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[rel124c41]

BITCH CAME BACK. vox

You leave the VoxTek tower at 3 P.M. and return to it at 3 A.M.

Vox likes to think you would never betray him like that.

tags: established relationship, bodyguard, relationship issues, implied/referenced sex, big brother is watching complex, canon typical violence, unhealthy coping mechanisms, & fist fights

word count: 8,626

It is not cheating.

He chooses to believe it is not cheating. 

No matter what Valentino whispers about you being unsatisfied in bed; no matter what Velvette teases about how you always leave behind your phone; no matter what his derailing mind starts to image (some muscular hellhound, incubus, sinner, overlord, defined biceps gripping your thighs and –) in his most calamitous moments: Vox chooses to believe you do not leave VoxTek tower to go cheat on him. 

Relationships are built on trust. That principle rule is often why relationships fail in Hell. Trust from sinful liars was as valuable as a rock painted gold. In Hell, trust comes from blood signatures and thumping, electric green deals. You and Vox were not bound through these standard demon methods. No contractual deals, you outlined early on, just verbal agreements. 

You and Vox did have a certain verbal agreement: three little words. Whispered into the drool spot on his pillow, bleeding from your mouth when you two collided in kisses, breathed on your wrist when you found him hunched and tired in his office, flashing on your cell’s screen, and written on his hand. That was the deal. 

Though, Vox muffles a curse into his pillow, you certainly have been saying those words less now.  

He moves his monitor off the pillow surface when the rain of the shower ebbs. When you came in, the scent he had picked up on you was thankfully not sex. Instead the scent of metallic blood clung to you like amber honey on a bear’s mouth. Your signature scent. Vark and his hammerhead brother were drawn to how deeply the smell was oiled and shampooed into your skin. Violence: a perfume tailored for you. 

A hair-dryer starts up in the bathroom and Vox stops busying himself with sharpening the metal of his claws. 

Still, even if sex was not a present scent, that didn’t mean you did not have it. The dark part of him stirs like a hive of bees. Foreplay for you is like a mimic of lions fighting a buffalo to eat her child. His purchases of new screen protectors and bandages increased when you two first kickoffed a relationship. So scent is not a good thing to completely go off on –

The sound of water returns. Ah, the sink faucet. Buried under the first sound, he can hear the tiny scrub of a toothbrush. Light leaks under the closed door. If you kiss him tonight (he hopes you will), he would be grateful for the smell of mint on your teeth. Mint and iron. Mint and iron and the possible burial of body sweat, sex.

You left VoxTek tower at 3 P.M. – in the middle of a weekday before anyone working there would dare to clock out – and then you returned to your shared bedroom at 3 fucking A.M. He should zap the information out of you.

It’s not cheating; it’s not cheating; it’s not cheating. 

The bathroom door clicks open. A towel is thrown around your neck. Already dressed in your pajamas, a simple billowing pair of sweatpants and socks, you make your way over. Tiptoeing even though you know he is awake.

At the ping of you entering the building through surveillance cameras, Vox had started to gradually stir. He could not fake being asleep. As soon as the black on his monitor melted away to reveal blue, you knew he was awake. There is no acknowledgement of him from you. No hi honey or night Vox. And his face brightness is not dimmed below seventy percent so you know he is awake. Azure lighting filtering over sheets and floating in the air, you pull back covers to sink into bed, shirtless as was your habit. You turn your back to him, which has regrettably become a new habit.

He tracks his eyes over the canvas of your back. On it, mauve and ebony bruises are speckled. They are like lily-pads in a dark lake or a thousand eclipses lighting up a dark sky. Never an absence of bruises with you. Across the canvas, there are bisecting marks of sharp claws not made by him that cause him some stress.

Vox remembers once connecting all your bruises into constellations, shapes of animals and faces and other things, post-aftercare scrambling up his wires and guiding him do something so sinfully, sentimentally human. He remembers your laughter and whines at his cold claws on warm skin. Remembering not in a human way but in an electronic way, memories always fresh in his mind, recorded.

You were like a virus. The most prominent memories he has are ones with you.

Blue light slimes over your skin. Vox dims his screen in hopes you might turn towards him. No luck. He lifts up one sharpened claw to drag a line shaped like a cleft note from bruise to bruise. He goes to —

“Stop that. It hurts.”

He goes to do nothing. Defeated, Vox returns his hand underneath his pillow. Why are you acting like this? Why were you doing this to him? You must feel his eyes scrutinizing on the cusp of your shoulder. Moving, you do something that takes that dark, calamitous part of Vox and squeezes it like a dog clamping his teeth around a squeak toy, all the ink spilling over and soaping up his systems.

You inch to the edge of the bed, so close to falling off that you might as well leave altogether.

It’s not cheating. Vox rolls over and tries to sleep without dreaming. 

You are a hired bodyguard for Valentino. Out of the ten bodyguards employed, you are closest to Valentino. Though you do not flank your boss all hours nor all week, you are seen most in the public eye out of the others employed to protect this pompous moth prince. This is because you are so efficient at your job.

It was that efficiency that drew Vox to even glance in your meaningless, background direction.

For a sinner demon, your physical appearance does not often stir up anything for anyone. Your employer did give you lipstick tubes a few times and perfumes for you to try. If Valentino said you had potential, he wanted you to embrace it.  You politely declined but kept your gifts. To be honest, you are very plain. Your hellish form was disfigured to give the mimicking resemblance of an oni, a yokai, but most human features remained. 

You had two physical differences that Valentino nettled you on showing off. One: golden spirals running down your arm like kintsugi art; two: a set of heavy, crimson horns growing from your temples. Every first of the month, Valentino mourned your horns.

January first, February first, March first, April first, and so on, you would grind down your horns. Equipped with a hacksaw and then a sander, it was a routine task for you. What could have grown gorgeously into carmine bighorn sheep’s horns were ruined to Valentino’s grief. You snipped them away like a disgruntled gardener. Like two red tree stumps, your horns sat on your head.

You went through with this cosmetic change for two reasons. You could not stand the look of a demon on yourself. Your horns were so heavy that they often disturbed how you moved. 

“I could not kill your enemies if I am toppling over due to the heft of my horns,” you told Valentino and he conceded. 

So unburdened by that obstructing weight, you did your job remarkably and accidentally captured Vox’s eyes. Sparked him, you joked. And then he came to agree and would say you shocked his heart – which often left you with warm cheeks. A relationship built all because someone grew obsessed over a pornstar and felt owed a performance, thus deciding to take it out on Valentino at one of his clubs.

It was nothing remarkable. You were not intimidated by the demon’s size despite the Vees awe. It was simply your job to do. If someone threatened Valentino, a bodyguard needed to react. 

“But a runt like you being able to take down someone like that. What a treat you are, (Name)!” Sharp teeth flirted with you and the moth kissed your bloody cheek when it was all done.

You were not small in stature like an imp. You retained your human height. However, some sinners grew with the hellish transformation. Thus, a 7’ 6” demon was a spectacle against you who was very obviously not reaching that. Though, your hellish transformation had selected a different prowess of your physical form to alter: your strength. Fondly, you reflect on that day.

“Mr. Valentino! Sir!”

Valentino blinks behind his heart-shaped glasses. In front of him, the head of the sinner woman he was talking to gained a third eye. Valentino only blinks because as she slumps lifeless to the ground, her drink slashes on him, causing him mild stress. Then, he blinks a second time as you grab him by the waist, spinning him off the leather booth, a hole suddenly appearing in the exact spot his back was reclined on. 

His lips upturn into a smile, amorous pinks and warm amber lighting raining down on his features. How theatrical you are! He mourns when your hands slide off his waist as you jump in from the shadows to do your job. 

He distantly hears Velvette curse. She was sitting on his left so it is only natural she would be startled, so close to when the gunshots were fired. Valentino watches as you jump down from the high platform where the three Vees were sitting and watching the night’s performance before being rudely interrupted. 

The demon is easy to make out in the crowd, Carmine-manufactured gun raised in his hand, standing at a height perhaps only three feet smaller than Valentino himself. He is not standing for long. You vault yourself over a table, kicking him down to a height you can reach and starting to take care of your job. Now, this is not as good as the performance on the stripper pole but is not half bad. 

“Vox. Light,” Valentino says, turning to his right where the television demon is in a similar state as Velvette, but collecting himself. A cigarette hanging from a long cigarette holder is waved momentarily in his face. 

“Thank you,” Valentino says and, smoking, watches. 

There are a million tools you could be using – glasses from any of the nearby tables, the arm of a leg chair, Valentino knows you are skilled enough to grab the gun laying two yards across the club floor to finish this job. Yet, all you do is punch and punch, enjoying and savoring your job.

Raising your fist by your head, launching it down into the demon’s face. Again and again and again. Valentino watches with great delight how the speed at which the demon’s legs fail miserably underneath you wans off from panicked kicks to tired scuffling. Your knuckles are recolored. You raise back up your fist. You launch it back down into the concave space you are making. There is a nose, underneath that is a gorey sunken mess, underneath that is a disconnected, bottom jaw. The crimson warmth coating and nuzzling into your hand is a welcome feeling. You miss it dearly when the body underneath you eventually stills. 

With a push, you stand back on your feet and start towards Valentino. He raises one of his four arms out to you – the upper right one drawing you in as he spins you excitedly on the platform. Valentino dips you and kisses you on the mouth, giving you the courtesy of blowing out his smoke first.

“Well done!” He pulls you back up into a standing position. 

“It is my job, Mr. Valentino.” Your voice is monotone which isn’t too entertaining but it does not dampen Valentino’s cheer. “No need for praise.”

Your gaze briefly flicks over to the couch. Genuine scolding burns you up inside while looking at the hole in the leather booth, should have been quicker. You startle when you see one of Valentino’s associates staring at you. Was the television demon named Vel or Vox? Doesn’t matter.

Hating being ignored, a finger on your face tilts your gaze back to the heart-shaped glasses. Valentino leans down, humming at the side of your face when some gore must have billowed up from the mess you were making. “But a runt like you being able to take down someone like that. What a treat you are, (Name)!” Sharp teeth flirt with you and the moth kisses your bloody cheek; all of it done and all of it set in motion.

You will never know Heaven. After some tears, skin punched off your knuckles, and snowflakes of broken glass, you accepted this. You will never know Heaven and its comforts. This is a second Heaven.

Red rivers waterfalling over and down trembling fingers. Warm pain of a bruise kissing into an ankle or wrist like an amorous cat. A crack as the cartilage of bone is split like a pencil. Skin rubbed off like latex on a scratch ticket to reveal bone, blood, and fat. Bitten tongues elongating into red syrup; a black gap in the military cemetery of teeth; an eye rolling on the ground in a morbid game of golf. Blood and injury, a frequent lover of yours. All these wonderful experiences and sensations: backdropped by the sound of sinisterly supportive cheers from imps and sinners. 

Your chance of redemption. Smoke billows off your lip and past your bloody nose. This is a chance to feel what Heaven could possibly be like. Redemption and honor made possible through violence, something you have known for a long time. A moral as ingrained in you as the gold rivulets falling down your arms.

Fiddling with your cigarette with your tongue, you busy yourself with wrapping white around your hands. Over the left and diagonal across the right – like a child practicing tying their shoes. 

You finish your work, checking your compression is tight, when the door opens and a muscular hellborn demon with defined biceps walks in. “(Name).”

“Yeah?”

“Only three more minutes.”

“Got it.”

Vox will never know Heaven. This is nothing that causes him any grief. During his entrance into the realm – before he set up contracts, set up VoxTex, set up a reign of control – it had been a heavy stone to lay with until erosion crumbled it down to a pebble. He will not know Heaven; so fucking what? 

He put so much stock in his business that it would be unfortunate for him to be pulled into heavenly gates. This was Heaven, not a second Heaven but Heaven itself. In the military march of obedient corporate slaves, a hymn. With the simple spiral of his right eye, he could get people to revere him. Proverb 15:3 says: the eyes of the Lord are in every place (every cellphone, house security system, every television and computer), beholding the evil and the good. Alastor gone and probably buried somewhere, Vox was on top of his game. Heaven was perfect until you started acting so strangely.

Something dark stirs in him in his news studio. His brain and eyes are wired to every device in the room. Vox turns from talking with the camera operator, words automatic as if they were pre-recorded. Even when you are concealing yourself in shadows, he can see you and when you step out of them, he wants to watch.

“Sir, is this a correct height for the trucking?”

“No, you’re doing it wrong,” Vox says without even turning his body to check the camera’s position. 

His attention is raptured by you. As it always is. Woefully, he watches as you talk with Valentino in the corner, before another bodyguard with defined muscles, puts a hand on your shoulder. Vox does not even try to hide the abhor spark that flicks over him. He could hear everything perfectly from Valentino’s phone but it is nothing of use. You switch out a shift and are letting your boss know that you are clocking out. Simple, quotidian activities. Nothing of use to try and decipher where you go. 

This is Heaven, Vox reminds himself, standing in Hell.

“Five hundred, nineteen.”

The room tilts and billows.

“Five hundred, twenty.”

There is something about pain that is so satisfying to you.

“Five hundred, twenty-one.”

If you could stay in pain, it would be as beneficial as a plant in sunlight.

“Five hundred, twenty-two.”

You – You, huh? – You turn your head to the side slightly. Blue light fruitlessly hides from you. Oh, he is awake. Releasing the tension from your muscles, your feet take a slight drop to the ground. You can finish the last of your six hundred and sixty-six pull-ups at a later time, you relinquish.

Just as you grab yourself a shirt, Vox finally decides to speak. It is a tone as if he is trying to gauge which version of you he will receive today: your old self or your new self. “Morning.” He rises up from the pillow and smiles dubiously. “You still have a bit more than a hundred to go.”

You stare at him. In his expensive, personally tailored pajama button-up. Him, with the hesitation in his eyes. Vox. Your Vox. Who despite the distance you have carved out, you are still incredibly fond of. You pull the shirt down over your abdomen and say, “Morning.” Slowly, you take a lazy walk to the side of your shared bed. “How do you feel,” you ask as you plant yourself down.

“Definitely felt better before,” he grins lopsided, trying to flash on some boyish charm. “Think you almost dislocated my shoulder.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. I liked it.”

“Still, it’s not right of me.”

“...” Vox runs a hand up and down your thigh before lifting it up onto the bed.

“What is the agenda for today?”

“Let’s see. Marketing team has a change of manager which is gonna be a bitch to handle; we have a mid-morning segment to do on Velvette’s love potion; I have a 2 o-clock, a 4 o’clock, then a 5 o’clock; today is Friday so another Vox-2-Nite is scheduled. And that is all planned without any wiggling room. So if just one thing goes wrong –” At the mere thought, his voice starts to drop in octaves, prematurely vexed. World never seems to stop spinning, even when being below it. 

“Sounds dreadfully long. Are you sure your charge will hold on through it?”

“I scheduled a fifteen minute break in there … somewhere.”

“Ah, yes, Vox’s infamous fifteen breaks. Ones that always get pushed off until the end of the day.”

“They aren’t so infamous when I have you there, forcing me to take company-policed hour breaks … You really have to stop doing that.”

“Well, you’ll have to trudge through today without me or an hour break. Valentino has me booked today, honey.”

“That fucking bastard,” Vox shimmers, cursing Valentino, and you offer a timid chuckle. You trail a calming hand up and down his arm. Throughout the conversation, he and you had fallen into the lotus sex position – just awfully more clothed and less sexy– one of the numerous you two had been tangled into last night. 

Last night … your mind cannot help to wander to it and not fun wandering either. Two awful images keep spinning in your mind. One: the image of you grabbing his upper arm in the cowgirl position only to push too hard and hear a sickening crack from his shoulder, his screen malfunctioning. Thank your lucky star, it was just air bubbles. Two: in the middle of your rendezvous, the image of his screen turning black because you had taken talons and dug them amorously into his abdomen, your passionate action almost punctuating his colon. 

You kiss under his monitor when Vox rests his chin onto your head, feeling the warmth of electronic currents mimicking a bloodstream long since retired. You let him stay that way for a while, enjoying his presence. It is a little better than finishing up those pull-ups. 

“Hey, are we alright?”

Spoke too soon.

You stone up in his arms like a garden statue – ah, his arms. He has thought ahead and wrapped his arms around you, forbidding you from escaping this question. Well, you can still escape as you had no contract requiring you to answer his questions. Avoidant kisses are speckled past his poorly buttoned-up pajama top. 

“(Name).”

At the stern tone coating him saying your name, you bite into his blue-tinted collarbone. Vox is expecting this so he does not even groan at the fresh assault on an already bruised neck. He lets you fight shy of this heavy conversation through your physicality. His pride is quite grand when he does not moan as you attack his particularly sensitive spot, just in the space between the vagus nerve and jugular vein. 

“(Name).” You sweat cold when you realize Vox’s voice is still controlled and level, absent of a single glitch.

“Yes, honey?”

“Are we alright?”

“Why wouldn’t we be,” you avoid the question with a question and start to unbutton his pajama top. 

“Because you’ve been leaving –” his voice glitches, just a slight temperament, but you jump onto the break in his words.

“Hey, Valentino’s working on,” you press a kiss to his dead heart, “on this new segment in his porn. And it’s got,” you bite down lightly on his nipple, “this really hot position in it,” you scold yourself when your fingers mess up on a button, “called the Valedictorian. I think we should try it.” You celebrate when you manage to undo the last button by sucking on Vox’s nipple.  

“(Name).” 

At least this time, when your name is said, Vox’s voice is wobbling. And, thus the arms around you are less like a steel cage and more like fragile icicles. Honestly, you could have broken out any time but you would rather slip out of his arms with humane strength. 

And Valentino comes to the rescue twice in this eventful morning. Mentioned in name and then showing up in the ring of your phone. Vox is in such an amorous state that he only disconnects the incoming call after the third ring which means its presence has been heard and cannot be ignored.

“(Name).”

This time he says your name mournfully. You place a parting kiss to his throat. From his fragile arms, you slip away. “Duty calls,” you say and then leave as you have done for weeks now.

EXPANDING THE VEES REIN. 

That is what the agenda for today’s meeting is, highlighted in bold in the most professional serif font, Times New Roman, and thrown up onto screen behind Vox’s chair. He had wrestled with that for a while, foolishly feeling like the intern he once was in the living world. Not that Valentino or Velvette would appreciate it. Crumpled papers littered his personal bedroom, alliterations and homophones scrapped. Absent from his usual sounding-board (your spot in bed empty), he had decided after frying his favorite mug that simple and cut-to-the-point was the way to go.

Expanding the Vees rein: how can they go about that, the next slide asked to a group of two. Well, don’t damage your dead brain too hard by thinking of that alluring question; Vox was already supplying the answers and then the execution. And he readily rambled on about it:

“Now this little beauty is called SPID. It stands for spider parodying intellect-gathering device. Spied and spider, see? The task of the SPID would be to lock onto anybody’s potential target, infiltrating homes and creating a web of information through this lens. If we refer back to slide thirty-three, we can see the previous success of –” 

“Vox.”

The Overlord screeches to a halt. Not really paying attention if either Velvette or Valentino were paying attention, his name being said catches him by surprise. His claws pierce gently into the plastic molded around the spider device in his hand. The SPID is just one of the dozen he has brought in, all masquerading under the purpose of Expanding the Vees Rein.

A snarl appears on his screen. “Yes, Velvette?”

“How long have you and (Name) been together?”

It gives the Overlord pause for a moment. Gently, he takes his claws out of the back of the mechanical spider. Letting the tiny creature join the others on the conference table, Vox grumbles, “eight months, one week, three days.” 

He onlys that so precisely because he has a detailed timeline of everything since his fall. Give him a precise date and year, no matter how far away, and he could tell you exactly what he had for breakfast. His memory was pristine. 

“Isn’t that enough time for you to trust them? And enough time where we don’t have to sit through your spiraling insecure bullshit?”

With a laugh: “As you can see, Velvette, this meeting is the betterment of the Vees. If one does not always expand his monopoly, he leaves himself vulnerable to be subdued by another monopoly. Sooo – as I was saying, this spider is going to help us –”

“He’s just being pissy because he doesn’t have his little bebito/a under contract.”

The spark of electricity that flies over Vox’s entire body is violent. Volatile energy pulses in the air as formidable as a gun. This time (because he had already picked back up the spider) the SPID dies with a crunch in Vox’s claws. All eight legs twitch in the tiny thunderstorm inside Vox’s grasps. Vox is envisioning crushing a different insect though. 

“Neither do yOU.”

“I might not have their soul, but I have their loyalty. Do you?” Vox can tell by the grin pulling up Valetino’s lips that he finds this remarkably humorous. Very pleased at himself that he knows something the Vox doesn’t. 

“You FUCKING –”

“Hahahaha!”

They never get to go over the additional twenty-seven slides Vox had slaved over the night before.

“Mr. Valentino? Sir?”

The strap of your duffle bag is choked by uneasy hands. When the door had opened in the back alley of Voxtek’s towers, you had admittedly jumped like a startled cat and screamed like a kid on a rollercoaster. Even when greeting the familiar face of your boss, you are still a little nervous. 

“Do you need me for something, Sir?”

Though you are off the clock, so Valentino really should not be down here. In the dirtiest part of the towers, in a small sliver of space ignored by security cameras. Which makes your apprehension completely valid.

“Can’t a man enjoy a smoke, bebito/a?” The uneasy wilts out of you as he pulls his cigarette holder from somewhere.

“Of course, Sir. I will leave you to it.”

“No, stay. That other demon is such a sloppy bodyguard.”

“Oh.”

“Light?”

“Of course, Sir.”

You take your place next to Valentino, his shadow. Looking down at the duffle bag, you judge that you can be a bit late. It is not like –

“Dunhill. Refined cigarettes, cinnamon and suet.” Pink smoke billows off tiny fire, slurring up into the air in the shape of sweet Valentine candy. It never fails to impress you with how delicately opulent it looks. “You know, the best cigarette is the first cigarette in the morning. The untouched, virgin cigarette after a night starved of them. Very new. Very Dunhill. 

“I do not like owning second hand garbage, (Name).”

You feel your heart beat faster just a few seconds. That tone of voice is one you have never had directed at you. The straps of your duffle bag cry for release as you strangle them in a worried grip. “I’m aware, Sir.”

“Typically, when you get out of the hole, you do not go crawling back to it.” 

“Yes, typically not, Sir.”

You two fall into silence. Where Valentino luxuriously leans against the brick wall, you fall back and dig your shoulders into the brick, making sure to feel the pain and burn of a bruise. At this moment, you can feel your heartbeat under the skin of your throat. You are sure Valentino can hear it too with how he is prolonging drags off his cigarette. Typically, you were not so afraid of Valentino – even now, your fear stems from the thought of Vox instead of Valentino. You wrestle with the thought of the repercussions if Vox knew you were crawling back into that hole as your boss said.

“Answer me this.” Smoke waterfalls off his lips and you look up. The Overlord slowly takes off his heart-shaped sunglasses and bends his height. “Are you being summoned there?”

“No, Sir,” you answer with your untethered soul still inside you, pounding away on your ribcage. 

“Hm.” Straightening up to his height, Valentino smiles and puts back on his sunglasses. “Good.”

It is not cheating, Vox reminds himself as he hops from television in stores windows to telephone wire to smart watches. Those four words are a fire blanket coating over his damned soul. They keep him from exploding in fiery rage. Even when he reaches a point where he has reached the last electronic he can use, he repeats that … ugh, prayer … in his head. Sparking out of a telephone wire, Vox stands formidable on the ground, energetic from his frustration. 

Then, he tries diligently to shrink and draw less attention to himself.

His screen brightness is dimmed to a submerged 16 percent, all of his notifications are thumbed over to off, and a gray hoodie is zipped over his red-and-black striped waistcoat: all the preparations for this espionage set into place. He had done exceedingly well keeping out of your sight while keeping you in his sight. Head down, Vox follows around the last corner you took. 

Every city has its bad areas. Pentagram City has managed to exceed the limits for a bad area quite impressively here. He has to side-step some monstrous activities he would rather soon forget. The depth of red liquid staining his shoes would put to shame a wade in a cranberry bog. Violence swims in the air like a body fragrance.

There is a hole in the world like a great black pit and the vermin of the world inhabit it and its morals aren’t worth what a pig could spit. Vox recounts you saying that once; he pulls up the recording in his files, listening to your voice in the back of his head. Perhaps you have meant here rather than Hell. 

Waiting thirty minutes inside telephone wires after you went in was painful. He had boiled over with the anxious energy of just wanting to follow you shoulder to shoulder. He knew better. So while watching you go down a flight of cement steps, past a black gate, into an apartment complex’s basement was like water in the wires, away from him, it was necessary. If you knew about his presence before he wanted to reveal it … well, he rather not clean up shit off fan blades.

This is just a simple check-up. An in and out operation. He just … He just needs to know what you are doing.

Vox cannot really wrap his head around why you are coming here. You are so much better than this cesspool – was it a kink of yours to socialize with the lowest of the low? Skirting around the gate and the door, he walks in uninvited.

No security checks? Really is the lowest of the low. Incredulous, Vox analyzes the place.

It is a lobby of sorts — a mock imitation of it and as close to organized as a hoarder’s house — and there is evidently a large gathering around a desk. There are some outliers standing to the sides of the room. To the far left are double doors, guarded by two well-built and muscular figures. 

Black, jealous spirals appearing in his right eye, Vox turns back to the crowd to calm himself. This does not look like a sex dungeon but he can never be certain. He watched as people elect to shove knives into throats instead of shoving to move up into line. Receding into his body, he feels around for an electronic he can teleport in and out of.

Hm?

Hm.

No way. 

There are zero electronics in this entire place. It gives Vox such whiplash he ogles at the place until he remembers to school his expression. No one even holds a phone in their back pocket. For the first time in his reign of control over technology, he cannot feel a single spark of anything. 

Vox is knocked out of his stupor when some sinner pushes him, “fucking move or lose it, flat face.” and melts into the bloody crowd.

Metal claws curl up into his right palm. He schools that whet vehemence in his soul, knowing he sadly cannot cause a scene. No one knows of his presence. Probably the only praise-worthy factor of a town empty of technology. Joining into the crowd, Vox thinks on how he will find that sinner later. Electrocuting him until his eyes pour out of his sockets like rooibos tea is a calming image to feast on. His digital mind plots in great detail as he waits to reach the front.

— according to — the eutectic point, two solids have the same melting point, of the human skin and eyeball is — between 500 to 2000 volts kills — and saline — a sponge moistened with saline as a conductive jelly for electric currents — according to —

Vox is kicked out of his browsing of the internet when a phlegmy throat clears itself. He narrows his eyes in annoyance, finally stepping up to the seat of his mind and away from the waves of databases. 

At least he was recording and listening to what others said before him: “I’ll have 80 on number 7.” Vox says, combining the numbers of two separate customers’ statements. Then, he pulls out his credit card from his slacks. Even under poor lighting, the ebony and gold surface shines pristinely. 

The demon at the desk raises an eyebrow at him, “We don’t accept cards, newbie.”

They don't — huh! Even the Epirorium down in Cannibal Town accepted credit cards — credit cards were the most effective way to pay for anything! A quick transaction without the hassle of juggling coins and crumbled bills. He cannot help gritting his turquoise teeth in frustration. 

“You cannot be serious.”

“No cards or phones. You’re already breaking one of the rules with that fucking Samsung you got as a head.”

“It’s a LG, not a Samsung.” He can feel his teeth grinding.

“I don’t give a fucking shit.” The demon deadpans. “Do you have any cash?”

Waste of space sinner; if his patience (his very small patience) keeps getting tested tonight, something is gonna go wrong. With a grumble, he searches around in his wallet. Credit card 2, credit card 3, credit card 4, a photo of you and him, credit card 5, cred— a measly five dollar bill. Slamming it down, Vox deepens the pitch and echo frequency of his voice, “Here you go. Five on number 7.”

Worthless piece of shit. 

The demon clears their throat and then hands Vox his ticket. Knowing that is all he needs from observation, the Overlord makes a swift turn to the double door. What greets him is crowds upon crowds of sinners, imps, and hellborns. A stadium of sorts? Vox walks across the top floor, analyzing the circling structure of seats. No one is sitting in the seats but they cascade down in a cup-like structure into this eight foot drop where he can guess the entertainment is. Off the top layer floor, Vox finds a staircase and sedately starts walking down them. All the while he listens to the crowd:

“Kill them! KillthemKillthemKillthem!!”

“The stomach! Go for the stomach!”

“They’re getting destroyed out there. I bet my left eye on this, if they don’t win …”

“Cheater!”

So he was correct in assessing this was a gambling spot. A fighting arena of sorts … Vox thinks he is starting to get all the pieces put together when a loud voice, unamplified by any technology but still pristinely clear, yells, “THE WINNER!” The crowd explodes; Vox lowers his hearing and disturbs the charge into his eyes. His shoes click measured on the stairs. Metal claws grasp the railing and he leans forward, curious and suspecting. 

“Announcing their one thousandth, two hundred and seventy-second win, it is our one and our only (Name)!”

Some skinny demon, smaller than Vox, raises your arm up by the wrist. The golden patterns on your biceps and latissimus glow like a fanning, spiraling wind-chime made of reflective metal. A Jason Pollock of red blood coats your body. Your hands however are thoroughly drenched in red, making the smaller demon’s grip unsteady and slipping. Your expression is tired and unsatisfied. Up and down, your chest rises in heavy pants. And though you look you could really use a nap, Vox thinks you still look stunning.

That is why Heaven felt so far away: in the news studio, in his bedroom, empty from the march of corporate slaves and the clicking keys’ symphony of obedience. Heaven followed after you. 

“(Name).”

Like a dog, you growl around the material in your mouth. Why could he never leave well enough alone? Him and his annoying persistence to always be in your business like a second skin! When he starts pounding on the door, you kick it back hard in retaliation. Thump! Wood groans at the assault. 

Glaring as your name is called again, you work. You had told him it would take five minutes and it had barely been two.

Forceps pinched between your teeth, you gently continue what you came in the restroom to take care of before your management interrupted. (Fuck, you were always under the thumb of someone, bending yourself to them always). Performing any type suture is vastly different when fake silicone skin was not geysering out a steady stream of blood. Pulling the needle holder towards yourself, you push your non-dominant away to lay the first knot. You watch as the loop of blue thread shrinks inch by inch. When the first knot is laid, you twist your hands to do the second knot. 

“(Name)!”

“For fucks sake! I told you five minutes! Not two, not four! Five minutes!” You squeeze the forceps and needle holder in the same hand, harsh metal almost crushing under your grip. You have enough control to not break the tools you need to sew up your thigh. “Am I clear!”

“I don’t care how long it takes for you to get your rocks off. You come out right now. This crazy fan of yours is causing a fucking scene and I won’t have it. It’s either you or nothing.”

“You own the souls of thirty plus fighters! Get one of them to handle it!” 

You look back down at your leg, trying to fruitlessly focus on your knots. Were you on the second or third? 

Your management bristles and shouts back, door almost leaning into the bathroom with the weight of his frustrated voice, “you don’t think I’ve tried that! I don’t know how they managed to do it but no one landed a single punch on them. Like I fucking said, it’s either you or nothing.”

If you were not so equally frustrated, you would have taken a moment to absorb that information. Instead, only a fourth done with your interrupted sutures, you bite back, “unless they want me coming out there with my sweats down my ankles, tell them to fuck off!” You tried to keep profanity out of your words most of the time but this was too frustrating. Putting the forceps back in your mouth, you end the conversation. 

There is a ghastly noise beyond the door. You startle on the toilet seat, the metal hurting your enamels with how your mouth tenses. It is the hollow thumping noise backgrounded by raining sizzles. There is a bloody cough. The raining sizzles billow then fall back, sound momentarily expanding then shrinking. A man’s electronic voice: “I’ve already seen that.” You bite the metal harder in denial.

“(Name),” Vox says. 

Absent of your senses, your hands finally get the second knot tied – it is sloppy and unaligned to the first. 

How? How did he possibly find this place? It is so off the grid of the Pride Ring that no maps or GPS know the name of it. It is a rumored place, absent of technology, that only the lowest of the low lived in. You have been so careful with triple checking your surroundings. No one on this side of town could afford a phone. No one on this side of town could afford to ever get out of it. 

You will never forget meeting Valentino. Long ago, he seemed supernatural and uncanny. Luxury branded cologne burning your nose and pink cigarette smoke irritating your lungs. Everything, the affluent aspects of him, down to his self-possessed smile was something alien and frightening to a sinner like yourself who never experienced the sight of wealth. 

Valentino had been right about it being a hole one would never want to crawl back into. Comparing past and present, you were comparing an orphan on the streets to a prince in the castle. It was obviously better to choose the laps of luxury you had fallen into, content and chesired. 

Yet home called to you and you, the bitch, came back.

You stare hard at the bathroom door separating you and Vox. Blood runs down your left thigh to floors that have never seen a mop. If there is a way to downsize yourself into abysmal nothingness, you yearn for that ability. To shrink away … you wish you could. Slowly, you take the forceps out of your mouth and hold them tight in your lap. Seems like you are going to have to address the open wound. 

“Vox.”

“Can I come in, doll?”

Two things. You wholeheartedly hate two things about his question. The nickname, doll, implying you could be anything like porcelain skinned dolls; then, the fake shyness in his voice, trying to seem meek when Vox is far from that. “No, you can’t. In fact, I think you should leave.” You can smell the mounting violence.

“(Name), please. I just want to know what the problem is.”

“There’s no problem. We’re fine.”

“If we were fine, you wouldn’t be here.”

“Well, I’m fine with me being here, so you’re just going to have to find it within yourself to accept that.”

You surmise this is it. This is going to be the first argument of the relationship. The catalyst of whether you two were going to spark with a negative or positive charge, growing or dying from this verbal fight. Physical fights are your raison d’etre. Now you shift to a wrestling ring. Amputated from the burden of your hands and left with your mouth. Eyes drawn to your lap, you are unsure if you are going to win this. 

“You’re obviously upset over something.”

“I’m not.”

“(Name).”

“Vox.”

“Why can’t you – UGH!” You can tell by the start of his sentence it would erupt into volcanic static and electricity. All the hair on your arms and exposed thighs rise as he sends a wave of energy at something beyond the stall. Good. Physicality you can handle. You wait patiently for Vox to knock down the door. “Do you want us to be public?” Your body locks up, spine pressing hard into the manual flusher behind you. Why – Why is he trying to gauge what has you upset!

As you are reeling from his question, your mouth remains shut. Vox, taking silence as a negative, asks, “are you upset about my past with Valentino because we both have a past with him!” He jumps back when the door thumps and bends with the force of your kick. “Okay, wrong choice of words. Just – ugh! Are you upset about my past with Valentino?”

“I’m not upset over that.”

“Sinners don’t just leave their home from 3 P.M. to 3 A.M. unless they’re upset over something, doll.”

“I’m truly not upset over anything,” you insist. You really need to get back to your sutures before anything has the chance of getting infected. “Vox –”

“Okay, I’ll stop hacking into your phone!” He shouts in defeat.

“You'll stop what!” This time you kick without holding back any of your strength. The locking mechanism splinters down the middle like a wafer cracker. You feel a little victorious in this match when the door hits him in the shoulder, his startled jump just a bit too slow to avoid getting hit.  

“Unholy fuck!”

“My phone,” you bite at him, eye to eye finally. Vox and his Big Brother is Watching complex is one of his worst traits. “You’ve been hacking into my personal phone like I told you never to do.”

“You told me never to do it because of trust. How am I supposed to trust you when you leave for twelve hours in the middle of random nights like you’re on a booty call schedule,” Vox bites back. His red sclera are pointed down, resembling the shape of orange slices with how deeply cut his glare is. Defensiveness is written into each twitch of his body. 

“What, you thought I was cheating on you?”

“What else was I supposed to think!”

That shuts you up. Your temperature on your face rises with each inch of shame that eats at you … well what else was he supposed to think. The image of him, lying in your shared bed alone, head swimming with sharks of queries about your relationship, paints itself in your mind. Eyes down, you concede that that thought of cheating was warranted. Relationships are built on trust. That principle rule is often why relationships fail in Hell. Trust from sinful liars was as valuable as a rock painted gold. Cheating? … Yeah, you cannot blame him there.

“It’s none of that, Vox. I wasn’t upset about any of that and I’m not cheating on you.” 

Even when you cannot look at him, he can tell by the frequency and pitch of your voice that you are telling the truth. A few advanced polygraph technology moves into his right eye, scanning you for any sign of a lie. “I would never cheat on you.” In your chest, your heart beats. Eighty-three beats per minute, completely at rest, completely truthful.

Vox feels awful, finishing up with analyzing your heartbeat. He feels like he has just given a public report wrong on live television and he can feel the social media downfall already materializing in the air; he feels sick to his stomach. And yet he is still mad because, “Why did you not talk to me about this?”

“I was ashamed; and a little scared.” You bite your cheek. “I was ashamed and scared about you finding this place for the longest time.”

Vox raises an eyebrow. “You think I would judge you for needing to blow off steam?”

“This place is beneath you. I know exactly what was going through your head when you entered here: this place is the worst of the bad or this place is the lowest of the low.” Vox inhales through gritted teeth and you know that you hit the bullseye. “I couldn’t just bring you here. You would have been disgusted. And … and that would have led to you eventually being disgusted by me.”

There it is. You guess that is all you really can give him. Still, Vox is looking at you like he does not understand you. He is probably deducing that his past self could have overlooked this revolting place like a lover overlooks an ugly birthmark or stretch-marks. This was not a minor impurity. 

“I fell here.” 

Understanding dawns upon Vox’s face like a gleam on sunrise. Falling … the spot where one fell was sentimental, perhaps not in fondness but certainly in a consequential way. A fool only dares to insult the spot where a sinner has fallen, their second home. 

In a sinister way, this is a homecoming for you. And – sending a wary glance to the bathroom door while he leans into the stall – Vox has realized he committed an illicit act on the same par as perhaps punching your brother or sister. Even if you hated your co-workers?, the sentiment remains. 

The live broadcast analogy is frivolous. Vox feels like he is an intern who just spilt coffee on the front of his boss’s suit a minute before the higher-up was scheduled for a momentail meeting. The burn in his stomach is paralyzing. 

“I-I uh,” Vox stammers. Little sparks are jumping up his body like happy stars. Frustration that mistakenly looks playful. He moans out, “Fuck, (Name).” and leans heavily on the stall’s inside wall.

You chuckle humorously and finally look up. “Yeah. I know.”

“I guess I get … the secrecy now.”

“I’m sorry for not coming clean. Even if this is a really bad hole, it is my hole.” Vox smiles at you, fondly without his previous hesitation. You know by that smile alone that you two are going to survive your first argument. However, you do not want the conversation to shift away from the thesis. Now that you two have finally managed to start it, there is so much that you have to say. “Vox?” He stares in attention. “... We’ve become domestic, Vox.”

“That bad, doll?”

“It’s awful.”

“...”

“I worry – I worry all the fucking time – about hurting you.”

“I’m an Overlord, you’re a sinner. It is a little insulting that you would think –”

“But I do! Every minute, I just worry and worry,” you interrupt, pressing a hand to your chest to emphasize those words. All your hands have managed to do are kill and maim and injure. Fighting quelled your hands. You were positive that if you drained your hands to the point of exhaustion it would keep Vox from getting hurt. “I’ve never been gentle – I’m awful – and I –!”

Vox kneels down on unwashed ground, covered in blood and piss, in his freshly tailored, iron-pressed slacks. Your dead heart pounds at that.

Then, Vox says three little words that you two have decided to put the coin of trust into, paying the fare to a relationship that both of you wanted to keep. “Hey,” he says to snap you out of your thoughts. Then, as he slowly takes the tools out of your hands, Vox says, “I love you.” 

“I love you too.”

As he helps you with your sutures, you still remember when Vox and you had finally said those three little words that built up your relationship. Your contract. One that in a way was not really a contract at all.

I love you. He had said that for the first time when you were checking his grammar for a broadcast. Highlighters and colored pens laid scattered on the ruffled sheets. You had been crossing out the tailing end of a sentence. Eight words stretched out when he only needed three to hammer home his point. You crossed out fifteen words in surprise. In Hell, he is akin to a shark and you are akin to a goldfish. Even so. Sometimes I think love and violence are the same thing. You had meant that as warning but he just leaned into you, biting your tongue when you two kissed. 

Accepting that part of you.

[askmadcomcrew]

doc tap water drinker confirmed 😨😨😨😨???? do you at least filter it??? if not youre almost as bad as crackpot over there

All of our faucets have built in filtration systems, since much of the water is pulled in from the mining sector.

[naavispider]

As some people aren’t able to read chapter 25 on AO3 right now, because of the issues, I’ve copied and pasted it below the cut for you. 🎉

So, here is Chapter 25 (Monday’s chapter)!

Once de-armed, Miles made his way back to his quarters to change before lunch. He unfortunately managed to pass Madden and Taylor in the corridor, heading in the opposite direction. It was a tense moment. He could tell they wanted to know where he’d been, but their anger at him for debilitating Chacon wouldn’t allow them to spare him more than a passing glare. He got back to his room and turned the faucet on the shower to its hottest setting. The water was soothing, and necessary in order to wash the stench of smoke off of his skin and out of his hair. He hoped the clan had been able to put out the fire before it managed to destroy the whole tree. He didn’t want them to be homeless - he wasn’t a monster.

He came out of the shower and pulled on some off duty clothes, giving his hair a quick dry before heading out to lunch. He tried to ignore the heavy presence of the songcord sitting behind the grill on the far wall, but the knowledge that it was there made his clean skin crawl uncomfortably again. Maybe he’d have to throw it out. Although nostalgic, it wasn’t worth hanging on to anymore. Firstly because the meaning it had once held was a complete farce, and secondly because if anyone found it, he’d be… well, he didn’t want to think about it.

He’d have to do it soon.

Saving that particular problem for another time, Miles took his tablet and headed out to the mess. He had some time to kill before the debrief, and wanted to game for a bit in the rec centre after eating. He’d finally figured out how to use his credits to buy things online, and one of the first purchases he made was the video game Centauri. It had wiped him almost all out straight away, leaving him with barely enough credits to buy a new toothpaste. But it had been worth it. Now that he finally had something to connect to the other soldiers with, he was unstoppable. He hadn't met 90% of the SecOps personnel, but now lots of them knew him from his username. Taking your tablet to one of the many communal spaces in the rec centre was a favourite pastime of most of the men and women who lived on base. There was a huge community built up around Centauri - one that Miles was only just beginning to break into. He ate quickly and by himself, then found a comfortable nook in the gaming room to play for a couple of hours. As excited as he was for the debrief, he still couldn’t help the disappointment when his alarm went off at 15:45, right in the middle of a fight between his character and a Hulanta warrior in the wetlands of the west. Sighing, he paused the battle and informed the player he’d been chatting with that he had work, before signing out and forcing his tired body off the beanbag he’d been happily slouched over.

The debrief was held in the same meeting room that the original briefing was in, with the same number of people who were involved in the mission required to attend. Quaritch stood hunched over the large table in the middle, surveying a holographic map of the forest on the transparent surface. Miles took a seat near the door, as Quaritch waited for everyone to arrive before beginning.

“Welcome back,” he began when the last couple of soldiers from Mansk’s squad had filtered in. “Today’s mission was highly successful, and I want to thank each and every one of you for your efforts in ensuring that.” Miles noticed the absence of General Ardmore, a feat that he was sure he wasn’t alone in. It wasn’t hard to suspect where she might be right now. “...the prisoner is detained and in custody.”

The Colonel began to go over the mission’s details from beginning to end, commenting on the effectiveness of whatever aspect he was pleased with, or offering suggestions as to how to improve others. Overall, he said, the mission was so successful that most of the current members of the platoon could expect to be required on similar operations in the future. Something about the squads all working together, each led by a different recom. “It was the time we tried this strategy, and it paid off. Well done again.”

After about fifteen minutes of his lecture, sometimes being supported by Wainfleet, who Miles now realised was the second-in-command, the briefing came to a natural end, and the soldiers were dismissed.

“Junior, hold back,” Quaritch called as everyone filtered out of the room. Miles turned around, hoping this was about him leading a squad next time, just as Quaritch had promised. When the door shut after the last person left, the Colonel addressed him.

“I’m especially impressed with your performance, Miles. You showed yourself to be reliable in the field, and an essential asset to the platoon.”

“Thank you, Sir,” Miles replied awkwardly. He craved Quaritch’s praise, but he didn’t know how to take it.

The Colonel took a seat as he spoke, his long tail swishing to the side. “I meant what I said last week. I think you’re ready to command your own squad.”

Miles couldn’t help the small gasp that escaped his throat as he looked up. His eyes scanned over the Colonel���s face, searching for some kind of sign of deceit. He found none. “Really?” He asked, forgetting his manners.

Quaritch nodded once, without taking his eyes off him. “Really. Your rank will be Lieutenant Junior. You’ll have authority over your squad only, which will comprise six men. If you continue to prove yourself, which I know you will, you’ll ascend the ranks quickly. It’s just protocol, to follow the hierarchy by the books.” He paused, watching Miles’s expression. “That sound good to you?”

“Yes, Sir,” Miles replied immediately. A chance to be in control? To have his own power over the success of a mission? He’d wanted nothing more since Quaritch suggested it.

“Well alright then,” the man in front of him replied, with a familiar southern drawl accenting his words as his lip curled up into a smirk. “That’s settled. Now,” he clasped his hands together in front of him, indicating a change of subject. “Follow me, I’ve got something to show you.”

Hastily, Miles stood and followed Quaritch out of the meeting room. “We’ll need your help with it soon enough,” the Colonel said as he led Miles down a flight of stairs and some quiet corridors. “But for now, he’s just assimilating.”

A thrill of… something ran down into Miles’s stomach as he realised where Quaritch was leading him. He’d been down this way before, the day that everything had changed. Soon enough, they were standing at the entrance to the Na’vi cells underneath Bridgehead.

“Are you curious?” Quaritch asked him.

“To see Naalot?”

The Colonel nodded, a somewhat hungry expression on his face. “Yes, Sir,” Miles replied, not really sure how else to reply. Truthfully, he couldn’t give two fucks. He knew he’d played an integral part in capturing the man - but that had been orders. It was still unpleasant to have to see the consequences of the RDA’s actions, no matter how justified they were in the long run.

Quaritch nodded towards the masks, and Miles fitted one over his face before the Colonel swiped open the doors. He tried not to look in most of the cells, which still contained many of the same prisoners that Miles had first seen that day that he’d killed Tsu'hak. That meant they’d been down here for close to two weeks, minimum. Despite the spotlessly clean exterior, there was a strange smell making its way through Miles’s mask. It was faint and vastly different to human smells, so he didn’t think most people would notice it. But Miles knew the Na’vi. He was accustomed to the scent of their blood and sweat.

“Our new friend is cell number 14,” Quaritch said, leading Miles to a door on the right.

Through the transparent doors, Naalot was on full display, and Miles had front row seats. He stifled the intake of breath he took when he realised the state of the old, frail man. Naalot looked close to death already. His skinny arms were strung up above his head in manacles, which had already rubbed pressure sores on his aged wrists. His fingers were gnarled and knobbly. His thin, grey hair was tasselled and had blood smears in it, sticking to his face in sweaty patches. Bruises bloomed over the paper-thin skin on his abdomen, giving the appearance of ink blotted on fraying parchment. Cuts and scrapes littered the rest of his exposed body, causing blood to drip down to his bony ankles. His eyes were closed, head lolling to the side against his arm, mouth hanging open.

It had only been a few hours since his capture - how long could the man hold out?

“Not a pretty sight, is it?”

Miles collected himself quickly. “Have interrogations begun already?”

“The General is an efficient woman,” Quaritch gave by way of an explanation.

“Any success?” Miles asked.

“Not so far.” Quaritch almost sounded… excited. “We have proof he was at Sully’s last known location, yet he still claims to know nothing.” He sniffed, turning his attention to Miles. “Let’s see if we can change that.”

Trepidation filled Miles’s chest as he realised what Quaritch meant. Suddenly, he was afraid. He wasn’t ready to torture anybody. He knew it was important. He understood the reason behind it, but… he wasn’t there yet. He panicked. How could he tell Quaritch this?

The Colonel swiped the doors open, instructing Miles to remain where he was.

Relief flooded Miles’s insides as he realised he wasn’t going to be asked to help just yet. He tried not to let his relief show on his face, but Quaritch wasn’t watching him anymore. He’d stepped inside the cell, and was advancing towards the sleeping Naalot. The doors slid closed behind him. Miles stood rooted in place. His whole body was tense, but he watched with a curiosity that he knew made him look like a monster to Naalot.

“Afternoon, sunshine,” Quaritch said brightly, walking up to Naalot and slapping him awake.

Miles repressed a flinch. It came out of nowhere, and it surprised him. He shook himself mentally.

Naalot groaned in response, his eyes flickering open.

“Feeling better after your little break? Ready to tell us what we need to know?”

“Rutxe…” Naalot’s voice was dry and raspy. When was the last time he’d had water?

Miles couldn’t see Quaritch’s expression, but his tail swished angrily, and the back of his ears pressed down flat to his skull. “I guess not, huh?”

Slowly, he reached behind him and pulled out his bush knife from its sheath in his belt. Miles’s breathing started to quicken. This was about to get very unpleasant.

“Maybe this will help you change your mind…” Quaritch held the knife up to Naalot’s eyeline, waving it slowly in front of his face so that the light glistened off of it threateningly.

“Rutxe , I don’t know anything! ” Naalot’s eyes widened with fear. His ears flickered back.

Miles pushed down the bile at the back of his throat. That didn’t belong to the new him. His fear was the old Miles… the helpless little boy begging in a cell.

“All I’m hearing is that you’re up for round two!” Quaritch jeered, leaning in and grabbing Naalot’s jaw in his left hand. “ Where. Is. Jake. Sully? ” He practically growled in heavily accented Na’vi.

“Rutxe , rutxe! I’ve never seen Tsyeyk Suli! ” The terrified man’s response had no effect on Quaritch, who used his right hand to slice a groove into Naalot’s temple.

Naalot was able to repress his scream, but groaned painfully through clenched teeth. A tear slid out from one of his tightly closed eyes.

“The next one goes between your ribs,” Quaritch promised, showing the knife deliberately moving down to the sensitive skin on the man’s upper torso. Miles had no idea if Naalot spoke English, but the message was clear enough.

“ I promise! I know nothing! Let me go! ”

Without waiting for a translation, Quaritch dug the long side of the knife in between two of the ribs on Naalot’s left side, eliciting a scream so unnerving that Miles was surprised Quaritch continued so comfortably, twisting the blade so that even though the wound was shallow, it inflicted maximum pain.

“ Stop! Please, stop! ” Naalot was openly sobbing now, but Quaritch only switched hands, freeing up his right to punch Naalot as hard as he could right over the wound.

Naalot screamed.

Miles averted his eyes. This was… He didn’t like this.

Quaritch was enjoying himself. He took pleasure in the man’s pain - just as he had once done so in Miles’s.

For Miles, it had all been for his own good, he knew that. But for Naalot?

For the first time in a long time, an unpleasant emotion ran through Miles’s blood. He couldn't place his finger on it - he only knew that he wanted Quaritch to stop. Without realising, he spoke through the glass in a calm voice.

“Should I try, Sir?”

That was enough to give Quaritch pause. The man turned around, facing his back to Naalot, who sagged back into his restraints defeatedly. Quaritch examined Miles for a long moment, a calculating look on his bloodthirsty face. Eventually, his lips curved up into a small smile. “Oh no, Miles. This piece of crap doesn’t get the nice guy. Not just yet, anyway.”

The words sank into Miles’s skin like poison. He showed none of his horror on his face. He stepped back dutifully, and respectfully bowed his head.

Naalot’s screams continued.

Janine stood anxiously over the bed. It had been twenty four hours, and still Chacon hadn’t woken. That was partly her fault - she’d given him enough painkillers to tranquillize a small viperwolf, but she had expected him to wake up hours ago. Chacon’s injuries were not superficial. For a scary half an hour when he was first brought in, Janine worried that the soldier might even have brain damage. His face was beaten almost to a pulp. The MRI was clear, but of course nothing could be certain until Chacon woke.

She’d been informed of how he received his injuries during the handover procedure, but hadn’t found out it was Spider who’d caused them until some time later when she overheard two soldiers discussing it when they came to visit him. Madden and Taylor, as their uniforms read, spoke with venom of the new recruit - Junior.

“He’s been acting off since yesterday - remember at dinner?”

“He’s a sick bastard. What they said about him was true. He’s still feral.”

“It’s wild that they thought they could fix him…”

Janine had paused checking Chacon’s obs in favour of listening in to his visitors, but their words sent horror though her insides. There was no doubt that was Spider they were talking about. Spider.

The kid she was supposed to protect. The abducted child who had nobody else looking out for him. She had… let this happen. She had failed him.

Her spirit seemed to be sinking down through the floor, leaving an empty and terrified husk of a body left to act normally in front of the soldiers. She told them she’d be back and made an exit as quickly as her numb legs would allow. Once inside the supply closet, she locked herself in and sank to the floor against the door. She rarely let tears fall, but this was one occasion she couldn’t help herself.

Everything she had done - it wasn’t enough.

Destroying the chip for the Neuroscanner, sabotaging the 3D printer, hacking into the surveillance to keep an eye on Spider’s cell, ensuring when he got out that he received private quarters by writing in the kid’s report that he wasn’t ready for barracks. Being on the other side of the glass when Quaritch insisted on interrogating him, if only to keep an eye on his psychological state. Planting the idea of rewards in Quaritch’s mind. Locating and stealing back Spider’s songcord when he was at his lowest point. Once more hacking into the communications between Spider and Quaritch on the kid’s watch. Getting a message to Jake when Spider was first captured, and updating him ever since. Relaying Jake’s message about staying strong (for whatever that was worth). Reaching out to people she’d heard rumours of about being in the resistance - like Chacon.

Look at all the good it did.

Spider was finally breaking.

She didn’t give herself long to mourn - it wasn’t helping Chacon or Spider. She hastily wiped her tears and got herself back out to Chacon’s bedside to complete his obs.

That was yesterday, and since then Chacon had received a flow of visitors - he was a popular man in his unit, it seemed - all of them saying the same thing. That Private Junior had finally snapped.

It was her break, and instead of grabbing a snack from the cafeteria, she decided to stay by Chacon’s side in case he woke up. After a few minutes, her patience miraculously paid off.

Chacon’s swollen eyelids blinked carefully open, and he let out a soft groan.

“Hey,” she greeted him, anxious over his reaction to seeing her. “You’re in the medbay. You took a beating, but you’re okay.”

Chacon’s bloodshot pupils found hers, displaying a healthy amount of confusion at the situation. After a moment, his senses seemed to come back to him, and he blinked, attempting to sit more upright. “Junior…” he uttered.

“I know…” Janine whispered, trying to convey her understanding while being somewhat comforting at the same time. It was impossible.

Chacon glanced around, making sure that they were alone.

“It’s okay, no one’s coming,” she assured him.

“He’s gone…”

Janine took a deep breath, willing her eyes not to fill with tears. She shook her head, as if denial would help the situation. “We can get him back.”

Chacon made a sound of disbelief, sagging back into the bed. “It wasn’t enough…”

“Stop.” The force of her determination flared unexpectedly in Janine’s heart. “We’ll get him back.”

Chacon looked at her, but it was impossible to tell his expression through his broken face. “How long have I been out?” he asked.

“Just over twenty four hours,” Janine replied, switching back to her nursing persona, all effectiveness and proficiency. “It’s 5 o’clock on Saturday.”

“Right,” Chacon muttered.

“How’s your pain?” Janine asked, aware that she still needed to give her patient a run through of his injuries and treatment plan.

Chacon shook his head. There was so much Janine wanted to say - she knew Chacon felt this failure as much as she did. He had been the one to befriend Spider. To help him through training. To be a listening ear and word of advice when the kid needed it. It didn’t matter that Spider didn’t know Chacon was on his side.

In the five weeks since Janine had risked contacting Chacon, the pair had grown close - united under the banner of resistance. There were others of course, other moles that Janine knew, but her concern for Spider was something she could only share with Chacon. They’d worked closely together (or as closely as spies can work without being detected) almost the whole time that Spider had trained with the RDA, and watched his gradual descent together, essentially powerless to stop it.

“What’s the plan?” Chacon asked, ignoring Janine’s attempt to manage his pain levels.

Janine took a measured breath, before speaking in a low voice. “We can’t break Jake into Bridgehead without being detected - we’ve been trying for weeks. Let alone a whole rescue force. Besides that, Spider’s beyond the point of wanting our help now.”

“So what then?” Chacon asked, his urgency coming across as rudeness.

A pause, while Janine considered her next words carefully. She’d had nothing else on her mind since Chacon was admitted. She’d had plenty of time to think. It was time to act. “You kidnap him.”

[chaos-event-horizon]

The day after the beginning

Hazel-brown eyes blinked open, taking in the light of the sun as it only barely filtered through heavy blue curtains onto a bland, beige carpet floor. Confused, the owner of those eyes slowly blinked, flexing against the bundle of blanket that--

"So, you're awake."

Rian would have jumped from his skin if he wasn't swaddled up so tightly in what appeared to be a thread-bare old comforter. Instead, his eyes shot up, meeting the bright blue tones of the strange man who had saved him from the lab. Golden-blonde hair wildly exploded from his head, and his skin seemed flush and slightly damp.

He was so shocked and mesmerized by those eyes that he couldn't breathe.

"I'm glad. I was worried the shock would have you out for much longer..." The older man said, ripping his eyes away to look towards the window. "It's well past noon, just so you're aware. I took a shower while I waited... And had someone bring you clothes that are more likely to fit."

The young brunette slowly sat up. His throat was oddly sore, his voice coming out hoarsely. Presumably, he wasn't used to talking. The thought that others knew about his location didn't do much to help, either. "People... Know I'm here?"

"Another villain does, one of my underlings. He's incredibly loyal, and meticulous when it comes to finer details," the blonde said, pulling a bottle of water from a random pocket and setting it on the table near Rian. "He's currently readying a bigger hideout for us to relocate to. One that will have a room you can use. Part of his job within my organization is to handle these kinds of things for me."

He didn't know why, but Rian relaxed a little at that. It felt so safe to be here with this man.

"I..." Rian blushed, taking a sip of water before continuing. "I wanted to thank you again... For rescuing me."

The blonde paused, turning away slightly so the younger man couldn't see his face, though he kept glancing back towards Rian regardless. "... Don't misunderstand. It's not like I'm some kind of... Philanthropist that just goes around saving people in trouble, kid. There was something in it for me."

The brunette gave his hero savior a puzzled look, and the man continued, a soft grumble in his voice. "That lab you were in was built to gather information about me, and to help one of my enemies-- a man who can steal quirks. Saving you kept your quirk out of his grasp, and setting a few fires destroyed some of their dirt on me. It was an entirely selfish decision."

Those were the words the large man used... But the way he rubbed his neck and his refusal to make eye contact softened what was said.

He's... Embarrassed?

Rian looked down, hiding a smile. "Still... If that's the kind of thing you do while being selfish, I don't think you're as bad as you want people to believe."

The blonde gave a sharp chuckle. "If you say so, squirt. Either way, make no mistake... I was dangerous enough to kidnap you and get away with it. So don't go thinking I'm overly soft."

Rian fidgeted for a moment, then looked up. "M-Mister All Might--"

"Just All Might, no need to be formal."

"A-All Might... I can cook, and clean, and do laundry."

All Might blinked, turning fully towards the younger man now and giving him his full attention. "... Excuse me?"

"I can also do add jobs-- I know how to fix some things, like faucets, and I can patch up drywall..." He said, untangling himself from the blanket. If that loose shirt rode up or revealed anything, All Might didn't do more than stare, and Rian didn't notice as he continued speaking. "What I mean is, I can be useful. You mentioned letting me stay here, but I don't want to do it for free. I want to earn my keep, sir."

The blonde was quiet for a moment, then smirked. "Alright, then. First, go to the bathroom and get changed. Then we can figure out how you'll pay off your little life debt... Kitten."

Rian blushed, but quickly nodded, scurrying off to the bathroom he had been in last night, not catching the way his new boss started to reach for him as he trotted by... As if it was perfectly natural for them to touch as they passed by one another.

He also didn't notice the way said boss stared at his ass.

[sunalimerchant]

Modern Trends in Kitchen Sinks: What’s Hot in 2024

Kitchen sinks are no longer just a functional necessity; they have evolved into a stylish focal point of modern kitchens. As kitchen design trends continue to shift toward innovative aesthetics and practical functionality, choosing the right sink can significantly enhance the overall appeal and usability of your space. Whether you're renovating your kitchen or building a new one, staying updated with the latest trends in kitchen sinks will help you make an informed and stylish choice.

Here’s a look at the hottest kitchen sink trends of 2024 and how they are transforming kitchen design.

1. Statement-Making Sink Designs

Gone are the days when kitchen sinks were plain and inconspicuous. In 2024, homeowners are embracing bold, statement-making sink designs that add a touch of personality to their kitchens. Popular choices include:

Apron Front Sinks (Farmhouse Style): Featuring a protruding front panel, these sinks are both functional and visually striking, perfect for rustic or contemporary kitchens.

Geometric Shapes: Sinks with sharp, clean lines and geometric patterns are trending for modern, minimalist kitchens.

Colored Sinks: Bright or muted tones, like matte black, copper, or brushed gold, are replacing traditional stainless steel, making the sink a standout feature.

2. Innovative Materials

The choice of material plays a crucial role in the durability and appearance of kitchen sinks. In 2024, innovative materials are stealing the spotlight:

Quartz Composite: Known for its durability and resistance to scratches and stains, quartz composite sinks are gaining popularity for their sleek look and variety of color options.

Fireclay: A traditional material making a comeback, fireclay sinks are non-porous, durable, and add a classic charm to any kitchen.

Concrete: For industrial-style kitchens, concrete sinks offer a unique, raw aesthetic that’s both modern and functional.

Recycled Materials: Eco-conscious homeowners are opting for sinks made from recycled metals or composites, aligning with the trend toward sustainable living.

3. Integrated Workstations

Multifunctional kitchen sinks are a game-changer for busy households. Integrated workstation sinks are designed with built-in accessories, such as:

Cutting Boards: Fits neatly over the sink for seamless food prep.

Colanders and Drying Racks: Convenient for washing produce or drying dishes.

Knife Holders and Trays: Keeps tools and utensils organized.

These sinks maximize functionality and help save counter space, making them a must-have for compact or high-use kitchens.

4. Smart Kitchen Sinks

The rise of smart home technology has extended to kitchen sinks, bringing innovative features to improve functionality and efficiency:

Touchless Faucets: Motion-activated faucets reduce water wastage and add a high-tech touch to your kitchen.

Integrated Filtration Systems: Advanced filtration systems built into the sink provide instant access to clean, filtered water.

Temperature Sensors: These faucets allow you to preset water temperature, adding convenience and safety, especially for families with children.

Smart sinks not only enhance user experience but also align with sustainability by encouraging water conservation.

5. Double and Triple Basin Sinks

For homeowners who love multitasking, double and triple basin sinks are making a strong comeback. These sinks come with separate compartments for:

Washing and rinsing dishes.

Soaking pots and pans.

Prepping food or washing produce.

They are perfect for households that prioritize efficiency and want to keep their kitchen activities organized.

6. Undermount and Seamless Designs

Undermount sinks, installed beneath the countertop, continue to be a favorite in 2024. Their seamless design eliminates crevices where food particles and grime can accumulate, making them easier to clean and maintain. Additionally, the sleek look of undermount sinks complements both modern and traditional kitchen designs.

7. Environmentally Friendly Features

With increasing awareness about sustainability, environmentally friendly kitchen sinks are gaining popularity. These sinks include:

Low-Flow Faucets: Designed to reduce water usage without compromising performance.

Sinks with Recycling Compartments: Integrated recycling bins make it easier to manage kitchen waste.

Such features not only contribute to a greener planet but also appeal to eco-conscious homeowners.

8. Customization Options

Customization is a growing trend as homeowners seek unique solutions tailored to their needs. In 2024, manufacturers are offering:

Custom Sizes and Shapes: Perfect for kitchens with unconventional layouts.

Personalized Accessories: Such as engraved cutting boards or color-matched fixtures.

Material Combinations: Sinks featuring a mix of materials, like a stainless steel basin with a wooden or marble edge, are becoming increasingly popular.

9. Compact Sinks for Small Kitchens

For urban homes and apartments with limited space, compact sinks are a practical yet stylish solution. These smaller sinks often come with built-in features like chopping boards and drying racks to maximize utility without sacrificing design.

10. Minimalist Aesthetic

Minimalism continues to dominate kitchen design, and sinks are no exception. Homeowners are opting for simple, clean designs with hidden drains and matte finishes, creating a clutter-free and elegant look.

Conclusion

In 2024, Kitchen Sinks are as much about style as they are about functionality. From bold, statement-making designs to innovative materials and integrated smart technology, the latest trends cater to every aesthetic and practical need. Whether you’re revamping your kitchen or starting fresh, incorporating these modern sink trends can elevate your space and add value to your home.

Take the time to explore the wide array of options available, and choose a kitchen sink that not only meets your functional requirements but also complements your personal style. After all, a well-chosen kitchen sink can be the centerpiece of your culinary haven.

[atplblog]

Price: [price_with_discount] (as of [price_update_date] - Details) [ad_1] Elevate your kitchen experience with this ingenious faucet attachment that adds a touch of convenience and style. This innovative accessory features a sleek, gooseneck design with a sturdy chrome finish, allowing you to effortlessly direct the water flow. The highlight is the set of vibrant, cylindrical containers that clip onto the faucet, providing easy access to your favourite herbs, spices, and condiments right at your fingertips. With their transparent bodies, you can easily identify the contents and add a pop of colour to your kitchen. Whether you're rinsing vegetables, seasoning dishes, or simply washing your hands, this attachment streamlines your culinary tasks. Its compact size ensures it doesn't obstruct your sink area, making it a practical addition to any modern kitchen. Embrace functionality and organisation with this must-have faucet accessory. Innovative Design: This unique kitchen faucet features a flexible gooseneck spout with an attached water filter container for easy access to clean drinking water. Multi-Function: The detachable filter container serves as a handy pitcher, allowing you to conveniently refill it or use it to store your favourite beverages. Customisable Filters: The filter container comes with colourful adapters to hold different types of filters for purifying, infusing flavours, or adding minerals to your water. Durable Construction: Crafted from high-quality stainless steel, this faucet is built to last and resist corrosion, ensuring long-lasting performance. Easy Installation: With a standard size and included hardware, this faucet can be effortlessly installed in most kitchen sinks, making it a practical upgrade. [ad_2]

[streamlinebath01]

Kitchen Fixtures That Will Revolutionize Your Cooking Experience

The kitchen has always been the heart of the home, but with evolving technology and design trends, it’s becoming more than just a place for meal prep. Today, modern kitchen fixtures are not only enhancing the aesthetic appeal of our cooking spaces but also dramatically improving functionality and efficiency. From high-tech kitchen hoods to smart sinks, the right fixtures can transform your culinary experience. Here, we’ll explore key kitchen fixtures that are revolutionizing how we cook, and why investing in quality appliances is more important than ever.

1. Kitchen Hoods: Elevating Air Quality and Style

A kitchen hood, or range hood, is an often-overlooked but crucial fixture in any kitchen. While its primary role is to ventilate the space by removing smoke, steam, and odors, modern kitchen hoods have come a long way in terms of design, functionality, and noise reduction.

Air Quality and Safety: One of the most important benefits of a kitchen hood is its ability to improve indoor air quality. Cooking can release harmful gases like carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and grease particles into the air. A high-quality kitchen hood, particularly one with a powerful filtration system, helps expel these contaminants, ensuring your kitchen remains a healthy environment. Some hoods are now equipped with advanced filtration technologies such as charcoal or HEPA filters, which provide superior air purification, capturing even the smallest particles.

Noise Reduction: A common complaint with traditional kitchen hoods is the noise level. Modern kitchen hoods are designed to be quieter, using variable fan speeds and quieter motors. Many high-end models also feature sound-dampening technology, so you can cook without the distraction of excessive noise.

Smart Features: In addition to traditional functionality, smart kitchen hoods offer convenience with integrated technology. These hoods can be connected to your smart home system, allowing you to control the fan speed, lighting, and even activate automatic ventilation when certain cooking conditions are met. For instance, when you’re cooking at high heat, the fan can automatically increase its speed to accommodate the extra smoke or steam.

Design and Aesthetics: Kitchen hoods have also evolved to become a design feature in their own right. Sleek, contemporary models, made of materials like stainless steel, glass, or even copper, can add a touch of luxury to your kitchen. For an ultra-modern look, some hoods are integrated into the cabinetry or disguised to blend seamlessly with your kitchen's decor.

2. Sinks: The Unsung Hero of Kitchen Functionality

The kitchen sink is one of the most used fixtures in any home, yet it’s often the least appreciated. However, advances in sink design and technology have made them indispensable tools for streamlining kitchen tasks and increasing efficiency.

Undermount and Farmhouse Sinks: While traditional drop-in sinks are still common, undermount and farmhouse sinks have gained popularity for their cleaner lines and more efficient use of counter space. Undermount sinks are installed beneath the countertop, creating a smooth surface that makes it easier to wipe down debris and spills directly into the sink. Farmhouse sinks, with their deep, spacious basins, provide plenty of room for large pots and pans, making them ideal for home cooks who frequently prepare large meals.

Smart Sinks with Touchless Technology: Touchless kitchen faucets and sinks are changing the way we interact with water in the kitchen. With simple hand motions, you can turn the faucet on and off without ever touching the handle. This feature is especially useful when your hands are messy from food prep, as it reduces the risk of contamination. Many touchless faucets also have built-in sensors that allow you to adjust the water flow and temperature with a wave of your hand, offering both convenience and hygiene.

Sink Accessories for Convenience: Modern sinks are often designed with a range of accessories that can enhance their functionality. For instance, sink grids help protect the sink from scratches, while built-in cutting boards and colanders allow you to rinse, chop, and prepare food directly over the sink. Some high-end models even include integrated soap dispensers or trash disposals, making it easier to manage kitchen waste.

Integrated Dishwashers and Water Filtration: Some sinks now come with integrated dishwashers that allow you to wash and sanitize dishes right within the sink. This is particularly beneficial for people with smaller kitchens who want to save space. Additionally, many modern sinks feature built-in water filtration systems, ensuring that the water you use for cooking, washing, and drinking is clean and free from impurities.

3. Innovative Storage Solutions: Maximizing Space and Efficiency

Another key fixture that can dramatically enhance your cooking experience is smart storage solutions. Efficient kitchen storage is essential for maintaining organization, reducing clutter, and ensuring that all your cooking tools and ingredients are easily accessible.

Pull-Out Shelving and Drawer Organizers: One of the most innovative storage solutions available today is pull-out shelving and drawer organizers. These fixtures allow you to easily access kitchen essentials like pots, pans, spices, or utensils without digging through cabinets. With the push of a button or pull of a handle, you can access deep, hard-to-reach spaces that would otherwise be difficult to organize.

Vertical Storage Systems: For kitchens with limited counter space, vertical storage is a game changer. Wall-mounted racks, shelves, and pegboards can be used to store everything from pots and pans to cooking utensils. This not only saves valuable counter and cabinet space but also makes frequently used items easily accessible.

4. Lighting: A Functional and Aesthetic Upgrade

Lighting fixtures are another often-overlooked aspect of kitchen design. However, the right lighting can significantly improve the ambiance of your kitchen while making it easier to prepare meals. Task lighting, under-cabinet lights, and pendant lights over kitchen islands all play an essential role in creating a well-lit and functional cooking environment.

Under-Cabinet Lighting: These lights illuminate countertops and workspaces, making it easier to chop, dice, and prep food. They also reduce shadows, so you can see exactly what you're doing while cooking.

Ambient Lighting: Pendant lights over a kitchen island or dining area can add a stylish touch while providing sufficient lighting for meal prep and entertaining.

Conclusion

The Best kitchen fixtures can truly revolutionize your cooking experience. Whether it’s upgrading your kitchen hood for better air quality or investing in a smart sink with touchless technology, these modern innovations are designed to make cooking more efficient, convenient, and enjoyable. In today’s fast-paced world, having a kitchen that is both functional and stylish is more important than ever, and these fixtures provide the perfect combination of design and practicality.

[aquanutech]

AquaNu Tech’s mission is the core element that drives their daily business and underpins every decision they take. Their aim is to deliver eco-friendly, next-generation products that are not only futuristic but are also available in the present. Their manufacturing and product design methods are in line with their commitment to the environment, and they strive to offer their customers products that help them save resources. They offer the best on demand hot water dispenser and hot water dispenser faucet.

[pureplumbingsolutionsca]

Water Treatment

Ever notice white deposits forming on your nice new shower heads and faucets? Realize that your skin feels dry and hair feels frizzy no matter how good your shampoo and conditioner is? You need a water softener.

Hard water is softened by removing magnesium, calcium, iron and manganese. As water flows through the water softener resin beads, the hard water minerals latch on to the resin and remove them from your water. Soft water then exits the tank and flows to your fixtures.

Want to find out your water hardness? Contact Pure Plumbing Solutions for a free in-home water test. We will provide you with the most cost effective solution fit for your budget.

Our Specialties:

Water Softening SystemBest for homes with hard to moderately hard water, Electronically programmable, Indoor/outdoor installation, and optional salt level detector. Removes mineral ions, like calcium, iron and magnesium from water.

Whole house Conditioning SystemBest for homes with low water hardness, Electronically programmable, Indoor/outdoor installation, Neutralizes ions, leaving in beneficial minerals, No salt refills necessary. Great for protecting you and your family from chlorine, chloramines, lead, volatile organic compounds, herbicides, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and many more hazardous contaminants from tap water year after year.

Drinking Water SystemBest for drinking countertop spout or kitchen faucet. Our filters will reduce chlorine, improve taste/odor, Chloramines, sediment, asbestos fibers, lead, and VOCs. Quick and easy cartridge replacement with automatic shut off built into the unit, so changing the cartridge is a breeze!

Drinking Water Reverse Osmosis SystemBest for drinking countertop spout. Removes fluoride, salt, sediment, chlorine, arsenic, VOCs, herbicides, pesticides, and many other contaminants.7-9 stage tankless system + remineralization filter options provided. Quick and easy cartridge replacement with automatic shut off built into the unit, so changing the cartridges is a breeze!

We've Completed More Than 10,000 Plumbing Jobs With Professionalism, Quality And Customer Service Always In Mind.

Let Pure Plumbing Solutions provide you with the best most cost effective solution that is fit for your home improvement budget. Pure Plumbing Solutions offers an array of additional services aside from our specialties above. Please give us a call to discuss with our trained professionals to see if we can assist you with any other plumbing needs! Call us today for your free estimate for

Water Treatment

[regdolls]

The Essential Guide to Drip Irrigation Systems: Conserving Water and Growing Healthy Plants

Conserving Water and Growing Healthy Plants

In an age where every drop of water counts, drip irrigation systems offer an incredible solution to keeping plants healthy while conserving resources. Whether you're a home gardener or a large-scale grower, drip irrigation is a powerful tool for maximizing plant growth and minimizing water waste. But what makes this system so revolutionary?

How Drip Irrigation Works

A drip irrigation system is built with simple but effective components: tubing, emitters, and valves that release water slowly and steadily to the plant's root zone. The emitters are strategically placed to ensure that only the plants receive water, minimizing waste. Some systems also use timers and sensors, which add control and convenience, and plants can be watered even when you're away.

Key Benefits of a Drip Irrigation System

Choosing a drip irrigation system not only saves water, it transforms plant care and simplifies your gardening routine:

Water Conservation 

Traditional sprinklers lose a lot of water through evaporation and runoff. Drip irrigation prevents this by delivering water directly to the soil level, using only the amount your plants actually need.

Healthier Plants 

 With consistent watering at the roots, plants are less likely to suffer from stress or disease. This method encourages stronger, more resilient growth as plants receive only the moisture needed without being overwatered.

Weed Control 

 By directing water only to your plants, drip irrigation makes it difficult for weeds to grow, keeping your garden cleaner and healthier.

Types of Drip Irrigation Systems

Choosing the right type of drip system depends on your setup:

Surface Drip Irrigation – Tubes are laid above the soil, ideal for vegetable gardens where the layout changes each season. Easy to install and adjust, it's ideal for beginner gardeners.

Subsurface drip irrigation: Tubes are buried beneath the soil, making them more permanent and effective in hot, windy climates where evaporation is high. This option is best suited for large fields or gardens with permanent plantings.

Setting up a drip irrigation system

Installing your own drip irrigation system is simpler than you think. Here's a quick guide:

Plan your layout: Map out your garden and decide where each emitter should go based on the location of the plants.

Install the tubes: Lay the tubes along the plants, placing them near their base.

Connect the emitters: Place small emitters near each plant to control the flow of water.

Connect to water: Connect your system to a water source such as a faucet or rain barrel.

Test: Run the system and adjust the emitters to ensure even water distribution.

With these steps, your drip system will be ready to keep your plants hydrated without daily intervention.

The Cost of Drip Irrigation Systems

While there is an upfront cost, the long-term savings in water and plant health are substantial. The initial cost varies depending on the complexity of the system, but it pays for itself quickly as water usage decreases and plant health improves.

Maintaining Your Drip Irrigation System

Maintenance on a drip irrigation system is minimal, but necessary. Regular checks prevent clogs and leaks, while seasonal adjustments help the system adapt to changing conditions. Cleaning filters and testing emitters each season ensures your system stays efficient.

Drip Irrigation vs. Traditional Irrigation

Unlike sprinklers or hand watering, which can lead to overwatering or evaporation, drip irrigation uses water much more efficiently. It's an environmentally friendly option that reduces overall water usage and improves plant health.

Drip Irrigation for Different Plants

A drip watering  system can be customized for various types of plants:

Vegetables: Plants like tomatoes and cucumbers thrive with consistent moisture.

Flower Beds: Drip irrigation gently delivers water to delicate flowers, preventing overwatering.

Sustainable and Eco-Friendly Gardening

In drought-prone areas, drip irrigation is more than a convenience—it’s a necessity. This system supports sustainable gardening practices by conserving water and promoting healthy ecosystems. Adopting drip irrigation means contributing to a greener, more responsible way of growing.

By understanding and using a drip irrigation system, gardeners can achieve lush, healthy plants without wasting water, making it a win-win solution for the environment and your garden.

[urvi-raj]

Top German bathroom fittings in India | Gold Iden Germany

German brands are known for their precision, design, and reliability across a wide range of products, especially in bathroom and kitchen fittings. In India, German bathroom fittings are highly sought after for their superior craftsmanship and long-lasting quality. Among these, Gold Iden Germany stands out, offering premium options in kitchen faucets, bathtubs, outdoor spas, and swimming pool solutions, perfect for enhancing both indoor and outdoor living spaces.

1. High-Quality Kitchen Faucets

A well-designed kitchen faucet can significantly improve functionality and aesthetic appeal. Gold Iden Germany’s kitchen faucets combine innovative water flow technology, ergonomic design, and durability. These faucets offer features like pull-down sprayers, flexible necks, and touchless operation, making them both convenient and luxurious. With sleek finishes and sturdy materials, they complement both contemporary and classic kitchen designs.

2. Luxurious Bathtubs

Gold Iden Germany offers a range of bathtubs crafted for relaxation and elegance. German bathtubs are celebrated for their ergonomic shapes, easy-to-clean surfaces, and stylish finishes. From deep soaking tubs to freestanding designs, Gold Iden Germany’s bathtubs are built to provide a spa-like experience at home. Designed with precision, these tubs are available in various shapes and sizes, ensuring a comfortable fit in any bathroom setting.

3. Outdoor Spa Solutions

For those looking to bring the luxury of spa treatment to their outdoor spaces, Gold Iden Germany’s outdoor spa options offer the perfect solution. These spas are equipped with hydrotherapy jets, temperature control, and energy-efficient insulation, delivering a rejuvenating experience right at home. German engineering ensures that each spa is built to withstand different climates, making them ideal for year-round use.

4. Premium Swimming Pool Fittings

Gold Iden Germany also provides an exclusive range of swimming pool fittings designed to enhance durability and safety. Their products include pool filters, water pumps, lighting solutions, and skimmers that not only improve functionality but also add aesthetic value. With a focus on high performance and reliability, these fittings ensure a hassle-free, enjoyable pool experience. The German brand’s attention to detail guarantees that these installations are resistant to wear, ensuring longevity in varying weather conditions.

5. Elegant Outdoor and Indoor Design Options

Whether it’s a sleek kitchen faucet, a relaxing bathtub, or an outdoor spa, Gold Iden Germany located at Nashik, offers products that elevate the luxury and functionality of any space. Their customization options include gold finishes, matte or glossy textures, and a range of styles to suit every preference. These fittings are designed with a modern, elegant look, making them ideal for both upscale residences and hospitality settings.

By choosing Gold Iden Germany’s high-quality fittings, homeowners in India are investing in luxury, functionality, and timeless design, making their kitchens, bathrooms, and outdoor spaces truly exceptional. For more information call us at +91 98609 12999 or visit our website.

[fetch-a-tech]

Las Vegas Indoor Air Quality Tips: Choosing the Best Humidifier for You

It is appropriate to have proper indoor air quality because the climates of regions such as Las Vegas can be very dry. One of the methods of getting back lost indoor humidity for better indoor air quality is using a humidifier with the top indoor air quality services in Las Vegas. If you are getting the ideal humidifier for your Las Vegas home, there are some factors that you need to consider to arrive at the most appropriate one.

Types of Humidifiers

There are four main types of humidifiers to choose from:

Evaporative: These consist of a wick filter through which water is absorbed, and a fan blows it to moisten the air in the room. They are cheap to purchase and also consume less energy, though they demand more frequent service.

Steam Vaporizer: These humidifiers heat water to the extent that it forms steam that is then released into the space. They Give momentary humidity but use more electricity. Some models also allow the medication to be taken simultaneously in steam.

Ultrasonic: These contemporary models operate using ultrasonic vibrations that produce cool mist humidity. They are relatively very noisy and have the ability to swiftly moisten rooms, although their initial cost is rather expensive. 

Impeller: An impeller throws water towards a diffuser that disperses the water stream into fine droplets to add moisture to the air. By and large, these types are functional and economical, though relatively louder.

Key Buying Considerations

Type of Water – Tap water is mineralized and, when passed through vaporizer humidifiers, will discharge more minerals into the air. To eliminate this, work with filtered or distilled water and never use water from the faucet.

Maintenance – All humidifiers need to be regularly cleaned to avoid mold and bacteria accumulation. Ensure you know what needs to be done to maintain that particular model. Some evaporative and ultrasonic cooling types require more frequent filter replacement.

Coverage Area – Given the size of the unit, that should be humidified is a factor to consider. Bedrooms, whole homes, and commercial or office spaces will need a different level of humidifier capacity.  

Run Time – Run time shows how long the humidifier can continuously operate, again depending on the size of the water tank. For a long duration, the fill frequency is low.

Settings and Features  – One should look at models with built-in humidistats that help regulate the amounts of humidity present in a room. Some also have air purifying filters, aromatherapy functions, and many others.

Making the Best Choice

You should look at the features of your house, including the indoor air quality service needs, size of the home, water type, and maintenance regime when looking at the specific model of the humidifier for your Las Vegas property. Vaporizer humidifiers offer clean steam, which is ideal for tackling allergy problems, while evaporative models can effectively humidify wide spaces. 

Impeller types successfully spray mists in the environments of commerce. Air ionizer humidifiers are hi-tech air fresheners and aroma models suitable for small bedrooms. Check capabilities relative to each other in order to choose the right system with the aid of the top indoor air quality services in Las Vegas to enhance the comfort and quality of a space.

Tips for Proper Use

Be sure to use the best humidifier for Las Vegas properly for safety and best performance:

As the skin is constantly short of moisture, a refill should be made every day to replenish the moisture supply.  

Handling of capture positions should be done in a manner that ensures air flows in the right manner.

Check the humidity level in order to make sure that it is not too high.

Keep mineral dust to a minimum by using distilled water.

By remembering these guidelines, your new humidifier can help improve indoor air quality services throughout the year.

There are major differences between various types of humidifiers as far as dealing with dry indoors in Las Vegas homes is concerned. Therefore, depending on the indoor spaces available, the use they will be put to, and their cost, evaluate the types of laminates that will be most suitable.

Conclusion

Be particular with positioning, cleaning, and care for indoor air quality service that people seek as part of comfort and is indispensable to wellness through proper moisture levels. Consult the leading indoor air quality services in Las Vegas if necessary when seeking advice regarding boosting your indoor humidity when upgrading.

[elitehomewarranty]

How New Homeowners Do Home Maintenance and Address Breakdowns

Congratulations on your new home! As a responsible homeowner, it's crucial to understand the importance of regular home maintenance to keep your property in optimal condition and reduce costly repairs in the future. Even the most well-built homes require regular standard maintenance to preserve functionality and protect the quality of the materials.

At Elite home warranty company in USA, we know that maintaining your home is crucial not only for your comfort and safety but also for your home’s value and home warranty USA prices.

Elite home warranty company in USA are concerned because clogged gutters turn into water damage. Chipped paint leads to wood rot. Dirty filters shorten the lifespan of your furnace. And while small problems are simple fixes now, they’ll be more complicated (even burst-pipe disastrous) later and could ultimately hurt your resale value and give costly home warranty USA prices.

We’ve put together a list of essential home maintenance tips that every new homeowner is following:

Heating & Cooling Maintenance & Breakdowns

Regularly clean or replace air filters to ensure proper airflow.

Schedule professional HVAC inspections Elite home warranty USA and tune-ups to identify any issues early on.

Maintain proper ventilation throughout your home to prevent moisture buildup and improve indoor air quality.

Plumbing Maintenance & Breakdowns

Inspect your plumbing system for leaks and fix dripping faucets regularly.

Make sure you’ve not only addressed the source of the damage with a professional, but also addressed the stains left behind.

Insulate exposed pipes to prevent freezing during colder months.

Periodically flush your water heater to remove sediment buildup, ensuring optimal performance and prolonging its lifespan.

Clean shower heads and faucets with a brush to prevent calcium and lime build-up and prevent clogging

Test your sump pump annually to ensure it is working correctly.

Take a look around the perimeter of your home to check for downspouts that have become detached from your home.

Tackle any slow drains in your home before they become clogged.

Check and clean your gutters every spring and fall, clearing away any muck, sealing any leaks, and replacing damaged gutters as needed.

Electrical Maintenance & Breakdowns

Test your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors regularly to ensure they are functioning correctly.

Inspect electrical cords and outlets for any signs of damage and address them promptly.

Replace light bulbs as needed to maintain proper lighting throughout your home. Consider investing in LED light bulbs to reduce how often you need to replace them.

If you find some of your power sources are dead, we recommend that you call a professional electrician to get them fixed

Kitchen Appliances Maintenance & Breakdowns

Each month, take time to wipe down cabinets and clear expired items from your pantry. Clean your dishwasher according to the manufacturer’s recommendations to help prevent clogs or leaks, and replace water filters in your refrigerator as needed.

If your refrigerator has an ice machine or water dispenser, check the hose between the wall and the refrigerator to determine if it is pinched or stressed. Also look for signs of leaking or wear and tear.

Be sure to clean both the stovetop and inside of the oven regularly.

Elite home warranty company in USA encourage you to start off your homeownership journey right, ensuring you don’t forget any of these tasks, by creating a regular maintenance schedule.

But even with regular cleaning, appliances will eventually break down. With Elite home warranty USA plan, you can find an effective contractor to fix the issues.

[camellasstory]

The Most Common Causes of Dripping Faucets and How a Plumber in Reading Can Fix Them

A dripping faucet is one of the most frustrating and annoying plumbing issues that can plague your home. Not only is it a waste of water, but it can also drive up your utility bills and create a mess in your sink or bathtub. But what causes a faucet to drip in the first place? And more importantly, how can a plumber in Reading fix the problem?

In this article, we’ll explore the most common causes of dripping faucets and how a professional plumber in Reading can diagnose and repair the issue.

The Importance of Fixing a Dripping Faucet

A dripping faucet may seem like a minor annoyance, but it can lead to significant problems. The constant sound of water droplets can disrupt your peace and create frustration.

More importantly, that leaky faucet wastes water—potentially hundreds of gallons a year. This not only affects the environment but also contributes to higher utility bills.

Ignoring the issue can cause further damage over time. Water buildup might lead to mold growth or structural issues in your home.

Additionally, fixing a drip early on is usually much less expensive than dealing with more extensive repairs later. By addressing the problem promptly, you save money and maintain your plumbing system’s integrity.

Taking action against that persistent drip benefits both your wallet and the planet. A small fix now prevents larger headaches down the line.

Common Causes of Dripping Faucets

Worn-Out O-Rings or Gaskets

One of the most common causes of a dripping faucet is worn-out O-rings or gaskets. These rubber or plastic components are designed to create a watertight seal between moving parts in the faucet. Over time, however, they can become brittle and cracked, allowing water to seep through and create a drip.

The best plumber in Reading can fix this issue by replacing the worn-out O-rings or gaskets with new ones. This is a relatively simple and inexpensive repair that can be completed in no time.

Corroded or Mineral-Built-Up Faucet Cartridges

Faucet cartridges are the valves that control the flow of water in your faucet. Over time, they can become corroded or clogged with mineral deposits, causing the faucet to drip. This is especially common in areas with hard water, where minerals like calcium and lime can build up quickly.

A plumber in Reading can fix this issue by replacing the corroded or clogged cartridge with a new one. They may also recommend installing a water filter or softener to reduce the mineral content of your water and prevent future buildup.

Loose or Faulty Faucet Handles

Loose or faulty faucet handles can also cause a dripping faucet. If the handle is loose, it may not be able to shut off the water supply completely, resulting in a drip. Similarly, if the handle is faulty, it may not be able to control the flow of water properly, leading to a leak.

A plumber in Reading can fix this issue by tightening or replacing the faucet handle. They may also need to adjust or replace the stem or O-ring that connects the handle to the faucet cartridge.

Clogged Aerator

The aerator is the screen-like device at the end of your faucet that mixes water with air to create a smooth flow. Over time, it can become clogged with debris, such as sediment or mineral buildup, causing the faucet to drip.

A plumber in Reading can fix this issue by removing and cleaning the aerator. They may also recommend replacing it if it’s damaged or corroded beyond repair.

Faulty Faucet Installation

In some cases, a dripping faucet may be caused by a faulty installation. If the faucet was not installed correctly, it may not be able to function properly, leading to leaks and drips.

A plumber in Reading can fix this issue by reinstalling the faucet correctly. They may need to adjust the mounting hardware, replace the faucet cartridge, or reconfigure the plumbing connections.

How a Plumber in Reading Can Fix a Dripping Faucet

If you’re experiencing a dripping faucet, it’s essential to call a plumber in Reading as soon as possible. A professional plumber can diagnose the cause of the drip and fix it quickly and efficiently.

Here’s what you can expect when you call a plumber in Reading to fix your dripping faucet:

Initial Consultation: The plumber will ask you questions about the drip, such as how long it’s been happening and how often it occurs. They may also ask to see the faucet and inspect the surrounding area.

Diagnosis: The plumber will inspect the faucet and surrounding plumbing to determine the cause of the drip. They may use specialized tools, such as a leak detector, to help identify the source of the leak.

Repair: Once the plumber has diagnosed the cause of the drip, they will repair or replace the faulty component. This may involve replacing O-rings or gaskets, cleaning or replacing the aerator, or adjusting the faucet handle.

Testing: After the repair, the plumber will test the faucet to ensure it’s working properly and not leaking.

Conclusion

A dripping faucet is a frustrating and annoying plumbing issue that can waste water and drive up your utility bills. But by understanding the most common causes of dripping faucets, you can take steps to prevent them from happening in the first place. And if you do experience a dripping faucet, a plumber in Reading can fix the issue quickly and efficiently.

Remember, it’s essential to address a dripping faucet as soon as possible to prevent water damage and mold growth. So don’t hesitate to call the best plumber in Reading today to fix your dripping faucet and restore peace of mind to your home.

[yoobuyin]

Sleek Solutions: Elevating Your Kitchen with Premium Kitchen Sink Fittings

Introduction

The kitchen holds a place, in every home as it serves as the hub of activity. A designed kitchen not adds to the overall appearance but also enhances the experience of cooking and cleaning. However one aspect that often goes unnoticed yet has an impact, on both functionality and style is the choice of sink fittings. In this blog post we will delve into why premium sink fittings are crucial and how they can completely transform your kitchen into an efficient space. Additionally we’ll introduce you to Yoobuy, a platform that simplifies the process of finding the sink fittings.

Why Premium Sink Fittings Matter:

1. Durability and longevity:

Investing in top notch sink fixtures guarantees their durability and lasting performance. Opting for high quality materials, like steel or brass ensures that they can withstand the demands of use preventing any corrosion and keeping them looking brand new for years to come.

2. Functionality and Innovation:

Sink fittings of quality often include features that improve usability. With options, like faucets and versatile sprayers these fittings make everyday kitchen chores easier and more efficient.

3. Aesthetic Appeal:

The appearance and design of your kitchen are essential, for creating a cooking atmosphere. Using high quality sink fixtures, which come in finishes and styles can serve as a centerpiece that harmonizes the aesthetic of your kitchen.

4. Ease of Maintenance:

How Yoobuy Can Help:

Yoobuy is your go-to destination for finding premium sink fittings that match your style and requirements. Here’s how Yoobuy simplifies the process:

1. Wide Range of Options:

At Yoobuy we provide a range of sink fittings, from brands giving you the opportunity to discover the ideal match for your kitchen. Whether you have a preference, for an simplistic design or a traditional and enduring style Yoobuy offers choices that cater to every individuals taste.

2. Detailed Product Information:

At Yoobuy you’ll find details, about each product, which include specifications, materials used and feedback, from customers. This valuable information empowers you to make a choice that aligns with your preferences and needs.

3. User-Friendly Interface:

Yoobuy  website is built with user friendliness in mind ensuring effortless navigation and a seamless search experience. You have the ability to refine your search results by applying filters such, as price, brand and features which simplifies the process of finding what you need.

4. Secure Purchasing Experience:

When you opt for Yoobuy rest assured that your online shopping experience is safe and trustworthy. We offer payment methods and a transparent return policy allowing you to shop with confidence.

Conclusion

Upgrading your kitchen, with high quality sink fixtures is an adjustment that can have an effect. Whether its enhancing the appeal or improving functionality investing in top notch sink fittings is a choice you won’t regret. With Yoobuy's help discovering the fixtures, for your kitchen has never been simpler. Turn your cooking area into an efficient sanctuary by selecting premium sink fittings that align with your style and cater to your requirements.