#top rated roofers

[cherryroofingfl]

Cherry Roofing | Top-Rated Roofing Contractor In Florida

For over six decades, Cherry Roofing has been the trusted roofing contractor of choice for Broward, Dade, and Palm Beach counties. Established in 1954, we have built a strong reputation as a leader in the industry. With a focus on quality and excellence, we provide superior roofing products and workmanship for both residential and commercial properties. Our experienced team is committed to delivering lasting solutions that meet your specific needs. When it comes to roofing, choose Cherry Roofing for unmatched expertise and reliability.

[amcroofingus]

Shielding Homes, Elevating Values: Your Roofing Partner at AMC Roofing

AMC Roofing is your trusted partner in shielding homes and elevating property values. With a commitment to quality craftsmanship and top-tier materials, we provide roofing solutions that stand the test of time. Trust us to be your roofing partner, ensuring durability, reliability, and enhanced property value.

For more valuable information visit us at: https://amcroofingus.wordpress.com/2023/12/27/shielding-homes-elevating-values-your-roofing-partner-at-amc-roofing/

[nirbobharvey]

Residential Roof Replacement Safety - Equipment and Requirements

Prevent severe damage to your home and landscape and devastating injuries to your roofers and loved ones. When safety equipment is utilized properly, and safety procedures are adhered to, costly damages and severe injuries can be prevented.

newimageroofingatlanta.com gathered essential information on equipment and requirements that ensure roofing crew and occupant safety, including any necessary permits, emergency preparedness plans, and severe weather forecasts.

Safety Equipment and Requirements

Roofing work can be hazardous, and the consequences of neglecting safety measures can be severe (ranging from minor injuries to fatal accidents). Ensuring safety is not only a legal and ethical obligation but a practical one that minimizes delays, additional costs, and potential damage to the property. Consider the following roofing crew safety equipment:

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Roofers should wear the appropriate PPE, including:

Hard Hats

Safety Glasses or Face Shields

Hearing Protection

Gloves

Non-Slip Footwear.

PPE provides protection against falling debris, sharp objects, and noise-related issues.

Fall-Arrest Systems: Fall-arrest systems are critical for all roofing projects. Roofers must have access to fall arrest systems, which typically consist of:

Harnesses

Lifelines

Anchor points

Note: Roofing companies must provide training on the proper use of these systems to prevent falls from heights.

Roof Brackets and Toe Boards: These devices help create a safer working platform on the roof, reducing slip or fall risks. Roof brackets secure to the roof’s surface and provide a stable platform for workers to stand on.

Ladders and Access Equipment: High-quality ladders and access equipment, like scaffolding, should be used to provide safe entry and exit points to the roof. Proper ladder setup and secure anchoring are essential to prevent accidents.

Roofing Tools and Equipment: Roofing crews should have access to specialized tools and equipment like:

Roofing Nail Guns

Roofing Knives

Safety Knives

Note: These tools are designed to enhance efficiency while minimizing risks associated with manual labor.

Tip: All cutting or trimming equipment must be kept sharpened to prevent incidents from over-used or dull blades.

Safety Requirements for Occupants

While much of the safety responsibility falls on the roofing crew, homeowners and occupants also have a crucial role to play in ensuring safety during a roof replacement project.

Clear the Work Area: Before the roofing crew arrives, homeowners should remove any obstacles around the house that could hinder their work. This includes:

Outdoor Furniture

Landscape Accessories

Vehicles

Equipment

Tip: If you have limited space to store these items, rent a storage unit for their safe-keeping.

Communication with Roofing Crew: Establishing clear communication with the roofing company and installation crew is essential. Discuss any concerns or special requirements you may have, like protecting delicate landscaping or pet safety.

Children and Pet Safety: Ensure that children and pets are kept safely away from the work area. The noise and presence of workers on the roof can be unsettling or disorienting for them. Consider temporary accommodations or playdates away from the home.

Secure Loose Items: Secure any loose items in your attic or upper floor to prevent them from falling during the roof replacement. Vibrations from the work can dislodge objects.

Tip: When roof installation is complete, verify that any wall fasteners haven’t come loose from vibrations caused by the nailing or pounding.

Follow Instructions from Roofing Crew: It’s crucial to follow any safety instructions provided by the roofing crew. This may include remaining inside the house or keeping windows closed during certain phases of the roofing project.

Read more about residential roofing systems at newimageroofingatlanta.com/residential-roofing-what-you-need-to-know/

Regulatory Compliance and Permits

Roofing projects are subject to local building codes and regulations. Compliance with these codes – when applicable – is mandatory to ensure the safety and structural integrity of the roof.

It’s essential for roofing companies to obtain any necessary permits and inspections before and after the project. Homeowners should verify that their roofing contractor is licensed, insured, bonded, and that they adhere to all local and/or regional regulations.

Emergency Preparedness

Both the roofing crew and occupants should be prepared for emergencies. Roofing companies should have an emergency plan in place, including:

First Aid Kits

Fire Extinguishers

Protocols for handling accidents or injuries

Homeowners should know how to contact emergency services and be familiar with evacuation routes in case of fire or other emergencies.

Weather Considerations

Weather can significantly impact the safety of a roofing project. Roofing work should not proceed in adverse weather conditions, like:

Rain

High Winds

Icy Conditions

It’s essential to monitor weather forecasts and reschedule work if necessary to prevent accidents related to slippery surfaces or unstable conditions.

Crew and Resident Communication

Clear communication between the roofing crew and homeowners is vital for ensuring safety. Homeowners should be informed of the project’s timeline, potential disruptions, and safety measures. Likewise, the roofing crew should be aware of any unique circumstances or concerns within or around the home.

Note: Following safety requirements, complying with regulations, and maintaining open communication will keep the crew and occupants safe throughout a successful and secure roofing project. Safety should always be the top priority when embarking on any roofing endeavor, as it protects lives, property, and peace of mind.

Subscribe to this YouTube Channel to see informative videos about roofing topics.

Roof Replacement Safety

In this article, you discovered essential information about the safety equipment and requirements needed to keep your roofing crew and loved ones safe during a residential roof replacement.

Meticulous attention to safety procedures and equipment usage will keep your roofers and home’s occupants from suffering life threatening injuries when mishaps occur.

Disregard for safety protocols can lead to devastating injuries when a roofer loses their balance or material slides off the roof falling to the ground.

Sources: osha.gov/sites/default/files/2018-11/fy12_sh-23536-12_StudentReferenceMaterials.pdf cdc.gov/niosh/construction/pdfs/cf2022-wtw-508.pdf nachi.org/fall-arrest-systems.htm

New Image Roofing Atlanta

2020 Howell Mill Rd NW Suite 232 Atlanta, GA 30318 (404) 680-0041

To see the original version of this article, visit https://www.newimageroofingatlanta.com/residential-roof-replacement-safety-equipment-and-requirements/

[mostlysignssomeportents]

You can’t shop your way out of a monopoly

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in TUCSON (Mar 9-10), then SAN FRANCISCO (Mar 13), Anaheim, and more!

If you're running a business, you can either invest at being good at your business, or good at Google SEO. Choose the former and your customers will love you – but they won't be able to find you, thanks to the people who choose the latter. And if you're going to invest in top-notch SEO, why bother investing in quality at all?

For more than a decade, Google has promised that it would do something about "lead gens" – services that spoof Google into thinking that they are local businesses, pushing down legit firms on both regular search and Google Maps (these downranked businesses invested in quality, not SEO, remember). Search for a roofer, a plumber, an electrician, or a locksmith (especially a locksmith), and most or all of the results will be lead-gens. They'll take your call, pretend to be a local business, and then call up some half-qualified bozo to come out and charge you four times the going rate for substandard work:

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/business/fake-online-locksmiths-may-be-out-to-pick-your-pocket-too.html

Some of them just take your money and they "go back to the shop for a tool" and never return:

https://www.riverfronttimes.com/news/when-a-fake-business-used-a-real-st-louis-address-things-got-weird-32087998

Google has been promising to fix this since the late aughts, and to be fair, it's a little better. There was once a time when a map of Manhattan showed more locksmiths than taxis:

https://blumenthals.com/blog/2009/02/18/google-maps-proves-more-locksmiths-in-nyc-than-cabs/

But GMaps is trapped in the enshittification squeeze. On the one hand, the company wants to provide a good and reliable map. On the other hand, the company makes money selling "ads" that are actually payola, where a business can pay to get to the top of the listings or get displayed on the map itself. Zoom out of Google's map of central London and the highlighted landmarks are a hilarious mix of "organic" and paid listings: the British Museum, Buckingham Palace, the Barbican, the London Eye…and a random oral and maxillofacial clinic in the financial district:

https://twitter.com/dylanbeattie/status/1764711667663831455

Hell of a job "organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful," Big G. Doubtless the average Londoner finds the presence of this clinic super helpful in orienting themselves relative to the map on their phone screens, and it's a real service to tourists hoping to hit all the major landmarks.

It's not just Maps users who'd noticed the rampant enshittification. Even the original design team is so horrified they're moved to speak out about the moral injury they experience seeing the product they worked so hard on turned into a giant pile of shit:

https://twitter.com/elizlaraki/status/1727351922254852182

Now, when it comes to locksmiths, I'm lucky. My neighborhood in Burbank includes the wonderful Golden State Lock and Safe, which has been in business since 1942:

https://www.goldenstatelock.com/

But you wouldn't know it from searching GMaps for a locksmith near me. That search turns up a long list of scams:

https://www.google.com/maps/search/locksmith/@34.1750451,-118.369948,14z/data=!3m1!4b1?entry=ttu

It also turns up plenty of Keyme machines – these are private-equity backed, self-serve key-cutting machines placed in grocery stores. Despite Keyme calling itself a "locksmith," it's just a badly secured, overcaptilized, enshittification-bound system for collecting and retaining shapefiles for the keys to millions of homes, cross-referenced with billing information that will make it easy for the eventual hackers to mass-produce keys for all those poor suckers' houses.

(Hilariously, Keyme claims to be an "AI" company):

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200114005194/en/KeyMe-Raises-35-Million-to-Further-Its-Mission-of-Building-the-Premier-Locksmith-Services-Company-in-the-Nation

But despite the fact that you can literally see the Golden State storefront from Google Streetview, Google Maps claims to have no knowledge of it. Instead, Streetview labels Golden State "Keyme" – and displays a preview showing a locksmith using a tool to break into a jeep (I'd dearly love to know how the gadget next to the Slurpee machine at the 7-Eleven will drive itself to your jeep and unlock the door for you when you lose your keys):

https://www.google.com/maps/place/KeyMe+Locksmiths/@34.1752624,-118.3487531,3a,75y,350.19h,90.21t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1ssHrtqjqvgFir3NBauMy13Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m15!1m8!3m7!1s0x80c2959cd65dbb1b:0x4b3744cf87492a71!2sBurbank+Blvd+%26+N+Hollywood+Way,+Burbank,+CA+91505!3b1!8m2!3d34.1750025!4d-118.3493484!16s%2Fg%2F11f37_3lq8!3m5!1s0x80c2951cedbf4d39:0xe8ff9fd5872e66e9!8m2!3d34.1755176!4d-118.349!16s%2Fg%2F11mw7nr4fx?entry=ttu

It's pretty clear to me what's going on here. Keyme has hired some SEO creeps and/or paid off Google, flooding the zone with listings for its machines. Meanwhile, Golden State, being merely good at locksmithing, has lost the SEO wars. Perhaps Golden State could shift some of its emphasis from being good at locksmithing in order to get better at SEO, but this is a race that will always be won by the firm that puts the most into SEO, which will always be the firm that puts the least into quality.

Whenever I write about this stuff, people inevitably ask me which search engine they should use, if not Google?

And there's the rub.

Google used predatory pricing and anticompetitive mergers to acquire a 90% search market-share. The company spends more than $26b/year buying default position in every place where you might possibly encounter a new search engine. This created the "kill zone" – the VC's term of art for businesses that no one will invest in, because Google makes sure that no one will ever find out it exists:

https://www.theverge.com/23802382/search-engine-google-neeva-android

That's why the only serious competitor to Google is Bing, another Big Tech company (Bing is also the primary source of results on Duckduckgo, which is why DDG sometimes makes exceptions for Microsoft's privacy-invading tracking):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckDuckGo#Controversies

Google tells us that the quid-pro-quo of search monopolization is search excellence. The hundreds of billions it makes every year through monopoly control gives it the resources it needs to fight spammers and maintain search result quality. Anyone who's paid attention recently knows that this is bullshit: Google search quality is in free-fall, across all its products:

https://downloads.webis.de/publications/papers/bevendorff_2024a.pdf

But Google doesn't seem to think it has a problem. Rather than devoting all its available resources to fighting botshit, spam and scams, the company set $80 billion dollars alight last year with a stock buyback that was swiftly followed with 12,000 layoffs, followed by multiple subsequent rounds of layoffs:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task

The scams that slip through Google's cracks are sometimes nefarious, but just as often they're decidedly amateurish, the kind of thing that Google could fix by throwing money at the problem, say, to validate that new ads for confirmed Google merchants come from the merchant's registered email addresses and go to the merchant's registered website:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/24/passive-income/#swiss-cheese-security

Search is a capital intensive business, and there are real returns to scale, as the UK Competition and Market Authority's excellent 2020 study describes:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5fe4957c8fa8f56aeff87c12/Appendix_I_-_search_quality_v.3_WEB_.pdf

But Google doesn't seem to think that its search needs that $80 billion to fight the spamwars. That's the thing about monopolists, they get complacent. As Lily Tomlin's "Ernestine the AT&T operator" used to say, "We don't care, we don't have to, we're the phone company."

That's why I'm so excited about the DOJ Antitrust Division monopolization case against Google. Trusting one company to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," was a failure:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-google-monopolizing-digital-advertising-technologies

I understand why people want to know which search engine they should use instead of Google, and I get why, "There aren't any good search engines" is such an unsatisfactory answer. I understand why each fresh round of printer-company fuckery prompts people to ask "which printer should I get?" and I understand why "There are only six major printer companies and they're all suffering from end-stage enshittification" isn't what anyone wants to hear.

We want to be able to vote with our wallets, because it's so much faster and more convenient than voting with our ballots. But the vote-with-your-wallet election is rigged for the people with the thickest wallets. Try as hard as you'd like, you just can't shop your way out of a monopoly – that's like trying to recycle your way out of the climate emergency. Systemic problems need systemic solutions – not individual ones.

That's why the new antitrust matters so much. The answer to monopolies is to break up companies, block and unwind mergers, ban deceptive and unfair conduct. "Caveat emptor" is the scammer's motto. You shouldn't have to be an expert on lead gen scams to hire a locksmith without getting ripped off.

There are good products and services out there. Earlier this year, we decided to install a (non-networked) programmable pushbutton lock. I asked Deviant Ollam – whom I know from Defcon's Lockpicking Village – for a recommendation and he suggested the Schlage FE595:

https://www.schlage.com/en/home/products/FE595PLYFFFFLA.html

I liked it so much I bought another one for my office door. Eric from Golden State Lock and Safe installed it while I wrote this blog-post. It's great. I recommend both of 'em – 10/10, would do business again.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/05/the-map-is-not-the-territory/#vapor-locksmith

Image: alicia rae (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kehole_Red.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

--

Budhiargomiko (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wasteland.jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

[shamelessliarkickapow]

Arrvatarr! The Last Arrbender!

Chapter 3, part... the rest/3

A Zutara pirate AU - comedy/romance/action

Here's part 1/3 on Tumblr or Read the whole thing (chapters 1-3) on AO3

This story is rated M for Mature (Ole Salts only, yarrr)

Detective GoodBrother Sokka, anyone? ^.-

((this one might be boring? idk, things got plotty on me and i've been framing a roof, which has involved climbing around on the inside of gables about 14' off the floor and lots of trips up and down the wobbliest 12' ladder carrying heavy rafters in 90 degree weather and. dudes. i'm tired and all my clinging muscles are like wtf is wrong with you we never do this? so here's a finished chapter to celebrate the framing being done and the roofers coming to finish decking and surfacing yayyy))

.

.

The sun rested low and soft in the east, peeking through scattered clouds and Katara was just finishing off her porridge when Sokka came sidling up on deck. He spotted her where she was sitting on the port gunwale and made his way over, stretching his arms above his head in the super-casual move that clearly meant he was here for a classic brotherly chat.

Katara heaved a sigh. He must have really gobbled his food to follow her so quickly.

“Ahh, nothing like dish duty with Toph to really top off an action-packed night of pirating!”

“You cannot be done already.”

“Right, yeah, no, I just mean I’m looking forward to dish duty with Toph. You know, because her playful and fun-loving attitude makes the chore go so much quicker.”

That could be true. Or it could mean Toph had tried to metalbend the tin dishes again and they were all dinged and bent - and still dirty. Katara sighed a second time and rolled her eyes. Sokka hoisted himself up to sit on the rail beside her and laced his fingers together on his crossed legs.

“So! How are things?”

“Great. I’m the only pirate in the world who has to rewash the dishes for the other pirates. How could I not feel extra special, Sokka?”

“You don’t have to rewash them. We haven’t even first-washed them yet. I’m kind of just here for your bowl, but I was trying to be cool about it.”

Katara frowned at his demure expression and held out her bowl. He accepted it graciously - and then did not go away.

“You seem tense, little sister.”

He said it with gravity and quiet care that made Katara’s frown fade. It also made her aware of how the pucker in her brow had started to ache.

“Usually after a good plundering, you’re as cheerful as the rest of us. But today it’s like you’ve got a rain cloud on your shoulder. Toph seems to be getting to you more than usual. What gives?”

Katara let out a little huff. “Are you really pretending that you didn’t just gang up on me with the rest of them down there?”

“We might have taken the teasing a little far,” Sokka admitted with a half-repentant shrug. “It’s just… it was kind of a surprise to see you take your intimidation game so hard in that direction. I mean, I’ve seen you tease a guy before but… damn, Katara.”

She blushed and turned her head up to examine a very interesting cloud. She had forgotten her brother was watching that play out… “It got out of hand.”

Sokka was quiet for a long moment, then sighed and, sounding like he really didn’t want to, asked, “Was it, though? Because in the moment, you really seemed to be having a good time.”

Katara snapped a glare on him. “Not you too.”

“What?”

“You are not going to pressure me to-! To-!”

“Pressure? Who’s pressuring you?” Sokka’s alarm suddenly became outrage. “Was it those soldiers? Toph mentioned the crew-”

“It’s Toph! She’s out of control! The guy is a Fire Prince - obviously an evil oppressor of all our peoples - and she wants me to jolly his roger like the most-”

“Horrible turn of phrase.”

“-important thing is me getting off!” Katara scoffed and threw one arm up in the air, still disbelieving. “It’s so much more complicated than that. He’s not just some guy. He’s everything that’s wrong with the world, but in a person!”

“Well, not everything…”

Katara turned wide, disbelieving eyes on him. Sokka just shrugged extra-deep.

“Don’t get me wrong, the guy fights like a war machine. But I’ve seen enough firebenders to know he wasn’t exactly going for kill shots.”

“He burned Toph!”

“She was touching her shield and it got hot. Besides, who wouldn’t take a swing at Toph? She’s a powerful bender and powerfully annoying. Risk of the trade. If she’s pressuring you to go after him, she clearly isn’t holding a grudge.” He squinted and raised an eyebrow as if thinking about it, then shook his head and went on. “I’ll talk to her about that. Or get Suki to do it. Kid needs guidance. Anyway, something about this whole situation feels off to me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Come on. The Fire Lord only has a few kids, right? What’s one of them doing so far from home on that crappy little ship with about half the soldiers it’d take to fully crew it, much less defend it?” Sokka stroked his chin as he talked. Katara half expected him to whip out the detective hat and pipe. “That wasn’t a fighting force. Prince Zuko wasn’t out here leading any excursions to put down resistance factions.”

“What resistance?” Katara muttered sourly. “The last resistance in the South Seas disappeared with Dad.”

Sokka peered at her, and she could see the burning heart-deep sting, the horrible grieving aloneness in her chest reflected in his eyes. “For a long time, that was true,” he said carefully. “But now there’s us.”

“We’re one ship. A handful of kids.”

“And we’ve sunk how many steamers in the last year?”

Unbidden, Katara’s eyes slid sideways to the railing on the stairs up to the poop deck. It was scored deeply, one for every steamer sent down. The freshest notch was a quarter of the way up, with many older ones marching behind it.

“And now,” Sokka said quietly, “we have and are training the Avatar.”

“Nobody knows about that. Aang has been really good about keeping quiet.”

“Aang is a goofball kid with too much energy and not enough sense to protect himself. He’s not ready to go public and yet here he is trying to yuck it up and get philosophical with the first firebenders he meets since coming out of the ice. I mean,” he half-laughed, half-scoffed, “did you hear that arr-bender joke? Terrible!”

“I know…” Katara rubbed her arms as if to chase off a sudden chill. “I tried to tell him to stay away from them before dinner but he keeps talking about his friend from the Fire Nation. I think it’s hard for him to really internalize that it’s been a century and everything is different now.”

“Well he needs to get with the program quick.”

Sokka’s tone was all seriousness now and he turned his head to meet her eyes, concern knotting his brow.

“The ship’s log indicated their heading was for the South Pole. There weren’t any specific coordinates cited - just a note that the commanding officer intended to continue his search there. Katara, Prince Zuko was on his way to look for our village.”

Katara’s heart pounded for more than one reason. “Do you think he came here for us?”

There had been a few Fire Navy ships in recent months sent to capture them. Ambushing and sinking those ships was easy enough. It was much scarier to think that the Fire Lord might have sent his own son to target them…

…but the thought that this particular muscle-bound prince had come here to get her had a whole swarm of flutters battling it out in her belly. That Prince Zuko might have tracked them and laid a trap with himself as the bait, and now he was locked in the brig - perhaps as a part of his own plan… It gave Katara a wild tingle thinking about what might happen. What he might try to do.

She would stop him, of course, but… whatever he did, it’d be exciting to watch him try.

But Sokka just shrugged, wide-eyed. “I don’t know what he was after. With a fighting force that small, he’d be lucky to subdue a crew of normal pirates. And if he was hunting us specifically, he’d have had some reports about Toph and probably would have prepared his men to counter her somehow. I don’t think he came here planning on a direct fight. Maybe he meant to take the village hostage while we were gone and force us to surrender that way.”

“You think he wanted to take Gran-gran hostage?” Katara fumed, horrified and furious at the mere notion.

“I’m just not sure what else he could have had planned.” Sokka shook his head and scratched the back of his neck, leaning back on one arm. “And yet… I’m speculating on all that. Whoever wrote the ship’s log was wordy and did not follow standard reporting procedures so it might take some serious digging to figure out what Prince Zuko was really searching for. There’s a chance it wasn’t us at all. I mean, he seemed pretty surprised when we took his ship. And he adapted quick to Toph’s metalbending, but he made a big deal about her being blind. If he’d heard of us at all, he hid it well. Which is kind of weird all on its own…”

“Sokka, just because we’re the scourge of the South Seas doesn’t mean everyone’s heard of us.”

“No, but you’d think a prince sailing into dangerous waters would have at least gotten some kind of warning. They stopped at a Fire Nation shipyard near Whale Tail Island to refuel last week. Why wouldn’t the commander at that outpost tell him he was heading into our territory?”

“They probably did and he figured he could handle it because he’s an arrogant, entitled asshole.”

“Or maybe they were hoping he’d get captured because he’s such a charmer.”

Katara smirked, but it quickly faded. “His crew seemed to like him. If the commander tried to sabotage him, it might have been some kind of political thing. Jealousy or something.”

Sokka assessed her face for a long moment. “What did those guys say to you?”

“Ugh. Toph.” Katara rolled her eyes, then shrugged. “They overheard her loudmouth personal advice and started extolling his virtues like a pack of used boat salesmen.”

He scoffed, trying to hide a short laugh. Katara couldn’t help the grin spreading over her face.

“So I said - get this - ‘What is this? The FNS Wingman?’”

“Classic!” Sokka laughed, then slung an arm around her shoulders. “My little sister, making jokes and witty repartee. I’m so proud.”

Katara looped an arm around his back and leaned her head on his shoulder. The sun was beginning to grow warm in the east, cutting through the chilly night air. For a long moment they were silent, basking in some of the last sunshine they would see before autumn hardened the air and tucked the sun away for winter. At length, Sokka broke the quiet with a gentle, teasing tone.

“A whole ocean of guys and you let it ‘get out of hand’ with the Fire Nation prince who might be plotting to sabotage us. What is it about this guy?”

Katara didn’t really mean to answer, but she breathed it out anyway. “The way he looks at me when I’m winning.”

Sokka chuckled and squeezed her shoulders. “Well, you just keep on winning. And if you ever don’t win, don’t worry. Ole Sokka-” He grinned, bright as the rising sun. “-has a plan.”

.

.

The warrior, Suki, came with bowls of some manner of gruel shortly after dawn and, several hours later, Sokka appeared. He wore a simple blue tunic and a mild smile and he carried Zuko’s broadswords sheathed and tossed casually over his shoulder.

“Rise and shine, it’s sword-fighting time!” he chortled as he unlocked the door. “Ya like that? I came up with it just on the way down here.”

Zuko, who had been meditating (stewing) on his bunk and certainly not sleeping during the day like some kind of sluggard, practically leapt past where Iroh snored to get out the door.

“Finally. It’s hours past midday. I thought you weren’t coming at all.”

Sokka relocked the door and gave Zuko a once-over before starting for the stairs. “Aw, and you got all dressed up just for our fight? I’m touched.”

“It’s a training tunic,” Zuko snapped as he kept apace. “I don’t fight in my pajamas. Unless my ship is being attacked in the night.”

“But barefoot is normal.”

“…No.”

Sokka only kept walking, that easy smile irritatingly unchanging. “Forgot to grab your boots?”

Zuko glared at him and did not speak. He had to fall behind to follow Sokka up the narrow stairs to the next level of the ship.

“Oof, that’s gotta be tough. Forgot your boots and now they’re lost forever, sunk with your ship. Why, you might even get frostbite walking around with no shoes on-”

“I won’t get frostbite.”

“-but luckily ole Sokka has an eye for fine footwear.”

He shoved open a sticking door along a hallway of shut doors and Zuko followed him into an untidy cabin with a wide rumpled bed and shelves crammed with dusty objects. …And several items that Zuko immediately recognized as his. He surveyed the chaos with a scowl. Sokka paid him no mind as he threw open a trunk and fished around.

“It’d really be a shame to let quality leatherwork be lost at sea.”

He emerged with Zuko’s scuffed training boots and held them up like a specimen he was examining.

“Just look at this stitching! It’s so fine, you can’t even see the individual stitches. And you were just gonna leave these behind!”

In the trunk behind him, Zuko spied some of his other, less broken-in boots. “You took all my shoes? When did you do that?”

“Less questions, more deals,” Sokka said, dangling the boots just in Zuko’s grasp. “I’ll let you borrow these for our first round on the condition that they become your prize if you win instead of the swords.”

Zuko considered it for a moment, then tipped his chin up and met those clever blue eyes. “Alright. But I want an immediate second round for the swords.”

“I guess that’s not totally unreasonable.” Sokka smiled like a closing trap. “If I win that one, I want to know how you got that scar.”

Zuko thought about refusing, but what did it matter? He was going to win anyway. “Fine.”

He snatched the boots from Sokka’s grasp and shoved his feet into them, peering around at the packed shelves as he did.

“This is your room? What do you need with all this junk?”

“You never know what might turn out to be useful later,” Sokka said, picking up what looked like a lantern intended to float on a candle’s heat - though it was not quite like any paper lantern Zuko had ever seen. “Sometimes I look at this stuff and get ideas. Build stuff from other stuff. That kind of thing. Sometimes I just like knowing it’s here and not in the Fire Nation’s hands. All set?”

Zuko wanted to go back to the brig for some of his socks - which he had remembered - but he was impatient to get those swords back in his hands.

They made their way up to the deck where Suki and Toph waited, loitering around a little table and tossing bits of food - nuts or something - into the air for that strange little animal to swoop down and grab. Zuko had gotten only a glimpse of it last night. By daylight, though, the big ears and luminous eyes were much more recognizable.

“Is that a flying lemur?” He asked, stopping just past the door to watch it perch in the rigging and munch on whatever it had caught. “I’ve only ever seen those at the Air Temples.”

“Yeah, yeah, super rare animal companion,” Sokka huffed. “At his current pace, Momo’s gonna steal more food from us than we can steal from the Fire Nation. He’s a pirate among pirates.”

Zuko kept staring at the lemur. He had never been this close to one before. They had all been so skittish when he had spotted them during his search.

But then… he also remembered the desolation of the ruins, the ancient blast marks and lingering signs of devastation. The skeletal remains of air and fire people alike, bleaching just the same in the long years of weather but still telling a story of horror and murder and ruthlessness. Genocide.

Perhaps it was inevitable that a creature that lived in such a habitat carried some resonant awareness of the nature of the terrible deeds done there. The crimes and who had perpetrated them.

The lemur presently licking itself and making unsettling eye contact with Zuko, however, seemed to have left such reticence behind.

“Are you guys gonna wail on each other or just stand around sharing precious moments?” the warrior asked, making smirking eyes at Sokka.

“Yeah,” snickered the metalbender. “Would you two girls rather go back to swapping shoes and admiring cute animals?”

Zuko glowered at her, but Sokka was already talking.

“Suki, my love, I’m saving all my precious moments for you. Toph-” His tone dropped to prim annoyance. “-I don’t even know how to respond to such sexist generalizations, being as I am a confident man to whom girls and girly activities are totally fine and not demeaning in any way.”

“Haha, yeah, you almost believe that, Snoozles.”

“Do they have to be here?” Zuko demanded.

“Trust me,” Suki said with an unpleasant smile. “If Sokka gets hurt through no fault of yours, you’re gonna want as many witnesses as possible.”

“Uh, a little faith here? C’mon.”

“You should probably keep it down, too,” Toph added. “Sweetness is taking a little nap and she’ll probably turn you into a permanent prince-cicle if she finds out you’re cheating on her with her brother.”

“What?”

“Okay! Sword time!” Sokka suddenly swung the scabbard around and into Zuko’s chest - he caught it, but barely - and then strode across the deck, stretching out his shoulders. “Remember the rules. We stop at first blood, and no limb-chopping, throat-slashing or other lethal moves. No firebending,” he added with a smirk. “I think that covers it.”

“That’s not all the terms,” Zuko protested. “If I win, I keep my boots. If you win, I’ll tell you about the portrait. The second round is compulsory.”

“Right right right.”

Sokka wore an almost placid look on his face as he reached over his shoulder and drew the weapon waiting there. The blade was oddly dark, and the craftsmanship seemed especially fine - but it was difficult to tell from across the distance separating them.

Besides, Zuko had other things on his mind besides assessing more of Sokka’s stolen goods. He slowly drew the broadswords from their scabbard and tossed it aside. And then he began.

He separated the blades in the artful slashes of an opening sequence, then faced his opponent, whose standard beginning stance had sagged slightly. Sokka watched him with an incredulously curled lip.

“Aw shit,” piped the metalbender. “Better watch it, Sokka. Prince Pretty-hair came to play.”

“I came to win,” Zuko corrected. Then he attacked.

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