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murasaki-murasame · 4 years

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After a billion years of waiting, the 2nd anniversary digest is out, and even though it didn’t talk about quite as much stuff as I expected, the stuff it DID show off was extremely good on just about every level, and oh boy do I have some thoughts about it, lol.

I’m not even sure where to begin with this one, lmao. There’s so much stuff they talked about, and so much stuff they DIDN’T even talk about. Like how they didn’t talk about the October events and banners even though they’re teased at on the 2nd anniversary website, which I guess means we’ll have to wait longer for info on that.

we also didn’t get any info on a collab, but I assume they’re going to announce that at the start of November and have the collab itself release a few weeks later.

I’m kinda sad that they accidentally leaked out the existence of guns, but I still got to experience all the shock and surprise about it, so that was fun. I’m really surprised that they’re adding a new weapon type so late into the game. Especially since they don’t seem to be planning to retcon any old adventurers into being gun units, which means that they’re going to make up a super tiny portion of the pool. But I still really like how they work, from what we’ve seen of them.

It’s great that Joe got a new gun alt who everyone gets for free, but it really feels like they screwed him over by making him a 3-star, lol. He’s probably gonna get immediately replaced by any light gun units they introduce after this point. But it’s still nice to see him get some love. He was the perfect unit to go for to showcase the new weapon type.

All the changes to weapon and wyrmprints are extremely overwhelming, so it’ll probably be a while until I have an actual opinion on them. But thus far I think it’s fine, but we REALLY need the ability to save wyrmprint set-ups so we don’t have to spend so much time shuffling them about again and again.

It’s kinda sad that it’s such an eldwater sink if you want to equip the same print to multiple units, but it’s much cheaper to do that with event prints, so you can still fill your team out with some good prints. And on the other hand, this is actually why I’m fine with the fact that so many prints are almost identical now, since it means you have way less of a need to actually spend eldwater to get extra copies. There’s like 4+ different prints that all give 30% skill damage, so you’d never actually have a reason to bother getting extra copies of any of them, if you at least already had all these prints before this update. It does make it harder to keep track of if you end up using like 15+ different prints across a whole team, but still, the eldwater cost is more or less avoidable if you just use different prints with the same effects.

I think the weapon bonus thing is going to be the most grindy, long-term part of this update, but I’m cool with it. It gives everyone something to slowly work towards, like when you’re at the stage of leveling your dojos. The issue is that people will want to max their weapon boosts as quickly as possible, but it’s clearly not designed to be rushed like that.

It’ll all take a lot of getting used to, but I’m happy that they’ve drastically cut down on the amount of weapons in the game, and made the progression system more linear. Once everyone gets used to it and more people start playing the game after this update, it’ll become more natural.

We also got a bit of an overhaul to the textures and lighting/rendering for all the 3D models, which still feels like a really strange decision to me. It gives them a really different sort of aesthetic, and I have mixed feelings about it. I think if they made it a bit less ‘harsh’ I’d really like it, but at the moment there’s a bit too much contrast between the lighting and the shading, and the black outlining just looks a bit odd.

We also got the big adventurer balance change, and even though it’ll be a while before we’ve got all the new numbers and stuff for everyone, I already get the feeling that Vice is gonna end up way worse than he was before this. Which is sad, since outright nerfing people always sucks, but I get why they did it. It messed with the balance too much to have a 3-star be in like the top 3 for DPS units across the entire game. At the very least they gave him poison on his S1 so he can afflict that more often now, instead of it just being on his S2.

Just going by what they’ve said, and what we can see in-game, one of the really big changes seems to be how basically all of the healers except Grace now have strength buffs on their S1s, which basically all seem to be 15% for 60 seconds. Which is a really interesting way to make healers more relevant, but I like it. I think it doesn’t stack, so you won’t get as much buff uprime as with dedicated buff units, but it at least means they contribute SOMETHING to the team’s DPS.

One other notable change is how T-Hope now has a 15% strength buff on his S1, which makes it pretty much exactly the same as Patia. So that should make auto eCiella a lot faster, with how often he gets that skill off, lol. This was something I expected him to eventually get via a spiral, but in general a lot of stuff in this balance patch feels like mana spiral upgrades in all but name, which is neat.

Lots of characters also got more status punisher stuff, which should hopefully at least make more units stronger. Most of it’s all pretty self-explanatory, but it’s kinda interesting that Norwin is now a poison punisher unit. I guess it’s one way to make him somewhat relevant to the shadow meta, lol.

They also buffed the older gala units, which is great. At least this way they can put off on establishing the precedent of gala mana spirals, by just directly buffing the old ones. We’ll see how it turns out when all the exact numbers have been datamined, but it seems like they’ve addressed the main isseus with G-Mym, G-Sarisse, G-Ranzal, and G-Euden.

I also noticed that they added defense debuffs to a fair amount of units, and made a lot of existing defense debuff moves land more often, so that’s interesting.

I’m also pretty excited to try out Pipple with this balance patch, since he now gets a 30% strength buff for himself with his S2. It at least makes it so that it’s always worth using whenever you can.

They didn’t announce anything about new endgame bosses like we expected, but it does sound like we’re still getting some eventually, and it’ll just come up later. Which is a good idea, probably, since we need some time to keep focusing on Agito stuff.

And on the note of the Agito fights, and current endgame content in general, I really like the addition of solo versions of all of them. For one thing it means a new wave of first clear bonuses, but it also means that you can pretty much entirely avoid co-op if you want to. The solo fights seem to give less rewards, but hopefully still enough that you can just stick to doing them exclusively if you want to. I haven’t tried any of it out, but it sounds like they’re all balanced around solo play, which should make it way more easier to do them than it was to try and solo fights that were designed for co-op.

It’s also kinda funny to me that even though they said we’re getting another tier of difficulty for the Agito fights, the only thing we know that we’re getting from it is fancier skins for the Agito weapons. They’ll probably still get stat boosts, but I could see them pretty much just being cosmetic upgrades.

They also upgraded the amount of weekly chests for HDTs and Agitos to five, and it sounds like we’re gonna start getting double drop events for them soon, so that’s great. In general I think this whole update will make it way easier to actually do endgame grinding, especially with the solo fights.

And then there’s the elephant in the room, which is the new battle royale mode. I haven’t tried it yet, but honestly I actually like the sound of it, lol. I absolutely never expected that they’d add something like this, especially since it’s effectively PVP, but it actually sounds perfectly fine. It’ll probably get tweaked as time goes on, but it sounds like you barely even get any extra rewards from it by winning compared to just dying immediately, and the whole mode is designed to have you start from a blank slate where you and everyone else are at the same playing field, so it’s basically entirely skill-based, and you don’t even need to be good at it to get rewards.

I wasn’t even sure how they’d handle PVP in an action RPG like this, but I think this is a good way to go about it.

We’re also getting a return of the time attack mode, which is . . . worrying, but hopefully now that people are much more familiar with both HDTs and Agitos, it’ll go by a lot more smoothly. I’m surprised they’re even touching this concept again after how badly it was received the first time, but I’m curious to see how it goes. I know a lot of people really liked it, so hopefully it’s balanced so that you can ignore it if you want to, without feeling like you’re missing out on too much.

They also finally got around to adding sparking, which is great. I honestly wasn’t really expecting it at this point, but after the patch notes got revealed yesterday I figured this was probably gonna happen. I know some people would wish it had been introduced earlier, but I’m glad it’s finally a thing. I still don’t think it’s as much of a make or break issue for me as it is for others, but it’s still pretty much an objective bonus over the old/current system. My main concern with sparking, though, has always been that it might lead them to notably tanking the amount of summons we can do each month as F2P players, which would cancel out the good parts of sparking, but I doubt they’d do that.

Either way, it seems to work in exactly the same way as GBF, in that each summon gets you a unique bit of currency, and when you get 300 of it, you can trade it for a featured unit of your choice. But also like with GBF, your sparks reset after each banner and turn into different items that you can exchange at a store for regular in-game items, so your 300 summons all have to be on the same banner, and you can’t just accumulate a spark by summoning across several banners. Though one thing that seems to be different to GBF is that summons done with diamantum give you twice the amount of sparks, which is really interesting, since it really cuts down on the amount of money you’d need to spend to get a spark that way. It’d still be super expensive to do an entire spark just through diamantum, but 150 summons with diamantum is still way cheaper than 300, lol.

If they keep our monthly summon income about the same as it’s been thus far even after they add sparking, I think that we’d be able to do a spark every 6-8 weeks just from event and log-in bonus rewards. At the moment we get around 150-200 summons per month just from all that, so it seems like it’ll be WAY faster to save for a spark than it is in GBF [where outside of specific holiday periods that have free summon events you’re probably looking at 4+ months of saving to be able to spark].

This at least means it’ll be way easier to plan out my hoarding, since I know that as long as I have 300+ summons saved, I can at least spark a new unit I want. And there’s always the possibility of just getting them early and being able to quit while I’m ahead.

And on the note of summons, we’re also getting 330 free summons total between the anniversary and the end of October, which is absolutely insane. Sadly you can’t save up sparks across banners, so you won’t be able to do a spark JUST from that, but it’d go a long way to helping supplement a spark on a specific banner.

It looks like we’re gonna get a short pre-gala of sorts soon that’ll contain all the previous gala units, but I’m probably gonna skip that, outside of the free pulls. The only one I don’t have from that set is Gala Alex, and at this point I’d rather just chase her when she’s in a future gala remix. If it’s anything like the same type of bonus gala we got for the first anniversary, all the featured units on this banner will probably have lower than normal rates to make up for how many of them will be on the banner, so it’d just be a really low-value banner for someone like me who already has all but one of them. I’m also not even sure if I’d be able to get all the way to 300 summons that quickly.

Either way I’m more interested in saving for stuff like Halloween, Christmas, new gala dragons, and New Years.

We’re also getting Gala Zena on the anniversary itself, and I think everyone saw her coming, lol. She’s not a gun unit, though, which is actually a bit lame, even though I figured it wouldn’t happen. Her being an attack-type light staff unit is really interesting, at least if she ends up working like Heinwald, but I’m still not sure if I’d be interested in actually spending resources to try and get her.

The gala banner is also going to have the new girl from the anniversary event, and a Midgardsormr alt. Though it sounds like he’s going to be non-limited, so he’s not our wind gala dragon.

The anniversary event also sounds extremely interesting. It sounds like we’re time-traveling back 1000 years to when Ilia created her religion, and she seems to basically be a punk biker girl, which is extremely cool on so many levels. It also kinda looks like Zethia is going to be the MC of this event, and it might not even feature Euden and co, which would be a nice change of pace.

I thought Ilia might be our new welfare unit, but going by the preview image for the event it looks like it’ll be Mordecai, who looks like he’s gonna end up possessed by Morsayati or something, since he looks a lot like Morsayati’s human form we’ve seen a few times. I hope he’s a gun unit, just so we can get more of them, but we’ll see how it goes.

I’m guessing that Ilia will eventually be playable, but maybe just for the 3rd anniversary event or something.

We also got a tease at the next three main story chapters, which all look really interesting. It seems like the Archangels event is going to pretty immediately become important to the story, and now we’re heading off to North Grastaea. We’re also going to be going to the fairy kingdom eventually, which is cool, especially since the teaser for it heavily implied that Notte will become a playable character then.

Which also reminds me that we’re probably eventually going to get a gun unit from the main story, since we have all the other weapon types already, but I doubt Notte will be a gun unit, lol.

Going by the teasers, I also get the feeling that Leonidas and Chelle will be our next two gala adventurers, and at least one of them, if not both, will probably be a gun unit. I think one of the shots of Leonidas had a gun visible in it, but Chelle’s also apparently the one who introduced guns to the world, so who knows how that’ll turn out. At the very least they did say that we’re gonna start getting new gun units soon, and we might get a lot of them really quickly to help fill out the pool. Which also means that some of the new holiday units might end up using guns, so that’s also worth saving for.

I also get the feeling that we might take a break from gala dragons for a while, since we’ve basically run out of good options for them. But who knows. We still need ones for water and wind.

Hopefully with the spark system in place I’ll be able to spark on at least the Halloween and New Years banners, since those are my top two priorities, but we’ll see how it goes. It’s always scary to enter limited holiday banner hell season, but at least they introduced sparking right before it all starts. At the moment I think I’ve got like 150 summons saved up, but I’ve still got most of my reset co-op rewards to go through, and I haven’t touched the Halloween event they added to the compendium, so that’ll add a lot. I think the anniversary log-in bonus will also give us like 2k wyrmite, and if the retweet event succeeds we’ll get an extra 1.2k wyrmite. So as long as they don’t tank our monthly summon currency, I should be able to spark on Halloween if I can commit to saving for it. Which is much easier said than done, lol.

All in all I think I really love this update, but it REALLY changes the entire game, so it’s gonna take a long time to get used to. And thankfully even with the introduction of stuff like sort-of-PVP, it doesn’t look like they’re going in any sort of P2W direction with the game.

Also, there’s still the 45-minute Game Live presentation set to come later tonight, but I’m not expecting that to tell us much, since it’ll probably be targeted at new players. I’m still holding out hope for a Switch port announcement, though.

#murasaki rambles #dragalia lost

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pandoriasbox · 4 years

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Jade’s SSO Rambles - 2 Quality of Life (UI Elements)

(Please keep in mind that these are my thoughts and opinions at the time of writing these rambles. I may change my mind in the future.)

By quality of life I’m basically going into small aspects about the game that while certainly not necessary to acknowledge or fix are those little things that really help the overall feel of a game in the background. It’s the difference between having to click between 5 different menus vs 1 or 2 clicks to get to what you want. Yes it’s not necessary to tweak but players/users will often unconsciously greatly appreciate it. Also this may come up again later as I usually have a lot of thoughts regarding UI and HUD. (UI means User Interface and HUD means Heads Up Display. I use them semi interchangeably but HUD is more like your map, exp bar, status ect whereas UI would be more like the chat window or your inventory where you “interact” with it.)

Also if the SSO devs read this and care about me, please please please remove area and global chat notifications. I would love you forever if you did.

Okay now on with the insanely long rambles!

What SSO Has Done Well:

I think the updated store UI was a very long overdue update and I can’t wait for the rest of the stores in the game to get this refresh. I’m glad that the camera has been freed to move around the horse and that we have an option to turn on and off magical mode for our Jorvik Wilds. Using the 3D models instead of icons has been a blessing and makes shopping so much better as I’m not guessing what the object looks like or forgetting where it’s at in the store. I also am glad that we have filter options to select items based on what they are (tops, saddles, accessories ect) or based on colors and so on. The only thing I’d like to see updated is the color/style of the background to match the global store but I’m sure it’ll come in time.

The global store is another feature I greatly applaud and I think was a must for this game. While not everything is available in it I think it really helps even just with planning and testing outfits or tack sets let alone saving time and effort on shopping. I also love being able to look up the price of an item in game and figuring out where it’s located without having to go into my browser or hunt around in game. Overall I think the way the global store is setup is great, I adore all the filters, the ability to manage both my horse and my character’s outfit and see the stats even. I also like that a tutorial is available just in case but isn’t in your face either.

Adding 3D inventory models was again one of the best things the team has done for UI. I can’t stress enough how much better it is for finding what you need or looking for the right color items. It makes organization and finding objects so much better and probably the only thing I would like more is if they were slightly bigger. I also appreciate when items are zoomed into (especially earrings) as it helps make them easier to see and know which one you’re looking at. Personally I also like the updates to backgrounds of items and I can’t wait to see everything else updated from the black jarring background to a more color coordinated one. (My only worry is for people with color blindness though.)

Updating the race UI/HUD, namely in adding buttons that allow you to restart and exit the race. (I began playing the game before this update and was ecstatic to see it implemented.)

Removing the bar on the magical horse changes but leaving sparkles to still give the player a heads up of the change.

Having a bar on the swimming (so the player knows how long they can be in the water and when they are in deep enough water to be teleported out.)

I personally love the newer UI/HUD graphics in general and I feel it looks far more professional and sleek without taking away from the game’s feel and branding. Especially speaking of the updates to the race UI, boards and such. I hope to see the darker blues carried over into the rest of the game’s UI and HUD. I also really love the way the wooden boards look now (especially the western games one) and I hope to see that implemented in things such as stable chores boards.

The quest log update was badly needed and I like the new organization on it. Overall it is a small thing but I think for people still running main quests it’ll help a lot.

Suggestions for Improvement:

Please make everything able to be exited out of by hitting the “Esc” key. Prime examples of where this is missing is namely with the race boards to initiate a high score race, the druid lessons/missions board and the new western games board. (Can’t check the board at the rescue ranch but that might be one too.) While not necessarily UI I also want to mention that things such as dancing (like the disco) or sitting down (like at the cafe) would also be nice to exit via “Esc.”

I think area notifications should either be removed entirely (since we have the compass to update us) or turned off by default (especially since there are several bugs with them turning on despite the muting feature being active.) If they are left on by default then the game should be updated to remember the player’s settings. I personally don’t like to have to turn on the mute setting every time I log in and would love it if the game simply kept my settings saved client side so the only time it refreshes it is on a full reinstall. If none of these are a viable option then at the very least the area notifications should be moved to the top of the screen. They update far too frequently and become rather frustrating especially when either taking screenshots or recording. (Just moving around the circus in Nilmers is a prime example of the area notifications being way too easily triggered.)

Entering and exiting global chat notification should be removed entirely. Personally I don’t understand why it’s only active in certain areas (unless this is something on the back end that makes the game run better then yes that makes a lot of sense.) However if it must stay within only towns/stables then I think the notification is unnecessary. The player should get some kind of mini tutorial at the start of the game explaining how the chat system works. After that then most people old enough to chat will be able to figure it out on their own or use the “say” chat to ask for help. People who already know how to use global will be aware it only functions in towns.

Lower the loading bars and announcements or other notifications not placed in the upper right corner to the bottom of the screen. (Alternatively they could be moved up to the top of the screen.) For example the “Swimming” bar can be moved so it’s across the bottom of the screen instead of the middle and place the warning that it’s too deep in the same spot. Other examples are with the “Ferry Leaving the Quay” and when characters talk in quests outside of dialogue boxes such as cooking instructions. I would also move the druid commands during training like the change lanes as well. In general I would keep any brief info out of the center of the screen as that blocks the player’s view of their character/horse and what they are interacting with.

Add in a way to view your best time on appropriate races. (This is likely a lot of extra work since it only applies to ones you can run multiple times but I would love to know what my previous best time was while running said race.)

Remove the popup for all archaeology digging that causes you to pause and close out of it. Preferably replace it with the standard floating UI you get from races and items flying into your inventory. (I’ll go into this more on the archaeology ramble.)

Combine beating your personal best pop-up with the update on current time and current best time. When you beat your best time it should show 3 times instead of 2, your time on the race you just ran, your new personal best and your previous personal best. I would suggest making the “Congrats” text more noticeable to help avoid causing players interested in seeing these stats to skip it. There is plenty of room in the massive popup we currently have to be able to fit all these aspects and I feel trimming excess popups helps with general quality of life.

Remove the loading bar on most actions and either make them immediately completed or just let animations play. Most things I don’t think really need to have the animations play for so long as well. Prime example would be horse care and stable chores, you don’t need a “grooming loading bar” for example, just play the animation of the player grooming the horse or mucking the stable. The bar I feel just makes it feel less immersive (for as immersive as you can get with mucking) and also makes it feel more like a chore and something you have to wait out. Some things also just feel better being instantaneous like when you refill water or hay with daily chores. (Would love if refilling my buckets was instant too.)

Western games board improvements (I will also bring this up in my discussion about Starshine Ranch and go into some extra detail there.) Please make it so when the board is activated that the horse the player is riding will stop. I’ve found when I come out of the arena after running a race that my horse continues galloping past the board, often into the tables across the way as I’m used to the boards pausing my horse’s movement. As mentioned earlier I also think it should be able to be exited via the “Esc” key.

I don’t think I really need to mention all of the stores that need to be fixed but I do have a few specific details I’d like to list. I really hope the mall gets an update to function more like the newer stores or the global store where I can tilt the camera around my horse and rider. Speaking of the global store I would personally like to see the player/horse preview area increased in size and possibly adjust the lighting so it’s a little better on the opposite side of the horse from the player model. I would also like a way for indoor pet stores to have a means of viewing the pet with your horse. Otherwise I would simply just make it so they aren’t indoors at all. Lastly Farah seems to have a weird bug with the placement of the camera and I dearly hope that her new store is updated as it’s very hard to actually look at my horse and apparel. (Might submit a report on that.)

When you complete caring for your horse it should only pop up in the notification area in the corner. I think the extra popup across the top is pointless.

Small idea for the quest log, I would love to see daily quests (and possibly races and chores) separated per general area. So for example maybe something like Silverglade (Moorland/Fort Pinta/Silverglade/Manor/Valedale/Firgrove,) South Hoof, Harvest Countries (Jarlahiem and such,) Epona, Mistfall, Goldenhills, Dino Valley and so on as new areas are eventually added. Possibly even break central Silverglade down further. Basically this would be nicer for end game users to be able to see what areas have the most quests available that day and is certainly not something I would prioritize.

Other Notes:

With removing the “Okay” button that pauses you before starting a race I was initially on the fence about it. On one hand I think removing it helps when you’re doing a quick run of races because it means less time to get into the race. On the other hand, however I am also one of those people who uses it to pause the game. I think if I were on the team I would end up removing it as it feels pointless, there’s no reason to make the player pause as they already confirmed they want to do the race by selecting it.

I will be going into more depth regarding Starshine Ranch in another post but I did want to add a few of my immediate notes on the UI for the western games/races. Overall I love the board (besides my suggestions earlier) and I really like how you can line up several races via checking the boxes. (And I hope this means we get other barrel/pole/ect setups too later as well as group/friend races.) My main concerns are with how the UI before and after the races is handled. I think the line showing you the path is a great idea but I also feel it grows very tiring to have it before every race. I would think maybe having it as an option in the board menu would be better. Something that works as a “preview” of the race you’re interested in rather than every time you’re about to run it. I think maybe having Josh do a mini intro quest into western games would be a better means of showing players the layout of the course for the first time than having the line show up each time you run the race and can avoid having to code a way for it to only show up the first time a player interacts with the board. I think the number of popups could also be reduced much like the new best time on races. The same info is displayed on both screens (who wins is denoted by a medal instead of text) and therefore the first screen is sorta pointless. I also feel that the reward screen should only show up when you actually are rewarded money/exp and when repeating the races without a reward it shouldn’t show up.

Also, honestly if the team ever wanted someone to go through and find all of the places for suggested adjustments on small things such as removing loading bars on animation I would be happy to do so in my spare time. I care quite a bit about this horse game to probably a ridiculous point but I want to see it succeed even when it comes down to the little things like quality of life updates.

Anyone is free to add their thoughts via reblogs or replies, I’d love to hear what others have in mind regarding my rambles or what they think the game does well or can improve at. I’m also open to asks about my thoughts as well.

I’d like to also mention that I certainly don’t think I know better than the team, these are simply my personal observations on how I think the game could improve. I hope that they can help stir up discussions within both the SSO community and maybe even with the team on how to make the game even better. I want to help promote healthy and constructive critiquing and free shared thoughts in the fandom/community. Please try to keep any additions free of ranting/putting down the game or the team that works on it.

Thank you for reading my extremely long rambling thoughts!

#sso #jaderambles #sso talk #2 #quality of life #ui #ui elements #hud #the rambling begins!

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eerythingisshaka · 5 years

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Wakanda Got Y’all Pt. 8

[Black Panther x Insecure Mashup]

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

Word Count: 4.6K

Issa can’t keep her composure if it was handed to her. “Lawrence, I didn’t know you were doing waiter work...food service...I mean I didn’t know you worked here!” Issa stammers, like occupation political correctness is most important right now.

Lawrence adjusts his black bowtie before, tapping his pen in his notepad. “Yeah, it’s kind of a side gig I got going right now until I get Woot Woot off the ground.”

“You’re still trying to make that happen? That’s what made you lose your job in the first place.”

Lawrence scoffs. “”No, the company not believing in something good before everyone else was doing it got me LAID OFF, not fired. But yeah, thanks for reminding me in front of your...date?”

T’Challa noisily slurps his water, bringing the glass down a little too hard on the table to bring Issa’s attention back to him.

Issa shakes her head in embarrassment. “Right, this is T’Challa. I’m working with him at We Got Y’all in an international collab kind of thing.”

Lawrence checks him out suspiciously. “Yeah I think I heard about it online on some gossip site. You’re from Africa, right?”

“Wakanda, yes. Small country that I’m the King of. It’s actually on BBC, CNN, many cable news networks almost everyday since I’ve been here.” T’Challa says matter of factly.

“And T’Challa, this is Lawrence, my...ex.” Issa adds hesitantly.

T’Challa offers a hand. “I’m sorry for your loss, Lawrence.”

Lawrence peers at T’Challa with a slight attitude. “Will I go to jail for doing something else with my hand besides shaking yours?”

“Well I doubt you could lose your job again, so....” Issa snipes.

T’Challa laughs genuinely. “It’s ok Lawrence, I understand. I come to you in good faith.”

“So is this a business meeting or…” Lawrence says, getting nosy.

*Issa’s inner conscience* ‘Nah nigga this is nunya meeting; as in NUNYA BUSINESS! Like how the bank teller bitch you fucked on my futon wasn’t my business. Or maybe like how your unemployed ass left a permanent dent in the couch next to Frank Ocean was none of my business! When you said you were focused on getting bread who knew it came with butter, bitch?! But what is my business is how I got a new nigga who’s rejuvenating my pussy one stroke at a time. Best be leave the royal penis STAYS clean, ya brokeness! I oughta Remember the Time your ass to a pile of dust, which ya dusty ass, Radio Shack ass, ‘may I refill your glass, sir?’ head ass-’

“Well right now we’re just trying to order food, so,” Issa looks intently at her menu. “If you wanna grab someone else to help us, that’s fine.”

“No, this is good. Got a King who’s paying the bill, might as well earn the tip.” Lawrence smile at Issa while nodding towards T’Challa.

“Well, did you jot down what I told you before?” T’Challa asks reviewing the menu once more.

“Yup, the shrimp dinner and the chicken marsala.”

“Good. Have you had experience as a waiter before?” T’Challa hands him the menu.

“Long time ago, but I’m really more into technology.” Lawrence says.

“Oh, so is that what Wot Woot was from? What is it exactly?’ T’Challa asks.

“We don’t have to get into it tonight, especially since I’m hungry and the order isn’t in yet.” Issa reminds them through her teeth.

Lawrence waves her off. “Don’t worry, this’ll be quick. So Woot Woot is an app that’s a social media app that keeps track of your friends locations. So when you’re near one, it goes-”

“Woot Woot?” T’Challa says.

Lawrence snaps excitedly. “That’s it man, or your highness! Sounds cool, right?”

T’Challa rocks back and forth. “It’s a bit out of date, is it not? So many things have location trackers, and to have an app solely based on that, is like having holo-air boards with an incandescent headlight and a bell.”

“A what now?” Issa asks.

Lawrence purses his mouth. “Yeah, it was in development for a couple years and corporate politics kept shelving it so…”

“I do have some family that are into tech. I would help myself but I’ve been busy…” T’Challa takes Issa’s hand for emphasis on the subject in his sentence! “But here’s a card with their info. Give them your pitch and maybe they can help tweak it for you.”

Lawrence takes it, thinking it over. “I...think I’m good, but thanks anyway. I’ll get your bread and drinks.”

As Lawrence walked away Issa spoke under at a whisper. “I’m sorry about that.”

T’Challa smiles sweetly. “It’s ok. I’m not surprised you have broken some hearts along the way. I just hope it doesn’t affect our dining experience.”

Issa sighs. “You don’t know the half. I wasn’t very...good to him. He didn’t try, but neither was I….I don’t wanna get into it.”

“You don’t have to, that’s not what tonight should be about. Whatever the case was, I have only known you as woman who does things with intention. You have a heart for the community that has made me even more excited for the start of the center here than I could’ve been before. And then I just so happen to work with someone who resembles the the core of a vibranium mineral being struck with pick axe.”

“What does that look like?”

“It’s beautiful, creates sparks that twinkle like a falling star….but explosive and volatile.” T’Challa pauses a moment. “Maybe that wasn’t as poetic as I thought it would be.”

Issa laughs. “No, it’s nice. Thank you.”

T’Challa kisses her hand as Issa looks back towards the kitchen area where Lawrence and a couple other waiters juggle orders.

“I’ll be right back.” Issa excuses herself making her way to Lawrence, who barely notices her standing by.

“Hey. How are you?” Issa asks awkwardly.

Lawrence looks at her with an unreadable expression. “We got the introductions out at the table, we good.”

Issa’s chin collapses in her neck. “I know you’re not mad, are you? You moved on, I did too.”

“So if you know we’re good, why are you over here now?: Lawrence chastises.

“Why are you being like this? “

“You come up in here with your new boyfriend, the King of Africa and shit and I’m supposed to just sit back and serve y’all? You know what that feels like?”

“I thought you were good! It’s not like that though.”

“It’s automatically like that. I felt low before but now you puttin me under your foot with this new nigga Issa, I’m not tryna be a witness to that.”

Issa scoffs. “Then don’t! Get your tip and we can part!”

“You think Imma lower myself to taking his tip? First he throws his resources in my face, downing Woot Woot, now I’m supposed to hand him a bill with a smile for 20%, you buggin!”

“Lawrence, this is the reason you aren’t getting nowhere. You think you can do all of this by yourself, but you can’t! You need help but you won’t ask for it! It doesn’t matter if it’s a stranger or who I’m dating, you can’t take criticism.”

“That’s why you went behind my back with ole boy instead of talking to me right?”

“I DID TALK TO YOU! I tried sooo many times, and yeah, I shoulda talked to you then to but we were so past that at that point-”

“And I’m past this Issa. I’m good.” Lawrence says.

T’Challa comes up behind Issa. “Are you ok? It sounded loud over here.”

“Yeah that’s the cooks man, they get noisy with orders and shit. Don’t worry bout it, yours coming out soon.”

“T’Challa, I think I’m ready to go, actually.” Issa says walking away.

Oh ok. Don’t worry bout it. Have a good night!” Lawrence yells after her. T’Challa and Lawrence stare at each other for a beat before Lawrence shrugs and goes back to his tickets for the night.

----

Molly checked her playlist on her phone to pick the perfect category curated for a twockin good time. Pressing play, Molly oohs at the beat dropping on Janet Jackson’s ‘Go Deep’ on her 90s queue. She twirls in her living space as the aroma of buffalo wings snakes around her nostrils tempting her to take another taste test just to make SURE sure that the meat was cooked to perfection. Before she could go for it, her phone rang: picking it up she sees Erik’s name light up. Luckily for her, fucking him on the first date didn’t wind up in a ghosting situation. They’ve been quietly inseparable for a minute now.

“Whatchu doin callin me boy? You know this Girls Night!” Molly asks in an accusatory manner, jokingly on her FaceTime

Erik laughs slow, looking like he just took a break from a smoke session. “I’m just tryna have a night with MY girl, you hear me?”

Molly smiles leaning on her counter. “Whatever man, you better not be interrupting shit. They should be here any minute.”

“That’s cool. I’m just tryna figure out the next time you wantin to hit the mile high club? I can get my hands on a jet that’ll take care of the work so you ain’t gotta wait for me to land and jump my bones like you crazy.”

“That was a one time thing, I do not trust you on any aircraft. Damn near killed me with your tricks!” Molly scolds him while turning off her oven.

“Shiiiit, you got your revenge on me there, in the car…”

Molly leans on the counter. “And it coulda been at your spot too if you wasn’t actin all tired.”

A knock on the door interrupted the list of their future indiscretions.

“I gotta go! I’ll talk to you later old man.”

“Pssh, aight. Big talk, Mol.”

Molly bounces over to the door, pausing before swinging the door open with a squeal.

“Ahh!! Oh! You’re early!” Molly says, excitement slightly diminishing as Tiffany puts a stank face on in her direction.

“Uhh, fix your energy. I lugged four bottles of Moet and some Fiji for me, up your long ass flight of steps, me and my baby will fight you for the blatant disrespect.”

Molly takes the bags out her hands. “I didn’t mean it like that, thanks Tiffany. Have a seat, you’re the first one here.”

Tiffany whips her blonde hair back with a quickness. “First? These heffas pulling a fashionably late move on us?”

Molly shrugs. “You already know what time it is.”

Tiffany goes to the kitchen to pick up a wing. “I do, and it’s past my bedtime! These wings are going to bring me closer to that!” Tiffany smacks loudly on a her morsel of chicken, enjoying the salty, spicy sauce off her fingers.

“There’s napkins in there too ma’am.” Molly calls from the couch, flipping through channels.

“Speaking of things that need to be wiped down, how’s you and Erik doing?” Tiffany asks, waddling over to join her.

Molly laughs a little too loudly. “Whatchu mean? We’re having fun, and it’s….really been fun too.”

Tiffany cocks her head to the side. “I can tell, you’ve loosened up a little bit more since meeting him, putting spring in your step.”

“And he keeps me hopping!” Molly chuckles. “I don’t know what it is, but he brought out a side of me I barely remember having anymore. With work and all these lame niggas, I forget what a real cool one is even like.”

Tiffany licks her fingers. “Well, ‘cool’ doesn’t last a lifetime, like the weather. And he sounds like a seasonal nigga to me.”

Molly rolls her eyes, pouring some wine for herself. “Good thing your opinion doesn’t run my life.”

A knock at the door brings a wave of relief over the both of them as Molly trots to open the door.

Molly brings out a big smile for it to drop just as quickly. “Oh, hey, are you….Issa’s co-worker?”

Nakia smiles politely. “I am, Nakia. Nice to meet you.”

Nakia holds out her hand for Molly to take while she gains her bearings.

“Yeah, of course! Nice to meet you! Wow, you’re gorgeous. Come on in! Not everyone is here just yet.” Molly closes the door behind Nakia. Tiffany waves from the couch.

“How are you! I’m Tiffany Dubois, one of Issa’s friends.”

Nakia offers waves back. “Yes, nice to meet you as well. This is a lovely place you have.”

Tiffany scoffs, twirling her honey blonde hair. “Oh no, this isn’t up to my code of residential requirements. This is Molly’s bachelorette pad.”

“Tiffany, you recommended me this place!” Molly exclaims.

“I brought some sweets I hope you all will like.” Nakia offers a container that was too fancy to be plain tupperware..

Tiffany perks up. “Ooh, where are they from?”

“I made them actually. I had some spare ingredients and a craving so I figured this was the perfect time to whip something up.”

Molly thanks her. “You can put it on the counter in the kitchen. Grab a glass of something to drink while you’re at it.”

“No! Grab a whole bottle! We have plenty!” Tiffany insists.

Nakia does so, setting her tray opposite the hot wings. “So, how long have you and Issa been friends?”

Molly starts. “For a loooong time. Almost half our lives now.”

“I came around later, but I like to think I really elevated the class in us all.” Tiffany adds.

“Bitch, what?” Molly looks over at Tiffany, who doubles down.

“You all were eating 2 for $20 appetizers and $5 hurricane slushies and the Trops Bar for fun. But with me, we have tasteful dinner, sipping wine in art galleries, all kinds of high class activities.”

“You do remember partying at the Dunes with them gang bangers almost setting her place on fire and you got so high off their supply, you and your husband conceived that night, right? Also, I’m a lawyer in this expensive ass loft, don’t tell me I ain’t high class, that’s Kelli and Issa’s trapping asses.”

Just then some raps start banging on the door to the beat of Grinding by Clipse, extra loud making Nakia jump slightly.

Molly gets up. “Speak of the devils.” As she goes to open the door, Kelli is bent over twerking her ass in the air Issa keeps the beat on her door, smiling with her whole teeth.

“Get the hell off my door with this shit y’all, DAMN!” Molly scolds. Issa ends her concert, smacking Kelli’s ass to cut her ass performance short.

Kelli straightens up, walking on through the door. “Ain’t my fault, I stand for my national anthem and that means face down, ass up!”

Issa walks in behind her scanning the room. “Hey Tiffany and oh Nakia, I didn’t know you’d be so on time, I would’ve came earlier.”

“No you wouldn’t’ve. Cuz I asked you to help me cook these damn wings but all I heard was drool and snoring on your side of things.” Molly says, heading to the kitchen.

“You know I take nap before girl’s night cuz alcohol makes me crash fast…” Issa mutters. “Anyway I brought the hot Cheetos and ranch to snack on!”

“How many bags?” Molly asks.

Issa looks around her feet, behind her back, checking her pockets. “One, duh!”

“Is! How the fuck are we supposed to snack on one bag of Cheetos between five bitches?” Molly exclaims.

“Tiffany don’t eat them! Kelli been getting heartburn bad lately, so she don’t fuck with the spice, Nakia? You had these before?”

Nakia studies the bag. “ I haven’t, no.”

“It’s nothing but cayenne and cancer, it would be tragic to ruin that good immune system of yours with this American fuckery.” Molly quips.

“Why are you fighting over it then?” Nakia asks.

“Because they are delicious! I grew up with these, and I’m not dead yet so I’m good!”

Kelli pops her tongue from the Moet bottle tickling her tastebuds. “And bitch, don’t think I can’t still go in on some hot Cheetos. I just gotta pop a calcium tablet, don’t get it twisted.” She turns to Nakia. “So, are you the princess we have heard so much about?”

Nakia smiles humbly. “No, not at all. That would require a marriage to the King, which is not happening.”

Molly walks in with the wings on the coffee table, Issa has plates and napkins.

“And T’Challa is...a king right?” Tiffany asks slowly.

Nakia sips her drink and nods. “Yes, and that ship sailed a long time ago.”

Issa almost choked on a flat hanging out of her mouth. “It got that serious between you two?”

Nakia shrugs, shifting in her seat. “We’ve known each other all of our lives, so when things changed to a romantic relationship, it was always taken seriously. But I have my own life that I want to live that does not fit in the traditional queen setting.”

Kelli stutters. “Oh shit, you….you can do that? Just telling the King no?”

Nakia laughs. “It’s not a dictatorship! I can tell him no when I want to, I can come and go from the country as I please, plus he knows better than to try me on most things anyway.”

“Oh so you got a hold on him good?” Molly asks, her eyes whipping back to Issa for a cosign.

Nakia finishes her drink. “It’s not just me particularly. The women in our country are held in an equal and in most cases higher regard than the man. It hurts me to see these women in other lands I’ve visited being treated unfairly and violently because they are seen as second class. It was an eye opening experience. That’s why I know T’Challa enjoys Issa’s company so much. She is a strong personality, not a people please, and intelligent. Of course very beautiful.”

Molly pushes Issa a little with her shoulder as she tries to hold back a smile. “Oh stop. I don’t even do a lot. Plus my makeup routine been so nonexistent, I need to get back on it.”

“Ok bitch, this ain’t your birthday, so I won’t sit for all this overcomplimentary foolishness.” Tiffany says pouring a small glass of the Moet for herself.

“But at least that means this wine is kicking in, y’all feeling all extra happy and loving. Don’t go kissing each other now.” Kelli snorts as she polishes off a wing.

Issa rolls her eyes. “But Nakia, really thank you for that. I was feeling really insecure about T’Challa and you, that I thought I don’t stand a chance.”

Nakia reaches across to tap Issa on the knee. “You don’t have a chance. You have an open and unadulterated opportunity to get to know a great man. I would never stand in his way, nor would I stand in yours.”

Issa smiles at her genuinely, squeezing her hand and sharing a moment with Nakia. She couldn’t believe how supportive Nakia was being but maybe it helped that T’Challa and her are friends first. And T’Challa showed no inkling of being back and forth between them so maybe she was just being extra paranoid. He even took running into an ex of hers as better than she would. All this made the possibilities with T’Challa that much more difficult for her to imagine.

“Now that we all waited to exhale, let me get some dirt on m’boyfriend M’Baku! My mm-mm good to the last drop! He got any spare hoes running around the States?”

Nakia pauses to think. “No, but I know he’s had a harem of choices back home.”

Kelli gasps, looking horrified.

Tiffany touches her back. “Kelli? You ok?”

Molly joins in. “Yeah? Were you getting serious with him?”

Kelli swallows hard. “So...he’s got a gang of women over in Wakansas?”

“Wakanda, yes.” Nakia says curtly. “But he’s not a bad man either, it’s just his custom.”

“So...I got somebody that is able to maintain that level of sexual prowess. To keep multiple women and new ones on a regular happy with that shaft?” Kelli shouts, clapping her hands as the other women look around in confusion. “Bitch, bring them brownies in. We are celebrating today!”

The ladies share a laugh as Nakia goes to bring her container of delicious looking brownies.

“I hope you like them. They are custom for parties, especially meeting new people.”

She cuts some pieces, and serves them around the group as everyone specifies their preferred pieces: corner, center, edge. They are an instant hit as the girls whoop over the moist and rich density of the baked good. Their laughs bounce off of the walls as they open up to each other more and more about themselves. If anyone were to witness them, they would appear like long life friends with Nakia. After their dessert, the wings went even quicker.

“Damn, you know I wanted to fuck y’all up for bringing nothing but a bag of hot Cheetos to this dinner party with ya cheap asses, but this shit is hitting!” Molly says in a relaxed manner, leaning over her plate to take a healthy bite of her wing, chasing it down with a chip.

Kelli is leaned back with Tiffany drifting off on her shoulder. “That’s cuz...the hot Cheetos are the appetizer to every meal. Think about it. Cheetos. It starts with ‘cheat’. That means, it’s the cheat code to every meal. It unlocks the flavor….of whatever you bout to eat!”

Issa slowly turns from her lean on the arm of the couch. “Kelli that has to be the smartest shit I ever heard you say.”

Kelli nods emphatically in agreeance.

“So, Nakia….first of all, you the MVP for this dessert.” Molly starts. “But you gave the scoop on Issa and Kelli’s flames, what about mine? Wassup with Erik?”

Nakia sits back in thought, clearly the most lucid of the group. “Well, we have not known him as long. He’s long lost family of T’Challa’s, first cousin.”

Issa smacks Molly’s leg a little too hard making her wince. “Damn girl, the fuck was that for!”

“Shit, my bad. But we would like double date or something. Girl, our children would practically be siblings. That shit mad cute!”

“No they would not, but I appreciate the sentiment.” Molly says. “So not much to say other than that?”

Nakia picks up her wine glass. “I didn’t say that. There’s plenty to get into, just a shorter span of time he became acquainted.”

“Tell us!” Kellie bellows to the ceiling out of the blue.

“Him and T’Challa didn’t get along too great when they first met.”

“Oooh, cousins fighting! That’s some Black shit.” Issa says.

“And of course Erik wanted to kill T’Challa, so when he didn’t succeed, T’Challa almost killed Erik but gave him another chance and started trying to rehabilitate him since then. I think it’s going well since Molly seems taken by him.”

Molly stops to stare at Nakia. Issa squints, raising her hand like a child in class. “When you says Erik tried to kill T’Challa, you mean like kill you like fuck you up real bad or kill you like first degree, capital felony offense type shit?”

Nakia purses her mouth. “The latter.”

Molly begins to breathe in and out deeply and frequently.

Kelli’s head pops up, stirring Tiffany awake. “Molly fuckin a murder? Oh shit!”

“He didn’t murder him! He didn’t do it, T’Challa’s alive!”

“Nah bitch, he didn’t SUCCEED. Which means he meant to fully end Issa’s dudes life. Girl, did he choke you when y’all fucked, cuz that could be him testing the waters-”

“Molly, I’m sorry if this upsets you. I thought that this may have been brought up by now.”

“Well, we’ve only been on like a date and a half so it’s still fresh.” Molly says. “But they are good now? Even after all that?”

Nakia nods. “Yes. T’Challa has a kind heart, and respect for the son of his father’s brother, especially with all he has been through. Erik is Wakandan but never group up knowing this side of his family, so he understood Erik’s anger.”

Molly relaxes a little. “I guess, that’s a happy ending. I still gotta talk to him about this, no way I can let this go without his side of it.”

Issa nods. “That’s right, you doin great sweetie. Hear him out.”

Tiffany stretches and yawns. “I told you girl. Seasonal ass nigga.”

Nakia reasons with Molly.. “It would be noble of you to talk to him about it. I’m so surprised you didn’t know. What did he tell you the scars were for?’

“What scars?” Molly asks.

“The scars covering his torso. They represent….maybe I should let him explain it.” Nakia’s voice trails off.

“Are they scars from his fight with T’Challa?” Molly asks.

“Girl, how you not know he got scars on him? Y’all fucked right?” Kelli asks.

“Yeah, but it was quick and we didn’t even get our clothes off for real...Nakia, where are they from?”

Nakia looks down. “I should go. I can’t tell you without giving away his past. He should be the one to tell you.”

Nakia gathers the leftovers of her dessert and issues goodbye with the group. Tiffany and Kelli follow next.

“Hey girl. If you need pointers on a prison pen pal relationship. I won’t say I know about how to sneak shit in for him but…” Kelli makes motions with her head and winks so boldy she might as well have said what she meant.

Molly’s eyes widen impatiently. “I hear you. I won’t need your services tonight so thank you, buh bye!” Molly leads them out the door, leaving her with Issa.

“Hey, how are you?” Issa asks.

Molly puffs out her cheeks. “I don’t know girl. I haven’t dealt with this before!”

Issa nods. “Well I know you have your standards on guys so if he doesn’t fit, just make it a quick cut while you can.”

Molly makes a face. “What do you mean I have standards with guys? Like I’m nitpicking or judgy?

“No! But I mean, if you can’t make it work with a guy that made less money than you or experimented with a guy once years ago, but give your key to a married man, I think you should put your standards under review at least in this case.”

Molly walks away from Issa. She could never take blunt criticism outside of the law firm well, and from her best friend is even worse.

“So I guess I’m that big of a mess huh? Now I let a murder fuck and what, I’m gonna be his next notch in his belt?” Molly hisses with contempt.

Issa sighs exasperatedly. “He hasn’t hurt you now! Just meet him in a well lit, well populated area and ask him upfront what’s good.”

“You sure have all the answers. What about you? T’Challa is a part of this conversation too.”

Issa scratches her neck. “I mean, I wasn’t going too…”

“Huh?”

“I said….I wasn’t going to BUT, maybe I will.”

Molly nods. I think you should. If y’all go the distance, he could run into shit like this on a regular. Assassination attempts, missions that call for him to fight. You really tryna be the right hand of a man in all of that?”

Issa hadn’t thought of that. He is a King after all, and political figures are constantly in need of protection and close watch, but he is so active that’s hard for anyone to keep up with. And America really doesn’t give a shit, so if he died could she handle? Would she be tapped to lead? Would he ask her to live in Wakanda with him?

“Thank Molly, now I’m paranoid. How can I see him with all that on my brain?”

Molly scoffs. “Join the club girl.”

Masterlist

RagTag

@hbicprettyprincess @theunsweetenedtruth

@kimianostalgia @airis-paris14

@afraiddreamingandloving

@chaneajoyyy

@myfavemarvelfanfics

@nys30

@blkintrovert

@allhailnjadaka @cutewylie @bidibidibombaclaat@muse-of-mbaku @wakanda-inspired @klaine15689

#insecure fanfic #black panther fanfic #black panther x insecure #mashup fic #shakafic

39 notes · View notes

asiryn · 5 years

Text

so hey.......y’all remember when i said that sometimes, just for fun and the hell of it, i make lists of “endgame” ships in my fandoms? bc yeah, that’s a thing that i do sometimes. XD

having now finished kh3, i’ve finally finished my endgame ship list for kh, and i figured that it might be a fun thing to share!

the actual list i’m gonna put behind a cut, bc it’ll be hella long (bc seriously.....i put about 95% of the characters into ships, and this includes all of the humanoid-ish disney characters too (barring most of the villains, bc....well, those characters are dead)), but before that, i’ll give you some....idk, context behind this list.

keep in mind, this entire affair is just like........gonna involve a fuck-ton of indulgence on my part. and most of this is fairly light-hearted. most importantly of all, this is pretty much a self-challenge: i paired up the majority of the characters just to see if i could, with the additional challenge that i could only pair them with characters that actually, canonically, have appeared in kh (this means that i couldn’t substitute in other final fantasy or disney characters); i did this to see how creative i could get with my ships, really.

idk if i’ll ever actually get around to writing fanfic for this verse (tho i do have a lot of headcanons, and i’ve actually put (probably far too much) thought into how i think these ships would work/come about, and my long-suffering friend Ip, bless her, has been an incredibly good sport about being a sounding board for all this), but i tend to refer to it as my “Healing Vision”, and it’s basically a post-kh3 AU, that presumes that everyone but xehanort (and also eraqus) got to live happily ever after. and this verse is so named bc, apart from everyone being able to heal and be happy after the traumatic canon, i also wanted to do my absolute best to put them in.....idk, healthy ships, and not ones that i think would be more toxic. everyone had redemption arcs, is what i’m saying (even if they never did or would have gotten them in canon).

y’all don’t understand, at this point i probably have over a hundred pages in various word docs of notes about this verse, so please feel free to ask if you want to hear more about it, i need validation of my madness---

anyway, here we go!

just so that there isn’t just a massive wall of text, i’m gonna break this up into roughly 2 sections: square/original kh characters, and then the rest of the disney characters.

Square/original KH characters:

Olette/Xion/Namine/Sora/Riku [OXN, SoNami, & SoRiku], Shiki/Kairi/Selphie, Axel/Saix, Hayner/Roxas, Terra/Cinderella, Aqua/Larxene/Yuffie, Repliku/Vanitas, Ven/Beat [more friends w/ benefits], Xigbar/Luxord, Aeleus/Even, Ienzo/Demyx, Sora’s Mom/Dilan, (Cinderella’s) Prince Charming/Marluxia, Geppetto/Ansem, Tidus/Wakka, Zack/Cloud/Leon, Aerith/Tifa, Cid/Auron, Fuu/Tinker Bell, Seifer/Rai, Jack Sparrow/Setzer, Boo/Vivi [platonic], Rikku/Paine, Yuna/Elsa, Neku/Joshua, Rhyme/Snow White, Hiro/Pence, & Eraqus/Xehanort [together in death]

i have no idea what’s going on with the khux characters going forward, and atm they don’t really have anything to do this AU, but assuming they’re alive and they’re all their own characters, at least for the time being, those ships would be: Skuld/Strelitzia, Ava/Ephemer, Invi/Ira/Aced, Gula/Brain, and Sephiroth/Master of Masters (but again, these are more tentative, and i don’t actually care about these characters, really)

Disney characters:

(again, keep in mind that these are only the humanoid or really anthropomorphic characters; ones that are straight up animals, like simba for example, were not included)

Mickey/Minnie/Daisy/Donald/Goofy [M/M, D/D, MinDaisy, & qpt Donald/Goofy], Horace Horsecollar/Pete, Clarabelle Cow/Clara Cluck, Hercules/Meg, Tarzan/Jane, Aladdin/Jasmine, Ariel/Eric, Belle/Beast, Lumiere/Cogsworth, Will/Elizabeth, Quasimodo/Phoebus/Esmeralda, Kristoff/Anna/Rapunzel/Eugene, Maleficent/Aurora/Mulan/Shang/Phillip [Malora, Philora, Mulora, Mulan/Shang, Phillip/Shang], Alice/Wendy, Peter/Wendy [qpt], Peter/Tinker Bell [qpt], (BatB) Chip/Pinocchio, Anastasia/Chien Po, Yao/Prince (from Snow White), Ling/Drizella, Merlin/Yen Sid, Hades/Genie, Mrs. Potts/Flora, Merryweather/Triton, Hook/Smee, Doc/Grumpy, Blue Fairy/Dopey, Fairy Godmother/Happy, Fauna/Bashful, Slightly/Cubby [platonic], Calypso/Barbossa, Sam Flynn/Quorra, Queen of Hearts/Agrabah Merchant, (BatB) Wardrobe/Gibbs, Emperor/Sleepy [his cuddle-cubine, if you will], Grand Duke/Sneezy, Mike/Sulley, Woody/Buzz, Honey Lemon/Go Go, Wasabi/Fred, Baymax/Tron/Baymax, & Phil/Zeus

Assorted Notes:

- should probably mention that all the worlds are just vaguely All Connected Now

- ven and hercules dated in bbs (then the Plot happened, ven pretty much vanished, and eventually herc moved on. they’re a bit awkward with each other now, but they agreed it’d be too weird to even attempt to date now, bc herc outgrew ven while he was in a magic coma)

- zack’s alive bc they forced hades to resurrect him like he did with auron (my hc is that the deal he made with cloud in kh1 was to bring zack back to life, but hades reneged on this; when cloud finally shared this info with sora, a Quest was undertaken to get hades to honor the deal)

- repliku’s name in this verse is Kiru (he decided to go along with the Theme, minus the sigil); sora’s mom is named Hikari; and i’m going with henry and florian for the real names of prince charming and snow’s prince, respectively (marluxia will probably still call henry “charming” as a sort of affectionate and kind of joking nickname (bc in this verse, henry is the definition of a Disaster Gay))

- goofy and pete dated in the past, but broke up with goofy came out as aroace; pete’s still kinda bitter about it

- aqua/larxene/yuffie is 100% a thing bc i feel that aqua deserves to be able to have fun and not be the responsible mom friend for once; aqua and cinderella also have some playful flirting, but it’s never really serious

- terra’s getting a staycation with his girlfriend, and aqua’s getting a vacation with her girlfriends

- olette/xion/namine/sora/riku is Peak indulgence for me; i love namixiolette, sonami, and soriku too much to want to choose between them? fuck it, they’re all smushed together in a poly pile now. this is my indulgence fic, i can do what i want, and none of you can stop me XP (the other sub-ship combos, riku with any of the girls, and sora with the other two girls, are more queerplatonic, ftr)

- there’s like a whole soap opera behind mickey/minnie/daisy/donald/goofy coming to their current arrangement, mostly bc the idea of giving all the Drama to these characters in particular amuses me; same with past goofy/pete

- a recurring Theme in this verse is that compulsory heterosexuality is the true darkness, and pretty much no one is straight (and so, light = gay) (this is how the final confrontation in kh3 truly went down: sora: kingdom hearts, is gay! / xehanort: shit...u right, bro. kk, lemme just fade into the light of gay with my bf then)

- sephiroth in this verse is mostly just a vehicle for me to be able to mildly punish terrible lightside mentors, so this ship with the MoM is kinda a cracky spite ship (before kh3 went all in on xehaqus, this was eraqus’s original fate XD)

- i will admit, gula/brain is mostly just me going, “you both really annoy me, and i don’t care to find you better ships, so you two can deserve each other”; to be fair to myself, this attitude was on the rarer side during this process

- hiro totally builds a robot body for tron to use to visit the outside world, tho he still chooses to live in the computer most of the time; tron’s besties with baymax 1 & 2

- i’ll be honest: scrooge, huey, dewey, louie, chip, dale, and possibly jiminy, by my rules, should have been put into ships. they’re not bc i couldn’t find any that worked for me *shrugs*

- phil is more like zeus’s on and off again boyfriend; he’s really fucking annoyed that he keeps having to train a lot of zeus’s offspring, and that he kinda, in a way, ends up doing more parenting for them than zeus does; currently phil is kinda claiming herc away from zeus (”i’m his dad now, so there”) (so at this point, their relationship is more of a hatemance than anything else) (i guess in my hc, zeus skews more towards being like his myth self than the disney version)

- the total number of ships, if you’re curious, is 75

- i’ve actually got queer headcanons for the square characters (excluding the khux squad), and some of the disney characters, figured out (as an example, namine is a demiromantic asexual)

okay, i think i’ll stop here for now, tho of course i might tweak or add things later XD

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fitzwibble · 4 years

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Performing a FBA on Simplicity 8447 is a Whole Process and here’s how you do it

Part 1, where I figure out the bust and waist ease of the bodice because the pattern doesn’t have that info

Even though I’m planning to adapt this pattern to make a different thing, I’m doing the FBA and pattern alterations as though the overalls are endgame, because I DO plan to make them eventually. Once I’ve got the bodice fitted for the overalls THEN I’ll go about raising the height at the back and underarms and figure out where the front closure will go.

I’m starting with the Size 18. The full bust measurement for this size is 40″ (which corresponds to my overbust measurement), and my full bust measurement is 44″. This means I need to add 2 inches to either side of the bodice in this procedure. After I add this width, I then need to remove 1/2″ at the waist seam on either side to make sure the final result will be 39-1/4″ when combined with the waist seam of the full back piece. One thing to note is that a larger portion of the waist seam will be on the front of the bodice, so I will have to modify the side seam of the pants to match. That is a problem for another day.

Performing a Full Bust Adjustment (FBA) on this pattern needs more steps than usual because

the pattern doesn’t mark the bust apex so you have to find it yourself

the only dart points towards where the armscye would be on a full shirt, and the standard method needs a side seam/bust dart

This means my procedure is going to be:

Fold the darts and hold the pattern up to myself to mark the bust apex(es)

Measure the length of the waist seam at the seam line (NOT INCLUDING SEAM ALLOWANCE) with a tape measure or French curve to figure out if I need to remove some of the added width at the waist seam.

Open a dart in the side by closing the dart at the armscye

Perform FBA

Transfer side dart back to armscye location

TEST NEW PATTERN ON JUNK FABRIC

HERE I CATALOGUE THAT PROCESS WITH PICTURES

Marking the Apex Points:

MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS IN THE BRA YOU WEAR MOST OFTEN

I marked all the seam lines on the pattern (5/8″ from the edge)

First I measured the separation of the two apex points on my body (approximately nip to nip), which came out to 9 inches.

I placed the bodice pattern at the level where I wanted the top to sit and measured down to the fullest part of my bust (6 inches, the bodice sits quite high on the model).

On the pattern, I measured down 6 inches from the seam line at the centre front and drew a line across 90º to the centre front line, then marked points on this line 4.5″ (half apex-to-apex measure) on either side of the centre front line.

I drew lines perpendicular to the apex-to-apex line (and parallel to the centre front line) that go to the bottom of the pattern, and lines connecting each dart point to the corresponding apex

Result:

Full Bust Adjustment

1. (Moving the dart to the side seam) Cut the pattern along the centre fold of the dart to the dart tip, then along the line connecting the tip to the apex. Fold the flaps along the dart legs to the back so there’s an empty triangle where the dart should be

2. (Moving the dart to the side seam) Slash a line from the side seam (about 1.5 inches down from the edge) to JUST BEFORE the dart apex, so that there’s a little paper hinge connecting the resulting triangle of paper to the apex. (IMPORTANT)

3. Pivot the triangle to close the original dart and place a small piece of tape to hold it closed at the seam line (this will function as a hinge for the FBA). Don’t tape anything else. The darts are now at the side seam.

4. Continue the cut from the original dart along the line from the apex to the waist seam. DO NOT SEVER THE HINGE CONNECTING THE SIDE DART TO THE OLD DART. The pattern should look like this:

5. I need to add 2″ on each side, so I took a couple pieces of paper and drew two parallel lines spaced 2″ apart as a guide. Align the vertical cut of the centre panel with one of the lines and then use the hinges to pivot the lower side panels out and down to align with the other line. Tape the vertical edges to the paper, but not the upper portion yet.

6. Slash a line a couple inches above the waist seam of the centre panel and shift the slashed piece down to match the seam line of the side panels. LIGHTLY tape this down, you might want to adjust this later. (I used a French Curve to position it). Adding more length in the front like this accounts for the increased surface area of The Boobs.

In a normal FBA you’d then redraw the dart legs. HOWEVER! in this case we want to move the darts BACK to the original position. But here’s the tricky part: the dart apex symmetry is now split! The apex points on the centre panel are the “true” apex, but as far as the side dart is concerned, the hinge point is the apex. If you try to slash new lines to the true apex to close the side dart your side seam won’t line up, because the top leg is now much shorter than the bottom leg. GEOMETRY!!!! So instead:

7. Remove the tape closing the legs of the original dart and pivot the side dart closed using the hinge, and tape in place. We still can’t redraw the dart legs just yet without some wizardry because the distance from seam line to apex is still different lengths, but at least the side seam is as it should be.

8. Removing fullness from the waist: typically you’d add a waist dart by drawing a dart the right width with the point a certain distance from the apex, but I decided to try to keep this as a single dart pattern (for now) and did the same slash and pivot manoeuvre to move the fullness into the top dart (NOTE: this can also be used to transfer some of that arm dart fullness to a vertical dart if you decide to make this into a two-dart pattern, which I eventually did)

Redrawing the dart legs:

For Reasons I chose to have the dart point towards the bust line rather than the apex itself, but I decided after making a mockup that I didn’t like how that looked and my next draft will have it pointing towards the apex following the line of the original dart on the top.

9. Once you’ve picked out where your new dart tip is, (the standard recommendation is 2 inches from the apex for busty people, but my bust is quite rounded so I ended up moving it closer on this first draft).

10. Draw a line connecting the seam line circle mark of the top dart leg to this point. Measure the length of the line, then rotate the ruler to measure the same length from this point to intersect with the line on the side panel. The dart legs NEED to be the same length. You can use a compass centred on your dart point to figure out where the intersection point is

11. Redraw the top seam line on the side panel to intersect with the top of the side seam.

It’s a good idea to trace your altered pattern at this point, in case you want to adjust the position of the dart tip later (I definitely did). If you fold the dart legs closed, the two parts of the top seam are now at different angles on either side of the dart instead of straight across like on the original pattern.

There are two options: 1) close the dart and trace straight across from the large circle to the top of the side seam or 2) use a French curve to blend the two lines. I decided on the second option because it preserves the sharp point where the straps connect to the bodice. The first option would’ve eliminated that because my adjustment was pretty large.

RESULT, ready for mockup:

And mockup, (made from fabric that was on our old couch 25 years ago) I tweaked the darts a little by ripping them out and redrawing them to blend them with equivalent darts that had their dart point a half inch back. This definitely improved things, but in my case I think it would be more flattering if I move some of the dart width to a waist dart, which will add more underboob shaping. I’ll post about that process also. (I clipped out the excess fabric in the darts so I didn’t have a huge flap getting in the way)

**EDIT: In retrospect, looking at these pics a couple months (and another mockup) later I think I can fix the dart weirdness by scooching the tips back an inch or more, so that the tip is actually 2.5 inches or so away from the bust apex. Being as close to the rounded part of the bust as they are is what’s causing the puckering despite my care in tapering the tips. Did I mention I’m a novice? Because I’m a novice.

#A TON OF PICTURES #simplicity 8447 #full bust adjustment #The Green Pinafore #sewing #fba

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siliconwebx · 5 years

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Facebook Marketing: How to Grow Your Business Using Facebook

Where there’s internet, there is Facebook. Because of that ubiquity, Facebook marketing is pretty much required if your brand is going to succeed online. The problem with that is simple: Facebook marketing is a huge topic with a lot of moving parts. You will need to consider a lot of variables to really hone in on a strategy, and that’s what we want to help you with. No matter what your business or brand, we can help you get your Facebook marketing strategy off the ground. And if you’re already knee-deep in Facebook, we have some ideas for you that can take your marketing from great to astonishing. Let’s get started.

Getting Started with Facebook Marketing

First, I want to acknowledge that not everyone is on Facebook for personal interaction. The beauty of approaching Facebook marketing from a business standpoint is that you can keep the two sides of your life pretty much completely separated. While you can’t use Facebook anonymously, you can have an account where the only personal information available is the name you choose and everything else is tied to the business accounts. In some ways, keeping these sides completely separate will limit your ability to market to certain demographics (such as Facebook groups and potentially Events); however, it is up to you on what are the most important aspects of the platform.

As we move through the various topics, we will touch on which elements may use your personal profile rather than your business one. If it’s not listed, you should be safe to assume that your brand identity will be the public-facing persona. For the most part, we are going to assume you will have a profile with reasonable privacy settings for your personal account.

Step 1: Create Your Facebook Account

If you already have an account, feel free to scroll down a bit. This step is showing how simple it is to get started on Facebook itself.

You might be tempted to click on the Create a Page link at the bottom of the screen. And while it will let you create a page for your brand immediately, the process hits a hurdle when it asks you to log in. So we are going to move forward with creating an account first and then creating the brand profiles we will work with. So press the Sign Up button, you will get an email to verify that you’re really you. Go ahead and enter the code to prove you’re a person.

When you press Continue, you will be taken to your blank timeline. The only real must-do thing at this point is fixing your privacy settings. Regardless of whether you use Facebook personally or not, checking your privacy settings is a good idea. So click on the arrow in the upper-right corner and select Settings to get started.

In general, we will run under the assumption that you let your Friends see pertinent information, but more sensitive information is set to Only Me. That’s just the bare minimum for security. So make sure that you go through all of the tabs in the left sidebar and tweak them to your own preferences. We would, however, like to highlight the section titled Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile? This is an option many people are unaware of, so if you want to remove your personal profile from public Google searches, uncheck this box. This will have no effect on your brand identity, such as Pages, Groups, or Events.

After you’ve chosen your settings, it’s time to create the Page you want to be your home base on Facebook.

Step 2: Create a Facebook Page

The Facebook Page is where the majority of your marketing will take place. You will run ads through your page, host events, stream live video, and interact with your audience. Pages are the hub of most public-facing organizations. They can — for the most part — do anything a personal account can do. But without the need to share who is the one behind the branding.

Using a Page to market lets you assign a team of people to manage your business, and we will discuss each of the roles and permissions a bit lower. But first, let’s dig in on actually creating the page. To start, find the Pages link in the sidebar to the left of your timeline.

You will then be taken to a list of all the Pages on your account. This list will be empty if you haven’t done this before. In the upper-right of the toolbar, in the Your Pages tab, you need to press the green Create Page button.

You now choose whether your Page will represent a Business or Brand (services and products, generally) or a Community or Public Figure (described as connecting and sharing with people, an organization, team, or group). For our purposes here, we will go with Business or Brand.

You should have a name chosen by this point (most likely the name of your company or blog or brand itself — such as Elegant Themes). We don’t suggest making a new Page for a single product (such as our Divi theme) because that can be showcased under the umbrella of a larger page that has more reach and utility beyond that single product.

After this step, you will choose a Profile Image and a Cover Photo. You do have the option to skip them for the moment to gather your resources later. At some point, these are a necessity.

With that finalized, you see your new page on the next screen. It will be devoid of content and information at this point, but that’s what you can handle next.

Step 3: Customize Your Page

More than anything else in terms of customization, the @username you choose is the most important. Just click on the Create Page @Username link to the left of the screen to begin.

This will be the way that users and people tag your page in posts — “Look at this amazing deal I got from @username”. It is also the URL slug for your page: fb.me/username or facebook.com/username. Additionally, you get a Facebook Messenger URL where your users can directly IM you, and those messages go directly to your Messages app (assuming you use it).

With that set, it’s time to fill in your brand details. These are the nitty gritty nuggets of information that your users and community need to know about you. A description of who you are, how to find you elsewhere online, where to find you in person if you have a storefront or physical location, menus, email lists, and so on.

Page Description

Two of the most prominent are Adding a Page Description. To add a description, just click on where the Add a Short Description link is under Welcome to Your New Page.

A modal will appear where you can add a 155 character description. This is your elevator pitch. The most succinct way you can describe your brand or business. For example, Elegant Themes’ page has the description, Elegant Themes builds amazingly beautiful Premium WordPress Themes coupled with advanced functionality and awesome support. Simple and gets right to the point.

When that’s finished, another modal appears, asking you if you’d like to edit the rest of your page information or wait until later. No time like the present, so let’s edit that info.

General Page Info

Yet another modal appears, this time with three tabs. Contact, Location, and Hours. All of these may not pertain to your business or brand. If you’re an online shop, you may not have hours. So you can select Always Open. And if you don’t have a street address or phone, you can uncheck them, and they won’t appear at all on your page. Anything you do enter, however, will show up on the main page for all visitors to see under your About section.

When you get through all the tabs, you’ll see a link that says See All Information. Since there’s a lot more than just websites and phones to your business, we should probably click through.

Page Name and Team Member Updates

When you do see all the information available, you may feel overwhelmed. That’s okay. You don’t have to fill it all in now, or really…ever. Some of it may not pertain to you or your Facebook marketing strategy. Much of it, however, will. Again, this is the info that shows up in your About section.

The two most important sections here, at least starting out, are General and Team Member sections. Under General, you can change your page’s name and @username. I bring this up now because you might have chosen the wrong username for your page, or you might have used a page name that might not fully encompass your Facebook marketing goals.

For instance, you might have named your Page Elmo’s Superblog – Fun, Frolick, and Learning with Elmo, but realize that the better page name would be simply Elmo’s Superblog. This is how you’d go about changing that. Also, you can change the @username here, too, and it is entirely independent of the Page name. So you can still have the username @superblog even if you change the name. The reverse is also true. You can change your username but keep the page name. So you could go to @elmosuperblog without worrying about changing your entire page name. In general, however, it is a good tactic to keep them pretty similar. That way, people won’t get confused. And it makes tagging and finding your page easier.

Regarding the Team Members tab, notice that it says if you add yourself to the page as a Team Member, the Page will appear on your profile as well as your own name nad profile picture being featured on the Page. You can still run the page as an Admin or other user role if you are not listed as a Team Member. So if privacy is an issue, or you just want to separate work and personal halves of Facebook, consider whether you should add yourself here or not. Either way is fine.

Other Social Accounts

As an online business, you likely have more than a Facebook account. You have an Instagram, surely, and a Twitter. Maybe you use Snapchat and WhatsApp for customer service and promotion? If so, you want to link to them on your Facebook Page. Just click on the Add Other Accounts link and a modal will pop up so you can include the other platforms you want to showcase.

Any and all accounts you add will be shown under the Contact Info for your Page. When adding the other accounts, make sure only enter the username, not the full URL.

After that, you can simply edit the rest of the details you want to be public on your page. But before moving on to another aspect of your Facebook marketing, let’s take a look at the Story of your Page.

Your Story

To the right of the About section is a large box called Story.

When you click the Tell People About Your Business link, a new editor appears. It looks surprisingly like a blog editor. Because that’s pretty much exactly what it is. You can add a large cover photo and a title. Then you construct a long-form post of what you believe your users, customers, or audience should know about your business or brand. If you have ever posted to Medium, the whole process feels similar to that. When I say long-form, I mean a few paragraphs, maybe. Not a treatise.

I cannot emphasize enough how important having a well-crafted Story can be. Please, take the time to write a narrative that gives your brand a personal connection to your audience. Narrative marketing is one of the hottest trends right now because it makes customers feel a deeper connection to the brand and engage more with it. These days, people don’t want to associate and interact with lifeless companies who are nothing but numbers, liquidation sales, and clearance percentages. They want to buy from the people behind the logo. That’s why they’re on Facebook to begin with. To be social. To interact. And it should be why you’re doing Facebook marketing, too.

After all, when someone new looks at your page, this Story is one of the first things they see. Like everything else on the internet, you have a very short window of time to get and keep their attention, so make it count. Having a good image, a good title, and a well-written narrative around your brand can go a long way to creating a lasting relationship with your visitors. A good story can take that beyond commerce or viral sharing.

With all of those filled out, you can begin to fill out the rest of your information and tweak your page as you go. Those are by far the most important and required pieces you need to fill out.

Add a Button

The final customization you need to make is the Add a Button button. If you don’t do anything else before publicizing your Page, make it this. Facebook lets you place one CTA button that appears at the top of your Page whenever people visit.

You have the option to choose from multiple pre-set kinds of CTA actions for your button:

Book with you

Contact you

Learn more about your business

Shop with you or make a donation

Download your app or play your game

Now, every Facebook marketing strategy is going to be a little different. Some people use Facebook to book appointments (masseuses and other service-related brands, for example. Others are software companies that want to direct you to the App Store as quickly as possible. While other brands use Facebook as a support channel for their users. Regardless of what you use it for, this button is going to probably be the hotspot on your Page (or at the very least, one of them), so choose wisely what works best for your brand.

Useful Facebook Marketing Strategies

Now that your Page is set up, you can use it to market your brand. The Page itself is kind of like a headquarters and lets you perform various tasks. Not all of these ideas will work for every single kind of brand, but the majority will. Let’s take a look.

Messenger

These days, nearly everyone has Facebook Messenger installed on their phones. In many cases, they use it in lieu of traditional SMS/MMS messaging. Facebook recognized the power in that, and they now allow Pages and people to message back and forth within the same interface. Unless they opt-in somehow, you can’t be the one to message first, but under the Add a Button section, you can make it so that you’re just a click away for users to be able to basically text you.

And they will. Instead of sending an email that may or may not be delivered to or read by the right person, sending a Facebook message gives the user access to your brand in real-time as well as in their space. Many Pages run support this way, and it increases engagement heavily. It’s also very easy to set up so that you can start having conversations with your users.

Select the Send Message radio button and click Next. You will now have the option to choose where the user can send a message. If you chose Send Message, your only option will be Facebook Messenger. However, if you have Call Now or Send Email, for example, you will get a field to enter your chosen address or method.

Now, you have the option to review these couple of choices. Just click the Finish button when you’re ready.

Now, you have a nice, shiny Send Message button in your Page’s toolbar. Your audience will absolutely choose to interact with you. If you make it a priority to respond quickly and respectfully, your engagement rate will advance steadily.

Setting Up Facebook Messenger Autoresponders

The final aspect of the Send Message button for your Facebook marketing is making sure that you respond. Because here’s the thing: you’re not always going to be able to get to each and every message as it comes in. Sure, the Message will show up on your phone as a text message, but you may not be able to respond. Or someone on your team may already be handling a different support issue. In those situations, one of the best things you can have is an autoresponder just to let your users know that you check your messages, that you aren’t ignoring their attempt to contact you.

When you first set up your page, you will get a banner alert telling you to set up the responder. This is the best way to do it. You can always get it ready from your settings, too.

When you click either of these options, you will be taken to your Messages settings. In here, you get a ton of options that you can run through to customize exactly how you want to interact with your audience.

We think there are four important aspects to enable here.

Prompt new people to send messages

Send instant replies to anyone who messages your Page

Stay responsive when you can’t get to your computer or phone

Show a Messenger Greeting

It is important to note the differences in these three options because they seem very similar. First, when prompting people to send new messages, your new visitors will see a post like this on your Page’s timeline. The message button is prominent in the post as well as in the toolbar and menu. And in the primary tabs (3 in the below image) if you choose to highlight it as well.

And within the autoresponders, you can up three unique messages, too. When the toggle is switched to On, a highlighted blue message will appear. This is what you will say to your visitors, so you want to personalize them. Hit the Change button to do so.

The differences from each of these are important. The Send instant replies to anyone who messages your Page option is the traditional autoresponder. Anyone who sends your Page a message will get this reply. It can be used to let folks know that you will reply quickly, maybe to link to a knowledge base or support forum, even to let them know you have a sale running. The message can be changed at any time, so it may be in your best interest to periodically use the Messenger autoresponder in your marketing strategies, same as you would an email series.

Then, the Stay responsive when you can’t get to your computer or phone option is a different autoresponder that only kicks in when you’re off the clock. You can set away hours — such as when your business is closed. That way, those who contact you can be directed to your website, maybe your after-hours support team, or even just telling them that you’ll get back to them when you open up bright and early the next day. If you use this and the above option together, this one takes precedence because of its specialized nature.

And the third, Show a Messenger greeting, is a one-time-only contact. On Twitter auto-DMs are frowned upon because they are impersonal. On Facebook Messenger, having a greeting can actually personalize the encounter. People can even opt-in for bots to periodically message them. The greeting, however, will only be down to visitors on the very first time they send your Page a message. Never again. Many pages will use a question for their opening, trying to elicit a response from the user to initiate a dialogue. One very good marketing strategy is to provide a unique discount code for the first time someone contacts you via Messenger. That way, you build goodwill with them even if they are contacting you for a more negative reason.

Posting to Your Facebook Page

Like we mentioned above, the Facebook Page itself is kind of your headquarters for everything that you do on the platform. All of your Facebook marketing in some way leads back to the Page. So you probably want to work to make the Page as central to your strategy as possible. Primarily, that means posting to the Page itself to appear in your followers’ feeds to generate shares, likes, comments, and other forms of engagement.

With that in mind, you should know there are a truly absurd number of options for you to post with. We are going to be primarily concerned with text posts, image/video posts, live video streams, and stories.

With each kind of these posts, you also get to choose your posting audience (public, restricted, or specifically targeted) and posting time (scheduled for a future date, backdated to show earlier in your page’s timeline, or simply saved as a draft for later review).

Many of these are self-explanatory (scheduling, backdating, for instance), we want to dig into the ones that can really take your Facebook marketing into a new league.

There’s no set rule on how many posts you should or shouldn’t publish, but keep in mind that if you post too many in sequence, they get truncated in people’s news feeds. Instead of showing your full post, it may say something like Elegant Themes has posted 3 updates today with a thumbnail of the Page. That severely limits click-through and engagement. You want to make your posting regular, but not overwhelming. It’s definitely a delicate balance. But you will get it as you practice and learn your audience.

Text Posts

Text posts are the bread-and-butter of the Facebook world. They’re what started it all. Because of that history, you need to incorporate text posts into your Facebook marketing rotation. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but when you click inside the box that says Write a post…, the default is plain ol’ text.

You might ask your followers a question for feedback. Perhaps you need to announce that your store isn’t opening on time that day or that a menu item is no longer available. You might even just tell people good morning and spark up a casual conversation in the comments.

Text posts do well at many lengths, but if you want to do something truly long-form, you’re better off writing it on your own blog or website and linking to it. That way you get the SEO benefits in your own domain. Individual text posts don’t do well in external search engines, just with the internal FB search.

Image/Video Posts

The real money (both literal and figurative), however, is in video. And to a lesser extent, image content. It’s why Instagram (a Facebook-owned company, by the way) is so successful. People love interactive media, and they can far more easily consume your content if it’s visual. So you need to be posting images and videos as your primary content.

Not only do images and video posts get higher engagement just because people are people and act like people, but also because Facebook prioritizes them in the algorithms that dictate what content shows up in users’ news feeds. These are the posts that get shared. Even Events and links focus on featured images and videos.

So knowing all this, what can you do in terms of publishing that can help your images and video succeed? Honestly, it’s pretty simple:

High-resolution images and HD video – no one likes to see grainy and blurry content, and no one likes to share it

Bright colors and crazy designs – you want to catch people’s attention, and this will do it

Only necessary text – people scroll quickly, so your message needs to be concise enough for them to read it in seconds

Short(ish) video duration – 30-second clips are amazing because people can watch them and share them without getting bored or distracted

Long(ish) video duration – if you go into the 5-10 minute (or longer) realm, do so knowing that not every video you post should be this long. Only your very best content will get engagement at this lenth, and even then views will taper in the later portion

These aren’t hard-and-fast rules. There will always be exceptions to them. However, these do tend to be the hallmarks of the most successful individual video posts on Facebook. If your main focus is video (such as with Wistia or a media company), you have to determine what works best. Your audience may enjoy longer videos with more substance. But as a general rule for most people who aren’t video specialists, these tend to apply.

Additionally, if you have a consistent library of videos over 3 minutes long, you can have the option for mid-roll advertisements to monetize your page. These will play at set points during the video, and your visitors can wait to finish the rest of your video afterward. Note that doing this can lower engagement after the ad breaks because many people simply stop watching. So like we said above, only the best content you have should be long-form.

Live Video Streams

Probably the best way to market your business using Facebook (or YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, or any other platform that supports it) is live video. Livestreaming is incredibly popular, and if your goal is to engage your audience, livestreaming is the best way to do it. Why? Because you can actually talk with them in real time. You get to know them. They get to know you.

Livestreaming with Facebook is incredibly easy. All you need to do is click on the Live button when you start a post to be taken into the pre-show settings.

Once there, you will see two tabs. The Connect tab is for if you use an external service or software to stream. You may use Restream or OBS or even Wirecast. If you are using just Facebook, you will just fill out the info for the stream and go live with the camera attached to your computer.

One of the best features for Facebook marketing regarding live video is that you can crosspost to other, related Pages that you run. If you click on the Settings tab in the Connect window, you will see a list of Pages that can host your stream simultaneously. This is a great idea for those of you who may have different departments, each running a different Facebook page, for instance.

You can also go Live on the mobile app, too, and it’s as simple as pressing Go Live when in the app. As long as your audience has notifications set up to be alerted when you go live, or (even better) you schedule your streams so they know when to tune in, you will be able to truly find champions for your brand who come back regularly to see your new content and say hello to you.

Stories

Snapchat took the internet by storm, and pretty soon nearly every single platform had stolen (appropriated, maybe?) the concept of temporary, time-limited pictures and images. On Facebook and Instagram, these are called Stories. And on Facebook, not only can you add to the Story that belongs to your personal profile, but you can also add to the Story of a Page that you manage.

Best of all, these Page-created Stories show up in your followers’ Story feed, right alongside their friends’. In fact, the Stories (as of this writing), don’t seem to be subject to as harsh an algorithm as news feed posts (images, video, text, etc.) like we discussed above. For the most part, they appear in chronological order, based on posting time.

The only real caveat to using Stories as a marketing tool is that they are mobile only. That’s right. You can only post to your Page’s Story through the official Facebook smartphone app. Lucky for all of us, it’s incredibly easy to do. But you do have to post to your Page’s Story differently than you do your personal one. First, click on the hamburger menu in the lower-right of the corner (if you’re on iOS. Android and other platforms may be in a different spot, but the functionality is the same).

Next, choose the Page to which you want to post the Story.

Once you’ve made it to your page, scroll until you see the area in which you can post an update. It should say Write something… or a similar message. Beneath it, you will see a box called Your Page’s Story with a button that says Create Story. Press it.

You will be taken to a camera window now (provided you allow access, otherwise you can’t post a Story). You can either take a photo or video here, or you can import one from your phone’s storage. Once you’ve chosen and annotated the Story you want to post, you have two options to post it: either immediately via the Page Story shortcut (1) or by confirming details of the Story by hitting Next (2) at the bottom of the screen.

If you choose the shortcut, you get a confirmation before it goes directly to the Story.

And if you choose to press the Next button, you get a few more options to verify before moving forward with the Story. You can make sure that you’re on the right Page, first of all. The last thing you’d want to do is put up a personal story to your Page or something similar. You also get the option of sharing the Story to your Page’s news feed so that it shows up as a traditional Image post. You will have to experiment with which ones you should cross-post. Each audience is different. Stories are for more candid, slice-of-life topics. Maybe behind-the-scenes videos or fun staff profiles. News Feed posts, on the other hand, are the evergreen or more traditional posts.

Once you’ve made sure the Story is ready for your adoring audience, share it, and everyone who follows your Page should see it at the very top of their Facebook app. It will appear chronologically (as of this writing), so determining when your audience is most active can be crucial.

Also, Stories only last for 24 hours from the time of posting, so if you want to stay in people’s Story feeds, you need to post regularly to your story throughout the day.

Link Sharing

Very quickly, sharing links to your blog or website is another great way to generate engagement. But not just any articles. Only share either your newest posts (which you should do each time you publish, and then regularly afterward to make sure it get seen) or your best posts. In fact, the best way that you can leverage sharing your own content to Facebook is by integrating your site with Facebook Instant Articles. These work like the Google AMP pages where your site is pre-cached and loads instantly for users on the platform.

You will see these in your timeline often. They’re the posts with the lightning bolt next to them. By stripping out unnecessary code, Facebook Instant Articles mean that your users won’t have to wait on your page to load and get to the content they want to consume more quickly. In general, if a page takes more than 2 seconds to load, the average user will navigate away. Facebook Instant Articles fixes that.

Even if you don’t want to keep yourself that invested in the Facebook ecosystem, sharing your best and newest content will keep you in people’s minds, give them something to share, and get your brand’s message and story across, while funneling users from FB to your own website.

Of everything that you do on Facebook, link sharing is the most hit-and-miss. You pretty much need to do it but don’t rely on this being the number one source of traffic to your site or your primary lead generator. It takes a bit of work to make many of your links get through the news feed algorithm without paying for them to do so, and the time and effort that you spend on that work may be better spent elsewhere. So share away, but make this a lesser part of your overall Facebook marketing strategy when compared to live video, for instance.

Pinned Posts

Any of the above types of posts (excluding Stories that are not posted to the news feed) are capable of being pinned to the top of your Page. What that means is that anyone who visits your page will see this post first, regardless of what else has been published since. Most Pages use this for announcements or product launches. Many restaurants keep menus pinned or dinner specials. Elegant Themes often uses our Pinned Post to showcase new features for Divi that have been released.

To pin a post, just click the ellipsis (the three dots) and select Pin to Top of Page.

To unpin it, do the same thing, but select to unpin it. You also have the option of replacing the pinned post when you try to pin a new one because you can have only 1 Pinned Post at a time.

There is no right or wrong way to use the Pinned Post, but the most important thing to remember is that you should always keep it updated. Visitors will see it as incredibly unprofessional to have outdated information pinned. For example, don’t still have your Christmas sale pinned in February. Or your summer menu in December. That shows them a lack of attention, which can have an impact on your engagement and business itself.

Facebook Marketing with Groups

Groups are kind of like Facebook’s take on message boards or forums. They aren’t quite chat rooms, but they give users a place to post messages, pictures, videos, and then comment back and forth to have a discussion. Both personal accounts and Pages can set up and administrate a Group, which works out really well, depending on whether you want a front-facing individual or overall brand persona.

First, creating a Group is easy. Go to facebook.com/groups and click on the green Create Group button in the upper-right corner of the page. Additionally, you have three sections on this page:

Favorites

Groups You Manage

Your Groups

So basically, this is the hub of all your Group activity, whether you’re a member or an admin. Anything you set as a Favorite will show up as a shortcut on your primary timeline, which simplifies your life as you manage everything on Facebook itself.

You need to make two decisions when you create a group: the name (which can be changed later, but it may not be a great idea, so choose wisely), and the privacy. We suggest creating the group as Secret first so that you can get it ready for your community before it appears in search results.

The difference in Secret and Closed is that in a Secret group, only people you invite and add to the group can find it or even see it. It’s as though it doesn’t exist to non-members. Secret Facebook groups do not show up in search results.

Closed groups, on the other hand, appear in searches, and people can be invited and added just as in a Secret one, but anyone can also request to join. That request must be approved (or denied) by a group manager. If you expect a lot of requests, you can set other moderators to weed through them.

And Public groups are, well, public. Anyone can join, they show up in searches, and often require the most moderation. Depending on your topic and community goals, it may work out well for you to be Public. But we feel that Closed gives you the best community and ability to market toward specifically those who are most engaged with your brand.

Keep in mind that you must add at least one friend to a group to create it. Facebook does not want you to create solo groups (and that would be lonely, anyway). Many folks either add a spouse or significant other, or even a co-worker or colleague from the organization who may also be a manager.

Now, your Group is live. Outside of inviting people, you have two major tasks to complete that aren’t very hard. The first is to add a cover photo for the group. Many people choose to use their Group’s cover photo as a banner for the rules and etiquette expected of members. Or if you have a schedule for particular topics on certain days, you can use the Cover Photo to highlight those as in the image below.

One other feature Groups have is that you can go Live only to specific groups. If you want to only appear to a subset of your audience (maybe for a Patreon reward), this is how. Many people set up Groups just for this feature.

Choosing Your Persona in a Facebook Group

In a Facebook Group (or on a Facebook Page), you have an option to interact with the group as yourself (your personal profile) or as the brand hosting the Group or Page. If you click on the box to the upper-right that says Interacting as…, you will get a modal where you can choose who you appear as in comments and posts.

For Facebook marketing purposes, the choice is really up to you and your particular strategies. If you choose to interact personally, you can build a strong rapport between your users and yourself (and your staff, if they interact the same way). You will appear as people who are actively engaged in the community. That is the right fit for many brands and businesses, as that personal touch can be a huge boon to the way their products are received.

However, if you choose to interact as your brand, you don’t necessarily lose that personability. When a brand name interacts with people, it can make customers feel more special and can highlight that you’re a part of the community you’ve built. Not everyone knows your real name, but if they are a member of the Group or if they follow your Page, they know the branding. It can feel special for many users to get called out and talked to by major products they love.

Just choose which direction works best for your brand and try to be consistent. You can even mix it up. The daily conversation can come from your staff, but important messages or Group administrivia may need to be posted by the brand identity. The most important thing to remember when choosing your persona for Facebook Group interaction is to be purposeful and mindful of who is delivering your message and how they are delivering it.

The Groups’ Chat Tab

Because the Group’s primary function is a mini-Facebook timeline, the developers have also implemented a real-time Chat tab that lets users create conversations amongst themselves. These work similarly to Facebook Messenger, except that the conversations are essentially open-to-the-public chatrooms.

The default choice is to create chats with friends you know in the group; however, any of the chats can be seen and joined by anyone in the group. If you want a private group message, you will need to use the traditional Messenger app.

When you press the blue Create a Group Chat button, a modal appears for you to choose the initial members of the conversation. You will name it as well. If you want a real-time discussion on the year’s best WordPress themes or an on-going help and support room, just name it appropriately, add your staff (or members), and finish it up. Using Group Chats will keep your members’ timelines and news feeds clear of clutter, and their notifications won’t constantly alert them to new comments. They will see the new conversations in Messenger instead.

Facebook Marketing with Events

While not possible for everyone, using Events is a great way to get the word out about, well, major events that your brand is holding. These don’t necessarily have to be in-person events. Many Pages run virtual parties where a Live video Q&A goes on, or you might create a Facebook Event for a huge sale that’s coming up that you want people to know about. Especially if it’s a limited time deal.

Both personal profiles and Pages can host Events, and you can tie the Events to Groups as well. That way, you can get your entire Facebook marketing circle involved with one another and really reap the benefit of having built a community. The true draw of using Events on Facebook to market, though, is how Pages’ Events show up in followers’ notifications.

Not only do they show up when added, but if someone marks they are Interested or Going, they also get an alert to tell them the Event is upcoming so they don’t forget. In almost every way, Events are set-it-and-forget-it marketing. Even better, though, Events let hosts and guests post to the Event page as though it were a Group. Albeit a temporary one.

To create an Event as your Page, just hit the Events tab to the left-side of your Page. Then click on the blue Create Event button.

The modal you get now is full of details that your audience needs to know about the Event itself.

Also, you have the chance to add an Event photo. If you do not, Facebook defaults to your Page cover photo. It is a really good idea to use a new promo picture for each Event. Not only will that make your Event stand out and show that you’re serious about it, but it also won’t blend in for people who already follow your Page. They will not just assume it’s something they have already seen.

The rest of the information will depend on your event.

Event Name

Location

Frequency

Start and End Date and Time

Description