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dailyaudiobible · 4 years ago

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11/25/2020 DAB Transcript

Daniel 1:1-2:23, 1 Peter 3:8-4:6, Psalms 119:65-80, Proverbs 28:14

Today is the 25th day of November, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it's wonderful to be here with you today as we take the next step forward like we do every day, the next step. It's funny, just the next step is what we take and then we…we end up having moved through the entire Bible and then through an entire year. And it's such a vivid portrait of what next steps can do when we take the next right step and letting the Bible be a voice in that next right step. Well that's why we come here every day around the Global Campfire isn’t it. So, let's dive in. And right off the bat here we’re moving into new territory in the old testament brand-new book.

Introduction to the book of Daniel:

This book is called Daniele and it’s an intriguing book to say the least, maybe one of the more intriguing books in the Old Testament. And it’s…it’s an historical account and is certainly helpful and valuable and gives insight into the…the kind of times, the times of exile that we've been reading about for quite a while now. It hasn't been that long ago, but it seems like it’s been a long time ago that we read the story of Solomon and we came to like the apex of ancient Israel's culture and civilization. And since that time we've…well…we've been in a lot of territory but this theme of exile, this thing of conquest and Jerusalem being conquered both historically and prophetically have been kind of where we’ve been camped out and we get a different perspective of that in Daniel. But Daniel also though contains these incredible visions and these visions have been poured over for thousands of years in eschatological studies - the studies of the end, the end time prophecies. Daniel is a centerpiece in that study. So, here's what's interesting. We just read the book of Ezekiel and Daniel was contemporary with Ezekiel. He was…he was taken into exile when Jerusalem first fell to Babylon in 597. And we know because we’ve been reading these stories of deportation and exile and prophets both in exile and in Jerusalem. So, we got Jeremiah prophesying from Jerusalem through all of the turmoil and we’ve got Ezekiel prophesying from exile in Babylon during all the turmoil. So, we know that it was not a good easy time whatsoever for those who were being displaced and Daniel was one of those people. And despite the struggle of being deported to a different land Daniel was favored by God. He was gifted. He was young. He rose to become an influential advisor. He was of utmost authority in the Babylonian kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar. But there's quite a story that got him there. And even though Daniel was exiled and was a Hebrew and was a prophet he really wasn't a prophet for or against Israel, which makes his voice unique because this isn't a particularly Jewish set of prophecies with the other prophets. We need that…that Hebrew context that we’ve been drilling into all year long to sort of understand the grievances that are being laid out before the people of Israel and what repentance might look like for them and what things might look like if they continue on the road that there on. Daniel’s not really prophesying with that kind of voice at all. So, we’ll notice that Daniels’s…it’s not broken up into two different halves or anything like that, but we’ll see that generally the first part of the book is the story of Daniel's life. So, we get to know Daniel in the first part of the book. And we’ll find some of the most famous of Sunday school stories in in this part of the book like the story of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace or the account of Daniel in the lion's den. Then once we kinda move through that narrative, move into the back half of the later part of the book, it shifts then to Daniel's prophetic visions. And he has visions of four great world empires. And it…it's…it's apocalyptic literature. So, as a genre, it's highly symbolic and allegoric and we’ll see almost cinematic in nature as its retold to us. Remember when we…remember the wheel within the wheel and all of that imagery in Isaiah when we’re trying to think this all through and picture all this. We’ll be doing that with Daniel as well. And of course, if…if eschatology, the study of the end times is a passion of yours then there's no way to avoid Daniel. It’s the centerpiece of that type of study in the Bible. But whether or not figuring out the end of all things, the end times, the apocalypse is…it is important or not in your faith journey, what Daniel portrays through all of his visions, if we had to kind of boil things down we would see that Daniel is revealing that God is sovereign over every kingdom of the world for all time. Like, God is the most-high God and He is sovereign over all. So, let's let’s dive in. Daniels gonna to carry us into the final month of the year, which is the month of December and we’re just days away from that.

And, man tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day here in the United States. It’s also China's birthday. So, I’ve had two major holidays land on two birthdays in my family. Jill’s birthday’s July 4th. So, that's a constant. Of course, China's birthday is the 26th of November, but it happens to fall on Thanksgiving. So…so we’re…we’re really at the threshold. This is like Thanksgiving Eve, everybody's cooking lots of food and after this we move into warp speed so quickly that we just need to take a deep breath as we move into this new territory, reminding ourselves that God is sovereign over all things and continue to do what we talked about just a few minutes ago, the next step forward, day by day, no matter what the chaos or…or all the stuff that's going on swirling around. Even though it's festive, the rhythm we've established is what's gonna carry us into the new year. So, we’re reading from the New International Version this week. Daniel chapter 1 verse 1 through 2 verse 23.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for another day. We thank You for bringing us into new territory. It's always exciting to turn the page and move into new territory. And, so, we thank You for the book of Daniel, and we ask Holy Spirit that You would awaken our minds, quicken our hearts that we might hear and learn and see whatever it is that You have for us as we continue this journey day by day, step-by-step. Come Holy Spirit, we pray in the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it is…it is the website, and it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. Of course, if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, everything that you can find at the web is also in the app, just push the Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner. Be aware of that.

Be aware of the Community section. That's where the Prayer Wall is and lives and continues to be a resource 24 hours a day seven days a week. So, be aware of that.

There are also links there of where to get connected on social media, etc. So be aware of that.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you. Thank you. If…if what's happening as we continue to sail across the year together in the Scriptures, as we continue to be a community around the Global Campfire, if that is important and makes a difference in your life then thank you profoundly and humbly for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you're using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can dial 877-942-4253 or you can hit the Hotline button in the app, it's the little red button up at the top. And no matter where you are in the world you can share from there.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey this is Jared calling from Duluth Minnesota it’s 2:53 in the morning on Sunday November 22nd, day 575 of my renewed journey in the DAB family. I was so moved today by __ of joy who’s been cycling down for three weeks and can’t move, is scared, not going out of the house, completely alone and your desperate cry for help. Want you to know that we are praying for you and that I’ve been there before in a dark place and so difficult to get out of that…that hole sometimes but __ can help and God will be your rock in time of need. And also, for Rosie, Free in Jesus where one year ago her son disowned her like my son has disowned me and your husband died and contemplating suicide. And again, I’ve been in those dark places. I want you to know that we’re praying for you and that God would just supernaturally bring peace, comfort and joy in your life today and in the future. God bless. Bye.

Hello food DAB family this is Vonnie from Northern California calling on Sunday morning the 22nd of November. Just heard Sheer Joy crying out for help this morning and even though I know it’s been a few days I am praying for you dear sister and know that the Lord sees you and hears you. And even though your family is praying for you a few days after you called God sees you exactly where you are at that moment and He is going to come in and He is going to enter in His Holy Spirit to help you. And we’re asking, O Father please in the name of Jesus we ask You to bind the enemy and keep him from our dear sister, Sheer Joy. Bring back the joy, restore the joy of her salvation dear Father. Help her in Jesus’ name come in and eradicate any part of the enemy’s plan to bring her down. Bring someone else in, a friend, somebody who can bring light and joy and comfort and encouragement to our friend and bring her out of this pit. I think of David and the psalmist calling out from the pit and she’s doing exactly that Lord Jesus. I pray that You would restore the joy to her, fill her with the love that casts out all fear and all dread and bring her back to fullness and to healing and hope and to health. We thank You in Jesus’ name.

Good morning everybody this is God’s Smile here. Just like to share a little about Maria my helper. Maria had an experience. She’s had two this year. She’s been with me two years, Maria, and our relationship has really grown close. We’ve had some chats about the Lord but that’s as far as it’s gone. Maria had sleep paralysis twice now and, in that paralysis, she sensed evil and her hands were tied in front of her outstretched and she couldn’t speak or move, and it really frightened her. So, when I heard this, I said to her, “Maria there is power in the name of Jesus and so to use that name. And she said, “how do I use that?” and I said, “if you can’t speak it Maria just say it in your mind.” So, we conversed like this and I gave her a little prayer to say and gave it…spoke to her about the Lord and His love for her. So, Maria is covering around tomorrow to…she’s a teacher but she cleans for me. Isn’t that lovely? And, so, I felt…I felt the Lord saying get her a Bible, but I wasn’t sure when to give it. So, this Bibles come today. So, I’m…she’s been messaging me, and I really have this rise deep inside my heart that the Lord is in all this. Of course, He is. But you know, faith is rising to believe she is very close to receiving Him as her Lord and Savior. So, would you pray for us? My discerning about the right time…time’s ticking away…give her the Bible. Bye-bye everybody. Love from God’s smile. Kiss kiss.

This is for Dorothy the special ed teacher who called in with compassion fatigue and for all teachers, front line workers, nurses, doctors, police officers, first responders and I would add veterinarians for we’re doing our best to provide good medical care and love on our patients while providing curbside service and it’s just so difficult for people. There aren’t enough hours in the day and the dogs are so frightened. But we’re doing our best Lord. And I also want to lift up a prayer for the student who called in with so much anxiety she couldn’t leave her apartment. She was too anxious to stay in bed but too depressed to get out of bed. Oh Lord I lift up my prayers for mercy for from 138. I give thanks O Lord with my whole heart and sing your praise because when we call on you, you answer us. And the strength of our souls you do increase. You know that though we walk in the midst of trouble you preserve our lives. You stretch out your hand against the wrath of all that would threaten to overcome us, and your right hand delivers us. You will fulfill your purpose for us, and your steadfast love O Lord endures forever. For I know that you will not forsake the work of your hands but instead pour your Holy Spirit on us. Fill us with your living water. Lift us up with the power that raised Christ from the dead. Renew our strength. It will mount up like eagles. Lord I give you my thanks and I pray your grace and mercy on all of these who have called in. In Jesus’ name. Amen. This is Donna from Pennsylvania.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is Wonderfully Made in Albuquerque. Today’s the 23rd of November. I have a prayer request. I have been struggling with some really really extreme anxiety related to work stresses. The work that I am involved in deals with a lot of regulatory compliance issues and I lead a team that supports…has…is a support group for customers. And I…there are some customers that are pretty combative, and I am not the kind of person that deals well with that. I want peace I hate conflict. I know that conflict exists in this life, but I shut down when I have to deal with people who are like that. And I…it’s Monday, I‘m anxious, the emails are pouring in and I’m starting to shake because I am scared of what I’m going to have to deal with. And, yes, I could leave my job and go to a different job but the challenge with that is there’s always going to be people that are just very abrasive and mean and….and so I’m dealing with…I’m struggling with that, especially with how I respond as a Christian. I really don’t lash out in anger at people but what happens is I…I hold it in, and I think through conversations I want to have which I know won’t be edifying. So, anyway I’m just really really struggling, and I need prayers. Thank you so much.

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xxgothickxx · 4 years ago

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About me tag

I was tagged by the lovely @nomimits7 ! Thank you for this, I'm in bed waiting to fall asleep and I need something to calm me down from my gaming hype❤️ (also this is the reason if there is any spelling errors)

What do you prefer to be called name wise? Kara, just Kara. This is my name I prefer. I chose it for myself and that's that 😂

When is your birthday? It is the 26th of October. And yes I am a 95's baby 🙂

Where do you live? South Africa. And no I do not live in a hut with wild animals as my friends (listen I know it sounds ridiculous but can you imagine how I feel when there's people who ask me this)

Three things you’re doing right now? Typing up this whole thingy. Cuddling about 3 cats in my bed (the 4th one is in the house making a mess somewhere) and contemplating if I should get up to go have a smoke.

Four fandom that have piqued your interest? Let's see. ARMY has been my dedicated fandom mostly for the last 3-4 years. I've always been a bit of a Potter Head 🤪 The Pretty Reckless is a Alt Rock band I've been listening and supporting since I was 14 (check 'em out) and Star Wars? I say that with a question because I've been out of the loop since the new movies came out

How’s the pandemic treating you? Well I mean if you've read through this thing I call a blog, you'll see how it's been treating me. I use this space to rant and to fangirl over BTS. But if you need to hear the short of it - I'm going broke due to pay lost, I might be retrenched and I might need to move out of my province because I can't afford to live here anymore.

Songs you can’t stop listening to right now…. Uuuuh Yoongi's whole mixtape D-2. Specially What do you Thing regardless of all its controversy it's still a fucking bopand I will spasticly dance to it, fight me

Reccomend a movie Oh god, I'm terrible with movies and series. I don't own a TV and I haven't watched TV in over 8 years I think? But I have a phone and a laptop. If you want me to recommend you YouTube videos I'm your girl. But yeah movies I have nothin'

How old are you? I am a whopping 24 at the type of this typing. I will be 25 in Oct (referring back to the date of birth question)

School, occupation or other? Oh boy, OK at the time of this I'm still employed. I am an Operations Assistant and Procurement at a medium to large phone service company. We are an extention of one of the bigger brand cellphone companies in South Africa. Real proper office job, but they let me have my hair funky colours and let me walk around with my piercings so yeah.

Do you prefer hot or cold? Cold. Excuse to cover every inch of my body in black fabric or any colour/shade close to it. I love staying in bed with 5+ blankets and all my cats to cuddle and stay warm. Also my Bf is furnace and I'll actually melt in hot weather if he wants to cuddle.

Name one fact others might not know about you? Oh, this can reference back to the name thing. Most people don't know my birth name, I can count on 1 hand how many people now it and 2 of them are my mom and baby brother. I've gotten rid of A LOT of toxic people in my life and my birth name carries a lot of that toxicity with it. Very long story I don't like getting into. And thus only a handful of people in my life now know my birth name, fact.

Are you shy? I am. I'm hella shy even though I come across as I'm not. Through the years I've kinda mastered fake confidence? It's kinda like a defence mechanism for me at this point. When I'm scared, hurt, afraid, unsure etc but I need to look and act strong in front of other I will push all that down to under the surface and fake my not-so-shy self, unless we're every close friends then I'm one crazy bitch.

Preferred nouns? She/Her

Favourite “-dere” type? Hands down Yandere. I try and cosplay one any chance I get. I guess I crave being that dangerously obsessive loving? I find it very hard to love someone, so I kinda 'idolize' the way they can do it even if it's unhealthy and dangerous. This is getting weird, moving on...

Any pet peeves? People that won't stop moving or touching your shit. LEAVE MY STUFF ALONE THEN I WON'T KEEP LOSING IT.

Rate your life 1-10 I always saw my life as a 6-7, but 2020 really got that shit way down to like a 3 now.

Main Blog? Yeah this is my 'main blog' cuz it's my only blog.

List your side blogs.… Ain't got those hunny, I barely have time to shower and manage this blog (lol I say manage but all I do is just rage and fangirl)

Anything people need to know before becoming your friend? Where to start? I'm a quiet person. But I'm always there if shit goes really south for my friends. You might not have heard from me in like 3 months but if you need a should or an ear I'm always there. I act tough and scary but it's because I'm extremely fragile and I've learned I'm the only one that can protect myself, so don't ever feel offended when it feels like I'm shutting you out, I'm really just battling my inner demons and I'll comeback to you if I won. I cut people off and out of my life with in seconds and I don't think twice about it. If you've crossed me in the most hideous way possible(in my eyes) you are actually dead to me. No second chances unless they are deserved. Regardless of everything I said up here, I'm really a nice girl, I just need nice people that understand me and will be patient with me. I'm a broken human that's trying to fix myself.

WHHHHOOOOOOOOWHEEEEEE that took a turn 👀 I'm so sorry I turned a fun thing quite negative 😅😅 but hey this is part of getting to know me! Thank you again @nomimits7 I enjoyed doing this! 💜💜💜

I guess it's my turn to nominate? Well, I nominate the person reading this. Yes YOU

If you feel like doing this, knock yourself out I'd love to read what you type and get to know you better ❤️💜 just tag me 😘

#Tag game #Get to know me #Personal #This was fun #My eyes are tired enough to maybe fall asleep in the next hour now

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quixol · 6 years ago

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11/5/2018 - 1/11/2019: QuixolMC Changelog #25

Good afternoon, and happy 2019 to you!

It’s been over two months since our last changelog post- we put this off for a long time. Now it’s a whole year later!!!!! haha...

Anyways, A lot has happened since our previous changelog post. Most crucially, as you all know, was our long-awaited update to minecraft 1.13! Really, we should’ve done this post shortly after that, as the update alone accounted for months and months of effort from the staff all coming to a head in just one week. Seriously, we put a tremendous amount of work into making sure this update went as smoothly as it possibly could, and it really showed off!

Since then, we’ve gained hundreds of new faces in our community, and even rolled over into a new calendar year... So, yeah. These past two months have been big for us! As such, there’s a ton to cover in this changelog post. So much so, that we’ve decided on introducing a new format to these changelog posts, which should hopefully help somewhat in the readability of this long, long post... It’s still gonna be a lot of information to take in, regardless. We hope you’ll understand!

Anyhow, enough exposition, let’s get into it. Here’s everything that’s changed since before the update!

Changes are separated into one of four categories: Gameplay, Server Builds / Locations, Technical / Bug fixes, and Plugin / Software updates. They are sorted chronologically within these categories, from oldest to most recent. Dates are formatted mm/dd/yy.

Key:

+ Feature added - Feature removed % Feature changed/bug fix ^ Feature updated (usually plugin updates) # Comment (for… comments.)

Notable changes from 11/5/2018 to 1/11/2019:

- Gameplay -

+ [11/05/18] Updated server to Minecraft 1.13.2 % [11/05/18] Spawn limits for water-animals upped from 5 -> 15 # This matches vanilla values for 1.13+. Affects mob cap of squids, fish, etc. % [11/05/18] mob-spawn-range value changed from 4 -> 8 # This value is used in determining the mob cap for a world. # 8 is the “vanilla” value, although it’s a bit more complicated than that. % [11/05/18] dragon-death-sound-radius changed to 128 blocks % [11/05/18] sound effect of thunder will only play within a radius of 256 blocks of players % [11/06/18] Disabled teleport safety in essentials # any act of teleporting will now take you to the exact coordinates you were to teleport to, even if it is unsafe to do so % [11/06/18] Compasses will no longer point to your first essentials /home + [11/06/18] Added plugin: FactionsUUID 0.2.3-b123 # A fork of an old factions version, updated to support name changes. This version of factions has a lot of differences from the "modern" factions, also known as "mcore factions". % [11/06/18] "power per hour" is now "power per minute". you gain 0.1 power per minute, or 6 power per hour. % [11/06/18] power loss on death is now 6. % [11/06/18] Faction roles are different. The hierarchy is now as follows: Recruit -> Normal -> Mod -> Coleader -> Admin % [11/06/18] Creating a faction now costs 500 shells % [11/06/18] Changing faction tag (faction name) now costs 400 shells % [11/06/18] You can no longer claim land right up next to allied factions, you need a distance of 6 chunks from each others' claims just as you normally would a neutral faction % [11/07/18] Sending items or mobs through nether or end portals no longer works in Protos + [11/07/18] Introduced updated 1.13 head drops datapack! Version: 1.0 # % Parrots' default loot table now contains all parrot head types. that way, if the mob sub-type module is not working, you can still get heads from parrots, you just won't (usually) get the head corresponding to the type of parrot you killed. this matches the loot tables zombie villagers, llamas, etc have. # % Rabbits' default loot tables also now contain all (natural) rabbit head types. does not contain toast or killer bunny heads. # % Shulker heads are now called "Mini Shulker" (consistency w/ guardian head drop) # % Slime heads are now called "Mini Slime" # % Magma Cube heads are now called "Mini Magma Cube" # % Ghast heads are now called "Mini Ghast" # % Snowman heads are now called "Snow Golem Head" # % White sheep heads are now called "White Sheep Head" instead of just "Sheep Head" # % For some reason, Zombie Villagers were twice as likely to drop rare drops such as iron ingots, carrots, potatos. Changed this back to vanilla values. (previously it was a 5% chance, w/ +2% per looting lvl, vanilla is 2.5% w/ +1% per looting lvl) # + Cod head: 10% head drop, +1% per looting lvl # + Dolphin head: 25% head drop, +2% per looting lvl # + Drowned head: 2% head drop, +2% per looting lvl # + Phantom head: 10% head drop, +1% per looting lvl # + Pufferfish head: 15% head drop, +1% per looting lvl # + Salmon head: 10% head drop, +1% per looting lvl # + Tropical fish head: 10% head drop, +1% per looting lvl # + Turtle head: 10% head drop, +1% per looting lvl + [11/07/18] Introduced QuixolMC's custom datapack version 0.1! # I don't have a better name for it, so deal with it! # % Changed saddle recipe slightly (see summary for the updated recipe) # % Changed Shulker Shell recipe to contain Phantom Membrane instead of ender pearl. # made custom advancements for granting recipes: # + unlock cobble recipe when picking up furnace # + unlock horse armor recipes when picking up their respective ingot/gem # + unlock enchanted golden apple recipe when picking up gold block # + unlock nether wart recipe when picking up nether wart block # + unlock saddle recipe when picking up leather # + unlock shulker shell recipe when picking up purpur block # + unlock totem of undying recipe when picking up nether star # added a few other custom advancements: # + Added a challenge advancement for killing a charged creeper # + Added an advancement for getting a cactus # + Added a challenge advancement for being killed by a villager % [11/07/18] Changes to alchemy skill # They've basically been doubled... leveling this was a pain # + Potion_Stage_1: 15 -> 30 # + Potion_Stage_2: 30 -> 60 # + Potion_Stage_3: 60 -> 120 # + Potion_Stage_4: 120 -> 240 % [11/07/18] Changes to woodcutting skill # These are just the new blocks for 1.13 # + Stripped_Oak_Log: 70 # + Stripped_Spruce_Log: 80 # + Stripped_Birch_Log: 90 # + Stripped_Jungle_Log: 90 # + Stripped_Acacia_Log: 90 # + Stripped_Dark_Oak_Log: 90 % [11/07/18] Changes to blast mining: # - Blast mining was nerfed a bit. The level you have to reach to reach the next "rank" was doubled, so it will take longer to unlock the benefits of each "rank" within blast mining % [11/07/18] Buffed taming skill slightly: # The level needed to unlock a few abilities was reduced. # + Fast Food: 50 -> 35 # + Environmentally Aware: 100 -> 75 # + Thick Fur: 250 -> 225 # + Holy Hound: 375 -> 350 % [11/07/18] Nerfed unarmed skill: # - BonusMin is now 0.0 (you start out with no boost to unarmed attacks) # - BonusMax is now 7.0 (down from 8.0) % [11/07/18] Nerfed axes skill: # - Max attack bonus (+4) is now reached at level 600 instead of level 400 # - Damage modifier for critical hits when PVPing is now 1.25 instead of 1.5 % [11/08/18] Reset mcMMO, Economy, Jobs, Factions data % [11/08/18] if you’re in a job that pays for smelting, you’re limited to 20 furnaces at a time max + [11/08/18] Introduced the brand-new Explorer job! Gain money by exploring the world. # Each time you enter a newly discovered chunk (one nobody has been in before), you get paid! # Even if you aren't the first to discover an area, you still get paid if you are the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th. The amount paid out depends on how many others found it before you. + [11/09/18] Added Faction Extras 1.0.0! # A custom script, coded by admin Vivian. Adds a little bit of additional functionality to Factions, such as faction warps and the ability to buy more faction power for your faction. % [11/09/18] Faction powerboosts now give you a PERMANENT boost to your power- not just your maxpower. # So, if you have a powerboost of +5, and you have 5 power left and die, you won't go below 5 power. # This can't be configured w/ factionsUUID. So... guess we'll have to just accept it!! % [11/09/18] Exp loss on death reduced to 1/3rd (prev. 1/2) + [11/09/18] QUIXOLMC: Now 1.13.2 Public Beta! # Full changelog for minecraft 1.13 here. % [11/10/18] Nerfed explorer job # - first: inc/exp: 5 -> 4 # - second: inc/exp: 2.5 -> 2.25 # - third: inc/exp: 1.0 -> 0.8 # - fourth: inc/exp: 0.5 -> 0.35 # - fifth: inc/exp: 0.1 -> 0.05 % [11/10/18] bumped up unarmed skill a bit # + bonusmin changed to 1 instead of 0 # unarmed attacks should start out with a +1 attack boost instead of +0 now % [11/10/18] Reduced mob-spawn-range to 6 # This should reduce the mob cap/mob spawns. Done for performance. % [11/11/18] Further reduced mob-spawn-range to 4 # We’re back to where it was before the update. Also for performance. % [11/12/18] Fixed builder job for 1.13 # + Bark: 1.0 inc, 0.75 exp # + Glass: 1.5 inc/exp # + Sandstone: 1.5 inc/exp % [11/13/18] Changed thunder sound radius to 512 blocks % [11/14/18] Nerfed explorer job again # - first: inc/exp: 4.0 -> 3.5 # - second: inc/exp: 2.25 -> 1.75 # - third: inc/exp: 0.8 -> 0.75 # - fourth: inc/exp: 0.35 -> 0.25 # - fifth: exp: 0.05 -> 0.02 % [11/15/18] Added more to Woodcutter job # + Stripped logs (all types): inc: 0.75 , exp: 0.25 % [11/15/18] Added more to Miner job # + Coral blocks (all types): inc: 2.0, exp: 3.0 # + Cobble/mossy cobble wall: inc/exp: 2.5 # + Stained terracotta (only naturally generated variants): inc: 0.15, exp: 0.2 # - Emerald ore (on place): -15 inc, -30 exp % [11/15/18] Added more to Builder job # + Coral blocks (all variants): inc: 2, exp: 3 # + Dead coral blocks (all variants): inc: 1, exp: 2 # + Dried kelp block: inc: 1.5, exp: 2 % [11/15/18] Added more to Engineer job # + All new button types: inc/exp: 0.5 # + All new pressure plate types: inc/exp: 0.8 % [11/15/18] Changes/additions to Digger job # - removed pay for digging red sandstone # - removed pay for digging stained terracotta # % coarse dirt: inc: 0.25 -> 0.5 , exp: 0.25 -> 1.0 # + podzol: inc: 0.25 -> 0.5 , exp: 0.25 -> 1.0 # % red sand: exp: 0.5 -> 1.0 # % clay: inc/exp: 1.0 -> 1.2 # + mycelium: inc: 1.0 , exp: 1.25 # + soul sand: inc/exp: 1.0 % [11/15/18] Additions to Farmer job # + Taming parrot: inc/exp: 5.0 # + Taming ocelot: inc/exp: 5.0 # + Taming llama: inc/exp: 5.0 # + Breeding mooshroom: inc: 4.0 , exp: 5.0 # + Breeding llama: inc: 4.0 , exp: 5.0 # + Breeding turtle: inc: 4.0 , exp: 5.0 # + Coral fans (all variants): inc: 2.0 , exp: 2.5 # + Kelp: inc/exp: 0.5 # + Seagrass/tall seagrass: inc/exp: 0.2 # + Sea pickle: inc/exp: 1.0 # + Planting Cocoa beans: inc/exp: 1.5 # + Planting pumpkin/melon seeds: inc/exp: 1.5 % [11/15/18] Slightly nerfed Farmer job in other ways # - planting wheat/potatos/carrots/beetroot: inc/exp: 2.0 -> 1.5 % [11/16/18] Additions to Hunter job # + Drowned: inc: 10.0 , exp: 20.0 # + Phantom: inc: 15.0 , exp: 20.0 % [11/16/18] Changes/additions to Crafter job # + Oak fence gate: inc/exp: 0.5 # + Oak fence: inc/exp: 0.5 # + Spruce, birch, jungle, acacia, dark oak doors: inc/exp: 0.15 -> 0.5 # + All bed types: inc/exp: 3.0 # + Terracotta: inc/exp: 1.5 # + Glass: inc/exp: 0.3 # % Stone brick stairs: inc: 0.5 -> 2.5 , exp: 0.5 -> 3.0 # + All stairs: inc: 2.5 , exp: 3.0 # % Heavy weighted pressure plate: inc/exp: 2.5 -> 3.0 # + All pressure plates: inc/exp: 3.0 % [11/17/18] Additions to Weaponsmith job # + Craft Turtle helmet: inc: 20.0 , exp: 40.0 % [11/17/18] Additions to Brewer job # + Gunpowder: inc/exp: 6.0 # + Dragon's breath: inc/exp: 25.0 # + Turtle helmet: inc/exp: 16.0 # + Phantom membrane: inc/exp: 12.0 % [11/17/18] Additions to Enchanter job # + Frost walker 1: inc/exp: 10.0 # + Frost walker 2: inc/exp: 20.0 # + Sweeping edge 1: inc: 15 , exp: 20 # + Sweeping edge 2: inc: 25 , exp: 30 # + Sweeping edge 3: inc: 35 , exp: 40 # + Curse of binding: inc/exp: 5.0 # + Curse of vanishing: inc/exp: 5.0 # + Mending: inc: 100.0 , exp: 300.0 # + Impaling 1: inc/exp: 10.0 # + Impaling 2: inc/exp: 20.0 # + Impaling 3: inc/exp: 30.0 # + Impaling 4: inc/exp: 40.0 # + Impaling 5: inc/exp: 50.0 # + Loyalty 1: inc/exp: 10.0 # + Loyalty 2: inc/exp: 20.0 # + Loyalty 3: inc/exp: 30.0 # + Riptide 1: inc/exp: 20.0 # + Riptide 2: inc/exp: 30.0 # + Riptide 3: inc/exp: 40.0 # + Channeling: inc/exp: 25.0 % [11/18/18] Nerfed endermen payment in Hunter job # - Enderman: inc: 15.0 -> 5.0 , exp: 30.0 -> 2.5 % [11/18/18] Nerfed Explorer job (3rd time's the charm?) # - 1st: inc: 3.5 -> 3.0 , exp: 3.5 -> 3.0 # - 2nd: inc: 1.75 -> 1.5 , exp: 1.75 -> 1.5 # - 3rd: exp: 0.75 -> 0.7 # + 4th: exp: 0.25 -> 0.3 # + 5th: exp: 0.02 -> 0.1

- Server Builds / Locations -

+ [11/07/18] Added a BRAND NEW WORLD for 1.13.2: Ghalea! + [11/07/18] Render distance for ghalea: 8 + [11/07/18] Render distance for ghalea's nether/end: 7 # Ghalea is (currently) not pre-generated. All chunks loaded in the world are player-generated. % [11/07/18] Spawnpoint changed to Ghalea + [11/07/18] Completely revamped and updated our server spawnpoint, Orsus! % [11/08/18] Moved the tutorial to Ghalea % [11/08/18] Made the Pool of Resurrection less... bubbly % [11/08/18] Spawn world for new players is now Ghalea % [11/09/18] Far warps were updated for Ghalea, they are all /warp North/East/South/West % [11/09/18] all protos far warps have been renamed /warp OldNorth/OldEast etc % [11/09/18] Info center signs are also updated, warps to protos specify that on the sign % [11/09/18] Tutorial has been tweaked, the only sign to change was the factions plugin sign - [11/09/18] Removed warps: smaench, lotl, dinnerparty # /warp minigames will still take you to the first two % [11/09/18] Returning players are now sent to Ghalea when joining + [11/09/18] Added new warp, NoobisLand , where new players can get started in Ghalea! % [11/11/18] moved "void" jail to ghalea + [11/18/18] Released the Ghalean end world! + [12/21/18] Added /warp CandyLand , a new server warp for the festive season!

- Technical / Bug fixes -

+ [11/05/18] async chunks enabled for both loading and chunk generation # major performance improvement here % [11/06/18] Changed login/logout messages to include username % [11/07/18] staff can no longer use /ride on non-living entities (paintings, armor stands, etc)... sorry!! % [11/07/18] Ghalea changed to default world % [11/07/18] Transferred player files, map files to Ghalea's folder % [11/07/18] Changed keep-spawn-loaded radius to 5 chunks, down from 8. % [11/07/18] Messages from LWC (regarding registering/unregestering proections) now send in action bar % Protected region around Orsus (where no mobs may spawn) expanded to 600x600 (previously 500x500) # it goes from coords -300, 0, -300 to 300, 255, 300 % [11/07/18] made it so all mcmmo party members are informed when their party levels up, bc why not % [11/08/18] Renamed Fisherman job to Fisher - [11/08/18] Sitting in chairs is disabled right now, due to bugs + [11/09/18] Added new kit, /kit ghalea, given to returning players upon entering ghalea % [11/10/18] Fixed /msg not working + [11/12/18] Gave players permission to use /f status % [11/12/18] Fixed permissions for using /f perm, /f promote, or /f demote % [11/12/18] coleader role should now be able to use /fx commands % [11/12/18] coleader role should no longer show up as "?" in qchat % [11/13/18] Thunder should now make sound outside of the immediate vicinity of the lightning strike once again % [11/13/18] When respawning, players with no bed spawn/faction home will now be sent to the world spawn once again, instead of the origin of whatever world they were in # The order of respawn priority is now: spawnpoint -> bed spawn -> faction home % [11/13/18] Reduced entity activation range slightly # - Animals: 32 -> 24 # - Monsters: 32 -> 30 % [11/18/18] Re-added worldborder plugin, because apparently we didn't have that for a whole week, WOOPS % [11/22/18] made celebratory fireworks for each 100 mcmmo skill levels a smaller firework... hopefully less laggy? % [11/22/18] Set a maximum limit for factions claiming land to 750 chunks. Factions cannot claim more than this amount of chunks % [11/23/18] Fixed some false-positives in the word filter again % [11/23/18] Also made the word filter a bit more lax with certain phrases % [11/25/18] Fixed bug where zombies in death animation could be converted to drowned % [11/25/18] Fixed dupe glitch with sea pickles + sponges (possibly other underwater plants?) % [11/25/18] Large improvements to redstone performance % [11/25/18] Reduced entity activation range for hostile mobs to 24 blocks % [11/29/18] fix for entity dismounting being weird % [12/02/18] You can now pet sheeps with an empty main hand once again! % [12/09/18] Novices should be able to chop the tree in the tutorial once again % [12/21/18] Fix issue where you’d be kicked for “Book too large!” when writing even rather short books % [12/21/18] Fixes relating to alchemy skill sometimes not getting xp for a brew(?) % [12/21/18] Fixed issue with mcmmo double drop items sometimes clipping into other blocks, and floating away due to item elevator effect - [01/03/19] Removed permissions for /recipe command due to a nasty exploit with it % [01/07/19] Fixed some blocks in LWC not being able to be protected + [01/07/19] Player usernames will now reflect their afk status in the tab list % [01/07/19] Updated tablist footer. it has more tridents! % [01/07/19] Upgraded the server to a more modern machine, should help performance % [01/07/19] Tweaked the motd format again, slightly more compact now % [01/11/19] Fixed not being able to place double half-slabs at y:255 % [01/11/19] disconnecting from the server while you are the passenger of another entity will now forcibly dismount you from that entity # This differs from vanilla behavior, whereas before if you logged out while riding an entity (like a horse, pig, etc) your vehicle would disappear along with you, and reappear once you logged in again % [01/11/19] Fixed bug with factions overclaiming!!! # This was a pretty serious bug; previously any person could claim as many chunks as they wanted to for their faction, regardless of their faction’s power. # In spite of this being fixed, any faction who still has more land claimed than their power permits will still have that land claimed. So, please be courteous and unclaim your excess chunks if you have any. (you can see with /f show)

- Plugin / Software Updates -

^ [11/05/18] LuckPerms -> 4.3.17 ^ [11/06/18] PerWorldInventory -> 2.2.1 ^ [11/06/18] EssentialsX -> dev-31.157 ^ [11/06/18] Quixol-framework -> 1.1.0 ^ [11/06/18] Biography -> 1.7.0 # + Technically not new, but you can now use color/format codes in your bio depending on your permissions. ^ [11/06/18] playtime -> 0.6.0 ^ [11/06/18] pronouns -> 2.7.2 ^ [11/06/18] LWC -> ModernLWC 2.1.2-dev63 ^ [11/07/18] easycommands -> 1.9.0 ^ [11/07/18] mcMMO -> 1.6.0-b51 ^ [11/08/18] AreaShop -> 2.5.0 ^ [11/08/18] Jobs -> 4.9.1 ^ [11/08/18] Craftbook -> 3.9-b4452 ^ [11/09/18] Orchid -> 0.4.1 ^ [11/09/18] easyalias -> 1.8.0 ^ [11/09/18] Deathpenalty -> 1.1.1 + [11/09/18] Added Faction Extras 1.0.0 - [11/09/18] Removed randomtp plugin (it's broken) + [11/09/18] Added Mineable spawners 1.4 # replacement for silkspawners plugin ^ [11/12/18] faction extras -> 1.0.1 ^ [11/17/18] Jobs -> 4.9.3 ^ [11/25/18] Updated server .jar, Paper 1.13.2 b428 -> Paper 1.13.2 b461 ^ [11/25/18] EssentialsX -> dev-39.182 ^ [11/29/18] Updated server .jar, Paper 1.13.2 b461 -> Paper 1.13.2 b469 ^ [11/29/18] Craftbook -> 3.10 beta-01 ^ [12/21/18] Updated server .jar, Paper 1.13.2 b469 -> Paper 1.13.2 b486 ^ [12/21/18] FactionsUUID -> U0.2.3-b124 ^ [12/21/18] mcMMO -> 1.6.0-b56 ^ [01/07/19] AreaShop -> 2.5.0-b275 ^ [01/07/19] DiscordSRV -> 1.16.6 ^ [01/07/19] ModernLWC -> 2.1.2 ^ [01/07/19] PerWorldInventory -> 2.2.2 ^ [01/07/19] EssentialsX -> 2.16.0.3 ^ [01/11/19] Updated server .jar, Paper 1.13.2 b486 -> Paper 1.13.2 b498 ^ [01/11/19] Faction extras -> 1.0.2 # % simple hotfix for faction powerboosts not being properly applied due to how FactionsUUID handles powerboosts

List of known bugs/issues:

! Inventories saved in 1.11 - 1.12 (in the world Protos) may have shulker box data corrupted. undyed shulker boxes turn into purple shulker boxes, and any items inside shulker boxes may lose all of their NBT data. ! when you are killed by a mob you recently hurt, the death message just says you were killed by [a bunch of hearts], due to a mcMMO bug ! mcMMO doesn't give you alchemy exp for making slow falling potions ! /f show will not show offline players ! Changing factions permissions for containers / doors does not seem to work ! several other bugs in Factions ! Exploration job does not work properly ! Peculiar bug with items in cursor slot disappearing in the inventory? Has only been reported once; unable to reproduce ! Being killed by another player counts as a "killed by [mob]" in statistics, but killing another player will not increase this statistic, only dying to other players counts ! Peculiar bug with mobs (usually animals) held in pens suffocating in surrounding blocks. Potentially related to mob pathfinding ! Standing still on top of a boat in water will deplete your hunger very quickly for some reason(???) ! New players will occasionally not get teleported by the pressure plate at the end of the tutorial, and report that they can’t see anything (i.e., the chunks they are in just turn invisible, despite still being able to walk around and move and such) ! New player sound is broken

Things to come:

• A new market for Ghalea! • Releasing more custom advancements • Other updates to QuixolMC’s custom datapack • Fixing bugs, hopefully... • Updates to qChat, other custom scripts

last changelog post (#24)

about changelogs

Yikes, that was long. Possibly our longest changelog ever! Did you get all of that? It’s ok if you didn’t, but we like to provide all the relevant stuff for anyone who’s curious.

The staff collectively spent several months preparing for all of these 1.13 changes before the fact, as stated before. The project to revamp all of Orsus was going on behind the scenes since at least may of 2018... a whole half year before we finally updated! We were also making preparations for technical changes and testing out plugins and software and all the other preparations since around that time, as well. We hope you all can see that effort shine through in what you’ve experienced for yourself on the server.

If you were wondering about the change to the saddle’s crafting recipe, or any other custom crafting recipe on the server, the crafting page on our blog is properly updated. Here’s what it looks like if you don’t wanna click, though:

With all of that in mind, let us know what you think of this new format for the changelogs! Is it easier to navigate? Or does it just leave you feeling more overwhelmed? Obviously, the length of this changelog wouldn’t help it either way, but we tried our best to separate stuff into neat categories for you all. We always appreciate hearing your feedback.

Thanks for reading, and we hope you have a great 2019!

- Quixol Staff

#Quixol #QuixolMC #QuixolMC Changelog

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indianapolis-in-living · 2 years ago

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Why HVAC Maintenance is Important?

Many homeowners do not pay attention to maintenance until there is a need for air conditioning repair. But while it can be easy to dismiss the idea, ensuring that your appliance is functioning well prevents costly air conditioner repair. Regular check up from an ac repair near me can increase the lifespan of your HVAC. Scheduled maintenance also helps improve your indoor air quality. The furnace repair and maintenance can also reduce your electricity bills especially during winter. Hiring professionals for your heating repair can also keep your home safe for possible carbon monoxide leaks. With these reasons, you should always prioritize your HVAC maintenance. You can avail of the service from companies who also offer water heater repair.

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Indianapolis Museum of Art

The Indianapolis Museum of Art is one of the oldest and largest encyclopedic art museum in the US. It first opened in 1883 and today, it houses more than 54,000 works from all over the world. Some notable collections include Japanese paintings, Chinese ceramics, African and Oceanic art, and contemporary arts. Since the museum is a part of the Newfields campus, visitors can also explore the other attractions near it like the Oldsfields estate and the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park. Admission is free for members whereas for adult non-members, cost is at $18. If you want free admission, visit the museum every first Thursday of the month from 4-9 pm.

Hogsett Seeks for 3rd Term as Mayor

Democrat Mayor Joe Hogsett will seek a re-election as mayor of Indianapolis. The 66-year old candidate started his political career as adviser to Evan Bayh in the 80’s. During his term as mayor, he spearheaded the $590 million criminal justice complex housing and the redevelopment of General Motors plant site. If he wins, this will be his third term for the same position. He vows to increase city police spending and provide new programs to address mental health and substance abuse issues. To date, the possible rival of the incumbent mayor is state Representative Robin Shackleford. Her campaign focuses in making the city safer and addressing the gap between the rich and the poor.

Link to maps

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hvaccontractorssaltlakecity · 3 years ago

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Top Five Ways to Save on Furnace Repair

If you're seeking to save cash on furnace repair work, you've come to the right location. There are lots of ways to minimize fixing your heating system, and here are a few of them: 1. Have it Serviced Frequently This is the something that you absolutely need to do if you want to save money on repairing your heating system. It resembles with your car; if you stop working to change the oil, check the positioning, and change the timing belt, you could end up with an extremely expensive mess when you would have simply needed to pay a little bit to remain on top of those things in the first place. Furnace Replacement Salt lake city The very same thing opts for your heating system. As a basic guideline, you need to bring in a professional to tidy and tune up your heating system a minimum of once a year - if not every six months. This will keep you from having to pay for more pricey repair work down the road, and it has the advantage of having a second set of eyes to inform you when you may require to change your heating system in a couple of months or years. By doing this, you can conserve up cash for a brand-new heating system and installation instead of getting stuck to an unexpected $2,500 expense when your old gas heater finally kicks the bucket. 2. Don't Make it Work So Tough When you don't take steps to conserve energy, you lose cash due to the fact that you're paying more for your electrical energy costs or gas bill, but you likewise squander money by triggering your heater to work harder than it requires to. This isn't to say that you should not put a good heating system to excellent usage, but you will minimize heating system repair if your heating system isn't performing at top level twenty-four hours a day.HVAC contractors salt lake city 3. Examine Prior To You Call Off, be sure that your pilot light is on; if it's gone off for some reason, you'll have instructions - most likely pasted on the side of your heater - for lighting the pilot light. Another standard thing is to be sure the circuit breaker for the heating system is set to the on position.Commercial heating and cooling repairs 4. Call an Expert Once you have actually examined all that basic things, don't attempt to do anything further by yourself. You're most likely to ruin your furnace more, which will end up costing you more in the end. You could also seriously hurt yourself, as heating systems operate on very flammable elements. 5. Purchase a New One This doesn't seem like much of a way to conserve, but it can in fact help you out a lot if you have an older heater. If your heating system is more than fifteen years of ages, as your repairman at the next annual check-up how everything looks and whether it is most likely to break down at any time quickly. Purchasing a newer high-efficiency heater model prior to your old furnace croaks gives you time to conserve up some money and expenses less in repairs later on. 404 Ironwood Drive Salt Lake City, UT 84115

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thebowerypresents · 3 years ago

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Fiery Furnaces Return in a Big Way at Brooklyn Steel on Saturday Night

Fiery Furnaces – Brooklyn Steel – November 13, 2021

It’s not often that you get to see a beloved band resurrected after being dormant for more than a decade. For everyone at Brooklyn Steel over the weekend, the opportunity was too compelling to skip, even on a busy Saturday night, as the Fiery Furnaces returned (save a comeback set at the Pitchfork Festival a couple months back) with their first gig in quite some time. Their set proved to be anything but a nostalgia trip for their longtime fans in the room, the Friedberger siblings, Eleanor and Matt, and their band, playing with a fresh ferocity and a did-you-miss-me? exuberance. They opened with the one-two smack of “Leaky Tunnel” and “Single Again,” and like a bear awakening from hibernation, there was an immediate hunger on the stage and in the crowd. Fiery Furnaces were always about the words, which feel less like lyrics and more like a psychedelic manifesto or pages from a dream journal, more channeled through Eleanor than sung by her, and this energy was there again Saturday from the start, long stretches of hallucinogenic storytelling and mantra-like weirdness. The backdrop behind the stage, filled with words and phrases of equal strangeness, dynamically taking up the lights and colors, occasionally revealing an FF, felt appropriate.

The current touring version of the Fiery Furnaces features two drummers, a bass and keyboards in addition to Eleanor’s vocals and Matt’s room-filling synthesizers. The ensemble had a way of sounding like three or four different songs were going on at once, overlapping conversations of singing, pulsing, hypnotic rhythms and out-there electronics. Somehow these overlaps created new depths and the drummers-bass combo managed to keep things remarkably danceable even at the most experimental moments. Songs flowed one to the next, lyrics like “I’ll be back some old day,” in “I’m Going Away,” sticking out for their relevance. The Friedbergers flexed their ability to make each piece sound like a brand-new thing, unlike the studio version or any previous live version, however long ago in the past, something conceived on the spot, so that a (personal) favorite like “Benton Harbor Blues” came off as something that’s never been played before.

With a catalog like theirs, there’s no such thing as a greatest hits set, but I think they managed to cross a lot off the wish lists for the diehards in the audience, sampling every album in the process. “My Dog Was Lost but Now He’s Found” played with a density few bands could muster, “Chief Inspector Blancheflower” a full half-sung, half-chanted Eleanor fever dream of bizarre imagery, and “I’m in No Mood” falling into an unhinged chaos of synthesizer and drums after Eleanor left the stage for a moment. The band somersaulted momentum to a best-of-the-night closing couplet of “Quay Cur” and “Tropical Ice-Land,” coming off like two parts of a singular suite, syncopated synth evil and triumphant storytelling all at once.

The three-song encore kicked off with “Here Comes the Summer” with Eleanor singing, “Remember,” and the line “I’ve been waiting since I don't know when and now it finally seems about to start” hitting the Friedbergers’ fan base with a little extra kick. The night ended with “Chris Michaels,” off Blueberry Boat, a marvel of language and imagery, a kind of how do they do that!? feat of artistry that only the Fiery Furnaces would attempt, let alone pull off. Eleanor had no trouble with the reams of lyrics, channeling from another dimension as always, feeling like she was concocting improvised poetry on the spot, while her brother tended to his flock of synthesizer bleats, everyone in the satisfied crowd bouncing like they hadn’t in decades and no doubt hoping it wouldn’t be another 10 years before they get to do it again. —A. Stein | @Neddyo

Photo courtesy of @Sashaseesshows

#Aaron Stein #Blueberry Boat #Bowery Presents #Brooklyn #Brooklyn Steel #East Williamsburg #Eleanor Friedberger #Fiery Furnaces #Greeinpoint #Live Music #Matt Friedberger #Music #New York City #Review #Sashaseesshows #Williamsburg

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tales-of-the-party · 7 years ago

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ToftP - Necessary Evil

Rizu: So..... none of the others were expecting me to actually get around to editing a story any time soon probably and I know Bry wants to start promoting the story soon, so I decided to go through story 4 and post it! I’ll try to take good pictures with my iphone (printer and scanner are in a box somewhere) of the characters soon!

Anyways before Eric complains I’m blathering on and on again... Here is the story!

“All I’m saying,” Coil said as he, Bry and Rizu walked into the marketplace, “is that it wouldn’t kill you to try being a bit quieter.” “Seriously.” Rizu added in. “When I was staying with you I got, maybe, five hours of sleep. Total.”

Bry snorted “Maybe you two deviants shouldn’t listen in on a husband and wife’s personal business.” Their pay for the eight months Bry, Rizu and he had been out doing jobs had finally arrived earlier that morning. Three hundred thousand gold each. “Get thicker walls then.” Coil hissed. “You’ve got the gold for it now.” “Can’t,” the warrior shrugged, “gotta buy and repair gear.” Coil and Rizu snorted in unison. Their gear had become kind of ragged during their travels, Coil had to admit. Coil was running low on throwing knives and bombs. He’d also noticed his blade was beginning to chip. He looked at Bry’s halberd and shield. They were suffering from the same issue. And he’d noticed, both during the last two months and from helping Rizu with the sick people in the slums, that Rizu was being extremely careful with her herbs and potions because she was running low. Now that their pay had come in, it was time to restock. Rizu wanted to make sure they had a full inventory before heading out on another mission. “I’m gonna go to Emerra’s Apothecary.” Rizu said pointing at one of the larger kiosks in the marketplace. “She should have my shipment by now. I might also stop by Roharin’s books, see if he has anything new.” “Alright,” Bry said as he wrapped an arm around Coil’s shoulders and shook him slightly, “I’ll be showing Coil to Galladun. See if we can get him some new gear.” “Meet up at the Guild Hall in two hours?” Rizu asked. “Two hours.” Bry and Coil said in unison. Rizu nodded and walked off to the kiosk she’d pointed out earlier. Once she was out of earshot Coil shot a glare at the large warrior. “You’ve got three seconds before you lose that arm.” he warned. Bry rolled his eyes, but removed his arm none the less. “C’mon,” he said pointing at the blacksmith, “this way. But a heads up.” Coil raised his eyebrow, wondering what he needed to worry about. “Galladun is a grumpy bastard.” Bry said rolling his shoulders. “He only makes gear for Guild members, but even then he won’t make ‘em for newbies.”

“That seems a bit...odd.” Coil said after a brief pause. “A lot of newbies to the Guild die,” Bry shrugged as they walked around a large group of people watching a Jester dance on a ball, “so a lot of what he makes goes to waste. So he only makes weapons and armor for veterans.” “Then why am I-” “However,” Bry interrupted, an annoying habit of his that sometimes made Coil wish the snake hadn’t alerted Bry when Coil was about to kill him so many months ago, “he’ll make an exception for a newbie who has a recommendation from a long time member of the Guild.” “Ah, that explains why you’re coming with me.” “Partly.” Bry said as they reached the opening to the smithy. “He may be a crotchety old bastard, but he makes the best gear I’ve ever seen.” From the inside of the smithy, Coil could hear a hammer pounding metal and he could see weapons of all types lining the walls. “Do you know the last time I had to get my halberd repaired?” Bry asked. When Coil shook his head Bry grinned and said. “Three years ago, and even now it’s just a couple small nicks and cracks.” The inside was hot and smelled of metal, heat and sweat. A large furnace sat against the far right wall, and a short ways away was an anvil, with someone standing over it and hammering away at it. “Who are ya an’ whadda ya want?” the figure asked, without turning around. His voice was rough and gravelly, like he had rocks in his throat. “Your favorite halberd wielding pal,” Bry said cheerfully, “and a stray that he picked up on the road.” Coil glared at him and Bry simply shrugged with a grin.

The figure hammered at his piece for a few more minutes before taking the metal he’d been beating into a pair of tongs and dipped it in a sink off to the side. The water hissed and steam rose. After a few moments he pulled it back out and inspected it. He turned and Coil had to suppress a grimace. The blacksmith, Galladun he assumed, was an elf and like all of his kind he looked young. He had black hair tied under a dark red bandanna and dark brown eyes. He wore a blacksmith's apron, the pockets on the front containing a small hammer, tongs and other tools, a sleeveless black shirt and black trousers with matching boots.

Starting under his left eye, covering his cheek and jaw, and going down just barely touching his shoulder, the skin was warped from being burned. Galladun narrowed his eyes when he saw Bry and he spit on the floor. “Thought ya were dead, given’ how long you’ve been gone.” “Oh please,” Bry drawled and waved his left hand in a dismissive gesture, “we were just taking a bunch of jobs. All of ‘em I coulda done in my sleep.” Galladun snorted and turned his gaze toward Coil. “You a Guild member?” he asked. Coil grabbed the corner of his mask and tugged it down slightly to reveal his Brand, visible only to Guild members. The elf snorted. “An’ how long have ya been in the Guild?” “Technically a week.” Coil said, tugging his mask back up. “But I’ve been traveling with Bry and Rizu for around six months.” Galladun’s face twisted up in annoyance and he looked toward Bry. “You know how I feel about new members.” the elft grumbled.

“I know, I know.” Bry said holding up his hands, palms out. “But that’s why I’m here. I can vouch for his skills, he’s almost as good as me.” Coil scoffed at the last comment. Galladun eyed Coil and strode up to him. Bry moved to the side and leaned against the wall. The elven blacksmith circled Coil several times, eyeing every part of him. “Thin, light gear, more the type for sneaking or quick strikes.” he heard Galladun mumbling as he circled Coil. Finally he stopped. “I’ve got some ideas for the wear, but for now I have some weapons that could work for your style.” “What would those be?” Coil asked, following the elf as he wandered to one of the walls and picked out a sword. “The first is this.” Galladun replied, handing the sword to Coil. He raised his eyebrows in surprise. It was similar to his current sword, a katana. But instead of one blade, there were two. The blades were about an inch to an inch and a half apart. The guard was in a thick diamond shape and the handle was wrapped in tight black lace. He noticed a small trigger under the guard. “The blades are close, so that even if you miss a killing shot,” Galladun rasped, “they’ll still either bleed out or die of infection.”

“Impressive” Coil said, giving the weapon some test swings, thrusts and twirls. “Press the trigger under the guard.” Coil did so and jumped slightly as the left side of the sword suddenly separated from the rest. He caught the half of the sword in his left hand. “It can split to become a double blade.” Coil said approvingly. “What else do you got for him?” Bry asked, walking forward and looking at the blades over Coil’s shoulder. Coil snapped the two halves back together and handed the blade back to the elf. Galladun walked to another section of wall and picked a bow off the wall. The longbow was painted black, the rubber grip fit snugly in his hand. There were four metal plates on the front of the bow, two on top and two on bottom. Between each set of plates was a long thin blade sticking out. “A bladed bow?” Coil asked, examining the weapon.

“Made of Ironwood.” the blacksmith said, then added proudly. “And the string is made of unicorn hair.” Coil pulled the string back as far as he could, testing the tension. He eased it back to it’s regular position and handed it back to the elf. “How much?” Coil asked. The elf grumbled a bit before spitting on the floor again. “Normally I’d say a hundred fifty thousand gold,” he said before flicking a wrist at Bry, “but since you’re with him, I’ll say a hundred twenty five thousand. And I’ll throw in thirty arrows for free.” “And for the sword?” “Same.” Coil rubbed his chin in thought, he admitted he liked both weapons but he wasn’t sure if he could afford both. He also needed throwing knives and bombs on top of needing to save a little bit to buy a house. After several more moments he looked up. “Give me the bow.”

“And what about you, runt?” the old elf asked, looking up at Bry “What’re you botherin’ me for?”

"Need some repairs to my halberd, ya old coot." Bry drawled. It was an old game between him and the elf, they’d insult each other and whoever reacted first lost.

"Oh, is that all?" Galladun asked as Bry handed him the weapon and he examined the weapon.

"No, I also want you to install Runes."

Galladun looked up at him and raised an eyebrow, Bry also noticed Coil look over at the mention.

"You sure about that, boy?" Galladun asked. "You know installing Runes is expensive."

"I know," Bry said with a grin, "but I’ve saved up quite a bit over the years."

Galladun let out a ‘hrmph’ and nodded.

"Which Runes do you want?"

"Sharpening on the halberd and impact on the shield."

The blacksmith chewed for several seconds.

"Normally I’d charge you nine hundred thousand." he said finally. "But for you...Seven hundred thousand."

Bry nodded and took his bag off his shoulders. He set it on a nearby table and opened the pouch containing his gold. He counted out the seven hundred thousand gold and placed it on the counter. Bronze were worth ten, silver twenty five. Gold was split into three categories: one hundred, one thousand and one hundred thousand.

After a moment’s thought he also pulled out four silver and five bronze.

"Need the halberd sharpened too, same with Coil’s sword."

"An’ the bronze?"

"A tip." Bry said with a grin.

Galladun gave Bry an evil eye look and sniffed.

"Give me about forty-five minutes." the old elf said, taking Bry’s halberd and Coil’s sword over to a whetstone.

"I thought you said he was a grouchy, mean guy?" Coil asked "Considering the discounts he gave us, I find it hard to believe."

"Yeah." Bry drawled with a grin. "I said it just to scare ya."

Coil punched him in his bare left arm and Bry laughed.

The near hour passed in silence, the two men watching the elven smith work. The sharpening had only taken a few minutes, no more than ten. Putting the Runes on Bry’s halberd and shield, however, took much longer.

After the final etching had been done he returned their weapons.

"You want me ta finish that armor for ya?" the blacksmith asked, pointing at Bry’s bare arm.

"No." Bry said, maybe a little too defensively. "It’s fine the way it is. Thanks though."

He noticed Coil staring at him, but only out of the corner of the rogue’s eye.

"Humph." the elf said "So be it. You lads need anythin’ else, or can I finally get some peace around here?"

"I need some throwing knives." Coil said. "and some bombs if you have them"

Galladun gave a grumpy sigh before turning toward the shop "I’ll see what I can find." He walked off, grumbling something about ‘annoying whipper snappers’

After Galladun was out of earshot Coil finally spoke.

"I’ve wanted to ask about that." he said eyeing Brys arm. "Not wearing armor on your left arm I mean."

Bry was silent for several seconds before flexing his left arm.

"It makes me look cool." he said finally with a smile.

Coil started at him flatly and snorted.

Bry hummed a few moments before Coil’s stare finally forced him to sigh.

"There’s a couple reasons." he said "You know I use my halberd with my left arm. Not having any armor over it gives it more flexibility."

"And the other reason?"

"My pride." Bry said, staring off and smiling slightly.

"You’re pride?" Coil asked, tilting his head.

"My left arm is my weapon arm. If I lose it, my life as a warrior and an Adventurer is over."

"All the more reason to put armor over it!" Coil hissed.

Bry shook his head and said "It’s a challenge, to anyone I fight."

Coil raised his eyebrows but Bry said nothing more on the matter.

The blacksmith returned shortly.

"How many ya need of each?"

Coil took several more seconds before tearing his eyes from Bry toward the elf.

"How much are they?"

"Ri! My love!" Emerra shouted when she saw Rizu break away from Bry and Coil and head toward her kiosk.

A human, Emerra was in her mid thirties with long sandy colored hair and big green eyes. She wore a long red and blue dress and a matching beret.

Rizu waved as she walked to the kiosk. Her old team had stopped in Largun two or three times and Emerra had been one of her first stops after receiving her pay. Part of the reason Rizu had decided to live in Largun was because of her. Emerra may not have had the largest stock of ingredients, but she had some of the best and most potent ingredients on half of the continent.

"Hello Emerra," Rizu said with a smile, "how have you been?"

"Without my favorite customer around? Business was… fair." Emerra said with a grin.

Rizu snorted.

"Did my shipment come in?"

"I believe it did." Emerra said turning to a stack of boxes behind her "Fifty Redroot, two jars of pinecones, ten orcish sunflowers-"

"That’s it" Rizu said quickly, the list of ingredients was long and she needed to make her potions quickly. "How much for it?"

"For the entire shipment…" Emerra hummed, tapping her chin "fifteen thousand."

Another reason Rizu used Emerra as her main source of ingredients, she always gave Rizu a great price. Rizu went through her coin pouch and pulled out the fifteen thousand.

"Appreciated love," Emerra said pocketing the coin "I’ll lend you a dolly so you can get it home."

"You’re too good to me, Emerra." Rizu said as Emerra slipped the dolly under the boxes, tilted it back and moved them out of the kiosk.

"Well naturally," the herbalist hummed "gotta treat the regulars right so they keep coming back."

Rizu moved behind the dolly and kicked it back, she turned to thank Emerra again but paused when she noticed the herbalist biting her lip in thought.

"What is is?"

"There’s...something I should tell you Ri." the woman said with a grimace. "Another white mage came by yesterday."

"Okay?" Rizu said with a tilt of her head "You expect me to act like you’re cheating on me by selling to other people?"

"No," Emerra said holding up her hands, "it’s...The people was she was. I recognized one."

Rizu wasn’t sure what to say, so she remained silent.

"It was Jarren," Emerra finally said, "he’s got a new group. And from what I could pick up of their chatter...they’re moving into the city after the job they’re out on."

Rizu felt her stomach clench up and her breath got caught in her throat.

Jarren had been the leader of the last team she’d been on. After finding out he’d been using her and shirking on her pay and that he was going to sell one of their members out for a bounty, she’d broken from the group on less than good terms.

"Ri?" the herbalist asked, snapping Rizu out of her thoughts. She hadn’t noticed she’d been gripping the dolly so hard, her knuckles were white and her fingers hurt like hell.

"I’m fine." Rizu said after taking a deep breath to calm her nerves "Thank you for letting me know."

Emerra said nothing, only nodding as Rizu walked away with the dolly and her boxes.

Her old team leader living in Largun. There was no way that they wouldn’t meet at some point. She’d deal with that hurdle when she came to it

"There she is." Coil said pointing out toward the far corner of the market. Bry placed his hand over his eyes and squinted.

Rizu was walking toward the Guild Hall, of which Bry and Coil were sitting on the rail while they waited, with Fluffles in tow behind her.

"Her walk…" Coil said hesitantly.

"She’s walking too fast," Bry said, leaning back and crossing his arms. "Something’s bothering her."

She walked up to the two of them and only said "Let’s go."

"Something bothering you, short stack?" Bry asked, not moving from his spot.

Rizu glared up at him and Bry almost regretted the jokeful tone. She was in full on team leader mode.

He saw her clench her teeth and her fists tighten on her staff.

He flinched back slightly, preparing for the verbal assault he knew was coming. He was surprised when she sighed and her shoulders slumped.

"I’ll tell you two about it later." she finally said. "For now, let’s just focus on finding a job to do."

Bry and Coil shared a look. After a few moments of silence they both nodded and the trio entered the Guild Hall.

As always, the Guild Hall was full of people. Every seat of every table was taken. Even the bar stools were all taken.

They moved through the crowded group, Bry giving an evil eye to anyone that bumped them, and walked to the notice board.

"Not a lot of new jobs." Bry noticed, seeing the papers hung up on the board.

"Doesn’t matter," Rizu said reading through the notices, "we just gotta take whatever is available."

After a couple of minutes Coil pulled one off the wall.

"How about this one?" he asked, holding it out as Bry and Rizu leaned in. "It’s a request from a town being attacked by goblins."

"How’s the pay?" Bry asked.

"What does that matter?" Rizu asked shortly. "It’s people in need of help."

"Indeed." Coil said with a nod "But, to answer Bry’s question, it looks like seventy-five thousand."

"How far away?"

"It’s in a town called Hartua." Coil said, pointing at the name.

"Been through there, I think." Bry said rubbing his chin. "About a three days walk from the city."

"Why don’t the soldiers handle it though?" Coil asked. "It seems like something they should take care of."

"Probably think it’s too far beneath their notice." Bry huffed in annoyance "Back when I was with Boltol, the higher ups were like that. Anything not involving an invasion or invading force they left to the local Guild. Goblins usually travel around in groups of twenty to thirty, not enough to send the garrison out."

"Lazy asses." Rizu huffed, taking the paper out of Coil’s hand. "Let’s go."

"That it?" Bry asked, looking down from the hilltop at the town.

"Matches the coordinates on the map." Coil said. "So it must be"

"Let’s go introduce ourselves then." Rizu said from atop Fluffles, now back to his regular, large self.

She still chuckled a bit every time she thought of the looks on the guards faces when Fluffles passed by the wards she’d etched into the gate, turning from a small fluffball that she could carry with one arm into a massive beast that could tear through squads of soldiers like butter.

Hartua had one single road running straight through the town. The town itself was built like a box, houses on either side of the road with a single fence reach behind all the homes on either side. A ways off from the houses on the left was a large wheat field. The only exception to the box shape was the temple that was at the end of the rows of houses.

Easily the largest building around, it dwarfed the homes of the townsfolk. Made out of pure stone it had a vast stairway leading toward the entrance. Eight pillars stood on either side once they reached the top of the stairway. The door was twelve feet high and ten wide and were wide open.

The entire town was inside, praying. In the back past the pews was a tall statue of a humanoid figure wearing a toga, holding wheat in one hand and a hand scythe in the other.

Roth, Rizu thought, God of the Harvest. She thought people had given up worship of the Old Pantheon years ago. Interesting.

She looked to Bry and the warrior raised an eyebrow. She nodded in response.

He grinned and held his arms out as far as they could, and quickly clapped his hands together. The metal gauntlets created a booming echo throughout the temple, causing all the townsfolk to jump.

They turned, timid and frightened.

"Heard you guys have a goblin problem." Rizu said leaning forward and resting her arms on top of Fluffles head, her chin resting on her arms. "We’re here to see if we can help you with that."

The townsfolk were silent for a moment. Then the whispering began as the man who’d been kneeling right in front of the statue moments before came to greet them. He was bald, had tanned leathery skin with a short white beard and grey eyes

"I am Palanar, headsman of Hartua and priest of Roth, God of the Harvest." he looked between the three Adventurers and the chimera, then behind them. "Where is the rest of your force?"

"Force?" Rizu asked.

"We sent the request to the garrison at the Crown City..." the old man started.

"They handed it off to the Adventurers Guild," Coil said, "the three of us took the job to come and help."

The old man’s face fell and his shoulders slumped.

"It’s just a wandering Goblin group," Bry said with a shrug, "we can handle it in no-"

"It’s no group" Palanar whispered.

"Eh?" the three Adventurers said in unison.

"It’s an entire clan, numbering three hundred strong."

"Three hun-" Coil started, his hand flying to his head and beginning to rub his temples.

"We can make it work." Rizu hissed, scanning the pews. "I count four hundred people here. If we can set up a defense-"

"NO!" Palanar shouted, the ‘no’ echoing throughout the temple.

"We’re farmers," the old man explained, "the only ones among us who know how to use weapons are the hunters. We tried to fight when the creatures first arrived, two weeks ago, but…" he cut off and shook his head as tears began to form in his eyes.

Rizu looked through the crowd again, eyes turned down toward the floor and lips pressed together until they turned white.

"The goblins made an example of someone," Bry whispered after a few moments, "didn’t they?"

The old man looked up, tears streaming down his eyes, and nodded.

"Show us."

Coil stared at the corpses of the three young women, cut open throat to groin and hollowed out.

The goblin’s had done a rough crucification of the women, their bodies slumped against the wood, arms spread open with nails in the biceps, forearm and palms and their heels digging into the earth. The rotten flesh was dried out. They’d been dead for quite some time.

The former assassin shook his head ruefully and looked to his companions.

Rizu appeared calm, her breathing was controlled and her eyes were cold. But her hands were tightly clenched, her knuckles turning white and he thought he could see them shaking. If Coil had to compare, her fury was a storm held in by glass.

Bry, on the other hand, was an inferno that’d long since burned away the paper cage around it. His teeth were bared in a snarl, his eyes filled with pure fury and his nails dug into the flesh of his palm.

"Why?" Bry snarled, turning toward the townsfolk. "Why haven’t you taken their bodies down yet?"

The crowd either looked down or shied away from Bry’s fury.

"WHY!?" the warrior roared.

"Th-the goblins." Palanar stuttered, looking like he wanted to run "They threatened to burn down the town if we did."

Palanar’s answer seemed to add wood to the fire, Bry became more furious.

"Where are the husbands of these women?" Bry growled. "Bring them up here."

"Bry." Rizu said quietly, turning her head slightly to the warrior. "Stop it."

Coil felt a chill at Rizu’s tone. The mage’s implied far more danger than Bry’s at the moment.

But if the warrior had heard her words, he ignored them. Three men walked toward the group timidly and Bry walked toward them.

Faster than his bulk would suggest, Bry struck the middle man across the face with a backhand. The one on the left he kicked in the stomach.

The right one he grabbed and headbutt to the ground.

"Bry!" Rizu said louder, her anger finally showing. "That’s enough!"

Bry turned and glared darkly at the mage. Rizu returned the look, refusing to back down. Coil could swear he saw angry sparks fly between the two.

Finally Bry backed down. Turning to the three men, now struggling to get to their feet, he said "Pathetic. Your wives are dead and you’re too scared to even give them a burial."

"T-the g-goblins said-" the man Bry had backhanded started.

"It doesn’t matter!" Bry snarled. "You should have buried them properly, instead of looking at them each day and pissing yourself in fear."

The men looked down, trying to avoid eye contact with Bry. The warrior spit off to the side and turned away from them.

"Didn’t expect that." Coil said as Bry approached. Now that he thought of it, he didn’t think he’d ever seen Bry so angry. "Didn’t take you for the kind of guy who’d get mad at seeing a few dead women."

"It’s not that." Bry said as he crossed his arms. "It��s that their own husbands are so pitiful they didn’t even bury them."

Coil stared at the warrior. For all the time he’d traveled with Bry and Rizu, Bry had always seemed guarded. Keeping his emotions locked down and revealing little unless it was needed. Seeing him in a rage and beating down those three men, Coil kind of understood why Bry seemed to keep everything down.

"A wolf of Boltol thing?" Coil asked, turning back to the bodies.

"No." Bry said with a shake of his head "It’s a decency thing."

"Enough banter," Rizu said with a sigh, "cut them down. We’ll try to figure out a plan to deal with the goblins after."

"No!" Palanar shouted "if you cut them down the goblins will-"

Bry and Rizu both turned toward the old man, their dark glares forcing him down.

They’d done it perfectly in unison. Must come from being partners for so many years. He wondered if he’d ever get to the point he could do that too.

"Let’s go buddy," Bry said lightly bumping Coil on the shoulder. "I’ll cut the back of the nails off, you pull them out. I need to test the Rune the old man put on my weapon."

Coil nodded and followed behind. As they worked, he tried to recall all the information he knew about goblins.

Some people theorized that goblins were smaller and weaker cousins to the orcs, though the orcs denied any relation to the beasts.

Goblins had no tusks like orcs did, and while most orcs could pass for humans without the tusks or the different skin colors.

Goblins, however, were small and twisted by their corrupt and bloodthirsty nature.

Orcs were a warrior race that only fought when glory was involved, but goblins tortured and killed for the sheer pleasure of it.

In terms of pure physical strength, the average goblin was slightly weaker than the average human. They weren’t very smart, though the bigger, stronger and smarter of them could speak some basic words of the sentient races.

All in all, if there were three hundred of them then he, Rizu and Bry had little chance of success. In an open battle Bry and Coil could, between the two of them, kill maybe fifty or sixty. Rizu could possibly kill a number more with her magic, but they’d be overwhelmed sooner than later.

"We need to call for backup." Coil finally said as he and Bry laid the last corpse down. "The three of us can’t handle this on our own."

"No." Bry said with a shake of his head. "It’ll take the guards or other Guild members days to get here."

Bry looked back at the town and the anger crossed his face again.

"We have reinforcements right there," the warrior said waving an arm at the town, "but they’d rather piss themselves than fight."

"They’re farmers, Bry," Coil said, "they don’t know how to fight."

"They don’t need to know how!" Bry said with a frustrated sigh. "All they need to do is overwhelm them. They outnumber the goblins!"

Coil shrugged.

"Some people would rather not take the risk of dying." he said. "It’s in every creature's nature."

Bry make a tsking sound before grabbing a nearby shovel and began to dig.

"Making them each a grave?" Coil asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course," Bry growled, "if their incompetent husbands won’t do it, then someone has to."

Bry was halfway through the second grave when Rizu and Fluffles came back, shaking her head in frustration.

"They keep refusing to fight." she hissed. "So it’s up to the three of us."

"We’ll die." Bry grunted as he threw another mound of dirt off the shovel.

"We can make a strategy and-"

"We’ll die." Bry repeated "Three of us against three hundred goblins? The closest we’d get to winning is if we pin them in a choke off point."

"And even then they’d overwhelm us" Coil finished with a nod.

"Well," Rizu said, placing her hands on her hips, "we need to do something."

Fluffles let out a growl of agreement, eyeing the bodies and licking his lips.

"Don’t even think about it." Coil warned the beast.

"I do have an idea." Bry said quietly between shoveling. "But you won’t like it."

Rizu and Coil shared a look for a moment before returning their gaze to Bry.

"What is it?" the small mage asked.

Bry stuck the shovel in the ground, looking to make sure the three were alone.

"We burn the wheat field and blame it on the goblins."

Coil and Rizu’s eyes widened with shock.

"No," Rizu snarled, "absolutely not!"

"I second that." Coil said with a nod toward Rizu. "If we burn the wheat field, they’ll lose a source of food and income. We’ll be responsible for them dying, and I don’t kill anyone except my targets."

"They can always plant more." Bry insisted. "And it’ll force them to fight."

"How so?"

"A man with enough will can survive without food." Bry said, turning toward Coil. "A man with food can survive without will. But if a man has neither, he’ll become desperate and do whatever the person who offers him both tells him to do."

Coil rubbed his chin in thought. Bry had a good point, but still...to destroy the wheat field and starve these people just so he could make them fight? It didn’t sit well with him.

"I don’t know Bry…" Coil said, jumping slightly when Rizu slammed her foot and staff on the ground.

"No." she snarled. "It’ll do more damage than good to these people. The three of us can handle it."

Bry’s eyes darkened and he walked forward. He grabbed both of them by the backs of their heads and forced them forward toward the corpses.

"Look at them." Bry growled.

"Stop it Bry." Rizu hissed but Bry pushed them both forward, closer to the corpses.

"LOOK AT THEM!" he roared. "This is what they’ll do to us if we fight on our own. You like the thought of that? Being crucified, split open and hollowed out while they slaughter all those folks who don’t want to fight?"

He released his grip on their heads and shoved them forward onto their knees.

"Grow up." he snarled. "Three against three hundred isn’t a battle that can be won. If we want to survive, we need to get these people to fight."

Coil stared down at the body of the poor woman and lowered his head. Damn the man, he was right. No matter how Coil played it out in his head, the three of them always ended up dead and the town was torched to the ground. All except for the one where they forced the townsfolk to fight.

"He’s right Rizu," Coil whispered, "as much as I hate to admit it. We can’t win with just us."

Coil could see Rizu shaking and he could hear her grind her teeth as she thought of another way to try and get the people to fight or to fight three hundred goblins by themselves. She finally turned toward Bry, tears streaming down her face.

"Fine." she said quietly. "We’ll do it your way. But goddamn it Bry, I’ll never forgive you."

"Not looking for forgiveness," Bry said with a shrug, "just to survive and get the job done."

Coil sat on the branch, watching the road the townsfolk had said lead to where the goblins had set up camp.

Bry’s plan still didn’t sit well with him, he felt like every town person who died would be his responsibility. But he had to push those feelings down, they needed the people to fight if the three of them were to survive.

Keep telling yourself that, his subconscious said.

According to the townsfolk two goblins came every four days for payment of wheat, grain and meat. If they couldn’t provide the latter, the goblins just took one of the children.

After Rizu and Coil had left from hearing Bry’s plan, Rizu had said something that was still going through Coil’s mind.

"In a way, I’m glad it’s goblins and not bandits." the mage had said quietly.

"Why is that?" he had asked.

"Because, goblins are simple monsters. Animals kill for food, monsters kill for sport. It’d be much more terrifying if one of the sentient races willingly chose to do such evil, don’t you think?"

There was still evil in the world, even among the sentient races. But he’d never given much thought to such things, he’d never really had a reason to.

He saw movement down the road and used his Inner Magic to enhance his vision.

Two goblins wearing leather armor, wielding shoddy and rusted weapons.

The one on the left was taller, his skin a pale grey with dagger like teeth coming from between its lips. The one on the right had a near blue hue of skin, it’s lips cut away revealing all three rows of teeth.

Coil took an arrow out of his quiver, dipping it in oil and igniting it with flint. He took his bow in his right hand and aimed at the edge of the field.

When the goblins were within range, letting out a series of growls and grunts, he released the arrow. The wheat caught fire quickly and the goblins turned in surprise. Coil drew another arrow and aimed at the taller of the two.

Rizu wiped her brow as the patient she’d been working on sat up from the table and hobbled off.

"Next!" she shouted, waving to the next person in line.

She’d decided to spend her time helping to heal the people who’d been wounded by the goblins the first time the monsters had arrived.

She tried not to think of Bry’s plan and what would happen after. Even him mentioning it had felt like a physical blow. It went against everything she stood for as a white mage. It would save their lives, true, but so many townspeople would die as a result.

She still hadn’t spoken to Bry since his mention of it. If she did, she’d say something they’d both regret. The warrior was more than content with that, keeping himself busy with setting traps through the night.

She could understand from his point. He’d been a soldier and was still a warrior through and through out on the field. Fighting and survival were the two instincts he felt the most out in the field, but that didn’t make it right.

She’d already been stressed over the thought of running into Jarren again and Bry’s plan was pushing her to her limit.

She took a deep breath and forced the issue with Jarren out of her mind, she’d deal with it another time. For now, she needed to worry about keeping as many people alive as possible.

She heard a commotion out in the hall which quickly grew into a panic, then she could smell the smoke and waited until everyone’s backs were turned before biting her lip in anger.

"Fire!" She heard someone shout. "The fields are on fire!"

Her makeshift infirmary exploded into motion as the people in the hallway and the cots ran outside to see.

"Damn them." she whispered as she stood and grabbed her staff.

Even if the people did fight and survive, they’d still go hungry. Bry’s plan didn’t call for burning a small bit of the field, he claimed that wouldn’t be enough to encourage the people to fight.

He planned on burning it all.

She followed behind and grimaced at the black smoke already covering the horizon.

In the distance she could see Bry shouting at the villagers and pointing at the field.

She felt a wrenching in her gut at how he actually seemed HONEST about trying to help the people whose crops he was destroying.

She followed close to the crowd, several of them running to the well in the center of town with buckets in their hands.

She looked out at the large greasy black smoke as it rose higher and higher into the sky.

She made her choice. To hell with Bry’s plan, she’d find a way to convince the people without starving them.

She walked over to the well where people were getting their water. Several of the townsfolk looked at her in confusion, and some in rage or annoyance, as she crawled upon the stone well and stood.

She tapped her staff on the stone and focused her energy downward into the waters of the well. She smirked as she felt it go even deeper and reach into an underground lake. That was more than enough water.

Spreading her magic throughout the water, she rose her hand and the water burst from the well. She turned and held her hand out toward the fire.

A long snake-like length of water went from the well to over the fire. About fifty feet side to side and forty from top to bottom, the water slithered in the sky toward the area she’d indicated.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Bry give her an annoyed look.

She felt a great deal of satisfaction clenching her fist and watching the water spread out, becoming a thin sheet and falling over the field all at once.

Steam mixed with the already high smoke, but from the looks of it she’d managed to put out the entirety of the fire.

Bry approached as the people cheered and leaned against the well.

"You’re eager to get us killed, aren’t you?" he asked, his tone flat.

"We’ll figure out another way to get them to fight, Bry." she said. "There has to be another way than that."

"They’d be hungry," he admitted, "but they’d still be alive."

"We can still use part of your plan." she said with a wicked grin as she spotted Coil walking down the road with something over his shoulders.

When he was close enough she saw him look toward the field before raising an eyebrow at them.

Coil stopped about thirty feet from them and dropped the goblin on the ground, an arrow sticking out of the back of its neck.

"A goblin?" one of the men asked as Palanar made his way to the front of the crowd.

"There were two of them," Coil said rolling his shoulders, "I saw them throw a torch into the field and shot this one, but the other got away."

"But...but why?" Palanar asked. "We’ve met their demands!"

"Probably found another spot to bleed dry." Bry said with a shrug. "Figure they don’t need you anymore. Probably set fire to the fields to starve you before coming and finishing you off."

A panicked buzz went through the townsfolk, several people simply fell to their knees or began to cry.

"Enough of that!" Rizu snapped, stomping a foot on the well.

The buzz slowed. It didn’t cease all together, but it was good enough.

"W-will you defend us?" Palanar asked, falling to his knees and pressing his forehead to the ground.

"We will," Rizu said with a nod, "but we can’t do it by ourselves."

"But you’re Adventurers!" someone shouted.

"Three Adventurers." she corrected "Against three hundred goblins. We could kill several of them, true, but we’d be overrun eventually and they’d still kill you all."

"What are we to do then?" Palanar asked. Rizu could tell from his tone he knew what she was going to say, and she felt her gut knot.

"Fight." she said "Bry and Coil are veteran fighters and can show you some of what they know within the upcoming days, and we can set traps."

"But we’re simple farmers." Palanar said once again, raising his head. "Besides our hunters bows, we have no weapons."

"Not true." Bry said with a snort.

All eyes turned toward the warrior and he hooked his thumb over toward the treeline about two miles out.

"You can make spears from the wood there. A spear’d be a better choice for you anyway, keeps the enemy at a distance. And I’m sure, being ‘simple farmers’ you have pitchforks around."

The people began to whisper again and Rizu whistled. The people in the back of the crowd parted as Fluffles made his way forward, stopping and sitting in front of Rizu. She pet him on the head and said "Fluffles, be a dear and make these people shut up so mama can finish talking."

The chimera rumbled, turning toward the crowd and roaring, shaking the dirt on the ground. The closest of the townsfolk covered their ears, and when Fluffles fell silent no one spoke"

"Thank you Fluffles, you’re mama’s good boy."

The chimera laid down, crossing his front paws and purred.

"Now." Rizu said placing her hands on her hips. "Yes, I can understand why you’d be scared. I’m sure very few of you have been in an actual fight."

"But that doesn’t matter," she continued, "you hold the numbers advantage. And, as I said, we can make traps to be sure the goblins take heavier losses."

"If you don’t fight," she said after several seconds of silence, "then they’ll burn this town to the ground, kill and likely eat all of you. Including your children."

She saw several of the townsfolk look up and their eyes harden.

"Now quit wasting time and let’s start getting ready. We’ve got four days."

The people nodded solemnly and broke off, the majority running off to the farms to grab saws and axes to break down the trees and begin making spears.

"Not half bad," Bry said with a slow clap, "not half good either, but I’ll give it some credit."

Rizu snorted in response.

"I think this is a better alternative." Coil said walking up to the pair and petting Fluffles between the shoulders. "Your plan was going to leave a bad taste in my mouth. And this way, they fight AND don’t starve."

Bry shrugged "I’m man enough to admit when I’m wrong."

"Do we have an actual plan for how we’re going to do this?" Coil asked, turning to Rizu.

"I have some ideas, but we need to make sure everyone has the weapons they need and at least a little bit of training. So I don’t think any of us are going to be getting much sleep."

"I’ll scout around. See which paths the goblins are most likely to take and mark them for traps."

Coil said walking off.

"Guess I’ll get ready to show these farmers how to fight." Bry said stretching. "What about you?"

"What I was doing before, tending to the sick and wounded." the mage replied as she stepped down from the well.

Bry nodded and began to walk off before stopping and walking over to the dead goblin, a grin on his face.

"Hey Rizu," Bry said lifting the goblin’s head with one hand, "you never told me your twin lived this far from home."

A vein twitched under her right eye and she bashed him over the head with her staff.

The warrior cursed and rubbed his head "You’re right, this is MUCH too pretty to be YOUR twin."

Three more twitches. Three more hits.

"So does everyone understand the plan?" Rizu asked looking between Bry, Coil, Palanar and four of the younger townsfolk Bry had chosen as commanders. All seven nodded.

"Considering it’s your plan, I’m actually somewhat impressed." Bry said, crossing his arms.

"What’s yours? ‘Hit them really hard’?" Rizu asked, deepening her voice to a mocking tone at the second half of her question.

"If it works, it works." Bry said with a shrug and a grin. "And it’s always worked for me."

"Are they normally like this?" Pelenar asked, raising a brow at Coil.

"Oh no," Coil said with a smile, "normally they’re MUCH worse than this."

The meeting was in Palanar’s barn, forty feet tall from ceiling to floor and forty wide, one of the biggest buildings in the town and perfectly centered to send orders from before the goblins arrived in less than an hour.

"Does anyone have any changes they think need to be added?" Rizu asked looking between the group.

"I… may have an idea." Coil said, rubbing his chin. "But I’m going to need all the hunters in the village and two of our lance fences."

"Oh ho?" Bry asked, a grin crossing his face. "What do you have in mind?"

"You’ll have to wait and see my friend." Coil said returning the smile.

Rizu watched from over the top of one of the houses as the goblins reach the edge of the town. Several were bloodied and wounded from the traps set up on the roads Coil had scouted out.

Every single one of them were angry.

Only a small number of them were carrying torches, looking side to side as they prowled the streets.

"Looks like everyone’s in position." Bry said with a small smile. "We just need them to get a little bit further in before Coil springs his surprise."

Rizu nodded and looked behind her, where half the townsfolk were hiding under fake foliage and fake grass, preparing for their attack.

Finally the last goblin made its way into the center of the town.

"Send the sig-" Rizu started but cut off as she felt a small shiver run through her spine. She reached out with her magic senses and her eyes widened.

She felt three magical presences among the goblins. Their aura’s felt as greasy and cruel as regular goblins were.

She tried to stop Bry, waving her hand toward him and hissing. Her heart fell as he lit the signal flare and fired it into the air, catching the attention of the goblins.

She hadn’t counted on there being a magic wielding goblin, let alone three of them.

Coil spotted the flare from his hiding place at the last house before the temple and motioned to the fifteen hunters with him, seven with him and eight on the other side. Four on each side moved behind the large carts they’d hidden alongside themselves and pushed them out into the streets, side by side. The goblins spotted them but were too slow to reach them. Coil and thirteen of the hunters scrambled on top of the carts, the last two taking a position on either end of the carts and began firing into the charging goblins, about fifty.

For every one of Coil’s arrows that hit a target, the hunters missed three. Knowing what was going to come soon, Coil made sure to pick off the biggest brutes of the charging horde.

He made sure to hit eyes and throats with every shot. The hunters arrows more often than not would hit some of the leather armor the goblins were wearing. By the time he’d downed his thirteenth goblin all the hunters combined had killed four and wounded seventeen others.

The goblins closed, in howling for the humans blood. Coil waited until they were twenty feet before turning to the hunters on the ends of the carts and shouting "NOW!"

The hunters on the ground grabbed a pair of ropes (one on either end) and pulled, lifting two large lance fences. Each of the wooden steak was eight feet long and tied so close together the tips were mere inches apart, leaving no gaps for the goblins to squeeze through.

The first few goblins tried to halt their charge, but the group behind hadn’t seen the fences yet.

The first row of goblins were pushed into the spikes with, oddly, satisfying crunches as the steaks tore through them.

Now at point blank range, the hunters didn’t need to really aim. Just fire into the group of goblins and quickly finished off the remainder of the group of fifty.

The main force of goblins shrieked and roared in fury as they moved to charge the barricade, knowing the archers would be low on arrows by now.

Rather than be afraid, Coil smiled as he saw a large form dash across one of the roofs, howling as it leapt and landed on one of the charging goblins, crushing the unfortunate beast.

The three in front turned to see what had happened to their companion and lost their heads in one strike as Bry’s halberd slashed across their necks, the goblins behind momentarily stunned by the large warrior.

Then the screaming began again, this time as the people of Hartua charged with wooden spears, pitchforks and saws from either side of the town and caught the goblins in the middle.

Coil drew his sword and jumped off the top of the cart, over the fences and the goblin corpses decorating them and dashed into the battle, his sword in his left hand and his bow in his right.

Even with the numerical advantage and the small amount of training, Bry could see the hesitation and fear from the townsfolk as they fought the much better geared goblins. He needed to make sure their morale didn’t break. With such a small force he figured twenty percent casualties would be enough to break the townsfolk morale and they’d break rank, and if that happened the goblins would slaughter them. So he’d always throw himself into wherever the fighting was thickest, keeping as many of the farmers alive as he could.

He had to give the old elf credit, the Runes and repair to his gear was top notch. With the sharpening rune he cut through the goblins like a hot knife through butter, one swing and they were in pieces. With the impact rune he barely felt whenever his shield was struck, even when one of the goblins went at him with a mace.

The goblins seemed to realize that he was the one pushing the hardest and causing the most casualties on their side, the tip off was when a dozen of them broke off from their engagements and swarmed at him.

He downed the first with a strike from head to toe, splitting the monster in half. The second he shoved aside with his shield to stab the third in the throat.

The fourth got through and slashed the joint in his leg armor, cutting his knee. He fell to one leg and used his shield to cover his head and neck, feeling the goblins blows banging off his armor.

He thrust out with his halberd, smiling viciously when he heard one of the goblins shriek in pain has the spiked tip tore through it’s stomach.

He felt his grip on his shield loosen as one of the goblins struck his right arm.

Then the attacks stopped after several slashing and gurgling noises.

"Never thought I’d see you kneel." he heard Coil say mockingly.

"Just needed a break, figured I’d give you a chance to look cool. For once." Bry said with a sneer as he stood, limping slightly.

Both Coil’s sword and the blades on the front of the blow were coated with thick goblin blood.

"We need to find their leader." Bry said, glancing around the battle. "He’ll be the biggest and most heavily armed. Take his head and the goblins should flee."

"I had the same thought." Coil said with a nod.

A crackling sound drew both men’s attention upward-

-too late as a bolt of lightning struck between them, throwing them back and on the ground.

Bry and Coil struggled to their feet, barely getting there before a ball of flame appeared before them and exploded, turning the corpses below them and some of the townsfolk and goblins around it into charred meat.

Bry lifted his shield in time to keep it from burning his face, and Coil had ducked behind the warrior.

He felt his armor heat up and he began to sweat as it lightly seared his flesh.

The culprits of their attacks appeared a moment later as a trio of goblins approached through the center of the battle.

The one on the left wore only a bear hide cloak, the top of the bear's jaws over it’s head.It stood at about five feet tall with grey skin marked with blood red paint in random claw-like patterns across its body. In one of its claws was a spear

The one on the right was wearing a brown sheet like a robe over it’s left shoulder. This one had dark green skin and carried a long handled iron axe in one hand.

The middle one had blood red skin and stood the tallest of the three at five foot six, with with only a loincloth and a headdress made from what appeared to be a child's skull, the six tassels behind it were spines likely tied onto the skull. This one wielded a two handed mace as it’s staff.

"Magic using goblins?" Bry asked, shaking as the armor continued to sear him. "Fuck me."

"Bry?" Coil asked, turning toward the warrior. "Are you okay?"

Truthfully, he’d felt better. He was using his Inner Magic to increase his body’s defenses so the searing wasn’t too bad, but the attacks they’d taken while off guard had left him shaky.

The goblin on the left raised his spear and an arc of lightning burst from its tip and slammed into Bry’s shield.

The electricity coursed through his shield and into his arm, making it go numb. His arm slumped and the shield dropped from his fingers.

Coil ducked under Bry’s left side and fired an arrow at the trio.

The middle goblin lifted it’s weapon and the arrow was blown back by a gust of wind, forcing Coil to duck his head before the arrow could hit it.

All three goblins raised their hands and pointed at Bry and Coil.

"Oh fuck me, sideways." Bry cursed as the energy left the goblins hands. The lightning and fire mixed with the wind, making a small horizontal tornado that snaked its way toward the duo.

Bry raised his halberd before, not sure what he thinking in hoping that it’d somehow shield at least a little of the-

-the attack stopped three inches in front of the halberd.

Bry was sure the look of confusion on the goblin mages faces mimicked his own. He looked at his halberd in shock.

"Did I-?" he started until a small white and red form walked by him.

"Don’t flatter yourself dear." Rizu said standing before the two men, facing the goblins. Fluffles walked by them, a dead goblin hanging by the neck in his jaws.

Without turning, Rizu pointed her hand toward Bry and Coil. Two orbs of golden light floated from her palm and floated toward the two men, going into them. Bry felt his wounds healing the moment the orb went into him, the flesh and muscle knitting and the searing receding and new flesh forming over the burns. Feeling came back to his right arm and he knelt, picking up his shield.

"Thanks for the assist" he said with an indignant huff.

The mage snorted and waved her left hand dismissively.

"Need our help taking these guys?" Coil asked, drawing an arrow.

"No." the mage said shaking her head. "You two go deal with the chieftain, I’ll handle these three. Their aura’s aren’t much, they’re probably just novices."

"Novices?" Bry asked, unsure.

"Yeah, and they kicked your ass." Rizu said with a laugh. "It was pretty funny to watch."

"You little-" Bry said taking a step forward but backed off as Fluffles turned and growled at him.

"Fluffles," Rizu said sweetly, "go with them and keep them alive for mommy. Heaven knows what trouble they’d get into without me."

The chimera let out a low yowl of acknowledgement and hunched down so Bry and Coil could get on his back.

After the two men had taken their seats the beast set off at a dash, Bry howling as he cleaved heads off the goblins.

"Now," Rizu said, tapping her chin with one finger, "not only are you killing innocent people but you’re also abusing elemental magic."

The goblins growled and snarled at her in their own language. Their auras had caught her off guard before. But compared to her own magical power… If each of them was a river, she was a volcano.

"And not only those," she said as a sickly sweet smile crossed her face, "but you tried to kill my teammates. That’s a big no-no. You’re just a bunch of unruly children."

The goblin controlling lightning snarled and threw a bolt at her as the flame wielding goblin lobbed a few balls of fire at her.

Rizu raised a magical bubble, slowing the bolt and fire. She sidestepped the flames, and formed a glove-like shield around her right hand. She took the bolt in her and and looked at the surprised goblins.

"Naughty children should be punished." she said coldly as she spun in a circle. Just before she completed her spin she dropped the bubble and released the bolt, sending it back at its original owner. The bolt tore through the top of the goblin’s head, destroying the upper part of the skull, leaving only its lower jaw downward.

"You’re outmatched here." she said pointing at the goblin she’d just killed as it’s body hit the ground. "If you throw down your weapons, leave and never abuse your magic again I’ll let you go"

The goblins responded by combining their magic, the fire wielder jetting flames from both hands while the wind user used his magic to make the flames more powerful.

Rizu let out a low sigh and held out her hand, a golden wall forming between her and the flame. The flames burst out of either side forcing the townspeople and the common goblins to move back or be roasted alive.

"See, you really are novices." she said with another sigh. "You can only use your magic in a straight line. You can’t even get creative, like I can."

She snapped her fingers and the wall pushed forward, stopping just a few inches away from the two goblins. She snapped again and a second wall appeared behind the two goblins. Two more snaps and two more walls on either side, forming a box.

With nowhere for the flames to escape from the sides, the wind-enhanced flame went around into the box and burst upward. By the time she dropped the walls the two magic using goblins had been burned down to the bone.

She cast a glare at the goblins around her, maybe thirty in all, daring them to keep fighting or to attack her.

The goblins broke rank and ran. The townsfolk around her cheered and Rizu hunched over and began breathing hard.

She’d been more powerful and skillful for sure. But healing Bry and Coil, making the bubble to slow the goblins attacks, the shield glove letting her grab the lightning and four walls holding up against a combined magic attack had drained too much of her own magical energy.

If they’d been rivers, she was a volcano. And a volcano released everything in one blast.

"Gonna have to rely on smaller shields for awhile." she said, breathing deeply as the townsfolk gathered around her in case any of the goblins came back.

After a few more deep breaths she stood straight and turned to where the battle was going on. Their side had managed to encircle the goblins and were pressing in on every side.

"Half of you," she said, referring to the people around her, "clear the bodies here away. Four of you go find some tarps and nails to pin them down."

"And the rest, lady mage?" a woman holding a hand scythe and her torso covered in blood asked.

"The rest of you," Rizu said, looking around, "starting bringing the wounded here."

Between a man dual wielding a katana and a bladed bow on the left, a massive warrior with a shield and halberd in the center and a chimera on the right, Bry was surprised the goblins ranks hadn’t broken yet.

Their chieftain must be quite fierce to keep them in line even after losing so many.

They were down to the last fifty or sixty goblins now, and their small army had the goblins surrounded.

The formation was one Coil, Bry and Fluffles had practiced on the road but hadn’t had a chance to use yet.

But it was more effective than they thought it’d be.

Coil defended Bry’s left arm, keeping enemies from attacking while he’s recovering from his swings, and by doing so he could temporarily jump back when Bry struck giving him enough time to catch his breath.

Bry’s shield not only defended himself, but also covered Fluffles left side, allowing the Chimera to deal with enemies that struck it from the front or right.

The goblins were fighting more ferociously now, taking several wounds from the townsfolk before they fell. Usually it ended up with one or two of the people wounded or killed by the single goblin.

"There!" Coil shouted, pointing toward the back of the goblin ranks.

There Bry got a look at the chieftain. A brute of a goblin, it stood nearly six feet, but was much wider than a regular one. Even wider than Bry was.

And unlike the smaller goblins around it, this one wore steel armor over it’s torso and legs. It even had a steel helm to go along with it.

And he was using a massive double headed axe.

"See if you can take him down from here." Bry growled. As much as he wanted to fight the beast, ending the battle quickly was the best thing to do.

Coil jumped back as Bry swung his halberd, severing two goblins heads with one swing, and knocked an arrow. He aimed for a few seconds before the arrow went flying toward it’s target.

The chieftain grabbed one of the smaller goblins and held it up, using it as a shield as the arrow sank into the smaller beasts back.

"Bastard." Bry growled, baring his teeth. "Using his own men as a shield."

"Looks like we’re going to have to get dirty if we want to kill him." Coil said, stabbing a goblin in the neck with his sword and kicking it back.

"Fluffs." Bry said turning to the Chimera. "Think you can get us over there?"

The large beast let out a loud roar of challenge and the two men climbed on his back.

Fluffles burst forwarward, trampling all goblins that dared to stand in his way while Coil kicked goblins in the head or kicked aside their weapons. The chieftain spotted their approach and roared his challenge at them. Fluffles jumped into the air and went to crash his front paws down on the large goblin.

The chieftain took a stepped forward, swinging his weapon and catching Fluffles in his left ribs. The chimera let out a yowl of pain and crashed into the ground, throwing Bry and Coil off. Coil rolled as he fell, coming up on his feet. Bry fell face first into a pile of corpses, swearing as he got up. Coil dashed forward into a group of goblins charging at the wounded chimera with their weapons raised.

The chieftain turned and it’s mouth turned upward into a smile.

"You hurt our kitty cat." Bry said taking a step forward. "Gonna bleed you for that."

The goblin lept at him, it’s weapon held in a two handed grip.

Bry raised his shield and took the force of the blow, surprised when he was actually forced back a few inches.

"Tough son of a bitch, aren’t you?" he snarled, swinging his shield arm and sending the goblin’s weapon wide.

He stabbed his weapon forward, aiming for the chieftain’s throat.

The large goblin side stepped the strike and punched a meaty fist into Brys face, lifting the warrior off his feet and sending him back.

The chieftain wasted no time pinning Bry to the ground and raising his weapon to cleave Bry’s skull open.

Bry raised one hand, catching the haft just below the blade and using his Inner Magic to strengthen his muscles.

The goblin leaned down, snarling and drooling on Bry’s face. He could smell the rancidness of the beast's breath.

"You," the warrior struggled, "should...try...chewing...on...some mint… Might help that breath of yours."

The goblin pulled back, forcing Bry to break his grip on the weapon, and raised it for a two handed strike.

A shadow saved him, leaping forward and using both feet to kick the chieftain in the face and send it back.

"But I don’t think there’s anything that can fix that ugly face of yours." Coil said as the goblin got back to its feet and snarled.

"By the way," Coil said turning to Bry as the warrior stood, "I was talking to both of you."

"Har har, I’ll kick your scrawny ass later." Bry growled as the goblin charged. "Less talking, more fighting."

The chieftain swung his blade at Coil, but the former assassin nimbly danced around the brute’s strikes almost looking bored. Bry pressed forward, swinging and stabbing. The goblin was forced to pull back, blocking each strike by the skin of it’s teeth.

Bry felt a toothy smirk cross his face when a pair of throwing daggers appeared in the joints of the armor around chieftain’s shoulders, making its attack and defense decrease even further.

The chieftain jumped back as Bry howled and charged forward, stabbing at it’s stomach.

The large goblin grabbed one of its followers and held it in front as a shield, blocking it from view as Bry impaled the smaller beast.

He swung his shield out, preparing for it to jump and strike from his right.

The warning shout from Coil registered only AFTER the goblin went around his left and brought it’s axe down. Bry tried to dodge to the side but was too slow, taking the axe between his neck and shoulder.

The warrior clenched his teeth and gasped, refusing to cry out. The chieftain’s face turned upward into a smile. It didn’t pull the axe out by lifting, it PULLED, the axe grating on the bone and making Bry’s vision not only flare in and out but also different colors. The warrior collapsed and didn’t move. The goblin prepared to strike again, only to look at it’s hand in confusion as Coil cut it off at the wrist.

"You bastard!" the rogue snarled, ducking under the goblin’s backhand and slashing the tendons in it’s legs with the blades on his bow.

The goblin yelped and fell to its knees, struggling to rise.

The last thing the chieftain saw before dying was a snake, its fangs bared and death in its eyes.

"Stop fidgeting!" Rizu shouted, slapping her patient on the head when he flinched. It had been two days since the battle and still the wounded were coming for treatment. Luckily, many of these people were used to getting cuts from woodcutting or out in the fields, so many of those who hadn’t been hurt or were less wounded were helping her deal with those who were still recovering.

And since she’d regained most of her magical power, the healing was going much faster. She looked out at the ‘waiting room’, seeing only Bry and Fluffles sitting there.

She’d flown into a panic when she’d seen the two of them after the battle. She’d used herbs to seal off the wounds, but Bry had refused to allow her to heal him with her magic until all the townsfolk were taken care of.

Coil, she knew, was out helping with the burials.

Her current patient got another slap on the head as he twitched when she placed her hand on his calf, which had been split open by an axe. She poured her magic into the wound, watching the muscles, veins and skin knit back together in golden light.

The man stood on the leg and laughed happily as he jumped and didn’t fall over from pain.

"Thank you Lady mage!" he said, tears in his eyes.

Rizu snorted with a smile and shooed the man out of the infirmary.

Bry walked in and sat down on the wooden box she used to seat her patients.

"How’s the arm feeling?" Rizu asked, unwrapping the sling she’d had him keep his arm in for the last couple days.

"Stings like a dockside whore," Bry said with a shrug. "but you know I’ve dealt with worse."

"Shirt." she said.

Bry removed the shirt, showing the red stained wrappings she’d placed a few days before. She slowly unwrapped it, trying not to move too suddenly in case it hurt. She winced when the wrappings finally came off and she saw the wound.

The herbs she’d used had managed to slow the meat from rotting and setting in an infection, but she could see and smell some of the rot coming from the wound.

"Hold still, this will only take a second." she said gently scooping out the herbs and placing her hand on Bry’s shoulder. She saw a small twitch of Bry’s eye, the only indication of his pain.

She took a deep breath and poured her magic into him. She watched as the dying flesh became pink again. She watched, as with the other patient, as the skin, muscle and veins fused back together.

She did not, however, see the cuts to his bones heal. Flesh was her healing specialty in magic, she didn’t have the finesse for sickness or infections unless using herbs and potions, and even with the raw power she could summon from her magic bones were too complicated for her to heal without her Inner Magic.

She pulled her hand off Bry’s shoulder and nodded.

"How’s that?"

"Better than mama’s kisses when I was a kid." Bry said rolling his shoulder. She could still see a slight flinch but a grin crossed his face.

"I couldn’t heal the bone." she said quietly, shaking her head "I’m sorry. It’d take far more magical power than I have at the moment. We’ll try when I’ve rested and regained more."

"Bah!" the warrior said placing a hand on her head and ruffling her hair. "Don’t worry about it. It’ll heal in time, I’m sure."

"Keep messing up my hair and I’ll break your arm." Rizu said flatly. Bry laughed but removed his hand anyway.

"We heading back soon?" he asked, sitting back on the box.

She nodded "After the funerals."

"This job was not worth seventy five thousand" Bry said with a huff.

"Is money all you think about?" Rizu huffed out, walking over to Fluffles and rubbing his mane.

"You try raising a family, then bitch at me about money." Bry said, indignantly. "Besides, money isn't all I think about. There’s also food."

Rizu snorted and said "If you’re well enough to joke, you’re well enough to go out there and help with the burials."

"Oh ow, I think some of the stinging is coming back." Bry said walking out into the waiting room

"I’m too tired to hit you." Rizu sighed turning to place her items into her pack. "Fluffles, do it for mama."

She was rewarded with a satisfying thud and a loud curse from Bry.

#Tales of the Party #Toftp #Rizu #bry #coil #fluffles #I don't know why it formatted that way but whatever... one of the others can fix it if it bugs them enough #also we should probably edit and post the backstories next....

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6stronghands · 7 years ago

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please read. it’s long. but i need to say this:

Broken in the past year:

Dishwasher, refrigerator, microwave, furnace, water heater, toilet, gas fireplace, TV, 2 laptops, 2 cellphones, my eyeglasses, the locking system, door handle, driver window (stuck DOWN not up, of course) and catalytic converter on my 15 year old minivan and the other car, a 22 year old beloved 4 Runner had to be junked because it was so decrepit and unfixable (it’s a credit to those amazing early generation Runners though, because it made 260,000 miles and basically ran on Marvel Mystery Oil, Seafoam, and pep talks at the end), then I found out that my home has serious foundation issues, and now, NOW, the dryer.

My new (used) Mustang got hit ONE WEEK after I bought it, by a drunk guy in a big ol F150, as I was my way home to kansas after caring for three (3!!!) family members in the hospital in Utah for four months. The whole time I was in Utah, I was like, holy god these guys are shockingly bad drivers (and I’ve driven extensively around a ton of states). There’s this move I call The Utah Special, a lane changing move where they don’t signal, they don’t check their blind spots, they don’t move vertically….they just horizontally zoom into a space they want in the next lane. I saw so many near misses and actual accidents during my time there. And lo and behold, LITERALLY AS I’M ON MY WAY OUT OF THAT HELL STATE, at the motherfreakin base of the canyon, four hours from Colorado and freedom from the religious insanity and repression that manifests as the angriest, most aggressive, flat out incompetent drivers I’ve ever seen, a jackalope did the Utah Special on me and my new car.

It screwed up the alignment and tire pressure monitor and left a big dent on the drivers door. Luckily i didn’t run into the giant concrete wall that he spun me into, because I’m an experienced driver, esp in correcting a bad, fast turn, but it was close. The guy is now trying to avoid payment so I’ve been driving around with a beatup looking car.

One month after i got back to Lawrence, a guy backed into me at the store, and I ended up using the 100 bucks he gave me for groceries, and trying to buff out the back myself, which didn’t work. This is my childhood dream car btw, the only nice thing I’ve ever owned (and it looks a lot nicer than it is, it’s very bare bones inside and out, it just looks slick. It took almost two years and three states of looking to find a good Mustang for such a low price).

And now.

Now I’ve got a gutted dryer, parts spread out to hell and gone, because Samsung dryers have the worst design and the cheapest parts (seriously, don’t ever buy Samsung appliances. Three different parts stores and repair people told me they refuse to work on Samsungs or carry parts for them any more because the design is so bad and the parts are so cheap). I thought I fixed it by replacing the circuit board, but now I think it’s the thermal fuse switch which is located UNDER and BEHIND the drum, not in the more accessible places other brands put it. But that’s not irritating enough, no no, now it turns out I have to learn how to solder because they didn’t use screws or plugs for the fuse mount, no no, they soldered it on, so I had to drill the fucker out and and buy a solder iron and now I’m watching how-to-solder videos on youtube.

And (of course there’s an AND) the charging port on my 3rd used cell phone broke, and I don’t have time to order a replacement port and do it myself, so I took it into one of those overpriced walk in places (for $130 dollars!!! for fifteen minutes work). Picked it up five minutes before they closed last night, and now the screen is unresponsive. According to the good people of the internet, since I can’t get it to reboot, it’s probably a badly seated digitizer that got bumped when they did the replacement. I have to take a break from my how-to-solder videos and go in and convince a bunch of 20 year old guys to fix my phone and not charge me for it.

So. This is a lot.

And because we are in the aptly named bad timeline, my personal life has pretty much echoed all the broken down stuff. I have had some weird, hard to diagnose, health crap that cost me one job and has prevented me from finding another. So I just do a bunch of volunteer stuff now, and keep applying to worse and worse jobs, hoping someone, somewhere will take me. My new dog (who I adopted because I’ve been so overwhelmed and stressed, I was freaking out one day and my sister was like, I KNOW WHAT YOU SHOULD DO, YOU NEED A DOG, and she was one hundred percent right, everything is better with a good dog) got attacked at the park, by a Husky owned by a RedditGuy, who then RAN when I was trying to revive my dog, and drove away in a Mercedes with a license obscurer. The only reason I know who he is, is because a quick thinking teenager ran after him and tried to get his name (which the guy wouldn’t give) and the teen took pics of him with his cellphone (don’t shit on Millenials around me, just don’t. All I see are good kids doing good stuff under bad circumstances). (Also, just fwiw, there are all kinds of Huskies being surrendered at shelters and involved in attacks because, and this is so dumb it just kills me, people are watching Game of Thrones and deciding they want their very own Direwolf, without having the experience or willingness to take on a breed that needs a lot of training and reinforcement and care. Huskies are great dogs if they have great owners, like a lot of other great but high-care breeds).

The medical bills were over $4000, which I had to take a loan out for. There was a court hearing, and the judge ruled in my favor, and ordered the guy to pay, by March 1st. You won’t be surprised at all, because FML, that the guy hasn’t paid, and is contesting it, which means more court stuff. This has all been stressful as hell, but this dog is genuinely the most amazing dog I’ve ever had; he is worth any trouble and expense. I would sell my Mustang, if I had to, to keep this tiny, adorable fuzzball (some kind of poodle-terrier mix, I think, I dunno. He was a rescue dog who was fostered with an inmate in a local prison, Safe Harbor Prison Dogs, check it out, they’re great) I’ve never had a companion dog before. I’ve had family dogs who have all been great, but I’ve never had one where they are bred to be a companion, that’s their work, like a work-dog needs work to be happy and sane. He is carrying my kid and me in his soft little paws; he does good work, this guy. He is always happy, very energetic when you want, calm and cuddly when you want, incredibly sensitive and attuned, unnervingly intelligent and a joy to train, and as soft as a bunny. I have to brush him every single day because of his crazy Fizzgig hair, but that’s fine. He rides on my shoulder in the car and fits inside a tote bag so I can sneak him lots of places. I’ve socialized him from the beginning (which is why I was at that damn park) so he’s totally silent in public places like stores. He loves people, especially kids, and if I ever get off the job-hunting, broken-thing-fixing treadmill, I’d like to volunteer him as a therapy dog in hospitals or wherever. He’s like my very own Daemon, my own Pantalaimon. A gift and a blessing at any time, but especially now, when things are Challenging.

Then. Then the worst thing. Something really bad happened to my one of my kids. Something so bad that I can’t talk about it in a public place like this. I can barely talk about it in my Al-Anon support group. I spend a lot of energy not thinking about it. I have learned a lot of things in the past few years, like A LOT. I know so much more now, about so many, many things. But this bad thing is something I wish I never knew, and it’s not fixable, only recoverable.

I have never, ever been so continually sad and angry. It’s been bad timing for my mental health, the Me Too movement. I had a friend visit and he was talking about it, and was telling me that it’s turned into a witch hunt, that things aren’t really this bad for women, that maybe women and men just speak different languages and have different needs and wants, that if things have been this bad, why didn’t women say something sooner, and I just….I couldn’t talk. He wanted me to give him specific examples of male violations in my life, and I literally didn’t know where to start. I can list so many, like every woman alive. I could list hundreds of small things, things where you just accept it because what else can you do, and other things, things that were not small, but you ignore, because you actually know the guy and you know he’s genuinely a mostly good guy, or trying to be, or will be some day, or has a family who loves and depends on him, or maybe I didn’t have the vocabulary or confidence or experience to safely call him out then, or maybe I didn’t know if calling him out would ruin his life, and for real, I could see that he would some day evolve into A Good Man, An Ally, and I didn’t want to jeopardize that. Because that’s real, that dynamic. It doesn’t fit into any black and white social media woke doctrine, but it’s real. I have hurt people through ignorance, and I have learned and evolved, and there have been a few specific times where I can look back in gratitude that someone educated me in a gracious, patient way, because it changed me for the better. Do men know this? That people like me aren’t calling them on stuff? That the problem is much, much worse than the revelations of the Me Too movement? That we let pretty much all the small and medium stuff go? Do they know? Are they so uneducated, so culturally indoctrinated, so blind, to other men’s bad behavior, to their own, that they really think that this is all an over-reaction or mixed signals or just women looking to be angry about something???

I know it’s a lot more complicated than that, because goddamn life usually is. There have been hundreds of not-terrible and semi-bad violations in my 40 years, that I’ve just lived with, and then there’s been a handful of genuinely, life-altering-ly bad ones. The ones that teach you to to beware, that there are predators who prey, and you are just meat. But I couldn’t articulate any of this to this friend, this guy who feels so defensive and attacked by the movement. No one has accused him of anything, he’s just feeling defensive. He thinks people are unfair to men, that men are trying their best, that women need to explain more nicely.

I have been so angry, about so much, for months now. I usually blow up fast and I’m done. I’m usually the poster girl for Onward And Upward, Life Is Beautiful, Everything’s Awesome. This constant anger is exhausting. And I wish I was only angry, but I’m also broken-hearted. Broken. Everything’s broken, everything keeps breaking. Bad people, careless people, indifferent people, they keep ruining things and getting away with things. The news isn’t good, not politically, not economically, not environmentally, not anything. All signs point to things getting much, much worse.

I will say this, I am smarter than I was a year ago.

I seem to only learn by doing, to learn the hard way. I know a lot more now. Like A LOT, in a pretty short span of time. I am not the same person I was a year ago. I am not as sweet, and not as optimistic, but I am seasoned. I’m better at problem solving. I know there's always going to be another damn thing, whatever it is. I know the importance of good tools and resources and support, whether it’s fixing broken cars or broken hearts. That came out trite, but it’s true. I’ve learned that sometimes the only good thing to come out of a bad thing is knowledge, if you use it to recover or evolve, or to help someone else. Sometimes the only silver lining is that you’ve got newfound empathy. We need more empathy in the world, so that’s not nothing. I am so, so worried about the future, about what my kids are going to have to learn in order to navigate their own personal and cultural despair. They’re gonna have to get tougher, faster, while protecting their gentle hearts and giving natures. That’s tricky. I hope they’ll remember that we’re in this together, that the only way to survive is by leaning on and helping each other. Another thing that sounds trite, but is the truest thing I know. I’ve learned to talk about things, to ask questions, to ask again if I don’t understand (and again, and again), and to say to people, I need you, I’m stuck, I’m headfucked, I’m heartfucked, help. Help me. Using your resources, whether they’re youtube how-to videos, therapy, doctors, friends, Al-Anon groups, dogs, whatever, is the only way I know how to get over and through.

It’s kind of strange to FEEL how much stronger I am right now, than a year ago. Because things are much worse; something that would have broken me for good, if Then-Me had known. But Now-Me has soldiered through some shit by leaning hard on my resources, and because of those resources, not through inner grit or stoicism, but the resources, I’m tougher, smarter, better equipped. I am not exactly happier, but I do have happy moments. That’s a big deal. I am afraid for the future, but I know that, at least as long as I’m able to fight, I CAN fight.

I have leaned on some of you here. Some of you are my safe places, are resources, tools, friends. Genuine, real ones. I am stronger because of you. I can write and write, but never truly articulate what that has meant, what it means to me. You know how vets are with other vets? The way they’ll meet up after they leave the military, and fall into each other’s arms, the way they trust each other for the rest of their lives? I feel that way about you guys. I’ve been in the motherfucking foxhole, and some of you guys climbed in and covered my head and held my shaking hands. I just have no words. The ‘no atheists in a foxhole’ thing isn’t true. I still don’t believe in God, but I believe in friends, in good people, in the righteous fighters who get no acclaim, no awards, but quietly, bravely, change the world around them a little at a time, to great cumulative effect. I can say I love you, I’m so grateful, you’re wonderful, but really, I have no words other than, thank you. Thank you. THANK YOU.

#personal #thank you

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ellanainthetardis · 7 years ago

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There’s a small surprise today :p I hope you enjoy it!

[FF] or [AO3]

44. 13 Weeks

Effie placed the dress wrapped in soft protective papers on the kitchen table, sparing a smile for Livy who was sitting on the floor, playing with her doll. She couldn’t help but imagine April in a few years. Baby Fanny was sharing the bassinet with her daughter, both mercifully sound asleep.

“Here you go.” she declared cheerfully but Eileen barely looked up from the sketchbook she had been peering at for what seemed like hours – since Effie had put the finishing touch to the dress she had promised her friend and excused herself to wrap it, at least. She was a bit self-conscious about letting someone who wasn’t Haymitch look at her designs but Eileen had been so enthusiastic about her creations that she had let herself be coaxed into it.

“Those are amazing.” the woman declared, finally closing the sketchpad to smile at her. “And thank you. I wish you would let me pay you…”

“You offer me free drinks often enough at your coffee shop.” she dismissed, putting the steaming kettle off the stove to pour them both some tea. She offered the little girl some orange juice that she accepted with an eager nod. “And they certainly aren’t that exceptional.”

“Effie, I would buy most of those.” her friend countered. “The kids ones are lovely. You really should think about opening a business… There’s a place to rent not too far from the coffee shop.”

She laughed, a bit embarrassed. “I have a three months baby… I do not have time to open a business… And, really, it wouldn’t work and…”

“It would.” Eileen argued. “What do you have to lose?”

“Money.” she deadpanned.

Money that wasn’t hers.

If she had to be truly honest with herself what Eileen was suggesting had crossed her mind before. She had been toying with the idea of doing something with her sketches more and more since she had really settled in Twelve and it had been even more tempting after she had discovered she was pregnant because she had started drawing babies and toddlers outfits. She had sewed a few for her daughter and people always made compliments on them… They always made compliments on the dresses she made for herself too… And despite what her mother had always told her about her designs or her own lack of confidence in them… The thought of doing something, of taking on a new adventure with something she loved, of going back to fashion even at a modest level… Yes, it was tempting and she had entertained the thought many times.

But it was a dream.

She had no savings left. She had nothing. And it had played a part in her longing to do something with herself because she had always been independent and being forced to financially lean on Haymitch didn’t sit well with her.

However, the crux of the matter was: for her to open a shop, she would need money, guaranties… She would need someone to partner with, an investor.

She knew she could come up with a reasonable sound plan and she knew Haymitch would accept without a single blink because he had been telling her for years that her designs weren’t that ridiculous – which, in Haymitch’s special language, meant he actually liked them – but Haymitch’s money, their money, should have been saved and directed toward their daughter.

“It’s always a risk.” Eileen sympathized. “We put everything we had in the coffee shop. If it hadn’t worked out…” The woman shook her head and smiled at her oldest daughter who was oblivious to the conversation. She took a sip of her tea with a small smile. “You should talk it over with Haymitch. Maybe…”

“I don’t want to take Haymitch’s money. I took enough.” Effie cut her off. It was rude and she winced a little at her own behavior. Twelve was turning her into a ruffian. “My apologies, Eileen, but… You don’t know half of it. He would never deny me anything but I don’t feel comfortable taking. I was… I was in a lot of troubles when I came to Twelve. He settled them for me and I never managed to repay him what I owe him.”

“You gave him a perfect daughter, I think that covers it.” Eileen joked lightly.

She appreciated her friend’s attempt at alleviating the suddenly serious mood. She brought her cup of tea closer to her lips, inhaling the rich smell of strawberry before taking a sip. It soothed her immediately. “He is a good man, you know.”

Sometimes she wasn’t sure everyone knew that. Haymitch was a terribly private man. For most people, even in his own District, he was the victor or the rebel mastermind. He didn’t care about what the press printed about him, about the rumors… His reputation had taken a hit when gossips about them had first started circulating and it had plummeted when it had become more or less official that they were living together.

“I know.” Eileen reassured her. “And what about your father? With all the lands and buildings he bought he can probably give one to you…”

She made a face behind her mug.

She had tried to dissuade her father from investing so much in Twelve. It was… completely over the top. He had ended up buying the old mines from the government as well as a few buildings in town where some of the franchises his company owned were already getting settled… It was a long process and she wasn’t sure if it would turn out to be a good or a bad thing in the long run.

People in Twelve were instinctively mistrustful of anything Capitol and if the candy shop had been an immediate hit, the other brands would have some work to do to get accepted. The lands outside of town though… It brought work and that wasn’t regarded as a bad thing.

Tadius had settled on an agreement with Twelve’s mayor so he would hire local men in addition to the construction crew the company usually used. It allowed a better quality of life for a lot of the poorest families and she was very happy for them but…

She didn’t like the thought of Tadius being so involved in her everyday life. It reminded her a bit too much of her childhood, of always being under her parents’ thumbs, forced to adhere to their code or…

“My father is ruthless in business.” she countered. “And I would rather not ask him for money.” Her eyes darted to the clock. “Which reminds me he asked me to retrieve some contracts from the post office and deliver them to the Justice Building…”

She didn’t mind helping out in her father’s absence but the favors had been growing exponentially since they had come back from Four. Tadius was leaning on her a lot to close deals, sign things in his stead and keep an eye on the working crew’s progress… She could do it all easily but she never had any interest in taking over the company and she had no interest in becoming Twelve’s overseer either. And it very much felt like this, right then. As if he was grooming her to take his place, at least at a local level.

“We should head back too.” Eileen sighed. “Liam is alone at the shop and it will start getting busy around four.”

“Oh, I wasn’t chasing you away!” she protested, horrified that it was how it had come across.

“No worries.” her friend promised. “We can walk to town together.”

It took them a few minutes to get all the girls ready. Livy was eager to go home but April and Fanny were fussy, not happy to be transferred from the bassinet to their respective pram and stroller. Effie hesitated for a second before locking the house behind her, wondering if Haymitch would be back soon.

He had taken Snowball on a walk to try and get rid of a headache – and also, she suspected, because he didn’t want to be there for the fitting of Eileen’s new dress.

It was a nice day if a little too warm for her tastes. Days like this, she missed the Capitol’s controlled weather. It was either freezing or a furnace in Twelve.

She made sure the hood of the pram was shading April enough. The baby was drooling all over her own hand and she smiled despite herself.

“Do you have any news from Katniss?” Eileen asked distractedly when they passed by the bakery on the way to the post office.

“A postcard from Three last week and a phone call two days ago.” she sighed. “She seems to be having fun. They’re in Two right now.”

The road trip that was taking forever and had turned into wandering at random all around Panem to throw off paparazzi appeared to be a good experience for the girl. Nevertheless, Effie missed her and wished she would come home.

“Is Peeta doing better?” her friend asked, making sure Fanny didn’t lose her grip on the bottle of water she was sucking from.

Peeta…

She felt rather sorry for Peeta.

The boy had been waiting at the train station with Snowball and a huge bunch of primroses. The bright smile on his lips had slowly but surely faded when he had realized Katniss hadn’t been traveling with them and it had finally disappeared when Effie had gently broken the news that his girlfriend-slash-possibly-ex-girlfriend had decided to go traveling with Johanna Mason.

Since then the boy had been pinning. There was no other word for it. She had noticed – and had rejoiced to the point Haymitch had shaken his head and had told her to calm down – that Delly wasn’t around as much as before at the bakery.

It could have gone one way or another really but Effie was selfishly glad that absence had made the heart grow fonder instead of weaker. Now if only Katniss would come back and actually tell the boy she missed him instead of trying to punish him with petty offenses…

Katniss had apparently sent him a picture of her and Johanna in Two and given that Gale Hawthorne now resided there… Oh, she didn’t think the girl would make contact. She still held him responsible for what had happened to her sister but the message was clear all the same. It was so mean and guileful that Effie was certain it had been Johanna’s idea – probably Johanna’s doing too. And she couldn’t say she approved. She couldn’t say that at all. It was stupid, childish and it wouldn’t help anything in the long run.

She had told Peeta not to mind but the boy did mind.

It was difficult to get a hold on the girl. Katniss was the one who wrote and called when she chose, keeping track of hotels’ numbers that the victors left at random was too difficult otherwise.

“I think he’s regretting acting like a fool.” she offered eventually. “Although, to be fair, Katniss isn’t entirely blameless either. She does take him for granted, I suppose.”

Eileen shot her an amused smile and shrugged. “Youth.”

“As you say.” Effie chuckled. “She will be back, though. She is angry and hurting but she does love him. She never doubted that.”

“Those two have a very complicated history.” Eileen lamented as they stopped in front of the post office.

Effie agreed quietly and darted inside, leaving the pram to her friend’s careful watch. It wasn’t worth trying to make it fit through the old narrow doors of the building and though she felt a little jittery at the thought of leaving April even for a second it was a quick affair. She signed the package off, thanked the man behind the counter and was out before five minutes had passed.

They started walking in the direction of the Clarkes’ coffee shop. Effie would continue on to the Justice Building and, then, perhaps she would stop at the bakery on her way back. She was craving a chocolate cupcake. She hummed and nodded at whatever Eileen was saying, her whole mind focused on the pastry she would beg off Peeta. Her fingers were drumming on the pram’s handle in anticipation.

They were right next to the coffee shop when she caught sight of the raucous crew of workers that had been dispatched from the Capitol, they were sitting at various tables outside. They were all strong muscular men, easily identifiable not only because they were strangers in a small District but also because of the familiar logo embroidered on their shirts. They were loud and clearly relaxing after the end of their shift.

She hadn’t met them all yet – and she had no intention of getting more involved in her father’s business than she already was – but she had met the foreman and she smiled back at him when he scrambled to his feet to nod at her because she was the boss’ daughter and it was sort of implied she was above him in the hierarchy of things.

“Good afternoon, Mr Smoth.” she said if only to be polite, her eyes traveling over the rest of the crew in a never forgotten reflex.

She had attended her share of company events and it had been drilled into her from infancy that employees were below her but should be treated with consideration. People who liked – or rather revered – their employers were less likely to go search for jobs elsewhere. She hadn’t missed being the CEO’s daughter. She had made a name for herself at seventeen and it had pleased her greatly to be recognized for who she was and not for her parent’s name. Not former star actress Elindra’s daughter, not wealthy businessman Tadius’ daughter but…

She met familiar brown eyes and froze. Her heart started hammering painfully in her chest. Her palms became clammy. Her stomach churned. Tears stung her eyes.

She couldn’t breathe.

She couldn’t move.

She didn’t even realize why until she took in the whole face.

The young man’s smile froze on his lips and he immediately lifted his hands in the air, standing up…

She took a hurried step back, thought better of it and snatched April from the pram. Her arms were heavy, like they were made of lead. So were her legs. Her head was spinning. Her grip on her daughter was tenuous.

She registered cries. April’s. And it made her panic even further.

She took another step back, barely heard the calls of her name.

“Stay… Stay the hell away from me.” she stammered.

The man’s lips were moving, saying things… Her name. Effie. As if he had any right to use her first name, as if… As if he hadn’t taunted her with the other one too. As if…

Abernathy’s bitch.

She flinched when the words flared in her memory and she took another step back, cradling her daughter closer to her chest.

She needed to keep April safe.

She needed…

A hand fell on her shoulder and she pushed the attacker away with a scream. The screams were everywhere.

Johanna’s.

Peeta’s.

Portia’s.

Hers.

She screamed and screamed under the lashes of the whips tearing off her skin.

Unflinching brown eyes bearing into hers from the other side of the room…

The Peacekeeper was advancing on her.

There were tables in the way, people who were trying to grab her… She fought them all. She needed to flee, to…

The baby’s crying was impossible to ignore and she screamed harder, all the while knowing it was useless because nobody would come to her rescue.

She wasn’t worth rescuing.

She had never been worth rescuing.

She wasn’t a victor.

She was just the escort Haymitch had used for sex.

And she would die there, in the torture chamber, like a beaten up dog.

She would disappear in the silence and the dark and nobody would ever find her.

She would…

“Effie!”

The call of her name was too loud, the grip on her shoulders was too tight to be ignored and she met frightened blue eyes.

Peeta.

She gulped in air, realizing belatedly that she had been so busy screaming her head off that she hadn’t bothered to breathe in a long time.

Dark spots were dancing in front of her eyes, tears were running down her cheeks…

A sob broke out of her throat but it was instinctive to push the boy back behind her. Like it had been back there. Like…

“Not him.” she begged, meeting the Peacekeeper’s eyes again. “Take me. Don’t hurt him. Don’t…”

The Peacekeeper passed a hand over his face, said more things she couldn’t hear…

And then there was a roar.

A roar of rage.

A roar of hatred.

Peeta darted past her and threw himself at the man, managed to punch him three times before hands grabbed him…

She needed to save Peeta.

She needed to…

But April…

April was just a tiny baby and they would kill her. Peeta wouldn’t be killed. Peeta was a victor. Peeta was precious. April… April had no value. They would take her away. They would crush her on the cold stones of the cell. They would…

She fought the people who were trying to hold her, she bit and claw with her free hand and kicked… And once she was free, once she didn’t feel any hand trying to keep her still…

She ran.

She kicked off her heels and took off, cradling her precious load against her chest, urged on by the baby’s cries…

She was out of breath before she reached the end of the street but she couldn’t stop. Not to sob over leaving Peeta to his fate. Not to scream in fear and pain. Not to…

She ran and ran until paved streets left place to dust and then to rich earth…

The smell of the woods closed on her.

She tripped on a root and fell forward, managing to catch herself on one hand, not to crush the baby… She stayed on the ground for a while, trying to catch her breath, blinded by her tears…

They’re coming.

The thought came, unbidden, and she forced herself to sit. There was a long gash along her leg but she barely felt its throb. The sight of the blood though… They would hurt her worse. They had hurt her worse.

She needed to keep April safe from them.

She couldn’t watch them hurt her baby. She couldn’t.

She had bad cramps, so bad that she was forced to walk bent in two. It didn’t matter. She walked on.

Nobody escapes the Capitol…

You think they will come for you?

Abernathy’s bitch…

Traitor.

This was all her fault. All her fault.

She tripped again, fell to her knees, and this time she didn’t manage to get back up. She was too dizzy. She felt like throwing up. She felt feverish.

She crawled to the closest tree, pressed her back against the trunk…

She would rest a minute and then she would run again.

She would go as far as she could, find somewhere safe to hide April…

“It will be alright, my love.” she whispered against the crown of her daughter’s head. “You need to be quiet. You need to be quiet, sweetheart…”

But April was still crying at the top of her lungs and it would attract attention. She could hear the hounds in the distance already, the search dogs were barking…

They would lead them to the two of them.

They would…

“I won’t let them hurt you.” she promised, holding her tighter. “I promise. I promise I won’t… Just be quiet. Be quiet.”

If only April stopped crying…

#hayffie #effie trinket #haymitch abernathy #april showers

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jeremystrele · 5 years ago

Text

2020 New Furnace Replacement and Installation

welcomia/Shutterstock

Furnace Buying Guide

Furnaces play an essential role in keeping your home warm when the weather outside turns cold. But in order to save money on repairs and energy bills, it’s important to replace your furnace at the right time. Today’s furnaces are highly energy-efficient, reliable and quiet. But one size does not fit all.

This guide will walk you through furnace types, sizes, costs, efficiency, installation complexity and customer reviews – in short, each of the factors you need to consider when buying a new furnace.

What is a furnace?

A furnace is a device used to heat indoor spaces. It works on the principle of forced-air heating. Modern furnaces typically include a burner, heat exchanger, blower and thermostat that work together to keep your house comfortable.

The furnace heats air and disperses it within your home through air vents. Once rooms are filled with warm air, any cold air in the room is drawn back into the furnace through the return ducts. This heating cycle continues until the desired temperature is reached, which you can adjust with a thermostat.

How to buy the best furnace

Here are some of the factors to consider when choosing a furnace for your home.

Types of furnaces

There are four major types of furnaces: gas, oil, electric and propane. While the working principle for all furnace types is the same, the type you choose will depend on budget, energy-efficiency requirements and available energy sources.

Gas Furnace: This type of furnace uses natural gas as fuel to heat the air. Natural gas furnaces are highly energy-efficient, with Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) ratings ranging from 89 to 98 percent. Natural gas is readily available across the United States, which is why this type of furnace is common in most American homes.

Oil Furnace: An oil furnace uses heating oil or diesel fuel and is slightly less efficient compared to a gas furnace. Oil-furnace AFUE ratings usually vary between 80 and 90 percent. This furnace type is most commonly found in the northeastern part of the country. In comparison to gas furnaces, oil furnaces are generally cheaper.

Electric Furnace: Electric furnaces heat the air with electricity. Compared to oil and gas, electric furnaces are technically 100% efficient since they convert electrical energy to heat energy. Electricity generation itself requires burning fuel, however, so electricity is costly compared to other fuels, which ultimately means higher monthly utility bills. On the plus side, electric furnaces themselves are cheaper than oil and gas furnaces.

Propane Furnace: If access to natural gas and oil is limited in your area, consider a furnace that runs on propane fuel. Propane furnaces are common in many rural areas where other fuels aren’t as readily available. The cost of a propane furnace is generally higher compared to a gas furnace. While these furnaces offer high efficiencies of up to 98%, the overall fuel costs will likely be higher in comparison to natural gas.

Choose the right size

To ensure optimum comfort and energy savings, it’s critical to determine the right furnace size for your home. Furnaces come with different heating capacities (measured in British Thermal Unit or BTU) for heating different sized spaces. In addition to the size of your home, details like window efficiency, air leakages, number of occupants and insulation should also be taken into account.

Considering all these factors, an HVAC professional will perform the Manual J load calculation to figure out the correct furnace size for your home. This calculation is done by determining how much heat is lost through your home’s windows, walls and insulation during cool months and how much heat is gained during hot months. This is then used to determine the size of the furnace you need. A too-large or too-small furnace will not heat your home efficiently. An incorrectly sized furnace might continuously run to warm the space or stop heating the air too soon, ultimately costing you more money in the long run.

Compare furnace costs

The cost for a new furnace depends on the size, type and brand. It also includes installation fees, which will vary according to the type of furnace and the size of your home.

For a 2,000-square-foot home, a natural gas furnace costs between $2,300 and $3,500. The installation may cost another $1,500. But the exact installation cost will depend on the amount of ductwork necessary and where you need the furnace installed.

For the same size home, an oil furnace ranges between $500 and $2,500 for the unit, plus $1,500 to $2,000 for installation. While an electric furnace cost ranges anywhere between $500 and $2,000 and $1,500 to $2,000 for installation. Propane furnaces generally range from $800 to $2,000, and $2,000 to $3,000 for installing the unit.

Note that these prices are for reference purposes only. Because the actual cost of buying and installing a furnace is so specific to individual households, it is best to consult an HVAC professional in your area to get an accurate quote and ensure you select the ideal furnace size.

Installation

You might be tempted to save money by handling the furnace installation yourself, but installing a furnace is not an easy job. It’s a complex process that can take a few hours or even days. Furnace installation requires proper experience and equipment. It can include removing your old heating system, replacing existing ductwork, sealing the ducts for proper ventilation and programming the thermostat. For full warranty protection, most furnace manufacturers require professional installation. A faulty installation can result in major problems, from inefficient performance and higher energy consumption to fire risk.

While it’s best to leave furnace installation in the hands of a qualified professional, you can always do some pre-work to expedite the process. Cleaning the pathway to the furnace and clearing the space where the compressor will go make it easier for the technician to work.

Furnace brands

These are the top furnace brands and some of their most popular models.

Bryant

987M Evolution Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 60,000 – 120,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 98.3% AFUE

Starting Price: $4,750 (Installed)

986T Evolution Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 40,000 – 120,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 96.7% AFUE

Starting Price: $4,750 (Installed)

Carrier

59MN7 Infinity 98 Series Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 60,000 – 120,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 98.5% AFUE

Starting Price: $4,500 (Installed)

OVL Performance 80 Series Oil Furnace

Heating Capacity: 77,000 – 154,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 86.6% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,895 (Installed)

Lennox

SLP98V Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 66,000 – 132,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 98.7% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,790 (Installed)

SLO185V Oil Furnace

Heating Capacity: 105,000 – 154,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 87% AFUE

Starting Price: $4,990 (Installed)

Rheem

Prestige R98V Series Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 60,000 – 115,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 98.7% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,400 (Installed)

Prestige R97V Series Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 60,000 – 115,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 97% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,400 (Installed)

Trane

XC95M Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 36,000 – 60,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 97.3% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,750 (Installed)

XV80 Oil Furnace

Heating Capacity: 87,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 85% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,970 (Installed)

The post 2020 New Furnace Replacement and Installation appeared first on Freshome.com.

0 notes

owensrhodes · 5 years ago

Text

2020 New Furnace Replacement and Installation

welcomia/Shutterstock

Furnace Buying Guide

What is a furnace?

How to buy the best furnace

Here are some of the factors to consider when choosing a furnace for your home.

Types of furnaces

Choose the right size

Compare furnace costs

The cost for a new furnace depends on the size, type and brand. It also includes installation fees, which will vary according to the type of furnace and the size of your home.

Installation

Furnace brands

These are the top furnace brands and some of their most popular models.

Bryant

987M Evolution Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 60,000 – 120,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 98.3% AFUE

Starting Price: $4,750 (Installed)

986T Evolution Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 40,000 – 120,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 96.7% AFUE

Starting Price: $4,750 (Installed)

Carrier

59MN7 Infinity 98 Series Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 60,000 – 120,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 98.5% AFUE

Starting Price: $4,500 (Installed)

OVL Performance 80 Series Oil Furnace

Heating Capacity: 77,000 – 154,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 86.6% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,895 (Installed)

Lennox

SLP98V Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 66,000 – 132,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 98.7% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,790 (Installed)

SLO185V Oil Furnace

Heating Capacity: 105,000 – 154,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 87% AFUE

Starting Price: $4,990 (Installed)

Rheem

Prestige R98V Series Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 60,000 – 115,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 98.7% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,400 (Installed)

Prestige R97V Series Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 60,000 – 115,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 97% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,400 (Installed)

Trane

XC95M Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 36,000 – 60,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 97.3% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,750 (Installed)

XV80 Oil Furnace

Heating Capacity: 87,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 85% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,970 (Installed)

The post 2020 New Furnace Replacement and Installation appeared first on Freshome.com.

0 notes

cessanderson · 5 years ago

Photo

2020 New Furnace Replacement and Installation https://ift.tt/2IM8U0N

welcomia/Shutterstock

Furnace Buying Guide

What is a furnace?

How to buy the best furnace

Here are some of the factors to consider when choosing a furnace for your home.

Types of furnaces

Choose the right size

Compare furnace costs

The cost for a new furnace depends on the size, type and brand. It also includes installation fees, which will vary according to the type of furnace and the size of your home.

Installation

Furnace brands

These are the top furnace brands and some of their most popular models.

Bryant

987M Evolution Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 60,000 – 120,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 98.3% AFUE

Starting Price: $4,750 (Installed)

986T Evolution Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 40,000 – 120,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 96.7% AFUE

Starting Price: $4,750 (Installed)

Carrier

59MN7 Infinity 98 Series Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 60,000 – 120,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 98.5% AFUE

Starting Price: $4,500 (Installed)

OVL Performance 80 Series Oil Furnace

Heating Capacity: 77,000 – 154,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 86.6% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,895 (Installed)

Lennox

SLP98V Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 66,000 – 132,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 98.7% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,790 (Installed)

SLO185V Oil Furnace

Heating Capacity: 105,000 – 154,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 87% AFUE

Starting Price: $4,990 (Installed)

Rheem

Prestige R98V Series Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 60,000 – 115,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 98.7% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,400 (Installed)

Prestige R97V Series Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 60,000 – 115,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 97% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,400 (Installed)

Trane

XC95M Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 36,000 – 60,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 97.3% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,750 (Installed)

XV80 Oil Furnace

Heating Capacity: 87,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 85% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,970 (Installed)

The post 2020 New Furnace Replacement and Installation appeared first on Freshome.com.

The Freshome.com Team

#Freshome.com - Interior Design & Architecture Magazine

0 notes

jovialsoulinfluencer · 5 years ago

Text

2020 New Furnace Replacement and Installation

welcomia/Shutterstock

Furnace Buying Guide

What is a furnace?

How to buy the best furnace

Here are some of the factors to consider when choosing a furnace for your home.

Types of furnaces

Choose the right size

Compare furnace costs

The cost for a new furnace depends on the size, type and brand. It also includes installation fees, which will vary according to the type of furnace and the size of your home.

Installation

Furnace brands

These are the top furnace brands and some of their most popular models.

Bryant

987M Evolution Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 60,000 – 120,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 98.3% AFUE

Starting Price: $4,750 (Installed)

986T Evolution Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 40,000 – 120,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 96.7% AFUE

Starting Price: $4,750 (Installed)

Carrier

59MN7 Infinity 98 Series Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 60,000 – 120,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 98.5% AFUE

Starting Price: $4,500 (Installed)

OVL Performance 80 Series Oil Furnace

Heating Capacity: 77,000 – 154,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 86.6% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,895 (Installed)

Lennox

SLP98V Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 66,000 – 132,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 98.7% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,790 (Installed)

SLO185V Oil Furnace

Heating Capacity: 105,000 – 154,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 87% AFUE

Starting Price: $4,990 (Installed)

Rheem

Prestige R98V Series Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 60,000 – 115,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 98.7% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,400 (Installed)

Prestige R97V Series Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 60,000 – 115,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 97% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,400 (Installed)

Trane

XC95M Gas Furnace

Heating Capacity: 36,000 – 60,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 97.3% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,750 (Installed)

XV80 Oil Furnace

Heating Capacity: 87,000 BTU

Efficiency Rating: 85% AFUE

Starting Price: $3,970 (Installed)

The post 2020 New Furnace Replacement and Installation appeared first on Freshome.com.

from https://freshome.com/heating-and-cooling/new-furnace-replacement-and-installation/ via 2020 New Furnace Replacement and Installation

#Freshome.com - Interior Design & Architecture Magazine

0 notes

wokeforest-blog · 7 years ago

Text

AC Compressor trouble Sweating profusely

Trane products are rigorously tested and engineered for high performance in extreme climate conditions. Subject: AC Repair Geneva Florida (Learn Alot more Here) not blowing out cold air You need to check the indoor unit fan to see if it is running out just buzzing, trying to run, if you can see the fan wheel get a long screw driver and spin the wheel and if it runs. Subject: You need a lawyer! You Might Also Like. Your site is really well constructed and easy to navigate. JavaScript seem to be disabled in your browser. Hi Bob, thanks for the info.

Tried the "stick" test, and to my surprise, the fan started spinning!!!! If you are like me, you probably want a dehumidifier as well. After searching for possible issues and basically taking apart my unit, I noticed my capacitor was bulging at the top. Trane coils are the best long-term solution if you want to avoid any freon leaks in the future. However, a window unit may only have an electric resistance heater. A more energy efficient air conditioner will cost more upfront, but it will save you money over the long run. Even if the can is empty, hold on to the pressure gauge because not only can it be used to check your AC system pressure, next time you add refrigerant you will only have to buy the can! When its running its blowing cold air but never enough to cool the house or maintain temp. Normally the thermostat would control the entire system…if it works for part of it, it should be working for all of it. Note these efficiency ratings are for conventional air conditoners and heat pumps working in ambient air conditions. Again am using the stick method to start the fan. I also got a smart thermostat that has WiFi and controls the speed of the blower. It seems to be exactly what the ac dr ordered. Ductless Mini Split Five Zone. As a guide, these room sizes would require the following size air conditioners to produce effective results: While the brand of air conditioner you buy — and the type of features it comes with — will partly determine how much you pay, the cost of most models will ultimately be decided by their size. Join us to get great money-saving tips, cool ideas, and valuable advice from home improvement expert Don Vandervort! Should I Repair or Replace My Air Conditioner? Faraz Manan Eid Collection. Salt River Electric - Residential Energy Efficiency Rebate Program. News Latest News HVAC Events FAQ Site Update Share Your Experience. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. What best describes the nature of the problem? If you go less you will see higher utility cost in the summer months and you will not be happy with the results. The size of furnace needed for a home depends on the size of the home or the geographic location of the home. Is your house big? Subject: new ac replacement remember you said including duct work which is very time consuming and expensive for the contractor. AFUE is like your car mileage between fill-ups, including both highway driving and stop-and-go traffic. As such, they are only likely to be suitable for home owners. Why would the air coming out of the outside unit be cool? During this appointment, your contractor will: Dust and debris will build up naturally inside your air conditioner. Those sounds do not indicate a malfunction. The air has always worked. Ducts work most efficiently when their runs are short and straight. Was afraid to use anything on the inside unit. Before you talk with an HVAC repair service, know the model of your system and any maintenance history. InspectAPedia tolerates no conflicts of interest. A furnace works by blowing heated air through ducts that deliver the warm air to rooms throughout the house via air registers or grills. Subject: running ac part time WHat you are saying MIGHT be true in some circumstances. This also determines how much you can expect to spend on electricity. Thermostat Wiring up the thermostat is usually pretty straightforward if an old one is being replaced. Applicants must document four years of experience. The newer Tranes do not fit in my limited space, but Daikin and Ameristar do. Find out which to buy for the space you need to cool. Ac stopped working suddenly. Brown says that the biggest reason why brands like Lennox, Carrier and Trane are considered to be better than others is that those companies are "selective about who they let install their products. Never noticed this before.

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cloverorgan83-blog · 5 years ago

Text

QUEENS 1930s

I’ve begun to think about “stuff” lately.

Forgotten New York celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, and I didn’t start on it until 1998, when I was 40 years old. This was just a few years after the World Wide Web started getting really popular; had the internet been around in the 1970s, think of how large Forgotten NY would be by now. If you’re keeping score there are 3,715 separate posts, which consist of tens of thousands of images, if you estimate ten images per page (many posts have one image but many have 100!) To cut to the chase, I’m thinking about legacy. In the immediate offing, I’m covered by the Greater Astoria Historical Society, which will continue the hosting if I’m run over by a streetcar or something. Long-term? I’m 61 now (in 2019), and hope to do this as long as I’m physically able. My energy levels are still as good as ever — I do a lot of walking and bicycling, though I can’t walk 20+ miles a day like some friends (to my frustration).

How will Forgotten New York be remembered when it ceases everyday production? Well, as a photographer and chronicler of New York city infrastructure, I’d be honored to be whispered about in the same breath as photographers Percy Loomis Sperr, Eugene Armbruster, Edgar “E.E.” Rutter, and the anonymous photographers who shot every property in New York City for tax purposes; their work can be found in the New York Public Library archives and in the NYC Municipal Archives. Their photography was primarily documentarian over esthetic: there wasn’t a budding Ansel Adams in the bunch. For esthetics, you’d be advised to turn to Berenice Abbott, who deftly managed to combine both everyday chronicling and beautiful photography, having been influenced by the great Parisian art photographer Eugene Atget and by artists Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp. I don’t aspire to Abbott’s artistry, but I certainly aspire to the great documentary powers the other photographers I mentioned were able to achieve.

Remember, photography was an expensive, cumbersome business for all mentioned above. I have a camera with a small, thin chip in it that can record over 1,000 pictures depending on its setting, as well as a portable telephone that has an excellent camera almost as an afterthought. Street photography has never been easier. As far as modern work goes there’s Matt Weber, one of the best New York street photographers, and for night photography the best I’ve seen is Mitch Waxman, who sticks mainly to western Queens, especially the Newtown Creek area.

A few years ago, I got my mitts on nearly 1,000 photographs taken all over Queens between 1929 and 1940 primarily as a method of recording recent street paving jobs. Thus, the focus is on roadways, either those recently repaved or are about to be repaved. Everything else seemed to be done as a sidelight though, as you’ll see, some fascinating building interiors were also recorded as part of the project. I have a somewhat busy weekend with a tour scheduled, so I thought I would take a few of these and scribble something about what I’m seeing in each.

164th Street at Jewel Avenue, looking north, July 7, 1936

In the late 19th and early 20th Century, a trolley line connected Flushing and Jamaica, running originally through the farms and fields of Fresh Meadows. The above image was captured at 164th Street and Jewel Avenue in 1936, just a few months before service ended in 1937. In short order, the tracks were pulled up, the weeds paved over, a center median added, and 164th Street became the fast and furious stretch we know it as today between Flushing Cemetery and the Grand Central Parkway.

South of Grand Central Parkway the trolley line veered off 164th and rode on its own right of way to a terminal on Jamaica Avenue at about 160th Street. In the decades since, most of this trolley route has been either eliminated or hidden pretty well, but the four-lane width of 164th Street is a legacy of the route. As you can se there was one lane of traffic on the east side of the street, with the rest taken up by trolley tracks. This photo was about a year before service ended, and the line seems to be in decline, with plants and weeds sprouting between the tracks. For more information see Stephen Meyers’ book, Lost Trolleys of Queens and Long Island.

In the photo, the lengthy building seen on the right distance is still there in 2019.

Jewel Avenue is an unusual named street that runs from Forest Hills across Flushing Meadows-Corona Park all the way to Fresh Meadows. It’s the only remnant of a group of streets east of Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills named in alphabetical order that turn up on maps from the early 20th Century. The streets in sequence were named Atom, Balfour, Chittenden, DeKoven, Euclid, Fife, Gown, Harvest, Ibis, Jewel, Kelvin, Livingston, Meteor, Nome, Occident, Pilgrim, Quality, Ruskin, Sample, Thurman, Uriu, Verona, Webb, and Zuni; it’s likely the streets were only on the planning boards till they were built mid-century, by which time they carried the numbers (68th Road, 68th Drive etc) they do today. I don’t know why the Jewel Avenue name was kept; it’s one of the few non-numbered streets, along with Northern Blvd. and Roosevelt Avenue, that cross Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

The above photo was taken by the Somach Photographic Company, which also did a large amount of work recording what NYC streets looked like in the 1930s.

Ocean Promenade (Rockaway Beach Boardwalk) at Beach 101 Street

I cropped out the date on this photo to get my optimum width, but again, it’s sometime in the mid-1930s in late April. The season is just getting started at Gobel’s hot dog and hamburger stand. Note the barrel that was used to dispense Hires’ Root Beer. Silex coffeemakers debuted in 1915 and merged with Proctor Electric in 1960, creating the Proctor Silex company, which merged with Hamilton Beach in 1990.

The photos have largely yet to see the light, but in October 2018 I walked the length of the Rockaway Beach boardwalk, which aside from a short section by Riis Park near the Marine Parkway (Gil Hodges) Bridge, runs continuously from Beach 126th to Beach 9th Street (numbered streets on the peninsula get bigger from east to west). In 2012, Hurricane Sandy did a number on the old wooden boardwalk and it needed to be rebuilt virtually for its entire length. It’s now a state of the art seaside walk, but at the loss of the old “boardwalk” feel as synthetic materials were used instead of good old wood planks.

What is also missing are boardwalk-side vendors like this; I have a wealth of photos depicting these stands which numbered in the dozens. What happened to them? The closure of the Rockaway Playland amusement park in the early 1980s didn’t help, and today, not one remains. Also: “Specifically [Robert Moses’] 1939 road to nowhere called Shore Front Parkway. As part of the construction, no businesses or dwellings were allowed within 200′ of the boardwalk and a lot of homes, businesses and about half of Playland.

Capitol Diner, Lawrence Street, February 18, 1932

This E.E. Rutter photo of a roadside railroad-car style diner was taken in an era when fast food franchises such as Starbucks and McDonalds did not exist. Yet it can be said that the Dunkin’ Donuts of the world are the direct descendants of such road food stands, which evolved into steel and chrome diners. Such diners are now themselves dying out, as their owners retire and developers prefer to build multistory buildings in their footprints.

Yet, these small diners, the earliest of which were located in decommissioned railroad cars, were nearly ubiquitous even in downtown areas in the 1930s and 1940s; they’re all over scenes in the Municipal Archives linked above.

In 1969, the Department of Traffic (now Transportation) decided to rename 122nd Street, College Point Causeway, Lawrence Street, and Rodman Street under the single moniker College Point Boulevard. a short stub still bears the name Lawrence Street in Queensboro Hill. You have to be a little careful with the labeling on these photos; the “College Point Causeway” moniker only applied to the current stretch of College Point Boulevard on the diagonal stretch between 26th Avenue and the Whitestone Expressway; south of that, the bulk of the road was called Lawrence Street and that’s where this photo was likely taken.

On the ads, the Willys-Knight Company produced autos between 1915 and 1933. Willys, named for John Willys, developed one of the first “jeeps” used in World War II and the brand name survived until the late 1950s and a series of mergers. The Whippet was a popular model named for the racing dogs, in production between 1926 and 1931. And,

The Scranton & Lehigh Coal Company was one of Pennsylvania’s large coal companies, supplying the Northeast with anthracite and other coal products. The engines that powered Brooklyn ran on coal; everything from heating homes and apartments, to heating the offices, schools, and churches of the borough, to the huge boilers that powered the many factories in the city. Coal was the fuel that kept it all going until well after World War II. Even today, a coal furnace still turns up here and there; they were long lasting, powerful, but simple heat producers. [Brownstoner]

“Theater building,” Lawrence Street, February 19, 1932

Another Rutter photo from the same period, also labeled College Point Causeway, shows a former domicile that has been turned into a billboard for several local movie theaters and the features playing at the time.

On the top floor are bills advertising the Taft Theatre, opened on Main Street in 1917 Flushing and renamed after President William Howard Taft, who passed away in 1930. It was a first run theater, but could not compete with the nearby RKO Keiths and Prospect Theatres, and closed in 1955. Both the Keiths and the Prospect survived until the mid-1980s: the RKO Keiths shell building is still on Main and Roosevelt Avenue, awaiting redevelopment. The Loew’s Valencia in Jamaica has been a church for several decades, but its near-phantamagorical detail has been preserved.

As far as the features go, The Champ was a 1931 film directed by King Vidor about a broken-down boxer played by Wallace Beery (who won the Best Actor Academy Award) and his son, played by Jackie Cooper, who had a lengthy career: he played Daily Planet editor Perry White 47 years later in the first Christopher Reeve Superman. Little-remembered today, Marie Dressler earned a Best Actress nomination in Emma.

Newsstand, Cross Island Boulevard, July 22, 1938

This photo is slugged “Cross Island Boulevard” which is the former name of Francis Lewis Boulevard; when the Cross Island Parkway was built in the late 1930s, Cross Island Boulevard was renamed shortly afterward to avoid confusion.

Depicted is a typical newsstand of the period. The top shelf is full of romance and movie magazines, few of which survive today. Titles such as Popular Science, Better Homes and Gardens and Good Housekeeping are still in business today, but none of the newspapers shown, The Long Island Daily Star, The New York Sun, and the North Shore Daily Journal, are. The New York Sun was revived as a daily in the 2000s and still exists in online form.

Laurel Hill Boulevard and 47th Street, March 28, 1938

Nothing in this photo remains; the buildings on both sides have long been razed, and Laurel Hill Boulevard is now the service road on either side of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Changes were soon to come to this placid scene as the first Kosciuszko Bridge was spanning over Newtown Creek and the BQE was planned to connect Brooklyn and Queens. Once in Queens, the BQE was slated to follow the diagonal route of Laurel Hill Boulevard between the creek and Queens Boulevard, whereupon it would turn north to fork into two sections at Grand Central Parkway.

Laurel Hill Boulevard, named for a small neighborhood in Queens between Calvary Cemetery and 50th Street north of the LIRR Montauk tracks, dates back to the colonial era when it was paved with shells and known as Shell Road. It skirts the right end of Calvary Cemetery before following the BQE to Queens Boulevard.

James Gilder Bar & Grill, March 30, 1938

The James Gilder bar was located in one of the buildings depicted in 1938 that would soon give way to BQE construction.

Interborough Parkway, Cypress Hills Cemetery, January 27, 1932

The Jackie Robinson Parkway along with the Grand Central were the first of NYC’s “parkways” providing express (more or less) auto through-routing built within New York City. The “Jackie” unusually begins at the confluence of Jamaica and Pennsylvania Avenues in East New York, twisting through a convoluted route through the “cemetery belt” and Forest Park at the Brooklyn-Queens border, meeting the Grand Central at Flushing Meadows.

Here it is pictured as it was constructed in Cypress Hills Cemetery on January 27, 1932 in an E.E. Rutter photograph. Rutter chronicled the “Jackie,” which was called the Interboro Parkway until 1997 when it was renamed in honor of the first African American major league baseball player, who himself is interred in Cypress Hills. The parkway was rebuilt to handle modern traffic volumes from 1987-1992, eliminating the last traces of the original railings and overpasses seen here.

Metropolitan Beer Gardens, Metropolitan Avenue at Union Turnpike, June 28, 1933

Before the Interborough Parkway opened in 1935, narrow, two-lane Metropolitan Avenue was one of the main traffic routes connecting the Brooklyn waterfront and Jamaica. It was constructed as the Williamsburg and Jamaica Turnpike during the James Madison presidential administration in the 1810s and renamed Metropolitan Avenue after the Civil War. Union Turnpike (its name suggests it was originally tolled, as Metropolitan avenue had been) is a somewhat newer route and remained incomplete until the early 20th Century as an extension of Union Avenue, originally a short route in Glendale.

In the early 1930s, the Interborough Parkway was under construction, paralleling Union Turnpike for a portion of its route. No trace of the Metropolitan Beer Gardens exists today, and either the parkway construction or Prohibition (repealed in December 1933) may have done it in; beer gardens around town either went the speakeasy route or sold “near-beer” containing less than 0.5% alcohol by volume.

PS 63, October 30, 1929

Public School 63, which still exists today in a newer building (a massive edifice at Sutter Avenue between 90th and 91st Streets in Ozone Park) is pictured in a 1929 photo by E.E. Rutter. Though it’s slugged “Linden Boulevard” I can’t be sure it was located on that street as in the early 20th Century, Linden Boulevard, which has its origins miles to the west in Flatbush, was extended east through Queens in a halfhearted fashion; today Linden Boulevard exists in a number of separate pieces in Ozone Park, regaining traction for good in South Jamaica, where it runs continuously into Elmont in Nassau County along the former route of Central Avenue.

I suspect this photo was taken on Old South Road which decades ago was renamed in sections as Pitkin Avenue and Albert Road. Indeed, the present PS 63 is called the Old South School, which might cement it for you.

Soda Candy, Rockaway Beach Boulevard, April 26, 1938

Though Rockaway Beach Boulevard was rerouted in the 1970s a block north of this location and given extra lanes, a short, one-block stretch was left over and actually this portion of the road still exists. One thing you notice about this corner grocery is the Meadow Gold Ice Cream “privilege sign” in which a company would pay for a sidewalk sign, provided its product was prominently shown on the sign (several Coca-Cola signs around town in this category still exist. Meadow Gold, which also distributes other dairy products, is still found in several parts of the country.

Smith Brothers Ice Cream, Ditmars Boulevard and 23rd Avenue, East Elmhurst

One such Coca-Cola “privilege sign” can be found at this roadside grocery at Ditmars Boulevard and 23rd Avenue near Glenn Curtiss Airport, now LaGuardia Airport. In the forefront is a placard for Smith Brothers Ice Cream, a popular brand in the early 20th Century. This brand was not originated by the bearded fellows on the cough drop boxes, but company scion Richard Smith developed the Früsen-Gladjé, Chipwich, Eskimo Pie and other dessert brands.

Van Wyck Expressway at 95th Avenue, September 7, 1934

The furiously mustachioed Robert Anderson Van Wyck was the first mayor of Greater New York, serving from 1898-1901. His involvement with American Ice, a monopoly in the necessary commodity before the age of universal refrigeration, cost him his political career. Nonetheless when a major route was built between Jamaica Avenue and Rockaway Boulevard in the early 20th Century it received his name, Van Wyck Boulevard.

In the early 1950s, NYC traffic czar Robert Moses built the Van Wyck Expressway along this route from Flushing Meadows south to Idlewild, now JFK Airport. The west side of Van Wyck Boulevard was retained, while everything on the east side was demolished; the buildings ween on the right side of the photo at 95th Avenue still stand. Since hundreds of residences were retained this is one of the few Expressways in NYC that have numbered addresses.

Van Wyck likely pronounced his name with a long “why” but today, most locals use the WICK pronunciation.

Lawrence Street (College Point Boulevard) at 36th Avenue, February 18, 1932

The Flushing Main Street station is so-called because there used to be a Flushing Bridge Street station located on the Long Island Rail Road Whitestone Branch, which operated from the mid-1800s to 1932, branching from the Port Washington line at Flushing Meadows and running north and east to Whitestone Landing at the East River at 152nd Street. After the LIRR unsuccessfully tried selling the line to NYC to operate as a subway line (presumably a connection would be made to the Flushing Line, today’s #7 train) the LIRR shut it down for nonridership.

This photo shows the branch as it crossed Lawrence Street, now College Point Boulevard; the Flushing Bridge Street station was just east of here. When the tracks and signals were cleared away, the one-block stretch of King Road would replace them.

Gas station, Whitestone Parkway, July 27, 1937

Among the items seen are a coin-operated public telephone, a Gulf calendar, and an ad for the upcoming World’s Fair to be held in Flushing Meadows in 1939. The Parkway gained expressway status some years after the Whitestone Bridge opened in the mid-1930s.

I’ll get back to recent photos — but from time to time, I’ll be showing some of these classics to indicate how much has changed and how much has stayed the same. You can find much more in the book I wrote with GAHS, Forgotten Queens.

Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop, and as always, “comment…as you see fit.”

5/19/19

Source: https://forgotten-ny.com/2019/05/queens-1930s/

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