#I’ve gotten way faster so I can get art out while it’s still relevant

[ladylynse]

A belated happy birthday to @bibliophilea. 

Forewarning: All Dipper knew was that there was something buried in some special thermos behind the shack; all Danny knew was that he had no idea how he’d gotten here. Inspired by this artwork by @hashtag-art

Part 3 [FF | AO3] (previous)

-|-

“Okay,” Danny said to himself once he was back in the forest and sitting on a springy bed of moss. He ran a hand through his hair. “They know. Or at least they practically know, because there’s no way they bought that.” That was a problem. Not them finding out the truth, exactly, unless it meant they played that card and trapped him again. (He’d really have to figure out how to prevent that from happening again. His parents didn’t believe in non-ghostly magic, but Vlad would have a field day if he realized that had actually worked.)

Thing was, though, if what he’d done had really been enough, if he’d somehow managed to do whatever Clockwork had wanted, Danny would be on his way home right now.

But he wasn’t, which meant he hadn’t.

And he couldn’t exactly time travel without help, so it’s not like he had an alternate route home.

That probably meant that they hadn’t believed his warning, either. He’d have to figure out how to convince them, assuming he could talk to them without them trying to exorcise him or something. Unless exorcism would send him to the Ghost Zone? He’d be a lot more willing to let that happen if he knew that for sure; it beat waiting around for a natural portal or risk getting caught by Vlad if he tried to sneak into one of the ones he’d built over the years.

Unfortunately, given some of the things Danny had seen in the past, he wasn’t going to bet that exorcism wouldn’t equate to destruction.

Especially in a place that gave off such skin-crawling vibes—seriously, what was wrong with that place?

Well.

Real magic, apparently. Somewhere. Buried within all the scams.

Buried.

Like his thermos had been buried.

What else was buried, then?

Danny slumped back against a tree, absently flicked an ant off his knee, and stared upward at the branches. “I have to go back, don’t I?”

No one answered, which was probably a good thing. It was too much to hope that Clockwork would come back so soon. Especially when he was set on ‘not interfering’ while interfering as much as possible through Danny.

Mabel and Dipper’s magic, whatever sort it was, worked better on him when he was Phantom. His best defense was staying as Fenton. Even if he couldn’t resist whatever they tried next forever, it would buy him time, and that might be all he needed.

It would be nice to think that they wouldn’t be plotting something at this exact moment, but he knew better than to engage in such wishful thinking—at least out loud—when magic was involved.

“I’ll just stay invisible until I can figure this out,” he muttered.

The forest seemed to swallow his words.

This whole place was weird.

The sooner he could get out of here, the better.

XXXXXX

“Are you sure about this?”

Dipper didn’t bother to look up from his reading. “The journal hasn’t been wrong before. I’ve just been wrong when interpreting it. If he’s a ghost, those runes should keep him from harming us.” He made a vague gesture at the walls of their room, which he and Mabel had carefully covered in chalk runes. Not as permanent as he’d like, but a lot easier to get rid of in a pinch if someone came poking around.

Or, more to the point, if something turned out to be the wrong rune or drawn incorrectly and having a meaning that was extremely counterproductive.

“Should.” Mabel’s voice was flat. “Can’t you be more confident than that?”

“I’m starting to wonder if he’s really a phantom, whatever he says,” Dipper explained as he sat up. “He doesn’t have their distinctive piercings, and he didn’t try to hurt me, even though I summoned him. Which means he’s either a category ten ghost or he’s not really a ghost at all.”

“But you summoned him,” she said, “and he was trapped in the circle.”

“That might just be what he wants us to think.”

“So what, then? Oracle? Because of the prophecy?”

Dipper grimaced. “Only if we’re lucky.” He turned the journal around to show her what he was looking at.

“Some kind of demon? You think Danny’s possessed by him?”

“He did say something about interdimensional travel,” Dipper said defensively. “You don’t need to say that like it’s impossible. And that would merit the author’s warning.”

“So would a category ten ghost, and a ghost could possess someone as easily as a demon.”

“I guess.”

He’d tried not to grumble it, but Mabel slid down beside him and leaned against his bed as well. “It’s okay not to know something, bro-bro.”

“I know,” he said, flipping through the journal again to see if he could find something else that might be relevant, “but if I mess this up, things could get bad fast.”

“Maybe we should tell the others, then. At least Grunkle Stan.”

“But then we’d have to tell him everything, and….” And he didn’t want to tell them about the journal yet, not even Grunkle Stan. He just…didn’t. It would feel too much like admitting defeat. What if he wasn’t even allowed to keep the journal?

Mabel hummed in agreement, stayed silent for about three seconds, and then asked, “What if he’s right?”

“Grunkle Stan? About what?”

“No, Phantom. The warning. What if he’s right? What if he is an oracle, or a messenger for an oracle, or something like that?”

Dipper scowled. “Anyone with actual foresight would know that saying something the way he did is just going to make people more determined, not less.”

“Maybe that’s the whole point.”

Dipper glanced at her. “What do you mean?”

“Maybe the point isn’t to warn us off.”

“Really? That’s what it sounded like to me. He kept telling us to stop.”

“But that’s not the actual message he gave us. If you stay on this road, you’ll find yourself on a path you can’t turn away from. That just means if we keep going, we won’t be able to stop later. It doesn’t necessarily mean we have to stop now. Stopping now was just what he thought we should do.”

She had a point. If he really was just a messenger, he wouldn’t necessarily know the true meaning of the message. And if he was wrong? About them needing to stop? Then that had to mean— “It’s forewarning. So we’ll be better prepared for whatever’s coming. Whatever has to come.”

Assuming Mabel wasn’t wrong about that, that changed things.

Phantom might not be an enemy. Danny might not be a conduit or something like that. And the journal’s warning….

But maybe it hadn’t been a warning. It had been in a different hand than the rest of the journal. A special thermos to contain the messenger until it was time for the message to be heard….

“I hope you’re right,” Dipper said.

“But in case I’m not, we still have to do all of this.” She nodded at the chalked runes. “These will stop ghosts and demons?”

“It’s every protection rune I’ve found in here,” Dipper said, lifting the journal a few inches for emphasis. “I’m hoping none of them cancel each other out.”

Mabel snorted. “I’m surprised you didn’t do that weeks ago.”

“I’ve been practicing drawing them,” Dipper admitted. “In the dirt. With a stick. I didn’t want to risk getting something wrong when it mattered. I’m not as good at freehanding as you are without practice.”

“That’s just because you spend more time reading than drawing and crafting.” Mabel climbed to her feet. “You can keep looking through the journal. I’m going downstairs to wait for Danny.”

“You think that’s how he’ll come back? After that story he fed you about his family before running out?”

Mabel smirked. “I’m pretty sure he’s figured out we don’t trust Phantom. Trying to convince us to trust Danny is his best bet.”

“But we’re not going to trust him.” Not liking the look on Mabel’s face, Dipper added a pointed, “Right?”

“I like to hear people out.”

“Mabel!”

“What? He was kinda cute.”

Dipper groaned. “For all we know, he’s as real a person as Norman was.”

She just shrugged. “Summer romances are all about risk-taking and mysteries. It’s part of the thrill.”

“But this is serious!”

“And I’ll help you with all the serious stuff once you figure out what preparations we need to actually make. Just like I helped you draw all this. Doesn’t mean I can’t have fun in the meantime.”

She wasn’t going to listen to him, was she? “Just be careful, okay?”

“I’ll be as careful as I ever am,” she promised before slipping out of the room, and he bit back the urge to yell at her that that wasn’t careful at all. Her definition of careful had nearly ended with her as queen of the gnomes.

But she had helped him with this, and she’d help him in the future, and she really did hate all the research, and that was his favourite part.

He just wished she’d give up the idea of having a wonderful summer romance with any boy who came near the Mystery Shack. It would make his life a lot easier. But that’s what siblings did. They made things harder.

And, usually, they made things worth the effort.

With any luck, that would hold true this time.

XXXXXXX

Danny had absolutely no idea what the siblings—twins?—had up their sleeves, nor how fast they could pull something together, but judging by the magic circle, it would be faster than he’d like.

He knew blood blossoms weren’t the only things that fell under traditional methods of ghost hunting. His parents relied on technology, using their inventions before anything else, and Vlad (and therefore Valerie) was little different. Even Technus and Skulker used it. Danny was getting pretty good at dodging anything Tucker couldn’t just hack, but magic? He barely dealt with that outside of Desiree. He knew next to nothing.

That didn’t make him feel any better about going back to the Mystery Shack.

It didn’t keep him from going, either.

The place wasn’t closed, but it was empty—or, at least, it was as empty as it had been earlier. He would’ve been better off if there had been a crowd. No crowd meant no hope of distraction. He could try being his own distraction, of course—knock a few things around with well-placed ectoblasts, since attempts to duplicate himself would probably end badly with how he felt right now—but the truth was, he didn��t know if that would help.

If the adults bought into the whole magic thing as much as the kids, doing something like that would draw more attention to himself, not less. It was more likely to be recognized for what it was: something unnatural. And for all that this place was clearly set up like some sort of scam, it…. It wasn’t all a scam. He’d felt that much before. He was sure it hadn’t just been the beginnings of that magic circle.

He could still feel it now, hovering where he was underneath a window. Something that made his skin crawl. Something that had his arms covered in goosebumps. Something…something that felt achingly familiar but made him want to run away at the same time.

Or maybe that was just whatever the others had already done.

Or what he was supposed to be warning them away from.

It would’ve been nice if Clockwork could’ve given him some straight answers for once.

Danny put one hand on the sun-warmed side of the shack. Nothing happened, so he tried to phase through the wall. Tried being the operative word, as it didn’t work. He scowled and pushed harder, to no avail. He even tried the windowpane in case glass reacted differently than wood. It didn’t.

It figured.

These guys would find a way to make the entire place phase-proof without coating it in anti-ecto goo.

“Why can’t just one thing be easy for me, huh?” Danny muttered. Clockwork didn’t answer, of course; he was probably back in his tower watching through a portal, sure that everything was going the way he thought it should.

Fine. Whatever. He’d do what he could, even if that meant taking more risks than he’d like in a place like this. Anything to get back home.

Still, what he was doing wasn’t the smartest. Even by Tucker’s terms, it would be a fairly bad idea. Danny knew that even as he circled the shack, looking for an open window that didn’t exist. Everything was closed. Most likely, if anything had been open, the others had closed it. Since phasing wasn’t an option, he’d have to go through a door. Maybe the back door was still open? If Mabel hadn’t locked it behind him….

Danny peeked through the screen on the back door. He couldn’t see anyone, but there wasn’t a full view. He turned the handle slowly, easing the (thankfully unlocked) door open and slipping inside, closing it just as silently. He half-expected to come face-to-face with someone, but the kitchen was empty.

Small mercies.

Danny hesitated, trying to figure out where he should start his search when he wasn’t entirely sure what he was looking for. Did these people hide stuff in plain sight, or was he better off digging through closets and the basement and the attic? Except the room he’d been in with the other kids had pretty much been the attic, or at least some kind of attic room or loft—is that what a loft was?—and he wasn’t sure if this place had a basement, but…

Danny slowly stepped onto the floor, holding his breath as he let it take his full weight. Flying in human form got exhausting after a while. He tried to go intangible and keep going, hoping to slip right through the floor, just in case he wasn’t prevented from that now that he was inside, but his shoes stayed firmly on the wood beneath them.

Fine.

Old fashioned way it was, then.

It’s not like he really expected anything else.

Besides, this place was the Mystery Shack. It had to have secrets. And, well, clearly these people were prepared for the supernatural. Announcing his presence wouldn’t necessarily win him any favours, but maybe he could be his own distraction if he did it in a more old-fashioned way instead of trying to fool them like he had earlier.

Knocking on walls should still help him find hollow spots—hiding spots, for whatever information had to be hidden around here to merit Clockwork’s interference—and they shouldn’t expect anything less from a ghost. Judging from the junk for sale in the gift shop, the head guy would probably use the excuse of calling this place haunted to up his prices anyway. Danny might be doing them a favour.

It wasn’t very subtle, and it meant completely abandoning any hope of coming out of this unnoticed, but it was also very unlikely that he wasn’t expected. He knew that. It was too much to hope for that they weren’t expecting him, especially considering he couldn’t phase through any of the walls. That wasn’t a coincidence.

He just hoped he was right about them not being able to do as much to him as long as he didn’t go ghost, even though he was using his ghost powers.

XXXXXX

Wendy didn’t pay attention to the floor creaking at first.

She didn’t pay attention to the odd knocking sound, either.

At least, not until she realized it was moving and coming far too regularly, too rhythmically, to be something Soos was tinkering with while they didn’t have any customers.

But that’s what made the floorboards creaking wrong, too. No customers. She knew the squeaky floorboards in this place. They all did. They all also avoided them now, more from habit formed by annoyance than anything else. But the last customer to come in had been that kid, and according to Mabel, he was long gone.

Wendy popped the bubble she’d been blowing but didn’t look up from her magazine. Instead, she listened while pretending to read, scanning the page to keep up appearances but not taking in any of the words.

The floorboards shouldn’t be creaking, and there shouldn’t be any weird knocking. Tap tap tap. Tap. Tap tap. Tap tap tap. It definitely wasn’t a woodpecker, even if that might be a seemingly logical conclusion from some city slicker who knew nothing about Gravity Falls. Someone—something—was inside the Mystery Shack. And if it was supposed to be tapping out Morse code, well, it wasn’t being rapped out by someone who had a concept of long and short; the pauses were too inconsistent, even if the reoccurrence was not.

Wendy flicked her eyes to Mabel, who’d come downstairs to borrow one of Wendy’s old magazines and was sitting up on a stool in the corner. She was still humming to herself. Either she hadn’t noticed or she was doing exactly what Wendy was and pretending.

Wendy sighed. Sometimes, she was really not paid enough. Still, this was a good job on the whole. Plenty of time to read and just enough of the inexplicable to keep things interesting. About par for the Mystery Shack, really.

“Hey, Mabel, what’s your brother up to?”

“Reading,” she answered without looking up. “Boring stuff.” She folded open the magazine and turned it around, showing off a bright advertisement for perfumes. “Do you mind if I cut this up for my scrapbook? I like the flowers.”

“Go wild,” Wendy said. Mabel chirped her thanks, but Wendy was still listening to the tapping and the occasional floorboard creak. Whatever it was was coming closer.

She checked her watch; almost closing, but Stan was probably still in town, looking after…something. Wendy didn’t ask anymore. Stan had had that look in his eye recently, been in a sort of mood where he answered questions with a joke, and she hadn’t bothered trying to get anything out of him. He’d fill her in if she needed to know. She knew Soos had gone into the hardware store earlier, too—something about wiring disappearing again—but she was pretty sure she’d seen him in the yard not that long ago. He had to be back, anyway. Stan wouldn’t have left without having him fill in as Mr. Mystery should any tourists swing by.

Not that she needed either of them to deal with this for her, but it’s not like this was an infestation of raccoons. She wouldn’t mind a bit of backup if she found herself dealing with something from the side of Gravity Falls that most people ignored. Or tried to ignore, anyway. Sometimes, it really wanted to be known.

This…might be one of those times. Which might mean she wouldn’t have a choice about giving Dipper and Mabel a crash course in whatever they wound up facing. The truth of it, not whatever stories she knew Dipper tried chasing; however much he seemed to be trying to keep that from her, it’s not like she never heard him whispering to Soos or Mabel. Trouble was, Soos and Mabel being who they were, she wasn’t sure how much of those whispers were truth….

She could remember being as ignorant of all of this as they had been at the start of the summer, as they might still be aside from an encounter or two, but that was before she started working at the Mystery Shack and realized her dad’s ulterior motive for all those survival lessons.

She was pretty sure her dad didn’t believe in any of the stories people told. As far as she could tell, most people didn’t. Urban legends were just urban legends, and a good campfire story was just a good campfire story. If anyone had a particularly good one, well, then it might be deemed something on par with what Old Man McGucket might tell. It was weird, though. People would tell those stories, and then they’d never mention them again, even when offered the perfect circumstances for call-backs. It was like they’d just put it out of their mind completely.

Still, no longer mentioning something and not admitting to even entertaining the idea that there was a modicum of truth in any of those stories didn’t mean people didn’t prepare, even if it was mostly unconsciously.

And even though Stan laughed it off, even though she usually laughed it off, it hadn’t taken the haunting at the convenience store to open her eyes to the fact that there was more going on in Gravity Falls than anyone admitted.

Whatever. Mabel and Dipper were going to find out sooner or later that Gravity Falls wasn’t the sleepy little town it appeared to be—assuming their run-in with the ghosts at the old convenience store hadn’t already done that. Honestly, even she’d thought ghosts were just stories before that one; she’d figured all the real stuff was the sort that was much less popular. Who would’ve thought it was all real?

The door separating the gift shop from the main Mystery Shack showroom creaked open.

Mabel, having torn the page from the magazine, was back to humming to herself and didn’t look up from her reading.

Wendy reached below the counter, trying to figure out what in their eclectic emergency supply would actually be useful in this situation, and settled on the baking soda box that was supposed to be placed in various nooks and crannies to keep the place from smelling too musty when it rained.

There was no tapping, but she heard a floorboard creak. The one by the vending machine, if she had to guess.

“Screw it,” she muttered. She tore the cardboard on the top of the baking soda box and flung the contents in the general direction of the vending machine. For the briefest moment, she saw a humanoid outline in the dust, and then it was gone.

“Wendy?”

Mabel’s voice wasn’t scared, exactly. Nor did it sound like she thought Wendy was crazy. But it was still too cautious for Wendy’s liking.

“What are you doing?”

“Summer dusting,” Wendy deadpanned. “It’s like spring cleaning. This helps you spot all the places you need to dust.” Mabel’s face told her she clearly didn’t buy that, but Wendy didn’t care. She just smirked and added, “Go grab your brother and run outside and help Soos gather some wood. We should roast marshmallows tonight.”

Mabel stared at her for a beat longer before she squealed, “I love roasting marshmallows! It’s fun to catch them on fire and watch Dipper’s face. He hates that. He wants his to be this perfect golden brown, but it’s not done till it’s crispy.” Grinning, she slipped off the stool and out of the room.

Wendy turned her gaze back in the direction of the vending machine. “What the hell are you?” she hissed. “And what are you doing here?”

Something shifted, and she could see the faint impression of footprints in the thin dusting of baking soda.

And then she blinked and saw the kid from earlier standing there.

“This isn’t what it looks like,” he said. “I swear.”

Right. Like she was going to buy that.

“I mean it,” he insisted, probably reading her expression. “I… There’s something wrong with this place, okay? I need to figure out what it is. I…. It’s the only way I’m going to get home.”

There was a thump from upstairs. She had to deal with this fast. “What are you?” she repeated.

“Stuck,” the kid said. “And not a threat to you. Honest. Unless you’re, like, secretly planning to eat the kids who live here or something.”

Well, it’s not like she expected straight answers from something that no doubt loved to trick humans.

“Get out.”

“But—”

“Out!” she jabbed her hand towards the front door. “Now. I’ll know if you try to come back.”

“Not necessarily,” the kid muttered, not quite quietly enough that she couldn’t hear him, whatever he might think.

He vanished again.

No more footprints appeared in the white dusting the floor, but she heard that tapping again.

And then she heard the sound change.

It wasn’t the rap of knuckles against solid wood. There was something hollow, something hidden, something—

Footsteps coming down the stairs.

Mabel and Dipper.

She lunged for a rag beneath the counter and wiped it across the countertop, pretending to be cleaning. When they waved as they ran out the door, she offered a weak smile.

No more knocking.

No more footprints.

Man, sometimes she really wasn’t paid enough for this.

XXXX

Okay, that had not gone as well as Danny had hoped.

Fine, he’d been stupid. Revealing himself had been stupid. He shouldn’t have expected help. Clearly, these people were not here to help him. That would have been too easy.

But at least whatever they’d done to the shack itself to make it phase-proof didn’t extend to its contents. He hadn’t been too hopeful when he’d tried to stick his arm into the vending machine, but once it had worked, well, of course he’d gone right in and tried to keep going. The fact that there really was a hidden passageway behind it was an unexpected bonus. He’d been half expecting a hidden door that would have been just as effective at barring his way as every other wall in this place.

Danny dropped his invisibility and intangibility once on the other side, but he kept floating as he held up a hand and let a ghost ray illuminate the passage. There was a faint light coming from below him, but it wasn’t enough to light his way by itself. Rickety stairs led downwards, the angle steeper than any stairs he’d come across before. This place really did have secrets. Maybe the Mystery Shack wasn’t a total scam after all.

The stairs didn’t seem terribly dusty. Despite creaking under his weight, they held when he stood on them, so he crept downwards.

When he reached the floor, it was just the landing for an elevator. A lone light bulb shone overhead. He pressed the elevator button and waited for it to come up, shifting from foot to foot. Just how deep were the secrets of this place buried that they needed an elevator?

Three floors down, apparently, which might explain why it was so dark when the elevator doors opened.

Danny could hear the low hum of machinery even before he stepped out of the elevator, which made it immediately evident why Clockwork had put him up to this.

This place didn’t only have a creepy hidden room, it had a creepy basement lab. Because, naturally, basements were where creepy secret labs were kept.

He kept walking, calling up a ghost ray again to light up what the various computer screens and blinking lights couldn’t.

Despite having more construction tools and computer screens than beakers or Erlenmeyer flasks, this lab came complete with what looked suspiciously like a nearly finished ghost portal. This one was at least ten feet above the floor, set in some kind of reverse triangle mounting, but it was definitely a portal. Which meant these guys had magic and technology on their side. Perfect. This couldn’t get any worse. This couldn’t—

Danny frowned and walked forward, letting the ghost ray burn a little brighter to give him some more light. That book by the control panel looked like what the kid had had. Danny still didn’t recognize the handwriting—not another novel by Freakshow, thankfully—but those were definitely blueprints to a portal. Incomplete blueprints, but still blueprints. And the portal in front of him was a heck of a lot more complete than the drawings on the page, which was not a good sign in his book.

“Maybe this is what’s going to go wrong,” Danny whispered. “Maybe Clockwork wants me to prevent another accident.” Though, considering no one had stopped what had happened with him or Vlad, that struck him as unlikely. But an unstable portal could lead to a giant explosion, and—

The room flooded with light from overhead, and Danny jumped even as the buzzing of electricity filled his ears.

“I’m not going to let you destroy everything I’ve spent the last thirty years building,” a voice behind him growled, and he turned just in time to see the net flying towards him.

(next)

#danny phantom #gravity falls #phantom falls #crossover #fanfiction #danny fenton #mabel pines #dipper pines #wendy corduroy #my writing #ladylynse #dp snippet #gf snippet #crossover snippet #snippets #some year I will finish this fic

[jbbuckybarnes]

Time Stops

Pairing: Bucky x Reader Desc: This is for @ussgallifreyfics​  #gallifreys500 writing challenge. Not beta read. Prompt: “They say when you meet the love of your life, time stops, and that’s true.” - Big Fish Warnings: FLUFF

MASTERLIST

They say when you meet the love of your life, time stops, and that’s true. You’ve seen it with friends that had met their soulmates the day they were ready to. They stopped aging. When you turned 18 you could find your soulmate and never age again. While that was beautiful, it also put a lot of pressure on you and a lot of pity on people growing old. Usually people would just feel who their soulmate is, but there also were soulmate marks. They weren’t big or anything to brag with, but yours was a little heart-shaped darker spot on the back of your right hand. Right between the thumb and the pointer finger connection. Definitely a space you massaged a lot when you got nervous.

Right now was one of those situations. You were waiting in line to get onto a plane to New York City. A trip you made once or twice a year to meet your friends. While you loved New York, you hated flying. The many alien attacks and whatnot of the last decade weren’t helping with your anxiety. The plane being delayed on top of that was even worse for your mind going in circles. A big man sat down next to you, putting down a duffle bag and getting out a book with the title, “Love, Simon.” Wasn’t that a book about a closeted teenage boy? Didn’t match up at all with the giant frame the man had, but you smiled to yourself. You scrolled through Instagram, created a new collection for cute cat pictures and went on about your anxiety soothing. When you were finally boarding, your anxiety went through the roof again. Thankfully you had downloaded a whole documentary for the flight, otherwise you’d go insane. When you were situated in the plane and had gotten out your headphones, the giant man found his seat, the one which just so happened to be next to you. It was about to get cozy, but you weren’t complaining. You’d rather have a giant man with a good taste in books next to you than a creep or a family with a newborn baby. After your heart almost jumped out of your chest while you took off you finally could relax and start watching your space documentary. Every now and then you felt him flip a page in his book very delicately. Your hand landed on the little table your phone was situated on to give him more space, which is when you started to feel the stare on you. Well, now it WAS a little creepy. He tapped your shoulder and you stopped the show and looked at him. Woah, wait, you knew that face. That was Bucky Barnes, wasn’t it? “Sorry for interrupting, I just...I saw you like space and, uh, could you tell me what documentary that is? It looks awesome.” he gave a shy smile before looking away, right hand going through his beard. Wait a damn second. “Huh?” he looked back at you confused. “I said that out loud.” you stated to yourself and closed your eyes. “Yes, you did.” Now he was grinning at you, eyeing your slightly flustered face. “Uh, your soulmate mark. Are you…?” your eyes went from his eyes to his hand. “What makes you think that?” “You didn’t really age but you also were in cryo a lot, so it’s quite difficult to tell.” you grinned. He smiled wide and looked down on his hand before shaking his head, “No, haven’t found them. I don’t think I ever will. 70 years is quite a lot-” He saw your right hand come into his field of vision and his eyes went wide and back up at you. You were amused at the weird situation you had just put each other into and you couldn’t deny that you liked how he turned into a soft dorky man. But maybe that was just him outside of the news. “So...uh...wow.” Another time that he went through his hair. “Yeah,” you looked up at him with shimmery eyes. You respected the man in front of you so much for what he went through and that he was still here. But that giant dork that looked illegally good was your soulmate? That must be a dream. “So...would you like to go on a date anytime soon? I’d love to get to know you.” he got a little confidence back and gave an unsure smile to you. “Of course, I know this really great brunch place in the Upper West Side.” you smiled a little giddy. “Spring Natural Kitchen?” he asks. “Spring Natural Kitchen.” you nodded chuckling. “Wanda told me about it. She loves testing new places whenever she’s not on call.” “Sounds like I’d get along great with her.” “So...why are you flying to New York? You live there?” he finally asks and you shake your head. “I live near Denver and come here sometimes to meet friends and have a good time for a week or two.” “Which city’s better?” he smirked. “I like both, but I have a job back in Denver that I love. I’m working in a very laid back modern restaurant, café kinda establishment.” you explained. “Well, if you’re my soulmate, you might as well open up a second one of those in New York City, cause that sounds great.” By now he was so deep in your flirting battle that he totally forgot that he just met you. “You just want that cinnamon cupcake goodness.” you laughed. “I’d never say no to any food, I think that gets very clear when you look at me.” he looked down on himself. “Hm, yeah, a little.” You grinned, “Hungry giant.” “Oh, we’re already starting pet names, huh?” his brows went up. The giggle escaping you widened his big smile. ___ *You ready to get picked up and judged by Sam Wilson?* *Why not by Wanda? Or literally anyone that’s not Sam?* *I ask myself that every single day, darling.* *I’m ready by the way...and ready to fight Wilson if I need to.* *Sure, darling.* you could practically feel him grinning at his phone screen. *And by that I mean, if he dares to, you’ll defend me anyway, cause you’re cute like that.* Not too long after the AirBnB’s doorbell rang and you ran to the door in your comfy outfit. It was a brunch date, not a fancy gala. When you opened the door you were met with his audacity to wear a leather jacket. “Aw, come on. Really? A leather jacket? Like you don’t know that it’s super hot?” you pouted and were pulled into a hug. “You look cute. Is that Totoro on your sweater?” he held you and looked down on you. “Old man knows Totoro, check.” you grinned. “Hey, I’ve been catching up for 4 years. There needs to be SOME stuff that sticks.” “Could the lovebirds that both can’t drive please move their asses a little faster?” you heard out of a car behind Bucky. “Could the angry bird please chill?” Bucky answered without even looking at him. “C’mon, let’s go and give the man a break.” you chuckled before taking his hand and dragging him towards the car. “So, tell me about yourself. Anything that I don’t already know from social media and our chats.” he grinned. “I stress bake, my favorite shows are all documentaries, I’d love to have a cat, I’m into astrology, I love to draw and paint, my music taste is a literal dumpster fire and I really like sneakers.” you counted a few that you found to be relevant to yourself. “I’m still learning to cook new foods. I actually have a cat, her name’s Alpine, she’s an absolute whirlwind but she’s the most loyal little thing ever.” he smiled. “What kinda cat is she?” you asked excited. “British Shorthair and white.” he beamed. “I already love her. I’d love to get a completely black cat.” you leaned onto your hands. “We could.” he squinted with a cheeky smile. “You’re already thinking about moving my ass to New York, aren’t you?” you chuckled. “You’re my soulmate, why not? It’s not like you’re a shot in the dark or anything like that.” That made you feel warm inside, very very warm. “Yeah, guess you’re right.” you looked at the table flustered. “So, assuming you would stay here…” he got your attention back and god were his eyes sure of you staying here, “...would you actually open up a cool place like this?” “I’d love to but...renting a place like this in New York City? Making it look nice and advertising it? That’s so hard.” “Hi, you’re sitting in front of the longest prisoner of war. If you think Sam didn’t sue the shit out of the military to get me paid for that, then you’re wrong.” he grinned accomplished. “Bucky, you can’t-” “I can, tell me what you’d want to do.” he smiled at you softly, grabbing your hand. After a few moments of grasping the moment you continued, “Well, similar to this place, but with cakes, pies and cookies. And with a completely different color scheme. Very bright, like white and some pastel colors. I’d try to find tons of recipe’s online and let you try them until I have like 12 good and special ones that work. I’d always have a jar of triple chocolate cookies and a chocolate bomb cake. Maybe even sweet ice cream in summer? I’d have chessboard tiled wall behind the counter and hang nice art work in the rest of the place. I’d probably have someone bring in dog cake every week so they also get some good food. I’d make milkshakes, have a barista working and would create some special hot chocolate mix. Maybe I’d do something themed after you. Like little cookies with the- wait, do you hate the red star on your old arm? I know it’s very much a connection to the Sowjets, but I don’t really look at it like that.” “I’m neutral about it. I write autographs on cards with red stars all the time.” he shrugged. “Then there will be red star cookies. Maybe something themed after your bird friend?” you grinned. “He needs to work for it.” he laughed. “I make a mad cinnamon banana milkshake. That would sell very well.” you mumbled before taking a sip from the drink in front of you. “Cookies with red chocolate melted into it...that’s a good one for Wanda, isn’t it?” you smiled shyly, trying to not misjudge his friends. “I love that idea. Maybe something egg based for Sam, you know, cause he’s a falcon. I’ll shut my mouth…” he grinned and watched you snort laugh. The waffles you ordered were set down in front of you and you continued talking about the interior of your dream place. “I don’t know if I’d do it in Manhattan or Brooklyn. I mean Brooklyn literally has cute food places as its elevator pitch.” “I guess it depends where you’d find a place.” “Yeah, forgot, we’re in the ultimate place of renting stuff.” you grumbled and heard him chuckle. ___ “Finally!” you jumped around in the empty space that was about to become your own little store. You’d been with Bucky for three months now and your old boss was more than happy to have a new venture. And you were more than happy to have gotten such a great soulmate. He even got his driver's license to drive you around and go on little trips with you when he wasn’t working. Brooklyn Heights, right next to the Brooklyn Bridge, with an apartment right above. “Let’s measure and buy a nice kitchen for you to bake cupcakes in, darling.” he grabbed you close. “You just wanna eat, honey.” you pouted. “Of course, I eat everything you make.” he planted a kiss onto your forehead. “Hm, okay, let’s measure and drive to Home Depot too.” you smiled content and got another kiss. “You know, I think I found you at the right time. I like how you look. Not a day too young or too old.” you mumbled. “I would have loved you at any age I could’ve found you.” he hummed. “Yeah, that’s because you’re a hopeless romantic.” you giggled. “Only for you, darling.” “Love you,” you mumbled before pressing your lips against his, “so much.” “Let’s get your dream kitchen,” he said while lightly slapping your ass. “Hey! Watch your hands, Barnes.” you playfully scolded him. “Yes, ma’am.” he rolled his eyes before picking you up and carrying you to the damn car himself.

#mine #gallifreys500 #bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x you #james buchanan barnes #bucky barnes x y/n #james barnes #bucky x you #bucky x reader #bucky x y/n #the winter soldier #captain america #mcu #marvel #marvel cinematic universe #text #bucky fanfic #sam wilson #sam wilson fanfiction

[cas-backwards-tie]

Save Me Only To Kill Me Ch. 2

Jason Todd x Reader

Series Summary: Reader was Jason’s girlfriend before he died (she knew he was Robin), how does she react to finding out that he’s back in Gotham (a dick) and very much alive?

Chapter Summary: You just found out that Jason’s not only alive, but just saved, and also could’ve almost killed you (if it hadn’t been for Tim). Bruce has forbidden your search on Jason… but really, how’s he gonna stop you?

Warnings: Yelling, Threats, Anger, Grief, Going Behind People’s Backs, Reader Getting Ignored.

A/N: Flashbacks are in italics. Due to such popularity (I don’t think anything from me has gotten so many notes) and demand I’m writing a second chapter to this. I honestly love Jason (he’s my husband) so if you read this and want more, just let me know and honestly I probably wouldn’t mind writing another chapter for it! So… I hope you enjoy <3

Catch Up: Chapter One | Series Masterlist

“Jason’s alive?” My voice came out more hoarse, and definitely louder than I’d intended to, but it didn’t stop the trained vigilantes from hearing it and turning to look at me in surprise.  “Y/N,” Bruce sighed, still donning his Batman suit, not having had time to take it off as everyone seemed to be in a rush when we’d gotten back from town… at least, it seemed as though everyone was in a rush, but then again maybe it was just because everything seemed to be moving in slow motion for me, which made everything that they did seem really frantic and rushed.

“Why didn’t you tell me?! Where is he? Is he okay? What’s he been doing?! You told me he died, Bruce! y-you lied t-”

“I did NOT lie to you Y/N.” Bruce runs a hand down his face in frustration, “I didn’t know he was alive until a few weeks ago. I was waiting to tell anyone because I wanted to make sure it was him first. Truly him.” 

My surroundings seemed to slow down, but my brain seemed to speed up as if someone had turned it up to work one hundred times faster than it normally did. Questions raced through my brains, as well as thoughts and emotions and I felt my chest tighten and my breathing get heavier as I started to feel overwhelmed- at least, I think I’m overwhelmed I can’t tell, maybe it’s not- maybe it’s-

“Y/N?” I focus back in on what’s actually happening as Dick’s hand on my shoulder brings me out of my head.

“Yeah?” My brows turn down with worry as I try to stay in the moment, trying desperately to not remember the night of Jason’s death. 

“Look, Jason… he-”

“He’s not in a good place, Y/N… He-” Dick’s voice was surprisingly calm and gentle as his hand told me he was acting as if I was a fragile piece of art.

“What do you mean he’s not in a good place? Dick, what the hell is that supposed to-”

“It means that he’s been killing people and from the facts I’ve gathered he’s a drug lord, Y/N! I’m not letting you near him, I’m sorry. This isn’t the way I wanted you to find out…. but seeing from the events of tonight, I could be wrong” Bruce walked to his chair in front of the Batcomputer and sat down to think.

“What do you mean based off the events from tonight?” I shake Dick’s hand off me as he tries to keep me put, I walk over to Bruce. “Wait- no… how do you even know it’s Jason, Bruce?!” I hope that he gives me the answers I’m looking for or so help me I can’t promise things will end well tonight.

Bruce lets out a huff of irritation as I know he’s getting frustrated with all the questions. We all knew how much Jason’s death affected Bruce and even though Bruce would never get over it, and hated talking about it… so did we. “This is all the information I’ve gathered on him.” I lean my elbows on the desk and start to read the file, when I get to the bottom I reach for the mouse, tearing it from Bruce’s grip as I scroll down.

“Y/N, I… you can’t get involved. You have to swear to me you won’t go looking for him. I won’t have you getting hurt or butting in the way. We’re trying to gather information and you’re feelings will only get in the way.” I can tell Bruce is going to do something drastic before he even moves.

Bruce takes the mouse back and hastily clicks the file closed, shutting off the computer and pushing his chair back harshly to stand up. “I won’t let you get in the way Y/N. You need to leave, now.”

I look at him exasperated… incredulous… how does he expect me to not have questions when he’s just shown me that Jason- my Jason- is still out there, alive and kicking. Over course they claim he’s not my Jason anymore but I call bullshit… Like hell if he isn’t, I’ll determine that for myself!

“You can stay in the manor while you heal and then you’ll go back to your parents… I’m banning you from the Batcave, now go!” Bruce points at the elevator and turns so he doesn’t have to look me in the eyes.

“Bruce?! Are you serious right now! You can’t expect me to not ask q-”

“You heard what I said Y/N!” He re-points his finger at the elevator to emphasize what he said. I don’t think I’ve ever been scolded by this cold, harsh side of Bruce- ever… and honestly it hurts, it aches, and not just because I now know that the love of my life is alive but because I know how much this is affecting Bruce too. “GO!” He yells, turning to crush my soul with his raging eyes, so close to threatening tears that he’d never shed since he’d probably learned of Jason’s reappearance.

“My feelings will get in the way, HUH? Yeah, well what about yours!” I yell back as I turn around and stomp off (as best as I could with the stitches in my thigh) to the elevator so I could finally go to my room and process everything that’d just happened.

Two days pass, that’s how long it takes me to heal. Sure, I’ll still need the stitches taken out in another week but I’m healed enough to go home and there’s no arguing with Bruce. There’s no arguing with anyone, really. The past two days have been silent… meals are together but no one really talks about anything that matters, when meals aren’t spent together I’m alone and searching the house and my brain for anything that can help me find answers. No one will talk to me, they’ve been given orders not to spill anything, even their missions which I know have only been small things lately. I’m ignored and alone until Damian and Tim and forced out of the cave and back upstairs due to it being a school night. 

I guess only the big boys get to handle the hard stuff… I know they’re talking about what to do with Jason and there’s nothing I can do about it. Will they kill him? Of course not! That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever thought. There’s no way they’d kill Jason… but imprison him? That’s more likely.

My fingers tap my knee as I think. Would they just let him go? Mind their own ways? That’s not likely either considering what Bruce said.

I tried desperately to remember any sort of details Bruce or Dick had spilled that night in attempt to give me a lead. I have to find Jason… I have to see Jason.

“What’re you thinking about?” Damian lets out a huff of air as he closes his textbook, homework still inside marking his page. He twirls his mechanical pencil in his hand and his quirked eyebrow tells me he’s annoyed, but honestly when isn’t he? 

Damian and Tim didn’t know about Jason’s return and Bruce didn’t want them to, as they’d only ask questions and be more of a nuisance to his and Dick’s ‘information gathering’ just like I was. Of course I’d only gotten the message to not tell Damian or Tim about it the next day when I’d seen Dick making his way to breakfast. Of course I wouldn’t have told Damian or Tim anything anyways as it didn’t seem relevant for me to tell them about the return of someone who neither of them had met.

Tim of course knew about Jason, but had never actually met him, Damian didn’t even know of Jason… the most Damian could possibly know about Jason was simply having seen Jason’s Robin suit in the Batcave, but of course if Damian ever asked about it he’d only be met with anything but the answers he sought.

Mentioning Jason to Damian could either be a blessing or a curse… if I asked for his help to find not Jason, of course, but the RedHood then Damian would be all over me asking for details, eager to help me out. However, if I asked for Damian’s help to find the RedHood without Bruce’s knowledge and or asking that Damian go behind his father’s back- it’d end horribly. Bruce always finds out.

Though if things for once landed in my favor and didn’t turn south than that’d be a blessing and I’d be able to see Jason again.

“Promise me you won’t tell anyone, not even Bruce…” I wait for his reply, reading his body language from my peripheral to seem more lost in thought. If I faced Damian head on then I could come on too strong and he’d back out and say that he knew he shouldn’t keep anything from his father.

“What do I look like, a liar? Please, Y/L/N, I’m not some dirty, untrustworthy lunatic…” This answer wasn’t a yes or no… Everyone knew that Dick could easily lie if need be or that really anyone who’d been under Bruce’s care could get away with lying- the only downside was everyone in the family knew when we lied.

“I won’t tell, I promise. Now, what’s wrong you so much you won’t stop with that incessant noise?” Damian gestures to my fingers which now lay on my leg, not tapping incessantly as prior, which Damian had been referring.

“Look, okay. I found out that one of my life-long best friends… he’s alive Damian…. but the problem is I think he’s getting into trouble. Like big trouble, and I need to help him get out of it. I need to talk with him but I don’t know how to find him, and I’m so worried.” Playing up the pity role didn’t work on Damian most of the time…. but when it came to the people he cared for, he would definitely fix any problem that stood in the way.

“What if he dies, Damian? I- I can’t let that happen!” And for being a girl- something which Damian and Tim being so young, didn’t help when all they knew was that girls could be dramatic some times, which meant that this was supposedly ‘normal’.

“Oh… well, I doubt it’s that much of trouble Y/N, I mean… people get into nasty situations all the time, I’m sure he’ll be fine.” Damian spoke confidently and as if his response was automatic. He’ll be fine.

“No- Damian- I don’t think you understand. He’s… he’s being targeted by Black Mask.” Damian perked up immediately and dropped his mechanical pencil on his lap.

“Black Mask?!” Damian shoved his schoolwork off his lap and stood up, getting off the couch, “we need to inform father right away if it is that dire.” I quickly got up and wrapped my hand around Damian’s wrist.

“We can’t!” I panicked. This is exactly what I didn’t want and it was stupid of me to even mention one of Batman’s most notorious rivals. 

Damian turned around and looked not only incredulous, but super confused. “Why not?” he placed his free hand on his hip. I tried so hard not to laugh at how cute he was as he looked so sassy.

“Damian,” I dragged out, almost whining and scolding him at the same time, “Look. Bruce is focused on catching this RedHood guy, right? Bruce doesn’t need to be focused on Black Mask right now! Black Mask hasn’t really been doing anything lately, anyways… BUT- we could catch Black Mask on our own! I mean… unless you don’t think you can.” I mumbled the last part, knowing full well it was loud enough for Damian to hear, yet low enough he’d think I didn’t want him to hear it.

“Of course I can get him myself! What do you think I am? An amateur?” Damian stuck his tongue out and furrowed his brows in disgust.

“I didn’t say that,” I shrugged my shoulders, “I’m just saying, Bruce would probably let you go out more if you proved you could handle stuff on your own and not always with him. I mean, aren’t you a trained assassin or something? A Ninja? If a ninja can’t take out Black Mask-” 

“FINE!” Damian’s chest grew with air as he took a deep breath and let it out in a big huff, making him seem even more childish- which I found to be quite cute.

“Look… Damian I’m not asking for you to take out Black Mask. I just need your help to find my friend, okay? He’s changed his name and address and just, everything. So I have almost no idea where to start looking and I need your help. But we need to do this during the daytime.”

“Why in the daytime?”

“Because if we go at night then Bruce will get suspicious of our whereabouts and also, then my friend will be expecting us.” Damian seemed to approve as he nodded.

“Let me get my stuff and we’ll talk over plans for tomorrow!”  

#Jason Todd x Reader #Jason Todd #Dc Imagine #Bruce Wayne #Batman #Dick Grayson #Nightwing #Damian Wayne #Robin #Tim Drake #Red Robin #Batfam #Batfam Imagine #Jason Todd Imagine #Save Me Only To Kill Me #RedHood #RedHood Imagine #RedHood Series #Jason Todd Series #Series #Reader Insert

[doe-praeludiumofred]

Chapter 3, Section 1-The King and the Girl; Scene 1

Praeludium of Red, page 142-152

✥ Kyle Marlon ~In the Lucifenian Palace, “Hall of Mirrors”~

.

Long ago, I had wanted to be a painter.

A private room on the second floor of Marlon castle was my studio when I was young.

As a boy I liked to paint pictures, and when I found free time I would paint the likeness of the castle denizens. If pressed, I would say I loved painting people and animals more than any scenery. It was more fun to depict things that could move, that were alive.

Why was it that I liked painting?

The reason I found when I tried to recall was perhaps because everyone praised me for it. It was a pleasant feeling to be appreciated for something I myself did, rather than as a prince.

When I was fourteen, the woman who was my tutor praised me a great deal. She told me my use of light color was wonderful. She'd been referring to a picture I had painted of a relative of mine who had stayed at the castle for a short period at the time. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen that blonde girl since then. What was she doing now?

I had kept charge of that picture like it was a treasure. I had fallen in love with my tutor. She was a green haired, lovely Elphe woman. Her wise bearing had deeply captivated my young heart.

When I grow up, I’m going marry you, Mrs. Margaret.

While at first she seemed a bit troubled when I announced that to her, afterwards she smiled at me. Thinking on it now, I’d said something foolish. It was only natural that it would bother her.

Mrs. Margaret was already married.

Her husband was a high-ranking official in the Marlon government. He held a great deal of influence even in the royal family, and apparently around then he would often quarrel with my father--the king--and the Empress Dowager on matters of governance.

When I was fifteen, she and her husband were arrested as political offenders. During their imprisonment they drank poison and died.

How had she gotten poison into the prison? There was nobody who would answer my question.

Around then, having heard rumors of the man Keel Freezis, who would undertake anything as long as you paid him, I dispatched him to investigate into it.

What had happened in the jail when she died?

Keel found out everything for me. That the jailer had given her poison, and that they'd done it under the orders of my mother, the Empress Dowager Prim…

After that I ended up immersing myself in painting all the more. It got to where I wanted to be a painter for real--where I wouldn't even mind leaving the throne if that was what it took.

My mother's actions had likely been done with the best interests of the country of Marlon in mind. I knew that.

But I came to tremendously hate being under her thumb.

.

While gazing at the painting titled "The King and the Three Heroes" that decorated the ceiling of the Hall of Mirrors in the Lucifenian Palace, I recalled the memories that I had regarding it in my past.

Nikolay Tolle. That was the name of the artist who made this ceiling painting.

During critiques he had disparaged my painting as rubbish. It was the commentary of a painter who boasted immense authority in the art world. He had enormous influence. I gradually lost my place there.

In the end, I had no choice but to give up on my dream of being a painter.

I despaired my lack of ability.

I had been conceited in thinking I had any skill. Of course I wasn't anyone worthy of being praised. If it wasn't for me being a member of the royal family I would have been worthless garbage.

--Such feelings went around inside my whole body at the time.

And I burned up all of the paintings I’d made up until then.

All but one. I couldn’t discard that painting that Mrs. Margaret had praised. On the other hand, it was too painful to keep in my possession.

Unable to just watch, Keel told me that he would purchase that picture from me.

"You can buy it back from me someday when you've put your feelings in order. I'll look after it until then…I'll be doubling the selling price, though.”

He was a man whose feelings I couldn’t read, but even so among all the people around me Keel was the one I could trust the most.

Though over ten years have passed since then, I still haven’t been able to buy that painting back.

It was quite a while after that when I learned that the great painter Nikolay having scoffed at my paintings the way he did had been after receiving money from Empress Dowager Prim. Seems the old man was a genius as a painter, but contemptible as a person.

I fulfilled my obligations to the royal family and inherited the throne after my father died.

“A puppet controlled by Empress Dowager Prim”, “A powerless dimwit king”—I knew that I was being gossiped about being my back.

But I absolutely am not a fool. I am not some worthless person.

Haven't I obtained the most territory for Marlon ever by annexing Lucifenia, as proof of that?

I will make my country much, much stronger. I will build it up to be the most powerful of all of them.

I know that everyone will respect me when I do.

.

In the Hall of Mirrors right now there was me, several guards, and General George Ausdin.

He was once a famous general of the former Lucifenian Kingdom, and now he was one of my underlings. The countless scars that adorned his body told of his long military service.

"Apparently Retasan Fortress has been conquered," George informed me in a carefree tone.

"'Apparently', huh? Sounds like it’s someone else's problem, General George."

I said it intending to be sarcastic, but it didn't seem to have much effect on the veteran general.

"It is someone else's problem. I was currently in the middle of fighting that lot from Asmodean, after all."

"Even if I'm in charge of it right now, this is your country. You need to treat this more seriously. Or are you reluctant to obey Marlon like the other factions of old Lucifenia?"

"Certainly not."

George ran a hand through his swept-back hair.

His behavior certainly didn't have the conduct of speaking with the king of one's country. But that wasn't because he had any rebellious feelings towards me; rather it was a result of his personality. He'd be that way towards anyone.

At any rate, I wasn't the kind of person to go around beheading people like that tempestuous Princess Riliane. The way I heard it, during her reign George had wholly dedicated himself to the country's defense, and so rarely showed his face in the palace.

"The other generals have lost a bit of their morale, following you making that amateur lass a commander."

By that I knew he meant Ney Phatipe, who had recently been made the new commander of Retasan Fortress, and who had recently had that fortress successfully stolen from her.

"A woman being commander was the case with her predecessor, wasn't it?"

"Come what may with her, Lily was Gaston's daughter and an elite soldier. In some way or another she had real power as a general. Even if Ney is the adopted daughter of Mariam of the Three Heroes, she was a maid up until several years ago. You can't compare the two."

Mariam Phatipe had been a covert operative hailing from Asmodean. It was said that she engaged in secret intelligence activities, hidden in the shadows.

I'd heard Keel had once paid her a great deal for those abilities, exchanging a large sum in the hope that she would teach him her ways. Though it seems she'd coldly refused him.

And it was also said that Ney was adopted by her after finding her when she was young.

"According to what I've heard, there were times when Ney aided in Mariam's work, wasn't there? In that case her own abilities must be…"

"You mean in her secret intelligence work? Acting behind the scenes and leading from the front lines are two different beasts entirely."

It was clear that George basically wanted to say that it was a blunder to make Ney Retasan's commander.

"This incompetent king should butt out of his people's affairs. …That what you mean?"

"No no, that's not it at all…"

It wasn't that I couldn't understand George's dissatisfaction.

But there were certain circumstances now that made it so I had to do this.

Though, George and the other generals aren't likely to agree even if I told them.

"Well, what shall I do now?"

George made no attempt to hide his irritation, clearly wanting to finish up the meeting quickly. He probably wanted to head to the battlefield as soon as possible. He had great enthusiasm for his work.

There had been a localized strike from Asmodean in the east at the same time as the havoc in Retasan, but that was quieted down due to George's efforts.

After the death of their commander, that country lost all of its cohesion. Occasionally they would attack, as though trying to stay relevant, but they weren't that big of a threat anymore.

At any rate, they would be assimilated into Marlon like Lucifenia.

I explained my plan of attack to George.

"Beelzenia will likely use Retasan Fortress as a staging point for attacking Lucifenia. Join forces with the surrounding army and make sure that doesn't happen. As long as you're leading them the other generals will follow."

"Wouldn't it be faster to just take back Retasan?"

"We will. But first get ready the battle power within the country while maintaining our defense. Once we've made preparations, we'll take not only Retasan but the entire Beelzenian Empire."

"Hah…That's quite a plan there."

George's tone was closer to scorn than amazement. "Do you plan to unite the entire Evillious region?"

"Eventually, yes."

Perhaps because what I had replied was surprising, for the first time today I saw the smile leave George's face.

"King Kyle…May I say a few words out of turn, with your permission?"

He was serious--this wasn't the joking tone he'd been using up until now.

"That's a little late for you at this point. Go on, say it."

"I have…always thought that people are born having a certain status, or means. Uniting Evillious--that is a grand undertaking to have, I think. But I'm afraid there is a limited amount of people who'd be able to pull that off."

"You're saying I don't have the means to do that?"

"I think…He's already long dead by now, but Princess Riliane's father--King Arth the First--he might have been able to pull it off. But if you try, Your Majesty, you'll end up warping things. It can only end in tragedy. If you intend to persist even so, then that's not ambition. It's mere 'Pride'."

At that point George seemed to realize that he'd been speaking in a way quite unlike himself. He once more returned to his foppish grin.

"But what's a guy who keeps in high spirits while killing people in war saying? I'm speaking out of turn. Sorry--please disregard that. If you can't stomach me you're welcome to have me beheaded."

"I said it earlier, didn't I? That's a little late for you, at this point."

I was not like Riliane. I was not the kind of small person who gave in to his fury and idly executed his underlings.

Even so, before I knew it my tightly gripped right fist had started trembling.

"Thanks for that. Well then, I'll be off to go chop off the Beelzenian soldiers."

"You'll be entrusted with twenty thousand men as your main force. I'm counting on you."

After lifting his right hand in response to my words, George calmly left the Hall of Mirrors.

Because the country of Marlon was on an island surrounded by ocean, the main country's soldiers had never fought a land war. For that reason it was bound to fall behind in battle on its own soil.

In order to keep up with others it was vitally necessary then to have the cooperation of Lucifenia's old famous generals, starting with George.

My personal guard, Clive, passed by George and entered the Hall of Mirrors. He knelt before me.

I had once secretly joined in the revolution using the fake name of Karchess. Clive was a senior soldier who had acted alongside me then.

"I have news. Lady Ney has returned."

So, Ney Phatipe was back.

Well then, I wonder what excuse she'll come up with for letting Retasan fall?

"I see…I'll receive her in the Hall of Sounds. Bring her there."

"Yes sir!"

Clive stood and once again departed.

Watching him go, I was reminded of that revolution.

Has it really been five years since then?

The revolutionary army led by the red swordswoman Germaine Avadonia had smoothly defeated the Lucifen dynasty, saving the people from their tyrannical rule. She had become a hero that everyone praised.

Her value was such that even now that Germaine had become a wanted woman due to the "Witch Hunt Order" that I put out, there was no change in her reputation among the common people. Each time I heard them speak of her, my heart was filled with irritation.

Why did everyone admire such a criminal as that…?

.

Mere pride, huh…?

Maybe it was just as George said. What on earth was I hoping to accomplish?

 …I couldn't become weak. I put my hand on the hand mirror in my pocket.

.

Give over everything.

Give over everything to your feelings.

.

A voice came from the mirror. Upon hearing it, my heart relaxed a great deal.

I am not mistaken about anything.

I am just.

.

I will persist on bringing justice, if it's for that.

I will even become evil.

<<prev------directory------next>>

[housebeleren]

Ravnica Allegiance Draft Format Review

Alright, we’re hurtling towards War of the Spark, but just like I did with Guilds of Ravnica, I’d like to super quickly wrap up my thoughts on Ravnica Allegiance. That way, I can go into the new set completely fresh, because I really want to kick ass in this limited environment. In general, when I’m evaluating draft formats, here’s what I’m looking at:

Speed - Consisting of its Tempo, Aggression, and Explosiveness

Variety - Consisting of its balance between the Colors/Archetypes, Threats to Removal, & Deck Strategies

Depth - Consisting of the depth within individual cards, within archetypes, and within the metagame as the whole

Fun - Consisting of the Flavor & Theme, the Gameplay itself, and the amorphous “X-Factor”

I’ll also go through my thoughts on the themes & mechanics, any noteworthy decks, notes on draft strategy, and give it a final grade.

Art: Izzy

I mean... this guy ruined my day so many times....

Speed

Tempo - Compared with Guilds, Ravnica Allegiance’s tempo is much slower. It’s often perfectly fine to play tapped lands two turns in a row, and drop an Artifact or Enchantment turn 3 (like a locket, High Alert, or Rhythm of the Wild, for example). And most of the time, you’ll be totally fine. Every now and then, a Gruul deck will get a particularly explosive start and punish those taking their time, so a few early plays are ideal, but generally, this is on the slower end. I’d call it a turn 3.5 format, at least when it comes to getting your initial board presence established.

Aggression - Some of the mechanics favor aggression, particularly Spectacle, and to a lesser extent, Riot. But they’re balanced out by Addendum, which favors a much more controlling strategy, as well as Afterlife and Adapt, which lean slightly defensive, since they want to maximize value and card advantage rather than push through quickly. Good aggressive auras & equipment are basically nowhere to be found in this set, though there are some decent combat tricks. There are several strong blockers to stymie aggressive starts, so all told, the set leans slightly more defensive.

Explosiveness - There are definitely bombs that can come out of nowhere in this set, and Gruul can definitely have some explosive turns that push through unexpected wins. However, more often than not, the wins are accrued through slowly chiseling away at your opponent, one step at a time. The wins are slow, and frequently you see them coming well in advance. (I’m looking at you, Ill-Gotten Inheritance)

Variety

Balanced Colors/Archetypes - This is where I think Ravnica Allegiance really stands up as a knockout format. While initial assessments pegged Gruul & Simic as front-runners, very quickly Orzhov became seen as the defining deck of the format. But then, Azorius found its foothold and became a dominant strategy, once people figured out how to make use of all the removal and creating Clear the Mind loops. But even Rakdos got its day, as people figured out how to best balance the aggro & removal aspects of it. All told, all the colors have totally viable archetypes, though some require more skill to draft masterfully than others.

Balanced Threats to Removal - The removal in Ravnica Allegiance is really outstanding. There’s just so much of it that every color combination has access to solid ways to neutralize threats. Very little of the removal is super efficient, so you’re often trading up on mana with it, but the format is slow and grindy enough that it’s totally fine. And there are earlier answers to help balance it out, if necessary. Plenty of common Deathtouch creatures (and Bladbrand) hold off the early onslaught from Gruul decks, and then the full-on unconditional removal comes out.

Balanced Deck Types - Control definitely feels like the dominant strategy here. It’s of course possible to draft a great aggro or midrange deck, but you have to get a little luckier with the right pulls to make it work. But every pod should have one or two faster decks, with a few midrange & control each to balance them out. And, unlike Guilds of Ravnica, this format is simply awash in alternative deck options. The Gates deck and the toughness matters High Alert deck are extremely viable and many pods will find at least one of them. On Arena, they are extra prevalent, due to the way the draft bots work, so be prepared to deal with them if you’re mostly playing on Arena instead of in person. Even the Goblin Gathering/Cavalcade of Calamity deck and the Persistent Petitioners/Screaming Shield mill deck are possible, though they really come together less often. In my time, I’ve never seen a standard format with so many alternative decks possible, and it makes Ravnica Allegiance one of the deepest & most interesting I’ve ever played.

Depth

Individual Card Depth - The individual card depth is off the charts for this set. The mechanical overlap between the guilds is even better than it was in Guilds of Ravnica, so every card feels like it can go in multiple homes. On top of that, the color fixing is better, and the format is slower, so 3+ color decks are much more viable, allowing more cards to be splashable. This goes a long way in making sure that very few cards feels truly worthless.

Depth Within Archetypes - While each guild had its preferred direction, they are very flexible, much more so than in Guilds. Azorius is never going to be aggro, but you can draft a control-based Clear the Mind deck, a midrange fliers deck, or a High Alert toughness deck, and all of them work. Similar things can be said about every other guild, which made for really great drafting decisions and a lot of variety of experience.

Metagame Depth - Due to the incredible variety within each archetype, the metagame had a lot of shifting. You never knew exactly which variant of a deck you were up against just from its early plays, so games were more surprising and varied than in some other formats. Even the public opinion of what were the “best decks” changed rapidly. I will note that the Arena metagame is less interesting than in paper, because the draft bots became very predictable very quickly, and so strategies like High Alert and Gates were overrepresented, and it was easier to “force” the optimal strategies for each guild.

Fun

Flavor & Theme - Just like Guilds of Ravnica, this aspect of Ravnica Allegiance was a slam dunk. The guilds & their mechanics were beautifully designed to make every guild play like you expected them to feel. Really excellent job across the board.

Gameplay - While the gameplay was very interesting in a lot of respects, this is probably the one area of shortcoming for what is otherwise an incredible set. On the plus side, there are several wonderful interactions, such as Bladebrand, and its fantastic combo potential with Dagger Caster & Footlight Fiend. On the other hand, there were several problematic Enchantments that often defined games and felt unbeatable. Of course Ethereal Absolution is the headliner of this, but High Alert, Angelic Exaltation, Dovin’s Acuity, Rhythm of the Wild, and even Ill-Gotten Inheritance all fall into this category. The lack of good Enchantment removal made these cards unpleasant to play against, but absolutely necessary to have yourself in order to win, and that was probably the most unfortunate aspect of the gameplay. On a lesser note, some games did tend to run long, with few ways to speed them up, and sometimes the only way for a deck to win was to simply wait for the other to mill out, and that could be unfun gameplay. So all told, it’s a mixed bag, with some great cards and inspired interactions offset by some problematic elements.

The X-Factor - In general, I would still say the set is an overall fun set to play. The cards are fun to crack and draft, the deckbuilding is interesting with a lot of decisions, and the gameplay is generally fun. It’s just when you find yourself in those matches that slog on and feel like a slow death that it can get on your nerves.

Themes & Mechanics

Spectacle - Spectacle has my vote for best new mechanic in the set, which is funny because it’s probably the least relevant from a limited perspective. But it worked out really well, and they were able to get a lot more design space out of it than I expected at first glance. They had a lot of enablers at all rarities to ensure you could always get a little bit of damage through, which is critical to its said. That said, there’s even more design space to mine, as it could also be crafted as a way to prevent drawbacks, or they could have static abilities like “as long as an opponent has lost life this turn, creatures you control get +1/+1.” There are a lot of additional directions they can go here, and that makes me optimistic for a spectacle return. It was mostly a support/one-off mechanic in this context, but I could see it having more of a headlining role sometime.

Riot - Probably the *actual* best mechanic in the set, Riot was just a ton of fun. The mechanic led to a lot of interesting decision making in a guild that doesn’t always get subtle decision making. I also enjoy that the mechanic plays out differently in different formats. Where in limited, getting the +1/+1 counter is right more often than not, in constructed, you typically want to opt for Haste. It’s somewhat narrow, which is why I’m more optimistic about a Spectacle return, but Riot was great in this set.

Adapt - To be clear, I absolutely love Adapt, and there are a number of great Adapt cards that came out of this. A lot of people were haters right out the gate because it’s basically just a tweaked Monstrosity, but the big selling point for Adapt is that it allows for multiple activations, if you have a way to move the counters. Given that as the major selling point for the mechanic, it was strange to me that there were very few ways to actually do that. Only a few (situational) Uncommons really had this option, and that’s the one thing I would have done differently. A couple of Common ways to remove or move counters would have gone a long way in making this feel more special. I hope they increase that design space the next time Adapt comes around.

Addendum - Addendum had somewhat the opposite situation as Adapt, which is that it looks on the surface like a very throwaway mechanic, but they actually managed to find some pretty sweet design space for it. Some cards it was simply an enhancement, on others it completely changed the card, effectively creating modal spells. That, plus the Uncommon buildaround Dovin’s Acuity, made for a surprisingly deep mechanic. I don’t know how likely it is to return at any point, but it pulled its weight here way better than I expected.

Afterlife - Probably the least flashy of all the mechanics, Afterlife is a true workhorse. It’s just solid value tacked onto your creatures, helping Orzhov grind for value. It feels appropriate in this set, given the focus on Kaya & the spirits aspect of Orzhov, but I don’t know that I could say it was especially exciting. That said, this is one of the few mechanics I can really see existing in other contexts, though the fact that it specifically creates White/Black spirits probably limits that.

Gates - Unlike Guilds of Ravnica, they really did right by the Gates deck this time around. Not only were the payoffs worlds better than before, but there were also better enablers, particularly Open the Gates at Common, which was the glue that helped hold these decks together. All that, plus the overall slower nature of the format, made this a real force to be reckoned with, and I will have nightmares of Gate Colossus ruining my day for a long time.

Toughness-Matters - This theme all centered around one card, which was the Uncommon High Alert. But there were so many creatures that fed into it that if you got your hands on the linchpin card, it was child’s play to pick up enough playable creatures to pull the deck together. The best part about this deck was that you could scoop up a ton of Commons that nobody else really wanted, like Saruli Caretaker and Senate Courier, and just wreck peoples’ days with them. Good times.

Power Matters - It was really strange for me to see the power matters (i.e. 4+ power) theme in the same set as the toughness matters theme, and I honestly think they could have just dropped this one entirely. While there were a few decent payoffs, there just weren’t enough good playable creatures to have the deck really come together, and it ended up feeling more like a trap than it did in say, M19.

Milling - There were just enough cards at Common & Uncommon to make this deck possible, and not just Persistent Petitioners. Thought Collapse, Wall of Lost Thoughts, and Screaming Shield were just enough to make this a real possibility, usually in an Azorius control shell.

Interestingly, none of these mechanics are as much slam dunks for future sets the way that practically all of Guilds of Ravnica’s were. Instead, they combined to create a synergistic whole in which all the guilds played very nicely with their neighbors, much more so than in Guilds. Of the themes, I think Spectacle, Riot, and Adapt all have futures in Magic. I’ll be a little more skeptical of Addendum or Afterlife coming back outside of Ravnica, more for the flavor concerns than for any fault in the mechanics themselves.

Noteworthy Decks

Azorius Clear Mind/Acuity - Quite simply a control deck based in Azorius that looked to loop through the library repeatedly with two copies of Clear the Mind. Often paired with Dovin’s Acuity to keep churning through the deck and draw into more tempo & removal.

Azorius High Alert - Deck based around the eponymous card to use otherwise mediocre defenders to beat face. If it came together, it was quite capable of winning games it had no business winning. Sometimes paired with Black or Green if needed.

4-5 Color Gates - What it sounds like. Run all the Gates ever, based in Green to take advantage of Open the Gates, and using Gate Colossus, Gatebreaker Ram, & Archway Angel as its primary payoffs.

Goblin Cavalcade - Deck that seeks to draft as many copies of Goblin Gathering as possible, along with other 1-power creatures like Footlight Fiend, Rakdos Trumpeter, and Afterlife tokens, then use Cavalcade of Calamity to barrel in with punishing attacks. Death by 1000 stings. Or, y’know. 20.

Strategy Notes

Ravnica Allegiance is a completely different beast than Guilds of Ravnica was. Yes, the basic structure is the same in the sense that it’s a guild set with a whole pile of the same cycles, but the gameplay and draft strategy are entirely different. First and foremost, this is not a format where sticking to 2 colors with a once-in-a-while splash is the norm. Three color decks are the baseline here, and it’s quite possible to draft 4 and even 5 colors when necessary. That means it’s more critical than ever to grab powerful cards as they come around, even if they’re not in the colors you’ve drafted so far. Guildgates that help enable your colors are important picks here, and often correct to take over average playables. Consider yourself open to adjusting your thoughts on what colors your deck is even into Pack 3, though that will be the extreme case.

The format tends to be slow and grindy, so prioritize cards that will help you maximize value against your opponents. In Orzhov & Rakdos, you want to trade your abundance of cheap creatures for your opponents bigger threats. And you can always just get them back with Dead Revels anyway. In Simic & Gruul, you don’t want to trade your creatures with the aforementioned guilds, since they will basically always get more value out of trades than you will. You want to blank them completely by just being entirely bigger so they have no profitable combat at all. For Azorius, you want to protect your evasive creatures, as they’re how you’re going to ultimately close out the game. It’s totally fine to trade your Sage’s Row Savant to save yourself some life, but try to hang on to your Chillbringer once you’ve landed it. You have plenty of defensive measures & even lifegain to help make up for any initial tempo loss. And in this format, more than ever, sideboard aggressively. Think very carefully about how every card in your pool can potentially match up better or worse against your opponent’s deck, once you know what you’re up against.

Overall Grade & Final Thoughts

All told, Ravnica Allegiance has been a great format, almost on par with Dominaria. It’s deep, nuanced, and contains a lot of options for what is, nominally, a simple 5 faction deck. It’s a skill-intensive format that still has plenty of options for newer drafters, and seems like a perfect ramp up from Core 2019 to Guilds of Ravnica to Ravnica Allegiance. I’ve had a lot of fun with this set, and look forward to revisiting it again in the future, once I’ve had time to mix it up a little.

Overall Grade: B+

#mtg #Ravnica Allegiance #format review

[samuelpboswell]

5 Outdated Content Marketing Tactics (And What to Do Instead)

Can I interest anyone in an iPhone? No, not the iPhone 8 or X. I’m talking about this bad boy:

No takers? But it has a 320X480 pixel screen, 128 Mb of RAM, and a single 2-megapixel camera! Back in 2007, this was the hottest phone on the market. People lined up in front of stores just to get their hands on one.

You get the point: State of the art quickly becomes laughably outdated. What used to thrill a consumer’s soul is now something we wouldn’t give a toddler to play with.

That kind of obsolescence isn’t limited to the tech industry, of course. The cycle from next-big-thing to the dustbin is even faster in online content. Yet many content marketers are using tactics that, while they once worked, are now as outdated as that original iPhone. What’s worse, some of us are still in the flip-phone stage.

If you’re using any of the following content marketing tactics, it’s time for an upgrade. Here’s what doesn’t work, why it doesn’t, and what you should try instead.

Ditch These Outdated Content Marketing Tactics

1. Broad and Shallow Content

Content used to be about sheer bulk rather than quality. Search engines prioritized sites that had a lot of keyword-rich (more on that later) content. Whether that content was actually useful didn’t matter. So writers churned out blog posts like they were getting paid by the word – and sometimes, we actually were.

But search engines have gotten smarter, and our content needs to get smarter, too. Pride of place in the SERP goes to content that actually serves a purpose for an audience. Shallow content gets few clicks, low time on page, and high bounce rates. All of these factors push your content down to the hinterlands of Google’s Page 2 (or lower).

What to Do Instead: Content can no longer be a commodity, churned out in a word factory. We need handcrafted artisan content. It takes longer to create, but you don’t have to make as much of it, either. Focus your resources on a few pillar pieces that deliver real value. Content that inspires readers to spend time on the page, explore further, and share with others will beat commodity content every day of the week. 

  2. Single Keyword Stuffing

In the days of bulk content, a sure-fire way to get search engines’ attention was stuffing in keywords wherever they would fit. Keywords were stuffed in every header, every paragraph, multiple times in a sentence, and then in invisible text at the bottom of the page for good measure. It didn’t add anything useful to the content—in fact, it actively made the content worse – but it helped get eyeballs to your site.

Now, though, you’re likely to get the opposite effect from keyword stuffing. Google actively recognizes spammy keyword usage and moves that content down in the SERP.

What to Do Instead: Don’t focus on a single keyword. Start with a topic for which there is proven search demand. Then create a keyword group of similar terms, related topics, and long-tail derivatives. Use your keyword group to inform your content outline. Then, as you write your comprehensive, best-answer content, you will naturally include the relevant terms without stuffing them in. That way, you’re optimizing for humans and search engines alike.

3. Clickbait Headlines

Never has a tactic been so maligned and so effective as clickbait headlines were a few years ago. “7 of the Coolest Kazoos in the UK – Number 5 Will Shock You!” “They Said He Couldn’t Play His Kazoo at School – You Won’t Believe What Happened Next!” Sites like Upworthy and Buzzfeed drove millions of views with these headlines, and marketers were quick to pick up on the trend.

The problem is, if everything is “shocking,” “mind-blowing,” or “brain-melting,” nothing is. Readers caught wise to the hyperbole and stopped clicking through. Upworthy is still around, but has a fraction of the audience. Buzzfeed is still going strong, but only because they ditched the breathless headlines and focused on great content.

What to Do Instead: Offer a clear benefit to the reader in your title. Don’t promise a life-changing, unbelievable experience – promise to meet a specific need, and make sure you fulfill that promise.

4. Focusing on Bottom of Funnel Content

One of content marketers’ biggest challenges is proving how their content contributes to a purchase decision. So it makes sense that, historically, we’ve concentrated efforts on content designed to close a deal. That is, content that’s more, “Why Our Kazoos Are the Best,” rather than “Why Kazoos Are a Vital Part of an Orchestra,” or even, “Our 10 Favorite Kazoo Players.”

It’s true that bottom of funnel content is easier to tie to revenue. But without top of funnel content, you won’t have an established audience for the bottom of funnel stuff. You can talk about how great your product is out the kazoo, but who’s going to read it?

What to Do Instead: Most of your audience is going to be in the early stages of the decision-making process. To strike the right content marketing balance, use the funnel image as your guide – create the majority of your content for top of funnel, a little less for mid-funnel, and less still for the very bottom. Then make sure each piece of content has a next step that leads the reader further down the funnel. Or kazoo.

  5.  “Viral” Content

There’s a potent high to having a piece of content go viral. Millions of impressions, thousands of shares, maybe even local news coverage, all organic and all free – it’s definitely intoxicating. When viral videos cracked the mainstream consciousness, marketers went chasing that high. And some of us are still trying to catch it.

As I’ve said before, viral is not a content marketing strategy. It’s a pleasant but unpredictable side effect of good content, and it’s ultimately irrelevant to your goals. How many of those millions of viewers are interested in your product? And how many just want to laugh at a dog playing a kazoo?

What to Do Instead: Don’t aim your content at the broadest possible audience and hope it goes viral. Focus on your most relevant audience and make a strategic plan to reach them. We use an integrated marketing approach that includes:

Best-answer, comprehensive content with SEO built in

Influencer co-creation for amplification

Social media amplification

Paid, highly targeted advertising

Get with the Now

The original iPhone was a technological marvel in 2007. Now, you’ll find it in a museum of technology, or on eBay as a “classic collector’s item.” But you won’t find it in anyone’s hip pocket.

Make sure your marketing stays up-to-date: Ditch outdated tactics like shallow, product-focused content and upgrade to valuable, customer-focused content, strategically planned and amplified.

Need help getting to the next generation of content marketing? We’re here for you.

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2017. | 5 Outdated Content Marketing Tactics (And What to Do Instead) | http://www.toprankblog.com

The post 5 Outdated Content Marketing Tactics (And What to Do Instead) appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

from The SEO Advantages http://www.toprankblog.com/2017/12/outdated-content-marketing/

[unixcommerce]

5 Outdated Content Marketing Tactics (And What to Do Instead)

Can I interest anyone in an iPhone? No, not the iPhone 8 or X. I’m talking about this bad boy:

No takers? But it has a 320X480 pixel screen, 128 Mb of RAM, and a single 2-megapixel camera! Back in 2007, this was the hottest phone on the market. People lined up in front of stores just to get their hands on one.

You get the point: State of the art quickly becomes laughably outdated. What used to thrill a consumer’s soul is now something we wouldn’t give a toddler to play with.

That kind of obsolescence isn’t limited to the tech industry, of course. The cycle from next-big-thing to the dustbin is even faster in online content. Yet many content marketers are using tactics that, while they once worked, are now as outdated as that original iPhone. What’s worse, some of us are still in the flip-phone stage.

If you’re using any of the following content marketing tactics, it’s time for an upgrade. Here’s what doesn’t work, why it doesn’t, and what you should try instead.

Ditch These Outdated Content Marketing Tactics

1. Broad and Shallow Content

Content used to be about sheer bulk rather than quality. Search engines prioritized sites that had a lot of keyword-rich (more on that later) content. Whether that content was actually useful didn’t matter. So writers churned out blog posts like they were getting paid by the word – and sometimes, we actually were.

But search engines have gotten smarter, and our content needs to get smarter, too. Pride of place in the SERP goes to content that actually serves a purpose for an audience. Shallow content gets few clicks, low time on page, and high bounce rates. All of these factors push your content down to the hinterlands of Google’s Page 2 (or lower).

What to Do Instead: Content can no longer be a commodity, churned out in a word factory. We need handcrafted artisan content. It takes longer to create, but you don’t have to make as much of it, either. Focus your resources on a few pillar pieces that deliver real value. Content that inspires readers to spend time on the page, explore further, and share with others will beat commodity content every day of the week. 

  2. Single Keyword Stuffing

In the days of bulk content, a sure-fire way to get search engines’ attention was stuffing in keywords wherever they would fit. Keywords were stuffed in every header, every paragraph, multiple times in a sentence, and then in invisible text at the bottom of the page for good measure. It didn’t add anything useful to the content—in fact, it actively made the content worse – but it helped get eyeballs to your site.

Now, though, you’re likely to get the opposite effect from keyword stuffing. Google actively recognizes spammy keyword usage and moves that content down in the SERP.

What to Do Instead: Don’t focus on a single keyword. Start with a topic for which there is proven search demand. Then create a keyword group of similar terms, related topics, and long-tail derivatives. Use your keyword group to inform your content outline. Then, as you write your comprehensive, best-answer content, you will naturally include the relevant terms without stuffing them in. That way, you’re optimizing for humans and search engines alike.

3. Clickbait Headlines

Never has a tactic been so maligned and so effective as clickbait headlines were a few years ago. “7 of the Coolest Kazoos in the UK – Number 5 Will Shock You!” “They Said He Couldn’t Play His Kazoo at School – You Won’t Believe What Happened Next!” Sites like Upworthy and Buzzfeed drove millions of views with these headlines, and marketers were quick to pick up on the trend.

The problem is, if everything is “shocking,” “mind-blowing,” or “brain-melting,” nothing is. Readers caught wise to the hyperbole and stopped clicking through. Upworthy is still around, but has a fraction of the audience. Buzzfeed is still going strong, but only because they ditched the breathless headlines and focused on great content.

What to Do Instead: Offer a clear benefit to the reader in your title. Don’t promise a life-changing, unbelievable experience – promise to meet a specific need, and make sure you fulfill that promise.

4. Focusing on Bottom of Funnel Content

One of content marketers’ biggest challenges is proving how their content contributes to a purchase decision. So it makes sense that, historically, we’ve concentrated efforts on content designed to close a deal. That is, content that’s more, “Why Our Kazoos Are the Best,” rather than “Why Kazoos Are a Vital Part of an Orchestra,” or even, “Our 10 Favorite Kazoo Players.”

It’s true that bottom of funnel content is easier to tie to revenue. But without top of funnel content, you won’t have an established audience for the bottom of funnel stuff. You can talk about how great your product is out the kazoo, but who’s going to read it?

What to Do Instead: Most of your audience is going to be in the early stages of the decision-making process. To strike the right content marketing balance, use the funnel image as your guide – create the majority of your content for top of funnel, a little less for mid-funnel, and less still for the very bottom. Then make sure each piece of content has a next step that leads the reader further down the funnel. Or kazoo.

  5.  “Viral” Content

There’s a potent high to having a piece of content go viral. Millions of impressions, thousands of shares, maybe even local news coverage, all organic and all free – it’s definitely intoxicating. When viral videos cracked the mainstream consciousness, marketers went chasing that high. And some of us are still trying to catch it.

As I’ve said before, viral is not a content marketing strategy. It’s a pleasant but unpredictable side effect of good content, and it’s ultimately irrelevant to your goals. How many of those millions of viewers are interested in your product? And how many just want to laugh at a dog playing a kazoo?

What to Do Instead: Don’t aim your content at the broadest possible audience and hope it goes viral. Focus on your most relevant audience and make a strategic plan to reach them. We use an integrated marketing approach that includes:

Best-answer, comprehensive content with SEO built in

Influencer co-creation for amplification

Social media amplification

Paid, highly targeted advertising

Get with the Now

The original iPhone was a technological marvel in 2007. Now, you’ll find it in a museum of technology, or on eBay as a “classic collector’s item.” But you won’t find it in anyone’s hip pocket.

Make sure your marketing stays up-to-date: Ditch outdated tactics like shallow, product-focused content and upgrade to valuable, customer-focused content, strategically planned and amplified.

Need help getting to the next generation of content marketing? We’re here for you.

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog – TopRank®, 2017. | 5 Outdated Content Marketing Tactics (And What to Do Instead) | http://ift.tt/faSbAI

The post 5 Outdated Content Marketing Tactics (And What to Do Instead) appeared first on Online Marketing Blog – TopRank®.

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[befoundonlinemarketing]

5 Outdated Content Marketing Tactics (And What to Do Instead)

Can I interest anyone in an iPhone? No, not the iPhone 8 or X. I’m talking about this bad boy:

No takers? But it has a 320X480 pixel screen, 128 Mb of RAM, and a single 2-megapixel camera! Back in 2007, this was the hottest phone on the market. People lined up in front of stores just to get their hands on one.

You get the point: State of the art quickly becomes laughably outdated. What used to thrill a consumer’s soul is now something we wouldn’t give a toddler to play with.

That kind of obsolescence isn’t limited to the tech industry, of course. The cycle from next-big-thing to the dustbin is even faster in online content. Yet many content marketers are using tactics that, while they once worked, are now as outdated as that original iPhone. What’s worse, some of us are still in the flip-phone stage.

If you’re using any of the following content marketing tactics, it’s time for an upgrade. Here’s what doesn’t work, why it doesn’t, and what you should try instead.

Ditch These Outdated Content Marketing Tactics

1. Broad and Shallow Content

Content used to be about sheer bulk rather than quality. Search engines prioritized sites that had a lot of keyword-rich (more on that later) content. Whether that content was actually useful didn’t matter. So writers churned out blog posts like they were getting paid by the word – and sometimes, we actually were.

But search engines have gotten smarter, and our content needs to get smarter, too. Pride of place in the SERP goes to content that actually serves a purpose for an audience. Shallow content gets few clicks, low time on page, and high bounce rates. All of these factors push your content down to the hinterlands of Google’s Page 2 (or lower).

What to Do Instead: Content can no longer be a commodity, churned out in a word factory. We need handcrafted artisan content. It takes longer to create, but you don’t have to make as much of it, either. Focus your resources on a few pillar pieces that deliver real value. Content that inspires readers to spend time on the page, explore further, and share with others will beat commodity content every day of the week. 

 2. Single Keyword Stuffing

In the days of bulk content, a sure-fire way to get search engines’ attention was stuffing in keywords wherever they would fit. Keywords were stuffed in every header, every paragraph, multiple times in a sentence, and then in invisible text at the bottom of the page for good measure. It didn’t add anything useful to the content—in fact, it actively made the content worse – but it helped get eyeballs to your site.

Now, though, you’re likely to get the opposite effect from keyword stuffing. Google actively recognizes spammy keyword usage and moves that content down in the SERP.

What to Do Instead: Don’t focus on a single keyword. Start with a topic for which there is proven search demand. Then create a keyword group of similar terms, related topics, and long-tail derivatives. Use your keyword group to inform your content outline. Then, as you write your comprehensive, best-answer content, you will naturally include the relevant terms without stuffing them in. That way, you’re optimizing for humans and search engines alike.

3. Clickbait Headlines

Never has a tactic been so maligned and so effective as clickbait headlines were a few years ago. “7 of the Coolest Kazoos in the UK – Number 5 Will Shock You!” “They Said He Couldn’t Play His Kazoo at School – You Won’t Believe What Happened Next!” Sites like Upworthy and Buzzfeed drove millions of views with these headlines, and marketers were quick to pick up on the trend.

The problem is, if everything is “shocking,” “mind-blowing,” or “brain-melting,” nothing is. Readers caught wise to the hyperbole and stopped clicking through. Upworthy is still around, but has a fraction of the audience. Buzzfeed is still going strong, but only because they ditched the breathless headlines and focused on great content.

What to Do Instead: Offer a clear benefit to the reader in your title. Don’t promise a life-changing, unbelievable experience – promise to meet a specific need, and make sure you fulfill that promise.

4. Focusing on Bottom of Funnel Content

One of content marketers’ biggest challenges is proving how their content contributes to a purchase decision. So it makes sense that, historically, we’ve concentrated efforts on content designed to close a deal. That is, content that’s more, “Why Our Kazoos Are the Best,” rather than “Why Kazoos Are a Vital Part of an Orchestra,” or even, “Our 10 Favorite Kazoo Players.”

It’s true that bottom of funnel content is easier to tie to revenue. But without top of funnel content, you won’t have an established audience for the bottom of funnel stuff. You can talk about how great your product is out the kazoo, but who’s going to read it?

What to Do Instead: Most of your audience is going to be in the early stages of the decision-making process. To strike the right content marketing balance, use the funnel image as your guide – create the majority of your content for top of funnel, a little less for mid-funnel, and less still for the very bottom. Then make sure each piece of content has a next step that leads the reader further down the funnel. Or kazoo.

 5.  “Viral” Content

There’s a potent high to having a piece of content go viral. Millions of impressions, thousands of shares, maybe even local news coverage, all organic and all free – it’s definitely intoxicating. When viral videos cracked the mainstream consciousness, marketers went chasing that high. And some of us are still trying to catch it.

As I’ve said before, viral is not a content marketing strategy. It’s a pleasant but unpredictable side effect of good content, and it’s ultimately irrelevant to your goals. How many of those millions of viewers are interested in your product? And how many just want to laugh at a dog playing a kazoo?

What to Do Instead: Don’t aim your content at the broadest possible audience and hope it goes viral. Focus on your most relevant audience and make a strategic plan to reach them. We use an integrated marketing approach that includes:

Best-answer, comprehensive content with SEO built in

Influencer co-creation for amplification

Social media amplification

Paid, highly targeted advertising

Get with the Now

The original iPhone was a technological marvel in 2007. Now, you’ll find it in a museum of technology, or on eBay as a “classic collector’s item.” But you won’t find it in anyone’s hip pocket.

Make sure your marketing stays up-to-date: Ditch outdated tactics like shallow, product-focused content and upgrade to valuable, customer-focused content, strategically planned and amplified.

Need help getting to the next generation of content marketing? We’re here for you.

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2017. | 5 Outdated Content Marketing Tactics (And What to Do Instead) | http://ift.tt/faSbAI

The post 5 Outdated Content Marketing Tactics (And What to Do Instead) appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

5 Outdated Content Marketing Tactics (And What to Do Instead) posted first on http://ift.tt/faSbAI

[christopheruearle]

5 Outdated Content Marketing Tactics (And What to Do Instead)

Can I interest anyone in an iPhone? No, not the iPhone 8 or X. I’m talking about this bad boy:

No takers? But it has a 320X480 pixel screen, 128 Mb of RAM, and a single 2-megapixel camera! Back in 2007, this was the hottest phone on the market. People lined up in front of stores just to get their hands on one.

You get the point: State of the art quickly becomes laughably outdated. What used to thrill a consumer’s soul is now something we wouldn’t give a toddler to play with.

That kind of obsolescence isn’t limited to the tech industry, of course. The cycle from next-big-thing to the dustbin is even faster in online content. Yet many content marketers are using tactics that, while they once worked, are now as outdated as that original iPhone. What’s worse, some of us are still in the flip-phone stage.

If you’re using any of the following content marketing tactics, it’s time for an upgrade. Here’s what doesn’t work, why it doesn’t, and what you should try instead.

Ditch These Outdated Content Marketing Tactics

1. Broad and Shallow Content

Content used to be about sheer bulk rather than quality. Search engines prioritized sites that had a lot of keyword-rich (more on that later) content. Whether that content was actually useful didn’t matter. So writers churned out blog posts like they were getting paid by the word – and sometimes, we actually were.

But search engines have gotten smarter, and our content needs to get smarter, too. Pride of place in the SERP goes to content that actually serves a purpose for an audience. Shallow content gets few clicks, low time on page, and high bounce rates. All of these factors push your content down to the hinterlands of Google’s Page 2 (or lower).

What to Do Instead: Content can no longer be a commodity, churned out in a word factory. We need handcrafted artisan content. It takes longer to create, but you don’t have to make as much of it, either. Focus your resources on a few pillar pieces that deliver real value. Content that inspires readers to spend time on the page, explore further, and share with others will beat commodity content every day of the week. 

  2. Single Keyword Stuffing

In the days of bulk content, a sure-fire way to get search engines’ attention was stuffing in keywords wherever they would fit. Keywords were stuffed in every header, every paragraph, multiple times in a sentence, and then in invisible text at the bottom of the page for good measure. It didn’t add anything useful to the content—in fact, it actively made the content worse – but it helped get eyeballs to your site.

Now, though, you’re likely to get the opposite effect from keyword stuffing. Google actively recognizes spammy keyword usage and moves that content down in the SERP.

What to Do Instead: Don’t focus on a single keyword. Start with a topic for which there is proven search demand. Then create a keyword group of similar terms, related topics, and long-tail derivatives. Use your keyword group to inform your content outline. Then, as you write your comprehensive, best-answer content, you will naturally include the relevant terms without stuffing them in. That way, you’re optimizing for humans and search engines alike.

3. Clickbait Headlines

Never has a tactic been so maligned and so effective as clickbait headlines were a few years ago. “7 of the Coolest Kazoos in the UK – Number 5 Will Shock You!” “They Said He Couldn’t Play His Kazoo at School – You Won’t Believe What Happened Next!” Sites like Upworthy and Buzzfeed drove millions of views with these headlines, and marketers were quick to pick up on the trend.

The problem is, if everything is “shocking,” “mind-blowing,” or “brain-melting,” nothing is. Readers caught wise to the hyperbole and stopped clicking through. Upworthy is still around, but has a fraction of the audience. Buzzfeed is still going strong, but only because they ditched the breathless headlines and focused on great content.

What to Do Instead: Offer a clear benefit to the reader in your title. Don’t promise a life-changing, unbelievable experience – promise to meet a specific need, and make sure you fulfill that promise.

4. Focusing on Bottom of Funnel Content

One of content marketers’ biggest challenges is proving how their content contributes to a purchase decision. So it makes sense that, historically, we’ve concentrated efforts on content designed to close a deal. That is, content that’s more, “Why Our Kazoos Are the Best,” rather than “Why Kazoos Are a Vital Part of an Orchestra,” or even, “Our 10 Favorite Kazoo Players.”

It’s true that bottom of funnel content is easier to tie to revenue. But without top of funnel content, you won’t have an established audience for the bottom of funnel stuff. You can talk about how great your product is out the kazoo, but who’s going to read it?

What to Do Instead: Most of your audience is going to be in the early stages of the decision-making process. To strike the right content marketing balance, use the funnel image as your guide – create the majority of your content for top of funnel, a little less for mid-funnel, and less still for the very bottom. Then make sure each piece of content has a next step that leads the reader further down the funnel. Or kazoo.

  5.  “Viral” Content

There’s a potent high to having a piece of content go viral. Millions of impressions, thousands of shares, maybe even local news coverage, all organic and all free – it’s definitely intoxicating. When viral videos cracked the mainstream consciousness, marketers went chasing that high. And some of us are still trying to catch it.

As I’ve said before, viral is not a content marketing strategy. It’s a pleasant but unpredictable side effect of good content, and it’s ultimately irrelevant to your goals. How many of those millions of viewers are interested in your product? And how many just want to laugh at a dog playing a kazoo?

What to Do Instead: Don’t aim your content at the broadest possible audience and hope it goes viral. Focus on your most relevant audience and make a strategic plan to reach them. We use an integrated marketing approach that includes:

Best-answer, comprehensive content with SEO built in

Influencer co-creation for amplification

Social media amplification

Paid, highly targeted advertising

Get with the Now

The original iPhone was a technological marvel in 2007. Now, you’ll find it in a museum of technology, or on eBay as a “classic collector’s item.” But you won’t find it in anyone’s hip pocket.

Make sure your marketing stays up-to-date: Ditch outdated tactics like shallow, product-focused content and upgrade to valuable, customer-focused content, strategically planned and amplified.

Need help getting to the next generation of content marketing? We’re here for you.

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2017. | 5 Outdated Content Marketing Tactics (And What to Do Instead) | http://www.toprankblog.com

The post 5 Outdated Content Marketing Tactics (And What to Do Instead) appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

[coronadelsol]

lehon | v. @adtenebras | incomplete

Kylo burned through pilots almost faster than they could be supplied to him. While most were competent enough in the cockpit for his purposes, they tended to be more curious than their infantry counterparts, quicker to question orders, and invariably useless once removed from their flight controls for ground combat. For their insufficiency, they’d been either blithely dismembered or ejected into space, depending on his mood.

Sure, he could fly his own shuttle, but as the newly minted Master of the Knights of Ren he ought not have to do menial things himself when he had other tasks to accomplish. It didn’t befit his title. It didn’t befit his power.

When he arrived in the small hangar bay where his shuttle (and TIE fighter, though that wouldn’t be of much use to him for the immediate future) resided, troopers were in the process of trotting up the boarding ramp with the supplies he’d need for the weeks-long assignment Snoke had designed for him. Sealed, unmarked crates of machinery and food, mostly, though one particular piece of equipment was of much more substantial importance to the Knight. He scanned the hangar for what was to be his latest pilot. Give me no less than your best, he’d growled at Colonel Hux, or I’ll continue to burn through your air troops until I find what I’m looking for. Soon, he’d find out if the greasy weasel had delivered.

A glinting flash of red on black caught his attention immediately, the hallmark helmet of a special forces pilot. Already, Ren was pleased. Hux didn’t like to spare the more highly trained fodder for Ren’s purposes if they were merely going to be eviscerated anyway, which meant this one wasn’t expected to fail. He strode forward until he was half a meter from the pilot, mask tilted in curiosity as he felt how the Force wove around the man, testing his mettle before anything else. “Your designation?”

Colonel Hux had probably meant for it to be a short conversation. A quick yes sir, despite whatever apprehension a pilot might have felt. A snapped salute. Hux would then dismiss the pilot, before getting back to whatever it was he really did around here. It was one of the greatest cases of nepotism Poe would ever witness in his lifetime. So really, it’d been just a little satisfying to watch those distinct brows leap in surprised when the order was questioned.

And not just the order, but the command’s judgement.

The problem was they had all heard the stories. Despite regulations created to specifically discourage and dispel, there were just some things you couldn’t keep the pilots from doing. Gossip was probably the least of the Order’s worries, anyways. After all this time, Poe wasn’t interested in becoming another statistic.

He’d spent years carving his place in the navy. He’d become irreplaceable. So why take the risk? He didn’t exactly share the colonel’s confidence that this would be a successful match.

But had he actually been able to get out of this assignment? No. So he’d spent the morning preparing for the trip, from packing his ready bag to making sure his affairs for the week were in order. Someone else would have to take over training the promising young pilots accepted into the program, and you could bet he’d be checking in on those same pilots the moment he was back.

The First Order had made an art form out of conditioning soldiers, sure, but Poe still knew he could do better. Not only that, he’d proven it. His pilots were the best, and he wasn’t excited to place them in someone else’s hands for whatever amount of time he’d be chauffeuring Snoke’s favorite around the galaxy.

Lord Ren’s initial approach wasn’t totally unlike a fighter to its target, a demand immediately on his lips. Provided the guy had lips.

“SP-3477.” Colloquially, Poe. Hux provided hadn’t provided that information, it wasn’t really officially on file. 

In the meantime, he didn’t give away much. His answer had been polite, although he couldn’t help tipping his head towards the shuttle while he spoke. There was a curiosity nagging at him already. He’d piloted several craft like this one, the old imperial style that the Order liked to drag around for officers; but Poe could see that this one was different.

A simple answer for a simple question. It suited Ren just fine. The mask remained trained on SP-3477 for a moment longer and the air grew noticeably heavier around the pair, but it was gone the instant he brushed past and continued forwards. “We leave now.” The troopers, having completed their task, scuttled away like beetles before him as he ascended the ramp, though not so hurriedly as to appear unprofessional. SP-3477, for the moment, went ignored.

He’d upgraded the weapons and hull armor of his Upsilon-class shuttle specifically for this mission based on rumors about his destination; even someone who thrived on chaos as he could learn to prepare for the worst. Upon reaching the cockpit, he entered several nondescript coordinates into the nav computer, a path that would avoid the popular hyperspace lanes through the core worlds in favor of a meandering route hugging the outer rim that would take much longer, but offer superior anonymity if needed. Minimal manpower meant even Kylo Ren would have to be careful. The path terminated at a planet named Lehon.

Satisfied, he crossed his arms and waited for the pilot to catch up.

He had to admire how those troopers could hustle once they’d been dismissed, their boots clicking against the floor as they departed the hangar bay.

SP-3477 had been itching for a little adventure for a few months now, but he probably should have been careful what he wished for. Things had been quiet, and the First Order had a way of laying low when it wanted to. It often wanted to.

There was so many details to drink in now that he’d ducked aboard the ship. Little tweaks, screens in places he hadn’t seen them before, and those supplies crammed in every nook. It wasn’t really a vessel meant for a journey this long, but it’d have to do. Poe had already staked out a chair that might be comfortable enough for the long series of naps that’d replace his normal sleep cycle.

“Did upper management provide you with any of my background?” He stood somewhat respectfully in the back of the cockpit, waiting to be invited further within. From here, he could see that their route had already been dropped into the nav-computer- something he’d usually like to be consulted on, but he figured it was a little early to nitpick Lord Ren’s plans.

Though his arms were tightly crossed, Ren leaned against one of the chairs in the cockpit and let his head tilt to the side, still measuring the worth of this pilot. “Nothing,” he said with a dismissive shrug, pushing off of the chair and retrieving a datapad inset in the wall of the cockpit to comb through whatever information happened to be relevant at the time. He noted SP-3477’s distance, and let it continue. “I only care if you can complete the tasks I give you, nothing more. You’re not to change any of the coordinates I’ve programmed unless otherwise ordered, and you’re not to touch the cargo. Your cabin is port, mine is starboard.”

Having been given this shuttle to do with as he pleased, Ren had taken it upon himself to refit the craft as a vessel for personal use. Taking advantage of the deceptive roominess this class of shuttle possessed, he’d had two tiny, but functional, cabins installed, and the resulting corridor between them could even have been called a common room, with a half-moon booth and a large table with bits of errant machinery still scattered on it from whatever Ren had been tinkering with last.

He wasn’t really sure what he’d expected.

Alright, maybe that wasn’t entirely accurate. He’d expected to be dead by now, organs lodged under a crate in the hangar bay before Ren had even taken off. It wasn’t a stretch to wonder why he was even here when the man was such an adept pilot. Poe had witnessed first hand what he was capable of.

Colonel Hux hadn’t really bothered to explain when asked, either. He’d seemed content to remind SP-3477 that it was his duty to do as he was told, without question.

Cabins, though. That was cozier than expected, maybe he wouldn’t have to resort to the chair after all.

“Does she have a name?” All he had to do was complete the tasks given to him. Well, he hadn’t been tasked with shutting up just yet.

Ren ignored the question, largely because the answer was no. He’d named his fighter easily, but even though he’d owned this shuttle for a standard year and a half, it only had its standard factory designation to go by. The fact that he’d accidentally modeled it after a certain Corellian freighter lent to the problem, more than likely.

This new train of thought was enough to distract him from the fact that SP-3477 was already far chattier than the Knight would have liked.

He raised the ramp and didn’t even bother to conceal the curt sigh that hissed through his modulator. “Get us under way.”

“Yes, sir.” The fact that Ren had said nothing at all, well. It said plenty. He’d be traveling in style, but it was likely also in silence. As he dropped into the seat, he realized it was probably better this way; after all, he was lucky his mouth hadn’t gotten him killed yet.

“This is SP-3477, departure code has been submitted for evaluation. En route to,” A glance downwards, before he thought better of it. “A classified location. Acknowledge.”

At least the launch itself came to him as easily as breathing. A mild mannered ship, launching from the complete safety of a friendly hangar, into familiar space. They had sheltered in the harbor of this system, heavily populated with inhabitable celestial bodies and not much else.

At least the launch itself kept the pilot busy for awhile, and minimized the number of curious glances he’d sneak Ren’s way. Eventually, even that had run its course. His gloved finger tips wandered the panels, summoning and dismissing the ship’s status over and over.

“Are we planning on making any stops along the way, or is this a straight shot?

SP-3477’s discretion over the comm didn’t go unnoticed, even though Ren had retreated to the booth to busy himself with the motley collection of tech there - it wasn’t terribly far away from the cockpit. He hadn’t partitioned the interior of the shuttle exactly to his liking yet, another project in the growing pile of busy work he kept for himself. The cargo space led into the “commons” which led directly into the cockpit, with no style to speak of. All function.

The brief seconds between the destroyer’s artificial gravity tapering off and that of the shuttle’s kicking in was always an unpleasant sort of float in the pit of his stomach, but it was still the familiar, welcome experience of flight.

At some point, a soft click indicated that Ren had grown frustrated enough with the limited visibility his helmet afforded him to do away with it. He swiped his hand through his hair a couple of times out of habit immediately after, vexed by something entirely unrelated to the pilot’s constant questioning, though he was sure that would start to grate on him within the hour. “No stops. Time is... somewhat of the essence. It will take us five days to reach our destination as it is.”

Five days.

No wonder even Kylo Ren had needed a primary pilot. With the ship now comfortably navigating one of the quieter hyperspace channels, he figured it was alright to put a few meters between himself and the cockpit. And if it wasn’t, he’d probably hear about it from his new and temporary boss.

There were more surprises to be found here than there had been on the exterior. It was more reminiscent of someone’s personal work space rather than a tidy military craft. A soldering tool lay on top of a small pile of wires and a computer board, a project that wasn’t anywhere near recognizable. Some swatches of dark fabric. A trunk with ornate hinges shoved half behind a week’s worth of food.

And an unfamiliar face.

He was surprised, but decided against commentary. He didn’t know what he’d expected to ever see beneath that mask, but it wasn’t anything like that.

Five days. He glanced into his cabin, surveyed it momentarily, and gently half rolled, half kicked his ready bag through the doorway.

Ren wasn’t that old. That was the first thing. Somehow he felt a little safer thinking about it out of sight. He was probably younger than the pilot, even. It’d take a few more looks to figure that out for sure. Those thoughts persisted even after Poe had pulled his helmet off and washed down his face and the back of his head. No matter what the Order promised, the damn helmets just wouldn’t breathe.

Where even was Lehon? With a towel around his neck, he wandered back out to find where the star charts projected against a bulkhead, flipping through them in what was increasingly beginning to feel like a vain pursuit.

“Rakata Prime,” he muttered abruptly, never taking his focus off of his work yet following the pilot’s every movement all the same. Movement, general vein of thought, the stronger emotions that flickered to the surface; every facet of SP-3477’s existence within this ship was being monitored, whether it was made obvious or not. Ren clarified his statement. “The charts will call it Rakata Prime. Quadrant H14. We’ll stray close to Wild Space to get there.” Never a sentence any pilot wanted to hear.

Finally, Ren opted to lift his eyes to get a more literal look at the man he’d be spending these next weeks with. A mop of curly dark hair and quick, deep-set eyes that hid little. He may have encountered SP-3477 in passing at some point, he realized, but couldn’t place the time. The drilling stare that followed SP-3477 didn’t waver. “I trust that won’t be a problem.”

“Not a problem, sir.” There was a little restrain behind the reply. If they planned on dropping out of this channel and just beyond the edge of civilized space, Poe couldn’t hang back and make chit chat with his delightful host.

“I’ll be in the hot seat if you need me.”

And so for the next forty eight hours, the cockpit became his home away from home. Ren seemed insistent on the fact he had enlisted Poe’s service for a reason, and that he was too busy to monitor the systems.

They barely spoke, and that might have been the most difficult aspect of this for him. Alright, maybe it was second to constantly having to stay glued to the screens watching for unfriendly contact, but it was a close second. Even among the ranks of the First Order, Poe’d managed to build comradery; sometimes, even dangerously close to friendship.

“We’re nearly there,” He called as he wandered back into the common area, although he lingered close enough to keep an ear out for any alerts.

Did Ren ready know that? He probably already knew that. Poe rubbed one hand against his face, already well aware of just how strained his eyes were from watching the scanners. “Have you been here before?”

Nothing happened at first. An eyebrow cocked in what seemed to be amusement while the curious particles still danced between Ren’s hands. “Actually, yes.”

He hadn’t moved a centimeter, but a phantom hand began to close around SP-3477’s throat, slowly yet inevitably. Ren took his time as he stored his project in a small wooden box and swung his boots off of the table to regard the strangling man. “I wanted to remark on how quickly you seem to have forgotten your place - if you knew it to begin with, pilot.” Thinly veiled rage hid behind a mask of boredom as Ren spoke, as much as he tried to keep his voice low and level. Just before SP-3477’s face had a chance to turn uglier shades of purple, he allowed the man breath.

“And to think we were getting along so well.”

People had always told him that he was lucky. There was no denying that he had unmatched skills as a pilot, sure, but there was something else to it. He’d been born under just the right star, and therefore had a _way_ of getting himself out of situations that no one should have survived.

Once the vertigo began to ebb, Poe realized he could definitely chalk this up as one of this situations.

His knees ached, and he now realized he’d ended up on them. His hands braced against the cold metal of the floor, struggling to hold himself upright as he took one greedy gulp of breath after the other. There’d been a time like this before, his canopy cracked and split in a foreign atmosphere, the planet trying to strangle him before he’d even set foot on it.

Still, he’d never felt a hand close around his throat like that. Even if it’d been in his head, it’d been a human hand. It’d been the most personal attempt at his life yet.

He had to fight off a smile, something that was relieved and tired all rolled into one. “Permission to prepare for arrival on Lehos, sir?” One of those hands struggled to find purchase on the back of that booth so that he might pull himself back up, trembling even then.

No panic. Not even a remotely worthy amount of fear emanated from the pilot, and oddly, Ren found himself almost impressed. Most of those on the receiving end of such treatment wet themselves at least a little. His previous anger returned to its customary simmer when it became apparent he’d made his point. "My Lord was nice, keep using that one,” Ren drawled. He stepped around SP-3477 to take a seat in the cockpit before the pilot could recover.

Rakata Prime glittered bright as any jewel. Its seas and archipelagos came into view as Ren eased the shuttle into atmosphere, briefly surveying a map he’d thrown up on the display before choosing to land on a fragmented slab of duracrete that had once been a proper landing pad. It remained serviceable enough, despite the havoc the elements had wrought. The palms surrounding the pad shuddered with the impact and sent golden birds tumbling into the sky.

Even from the cockpit, one could see the abuse the planet had suffered; the landscape had not been formed by natural means, but rather systematically destroyed over millennia by ancient civil wars and conflicts much more recent. The history of it Ren knew intimately, but it hadn’t prepared him for how the planet felt. The very air was steeped in the Force, something that gave Ren more dread than reassurance, thanks to previous experience with this sort of world. Snoke had failed to mention that he’d be contending with this.

After powering the shuttle’s systems down and ensuring security protocols were in place lest any surprise visitors think to take a joyride, Ren shoved himself out of the cockpit and towards the hold, hardly glancing towards the pilot to see how he was faring. “Prepared to disembark?”

#adtenebras #astra non obligant #archium #infectus #i'm not losing this thread to a dead phone too