#But at least he is willing to resume proper operation

[taryn40k]

“SCAPEGRACES.” A heavily synthesized voice hisses down the hall from the Catachan and his hidden patter companion, followed by a sharp trill of the lingua technica. The source was a tall being, on mechanical, digitgrade legs, crimson, shining alloy battle armor, and flowing robes. A domed helmet with peering, cyan lenses fixated on them, lenses focusing and unfocusing, the faintest buzz of static in the air around it as it stalks towards them like a predator. A Sicarian Infiltrator.

The Skitarii thankfully was far less flesh then Sam, or the throngs of guards attending the sermon just beyond the doors, so it is far less…overwhelming for the payment, despite its imposing figure with a power sword dangling from a frog around its hip, along with a las and stub pistol. Its gear was meticulously maintained, and held with care as its horrid voice barks into the air again.

“EFFECTIVE USE OF THIS GANGWAY IS HALTED BY YOUR LOITERING. YOU WILL ENTER THE HALLS OF WORSHIP, OR CONTINUE WITH YOUR QUEUED ORDERS. FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN FORMAL REQUESTS FOR REPRIMAND AND/OR SERVITORISATION.”

Some things never change, even in the Warp!

[datawyrms]

Half a Decade Late

Valerie was finally promoted to the main headquarters of the Guys in White. There she finally comes face to face with Phantom, who disappeared five years ago, locked in a cell. For Phic Phight 2021, @lexosaurus' prompt!

Nothing proved ’harder workers get ahead’ was only a capitalist lie than the absolute hassle getting promotions within the GIW. Of course she’d gone right to them for employment, it was the only organization large enough to actually pay people that took her resume of ghost hunting seriously. She had experience, actual knowledge and even her own gear but had still spent years getting jerked around to various small operations, basically just using her to train all their useless recruits while still just considering her a ‘fellow’ field agent. It wasn’t like she had the option to quit in protest, no one else was in the market for ghost hunters. As far as most people knew ‘ghost intelligence’ was just a joke cover story that the agents were very attached to. They didn’t want any more Amity Parks, so if she wanted to live somewhere new and still do her job...these guys were it. She’d been very clear, she wanted to be in the main office, where everything happened. That didn’t stop them from constantly assigning her literally anywhere but the actual headquarters. Maybe they finally ran out of other places, she still half expected to get stopped at the door and be told about a new field mission they absolutely needed her on immediately. It didn’t happen. Valerie Grey finally got to clock in as an Ecto Containment Officer at the main branch. Where they kept the strongest creatures, developed the new anti-ghost equipment and did more than just splattering a ghost down to nothing. Sure, she liked a good ghost obliterating, but it got boring after a while. There were only so many ways a ghost could beg for it’s useless afterlife before it became white noise. It didn’t stop any new ones from showing up, or tell her anything new. Just got rid of one pest, permanently. That wouldn’t help explain some ghosts, the powerful ones that showed up again and again. It wouldn’t explain the one that stopped showing up either. There was no way that life ruining ghost just got ‘bored’ and vanished without notice. It was still out there, plotting something. She just knew it in her bones. She had to be ready for it. There were traces of that ghost, hints of his ectosignature that she came across in the field, he was still out there. The GIW was just a means to an end, she didn’t trust them to be ready alone.

Sterile corridors and simplistic signs were expected, but even the break area was doing its best impression of a frozen tundra. Fantastic for morale? Probably not. Made the coffee pot easy to spot, at least. Even if she preferred to avoid the stuff in uniform. It stained too easily, and just made her wish for her red battle suit. She took a cup to at least have an excuse for her scoping out the place, she could pass it off to someone once she got to the containment area. A quick double check that everything was in place at the mirror before heading right back out to the winding halls. She wasn’t going to be late, she didn’t have time for that. Maybe a red tie was against protocol, but no one had been stupid enough to bother her about it yet. Judging from the deferential nods from her latest coworkers, that wouldn’t be changing. No one who worked here couldn’t know who she was. The only Ghost Hunter who got out of Amity Park without getting corrupted by the ectoplasmic monsters. It was a shame, Jack and Maddie Fenton used to be a serious force for humanity. Five years ago they suddenly flipped the script, denouncing their work and calling for peace with unreasonable fiends. Their daughter Jazz likely had something to do with it, but Valerie had her own theories. Danny, her friend and once boyfriend had gone missing around that time. Leverage to ensure the Fenton’s ‘good behaviour?’ The whole thing reeked of ghosts. To think she might have gone the same way. Back then she was actually listening to the pest, starting to really consider them a ‘good’ ghost. Like that was actually possible, when he’d just been playing to emotion and her own desire to give up in fighting a dangerous foe over and over. So much for that. That monster showed it’s true colours, sure enough. Something the GIW never bothered to look into, even as she wrote report after report about the incident, how unlikely it was for the Fentons of all people to change that drastically without constant possession. Not worth the resources, even when it was easy to see what tech was built on the foundations the couple had laid. They were throwing away so much to focus on little outbreaks of ghosts instead of making more of a lasting change. Stupid. That was what the funding was ‘meant’ to go towards, as if helping the Fentons would be less productive than making a slightly different ectogun.

She almost hoped there would be a problem, just to prove this is where she should have always been.Even if it seemed distinctly unlikely. She had to swipe to get into the lab, then yet again to actually get to the cells. Or the ‘vault’, as if the higher ups wanted to pretend the creatures in there were inert materials instead of cunning and dangerous beings. Even though they had someone posted at each door, and someone on guard inside as well, herself today. To get acquainted with the place mostly, she had more than enough training on ‘proper handling’ procedures.

“Hey, you can swap with me today, if you want.”

Valerie blinked, eyebrow already raised at the posted guard’s suggestion. “I can handle watching caged ghosts.”

They had the sense to look embarrassed, taking their hand away from the oversized ectogun to loosen their tie- which was tied rather poorly now that she got a better look at it. “I’m sure you can, it’s just, well.” They wouldn’t stop fidgeting with their tie now, eyes checking that no one was really paying attention to the guards. “H0G02 is awake today. No one likes those days.”

“Then all the more reason to get used to it early.” She didn’t give them time to sputter another excuse, swiping her card and striding past without another look. As if people should be worried about a captive ghost being awake. Maybe some of the people here never got a spine before joining up.

It wasn’t as cold as she expected it to be. Or as dark. It was actually brighter, thanks to the extra row of fluorescent lights. On some level she expected the room to reflect the monsters kept here, a shadowy icebox of a space. Of course it wasn’t. These were defeated creatures under human control, of course their cages would be bright and clean, the air warmed for human comfort. The ghosts might not like it, but why care what they wanted? It wasn’t like there were many to begin with, mostly green oversized vermin with blank red eyes. Most had the sense to cower back as she walked past, but a fair few didn’t even twitch. Calling a ghost of all things lifeless was foolish, but it was the only word coming to mind...she had to focus. She didn’t pity these things. Why so many creatures though? The real dangerous ones, the most monstrous ones were the ones that could play human, the ones that had conniving minds that only worked to cause destruction and terror. These were just feral things, annoying but hardly more impressive than a coyote when you knew what to do. Half of them she’d barely rate above ‘feral cat’. A light near the back flickered. Strange. When it flickered a second time she was already releasing her helmet to pull it on. Not nearly as easy as just willing it on, but at least she could carry it in a pocket without needing to rely on some ghost’s power. Three steps and her gun was ready, not that she expected to need it. Really, she worked on autopilot, legs still moving as she stared at the largest glass cage at the back of the room. Or more accurately, at what was in it.

“Oh, newbie. ‘Sup.” The ghost rasped out, blank green eyes watching the ghost hunter. A teenaged boy with a shock of white hair, a black jumpsuit, but the voice of a seventy year old chain smoker. Just sitting in a painfully bright cell, watching. Not exactly as she remembered him, but close enough.

“You.” The disgust was easy to voice, even as her brain struggled to catch up. He was here? Looking practically exactly as he had when she was still a soft hearted freelancer?

He only gave a sputtering laugh at the aggression. “Me? You’re not that mad about the light, are you? I’m bored, Tie.”

“What are you doing here?” That wasn’t the important question really, she should be more concerned that he apparently was able to manipulate light fixtures from his cell...but she’d been hunting after this ghost for five years. Protocol could go shove itself up the director’s ass.

“Same thing I do every day Tie, being some government property!” His laugh was wrong, not from amusement like she remembered. A desperate cackle that didn’t fool anyone. “You new enough to still have your soul in there?”

“Answer the question, Phantom.”

The smirk slid off the ghost’s face. “Wh’ad you call me? Like I’m only calling you Tie cus the red sticks out, I can call you Shooty if you don’t like it, newbie.”

The response made her insides run cold. It had to be Phantom, and the terrible sense of humour was just like him- but the ghost wasn’t quite right. What was this? It couldn’t be some copy of the ghost kid, could it? “I called you by your name, ghost.”

“Never heard of em.” The ghost crossed his legs and looked away, apparently bored of the person holding a weapon. “What day is it?”

Surely he was playing around. “What do you think your name is, then?”

He didn’t take his attention off the ceiling, looking more bored than anything.“Day first, Tie. Gotta know how much of a head start I’ve got.”

“Like you’re in any position to bargain.”

“Hm? Whatcha gonna do Tie? Let me be unconscious for a few hours? Scary. Day first.”

There was the Phantom she knew, snide and sarcastic when he really had no business being so. “I could do worse than that.”

“Doubt it. You gun grunts gotta listen to the freaks out there, remember?” His shoulders shook with a silent laughter, but it looked more like spasms. “No more mishandling the goods, yeah? Day Tie, comeonnnnnn”

Since when was he so interested in the calendar? Not to mention how weird it was how he kept referring to himself...and pretending he didn’t know his name. “It’s Monday.”

That got his attention, the casual rocking halting as he looked at her again, disturbingly still. “Monday, really?”

“Lying is your thing, not mine.”

He grinned. “I like you Tie, so you’ll probably be fired in like a week. Maybe it’s the red.” The tension left the ghost completely, she hadn’t even noticed how stiffly he’d been sitting until his spine relaxed as his elbows rested on his legs. “Pretty sure I’m H0G02. Least that’s what all your creeps call me.”

There was no way Phantom of all ghosts would call himself ‘H0G02’. He had to be a mimic of some sort, a ghost that modelled himself on the once well known Amity Park menace. “You like me because I told you it was Monday? Seriously?”

“I like the Mondays more than you, if that helps.”

“Not particularly.”

“Sounds like a you problem.” He was watching her again, more curious than anything. She shouldn’t be glad to see a spark of something in those eyes, but he was far less creepy this way.

“What’s so great about Monday? You’re a ghost.” She didn’t really care. She should be asking important questions. She was just...playing along to see if it really was Phantom. That didn’t stop her for being grateful for the helmet.

“Monday is the farthest day away from Friday.”

“Wouldn’t that be Saturday?”

“It hasn’t been Saturday or Sunday for...like four years? Those days don’t exist, I think you humans made ‘em up to prank me.” Phantom shrugged, sounding completely serious. Not even a hint of amusement or a grin. “Pretty good one, all you new guys keep it up.”

He was going to be completely useless if he kept saying nonsense. How could he be useful in finding out what happened to the Fenton’s son if he couldn’t even talk about the days of the week sensibly? “Fine, what’s so bad about Friday then.”

“Ohhhhh, you’re really new, Tie.” the ghost flopped onto his side, bored of sitting up apparently. “You know, the day they keep me around for? That day.” He wasn’t quite still, his right shoulder moving very, very carefully. Hiding something.

She didn’t have the patience for this.“What are you hiding there.”

“Tie has good eyes. Gotta remember that.” Phantom muttered, getting onto his back, a blue shard of ice melting off his arm.

“You don’t really think that some ice would help you out of there?”

“Out?” He looked mystified by the suggestion, but that could more be seeing his face upside down. “That glass doesn’t break for anything, I should know.”

Which didn’t explain why he’d been trying to hide the fact he’d made ice at all. He knew it too, but apparently playing stupid was still one of his favourite tactics. “Knock it off and just answer me.”

Phantom’s frown didn’t change, green eyes staring intently at her helmet as if hoping to see through it. “I could show you why?”

It didn’t sound like a threat. “Sure, why not. It’s gonna be a long day.” If it was? Then she’d show him that she wasn’t someone he could mess with.

Ice wrapped itself around the ghost’s lower arm alarmingly quick, a wickedly sharp blade of ice with serrated teeth jutting from the scrawny arm at an awkward angle. It was practised, something this ghost must have done often in all the time he’d been gone from her life. Yet it was so different from how Phantom usually chose to fight. That was a weapon to tear and maim, not to shock, stun or bruise. It looked wrong on him. The idea that this ghost wasn’t Phantom at all only grew more credible with that thing on his arm, even if ice powers were to be expected. His eyes flicked back to green, still fixated on her as he lifted the arm and stabbed down hard. Right into his other arm. Didn’t even blink.

“What are you doing!” She couldn’t remember the last time Phantom had ever been frightening on some primal level. This- with the disturbing snap of bone as the edges of the blade caught and tore made her hair stand on end. “Stop that, Phantom. What’s wrong with you!?”

“Cancelling Friday.” Phantom was laughing as the blade melted away into the pool of green rapidly spreading from his self inflicted wound. “I said you’d probably get fired Tie.”

“Forget Friday you idiot, cover the wound so you stop splattering everywhere!” He was just a ghost-a ghost messing with her. A ghost she’d fought with and had heard scream in pain. This...thing wasn’t him. Her heart didn’t care what her mind thought, insisting he needed help.

The ghost sat up, his left arm holding on by a shred of his suit before splattering into the puddle, but the left behind stump stopped dripping almost as quickly as he’d lost the limb. “Aw. Maybe Tie does have some soul left. You actually sound worried.”

“Of course I am! You slashed your arm off!”

“So?”

He didn’t seem to be in pain. If it wasn’t for the mess of green and the lack of a limb, she’d almost say she imagined it. Why did she care? “You wouldn’t do this sort of thing.”

“Uh. Yes I would? You just saw me do it. I’m down for an encore.”

The idea just made her feel ill. “Don’t.” Did she want this to be Phantom or not? “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Well I’m down an arm. So the coats are going to be very whiny about how much ectoplasm they can get out of me.”

“You must have felt that.”

“Sure. Isn’t nearly as bad as when they start ripping as much ectoplasm as they can out of you. Every single Friday.” He actually rolled his eyes, like she should just know this.

Why did they bother keeping Phantom around if they just wanted ectoplasm? He might be strong, but no ghost had limitless amounts. They’d just fall apart and stop existing. That’s why the weakest ones never even left the Ghost Zone, they couldn’t survive without constantly being around the stuff! “What makes you so special then? Not your attitude.”

“I’m just lucky enough to make my own ectoplasm. Who knew food was easier to get then high grade ectoplasm? Not me.” His remaining arm pointed to her weapon, his smile stretching. “Bet ya your weapon’s fully powered from Fridays. Yours and every other thing they use in this hellhole.”

“Ghosts can’t do that.” The lie was absurd. It went against everything they knew about ghosts, even before food entered the equation.

“Y’know, Tie. I think I knew a ghost hunter that wore red once.” the ghost’s eyes went unfocused, unmoving as he looked listlessly into space. “It’s a good colour.”

“You knew me. Quit fooling around with this not remembering crap.” Valerie threw her helmet aside, no longer caring. She had to know who this ghost really was. She had to know if everything he was blathering about was a lie. So what if it wasn’t ‘safe’.

His eyes didn’t change. “Y’know how hard it is to remake a brain? Cut me some slack Tie…”

“I mean it. Look at me Phantom. If you’re the ghost I know, you can stop pretending to be something else.”

“You lose the details. Arms and legs are easy. The brain though? Way too hard.” He kept rambling to himself, not reacting even as she put a hand to the glass to get his attention. “Y’know how many times they’ve cut it open? I don’t. I lose track after like. Eleven. Maybe. Pointy Shoe said my best was fifteen but I sure don’t remember that.”

She wanted him to just stop talking. She wanted this ghost to be some strange creature she didn’t know. To not have the only possible link to someone long lost a shattered husk. “Phantom. Do you remember the hunter in red’s name?”

He finally blinked. “I’m not this Phantom guy, Tie.”

“Okay, whatever, forget that part. The ghost hunter in red, what do you remember?” She insisted, knocking again in hopes it would keep the ghost’s focus.

“Wish I’d told em something.” he held up his gloved hand as she opened her mouth to speak. “Don’t remember what that something was, don’t ask.”

So he was Phantom? He couldn’t be. That was so non-specific it could be anything. “You never explained how you’re the only ghost that can make their own ectoplasm.”

“It’s in my name Tie! Come on. Thought you guys were smart or whatever.” He did a very awkward one armed attempt at crossing it, eyebrow raised. “The H? The feeding a ghost food thing?”

She didn’t really get the whole naming scheme they used here. The fact it mattered wasn’t making her gut unclench either. “What about the H?

“Hybrid? Might have been Human. That might have been a joke.”

Valarie’s mouth was drier than any desert when he said it that easily, that casualty while kicking his own arm aside. “You’re saying you aren’t all ghost.”

“Yup. Not yet! Trust me, I’ve tried,” the bubbly high pitched laugher clawed out of the ghost at that. “I tried so much. Guess it’s another thing I’m a failure at, eh Tie?”

Something told her not to ask. She had to know. Five years she waited, five years apparently knocked Phantom clear from reality.“Does Danny Fenton mean anything to you?”

He just laughed harder at the question. “Really Tie?”

“Yes, really.”

“That’s the name I scream at em. Don’t know why. Feels good though.”

“Is it your name?” Had he had contact with Danny? Been part of whatever made him go missing from everyone’s lives? He couldn’t be, there was no way.

“They get reallllll angry when I say it is.”

There was no way the GIW had a human captive for five years. There was no way Phantom could be the Danny she knew. The ghost was just lying. He had to be, she desperately needed him to be. “Were you fused with a human or something? Got stuck when possessing someone?”

“Nah. Been like this before I got here, pretty sure. You can check your fancy gear though. There’s some non-ghost DNA in it. Lucky lucky me,” he lay back down in the mess of ectoplasm, ignoring how it clung to his hair. “Thanks for the Friday off! I hate those.”

There was no reason to need air. Talking to a ghost she didn’t even like shouldn’t make her feel like she was being crushed under a boulder. Panting for air, outside the room would make her look pathetic and weak, but she needed the space, needed to be away from that...mockery of a ghost.

“He does that to everyone. He’ll repeat the whole thing in a week or so, but he’s a really good copy the first time you see it.” The guard gave a comforting word, apparently unsurprised by her sudden unscheduled departure.

Oh, there would be no ‘next time.’ Not if he was right about her weapon. But she nodded instead, letting her ‘coworker’ think she was just overwhelmed. Even if all she could think of was how many ways this place would burn if that ghost- that thing had been a human once. She was good at telling when ghosts lied. Phantom didn’t sound like he had. No matter how much she tried to convince herself he did.

[willowbird]

Prompts open? Bet maybe foxes(and Andrew) slowly finding out how fucked up Neil’s mom was to him?(I get it was to survive but it was still abuse)

Since this one got kinda... Uh... Long... And answered both of these prompts I decided to combine them!! I didn't include a separate one for Andrew because he's present for a couple of them and by the time I reached the end it was like 6600 words and an Andrew POV would probably add another 2000 because I'm me and I always get carried away with Andrew POV.

If you’d rather read this on AO3 you can do so here.

4 times the Foxes found out how fucked up Mary was to Neil, and the 1 time Neil actually admitted it

ONE - ALLISON

Allison had been taking Neil shopping, which in itself wasn't really a weird occurrence. Allison would take any of her teammates shopping if that's what needed to happen to get them to stop looking like a dirty hobo. As it happened, Neil was just the worst offender and so she pestered him about it more often than not. It was remarkable how the guy could be dating the Monster and still look like that. Not that Andrew Minyard was a fashion icon or anything, but the miniature psychopath at least understood the concept of aesthetic and made sure the people around him wore things that actually fit. 

Well, most of the people around him. 

Point being, Neil needed a bit of extra help, and Allison was more than happy to supply it. So she'd taken to dragging him out shopping with her once a week. It was basically therapy - and fuck if that boy didn't need some of that.

(But Allison wasn't going to say that in front of Neil or he'd probably get hives…)

Usually, the shopping trips all went about the same. Allison would drag Neil along, Neil would acquiesce until he got hungry, then he'd get bitchy and after Allison fed him he'd calm the fuck down enough to try on more things before refusing to get anything. On a very rare occasion she would get him to accept a shirt or a new pair of pants. His weakness was shoes, but she tries not to exploit that too often.

Today, however, was different - because today Allison caught Neil's eyes catching on a particular hoodie. If it had been just once she would have passed it off, but this was at least the fourth time Neil had sought it out in the whole ten minutes they'd been in the narrow clothing store and his eyes didn't just catch, they lingered. Which meant that Neil was interested, that he liked something. This was a breakthrough! Especially since the hoodie was new and had color, rather than the drab shit he was always wearing. It was a very pretty cerulean blue with black stitching and was of a less bulky design than the other two Neil owned (one of which was the Foxes one she'd never seen him wear off-campus). In the proper size it would fit his frame nicely, she could tell just by looking at it, and she was low-key impressed that something with general style had been the thing to catch his eye. 

Allison grinned and nudged him. "Hey, just grab it. You could use a new hoodie."

Neil's attention snapped to her and Allison wasn't prepared for the flash of instinctive panic that raked through his eyes. "No, I didn't- I don't-" He raised his hands apologetically, which was weird, then seemed to catch himself and dropped them immediately. Allison could see him struggling not to look over at the sweatshirt and for the life of her she didn't understand why. But now she needed to know.

She gave him a look. "Uh, yes you did, and you do. What's the big deal? So what, you like it. Get it." She shrugged, hoping nonchalance would encourage him to stop being a weirdo about it.

"Nah," Neil said with a shrug. "It's fine. I've got hoodies."

Allison thought about letting it go, she really did, but she was too curious. But she also knew that the more she seemed to care about the answer she was prodding for, the less likely Neil was going to give it. So she pretended to look at some of the surrounding clothing without really registering what she was shuffling through. "You act like you've never bought something just because you wanted it before," she said with her usual level of scathing judgement.

"It was too dangerous," came Neil's distracted response. When Allison peaked over at him, her hand freezing on the shoulder of a sweater, about to slide it down the rack, she saw that he was looking at the hoodie again, studying it with a too-careful blankness she was beginning to recognize as Neil-in-memory.

"Getting something you wanted was too dangerous?" It was harder this time to keep her tone casual but she managed it well enough that Neil didn't fully snap out of his thoughts, wherever they were.

He shrugged. "It was distracting. If you had things you cared about you'd lose sight of survival, or make stupid mistakes."

Allison just stared at him. "You weren't allowed to have things you wanted… because they'd be distracting? Neil that's really fucked up." 

Neil looked over at her and grimaced, pulling away from the hoodie. "Whatever, it's not a big deal. Come on, are you done shopping yet?"

For another moment Allison stared, then she stalked forward and violently grabbed the hoodie from the rack, ignoring Neil's startled protests. 

"No," she said, pointing at him with her free hand. "You aren't some kid on the run anymore and you don't have to follow your mom's fucked up rules. If you want something, you're going to get it, damn it." If Neil tried to protest again she didn't see it because she'd already whirled around to head up toward the checkout.

Fuck you, Mary.

TWO - DAN

Team Night was something Dan instated right after finals last year. One night a week they all got dinner after practice. The whole team had to be there for at least part of the time. Sometimes they got along, sometimes they fought like half-crazed rabbis raccoons, but they were all together in a situation that wasn't about exy (no matter how many times Kevin or Neil brought it up). If there was anything Dan had learned over her years as Team Captain, it was that they would always operate better on the court if they could also work together off of it.

Tonight they'd gone out to dinner with the whole team before splitting off into various groups back at the dorms. Renee had gone off with Allison and Nicky while Aaron had left right from the restaurant to meet up with Katelyn. The freshmen had split into their own groups - they were still working out their hierarchy among themselves and Dan knew by now that she just had to let it happen - which had left her and Matt and, surprisingly enough, Neil and Andrew. She hadn't really expected the other two to accept her invitation to join them in Matt's room for a movie, but when she's offered Neil had easily agreed and Andrew hadn't protested. 

A part of her had still expected Andrew to peel off and go back to his own dorm once they'd returned to Fox Tower, but the reticent goalkeeper had followed them all into the room with no complaint.

"All right!" Matt announced with a grin once the door was shut and locked behind them, crossing to where he kept the booze. "Power Couple Movie Night! Whatcha guys want? Babe?"

Dan chuckled and rolled her eyes affectionately. "You're ridiculous and I love you. I'll have a whisky sour." She looked to Andrew and Neil. "What about you guys? He just stocked up so there's a bit of everything."

"Babe, you're making me sound like an alcoholic." 

Dan dismissed the complaint with a wave of her hand and smiled over at the other two. 

"Whisky straight." That was Andrew.

Neil just shrugged. "I don't need anything," he said.

"Do you have Dr. Pepper?" Andrew asked, apparently not done.

Matt nodded, lifting a mostly-full two-liter for him to see and setting it on the surface of the cabinet. 

"He'll have that with amaretto."

"Andrew."

"Neil."

Dan tried not to be too obvious about how closely she was watching them. It wasn't even a 'how could they be together?' thing. It was just that… Neil was this big mystery, and Andrew was also a big mystery. And now they were together and that just made the mystery balloon exponentially. The two of them fit together in a way that was somehow both surprising and like nothing in the world could make more sense. They had a whole language together of looks and gestures, of silent understandings that the rest of them couldn't even begin to interpret. In a way, this was just like any other couple. Even now, Dan shot a glance over at Matt and they shared a look of their own before resuming their subtle observations of the other couple. Somehow it was different with Andrew and Neil though. Somehow it seemed… heavier. It was fascinating and also kinda unsettling, which only made Dan want to figure it out even more.

After an extended silence where Neil and Andrew had some indecipherable conversation with their eyes alone, Neil sighed, apparently conceding defeat, and nodded agreement to his boyfriend's drink order. 

"All right! Neilio is drinking with us tonight!" Matt pumped a fist into the air, shattering the residual tension with his enthusiasm. Dan had probably never loved anyone so much in her life.

Neil smirked his own affection for the big lug and flopped onto the couch, Andrew following with less flourish but a level of relaxed comfort that made Dan's heart soar. It was really happening. Andrew was letting himself trust them, letting himself be a part of the team, letting himself be… one of their friends.

Matt finished making their drinks and brought them over on a serving tray he had been a little bit too excited to buy.

Neil took his drink and cautiously sniffed it, wrinkling his nose. "It smells sweet," he complained.

"You have two choices when it comes to liquor, Josten. It either tastes sweet or it tastes like alcohol." Andrew was entirely unsympathetic, though his gaze remained focused on Neil even as he sipped his whisky. Apparently, this was some either-or that Neil was willing to concede to because he sighed and sipped the drink. After a moment he hummed and took another sip. Another sip turned into a second drink as the four of them collectively decided to skip the movie and instead hang out and talk about the worst movies they'd ever seen. Andrew, surprisingly, had a lot to contribute - as he had apparently seen a lot of movies and had Opinions about all of them. It was very weird and kinda surreal, but also made Dan feel almost giddy.

"Well shit, Neil, if it was just a matter of you not liking the taste of alcohol we'd have stocked up on wine coolers ages ago," Matt said as he handed Neil his third glass later on in the night. He grinned and perched on the armrest of her chair. Dan smiled up at him when he put his arm around her, leaning against him and sipping her own drink as she turned her attention back to the other couple.

The other couple. Well, that was weird.

"Nah, I still wouldn't have had anything," Neil said after another, fuller drink. He leaned back, comfortable. Dan noticed that he and Andrew weren't touching but there was still a weird intimacy with their proximity. It hurt her brain to think about so she didn't focus on it overmuch. Then Neil said, "Mom only brought out the alcohol when I needed to be stitched up," and Dan froze with her drink halfway back up to her mouth. Neil didn't seem to notice, looking into his cup as he continued. "No hospitals, you know, and when I was a kid I always cried a lot and was really loud about it unless I was too drunk to feel anything at all."

And when I was a kid I always cried a lot and was really loud unless I was too drunk to feel anything at all.

When I was a kid…

It felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room. Dan peripherally noticed that she wasn't the only one who had gone still. It was so rare for Neil to say anything about his time before he joined the Foxes. It was even more rare for him to bring up his mother - especially in such a… disturbingly revealing way. 

Matt was the one to break the silence. "When you say you were a kid you mean…?" There was a false lightness in his voice, like he was trying not to alert Neil to how much he was revealing. Andrew cut him a glare but then looked to Neil without interrupting.

Neil shrugged, swirling his glass lightly, apparently fascinated with the ice as it clinked gently against the sides of the glass. He poked at them with his mixing straw. "Mm, Lola scared me, y'know? I didn't want her to stitch me up. So I begged mum. Dad would hurt her too if she couldn't keep me quiet. I tried, but being noisy was always a problem for me. 's how I usually got in trouble anyhow. Or by not being still enough. Or dropping knives." Neil shivered, his free hand rubbing against a spot on his abdomen like he was worrying away at a memory, some phantom ache from a past that he could never quiet escape from.

Andrew, apparently, had decided this was enough. He reached forward and pulled the glass from Neil's hand with a gentleness that shouldn't surprise Dan anymore. He set the glass on the table and stood, then tugged Neil up with him. He didn't let go of the striker's hand even when he got the other man standing. Once he was sure the other would be steady he glanced over at them with a dark, steady threat in his eyes. "We are leaving now."

A sound beside her alerted Dan to the beginning of Matt's protest and she elbowed him before he could complete it. In its place, she gave a strained smile and nodded. "Of course. You guys are probably tired. See you tomorrow!"

Neil raised his hand in a small wave but he still seemed a little lost, his expression closed, his mind somewhere else. 

When the door closed behind them, Matt stood up and walked over to lock it, then he stood there for a moment before turning to face her. His expression was dark and angry and echoed the storm stirring in his own heart.

"Neil went on the run when he was ten."

It might have seemed a random statement, but Dan was following the same line of thought and she nodded. They'd known that Neil's dad was a bastard, knew he'd been hurt by him and his people when they'd been on the run and it wasn't a far toss to infer that he'd been hurt earlier too. But this confirmation was blood-chilling. Mary's part in it was not comforting.

"She did nothing, Dan. She did nothing. She let him get hurt and then she got him drunk as a little fucking kid to stitch him up again. I know it was a fucked up situation, and I'm sure it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for her but fuck Dan. Fuck."

Dan nodded, setting down her drink and rising from the chair so she could go to Matt. She knew that she only had a surface understanding of the situation. She couldn't imagine what Mary might have gone through herself, but she couldn't find enough compassion in her heart to make excuses for her. Maybe that made her heartless, she didn't fucking care. What she cared about was that Mary let her own son be hurt badly enough that he needed to get drunk and get stitched up over and over again, before and after they went on the run. What she cared about was that Mary hurt her son over and over herself in order to control him, to keep him under her thumb. Maybe she did it because that's how she thought she was protecting him but intentions meant shit.

Lesser evils were still evil.

There are always choices, always options, and Mary's choices had traumatized Neil just as much as the Butcher's had. Maybe Neil had complicated feelings about his mother but Dan didn't. She had a very clear opinion, actually.

Fuck you, Mary.

THREE - MATT

"Okay so, but why Andrew?" Matt didn't mean anything negative with the question, but he flipped a hand in apology when Neil glared over at him. "I didn't mean it that way. I mean like -- is your type short, blond, and stabby or…?"

"I don't have a type. I don't swing."

Well that made no sense.

"Except for Andrew," Matt clarified, reminding Neil that he was self-admittedly committed to the Monster.

Neil nodded without hesitation. "Except for Andrew," he agreed.

"Right… but… why? Why only Andrew? Didn't you ever like… like other guys, or girls?" Matt studied his best friend, desperate to understand him. He wasn't even being anti-Andrew about this, he was just trying to learn more about Neil and this integral part of him. Neil said he didn't swing, and then of all people to fall for - he falls for Andrew. Matt had thought that maybe Neil had been shy about admitting he was gay or something, but Neil was pretty confident about the whole not-swinging thing. Matt got that there were other sexualities out there, but the idea of just… not wanting anything just didn't make sense to him.

He was surprised when Neil actually said -- "Sure, yeah, when I was like, fourteen or whatever. I wouldn't say I liked anyone, but I noticed girls."

Matt blinked and looked over at him, letting the game controller rest on his lap. "Wait, you did?"

Neil shrugged. "Yeah, but it wasn't allowed so…"

"It wasn't… allowed?" Matt frowned, lost.

"My mom knew they'd be a distraction, that it was too dangerous for me to fall for someone. I don't think it occurred to her that I might like a guy, so when she realized I was noticing girls she made sure I didn't anymore."

Matt was silent for a long moment, letting the implication of that sink in. "When you said she 'made sure' you didn't notice girls…?"

Neil shrugged. "I was stupid. Just telling me wasn't going to do anything." But his friend's casual nonchalance was gone and Matt watched as the other man withdrew into himself. His expression closed down and he scratched his nails through his hair, against his scalp in an anxious tick Matt was pretty sure Neil didn't even realize he did.

A flare of rage heated his lungs and it took concentrated effort to swallow it down. He could imagine what Mary might have done to her son to drill the lesson home. 

"That's really fucked up, Neil."

Neil just shrugged, then nodded at the tv. "Are you gonna play or what?" Matt could see that his friend didn't want to talk about it so he let it go, but he wasn't going to forget it.

"Yeah. How about you order some pizza or something? I'm getting fucking hungry." A bit of the tension broke and Neil flashed him a small smile before pushing off the couch to go get his phone to make the order. Matt watched him go and took another breath to make sure his anger was packed away for later.

Fuck you, Mary.

FOUR - NICKY

Christmas! Nicky was so fucking excited about Christmas this year. Not only would Erik be coming into town, but the whole family would be there! Well, the family that mattered anyway. Aaron was bringing Katelyn, Andrew would be there and participating, and Neil was staying with them for the entirety of winter break. It was going to be amazing!!

Already, in the few days since school had let out, Nicky had set about Christmas-ifying the whole house and it was looking amazing if he did say so himself, which he did.

Today was going to be particularly exciting because he had managed to get Neil to agree to go Christmas shopping with him. Erik would be arriving tomorrow morning and Nicky still hadn't gotten his present. Or Aaron's. Or Andrew's. Or Neil's… He'd gotten Katelyn's though! He'd seen an absolutely gorgeous sweater at the mall the other week in just her color so he'd swiped it up. Point being, he had some catching up to do and he suspected that Neil was also behind on his Christmas shopping.

This was confirmed shortly after they arrived at the mall and Nicky asked Neil what he'd gotten for Andrew.

Neil blinked at him, like he was caught off guard by the question. 

"I don't think we're getting each other anything," he said, looking downright confused.

"Oh. Oh Neil. Oh Neil no. No, you are definitely getting gifts for each other. You're a couple!"

Neil looked vaguely uncomfortable as he shrugged, but he didn't deny the label and Nicky counted that as progress. "I don't think we're the gift-giving kind…"

Clearly, Neil hadn't been paying attention to the fact that Andrew had been gifting Neil at every fucking opportunity since they'd met. Clothes, keys, food, drinks, more clothes, a phone. At first, Nicky had just thought it was Andrew being possessive in the way he was possessive of all the people he'd decided we're his. It wasn't until after the two had come clean about their relationship (relationship!!!) that Nicky had thought back and realized that Andrew wasn't half as generous with the rest of them. Honestly, Nicky was a bit embarrassed for not noticing it all sooner. This whole time, Nicky thought he was being cryptic when he was just being really, really gay. For shame.

"Mm, well," Nicky hedged, feeling pity for the poor blind idiot. At least he was cute. "You're wrong, but we won't get into it. Just trust me when I say that Andrew has definitely gotten you something." Probably multiple things, actually, but Nicky didn't want to shock the poor cute dummy. "And you can't tell me that you don't want to give him a gift." Nicky stopped, frowning at Neil in disapproval.

"It's not that," Neil admitted, and Nicky wasn't sure he'd ever seen the younger man look more awkward. 

"Then what is it. Come on, kid, tell Uncle Nicky."

Neil made a face. "Only if you never say that again."

Nicky laughed, though he realized Neil had a point. That might have been a bit much. "Deal. So what is it?"

Neil shrugged, fidgeting in a restless way that Nicky recognized as one of Neil's tells when he was uncertain or nervous. Neil was someone who needed to be in motion, someone who needed to do things. Nicky related to that, heavily, so he linked his arm through Neil's and tugged him into walking again. The motion seemed to help, and after a few minutes, Neil finally spoke up.

"I've never really done the whole Christmas or birthday thing. Especially not since me and my mom, you know…" He drifted off vaguely, gesturing with one hand like that's was supposed to indicate all the time he and his mom were running from his psycho dad and his evil butcher-buddy minions. Nicky nodded like it had and Neil continued. "It just feels… weird, you know. Like it's a thing that real people do. They go to school and they have holidays with families that don't want to kill them or each other. They buy each other presents that they don't need and that's… normal. But it just doesn't make sense to me."

There was a lot to unpack there, but Nicky's mind caught on the first thing Neil had said and it kept replaying over and over on his head like a skipping record.

Like it's a thing that real people do.

Like Neil wasn't… real.

Nicky stopped walking again, his heart clenching suddenly in his chest. "Wait, hold on. Rewind. Neil, you realize that you are a real person, right?"

Tension wiped Neil's face into an awful blankness and normally Nicky would let it go. He'd make a joke and try and get them back to something lighter, but this was… something was just so wrong about that and he couldn't ignore it.

"Neil," he implored, hands on both the younger man's shoulders, gripping tightly, willing him to open up to him.

Maybe it was a testament to the season of sharing, or maybe it was proof that he and Neil had come a long way since those first few months over a year ago, but for whatever reason, Neil didn't brush him off and he didn't pull away. Instead, he sighed and gave a small shrug, shuffling his feet as he apparently searched for the right words like they were hidden between his shoelaces.

"I didn't feel real for a long time, you know. I couldn't be. Mom was the one who made all the identities for me, the one who chose the names and the covers. She was the one who created everything about the boys I was supposed to be, down to their interests in school and outside of it, just in case someone asked me when she wasn't around. She'd test me on them. I studied those boys with more dedication than I studied for my classes when I was actually in school."

Nicky frowned, confused. "What about your interests and what you were like."

Neil shrugged. "I didn't have any. I wasn't like anything, unless you can count fear as a personality trait."

That… didn't make sense. Neil was saying words, and individually, Nicky knew what they meant, but his brain was struggling to comprehend exactly what they meant when put together in that order. 

"But… that's not possible. What about when you saw something you liked, or wanted, or did something that you just… enjoyed. A tv show or, fuck, math. You like math right? That's a part of your personality." He heard the desperation in his own voice but he was too distracted by the conundrum of Neil's 'I wasn't a real person's reveal that he didn't even care to attempt to rein it in.

"Not until I got to Palmetto," Neil admitted. "I didn't have to take a math class my senior year because my forged transcripts already had the required number of classes to graduate and it seemed conspicuous to take more than that. Your average teenager doesn't like math."

"But you thought about it, right? When you were signing up for classes, you thought about adding math, then actively chose not to." A picture of understanding was beginning to form and Nicky felt a little bit sick with what it showed.

Neil frowned, like he was thinking about it, then gave a small nod of reluctant agreement.

"So… there was something you liked, something that was you and you just, what, instinctively went 'No, bad idea'. Why?"

"It's what my mom would have done," was Neil's instant, confident reply. He hadn't even had to think about that one. Then, to Nicky's horror, he elaborated with, "Mom was a stickler on that kind of stuff. If I liked something, if I felt pulled to anything, it was dangerous and bad. I learned quickly enough to avoid anything that interested me so it wouldn't distract me. Surviving was what was important."

Yeah. Yeah Nicky definitely felt a bit sick now. 

"When you say that you 'learned quickly enough'...?" Nicky wasn't sure he actually wanted to know, but that didn't stop him from asking the question.

"Mom--" Neil actively stopped himself this time. "It isn't important. Look… are we going to go shopping or what?"

Nicky wasn't willing to let it go. "Neil. Did she… like, hurt you? For having interests?"

Now Neil looked more than just a little uncomfortable, and the way he didn't meet Nicky's eyes was all the answer he needed. Nicky wanted to hug Neil just then, but he managed, at the last second, to hold himself back. He'd probably pushed harder than he should have already and he was trying to be better about boundaries. Instead he squeezes his shoulders and then pulled his hands away.

"Well, come on. Let's finish shopping. I'll help you pick out something for Andrew if you aren't sure what to get him." 

Neil looked so visibly relieved that Nicky's heart broke. "Ah, yeah… thanks Nicky." The small smile he shot him was enough that Nicky forgot the boundary thing and just hugged him. Ugh, that poor kid. No wonder he was so confused whenever anyone was kind to him if his own mother had treated him like he wasn't even a real person to the point where Neil had legitimately started to believe it. Nicky had his issues with his parents, all the Foxes did -- it was part of what made them Foxes -- but this was kind of another level.

Nicky kept his arm around Neil's shoulders as he lead the younger man off to shop, now determined to make this the best fucking Christmas ever. Because Neil was a real fucking person and he deserved that frivolous normalcy. He deserved to like things and to want things.

Fuck you, Mary.

+1 - AARON

Aaron didn't usually care about whatever was happening in Josten's weird little brain. It wasn't a place he was eager to explore, to be perfectly fucking honest, and he was unfortunate enough to be subjected with the assshole's proximity often enough as it was. However, it was hard to ignore the man when he was having a literal mental breakdown right in front of him. He wished he could. He wished he could turn around and walk away, shut the door, and go back to not caring. Unfortunately, parallels had just been drawn that he couldn't unsee and now turning his back on Neil almost felt personal. It was incredibly uncomfortable and for a long moment Aaron just sat there, silent, in the wake of what just happened.

It had gone like this:

Andrew and Neil had been on separate ends of the couch doing homework. Nicky and Kevin were still sleeping off the trip to Eden's Twilight last night, and Aaron was slowly letting himself wake up to a hot cup of coffee and some random show on tv. Then that random show had transitioned into some kind of true crime show that had dragged everyone's attention to the screen with a single word.

Wesninski.

As it turned out, the show wasn't actually about the Wesninskis, but rather about crime in Europe. The Wesninski mention was due to the current segment on the Hatfords, a British crime syndicate -- the one Neil's mother hailed from. It was her picture on the screen when their collective attention all snapped to the screen, and the tension in the room suddenly increased tenfold.

Mothers were a bit of a complicated topic for everyone in the room. It was also probably the one thing that Andrew was unwilling to touch with a ten-foot pole, not even for Neil - and Aaron was long since past denying that those two had something going on far deeper than sexual tension and a disdain for ninety percent of humanity. 

So the room had frozen, holding a breath with a shared lung. Then Andrew had stood, moving to snatch up the remote so he could turn off the TV when Neil said, "No."

Aaron had never seen Andrew stop so fast in his life. His twin's face remained blank, but there was a darkness in his eyes that Aaron was queasily familiar with. It was a cruel, angry darkness and he didn't envy Neil for being the subject of it as Andrew turned his gaze on the striker. 

"If you want to cry over that bitch I am not going to stick around to suffer it." The words came out low and hissed and even Aaron could hear the sharp rage beneath the forced facade of indifference Andrew was attempting to keep in place.

Neil looked like he wanted to hit Andrew but he managed to keep his response to a sharp, venomous, "Fuck you." 

Andrew held the remote up to eye level then dropped it. It landed hard enough on the table that it bounced off, the back popping off and the batteries scattering. Then he was striding out the front door. Aaron expected it to slam, but somehow the gentle click of it just under the murmur of the crime show was just as finite.

It was like getting to watch a moment he'd lived over and over again over the course of years from the outside for the first time. In fact, it wasn't like that - that's what it was. Something anxious and sick curled in the pit of his stomach as Aaron looked from the closed door to Neil's tense, shaken form. He hated this. He hated sympathising with Neil. He hated understanding Andrew's anger. He hated not being able to pick a side. Aaron had heard enough about Mary Hatford to know that she was just as fucked up as Nathan Wesninski, dragging her son around, forcing him into isolation, beating him, fucking him over socially for his whole damn life when she probably could have just saved them both by either going straight to the FBI or calling up her own crime family. He knew that Neil didn't blame his mom when he probably should. He knew he made excuses, that he grieved for her. He knew he missed her and he also knew that it was really, supremely fucked up.

He also knew that he was just as guilty for the unworthy idolization of an abuser. It had taken him years to get to the point where he was willing to admit that, though. It was meeting Katelyn that had him finally looking at his past with a sobering dose of reality. It was only after months of wrestling with himself that he'd finally been able to accept the truth. Months of Katelyn's steadfast support, months of sessions with Bee beyond the joint sessions with Andrew, months of introspection that left him mentally and emotionally wrung dry -- and Tilda hadn't had half the physical and emotional ammo that Mary Hatford had probably levied against her young son.

Aaron watched Neil vibrate in place, watched his hands curl and his throat work, watched the pain and the rage and the grief flash through his eyes even as he tried to swallow it all down. He watched Neil, but he saw himself, and it was more than disconcerting.

He didn't make the conscious decision to speak before he said, "I get it." In fact, he almost didn't realize he had spoken until Neil snapped his attention over to him like he'd forgotten he was still in the room at all.

Neil didn't respond, probably too caught up with the war in his own head to form words -- a rarity for the loud-mouthed striker.

"She was all you had," Aaron said, and he wasn't sure if he was actually talking to Neil, or talking to the version of himself that still clung to the corner of his memories, desperate to validate the only person that might have loved him, the one person that should have loved him, when he needed it the most. "She was all you had, and that's what kept you going. Not her rules and not whatever it was that she did to make sure you survived. That it was her and you, that you had each other, and that that meant something. She'd do whatever it took to protect you, she was the only one who would do that, and it was everything, right?"

He could tell by the widening of Neil's eyes that he'd hit the nail on the head. He didn't look away as he continued with his truths, knowing he was probably the only person that had ever vocalized an understanding -- that he was probably the only person who could understand. 

"And then she was gone. And it wasn't only her that died. It was everything that she was supposed to be. She died, and all you had left were the 'almost's and 'not enough's and the 'never again's. And if you let yourself believe that she was just as bad then everything was for nothing. All the times you cared. All the times you tried. All the times you did everything you could to be what she expected of you. None of it would matter, because she was gone, and she could never redeem herself, and it was all pointless." Aaron heard his voice like someone else was speaking. It was too calm, too quiet, too knowing. It didn't feel the desert in his chest, scorching and dry and far too exposed. He saw Neil's reaction like he was looking in a mirror and it was more than a little bit unsettling. He understood the flash of anger in his eyes, the stubborn refusal in the set of his jaw, then the reluctant acceptance when his shoulders dropped. Aaron hated understanding anything about Neil Josten. He hated even more that it was this that they had to share. Something so raw, so close to home it had a permanent home inside his chest, nestled between his lungs. It wasn't fair.

Then again, he was a Fox for a reason he guessed. Life just wasn't fucking fair to a Fox.

Neil looked away, then deflated against his corner of the couch. He tilted his head back and Aaron saw his throat work as he fought emotions neither of them wanted Aaron to be a witness to. Aaron averted his eyes. He only looked up again when Neil spoke. The other man's voice was quiet but steady.

"The one thing she harped on most, more than anything else, was how attachments to anyone or anything other than my own survival were going to get me killed. Even to her. She told me so many times to run, leave her behind, but I… I never could. She never left me behind, even when there were times when I wanted her to. She'd probably be rolling in her grave if she could see me now…" Neil's voice drifted off as his gaze locked on the front door over Aaron's shoulder. Aaron didn't need to be psychic to know that he was thinking specifically about Andrew, about how much he'd risked for Andrew - not just to be with him, but also to protect him. Going to Evermore, allowing Nathan's men to take him quietly… yeah, Mary probably wouldn't be too happy about that, and not in the caring, not wanting Neil hurt way. She'd be pissed that Neil cared about something so much to take that risk, after all she'd done to try and beat that ability out of him.

"She was trying to make me soulless," Neil said without taking his eyes away from the door. "She hated it so much whenever I showed any glimmer of a personality. Whenever I was anything other than a possession she kept and controlled. My mother loved me, in her own way…" His mouth tensed, pursed, then he looked at Aaron.

For a moment, the two of them just looked at each other, a shared understanding between them.

"That's not enough," Aaron finally said.

Neil looked down, then up, meeting his eyes. "No," he agreed, "it's not."

On the tv, the show was still talking about the Hatfords. Not all that much time had actually passed since the segment started. Neil looked at the tv, then stood and gathered up the scattered pieces of the remote. He put it back together and spared one more glance at the screen, which now showed a picture of the Hatford family at some event when Mary and her brothers were teenagers. Then he lifted the remote and resolutely changed the channel.

"I'm going to take the car to pick up some food, you want anything?" Neil asked as he moved to get his shoes, then take his keys from the hook near the door.

Aaron snorted. "No. I'll order something if I get hungry." There was still some time until he'd want lunch, but he knew this dance by now. Neil and Andrew would drive off together. If he wanted food he was better off taking it into his own hands. It was entirely likely the other two wouldn't be back until closer to dinner.

Neil nodded once, then was out the door. Aaron watched him go, then sighed and turned back to his coffee, considering it.

He didn't like sharing something with Neil fucking Josten. It was annoying and uncomfortable. But all the same… he understood. And like it or not, they were tied together now. Maybe he wasn't ready to say 'fuck you' to the memory of his own mother, and Neil definitely wasn't ready to do the same regarding Mary Hatford, but they could acknowledge the similarities in their stories and that was a start -- for both of them.

Aaron sighed and closed his eyes. He pointedly didn't think about his own mother and instead let himself eagerly latch onto the other man's sympathetic demon as he thought, with vehemence, 'Fuck you, Mary.'

[a-40k-dad]

“Stay on your guard, Colonel,” Evjen told the young woman as the giant blast gate closed behind the last armored vehicle of their convoy. He continued, “we have now entered the Free Territories, also know as ‘The Wastes’”.

Evjen took a moment to consider the stark landscape through the narrow band of bulletproof glass. His mind wandered, trying to imagine the harshness of life out here. In principle, it was understood that the Freefolk were better off than the men, women and children striving to survive in the underhives around the planet, but he came to doubt that, and it had been a doubt that grew stronger with each trip through the outer domain of House Sarrokkæn. After sighing slowly, Evjen switched his attention back to his guest. His shoulders tensed as he noticed his hands had been clenching his knees while he was looking outside the window.

With a hint of solemnity he announced : “We have now become a high profile target for the next 250 kilometres”. Colonel Varstark remained perfectly calm as she sat in the seat in front of him. She had come to visit him at Praxcorp HQ, high in the spires of Hive7. Varstark had made a flamboyant entrance with a full wing of Valkyries. It had amused Evjen, who always had been appreciative of good showmanship. The colonel had been his guest ever since she arrived 6 days prior. The colonel spent time in Praxcorp’s tech archives, copying registeries, manuals, blueprints, basically trying to gather all the useful intel she could muster. Whenever he could spare the time, he would drop by her quarters, invite her to share a meal, or take some refreshments, during which he would answer her many questions.

Evjen could not recall the particular line of questioning that led them to The Wastes, but he remembered wanting to help the struggling outworlder navigate the intricacies of Azorian diplomatic protocols. Since House Sarrokkæn had left all her pleas unanswered, he also couldn’t resist showing off how easily he could have the big Black Gates of the Obsidian Keep open up for her. Evjen knew that vanity had a play in his course of actions and though he had learned to live with it, he had a hard time brushing off the tickling presence of guilt from his mind.

The guardswoman absently observed the landscape shifting from the more or less functional industrial grid maintenance highways to the barren realms of corroded stone and grey dirt. Surprised by the absence of reaction to his previous statement, Evjen scratched his chin. He realised soldiers of the Imperium probably didn’t care much for raiders, senior officers least of them. His eyes lingered on the Colonel’s facial scars. He noticed the fairness of her complexion under them. He snapped out of this examination when he met her green eyes coldly staring through him.

“Are you sure we couldn’t just fly there?” she asked in thinly veiled irritation.

Evjen shrugged “Unfortunately, if the Astra Militarum desire to achieve any kind of entente with the Knights of House Sarrokkæn, you’ll have to take the long way in” Evjen said. “To enter the Obsidian Keep from the low roads is a required display of humility.” he explained. “This is why they wouldn’t grant you an audience even when you agitated your mandate as Planetary Operations Commander.”

“I’ve seen whole worlds brought to heel for less of an obstruction to His Will” She retorted, nostrils flaring.

Evjen clicked his tongue “It’s not that simple, colonel,” he said, his face taking on the glow of inconvenience. “Don’t forget that we are technically on a world run by the Adeptus Mechanicus, though they only care about their industrial zones and leave the Hive Cities to their own devices,” the man frowned and squinted as he weighed the words still in his head. After a moment he warily enunciated : “as such, for better or worse, on this world, the Emperor of Mankind is not as revered, or feared, as he might be elsewhere”.

The colonel crossed her arms, her face shut like barracks well after lights out. “I know, mister Praxi” she snapped in disdain. “I’ve been stationed here long enough to understand that Azorians enjoy a level of leniency that I never thought possible”.

“Do you envy that?” Evjen asked.

Her eyes widened through vexation. Her breath, temporarily suspended. She swallowed the knot forming at the back of her throat and resumed her breathing. After a few long seconds, she muttered tentatively “Perhaps”. The armored truck rumbled over the accidented terrain, the muffled sound of the engine almost covering her excessively honest answer. “It might be a luxury I would be inclined to tolerate for civilians”. She said. “But from the members of a Knightly House, I expect no less than devotion”.

Evjen chuckled. “Soon enough you’ll realise that what they lack in orthodoxy, they make up for with their integrity and honourable conduct upon the fields of battle,” Evjen assured. “After all, Segmentum Command deemed House Sarrokkæn worthy enough for a deployment alongside the Lord Commander of the Imperium Himself”.

The Colonel could see through the self-reassuring bravado.

“I’m not the Inquisition, mister Praxi” she said with a soft smile. “I do not condemn those who simply seek to lead a life in peace”. The truck’s imposing wheels bounced on a few big rocks on the road. The passengers shifted their bodies to absorb the unexpected bump. Evjen smiled

“It’s Evjen. Please call me Evjen.” “If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather keep things professional” she said. “It’s cultural, colonel Varstark ; last names are of little value on Azoria, unless it is Sarrokkæn, of course. But even among them, a given name holds more importance than the names marking lineage.” Evjen declared.

“So what, I’m expected to address them by their given names?” she asked, irritated.

“Yes,” Evjen chuckled. “preceded by the proper title, but yes.”

The colonel remained silent, arms crossed once more. She held her nose high, pointed towards the window pane. For a moment her face seemed to be the theatre of operations of a large battle between different emotional states : disdain, resentment and disgust seemed to vie for control, but when out of nowhere, reluctance appeared, Evjen felt surrender wasn’t far away.

“Kuh-rina” she sighed. “It is spelled K-R-I-N-A” she added, tight lipped.

With a joyful smirk, Evjen extended his hand across the gap between their two seats. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, Krina” he laughed. She shook his hand without much conviction. She found the exchange awkward but if it had been the price to pay to open up a communications channel with House Sarrokkæn, she was willing to oblige. 

The Guard needed the support of the Knights in the coming battles.

[lepetitebouchon]

AN OPEN LETTER TO MY CURRENT EMPLOYER.

Greetings, Globe Spanning Company That Has Cult-Like Ideas, Language and Behavior (said with love, for those of you who know just how genuinely thankful I am for the job I have today).

I’ve been with you for over four years - 2020 marks entry into my fifth, but I won’t be getting to that milestone. I’m finally spreading my wings. I want to start this off positive: I have always felt thankful, grateful and blessed to have this job. As a company, you really do try to lead by example. You really do try to not treat your employees as numbers. You are generous (at times), inclusive (always), and provide some amazing benefits and perks for all employees.

I joined you at the end of my first career path, hired on precisely because my background was what you needed: an experienced fine dining pastry chef to bring professionalism and class when you all were trying something a little funky with how your company operated at night. I was promoted almost immediately to a supervisor. My management helped me through some of the worst experiences I had in my personal life, your company helped me get back into college, you provided a path to growth and development into upper management.

Even today, despite my grievances, I would recommend people to work with you...although, I will always be honest about the ups and downs I’ve both seen and experienced.

But let me tell you why I’m leaving. No one comes to my blog, so this won’t get far, it’s my own personal catharsis. I’ve tried to air these same thoughts to my current manager and district manager and it’s like talking to a wall. The gloves are now off and language filter switch has been flipped. This is long, so strap in.

When I said my previous career path was “experienced”, I wasn’t fucking joking. I’ve worked a myriad of jobs: I’ve managed millions of dollars for businesses and the professionals that run them as a merchant banker (meaning, I counted their cash, advised when appropriate, and made sure they spoke with the proper team member to further their ventures). I’ve worked in retail for a combined total (past and current) for probably 5-6 years. And more importantly and relevant to your company: I have roughly 8 or 9 years of kitchen experience, most of those as a pastry chef. I have worked as a team and solo, I have designed dessert menus for some locations, and managed small kitchen teams, I’ve worked for celebrity chefs and kitchens ranked in the upper 10 and 5, respectively in their style/region of cooking in the nation.

I graduated within the top percentile at my pastry school of choice, with honors.

With a brief rundown of my resume out of the way, let’s talk about “development”.

My path to upper management has been rocky. When originally approached about having my own store, it stemmed from my involvement in solving two monumental problems in my original store. Sadly, during this time I was going through a major life problem and couldn’t wait in line for my promotion. Our store was training a new store manager, a girl who started at a similar time as I was selected to be trained next, and I would come after her. I needed a pay raise, so I opted for transferring to a team that would be making in house baked goods at your headquarters, guaranteed to pay me a few dollars more, but it was enough for me to survive moving forward.

My background made me eligible for a “leadership” role is this new team. I should have known something was up because I could never get confirmation on my title, no matter how hard I pushed. I was whisked off to corporate as an “assistant” chef. Your company was asking for upwards of 5-8 years of experience for “assistants”. What would I be making, pray tell? Loaf cakes, cookies, tarts, muffins and other basics. Recipes someone with minimal experience could make. I was not in the promised leadership role.

Unhappy and frustrated, I transferred to your storefront when it opened in their version of a supervisor at my initial beginnings. I would be one of a few supervisors in the bakery area and we were not treated as equal to your retail side. Despite being a supervisor I was inexplicably not given keys, a safe code or the ability to problem solve at our own point of sale devices - I had to get a “retail” supervisor. Those in the bakery would ONLY be given these rights if they had “retail” experience - which I had.

I yearned for an assistant manager role, so I worked tirelessly for another six months before broaching that subject.

I was not the only experienced employee there: there were a handful of us with up to ten years of company experience - this detail will be important momentarily.

When I sat down with two of the assistant managers for a “development talk” and told them my story of how I turned down a “core” store manager role to be there due to outside circumstances...they laughed at me. They said that any experience I had before coming to this particular team was irrelevant and I would need to start at the bottom all over again and had “so much to learn” and that my resume “didn’t have weight” and that my prior kitchen management and schooling basically were useless.

I was devastated. I cried. I walked away from that meeting feeling ashamed, embarrassed and it demolished the respect I had for how you as a company have when you boast about how to treat your employees.

The assistant manager role you filled did not go to one of the more experienced employees who had been supevisors or store managers who stepped down to regular retail grunts to be there.

No.

You transferred someone from the opposite coast and stomped on the hopes and dreams of a half dozen hopefuls. So, armed with newfound cash I left to go back to your more traditional storefronts thousands of miles away.

They wanted me to become a store manager as well, but I was facing a surgery with lengthy recovery. They promised as soon as I was back on my feet, they would begin the process of peer review and interviews. However, another horrific speed bump occurred. A major snafu involving my benefits sent me packing back across the country. It was cheaper for me to move back and “reset” my benefits than lose 300 bucks a month in insurance costs over a period of seven months.

Are you still with me? Good, we’re almost there, I promise.

I won’t get into all of the specifics of what happened when I landed in my current location. My initial start was rough, I wasn’t given my full time hours, we were short staffed for a huge chunk of time. It was so bad in the beginning I started looking for new employment in the field I’d been studying at school. By now I was two years into college, it felt right.

At the same time, my manager and I went through a lot of growing pains. Eventually, yes, I was once again put back on my store manager track. I was hesitant - it had never worked out in the past.

Only to be told, again, I had to work on some things. I was willing to put in that hard work, but ultimately, I was given an offer that I couldn’t refuse.

And I’m sorry, corporate, but your stores are NOT that fucking hard to run. My current manager has ZERO food experience. He sold fucking shoes before this (no disrespect, I adore my manager and we have the best time working together).

I would not be looking for other jobs if you as a whole wouldn’t patronize me and other supervisors, and hold your store managers up on some goddamn pedestal.

I have YEARS of retail experience.

I have YEARS of kitchen management experience.

I have YEARS of food service experience.

If I were to apply to this as an “outside” hire, I meet and exceed all of your requirements.

I have admiration, love and respect of every employee I have lead within your company. In EVERY store I’ve been in my store manager and the peers below my level ask me why I don’t have a store. My peers in multiple stores across states have asked me to tell them when I’m promoted because if they’re still with the company they want to work with me.

I help my own manager with decisions. He asks for advice because I’m like a breathing encyclopedia of your companies policies and procedures because I gobbled down every bit of information I could to better my understanding of your stores so I WOULD be prepared some day.

I’m not asking for a promotion now. Or this week. But I think if someone who sold shoes can run a basic cafe, it might be okay to at least offer a mock interview for someone who has a resume shiny enough to get into very respected kitchens in any state I want to go to.

I have bent over backwards and given just about all that I am. Every manager I’ve been with in your company has already told me I could do their job and that I would be an excellent choice.

But no.

I’ve been nothing but loyal and devoted. I’ve asked for opportunities. And this would have been the year, my district manager and store manager were committed to getting me there, finally. I would just need to wait until “later this year”.

But it’s too little too late. I have an opportunity right in front of me, that has acknowledged my skill sets and asked me to join their fold.

It was honestly a hard decision at first. I was thrilled to finally, finally, finally being given the opportunity to lead my team in a much more meaningful way.

I felt like I was going to be betraying my team and my upper leadership.

And then I realized the power of the words, “I’m better than this and I have the track record to prove it”.

Then I packed my proverbial bags.

I’ll miss my store, but I won’t miss you as a company.

Cheers.

[terranatior]

Parts and Services; Repairing Bonnie the Bunny

Scott gets tasked to repair Bonnie when the rabbit’s guitar isn’t quite in tune for a performance. 

Characters: Scott Calder (My Phone Guy); Bonnie the Bunny; Nameless Fazbear Manager

Notes: This takes place before Scott actually loses his arm to Foxy, thus he does have use of both hands. It’s kind of in an undefined point in time but it is in the location from the first FNAF game.

Audio prompts from the VR game have been tweaked to suit the setting. 

This isn’t beta’d or anything so pwease be nice considering any grammatical errors or anything!!

---

Brown eyes drifted between the closed door and his manager, a frown crinkling across Scott’s face as he contemplated the assignment that had been thrust upon him the moment he’d gotten back from his lunch break. Punch card had barely been placed back in the correct slot before the vulture had descended, metaphorical talons sinking in without a second thought.

“I’m not a m-m-mechanic though…I uh. W-We have someone who actually is.”

“Yeah and he’s on vacation! Listen Calder! I gotta get Bonnie fixed. You want these kids to NOT have a freakin’ guitar playing rabbit at their birthday? Huh? What kinda animal band doesn’t have a guitar-playing rabbit?”

“N-No sir–I-I just. I. W-What if I screw it up? I-I’ve never...”

“Then the damage is going to be docked outta your pay. But listen. It’s easy. There’s an instructional tape I’ve got. You just gotta find out what’s screwing up his guitar. Fix it. BAM! We’re back in business.”

“R-R-Right…” Throat was cleared and Scott glanced down at his hands, fingers twitching with nerves. Repairing an animatronic sounded anything but easy, and he was certain there were far more suitable candidates to tackle the task. Why hadn’t they been cornered and asked? Why was it always him?

“I-I-I’ll uh. I-I’ll try..?” What else could he say? There was no weaseling out of the job. No way he’d be able to smoothly talk himself out of it or volunteer another employee.

His supervisor grinned, clapping a heavy hand upon his shoulder. “Attaboy! He’s back in parts and services. Make sure you keep the door closed so no one ends up wandering in. The last thing we need is some kid spotting Bonnie with his face mask up.”

“R-Right…”

Dress shoes clicked lightly against the tiles of the Pizzeria as he made his way down the hall, easing open the proper door and peeking inside. A hand reached sideways, fumbling for the light switch before catching it and illuminating the room in an abysmally dim light.

Of course.

A deep inhale was given, steeling his nerves before he eased into the room and shut the door behind him. Tools were strewn out about the tables–various odds and ends for repairing the animatronics and performing general tasks around the Pizzeria. Wires and pieces of gears–things he wasn’t entirely sure how to handle. Half-formed endoskeletons and mascot heads sitting pretty on the shelves. Waiting for their time to shine. Attention finally shifted to the over-sized rabbit positioned on one of the stools, the metal-reinforced to handle such a heavy weight. His red guitar was firmly grasped in over-sized paws and two bowl-shaped devices were placed to his right and left, the smell of some sort of cleaning solution filling the air.

Uncertain steps were taken forward and Scott was reminded just how small he actually was compared to the machine. It was easy to forget just how large the animatronics were when they remained on stage during the day. It was amazing–how he’d never truly been intimidated by them as a child.

At least…not until after…

Head shook, waving away the thought and he took a mental stock of the items around himself should he need them. The animatronics weren’t supposed to be aggressive during the day shift–he knew that. Knew they wouldn’t try anything. But the door was shut and he was alone; who knew what the bunny could actually try to do?

“H-H-Hello Hello Bonnie…I uh. I-I-I’m uh. I.” Fuck. Breathe Calder. “I’m s-s-supposed to be uh…finding out w-w-what’s wrong with your guitar today! I uh. I-I-I know I’m not really trained for this but..just bare with me. Okay–? A-And we’ll uh. We’ll get through this a-a-and you can be back on stage with your friends. I-I mean...they aren’t much of a band without t-th-the guitarist. You know?”

A nervous smile was offered and Scott let out a shaky sigh, unsure what he’d actually hoped to gain from the spiel but it felt…necessary. It wasn’t as if he’d want someone just leering into his personal space without an explanation.

Personal space…of an animatronic. Ugh. What was he saying?

Head swiveled, locating the cassette tape and player with the instructions on it and he took a moment to pop it into the device before hitting play. The same voice that did the majority of the Fazbear training filled the small space and he pulled up his own stool, plopping down in front of Bonnie’s looming form to wait out the beginning portion of the tape.

“…To re-calibrate Bonnie’s guitar in the case of any note being out of tune…” Scott perked up, leaning back and making sure he was paying closer attention. “First you’ll have to access his harmonization module located inside the secondary throat pipe. Please remember–these animatronics are sensitive equipment and should only be tampered with, tinkered with, or repaired by trained Fazbear personnel.”

“W-Well..that’s not happening t-t-today…”

“To access the secondary throat pipe both eyes must first be removed. You must be as precise as possible when removing the eyes from their respective sockets. First. Firmly grip Bonnie’s left eye and CAREFULLY remove it from its socket.“

Scott reached forward, pressing pause on the tape before swallowing hard and looking upwards at Bonnie’s face.

“R-Right…okay.” Hands flexed and he stood, taking a cautious step forward. Bonnie’s left eye–so the opposite of his own when facing the rabbit. “I’m uh. I-I-I’m going to be as careful as possible okay p-p-pal–? P-Please don’t uh. Don’t panic. D-Don’t panic.”

Despite his assurance, to both himself and Bonnie, his hand still shook furiously as he inched it closer to the animatronics face. Fingers curled around the ping pong-esque orb, obscuring pink and he moved to pull it out. Careful. Careful. Not allowing anything to touch the sides of the head–like a delicate game of operation. Only when it was a few inches from the Rabbit’s face did he back up and take a moment to glance down at it in curiosity, turning it over carefully in his hand. It was lighter than he’d expected…but he found he much preferred it inside the rabbit’s face when he spotted the red glowing dot staring out at him from its previous location.

His free hand reached to the side to resume the instructional tape.

“Great job!” The words were filled with falsified emotion and he shook his head, hoping he never sounded like that in his own training instructions. “Deposit the left eye in the cleaning receptacle on your left. You should only use the approved cleaning solutions as detailed in the Company Policy.”

Head tilted towards the bowls from earlier and he carefully sat the eye into the device, watching as it was swirled around and the smell of the cleaning agent grew stronger. Once it was done it rolled down the small ramp, waiting to be replaced.

“Well done. Now. Firmly grip Bonnie’s right eye and carefully remove it from its proper socket as previously detailed. If you feel the need to repeat the instructions, please rewind the tape.”

Again, Scott paused the tape before leaning closer to the large animatronic. Fingers grasped the right eye–a mumbled apology seeming too loud in the otherwise quiet room. The right eye was fished out and placed in the other bowl, swirling around as its opposite had.

Tape was resumed and a line of sweat broke out upon the man’s brow, deeply uncomfortable at the glowing red dots that greeted him from Bonnie’s sockets. The sooner he finished this up, the better.

“To open Bonnie’s faceplate, carefully press the two buttons located on either side of Bonnie’s lower jaw. Please be cautious of your finger locations, as we are not responsible for any resulting injury that may occur due to improper conduct. When done correctly, you should hear two small clicks.”

Odd.

He had never known the animatronics to have buttons along their lower jaw…it seemed far too obvious. What was there to stop a child from pressing them? Beyond height? Nevertheless, he moved forward once more, flexing his hands before carefully feeling along the surface and locating the buttons in question. Did he press them at the same time? One right after the other? The tape hadn’t been specific enough. It hadn’t clarified.  

His pulse was pounding in his ears as he pressed one of the buttons, followed immediately by the other, two small clicks given before Bonnie’s faceplate abruptly flipped up with a hiss of machinery. The entire animatronic shifted with the force and Scott let out a terrified yelp, scrambling back–arms coming upward to shield his face. He was so certain that he’d done something wrong–that he’d triggered the animatronic and it was going to attack. Leaving him to die in the back room, saving Bonnie the trip! How kind of him! There was no shortage of places to hide the body–no shortage of suits. His chest heaved with panic but nothing further ever came, even as the moments ticked into minutes. Long enough for something to have happened. When he peered out, Bonnie was still just sitting there. Guitar in his paws as the two glowing eyes stared out at him amongst the silver machinery of the rabbit’s endoskeleton face.

Hands scrubbed down his face as he straightened back up. How in the world did the actual mechanics manage to do this? It felt like a constant gamble and Scott was not a gambling man.

The tape had drone onward and he splayed a hand over his chest, willing his heart to calm its erratic beating before fumbling to rewind backward to receive the rest of his instructions. The sooner he got this done, the sooner he could close Bonnie’s face back up and return to the main section of the Pizzeria, no longer locked in with the same animatronic who saw fit to torment him during the Night Shift.

“Well done. You now have access to Bonnie’s harmonization module. Press the blinking button located inside Bonnie’s secondary throat pipe to enter calibration mode.”

“T-T-That’s it..?” Scott questioned, frowning and leaning forward to press the button in question. It indented with a click before the animatronics paw moved, strumming in pre-counted motions. One of the chords gave an uncomfortable twang and his frown grew as Bonnie stilled once more. Attention flickered towards the instruction tape--waiting to see what he was supposed to do in such a situation.

“If you encounter an anomaly in Bonnie’s pre-recorded audio, please direct your attention to the tuning keys and carefully twist the colored peg that is producing the incorrect sound. To confirm the recalibration press the blinking button located inside Bonnie’s secondary throat pipe again.”

Panic dawned on the male’s face as he paused the tape once more, the implication that he not only had to actually tune an instrument he knew nothing about but confirm the selection and deem it correct. Deem it correct for the animatronic to return to the stage and perform with the settings he chose. That’s it? Oh, he could punch himself for speaking such things out loud as if he just jinxed himself!

Fingers twitched, looking between the strings of the guitar, the tuning pegs, and Bonnie’s faceless head, the glowing button taunting him. The red pinpoints of Bonnie’s endoskeleton staring up at him. Waiting. Waiting for him to screw something up...waiting to surge forward and grab hold of his shoulders before shoving him to one of the empty suits.

Hands flexed and Scott let out a breath, reaching out and hesitantly giving the guitar an experimental strum, listening to the resulting sound each produced. Somewhere within the last few, the same uneven twinge sounded and fingers splayed across the guitar carefully, silencing it and following the length to see which pegs they were connected to before twisting it just slightly.

The actions were repeated several times, each done with an increasingly shaky hand. He was stalling...that much was obvious. He knew it was. But--it was a lot of pressure, knowing that whatever selection he input would be what Bonnie played now. If he screwed it up, what was to say he wouldn’t be here again? What was to say his luck would continue onward?

Worse yet, what was to say he wouldn’t be fired for messing up?

A prolonged inhale was given before he let it out immediately after, reaching forward and pressing the button. Bonnie’s paws moved, in the same pre-counted motions and the guitar played through the cords. No twang came this time and, once the last played, Bonnie’s form stilled once more. Waiting. Watching. Waiting. Watching.

Scott’s expression brightened and he raised a hand to his hat, removing the pink and white accessory. He used the brim to wipe the sweat that had accumulated on his brow during the whole operation away.

“T-Thanks for letting me help you, Bonnie. Let's uh. Let’s get you back in order…” The cap was replaced and he turned to resume the training tape. More instructions concerning the various things that could be wrong with the guitar were voiced and Scott gave a soft noise of discontent, hand moving in an ‘on with it’ motion. He could fast forward, obviously, but there was a chance he might miss what he was waiting to hear. Then he’d waste more time trying to rewind it back.

Never mind the fact that it was rude...to ignore someone’s work like that. He knew his own instructions weren’t always listened to. That some of the employees who...were no longer with the company had a tendency to mute his stuttering advice.

“Great Job! Bonnie should now be in tune and ready to return to the stage soon. Let’s close him back up.”

“Thank you!” He leaned forward, nodding in satisfaction. He was ready to get this over with.

“Simply replace Bonnie’s eyes in the order you removed them to prevent crossing his wires. Then close up the faceplate by pressing the buttons on the sides of the lower jaw once more.”

“T-That doesn’t really make sense…but uh. I-I guess...you’re the boss.” He turned to the containers with the eyes and fished the first up, standing before Bonnie and the unwavering crimson gaze that greeted him. Left eye to Bonnie’s left.

Inserted it back in was easier than he’d expected, pieces matching together like a puzzle. Right eye next. Somehow the eyes staring out at him along with the endoskeleton was worse. He shuddered before shaking his head. Fingers found the buttons he’d depressed earlier and he jolted back as the rabbit’s face came swinging back down with a heavy and dangerous click, hiding away the inner workings and revealing the familiar face of Bonnie.

“Well done. Bonnie is spic and span and ready to return to the stage. Thus concludes this audio-tape.”

Click.

He’d done it. He’d actually done it correctly. Hands were silently raised in a victorious fist pump and he righted the work space, placing things back where they’d been. He held down the button to rewind the training tape to the very beginning, for the next time or the next employee who might need it. Scott turned, ready to get himself out of the backroom. To tell his Boss the good news and return to the floor...keeping the animatronics a safe distance away. As he reached the door, a metallic clink sounded behind him and he froze, mind immediately rushing to the worst possible option.

He’d done something wrong; the animatronic would be in pieces. Bonnie must not have been pleased with his treatment. Strong grip would wrap around his throat--he wouldn’t leave this room. Slowly, like a child not wanting to face a nightmare, he turned his head and looked back...but the rabbit hadn’t moved. None of the tools were out of place. His head was still on his shoulders and his faceplate was still where it was meant to be.

So what--? What had made the noise? He paused, catching something glinting in the dim light that hadn’t been there previously. Cautious steps were taken forward and he stopped directly before it.

A token...for one of the arcade machines. Freddy’s face greeted him from the metallic surface and he arched an eyebrow, wondering just where it’d come from. He knelt to pick it up, keeping an eye on Bonnie all the while, before straightening back up and running a thumb over the imprinted surface as he turned it between his fingers.

It definitely hadn’t been there before. He would have noticed. Would have stepped on it beneath his feet while he worked. Brown eyes stared down at it before he blinked up at Bonnie, wondering, for just a moment if it was possible that it had come from the rabbit as a reward.

No...no that was just silly. How could he?

He pocketed the currency and turned from the work space, making it to the door and out this time. The sound of children’s laughter and brighter light spilled into the room as he retreated to the main hall of the Pizzeria, flipping the light switch to parts and services as he went.

He didn’t see how pink eyes seemed to follow his movement out nor did he see the twitch of a paw from the guitar playing rabbit as he was left to the darkness once more.

[pendiktravestileri]

Gender Reassignment Surgery

Gender Reassignment Surgery Gender reassignment surgery is no longer the novelty it once was. Thousands of transsexuals, both male-to-female and female-to-male, worldwide have now undergone this procedure. But it is still true that only a small fraction of those people who consider themselves to be transgendered actually go this far. The cost is a major barrier for many people. Others find ways to accommodate their transgender feelings while continuing to live in their birth sex or in some in-between state.

Gender reassignment surgery is expensive, costing thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, depending on which procedures are undertaken. Some governments will cover the entire cost under their medicare programs. Others will cover it partially or not at all.

Surgery is irreversible. Once the original sex organs are removed and new organs constructed, there is no going back. Surgery also renders the patient sterile. Although several surgeons have speculated that it may some day be possible for post-operative transsexuals to be parents, this is not possible today.

Like any surgery, gender reassignment surgery has its dangers. But if one is in good health and follows the surgeon’s guidelines to prepare for the operation, one can expect good results. It is equally important to follow a proper routine after surgery, or much of the surgeon’s work can be undone.

Surgical techniques are constantly evolving. In the ’60s, it took a team of at least two surgeons as long as 12 hours to perform the operations. Results were superficially satisfactory, but patients were not always able to have normal sexual intercourse or experience orgasm.

Today, some surgeons perform male-to-female reassignment surgery in under three hours, with almost no blood loss. And most post-op patients report normal sexual functioning, including orgasms within three months to a year after surgery.

Life is more complicated for female-to male transsexuals. There are several techniques for constructing a new penis and each has its drawbacks. But post-op patients are generally happier now than prior to surgery and some are reporting near-normal sexual functioning.

Male to india shemale

Although each surgeon has his preferred technique, the overall procedure is similar across the board. The testes are removed, an opening is created in the correct spot for the new vagina, the inside of the penis is removed, the skin of the penis is inverted like a glove and used to line the vagina, sensitive parts of the penis are used to create a clitoris, the urethra is shortened and relocated to the appropriate place, the skin of the scrotum is used to create labia.

Some surgeons do this in a single operation. Others prefer to do it in two steps. And sometimes, if there isn’t enough penile skin, a graft is taken from elsewhere to create the vagina.

Some patients also opt for other operations to give themselves a more feminine appearance. These include: breast implants, Adam’s apple shaving, larynx adjustment to raise the voice, removal of the lower ribs to create a narrower waste, facial reconstruction, and hair implants.

india shemale to male

Female-to-male patients often undergo more surgery. Typically, the first stage is removal of the breasts to create a normal male chest. This is sometimes done in several operations. The first removes the bulk of the mammary glands and most of the excess skin. The second fine-tunes the result, removing further excess skin and perhaps reducing scars left from the first stage.

The next major surgery is a hysterectomy. This removes the womb, uterus and ovaries.

The final surgery is the creation of a penis along with the relocation of the urethra to the centre of the penis. There are two distinct ways of creating a penis. One utilizes a skin graft, usually from an arm. The other involves building up the clitoris, which is usually enlarged after a patient has been taking male hormones for some time.

Preparation for surgery

Surgeons always supply information sheets to patients outlining their specific requirements. In general, one must stop taking hormones about a month prior to surgery. The hormones can raise the risk of surgery. Many patients worry that going off hormones will result in their bodies reverting back to something more like their birth sex, but in fact this can’t happen in such a short time. Many patients do report mood changes, or hot and cold spells, but these are only temporary and disappear when hormones are resumed about a week after surgery.

One must also stop drinking alcohol and not use ASA or any illicit drug. These can all interfere with healing and blood flow.

All surgeons will require that you undergo a complete physical, including a blood test, a month or so prior to surgery. The surgeon will supply you with a list of tests he requires. The presence of any major health condition, such as high blood pressure, obesity, a heart condition or a communicable disease like AIDS could make a patient ineligible for surgery.

Post-surgery

It is critical that patients follow their surgeon’s advice on post-care procedures. Healing takes a long time and unless one sticks to the routines, results can easily be less than satisfactory.

The first three to five days after surgery are usually spent in hospital. The patient is on pain killers and attached to a catheter. One can be up and walking in three days, but no strenuous activity is permitted.

After about five days, patients are more mobile and can reduce pain killers a little. For male-to-female patients, catheters come out at about a week and dilation begins. For female-to-male patients, the catheter may remain in place for several weeks, depending on which surgical technique was used.

Patients return home about ten days after surgery, but this can vary from surgeon to surgeon. Pain fades within a month and one can return to work after about two months, although some discomfort may remain for several more months.

Full healing can take six months to a year. Some patients find they have swelling or numbness that is more of an irritant than an impediment to functioning. Certainly, a year after surgery, one should feel normal and function normally.

Surgeons

There are only a handful of surgeons worldwide offering gender reassignment surgery. I don’t recommend any one surgeon or surgical procedure. It is important to investigate any surgeon you are considering. Ideally, you should talk to former patients to get their take on the surgery. If a doctor isn’t willing to put you in touch with former patients, be wary.

Also be wary of trying to find the perfect vagina or perfect penis. Everyone is different and any given surgeon will achieve different results with each patient. Age, genes and your health will partly determine the results you get. But you should expect that you function normally after surgery and that at least superficially you look as if you were born with the new plumbing.

Check list of surgeons. The U.K., The United States and Austral-Asia and please feel free to contact them, either via their Web sites or by mail or phone. Surgeons will often send information kits if you request it. If you contact the Canadian surgeons by phone, don’t worry if one of the secretaries answers in French, they all speak English as well.

​ #etiket

[travestisamsuntravestileri]

Gender Reassignment Surgery

hertravesti Gender Reassignment Surgery

Gender reassignment surgery is no longer the novelty it once was. Thousands of transsexuals, both male-to-female and female-to-male, worldwide have now undergone this procedure. But it is still true that only a small fraction of those people who consider themselves to be transgendered actually go this far. The cost is a major barrier for many people. Others find ways to accommodate their transgender feelings while continuing to live in their birth sex or in some in-between state.

Gender reassignment surgery is expensive, costing thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, depending on which procedures are undertaken. Some governments will cover the entire cost under their medicare programs. Others will cover it partially or not at all.

Surgery is irreversible. Once the original sex organs are removed and new organs constructed, there is no going back. Surgery also renders the patient sterile. Although several surgeons have speculated that it may some day be possible for post-operative transsexuals to be parents, this is not possible today.

Like any surgery, gender reassignment surgery has its dangers. But if one is in good health and follows the surgeon’s guidelines to prepare for the operation, one can expect good results. It is equally important to follow a proper routine after surgery, or much of the surgeon’s work can be undone.

Surgical techniques are constantly evolving. In the ’60s, it took a team of at least two surgeons as long as 12 hours to perform the operations. Results were superficially satisfactory, but patients were not always able to have normal sexual intercourse or experience orgasm.

Today, some surgeons perform male-to-female reassignment surgery in under three hours, with almost no blood loss. And most post-op patients report normal sexual functioning, including orgasms within three months to a year after surgery.

Life is more complicated for female-to male transsexuals. There are several techniques for constructing a new penis and each has its drawbacks. But post-op patients are generally happier now than prior to surgery and some are reporting near-normal sexual functioning.

Male to india shemale

Although each surgeon has his preferred technique, the overall procedure is similar across the board. The testes are removed, an opening is created in the correct spot for the new vagina, the inside of the penis is removed, the skin of the penis is inverted like a glove and used to line the vagina, sensitive parts of the penis are used to create a clitoris, the urethra is shortened and relocated to the appropriate place, the skin of the scrotum is used to create labia.

Some surgeons do this in a single operation. Others prefer to do it in two steps. And sometimes, if there isn’t enough penile skin, a graft is taken from elsewhere to create the vagina.

Some patients also opt for other operations to give themselves a more feminine appearance. These include: breast implants, Adam’s apple shaving, larynx adjustment to raise the voice, removal of the lower ribs to create a narrower waste, facial reconstruction, and hair implants.

india shemale to male

Female-to-male patients often undergo more surgery. Typically, the first stage is removal of the breasts to create a normal male chest. This is sometimes done in several operations. The first removes the bulk of the mammary glands and most of the excess skin. The second fine-tunes the result, removing further excess skin and perhaps reducing scars left from the first stage.

The next major surgery is a hysterectomy. This removes the womb, uterus and ovaries.

The final surgery is the creation of a penis along with the relocation of the urethra to the centre of the penis. There are two distinct ways of creating a penis. One utilizes a skin graft, usually from an arm. The other involves building up the clitoris, which is usually enlarged after a patient has been taking male hormones for some time.

Preparation for surgery

Surgeons always supply information sheets to patients outlining their specific requirements. In general, one must stop taking hormones about a month prior to surgery. The hormones can raise the risk of surgery. Many patients worry that going off hormones will result in their bodies reverting back to something more like their birth sex, but in fact this can’t happen in such a short time. Many patients do report mood changes, or hot and cold spells, but these are only temporary and disappear when hormones are resumed about a week after surgery.

One must also stop drinking alcohol and not use ASA or any illicit drug. These can all interfere with healing and blood flow.

All surgeons will require that you undergo a complete physical, including a blood test, a month or so prior to surgery. The surgeon will supply you with a list of tests he requires. The presence of any major health condition, such as high blood pressure, obesity, a heart condition or a communicable disease like AIDS could make a patient ineligible for surgery.

Post-surgery

It is critical that patients follow their surgeon’s advice on post-care procedures. Healing takes a long time and unless one sticks to the routines, results can easily be less than satisfactory.

The first three to five days after surgery are usually spent in hospital. The patient is on pain killers and attached to a catheter. One can be up and walking in three days, but no strenuous activity is permitted.

After about five days, patients are more mobile and can reduce pain killers a little. For male-to-female patients, catheters come out at about a week and dilation begins. For female-to-male patients, the catheter may remain in place for several weeks, depending on which surgical technique was used.

Patients return home about ten days after surgery, but this can vary from surgeon to surgeon. Pain fades within a month and one can return to work after about two months, although some discomfort may remain for several more months.

Full healing can take six months to a year. Some patients find they have swelling or numbness that is more of an irritant than an impediment to functioning. Certainly, a year after surgery, one should feel normal and function normally.

Surgeons

There are only a handful of surgeons worldwide offering gender reassignment surgery. I don’t recommend any one surgeon or surgical procedure. It is important to investigate any surgeon you are considering. Ideally, you should talk to former patients to get their take on the surgery. If a doctor isn’t willing to put you in touch with former patients, be wary.

Also be wary of trying to find the perfect vagina or perfect penis. Everyone is different and any given surgeon will achieve different results with each patient. Age, genes and your health will partly determine the results you get. But you should expect that you function normally after surgery and that at least superficially you look as if you were born with the new plumbing.

Check list of surgeons. The U.K., The United States and Austral-Asia and please feel free to contact them, either via their Web sites or by mail or phone. Surgeons will often send information kits if you request it. If you contact the Canadian surgeons by phone, don’t worry if one of the secretaries answers in French, they all speak English as well.

​#etiketKapat

[hertravesti]

Gender Reassignment Surgery

Gender reassignment surgery is no longer the novelty it once was. Thousands of transsexuals, both male-to-female and female-to-male, worldwide have now undergone this procedure. But it is still true that only a small fraction of those people who consider themselves to be transgendered actually go this far. The cost is a major barrier for many people. Others find ways to accommodate their transgender feelings while continuing to live in their birth sex or in some in-between state.

Gender reassignment surgery is expensive, costing thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, depending on which procedures are undertaken. Some governments will cover the entire cost under their medicare programs. Others will cover it partially or not at all.

Surgery is irreversible. Once the original sex organs are removed and new organs constructed, there is no going back. Surgery also renders the patient sterile. Although several surgeons have speculated that it may some day be possible for post-operative transsexuals to be parents, this is not possible today.

Like any surgery, gender reassignment surgery has its dangers. But if one is in good health and follows the surgeon’s guidelines to prepare for the operation, one can expect good results. It is equally important to follow a proper routine after surgery, or much of the surgeon’s work can be undone.

Surgical techniques are constantly evolving. In the ’60s, it took a team of at least two surgeons as long as 12 hours to perform the operations. Results were superficially satisfactory, but patients were not always able to have normal sexual intercourse or experience orgasm.

Today, some surgeons perform male-to-female reassignment surgery in under three hours, with almost no blood loss. And most post-op patients report normal sexual functioning, including orgasms within three months to a year after surgery.

Life is more complicated for female-to male transsexuals. There are several techniques for constructing a new penis and each has its drawbacks. But post-op patients are generally happier now than prior to surgery and some are reporting near-normal sexual functioning.

Male to india shemale

Although each surgeon has his preferred technique, the overall procedure is similar across the board. The testes are removed, an opening is created in the correct spot for the new vagina, the inside of the penis is removed, the skin of the penis is inverted like a glove and used to line the vagina, sensitive parts of the penis are used to create a clitoris, the urethra is shortened and relocated to the appropriate place, the skin of the scrotum is used to create labia.

Some surgeons do this in a single operation. Others prefer to do it in two steps. And sometimes, if there isn’t enough penile skin, a graft is taken from elsewhere to create the vagina.

Some patients also opt for other operations to give themselves a more feminine appearance. These include: breast implants, Adam’s apple shaving, larynx adjustment to raise the voice, removal of the lower ribs to create a narrower waste, facial reconstruction, and hair implants.

india shemale to male

Female-to-male patients often undergo more surgery. Typically, the first stage is removal of the breasts to create a normal male chest. This is sometimes done in several operations. The first removes the bulk of the mammary glands and most of the excess skin. The second fine-tunes the result, removing further excess skin and perhaps reducing scars left from the first stage.

The next major surgery is a hysterectomy. This removes the womb, uterus and ovaries.

The final surgery is the creation of a penis along with the relocation of the urethra to the centre of the penis. There are two distinct ways of creating a penis. One utilizes a skin graft, usually from an arm. The other involves building up the clitoris, which is usually enlarged after a patient has been taking male hormones for some time.

Preparation for surgery

Surgeons always supply information sheets to patients outlining their specific requirements. In general, one must stop taking hormones about a month prior to surgery. The hormones can raise the risk of surgery. Many patients worry that going off hormones will result in their bodies reverting back to something more like their birth sex, but in fact this can’t happen in such a short time. Many patients do report mood changes, or hot and cold spells, but these are only temporary and disappear when hormones are resumed about a week after surgery.

One must also stop drinking alcohol and not use ASA or any illicit drug. These can all interfere with healing and blood flow.

All surgeons will require that you undergo a complete physical, including a blood test, a month or so prior to surgery. The surgeon will supply you with a list of tests he requires. The presence of any major health condition, such as high blood pressure, obesity, a heart condition or a communicable disease like AIDS could make a patient ineligible for surgery.

Post-surgery

It is critical that patients follow their surgeon’s advice on post-care procedures. Healing takes a long time and unless one sticks to the routines, results can easily be less than satisfactory.

The first three to five days after surgery are usually spent in hospital. The patient is on pain killers and attached to a catheter. One can be up and walking in three days, but no strenuous activity is permitted.

After about five days, patients are more mobile and can reduce pain killers a little. For male-to-female patients, catheters come out at about a week and dilation begins. For female-to-male patients, the catheter may remain in place for several weeks, depending on which surgical technique was used.

Patients return home about ten days after surgery, but this can vary from surgeon to surgeon. Pain fades within a month and one can return to work after about two months, although some discomfort may remain for several more months.

Full healing can take six months to a year. Some patients find they have swelling or numbness that is more of an irritant than an impediment to functioning. Certainly, a year after surgery, one should feel normal and function normally.

Surgeons

There are only a handful of surgeons worldwide offering gender reassignment surgery. I don’t recommend any one surgeon or surgical procedure. It is important to investigate any surgeon you are considering. Ideally, you should talk to former patients to get their take on the surgery. If a doctor isn’t willing to put you in touch with former patients, be wary.

Also be wary of trying to find the perfect vagina or perfect penis. Everyone is different and any given surgeon will achieve different results with each patient. Age, genes and your health will partly determine the results you get. But you should expect that you function normally after surgery and that at least superficially you look as if you were born with the new plumbing.

Check list of surgeons. The U.K., The United States and Austral-Asia and please feel free to contact them, either via their Web sites or by mail or phone. Surgeons will often send information kits if you request it. If you contact the Canadian surgeons by phone, don’t worry if one of the secretaries answers in French, they all speak English as well.

[ask-typhon-blog]

The Waitress

It was a night like any other, Robert was sitting in his usual seat, the regulars wouldn’t show up for another hour or two, and a gaggle of idiots had come in to talk tough, act brave, and be a general, if well-paying, nuisance. I had been working as the bar-fish for a few weeks, and after the first couple nights most folks had gotten over the weird guy serving them beer and assorted brews. A few more folks had wandered in, along with a message from the owner, that the bar would be expanding to a tavern, and as such a waitress should be hired. He was very specific on it being a waitress for some reason from the second note. I for one couldn’t really give much of a damn, all land walkers looked the same, and carried the same amount of gold on them after they passed out, namely none when the regulars were through with them. This would be difficult. As a bar in the shady part of the docks, how likely were they to attract a female who would willingly work in this dump? At least you could tell the difference between men and women pretty easily, you just had to look at the chest. Of course, I still got it wrong 30-35% of the time, but I’d call that decent for a month on land. A few more folks moseyed in, sailors fresh off the boat, followed by one of the strangest things I had ever seen. A pair of humans came in, and one of them was actually female.

The bar got quiet, and when the bar gets quiet, something bad is, or was, about to happen. As I reached down for my crossbow, I noticed that the patrons weren’t looking at the girl, but at her companion. I gave them both a harder look. They both seemed of nobility, with a merchant house seal on their clothes (you could always tell, minimum words and animals, just simple, easy to stamp on a crate.) He sported a black tunic with red trim, tan from too much time in the sun, good shoes, and no gloves. His eyes seemed to be made of fire, dark red and swirling. His tail swished about, and the claws seemed to be clacking against each other a little, as if he was nervous, but overall a decent fellow. Probably one of the more together, if foolish, humans I had seen so far. The tail was a bit odd though, maybe a bit of merfolk in his ancestry. Still, one couldn’t complain, they hadn’t screamed or thrown anything at me yet. Instead, their eyes showed, what… curiosity perhaps? The same kind when I created a new potion, or found out that some people never even considered the benefits of a tail, particularly as a bludgeon. His companion, looked a bit fancier, perhaps he as her bodyguard. Wearing a flowing skirt and blouse, colored as blue as the sky back home (I had these items explained afterwards, landwalker and their obsession with clothing still confuses me.) Her blue eyes matched her outfit, and black hair matched her companions. Perhaps they were sister and brother? I did the only thing I could think to defuse the situation, I poured a Special and handed it to Robert, who promptly took a sip, turned purple, and farted loudly. At least the gas was expected, but I had been hoping for him to turn green and grow wings instead.

The bar normalized, considering the bar-fish resumed his usual antics, Robert got a free drink, and nobody had died or blown up yet. As the lady and lord walked up to my station, I drew myself to my full height and asked in my best Common, “What dya’ll want?” This greeting was a proper one I had been informed, and from the notes and coaching from Robert, it had gotten to a point where it barely sounded like I was gargling the ocean. What I didn’t expect was the response.

“Pardon me, my good… person, but is the sign on the window correct? You are hiring a position as a waitress for this… establishment?” She held up the parchment from the window and set it upon the counter, looking around with care and some small amount of disdain for the surroundings. She quickly lifted her hand off the bar and pulled it back, as the paper started to stain from something I hadn’t quite cleaned well enough on the bartop. “I was perhaps wondering if you might hire myself? My father suggested I gain some ‘life lessons’ as he called it, and recommended this as one of his past… hangouts.”

I glanced at the dissolving paper, with only the letters HE ANT standing out, the rest faded away. I pondered on this for a moment, as if mayhaps it might reveal some secret to the land nobility before me. “Save me from ignorant fools and nobles, I had enough of them already,” murmuring under my breath in Aquan, I looked up once again. A few more new folks had come in, and had been sizing up the pair in front of me. I was given no guidelines on who to hire, merely that it be fast, and someone not likely to steal anything. Standing before me was that option, however short-lived it may be.

“Indeed, we are hiring for a waitress. Pay is 3 copper a day, plus tips. If you can handle these layabouts and drunkards, you can stay. If a fight breaks out, stay out of the way, and we split the remains of whatever is left. There are some clothes in the back, you might want to change out of that finery, it's likely to be damaged. What about your companion?” I motioned with a glass to the man behind her, who was now eyeing the three gentlemen who had walked in earlier. They had gotten their drinks and sat down, looking around wildly and slowly growing in volume.

“Oh, don’t worry about him, it’s just me. He’ll be on his way shortly. My name is Alyss, and it is my pleasure to be working with you.” She flashed me a smile and went to the back, coming back in a few minutes wearing an apron and carrying a tray. To color me surprised was an understatement, as she got directly to work taking drinks to tables as if she had done it all her life. Things went fine for the first few tables, they knew better than to start fights here, at least with someone they had no feel for. But the last table, that was where things changed and Alyss earned the respect of everyone at that bar, including mine. The final table had called for another round, and after pouring the drinks and serving them, they tried to do something incredibly stupid: they tried to cop a feel on the new barmaid. The operative word here was tried. As I watched, her companion who had been sitting next to Robert suddenly wasn’t anymore, and in his place was Alyss, with a look of pure fury. At the table, being molested, was her companion, with a look of enjoyment on his face, turning to the table slowly with an ever widening grin.

“Now gentlemen, I understand that humans are much more forward nowadays, but I must stress that the deal I have with my summoner is that she be willing for such advances, and unfortunately you do not qualify, and to be quite frank I agree with her judgement. You three wouldn’t qualify for a scrap of bread in a soul-swap, and honestly I wouldn’t fuck any of you for an entire level of Hell. Now remove your hand, or…. Now really Alyss? Spiders?” Alyss had turned quickly off the stool and after muttering something under her breath, was holding a writhing, wiggling, skittering whip. A whip, as I learned from her companion, was made of spiders. Her first swing engulfed the groper in a swarm, the second caught the next offender mid-scream and in the mouth, with spiders quickly moving in and out of the orifice, biting everything. Her guard quickly leapt on the third man, shoving his claws into the man’s chest, lifting him up above his head to throw across the room like a sack of fish entrails. The first two had already died, with Alyss quickly gathering herself together, and turned to the table next to her, the whip still in her hand.

“My most sincerest of apologies, those men should have had better manners. I can’t imagine where their parents went wrong, I hope you won’t count it against me or my cohorts. As a further apology, the next round is on the house, and as many further rounds can be from the pockets of the three unscrupulous individuals who dared to disgrace the peace of this grand establishment. I hope you enjoy the rest of your night!” WIth a quick turn, she walked back to the bar for the next round and called “Deus, search them and dispose of them as is accustomed for their kind, in the back alley.”

“At once milady.” The one known as Deus turned and removed any objects of value and money, then took them out back and dumped them into the water. The current would hopefully carry them away from my sleeping area, I preferred my silt blood-free. The rest of the night went largely without incident, whenever someone new came in and looked to cause trouble, they were pulled aside for a whisper and a miming of spiders crawling down their throat. Never before had I seen everyone behave so calmly and polite. Hell, they even cut down on the swearing (at least until Alyss dropped an empty tankard on her foot for the fourth time, letting loose a stream in some hellish language while clutching her foot that had everyone readjust their views of this girl yet again.) Deus, after his body-removal duties, resumed sitting by Robert, and from what I could tell was trying to buy his soul for wealth, riches, whatever he wanted.

“Come now my good fellow, anything you want! Gold, platinum, gems bigger than a Balor’s belly! Do you want women? Any size, any race, any age, it doesn’t matter to me I won’t judge! Maybe you go for the other team? Fine by me, I can go either way. That’s right, even I’m on the table. A giant hunk of smoking hot devil, right here, just for the small price of your soul. What do you say?”

It didn’t work.

“Umm, Mr Bartender?” I looked up from my latest concoction, looking at Alyss. Things had died down for a bit, everyone had drinks with a card game had popped up in the back right corner. I dropped in a copper coin in the drink and watched it dissolve, then slid it down to the oread three stools down. After drinking his (her?) beverage, they started eating the cup.

“Yes Alyss?”

“Why are there no menus? No wine lists? I admit, I didn’t exactly expect this tavern to have an extensive list, but they just seem to defer to your judgement. I think the last drinks you had me take could have doubled to melt the vault doors on the royal treasury!” This was quite probable, as it did have certain oxidizing properties, but when drunk by an organic it instead altered to more fizzing, leading to a rather pleasant sparking sensation when being drunk. The fact that it looked like a combination of horse blood and troll bile was purely happenstance. Where would I even get troll bile, that’s for the fancier folk! I settled for horse blood and tuna bile instead.

“People here have an understanding with me. I can barely tell any person apart from another, much less any race from another, aside from a few exceptions,” as I motioned to the Oread, Alyss, and Robert. “But I can read their bodies, their tolerances, and their personalities. How they move, how the talk, how they smell, they all speak to me as to how they might act, and what they might like. Some favor the basics, and so they get Ale or Grog, others prefer something more varied. And such, the ask and I deliver.” I bring out a glass and pour some ingredients into it. Some wine, a bit of elixir of this and that from my lab, and finally a strawberry. I slid it to Alyss. “On the house, give it a chance. Oh, and you might want to sit down for this.”

“Thanks you kind sir, I appreciate it.” Alyss took the drink, with admitted apprehension, and then downed it in one. Surprising, but probably best. As she sat on the stool, her eyes flashed red, and her eidolon shuddered, before both gasping for air. “What was that? It tasted like candied strawberries, with a hint of… something else? Kiwi? Banana? I can’t quite place it. And this feeling, like I could talk a dragon into giving up its hoard!” She studied the glass, as if questioning its secrets.

“The additional taste is Red Seaweed. Nothing tastes quite like it, I’ve started growing some next door under the water. That feeling was the addition of a bit of Sailfish’s Splendor, enough to give just a small boost and euphoric feeling. If you like, I can make it again tomorrow.” I admit, I like showing off. Nothing fancy, no big shows, but any experiment that resulted in someone feeling better than before was a small victory for me.

“I think I’d like that. Maybe add it to the menu, whenever we get around to making one. I think your concoctions might be the key to putting this bar on the map!” She sprung off the stool and strolled to the next table of folks who had come in. We? Menu? What was going on here? Put us on the map? I came here to be forgotten, be anonymous, not be famous! I spent the rest of the time mulling over these words, wondering if I might have to quit and try again someplace else, maybe even further inland, away from the ocean.

When everyone had been kicked out, after cleaning the blood and bile from the night out the door and escorting Robert to his usual guest bed upstairs, Alyss and I sat down to discuss her pay for the night and her schedule. I’ll admit, when I slithered out from behind the bar, her eyes grew wide for a moment, but quickly focused on other things, namely her pay for the night.

“So, the pay was 3 copper a day plus tips, but given the circumstances, I feel hazard pay, cleaning fees, spell costs, material fees, and other monetary charges should be factored in.” She started listing off various fees, dues, and other damages that my head started spinning, until it seemed that her final pay should have been over 1,000 gold. Needless to say, I couldn’t agree to that. But there was also no way in hell I could out-maneuver her wheeling and dealing. When she said she could talk a dragon out of its hoard, I realized she could probably have done it without the potion. Just who the hell did I just hire? So in the end, she got a raise to 3 silver a day (comparable to me, honestly fair, even I figured 3 copper was a lowball, but if I wasn’t the only one to keep this lot in line, might as well pay the same.) As we closed up shop, she stopped to shake my hand. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name?”

“Typhon. They call me Typhon. Alyss was it?” I spoke slightly slowly, not used to small-talk any more. Apparently land-walkers talked about the weather a lot, complaining about rain, at least according to Robert. I didn’t know how to continue.

“Yes, Alyss. Alyss Vane and my Devil Eidolon Deus. My summoning classes at the college end at 7, so I’ll be back tomorrow at 8, and if I might make a suggestion? A bit of color might spruce up the place a little bit, or at least cover the blood stains.” As she left I wracked my brain. Vane? As in Vane Shipping & Trading? How ironic, the ship I followed into port was owned by her father. I owed her family my life, however thin the connection. By transition, I owed her my life. And the College? The young lady who gave me directions! Hoo boy, this was going to be a lot more complicated than a few drunks at the end of the night to toss out.

[footballghana]

Kenyan giants Gor Mahia turn to fans for financial bailout due to coronavirus

Kenyan champions Gor Mahia have turned to fans to bail them out of a financial crisis that has seen players from one of the country's biggest clubs go without pay for at least five months.

In an unusual move, the record 19-time Kenyan champions are appealing to fans to convert loyalty points accrued by subscribers to a mobile phone company into cash for the club.

Known as 'bonga' points, the loyalty scheme enables subscribers to start accumulating points as soon as they are registered, with extra points coming for extra data usage.

The points are usually redeemed to buy phone credit, data bundles or simply converted into cash, rather than fund Kenya's most successful football club - with Gor Mahia's 19 titles seven better than closest rivals AFC Leopards.

Meanwhile, the club's players will be hoping the scheme pays off since many are facing eviction from their homes after being unable to pay rent.

The club's desperate financial straits have prompted chairman Ambrose Rachier to not only make the appeal but to turn to his bonga points as well.

"These are reserves a lot of people are not aware of," Rachier told BBC Sport Africa. "For example, I discovered I had 80,000 points which I've converted into 25,000 Kenya shillings ($235) which I have contributed to the fund."

The club's financial problems - which some fans lay at Rachier's door - began late last year when betting firm SportPesa withdrew their sponsorship of the club following a local ruling which raised taxes on gambling stakes.

SportPesa's sponsorship amounted to some US$565,000 (60m Kenyan shillings), which covered a significant amount of the club's annual running costs, which are believed to be in the region of $750,000 (80m Ksh).

"With no football to be played it is only going to get worse," admitted Rachier. "The players have gone five months without salaries yet they have rent to play and families to look after."

"Going without pay for this long is the worst thing that can happen to a player," said captain Kenneth Muguna. "You need money for daily living and also for proper diet because without that, you cannot train."

This year's coronavirus pandemic has only compounded Gor's financial issues, with the suspension of the league in March meaning the club could no longer gather gate receipts.

It also meant that several of the club's other sponsors, who contributed significantly less than SportPesa, have since kept away.

"Sponsors depend on visibility and they are only willing to put money where they are getting value," added Rachier. "Many of them are from the betting industry and they are putting operations on hold until football resumes."

Like many gambling firms in the region, Kenya's have suffered huge financial losses as a result of the widespread suspension of global sport forced by the pandemic.

Three years ago, Gor Mahia were riding high as they gained global attention as Everton - who were also sponsored by SportPesa at the time - beat them in a friendly in Tanzania.

Now, they are hoping fans can rescue them even if Rachier acknowledges the appeal is unlikely to solve the club's financial woes since many fans are facing financial hardship themselves due to the impact of Covid-19.

Nonetheless, he hopes the sums raised can reduce some debts and help the players but captain Muguna, who says the players have suffered extreme difficulties in recent times, is not so hopeful.

"I always trust our fans, no doubt about that, and whatever amount they will raise will go a long way in solving our current problems," he said.

"However, I must be sincere - they will be doing their best but their best cannot be enough because not many of them have good earnings and you cannot blame them."

With some players facing eviction from their homes, Rachier says he has pleaded with landlords to show patience.

"I told the landlords that rent arrears are attributable to the salaries we haven't paid the players for reasons already in the public domain and that they will pay when they get the money."

Gor Mahia were declared champions in late April after the season was ended prematurely and there are concerns their financial state may affect their ability to represent Kenya in next season's African Champions League.

However, a legal challenge to the Kenyan federation's decision to cancel the league means that Gor's latest league title hangs in the balance - much like their finances.

Source: bbc.com

source: https://footballghana.com/

[crohnsdigest]

Coronavirus 2020 Outbreak: Latest Updates

The United States leads the world in cases of COVID-19. We'll provide the latest updates on coronavirus cases, government response, impacts to our daily life, and more.

What is the latest news?

Summer Camp Groups Release COVID-19 Guidance May 18, 6:45 p.m.  Two of the nation’s largest summer camp organizations — the YMCA of the USA and the American Camp Association — released a “field guide” on Monday to operate safely this summer amid coronavirus concerns. About 14 million people typically attend 8,400 overnight and 5,600 summer day camps, according to the guide. The 80-page document gives detailed advice for social distancing, transportation, and campers and staff with preexisting medical conditions. The guide also gives specific information about activities such as crafts, swimming and performing arts. The information is meant to supplement the one-page flowchart released by the CDC last week.EXPANDED COVERAGELatest News COVID-19 May Trigger Rare Complication In Children States Not Hitting Testing Goals; Feds Promise Aid 100 Days Into COVID-19, Where Do We Stand? As Society Reopens, Not Everyone is Ready Blood Clots Are Another Dangerous COVID-19 Mystery The Great Invader: How COVID Attacks Every OrganExpert Opinions Coronavirus in Context: New series with WebMD Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Whyte According to the guide, camps shouldn’t open if state and local officials don’t allow it. They should also be in areas that met the third phase of White House guidelines, which call for a two-week decline in COVID-19 cases and hospital capacity to care for new patients. First, camps should pre-screen all staff and campers for COVID-19 symptoms, according to the guide. During camp, directors and administrators may choose to take temperatures daily and isolate or send home people with symptoms. The guide suggests that overnight camps operate as a “bubble,” allowing only staff and campers who have tested negative. They may also follow shelter-in-place guidelines for the duration of the camp. In addition to the “bubble” concept, camps may incorporate “cohort” or “household” rules that keep staff and campers in small groups for daily activities, particularly ones that require close contact. This tactic could limit the spread of a potential outbreak and allow staff to trace contacts. Other recommendations include frequent disinfection, handwashing procedures and enough equipment, such as life preservers, so campers don’t have to share during the program. Some of the recommendations could make operating a camp more expensive, NPR reported. “I am aware of some Y camps that have made basically a business decision that it’s better to forego this summer, cut expenses way back and be prepared for next year,” Paul McEntire, chief operations officer of the YMCA, told NPR. Some summer camps are planning to reopen, even if delayed, the news outlet reported, including camps in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Montana, New York and Texas. Other have canceled programs entirely. VA: More Than 1,000 Have Died From COVID-19 More than 1,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the Department of Veterans Affairs health care system, the agency reported on its tracking site. The official tally was 1,015 on Monday afternoon. Among those, 700 died at one of the agency’s veteran hospitals. The other deaths occurred elsewhere but were reported to the department. The VA has reported more than 12,300 positive cases, with 9,200 recovered and 2,100 still active, according to the tracking site. The total number of veterans who have died from COVID-19 is even higher, the Washington Post reported. About 550 veterans have died in state-run veterans homes as well, according to Vietnam Veterans of America, and 28 states aren’t reporting veteran deaths. The advocacy group is collecting data for an upcoming report, the newspaper said. “VA grieves for all of the Veterans and loved ones affected by this heartbreaking situation,” said agency spokeswoman Christina Noel. The agency’s death toll includes active duty service members, patients with military health care and civilians enrolled in VA care in humanitarian cases. Most cases are likely among the 9.5 million veterans enrolled in VA care, the newspaper reported. One active duty service member has died from the coronavirus. A sailor on the USS Theodore Roosevelt died in a Naval hospital in Guam in April, the newspaper reported previously. A National Guard soldier died in March before he was mobilized, the newspaper also reported. The coronavirus has affected VA staffers as well. More than 2,000 have tested positive, and 30 have died, the VA reported on a separate tracking page. Six employees who died were in New Jersey. The number of active COVID-19 cases in VA care has declined since the beginning of May, the Military Times reported Monday. The decrease could indicate a return to normal operations at some hospitals in coming weeks, the news outlet said. VA Secretary Robert Wilkie was invited to a House Appropriations Committee hearing to give an update on the agency’s coronavirus response. The hearing, which was scheduled for Tuesday, has been postponed. Pro Sports Should Plan to Resume Play: NY Governor Professional sports teams should start planning to resume play without fans, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday. "New York state will help those major sport franchises to do just that," Cuomo said, CBS News reported. "Hockey, basketball, baseball, football, whoever can reopen, we're a ready, willing, and able partner." Even if there are no fans at games, they could be televised, Cuomo said. He made the comments as the state continued to have declines in coronavirus-related hospitalizations, intubations, and deaths, CBS News reported. Major League Baseball is already making plans to start play. Texas Reports Biggest 1-Day Increase in New Cases As Texas moves forward with reopening, the state department of health reported 1,800 new coronavirus cases on Saturday -- the largest one-day increase in the state since the pandemic began. Many of those new cases were reported in counties with meat-packing plants. Gov. Greg Abbott said he's sending “surge response” teams to hot spots and that increased testing explains the rise in new cases.  "As Texas continues ramping up its testing capabilities, there will be an increase in positive cases as the state targets the most high-risk areas: nursing homes, meat packing plants and jails," Abbott said in a news release. "That is exactly why I established surge response teams. By immediately deploying resources and supplies to these high risk areas, we will identify the positive cases, isolate the individuals and ensure any outbreak is quickly contained.” Abbott also announced the Texas Division of Emergency Management will work with local fire departments to expand testing in nursing homes. Under relaxed state restrictions, gyms in Texas were allowed to reopen on Monday at 25% capacity, with proper spacing of equipment and gym users, TV station KHOU reported. Nonessential manufacturing and work offices can reopen with 25% capacity as well.      The state now has more than 47,000 reported cases, with 27,000 people who have recovered, the state department of health said. First COVID Vaccine Tested on Humans Shows Promise May 18, 11:20 a.m. The first coronavirus vaccine tested on humans has yielded positive results, with a small number of people who were tested showing an immunity against the virus, drugmaker Moderna said Monday in a news release. Moderna, a Massachusetts-based company, said the vaccine called mRNA-1273 “was generally safe and well tolerated.” The company said it plans to move ahead with the next two phases, in which larger numbers of people will be tested this year. The news release said three different dosage levels -- 25, 100 and 250 micrograms -- were given to 45 participants, and all of them developed detectable antibodies.  But the eight people who received doses of 25 and 100 micrograms in March responded best, developing antibodies that were just as high or higher than the antibodies found in people who'd gotten the coronavirus and then recovered, the company said. The vaccine uses something called the messenger RNA approach. It does not require a virus to make the vaccine. "I think the totality of science tells us that this is the right antigen and it should be protective," Tal Zaks, Moderna's chief medical officer, said Monday on a call with journalists to discuss the results, according to Business Insider. The testing is being done in coordination with the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. It has not been peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal.  There currently is no vaccine against the coronavirus. Moderna and other companies are racing to develop a vaccine against the virus, which has killed 89,000 people in the United States alone. It's unclear how soon a vaccine might hit the market. Anthony Fauci, MD, of the White House coronavirus task force, has cited a 12- to 18-month timeline for development. At least 90 potential COVID-19 vaccines are under study, and six of those are already being tested on humans in clinical trials to determine if they're safe.  HHS Secretary: Reopening Requires 'Very Localized' Decisions May 17, 6:40 p.m.  Communities will ultimately decide whether places where people gather -- such as bars, restaurants, and schools -- are ready to reopen due to coronavirus concerns, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Sunday. “These are very localized determinants. There should not be one-size-fits-all approaches to reopening,” he said on CNN's State of the Union. Azar said it is safe to reopen the country because half of U.S. counties reporting cases of the coronavirus “haven't had a single death," The Washington Post reported. He also mentioned other health consequences from extending shelter-in-place orders, such as suicides, and delayed heart procedures, cancer screenings, and childhood vaccines. At the same time, people in crowded bars aren't wearing masks or practicing social distancing, said CNN host Jake Tapper. “I think, in any individual instance, you're going to see people doing things that are irresponsible,” Azar said. “That's part of the freedom that we have here in America.” Under the first phase of reopening, the White House guidelines state that people should still physically distance themselves from others, stick to social settings with fewer than 10 people, and avoid places where “appropriate distancing may not be practical.” “We count on local leaders to implement and interpret that, according to the local situation,” Azar said. In states that are opening, cases haven't spiked so far, he said, though new case numbers could be delayed. Officials are using surveillance systems to track respiratory diseases to watch for an increase, he said. They're now testing for asymptomatic cases in places where people are in close quarters, such as nursing homes, prisons, and meatpacking plants. “We look for early indicators,” Azar said. “Then we use the traditional public health tools to surge in there” with testing, isolation, and contact tracing. Even still, some states are seeing an increase in cases. During its first weekend without statewide restrictions, Wisconsin received an influx of visitors from Illinois, where stay-at-home orders are still in place, according the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Hundreds of people traveled to Lake Geneva on Saturday, even as Wisconsin reported its highest one-day count of 502 new cases. And Texas reported its highest one-day count, according to The Texas Tribune. More than 1,800 new cases were recorded on Saturday, including more than 700 from Amarillo, where meatpacking plants have led to a cluster of infections. Disney: Shopping Area in Florida Reopens Wednesday Walt Disney Co. will reopen parts of the Disney Springs entertainment and shopping complex at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida on Wednesday, the company announced on Saturday. The company and unions representing the workers reached an agreement about the safeguards to protect employees, according to Reuters, which has been one of the biggest questions in reopening theme parks. “While our theme parks and resort hotels remain temporarily closed, the phased reopening of Disney Springs is a welcome milestone as we navigate through this unprecedented time together as responsibly as we can,” Disney Springs Vice President Matt Simon said in the statement. Some third-party stores will reopen at Disney Springs this week, and on May 27, three venues operated by Disney -- World of Disney, D-Luxe Burger and the Marketplace Co-Op -- will reopen. “Rest assured, there is plenty of magic awaiting you at Disney Springs -- it just may feel a bit different than before,” Simon said. To reopen safely, Disney Springs will have several new changes. All guests over age 3, cast members, and third-party employees will be required to wear “appropriate” face coverings that cover the nose and mouth at all times, except when sitting at a dining table. Temperature screenings will be required at the entrances, and anyone with a temperature of 100.4 or higher will be sent to another location for rescreening. People who measure 100.4 or higher again won't be allowed inside. Disney Springs will also maintain physical distancing during the reopening phase and limit the number of people allowed in each location. Markings on the ground will show proper distancing in lines. Cashless and contactless payment options will be available, too. The company also has increased cleaning and disinfection procedures, including high-traffic areas such as elevators, escalators, handrails, benches, tables, and restrooms. Handwashing and hand sanitizer stations will be available. Cast members are being trained to explain new procedures and answer questions. They'll also encourage guests to follow the new rules. “I understand this is a great deal of change to absorb,” Simon said in the statement. “Today's world is different, and it's going to require a shared responsibility, with everyone doing their part.” The latest information about shopping and dining locations, operating hours, and safety procedures will be posted at DisneySprings.com/reopening. More USS Roosevelt Sailors Test Positive Again May 17, 11:18 am.  Eight more sailors on the USS Theodore Roosevelt tested positive for the coronavirus again, according to The Associated Press. That means 13 now seem to have COVID-19 a second time while working on the ship. All of these sailors went through 2 weeks of quarantine and isolation and tested negative twice over a couple of days before working again. On Friday, the Navy said that five sailors tested positive a second time. On Saturday, a Navy official, who requested anonymity, said that eight more tested positive. Officials discovered the outbreak on the aircraft carrier in March and stopped in Guam. More than 1,000 crew tested positive, and 4,000 of the 4,800 crew members went to shore for quarantine and isolation. In late April, hundreds of sailors returned to the ship in waves to get ready to sail again. But some sailors began showing symptoms again in early May, such as a cough and fever, according to Politico. Others had body aches and headaches. The 13 sailors have left the ship and are back in isolation on the U.S. Naval Base Guam, officials told the news outlet. FDA Authorizes First at-Home COVID-19 Sample Kit May 16, 4:40 p.m. A new at-home coronavirus kit will be available to collect a sample and send it to a lab for analysis, the FDA announced on Saturday. The FDA issued an emergency use authorization to Everlywell Inc. for the Everlywell COVID-19 Test Home Collection Kit. Under separate authorizations, the FDA also allowed two COVID-19 diagnostic tests to be used at the laboratories for the at-home samples. “The authorization of a COVID-19 at-home collection kit that can be used with multiple tests at multiple labs not only provides increased patient access to tests, but also protects others from potential exposure,” Jeffrey Shuren, MD, director of the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in the news release. People can use the kit at home after completing an online questionnaire, which is reviewed by a doctor. The kit has nasal swabs to collect the sample. Then patients put the swab in a saline tube for transport, which they can ship overnight to a specific lab -- either Fulgent Therapeutics or Assurance Scientific Laboratories -- that is authorized to test the at-home samples. Once results are ready, patients can check them through Everlywell's online portal or the company's network of doctors. Although the FDA previously issued two emergency use authorizations for at-home diagnostic tests, the Everlywell collection kit is the first sample kit that can be used with multiple authorized labs, the FDA said. The kit is available by prescription only. “It is important to note that this is not a general authorization for at-home collection of patient samples using other collection kits, swabs, media, or tests, or for tests fully conducted at home,” according to the news release. UK Trial Tests Whether Dogs Can Sniff Out Coronavirus May 16, 3:47 p.m. A new trial in the United Kingdom will study whether dogs that are trained as medical sniffers can detect the coronavirus in infected humans. Dogs have been trained to detect malaria, Parkinson's disease, and some types of cancers, according to Medical Detection Dogs, the UK charity that runs the training program. “In principle, we're sure that dogs could detect COVID-19. We are now looking into how we can safely catch the odour of the virus from patients and present it to the dogs,” said Claire Guest, CEO and co-founder of the organization. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Durham University will work with Medical Detection Dogs to do the trial. Dogs would learn to distinguish the scent by sniffing samples during training, which would be collected from patients at London hospitals. The trial has received more than 500,000 pounds in funding, according to Durham University. Respiratory diseases such as COVID-19 change a human's body odor, so the researchers believe there is a “high chance” that dogs could detect it. Dogs could potentially detect differences in temperature that could indicate a fever, too. If successful, dogs could be ready after a 6-week training program, according to the organization. Within 6 months, trained dogs could be deployed to airports and borders to identify infected travelers. “The aim is that dogs will be able to screen anyone, including those who are asymptomatic, and tell us whether they need to be tested,” Guest said. The dogs could potentially screen up to 250 people per hour, the BBC reported. Called “bio-detection dogs” or “Covid dogs,” the group of six trial participants would include Labradors and cocker spaniels. CDC Warns Pediatricians About Rare Inflammatory Condition May 16, 12:08 p.m. The CDC has updated its coronavirus advisory to pediatricians to warn about a rare and sometimes deadly inflammatory condition that affects children and may be connected COVID-19. Called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C, the condition has caused at least three deaths in the United States, health authorities say. “Healthcare providers who have cared or are caring for patients younger than 21 years of age meeting MIS-C criteria should report suspected cases to their local, state, or territorial health department,” the CDC advisory says. Symptoms include a fever, low blood pressure, rashes, red eyes, stomach upset, and inflammation of the heart and its arteries. Some of these symptoms overlap with toxic shock syndrome and Kawasaki disease, which is one of the leading causes of heart disease in children. Children don't appear to be as vulnerable to the coronavirus as adults. But in New York, the hot spot for MIS-C in the United States, the state health department said there appeared to be a connection between this new illness and COVID-19 because many of the young patients tested positive for the coronavirus or its antibodies. MIS-C cases have been reported in 15 states and some European nations. More than 100 cases have been reported in New York state, where three children, aged 5, 7, and 18, have died. Not many of the children have shown breathing problems, which is a common symptom of the coronavirus. Tests Show Vaccine Protects Monkeys Against COVID-19  May 16, 11:29 a.m. There's good news about a coronavirus vaccine being developed by Oxford University in England. Tests show that the vaccine provided protection against the virus when given to rhesus macaque monkeys at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, MT, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a preprint paper posted on the server bioRxiv.  Six monkeys received the vaccine 28 days before being infected with the coronavirus. Three other animals served as the control group and did not receive the vaccine, the preprint paper said. The vaccinated animals didn't get sick or develop lung problems, the NIH said in a news release. Two of the three control animals developed some form of pneumonia. Rhesus monkeys are often used in tests because they share about 93% of their genes with humans, according to the National Primates Research Center.  Based on the research, testing on humans began April 23 in the United Kingdom, the NIH said. The information has not been peer-reviewed but is shared online to help other researchers in the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. The Oxford scientists are making the vaccine from a weakened version of a common cold viruscalled the adenovirus taken from chimpanzees. The vaccine is combined with genes to trigger antibodies that allow the immune system to destroy the virus Read the full article

[mayarosa47]

What Are The Grounds For Legal Separation In Utah?

A lawful partition in Utah is designated “separate upkeep – a court will detail the financial help rules and youngster care issues and the division of conjugal property. Couples seeking after a compromise may lean toward this type of partition to separate.

Utah requires wedded couples with kids younger than 18 to go to classes to instruct themselves on separation, and couples without any kids should in any case experience a 90-day holding up period. In addition, wedded couples petitioning for legal separation should likewise go to an intervention session to determine remaining questions before going to preliminary. Petitioning for lawful partition goes around the class prerequisites and the 90-day holding up period. Gatherings are legitimately isolated just when a court enters a pronouncement of independent support. To get a declaration of discrete support in Utah, the gatherings experience an activity like a separation. Separate upkeep partitions property, grants guardianship of kids, and accommodates youngster backing and divorce settlement, however does as such on a brief premise; the declaration of discrete support doesn’t end the marriage. Provision under discrete upkeep is more typical than under a separation order on the grounds that the gatherings are as yet hitched, and the law expects life partners to help each other. When the partition happens, the isolated couple may petition for a separation, which is free of the lawful division. Court and lawyer expenses for legitimate partition and separation are equivalent, however couples looking for a separation after a detachment will wind up paying a similar sum twice. Couples looking for lawful partition must determination issues like that of separation, including youngster guardianship and appearance, splitting property and kid support, and paying obligations. Utah Divorce Basics Separation in Utah is alluded to as Disintegration of Marriage and is led as a common activity, with one gathering, the Applicant, documenting a Request for separation, and the other party being named as a Respondent.

To seek legal separation in Utah, either life partner must be a true blue occupant of the state and more likely than not lived in the province of petitioning for the three months quickly going before initiation of the activity.

The Appeal might be documented in the locale court of the district where either life partner lives. On the off chance that the Solicitor is an individual from the military of the U.S. who are not legitimate occupants of this state, he/she may petition for legal separation on the off chance that he has been positioned in the state for the three months quickly going before the beginning of the activity. No conference for declaration of separation may by and large be held until 90 days have slipped by from the recording of the objection, gave the court may make break arranges that are simply and impartial. The 90-day time frame will not make a difference, in any case, regardless where the two gatherings have finished the obligatory training course for separating from guardians.

In spite of the fact that there are no statutory arrangements for the reclamation of a life partner’s name while separating, either companion may demand that his/her previous name be reestablished on the Appeal and the judge will respect the solicitation.Legal Grounds for Divorce The court may decree a dissolution of marriage for any of the following grounds:

1. Impotency of the Respondent at the time of the marriage; 2. Adultery committed by the Respondent after entering into the marriage; 3. Willful desertion of the Petitioner by the Respondent for more than one year; 4. Willful neglect of the Respondent to provide for the Petitioner the common necessities of life; 5. Habitual drunkenness of the Respondent; 6. Conviction of the Respondent for a felony; 7. Cruel treatment of the Petitioner by the Respondent to the extent of causing bodily injury or great mental distress to the Petitioner; 8. Irreconcilable differences of the marriage; 9. Incurable insanity; or 10. The spouses have lived separately under a decree of separate maintenance of any state for three consecutive years without cohabitation.

To grant a divorce on the ground of insanity, the Respondent must have been adjudged insane by the appropriate authorities of Utah or another state prior to the commencement of the action and the court must find by the testimony of competent witnesses that the Respondent’s insanity is incurable. Annulment The following are prohibited and void marriages and they may be annulled for these causes: • Marriages between parents and children; • Marriages between ancestors and descendants of every degree; • Marriages between brothers and sisters (half or whole); • Marriages between uncles and nieces or aunts and nephews; • Marriages between first cousins (unless both parties are 65 years of age or older, or if both parties are 55 years of age or older, upon a finding by the court that either party is unable to reproduce); • Marriages between any persons related to each other within and not including fifth degree of consanguinity; • When there is a husband or wife living, from whom the person marrying has not been divorced; • Either party is at least 16, but under 18 years of age and has not obtained parental consent; • Either party is under 16 years of age at the time the parties attempt to enter into the marriage, unless the party is 15 years of age and has obtained judicial consent; • Marriage between persons of the same sex; and • Re-marriage to a different spouse before the divorce decree becomes absolute, or in the case of an appeal, before the affirmance of the decree. When there is doubt regarding the validity of a marriage, either party may demand its avoidance or affirmance in a court where either party is domiciled. However, when one of the parties was under the age of consent at the time of the marriage, the other party of proper age may not have cause against the party under age. The court shall either declare the marriage valid or annulled. A marriage may also be annulled for any of the annulment grounds existing at common law. Property Division In all disintegration and separate support activities, the court and judge have purview over the circulation of property. Utah is a fair appropriation state. Thusly, conjugal property will be dispersed reasonably and fairly. The court will incorporate the accompanying in each declaration of separation:

•An request determining which gathering is in charge of the installment of joint obligations, commitments, or liabilities of the gatherings contracted or caused during marriage; •An request requiring the gatherings to advise individual banks or obliges, in regards to the court’s division of obligations, commitments, or liabilities and with respect to the gatherings’ different current locations; •Provisions for the implementation of these requests; and •Provisions for money retaining. At the point when a marriage of long span breaks down on the edge of a noteworthy change in the salary of one of the mates because of the aggregate endeavors of both, that change will be considered in partitioning the conjugal property. On the off chance that one life partner’s gaining limit has been enormously upgraded through the endeavors of the two companions during the marriage, the court may make a remunerating modification in partitioning the conjugal property. Alimony and Support In all dissolution and separate maintenance actions, the court and judge have jurisdiction over the payment of alimony.

When determining alimony, the court shall consider, at a minimum, the following factors: • The financial condition and needs of the requesting spouse; • The requesting spouse’s earning capacity or ability to produce income; • The ability of the paying spouse to provide support; • The length of the marriage; • Whether the requesting spouse has custody of minor children requiring support; • Whether the requesting spouse worked in a business owned or operated by the paying spouse; and • Whether the requesting spouse directly contributed to any increase in the paying spouse’s skill by paying for education received by the paying spouse or allowing the paying spouse to attend school during the marriage. The court may consider the fault of the parties when making its determination regarding alimony. When a marriage of long duration dissolves on the threshold of a major change in the income of one of the spouses due to the collective efforts of both, that change shall be considered in determining the amount of alimony. If one spouse’s earning capacity has been greatly enhanced through the efforts of both spouses during the marriage, the court may make a compensating adjustment in awarding alimony.

In determining alimony when a marriage of short duration dissolves, and no children have been conceived or born during the marriage, the court may consider restoring each party to the condition which existed at the time of the marriage. Alimony may not be ordered for a duration longer than the number of years that the marriage existed unless, at any time prior to termination of alimony, the court finds extenuating circumstances that justify the payment of alimony for a longer period of time. Unless otherwise stated in the divorce decree, any order for payment of alimony to a former spouse automatically ends upon the remarriage or death of that former spouse, unless the remarriage is annulled and found to be void. In that case, alimony shall resume, provided that the paying spouse was made a party to the action of annulment and his/her rights have been determined.

Any order for payment of alimony to a former spouse terminates upon establishment by the paying party that the former spouse is cohabitating with another person. Kid Authority and Backing In all disintegration and separate support activities, the court and judge have locale over the care and upkeep of minor kids. Authority: The court will think about joint authority for each situation, however may grant any type of guardianship which is resolved to be to the greatest advantage of the kid. On the off chance that the court finds that one parent doesn’t want guardianship of the youngster, it will mull over that proof in deciding if to grant authority to the next parent. In deciding if the wellbeing of a youngster will be served by requesting joint lawful or physical guardianship, the court will think about the accompanying components: •Whether the physical, mental and enthusiastic needs and advancement of the kid will profit by joint legitimate or physical care; •The capacity of the guardians to give first need to the welfare of the kid and arrive at shared choices in the youngster’s wellbeing; •Whether each parent is fit for empowering and tolerating a positive connection between the youngster and the other parent, including the sharing of adoration, love and contact between he kid and the other parent; •Whether the two guardians took an interest in bringing up the youngster before the separation; •The topographical vicinity of the homes of the guardians; •The inclination of the kid if the youngster is of adequate age and ability to reason in order to shape a shrewd inclination as to joint lawful or physical care; •The development of the guardians and their readiness and capacity to shield the youngster from struggle that may emerge between the guardians; •The over a significant time span capacity of the guardians to collaborate with one another and settle on choices mutually; •Any history of, or potential for, kid misuse, companion misuse, or seizing; and some other variables the court finds pertinent.

When deciding any type of care, notwithstanding the previously mentioned criteria, the court will think about the eventual benefits of the youngster, the accompanying variables, and any others the court finds significant: •The past direct and exhibited moral benchmarks of every one of the gatherings; •Which parent is well on the way to act to the greatest advantage of the youngster, including permitting the kid regular and proceeding with contact with the non-custodial parent; and •The degree of holding between the parent and youngster, which means the profundity, quality, and nature of the connection between a parent and kid. The court may ask of the youngsters and think about the kids’ wants with respect to future care or parent-time plans yet the communicated wants are not controlling and the court may decide the kids’ authority or parent-time generally. The wants of a kid 16 years old or more seasoned will be given included weight, however isn’the single controlling component. Courses for Guardians of Minor Kids: On the off chance that the Applicant and the Respondent have a kid or kids, an announcement of separation for the most part may not be conceded until the two gatherings have gone to the obligatory instructive course for separating from guardians. This course is intended to instruct and sharpen separating from gatherings to their kids’ needs both during and after the separation procedure. The course will train the two gatherings about the accompanying: •The effects of separation on the child(ren) •The effects of separation on the family relationship •The guardians’ money related duties regarding the child(ren) •That aggressive behavior at home harmfully affects youngsters and family connections. This prerequisite might be postponed if the court decides course participation and fruition are a bit much, suitable, achievable, or to the greatest advantage of the gatherings. There is additionally a compulsory separation direction course for all gatherings with minor kids who record an Appeal for Brief Division or for a Separation. The motivation behind the course is to instruct parties about the separation procedure and sensible options. A Solicitor will go to a separation direction course close to 60 days in the wake of recording an Appeal for Separation. A Respondent will go to close to 30 days in the wake of being presented with the Appeal. The separation direction course will be impartial, fair-minded, in any event one hour in length and incorporate the accompanying: •Options accessible as choices to separate; •Resources accessible from courts and managerial organizations for settling authority and bolster issues without petitioning for legal separation; •Resources accessible to improve or fortify the marriage; •A discourse of the positive and negative outcomes of separation; •A talk of the procedure of separation; •Options accessible for continuing with a separation, including intervention, community oriented law and case; and •A talk of post-separate from assets. Backing: The court will incorporate the accompanying in each declaration of separation: •An request allotting duty regarding the installment of sensible and vital therapeutic and dental costs of the needy youngsters including obligation regarding medical coverage out-of-pocket costs, for example, co-installments, co-protection, and deductibles; •If inclusion is or ends up accessible at a sensible cost, a request requiring the buy and support of proper wellbeing, emergency clinic, and dental consideration protection for the needy youngster and an assignment of which wellbeing, medical clinic or dental protection plan is essential and which wellbeing, emergency clinic, or dental protection plan is optional; •Provisions for the implementation of these requests; and •Provisions for money retaining. In a request deciding youngster support, the court may incorporate a request doling out budgetary obligation regarding all or a bit of kid care costs acquired for the benefit of the needy kids, required in view of the work or preparing of the custodial parent. In the event that the court discovers that the conditions are proper and that the needy youngsters would be satisfactorily thought about, it might incorporate a request permitting the non-custodial parent to give kid care to the reliant kids, required on account of the business or preparing of the custodial parent. Utah utilizes the Pay Offers Model to ascertain kid bolster commitments. The kid bolster commitment table uses the consolidated balanced gross salaries of the two guardians and the quantity of youngsters for whom backing is to be requested. The kind of authority game plan requested (split, sole, or joint physical) is likewise Considered. Legal Separation and Separate Maintenance A Petitioner may file an action for a temporary separation order without filing a Petition for Divorce, by filing a Petition for Temporary Separation and a Motion for Temporary Orders if the spouses are lawfully married and both have been residents of the state for at least 90 days prior to the date of filing.

The temporary orders are valid for one year from the date of the hearing, or until either a Petition for Divorce is filed and consolidated with the temporary separation Petition, or the case is dismissed.

Call Ascent Law LLC For Your Free Consultation

The streamlined and user-friendly process, instant document delivery, and unlimited free support makes us the go-to solution to do your own divorce. Our simple and inexpensive process provides you with all your completed divorce papers in as little as 20 minutes. Instantly access your completed divorce forms after a short online interview. It is that easy, no lengthy completion or delivery times. Never use a “do it yourself (without a lawyer)” solution for any divorce (with or without children) that will be filed in the state of Utah. Doing this can be a huge mistake. An uncontested Utah divorce is one in which you and your spouse are in agreement and eliminates the stress and expense of settling your divorce in court. You should still have a lawyer do it. With you can complete and print your Utah divorce forms (including a marital settlement agreement) instantly. Then, follow our step-by-step filing procedures to file your own divorce in Utah in a timely, professional, and hassle free fashion.

In a legal separation, the parties live separately, but remain spouses legally married to one another. The couple’s rights and duties to one another are set forth in a Decree of Legal Separation, which covers such matters as custody and child support, spousal support, division of property and payment of debts. In Utah, this is referred to as separate maintenance.

The grounds for legal separation are as follows:

1. A party who has sufficient ability to provide support, neglects or refuses to properly provide for and suitably maintain his/her spouse; 2. A party deserts his/her spouse without good and sufficient cause; 3. A party who has property in the state and his/her spouse is a resident of the state, deserts or neglects or refuses to provide support; or 4. A party, without fault, lives separate and apart from his/her spouse.

If a married resident of Utah files a Complaint for Separate Maintenance, the district court may allot, assign, set apart and decree as alimony the use of the real and personal estate or earnings of a deserting spouse as the court may determine appropriate.

Practice and proceeding for actions for separate maintenance shall be the same as near as may be as in actions for divorce; but the action may be brought in any county where the wife or husband may be found.

In all actions for separate maintenance, the court may order the following by order or decree:

• Provide for the care, custody, and maintenance of the minor children of the parties and determine with which of the parties the children or any of them shall remain; • Provide for support of either spouse and the support of the minor children living with that spouse; • Provide how and when support payments shall be made, and provide that either spouse have a lien upon the property of the other to secure payment of the support or maintenance obligations; • Award to either spouse the possession of any real or personal property of the other spouse, or acquired by the spouses during marriage; • Specify which party is responsible for the payment of joint debts, obligations, or liabilities contracted or incurred by the parties during the marriage; • Require the parties to notify respective creditors or obliges regarding the court’s division of debts, obligations, and liabilities and regarding the parties’ separate, current addresses; and • Provide for the enforcement of these orders.

Utah Legal Separation Lawyer Free Consuultation

When you need to get a legal separation in Utah, please call Ascent Law LLC (801) 676-5506 for your Free Consultation. We want to help you.

Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C itemprop=”addressLocality”>West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506

Ascent Law LLC

4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews

Recent Posts

Trust Protector And Dynasty Trusts

How Long Does A Loan Modification Last?

Bankruptcy Lawyer Ogden Utah

Federal Crimes

Real Estate Lawyer Heber City Utah

Is Possession Of A Controlled Substance A Felony In Utah?

from https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/what-are-the-grounds-for-legal-separation-in-utah/

from Criminal Defense Lawyer West Jordan Utah - Blog http://criminaldefenselawyerwestjordanutah.weebly.com/blog/what-are-the-grounds-for-legal-separation-in-utah

[melissawalker01]

What Are The Grounds For Legal Separation In Utah?

A lawful partition in Utah is designated “separate upkeep – a court will detail the financial help rules and youngster care issues and the division of conjugal property. Couples seeking after a compromise may lean toward this type of partition to separate.

Utah requires wedded couples with kids younger than 18 to go to classes to instruct themselves on separation, and couples without any kids should in any case experience a 90-day holding up period. In addition, wedded couples petitioning for legal separation should likewise go to an intervention session to determine remaining questions before going to preliminary. Petitioning for lawful partition goes around the class prerequisites and the 90-day holding up period. Gatherings are legitimately isolated just when a court enters a pronouncement of independent support. To get a declaration of discrete support in Utah, the gatherings experience an activity like a separation. Separate upkeep partitions property, grants guardianship of kids, and accommodates youngster backing and divorce settlement, however does as such on a brief premise; the declaration of discrete support doesn’t end the marriage. Provision under discrete upkeep is more typical than under a separation order on the grounds that the gatherings are as yet hitched, and the law expects life partners to help each other. When the partition happens, the isolated couple may petition for a separation, which is free of the lawful division. Court and lawyer expenses for legitimate partition and separation are equivalent, however couples looking for a separation after a detachment will wind up paying a similar sum twice. Couples looking for lawful partition must determination issues like that of separation, including youngster guardianship and appearance, splitting property and kid support, and paying obligations. Utah Divorce Basics Separation in Utah is alluded to as Disintegration of Marriage and is led as a common activity, with one gathering, the Applicant, documenting a Request for separation, and the other party being named as a Respondent.

To seek legal separation in Utah, either life partner must be a true blue occupant of the state and more likely than not lived in the province of petitioning for the three months quickly going before initiation of the activity.

The Appeal might be documented in the locale court of the district where either life partner lives. On the off chance that the Solicitor is an individual from the military of the U.S. who are not legitimate occupants of this state, he/she may petition for legal separation on the off chance that he has been positioned in the state for the three months quickly going before the beginning of the activity. No conference for declaration of separation may by and large be held until 90 days have slipped by from the recording of the objection, gave the court may make break arranges that are simply and impartial. The 90-day time frame will not make a difference, in any case, regardless where the two gatherings have finished the obligatory training course for separating from guardians.

In spite of the fact that there are no statutory arrangements for the reclamation of a life partner’s name while separating, either companion may demand that his/her previous name be reestablished on the Appeal and the judge will respect the solicitation.Legal Grounds for Divorce The court may decree a dissolution of marriage for any of the following grounds:

1. Impotency of the Respondent at the time of the marriage; 2. Adultery committed by the Respondent after entering into the marriage; 3. Willful desertion of the Petitioner by the Respondent for more than one year; 4. Willful neglect of the Respondent to provide for the Petitioner the common necessities of life; 5. Habitual drunkenness of the Respondent; 6. Conviction of the Respondent for a felony; 7. Cruel treatment of the Petitioner by the Respondent to the extent of causing bodily injury or great mental distress to the Petitioner; 8. Irreconcilable differences of the marriage; 9. Incurable insanity; or 10. The spouses have lived separately under a decree of separate maintenance of any state for three consecutive years without cohabitation.

To grant a divorce on the ground of insanity, the Respondent must have been adjudged insane by the appropriate authorities of Utah or another state prior to the commencement of the action and the court must find by the testimony of competent witnesses that the Respondent’s insanity is incurable. Annulment The following are prohibited and void marriages and they may be annulled for these causes: • Marriages between parents and children; • Marriages between ancestors and descendants of every degree; • Marriages between brothers and sisters (half or whole); • Marriages between uncles and nieces or aunts and nephews; • Marriages between first cousins (unless both parties are 65 years of age or older, or if both parties are 55 years of age or older, upon a finding by the court that either party is unable to reproduce); • Marriages between any persons related to each other within and not including fifth degree of consanguinity; • When there is a husband or wife living, from whom the person marrying has not been divorced; • Either party is at least 16, but under 18 years of age and has not obtained parental consent; • Either party is under 16 years of age at the time the parties attempt to enter into the marriage, unless the party is 15 years of age and has obtained judicial consent; • Marriage between persons of the same sex; and • Re-marriage to a different spouse before the divorce decree becomes absolute, or in the case of an appeal, before the affirmance of the decree. When there is doubt regarding the validity of a marriage, either party may demand its avoidance or affirmance in a court where either party is domiciled. However, when one of the parties was under the age of consent at the time of the marriage, the other party of proper age may not have cause against the party under age. The court shall either declare the marriage valid or annulled. A marriage may also be annulled for any of the annulment grounds existing at common law. Property Division In all disintegration and separate support activities, the court and judge have purview over the circulation of property. Utah is a fair appropriation state. Thusly, conjugal property will be dispersed reasonably and fairly. The court will incorporate the accompanying in each declaration of separation:

•An request determining which gathering is in charge of the installment of joint obligations, commitments, or liabilities of the gatherings contracted or caused during marriage; •An request requiring the gatherings to advise individual banks or obliges, in regards to the court’s division of obligations, commitments, or liabilities and with respect to the gatherings’ different current locations; •Provisions for the implementation of these requests; and •Provisions for money retaining. At the point when a marriage of long span breaks down on the edge of a noteworthy change in the salary of one of the mates because of the aggregate endeavors of both, that change will be considered in partitioning the conjugal property. On the off chance that one life partner’s gaining limit has been enormously upgraded through the endeavors of the two companions during the marriage, the court may make a remunerating modification in partitioning the conjugal property. Alimony and Support In all dissolution and separate maintenance actions, the court and judge have jurisdiction over the payment of alimony.

When determining alimony, the court shall consider, at a minimum, the following factors: • The financial condition and needs of the requesting spouse; • The requesting spouse’s earning capacity or ability to produce income; • The ability of the paying spouse to provide support; • The length of the marriage; • Whether the requesting spouse has custody of minor children requiring support; • Whether the requesting spouse worked in a business owned or operated by the paying spouse; and • Whether the requesting spouse directly contributed to any increase in the paying spouse’s skill by paying for education received by the paying spouse or allowing the paying spouse to attend school during the marriage. The court may consider the fault of the parties when making its determination regarding alimony. When a marriage of long duration dissolves on the threshold of a major change in the income of one of the spouses due to the collective efforts of both, that change shall be considered in determining the amount of alimony. If one spouse’s earning capacity has been greatly enhanced through the efforts of both spouses during the marriage, the court may make a compensating adjustment in awarding alimony.

In determining alimony when a marriage of short duration dissolves, and no children have been conceived or born during the marriage, the court may consider restoring each party to the condition which existed at the time of the marriage. Alimony may not be ordered for a duration longer than the number of years that the marriage existed unless, at any time prior to termination of alimony, the court finds extenuating circumstances that justify the payment of alimony for a longer period of time. Unless otherwise stated in the divorce decree, any order for payment of alimony to a former spouse automatically ends upon the remarriage or death of that former spouse, unless the remarriage is annulled and found to be void. In that case, alimony shall resume, provided that the paying spouse was made a party to the action of annulment and his/her rights have been determined.

Any order for payment of alimony to a former spouse terminates upon establishment by the paying party that the former spouse is cohabitating with another person. Kid Authority and Backing In all disintegration and separate support activities, the court and judge have locale over the care and upkeep of minor kids. Authority: The court will think about joint authority for each situation, however may grant any type of guardianship which is resolved to be to the greatest advantage of the kid. On the off chance that the court finds that one parent doesn’t want guardianship of the youngster, it will mull over that proof in deciding if to grant authority to the next parent. In deciding if the wellbeing of a youngster will be served by requesting joint lawful or physical guardianship, the court will think about the accompanying components: •Whether the physical, mental and enthusiastic needs and advancement of the kid will profit by joint legitimate or physical care; •The capacity of the guardians to give first need to the welfare of the kid and arrive at shared choices in the youngster’s wellbeing; •Whether each parent is fit for empowering and tolerating a positive connection between the youngster and the other parent, including the sharing of adoration, love and contact between he kid and the other parent; •Whether the two guardians took an interest in bringing up the youngster before the separation; •The topographical vicinity of the homes of the guardians; •The inclination of the kid if the youngster is of adequate age and ability to reason in order to shape a shrewd inclination as to joint lawful or physical care; •The development of the guardians and their readiness and capacity to shield the youngster from struggle that may emerge between the guardians; •The over a significant time span capacity of the guardians to collaborate with one another and settle on choices mutually; •Any history of, or potential for, kid misuse, companion misuse, or seizing; and some other variables the court finds pertinent.

When deciding any type of care, notwithstanding the previously mentioned criteria, the court will think about the eventual benefits of the youngster, the accompanying variables, and any others the court finds significant: •The past direct and exhibited moral benchmarks of every one of the gatherings; •Which parent is well on the way to act to the greatest advantage of the youngster, including permitting the kid regular and proceeding with contact with the non-custodial parent; and •The degree of holding between the parent and youngster, which means the profundity, quality, and nature of the connection between a parent and kid. The court may ask of the youngsters and think about the kids’ wants with respect to future care or parent-time plans yet the communicated wants are not controlling and the court may decide the kids’ authority or parent-time generally. The wants of a kid 16 years old or more seasoned will be given included weight, however isn’the single controlling component. Courses for Guardians of Minor Kids: On the off chance that the Applicant and the Respondent have a kid or kids, an announcement of separation for the most part may not be conceded until the two gatherings have gone to the obligatory instructive course for separating from guardians. This course is intended to instruct and sharpen separating from gatherings to their kids’ needs both during and after the separation procedure. The course will train the two gatherings about the accompanying: •The effects of separation on the child(ren) •The effects of separation on the family relationship •The guardians’ money related duties regarding the child(ren) •That aggressive behavior at home harmfully affects youngsters and family connections. This prerequisite might be postponed if the court decides course participation and fruition are a bit much, suitable, achievable, or to the greatest advantage of the gatherings. There is additionally a compulsory separation direction course for all gatherings with minor kids who record an Appeal for Brief Division or for a Separation. The motivation behind the course is to instruct parties about the separation procedure and sensible options. A Solicitor will go to a separation direction course close to 60 days in the wake of recording an Appeal for Separation. A Respondent will go to close to 30 days in the wake of being presented with the Appeal. The separation direction course will be impartial, fair-minded, in any event one hour in length and incorporate the accompanying: •Options accessible as choices to separate; •Resources accessible from courts and managerial organizations for settling authority and bolster issues without petitioning for legal separation; •Resources accessible to improve or fortify the marriage; •A discourse of the positive and negative outcomes of separation; •A talk of the procedure of separation; •Options accessible for continuing with a separation, including intervention, community oriented law and case; and •A talk of post-separate from assets. Backing: The court will incorporate the accompanying in each declaration of separation: •An request allotting duty regarding the installment of sensible and vital therapeutic and dental costs of the needy youngsters including obligation regarding medical coverage out-of-pocket costs, for example, co-installments, co-protection, and deductibles; •If inclusion is or ends up accessible at a sensible cost, a request requiring the buy and support of proper wellbeing, emergency clinic, and dental consideration protection for the needy youngster and an assignment of which wellbeing, medical clinic or dental protection plan is essential and which wellbeing, emergency clinic, or dental protection plan is optional; •Provisions for the implementation of these requests; and •Provisions for money retaining. In a request deciding youngster support, the court may incorporate a request doling out budgetary obligation regarding all or a bit of kid care costs acquired for the benefit of the needy kids, required in view of the work or preparing of the custodial parent. In the event that the court discovers that the conditions are proper and that the needy youngsters would be satisfactorily thought about, it might incorporate a request permitting the non-custodial parent to give kid care to the reliant kids, required on account of the business or preparing of the custodial parent. Utah utilizes the Pay Offers Model to ascertain kid bolster commitments. The kid bolster commitment table uses the consolidated balanced gross salaries of the two guardians and the quantity of youngsters for whom backing is to be requested. The kind of authority game plan requested (split, sole, or joint physical) is likewise Considered. Legal Separation and Separate Maintenance A Petitioner may file an action for a temporary separation order without filing a Petition for Divorce, by filing a Petition for Temporary Separation and a Motion for Temporary Orders if the spouses are lawfully married and both have been residents of the state for at least 90 days prior to the date of filing.

The temporary orders are valid for one year from the date of the hearing, or until either a Petition for Divorce is filed and consolidated with the temporary separation Petition, or the case is dismissed.

Call Ascent Law LLC For Your Free Consultation

The streamlined and user-friendly process, instant document delivery, and unlimited free support makes us the go-to solution to do your own divorce. Our simple and inexpensive process provides you with all your completed divorce papers in as little as 20 minutes. Instantly access your completed divorce forms after a short online interview. It is that easy, no lengthy completion or delivery times. Never use a “do it yourself (without a lawyer)” solution for any divorce (with or without children) that will be filed in the state of Utah. Doing this can be a huge mistake. An uncontested Utah divorce is one in which you and your spouse are in agreement and eliminates the stress and expense of settling your divorce in court. You should still have a lawyer do it. With you can complete and print your Utah divorce forms (including a marital settlement agreement) instantly. Then, follow our step-by-step filing procedures to file your own divorce in Utah in a timely, professional, and hassle free fashion.

In a legal separation, the parties live separately, but remain spouses legally married to one another. The couple’s rights and duties to one another are set forth in a Decree of Legal Separation, which covers such matters as custody and child support, spousal support, division of property and payment of debts. In Utah, this is referred to as separate maintenance.

The grounds for legal separation are as follows:

1. A party who has sufficient ability to provide support, neglects or refuses to properly provide for and suitably maintain his/her spouse; 2. A party deserts his/her spouse without good and sufficient cause; 3. A party who has property in the state and his/her spouse is a resident of the state, deserts or neglects or refuses to provide support; or 4. A party, without fault, lives separate and apart from his/her spouse.

If a married resident of Utah files a Complaint for Separate Maintenance, the district court may allot, assign, set apart and decree as alimony the use of the real and personal estate or earnings of a deserting spouse as the court may determine appropriate.

Practice and proceeding for actions for separate maintenance shall be the same as near as may be as in actions for divorce; but the action may be brought in any county where the wife or husband may be found.

In all actions for separate maintenance, the court may order the following by order or decree:

• Provide for the care, custody, and maintenance of the minor children of the parties and determine with which of the parties the children or any of them shall remain; • Provide for support of either spouse and the support of the minor children living with that spouse; • Provide how and when support payments shall be made, and provide that either spouse have a lien upon the property of the other to secure payment of the support or maintenance obligations; • Award to either spouse the possession of any real or personal property of the other spouse, or acquired by the spouses during marriage; • Specify which party is responsible for the payment of joint debts, obligations, or liabilities contracted or incurred by the parties during the marriage; • Require the parties to notify respective creditors or obliges regarding the court’s division of debts, obligations, and liabilities and regarding the parties’ separate, current addresses; and • Provide for the enforcement of these orders.

Utah Legal Separation Lawyer Free Consuultation

When you need to get a legal separation in Utah, please call Ascent Law LLC (801) 676-5506 for your Free Consultation. We want to help you.

Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C itemprop=”addressLocality”>West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506

Ascent Law LLC

4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews

Recent Posts

Trust Protector And Dynasty Trusts

How Long Does A Loan Modification Last?

Bankruptcy Lawyer Ogden Utah

Federal Crimes

Real Estate Lawyer Heber City Utah

Is Possession Of A Controlled Substance A Felony In Utah?

from Michael Anderson https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/what-are-the-grounds-for-legal-separation-in-utah/ from Divorce Lawyer Nelson Farms Utah https://divorcelawyernelsonfarmsutah.tumblr.com/post/611473385515630592

[divorcelawyergunnisonutah]

What Are The Grounds For Legal Separation In Utah?

A lawful partition in Utah is designated “separate upkeep – a court will detail the financial help rules and youngster care issues and the division of conjugal property. Couples seeking after a compromise may lean toward this type of partition to separate.

Utah requires wedded couples with kids younger than 18 to go to classes to instruct themselves on separation, and couples without any kids should in any case experience a 90-day holding up period. In addition, wedded couples petitioning for legal separation should likewise go to an intervention session to determine remaining questions before going to preliminary. Petitioning for lawful partition goes around the class prerequisites and the 90-day holding up period. Gatherings are legitimately isolated just when a court enters a pronouncement of independent support. To get a declaration of discrete support in Utah, the gatherings experience an activity like a separation. Separate upkeep partitions property, grants guardianship of kids, and accommodates youngster backing and divorce settlement, however does as such on a brief premise; the declaration of discrete support doesn’t end the marriage. Provision under discrete upkeep is more typical than under a separation order on the grounds that the gatherings are as yet hitched, and the law expects life partners to help each other. When the partition happens, the isolated couple may petition for a separation, which is free of the lawful division. Court and lawyer expenses for legitimate partition and separation are equivalent, however couples looking for a separation after a detachment will wind up paying a similar sum twice. Couples looking for lawful partition must determination issues like that of separation, including youngster guardianship and appearance, splitting property and kid support, and paying obligations. Utah Divorce Basics Separation in Utah is alluded to as Disintegration of Marriage and is led as a common activity, with one gathering, the Applicant, documenting a Request for separation, and the other party being named as a Respondent.

To seek legal separation in Utah, either life partner must be a true blue occupant of the state and more likely than not lived in the province of petitioning for the three months quickly going before initiation of the activity.

The Appeal might be documented in the locale court of the district where either life partner lives. On the off chance that the Solicitor is an individual from the military of the U.S. who are not legitimate occupants of this state, he/she may petition for legal separation on the off chance that he has been positioned in the state for the three months quickly going before the beginning of the activity. No conference for declaration of separation may by and large be held until 90 days have slipped by from the recording of the objection, gave the court may make break arranges that are simply and impartial. The 90-day time frame will not make a difference, in any case, regardless where the two gatherings have finished the obligatory training course for separating from guardians.

In spite of the fact that there are no statutory arrangements for the reclamation of a life partner’s name while separating, either companion may demand that his/her previous name be reestablished on the Appeal and the judge will respect the solicitation.Legal Grounds for Divorce The court may decree a dissolution of marriage for any of the following grounds:

1. Impotency of the Respondent at the time of the marriage; 2. Adultery committed by the Respondent after entering into the marriage; 3. Willful desertion of the Petitioner by the Respondent for more than one year; 4. Willful neglect of the Respondent to provide for the Petitioner the common necessities of life; 5. Habitual drunkenness of the Respondent; 6. Conviction of the Respondent for a felony; 7. Cruel treatment of the Petitioner by the Respondent to the extent of causing bodily injury or great mental distress to the Petitioner; 8. Irreconcilable differences of the marriage; 9. Incurable insanity; or 10. The spouses have lived separately under a decree of separate maintenance of any state for three consecutive years without cohabitation.

To grant a divorce on the ground of insanity, the Respondent must have been adjudged insane by the appropriate authorities of Utah or another state prior to the commencement of the action and the court must find by the testimony of competent witnesses that the Respondent’s insanity is incurable. Annulment The following are prohibited and void marriages and they may be annulled for these causes: • Marriages between parents and children; • Marriages between ancestors and descendants of every degree; • Marriages between brothers and sisters (half or whole); • Marriages between uncles and nieces or aunts and nephews; • Marriages between first cousins (unless both parties are 65 years of age or older, or if both parties are 55 years of age or older, upon a finding by the court that either party is unable to reproduce); • Marriages between any persons related to each other within and not including fifth degree of consanguinity; • When there is a husband or wife living, from whom the person marrying has not been divorced; • Either party is at least 16, but under 18 years of age and has not obtained parental consent; • Either party is under 16 years of age at the time the parties attempt to enter into the marriage, unless the party is 15 years of age and has obtained judicial consent; • Marriage between persons of the same sex; and • Re-marriage to a different spouse before the divorce decree becomes absolute, or in the case of an appeal, before the affirmance of the decree. When there is doubt regarding the validity of a marriage, either party may demand its avoidance or affirmance in a court where either party is domiciled. However, when one of the parties was under the age of consent at the time of the marriage, the other party of proper age may not have cause against the party under age. The court shall either declare the marriage valid or annulled. A marriage may also be annulled for any of the annulment grounds existing at common law. Property Division In all disintegration and separate support activities, the court and judge have purview over the circulation of property. Utah is a fair appropriation state. Thusly, conjugal property will be dispersed reasonably and fairly. The court will incorporate the accompanying in each declaration of separation:

•An request determining which gathering is in charge of the installment of joint obligations, commitments, or liabilities of the gatherings contracted or caused during marriage; •An request requiring the gatherings to advise individual banks or obliges, in regards to the court’s division of obligations, commitments, or liabilities and with respect to the gatherings’ different current locations; •Provisions for the implementation of these requests; and •Provisions for money retaining. At the point when a marriage of long span breaks down on the edge of a noteworthy change in the salary of one of the mates because of the aggregate endeavors of both, that change will be considered in partitioning the conjugal property. On the off chance that one life partner’s gaining limit has been enormously upgraded through the endeavors of the two companions during the marriage, the court may make a remunerating modification in partitioning the conjugal property. Alimony and Support In all dissolution and separate maintenance actions, the court and judge have jurisdiction over the payment of alimony.

When determining alimony, the court shall consider, at a minimum, the following factors: • The financial condition and needs of the requesting spouse; • The requesting spouse’s earning capacity or ability to produce income; • The ability of the paying spouse to provide support; • The length of the marriage; • Whether the requesting spouse has custody of minor children requiring support; • Whether the requesting spouse worked in a business owned or operated by the paying spouse; and • Whether the requesting spouse directly contributed to any increase in the paying spouse’s skill by paying for education received by the paying spouse or allowing the paying spouse to attend school during the marriage. The court may consider the fault of the parties when making its determination regarding alimony. When a marriage of long duration dissolves on the threshold of a major change in the income of one of the spouses due to the collective efforts of both, that change shall be considered in determining the amount of alimony. If one spouse’s earning capacity has been greatly enhanced through the efforts of both spouses during the marriage, the court may make a compensating adjustment in awarding alimony.

In determining alimony when a marriage of short duration dissolves, and no children have been conceived or born during the marriage, the court may consider restoring each party to the condition which existed at the time of the marriage. Alimony may not be ordered for a duration longer than the number of years that the marriage existed unless, at any time prior to termination of alimony, the court finds extenuating circumstances that justify the payment of alimony for a longer period of time. Unless otherwise stated in the divorce decree, any order for payment of alimony to a former spouse automatically ends upon the remarriage or death of that former spouse, unless the remarriage is annulled and found to be void. In that case, alimony shall resume, provided that the paying spouse was made a party to the action of annulment and his/her rights have been determined.

Any order for payment of alimony to a former spouse terminates upon establishment by the paying party that the former spouse is cohabitating with another person. Kid Authority and Backing In all disintegration and separate support activities, the court and judge have locale over the care and upkeep of minor kids. Authority: The court will think about joint authority for each situation, however may grant any type of guardianship which is resolved to be to the greatest advantage of the kid. On the off chance that the court finds that one parent doesn’t want guardianship of the youngster, it will mull over that proof in deciding if to grant authority to the next parent. In deciding if the wellbeing of a youngster will be served by requesting joint lawful or physical guardianship, the court will think about the accompanying components: •Whether the physical, mental and enthusiastic needs and advancement of the kid will profit by joint legitimate or physical care; •The capacity of the guardians to give first need to the welfare of the kid and arrive at shared choices in the youngster’s wellbeing; •Whether each parent is fit for empowering and tolerating a positive connection between the youngster and the other parent, including the sharing of adoration, love and contact between he kid and the other parent; •Whether the two guardians took an interest in bringing up the youngster before the separation; •The topographical vicinity of the homes of the guardians; •The inclination of the kid if the youngster is of adequate age and ability to reason in order to shape a shrewd inclination as to joint lawful or physical care; •The development of the guardians and their readiness and capacity to shield the youngster from struggle that may emerge between the guardians; •The over a significant time span capacity of the guardians to collaborate with one another and settle on choices mutually; •Any history of, or potential for, kid misuse, companion misuse, or seizing; and some other variables the court finds pertinent.

When deciding any type of care, notwithstanding the previously mentioned criteria, the court will think about the eventual benefits of the youngster, the accompanying variables, and any others the court finds significant: •The past direct and exhibited moral benchmarks of every one of the gatherings; •Which parent is well on the way to act to the greatest advantage of the youngster, including permitting the kid regular and proceeding with contact with the non-custodial parent; and •The degree of holding between the parent and youngster, which means the profundity, quality, and nature of the connection between a parent and kid. The court may ask of the youngsters and think about the kids’ wants with respect to future care or parent-time plans yet the communicated wants are not controlling and the court may decide the kids’ authority or parent-time generally. The wants of a kid 16 years old or more seasoned will be given included weight, however isn’the single controlling component. Courses for Guardians of Minor Kids: On the off chance that the Applicant and the Respondent have a kid or kids, an announcement of separation for the most part may not be conceded until the two gatherings have gone to the obligatory instructive course for separating from guardians. This course is intended to instruct and sharpen separating from gatherings to their kids’ needs both during and after the separation procedure. The course will train the two gatherings about the accompanying: •The effects of separation on the child(ren) •The effects of separation on the family relationship •The guardians’ money related duties regarding the child(ren) •That aggressive behavior at home harmfully affects youngsters and family connections. This prerequisite might be postponed if the court decides course participation and fruition are a bit much, suitable, achievable, or to the greatest advantage of the gatherings. There is additionally a compulsory separation direction course for all gatherings with minor kids who record an Appeal for Brief Division or for a Separation. The motivation behind the course is to instruct parties about the separation procedure and sensible options. A Solicitor will go to a separation direction course close to 60 days in the wake of recording an Appeal for Separation. A Respondent will go to close to 30 days in the wake of being presented with the Appeal. The separation direction course will be impartial, fair-minded, in any event one hour in length and incorporate the accompanying: •Options accessible as choices to separate; •Resources accessible from courts and managerial organizations for settling authority and bolster issues without petitioning for legal separation; •Resources accessible to improve or fortify the marriage; •A discourse of the positive and negative outcomes of separation; •A talk of the procedure of separation; •Options accessible for continuing with a separation, including intervention, community oriented law and case; and •A talk of post-separate from assets. Backing: The court will incorporate the accompanying in each declaration of separation: •An request allotting duty regarding the installment of sensible and vital therapeutic and dental costs of the needy youngsters including obligation regarding medical coverage out-of-pocket costs, for example, co-installments, co-protection, and deductibles; •If inclusion is or ends up accessible at a sensible cost, a request requiring the buy and support of proper wellbeing, emergency clinic, and dental consideration protection for the needy youngster and an assignment of which wellbeing, medical clinic or dental protection plan is essential and which wellbeing, emergency clinic, or dental protection plan is optional; •Provisions for the implementation of these requests; and •Provisions for money retaining. In a request deciding youngster support, the court may incorporate a request doling out budgetary obligation regarding all or a bit of kid care costs acquired for the benefit of the needy kids, required in view of the work or preparing of the custodial parent. In the event that the court discovers that the conditions are proper and that the needy youngsters would be satisfactorily thought about, it might incorporate a request permitting the non-custodial parent to give kid care to the reliant kids, required on account of the business or preparing of the custodial parent. Utah utilizes the Pay Offers Model to ascertain kid bolster commitments. The kid bolster commitment table uses the consolidated balanced gross salaries of the two guardians and the quantity of youngsters for whom backing is to be requested. The kind of authority game plan requested (split, sole, or joint physical) is likewise Considered. Legal Separation and Separate Maintenance A Petitioner may file an action for a temporary separation order without filing a Petition for Divorce, by filing a Petition for Temporary Separation and a Motion for Temporary Orders if the spouses are lawfully married and both have been residents of the state for at least 90 days prior to the date of filing.

The temporary orders are valid for one year from the date of the hearing, or until either a Petition for Divorce is filed and consolidated with the temporary separation Petition, or the case is dismissed.

Call Ascent Law LLC For Your Free Consultation

The streamlined and user-friendly process, instant document delivery, and unlimited free support makes us the go-to solution to do your own divorce. Our simple and inexpensive process provides you with all your completed divorce papers in as little as 20 minutes. Instantly access your completed divorce forms after a short online interview. It is that easy, no lengthy completion or delivery times. Never use a “do it yourself (without a lawyer)” solution for any divorce (with or without children) that will be filed in the state of Utah. Doing this can be a huge mistake. An uncontested Utah divorce is one in which you and your spouse are in agreement and eliminates the stress and expense of settling your divorce in court. You should still have a lawyer do it. With you can complete and print your Utah divorce forms (including a marital settlement agreement) instantly. Then, follow our step-by-step filing procedures to file your own divorce in Utah in a timely, professional, and hassle free fashion.

In a legal separation, the parties live separately, but remain spouses legally married to one another. The couple’s rights and duties to one another are set forth in a Decree of Legal Separation, which covers such matters as custody and child support, spousal support, division of property and payment of debts. In Utah, this is referred to as separate maintenance.

The grounds for legal separation are as follows:

1. A party who has sufficient ability to provide support, neglects or refuses to properly provide for and suitably maintain his/her spouse; 2. A party deserts his/her spouse without good and sufficient cause; 3. A party who has property in the state and his/her spouse is a resident of the state, deserts or neglects or refuses to provide support; or 4. A party, without fault, lives separate and apart from his/her spouse.

If a married resident of Utah files a Complaint for Separate Maintenance, the district court may allot, assign, set apart and decree as alimony the use of the real and personal estate or earnings of a deserting spouse as the court may determine appropriate.

Practice and proceeding for actions for separate maintenance shall be the same as near as may be as in actions for divorce; but the action may be brought in any county where the wife or husband may be found.

In all actions for separate maintenance, the court may order the following by order or decree:

• Provide for the care, custody, and maintenance of the minor children of the parties and determine with which of the parties the children or any of them shall remain; • Provide for support of either spouse and the support of the minor children living with that spouse; • Provide how and when support payments shall be made, and provide that either spouse have a lien upon the property of the other to secure payment of the support or maintenance obligations; • Award to either spouse the possession of any real or personal property of the other spouse, or acquired by the spouses during marriage; • Specify which party is responsible for the payment of joint debts, obligations, or liabilities contracted or incurred by the parties during the marriage; • Require the parties to notify respective creditors or obliges regarding the court’s division of debts, obligations, and liabilities and regarding the parties’ separate, current addresses; and • Provide for the enforcement of these orders.

Utah Legal Separation Lawyer Free Consuultation

When you need to get a legal separation in Utah, please call Ascent Law LLC (801) 676-5506 for your Free Consultation. We want to help you.

Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C itemprop=”addressLocality”>West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506

Ascent Law LLC

4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews

Recent Posts

Trust Protector And Dynasty Trusts

How Long Does A Loan Modification Last?

Bankruptcy Lawyer Ogden Utah

Federal Crimes

Real Estate Lawyer Heber City Utah

Is Possession Of A Controlled Substance A Felony In Utah?

from Michael Anderson https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/what-are-the-grounds-for-legal-separation-in-utah/

[aretia]

What Are The Grounds For Legal Separation In Utah?

A lawful partition in Utah is designated “separate upkeep – a court will detail the financial help rules and youngster care issues and the division of conjugal property. Couples seeking after a compromise may lean toward this type of partition to separate.

Utah requires wedded couples with kids younger than 18 to go to classes to instruct themselves on separation, and couples without any kids should in any case experience a 90-day holding up period. In addition, wedded couples petitioning for legal separation should likewise go to an intervention session to determine remaining questions before going to preliminary. Petitioning for lawful partition goes around the class prerequisites and the 90-day holding up period. Gatherings are legitimately isolated just when a court enters a pronouncement of independent support. To get a declaration of discrete support in Utah, the gatherings experience an activity like a separation. Separate upkeep partitions property, grants guardianship of kids, and accommodates youngster backing and divorce settlement, however does as such on a brief premise; the declaration of discrete support doesn’t end the marriage. Provision under discrete upkeep is more typical than under a separation order on the grounds that the gatherings are as yet hitched, and the law expects life partners to help each other. When the partition happens, the isolated couple may petition for a separation, which is free of the lawful division. Court and lawyer expenses for legitimate partition and separation are equivalent, however couples looking for a separation after a detachment will wind up paying a similar sum twice. Couples looking for lawful partition must determination issues like that of separation, including youngster guardianship and appearance, splitting property and kid support, and paying obligations. Utah Divorce Basics Separation in Utah is alluded to as Disintegration of Marriage and is led as a common activity, with one gathering, the Applicant, documenting a Request for separation, and the other party being named as a Respondent.

To seek legal separation in Utah, either life partner must be a true blue occupant of the state and more likely than not lived in the province of petitioning for the three months quickly going before initiation of the activity.

The Appeal might be documented in the locale court of the district where either life partner lives. On the off chance that the Solicitor is an individual from the military of the U.S. who are not legitimate occupants of this state, he/she may petition for legal separation on the off chance that he has been positioned in the state for the three months quickly going before the beginning of the activity. No conference for declaration of separation may by and large be held until 90 days have slipped by from the recording of the objection, gave the court may make break arranges that are simply and impartial. The 90-day time frame will not make a difference, in any case, regardless where the two gatherings have finished the obligatory training course for separating from guardians.

In spite of the fact that there are no statutory arrangements for the reclamation of a life partner’s name while separating, either companion may demand that his/her previous name be reestablished on the Appeal and the judge will respect the solicitation.Legal Grounds for Divorce The court may decree a dissolution of marriage for any of the following grounds:

1. Impotency of the Respondent at the time of the marriage; 2. Adultery committed by the Respondent after entering into the marriage; 3. Willful desertion of the Petitioner by the Respondent for more than one year; 4. Willful neglect of the Respondent to provide for the Petitioner the common necessities of life; 5. Habitual drunkenness of the Respondent; 6. Conviction of the Respondent for a felony; 7. Cruel treatment of the Petitioner by the Respondent to the extent of causing bodily injury or great mental distress to the Petitioner; 8. Irreconcilable differences of the marriage; 9. Incurable insanity; or 10. The spouses have lived separately under a decree of separate maintenance of any state for three consecutive years without cohabitation.

To grant a divorce on the ground of insanity, the Respondent must have been adjudged insane by the appropriate authorities of Utah or another state prior to the commencement of the action and the court must find by the testimony of competent witnesses that the Respondent’s insanity is incurable. Annulment The following are prohibited and void marriages and they may be annulled for these causes: • Marriages between parents and children; • Marriages between ancestors and descendants of every degree; • Marriages between brothers and sisters (half or whole); • Marriages between uncles and nieces or aunts and nephews; • Marriages between first cousins (unless both parties are 65 years of age or older, or if both parties are 55 years of age or older, upon a finding by the court that either party is unable to reproduce); • Marriages between any persons related to each other within and not including fifth degree of consanguinity; • When there is a husband or wife living, from whom the person marrying has not been divorced; • Either party is at least 16, but under 18 years of age and has not obtained parental consent; • Either party is under 16 years of age at the time the parties attempt to enter into the marriage, unless the party is 15 years of age and has obtained judicial consent; • Marriage between persons of the same sex; and • Re-marriage to a different spouse before the divorce decree becomes absolute, or in the case of an appeal, before the affirmance of the decree. When there is doubt regarding the validity of a marriage, either party may demand its avoidance or affirmance in a court where either party is domiciled. However, when one of the parties was under the age of consent at the time of the marriage, the other party of proper age may not have cause against the party under age. The court shall either declare the marriage valid or annulled. A marriage may also be annulled for any of the annulment grounds existing at common law. Property Division In all disintegration and separate support activities, the court and judge have purview over the circulation of property. Utah is a fair appropriation state. Thusly, conjugal property will be dispersed reasonably and fairly. The court will incorporate the accompanying in each declaration of separation:

•An request determining which gathering is in charge of the installment of joint obligations, commitments, or liabilities of the gatherings contracted or caused during marriage; •An request requiring the gatherings to advise individual banks or obliges, in regards to the court’s division of obligations, commitments, or liabilities and with respect to the gatherings’ different current locations; •Provisions for the implementation of these requests; and •Provisions for money retaining. At the point when a marriage of long span breaks down on the edge of a noteworthy change in the salary of one of the mates because of the aggregate endeavors of both, that change will be considered in partitioning the conjugal property. On the off chance that one life partner’s gaining limit has been enormously upgraded through the endeavors of the two companions during the marriage, the court may make a remunerating modification in partitioning the conjugal property. Alimony and Support In all dissolution and separate maintenance actions, the court and judge have jurisdiction over the payment of alimony.

When determining alimony, the court shall consider, at a minimum, the following factors: • The financial condition and needs of the requesting spouse; • The requesting spouse’s earning capacity or ability to produce income; • The ability of the paying spouse to provide support; • The length of the marriage; • Whether the requesting spouse has custody of minor children requiring support; • Whether the requesting spouse worked in a business owned or operated by the paying spouse; and • Whether the requesting spouse directly contributed to any increase in the paying spouse’s skill by paying for education received by the paying spouse or allowing the paying spouse to attend school during the marriage. The court may consider the fault of the parties when making its determination regarding alimony. When a marriage of long duration dissolves on the threshold of a major change in the income of one of the spouses due to the collective efforts of both, that change shall be considered in determining the amount of alimony. If one spouse’s earning capacity has been greatly enhanced through the efforts of both spouses during the marriage, the court may make a compensating adjustment in awarding alimony.

In determining alimony when a marriage of short duration dissolves, and no children have been conceived or born during the marriage, the court may consider restoring each party to the condition which existed at the time of the marriage. Alimony may not be ordered for a duration longer than the number of years that the marriage existed unless, at any time prior to termination of alimony, the court finds extenuating circumstances that justify the payment of alimony for a longer period of time. Unless otherwise stated in the divorce decree, any order for payment of alimony to a former spouse automatically ends upon the remarriage or death of that former spouse, unless the remarriage is annulled and found to be void. In that case, alimony shall resume, provided that the paying spouse was made a party to the action of annulment and his/her rights have been determined.

Any order for payment of alimony to a former spouse terminates upon establishment by the paying party that the former spouse is cohabitating with another person. Kid Authority and Backing In all disintegration and separate support activities, the court and judge have locale over the care and upkeep of minor kids. Authority: The court will think about joint authority for each situation, however may grant any type of guardianship which is resolved to be to the greatest advantage of the kid. On the off chance that the court finds that one parent doesn’t want guardianship of the youngster, it will mull over that proof in deciding if to grant authority to the next parent. In deciding if the wellbeing of a youngster will be served by requesting joint lawful or physical guardianship, the court will think about the accompanying components: •Whether the physical, mental and enthusiastic needs and advancement of the kid will profit by joint legitimate or physical care; •The capacity of the guardians to give first need to the welfare of the kid and arrive at shared choices in the youngster’s wellbeing; •Whether each parent is fit for empowering and tolerating a positive connection between the youngster and the other parent, including the sharing of adoration, love and contact between he kid and the other parent; •Whether the two guardians took an interest in bringing up the youngster before the separation; •The topographical vicinity of the homes of the guardians; •The inclination of the kid if the youngster is of adequate age and ability to reason in order to shape a shrewd inclination as to joint lawful or physical care; •The development of the guardians and their readiness and capacity to shield the youngster from struggle that may emerge between the guardians; •The over a significant time span capacity of the guardians to collaborate with one another and settle on choices mutually; •Any history of, or potential for, kid misuse, companion misuse, or seizing; and some other variables the court finds pertinent.

When deciding any type of care, notwithstanding the previously mentioned criteria, the court will think about the eventual benefits of the youngster, the accompanying variables, and any others the court finds significant: •The past direct and exhibited moral benchmarks of every one of the gatherings; •Which parent is well on the way to act to the greatest advantage of the youngster, including permitting the kid regular and proceeding with contact with the non-custodial parent; and •The degree of holding between the parent and youngster, which means the profundity, quality, and nature of the connection between a parent and kid. The court may ask of the youngsters and think about the kids’ wants with respect to future care or parent-time plans yet the communicated wants are not controlling and the court may decide the kids’ authority or parent-time generally. The wants of a kid 16 years old or more seasoned will be given included weight, however isn’the single controlling component. Courses for Guardians of Minor Kids: On the off chance that the Applicant and the Respondent have a kid or kids, an announcement of separation for the most part may not be conceded until the two gatherings have gone to the obligatory instructive course for separating from guardians. This course is intended to instruct and sharpen separating from gatherings to their kids’ needs both during and after the separation procedure. The course will train the two gatherings about the accompanying: •The effects of separation on the child(ren) •The effects of separation on the family relationship •The guardians’ money related duties regarding the child(ren) •That aggressive behavior at home harmfully affects youngsters and family connections. This prerequisite might be postponed if the court decides course participation and fruition are a bit much, suitable, achievable, or to the greatest advantage of the gatherings. There is additionally a compulsory separation direction course for all gatherings with minor kids who record an Appeal for Brief Division or for a Separation. The motivation behind the course is to instruct parties about the separation procedure and sensible options. A Solicitor will go to a separation direction course close to 60 days in the wake of recording an Appeal for Separation. A Respondent will go to close to 30 days in the wake of being presented with the Appeal. The separation direction course will be impartial, fair-minded, in any event one hour in length and incorporate the accompanying: •Options accessible as choices to separate; •Resources accessible from courts and managerial organizations for settling authority and bolster issues without petitioning for legal separation; •Resources accessible to improve or fortify the marriage; •A discourse of the positive and negative outcomes of separation; •A talk of the procedure of separation; •Options accessible for continuing with a separation, including intervention, community oriented law and case; and •A talk of post-separate from assets. Backing: The court will incorporate the accompanying in each declaration of separation: •An request allotting duty regarding the installment of sensible and vital therapeutic and dental costs of the needy youngsters including obligation regarding medical coverage out-of-pocket costs, for example, co-installments, co-protection, and deductibles; •If inclusion is or ends up accessible at a sensible cost, a request requiring the buy and support of proper wellbeing, emergency clinic, and dental consideration protection for the needy youngster and an assignment of which wellbeing, medical clinic or dental protection plan is essential and which wellbeing, emergency clinic, or dental protection plan is optional; •Provisions for the implementation of these requests; and •Provisions for money retaining. In a request deciding youngster support, the court may incorporate a request doling out budgetary obligation regarding all or a bit of kid care costs acquired for the benefit of the needy kids, required in view of the work or preparing of the custodial parent. In the event that the court discovers that the conditions are proper and that the needy youngsters would be satisfactorily thought about, it might incorporate a request permitting the non-custodial parent to give kid care to the reliant kids, required on account of the business or preparing of the custodial parent. Utah utilizes the Pay Offers Model to ascertain kid bolster commitments. The kid bolster commitment table uses the consolidated balanced gross salaries of the two guardians and the quantity of youngsters for whom backing is to be requested. The kind of authority game plan requested (split, sole, or joint physical) is likewise Considered. Legal Separation and Separate Maintenance A Petitioner may file an action for a temporary separation order without filing a Petition for Divorce, by filing a Petition for Temporary Separation and a Motion for Temporary Orders if the spouses are lawfully married and both have been residents of the state for at least 90 days prior to the date of filing.

The temporary orders are valid for one year from the date of the hearing, or until either a Petition for Divorce is filed and consolidated with the temporary separation Petition, or the case is dismissed.

Call Ascent Law LLC For Your Free Consultation

The streamlined and user-friendly process, instant document delivery, and unlimited free support makes us the go-to solution to do your own divorce. Our simple and inexpensive process provides you with all your completed divorce papers in as little as 20 minutes. Instantly access your completed divorce forms after a short online interview. It is that easy, no lengthy completion or delivery times. Never use a “do it yourself (without a lawyer)” solution for any divorce (with or without children) that will be filed in the state of Utah. Doing this can be a huge mistake. An uncontested Utah divorce is one in which you and your spouse are in agreement and eliminates the stress and expense of settling your divorce in court. You should still have a lawyer do it. With you can complete and print your Utah divorce forms (including a marital settlement agreement) instantly. Then, follow our step-by-step filing procedures to file your own divorce in Utah in a timely, professional, and hassle free fashion.

In a legal separation, the parties live separately, but remain spouses legally married to one another. The couple’s rights and duties to one another are set forth in a Decree of Legal Separation, which covers such matters as custody and child support, spousal support, division of property and payment of debts. In Utah, this is referred to as separate maintenance.

The grounds for legal separation are as follows:

1. A party who has sufficient ability to provide support, neglects or refuses to properly provide for and suitably maintain his/her spouse; 2. A party deserts his/her spouse without good and sufficient cause; 3. A party who has property in the state and his/her spouse is a resident of the state, deserts or neglects or refuses to provide support; or 4. A party, without fault, lives separate and apart from his/her spouse.

If a married resident of Utah files a Complaint for Separate Maintenance, the district court may allot, assign, set apart and decree as alimony the use of the real and personal estate or earnings of a deserting spouse as the court may determine appropriate.

Practice and proceeding for actions for separate maintenance shall be the same as near as may be as in actions for divorce; but the action may be brought in any county where the wife or husband may be found.

In all actions for separate maintenance, the court may order the following by order or decree:

• Provide for the care, custody, and maintenance of the minor children of the parties and determine with which of the parties the children or any of them shall remain; • Provide for support of either spouse and the support of the minor children living with that spouse; • Provide how and when support payments shall be made, and provide that either spouse have a lien upon the property of the other to secure payment of the support or maintenance obligations; • Award to either spouse the possession of any real or personal property of the other spouse, or acquired by the spouses during marriage; • Specify which party is responsible for the payment of joint debts, obligations, or liabilities contracted or incurred by the parties during the marriage; • Require the parties to notify respective creditors or obliges regarding the court’s division of debts, obligations, and liabilities and regarding the parties’ separate, current addresses; and • Provide for the enforcement of these orders.

Utah Legal Separation Lawyer Free Consuultation

When you need to get a legal separation in Utah, please call Ascent Law LLC (801) 676-5506 for your Free Consultation. We want to help you.

Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C <span itemprop=”addressLocality”>West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506

Ascent Law LLC

4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews

Recent Posts

Trust Protector And Dynasty Trusts

How Long Does A Loan Modification Last?

Bankruptcy Lawyer Ogden Utah

Federal Crimes

Real Estate Lawyer Heber City Utah

Is Possession Of A Controlled Substance A Felony In Utah?

Source: https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/what-are-the-grounds-for-legal-separation-in-utah/