#that will tell you the maximum and minimum temperatures

[artsy-hobbitses]

In truth there is no better place to be Than falling out of darkness still to see Without a premonition Could you tell me where we stand? I'd hate to lose this light Before we land And when I feel like I can feel once again Let me stay a while Soak it in a while If we can hold on we can fix what is wrong Buy a little time For this head of mine Haven for us

One of the things that I adore about Ties That Bind was the journey that Preston 'Prowl' Wan took to become a fully-fledged character, where he initially began as simply a mirror of IDW Prowl. And to honour that development, the man whose compassion is no less real for being learned rather than innate, who sees numbers and the faces behind them with the same crackshot clarity, and who believes not in gods or fate or a higher calling but in people, and in you Jazz, has earned a brand new character sheet! His old sheet can be found here And below, you'll finally find his full story!

Preston Wan Peirong remembers little of his childhood, which is perhaps for the best in some aspects; Hard to tell the truth from a lie in a memory when one doesn’t know how many times they have been ��rewritten’.

However, what he can tell you with unnerving clarity was the coldness of it all. The sterility. The unquestionable sense of order and obedience to the system he was told kept the world from devolving into chaos after it narrowly avoided total annihilation. 

As a cold construct, Preston was a part of a batch commissioned specifically for the law enforcement division and grew up in the youth wing of China’s Public Security Academy in Beijing. Here, he was trained to become a police officer from the day he was old enough to respond when the numbers under the barcode stamped on his neck were called out: P7031 Names weren’t given; Names had to be earned. 

Every aspect of his life and that of those in his batch was strictly regimented down to the last minute; Food calculated down to the last calorie for maximum performance with minimum waste to funding. Lesson room, shooting range and dorm temperatures kept frigid to ‘sharpen the mind’. The text which met his gaze, the lessons which rang in his ears, the words that came out of his mouth when he was permitted to speak.

He learned early on what his purpose was in the world, and had it drilled into him how integral purpose was to keeping the system running; Everyone had a purpose, everything had its place, and as long as the people understood both, order would be maintained, and order had to be maintained to keep the peace for the good of the many. Sometimes, yes, that meant oiling the gears. Other times, it was hammering down stray nails.

That purpose drove him, and by seven, indoctrinated him so thoroughly that he didn’t question the stinging in his knees when he was ordered to kneel on rice grains during his lesson drills, or his own hunger when ordered to go without meals until he’d learned to disassemble and reassemble his weapon at a speed which put officer cadets to shame. 

At eight however, the sterile and orderly world he knew within the academy walls began to crack; Sitting on the top of his batch, it was decided by the academy trainers that he needed more one-on-one tutelage after class hours. It was decided that he needed a handler. 

Tan Yumei was a former soldier; a renown crackshot with steel in her eyes and in her bones from years in service to the state; The kind that made her sit up straighter when the offer was made for her to become a glorified babysitter—in her words—to what had to be the world’s best behaved boy. 

Asset, the interviewer would correct her. Not a boy; an asset. Our asset. 

The promise of a job in the academy which would come with pay and medical benefits which far eclipsed her government pension was too tantalizing to pass up, and she took on the child known as P7031 under her wing. 

She was to train him in field work and help with his assimilation into society; the silo of the academy gave him the skills necessary, but could only do so much to help him function as part of the system. 

As often as she was told to treat him as an asset, a tool rather than a child, that proved easier said than done as Yumei found herself warming up to all four-foot-six of stoic, stony-faced, serious-as-a-heart attack P7031. 

It started small and innocuous; ice cream as a treat for a job well done, something completely novel to the child. No sense using the stick exclusively when the carrot was there as long as results were achieved, she would assure the staff.

This hid her growing disturbance with the way P7031 was raised, more so as he began to light up when when she greeted him every morning, began to smile as she praised him for things that weren’t tied to the purpose given to him by the academy, began to question the world around him in ways he had never been given the chance to do before with the kind of childish wonderment that dissipated into thin air when it came time to return to the academy. 

And P7031 began to feel his worldview shift as well, as she was the first person to treat him like the child that he was, whether it be reading with him young adult novels not approved by the academy board or snapping the very first pictures of himself he was allowed to keep (a gift to remind him that he existed beyond the academy walls). Attachments were an alien concept to him; he understood that his purpose meant connections beyond duty—whether it be family or friends, neither of which he had prior to Yumei— were wasteful, unnecessary, dangerous. But for the first time in his nine years of living, he wanted for something more than purpose. He wanted a life with his handler, his mother, as the card he presented to her on a second Sunday in May proclaimed with words easier written than spoken.

And as the time grew near for her handler contract with the academy to end, it was a sentiment Yumei echoed. 

When he was ten years old, she came for him after hours; silent, stealthy and wreathed in shadow, promising him a life away from the academy, from a purpose he never asked for. 

And at ten years old, time froze for him. 

P7031 didn’t remember anything of that night; The escape to the docks. The lullaby hummed to keep him calm. The struggle and the thunderclap that spattered his coat in blood that wasn’t his, and the wretched, barely human sound that tore from his throat. 

He didn’t remember being dragged back to the academy beaten within an inch of his life screaming blue murder. 

Didn’t remember the golden eyes crinkled at the edges with amusement as he begged for them to stop, because he knew Uncle Gold-Eyes, the one they called Trepan, to be a doctor who dealt with ‘defective’ assets; something he had once prided himself in never being. He didn’t care that he was defective; they had already taken the only person worth anything in his life away from him physically, and they were prepared to take what remained of her in his mind to ‘fix’ him. 

His pleas fell on deaf ears, and what he did remember, after all this, is simply his dorm room, Spartan as ever. 

Life went on, with only whispers of the unexplained cancellation of the handler initiative, which he’d never heard of, as a ripple in the monotony of his classes, shooting range practice and on-field assignments.

At eighteen, he graduated from the academy and finally earned the right to a name, and P7031 became Officer Wan Peirong, assigned to the Chengdu Security Bureau where he became one of its rising stars. 

His professionalism, loyalty and sense of duty were unmatched, even among his batch, and he unquestioningly served the system that kept the nation running. Criminals had no place in the system, but as he was told by his superiors, neither did dissidents who threatened order and had to be re-educated, taught the error of their ways to become productive citizens the same way he had been molded into a model worker in the academy. 

In this period, blips in his memories became more frequent, though his attending physician dismissed his concerns as it didn’t impact his work. Work which he began to question one day when his task entailed breaking up a miners’ protest downtown. As he led one activist away, an elderly woman kowtowed at his feet, begging for him to show mercy to her son, and something in her voice made him loosen his grip with the beginnings of doubt.

Miners were not an outlying group; they were a sizable section of the populace, and they weren’t the only group voicing their grievances. He was tasked with helping keep the peace; something he was told repeatedly that the many desired over the few who bucked against the order. But who was he serving when those who bucked against the order he was told should not be challenged became the many? 

It was a question Peirong struggled with as the days went by and dissent grew louder among the working class, which authorities were ordered to respond to with mounting force even for the pettiest infractions.

He began to seek out banned texts, including translated copies of ‘Towards Peace’, supposedly penned by a Cold Construct just like him from the west, to gain clarity on the situation; He reasoned that ne had to study all angles before making a move after all, and the more he read, the more shaky his faith grew in an institution which was far from the paragon he had been promised in the academy. 

He wasn’t a fool however; he knew how the system worked inside and out, and began searching for loopholes to secretly help out people he believed were being failed by the system, as well as utilising malicious compliance to cover his tracks in a real-time game of chess with his superiors.

It all came to a boiling point one day, as he was assigned to a squad escorting a group of political prisoners to a new facility. 

Among them was someone Peirong recognised as one Brandon Shen Bailin; a charismatic and  defiant radio deejay-reporter from Hong Kong who recently came out as a Cold Construct and was nicknamed the ‘Blaster’ for the exposes he penned about the government. 

Brandon had gone missing weeks ago on assignment in Xinjiang; no amount of bandages and no large a hoodie could hide the toll that time had taken on the man, who was now emaciated and missing all of his fingers.

Before Peirong could fully process what he was seeing, the reporter was separated from the rest of prisoners and forced to kneel, as a gun was placed in Peirong’s hands by the Second-Level Inspector and he was told to dispose of this enemy of the state.

What was unspoken but clearly understood between both of them, as Peirong could deduce from the officers closing in on him, was that this was a test of loyalty as his wavering faith in the system was becoming clear to the bureau’s cabal. 

The choice was made in a split second; he refused his commanding superior’s orders, shot the man square between the eyes before they could draw their weapon and then kneecaped the rest of the officers before the dust settled.

Hauling Brandon into the shotgun seat of the prisoner transport truck and driving off, he helped the reporter liaise with a contact that directed them to a rendezvous point at the nearby contested China-Arunachal Pradesh border to fight extradition orders. 

With authorities not far behind, Peirong pressed on and covered for them as they raced towards the border, following in Brandon’s lead. He had spoken with them throughout the journey; stilted and monotonous as ever on his end as he struggled to connect with them, but two things were clear, as they made that run for freedom:

The first was that the system was untenable if it would deem parents, poets, artists and blue collar workers–the many, the unarmed—as enemies of the state.  The second, was that while they ran for their lives, he wasn’t sure whether he’d ever truly lived at all. 

This was a sentiment that Peiriong echoed, after he was overpowered by men in the same uniform he wore, to the constable pressing the nozzle of a gun to his forehead; That they were free to take his life, a life where the only moment he’d felt even barely alive was he had defied an order for the first time. 

The argument that occurred next between two commanding officers who debated his fate was a surprise, though not so much as the revelation that this wasn’t the ‘first time’ he had broken protocol, and that he had apparently broken protocol one too many times that they were now weighing his use against the cost needed for his ‘upkeep’. 

In a day of firsts, it was also the first time Peirong had allowed his emotions to overwhelm him, as his increasingly frantic demands to know what they did to him before this—suddenly the blips in his memories made sense—was met with a pistol whip to the temple, and booming sound which made him believe for a fraction of a second that the gunman had kept true to the threat to kill him. 

Except he still breathed, and despite the ringing in his ears, he dazedly managed to push himself up to see the officers scattered and stunned while a new man stood in their midst; armored, backlit against the sun, and smiling.

The words were muffled, but he could read the man’s lips clearly; “Focus on me.” 

It was the singular thread of clarity he needed to finally accept the hand outstretched to him as both of them made a run for the waiting aircraft that would, for better or worse, take him away from his purpose, from the only life he knew. 

The man, who introduced himself as Jace Zayden codenamed Jazz, was a friend of Brandon who had refused to leave without the lone cop who had risked everything to help them.

And where Peirong had feared losing his purpose, his reason for existing with the single step he took beyond China’s borders, he found that he had instead traded it in for another the moment Jace invited him to team leader Omar ‘Orion Pax’ Parvez’s table to discuss strategy; something this new team desperately needed. 

He chose a new name, Preston, to mark his departure from his old life, and focused on his new purpose as framed by the man who saw worth in his life when those he’d once pledged it to did not: Peace through compassion, even if learned, over oppression. 

And between understanding what it meant to live as a man rather than a government asset, and forging connections beyond what duty once dictated for him, maybe, just maybe he could one day piece together the scattered fragments of his past. 

[audacityinblack]

or i

[zriasstuff]

Slytherin boys x reader (kinky shit vol.1)

lowk embarrassed because this is from my shortlived unhinged wattpad era, but here you go (i didn’t want this to just rot away in my google docs drafts), vol.2 in case you’re interested

Warnings: overstimulation kink, sexual content, no plot, mdni, yk the drill, not proof read

Mattheo Riddle:

He enjoys it so much when you continue to suck him after he just came down your throat. His tip is always hypersensitive, and he turns into a groaning and swearing mess when you swirl your tongue around it. Although he tries to control it, the occasional whimper slips through too. The feeling of pain and pleasure combined makes his swollen dick twitch in your mouth and come extremely quickly.

“Fuck princess, only you can make me feel like this”

Tom Riddle:

He will almost always tie you up, either to the headboard, or arms behind your back. After he comes inside you, he knows that you’re still sensitive.

Since he himself is too, he’ll shove three fingers in you and watch as you squirm and whimper from the overwhelming sensation. Your insides are barely able to handle the immediate penetration and start to feel like they’re twisting. He’ll either tell you to beg for release or for him to stop. “Use your words, doll”/“You’re such a fucking slut for me, you deserve whatever I do to you”/“Beg for it you desperate slut”

You always come a minimum of three times, and he will make sure that you can barely walk afterwards. The control that he has over you just turns him on all the more.

Theodore Nott:

After you finish, he’ll tell you to finger yourself and to come once more. He enjoys having the power over you and you being obedient. Of course you do what he wants, painfully so and during it, he’ll control your speed and the amount of fingers. “Good girl, doing whatever I tell her to”/“Such a good girl for me”/“Come on, I know you can do it”

You also love all the praise, so you always make sure to put on a show for him.

After the pleasurable torture you put yourself through, he always gives you sweet aftercare.

Blaise Zabini:

He especially loves it when you ride him. Normally he wants both of you to come at the same time, but sometimes he tells you to control yourself a little after he came already. Then, after he came, he’ll tell you to keep going at his own expense, and watches you as you use him for your own pleasure. Every time you clench around him a moan slips out as he goes completely insane from the overstimulation on his already exhausted cock. It makes him feel incredibly turned on, to be at your mercy and to be used. Yes princess, use me all you want”/“All this is yours”/“Fuck you look hot on top of me”

Enzo Berkshire:

Overstimulation is one of his biggest kinks, so any way, shape or form of it is always extremely welcome. You make sure to do it to the point where he is completely out of breath and can only whimper under your control. After doing it, you sometimes wrap your hand around him and jerk him to come once more. At that point he’s already a moaning mess and his dick is consistently red and leaking. “Please can I cum?”/“You make me feel so good”

Instead of your hand, you also use your mouth sometimes. You deepthroat him for maximum pleasure and you feel his hips bucking and begging for renewed release.

Draco Malfoy:

For him it involves a bit of temp play too, but after both of you finish he’ll get a few ice cubes to drag out your post-orgasm pleasure. He’ll slowly drag them along your hardened nipples, all the way to your clit, holding the cube in place there. The sudden change in temperature always brings out uncontrollably loud moans from you and makes you squirm around. As soon as you move too much, he’ll shove one cube inside you, which causes you to melt into a whimpering mess. “Bad girls need to be punished”/“You look so pathetic, barely being able to stay still”

[ghoulfuckersincorporated]

(Sorry if this is too weird for you. You can just ignore it if you like.)

So...what's it like to drink the Ghoul's piss? I'm wondering about taste, smell, temperature, and side-effects.

*blush*

(*Homelander voice* Go ahead...let's light this candle, huh??)

Friend, when I said this blog is kink-friendly and I don't judge, I meant that this blog is kink-friendly and I don't judge. I've yet to get a single ask/question/request that's made me uncomfortable, or even made me look at it funny, and this certainly isn't the point where I'm gonna start. With that said...

The taste? Oh babe, lemme tell you, it's not good. Don't get me wrong, I don't think anyone in the Fallout universe would have inoffensive-tasting piss (chronic dehydration is too widespread and frankly these people have fucked-up diets, plus constant radiation exposure for most of them). But I fully believe that ghoul metabolic processes are streamlined to utilize any beneficial resources with maximum efficiency (chiefly, calories and water; this would fall in line with characters like The Ghoul being put into situations where they survive for years and years with no food or water). To be blunt, I don't think his kidneys are producing a ton of urine, save for the bare minimum of biological waste that comes from them simply operating.

Long story short, I think the man maybe pisses once every few days if he's had enough water, and it would be dark and STRONG, both in smell and taste.

I also have a headcanon that ghouls run noticeably hotter than regular humans due to the sheer amount of energy that gamma radiation produces. The radiation alone may not produce much measurable physical heat, but I think a human body plied with it down to the cell level would basically work as a space heater. I don't think most ghouls worry about thermoregulation in the heat.

You know what that means, though? Incredibly hot piss. Like, steaming hot even when it's not cold outside. Hot enough to make you gasp when it hits your skin, startling without actually burning you.

In terms of side-effects from contact or ingesting, I'm envisioning the same sort of deal as with ghoul cum (which I elaborated on in an almost-equally unhinged post here); it's incredibly radioactive and will make you very ill if you fuck around too much. Getting a little on you probably wouldn't be any worse than trudging through your average puddle of nuclear waste, but if you're intending to have it inside you in any way, especially swallowing it, you need to be careful. Prep with Rad-X (which reduces the amount of radiation that "sticks" to you, up to a certain point), finish up with Radaway (which removes already-accumulated radiation) if you're determined to be a piss queen or a ghoul cum dumpster. No judgement! I just want to make sure you know you're in for some pretty severe nausea, open sores/burns (especially in your mouth), bleeding from the nose, and bruising if you're not careful. We love nasty fun around here, but we also love safety.

Also, you didn't ask about this, but based on what you DID ask, I'll assume you'd also be interested in knowing what his reaction to you bringing up such things would be.

And honestly? I think you'd get essentially the same reaction from Prewar!Coop and The Ghoul.

I think he'd be hesitant. Not because he finds it too gross or off-putting or anything, but he'd worry that it'll be disrespectful to you in a way that he, as a man, shouldn't engage in (moreso Prewar!Coop), and because he's worried it could be harmful to you (moreso The Ghoul). Don't get me wrong; I think he'd certainly be intrigued, and I think you being both bold and vulnerable enough to ask for such a thing would make his head spin in the best possible way. What a display of trust! As I've said before, I think this man had (and has) lots of weird kinks himself, he just hasn't had the opportunities to explore them that he needs. Many of those kinks he doesn't even realize he has.

But even though you can see that intrigue in his pretty eyes, see the forming bulge in his pants, you may have to be persistent if you really wanna try it out. He's very firm about not doing anything that'll really harm you, and he isn't initially convinced this won't.

If I'm quite honest? Prewar!Cooper would be even more turned on by it than The Ghoul once he came around to the idea. I think it would arouse him so much to see his favorite pretty little plaything so enamored with him that they'll do anything to please him, for him to make them feel good, including debase themselves completely. I think that you being so into him that you want him to piss on you, in you, would both stroke his ego and feed his most primal, possessive urges.

Best bet to get him started? Hop in the shower with him, get him all worked up as per usual, and then drop to your knees and start blowing him. Once you get him worked up enough that he could very nearly cum, pull back and keep stroking him slowly while you beg for it. Provided you've timed things right, there's no way he'd be able to say no...just give him a second. It's difficult to piss with a massive, throbbing erection. Maybe if you played with the head (with your tongue) while he tried, that would help. Who says you have to pull away when he finally starts if you don't want to?

Hope you're ready for an engagement ring after that.

The Ghoul mostly finds appeal in how filthy it is, in seeing this clean, gorgeous young thing having to dirty themselves to survive. Eventually, fully embracing the filth because they're part of the Wasteland now, coming to enjoy filth to some degree. I think that aspect of it would really get him going. Remember that scene where he watches Lucy drink the contaminated water that ultimately makes her sick? I saw a post on here when I first started the blog (I can't find it now!) about him offering Lucy an alternative to that when she was begging for some of his water...it really awakened something in me. Enough said.

I think he'd enjoy it as much as you, when it came down to it, but I think he would also make you beg for it, loudly and fervently, every single time you want it. From the very first time, it's gonna rile him up like no other that his pristine little companion is begging him to dirty them in such a disgusting way. I don't think he'd be too keen on letting you swallow it, honestly, much like I don't think he'd be too keen on letting you swallow his cum because of the radiation. But I think if you ask pretty enough, nasty enough, he'd be more than happy to piss on you or in your other holes. Only if he knows you're set up with plenty of Radaway, though.

People don't really get "engaged", or even married anymore, per se, but if you think you're getting away from this man after you let him do that to you, you're sorely mistaken.

[the-jellicle-duelist]

my nemesis is really getting under my skin

here is the thumbnail. the “experiment” in this video is he halves a whole turkey, brines both halves, and then he cooked one turkey to 160F and the other to 175F and then they both rested.

he goes on to try both of these, using air quotes to describe the “correctly” cooked turkey as “lunch meat tasting” and praised the “overcooked” turkey for being “pull apart-able” which is a quality i have never heard anyone want in turkey white meat

to really understand what is wrong with his entire premise you need to understand two things: how you like your turkey (and every other food) is subjective, and he overbrined his turkey

problem the 1st: i mention this being subjective because the qualities that he ascribes to the meat that he cooked to a higher temperature that he enjoyed is localized to him. he can like that. YOU can like that. as cooking advice tho, most people do not know how to overcook something on purpose, with intent. most people do not own a meat thermometer. or if they do, how to use it correctly. you can’t recommend this as general cooking advice. this is now going to come up in search results for people who search for “turkey brine.”

problem the 2nd; he overbrined his turkey. it is so important to tell everyone here reading this post that brining should not noticeably alter the texture of your meat. if it DOES either you used too much salt (he used too much salt) or you brined for too long (he also probably did this although he did not say how long)

if you have brined your turkey Correctly you should be able to do the following;

- taste seasoning in the meat

- have usable pan drippings after a roast

if you cannot do this you have too much salt for your tastes in your brine. start with 2% salt (your water for your brine if it has 2000g of water, it also has 40g of salt) adjust by half a percent if it’s not to your liking. if you don’t like the texture, you have brined for too long. for a whole turkey, 6 hours is probably the minimum. and 10 is probably the maximum. but if you don’t like the texture, reduce brine time. you can go less than 6 hours too. i can’t tell you how to get the perfect texture. you have to do the work to make notes of your process, of what you did, and make adjustments for your next time cooking.

problem the 3rd i didn’t even bring up; you need to let go of the idea of a whole turkey. it’s bad for the turkey. he even acknowledges in his own video that white meat and dark meat cook at different rates and this is totally true. if you cook them whole you are going to compromise one to benefit the other. but you don’t have to!!! go online. looking up a video about how to break down a turkey into quarters. you will thank me for learning this skill. you can now independently control the temperature of all of your turkey pieces at the same time.

the quality he ascribes as lunch meaty and then says a bunch of science at you to try to make himself into an authority figure who is supposed to be listened to and respected, is because he overbrined his turkey and changed the texture. if done correctly you don’t get lunch meat texture and flavor, you get good turkey. and you don’t want to OVERCOOK good turkey because you fucked up your brining. the reason it tasted better to him is because 1) i think he just prefers the texture of overcooked meat (subjective) and 2) when you overcook the overbrined turkey you are removing the excess brine from the meat of the turkey because it has less juice in it. and so your mistake ‘tastes better’ because you course corrected during the cooking process

anyways thank you for your time i hate this man so much

[moose-mousse]

Meandering thoughts.... part 1

Authers note: Got high wrote what I was thinking. Be warned:

Got my code reviewed, and passed, at work.

And when testing the temperature sensor I had made a driver for… I was getting questions about why it could not measure anything bellow 0.

Which I could easily answer with "Because I told it to".

Because I was told to send the data out in fullscale… which I was told are simply a 14 bit representation of the temprature from a minimum to a maximum.

And the minimum for this sensor, was 0. So I clamped the values: if ( temperature > maximum) { temperature = maximum} else if (temperature < minimum) { temperature =minimum}

Turns out… that is not correct. The full-scale simply is the very weird way we say what a bit means. Normally like this "Each LSB ( least significant bit ) represent 0.0634 degrees celsius" So if the sensor returns 1000, you go: 63.4 = 1000 * 0.0634;

So what I HAD to encode the number as was that constant, but on 16 bit, in signed form.

Now… that is my bad. I did not understand a thing, and did not ask for an explanation… And the ones I got from the intro to the codebase was "its fullscale", and I did not have access to documentation.

BUT! The guy who DID know this, reviewed my code…

So why, oh why, did he not see the the function clearly marked "Claimping values" in there and then tell me it was wrong?

This review process is by the way partly for SECURITY! If giant breaks in business logic is not found, what do you think the chance is that a security issue is found? My guess is 0%

Remember. Tech companies being competent, is a myth. Companies are teenagers showing up for a presentation in history class still drunk from an all night kegger, just making up whatever stories they make up on the spot… except everyone in the class will lose their income, and have their life stability ripped away from them if they don't tell the company that they are absolutely right and are getting a A+.

[bending-sickle]

talking about The Heat with cousin last night and they said “but you grew up in hot places” as if a) that means i should be used to this hell heat wave and b) living in the tropics is the same as hell heat waves

for example:

April is the hottest month in San José [Costa Rica] with an average temperature of 24.5°C (76°F) and the coldest is January at 21.5°C (71°F)

Summers [in Mexico City, Mexico] are just a few degrees hotter, with days typically heating up to 76 °F (25 °C) and nights cooling off to 44 °F (7 °C).

March, the warmest month of the year [in Nairobi, Kenya], is generally a warm month. The average temperature is of 21.5 °C (71 °F), with a minimum of 15.1 °C (59.1 °F) and a maximum of 28 °C (82.4 °F). On the coldest nights, the temperature usually drops to around 11 °C (52 °F).

compared to what we’re experiencing now

In Spain, temperatures are expected to be above 40C and remain high throughout the night, making it challenging to find respite from the heat.

i’ll take the fucking tropics any damned day. gimme that sweet sweet altitude-induced night coolness

hell, even the horribly hot summers i spent in north central spain weren’t that bad because, since it was the meseta, the nights were still cold enough to warrant wool blankets. you cannot underestimate the relief that cool nights brings, and how much it helps to withstand prolonged summer heat.

i have never had to sleep on top of the bedsheets pouring sweat until rome and now here. not even athens was this bad (it was mercifully a dry heat, which is weird because…y'know, the coast was right there. of course that was 20 years ago so athens Now is indeed Hell Heat Central). here it is just non-fucking-stop Worst Heat Ever for days and days and the bod, it can only take so much before it starts to go “please, i’ll tell you anything! just make it stop!”

anyway thanks for coming to my ted talk about stereotypes of living in the tropics

[thryth-gaming]

Conrad Stevenson's Paranormal PI - Review

Overall a good game and an excellent first attempt at a game. But there are some rough spots especially some poorly executed attempts at representation which I will discuss when I review each story in the spoiler section. I think I'm going to break this down into parts.

The representation issues soured much of the game for me though the atmosphere and horror were great. I'd rate it about a 2.5 or 3 out of 5. It'd be a strong 3.5 or 4 if the only issue was the gameplay slog on the Church map.

Methods

Conrad Stevenson's Paranormal PI is based around the practices of real life ghost hunting. This means the following:

Checking for unusual Electromagnetic Fields (EMF).

Checking for unusual temperatures.

Recording audio evidence

Taking photographic evidence

Recovering physical evidence

Evidence in a location will increase as you gather more evidence within a single visit.

EMF and Temperature

EMF and Temperature are straight forward to gather. When you have the necessary item in hand it will react to the environment. Sometimes you will get a little black bar that slowly fills up red. These are possible paranormal events. When the bar fills, Conrad will tell you whether or not the evidence is strange or normal.

To max out Temp or EMF evidence you need to fill up the investigation bar twice with a strange phenomenon for each type of evidence. (Temp x2 and EMF x2).

Red Herring temperature and EMF spikes tend to be stationary.

Red herrings usually occur around natural sources such as electrical outlets or devices, air conditioner vents, or doors outside.

I like to complete red herring bars so that the tool will stop responding to it.

When the EMF or Temp Spike is moving that's probably a ghost.

Poltergeists can be difficult since the temp spikes before an event and EMF after.

Once you've maxed out these evidences the investigation bar will stop appearing but the tool will still react. At this point I usually drop the tools to focus on other tools.

Audio Evidence

There's two ways to collect audio evidence. Ghosts will occasionally audibly make statements that can be recorded. This will happen randomly. You can also try to collect Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) by performing an EVP session with the sound recorder. This will present a list of eight questions you can prompt Conrad to ask.

Every ghost has some randomly played audio associated with it.

Intelligent ghosts and demons will respond to EVP sessions.

Shadow ghosts, residual ghosts, and poltergeists do not respond to EVP sessions.

Every ghost that responds to EVP will respond to all 8 questions.

Answers that are not in English are marked "indecipherable".

Whether or not a ghost responds to EVP is also RNG so you may need to cycle through questions for a good long while to get responses.

In order to release ghosts or exorcise a ghost you must collect a minimum number of audio samples.

Both EVP responses and unprompted sounds count toward this maximum.

Ghosts that respond to EVP have more unique sounds than you need to reach the minimum needed for releasing or exorcising a ghost.

Ghosts that don't respond to EVP must have all their sounds recorded.

Intelligent ghosts, shadow ghosts, and demons have particular audio sounds they make when they notice Conrad. These count toward the needed minimum to release a ghost.

Neither the ParaVox nor the ParaBox equipment contribute to the audio recording evidence for releasing a ghost.

If you are using the ParaVox or the ParaBox it takes more answers to get the same amount of experience.

The Paramic has a larger ranger for capturing unprompted responses but cannot be used for an EVP session.

Footsteps can be recorded for audio evidence experience but don't count toward releasing the ghost.

Poltergeist audios are usually crashes, knocking sounds, sounds like wood creaking or cracking. Poltergeist events that can be photographed also produce an audio that is needed to be recorded.

The sound recorder and paramic will continue recording even if you switch to another piece of equipment and will make a click sound when they shut off.

Photo Evidence

You will max out your photo experience on a mission for any one ghost photo and any two poltergeist event photos.

Ghosts tend to have particular routes they like to take.

If you hear footsteps that will possibly be a ghost manifesting, the type of footstep tells you what surface they're walking on.

Intelligent ghosts, shadows, and demons will react to your presence. They will look at you, run from you, or attack you.

Intelligent ghosts and demon ghosts will sometimes partially manifest. Like just the demons' eyes, or one ghosts lantern but not his body.

Residual ghosts will sometimes produce footprint sounds without being visible. You can't take photos in this case, but can give you clues as to where their route is.

Poltergeist events involve some object being thrown around. You need to photograph the object either in flight or on the ground after it lands.

Poltergeist events reset quickly so unless you were there to see it happen, you're unlikely to get the photo.

The autocam is invaluable, especially for ghosts that appear only briefly, incredibly shy, and for all poltergeists.

Keeping a photocam always in hand at an easily accessibly slot is advised.

Physical Evidence

Each of the five maps have a number of small bits of information that you can find and access through your archives on your PC between missions. Some of the possible archive notes don't appear on the map but instead appear in response to finding other pieces. These bits can be used as notes to increase the activity of specific ghosts.

They will be marked by an interact symbol when you get close. The same symbol is used for light switches and your own gear.

Each note has one or two potential spawn points where it can appear on each visit.

Once you've collected a note, it will no longer spawn at the map you found it.

Choosing Notes

While you're at the computer you can look at the accompanying emails, wiki entries, and archives to choose up to 6 notes to take into an investigation.

Notes in email or the wiki will be highlighted grey.

Some of the photos in the wiki entries for Church and Lighthouse can be clicked as notes.

Archives represent the physical evidence you find at the scene.

Chosen notes will increase the amount of activity for the associated ghost.

Each ghost has between 3 and 4 associated notes.

I believe in order to release a ghost or exorcise a demon you must start an investigation with all of that ghost's associated notes.

Only the Church and Lighthouse have wiki-entries.

I suspect the impact of notes on activity is more extreme for Demons.

Equipment

Starter Gear

Audio recorder - usable for both unprompted sounds and EVP sessions.

Photocam - has a nightvision mode, unlimited photos

EMF - needs only to be held, automatically turns on.

Thermometer - needs only to be held, automatically turns on.

Purchasble

Releasing and Exorcising Gear

These are necessary to complete the game. Most of these are smudge sticks. Admirably, none of these are described as using sage, which in the real world has been driven into endangered status due to the fad belief that it is useful for spiritual cleansings.

Mugwort Smudge Sticks (pink string) - used to release residual ghosts

Juniper Smudge Sticks (blue string) - used to release shadow ghosts

Thyme Smudge Sticks (purple string) - used to release intelligent ghosts

Rosemary Smudge Sticks (brown string) - used to release poltergeists

Palo Santo Smudge Sticks (it's a stick) - used to exorcise demons

Salt - used to exorcise demons

Good Purchases

Autocam - Will take pictures autoamtically, does not work in hand, must be set on a tripod. Has collision. You can get stuck on it. Invaluable for poltergeists, areas with lots of clutter or obstruction, shy ghosts and fast ghosts.

Paramic - Longer range than the audio recorder can't be used for EVP. Use for shadows, poltergeists, and residuals, or when you want the unprompted response.

Sometimes useful purchases

EMF Pod - This can be turned on and set in place. It will start sounding an alarm when an EMF field is near it. Don't place near generators, breaker boxes, or other sources of natural EMF. Doesn't count as EMF evidence but tells you when the ghost is near its location. You can only ever have one so it has limited usefulness.

DOTS - Projects a grid of colored dots. Normally, the dots are green. The dots turn yellow if the device is pointed at a ghost. Can be placed. Again, doesn't provide evidence on its own but can point you to where the ghost is. Can be placed or held, while held you can't use other gear because your hands are full.

Frustrating purchases

ParaVox - Can be used for EVP sessions but not audio recording. When a response is generated it produces a word from a library. This does give experience related to audio evidence, slowly, but is not audio evidence on its own. Therefore it is useless as regards trying to release ghosts or exorcise demons.

ParaBox - Same as above but with a video.

It is possible either of these pieces of gear can provide extra context or narrative. Especially for ghosts that don't speak English.

Shadows will apparently respond to these devices.

While I appreciate the added flavor and not making these required to move on, the fact that they also don't contribute to moving on is irksome and feels like a bait and switch.

Demons and Poltergeists

Demons are interesting, Judeo-Christian in model with a rather pop-culture version of the lore. One of the three demons in the game is part of the best story in the game but another of them is a cultural appropriation issue.

If a demon attacks you, Conrad will pass out. He will also lose some of the evidence he's collected and the batteries in his equipment will be dead.

Poltergeists are forgivably bland in story, they're weird things pulled from somewhere else by trauma.

Maps

Evergreen Lane (Rated 4/5)

The first map you have access to. There are four ghosts here, three human ghosts and one poltergeist. The stories give you the first taste of the in depth storytelling of this game. These are all pretty well thought through.

Elizabeth Carter is a cheerful young girl who unfortunately died young due to tuberculosis. She is a residual ghost and is not aware of her surroundings.

William Carter is Elizabeth's father and died full of anger at no one helping his children as they died from tuberculosis. He is a shadow ghost.

Robert Connor is a veteran who succumbed to PTSD and survivors guilt ending his own life. He has no particular connection to the others.

The Ghost in the Kitchen, As with all poltergeists, it is presented as some weird opportunistic thing that slipped through a crack caused by the collected trauma.

Polk Street (Rated 3.5/5)

Polk Street's stories are also pretty in depth, but they are a bit soured by the fact that it feels like Deborah's abuse is treated as a symptom of her mental illness. It is a difficult line to manage and I'm not sure it truly crosses the line, but it came close enough for me to be a bit uncomfortable. This may be personal bias, however, as abusive parents are a bit of a hated thing for me, blame being a teacher.

David Allen was abused by his stepmother and then died at age 31 while hanging out with friends. He appears a young boy ghost and is an intelligent ghost who regard Conrad with curiosity and friendliness.

Deborah Allen is David's stepmother who was dealing with substance abuse and mental illness. It is at least implied that she ended her own life in her 30s.

Harold Wagner is an old man who died many years after the death of his wife after they had lived together 40 years. He is a residual bound her by loneliness and deep grief.

The Ghost in the Garage, another poltergeist, not much story, drawn here by the death and trauma on the site.

Spruce Street Church (2/5)

The gameplay really suffers on this map. Many of the ghost suffer poorly balanced activity. You can spend a lot of time waiting for the ghost to appear or give audio. This feels like a mix of the large areas and the RNG nature of how activity is produced. It is a major point of lag in the game.

On top of that are the uses of a Native American ghost but without any of the narrative depth that we find in the other stories. He's sort of just there and feels sort of like a footnote of the demon's story and I feel like they could have used a more general name for the demon rather than use a name that the culture has asked people not to use in fiction. This was especially disappointing after the way they avoided using sage as a smudge stick and how they handled the other stories.

The Segerstein, Ulrich, the Williams, and LeFebre stories are all very well done and evocative. I do wish a less appropriation-tainted version of the demon could be better linked to more of the troubles in the area similar to the situation in Jefferson Street.

Pastor Jacob Johnson is a minister who was watching his congregation shrink over time and became fearful for the spiritual safety of the people around him. He is a residual ghost.

John Ulrich is a gravedigger and graverobber. Unfortunately his son was killed when the son investigated what he was doing and two angry mourners shot and killed the boy by accident. He is a shadow ghost.

Ezra Segerstein was a groundskeeper from an unknown time who started haunting the land after the Segerstein family was evicted in the 1950s despite having maintained the grounds for generations at that point. He is an intelligent ghost.

Alice Williams was a woman in an abusive marriage in the 1940s. She had a lover outside the marriage and had a son with her lover. In an argument with her abuser she admitted her son was not his and the abuser killed them both. She is a residual ghost.

Timothy Williams is Alice's son who was killed by her husband. Though investigating him it feels like the implication is he was playing superhero and fell killing himself in an accident. He is a residual ghost.

Pierre Lefebre is an architect who designed a mausoleum that he expected would be open to the public, however the mausoleum was then used only for the elites and he received some of the blame. After dying in a carriage accident he was buried in the mausoleum and now haunts lighting candles in a silent protest to the way his work was tainted. He's an intelligent ghost.

Red Eyes is an indigenous ghost of unknown name who was already around when the first colonists arrived. We're never given a name and we're told he's been resisting/guarding against the demon for centuries. He is a shadow ghost.

The demon in the woods uses a name that is considered inappropriate to use for pop culture and is said to have been a cannibal spirit that was summoned here by some cult.

Jefferson Street (5/5)

This is the best crafted story of the entire set. All the ghosts are tied together and there's a very neat point of Rhonda's ghost avoiding the parts of the house her mother's ghost haunts most of the time, though she will go into the girl's room and turn the crosses upside down as part of her effort to try to warn people about the demon and do what she can to protect the current residents.

Rhonda DaFoe was a young woman who got interested in the occult and ended up accidentally summoning a real demon which then possessed her. Her behavior immediately changed and she eventually killed her entire family before killing herself in jail while waiting for trial. She is a shadow ghost.

Kathy DaFoe was Rhonda's mother and kept trying to explain away Rhonda's change in behavior. She is a residual ghost.

The demon in the basement is the architect of the entire tragedy and is working to possess the child of the current residents.

Barr Harbor Lighthouse (2.5/5)

The gameplay issues of Spruce Street occur a little bit here in places, but not nearly as bad as a lot of the locations are a bit more contained. Two of the major locations are fairly easily missed, namely the slave cabins and the sea cave. Gameplay actually went a lot smoother than Spruce Street for most ghosts.

The representation issue happens here again. I will note that Douglas Murdock is the only human ghost that Conrad has no patience for, but it feels like they wanted to try to do some Black representation and jumped to slavery as the subject. However, George comes feels like a footnote to Douglas's story. It is admittedly an attempt to point out that slavery existed in northern states as well and that people weren't willing to do too much despite their discomfort with it. It's hard for me to express how much this soured the map for me. Having one of the release multiple choice questions being a Beatles joke especially was aggravating.

I'm not sure the Slavic cultures have a problem with using Rulsalka in pop culture, but I'd still encourage using less culturally specific terms for the demon just for consistency with Jefferson Street and to avoid using that name in Spruce Street.

Deidre Hurley is the wife of one of the lighthouse keepers. She died in childbirth along with her last child. She is trying to see her baby and seems to still be in pain from the trauma of her death. She is an intelligent ghost and probably was aware of when her son Eli died as well.

Eli Hurley is one of the children of Deidre Hurley, he was roughhousing with his brother in the lighthouse and fell over a railing dying in the fall. He is still playing in the lighthouse. He is a shadow ghost.

Douglas Murdock was one of the first two lighthouse keepers and a disgraced politician who very likely killed his wife. Despite the locals being against slavery he made an effort to go south and buy slaves, one of whom he beat to death for a petty reason. As a result the other lighthouse keeper murdered him as a matter of vigilante justice. He is a residual ghost.

George is the slave whom Douglas Murdock murdered. He was a porter. We don't know much else about him. He is a residual ghost.

Rene Novak was from a later family and was the one to start holding ghost tours around the light house grounds. She has continued to haunt the area out of a sense of nostalgia and love for her home. She is a residual ghost.

Dr Arthur Gideon is a civil war doctor who was set up in the general hospital nearby which is now being used as a barn. This makes some question that this is somewhere close enough to the fighting that battlefield injuries were coming here and is part of why I feel like this isn't exactly Earth. He is an intelligent ghost.

Mary Walsh was a coast guard operator during a war, probably World War II or its equivalent. Her newlywed husband went into the military (I'm not certain which branch) and died overseas. She was well regarded for her diligence but spent the rest of her life heartbroken living only for her work. She is a shadow ghost.

Melanie Peters was a cheerleader who was murdered by a demon possessed serial killer. We don't know too much about her personally, but we hear a bit about the night she died. She was likely sacrificed to the demon. She is a residual ghost.

The demon in the sea cave is tied to Melanie's death and it is implied she has been causing the death of teenaged couples at least once a year for decades.

[sonuhose]

FOUR THINGS YOU NEED TO TELL YOUR HYDRAULIC EQUIPMENT SUPPLIER

For beginners, getting your head around hydraulics can be confusing. Hydraulics have a vast range of applications in our daily life; industries that use hydraulics include construction, automobile, mining and defense. Hydraulics is an area of civil engineering that deals with fluids and various applications related to it.

Below, we’ve put together four things you need to tell your hydraulic equipment supplier.

WHAT IS HYDRAULICS?

A hydraulic system uses compressed fluid to transfer force applied at one point to another point. A hydraulic machine gains controlled motion through the use of a transmitted fluid. There are various components that make up a basic hydraulic system: reservoir, pump, valves, fluid, motor, hose, filter and cylinder.

FOUR THINGS TO TELL YOUR HYDRAULIC EQUIPMENT SUPPLIER

When sourcing a piece of hydraulic equipment, it’s important to tell your supplier a few things about the environment the machine will be operating in.

MINIMUM & MAXIMUM AMBIENT TEMPERATURE

In order to determine the correct hydraulic fluid type, viscosity grade and viscosity index, you’ll need to tell your supplier the minimum and maximum ambient temperature. This also helps to determine whether tank heating is required at minimum ambient temperature, or whether a cooling capacity is required at maximum ambient temperature.

HUMIDITY CONDITIONS

If the machine is operating in an environment where humidity levels are high (for example, marine or tropical environments), a moisture absorbing tank breather may be required. Polymeric filters may also be required to limit water content.

DUST LEVELS

Environments with high dirt and dust levels may require contamination exclusion and control. From a sealed and pressurised reservoir, or a vented reservoir with a bladder (creating a barrier between the air in the tank and the oil), to a cylinder-rod wiper seal arrangement, there are plenty of ways to control airborne contamination.

SPECIAL CONDITIONS

You should also inform your supplier of any special conditions. For example, if the location is hazardous, there is a high pollution spill risk or presence of ignition source (fire risk).

At Sonu Hose Hydraulics, we’re experts in the design, manufacture and installation of quality hydraulic systems. Based in Hampshire, we’re proud to be one of the leading hydraulics manufacturers across Portsmouth, Southampton and Fareham. For more information, visit our website

CONTACT US:

Call Now: +91 9311288288

Website: https://sonuhose.com

G-mail: sonuhosepvtltd@gmail.com

[doberbutts]

I'm realizing, belatedly, that you're probably looking for something resembling a recipe. The problem is that, like many people who grew up in a culture valuing cooking homegrown meals from your garden, I have no measurements outside of "looks right". So, um, I can give you a rough idea of what this looks like but I can't tell you exactly how much of some things.

Fill pot big enough to fit an entire chicken inside 3/4 full with water, high heat until boiling. While boiling add:

Enough iodized salt to turn the water cloudy at minimum. It's a brine, you need salt water. And probably the equivilant of a cup or so of brown sugar.

My mixture is:

Powders/dried: pepper, cumin (4 or 5 shakes MAXIMUM it is VERY easy to overdo the cumin), paprika, parsley, oregano, thyme, rosemary. All of this enough to cover the water as a top layer individually.

Fresh: garlic (4-6 cloves, I do whole but crushed cloves since I just want the flavor to come out into the water), spring/green onion (4-6, finely chopped), ginger (about a 1-2 square inch block, peeled)

Sometimes I add butter and miso to the mix sometimes I don't. A friend recommended adding apple slices in place of lemon slices since I can't have lemon. Once I added sesame oil and soy sauce which was good but not really the taste I wanted.

That's put to simmer once everything's added in and boiling, for about an hour. Then I turn off the heat and let the whole thing cool to room temperature (or if I'm feeling impatient, I set it on the fridge on an oven mitt), and then the bird goes inside to brine overnight in the fridge.

This time around I also shoved half a stick of butter up the bird's ass but I didn't do that last time and it still tasted good.

I should learn how to brine chicken

It's easier than it sounds! All you need is a big pot of water, a fuckton of salt, spices seasonings and herbs to your liking, and some time. I bring it to a boil and then let it simmer for about an hour, wait for it to cool to room temp, plop the whole bird in, and stick the whole pot in my fridge to put in the oven the next day.

I take it out of the brine and put it in one of those covered roast pans and in an hour or two on 450F I have my chicken. I pull all the meat off and dispose of the bones and skin and ta-da, I have my meat for the week.

Usually I eat it on a bed of rice with veggies on the side but really you can do whatever you want.

[the-horniest-book-club]

HBC Kinktober 2022: Bingo!

It's that time of year again! Or... it's almost that time of year, anyway.

From October 1-31, 2022, we will be doing our annual Kinktober event! This year, we have bingo cards! Each bingo card has 8 prompts and a "free space" for you to choose your own prompt from our full list of prompts!

Starting on October 1st, you'll have a month to complete whatever bingo card you choose. On your own blog, make a post for your bingo card and link your works there. Then you can send us the link to your bingo card post and we'll add it to our masterlist!

You are welcome to complete more than one bingo card, we just ask that you not choose a second/third/etc. until you complete all 9 prompts of your chosen bingo card(s).

(If you can't take on a bingo card, but you still want to create something for one of the Kinktober prompts below, that's ok! Just tag us and we'll add it to the masterlist, too!)

As always, you can write a drabble, create a moodboard, etc.

Rules For Our Events:

You do not need to reserve a prompt or tell us which prompt you’re using.

You can write/create for as many or as few as you’d like, and there is no word minimum or maximum.

Smut/Fluff/Angst/any combo accepted, please adhere to HBC Guidelines.

You can use any 18+ MCU character and/or an 18+ character from an MCU actor (no RPFs) as long as the character is not on our banned list

To get on the masterlist, DM the link to your creations to the HBC - All Links received within 24 hours of the time frame ending will be added to the masterlist.

Use #HBC Kinktober 2022 on your works!

EVERYONE is welcome to participate!

You will find the six bingo card options as well as the full list of prompts below.

Love, The Thirsty Librarians of the HBC 📚

Full List of Prompts

Anal Play

Authority Kink

Beard Burn/Kink

Blindfold

Bondage

Breeding Kink

Car Sex

Choking/Breath Play

Cockwarming

Costume/Roleplay

Daddy Kink

Dirty Talk

Dom/Sub

Edging

Food/Drink Play

Hair Pulling

Knife Play

Lingerie

Multiple Partners

Oral

Phone Sex/Sexting

Playing With Toys

Praise Kink

Public Sex

Quickie

Spanking

Special Occasion Sex

Temperature Play (ice/wax/etc.)

Thigh Riding

Voyeurism

[the-ss-horniest-book-club]

HBC Kinky Halloween Preview Day - September 28, 2021

It’s that time of year again and our Kinktober event for 2021 is called Kinky Halloween! And it’s happening across all four HBC blogs for the whole month of October!

We’ve taken our Kinktober prompts and randomly paired them with Halloween prompts. Use one or both, it’s up to you! You can write a drabble, create a moodboard, etc. for every day or you can just pick and choose, it’s up to you!

Kinkiness isn’t required... but we strongly encourage it. 😉😉

Rules For Our Drabbles:

You do not need to reserve a prompt.

You do not need to tell us which prompt you’re writing.

You can write as many or as few as you’d like, and there is no word minimum or maximum.

You may write for one blog or all four blogs, your level of participation is entirely up to you! Just make sure to send links to the correct blog for the masterlist.

Smut/Fluff/Angst/any combo accepted, please adhere to HBC Guidelines.

To get on the masterlist, DM the link to your drabble(s) to the correct HBC for your chosen character - All Drabble links received in 24 hours will be added to the masterlist.

Use #HBC Kinky Halloween on your works!

EVERYONE is welcome to participate!

HBC Kinky Halloween Prompts

Oct 1 - spooky/creepy & Phone Sex/Sexting

Oct 2 - zombie & Oral

Oct 3 - chills & Birthday/Anniversary/Special Occasion Sex

Oct 4 - hayride & Public Sex

Oct 5 - ghost & Beard Burn/Beard Kink

Oct 6 - devil & Knife Play

Oct 7 - hocus-pocus & Multiple Partners

Oct 8 - skull & Bondage

Oct 9 - broom & Hair Pulling

Oct 10 - moon/moonlight & Daddy Kink

Oct 11 - ghoul & Quickie

Oct 12 - trick-or-treat & Choking/Breath Play

Oct 13 - potion & Cockwarming

Oct 14 - skeleton & Costume/Roleplay

Oct 15 - haunted house & Praise Kink

Oct 16 - bat & Handcuffs

Oct 17 - candy/sweets & Car Sex

Oct 18 - werewolf & Playing With Toys

Oct 19 - witch/wizard & Dirty Talk

Oct 20 - monster & Temperature Play (ice/wax/etc.)

Oct 21 - broomstick & Lingerie

Oct 22 - eerie & Blindfold

Oct 23 - magic & Corset

Oct 24 - cauldron & Breeding Kink

Oct 25 - black cat & Spanking

Oct 26 - vampire & Authority Kink (“Sir”/“Sergeant”/“Captain”/“Your Highness”/“Doctor” etc.)

Oct 27 - pumpkin & Anal Play

Oct 28 - fangs & Edging

Oct 29 - masquerade & Voyeurism

Oct 30 - nightmare & Thigh Riding

Oct 31 - cemetery & Food/Drink Play

Love, The Smutty Librarians of the HBC  📚

@the-ss-horniest-book-club​

@the-th-horniest-book-club​

@the-ce-horniest-book-club​

@the-marvel-horniest-book-club​

[the-silentium]

Lost Future Pt. 3

Masterlist

Pairing: soulmate!Five Hargreeves x Reader

Summary: Soulmate AU where the soulmates share their wounds. || Along with your brother, you are transported into the 1960's with a bunch of kids you don't know. Turns out they are trying to stop the 2019 apocalypse and you are playing a key part of it.

Words: 6600 words

Warnings: Violence, swears, angst, fluff, mention of death, mention of illness, blood. 

A/N: I finally finished it! I hope you like this last part of our two little soulmates story! Don’t forget to leave your reactions in the comments!

Every Hargreeves and Beauchamps were gathered around the bunker’s table, reviewing the last details of the plan that would preserve humanity after April 1st, 2019 came around. Everything was perfect, you were at your best, Vanya was ready for her part to come, Five had successfully located a team of operations agents and had abducted one of the duo, teleporting him to the woods to beat the shit out of him and remove its tracker. After his messy handy work, he teleported the Commission assassin to the bunker, where you would take possession of the man and play his role. 

“See ya soon.” You smiled confidently at your friends and brother. If you were unsure of your capacity to bring this mission to success, now you were pumped and ready to kick asses. You approached your target but were intercepted on your way by lips colliding with yours. The shock froze you on the spot, ironic considering that your body temperature was rising at an incredible speed. To your disappointment, you didn’t have the time to recover and reciprocate the affection that said lips parted from yours. 

“Be careful.” You admired how his exterior was a flawless portrait of calm despite how agitated you could see his soul. Five’s soul was a dark charcoal grey traveled by black thin and irregular stripes, no doubt because of his time as an assassin. Its jagged edges added to the menacing picture that was your soulmate's soul, but despite it being one of the darkest you've ever seen, you never feared it. 

During your first training on Five, you were intrigued by the strange soul. In your life, you've never seen one react as Five's did. When you approached, its sharp edges were clearly trying to intimidate you and keep you away at all costs. It all changed when you tenderly touched the dark flame, its form creeping around your fingers, tugging you closer. Everywhere your own soul would touch his, the nearby dark strings regressed until disappearing completely and creating little white spots here and there. You could feel the change into Five's body, the relaxation, the lightness and the feeling of belonging. 

Usually, you would keep the soul to soul contact to a minimum, the intimacy of the thing being too intrusive, but with Five, his need mixed with your desire made your hands wander. You stroked his soul like you would his cheek, enveloped your arms around the defenseless flame who crashed against your form and kissed the remaining dark spots away. Five's mind has never been as peaceful as it was in this moment, the feeling of being home was so warming and appeasing that he followed you like a moth followed a light whenever you tried to separate yourself from him. 

“Will you still love me at the end of all this?” His insecurities were out only for you to see.

“Forever. I promise.” You didn’t know what he thought would scare you away, you just knew that nothing could change your feelings for him. 

It was a good thing that the first sessions were one on one. It allowed you to pass time with him without worrying about the others snooping around and mocking how their brother became tender. 

"Always." You smiled and turned to your target. Andrew positioned himself right behind you, ready to catch your falling body while you concentrated on the agent's soul. 

You pushed the light grey flame to the back of… Zachary's body and took control. With your new training, the usual nausea was now a slight dizziness and you were up and walking in seconds. Zachary's efforts to regain control of his body were totally vain. The Hargreeves had an advantage while fighting your soul: they knew what you were. The agent had no clue, making it infinitely easier to block his attempt to take control. 

The pain radiating from Five's beating was omnipresent. You were sure that some ribs were broken along with other major injuries. Oh and the abdominal pain you felt? Clearly not normal. Every detail of the mission was thought through, meaning that if you returned to Zachary's partner unarmed, there would be suspicions so you had to play the game and act as hurt. The easiest play of your life, really. The pain was pretty real so that wouldn't be a big deal. You weren’t even sure you could walk. 

Five’s face showed his concern when he saw you struggle to sit up. His hand reached out to help you, only to be batted away by your own.

"It’s fine. I can do it." You saw his hands closing into fists at your pained grunts. 

You lost your footing when you got off the table and fell to the ground in a yelp. 

"I’m fine." You tried to get up again but the white pain in your abdomen was too much.

"No you’re not. Stop trying to get up." Your soulmate positioned himself behind you. "Can you still do it?" You knew he was concerned about your well being, but pain had a tendency to make you impatient.

"Yes and the sooner we start the sooner it ends. So let’s go." Your fogged mind almost didn’t register Five’s surprise at your outburst. "Sorry."

"No you’re right." He shook his head before grabbing a bloody pocket knife from his shorts. "Ready?" You answered with a nod, the knife went to your throat and you both teleported away, in the motel room Diego and Andrew found out to be rented by the Commissioners. Zachary's partner… Brendan lifted his gun as soon as he noticed the newcomers. 

"Tell the Handler that my patience is getting thin." A groan fell from your mouth as Five tugged on your hair and exposed your throat. "And make sure to tell her that the next time I see one of her little puppets, she won't see me coming." The tension keeping your head up disappeared in a blue light, causing you to tumble to fall forward in a groan. Brendan was quick to kneel next to you to assess your wounds.

"Shit! He got you freakin' good that asshole." 

"Damn midget was quick." You grunted in response, hands gripping your abdomen.

"The hell did he do to you?" Brendan helped you get on a bed and you recited the story Five gave you. "Dammit! We have to report that to the Handler." Brendan’s nervous back and forth walking was intriguing.

Curious about why reporting to the woman seemed so troublesome, you turned back to Zachary's soul and probed his memory. Five had warned you that the woman was special, but you didn't think it was that bad. The woman was mad, that was a fact. But when it came to your soulmate? Holy shit. She was a psychopath devil wearing Prada. 

"You do it. I have to go to the infirmary." Gripping your ribs, you didn’t even have to force your sentence to sound out of breath. From what you've gathered on Brendan, he wasn't the bravest one, meaning that he would insist for you to come with him to face the wolf that is the Handler. 

"You were the one kidnapped. You tell the story." Bingo. 

Breathing in sharply, you gestured for the blonde to come over. He grabbed the briefcase sitting on his bed to fix the proper date and location before walking over to your bloody form. He assured that your grip on him was secured and pressed the buttons to activate the teleportation. As it was your first briefcase travel, you weren’t prepared for the twist your stomach graciously executed, forcing Zachary’s last meal to hurry up your esophagus and fall on the floor in a brownish puddle. 

Brendan jumped away fairly quickly, scrunching up his nose in disgust. "Could’ve warned me man."

You barely had time to shoot him an annoyed glance that medical staff took you away to treat your injuries and test you in case of a concussion, letting you time to analyze your surroundings between each test and identify potential exits if it ever came to that. From time to time you had to turn to Zachary, who was still clueless of what was happening to him, shown by his incessant attempts to order his body to move, and push him farther. His pleas for someone to help him were loud and clear, disrupting your attempts to concentrate and answer the nurses questions. 

The nurses left you alone in your private room now that every wound on your new male body was disinfected and patched to their liking. You refused every painkiller that was offered to you in fear of losing control over Zachary’s body and also to keep your mind focussed on the task at hand. One of the doctors came back with what you assumed was your file, explaining how lucky you were to be alive blablabla. You weren’t lucky. You just had the best assassin of the whole timeline as soulmate and he happened to know where to strike to cause maximum damage without killing its prey. 

"The nurses will prep you for your surgery. Your spleen has been damaged and is now bleeding into your abdomen."

You raised your hand to interrupt him. "No, I have to talk to the Handler first. It’s urgent." Your heartbeat accelerated as your nervosity increased. The surgery would eat up too much of your precious time and who knew what would happen of you when under anesthesia. 

"Sir. We have to bring you into surgery as soon as-"

"I said no! If you want me to have this surgery, you’ll have to get the Handler here first!" You cut him off. 

"We don’t have ti-" The poor doctor was cut off about, but by a feminine cough this time. His fear clearly showed on his face at the vision of the extravagant lady in the doorframe. 

"Good thing that I’m already here then. I’m sure we can have a little five minutes. Go get yourself a coffee." Her tone seemed sweet despite her hard commanding eyes, their intensity raising the hairs on your arms. 

The argument was clearly over. The doctor hurried out of the room, allowing the blonde woman to take her time to talk to you. As you took in her sweet exterior, her radiant smile and her interesting clothes, you were thankful for your ability to see everyone's true self, because if you had crossed her path without being able to see her jet black soul, you feared that you would have trusted her without a second thought. 

"I see Number Five hasn't lost his touch." She gestured vaguely at your numerous injuries with her perfectly manicured hand, which you couldn't help but notice, the vibrant red looking like blood on the top of her fingers. "But I guess he did lose some efficiency in his adorable little shorts, you are still breathing after all."

"He charged me to deliver a message to you ma'am." A gurgling sound punctuated your words, causing you to cough as soon as you finished your sentence. 

"You will have to do it quickly darling, we don't want you to run out of time before you tell me." She moved closer to hear your words better. Her lack of empathy hit you right in the gut, you, no, Zachary was dying and she couldn't find it in herself to at least fake some kindness. 

"Karma is a bitch." You chuckled at her confusion before quickly leaving Zachary's body behind and entering hers. The slight vertigo that you were now used to wasn’t as bad as when you trained with the Hargreeves. Despite what you thought, she hasn’t seen you coming and offered no resistance. You let yourself the time to adjust while she still hasn’t detected you yet, her confusion overwhelming your mind and senses. Soon though, she started to feel wrong and tried to walk away from the weak form of the injured agent. Panic flooded through her mind when she realized that her body wouldn’t do as asked. What is happening? 

"Oh. You just got hijacked.” You snickered. Make sure that the Handler was in the building, check! You walked out of the room just as the doctor came back to take the dying man to surgery. Not knowing that this agency was full of murderers, you would have felt bad for what was coming, but you knew. 

You ventured into endless corridors, your destination in mind. You had to make it there without having to search her mind for the directions if possible. You tried to block out her murderous thoughts, her rage sounding like thunder under your skull gave you a really bad headache. Fortunately for you, you had had your fair share of headaches in your life meaning that you had a good tolerance for them. 

Unfortunately for you was that you couldn’t make your way out of these damns corridors and find the briefcase room. Five had formally forbidden you to peek into her mind, saying that her mind was too dangerous to adventure yourself into. You hated to admit that he was right. 

Five's soul was definitely nothing compared to the one right in front of you. The craziness that was boiling into its depth was licking at yours in an attempt to corrupt you or scare you away, you weren't sure which. 

“Ma’am? Are you alright?” You almost didn’t register the concerned voice into all the chaos of your head. A sweet-looking woman was 

“Y-Yes.” You pinched your nose at the waver in your voice. “I’m just feeling out of it today.” Andrew would have been proud of your acting talent, he always told you that you were terrible. “Could you please show me the way to the briefcase room?” 

Her brown eyes widened as if you had insulted her whole family, stressing you out. What did you say wrong? I never say please, you little shit. You mentally facepalmed at that.

“Em. Sure, ma’am. This way.” 

You had to bite the inside of your cheek to stay silent when the Handler didn’t stop screaming in your head. You focussed on placing one foot in front of the other without face-planting in your high-heels while massaging your temple with your fingers. The headache was slowly morphing into a migraine, it wasn’t good. 

As soon as you saw the desired room, you made your way in it, caught the first one, and quickly inserted the right time coordinates. 

The numbness creeping slowly into your mind scared you to no end. Tiny strings of her soul tried to reach yours, sometimes succeeding and making your heart rate skyrocket. Every barrier you tried to put between you, she would destroy them or find a way to pass through the cracks. At first, she tried to take control again but when she realized that it wouldn’t work, she then passed to stab your mind with her own. Images of dead bodies would then flash before your eyes at her fortunate stabs, some bloodier than others, some had severed limbs, others were disfigured. It disgusted you how these people were butchered like they were animals. Then why are you helping their killer? You froze in place, the severity of her words hitting you like a train. 

It… couldn’t be. You knew he was a killer, Five never lied about doing atrocities in the past, but hearing it and seeing it were two different things. 

“You forced him to do it…” As much as you wanted to believe your own words, you knew that it couldn’t erase the fact that he did it nonetheless. 

“Y/N! Are you alright?” Your body was suddenly shaked back and forth, making you blink a couple of times to regain your senses. You were back at the bunker, in Andrew's arms, the Hargreeves concerned gazes fixed on you. As much as it hurt to do so, you couldn't find it in yourself to meet Five's gaze, the memories of lifeless corpses lingering at the back of your mind. 

"I'm okay." Your voice was small, tired, just like how you felt. 

"You don't look okay." You shrugged it off, entering your previous location's coordinates as the next destination in the briefcase and made your way toward Vanya, holding your hand out to her. You fled your problems as soon as you could. 

Helping Vanya to stay on her wobbly feet was more difficult than you thought with the deadly high-heels you were wearing. You ditched them after having once again entered the bunker as your terminus. 

A metallic sound caught your attention, the handcuffs in Vanya's hand shone under the neon light of the empty office. With a single nod, Vanya caught your wrist in one of the loops and closed the other around one of the many metal bars blocking the window. Everything was in place. Now, the last thing for you to do was get into Vanya's body and stay on the backseat while she used her ability to destroy the complex. 

You visualized the bright white soul that was Vanya's and made a move to get out of the Handler's body when a sharp stab into your essence pulled you back into it. I wonder how Five will take that his soulmate doesn't make it back. 

Cold sweat covers your body instantly, panic surging through your every nerves. Her soul found an opening into your fragilized wall and took advantage of it. Black threads emerging from her soul had wrapped themselves around yours, keeping you prisoner of her physical form. You let your guard down and it would now cost you your life. 

"Y/N, everything alright?" 

You slowly shook your head, tears forming into your eyes. You choked on your air, the Handler fighting you for control. The hours spent into Zachary's body, the pain you had to endure, all the time travelling, the body jumping added to the images of your soulmate's victims rendered you tired, allowing the mad woman to push you back to second. 

"Five should have known better than to send a little" Her soul gripped yours as tightly as it could, her wrath flowing around in a psychotic manner making you almost pass out. "weakling to control me." 

"Leave her alone." You haven't heard Vanya's voice much during the time you passed with her family under the yellow house. She was always shy, keeping her thoughts to herself. It surprised you that she managed to express herself in such a stern manner, an excited shudder ran through you. Maybe you had a chance. 

"If you uncuff me." The grip on you tightened at Vanya's hesitation. "Or I'll crush her." 

Oh. Bad idea. Once brown eyes suddenly became as white as snow, her soul and body glowing in the dimly lit room. The Handler's grip on you slipped when a blue stream hit her square in the chest, her body falling to the ground with her hand still tied to the bars. 

Seeing an opening, you swiftly threw yourself out, seeking refuge into Vanya's mind. The silence that reigned there was welcome, you let yourself fall limply somewhere into the depth of Vanya's form, totally drained from the last interference. She must have felt your forced entry because the next thing you knew, her soul was shining like a thousand suns followed by the sound of destruction. 

Vanya's power wave exploded the walls and ceiling surrounding you along with the entirety of the Commission's complex. You blacked out when Vanya made her way into the air, a bubble protecting her from the debris with the briefcase in hand. 

…………………………….

11 days. The 11 best days of your life. Even though you passed them fighting to prevent the apocalypse, you would never change them for anything. You had the opportunity to meet your soulmate, fall in love with him and get to know him along with his family. 

Back in your very own body, you were delighted when you learned that the apocalypse wouldn't happen in 2019 now that the Commission's base was reduced to ashes. The happiness you felt from Five's kisses and the loud cheers resonating around you was short lived, Andrew's sad gaze met yours, causing your eyes to tear up. He forced himself to smile, but you saw right through his facade. This same smile was forcing his handsome features back then and it hurt just the same to see him trying to be positive for your sake when he was himself drowning in his sorrow. 

You leaved a confused Five behind and rushed into your brother's arms, your hands closing on his shirt in tight fists. His arms wrapped around your form just as tightly as yours were around his, the thought of leaving him behind again filling you with dread. 

"I love you so much." The sob breaking your brother's whisper torned your heart apart. 

"What's going on?" Unbeknownst to you, the room had stopped celebrating, instead focussing their attention on the odd scene happening before them. Allison was the first to ask what everyone was secretly thinking. 

You took a deep breath, mentaly preparing yourself for Five's reaction at your next words. Releasing the fabric, you separated yourself from Andrew's shirt and joined your hands in front of you in an attempt to stop them from shaking. As soon as your soulmate noticed them, he space-jumped next to you in hope of giving you comfort, instead you cower back into Andrew's chest, but this time facing the rest of the group. You avoided his hurt gaze by watching your fingers. 

"I-" The lump closing your throat made it difficult to speak your mind. A reassuring hand fell on your shoulder hoping to give you the strength needed. "I won't be there when you go back to 2019." 

"It's fine, I can space-jump to Canada without a problem." Five frowned, concerned about why you being in another country was an issue. 

"That's not what I mean." You shook your head and closed your eyes tightly in hope to keep the tears at bay. "What I mean is, when you go back in 2019 I won't be there 'cause I'll be dead. I died in 2009 of a brain tumor."

There, finally it was out! Minus the sharp breaths here and there, the room was utterly silenced. That is until Five kicked the nearby coffee table. The sudden sound made you jump and open your eyes to meet the image of your angry soulmate. You almost regretted telling him, but you knew that he deserved to know.

"That's impossible. You wouldn't be here if you were. Ben isn't." You had to fight yourself to not avoid his angry gaze. He was in denial and you would help him through it. You had accepted your death long ago, your eternal slumber along with your last moments still engraved into your memory.

You could feel yourself floating in comfortable darkness. Your senses were numb, no sounds bouncing around, nothing to taste, nothing to see, nothing to touch, nothing to smell. You couldn’t tell why, but being this senseless made you panic slightly. How long had you been there? An hour? A day? A year? You had no memories of how you ended in this isolated place. However, something in you, hidden deep inside, said that this was better. This was safe. The appeasing thought cleared your mind and allowed your muscles to slowly loosen. 

A flash of color appears in front of you. No. Not in front of you. In your mind. Light green orbs watched you closely. Their magnificent color was tainted by tears. Why is he crying? Light brown strands fall in front of his eyes, hiding his tears from your view. His hair was chaotic like he had passed countless times combing his hand through his strands. A chuckle rose in your throat, aiming to be set free and be heard. Only silence resonated in your ears. 

His form is now shaking slightly. His untamed locks moved in quick succession and sobs reached you. His distress felt like a punch to the gut, stealing all of your air and squeezing your heart. You desperately wanted to reassure him, but at this point in time, all you could manage to do was stay still and wait for your fast-approaching end. Right, I was- You never got to relieve him of his pain, forming the second biggest regret of your life. You felt a pressure on your right hand, warmth spreading from the contact. 

“You’ll get better soon Panda. I promise,” His sobs stopped and a tear-stained face forced a smile at you. Despite seeing the most hurtful smile on his lips, you believed him. The pain already started to fade away. “You’ll be alright.”

The day I died. Your brother was right, you were alright. You weren’t suffering anymore. No more dizziness, no more vomiting, no more seizures and no more explosive migraines. You were free. Only… Your biggest regret would continuously haunt you. I never got to meet him. 

In the background, you could faintly hear the flatline of the EKG along with the last cry of your precious brother and parents calling your name.

"I got diagnosed with a brain tumor in Spring 2003. The tumor appeared out of nowhere, but I remember feeling it developing in me. It felt like  every cells of my body were vibrating."

Five remembered the first time he time-traveled. It was in Spring 2003 and he remembers the exhilarating feeling of the power vibrating within his body. 

"Then I felt warm, even with the cold wind outside. That's when I knew something was wrong."

Five's first attempt to time travel was small. He aimed to the next season: Summer. 

"After that, there was a weird nagging feeling that made me nauseous. Then again, I felt the vibrations and suddenly felt cold."

Five, in the excitation of the moment decided to travel further into the future, in the next Winther. 

"And again, I felt the vibrations followed by the warmth. But then I don't know. It felt like something inside me broke."

Five decided to aim higher; many years later, landing in the apocalypse. Despite his best efforts to go back, he was stuck there. 

"So I survived for 6 years before I died in 2009."

You didn't register Andrew's grasp tightening on your shoulder, but you did register Five falling to his knees in defeat. You hurried to his side, concern guiding your movements. Your hands found their home on his cheeks, wipping away the tears falling from his sad blue eyes. 

"I caused this. I'm so sorry." He engulfed your form into a desperate hug, hiding his sobs into the crook of your neck. The sound of his whimpers hurt you the most.

"Well, maybe we can go back and find a way to cure you." Luther said while comforting a crying Allison. 

You shook your head, you knew it was pointless. "My parents tried everything. My tumor couldn't be removed, it was too close to a vital area and because of my ability, my tumorous cells were mutated. So chemotherapy and radiation therapy had no effect." You tenderly stroke Five's cheek to get his attention. "This wasn't your fault."

"Yes it was!" His yell made you jump. "When I time-traveled it put your cells under the same pressure than mine and because yours were not made for it, it formed a tumor!" The tears wouldn't stop falling down his face, dampening the hem of his shirt and breaking the last pieces of your heart. You had fucked up by allowing him to fall in love with you. 

"I can make you forget me." The mere idea of doing it made you sick however, if it could appease his pain, you were willing to do it. 

Five's eyes widened before his hands gripped both your shoulders harshly. A yelp escaped your lips at the movement, alerting your brother who jumped into action. Too late. Five had teleported the both of you at the opposed side of the room, his distressed state only allowing him that much. 

"Don't you dare do that! You really think that I'd give up the only thing that made me survive the apocalypse without saying shit? I was alone for forty-five years and the possibility of meeting my soulmate one day was the only thing that gave me the strength to continue to fight! Everything I did during those forty-five years was to save our future Y/N!"

"Hey listen-" Andrew was cut off by a furious Five. 

"No you listen, asshole. For once I thought I would be able to be happy! My life on the run was finally over and I could start fresh! But I'll never get to live that because she will be dead when we get back!" His breathing was getting erratic, his eyes were wide and his soul was getting more and more agitated. You noticed the once thin black strings were now not only thicker but longer too. Worry made you take his hands in yours. 

"And whose fault is this, genius?" 

"Andrew!" Your scream made everyone stop, even Five whose fists started flowing a soft blue, definitely planning on teleporting to your brother and beat him with all of his cumulated rage. Instead, you turned to him and asked him to teleport you both away. His eyes met yours for a second before your wish came true. 

You were now at the brim of a forrest with no one around to hear what you had to say. 

"Five," You took his cheek in your hands and met his angry orbs with your teary ones. "I can't thank you enough for loving me. The moments I passed with you were the best of my life and I am so, so sorry for not telling you earlier about my condition. I love you and believe me, I would do anything to be able to live alongside you." You started crying at one point and burried your face in the crook of his neck. 

His arms circled your waist, pulling you further into him to register every detail of your body. Your loud sobs almost covered Five's small whisper.

"Can you do it again?"

"What?" You pulled away slightly, confused about his intentions. 

"Like in training."

Ah that. You were puzzled as to why he would want you to do that right now but if it could help him get better, there's no way you would deny him. So you focussed your mind into transfering your soul into his body, lovingly tracing his soul with your fingers to appease his suffering. 

You felt the shudder running up Five's spine, along with the blush warming his cheeks, earning a chuckle from you. It made you sad to think that this was the last time you would be able to tease him that way. 

"Now stay in there while I get us back home."

"What?!"

"This doesn't have to be the end of us." Your body was leaned down with the utmost care on the feet of a birch tree. 

"Are you sure it's gonna work?" 

"I have to try." He coughed to get himself together and teleported back to the bunker where he met an angry brunette. 

"Where the hell is my sister?" Luther and Diego tried to intercept the angry teenager before he got to their brother, forgetting that it was pretty simple for him to dematerialize himself and pass through them. You would have laughed at Diego's horrified face if Andrew's fist wasn't coming swiftly towards Five's face. What a drag. Five thought. 

He dodged the hit by teleporting away, near the briefcase where he entered the coordinated leading to 2019. 

"She's with me." 

You would have rolled your eyes at Five's condescending tone if you had a physical body. 

"He's worried, Five. You weren't better."

He scoffed and made his way in the center of the room. He would never admit that you had such an effect on him, even though he knew it has been pretty clear in the last minutes. 

"Why?" Andrew was now less angry and more confused. Quite frankly, so were you. 

"If her mind travels within another body, maybe her soul will stay alive." You hummed in approval. It could work. On his side, Andrew nodded and hurriedly flicked Five’s forehead, a groan erupting from the Hargreeve’s throat. You laughed at the gesture, making sure to restrain your soulmate’s movement so he wouldn’t hurt Roo for something that was destined to you.

“You better visit me when you get back.” 

“It’s a promise!” You said after quickly gaining control of Five’s body to smile at your brother, one last time. As funny that the irritation radiating from Five was, you had something to do, so you gave him back the charge of his own body and got comfortable in some quiet corner of his mind. 

The time travel to 2019 was a success. All 6 Hargreeves now back in their adult bodies, cheered at their accomplishment, some jumping into their siblings arms while others proposed to go get a drink. Five was delighted that finally, everything would be okay, his family was safe and he could live a life as normal as possible. 

“Wait wait!” Klaus stopped the group from leaving the lobby of the Umbrella Academy manor and turned to his blue-eyed sibling. “Did it work? Is she still with you?” 

Five took a moment to concentrate and search his mind for your presence. Usually his soul would easily find yours and interlace itself until both nearly merged together. This time, though, the desired reaction never came. With each passing second without finding you, Five’s eyes would widden more and more alerting his siblings of the problem. 

Five desperately yelled your name in hope that maybe your soul had just fallen asleep or something and that you would suddenly reach out to him and soothe his worries. Seconds passed without any movement from you part, bringing Five to his knees once again. His plan didn’t work and you were lost to him forever. 

“Five, let us help.” 

Just as a comforting hand reached for his shoulder, Five teleported himself away to hide the new wave of tears that were falling down his cheeks. “There’s nothing any of you can do.” His voice broke just like the last string of his heart that was keeping it together. A scream broke the silence of the house, all of his pain expressing itself and bouncing around in the empty corridors, reaching his shooked siblings. It was the scream of someone who’d lost everything he had and they were scared of the lengths his desperation would push him to make himself feel better. 

Even after 2 months, Five couldn’t stop himself and plan a way to get back to you. He elaborated multiple scenarios and outcomes to find a secure way to be able to go back and restore what he destroyed, meaning your brain. His bedroom walls were worse than the time he had to write his equations to find who to kill to prevent the apocalypse. Every day one of his siblings would come and see how he was doing and maybe share some words that were never answered, trying to see if their brother was lost to them too. 

On the 67th day, Vanya received a text from Andrew, asking Five to meet at an address. When the news got to him, Five’s hand froze in the middle of his writing. You had promised to see him when you got back. The thought made Five’s anger boil in his veins. You made 2 promises that you didn’t keep. You had promised to love him forever, yet you were gone and now Andrew was expecting you somewhere in your country. Taking it upon himself, Five made multiple jumps to finally reach the desired destination.

“Vanya told me you had a hard time to accept that she was gone.” Immediately, Five’s hand curled into a fist, ready to lash out at the man who was proclaiming to be your brother but let you down without a fight. He wasn’t there for a whole second that Andrew was already poking into the wounds of his heart.

Five’s fist shot through the cold air of the Canadian autumn, aiming at Andrew’s face full force. Five prepared himself for the pain that usually comes when bones hit bones, yet he felt no pain, instead losing his balance when his fist passed right through the brunette. Unable to regain his balance in time, the man fell to his knees right in front of a stone. No, not a stone. 

Y/N Beauchamps

October 1st, 1989

March 14th, 2009

Your grave. The sight of it made it even more real. You weren’t coming back. His anger along with his need to fight disappeared, letting place to his grief. He cries silently, his form still kneeling before the stone marking your last home. Andrew stayed close behind for a while, eyes fixed to your grave before finally touching its corner softly and walking away. 

Time passed and Five couldn’t take his eyes away from your name engraved into the stone. 

“I’m scared that I will lose it for good. That I'll return to be the monster that I was back at the Commission.” His puffy eyes had no more tears to share after a whole 2 months of crying your death. “I miss you so much.” He gently reached for your grave, touching the letters with care like they were a part of you. 

“Took you long enough, soulmate.” Your voice echoed through his head, hurting Five even more. He was hallucinating your voice again. “Oh, no. It’s really me.” The feeling of your soul enveloping his made him gasp and fall on his behind. He could hear your voice in his dreams, your laugh in the wind, see your form in a crowd but never, never could he recreate the feeling of your souls mending. 

“Y/N!?” 

“I missed you too, Five.” The feeling of a kiss fell on his cheek despite anyone being around, filling him in utter joy. You were back.

“H-How-” He couldn’t form a tangible sentence, making you chuckle in the back of his mind. Its sound melted his insides and would have brought tears to his eyes if only his body wasn’t dehydrated from his last crying session. 

“You were right. My mind time-travelled with your body, but the jump ate the last of my energy which forced me out of you and back at my grave.” You traced his soul with yours, eliciting a delighted sigh from Fives’s lips. “I couldn’t go and find you, so I had to wait for you to come to me.” 

“Sorry for taking so long. I should have known.” 

“Don’t. We are together now.” You soul snuggled into his before separating yourself and making Five panic. “Relax, I’m just incredibly tired.” 

“Will you be there when you wake up?” A part of his soul reached for you, enveloping itself around a part of yours like you two were holding hands. The fear radiating from him made you dizzy.

“Yes.” You settled again into a corner of his mind, his soul still connected to yours. “Oh and Five?” He hummed in acknowledgement. “I never break a promise. I love you.” 

“I love you too.” 

Your presence into Five’s mind kept him sane, while your appearance in his dreams made him whole. 

[lonelyreputation]

First Time

A/N: Back with some more fluff! I was gonna wait a few weeks to post this, to really tweak it, but I love it too much and it’s so fluffy so I decided to share it now 😌 So please enjoy what I think taking a bath with Shawn for the first time would be like!! 

And thank you to everyone who has reblogged my work or said nice words to me 🥺 It really makes me heart flutter and I swear one day I’m gonna print all of the nice words out and put them in a book bc you all are too nice 😪

THANKS A MILLION for all of your support! Reblogs are never expected, but always appreciated!! 🤗💞🌻

REQUEST/PROMPT: Slipping into warm water

Let’s Chat!! | MASTERLIST

Warnings: Two swear words & being naked (but like nothing ~happens…it’s just a bath)

Word Count: 3.9K

Shawn was stressed.  

You knew he was pushing his creativity to maximum capacity when he would come back to his apartment with eyes that looked completely drained, placing a gentle kiss on your cheek before retreating his bedroom.

He was currently in the midst of writing and recording his next album.  And he was feeling the pressure from his fans, industry executives, and himself to put out an album even better than his self titled record.

But how can I achieve something better than that, he would say with a strained voice, his head buried into his hands, it was nominated for a Grammy.

You tried your best to reassure him; that his fans, the executives, and you would love whatever he put out if he had his heart and soul in it.  You had no idea what the woes of fame did to a person’s self-esteem and would never know the pressure of releasing a record.  But you knew that Shawn was a people pleaser.  He wanted to make everyone happy even if it came at his expense.

At a loss for not knowing what to do to cheer him up, you called Aaliyah.

“He hasn’t done it in a while…” her tone was thoughtful, but then she backtracked, “But I dunno if he would want me to tell you.”

“A, please,” you begged your boyfriend’s younger sister as you stretched out on the couch, “I’m looking for anything.  He’s so stressed, he’s barely eating the salad that I make sure he takes with him before he leaves.”

She rushed out her sentence in one breath, “Helikestotakebaths.”

You sat up, “He what?”

With your question, Aaliyah let out a sigh and repeated herself more slowly this time, “He likes to take…baths.”

“A bath?”

There was hesitancy on the other end before adding in an important detail, “Sometimes with…bubbles.”

“Oh?”

“And maybe,” her voice was barely above a whisper, “some candles.”

A small smile graced your lips, your boyfriend surprised you more and more everyday, “Really?”

“You have to swear to me you won’t tell him I told you,” Aaliyah said in an assertive tone, “He cannot know I told you.”

You nodded your head with a smile on your face, you were happy to have gotten something to help Shawn de-stress, “Swear on my life––You’re the best, A.”

After catching up with Aaliyah and hearing what she’s been up to the past few weeks, she had to go and do some chores she’d been procrastinating for a few days.  You bid her goodbye, thanking her again for her help and promising her again to not tell her brother that she let his secret slip.

You hung up and looked at the time.  Three o’clock. You had an hour or so before Shawn was due back so you hopped off the couch and made your way to the master bathroom.  With your hands on your hips, you looked at the tub with a questioning gaze.  Not once had you ever thought that Shawn was someone who was into baths.  You didn’t even think he had touched the faucet of the big white tub.  

But you were trusting Aaliyah with your life so you got to work.  

First, you checked the cabinets under the sink for any bubble bath supplies.  No luck.  Next, you checked the medicine cabinet for anything.  Rummaging through extra bottles of shampoo, soap, cologne…you were about to give up, but there was no other place Shawn would keep anything bathroom related.  He was very particular with how he organized his apartment.  Group like things together, Shawn tsked you when he helped you move into your new apartment, that way things will never get lost.

He was right; grouping like things together did make it easier to find certain things when you thought they were misplaced.  And you thanked the heavens above when you knelt down on the ground, pushing a few empty cardboard boxes aside, to find a little plastic basket with some bubble bath supplies.  

You made a mental note to text Aaliyah another thank you.

Dragging out the basket, you looked in and saw that the bubbles he had weren’t anything expensive. Just a regular run of the mill brand name bubbles.  Usually Shawn liked to splurge on some stuff if he never got the chance to do it often, and with Aaliyah saying he never took baths often, it made you wonder what was holding him back from buying really nice bubbles.  And in the basket were also two lavender scented candles.

You took the candles out immediately and found some matches hidden in the basket as well.  Candles could burn for a long time and it was better to get a head start on those than forget them later on.

With the scent of lavender filling up the room, you took your phone out and texted Shawn: Any idea when you’ll be back? :)

You didn’t want to run the bath too early, fearing that the water would get cold before he even got back to his place.

You unlocked your phone when it buzzed in your hand: Just leaving now.  So tired.  Be home in twenty? Something like that.

Your heart dropped when you read his message.  So tired.  Maybe he wouldn’t be up for a bath?  Maybe he just wanted to go to bed?

No, you told yourself, he’s been stressed and unhappy and deserves something relaxing.

You waited five minutes before opening up the Find My Friends app and clicked on Shawn’s name to track his location.  You saw his little circle of a contact picture moving down a street, the app telling you he was fifteen minutes away.  

Game time, you hyped yourself up as you turned on the faucet to the bath.  You ran your hand under the water until it was at a slightly hotter temperature than comfortable.  You figured that if you ran the water fairly hot right now, it would be at a comfortably warm temperature by the time Shawn got back.  So you put the plug in the drain and watched the tub slowly fill up with water.  When it was a quarter of the way full, you got the bottle of bubbles and squeezed only a little bit in.  You pampered yourself with a bubble bath one time and accidentally put in too many bubbles which ended up being disastrous.

And you didn’t want this to be disastrous for Shawn.  It was supposed to be relaxing.  And Lord knows he wouldn’t be relaxed if you flooded his bathroom.

Once the bath was filled to the appropriate height, you turned the faucet off.  Admiring your work, you didn’t hear the front door open.

“Y/n?”

Shawn’s voice rang through his apartment as butterflies fluttered throughout your stomach.  You hurriedly exited his bathroom, walked through his bedroom and greeted him in the kitchen.

You walked in with a glowing smile on your face, a skip in your step, but when you saw him sitting on one of the barstools, arms resting on the island with his head buried deep, your smile dropped.

Cautiously, you walked up behind him and slid your arms up his back and began to softly rub his shoulders.  He looked absolutely drained and it broke your heart.  Sure, you knew artist’s liked to pour their everything into creating music, but this was borderline insane.  

You pressed a soft kiss to the back of his neck, not exactly knowing what to say.  If you asked him about the studio, he would say something that would belittle himself for not writing or singing well enough.  If you asked how he felt, he would just tell you that he felt tired.

But luckily you didn’t have to say anything.  With his head still tucked away, he let out a low hum, “Missed you.”

The only thing you concentrated on was how exhausted he sounded.

“Missed you too,” you brought your hands to wrap around his torso, leaning forward and hugging him from behind, “Long day?”

You felt his back release a deep deep sigh, “The longest.”  You were second guessing the bath that was drawn.  He sounded like all he wanted to do was sleep for the next ten years, “Just wanna be with you.”

And then an idea struck your mind.  

The bath was originally meant to just only be for Shawn.  You wanted him to have time for himself, something he rarely had nowadays, but with his confession of wanting to be with you…

You unwound your arms from him and brought your arms to pull him up by his shoulders.  With a groan, he sat up all the way, but his eyes were still closed, “I really just wanna sleep––“

“Come with me,” you interrupted him as you took his hands and helped him up from the bar stool.  He followed you, but with slumped shoulders and eyes barely open.  He paused in the middle of his bedroom, the arm that connected your hand that held his, over stretching as you kept walking.

He pulled his eyebrows together, “Sleep?”

You let out a small laugh, he sounded like a toddler, speaking only the bare minimum.  Shaking your head you tugged his hand, “I have one small thing for you before we go to sleep.”

“But, Y/n––“

“Trust me.”

He continued to stay put in the middle of his room.  He glanced back at his bed, the sheets tempting him to crawl under and pass out.  But then he looked at you, your eyes pleading with him to follow you.  He gave into your eyes; he always did.

You tugged on his hand once more before he trailed behind you.  You smiled at the smell of lavender that was more prevalent now than it was when you first lit the candles up.  The bathroom lights were dimmed, but when you looked over your shoulder, you saw Shawn looking at the bath, then at you, at the candles, and back at you.

“What is––Did you do this?”

Turning your body to face him you gave his hand a slight squeeze as you stepped forward to him, toes touching, “You’ve been so stressed and I thought this might help relax you.”

His eyes continued to dart between the bath, the candles, and you, “But this––the bath––For me?”

You nodded your head with a shrug of your shoulders, “I wanted to do something nice,” his eyes were now intensely staring into your own, if you didn’t know him like the back of your hand, the stare would’ve intimidated you.  But his eyes were just concentrating; they were concentrating on you and you saw the love in them.

“And I thought…” Your eyes fell from his momentarily, suddenly growing shy about your next request, “Maybe…We could like go in…Together?”  

He was silent.  

It was not the response you were expecting and your stomach dropped, “Never mind,” you waved your free hand in the air, “I made the bath for you so you should enjoy it––You haven’t had any space to yourself, so you–––“

“God, yes,” Shawn’s eyes closed for the second time tonight, but they weren’t closed out of exhaustion, they were closed in pure bliss as he imagined a bath with you, “Please come in the bath.”

Your cheeks heated up as you rocked back on your heels, “Okay.”

You and Shawn had never taken a bath together; mainly for the reason that you didn’t know he took baths.  And it seemed like you were crossing a line into uncharted territory.  Sure, you’ve shared intimate moments together, seen each other naked, and shared your strongest fears with each other.  But there was something about taking a bath with Shawn that seemed even more intimate than all of those combined.

Shawn let go of your hand as he clutched the hem of his shirt, crossing his forearms before peeling the shirt over his head.  You slowly peeled your socks off, one by one, then stripped yourself of your leggings.

He folded his shirt and set it on the ground before his hands trailed down to the button on his jeans.  You watched his careful fingers undo the button and slowly unzip the zipper of his jeans.  He looked up at you through his curls, catching you staring at him, and smiled at you before pulling his jeans down past his thighs, wiggling them off his calves.

Much like his shirt, he folded his pants and set them aside.

Clad in just his underwear, he stepped forward in front of you, toes touching toes.  You were scared and you didn’t know why.  It’s just Shawn, you scolded yourself, there’s no need to feel scared.  The more you two just stood in front of each other in silence, you realized that the feeling in the pit of your stomach wasn’t fear, it was nerves.  You were nervous to strip off another level of yourself and become even more vulnerable with him.

He played with the hem of your shirt, eyes peering into yours silently asking if it was alright to take it off.  You lifted your arms over your head instead of offering him a verbal response.  He slipped your shirt over your head, kissed your cheek softly when it was off, folded it up, and placed it with his clothes.

Both of you stood in your underwear, waiting to see each other’s next move.  Shawn seemed to grasp the emotion behind taking a bath––it was such a simple way of displaying affection––but neither one of you had done this before.  Neither one of you had taken a bath with any of your previous significant other’s.  It would be a first time for something that the two of you would share together.

Staring deep into your eyes, Shawn slowly brought his hands to his underwear and pulled them down his legs.  Your eyes never left his as he shimmied out of them, not bothering to pick them up and fold them like his other articles of clothing.  

“If you…” he started off slowly, “If you don’t want me to look or like…aren’t comfortable, you don’t have to come in,” He took your hand and loosely held it between your bodies, “You can go to bed or…Or you can just sit on the ledge,” he gave your hand a squeeze, “I just really missed you today.”

You didn’t know what to say.  You didn’t know if you were capable of saying anything.  You were mesmerized with the carefulness of his tone, how he had just come from a hard day at work, but he wanted you to feel comfortable.  You didn’t think you could love him anymore than you did in this moment.

With one last squeeze, he released your hand as he made his way toward the white bathtub.  Your back was facing him, but you knew his movements too well that you could picture him; reaching the tips of his fingers in to test the warmth of the water before slowly sinking a foot in.  You heard the water move, you guessed that he was standing in the tub now, getting used to the water before he fully sank into the heat.

You knew he was fully submerged when you heard him let out a groan.  You glanced over your shoulder and saw his knees bent, limbs too long to fit fully inside the tub, as he rested his head on the back of the tub with his eyes shut tight.

With a deep breath, you reached behind your back to unclasp your bra, letting it fall from your shoulders.  You let your shoulders fall as you took another deep breath, carefully sliding your underwear down over your thighs, past your calves, and slightly bent down to unhook them from your feet.  And unlike Shawn, you picked up both of your underwear from the floor, and neatly folded them, placing them next to the clothes he had folded.

The bathroom air felt cold around your body, but the eyes you felt on your back lit your insides on fire.  

Turning toward the tub slowly, you brushed a strand of hair behind your ear, and saw Shawn staring into your eyes.  Any other boy, you thought, any other boy would be trailing his eyes all over your body.  But not Shawn, a shy smile creeped up on your lips; Not Shawn.

Your eyes stayed connected all throughout the few steps you took to the tub, the nerves still bubbling in your stomach.  But with the nerves came love.  With love came adoration.  And with adoration came the boy who was sitting in the tub, patiently waiting for you to join him.

Shawn lifted his arm  from the confines of the water and held it out to you.  With water droplets falling from his arm, you took hold of his hand, not even testing the water temperature before you stepped in one foot at a time.  You trusted that if Shawn was fine with the temperature, then you wouldn’t have a problem with it.

You lowered yourself into the bubbles, the heat of the water loosening up every tense muscle you didn’t know existed, as you sat on the opposite side of the tub from Shawn.  With your body submerged up to your collar bones, the cold porcelain on your back was a soothing contrast from the heat of the water.

Your eyes were closed as you enjoyed unwinding in the tub.  While you made the bath for Shawn, you were glad you decided to join.  Under the water, you felt the toes of his right foot glide up and down your calf.  You opened your eyes to see him with a lazy half smile, “Will you come here?”

You bit your lip to conceal a grin, but nodded, placing both hands on the ledges of the tub.  Your chest was covered with bubbles, but they were slowly trickling off your body, exposing your breasts to Shawn.  But like the whole night, Shawn’s eyes were looking into his favorite color; your eyes.

Moving forward, you twisted yourself to turn around, your back facing him, as he brought a hand up to grip your thigh, slowly lowering yourself down on his lap.  You leaned back on his chest as the water began to still, resting your head on his shoulder.

“Thank you.”

It was just you and Shawn in the bathroom, back pressed against his chest, but he still whispered.  The thank you he whispered held more meaning than those two words.  He was saying I’m thankful for you, I’m lucky to have you in my life, I’m in love with you.

You closed your eyes as his arms rounded your waist and you kissed his neck; suddenly hyper aware of everything around you. You felt the hair on his legs brush up against yours, smelled the lavender wafting through the air, heard the single droplets of water that fell from the spout echo in the tub, and saw the love Shawn held for you in his eyes.

“I wrote a song about you today,” Shawn piped up, voice small and unaware of how you were going to react.

“Really?”

His statement piqued your interest, he was usually closed lipped about what went on during his studio sessions.  You knew some musicians had weird superstitions, and you never pried Shawn on information he didn’t want to share with you regarding his album.  And you never took it to heart, knowing that you would still get to hear the finished cut of the album before the general public.

Shawn sunk further into the tub, taking you with him, “I’ve written lots of songs about you,” he shared.  You turned your face up to look at him better.  You were met with his sharp jawline, his eyes dreamily facing forward as he smiled at the melody he wrote for you that played in his head, “Why I’ve been so tired.”

“Oh?” You said it playfully, a smirk toying at your lips, “Loving me is tiring?”

Shawn squeezed your hips under the water, “You know what I mean,” he finally looked down at you, “Just have so many feelings about you running through my head all the time.”

You let out a small laugh, “Good to know.”

“You’re on my mind all hours of the day,” again even though you were alone, he whispered his words softly, as if exchanging a secret, “Can’t get enough of you.”

Shawn pressed a kiss as soft as his words to your growing smile.  You were having a hard time kissing him back, so overcome with elation, that you never thought your smile would disappear.

Once he stopped trying to pry kisses from you, he knew he would get a good kiss before you headed to bed, he rested his head on top of yours, “This is just what I needed,” he let out his millionth sigh of the night, “I love baths.”

You smiled in satisfaction, “That’s what I’ve heard.”

You noticed the loss of contact when Shawn picked his head up from yours.  He looked down at you with a questioning stare, “Heard? Who told you?”

Shit.

“I uh––Read it in one of your interviews,” You stammered, not wanting to break your trust with Aaliyah.  While you loved Shawn and would choose his side no matter what, you made a promise to his sister that you intended to keep, “GQ.”

Shawn shook his head, a smirk growing more and more on his lips, “Never discussed taking baths with GQ.”

“Billboard?” His smirk widened with another wrong answer, “Variety? Rolling Stone––“

“Aaliyah told you, didn’t she?”

You rapidly shook your head, but you felt your eyes widen, blowing your cover.  But you still held out your promise to Aaliyah and denied his accusations, “Haven’t talked to her in a while, I should probably give her a call, you know?  See how school’s going for her, see if she needs any boy advice–––“

“First off,” Shawn cut you off, “No to giving her boy advice.  She’s too young––“

“It’s how we bond!” Your laugh caused the water to ripple, “It’s not like I haven’t given it to her before.”

“That’s a conversation for a different time,” he shot you a fake glare, before his smirk reappeared and a mischievous glint twinkled in his eyes, “She’s the only person who knows I like baths when I’m stressed.”

You didn’t know how you could argue with that.  No amount of bullshitting could get you out of the corner you backed yourself into.  With a sigh, you lifted your back off his chest and twisted your body to face him, “I wanted to do something for you,” you brought your hand up to cup his face, he leaned into your touch, “You were getting so lost in yourself and I couldn’t think of anything.  So I called her up.”

Shawn nodded against your palm, turning his head to press a gentle kiss on the inside of your hand, “I really do appreciate this––you.  This is the best thing to happen to me all week. Thank you.”

You smiled at him before fitting yourself back up against his chest.  You stayed in the water with him until your fingers pruned up and the water went cold.

[oliviajames1122]

What Are Most Common FAQs For Car Owners on Car Radiators?

Is it necessary to replace a car radiator on a regular basis?

If you've improved your car engine to create more power, you should think about getting a new radiator. Because a more powerful engine produces more heat, it will require an improved radiator to adequately handle the increased heat output. A well-maintained radiator should last at least 3 years and up to 8-10 years if properly maintained.

Is it true that a car has two radiators?

There are two main radiators to be aware of in a car... Cross flow radiators use tanks (located on the sides of the radiator core) to allow coolant to circulate back and forth across the core. As a result, heat may be dispersed across a large region.

How do you keep a car radiator in good working order?

5 ways to keep your car's radiator in good shape:

1.      Always use the correct coolant - There are many coolants on the market, but only use coolants made specifically for your car's make and model, and never mix coolants made for other autos. Aluminium and copper-brass radiators may have differing needs, and the standard coolant may not be sufficient. Make sure you are always reading the small print.

2.      Flushing your radiator on a regular basis - A radiator flush and engine coolant change every 12 months, or 15 000 miles will eliminate the build-up of corrosion and grime and keep your radiator in good operating order.

3.      Check for leaks and maintain the hoses - When you replace your car's oil, look for leaks and breaks in the radiator hose. Check for rusty clamps and check sure the gasket on your radiator top is still in good shape. Look under the engine for obvious indicators of leaks or drips.

4.      Control fluid levels - Keeping coolant levels in check is crucial. It not only keeps your automobile from overheating in hot weather, but it also keeps fluids from freezing in bitterly cold weather.

5.      Don't overloaded your car - The more weight it must transfer, the harder your radiator will have to work to keep it cool. Overloading your vehicle is a leading cause of overheating since it raises the pressure on the engine, placing it under additional stress.

How long does a radiator in a car last?

Many radiators are designed to endure the life of your vehicle. A well-maintained radiator should last at least eight to 10 years if properly cared for. However, in some circumstances, you may need to replace the radiator sooner to keep your autos running safely.

Is it necessary to pour coolant straight into the radiator?

If the coolant level is low, fill the coolant reservoir rather than the radiator with the required coolant. You can use diluted coolant or a 50/50 solution of concentrated coolant and clean water. When the coolant reaches the cold fill line, close the lid and tighten it until you hear it click

If you check MOT history of a car, a common MOT failure is low coolant which leads to an overheated engine. Not only will an overheated engine fail the MOT, but it would also lead the engine to totally fail.

I'm not sure how full my radiator should be

At least 30% of the coolant reservoir tank should be filled. The minimum and maximum marks are drawn on the side of most reservoir tanks. A defective radiator cap, bad radiator fans, and loose radiator hose clamps are the most prevalent causes of coolant leaks.

How do you tell when a radiator needs to be replaced?

Signs that you need a new radiator include:

1.      Your temperature is quite hot. There might be a problem if the needle on your temperature indicator is consistently moving to the hotter end.

2.      Your vehicle is overheating.

3.      Low coolant or leaking.

4.      Sludge or discoloration in the radiator.

5.      Problems with car heating.

Complete a MOT history check online and have any radiator issues resolved beforehand to avoid the extra hassle of a MOT failure.

What causes a radiator to crack?

Overheating or high coolant pressure within the radiator might lead to a crack due to a faulty thermostat or a leaking head gasket. The Radiator's ability to be cooled by outside air is hampered by the summer heat. Overheating and a cracked radiator can occur if the radiator fluid is not maintained.

My radiator is empty, but my reservoir is full

A burst head gasket is a typical reason of the coolant reservoir being full yet the radiator being low on coolant. One of the cylinders' combustion gases seeps into the cooling system, forcing coolant from the engine into the reservoir. When the reservoir is full, the remaining water overflows into the sea through the overflow outlet.

Is it necessary for my radiator to be totally full?

The radiator, as well as the cooling system, should be totally full of fluid. The surplus pours into the overflow tank as it heats up and expands, and the level increases from the cold to the hot mark. When the engine cools down, the coolant from the expansion tank should return to the radiator.

Is it necessary for me to fill up my radiator to the brim?

The radiator, as well as the cooling system, should be entirely filled with fluid. The surplus flows into the overflow tank as it heats up and expands, and the level climbs from cold to hot. Coolant from the expansion tank should return to the radiator when the engine cools down.

[thumbgarden]

How to grow lavender growth patterns and care, harvesting

Lavender is a completely unique ornamental and medicinal plant that won endless love two thousand years ago for its delightful spicy aroma. Its traditional purple or violet fluffy beauty and outstanding culinary qualities. This article gives you an explanation of how to plant lavender, care and harvest. Currently, lavender is widely used for borders and ridges, where it is advantageous to place it in pots and essential as a background plant. In addition, experienced gardeners will confirm that the smell of lavender is offensive to Colorado potato beetles and moths. For this reason, it is important to place the plant not only in the flower bed but also in the garden. In recent years, many flower growers have added lavender to their summer cottages and private residential areas. It's no surprise the delicate lavender flowers and fragrance in the garden are stunning. You can find more information on growing crops from seedlings below, as well as a photo guide for layering lavender and seeds The lavender plant (Lavandula) belongs to the lambda family and there are about 30 species. Lavender flowers grow naturally in the Canary Islands, East, and North Africa, Australia, Arabia, India, and Southern Europe. Culturally, only two types of lavender are grown in the world - broad-leaved lavender (France) and narrow-leaved lavender or medicinal (England). The name of the plant comes from the Latin word lava, meaning "to wash" and denotes the use of lavender in the ancient world - the Romans and Greeks used the plant for washing. Today, lavender flowers are not only grown in private gardens but also commercially as a valuable essential oil crop.

DESCRIPTION OF LAVENDER Lavender is a perennial evergreen shrub with woody fibrous roots up to 2 m deep and numerous woody buds in the lower part, 60 cm (23.6inch) tall, opposite sessile linear silver-green leaves with soft pubescence and fragrant blue or lavender flowers in whorls of 6-10 interrupted spikes. Inflorescences form at the top of leafless stems. Lavender blooms in the second half of the summer. Lavender is a great honey plant. When stored correctly, lavender seeds can germinate for many years. Lavender is a close relative of crops such as hyssop, basil, mint, lemon balm, motherwort, oregano, sage, and rosemary. We will tell you how to grow lavender from seed, what are the conditions for growing lavender in open fields, growing lavender in open fields and caring for it, how to spread lavender, and how lavender winters.

PROPAGATION OF LAVENDER Both narrow-leaved and other lavender species are almost identical in propagation. Regardless of their hardiness, lavender species have very similar characteristics and differ only in details, which include the size of their leaves and flowers. All lavenders are easy to propagate vegetatively, as the plants send out many shoots, and both divisions and cuttings can take root. However, this method can only be used for varieties or species of lavender that are available now or on the market (more specific species and rare species are usually not available). And the number of offspring will always be more or less limited. If you want to grow a new lavender plant and have a lot of seedlings, thus saving a lot of time and money, then the less popular and less reputable method of lavender seed propagation can be used. In fact, lavender seed propagation is not so tricky because the only difficulty - stratification - is relatively easy to overcome.

HARVEST YOUR OWN LAVENDER SEEDS AND SELECT THEM FOR SOWING.

When choosing lavender seeds, pay special attention to price and manufacturer. Buy lavender only from reputable companies and suppliers you trust with a wide variety of ornamental plants that are representative of not only annuals but other perennials as well. Remember that lavender seeds cannot be too easily obtained: cheap seeds can unpleasantly "replace" one variety with another. Make sure that information about the producer, the characteristics of the plant, and the characteristics of the seeds sown are presented in full. You can also collect your own seeds by buying or collecting fully bloomed inflorescences, making lavender bouquets, drying them, and saving the small, fragrant seeds. Lavender seeds have an amazing germination rate. It is not necessary to use fresh ones; they can still germinate after five years if the correct technique is used. And it is best to keep the seeds in an airtight container.

PRE-TREATMENT OF LAVENDER SEEDS Lavender seeds need to be stratified and cold-layered. Without this treatment, they will not germinate and must be exposed to cold temperatures for an extended period of time. Depending on the method and timing of this treatment, there are two possible ways to grow lavender from seed 1. manual stratification, where the seeds are soaked in cold water before sowing. 2. Natural stratification, where the seeds are sown under winter after a cooling period already in the soil. The minimum stratification time for lavender seeds is 1.5 months (or at least 30 to 40 days). Storage beyond this time will only positively affect the number and germination of seedlings. Manual stratification is best done by mixing lavender seeds with sand or substrate rather than in bags. Place the seed mixture in a container and wrap or cover it with plastic wrap (you can also place the seed mixture in a sealed plastic bag). Send the seeds to cool at a temperature of about 5 degrees Celsius for 6-8 weeks. Lavender seeds do not need to be frozen: they can simply be stored in the refrigerator. In addition to normal stratification, you can try other methods of treatment. Scalded lavender seeds are sown in the ground. Treatment with growth stimulants or plant hormones (e.g. gibberellin at a concentration of 100 to 200 ml per 1 liter of water). However, these methods may not yield any results at all.

WHEN TO PLANT Lavender can be sown into the ground in October or late May. If lavender is to be planted in the ground, it should be purchased in early winter or fall, as the seeds will germinate at 5°C (41°F) for 2 months before planting. The seeds are usually mixed with wet sand and layered in a vegetable box in the refrigerator. lavender seeds are sown in February or March for seedlings.

PLANTING LAVENDER 1. Sowing lavender in the ground Sowing lavender in the ground in winter is an easy task, not much different from any perennial or shrub that likes to stratify. seeds should be sown at the end of October and the seeds should not be buried too deeply. There is no fear of lavender germination in early spring: lavender will not produce its first seedlings until May or even before summer when temperatures rise significantly overnight. In spring, sow the seeds in the soil in May when there is no longer a risk of frost. The seeds are then manually stratified.

2. Soil and container for sowing lavender seeds A loose substrate with a high nutrient content is generally used for lavender. Prepared potting soil (universal potting soil for indoor plants or special potting soil for seedlings and summer plants) is preferable. It is advisable to bake or soak the substrate with mangoes before planting. When choosing containers to sow lavender seedlings, shallow, large, and wide containers, crates and pots are preferred. Lavender has not sown inboxes. The maximum depth of the container is 7cm (2.75inch).

3. Sowing lavender seeds Lavender should be planted in late winter, sown in late February or early March. Lavender is sown less in large boxes, and seeds should be sown one by one because although the plant is not afraid of transplanting, it has a strong root system and produces long roots that can be easily destroyed if sown too densely. Otherwise, the rules of planting are simple. 1. The container is filled with soil and carefully, without tamping it down, flatten it. 2. Use a sprayer to moisten the soil on top. 3. Plant the lavender seeds one by one at a distance of 1.5-2cm (0.59-0.78inch). 4. Cover the top layer with 2-3mm of soil (preferably sieved) and do not deepen it. 5. Immediately after sowing, cover the container with glass or film.

4. Conditions for seed germination Lavender must provide two main factors. 4a. sunlight 4b. Room temperature limited to between 15-21°C (59-69.8°F). Soil moisture should be kept light and steady throughout the lavender germination period, with careful soil spraying in the morning and ventilation in the "greenhouse". Over-watering is very dangerous, but without consistent moisture, good germination is difficult to achieve. It usually takes a long time for lavender to germinate. The first sprouts may appear within 2 weeks and usually take about a month to appear.

5. Planting of lavender Remove the glass or film from the container as soon as possible after the lavender sprouts, but keep the soil lightly moistened. Sprouts should be planted in the brightest spot (preferably on a sunny southern windowsill). If sunlight is insufficient, supplement lavender by increasing sunlight hours to 8-10 hours.

6. Sprouting and care of lavender seedlings Lavender should only be harvested when it has a pair of true leaves and has developed its third to fourth full leaf. Generally, even young lavender shoots will sprout roots first. At this stage, its roots are already strong and there is no more space in shallow pots. Lavender should be transplanted gently, but quite tolerant. It should be placed in individual pots or containers of 5-6cm (1.96-2.36inch) diameter, but large boxes can also be used, with a similar distance between plants. Lavender seedlings can be grown using a peat-sand mixture or a light indoor plant substrate of perlite and sand. A long-lasting fertilizer can be added to the substrate. Replace lavender into new containers, taking care not to damage the root ball, and carefully work the soil around the seedlings to improve rooting rates.

7. Acclimatization period of lavender seedlings Lavender seedlings require at least a 1-week acclimation period to adapt to their new environment. Gradually take the plants outside, starting with 1 hour per day and increasing the time spent outside each day.

8. Planting of lavender seedlings After sowing, lavender does not begin to flower until the second year after sowing. The plant does not develop quickly the first year: only roots and then buds. However, once it takes root, it grows very fast the next year and its beautiful and fragrant flowers will be appreciated. To grow lavender seedlings, choose a sunny place with light soil and add organic fertilizer. Stony, sandy loam soils are better for this perennial plant. The optimum pH for this plant is 6.5 to 7.5. It is best to prepare a special soil mixture for planting by mixing soil taken from the planting hole with sand, mulch, and mineral fertilizer, or by replacing the soil entirely with a mixture of leafy soil, sand, and mulch in a ratio of 3:1:2. Planting distance of 30-40 cm (11.8-15.7inch) is appropriate. Planting should be done in a single adequately sized planting hole about 30cm (11.8inch) deep and 30cm (11.8inch) in diameter. Lavender will not only respond well to adequate moisture, but will also mulch immediately after planting (preferably keeping the mulch layer intact, but never below the base of the plant). During the first year of seedling or sowing into the ground, lavender should be watered regularly despite its drought tolerance. Watering should only be done in times of drought. However, regular weeding and weed control should be done in the first year. In the first year of flowering, there is no need to allow the lavender to bloom, much less produce seeds. In the second year of flowering, as soon as a third of the flowers are open and about a third remain on the plant, they should be cut back. This trick will not be necessary for subsequent years. During the first winter that seed lavender is in the ground, it should be covered with dry leaves or with other protective equipment.

9. Winter sowing In areas with warm winters, it is best to sow lavender seeds directly into the ground. This is done in October. After preparing the soil for the site, peat is introduced under the excavation, and if the soil is too wet, fine gravel or sand is added to increase moisture and air permeability. The sowing depth is 3-4cm (1.18-1.57inch) and the soil surface is slightly compacted after sowing. If the fall is dry, water the crop, but not too much, and with the first snowfall, throw small snowflakes on the plot.

CARE OF LAVENDER 1. Cultivation conditions The first inflorescence on lavender seedlings should be removed as soon as it appears so that the young plants grow robustly and have a well-developed root system, and do not waste their energy on flowering. The first year lavender grows very slowly in the garden, so weed control is needed to avoid choking the seedlings. How do I grow lavender? How do I need to care for lavender in the garden? You need to water regularly and heavily, and in extreme heat, watering should become frequent. After watering or rain, you need to loosen and weed between the shrubs, but if you want to save time and effort, you can cover the soil between the shrubs with peat after planting. Old trees should be pruned in spring and autumn, which will promote the formation of new shoots on old wood. In addition to the above procedures, you will have to prune and fertilize the lavender, preferably with potassium fertilizer, as manure and nitrogen fertilizers only promote green growth but hinder the flowering growth of the lavender. When the shrub reaches 10 years of age, it is advisable to prune it by cutting back all branches by 5cm (1.96inch). The same can be done if the young shrubs are not in full bloom.

2. Propagation Propagation: In addition to propagation by seed, lavender can also be propagated by division, cuttings, and cuttings. If you already have a lavender shrub, or if you can get hold of a woody annual, cuttings are very useful. Cut cuttings 8-10cm (3.14-3.93inch) long from the scion, plant in moist, light soil, cut about 2-3cm (0.78-1.18inch) below the bottom, and cover with a glass jar. The jar can be removed once the cuttings have rooted. To divide the lavender bush, you need to prepare it well. After flowering in autumn, prune the large bush to 10cm (3.93inch) high, then dig it down and fill all the space between the shoots with soil. Repeat the soaking in the spring. In the summer, the shrubs will send out abundant shoots. In the fall, the shrub can be dug up and divided into sections with well-developed root systems and shoots for transplanting. To propagate by transplanting in spring, bend a few shoots, place them in a 3-4cm (1.18-1.57inch) deep groove, fix them in this position and cover them with soil and water. Keep the soil above the shoots moist throughout the summer, and the following spring separate the rooted shoots from the bush, divide them into several parts and transplant them to a permanent location.

3. Pests and Diseases Outdoor lavender is extremely resistant to pests and diseases, but it is not immune to problems. Sometimes, lavender is affected by cicadas, or weeping nose insects, and iridescent beetles, and among diseases, lavender can be affected by gray rot. Cicadas and iridescent beetles should be picked up by hand, and then be sure to replace the mulch in the area. Gray rot usually occurs during wet, rainy summers or if the soil has been overwatered frequently for a long period of time, a condition that cannot be treated, but you can remove and burn the diseased parts of your lavender so that the infection is not transmitted to all of your plants. Of course, you will also need to reconsider your lavender watering regimen.

4. Caring for lavender after it blooms Overwintering If winter temperatures in your area drop below 25°C (77°F), you should protect your lavender under heavy frosts, but do not use fallen leaves as insulation, as they will prevent lavender from rotting in winter. It is best to mulch with lavender after fall pruning.

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Author: Ms.Geneva Link: https://www.thumbgarden.com/how-to-plant-lavender/ Source: ThumbGarden The copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprints, please contact the author for authorization, and for non-commercial reprints, please indicate the source.