#but now I am almost out of low level alts and i already have like 1 of each spec of each class so I guess i will have to max level through

[fnibble]

cant believe i got myself addicted to wow again

[elizabethrobertajones]

12 & 11: Corps-a-corps and Displacement combo

If you've never looked at this one close up it's worth it. You make an aetherial tether disturbingly like Rescue, and then violently yank yourself through the air towards your target. It's such a delightful effect!

When I went to look at Displacement I was like "yeah yeah the cool flip, we've all seen it" and then realised that I had to debate with myself if I'd learn screen recording just to show off the funny little back step stumble when you land really hard and for just a moment you're struggling for footing. I guess the WoL is only human after all?? Anyway it's a level 50 ability so go pick up the job and try it at a training dummy if you don't have it. [this is not red mage propaganda I promise]

10: Slither

I really thought I'd put this lower because it looks so nothing when you're in the middle of pressing all the buttons as fast as they light up. And then I slowed it down and looked at what actually happens to you mid-slither, and now I'm obsessed.

9: Elusive Jump

This thing SHOULD be boring as the effects are just some trailing lines, and the actual use of it involves rotating 180 degrees when walking forwards, so you can yeet backwards to go forwards, which is hella clumsy and I levelled a whole new alt just to practice it in the safety of low level zones where no one would judge you when I swapped to controller. Unlike repelling shot, you can use it any time anywhere, so the backwardsness is way less important. AND as of the latest patch it's even got a combo with javelin like Samurai has had with its backstep the whole time I've been playing.

But.

LOOK AT THE AIR YOU CAN GET. Quintessential Yeet.

8: Crimson Cyclone

Summoner's gap closer HAS killed me before, and WILL kill me again. Mostly between [redacted]'s finger shaped boss arena.

That said, it is HILARIOUS that they gave a caster a gap closer and melee range follow up. That alone would have got this into the top 10, but my curiosity has been burning like Ifrit for a while, and today I am finally peeking behind the curtain of the all consuming hot fires that obscure you from view…

[spell effects off]

…

My gods, it's perfect.

7 & 6: Hissatsu Goten & Yaten combo

Listen; this is in my absolute favourite jobs hands down, anyway, for playing. For general aesthetics. For the sheer beauty of all the sword noises as you hit buttons. The fact it's actually pretty much just black mage with a sword when you look at how all the spells are elementally aspected with some lightning and unaspected enormous fuck yous in the finishers.

Also these abilities just make me feel like Frog's in a Samurai movie, and I REALLY enjoyed Shogun earlier this year.

Yaten has such a beautiful final slide into position (take note other jobs with a backwards yeet. None of you are doing like this. Even funnier RDM was made at the same time so you have the choice between this and almost eating shit every time you jump backwards.)

5 & 4: Hell's Ingress and Egress

SO PRETTY. The unique ability with the voidgate left behind so you can reposition, PLUS the choice to open it backwards or forwards makes Reaper such a delight to play because on top of just being a really smooth job, you can choose to fall off platforms in ANY direction with style :)

3: Winged Glide

???? I discovered this while scrolling Actions & Traits to work out which abilities moved you and which ones didn't??? And Dragoon now has a damage free scoot up to the enemies to mix with your jumps that don't jump you?????

HOW LONG HAS THIS BEEN HERE? IS IT JUST THE PATCH OR IS IT SINCE DT?

PLEASE TELL ME IT HASN'T BEEN LONGER THAN THAT.

Anyway. Dwagon!!! I FUCKING GUESSS!!!

(Put it right up top because I had a wild bias for which job would win so I didn't even leave space for it before I hit the final run of dragoon abilities I'd already set aside for the top 2.

top 3.

Are there any more I missed?? Estinien call me. Estinien. Please. Call me.)

2: Dragonfire Dive

I really like that this combos into just summoning a nidhogg since DT, though it uses the stardiver spell effects to do so, making me a bit uncertain if they should have linked it to that ability instead and put it over here for balance for some reason even though they both have an off global cooldown follow up ability.

On the other hand, I am always saying that there's functionally no difference between how Summoner works in the lore, and how Dragoon works for Estinien and WoL personally; the fact that their ShB era rotations were nigh on identical to the point that when they were my main jobs I got twisted between them at times and did silly things because I had been pressing buttons for one while my brain was in the other, is not JUST why I love this theory :P

In any case, in the off global cooldown jump gapcloser war, the dragoon obviously is the only one actually fighting, and with itself: it really just falls to me to choose which ones effects and animation are cooler at this point before they take away any more jumps.

1: Stardiver

I mean obviously we should learn more abilities from bosses.

However, in doing this, I uncovered an awful secret.

Dragoon's top two jumps, my chosen 2 of this whole project...

Actually without effects have you dropping your lance and looking in complete panic and about to eat shit entirely before you get it back together and land

I took so many of these while cackling I legit have no idea if they're from Stardiver or Dragonfire but it doesn't matter THEY BOTH HAVE THIS FRAME IN THE ANIMATION.

"Waaaaurgh!" - The WoL

"lol never mind I'm a badass again" - also the WoL

"WAIT FUCK NEVER MIND"

Bounding Frog's Yeet Abilities Rankings

(AKA Lizzy is feeling too sick to do any meaningful content)

26: Trajectory

The reason I started even thinking about doing these rankings in the first place. A true nadir of the artform, when they took away the damage, yet I still keep hitting it on cooldown in combat because I have played approximately half my hundreds of thousands of hours in this game on Gunbreaker.

It's just this:

Scoot. Or, well, it has two charges. Scoot Scoot mid rotation.

25: Thunderclap

Used constantly in combat and has zero frills because you WILL press it 100 times a fight and don't want to think about it. Used on friend and foe alike, good range, very flexible and so many charges for darting around. Technically perhaps the best.

While eminently practical, both its name and effect sound and look like a fart.

Starts with a dramatic lean in:

.... poot:

Anyway you don't want to think about this one more than you have to.

24: Repelling Shot:

It says it's a shot, but it doesn't do any damage and you don't release an arrow. Has the same blue effect as Shukuchi so I'm starting to add up that this is a generic moment spell, in this case, adorably levitating you. As someone who got really into Claude FireEmblemThreeHouses (wow what a surname to marry into >.>) it DOES appeal to me aesthetically. The fact it yeets you backwards from the enemy and you USED to have to run up to it from a ranged position in order to yeet made it really specific, but now you can do it from a moderate range, which has made it much more practical, and I'm having fun with it.

23: Aetherial Shift:

Enjoying learning to use a wind-aether job to fly, the effect is understated and the pose pretty. This gap closer is a nice addition for making this job even more practical when it's already one of the best, and makes Astrologian so so tragic for still not having Urianger's teleport (honorary mention for scholar's expedience since it's great but not a gap closer, or any sort of jump per say.)

Also it's wind aspected and doesn't look like a fart which is such a low bar I didn't realise that once I started actually looking at the poses I'd be weeping over.

Thinking of:

22: Shukuchi

Absolutely classic ninja move of throwing down a smoke bomb and teleporting away while they're coughing and distracted. 10/10 for vibes, loses a point for floor targeting when I'm panicking but gains it back when I have the presence of mind to use it for cool evasions and positioning.

By necessity it's a pretty low key effect which disappears you entirely except for your fart cloud. Which is an intentional effect so it's fine this time. Honestly the blue aether effects could be done without and just fully lean in but this IS a form of wizard so we have to nod to that and reveal it's not all practical effects and a trick of the eye, and you ARE literally disappearing into the shadow.

While we're on the subject of shadows and wizards...

21 and 20: Between The Lines and Aetherial Manipulation

On account of always screaming while pressing buttons like this I hadn't even noticed they HAD an animation up until this point. Black Mage is about watching gauges and ignoring orange circles on the ground.

These two have the exact same animation with ourple orbs for Lines and Aetherial Manip is geen!

And the animation? SLIDE FORWARDS IN THE AIR LIKE YOUR SLEEP PARALYSIS DEMON LEVITATING AT YOU.

19: En Avant

For the Pretty Job With Pretty effects, this one is again very low key, maybe because you have 3 charges and are using it constantly as you dart prettily about the arena. There's nothing WRONG with it, it's just... there... and ranking lower BECAUSE Dancer is often SO overtly pretty that this ranks low just in comparison with your other abilities in the job, rather than ranked against others.

I also learned that you shouldn't wear full plate while dancing because all the abilities are sort of assuming you have exposed skin and can stretch all the surfaces way more. This looks weird. I'm not stripping Frog just to do these rankings though.

18: Forked Raiju

I don't know why, but I keep both this and Fleeting Raiju on my bars, maybe because this one briefly locks you in place if you're casting it while up close, while the other would give you mobility if you were already within range so theoretically it would be a better choice when running around in circles doing ninja stuff per the way my old fc leader played. However, in practice, I almost never am in a position where casting it is going to be less preferable because I move when I have positionals or something's actually happening, so it's the primary lighting attack for me and makes hunt marks really funny until a knee high brick wall arrests my progress :')

It looks fine while you're watching Frog yeet all about the screen, but you twist like a corkscrew as you do so, so all the screenshots of it in motion have poor Frog completely pretzeled up

17: Intervene

Okay time for a series of tank ones, all roughly the same weighting on this scale. Personally I am a real fan of the devotion of a good paladin and their earnest attempts to protect you. But on the other hand the other two have better aesthetics on rankings which take into effect coolness rather than a stalwart heart. Alas, the true of heart never can win.

This one still does damage (yippeee) and looks like a mini passage of arms as you shoot yourself shield first at an enemy.

Unfortunately, on the scale I didn't realise I would be ranking anything on, it leaves behind a smoke ring in the arse-adjacent area.

Poot [supersonic].

16: Shadowstride

Boooo give me back my damage.

On the other hand, I can't even remember the aesthetics of the previous ability but this does look really cool!

First: transform yourself into a shadow of your former self, possibly turning your entire being into some glowing malevolent orbs:

Second: scoot (your feet will leave delorean tracks of shadow as you go)

Third: reemerge changed by your time in the Shadowrealm:

15: Onslaught

Warrior got to keep the damage, AND this is objectively hilarious. Ability which says "FUCK YOU" (*scribbles everywhere with an angry crayon in your wake*)

^ Pictured: Bounding Frog shoulder checking a Karen out of the way in the frozen produce section in order to obtain the largest whole dodo for Starlight dinner

14: Icarus

It looks really funny with no spell effects btw. Right up there in the "I am currently falling over" rankings with Forked Raiju

Anyway this is as practical as the Monk one but with only one charge, but DID introduce the concept of gap closing healers since this is a close range brawler of a job despite its vaunted origins (the auto attack is the cutest little punch). It super beats out the Monk one, however, because of the spell effects.

Outta the way, gayboy, I'm going to invent new kinds of hubris they'll name after me

(bonus point for this specific glam, where the beams come out of the guns)

13: Smudge

(just starting to realise this is a great cat name resource too)

I did deduct many points because it's NOT "red goes fast" but on the other hand, it's green which is wind aether, so we're painting the CONCEPT of the new WHM gap closer, AND it comes with a sprint. I love nothing more than riding around on a slimy streak of conceptual speed.

Hit the picture limit with picto, possibly because they could not contain all the painting emanating from that one image, so I'll continue in a reblog. After a revelation to come I MAY have got all these numbers hideously wrong because I am nothing if not completely blind to numerical values.

[dustedmagazine]

Ian Mathers’ 2020: We’re stuck inside our own machines

I’ve had a song I loved in high school and haven’t thought much about since stuck in my head. The song “Apparitions” by the Matthew Good Band is a fine example of the alt rock of the late 90s; if you grew up then but somewhere down in the states (or elsewhere) instead of my southern Ontario you may well have your regional equivalents, and like this one they may not resonate terribly strongly outside of their time and place. It popped back into my head after a long time recently and of course 2020 has changed it a little. A song that as a teen I felt keenly as about loneliness (albeit also about how technology can feed into that) of course now plays on my nerves as another small piece of art about the way that most of us (those scared and/or responsible anyway) have only that relatively narrow, technologically mediated connection to the people we love. All of us, artists and listeners alike, are trying to fit our feelings and art and selves down these little connections, with some success.

On a personal level, 2020 wound up being stressful in ways we couldn’t have predicted even after the pandemic hit. In circumstances that could have seen governments on this continent support those unable to work (and those who shouldn’t have to), support those workers who are truly essential, support workers and renters and even landlords and small businesses, instead we got a near-total abeyance of those governments using the resources we provide them with to save any of us. On a personal level my wife and I were lucky enough to be able to work from home (not that it didn’t come with its own forms of stress, and now that I’m off until January I have several work/stress-related illnesses to recover from) but still saw friends and loved ones lose good, used-to-be-sustainable livings overnight, saw family businesses succumb to a near-total absence of effective government support after months of trying to keep above water, etc.

It is probably no surprise that this is not a situation conducive to listening to music, let alone writing about it; I have deliberately and happily kept busy on behind the scenes stuff at Dusted that I could still manage but looking, at the end of the year, at the amount I managed to actually create is demoralizing if not at all shocking. I’m not sure I think next year will be ‘better’ in many important ways, although at our job there is a growing feeling among coworkers that next year has to have some work/life balance because 2020 was, maybe more than anything else, unsustainable.

That’s not to say I didn’t spend a lot of time and emotion on music this year, and if nothing else constant sleep deprivation, stress, and panic meant I was probably open to being deeply moved by all sorts of art even more than normally (it’s gotten to the point where I can’t even read a sad or moving twitter thread out loud to my wife without getting teary, which is kind of… nice?). Funnily enough the band that did the most to keep me sane didn’t really put out anything in 2020. Personal favorite, Low, instead started, in early April, getting on Instagram with something they called on whim “It’s Friday I’m in Low.” With one brief break they have now done by my count at least 35 shows (catalogued here, by the way), every Friday at about 4 my time.

Admittedly it’s easier for Low to pull this off than some bands, since the 2/3 of the trio that sing are a married couple (they’ve had a couple of socially-distanced backyard shows with bassist Steve Garrington, but he’s mostly been isolating elsewhere). These shows have seen the band’s Alan Sparhawk take a mid-set break to do follow-up phone interviews with the acts featured in the COVID-curtailed touring bands series Vansplainingthat they started on YouTube, or just to give a tour round their vegetable garden and talk tips. It’s seen Alan and Mimi Parker draw on their impressive, 25+ year body of work (averaging 4-5 songs a set, I don’t think they’ve repeated themselves yet) and talk a bit between songs about pandemics, politics, song choices, and whether Alan should grab his bike helmet this time.

They’re not the only musicians out there speaking love and sanity (and playing music) into the strange digital interzone filled with hate and disinformation where we’ve all been forced to gather while locked down, but they were and the most consistent and steady signal being emitted each week. No matter how tired I was from work or what new symptoms I’d developed or what horrific thing I read into the news, even if I had to take an emergency nap while it was actually airing, every Friday the show was there. Once things do return to something more like normal, it’s one of the few things I’ll unambiguously miss about this weird-ass year.

So if that makes an argument for Low as my band of the year (admittedly again… it’s not like Double Negative has aged poorly, either), that does a disservice to those 2020 records I did connect with; even if there are still literally dozens I have to go through, many of which I expect to love, my top picks this year (if as unrankable by me as always) hit me as hard as any top pick in recent years did. So here I present a quick and informal top 5, which the rest of my top 20 following in alphabetical order. Here’s hoping for more time and space in 2021 for music, and even more than that, for more support for those who need it from those who could have been providing it all this time. (The Matthew Good Band, incidentally, always did best with their ballads. “Strange Days” is another I’ve had in my head these days; the image of moving “backwards, into a wall of fire” has stuck with me since the 90s and it’s never felt more grimly appropriate.)

Greet Death — New Hell

New Hell by Greet Death

This one is, in some sense, cheating; it came out November 2019. But that just means it’s the latest winner of my personal Torres Prize for Ian Being Late to the Party (so named because becoming slightly obsessed with Torres’ Sprinter just after I sent in my 2015 list was the first time I noticed that one of my favorite records of each year tends to get picked up by me just after I call it quits on the year, no matter how long I try to wait). This very doom and gloom slowcore/metal/(whatever, just know it’s heavy) trio at first felt very much like my beloved Cloakroom (whose Time Well has also won a Torres Prize) but sure enough nuances revealed themselves. Back in February it felt almost a little too negative, but then the rest of 2020 happened. And the extended burns of “You’re Gonna Hate What You’ve Done” and the title track remain searing.

Holy Fuck — Deleter

Probably the record I’ve been trying to write about the longest in 2020, and the one I’m most disappointed in myself that I just couldn’t get the requisite paragraphs together. It’s a wonderful effort from the consistently great Toronto resolutely human-created (and —mediated) dance music quartet, one that both feels like a summation of everything they do well, and with the addition of some outside voices (including strong turns from the singers of both Hot Chip and Liars) a step forward at the same time.

Spanish Love Songs — Brave Faces Everyone

Brave Faces Everyone by Spanish Love Songs

As the year got worse, this roar of defiance only got more crucial for me to hear every so often; I was a big enough fan of it, even after writing it up for Dusted, that when they solicited fan footage for a subsequent music video you may just be able to get a glimpse of me in it. (I’m the one in a “No Tories” t-shirt.) My punk rock-loving twin brother was the one who introduced me to Spanish Love Songs and we were supposed to spend an evening in June screaming along to them live in a packed, sweaty room. I need that in my life again.

Julianna Barwick — Healing Is a Miracle

Healing Is A Miracle by Julianna Barwick

It’s a sign of what 2020 has been like here that even just this album title leaves bruises, and while I privately worried Barwick would have a hard time following up 2016’s sublime Will (probably my favorite record that year), it seems that continuing to take whatever downtime she needs to keep focusing and refining her particular muse has once again yielded amazing results. Anyone who thinks they know what a Barwick track sounds like should really check out, say, “Flowers”, but much of this record absolutely sounds like Barwick, just even better than before. She also boasted my wife and I's favorite streaming concert of 2020, an absolutely gorgeous rendition of this album with Mary Lattimore showing up.

Phoebe Bridgers — Punisher

Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers

I joked on Twitter recently that I have far too nice a dad (and far too good a relationship with him) to be as obsessed as I am with Phoebe Bridgers’ “Kyoto”, but here we are. Like most of her generation, Bridgers’ social media presence ranges from shit-posting to inscrutable, but even though things are often just as hard to figure out in her beautiful songs (as they often are in life), there’s an emotional clarity to them that can just grab you deep down. Couple that with seriously impressive songcraft and the progress from her already astounding debut Stranger in the Alps and more than anyone else in 2020 I’m excited to see just where the hell Phoebe Bridgers is going to go, because it feels like she’s talented and hardworking enough to go just about anywhere and drag a lot of our hearts with her.

Other Favorites

Aidan Baker & Gareth Davis — Invisible Cities II

Anastasia Minster — Father

Deftones — Ohms

Hum — Inlet

Kelly Lee Owens — Inner Song

Mesarthim — The Degenerate Era

Perfume Genius — Set My Heart On Fire Immediately

Protomartyr — Ultimate Success Today

Rachel Kiel — Dream Logic

The Ridiculous Trio — The Ridiculous Trio Plays the Stooges

Sam Amidon — Sam Amidon

Shabason, Krgovich & Harris — Philadelphia

Stars Like Fleas — DWARS Session: Live on Radio VPRO

Well Yells — We Mirror the Dead

Yves Tumour — Heaven to a Tortured Mind

Five Reissues/Compilations/etc.

Aix Em Klemm — Aix Em Klemm

Bardo Pond — Adrop/Circuit VIII

Charles Curtis — Performances & Recordings 1998-2018

Coil — Musick to Play in the Dark

Hot Chip — LateNightTales

Ian Mathers

[rainofaugustsith]

Rain Plays SWTOR: SOLO gearing 6.0

In my opinion the SWTOR devs have given solo players a hearty "fuck you" with 6.0, between an insufferably long gearing system, nerfed companions, much higher conquest targets (with solo-friendly activities like galactic rampage now removed) and overtuned content. It's why I'm not paying for a subscription anymore. Damn it, though, I like the game, I like hanging out with Viri and I still have characters who have not finished all the content. Even though I am not subscribed now, I invested in Artifact Authorization for my account so my characters can wear the good stuff.

Despite the fact that the devs seem to be heavily pushing people to group, I decided that my own "fuck you" to them would be getting Viri to 306 without grouping even once. And I did.

Almost. Her gear rating is 304, but hell, she's close, and she already has several 306 pieces. These aren’t the final stats I want for her (as she changes to moddable 306 pieces I’ll be adding back her augments and changing those relics) but she’s a beast again. 

The important takeaway from this post:

You do not need to group to get good gear, even at level 75. You do not need to do veteran flashpoints to get good gear. Good gear drops in the solo flashpoints too!

Do you "need" it?

I hate it when other players tell me I "don't need" certain gear, so I won't do that to you. It's a personal choice. The higher levels of gear do seem to compensate for at least some of the currently overtuned parts of the game. In other words even if you are not interested at all in the endgame you may wish to pursue the higher-end gear simply to do the other content more easily.

If you are not playing Onslaught (or not playing it yet) there have been numerous reports of other missions/areas being overtuned, including the Star Fortresses, Bowdaar's recruitment mission, walker combat in KOTET and Iokath, the H4s and some H2s, and better gear could help there.

Onslaught is supposed to be designed so that you gear up as you level up, ending the expansion with a full set of 268 gear and a tactical item. In my own experience going through Onslaught, some of my classes did okay with this system but others did not. All had similar gear ratings (242-252), at least some augments, and at least one or two level 50 influence companions (usually Lana, but also included Vette, Mako or Akaavi for some characters). My Sith Warrior and Jedi Knight were fine. My Smuggler died if an NPC looked at her the wrong way and really struggled to get through. My Bounty Hunter and Lightning Sorcerer had a few hiccups but managed.

My own preference will be to get my characters leveled to 75 and geared before hitting KOTET now. I don't think they all need to be 306. My test subject, canon Viri (who has not done Onslaught) was blazing through content by the time she was a 286. I will likely aim for at least that rating on all characters.

So you want the gear. Now what?

Okay. It's a long, mind-numbingly boring experience to gear up but if you hang onto enough stuff, you might be able to avoid going through this nightmare on more than one character. How can you get gear without grouping?

1. The easiest and most effective way is to run a lot of solo flashpoints. Over and over again (the same way the folks who group are doing with Hammer Station).

The shortest and simplest flashpoint (at least for me) is Korriban Incursion, followed by Depths of Manaan. By the time you hit a gear rating of 286ish, you can chew through either of these alone in less than 20 minutes. Black Talon is next, but one of the bosses only seems to drop crafting material (including those coveted isotopes) and the bonus boss now has a lot of very uncomfortable flashing lights.

I went through several of the longer flashpoints like Copero, False Emperor, Rakata Prime and Boarding Party, too. On Copero I had four gear drops instead of three thanks to the bonus boss, and some random green gear dropped from NPCs, but otherwise the longer flashpoints don't seem to offer any real advantage over the shorter ones. Thus, unless there's something else you want from the flashpoint (like decos or achievements), it seems most prudent to run the ones that will cause you the least trouble. You might get random pieces (usually green 270s) from enemies but overall, usually only three bosses will give you proper drops. There will be a sack of Grade 11 crafting materials, probably a mod or two, and at least one piece of gear. This is RNG. Sometimes you will luck out and get two pieces of gear you can use. Sometimes you will get nothing and will end up deconstructing it all. Viri has received tank gear, things she clearly can't use like blaster barrels, and 274 pieces when she's a 294. As far as I know it happens in the veteran group flashpoints too. Just deconstruct it, or set it aside for another character if you think they will want it.

Once you get past 300, I have noticed you will start getting a lot more mods, enhancements and armor/hilts/barrels. This is a good thing. These are the pieces you can set aside for alts.

2. Conquest.

It's harder to meet this goal now but it may be doable for you on one or two toons. During this exercise Viri reached her conquest goal of 50,000 points just by doing flashpoints and a couple of easy heroics on Tatooine and Korriban. The Conquest gear crates are in my experience good, and I've pulled numerous gold set pieces, so it's worth it to try to aim for the goal, and it can be done solo.

3. Chapters.

I was very surprised to get a gear crate when I finished Shroud of Memory. A character who was just finishing up KOTET received crates for her last two chapters, too. I think this replaces the gear that used to be given for KOTFE/KOTET chapters. It's in line with the other weekly/daily crates.

4. Onderon weekly/daily crates.

If you have a character who has gone through Onslaught, do ten missions for the weekly and six for the daily. There are some simple quests that can be done quickly. In my experience these crates provide little more than deconstruction fodder most of the time. However it's worth it, if only for the tech fragments. Aside from gear, there are some nice decos available at the reputation vendor so raising your Onderon rep isn't pointless.

5. Mek-Sha heroics.

Again, if you have a character who has done Onslaught. Not the best option for the planet - see #11 for an easier one. Both of the Mek-Sha heroics give gear crates and in my limited experience they have been good. However, the heroics are tuned very, very high. Viri's clone (Sith Warrior; Vengeance Juggernaut) with a gear rating of 300 had trouble. The final boss in the Matter of Respect heroic has more HP than many flashpoint bosses, and he's with two silvers. Dying in these heroics is expensive, too: the tune of 20,000 credits per repair bill. I don't think this really is a good option for most solo players, even if you want to run them once for the experience/achievements.

This is the final boss in the second Mek-Sha heroic. No, you’re not reading that  HP number wrong. 

6. Renown crates.

Instead of Command Levels, there are now Renown levels. It's the same overall concept: gain a level, gain a crate with a piece of gear (the fun stuff like pets and companion gifts are gone). The difference: you're not going to gear up via Renown. For all intents and purposes it's probably best to pretend Renown doesn't exist. It's not like Galactic Command where doing the weekly in Section X or Ziost will at least earn you a crate or two.

You need 1,600,000 points to get one Renown crate. Considering that the weekly areas now award between 7000-28,000 points and a flashpoint awards 2000-3000 (and that is WITH the full 25% boost), it's going to be a while before you earn even one crate. When you do, I might suggest hanging on to them until your rating is high to try to get better gear. In my limited experience (I think my characters combined have earned about ten Renown crates!) I don't think I've ever pulled any sort of useful upgrade out of these crates. Take the item and deconstruct it for tech fragments, don't disintegrate it. Consider anything useful to be a pleasant surprise.

7. Treasure Hunting missions

Level 10 lockbox missions return with gear. It's not highly rated, though. Deconstruct it for the tech fragments. 

8. Crafting

From what I have heard this is such a clusterfuck that it's not even worth attempting, with many mats required even for low-level gear. Skip this, I think.

9. LS/DS vendors

Apparently if you are willing to fork over all 100 of your LS or DS coins to the vendor you can get an equipment box. I wouldn't do this because it's now very hard to get LS/DS coins (see Renown). Once you blow them all you're not likely to get so many back. 10. Random drops

NPCs in heroics, flashpoints and open world may occasionally drop random pieces of gear, usually green 270ish stuff that may or may not be for your discipline. It's good to deconstruct.

11. Mek-Sha Tradehouse missions In your faction’s starting point on Mek-Sha, you will find a datapad. Click this to get a short mission to speak to a Nautolan NPC in Huttbreaker’s Compound. The NPC will tell you that you can do short “adventures” around the galaxy to help out Huttbreaker’s auction house.  Now check out the small clickable terminal to the left of the NPC. You will get a Weekly - Tradehouse Acquisitions - and a daily mission that will take you to either Rishi, Tatooine, Onderon, Nar Shaddaa or Dantooine. These missions are very simple - usually just gathering some clickable items or scanning several targets with provided macrobinoculars.  To complete the Weekly, you need to complete three Tradehouse Missions. You can only do one per day. It will award you a gold gear box, so it’s worth it. 

When you get gear:

Use a character that you can devote solely to gearing for a little while. Canon Viri has not done Onslaught, but she's my strongest character and my main, and she has nothing else to do right now. I decided to gear with her.

If a piece of gear is an upgrade, equip it immediately. The higher your overall gear rating, the more likely you are to get upgrades. This will screw with your stats for a while, but you can sort it out when you get to the 300s. If it's not an upgrade deconstruct it for tech fragments - the currency you will use to purchase gear later.

Once you get to the high 290s or 300s you may wish to start setting aside gear pieces for your alts instead of deconstructing them. ETA Gear is now legacy bound, so you can pass it from one character to the next (except for weapons, I found). If you are moving up to a 306 piece, for example, save that 304 for the next toon who might need it, and pass around the gear to everyone’s advantage. 

Mods: Viri kept her augmented mainhand and offhand weapons (lightsaber and focus). I ripped out mods/hilts as needed to upgrade those weapons. However, ripping mods is very expensive so you don't want to be doing this for all your right side pieces. Don't worry about mods until you get to the 300s. Just keep using the non-moddable gear as you progress. This includes mods that don't seem to suit your character. If a Barrage or Studious enhancement would take Viri from one gear level to another I used it.   Use Takanna: Takanna is the vendor who sells "unidentified" pieces for around 350 tech fragments each. The pieces are supposed to be at least your item rating or higher, and with the exception of left side and mods, are supposed to be for your discipline. 

 I used Takanna to get over the plateaus that Viri would hit sometimes, when she would reach a certain item rating and would not get anything higher from the flashpoint drops. Buying a higher rated set of boots or bracers (for instance) would sometimes be enough to get her to a higher overall gear rating and break the stalemate.   Once you reach your quitting point: You don't want to go all the way to 306? You're fine at 290 or 286 or 300? That's cool. This is where you either decide that you're going to augment the non-moddable gear you have or start playing with mods and those gold set pieces. It is VERY expensive to move around mods and augments, especially after you reach 300 (we're talking 450K to rip three mods, I'm not exaggerating), so I advise that you put them where you want them to stay.

Set bonuses: The old set bonus you had from your GEMINI or Ossus gear vanished when you hit level 75. I don't think the new ones are as good, but in some cases all you need are two pieces to get the bonus. Ostensibly you could therefore have three different set bonuses (2, 2, 2) operating at once.

Tacticals: Viri received two as random drops once she was in the 280s. You also receive one good all-around tactical at the end of Onslaught. I wouldn't be fussed about getting these. If you get one, great. If you have credits to burn check out the vendor on the fleet who sells them. Otherwise wait until you finish Onslaught.   Amplifiers: I DGAF about these. Re-rolling the amplifiers is a large credit sink for (IMHO) small boosts. I personally am not bothering with re-rolling anything. Viri has what she has on her gear and I'm not worried about changing what is there.However, re-rolling an amplifier will now give you Conquest points, so you may decide to re-roll one just for that boost.    Augments: Viri has kept her 236 and 240 mods. They have been nerfed a little but the Grade 11 augments and kits are really expensive, and IMHO her old augments do fine for her.

Gearing alts: Send your highest-iRated toon shopping for the others. Vendors like Takanna will give you gear that corresponds to your toon’s level. So send your 306 rated character shopping, grab that high-level gear, and leave it in your Legacy hold for your alts.  I'm gearing my weakest alts, and those that have a lot of content left to do, first. "Weakest" might mean many things to many people. For me, it's the alt that has the most trouble getting through content and/or the class that I'm the least skilled at playing. I've also geared one of Viri's clones who did do Onslaught so she could do the Mek-Sha and Onderon tasks.  Overall, this gear system is no fun. I don’t think it would be quite as bad if there weren’t so many levels, but when you’re going through 19 - 284, 286, 288 and on and on and on - it feels like you’re slowly pulling teeth for every gain.  Still, the point was to show that it could be done without the grouping that the devs seem to be trying to force on us. Et voila.

[karenfordonte]

I just had a dream that heaven walkers are humans promoted to God level powers but low key to the evil muggles

April 10 at 11:46 AM  ·

I just had a dream :

that heaven walkers are humans promoted to God level powers all is allowed to see their face and body morphs but muggles that don't listen to gods in their heads aren't allowed to see their godly other magic lol and that my real sub teacher from seventh grade ms peacock is actually skisst she was in the dream

in awake life:

and one seventh grader in my class was a ciggy in disguise named as a real student named Alex gekk he looked like a tall ass man in his twenties or thirties lmfao tanya was his gf in that class and she said he had a 12 inch cock  in real life yes (ciggy = another me in the sarcastic group paired with roth)

and basically Rihanna is legit but 

How to tell whats truth whats lie:

(added that this = a lie) it wasn't unbreakable curse i wasn't first skyst was they were just teaching me not to be so werewolfie in a certain way

(added that this = truth)   but at least Rihanna as dracula is legit a god Morpher lol and my red scar let fam is legit etc

(added that this = a lie but im almost done)  so my curse is off lol

(added that this = truth)   please listen to god please

added: some info here may have lies i was trying to figure truth out while cursed sorry but almost done with the curse all the way will be this year for sure soon use youre heart to compass the truth and lies with god in your ears lol its called earth (which has the word ear for a reason) ps lies feel tainted when evil intentions are used if even a little 'off' about that info it lies from evil but if you only connect with highest selves youll get truth cause you aint cursed but closed the door on evil humans just in case you just say disconnect then its done  truth feels no need to doubt in vibe like truth feels so purely best that you wont feel the heart urge to hesitate it feels best cause its that valuable as gifts heart compass rocks

if someone morphs their face their god promoted or close to it  google celebs to see proof ill post you 2 pics of same guy right now:

this kurt = skyst is correct enough to be a me:

nose compare to correct proportions aka face ratios to be a me 

eyes too close together in spacing =

(possessd by skisst here probably lol):

not plastic surgery able lol 

too close eyes spacing 

Still editing this post/Rough Draft:

Karen Soon Me peacock had short red red hair an looked like a Kwin face lmfao and she crawled on the table cool she looked like she was seducing ciggy lmfao 1w Karen Soon Ms peacock in my real seventh grade she was the coolest two week sub teacher ever cause she just gave us all the answers from the teacher answer key and let us talk to friends lol 1w Karen Soon You have no idea the godly magic I've seen so far lol btw

1w Karen Soon The internet is off spectrum is a scam btw and I think all the people in my house currently are in the closet sadly 1w Karen Soon Can't wait to see you skisst skyst and dracula mmmmm 1w Karen Soon Lol I woke up with bloody crust in my nose like naruto 1w Karen Soon That happens in that anime when the guys are turned on by women lmfao 1w Karen Soon That pickle tasted like the best shit ever lmfao

1w Karen Soon I kept the wrapper for a couple months now lol 1w Karen Soon Skisst and skyst said since I'm the only all white chart core I could've surpassed them if I was godly to really Alt timelines dumb but they understand I'm just too sweet etc but I already learned to not do that and skyst never self sacrificed even though he looks like Christs it was just me 1w Karen Soon He didn't make chaos but the spell chaos used summoned the best one for him is him as source roahbot style genius to avoid his dumb 1w Karen Soon I'm job from the bible 1w Karen Soon Good luck to all muggles I wish y'all the best when deciding to copy chaos or not cause they hate him 1w Karen Soon At first there was nothing lol 1w Karen Soon Dracula is my real twin flame the rest of the elantes are our cousins 1w Karen Soon Very blessed to have them truly lol 1w Karen Soon I just learned to not alt timeline yesterday even if that dracula was just a Grinch heart so after I learned that I got these answers but they still tested me a bit more just to gain their trust enough to finalize my curse but it wasn't to punish me for my sins it was to save my life and die for all by my vollunteering 1w Karen Soon I'm blessed I get the real Rihanna that is legit they Beverley her have my address yet till last night so yeah lol 1w Karen Soon Not Beverley I meant never 1w Karen Soon Been drawing on my PC yesterday and listening to Rihanna music I had downloaded cause the internet has been consistently that dumb so I prepared lol 1w Karen Soon I think the child called it book about my earth dad in the closet maybe my mom I'd rather not even know but I am the type to volunteer to have the worst earth parents ever but that book is censored believe it or not 1w Karen Soon Closets are funny cause they say something evil then true them takes over right after alit to contradict and Fi what the just said lmfao 1w Karen Soon Like I always thought why do people not make sense lol 1w Karen Soon I love you Rihanna 1w Karen Soon You're vibes are super legit detailed real awesomest person ever 1w Karen Soon Never met her till last night not a robot for sure 1w Karen Soon In vibes for now lol 1w Karen Soon Actually to tell you the truth I was first that was just the proper story to tell earth Rihanna cause the super computer was able to unlock her last for telepathy cause chaos had her true forms but i wish it would've been easier like that but I'm glad she was more white lies for a time just to be more comfortable by skisst and that all elantes are my twin flame legit but they aren't completely unlocked cause chaos still fades their true vibes at times and lies still I wanted closets to not know the truth yet cause they too mean but it's ok I guess 1w Karen Soon I hope my whole house isn't really in closet but I can't tell cause I don't remember 1w Karen Soon I know others can talk to god legit without chaos though cause a lot are true psychic prophets lol how else could they have fairer chances in life 1w Karen Soon Dear I mean lol cell don't let me 3dit comments 1w Karen Soon Saved this pic as deal spectrum dedicated to you they've been over our house to fix this over twenty times already

[yellowcyanidepoisoning]

Tickets To My Downfall

I’ll be honest, I fucking hate people my age. Back in my day I would get really excited when I’d see a girl or guy with shaggy hair in their eyes, only for them to start talking about the new Travis Scott album. Don’t even get me started if they wore a Nirvana shirt.

I didn’t know it then, but this was the beginning of something that didn’t take off until after high school: Hip hop kids being influenced by punk rock. First, they just digged the fashion, it was edgy and emotional at the same time. But then those kids talking about the Travis Scott album started making music, and it sounded like this

(PS: Anytime a melody is fast and catchy, it’s punk rock. Punk rock is known for being “nursery rhymes on speed” that is literally its job description)

Get the fuck out of here. Now they are taking our MELODIES too. All they did was take pop punk melodies and put synths behind them instead of guitars because they couldn’t play guitar.

God, can one of these tough hip hop guys please understand where these roots are coming from and at least play guitar? Any of them have the balls to put on a pink guitar and let their emotions out?

*6 years later*

Back in March, when MGK put out a cover of Misery Business, I welcomed him to the game. A new game for him, but he looked natural.

He didn’t seem out of place. That’s weird, because if Xzibit started covering a Knuckle Puck song heads would be turning left and right. Prior to this, it was my understanding that I was the only one who could recite The Slim Shady LP and Dookie in the history of human existence.

When Bloody Valentine was released , I thought he was just a rapper trying something that he wanted to be but didn’t know what punk rock was. It was a soft alt rock song that took me 200 tries to find remotely catchy. I went on reddit and bashed anyone comparing this to blink as frauds (and I was right).

July 20, 2020. MGK is scheduled to perform live on Good Morning America. Up until this point, Bloody Valentine has been promoted over and over again for 2 months as the only song off his upcoming “pop punk” album. We assume he is going to play this, for the 10000th time, even though he just did it on Jimmy Kimmel the night before.

Curtains draw, cameras set, action, Travis counts in.

Ba na ba ba, ba ba na ba ba

Colson starts playing fast octave switches on live television and then breaking down into an arpeggiated verse. If Bloody Valentine is the Rascal Flatts at a night club in Boston, this is John Lennon live at the Garden.

I am shitting my pants holding onto the computer screen for dear life. The last time I did this, I discovered a band called New Found Glory, but Colson was faster than Chad.

Colson was playing very fast. He was switching from palm muting to chords to octaves with smooth precision. He was not breathing between verses. And it was from that moment on, July 20th at 9:56 AM, that MGK became the biggest rock star on the planet. It was in that moment he became punk.

This isn’t Lil Wayne attempting to play notes on a guitar. Tickets To My Downfall is an intermediate guitarists masterpiece.

Title Track sounds so much like a My Chemical Romance song that it was hard for me to listen to at first. He has the audacity to plays thirds like he’s The White Stripes on Kiss, Kiss. And he literally rips off Operation Ivy with Trippie Redd, though he said it was meant as an ode. I don’t know who Trippie Redd is, but I guarantee you he doesn’t know who Operation Ivy is. Fuck, I’m surprised MGK knows who Op Ivy is, that’s a deep punk rock band. Even if he found them through Green Day, that is a very old and rare cut, and he would have to be bigger than your average Green Day fan to know that.

He tries so hard not to rap on Drunk Face, he really likes that vocal melody but I don’t.

I will say one thing MGK is good at is sounding like 2005. The outro to I Think I’m Ok, the riff on Lonely, embody a specific emotion, nostalgia. Those songs take you back to the past. And I didn’t know MGK liked that stuff.

Being 30, he’s in the “late 2000s teenager influenced by Green Day and Blink 182” era. Yea, that group. Thought we killed them all, but we found the last one trying to rap battle Eminem. So I thought he would sound like All Time Low, that’s the logical step, but he sounds like Sum 41. Interesting, because that’s the punkier side, I had almost forgotten there were other bands besides All Time Low influences by Green Day and Blink (for reasons we will discuss in the future...)

Which means he’s a lot more influenced by punk rock than I think.

So he sounds like Sum 41 more than All Time Low, great, so what. He was writing at an intermediate level already. It takes years of listening to pop punk to come up with and hear those octave changes in your head, I didn’t start hearing that until I was 19. It’s too fast for a novice.

For anyone criticizing the album as not pop punk, what were you expecting? Dookie? You people are so up your ass that you can’t fathom that this is a hip hop artists first punk album, not the fourth State Champs record. The man literally switched genres for you people and you can’t accept him, which is why the scene is basically non fucking existent and we have to rely on rappers to play us on the radio. If you didn’t criticize the third Front Bottoms record then you have no business being anywhere near this one.

This is the most significant album of the decade, because it bridges the gap between rap and punk (not rock, cause Linkin Park did that). If you can’t already praise it for that, you are lost. It exposes to “emo rappers” the music they are secretly influenced by. It could teach those kids about the bands behind their fashion sense and hair style, and teach them why they find Juice World catchy. At the end of the day, MGK is on a reconnaissance mission and if you can’t revive the scene from within the scene, sneak into the other side and do an inside job.

[exrayspex]

life update since i've been away recently

i actually feel like blogging again and am awake enough to do so for the first time in weeks! so, updates bc Stuff has happened:

so my dad had been unemployed (again) for a year almost exactly, and every single job he applied for in his career fell through. we think it's bc word has gotten out in the field that he's an asshole and that his alcoholism is starting to effect his work since his body can't metabolize it like it used to + he regularly injured himself while drinking. which still sucks. but he finally got over himself and started applying for jobs outside his field and got one! it's only part time and the pay isn't great (he's a shopper for a grocery shop + delivery service), but it's something! and we really, REALLY fucking needed it. he's still looking for a better job in his field, too.

phoebe bubba had had an ear infection that wouldn't quite go away even with me regularly cleaning it with special ear wash, and we were finally able to get her in to the vet. she had a bacterial ear infection and we got mediated ear drops for her. i gave them to her and poor baby HATED it, but all two weeks of the ear drops are done and i just checked her ear the other night and it's finally all clean and healthy!

COOKIES. i'm love baking, obviously, and wanted to make a shit ton of christmas cookies and try some new recipes. it took me a While to have the energy for it all, but i got around to it and enjoyed it so much and love the results! i made peanut blossoms, soft gingerbread cookies (which i made into lady and nonbinary gingerbread bears bc fuck men, gingerbread and otherwise), and slice-and-bake shortbread cookies w christmas trees in the middle and red-n-green sugar crystals! i freehanded the green triangles for the center and used very careful chilling and setting out to make the tree-shaped core and then put the un-dyed dough around it to make a round log with the trees holding their shape in the middle. very proud of how well i did on those, and without a tutorial or anything!

so we have been p broke lately and were preparing ourselves for a christmas where we just had delicious cookies and made a nice meal to have together in our pretty decorated room w our tree and foregoing any presents except for one to mail to my wee cousin, but! my mom remembered a couple days ago that my dad had lots of points with airline frequent flyer programs that would expire at the end of the year if they weren't used, that he racked up when working his old job. and the rewards programs allows you to use points to get gift cards for all kinds of places! so she did that and got several gift cards that allowed us to get gifts for some other family members, her boss and the woman she cares for, and have some left over to get each other some things! all without spending any actual money :D my dad and i went to target yesterday and used a gift card to shop for my mom, and it was tiring but fun! and i think my mom got me an over-ear gaming headset to replace my old one that is quite literally disintegrating!

so my phone is a galaxy s3 and i've had it for over 4 years, and my parents have the same. they still work, which is impressive actually, but they're very slow, we can only have a few apps at once bc they're so low on storage, lots of newer apps can't be installed on them, they're unable when anything is updating/downloading, my mom's camera is broken, my dad's has issues with receiving calls, all of them just freeze up completely and have to have the battery taken out to work again pretty regularly, etc. but my dad called sprint yesterday to try and negotiate a lower monthly bill/maybe switch plans, since we hadn't changed plans for years either.....and ended up being able to switch to a Better plan AND get us each a galaxy s7 and still have our monthly bill be $30 cheaper!!! apparently our old plan was a fucking ripoff lol, and he got us previously owned, refurbished phones that cost half the price of new ones of the same model. i think it also helps that he said how he'd been with sprint for over a decade but was looking into switching providers if he couldn't get a better plan and spend less lol. one of the gift cards my mom got is for amazon and i'm hoping i can find some decent cases and screen protectors for all three of us with it!

so i started playing neverwinter online last summer, and i've become hooked lol. i'm also in a good lgbt guild and alliance!! i almost quit the game after i hit max level since i couldn't solo most stuff anymore, but the people in it were all so nice and helpful and not judgey about me being still relatively new to mmos in general (i'd played a little bit of lotro, wow, and eso but not much, and i had once been super into fucking wizard101 lol, but that one's very different from most, actually more like magic the gathering than other mmos). anyway, i've started to break into actually being decently good at the game, i'm on nearly every fucking day lol, and i'm pretty involved in like contributing to guild stuff/running dungeons w guild people, and the dude who is the current guild leader is gonna mostly retire from the game in 2018 and asked me if i'd be up for taking over for him then, and i said yes! he's ranked up my permissions to do guild stuff and has been slowly showing me how to do things and what bugs to look out for when doing them, and it's fun and exciting! plus he's still gonna be around on psn and occasionally in-game after he goes, so i'll still be able to ask him for help/advice since i'm definitely not as knowledgeable as him. i've also been talking more in the guild and alliance chat and on mic too, and it's nice! ooh and i recently did some research and a respec on my main and she's now easily doing like 1.5x her previous damage and i've had a couple people be like "wow holy shit" since which like yes.....YES.....fuel my dps ego.....(also just? people in this game/guild generally seem to like me?? it's so unfamiliar and nice!) ((also also i started a tank alt and got her to max level already! and she's super butch and super hot))

our proposed plan of restoration was submitted to the historical neighborhood board thing and approved! and today the third contractor is gonna come over to discuss what work we'd want done on the house and provide an estimate. then my parents just have to do a bit more paperwork and can finish their application for the grant we can get since we're now in an official nationally recognized historical neighborhood! the grants are given in order of application, and there's currently only one ahead of us, so hopefully we can get it early on in 2018 and have that money to do some much-needed repairs on the house! the bird family living in my windowsill will fucking finally have to move lol. no more screeching and scratching right behind my head every morning! it won't be enough money to get every repair we need done, but it will def cover the worst stuff, like that and our rotted porch! also the contractor we're hoping to use is a nice guy who's done work for us before (he fixed our fence when it broke a while ago, my parents have some mutual friends of his, we trust him), and the other day when he was here my sweet hutchie made friends with him :) there were pets and purrs!

OKAY i think that's mostly it lol. thank you for caring if you actually read all of this! :D you are now up to date on the Life of Spex. also if any of you start playing neverwinter and want a guild invite, lemme know! :)

[butterflysuki77]

Scars - Chapter One

*A/N - I highly recommend reading the story in order, so please start with the Prologue .  

Scars:  Prologue : One : Two : Three : Four : Five : Six : Seven : Eight : Nine : Epilogue :

Scars - Chapter One

Pairing: Kim TaeHyung x Reader

Genre:  Angst, Mystery, Crime, Romance (Fluff and Smut-lite intermingled with angst)

Word Count: 4.8K

Chapter One:

2 years later, after Prologue…

 You sat at the desk in your cubicle, staring unbelieving at the “blue screen of death” on your computer monitor.

No… no no no no no!

You tried ‘control+alt+delete’... nothing.  You forced a shutdown and the screen went black.  You counted to 20 before you turned it back on, your heart pounding.

“Come on… come on… come on….” you muttered under your breath.  Your stomach sank when the blue screen came back on, and you thought you could cry.  You’d made crucial changes to your presentation the previous night.  It had taken you hours!  And now, here you were…. Your presentation was this afternoon!  You had backed it up online before you’d made last night’s changes, but it was mainly so you could work on it at home if you needed to… but last night….

Yesterday afternoon you’d found out that the department heads had decided on a major marketing change for the sportswear you were supposed to present today.  You seethed, remembering when they called you in.  Instead of what you had planned, which was more about strength and power of the wearer, and the durability and practicality of the women’s exercise gear, the heads of department told you they were worried that it wouldn’t translate… and decided to completely hijack your presentation.

Sure it was a big deal… and you needed to land the presentation to get the company to choose your team instead of one of the five other advertising teams vying for the contract.  But to go with the frickin’ sex appeal angle?  REALLY!?

Still, you’d worked until almost 1am in the office making the necessary changes.  And you… stupid you!... had decided against uploading it to your online storage.  You had even saved it to your flash drive….which was nowhere to be found!  Your forehead hit the desk and you tried to fight the panic.  There was a way around this… right?  Besides completely re-doing it!?  You could… maybe… Damn it.

You searched through your company directory and called the number for the IT Department.  It rang… and rang… and rang.  You drummed your fingernails on the desk, your anxiety levels going dangerously high.

“Hello, Information Tech!  This is V… how can I help you?” Vee? V for what?

“Hi, this is Y/N in Advertising, and my computer is giving me the blue screen of death and I have a presentation this afternoon!”  You didn’t sound as professional as you’d wanted, but at this point you didn’t care.

“Well, that’s not good!” said ‘Voice’, a little too jovial for your current mood.

“No, it’s not.  Can you send someone to come fix it?”  You could feel the panic turning to tears and you clenched your fist, digging your nails into your palm.

“Let’s see…” you heard some clicking… silence… more clicking.  “There are some other jobs ahead of you, but I can try to squeeze you in.  Depending on the jobs, it could be anywhere from half an hour to two hours.”  Your heart sank.

“Is there really no way at you can come sooner?” you asked, your voice starting to shake.  “I’m...I’m kind of desperate here…”

“Oh really?” said ‘Valentino’, his voice joking.  When you didn’t respond he continued, more serious. “Let me check on these other jobs, and I promise I’ll be there as soon as I can.  Advertising is Floor 6, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right,” you said, your stomach clenching.  “I’m in section 8.  Thank you.”

“No problem,” said ‘Victor.’  “You’re on the list.”  And he hung up.

You sat with the phone against your ear for a long moment before slowly hanging it up.  You rested your elbows on your desk and buried your face in your hands...and waited… wondering…

What kind of a name was V?

It turns out you didn’t have to wait too long.  It hadn’t been 20 minutes when there was a knock on your cubicle wall.  You jerked up your head from your phone, to meet soft, smiling eyes set in one of the most perfect faces you’d ever seen.  You were dumbstruck for a moment.

“Y/N?” he asked.  You nodded quickly and stood.

“V?” you asked, holding out your hand.  He smiled a cute, rectangular smile and took your hand.

“I was able to adjust the work schedule in order of priority, which put you second on the list.

“Thank you so much….” you said, not really knowing what to think of him.

“Let me get started… I don’t know how long it might take.”  You motioned to your chair and he sat down.  He had a bag of equipment, but he didn’t touch it, choosing to turn your computer on and see what it was doing first.  He was… odd.  Not what you expected at all.  He was wearing a short sleeved white button down shirt, with a pair of dark jeans…. His hair was an ash brown, but actually had teal streaks in it… it was… sexy… V looked up at you from the chair and his eyes looked worried… Damn it!

“I’m not entirely sure what’s happened here,” he said.  “Well… let me check.”  He knelt down onto the floor and pulled the hard drive from under your desk, examining it.  “I am sure, but I’m not sure how it could have been done in this office.  Here…”  Without explaining, he pulled out a few strange boxes out of his bag, and knelt down again, hooking them up to the computer.  You were about to ask but he answered your question by describing what he was doing.  “What I can do for now, is try to copy your computer’s hard drive to an external hard drive.  If the data isn’t damaged, you’ll be able to just copy it to another hard drive.  Otherwise, I’m not sure what else I could do.”

“Is it that damaged? What happened?!” you ask.  You hadn’t done anything to the computer at all since last night, and everything seemed fine then!  V was quiet for a moment before meeting your eyes seriously.

“I don’t like making accusations…” he said, his deep voice speaking low as his eyes darted around the room quickly.  “But it looks like someone tampered with your computer… There are screws missing from your side panel, like someone opened it up.  A few of the cords look melted.”

You blinked at him in shock.  Melted?

“You didn’t back up your presentation online? Or on a flashdrive?” he asked.  You didn’t sense any judgement; it was just the question.  Very matter-of-fact.

“I did back it up on a flash drive… but…”  Your mind whirled at the possibility… who could have done it!?  “...I can't find it.”  V smirked and your stomach flipped.  He leaned, half sitting on the edge of your desk and he looked up at you from under his teal streaks.

“In any case, it could take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to completely transfer your hard drive, depending on how much data you have.” He smiled that square smile again and you felt… suddenly very aware of him.  You mentally shook yourself and moved your eyes to the blue screen.

“I shouldn't have much on there,” you explained, frustrated at this whole situation. “I normally back up my presentations online and save them to my laptop at home, but…” you sighed and covered your face with your hand, rubbing some tension out of your forehead… “...it was after midnight, and the presentation was today.  I didn't think it'd be necessary.”

“Hey,” V said, standing and putting a hand on your shoulder… “Don't beat yourself up about it. You are absolutely not to blame here.”  His voice was so calm and low, so soothing… that it actually made you feel better. You looked down at the hand on your shoulder and he quickly pulled it away.

“Sorry…” he said a bit sheepishly. It was quiet and awkward for a minute or so, before he turned and checked the machines. “Looks like it's copying…. says it's already at about 35%, so it's going pretty quickly.”

“Thank you…” you said stepping closer. He turned at that moment and in a second you were inches apart, not touching. He put his hands behind him, bracing on the desk, and when your eyes met, there was an intensity in his that you hadn't expected. You felt a jolt of electricity pierce your eyes and settle in your stomach. You stepped back quickly.

“Sorry…”. It was your turn to feel awkward. What the hell was going on and who was this guy!? You looked back at him and his smile was sweet. Time for a change of subject. “So...how long have you worked here?”

“A little over a year,” he said, looking down. It was almost as though a shadow had come over him. But in a second it was gone and he lifted his head looking at you with a grin. “You?”

“About six months...not very long.” Long enough to make enemies, apparently… You rolled your eyes and laughed under your breath. You looked up and V was smirking at you. He'd read your mind and you grinned back at him. This was actually nice… he'd put you at ease without even doing anything really.  You went on talking, explaining where you were from, where you got your degree… he asked you questions that kept you talking about yourself, which was different than most of your conversations with guys. His presence and his voice were so calming.  After an amusing story where you both ended up laughing, there was another minute of silence. And suddenly hIs eyes… were not calming. Why was he looking at you like that….

“Have we… met before?” he asked, seriously.

“I don't think so…” You absolutely knew you hadn't… you'd remember a face like his… V was… you'd definitely remember him. The more you looked at him the more beautiful he became. “I recently moved here for this job… I hardly ever came here before...” You left out the other reason you'd moved here...and other memories crept into your mind. Your stomach started to feel sick.  You shook off the bad memories and continued nonchalantly... “You must have just seen me around the building.” V lowered his head and shook it slightly.

“That must be it.” His smile was a little sad, but still… Why were you so drawn to this guy? Your eyes met again and  held for a moment...it felt like a long time but it couldn't have been more than thirty seconds. You wanted to move toward him, feeling an intense pull, but you forced yourself to remain still. Your breath caught when it was V who stood and took a hesitant step towards you.

*BEEP*

In a flash V turned towards the computer, almost as if that's where he'd been meaning to go. Of course that's where he'd been meaning to go! What exactly did you think was going to happen?  Of course nothing could happen...for multiple reasons…

“Looks done,” he said. He reached into his bag and pulled out a laptop...a nice laptop...and sat down in your chair.  You watched as he plugged it in, plugged in the external hard drive and the other machine in the USB ports, and went to work. After a few minutes you were leaning over the chair watching the screen as he worked.

“There!” you said, pointing at the folder on the laptop screen. “Click there!”  He did and inside the folder was your presentation file and materials. The details bar showed the correct update time as well. Relief flooded you and you grabbed V around the shoulders in a quick hug from behind the chair, before realizing what you were doing.

“Thank you,” you said, watching as he stood up from the desk.  His smile was wicked.

“My pleasure…” he said. You almost missed the little flick of his tongue peeking out to wet his lips...and your breath caught. In a flash he was all business again. “Keep the laptop. It'll serve as a substitute until I can bring up a replacement for you. I'll have to do my other jobs first,” he said. “When I come back up this afternoon, I'll transfer all the data to the new desktop for you.”

“You have no idea. You've seriously saved me today,” you said.

“If you're truly grateful,” V looked down and rubbed the back of his neck, “...you...could…” He looked at something behind you but your eyes were on him. Was he…

“Hey, Babe!” Jackson’s arm fell around your shoulders and he kissed your cheek. “What's up?” He looked from you to V and V reached down to pick up his bag.

“Nothing, never mind….” V said abruptly, his entire manner changing. “It's no problem at all… I'm just doing my job,” V’s hair seemed to cover his eyes and all traces of the guy you'd been talking to vanished. He started to leave but turned back. “I'll be back this afternoon with your replacement.” Without waiting for you to respond he turned to leave.

“Thank you, V!” You called after him. His stride seemed to falter but he kept moving, only acknowledging you by a slightly raised hand.

“Who was that?” Jackson asked, his arm leaving your shoulders.

“The IT guy,” you said, knowing that with Jackson, it was better to leave out details. “He basically just saved my presentation.” Jackson’s eyebrows shot up.

“Really? What happened?” His smile was annoying.

“Nothing you need to worry about,” you said leaning back against your desk. “What are you doing here? No work to do on the 12th floor?”

“No reason really...I just came down to see my girl,” he put his arm around your shoulders again and you pulled away, suspicious. Jackson never came down to see you at work… not even when you first got a job here. He had been a large part of your reason for moving here… to a city you hated, only for you to find out that your long distance “relationship” had apparently been an “open” one. On his end anyway.

“Cut the bullshit…” you said, angrily. “I'm not ‘your girl’ anymore so stop acting like it.” He looked unsettled, and an angry look flashed through his eyes before he smiled and rocked on his heels.

“Whatever, Babe…. I just came down to see if you wanted to go to lunch.”  He looked down and then back up, his face almost serious. “I miss you…”

You had absolutely no clue how to take that.  First you move here for him, uprooting your life because you thought you had a future with him. Second, you find out he's cheating on you with his secretary… and the office assistant…. Now he decides he misses you and wants to have lunch? The guy was a creep…. but a creep you used to think you were in love with.

“I can’t have lunch today,” you said, trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.  You knew you were stupid for doing so, but he was such a big part of your life for so long.... “I have a lot of work to do.  My presentation’s this afternoon.”

“Right…” Jackson ran his fingers through his hair, and looked around the room before looking back at you, a small smirk on his face.  “Another time maybe.”  You didn’t reply and he turned around to walk back towards the elevators.  “See you around!” he called, not looking back as he put his hands in his pockets.  You sighed and looked back at your desk and the laptop.  Your presentation was safe.

Thanks to Prince ‘Valiant’.

You sat down and got to work.  You had your script notes to go over, you had to double check all your edits and cross-reference them with the data you’d been emailed this morning, and you had to get your handouts and charts to the company printers before noon if you wanted to have them at all for your presentation.  Teal would be a good accent color on the handouts too…

Seriously… what the hell kind of a name was V?

~

It was 4:30pm by the time you sat down at your desk again.  You could barely contain yourself!  It had gone so well!  The company loved your presentation!  The department heads had seemed smug as well.  You didn’t care.  You had been able to keep the essence of your original ideas with only some minor emphasis on sex appeal… but it had been enough.  And honestly, judging by the men you had just presented to, it was probably not as dumb a move as you had first thought.  You had a serious chance here, and you’d made a good impression on your bosses as well by implementing their ideas.

The phone on your desk rang, surprising you out of your self praise.  You answered it on the third ring.

“Hello?”

“Ms. Y/L/N, it’s V from Information Tech.  I was about to head up with your replacement desktop and wanted to make sure you’d be there.”  Your heart-rate sped up and you smiled.

“Yes!  I just got back!  I’ll wait for you before I head out.”

“Great.  I’ll be there in a few minutes.”  and he hung up.  You were surprised at his abruptness, as well as confused by it.  His friendly, good-humoured demeanor had changed to strict formality.  Damn it, Jackson….  You uploaded your presentation and materials to your online storage while you waited.  Better late than never… and you would have backups now, if you needed them.

“Ms. Y/L/N…” V’s voice startled you from your work.  He couldn’t help his smirk and you smiled up at him.  You jumped up quickly and walked over to where he stood with a small cart that held a desktop computer.

“You are my absolute favorite person today!” you said excitedly.  “My presentation went incredibly well, and it’s all thanks to you!  Seriously, I could hug you right now.”  You smiled and waited for him to respond.  He looked like he was about to, but he just smiled and looked over at your desk.

“I’ll go ahead and take care of this for you.”  Your smile faded as he walked the new desktop over to your desk and began switching out the cords with the old one.

“I don’t think you understand how happy I am right now…” you said, trying to bring back the energy that you had with him from before.  “Seriously… there has to be some way I can thank you…”

“I’m just doing my job…” he said without looking up.  Your heart was sinking.  You knew he was acting this way because of Jackson… The change had been so obvious afterwards!  But why?  It seemed like ‘Vince’ had been about to suggest something… but Jackson showing up had to ruin it.  But was it because he thought you were dating him? Or simply because he didn’t like him?  You took a deep breath.  You hated misunderstandings...so it was be blunt now, or try to ignore and keep pushing.  V was picking up the old desktop now and coming back to the cart where you stood, waiting.

“Give me a few minutes and I’ll start to transfer your data from the external hard drive to the new desktop.”  He placed the desktop on the cart and returned to your desk, sitting down and turning on the computer.  He connected both boxes again and scrolled through some strange menus you’d never seen before.  Finally a loading bar showed up on the computer screen and he sat back.

“At least let me buy you dinner…” you finally said, choosing the ‘ignore and push’ method.  “Or coffee.  You get off at five, right?”  V looked up at you, an unreadable expression on his face.  He seemed to be weighing his options and not outrightly ignoring you… which was a good sign.  “It’s the least I could do…” you said softly, trying to maintain your optimistic smile in the face of indifference.  Your gazes held for about 7 heartbeats, and V finally looked down… and smiled.

“I’m actually on break at five,” he said, “... I have a mandatory overtime shift tonight, til nine.”

“Mandatory?”

“If I’m already on duty when another worker calls in, I’m required to stay until a replacement can arrive,” he ran his hand through his hair, “which won’t be until nine.”

“So…. is that a yes or no to coffee then?” you asked reluctantly.  V took a deep breath and bit his lip.

“It’s a yes… but only because I’m gonna need the caffeine.” He leaned back in the chair and stretched his arms out above and slightly behind him.  After a couple seconds, and without looking at you, he asked, “So… how do you know Jackson Wang?”  There it is.

“He’s my ex…” you say, no hesitation.  “And I plan on keeping him that way.”  V smirked before he looked at you out of the corner of his eyes.

“Good to hear…”

“Not a fan, I take it?”

“Your ex is… let’s just say that my interactions with him have been less than ideal.”

“Understatement of the frickin’ year…” you laughed under your breath.  His rectangular smile finally reappeared.  He looked at the screen and you did too.  

“15%...” he said with a sigh.  The office was starting to empty pretty quickly, as it was just a few minutes after 5 O’clock.  “It’ll be a little while before this is done… we could head down now.”

“It’s ok to just leave everything?” you asked, slightly skeptical.

“Everything get’s left anyway when you all leave…” he said, making perfect sense.  You shrugged and smirked at him.

“Sounds good.  Just let me get my purse….”  You pulled the small drawer key out of your jacket pocket and made your way past ‘Vincenzo,’ noticing for the first time how great his cologne smelled.  It was spicy...earthy… and you had to force yourself not to lean in to smell him again.  You unlocked the drawer, opened it….

And froze.

Your breathing stopped and your eyes widened.

“Is something wrong?” V sounded worried, and it broke you out of your shock.

“No… everything’s fine.”  You reached down to get your purse.

And your flash drive next to it.

And the note attached.

You shoved the note and the flash drive into the outside pocket of your purse and forced a smile at V.

“Let’s go!”  He looked slightly worried, but didn’t push you.  Just moved to the side and waited for you to pass.  He walked closely next to you and his scent helped to calm you down.  He started asking you about your presentation, and you answered cheerfully… brightly…  You wanted to focus on ‘Victor.’  You wanted to focus on his voice, his smile… his warmth.

Not on your flashdrive.

Not on the note in your purse.

Not on those words.

‘Fucking slut.’

~~~~~~~~~~

TaeHyung jolted awake, his heart beating so fast the sound of it pulsed in his ears. He was panting as if he'd just been running and he'd broken out in a cold sweat. It was that dream again… he hadn’t had that dream in a long time. He lay staring at the ceiling, trying desperately not to remember the it…. He squeezed his eyes shut and focused on earlier today, when he'd actually been able to forget everything...just for a moment…

He had met you… Your panic on the phone when you called was normal with what he had to deal with, but for some reason he went ahead and put you at the top of the list.  Why?  And when he’d seen you…

When he’d seen you…

He shook his head and sat up, brushing the hair away that was sticking to his face.  Already his breathing was starting to calm.  Tae’s eyes kept going in and out of focus so he closed them again and pictured you… your smile… the look in your eyes when you almost ran into him…  He laughed at that.  What was it about you that was so familiar?   Why was he so drawn to you?  He’d barely noticed anyone the past two years, let alone felt any kind of attraction toward someone.  It was as though his heart had stopped beating that day… along with his…

‘...your fault…’

Tae pressed both palms to his forehead trying to get the voice out of his head.  He’d had so long to think about it… to go over every detail in his mind.  Time to dwell on everything he’d done wrong.  He couldn’t go there now though… not after that dream again… not after seeing his face again…  He bit down on the inside of his cheek and tried to remember how you had smelled.  As the memory of a sweet, floral fragrance entered his mind, his breathing calmed again and your face came back into his thoughts.

He’d been on the verge of awkwardly asking you out when Jackson had shown up.  Tae sat cross-legged on his bed, head down and sighed.  The guy was an absolute dick… not to mention a complete asshole to just about everyone who he considered beneath him.  When he saw his arm around you, Tae had felt almost sick.  He wanted to write you off then and there, simply because you didn’t seem to mind the bastard’s touch.  It was irrational… he knew it.  Jackson was all over just about every woman at the office who was decently attractive, so of course he’d be all over you...

But it never bothered him like this…

Tae got out of bed and threw on a pair of shorts, not bothering with a shirt.  He reached for his phone to see the time.  4am.  He tossed the phone onto his bed and walked into the kitchen.  He felt drained… and dry… Pulling a glass out of the cupboard, he opened the fridge, pulled out the pitcher, and poured himself some water.  He downed the whole thing, then poured some more.  He held the glass, swirling the clear liquid around inside… letting the coolness of glass sink into his hand.

Coffee with you had been…  He couldn’t describe it.  It was like a dream. There was something about you that put him completely at ease.  Sure he felt a bit awkward at times, but you were easy to talk to… you were funny, and sweet, and incredibly smart.  You told him all about the presentation you’d done and he hadn’t been bored at all.  In fact, he’d been impressed.  And while you didn’t really touch him… any little brushes of your hand or arm as you stood next to each other were completely natural and you didn’t shy away from him.

And he’d felt like he was on fire.

TaeHyung had never felt such an intense attraction before.  And it scared him.  He wanted you… but he couldn’t have you.  Not really…

Not after what he’d done…

He downed the last of the water and put the glass in the sink. Leaning against the counter he let himself imagine what you would say to him if you knew.  You’d never talk to him again… You’d blame him… just like Yoongi and Jimin would if they knew…  He tried to picture the disgust in your eyes, but he couldn’t.  His mind wouldn’t let him go there.  He didn’t want you to hate him.

He wanted you to want him back.

Tae ran his fingers through his hair and leaned against the kitchen counter, goosebumps breaking out on his bare skin.  It had been two years…  He’d put his life in limbo for two years… He didn’t deserve more than this…

Yet a small piece of his heart had started to hope… his heart had started to beat again…

‘...your fault…’

He shook his head and muttered under his breath.

“...it was an accident…”

Maybe Jimin and Yoongi were right… and he could move on now instead of living a half life.  Maybe he could finally put this behind him and forget… maybe with you…

Tears stung his eyes and his face crumpled as he let himself fall to the kitchen floor, back against the cabinets.  He wrapped his arms around his knees and pressed his forehead to his arms, fighting the tears.  If he thought he could start again, to even think of pursuing you… he was the lowest type of scum he could imagine.

He saw his face again... eyes staring up at him… breathing ragged…

“It wasn’t my fault…” he said brokenly into the darkness.  “...it wasn’t my fault…”

And he tried desperately to believe it...

~~~~~~~~~~

End Chapter

*A/N Thanks for reading!  And as always, all comments or questions greatly appreciated.*

[xellandria]

I switched to demon hunter when BfA came out because my guild needed to bring the 5% magic damage debuff and I was struggling to find a class/spec I actually enjoyed playing after they removed ranged survival and didn’t give any sort of second-best substitute.  It’s now been sixteen months and I’m beginning to get incredibly frustrated with my DH—I like her as an alt, but I feel incredibly constrained by her aesthetically because the pool of warglaive or warglaive-like appearances is so tiny (and isn’t likely to grow very much any time soon).  It’s dumb that that’s the kind of thing that can tilt me as hard as it’s been tilting me, but I’ve basically exhausted the appearance pool at this point.

Anyway I told my raid leader that I’d give him a concrete decision on what I was doing for 8.3 by the end of the year, which means I have to figure out what, if anything, I’m going to main switch to.  The big problem is that getting raid-ready at this point takes significantly more time and effort than it ought to at this point in the expansion, because there are no catch-up mechanics for the 8.2 Azerite Essences, and 8.3 isn’t actually going to help with that as far as I can tell (it’s lowering the rep requirement for two of the essences, but isn’t lowering the time or specialized currency requirements for most of the others).  Artifact knowledge helps with unlocking the slots and the 3% stamina bonuses and that’s in a good position, but unfortunately that means nothing when you’ve got nothing to put into those slots in the first place.

So I need to go through and figure out what I’m doing, and since I’m going in circles in my head about it I figured I ought to actually go long form on this MFer.  This is... going to be long, probably.  I don’t know if it’ll even help.  Let’s find out, I guess.

Shaman (elemental focus): + Hybrid (melee, ranged, healer) + One-spec hybrid (no expectation of having to know, gear up, and play both DPS specs the way a mage would) + Mentioned specifically as a thing we could use (ele) + Decent transmog pool (+KT heritage if race changed) - Still has a lot of baggage from when she was my main TBC-MoP - Resto not a fun or intuitive offspec - Condensed Life Force and Blood of the Enemy essentially required (multi-week raid + battlegrounds PvP) for ele - Turret caster (not my preferred playstyle)

Druid (all four specs viable to varying degrees): + Hybrid (melee, ranged, tank, healer) + Best possible offspecs (resto druid has a long history of being good to me in 5-man content, guardian makes sense and meshes well) + Long history and great library of fantastic transmog options with matchable weapons (both 1h and 2h) + Could also be a KT if I really wanted to give up shadowmeld (which is a v tall ask, but y’know) + Currently actually has my name on Skywall (no more having to stop and think before calling something out bc my character name isn’t the name I go by nonsense) - Balance is incredibly unintuitive to play and makes me feel real dumb real fast - Feral is also really not super great (and is melee, and severely limits mog options due to the way the legion artifact cat skins works) - We already have four in raid (one feral, two balance, one resto); would be very obvious very quickly that I’m the weakest link + Vision of Perfection isn’t as good as CLF for balance but only just barely and would at least be an acceptable stopgap while the incredibly long CLF acquisition period happened

Warlock: - Pure DPS (queues and group finder for catch-up, leveling, or maintenance going to be long with no option to play something less fun for less time investment) + Survivable in solo content (ty voidwalker) + Versatile(ish) playstyle with three specs to choose from - ... but that sort of implies that you have to know and play at least 2/3 (if not all 3) - Affliction is the ultimate multi-dot tracking spec and I’ve never found a good way to do that for me + Affliction is as mobile as casters get these days (and as close as you can get to ranged survival in the current game, fuck you blizzard) +/- Unexciting transmog options (but at least since I’ve never mained a clothie it’s all essentially new; on the flip side it also means I don’t own a lot of it already so I’d have to go out farming) - Wands are still A Thing™ - Destruction and Demonology are turret casters - CLF and Blood of the Enemy both incredibly strong (VoP is almost equal to CLF for destro)

Rogue: - Pure DPS - Not solo survivable at low gear levels (never played at high gear levels to know if that changes significantly) - Poisons (only a problem for assassination right now but they’re coming back in shadowlands bc blizzard is stupid so (: love that) - Transmog options limited by weapon type for 2/3 specs - Melee - Honestly why am I even putting them on the list I like Sylenna but I hate everything rogues stand for and would never want to main one lmao

Demon Hunter (havoc focus): + Hybrid (melee/tank) - Melee

- Incredibly limited transmog options (exclusively due to personal brain stuff since they can actually use swords and axes and fist weapons, I just don’t want to.  Also because some of the DH looks look real bad with the dark skin tone my DH uses and I refuse to spend 300g to whitewash her) - RC Loot Council still thinks they can use daggers and it hurts my soul every time - New weapon mog requires multiple bonus rolls over several weeks due to literally nobody else in the raid being eligible for the drops (and praying that extensions don’t happen or you’ll get fucked like in Dazar’alor) + Vengeance is pretty okay in casual dungeon environments (even if it never feels like I have a button to press for emergencies) + Essences are not an issue (b/c she’s already put the time in)

Mage: - Pure DPS - Incredibly not-survivable in solo content at low item levels.  I have never once felt safe in open world content on my mages once they hit max level. - Sharing a class with Cider strikes me as incredibly dangerous to my sanity (since he’s so tryhard about his damage) +/- Unexciting transmog options + I do have the mage MoP CM armor tho! - Wands + Best class mount by leaps and bounds + Ranged + Fire/Frost at least have some mobility options + Being in control of AI and hero so we don’t have to call for them fifty times a pull sounds real nice (except when I want to be the one not paying attention)

Priest (shadow focus): + Hybrid (ranged/healer/healer) + Disc is the only non-druid healing spec I feel at least slightly comfortable in in casual dungeons (though not anything actually challenging) - Shadow is a multidot spec and multitarget multidot is hard to keep track of - Also we have two already (including the guild leader) +/- Unexciting transmog options (exacerbated by shadowform) - Wands + Ranged

Death Knight: + Hybrid (melee/melee/tank) - Melee +/- Unexciting transmog options + Blood doesn’t seem bad as far as tanking specs go - I haven’t touched Unholy since Wrath and supposedly its top dog atm - Let’s just skip over DK for now, honestly—it doesn’t bring anything to the Xella Table that warrior doesn’t also do (except blood > prot)

Warrior: + Hybrid (melee/melee/tank) + Brings a semi-unique buff (Battle Shout for when Irken isn’t around) - Melee +/- Unexciting transmog options + Capable of stealing almost everyone else’s weapon mog, tho—v exciting! - Naha will probably crack jokes about how bad a tank I am and/or how bad my DPS is if I main a warrior again, and regardless of whether it was true or is true, it will quietly tilt me off the face of the planet. - Would need a facelift; current look works fine for an alt but isn’t versatile enough for a main (would also benefit from a name change at the same time, honestly)

Hunter: - Pure DPS + Incredibly survivable in solo content at low item levels - Only has two specs (fuck you blizzard) + Great mog options, both for default look and enough variants to keep me satisfied + Also has quiver options in at least one spec - Not as mobile as it should be + Still more mobile than pretty much any other ranged + Sporey + Ranged + BOWS

- (: - I’d probably tilt myself off the face of the planet within six months anyway, just bc I’d be constantly reminded that ranged survival doesn’t exist anymore which is why I’m playing the inferior spec(s). - Honestly I keep coming up with excuses not to go back to the hunter but I really don’t think it’d be good for me - But I really want to play her or my druid hrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh

Paladin: + Hybrid (melee/tank/healer) + Good offspec (protadin used to be better but is still entertaining, holy is a mystery tho) - Melee + We don’t have one + Utility (blessings and whatnot) - Unintuitive “rotation” - Very expensive to main (don’t have a paladin on Skywall, only 120 paladin at all atm is Horde)

Monk: + Hybrid (melee/tank/healer) - Offspecs are both dodgy (ha, brewmaster pun) - Melee - WW isn’t especially fun to play +/- Brings a unique (de)buff, but we already have two monks in our roster so it’s less an issue of never sitting/never getting to sit than the DH is. - Very expensive to main (the other class I don’t have on Skywall atm)

[trixcuomo]

Final?? Org Daily Mail Interview With Trixany Cuomo

Approx. 10 min read. The Org Daily Mail liquors Trixany up and let’s ‘er rip. BTW Trix has a guild tag now, but I did leave her unguilded for a while and it inspired me.

Alternate title: Free Trixany!

Org: So, Trixany…

Trix: Eyup.

Org: Eyup.

Random Orc #1: …Eyup.

Random Orc #2: Uh-huh. *hands out the beer*

Trix: Wow. Kaja Cola makes beer? Nice. *has a big sip*

Org: Sort of. Miss Trixany Cuomo, thank you for joining us again.

Trix: Yeah. Being here for the second time is… meh. I guess. And I figure the Trixany versus the Org Daily Mail, love-hate relationship thing has to end sometime, right? You know, this Kaja Cola beer is unusually good. It’s even giving me ideas!

Org: Well done, Trixany. You’ve earned a toffee.

Trix: Haha, nice! *spins in her swivel chair*

Org: Let’s get to it--

Trix: Ooh! I know a girl in another video game who says that. She’s good with a whip. And if I ever, as a video game character, did a cosplay of another video game character, like inside my game? It would totally be Franziska Von Karma.

Org: What… the heck are you talking about now, Trixany?

Trix: *gulps more Kaja Cola beer from the can, swivels*

Camera man: *chuckles*

Org: *starts ignoring Trixany* Alright. So, a lot has happened since the last time you were in the Org Daily Mail studio. Care to explain?

Trix: Oh cool! Yeah, I was wanting to talk about that—wait, do you mean about my glam fishing project?

Org: Welp, this episode will be boring and drop our ratings then… *mutters, annoyed* No, tell us about something more… spicy.

Trix: Okay so, me and Haris Pilton finally had that knock-down, drag-out fight that witch deserved. But then, someone got cute and put us in the same ghetto Lower City Hospital ward. *shrugs, swivels* Which only led to a re-match.

Org: Woah. That’s awful, Trixany. We’re so sorry to hear that someone out there finally took a swing at you… *winks at the camera*

Trix: No, she’s the rotten one. After her little dog stopped being cute, Paris stole my pet dragon whelp Nautistrasz, saying it wasn’t ‘my brand.’ And I told her that her brand is trashbags and Febreeze! Then, she hit me. *tears up* I’m a Bloodknight. She started it, I finished it. Retribution comes with the territory. *sips her beer, calms* Anyway, it ended on a good note. After they transferred me to Scryers Hospital and my recovery was almost finished, I figured—hey, I’m already in here. Might as well get some work done. And there are some treatments you can only get for a good price in Outland. Can you see it? I sort of have a new face now, like that Kardashian girl. *puckers* It’sh shubtle, but alsho mega poutier, shee?

Org: Uh… Hokaaay...

Camera man: How do we trick her into talking about the really good stuff that’ll get her jailed again? Try that!

Org: Ah! So, I see that you’re currently guildless. Isn’t that a bit shameful for someone at your level? A bit… sad? Aren’t you lonely? Angry? Angry enough to start fighting people, or to start some other crazy drama? Maybe shave your head? Attack a Goblin trike with a baseball bat? Punch a camera man in the face like Kanye while you’re walking out of the Mankirk’s Wife Memorial Airport*, right at the heart of Orgrimmar?!

Camera man: Or, you could not encourage her to punch me in the face…

Trix: Wait, is the zeppelin… place… is it called that?

Org: Yeah, it’s pretty sweet. The new zeppelins are now tricked out in all those Quilboar hides that were just piling up in the Barrens, but few people know. Actually, we’re going to start calling it Mankirk’s Wife Memorial Airport after we crash the zeppelin master’s association dinner and finally expose them. Can’t wait. Muahaha…

Camera man: Yeah, you have to tune in for the next episode!

Trix: Mhrm, *files nails* I figured that seemed more like something -you guys- would do.

Org: Now, about you being guild-free and ready to hurt people and also raise our ratings?

Trix: I know, I know, whenever you see someone max-level without a guild tag, it’s like… I dunno, seeing someone who’s clearly not wearing a bra and it’s kind of awkward? And also kinda hawt. But I think you guys can handle that from Trixany. Like right now. We’re hangin’ out and everyone’s fine.

Org: … Wait.

Camera man: Woah. And now, this episode is being banned in Thundberbluff, the Exodar, Stormwind… Not Goldshire, for some reason.

Trix: Being guild-free is liberating, it’s wild! Another thing, being guildless is like being bra-less in that it’s also nobody’s bloody business. I tell those haters, ‘Don’t spam me with your life advice—I look great!’

Org: *clears throat and carefully looks her in the eye* Well, um. But don’t you sometimes feel like you need… more support? Social support, I mean.

Camera man: Sure, Bill. Whatever you say, Bill...

Trix: Nah, I got friends. I still hang out with all the Kaja-Cola girls, too—Actually, there’s talk of us re-forming our girl band. Our new single is going to be unbelievable. Mega Meghan Mango and I wrote it. I think we’re calling it… Roleplay Got Back? It’s the cutest song. And scandalous, yet empowering. And hilarious. Which is like, exactly my brand. Stupid Haris….

Org: Wait, let’s go back to the free Trixany thing—

Trix: Wanna sample? I know one of the verses. Let’s see… *turns her rose red RET HO snapback the other way, and gestures aggressively* My emote anaconda don’t want none unless your roleplay got buns hon!

Org: STOP!! Now, about your lack of a guild… Ratings… need ratings… Trixany! Wouldn’t you be more comfortable if you went around in a um…? And, I mean, I’m a guy, but still-- aren’t there benefits to having one of those… *trails off, looks her cautiously in the eye again* Anyway! I’m just saying, we here at the Org Daily Mail, a quality family show, are very concerned because, without a bra-- a guild! Without a guild, you might stick out too much—No! What I’m saying is, you won’t fit in with other people! And you get less experience. Your mail doesn’t get delivered as fast, right? And aren’t there certain battle pets and other stuff you won’t be able to buy? Is being an individual really worth it?

Trix: I think I stick out just fine. Also, I have plenty of amazing experiences, the mail man always visits me first, and I walk right up to the front of the line at the auction house. They just let me. I even get a discount. Thanks, Drezmit! He’s taking me out this weekend. Aww, isn’t that so sweet of him? He says he’s been worried about me.

Org: *Tries hard not to laugh*

Camera man: Holy crap. I think she’s actually onto something there.

Org: Hold on. *feigning serious again* Are you… saying that you planned this? Going, let’s call it ‘tag-less’, is a real strategy for you?

Trix: Either that, or I just don’t care. *gulps more beer* Do you know what? Maybe it’ll be like that ‘I kissed a girl’ song or that thong song and everyone will start dropping their guild tags for the realer benefits, am I right? I mean, you’ll go to Club Night Owl and be like dancing, and then some hottie without a guild tag will walk in, and then they turn up the music, shine that spotlight, and suddenly everybody just drops their guild tags too, and parties even harder!

Org: Yeah, that won’t happen.

Trix: It could trend, you don’t know. Like glam fishing. I will force glam fishing to be a trend if I have to. Ouch! Sorry—kinda TMI I know, but this bra has been pinching me all day.

Org: Sure it is and I guess I’ll finally ask you… What’s glam fishing? Is this like a low-budget glamping that only Horde B celebrities would be into?

Trix: Seriously? Someone is finally asking me? Yes! Oh goodness, now I’m nervous. I invented it myself, it’s so cool. And it’s perfect if like, you feel your toon, IC’ly, would never dirty their hands with fishing, like me. Well, first, you find a beautiful fishing spot. Next, and this part is most important, you--

Org: Wait, nevermind! My camera man here says we’re out of time. *fake smile* Trixany, we can’t thank you enough for coming into the Org Daily Mail studio and telling us how you are. We care so much and we’re so glad that you’re out of rehab now and doing the topless thing—

Trix: It wasn’t that kind of rehab, and I would never do that! Why would you say that? Are you somehow twisting my words? I thought our last lawsuit settled this! *her speech slows* Wait, whyyyy did I blaaather on the way I did? What’s in thiiiiis friggin’ beer? And WHY did you saaaay this episode was being banned eeeeveryplace but Goldshire??

Org: And thank you all for watching! Remember everyone, the Org Daily Mail cannot be held liable for any gross misinterpretations of what its employees actually said and did today in the studio. Org Daily Mail is also a subsidiary of the Kaja-Cola Corporation: ‘We don’t exploit our workers, we exploit big flavor!’ *cheesy TV grin* Now everybody, you know how it works. Let’s say it together!

All: FOR THE HORDE, AND GOOD NIGHT!

Trix: Waaugh! *Falls out of her swivel chair.*

…

*Note:

Special thanks to a random stranger I talked to a whiiiiiiile back on an alt for the Mankirk’s Wife Memorial Airport idea. Sadly, I can’t remember your name! I joked about all the Quilboar hides piling up in the Horde probably going into the airport in Orgrimmar; that our zeppelins would be covered with them. And then, they laughed and said that if I saw the zeppelin towers as an airport (and it SO totally is) then it would have to be called Mankirk’s Wife Memorial Airport. I can even see Blizz putting a sign up there that says it. Can’t you? Okay so… possibly. And also some NPCs curing Quilboar hides as well as towing parcels… It’s kinda goofy, but I love it. Thank you, kind stranger! I hope it catches on. Another reason why I love this game. Random encounters with really, really fun people. Hahaha!

[black-strike-otp]

quid pro quo au part 1

They never end I swear. I’m consumed by a fuckton of aus.

Under ‘read more’ becuz I hate long posting, it feels rude! 👍 this’ll be issued in parts or sections; with a special tag labeled quid pro quo AU among other tags but ya know- you’ll know it’s interconnecting if it has that tag.

Stationed in one of the Autobot’s bases during the height of the war, Novastrike is a simple lackey. She follows orders; doing as she’s told, from running errands to fighting on the battlefield and all sorts of inbetween. She’s not important or high-ranking, but likable.

Blackout, as always, is a high-ranking General in the Deception army. He’s often sent on solo missions, or on the frontlines. If he’s sent out, you know it’s going to be a massacre. Few escape him and his partner. He’s a legend of Death.

Or, was.

The ‘story’ begins with no explanation of how, but Blackout and only Blackout (where is Scorponok u useless butt) has been detained in a prison cell where Nova is staying. It’s suggested this is not the best prison the Autobot’s hold, as Blackout is expected to be taken elsewhere in time, but it’s reliable and there’s an assumption that the surrounding area is not safe to transfer this prisoner of war.

A bit too soft-sparked for her own good, Novastrike finds out that the prisoner is being tortured through eavesdropping with those big ol’ ears on some of the Autobots. Being both a gullible stupid femme and pile of mush that finds torture wrong and immoral by Autobot standards, she tries sending in a report to the higher ranking Autobots; Optimus and his crew.

Unfortunately, a message can not be sent. There’s too much chance of Decepticons in the area getting the message before the Autobots do. Nova tries to drop it, hoping things will pass, but she becomes more concerned after overhearing things levels below the one she’s on... There’s no shouting, but there’s indistinguishable yelling and unpleasant sounds of metal tearing and grinding.

After a few days, frustrated at being unable to get out a message and hearing the faint sounds levels down, she decides to do something about it.

Sweet child, you are stupid and too sympathetic.

So, she manages to sneak her way down levels partly through the elevators, sneaking through air vents, sneaking along with folks with clearance, and basically being a ninja. Novastrike follows someone into a room and notices that indeed, a handful of mechs have been torturing this strange Tall Giant Black Mech. Not for information either, they’re jeering and sneering and spitting on him like he’s trash.

Very bad conduct. Nova is displeased, this is not Autobot behavior. The Tall Mech has his head down, so it’s hard to tell how hurt he is, but to her all the missing, damaged, bloody armor should hurt??? Right??

Being the smart-mouthed naive bby Nova is, she lets herself be known- much to the surprise of the Autobots in the room. They immediately turn aggressive with her berating them; snapping and growling how a stupid young femme like her doesn’t understand. This mech is a killer, a destroyer, a literal piece of literal slag and she needs to go, now.

Nova refuses, and says if they don’t stop she is going to report them.

Truly pissed now, someone goes to snatch up Nova but she ain’t having none of that bs. While the Autobot bends over Nova hops up on his shoulder, and as he teeters with shock and tries to slap at her, she jumps off him and to where the Giant Mech is restrained.

A collective “bitch don’t u dare” goes through the mechs in a hushed whisper. Nova ignores them, she tries fiddling with the restraint.

Blackout raises his head. Everyone suddenly flinches; he hasn’t moved at all pretty much since being placed in this room, tortured, and has been silent during the commotion of Nova entering.

Someone makes a gesture to Nova, starts to say something like “you better move” but the damage has been done. Ya’ll fucked.

Almost as soon as Nova shifts away from Blackout’s restraint it snaps and he curls his servo into a fist.

Collective screams from everyone in the room.

Someone tries to advance quickly to restrain Blackout before he breaks free but he just unfurls a set of blades and starts breaking free and swinging at anyone approaching.

More screams, now with Autobots scrambling for cover or for weapons and torture devices, literally anything in the room to defend themselves with.

A bloody fight begins. Damaged, probably lacking in energon, Blackout starts hacking mechs up as he goes. A frightened and shocked Nova darts around pedes, up until Blackout finds a pattern to her weaving and manages to snatch her up while taking names. And limbs. And heads. Whatever is most convenient.

Why am I downstairs, Blackout wonders. I want to go upstairs, but there is no stairs.

He just makes his own variation of ‘stairs’ in a mcfucking giant hole that exits the building nbd

Giving the ‘icy glare of execution’, Blackout pretty much bids farwell with an added. “If you try shooting me down just know you’re killing one of your own Autobots. I don’t think Optimus Prime would approve if you did that.”

Shit he right OP gonna hear bout this and if he hears we tried or did shoot down this guy and hurt a fellow kidnapped Autobot he gon be pissed so lets not.

Cue the Great Escape of Satan yoloing out the building.

Excuse me femme I hope U don’t mind restraints and by that I mean when I transform into alt mode and we go fly I’ma redirect some armor to pin ya so ya don’t blow up my innards k??? We cool???

Small banter. Mostly concerning a “You have to be the most clueless Autobot ever do you know who I am??? You pitied me??? Primus you are a fool.” as well as “Giant McFuck if you are so important isn’t your leader gonna wreck ur ass for being kidnapped in the first place??? Lmao u failure.”

Nervous sweatdrop on Blackout’s behalf. Don’t judge me bitch shit happens. That was low. Damn bitch cool it.

As thanks for ‘rescuing’ him, Blackout does let Novastrike go- in Decepticon territory but hey, at least he ain’t delivering her to the Cons. A weenie soft-spark like you wouldn’t survive lol. How have you survived this long.

More irked than worried about her situation Nova pretty much gives him a ‘good riddance and frag off’ as she starts heading off in a random direction. Primus knows if she makes it back to ally territory she’s going to be in hecka trouble with the Autobots for this mess but she hopes at least not as much trouble as the mechs may be.

Already musing a semi-honest but white lie nevertheless (okay a big lie- it’s a big lie but the truth is sad) a lie to tell Megatron about where he’s been for the last UNKNOWN amount of days, Blackout takes off again. He got places to be. Probably.

End scene.

How can folks fuck up so much in one go tho guys..... really....

[liberaleffects]

We’re a nation enamored with force. It’s our manifest destiny. We have periods of calm, or at least periods when conflict-resolution is prized more than blowing stuff up. But those periods are considered sissy, and they make for terrible TV. We’re witnessing a resurgence in authoritarianism, applauded and glorified from on high.

You expect it from the nation’s top cop, who declared this month that he’s not interested in monitoring brutality-prone police departments anymore. You expect it less from private companies (Amazon’s and Uber’s treatment of their employees aside), though airlines have been treating customers like animals for years. The difference is in discovering that the use of force is now permissible, as it was on that United flight.

But why not? We have a president who repeatedly acted as a goon at rallies, inciting his supporters to violence against protesters and once suggesting his opponent should be assassinated if elected. The authoritarianism starts at the top. He has his admirers. The devolution won’t be pretty.

Cue the ominous soundtrack that production-challenged terrorists love to tack onto their “we’re-coming for you” videos, the goons standing there with chorus-line choreography but with ski masks and flak jackets fat with ammo, their stern-eyed leader standing in the middle, saying those very words: “We’re coming for you.” It’s the sort of propaganda video ISIS made famous, so ridiculous it’s easy to confuse with a Saturday Night Live spoof.

FLAGLERLIVE.com

Except that it isn’t. The video stars Peyton Grinnell, the newly elected sheriff of Lake County, here in Florida of course, because if this state doesn’t have something for SNL to spoof every week, it’s not the Visit Florida the rest of the world has come to love and jeer.

Grinnell claimed afterward, when he feigned surprise at the video’s backlash (so much for judgment) that he was just trying to ask residents to help put away drug dealers. He could have sent that message with a simple Facebook post, or a tweet, given that preferred literary style among showboating politicians.

The danger isn’t pot, it’s is unbridled power armed with flash bombs, Kevlar, rifles, badges and search warrants more easily acquired than herpes.

But Grinnell really wanted to play a cop on TV rather than just be one. This “Grady Judd wannabe,” as a friend described him (referring to the publicity-addicted Polk County sheriff) wanted to act as if he, unlike a few hundred thousand cops, FBI and DEA agents before him, will actually win the war on drugs, because clearly all it’ll take is SWAT teams blowing doors off their hinges, as he put it. His actual words, which I almost feel I should notarize as his here, because most readers would have every right to think I’m peddling fake news, are this: “So, to the dealers I say, enjoy looking over your shoulder, constantly wondering if today is the day we come for you. Enjoy trying to sleep tonight, wondering if tonight’s the night our SWAT team blows your front door off the hinges.”  

A little perspective here. A New York Times investigation just a few weeks, ago under the Grinellian headline, “Door-Busting Drug Raids Leave a Trail of Blood,” found that “from 2010 to 2015, an average of least 30 federal civil rights lawsuits were filed a year to protest residential search warrants executed with dynamic entries. Many of the complaints depict terrifying scenes in which children, elderly residents and people with disabilities are manhandled at gunpoint, unclothed adults are rousted from bed and houses are ransacked without recompense or apology.” There’s been killing, maiming and humiliation of innocent victims—not in the search for terrorists, for rapists, for murderers, not even for kingpins, but for neighborhood pushers of pot, crack, heroin, or that bountiful new seam of cop-ready busts, prescription pills. Stuff, in other words, that has either the same or lesser effect than booze, and that, demonstrably, harms, addicts or kills far less than booze. Stuff that, as with booze, should be the purview of nurses and doctors at the neighborhood clinic, not cops. But those SWAT teams need to be used for something, and there just isn’t enough crime to go around otherwise.

There are a lot of things policing does well. There are a few things it gets dead wrong. Turning cops into soldiers at war with their own citizens is one of those things, especially in the luridly called “war on drugs.” Even more especially when cast as tinpot acts cribbed from third-world cutting room floors.

No one is questioning that there’s a drug problem, assuming that alcohol is included. But sleazy propaganda and SWAT raids are the equivalent of firing 59 missiles at another country to “send a message.” It achieves nothing that wouldn’t have to be repeated days later. Enough times we in the local press have been invited to post-bust parades by local cops, after those high-profile sweeps of low-level druggies, knowing all along that almost every single one of the men and women rounded up would be out on bail in days if they weren’t already by the time the cameras were rolling at the “news” conference. Now that’s fake news.

Safe to say, hotshot sheriffs exploiting the gray zones of due process aren’t going to solve a 50-year drug war. Less punitive, more enlightened policies led by treatment options rather than prisons may make a difference. I stress may, because addition is a medical, not a criminal problem, and addiction will never be eliminated. The more reason to treat it rather than punish it: it’s stronger than many of us.

But that’s not where we’re heading. We’re going back to the law and order narcotics of Nixon days, which birthed the war-on-drugs monster, but with the turbocharged authoritarianism of Donald Trump setting the example: a lot more than airline-passenger types are about to be yanked off their seats and dragged through hell. The drug to fear isn’t crack, it isn’t meth, it isn’t dope. Those are treatable, if we had the political will and the social service facilities (which we largely don’t: it makes for sucky TV). The drug to fear is unbridled power armed with flash bombs, Kevlar, rifles, badges and search warrants more easily acquired than herpes.

It’s been relatively calm along those lines here in Flagler. Let’s hope it stays that way. Let’s hope Flagler County’s cops from the top down aren’t as easily seduced by the same drug, remembering that we’re not at war—no, we’re not, and we’re not about to be—and the best use of force is still the force never used.

Pierre Tristam is FlaglerLive’s editor. Reach him by email here or follow him @PierreTristam. A version of this piece airs on WNZF Friday.

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[smartalker]

Magpie Bridge [2/10 - Orihime]

ENTITLED: Magpie Bridge FANDOM: Mass Effect Andromeda - Reyes/Ryder RATING: M LENGTH: 50k via 10 chapters GENRE: Romance/Sci-Fi/Drama/Humor, in that order SUMMARY: With the Kett subdued and Andromeda’s terraforming system running at full power, Kadara Port swiftly establishes itself as the trade capital of the galaxy. The city’s unique combination of affluence, corruption, and growing power inevitably earns the ire of both the Nexus, and Aya. Under tremendous pressure to disavow a known criminal’s legitimacy, Ryder once again returns to Kadara hoping to broker peace, but the Charlatan wants something very different from her… ALT SUMMARY: Two people fall in love, galaxy breaks.

Ryder was different, but in a way that was hard to explain. Rather than changing, she had become more of herself. More confident, more focused. If life could be seen as a series of blows and each strike was another opportunity to shape a person, she had sharpened. Like a blade beneath the blacksmith’s hammer, she had solidified, shook off excesses—rather than bending.

Reyes leaned out over the veranda’s railing. He was at a local favorite, a new restaurant that specialized in breading and frying the local vegetation. The establishment’s peak hours hung between midnight and dawn, the darkest time. Kadara’s vegetation naturally contained weak toxin that, when warmed correctly, could act as a psychedelic for both humans, Angara, and the Asari.

“Waiting for someone?”

Distracted, Reyes reached for his battered leaves. The waitress who’d spoken to him raised her eyebrows. He’d been squatting for nearly half an hour, and the place was overflowing. “You could say that,” Reyes conceded. “But I think it’s going to be a while.”

Annoyed, the waitress eyed him for another moment, then left. He’d have to buy a round for the house soon.

Another important change: Ryder had more freckles.

Reyes considered the aesthetics of freckles as he checked his omni-tool. Nothing. Quiet.

The street below was very dark.

“Not much of a view,” said a soft, low voice.

He glanced back over his shoulder. A petite Asari in clean, new-looking space armor was lounging at a nearby table. She had a small, smug smile, and very dark lipstick. Once she knew he’d seen her, the Asari stood, and picked her way towards him. She was very slight, almost underdeveloped. No scars. Young? Hard to tell. “So who is this person you’re waiting for?” she asked. “A woman?”

“Of course,” Reyes smiled easily. “She takes her time. But I am very good at waiting.”

She regarded him for a moment, her black eyes curving with laughter. “Forgive me. A human is never patient.”

She attacked a half-second later than he’d predicted, with monstrous, raw biotics. Her power was wild, unrefined. It blew out the balcony’s iron railing and sent the now mangled metalwork not only across the street, but through the neighboring building’s wall. If he’d been slower, he’d have been dead. There were screams as those who had avoided the balcony’s blast rushed back into the restaurant—and still more commotion from the street below. Reyes scrambled to his feet, smiling at his attacker. “I thought someone was watching me.”

The Asari was frozen, her eyes livid. She writhed ineffectively at the biotic chokehold his bodyguards had slapped upon her. The veins in her hands bulged, and receded again into her skin. She stared at him, furious, still trying to smile. “You are more important than I had realized.”

“Perhaps.”

“You met with the Pathfinder,” the Asari snapped, her voice clear, almost loud. Was she wearing a wire? Or perhaps she had an accomplice? Reyes kept his features even, careful. He’d been with Ryder only hours before. His opponents were quick. The Asari continued speaking, with that same aggressive, almost confident tone. “Has the Charlatan allied himself with the Nexus? Are they finally ready to pay attention to the problem they can’t contain?”

“I thought the Charlatan was a woman,” Reyes said mildly. His assassin sneered.

“The Angara is nothing. Don’t take us for fools. Tell the Charlatan he can wear as many faces as he wants. We will rip them away, one by one, until there is nowhere left to hide.”

“Tell her yourself!” Reyes said brightly. Her jaw locked, struggling. Reyes watched apathetically. “I always wondered, why do would someone with biotics bother with poison? Surely you can just blow yourself up. Can’t you?”

The Asari’s jaw, frozen to keep her from biting down, strained to answer him, or to end things. You could never be too careful. He kept watching her as the mental chokehold’s pressure increased, until finally, she wavered, her eyelids fluttering. Her body fell pitifully to the ground, and as Reyes searched her, he realized that her slightness was, in fact, to be expected. She was barely more than a child.

She was carrying Angaran daggers, Initiative boosters, and her armor was worth more than the average mercenary could afford, sporting some kind of stylish shield tech he hadn’t seen before. Scans showed that several of her teeth were filled with poison, but she would need to crush her molars to access it. It would be very painful.

Reyes glanced up as his two shadows slid forward, awaiting his orders. He’d chosen the twins—a pair of ancient human biotics, the sort of old women whose discretion could be matched only by their uncaring savagery. Reyes had never liked using the Asari commandos. Too flashy. “Take her back to Keema. Whoever’s sponsoring her already knows she’s been captured, we might as well make sure the Initiative knows it too. When she wakes up, see what you can get out of her.”

“If she refuses to cooperate? We kill her?” one of the old women asked.

Child murderers. Leaving little bodies in the streets. Reyes sighed. Annoying, when the child had lived longer than him. “We’ll give her to the Pathfinder. The Nexus can take her into custody.”

The old women exchanged glances. Telepathy? He would have believed it. Respectfully, one woman dipped her head, considering the young Asari. “There is a chance she may be able to divulge something unsavory to the Nexus…” she trailed off, her silence fat with meaning.

Torturer. Murderer. Sadist. Ryder’s face, when she’d seen what he did to Avitus as punishment for failing to renounce Sloane. Her face, when she’d seen him as the Charlatan, known that even the title he’d chosen for himself marked him as a liar. Her face, aging and recoiling before his eyes, her obvious and instinctive horror. The moment he had realized that there was a part of him she would never, ever be able to see without flinching.

Absently, Reyes dusted the rubble off his thighs, and turned away. “Get what you can from her. Keep her alive. Make sure she’ll never be able to tell anyone, anything. Especially not the Pathfinder.”

Decision: he liked her new freckles.

As Ryder’s party stripped out of their armor and boarded the Tempest, several heads popped around the corridor’s corners to watch. “Nice to see you’re back,” was Lexi’s greeting. It seemed innocent enough. Ryder was already afraid.

“We just stopped for a drink on the way back,” Ryder explained, her voice oddly high-pitched. She glanced hopefully at Drack and Cora, neither of whom seemed interested in covering for her.

Lexi’s arms were crossed, her spine rigid. Very slowly, and with considerably deliberation, her weight shifted to one hip. “Of course,” the doctor acknowledged. “A drink.”

Or several. Ryder grumbled, then realized that Drack had apparently mastered the art of evaporation. Her favorite Krogan was nowhere to be seen.

Lexi had privately decided that she didn’t have the energy to badger someone who regarded their internal organs as currency, and she now settled into easier targets with a sense of relative comfort. “I’m not sure where to start. Wait, yes, I do. Cora?”

Cora’s mouth actually dropped a little. She looked indignantly at Ryder. “Me? Why am I being singled out?”

“Did you even wear sunscreen?” Lexi demanded.

“Yes.” Cora said, immediately and definitively and shifty as hell.

Scans reveal she is lying, SAM pitched in.

“Sunscreen is important,” Ryder pitched in. “Very anti-cancer, that stuff. Yep.” She slunk rapidly towards the nearest escape route, and was more than a little perturbed when Lexi’s hand snagged her jacket sleeve, especially since there should have been several meters separating them. Ryder smiled nervously. “You’re pretty speedy for a Doctor.”

“Aloe vera,” Lexi barked at Cora, who was actually jogging down the hall. Casually. Casual jogging. Lexi returned her glare to Ryder. “And you.”

The Pathfinder wore sunscreen, SAM reported. Nice to know someone was on her side.

“I thought we were arresting your boyfriend,” Lexi growled. “I don’t see a detainee. SAM’s monitors show your oxytocin excretion levels all over the place!”

“I don’t think the word excretion should be allowed on this ship?” Ryder said, to the ceiling. “I also would like to point out that SAM is a traitor and this is totally an invasion of privacy? Just, you know. For the captain’s log.” Lexi was still holding/pinning her by the arm. Which was buzzing. Her arm was buzzing? For one wild moment Ryder wondered if her weird headaches had migrated, but no, it was just her omni-tool. Someone was calling.

“Ryder, you might be able to lie to me, but your body can’t. And I am telling you, as your doctor, you cannot rationally or fairly involve yourself in this mission.” Lexi insisted. Ryder groaned. Why was Lexi so smart and caring? Why couldn’t she be a practitioner of the Band-Aid cure-all methodology? Twisting the knife still deeper, Lexi’s tone softened (her arresting grip did not). “Personally, Ryder, I don’t want to see you or anyone else be hurt. I kept quiet before now because, to be blunt, I knew you wouldn’t listen to me. I also was unable to argue that someone else would be better suited to the job. But I cannot continue to sanction your behavior without, at the very least, regular psychological evaluations.”

Trapped like a rat. The psych evals weren’t bad, truthfully. Lexi was a big believer in comfort as a facilitator of intimacy, meaning she had a very nice couch.

The Pathfinder is considering stabbing a fork through her hand to avoid discussing her feelings, SAM reported. Lexi’s attention diverted.

“Left or right?”

Non-dominant.

“At least you’ve still kept some pragmatism,” Lexi acknowledged. She let go of Ryder’s arm. “Fine. Collect yourself first. But then, we talk.”

Ryder nodded furiously, almost disbelieving her good luck as Lexi turned to go. For good measure, and because she was an excellent doctor, Lexi still remembered to nag. “And for the love of the Goddess, hydrate yourself.”

“Yes. Hydration and reflection. Doing that,” Ryder noted, already checking her omni-tool. Reyes? Reyes.

Meet me tomorrow morning? Café called Tiramisu.

Hell yeah.

Keema flinched the moment she saw him. Reyes preferred to work from the shadows when he could—but there were some things that had to be done in person. And there’d been a time in his past when he’d been good—very good—at climbing in through people’s windows. Even the locked ones. Even the ones that should have been impossible to open, like the window to Keema’s private quarters. “My god,” Keema breathed. She pressed a hand to her breast, likely more for dramatic effect than shock. “There’s no need to glare.” She recovered herself, obviously stalling for time as she waltzed to her private collection of liqueurs. “Drink?”

“I told you to keep your mouth shut,” Reyes snarled. He’d meant to keep things cool. Plans changed.

Keema didn’t quite look at him. “I disagreed.”

Reyes rolled to his feet. A weird, unknown energy vibrated through his limbs. Keema poured, offered. He shook his head. “I don’t want her involved.”

“She is involved.” Keema snapped, and tossed down her shot. She smacked her lips angrily. “Don’t let your feelings get in the way of yourself. The Pathfinder is more than capable of handling herself. She’ll probably find the fake Charlatan before you can.”

Reyes ground his teeth. “Not everyone will be able to tell the difference between the good and the bad, when this fake is found.”

“So that’s it?” Keema’s face began to glow. “I don’t understand you at all.” She poured again, almost forcing the next drink on him. “You worry what she’ll think of you.”

“I worry about losing our alliance—”

“She wouldn’t dare. And you know it. You’re a nasty piece of work that likes pretending to be just rough around the edges. And she’ll find out. And she’ll hate you,” Keema laughed. “You know, I sometimes wonder. What do you tell her about yourself?”

Extremely little. Reyes pulled himself back, returned to the dark window he’d cut his way through. The cold air helped, moderately. He’d come too far to lose control like this. “I should have listened to you,” he conceded, relieved to hear his tone could pass for polite. “Your concerns are real ones.”

“If I’d known it only took a human woman to make you back down, I’d have found you one sooner,” Keema snipped. Reyes drank before answering. Whatever she’d given him was hot, and painful, and nasty.

He turned back to Keema, offering a pleasant smile. “Now who’s being petty?”

“I beg your pardon,” Keema replied.

Cold air. He could be cold. “Your decision to ask for the Pathfinder’s help was the right one. But you still made it without me. I can’t have you making those calls on your own.”

At last, Keema nodded. “I know.”

“We were both wrong. Let’s agree to put this behind us.” He thought about leaping back out the window. It seemed a little dramatic. Reyes headed for the door, adding as he left, “Do this again, and you’re done.”

Reyes was late.

Ryder slouched back against her chair, ignoring SAM’s reminder that doing so would atrophy her muscles. Reyes was late. Of course. No biggie. Except that she was the Pathfinder and how dare he keep the Pathfinder waiting. Just saying.

Kadara was sleepy in the morning. It felt cleaner. Less crowded, that was for sure, but she also could have been feeling lonely thanks to her decision to shake her team. ‘Shake her team’ meaning ‘sneak out of the Tempest,’ a thing that was generally frowned upon and, definitely, bad. Very bad. Bad Pathfinder.

Ryder rubbed her eyes, sulking. She deserved to sulk. She was good at her job and responsible and could shoot a bird out of the sky at 500 meters. Did Kadara have birds? Irrelevant. Point was: people needed to get off her back because she had this.

Suddenly, darkness. A hand, hot and very dry covering her eyes. Close enough for her eyelashes to graze. She should have been afraid. She shouldn’t have relaxed. It was a very big and very stupid problem that she relaxed. “You should take off your armor sometimes,” Reyes mused. “It’s just me.”

Ryder twisted around, pretending to glare. “Do you have some sort of problem with approaching so people can see you?”

“No, just you.”

“Why just me?”

He took his time strolling around the table, claiming his seat opposite her. Even as he pretended to pout, his face was alive with laughter, almost mocking. “You’re so good at running away from me. I don’t want to play nice anymore.”

“That’s not fair.” Ryder protested, with new guilt. Did he think she was running away? She wasn’t running away. She was doing Pathfinder things.

“Isn’t it?” he smiled, almost gently. “Don’t look so upset.”

Ryder blushed, feeling stupid. Of course he didn’t think that. He probably didn’t think of her at all. She tried for a breezy laugh. “Upset! I’m not upset. Anyway. You’re supposed to be telling me about the bad guys.”

“What’s your rush?”

“Uh,” Ryder clamped her mouth shut. She was truthfully not even sure where to begin. Her sense of duty? Professionalism? Her crew’s constant vigilance and clear dissatisfaction with the mission at hand? “Nothing. No rush.”

“Such a bad liar. I almost want to teach you.”

“Why don’t you?”

He just looked at her. Defiant, Ryder stared back. He looked tired. A little older than she remembered. What was he doing that made so worn out? Did he ever get hurt—would he even tell her if he was? Would he tell her anything?

Reyes smirked, and she shook herself free of her thoughts. “Have you eaten?”

“Is it safe?”

“Don’t be that way.” Reyes leaned back, settling himself more comfortably into his chair. “You know, I’ve been thinking about you.”

“About me? What about me?” Ryder squinted at him, suspicious.

“This time apart, has it changed things? Between us? You seem more distant.”

“Distant!” Ryder squeaked, now indignant. “We kissed!”

“No. I kissed you.”

“It’s the same thing.”

“I like it better the other way.”

“You would.” Ryder snorted, then caught herself. She was not going to spend the morning flirting. She had definitely promised herself that. Trying for neutral ground, she gestured at their surroundings. “Why this place? Come here often?”

He rocked forward, pulling his chest over the small table between them. There was a new scar on his forearm, almost startlingly white against his skin. Ryder promised herself not to ask. Watching his shoulders hunch, the way he filled the space in front of her, she struggled to accept his physicality. It was ironic, considering how much time she spent ignoring Liam as he paraded his abs across the Tempest. “It might surprise you to know that it isn’t easy to get good coffee on this space rock,” Reyes intimated. He did his usual sign language with a passing waitress, which Ryder watched jealously.

“Let me guess—you drink it black?”

“Are you out of your mind? Three spoons of sugar. I like them sweet.” He winked.

Ryder stared.

Reyes giggled. “Okay. Sorry.”

“My father would have punched you.” Their coffee arrived. Ryder drank it straight, with a poker face that was almost murderous.

“You old soldier,” Reyes continued to snicker. He leaned back, now trilling an R at her. She kicked him under the table.

“Stop giggling! And! This coffee is terrible!”

“Like I said, you’d be surprised how hard it is to get good coffee on this space rock—”

She kicked him again. “Did you seriously just call me here to drink bad coffee with me?”

“I dream of the day,” Reyes returned. He was coming down from whatever giddiness he’d felt before now, and she felt sorry for it. Ryder glanced down. Her stomach was cramping. She should have eaten something.

The moment stretched and dropped between them. Their silence shrank and made space for the noise of the world around them. Ryder let herself relax, feeling oddly at peace. Beneath the morning sun, saying nothing with a dangerous man, she drank her bad coffee and watched him wake up.

Reyes finished his drink and offered his hand to her, “Come with me?”

She thought about refusing. Or even just asking questions. Instead, she followed. She followed him down side streets, through dizzying crowds of people, into long, dark hallways. Past empty apartments and arguing peddlers. Two fire-eaters were about to brawl for a street corner, their eyes and their flames both flashing. She followed him until she realized that she was lost—so lost that it would be hard to find her way back out, even with SAM. There had been too many things to see, so much to take in. “Will you be escorting me back out of here?” she asked him, half joking. He had never let go of her hand.

Reyes stopped. “I’ll consider it. What do you think of this?”

She wasn’t sure what she was looking at. It seemed like just another of Kadara’s alleys—small, foul-smelling. There was one thing, though—it was empty. An empty path in a city swollen with people.

The street is freshly washed, SAM noted. Ryder’s fingers clenched.

“Did someone die here?” she asked. Reyes glanced at her. He had been looking at the wall. Surprised, Ryder followed his gaze.

“Yes. There was a child here,” he agreed. There was something about the wall. She could sense it. Cautiously, Ryder reached to brush the rough-cut stone with her fingers. Someone had painted this building green—but not recently. At least a year ago. She was just about to ask SAM to run a scan for a deeper analysis, when she saw it.

“It’s a face?” she asked, already knowing the answer. She reached out to touch the left eye’s image. SAM was scanning. Rather than painting or drawing the face, someone had gone into the stone itself, and cut out a rough approximation of human features. The overall effect suggested that someone had just begun to emerge through the wall, face-first. “Well, that’s creepy.”

“Isn’t it?” Reyes asked. “It took me a while to notice too. They usually use the victim’s blood to paint something ridiculous on the walls, which covers up the face. It’s only after things are washed away that you see it.”

“The others were like this too?”

Reyes sighed. “There are others. Not all. The problem is there are too many copycats. Someone’s seen the paintings but not what hides beneath them, is my guess.”

She had to tell her crew. “You have pictures of the others, right? Can you send them to me?”

“Done,” Reyes agreed. He waited for her to finish scanning, then reached her wrist. “I’ll take you back.”

She looked around once more, then followed him obediently. He glanced back at her, grinning. “Some date.”

“We have our own style.”

He laughed. “I like that.”

He’d trusted her, letting her in. She felt good. “Is that the only thing you like?”

“It’s a start,” Reyes murmured. He’d paused to touch a passing door knob—and he’d twisted—something? But with the barest push she heard a lock snap and in the next second Reyes tugged her wrist, and she was in, off the street and in his arms, while whirls of lazy dust lit the air with gold around them.

Her heart was racing. “You came prepared.”

“I am always prepared,” he pulled her more tightly against him. “Are you impressed?”

“Do you want me to be?”

“Yes,” he said, and just barely in time. Ryder lifted herself onto her toes, and pressed her mouth to his. She didn’t want to hurry. As she kissed him she peeked one eye open. He kissed her with his eyes closed. Somehow, this thrilled her. She broke away to kiss his eyelids, and beneath her mouth, they trembled.

“Silly,” he whispered.

She wanted him. She had to go back to the ship. She wanted him.

He knew it.

She pushed herself away, unsuccessfully.

“Where are you going?” Reyes asked, his mouth grazing the edge of her ear—a feeling between ticklish, and an itch. She wasn’t going to look at him. She wasn’t going to look. She looked.

“This isn’t going to work,” she hissed through tight, determined teeth. “I can’t do this right now. I snuck out while everyone was sleeping to be here, I—I said I wouldn’t do this.”

“Okay.” Reyes didn’t let go. “But do it anyway.” He pushed her hair back, rough hands on her neck, holding the base of her skull just a little too firmly. He kissed, lovingly, the extent of her throat. He bit, hard enough to make her gasp.

“Distracting me is definitely not going to work—”

“Oh yeah? Prove it.” He was pulling on her armor. No, he was barely touching it. Like a lock pick, her gear fell around her, like nothing had been standing in his way to begin with. Her shield plate, nearly banging her foot as it dropped. She didn’t even know that her arms could feel naked, but they did—they did. She couldn’t bring herself to even think about stopping him, not when it was so easy—why was it always so easy for him?

“I don’t have to prove anything to you,” Ryder protested, barely hearing herself. He had knelt, and was unthreading the straps and snaps around her legs. Her thighs, now, bared to the air. Unconsciously, she reached to touch his hair, only just grazing the side of his head with her fingertips. He looked up at her, his face now catching the sunlight, his eyes shining. He seemed, suddenly, vulnerable.

“But don’t you want to?” he asked. She couldn’t tell if he asked to tease her, or because—maybe—she was actually something he actually wanted.

“Yes,” she admitted, horrified when her voice cracked. He gazed up at her, unreadable. For too long, he said nothing. For too long, she fell without a safety net.

It was too much. Her face burning, Ryder scrambled to grab her armor, throwing it back on. “I should go,” she muttered. He watched her. She wouldn’t look at him.

“Hey,” Reyes said. Ryder paid attention to her breast plate, to sealing things as fast as possible. “Hey,” he said again.

“What?”

He handed her a missing glove. “Can I try again?”

She hated herself for falling for him. Of all people. He probably didn’t even like her that much. When he smiled at her, when she saw his uncertainty—she believed that he did. Trying to hold on to her anger, Ryder groused, “You’re not a good man.” She pulled on her glove. He pulled her to her feet. His uncertainty was gone, or hidden, or had never been there in the first place. She turned before he could kiss her goodbye.

“Would you believe me if I said that I try to be?” he asked her back.

Ryder didn’t answer.

She was going back to the ship. She really, really was. As soon as she figured out the right way to sneak onto a secured military vessel, she was in there.

Ryder huddled behind a few of the docking bay’s larger shipping containers, sweating. She was so busted. She’d been brave enough to check the messages on her omni-tool earlier. Lexi was pissed. So was Cora. So was Kallo. She hadn’t even opened the messages fully—both because she was sure the read receipts would damn her further, and because the subject lines alone were terrifying.

“It’s the truant,” Vetra said.

Ryder choked, and whirled. Definitely Vetra. Ryder couldn’t tell if the Turian was angry, or amused. Or both? Probably both. Also: everyone and their mothers were sneaking up on her these days. Everyone. This was why she didn’t do things without a sniper. “Oh, hey there Vetra,” Ryder squeaked. “I was just thinking, it’s funny, because I had SAM install all these ‘predictive combat matrices’ yesterday and then everyone started getting the jump on me.”

Vetra crossed her arms. “Ha.”

“So. I was just—”

“I honestly hope you at least got laid,” Vetra interrupted. “Because Lexi has requested a full psych eval.”

“No,” Ryder whispered. She stared hopefully up at the Turian. “You’re teasing me.”

“You are arguably a deserter.” Vetra shrugged. “No biggie.”

Ryder wilted. Vetra snorted, “Jeez Ryder, take a joke. It’s fine if you’re fine. But don’t pull that shit again. You want someone to discreetly supervise your trysts, all you gotta do is ask.”

“Ugh,” Ryder rubbed her forehead again. Seriously, ow. “You’re right. I’ll apologize. I just wanted—I thought—I don’t know.”

“You thought you had a connection.” Vetra said simply. Ryder tried not to die.

“I guess you could say that.”

“You thought that by confronting him solo, you’d somehow be able to…reach an understanding? Or something to that effect.”

Stupid stupid stupid. Ryder buried her face in her hands. “Can you maybe not tell everyone about this?”

Vetra sniggered. “Probably. For a price.”

She could only lurk behind shipping crates for so long. Sheepishly, Ryder straightened, and tried to act like she had always been striding confidently back to her ship. “It’s not like I was completely playing hooky, you know. I got some good data. I’ll have SAM upload it.”

“Good data? From Reyes?”

Ryder lifted her chin proudly. “He showed me some stuff.”

Vetra sighed, and fell in line behind Ryder as they approached the lifts back to the Tempest. “So did you know that the Collective took an assassin into custody last night? Some Asari kid with really nice armor? Ringing any bells?”

Ryder froze. “What?” she whispered.

“He didn’t tell you, huh?” Vetra crossed her arms. “Thought so.”

“It might not be what you’re thinking,” Ryder defended. She’d never felt this way before. This cold, sinking feeling. It wasn’t disappointment or anger, but something more physical—something like fear. And what was she saying, anyway? Like Reyes tickled people until they told him what he wanted to know? Come on.

“Cute,” Vetra snorted. “Almost like you’ve never seen him torture anyone before.”

“We don’t know that,” Ryder snapped. She winced. She hadn’t meant to sound angry. Vetra’s face shifted, expression cool. If Turians had eyebrows.

“Listen Ryder, I don’t have anything against the guy. It’s a rough world. A part of me thinks he’s doing what he’s gotta do, but a bigger part of me doesn’t want to see what happens when you get sucked into it. Just remember that I’m on your side here, and I’ve dealt with more crime lords than you have.”

“Right.” She felt like such an ass. Ryder closed her eyes. Migraine. Again. “I get it. I’m sorry.”

“Hey,” Vetra shrugged. “Don’t look so bummed. I don’t care if you fuck him.”

Ryder ignored this. “Wait. How many crime lords have you dealt with?”

“Does it matter? They’re mostly dead.” Imperious, Vetra keyed in the shuttle request to deliver them back to the Tempest. Ryder squinted up at her.

“You know that thing where there’s like a hundred rats locked in a box together and eventually they eat each other until only the strongest one’s left?”

“Ugh,” Vetra wailed. She looked genuinely horrified. “Seriously Ryder, what the fuck? Rats? Those furry things with the little wormy tails, right?”

“I mean it’s not like I ever did it!” Ryder defended. Vetra continued to look repulsed.

“Why are humans so gross?” she moaned. She spent most of the shuttle ride sitting as far away from the Gross Human as possible.

Ryder, meanwhile, spent her time bracing herself for the Mom Coalition, and the snarky looks she’d probably have to endure from Vetra, Chief Audience Member.

Upon arriving at the Tempest, however, Ryder realized she’d made a mistake. She’d assumed Lexi wouldn’t have adapted her tactics. Vetra had already settled into a comfortable vantage point against the wall when Lexi, smiling beatifically, said only, “Oh, Ryder. Your brother’s expecting you.”

“What.” Ryder said. It was not really a question or even an accusation—more like an instinctive, deep rejection. Lexi sniffed.

“I do have the authority to notify next-of-kin in states of emergency. Like, when you go missing.”

“Oh man,” Vetra chortled. “You’re gonna get it.”

“What.” Ryder said again. This wouldn’t do. She cleared her throat. “What did you tell him?”

“Probably just that his sister’s fucking a gang leader,” Vetra whispered gleefully, then in her normal voice, “I mean you are though, right?”

Like Ryder really needed a reminder of how much she wanted to punch a hole through the wall right now. She glowered at Vetra. And Lexi. And the whole damn universe. Assholes. Her arm buzzed. She had four missed calls from Scott—meaning her upcoming conversation with him had officially reached natural disaster levels of bad.

“I hope there’s something left of me after all this,” Ryder said pointedly, now shuffling to her cabin. “I hope you’ve all picked out your new positions of authority following my death. But just remember: someone’s getting a bot downloaded into their head. No movie nights while the mourning period’s on. You’ll be sorry. You’ll all be sorry.”

“Stalling is unattractive.” Lexi snapped. Vetra nodded. Heartless bastards.

Ryder sealed the door to her cabin, walked to the middle of the room, and simply stood there. She gathered her courage. Scott was still 14 seconds younger than her and, also, had once dated three Krogan at the same time, so his opinion on her love life was PRETTY RICH IF YOU ASKED HER—!

Her omni-tool throbbed, interrupting her outrage. Reyes? Scott. Oh, god, it already was Scott. Five missed calls meant she might as well start setting up his guest room. “No, no, no, no,” Ryder whispered. “SAM, put him through. Shit.”

“Shit,” Scott echoed back at her, with venom. SAM had transferred the call to her room’s main terminal, making her brother’s (furious) expression five times life-size.

“Scott!” Ryder laughed nervously. Her brother was glaring. He glared like their mom. Why was everyone in their family so much scarier than her? “Hey! You look tan. It’s good. A good look. I mean, it suits you better than being frozen for hundreds of years. The coma thing was not awesome either. But at least it beats acne! Right?”

Shit. Shit shit shit. So Scott had clearly not forgotten being fifteen. Ryder laughed nervously, now loathing herself. “So, how are the Krogan?”

“I don’t know,” Scott said flatly. “Probably fine, since they can survive nuclear fallout.”

“Yep. Nuclear fallout. Gotta love aliens!” Ryder babbled. She looked frantically for some sort of plausible interruption: the Kett attacking, a sudden loss of gravity, a hull breach, her pet space rodent’s sudden mutation?

All very manageable problems.

“The Krogan have been aggressively expanding their territory on Elaaden by building roads and aqueducts,” Scott said coolly. “Also, shooting things.”

“The tried and the true.”

“Cut the shit,” Scott snapped, his eyebrows shooting up even as his voice lowered—an intimidation tactic he’d copied from his mother. Ryder could feel herself physically shrinking.

“I don’t know what you’ve heard, but the Nexus sent me here—”

“Don’t start,” Scott interrupted. The video feed of him wavered, and for one glorious second, Ryder thought she might be able to avoid The Conversation. But he was back, snarling, “Do you seriously think I’m going to hang out in a desert while my sister acts out her own Shakespearean tragedy in Andromeda’s asshole? Are you out of your fucking mind?”

Ryder coughed. “I think calling it a Shakespearean tragedy is pretty strong.”

“Is it?” Scott screeched. So the feed was definitely not flickering, as she had previously thought. That was just her brother’s rage-spit. “Because from my point of view,” Scott yelled, “I’m watching my last family member ignore procedure because she thinks playing detective for some shady-ass flyboy is more important than her life.”

Ryder squirmed as the familiar Familial Guilt began chewing up her insides. “Look, Scott—I don’t know what you’ve heard, and I get that this has you freaked out, but everything’s fine. It’s seriously fine. I’m not doing anything outside of mission protocols—I’m not, like, running off on my own—,” guilt levels were now overwhelming, Ryder swiftly changed direction, “—and anyway, I don’t think half the people here even know I’m the Pathfinder.”

The angry lines in Scott’s face grew deeper with every word she spoke. For a long moment, he was silent, only glaring at her. She could see him chew the inside of his cheek—an old habit. When he spoke next, his anger had been muffled into resolution. “You shouldn’t be there,” Scott said calmly. “And you know it. You should be with me. We should be continuing Dad’s work, our work—together. I thought that’s what you wanted.”

“It is, Scott!” Ryder burst, “Of course it’s what I want!”

Scott’s eyes narrowed. “Then wrap it up, and leave. Or I’ll come to you. You might be the Pathfinder, and maybe that means that the others can’t stop you, but you’re my sister. The Nexus can go to hell.”

“Scott—!” Ryder started to protest, but he’d already ended the call. She stared at the screen for over a minute, seething. This was too much. He wasn’t even the older twin! There was a line between concern and controlling and why did no one seem to observe that?

Without another outlet, Ryder simply shrieked. It was sharp, and loud, and none of her crew apparently thought it sounded urgent enough to warrant investigating. Ryder threw herself upright, pacing angrily. It wasn’t enough to have Aya, the Nexus, and her entire crew riding her ass for doing her job, now her baby brother was joining the fray. Great. Just great.

Ryder stormed out of her quarters, brushing past a jittery Kallo, who was lurking near the Med-Bay.

Wait.

Ryder turned around. “Did Suvi eat something?”

“She ate three!” Kallo wailed.

Ryder shrieked again.

[sir-hicks-a-lot]

The Definite Top Ten Albums of 2016

10. FaltyDL - Heaven is for Quitters

The latest from FaltyDL aka Andrew Lustman is decidedly less experimental than his last couple of albums, forgoing the more repetitive loops and complicated drum patterns in favor of straight ahead and melodic synthscapes.  He even gives smokey vocal downtempo a stab on "Drugs" with singer Rosie Lowe bringing to mind Little Dragon.  He can still create densely abstract beats as he does on "Whisper Diving", but even when he drops a short saxophone loop on "Bridge Spot", it fades away before becoming abrasive.  Elsewhere he rides the oh-so late '80s Touchstone Pictures logo theme throughout "Future Shock" and it's one of the most awesomely obscure samples in recent memory.

9. William Tyler - Modern Country

I don't know if the title Modern Country is supposed to be a cheeky rejoinder to what passes for country music today, or if it is a sincere statement of what Tyler believes these instrumental compositions to represent.  To me, it's solidly in the alt country vein of bands like Wilco and Megafaun, which is no surprise as members of both bands appear here.  At other times, these pastoral soundtracks even conjure images of the acoustic excursions of Led Zeppelin III or Mark Knopfler's fingerpicking style.  Regardless of the proper categorization, the folky jams on Modern Country are evocative of American landscape contours and make for a listen that can either engage directly or set the background mood.  And the clear highlight of "Gone Clear" shows off Tyler's ability to piece together a multi-part epic that even throws in a classical section and perhaps points the way forward for the next go around.

8. Ray LaMontagne - Ouroboros

Ray LaMontagne teamed up with the guys from My Morning Jacket for Ouroboros and it makes for a spectacularly psychedelic twist on LaMontagne's usual singer/songwriter fare.  The songs are particularly well written and Jim James’ production makes a great match for the spacey themes, creating an all around strong effort.   I think there may be some overarching concept album going on as well, but honestly the songs themselves and the expansive production are enough to warrant and reward repeated listens.    

7. Bob Weir - Blue Mountain

My relationship with the Grateful Dead is complicated, for a long time I was a "hater" and to be honest a lot that stemmed from the on-stage histrionics of Bob Weir and his propensity for cowboy songs.  So it's pretty ironic that in the year 2016 an album of what are essentially cowboy songs by Weir makes my list.  I suppose as we get older our tastes change, but I think it's more than that in this case.  Blue Mountain feels like Weir making a bid for a late career statement, in much the same way Dylan did on Time Out of Mind and several times since.  And in that respect, it is a remarkable success, these songs build upon the Americana thread that weaves through the Dead's music and even adds a retro-indie rock sensibility via collaboration with younger artists like Josh Ritter and The National's Josh Kaufman.  Well done Weir, consider your legacy secured.  

6. Bibio - A Mineral Love 

It seems that sometimes albums released earlier in the year get forgotten during the end of the year wrap ups and perhaps that's the case with Bibio's latest that came out last April.  For me it was the soundtrack to summer and the sunny compositions on A Mineral Love were the perfect complement to a mid-afternoon drive or evening cookout.  Bibio strays even further from his IDM roots with a theme of old school funk and even leaning toward jazz fusion at times.  Then there's the straight up 80s style R&B workout "Why So Serious?", which wouldn't be out of place on a Debarge album. The message hits home, don't worry if it's cool or not, just enjoy the good times while you can.

5. Childish Gambino - Awaken, My Love!

I don't think anybody could have predicted that actor turned nerdy rapper Donald Glover would drop the funk explosion that is Awaken, My Love!  All across America you can hear confused listeners asking, "Wait, is Troy from Community the next Prince?"  A complete throwback to the halcyon days of funk and soul that recalls Parliament Funkadelic, Sly and the Family Stone and the aforementioned Purple One, there is no rapping to be found here.  Instead, it's a blast of psychedelic goodness and exuberance as Glover truly lets his freak flag fly in what is essentially a treatise on pursuing love in all its forms.  Such a pleasant surprise of an album is proof you can find fun in the most unexpected of places.  

4. Tycho – Epoch

Scott Hansen aka Tycho has been one of the elite downtempo beat makers since he released the now classic Dive back in 2011.  Even then, there were some acoustic flourishes of guitar and other live instrumentation, but on his latest he has made the bold move of injecting the tropes of rock, more specifically the moody dynamics of postrock, more than ever before into his previously mostly electronic music.  Clearly the influence of Hansen touring with a band for the last five years heavily influences the proceedings as it feels like the work of musicians playing together live.  Taking a more organic approach pays off well, adding new life, heft and even a little menace at times to balance the airy environments of Epoch.

3. A Tribe Called Quest – We Got It From Here. . . Thank You 4 Your Service

Another shocker, the members of Tribe Called Quest recorded this largely in secret and during the final days of Phife Dawg who passed this last March.  After his untimely death, the first Tribe Called Quest in 18 years seemed like an impossibility, and yet here it is.  Not only did Tribe unleash this sneak attack on the world, but even more astounding, it stands as their best work since their monumental and genre defining first three albums in the early '90s.  Going out with a bang and packed with guest spots from longtime collaborators like Busta Rhymes, relatively new faces like Kenderick Lamar and even throwing a couple curveballs with Elton John on the Benny and Jets invoking "Wall of Sound" and Jack White’s blues inflected guitar showing up multiple times.  And although We Got It absolutely stands as a tribute to the memory of Phife, it is also a statement of protest in the face of frayed race relations, xenophobia and a prescient antidote to the coming dark ages of Trumpdom.  Tribe has long been the conscience of hip hop as well as one of its most creative purveyors of beats and rhymes. In the year 2016, we needed their return, however brief it may be, more than ever.

2. David Bowie – Blackstar

What more can be said of David Bowie that has not already been written?  He was truly a singular talent, a force in the world that we perhaps took for granted and just assumed would always be with us.  His absence has left a hole in the fabric of spacetime that cannot be filled.  His mode of expression and innovative spirit was so unique, that the mere thought of another arriving to take his place is preposterous.  It’s fitting then, that his farewell was like none other.  Dropping Blackstar on us like a bomb, it is an emphatic statement that Bowie was artistically vital right up to his last day on this earth.  It’s almost as if his years of inactivity and somewhat underwhelming albums before 2013’s The Next Day were all part of a long game to make his swan song all the more dramatically brilliant.  Blackstar is a dark, dense and unflinching examination of mortality and yet somehow is still hopeful.  Yes, it’s an album that directly addresses the death of its creator, but it transforms that death into a new birth and beginning.  Bowie was already immortal decades ago, by turning his last days into art, he stunned us once again.

1. Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool

Sometimes the universe just lines up in ways that provide the undeniable evidence of a pattern underneath everything.  Even though it’s always there, we are lucky to only get a few brief glimpses of the hidden structures that connect us and affect the events of our lives.  In 2016, I endured the most challenging ordeal of my life in the form of triple bypass surgery and the subsequent recovery.  Getting home from the hospital should have been an occasion for celebration, as it was all I could think about during the longest nine days imaginable, most of which I spent confined to a hospital bed.  Instead, I found the reality of the remainder of my existence waiting for me outside the hospital walls.  A new normal of medications and limitations, many of which were temporary, but others which I would carry permanently.  Mental scars in addition to the physical ones that I now bore.  It was in this moment that I received a gift, a new work from a band I have loved for almost 20 years now, since the landmark OK Computer exploded the conventions of rock n' roll itself.  The day after I came home from the hospital, the universe reached out to me and gave me this album, perhaps Radiohead’s most emotional, and one in which lead singer Thom Yorke sublimated his own struggles with a divorce into music with a level of artistry that few can achieve.  It was a message personally to me, and yet also designed for anyone else receptive to it.  To say it helped me through those difficult days is an understatement.  It truly was a lifeline, sustaining me and giving me the strength to keep persevering in the face of extreme distress.  The gift of A Moon Shape Pool can be summed up in the parting line of its final song, “Don’t leave, don’t leave”.  To which I can only respond by saying, I am still here and thank you.

[well-hidden-hot-mess]

i just...

so yesterday was a lazy day because i had literally zero motivation to do literally anything except get up once an hour for most hours so i could close my stand ring on my apple watch. spent most of the morning sitting at the table but then at like 2pm i just got so tired where i couldn't keep my eyes open and legit crawled into bed and took a nap... i don't know whether i should be happy or concerned because i never nap anymore because vyvanse won't let me so the fact that it let me is concerning for 2 reasons - 1. it means it's not as effective anymore and it's not just due to depression that i'm so low energy all the time and don't get the same jolt i used to and 2. it means my depression is much worse than i've let myself believe and getting worse... either way, not a fan. but thankfully i finally motivated myself to get out of bed at like 5pm and drank preworkout and didn't end up working out until 6pm but had a pretty decent band/bodyweight glute focused workout on my "rest day" from the Epic program. i'm glad i did because i was in a better mood after it and i burned enough calories so i could eat dinner because i may have gone a bit overboard earlier in the day.

after the whole weigh in debacle yesterday i was just in such a mood and i actually cried a little bit... i felt feelings and expressed them... i don't know who i am anymore but i'm not mad. so of couse after that rocky start to the day my brain instantly started dropping those random one liners saying "i could binge", "i want to binge", or just general thoughts about bingeing in general and i know now that's one of the warning signs that if i don't change something instantly that doom is on it's way so i distracted myself by allowing myself to lay in bed guilt free and watch true crime youtube videos while giving in a little bit by having a whole bag of popcorn for breakfast so my brain thinks it's a binge but it's not, then had some wasabi roasted edamame, a peach from the peach truck 😍, and some dates with almond butter as my preworkout snack and after all of that i had like 100 calories left and was about to be hangry while my stomach was growling so badly so i was like okay, just do something so you can eat dinner and ended up having a pretty good workout where i listened to haunted by t swift at the end and was doing the alt curtsey lunge to squat x 12/leg with a 15lb dumbbell and then dropping the weight and doing it again followed by RDL to deadlift x 12 with the DB and was struggling and dying and then that came on and i may have forced it a little bit but i cried for a second in between sets because the adrenaline and emotion was so high but my brain was like nope, you have one more set, we don't have time to feel emotions right now because your heart rate is going to drop so let's go haha. and yes i know that sounds bad that i'm saying i had to workout to "earn" eating dinner and while yes that's what i mean, it's not a punishment or anything - i came at it from the viewpoint of i've been doing so well this week and i avoided a binge all day even after that shitty weigh in and the frustration/emotions and i don't want to negate all the positive things i did today by going way over my calories and once again giving up right as i'm about to get out of the 190's for the millionth time recently and i don't want to keep repeating that pattern and letting myself stand in my own way/drag me down so i wanted to stay on track and push through because i knew i'd feel better after working out in general and then it would carry over to today waking up and not feeling that shame and negativity knowing i had let myself down again and knowing that if i pushed through, i would finally reach the 180's today and would feel proud and would be one large step closer to breaking this cycle aka i had good intentions i promise.

so after all of that i'm sure you're expecting the next thing i say is going to be "and i'm so glad i did because i'm finally in the 180's again!!! YAYYYY!" (accidental caps lock but i'm keeping it lol). well jokes on both of us because that's what i thought today too especially because i feel extra morning skinny and "empty" despite filling the second largest mixing bowl i own with a big ass "burger" salad bigger than my head and devouring it very close to bedtime so i'm like oh i must've dropped like a full pound or something. NOPE. stepped on the scale all excited and honestly just wanted to be lower than yesterday which was 190.3lbs and 30.4%bf... what did the scale say this morning you ask? oh just 190.3lbs and 30.4%bf 😑 i put the body fat in there because i figured oh i still have all that food in me so my weight might be skewed but if the body fat % goes down then i'll know i'm still heading in the right direction. NOPE OF COURSE NOT. today i'm not even sad about it, i'm just mad AF. now the logical side of my brain is trying to step in and remind me of a few things - 1. i didn't fall asleep until like 1am and woke up at 3:30am because (this is gross just fyi) sir sprayed his butt juice all over my bed/pillows/etc and the smell woke me up and then i was angry so i couldn't fall back asleep so 2.5 hours is not enough sleep and my body tends to hold onto stuff when i don't sleep enough so that's not helping. 2. i didn't drink enough water yesterday to help flush out all the salt i ate all day and just in general 3. i ate multiple literal pounds of food last night before bed and it hasn't been "processed" yet and is still all in there so i'm sure that's adding to it. 4. these little plateaus are normal and once i get a better night's sleep tonight and murder myself with the final full body DB workout of death in the Epic program and sweat my bodyweight's worth of sweat during it, i'll get that great woosh effect and all that i'm holding onto will see it's way out and i'll drop like 2lbs overnight (and now i've reminded my brain of two of it's favorite partial quotes to play on repeat for months at a time "if i haven't lost 2lbs by tomorrow i'm gunna be pissed" and "i feel like i keep getting heavier" both from the true life: i can't stay thin episode from like 10 years ago and those two quotes have been tormenting me since then. (jk i checked it was 2008 so 13 years ago holy shit i'm old). but anyway, yeah i'm annnoyed. am i still sitting here almost 2 hours later hoping that my body would wake up and do what it needs to do to process last night's meal so i can have a more accurate weigh in and honestly the one i deserve? yes, yes i am. am i debating drinking some of the digestion bitters in hopes that it speeds up the process? yes i am. is this me being a little crazy? definitely. am i going to stop myself or do anything to snap out of it and remind myself that one weigh in isn't that big a deal? no because that's what i've done the last 2 days and almost willingly dove head first into a binge and i don't know if i have that level of inner strength to do it again today if this doesn't go my way as pathetic as that is but honestly i just don't care - i worked hard, i deserve to see the reward/benefit of my actions (second time trying to figure out the right words and that's still not it but whatever moving on) and i'm not letting my stupid body take this away from me today. i need this win mentally and that's just how it is. okay i'm over listening to myself now so i'm gunna get up and start my day.

update: was getting changed into workout clothes so i figured why not just step on the scale since i'm already naked... and it happened 189.8lbs. should i be concerned about how much relief that brings me? a little. it didn't bring nearly the level of release i thought it would which could either be good because then my mental health isn't as tied to it as it normally is or what i think is the more probable answer bad because instead of feeling proud or relief or anything, i didn't really feel much and that means depression is taking emotions away again but for now i'm not going to overanalyze it, i'm just going to move onto other things and start my day and accept the feelings/lack of feelings and just move on.

[scottmapess]

Bitcoin’s $1200 CME Gap Filled – What’s Next For BTC And Alts?

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Hey, guys, what is going on? Welcome to Young and Investing. So in this video, we’re going to re-evaluate the situation around Bitcoin because on Friday, last week, on Friday, I already said that I thought we would see a little dump after the whole thing. Well, what’s happened is that over the weekend, this dump happened, which created an s.m E gap. So CMG offers Bitcoin futures and it closed around nine thousand nine hundred on Friday and Monday, the price opened around eight thousand eight hundred eight thousand seven hundred. So there was an s.m E gap of almost 1200 dollars, which was the biggest Yemi gap in history. And then I said that I thought that I changed my mind. So I thought after the whole thing that it would not be a dump because of the CMG gap, I thought that first the CMC gap would get filled. And after that, B would readdress the situation. So that was my first prediction. And right now, it exactly did that. So it bumped in the last few days. Right now, just a few hours ago, the M gap, the biggest one in history, was filled. So it’s already time to re-address the situation. If we have a look at coin paprika, we see that Bitcoin is up to eight percent over the last 24 hours. Old coins are literally getting slammed. They’re literally getting smacked in the face by Bitcoin because as you can see, most of the old coins are green numbers, but they are less up than Bitcoin. So in Bitcoin value, they are again losing value. So that’s not a very good thing. We see the only one that is here up more than Bitcoin is Hacks. So, yeah, this is not really looking good for old coins, but let’s have a look at the s.m E charts to have a closer look at that gap. So this was where we closed on Friday. More or less. This is the one hour chart, around ten thousand dollars. And on Monday, we opened at this price. So you could see there was a huge gap of one thousand two hundred dollars or 12 percent towards this price right here of eight thousand eight hundred. And then actually there was the holding day where we had like a massive price going up and down and all the way. And since they’re having happened, we actually went all the way up. Where are we right now are at this point? So actually this hour we felt the CMG gap. So this gap was entirely filled. And since we hit the price of the CMG, yet we went down again. So a few percentage points. We went all the way down because right now the CMG gap is filled. There is no reason to pump the price anymore by. By the market maker. So they don’t have a reason to do that, I guess. Anyway, let’s have a look at the Bitcoin chart. So this is the CMU chart. It’s a little bit lagging. It updates only once in a while. But this is the real-time Bitcoin price. This is a daily chart. So we see where Bitcoin is and where it was. So we hit 10000, almost 10000 here on the real-time chart. And now we’re back at eight thousand six hundred sixty. So there is a little drop here, which is, I think, necessary because all the coins look at this here on the site, all outcomes are literally getting slammed. Once again, we will have a look at the Bitcoin dominance after this. But what is the most likely scenario from now on? Well, from a technical perspective, if we have a look at this, I would say that we’re pretty bullish and especially it would be very bullish if we make a higher high here because we have this high here. If it would make a higher high here at 11000. That would be very bullish for the price of from a technical perspective, even though we’re not hitting this level yet. I think it is very bullish because this is a very nice uptrend, daily uptrend with some higher lows here, another higher low year. And we’re currently retesting the previous high. And it would make sense if we go higher and if we get to this point, it looks very bullish for Bitcoin as long as we don’t get there. My technical analysis or my text from a technical perspective, I think still think that it’s bullish. But from a fundamental standpoint, I don’t think it’s bullish right now. We just had the whole thing hype. Altcoins had suffered enough, in my opinion. So I think there will be some reallocation of capital from Bitcoin to alter coins. Another high that is forming in 2020 is Curium 2.0. So I think that it wouldn’t make sense if in theory and would also get a chance to have a good run after this and would maybe lag like get a little bit of the hype that Bitcoin all also had in the weeks before its whole thing. So, yeah, from a fundamental standpoint, I think we go lower and I think we might even be able to close. The price below nine thousand five hundred here and continue or way down, so it would look like this. Something like this which were already in progress. So I think we could go back to this level eight thousand five hundred, retest this right here, and then maybe go up from there again. Slowly but surely going a little bit sideways for the next few months to something like this wouldn’t make sense, maybe even a little bit lower. But I think this daily close will tell us a lot. So where is this price closing today? If it’s closing above nine thousand five hundred, it would still be likely that we retest this one more time. And if it breaks, I think we go to eleven K if we close below this level. I think that this scenario, which I pointed out is very likely that we go lower again. Now, we have filled this gap. I think that bulls are a little bit slowing down right now and maybe are a reallocation of capital as I said. So this is a likely scenario. But Daley Close will tell us more about it. So very, very interesting today. And yeah, let’s keep an eye on the price of Bitcoin tonight. But I think it still looks good. And I really do hope that we are going to see this sideways scenario for a little while. It would make sense as well because the holding hype is now coming to an end. It is going down a little bit. The hype around Bitcoin, so it’s maybe time for something else. Anyway, let’s have a look at the Bitcoin dominance chart. Very important to have a look at. Again, a very short explanation. So here was the last whole thing. After that, we had a fall of the Bitcoin dominance during 2017 with a lower thirty-five percent than we had this rising watch rate here all the way to as high as seventy-three percent. This is a very important area here, between sixty-nine percent and sixty-seven percent. And currently, Bitcoin is testing this. This resistance. So so if it breaks above and it closes above sixty-nine percent, then I would be scared for all the coins because then it could establish support on this on the zone right here. And if this turns into support then it could be very painful for all accounts. So I really don’t hope to see this happen because, of course, like, you know, like 70 percent of my portfolio is an old coin. So it would be great after several years to finally see some article in action. So I hope to see this reject and go down a little bit more today so that we close lower and we can continue or way down. And this resistance will hold. I really hope so. So, yeah, this is how the Bitcoin dominance looks like. It looks very bullish. So I really hope I’m wrong and that we close under sixty-nine percent and continue or way down over the next few weeks towards 58 percent. So we will see about that. But it’s a very scary situation for all squints anyway. So let’s see where this brings us. I want to point out to charts how bad it actually looks for old coins. So I have the charts here off of Tasos. And Tasos is in this uptrend already for several months, for half a year. Tested this uptrend several times. And it’s right now closing below this trend line. This six-month trend line. So not a very good thing to see here, especially because Bitcoin bumping over the last several weeks. This made the price go down all the way from almost a new all-time high here. Maybe there is going a retest to turn this into resistance or we see a quick bounce up and closing above the trend line again. So that would be a very good thing. But it’s very scary for all the coins and a lot of gold coins look like this currently. So this is just an example. What is next for Tasos? If it’s closing below, then we re-evaluate the situation at this level right here. Twenty four thousand setto she’s. That would make sense if it goes there. But it would also make sense if we retest balance here and close above. That would also make sense. So the next few days are crucial for all. Ticona I think they really need to bounce. Now to see them Egert is filled. If we’re not bouncing now on the bitcoin bear for Alz coins, then it looks very scary. It’s just as simple as that. OK, the last thing I want to show you is this chart right here. This is the Ethiopian chart theorem not looking so good as well because it’s testing this support level once again. If we break below, it’s we’re going to test the previous higher low here. So it could be possible that we’re going to make like lower a lower low. So here that we can make a low here and then we have. High or low here. Sorry. Look at this now we have a downtrend established again for the fourth year and then it would look like something like this, like a channel or a watch or whatever. It’s more like a channel, but I don’t hope to see something like this. But anyway, there is no clear uptrend right now for a theorem anyway. So, yeah, I am not too confident in all of this. I really need to see this bounce happen right now, today and in the next few days because it doesn’t look very good. And this uptrend of a theorem is looking very weak. It looks like a theorem is in an accumulation stage still. But I would like to see these higher lows. But right now is the time to make this high or low and bounce on the support and continue or way up and make a higher high. Otherwise, we will establish a downwards channel to our support level here. This would also be a touch on a trend line. It’s been a while since I’ve been this excited about t.A. It looks very interesting right now from a technical perspective. We see the Bitcoin dominance being at a crucial level. We see Bitcoin having felt the CRM gap and right now having a little pullback. We see many old coins that are not looking very good. So they need to bounce hard to reclaim certain trends. So, yeah, it’s very interesting. I’m not going to do many t.Videos. That’s not the core of my channel, but I thought this was an interesting time to do one. So if you want regular more regular updates on the situation, I would say go follow me on Twitter. There is a link in description down below. So if you want regular updates, go follow me there. Anyway, guys, that is it for the video. I hope you enjoyed it. If so, please give it a thumbs up, as usual. I really do appreciate all of these thumbs-ups. If you’re new to the channel, please subscribe. By hitting that subscribe button down below to stay updated, all the latest cryptocurrency news reviews my own portfolio and much more. Sometimes t.a videos like this. Thank you for watching, guys. See you. Next video. Cheers. Bye-Bye.

source https://www.cryptosharks.net/bitcoins-cme-gap-filled-whats-next-for-btc/ source https://cryptosharks1.blogspot.com/2020/05/bitcoins-1200-cme-gap-filled-whats-next.html