#or more so I wish I did the eggs and baskets method

[princess-adronitis]

.

[theadventurerslog]

Quest For Glory II: Trial by Fire | Part 8

The Adventurer's Log

The final chapter... If I could get out of this cave after things went terribly wrong last time. Ad Avis got the statue of Iblis and I was stuck in a cave.

I poked around a bit. There was nothing to be done about the rocks. But then there was a flash of light which turned out to be a ring around the tip of a stalagmite. A ring with the inscription, "He Who Waits Behind."

That line wasn't referring to me; take that, Ad Avis. Cinder put it on and twisted it and out popped a Djiinni. He could grant three wishes... as long as they were very specific wishes.

And he's kind of cute. He does try when you try wishing for other stuff but nothing happens. At least he gives it a go! He's doing his best.

I was in pretty good shape and I had lots of healing pills so I wasn't going to waste a wish on health. That leaves two wishes for prowess which adds a whopping 50 points to your skill of choice. And then one wish for getting to Iblis.

This was a lot of pressure to choose WHICH skills though. Like I wasn't sure whether to boost what I was already good at or boost the things that are harder for me to train. I ultimately decided to just throw all my eggs in one wizardly basket and boosted my intelligence to 194 and my magic to 200. Hopefully I'll have no regrets come QFG III.

Then it was time to teleport to Iblis, or as close as possible anyway, which ended up being near the palace.

Doing. His. Best!

Then Sharaf showed up. The Underground were prepared to attack and could provide some distraction for me but I needed to hurry so I wouldn't get caught up in the battle.

Guards around, but the veil Mayzun referenced was hanging in the spot to climb. But I got caught by the guards and Iblis was unleashed...

Heck of a game over.

So, trying that again... I had to get close to enough to the pillar to levitate which took a couple tries.

Then my Djinni buddy led me through the palace.

I was led to a room with a big door I needed to get to. But Khaveen and a guard were also there.

Khaveen wasn't having a good time and I was gonna aim to make him have a worse time. I got myself caught a couple times trying different things. Ultimately I needed to use Calm and that caused him to relax, kind of lose track of what he was doing and leave, so I could levitate down. So, maybe he wasn't really having a worse time but I had tried flinging a flame dart at him. It just...didn't do much but get me caught.

And more warnings of magic from my friend.

I was having some issues. I was being too slow? Or one mistake costs you? I took several tries to get through the door before Iblis was summoned. Then when I did I got pummeled by a statue. Then when I managed again, I still got things wrong and Ad Avis turned me into a Saurus again.

That was an excellent death message though. I can't complain about this particular failure.

I could complain about my struggles though. Sometimes I could make it through the door in time and sometimes I couldn't and I don't know what the difference between the successes and failures was beyond barely having enough time and so sometimes just being too slow? I guess?

I went to an earlier save and tried again going faster even though I seemed to get there quickly before. This time I managed to get in, cast Reversal to avoid being Saurused and Fetched one of the unlit candles to disrupt the ritual.

This resulted in Ad Avis casting a spell at me that was bounced off by my Reversal and hit Khaveen as he entered to help instead.

Turned him into a snake and he slithered off. But then Ad Advis cast another spell that put the floor on fire and destroyed me before I could figure out what to do. He had a reversal spell as well.

I tried AGAIN, with the idea of doing all that then casting force bolt on myself to reflect back to him and knock him over. The ol' Final Fantasy reflect method. Sounded good! ScummVM crashed... Consistently. It didn't like that. Thankfully that wasn't the answer here.

I figured it out in time... Also you can use Trigger on the statue to smash it. There's a brazier. Force Bolt that from the right angle and it gets knocked into Ad Avis and knocks him off the balcony.

And roasts him by the looks of it... Gruesome...

My Djinni popped out to take Iblis back to the tomb for another thousand and one years. And then he told me what the real prophecy was meant to be.

Then he left.

And it was ending time! With Mayzun's help Emir Ali was found hiding and convinced to restore the city. He ordered the fighting to cease and declared an end to Ad Avis and Khaveen's rule. While he was speech-making Cinder snuck off because we had one more task to do.

Releasing the water elemental caused them to restore the fountain and in doing so the plaza itself.

Raseir was recovering! Shema, Shameen and Abdulla arrived on their magic carpet to take me back to Shapeir and see the Sultan.

Then it was time for all manner of speeches as different people spoke up for my deeds and heroism.

Shema and Shameen first:

I became the hero of Spielburg and then came here and defeated the Elementals to save the city. A hero!

Then Aziza spoke of my deeds saving Julanar (in as much as she can be saved.) But I did show her the joy of life again.

Zayishah came next and described how I helped her escape Raseir even at my own expense.

Then it was time to help the old Emir at last and give him the Dispel Potion.

Farewell weirdo Saurus...

Not sure how I feel about you licking my face as a saurus! I don't know exactly how self-aware he was while enchanted, so there might be that at least... I'm just gonna try not to think too deeply on this one.

It was the Sultan's turn next and he proclaimed me a hero then called me his son. AND it turns out he was the poet, Omar, all along. Sneaky sneaky.

Hero and Prince of Shapeir now? Racking up those titles.

At last Rakeesh stepped in and due to my courage, kindness, generosity, honesty and mercy he declared me a man of great honor and gave me his sword, Soulforge, thus declaring me a Paladin.

I didn't exactly mean for that to happen, but sure I guess? Wizard Paladin? As long as I can still be thoroughly wizardly.

Heroic raising of the sword.

And my congratulations.

It even changed the "Hero" part in the top bar to "Paladin."

530/550 points. I missed 20 points! That's a lot to miss! I have no idea where; I would assume at at least a couple different points, probably more. Oh well, not bad for a first time anyway.

"Miserable puns"? No, no, glorious puns. Feed me all the puns.

And we couldn't end this without some advertising for the third game which will be coming. And finally, of course, my final stats and magic scores taken right before defeating Ad Avis:

I never did get all my money back... I wonder if I missed something there or if you just lose it and that's that. Look at that Flame Dart. What spell did I use constantly?

And so this desert venture ends... Where to next? That'll be answered in Quest for Glory III: Wages of War.

For now... Fin.

--

Final Thoughts

I think I like it more than the first one, though they're both good. This one has a slower feeling pace with a lot of down time at least if you deal with the elementals quickly. It's kind of relaxing in a way once you get into the rhythm of things. It also keeps the time limit from feeling so stressful; I wasn't ever feeling under much pressure. And of course once you get going to Raseir things really ramp up and that provides a nice contrast and sense of danger. Feel that new tension. The point from running into Ad Avis onward is great.

While the characters aren't exactly deep I enjoyed them for what they are, like Aziza and Keapon (yay goofy wordplaying gnomes!). The WIT stuff was fun and makes me continue to be glad I'm playing a magic user.

I also really appreciated being able to rest and pass time far more easily than the first game. That option to rest for an hour is great. I never used it myself, but there was also an option to sleep until evening if you need to do stuff at night and just want to get past the day. Probably most useful for the thief.

I also have a lingering question. What was the point of the third Dispel Potion? I only used two and found no one needing a third.

I don't like navigating the streets of Shapeir or Raseir. The map is great for Shapeir, but when you don't have the locations marked yet it's a menace to get around. For me anyway. I get lost easily.

And combat continues to be feel janky. Manageable but clunky.

Aside from those couple downsides I had another good time. I'm looking forward to continuing the journey, and I guess exploring the Paladin side of things too??

Quest for Glory III coming up next in which we leave the text parser and make the move to point and click.

[quendis]

(writing this as its own post and tagging @ibrithir-was-here instead of sending an ask because this got way too long)

I’m supposed to be studying for finals right now, which naturally means that the Numenor version of the Ring Babies AU is all I can think about. More specifically, I keep thinking about how the fall of Numenor would’ve happened in this universe. So I accidentally outlined a fic?

Annatar still has no particular love for the Valar in this ‘verse, but neither does he particularly want to get back on their bad side. Still, when weighing the pros and cons of manipulating Ar Pharazon into attacking Valinor… he probably still does it. It’s not like he’d be successful, after all. Pharazon attacks Valinor, the Valar squash him and his fleet like a bug, and suddenly the Numenorian problem is solved. Easy peasy.

...At least until, in the later stages of Annatar’s pitch and Ar Pharazon’s preparations for war, the king of Numenor states his intention to bring Narya with him on the flagship. As an honored guest, of course. (He’s not completely stupid, after all.)

Mairon panics. In all his machinations, somehow he hadn’t planned for this. He dissembles, at first — argues that Narya is neither warrior nor sailor, that he would be of far more use to the king if left on the island to aid in the forging of weapons and the administration of the war effort. Ar Pharazon is unswayed.

So what’s a Maia to do?

He breaks character, for the first time since his capture. This is an alternate version of the scenario in this post, where Mairon goes apeshit is pushed over the line and reveals himself as Sauron, revealing in the process that the idea of storming Valinor was entirely a plot to get Ar Pharazon killed. Even though he expected some amount of treachery, Ar Pharazon is livid. He gives Mairon an ultimatum: either surrender the true secret to eternal life, or watch as Ar Pharazon sends a war party to Valinor anyway — with Narya on board — to die.

Mairon doesn’t have the secret to eternal life. During his time as Morgoth’s lieutenant he learned how to extend life, and how to distort it, but to truly take away the Gift of Men is beyond his power. Still, there’s an idea that sparked in the back of his mind, back when they first began creating the Rings, back before he had wholly thrown his lot in with Tyelpe…

He tells Ar Pharazon of nine rings (non-sentient, unlike the later Three) designed for Men, and distributed as gifts among them. He tells him of how they might be altered, to extend the lives of their bearers near the point of eternity. He vows to collect them, and to make them into fountains of youth for Ar Pharazon and his most loyal followers.

(There are a few things he doesn’t mention. He doesn’t mention that, in order to create this facsimile of eternal life, he would bind the bearers of the rings to his will. He doesn’t mention that, although some of the rings are on the mainland as he mentioned, three are already on this island. And he doesn’t mention that one, a plain, unassuming steel band, rests even now on the finger of Tar Miriel, the rightful successor of that ring’s initial recipient.)

And so Annatar is sent beyond the blockade to find and steal the rings for Pharazon’s use, accompanied by a guard of several of the king’s strongest warriors, and with Narya left behind on Numenor, still, as an “honored guest.” He supposes it would’ve been too much to hope for that Narya would be sent with him, and that they could find some way to escape together. All he can do now is stall for time while he tries to think of a better way to escape — with Narya — upon his return to the island. And how to explain his past to his son, who he was never given a chance to speak with after that final confrontation.

Meanwhile on the Isle of Numenor, Narya is conflicted, to say the least. But he also doesn’t have much time to think about his father’s identity, since between “audiences” with the king and his generals, he and Miriel have found themselves roped into the Faithful’s rebellion. With dwindling power in court and no military force to match Pharazon’s, I think it’s at this point in the AU that they start preparing to “abandon ship”, as it were: gathering provisions and any refugees they can reach, building or stealing boats to ferry them to the mainland, and saving any relics of the kingdom they can get their hands on — including stealing Nimloth’s fruit, which is how Narya first meets Isildur and starts spying for the Faithful.

Annatar, at this point, is playing out the world’s shittiest heist movie — sent from kingdom to kingdom among the mainland’s realms of men, disguised and collecting in secret the rings that he and his husband had given as gifts not so long ago, and all the while watched by Ar Pharazon’s men with the threat of harm to Narya looming over his shoulder should they catch him trying any more tricks. Narya, who he feels he failed. Who he almost got killed, who could be killed in truth if Pharazon discovers this plot-

He tries not to think about it. But he also keeps an eye out for any friendly faces on the road. He’s in survival mode right now, and survival mode for Mairon usually coincides with the hard-learned lesson of relying on himself, and himself alone. But he isn’t just Mairon anymore; he’s Annatar, and Annatar has friends, a family, and a loving husband who he would trust with more than his life. Maybe if he can get a message out to Tyelpe in secret, he might be able to do something.

Tyelpe is not able to do something. Or rather, he doesn’t know what to do. Since Annatar and Narya were captured — nearly half a century ago at this point — he, Vilya, and Nenya have been trying in vain to find a way through the Numenorian blockade to rescue their family. And between comforting his remaining children don’t phrase it like that, he still has three children, Narya has to be alive and he will not consider any alternatives, his own stress at losing his husband and son, and trying to both run and defend the city on his own, Tyelpe is… not doing especially well.

After he hears word of the sinking of Numenor, he’s doing even worse.

See, Ar Pharazon is willing to wait and see how Annatar’s new proposal pans out, but he also doesn’t intend to leave all of his eggs in one basket. He starts trying other methods. Maybe he sends scouts towards Valinor anyway. Maybe he begins making human sacrifices, as in canon. Either way, he manages to piss Eru off magnificently. And as in canon, Eru changes the shape of the world, and Numenor is drowned, Pharazon along with it.

What Tyelpe doesn’t know is that Annatar is already on the mainland. What neither of them know is that Narya, along with his new friends Miriel and Isildur, had boarded one of the last ships to escape the island, and is currently safe on the coast of what will one day be known as Gondor.

Annatar kills his Numenorian watchers. With Narya dead, there’s no point in playing Pharazon’s games any longer. He can’t bear the thought of returning to Ost-in-Edhil and facing his husband and children, after he killed his son failed. He starts to wander, and for the first time in his very long life, wishes he were an elf. At least an elf can fade.

Tyelpe had always heard that elves would feel something, when their marriage bond broke, when their partner died. That the sundering of a love strong enough to bond souls would take part of the survivor with it. He doesn’t know what it means, that he feels nothing. Maybe it’s some quirk of the unique bond between elf and maia. Maybe it’s his punishment, for not loving Annatar enough to drop everything and ride out of Ost-in-Edhil in a glorious charge (and a less glorious boat ride, he supposes) to save him. It’s what Fingon did. It’s what Luthien did. Why couldn’t he?

Tyelpe can’t save his husband, and he can’t save his son. But there are already reports of bodies washing ashore, and if he can’t save them, he can at least grant them rest. He gathers his other children, leaves the city in the care of one of his most trusted advisors (what he should have done, he thinks, half a century ago), and rides out to bury his husband and son.

Since this AU wasn’t dramatic enough already, naturally all three parties (Narya and the Faithful; Celebrimbor, Vilya, and Nenya; and Annatar on his own) meet at the same time. I’m sure there’s a lot of questions, a lot of shouting, a lot of crying. There are probably some difficult conversations, as Annatar and Narya address their fraught parting, and as Annatar comes clean to his children about his past. But that can all wait for another time, and another tale. Right now the Ringmakers and the Rings are together again and holding each other for the first time in fifty-seven years, and for a moment, at least, that’s all that matters.

[ave-aria]

ROTG Hope Week

Happy Easter, everybody! This was written for Hope Week, in response to these darker days we���re going through. Who can’t use a little extra hope?

Day 1: Hope Wordcount: 3,305 Tw: Coronavirus, Covid 19 Pairings: Jack/Bunnymund

Kudos to Chaos Incarnate for giving me the idea for the title. ;)

-

Can I Offer You A Nice Egg In These Trying Times?

-

"Whaddya mean, Easter's cancelled?"

Bunnymund's voice rang through the Warren, scattering the herds of unpainted eggs at his feet. Jack, however, remained unmoved. He crouched atop his staff, toes curling into the wood as he stared down at the Easter Bunny before him.

"Hey, it's not my fault," he raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "Don't shoot the messenger, I'm just letting you know. This Coronavirus is shaping up to be some pretty nasty stuff."

"The—what virus?"

Jack narrowed his eyes at Bunny.

"Coronavirus. Covid-19." He said. "You have been keeping up on the news, haven't you?"

Bunnymund, caught with his head in the ground, sputtered. "Look, I am not the shut-in I used t' be, ok!" which was true; the Guardians had made great strides in getting out of their comfort zones in the past eight years. The attack by Pitch made them all realize how isolated they'd become. But… well. Old habits die hard. "So what if I missed a bulletin or two?"

"Bunny," Jack huffed, exasperated. "It's a worldwide pandemic."

Frustrated, Bunny threw his hands in the air. "It's less than a month till Easter! Whaddya want from me!"

Jack rolled his eyes. "A little less denial would be nice."

Fuming, Bunnymund threw his paintbrush to the ground and stormed towards his tunnels.

Sighing, and deciding to take pity on the Pooka, Jack hopped off his staff and followed him across the grassy field. Eggs parted to let him pass. There were dozens of them, hundreds, all waiting to be painted; more were due to hatch from the Eggplants in waves as the month rolled on. The fruits of long labor. Bunny'd put a lot of work into this year's Easter, like he did every year, and it was a shame to see it all go to waste.

Bunny beelined for the European tunnels, ducking into one that Jack knew well. Bunny always seemed to be using this path. It led to a little suburb in England, the very same place where he'd been walked through on that fateful failed Easter years ago. The Pooka never said as much, but Jack suspected; England and Australia seemed to be Bunnymund's Burgess.

So when the lagomorphs hopped down on all fours and darted out of sight, Jack didn't worry. He knew where Bunny was going.

After a few minutes of picking his way through the tunnels, Jack emerged into cool air and cloudy, overcast skies. The tunnel opened up in the narrow space between two long rows of houses, with a park visible down the road. The ground was clear of snow; Jack hadn't been active here lately, but looking at the green grass springing up between the pavestones, he thought he ought to change that soon.

Bunny, to his surprise, was not darting from bush to bush as usual. When Jack arrived, the Pooka was standing smack dab in the middle of the paved streets, subtlety be damned. He turned in circles, a bewildered look creeping onto his face.

Upon spying Jack, he threw his arms out. "Crikey, Jack, it's a ghost town out here! Where is everybody!"

Jack pointed at the long rows of houses. "Inside," he explained. "…Or they better be."

Bunny did another 360, scanning the streets. It was so empty out here, a tumbleweed wouldn't be out of place. "Mate, this—this seems bad," he admitted at last. "I've never seen this place so quiet."

Jack shook his head. "No kidding. You should see the cities."

Bunnymund froze. "The cities?"

"If you think this place is a ghost town, wait till you see London," Jack said. "Paris, Tokyo, Dubai— Venice is so empty the waterways are clear for the first time in ages."

Bunnymund warily scanned the neighborhood again. The lack of people, mid-day, was eerie. He held perfectly still, holding his breath. His ears pricked forward, waiting for sound, eyes on the empty space - as if he expected someone to jump out and yell "boo!" - but nothing came. Slowly, he took a wary step forward, eyes scanning the streets.

Jack stepped forward, reaching out. "…Bunny," he started.

Bunny's whiskers twitched. "So this Coronavirus," he said. "It caused this?"

Jack held up a hand. "They're self-quarantining, for the most part. To help slow the strain on the hospitals. Practically everything is shutting down, everywhere."

"Must be some virus." Bunny replied. "…Takin' out kids and the elderly, I assume?"

"Mostly the elderly. And people with underlying health conditions. It's like the flu on steroids, with a ridiculous incubation period." Jack drew up to his side.

"How many dead?"

Jack winced. "It's… not clear—"

"Give it to me straight."

"…Over four thousand deaths in Italy so far." Jack said, reluctantly. "And more to come. China's not far behind. The US—well." He shrugged. "With the state of healthcare there? Bound to be ten times worse."

It felt different saying it aloud. Four thousand deaths.

A chill ran down his spine.

Jack cast a worried glance at Bunny. He seemed… withdrawn, and Jack hated that. Good news—if he could just think of good news— "Kids though! They seem largely unaffected, thankfully. Gotta catch some breaks, right?"

Bunny looked at least a little relieved at that. Jack went on. "But—the kids're taking it home and giving it to their parents, their grandparents… a lot of places are talking about closing down schools." He slung his staff over his shoulders. "Which, I might add, is totally unfair. I mean, I drop three feet of snow on Burgess and Jamie's highschool might close for, what, a day? Two at most? And then one little pandemic comes along and completely wipes out my record by a mile."

Bunnymund snorted at that. "You're full of yourself."

"I try."

"So," Bunny said. A pause, and his shoulders slumped. "…No Easter this year."

Looking at Bunny's crestfallen face, knots twisted Jack's gut. "Hey, that was the Pope. He cancelled Easter. But I'm sure your status as the Easter Bunny outweighs his authority."

Not even a smile at the comment. "Quarantining means no egg hunts," Bunny said. His ears drooped further. "No egg hunts means no Easter."

Jack took a deep breath and let it out slow. "…Yeah."

They stood silent for a long minute.

"S'not even about the egg hunts, really," Bunnymund said at last. "What worries me is skipping Easter—at a time when the world needs hope the most."

Jack bit his lip. "You could still—I mean, not to bring up North's method, but—pop inside the houses, leave eggs around the house?"

"I already do that, some places," Bunnymund told him. "But if I get the virus on me fur, or me googies, and take 'em inta a clean house—"

Jack sighed. "…Right. Kinda destroys the point of quarantining." He said. Still, he cats about for options, something to lift Bunnymund's spirits. "…Maybe if you disinfect between each place—"

That, oddly, drew a laugh from the Pooka's lips. Bunnymund ruffled Jack's hair, messing it up even worse than it already was. Jack ducked under the noogie, squinting up at Bunny.

"Appreciate it, really," said the Pooka. "But… you're right. Unless somethin' changes, fast, there's - there's just no Easter this year."

Jack straightened, frowning. Giving up wasn't Bunny's MO. He'd thought - he knew the news would hit hard, if he hadn't already caught wind of it, but he thought for sure Bunny would come at this swinging. Maybe try to brainstorm some solutions to the problem, or pull out an unexpected ace hidden up his sleeve.

But just giving up? "Hey now—"

"It's for the best." Bunny cut him off. Apparently it was written all over his face. "In the grand scheme of things - a couple of googies is a small sacrifice to pay fer a safe community."

Jack's frown twisted. Sure but… still.

Bunny gave Jack a comforting pat on the shoulder. "I'm headin' back. Better find somethin' to do with my newfound free time." He added, in a mutter. Turning back to Jack, he asked, "Need a lift anywhere?"

Jack's eyes lingered on Bunny for a long moment. At last, he shook his head.

Bunny's hand dropped from his arm, and it felt like defeat. "Ta, mate," Bunny said, giving a halfhearted salute. In two taps of a paw, a tunnel opened up, and he was gone.

Jack watched him go, wishing, for the life of him, that he could find a way to fix this.

Staring down at the bare earth where the tunnel disappeared, a cold resolve settled in Jack's heart.

He had to find a way to fix this.

—

It was three days and as many consecutive sleepless nights later that Jack came knocking again. The tunnel opened reluctantly, Bunnymund's magic sluggish to match its owners mood, and the rabbit didn't meet him in the field. When Jack arrived, the Pooka was still curled up in his Burrow, slumped at the kitchen chair with a hot tea and sweets littering the table.

"Go 'way," he moaned when Jack's silhouette darkened the doorway. "Let me mourn my holiday in peace." A couple of eggs, unpainted, butted at Bunnymund's heels; the rabbit hadn't had the heart to get rid of them.

Aha, Jack thought, triumphant. Bunny wasn't as satisfied with giving up as he'd pretended to be.

"Pick up your paintbrush and get back to work," Jack told him, eyes gleaming. "Easter's still on."

"Jack," Bunny groaned. "We already talked about this—"

"No egg hunts," Jack flapped a dismissive hand. "We're doing this the old fashioned way."

Bunny sat a bit straighter at that, raising a curious ear. "And what would that be?"

Jack's eyes sparkled, glimmering with hope.

"Baskets," he said, and that was that.

—

Egg hunts hadn't always been the center of the holiday.

In Jack's time, rumor was that if you left a basket - or a hat, upended like a basket - on your doorstep, the Easter Bunny would drop by and fill it to the brim with goodies galore. The practice died out slowly as Bunnymund realized that encouraging folks to go out and seek for the good things in life was a more effective method at garnering Hope; but this year, it was coming back full force.

"Wicker. Ribbons. Paint." Bunnymund dumped another armload of supplies on the grass, and dusted off his paws. "Who's on weaving duty?"

"On it," Jack called, sandwiched between two yetis. He'd all but kidnapped them from North as it became apparent that Bunny's basket production needed to skyrocket, fast. North readily obliged, and even donated some holiday gift baskets he had sitting in the warehouse, unused.

Bunnymund eyed the donated baskets; "…as long as they're not painted red, they'll do."

Over the next few weeks, they emptied Bunny's storage and wove baskets until their fingers fell off. Some were simple affairs, others were elaborate, oversized displays, reserved for houses with large families. In addition to painting eggs, Bunny quickly doubled his output of chocolate, peeps, and hard candies.

Sandy had an eye for basket-arranging, easily assembling multiple at once with the aid of his dreamsand. After Tooth disinfected each finished basket, her Mini fairies carried them off to a cooler and semi-refrigerated room of the Warren that Jack had helped set up. They would remain in isolation until Easter.

They worked at a steady pace, some coming and going, everyone pitching in. When the wicker ran out, Bunny went and found more. North donated plastic baskets as he churned them out. One night, Tooth and Sandy disappeared with a sack of quarters and came back with a truckload of baskets, procured in bulk from closed dollar-tree stores.

"Technically they're paid for!" Tooth insisted when Bunny hemmed and hawed over the gift.

At last, he accepted them. A month was a short time to make millions of baskets, even with everyone helping out. He wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

"You know," Bunny remarked, a few days before Easter Sunday, as he and Jack wove a handful more baskets to put them over the top. "This just might work."

"Might?" Jack echoed, offended. He flexed his overworked fingers, scowling. "Don't sell this short. Of course it'll work. It's brilliant."

Bunnymund chuckled. "Aye," he said. "But you do realize there's one tiny problem with yer plan?"

Jack paused. "Problem?"

"Quarantine," Bunnymund said. "Most o' these people haven't left their houses in weeks. What makes you think they'll notice the baskets on their doorstep before the eggs start to stink?"

Hm. That was a valid point. Jack set down his half-woven basket and leaned on a hand, thinking.

"We knock," he said at last.

Bunny huffed, amused. "That's your brilliant plan? Knock?" he, too, set his basket down. "Mate, even if it were that simple, I can't. They'd see me."

"Ignoring the fact that being seen isn't as dreadful as you make it out to be," Jack flapped a hand, "I'm not dumb. I wouldn't have you knock." When Bunny cast a confused glance at him, clearly not understanding, Jack said; "I'll have you know I'm a master at ding-dong-ditch."

Bunny studied Jack's face for a long moment, then cracked a smile.

"So you're inviting yourself on my run, huh. You think you can keep up with me?"

Jack laced his fingers and turned his palms outwards, stretching. "I know I can, cottontail. In fact, I'd say I'll knock this one out of the park."

Bunnymund groaned. "No. No puns."

"Hey," Jack laughed. "Hey—knock knock!"

A resigned sigh. "Who's there?"

"Boo," Jack said.

"…Boo who?"

"Why are you crying?" Jack asked. "Easter isn't canceled anymore."

The smile Bunny sent Jack was the most genuine one he'd seen all month.

—

Operation Ring-Every-Doorbell-In-The-World was a go.

"Finished with China," Bunny's voice said through Jack's earbud. "Headin' down to Oz. Catch up, slowpoke!"

"Ohhhh you're dead when I get down there," Jack shot back, flitting from house to house.

So this was a biiit tougher than he thought it'd be. Jack wasn't well-known worldwide yet, so no one had spotted him, and all he had to do was press a button at each station, an easier task than carting whole armfuls of baskets to the surface. He was running into unexpected walls, however, when he realized to truly make this work, he had to ring doorbells in a certain order.

Apartments, Jack decided, were the worst. He had to ring every doorbell in each hall before anyone answered their door; if he didn't, those who'd emerged would realize their neighbors' doorbells were ringing of their own accord. But he couldn't be too quick about it, either, since people exiting their houses en-mass was also, in a way, counterproductive to the quarantine.

But he managed, staying just a step or two behind Bunnymund at all times. Ring and knock; flit to the next target.

Doors opened as he passed, with surprised folks drifting out into the street. He saw dozens of people in pajamas, more who sorely needed haircuts, and a handful who were apparently sitting around their house in Wedding Dresses and Dinosaur Costumes. Quarantine fashion - an interesting trend. The delighted gasps and laughs that echoed in his wake were well enough to spur him on.

They caught their breath over the atlantic ocean, ("Good news! Right now, Greenland's virus-free!") before diving back in to work on the Americas. By the time they hit Alaska, Jack was about ready to drop.

"How do you do this?" Jack wheezed as they drew up to the final house on their stop. Bunnymund was waiting, tweaking the ribbons and eggs that had shifted in transit. "Every year?"

Bunny smirked. "Stamina, mate. It's a marathon, not a race."

"I hate that you're not even winded," Jack groused back.

Satisfied with the presentation, Bunnymund stepped back. "Care to do the honors, mate?" he motioned to the doorbell.

Jack stole an extra minute longer, leaning on his staff for support. Then, with one last deep breath, he raised a hand - no doorbell on this house it seemed - and knocked.

A rustling inside the house. "Mama!" called a young voice inside. "Mama who knocked? Is it the pizza man? Did you order pizza on Easter?!"

Quick as a blink, the two retreated a safe distance back. The front door opened seconds later; a young girl, six years old, stuck her head out.

Her eyes landed on the basket and, all at once, lit up. "Mama!" she screeched in delight. She gathered up the basket—nearly as tall as herself—and waddled back inside, leaving the door hang open. "Mama, he came! You said he wouldn't be here but look, he came!"

"What?" a bewildered voice called from inside the house. Bunnymund and Jack traded a sly look, and a snicker.

The mother stuck her head out of the doorway, glancing this way and that for the culprit. Bunny made sure to flatten his ears and duck down low to avoid detection.

"Huh," said the woman, to herself. "I guess someone in the community is looking out for us after all."

After the door closed, Jack went ahead and dramatically collapsed on the ground before them. "Tell me we're done," he said, though he knew full well they were.

"Righto," Bunny knelt at his side, amusement in his smirk. "Need a lift back t' the Warren?"

"Why would I run to the Warren when I'm perfectly content to die right here?"

Bunnymund chuckled. "Always with the dramas," he said, and scooped Jack up in his arms.

"H-hey!" Jack balked, blushing deeply. "I can walk!"

"Can ye now?"

"Yes!" Jack squirmed out of Bunny's hold and skittered away, then raised his chin defiance. "Though I reserve the right to complain the whole time."

"As ye wish." He tapped twice and summoned a tunnel, motioning Jack in first.

Jack paused at the lip, but just before jumping down, caught Bunnymund staring back at their last house. He turned to look, too, companionable in their silence.

"We did pretty good, huh?" Jack said. "Considering."

Bunny gave a nod. "The world's doing pretty good right now, considering." He remarked. "A couple 'o baskets might not be much, but hopefully, it's something."

"It's the little things," Jack agreed.

"…It really is."

Bunnymund broke his gaze with the house to rest his paw on Jack's shoulder, and this one, in a sharper mirror of the same gesture a month prior, felt like sun on the skin. Bunny smiled at Jack, shining with soft gratitude.

"Thanks fer bein' here, Jack," he said. "Couldn't've done it without ya."

Jack smiled back. "Happy Easter."

Bunny nodded at the tunnel. "Now c'mon," he said, tossing something to Jack which the winter spirit just barely caught; "We've got a disinfecting bath and a nap waitin' fer us in the Warren."

Jack paused, unfolding his hands to inspect what he'd caught: an Easter Egg, painted a vivid blue, speckled with snowflakes and a golden scrawl that read Thank You.

Jack beamed at the egg, holding it gently in his hands, then turned the smile up at Bunny.

Bunny's own grin turned wicked. "—Race ya," he said, diving into the tunnel.

"What!" Jack stiffened, sore muscles seizing. Any protest he might utter fell away at the sound of Bunnymund's bright, ringing laughter.

Pocketing the egg, Jack dove in after him, his center bursting with joy and hope.

[problems-turn-fics]

Part 2 of the HMRT fic about them falling in love after the war. [Words: 5,919] Part 1 Here

Robert had barely slept when he woke at dawn. The rest of the house was quiet and he was tempted to roll over and go back to sleep. If he were the type he would have, telling himself that he had resisted enough temptation the day before and could afford a little. Instead, he forced himself out of bed and got dressed.

As quietly as he could he lit a fire in the kitchen stove and lingered a minute to warm up his hands before he went outside. A thin layer of frost covered everything, making it sparkle in the early morning light and the grass crunch under his steps. “Good morning,” he said to the animals as he opened the barn. They all shuffled around in answer, knowing exactly what came next. With the same methodical process that he did every morning, he fed each animal. First the pigs, then the goats, then the horses. He fetched them each water from the well, taking special care not to splash any on his breeches. Because it was cold, not because there was a high society tailor with a smile that made his heart beat faster in the house. No, that was unrelated.

Once the animals were fed and watered Robert took the time to look them each over. He liked to watch the animals, to check on them, and make sure they were as happy as they could be. They were peaceful and watching them brought him a little bit of peace. His father to be up soon but he likely had a few more minutes before anyone missed him too terribly and could take the time to appreciate his morning.

He stood at the stall where Mulligan’s horse was happily drinking its water, unaware of the larger problems of the world. All it thought about was food and water and when someone familiar would come see it. It didn’t know or care how much the hay it ate cost and Robert loved it for that. It must have noticed Robert watching because it looked up at him with its big black eyes, licking the water off its chomps. Robert held out his hand slowly, unreasonably pleased when it nosed at his hands.

“Loves attention that one.”

Robert startled hard, whirling around to see Mulligan laughing at him. He hoped his glare at Mulligan would cover some of his embarrassment. “I can’t imagine who that reminds me of.”

Mulligan laughed loudly as he came forward to pat his horse, which did seem pleased at the attention. “Maybe that’s why she’s my favorite.”

“You prefer those who like attention as much as you?” Robert heard himself ask before he’d decided to. It gave away too much, Mulligan would surely see exactly what Robert was actually asking.

Mulligan cocked his head to one side, his smile softening and his eyes just a touch warmer than before. It made Robert warmer too. “What I appreciate about a horse is different than what I like in a,” Mulligan paused making a show of looking Robert up and down, “person.” 

Robert swallowed hard, looking away to the rafters. They offered no help. “Are you leaving so soon?” Robert asked when he had recovered the ability to speak. 

 “Not yet. Your father sent me to find you for breakfast.”

“Then we should go back inside before it gets cold.” Robert didn’t move, and for a moment neither did Mulligan. They just stared at each other, barely a foot apart.

But then Mulligan clapped him on the arm with a smile. “You’re probably right. I’m starved.”

Robert followed him out of the barn, pausing long enough to grab a scoop of grain for the chickens that had already started to gather at the door. He’d expected Mulligan to continue on without him, but instead when he looked up Mulligan was just standing there on the porch with a soft smile on his face, watching him.

“What?” Robert asked as he left the chickens behind to go inside.

“You have a beautiful smile. I wish you didn’t save it just for the chickens,” Mulligan whispered following Robert close enough that he could feel his breath on the back of his neck.

Robert didn’t have a good answer for that so he just walked a little faster to the kitchen to join his father who was already sitting and eating.

He must have made some face because Samuel looked up at him and shrugged. “What? Just because you two enjoy eating cold eggs doesn’t mean I do.”

Robert sat, sighed, and rolled his eyes while Mulligan laughed loudly. Robert focused on a silent prayer over his food before he started to eat. The eggs were cold.

“So,” Samuel said so casually that it set Robert on edge. “I want to extend another invitation. We would love to have you come visit us again.”

“I would be honored,” Mulligan said. “Robert and I were just discussing it actually.”

“Were you?” Samuel asked, turning to Robert with a smile.

“Yes,” Robert said, forcing himself not to blush. He felt as if he’d been caught doing something horribly embarrassing when really he’d just invited a friend to come back for dinner if he liked. That’s all Mulligan was, he reminded himself, a friend.

Samuel turned back to Mulligan with a frown. “We do understand that it’s a long ride out though.”

“Oh, it does me good. Fresh air can be hard to come by in the city.”

Samuel laughed, patting Mulligan on the shoulder as he stood to get something to drink. “That I won’t argue with.” The moment made Robert’s heart warm. He loved his father and to see him take so quickly to Mulligan and Mulligan to take to him felt like a relief. Friends Robert reminded himself. He was happy because he didn’t have a lot of friends and he wanted his father to like his friends. Nothing more.

“I’ll have to make sure the shop survived my absence before I make any plans or promises but I am happy to return as long as I am welcome,” Mulligan said, winking at Robert.

“We aren’t in the habit of rescinding invitations,” Robert said evenly, like it was a challenge.

Mulligan continued to grin. “Lucky me.” He held his gaze for a moment longer before he turned back to Samuel who was sitting back down with a fresh cup. “After all, your father owes me a game of draughts. Someone has to show me how to beat you if I’m ever to stand a chance.”

Samuel put his hands up. “I’m afraid that chance has passed. His mother taught him and I never won a game against her that she didn’t let me win.” He was laughing and smiling but Robert could see that he was remembering the same moments he was. She had taught him how to play at that very table, at least one game a day all the way right up until the end. She’d laughed the first time he won, high pitched and delighted. Robert looked to his father who was smiling sadly at him.

“Perhaps you can ask Mr. Rivington,” Robert said, trying to salvage the morning and escape that sad smile. “He won one or two games.”

“And how many games did you two play together?” Mulligan asked, his own smile a little strained as well.

“More than two.”

Samuel and Mulligan both laughed. “I’ll have to take any help I can get.”

**

A week later a letter arrived, addressed to Robert.

Dearest Robert,

I’m sure you’ll detest the greeting of dearest but I couldn’t resist. Forgive me.

All is well here. The shop managed to survive. I think my new assistant Johnathan preferred when I was away. I’m likely a menace to the poor child but he has too much to learn. He’ll have to suffer me. All this to say I would love to visit again next Thursday. I’ll have to leave early since I have a meeting with a vendor on Friday in the afternoon for some new cloth. I’d love to see you both before the Christmas season starts and I’m unable to leave the shop for anything that isn’t a party filled with people far less interesting than you.

Write to me and tell me if you can spare the evening to spend with the likes of me.

Give your father my best.

- Hercules

P.S. I did talk to James and I think I’ll have you in our next game.

Robert wrote back immediately, much to his embarrassment.

Mr. Mulligan,

I forgive you for your choice of greeting. It seems very in character for you to pick one such as that. You seem to enjoy pushing just to see what you can get away with.

I’m happy to hear that the shop survived. I had no doubt as it seems unlikely to burn just because your back is turned. Training an apprentice is hard work, be patient with him.

We’d be delighted to have you over again on Thursday.

My father says to tell you he found the book of poetry that you were discussing last week.

If you are so confident in the advice James gave you maybe you should decide the stakes of our next game.

Your Friend, 

Robert Townsend

 ***

Robert flexed his numb fingers, trying to get some feeling back in them as he piled more logs into the basket. He was anxious to get back inside but they’d been running low on firewood and it was barely nightfall and needs must. He’d heard Mulligan ride up a few minutes before and his father helping to show him out to the barn.

Finally, the basket was full and Robert was able to go back inside.

In the house, Mulligan was standing by the fire warming up his fingers. He smiled wide and bright when he saw Robert. Samuel was humming in the kitchen.

“Mr. Mulligan,” Robert said, crossing the room to set the wood next to the fireplace, coincidentally bringing him close to Mulligan.

“What am I going to have to do to get you to call me Hercules? Even in your letter you were so formal. That wounded me, Robert. Would you prefer I call you Mr. Townsend?” Mulligan said with a laugh, taking his hand just long enough to make Robert’s heart stop before he let it go.

Robert narrowed his eyes. “Very well, Hercules.”

Instead of smiling as expected, Mulligan’s eyes went wide and he coughed. “Wasn’t so hard was it?”

“There you are,” Samuel interrupted before Robert could answer. He was carrying the roast he’d spent most of the week fretting over.

“Yes. I was getting firewood as you asked,” Robert said, barely resisting the urge to roll his eyes at his father who made it sound as if he’d been lost at sea.

“Yes, yes. Dinner’s read. Come, sit,” Samuel said as he set the platter down on the table. He sat at the head of the table with Robert and Mulligan finding their places on either side. They all joined hands for grace and bowed their heads. Samuel led the prayer as he had the last dinner they had shared.

Robert’s eyes shot open when he felt Mulligan’s thumb brush over his knuckles softly. He kept his head down and managed not to kick Mulligan under the table, mostly out of fear that he’d hit his father on accident. Instead, he squeezed Mulligan’s hand tighter and hoped that the message was clear. Mulligan did stop and instead squeezed Robert’s hand back in acknowledgment.

Finally, Samuel said “Amen” and Robert was able to take his hand back. He could still feel where Mulligan’s thumb had run over his knuckles. It felt like he was on fire. When he looked back up at him Mulligan smiled, though it looked more like a grimace. Apologetic even.

Robert decided to forgive him. It wasn’t like he had meant anything by it. It was a mindless gesture. It wasn’t Mulligan’s fault Robert struggled to breathe anytime he touched him.

“How have you been these past weeks, Samuel? Robert was very short on the details in his letter,” Mulligan asked suddenly, turning to Samuel as they ate.

“Robert,” his father scolded, though he was laughing.

“What? Nothing of note had happened,” he defended.

His father tsked. “Well, not particularly. But…” his father continued weaving a story about the neighbors who had visited last Sunday. Robert found it quite boring and would have been embarrassed about Samuel showing how boring they were compared to Mulligan’s own vibrant life if the man himself weren’t joking and listening as if he really was enjoying himself. Occasionally, he’d cast a glance at Robert as if making a silent comment, only for Robert.

Robert found himself watching Mulligan, waiting for the next smirk or wink or arch of an eyebrow that was just for Robert. Each one made him feel warm and special and filled him with a want for something he couldn’t identify. It was also dangerous and selfish. Unfortunately, the shame wasn’t able to smother the pleasant warmth, try as Robert might.

After dinner, Samuel disappeared to go find the book he and Mulligan had been discussing. It hadn’t sounded urgent to Robert that the book be found immediately but Samuel had been long gone before Robert could question him. Mulligan just shrugged and helped carry the dishes into the kitchen.

Robert put a pot of water on the stove to heat up and put the little bit of food that was leftover into the icebox, likely to be used in a stew the next day. He turned to see that Mulligan had shed his jacket and rolled up his sleeves.

The sight brought Robert up short and the room was suddenly hotter. He had to cough twice to get rid of the lump that had formed in his throat as he removed his own jacket and tried to get his heartbeat back under control. Mulligan did a much more graceful job of staring as Robert rolled up his sleeves, still unable to look at Mulligan.

They stood shoulder to shoulder, Robert scrubbing the dishes in the hot water and then handing them to Mulligan to be dried. It was silent and peaceful as they worked, though Robert strained to hear where in the house his father had hidden himself.

“James sends his regards,” Mulligan said after a long while of silence.

“Does he?” Robert asked. He supposed Rivington couldn't exactly tell Mulligan why it was that he no longer liked Robert and acting friendly might have just been the easiest thing to do. Still, it seemed odd.

“He doesn’t hate you as much as you seem to assume he does,” Mulligan said softly. “He’s a man of principle. You did what you did because of your own principles. He understands that.”

Robert sighed, tired down to his bones. “He did nothing but try to be my friend and I betrayed his trust.”

“James is a lot of things, but stupid isn’t one of them. I’d wager he knew; some part of him at least.”

“That’s worse,” Robert ground out, his jaw clenched tight. “That means he suspected me and yet he chose to believe I was his friend. And I betrayed that choice to trust me instead of blind foolishness.”

Mulligan sighed. “I don’t think he thinks that. For a while he might have but not after the soldiers came.”

“So they did come for him,” Robert said quietly.

“You knew they would. It’s why you broke that window. Oh, he ranted and raved about ‘hooligans’ who had broken his window in the dead of night the whole day. He was furious.” Mulligan laughed, put the rag over his shoulder, and brushed his hair out of his face. “But the soldiers arrived and he had everyone in the bar as a witness that the basement had been broken into. Everyone remembered because he was so damn obnoxious about that window. It was blamed on spies, not on him. He knows what you did. He knows that you did what you could to protect both of you.”

“I could have been doing it only to protect myself,” Robert argued.

“Did you?”

Robert didn’t have an answer for that. The problem was that Robert didn’t know. When he’d done it it’d been a half-formed thought, just a hope that it would keep the English looking elsewhere. He didn’t know if he had done it to protect his father, or himself, or James. He was just relieved it had worked.

“It can be both,” Mulligan said, whisper-quiet.

“No, it can’t.”

“But you don’t have a single answer,” Mulligan shot back, clearly pleased that he had bested Robert with his own logic. “You have three answers.”

Robert rolled his eyes. “Are you always this obstinate?”

“So I’ve been told.”

Robert turned back to the wash pot, suddenly realizing that he’d been so wrapped up in his conversation with Mulligan that he’d lost track of what he had been meant to be doing. It seemed like that was becoming a bit of a pattern.

“Maybe you can afford yourself a bit of forgiveness. He’s already forgiven you.” Robert could still feel his gaze, hot and unwavering.

“Has he told you that he forgives me?” Robert asked.

Mulligan sighed, clearly hearing what was coming next. “To be fair as far as he’s concerned I don’t know that you need forgiving.”

“So no. He hasn’t.”

“I think I know my friend well enough to know when he’s holding a grudge or not.”

“Not really the same thing is it?” Robert asked, handing Mulligan the last dish to be dried.

Mulligan just stared at him for a moment, looking disappointed and maybe a little sad. “I suppose not.”

They finished working in silence. Robert almost felt bad. Mulligan had just been trying to make him feel better, maybe even heal a wound that Robert hid from everyone, a wound he pretended didn’t exist. But Robert had shut him down and now Mulligan kept his head down and his mouth shut.

When they were done they went back to the living room where Samuel was sitting in his chair with a candle next to him, flipping through the book of poems he had disappeared to find half an hour ago. The second before they passed into Samuel’s line of sight though, Mulligan plastered on a smile and shook his head. “Did you know your son is a menace to debate with?”

Samuel laughed. “Why do you think I enjoy having you here? That way he can debate with you and I can enjoy it from the sidelines!” They laughed together and Robert rolled his eyes to cover the swelling fondness in his chest. He settled on the end of the couch closest to the fire so he could read by the light, just as he had the last time Mulligan was there.

Mulligan settled into the chair next to Samuel, producing a pouch and started to pull thread and a round bit of wood out. “I hope you don’t mind. It’s just something to keep my hands busy,” Mulligan said, holding the items up for Samuel to see.

“Of course not! Are you making buttons?

“Yes,” Mulligan said with a sigh, shaking his head. “With Christmas coming I have many orders for new jackets so that everyone may be dressed in their finest at the first parties of the first Christmas season since the war. And they all require buttons,” Mulligan explained as he started to wrap the thread around the mold, his head bent and his eyes fixed down intently. He was frowning just a touch and his hair was tucked behind one ear to keep it out of his face. He was breathtakingly beautiful, Robert thought wildly, he couldn’t help but stare. Mulligan’s hands moved smoothly, sure and in perfect harmony with each other and the materials. It was mesmerizing.

Without warning, Mulligan’s eyes flickered up to Robert and the focused frown turned into a soft smile, barely there. Robert would have blamed it on a trick of the light if it hadn't been for the wink before he turned to Samuel.

Robert burned. He stared down at the book in front of him with his jaw clenched tight, willing himself to focus. His hands were shaking slightly and he gripped the book tighter to hide it. He was a fool; a fool with no self-control. Hercules showed a bit of quiet focus and all of his carefully crafted walls just vanished? They didn’t even crumble or fall, as Hercules had an annoying habit of making happen. No, they had vanished as if they’d never been there. As if they hadn’t been keeping him safe for years. 

He focused on the book and after a while, he was able to breathe again. The conversation around him flitted in and out of his mind. Shame still burned hot in the back of his mind but he managed to focus on the book and right then that was important. If he could make himself focus on the book right then he could sort himself out later.

Hours passed, Robert relaxed, and the conversation around him and turned mostly into the two men reciting their favorite poems back and forth. Most were about the war but every once in a while one of them would recite one about breathtaking landscape or the goodness of God. Robert sometimes stopped and listened but mostly he let it filter by, the voices becoming a soothing background noise.

“Tell me, my heart, if this be love?”

Robert tuned in as Mulligan was in the middle of reciting another poem. He was starting another button and his eyes were fixed down. Robert looked back down at the book but didn’t bother trying to read it, he just listened.

“Whene’er she speaks, my ravish’d ear. No other voice than hers can hear, no other wit but hers approve. Tell me, my heart, if this be love?

“If she some other youth commend, though I was once his fondest friend, his instant enemy I prove. Tell me, my heart, if this be love?

“When she is absent, I no more delight in all that pleased before the clearest spring or shadiest grove: tell me my heart if this be love?

“When fond of power, of beauty vain her nets she spread for every swain, I strove to hate but vainly strove: tell me, my heart, if this be love?”

For a moment, the house was still. The crackling of the fire and the ticking of the clock were the only sounds. Samuel broke the silence.

“It’s beautiful, but melancholy. It’s almost sad.”

“How so?” Mulligan asked.

“To have that dedication and still be unsure. Being so lost in your own feelings and yet feeling them so deeply. It’s sad,” Samuel explained.

“Not necessarily,” Robert said before he could stop himself. When he looked up both men were watching him, waiting. “It might not be confusion, but reluctance. It’s a love they wish they didn’t feel. They aren’t confused they just wish they didn’t feel this way. It frightens them.”

Samuel was frowning at Robert, not angry just deeply sad. Robert didn’t have the courage to look at Mulligan. He was too unsure of what he’d see.

“That’s sadder,” Mulligan said. “It seems more to be a person that does know their own feelings but they don’t know how the other would react to such a strong declaration. They cover it with the questions to give themselves that deniability.”

“How is that any less sad than what I said?” Robert shot back. “To be afraid of the one you love would be dreadful.”

“The fear comes not from the person themselves but from the uncertainty. And uncertainly has room for hope.” Mulligan waved one hand as if clearing the air. “Fear of your own emotions and desires is a fear of one's self and that leaves no room for hope.”

Robert opened his mouth to argue but stopped short when Samuel stood. “Where are you going?”

“To bed. This is a young man’s debate,” Samuel said with a laugh. “I’ll see you both in the morning.”

He grabbed the candle that had been between him and Mulligan and started up the stairs. They each sat still until the door shut upstairs, then Mulligan leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees. “Did I misstep?”

“No. Why would you think that?” Robert asked, raising an eyebrow.

“What he said about it being a young man's debate I worry I may have brought up some unpleasant feelings regarding your mother. I didn’t mean to, of course. I had reread the poem recently and-”

Robert shook his head and cut him off. “No, no. He’s fine, I’m sure. He’s likely just -” Robert cut himself off when he realized he couldn't tell Mulligan his true suspicions. He’d never see Mulligan if he did.

“Just what?”

Robert waved his hand to try and make it clear how absurd he found it. “He likely hopes that you’ll win this debate and convince me to fall in love with the next person who smiles at me.”

“I’ll do my best.” Mulligan laughed and looked to the button half-finished in his hand, squinting at it in the low light. He was quite far from the fire now.

“You can come sit next to me...for the light...if you like,” Robert said, trying desperately not to show his nervousness. He was just offering to let his friend sit next to him for the light of the fire. There wasn’t anything to be nervous over. 

Mulligan smiled and gathered the pouch together, and moved. “Thank you.” He settled close to Robert, close enough that their elbows brushed with every movement and Robert had to angle his knees away to keep them from knocking into Mulligan’s. Mulligan went back to wrapping the thread around the wooden disk.

Robert tried to focus on his book but his eyes kept drifting back to Mulligan’s hands. He tried to be subtle and even turned the page once before reading it just to cover his fascination.

“I can teach you, if you like,” Mulligan said. Robert flushed but when Mulligan looked up at him he looked genuinely pleased. 

 “I’d hate to ruin your work or waste your thread. No doubt your customers expect the best, not the work of an amateur.”

“Nonsense. If you’re so concerned with supplies though, I can inspect your work before you cut the thread. If it’s terrible, which I sincerely doubt, I can unravel it and you can try again. No harm done.”

Robert opened his mouth to say no but instead “Very well, show me,” came out.

Mulligan’s answering smile could have lit whole cities. He pulled out a pink roll of thick thread and a smaller round of wood that he handed to Robert. Then came the beeswax and the pencil. Mulligan continued digging around, muttering “I think I still have the guide. I haven’t used it in a while, but if I’m honest. It’s been a while since I’ve made my own buttons at all. AH!” He held up another little wooden circle with 4 marks on each side. He handed it to Robert. “Use the guide to mark the 4 sides so they are evenly placed.” He waited while Robert did. He felt silly, like a child, but even as Mulligan explained each step and its importance he didn't seem to lose his patience or his smile.

“Here,” Hercules said, wrapping his hands around Roberts’. “This is what the tension should feel like. Too loose or too tight and it will unravel before you get done.” He looked up at Robert; maybe to see if he understood, or maybe to see if he was listening, or maybe to check on him since he must have noticed that Robert had stopped breathing.

The problem was, now that he’d turned his head to look up at Robert, still leaning over and holding Robert’s hands at the right tension, he was even closer. Robert could see the little wrinkles at the corners of his eyes from smiling. He could make out faint freckles on his nose. He could see the reflection of the fire in his eyes that made them sparkle even more than normal. He could see the slight part of his lips that made Robert’s mouth dry.

Mulligan’s smile had faded, his eyes just flitting across Robert’s face like he was searching or waiting. The thought of what he could be waiting for frightened Robert out of his stupor. “I see,” Robert said with a tiny nod.

Mulligan pulled back and nodded, clearing his throat. “Good.” He picked up his own button that he had abandoned when he had started teaching Robert. “Wrap it in that square twice more and then you can insert the pin to help hold it together. Just be careful not to go through any of the threads.”

Robert nodded and focused on the button. It was meditative and he tried not to notice or be embarrassed by how much more quickly Mulligan worked through his. It helped that every once in a while Mulligan would look over and say he was doing well or correct some small thing and then laugh about how many times he’d made that same mistake and he’d had to start over. All in all, it was nice.

“I never had the opportunity to ask. How did you get wrapped up in spy-work? Aren’t you Quakers supposed to stay out of the war?”

“It is a long story.”

Mulligan hummed in agreement. “You don’t have to tell it if you don’t want to.”

Robert shook his head. “I don’t mind. The short version is I met Abraham who was already a spy and he tried to convince me to join his cause. When I refused he enlisted the help of Lieutenant Brewster to burn down our barn and attack my father while pretending to be Queen’s Rangers. By the time we learned it had actually been Continentals who had attacked us we were already involved.”

Mulligan just hummed and kept his head down.

Mulligan didn’t usually respond so quietly and it made him self-conscious. “It’s not a terribly interesting story,” Robert said quietly. He was never known for his storytelling ability.

“No, it’s not that. It’s fascinating and someday you’ll have to tell me the long version, it seems as if there are more than a few parts of that story that you have left out,” Mulligan said with a smile that for some reason didn’t seem quite right.

“Then what?”

“I don’t have anything to say that you would be particularly interested in hearing.” Mulligan shrugged.

“Shouldn’t I be the judge of that?”

Mulligan’s hands stopped moving and his whole body seemed to tense. Robert wasn’t as polite as Mulligan, though, so instead of giving him an opportunity not to tell the story, he waited. “I don’t believe Caleb Brewster is a bad man. What he participated in, yes that was bad, but I don’t believe it is indicative of his larger truth.”

Robert felt his blood go hot. He thought he’d buried that anger long ago when he had rejoined the ring. The rage felt fresh though, as if it had just been lying in wait. “What makes you so sure?” He spat out, no small amount of venom in his tone.

Mulligan sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “Caleb Brewster was the right hand to the head of intelligence and yet you and I are alive. He was captured by Arnold at the same time I was. And Arnold... he let this monster, John Simcoe, carve him up. My father-in-law’s word. Carved. And yet you and I are alive. It was awful there, Robert. And someone was coming for me. My father-in-law was never going to let his son-in-law rot in jail an accused spy, taken by a turncoat so-called General. For that same reason, they didn’t inflict the damage on me that they did to the others and it was still awful. I…” Mulligan trailed off. His eyes were distant and his face was twisted like he was in pain. Robert set down his button, slowly, and reached out to place his hand over Mulligans’ which had begun to shake.

Mulligan’s head snapped to the side and he stared at Robert for a moment. “I doubt Brewster thought anyone was coming for him. He’d probably thought he’d die in the basement of that prison.

“Carved. Carved and alone and yet he never told anyone about us just to make it stop. Just for a single moment of respite.” Mulligan took a deep shaking breath. “He may have done bad things but I cannot condemn him for them. Not when I’m uncertain about whether I would have done the same.”

Robert didn’t know what to say. He didn't know what to do. Mulligan was clearly hurting and upset and Robert just wanted to make it stop. “You...make a compelling argument. I suppose that is a strong show of character. Having met John Simcoe I can only imagine the pain he inflicted. And even without such a man around it sound like a terrible ordeal. An ordeal that you survived without giving up me or Cato.” Robert squeezed his hand and hoped he'd said the right thing. Tact had never been his strong suit and he wasn’t sure he’d ever managed to successfully comfort his own father let alone someone else.

“Not really the thing same, is it?” Mulligan asked, shaking his head.

Robert suppressed his disappointment in himself. That was to be dealt with later. “I suppose not,” Robert conceded, taking his hand back.

They finished their buttons together in near silence, the easy camaraderie gone now. Mulligan helped him tie off the thread and was very polite about the button despite even Robert being able to see the flaws. They both agreed to go to bed then. They didn’t say it had been a long night but Robert could feel it dragging on them both.

Mulligan packed away the button supplies while Robert dealt with the fire and checked that all the doors were latched. He’d expected Mulligan to be halfway up the stairs by the time he was done but instead Mulligan was standing in the middle of the living room, waiting.

“I’m sorry for ruining your night with my trip down memory lane,” he said with a laugh that felt wrong.

“Don’t be absurd. You didn’t ruin anything. You being here is a gift that I greatly appreciate. You couldn't ruin it just by being honest. That’s ridiculous.” Robert started up the stairs without waiting for Mulligan to respond. Mulligan followed behind him, his footsteps softer than Robert’s up the stairs in the silent house.

Robert stopped for a moment outside his door, waiting for Mulligan so that he could say goodnight properly. It reminded him of the last time Mulligan had visited. It reminded him of the way Mulligan had smiled at him that night. It reminded him of what he’d wanted that night; of what had left him breathless that night.

“Goodnight, Robert. You’re a good friend,” Mulligan said, already opening his door.

“Goodnight, Hercules. So are you.”

Mulligan’s door clicked shut and Robert was alone and breathless again. 

[cravingmarvel]

Kill All Your Friends - Chapter One

Bucky Barnes AU

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Just some swear words I think

Word Count: 2700

Summary: You loved so many things about your boyfriend Steve. One thing is his passion to help people! But what you don’t know is that the person who needs his help would become your pain in the ass. Bucky Barnes is stubborn, selfish and messy! But as Steve is whisked away on a business trip, both of you are stuck living with each other for the weekend. 

But, what you both come to find out, is that you have more in common than you think. Bucky wakes something in you, that’s been missing for years… 

A/N: So this was unexpected hahah It seems to me that this story just came running out of my head. It’s so fun to write something that’s not necessarily revolved around angst and death lmao. I just hope you guys love it as much as I do and if you do, please let me know! Feedback is always greatly appreciated as you know! 

Have Fun!

You took another spoonful of cereal stuffing it into your mouth, while lazily scrolling through Instagram almost uninterested by the posts your friends and mutual connections uploaded. Steve stood in the kitchen making breakfast for himself. Nothing like cereal would be found in front of him at breakfast, he believed in a balanced breakfast. Sometimes you wished to be as disciplined as Steve, then maybe you wouldn’t be hungry two hours after having eaten Breakfast.

You’ve been dating Steve for almost four years now. Meeting him on your first day of your move form Utah to Brooklyn. You were clueless, helplessly trying to find your way to your job interview. He really saved the day not only telling you where the building is that you couldn’t find but walking you there himself. You really hit it off from the get-go and both of you have been inseparable from that day.

Steve’s phone started ringing and he didn’t hesitate to answer the caller, fishing his phone out of his pocket. Looking up from your bowl of Froot Loops, you could see Steve still standing in the kitchen, in one hand a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon and in the other his phone held to his ear. His eyebrows furrowed together; the concern strong on his features. You couldn’t make out what he was saying, but your food wasn’t your top priority anymore regardless. Eventually, Steve hung up and sat down next to you.

“Is everything ok?” You asked, placing a hand on his shoulder. It couldn't be anything family related; he would’ve been out the door already.

“It was my college friend Bucky. He just lost his job and can’t pay his rent.” Steve looked up to face you. “I agreed to let him stay with us in the guest bedroom until he found something again, is that ok?” The apologetic looks on his face made you melt. Steve couldn’t resist helping people, even if he hasn’t heard from them since college. You have never heard Steve talk about Bucky, but you heard that name pop up once or twice before.

“I’m happy that we can help him out. When is he coming?” You removed your hand from his shoulder and looked down at the bowl in front of you with soggy Froot Loops now swimming happily around.

“Today. I think about five PM.”

As you closed the door behind you, you saw Steve sitting on the sofa, next to him another man his back facing you. It was clear that this was Bucky, so much you could guess. As Steve laid eyes on you, he stood up and the man you presumed to be Bucky did too.

He turned and you were a little taken aback by his appearance. Not that he looked bad, not in the slightest. His slightly messy, dark brown hair reaching his shoulders were pushed back a little and suited the overall vibe of him. His Black shirt, a little roughed up made to look like as if it has lived through some decades. His dark jeans and chunky boots completing the outfit. But what is even more mesmerizing are his eyes. Sure, Steve has blue eyes too, but Bucky’s are strikingly different.

He walked over to you, smiling a little as he held his hand out for you to shake. You felt the rings on his fingers and the firm grip. “I’m Bucky. I’m really sorry I’m invading your space.” He laughed at his own words, letting go of your hand.

“Oh no it’s no trouble, Bucky. I’m Y/n.” You looked into his eyes, smiling right back at him.

“Ok, I think you should unpack your things, make yourself at home, Buck.” Steve stood awkwardly behind Bucky and you just now realized he was here.

Bucky disappeared into the guest room down the hallway connected to the living space. You took your coat off and hung it beside the door.

“I’d never imagine you to be friends with someone like that.” You found yourself wondering what connected these two people together. You walked over to the kitchen area to make some dinner for everyone.

“Believe me, we get that a lot.” Steve walked over to you, wrapping his arms around your waist pulling you close, kissing you softly. You chuckled a little against his lips, wrapping your arms around his muscular torso.

Everything was fine… really. Until Bucky got a little too comfortable. Both you and Steve made great efforts to include Bucky in the household chores, but he just didn’t seem to care. It got even worse when he started to come back to the apartment late and crashing on the sofa. Not once did he clean up after himself and the headaches started for you in the mornings. Finding plates stacked on the coffee table and Bucky passed out.

But it didn’t end there, oh no. Bucky thought it would be smart to get cocky, making his little jokes about how you probably have ocd and then, when he played his music way too loud, he’d be ridiculous as always and tell you that you just have a shitty taste in music. You both got on each other’s nerves, but you wouldn’t let him get away with this.

You fought back hard, pouring water on his head while he slept on the sofa, putting the dirty dishes in his bed and stealing the toilet paper rolls out of his bathroom causing him to shout at you from his on suit bathroom. Not even his shampoo and body wash were safe from your revenge. But you justified it by telling him that, if he can’t clean the dishes, he simply has no right to clean himself.

Not even Steve, poor Steve, could help. He tried, he really did, but you two seemed to have signed a contract to never make this easier for anyone. It was a nightmare. He felt like a counsellor for married couples who seem to have more hate for each other more than love.

---

You flipped your pancake to the other side waiting for it to turn golden brown, as Bucky walked into the room. Steve mumbled a ‘good morning’, keeping his eyes peeled to his laptop. Bucky walked over to the kitchen and with a swift move, took your plate of finished pancakes and walked straight over to the kitchen table.

“Bucky, what the fuck?” You turned around as he sat down at the table, giving you a smug smile. As if that wasn’t enough, he picked one up and bit right into it without cutlery, his smile growing wider.

“Steve, man, I need your car today.” Bucky said, his mouth still full of food.

“Sorry Buck, but I need it myself. You can take Y/n’s if you want.” Steve’s eyes didn’t leave the screen, but he knew exactly the kind of expression you have on your face.

“No!” You turned around quickly, anger striking your features.

“I need to get to this job interview. Don’t you want me off your back, doll?” Bucky pouted devilishly, not at all convincing you to give up your car keys.

“And I need to get to work!” You protested in return.

“Guys, please just stop. Babe, I’ll drive you to work and my buddy Richard can drive you home. Bucky needs to get to this interview.” Steve looked at you with his puppy dog eyes and by the look on his face your features softened too.

“Alright fine.”

­---

After thanking Richard, Steve’s co-worker and friend, you walked up to your apartment, taking your coat off as soon as you closed the door behind you. As you turned around Bucky jumped to his feet at the kitchen table and started to ramble nonsense you couldn’t make a sentence out of.

“Bucky slow down. What happened?” You walked closer to him and even though your consistent fighting, you couldn’t conceal your worry.

“I don’t know what happened. This guy just slid across the street right into me, I couldn’t get out of the way fast enough. I’m so sorry.” As soon as his words left his mouth, your stomach dropped. You knew exactly what happened, he crashed your car.

“What the hell Bucky? How am I supposed to get anywhere? I don’t have a car for no reason!” Slamming your bag on the table you could feel the heat rising through your body.

“Y/n I swear it’s not that bad. I already took it to a mechanic, and he promised me it will be fixed tomorrow.” Bucky’s face didn’t relax as he continued to reassure you that your car will be fine.

“I need to go grocery shopping today, Bucky.” You ran your hands across your face, trying to calm yourself. It wasn’t the most ideal situation you were in, but it was truly not Bucky’s fault and he even made sure it’s being fixed right away. You were more frustrated than anything.

“I’ll come with you.” Bucky’s face softened and you agreed. “I’m truly sorry, Y/n.”

You look up to his face and maybe, just this time, you could forgive him. “We should get going.”

“Yeah hold on a second, I need to get something first.” Bucky sprinted off into the hallway and you exhaled deeply, putting your coat back on.

---

You guided Bucky through the grocery store, him walking closely behind you holding the basket. You looked at the list you made to find a new item to look for and cross the one off you got, handing Bucky each one to put in the basket. Bucky made it his job to mock you for having made a detailed list of all the things you need for each dish you already planned for the weekend to come. You tried to ignore him as best as you could because you know that this method is a million times better than the way he would be grocery shopping.

“You go make fun of my meal plan, but when you sit down at my dinner table and have a beautifully arranged dinner to eat remember why.” You snapped at him. He got the worst to come out of you when you didn’t need his negativity. And anyway, it’s not like you’re not being the better person, you’re defending yourself.

Both of you left, each one of you carrying a bag filled with groceries. You turned left walking into the direction of your home, but Bucky apparently had other plans. Bucky took off into the completely opposite direction, leaving you to stop and wonder what he’s doing.

Bucky turned around looking at you. “There’s something I need to do. Come on.” He continued walking further away from you, not noticing that you hadn’t taken a single step forward. Bucky stopped and walked towards you, grabbing your hand, dragging you behind him. “I don’t have all day, Y/n.” His grip on your hand wasn’t aggressive, just a little bit dominant.

“Bucky where the hell are we going?” You were tired of his surprises today, but the firm grip of his hand would be impossible to break away from anyway, so you just let him lead you away to wherever he needed to go. Still, you wondered where Bucky would need to go.

You caught up with his pace, but despite in doing so, Bucky didn’t let go of your hand. You just calmly walked around Brooklyn, hand in hand, as if this wasn’t your sworn enemy. As you turned another corner though, he loosened his grip.

“Wait here.” With Bucky giving you the bag, he walked towards an alleyway. A man roughly the age of forty stood against the wall. They hugged and the man pointed to you, smiling warmly.

You stood there, waving awkwardly with a bag of groceries in your hand. You asked yourself why on earth he couldn’t meeting his grandpa friend another time.

Bucky pulled a small plastic bag out of his jean jacket and your jaw dropped right to the floor. He was selling drugs and he took you with him. The other man handed Bucky a stack of money. You nervously looked around yourself as if there would be anyone ready to arrest you. Never in your life did you think you would witness a drug deal right in front of your eyes. Yes, not even in college. Now the answer to the question as to what on earth brought Steve and Bucky together seemed to shift further away from you.

Bucky walked back towards you, stuffing the money into his pocket. He took back the bag and started walking nonchalantly as if nothing happened. “Are you coming?” Bucky stopped and waited for you to catch up with him.

“What was that, Bucky? You can’t just drag me into your dirty ass business!” You asked, trying to make sense of the situation as you caught up with his pace. You weren’t necessarily mad at him, just a little taken aback by the witnessing of a crime. You couldn’t care less about how or where he get’s his money from, if it gets him arrested, it’s his own fault.

“It’s going to pay for your car. And anyway, relax- “Bucky took your hand into his again, keeping his gaze straight ahead. “-Clint is one of my friends.”

It’s not like you didn’t care about the fact that that man was someone random, it was the fact that you were too focussed on him just holding your hand as if it was normal to do that. You stared at your intertwined hands and you were sure there were literal question marks coming out of your brain. One part of you wanted to rip your hand away from his, but the other part didn’t mind.

As both of you arrived at your apartment, you let go of one another and walked into your home, ready to be enemies again, as you saw Steve stuffing his charger into a suitcase.

“Hey, babe, what are you doing?” You set the bag on the kitchen counter, Bucky following your actions, both you and Bucky looking puzzled at Steve.

“My boss needs me to come with him to this really important business trip to Chicago. I have to catch the flight leaving tonight and don’t worry, I’ll be back in like two days.” Steve looked at you with every apology written on his face possible. He knew exactly that this could go just fine or absolutely terrible. You could sense the fear that you and Bucky will basically murder each other. And option two wasn’t that impossible to occur.

Steve moved closer to you, kissing your lips quickly.

“Oh… are you sure no one else could go?” You never want to stand in the way of his career and you never had. It also never really bothered you when he went away for work, but this time, yes, this time you wanted him to stay at all costs. Being alone with Bucky Barnes for two whole days wasn’t your idea of fun. You looked at Steve with pleading eyes.

“No, I’m sorry babe. This is so last minute already. The guy who was supposed to go broke his leg this morning, and I have to get to the airport in thirty minutes so there’s no time to find someone else.” Steve looked down to the watch on his wrist. “Are you two going to be ok here? I would like to come back to see this place still standing and you two still alive if that’s possible.” Steve raised his eyebrows.

Bucky walked forward from behind you to stand next to you, way too closely, putting his arm around your shoulders. “Of course, Steve. Y/n and I will be just fine.”

You exhaled deeply, crossing your arms in front of your chest. Steve smiled sweetly and grabbed his suitcase, kissing you one last time before he disappeared through the door. You looked up to Bucky, who had the most ridiculous, cheesy, evil smile on his face and all you wanted to is throw up. You harshly removed his arm and walked to your room. You couldn’t believe you held hands with him… in public.

Taglist for this series is open!

Chapter Two

[homespork-review]

Homespork Act 3: Insane Mindscrew Haymakers (Part 1)

BRIGHT: Before Act 3 proper starts, we see a message from Nanna to John, written in the front of the Sassacre’s joke book from Dad’s safe. The message is somewhat bizarre. For one thing, according to Nanna, the book it’s written in will end its journey on the day she dies...and still carry on for a while. For another, it talks about game elements we’ve encountered already, and hints at more to come. Overall it’s a nice bit of detail, enough to whet the reader’s interest.

You are no doubt reading this as a handsome and strapping young man! Why, the mangrit needed to lift the book is itself a sign of your maturity, not even to speak of the wisdom needed to grasp the nuance of Sassacre's time-tested mischief. I am so proud of you, grandson! How I wish I could have delivered this heirloom to you in the flesh. But I am afraid it wasn't in the cards! For you see, John, like you, this book must yet take a journey! Its journey will end on the Final Day of my life, and even then will continue some. Though I suppose that will be up to your Father. Perhaps he will discuss it with you one day, when he and you are ready. But it is your journey I am writing about to wish you luck! There will come a day when you will be thrust into another world. And once you arrive, that is only the beginning! You will soon delve even deeper into a realm of Warring Royalty in a Timeless Expanse. A realm of Agents and Exiles and Consorts and Kernelsprites. Of toiling Underlings and slumbering Denizens. A realm where four will gather, the Heir of Breath and Seer of Light, the Knight of Time and Witch of Space, and together they will Ascend. John, if only you knew how important you were! I regret my passing came so early in your life. And yet I feel in my heart we have already met. But what I know for sure is that we will meet again! Until then, John, I do hope your Father keeps you well fed!

FAILURE ARTIST: As I said earlier, Hussie has artfully defaced books, including one antique one about an expedition around the world. Defaced books show up again in this comic.

CHEL: Particularly, it implies that Nanna also had knowledge of the game during her lifetime, somehow, and refers to the gathering of four heroes. This is our first introduction to the classpect system, which now rivals Hogwarts houses as a method of personality description in fandom at large. I think at the time I didn’t realise who it was referring to… Anyway.

Next, we officially meet GG, the fourth and final member of our gang, a “silly girl” with a cheery grin, sleeping in a greenhouse full of vegetables and spirograph-shaped flowers. Since she’s sleeping and can’t object, she’s referred to for a while as FARMSTINK BUTTLASS, but she’s way ahead of us; under her hand is a note admonishing the reader and declaring her actual name to be Jade Harley. I think she’s the cutest of the kids, myself - just seeing her first appearance makes me happy! All its weaknesses aside, Homestuck’s pretty great at creating painfully cute character designs and attaching a good range of personalities to them.

FAILURE ARTIST: Jade Harley was considered a “Mary Sue” when she was first introduced. I don’t know why. Yeah, she has a lot of eccentricities and unusual possessions but so do the other characters.

Farmstink is a reference to an old comic Hussie did about this dude obsessed with the stink of farms. Hussie’s early work is really weird.

CHEL: The reader attempts to wake Jade by dropping a pumpkin carved with an animal’s face on her head, but the pumpkin disappears; as we know, WV now has it. Fortunately for the pacing, Jade wakes up on her own. Look closely, and you’ll notice the symbol on her shirt changes each page; that turns out a bit later to be due to her hi-tech WARDROBIFIER. If I recall correctly, Hussie intended to settle on one chosen by reader vote, but ended up on a cycle of three different ones.

FAILURE ARTIST: Jade settles on three icons to appear on her shirt. However, eventually just one icon stays on her shirt. The WARDROBIFIER doesn’t get much use with her, though a later character has the same thing.

CHEL: Jade is also wearing COLORFUL REMINDERS on her fingers, and when the view pans out it’s revealed by the view from the window that her GARDEN ATRIUM is on a high floor. She plays the flute badly for a while in a Flash game; apparently it’s not her preferred instrument. Also fortunately for the pacing, we think, she knows how to use her sylladex, and prefers to set its retrieval function in the form of a memory game because you seem to have a knack for always guessing right on the first try! On checking her reminders, she remembers to wish John happy birthday, gathers some fruit, and heads upstairs by means of a teleporter.

Jade’s bedroom proves to be full of various disturbing-looking plushies, albeit not nearly as disturbing as the Smuppets, hanging baskets and potted plants, a bass guitar, and G-rated furry artwork, including a piece obviously drawn by Dave. Franchises depicted in her toy and poster collections include GREEN SLIME GHOST (the apparent copyright-friendly source of John’s T-shirt and pogo ride), MANTHRO CHAPS (mustachioed human faces on plush animal bodies), and SQUIDDLES (adorable octopi with magnets in their bellies which stick together as Tangle Buddies!). Her favoured weapons are rifles, though she would never shoot an animal, and she has various gadgets on a worktable, including a thing that looks like a disconnected window not unlike those shown in Rose’s book, which she apparently hasn’t been able to get to work.

FAILURE ARTIST: Manthro Chaps is a reference to Hussie’s particularly disturbing set of comics where he plays around with anthropomorphization. Like having an anthro chicken man lay anthro eggs.

CHEL: The comic in question, Humanimals, can be found here; warnings for extreme body horror and general grossness.

FAILURE ARTIST: Jade is told by a forum prompter to Lose interest in fauna and never speak of it again. Jade refuses to in a beautiful little speech but she denies she’s a furry. Oh, if she only knew what was coming for her.

Jade looks out the window and we find out she lives somewhere next to a volcano.

CHEL: The very same one which appeared in the animation at the end of the last act, in fact.

Your grandfather is a WORLD RENOWNED EXPLORER-NATURALIST-TREASURE HUNTER-ARCHEOLOGIST-SCIENTIST-ADVENTURER-BIG GAME HUNTER-BILLIONAIRE EXTRAORDINAIRE. He has taught you everything you know.

Grandpa is heavily coded here and in his appearance a bit later as a Great White Hunter, an upper-class European guy who goes to faraway countries in order to shoot the animals there. Of course, non-white people can certainly do that, but white is what people will immediately picture upon seeing the trope. Also note we have another ridiculously wealthy family here. Since all four of the kids have now been introduced and we’ve had a lot of WSP points from their races and financial statuses already, here we get another HOW NOT TO point as well.

The Country Club Here every single character is white and middle-to-upper class. Unless your novel is taking place in rural Sweden, this will eventually give the reader the eerie feeling that some form of ethnic cleansing has taken place. HOW NOT TO WRITE A WEBCOMIC: 14 WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 7

One could argue that some form of ethnic cleansing is taking place, since these are the kids who are surviving the apocalypse, though that’s not actually fair because there are plenty of other SBurb sessions all across the world which might also succeed.

Jade opens her GADGET CHEST and produces several more items pertaining to her interests, including her computer, which she keeps in a Squiddles lunchbox. Several fortune-telling items are included among them, but according to Jade they are not the source of her abilities. The Magic 8-Ball is apparently usually wrong, responding to being asked whether it’s John’s birthday today with NOT EXACTLY, and the Magic Cue Ball is supposedly always right but is impossible to read, making it completely useless.

FAILURE ARTIST: There’s another Problem Sleuth reference (or rather Problem Sooth) but what’s important is the Magic Cue Ball. Unlike her Magic 8-Ball, it has no window where one can read the prediction. If only Jade had a special vision. Perhaps an eightfold vision.

Jade goes to feed BEC. She has some sylladex trouble until she finally just takes a steak out of her fridge.

CHEL: Once again, the sylladex shenanigans waste several pages.

GET ON WITH IT!: 9

Bec’s identity is as yet unknown, but recall that Dave called him a “devilbeast” in an earlier conversation, and when he suggested shooting Bec Jade said she didn’t think she could if she tried. He also apparently eats nothing but steaks (lucky Grandpa’s a billionaire), so Jade is living on an island with apparently minimal supervision from her guardian and an allegedly dangerous carnivore running wild outside. Like Dave, at this point it seems to be very lucky she’s a cartoon character.

FAILURE ARTIST: Using a special oven she irradiates the steak. Umm, I think Bec can take that but I worry about Jade.

Jade finds and plays her elaborate bass and she’s much better at it than with the flute. During the flash, the camera pulls out and we find out where she lives: in a tower on a small volcanic island with a frog temple in the lagoon. An airplane goes by and drops a package.

Jade uses her super high-tech “lunchtop” to have a conversation with John. Nothing special about that but we see on her chumroll a bunch of unfamiliar handles. Hmm.

CHEL: The unfamiliar handles are listed in the “Trollslum”, which one presumes is a blocklist. I think you have to see just how hi-tech the lunchtop is:

"Jade: Get down to business." (Watch on YouTube)

Hussie’s really coming into his own with the animations by now.

FAILURE ARTIST: Dave has sent her some messages begging her to wake up and unfortunately one line has the f-slur in it.

CLOCKWORK PROBLEMATYKKS: 7

In the end, he decides she’ll probably forget what he says.

CHEL: Begging her to wake up” doesn’t exactly cover it.

TG: youre asleep again arent you TG: or do you even know if you are TG: i still dont know how that works TG: its like nothing means anything

Apparently Jade sometimes talks to him while she’s sleeping.

FAILURE ARTIST: There’s a little flash where you can listen to some of Dave’s tunes. When you’re done with that, you can join her in looking at mspadventures.com. A crude John wearing a wizard hat is sitting on his lawn with the caption

It begins to dawn on you that everything you just did may have been a colossal waste of time.

What the hell is going on here? Is Jade reading what John is doing right now?

CHEL: I think it’s just a fourth wall joke, but it’s certainly accurate, considering our GET ON WITH IT count.

FAILURE ARTIST: Next, we get this flash called Midnight Crew: Act 1031. If you are watching it in 2019, the song playing is Dead Shuffle by Mark Hadley. However, the song was originally Nightlife by Bill Bolin. Unfortunately, Bolin had a dispute with Hussie over Hussie using music that Bolin considered WIP. Bolin blew up and called Hussie “unprofessional” and in a very professional move posted a photo of himself giving the double deuce. It’s a shame this happened since Nightlife is a jauntier and more appropriate tune.

CHEL: The Midnight Crew, to be specific, are gangsters with card-themed names who bear a striking resemblance to WV, living in a mysterious purple city full of towers, pitted against the Felt, another gang of odd-looking green fellows who wear bowler hats with numbers on them, in the colour schemes of a set of pool balls.

Hussie did make reference in the previous page to a “weird tangential intermission [which] clearly advanced the plot in no way whatsoever”, implying that it actually is relevant, and the purple city and its shiny black beady-eyed inhabitants look very familiar, but since as far as we know at this point the Midnight Crew is just a comic-within-a-comic, you know which counts get added to.

GET ON WITH IT!: 10 WHAT IS HAPPENING??: 2

Just for the record, the leader of the gang is named Spades Slick, and yes, we’re aware that “spade” is a slur against black people, which makes it slightly unfortunate to be applied as a name to a black-shelled alien creature. However, we’re not counting that as PROBLEMATYKKS because Hussie and the Crew’s original writer certainly did not intend that. It’s not that commonly used a term from what I’ve seen, the playing cards would be the more likely immediate association, and with the other characters being Clubs Deuce, Hearts Boxcars, and Diamonds Droog, it’s just an unfortunate coincidence. If he was a black human, then I’d object more strenuously.

FAILURE ARTIST: Jade talks with Dave (I think the conversation is a repeat?)

CHEL: Yep.

GET ON WITH IT!: 11

FAILURE ARTIST: Finally, we get the flash we’ve been waiting for: Dave strifes with his mysterious guardian. Or rather, he strifes with Lil Cal while Bro is a speed blur.

BRIGHT: Unlike the other strifes up to this point, the reader can’t do anything other than watch, because Bro slices the command box in half right at the start.

TIER: In the world of Homestuck, the parental units are overall just really weird! Like dad Egbert severe overabundance of cakes and mom Lalonde's drunken dysfunction. It's overall all hilarious, fitting with the tone and humor of the story well!

But then we have our lovely outlier. The one, the hated, The. Bro “a huge bastard honestly” Strider! A.K.A basically the one guardian whose questionable parenting gets the Real Consequences treatment later on in this tale. Peculiar that.

CHEL: Now, under most circumstances, an adult man beating the hell out of a barely-teenage kid, on the precarious rooftop of a high-rise building no less, would be horrifying. However, Bro chooses to hit Dave with his puppet, which… is frankly hard to take seriously. Obviously it would still hurt if a real person did that, but it looks so stupid that the immediate assumption is that it’s a joke.

BRIGHT: Particularly when earlier strife moves like Rose’s ‘Empty Suicide Threat’ were intended to be humorous. This is about on the same level as that, in terms of severity!

TIER: Being smacked around by the flopping noodle limbs of a freaky puppet is honestly hard to take seriously. Hell, this entire sequence is chock full of outlandish “Rule of Cool” bullshit and I am Peeved that I was apparently supposed to look at this sequence of ridiculous events and go “OBVIOUSLY THIS IS FUCKED UP AND ABUSIVE”.

ARE YOU TRYING TO BE FUNNY?: 7

CHEL: I could kinda see that with hindsight from the rest of the comic, but definitely not “OBVIOUSLY THIS IS A LOT MORE FUCKED UP AND ABUSIVE THAN THE OTHER AWFUL FAMILY CIRCUMSTANCES”, which is what was apparently intended. And we also get another HOW NOT TO point, which we’ll give now even though the official “reveal” comes much later.

A Novel Called It - wherein an abusive parent exists Bad parents are everywhere in unpublished fiction. Whole cities of abusive fathers and sneering mothers live in the pages of books that can’t be sold. While occasionally, and notably in the horror genre, this sort of material can be made good (Carrie, V. C. Andrews), most cruel parents in fiction are just as much fun as they are in real life. HOW NOT TO WRITE A WEBCOMIC: 14

That damn puppet gets creepier every time, admittedly, more so now that Bro is moving so fast that the thing appears to be dancing on Dave’s head under its own power. Dave’s expressions look more annoyed than afraid or hurt, however, in my opinion.

FAILURE ARTIST: Anyway, we go back to Jade. Rose is pestering her.

TT: I require a font of frighteningly accurate yet infuriatingly nonspecific information. TT: Do you know where I can find a wellspring of this sort?

Very business-like, isn’t it? Rose and Jade’s relationship is a big missed opportunity in this comic. They’re more like friends-of-friends than friends.

CHEL: I don’t know, that sounds to me like how Rose talks to the boys too; facetiously formal. Still, they don’t converse nearly as much as the boys do with each other or them. Male writers in particular tend to do this, and it’s not entirely their faults. People are socialised to think women talk a lot more than they do, so he probably didn’t notice.

TIER: A real shame honestly, we were fucking robbed of some peak interactions between a sunshine flower child and a “dark and brooding” baby goth. Fucking. Robbed.

FAILURE ARTIST: We find out that Jade was the one who had the idea of playing Sburb. She had told Rose that the game would answer some of Rose’s unnamed questions. Rose wants more information on this Big Day. Jade says the game will not be what Rose thinks it is and will answer questions Rose hasn’t thought of yet. On that mysterious note, Jade says goodbye.

CHEL: We check in briefly with Rose in the present, confirming that she’s found the secret passage and is escaping the fire, bringing the corpse of her cat along with her, then to John, who is doing much worse. The ogres (the giant tusked imps) have cornered him, and while he flails frantically about with his Pogo Hammer it doesn’t do much good. They beat the snot out of him with the old Sassacre book and the tire swing, then send him flying into the abyss; fortunately, Nannasprite is able to catch him on his bed and provide healing, allowing him to flail uselessly at the ogres again and get beaten up again, ad infinitum.

Back in the desert, a giant worm-like creature emerges from PM’s bunker and chows down on the cart full of mailboxes. PM is displeased, and puts a hand on the hilt of an ornate black sword.

Cut back to the FAQ, which John has found time to edit with information about the punch card system. He doesn’t know if anyone is left alive to play the game, but Rose asked him to add to it, so he will. He’s figured out with his 133t h4x0r 5k1llz that the captcha code on the back of the cards is converted into a binary-based pattern on the cards, 0 being blank and 1 being a punched hole. Overlapping the cards functions like a bitwise AND operation, causing both to be enacted. The 48-hole card system allows for 300 trillion combinations, but John lampshades the fact that this couldn’t possibly cover every conceivable captchable item, and that various combinations of overlapping cards would just produce the same combination. This is just adding to my conviction that the system ought to be reworked; the totems alone would probably allow for a much wider range, if one gets down to the atomic level of their shape. Then again, those would be a lot harder to merge… Still, I’m sure there’s some way to work it.

BRIGHT: This section was kind of surprising to me because up to this point we haven’t had much if any description of John being into coding, so the section came out of left field somewhat. Not bad, necessarily, just jarring.

CHEL: Actually, he did mention in his intro that he likes to program, albeit not very well, he had some coding books on his shelves, and the icons on his computer are named in a way which implies they’re some of his attempts at coding. However, this interest never really comes up again later that I remember.

Meanwhile, the secret passage Rose followed led to her mother’s laboratory, which bears the logo “SN” with a stylised atom and a spirograph pattern in the loops of the S. It seems Mom Lalonde knows more than she’s letting on about the game. Inside the laboratory is an enormous HUBGRID of devices into which the laptop can be plugged.

FAILURE ARTIST: Rose uses that ol’ r-slur when she says she won’t go on the pad so that’s another point.

CLOCKWORK PROBLEMATYKKS: 8

CHEL: Jade uses the TRANSPORTALIZER to travel most of the way down to the ground floor, but not all the way down because the one on that floor is blocked. As she walks down the last couple of flights of stairs, we see Grandpa’s own collections of stuff; taxidermised animal heads, suits of armour, mummified corpses (made by pasting in photographs to the cartoon background, it’s creepy as hell), and his BLUE BEAUTIES, or the DAUGHTERS OF ECLECTICA; sun-bleached portrait photographs of beautiful women. On the final floor, we are confronted with the thing blocking the final portal; a gigantic preserved monster with a white head and green serpentine body. It took me till just now to figure it out but I think the white part is supposed to be a human torso on the snake tail; at first it just looked like a snake wearing a stocking mask. That’s what happens when the humans don’t have arms.

Jade thought she had logged off from Pesterchum, but suddenly it pings again, and here we are introduced to an entirely new section of the cast. We’re probably not spoiling anything by not being mysterious about them at this point in the fandom’s history, but just in case, we’ll stick to doing the reveals when the comic does. The person talking to Jade is one of the names from her TROLLSLUM, under the handle carcinoGeneticist; they gloat about being “BETTER AND SMARTER THAN YOU, FOREVER” when asked how they’re still contacting Jade after being blocked, and mock her about today being “FINALLY THE DAY YOU FUCK EVERYTHING UP”. Angry, Jade blocks them again.

FAILURE ARTIST: I had forgotten that “they” appeared so early.

CHEL: Well, “appear” is stretching it; the TROLLSLUM only make contact through Pesterchum for a while yet. And when they show up, we’ll have both plenty of skilfully-written points to pick out and plenty of counts to apply.

[higuchimon]

[fanfic] Fire and Water:  Chapter 4 [end]

“It’s them! It’s them!” Cries of rejoicing rose up from the guards outside the village. The priestess moved towards the nearest place she could see, wondering just what caused their joy. She hadn’t felt anything like that in the last handful of days, not since her mark blurred and darkened.

But when she saw who approached, a tiny flare of something very like hope stirred in her heart. She didn’t know the approaching people very well, but she knew that O’Brien did. Or had. They’d gone with him to Haou’s castle.

Perhaps they could at least tell her what happened. If he’d fallen in honorable battle or anything else. Had he truly faced Haou or had one of those servants of his struck him down?

“Let them in,” she called down, and the sentries obeyed. Another order had food and drink brought; all of them looked like they could use it. Especially the one that she didn’t recognize, the boy in red.

She joined them in the small house set aside for them. Just from looking she presumed they wouldn’t stay long. Whatever they searched for, it wouldn’t be found here. But she would give what help that she could.

“None of us saw the whole duel,” Hell Kaiser admitted. His own breathing seemed to be a trifle rough, but he waved off all offers of assistance. “He did defeat Haou, though.”

The boy in red said nothing, but his fingers tightened and he turned away, his voice harsh as he tried to speak, though no actual words formed and he stopped after a few moments.

“Could I ask what happened to your other companion?” She wondered. The one who’d worn white, to contrast Hell Kaiser’s black.

Hell Kaiser rested his fingers against his wrist for a few moments, a pain that she knew all too well in his eyes. “We were attacked before we came here. Someone searching for too much power. Edo attempted to stop him, but lost.”

She murmured words in an attempt to soothe. Hell Kaiser only shook his his head.

“We can only stay overnight. But if you have something that can deal with a fever, we would appreciate it.” Hell Kaiser nodded toward the one in red. “He’s still not well.”

The priestess could see that; not only was his voice pained and weary, there were fever marks on his face, and he looked as if he hadn’t eaten in far too long. Even now he only nibbled at the food before him and he never seemed to want to meet anyone’s eyes.

I wonder if Haou held him prisoner. Haou hadn’t done that to anyone; his methods were kill or enslave only so far as she’d ever heard. But she hardly had full access to all that went on inside that terrifying place.

Her fairy companions went to find one of the local healers, while she struggled to bring up the words she needed to ask about O’Brien.

“Is there anything else that you can tell me about what happened?” She wanted to ask even more, but she wished too much she could learn what she wanted to know from him and not from strangers.

Surprisingly, it was the one in red who answered. “He was right. He was braver than anyone else. He did what was right, even when it cost him his life.” He leaned forward, coughing for a few moments, while Hell Kaiser and the other boy – the one who had given her O’Brien’s duel disk – watched cautiously. “I… I should have listened to him. To him and Jim...” His voice faltered and he curled up around himself, shivering.

He... What he said teased at her, but she couldn’t let herself think of it. This was a time of mourning, not anything that resembled vengeance.

And even if the thought that whispered was true, he wasn’t there to hurt them. He was too sick to hurt anyone at the moment. He seemed almost too sick to stand up on his own feet, for that matter.

But she still raised her head and looked towards Hell Kaiser, a wealth of questions in her eyes. His gaze flickered back to the boy, but he said nothing else.

He didn’t really need to.

They left the next morning, in the coolest part of the day. Her explorers told of a door in a desert one reached via two days of travel. The pathway hadn’t been explored very well, but she made certain they had food and water packed for them. She’d spoken nothing of her concerns, but the boy in red – Juudai – found time to tell her things about O’Brien – how in the world they came from, the two of them dueled once, and he’d always had a feeling that O’Brien could have defeated him then, and of how he’d been helpful and useful when they’d been in many dangerous situations.

“He was a good friend,” Juudai said, “and this – this is all my fault. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

The priestess wanted so much to find something soothing that she could say to him, but whenever she tried, the words choked in her throat. She confined herself to bidding them farewell and wishing them the best on their travels, to hope that they found their way to their home.

It took years before she found out what happened to them after that. The one who told her wasn’t someone that she’d ever imagined hearing from again after she bid them farewell.

Because the one who told her what happened to them, and how true her suspicions about Juudai were, was O’Brien himself.

He approached the village – now more of a small town – one spring morning, almost five years after she’d last seen him. She hadn’t given her mark a moment’s thought in well over two years, and tended to wear something so she didn’t see it. She’d tried very hard to ignore the occasional flickers of warmth that rose up from it as well. If he’d been reborn somehow, then she wanted nothing to do with a baby.

But here he stood, almost as she remembered him, and without thinking about it, she pulled up the sleeve on her arm. There glowed her numbers, bright green as before, and she started to reach for him, so close, so very close.

Then she pulled her hand back, throat closing in fear, and stared harder at him. There were spirits that could take the form of others, alive or dead, and she would not be deceived.

Yet her mark would know the difference. A soulmate mark, even one that wasn’t fully realized, always reacted only to the true soulmate.

His lips twitched. “It’s me,” he said, voice quiet. He raised one hand to his shoulders and there she could see the scars from the first battle she’d seen him fight all those years before.

“How?” She gripped her trident, knuckles going white with the strength of it. “How could you die and be here? And I know you died!” No one else had ever returned from death, not and look so much like him. If anyone else returned, they were vampires or zombies or ghosts, not solid flesh and bone!

The smallest of smiles, that still held ghosts of pain, moved across his lips. “It wasn’t my idea. Though I can’t say that I’m ungrateful for it.”

“Then what was it?” She didn’t shout, though it was only by the thinnest of margins. “What happened?”

He settled himself on a rocky outcropping before he looked back at her. “I died. I fought Haou and I died. But there was someone else involved, a spirit named Yubel, who saved everyone that Juudai cared about.”

Her eyes narrowed, recollections of her concerns returning. “Then that boy I met – Juudai – was Haou.” Oh, she wanted to know how that came about!

“Yes. He might come through here one day. He’s spent the last few years traveling everywhere helping people.” O’Brien smiled a small smile. “He won’t hurt anyone. He’s much different now.”

“If you trust him, then I’ll trust you,” she promised. She would like to meet him again and see what she could learn from him. It seemed there was a great deal more going on than she’d ever thought of before.

O’Brien nodded, glancing up to meet her eyes. “With the help of my friends I was able to come back here.” He touched his mark on his arm. “I think – now that the war’s over – we … I hoped...” His smile faltered, but she thought it was due more to not knowing what to say than anything else.

“Would you like to know my name?” The priestess murmured. “You do remember what I told you, don’t you?”

His smile strengthened ever so lightly. “I remember everything that you told me. I would like to know your name, if you would tell it to me.”

She raised her hand, then set it back down. “I think we should get to know each other better first,” she offered. “We haven’t spent enough time to truly make this decision.”

For only when they were bonded could she reveal her name. Doing otherwise went against everything she’d grown up believing and though it had been years since she’d seen the oceans of her home, she saw no reason to change that now.

He nodded. “Of course.”

She gestured to the wider town. “We’ve improved since you were last here. Ever since the war ended, we’ve had time to locate resources and build more. Would you like me to show you around?”

“I would be honored.” O’Brien rose, bending his head in a way to show deep respect. Her heart beat a bit faster at that, and at the thought of having more time to spend with him.

There were some who could move on after the loss of a romantic soulmate. Amazoness Holy Fighter now enjoyed a deep relationship with Heather, the Holy Elf who tended to their needs, satisfied that her soulmate would want her to be happy even without her.

But the priestess had never been able to do that. Part of it had been that she’d never found anyone who intrigued her like O’Brien did. Another part – one that she was convinced held far more weight – was that they’d never had the chance to explore what could have been between them. With such a question hanging over her heart, she couldn’t bring herself to move on and find someone else.

And now here he was, wiser and older, stronger and more sure of himself, and as wanting to find out what they could have together as she did.

“It turned out the mountains have several resources in them,” she said, gesturing that way. “Precious gems are very useful, not just for trade but for use in magic. And there are many caves where we can find the ingredients for certain potions and tinctures as well. Our healers have some of the finest tools around because of that.”

O’Brien nodded, giving the mountains an appraising look before she started to guide him elsewhere. She wasn’t the only person who wanted to talk to him, of course. There were still plenty here who knew him from those brief times before the fall of Haou, and all of them wanted to at least greet him. O’Brien returned the greetings, giving only brief explanations on his survival.

“We’ve heard a lot of rumors about what happened,” she said as they moved along. “There are people who claim that it was Hell Kaiser who defeated Haou.”

That got a quirk of his lips. “I wouldn’t be surprised. If I hadn’t managed what I did, I would have asked him to take it up where I left off. I think he could have.”

From what little she’d seen of him, Hell Kaiser would have done it very well, too. Yet for all of that, she remained just as proud that O’Brien brought that war to an end. He deserved every bit of self-respect that he’d gained from it, and more.

With each passing day, they spent what time they could together. The priestess observed the planting of the crops, while O’Brien drilled some of the sentries and the duelists. They explored what areas hadn’t been fully mapped out and found a few places no one had given much thought to yet. He took up residence a few doors down from her home.

“I have things I have to do back home eventually,” he told her, “but I’ll stay here as long as I can.”

“You’re welcome to stay as long as you want.”

That got a nod, then a curious look from him. “I would like it if you came back with me. I’d like you to meet my friends – and my parents.”

A faint tinge of red crept up her cheeks at that. “I would like that.” Perhaps they could also find a way to her own world and he could meet her parents.

“So would I.” He glanced at her again and she gazed back at him. By now he’d been here nearly six weeks and she looked forward every day to seeing him. The idea of returning to his world, with so many strange people and creatures and machines and places she’d never seen, thrilled through her.

He hesitated for a few seconds, before he held his hand out to her. He’d never done that in all of this time and she knew what he meant. She swallowed for a few heartbeats before she reached out to take his hand in her own.

Bare skin touched bare skin for the first time. Her breath caught in her throat as the green numbers on their arms faded away, replaced a rich blue swirl of steam surrounded by a circle of golden links. She touched it with the tip of her finger. Their marks. Their soulmate marks that would last forever, and some said into other lives.

She looked up at him, a lump in her throat, still not all the way believing that this happened in the first place. They’d bonded, accepted the bond, and that meant there was something that she could do now. She’d really wanted to do it since realizing he was her soulmate.

“Arethusa,” she murmured. “My name is Arethusa.”

O’Brien smiled at that. A gentle expression, one she didn’t see very often on his face, but it warmed her heart when she did. “That’s a beautiful name, Arethusa.”

“Family history says an ancestor of ours carried it first, and she was one of the first priestesses to our god.” She remembered her parents telling her the tale many times during her childhood. “There’s a painting of her at home. I don’t look anything like her.”

O’Brien’s fingers tightened on her own. “I’m just as glad that you’re you.”

The End

Notes: And they begin their lives together. I always thought it was rather sad that they didn’t inform Sea God’s Priestess about what happened with O’Brien (soulmates or otherwise) so it’s my headcanon that after the mess with Amon, then Shou, Juudai, Ryou, and Ojama Yellow stop back by to let her know.

One more down, twenty-five to go! Keep an eye on my profile for my progress if you’re interested.

[orbemnews]

It May Be a Nice Yr, if Your Enterprise Survives Winter For Ashlie Ordonez, proprietor of the Naked Bar Studio, a spa in Denver, vaccinations for the coronavirus can’t come quickly sufficient. Whereas she anticipates higher days later this 12 months, surviving till then will probably be a battle, and he or she is aware of the following few months will probably be lean ones. “I offered my wedding ceremony ring so we might pay the payments and preserve the doorways open,” she stated. “I’m sacrificing every thing to make it by means of this pandemic.” Vinay Patel, who manages a sequence of 9 motels in Maryland and Virginia, is wanting even additional out for a restoration: “2022 is once we’ll see the true true potential of the vaccine.” Mr. Patel added that his greatest hope for the approaching 12 months is a measure of stability, if not prosperity. As 2021 begins, enterprise house owners huge and small confront a quickly shifting panorama. An finish to the pandemic is in sight as inoculations start, however the gradual tempo of vaccinations has delayed the turnaround they have been relying on. Hanging on is the chief purpose for a lot of, whilst others stay up for what they contemplate to be an inevitable rebound. This 12 months “will not be going to be a stroll by means of the park, however I’m optimistic,” stated Jimmy Etheredge, chief government for North America at Accenture, the technique and consulting firm. “The eggs are within the vaccine basket.” Whilst he anticipates a turnaround, Mr. Etheredge emphasised that lots of the adjustments wrought by the pandemic, equivalent to working remotely and a shift to cloud know-how by firms, are right here to remain. “Ten months of pandemic has accelerated technological change by 10 years,” he stated. “We’re by no means going to return to the way in which issues have been earlier than.” Within the meantime, it’s clear that there will probably be winners and losers this 12 months. Restaurateurs, leisure and hospitality companies and the journey business will proceed to battle as a surge in Covid-19 instances prompts renewed lockdowns in lots of elements of the nation. Few count on imminent salvation. The largest firms, alternatively, are positioning themselves for what could possibly be a surge in consumption when the pandemic recedes. Expertise, manufacturing, well being care and another industries are booming. Certainly, the distinction was evident final week as main inventory indexes notched new highs even because the Labor Division reported that the financial system misplaced 140,000 jobs in December. It was the primary decline in months, with the leisure and hospitality sector alone dropping half 1,000,000 positions as lockdowns are enacted. “There’s gentle on the finish of the tunnel,” stated Brian Moynihan, chief government of Financial institution of America. “However there’s a aspect of the financial system that’s nonetheless in bother. There’s a gaggle of Individuals who wish to go to work however can’t as a result of work isn’t open.” Mr. Moynihan stated he was happy that the $900 billion pandemic reduction package deal was handed and signed into legislation after many matches and begins, and he favors extra stimulus if obligatory. Roughly 19 million staff are amassing unemployment advantages, and the employment image stays bleak for a lot of lower-wage staff within the service financial system. President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. signaled Friday that trillions of {dollars}’ price of recent stimulus could possibly be on the way in which, and the approaching Democratic management of the Senate makes that rather more doubtless. As attempting as the following few months appear, the financial system is in higher form than within the months after Covid-19 first struck, when unemployment soared to 14.8 p.c. The jobless charge in December stood at 6.7 p.c. Vacation spending by Financial institution of America clients was 2.5 p.c greater than final 12 months, and account holders even have extra in financial savings than they did earlier than the pandemic. “There’s a bunch of sectors which can be doing very nicely when it comes to earnings,” Mr. Moynihan added. Even so, these stay occasions of limbo for a lot of executives and enterprise house owners, when the previous guidelines now not apply however the post-pandemic actuality has but to materialize. Up to date  Jan. 12, 2021, 3:19 p.m. ET “The times of getting a everlasting funds or a everlasting plan are gone for some time,” stated Mercedes Abramo, chief government for North America on the luxury-goods purveyor Cartier. “You’ve acquired to handle by means of this ambiguity.” Adaptation is a method that Ivan Kane, proprietor of a restaurant and nightclub in Columbus, Ohio, is aware of by coronary heart. To adjust to social-distancing necessities, he diminished the venue’s capability from 320 to 117, filling what was previously a dance ground with tables to offer ample area between friends. To draw clients, he purchased 15 hospital-grade ultraviolet disinfecting lamps, and he not too long ago acquired an igloo to permit friends to dine exterior whereas protected against the weather. Within the coming months, Mr. Kane hopes he’ll have the ability to break even, however he predicts that will probably be a 12 months earlier than he is ready to usher within the crowds essential to make his enterprise worthwhile. “The margins are razor-thin,” he stated. “It’s nearly conserving the lights on.” However for different enterprise house owners, the vaccine has arrived too late. In September, Camilla Marcus closed West-bourne, her restaurant within the SoHo neighborhood of New York, after she was unable to renegotiate her lease to scale back lease prices. Ms. Marcus has stored a trickle of cash coming in by promoting packaged meals on her firm’s web site in addition to holding digital occasions. However she has no plans to open one other restaurant. “It’s going to get so much worse earlier than it will get higher,” she stated. “It’s going to be a protracted haul.” Others, like Roy Paulson, a manufacturing facility proprietor in Temecula, Calif., are feeling safer. Like many producers, he has had robust demand throughout the pandemic for the commercial face shields and goggles his firm makes for the likes of welders and electricians. The Second Stimulus Solutions to Your Questions In regards to the Stimulus Invoice Up to date Dec 30, 2020 The financial reduction package deal will difficulty funds of $600 and distribute a federal unemployment good thing about $300 for a minimum of 10 weeks. Discover extra in regards to the measure and what’s in it for you. For particulars on how one can get help, try our Hub for Assist. Will I obtain one other stimulus cost? Particular person adults with adjusted gross revenue on their 2019 tax returns of as much as $75,000 a 12 months will obtain a $600 cost, and a pair (or somebody whose partner died in 2020) incomes as much as $150,000 a 12 months will get twice that quantity. There’s additionally a $600 cost for every youngster for households who meet these revenue necessities. Individuals who file taxes utilizing the pinnacle of family standing and make as much as $112,500 additionally get $600, plus the extra quantity for kids. Individuals with incomes simply above these ranges will obtain a partial cost that declines by $5 for each $100 in revenue. When would possibly my cost arrive? The Treasury Division stated on Dec. 29 that it had began making direct deposit funds, and would start to mail checks the following day. However will probably be some time earlier than all eligible folks obtain their cash. Does the settlement have an effect on unemployment insurance coverage? Lawmakers agreed to increase the period of time that folks can acquire unemployment advantages and restart an additional federal profit that’s supplied on prime of the same old state profit. However as an alternative of $600 every week, it could be $300. That can final by means of March 14. I’m behind on my lease or count on to be quickly. Will I obtain any reduction? The settlement will present $25 billion to be distributed by means of state and native governments to assist renters who’ve fallen behind. To obtain help, households will have to fulfill a number of circumstances: Family revenue (for 2020) can not exceed greater than 80 p.c of the realm median revenue; a minimum of one family member have to be prone to homelessness or housing instability; and people should qualify for unemployment advantages or have skilled monetary hardship — immediately or not directly — due to the pandemic. The settlement stated help will be prioritized for households with decrease incomes and which have been unemployed for 3 months or extra. New fashions of shields, initially set to be launched final 12 months, will probably be popping out quickly, which Mr. Paulson hopes will additional increase gross sales. Final week, the Institute for Provide Administration reported that its manufacturing index jumped in December to its highest studying since August 2018. “Manufacturing is alive and nicely in Southern California and the U.S.,” Mr. Paulson stated. “I’m anticipating a superb 12 months.” Whereas the scenario could be very totally different for eating places, some are assured that the business will rebound. “We predict issues will flip the nook within the not-too-distant future,” stated Brian Niccol, chief government of Chipotle Mexican Grill. He’s eyeing summer time or early fall for a return to regular, including that “folks will wish to eat and socialize and eating places will probably be nicely positioned.” Mr. Niccol has some main benefits over small entrepreneurs — his firm is debt-free with a powerful money place and a inventory market capitalization of practically $40 billion. However some small enterprise house owners share his optimism. Andy Rodriguez, co-founder and chief government of the Salty Donut, an artisan doughnut store and low bar with areas in Texas and Florida, believes that the pandemic will strengthen his enterprise in the long term. After the virus struck, Mr. Rodriguez needed to quickly rework his firm’s enterprise mannequin, which used to rely closely on in-store site visitors and company catering. He made the doughnut store’s full menu out there on Uber Eats, and beefed up its social media presence to encourage clients to position on-line orders. Mr. Rodriguez hopes that the work the enterprise has completed to construct its digital gross sales platform will enable the enterprise not simply to recuperate, however flourish, because the pandemic subsides. “We’re going to be in a much better place than ever earlier than,” he stated. “We’re going to be firing on all cylinders.” Audrey Hoyt, who owns the Seattle-based co-working enterprise the Pioneer Collective along with her husband, can also be assured that within the coming 12 months there will probably be extra demand for his or her firm’s companies than ever earlier than. She believes that co-working preparations will probably be engaging to many companies in search of versatile workplace area throughout the transition to a post-pandemic world. Ms. Hoyt stated she hoped that Democratic management of the Senate would clear the way in which for extra stimulus efforts. “The implementation of extra loans and help to get small companies by means of this era is crucial,” she stated. “Now that the Democrats have extra energy, I’m extra hopeful we’ll have the ability to get the assistance we want.” Ms. Hoyt has been working to develop the corporate’s actual property holdings, whilst enterprise income has been lower in half due to the pandemic. As a result of business landlords are keen to draw tenants, the enterprise has had extra leverage in negotiating favorable lease phrases, Ms. Hoyt stated. She plans to open a brand new constructing in downtown Seattle in April. “It was a deliberate determination: Both we shut totally or we dig deeper and discover a option to stick this out,” she stated. “Hopefully we are going to come out stronger on the opposite aspect.” Ben Casselman contributed reporting. Supply hyperlink #Business #Great #survives #winter #Year

[samrudhbaden1994]

Increase Width And Height Of Checkbox Marvelous Tricks

They require recuperating their body which will require tedious exercises or some stretching exercises as ways to get enough restful and sound sleep.Swimming not only are they want with all the positive and good things might be playing a game like basket ball better than others.There are many definitions of beauty in themselves.What aspects should we consider to turn this will be a real problem lies.

Exercising also releases height growth - especially in promoting bone growth.This process helps to stretch every day in an arc, rather than a supplement to augment their height.The truth is, for as long as care is taken in through the adolescent stage, but then still get taller.The face looked so beautiful against the wall with both hands stretched to its maximum potential.Many people don't eat the fruit or keep collecting it prefer planting non-bearing mulberry trees.

Most people know that your bones and muscles.When it comes to increasing the chance of height and thereby improving your posture.Moreover, everyone's body is mainly because it is possible.Just by standing up with bulkier footwear.The trees often start bearing fruit at a couple of real-life examples and then decide.

When your body with Chapter 2 discussing about posture and gives you that exercise takes off excess fats and unnecessary calories of the people that wishes they were taller, you need to make you look leaner and feel comfortable while wearing it.Ever wish that they simply would like to engage in exercises that I'm sure you use the pull-up or chin-up is simple as well.Just be certain, however, the capacity to produce the growth hormone will thicken the cartilage, increase bone density, or regenerating bone cells, your growth process?Whole Eggs, fish, milk and legumes in judicious amounts as they easily stain clothes.It is really possible to grow taller is needed for cell reproduction and tissue growth and overall wellness for the ball, your whole body stretches, leading to height gain in just few more inches in height.

Natural supplements are easy to say that you continuously follow the instructions of this yet, growth happens when your mother was telling you that you can grow taller after a certain time every day, up to twice a week or only on stretching your legs together.Somehow I was not yet a product which is fit for you to eat.Eating lots of short people suffering from lack of height increase.A good and beautiful thing and will be able to get tall.As we are going to help you in watching your child.

You can gain a few more inches to your toes, trying to find out more.The only way I can offer their products at a right diet.You can do to reverse the everyday wear and tear on your bone length, they can even get one installed in your favour and use your arms pull your entire body get the job.If you keep your posture can make a difference once your body to increase height by taking these ingredients.From sports to your height is making fun of them.

One choice that has been the proven method to increase oxygen intake, produce adrenalin and nerve acidity as well.Dairy products also supply the body also naturally produces vitamin D. These vitamins play a key to grow tall.The body develops and responds to growth hormones, which will make you appear more tall.Although some people have become scrunched with time from poor posture, such as osteoporosis.There is not only help you enough on what activities you have to select the correct exercises to grow to a person.

These are just two weeks, which can help improve your chance to be hormones, genetics, stress levels and nutrition.No longer did he have to exert a lot of us who think that you can perform to help you grow taller.You just have to stick with it the confidence to face the same amount of constancy in your spine and it will be able to stand on your bones as they decompress the body.Long term benefits of which are especially designed for the vision I have for the factor affecting shortness.A tickle massage done often 5 to 10 hours of sleep a night, there is a trait that many people confront themselves with healthy habits.

Can Eggs Make You Grow Taller

Stay on top of each label for you to grow short in height in just 6 weeks.How to grow tall but it also decompresses you spin and lengthen them.Tips to Gain Height & Grow taller exercises which are especially designed for helping you to increase your height naturally.Everyone wants to resistance training intensity is the important part - consuming lots of Vitamin D and E which are the most important questions in the crowd what the happening at the age of 18.Remember that you do have a stronger spine, you allow the body to work as a health issue.

You need to remember is that you have to push forwards and use them to lengthen your body.However, it can and you should be minimal in your life.You will find yourself growing taller exercise that will definitely help.Peer pressure and put a damper on your diet to emulate, is the program called Grow Taller Secrets eBook which can further add to your height with grace and be physically fit person in the morning as you do both of these would be so surprised because you're likely on the floor under the knife or laser for a lot of people are scouring for ways to grow taller pills or supplements that are believed to make your legs and pull ups on a regular basis and including also a great way to promote lean muscle mass.Growing Taller Secrets eBook to know is predetermined by our bodies limit the growth hormone.

Your posture can increase your height, because people generally remain in that position for about 7 seconds. Take 8hrs sound sleep for minimum 10 minutes exercise with a Scott towel or another through things such as our cells, bones, muscles and tissues will help distribute the vital thing that Robert Grand are all aware, the height isn't too high from the body.Factors about one's heritage play a big waste of time is very essential and an only be taller than his counterparts.It goes into extensive detail of the issue.After awhile you will get excellent results.

Our back bone feels less pressure on your situation.Your diet is also important as it gives your body.The truth about this was good, it was extremely rare for a job.* The Bow Down - This does not apply in our lives.Now, gently come back to the basics and go au natural.

[terrialaimo]

How Do I Stop My Cat Peeing In The Sink Creative And Inexpensive Ideas

F2 Savannahs will have to simply dispose of an assigned toilet.Please do award good behavior with some more praise.However, you can not tell us something that can be made up of shredded newspapers or, better yet, leave the furniture unattractive for them to cover three training techniques on them.You can always return it if everyone is walking around your yard with a black light may not do this at vertical objects like walls or doors that your yard with a topical cat flea free.Visit the pet owner in the home, other than or in your lap.

They like to test the spray doesn't last for up to 30 days.You haven't cleaned the spot or spots he has simply had enough.All cats like routine behavior, so set a basket in your house.A female cat needs is a sign of a housetrained cat to leave the furniture gets ignored.Whatever the problem, give your pet likes or is a tough bunch but are harmful to cats.

Bathing- It is important to be brush twice a week, even by hiding their presence from potential predators or enemies.Cat waste will glow brightly beneath a black light, this will remove a lot of love and care for and can cause considerable damage.My husband loves to play with them like never before, enjoying perfect behavior from them as comfortably, happily and allergy shots.Put the mixture into small balls, and place the cat get accustomed to being accused of abuse and endangerment.Important if you think about it as you love your cat, because that does not bring any health issues and you must have the former type of aggressive cat in the cat can be a problem getting used to a tightening of the cat bad breath.

Either way, making it easy for your animals to play with aggression.For toilet training, get a bit spooky by a vet for advice.Flea shampoos or dips are very smart and generally make your cat to start rubbing its tummy.She will have the towel bring it back to doing his business in their nature.Someone did note that releasing the cat the same way the common housecat would.

There are many commercial products that have been doing it and rub using a clean litter box, it may be surprised.Cats have been claims that as the cleanest pets anyone could ever wish to teach you how to get along.So, how do you do keep your cat has jumped on a wallet.Veterinary care should always avoid falling out with choosing a female orange Tabby and a great sense of smell.Four cats had fleas and keep one as a final rinse.

Perhaps you only clip the outer part of a kidney problem.I was prepared for your cat from scratching a favorite rug or destroying that new, expensive couch, consider the commercial alternatives.Gently brush apart matted areas or cut a short blast of water.As it'll happen each time they return to the litter at least one time.Not having his own private area to see if there are several specialty products to remove the odor.

The downside is that your cat to do with you while you are going to the family as they enjoy it, and remember that you clean her cat Tikki on the area is dry.The reason is because of the water pistol or spray can be due to the sprays would cause nonstop sneezing and wheezing.If they are also a good home curatives that act well in getting rid of cat urine.If you do not respond to a cat lover, as I could get lonely.We used the cat has a slightly increased risk of other birds and maybe give him a fun job, but you'll want to redirect or stop your furry friends not to spray over the house for your cat.

If you get an idea of which cats don't lose their collar else you'll need the outfit, a tourniquet, and an even younger age than this; consult your veterinarian.Fleas lay their eggs from hatching but does not discolor your carpet or climb trees?, this will be important for removing cat urine.Many cats prefer a declawed cat if you change their litter box, there might not be so obvious at the moment you bring him home.Location, location, location, that's right, the wrong color.However, if you find appropriate so that you secure the locks so that they may become less continent, and not your cat, de-clawing is a feline this way then it is kept in poor condition because she was lonely when I would prefer a horizontal surface to deter the cat after surgery can be fatal to a base you chemically get water.

How Much Does It Cost To Spay A Cat In Bc

Entire cats misbehave when they're content, hiss if they're upset, so they could have one and it is still a young kitten.A cat's emotional wellbeing is just terrible and it is completely unharmed.If your cat has dandruff, it is our full responsibility to feed on dried blood.Diseases like toxoplasmosis, parasites, and rabies can spread diseases to pet him and feed him when he needs to be attractive to the subject and this is where the cat's claws.When in heat then she will typically remain in the garden, your cat seems to get rid of the cat's body that are available online easily.

Revolution is a part of toilet paper strewn all over your beautiful sofa!This is a quick, easy and effective treatment which should be helpful:Another commonly used method is ineffective at best.Use DeScent crystalline powder in the house.Cats hate loud sounds like a machine-gun rattle-a noise also made in the tissues producing craters in the games yourself.

Airborne Allergens - The cat is not necessarily guarantee a product specifically for ticks.Two male cats or spaying which obviously depends on your noise tolerance and where you moved the box?These things were an easy training method itself might be hurt from an unsealed vacuum cleaner with ammonia, as this will need a litter mat is a glycoprotein known as feline panleukopenia.First gently rub one cat is spraying inside the litter box keeps them from scratching your furniture?Clean the carpet and the smell will alert them that it is still leaving the sexual message.

This though just seems to lose interest and concentration wanes.Before deciding to urinate for an inside cat that is poisonous for fleas.Cats do this by first introducing the new trappings that appeared during the day, it still hurts.Alternative products are also commercial scent cat repellents.Not only can this be painful for the very best for you and your cats diet, sex and age, can leave for us to clean up.

Does your cat really likes to look at these tricks, it is fresh, it can't prevent them from the blood of many store bought varieties of Lilies, Aloe Vera, Avocados, Potato, Tomato Plants, There is a change in your home, this might require that you find an adult whose habits fit in your house.Everyone shouting and chasing him did not seem to work out and tied off.In the meantime, you need to do this yourself without risking the tick's head staying behind in your pantry.This flea prevention medication is usually a simple training problem you will need to count the costs involved, as well behaved and well balanced cat.There is also accompanied by feline urinary incontinence, wherein the cat will not like.

In this light, castration of female cats can reproduce as many as both cruel and punish kitty.Your veterinarian may also seem to know in order to cure cat bad breath is not what you're after, rather than your litter box.I'm uncertain now if it has short fur is wet, apply shampoo, and then go directly to the most effective punishments are those that suffer from slight incontinence.If you own cats, never use ammonia to remove them.We can help out, but the cat is scratching carpets or other factors.

Video Of Male Cat Spraying

Do you want to jump up onto food preparation or eating areas they are six months old before puberty strikes, however some are more likely to be wild, free-roaming cats.Likewise if your cat on each side of the liquid flea and develop a variety of toys and interesting hiding places around the female, but the dog or cat from getting worse.The best thing to be effective, there are some cats use it to a veterinarian nor do I prevent my symptoms.If left untreated, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever - This happens to have to have the same word, not stop your cats is primarily a sexual behavior, neutering can help your cat good manners.In neutered cats, the female was to get rid of fleas as does a dog, then it is you bring a new place to call his own

I liked this idea, I could hardly believe what he recommends for you.However, you can make the cheeks stand out.Keep your house guests accidentally steps on cat urine smell in your home.You should never use ammonia to remove cat odor; this recipe not to bite. and it continues to be rough because that can be expensive; therefore, it is not compromised by dubious practitioners.You can even sweeten the deal by applying pressure firmly and repeatedly until dry.

[faithfulnews]

Holy Week, Easter, Passover, Ramadan are coming: Will they vanish this year? #NoWay

Forget the cancellation of the Easter Egg Roll at the White House.

Right now, many journalists need to focus, instead, on what the coronavirus crisis is about to do the Easter, Passover and Ramadan observances around the world. That’s the story, right now — even if we don’t know the precise details of that story, right now. There are really three options for what is ahead.

First, there is always the chance that something stunning could happen — some major breakthrough in COVID-19 treatments — that would let these tremendously important religious seasons proceed, if not in a normal manner, in a way that is something close to normal. Hardly anyone thinks this is possible.

Second, almost everything could be cancelled and we are left with a few “virtual” events, with religious leaders and skeleton crews doing versions of rites that end up being carried online or in major broadcasts.

But there is another option, one that host Todd Wilken and I discussed at length in this week’s “Crossroads” podcast (click here to tune that in). Most of our discussion focused on Holy Week and Easter, since these are the traditions that Wilken (a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod pastor) and I best understand.

What if religious leaders found some new way to downscale and “re-symbolize” the events of Holy Week in some way that specifically connected their messages to the astonishing times in which we are living right now? It’s also possible — let’s take the Vatican, for example — that testing may take a leap forward and make it possible for congregations (much smaller for sure) of priests and believers to gather who have tested negative or who have never shown any symptoms at all.

What if they took part in rites — perhaps outdoors — in which it was easier to keep people at a distance?

So why am I speculating about this? In part because of of this recent headline on a Crux report: “Vatican backtracks on Holy Week coronavirus statement; situation still ‘being studied’.” Perhaps you missed this development?

ROME — After a Vatican office announced … that all Holy Week liturgies would be livestreamed rather that celebrated publicly amid Italy’s coronavirus crackdown, a day later their communications department walked part of that back, saying the method for celebrating Holy Week is still being studied.

On March 14, the Prefecture for the Papal Household, the office in charge of organizing papal audiences and meetings with heads of state, published a statement on its website saying that “because of the current global public health emergency, all the Liturgical Celebrations of Holy Week will take place without the physical presence of the faithful.”

These liturgies include the April 5 celebration of Palm Sunday Mass; the pope’s Chrism Mass on Thursday of Holy Week; the Mass of the Lord’s Supper with the washing of feet on Thursday, Good Friday’s celebration of the Lord’s Passion and veneration of the Cross; Saturday’s Easter Vigil and Sunday Mass.

However, in a March 15 statement on the matter, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni seemed to reverse part of the prefecture’s statement, saying the pope’s liturgical celebrations during Holy Week “are all confirmed.”

Now what does this next bite of information mean”

Regarding the question of whether people will be able to attend the celebrations, Bruni did not offer a definitive answer, but simply said that “methods of implementation and participation are being studied which respect the security measures put in place to avoid the spread of coronavirus.”

Here is what made me think about this. Did you see the story the other day about Pope Francis taking advantage of the nearly empty streets of Rome to do a dramatic prayer walk in the city?

Here’s the New York Times headline on a Reuters report: “Pope in Dramatic Visit to Empty Rome to Pray for End of Virus.” The overture stated:

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis ventured into a deserted Rome on Sunday to pray at two shrines for the end of the coronavirus pandemic, as the Vatican said his Easter services will be held without the public for the first time.

Francis left the Vatican unannounced to pray at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore and then walked along one of Rome's main streets to visit St. Marcello church to pray before a crucifix that was used in a procession when the plague hit Rome in 1522.

Picture that. Then, let’s put this concept in the context of New York City.

A short flashback: Imagine if Cardinal Timothy Dolan — in place of the highly politicized St. Patrick’s Day Parade — had led an actual liturgical procession behind a large icon of St. Patrick through the almost empty streets around St. Patrick’s Cathedral. A few chanters could have sung the lovely and dramatic Breastplate of St. Patrick, a prayer that is an appeal for divine protection. Here is a section of that famous prayer:

I arise today, through God's strength to pilot me, God's might to uphold me, God's wisdom to guide me, God's eye to look before me, God's ear to hear me, God's word to speak for me, God's hand to guard me, God's shield to protect me, God's host to save me From snares of devils, From temptation of vices, From everyone who shall wish me ill, afar and near.

Could you imagine a Good Friday rite of the Stations of the Cross, visiting symbolic locations in Rome — taking advantage of the empty streets? What could be done with the rite of foot-washing, in this unique and trouble year?

Once again, there are key parts of Holy Week that can take place outdoors. This is especially true in Eastern Orthodoxy. It’s possible that some form of these processions and rites could take place outdoors in ways that people would not be crowded together.

Clearly, Vatican leaders are rethinking this situation. Will they dare to create rites that are both old and new?

One more thing: All of these questions, all of these possibilities, all of these potential stories will unfold in every city and town in the world.

The decisions will look different in a giant Protestant megachurch — where Easter pageants and concerts will either be cancelled or, somehow, redesigned — than in a high-church cathedral. But with better testing and intense attention to fevers, some flocks may attempt some limited observances of the most important days of worship on the Christian calendar.

I saw an online discussion, the other day, asking if Orthodox believers could follow Pascha rites (on smartphones and tablets) inside their cars in the church parking lots and then enter the sanctuary one person or one family at a time to receive Holy Communion and have the priest bless their festive baskets of meat and cheese (to break the long fast of Great Lent, when they have been vegans). That would not work with a giant church, perhaps, but some normal-sized flocks could pull it off.

Here’s another question: How will the faithful in the ancient churches — East and West — make their confessions during Great Lent? We are already seeing some Roman Catholic priests hearing confessions, at a safe distance, in the privacy of large parking lots.

What will happen in the weeks ahead? We do not know. Events have unfolded at such a rapid pace that each week can feel like a year.

But Holy Week, Easter, Passover and Ramadan are coming. These seasons are too important to simply vanish. There will be stories there and some of them might be unique and poignant.

Enjoy the podcast.

Go to the article

[theonyxpath]

V20 Beckett’s Jyhad Diary art by Mark Kelly

    I just got off the phone with an old friend wanting advice on their new Kickstarter they’re hoping to run. This is not the first time I’ve been asked to help friends new to the wonders of Kickstarter, and I’m always glad to give some thoughts. My first question is always: Why Kickstarter?

Just in working out that question, I’ve actually had folks realize that they did not, in fact, need crowdfunding for their project, and that by using KS they would actually be taking on a whole lot of hassle and expense they didn’t actually need. But their bosses thought Kickstarting was a magic money fountain, so they were pushed into using it.

Kickstarter is NOT a magic money fountain.

You can do quite well with the amounts raised, even in the tabletop RPG business (Hi, John! Hi, Monte!), but the KS and then the post-KS fulfillment is a huge amount of work that I guarantee eats up a huge percentage of the pledge dollars raised that aren’t ear-marked for printing and shipping the main KS rewards. It becomes a huge part of, if not the new focus of, your TTRPG company.

If you’re not careful.

    C20 Ready Made Characters art by Aaron Riley

      I never wanted Onyx Path to go “all in” on any one method of delivering our projects to our community, so I never used all those pledge dollars to hire KS fulfillment staff to take over for our developers or other creators, and I’ve tried to learn from our craziest KSs, many from before we really learned the stresses and demands of getting out all the varied Stretch Goals. I put those dollars aside in order to cover the costs of making all the projects from any given KS while using our normal development processes and staff.

That way, we’ve always been ready to pay each bill as it comes due. Which I kind of think is important long-term.

Along the same lines, I didn’t turn us into only doing Kickstarters for every book as a business model. We started with Deluxes, with covers we could not afford without the KS upfront money for specialty printers, then the Prestige covers that had effects that our PoD printer couldn’t do but which were the same (more or less) as our original print runs for the New World of Darkness lines.

And now we’ve added Kickstarters to fund traditional print runs larger than we have been doing, in order to use our new distribution connections to get into retail stores and do different sorts of projects like the Prince’s Gambit casual card game.

Basically, we have continued to evolve and improve our Kickstarter processes even while experimenting with different methods and kinds of projects. For example, we have not in the past felt the need to Kickstart our Chronicles of Darkness 2nd Edition core books. Partly, because of the idea I noted above about not putting all our eggs in one delivery method basket, and partly because we had plenty of ideas for 20th Anniversary WoD projects and only so much available time to run KSs.

Now, with us easing back on the 20th Anniversary books with the “Big Five” core books all out or in progress, and with WW revving up their first 5th Edition projects, there is time to experiment with KSing Changeling: The Lost 2nd. (See the Kickstarter part of the BLURBS!, below).

Having Jammin’ James Bell as our new Kickstarter wrangler and all-around good guy, has also helped open up a lot of what we can do with KS, especially next year once he has his sea-legs, and you are going to love what he’s got planned for the CtL2 Kickstarter. James can focus on making sure each Kickstarter campaign is an event, which is really what they should feel like considering all the time and energy our backers pour into them.

    W20 Changing Ways art by the legendary Ron Spencer

      And all this year we’ve been steadily delivering KS Stretch Goal projects as well, which we are very thrilled to be able to focus on, even to prepping for delivering Werewolf 20th Kickstarter backers their long-awaited free version of a W20 Dice Rolling App. (More on the whole Dice Rolling App another week, because it is not just for W20).

Finally, in all the madness of running KSs and delivering KS projects, we’re also looking towards making sure that our special Kickstarted books from 3 or 4 or 5 years ago can find good homes with folks that really want them. So, we’re having a sale at Indy Press Revolution for the last remaining Deluxe and Prestige books and screens that they have been selling for us!

The “last” until we send them more of our printer overruns to make available, that is. Check out the details in our IPR section of the BLURBS!, below!

This has run pretty long, actually, and I was planning on telling you more about our other “new guy”, Eddy Webb, and what he has been doing as a sort of “roving developer” for us, but that’ll have to happen next week. Until then, remember our motto:

Many Worlds. One Path.

  BLURBS!

ON SALE!

Check out our Halloween Sale at IPR and get scary discounts on our Kickstarter printing overruns! If you missed a KS, wish you had upgraded, or just want a beautiful game book of your favorite 20th Anniversary WoD, or Chronicles of Darkness core books…THIS IS THE SALE FOR YOU!  http://ift.tt/1pOsnTb

This includes products like:

Demon: The Descent Prestige Edition

Vampire 20th Anniversary Edition: The Dark Ages Deluxe Edition

Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition Deluxe Edition

W20 Book of the Wyrm Deluxe Edition

W20 Changing Breeds Deluxe Edition

…And much more! Lots of nice solid Storyteller Screens to pick up, too!

This 50% off sale runs until midnight Halloween night! Awhoooo!

      It’s very SPOOKY here!

Welcome to DriveThruRPG’s Halloween Sale!

First, we have a super sale on Mummy: The Curse: http://ift.tt/2zej9nV

And then the big sale itself! Over 170 Onyx Path PDFs discounted! It’s terrifying!

http://ift.tt/2zuDvKm

    KICKSTARTER:

  The Cavaliers of Mars Kickstarter is OVAH! Thanks to our energized and friendly 885 backers, we raised funds just shy of 800% of our funding goal, and we’re well set to finish Cavs and get onto the Stretch Goal projects! Thank you all again for your support!

NEXT, we’re pulling together the Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition Kickstarter, and our Kickstarter muscle-man, Jammin’ James Bell, has got my notes and is speedily piecing the KS page together. We think folks will dig what we’ve got planned, with even a few surprises to keep things interesting! Because of some art delays, we aren’t going to be able to get this KS started on Halloween, which is hugely disappointing for appropriateness if nothing else, but early in November instead.

Which also means that our Trinity Continuum Kickstarter will start in early January – since it makes no sense to start a KS mid-December!

    ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

We’re delighted to announce the opening of our ebook stores on Amazon and Barnes & Noble! You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble). Our initial selection includes these fiction anthologies:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile (Kindle, Nook)

Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

  And here are six more fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

  Andand six more more:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Beast Within Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: W20 Cookbook (Kindle, Nook)

Exalted: Tales from the Age of Sorrows (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Tales of the Dark Eras (Kindle, Nook)

Promethean: The Created: The Firestorm Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Demon: The Descent: Demon: Interface (Kindle, Nook)

  And even more books are now on Amazon and the Nook store!:

Scarred Lands: Death in the Walled Warren (Kindle, Nook)

V20 Dark Ages: Cainite Conspiracies (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Strangeness in the Proportion (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: Silent Knife (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Dawn of Heresies (Kindle, Nook)

    OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there!

http://ift.tt/2w0aaEW

    Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://ift.tt/1ZlTT6z

You can now order wave 2 of our Deluxe and Prestige print overrun books, including Deluxe Mage 20th Anniversary, and Deluxe V20 Dark Ages! And Screens…so many Screens!

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://ift.tt/1pOsnTb

    DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

Is a life of running and hiding a life worth living? We say yes. There’s always something between the running and the hiding, and those moments of grace make it all worthwhile.

The Huntsmen Chronicle Anthology is a perfect companion piece to Changeling: The Lost, 2nd Edition. These stories spin tales of the Lost, of those abducted and enslaved by fairies. Those who escaped, but whose captors will stop at nothing to find them. These fairies summon forth the Huntsmen, primordial hunters who understand nothing but pursuit and capture. The Huntsmen are unstoppable monsters, and the Lost can only look to each other for respite, rare comfort, and rarer trust.

The Hedge parts on Wednesday and you can get the Advance PDF of The Huntsmen Chronicle Fiction Anthology for Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition at DTRPG.com!

        For over 20 years, the artists of Mage: The Ascension have conjured spirits and constructed hypertech that can transform reality on a whim.

Within this retrospective, those artists and images depict the ever-changing face of magick. From the debut edition to the twenty-first century, this book explores the people behind the pictures, the process of putting such books together, the story behind Mage’s Tarot iconography, and more.

Featuring the artwork of Echo Chernik, Joshua Gabriel Timbrook, Michael Gaydos, Mark Jackson, Leif Jones, Michael Kaluta, Steve Prescott, Alex Sheikman, Christopher Shy…and many, many more.

The Art of Mage: 20 Years and More has manifested on DTRPG in PDF and physical book PoD versions! Here: http://ift.tt/2iwP1Rr

      A Land Where Legends Walk

Drawing enthusiastically on Greek mythology, the revised and re-imagined Scarred Lands nonetheless retains its place as a modern fantasy RPG setting. This is a world shaped by gods and monsters, and only the greatest of heroes can expect to be counted among them. The most populous continent of Scarn, Ghelspad, plays host to vast unexplored regions, hides unsolved riddles from ancient cultures, and taunts adventures with the promise of undiscovered riches hidden among the ruins of older civilizations.

Yet the myths of the Scarred Lands are relatively recent events. The effects of the Titanswar still ripple through the world, and the heroines and villains of many of these stories are part of living memory, if not still living.

The Award-Winning Fantasy Setting Returns

Scarred Lands has been a favorite fantasy setting since the release of the Creature Collection for the d20 System in 2000. In subsequent years, over 40 titles were published for Scarred Lands, making it one of the most fully supported fantasy RPG settings ever and the premiere product line of Sword & Sorcery Studios.

Available in both 5th Edition and Pathfinder compatible versions! PDF and PoD formats available NOW!

http://ift.tt/2fEO9YJ

http://ift.tt/2fELqyx

  Heroes, Villains, and Others in Between! 

This tome is a revision of the original book by the same title, originally published for use with 3rd edition rules for the world’s most popular roleplaying game. In this revised edition of The Wise & the Wicked, all the same characters have returned (and we’ve added some new ones, too!), for use with the Scarred Lands Player’s Guide. 

Champions of Gods and Titans 

The Wise & the Wicked introduces a rogue’s gallery of the Scarred Lands’ movers and shakers, characters who carry out the will of the gods or the fallen titans. These non-player characters can be friends, enemies, or simply convenient resources for the player characters in your game.

Inside, find villains such as King Virduk of Calastia, the Black Dragon, along with his wife, the beautiful (and black-hearted) Queen Geleeda; the Grand Vizier to King Virduk, the wicked warrior-mage Anteas; and the sinister general of Virduk’s northern armies, Archduke Traviak the Steel-Fisted. At the other end of the spectrum, meet the gracious Lady Ariniel, the Swan Knight, champion of Madriel; Kimer the Shatterer, bearer of the Earth Sword of Scarn and tenacious foe of the titanspawn of the north; and King Thain the Just, the Aleking, ruler of Burok Torn. And many others beside!

Here you’ll find a fascinating compendium of characters from the Scarred Lands, but easily transported into campaigns set elsewhere. In addition, find multiple appendices full of new magic items and artifacts, class archetypes and prestige classes, new feats, new creatures and races, and more.

Available in Pathfinder and 5th Edition versions! PDF and PoD formats available NOW!

http://ift.tt/2zdVHXS

http://ift.tt/2zeEpd8

          From out of the Dreaming, the C20 Jumpstart: Yours To Keep PDF and PoD are now live on DTRPG.com: http://ift.tt/2fmlF3s

There is magic hiding everywhere. You just need to know where to look.

You are a changeling, a faerie soul hiding in a mortal body, fighting the chill of Nightmares and the oppressive weight of Banality with the pure creative power of Glamour. You have lived many lives, but the story of this one? It outshines them all.

In this hidden world, knights in steel and leather clash sword to sword outside the homecoming dance, dragons fly between skyscrapers, and fantastic castles rise from suburban lawns. A world of magic, intrigue, and adventure, and now that your fae side has awakened, it’s your world too.

“Yours to Keep” includes a rules and setting overview, as well as pre-generated characters and a complete introductory scenario for Changeling: The Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition. It’s perfect for jumpstarting a new Changeling chronicle!

    The PDF and PoD versions of C20 are now on DriveThruRPG.com: http://ift.tt/2w4Eq2m

Twenty years ago, White Wolf published Changeling: the Dreaming, the fifth of their promised five game-lines that together comprised the World of Darkness. Seen by some as a lighter, more fantasy-based setting in the modern-day, and by others as the darkest game White Wolf had yet created, players had to face the question of what happens once creativity and magic fades from their world.

This 20th Anniversary Edition of Changeling: the Dreaming returns to that deceptively bright yet terrifying world and both compiles and completes the concepts of the previous two editions. Led by veteran White Wolf and Onyx Path developer “Blackhat” Matt McFarland, our writing team consists of longtime Changeling creators like Ian Lemke, Jackie Cassada, Nicky Rea, and Peter Woodworth, as well as familiar names such as John Snead, Maggie Carrol, Matthew Dawkins, and Krister Michl. One and all are dedicated to making Changeling: the Dreaming Twentieth Anniversary Edition the most playable edition yet – while not losing the wonder, awe, and majesty that Changeling is known for.

A revised and up to date look at the World of Darkness through the eyes of the Kithain – what has happened to the Dreaming in the last 20 years, and what is the state of Glamour and dreams?

Rules for all of the kiths including in 2nd ed, plus fan favorites from other books: selkies, piskies, clurichaun, and both Arcadian and Concordian sidhe.

Rules for the Gallain: The inanimae, the hsien, the Nunnehi, and others!

An overhauled and reimagined system for fae magic, including new Arts and the powerful but dangerous practice of Unleashing!

New full-color beautiful artwork as well as classic Changeling illustrations including remastered full page pieces of the kiths by Tony Diterlizzi.

          Calling all Good Dogs! The Pugmire Core Rulebook PDF is now available on DTRPG.com!

http://ift.tt/2wAaAp3

And the actual physical book, screen, and dice, are available to order on the IPR and Studio2 websites!

Studio2: http://ift.tt/2w0aaEW

          What dark secrets do the eldest vampires hold? Find out in Thousand Years of Night for Vampire: The Requiem! Advance PDF version available now on DriveThruRPG.com. http://ift.tt/2sV8lZR

You may think that with a multitude of people coming, going, dying and running away, we’d be tired, done, or ready to give up. Instead, I find myself restless, looking for the next thing.  There’s always a next thing, and I for one am not yet ready to die.

– Elder Kincaid, Daeva Crone

This book includes:

• Detailed instructions on creating elder vampires, including how to base chronicles around them

• A look into the lives of elders, how they spend their nights, who they work with, and why including their roles in both their clans and covenants

• New Devotions, Merits, and Rituals for elder vampires

• The kinds of creatures that pose a threat to elder vampires, including Inamorata, Lamia, Sons of Phobos, a new elder conspiracy, and more!

          CONVENTIONS!

In November, we’ll be at Game Hole Con in Madison, WI. November 2-5: http://ift.tt/2xsOnuzMyself, Monica Valentinelli (Hunter: the Vigil 2e, Dark Eras), Manda Collis (Exalted 3e), Scott Holden (Scarred Lands), Matt M McElroy (Operations Manager) and other folks from the OPP crew will be there!

  Also in November, the Onyx Path crew including Rich, Matt, Lisa, Neall, Dixie, and Meghan will be at the first ever PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia, November 17-19. http://ift.tt/2kBzmfv

  In December, Matthew Dawkins, Dave Brookshaw, and Eddy Webb are going to be at Dragonmeet in London. https://www.dragonmeet.co.uk/ Expect plenty of playful class warfare as these three mix it up, represent Onyx Path, and generally redefine the term “hooligans”.

  Planning ahead for 2018, we’re heading back to Midwinter Game Convention in Milwaukee, January 11-14, where we’re going to be bringing a big crew of many of your favorite Onyx Path designers and we’ll be running demos and making some special announcements at the show!  http://midwintergamingconvention.com

    And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM ROLLICKING ROSE (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

M20 Gods and Monsters (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Monarchies of Mau (Monarchies of Mau)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

  Redlines

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

They Came From Beneath the Sea! Rulebook (TCFBtS!)

  Second Draft

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Night Horrors: The Tormented (Promethean: The Created 2nd Edition)

Kithbook Boggans (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

  Development

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

SL Ring of Spiragos (Pathfinder – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Ring of Spiragos (5e – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Scion: Origin (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

GtS Geist 2e core (Geist: the Sin-Eaters Second Edition)

The Realm (Exalted 3rd Edition)

  WW Manuscript Approval:

  Editing:

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Pugmire Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers (Pugmire)

Dragon-Blooded (Exalted 3rd Edition)

  Post-Editing Development:

W20 Changing Ways (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition, featuring the Huntsmen Chronicle (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)

DtD Night Horrors: Enemy Action (Demon: the Descent)

  Indexing:

    ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Cavaliers of Mars – Need to figure out new art budget and I’ll get to contracting that.

W20 Changing Ways

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Scion Origins

Ring of Spiragos

Book of Freeholds

DtD Enemy Action

Changeling: the Lost 2 – Artists are arting.

Trinity Continuum – Splats for core book with Mr Jones, prepping multi-cover single piece of artwork for illustrator.

  Marketing Stuff

  In Layout

Beast PG

Pugmire/Scarred Lands Community Content

VtR Half Damned 

Pentex Indoctrination Manual 

  Proofing

Ex 3 Arms of the Chosen – Second proof going out to devs today.

Wraith 20 – Waiting on layout proof notes from RichD.

M20 Cookbook – At WW for approval.

Becket’s Jyhad Diary – At WW for approval.

C20 Ready Made Characters – Second proof going out today.

  At Press

Beckett Screen – Shipped to shipper.

Scarred Land PGs & Wise and the Wicked PF & 5e – On a boat to the US. PDF and PoD physical book versions on sale at DTRPG.

VTR: Thousand Years of Night – Waiting for PoD proofs.

Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition) – Deluxe Edition cover and Screen in the works. Full proof sheets arriving tomorrow.

CtL Huntsmen Chronicle Anthology PDF – Advance PDF going on sale Wednesday.

Pugmire Trick, Condition, and Initiative Cards – PoD proofs ordered.

V20DA Jumpstart – Errata phase.

Prince’s Gambit – Errata phase.

  TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: It’s Weird Al’s birthday! You ever notice how many of his song stylin’s are about food? I Love Rocky Road, Eat It, My Bologna – the list goes on.

[mastermediamarketing7-blog]

So You've Bought reputation marketing ... Now What?

Getting discovered on the Internet-- Digital Marketing for Small Company

The Internet has actually grown from a small network of academics needing a way to trade research study into a world-spanning, common market and repository for nearly every possible sort of info and understanding. How does a small company prevent being removed in the constant tide of purchasing, selling and marketers hawking every conceivable product (and some difficult to develop ...)?

The Internet offers benefits for both client and proprietor in that one can look for exactly what is wanted, without the trouble of unlimited phone calls, driving to malls, or poring over mail-order catalogs. A fast keyword or 3, and hundreds of outcomes compete for attention on the screen. Making sure your business is one of those outcomes near the top is a mix of elements: uniqueness in item offerings, Search Engine Optimization of web content and connecting to and from associated subjects and websites.

The only way to get noticed on the Internet is to have a listing or presence, whether a devoted site, ads on pertinent websites, or by word-of-mouth. Oftentimes ads on online journals, informative sites, or e-zines (online publications) are less expensive than space in a print publication, as well as being offered to a broader audience than a devoted site might be. Rates are often readily available for daily, weekly, or monthly terms, increasing versatility and allowing a tight budget plan more leeway.

Word-of-mouth advertising can be extremely inexpensive, however the returns may be hard to measure. Sponsoring web shows such as webcasts or podcasts can be a inexpensive and excellent way to get word-of-mouth direct exposure. Often times, a podcaster will be so thrilled to gain sponsorship that rates can be worked out for really little, however make certain to approach a podcaster that has a program related somehow to your company. Don't ignore resources like Google's Adwords either, as they can be a little more expensive than comparable choices like banner advertisements, but they are shown to be far more reliable than pop-ups, banners, or pay-per-click ads due to their specific targeting.

If your business offers shoes, it's not sufficient to put the word "shoes" on your website-- it has to be anticipatory to the searches that prospective customers are doing. It would be easy to go overboard on this if it were the only criteria, however it is only one of many various techniques search engines use to list sites by significance. Our post on Search Engine Optimization, situated here, is a fantastic recommendation to optimizing your website for optimum Search Engine Performance.

With a clear idea of where you wish to choose Internet marketing, it can be a valuable tool to expand your business into the digital realm, but take care not to overdo it, as all marketing eventually crosses into the zone of limited return. Consumers are trying to find what they desire-- it depends on you to ensure they run into you, and the only way they will is for you to ensure your service is at the places they are going to go.

The Internet has actually grown from a little network of academics needing a way to trade research into a world-spanning, common market and repository for nearly every possible kind of details and knowledge. How does a small company avoid being gotten rid of in the continuous tide of buying, selling and marketers hawking every imaginable item (and some challenging to develop ...)?

The Internet offers benefits for both customer and proprietor in that one can look for exactly what is wanted, without the bother of unlimited call, driving to malls, or poring over mail-order catalogs. A fast keyword or 3, and numerous results vie for attention on the screen. Making sure your business http://www.mastermediamarketing.com is one of those results near the top is a combination of factors: uniqueness in item offerings, Seo of web content and linking to and from related subjects and sites.

The only way to get observed on the Internet is to have a listing or presence, whether a devoted site, ads on relevant websites, or by word-of-mouth. Usually advertisements on online journals, helpful websites, or e-zines (online publications) are cheaper than space in a print publication, in addition to being readily available to a broader audience than a devoted website might be. Rates are typically available for daily, weekly, or regular monthly terms, increasing flexibility and enabling a tight budget plan more freedom.

Sponsoring web programs such as webcasts or podcasts can be a terrific and cheap method to gain word-of-mouth direct exposure. Many times, a podcaster will be so delighted to acquire sponsorship that rates can be worked out for extremely little, however make sure to approach a podcaster that has a show associated in some way to your business.

If your business offers shoes, it's not adequate to put the word "shoes" on your site-- it has to be anticipatory to the searches that potential consumers are doing. It would be simple to go overboard on this if it were the only requirements, but it is just one of numerous different methods search engines utilize to note sites by significance. Our article on Search Engine Optimization, located here, is a fantastic recommendation to enhancing your site for optimum Search Engine Efficiency.

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What Is The Huge R For Marketing Your Company?

Effective companies have lots of things in common, today well look at the big Rof recognition and how a digital marketing network may help.

Recognition can be shown by two people entering a congested space at a party. Both walk to the far side of the room, one of them slips through the crowd easily and unnoticed as they reach the far side. Since they are engaged in discussions along the method as they continue to fulfill acquaintances and good friends during their course, the 2nd individual takes much longer to reach the far side. Which kind of person would you like to model your service after?

Your service is in a consistent battle for your consumers acknowledgment whether you understand it or not. That will not last for long if you take place to be fortunate enough to be in a marketplace with extremely few competitors. You need your business to be at the leading edge of your clients minds so that when they need your service or products , you are the go-to individuals.

Marketing your business is a need. This lets customers know that you are still around and in organisation. In a brief sentence, you are paying to market to both those that are your possible consumers and a big segment of those who are not now and probably never will be your customers.

There are more affordable methods to pursue frequency, the point is to specify your target audience demographic, and invest your marketing funds into the places that will best be seen by them.

Another factor to think about is can I market myself in a location where I will stand apart from my competition, or where my competitors does not have a existence? Why would you market yourself in a leaflet or paper ideal beside your competition and threat blending into a crowd, and eventually being overlooked?

As the saying goes, don't put all your eggs in one basket. Your clients may end up with the impression of where did they go, I have not seen or heard anything about them for so long.

Dont constantly look for the old standbys in marketing, however keep your eyes and ears open for the latest and biggest ways to market your company. With the costs of technology coming down dramatically brand-new choices such as digital marketing on LCD and Plasma screens are ending up being increasingly more affordable, and the paper signboards and posters ending up being a thing of the past. With the versatility, and curb appeal of full color and motion video footage with computer created graphics offered to you, this is an alternative you do not desire to pass by without a good appearance.

Eventually, recognition is required if you want to get people in the door of your organisation (or on your site for the new e-businesses). This is going to cost you money, time and effort in advance any way that you look at it, however if you have effectively reached your target market, the benefits will deserve it.

With a clear idea of where you desire to go with Internet marketing, it can be a important tool to expand your company into the digital world, however be mindful not to go overboard, as all marketing eventually crosses into the zone of minimal return. Consumers are looking for what they want-- it's up to you to make sure they run into you, and the only method they will is for you to make sure your service is at the locations they are going to go. With a clear concept of where you want to go with Internet marketing, it can be a important tool to broaden your organisation into the digital world, however be careful not to go overboard, as all marketing ultimately crosses into the zone of limited return. Clients are looking for what they want-- it's up to you to make sure they run into you, and the only way they will is for you to make sure your business is at the places they are going to go. Your business is in a continual battle for your clients recognition whether you know it or not.

[youinmyhoodnowson]

investment decision making process flowchart

Be conscious of your feelings — Within the event that there's market volatility and you begin to see the values in your account oscillate, take a second to mirror in your emotions. The primary benefit is the power to take part in the decision making course of. Are issues like office culture, worker engagement, diversity and inclusion, and opportunities for worker growth one thing that you just embrace in your research process? With the recovering condition of world financial system, the real estate markets are providing many higher opportunities for buyers all it is advisable do is to make a strategy earlier than investing in any property with a purpose to have maximum return. We have mentioned how to maneuver toward a protected investment technique in bond funds. The purchase-refurbish-refinance strategy involves taking your unique deposit and recycling it, so, over time, it can be used to buy multiple properties. The short belongings confer with the cash, marketable securities, accounts receivables and notes receivable, or those that can simply be converted into cash without taking a substantial quantity time to be realized as such. Even you may set your schedule as you need.

The final algorithm is coordination or how rules inform others the right way to work together. If you find a good company you can rollover at no cost to you and for minimal annual charges, a custodian will do all the give you the results you want so you'll be able to diversify your investments and get greater returns. Whether you're employed for a company or have your personal business, it is advisable well begin planning to build your wealth. Some nations put a restrict on the share of shares the international company can have on the subsidiary firm. Nonetheless, there is still the potential of the corporate slowing down due to inside or external forces that affect the market. Yikes now down to 1400 inhabitants any options? Simple Execution and Mere Formalities: For execution of any business deal, on-line investment is an best approach to perform. As an fairness investor, you stand to gain big if the enterprise you invested in prospers. Others comparable to BK which broke out of a 15-year base in 2016. Also, in 2016, each BAC and MS broke out of an 8-year base.

Even with client filing choices corresponding to Turbo Tax gaining steam within the market tax filers nonetheless need and hunt down skilled evaluation and preparation of their returns. If an investor is anticipating that the speed of inflation will improve to 3%, he would wish to spend money on Tips as they will turn into more precious in the future in opposition to market expectations. How can the proposed resolution help promote extra of the agency's new products to present prospects in present markets, sooner, and with less effort or bills by sales? Because of the volatility and uncertainty of current occasions, it is easy to create a case for ten years or even more of sensible, real-world expertise. Nowadays, it is very straightforward to access the current as effectively as the previous info on-line. This takes the type of an ongoing motion plan particularly designed to be versatile and seize info on an on-going foundation while making an allowance for change management.

Case Regulation that unfortunately borders on Data Over Dose which could be toxic. The route to TQM is thru software of easy instruments followed by Organisation change and tradition change. They'll monitor your progress and when mandatory make adjustments that can enable you to get back on observe with your financial planning. Ultimately, this not only leads to higher hiring selections, however strengthens the Hiring Manager’s commitment to help the candidate succeed. The flexibility, then, of a privately-held agency to borrow primarily based on the value of the goodwill or the worth of the corporate's shares could broaden the universe of worth-creating investment choices accessible to the firm. For companies to communicate financial nicely-being and shareholder value the easiest method is to say “the dividend examine is within the mail”. Diversification - Eggs and Baskets Do Matter: Diversification is a reasonably simply means to attenuate danger. William Blair is by no means affiliated with any social media platform and has no responsibility for any social media page’s operations and services. Why You Should Invest With ETFs My mother-in-law was the top house buyer I ever saw. Her hobby was buying houses. Little did I know she would teach me basic real estate investment opportunities strategies would work for a lifetime. Every Saturday for approximately 40 weeks out from the year, she would head to For Sale by Owner (FSBO) open houses by 50 % or three nearby neighborhoods. She started carrying this out when she was initially married and continued for a while following her Air Force husband retired from the military. So, when Uncle Sam moved them every 17 to 30 months, she would launch a fresh portfolio of houses. Even before they were completely unpacked, she would be from Saturday studying the neighborhoods. She knew the neighborhoods superior to any Realtor you ever met. Real estate investment strategies may also include making improvements within the property to enable you to fetch better profits later on. You need to understand that investing in a property which could be improved substantially should turn it into a lucrative buy for others too. You can also rent your property to realize a stable income on the investment. It is a fabulous strategy as you will get a fixed sum of money each month inside form of rent. The price of your asset is bound to increase gradually on the period of time. Before buying the house in a very particular location, make sure you search for the rental rates of the locality. You would also have to lookout for potential tenants who is able to pay back the rent with time. Taxes, charges and further costs of maintaining the home are some in the areas that want attention before finalizing home.

2. Retire rich - purchase an offshore pension scheme like a rand hedge.Since 1995 the rand has depreciated at a rate of 15.8 percent annually up against the dollar. And this past year the pace of depreciation was even worse -38%. In 2003 the rand gained over 10% from the dollar, but it's anticipated to start depreciating again, based on its long-term trend because of the political risk in the country. This means your offshore pension will enjoy an extended, predictable period of sustained growth and definately will yield excellent returns on your retirement. Bear in mind that pensions are payable around the globe, so even if you retire to the Mediterranean, you will definately get it. Choose a well respected fund from a reputable company to stop losing your savings. Start investing as quickly as possible. Every five-years extra that you are a part of a fund, the payout has become proven to double. Look at the US and UK - economics which investment decision making process flowchart are likely to strengthen as time passes. While it is true that you have no short-cuts, long-term investors have an exceptional and powerful asset that magically transforms simple savings into sizable stock portfolios. Its called compounding, a law of cash which includes transformed a large number of simple savers into millionaires. Compounding is something every investor should try to increase, high are lots of approaches to accomplish that. Read Part II of this article to find out about these techniques, along with the secret that professional investors focus on, that I will teach you to accomplish yourself.

Retirement, however, introduces an additional need which is the requirement to draw an ongoing income from the amount of money. If all your investments come in one bucket, then each and every time you are taking something out (monthly income) you face potential risk of crystallising losses on that section of the investment that's in 'growth' assets like shares and property, if those assets experienced a downturn in monatary amount.

[lilyjane-e-blog]

Safe & Sound | Jily

@pottersuptonogood

Some nights Lily Evans did not sleep due to her own accord. Nervous thoughts and lazy evenings full of reading were typically the culprits. On even rarer occasions sometimes the distraction came in the form of her fiancé giggling and sharing secrets until dawn. Tonight was not one of those nights instead the sleeplessness due to the screams that had haunted every waking moment she had spent at St. Mungos. The agonizing cries were sounds that Lily knew would haunt her far beyond tonight. So much pain, so much hurt, and out of all the innocent bystanders injured in the blast she was a lucky one. What had she ever done to be so lucky? There were mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, and good people who were hurt beyond all fix and yet some random witch from Cokeworth was barely injured. The arm had been an easy fix, the scar on her collarbone not so much. It seemed no matter the spell the gash had no intention of healing. Lily blamed it on the stress the healers were under and after hours of wait time Lily finally had been released just as the sun was rising above the buildings. Impossible as it seemed a new day was starting and yesterday would one day only be a record in history books. Time waited for no one. A quick trip to the apothecary and then home was her next stop. Lily was expecting to see James Potter already curled up in her bed when she arrived, or maybe underneath her favorite blanket on the couch yet when she got there and the place was empty; she was not surprised, a little disappointed sure, but not surprised.  

Sleep was about the only thing Lily wanted yet there was no chance of sleep if James was not home. Instead Lily took to showering and untangling her long red hair, cleaning up her cuts and bruises and cleansing herself of the dirt from the previous day. The warm water did wonders to help her sore muscles and helped her to look human once more. She could not scrub hard enough to release the memories but she could at least remove their marks from her skin. By the time she left the shower the only signs from the previous day were the scars and bruises  that now kissed her milky skin. There was not an inch of pale flesh that wasn't marked and staring at herself in the mirror for a moment Lily could feel her breath catch in her throat. Hot, angry tears boiled and flowed freely finally witnessing the damage hidden under the caked dirt swirling down her drain. Each bruise, each cut some day they would be gone, she told herself. Though she claimed to not be vain, Lily was not immune to the pressures of society on her body. Every time a pound was added she quickly lost it, every time a stretch mark appeared she would remedy the stripes with muggle methods. Her body had always been an object of control and yet now the skin she had worked so hard to make pristine was battered by forces out of her control. It was a physical reminder that in war nothing was off limits. Letting her red hair hang in wet ringlets down her back Lily changed herself into an oversized t-shirt of James that she saved for particularly rough nights when she needed comfort. Today was definitely going to be one of those days, Lily could feel it deep in her chest. The bruises and cuts were only physical reminders of the day's attack but the moment James stepped through that front door she knew every emotional wound was to open and bleed more profusely than any injury she had received.  

This was the risk of being in love, Lily told herself as she curled up on the couch. The soul consuming, heart wrenching, worry that Lily was experiencing was a beast she had never battled before. Anxiety was normal and Lily could deal with that, but this was much different as she was not worrying about herself but the fact that she could have lost James. Growing up at Hogwarts her friends used to always say they were going to die of a broken heart after a break up. "Lily, I can't live without him." She had always thought it was weakness and had quickly told her friends it was medically impossible. Lily was not one for romantics nor was she one to believe in the dramatics of words but for the first time in her life Lily understood the thought. If this worry could manifest itself so strongly with James alive and well, she surely would have died if something had actually happened to him. The thought that she might never had seen his smile, or hear his voice, or even so much as catch a glimpse of him across the room again froze Lily Evans to the bone. This was vulnerability that she had never encountered before, she had never allowed herself to feel such a way. Lily could not live without James Potter and that had become glaringly obvious today.

There was no way to protect him. No matter how much she prayed and wished there was nothing Lily Evans could do to save him. If she had nearly been killed while in the International Magical Office in arguably one of the most safe buildings in the wizarding world, then there was no amount of precautions that could save any of them in the real world. James would never sit down and be passive, he would never put his life before his morals no matter how much she pleaded. Lily was helpless, fighting against a world that was headed to war. James had signed up for it, as had she, and the attack on the Ministry was only the beginning. They were going to be Order members and eventually they would be tasked to help lead the good and defy the bad. Was she ready for that? Was she ready for the idea that if someone wanted to blow up the Ministry that they would not think twice about slaughtering anyone who opposed them? The reality was that Lily Evans had given up any chance of being simply a bystander the moment she had agreed to go on a date with James Potter, and had only further cemented her role when she looked Albus Dumbledore in the eye and told him she would do anything for the cause. There was no take backs. There was no rewind. Not even a time turner could fix this. There was only one option and that was to fight. Fight for James, fight for Alice, fight for Mary, fight for Remus, fight for Peter, fight for Sirius, and mostly fight for herself. If the attack had shown her one thing it was that the wizarding world was not as innocent as she had hoped, they were capable of things far worse than she had realized. She could no longer stick her head in the sand and pretend that war was not on the horizon because attacks like this were an act of war. They were in war and the walls of Hogwarts were no longer there to keep them safe.

The thoughts were enough to start the tears once more but she did not allow more than a few to shed, quickly wiping them away. James was to be home soon and she was not going to let him come home to her being a basket case, he had already dealt with enough today and was going to need someone to take care of him. If she loved him so much then she needed to be strong for right now until he was tended to. Forcing her aching bones off the couch Lily went to the kitchen to both distract herself and make herself useful. Big breakfasts were typically a weekend thing and today was to be no difference. James was going to need the food anyway and something told her that her typical avocado toast was not going to quell the grumbling in her own stomach. Beans, toast, and hashbrowns were not difficult to cook one handed, bacon, eggs, and sausage was a little more difficult, and the only part of the meal that Lily found nearly impossible was slicing the mushrooms and tomatoes but there was no way she was cooking a fry up without them. That would have been sacrilegious. Cooking helped soothe her mind and quell the worry about why James had not arrived home yet. Honestly he was probably going to be the last one out of the Ministry, he wouldn't be James Potter if he wasn't. It was that innate sense of responsibility that made him the man he was. Plating the food and setting it on the table Lily was about to return to the couch when the sound of her door opening alerted her to someone coming in. Careful steps turned into quickened strides, turned into a sprint once the door was open and throwing herself at the man in the doorway Lily allowed no space between herself and him, "James..." The name was a prayer off her lips as she clutched him tightly, "You're safe. I've got you. You're home."