Cool things on keyboard
r/SonicTheHedgehog
2010.02.01 00:17 r/SonicTheHedgehog
The #1 subreddit community for all things Sonic! Subreddit banner by u/Swankestcoot5. Icon by u/Joopitorwastaken
2013.03.01 03:51 JBurto What is this, a subreddit for ants?!?
What is this, a _________ for Ants?? Reddit's Preeminent Subreddit for All Things Tiny and Miniature! (Not about literal ants)
2019.05.24 13:44 trongs24 Tutorials on all things that are cool
This sub is all about cool shit. Anything goes, as long as it’s cool.
2024.05.11 20:08 x8T6 Old School Shooter - Now a Noob - Advice Please
So I just bought a Xbox One X and it is my first console since Super Nintendo.
My fps gameplay was years ago, like Battlefied 1942 and B2 ago (yeah, I'm a old dude). I have thought of building of a new rig to play today's shooters, but I know that what I prefer is at least $3k and I have better uses for my budget.
Obviously my choice was the XB1 and here I am. I can use any noob advice that anyone is kind enough to share. The deciding reason for my purchase was to play Madden, but getting back into shooters was also huge.
submitted by x8T6 to xboxone [link] [comments]
My fps gameplay was years ago, like Battlefied 1942 and B2 ago (yeah, I'm a old dude). I have thought of building of a new rig to play today's shooters, but I know that what I prefer is at least $3k and I have better uses for my budget.
Obviously my choice was the XB1 and here I am. I can use any noob advice that anyone is kind enough to share. The deciding reason for my purchase was to play Madden, but getting back into shooters was also huge.
- Are Keyboard / mouse better for shooters played on console? AWSD is naturally automatic for me. Ultimately I'm asking which input is better. I understand adjusting sensitivity to slow things down for timely aiming using a controller, but I still have so much to learn. Now is good time for some time management and chose an input method.
- Honestly, everything else. I'm going to continue to check out the sub(s), youtube, etc for console and game specific tips and any assistance here would be appreciated.
2024.05.11 20:07 istp4ever Girlfriend (25F) being too nice/flirty with flirtatious male friend from a few years ago. How do I (26M) respond?
I took several pics of my gf's imessages, which were from a couple years ago.
There's lots of winks, talking about getting drinks, 'friendly' joking, and this went on for maybe 1-2 years. I didn't even know he was being overly flirtatious and that they were hanging out multiple times.
The only time my gf told me about him was the one time they hung out and what he did for work. So from my perspective, there was barely anything to worry about.
But when I look at there messages, it seems less innocent.
I link to the messages at the end of this post.
Please read the context below so you can have more info on my situation before you make a rapid judgment.
To give some context:
1. Why did I search her phone? We both agree it's OK to search the other's phone if there's a genuine need to. Our logic (and we learned this from past relationships) is that if someone is giving no reason for you to snoop, then usually you feel no need to, and you won't find anything anyway. But if you have a gut feeling that says 'red flag,' then that's when you want to check your SO's phone, you'll probably find something.
With my gf, I've only searched her phone maybe once or twice in the past 2 years.
2. I feel like she's being a hypocrite. In the past, before the timeline of all these messages, there was once a female coworker who texted me a pic of her dog, so my gf snooped my phone and got upset about it. We both communicated, and I told her that yeah, I can tell that my coworker likes me, so I'm keeping a distance from her. However... this guy's clearly being overly flirtatious, and my gf actively communicates with him and tries to get drinks.
3. This is a new male friend, who she met after we started dating. He was organizing stuff for her organizational club, which is how they met. However, they haven't talked in a couple of years - because they are no longer part of that org.
The communication is too flirty/friendly. It would be extremely weird if my mother or my aunt talked to another guy this way.
4. She has a history of being a little too 'friendly' with guys.
Wrapping up my thoughts
Even though this is a few years ago, I've always had a hunch that I couldn't 100% fully trust her, but this confirms it. I'm actually not surprised that she'd talk like this.
Which sucks because i'd rather have a partner where I'd be SHOCKED if they didn't shut it down with guys who were being flirtatious.
What hurts me is that I'm always able to tell if another girl is being overly friendly or flirtatious towards me - so out of respect for my gf - i maintain an active distance.
So.... am I being overly insecure/paranoid? I doubt it, since I'm having these emotions, and they're valid for a reason. And in the past, I also had an ex who would talk to guys behind my back and lie, and my gut told me I just couldn't trust her. But who knows. I need an outside perspective...
Here are the screenshots.
You can tell me if I'm overreacting or not... (lol, the more i look over these screenshots, the more I realize i was duped. She doesn't talk to any of her female friends this way. She was never mine. For the streets)
Pt 2. Continued from last screenshot
https://imgur.com/a/j67fjWj
Btw, regarding the second guy above, in the full convo he was being very short and dry with his answers, not giving her any ammo. The dude clearly wasn't interested or flirting, plus he's married which my gf knew.
The male friend is clearly interested and being flirtatious.
When I confronted her about this a couple years back (when i only saw one of the convos.. whereas now i have more info), she said 'oh he's like that with all the girls.' Mmmm.. good lie and excuse.
Idk.. what's crazy is that I would NEVER talk to another girl like this, ESPECIALLY if she's being flirtatious with me.. and this is AFTER she got angry that some random chick sent me a picture of her dog.. which isn't flirtatious at all.
Thoughts?
submitted by istp4ever to amiwrong [link] [comments]
There's lots of winks, talking about getting drinks, 'friendly' joking, and this went on for maybe 1-2 years. I didn't even know he was being overly flirtatious and that they were hanging out multiple times.
The only time my gf told me about him was the one time they hung out and what he did for work. So from my perspective, there was barely anything to worry about.
But when I look at there messages, it seems less innocent.
I link to the messages at the end of this post.
Please read the context below so you can have more info on my situation before you make a rapid judgment.
To give some context:
1. Why did I search her phone? We both agree it's OK to search the other's phone if there's a genuine need to. Our logic (and we learned this from past relationships) is that if someone is giving no reason for you to snoop, then usually you feel no need to, and you won't find anything anyway. But if you have a gut feeling that says 'red flag,' then that's when you want to check your SO's phone, you'll probably find something.
With my gf, I've only searched her phone maybe once or twice in the past 2 years.
2. I feel like she's being a hypocrite. In the past, before the timeline of all these messages, there was once a female coworker who texted me a pic of her dog, so my gf snooped my phone and got upset about it. We both communicated, and I told her that yeah, I can tell that my coworker likes me, so I'm keeping a distance from her. However... this guy's clearly being overly flirtatious, and my gf actively communicates with him and tries to get drinks.
3. This is a new male friend, who she met after we started dating. He was organizing stuff for her organizational club, which is how they met. However, they haven't talked in a couple of years - because they are no longer part of that org.
The communication is too flirty/friendly. It would be extremely weird if my mother or my aunt talked to another guy this way.
4. She has a history of being a little too 'friendly' with guys.
- One time we traveled, went to a cabana at a day club, she got drunk, and she was talking to this one guy a lot, and told him that I'm her "#1" but that guy she was talking to is her "#2."
- In the same trip, our entire group met some dude at the pool who was cool. And my gf gets his number, texts him to come hang out with us the next day, being a little too friendly in how she asked with emojis and all, and then she deletes the text.. Hmm.. I wonder why
Wrapping up my thoughts
Even though this is a few years ago, I've always had a hunch that I couldn't 100% fully trust her, but this confirms it. I'm actually not surprised that she'd talk like this.
Which sucks because i'd rather have a partner where I'd be SHOCKED if they didn't shut it down with guys who were being flirtatious.
What hurts me is that I'm always able to tell if another girl is being overly friendly or flirtatious towards me - so out of respect for my gf - i maintain an active distance.
So.... am I being overly insecure/paranoid? I doubt it, since I'm having these emotions, and they're valid for a reason. And in the past, I also had an ex who would talk to guys behind my back and lie, and my gut told me I just couldn't trust her. But who knows. I need an outside perspective...
Here are the screenshots.
You can tell me if I'm overreacting or not... (lol, the more i look over these screenshots, the more I realize i was duped. She doesn't talk to any of her female friends this way. She was never mine. For the streets)
- My gf suggesting they could do happy hour 'all the time'
- Wink flirting, talking about hanging out
- More flirting, trying to get beers
- The 'male friend' suggesting that they watch a show together when he says tfti. And my gf being sad that they can't get happy hour anymore :(
- the guy being flirty talking about winky face, whipping out his tiny W, my gf wanting to hang out. Only saving grace is that she says 'don't take the winky the wrong way'
Pt 2. Continued from last screenshot
https://imgur.com/a/j67fjWj
- A second dude, where she says she "would love to see his face ;)"
Btw, regarding the second guy above, in the full convo he was being very short and dry with his answers, not giving her any ammo. The dude clearly wasn't interested or flirting, plus he's married which my gf knew.
The male friend is clearly interested and being flirtatious.
When I confronted her about this a couple years back (when i only saw one of the convos.. whereas now i have more info), she said 'oh he's like that with all the girls.' Mmmm.. good lie and excuse.
Idk.. what's crazy is that I would NEVER talk to another girl like this, ESPECIALLY if she's being flirtatious with me.. and this is AFTER she got angry that some random chick sent me a picture of her dog.. which isn't flirtatious at all.
Thoughts?
2024.05.11 20:07 That-Chap-Paul Why I find the idea of joining a church so difficult.
This is something that’s been knocking around in my head all day and I really wanna get it off my chest. It’s one of those anxieties that continue to exist despite you knowing better intellectually and I just thought sharing it with like-minded people would be helpful.
I’m new to Christianity, only recently arrived after passing through Buddhism, Taoism and the occult/new age as well as other things like a deep (and still ongoing) study of the tarot. Those stops really helped me, I feel, but it’s left me in a position where my take on Christianity is…well…very Unorthodox. Part of me wants to join a church, to put roots down and belong somewhere as until now I have felt like a nomad (not just spiritually, either), but another part of me fears that either my idiosyncrasies will be considered heresy or that I’ll end up sacrificing my own individuality and just accept whatever the church leaders say.
I worry that my own inquiries have lead me down a wrong path, especially when I let the fundamentalist in my head tell me all my other beliefs are “the devil trying to trick me” (even though I don’t believe in a singular “the devil”) but I also don’t feel like I could trust any man-made institution to tell me the “right” answer either. When I let the anxiety get to me, I’m left in a state where I feel like a man peering over a ledge with that weird vertigo sensation that tells you to jump off. I wonder if I should just disregard my own instincts as the flawed feelings of a sinner and go along with the pack or if I should carry on trying to understand God on my own terms, remain alone, and risk possible failure in my quest to be at one with the divine because of this or that bit of doctrine which I didn’t follow.
But even doctrine doesn’t help, does it? The vicar who baptised me as a baby later got arrested for possession of CP. I’ve seen tapes of him, he talked very eloquently and could quote scripture very well, but clearly his alignment with God was way off. There’s just no clear path, which is unnerving since said path is supposed to be so straight and narrow.
It’s like science, you can know all the facts of science, you can list all the elements and all the laws of motion, but none of that is knowing science unless you know the scientific METHOD, until you’ve internalised the means of studying and peer review and the underlying philosophy at the heart of it all, you don’t truly know science. I can’t help but feel that God is similar, but what if that is just arrogance on my part? Or what if I’m just stubborn cos I don’t like the idea of giving up tarot and all the other cool stuff I like? But that stuff is what brought me to Christ. The way I see it, Christ is the thing which makes all the other stuff make sense, He is the realisation and the resolution to them, but all around me is messaging telling me that what I believe is heresy and blasphemy. It’s a constant game of naughts and crosses with myself that always ends in a draw.
I’ve still not joined a Church. I may never join one (though the Quakers seem like a potential good match) but despite that, I’m still going to make an effort to be with other Christians. I have a Catholic friend I talk to every six months or so, but I’m also going to be attending a Bible study group next week. We were asked to study a chapter of revelations beforehand and I felt so encouraged by it as it seemed to gel so perfectly with my beliefs to the point where it felt like a message from God. I made copious notes and cannot wait to share them. I just hope they’re received well. 😅
submitted by That-Chap-Paul to OpenChristian [link] [comments]
I’m new to Christianity, only recently arrived after passing through Buddhism, Taoism and the occult/new age as well as other things like a deep (and still ongoing) study of the tarot. Those stops really helped me, I feel, but it’s left me in a position where my take on Christianity is…well…very Unorthodox. Part of me wants to join a church, to put roots down and belong somewhere as until now I have felt like a nomad (not just spiritually, either), but another part of me fears that either my idiosyncrasies will be considered heresy or that I’ll end up sacrificing my own individuality and just accept whatever the church leaders say.
I worry that my own inquiries have lead me down a wrong path, especially when I let the fundamentalist in my head tell me all my other beliefs are “the devil trying to trick me” (even though I don’t believe in a singular “the devil”) but I also don’t feel like I could trust any man-made institution to tell me the “right” answer either. When I let the anxiety get to me, I’m left in a state where I feel like a man peering over a ledge with that weird vertigo sensation that tells you to jump off. I wonder if I should just disregard my own instincts as the flawed feelings of a sinner and go along with the pack or if I should carry on trying to understand God on my own terms, remain alone, and risk possible failure in my quest to be at one with the divine because of this or that bit of doctrine which I didn’t follow.
But even doctrine doesn’t help, does it? The vicar who baptised me as a baby later got arrested for possession of CP. I’ve seen tapes of him, he talked very eloquently and could quote scripture very well, but clearly his alignment with God was way off. There’s just no clear path, which is unnerving since said path is supposed to be so straight and narrow.
It’s like science, you can know all the facts of science, you can list all the elements and all the laws of motion, but none of that is knowing science unless you know the scientific METHOD, until you’ve internalised the means of studying and peer review and the underlying philosophy at the heart of it all, you don’t truly know science. I can’t help but feel that God is similar, but what if that is just arrogance on my part? Or what if I’m just stubborn cos I don’t like the idea of giving up tarot and all the other cool stuff I like? But that stuff is what brought me to Christ. The way I see it, Christ is the thing which makes all the other stuff make sense, He is the realisation and the resolution to them, but all around me is messaging telling me that what I believe is heresy and blasphemy. It’s a constant game of naughts and crosses with myself that always ends in a draw.
I’ve still not joined a Church. I may never join one (though the Quakers seem like a potential good match) but despite that, I’m still going to make an effort to be with other Christians. I have a Catholic friend I talk to every six months or so, but I’m also going to be attending a Bible study group next week. We were asked to study a chapter of revelations beforehand and I felt so encouraged by it as it seemed to gel so perfectly with my beliefs to the point where it felt like a message from God. I made copious notes and cannot wait to share them. I just hope they’re received well. 😅
2024.05.11 20:06 Blueberry_honeybee0 AITA for exposing my ex best friend because I despise her?
Back when I F was in high school I had this group of friends including 4 other girls and 5 guys. It was a pretty large friend group and now looking back, nobody liked eachother and everyone would shit talk abt eachother. I was pretty naive then and when I transferred to this high school I quickly trusted these people and became friends with them. My mom and sister never liked them and knew they were up to no good. they made it quite clear they disliked them and my friends disliked my family aswell. Infact whenever they would come over they would make sure to leave a mess and destroy a lot of my things. They would go out of their way to make my parents know they disliked them just as much, like this one time they took this giant painting my mother had recently bought and an auction and used it as a frisbee while I was gone to get snacks from the kitchen. When I came back it was in rough condition and needless to say my mom was very upset.
I wasn’t really close to my mom or sister so I wouldn’t rlly believe that my friends could be as fake as my family told me they were (yes I was very blind and dumb). Although soon the friend group started talking shit about my family and my parents in-front of me and they’d acc expect me to laugh with them. When I wouldn’t, I was called a b!tch who couldn’t handle a ‘joke’. I wouldn’t let them disrespect my family and would often tell them off. This led to everyone slowly distancing themselves from me. They’d leave me out when they’d go to grab lunch or go out and they made groups shit talking abt me (it was all rlly 8th grader) (we were sophomores), this one girl in particular though, lets call her Maddie, started to get close to me but I always thought she was a bit off.
Anyways fast forward to when this guy from the group, let’s call him Jaden and me started hanging out a lot tgt. He’d be the only one who wouldn’t join in with their shit and I rlly started to trust him and grew closer to him. I would tell maddie about him because at this point she was my best friend and I also trusted her ALOT. Maddie encouraged me to hang out with him and soon we started dating and she was a major part of that happening.
Then Covid came around and everyone was staying home, me and jaden would talk online and everything was fine (or so I thought) Maddie became rlly different and now around jaden, she’d get rlly flirty but I would just ignore it bcz she did that with basically everyone. During Covid her and jaden started video calling EVERY NIGHT and I started getting uncomfortable with this new found friendship. Maddie started cutting me off out of the blue and started spreading all kinds of rumours about me and my family while jaden started getting closer to Maddie and back to the friend group. At one point she even made fake nudes with her horrible photoshopping skills and tried to spread them around. I felt rlly isolated because now I’d see them on instagram going out alone but all Jaden would say is ‘oh she’s just my best friend’ This also kinda made me mad because Maddie was my best friend and in a matter of months I was just ‘thrown away’.
Eventually I stopped talking to the friend group and Jaden was the only person I’d trust because I still believed his entire story. Sometimes i would get rlly mad and talk to Maddie about how I thought this new friendship is weird and they shd tone it down a little bit because being so touchy with my bf rlly wasn’t cool.
Jaden got rlly mad when I went off on Maddie and later broke up with me. This entire time everyone gaslit me into thinking nothing going on. Just a week after we broke up Maddie and Jaden started dating and I was portrayed as the psycho ex.
I left that high school cuz my mental health just couldn’t handle it but then they started spreading rumours about me and saying I’m an asshole for being jealous and how my family is crazy. So I decided I’d post all of the texts I had of Maddie shit talking abt the friend group on our high schools anonymous Instagram confessions account and now im being attracked for being an asshole because I ‘ruined everyones friendship’ and the group broke apart. I think what I did was justified considering how much I went through because on them in the span of just 2 years. So AITA?
submitted by Blueberry_honeybee0 to CharlotteDobreYouTube [link] [comments]
I wasn’t really close to my mom or sister so I wouldn’t rlly believe that my friends could be as fake as my family told me they were (yes I was very blind and dumb). Although soon the friend group started talking shit about my family and my parents in-front of me and they’d acc expect me to laugh with them. When I wouldn’t, I was called a b!tch who couldn’t handle a ‘joke’. I wouldn’t let them disrespect my family and would often tell them off. This led to everyone slowly distancing themselves from me. They’d leave me out when they’d go to grab lunch or go out and they made groups shit talking abt me (it was all rlly 8th grader) (we were sophomores), this one girl in particular though, lets call her Maddie, started to get close to me but I always thought she was a bit off.
Anyways fast forward to when this guy from the group, let’s call him Jaden and me started hanging out a lot tgt. He’d be the only one who wouldn’t join in with their shit and I rlly started to trust him and grew closer to him. I would tell maddie about him because at this point she was my best friend and I also trusted her ALOT. Maddie encouraged me to hang out with him and soon we started dating and she was a major part of that happening.
Then Covid came around and everyone was staying home, me and jaden would talk online and everything was fine (or so I thought) Maddie became rlly different and now around jaden, she’d get rlly flirty but I would just ignore it bcz she did that with basically everyone. During Covid her and jaden started video calling EVERY NIGHT and I started getting uncomfortable with this new found friendship. Maddie started cutting me off out of the blue and started spreading all kinds of rumours about me and my family while jaden started getting closer to Maddie and back to the friend group. At one point she even made fake nudes with her horrible photoshopping skills and tried to spread them around. I felt rlly isolated because now I’d see them on instagram going out alone but all Jaden would say is ‘oh she’s just my best friend’ This also kinda made me mad because Maddie was my best friend and in a matter of months I was just ‘thrown away’.
Eventually I stopped talking to the friend group and Jaden was the only person I’d trust because I still believed his entire story. Sometimes i would get rlly mad and talk to Maddie about how I thought this new friendship is weird and they shd tone it down a little bit because being so touchy with my bf rlly wasn’t cool.
Jaden got rlly mad when I went off on Maddie and later broke up with me. This entire time everyone gaslit me into thinking nothing going on. Just a week after we broke up Maddie and Jaden started dating and I was portrayed as the psycho ex.
I left that high school cuz my mental health just couldn’t handle it but then they started spreading rumours about me and saying I’m an asshole for being jealous and how my family is crazy. So I decided I’d post all of the texts I had of Maddie shit talking abt the friend group on our high schools anonymous Instagram confessions account and now im being attracked for being an asshole because I ‘ruined everyones friendship’ and the group broke apart. I think what I did was justified considering how much I went through because on them in the span of just 2 years. So AITA?
2024.05.11 20:04 Eslo90 This guy wanted to play cEDH against a casual pod
This is a long story with a satisfying ending, about what could happen if you insist playing cedh against a casual crew.
I am at the lgs, playing with my usual crew. We play casual decks, sometimes optimized stuff, but nothing even close to cedh.
This guy comes in. He's a regular with the cedh crew, but that night he is alone, and asks to play with us. We say sure, but isn't your deck a cedh Jhoira? He says "noooooo, this old thing? Don't worry, it's not that deck, I have changed it. Now it's a simple malcolm-kediss." The he proceeds to win on turn 3 after everyone else goes land-pass, land-manarock-pass.
We're like hmmm cool, but do you have another deck that's less strong? He says sure, and proceeds to play his gitrog monster, winning on turn 4.
Then some of the people at the pod go home, and I join another pod of people I know play at my level. That specific group is very against super competitive decks and likes to play chill, grindy games.
Gitrog guy asks if we can add him for a 5 players game. One of the very inclusive people at the pod goes "sure, the more the merrier" so we play.
I say "watch out, he comboes off on turn 4". Gitrog guy says "don't worry guys, you just have to counter or remove my combo piece with the right timing."
The same thing as before happens. He just comboes off while everyone else was just getting started.
But then the cool thing happens. We say "cool! GG, man! That was a nice combo you pulled. Now since you haven't interacted with any of us, we'll continue playing for second place!" He complained "oh come on, let's play again" but we were set on actually playing, so we kindly declined. He then said "I won, but now I am feeling like I've actually lost"
He watched us playing our slow game, that ended on turn nine or so. All the while he kept giving advice such as "you guys should play more removal" or "oh, I see you use that card, so I'm assuming you play such and such combo pieces to go along with it." (the answer was "no, I don't use this card as a combo piece. I just like to use it on its own.)
He is not a bad guy by any stretch of the imagination, he is actually a nice person. Just couldn't read the room and was genuinely interested in giving us advice on how to improve our decks to be more competitive, not understanding we didn't need or want that. He couldn't fathom how edh could be not cedh.
submitted by Eslo90 to EDH [link] [comments]
I am at the lgs, playing with my usual crew. We play casual decks, sometimes optimized stuff, but nothing even close to cedh.
This guy comes in. He's a regular with the cedh crew, but that night he is alone, and asks to play with us. We say sure, but isn't your deck a cedh Jhoira? He says "noooooo, this old thing? Don't worry, it's not that deck, I have changed it. Now it's a simple malcolm-kediss." The he proceeds to win on turn 3 after everyone else goes land-pass, land-manarock-pass.
We're like hmmm cool, but do you have another deck that's less strong? He says sure, and proceeds to play his gitrog monster, winning on turn 4.
Then some of the people at the pod go home, and I join another pod of people I know play at my level. That specific group is very against super competitive decks and likes to play chill, grindy games.
Gitrog guy asks if we can add him for a 5 players game. One of the very inclusive people at the pod goes "sure, the more the merrier" so we play.
I say "watch out, he comboes off on turn 4". Gitrog guy says "don't worry guys, you just have to counter or remove my combo piece with the right timing."
The same thing as before happens. He just comboes off while everyone else was just getting started.
But then the cool thing happens. We say "cool! GG, man! That was a nice combo you pulled. Now since you haven't interacted with any of us, we'll continue playing for second place!" He complained "oh come on, let's play again" but we were set on actually playing, so we kindly declined. He then said "I won, but now I am feeling like I've actually lost"
He watched us playing our slow game, that ended on turn nine or so. All the while he kept giving advice such as "you guys should play more removal" or "oh, I see you use that card, so I'm assuming you play such and such combo pieces to go along with it." (the answer was "no, I don't use this card as a combo piece. I just like to use it on its own.)
He is not a bad guy by any stretch of the imagination, he is actually a nice person. Just couldn't read the room and was genuinely interested in giving us advice on how to improve our decks to be more competitive, not understanding we didn't need or want that. He couldn't fathom how edh could be not cedh.
2024.05.11 20:03 tempaltforme 28 M USA - show me your best spells and scrolls (games and shows)
Hello! I bet you're wondering why I gathered you here today. I'm looking for someone with similar interests to mine! Shocking I know. But before we discuss whether cake is a sandwich, or fun frog facts, I suppose I'll share some of those things I'm interested in and looking for so you can join my wizard circle in confidence:
I'm heavily into writing, gaming, biking, show watching, and just generally having a good time. No addiction to the grind, I'm addicted to the unwind. I'd LOVE to have someone to play or watch things with. Some of my current top games are Magic (top 1% of players 🤓), Hearthstone, every card game ever, D&D, Tower Unite, Stardew, hundreds more. Please help me. Some of the shows I am interested in watching are Walking Dead, Adventure time, and am open to non anime suggestions. I am sure I could list more but my brain spell is running low on mana.
What else is there. I'm in the US as the title implies, west coast. White guy, 5'7 with long hair, selfie provided upon request. HUGE preference to someone within the country or easily compatible time zones. I want to get to know you and talk mostly frequently! If you don't have discord I'm not sure you should message me as that's the only social I have. Yeah, no snap or insta, I'm cool like that. I'm bad at intros I don't know what else to put so if somehow this post is up your alley, shoot a dm or chat as I think I get both! Please include basic A/S/L
submitted by tempaltforme to MakeNewFriendsHere [link] [comments]
I'm heavily into writing, gaming, biking, show watching, and just generally having a good time. No addiction to the grind, I'm addicted to the unwind. I'd LOVE to have someone to play or watch things with. Some of my current top games are Magic (top 1% of players 🤓), Hearthstone, every card game ever, D&D, Tower Unite, Stardew, hundreds more. Please help me. Some of the shows I am interested in watching are Walking Dead, Adventure time, and am open to non anime suggestions. I am sure I could list more but my brain spell is running low on mana.
What else is there. I'm in the US as the title implies, west coast. White guy, 5'7 with long hair, selfie provided upon request. HUGE preference to someone within the country or easily compatible time zones. I want to get to know you and talk mostly frequently! If you don't have discord I'm not sure you should message me as that's the only social I have. Yeah, no snap or insta, I'm cool like that. I'm bad at intros I don't know what else to put so if somehow this post is up your alley, shoot a dm or chat as I think I get both! Please include basic A/S/L
2024.05.11 20:01 micktalian The Gardens of Deathworlders: A Blooming Love (Part 66)
Part 66 What makes a species scary (Part 1) (Part 65)
[Help support me on Ko-fi so I can try to commission some character art and totally not spend it all on Gundams]
With her whole-body sensory suite, vastly increased processing capabilities, and a self-recharging power cell and battery system capable of sustaining moderate activity for years at a time without refueling or recharge, Nula'trula had spent over two days straight wandering about the Amenities Section of The Hammer and taking it all in. Between the vibrant lights of the higher density entertainment and shopping districts, the cozy suburban segments full of smiling faces, and the serene nature areas that held flora from across the stars, there was so much that it would take months, if not years, to see it all. Now that her new physical form allowed her to feel the difference betweens in the artificial day-night cycle's cool mornings, warm afternoons, and chilly evenings, the sights and sounds weren't the only things to be experienced. And while she couldn't be certain that the various fragrances which graced her olfactory sensors were being interpreted the same way her creators would have experienced the smells, the android woman was simply happy to have this full and nearly organic ability to perceive her surroundings.
The particular place Nula had found herself walking through at the moment was lush with fully natural plant life, filled with actual birds chirping and fluttering about the domed off area, and even featured an immaculate recreation of the physical conditions of a world she had never even heard of. Though most of the people in this aviary and greenhouse were Qui'ztar, just like every other location throughout The Hammer, the second most numerous species the artificial woman saw as she took in the sights and smells seemed oddly familiar to her. Their snouts weren't quite long enough, their facial shape was far rounder than it was triangular, and their vertical slit pupils were quite unique. However, despite those obvious differences and the preloaded information in her upgraded memory banks informing her that they were from an Ascended feline species, these Kikitau bore an uncanny resemblance to the Artuv'trula species who created her.
After only a few minutes of walking through this natural area, reading the various signs describing the flora and fauna, and basking in every sensory input she could, Nula'trula noticed herself slowly spending more time casually glancing at the other people also enjoying this space. Having spent most of the past couple days going unnoticed as she wandered about the ship, and only receiving the occasional pleasant smile from passersby, there had been no real want or need to pay close attention to the sentient beings who called this ship their home. However, as the android woman bent over to smell the flowers and carefully examined the intricate structures of some of these plants, she couldn't help but notice many of the feline eyes falling on her. As she approached a small water feature, a glistening pond with a small creek flowing into it via a waist high waterfall, Nula happened to see a Qui’ztar security guard approaching her, as well as one of the Kikitau seemingly half hiding behind a tree.
“State your purpose for being here.” The moment the security guard was within just a few paces of Nula, she spoke up with a tone that implied she was speaking to a non-sentient being. “And who is your owner?”
“Oh! Uh… I don't have an owner…” Being unsure of how to respond, Nula hesitated for a moment and glanced around. “And I was just enjoying this beautiful and serene place… Is this area not open to the public? Because if so-”
“You're a sapient AI?!?” Those crimson red eyes which had held a noticeable amount of annoyance just a moment ago now looked positively embarrassed. “My deepest apologies, ma'am. I had received a report that an unescorted automaton was lost and wandering alone. That was obviously untrue and, again, I apologize. But, yes, this area is open to the public. You are free to enjoy it to your heart's content.”
“If my presence here is causing discomfort to anyone, I can leave or-”
As Nula quickly looked around, she noticed a few of the Kikitau staring her way in a manner that made her feel a bit uneasy. Hesitantly, the android peered to the side of the brick house of a woman who was standing in front of her and towards the feline who was still skittishly peeking out from behind a thick evergreen. Following the AI woman’s glowing golden eyes, the security guard noticed the poorly obscured person who, quite likely, was the individual who submitted the anonymous report that had brought her here for nothing. Considering that most of this Qui’ztar’s job was to handle misunderstandings such as this, especially with security being so tight, the proper course of action was already clear to her.
“No, you don't have to leave.” There was an almost tired and annoyed inflection in the blue woman’s deep voice as she made a gesture with her head meant to beckon over the cowering Kikitau. “And I suspect we can settle this right now… You! Get over here!”
“Oh! We don’t have to-”
“Trust me, it’s better to talk these kinds of things out.” As the Qui’ztar’s red eyes momentarily returned to Nula, she spoke with a soft voice and shot the digital being a quick wink before returning to her commanding tone and directing her piercing gaze to the now approaching Kikitau. “I am Sergeant Helicha of Ten’yoish, acting security officer for this area, and I assume you are the person who called in the report about an alone and possibly lost automaton?”
“Ye- Yes, ma- ma’am.” Though the feline’s stuttering response came at no surprise to Helicha but thoroughly confused Nula. “M- my name is Minchin Salocia and I’m the c- caretaker of this garden. I- I‘m sorry if I filed a false report, ma- ma’am.”
“Ah, don’t concern yourself about something like that, Minchin Salocia. This was just an innocent mistake, isn’t that right? And it isn’t everyday that a sapient android visits your greenhouse, now is it?” As the security guard's facial expression shifted from stern to surprisingly compassionate, she turned back towards Nula. “I’m sure our friend here isn’t offended by your confusion and we can all move on with our day in peace and harmony.”
“Oh no! I'm not offended at all.” Nula bowed slightly towards the clearly intimidated cat-man who flinched slightly at the motion. “And I'm sorry if I scared you in any way. My name is Nula'trula but you can call me Nula if you prefer.”
“I don’t believe Minchin here is scared of you, Nula'trula. Isn’t that right?” While Helicha had simply believed it was her large size and ample muscle mass that had been causing this man’s timid behavior, the look in his violet, vertical eyes caused her to question that assumption.
“A- Actually…”
/------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Hey, Hompta…” As soon as Nula spotted her furry little friend standing in front of Tens's mech with a tablet in his hand, she sheepishly approached him and tried to get his attention without distracting him from his work.
“Aho, Nula!” Hompta didn't lift his eyes from his tablet as he greeted the digital woman. “How's it?”
“Can… Can I ask you a question? And please be completely honest with your answer.”
“Uh… Sure…?” The Kyim’ayik man still hadn’t looked up to see the almost painful expression on the AI's mechanical face as he carefully examined the data he was receiving.
“Is my face and form scary?”
For a brief second, the beaver-otter froze in place, his eyes staring blankly at his tablet, before he slowly turned towards the canine android. Though his expression was initially more of confusion than anything else, the moment he saw the sad look on his friend’s face, he immediately knew this was a serious question.
“Well… You aren't scary to me. The only beings in this galaxy that actually scare me are Nishnabek.” An empathic smile spread across Hompta’s whiskered lips as he lowered his tablet. “But… I do know some species have a natural fear of canids. It’s something that happens when a species evolves alongside, are hunted by, apex predator canines. Sort of a… genetic phobia, if that makes sense.”
“Is… Is that common? Your species doesn’t have that phobia, does it?”
“Ehhh… I wouldn’t say it’s rare…” Hompta was struggling to find the right balance of honesty and compassion in his explanation, especially considering the clearly distressed expression written all across Nula’s incredibly detailed mechanical face. “And no. Gi’schia does not have any species that quite match the canine category. It does, however, have predatory felines. Some Kyim’ayik I’ve met just don’t like Kikitau or Op’thulians because they’re vaguely reminiscent of our ancestral adversaries. Nishnabe, on the other hand, genuinely are terrifying pretty much no matter what.”
“That's the same thing the security officer said.” Where the android's face had softened into a slight smile, it was the small furry man's turn to have a look of distressed confusion appear on his face. “Not about the Nishnabe, but about fears related to morphologies.”
“Hold on! What's this about a security officer?!? What have you been doing, Nula?!?”
“I was just exploring a greenhouse meant to simulate the Kikitau homeworld. At least I think that's what Caretaker Minchin told me.” Seeing as that wasn't anywhere enough to alleviate her friend's concern, Nula began recounting her encounter that happened less than an hour ago. “While I was exploring the greenhouse, a security guard approached me after receiving a report of an unsupervised automaton. As it turns out, the caretaker noticed me, saw how I looked, and got scared. Scared enough to call in a security guard. Luckily, after Helicha brought us together, Minchin and I were able to talk it out. And I think I may even have made another friend! But…”
While Nula'trula's voice trailed off, the slight smile that had spread across her lips began to show a certain sadness.
“Being judged by the way you look isn't fun, is it?”
“No. No, it isn't fun at all.”
“But you said you think you made a friend?”
“Oh yes!” Nula's heartfelt grin returned as she turned to look in the general direction of the nature area she had just come from. “Minchin is a very nice man. After we started talking, he showed me all of his favorite plants and birds. And he even invited me to come back whenever I wanted. But… Well… He kept looking at me in a certain way and…”
“What kinda way?” Though Hompta could see something was still bothering his friend, he couldn't help but give the android’s impressively sculpted body a quick once over.
“Honestly, I'm not sure.”
“Could he have been flirting?”
“Wha-! What do you mean?!?” That possibility had obviously not yet crossed Nula's mind and a slight glow suddenly became visible from between the small and finely crafted paneling of her mechanical face. “Why would he be… Why would he do that if I scared him?!?”
“I mean…” Hompta began chuckling in an adorably high pitched tone. “You aren't too far off from the morphology of Kikitau. And, if I remember right, they are a female dominant species. I'll bet money that man's been scared of every woman he's ever been attracted to!”
“Really?!? I- Uh… Well…” The light emanating from Nula's face grew more intense as she slowly reached into the small pocket on her thin, loose fitting, and flowing top that covered just her chest and arms but not her sculpted ab-like stomach paneling. “He did give me this before I left.”
As the canine android pulled out a short cutting of small, purple flowers with tiny pink spots, Hompta immediately knew what he was looking at. While the hyn’jutori plant was incredibly similar to countless other minty flora that exist across the galaxy, there was a very unique and particular fragrance that was recognizable to anyone who had spent enough time around Kikitau. While it wasn't exactly bad smelling, the sweet and crisp aroma greatly overpowered the other aromas produced to the plant, there was a certain odor that species who could consciously pick up on pheromones would notice. And while that scent wasn't particularly strong, just enough for the little beaver-otters to know what he was looking at, the fact Nula had been given the flower gave Hompta all the confirmation he needed.
“Oh, if he gave that, he was definitely flirting!” The squeaky giggle had become a full on cackle as the furry little man looked up at the now obviously flustered and blushing android. “What were you two talking about before he gave that to you, huh?”
“Oh! Um… Uh…” Nula was at a loss for words and her glowing face and fidgeting body made that clear as day while she stared at the blossom in her hand. “Why would you think that him giving me this would be flirting?”
“Nula, hyn’jutori is the Kikitau national plant, acts almost like a drug, and is prized above all else. And… Well… They use it as an aphrodisiac!”
/------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Are you Minchin Salocia?” A masculine and authoritative voice called out right as the feline man began reaching for the control panel to open the door to his quarters.
“Uh… Yes…?” As Min turned to see who was speaking to him, he saw a species he was unfamiliar with. Though this person looked vaguely similar to the Qui’ztar that constituted the majority of this ship's population, the medium tan skin, relatively short stature, and piercing brown eyes were quite unique. “And you are?”
“I am Tensebwse of the Nishnabe.” As Tens slowly approached the Kikitau man, his ball-headed club mounted to his thigh in a manner similar to how Qui’ztar often carried their bladed weapons, he neither blinked nor shifted his stoic expression. “I heard you met my friend Nula earlier.”
“Nula?” Though Min wasn't familiar with the approaching man's species, he could immediately recognize the expression on the man's face. “Yes, yes! She is a wonderful person and I am very glad to have met her. But… Uh… Why do you ask?”
“Well… She's my friend.” Tens came to a stop a pace and a half away from the cat-man, just within reach if either were to try to take a swing. “And you gave her a hyn’jutori flower.”
“Oh! Yes, she said she liked the smell so, yah know, I-” Min panicked for a split second and tried to play off his reason for giving the blossom to the, frankly, quite curvy android he had met just a few hours ago and was still thinking about. However, when he saw Tens's eye twitch, he cut himself off, took a deep breath, and decided against trying to lie about his reasoning. “I thought she was really cute and… Well…”
“Uh huh…” Even though this Kikitau was a few centimeters taller than Tens and they both had similar, somewhat wiry frames, especially in comparison to the truly imposing Qui’ztar primes, Tens somehow seemed much larger than Min in this moment. “And you're not scared of her canine shape?”
“I mean… Kinda… A little bit… But…”
“But…”
“Well, you're her friend! You know how she looks!” After half-shouting a bit louder than he intended, Min paused for a moment as he looked around to see if there was anyone within earshot. “Don't tell any of the other Kikitau about this… But… Uh… She's scary enough to be quite attractive, if you know what I mean.”
Despite doing his best to play the part of a deadly cousin trying to look out for someone he truly cared about, Tens couldn't help but let a slight smirk peek out from the corners of his mouth as he let out a light chuckle.
“Yeah… I think I know what you mean…” In an instant, the Nishnabe's stoic expression returned as he gave the Kikitau a quick once over. “So you were flirting with my friend?”
“Well… Yes… I- I… Uh…”
“Relax.” Tens finally let his glare fade into a friendly smile. Though he wasn't done grilling this man just yet, his first impression of this Kikitau was far more positive than a couple of the others he had met over his years of anti-piracy work. “I just wanna make sure you weren't leading her on.”
“Oh! No! Not at all! I swear!”
“Eh, eh, eh. Like I said, relax, niji. You seem like a decent guy. Nula's my friend and… Well… She doesn't have much social experience. Like, at all. She didn't even know caniphobia was a thing until Hompta explained it to her. And I know how y'all kazho-bemadzejek are around nemosh so-”
“I'm sorry. What did you say?” The look on Min's face wasn't offended in any way which told Tens that his Nishnabemwin words weren't understood by the cat-person. “What is a kaz-ho-”
“Sorry, I forget that not everyone has a translator implant.” Tens’s soft and slightly embarrassed smile brought a bit more confusion to Min’s violet, vertical eyes. “It means feline sapient people. And nomesh is my people’s word for domesticated canines.”
“Domesticated canines?!?”
“Yeah, my people domesticated a type of canine so long ago that we kinda have caniphilia.” Tens’s overly simplified explanation drew a coy and almost blushing smile to Min’s furry face. “Eeee, not like that! It's more that we see canines and immediately want to make friends with them. One of my cousins tried to pet one of those massive nethivichioks while on a hunt on a Nukatov world once. Basically, we see all canines as our long lost companions. Sort of the opposite of being terrified of anything even vaguely canine-shaped. But, anyways, I just wanted to be sure you weren't gonna do anything to hurt my friend. Like I said, she doesn't have much social experience. So, you're gonna be nice to her, right?”
“Of course, of course! If I'm being entirely honest… And please don't tell her this… I was actually planning on asking her out on a date if she stopped by the greenhouse again while I was working.”
“Were yah now?” Tens's smile became almost devious and his eyes grew more intense. “In that case, we may want to step inside your quarters. There's some things you should probably know which are… Let's just say… Classified.”
submitted by micktalian to HFY [link] [comments]
[Help support me on Ko-fi so I can try to commission some character art and totally not spend it all on Gundams]
With her whole-body sensory suite, vastly increased processing capabilities, and a self-recharging power cell and battery system capable of sustaining moderate activity for years at a time without refueling or recharge, Nula'trula had spent over two days straight wandering about the Amenities Section of The Hammer and taking it all in. Between the vibrant lights of the higher density entertainment and shopping districts, the cozy suburban segments full of smiling faces, and the serene nature areas that held flora from across the stars, there was so much that it would take months, if not years, to see it all. Now that her new physical form allowed her to feel the difference betweens in the artificial day-night cycle's cool mornings, warm afternoons, and chilly evenings, the sights and sounds weren't the only things to be experienced. And while she couldn't be certain that the various fragrances which graced her olfactory sensors were being interpreted the same way her creators would have experienced the smells, the android woman was simply happy to have this full and nearly organic ability to perceive her surroundings.
The particular place Nula had found herself walking through at the moment was lush with fully natural plant life, filled with actual birds chirping and fluttering about the domed off area, and even featured an immaculate recreation of the physical conditions of a world she had never even heard of. Though most of the people in this aviary and greenhouse were Qui'ztar, just like every other location throughout The Hammer, the second most numerous species the artificial woman saw as she took in the sights and smells seemed oddly familiar to her. Their snouts weren't quite long enough, their facial shape was far rounder than it was triangular, and their vertical slit pupils were quite unique. However, despite those obvious differences and the preloaded information in her upgraded memory banks informing her that they were from an Ascended feline species, these Kikitau bore an uncanny resemblance to the Artuv'trula species who created her.
After only a few minutes of walking through this natural area, reading the various signs describing the flora and fauna, and basking in every sensory input she could, Nula'trula noticed herself slowly spending more time casually glancing at the other people also enjoying this space. Having spent most of the past couple days going unnoticed as she wandered about the ship, and only receiving the occasional pleasant smile from passersby, there had been no real want or need to pay close attention to the sentient beings who called this ship their home. However, as the android woman bent over to smell the flowers and carefully examined the intricate structures of some of these plants, she couldn't help but notice many of the feline eyes falling on her. As she approached a small water feature, a glistening pond with a small creek flowing into it via a waist high waterfall, Nula happened to see a Qui’ztar security guard approaching her, as well as one of the Kikitau seemingly half hiding behind a tree.
“State your purpose for being here.” The moment the security guard was within just a few paces of Nula, she spoke up with a tone that implied she was speaking to a non-sentient being. “And who is your owner?”
“Oh! Uh… I don't have an owner…” Being unsure of how to respond, Nula hesitated for a moment and glanced around. “And I was just enjoying this beautiful and serene place… Is this area not open to the public? Because if so-”
“You're a sapient AI?!?” Those crimson red eyes which had held a noticeable amount of annoyance just a moment ago now looked positively embarrassed. “My deepest apologies, ma'am. I had received a report that an unescorted automaton was lost and wandering alone. That was obviously untrue and, again, I apologize. But, yes, this area is open to the public. You are free to enjoy it to your heart's content.”
“If my presence here is causing discomfort to anyone, I can leave or-”
As Nula quickly looked around, she noticed a few of the Kikitau staring her way in a manner that made her feel a bit uneasy. Hesitantly, the android peered to the side of the brick house of a woman who was standing in front of her and towards the feline who was still skittishly peeking out from behind a thick evergreen. Following the AI woman’s glowing golden eyes, the security guard noticed the poorly obscured person who, quite likely, was the individual who submitted the anonymous report that had brought her here for nothing. Considering that most of this Qui’ztar’s job was to handle misunderstandings such as this, especially with security being so tight, the proper course of action was already clear to her.
“No, you don't have to leave.” There was an almost tired and annoyed inflection in the blue woman’s deep voice as she made a gesture with her head meant to beckon over the cowering Kikitau. “And I suspect we can settle this right now… You! Get over here!”
“Oh! We don’t have to-”
“Trust me, it’s better to talk these kinds of things out.” As the Qui’ztar’s red eyes momentarily returned to Nula, she spoke with a soft voice and shot the digital being a quick wink before returning to her commanding tone and directing her piercing gaze to the now approaching Kikitau. “I am Sergeant Helicha of Ten’yoish, acting security officer for this area, and I assume you are the person who called in the report about an alone and possibly lost automaton?”
“Ye- Yes, ma- ma’am.” Though the feline’s stuttering response came at no surprise to Helicha but thoroughly confused Nula. “M- my name is Minchin Salocia and I’m the c- caretaker of this garden. I- I‘m sorry if I filed a false report, ma- ma’am.”
“Ah, don’t concern yourself about something like that, Minchin Salocia. This was just an innocent mistake, isn’t that right? And it isn’t everyday that a sapient android visits your greenhouse, now is it?” As the security guard's facial expression shifted from stern to surprisingly compassionate, she turned back towards Nula. “I’m sure our friend here isn’t offended by your confusion and we can all move on with our day in peace and harmony.”
“Oh no! I'm not offended at all.” Nula bowed slightly towards the clearly intimidated cat-man who flinched slightly at the motion. “And I'm sorry if I scared you in any way. My name is Nula'trula but you can call me Nula if you prefer.”
“I don’t believe Minchin here is scared of you, Nula'trula. Isn’t that right?” While Helicha had simply believed it was her large size and ample muscle mass that had been causing this man’s timid behavior, the look in his violet, vertical eyes caused her to question that assumption.
“A- Actually…”
/------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Hey, Hompta…” As soon as Nula spotted her furry little friend standing in front of Tens's mech with a tablet in his hand, she sheepishly approached him and tried to get his attention without distracting him from his work.
“Aho, Nula!” Hompta didn't lift his eyes from his tablet as he greeted the digital woman. “How's it?”
“Can… Can I ask you a question? And please be completely honest with your answer.”
“Uh… Sure…?” The Kyim’ayik man still hadn’t looked up to see the almost painful expression on the AI's mechanical face as he carefully examined the data he was receiving.
“Is my face and form scary?”
For a brief second, the beaver-otter froze in place, his eyes staring blankly at his tablet, before he slowly turned towards the canine android. Though his expression was initially more of confusion than anything else, the moment he saw the sad look on his friend’s face, he immediately knew this was a serious question.
“Well… You aren't scary to me. The only beings in this galaxy that actually scare me are Nishnabek.” An empathic smile spread across Hompta’s whiskered lips as he lowered his tablet. “But… I do know some species have a natural fear of canids. It’s something that happens when a species evolves alongside, are hunted by, apex predator canines. Sort of a… genetic phobia, if that makes sense.”
“Is… Is that common? Your species doesn’t have that phobia, does it?”
“Ehhh… I wouldn’t say it’s rare…” Hompta was struggling to find the right balance of honesty and compassion in his explanation, especially considering the clearly distressed expression written all across Nula’s incredibly detailed mechanical face. “And no. Gi’schia does not have any species that quite match the canine category. It does, however, have predatory felines. Some Kyim’ayik I’ve met just don’t like Kikitau or Op’thulians because they’re vaguely reminiscent of our ancestral adversaries. Nishnabe, on the other hand, genuinely are terrifying pretty much no matter what.”
“That's the same thing the security officer said.” Where the android's face had softened into a slight smile, it was the small furry man's turn to have a look of distressed confusion appear on his face. “Not about the Nishnabe, but about fears related to morphologies.”
“Hold on! What's this about a security officer?!? What have you been doing, Nula?!?”
“I was just exploring a greenhouse meant to simulate the Kikitau homeworld. At least I think that's what Caretaker Minchin told me.” Seeing as that wasn't anywhere enough to alleviate her friend's concern, Nula began recounting her encounter that happened less than an hour ago. “While I was exploring the greenhouse, a security guard approached me after receiving a report of an unsupervised automaton. As it turns out, the caretaker noticed me, saw how I looked, and got scared. Scared enough to call in a security guard. Luckily, after Helicha brought us together, Minchin and I were able to talk it out. And I think I may even have made another friend! But…”
While Nula'trula's voice trailed off, the slight smile that had spread across her lips began to show a certain sadness.
“Being judged by the way you look isn't fun, is it?”
“No. No, it isn't fun at all.”
“But you said you think you made a friend?”
“Oh yes!” Nula's heartfelt grin returned as she turned to look in the general direction of the nature area she had just come from. “Minchin is a very nice man. After we started talking, he showed me all of his favorite plants and birds. And he even invited me to come back whenever I wanted. But… Well… He kept looking at me in a certain way and…”
“What kinda way?” Though Hompta could see something was still bothering his friend, he couldn't help but give the android’s impressively sculpted body a quick once over.
“Honestly, I'm not sure.”
“Could he have been flirting?”
“Wha-! What do you mean?!?” That possibility had obviously not yet crossed Nula's mind and a slight glow suddenly became visible from between the small and finely crafted paneling of her mechanical face. “Why would he be… Why would he do that if I scared him?!?”
“I mean…” Hompta began chuckling in an adorably high pitched tone. “You aren't too far off from the morphology of Kikitau. And, if I remember right, they are a female dominant species. I'll bet money that man's been scared of every woman he's ever been attracted to!”
“Really?!? I- Uh… Well…” The light emanating from Nula's face grew more intense as she slowly reached into the small pocket on her thin, loose fitting, and flowing top that covered just her chest and arms but not her sculpted ab-like stomach paneling. “He did give me this before I left.”
As the canine android pulled out a short cutting of small, purple flowers with tiny pink spots, Hompta immediately knew what he was looking at. While the hyn’jutori plant was incredibly similar to countless other minty flora that exist across the galaxy, there was a very unique and particular fragrance that was recognizable to anyone who had spent enough time around Kikitau. While it wasn't exactly bad smelling, the sweet and crisp aroma greatly overpowered the other aromas produced to the plant, there was a certain odor that species who could consciously pick up on pheromones would notice. And while that scent wasn't particularly strong, just enough for the little beaver-otters to know what he was looking at, the fact Nula had been given the flower gave Hompta all the confirmation he needed.
“Oh, if he gave that, he was definitely flirting!” The squeaky giggle had become a full on cackle as the furry little man looked up at the now obviously flustered and blushing android. “What were you two talking about before he gave that to you, huh?”
“Oh! Um… Uh…” Nula was at a loss for words and her glowing face and fidgeting body made that clear as day while she stared at the blossom in her hand. “Why would you think that him giving me this would be flirting?”
“Nula, hyn’jutori is the Kikitau national plant, acts almost like a drug, and is prized above all else. And… Well… They use it as an aphrodisiac!”
/------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Are you Minchin Salocia?” A masculine and authoritative voice called out right as the feline man began reaching for the control panel to open the door to his quarters.
“Uh… Yes…?” As Min turned to see who was speaking to him, he saw a species he was unfamiliar with. Though this person looked vaguely similar to the Qui’ztar that constituted the majority of this ship's population, the medium tan skin, relatively short stature, and piercing brown eyes were quite unique. “And you are?”
“I am Tensebwse of the Nishnabe.” As Tens slowly approached the Kikitau man, his ball-headed club mounted to his thigh in a manner similar to how Qui’ztar often carried their bladed weapons, he neither blinked nor shifted his stoic expression. “I heard you met my friend Nula earlier.”
“Nula?” Though Min wasn't familiar with the approaching man's species, he could immediately recognize the expression on the man's face. “Yes, yes! She is a wonderful person and I am very glad to have met her. But… Uh… Why do you ask?”
“Well… She's my friend.” Tens came to a stop a pace and a half away from the cat-man, just within reach if either were to try to take a swing. “And you gave her a hyn’jutori flower.”
“Oh! Yes, she said she liked the smell so, yah know, I-” Min panicked for a split second and tried to play off his reason for giving the blossom to the, frankly, quite curvy android he had met just a few hours ago and was still thinking about. However, when he saw Tens's eye twitch, he cut himself off, took a deep breath, and decided against trying to lie about his reasoning. “I thought she was really cute and… Well…”
“Uh huh…” Even though this Kikitau was a few centimeters taller than Tens and they both had similar, somewhat wiry frames, especially in comparison to the truly imposing Qui’ztar primes, Tens somehow seemed much larger than Min in this moment. “And you're not scared of her canine shape?”
“I mean… Kinda… A little bit… But…”
“But…”
“Well, you're her friend! You know how she looks!” After half-shouting a bit louder than he intended, Min paused for a moment as he looked around to see if there was anyone within earshot. “Don't tell any of the other Kikitau about this… But… Uh… She's scary enough to be quite attractive, if you know what I mean.”
Despite doing his best to play the part of a deadly cousin trying to look out for someone he truly cared about, Tens couldn't help but let a slight smirk peek out from the corners of his mouth as he let out a light chuckle.
“Yeah… I think I know what you mean…” In an instant, the Nishnabe's stoic expression returned as he gave the Kikitau a quick once over. “So you were flirting with my friend?”
“Well… Yes… I- I… Uh…”
“Relax.” Tens finally let his glare fade into a friendly smile. Though he wasn't done grilling this man just yet, his first impression of this Kikitau was far more positive than a couple of the others he had met over his years of anti-piracy work. “I just wanna make sure you weren't leading her on.”
“Oh! No! Not at all! I swear!”
“Eh, eh, eh. Like I said, relax, niji. You seem like a decent guy. Nula's my friend and… Well… She doesn't have much social experience. Like, at all. She didn't even know caniphobia was a thing until Hompta explained it to her. And I know how y'all kazho-bemadzejek are around nemosh so-”
“I'm sorry. What did you say?” The look on Min's face wasn't offended in any way which told Tens that his Nishnabemwin words weren't understood by the cat-person. “What is a kaz-ho-”
“Sorry, I forget that not everyone has a translator implant.” Tens’s soft and slightly embarrassed smile brought a bit more confusion to Min’s violet, vertical eyes. “It means feline sapient people. And nomesh is my people’s word for domesticated canines.”
“Domesticated canines?!?”
“Yeah, my people domesticated a type of canine so long ago that we kinda have caniphilia.” Tens’s overly simplified explanation drew a coy and almost blushing smile to Min’s furry face. “Eeee, not like that! It's more that we see canines and immediately want to make friends with them. One of my cousins tried to pet one of those massive nethivichioks while on a hunt on a Nukatov world once. Basically, we see all canines as our long lost companions. Sort of the opposite of being terrified of anything even vaguely canine-shaped. But, anyways, I just wanted to be sure you weren't gonna do anything to hurt my friend. Like I said, she doesn't have much social experience. So, you're gonna be nice to her, right?”
“Of course, of course! If I'm being entirely honest… And please don't tell her this… I was actually planning on asking her out on a date if she stopped by the greenhouse again while I was working.”
“Were yah now?” Tens's smile became almost devious and his eyes grew more intense. “In that case, we may want to step inside your quarters. There's some things you should probably know which are… Let's just say… Classified.”
2024.05.11 20:01 metathena1 My honest and comprehensive review of Grand Bávaro Princess
Here’s every point I can think to make about the resort Grand Bávaro princess. Been there 5 days, left this morning. Trying to be as honest as possible. This was our honeymoon, so we booked the platinum honeymoon suite. TLDR: you get what you pay for, do the platinum upgrade if you can, and as long as you aren’t a perfectionist it’s really fun. The resort isn’t perfect ofc but like I said if you can look past some of the small details it’s pretty fun.
We paid $1,688 USD but we got a discount through Booking.com for booking about 9-10 months in advance
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We paid $1,688 USD but we got a discount through Booking.com for booking about 9-10 months in advance
- book your airport transfers in advance !!!
- The La Hispaniola buffet food is delicious
- other restaurants you aren't really missing out on much if you don’t book them- we did go to Teppanyaki and it was very good
- The beach food truck food is about the same quality as stadium food. Edible, not the best tasting
- the drinks are a little strong depending on what bar you go to. The platinum bars tend to pour heavy
- beach is very nice but there is a lot of seaweed right now, depends on when you go
- the wildlife is pretty cool, there’s cats and peacocks and other birds that just roam around the property
- wait staff is amazing, we never had an issue that wasn’t fixed quickly
- tip everywhere and you will get better service. It’s also just being a kind human because the resort workers don’t get paid much
- pools are a little grimey but no worse than your average public pool
- room service food is top tier and with platinum you don’t have to pay extra
- resort is huge so you have to ride the tram everywhere but they have specific stops and stop about every 5min
- rooms are a little rough around the edges but overall comfy beds and nice showers/tubs
- wifi is okay, sometimes it cuts out
- not really anything to watch on tv but the balconies are nice to sit around on
- don’t go to the 24/7 rebels bar. Only thing good there is the beer and you can get it literally anywhere else
- while you’re on the beach there will be vendors who come up about every 5 minutes to try and sell you things. A simple “no gracias” usually sends them on their way. They weren’t too much of a bother tbh
- always say no to the people in the salmon pink Holiday shirts. They’re just trying to sell you something
- we were afraid of food poisoning because we read so many reviews about it. No food poisoning received even after eating the food all week and drinking bar drinks pretty heavily
- I’m fluent in Spanish, and honestly I’m not sure how we would’ve gotten through certain interactions without being able to speak it. You’ll probably be fine if you don’t speak it, but my husband doesn’t speak any and almost every interaction I jumped in and translated because MANY of the workers don’t speak English, which makes sense considering this is a Spanish speaking country.
2024.05.11 19:59 pelicanman777 Portable AC units
I'm on an all mounted route in the LLV this summer, and I have been researching portable AC options, things to keep cool. Anyone have any idea/experiences? I don't really get out of the truck often so I feel like I could make really good use of something like that
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2024.05.11 19:59 grierks Hedge Knight, Chapter 69
First / Previous
The hairs on Leon’s neck rose as the snap of power brushed against him. Before he can focus anymore on the sensation, however, he catches Erik’s sword in a bind before it lands a clean blow against him. There is a twitch in the Shade’s eyebrow that told Leon that Erik sensed the same thing, but their eyes focus almost immediately. Neither one could afford to lose concentration in a confrontation like this.
The dance continued.
Leon flicked his wrist, sending a surge of Ether into his sword. The burst of energy knocked Erik’s sword astray, but as the Black Cloak tries to exploit the created opening with a Fang in his opposite hand, it is caught by the Shade’s forearm. The attack only leaves a scratch on the surface of Erik’s skin, and before Leon can react his legs are kicked from under him from a sweep of Erik’s leg, his opponent then follows the blow with a flick of his cragged blade at the Black Cloak’s head. Leon twisted his hand, catching the blow with his sword, but the lack of leverage from his imbalanced stance becomes apparent as the attack knocks him off of his feet. His back slammed against the tree behind him, and he could do nothing as he slid against it and onto the ground. However, Erik does not pursue
The Shade instead jumped back to avoid multiple bolts of Aether launched from Ren. The projectiles struck where Erik’s feet were, and when their opponent made his temporary retreat the Cleric stepped in front of Leon. The Black Cloak stood to his feet and joined his companion at his side.
“You felt it too, right?” Ren muttered towards him.
Leon nodded.
“It wasn’t Aria as far as I could tell, but we can’t allow whatever is happening to her to continue,” Ren said.
Leon eyed Erik in the distance. The Shade’s eyes studied them as he paced back and forth, but he did not press the attack. A tension was building in the air, ready to burst at any moment.
“I’ll handle him,” the Black Cloak said.
Ren cut him an uncertain look, “Are you certain?”
“No,” Leon admitted, “but we are scarce on options,” he let his Fang dissipate and switched his stance, keeping one hand free while he held his sword in a neutral guard, “when I give the signal, unleash as much as you can then run.”
The Cleric nodded, but said nothing.
Leon leaned in, closing his mind to all else but his opponent. He would not best the Shade with power alone, that much was clear. He hoped technique would make up the difference.
Erik struck first.
The Shade kicked off the ground, the Ether running through him granting him a speed that Leon could barely follow with his eyes. Ren was quicker to react, unleashing a large wave of golden light as he thrust his staff in front of him. Leon followed the surge of power close behind.
“Go!” he yelled, hoping that his companion was already on his way towards the others.
Erik crossed his arms as the wave of energy struck him, but the force behind it knocked the Shade off of his feet. Leon focused his Ether at his legs, feeling his heart drum against his chest as he let the energy burst when he kicked the ground. The earth cracked beneath his feet, and the Black Cloak leapt to Erik’s side. The Shade was unable to get his feet under him before Leon struck, but intercepted the attack with his arm. The Black Cloak’s blade bit into his arm, leaving only a shallow cut before Leon leaned into the attack, slamming Erik into the ground. Before the Shade could recover, a Fang of golden light appeared above Leon’s head and flung itself towards Erik like an arrow.
He twisted his body to avoid a direct hit, but hissed as the Fang left a glancing blow at his side. Leon pressed the assault, his sword swinging down in a relentless tide of steel that Erik could only manage to barely deflect with his cragged blade. Between each attack, a Fang slipped through Erik’s defenses just enough to leave another cut across his skin. Blood trickled down from each wound, spotting the Shade’s clothes in a deep red, and Leon could now see Erik’s eyes starting to widen; he searched for an opening to the onslaught.
One Leon never intended to give.
Finding his rhythm, the Black Cloak produced another Fang in his free hand and sped the assault. The Core at his center grew hotter with each new Fang that Leon produced, a fire that was spreading slowly across the entirety of his body. He grit his teeth and pressed the attack, raining his blows against Erik’s blade as the Shade kept avoiding any debilitating blows. Growling, Leon forced Ether into his sword and hit the Shade’s stone blade at its side. It landed with a burst of golden light, knocking the cragged sword to the side. Leon thrusted with the Fang in his opposite hand, aiming towards the Shade’s chest, but before the attack landed Erik slammed his foot against the Black Cloak’s chest.
A burst of energy escaped from Erik’s foot as his heel dug into Leon’s breastplate, giving nothing away aside from the air bursting around the blow itself. The Black Cloak was kicked into the air, but before he was knocked away he drove the Fang into Erik’s thigh. The Shade roared in pain as the sword of gilded energy pierced through the leg and out the otherside, but still managed to kick Leon back enough to be able to get to his feet. The Fang faded from Erik’s thigh, but he moved with a clear limp as he tried to create more distance between him and Leon. His cuts already started to heal, but there was a sluggishness to his movements now.
Leon leapt back into the fray, feeling as if pins were stabbing him all over as he drew upon his Core once more. He pushed the feeling to the back of his mind as Erik caught his blade in a bind with his own. The Black Cloak pushed the exchange down and cleaved into the Shade’s exposed arm with a Fang from his opposite hand. Erik roared as it cut deep into his skin, forcing the locked weapons back up. As he felt his blade rise, Leon maintained the bind until the swords reached the level of his chest, allowing the Shade to generate the momentum of the movement. Before Erik could take advantage of this, however, Leon shifted his arm and manipulated the bind upwards, exposing the Shade’s chest. The Black Cloak’s Fang struck again, giving Erik a gash across his chest. His opponent tried to break the engagement, but his movements were still hindered by the still healing wound on his thigh, and Leon fell into another rhythm as he pressed the assault.
His sword served as his guard, catching Erik’s swings before they could reach their apex and creating openings that he could strike at with his Fang. While the Shade was able to block most strikes with his arm, it was becoming increasingly clear that his Ether was starting to run thin. Leon’s attacks would cut deeper with each strike, forcing Erik to eventually switch to avoiding them entirely, which pressed him on the back foot. The fire that seared through Leon was dulled by the rush of battle, but even then he could tell that his limits had been reached and long surpassed. Still, he pressed on.
The Black Cloak pressued Erik back into a tree, keeping his strikes constant to force the Shade to keep his guard up. Any attempts to slow down Leon were met with failure as he started to once again slip Fangs between each strike. The Fang he grasped felt like lead, and his sword even heavier with that, but each new cut across Erik’s body only spurred him to carry on. The Shade attempted to kick Leon away, but the Black Cloak countered by slamming his elbow into his opponent’s shin, knocking the leg back down. The battle high kept darkness from encroaching upon his vision, but he could feel the Fang in his hand start to grow unstable.
His Ether was nearly spent.
Erik moved to resume his guard, the cracks across his cragged sword clear to see. Gritting his teeth, Leon brought the Fang back and forced the last of his Ether into it, setting its flickering form ablaze with golden light. He struck the rocky sword and let the blade of the Fang burst, shattering Leon’s weapon. It's shrapnel bounced off of the Black Cloak’s armor, but scratched across Erik’s skin as he tried to cover himself with his arms. Leon slipped a fist between his opponent’s defenses, striking him in the jaw and sending him stumbling to the side. In his battle driven rush the Black Cloak felt the impulse to drive the sword into Erik’s side, but he stopped himself. Instead, he dropped the blade and grasped the sealing cuffs attached to his waist.
Before the Shade could recover, Leon grabbed his wrist and clasped one of the cuffs around it. The effect is felt instantly as Erik falls to one knee, the Ether that sustained him withered to embers. The Shade swung his fist at Leon in a desperate attempt to repel him, but his hand was instead caught by the Black Cloak as he clasped the second cuff around his wrist. His abilities fully sealed, Erik fell to the ground.
Leon loomed over his defeated opponent, chest heaving as he took breaths that refused to fill his lungs. Though the Shade was mired in countless cuts, the constant rush of Ether that Erik maintained throughout the fight reduced their damage to surface level only. Such use of power most likely contributed to Leon’s opponent burning through it so quickly. Had the Shade been properly equipped, the outcome of the battle would have been far different.
Erik looked up at him, eyes still resolute even in defeat, “Mercy? From a hound?”
“We have questions,” Leon responded, “And you’re going to give us answers.”
He struck the Shade across his jaw, and Erik fell limp against the forest floor. Leon knelt down next to his opponent and pulled a small length of rope from his waist before binding Erik’s legs with it. The moment that he tightened the knot, his fatigue struck all at once.
The Black Cloak fell back, feeling the trembles that started from his fingers and toes, trailing up his limbs until the entirety of his body started to shake. He tried to move in such a state, but his legs refused to obey. The twitch in his fingers told him that he retained some measure of mobility, but it took all of his will to lift them and pull back his hood. As his helmet faded, the cold air stabbed at his exposed, sweat covered skin like daggers. He grew confused as the chill felt more like a steady burn, but could only attribute that to the stress that he’d subjected his body to during the battle. He’d held so many advantages in that exchange, and still he was reduced to his. He was weak.
Just as he’d always been.
A memory of Astraeus flashes into his mind. His brother stood strong, stance immaculate as he readied himself against an unknown opponent. Rather than push the image away, Leon embraced it and closed his eyes. He calmed his breathing, and after a few moments could feel some feeling in his legs start to return. All of him still shook, but he regained just enough strength to push himself to his feet. With a final deep breath, he pulled his hood back over his head.
The fight was not over.
___
Leaf could only watch as the storm unfolded in front of him. Jahora stood firm, the light the newly formed Aetheric ring around her head flaring with a brilliant white light as the Mage forms a glyph of red energy in her hands. Cora, who still maintained a hold on his restraints, raised the arm of hers that was not clasped by a sealing cuff, forming a barrier of rock and energy in front of her. It proved to be a futile gesture, for as Jahora’s fireball struck the shield it shattered, the force of the explosion knocking Cora back into a tree.
The rocks that dug into Leaf’s skin fell as the Shade hit the ground. With his restraints gone, the archer caught himself on his feet and picked up his shortsword. He moved to aid Jahora, but as he took a step a wave of fatigue struck him, forcing him to his knee. His Ether was already nearly spent by the time the others arrived, and it was only through sheer stubbornness that he’d been able to force anymore out of his Core during the fight and in trying to break the crushing hold of Cora’s restraints. Now though, he could feel knives stabbing at him across his body, a backlash of pushing himself too far.
Yet he knew it wasn’t far enough.
Jahora readied another spell, the glyph in her hands a pale blue as Aether surged around her. Cora pushed herself to her feet, the manic look in her eyes only growing as she glared at the Mage.
“You will not take her from me…” the Shade muttered. Even with her abilities partially sealed, the ground at her heels started to crack as yellow Aether hummed around her feet.
Jahora said nothing and gathered more power into her spell.
“You will not take her!”
Cora slammed her heel into the forest floor, sending a wave of earthen spikes towards Jahora. The Mage remained steady as she unleashed her spell, countering the tide of earth with a surge of ice. The spells collide, kicking up a cloud of frost and dirt as they shattered against each other. Jahora pulled her hand back as the ice faded, her fingers blazing with red Aether as she pulled the little heat that was in the air into her fingers, molding it into a glyph at the back of her palm. Another symbol formed in her free hand at the same time, this one made of a deeper blue energy.
Before the dust settled, a series of yellow flashes burst through. Jahora lifted the blue glyph in front of her, projecting a barrier that deflected the rocks that crashed against her. The form of Cora started to become more visible, but she’d long revealed her position from the wild screams she let out with every new spell. There was a desperation to the Shade’s voice, one that Leaf could not understand.
One that Jahora did not care to listen to.
The Mage pressed forward, maintaining her barrier as she twisted its position with small flicks of her wrist. Between each projectile blocked, she swept the hand holding the red glyph forward, generating small bolts of fire that struck the bits of earth that Cora raised in a desperate defense, slowly reducing it to dust as the Shade was too manic to move. Jahora continued her steady advance, but Leaf could see the tremble that took hold over her hands. Though the boons of the Third Circle appeared to have granted her spells increased control and power, it did nothing to resolve the fact that the Mage had spent all her strength and more in the battle prior.
Leaf grit his teeth and pushed himself to his feet. Each step he took felt as if he were carrying a mountain as his back, but he continued to press on. He looked towards the side, seeing that Elly had started to stir, but was in no shape to assist. His eyes fell to Helbram, not knowing if it was instinct or consciousness that made the man dig his fingers into the ground, clawing himself slowly towards Cora. Finally, his gaze drifted to Aria, who remained suspended in the air, the woman of ice’s fingers digging deeper into the seal at her back. Ren was now at the girl’s side, the Cleric shimmering with golden energy as he fed the light into the seal. There was a newfound sheen trailing down Aria’s cheeks.
Tears that had frozen against her skin.
Leaf growled and slammed his fist into his leg. The dull rush of pain pulsed through them, but they did not become any easier to move. Jahora continued to advance upon Cora, but though the Shade was steadily losing ground the Mage’s own steps had started to slow. The archer struck his legs repeatedly, practically throwing his feet in front of him as he forced himself into a charge. Pain filled every one of his senses as a rush overtook him, and everything turned into a blur as he continued to run towards the battling spellcasters.
Cora flung another stone at Jahora, who deflected it and countered with a bolt of fire. The spell struck the Shade in her chest, slamming her back into the tree, but as she fell Cora drove her hand into the cracked earth. A pulse of yellow Aether surged through the fractured ground, trailing towards Jahora. The Mage dropped her spells and started to gather yellow Aether of her own into her hands, but before a spell could form the energy sputtered and she fell to a knee. Cora’s spell condensed at Jahora’s feet.
And Leaf rammed into the Mage in desperation.
His companion is knocked to the side as they collide, the archer taking her place in her stead. As Cora’s spell completed, the ground under him exploded, knocking him into the air as he felt the weight of a sledgehammer strike into his side. His strength left him as he struck the ground, barely able to keep a hold on his consciousness. He saw Jahora looking towards him, but before the Mage could show any concern he summoned all he had to yell.
“Go!”
Jahora nodded and pushed herself to her feet, a glyph of green Aether forming at her back. Before Cora could ready another spell, the Mage finished the cast of her own, unleashing a burst of wind that threw her forward. Jahora crossed her arms as she struck Cora in the stomach, doubling the Shade over. Before she had to recover, the Mage took hold of the loose end of the sealing cuffs and clasped it over Cora's once free wrist.
The Shade fell to her knees right after, putting her at eye level with Jahora. She bored a hateful look into the Mage as Jahora gathered green energy into the small glyph at her hand.
“Monsters, all of you,” the Shade spat, “trying to take a daughter away from her mother.”
Jahora opened her mouth to say something, but closed it. Any anger that burned in the Mage’s eyes faded to pity as she looked upon Cora.
“Do not give me that look!” the Shade screamed, “I saw the hate in your eyes just moments before. I know what you truly wish to do.”
Jahora raised her spell towards Cora, “You are not wrong. A large part of me wishes to do nothing more than snuff out your life, but I won’t.”
She casted her spell, triggering a blast of air that knocked the Shade’s head back into the tree. Cora goes still and falls to the ground, unconscious.
“There is a child present.”
___
Leon emerged from the trees, dragging an unconscious Erik behind him. As he entered the clearing he left the Shade on the ground and continued to walk forward. Every part of him wished for him to stop, but he couldn’t, not until he knew that everything was dealt with. The distant part of the clearing was a broken mess of shattered earth and ice, and amongst the rubble he could see Helbram and his companions littered throughout.
Elly had started to push herself up, blood trailing down her face as her eyes blinked away her once unconscious state. Helbram himself appeared to still be moving, though just barely as he scraped himself along the ground. Leaf lay further amongst the rubble, leaned against a jagged piece of rock as he clutched his side. Jahora stood not too far off from him.
An unconscious Cora at her side.
Relief started to flood through him, but stopped as his gaze drifted towards Aria, towards the remaining Shade.
The frost coated every part of the girl’s exposed skin, which had grown even paler since he first saw her. Her hair was also a more stark white, and a faint, wispy blue glow bleeding from her eyes. Though she displayed no emotion on her vacant face, tears trailed down and froze against her cheeks.
Just like Astraeus had looked all those years ago.
Leon shook his head, looking towards the icy woman that hovered behind Aria. Beyond her physical beauty, there was little else that he could tell about the frozen figure, all except the fingers that pressed against the seal at Aria’s back. A crack had spread across all symbols of the gods that lined the glyph, all except for the Eye of Velendel, which was due to Ren’s current efforts.
The Cleric forced a torrent of Aether into the seal, but it showed no signs of repairing itself. It was all that his companion could do to prevent it from breaking further, and Leon knew that striking at the figure formed behind Aria would result in nothing.
It hadn’t with Astraeus.
He looked at the girl, saw the sadness that was frozen across her face, saw the same as he did all those years ago when he gazed into his brother’s eyes.
And drew his sword.
First / Previous
Author's note: Just gonna keep the commentary to a minimum until things are concluded. I was going to try and finish everything with this chapter, but there are way too many threads I want to make sure have the time they deserve, so I expanded on events here instead. More is still to come! We're not off this ride yet folks.
The arc is now officially finished on my Patreon, and I’m going to be taking a break next week to cool down. I’ll be back soon enough, till next time everyone!
If you wish to read ahead and gain access to the audiobook version of this story, consider supporting me on Patreon (https://patreon.com/criticalscribe). If you want to leave a donation, here is my Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/criticalscribe).
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The hairs on Leon’s neck rose as the snap of power brushed against him. Before he can focus anymore on the sensation, however, he catches Erik’s sword in a bind before it lands a clean blow against him. There is a twitch in the Shade’s eyebrow that told Leon that Erik sensed the same thing, but their eyes focus almost immediately. Neither one could afford to lose concentration in a confrontation like this.
The dance continued.
Leon flicked his wrist, sending a surge of Ether into his sword. The burst of energy knocked Erik’s sword astray, but as the Black Cloak tries to exploit the created opening with a Fang in his opposite hand, it is caught by the Shade’s forearm. The attack only leaves a scratch on the surface of Erik’s skin, and before Leon can react his legs are kicked from under him from a sweep of Erik’s leg, his opponent then follows the blow with a flick of his cragged blade at the Black Cloak’s head. Leon twisted his hand, catching the blow with his sword, but the lack of leverage from his imbalanced stance becomes apparent as the attack knocks him off of his feet. His back slammed against the tree behind him, and he could do nothing as he slid against it and onto the ground. However, Erik does not pursue
The Shade instead jumped back to avoid multiple bolts of Aether launched from Ren. The projectiles struck where Erik’s feet were, and when their opponent made his temporary retreat the Cleric stepped in front of Leon. The Black Cloak stood to his feet and joined his companion at his side.
“You felt it too, right?” Ren muttered towards him.
Leon nodded.
“It wasn’t Aria as far as I could tell, but we can’t allow whatever is happening to her to continue,” Ren said.
Leon eyed Erik in the distance. The Shade’s eyes studied them as he paced back and forth, but he did not press the attack. A tension was building in the air, ready to burst at any moment.
“I’ll handle him,” the Black Cloak said.
Ren cut him an uncertain look, “Are you certain?”
“No,” Leon admitted, “but we are scarce on options,” he let his Fang dissipate and switched his stance, keeping one hand free while he held his sword in a neutral guard, “when I give the signal, unleash as much as you can then run.”
The Cleric nodded, but said nothing.
Leon leaned in, closing his mind to all else but his opponent. He would not best the Shade with power alone, that much was clear. He hoped technique would make up the difference.
Erik struck first.
The Shade kicked off the ground, the Ether running through him granting him a speed that Leon could barely follow with his eyes. Ren was quicker to react, unleashing a large wave of golden light as he thrust his staff in front of him. Leon followed the surge of power close behind.
“Go!” he yelled, hoping that his companion was already on his way towards the others.
Erik crossed his arms as the wave of energy struck him, but the force behind it knocked the Shade off of his feet. Leon focused his Ether at his legs, feeling his heart drum against his chest as he let the energy burst when he kicked the ground. The earth cracked beneath his feet, and the Black Cloak leapt to Erik’s side. The Shade was unable to get his feet under him before Leon struck, but intercepted the attack with his arm. The Black Cloak’s blade bit into his arm, leaving only a shallow cut before Leon leaned into the attack, slamming Erik into the ground. Before the Shade could recover, a Fang of golden light appeared above Leon’s head and flung itself towards Erik like an arrow.
He twisted his body to avoid a direct hit, but hissed as the Fang left a glancing blow at his side. Leon pressed the assault, his sword swinging down in a relentless tide of steel that Erik could only manage to barely deflect with his cragged blade. Between each attack, a Fang slipped through Erik’s defenses just enough to leave another cut across his skin. Blood trickled down from each wound, spotting the Shade’s clothes in a deep red, and Leon could now see Erik’s eyes starting to widen; he searched for an opening to the onslaught.
One Leon never intended to give.
Finding his rhythm, the Black Cloak produced another Fang in his free hand and sped the assault. The Core at his center grew hotter with each new Fang that Leon produced, a fire that was spreading slowly across the entirety of his body. He grit his teeth and pressed the attack, raining his blows against Erik’s blade as the Shade kept avoiding any debilitating blows. Growling, Leon forced Ether into his sword and hit the Shade’s stone blade at its side. It landed with a burst of golden light, knocking the cragged sword to the side. Leon thrusted with the Fang in his opposite hand, aiming towards the Shade’s chest, but before the attack landed Erik slammed his foot against the Black Cloak’s chest.
A burst of energy escaped from Erik’s foot as his heel dug into Leon’s breastplate, giving nothing away aside from the air bursting around the blow itself. The Black Cloak was kicked into the air, but before he was knocked away he drove the Fang into Erik’s thigh. The Shade roared in pain as the sword of gilded energy pierced through the leg and out the otherside, but still managed to kick Leon back enough to be able to get to his feet. The Fang faded from Erik’s thigh, but he moved with a clear limp as he tried to create more distance between him and Leon. His cuts already started to heal, but there was a sluggishness to his movements now.
Leon leapt back into the fray, feeling as if pins were stabbing him all over as he drew upon his Core once more. He pushed the feeling to the back of his mind as Erik caught his blade in a bind with his own. The Black Cloak pushed the exchange down and cleaved into the Shade’s exposed arm with a Fang from his opposite hand. Erik roared as it cut deep into his skin, forcing the locked weapons back up. As he felt his blade rise, Leon maintained the bind until the swords reached the level of his chest, allowing the Shade to generate the momentum of the movement. Before Erik could take advantage of this, however, Leon shifted his arm and manipulated the bind upwards, exposing the Shade’s chest. The Black Cloak’s Fang struck again, giving Erik a gash across his chest. His opponent tried to break the engagement, but his movements were still hindered by the still healing wound on his thigh, and Leon fell into another rhythm as he pressed the assault.
His sword served as his guard, catching Erik’s swings before they could reach their apex and creating openings that he could strike at with his Fang. While the Shade was able to block most strikes with his arm, it was becoming increasingly clear that his Ether was starting to run thin. Leon’s attacks would cut deeper with each strike, forcing Erik to eventually switch to avoiding them entirely, which pressed him on the back foot. The fire that seared through Leon was dulled by the rush of battle, but even then he could tell that his limits had been reached and long surpassed. Still, he pressed on.
The Black Cloak pressued Erik back into a tree, keeping his strikes constant to force the Shade to keep his guard up. Any attempts to slow down Leon were met with failure as he started to once again slip Fangs between each strike. The Fang he grasped felt like lead, and his sword even heavier with that, but each new cut across Erik’s body only spurred him to carry on. The Shade attempted to kick Leon away, but the Black Cloak countered by slamming his elbow into his opponent’s shin, knocking the leg back down. The battle high kept darkness from encroaching upon his vision, but he could feel the Fang in his hand start to grow unstable.
His Ether was nearly spent.
Erik moved to resume his guard, the cracks across his cragged sword clear to see. Gritting his teeth, Leon brought the Fang back and forced the last of his Ether into it, setting its flickering form ablaze with golden light. He struck the rocky sword and let the blade of the Fang burst, shattering Leon’s weapon. It's shrapnel bounced off of the Black Cloak’s armor, but scratched across Erik’s skin as he tried to cover himself with his arms. Leon slipped a fist between his opponent’s defenses, striking him in the jaw and sending him stumbling to the side. In his battle driven rush the Black Cloak felt the impulse to drive the sword into Erik’s side, but he stopped himself. Instead, he dropped the blade and grasped the sealing cuffs attached to his waist.
Before the Shade could recover, Leon grabbed his wrist and clasped one of the cuffs around it. The effect is felt instantly as Erik falls to one knee, the Ether that sustained him withered to embers. The Shade swung his fist at Leon in a desperate attempt to repel him, but his hand was instead caught by the Black Cloak as he clasped the second cuff around his wrist. His abilities fully sealed, Erik fell to the ground.
Leon loomed over his defeated opponent, chest heaving as he took breaths that refused to fill his lungs. Though the Shade was mired in countless cuts, the constant rush of Ether that Erik maintained throughout the fight reduced their damage to surface level only. Such use of power most likely contributed to Leon’s opponent burning through it so quickly. Had the Shade been properly equipped, the outcome of the battle would have been far different.
Erik looked up at him, eyes still resolute even in defeat, “Mercy? From a hound?”
“We have questions,” Leon responded, “And you’re going to give us answers.”
He struck the Shade across his jaw, and Erik fell limp against the forest floor. Leon knelt down next to his opponent and pulled a small length of rope from his waist before binding Erik’s legs with it. The moment that he tightened the knot, his fatigue struck all at once.
The Black Cloak fell back, feeling the trembles that started from his fingers and toes, trailing up his limbs until the entirety of his body started to shake. He tried to move in such a state, but his legs refused to obey. The twitch in his fingers told him that he retained some measure of mobility, but it took all of his will to lift them and pull back his hood. As his helmet faded, the cold air stabbed at his exposed, sweat covered skin like daggers. He grew confused as the chill felt more like a steady burn, but could only attribute that to the stress that he’d subjected his body to during the battle. He’d held so many advantages in that exchange, and still he was reduced to his. He was weak.
Just as he’d always been.
A memory of Astraeus flashes into his mind. His brother stood strong, stance immaculate as he readied himself against an unknown opponent. Rather than push the image away, Leon embraced it and closed his eyes. He calmed his breathing, and after a few moments could feel some feeling in his legs start to return. All of him still shook, but he regained just enough strength to push himself to his feet. With a final deep breath, he pulled his hood back over his head.
The fight was not over.
___
Leaf could only watch as the storm unfolded in front of him. Jahora stood firm, the light the newly formed Aetheric ring around her head flaring with a brilliant white light as the Mage forms a glyph of red energy in her hands. Cora, who still maintained a hold on his restraints, raised the arm of hers that was not clasped by a sealing cuff, forming a barrier of rock and energy in front of her. It proved to be a futile gesture, for as Jahora’s fireball struck the shield it shattered, the force of the explosion knocking Cora back into a tree.
The rocks that dug into Leaf’s skin fell as the Shade hit the ground. With his restraints gone, the archer caught himself on his feet and picked up his shortsword. He moved to aid Jahora, but as he took a step a wave of fatigue struck him, forcing him to his knee. His Ether was already nearly spent by the time the others arrived, and it was only through sheer stubbornness that he’d been able to force anymore out of his Core during the fight and in trying to break the crushing hold of Cora’s restraints. Now though, he could feel knives stabbing at him across his body, a backlash of pushing himself too far.
Yet he knew it wasn’t far enough.
Jahora readied another spell, the glyph in her hands a pale blue as Aether surged around her. Cora pushed herself to her feet, the manic look in her eyes only growing as she glared at the Mage.
“You will not take her from me…” the Shade muttered. Even with her abilities partially sealed, the ground at her heels started to crack as yellow Aether hummed around her feet.
Jahora said nothing and gathered more power into her spell.
“You will not take her!”
Cora slammed her heel into the forest floor, sending a wave of earthen spikes towards Jahora. The Mage remained steady as she unleashed her spell, countering the tide of earth with a surge of ice. The spells collide, kicking up a cloud of frost and dirt as they shattered against each other. Jahora pulled her hand back as the ice faded, her fingers blazing with red Aether as she pulled the little heat that was in the air into her fingers, molding it into a glyph at the back of her palm. Another symbol formed in her free hand at the same time, this one made of a deeper blue energy.
Before the dust settled, a series of yellow flashes burst through. Jahora lifted the blue glyph in front of her, projecting a barrier that deflected the rocks that crashed against her. The form of Cora started to become more visible, but she’d long revealed her position from the wild screams she let out with every new spell. There was a desperation to the Shade’s voice, one that Leaf could not understand.
One that Jahora did not care to listen to.
The Mage pressed forward, maintaining her barrier as she twisted its position with small flicks of her wrist. Between each projectile blocked, she swept the hand holding the red glyph forward, generating small bolts of fire that struck the bits of earth that Cora raised in a desperate defense, slowly reducing it to dust as the Shade was too manic to move. Jahora continued her steady advance, but Leaf could see the tremble that took hold over her hands. Though the boons of the Third Circle appeared to have granted her spells increased control and power, it did nothing to resolve the fact that the Mage had spent all her strength and more in the battle prior.
Leaf grit his teeth and pushed himself to his feet. Each step he took felt as if he were carrying a mountain as his back, but he continued to press on. He looked towards the side, seeing that Elly had started to stir, but was in no shape to assist. His eyes fell to Helbram, not knowing if it was instinct or consciousness that made the man dig his fingers into the ground, clawing himself slowly towards Cora. Finally, his gaze drifted to Aria, who remained suspended in the air, the woman of ice’s fingers digging deeper into the seal at her back. Ren was now at the girl’s side, the Cleric shimmering with golden energy as he fed the light into the seal. There was a newfound sheen trailing down Aria’s cheeks.
Tears that had frozen against her skin.
Leaf growled and slammed his fist into his leg. The dull rush of pain pulsed through them, but they did not become any easier to move. Jahora continued to advance upon Cora, but though the Shade was steadily losing ground the Mage’s own steps had started to slow. The archer struck his legs repeatedly, practically throwing his feet in front of him as he forced himself into a charge. Pain filled every one of his senses as a rush overtook him, and everything turned into a blur as he continued to run towards the battling spellcasters.
Cora flung another stone at Jahora, who deflected it and countered with a bolt of fire. The spell struck the Shade in her chest, slamming her back into the tree, but as she fell Cora drove her hand into the cracked earth. A pulse of yellow Aether surged through the fractured ground, trailing towards Jahora. The Mage dropped her spells and started to gather yellow Aether of her own into her hands, but before a spell could form the energy sputtered and she fell to a knee. Cora’s spell condensed at Jahora’s feet.
And Leaf rammed into the Mage in desperation.
His companion is knocked to the side as they collide, the archer taking her place in her stead. As Cora’s spell completed, the ground under him exploded, knocking him into the air as he felt the weight of a sledgehammer strike into his side. His strength left him as he struck the ground, barely able to keep a hold on his consciousness. He saw Jahora looking towards him, but before the Mage could show any concern he summoned all he had to yell.
“Go!”
Jahora nodded and pushed herself to her feet, a glyph of green Aether forming at her back. Before Cora could ready another spell, the Mage finished the cast of her own, unleashing a burst of wind that threw her forward. Jahora crossed her arms as she struck Cora in the stomach, doubling the Shade over. Before she had to recover, the Mage took hold of the loose end of the sealing cuffs and clasped it over Cora's once free wrist.
The Shade fell to her knees right after, putting her at eye level with Jahora. She bored a hateful look into the Mage as Jahora gathered green energy into the small glyph at her hand.
“Monsters, all of you,” the Shade spat, “trying to take a daughter away from her mother.”
Jahora opened her mouth to say something, but closed it. Any anger that burned in the Mage’s eyes faded to pity as she looked upon Cora.
“Do not give me that look!” the Shade screamed, “I saw the hate in your eyes just moments before. I know what you truly wish to do.”
Jahora raised her spell towards Cora, “You are not wrong. A large part of me wishes to do nothing more than snuff out your life, but I won’t.”
She casted her spell, triggering a blast of air that knocked the Shade’s head back into the tree. Cora goes still and falls to the ground, unconscious.
“There is a child present.”
___
Leon emerged from the trees, dragging an unconscious Erik behind him. As he entered the clearing he left the Shade on the ground and continued to walk forward. Every part of him wished for him to stop, but he couldn’t, not until he knew that everything was dealt with. The distant part of the clearing was a broken mess of shattered earth and ice, and amongst the rubble he could see Helbram and his companions littered throughout.
Elly had started to push herself up, blood trailing down her face as her eyes blinked away her once unconscious state. Helbram himself appeared to still be moving, though just barely as he scraped himself along the ground. Leaf lay further amongst the rubble, leaned against a jagged piece of rock as he clutched his side. Jahora stood not too far off from him.
An unconscious Cora at her side.
Relief started to flood through him, but stopped as his gaze drifted towards Aria, towards the remaining Shade.
The frost coated every part of the girl’s exposed skin, which had grown even paler since he first saw her. Her hair was also a more stark white, and a faint, wispy blue glow bleeding from her eyes. Though she displayed no emotion on her vacant face, tears trailed down and froze against her cheeks.
Just like Astraeus had looked all those years ago.
Leon shook his head, looking towards the icy woman that hovered behind Aria. Beyond her physical beauty, there was little else that he could tell about the frozen figure, all except the fingers that pressed against the seal at Aria’s back. A crack had spread across all symbols of the gods that lined the glyph, all except for the Eye of Velendel, which was due to Ren’s current efforts.
The Cleric forced a torrent of Aether into the seal, but it showed no signs of repairing itself. It was all that his companion could do to prevent it from breaking further, and Leon knew that striking at the figure formed behind Aria would result in nothing.
It hadn’t with Astraeus.
He looked at the girl, saw the sadness that was frozen across her face, saw the same as he did all those years ago when he gazed into his brother’s eyes.
And drew his sword.
First / Previous
Author's note: Just gonna keep the commentary to a minimum until things are concluded. I was going to try and finish everything with this chapter, but there are way too many threads I want to make sure have the time they deserve, so I expanded on events here instead. More is still to come! We're not off this ride yet folks.
The arc is now officially finished on my Patreon, and I’m going to be taking a break next week to cool down. I’ll be back soon enough, till next time everyone!
If you wish to read ahead and gain access to the audiobook version of this story, consider supporting me on Patreon (https://patreon.com/criticalscribe). If you want to leave a donation, here is my Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/criticalscribe).
2024.05.11 19:59 IndividualOven51 My opinion about Hades II after 10+ Redacted Kills
Disclaimer:
This will obviously contain massive spoilers so everybody who cares about that, this is your chance to click away/only read the non-spoilered bits.Everything I write here is purely based on my own opinion and is not influenced by anything else other than my own experiences with the game. This will be quite a lengthy post because I have a lot to say about this game but I won't cover every single thing, I will generalize a lot where I think it is appropriate and only talk about major Ws or major Ls. I hope y'all read through it and discuss some stuff in the comments.
HADES II LESS GOOOO
Nah for real, this game instantly became one of my favourites, even in Early Access. I just adore the setting, the characters and the stories. As an avid Hades I fan, I think I can safely say that im biased but wow, SuperGiant really cooked here. I'll split most of it into seperate parts, for the readers sake.Lets start with:
Characters
Gosh I love every single one of them but my favourites gotta be Hecate, Chronos and Moros. Nemesis is just Nemesis, grumpy as ever. Odysseus is a bro. The only thing I wish was explained more was what the other gods are up to, Ares, Athena etc. This is just lore cherry picking and 100% not necessary for the game to be good. Everything else is handled so well, their individual dialogues and small storylines, perfect.Weapons
The weapons, the weapons. Yes, they are definitely weapons. Some more than others. (hrm Torches hrm). But no, every single weapons is viable and fun in its own way. I've beat Chronoswith all and if you know how to handle the weapon/make a good build around it, you're up to a good time.HOWEVER
Some weapons are indeed stronger than others (Im looking at you, Axe and Staff). For me personally, the torches main attack/omega attack and the skulls omega attacks are lacking in some way, shape or form. Be it damage, cast time, general gameplay or other things, they just didn't stick with me. This is also mainly a reason due to Daedalus Hammers. They can define a whole build and boost it up from B tier to S+ tier. Some Hammers definitely need balancing or tweaking. The first ones that come to mind are Double Attack on Staff, Attack during Omega Attack Spin on Axe and Omega Special Return on Daggers. These are blatantly broken and, at least for me, trivialize the game. You dish out so much damage with these, it should be illegal. If you think that these in particular aren't op, cool, play with them, I don't care. As long as you are having fun, that's all that matters in a game. But let's be real, Double Attack Apollo boosted Spear is kinda broken, isn't it?
I will count the Cast/Omega Cast as a weapon as well since you can build around it quite effectively. It feels great, the gameplay implementation is clean and its fun to stategically use it.
HOWEVER ONCE MORE
Please, for the love of Zeus, make it so that all enemies (Bosses exluded ofc) are slowed/rooted by the same amount. The amount of times I have been hit by a Bird on the surfaceor one of these shielded Werewolfs in the fieldsjumping/dashing onto me THROUGH my cast is insane.
Aspects
GOD DAMN, I LOVE THEM. They are unique enough to feel different but keep the charm of the base weapon. Same with the bases, some are stronger than other. Candidates are Aspect of Momus for the Staff and Aspect of Thanatos for the Axe. These two in particular seem overtuned to me. Both are absolutely bonkers with Aphrodites %Inc Damage when near a foe, which I'll come to later, but even on their own they are extremely good. Hammers multiply this even further, with Momus having 40 base Damage x2 with the Double Special Hammer. That's a 80 damage ability that can be spammed from range. Yeah.
Boons
Yes, Boons. I like them all. Hera is cool as a new-comer, her primer? is broken as heck but who cares. Same with Hephaestus. The thematic with every god and their respective boons is well handled, especially Hephaestus (that cling sounds, omfg its so satisfying) and Poseidon because he's a chad.HOWEVER AGAIN
Some are just to good. As stated before, the Aphrodite %Inc Damage when near a foe is just so. much. DAMAGE. Also, Apollo is literally a staple on every weapon. The AoE and damage is so much quality of life, I don't really see a reason to pick Poseidons Attack instead unless I go for a full water build etc.
I am also torn on the wateearth/wind/fire/magik? thingies every boon has. On one hand, they're cool and allow boons like Hermes %Dmg increase when you have 2+ of all to be possible. On the other hand, they can be super convoluted and kinda rng wether you get those you want or not. I would say I'd wait on these and see what SuperGiant does with them in the future.
Enemies/Bosses
Bangers. Thats it.Chronosand Sirensin particular are so much fun to play against, it's insane. The soundtracks are living rent-free in my head and the gameplay pattern is satisfying to master. Can't say anything else, Boss #1 and Boss #3 are bangers as well. Surface is really solid as well and Eris as Boss #2 really surprised me.
For the enemies, I like the variety. I like the difficulty spikes. I like their moveset. THE ONLY THING THAT I DON'T LIKE IS:
Hitboxes.
Some hitboxes need to be nerfed/made more clear. ESPECIALLYERIS SHOTGUN ON 400% INC DAMAGE!!! There is no way to tell when she attacks with that camera perspective and gunshells flying around everywhere while half of the arena is burning. BANG, -40 health.Candidates are the swings from the orange brutes in the last area AND THE RATS, OMFG I HATE THE RATS SO MUCH.Please, if any SuperGiant employee sees this, add clearer indicators for these, or some way to know how long their swing/dash/whatever is other than pure memorization. There are just to many different enemies in this game to memorize ALL of them and their exact hitboxes.
Overall
Damn. This game has, and continues to be, a blast. I shake every time I get to Chronoseven though I already know the attacks, moves etc., signs of good gamedesign I'd say :D. Some of the stuff mentioned here could just me having a massive skillissue or not understanding some mechanics but I digress, there ain't a disclaimer for no reason.2024.05.11 19:57 Phantomdong Accidentally employed a pair of ravens to be my flocks bodyguards
As the tilel says, I’ve accidentally picked up a pair of ravens as bodyguards for my chicken flock. I had some big meatballs of ground beef scrap I normally feed my dog, but since he doesn’t like them I decided to throw them every so often to my chickens as a frozen treat to occupy their time. The other day I saw an enormous bird, which I assumed to be an eagle, dive into the run and then fly off. As I ran to the porch to get a better look, assuming the worst, I saw it was actually a raven with a big meatball in his beak. Just now I was on the porch again passively watching the chickens do their thing when suddenly a hawk from a nearby tree dove towards my girls. In mid-air my new raven bro intercepts and a dazzling show of aerial acrobatics ensued. I watched for 10 more minutes as the raven just followed the hawk from tree to tree being a pain in the ass. Once the hawk had given up the hunt I went inside and grabbed a meatball and lobbed it into the yard. Raven-bro happily grabbed it and took off into the woods.
I hope this will be a long term thing because hawks are the bane of my existence when it comes to chicken-keeping so far. I lose way more girls to hawks than any of the other predators that share my space.
Just thought I’d share this cool story, I’ll try and grab a picture next time.
submitted by Phantomdong to BackYardChickens [link] [comments]
I hope this will be a long term thing because hawks are the bane of my existence when it comes to chicken-keeping so far. I lose way more girls to hawks than any of the other predators that share my space.
Just thought I’d share this cool story, I’ll try and grab a picture next time.
2024.05.11 19:56 ssgpt 🖼 Image Generation AI that improves the image iteratively during conversation
Link: https://chat.openai.com/g/g-MlnIZE08v-chat-painter
I had been working on image generation AI 6-7 years ago and had this vision of creating a chatbot called "Chat Painter" that could generate an image as well as hold a conversation to iteratively gather more details and improve the image. This is the sort of process you would employ with a person who is a digital artist. This was long before ChatGPT / DALLE existed and the image generation quality used to be terrible at the time. I tried creating a chatbot using ChatGPT and DALLE and while it is still not close to the final vision in terms of image consistency, it is still a lot better than the research we did years ago. Do try it out if you have some time!
As a fun activity I also got ChatGPT to write a pitch about the chatbot:
🎨🤖 Introducing... drumroll... Chat Painter https://chat.openai.com/g/g-MlnIZE08v-chat-painter! 🎉🖌️
Hey everyone! So, I might have just stumbled upon the next big thing in the art world. No, it's not a masterpiece by Picasso or a mind-bending sculpture by Banksy. It's something even crazier... it's Chat Painter!
Now, before you start picturing robots armed with paintbrushes, let me break it down for you. Imagine a world where you can chat with an AI, and instead of getting boring text responses, you get... wait for it... images! Yep, you heard me right. Images conjured up by the power of words.
But hold up, this isn't just any AI we're talking about. This is the brainchild of someone who's been knee-deep in the world of image generation since before it was cool. We're talking academic papers, research galore, the whole shebang. And let me tell you, back in the day, generative AI was about as good at making images as I am at doing cartwheels (spoiler alert: not very).
But fast forward to today, and we've got Chat Painter strutting its stuff like it's on the runway at Fashion Week. Sure, it might not be quite the Mona Lisa just yet, but compared to the pixelated messes we used to get 6 years ago, it's a straight-up Michelangelo.
So, if you're tired of the same old boring chats and you fancy yourself a bit of an art aficionado, hop on over to Chat Painter and prepare to be amazed. Who knows, maybe you'll even commission your next masterpiece from an AI. The future is here, folks, and it's looking pretty darn colorful! 🌈🤖 #ChatPainter #ArtificialIngeniousness
submitted by ssgpt to u/ssgpt [link] [comments]
I had been working on image generation AI 6-7 years ago and had this vision of creating a chatbot called "Chat Painter" that could generate an image as well as hold a conversation to iteratively gather more details and improve the image. This is the sort of process you would employ with a person who is a digital artist. This was long before ChatGPT / DALLE existed and the image generation quality used to be terrible at the time. I tried creating a chatbot using ChatGPT and DALLE and while it is still not close to the final vision in terms of image consistency, it is still a lot better than the research we did years ago. Do try it out if you have some time!
As a fun activity I also got ChatGPT to write a pitch about the chatbot:
🎨🤖 Introducing... drumroll... Chat Painter https://chat.openai.com/g/g-MlnIZE08v-chat-painter! 🎉🖌️
Hey everyone! So, I might have just stumbled upon the next big thing in the art world. No, it's not a masterpiece by Picasso or a mind-bending sculpture by Banksy. It's something even crazier... it's Chat Painter!
Now, before you start picturing robots armed with paintbrushes, let me break it down for you. Imagine a world where you can chat with an AI, and instead of getting boring text responses, you get... wait for it... images! Yep, you heard me right. Images conjured up by the power of words.
But hold up, this isn't just any AI we're talking about. This is the brainchild of someone who's been knee-deep in the world of image generation since before it was cool. We're talking academic papers, research galore, the whole shebang. And let me tell you, back in the day, generative AI was about as good at making images as I am at doing cartwheels (spoiler alert: not very).
But fast forward to today, and we've got Chat Painter strutting its stuff like it's on the runway at Fashion Week. Sure, it might not be quite the Mona Lisa just yet, but compared to the pixelated messes we used to get 6 years ago, it's a straight-up Michelangelo.
So, if you're tired of the same old boring chats and you fancy yourself a bit of an art aficionado, hop on over to Chat Painter and prepare to be amazed. Who knows, maybe you'll even commission your next masterpiece from an AI. The future is here, folks, and it's looking pretty darn colorful! 🌈🤖 #ChatPainter #ArtificialIngeniousness
2024.05.11 19:56 Feeling_Engineer_874 23M I can talk about anything
Hey there 👋. I've decided to write this in English because I hope to reach more people this way. I'm also able to speak Dutch.
I just found this subreddit and felt like I could give it a try.
The past few months I've been feeling quite lonely. I guess because I just don't know that many people. I hope to meet some cool people here and change that.
As for who I am. Well, I won't spoil everything... Mostly because I don't want people that don't have the same interests to avoid messaging me. I don't think common interests should be a requirement. I think that not having the same interests is an extra opportunity to learn new things. But for people who have to know. I guess you could say that my interests aren't to uncommon for people on reddit. I like to play games occasionally and I'm into electronics and computer stuff.
Do I sound cool? Please send me a message :)
submitted by Feeling_Engineer_874 to makenewfriendsNL [link] [comments]
I just found this subreddit and felt like I could give it a try.
The past few months I've been feeling quite lonely. I guess because I just don't know that many people. I hope to meet some cool people here and change that.
As for who I am. Well, I won't spoil everything... Mostly because I don't want people that don't have the same interests to avoid messaging me. I don't think common interests should be a requirement. I think that not having the same interests is an extra opportunity to learn new things. But for people who have to know. I guess you could say that my interests aren't to uncommon for people on reddit. I like to play games occasionally and I'm into electronics and computer stuff.
Do I sound cool? Please send me a message :)
2024.05.11 19:56 mtufekyapan How to Grow Shopify Store
You’ve launched your Shopify store, established a strong brand, introduced your products to world. Now, the question that keeps you up at night is, ‘How do I grow my Shopify store?’You’ve launched your Shopify store, established a strong brand, introduced your products to world. Now, the question that keeps you up at night is, ‘How do I grow my Shopify store?’.
Everyone has a different answer for this question. A good store, great Meta campaigns, SEO audits, email marketing, push notifications, mentorship, affiliates, apps – the list goes on.
The truth? While all these can be helpful, our main focus is on moving your Shopify business from point A to point B, shipping more packages each day.
I analyzed more than 300 shopify stores from a variety of categories then prepared this guide.
In this guide you’ll find nucleus of growth, 6 core growth strategies for your store and tools for your growth process.
In this guide, we’ll focus on achieving this growth.
In this guide, we look at conversion with growth perspective. For us conversion is a visitor saying “I want to buy this product, right now.”
There are two core part of the visitor.
You need to find a niche that will need/want your products badly, be ready to buy right away, love your brand & products and afford easily.
This is the core idea of the growth process.
There are some niches who love and afford your product and brand much more than anyone else. That’s your ideal customer.
For growth and conversion perspective we use ideal customer profiles (ICP). It defines ideal customer based on demographic, psychographics, pain points, behavioral and environmentalattributes for ideal buyer. You can find more information about ICP here.
Let’s say we have a Shopify stores that sells organic, high-end baby clothes. All products environment friendly, unique designed. There is no chemical in these products which makes them perfect for babies health. Then our ideal customer profiles can be something like eco-conscious parents who care about the health, safety, and style of their little ones and can afford it.
Based on your marketing and store current state, there can be a few different methods to create ICPs. I prepared “How to Create ICP” post, check it if you want to get more information.
So far we completed the first part of the conversion. We know our target audience.
Now we can move to our second part. What we offer for these target customers.
Let’s say I created my Shopify store, took photographs of products and only posted them on my store. Running campaigns to get traffic to my store. Will it be enough to convince eco-conscious parents? As you can guess, it won’t be.
We need to design our brand, strategy, products and services just for them to say “yes, I want to buythese products right now“.
In this step we have to know our audience very well so we can just address their concerns, preferences, needs and pains. We need to find answers to seven key questions about them.
A promise to our audience about how their pains will be relieved, how their lives will be better with our products, services and brand. Also known as value proposition. You can check value proposition guide here to learn more.
Your growth process all depends on quality of your value proposition. If your offer better than anyone else, your offer becomes unrefusable. This should be your target to persue.
Let’s continue with our clothing brands for new borns.
Our value proposition can be something like “We provide new moms with the peace of mind knowing they are dressing their babies in the safest, healthiest, and most stylish organic clothing available.“.
If we want it to be a killer value proposition, we can use something like “Experience the Ultimate Peace of Mind Knowing You’re Dressing Your Baby in the Safest, Healthiest, and Most Stylish Organic Clothing Available, Delivered with Lightning Delivery Speed and a Guaranteed 30-Day Full Refund“.
Also we created our value proposition, a killer one. Our ideal customers can’t refuse.
Now it’s time to grow your shopify store using six proven strategies.
Here is the three keys strategy you can follow to achieve higher conversions.
Lesson is simple and clear.
Do not try to focus on everyone. Just focus on reaching your ideal customer profiles.
When you just focus on the right audience for yourself, you will be able to reach them more, make them click more and get most interested customers on your store.
Also using different channels plays a huge role, too. You already know your customers profile. Ask yourself where they spend most of their time? Try to utilize each channel. Get their attention with empath map and your value proposition.
Customer referral can be a great channel to growth your Shopify store. Friends and family reviews are always more trustworthy and people generally tend to share similar preferences with their friends.
Building a referral program is a must-have for stores looking for growth.
Checkout article “Discover The Hidden Growth Channel: Referrals,” to learn how should you do it. Utilize the power of your existing customer base to attract new customers.
It doesn’t matter how many customer you have, retention should be your number one priority. It’s that simple.
I know there are lot’s of experts recommend to send more and more and more emails each day. But that’s not the point. Also you shouldn’t do that.
Turn back to your ideal customer profile, empath map and value proposition. Those are keys for each marketing activity.
You should be keep in touch with your customers, for creating more value. And it doesn’t have to be only discounts.
For our hypothetical example of high-end organic baby clothes brand, you can start a YouTube channel about informative content for new borns, share the latest researches, expert opinion. Then you can encourage your customers to subscribe your channel and let them know about the new videos.
When you publish a new video, you also remind them you’re the address for them to checkout for new products for their babies.
A portion of your website traffic may not be immediately ready to purchase from you. This can stem from various reasons.
Just because someone doesn’t buy your product right away doesn’t mean they’re uninterested or dissatisfied.
Based on your brand promise and the problems you solve for your customers, you can anticipate why they choose to purchase from you. Consider the positive impact you make on their lives.
For instance, if you’re selling high-end, organic baby clothes, you can predict that your target audience is parents who prioritize their children’s health.
In this case, you could offer an enticing incentive, such as a free ebook titled “6 Things You Need to Check Before Buying Clothes For Your New Born,” to collect their email addresses.
This example illustrates the importance of identifying something that resonates deeply with your niche audience and is difficult for them to resist.
Reserve discounts for those who are on the verge of purchasing from you.
By implementing these strategies, you can effectively bridge the gap between Point A and Point B, propelling your Shopify store towards sustainable growth.
This is the final step of the growth strategy because it requires significant effort across various aspects of your business, not just marketing or your online store but also operations and branding.
Continuing with our previous example, let’s say you’re selling high-end, organic baby clothes. You’ve achieved great success in your current market segment, boasting an impressive conversion rate, effectively acquiring new customers through referrals, and nurturing long-term relationships with future customers.
At this stage, you can consider expanding your market segments and markets by exploring options such as:
There are more than 8,000 apps on the Shopify app store. How to choose which one to use it?
After working hundreds of Shopify stores growth marketing and trying lot’s of different Shopify growth apps, I created a simple checklist.
As we discussed real growth means more customers, more revenue and more profit.
It’s almost impossible to reach these without having clear understanding of ideal customer profile, value proposition and growth strategy.
Before working on your Shopify store’s growth, you need to find out your ideal customer profile and build a killer value proposition.
When you have a clear idea of ideal customer profile and value proposition then you can start working on your Shopify store’s growth.
There are six core strategy to consider.
I built Growth Suite from the ground up, meaning I personally wrote every line of code within Growth Suite.
Why did I take this approach?
Because I understand that developing an ultimate growth app is not the same as creating an app with seemingly cool features.
Growth Suite is a growth tool that empowers me to manage all aspects of your business growth.
The best part is that you can simply entrust the management of your growth to me, the creator of Growth Suite.
You won’t need to worry about any technical details; I’ll handle Growth Suite for you.
Sounds interesting? Just reach out, get a free conversion checkup report, and we can start working right away!
Also don’t forget to check out Conversion Rate Optimization Guide For Shopify and Marketing Guide For Shopify too.
Everyone has a different answer for this question. A good store, great Meta campaigns, SEO audits, email marketing, push notifications, mentorship, affiliates, apps – the list goes on.
The truth? While all these can be helpful, our main focus is on moving your Shopify business from point A to point B, shipping more packages each day.
I analyzed more than 300 shopify stores from a variety of categories then prepared this guide.
In this guide you’ll find nucleus of growth, 6 core growth strategies for your store and tools for your growth process.
In this guide, we’ll focus on achieving this growth.
In this guide, we look at conversion with growth perspective. For us conversion is a visitor saying “I want to buy this product, right now.”
There are two core part of the visitor.
You need to find a niche that will need/want your products badly, be ready to buy right away, love your brand & products and afford easily.
This is the core idea of the growth process.
There are some niches who love and afford your product and brand much more than anyone else. That’s your ideal customer.
For growth and conversion perspective we use ideal customer profiles (ICP). It defines ideal customer based on demographic, psychographics, pain points, behavioral and environmentalattributes for ideal buyer. You can find more information about ICP here.
Let’s say we have a Shopify stores that sells organic, high-end baby clothes. All products environment friendly, unique designed. There is no chemical in these products which makes them perfect for babies health. Then our ideal customer profiles can be something like eco-conscious parents who care about the health, safety, and style of their little ones and can afford it.
Based on your marketing and store current state, there can be a few different methods to create ICPs. I prepared “How to Create ICP” post, check it if you want to get more information.
So far we completed the first part of the conversion. We know our target audience.
Now we can move to our second part. What we offer for these target customers.
Let’s say I created my Shopify store, took photographs of products and only posted them on my store. Running campaigns to get traffic to my store. Will it be enough to convince eco-conscious parents? As you can guess, it won’t be.
We need to design our brand, strategy, products and services just for them to say “yes, I want to buythese products right now“.
In this step we have to know our audience very well so we can just address their concerns, preferences, needs and pains. We need to find answers to seven key questions about them.
A promise to our audience about how their pains will be relieved, how their lives will be better with our products, services and brand. Also known as value proposition. You can check value proposition guide here to learn more.
Your growth process all depends on quality of your value proposition. If your offer better than anyone else, your offer becomes unrefusable. This should be your target to persue.
Let’s continue with our clothing brands for new borns.
Our value proposition can be something like “We provide new moms with the peace of mind knowing they are dressing their babies in the safest, healthiest, and most stylish organic clothing available.“.
If we want it to be a killer value proposition, we can use something like “Experience the Ultimate Peace of Mind Knowing You’re Dressing Your Baby in the Safest, Healthiest, and Most Stylish Organic Clothing Available, Delivered with Lightning Delivery Speed and a Guaranteed 30-Day Full Refund“.
Also we created our value proposition, a killer one. Our ideal customers can’t refuse.
Now it’s time to grow your shopify store using six proven strategies.
Here is the three keys strategy you can follow to achieve higher conversions.
Lesson is simple and clear.
Do not try to focus on everyone. Just focus on reaching your ideal customer profiles.
When you just focus on the right audience for yourself, you will be able to reach them more, make them click more and get most interested customers on your store.
Also using different channels plays a huge role, too. You already know your customers profile. Ask yourself where they spend most of their time? Try to utilize each channel. Get their attention with empath map and your value proposition.
Customer referral can be a great channel to growth your Shopify store. Friends and family reviews are always more trustworthy and people generally tend to share similar preferences with their friends.
Building a referral program is a must-have for stores looking for growth.
Checkout article “Discover The Hidden Growth Channel: Referrals,” to learn how should you do it. Utilize the power of your existing customer base to attract new customers.
It doesn’t matter how many customer you have, retention should be your number one priority. It’s that simple.
I know there are lot’s of experts recommend to send more and more and more emails each day. But that’s not the point. Also you shouldn’t do that.
Turn back to your ideal customer profile, empath map and value proposition. Those are keys for each marketing activity.
You should be keep in touch with your customers, for creating more value. And it doesn’t have to be only discounts.
For our hypothetical example of high-end organic baby clothes brand, you can start a YouTube channel about informative content for new borns, share the latest researches, expert opinion. Then you can encourage your customers to subscribe your channel and let them know about the new videos.
When you publish a new video, you also remind them you’re the address for them to checkout for new products for their babies.
A portion of your website traffic may not be immediately ready to purchase from you. This can stem from various reasons.
Just because someone doesn’t buy your product right away doesn’t mean they’re uninterested or dissatisfied.
Based on your brand promise and the problems you solve for your customers, you can anticipate why they choose to purchase from you. Consider the positive impact you make on their lives.
For instance, if you’re selling high-end, organic baby clothes, you can predict that your target audience is parents who prioritize their children’s health.
In this case, you could offer an enticing incentive, such as a free ebook titled “6 Things You Need to Check Before Buying Clothes For Your New Born,” to collect their email addresses.
This example illustrates the importance of identifying something that resonates deeply with your niche audience and is difficult for them to resist.
Reserve discounts for those who are on the verge of purchasing from you.
By implementing these strategies, you can effectively bridge the gap between Point A and Point B, propelling your Shopify store towards sustainable growth.
This is the final step of the growth strategy because it requires significant effort across various aspects of your business, not just marketing or your online store but also operations and branding.
Continuing with our previous example, let’s say you’re selling high-end, organic baby clothes. You’ve achieved great success in your current market segment, boasting an impressive conversion rate, effectively acquiring new customers through referrals, and nurturing long-term relationships with future customers.
At this stage, you can consider expanding your market segments and markets by exploring options such as:
There are more than 8,000 apps on the Shopify app store. How to choose which one to use it?
After working hundreds of Shopify stores growth marketing and trying lot’s of different Shopify growth apps, I created a simple checklist.
As we discussed real growth means more customers, more revenue and more profit.
It’s almost impossible to reach these without having clear understanding of ideal customer profile, value proposition and growth strategy.
Before working on your Shopify store’s growth, you need to find out your ideal customer profile and build a killer value proposition.
When you have a clear idea of ideal customer profile and value proposition then you can start working on your Shopify store’s growth.
There are six core strategy to consider.
I built Growth Suite from the ground up, meaning I personally wrote every line of code within Growth Suite.
Why did I take this approach?
Because I understand that developing an ultimate growth app is not the same as creating an app with seemingly cool features.
Growth Suite is a growth tool that empowers me to manage all aspects of your business growth.
The best part is that you can simply entrust the management of your growth to me, the creator of Growth Suite.
You won’t need to worry about any technical details; I’ll handle Growth Suite for you.
Sounds interesting? Just reach out, get a free conversion checkup report, and we can start working right away!
Also don’t forget to check out Conversion Rate Optimization Guide For Shopify and Marketing Guide For Shopify too.
This article first published at MarketingLib.
submitted by mtufekyapan to GrowthSuite [link] [comments]
Everyone has a different answer for this question. A good store, great Meta campaigns, SEO audits, email marketing, push notifications, mentorship, affiliates, apps – the list goes on.
The truth? While all these can be helpful, our main focus is on moving your Shopify business from point A to point B, shipping more packages each day.
I analyzed more than 300 shopify stores from a variety of categories then prepared this guide.
In this guide you’ll find nucleus of growth, 6 core growth strategies for your store and tools for your growth process.
What Growth Means Like for Your Shopify Store?
Let’s start with what real growth looks like. Now, imagine this;- Your campaigns are generating great results.
- Your customers becoming brand advocates.
- You have multiple traffic sources, each one doing well.
- Most of your customers buy from you again and again.
In this guide, we’ll focus on achieving this growth.
Nucleus of Growth: Conversion
As you see “conversion” is the center of the growth. I know there are lot’s of different conversion definition.In this guide, we look at conversion with growth perspective. For us conversion is a visitor saying “I want to buy this product, right now.”
There are two core part of the visitor.
- Customers: Who are our customers? Who should be your target?
- Offer (Value Proposition): Why do they buy our products? Why do they buy from our store?
Ideal Customer Profile
Everyone can’t be your customers. Simple and plain. Stop focusing on everyone.You need to find a niche that will need/want your products badly, be ready to buy right away, love your brand & products and afford easily.
This is the core idea of the growth process.
There are some niches who love and afford your product and brand much more than anyone else. That’s your ideal customer.
For growth and conversion perspective we use ideal customer profiles (ICP). It defines ideal customer based on demographic, psychographics, pain points, behavioral and environmentalattributes for ideal buyer. You can find more information about ICP here.
Let’s say we have a Shopify stores that sells organic, high-end baby clothes. All products environment friendly, unique designed. There is no chemical in these products which makes them perfect for babies health. Then our ideal customer profiles can be something like eco-conscious parents who care about the health, safety, and style of their little ones and can afford it.
Based on your marketing and store current state, there can be a few different methods to create ICPs. I prepared “How to Create ICP” post, check it if you want to get more information.
So far we completed the first part of the conversion. We know our target audience.
Now we can move to our second part. What we offer for these target customers.
Offer (Value Proposition)
I want to start with our example store. We’re selling organic, high-end baby clothes for eco-conscious parents who care about the health, safe, and style of their babies.Let’s say I created my Shopify store, took photographs of products and only posted them on my store. Running campaigns to get traffic to my store. Will it be enough to convince eco-conscious parents? As you can guess, it won’t be.
We need to design our brand, strategy, products and services just for them to say “yes, I want to buythese products right now“.
In this step we have to know our audience very well so we can just address their concerns, preferences, needs and pains. We need to find answers to seven key questions about them.
- Who are we empathizing with?
- What do they need to do?
- What do they see?
- What do they say?
- What do they do?
- What do they hear?
- What do they think and feel? (Pains and Gains)
A promise to our audience about how their pains will be relieved, how their lives will be better with our products, services and brand. Also known as value proposition. You can check value proposition guide here to learn more.
Your growth process all depends on quality of your value proposition. If your offer better than anyone else, your offer becomes unrefusable. This should be your target to persue.
Let’s continue with our clothing brands for new borns.
Our value proposition can be something like “We provide new moms with the peace of mind knowing they are dressing their babies in the safest, healthiest, and most stylish organic clothing available.“.
If we want it to be a killer value proposition, we can use something like “Experience the Ultimate Peace of Mind Knowing You’re Dressing Your Baby in the Safest, Healthiest, and Most Stylish Organic Clothing Available, Delivered with Lightning Delivery Speed and a Guaranteed 30-Day Full Refund“.
Start Growing Your Shopify Store
In this point we know our ideal customer profile, a customer segment that will love our products radically more than anyone else.Also we created our value proposition, a killer one. Our ideal customers can’t refuse.
Now it’s time to grow your shopify store using six proven strategies.
1. Convert More Visitors From Your Traffic
This is the most crucial step in achieving your Shopify store growth. The most fun about this you don’t need hundreds of thousands traffic or expensive agencies to increase your conversions.Here is the three keys strategy you can follow to achieve higher conversions.
- Strengthen your value proposition: If you don’t have a killer conversion rate, start working on strengthen your proposition.
- Be sure your visitors get it: Highly possible that most of your visitors won’t identify your value proposition. Ideally your visitors should get the sense of value proposition in the first 6 seconds and will be able to get most of it in the first 30 seconds.
- Fix UX Issues: Checkout your visitors session recordings and heatmaps. There can be huge issues that block your customers. Be sure your store working perfectly on mobile devices and people find it easy to access, find what they’re looking for and reach to you easily whenever they want.
- Create tailored content to address any barriers that prevent people from purchasing your products.
- Encourage user-generated content in the form of reviews to showcase how your products have positively impacted their lives.
- Utilize high-quality product visuals to capture attention and convey product features effectively.
- Craft detailed and informative product descriptions that provide comprehensive information to potential buyers.
- Offer a variety of payment options to cater to diverse customer preferences.
- Provide fast and reliable shipping to ensure timely product delivery.
- Implement a flexible and straightforward return policy to instill confidence in your customers.
- Make your shipping and return policies easily accessible and understandable.
- Implement campaigns to create a sense of urgency and encourage timely purchases.
- Offer prompt and responsive live customer support to address customer inquiries efficiently.
- Changing button colors
- Changing button texts
- Putting random numbers on your product page like 34523423 people looking at this product
2. Reach Your Ideal Customer More and Better
- More than 50% of customers engage 3 to 5 different channels during each purchase journey.
- Customers who use multiple channels shop 1.7x more than single channel shoppers and spend more.
Lesson is simple and clear.
Do not try to focus on everyone. Just focus on reaching your ideal customer profiles.
When you just focus on the right audience for yourself, you will be able to reach them more, make them click more and get most interested customers on your store.
Also using different channels plays a huge role, too. You already know your customers profile. Ask yourself where they spend most of their time? Try to utilize each channel. Get their attention with empath map and your value proposition.
3. Get New Customers From Your Customers
Based on McKinsey’s another report word of mouth 20 to 50 percent of all purchasing decision. Also based on The Heinz/Influitive report 59% of companies with referral programs have higher lifetime value.Customer referral can be a great channel to growth your Shopify store. Friends and family reviews are always more trustworthy and people generally tend to share similar preferences with their friends.
Building a referral program is a must-have for stores looking for growth.
Checkout article “Discover The Hidden Growth Channel: Referrals,” to learn how should you do it. Utilize the power of your existing customer base to attract new customers.
4. Make Them Easy to Buy From You, Again
“Acquiring new customers five to 25 times more expensive than retaining existing ones.” based on Harvard Business Review’s report. Can you believe it?It doesn’t matter how many customer you have, retention should be your number one priority. It’s that simple.
I know there are lot’s of experts recommend to send more and more and more emails each day. But that’s not the point. Also you shouldn’t do that.
Turn back to your ideal customer profile, empath map and value proposition. Those are keys for each marketing activity.
You should be keep in touch with your customers, for creating more value. And it doesn’t have to be only discounts.
For our hypothetical example of high-end organic baby clothes brand, you can start a YouTube channel about informative content for new borns, share the latest researches, expert opinion. Then you can encourage your customers to subscribe your channel and let them know about the new videos.
When you publish a new video, you also remind them you’re the address for them to checkout for new products for their babies.
5. Marketing to Prospects Not Ready to Buy Yet
This strategy can significantly impact your growth trajectory.A portion of your website traffic may not be immediately ready to purchase from you. This can stem from various reasons.
Just because someone doesn’t buy your product right away doesn’t mean they’re uninterested or dissatisfied.
Based on your brand promise and the problems you solve for your customers, you can anticipate why they choose to purchase from you. Consider the positive impact you make on their lives.
For instance, if you’re selling high-end, organic baby clothes, you can predict that your target audience is parents who prioritize their children’s health.
In this case, you could offer an enticing incentive, such as a free ebook titled “6 Things You Need to Check Before Buying Clothes For Your New Born,” to collect their email addresses.
This example illustrates the importance of identifying something that resonates deeply with your niche audience and is difficult for them to resist.
Reserve discounts for those who are on the verge of purchasing from you.
By implementing these strategies, you can effectively bridge the gap between Point A and Point B, propelling your Shopify store towards sustainable growth.
6. Expanding to New Market Segments and Markets
If you’ve successfully implemented the first three steps, you can finally embark on expanding into new market segments or markets.This is the final step of the growth strategy because it requires significant effort across various aspects of your business, not just marketing or your online store but also operations and branding.
Continuing with our previous example, let’s say you’re selling high-end, organic baby clothes. You’ve achieved great success in your current market segment, boasting an impressive conversion rate, effectively acquiring new customers through referrals, and nurturing long-term relationships with future customers.
At this stage, you can consider expanding your market segments and markets by exploring options such as:
- Selling clothes for kids with the same high-end, organic philosophy.
- Offering more affordable products for those who are price-sensitive.
- Expanding your product line to include organic and high-end toys.
- Expanding your business into new countries.
Tools For Shopify Stores Growth
This is what makes Shopify great for e-commerce businesses. There are lot’s of tools to help you excel on your brand growth marketing.There are more than 8,000 apps on the Shopify app store. How to choose which one to use it?
After working hundreds of Shopify stores growth marketing and trying lot’s of different Shopify growth apps, I created a simple checklist.
- If you’re looking for building a brand, you should, the tool you use shouldn’t add their own links. Most of the time tools insert their own links like “Powered by …” and it’s not cool to have.
- The tool you use shouldn’t slow down your page speed. A fast Shopify store is must have for higher conversion. It’s crucial for your search engine optimization and other digital marketing activities too. Check the effects of tool on your store page speed.
- The tool shouldn’t interfere your Shopify themes code. It may works when you just start but in one day it will broke your store. Worst part is you can’t realize it for a while.
- Avoid app conflicts. If you use different apps for different purposes, especially for the new visitors, those apps puts different messages can cause a mess on your store.
- High quality experience is the key for higher conversions. Do not be like the annoying sales people. Be sure you offer the best experience on your store.
- Is it customizable for your store? Each Shopify brand has their own needs. You should be able to customize it for your needs and strategy.
- Is it easy to use? As you can see there are lot’s of work to do for your growth. The app you use shouldn’t take much of your time. It should be easily usable.
Summary
There are lot’s of advices and recommendations for Shopify store’s growth. Most of time they bypass the strategy, business and marketing and just recommend simple tactics.As we discussed real growth means more customers, more revenue and more profit.
It’s almost impossible to reach these without having clear understanding of ideal customer profile, value proposition and growth strategy.
Before working on your Shopify store’s growth, you need to find out your ideal customer profile and build a killer value proposition.
When you have a clear idea of ideal customer profile and value proposition then you can start working on your Shopify store’s growth.
There are six core strategy to consider.
- Increase conversion rates
- Build a marketing engine that focus on your ideal customer profile
- Build a referral program and get more customers from your customers
- Focus on high quality content and play the long game for better retention
- Build a marketing plan for prospects that not ready to buy
- If you’re done with each of those steps then focus on expanding your Shopify business for higher growth.
I built Growth Suite from the ground up, meaning I personally wrote every line of code within Growth Suite.
Why did I take this approach?
Because I understand that developing an ultimate growth app is not the same as creating an app with seemingly cool features.
Growth Suite is a growth tool that empowers me to manage all aspects of your business growth.
The best part is that you can simply entrust the management of your growth to me, the creator of Growth Suite.
You won’t need to worry about any technical details; I’ll handle Growth Suite for you.
Sounds interesting? Just reach out, get a free conversion checkup report, and we can start working right away!
Also don’t forget to check out Conversion Rate Optimization Guide For Shopify and Marketing Guide For Shopify too.
Everyone has a different answer for this question. A good store, great Meta campaigns, SEO audits, email marketing, push notifications, mentorship, affiliates, apps – the list goes on.
The truth? While all these can be helpful, our main focus is on moving your Shopify business from point A to point B, shipping more packages each day.
I analyzed more than 300 shopify stores from a variety of categories then prepared this guide.
In this guide you’ll find nucleus of growth, 6 core growth strategies for your store and tools for your growth process.
What Growth Means Like for Your Shopify Store?
Let’s start with what real growth looks like. Now, imagine this;- Your campaigns are generating great results.
- Your customers becoming brand advocates.
- You have multiple traffic sources, each one doing well.
- Most of your customers buy from you again and again.
In this guide, we’ll focus on achieving this growth.
Nucleus of Growth: Conversion
As you see “conversion” is the center of the growth. I know there are lot’s of different conversion definition.In this guide, we look at conversion with growth perspective. For us conversion is a visitor saying “I want to buy this product, right now.”
There are two core part of the visitor.
- Customers: Who are our customers? Who should be your target?
- Offer (Value Proposition): Why do they buy our products? Why do they buy from our store?
Ideal Customer Profile
Everyone can’t be your customers. Simple and plain. Stop focusing on everyone.You need to find a niche that will need/want your products badly, be ready to buy right away, love your brand & products and afford easily.
This is the core idea of the growth process.
There are some niches who love and afford your product and brand much more than anyone else. That’s your ideal customer.
For growth and conversion perspective we use ideal customer profiles (ICP). It defines ideal customer based on demographic, psychographics, pain points, behavioral and environmentalattributes for ideal buyer. You can find more information about ICP here.
Let’s say we have a Shopify stores that sells organic, high-end baby clothes. All products environment friendly, unique designed. There is no chemical in these products which makes them perfect for babies health. Then our ideal customer profiles can be something like eco-conscious parents who care about the health, safety, and style of their little ones and can afford it.
Based on your marketing and store current state, there can be a few different methods to create ICPs. I prepared “How to Create ICP” post, check it if you want to get more information.
So far we completed the first part of the conversion. We know our target audience.
Now we can move to our second part. What we offer for these target customers.
Offer (Value Proposition)
I want to start with our example store. We’re selling organic, high-end baby clothes for eco-conscious parents who care about the health, safe, and style of their babies.Let’s say I created my Shopify store, took photographs of products and only posted them on my store. Running campaigns to get traffic to my store. Will it be enough to convince eco-conscious parents? As you can guess, it won’t be.
We need to design our brand, strategy, products and services just for them to say “yes, I want to buythese products right now“.
In this step we have to know our audience very well so we can just address their concerns, preferences, needs and pains. We need to find answers to seven key questions about them.
- Who are we empathizing with?
- What do they need to do?
- What do they see?
- What do they say?
- What do they do?
- What do they hear?
- What do they think and feel? (Pains and Gains)
A promise to our audience about how their pains will be relieved, how their lives will be better with our products, services and brand. Also known as value proposition. You can check value proposition guide here to learn more.
Your growth process all depends on quality of your value proposition. If your offer better than anyone else, your offer becomes unrefusable. This should be your target to persue.
Let’s continue with our clothing brands for new borns.
Our value proposition can be something like “We provide new moms with the peace of mind knowing they are dressing their babies in the safest, healthiest, and most stylish organic clothing available.“.
If we want it to be a killer value proposition, we can use something like “Experience the Ultimate Peace of Mind Knowing You’re Dressing Your Baby in the Safest, Healthiest, and Most Stylish Organic Clothing Available, Delivered with Lightning Delivery Speed and a Guaranteed 30-Day Full Refund“.
Start Growing Your Shopify Store
In this point we know our ideal customer profile, a customer segment that will love our products radically more than anyone else.Also we created our value proposition, a killer one. Our ideal customers can’t refuse.
Now it’s time to grow your shopify store using six proven strategies.
1. Convert More Visitors From Your Traffic
This is the most crucial step in achieving your Shopify store growth. The most fun about this you don’t need hundreds of thousands traffic or expensive agencies to increase your conversions.Here is the three keys strategy you can follow to achieve higher conversions.
- Strengthen your value proposition: If you don’t have a killer conversion rate, start working on strengthen your proposition.
- Be sure your visitors get it: Highly possible that most of your visitors won’t identify your value proposition. Ideally your visitors should get the sense of value proposition in the first 6 seconds and will be able to get most of it in the first 30 seconds.
- Fix UX Issues: Checkout your visitors session recordings and heatmaps. There can be huge issues that block your customers. Be sure your store working perfectly on mobile devices and people find it easy to access, find what they’re looking for and reach to you easily whenever they want.
- Create tailored content to address any barriers that prevent people from purchasing your products.
- Encourage user-generated content in the form of reviews to showcase how your products have positively impacted their lives.
- Utilize high-quality product visuals to capture attention and convey product features effectively.
- Craft detailed and informative product descriptions that provide comprehensive information to potential buyers.
- Offer a variety of payment options to cater to diverse customer preferences.
- Provide fast and reliable shipping to ensure timely product delivery.
- Implement a flexible and straightforward return policy to instill confidence in your customers.
- Make your shipping and return policies easily accessible and understandable.
- Implement campaigns to create a sense of urgency and encourage timely purchases.
- Offer prompt and responsive live customer support to address customer inquiries efficiently.
- Changing button colors
- Changing button texts
- Putting random numbers on your product page like 34523423 people looking at this product
2. Reach Your Ideal Customer More and Better
- More than 50% of customers engage 3 to 5 different channels during each purchase journey.
- Customers who use multiple channels shop 1.7x more than single channel shoppers and spend more.
Lesson is simple and clear.
Do not try to focus on everyone. Just focus on reaching your ideal customer profiles.
When you just focus on the right audience for yourself, you will be able to reach them more, make them click more and get most interested customers on your store.
Also using different channels plays a huge role, too. You already know your customers profile. Ask yourself where they spend most of their time? Try to utilize each channel. Get their attention with empath map and your value proposition.
3. Get New Customers From Your Customers
Based on McKinsey’s another report word of mouth 20 to 50 percent of all purchasing decision. Also based on The Heinz/Influitive report 59% of companies with referral programs have higher lifetime value.Customer referral can be a great channel to growth your Shopify store. Friends and family reviews are always more trustworthy and people generally tend to share similar preferences with their friends.
Building a referral program is a must-have for stores looking for growth.
Checkout article “Discover The Hidden Growth Channel: Referrals,” to learn how should you do it. Utilize the power of your existing customer base to attract new customers.
4. Make Them Easy to Buy From You, Again
“Acquiring new customers five to 25 times more expensive than retaining existing ones.” based on Harvard Business Review’s report. Can you believe it?It doesn’t matter how many customer you have, retention should be your number one priority. It’s that simple.
I know there are lot’s of experts recommend to send more and more and more emails each day. But that’s not the point. Also you shouldn’t do that.
Turn back to your ideal customer profile, empath map and value proposition. Those are keys for each marketing activity.
You should be keep in touch with your customers, for creating more value. And it doesn’t have to be only discounts.
For our hypothetical example of high-end organic baby clothes brand, you can start a YouTube channel about informative content for new borns, share the latest researches, expert opinion. Then you can encourage your customers to subscribe your channel and let them know about the new videos.
When you publish a new video, you also remind them you’re the address for them to checkout for new products for their babies.
5. Marketing to Prospects Not Ready to Buy Yet
This strategy can significantly impact your growth trajectory.A portion of your website traffic may not be immediately ready to purchase from you. This can stem from various reasons.
Just because someone doesn’t buy your product right away doesn’t mean they’re uninterested or dissatisfied.
Based on your brand promise and the problems you solve for your customers, you can anticipate why they choose to purchase from you. Consider the positive impact you make on their lives.
For instance, if you’re selling high-end, organic baby clothes, you can predict that your target audience is parents who prioritize their children’s health.
In this case, you could offer an enticing incentive, such as a free ebook titled “6 Things You Need to Check Before Buying Clothes For Your New Born,” to collect their email addresses.
This example illustrates the importance of identifying something that resonates deeply with your niche audience and is difficult for them to resist.
Reserve discounts for those who are on the verge of purchasing from you.
By implementing these strategies, you can effectively bridge the gap between Point A and Point B, propelling your Shopify store towards sustainable growth.
6. Expanding to New Market Segments and Markets
If you’ve successfully implemented the first three steps, you can finally embark on expanding into new market segments or markets.This is the final step of the growth strategy because it requires significant effort across various aspects of your business, not just marketing or your online store but also operations and branding.
Continuing with our previous example, let’s say you’re selling high-end, organic baby clothes. You’ve achieved great success in your current market segment, boasting an impressive conversion rate, effectively acquiring new customers through referrals, and nurturing long-term relationships with future customers.
At this stage, you can consider expanding your market segments and markets by exploring options such as:
- Selling clothes for kids with the same high-end, organic philosophy.
- Offering more affordable products for those who are price-sensitive.
- Expanding your product line to include organic and high-end toys.
- Expanding your business into new countries.
Tools For Shopify Stores Growth
This is what makes Shopify great for e-commerce businesses. There are lot’s of tools to help you excel on your brand growth marketing.There are more than 8,000 apps on the Shopify app store. How to choose which one to use it?
After working hundreds of Shopify stores growth marketing and trying lot’s of different Shopify growth apps, I created a simple checklist.
- If you’re looking for building a brand, you should, the tool you use shouldn’t add their own links. Most of the time tools insert their own links like “Powered by …” and it’s not cool to have.
- The tool you use shouldn’t slow down your page speed. A fast Shopify store is must have for higher conversion. It’s crucial for your search engine optimization and other digital marketing activities too. Check the effects of tool on your store page speed.
- The tool shouldn’t interfere your Shopify themes code. It may works when you just start but in one day it will broke your store. Worst part is you can’t realize it for a while.
- Avoid app conflicts. If you use different apps for different purposes, especially for the new visitors, those apps puts different messages can cause a mess on your store.
- High quality experience is the key for higher conversions. Do not be like the annoying sales people. Be sure you offer the best experience on your store.
- Is it customizable for your store? Each Shopify brand has their own needs. You should be able to customize it for your needs and strategy.
- Is it easy to use? As you can see there are lot’s of work to do for your growth. The app you use shouldn’t take much of your time. It should be easily usable.
Summary
There are lot’s of advices and recommendations for Shopify store’s growth. Most of time they bypass the strategy, business and marketing and just recommend simple tactics.As we discussed real growth means more customers, more revenue and more profit.
It’s almost impossible to reach these without having clear understanding of ideal customer profile, value proposition and growth strategy.
Before working on your Shopify store’s growth, you need to find out your ideal customer profile and build a killer value proposition.
When you have a clear idea of ideal customer profile and value proposition then you can start working on your Shopify store’s growth.
There are six core strategy to consider.
- Increase conversion rates
- Build a marketing engine that focus on your ideal customer profile
- Build a referral program and get more customers from your customers
- Focus on high quality content and play the long game for better retention
- Build a marketing plan for prospects that not ready to buy
- If you’re done with each of those steps then focus on expanding your Shopify business for higher growth.
I built Growth Suite from the ground up, meaning I personally wrote every line of code within Growth Suite.
Why did I take this approach?
Because I understand that developing an ultimate growth app is not the same as creating an app with seemingly cool features.
Growth Suite is a growth tool that empowers me to manage all aspects of your business growth.
The best part is that you can simply entrust the management of your growth to me, the creator of Growth Suite.
You won’t need to worry about any technical details; I’ll handle Growth Suite for you.
Sounds interesting? Just reach out, get a free conversion checkup report, and we can start working right away!
Also don’t forget to check out Conversion Rate Optimization Guide For Shopify and Marketing Guide For Shopify too.
This article first published at MarketingLib.
2024.05.11 19:55 NoCarpenter6172 blocked/unblocked a guy & now i don’t know how to justify it.
so i’ve been having an extremely difficult time getting over a guy i was seeing for about two months who ended up cutting off the romantic relationship. things were kind of rocky at first but now we’ve cooled and he’s expressed an interest in being friends. he came over last friday & it honestly just made me sad. i ended up blocking him on everything after he left because i couldn’t handle the sadness.
fast-forward a few days and i realized that i don’t want him to think that i’m upset enough to block him & i still want him in my life. i’ve unblocked him now but i know he’ll notice that we don’t follow one another anymore & i may have to explain how that happened if i want to have any relationship with him at all in the future. i don’t necessarily want to lie but i don’t think i want to be vulnerable enough to express that i’m hurting badly enough to block him out of nowhere. does anyone have any advice?
submitted by NoCarpenter6172 to BPDsupport [link] [comments]
fast-forward a few days and i realized that i don’t want him to think that i’m upset enough to block him & i still want him in my life. i’ve unblocked him now but i know he’ll notice that we don’t follow one another anymore & i may have to explain how that happened if i want to have any relationship with him at all in the future. i don’t necessarily want to lie but i don’t think i want to be vulnerable enough to express that i’m hurting badly enough to block him out of nowhere. does anyone have any advice?
2024.05.11 19:54 WeirdOk6625 Ive noticed some retry mechanics that are cool and stressful lol ->
Yesterday I was doing a lot of retry trying to beat certain bosses. I noticed if you do things the exact same order the first time the same outcome happens(no RNG) and i used that to cheese the bosses let me explain. the same moves will miss,the same crits/misses,same catch rates/break out rates with balls. unless you break the cycle and do something different or even then the enemy does the same thing ether way. I almost had a perma dead run and i was running my brain like i was playing chess to beat the one i was stuck on and kept getting swept. its cool mechanic but at the same time it removes the randomness of the game id prefer if each time everything was random.
submitted by WeirdOk6625 to pokerogue [link] [comments]
2024.05.11 19:53 noflylistviewer Advice on prayer books/ guides to prayer?
Hiya, I'm learning more and more and doing more jewish things in the leadup to starting conversion officially , and I'm still kind of lost on praying/prayers.
Is there any guide to prayer in Judaism I could read?
Also are there like lists or anything of what prayers and blessings to say at what times and circumstances?
I do use sefaria so any recommendations for stuff I can find in there would be cool too.
Thank you sorry if this is incoherent , written in a hurry
submitted by noflylistviewer to ConvertingtoJudaism [link] [comments]
Is there any guide to prayer in Judaism I could read?
Also are there like lists or anything of what prayers and blessings to say at what times and circumstances?
I do use sefaria so any recommendations for stuff I can find in there would be cool too.
Thank you sorry if this is incoherent , written in a hurry
2024.05.11 19:53 santanasays 20M originally from Florida recently drove back with mom in car from the west coast . Just stressed out don’t know what to do . I don’t have a car and the bus stop is 30 minutes away .
Hey guys so recently drove from the west coast to Florida with my mom .
The thing is she’s really a jerk and is always calling me names and blaming her problems on me, I’m currently living at my uncles house with her .
She complains to me why I don’t have a job yet but nearest bus stop is like 30 minutes away . And she doesn’t even have a job either and just quit one of them .
And id hate to ask her for a ride to a job because she’s always a jerk .
My dad is back in Arizona she left him because she told me the relationship was toxic etc.
It’s cool being back in my home state, but damn it’s a scenery change, and a lot of things have changed here as well .
I need a 35K dollar medical procedure that will vastly improve the quality of my life that no insurance would cover in AZ , but they will cover it here in FL for a couple thousand out of pocket . But the the best doctor that does it is booked out until the end of June for consultations .
There’s a guy closer to me with sooner appointments but he isn’t deemed one of the best , so maybe it will be worth the wait to see him .
I just feel like a leech at my uncles right now . Im a pretty socially akward person and depressed because of my medical problems . So i still feel more comfortable with my mom then around him as weird as that that sounds.
I’m thinking my plan would to be to get my drivers license here in FL . Because all the jobs I’ve had I’ve taken multiple buses and it ain’t no fun . My dad had a bunch of cars but would never let me drive them without the license .
Then I’ll try to get the procedure and go back with my dad, but he isn’t very nice to me either so I’m kinda conflicted .
I almost have my AS degree in IT, so maybe I’d be better off transferring to a college for a Bachelors and living on campus in the dorms for 2 years .
It’s a little complicated but any advice or feedback would be good .
submitted by santanasays to florida [link] [comments]
The thing is she’s really a jerk and is always calling me names and blaming her problems on me, I’m currently living at my uncles house with her .
She complains to me why I don’t have a job yet but nearest bus stop is like 30 minutes away . And she doesn’t even have a job either and just quit one of them .
And id hate to ask her for a ride to a job because she’s always a jerk .
My dad is back in Arizona she left him because she told me the relationship was toxic etc.
It’s cool being back in my home state, but damn it’s a scenery change, and a lot of things have changed here as well .
I need a 35K dollar medical procedure that will vastly improve the quality of my life that no insurance would cover in AZ , but they will cover it here in FL for a couple thousand out of pocket . But the the best doctor that does it is booked out until the end of June for consultations .
There’s a guy closer to me with sooner appointments but he isn’t deemed one of the best , so maybe it will be worth the wait to see him .
I just feel like a leech at my uncles right now . Im a pretty socially akward person and depressed because of my medical problems . So i still feel more comfortable with my mom then around him as weird as that that sounds.
I’m thinking my plan would to be to get my drivers license here in FL . Because all the jobs I’ve had I’ve taken multiple buses and it ain’t no fun . My dad had a bunch of cars but would never let me drive them without the license .
Then I’ll try to get the procedure and go back with my dad, but he isn’t very nice to me either so I’m kinda conflicted .
I almost have my AS degree in IT, so maybe I’d be better off transferring to a college for a Bachelors and living on campus in the dorms for 2 years .
It’s a little complicated but any advice or feedback would be good .
2024.05.11 19:50 bro90x Oh boy here I go catching feelings again....
Like why am i so caught up on her, we arent even that close. And like shit i gotta fucking tell her I'm trans again when she gets back(protip: Dont come out to people when they are zonked out of their gourd, they probably won't remember). Which is gonna be super fucking awkward probably. And idek what I'm looking for from her???? She's stupid cute and is totally my vibe but she's said before she's not looking for a relationship and I'm not really looking for a fwb thing so again why am i still so stuck up on her? She literally said she thinks she's a chaser??????????????? She makes my fucking head spin bc i really want her but idk if it's for like healthy reasons. Like I'm super lonely and she gives me attention that i don't otherwise get(other than from my BFF, and i am actually making a lot of progress on that front luckily ) so do I like her or the attention she gives me?? Like I like her bc she's a really cool and fun(and cute!!!!) Person but like am I overlooking things about her bc I'm stupid lonely? And like what if she gets back from her trip and she feels differently towards me? Things were really awkward last time we hung out(tho she did kinda misgender me the entire time which put me in a weird way) so like what if after that and the trip she comes to the conclusion that I'm not * it* (which lets be honest I'm probably not haha)
I just want her to hold me and touch me and kiss me and to just talk with her. And also suffocate me between her thighs.
submitted by bro90x to adultsnew [link] [comments]
I just want her to hold me and touch me and kiss me and to just talk with her. And also suffocate me between her thighs.
2024.05.11 19:50 Initial-Flight8010 Today's stream could have been better. (No offence)
I'm not saying it was bad but it could have been better.
I hope you could do this often because it was fun. Plus there are just my opinion no offence you can can always do it your way.
submitted by Initial-Flight8010 to prakharkpravachan [link] [comments]
I hope you could do this often because it was fun. Plus there are just my opinion no offence you can can always do it your way.
- Use https://www.perplexity.ai/ if you want to research cause it's way better provides material (video and articles) related to the topic.
- Bryan Johnson has been popular for quite some while, from what I can remember more than a year. (Been on pod with Kunal shan) You can also talk about business side cause that is doing great.
- Dude just prepare topics you want to talk about before the stream cuz every once in a while when you building up on a topic some other stuff shows up.
- Can check MY FIRST MILLION pod cuz they talk about they talk about the same ( No small boy stuff category) if we are talking about that. Plus I can just post it here if there is no problem.
2024.05.11 19:48 istp4ever Girlfriend (25F) being too nice/flirty with flirtatious male friend from a few years ago. How do I (26M) respond?
I took several pics of my gf's imessages, which were from a couple years ago.
There's lots of winks, talking about getting drinks, 'friendly' joking, and this went on for maybe 1-2 years. I didn't even know he was being overly flirtatious and that they were hanging out multiple times.
The only time my gf told me about him was the one time they hung out and what he did for work. So from my perspective, there was barely anything to worry about.
But when I look at there messages, it seems less innocent.
I link to the messages at the end of this post.
Please read the context below so you can have more info on my situation before you make a rapid judgment.
To give some context:
1. Why did I search her phone? We both agree it's OK to search the other's phone if there's a genuine need to. Our logic (and we learned this from past relationships) is that if someone is giving no reason for you to snoop, then usually you feel no need to, and you won't find anything anyway. But if you have a gut feeling that says 'red flag,' then that's when you want to check your SO's phone, you'll probably find something.
With my gf, I've only searched her phone maybe once or twice in the past 2 years.
2. I feel like she's being a hypocrite. In the past, before the timeline of all these messages, there was once a female coworker who texted me a pic of her dog, so my gf snooped my phone and got upset about it. We both communicated, and I told her that yeah, I can tell that my coworker likes me, so I'm keeping a distance from her. However... this guy's clearly being overly flirtatious, and my gf actively communicates with him and tries to get drinks.
3. This is a new male friend, who she met after we started dating. He was organizing stuff for her organizational club, which is how they met. However, they haven't talked in a couple of years - because they are no longer part of that org.
The communication is too flirty/friendly. It would be extremely weird if my mother or my aunt talked to another guy this way.
4. She has a history of being a little too 'friendly' with guys.
Wrapping up my thoughts
Even though this is a few years ago, I've always had a hunch that I couldn't 100% fully trust her, but this confirms it. I'm actually not surprised that she'd talk like this.
Which sucks because i'd rather have a partner where I'd be SHOCKED if they didn't shut it down with guys who were being flirtatious.
What hurts me is that I'm always able to tell if another girl is being overly friendly or flirtatious towards me - so out of respect for my gf - i maintain an active distance.
So.... am I being overly insecure/paranoid? I doubt it, since I'm having these emotions, and they're valid for a reason. And in the past, I also had an ex who would talk to guys behind my back and lie, and my gut told me I just couldn't trust her. But who knows. I need an outside perspective...
Here are the screenshots.
You can tell me if I'm overreacting or not... (lol, the more i look over these screenshots, the more I realize i was duped. She doesn't talk to any of her female friends this way. She was never mine. For the streets)
Pt 2. Continued from last screenshot
https://imgur.com/a/j67fjWj
Btw, regarding the second guy above, in the full convo he was being very short and dry with his answers, not giving her any ammo. The dude clearly wasn't interested or flirting, plus he's married which my gf knew.
The male friend is clearly interested and being flirtatious.
When I confronted her about this a couple years back (when i only saw one of the convos.. whereas now i have more info), she said 'oh he's like that with all the girls.' Mmmm.. good lie and excuse.
Idk.. what's crazy is that I would NEVER talk to another girl like this, ESPECIALLY if she's being flirtatious with me.. and this is AFTER she got angry that some random chick sent me a picture of her dog.. which isn't flirtatious at all.
Thoughts?
submitted by istp4ever to relationship_advice [link] [comments]
There's lots of winks, talking about getting drinks, 'friendly' joking, and this went on for maybe 1-2 years. I didn't even know he was being overly flirtatious and that they were hanging out multiple times.
The only time my gf told me about him was the one time they hung out and what he did for work. So from my perspective, there was barely anything to worry about.
But when I look at there messages, it seems less innocent.
I link to the messages at the end of this post.
Please read the context below so you can have more info on my situation before you make a rapid judgment.
To give some context:
1. Why did I search her phone? We both agree it's OK to search the other's phone if there's a genuine need to. Our logic (and we learned this from past relationships) is that if someone is giving no reason for you to snoop, then usually you feel no need to, and you won't find anything anyway. But if you have a gut feeling that says 'red flag,' then that's when you want to check your SO's phone, you'll probably find something.
With my gf, I've only searched her phone maybe once or twice in the past 2 years.
2. I feel like she's being a hypocrite. In the past, before the timeline of all these messages, there was once a female coworker who texted me a pic of her dog, so my gf snooped my phone and got upset about it. We both communicated, and I told her that yeah, I can tell that my coworker likes me, so I'm keeping a distance from her. However... this guy's clearly being overly flirtatious, and my gf actively communicates with him and tries to get drinks.
3. This is a new male friend, who she met after we started dating. He was organizing stuff for her organizational club, which is how they met. However, they haven't talked in a couple of years - because they are no longer part of that org.
The communication is too flirty/friendly. It would be extremely weird if my mother or my aunt talked to another guy this way.
4. She has a history of being a little too 'friendly' with guys.
- One time we traveled, went to a cabana at a day club, she got drunk, and she was talking to this one guy a lot, and told him that I'm her "#1" but that guy she was talking to is her "#2."
- In the same trip, our entire group met some dude at the pool who was cool. And my gf gets his number, texts him to come hang out with us the next day, being a little too friendly in how she asked with emojis and all, and then she deletes the text.. Hmm.. I wonder why
Wrapping up my thoughts
Even though this is a few years ago, I've always had a hunch that I couldn't 100% fully trust her, but this confirms it. I'm actually not surprised that she'd talk like this.
Which sucks because i'd rather have a partner where I'd be SHOCKED if they didn't shut it down with guys who were being flirtatious.
What hurts me is that I'm always able to tell if another girl is being overly friendly or flirtatious towards me - so out of respect for my gf - i maintain an active distance.
So.... am I being overly insecure/paranoid? I doubt it, since I'm having these emotions, and they're valid for a reason. And in the past, I also had an ex who would talk to guys behind my back and lie, and my gut told me I just couldn't trust her. But who knows. I need an outside perspective...
Here are the screenshots.
You can tell me if I'm overreacting or not... (lol, the more i look over these screenshots, the more I realize i was duped. She doesn't talk to any of her female friends this way. She was never mine. For the streets)
- My gf suggesting they could do happy hour 'all the time'
- Wink flirting, talking about hanging out
- More flirting, trying to get beers
- The 'male friend' suggesting that they watch a show together when he says tfti. And my gf being sad that they can't get happy hour anymore :(
- the guy being flirty talking about winky face, whipping out his tiny W, my gf wanting to hang out. Only saving grace is that she says 'don't take the winky the wrong way'
Pt 2. Continued from last screenshot
https://imgur.com/a/j67fjWj
- A second dude, where she says she "would love to see his face ;)"
Btw, regarding the second guy above, in the full convo he was being very short and dry with his answers, not giving her any ammo. The dude clearly wasn't interested or flirting, plus he's married which my gf knew.
The male friend is clearly interested and being flirtatious.
When I confronted her about this a couple years back (when i only saw one of the convos.. whereas now i have more info), she said 'oh he's like that with all the girls.' Mmmm.. good lie and excuse.
Idk.. what's crazy is that I would NEVER talk to another girl like this, ESPECIALLY if she's being flirtatious with me.. and this is AFTER she got angry that some random chick sent me a picture of her dog.. which isn't flirtatious at all.
Thoughts?