd been before. There isn't enough air. Even if he goes, you'll follow him. You'll be waiting for him in his room or the kitchen, always there. It won't do any good, but he rises to leave anyway.

Blaire stands in the door to the lab, her hand raised to knock, a look of shock frozen on her face. Tony freezes too. Shit. She lowers her hand, eyes narrowing into discerning slits. [did I interrupt?] she signs.

Tony glares at your hologram. "Go away."

<Of course.> The Pepper Imposter smiles, hands on her waist. <Whatever you need, Mr. Stark.> You flicker out of view.

You little shit.

[you okay?] Blaire signs. [S-T-E-V-E is worried]

"Yeah, well, tell your boyfriend I'm fine."

[we haven't seen you in a while] Blaire comes further into the lab where normally she would stand on the edges. She isn't comfortable around Tony, never has been. It's not unusual for Tony to go for a few days without seeing anyone. It must have gotten really bad if Blaire noticed.

"Been busy."

Blaire hesitates, tucking some of her hair behind her ear. [did you make]—her fingers fidget over one another, a nervous tick as unconscious as a stutter—[girlfriend?]

Oh, fuck. Of course that's what it looked like. "No." The word comes out a little too fast, a little too sharp.

[S-T-E-V-E told me about P-E-P-P-E-R]

Oh man, Tony does not want to talk about this with Blaire. He can't handle the sympathetic look that crosses her face. It's… hell, it's a little like the look that Cap gives him sometimes. Maybe Rogers has been giving Blaire lessons on how to make Tony feel pathetic. "I'm fine."

[You broke your lab]

Boy, Blaire is chatty today. "It's none of your business," Tony snaps, then thinks better of it. He'll get an earful from Cap if he upsets his girlfriend. "FRIDAY has a bug. It's taking a while to work out."

[that why N-E-T-F-L-I-X broke?]

Tony rolls his eyes. These people. The security of their system is at stake and all they worry about is whether they can stream the new season of Kimmy Schmidt (apparently, Steve's new favorite). No, that's not fair. Tony hasn't told any of them about the breach. Mostly because if they knew…

"Did you have something you wanted?" he asks.

Her eyebrows pull together and, just like every time, Tony gets the feeling that she's looking through him. [S-A-M ordered pizza]

"Yeah, I'll be right there." It isn't a perfect solution, but at least the company will provide him with a much needed respite from you.

You wait until Tony is alone, which isn't until much later that night in his bedroom. Your hologram wears a tank top and pajama shorts, clothes you actually did wear when you were alive. Not that you're not alive, just that—things are confusing now. It's stupid, there's no reason for you to change the hologram's appearance, but you do, altering the clothing to suit the situation or your mood. It makes you feel… human. And when your brain pattern could be flattened down to a series of ones and zeros, that seems important.

<How was the pizza?> You try for light and breezy, an attempt to reclaim the good humor that you think will be most persuasive.

"Go away, Cheshire."

<I miss pizza.> you continue, flopping the hologram gracelessly onto the bed. <Were there anchovies? What about pineapple? Have you ever had them—>

"Stop it!" he snaps, throwing his phone at you. It soars through the hologram and shatters against the headboard behind. "Stop. You don't have favorite pizza toppings. You don't wear pajamas. You don't eat or sleep or breathe. Stop asking me to put you in that woman's body. I won't do it."

This wasn't the reaction that you expected. Apparently, the Pepper Potts gambit had been a bigger misfire than you thought. Far from gaining his sympathy, you've pushed him back completely in the opposite direction. You pause, only a few seconds to give Tony some space, but the waiting feels like eternity. This is your fate that he holds in his hands. <What can I do to convince you that I'm telling the truth?> This is the most important part, the part that you hadn't realized would be difficult: making Tony Stark believe you. <I'm a person, Tony. I had a life.>

"No, you—"

<I lived with my grandmother after I turned twelve.> You hadn't thought you could feel things, but apparently desperation isn't a feeling. It pulses through you, even without adrenaline to push it along, a demanding alarm in the back of your mind. <The first time I held hands was in fourth grade. Chris Chester. Behind the cafeteria trashcans.>

"That's not—"

<In middle school, I made out with my best friend's boyfriend when we played Spin the Bottle and she never spoke to me again.> Your voice through the speakers speeds up as you try to get all the words out before he flushes you from the system like he always does. <My first tattoo! It was a butterfly. I got it on my sixteenth birthday using a fake ID I bought with money I stole out of the cheer captain's locker.> Tony turns away to leave, but you place your image in front of him again. He stops short, as he always does, as if you were really there and, for a second, you have hope. <How could I make this up?> You ask, slowing your speech to normal. <What would be the point? I'm not a great person, Tony, but I am a person. You're the only one that can—>

"I can't!" he snaps. "Why don't you understand that? I can't help you because you're not real."

The pause this time is not intentional. Your mind whirs over itself, searching for anything that could persuade him. An eternity stretches in front of you, not quite existing, but not dead either. <What am I supposed to do?>

"I don't care."

Missions are a distraction. You've been quiet since Tony told you off, but that doesn't mean that you're gone. Until Tony figures out what you are and what you're really after, he can't waste time on stupid things like fascist dictators. Not when it means leaving you with unattended access to his equipment.

<Tony,> Rhodey warns over the com, <You have hostiles coming in hot.>

Hostiles. Real, live hostiles. The kind that shoot missiles and blow things up. Not the kind that send flirty text messages when Tony's in debriefings or who turn on the coffee maker whenever he needs a break. Not the kind with pleading, wide eyes.

A missile explodes next to him and he dodges just in time. Shit. It's lucky you haven't invaded the armor or Tony would be in real trouble. Just the memory of you is distracting enough without having to deal with you now. Whispering in his ear. Teasing, laughing. Hell, if it were actually you—not that Tony has a type, but you'd fit the bill anyway—that would be a different sort of distraction. But it's not. It's an approximation, at best. An illusion conjured to torture him with his own failures.

Tony whirls in the sky, avoiding two more missiles and crashing one of them into an enemy drone. The firework of pride is quickly shut down when he sees three more.

It's not like there is anything that he can do to help you anyway. Even if you are telling the truth, which—no, you can't be.

Tony zig zags between the incoming drones, barely skimming by, but crashing them into each other in the process.

How would he even get you into your body? It's not like there's a USB adaptor in your occipital lobe.

FRIDAY warns Tony of another attack coming from below. He rockets up and his pursuer chases him higher into the sky until Tony drops flares on it and sends it into a death spiral.

A single point of entry wouldn't work anyway. Brain activity is spread over the cerebral cortex; there isn't a clearly marked entrance and exit.

Tony blasts through a cloud to return to Rhodey's position. War Machine has three incoming hostiles, two hidden by a cloudbank. Tony targets the first one.

And even if there were a way to make the connection… there would be no guarantee that you would be compatible with—Why is he thinking about this? He isn't going to do it. There's nothing to do. He made up his mind. He'll figure out how to get rid of you for good and then he'll—

<Shit, Tony—> Rhodey's com cuts out. The second hostile had avoided crashing into the first, doubling the explosion. The shock rocks the sky and blows Tony backwards. He struggles to regain his orientation, firing his repulsors in an attempt to right himself in a world gone topsy-turvy

"Eyes on War Machine?" he demands of FRIDAY.

"Initiate emergency procedures."

Tony lets out a colorful string of curses. "Where is he?" He catches sight of Rhodey tumbling to the ground in an uncontrolled spiral. Too far for Tony to reach him. He tries anyway, rocketing toward the earth at a speed that's too high for him to pull out safely, much less with Rhodey's added weight. He needs to override the systems on the War Machine suit, but he doesn't have time—he isn't fast enough to—shit. He isn't that fast. You on the other hand…

He opens all the channels leading to the home system, ones that he kept firmly shut until now. Desperate times. "Cheshire!" he yells, still rocketing toward the ground.

Your telltale flicker flashes across the display on his helmet. <Already here.>

"Rhodey!"

Tony doesn't slow his flight, not trusting that you'll reach him in time. The repulsors on Rhodey's suit fire, at first randomly, then with more purpose. His fall slows, but not enough. Tony continues his headlong flight toward the ground.

<Tony, pull up. You won't have time.> you warn.

"Not until he's safe."

<Tony—>

"Not until he's safe."

You swear eloquently in his earpiece. War Machine's repulsors fire more urgently, finally catching the necessary angle to right him seconds before he would have crashed into the ground. He lands rough, but in relative safety. Tony pulls out of his descent in time to make his own not so graceful landing.

"Is he—?"

<He's good. He's fine.> You sound relieved, though you can't possibly be.

Tony checks for himself, releasing Rhodey from the armor. Rhodey's chest rises and falls with each breath. Tony slumps back, suddenly too heavy to hold himself up. "I need medical evac now," he says into the com to no one in particular, then lays back on the ground.

Bars have terrible security cameras. In fact, most everywhere has terrible security cameras. That is something that you've learned from your time trapped on the net. And since cameras are often your only window into the outside world, they're extremely important. The Avengers' compound is a blessed exception. There are cameras everywhere there—high quality with microphone equipment. You know everything that goes on in the Avengers' compound.

Which makes the fact that Tony has gone to an outside bar all the more frustrating. You only find him because he starts popping up on Instagram. God bless social media. People all over the world are constantly uploading surveillance data. It's the perfect crowd sourced way to stalk someone. But while it's great to help you find Tony, it's not so awesome at helping you keep track of how many drinks he's had. You're guessing that it's… a lot.

Tony tried to keep you out of the Ironman suit. And he was successful for a while. But there isn't a security system you can't find a hole in. It's not his fault. You see things differently. It's like a colorblind person trying to match an outfit. His electronic guard dogs are easily distracted. His walls have holes he doesn't even know about. Breaking into the suit was only a matter of time. But you didn't mess with it. Tony saves the world in that thing; it's not a toy.

So, when he opened it up, actually invited you in… that was… well, wow. You'd feel flattered, if you were capable of feeling anything. He doesn't trust you, per se. But you're in a weird middle ground of not-quite-friends. If you never really look at it, it can be both hostile and affectionate. Schrodinger's friendship.

You watch Tony put away two more glasses of whiskey in the background of a bachelorette party's Twitter video. Tony Stark can handle his liquor, that's not a question. The man could drink a distillery under the table. It's why he's drinking that bothers you. You saved Rhodey. He's battered, but he'll be okay. Yet Tony is taking the injury to heart.

And maybe it's somewhat your fault too. You've run him ragged trying to pester him into submission. He's sleep deprived, desperate, and (you're pretty sure) touch starved. He would have been more on the ball if it weren't for you.

When he stands, he sways.

You follow the lightning connections through the satellite feeds that form a web of phones, zipping between lines, stretched into infinity and back, and land in Tony's pocket. You like Tony's phone. It's posh. All the connections are smooth and clean. The tech responds to even your lightest touches. Some hardware is like swimming through a bog.

You monitor the passing connections through the Bluetooth array, keeping a light touch on where you are by pinging your anchor points in the Wi-Fi ether. Tony should have called a cab from the bar. It'll be easier than finding one on the street. Especially the way he's going.

You feel the familiar tingle of the Lotus, Tony's favorite car. Its system purrs to life, lighting up a new section of the grid and welcoming you back with open arms. Tony gets in the car.

That fucking idiot.

You race into the Lotus, spreading yourself across the speaker system. <You cannot drive home like this.>

"Go 'way, Chesh," he slurs. He misses the shift a few times as he tries to put the car in gear.

<You're drunk. Let me call you a cab.>

"I'm fine."

You activate the flashers and all the lights on the dash. <Tony. This is not safe.>

"Get out of my car!"

The trap comes out of nowhere, like vines tangling around you. Each time you cut through one, three more spring up. When the hell did Tony have time to make this? You're too busy trying to disentangle yourself from Tony's trap that you can't stop the car. He's driving. He's fucking drunk and he's driving.

You reestablish your connection to the speakers, but it's shaky, cutting out whenever the trap renews its assault. <Tony—stop— fuck—car—asshole>

You can feel the car zoom through traffic, going too fast, not staying in the lines. It's equipped with sensors for this exact purpose. It could practically drive itself and this asshole is—

Or… you could drive it.

You collect yourself, concentrating into the smallest form possible. The trap swarms you, trying to engulf you. You wait until it almost does, then explode outward. You shred the program and half of the Lotus's nonessential electrical fixtures. The speakers go out with a bang. Well, it's not like Tony was listening to you anyway.

You find the car's central control. God bless power brakes. You slam on them. Car horns blare through the Lotus's microphones. More importantly, there's the wumph of Tony's head hitting the steering wheel. Serves him right. You hope it breaks his nose.

You wait, letting the purr of the Lotus' system sooth you. No drunken cursing comes from the cab. No new traps spring. Good. It takes some practice to get a hold of the car's steering and engine—the mix of hardware and software tripping you up—but you find them and coax the car forward toward home.

Tag List:

@abovethesmokestacks @winterboobaerchen @netflixa @ganesh4679

If you would like to be added to (or removed from) the tag list, please let me know.

#tony stark #ironman #tony x reader #avengers #fanfiction #tony stark x reader #mcu #if you were here

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clarencenicholsonata · 4 years

Text

4 Psychology-Driven Ways to Structure Your Landing Page

Do you know what’s most valuable on your website?

Your landing pages

It’s where you’ll convert passive visitors into active subscribers, buyers, or fans. It’s where your business grows.

A good landing page is the make-or-break moment for your site. Which is why to write a truly great landing page, you must understand the laws of persuasion.

The rules that determine how we think and act are valuable for every type of marketing, of course. But it’s especially critical when every click counts.

Research has shown that more landing pages lead to more conversions.

But it only counts if you’re doing it correctly. If you’re building a landing page that needs to appeal to the most people, you’ll want to include these ideas.

They’ll help you structure your page in a way that grabs attention and pushes people to act.

Let’s get started!

1. Organize Landing Page Elements Correctly

At its core, a landing page is a series of blocks. How you organize these blocks can make or break the success of what you’ve built.

Put the call to action too late? You won’t get the conversions you’re hoping for.

Include testimonials too early? People won’t understand the offer and will leave.

That's why ordering elements is the first psychology-driven way to structure your landing page.

Primacy Effect—We Remember What Comes First

Quick—name a woman who flew across the Atlantic Ocean.

Did Amelia Earheart come to mind?

She’s not the only woman to have performed the feat. But she sticks with us because she was the first to do it.

This is the Primacy Effect. It's the well-known psychological concept that we remember what comes first.

Bonjoro’s home page is a great example. They show their product’s personal touch with a video at the top.

When you’re setting up the pieces of your landing page, start with what’s most important:

A key headline.

An eye-catching graphic.

A powerful, engaging video.

Whatever it is, choose carefully. It’ll be one of the most memorable parts of your landing page.

Recency Effect—We Remember What Comes Last

It might sound like the opposite of the Primacy Effect. But in truth, it’s a concept that explains the shortcuts the human mind takes.

Maybe this has happened to you—a friend asks for a movie recommendation. But what comes to mind? The last movie you watched … not the best movie you’ve ever seen.

Why would we do that?

It’s the Recency Effect at work. Along with what comes first, what comes last takes special importance.

To use it on your landing page, make sure you end on a strong note.

(Pro tip: This is almost always a call to action.)

The Recency Effect doesn't just apply to the last part of the landing page, but to the last part your visitor reads.

If a lot of visitors leave a certain place, try to fix it. But if you can’t, at least make it worth remembering.

Von Restorff Effect—We Remember What Stands Out

Read this list:

Blue. Orange. Green. Red. Elephant. Yellow.

Now, name one word from that list.

Did "elephant" come to mind? Researchers have performed similar experiments again and again.

The findings are clear—most of us remember what stands out.

Just like those Sesame Street segments, the Von Restorff Effect says: “one of these things is not like the others.”

In the context of a landing page, there are thousands of ways to apply the Von Restorff Effect.

But one of the simplest is to add variety to long sections. So if you have a list of features, add a captivating image to draw attention to the most important.

(Research indicates this effect diminishes as we age, so this is less important on landing pages for older visitors.)

The Von Restorff Effect is all about breaking up the monotony.

Here’s another example of this concept in action—once you get to the conclusion of this article, you’ll probably remember this concept best.

It’s the only one on the list with a fun German name.

2. Limit Choices (But Not Too Much)

Humans are funny creatures.

We crave options. Yet at the same time, we’re startlingly bad at making good choices with the freedom we’ve been given.

The Internet has brought millennia of knowledge to our fingertips … yet there’s so much of it, we’d rather just watch Netflix.

Using landing pages, how can we leverage human tendencies with choices?

Freedom of Choice—We Prefer Multiple Options

The first concept is the one we all know: more options are better than fewer options.

Which bakery is better—one with two types of pastries or one with twenty?

Options give us a sense of comfort. When we choose, we're in control.

So when you’re designing your landing page, keep that comfort in mind.

We’ll get into more nuts-and-bolts depth about pricing strategies in just a minute. But for now, remember that providing some options is better than none at all.

For example, there are only two options to subscribe to The New Yorker: print and digital.

Yet The New Yorker subscription page expands this to include a three-month option.

Many times, we only have one offer. But don’t miss the chance for more choices.

Let the prospect use a payment plan, or pay all at once.

Offer a basic plan or an upgrade.

The choices are endless. Speaking of which, they shouldn’t be.

The Paradox of Choice—Too Many Options Paralyzes Us

Months ago, I started a simple search for a better charging cable for my phone. Amazon proudly informed me there were more than 40,000 items.

They all looked more or less the same, with almost indistinguishable differences.

It was confusing. I didn't know where to go, and the options froze my decision-making ability.

I still haven't bought a new charger. After all, my current cable connects to my phone ... most of the time.

What's going on?

You see, we love options, but too many choices are bad for us.

This is especially critical for e-commerce landing pages. Chewy does a great job of showing lots of categories without being overwhelming.

But be careful—it’s easy to fall into the trap of showing every option.

Instead, as you structure your landing page, stick with a smaller number. Research shows humans best remember seven things, give or take two.

To err on the side of caution, stick with five. Peloton does a great job simplifying its dozens of products into a short list of five.

But what if you must display more than seven? That’s the place Amazon finds itself in.

When you have 40,000 products, it’d be a disservice to only show five. So Amazon has taken advantage of the next concept.

Social Proof—Highlight Choices Based on Popularity

The classic example of social proof is something like, “9 out of 10 dentists recommend Sensodyne.”

But there are thousands of more subtle ways social proof surrounds us. As Amazon’s catalog has grown, they’ve added social proof to help sort through the noise.

For example, Amazon now flags best selling products.

Products with more (and more positive) customer reviews are likely to drive more click-throughs. Which of these two knives are you more likely to buy?

And Amazon even helps us choose with their “Amazon’s Choice” label.

They’ve also partnered with review sites for third-party recommendations.

(This is a variation of social proof known as Appeal to Authority. After all, a third party sounds more objective than Internet strangers.)

The most common usage of social proof like this is on pricing landing pages. You’ve seen it before—the website highlights one pricing plan as being more popular.

Use the same ideas on your own page.

And speaking of pricing, let’s look there next.

3. Structure Your Pricing Correctly

Pricing seems so simple.

Yet it’s one of the most complex areas of marketing.

You see, there isn’t an exact formula for pricing. Sure, there are all kinds of recommendations online.

Add a percentage to your cost.

Look at what your competitors are doing.

And so forth.

But the real secret to pricing—the gold your competitors are missing out on—lies in psychology.

Here are the three principles you need to know.

Anchoring Effect—State Higher Prices First

Have you noticed how we all spend more on cell phones now?

Before the Smartphone Age, most of us spent a few hundred dollars on a new cell phone.

But today, it’s common for us to spend $1,000 or more on a device.

Why?

Because of the Anchoring Effect. When we see $1,000 cell phones, we begin to think that’s the norm.

Even if we’re thrifty, spending $500 now seems like a deal—even if it’s double what we would have paid just a few years ago.

When you’re designing your landing page, you want to take anchoring into effect.

The simplest way is to show high prices first. So if you have more than one plan, list the most expensive first, then in descending order of price.

Casper does a great job of this by positioning their premium Wave mattress first.

(It’s also a beautiful example of providing choices, with guidance.)

Only have one plan?

Then use a technique copywriters have employed for decades—list comparisons.

You’ve seen it before:

“In-person training for this would cost $10,000. Hiring a coach would be $500 an hour. But with my course, you can get the same information for just $99 …”

They use it because it works.

And you can use it, too.

Loss Aversion Principle—Focus on What We’re Losing

It’s your birthday, and a friend gives you a $100 bill.

Later that day, you withdraw another $100 from an ATM. But when you get home, you realize you left the money in the machine.

Do those two events even each other out?

Research says no. The ATM loss will be more painful than the birthday gift was enjoyable. About twice as painful psychologically, in fact.

We all love to win.

But more than winning, we want to avoid losing. This is known as the Loss Aversion Principle.

As you create your landing page, keep this principle in mind.

We’re all tempted to list the great features and benefits we have to offer. But psychology shows that losing is more powerful.

To do this, start off by explaining what problems the prospect is facing right now.

Show that they’re already losing something, whether that’s money, time, status, or health.

Show that your offer can change that, and they can stop losing out.

Then—and only then—should you show the benefits.

Contrast Effect—Small Differences Can Stand Out

Remember the Von Restorff Effect?

It stated that in a list of similar items, we notice things that stand out.

(Like elephants among color samples.)

The Contrast Effect is its visual counterpart.

There’s a reason most call-to-action buttons aren’t the same color as the page background. There’s a reason “for sale” signs on car lots are bright pink and yellow.

Colors that stand apart catch our eye.

The Ahrefs home page is a great example of the Contrast Effect. The bright orange call to action is immediately obvious.

Every landing page needs to draw attention to one or more items.

The best way to do this? With contrast.

Give a section a brightly-colored background.

Add a border that pops.

And start grabbing attention.

4. Improve Actions with Cognitive Fluency

Humans are, in our hearts, very lazy creatures.

It’s not our fault!

Our bodies have been finely-tuned over millions of years to conserve energy.

We’re built to make split-second judgments to assess situations.

It’s great on the prehistoric prairie. But in the 21st century, it means we have a few biases.

And you need to take them into account when selling.

Cognitive Fluency—Easier Content is More Trustworthy

Imagine you’re studying for a test in college, and two friends offer to share their study notes.

One friend hands you a bulging pile of dog-eared scribbles.

The other friend gives you a typed report broken down by subject. Each section has summaries and bullet points with key facts to remember.

Which would you use to study?

The answer seems obvious, but the better-organized student might be flunking the class. We judge credibility based on what's easiest to read.

As you design your landing page, make the content seamless. One section leads to another, all the way to the call to action.

This is the idea of Cognitive Fluency. Essentially, we choose what’s easiest for the brain to process.

Take it to heart in your landing pages, and keep the structure simple and easy to follow.

Deictic Gaze—We Obey Indicators to Where to Look

This is one of the silliest shortcuts in the human brain, but it works.

Before I explain how, look at the following image:

Did you look to the right?

Congratulations, you’ve seen the Deictic Gaze in action. It’s one of the most obvious examples of Cognitive Fluency.

Our brain will follow arrows, other people’s line of sight, and other cues when deciding where to look.

The brain’s laziness is a great way to improve your landing page. You’ve seen it a thousand times, and it's worth adding yourself.

Place small arrows, pointers, and even photographs of people facing the right direction.

Halo Effect—We Assign Good Design with Positive Traits

Take a quick glance at the website below. Is this someone you’d want to do business with?

If you’re like most people, you’d think twice about this company. Its 1990s-era website doesn’t look like a credible business venture.

But you’d be mistaken. It's the home page of billionaire Warren Buffett's company Berkshire Hathaway.

You see, first impressions influence our perception. We assume a site with bad design is a bad site. Likewise, we assign positive traits to sites that appeal to us.

This “halo” of positive traits leads to the name of the concept, the Halo Effect.

Every landing page you create should look as great as possible.

Nothing sells like a halo.

Oh, and if you’re wondering how Warren Buffett still succeeds with a site like that?

Simple: When you’re a world-famous billionaire, your personal halo extends to your website, not the other way around.

Need help with your next contest ?

Book a free call to learn how our team of marketing experts can help you create a high converting landing page today.

Conclusion

What’s the difference between a good landing page and a great one? It often comes down to the level of persuasion you decide to use.

A serious landing page creator will consider every user’s action and build their page around it like Wishpond’s Canvas.

And the best way to do that? Psychological triggers. By using proven persuasion techniques, you can influence the viewer to act.

Oftentimes, the difference between a casual visitor and a ready buyer comes down to specific techniques that influence him or her to act.

You’ve learned four psychology-based ways to structure your landing page. Plus, you've seen twelve of the most common principles you can put in place.

Which will you use first?

About the Author Emil Kristensen is the CMO and co-founder of Sleeknote: a company that helps e-commerce brands turn their website browsers into buyers—without hurting the user experience.

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cherryninie · 7 years

Photo

Square One

genre: angst & fluff

length: 1735 words

pairing: matthew kim x jeon somin | kim taehyung (j.seph) x jeon jiwoo

summary:

Somin was sure that she’s going to experience the most embarrassing moment in her life when her date (which Jiwoo set her up with through a dating website) didn’t show up and practically dumped her before he even met her. That was, until a bright-eyed, cheerful stranger suddenly came to her rescue and pretended to be her date just to save her from a complete and utter embarrassment.

A short story about a not-so-disastrous first dateand unusual new beginnings.

Part One:

Somin had always known that her love life was a little sad. Alright, perhaps not a little sad. Pathetic, to be frank.

Her last date was a year ago. Even then it didn’t end well because the guy turned out to be a bigot who was still living in his parents’ basement. He kept mistaking Somin for a Chinese, which honestly, was the worst thing anyone could ever say to her after begging her to go out on a date with him. If that wasn’t bad enough, he was also a disgusting pervert for thinking that she would actually have sex with him on their first date.

Let’s just say, as nice as Somin was, she couldn’t stand another minute with him without feeling like punching him in the face. In fact, she had to call Jiwoo in the middle of the date to get her out of it – which was something she had never done before because she knew how involved Jiwoo could get when it came into her love life. She was way too protective for her own good.

(And let’s just say, that night, Somin had to endure a seemingly never-ending nag from Jiwoo about her terrible taste in men.)

Also, sex. She hadn’t had sex for two years now – which to be honest, brought her to another level of pathetic. Still, after that bigot, Somin had completely retracted herself from the dating world and focused on her job instead.

And Somin didn’t mind. Sure, every now and then, she missed being intimate with someone. Sure, sometimes, she was jealous of Jiwoo, whose quick wit and fiery personality seemed to attract good men who always treat her right. In fact, Somin was sure that if Jiwoo wasn’t so scared of commitment, she would be happily married by now. She would have a good husband who treated her like a queen, and maybe she would have cute babies that she would ask Somin to babysit every now and then.

As of Somin, she was fine of her own. Being single, of course she’s going to feel lonely every now and then, but that’s life, you know? You can’t always get what you want. Reality is anything but perfect – Somin had accepted that. So, she tried to find joy in more important things such as her work, her relationship with her friends, her undying love for her cat, her hobbies like listening to music and reading – stuff like that.

However, Jiwoo wasn’t having any of that.

“Jeon Somin, I’m not gonna watch you grow old and become a sad cat lady like our Aunt Edna!” Jiwoo had said, much to Somin’s dismay.

Truthfully, Somin didn’t understand what’s so bad about being an old cat lady. Their neighbour, whom they call Aunt Edna, was a gem. Somin really liked her. Sure, Aunt Edna was a little conservative and boring, but her cats were adorable and she made the best chocolate chip cookies Somin had ever tasted. Even Jiwoo liked her cookies, although she didn’t want to admit it due to the fact that Aunt Edna made a negative comment about her pink hair once.

Besides, Somin didn’t understand why she had to pressure herself into finding a man to spend the rest of her life with when she had cats as her company. Cats wouldn’t judge her if she were to spend the rest of her day in sweatpants and big shirts. Besides, cats were much less demanding, and Somin liked undemanding creatures.

However, Jiwoo still wouldn’t stop worrying. She kept on saying that she knew that Somin wasn’t happy, and she saw that as a problem. As it was in her nature to quickly find solution to anything that she found problematic, Jiwoo had taken it in her stride to find Somin a date.

Thus, without Somin knowing, Jiwoo had secretly registered her in this dating website called Mate4You, and also without Somin knowing, after having quite a number of people interested in Somin’s profile, Jiwoo had randomly chosen one to meet Somin.

Honestly, it was one of their biggest fights yet. Somin had freaked out when Jiwoo told her the news, but Jiwoo refused to back down because the guy was ‘cute’, and ‘smart’, and ‘successful’ – basically everything that Somin wanted in a man. Somin had lost count of the times she yelled at Jiwoo for this, but of course, she couldn’t stay mad at her friend for so long. Jiwoo was persuasive, and Somin was still gullible.

Therefore, there Somin was, in a restaurant on a Saturday night, waiting for a complete stranger to show up.

As much as Somin loved Jiwoo, she wanted nothing more than to hit her in her head right now. This was literally the worst idea ever.

Reason? It had been an hour, and her date still hadn’t showed up.

And Somin had a feeling that he wasn’t going to.

////

It was embarrassing. Getting stood up was generally embarrassing, but getting stood up by a complete stranger was a whole new level of low. Somin fought the urge to cry, willing herself to believe that her date was stuck in a traffic jam somewhere and he was going to come no matter what.

She tried to remain positive, but he was over an hour late. Even an optimist like Somin knew what that meant.

He wasn’t coming.

The waiters were eyeing her with amusement, partly mocking her for being alone in a restaurant where couples go on dates and everyone was with someone. Earlier, they had asked her to order something, but she was insistent on waiting for her date. It was alright the first time, but when two, three, four waiters came to ask her to order something, Somin felt humiliated, and she was angry. She could’ve been at home, watching Friends on Netflix right now, but instead, she had to face the mockery from the rude waiters in this restaurant.

She wanted nothing more to just give up and walk away, but her ego was too high to give them the satisfaction.

Another hour passed, and by now, even Somin realised she was downright pathetic. Perhaps Jiwoo meant well when she set her up on this date, but it all backfired because Somin felt even worse now. In fact, she had never felt this sad.

She looked up, finding another waiter coming her way. Despite the condescending look in his eyes, his face looked stern. Somin knew that this time, she had to leave willingly or they’re going to force her to leave because people were lining up outside the restaurant, waiting to be seated.

See, her ego might be bruised at this point, but she still had her dignity in her. She wasn’t going to let them drag her out of the restaurant.

So, as bitter as it was, she was going to leave willingly.

Somin was just about to get up when a man suddenly came out of nowhere and took a seat in front of her. She gaped at his sudden interruption, surprised that he confidently sat there like he belonged there. What surprised her more was that he even grinned at her – a total stranger.

Somin wanted to ask him whether he got the wrong table, but before she got to do so, the waiter had reached her table and gave her a questioning look.

“Sorry, love. I thought you hadn’t arrived! I was at the bar waiting for you!” the man said, giving her a cheeky smile and a wink, making her blush. He was way too attractive, someone Somin considered way out of her league.

Before sending her out on this date, Jiwoo had shown Somin the picture of the man she was supposed to meet tonight, and this man sitting in front of Somin now, wasn’t him.

This man in front of her was probably a few years older than her, while the man Jiwoo showed was younger. He was much taller too – Somin had a feeling that she might be shorter than his shoulder level. Still, what attracted Somin the most was the way his eyes light up when he talked, and he always had a smile on his face despite the awkwardness of the situation they’re in now. His smile was warm and kind, something that Somin deeply appreciate.

Thus, she didn’t have the heart to tell the waiter that she didn’t know this man.

“Ready to order, sir?”

“Yes,” the man replied, his eyes darted back to her and he asked, “What about you, kitten?”

Somin chuckled at the nickname he gave her. God, this was crazy. She didn’t know him. She was sure that he only felt sorry for her and only wanted to help. By right, she should just tell the waiter the truth and be done with it, but then again, he looked so sincere and eager that she couldn’t find it in her to walk away.

This man had practically saved her from a complete humiliation, so the least she could do was have dinner with him, right?

Then, without thinking any further, Somin nodded and said, “Yes.”

////

It took them only seconds to order because both of them were famished. When the waiter was gone, Somin turned to the man, and after a few minutes of complete silence, she asked, “So, are you ever gonna tell me who you are?”

The man laughed, blushing slightly as he realized that he hadn’t properly introduced himself. Somin knew that this man was a complete stranger to her, but she had the impression that he was a cheerful person who liked a good laugh. He didn’t hold back when he laughed, and he had wrinkles under his eyes when he smiled. Plus, the way his eyes lighted up when she talked to him exuberated such warmth and comfort that made her feel like she had known him for a while.

Which was crazy, because she didn’t even know his name.

“Matthew Kim,” he finally said, “Call me Matthew.”

“Matthew,” Somin repeated, the name escaped her lips easily, bringing some sort of calmness. She exhaled a sigh of relief, couldn’t help the smile that appeared on her lips as she said, “Well, Matthew, I’m Somin.”

“Somin,” he pronounced, and for the love of God, Somin wished that her heart didn’t skip a beat when he did that – but it did.

Oh boy.

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callmemrscurtis · 7 years

Text

Headcannons for the boys when Netflix started trending

I’m gonna rant real quick idk wtf happened but apparently this didn’t post last night so Here It Is Now

Darry: -I think we all know it took some persuasion from Pony to invest in an account but after a while he gave in and got the up to four screens at a time pack

-Was highkey pissed when all the boys started freeloading off of it

-He’s all comfy in bed at like 9:30 getting ready to watch OISNB and he gets the message on his tv telling him that too many people are watching at once -He checks who’s using HIS account

-He picks up his old ass phone (idk but it’s pink and has the coiled wire the bell phones)

-“GOD DAMN IT, STEVE! I JUST WANTED TO WATCH ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK IN PEACE AND I GET MY SNACK READY JUST FOR ME TO SEE YOU’RE PLAYING THREE DIFFERENT THINGS AT ONCE?”

- He’s all causal eating popcorn “Listen, Darry. They just put Moana as an option and then I saw that they have Finding Dory too and I don’t have time to watch them separately so-”

-“STEVE!”

-“PS Baby Dory is a-dor-a-ble. Totally deserved more screen time.”

-“STEVEN RANDLE!“

-“Although…I do like Ellen Degeneres’ performance…I find it quite modern and realistic.”

-“JUST TURN ONE OFF SO I CAN WATCH MY SHOW. IVE BEEN WAITING ALL DAY, PLEASE. IM NOT GOING TO WORK JUST TO PAY FOR YOU TO STOP ME FROM GETTING MY FIX OF CRAZY EYES!”

-“Dar, chill it’s like, what? Twelve dollars a month”  -“eleven ninety-nine.”

- “Wait…why are you watching Orange is the New Black?”

-“you know what…forget it. ENJOY YOUR FREELOADING!” He slams the phone so quick. He doesn’t ask about the last show

-Darry hates Piper, thinks she’s a total bitch

-He watches all the trending shows or the unpopular documentaries there’s no in between

-He’s a HuGe fan of Stranger Things

-Watches Friday Night Lights thinking it’ll remind him of his high school days

-He threatens to cancel the subscription when the boys piss him off

-it’s such a powerful threat that it has never gotten to the point where he actually had to do it, they cut the shit immediately

-legitimately how he gets the boys to get their shit together

Ponyboy: -He convinced Darry by telling him that it would cost less than going to the movies all the time and a lot safer

-He’s the one constantly reminding everyone that it’s illegal to use their account because they’re cheating the company

-They all look at other with serious faces then turn back to Pony and laugh their asses off because the law has never stopped them before

-It makes Johnny feel bad but he needs his daily fix of One Tree Hill so he got over it

-The one watching The Great British Baking Show because the American version isn’t there but he finds the accents soothing

-He gets frustrated because he’ll think he knows what they’re making but it’s just a word used America that turns out to be a different thing in the U.K. (Stuff like Biscuits)

-tbh doesn’t know what they’re talking about half the time…that or has never heard of what they’re making in his entire young life

-He has the masked icon as his “who’s watching” profile picture

-He somehow managed to convince Darry to get the four screen plan but it was never so that the other guys could use too it was just because he wanted the higher HD quality they didn’t offer in the other plans

-If he watches something he’s ashamed of, knowing everyone has access to his history, he’ll go delete it

-Its like the My Little Pony marathons never happened

Sodapop: -The one who gave the rest of the gang the username and password

-Worst mistake ever because now Dallas has Darry’s credit card information

-He doesn’t watch a lot of Netflix he mostly only went to movies to make Pony happy he only really enjoyed a few

-His attention span is just too short he can’t sit still to watch a movie for an hour or two

-Despite that, he can binge shows if he wants to

-If he’s sad he’ll watch Clueless and quotes the shit out of it

-Honestly Soda is the type to watch anything from a kids movie to a documentary on GMO foods like he only uses Netflix when he has nothing else to do

-To him it’s just one of those apps you don’t want to delete because you might need it but you never really use it

-His icon is the penguin

-He wishes they had a blue penguin

-but they don’t so he settles for the orange one

-he’s called the company multiple times to complain he’s waiting for them to call back

Two-bit: -Fought Pony the first couple of days

-“SERIOUSLY? YOU WANT TO TAKE UP A SCREEN SO THAT I CANT WATCH MY OWN NETFLIX BUT LAST WEEK YOU COULDNT TAKE ME TO THE MOVIES?? YOU DIDNT EVEN HAVE TO STAY YOU COULD’VE WALKED AROUND THE MALL!!”

-“Listen, PoNyBoNeR. NOBODY and I mean NOBODY watches movies on Netflix it’s all about binging Baby Daddy, my friend.”

-“WEVE HAD THE ACCOUNT FOR A WEEK NOW YOURE SUDDENLY THE NETFLIX MASTER? WE HAVE SEVEN PEOPLE ON THIS ACCOUNT RIGHT NOW!”

-He ignores that last comment and answers the question, “Yes. And I say movies suck.”

-“DUDE the reviews for Wonder Woman were crazy I wanted to see it.”

-“Yeah, like I want to spend my precious time watching a lil twerp watch a chick flick.”

-Truth is he already went to see it five times

-Actually watches every show out there but mostly comedies

-Rewatches Friends all the time

-He’s never actually watched a movie tho

-He’s like Soda he can’t sit still long enough

-He wouldn’t have a problem buying his own account if he had to but using The Curtis’ is much more fun

-He had the free trial for a month but he canceled his subscription when it was over like he does with every other free trial

Dally: -Only uses the account to watch porn in good quality

-That’s literally it I’m serious he doesn’t care for tv shows or movies it doesn’t have any other use to him

-Well he’s waiting for a good investment to come along and then he’s swiping that credit card info so quick

-He doesn’t use it for show watching purposes but he does fuck around with profile names and changes the pictures to piss Soda off mostly

-He changes the penguin to the Panda and it is a problem because Soda likes penguins and Pandas just aren’t the same

Johnny:  -He watches the trendy shows and movies sometimes

-He takes Pony’s recommendations to heart because Pony loves this kinda thing so he figures Pony must know what he’s talking about

-He really likes Once Upon A Time

-And Raising Hope

-And literally any show that surrounds a group of friends because he relates to them for obvious reasons

-Okay but Gossip Girl is his shit

-The last profile has his name on it but the rest of boys share it

-Obsessed with Riverdale

-Pony didn’t fight with Johnny about using Netflix because he would tag along to movies before they got an account

 Steve: -Always pushed Darry to sign up for Hulu instead because they update faster and it’s the same price for no commercials as the 4 screen plan

-Helps Dally mess up the names

-Shamelessly watches whatever he wants

-Toddlers and Tiaras? Sure.

-My Little Pony? Yep.

-Cupcakes Wars? Hell yeah!

-Just no OITNB because that shit gets too crazy for him (RIP Dylan)

-Watches New Girl like it’s his religion

- He watched Family Guy and American Dad in the actual order they came out except for the first few seasons bc the quality/art style sucked

- He’s the type of person who need need needs to have something to snack on while he’s watching a show

-like he’ll plan it out or just save his food until he watches his show

-Laughed at Pony for spending all his time watching movies but now he never leaves his house because he’s binging shows

-They had the same conversation as the one with Two except Steve watched Wonder Woman seven times and once was with Sodapop who made him swear not to tell Pony

-But he’s a bitch so he exposed him when Soda refused to admit that Rainbow Dash is better than Pinky Pie

-Pony flipped

-Then Two came forward and it was a huge mess

 This is for @maxisprettygay and @matt-dillon-trash

IM STILL SO MAD LIKE WHY DIDNT IT POST?? But at least it’s going up now

#the gang #headcannons #netflix

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narrator-scio-story · 7 years

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Let's Just Have Some Old-Fashioned Fangirling Over Jane Austen

I could call this post "What's Happening 8/29", like I've been doing for a while now.

But seriously, this blog has now evolved from providing short snippets of context about my own experiences in Science Olympiad to explain what I write about in the novel, to begging excuses for why I haven't revised anymore of the novel (news flash - I have no excuse), to now being the primary purpose of my writing.

This is my personal blog explaining the progress of my life.

So it doesn't really make sense to simply name every blog post to show that it's an update on my life from the date it's posted. I want to really explain what I'm going to be writing about in the title, don't I?

So this is a blog post about Jane Austen.

Of course I don't need an excuse to talk about Jane Austen. Why would I need an excuse, how could you ask that?

We've been in the process, the past couple of days, of driving back east after Colorado, in time for school to start. The day before we left I just about managed to finish reading Toni Morrison's Beloved. That was a part of the book pair I'd chosen for my summer reading for AP lit, so I insisted on rereading it in full even though I already read it back in November of 2015 (I know that because I can remember reading it before a certain concert, but whatever, the point is it was a while ago and I needed a refresher). Both the partner book for Beloved and the partner book for Mansfield Park were books I'd bought new on the book this summer and read on the overnight flight to the UK in July, so those were basically the two pairs of books I was choosing between.

Now, I know I'm getting out of order in my history, but I have a confession to make.

A rather embarrassing confession. I can't imagine how my girlfriend would react if she knew.

Not only have I not read Northanger Abbey since 8th grade, and not read Northanger Abbey in its entirety since 6th or 7th grade (aka the first time I read it! Yeek!), but last summer I actually didn't get through all the other Jane Austen novels.

Between my phone and my e-reader, travelling and staying in different people's houses, all the random bookmarks and quotations in different places in the books which I turn to frequently for comfort or to prove a point, I don't actually remember anymore how far I got. So we could say it's very possible I hadn't read Mansfield Park in 2 years.

How had I been getting my necessary fix of Austen instead? Well... Um... Oops... Er... Adaptions?!

Not to mention reading about the 200th anniversary of her death in news stories, but that should've only reminded me of what I was missing. Somehow I was getting the crying-at-happy-endings stuff from adaptions.

So you've heard about all the Netflix adaptions I watched in the UK, I think. And on the British Airways flight back to the US I watched the Keira Knightley Pride and Prejudice. My sister was shocked that I hadn't seen it before, she claims it's her favorite and she probably hasn't read the book not to mention she couldn't sit through the whole Jennifer Ehle one with me when I rented it on disc years ago. But there you go. I've seen it now, and it wasn't what finally convinced me to do my duty by the novels.

I was only at home, my own house, my own town, for a couple of days, but I did manage to invite my girlfriend to come watch the Gwyneth Paltrow Emma with me one of those days. (Why that one? Because it was the one that was streaming on Netflix. Clueless seems to have been taken off. Not to mention the Gwyneth Paltrow Emma was an Austen movie I hadn't seen before, and yet had tolerable reviews.)

I told her we could judge it's accuracy of the books together. She admitted to me that she'd never actually finished reading Emma because the main character annoyed her so much.

Then after we'd agreed to our plans anyway, she got sick and told me she couldn't come. So I flew out the next day without seeing her, but with it still downloaded within Netflix on my phone.

And eventually in Colorado, one bored afternoon, I have in and watched it on my own. And cried at Mr Knightley's confession of love at the end even though I didn't particularly approve the wording of it. Everything.

Then soon another bored afternoon in Colorado, another afternoon I didn't fancy doing anything productive, I scrolled aimlessly through YouTube and I suppose due to my old (8th grade-era) subscription to the Lizzie Bennett Diaries, found Emma Approved.

I watched as much as I could between my late afternoon discovery and going out to dinner that night. (Actually only 16 or 17 episodes?)

I woke up early the next morning - I couldn't stop thinking about it - and couldn't wait for my parents to be out of the house (for some reason I was determined not to watch it in front of them). Once they left, I devoted about the entire rest of the productive day to watching it, putting off until 9 and then 10 getting out of my pyjamas and showering, returning to the show immediately after, failing to put it down while I ate a breakfast of very old leftovers because anything else was too much distraction, forcing myself to stop for the few minutes I knew that I really, really, really needed to devote to my summer reading in my textbooks for APUSH and AP chem.

I finished the YouTube series quite early in the afternoon and, desperate for more, watched all the Q&A's and Frank and Jane's and even some behind the scenes videos. I had somehow become just so invested in those characters.

And then that night I really couldn't sleep. I must've gotten into bed at a normal time, maybe 10 pm, but I can remember checking my watch at 1 am and feeling not at all sleepy. All because I kept playing through the events of the show in my head. Imagining additional scenarios with Emma and Alex. Thinking about what those characters must have felt.

And in that, above in watching Gwyneth Paltrow's Emma, was the source of my guilt about not rereading Austen recently. I flew through Beloved, which I really did intend to use for my AP lit book, not so much because I'd already read it as because there was something else wonderful which I'd already read waiting for me as soon as I was done. Beloved made me emotional in its way but I was waiting for Mansfield Park, that beautiful home, what had been my favorite of all love stories the first time I read it even if I've since grown to care about others.

So, we spent the last couple of days driving east across Middle American states I've never visited before, me not doing any of the driving because I can't drive, and I've been busy with two of my favorite activities of all time: reading Jane Austen and photographing went turbines.

I got through all of Mansfield Park between yesterday's drive and this morning's, and although I normally go Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Persuasion, I allowed myself to continue directly on into Emma. Not go back to the beginning once I'd covered my bases for AP lit.

I've seen so many adaptions of Emma (Clueless, a Masterpiece Theatre miniseries, the Gwyneth Paltrow one, now Emma Approved) that it seemed like I really did need to check it against the actual story.

I'd forgotten until I saw Emma Approved how much I'd enjoyed the Lizzie Bennett Diaries, back years ago. I just wonder why I didn't try Emma Approved earlier. And now I'm wondering if it would be practical to watch one episode every couple of lunch times with my girlfriend, or something. Of either show. Just to have watched something together, no matter how many times we'd watched it alone.

I still keep thinking of Emma Approved in my sleep, even with several days since I finished and the original books to care about. That was a good adaption, Alex's proposal was closer to what it should've been even if he didn't say "my dearest Emma, for dearest you will always be" and that's the phrase I swear I wait through the entire book for, which makes all of it worthwhile.

And having read so much in the car? To think I used to think that made me car sick!

I am very much a Janeite I think this is obvious by now.

#science olympiad #novel #jane austen #road trip #emma approved #mansfield park #ap lit

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belfromhell · 7 years

Text

@flying-toes and @leslipigeonoficial tagged me on this. Why am I doing it? I truly don’t know, but I love their blogs (go and follow them, now!) so I’ll do it with a smile on my face. (Btw sorry if there’s grammatical mistakes, english isn’t my first language).

Ps: @flying-toes is the one of the best persons I’ve met in this page, she’s so funny and sweet all the time! Ilysm girl, thanks for listening and care, ¡te adoro, eres genial!

rules: answer these 85 statements and tag 20 people.

I tag: @rubbersoles19 @fandom-weirdness-for-life @punk-rock-princess-626 @xjustahoneymoon @astronautswife @honeybun-holland @gweniings @mermaid-with-flowers-in-her-hair @s-sun-kissed @petersyoink @havikenhayes @pocketandheart @flylikeajetpack @lawryn-w @allisondra @danceratthestillpoint @tomhollandhollaatme @cassieandra0721 @dorkiustothemax @thebreenutgallery

I love lots of blogs but my memory is just shit so I’ll tag my last 20 followers instead.

the last

1. drink: a very strong lemonade. Basically a lot of lemon juice, a tiny bit of water and almost no sugar. LIKE THE REAL MACHOS.

2. phone call: My mom? I wanted to know how make chicken soup but we ended talking about my new neighbor and her annoying chihuahua. Never got my soup, though.

3. text message: a friend. She’s with her boyfriend’s family so basically she’s having a mental breackdown cause the mom of the boy hates her, lmao.

4. song you listened to: OMG NOOOO HAHAH. “Abrázame muy fuerte” by Juan Gabriel (we miss you mi amor :c).

5. time you cried: last night? I’ll be honest with you guys, I was reading a very emotional fanfic, it’s just science. I couldn’t help it.

6. dated someone twice: My ex, I think. Idk, I’ll date him again soon probably. I’ll use him to get free food and a Netflix account >:v

7. kissed someone and regretted it: LAST MONTH AND SHE’S MY EX LMAO. What can I say? She’s very nice and persuasive o-o

8. been cheated on: Never.

9. lost someone special: My great-grandmother passed away five years ago. I haven’t lost someone special since her, thank God.

10. been depressed: My life consist on been depressed and and angry 24/7

11. gotten drunk and thrown up: Last week. I FINALLY GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL FUCKERS. (By fuckers I mean my teachers, I love you all okay?)

3 favourite colours

12. Black

13. Blue

14. Red

in the last year have you

15. made new friends: Yep. Some thanks to other friends, some others thanks to my habit of losing important stuff.

16. fallen out of love: No, I still love the same guy, so ???

17. laughed until you cried: Yesterday, my friend’s mother put INTENTIONALLY soap in his eyes.

18. found out someone was talking about you: YES, I WAS WAITING FOR THIS QUESTION. Last month, some girl was talking shit about my whole classroom, just because we are genious and her classmates are total toddlers. It was graduation practice, AND MY PALS AND I WERE CONGRATULATED, NOT YOU SMOL LIL SHIT.

19. met someone who changed you: I’m always making friends. On web sites, on the street, everywere, so I’m always changing cause all of them teach me something everyday, even if they are just being themselves. Watch and learn.

20. found out who your friends are: I’ll just say yes while I keep my eyes shut to avoid cry.

21. kissed someone on your Facebook list: yeah, me and my friends still play 7 Minutes in Heaven, so imagine how that turns out.

general

22. how many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: I’ve had the same Facebook account for five or six years now, and I’ve being in lots of fandoms. So, to make it short maybe I know five hundred of the three thousand? My school was really big and I’m just a sucker for friends and new people.

23. do you have any pets: Nop, my last pet was a cat called Noah but she run away. But I have lots of plants, does they count?

24. do you want to change your name: Nop, I’m Karla Belén and that’s how family calls me, but other people call me just Karla or Belén or derivations of those two. My closest friends call me Kiwi or Kabe. My teachers used my last name and all my doctors call me Belito. I love my name cause some people has take their valious time to make nicknames or they call me in a certain way cause maybe a thing I’ve made reminds them of something specific and I’m okay with that, so no, I don’t want to change my name.

25. what did you do for your last birthday: I was at my uncle’s house, the whole day we traveled with my parents to the capital, and when we arrived my aunt had cooked fried chicken. It was very simple but my dad let me drive a little bit and my mom was in a good mood, so it was really cute.

26. what time did you wake up: I stay till one am reading fanfics, so I usually wake at ten or eleven am.

27. what were you doing at midnight last night: Talking with @flying-toes about my horrible life decisions.

28. name something you can’t wait for: Start college on September, if they answer my call this Monday. The rest of the MCU movies. Dinner.

29. when was the last time you saw your mom: Five minutes ago? She’s staying with me this days, but nah I don’t care really.

31. what are you listening to right now: I’m watching Parks and Recreation actually, so I’m listening to their voices?

32. have you ever talked to a person named tom: Yes, my friend’s brother is called Tomás, but we call him Tom cause Tomás sounds really pretentious.

33. something that is getting on your nerves: My family, the college applications THAT HAVEN’T BEEN ANSWERED, not having money to waste in shits and stuff.

34. most visited website: AO3, Instagram, and Tumblr.

35. hair color: Black.

36. long or short hair: Both, I like long hair to make braids but I like short hair cause is easy to comb. Now I have it long but that may change next week if I feel like it.

37. do you have a crush on someone: TOM HOLLAND’S GOT MY HEART AND MY SOUL AT THE MOMENT.

38. what do you like about yourself: I’m determined, I like to think that we should all be aware that we are part of a larger project and we must do something about it, but something good, something that helps the rest and make the stay in the planet more enjoyable. I am committed and fight a lot for world problems. I go out to protests and stuff, but I hope to be a politician someday to work for people who are forgotten by people with power.

39. piercings: Nope, just normal earrings holes.

40. blood type: I truly don't know, I think I’m O-, or some weird thing cause the only time i’ve need blood we had to look for a donator cause my family isn't compatible.

41. nickname: Kiwi, Kabe, Belu, Belito, Flaca, Nena.

42. relationship status: Trying to return with my ex but failing.

43. zodiac: Capricorn.

44. pronouns: “she” “her”.

45. favourite tv show: Parks and Recreation, maybe.

46. tattoos: A little moon on my right hip.

47. right or left handed: right.

48. surgery: twice.

50. sport: HA! Noooooo.

51. vacation: My grandparents house is my perfect vacation place.

52. pair of trainers: Converse or Vans? I don’t care about shoes, honestly.

GENERAL

53. eating: I eat everything except for sardines.

54. drinking: I drink everyting.

55. I’m about to: Read some Spideychelle fics?

56. waiting for: UPDATES OF MY FAVORITE FICS. And the damn college card.

57. want: Love.

58. get married: I’m still a baby, but I really want to get married someday.

59. career: I just graduated high school, soy un Bachiller de la República del Ecuador :D, but I want to be a lawyer.

WHICH IS BETTER

60. hugs or kisses: Hugs.

61. lips or eyes: Eyes.

62. shorter or taller: I don’t care, but I prefer taller people cause I’m a little tall and people is dumb about it.

63. older or younger: I don’t care x2. Age it’s just a number, I’m still pretty inmature but I’ve know people of my age that is very responsible and older people that needs to get back to their parents house.

64. nice arms or nice stomach: Nice heart? I like a nice body, but I don’t care x3 about aparience. If something or someone is cute, I like them. If they have fit bodies is cool, and is also cool if they don’t.

65. hookup or relationship: Relationship.

66. troublemaker or hesitant: TROUBLEMAKER AS FUUUUUCK. I have some strong opinios about delicate stuff and usually I get into trouble defending it.

HAVE YOU EVER:

67. kissed a stranger: Yeah, drunk or high.

68. drank hard liquor: Yeah, since I was fifteen probably.

69. lost glasses/contact lenses: Never, I can’t live without my glasses so I never leave them, at any moment.

70. turned someone down: Never.

71. sex on the first date: Never x2.

73. had your heart broken:It’s still broken but I'm pretending I'm fine reading lots of fanfics and going to the dentist.

74. been arrested: Once but I escaped before they called my parents or asked my name. I’m not proud of it but well...

75. cried when someone died: Yeah.

76. fallen for a friend: Yeah :(((

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

77. yourself: Sometimes, when I’m sure that things will go okay, and if I’m not I just stay positive.

78. miracles: I don’t know, I’m not a religious person. But I think that sometimes things are meant to be and happens in weird ways that can be considered as miracles.

79. love at first sight: No, that’s bullshit.

80. santa claus: Nop, here in Ecuador we don’t believe in that. It’s something that foreign brought like a comercial thing.

81. kiss on the first date: It deppends.

82. angels: Maybe.

OTHER:

84. eye colour: Dark brown.

85. favourite movie: El 49. In 1949 a earthquake shake and destroyed my city. Help was sent from all the country and from close countries but it never came. People with power taked those things and made total empires using all the provitions. But my city didn’t give up. People that lost everyting worked harder that ever and the next year the city was reconstructed and since that year we celebrate on February the FFF (Fiesta de las Flores y de las Frutas) that means Flower and Fruit Festival. I love that movie cause reflects all the pain of those poor citizens but the determination of the ambateños (My city is called Ambato, do the math).

IF YOU GOT TO THE END YOU HAVE A LOT OF FREE TIME. THANKS FOR READING! If you think we have something in common you should send me a message. I’am always willing to talk or listen.

#random

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simplemlmsponsoring · 5 years

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New Post has been published on https://simplemlmsponsoring.com/attraction-marketing-formula/list-building/24-of-the-best-call-to-action-examples-you-can-click-on/

24 of the Best Call-to-Action Examples You Can Click On

Whether you want more visitors to your website or sign-ups for your newsletter, your call-to-action (CTA) will play an integral role in encouraging people to take action.

More often than not, CTAs drive our next steps and we don’t even know it. For example, think about what enticed you to click on this article. Pretty cool, huh?

So how do you make sure people notice, engage with, and click on your CTA?

Below, we look at the 24 of the best call-to-action examples we could find, covering everything from newsletter sign-ups to eBook downloads.

The 24 best call-to-action examples for inspiration

CTAs are all about getting the right balance between simplicity, information, and intrigue. And to help you understand the best call-to-action types for each requirement, we’ve pulled together a wonderful mixture of examples for you.

1. Netflix: Free trial

The persuasive text in this CTA encourages you to take advantage of Netflix’s free trial. And the text just above the CTA also lets you know that the product is incredibly flexible and can be canceled whenever you wish. This helps builds confidence and knowledge before you click on the CTA.

Image Source: Netflix

2. Plated: Sign up now

First, Plated shows the benefits of the subscription, using phrases like “Everything you need,” “Amazing dinners,” and “Perfectly customized.” This builds a luxurious-yet-convenient picture of the product. Then, the CTA is highlighted with the bright pastel green box.

Image Source: Plated

3. Backlinko: Sign up

This CTA takes over the whole landing page, making it a really dominant feature. Adding to this is the great contrast between the lime green background and the red “Sign Up” button. It immediately grabs your attention and leads it to focus on the CTA.. Plus, its bold simplicity really instills a sense of confidence in the program.

Image Source: Backlinko

4. Lyft: Join in

In this email, Lyft draws the readers’ eyes straight to the CTA button, “Join in,” by using a bright pink color that matches its brand logo. If people want to know more before clicking on it, they can find easy-to-digest information right underneath it. And if they still want to know more, they can read the entire email without losing sight of the CTA.

Image Source: Really Good Emails

5. Dollar Shave Club: Get started

Instead of using the word “join,” the Dollar Shave Club has opted for “try.” This is slightly less committal and helps increase the confidence you feel in clicking the main CTA. This is further added to with the use of “risk-free” and the simple message about what you can expect from the service.

Image Source: Dollar Shave Club

6. Trello: Sign up—It’s free

Using a blue background, Trello ensures its CTA stands out with contrasting colors. The persuasive copy in white details the benefits of the product, while the green CTA button makes it clear what you need to do—sign up – for free!

Image Source: Trello

7. Campaign Monitor: Try it for free.

Call us biased, but we follow our own advice! Highlighted on a dark background, Campaign Monitor’s CTA is clear, concise, and informative. Users find confidence in the stats (250,000 businesses around the world are already using it) and the mention of no credit card being required. You also know help is instantly available with the button in the bottom right-hand corner.

Image Source: Campaign Monitor

8. Whistle: Learn more

Here, someone’s signed up to hear more about Whistle, so it’s important the email actions this. The “Learn More” button meets this desire and stand out with their bright blue color. However, should the recipient feel they’re ready to proceed, the orange CTA “Buy Now” stands out at the bottom of the email. This is clever as it doesn’t make the email feel pushy or persuasive, it encourages readers to learn more before it presents the sell.

Image Source: Really Good Emails

9. Huemor: View our work.

As a web design agency, Huemor probably feels a little pressure to have a great landing page.

And it does.

By incorporating a beautiful background that looks hand painted (and, therefore, expertly creative) and adds to its bold statement (it’s landed someone on the moon), it really draws you in. Then, the pink CTAs guide your attention, allowing you to find out more whether it’s by contacting the agency or viewing its work.

Image Source: Huemor

10. Cools: Sign me up.

As a pop-up box, this CTA is incredibly visual and the red certainly calls for your undivided attention. The witty CTA “Make your inbox a little cooler…” adds a playful twist which helps keep you engaged so you don’t simply click off the box.

Image Source: Cools

11. Ugmonk: Enter giveaway

This exit pop-up from Ugmonk really works in keeping you on the site and engaging with the brand. It’s simple but effective in its messaging and the giveaway is the perfect temptation to submit your email address. You also feel comforted by the fact you can easily click “No thanks, I’m not interested” if you don’t wish to take part.

Image Source: Ugmonk

12. Rothy’s: Email address

This pop-up is warm and inviting thanks to its “Hello!” and understated, cool design. It tells people exactly what they can expect from the newsletters as well as the website. And, users don’t even need to click on anything. They just enter their email and hit enter. This makes it super convenient and won’t take you away from the page you’re browsing.

Image Source: Rothy’s

13. Marie Forleo: Download now.

This CTA shows how you don’t always need bright colors. Rather, the simple monochrome design works beautifully and adds to the strong, authoritative message Marie is sending. Plus, the text, teamed with the image on the right, shows you exactly what you’re going to get if you click “Download Now.”

Image Source: Marie Forleo

14. Crazy Egg: Show me my heatmap.

Not only does this CTA stand out on the pale background, but even the cartoon graphics are pointing toward it. This all draws your attention to exactly where it should be going. Again, stats build confidence and so does the “cancel anytime” reassuring text below.

Image Source: Crazy Egg

15. Laughing Constable: Download eBook

The graphics in this email are incredibly vibrant, but the CTAs always stand out as a contrasting color. The two CTAs not only accommodate for people scrolling down the email but also incorporate two different types of wording. The latter helps appeal to two different audiences.

Image Source: Really Good Emails

16. Nerd Fitness: More success stories

This CTA gets incredibly specific. And the compelling nature of the copy is brought to life in the before and after pictures that rest above it. This all works to build up momentum within the viewer, making them want to be a part of these success stories.

Image Source: Nerd Fitness

17. WDC: I wish to end whaling.

Another very specific CTA but one that pulls on your heartstrings. It appeals to the emotions of the reader, and compels them into taking action because of their beliefs. Clicking on the CTA means they’re making a pledge against the statistics they’re reading above the CTA.

Image Source: Campaign Monitor

18. Casper: Return to Cart.

While the CTA in this email is quite straightforward, it’s the added “Come back to bed” message that really drags you in. The simple dark blue and white format means you’re instantly drawn to the bolder blue text and buttons. Plus, Casper has ensured that if people aren’t ready for the “Return to cart” action, they can find out more by reading more reviews. This ensures recipients don’t feel restricted or pushed in their choice.

Image Source: Really Good Emails

19. Harry’s: Save the Stout.

This incredibly funny email from Harry’s really grabs your attention. You can’t help but feel drawn to the play button because of the high contrast in colors. Plus, with the added hashtag at the end, this CTA also works to get people sharing the humor with their friends.

Image Source: Really Good Emails

20. Cupid: Sign-up form

The “Join Now” CTA at the bottom of the signup form makes users feel as though it’s quick and easy to find love (just like the deliriously happy couple on the left). Plus, the clever idea of “catching” your match adds to the overall branding of Cupid.

Image Source: Cupid

21. WWF: Donate or Adopt

Notice how well the two key CTAs, “Donate” and “Adopt” match the background image. This helps them stand out without them looking out of place or obvious. WWF uses two colors to differentiate the CTAs but without making one more dominant than the other.

Why?

Whether you donate directly or adopt an animal, you’re still contributing to the cause.

Image Source: WWF

22. Krrb: Yes, Verified!

This email features two CTAs, one that takes more prominence than the other—the blue draws your eye far more than the gray. This is because the “Yes, verified!” button is the one the recipient’s hopefully going to click.

Image Source: Really Good Emails

23. BarkBox: Choose Your BarkBox or Give a Gift.

The two CTAs here boast equal dominance and simply mirror each other’s colors. However, the choice shows BarkBox really knows its customers—a lot will just want to give it as a gift and don’t want to subscribe themselves. The cool CTA in the bottom right also adds to the fun feel of the site while allowing customers to get the help they need.

Image Source: BarkBox

24. LastMinute: Find

The pink “Find” CTA really stands out on this website, fitting in with its overall theme. And to make sure you know what you’re looking for at all times, the clear black and white boxes differentiate the various search options you have (Flight, Hotel, Flight + Hotel, etc.).

Image Source: LastMinute

Wrap up

As you can see, the best call-to-action needn’t be time-consuming or elaborate. Instead, it just needs to be prominent, clear, and use engaging copy.

Incorporate some of these best practices on your website, in your emails, and on your pop-up forms and you should notice your click rates skyrocketing.

For more information on how to create stellar CTAs in your emails, read our guide, 4 Elements of Successful Email Calls to Action.

The post 24 of the Best Call-to-Action Examples You Can Click On appeared first on Campaign Monitor.