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twilitty · 4 years ago

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Moonlit ch.1

This is the first chapter in my new fic Moonlit, it will be posted on Tumblr, ao3, and ffnet. New chapters uploaded every week and a half. Message/comment to be added to my tag list.

3k words

big thank you to my beta reader @effervescentlyirrevocable who has given me the absolute best criticism and helped make this chapter so beautiful :)

Bella moves to Forks Washington, her first week is uneventful. This fic has aged up characters, making them all at entry-college level ages.

Chapter One

My senses are sharper in Forks than they were in Phoenix, I’ve only been here a handful of days yet everything seemed brighter, louder, more alive than my past home. There was something here for me, something that made me feel more alert than I have in years.

The sound of heavy rain slowly pulls me out of my restless sleep, an elbow is thrown across my eyes in an attempt to keep the real world at bay. It’s always raining, the mist layering the ground never abandons its post, and the chilly air seemingly lasts indefinitely. The rainy town of Forks Washington sooner resembles my personal hell than it does a sleepy old town. The forest that borders the town at each cardinal point is layered in green moss, damp dirt, and an endless supply of fresh animal tracks. I’d moved to Forks only a week ago, the sum of which was spent unpacking dreadfully thin clothing and acquainting myself with the few stores and public access areas the town has to offer.

My father, Charlie, has had little to do with this process apart from moral support and the occasional bag of fast food that he’s picked up while on shift. Charlie is the town's police chief, a job that both seems ill-needed and also unbearably boring. How much crime can be committed in a town of fewer than ten thousand citizens? Other than the odd tag on a school building or bush party, what does his shift consist of? I have yet to bring my insulting opinions on his career to his attention, and likely will never do so. He’s a good man with a heart of gold and a passion for the judicial system, which is ever-present in his TV browsing as he cruises through endless episodes of Law & Order.

I’m not a big TV person, even back home in Phoenix, I preferred reading to the television. Perhaps this was related to my mother’s endless stack of yoga DVD’s that seemed to consume our viewing; her in a downward dog position gossiping about her latest advancements at her newest club membership, me sitting on the couch finishing a craft for her so she won’t be late submitting it. My favourite of her crafts was embroidery, one month I embroidered nearly two hundred dandelions on a pair of jeans for her. She gave them to the club administrator as an apology before she quit.

Regardless, at night when the TV is blaring the intro theme to a cop show, I am curled in bed with a book under my nose and headphones in my ears. Blocking out the rain is a full-time chore.

This morning is a particularly eventful morning, not because of any specific events, but rather the events that will be set into motion because of this morning. Today is the first day of my online college courses. I’m currently enrolled in an undeclared major. My hope is that the three courses I’m taking this spring term will help me decide on what I want to do in the future.

Charlie had given me a new laptop upon my arrival in Forks, a current model with modest upgrades to “enhance my academic experience”. Or at least that’s what the box boasted. I am not entirely convinced that a larger memory will miraculously cure me of my educational despise. High school was tortuous, I had few friends and fewer interests outside of my mother’s hobbies. I had no extra-curricular activities that were not synonymous with financial responsibilities. The monthly budget book was mine to care for, as was the constant, intrusive phone calls of the bank when my mother got too engaged in a store. She’s a gullible woman if nothing else. If a store clerk tells her a blouse suits her figure, she’ll purchase ten colours in the article along with two in a size lower just in case she finally loses the ten pounds she’s been trying to shed.

My eyes have barely opened, the down of my forearm just a fraction away from my pupil when Charlie pounds against my door. You’d imagine I was fostering a fugitive in here with the noise he’s making, but this is just the way my father is, loud noises and soft voices. I wonder, idly, if perhaps he has minor hearing loss from spending so much time around guns.

“I’m up!” I call out, my voice is thin and calloused with morning sleep. I clear my throat as the knocking cuts off, “Good morning, Dad.” Charlie doesn’t like me calling him Charlie.

“Morning, Bells,” he calls back through the door, quiet enough to not be taken as aggressive yet loud enough to sound authoritative. He is a father, my father, at heart. He pauses, and it’s as if I can hear the mental gears shifting in his mind. He hasn’t had to be a father since I was a baby, after that Renee was the parent. Charlie was the summer distraction. “Don’t be late for school.” I grunt a response, reaching for the alarm clock on my nightstand and groaning at the early hour of the morning. Barely eight, class doesn’t officially start until noon. I guess there’s nothing wrong with logging in early, although I’d much rather catch up on the sleep I’ve lost to the thunderous storms we’ve been experiencing recently.

As if he could sense my intentions, Charlie knocks against my door again. “Bella, I mean it. You didn’t come here to slack off, now.” No, I think nastily, I came here for peace and quiet.

Between unpacking my belongings and touring the town, I’ve developed a routine in my new living situation. Charlie is fond of my company, enjoying having a woman in the house outside of his ex-wife, my mother and ex-roommate. Although, his fondness of my presence does not directly translate to time spent together. He makes me breakfast, occasionally placing it in the oven to keep warm, and then immediately heads off to his family that is the Forks police station. We meet again for lunch, depending on our individual plans for the day, and then reunite again just in time for dinner. Food really is the great American pastime.

I dress in jeans and a light blue sweater that smells mysteriously of mildew although it’s a recent purchase and has yet to be worn outdoors. I suppose the rain permeates every available space, closed windows be damned. My socks are tall and I have to roll my jeans up at the bottoms to accommodate for the thick, high fabric of them. It’s a trick Charlie taught me for wearing rain boots, the higher the socks the less likely they are to run down to your toes as you walk. Immediately after that trick was taught I went to the nearest hiking store and purchased a pair of rain boots. My first pair of rain boots at nineteen years of age. Unfathomable yet ironic considering my lineage marks back to the wettest town in the continental US. My ancestors roll in their graves every time I step outdoors and forget a jacket or umbrella, I’m sure of it.

Charlie is waiting for me downstairs, both a surprise and unwelcome presence. I had a battered copy of Dorian Gray under my arm, I was expecting philosophy and moral ambiguity, not idle conversation. Before the chief notices my book, I slide it over the back of the couch and enter the kitchen with a polite smile. There’s bacon frying on the stovetop, the police chief is dressed in uniform already, but has a stained white apron tied around his neck. “Dad?”

“Oh,” he turns around and gives me a tight smile, “Excited for your big day?” You’d imagine it’s my first day of preschool with the amount of enthusiasm he’s trying to keep hidden from me, not my first day of online school. I don’t say anything to dampen his mood, I’m glad he’s excited about something. His life is repetitive, if my existence here proves to be no more useful than just disrupting his schedule, it will still be a success.

“Yeah, I guess.” He turns back to the bacon and shifts it around quickly, the grease snapping up at him. If it burns him he doesn’t show it, just maintains the stiff-backed posture of a respectable police officer cooking his daughter breakfast. “I’ve gotta ask, what’s up with the apron?” I stifle a giggle behind a bite of the toast that’s sitting in the middle of the small table. He shakes his head in faux annoyance.

Charlie takes the pan off the hot element, sliding the bacon onto two plates and pouring the grease into an open can. The second trick he taught me since arriving here: never pour grease down the drain.

“I’m in uniform, it would be disrespectful to the badge to stain it.” He slides a plate of bacon in front of me, sitting down in his designated seat across the table. “Besides,” he takes a sip of coffee from his to-go mug. “Can you imagine walking into a police station smelling of fried pig?”

Breakfast ends quickly. We each eat a piece of toast, Charlie stuffing a second piece into a plastic bag “for later” and heading out the door. I still have half a plate of bacon in front of me after he leaves, the maple glaze filling the small kitchen with its smell.

After my Mom and Charlie got married, Renee redecorated much of the house. Her lace curtains still hang in the master bedroom window, constantly drawn closed. The rest of the house has been minorly updated with age, the TV got bigger, the couch more comfortable, new bed linens and even newer rocking chairs on the porch. I had asked Charlie if they were Moms when I first came up to the house a week ago.

They were rocking gently in the wind, the wood seemed to be polished as it shined in what little light filtered through the depressive clouds. They were sitting side by side, matching pillows on them both, a coffee table in the middle with a stack of coasters. It was an old person's porch, where husband and wife would sit all grey and wrinkled, waving at the neighbourhood kids as the bus dropped them off from school. I could almost picture Charlie and Renee sitting there, her knitting a scarf and him content to just watch her and the scenery.

He informed me that they were relatively new, a purchase from a shop down on the Reservation. We haven’t spoken about them since, but I wonder if perhaps he wishes he had someone to sit out there with him.

I spend the morning before class doing odd chores around the house. It’s nice living at Charlie’s, nicer than I had expected it to be. I’m not a fan of the weather or the fact that I currently have no social life, but it’s nice to just sit. I throw my laundry in the wash and manage to get the kitchen cleaned up with just enough time left over to sit on the couch and read a chapter of my book before class.

School has never been my strong suit. That’s not to say I get poor marks or intentionally skip classes, I just never found it as fulfilling as my peers seemed to. I never woke up and looked forward to the social or academic aspect of high school. Perhaps this contributed to me postponing my college experience and only starting it now when I should already be a year into my program.

When I log into my schools online database and click on my first class, Social Psychology 1001, I’m immediately transported to a screen filled with windows and the faces of my classmates. “Hello, class!” The professor's voice calls out over my computer. Perhaps online school won’t be my strong suit either.

Class ends and the next one starts, and I get through all three classes and an hour's worth of homework by the time Charlie pops in for dinner.

“Hey, Bells,” He calls as he opens the front door. I can hear him from where I sit in the kitchen, hanging his gun belt up by the front door and kicking his boots off into a heap on the floor. I imagine Mom back in Phoenix, walking into the house with arms full of bags and tossing her flip flops onto her pile of shoes beside the coatrack she used for purses. Some things won’t ever change.

“How was work?” I ask. He pauses to poke his head into the kitchen, moustache moving as he chews on his lip. I can’t remember when Charlie initially grew out his moustache, just that one summer I arrived and thought could he look more like a cop?

“Good, good, just some meetings. New family moving into town, all foster kids around your age.” He takes pause, staring off into some middle ground in the hallway as if deep in thought. His eyebrows furrow, “Don’t want any trouble makers coming in, but the father seems nice. Respectable.”

“That’s nice,” I contribute conversationally. Charlie and I rarely have material conversations, always just idle talk of the weather or what's for dinner. I’m not entirely sure how to approach this topic, which clearly seems to be occupying his mind.

“Yeah, he’s a doctor.” He grins at this, toothy and a little crooked to the right side. A pang of embarrassment settles in my chest before he speaks, as if knowing where this will turn. “Perfect for you, considering how often your clumsiness-” I wave a hand over my face, grimacing at his words. “Don’t speak it into existence,” I mutter with a half-hearted plea underlying my words. He chuckles, disappearing up the stairs.

I hear the shower turn on after a few minutes of him fumbling around, presumably trying to get undressed. I’m sure once he’s showered and in sweatpants it’ll be twenty questions about my day of school. I’m not sure I have the heart to break the truth to him: it absolutely sucked.

The material was interesting enough, psychology has always been close to my heart. I loved the idea of people being more than their actions and thoughts, that there was something making them say that or something making them act that way. Perhaps this was yet another symptom of having Renee for a mother.

I sit at the kitchen table for a moment longer, my computer is closed in front of me and my pencil case- dreadfully unnecessary with school being online-sits closed and untouched. I haven’t made any friends in my classes, not that I had expected to. Twelve years of public school and no friend group to show for it, just a few texts every couple of weeks. Why would I have believed college, and an online college at that, would be any better?

Having enough with my thoughts, I get up from the table and pack my things into my bag. I’ve completed enough work for today, the rest of the evening I’ll spend either with Charlie or in my room. I’d rather not be nose deep in pdf textbooks and youtube videos constituting as follow-up lectures, I’ve had enough of that today. As if sensing the immediacy of my departure from the kitchen, the shower cuts off and I hear the bathroom door squeak open. For a man who, until recently, lived alone with too much free time, you’d imagine he’d have taken better care of the house. Nearly every door, except my own, creaks open and closed. I made sure to oil my hinges nearly immediately after moving in, I didn’t want Charlie to wake up every time I sneak downstairs for a comfort snack or warm glass of milk to help me sleep. He’s lived alone for nearly twenty years, he doesn’t need his sleep schedule disrupted now.

“The game is on in-” Charlie pauses as if double-checking the times mentally, “- an hour and a half. Are you interested?” He’s calling from up the stairs. I wonder if he truly wants me to watch the game with him, whatever sport it may be, or if he’s only being polite.

“Uh, I was just going to organize my room right now and then maybe make something for dinner,” I say in response. The floors don’t make a noise and I know he’s heard me, but he doesn’t respond. A lump forms in my throat, perhaps he really did want to watch with me.

“That’s fine, but if you want we can order in?” The lump passes and I convince myself that there is no reason to avoid the TV. It’s not like I’ll be a disruption, if I get bored I can read on the couch. I’ve only watched TV with Charlie on a few occasions since my move here, and each time I strategically saved my questions for the commercial breaks.

“Sure! That works.” The floorboards creak and I hear him retreat into his room, the door closing with a pitiful squeak.

We eat pizza on the couch, a large meat-lover for the carnivorous father and a small vegetarian with extra mushrooms for the daughter who cares about her cardiovascular health. We eat slowly, occasionally Charlie will make a face at the television or mumble something under his breath, but other than that we’re quiet. The sport turns out to be baseball and I recall a few of the basic rules from the tragic gym classes of my past. It’s not disastrous in any way, and surprisingly I don’t get bored. There is something relaxing about the repetitive nature of the game.

After the game ends we box up the remaining slices and put them in the fridge to be eaten tomorrow, say good night, and go our separate ways at the top of the stairs.

taglist:

@musingsofvenus @maybesandohnos

#twilight #edward cullen #bella swan #jasper #the twilight saga #carlisle #twilight saga #smeyer #2008 #twilight renaissance #bella/jacob #jacob/bella #jacobxbella #bellaxjacob #fanfic #fanfiction #twilight fanfic #mine

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druid-for-hire · 5 years ago

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new Hadestown au, ICARUS!ORPHEUS, wherein orpheus is not the world’s greatest musician but rather the world’s greatest inventor/mechanic/tinkerer. his creations are wondrous and beautiful and a miracle. Orpheus his mission is to create something that will repair the world--take what’s broken, make it whole.

Orpheus is still very much an artist--only his art in this AU is visual instead of auditory. and he’s still poor! not everything he makes is immediately useful for survival and y’know, hardly anyone has the money to buy things, and he has a propensity to just. give things away, especially the smaller trinkets he makes. and they take a Long Time to make. so he still works at hermes’ bar

SO!!!

this orpheus is body pain solidarity KDSKFJH

he has a fucked up back from all the heavy lifting he does around the workshop, being hunched over while he works on stuff, and being stuck in weird positions for extended periods of time when he’s working on machines and whatever, especially the bigger ones

also he’s got a wrist brace

he has a set of gear he wears a lot especially when he’s in his workshop

1) his wing pack! he built it himself and he’s proud. the pack was also made to help with his back problems. he doesn’t wear his mechanic gear when he’s working at the bar, but sometimes he’ll leave the wings on because back hurty. also, following w icarus, the wings are kept smooth & together and waterproofed w wax, kinda like a gloss. he reapplies every so often

2) his goggles! every part about the design is impractical (the red lenses and the beak) but i like them. they protect his eyes from flying bits and sparks and sawdust etc. when he’s working and wind when he’s flying

3) his boots! they’re sturdy workin’ boots, and have a talon function to clasp onto and lift things up. especially useful for moving bigger things around the workshop, up to higher levels and what have you, and he gets to flit around the whole space with minimal usage of ladders. (yes, they’re inspired by Vulture’s boots from Spider-Man: Homecoming)

(ALSO. the model of his wings are white crow wings, bc of the myth of Coronis)

because in greek mythology, crows started out white and had beautiful voices and the reason they turned black and got croaky calls is because a crow had to tell Apollo that his lover, Coronis, left him to marry a mortal

and Apollo got so upset he burned the crow and then burned Coronis to death, or burned the crow and then turned Coronis into a crow, depending on the version

(thanks to @princessponies81 for helping me figure this bit out)

so there are some... parallels here

also, IIRC crow wings are elliptical-type wings, meaning they’re good for a lot of control and maneuverability in tight spaces. good for the workshop

also he makes automata too! he has this little mockingbird to help him around the workshop. lots of calls for lots of signals, like how a car will have diff beep signals for low gas or parking brake on or door left open or key left in etc... little bird can measure and alert for lots of things

he’s also less noodle-y than canon orpheus because of how much he uses his arms and legs doing lifting, work, and flying

he’s not like. Built or anything. but hes got some strength to him

he doesn’t just make really good machines either; he’s absolutely as skilled in fine, delicate things as much as the big pieces—he sees the details himself, has to make it himself, he’s as skilled in silversmithy or goldsmithy as he is in mechanics, and i imagine he has skills in metallurgy too. maybe even a bit of glassblowing? just for piece assembly. all his pieces will fit most perfectly if he makes them himself

things like the Silver Swan automaton (i’d link a video but external links are illegal on tumblr)

also... i don’t know if they manage to get married this time, but they at least get the wedding bands

lover, tell me, if you can--who’s gonna make the wedding bands?

@supercantaloupe: the river gonna give us the wedding bands -- he draws the mineral, the stones from the silt, and crafts them himself

SO, he charms eurydice with one (or many) of his dazzling creations that also have usages in practicality and survival

as is the youzhe, she leaves when he gets to obsessive with working on something, holed up in his workshop instead of like. Surviving the winter

they last longer into the winter this time though because again, he does have a couple of machines good for tiding over the winter and surviving, and eurydice can operate them. but he’s too caught up with creating something to fix the world to repair them when they break down

when he leaves, he leaves his mockingbird to take care of his workshop while he’s gone. make sure there’s not leaks or fires, etc., keep everything in working order

the trip to hadestown still takes a long time, but less time than in canon, given that orpheus gets there on a pair of wings, though he gets grounded plenty of times due to bad weather. plus, his wings aren’t really meant for long-distance

so in the end the time still matches up; the events underground still happen on the onset of proper spring

he sails over the wall of the Styx on his wings, but it’s a feat easier said than done; it really is high and wide, just... hundreds of feet tall, and i headcanon that the “wall” is in fact seven layers of fortification because some myths say the River Styx wraps around the underworld seven times

and he is not a high altitude flier

uhhhhhhhhh blah blah something something ... i’m not clear on all the details but here are a few things:

orpheus gets the shit kicked out of him in Papers as usual and the fates hold his wings over him instead of his guitar

i have no idea how If It’s True goes

SOMEWHERE there’s Hey Little Songbird II (thank you to @supercantaloupe for authoring this idea);

it's Hades to Orpheus this time. Ironic, as he sings and flies, a real songbird.

and orpheus, that inspired inventor, that mechanic, that engineer, blessed by Hephaestus himself, being tempted to stay. It's a marvel of engineering, those factories. But they're rough around the edges, dirty, inefficient, unrefined. Imagine all the work he could do. Imagine how grand it would be, with just his help. And imagine how much fun it would be to fix it all!

but since he's fallen in love - and lost her once already - he has to pause and think. it's too good to be true, isn't it? Is it true? Can he really stay here forever, with parts and tools and endless projects worthy of his skill and attention - at least, without her?

ok back to me writing stuffs

there is no Epic I / Epic II / Epic III; the titles are now Trial I / Trial II / Trial III, like trial runs of prototypes, and on the third one it has a double meaning as a trial of judgement

Trial III goes as such:

(and thank you to @ferretteeth for this)

Hades orders him to build. An impressive invention in turn for his life – a chance he gives only because his wife is smitten with interest.

Orpheus gets three days and no more, and when he is finally ordered to come before the throne of basalt and steel he brings his invention. And Hades gives a curt, mocking laugh, because all Orpheus has in his hands is a simple box of bronze, cheap and adorably human.

He almost orders for Orpheus' death the moment he sees it, but then the boy lifts the lid and reveals a mechanical flower. Petals made out of metal rusted rosy, nectar of flecks of fool's gold.

Delicate and beautiful; extremely finely spun, as if the metal were only woven fibers. It is as soft as any silk.

"Where did you get that," the king snaps in a hurry. "How did you know–"

And then, with the twist of a key, the invention reveals to be a music box and long lost chords fill the Underworld.

(i originally had the idea that he builds a planetarium that replicates the summer above, a caught snippet of the thing that hades could never make on a large scale. a beautiful thing with flowers that blossomed and played the old song as hades brushed his hands across them, sun above. but i figured it’s probably more in line with the sensibilities of Hadestown if orpheus had created something less... grand)

so eurydice and orpheus are granted their chance to leave.

i’m not sure what the test is, because he’s got to fly out with eurydice clutched in his talons, and i want him to be as much a victim of his doubt as in canon

but he has to follow this flight path with absolute perfection, down to the flap. you fly too high, the flames of hadestown will catch him. he flies too low, the flames of hadestown will catch her.

i think, in his paranoia, he flies too high, and his wings catch fire

his wings are on fire--his arms are strapped in to them. he’s burning up. he’s burning.

he’s slowing down in his ascent. in a moment, he knows that if they’re going to make it, it’ll only be one of them, and... he’s not going to drop eurydice. he can’t do that to her.

when his wings can no longer climb, he throws her the final distance to the surface. she turns around and reaches desperately for him, but he’s too far away.

he falls. a comet.

he breaks.

the fact is, he dies

but he dies in hadestown. so now he’s just... well, one, no chance of going back aboveground. two, now he’s... sitting at the bottom of that long climb, broken and in pain, surrounded by the charred skeleton of his wings, broken and burned feathers, drips of melted oil and wax, and blood

he’s... there for a long time, just suffering, before someone comes to see if they made it out, and finds him at the bottom

hades sees this as an opportunity to bring him back, let him heal, and put him onto projects, perhaps “to get your mind off of it all,” but. orpheus doesn’t want to work. he doesn’t want to do anything

thanks to supercanteloupe again for co-authoring this section:

Hades says he'll squander his god given talents to just sit around all day but Orpheus won't listen

hades has just zero fucking clue how to deal with a depressed human

"have I not given him all he could want, metal, tools, a workbench? Bed, bread, fire? Strength in his bones? And yet he refuses still? The boy must be mad," he cries, angry

@s-aint-elmo: "i got a new mechanist"

“you ruined a perfectly good talented young man is what you did. look at him, he's got depression"

persephone herself is a mess (less so after Trial III) but she has at least some sense—she is more in touch with mortals than him, spending time with them up on the surface and throwing revels, but also greeting those who lost their lovers/sisters/brothers/mothers/fathers in the winter before

persephone encouraging orpheus to build, not for her sake or for Hades', but for his own. little flowers, little birds, wind up toys and music boxes. something to keep him going

s-aint-elmo: she brings him pressed flowers from the surface, little trinkets, tokens of the green. orpheus only lets the first few wilt and rot at the corner of his table.

flowers bloom until they rot and fall apart

it's a sad, painful reminder

he eventually has the resolve to rebuild his wing pack—better this time, because really, he feels crippled without them after living w em for so long

edit: (and the feathers are black, a la the crow myth)

when hades first sees him like, passing by w wings on his back, he turns to persephone like “what have you been saying to him?” “only what he needs to hear, husband”

he has a great fear of actually getting off the ground at first, though

he’ll perch at the edge of a rooftop, but... doesn’t move. it’s a leap of faith he doesn’t feel like he can take

he always saw air as just a medium to move through, that it would support him, as easy as swimming

now he sees straight through it to the ground

he has burn scars across the entire back of his arms, hands, and fingers

it’s a reminder every time he gets to working

rough patchy skin. calloused fingers from work

big sigh

eurydice goes home.

there is the empty shell of his workshop. his many machines and trinkets and tools and his hundreds of unfinisheds and thousands of scraps of plans, and… his bird left to care for the shop after god knows how many weeks or months.

it flies down and greets her, some string of whistles and beeps she only half understands. then it asks for orpheus

she tells it that he fell; he’s not coming back, it’s too late

the bird sticks by her from there on out, the last “living” remnant of her lover, besides his shell of a workshop

ok i haven’t thought farther than this, please have fun with this au i think it’s a new favorite alongside Unswayed AU & Apartments AU

#icarus orpheus au #hadestown #hadestown au #hadestown fanart #my art

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spectralscathath · 4 years ago

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R.O.S.E-6: The Personal Recordings of Dr Shell.

A marvel like R.O.S.E-6 doesn’t come naturally. It takes time, work, and failed attempts. Dr Shell documented all of them.

warning: mentions of miscarriage (nothing explicit)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“This is Dr Victoria Shell, lead scientist on the R.O.S.E project.” Victoria talked into her recorder as she looked over the blueprints laid before her, all the notes given to her at the ready and an ample supply of material she could turn into this proposed android. “I have compiled all of Dr Polendina’s and Dr Watts’s notes on aura and prosthetic construction in order to streamline the process. Summer Rose agreed to donate a sample of her genetic material, which we will be attempting to infuse into this creation in order to access the Silverlight Mrs Rose can produce.”

She set her recorder to the side, rolling on her gloves. “Let’s begin.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No one was expecting immediate results with this. However, Victoria held herself to higher standards then the rest of the scientific cohort she had to put up with.

“Damn it all,” she scowled, jotting down a note to add exhaust vents for heat, and anything she could think of to aid the robot in successfully hosting an aura. This was the first one that managed to have even a partial transfer of aura, but even then...

“Attempt 1 of bonding aura to R.O.S.E-1 failed entirely.” She found her fire extinguisher, turning it on the lump of burning metal and synthetic skin. “Memo to me, investigate into aura-friendly materials for the next bot.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The second time was more promising. This time, the android opened its eyes.

Once she had determined that sensory processing and motor functions were in place, she allowed General Ironwood and his chosen carer for the bot to enter. “Alright. Preliminary testing seems to be running smoothly. The aura hasn’t been rejected yet, but we’ll be keeping an eye on the subject to make sure. If you want to try conversing, you’re free to. It responds to audiovisual stimuli.” If she didn’t know better she’d say the thing was curious.

Xiao Long strode by, moving to sit down on the chair beside the laboratory table, the android sitting with perfect posture and straight legs, the entire skeleton made of silver and black metal. Glowing pink lines of energy wove throughout the internal circuitry, pulsing gently with each blink of silver eyes.

Those same eyes focused intently on Xiao Long as he sat down, the robot blinking at him inquisitively, but without any fear. Of course there was no fear. It wasn’t real enough for complex emotions like that.

“Hi,” Xiao Long talked to it, resting his hand on the lab table. “Welcome to the world, Ruby.”

Victoria raised a brow and glanced at General Ironwood. “‘Ruby’?”

Ironwood smiled, a touch of grief in his eyes. “They would have called their daughter Ruby.”

“That’s not what I was asking.” Why were they naming it? It was a tool, a weapon- ah. Right. The famed Huntsman tradition of named weaponry. That made sense. “But I understand.” If Xiao Long wanted to name a weapon after a miscarried foetus then he was welcome to. Victoria was going to do her job.

The robot surprised her, however, the voicebox crackling to life in its throat. “... uuu-beee?”

Xiao Long’s face lit up. “Yes! That’s right, you’re Ruby.” He grabbed its metal hand, carefully. “I’m your dad. It’s great to meet you.”

“Voicebox seems to work well,” Victoria noted. “Appears to be able to roughly mimic other sounds.”

“She’s learning,” Ironwood sounded awed. “Dr Shell, this is incredible! She’s incredible.” His grin broadened. “A protector with a soul. Can you imagine it?”

She raised a brow. A soul? Technically, she supposed. “Don’t get too attached, sir. It’s still in the prototype stages.” Still, she allowed herself some satisfaction as her creation tried to mimic Xiao Long’s hand gestures as he held up a hand, placing its other palm against his and badly copying a smile as it managed the simple task.

So it could learn. That would be useful in the future.

But the future came too quickly. Soon enough, the ambulatory functions and speech patterns began to shut down, the robot’s eyes going vacant more and more often as the pink lines of energy that wove through its circuitry began to flicker and die, like an aura quickly approaching breakage levels.

One day, after speech had slowed to near-incomprehensible levels, and the robot had been unable to do anything more than blink, the light in those lines was gone. Xiao Long sobbed beside the laboratory table, until Victoria was able to find Ironwood and get him to shoo the other man out.

She truly didn’t get the fuss, it wasn’t like the robot could die. That was something living things did. Besides, this was an opportunity to rebuild, better than before. Now that she knew this was possible, she could improve.

She flicked on her recorder, speaking into it as she looked upon the empty shell of new potential, Xiao Long’s tears having left small droplets on the lab table. “R.O.S.E-2 showed promise, but the aura was unable to remain stabilised without a living host. However, this shows that we are getting closer to a more suitable recipient vessel.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attempt three was damn near perfect. She’d managed to make synthetic skin to cover the skull, all the way down to the shoulders, after a note had come back from some of the other scientists about how the bare metallic skeleton had looked creepy.

It seemed to work, apparently. Xiao Long had even taken to dressing it up.

R.O.S.E-3 lasted a few months, without any of the side effects that had been a hassle with R.O.S.E-2. Xiao Long got to take this one home, and introduce it to his daughter. Ironwood brought it to meet his trio of Ace Operatives, and they all found it impressive.

It was impressive indeed.

It was also completely incapable of being muted. Victoria was definitely going to install a mute button into any further models.

“So then dad and Mr Ironwood took me out into the park, can you believe it?” R.O.S.E-3 babbled incessantly as Victoria opened up the plate on the back of its head, checking to make sure everything was in working order. “I got to see snow, it was so amazing and pretty! They said it’s ‘cold’, do you know what ‘cold’ is, Dr Shell?”

“Yes, cold is a lowered temperature, caused by less kinetic energy in molecules which generates a lower amount of thermal energy.” She replied absently, adjusting a few wires to check the motor reflexes. The robot’s hand spasmed in answer. Good. “Cold tends to be subjective to people, and it’s common for endothermic reactions to feel cold as well.”

“Can I feel what cold is?” The android asked curiously, Victoria slotting the headplate back in and activating her semblance, drawing her fingertip over the boundaries of the seam as Cleave adhered the metal back together, repeating the process with the skin section that she’d cleaved off for access.

“Why would you want to feel that?” Temperature receptors would be so finicky to put in. “You have pressure sensors,” of the same standard as those in prosthetics. “That’s enough.”

“But- I’d love to know what wA R M H U G S F Eel like!” The robot’s voice wavered for a second, the sound converting into square waves as Victoria plugged a wire into the data port that rested in the android’s nape. This was the most important part of every check-up, as it allowed Victoria to download all of the robot’s memory files and back them up. It meant that every rebuild wouldn’t have to involve the drudgery of relearning basic things like walking and talking each time.

“I’ll consider it.” She should also consider weaponry for the next update. After all, the Silverlight was still, unfortunately, dormant. Until the damn bot managed to get that working, ordinary weaponry would have to fill in the slot.

“Really?” R.O.S.E-3 beamed, the alertness in its eyes phasing out for a moment as Victoria checked that the download was finished and unplugged the wire.

“Yes, yes,” she checked her scroll, checking to make sure that the data was being stored on her personal servers. She’d review them later and transfer them into the memory bank drives. “Now get out, you’re done here.”

“Thank you thank you thank you!” The android hopped off the table and hugged her tight, but not enough to injure her.

Victoria stayed stiff as a board, clearing her throat. “What are you doing, R.O.S.E-3?”

“Thank you for considering it. I really really want to know what things feel like.” Those big silvery eyes looked up at her, the android smiling with a simple-minded naivete.

“Stop hugging me,” Victoria ordered.

“Sorry, mother,” it smiled and let go, and Victoria stared at the robot, aghast.

“... What did you call me?” How dare it call her that? Someone had messed up programming a mind into this incarnation, clearly, and she was going to fire them.

“Mother?” The robot tilted its head. “Did I… do something wrong?”

Victoria schooled her expression into something calm and clinical, not wanting to scare the robot and cause a panic. It was still a robot, after all. One being programmed for combat capabilities. She refused to be murdered by her own creation.

“Of course you did, ROSE-3. I’m not your mother, and you shouldn’t see that sort of affection with me.” She affected a concerned expression, knowing that the robot was sensitive to the emotional displays of others. “Is your designated family not showing you the right level of care? I can have you reassigned if you want a proper mother.”

“No- wait!” The robot’s face screwed up in despair. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it! Don’t take me away from the Xiao Longs! Please? I love them.”

She tutted. “Robots don’t love.”

“But I-” The android floundered, hands curling in fabric of the long sweater they wore, a pastel monstrosity that only Ederne could have given it. “I didn’t mean to do anything wrong…”

“I know you didn’t.’ She kept her voice soft, as though she was actually addressing a person. “I’ll allow you to stay with them, but you need to keep quiet about all of this, alright? You don’t want them to know how bad of a mistake you made.”

The robot looked like it was going to cry, which was impossible. Victoria didn’t install anything that could work as tear ducts. “I’m sorry.”

“I know. Now run along. The general wants to see your progress.” Victoria had some calculations to do on that weaponry.

“I- oh. Okay.” The android hopped from foot to foot, and it still looked too much like a robot from the shoulders down. Victoria would rebuild it better next time. Make it look more humanoid. Add hair, maybe. That would definitely help the illusion of realism. After all, it was meant to be perfectly disguised as one of them.

“Run along.” She ordered, watching the robot bolt. Hm. Still clumsy. They’d have to better calibrate the next body with better proprioception. And get rid of this… behavioural quirk that had shown itself.

She waited until the room was clear and fetched her recorder, tucking a strand of black hair back into her bun as she made a note to herself. “R.O.S.E-3 called me ‘mother’ today. Clearly this is a defect in the current programming. I’ll reset it and inform the general that we had another aural shutdown. I refuse to have such a glitch persisting in my work.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Come on, Lieutenant!” The android beamed up at the tall woman, its short black hair falling over its eyes. “I can take it!”

“I don’t know...” First Lieutenant Ederne held her warhammer close, almost protectively. “I mean, Timber’s not exactly light.”

“This is a durability test, Ederne.” Victoria reminded her from the sidelines, Captain Ebi and Second Lieutenant Zeki standing with General Ironwood. “That’s the point.”

“Please, lieutenant?” The android bounced on it’s toes, and Victoria wondered where it learnt to mimic that gesture from. “I know I can do it! Dr Shell made me super tough!”

Victoria smirked in pride. She’d definitely upped the durability of the materials she’d used this time. She was quite happy with this iteration, so far. There hadn’t been another repeat of the ‘mother’ incident, so clearly R.O.S.E-4 had learnt from it’s predecessor’s mistakes, once it woke up.

She didn’t really get why Ironwood ordered her to wipe out the memory files of each failure, but she did it anyway. Besides, it gave her the leeway to go in and alter some of the ‘mother’ incident from the android’s files, just in case anyone else reviewed it. She wasn’t stupid. She knew that Ironwood and Xiao Long and the Ace Operatives were all bizarrely attached to the bot.

She didn’t understand why, but she knew that they preferred it to be treated as though it was actually a person, so she may as well cover her tracks whenever she put the thing in its place for trying to act too human.

She left her warnings in the robot’s personal files instead.

“Come on, Elm, she’s totally got this!” Ebi cheered on.

“I do!” R.O.S.E-4 grinned, giving Ederne double thumbs up. “Nothing else put a dent in me, not any of the bullets or anything!” It gestured at the destroyed training room in answer. They had tossed a lot at it, to test it’s capabilities. It did well. Victoria was quite pleased with how her engineering skills held up.

Ederne still looked uncertain as she hefted her weapon. “Well… okay. If you’re sure?”

“Do it!” R.O.S.E-4 smiled innocently up at her, Ederne’s face marred with her unease as she swung her warhammer up, over, and down.

Metal screamed and broke apart, warped by the force of the blow as all of Victoria’s hard work was destroyed in one swing, leaving a mess of scrap heap on the ground. Motor fluid began to leak out of the destroyed wires, coloured pink with metal dust for better mobility.

Timber clanged on the ground as Ederne dropped it with a gasp, her hands clasping over her mouth as tears sprang to her eyes, rolling down her cheeks as she fell to her knees, reaching for the damaged prototype and cradling it gently in her massive arms.

“No-!” Ebi was the first one to speak, but Zeki was the first one to move, crossing the room in long strides to place a hand upon Ederne’s shoulder, kneeling beside her as she stared at the broken mess in her hands.

Victoria realised what had happened to her creation and scowled. “Damn, that’s going to be a bitch to rebuild.” Still, every break meant a new chance to improve, so she couldn’t help but relish each destruction of her prototype, every chance to make something better of the faulty product.

Ederne flinched, her breath hitching as tears began to roll down her cheeks. Ebi huddled next to her, on the other side to Zeki, talking in low tones. “Elm, you need to let go. It’s going to be okay. She’s going to be fine. Just- let go of the body, Elm-”

Victoria noticed with some disbelief that the second-best operative in Atlas was beginning to tremble.

Honestly, some people. Ederne should get over herself.

General Ironwood finally found his voice. “Dr Shell- if you could go to your lab? We’ll bring Ruby in soon.”

Victoria nodded and walked past her failed creation, already dreaming up new improvements. She walked down the hall, her lab coat swishing around her as she pulled her recorder from her pocket and made another note. “R.O.S.E-4 wasn’t durable enough. Next time I’ll use a tougher alloy for the outer shell.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next time she got her project brought into her lab for repairs, the bot was in even worse state than when Elm had crushed it.

“What happened here?” She scowled at the ace operative, not recognising the face. Must have been the new recruit. Something Bree. Started with a H. Heidi? Holly? Something like that.

“Grimm, Doc.” Helen answered, looking very put out. “There were more than our intel said. She got split off from us. We couldn’t get to her in time.”

“I see.” She surveyed the damage. She’d be better off just scrapping it entirely and starting over. R.O.S.E-5 was in literal pieces. “Alright, thank you, Hayley. I’ll get started now.”

“It’s Harriet, actually-” The ace operative rared up like she wanted to fight.

“Yes, yes, now if you’ll excuse me?” She waved her off. “I have work to do.”

Hattie glared at her for a moment, before she was gone in a blur of gold lightning.

Victoria locked the door behind her, a very prominent section of her ebony hair streaked white, the stripe running through her bun as well. She adjusted her glasses and fetched her monitor, as usual, locating the android’s core and plugging it in so she could start the memory extraction. “R.O.S.E-5 was recovered from the field. Beginning reconstruction.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She thought her work was over. That the project she’d put literal years of her life into was gone forever, when Beacon fell. Her project had been destroyed in full view of everyone, tarnishing her name as a scientist and an engineer.

She was certain she’d lose her job for it. At the very least, she’d have nothing to do for a while, until she got assigned to a team headed by a different scientist.

She’d probably resign if that was the case. She refused to follow another’s lead when she’d spent so long blazing her own path. She had built a machine that would save the world, and it got utterly destroyed by a child in a death match. How humiliating.

She’d told Ironwood that R.O.S.E-6 was designed to kill Grimm. Damn him for insisting.

It came as a pleasant surprise when she got the message on her scroll, walking into her lab to see her creation laid out on a lab table, ready and waiting for her.

She smirked, flicking on her recorder. “The Vytal Tournament was a failure. Luckily, we have recovered R.O.S.E-6’s core.” She set the recorder aside and grabbed a blowtorch. “Let’s start over.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Silver eyes blinked open, and Victoria stretched, unplugging the wire from the port on the back of the robot’s neck. “Welcome back, R.O.S.E-7. How does it feel to be better than ever?”

#ROSE 6 #rwby #ruby rose #elm ederne #james Ironwood #my writings #anyone who can guess Victoria's allusion earns an internet cookie

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thewritewolf · 5 years ago

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Eating Habits Chapter 1: Anniversary

Things have never looked better for Adrien and his girlfriend, Marinette. Adrien has been living happily on his own, with frequent visits to the Dupain-Cheng bakery. Marinette is about to enter a design university and already has a thriving online store. Gabriel Agreste is serving a 184 year long sentence (92 on good behavior). Yes, it looks like its all turned out wonderfully for them in the last six years.

Now, if only Adrien could convince Marinette to take things easy, everything would be just perfect...

(While this is the third part in the series, you can skip the first two parts without missing much besides soft fluff)

First Part: Four Times and the Lucky One | Ao3

Second Part: Just Between Us | Ao3

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 (Final)

Enjoy!

Read on Ao3.

Adrien glanced at the clock. Still an hour or two to go before their date for the anniversary, but now was as good a time as any to stop. He slowed down and turned off the treadmill. Just because there wasn’t any supervillains left to fight didn’t mean he should let himself get out of shape, after all. Or maybe it wasn’t so much his superhero instincts as his supermodel instincts.

Either way, the highlights of both those careers were behind him, even if he could still technically be called both.

After getting changed back into his street clothes, Adrien stepped out of the gym and made his way home to take a shower. Or at least, what counted as his home for now. The apartment he lived in was fancier than what Marinette was used to, but it was still a big downgrade from the manor that he had spent his childhood in. He preferred it this way though - there was more life with a few neighbors around, and less space meant less that he had to fill. Besides, he wasn’t there a lot so it didn’t matter much anyway.

A shower, fresh change into nice clothes, some expensive cologne, half an hour making his hair the perfect balance of messy and styled, some extra cheese to keep Plagg fat and lazy, and he was out the door again.

No, the place where he really spent most of his time was where he was headed now - the Dupain-Cheng bakery. The place had practically become his real home years ago. Not long after he started dating Marinette, as a matter of fact. Tom and Sabine weren’t his in-laws… yet. But he was sure they would be someday. In the meantime, they treated him as one of their own, with all the love and affection he never had before.

He almost walked past a flower shop without going inside. Almost. On the bright side, he did refrain from buying Marinette a whole bouquet of flowers. But only because she was very insistent that she was running out of space for them all. Between his lack of impulse control and her green thumb, her small room over the bakery was becoming more like a greenhouse than a bedroom. Instead, he settled for just one flower.

The bakery smelled as delicious and wonderful as it had every day he’d ever gone there. He’d gotten the scent of bread and sweets so associated with the place that just a whiff was enough to make his heart soar. The bell above the door alerted them to his arrival.

Sabine smiled at him as he approached and they shared cheek kisses. “Oh, hello, sweetheart! It’s wonderful to see you again!” She said it was such feeling that Adrien had never doubted her, even if it was always the first thing she said to him every time they saw each other. “Will you be coming over for dinner again this weekend?”

“Of course, maman! How could I refuse such a delicious meal?”

“Is that Adrien?” A man’s booming voice shouted from the kitchen in the back. Tom emerged, a wide grin on his face and flour all over him as he walked toward Adrien.

Adrien’s eyes widened and he held up his hands. “Wait, I-” But it was too late. Tom had picked him up in a great big bear huge and he was lifted so high that his feet dangled off the ground.

“Oh, sorry, son!” Tom had the decency to look down abashedly at the mess he’d made of Adrien’s nice clothes, which were now spotted with flour.

“Don’t worry, papa. This won’t take me long to fix. I got here plenty early,” Adrien flashed a quick smile up at Tom. “Actually, is Marinette here? I could probably use her help.”

“Sure, sure.” Tom waved a hand toward the back door leading into their home. “She’s probably working in her room as we speak.”

He smiled and waved at the both of them before heading upstairs, feeling just like the fourteen year old boy who’d visit after school years ago. He opened her trapdoor and sure enough, there she was. So lost in her commissions that she hadn’t gotten ready for their date yet. Which also meant she hadn’t noticed him yet, and he got to bask in her ‘focus face’ - tongue slightly out, nose scrunched, eyes narrowed - for a little while longer.

While he would’ve been fine missing their reservation if it meant watching her work for a little longer, alas, she eventually noticed him. She fell backwards with a squawk and he rushed forward to give her a hand up.

“Adrien what are you-” She winced. “It’s today, isn’t it?”

He nodded patiently.

“...How long have you been watching?”

“Long enough to remember all over again just how adorable you are.”

She groaned. “I was making the face again wasn’t I?”

He kissed the hand he had taken to help her up. “Precious as always.” He held out the flower he had bought for her, a white tulip. “For you, my lady.”

Her eyebrows scrunched up, but the tension left her face almost immediately as she smelled the flower. She smiled up at him. “My favorite.”

“A tulip for your two lips?” He leaned down and closed his eyes.

“Oh my God, Adrien,” she said, laughing. “Okay, fine, but only because you went through all that effort.” She pressed her lips to his, wrapping her arms around his neck as she did. She pulled away and seemed to notice his suit for the first time. A twinkle of mirth shone in her eyes. “I see papa got a little too excited to see you again.”

“Nothing new there.” He shrugged. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to help a poor boy out…?”

“Sure, just give me a minute to get changed.”

“No problem,” Adrien sat down on her well worn chaise and made no secret of watching her.

“Adrien…”

“Hm…?”

“Downstairs, sunshine.” She sternly pointed at the trapdoor. “I’ll call you back up when I’m ready.” Pouting, he paused every other step to shoot a pleading look at her over his shoulder. Eventually she got tired of him and pushed him forward, laughing. “Go, you tomcat!”

Adrien stepped outside her bedroom and sat on the stairs. Pulling out his phone, he checked the time and double checked his reservation. They still had half an hour to get there and it was close by. Plenty of time. After a few minutes of listening to rustling clothing, the door was opened above him and he walked back in.

“What do you think?”

Adrien’s eyes roved over her light summer dress and its pastel colors. He cupped her cheek with a soft smile.

“As beautiful as ever, lovebug.” He stepped back and offered his arm. “Ready to go?”

She giggled and gestured to his suit. “Forgetting something?”

A glance down reminded him of the flour. “Ah, right. I think I remember you promising me a hand?

After a quick clean up, they walked arm in arm out of the bakery and to their favorite restaurant.

----------------

The night was already going well with good food and a pleasant buzz from their drinks. Conversation was flowing between them, mostly one-sided as Marinette filled him in on everything that had happened since the last time they’d gotten to chat freely the week before. More commissions. Her last shifts at the bakery. Which brought her to the reasons she’d been saving so much money in the first place.

“...So I found an apartment.”

Adrien smiled as he poured both of them another glass of wine. “I can’t wait to see it. How close is it to your university?”

“That’s the best part! It’s within walking distance, just a couple blocks away.” Marinette took a sip of her wine while doing a happy shimmy. “I’ll save on commuting costs, and the rent is super cheap too.”

There was a surge of worry before Adrien quickly smoothed it over. Just because it was cheap didn’t mean it was bad. Maybe she’d just found a good deal was all. And even if it was… lacking… she’d be able to improve it, no problem.

“I’m so happy for you! You’re already ahead of the fashion game with all your contacts and professional experience. Having an education in design will be the final thing you need to really excel in the business. You’re going to do amazing, I just know it!”

“Thanks!” She ducked her head shyly. “I’ve been so nervous about… well, everything, to be honest,” she admitted with a giggle. “In a little under a month, I’ll be out of the bakery and putting my skills to the test. And it’s a pretty prestigious university, so I bet I’ll have some competition too.”

“It’s nothing you can’t handle, princess.” His smile faded as he swirled the last dregs in his wine glass.

He felt her take his other hand and he looked up to see her concerned frown. “I know it’s hard, Adrien, and I’m sorry Nino and Alya couldn’t make it. But you know we’re all right here behind you, all the way.”

He nodded, biting his lips. It’d been two years to the day. They had all met up last year to celebrate... and to forget. Sure, he didn’t expect it to really turn into a yearly tradition, and Alya and Nino had tried their best to make it... but it still stung a little that they couldn’t.

“I’ve been talking your ear off this whole time about what I’m doing. What about you, kitty?” She leaned forward to rest her chin and her hands, looking at him with tender affection in her eyes. “What’s next in life for you?”

Adrien didn’t have an answer for that.

---------------

Full, laughing, and slightly tipsy, Adrien walked Marinette to her front door just as the streetlights began to turn on.

“And you know I’ll be there for you forever and ever and ever, yeah?” He grinned from ear to ear, looking more like Chat Noir than Adrien Agreste in the moment.

“Silly kitty.” She leaned in a little closer. “I think just helping me move in a couple of weeks will be enough.”

His arm snaked around her waist, pressing her flush to him. “Then you can count on my help. Even if I have to carry in a hundred boxes alone.” He pulled back one arm to flex.

She rested her forehead against his chest and laughed. “You’re such a dork.”

“Your dork.”

She hummed in agreement. Rolling onto her toes, she gave him a chaste kiss on the lips. “Good night, Adrien. I love you.”

He sighed happily. “Ahh, that takes me back.” He let her pull away from him. “I love you too, Marinette. Pleasant dreams.”

After flashing him one more smile, she ducked inside and closed the door behind her. Adrien spent a few long moments standing there, grinning like a dork, before a tiny, snide voice from inside his coat pocket drew him out of his reverie.

“You done staring at the woodwork, kid? Or do you want a few more minutes?”

He rolled his eyes, but couldn’t even manage to be exasperated. He was riding high after tonight, and he felt like nothing could drag him down. Not even grumpy cheese cats.

While it wouldn’t take him long to get home as Chat Noir… the summer night was warm and pleasant. He could almost pretend to see the stars above him. It would be a shame not to enjoy a little stroll back to his apartment.

On his way inside, he noticed that he had mail, but was in such a pleasant mood that he didn’t even glance at it until he’d shut his door behind him. As he kicked off his shoes, he finally looked at the envelope.

The prison-issued envelope.

His smile, a semi-permanent fixture on his face ever since heading over the bakery earlier that day, vanished like fog before the dawn. After skimming the contents, he neatly folded it back up and tossed it into a box of depressingly similar letters.

Try as he might, he couldn’t shake off the bad mood. His only consolation as he drifted off to sleep was that at least tomorrow would be a new day.

#Miraculous Ladybug #Adrien Agreste #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #Adrienette #tom dupain #Sabine Cheng #Plagg #ml fanfiction #my writing #Eating Habits #The Lucky One series #Can't tell you how long I've wanted to write this series #been sitting in my inbox for months #some of it is *at least* from december of last year #and now we're getting into the meat of it!#very excited for this

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dallasairduct0 · 4 years ago

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Vision: Transform the Dallas Arts District into a dynamic destination for locals and tourists alike while creating a fulfilling urban experience. The District is powered by the imagination of artists globally, while seamlessly integrating exemplary artistic, residential, cultural, and commercial life.

ABOUT: The first donation given to the foundation was by the Crow Family Foundation. Over the past 30 years, the Dallas Arts District Foundation has awarded over 420 grants totaling $1.1 million to Dallas arts and culture organizations. In 2018, the Dallas Arts District (DAD) took a year’s hiatus to review, revise, and develop the application and grants process to promote access, collaborations, and new audiences in the neighborhood. DAD partnered with HALL Group and created Through the Lens: Dallas Arts District, a coffee table photo book with 91 incredible photos by 56 talented photographers. All sales of the book will go toward growing the Foundation Grants Fund. This project marks the first effort to grow funding to support local artists through the grants program for the Dallas Arts District Foundation since the first donation by the Crow Family Foundation. The revised application is now ready to launch online, and the book will be available in Fall 2019 with the opening of the HALL Arts Hotel.

Dallas Arts District is excited about the partnership with HALL Group and Through the Lens: Dallas Arts District with 91 incredible photos by 56 talented photographers. This is the first fundraiser that will support the grants program for the Dallas Arts District Foundation since the first donation in 1984 by the Crow family. With this opportunity, Dallas Arts District is taking the next six months to review, revise, and develop the application and grants process to create access, collaborations, and new audiences in the Dallas Arts District. The revised application will be ready in the summer of 2019; the book will be available in Fall 2019 with the opening of the HALL Arts Hotel, and the grant recipients will be announced in December 2019 for projects in 2020. Over the past 34 years, the Dallas Arts District Foundation has awarded over 420 grants totaling $1.1 million to Dallas arts and culture organizations since 1984.

7 Must-See Museum Exhibits for 2019

The Crow Collection of Asian Art is one of only a handful of museums in the country dedicated solely to the arts and cultures of Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. Experience a peaceful world of beauty and spirituality in the heart of the city with pieces dating from 3500 B.C. to the early 20th century. Don’t miss a glimpse at precious jade ornaments from China, delicate Japanese scrolls, and a rarely seen 2-by-28 foot sandstone façade of an 18th-century Indian residence.

Located in the northeast corner of downtown Dallas, the Dallas Arts District is the largest contiguous urban arts district in the nation, spanning 68 acres and 19 contiguous blocks. This iconic neighborhood has more buildings designed by Pritzker award-winning architects than any location in the world. Dallas Arts District unifies culture and commerce with integrated and exemplary artistic, residential, cultural, educational, recreational, religious and commercial life and was awarded a maximum 3-star rating by the prestigious Le Guide Vert – Michelin Green Guide. Its programmatic highlight is the Signature Block Party Series comprised of two free public events that support events at the cultural venues, featuring local, state, and national artists drawing more than 50,000 visitors from over 144 zip codes.

–Sustainable arts ecosystem: Model sustainability to the arts and culture community through OCA’s facilities and encourage and support the development of future sustainability in the broader arts and cultural sector.

Top Real Estate Markets in Texas

Aside from major attractions and entertainment spots, Dallas’s Arts District is home to the popular Klyde Warren Park, an urban neighborhood green space that’s host to a range of community events. Enjoy food truck lunches, live music performances, outdoor fitness classes, local art shows, and kid-friendly fun. The Arts District sits along Woodall Rodgers Freeway and neighbors Downtown Dallas, home to an array of office buildings, local restaurants, and major attractions. The Arts District is within reach of the Dallas World Aquarium, the Giant Eyeball, the JFK Memorial Plaza, and so much more.

The Arts District is home to 13 facilities and organizations including The Annette Strauss Artist Square, the Belo Mansion/Dallas Bar Association, Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Theater Center, Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, Nasher Sculpture Center, St. Paul United Methodist Church, Fellowship Church, Trammell Crow Center, and the Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art.

The compact, vertical orientation of the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, climbing 12 stories into the Dallas skyline, was designed by Joshua Prince-Ramus of REX and Rem Koolhaas of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. The theater, home to the Dallas Theater Center, Dallas Black Dance Theatre and the Anita N. Martinez Ballet Folklorico, is a prime destination for music and theatre enthusiasts.

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airdutdallas0 · 4 years ago

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Arts District Dallas

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Arts District Dallas

24 hours in the Dallas Arts District

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Apartments for Rent in Arts District, Dallas, TX

7 Must-See Museum Exhibits for 2019

Top Real Estate Markets in Texas

Arts District Dallas

24 hours in the Dallas Arts District

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Nearly 9,000 Dallas residents have engaged in this process to develop over a hundred initiatives and strategies under these six priorities:

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airductclean1 · 4 years ago

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On This Page

Arts District Dallas

24 hours in the Dallas Arts District

Discover rentals near work and play

Popular searches near Dallas, TX

Apartments for Rent in Arts District, Dallas, TX

7 Must-See Museum Exhibits for 2019

Top Real Estate Markets in Texas

Arts District Dallas

24 hours in the Dallas Arts District

Discover rentals near work and play

Nearly 9,000 Dallas residents have engaged in this process to develop over a hundred initiatives and strategies under these six priorities:

Dealey Plaza Dallas

Popular searches near Dallas, TX

Coming Soon listings are homes that will soon be on the market. The listing agent for these homes has added a Coming Soon note to alert buyers in advance.

Apartments for Rent in Arts District, Dallas, TX

7 Must-See Museum Exhibits for 2019

Top Real Estate Markets in Texas

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breezeriderebike · 2 years ago

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Accessories for E-bike

Accessories for e-bike can range from phone mounts to bags. There are even accessories to keep water bottles and the battery protected. If you're planning to use your Ebike during the summer months, you'll need to consider adding rear bike baskets or a hydration pack. Bikes are great ways to get into the summer season in style, and BreezeRider offers many accessories for the e-bike enthusiast. BreezeRider also offers a range of accessories for e-bike to make your ride more enjoyable and safer.

Cargo Baskets

Cargo baskets are an essential accessories for e-bike for the serious commuter as well as weekend riders. They make riding easier and safer while transporting various personal items. Some baskets even have cages to keep pets safe. All of these accessories will help you enjoy your ride more. If you plan to use your ebike for transportation in the city, consider getting a cargo basket for your ebike. The bag can be placed over your rear wheel.

Locks and GPS Trackers

The best way to keep your ebike safe is to purchase a lock. Ebikes are prone to theft and thieves, and it's hard to sell one without all the parts. To prevent theft, invest in a high-quality lock and GPS tracker. GPS trackers will send real-time location data to your mobile phone so you won't have to worry about losing your bike. If you're going to park your ebike in a public place, consider purchasing an alarm system so you can be alerted if someone tries to steal it.

Child Seat Attachment

Purchasing a child seat attachment for your electric bike is a great way to transport a child on the bike. Most child seats can fit on a bicycle's top tube, between the cockpit and the captain, or behind the rider. Depending on the model, you can also attach the seat to your bike's rear rack. The child seat is a very important part of accessories for e-bike and should be installed properly.

Alarm System

One of the most popular accessories for e-bike is the horn/alarm System, which emits an audible sound at 105 decibels. This device can alert cars parked nearby if you're using your ebike. It doubles as a security device when locked, and you can control it using your key fob. This accessory is great for festival-goers, camping, and as an emergency kit.

Storage Baskets

Ebikes require storage baskets to keep tools, spare tubes, and CO2 canisters in case of flat tires. There are many different options for ebike baskets, from large to small. Unlike traditional bicycles, ebikes don't usually come with fenders, so you can reduce your purchase price by removing them. If you're buying an entry-level ebike, it's a good idea to opt for one without fenders.

Saddlebags

Saddlebags are another useful accessories for e-bike. The pannier bag hangs from either side of the rear wheel and is completely waterproof. It's made from marine-grade materials, and it's great for carrying extra gear. The ergonomically designed handle bars make it easy to carry. A variety of accessories are available, including the saddlebags. There are many more, and some are quite expensive.

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cadpadawan · 5 years ago

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A Presentation of Epic Proportions

Just the other day, I had a school assigment of the most peculiar kind. It was supposed to be executed as a collaborative team effort in groups of 2-3 students. I was blessed with two individuals, whose contribution to the project was very minimal. One of the guys was too busy with his part-time job to contribute much, though I have to give him credit for trying anyway. The other one focused more on waiting for some kind of a divine inspiration to start working, and spent the time in the local pubs looking for it. Such a bohemian approach might have proven quite effective, had this assignment been associated with the nuances of various craft beers, but alas, it was about a sheet metal design that, by definition, must have dearly dispirited my fellow student not to give a shit. So, I basically had to maneuver this team project to completion practically on my own. For a solo endeavour, it simply was a bit too much to chew, especially as I initially set the goal a little bit too high, in some ill-adviced burst of optimism. Well, when the project started, I genuinely thought that these two heroes, without a cape, would actually contribute more to it. Eventually, I made it – but as you may observe in the transcription of the project presentation, that I had to perform in English...oh, well...check for yourself. Here it is, in full detail:

“Ok, ladies [articulated with an extensively sarcastic tone, as the audience was 99% young men], may I have your undivided attention, please...

We have gathered here today to witness the ultimate triumph of the human mind over matter, that is, sheet metal matter in this particular case. I have the immense pleasure to welcome y'all to the magical mystery Powerpoint presentation of a state-of-the-art sheet metal gun cabinet. This spectacle will be brought to you by this dubious threesome of mechanical engineering undergrads... Oh, wait. My dear colleagues in this joint venture could not make it today, unfortunately, quite like they could not make it most of the time, during this whole project. For starters, I might as well introduce you to my designer team, anyway – the aptly named Team Ahma [a reference to a Finnish sitcom]. My team consisted of these two characters, who magically were mostly absent throughout this ordeal. Had they actually made it to school today, here in the right hand corner of the podium, you'd be seeing a handsome young bloke named [I better not publish any personal information, y'know...], and in the penalty box, for cross-checking the progress, you'd be witnessing the hangover happyface [please, insert a sophomoric genitalia reference here]. Please, give a round of applause to these two high-performance individuals here.

The underlying objective of this collaborative effort was to design a steel cabinet, with the basic function to store away four individual pieces of firearms in an upright position, hence designed exclusively for weapons of the long-barreled variety, such as shotguns and hunting rifles – or, if this cabinet was targeted at customers in the Middle Eastern regions, also AK-47's. This design project was commissioned, supervised and reviewed by our Dear Leader and mentor in 3D design [well, y'know how it goes by now, don't cha...]. This sheet metal design project was commissioned with one precondition: the cabinet's storage capacity was to be limited to four guns. It was due to the fact, that the Finnish gun legislation had a thing or two to say about storing larger number of guns. The material thickness of the cabinet walls, locking mechanism and whatnot were strictly regulated if the number of weapons exceeded four. So, basically I had free hands to come up with pretty much any kind of cabinet, as long as I maintained some kind of an awareness, that the gun rack was not designed for more than four pieces.

Sounds relatively easy, right?

Except maybe for the fact, that the flood of options presented a kind of a challenge in itself. I was faced with the pointed question: where could I find a single, all-consuming concept for such a sheet metal design? You see, I didn't really pay attention when we had the theory class. I was too busy typing cover letters for a summer trainee position. Ok, where do people find info on anything nowadays?

Well, online, of course.

Despite being a member of the sad boomer generations, whose level of internet comprehension usually will not suffice for anything more than checking emails and watching dubious adult entertainment, I managed to do quite an extensive round of online research. So, before getting my hands dirty with the tedious maneuvering around the minute details of the actual design, I navigated in the cyber jungle of gun retail. I checked what kind of cabinet applications were available, with what specifications – and most importantly, for what price range. I browsed through the online bazaars of long-barreled guns typically stored in a cabinet like this, as well. In the hope of gathering some information that might prove useful in my project. I even gave a once-over at the legislation. It was totally unnecessary, but some of the imperatives imposed by the law actually seemed worthy of consideration.

Maybe I should elaborate...

As I do not have any prior experience in the sheet metal industry, except at the customer end, I was essentially shooting in the dark at random. I could have squeezed my brain juice into the project design, with neither forethought nor intention, and just hope for the best. I decided to implement some of the basic tenets of the gun regulations in the design, instead. Neither of my fellow designer students objected. One was too busy, trying to make some money with real work, and the other one just didn't give a shit. Why did I want to go the extra mile, then?

[Off-topic alert: here comes a lengthy rant about the sad state of affairs, when you’re getting re-educated in the ripe age of +45...]

I shall graduate in December 2021, and when the day comes, I'll be closer to 50 than 40 years old. My past work history consists of mainly irrelevant bullshit jobs. Until my life drastically changed in 2016, I used to consider work as just a nifty means to pay for my real passion, that was to make music with no inherent commercial potential, that is: all kinds of progressive rock, for beer money and ”exposure”. Work was just the necessary evil to pay for all this. What I actually did for work didn't really mean shit to me...and now, as I've been trying to apply for any kind of a trainee job, suitable for a mechanical engineering undergraduate, I've come to notice that my previous work experience doesn't actually mean shit to my potential employers either. I started applying for trainee positions starting next summer already in early December. Now, we're living in mid-March. Each and every application that I sent out, bounced back like a boomerang, with the bulk response written in the most dry and academic tone: thanks, but no thanks. So, if I wanted to make a difference in the eyes of my future employers, I would be compelled to go the extra mile every single time I had the chance. I guess I can now better relate to how it must feel to be, say, young, gifted and black in this country – or in any other Western country, for that matter. I had become an old white nigga in the eyes of society. I might as well have shot heroin all my life so far...I have skills and experience that are totally irrelevant for an engineering job.

I wonder if there was actually some factual point, that I was circum-navigating there...

To cut to the chase:

I chose to apply the minimum material thickness of 4 millimeters to the outer walls of the cabinet, along with the idea, that this cabinet ought to be practically impossible to break into. I hoped that these design constraints would lace this project with more focus and drive. After all, it's quite a hard-wired human tendency to fall into the trap of under-achievement, or to get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of a design project like this. In this particular case, lowering the standards would have probably saved my ass, though. Usually, being dolled-up with no exact destination to go, getting the job done without paramilitary leadership, or the channeling of demons, might prove unnecessarily hard.

On top of this, a sneak peek at the similar products on the market provided some crucial insight on the basic dimensions and structure for this type of a gun cabinet. There was no need to invent the wheel anew, when all I needed was some modifications on it. With all the necessary background information gathered, I was ready to outline the initial to-do list for the project, where to start, and how to stay on track. In short, I decided to go for a cabinet of impressive proportions and powerfully expressive character – a sheet metal cabinet on steroids, sort of. The preliminary online research also implicated, that the market was actually dominated by rather second grade tin cans. In this respect, I assumed that it wouldn't really take much of an effort to stand out. I concluded, that my desire to put a little more emphasis on the function and safety of the cabinet would suffice to differentiate it from the competition in this particular capacity range. Thus, one of the key elements in this cabinet design was the double-layered steel chassis, structured in 4 millimeter steel plate. For the sake of simplicity and cost-effective manufacturing, I favoured the basic perpendicular bends of 90 degrees. After all, I was not about to design a fancy mobile decoration of steel, to be suspended from the ceiling on Christmas eve. For such an unregulated cabinet design, the material thickness was probably a bit of an overkill, but I reckoned that it would prevent any unauthorized entering into the cabinet. Furthermore, I assumed – and quite rightly so – that these two layers of steel were prone to make the structure heavy enough, not to be moved into the pikey-model Toyota Hiace with Bulgarian register plates, at least not single-handedly by any amphetamine-fueled random break-and-enter artist. Obviously, a determined professional would make his way for the guns, no matter what this cabinet was made of. First and foremost, I designed this cabinet along the lines, that the robust structure would essentially discourage any half-assed attempts to illegitimately take possession of the goodies inside. I would guess, that it's not a thoroughly thought-out idea to break and enter into a house of some old timer who owns guns, in the first place. Let alone, the idea of trying to break into a cube of steel, without proper power tools. In the unfortunate case, that a random junkie decided to go for it, I would dare to envision, that all the meth in the world was not enough to grant manpower to manually force this steel door open. It would require spesific tools, paired with an exceptionally determined or desperate mindset. Although, I guess it would certainly make for a hilarious episode in one of those popular reality shows you can watch on TV nowadays

In conclusion, taking on such an extra challenge provided me with a clear objective for this design project. Had I known the amount of work that ensued, I might as well have chosen to install a beer tap, or a Nintendo Wii game console with motion sensors to my design. I opted for enhanced security. Although, the Finnish gun culture is nowhere near as bizarre as the American ”Shoot 'em up”-culture, quite the contrary, actually. In the outbreak of a zombie holocaust, the Finnish gunmen are more likely to remain as one of the last sane frontier guards on the fault lines of civilization, in my honest opinion. We don't get to witness random mass shootings, conducted in a spur of the moment drug-frenzy, so often. Nor do we need to read about juveniles shooting one another in a fit of an existential teenage angst, because the Playstation 4 abruptly went offline for no apparent reason.

On a more serious tone, I started the project by searching for some vague idea for a steel cabinet, and the gods of mechanical engineering must have been in favor of this humble endeavour, since I managed to formulate the concept fairly quickly. At the end of the day, how hard can it be to sketch a rectangular box with a door? My kids are reaching teen age, but I'm sure they could have managed to draw something like this with a slide ruler and a pencil way back when they were only five years old or something. In retrospect, though, I feel compelled to make a bold statement, that it sure ain’t easy. Somewhere along the way, I was introduced to a phenomenon, that I would like to refer to as What The Fuck-factor. I apologize for the graphic and evocative term I coined for it, but believe me, it is quite an appropriate definition for such an indecent phenomenon. It is formulated also in the Murphy's Law: if something has even a slight chance of going wrong, it most certainly will. I had my fair share of that in this project, that’s for sure.

The next chapter in this surreal drama, the actual design process itself, was carried out with the PT Creo 3D-modeling software, in compliance with the guidelines imposed by the sheet metal standard DIN 6930. Without giving it that much thought, I adopted a kind of top-down approach. I decomposed the concept into smaller sub-concepts, such as the individual components in the assembly. It all sounded great in theory, but in the rush of a work overload, the emotional strength to actually keep the big picture clear in mind at all times...it just magically seemed to evaporate into the thin air, like fairy dust...

To be brutally honest, the design process was a fucking nightmare.

I apologize for my frequent use of French adjectives. I've been trying to discipline myself against the abundant use of such foul language, but I just can't help it. My mouth is quicker than my moral filters for politically correct choice of words. Besides, the occassional strong word usually gets the point across much better, and I wouldn't be surprised if the cuss words were accountable for the most part of the modern office communication. Before starting a new life as a CAD-padawan, I used to work for a company, where the corporate language was best described as management by perkele.

Perkele is a vintage cuss word in the Finnish language, loaded with some eerie sense of personal empowerment, thus way more powerful than the more offensive ones, that are trending in the speak of the millennials.

The sketching started in a tried-and-true manner: by throwing up some random ideas in whatever form seemed fit. The design concept for the steel door seemed to provide a promising start. So, without further experiments, the steel door design was underway. Since the door played quite an integral part in the cabinet, the dimensions of the door pretty much laid out the framework for the rest of the design. And this small, ill-considered choice of component was probably the single most damaging factor contributing to why things got essentially sour a little bit later. The overall thickness of the door, in particular, set all kinds of funny little restrains on the design of the other parts, consecutively. It was 35 millimeters, that is a relatively large number in this context, and it projected a certain set of esoteric demands on the dimensions of the doorframe, and particularly on the hinge mechanism needed.

Now, the hinge mechanism...

That was a real pain-in-the-ass in this project...

The ultimate can of worms.

There is an idiom in the Finnish language, usually uttered aloud in a fairly sarcastic tone. It goes: ”liian monta liikkuvaa osaa” - that stands for ”too many moving particles”, in English.

It's a perfect description for the hardships that I encountered with the hinge design. The mission objective was to control the movement of two metal bodies, in relation to each other. Or to be more precise, to control the opening of the door. The doorframe was pretty much a static component. So, I had one moving particle – the door. Due to all kinds of funny preconceptions, it soon became painfully obvious, that this one moving particle was actually one too many.

Liian monta liikkuvaa osaa, y'know...

And little by little, frustration was gaining momentum...

I had the steel door assembly figured out by now, as well as the design for the doorframe. Then I realized, that I had figuratively shot myself in the leg. I could almost taste the irony in my mouth. The universe seemed to have a sick sense of humour. Don't get me wrong, I am actually one of those Myers-Briggs personality types who prefer their humour just like they prefer their morning cup of coffee – pitch black, with absolutely no sweeteners. (I'm also quite fond of quality gin, and craft beers with a bitter flavour...so, I guess I'm a downright psycho, and those of you, who order soya frappuccinos in Starbucks, will be my first victims, when I finally lose my shit and dash off on a killing spree...I'm joking, right?)

I soon realized, that if I wanted to implement all the safety measures that I originally opted for, I needed to ensure that the door fit the doorframe like a glove. The tight clearance between the door and the frame was an inherent part of the whole concept for an idiot-proof gun cabinet. In practice, the idea was that the door would refuse to eject open, even if you cut your way through the bolt of the lock, or the hinges. This approach necessitated a lot of extra work. It also called for a special kind of double-action hinge mechanism, something similar to those jump-action hinges that come installed in some of the hipster brand kitchen cupboards, like Puustelli etc. This type of hinge ejects the door outwards first, before opening 90 degrees in the desired direction. Well, it works wonders in the kitchen fixtures, but...

Would it work with a steel door that weighed like a ton?

That was exactly what I needed to find out.

Had this concept fully realized in practice, which it obviously did not, it might have actually imposed an additional set of requirements on the hinges, in turn. I formulated all kinds of funny little mental configurations, how this particular type of hinge might have worked in this cabinet setting. At some point, it finally dawned on me, like a sudden moment of comprehension, or the sensation to which the Japanese zen buddhist tradition refers with the term ”satori”. I was practically shooting myself in the leg some more...

Even if I made this science fiction hinge mechanism work, so that the door would actually open beautifully, without any obstructions...then what?

In the name of safety, I had adjusted that clearance between the door and the frame to be extremely tight. Thus, it was absolutely necessary for the door to be perfectly aligned with the frame, vertically. Otherwise, the door would neither close nor open. This concept seemed to suggest that it was essential to lock the door into position, when either fully open or fully closed. Otherwise, it would get stuck. So, the deeper I delved into the details of this particular hinge mechanism, the more evident it became, that it would probably be way too complicated to design. I must admit that I felt tempted to call it quits, and go home and watch football on satellite TV. This project was turning into a joke, with me being the punchline, and it wasn't funny anymore.

I introduced this sheet metal project as state-of-the-art, remember?

Now we're getting to the artsy part.

I could have responded to this unfortunate turn of events by sketching an alternative, or even a set of alternatives, and then move on like nothing happened. Sticking to the idea, that my steel door insisted on the application of this particular type of hinge mechanism, was beginning to resonate the ambience of a game of Tetris, where you kept getting the wrong pieces round after round, ad infinitum. At this stage, however, my unjustified optimism hadn't been killed yet, so...when this issue called attention to an ever-increasing amount of detail, I simply considered it as a challenge accepted, or a personal insult to my intelligence, even. It was a call to arms. Thus, I insisted on not to seek any alternatives, not yet, as if bound by a samurai honour code. After all, I had the concept for this particular type of hinge mechanism clear in my mind. There was only the trifle matter of putting it into realization, to take care of.

At this stage, the summoning of demons might actually have proven quite handy.

I was faced with the ultimate question: how to tap back into the creative flow, when the empire was falling around me?

Maybe I should have attached a slide of the hinge mechanism I found in some engineering porn site that was infested with a multitude of graphic illustrations and video shootage of all kinds of highly technical gadgets and gizmos. Y'know, the one that I found most promising to develop further.

Well, I didn't – so, you'll just have to imagine how it looked like.

I'm sure this sounds like the stuff from some poorly screenplayed science fiction movie, or the mindless verbal rambling of a voodoo hierophant who's probably tripping balls on magic mushrooms. However, I'm afraid that I'll have to let you down on your vivid speculations about the origins of this concept. It was very real. We found something similar applied to safes and vacuum containers, and such, with more or less sophisticated mechanisms, that might have worked with our sheet metal cabinet. The only catch with all the mechanisms was that they seemed to require lots of time to design, especially to get the dimensions exact – and this project was little by little running out of time. Our cabinet door required something sturdy, like the hinges on a huge cast iron safe. The weight of the door, fully assembled, approximated near thirty kilos already. On the other hand, we needed something compact, in order to squeeze the hinges in the formidably narrow space between the outer sheet metal casing and the doorframe of steel.

For some peculiar reason, this project suddenly started to feel like the biggest wild goose chase in the history of gun cabinets...but, like I said: after an extensive online research, we finally came across such a sophisticated mechanism, that seemed appropriate for our needs, with just a few minor modifications. It called for an infinite amount of trials and errors to dimension right, but we gave it a go, anyway. The margin to have each component in our cabinet assembly in working condition by the deadline was getting incredibly small, and risk assessment probably wasn't our strong point. We took on a challenge, only to fail in the most beautiful fashion. Obviously, this particular hinge design proved way too sophisticated to execute in the given time. Eventually, we had to face the facts, discard this fancy hi-tech mechanism, and go for the second best option. Just twelve hours before the deadline for the final submission, I basically had to witness my deep faith in humanity disappear into the ether, as this issue with the hinges turned out to be such a gift that just kept on giving. I resolved this problem with a straightforward and brutal solution: by thrusting a simple rod of steel vertically through the door, attached with a pair of bronze sliding bearings. After that, I extruded a couple of additional holes in the doorframe – and voilá! The cabinet design was complete. This impromptu change of plans, conducted in the very last minute of the project, obviously compromised the original idea for an idiot-proof cabinet door, but we really had no choice.

Maybe next time we'll be equipped with more profound wisdom and battle-hardened experience, so that we'll be able to execute more informed choices. This project was supposed to be a crash course in the wonders of sheet metal design, and provide us with some hands-on experience with the topic. In practice, it was more like an experiment in the dark forests of the human mind. In this respect, however, we did quite well. Yes, the design process turned sour and frustrating at times, or to put it in a more evocative wording – it was a genuine pain in the ass, but did we die? Nope. It certainly is a very human trait to lose focus and give up, after reaching the ultimate frustration point. On several occassions, during this endeavour in psychological torture, I was tempted to take a Big Lebowskian stance, let go and cry out:

”Fuck it, let's go bowling!”

But I didn't.

Of course, I can only speak for myself, when I say that out of sheer hatred towards anything even remotely related to sheet metal, I forced myself to complete this assignment – like, when the software crashed on me for the fifth time during the course of just a few hours. My immediate urge, more often than not, was to smash the computer screen with a baseball bat, when things didn't quite go as planned. But, instead, I manouvered myself into a kind of zen state of mind. Of course, my mind was not completely empty, like in a genuine higher state of consciousness. It was actually pretty full – filled with some explicit thoughts, certainly Not Safe For Work environment, but I guess it's safe to say that these thoughts mostly hinted that I was not going to let a stupid machine get the best of me. Well, I have 15 years' worth of experience in logistics, so I guess I am more resilient to stress than the average person. I have worked for Satan himself, in a most high-stress job you can imagine. So, as an afterthought, I guess this project was actually fairly easy on me. It was challenging in many respects, but eventually the project design was completed with not much collateral damage.

Maybe this chunk of metal does not provide enough ground to build a profitable business model on it, but it just might suggest a novel and street smart way to store away your firearms. I'm sure you could get a bigger and standardized cabinet for almost the same amount of money, but then again: who actually needs to possess more than four pieces, anyway? If you feel a sting in your heart, when I say this, maybe you should ask yourself:

Did Jeffrey Epstein really kill himself?

Am I just preparing for the zombie apocalypse?

I would guess that no one in his, or her, right mind really needs five or more firearms. For those of us, who need a cool storage application for max. 4 guns, I designed this shiny little sheet metal beast. I am still entertaining the possibility, that this boutique cabinet might have an enticing appeal to those of us, who prefer a highly customised luxury approach, rather than a generic application of nothing special, dashed out for mass production in the sweatshops of the third world countries. Obviously, this design philosophy did not quite exclude the need to take the ease and cost of manufacture into account – and that's what I did.

I refrained myself from integrating overly complicated shapes, just for the sake of appearance. Every bend in the sheet metal structure was well-thought out. Maybe I could have done with less welding seam, but I opted for reinforced safety. Remember, the primary goal was to enhance the possibility to come up with an idio-proof cabinet design. You see, idiots and guns don't really mix that well. It sounds like common knowledge, but as we all can see in the nine o'clock news on a daily basis, not many are catching up...

From the very outset of this project, I tried to view this cabinet design through the imaginary lens of the potential customer. I dare to guess, that the most likely candidate to purchase a weapon storage application of this caliber (pun intended!) would be a white, heterosexual Finnish male going in his late 50's. This stereotypical character resides somewhere in the back of beyond, in the most rural areas of Finland, in the hard core of the Baby Boomers paradigm, that is the classic ”rintamamies”-house, built in the 1940's. Our protagonist here presents the Jungian archetype of a DIY-handyman, with a passion for hunting wild game in his spare time. He is quite an active and respected member of society – the local hunting society, in particular. He's got his mortgage paid off by now, which means that he can very well afford to treat himself to something special, every once in a while – like, a brand new, state-of-the-art gun cabinet, because the old one is...well, old. With this in mind, I decided to design this cabinet for the higher price range. I rest assured that the hefty price tag would be justified by the extra emphasis on security. I wanted to take my cabinet design to the next level, and to some degree, I guess I succeeded. After all, it usually is a tell-tale sign of an amateur-at-work to compete on price. I opted for excellence without compromise. All too many gun cabinet manufacturers seemed not. The vast majority of the products on the gun cabinet market seemed to capture the ethos of the classic one-liner, said by the American musical genius Frank Zappa, back in the day:

”If we can't be free, let's at least be cheap.”

For many, this kind of an approach seemed to be a very viable option in a gun cabinet design. I'm sure it can be a convenient philosophy in life, in general – as it seems to be for many, too. It was never an option for this particular design project, to say the least. I am a firm believer, that you are the sum of all the experiences you go through, as well as the people around you. Being surrounded by dysfunction and incompetence will eventually get you nowhere. At the end of the day, with all the designer's blocks and frustrations dealt with, after getting strangled in a multitude of loose ends, for God knows how many times, overcoming the obstacles in this ”joint” venture eventually provided me with a sense of pride in a job well done. My gun cabinet might not become a nifty prototype for a potential customer product, but nevertheless, I came up with something unique. The technical documentation of this project design might seem like a white paper on how to ruin a perfectly promising raw idea, but then again....there is no such thing as perfection, when it comes to rushing things to completion, especially, when it's not something you're doing by choice.

In retrospect, with the hinge issue aside, the design for this cabinet evolved pretty smoothly and effortlessly. The double-layered steel chassis took maybe a couple of days to sketch, model and annotate – just like most of the other components did too. Believe me, it's not an understatement, when I tell you that 90 percent of this project consisted of figuring out how to make a double-action hinge work in a desired way. Maybe it could serve as a topic for further development. It probably would require quite a few iterations to configure the mechanism to work perfectly in the context of this gun cabinet. With this project, though, I had to rush the design to meet the deadline. Thus, I cannot say for certain, whether this sheet metal cabinet will perform as desired, or if it has any of the enhanced technical value I opted for. Chances of true success might be minimal, respectively. With the benefit of doubt, however, I dare to suggest that the original objectives of this project could still be accomplished through the application of such customised hinge mechanism. Now, we'll probably never know.

Unless, of course, the conservative dark forces are going to bring back the good ol' times, and I can have another go at this...

Or, maybe not...

I thank you dearly for your time and patience. If you wish to ask me anything about this project, I will gladly answer. Of course, it would be more convenient to continue with the technical and psychological nuances of this project over a pint of beer...but alas, the school cafeteria does not have the licence to sell alcohol. Well, anyways...knock yourselves out.

Ok, that's about it. Now I'm excited to pass the torch on to the next project team: the podium is all yours.

Arrivederci!

It remains to be seen, how my English teacher reviewed this presentation. Most likely, the required level of formality was not reached, which might be reflected in my English grade. However, I think that there is only a narrow window of opportunity to make a lasting impression, in the everyday interaction with the people around you. I would guess, that this presentation will not be as easily forgotten as the ones peppered with rambling formalities. My last Powerpoint slide, that was depicting the benefits of this design project, was basically just a picture of a giant facepalm. Try erasing that mental image from your mind now, eh!

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dipulb3 · 3 years ago

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The Mercedes-AMG GT43 4-Door is almost fantastic

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/the-mercedes-amg-gt43-4-door-is-almost-fantastic/

The Mercedes-AMG GT43 4-Door is almost fantastic

The Mercedes-AMG GT43 is worthy of the AMG name.

Jonathan Harper/Roadshow

When Mercedes-AMG launched the GT 4-Door Coupe in 2018, the US got two V8-powered GT63 models and a superb inline-6-powered GT53. Europe also got a cheaper, less-powerful GT43 that seemed like it wouldn’t make sense in the US. But for 2021 the GT43 is now available Stateside, and it feels like a proper AMG… mostly.

Four-door coupe styling

Lovely chassis and ride quality

Don’t Like

Engine isn’t special enough

More powerful GT53 isn’t much pricier

On its own, the GT43’s powertrain is phenomenal. It’s the same turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-6 with an EQ-Boost mild-hybrid system, like what you’ll find in the E450 and CLS450, with 362 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque. A nine-speed automatic is the only transmission, and all-wheel drive is standard. Mercedes says the GT43 will hit 60 mph in a brisk 4.8 seconds, which is quicker than the E450 and matches the CLS450.

The GT53, meanwhile, adds an electric supercharger on top of that turbo I6. It makes 429 hp and 384 lb-ft, an increase of 67 hp and 15 lb-ft over the GT43, and the engine’s peak torque is available across a wider rev range. Mercedes says the GT53 will hit 60 mph in 4.4 seconds, almost half a second quicker than the GT43.

The GT43 certainly looks the part.

Jonathan Harper/Roadshow

Around town it’s tough to notice a difference between the 43 and 53 except for when you really floor it from a light or while merging onto the highway. But the GT43’s lack of an electric supercharger really becomes apparent when you get it on a curvy road. Coming out of corners the GT43 just doesn’t have enough punch. Even if I drop a gear or two and floor it, it lacks a lot of the 53’s slightly manic character. At least the 43 sounds great when equipped with the $1,850 variable performance exhaust.

Thankfully, the GT43’s handling makes up for the engine’s shortcomings. It continues AMG’s recent trend of offering satisfying electric power steering, and its turn-in and overall levels of feedback are just as sharp as the GT53. My test car has a $3,450 set of huge 21-inch wheels wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport 4S summer tires (sized 275/35 up front and 315/30 in the back), which offer a massive amount of grip. The GT43 feels much more nimble and compact than its 4,530-pound curb weight and 199.2-inch length would suggest.

Even on these huge wheels the GT43’s ride is wonderful.

Jonathan Harper/Roadshow

Typically, you’d think 21-inch wheels would ruin the GT43’s ride, but that’s not the case. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. The GT43 is super composed and comfortable, never getting unsettled or shuddery over even the roughest surfaces and potholes. The ride is noticeably better than that of the E-Class and CLS, and the GT43 comes standard with adjustable dampers.

The GT43 looks identical to the GT53, which is to say it looks excellent. My test car wears $720 Brilliant Blue metallic paint and has all the standard chrome trim intact, which looks great with the 21-inch forged wheels. (If it were my money, I’d go for the $3,950 matte version of this paint.) The six-cylinder GT 4-Doors have less aggressive front fascias than the GT63, and I actually prefer the subtler look. Its hatchback rear end makes it way more practical than a CLS- or E-Class, too.

The GT43’s interior has Mercedes’ ubiquitous dual-screen setup, a sweeping dashboard and a tall center console with two rows of touchscreen buttons. For 2021 the GT 4-Doors get Mercedes’ fantastic MBUX infotainment system, which brings a redesigned touchpad, a voice assistant, navigation, and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. This GT43’s combination of the $2,850 Auburn Brown leather and no-cost Grey Ash matte wood trim looks fantastic, and the interior’s design is sufficiently different from a regular E-Class. Despite the sloped roof, there’s a pretty great amount of headroom and legroom for regular-sized rear passengers. The rear seats are fixed, though, and the only way to get folding seatbacks is to spring for the $3,550 Executive Rear Seat package, which also adds three-zone climate control, heated and cooled rear cupholders, two rear USB ports, a touchscreen and wireless charging pad for the rear passengers.

The interior is shared with other GT 4-Door models.

Jonathan Harper/Roadshow

As with the styling and powertrain, the GT43 is identical to the GT53 in terms of feature content. Standard items include LED headlights, an active rear spoiler, heated front seats, MB-Tex upholstery, remote start and keyless entry, a power liftgate, a sunroof, ambient interior lighting, a surround-sound Burmester stereo system, dual-zone climate control, parking sensors, blind-spot monitoring and automated emergency braking.

My GT43 has $17,045 in options for a sticker price of $107,995, and it still isn’t fully loaded. Key additions are the $450 ventilated front seats, $2,100 fixed panoramic sunroof, $500 360-degree camera, the must-have $400 drive mode buttons on the steering wheel, a $350 augmented-reality navigation function and the $1,950 Driver Assistance package that adds features like adaptive cruise control, lane-change assist, lane-keeping assist and rear cross-traffic alert. If it were my money I’d also add the $1,320 massaging front seats, $4,550 3D sound system, $1,100 head-up display and $1,100 Acoustic Comfort package to really up the luxury factor.

At $90,950 to start (including $1,050 for destination) the GT43 is $10,050 cheaper than the GT53, which isn’t a ton of money in the grand scheme of things — look how easy it is to add almost double that in options. Then there’s the issue of the 2021 CLS53 AMG, which has a starting price of $82,600 and gets the AMG-fettled engine that the GT43 lacks. Or at least it did; the AMG CLS53 is being discontinued for 2022, leaving only the much cheaper CLS450, giving the GT43 some breathing room.

The real reason the GT43 exists in America is so AMG has a direct competitor to the base Porsche Panamera 4, as the GT53 goes against the Panamera 4S. But with the Panamera 4 costing $93,150 and the 4S starting at $106,350, the Porsches have a bigger price difference between them, plus the all-wheel-drive Panamera 4 is already $4,600 more expensive than the rear-wheel-drive version. They also have different engines, standard features and driving characteristics, and the Panamera 4 makes a better case for itself.

After spending a week with the GT43, it still doesn’t make a lot of sense. That doesn’t mean that it’s not incredible to look at, excellent to drive and nice to be inside, though. Even with this lowly powertrain, the GT43 feels worthy of the AMG name. It’s more than enough car for people that want the GT look and feel without a mega-high price or a rowdier demeanor. But if you really enjoy driving, the GT53 is well worth the extra cost.

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orbemnews · 4 years ago

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Three Electric S.U.V.s With Tesla in Their Sights An electric trickle is turning into a flood: As many as 100 new E.V. models are coming to showrooms by 2025. Heavyweights including Volkswagen, General Motors and Ford are floating promises of all-electric lineups within a decade. The end times of gasoline can almost seem a fait accompli, except for one pesky issue: Even given Tesla’s strides, we’re still waiting for the first genuine E.V. sales hit, let alone a mass exodus from unleaded. In 2014, Nissan sold a mere 30,200 Leafs, and that’s still the American record for any non-Tesla model. Ford routinely sells more than 800,000 F-Series pickups. A single gasoline sport utility vehicle, the Toyota RAV4, finds well over 400,000 annual buyers, compared with roughly 250,000 sales last year for all E.V.s combined — 200,000 of which were Teslas. Automakers insist we’re “this close” to a tipping point. E.V. market share is expected to grow to as much as 50 percent by 2032, from just 1.7 percent last year, said Scott Keogh, president and chief executive of Volkswagen of America. While Tesla captured 80 percent of the U.S. market for electric vehicles in 2020, VW and other global giants — with war chests built on internal-combustion engines and unmatched scale and manufacturing know-how — are well positioned to take a piece of Tesla’s pie. “There’s never been a competitive consumer product that sits at 80 percent market share” for long, Mr. Keogh said. Globally, Volkswagen is poised to pass Tesla as the world’s biggest electric vehicle seller as early as next year, according to Deutsche Bank, with Europe and China its key markets. In America, where the brand remains an underdog, VW and other legacy automakers are concentrating fire on the sales fortress of compact S.U.V.s: Models like the RAV4, which deliver roughly four million annual segment sales. The idea, as ever, is to drive down prices and charging times of E.V.s, while bolstering driving range, until consumers see no reason to stick with polluting gasoline models whose energy-and-operating costs exceed the plug-in alternatives. Like the Rolling Stones pushing the Beatles, Mr. Keogh said, healthy competition will ultimately benefit all E.V. fans and creators. And when consumers sees E.V.s proliferate in their neighbors’ driveways, and take their first test drive, there will be no going back. “When you drive one, you’re driving the future, and that’s what people are going to want, no debate,” Mr. Keogh said. The latest electric-S.U.V. hopefuls to reach showrooms are the VW ID.4, Ford Mustang Mach-E and Volvo XC40 Recharge. The Nissan Ariya, BMW iX and Cadillac Lyriq are set to arrive between late 2021 and next March. I drove the VW, Ford and Volvo to see which might knock Tesla’s Model Y S.U.V. down a peg — or at least outsell the 2014 Leaf. Ford Mustang Mach-E Ford has branded its fabled Mustang name on an electric S.U.V., inflaming some boomers in the process. But the Mach-E seems the most straight-up rival yet to Tesla’s Model Y, in not only price and performance but also the Ford’s maximum 300-mile driving range. Consumers have noticed: Ford sold 3,729 Mach-Es in February, the first full month of sales, almost single-handedly chopping Tesla’s dominant E.V. share to 69 percent, from 80 percent. If Ford could maintain that pace for a full year, the Mach-E would easily set a sales record for an E.V. not built by Tesla. Tesla’s 326-mile Model Y Long Range still squeezes a few more miles from each onboard kilowatt-hour, owing to the carmaker’s expertise in aerodynamics, motor and battery efficiency, and to “simple” stuff that’s anything but: Its 4,416-pound curb weight undercuts the Ford by about 400 pounds. And Tesla rules the public charging space, with its Supercharger network that has rivals — now with a potential infrastructure lift from the Biden administration — racing to catch up. The Ford fires back with a sculpted exterior versus the dad-bod Model Y, a tech-savvy interior with superior materials and craftsmanship, and winning performance of its own. With 346 horsepower from dual motors, the Mach-E Premium A.W.D. that I drove shot to 60 miles an hour in 4.8 seconds. Even the new Shelby GT500 — history’s mightiest Mustang, with 760 horsepower — won’t equal the 3.5-second 0-to-60 m.p.h. blast of this summer’s Mach-E GT Performance version. The Shelby would shame the Mach-E or Tesla on any winding road, of course. Yet the Mach-E is reasonably fun through the curvy stuff, and glides with addictive thrust and confidence. A cinema-scale, 15.5-inch touch screen sneaks past the Tesla’s 15-inch unit. Like other E.V.s, the Ford broadcasts its presence below 20 m.p.h., a throat-clearing hum to alert pedestrians. Inside, in its driver-selectable “Whisper” mode, the Ford would please the most persnickety librarian. Dial up “Unbridled” mode and the Mach-E trades glorious silence for an overwrought, faux-engine sound: Think a V-8, remixed by Kraftwerk. The soundtrack is apparently for people who need to be weaned off gasoline’s combustive beat, but it can be shut off with a screen switch. E.V. shoppers can whistle over the Ford’s price, as little as $36,495, or $48,300 for the extended-range A.W.D. model. Those prices include a $7,500 federal tax credit that’s denied to buyers of Tesla (or General Motors) E.V.s, because those automakers have sold too many to qualify. So despite Tesla’s major, defensive price cuts for 2021, the most-affordable, 230-mile-range Mach-E undercuts Tesla’s 244-mile Standard Range by $6,700. A Mach-E Premium A.W.D. saves $2,900 versus a Model Y Long Range. In a surprisingly taut, compelling matchup with the Tesla, credit the government for what may be the Ford’s most alluring advantage: a $7,500 discount. Volkswagen ID.4 No, Volkswagen is not changing its name to Voltswagen, as the company briefly convinced some media and car fans in a marketing stunt gone bad. Regarding historic names, VW calls the ID.4 its most significant model since the original Beetle. But where the Beetle was a revolutionary leader, the ID.4 feels like a follower. Based on my drive, the VW can easily top its 250-mile range rating, with 275 miles within reach. A rear-drive, 201-horsepower model rolls to 60 m.p.h. in 7.6 seconds. That’s on a par with gasoline sport utilities like the Honda CR-V, but pokey by E.V. standards. Dual-motor, all-wheel-drive models arrive later this year, promising 60 m.p.h. in under six seconds. From a company famed for fun-to-drive German cars, the ID.4’s generic performance and styling are letdowns. Its infotainment system is even more disappointing: The clunky, vexing touch screen can’t touch the onscreen wizardry of the Ford, Volvo or Tesla. The VW’s snappiest performance came during a fast-charging session at a Target in New Jersey, replenishing its 77 kilowatt-hour battery from 20 to 80 percent in an impressive 31 minutes. That growing network of Electrify America chargers is funded by VW’s $2 billion, court-ordered penance for its diesel emissions scandal. And VW is offering indulgences to ID.4 buyers, with three years of free public charging. Thrifty virtues include a $41,190 base price, or $33,690 after the $7,500 federal tax break. That’s $2,800 less than the most-affordable Mach-E. It’s also less money, after credits, than a smaller Chevrolet Bolt. The more powerful ID.4 with all-wheel drive will start at $37,370, postcredit. Still, as Tesla’s triumph and Chevy’s lukewarm Bolt have proved, there’s more to electric success than an attractive price. VW is aggressively investing $80 billion to develop E.V.s, but the ID.4 feels less like a market splash and more like a toe in the water. We’ll see if VW erred by not kicking off with a recognizable design that truly connects its nostalgic, weed-hazed past to today’s green virtues: the electric ID.Buzz Microbus, due in 2023. Volvo XC40 Recharge Volvo seems such a natural fit for E.V.s. And the progressive-minded brand brings us the XC40 Recharge, an electrified take on its gasoline XC40. The Recharge is like that perfect dining table in a shelter magazine: You’re not sure why it costs so much, but you want it anyway. The Recharge’s wedgy Scandinavian styling tops every S.U.V. in this group, as does its lovely interior. That includes soft Nappa leather, versus the ascetic “vegan” materials of many E.V.s. The drive is similarly breezy, with 402 horses and a quicksilver, 4.7-second flight to 60 m.p.h. The biggest tech talking point may be Android Automotive OS: The Recharge (and Volvo’s electric Polestar 2) introduces a cloud-based Google operating system that works like a dream, with Google Maps, search, an ultra-capable voice assistant and more. (Don’t confuse this with the ubiquitous Android Auto, which simply mirrors phone apps on a car’s screen.) Several major automakers, including G.M. and Ford, plan to make Android Automotive the nerve centers of coming cars. If only the Volvo itself were as efficient. The Recharge is an electron guzzler, with a 208-mile range that seems optimistic in real-world use. I drove the Recharge in frigid New York weather, which explained some but not all of its hunger for power: No matter how I babied the throttle, the Volvo stayed on a pace for 190 miles, at best, covering about 2.4 miles for each kilowatt-hour in the batteries. I can achieve 3.6 miles per kilowatt-hour with little effort in the Tesla Model Y and above 3.2 in the Ford. Environmental Protection Agency numbers bear that out: Despite having virtually the same-size battery, the Tesla brings 326 miles of maximum range, 118 more than the Volvo. The Recharge is also expensive for its intimate size: $54,985 to start, and nearly $60,000 for the model I drove. That $7,500 federal tax break softens the blow. Yet if the Volvo indulges bourgeois buyers, they’ll also need to indulge its profligate ways. Source link Orbem News #Electric #Sights #SUVs #Tesla

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aaagaragedoorpros · 4 years ago

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Is A New Garage Door A Good Investment?

Written by Admin and published on https://www.olympicgaragedoor.com/

Your home gets one chance to make a good first impression—and it does so largely with its garage door. In fact, research shows that when it comes to curb appeal, investing in a solid, spiffy-looking garage door matters more than various other exterior improvements you could undertake. The benefits of installing a new garage door go well beyond a fresh new facade, though. If you’ve been stalling on an upgrade, read on! You’ll learn why now’s the time to invest in this fast, affordable upgrade that can boost resale value, save you money, and make your life a little easier in the months and years to come.

How Garage Doors Increase Home Value

A garage door can last for decades in your home, but replacing an old, worn-out door can drastically increase the value of your home. Besides the fact that a garage door return on investment (ROI) is much higher than other home renovations, it will also provide invaluable benefits, like energy efficiency and security, to your living space.

While the price to replace your garage door depends on a variety of factors, you can customize your order to accommodate your budget and design needs. This guide will help you find out how a new garage door will increase the value of your home.

IS A GARAGE DOOR A GOOD INVESTMENT?

A garage door can add value to your house, especially if you’ve been having problems with it. In the Olympia Peninsula, a garage door replacement has an ROI of 117.1%. As the second most valuable home improvement you can make this year, the cost to replace your garage door pays for itself. Whether you plan on putting your house on the market or you want to increase your home’s curb appeal, investing in a new garage door is a smart, cost-effective choice.

More than two-thirds of REALTORS® suggest you can sell your home faster with a new garage door. When the exterior of your house is fresh and clean, it invites potential homebuyers to take a look inside. Since this part of your living space takes up a significant portion of the exterior, you should upgrade it to make an appealing first impression on your guests.

DOES A GARAGE DOOR ADD VALUE TO YOUR PROPERTY?

Does a new garage door increase your home’s value? Besides monetary profit, this upgrade enhances the quality of your living space in other ways. You can have sturdy protection for your garage and the rest of your home by making this simple change to your property. Along with security and safety, you’ll have a stable door that opens and closes when you need it.

1. SECURITY

Thieves can easily break into a garage through old doors with worn-out locks or predictable access code systems. If they can break into your garage, they can access the central area of your home. Newer garage doors and openers have rolling code technology that sends a randomly generated password to your phone each time you try opening the door. These models also have reliable, secure locking systems to keep out unwanted visitors.

2. ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Most attached garages are uninsulated, but since they often share a wall with the interior of the home, they can affect the whole house’s temperature. To help you save on heating and cooling costs, garage door manufacturers create their new products from the highest-quality materials with an extra layer of insulation. If you have insulation on your door, it will preserve the temperature of this living area.

Invest in a garage door with a high R-value, so you can keep your living space warm in the winter and cool in the summer. An insulated version regulates the airflow of your garage and the rest of your house by sealing air leaks. You could also increase the energy efficiency of your garage by weatherstripping any windows or doors you have throughout this part of your home.

3. CURB APPEAL

The curb appeal of your house is an essential factor in whether or not it sells. When a potential homebuyer pulls up to your property, the first thing they notice is the outside appearance. To enhance the aesthetic of your house, consider upgrading your garage door to complement the colors and the overall theme of your living space. With a custom garage door, you choose the style, material and size of its appearance.

A worn-out garage door gives visitors the impression that you don’t care about your property. Dents or missing panels can also make your door dangerous to use. If you update this feature of your living space, you can make the rest of the property look brand-new. Your neighbors will appreciate having an aesthetically pleasing house on the block, instead of one that drags down the appearance of the area.

4. SAFETY

New garage doors come with safety features that protect you, your family and your valuables. Photo-eye sensors prevent the door from closing on a small child or a pet. When the photo eyes sense any obstruction in the door’s pathway, they activate the automatic reversal feature that will send the door back toward the ceiling.

You could get a Wi-Fi-enabled garage door opener to connect the door to your phone. The opener will send you real-time alerts if you left the door open or if someone is trying to break into your house. This feature provides both safety and convenience benefits that can make your door’s operating system more accessible throughout the day.

5. SMOOTHER OPERATION

Garage doors and openers make grinding or squeaking noises as they move because of wear and tear on their metal parts. Opening and closing them seems to require more effort than they did a few years ago. A new system will increase the value of your living space by providing better quality for this entryway into your home.

When you invest in a brand-new garage door, you save money on repair costs. An older, worn-out system requires additional maintenance and replacement of parts. Your new entryway unit will last you for decades, giving you a reliable, cost-effective operating system to allow you into your living space.

PRICE TO REPLACE A GARAGE DOOR

The cost to upgrade your garage door depends on several factors. With a custom-made unit, you can use the Clopay® Door Imagination System

and create a door that accommodates your personality and style. You could discuss your budget and design options with a local distributor to avoid overspending.

1. THE SIZE OF YOUR GARAGE

The width of the garage will determine how much your new entryway will cost. You could have a one-car or two-car garage door, depending on what size you need.

With a roomier garage, you can either customize two single-car units or one double-car unit to access the inside of the garage. You may have to spend extra money to knock down or build a wall if you choose a system that doesn’t accommodate your home’s current structure.

2. THE MATERIAL OF THE DOOR

When budgeting for a new garage door, you should factor in the cost of the material. You will have to pay more money to keep up the appearance of high-maintenance materials with sealants and finishes. Here are the types we have available for your entryway unit, from most affordable to most expensive.

Steel: As the most cost-effective, steel is sturdy and functional, but it’s prone to denting and doesn’t have natural insulation.

Aluminum: This material is an alternative to steel since it’s lighter and possible to insulate, but it’s sensitive to dents.

Composite: Wood composite is an inexpensive substitute for wood because it’s low-maintenance, but you have fewer customization options.

Wood: A wooden garage door is a popular choice because of its natural beauty, but it’s high-maintenance and the most expensive.

3. THE STYLE OR THEME OF THE DOOR

Your garage door should complement the style of your front door. While the appearance of the door doesn’t always affect the price, you will have to pay extra money if it’s custom. The most common styles available today are as follows.

Paneled: As the most common style, this door has panels that give it depth and dimension, and it opens in a sliding pattern.

Carriage house doors: This style of door has gained popularity for its luxurious appearance. It features two doors opening outward, with wood or a wood overlay and an arched top. You may also find paneled doors with hardware to make it look like a carriage door.

Modern doors: As an option with plenty of windows, modern garage doors feature glass and aluminum that gives your house a clean appearance.

4. THE GARAGE DOOR OPENER

If you’re going to get a new garage door, you should also replace your garage door opener to make sure it’s compatible with the new model. The size and horsepower of the opener will affect its price. You will need a bigger, more robust system if the door is a dense material.

For a few hundred dollars, you could get a Wi-Fi-enabled garage door opener so you can easily access the operating system from anywhere you have an internet connection. All the LiftMaster® garage door openers in our inventory come with Wi-Fi compatibility for easy installation.

5. LAYERS OF INSULATION

While some materials have natural insulative properties, adding a layer of insulation to your garage door will reduce the price of your utilities each month. For an additional cost, manufacturers typically put a sheet or two of this energy-efficient insulation in the core. The higher the R-value of the insulation, the more you will have to pay, but the more you will save on your energy bills.

If your house has an attached garage, you should invest in polystyrene or polyurethane insulation so you can regulate the interior temperature of your home. Some doors also come with the option for Intellicore® polyurethane and WINDCODE® treatments if you live in a windy area.

BEST HOME IMPROVEMENT IDEAS TO INCREASE VALUE

Besides a garage door, you could increase the value of your home with other remodeling projects. When deciding which ways to remodel your house, consider the ROI of each project and the benefits they would provide. These are the top home renovations that add value.

A minor kitchen remodeling: Homeowners and real estate agents often consider the kitchen the focal point of the home. If you take on a small remodeling project for the kitchen, you could recoup 86.6% of the value. The key isn’t to go overboard, but to make your kitchen stand out in simple ways. Your design should blend in with the architectural style of your house. All you need to do is change out the cabinets or add a fresh coat of paint. Consider adding energy-efficient appliances to save money in utility costs over time and potentially benefit from rebates.

Deck addition: Outdoor living areas are becoming more attractive for potential homebuyers because they’re a smart way to maximize existing space. A wood deck addition yields an ROI of 77.1%, while a composite wood returns 70.6%.

Window replacement: You would know you need to replace your windows if they have damage or condensation or if you have air leaks throughout your home. Energy-efficient windows save you money in energy costs because they eliminate drafts throughout the house. A mid-range vinyl window replacement yields an ROI of 74.9%. Since a window replacement increases the energy efficiency of your home, but not necessarily the appearance, you don’t have to invest in luxurious windows to get the most out of your remodeling project.

Change out the siding: Replacing your vinyl siding increases the value of your house, yielding an ROI of 78%. You could paint your home for the same effect, but at a fraction of the price. Most homebuyers prefer neutral colors, like gray or beige, so try to avoid bold colors on the outside of your home.

Simple landscaping: Clean landscaping enhances the curb appeal of your home, inviting in potential homebuyers and guests. Laying down fertilizer and spraying weed control give you a higher resale value for your property. Elaborate landscaping projects aren’t worth the investment, so stick with low-maintenance plants and colorful flowers.

Bathroom addition or update: If your home only has one bathroom, adding one can increase the value of your house. Walk through your house to find any underused spaces where you could add a bathroom. You could remodel any of the bathrooms you have in your living space for an increase in property value. A remodel of your current bathroom yields an ROI of 66.1%, while an addition returns 58.9%.

Flooring: Homeowners favor hardwood floors because of their low maintenance and luxurious appearance. To enhance the value of your house, install hardwood flooring or refinish the wood floors you already have in your living space. While hardwood is more expensive than carpeting, it lasts longer and enhances the aesthetic of your living space. You could maintain your hardwood flooring by sweeping and vacuuming regularly and reapplying a protective finish every few years.

Insulation: You need new insulation if your energy expenses have increased or you have one room that’s colder or warmer than the rest of the house. Filling in new insulation will help lower your utility bills by keeping the temperature stable throughout the house. Besides installing fiberglass or spray foam insulation, a professional contractor can increase the energy efficiency of your home by checking for air leaks throughout the house and sealing cracks in your light fixtures or windows.

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