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lindstromm · 4 years ago

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Simplified Bookbinding: Font and Text Ornaments

In the first post in this series, How to Make a Cheap First Book, I set out the four steps of bookbinding:

1. Format the text and print it. (This post is all about this step.)

2. Create the text block.

3. Create the case.

4. Attach the case to the text block.

In this post, I’ll give some pointers to get your story from a word processor, or an AO3 story, to a printed page. There are two main formatting sections: (1) the intro pages like the title page and the “about this book” page:

And (2) the text of the book, which may include specialized chapter title font and text separators:

Formatting tips and pics under the cut.

I use Microsoft Word for formatting and printing. I know one method and I stick to that, and I use basically the same formatting process on every story. I get overwhelmed if I have to do something specialized every time or have too many choices. So look at this tutorial as your starter pack, and once you get comfortable, branch out and get as fancy and specialized as you want.

In the Simplified Bookbinding method, we print on A5 pages, which makes the pagination a whole lot easier than printing signature booklets. I have two separate files per book - the intro pages are one file; the text is a second file. This way I don’t have to figure out how to suppress page numbers on part of a file. The intro pages file does not have page numbers; the text file has page numbers.

Page Setup in Word

1. Open a new document.

2. Click “Layout” then “Size.” You need to tell Word that you’re printing on A5 size paper. If the dropdown menu doesn’t include A5, then click on “More Paper Sizes” at the bottom of the menu and fill in the A5 size manually. It’s 5.83 wide by 8.27 high:

Click ‘OK’ and let’s get started putting text on the page.

The Intro Pages

Go pull a professionally published book off your shelf and look at the title page. You’re going to format your title page basically the same way. It’s going to have the title, the author and maybe a text ornament. Center it on the page.

I googled the name of the fandom to get a text block that says “The Old Guard.” A recognizable symbol for that movie is the main character’s labrys, so I googled “labrys line drawing” and snipped it. I titled my story “The Next Job” because I lack the fanfiction ability to select beautiful lines of poetry for story titles. Not as lovely, I’ll grant you, but it fits better on the spine of a book. Anyway, play around with your formatting until you like how it looks. Print a test page.

This is a good time to find out how to print on A5 paper. My printer has a paper size option in the menu, in which I could select “A5″ and then just push the paper holder in the tray for the smaller paper. If you don’t have a printer or can’t connect it, then . . . um, problem. Some bookbinders send print jobs to Staples or other office supply shops. You would have to ask them about printing on custom sized paper and see what they charge. (If you’re going to have it printed at a shop, don’t use easily identifiable text ornaments unless you want to explain to the print shop employee why you aren’t violating copyright laws.)

Depending on your fandom, you may be able to find a fun text ornament that identifies your fandom, like the Avenger’s symbol, a Star Trek symbol, Star Wars, whatever fandom you’re in, I’m sure there’s a graphic you can use. Things like these:

Now we’re going to format the “about this book” page. Look at a professionally published book. This is where you have the copyright information and publisher information. I put in basic information in a list format. In most of my books, I put in a word count and which font I used, just so I can keep track of about how many pages a word count will be. You can put in different info.

On a third page, you can format the author summary and any author notes you want to include. I keep author notes that talk about what the story means to the author. I don’t keep author notes that are basically apologies for not updating often enough. That’s entirely up to you.

So those are your intro pages. It’s 2-4 sheets of paper. I always set 4 blank pages in front of the title page. You’ll notice that professionally published books have a few blank pages before the title page as well. I also put 4 blank pages at the end of the book.

Story Text Pages

Now we’re going to format the actual story. There is a page limit to how much you can bind into one book when using this Simplified Method. You’re limited by the size of the binder clips used in perfect binding. Yep, true, binder clips are your limiting factor. The most I can usually get into big binder clips is about 225 sheets of paper. It varies depending on your paper weight. Take out about 12 sheets for intro and end pages, and that leaves me about 210 printed pages, which double-sided is 420 pages of text. The max word count I’ve bound in one book is 140,000 words. You can bind lengthy works but you will have to play around with margins and font size to keep the number of pages to something that fits into the binder clips.

1. Open a new Word document.

2. Set the paper size to A5 the same way you did for the intro pages document.

3. I always set all four margins to 0.7 just to get more words on a page. I wouldn’t go much smaller than that. You can keep your margins at 1 inch if you want, and I would recommend it if you’re printing less than 50,000 words.

4. Insert page numbers.

5. Go to the story on AO3. Make sure you’re in the “Entire Work” view because it’s a pain to cut and paste chapter by chapter. Press Ctrl-A to “Select All.”

6. Navigate back to your document. Press Ctrl-V to paste the entire mess into your document.

7. Save the file. Save often. You don’t want to lose your formatting.

8. Delete all the stuff that isn’t story text. The “Select All” will have picked up all the buttons and the kudos list and comment box and everything. Just delete it all until you only have text left. The text will have spacing between paragraphs, no indents, chapter headings in the middle of pages, and so forth.

9. When you’ve got nothing but text, press Ctrl-A again to select all the text and we’re going to do some basic formatting. With all the text selected, make these changes:

a. Change the font to Gentium Book Basic 12 pt. (There are hundreds of fonts to choose from. I stick to Gentium Book Basic 12 pt or Book Antiqua 12 pt for the text of the story.)

b. Get into the paragraph format menu. Change the spacing Before and After to 0, and add a first line indent of 0.3. On an A5 page, the standard indent of 0.5 is too deep.

Click out and your page count should change drastically to something pretty close to what your finished page count will be.

10. Now we’re going to format the chapter headings. If you’re in a highly merchandised fandom, you’ll be able to find custom fonts that you can use for chapter headings. Some are free to download. I’ve got the font for Frozen and another one for Star Trek.

Fun, right? If you don’t have a fandom-specific font, I recommend using Narkisim or Baskerville Old Face for chapter heading text. Both are included with Word.

a. If you have more than a couple chapters, it’s easier to set a Heading to auto-format your chapter titles than it is to select text, change font, and center for every single chapter. To do that, format Chapter One the way you want it. Select font, font size, center it on the page (you’ll have to turn off that 0.3 first line indent for just the chapter heading text). While you have your chapter heading text formatted and selected, go to the Home menu and right-click on Heading 2, then select the top option: “Update Heading 2 to Match Selection”. I couldn’t get a snip with the right-click, but this is what you want to right-click on:

Then for your next paragraph, just select the text of chapter number and title, click Heading 2, and it automatically applies all the formatting for you. Yay!

b. With the copy and paste we did to get the text from AO3 into Word, the chapters may start in the middle of a page. Make sure you press Ctrl-Enter at the end of a chapter to start the next chapter on a new page.

c. If you want to insert a text ornament at each chapter heading, that can be fun. If that’s too much right now, don’t worry about. I didn’t start using text ornaments until I had done about 15 books. You’ll have to work to get the text ornament the right size and positioned under the chapter heading text.

Are you done with chapter headings? Moving on!

11. Scene breaks. You know those places inside a chapter where there’s a scene break? Go look at a professionally published book. Many will just have a double space between paragraphs to mark a scene break. That’s probably the easiest way to mark a scene break. Go right ahead and do it that way.

12. Text separators at scene breaks. If you want, you can put in a text ornament to mark a scene break. There are full line text ornaments, or tiny text ornaments:

I found all my text separators by googling ‘images text ornaments’ or ‘text dividers’ and then snipping from the screen. Here are a few I haven’t used yet, which aren’t quite as blurry as everything I take a photo of (sucky camera phone):

To get a text ornament on the page of a Word doc, you go to “Insert” and click on “Pictures” and then select your image file. Then you have to resize it and position it, plus curse because it knocked all your text out of alignment, wonder what the purpose of image anchors are, drag, accidentally drop it in the middle of the paragraph, discover that Word has green guidelines that appear at random. I tell you what, text ornaments are a real treat. I just like them, okay? I like the way they look, I mean, they are annoying to work with. I did discover that once I have it resized, I copy that image, and then paste it into the next scene break rather than inserting the image from file again. That way I know all the text ornaments are the same size.

All done? Got it all formatted? Looks so great, doesn’t it?

Take a deep breath. Take a few days off. The hardest part is yet to come.

Printing

You’ll have to figure out how to print double-sided on A5 paper. I have very little advice here. It’s going to be you figuring out how to get your printer to cooperate. I’ve discovered that auto-double sided printing does not work on A5 paper. The print rollers just aren’t designed for little pieces of paper. My inkjet printer would auto-double-side on A5 paper, but it would offset the text on the front and back by a centimeter. My laser printer won’t auto-double-side at all on A5 paper. I manually double-side the pages. I can do it in batches of 20 pages at a time, so it’s not so bad.

If you are manually double-siding, make sure you know how to orient the pages when you stick them back in the printer. Instead of practicing on your actual book, just print pages that are blank other than the page number. Print pages 1-10 double-sided and see if you have to rotate the pages 180 degrees, or flip them over before putting them back in the paper tray.

Printing is a pain in the butt. Especially if you run out of toner partway through, or your printer starts printing a black line down the middle of every page. WHY??? It just does. It takes me about an hour to print about 80,000 words. I hope you will someday be more efficient than I am, but that’s how long it takes me.

Phew. Okay. Formatting and printing are done. Yay!! I’m very proud of you. That’s a huge job.

#simplified bookbinding #bookbinding #bookbinding for beginners #renegade publishers #renegade bookbinders #font and text ornaments #lindstrom2020 #op

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saudadeonly · 4 years ago

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burn my heart out: last breath calling out (Chapter 3)

Read on ao3. Part 8, consisting of 4 chapters.

Death Eater!Sirius Black AU

Lord Voldemort wages war on Hogwarts but he is unaware of the years-worth of battle fought against him.

(or, several instalments following the Battle of Hogwarts with Sirius Black standing on the wrong side)

Catching up in the middle of battle shouldn't be as much of an art as Marlene and the others have made it to be.

Word count: 2827

___

Marlene is upon Sirius moments after he's stepped back from James and for several seconds everything else fades away. There is no battle to be fought, no wounds to be healed - only them, two friends properly reuniting after years, and Marlene doesn't want to let go. Even the weight of the encounter with the Dementors seems to have eased.

“It's good to see you,” she mumbles into the dip of his collarbone.

He sounds like ash and dust but he gives her a faint smile when they part. “You too.”

When they completely break away from each other, Gideon's wand is pointed at Sirius's chest, his eyes hard. His crooked fingers, one of the remaining marks left from the torture he and Fabian suffered when they were caught by Death Eaters two years ago, are wrapped so tightly around his wand they've turned white. If Marlene didn't know who did it to him before, she’s sure got her confirmation now. Her heartstrings stretch thin between them, between their different shades of grey.

Sirius lifts his hands placatingly but with no sense of urgency. “I know you intend to keep your promise,” he says in a low voice, brows furrowed down over his eyes, “but you'll have your chance if we live to see the morning.”

“Gideon,” Marlene murmurs, reaching out with feather-light fingers against his arm. The pain inflicted on him was, unlike hers, real but its memory won’t lessen if he kills Sirius – not now, not later.

A muscle in Gideon's jaw ticks. A moment passes, then two, before he jabs his wand into Sirius's chest and lets it drop back down to his side. “This isn't over, Black,” he growls.

Sirius's hands, too, fall. His mouth settles into a grim line. “Believe me, I know.”

The edge of danger in the air around them dulls a little. James looks between Gideon and Sirius and then between Sirius and Marlene. He swallows and runs a shaky hand through his hair. It has to be different now, with the shock wearing off, to try and forget that for all Sirius has done to keep them safe, there is still a path between them that he paved with their pain. Marlene has had months to come to terms with it, to go over every horrible, cruel thing he has done and love him despite it; sometimes even because of it, because of how he poured enough blood out of himself to make up for the lack of theirs. James has had neither the insight nor the time to deal with it and probably won't get either for a while. Marlene doesn't know how to help him or Dorcas and Gideon past it.

Dorcas narrows her eyes at Sirius. She's always kept her words about him sharp and then doubly so when he had them all convinced he was a Death Eater but she remains the only one that has been able to fully separate herself from their shared history and treat him as simply one of them – until the night that, as far as she knew, Sirius went for Marlene. Then her vengeance became a single-minded fury, a driving point honed to precision. With anyone else, it would have been admirable; with Sirius, it became the centre-point of Marlene's helplessness. “The ransom was your idea, wasn't it?” Dorcas asks, eyes flitting between Sirius and Gideon, the brilliant mind that Marlene adores working tenfold.

The sum of money offered by Lucretia and Gideon Prewett in exchange for the lives of their nephews was a bolder offer than anyone had tried to make in the decades of war but perhaps the more surprising fact was that Voldemort accepted it. It couldn't have been anyone else other than Sirius that made him see reason in it.

Sirius studies her for a moment, then nods. “You always were the smartest.”

“And yet I couldn’t figure you out.”

“If only that had been my plan.”

“Thank you,” James says suddenly, breaking through the tension that suffocates down over them, “for the Map.” He presses his mouth into a line, fingers twitching by his side, and then opens it again. “Lily and Harry –”

“Don't tell me anything, James,” Sirius cuts in, turning to look at him with a determined line cut between his eyebrows. “The less I know the better.”

He's right. They all know he's right. It doesn't diminish the pain of the fact that he deserves to know as much as all of them do – even if their own knowledge is scarce.

With a grimace, Sirius reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small leather-bound book, pushing it into James's hands. Marlene catches the edge of an antler pressed into the cover and remembers James's last Christmas gift to Sirius. He jerks his chin at the gash running down the length of Gideon's arm and says, “Lestrange came up with some nasty curses. Try the spell on page seven.” He pulls out his own wand and steps toward Marlene.

This time, it's Dorcas who points her wand at him. “Don't touch her.”

“Dorcas,” Marlene says softly before Sirius can ever open his mouth. She meets her eyes, dark and lovely, and sees the question there, a painful one that neither of them wants to have asked or answered. It's been there longer than it should be, probably since Dorcas cursed Sirius all those months ago and Marlene went to pieces over it. “It's alright.”

Dorcas frowns but nods and lets it go. She watches with sharp eyes and a hand in the pocket where she keeps her wand as Sirius taps the wound on Marlene's head and intones the healing.

“I thought we were supposed to have until sundown,” James says absently, staring at the edges of Gideon's wound that slowly stitch themselves together. Marlene's own wound itches as it heals and leaves behind half-dried blood.

Sirius looks up, catching the light from the torches all around, turned on just now after the sun's set. “So did I. He changed his mind.”

Marlene would ask why but the question itself remains in Sirius's voice. The others must sense it too because Gideon frowns down at the book in James's hands and says, “These are the same spells Aunt Lucretia had when she was healing me and Fab.”

“Are they,” Sirius answers without looking up, eyes now trained on his own scraped-up hand as he touches the tip of his wand to it. New skin blooms up across it and it's not until it's fully healed that he looks up at Gideon. Lucretia loved them both, her nephews, Marlene had years to see it. “You think I don't know the limits of my own magic?”

Gideon holds up his hand, waggling the misshapen fingers.

“Some appearances have to be kept.”

“You little –” Gideon starts as he jerks forward but James stops him with a hand on his chest and the sentence dies in his throat. “Fabian,” he continues instead but a booming sound far below, harsh enough to make the floor underneath their feet tremble, all the way down to the foundations, renders him silent again. Sirius sucks in a breath.

They exchange wide-eyed looks. The corridor they're in might be empty of actual Death Eaters but the rest of Hogwarts certainly isn't and they've allowed themselves to forget it. “The common rooms,” Dorcas says, pressing a hand over her collarbone. “Hardly could be anything else.”

Gideon runs a hand through his hair, all anger gone from his face, now white as a sheet. His oldest nephew, Marlene remembers, started at Hogwarts this past September. “Come on.”

They start down the corridor and get all the way to the top of the staircase before a silver streak shoots up before them, materialising into a silver cat. “They are retreating,” McGonagall's voice says, hurried but alive. “We are gathering in the Great Hall.”

When Marlene looks at Sirius, relief is trickling into the corners of his mouth, curving them up softly. He murmurs a quiet, thankful word. In the next moment, he's turned into a large dog that follows them down to the Entrance Hall, silent-footed and with eyes careful on their surroundings.

The Entrance Hall is half-ruined but by no means empty; there is a groaning woman caught beneath a pile of debris and a couple of students huddled over a shaking body. James and Gideon break off towards the woman and Dorcas toward the students, all murmuring their reassurances before they’re even within earshot.

Marlene goes to follow them but Sirius catches his teeth in her sleeve and pulls her into a small alcove behind the wreckage. He shifts back to himself and muffles their conversations to prying ears, then spins some sort of illusion that makes the world outside go all blurry. He rolls up his sleeve and shows her the Mark writhing across his skin, summoning him, demanding his presence by its master's side.

Marlene looks up at him, heart hammering its way into her throat. “You're joking. Sirius, you just attacked some of his most vicious soldiers. If they manage to make it back to him –”

“They won't.”

“But if they do –”

“They won't,” Sirius insists, just as stubborn as Marlene remembers him in this very building, just as infuriatingly confident in his abilities. He shrugs with one shoulder, a little helplessness cutting through the determination on his face. “What else do you expect me to do? Just walk into the Great Hall, full of people whose loved ones I tortured and killed?” At Marlene's wince and her pained expression, he adds, “Just a couple more hours, Mack. It hardly makes a difference.”

Except you might not survive this time.

“Sirius.” Marlene grabs onto his wrist, the digits of her fingers digging into the soft, blue-veined skin there, the proof of a life still bleeding beneath. At the point in her life when she thought she'd die it was him who kept her anchored to life, on his knees against everything that he was supposed to be standing for. It's her turn now. “You've done enough. Let go.”

Sirius shakes off her hand and covers the sides of her face with his warm and calloused hands. He blinks at her, slow and steady, familiar as childhood. He won’t listen and that’s familiar, too. “Don't let the others show the truth, okay? I might have some use yet.”

It's something about the set of his jaw and the rigidness of his shoulders, something about the line his eyes make and the way he doesn't fit. She thinks of the boy he was, raised between cold walls and loving warm despite it, and the man that he's become and the prints of himself he left behind, so harsh he ripped too much of his soul away, so much, too much –

“Sirius –”

But Sirius slips out of her reach and vanishes into the darkness drawn over the courtyard. His goodbye cuts itself into her ribcage.

Marlene steps out of the alcove, skin burning cold. Following him would be foolish at best and suicidal at worst. She tries to remind herself that he's been doing this for years, for longer than she's known about it. The thought is horrible but he's the only one that knows Voldemort well enough to outwit him. There’s nothing else she can do but let him go. She turns away.

In the defiant hum of the Great Hall, she sees the others at the very end of it, where the professors' table has been pushed back to form a sort of protective brace. Dorcas is leant over the dark-haired woman from the Entrance Hall while Gideon is talking to a faint-looking boy. James is off to the side, deep in conversation with Remus, oblivious to the way Remus is frowning at the book in his hands. Fierce relief crashes through Marlene at the sight of him, tawny hair ruffled and skin drained but without a scratch otherwise. He's safe, at least for the time being, which means that Harry and Lily, whom he was meant to accompany to the edge of the Apparition line, are probably okay, too. Now they only have to make it out of Hogwarts unscathed.

Between one blink and the next, a house-elf appears in front of the two of them. It takes Marlene a moment longer than Remus and James, both pulling out their wands, to establish that the house-elf means them no harm, judging by the way James’s face lights up and Remus’s eyebrows knit together in concern. Marlene quickens her step and arrives within earshot several seconds later, just in time to see James's mouth fall open again and hear him, with his voice on a breaking point, say, “My mother had something to do with it?”

“Something to do with what?” Marlene asks when she's close enough. Now that she is, she can see the house-elf, with big brown eyes and soft-looking ears, is none other than Linsy, the one James had to let go when they started moving around for Harry’s safety. She’s wringing her hands and gives Marlene an unsure bow.

Remus's head shoots up at the sound of her voice, the shock still very firmly in place on his face when he explains faintly, “Regulus sending Kreacher to tell Linsy to get Harry and Lily out of Hogwarts apparently.”

“Regulus Black?” she repeats incredulously. It shouldn't make sense, is the thing, but if Sirius got to Marlene in time why wouldn't he have got to his own brother, too? Or maybe – maybe Sirius isn't the one behind it this time and this is all about to go from bad to worse very, very quickly.

“I'm just as lost as you are.”

If they had time, Marlene could probably tell him all the different ways that sentence doesn't exactly track but they don't so she doesn't; besides, it might even be true at this moment.

“You can be lost after you tell Linsy here where Lily and Harry are, Mr Lupin,” McGonagall says as she strides up to them. One of her glasses' lenses is cracked but it does absolutely nothing to ease the severity of her piercing eyes as she measures them out. At the sight of her, Linsy's ears go flat along her head. “Mr Potter,” she continues as she turns to him, with absolutely no regard for the way Remus stares at her, “I believe that book would be better used with people actually doing any sort of healing.”

“Did you not hear the part about Regulus and Kreacher?” Remus asks with more doubt in McGonagall's judgement than Marlene would have dared to openly show.

“I very much did.” McGonagall straightens her glasses. “But I fail to see the importance of it when Linsy is here, completely devoted to saving her family.” She favours Linsy with a short smile that Linsy returns a little shyly.

A strangled sound escapes Remus. “Have you lot lost your mind?” he asks with wide eyes, voice rising a pitch. He points to James. “He asks me where's Sirius like that's something normal to do and you want me to give up life-threatening information to someone sent here by a man apparently risen from the dead after three years who was also a Death Eater the last time we heard of him. What is wrong with you?”

Marlene holds in a wince. Given how seriously Remus lacks any sort of context, the beginning and end of which they cannot afford to outline right now, it isn't strange he must think them all to be under Imperius or worse. But here's what's she's gleaned from his words: Lily and Harry aren't out of the woods yet, they are still somewhere here and in the light of everything, Linsy is probably the safest and quickest way to get them out. Now, Marlene isn't stupid enough to blindly have faith in the good intentions of Regulus Black but she does trust McGonagall.

Marlene points her wand at her. “When you came to visit me in the hospital, what did you make me promise?”

Without a second's hesitation, McGonagall says, “That you would tell no one what Sirius did.”

Marlene could have used a better memory for it but in the wake of recent events, it was the first one that resurfaced. She turns to Remus, willing him to understand by the sheer determination she puts in her words. “Remus, listen –”

The voice that cuts over her makes the entirety of the Great Hall flinch and turn around in search of it. “We have Harry Potter,” it says, the high, raspy pitch of it unmistakably Voldemort's. It surrounds them, getting their hearts into an ice-cold grip, no source to it, only bone-deep dread. “Those of you who wish to come kneel before me and accept my triumph will be received graciously. Those who still plan to oppose me will die where you stand.”

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isabilightwood · 4 years ago

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THE PROBLEM WITH AUTHORITY - CHAPTER 9

Or, Sacrifice Summon! Jiang Yanli is here to make things right, be the ultimate big sister (step 1: bring back her dead brother), and maybe steal the Peacock throne in the process

[AO3][1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

The trees shivered under an unnatural fog. Yet the sky above was clear, save for the eerie crimson light of the stars. Every gust of wind against the leaves was a howling moan, every rustle of the undergrowth a giant spider yao gathering itself to lunge. Jin Tianyu wanted to go home. He was going to be an accountant under the Chief Cultivator and help him change the world. Important things. Not like stupid night hunting.

He didn’t need night hunting experience to do math.

But his instructors disagreed. Even Madam Jin had shaken her head when he asked for an exemption, and explained that he needed to be able to defend himself. He’d already delayed too much by avoiding night hunting until he was eighteen, two years away from his coming of age. But what could he ever need to defend himself from in Koi Tower, save the cheek-pinching fingers of elderly relatives?

And if he had to go night hunting, why did it have to be with Fan Caining? If only their regular blademaster or even Madam Jin herself ran these things. Then he would feel safe and protected, and not like his class’ ostensible teacher, appointed to ensure the group made it back in one piece, would turn tail and flee should they run into anything more dangerous than a single ghost.

Which they would. Besides their target, a guai formed from a carpenter’s worktable that had become animated, killed its owner, and run off into the woods, there had been reports of multiple yao formed from clouded leopards in these woods.

Not to mention the giant spiders. Jin Tianyu had had one on the ceiling of his room last night, and his roommate had refused to take care of it for him, right before rolling over and going right to sleep! He’d been forced to suffer through chasing it away with a broom by himself, whimpering all the while. And that was without the massive growth spurt resentful energy gave them.

Fan Caining suddenly swept his sword through the undergrowth, clearing out an ordinary pack of rodents. As he did so, something growled in the woods up ahead.

“That should draw something out.” He informed the group, though they’d been taught in class that the best way to draw out a dangerous guai or yao was to choose a battleground by scouting during the day, and using a lure flag with a limited distance to reduce the risk of attracting anything else.

How a bunch of rodents would draw out a murderous worktable, Jin Tianyu did not know. But it might bring out those leopards!

The senior disciple had a build that seemed to be made of squares, which also described his personality. Flat and boring, with a few pointy spots that made him dangerous to cross. Jin Tianyu had learned that the hard way when he suggested they might, possibly want to scout beforehand, and Fan Caining hit him hard across the back with the flat of his sword. The bruise had yet to fade.

Sure enough, a leopard yao with glowing red eyes pounced on his slightly older cousin as they entered the next clearing. She shrieked and whacked at it with her sheathed sword while Jin Tianyu and everyone else gaped. Even Fan Caining.

As his tangjie managed to get her sword between herself and the leopard, Jin Tianyu shook off his shock and drew his sword. He held it in front of himself like a spear and charged, yelling. Sword pierced flesh with sickening squelch.

He’d screwed his eyes shut to avoid looking, he realized, and opened them. The leopard was dead alright, and his tangjie alive if covered in the leopard’s blood. But it seemed Fan Caining had recovered at the same time he did. Either Jin Tianyu stabbing its gut or it’s beheading could have done it in.

“Thanks.” Tangjie said, as she used his limp arm to pull herself up. “I was starting to think no one would step in.”

The dozen other junior disciples looked sheepish.

“Of course,” Fan Caining drew himself up prouder than any peacock in the Koi Tower gardens, though she hadn’t addressed him.

The groaning noise sounded again, this time cut off with a wail.

Fan Caining waved him and the other junior disciples ahead as though nothing was wrong. Jin Tianyu cursed his luck for the thousandth time.

It was one of the outer disciples who first stepped in a trap. They tried to take another step, and found themselves immobilized at the edge of the clearing. Tangjie took a step forward and found herself shot up into the branches of the tree above. “I can’t — my hands are stuck to the branch!” She called down, in a panic.

Several other disciples moved to help, but found themselves in the same situation. Jin Tianyu’s limbs felt heavy, and he stood there dumb and immobile.

The groaning noise came again, but cut off in a laugh that could only come from a person.

Lilting laughter that sounded like his worst nightmare echoed through the clearing. Looking around, Jin Tianyu spotted a man dressed in black and silver reclining casually on a tree branch. Beautiful, in the way of jagged glass, only sharper. Like he would not only cut anything that got too close, but shred it into thin, unidentifiable slivers.

If I was better at verse, I could be a poet, and leave cultivation behind forever. Jin Tianyu thought absently.

The man looked familiar somehow, like he might have crossed paths with Jin Tianyu in passing. Except that Jin Tianyu had never left Lanling City before.

Fog rolled into the clearing, but only below the tree line, leaving the man clear and untouched above.

Jin Tianyu coughed. No, not fog. Powder.

Fan Caining stood in the center of the clearing, his sword shaking as he pointed it up towards the man. “Xue Yang? But you’re supposed to be —”

“Dead?” Xue Yang’s teeth shone white, bared in a threat, not a smile. “Yes, you did try very hard to make that happen. Too bad for you, I’m too crazy to die. Lucky for me, none of your friends are here this time to save you. Only a few tasty little children.”

To his surprise, Fan Caining did not try to run. Instead, he jumped up into the trees. “I can take you on my own, you weak little maniac.”

Xue Yang only laughed as he attacked.

Xue Yang. Jin Tianyu knew why he recognized him now. That was the former disciple brought in by the former sect leader, cast out by the current Chief Cultivator. The murderer of the Chang Clan.

He’d called them tasty.

Screw Fan Caining. They needed to get out of there.

Jin Tianyu tried to give himself leverage to get to his cousin by pushing against a tree, and found himself entirely turned around, no longer in the clearing.

He turned, and the trees seemed to spin around him. They continued to spin no matter how long he tried to stand still, stumbling, until finally he hit something solid and rough. A tree. He slid down it. Seated, his vision felt a little clearer.

He soon wished it wasn’t.

Something dropped from the tree to dangle in above Jin Tianyu. He dared to peak, and immediately regretted it.

The slack, inverted features of Fan Caining stared back, his eyes bulging from his head, tongue swollen and hanging from blue-tinged lips.

Jin Tianyu screamed.

He woke to Tangjie slapping his cheeks. “Tianyu! Tianyu, wake up!”

“What… what happened?” Jin Tianyu said groggily, as his memory began to return. He sat up straight. “Xue Yang!”

“He left, but I think there was something in that fog. You inhale the most of it, but all of us breathed in a little.” She explained. “We need to hurry back to the inn. The rest of the group has Cai-qianbei’s body. Come on, we need to go.”

She slung his arm around her neck, but as he stood, the vertigo returned in full force.

Somehow, they made it back to the inn, but he didn’t remember it.

A young man rose from a table, then he was doubled and tripled and on again. He wore gray, with a boar on his shoulder. That meant Nie. Jin Tianyu remembered that.

“Did the lot of you run all the way back here like that?”

“What?” Jin Tianyu asked, and the next thing he knew, the Nie disciple was keeping him upright by the elbow, taking his weight from Tangjie so she could collapse in a chair.

Jin Tianyu stared up into the Nie disciple’s face, at the angles of his defined cheekbones and jaw, with just the right amount of softness. Very symmetrical. He could do math with that face.

Pretty. He thought.

“Thank you.” The Nie disciple flashed him a smile that made him want to faint all over again. “You’ve got corpse poisoning. Let’s get some congee in you, now.”

He was seated and a bowl of congee appeared in front of him out of nowhere, as though it had already been prepared. Even though it was evening, and he didn’t think enough time had passed to make it.

Jin Tianyu couldn’t be sure, though. He was too busy floating, the only thing anchoring him to his body the burning pain on his tongue.

That faded as he forced down more of the bowl, and he realized it was chili. He could see the flakes reddening his bowl. Tangjie, who loved chili, had scarfed it down with no problem. Jin Tianyu tried to put down the bowl.

“No, no, you have to eat the whole thing for it to work.” The Nie disciple —who was even prettier now that his head was clearer — shoved the bowl back into his hands. “That was corpse powder you were poisoned with. You’ll die.”

Jin Tianyu shoveled the rest into his mouth.

The Nie disciple was tall. Very tall, as was the case for every Nie he’d seen with the sole exception of their current sect leader, but surprisingly thin, like he didn’t spend all his spare time building up the muscles the Nie were well known for. The hair braided up into his guan was lopsided, like he’d done it up without looking in a mirror. But even under the influence of the corpse powder, Jin Tianyu had been correct. His face was perfectly symmetrical, without a single blemish or pore to be found. It would have looked unnatural, were his perfect face not so expressive. His brows arched and lips pursed sternly, but giving the impression that he was laughing.

“Now, would you mind telling me what happened?” His beautiful savior asked.

Speaking over each other, Jin Tianyu and the other disciples hurried to do so. But by the next morning, when they gathered to leave for Koi Tower, their savior was gone.

In Nie robes and a face that did not belong to him, Wei Wuxian did not receive a second glance until he first set foot in the Unclean realm. Once there, he constantly felt eyes boring into his back, but when he glanced over, he’d find disciples hard at work on their forms or their noses buried deep in texts. Which only went to prove their curiosity.

Even with Nie Huaisang for a sect leader, it wasn’t every day that a stranger was brought into the sect and handed a high-ranking position. But the Nie Sect had few elders, and those they had were aged and gray because with saber cultivation, it was the weak who survived the longest. It seemed the Nie elders were retired in truth, pursuing hobbies like needlework and whittling and nagging their grandchildren to eat more.

By the time Wei Wuxian arrived in the Unclean Realm, Nie Mingjue’s body had been hidden away, though not yet buried, for reasons known only to Nie Huaisang. No one said anything about that, either.

“And since I’m the weakest of the lot, I’ll live to be a hundred,” Nie Huaisang completed explaining his free reign to lead his sect however he chose, unparalleled by any other sect even a single generation past its founding as they approached the gates to the Unclean Realm.

Right before dropping a bomb on his head in the form of unwarranted and unwanted respectability. “My closest sect siblings know my motives if not my plans, so no one will oppose appointing you to the vacant position of fourth disciple.”

“What?” Wei Wuxian sputtered, tempted to check if Nie Huaisang was running a fever. “What happened to the last fourth disciple?”

Nie Huaisang snapped his fan closed, and opened it again, staring off into the distance.

Touchy subject. Understood. “Forget I asked.”

“Let’s just say Jin Guangyao owes the Nie Clan more than one life.” Nie Huaisang said, before dragging him through the gates and launching into a series of dramatic introductions that left his head spinning.

Apparently he was going by Nie Wang, courtesy Xiaomeng now.

Wei Wuxian had not been consulted on this. Walking around with everyone thinking his name was hope felt precisely in line with Nie Huaisang’s sense of humor.

True to form, Nie Huaisang did not deign to explain until he wanted something. Despite copious amounts of pleading, Wei Wuxian was forced to wait through a restless night of nightmares and a morning while his apparent new sect leader caught up on work to get his answers.

Finally, Nie Huaisang summoned him around lunch time. He was set up in a pavilion in the garden, with a mountain of paperwork. The garden had been designed by someone with an eye for showcasing Qinghe’s foliage. A lotus pond surrounded the pavilion, and though its cultivated beauty was no match for the wildness of Yunmeng’s lakes, the carefully selected flowers staggered through the surrounding paths were like hidden gems, each intended to stand on its own.

There were birds as well, goldfinches and many others kept there not by cages, but by the feeders full of seeds spread throughout.

“So,” Wei Wuxian said as he sprawled on a bench across the table from Nie Huaisang, who did not look up from his work to greet him. “I thought I was going to be a rogue cultivator. But apparently you had other ideas.”

“If you’re going to pull this off, the easiest way to wander around without notice is as one of my disciples. As a rogue cultivator, you might gather some recognition, get invited along to visit sects and so on. As one of mine, well, there are Nie disciples everywhere.” It was deeply disconcerting to watch Nie Huaisang take something seriously. And he was serious about that paperwork, not even looking up to speak. “They get bored of me, and travel.”

“They’re spies, aren’t they?”

He lifted his brush from a page with a flourish, and pinned it off to the side under a weight to dry, immediately moving onto the next one. “Are you saying I’m not irritating enough to make people need a break? I must have an ulterior motive? I’ll have to try harder.”

“Oh, you’re very irritating. They’re just extremely loyal.”

“After the Sunshot campaign and the losses we had during Dage’s decline, both to desertion and other causes. And then the prospect of me. Well, anyone who’s left is basically family.”

He gestured at Nie Xiaodan, at that moment crossing the bridge towards the pavilion.

Nie Xiaodan patted him on the head as she passed by. “Don’t forget to order lunch, Zongzhu.” She said, and returned to discussing a night hunt with her companion. It seemed she had come for that reminder only.

Nie Huaisang beamed.

“Fine, I’ll pretend to be your disciple.” Wei Wuxian wanted to pretend he’d been given a choice.

“Excellent! We can get you a saber easily enough.”

Uh. He had told him what Wen Qing said about his core, right? Wei Wuxian was often terrible at remembering tasks, but he distinctly recalled completing that one. “I’m banned from resentful energy, doctor’s orders.”

“Our smiths can make sabers without binding an animal spirit, you know. They do make other things.”

Wei Wuxian was summarily introduced to the blacksmiths, a married couple who looked him up and down intently and promptly got into an argument over the saber’s design. When he looked around for Nie Huaisang, the sneaky little spymaster was missing, because of course he was.

Attempts at interrupting failed to distract the couple from their debate over the pattern to be inscribed on the hilt, so Wei Wuxian settled against the wall to wait, and inadvertently took a nap.

He was prodded awake with the end of a (thankfully) unheated poker. “Infuse this with your energy,” The smith holding the poker growled, pointing towards a red-hot block of iron. Wei Wuxian did as requested, feeling only a slight protest from Xue Yang’s — his core.

Then, all he had to do was wait.

During the week it took for his new saber to be prepared, Wei Wuxian was not idle.

If he was going to imitate Xue Yang with no demonic cultivation and an extremely temperamental sword, Wei Wuxian needed tricks. Wen Qing had told him to invent something. But, Wei Wuxian thought, how better to create the illusion of evil tricks than to use something that actually existed.

He had drawn one idea from the stage. Why not the methods for a few more?

Within a day of verbalizing his plan, Wei Wuxian drowned under a sea of texts pulled from the shelves of the Nie library and from the private records of Qinghe’s theater and dance troops. Thanks to Nie Huaisang’s generous patronage, Wei Wuxian had been able to request manuals on the techniques in common between troops, rather than their family secrets. The tricks to raising and lowering a curtain on an improvised stage and to building a smoke bomb in a desired hue for a start.

The combination of practical optical illusions and talismans seemed particularly promising.

The smoke bombs were the easiest, simply a matter of mixing powders together in a casing and setting them on fire. Fun for him, but since he managed to irritate someone no matter where he set them off, Wei Wuxian moved on.

Combining his binding talisman and a sticking talisman, he stuck a disciple to the roof of the library.

(A volunteer, since it wasn’t as though Jiang Cheng was there. Or speaking to him.)

The force holding him in place was a standard talisman, nothing Wei Wuxian had invented, but the disciple struggled against it like he’d never learned how to counter it. Which he probably hadn’t, given how little thought most cultivators gave them beyond wards and the ubiquitous ones for keeping tea warm or sending brief messages.

Which was precisely why Wei Wuxian might just pull this off.

He thought about pulleys and spirit nets, and the next day, he inscribed the talismans within a pressure-triggered array, and sent himself flying upwards. Followed by a plethora of curious volunteers.

What had he expected, though? The Nie were a sect full of adrenaline junkies. Even the first disciple came around for a turn. After that, Wei Wuxian found himself with company and conversation at every meal.

Even so, he never forgot he was wearing a mask. Every night after a long day of study, the mask weighed heavy on his face, leaving him with a headache. He found it easier to ward his door, than keep it on while he slept. Then, and only then, was it safe to be himself.

Many of the most useful tricks required more practice, such as projecting sounds so they seemed to come from a different source. Wei Wuxian practiced each, over and over again, until he felt he had it. And then put on a demonstration.

When he could pull off a trick successfully in front of the little Nie Disciples, he knew he had managed it. If he still couldn’t fool Nie Huaisang, well, Huaisang was Huaisang.

He couldn’t be held to mortal standards.

That left one more problem, perhaps the most challenging.

Along with the skin mask, Xue Yang’s bag had contained: two changes of clothes, a small pouch of silver, a large coil of rope, and several heavy bags full of corpse powder.

Obviously, Wei Wuxian wasn’t actually going to use corpse powder on anyone. That could get messy fast, if anyone else was around, with no guarantee he’d be able to serve the antidote in time. Yet it seemed like corpse powder was a common part of Xue Yang’s modus operandi.

If he didn’t use it, would Jin Guangyao suspect something was off? There was no way of telling.

The problem niggled at the back of his mind all week long, whether he was becoming one with the library or getting caught in his own rope trap. But he got no closer to finding a solution.

Until finally, during breakfast on the day Wei Wuxian was to receive his saber, he sat staring into his congee, stirring it absently.

And had a brilliant idea.

Somehow, having a potential solution took the edge off his nerves, and he was able to hold Yuanzheng for the first time while only making a bit of a fool of himself. To his relief, it didn’t feel like Suibian, though the long, thin saber was also designed for agility rather than power.

Yuanzheng

did feel like a weapon he could use, not the dead, draining weight Suibian had become or the repulsion of Jiangzai. Like it might become an extension of his arm in time, with Suibian and Chenqing out of reach. Wei Wuxian teared up a little, as he went through a series of exercises for the first time in years, and did not pass out.

For the first time, his resurrection really felt like a second chance. The beginning of the long journey he’d named his saber for, with a slim chance that light in the distance was the end of the tunnel. With family and zhiji waiting on the other end.

He had better make it count.

From the privacy of his own room that night, he pulled out his Distance Speaking Stone, and called up Wen Qing. “Hey, disorienting powder can be cleared from the system with congee like corpse powder, right?”

With construction on watchtowers set to begin in several sects, there was little for Jiang Yanli to do on the project but wait. Yet she couldn’t remain idle with only her sect responsibilities and A-Ling to occupy her time. Not if she intended to make herself — or rather, Qin Su — a credible power in her own right, someone who had a chance of being believed when it came time to reveal Jin Guangyao’s crimes.

She needed a new project. Something Jin Guangyao had yet to present a plan for, something Qin Su would get all the credit for.

Word arrived that a Jin disciple had been murdered by Xue Yang, the juniors he had been escorting barely escaping with their lives. The pair of Jin cousins with the rare tea feud (under a temporary ceasefire in favor of vengeance against the Chief Cultivator for the allowance cut, so far consisting of attempts to convince the servants to put laxatives in his tea, which the servants would not do, out of a desire to remain among the living) fainted dead away at the news.

Jiang Yanli, already aware of this through her brother, attempted to look appropriately horrified.

Jin Guangyao paled, and for a moment, lost his composure. Ice in his eyes and steel in the set of his jaw, there and gone again in a blink. Mask back into place but still off balance, he cut off the junior disciples’ explanation of their rescue from corpse powder mid sentence. He immediately sent off three teams of disciples to track down Xue Yang and bring back his body.

“I thought Xiandu always heard all explanations to the end.” A messenger from Fengyang Hua whispered to a group consisting of the wards from Lieshan Du, Zhai Xia, and Mo Xuanyu’s ever-present suitors.

Not always, rumor would now say. Even Xiandu is afraid of something.

Even with fear in the air over the return of Xue Yang — for everyone had a horror story to tell of his time in Koi Tower, mostly to do with dismembered animals in places that were decidedly not the kitchen — Jiang Yanli found she had finally settled into her role.

One day, the paperwork ran out, and Jiang Yanli found herself with an afternoon free. A novel experience, since her return. It was a perfect opportunity to brainstorm her next step.

If only she could dredge up the barest hint of an idea. But her mind felt like a dried-up creek in a drought.

“I was thinking of going to the tailor in the city, Xiao-Heng is growing like a demon and needs more new clothes. Would you like to come with me?”

I bet we’re not thinking of anything because we’re trying too hard. Qin Su said.

As much as Jiang Yanli hated to admit it, she had a point. A-Xian always said that he had his best ideas the moment he stopped trying to force a solution. The difficulty lay in not thinking about it.

I have a solution for that. My beloved nephew is quite the attention hog.

“A-Ling’s robes have been looking rather short.” She said aloud.

Qi Juan beamed, and began tucking her son in his sling. He was soon to outgrow it, and had just reached the troublesome learning to crawl stage.

Kidnapping her son from his lessons was a thrill, though it was the work of a moment. The sour-faced calligraphy instructor dismissed A-Ling with visible relief, and the reminder that A-Ling was still expected to produce ten copies of poems at the next class. Without blotches of ink covering half the page, or brush strokes of uneven width.

A-Ling stuck out his tongue behind the instructor’s back, and ran to grab her hand, already chattering about how he wanted to bring back sticks of tanghulu for the entire class.

“My sweet, grumpy boy,” She ruffled his hair, and he scowled, attempting to push it back into place, but only displacing his top knot further. Just like his jiujiu.

The main streets of Lanling were cleaner than she remembered from six years ago. The shops lining the main street had all recently been given a fresh coat of paint, proprietors and customers alike looking healthier and more prosperous. Jin Guangyao had reformed the city’s taxes, on the basis that letting the common people keep more of their earnings now would bring the sect more profit in the long term. More than one person recognized her as Madam Jin, and called out a respectful greeting with a smile. At least on a surface level, his plan had begun to work.

There were fewer brothels now as well, reduced by half. The madams who had refused to start allowing their workers to pay off their contracts had been driven out of business or died in mysterious fires. (In some cases, but not all, the workers mysteriously escaped unscathed.) As A-Ling towed her along to a hawker with a tower of tanghulu, she passed an empty lot with the blackened foundations still visible. The buildings next to it were under repair, one of which seemed to have sustained considerable damage to the living quarters on the second floor.

As she looked around more closely, she saw an emaciated old man begging from the entrance of an alley, a woman in what had once been a set of fine performance robes soliciting passerby, and scruffy children lurking in dark corners.

Despite Jin Guangyao’s claims of working towards progress, there were still street children in Lanling.

Making a home for the orphans of Lanling had been a project dear to A-Xuan’s heart, in the last months of his life. Impending fatherhood had made him more perceptive in many ways, more so even than the changes he underwent during the Sunshot campaign. But when she was preganant, her husband had taken her by the arms and informed her with great distress that there are children in the streets, Yanli! Children!

Jiang Yanli had thought better late than never and helped him come up with a plan. She had her own reasons to take an interest in the care of orphans and poor children, after all.

Jin Guangshan had probably signed the funding out of the budget on an advisor’s word, not having been informed how his son and daughter-in-law were spending the clan’s funds in the first place.

Jin Guangyao would not have gotten rid of such a program, she thought, as she fished a coin so her son could get as sticky with sugar as his little heart desired.

Qin Su did not quite agree. No, he would have replaced it with something similar, that he could claim the credit for.

True. But he hadn’t — which meant there was room for Jiang Yanli to fill the gap.

After a moment of thought, she purchased a second stick, and handed it to Qi Juan.

“You looked like you could use it.” She told her.

Qi Juan bit down delicately on the candy-coated hawthorn, but couldn’t avoid the satisfying crunch. And laughed, as parts of the coating cracked, and fell from her lips. “All right. I haven’t had something like this since… before the Sunshot Campaign, probably. Certainly not since my family came up in the world and married me off. You look like you could use one too.”

“Do I?” Jiang Yanli had often thought that helping others feel better was its own reward.

It would make me feel better to taste something sweet. Qin Su said in a blatant attempt to get Jiang Yanli to treat herself. Sweet-sweet though, not hawthorn berries.

I think that stall might be selling lotus mooncakes.” Though the mid-autumn festival had already past, there was never a wrong time for a mooncake.

It was a mistake to mention heaven’s favorite root in front of Jin Ling. “Lotus!” He shouted. “Pleasepleaseplease mooncake mooncake!” And would not let up until she bought him one, in addition to three for herself.

“That’s more than enough sugar for one day, young man.” She informed him as she took a bite of her own mooncake, wrapping the others in a cloth for later.

A-Ling grinned toothily up at her, mooncake leaking lotus paste in one hand, half eaten tanghulu in the other, and the glint of sugar all over his cheeks.

Perhaps she should have insisted he wait until after their errand for his treats, but Jiang Yanli did not possess the earned resistance to his adorable whims of a mother who had gotten to see her child grow. Who could blame her, if she spoiled him a little? “Do you think the tailor will still let us in the shop?”

“It’s not so bad,” Qi Juan said, just as A-Ling smushed the rest of the mooncake in his hand, and shoved it in his face. She grimaced. “I’m certain Tailor Ke has seen worse.”

Indeed, Tailor Ke, a woman who knew her way around hanfu, if the way the one she was wearing flattered her extensive curves meant anything, did not blink an eye. “If you could wipe off the young master’s hands, please, Jin-furen?”

Jiang Yanli took the offered wet handkerchief, and wiped the stickiness off of a protesting A-Ling. “Of course. I wouldn’t want to damage any of your lovely merchandise.”

Sadly, the more vibrant fabrics could not be chosen for A-Ling, who would be consigned to golden peacocks and peonies on off-white for as long as he lived. As a married-in spouse, however, Jiang Yanli had more leeway with under robes. The pale pink of Laoling Qin tempered the gold, making it almost palatable.

Qi Juan freely admired a swatch of vivid green fabric, in precisely the right shade for her natal sect. A daring choice, if it was for her son. Perhaps a sign that Qi Juan would be receptive to opposing her husband.

Tailor Ke bustled around, assembling the appropriate silks in Jin colors for Jiang Yanli’s inspection herself.

“Have you been short handed lately?” She asked as ideas for how, exactly, she would go about outdoing Jin Guangyao in reform measures began to coalesce in her mind.

“Have I ever! There’s all this new demand for clothing and not enough suitable apprentices to go around! Everyone’s looking, not just me.” She dropped a stack of fabrics on the table with a grunt. “Jin-gongzi’s order will take priority, of course.”

She shook her head. Naturally an order from the sect leader’s wife would be prioritized, but there was no need. “Please put Bei-gongzi’s order ahead of mine. A-Ling can get a bit more use out of his robes, but Bei-gongzi won’t fit into his if he grows anymore. And only the peony for embroidery. If it’s any more elaborate, A-Ling will inevitably ruin the robes the first time he wears them.”

“Yes, Jin-furen.” Tailor Ke agreed. “It won’t take more than a week, all told. Kid’s clothes work up fast.”

“And wear out faster.” She sighed as A-Ling chose that moment to snag his sleeve on a nail. “What are you looking for, in an apprentice?”

Many craftspeople would have been hesitant to answer, but Tailor Ke was happy to babble on as she began to drape fabrics over A-Ling’s shoulders, critiquing and sorting them to find the least aesthetically terrible combinations. “Oh, someone who’s quick with their hands, with some basic sewing and embroidery skills. I don’t have time to teach basics, but the rest can come along in time. Someone to do the books for me would also be a dream. My eyesight isn’t what it used to be, though fortunately I can still stitch a straight seam without looking.”

That seemed like simple enough requirements, easily fulfilled with a little education. Though orphans were pulled of the street from time to time, it was usually for menial positions they would lose the moment something went wrong. Or if they were very lucky, to take care of an old, childless widow. Re-instituting A-Xuan’s program and improving upon it — that could be a very real way to distinguish Qin Su in the eyes of not only the Jin Sect, but the cultivation world.

The children could not only learn skills to help find employment, but be tested for cultivation potential.

The sects were always complaining about how difficult it was to recruit new talent. Executed properly, Jiang Yanli could make Qin Su look not only kind-hearted, but clever, reputable, and forward thinking, with the best interests of the sect she had married into at heart.

Even if the actual Qin Su fantasized about burning down Koi Tower on a regular basis.

Hey.

What? It was true.

Qin Su huffed. A semi-regular basis, maybe. And I would never actually. I wouldn’t actually ruin the whole of Lanling’s economy or put the servants and juniors out of house and home.

My apologies then. She suppressed a laugh.

Would there really be enough apprenticeships to go around, though? Qin Su sent numbers bouncing around her mind as she attempted the mental math, but got lost without paper.

Perhaps not. But larger farms could use workers, manors could use servants, and affordable bookkeepers were always in short supply. It could, at least, give them a better start.

“Shenshen look! I’m all twirly!” A-Ling giggled as he spun, the silk draped over him spinning out and threatening to knock over the tailor’s basket of supplies. Jiang Yanli tried not to smile, knowing she would need to scold him later, and prepared to pay for the entire bolt.

“We should discuss the problem with your sword.” Wen Qing said one night through the softly glowing Distance Speaking Stone. A-Xian had popped in earlier, briefly, but he was busy following the second of the Jin disciples on Xue Yang’s list, learning the habits of the group they were part of before he could lead them into a trap.

Jiang Yanli stared into her evening tea. “Must we?”

“Wei Wuxian isn’t having trouble with his new saber. The problem must be that Chunsheng doesn’t fully recognize you as Qin Su.”

“I can’t just get rid of her sword.” That wasn’t done.

<We are not getting rid of Chunsheng.> Qin Su said from inside her paperman. She’d been bent over a copy of some of A-Xian’s notes, researching something she had yet to explain.

“You’re basically unprotected. What if something —” Wen Qing cut herself off, surprisingly panicked.

Replacing a sword would garner more attention than A-Xian had in refusing to carry Suibian around. Whether they would somehow determine the truth or spread rumors about a disastrous fallout with the Qin clan, everyone would know something was off.

Still, it was sweet of her to worry. “Any sword is more protection than I had in my last life, Wen Qing.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry.” She sounded so forlorn that Jiang Yanli ached with the desire to fall into her arms and rub circles into her back until she slept, and even after. “But I worry.”

So did she, far too often. There was no end to worrying, it seemed. Not even after death. “Does A-Xian have any ideas about the talisman keeping you trapped?”

Wen Qing hesitated. “I haven’t let him look at it yet.”

“A-Qing!” A slip of the tongue, in her shock.

Wen Qing’s breath caught. “I’m not letting him put my life before his again. When we’re closer —”

“Last time you put his life before yours, he died anyways.” Jiang Yanli snapped. And sighed. “I’m sorry, that was unfair. It’s just — if you’re allowed to worry for me, I get to worry for you.”

“A little longer. Then I’ll speak to him.”

She could tell that was the best she was going to get. “If you don’t, I’ll tell him myself.”

Jiang Yanli was tired of watching the people she cared about tear themselves apart. She wouldn’t allow it to happen again.

Wen Qing let out a shaky, hiccupping laugh. “That seems fair.”

#the untamed #cq #wangxian #yanqing #qin su #the sacrifice summon! JYL fic #where the summoner (qin su) sticks around #this time featuring wwx traumatizing some teenagers #being subject to the whims of nhs #and jyl spending an afternoon with jin ling

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strengthnerd · 4 years ago

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The World Strongest Man

“WORLD STRONGEST MAN 2020” 11th - 15th November in Bradenton Florida!!!!!

25 monters competitos

1: Ervin Toots @ervin.toots 2: Terry Hollands @terryhollandswsm 3: Eddie Williams @eddiejowilliams 4: Graham Hicks @grahamhicksuk 5: Luke Richardson @lukeerichardson 6: Maxime Boudreault @max.boudreault23 7: Tom Stoltman @tomstoltmanofficial 8: Robert Oberst @robertoberst 9: Evan Singleton @evan_trex_strongman 10: Brian Shaw @shawstrength 11: Rob Kearney @worlds_strongest_gay 12: Mateusz Kieliszkowski @kieliszkowskimateusz 13: Martin Forsmark @forzmark 14: Adam Bishop @adambishopstrongman 15: Oleksii Novikov @novikov_strong 16: Jerry Pritchett @jerrypritchettstrongman 17: Konstantine Janashia @konstantine_janashia 18: Kevin Faires @kf_strongman 19: Luke Stoltman @luke.stoltman 20: Mark Felix @markfelixwsm 21: Ari Gunnarsson @ari_gunnarsson 22: JF Caron @jfcaronstrongman 23: Mikhail Shivlyakov @mikhail_shivlyakov 24: Vytautas Lalas @vytautas.lalas 25: Iron Biby @ironbiby Alternate/Reserve: Trey Mitchell III @berserkerlifter Alternate/Reserve: Ole Martin Kristiansen @olemartinkri Alternate/Reserve: Eythor Ingolfsson @eythormelsted Eddie Hall Presenter Magnus Ver Magnusson @magnusvermag Head Referee Colin Bryce @colin.bryce Tournament Director Main Sponsor @sbdapparel

repost @https://www.instagram.com/worldsstrongestfan/

this is where the magic happen where monsters collide with each other batting the title WHO is the strongest man. The World’s Strongest Man competition is about more than just force: it is about stamina, skill, tactics, training and strategy. Every event below is designed to push the Strongmen to their absolute limits, challenging not only their physical strength, but their agility and mental toughness too. there are variety of events that the test the competitors and they are :

1)OVER ARM PULL

Pulling a phenomenally heavy object along a course may not sound like ground-breaking event territory in the world of the Strongmen, but there’s a twist for the Arm Over Arm Pull: the athletes have to remain sitting, and stationary, with their feet resting against a solid base at all times.

Using a rope, the Strongman must then pull an object down a course in the fastest time possible. It appears that the Arm Over Arm pull is, at first, about upper body strength, but actually depends more strongly on leg strength and grip. Most athletes will bend their knees, pull the rope tautly, and almost complete a leg-press style movement to gain speed and traction during the pull. Legs are much stronger limbs than arms, and this technique gives the Strongmen more power and more force behind their pull. In fact, it’s their grip that often causes them to fail at this event, as the roughness of the rope means keeping a tight grip becomes virtually impossible. Especially, when the items they’re pulling range from planes, to boats, to giant tyres.

2)ATLAS STONE

The Atlas Stones are often regarded as the signature event in the WSM contest. As the final event of the whole competition, this event often determines the winner.

Introduced in 1986, the Atlas Stones are five heavy, spherical stones which increase in weight from 100 to 160 kg. They need to be placed on top of five high platforms that span a 16–33 ft. long course. In the early years of this event, it was extremely rare for competitors to be able to lift all five Stones, but now the expectation is that all will be lifted, and it’s the time it happens in that now determines a winner.

Originally, the Stones were lifted onto platforms at waist-height, but over the years the event has evolved and the Stones have increased in weight, and the platforms in height.

This iconic event is strongly associated with some of the biggest names in WSM history: Marius Pudzianowski, Magnus Samuelsson, Magnús ver Magnússon and Žydrūnas Savickas have all conquered the event, and emerged as WSM title holders.

3)BLOCK/ KEG TOSS

The Keg Toss is inspired by the long tradition of Highland Games. Based on the idea of a weight-for-height competition, the Keg Toss relies on pure power to succeed. Competing Strongmen have to throw kegs of increasing weight over a 4.42 metre wall, clearing it in one throw.

There have been several historical variations to this event too: back in 2003 and then again in 2006, concrete blocks – not kegs – were the objects that the athletes had to toss over the walls. During these years, the height of the wall, not the weight of the object, was what increased.

With the kegs – which are now used exclusively over blocks – ranging in weight from 15kg to 24kg, clearing the walls in one go is no mean feat.

4)CARRY AND DRAG

Anvils, anchors and chains are carried over a fixed distance. The Strongmen compete five at a time, and have to carry two anvils first, before dragging an anchor over the same distance, attaching a chain to it, and dragging it back to the starting point.

An anchor and a chain are carried to the end of a set distance, where they must be attached to each other and then dragged back the same distance.

Visually impressive and impossible to take your eyes off, the Carry and Drag event is gruelling for even the most accomplished Strongman.

Weights: Anvils 130kg each Anchors and Chain 300kg.

5)FAMERS WALK

First launched in 1983, the Farmer’s Walk is one of the most well-known and most iconic WSM events.

It originally made its debut in Christchurch, New Zealand, but back then was known as the Fergus Walk. Initially, wooden implements weighing 80kg were carried by the athletes and it was the thickness, rather than the weight, that caused competitors the most problems. When this event launched, the emphasis was on the distance the Strongmen could travel with their weights. Whoever made it furthest around the oval track was declared the winner.

Today, the re-named Farmer’s Walk focuses on covering a set distance within a certain time limit and the apparatus the athletes carry can be dropped and picked up without limit. As the objects become heavier and heavier over the years, the event has come to be known as the Giant Farmer’s Walk – with each item tipping the scales at 160kg each…

That means since the event’s creation in 1983, the weight of a single object is now the same as the old combined weight, showing that each year really does bring with it a new calibre of Strongmen!

6)FINGALS FINGERS

One of the newest events in the WSM competition, Fingal’s Fingers was first launched in 2000 and takes its name from Fingal, a mythological Gaelic hunter-warrior. The event revolves around a series of hinged poles – or fingers – being lifted, starting from a horizontal resting position and flipped over to the other side. The poles get progressively heavier and longer as the event progresses, making the challenge to flip the fingers tougher and tougher as the timer counts down. The event is scored by time and by how many of the poles a competitor was able to flip over.

It’s fast, tough and unforgiving and as a result is used frequently in WSM competitions, both in the Heats and in the Finals. With weights ranging from 200kg to over 300kg, athletes are pushed to flip all five fingers with the pressure of the clock ticking as they do so. Turning all five isn’t enough, it’s whoever can turn all five the fastest who will be victorious.

7)FRIDGE CARRY

No standing in front of an open fridge door, wondering whether to have seconds or not here as the Fridge Carry sees Strongmen compete to carry two fridges along a 30 metre course. A yoke and a crossbar are used to stabilise the fridges, weighing between 415kg / 904lbs.

The athletes then have 60 seconds to complete the course… a phenomenal test of strength which has grown to become one of the most-recognised, and iconic events in the world of the Strongmen.

8)GIANT DUMBELL PRESS

The Giant Dumbbell press seems like one of the more straightforward WSM events, but that doesn’t mean it is any less grueling to succeed in.

In order to compete, the athletes have to lift single-handed dumbbells from the ground and onto their shoulder which they then must raise vertically over their head whilst fully extending their arm upwards. With four dumbbells weighing between 100 and 115kgs this is no mean feat. Scoring – and winning – the competition is dependent on the time taken to successfully lift as many dumbbells as possible.

9)GIANT LOGG LIFT

Giant is definitely the right word to describe this event as it’s an entire tree trunk – not just a log – that the Strongmen have to lift to conquer this part of the competition. The tree trunk is erected horizontally onto a stand which has handles built-in at one end. The athletes have to grip the handles with their backs to the trunk and lift it over their head as many times as possible within a set time limit.

The challenge here is the number of repetitions that can be achieved before the timer runs out. With the average trunk weighing 380kgs (830lbs) the athletes need stamina and strength, as well as an iron-clad grip to smash this event.

10)HUSSAFEL STONE

This event was first introduced into the WSM events repertoire in 1992. Legend has it that the stone was originally crafted in Iceland over 200 years ago and used by an Icelandic pastor to help keep one of his stable doors open. The stone is still kept in Husafell, Iceland, at the site of Pastor Snorri Björnsson’s stables.

The stone itself is a flat, somewhat triangular rock weighing 182kgs. The challenge for this event is to carry the stone held high across the chest over a set distance whilst being timed. During the three years in which the WSM competition was held in Africa, a newly shaped stone was crafted in the shape of the African continent and the event was temporarily renamed as the Africa Stone.

11)LOADING RACE

Five objects, each weighing between 100–164kg, are loaded onto a truck bed or a similar platform over a course of about 50 ft.

Anchors and chains, sandbags, anvils, lobster pots, masts, blocks of ice, wine casks and beer kegs are some of the items that have to be lifted. The athlete who manages to load all of these objects onto the platform in the fastest time is declared the winner. The weight of the objects – surprisingly – isn’t the defining factor in this event: the overall shape of the objects, their dimensions, and the terrain (which can range from rubble to sand to snow) the athletes have to cross to get to the loading bay are all more significant than weight alone.

Twists to the event’s structure have been introduced up over the years, challenging the Strongmen in new and ever more inventive ways. The 1992 Loading Race had five 90kg barrels as the loading objects, which the Strongmen had to wade into a lagoon to retrieve before returning them to dry land. Other variations over the years have seen the Strongmen wade through Bahamian sand, to boats in the Ocean, and through Icelandic snow, to retrieve items to load onto the platforms.

12)OVERHEAD LOG LIFT

The Overhead Log Lift was introduced into the WSM event series in 1980. Originally, the Overhead Log Lift was about lifting the maximum weight possible, but today athletes compete by lifting a wooden log from the ground then raising it overhead as many times as possible within the time limit; returning the weight back to the floor in a controlled fashion each time before attempting to do the next lift.

The Overhead Log Lift began life as a beer barrel lifting contest before the logs were introduced. The first winner of the Log Lift in 1980 was legendary Strongman Bill Kazmaier who powered 157kgs from the floor over his head. He won the event over the next two years too, setting world records with each lift. The current world record holder is the incredible Žydrūnas Savickas with a lift of 212.5kgs.

13)PILLARS OF HERCULES

The mythological tale of the Pillars tells us that Hercules, having to cross a mountain on his way to the garden of the Hesperides, used his superhuman strength to smash it into two pieces rather than climb over it. When these two pieces of the mountain fell into the sea they formed what we now know today as Gibraltar and Monte Hacho. Ever since, these two halves of the mountain have been known as the Pillars of Hercules.

Our Strongmen may not be smashing mountains in two, but they are our modern day Hercules… and for this event they prove their strength by standing on a raised platform, in a fixed position, and using chains to keep two huge pillars either side of them upright. Each of the pillars weighs 160kgs, and there is no time limit, the event will be over when the Strongman is no longer able to support both pillars.

14)POWER STAIRS

Whilst a few flights of stairs leaves most of us huffing and puffing and longing for the lift, Strongmen are powering up stairs carrying a selection of three humongous items all the way to the top. Power and speed are necessary to conquer this event, as the items range in weight from 182–273kgs and are lifted all the way to the top.

Moving from step to step requires speed and strength, and it’s not necessarily the tallest athletes that have an advantage here. The Power Stairs are designed to test every element of the athletes’ ability, and require stamina and skill to conquer.

15)SQUAT LIFT

The Squat is one of the original events from the very first WSM contest. Still going strong (if you’ll pardon the pun) today, this event first began life with women suspended in giant metal birdcages being lifted up as the Strongmen squatted down to lift the bars that the cages were attached to.

Although the competition has evolved since 1977, it is still spectacular to watch and tough to complete as the Strongmen now lift items that weight up to 400kgs… including concrete blocks, tractor tyres, cars and even people.

The challenge is to lift the objects as many times as possible whilst remaining in a fixed position, with only the strength they can put into their squat to help them.

As the WSM contest has continued to grow and evolve, the keg and barrel squats have become more prominent, with Mariusz Pudzianowski and Laurence Shahlaei performing some incredible Squats. In fact, Shahlaei has built a reputation for being one of the most powerful Squat competitors in WSM history, often becoming the only competitor able to squat the heaviest weight. No mean feat, considering this event remains one of the oldest, and toughest, ones to compete in.

16)VEHICLE PULL

Few WSM events are more impressive than the vehicle pull. Introduced in 1977, it’s the jaw-dropping one-to-watch as vehicles such as trams, boxcars, buses and planes are pulled across a 100 ft course, by hand, in the quickest time possible. Originally, the Strongmen would wear a pulling harness, but today it is more common for them to have a harness and a pulling rope. The old harness-only system did see to give an advantage to the competitors with the strongest body weight.

The vehicle is often chosen to reference a previous winner or the current host city of the current competition. The 2007 competition featured a fire truck in a nod to 2006 champion Phil Pfister, a professional firefighter, and the 2008 qualifying rounds featured a coal truck, a reference to the coalmining industry in West Virginia where the competition was held that year. The terrains also change yearly too, with vehicles being pulled on snow, ice, sand and concrete. Other variations to the competition also include filling a tram with passengers for the Vehicle Pull in 1979, meaning the total vehicle weight actually topped 4535kgs.

It’s double WSM Title winner Bruce Wilhelm who holds the record for the first ever pull in the contest’s history, completing the 21 metre course in exactly 14 seconds and proving that this event is about more than just size and strength; that it’s about stamina, strength and skill.

#strongman strength strong fitfam strongmancompetition strongmancompetitor strongmantraining workout lifting gains beastmode fitness fitnessm

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nadiannamhoh · 6 years ago

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Harbinger, The Last Stand Design Info.

Game-play mechanics

Harbinger The Last Stand, is a 2-D, Side view, action puzzle-platformer adventure game. an example of a puzzle is: using segments of a path to get the energy through. Matching sound frequencies to gain intel the player can use to carry on. Like hearing a set of numbers over a radio frequency that are needed for a keypad.

Platforming: The player will need to be able to use all four characters, each with their own special abilities to help them traverse and progress through the level.

special abilities for the 4 characters are:

Ayada Guren: Uses her special powers to communicate, control, and manipulate any form of plant life to her advantage, she uses plant life like trees or bushes for example and manipulating it to a cliffside too high to jump up to and too tall to properly climb, so Ayada will use the nearby plant life and manipulate its structure to make a sturdy platform and or vines into the wall to climb up and over the cliff.

Blair Anomi: Has the incredible ability of athleticism and ice powers, this allows Blair to be able to double jump. She summons a powerful gust of wind and snow allowing her to jump much higher than the other three characters.

Lamar Lynch: Possesses the incredible ability of summoning electricity with no know limit of power, making it a very versatile power. Lamar is the only one with the knowledge and ability to use high tech gear and computers. Lamar can use his powers to start a generator that will help the player progress, Lamar can use his powers to hack into and manipulate electronic gadgets.

Zane Blaze: Zane being the most heavy of the group uses his weight to his advantage, Zane has the ability to lift and carry heavy objects that the other characters cannot, Zane can also throw objects an incredible distance, Zane also has an incredibly powerful ground slam that will plow through weak enough floors so he will be able to find different routes to push on.

Platforming mechanics: The player will use each of the four characters to traverse the platforms in the levels.

Character Selection:The player will be able to select all 4 of the characters at any time and play as that one character, the other three are still there but the currently selected character is the only character shown on screen at the time. Ex: GIF doesn’t work :(

Player camera view: this will be easier to show visually rather than explaining. Ex: GIF Doesn’t work :(

As you see the player does not take up most of the screen, the level is what is most seen in the game screen. Along with how fast and how the bullets are shown when they are fired. (game shown is “Intrusion 2”)

Currency and Experience system

Currency: Players will gain currency for every enemy defeated within a level. Players only need to walk over the currency to obtain it so whenever the player does obtain it, it goes into the player's wallet. The currency can vary from pennies, dimes and dollars, gold, diamonds etc... The player will have complete freedom to use their money on what they have unlocked so far in the game.

Experience: Players will gain experience in two ways, either defeating enemies in the level, or getting the XP reward or completing the level. XP is gained so whenever the player levels up they gain a skill point to spend on 4 skills that are, Strength, Armor, Elemental, and Luck.

Enemies

Enemies that the player will be faced with:

Police 1 (Baton): Police Officer with normal health and normal damage to players.

Police 2 (Pistol): Police officer with a standard issue gun with slow rate of fire that deals medium damage to the player and with a slow and predictable path of travel.

Thug 1 (melee): Enemies with standard health and standard damage to player, can have weapons like knives and pipes that deal a slight extra amount of damage.

Thug 2 (Pistol): Enemy with standard health and a standard pistol with a slow rate of fire dealing medium damage to the player with a slow and predictable projectile path.

Thug 3 (SMG): Enemy with low health and an SMG that deals a low amount of damage that fires with a slow and predictable projectile path that spreads in a 3 wide cone pattern.

Thug 4 (Shotgun): Enemy with Medium health and a shotgun with short range and fast travel time dealing high damage, that shoots in a wide cone with a predictable projectile path.

Swat 1 (Revolver): Enemy with low armor and medium health with a revolver that fires accurately dealing a high amount of damage to the player, with a faster but still predictable projectile path.

Swat 2 (SMG): Enemy with low armor and medium health, using an accurate burst fire SMG with short range dealing medium damage to the player in predictable burst of projectiles.

Swat 3 (Shotgun): Enemy with high armor and High health and a shotgun with short range and fast travel time dealing high damage, that shoots in a wide cone with a predictable projectile path.

Swat 4 (Assault-Rifle): Enemy with medium armor and high health using an accurate rifle with a zippy but predictable projectile path dealing a high amount of damage to the player.

Swat 5 (Sniper-Rifle): Enemy with no armor and standard health, using a powerful long range Sniper-Rifle with a very slow rate of fire but with a fast unpredictable projectile speed dealing a devastating amount of damage to the player, but to help with this a laser will be on the player and will stop in the moment it will fire, to help the player deal with the sniper.

Swat 6 (Shield): This Enemy has medium armor and medium health wielding a riot shield that blocks all incoming damage from the front, in order to defeat this enemy the player either has to punish the shield until it is destroyed or to attack the enemy from the back.

Swat 7 (juggernaut): This enemy is a real terror to deal with, a heavily armored enemy with high health wielding a fast firing LMG that deals high damage to the player with a predictable projectile path. Although this enemy has heavy armor and health, it’s biggest weakness is how bulky it is. The enemy is very slow to move and aim it’s weapon, so out-maneuvering it a needed tactic to take them down.

Mecha: High grade military mech that stands tall with Incredible defensive systems that are able to deter almost all incoming damage with its’ shields. The mech launches missiles that move slowly and are easy to dodge. Missiles deal devastating damage to the player, and if the mech isn’t trying to explode the player, it is trying to shoot the player with it’s dual chain guns that fire in a very wide pattern with predictable projectile paths. The only way the player can damage and destroy the mech is to use its’ own weapons against it. Primarily its’ missiles, the missiles fired will lock on and seek the player, the player then must make the missiles hit the mech causing the shields to take damage. After 2 times the shields on the mech will be down allowing the player to finally deal damage to the mech. After damaging the mech to a certain point the pilot of the mech will become desperate and try to crush the player, so the player must avoid the mech while still dealing damage to the mech until it is destroyed.

Stationary Enemies:

LMG mounted Vehicle: This enemy is completely stationary limiting its ability to shoot at the player, the gunner is firing an LMG that has a predictable projectile path. The LMG eventually overheats and gives the player a window to deal much more efficient damage to the vehicle.

Automated Turret (standing): These turrets are easy to deal with but still a threat, as the cheapest and easiest turret to develop and build makes these turrets very common. The problems with these turrets are that they have a very limited field of view, preventing the turret to fire in a wide range, mostly effective in a tight space like a hallway. The biggest weakness of the turrets are the cheap flimsy design, making them very easy to destroy whether from gunfire or simply knocking them over because of their tall and thin design in the body and legs. This turret fires in short accurate bursts with a predictable projectile path and travel time.

Automated Turret (Planted): These turrets are meant to be placed in high priority areas to anchor down and protect the area, with a much wider range of aim of 180°. Respectively if placed on the floor or on the ceiling. This turret fires in short accurate bursts with a predictable projectile path and travel time.

Armored Automated Turret: These heavy turrets are impervious to all attacks compared to any other turret, with reinforced steel armor covering its most exposed parts but in order to give it 180° it leaves the inner gear components exposed. This turret fires a much higher caliber round to go along with its powerful armor, making its target acquisition much slower due to its incredibly increased weight. The projectiles fired are larger than normal and deal devastating damage but are incredibly slow and easy to predict their path of travel. In order to defeat the turret the player must out maneuver the turret and shoot its exposed gears before it is fully turned around to fire at the player.

Skills

Strength- (Increase in how much damage the player deals to enemies. Increased effectiveness for every skill point invested)

Armor- (Reduction of damage taken from enemies. Increased reduction for every Skill point invested)

Elemental- (reduction in “Elemental Points” EP used per elemental move. Increased effectiveness and Increased total of EP for every skill point invested)

Luck- (Increased chance for better currency to drop from enemies defeated. Increased percentage for every skill point invested)

Skills are not the only way for players to improve the characters. The player has access to vendors, like a safeguard vendor that provides stat boosting armor they equip in their inventory. (The player does not have to physically wear the armor equipped. option to hide armor sections like Head, Torso, Arms, Legs, and Mark.)

The player can purchase a weapon upgrade at the “Blacksmith” giving the player’s weapon a damage boost, or for a higher price, receive a special buff to the weapon. The player can also stack up on purchasing health and EP items at the consumables vendor.

Purchasing items.

Currency: Players will gain currency for every enemy defeated within a level. Players only need to walk over the currency to obtain it so whenever the player does obtain it, it goes into the player’s wallet. The currency can vary from pennies, dimes and dollars, gold, diamonds etc… The player will have complete freedom to use their money on what they have unlocked so far in the game.

combat

Combat will have a mixture of up close melee combat and ranged weapon combat. Players all have 100 health as maximum health and taking damage reduces your health. If you die you use a life, you start out with 3 extra lives. Every time an enemy is damaged (if they are not heavy enemies) they are staggered slightly with normal attacks and heavy attacks stun them for a short time.

Each character has a special melee weapon with their own special properties.

Lamar’s melee weapon: A staff with medium attack speed dealing a moderate area of damage able to hit multiple enemies at once.

Zane’s melee weapon: Hot heavy chains that are slow to swing for a large area of damage able to hit many enemies at once.

Ayada’s melee weapon: vines that shoot out of her arms that stab/smack etc. enemies in a moderate area of damage able of hitting multiple enemies at once.

Blair’s melee weapon: Dual blades that have a fast attack speed but at the cost of low area damage, able to hit a few enemies at once.

Abilities

The abilities for the four characters use “Ability points” or AP, it is limited in uses but slowly regenerate to be reused. The abilities for the four characters are are as follows:

Ayada: upon use of her ability she launches a storm of razor sharp blades of grass and thorns that covers a medium area of effect, stunning and damaging enemies for a short period of time.

Blair: Upon use of her ability Blair rains down a storm of ice and snow damaging and slowing down enemies in a large area of effect.

Lamar: Upon using his ability, Lamar summons lightning from his staff to fire a devastating bolt of electricity in a flat direct line having a small area of effect, requiring the player to properly aim before using the ability.

Zane: Upon using his ability Zane will slam the ground with his chains causing the ground within the chain’s range to catch fire and damage any enemies standing either in the way of the strike or the fire afterwards to be damaged and have a burning effect after the flames on the ground dissipate.

Ranged Combat

The ranged combat consists of two parts, abilities, and gun-play.

Guns are only picked up from enemies that have them and are dropped when defeated, in order to use them the weapon needs to be picked up from a defeated enemy that carried the gun. Guns also have very limited ammo before they must be dropped.

The available guns are:

Pistols: Medium range medium firing low damage weapons with low knock-back.

Revolvers: medium range, slow firing, high damage weapons with medium knock-back.

SMGs: Fully automatic fast firing, low damage, and low knock-back.

Shotguns: short range, slow firing, very high damage weapons with heavy-knock-back.

sniper rifles: Long range, slow firing, high damage, heavy knock-back weapons.

Assault rifles: fully automatic with medium fire rate, medium range, medium damage, with medium knock-back.

LMGs: High rate of fire, with medium range, medium damage and heavy knock-back.

Game-play- Button layout (PC, PS4, Xbox 1):

Movement:(on ground):

(PC) WASD or arrow keys

(PS4) Left Stick

(Xbox 1) Left stick

Sprinting: (PC) "Shift" key

(PS4) "R2" Trigger

(Xbox 1) "RT" Trigger

Jumping: (PC) space bar

(PS4) "X" Button

(Xbox 1) "A" Button

Combat: Basic attack: (PC) Mouse 1

�� (PS4) "Square" Button

(Xbox 1) "X" Button

Heavy attack: (PC) "Hold" Mouse 1

(PS4) "Hold" "Square" Button

(Xbox 1) "Hold" "X" Button

Special (Elemental) attack: (PC) "F" Key

(PS4) "R1" Button

(Xbox 1) "RB" Bumper

Defense: (PC) "Hold" "Ctrl" Key

(PS4) "Hold" "circle" Button

(Xbox 1) "hold" "B" Button

Interact: (PC) "E" key

(PS4) "Right" on the "D-pad"

(Xbox 1) "Right" on the "D-pad"

(Carrying heavy item) Throw: (PC) "hold" Mouse 1

(PS4) "Hold" "Square" Button

(Xbox 1) "Hold" "X" Button

(Unable to jump while holding heavy object)

Harbinger, the last stand

The story tells of 4 main characters (of witch you play) and their stories of discrimination and racism. The world they live in is closed minded especially to their race. Loosely based on earth with Sci-fi fantasy elements mixed together in the near future. Within a dystopian city where crime is at a constant high, and a government/dictatorship that have a heavy dis-taste for the minority race called the "Anthros". The Anthros are a race of people like humans in figure and behavior but with animalistic physical qualities. Officially they are anthropomorphic animals or "Anthros" for short. Often said to be the "inferior race" that if a "natural cleansing" of the anthros would be favorable. The anthros have often followed the laws that blatantly violated their natural rights. After many years under this oppression they finally will stand up for their rights, they are no longer going to hide away and take this, so they are rightfully pissed off and will not stop until they get their rights and have justice for them and the lives lost due to injustice, inequality and police brutality.

Main Character Bios.

Zane's Description

Name: Zane Blaze

Nickname: "Z"

Age: 21

Gender: Male

Height: 7'0"

Weight: 300 lbs.

Build: Long and athletic, defined muscles.

Eye Color: orange.

Talent: flame warfare / Brawler Combat

Race: Anthro

Clothing Style: punk, alternative.

Defining features: Bright narrow eyes.

Hairstyle: punk.

Personality: Short temper, acts tough but is a total softie, sensitive, Often comes off as abrasive with his temper and sense of humor. a hopeless romantic, not afraid to express his opinion or his emotions, he is a loyal and loving true friend to the other three characters in the game.

Lamar Lynch's Description

Name: Lamar Lynch

Age: 23

Gender: male

Height: 6'8"

Weight: 250 lbs.

Build: Muscular, athletic.

Race: (African American) humanoid lion

Style: casual

Defining features: tail

Hair style: Short fade

Hair Color: black

Eye Color: brown

Talent: lightning warfare / fighting stick

Personality: Cool and collected, a born leader to the group, but doesn't want to be considered to have authority, slowly builds from a reluctant leader in the beginning to a confident leader to the group deep into the story. Loyal trusting friend. Known as the handsome charmer of the group, but minus the ego of one.

Blair Anomi's Description

Name: Blair Anomi

Nickname:(None)

Gender: Female

Age: 20

Personality: outcast

Hair Color: white

Eye Color: white/pale blue or husky

Talent: ice warfare / scythe

Race: (Native American), humanoid caribou

Style:

Defining features: caribou hooves,tail and antlers

Hairstyle: long ponytail

Personality: Blair has trust issues and is very private with her life. She is introverted and takes time to warm up to someone, she is a friend that will always trust you when you gained her trust and always has your back. She doesn’t give a damn if you think you are right even if you are wrong, she will slap you without hesitation if it gets to that.

Ayada Guren's Description

Name: Ayada Guren

Nickname:(None)

Gender: Female

Age: 21

Personality: perky, Boisterous.

Hair Color: lime-dark green gradient

Eye Color: yellow

Talent: acidic warfare / dual daggers

Race: (indian) humanoid plant

Style: Bright colors, Floral.

Defining features: Markings on skin, much like tattoos.

Hairstyle: pixie cut.

Personality: Ayada is a very bouncy, perky and positive person. She is reckless, and clumsy. She is extroverted and easily entertained. But is in the end a loving friend. Closest friend is Blair Anomi.

Main Characters’ Backstories

Blair Anomi's Backstory:

Blair was born as a mixed child, her mother being a full anthro and her father being a full human. She was raised as a good child until as the family was driving home they were pulled over, in which the mother was driving. The police officer was very discriminatory and Blair's mother knew she was wrongly pulled over but still complied to the officer's orders and reached into her purse for her wallet and that was when the officer promptly screamed for her to drop the weapon, she was confused and looked at the officer with her wallet in hand that the officer "mistook" for a firearm and shot her dead in the car, without regard that Blair was sitting in the back seat witnessing her mother's murder. This event caused her father to go into a deep depression, falling into the numbing pain of alcohol. Blair still loves her father dearly, but is the only human in her life she will ever trust in her life until she can make a change, and get justice for her mother. With any means necessary.

Ayada Guren's Backstory:

Ayada Guren was born with a family that could easily pass off as human, her family weren't based off of animals but plants. Ayada grew up with a love for everybody regardless of race, if Ayada wanted to do anything to help stop this discrimination she would grow flowers everywhere with a message of peace and being able to coexist peacefully. Ayada knows because she grew up with her best friend Blair. They always played together, and Ayada would always give Blair flowers. Ayada always has Blair's back, even more so after the tragedy of Blair's mother dying.

Lamar Lynch's Backstory:

Lamar grew up with a normal life, studied hard, stood up straight, and had a great family. Lamar loved his younger brother Zack, who always followed him with a wide smile. One day Lamar went hiking with his younger brother Zack. During their hike it started to get very windy and rain hard, so Lamar finds an area where they could sit and wait for the rain to stop, but doesn't look like it would. Lamar tries get inside the opening and turns back to help zack, but zack is too scared to move because of the storm. Lamar urges his brother reaching out so he can pull him along and inside, but zack stumbles on the loose edge and is too scared to move. Lamar steps out to get Zack when suddenly lightning strikes the two of them in witch Zack dies, but through unknown means saves Lamar and this is how he obtained his electricity/lightning powers.

Zane Blaze's Backstory:

Zane was born different, this wasn't a good thing unfortunately for zane. He was an anthro and the family he was born into hated anthros, with a rich ancestry of humans only. With this being the case Zane grew up into a very abusive family. Throughout Zane's early years he was small, he was made fun of by his peers because he was often the smallest and weakest one, and that is the biggest reason why he loses his temper so easily. One day when he was older he discovered that he can hide his natural anthro body with an ability that made him almost undeniably human looking, so he used this power to run away and never go back to his abusive home, after some time he went to University where he met Lamar, they both had very opposite personalities but ended up getting to know each other since they were roommates and all. Lamar and Zane end up being best friends, and Lamar helped teach Zane how to deal with his sensitive temper towards his appearance, although he needs more work, he was able to get better at taking insults and not getting into fights. Zane then grew in size, he grew up to 7'0" tall in a short time and gained a new level of confidence. Lamar still makes sure to keep him in check, especially with Zane's temper. (the best he can)

(I understand that this is not the final version but rather setting a foundation, more will be needed to be placed in order for the story to go further.)

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rudindiacom · 3 years ago

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6 Amazing Tips For Choosing The Right Lifting Chains and Slings

Moving weighty and huge items at a business or modern site requires top notch lifting chains and slings.

Whether you are moving weighty items in the mining, designing, transport, development or agrarian areas, we stock different kinds of equipment to suits your novel necessities and prerequisites.

Lifting equipment gives extreme security and accommodation in business and modern workplaces, empowering clients to lift weighty items and materials securely and effectively. RUD India stocks a wide variety & scope of lifting chains and slings, among other different items.

The following are 5 tips to assist you with picking the right lifting chain or Chain Slings for your operations.

(1) Understand The Intended Application

While utilizing lifting chains and slings, you must plan a framework that will suit the planned application. You should think about the accompanying:

• The greatest burden to be lifted by the contraption;

• The state of the heap to be lifted;

• The size of the sling and leg gathering expected to lift the heap suitably;

• The general length from the connection to the snare;

• The related parts like connections and snares;

• The points of the heap focuses; - and

• Suitably labeling and overhauling the device on an occasional premise.

Assuming that you want assistance picking a suitable Chain Conveyor, we can help you. Let us know what you really want to do or accomplish, and we can assist with giving a few directing tips.

(2) Different Chain Grades

Different chain grades decide the heap strength and massiveness and weight of the chain and fittings. PWB Anchor Grade100 territory chains and Auslift Grade80 territory chains are the best. The contrast somewhere in the range of Grade80 and Grade100 chains is that the previous kind is created from heat-treated steel that has a high solidarity to-weight proportion. Its solidarity makes it ideal for lifting weighty things upward. The Grade100 chains is a more up to date item that by and large gives higher responsibility limits (WLL) than supported Grade80 chains. In the event that a chain can lift a heavier burden, this implies that less or more limited chain sling legs will be required or the sling can be made lighter to drag around. Cromox Grade60 hardened steel lifting slings are reasonable for water applications.

(3) Decide The Lifting Limit Required.

What is the heaviness of the heap to be lifted?

Recognize the focal point of gravity of the heap to be lifted.

What is the lifting limit of the equipment accessible (crane)?

(4) Characterize The Quantity Of Strands Required.

What number of anchor focuses are there on the heap? 1, 2, 3 or 4? Update: while throwing on 4 legs, a limit of 3 legs are viewed as bearing, the fourth leg just mediating for adjusting.

(5) Compute The Length Of The Sling.

This progression is significant on the grounds that the length decides the functioning point of a multi-leg sling. The more noteworthy the point, the more noteworthy the weight on the sling ring, and the more prominent the precise burden misfortune on every leg. The length of the strands ought not set in stone so as to keep an ideal point of the strand concerning the upward hub somewhere in the range of 0 and 45. Consideration, past 45°, consider the tension drop. Above 60° it is prohibited to complete the lifting activity.

Also check, Spreader Beam only at RUD India!

(6) Superior Quality Equipment

To guarantee that your chain slings and parts keep going for a sensible measure of time, actually take a look at the accompanying.

• Store chains and parts in a dry spot.

• Softly oil chains and parts whenever saved inactive for delayed periods.

• Continuously examine a chain sling before use to guarantee it is liberated from harm or wear.

• Guarantee that the heap is equally disseminated on all sling legs.

• Guarantee that the chain is liberated from turns and is shielded from any sharp corners on the heap.

• Begin the lift gradually, taking up the leeway steadily.

• While bringing down, stay away from the chance of devastating the chain by guaranteeing that the heap doesn't arrive on it.

Need a new lifting chain or lifting sling or Beam Clamp? Check out now only at RUD India!

#Chain Conveyor #Chain Slings #Spreader Beam #Beam Clamp

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thecoroutfitters · 6 years ago

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Written by R. Ann Parris on The Prepper Journal.

Three Sisters, Elders, or Iroquois mounds are one of the most common and oldest examples of companion planting to be found. Corn, beans and squash are grown in close association, with each plant filling another’s needs. It’s a proven winner large or small, throughout history, including modern university studies on yields and post-harvest soil.

Succotash gardens are also billed as a survival and a storage all-in-one gardens – pretty fair assessments.

The first in is corn. Pole beans are planted after a delay, and use the corn as a trellis. They also stabilize the corn, removing the need to hill it – which is good, because you’re not going to wiggle a hoe through a thriving Three Sisters mound. The beans also replace some or all of the nitrogen used by the corn and, in trinity plantings, their third sister: squash. The squash helps shade the soil, preserving moisture.

There are now about as many ways to arrange them as there are to use the produce, which we’ll touch on later. We’ll also look at ways we can modify it for the crops commonly grown in today’s backyards, tubs, and big plots, compared to the traditional versions.

Clarification – N

The beans are not boosting the nitrogen for this year’s crop. By the end of the season, the beans will have started producing excess nitrogen if the proper bacteria is present, but it’s toward the end of the season. They’re replacing nitrogen used by their companions, which means less amendment is needed in subsequent plantings.

Sunflowers – Skip It

Subbing sunflowers for corn in Elders mounds regularly pops up. It’s more than possible that somebody’s managed successfully, but nobody I know and I’ve yet to find good results/yield data or late-season and harvest images posted by those who claim it works.

When we hear after-action reports on this experiment, it’s usually “well boogers” or excited growers who have not yet established an on-their-own baseline yield for their squash and bean varieties.

Mostly, like many things, we just don’t hear back on it – which is sad, because some of those gardeners who are just getting started or just branching out are likely embarrassed, and think it’s them.

First: Failures are part of any learning curve. “No” is an option on troubleshooting and decision-making flow charts for a reason. “Well that didn’t work” is part of the feedback loop for everything from permaculture to scientific method.

Share failures. We get more feedback yet, which lets us make better adjustments than we would on our own.

Secondly, don’t believe everything you read online – especially start-off suggestions without final results presented. That’s something we’ll touch on with the planting suggestions, too.

I do grow some of my beans with sunflowers, but I expect the major productivity drop versus a corn planting and I do so knowing that bean production is already lower in corn-companionship stands.

(It’s the total productivity of the space that’s a wowser, versus the same area with a single crop, and usually corn gets a pretty significant boost.)

So let’s understand sunflowers. There is a wide, wide range of sunflowers beyond production types. I plant some of them for tiny bird seed. Plus, well, look how cute!

In production conversations, we’re typically looking at two types. Black Oil Sunflower Seeds (BOSS) are used for oils and most animal/bird feed, and are usually 4-6’ tall. The big 8’ and 12’ “stripeys” (professionals say “confection”) are the human-snack and in some animal feeds.

Both are greedy. Like, way greedy. They just don’t share well. There are weed-suppressing groundcovers that work, but whatever you stick near a sunflower is likely to end up stunted. That’s not great for the yields from companions.

Sunflowers seem like they’d sub in for corn without problems, but in the long run, especially for survival gardens, it’s not effective. You’ll need to plant 3-5x the beans you would to meet your normal harvest baselines from corn-bean mounds or single-crop stands, and if you go for a trinity planting, squash just isn’t going to fair well at all.

*Bonus Tidbit: All sunflower stalks are suitable for drying, burning or chipping, and spreading as potent fertilizer elsewhere because they’re so greedy. They’re particularly potassium-hungry, which makes them a fabulous source of potash for other crops.

Back to Corn…

Natives mostly grew dry corn. Today, backyard and small-market growers are mostly after sweet corn. Thing is, sweet corn is ready 20-60 days before most popcorn or field corn varieties – and most dry pole beans.

This becomes super significant when planning a succotash garden.

If you use a big, multi-vined pole bean, it’s tough to get in there to harvest sweet corn without snagging the drying bean vines. Sweet corn is usually more loosely branched, so you may be able to wiggle harvests out from around lighter, single-vine pole beans, but there is regularly damage to vines.

One solution is to use the pole beans mostly for green beans. We can dedicate lower pods to going to seed for us, limiting the potential damages are limited to veggies with less time invested and faster regrowth.

Another option is to use bush, semi-vining or semi-runner beans with sweet corn, so their max height is lower than the upper ears. At most you might damage tips at 3-4’ harvesting the bottom ear. We can also just declare the bottom ears to be our future seed stock, or let them dry for popcorn/milling so we don’t have to disturb even those shorter vines.

If we’re growing dwarf, compact, bantam, and container corn, shorter-vined and bush beans are definitely superior choices as companions.

Bush Beans

There’s some drawbacks to bush beans, but there’s also benefits. A bush bean won’t typically yield as much as a pole bean, either by the plant or by square-foot.

We have place them carefully, especially with field/dry corn varieties that have denser leafing than sweet corn, or they’ll get shaded out. They’re also a little more likely to be overrun by large squash varieties if we go with a three-species “trinity” mound, so we may have to use bush-type summer squashes.

However, they’re pretty easy to step over for maintenance, and they’re fast-growing and fast-yielding. Packing low-growing bush beans in tightly lets us reap some weed and soil-evaporation suppression from them as well as squashes – or if our squash is in separate rows and mounds.

Bush beans won’t anchor our corn for us – although some bush types will send out a few 6-18” tendrils, particularly the “southern pea” types.

Especially if we’re after sweet corn or working with a bantam, or if we’re working in more limited space, bush beans may be the best option. Instead of traditional beans, we can also consider vining English peas or crowder peas for early and compact corn.

If you really want an old-school, native pairing for corn and don’t have to worry about too much rain, give Bawi a try – https://www.nativeseeds.org/learn/nss-blog/341-celebration-of-tepary-beans-part-1. It’s a prostrate bush type, although it’s a whole different species than the beans most of us know today.

Squash

Historically, a near-pumpkin squash, gourd-like squashes, and small true pumpkins were planted as the third sister in elders gardens. We can use anything we want. Melons, trailing-vine squashes, or compact bush types, and even cucumbers offer pretty similar benefits.

Those options have the added advantage of those spiky vines surrounding the mound, which anecdotally deter pests and critters, but we can even use eggplant. It will do the same soil-shading job as the squashes.

Planting Guides

There are a lot of planting plans out there for Three Sisters now. Some combine all three sisters in a trinity planting per mound, while many have squash on a separate mound. Some use 18” mounds, some suggests 3-5’.

One involves working inside a bucket-sized ring (roughly 12”). If you use that one, consider going easy on densities and fertilize heavily – that’s a lot of biomass in a very small space.

I also give my squash way more than 4-6”, my beans go more than 3” from my corn, and my mounds are usually more than 2-3’ on center, more similar to Wampanoag plantings.

Wampanoag systems also have an arc of sunflowers to the north with separate squash mounds and corn-bean mounds filling in a circle. Others suggest similar, but arrange the beans-corn mounds differently.

In a bed system versus mounds, I tend to max corn and beans through the center and stick whichever squash varieties I want on the ends of short beds, or create breaks with double or triple squash plants every 10-12’ on long beds. Others break up hilled rows and beds in smaller repeating patterns.

Mechanizing is as easy as setting up hoppers with different seed, and a third hopper or a second pass for a much-decreased squash planting 18-36” offset from them, or alternating rows of corn-and-beans with rows of squash.

If we’re using narrow beds/rows or containers, we can easily set up multiple pairs – a few bush beans with that squash, or a squash and a pole bean or two that are going to go up one trellis, and another with our corn and another few beans.

We don’t have to limit our squash to containers or beds – trailing them out to the side or letting small-fruiting varieties drape off a table, bench, or rail is fine (if we can get around them). We do want to make sure the squash isn’t vulnerable to breaking in winds or from fruit weight, though. Those big ol’ stalks are hollow and a little bit fragile.

Three Sisters gardening has a lot to balance just because we do have sooo many options these days. What planting styles work best for us will depend on preexisting soil fertility and the varieties we choose, with our climate and space available playing into cultivar selection. There’s a modification that works for pretty much everybody, though.

It’s a storied, proven winner, regardless of scale, for both beginners and those looking to up their yields or decrease inputs. Tractor- or hand-tended, acreage to balcony, it’s definitely a planting scheme to consider.

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The post Companion Planting – Planting & Modifying the Three Sisters appeared first on The Prepper Journal.

from The Prepper Journal Don't forget to visit the store and pick up some gear at The COR Outfitters. How prepared are you for emergencies? #SurvivalFirestarter #SurvivalBugOutBackpack #PrepperSurvivalPack #SHTFGear #SHTFBag

#SHTF #TEOTWAWKI #MARTIALLAW #BUGOUT #PREPPERBAG #USAF #USSOCOM #ARMY #NAVY #SurvivalFirestarter #Sur

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fixdex-fastening-technology · 3 years ago

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M6 M8 M10 M12 M16 drop in anchor expansion anchor for construction

click here to see more of this product

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emily2731smi · 4 years ago

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Water Slides

When at the pool or coastline, you for the most part need the best water slide that will give you quality time. There are different sorts of water slides, which you can for the most part peruse. When making the procurement of the water slide, there are key features that you need to look over. A segment of these join; the turn of events, size, cost, and impressively more. Considering these, you will find the right water slide for the pool.

1.Sportspower

My First Water SlideDo you need the ideal water slide for your youngsters? This is one most adored water slide that is adequately inflatable. It moreover incorporates one water cannon and sprinkle pool. Other than this, the water slide is recommended for tremendous yards; hence will serve the kids flawlessly. It has a biggest weight limit if around 100 pounds.Additionally, the water slide is arranged using strong polyester with PVC covering, which accomplishes solidness and strength. The water slide also has an air blower that guides in expanding it in around two minutes.

2.Intex Inflatable Water Slide

Right when you need an ideal water slide that can suit kids ages at least six, this is an unprecedented choice for you. The water slide is not difficult to grow since it features five chambers you will extend in minutes. Furthermore, the water slide incorporates an affixed nursery horse inferred for sprayers to wet the slide surfaces.The water slide is broad and with a component of 10 by 6 by 3 inches, you will believe that its astounding for step by step use. The water slide can without a doubt be passed on as it features six unshakable handles, which makes it ideal for all customers. At last, the water slide is extraordinarily strong in light of the 20 measure vinyl improvement.

3.Kahuna Twin Peaks Kids Water Slide Park

For a significantly strong water slide, this is one quality and trustworthy water slide that will serve you better. The water slide has twofold sewed wrinkles notwithstanding twofold chamber divider. With this, it guarantees an extra durability.The quality water slide is in like manner ideal for the machine sprinkle pool, which makes it fitting for different customers. With this, it will perfectly serve the kids. Other than this, it furthermore incorporates two since a long time prior twisted slides to enable you to race your buddies.

4.Blast Zone Tropical Splash Water Slide

The Blast Zone Tropical Splash Water Slide is a decreased and flexible water slide that is proposed to serve you longer. The quality water slide has a lightweight arrangement, which makes it successfully reduced; accordingly ideal pick for each user.It in like manner incorporates blower with GFCI and ground stakes. Other than this, the water slide goes with a passing on sack, which makes the convenientce simpler. It is the ideal choice for the offspring of up to 75 lbs and can for the most part be used in the sprinkle pool. Likewise, the water slide is gigantic and open, making it an ideal pick.

5.Banzai Double Drop Raceway Two Lane Water Slide

Do you like the two-way water slides? Here is one incredible tow way water slide that will give you awesome and strong help. This is a direct result of the way that the water slide has a generous dura-tech advancement. Other than this, the water slide isn't hard to grow as it goes with a blower motor that will extend in less than three minutes.It in like manner has two ways, which will make it ideal for serving more than one kid at the same time. Beside this, the water slide isn't hard to assemble as it features detachable water showering hose. Likewise, it is open and adequately advantageous.

6. Little Tikes Slam and Curve Water Slide

This is another top quality water slide, which is planned to give a drawn out assistance. The water slide is assembled using a cut safe material; consequently will promise you of shocking assistance. Beside this, the water slide allows the watchmen to see all the actions.This magnificent waterslide has the stakes anchor that keeps it emphatically set up. The water slide also gives an ideal ball circle in the sprinkle water. This will offer the youngsters an ideal playing ground.

7.Wahii Backyard Lawn Water Slide

It is protected to say that you are enthused about finding the greatest water slide that will offer a drawn out help? This is an ideal decision since it is tremendous and broad; therefore you get a sizable measure of room. It is also strong as it can hold up to 265 lbs for each square foot.The water slide will make one of a kind days like birthday festivity staggering. This is a direct result of the way that everyone will value quality time on this water slide. Moreover, the water slide is not difficult to grow and in less than 15-minutes, you will have completely expand. The water slide is similarly intense in view of the UV got plastic turn of events.

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ada7584tho · 4 years ago

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Kids Water Slide

When at the pool or beach, you by and large need the best water slide that will give you quality time. There are different kinds of water slides, which you can by and large peruse. When making the obtaining of the water slide, there are key features that you need to look over. A bit of these consolidate; the turn of events, size, cost, and significantly more. Considering these, you will find the right water slide for the pool.

1.Sportspower My First Water Slide

Do you need the ideal water slide for your youngsters? This is one most adored water slide that is adequately inflatable. It also incorporates one water weapon and sprinkle pool. Other than this, the water slide is recommended for colossal yards; therefore will serve the youngsters perfectly. It has a biggest weight limit if around 100 pounds.Additionally, the water slide is arranged using strong polyester with PVC covering, which accomplishes toughness and strength. The water slide furthermore has an air blower that guides in extending it in around two minutes.

2.Intex Inflatable Water Slide

Right when you need an ideal water slide that can suit kids ages at least six, this is a remarkable choice for you. The water slide is not difficult to grow since it features five chambers you will extend in minutes. Likewise, the water slide incorporates an associated nursery horse suggested for sprayers to wet the slide surfaces.The water slide is outstandingly broad and with a component of 10 by 6 by 3 inches, you will believe that its remarkable for step by step use. The water slide can without a very remarkable stretch be passed on as it features six considerable handles, which makes it ideal for all customers. At last, the water slide is astoundingly durable on account of the 20 measure vinyl advancement.

3. Kahuna Twin Peaks Kids Water Slide Park

For a significantly intense water slide, this is one quality and tough water slide that will serve you better. The water slide has twofold sewed wrinkles notwithstanding twofold chamber divider. With this, it guarantees an extra durability.The quality water slide is similarly ideal for the machine sprinkle pool, which makes it appropriate for different customers. With this, it will perfectly serve the kids. Other than this, it moreover incorporates two since a long time prior twisted slides to enable you to race your associates.

4.Blast Zone Tropical Splash Water Slide

The Blast Zone Tropical Splash Water Slide is a diminished and helpful water slide that is expected to serve you longer. The quality water slide has a lightweight arrangement, which makes it viably helpful; hence ideal pick for each user.It similarly incorporates blower with GFCI and ground stakes. Other than this, the water slide goes with a passing on pack, which makes the conservativeness less troublesome. It is the ideal choice for the offspring of up to 75 lbs and can by and large be used in the sprinkle pool. Besides, the water slide is immense and open, making it an ideal pick.

5.Banzai Double Drop Raceway Two Lane Water Slide

Do you like the two-way water slides? Here is one dumbfounding tow way water slide that will give you glorious and solid help. This is a direct result of the way that the water slide has a considerable dura-tech advancement. Other than this, the water slide isn't hard to grow as it goes with a blower motor that will expand in less than three minutes.It similarly has two ways, which will make it ideal for serving more than one youngster all the while. Beside this, the water slide isn't hard to gather as it features divisible water showering hose. Likewise, it is open and successfully minimized.

6.Little Tikes Slam and Curve Water Slide

This is another top quality water slide, which is proposed to give a drawn out assistance. The water slide is created using a cut safe material; hereafter will promise you of fantastic help. Beside this, the water slide allows the watchmen to see all the actions.This incredible waterslide has the stakes anchor that keeps it undauntedly set up. The water slide moreover gives an ideal b-ball circle in the sprinkle water. This will offer the kids an ideal playing ground.

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andrewmawby · 4 years ago

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Foundation Installation Costs

Foundation Installation Costs 2021 (Installation, Replacement, Pricing)

Becoming a homeowner is one of the biggest successes one can enjoy in life. Other than offering families a private space, a house is a great long-term investment. This is why millions of Americans buy homes each year.

Alternatively, if you want to have more control over your house's design, you can choose to build a new home. However, this approach comes with additional work as you need to get cost estimates for your design, secure a building permit, and monitor the construction process. This is important as it helps ensure the total cost of construction does not exceed the budget.

With construction, the most important thing is for the building to be strong and stable to ensure the residents' safety. This is why the foundation is arguably the most critical part of a building. Other than supporting the building, a well-laid foundation serves as insulation. It also prevents moisture from underground water seeping in, reducing the need for further waterproofing.

One of the major concerns about a house foundation during construction is the overall cost. This is because there's a lot of work that goes into laying the foundation. And, depending on the soil conditions, the amount of work may vary. With more work comes additional labor costs and other associated expenses. A place with loose soil will need more excavating and foundation walls to guarantee safety and adhere to local building codes.

If you're looking for information about foundation costs for new construction, you are in the right place. In this article, you will learn about:

The average cost of a new foundation

Types of foundations

The best foundation for a house

The best foundation for a mobile home

How to save money with foundation installation

How Much Does Foundation Installation Cost?

Being one of the most important features of a building, it is crucial that the foundation is constructed well. However, you should also have accurate cost guides to ensure it does not blow your budget. When it comes to foundation costs, there are two key factors to consider: the type of foundation and the square footage.

Most people spend between $4,166 and $13,280 when building a foundation, bringing the average cost to $8,473. However, your costs may be even higher depending on the particular needs of your site and location.

What Are the Types of Foundations?

When building a house, the type of foundation to use is one of the most important decisions you'll have to make. Factors that local contractors and structural engineers consider when determining the best choice for your project include:

Location and climate

Soil condition

Humidity

Budget

By taking into account all of these factors, you may find one of the following options suits you best.

1. Concrete Slab Foundation

With this foundation, a flat concrete slab will be laid on the ground in one concrete block. Concrete slab foundations are also known as mono slab foundations or monolithic. Two key benefits of concrete are that it's less expensive as you only need to be keen on the cost of concrete and it is easy to construct.

The installation process is also hassle free. A beam embedded with concrete that runs two feet deep around the foundation walls, steel reinforcing bars, and wire mesh are embedded in the concrete to strengthen the block foundation. These add to the strength and stability of a concrete slab foundation.

With concrete slab foundations, repair costs are not a major concern. This is because concrete slab is not prone to crumbling over time, necessitating foundation repair. Also, with this type of foundation, the building will not have a crawl space, which also presents maintenance issues.

Check out the video below for more information on different types of concrete slab foundations.

youtube

Concrete foundations are not suitable for areas with cold climates. When temperatures drop and the ground begins to freeze and thaw, the slab will begin cracking and can shift. Another limiting factor with this foundation is that sewer and drainage system pipes are installed before concrete is poured. As such, you will have to cut through the slab to fix sewage and plumbing issues.

2. Pier and Beam

If you live in an area where the soil is constantly shifting, eroding, or flooding, the best way to anchor your home is to use a pier beam foundation. Also known as "piers and pile" or "pier and post" foundations, they're common in coastal regions and areas prone to hurricane conditions and major flooding. Along with offering support, they also need to protect the house from water damage.

During installation, piers that can exceed 15 yards long are fixed on the ground to reach the soil's deep layers and stone. This approach is also suitable when constructing heavier homes to prevent sinking as the weight is distributed over a large area.

With this type of foundation, you'll need to bring in a structural engineer to perform a soil analysis to ensure the conditions are suitable for construction. Costs are also relatively high as you will need heavy machinery to drive the concrete piers into the ground.

3. Full Basement Foundation

Full basement foundations have an underground living space that matches the home's ground level floor space. Construction begins by digging a hole for the basement that's at least eight feet deep. Along the edges, structural foundation walls on concrete footings will be placed. These footings should be placed at least 12 inches below the frost line and 12 inches below previously undisturbed soil.

From there, beams will be placed, concrete walls erected, and cement slab poured inside the walls. With this type of foundation, you will enjoy more living space which can double your home's square footage. More importantly, basement foundations are strong, durable, and resistant to extreme weather and fire.

Basement foundations are more common in cold climate areas where freeze and thaw cycles can cause a home to shift. The foundation must be placed below the frost line in such areas, thus making a basement foundation the perfect option.

Basements offer a wide range of applications for homeowners. For instance, if you live on a hillside, you can construct a walkout basement, offering additional functionality. However, you must be prepared to spend as this is the most expensive type of foundation.

4. Crawl Space Foundation

Instead of a full basement, you can opt for a crawl space foundation. This is a space below the house in which a person can crawl that's slightly elevated. Though it does not add living space to your home, it provides additional storage space suitable for a furnace and other equipment. It also provides easy access to mechanical systems, plumbing, and wiring. Foundations with crawl spaces are made of stem walls, which are short foundation walls on concrete footings.

Since houses with crawl spaces are elevated, they have a unique aesthetic appeal. However, the primary benefit of crawl spaces is the protection they offer from environmental hazards such as flooding and earthquakes. The elevation also makes such houses more resistant to termites. However, the same cannot be said for mold and mildew.

Compared to a full basement home foundation, crawl spaces are less expensive. However, they require more maintenance. Fortunately, most of the work is DIY. All you need to do is check the below-ground walls for cracks, install vapor barriers, and check for leaks from pipes. This should be done regularly to ensure that the crawlspace is dry at all times and remains structurally sound.

How Much for Concrete Foundation Installation?

While choosing a foundation style, it is essential to have a cost guide to help develop accurate estimations based on your preferred style and square footage. Along with the price per square foot, you should also know the factors that can affect the estimates.

1. Monolithic

With a monolithic concrete slab, you should expect the costs to be around $4 per square foot. The cost can go higher if there is a need to add radiant heat, bump-outs, and sealers with a water vapor barrier.

2. Stem Wall

At $ 5 per square foot, a stem wall is more expensive than a concrete slab. Similarly, the costs can be higher if sealers, radiant heat, and bump-outs are needed.

What Is the Best Foundation for A House?

Approximately half of the houses built in the US use slab foundation. However, this does not necessarily mean it is the best option for your house. In conjunction with your contractor, you must determine which type of foundation to use. It is ideal for warm and dry areas where you do not have to worry about frost depth. Slab foundations are also suitable for regions where basements cannot be used due to water tables.

If you are building in a sloped area, basements and crawl spaces are a suitable option. For areas with loose soil or that experience extreme weather conditions, go for a pier and beam foundation. The key to determining the best choice is assessing your area's conditions to know which options will offer the greatest support.

What Is the Best Foundation for a Mobile Home?

Over the years, designs for mobile homes have improved significantly, making them an increasingly popular option. If you're thinking about investing in a mobile home, you need to choose an ideal foundation. As with fixed homes, your options include basements, crawlspaces, slabs, and piers.

Each comes with unique properties that are appealing to home builders. If you want an option that's cost effective but still durable and functional, a slab-on-grade foundation will do just fine. With this option, there will be a concrete base as large as the house with a crawl space beneath. The house is anchored to the concrete for support.

Another popular option due to its ease of setup is the use of piers. Cylindrical piers made of cement are inserted into the ground well below the frost line. Spacing for the piers should be around 8 feet. To reduce foundation costs, you can combine piers with beams.

As unrealistic as it sounds, mobile homes can also have a basement foundation. For maximum stability, the basement walls should be thick enough to support the weight of the house. If the pricing of a basement foundation seems too high, a crawlspace is a suitable alternative. This option is suitable for regions prone to termite infestations or high levels of humidity.

How to Save Money with Foundation Installation

When building a house, especially at the foundation level, the biggest mistake you can make is cutting corners to save money. Doing so not only compromises the integrity of the structure but will translate to significant repair costs later on. Nonetheless, it is still important to make the process as economical as possible to avoid going beyond the budget.

If you're using a concrete slab, you can save up to a dollar per square foot by choosing a monolithic slab instead of a stem wall. You can also save up to $ 1,000 if you do not add a vapor barrier. This should only be done if you live in a relatively dry area.

With pier and beam foundations, costs depend on the number of piers you use. To bring the cost down, ensure the design is rectangular as it will not require a lot of piers. However, when it comes to cost reduction, basement foundations have the most pressing need but the most challenging. Instead of a finished basement, leave it half-done. This will save you thousands of dollars.

Get It Right the First Time

Any mistakes during construction often translate to higher costs. This is why it is important to start your project with all the necessary information. Ask The Builder is a platform dedicated to helping you complete your construction without any issues. Do you need help? Ask Tim all your construction related questions to avoid unnecessary pitfalls.

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