#whatever i construct in my head is going to be 300 times better than whatever happens in those sequels i guarantee

[handweavers]

i think i can trace my appreciation for mmf pairings directly to the infernal devices books tbh because they really genuinely were all in love with each other it's so crazy. i don't think anything is ever quite going to affect me in the same way the scene where will feels jem's "death" in clockwork princess did as a teenager like i'll never be that age reading that book at that time again

[the-firebird69]

We caught wind of something somebody was eating Life by pigs

His body was strewn out and pieces at the corners and brain left in there for an hour or two then embalmed. A new body was used and it's going on a lot so you think you can take my son's body so I figured out something else you're hugely arrogant with him I think it's not even there when he's usually use for his intelligence you think you're going to fool us because of a body and we track everybody you're in a new body doesn't mean anything cuz if you're a fool so you talk to this guy after and he's said we know about it people are completed his and you start doing himself he said he saved you and you're bothering him so you shouldn't have saved me well I'm going to be reading now cuz you said it shouldn't I agree so I'm going to head and doing that cuz he's an a****** won't stop bothering him and I need you to pay him for what he's doing so the second disgusting anything else we should probably have somebody to do this I don't think I said this I don't want to deal with that a****** again I don't think you should deal with them again I think you should send someone down to fix the stupid thing whatever you do they're going to flush it with something and again they probably ripping out rather than flushing it that's the problem so I started to figure out something I've got a problem here Stan says I don't know how to go over there without him bothering us and he doesn't do anything without a bothering us so he can't go outside and he can't make a noise in his kitchen without the s*** it's responding you can do it before either nope so now we're starting to see what's going on here she wants the apartment and it's giving them s*** just giving John s*** and his having him attacked her how many so now it's kind of like this I'm kicking her out to get him out cuz she's a criminal I don't need an excuse and he's a criminal pretty soon so it makes sense that she's getting kicked out making him to a criminal she's out of prison but she's still going to sentence and she's there as a cop bothering you as you do I need you both to leave cuz BJ's screwed around you cuz he said genius okay it's pretty loser.

So we figured out something you brought specimens with him to the UK it's very arrogant about it it's a huge a****** about granddaddy and others so we can start breaking them out of there using werewolves and all sorts of stuff and kill tons of these idiots so we can watch him there direct opposite of like fight him back and fight our demons later he doesn't he just dies.

You turn it up on courk now more and more. He went ahead and he asked for the stupid demon thing now he's asking for it is saying that he had the demons do it on purpose and they're not going to get him cuz he did it on purpose so yeah but Trump's over here threatening my livelihood housing to get you have you ever heard of that doesn't work that's fine just plow through you here and we're doing that too and we're taking them out of their places or else I'll haunting any from coming here and they're breaking through the blockade all the time. Huge ships went down to thousands and thousands of small ones I love doing it it's for us to get the Ford escape the foreigners they dig it. They love doing it especially when they find out and mack Daddy and whale on it and wail on it till it's gone. Huge ships went down last night offshore several 300s of Florida and won 400 it's the only 400 here and the others left to the UK and are fighting the s*** head he's recently called the fleet it's in the past 10 minutes and he called about 4 billion trillion people and he's got 20 billion trillion left the ENT will begin the results soon

Thor Freya

This afternoon but north fell. I'm taking it over now I'm going to use his fast track system of construction so we're asking for volunteers and go up there and deliver your poop would have it delivered there it's up to you there's no line there and 200 for the better you can go take a crap and be a part of it in part was part of you I was ripping everything out of the inside of rapidly but it's ready for Philling

[fandomrewrites]

Chasing Butterflies: Earth Skills

Hello all! Here is chapter 2 of Chasing Butterflies: The 100 rewrite! I hope you all enjoy this chapter and as always constructive criticism is appreciated. If you have any questions about my stories or want to be added to the tag list please feel free to message me.

Season 1; Episode 2: Earth Skills Pairings: OC x OC best friends, no love interests yet Warnings: Mild Violence Word Count: 2,989

Season 1 Masterlist

Nova, Clarke, Octavia, Finn, and Monty stayed crouching behind a large rock looking out into the trees. When they couldn't find anything after a few moments Nova spoke, "Let's go. Stay low and move fast."

Without waiting for a nod of approval from the others she took off keeping her slightly up to see if she could see anyone hiding in the trees. She only paused when she heard a dull thud indicating someone behind her fell to the forest floor. 

"Monty get up!" Octavia said reaching down to help him. His eyes were locked on something in front of him though, a skull. "Who are they?" Finn asked.

Picking up the skull that looked more like a gorilla skull, Clarke asks, "What are they?"

"We are so screwed." Octavia states, voice shaking slightly.

Right after the words left her mouth a distant scream was heard from where the five delinquents just were. "Jasper. He's alive." Clarke says, then she starts running back to the river.

"Clarke, wait! Wait." Finn calls, running after her. This prompts the other three to run after her too. Nova slides her knife out of her pocket to have some protection against the enemy.

Once they all reach the river they look across to see that Jasper is no longer there, "Where is he?" Monty asks.

"They took him." Clarke says.

"We have to get back. Regroup. We can come back for him later." Nova says, gripping her knife tightly. 

They all nod in agreement, turning back around to head to the drop ship. Finn looks at her clenched hand, "How do you have a knife?"

"My dad gave it to me before I got on the drop ship. Good thing too."

 *_*_*_*_*_*

 Elara and Wells were walking back into the camp from burying the two guys that died when they landed. Wells had the clothes clutched in his arms as delinquents ran around chasing each other. "Hey, where'd you get the clothes?" Atom asked.

"We buried the guys who died during the landing." Elara answered.

"Smart. I'll take it from here. There's always a market for-"

Wells cuts him off, "We share based on need, just like back home."

"You still don't get it, do you Chancellor?" Elara and Wells turned at the sound of another person entering the conversation, "This is home now. Your father's rules no longer apply." Bellamy says, taking a shirt from the pile to put on.

Elara rolls her eyes at the older boy. Wells, annoyed, throws the clothes down. Delinquents that were watching rushed over, fighting others for a clean clothing item. 

"Is this what you want? Chaos?" Wells asks.

"What's wrong with a little chaos?" Before either Elara or Wells can answer, a girl screams from the other side of camp. The two sprint over to see Murphy holding her above the fire. 

"Bellamy. Check it out. We want the Ark to think the ground is killing us, right? Figure it'll look better if we suffer a little bit first."

"Let her go!" Elara yells through clenched teeth.

"You can stop this." Wells addresses Bellamy.

"Stop this? I'm just getting started." Bellamy states, a smirk on his lips.

"You're a monster." Elara spits, glaring at the boy in front of her. As the words leave her mouth Wells rushes over and pushes Murphy away from the girl. As Murphy's grip loosens the girl escapes and runs away. 

"You're dead." Murphy says, standing back up and getting in a fighting position.

Elara chooses to ignore the fight, knowing that she wouldn't be able to aid Wells in any way. Plus she figures he knows how to hold his own and if she had to put money on it, she bets Wells will kick Murphy's ass. 

Instead she rushes over to the girl to check on her and see if she's alright. The girl just nods. "Try to avoid Murphy and his gang. Whatever you do, don't take off that wristband." The girl nods once more.

Elara's attention gets brought back towards the fight as she hears Clarke's voice, "Wells! Let him go."

"I say kill him." Nova deadpans. Wells backs off and Murphy throws a glare at him then Nova.

Bellamy's eyes meet his sister, "Octavia. Are you alright?" He asks as he sees Finn and Monty help her back into camp. She nods in response.

"Where's the food?" Bellamy questions the group.

"And where's Jasper?" Elara asks.

"We didn't make it to Mount Weather." Finn answers.

"We were attacked." Clarke adds.

"Attacked? By what?" Wells asks, eyebrows knitting together in concern.

"More like who." Nova says, "There are others here. Grounders."

"The good news is, that means we can survive. Radiation won't kill us." Clarke continues.

"Yeah, the bad news is the Grounders will." Finn says morbidly.

"And Jasper?" Elara asks once more, concerned for the boy who is no longer with the group.

"The grounders took him." Clarke answers. She then notices Wells' bare wrist, "Where is your wristband?"

"Ask him." He nods his head at Bellamy.

"How many?"

"Twenty-four and counting." Murphy smuggly answers.

Nova laughs, "I said that you're all going to die down here. That just proves my point."

Clarke ignores the comment and starts addressing the group, "Life support on the Ark is failing. That's why they brought us down here. They need to know the ground is survivable again, and we need their help against whoever is out there. If you take off your wristbands, you're not just killing them. You're killing us."

"We're stronger than you think. Don't listen to her. She's one of the privileged. If they come down, she'll have it good. The rest of us, probably not. We are not prisoners anymore. You're fighters, survivors! The grounders should worry about us." Bellamy argues.

Nova shakes her head and rolls her eyes, "Yeah, we're fucked with this dumbass taking over as leader." She says to the group still near her.

 *_*_*_*_*_*

 Elara and Finn enter the drop ship together, "Hey, you ready?" Clarke asks Finn.

"I'm not going anywhere, and neither should any of you. That spear was thrown with pinpoint accuracy from 300 feet."

"So what, we let Jasper die? That's not going to happen." Clarke says.

"I'm coming with you." Elara speaks up, "I can help you with his injury."

As Elara finishes talking Nova steps through the open drop ship door. "You ready?" Clarke asks her.

"I'm not going." She simply states.

"What, why? You're probably our best fighter. If we run into the Grounders we'll need you." Clarke argues.

"I'm sorry Clarke, but I need to stay back for exactly that reason. I want to get everyone to start building a wall. I want to make weapons. And hopefully I can start to teach some people how to properly fight and use said weapons."

Clarke nods at Nova's statement, "Fine. Just stay out of trouble."

Nova rolls her eyes, "Trouble usually finds me." She turns around and heads back out the drop ship, she waits for the rescue group to leave before she addresses the rest of the delinquents. 

Once the group is gone and out of earshot Nova makes a fist and pounds three times on the side of the drop ship. "Alright fuckers, listen up."

Every eye moves to the petite girl standing on the drop ship ramp. "I saw what the grounders can do first hand. We need to be able to protect ourselves. I need everyone to work together to build a wall around the camp. We can use the fallen trees."

"Who made you boss, Kane?" Mbege asks, leaning against a tree.

Nova instantly smirks, she slips her knife out of her pocket, opening it to reveal the blade. In the blink of an eye she launches the blade through the air making it land just an inch from the side of his head.

Mbege's eyes widen in terror, "Anyone else want to try to argue with me?" The group stays silent, "Good. That's what I thought. Now continuing on, I'm going to need some people to start making weapons too. Spears and shit. I probably won't get the chance today but sometime soon I want to start doing fighting lessons, everyone in this camp needs to know how to protect themselves."

She pauses for a minute letting everyone take in her words, "Alright. Let's go. Form groups, most people should be working on the wall. I only want 5 people working on weapons for now."

After picking the five people to start working on weapons, Nova herself follows suit. She remembered reading in a book on the Ark how to build a bow and arrows. She had a feeling Elara would like to learn how to use it, knowing that it was Robin Hood's weapon of choice and that was always Elara's favorite book.

 *_*_*_*_*_*

 Elara walked in the front of the group beside Clarke and Wells. "Hey, hold up. What's the rush? You don't survive a spear through the heart." Bellamy said, taking his gun out and waving it around.

"Put the gun away, Bellamy." Wells says, shaking his head.

"Jasper screamed when they moved him. If the spear struck his heart, he'd have died instantly. It doesn't mean we have time to waste." Clarke responds.

"As soon as you two take those wristbands off, we can go." Bellamy states, gesturing between Clarke and Elara.

"The only way the Ark is gonna think we're dead is if we are dead. Got it?" Clarke snaps, Elara nodding in agreement.

"Brave princess." 

"Hey, why don't you find your own nickname?" Finn asks, stepping through the trees and joining the group. "You call this a rescue party? Got to split up, cover more ground. Clarke, come with me."

Clarke and Finn head off, moving slightly to the left. "Guess we got more in common than meets the eye, huh?" Bellamy says to Wells.

"We have nothing in common." Wells glares at the older boy.

"No? Both came down here to protect someone we love. For you it's worse though. With Finn around, Clarke doesn't even see you."

Elara rolls her eyes and tugs on Wells' hand. "C'mon. We'll search in groups of two." The friends start walking away, Elara turns around to address the last two, "Stay within yelling distance."

 *_*_*_*_*_*

 Once darkness settles Nova allows the delinquents to stop working and have some fun. She finished the bow and made a dozen arrows. She heads into the drop ship to check on Monty.

"Hey, how's communication coming?" Her voice startles the boy.

"Not so good. Octavia gave me her wristband but the lights went out. I think I need to keep it working once it's off, because trying to get it to work again hasn't had good results."

Nova nods her head in thought. It's silent for a moment as both teens let their minds wander. "Do you think you would be able to keep mine working?" Nova finally asks.

Monty looks up, shocked, "Your dad-"

Nova interrupts, "My dad's an ass. He's the reason I'm here in the first place. Hell, he's the reason I was locked up. I don't mind making him think I'm dead for a little bit. Plus if you get the communication to work he'll find out soon enough that I'm perfectly fine."

Monty hesitantly nods, "I'm not 100% sure if it will work, but the more chances I have the better the results."

Nova nods and holds out her wrist, "Then taken it."

 *_*_*_*_*_*

 Finn and Clarke call the group over to a cluster of rocks. Finn is crouched low to the ground, tracking Jasper and his captors. "How do we know this is the right way?" Murphy asks.

"We don't. Spacewalker thinks he's a tracker." Bellamy retorts, causing Elara to roll her eyes.

"It's called cutting sign. Fourth-year earth skills. He's good." Wells replies.

Finn shushes them, "You want to keep it down or should I paint a target on your backs?"

A distant moan stops anyone from replying, "What was that?" Elara whispers, just loud enough for the group to hear.

They all start heading in the direction of the moaning. As they break through the tree line, they come into a clearing. In the center is a large tree, tied to the tree is Jasper.

Clarke quickly runs forward, "Clarke, wait! Be careful!" Finn calls, chasing after her.

The rest follow closely behind. Before they make it to the tree, the ground beneath Clarke falls away. Bellamy instinctively reaches down grabbing her hand before she can fall into the ditch. 

He hesitates for a minute before pulling her up. Once Clarke regains her breath she looks to the group, "We need to get him down."

Finn nods, "I'll climb up there and cut the vines." He nods to Murphy, "You're coming with me."

"There's a poultice on his wound." Elara speaks up for the first time since they found the boy.

"Medicine? Why would they save his life just to string him up as live bait?" Wells questions.

"Maybe what they're trying to catch likes its dinner still breathing." Bellamy suggests.

"That's a delightful thought." Elara mumbles. As Murphy and Finn work on cutting Jasper down, a low growling captures the group's attention. "What was that?"

"Bellamy, gun, now!" Clarke calls out as the group sees something large moving around the grass.

He pulls up his shirt and reaches for the gun only to realize that it is no longer there. Then out of nowhere a large, black panther leaps from the grass. Three gunshots go off and the panther disappears. Everything is silent for about 20 seconds. 

Elara once again sees the grass moving, this time close to Bellamy. Without much thought, she sprints over to him and tackles him to the ground, landing on top of him.

Two more gunshots ring out, the animal finally laying dead on the ground, right where Bellamy was once standing. Elara, realizing that she is still laying on top of Bellamy, blushes and quickly pushes herself off of him, standing up once more. 

Bellamy looks at her in wonderment, clearly shocked that she just saved his life. It's the same look that Clarke has on her face, except she is looking at Wells, who has the now empty gun held tightly in his hand.

 *_*_*_*_*_*

 As night falls the group makes it back to camp. Nova is still with Monty and rushes out when she hears someone yell from outside, "They're back!"

Monty rushes outside too, right behind Nova. The minute his eyes fall onto his best friend he asks, "Is he-"

"He's alive. I need boiled water and strips of cloth for bandage." Clarke says. Though she didn't need to because Elara was already grabbing the things needed to help.

Behind Clarke, Elara, Finn, and Jasper, Bellamy yells to the delinquents, "Who's hungry?"

Nova raises her eyebrows, "Is that a panther?"

Bellamy smirks and nods. Him and Murphy bring it closer to the fire so they can cut it up and cook it. At the same time Elara, Clarke and Finn bring Jasper into the drop ship. They make sure he is on the top floor so he stays as far away from everyone else as possible.

Working together, Clarke and Elara clean the wound and make sure it is no longer bleeding. After about an hour Clarke leaves the room, leaving Jasper with Elara and Monty.

Outside of the drop ship Nova decided that now was the perfect time to practice with the bow and arrow, despite it being dark and hard to see. She was rather far from the group, no longer being able to hear her fellow delinquents. 

After taking a few practice shots, she was quite happy that the weapon worked well but quickly realized that whoever used it was going to need a lot of practice. It was very different from any weapon that was on the Ark.

She started to make her way over to the arrows to collect them and head back to camp, but when she had all of the arrows a glowing animal caught her eye. She tilted her head trying to get a better look. At first she thought it was a small bird but when it flew closer she realized it was a butterfly.

"Well, aren't you beautiful?" She mumbles, holding out her hand for the insect to land on. A small smile starts to form on her lips as she watches it fly away. She begins to follow it but shakes her head deciding that she should head back, not wanting to be out on her own for too long.

Once she makes it back she notices that the food is done and people are lining up to take off their wristbands for it. Rather than wait in the line she marches to the front grabbing three sticks. "Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Murphy angrily questions her.

"Grabbing food?" She raises an eyebrow.

"You need to take your wristband off. And it's only one piece per person."

"Okay, first, look with your eyes," She holds up her bare wrist, "My wristband is already off. Second, the other two sticks are for Elara and Monty. So fuck off."

She turns on her heel and quickly walks into the drop ship. "Food." She calls out to the two sitting with Jasper.

They smile at her, "Thanks."

She nods, "Also, for you Lara." She holds out the bow and arrows.

"You made it?" The girl questions excitedly.

"Mhm, I figured if you were going to use any weapon it would be this. I think I'm going to make one for myself too."

"You remembered that I liked Robin Hood?" 

"Of course, you're my best friend."

[coppicefics]

Masked Omens: Week One

New chapter here, or read from the start here!

(Right click picture and select ‘View Image’ or ‘Open Image In New Tab’ for hi-res version.)

[Image Description: Image 1 - A simple rendition of the Masked Singer UK logo, a golden mask with colourful fragments flying off of it. The mask has a golden halo and a golden devil tail protruding from either side. Below, gold text reads 'Masked Omens'.

Image 2 - A newspaper page from the Capital Herald, dated Saturday, 26th December, 2020. Full image description and transcription below the cut.]

The Capital Herald, Saturday 26th December 2020 News, page 11

GODLEIGH MANOR RESTORATION SET TO BEGIN YouTube Community Comes To The Rescue Of Historic House In Unprecedented Donation Spree Restoration work on Godleigh Manor, Little Dyvyn, is set to proceed at last after years of stagnation – thanks to an unexpected influx of donations from interested members of the public. A house has stood on the site since at least the early 13th century, but most of the current building was constructed in the 18th century by its then owner, Lord Michael Godleigh. It remained a private residence until 1914, when it was commandeered as a military hospital for officers injured in the First World War. When the war was over, the officers went home, but the Godleigh family had suffered severe losses, and those who had been involved in treating the injured officers had many bad memories associated with the place. What was left of the family moved out, and – barring the operation of a second temporary hospital during the Second World War – this once-busy house has remained empty and silent ever since. Left to its own devices, the house began to crumble. Water found its way through the roof, and weeds forced their way up through the floor. By the time the deed to Godleigh Manor was passed on to its current owner, Lucy Godleigh, in the mid-1990s, barely a few rooms were anything close to habitable. “I set up in a mobile home on the grounds,” Godleigh told The Capital Herald, “and basically just started trying to secure the few rooms that hadn't been completely exposed to the elements. Then I contacted a restoration expert to find out what could be done for the rest of it.” The experts' verdict wasn't what she wanted to hear. “There was no chance I could pay for it myself. The rest of the family opposed me moving back here; I was on my own. And to get the whole place back to the way it was, we were looking at anything from fifty million to three hundred million pounds. I was going to need help raising the funds, so I started campaigning. But it was slow going. Nobody's keen to put their hands in their pockets to restore a stranger's old family pile.” And, for over two decades, it seemed that a pile would soon be all that was left. Godleigh moved into Little Dyvyn, and the property was abandoned once more to the tender mercies of the elements and the frequent trespassers who came to explore. “I'd go up a few times a week, but it hardly seemed worth it. I'd all but given up. But then one of those visitors saved the day.” A YouTube personality known as Sergeant Shadwell, famed for his urban exploration videos and the occasional paranormal investigation, contacted Godleigh to ask to film in the house. “I said yeah, whatever, do what you like, it's a mess,” Godleigh recalled, “and he saved it. He saved my home.” Shadwell uploaded a video of Godleigh Manor in the last week of November. In it, he speaks frankly about the challenges and benefits of preserving such old buildings. “I don't know about there being ghosts here,” he tells viewers, “but there's a lot of wasted potential. Stately homes like this can and should be used, and it'd be a real shame for this one to crumble. I'll add a link to the fundraiser in the video description.” The Wytchfynder Army, as Shadwell's fans call themselves, have so far contributed £80m to the Save Godleigh Manor campaign. The fundraising page is filled with messages of encouragement and support, attached to donations ranging from £5 to £1500. Some donors have even explained that they raised the money through sponsored swims, bake sales, and car washes. “It's enough to get started, to make a really good start,” Godleigh explained, “I can't thank him – all of them – enough. They really came together to help me – a complete stranger – and it means so much, it really does.” So what's next for Godleigh Manor? First, says Godleigh, the surviving rooms will need to be stablised. Then the house's ground floor will be restored to its former glory, and Godleigh hopes to work with local historians to ensure that it is both a functional and educational space. “I won't charge people any more to use it than I need to cover the cost of maintaining it,” Godleigh said. “How can I? It's being restored by this huge community; it belongs to the community, and to Little Dyvyn. It's going to be a great space for everyone to enjoy.” Work is now set to begin on the Godleigh Manor restoration project as early as April this year, depending on local planning committee approval of plans first drawn up in 1998. MARY HODGES. To find out more, or to contribute to the renovation costs, visit www.savegodleighmanor.org.uk.

[Image Description: A sepia photograph of a large, grand house. Inset, a colour photograph of a hole in a wall, through which weeds can be seen growing. End ID.] [Caption] NEGLECTED: Godleigh Manor, pictured above in 1980, was once the heart of a thriving community. Inset, weeds grow in what used to be a service corridor to the rear of the main building. (Photo: Annie Spratt on Unsplash. Inset: E. Diop on Unsplash.)

THE NEWS IN NUMBERS 800 years of a house on the site 300 years in its current form 23 generations in the same family 29 bedrooms 40 acres of land £50m lowest estimated renovation costs £300m highest estimated renovation costs 198k subscribers to Wytchfynder 291 Wytchfynder videos 10 years Sgt Shadwell served in the Army £80m raised by the Wytchfynder Army £91m renovation funds raised so far 15 years estimated to complete renovation

[Image Description: a rectangular ad with a picture of Dr. Raven Sable. His name is signed beneath his photograph. Text reads: Don't settle for a balanced diet when you can have a SABLE DIET. End ID.]

Corner Cuppa with Esther James

[ID: Photo of a young woman's face. She has black hair cut into a bob, and slightly gothic makeup. End ID.]

Why do we know you? I'm the captain of the Red Roses, which is the England Women's Rugby Team. What are you passionate about? Rugby! Also, my girlfriend Jane (Adams, also on the squad), and my charitable causes, of course. I support the NSPCC and the Albert Kennedy Trust, in particular - both fantastic charities helping young people who've been let down, in many cases, by the people they should most be able to rely on. I'm really glad to be involved with them. What's your favourite holiday of the year? Pride! I love getting dressed up and going to the parades – most of the time Jane and I get to march, these days, which is great. Last year we even got to ride on a float at one of them, which was really surreal – we got to cover ourselves in rainbow feather boas and just have a laugh waving at people. What a great time! What's been your proudest moment? So far, it's a tie between coming out as bi in a press conference – which was really scary at the time but which led to such good things and such good conversations – and being made captain of the Red Roses. It's an honour just to be selected for the national side, but to be chosen to lead from such a talented group of women is even better. I was walking on air for a week! If you could do anything in the world once, what would it be? Only once? I'd hate to do something and enjoy it and never get to do it again. But, OK, hypotherically... Something completely different and mad, like getting up on a stage and performing a song like I really mean it, or bungee-jumping. What scares you? Bungee-jumping! Which is exactly why I'd like to do it. I think it's good to get out of your own head and your own comfort zone and just do something that scares you, if you can. What's your ideal day? Taking a day off of training and just lying on the sofa watching films with Jane for the whole day. We love what we do, but we don't get a lot of downtime to just relax and snuggle. But then, when we do get a day off, it's usually at the same time, so that's lovely; we're always together and it hasn't started getting on our nerves yet! If you could go anywhere in the world right now, with no complications or restrictions, where would you go? I've always wanted to go to the Eiffel Tower, but somehow whenever I end up in France I don't find the time. Jane's never been to Disneyland, so I think we'd have to combine the two if we got a no-holds-barred trip somewhere. And, obviously, I wouldn't exactly hate getting to meet Mickey again! What's the best advice you've ever been given? My gran was as tough as old boots, and proud of it. She once sat me down, when I was quite young, and she said, “Essie,” which is what she called me, “Essie, you'll do all right in life if you remember this simple rule. Make sure you keep your nose clean, but don't be afraid to get your boots dirty.” I'm not sure she meant me to take it quite so literally! But I think what she meant was, don't get into trouble unnecessarily, but don't be so scared of getting it wrong that you can't do anything right. That's stuck with me, I've held onto it all these years, and I think it's a good motto to live by. What's one thing you wish someone had told you when you were younger? I wish they'd told me it was OK that I fancied girls, that things were getting better. I think we've still got a long way to go, as a community, but I never could have dreamed that a bisexual woman could captain England when I was a little girl. Let alone that it would be me! Finally, what's one thing you'd like to tell younger people now? Be true to yourself, be true to your friends, and be kind. I think the world will turn out fine if we all just try to be kind to one another, above all. Next week's cuppa: Ligur Mortice, head of the Ligur fashion house.

[End of page.]

[ghostspideys-moved]

All For The Best

Chapter Nine

A/N: This is my longest chapter yet, and I didn’t mean for that to happen. Did I casually try to explain away skipping a whole chunk of the plot that would be Hawthorne’s chapter? Yeah, but it’s fine.

Word Count: 6.6k

Pairings: Steve Harrington x OC, Nancy Wheeler x Jonathan Byers x OC

Summary: The Scoops Troop get caught and things quickly go downhill, but in the middle of the chaos, some things finally go right for a moment. 

With the gate now in the equation, there was a lot for River to process. She was thankful that Steve and Dustin were on the same page.  If the Russians were trying to open the gate, this could go from bad to worse.

They rushed back down the stairs again, an air of urgency hanging over them. 

“I don’t understand. You’ve seen this before?” Robin asked. Her confusion and concern was valid, but there was hardly time to get into it. There was far too much to explain and so little time.

“Not exactly,” Steve said.

“Then what exactly?”

“All you need to know is it’s bad,” Dustin added.

Steve nodded and turned to Robin. “It’s really bad.”

“Like, end-of-the-human-race-as-we-know-it kind of bad.” 

“And you know about this how?”

There was no chance to explain, even if they wanted to, because Erica caught their attention when she realized something was wrong. “Um, Steve? Where’s your Russian friend?”

They’d left the guy in the middle of the floor after Steve knocked him out, and now he was nowhere to be seen. River sighed. She’d expected things to go south, but not this quickly. 

An alarm blared loudly, which was probably their sign to get moving. Steve rushed over to the door and peeked out. He must not have seen anything good, because he didn’t waste any time in rushing them back up the stairs. Not the best move, but it was their only escape right now.

They made the brave decision to head through the door, right into the room housing the giant laser they’d seen earlier. There was any time to doubt, only to run and hope for the best. The guards weren’t too far behind them, and Steve hung at the back of the group to make sure there were no stragglers.

They ended up right next to the laser, which was probably the last place they should be. Even over how loud it was, River could hear Dustin freaking out, which was exactly how she was feeling on the inside. Steve found a set of stairs and rushed them over, thwarting off any oncoming guards. 

River rushed the others to follow after him, making sure everyone was keeping up. Annie was the last one down before she ran after them, right into another room. Steve planted his feet and pushed his weight against the door, but it was only doing them so much good. With how many guards were on the other side, he needed some help. 

Dustin and Erica found the hatch in the floor as River helped Steve keep the door closed for as long as possible. They were already scrambling to open the hatch and jump in as Robin and Annie tried to help with the door. Even with all four of them, it wasn’t going so well. There were just way too many guards. 

Erica was already on her way through the hatch when Dustin paused to hurry the rest of them over. “Come on!”

“Go! Just get out of here!” Steve urged. “Just go get some help, okay?”

“I won’t forget you!” Dustin finally replied. 

“Go!”

Just as Dustin made it to safety, the guards finally broke through their makeshift barricade, if you could even really call it that. The four of them crashed to the floor and put their hands up as guns were being pointed right at them. Everything was suddenly much worse than River could have hoped.

Being tied up in and interrogated was not exactly how River was hoping this adventure would go. Her and Annie had been separated from Steve and Robin, and who could even tell what was happening to those two?

They’d worked together to construct a lie in the hopes they might be let go. But after being left in this bleak, featureless room for a few minutes now, it was clear none of the Russians believed them at all. Being tied in a chair with their backs together wasn’t the worst position they could be in, but River couldn’t help praying that Dustin and Erica got them some help.

“Sorry you got roped into the shittiest adventure in the world,” River sighed. She was sure this was going to traumatize Annie forever, and someone had to apologize for that. As odd of a sentiment as it was, she knew exactly what it was like to suddenly get pulled into a life-threatening mess.

“It’s fine,” Annie said. “This is a lot more exciting than anything I would be doing right now, for better or for worse.”

River laughed dryly, nodding, even though she wouldn’t be able to see it. “Don’t worry. I thought I’d be spending my summer playing with my dog and hanging out with my family. Guess I should learn better than to get my hopes up.”

There was a silence between them that hung heavy for only a brief moment, broken only when Annie finally asked, “Does this shit happen to you guys a lot?”

“Unfortunately. You should have seen last year. Almost being turned into monster food was just as much fun as any of this is.” River couldn’t help reminiscing, and thought this was an impossible situation to be stuck in, in that moment in the junkyard, she’d thought it couldn’t get worse. Clearly, she’d been wrong.

“Monsters?”

“Yeah, it’s a little hard to explain. But there were so many of these things - Dustin calls them Demodogs - and Steve…god…he really tried to take them all on himself.” The memory, while feeling like a total nightmare, almost felt like a fond one. She remembered being terrified for Steve. “You know, I spent so much time cooped up in my room, reading as many comic books as I could get my hands on, just so fascinated by the idea of superheroes. I truly think Steve is the closest I’ve seen to a real superhero.” Whether she realized it or not, she meant that wholeheartedly.

River realized just how sappy that must sound, but she couldn’t help the soft smile on her face as she remembered everything they went through together. 

“You really like him, huh?” Annie had clearly caught on, not that it was hard. 

River nodded. “Yeah, I do.” She’d noticed how close Steve and Robin had gotten, though, and she wasn’t holding out too much hope.

“I know I’m not one to talk, but why don’t you just tell him?”

“He probably likes Robin,” she said. “And that’s fine. I mean, I get it. Steve deserves to be happy, and if that means he ends up with her, I’m okay with that.” It would hurt, sure, but she’d get over it eventually. He really deserved for something to go right in his life.

River heard a buzz as the door opened, cutting off anything Annie might have been ready to say. The Russians returned, this time with an extra person. A doctor of some sort, though probably not the good kind. 

“Let’s try this again.” The man in charge signaled to the doctor, who was holding something that didn’t look too fun. Whatever he planned to inject them with couldn’t be good.

“Wait, woah, what’s that?” Annie exclaimed.

“It will help you talk. Maybe then you will tell the truth.”

After all the things she’d been put through in Hawkins Lab, River wasn’t a huge fan of needles, so her immediate reaction was to panic. “No, no, no, wait!” She didn’t get a chance to protest further before she was being injected with whatever that stuff was, and she hissed in pain. Annie was next. 

Despite the unpleasantness, it felt like nothing had happened. In fact, River felt fine. They were left alone for a while, probably to let whatever they’d been injected with take effect. 

“You know, this actually doesn’t feel so bad,” River admitted.

Annie nodded. “Yeah, I actually feel really good.” She giggled.

River laughed, nodding. “This is great.” 

They went into a laughing fit, probably having the best time ever despite being stuck in an interrogation room. It was hard to say just how much time had passed, but it couldn’t have been too long before an alarm blared. River and Annie turned to each other curiously, at least as much as they could while being tied up. For a moment, they sat there, wondering what was happening. 

Dustin came charging in, the other three close behind. He made quick work of untying both of them, and when River finally stood, she felt a little dizzy. “Come on, let’s go!” He didn’t give them much time to get their bearings before running off again. 

They had to take one of the carts, knowing they wouldn’t be very fast on foot. River wasn’t sure why they were trusting Dustin to drive them. He was in such a hurry that she’d almost hit her head a few times.

“Jesus, slow down!” Steve slurred.

“Yeah, what is this, like, the Indy 500?” Robin agreed.

“It’s the Indy 300.”

“No, dingus, it’s 500!”

“300!”

“Let’s say a million.”

They burst into laughter, causing River and Annie to join in. With how drugged and giggly they were, they almost didn’t notice Dustin crash, except for how much it hurt when they flew back.

“What the hell?” River mumbled, rubbing her head. 

Dustin turned back to check on them. “You guys okay?” he asked. They very much were not okay. He quickly got out and opened up the back door. “Come on.”

River barely registered his words until him and Erica were literally pulling them out of the cart. “Okay, ow! Hold on!” She stumbled out and tried not to fall over right away.

Dustin opened up the elevator for them and hurried them back inside. The ride up felt much more fun this time around, though that was probably from being high off their asses.

Steve and Robin thought it would be pretty cool to mess with the dolly cart sitting inside. “You look like you’re surfing!” Robin pointed out. 

Steve went tumbling to the floor as she laughed. River couldn’t help snickering at the spill he’d taken and how funny it looked from where she was sitting. Dustin bent over him, trying to check on him despite all of the fussing and struggling on Steve’s end.

“His pupils are super dilated.”

“Maybe he’s drugged.”

“Steve, are you drugged?” Dustin asked.

Steve shook his head. “I told you, dad. I don’t do drugs. It’s only marijuana.”

River snorted, a slight grin on her face. “Don’t forget the cigarettes. I’ve got some in my back pocket.”

“No way. You’ve had them this whole time?” Steve asked.

“Yep.”

Dustin groaned, clearly tired of dealing with them. “This isn’t funny, you two. I need to know what they did to you. Are you gonna die on us?”

Steve only responded by booping Dustin on the nose.

“We all die, my strange little child friend,” Robin chimed in. “It’s just a matter of how and when.”

Dustin had no clue how to respond and ignored her. “They’re gonna be looking for us up there, so I need you to tell me where you parked your car,” he insisted.

“Oh, can we make up a pit stop at the food court?” Steve asked.

“I would kill for a hot dog on a stick,” Robin agreed.

River gasped. “I have been dying for a burger this whole time.” She was sure her stomach growled a few times while they were stuck here.

“Alright, yeah, food,” Dustin agreed, attempting to get them back on track. “You can have as much food as you want, but only if you tell me where your car is parked.”

“Uh oh.”

“Uh oh?”

“The car’s off the board.”

“What?”

“They took the keys.” Steve flipped his pockets inside-out as proof. “The Russians, they took the keys. Like, forever ago.” Robin and Annie laughed, leaning against each other to keep from falling. 

Steve laughed along. “That’s a bummer, right?”

As soon as they were outside the elevator, River sighed in relief. “Oh, good. Hello, fresh air.” There wasn’t much time to enjoy it, though, before Dustin spotted more guards and pushed them into the side door. Having to run again was the worst, and all she wanted to do was have a moment to relax and enjoy how good she felt right now. Who knew when she’d get that chance again?

Dustin snuck them into the theater and made them all sit down, quietly telling them to stay put despite the protesting on how close they were to the front. He was clearly becoming aggravated and had to be shushed by the other movie-goers. 

“Whatever you do, don’t go anywhere,” he said, giving them a stern look.

“Fine, dad,” Steve retorted. 

Dustin left them to find seats for him and Erica. For many reasons, River had absolutely no clue what was happening in this movie, though she was enjoying herself. She stole some of the popcorn Steve found, not really questioning where he got it, and maybe that was for the best. 

At some point, they all agreed to sneak out and get some water, totally ignoring Dustin’s rule from earlier. Taking turns at the water fountain shouldn’t have been a difficult task, but they sure made it one. 

“So, like, I wasn’t totally focused in there or anything,” Robin said out of nowhere, “but I’m pretty sure that mom was trying to bang her son.”

“Wait, wait, the hot chick was Alex P. Keaton’s mom?” Steve asked from where he was slumped over the water fountain.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure.”

“But they’re the same age.”

“No, but he went back in time.”

“Then why is it called Back to the Future?”

Robin groaned. “Because, he has to go back to the future because he’s in the past,” she explained. “So, the future is actually the present, which is his time.”

Steve was silent for a moment, failing to process everything she’d just said. “Wh…what?”

River was sitting on the floor, her back against the wall as Annie leaned next to her. She looked up in confusion. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

Having waited long enough, Robin finally pushed Steve out of the way so she could drink next. Now that he was letting her have her turn, Steve found himself staring up at the ceiling in awe. He grabbed their attention and gestured them over.

“You gotta check this out,” he said. “The ceiling, it’s beautiful.” 

River finally heaved herself back on her feet and stood next to him, curious to see what he was going on about. She looked up and gasped, immediately noticing what he was pointing out. It was like the ceiling was shimmering.

“Oh, that’s pretty,” River agreed.

It was almost too much, and soon enough, they all ran to the bathroom, finding the nearest stall. River sat hunched over a toilet, puking her guts out. Her throat burned, and her head was pounding way too much. She let herself get everything out of her system until she was sure she had nothing left. Flushing the toilet, she slouched against the wall, suddenly feeling gross.

Once she was feeling better enough to move, she slid under the stall to check on Annie, who was thankfully done vomiting. “How are you feeling?” she asked. 

Annie groaned. “Like someone ran me over,” she said. “Again, and again, and again.”

River gave her an apologetic smile and leaned back against the stall wall. “Yeah, sorry this has been the worst day ever.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, nothing’s ever gonna top this.” Annie was silent for a moment, thinking. “You really should tell Steve.”

Not wanting Steve to hear, River lowered her voice. “Okay, no. Not happening,” she whispered. “I told you, he probably - no, definitely likes Robin. It’s cool. I’m fine with it.” She sighed, resting her head in her hands.

Annie placed a hand on her shoulder, giving her a reassuring look. “Hey, I get it. You don’t think you have a chance. But you’ll never know if you don’t try.”

“Sounds like you would know.” She mostly meant it as a joke, but the look on Annie’s face said she was right. “Holy shit, there is someone, huh?”

She sat up straighter and let Annie take her time before explaining. “Okay, I’m really trusting you here with this one, but…I really like Robin.” She kept her voice low. 

“Oh, shit.” River was surprised, but wasn’t trying to make it a huge deal. “I mean, yeah. I get it. I just guess I didn’t see that one coming.”

“I have for a while now,” she admitted. “We’ve hung out a lot since we have Drama class together.”

River nodded. “I guess we’re both stuck in the same shitty situation, huh?” Despite her dashed hopes, she felt maybe Annie had it worse. Having to hope someone like Robin wasn’t straight must have been torture. And she understood that. There had been a few girls River felt that way about, but she never would have been brave enough.

“I get it, you know?” she finally said. “When I first started high school, I was so lost and hopeless. But there was one girl I remember having the biggest crush on her. Carol Perkins.”

Annie scrunched her nose in disgust. “Seriously?”

River shrugged. “Yeah. Obviously that didn’t last too long, considering Carol’s kinda the worst sometimes. But I guess it was at that point I realized the whole gender thing didn’t really matter to me that much. I can’t even begin to tell you how many crushes I’ve had.”

“Steve’s different, though, isn’t he?”

He was so different than anyone else. As much as she said she’d be fine, knowing he didn’t return her feelings might hurt the most. More than it hurt when it came to anyone else. But she’d managed through so much pain her whole life, emotional and physical. She’d make it through this one.

“Yeah, he is.”

They were silent for a moment, only really catching the last bit of conversation between Steve and Robin. It was enough to give them both some hope, though. Not wanting her to waste this chance, River urged Annie to go over and talk to Robin. 

Just as she finally got her to leave the stall, River sat back, watching as Steve slid under the stall to join her. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

Neither of them really knew what to say right now. River’s brain was still muddled from her high, but she felt better at least.

“You know, I think today marks the second time now that you’ve saved me,” Steve said. “First the Demodogs, and now I’ve gone through a door.” 

She’d been so proud in the moment for managing something like that, especially when it might not have worked. “Someone had to.”

With all of the chaos, River hadn’t truly had a moment to look at him. Steve looked awful. His face was bloody and bruised, and his uniform was stained with what she could only assume was his own blood.

“How are you feeling?” she asked. “And I mean really.”

Steve sighed, knowing better than to lie through the pain to her. It was obvious he wasn’t in a good state right now. 

“Being tortured by a bunch of evil Russians isn’t the highlight of my life, but it could be worse.”

“Worse? Steve, they really put you through a beating.” She took his hand, trying not to get too worked up. “Look, I get that you think you have to push aside everything you’re feeling, but you don’t. Not around me.”

He looked taken aback, but he at least seemed to appreciate her kind words. “You know, if we didn’t both just puke, I’d kiss you.”

Those were certainly not the words she imagined coming out of his mouth. It threw her off, and she was sure she looked as shocked as she felt.

Steve gave her hand a small squeeze, mustering up the courage to go on. “Look, I know everything is kind of a mess right now, but I really do like you, River. Maybe it took me a while to realize it, but you’ve stuck with me through everything,” he said.

“Steve-”

“No, no, just listen, okay? I thought I was so expendable, but you were always there worried about me. And I don’t know anyone else who would deal with a loud, obnoxious Christmas party just to keep me company, or come to my basketball games.” Steve smiled softly, and he looked so genuine, even with his face beaten up as much as it was. “If things don’t get a thousand times worse, I really wanna make all that up to you.”

River was trying so hard to process that this was all very real. It seemed like such a dream, and she was almost tempted to pinch herself to find out. “How do you plan on doing that?” she asked.

“I figure a date would be a great place to start. And, if you’ll give me a chance, maybe more than just the one.”

Admittedly, that sounded like a great plan. She could never turn that down after all her hoping and dreaming the last few days. 

“I think I’d really like that.” She smiled and pulled him into a hug. It would have to do, because as ecstatic as she was right now, they really had just puked everything up a few minutes ago.

Dustin finally burst in with Erica close behind him. “Okay, what the hell? I told you guys not to go anywhere.” As soon as he got over his initial irritation, and maybe a small lecture, he hurried them out again.By the time they were sneaking out, everyone was just coming out of the theaters. It was the perfect chance to blend in. 

River stuck close as they joined the crowd, trying not to look suspicious, as hard as that felt. Dustin planned to get them all to his house where they could make a plan from there.

“Uh, Dustin? We might not wanna go to your house.”

“Why”

“Well, I might have told them your full name,” he admitted.

Dustin turned, his eyes wide. “What is wrong with you?”

“Dude, I was drugged.”

“So? You resist. You tough it out. You tough it out like a man.” Steve and Dustin argued back and forth until they spotted the Russian checking everyone a few yards away. 

“Abort.”

They ran back the way they came, dodging people as they headed towards the escalators. Just their luck, they were powered down. They went with the next best thing and slid down between the escalators. 

Now that they’d been spotted, they had to hide, and the first good place they could find was behind the counter of one of the shops in the food court. It was nerve-wracking having to wait as the mall was closed down. The Russians locked up the entrances, and they had to stay as quiet as possible.

River was trying to think of anything she could do to help them, but it was hard to think when her brain was still getting used to not being drugged anymore. It was clear they’d caught onto them, and the pressure was making it harder for her to come up with a plan. Just as they thought they might be done for, a car alarm went off, making quite the commotion. It seemed to serve as enough of a distraction, and River barely peeked her head over the counter when the car went flying, taking out all the Russians.

Standing on the balcony above them was El and the rest of the party. River had never felt so relieved to see her sister. She quickly ran around the counter as they were coming down the escalator.

River pulled El into a tight hug. “Thank you. Oh my god, I’m so glad to see you.” They held each other for a moment before she let Dustin come in for a hug as well. She was equally relieved to see Hawthorne was okay, at least physically. Seeing Rex trailing along beside him was a surprise, but she didn’t question it right away.

Without saying anything, she pulled him in for a hug as well. “Are you guys okay?” he asked. “Because I’m panicking on the inside, but it seems like you’ve been up to a lot, too.”

River knew his anxiety could get the best of him, and she was quick to reassure him that she was fine, at least for the most part. “I’m fine. I promise.”

“I don’t understand what happened to that car,” Robin chimed in.

“El has superpowers,” Dustin explained. 

“I’m sorry?”

“Superpowers. Like River has. She threw it with her mind, catch up,” Steve said.

There was so much explaining to be done. Dustin’s code red has only partially gone through, so everyone was just a little confused. In the middle of catching everyone up, El collapsed, and they rushed over to see what was wrong. “El, are you okay?” River asked. “What’s wrong?”

“My leg,” she groaned, seemingly on the verge of tears. “My leg.”

Jonathan was quick to undo the wrapping around her leg, which looked awfully bloody and maimed. River nearly gagged just seeing how awful her wound looked. Even worse was the fact that it looked like something was moving around. El’s pained screams broke her heart, and she took her hand, trying to keep her calm. It looked really bad, though.

“Keep her talking. Keep her awake, okay?” Jonathan ran off to find something that would help.

River swallowed down her worries and tried to keep El as calm as possible. “You’re gonna be okay, sweetie. Just hold on a second okay?” She only received more wails of pain in response, and she prayed Jonathan would find some way to help. They tried to move her carefully in the meantime.

Jonathan came back with a wooden spoon and a knife. “Alright, El. This is gonna hurt like hell, okay? I need you to stay real still.” Handed her the spoon. “You’re gonna wanna bite down on this.”

River looked away, knowing she was only going to be sick if she watched. Jonathan hesitated for a moment before cutting an incision in El’s leg, earning more screams as she bit down on the wooden spoon. River felt terrible just hearing how much pain she was in, to the point of tears starting to form in her eyes.

At some point, the pain just became too much, and El cried out for Jonathan to stop. She was a sobbing mess and could only weakly hold herself up, but she wanted to do it herself. Though she was worried, River sat back and gave her some space to give it a shot.

El focused her powers on pulling that thing out of her leg. While she wasn’t in any less pain, it seemed, she was having much more success on her own. She was exerting so much power that the glass from the display case behind them shattered. River took cover and watched as El pulled it out, throwing it as far as she could. 

Whatever that thing was, it tried to squirm away but was quickly stopped when Hopper stepped on it. When he’d arrived, River had no clue, but she felt so relieved to see him.

River ran to Hopper and gave him a big hug. “Dad!” She just barely caught the surprised look on his face. She’d never actually called him anything but Hopper, and she’d only done it by accident, but the smile on his face was unmistakable.

Hopper patted her back, equally relieved to see she was mostly fine. “Hey, sweetheart.” She finally let go of him as everyone was grouping up again. It would give El some time to rest while everyone else talked.

Now that everyone was together again, they had some time to catch up and make sure everyone was on the same page. Hopper was holding El as River leaned against him. Despite not having used her powers nearly as much as El, she felt mentally exhausted. She wondered if it was too late to return to how she felt when she was drugged up.

Mike was explaining the situation with the Mind Flayer when Lucas mentioned that the cabin got destroyed in the process. River turned to Hawthorne, a concerned look on her face. 

“Don’t worry,” he said. He let them continue their story as he quietly reassured her. “Not much happened on my end. I wasn’t very useful because I freaked out too much.” She could tell he wasn’t very proud of it, but she wrapped her arm around him, silently letting him know that it was okay.

She tried to tune back in as they explained their plan, or at least what they hoped would work. Closing the gate had been hard for El to do the last time, so she hoped they all knew what they were doing. By that time, Murray came back with some papers. Hopper left El to River and Hawthorne while they worked out their plan, and Max joined them to keep El company.

“You okay?” River asked, holding El close. “I can’t imagine how much that must have hurt.”

El nodded. “A lot,” she said.

“When this is all over, you deserve some rest. And maybe I’ll make your favorite triple decker Eggo extravaganza.” That at least earned a hopeful smile. “Sounds nice, huh?”

El grinned weakly and nodded, though she looked excited despite her exhaustion. River gave her a light pat on the back. As soon as Dustin explained their new plan to get to Cerebro, she handed her over to Hawthorne, wishing them both luck. 

Apparently, they were borrowing the car Hopper had been using, which she really wasn’t going to question. 

“Now this - this is what I’m talking about,” Steve exclaimed upon finding the car outside the mall.

Robin raised an eyebrow. “Toddfather?”

“Oh, screw Todd. Steve’s her daddy now.”

River almost wished she hadn’t heard that, but it was too late now. “Did you really just call yourself daddy?” She sighed and shook her head, hopping into the car.

“Alright, where are we going?”

“Weathertop,” Dustin said. 

“Weather-what?”

“Just drive!”

“Okay! Jesus.”

Steve drove away from the mall, following whatever directions Dustin was giving him. They’d made it pretty far from Starcourt when River started to wonder just how far out they needed to be. Hopefully Hopper and the others gave them enough time, because they were taking longer than she’d hoped.

“How far is this place, man?” Steve asked, equally worried.

“Relax, we’re almost there,” Dustin promised. 

Robin waited for them to calm down before she asked, “Suzie must be pretty special, huh? I mean, if you built this thing and lugged it all the way to the middle of nowhere just to talk to her?”

“I mean, no one’s scientifically perfect, but Suzie’s as close to being perfect as any human could possibly be.”

“She sounds made up to me,” Erica said. “She sound made up to you?”

Steve paused, unsure what to even say.

“Why are you hesitating, Steve?”

“I’m - I’m not! I’m not!” he exclaimed. “I think she sounds real. You know, totally, absolutely real.”

River wasn’t buying it, so she could imagine Dustin wasn’t either. He didn’t argue, though, and instead told Steve to turn. River braced herself as they crashed through the fence, driving through the field and up a hill. 

“We’re not gonna make it,” Robin said.

Steve persisted anyways, though the car got stuck part way up the hill. The more he stepped on the gas, the worse he was making it. They had to get out and walk the rest of the way up, or they’d never make it in time.

Thankfully, Cerebro was waiting at the top, already turned on and ready for them to use. Dustin called in to help Hopper and his group - or Bald Eagle, as Dustin decided to refer to them - navigate through the base. He’d done a fairly good job of remembering the layout with Erica’s help.

As he was helping Murray through the vents, River noticed Steve wander off, and she got up to see what was wrong. “Hey, guys?” he interrupted. It was hard to miss the flashing coming from Starcourt, which couldn’t have been good at all. They probably needed help.

Dustin immediately tried to get a hold of everyone at Starcourt, but there was no response other than the harrowing roar that was unmistakably the Mind Flayer. Clearly, no one was going to answer. 

Steve rushed down the hill, presumably to help, and River chased after him. There was no way she’d let him go without her. Dustin tossed Robin a walkie-talkie as Steve told him, Annie, and Erica to stay put and man the radio.

As soon as they hopped back in the car, Steve started it up, though it was still pretty stuck. He cursed under his breath and tried to get it out, but the car wasn’t budging. 

“Hold on, let me try,” River insisted. She tried to focus on the car, using her powers to move them back just enough. It took a little longer than she’d hoped, but it worked. She cheered and scrambled back into her seat as Steve took off, hurrying towards the mall. Her attempt had been just a bit straining, but thankfully not much, and River wiped at the blood trickling from her nose. 

Despite how far away they were, they must have made record time. Billy’s car was heading right towards everyone when Steve gunned it, crashing right into the car and sending it veering in the other direction.

River held on tightly until they came to a stop. “Holy shit.”

“Are you guys okay?” Steve asked.

Robin turned to him. “Ask me tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I think I’m ready for the world’s longest nap,” River said. She paused when the Mind Flayer roared, crawling along the mall roof. Jonathan’s car pulled up beside them, and they jumped in the back, not wanting to waste any time with a monster coming after them. Once everyone was mostly seated, Jonathan drove off as quickly as possible.

While they were being chased by the Mind Flayer, Dustin’s voice came in through the walkie-talkie in Robin’s hands, followed by another voice. “Suzie,” they realized immediately.

River listened as Dustin tried to ask Suzie for Planck’s constant, though she didn’t give in so quickly. There was some back and forth before the craziest thing happened. Dustin started singing. It was confusing, but certainly not the weirdest thing she’d experienced today. She shared a confused look with Steve and Robin. 

At least Dustin finally got the answer from Suzie as soon as their little musical number was done with. Not that River was complaining.

Something must have happened, because the Mind Flayer suddenly stopped chasing after them and turned around. Jonathan made a sharp turn and headed back to the mall. River tired to hold on as they raced back.

Billy wasn’t where they’d left him, which must have been why the Mind Flayer turned back. They all worked together as soon as they made it back to Starcourt, taking all of Lucas’s fireworks and tying them together. The new plan was for everyone to use the fireworks in the hopes it would at least distract the Mind Flayer long enough. Meanwhile, River was supposed to help their efforts with her powers. It had been Lucas’s call; no one argued seeing as it was the best plan they had right now.

Just as they were finishing, Steve pulled River away from the others. “Hey, be careful in there, okay? Don’t wear yourself out.” They’d seen what a toll it had taken on El, and even though she hadn’t strained herself as much, it could easily happen to her.

“I will,” River promised. “You too.”

This might be the end of it, really. They were headed right into danger again, and it could go bad so easily. River didn’t have time to react much before Steve pulled her close, pressing his lips against hers. She was caught by surprise but gave in all too willingly, her fingers tangled in his hair. If she thought about it too long, she knew she’d be grossed out.

“What happened to waiting?” she teased, pulling away long enough to look up at him. 

Steve chuckled and shrugged. “Just in case something happens, you know?” Neither of them even tried to lie. Something bad could happen at any moment, and they knew that. They broke away and finally rejoined the other as they finished with the fireworks.

River had almost forgotten Rex was with them. The last thing she wanted was for him to get in the middle of everything and get hurt. Jonathan let her keep him in his car for a bit. Hopefully she wouldn’t have to leave him for long, but she made sure he was calm and as comfortable as a dog could be in a car by himself. “I’ll be back, okay, buddy? I won’t be long.” Rex licked her hand and sat in the backseat obediently. She left him, as hesitant as she was, and went to help put their plan into action.

By the time they made it back inside, the Mind Flayer was already there. They grouped up on the second floor, throwing the fireworks right at it. They seemed to be working, at least long enough to keep it occupied. They were quickly running out of ammo, though, and there was only so much they could do. River tried to use her powers to help out, as they planned, but it wasn’t so easy with how worn out she felt.  It had been the longest, maybe even craziest, day of her life, and she was having a hard time being of any use. She’d been positioned much closer to the Mind Flayer than everyone else, using her powers to throw anything and everything she could, but it was barely slowing it down at all. 

For just a moment, she’d been distracted when she caught Billy with El. Her initial reaction was to help, but in that split second of letting her guard down, she’d been knocked over by the Mind Flayer, sending her skidding across the floor. She tried to sit up but found that the movement caused her way too much pain. Particularly in her arm. God, she’d broken it. Great.

Hawthorne rushed over as soon as he saw her go flying. “Shit, are you, okay?” She nodded, though he could tell that wasn’t true at all. When she tried to sit up, a sharp pain ran up her arm again, confirming her suspicions There was no way she could do anything more in this state.

She suddenly had an idea. Clearly, she wasn’t going to be much help with how tired she was, but maybe he could help.

“Thorny, I need you to do me a favor,” she said. 

“Yeah, what is it?”

River held her hand out to him. “I'm in way too much pain to focus and help anyone anymore, but maybe you can use my powers,” she explained.

“What? No, I can’t-”

“Yes, you can,” she insisted. “I’m obviously not going to force you, but I trust you, okay? If something happens, if it doesn’t wear off, I’m not gonna blame you. But that won’t happen, got it?“

He hesitated, but seemed to get that it could be helpful. “Alright.” He took her hand, focusing as he drained whatever powers she had. River felt dizzy for a moment before passing out right in his arms, the ruckus of the fight quickly fading to silence.

//

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[theparccentralresidences]

Parc Central Residences | Welcome to Parc Central website

For numerous years now, human beings had been attempting to name me to invite if it's miles nevertheless an awesome concept to put money into belongings withinside the United States? I had been shopping for homes withinside the United States for extra than twenty years already. Buying a actual property withinside the United States commenced withinside the past due 80s, after I were given myself worried withinside the mortgage debacle and savings. This become whilst the banking machine withinside the southern states become failing and we even needed to make transactions of the belongings shopping for and promoting with none banking machine, on the grounds that there have been definitely no banks round parc central residences. Now it is as though there are financial institution disaster each twenty years in America. Prices drastically dropped, every now and then ninety five cents at the greenback, after I become shopping for homes. We may even purchase homes five cents at the greenback! There have been even domestic gadgets that we should purchase for as low as $six hundred and more than one thousand greenbacks in keeping with residence. The truth that the Americans are presently going via a primary financial institution disaster, numerous Australians are nervous to take gain of americaA marketplace. Perhaps you do not ought to fear approximately this difficulty in case you aren't going to stay withinside the United States. In the past due 80s, I did spend numerous time with a few Australians who have been looking to store what is left from their capital, the capital that they have got invested withinside the U.S. And after twenty years, I'm doing it again - assisting Australians who misplaced numerous cash, to get out of the US and could nevertheless be capable of maintain the ultimate capital that they have got invested. The American and Australian Culture Differences Why do you observed this occurred? Why perform a little Australians make investments withinside the United States and grow to be being disappointed? Even if we examine approximately 15% returns - 25% returns. I will study that truth for you in a bit at the same time as. But earlier than that, I'd like to head again to studying the variations among the manner Australians do commercial enterprise from the manner the Americans do commercial enterprise. Most of that is mentioned withinside the ee-e book, written withinside the 1970's referred to as, "American and Australian Cultural Differences". In the ee-e book that Donald Trump wrote, "The Art of the Deal", he certainly stated there's no such element as a win-win in commercial enterprise. It has usually been 'I win and also you lose'. Here's the primary important difference, in Australia, human beings come first, then the cash comes second. While withinside the United States, it's miles the alternative manner round, huge commercial enterprise and the huge greenbacks comes first earlier than the human beings. This would not imply that Americans are terrible and we're properly, we certainly have a special subculture. Also, our governing legal guidelines lean that manner. Our Australian subculture and mentality is contemplated in our felony machine, a machine this is shared with each felony and equitable law. Once a decide sees a settlement that he would not like, he can overturn the settlement on the grounds that below the equitable law, this means that honest play law. Unfortunately, this isn't always the way it works withinside the American gambling field. The actual deal is usually at the piece of paper. On the lighter aspect of gambling withinside the US marketplace is, we each can take a seat down down and speak workout a settlement. I may even exchange a part of a belongings withinside the US for most effective $7. As lengthy as we each signal a one web page General Warranty Deed or Warranty Deed, that belongings is offered for $7. And it expenses that a whole lot due to the fact that's what value me to document this on the neighborhood courtroom docket residence and make the purchase. That is the deal whether or not we had a innovative rent choice or an installment settlement. Unfortunately, in case you get into a few terrible terms, you don't have any authorities frame to are available and appears after you. The deal is, the greenback comes first. So, if ever you're in a rustic in which the actual property has an "I win and also you lose" sort of rule, be careful. They do have special set of rules. Here are a few exciting testimonies of what really occurred over the years. Perhaps via way of means of the stop of this article, a few human beings can instill of their heads that americaA won't be the high-quality vicinity to make investments, until, you already stay there. US Property Management A lot of Australians anticipate that americaA Property Management is treated the identical manner as it's miles in Australia. Here, while you purchase or promote a chunk of actual property, it's miles controlled via way of means of the actual property agent. In americaA, the individuals who bought the belongings to you've got got not anything to do with the control. Here, it's miles tough to discover a person who stocks the identical ethical code as in Australia. And if ever you discover one, it's miles costly, and it may drain you financially. Here's an instance. Strangely, the American control groups can in no way deliver your cash to you in Australia. They appear to have a bad mail carrier on the grounds that they lose numerous cheques. What they do understand is, your cheque sinks due to the fact Australia can be Atlantis. Bottom line is, it's miles approximately taking your cash and now no longer assist you to make a profit. If you pick out to head for an awesome control enterprise, a mild bulb can also additionally most effective value 25 cents, however in case you get it installed, it might cost a little you $88. This is due to the fact properly control enterprise withinside the US, most effective use certified human beings, and certified human beings are costly. Since anybody is scared of being sued withinside the US, the belongings supervisor would not use every body who would not have a license, whether or not it's miles a plumbing license, or electric license. Although a mild bulb withinside the US can also additionally ultimate for 15 months, and it's miles certainly reasonably-priced to shop for. However, on the grounds that I had been an absent landlord, I had been charged numerous $88 to have my mild bulb positioned withinside the residence. And sadly, no Americans can exalternate their personal mild bulbs. In Australia, we do numerous stuff the usage of our hands. Americans had been used to being talented to for see you later that they do not anything. When I hire my homes I observed that my rented belongings withinside the US turns into un-rentable whilst: • the carpet is extra than 2 years vintage, and • your house has been painted much less than a yr ago. In Australia, even supposing my vicinity has a 10, 20 or maybe 30 yr vintage carpet, I can nevertheless have it rented, even supposing it hasn't been painted withinside the ultimate five years. This is the motive why emptiness withinside the US is a whole lot better than in Australia. How does this have an effect on the control? We now understand that a rented unit, condo or a residence withinside the US can not be rented out until it's miles in best situation, nearly a brand new situation. This truth expenses cash. My condo homes in Dallas, Texas was vacant. I additionally had a constructing very near SMU campus and the scholars needed to circulate out at midnight. So, I had a team pass in to re-carpet and repaint. The subsequent morning, I had new human beings coming in, at round 10 a.m. This is simply an fee which you have, as a landlord. You additionally have control groups who ensure that they take cash from your pocket. Being continuously charged for numerous structures like, warm water, heating, and air con which become in no way in your house. The Systems That Drains Your Pocket How approximately air con? Most (if now no longer all) of the homes withinside the US have air-conditioning. And air-conditioning is certainly costly. It might be top notch if americaA tenants smooth the filters. Unfortunately, they do not. If that takes place, your air con structures get burn out. It might take some other $300-$four hundred to have your air con coils wiped clean and feature new compressors positioned in. This manifestly drives you nuts! Another scenario is the ice maker. American homes have an ice maker and each time you update it, it expenses $one hundred thirty plus some other $one hundred fifty for the carrier name. That's almost $300. Ice makers will ultimate for twenty-four months. If you've got got 2 to three tenants who continuously exalternate the temperature of the air conditioned homes, this could fry your air con unit. You modify the air con machine on the grounds that you've got got tenants and unfortunately, they do not recognize your equipment. You will grow to be spending a fortune only for your air con and heating structures. What can be preferred withinside the US isn't always the usual in Australia. The control usually receives 10% of the gross income. A lot of American control groups get their kickbacks from the carrier tradesmen who're continuously despatched out to the homes. Obviously, the owner isn't always the concern of americaA belongings control enterprise, the tenants are. Whatever those tenants need, they get. No be counted how careless those tenants are whilst the usage of your equipments, regardless of how continuously they expend your coins waft or profits. These are simply a number of the matters that in no way takes place in Australia. Here in Australia, we serve human beings to stay in is backside of the range, Americans can not be served this manner. Most Americans do not pay their hire. Those tenants who do pay rents withinside the US have a decrease percent as compared to the Australians who do pay their hire. They actually have a ee-e book it is referred to as "500 Ways to Rip Off Your Landlord and Never Pay Rent". This ee-e book expenses $19.ninety five. You are certainly withinside the location of huge commercial enterprise, I make cash and also you do not. A lot of those Americans do not pay their hire. That's how the commercial enterprise is - Americans do now no longer pay their hire! A lot of Australians bumped into those US homes with coins proceeding to refinance later and most effective to get their coins again via way of means of developing extra debt. The homes have been reasonably-priced whilst offered due to the fact you can not get financed. You will want to position all of your coins in there and ultimately deliver out your coins out. If ever the control has left you any cash, they may get it again from you via way of means of charging you all types of jobs that have been in no way even done, like a residence that has in no way been painted. That's how landlords are eaten alive. Also, right here's some thing really well worth understanding, the American roof most effective lasts for 12 years. Ever surprise why the suburbs blow over withinside the storm? That's due to the fact American homes do now no longer have any metal nor cement in them, that are crucial. American homes are product of timber and bricks at the outside. The bricks are not even thick sufficient to maintain up the residence. They are most effective slate fashion brick that is an inch wide. Unlike Australian family brick, round three-four inches wide. This can really maintain up the residence. For the American homes, the timber at the back of the brick face holds up the residence. So the brick is only a fascia plate. What takes place whilst a huge storm comes? It wipes out the complete suburbs of this American residence, certainly due to the fact there aren't anyt any bricks and no cement. What approximately the lavatories? Here's a revelation. They do now no longer have any water nor sink hollow for the water to head all of the manner down. The American lavatory flooring are simply product of plywood, preferred of 5 ply. I exalternate the toilet flooring each four years because it most effective expenses $ 300 - $four hundred...in case you do it your self. Yes, it's miles essential to exalternate the toilet flooring each 4 years, if you failed to understand. As stated earlier, the American lavatories do now no longer have any drainage hollow. So the water sits at the ground that is frequently carpeted. Eventually, it rots, it is why it's miles a need to to exalternate your lavatory flooring each 4 years. Another element you need to understand is that American sewer pipes are 2 inches, now no longer four inches. Expect to be solving blocked bathrooms each so frequently. In order to have it fixed, you'll want to name the Rotor Router man and pay $90. It is the usual manner of solving blocked bathrooms. Your tenants may be blacks, whites or Hispanics. A lot of Australians do now no longer recognize that after they purchase a reasonably-priced belongings, they do now no longer recognize in which they're shopping for those homes. What sort of community it has and such. The Hispanics are top notch. They really pay their hire even earlier than they feed their children. But did you understand that there's this expression referred to as, 'they are tough at the machinery', the Hispanics are honestly tough on a belongings. Perfect instance is, they use lard whilst cooking. Lard is fat. They pour this lard down your sink, which reasons the sink to get clogged. Which manner, that you'll want to name a Rotor Router man each 3 to 4 months. Or perhaps, your coping with agent may be the only to do that paintings for you. Making you spend extra due to the fact they needed to unplug all of your pipes.  I knew this one gents who lived withinside the Sydney suburb of Roseville. He offered fifty two reasonably-priced gadgets. What he failed to recognize become that it become fifty two gadgets of Hispanic residents. This guy ended up financially crippled due to the working prices of the Hispanics. The Hispanics, like to take a seat down withinside the again in their select out up vehicles and shoot their weapons on a Friday or Saturday night time, that is fine. They want to drink lots, and in a few of the States, there's no under the influence of alcohol using legal guidelines. So I might frequently dig a select out up truck out of my swimming pool complete of those under the influence of alcohol Hispanics who drove their select out up via my fence and directly into the swimming pool. What makes it tougher is, majority of those Hispanics do not communicate English at all. And it's miles costly to get tow vehicles at three withinside the morning. The unhappy element is, whilst Australians purchase a belongings in America, they suppose that it has the identical machine and set of requirements as it's miles in Australia. You ought to recall that America is a very special marketplace. They suppose, do and act matters differently. The carpets do now no longer ultimate lengthy, the paint does now no longer ultimate lengthy both. Although it's miles reasonably-priced to color and also you most effective want to spray the paint the usage of spray gun. Nobody makes use of brush anymore due to the fact spray gun is lots less difficult to apply and also you want to repaint after 2 years. Currently, I am helping a female who has a belongings in New York. Her agent positioned the belongings for $1.three million at the marketplace. Even to this day, I do now no longer suppose that her belongings is really well worth everywhere extra than $900,000 withinside the gift marketplace situation of americaA. This agent has produced a again pocket consumer who do not honestly exist. He might really record a person attempting to shop for the belongings, after which now no longer shopping for the belongings. There might be reviews that this residence does now no longer have tenants whilst in truth there was tenants in there for nine months already. The agent collects the cash and places it of their again wallet telling the owner, "I'm sorry, we can not get any tenants". When you do discover which you really have tenants for your homes, your control human beings will maintain telling you there isn't always and they will simply draw off the cash and you will maintain paying the value. The primary concept right here, deliberately or unintentionally, is to make you financially bleed. Until such time that making a decision to promote the belongings again. Surprisingly the control enterprise has a again seat consumer who will take pennies at the greenback. I actually have witnessed this incident such a lot of times. What approximately your lawns? What takes place in the event that they do not get mowed? Your the control enterprise does now no longer contend with this. They do now no longer prepare every body to mow lawns for the reason that metropolis goes to are available and mow the lawns for you. Simply due to the fact they've metropolis codes and ordinances which you want to make your private home appearance smooth and tidy. If you do now no longer make your private home appearance smooth, the metropolis will are available and make it appearance smooth and tidy, then you definitely get charged for $four hundred for having them do this for you. You aren't allowed to park your vehicle at the street, it is the guideline of thumb for maximum elements of America, due to the fact in case you do, you'll be charged any towing expenses. And you currently have a lien to the metropolis. If you're in Australia, you can now no longer discover approximately this due to the fact the awareness might be despatched for your American mailbox or maybe for your American belongings supervisor, that is the standard case. Your American belongings supervisor does now no longer pay it. He is going out of commercial enterprise or certainly destroys it. Since you do not know what is going on on, the metropolis sells your house from below you. The metropolis needs its cash again for its $four hundred lien, and could take your house to foreclosures or even promote you out. This is what you pay attention or watch on past due night time television, the metropolis tax lien sales. This is in which the metropolis owed cash on homes. Next element you understand, they may simply promote your house up and you'll simply discover that they both bought your house or they've condemned it. Your belongings has a burst pipe flooding hassle that is why the metropolis will condemn it. We had the identical difficulty in Dallas, Texas. That is a warm State and it certainly manner that you'll ought to continuously run the ones faucets. So at some point of the wintry weather, if I do not get all my piping blown out, there may be a big danger that my pipes will burst at some point of the wintry weather months. Then I actually have important flood damage. Another time period used for having the pipes blown out is winterizing. This leaves me  options, to have it winterized and value me, or ensure that my faucets are dripping and ensure that the residence is above sixty eight degrees- so as to additionally value me on air con and heating machine jogging 24/7. Oftentimes, you get it wrong. Your pipes will burst at the same time as you aren't round to repair and kind matters out. So the metropolis comes via way of means of, and condemns your house. They will condemn it via way of means of placing a big tape throughout the the front door. Worse is, the homeless human beings will circulate in and could smash whatever's left of it. They may even sue the metropolis in the event that they harm themselves in a metropolis condemned belongings which can also additionally cause having to get rid of your private home from the lot. They will depart you with what's referred to as a PAD. This has occurred lots withinside the United States withinside the early 90's. You can have not anything there however a cement pad. If you study the intense aspect, the cement pad is smooth and easy which will rebuild some other residence. This community is the crowd areas, the drug homes and the residence of prostitutes. Australians aren't used to this. There are some of gun wearing States in America. People both strung out on pills or get shot and those are the reasonably-priced homes that Aussies begin shopping for. If it is the case, maximum of those Hispanics, blacks and the individuals who stay on this community can not purchase it on the grounds that they do now no longer have the 50 grand to spend for this belongings. They can not borrow it due to the fact the loans do not exist. Only element left for them to do is to coins out. Whenever human beings speak approximately those gross yields in America, what they are saying is, this belongings is gross yielding 26%. But it's miles crucial to recall this is earlier than an quantity of your cash is taken out from repairs, maintenance, emptiness and different unexpected prices. My belongings, in which I used to stay, is 17.four % of each greenback in up maintain. It is certainly reasonably-priced to get elements for US homes. If you're withinside the US doing the entirety your self, it'd had been top notch. But in case you really stay abroad, and you've homes withinside the US, it is whilst it is a killer. What will drain you financially is the value exertions of getting a person to do the process at the same time as you aren't round. Another burden overseas landlords want to maintain in thoughts is the airfares, of flying from side to side to americaA, now no longer to say the remote places telecellsmartphone calls and the time difference, if you have to rise up at five:00 am in Australia simply to talk to anyone withinside the control office. Unfortunately, you do not get to talk to anyone, due to the fact anybody has voice mail. The truth which you can not communicate to a stay character drives you nuts. You can even be aware that your cheques may not arrive. That American banks may not cord cash to Australian banks until you've got got crammed out special felony documents. You have an entire bunch of greater office work from the brand new Patriots Act that Bush delivered in. This complete stack of office work will strain you out to the factor which you might certainly need to tug your cash out of americaA again to Australia. Up to now, I do now no longer understand any Australian who made a benefit from shopping for and protecting a belongings withinside the US. But human beings nevertheless name me, individuals who offered homes withinside the US searching ahead to getting a huge profit. Fact is, that day can also additionally or can also additionally in no way come. However, in case you do stay withinside the United States, you'll simply benefit from it. You will earn lots from shopping for and buying and selling homes withinside the US, certainly due to the fact Americans neglect about approximately equity. For them, actual property isn't always an funding car however a customer item, that as quickly as they're completed with it, they could depart and circulate on. If you're withinside the US, you may witness this your self. The Americans will understand that Aussies have now no longer left for Atlantis to stay there, they may recognize that you could display up the following day with a double barrel shotgun, disturbing to get again your cash, so that you could make profits - BUT, this is most effective in case you are bodily there. We can take gain of numerous conditions whilst we're there withinside the US. I made numerous cash after I become shopping for, promoting, buying and selling homes. But we ought to recognize how actual property buying and selling works withinside the US. My goal of writing approximately this nowadays is to apprehend  vital matters. We can also additionally communicate the identical language because the American, however our philosophy approximately commercial enterprise is definitely special-that is, 'they win and I lose'. Majority of Australians who invested in homes withinside the US do now no longer undergo this with out felony battles. In americaA, human beings sue every different. This isn't always approximately simply winning, it is approximately making the alternative man bleed and dry. Whoever offers up first will comply to what the alternative celebration needs. This is the painful fact of actual property commercial enterprise withinside the US. I've visible numerous Australians pass into that enterprise withinside the US marketplace, and could ultimately come again broke, tired and stressed. They do now no longer get whatever close to their returns at all. And yes, your cheques will mysteriously wander off withinside the mail. My final message is, spare your self from this painful experience. If you need to earn cash, you could earn it right here, for your personal backyard, while not having to shop for any airline ticket, handling US corporations, studying and expertise a special country's machine and manner of doing commercial enterprise-the tough manner. Yes, we do communicate the identical language as them, however they do now no longer do commercial enterprise the manner we do. It can also additionally sound attractive and horny to mention that I'm off to peer my residence in Florida, however there are extra negatives than positives on this experience. Find the identical possibilities right here in Australia. When you notice US figures for yield returns, discover what the internet yields and figures of the internet return. Consider the repairs, maintenance, emptiness and different unexpected prices as a way to come your manner. Brace your self from disappointments. Don't say I failed to warn you. This might be your manner of understanding and seeing what homes withinside the US can do to the investor.

[jeanvaljean24601]

Watch Dogs: Legion Hands-On — A World Worth Exploring

Watch Dogs: Legion follows the series’ established hack-heavy formula, but the new recruitment system adds a refreshing layer of intrigue underneath your run of the mill missions. All of which still have the fun of outsmarting enemies or finding the right angle to solve a puzzle, download a key/file, or wreak havoc from afar. But the most appealing part of Watch Dogs: Legion is finding and recruiting new people. From potential new weapons to lovable characters with fascinating backgrounds and recruitment missions, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by expanding DedSec.

Watch Dogs Legion’s Degrees of Dystopian.Set in near-future London, the bombings DedSec was framed for have led to an authoritarian state in which Albion - a private military corporation - has taken over policing while an intelligence community, led by Signal Intelligence Response Service (SIRS), spies on London’s citizens. In an attempt to clear DedSec, you’re tasked with finding out who is responsible for the London bombings. Villains include Nigel Cass, CEO of Albion, and Mary Kelly, leader of an organized crime syndicate in London. x96 tv box

In keeping with the series norms, Watch Dogs: Legion operates in the extremes of tech-gone-too-far and corporations-up-to-no-good. It’s what I expect, but  as an exaggeration of where society could head, some storylines are more believable and intriguing than others. An Albion security guard making a janky deal to get medicine felt like a natural extension of the current ways governments fail their people, but an evil CEO shooting someone with a room full of high-powered witnesses felt more cartoonishly evil than cleverly dystopian.

Making every character playable is a narrative risk, but it’s one Watch Dogs: Legion seems to pull off based on what I’ve played so far. Those who felt Marcus Holloway’s cutscene persona didn’t match his mid-mission murders may have a hard time buying into the idea of convincing anyone on the street to join what’s publicly viewed as a terrorist organization — favors aside.

The script differences highlight each character as a unique individual rather than a generic stand-in. From the reserved yet no-nonsense attitude of the old lady I added to my team to my recently recruited Albion guard frantically chatting while she drives through London as if to say “Oh my god; I can’t believe I’m actually doing this.”

And at the end of the day, there’s nothing wrong with things being a bit video game-y if the ends justify the means, and in Watch Dogs: Legion they seem to do just that. Playing as anyone goes as narratively smoothly as it can, given the gameplay, and the experience of recruiting randos makes for a joyous open-world experience. android tv box

While there are plenty of new elements to Watch Dogs: Legion, such as ridable cargo drones, the fundamentals are still present. Take over cameras to redirect power, download data, or interact with nearby objects to create distractions or explosions. Distract enemies by sending something to their phones. Or go straight into combat, which leans even more heavily on player choice with enemies only using melee attacks against you until you pull out your gun and decide it’s time for a firefight. This is particularly convenient for those looking to stealth and hack their way through encounters.

My demo dropped me to the midpoint of the game where missions were a routine to-do list of heading from location to location, hacking drones to scope out the area, and then hacking cameras to download access keys or cause mayhem. At this point in the game the ability to cloak enemy bodies was available, allowing for a more aggressive playstyle, with stealth easier to pull off without alerting foes. London’s various buildings, tourist spots, and construction sites made for a fun playground to strategize my way through each gig.

The loop may be familiar, but that doesn’t make it any less fun. As usual, I found that causing destruction without getting my hands dirty was far more amusing than doing stealth takedowns of less than intelligent A.I who have dull walking patterns and are easily lured or distracted. Seeing how many enemies I can kill by stringing hacks to set off carefully timed explosions before I even step foot in a building never ceased to satisfy. If I was spotted, I found it easier to lean on whatever guns I had available than to bother regaining my cover or fighting hand to hand.

Fast travel still exists and some characters even have their own vehicles (often equipped with useful tech), but otherwise there’s good old-fashioned carjacking. A clever, futuristic touch is the option to steal a self-driving car (just look for the icon on the windshield). No driver or passenger punching required!

Driving still feels arcade-y at heart but some vehicles control better than others. The narrower and more roundabout-filled London streets make for a slower, more challenging drive than speeding down San Francisco. Of course, there isn’t much of an immediate penalty for running over lampposts or even pedestrians.

However, upon closer examination you’ll notice that running over someone makes them like you less. Good luck recruiting the person you just hospitalized (still possible! But an awkward icebreaker once they recover). Albion may come after you if they see you commit a crime, but losing them isn’t too difficult as long as you put enough distance between the two of you. Some nice touches include the fact that they can follow you into buildings — your safe house is inaccessible when you’re under pursuit — and if you’re cornered, an electrical device can latch onto your car, rendering it undrivable.

Making Your Team is a Dream.By far, Watch Dogs: Legion’s biggest and most impressive differentiator is the ability to play as anyone. Though getting complete intel on a person (down to their schedule) requires you to upgrade the DeepProfiler by using Tech Points you find hidden in the world. Getting to know them will tip you off to what they’re looking for and unlock their recruitment missions to turn an initial No into a Yes. x96 tv box

The borough uprising system lets you take on missions to empower a borough and give them a more positive outlook on DedSec. Some recruitments will be mandatory as part of the campaign, such as an Albion guard, but you mostly have free reign. If you just want to get the best of the best, DedSec will mark a few people of interest on your map who have been predetermined as good recruits, such as a Drone Expert and Bee Keeper. But you’re also free to recruit whoever is roaming around London.

The first person who caught my eye was an adorable old lady who was looking for some Darts competition. To recruit her, the first step was to go to the pub and play her in Darts, which is one of the most appealing mini-game side quests I’ve ever had the option to do. Hell yes, I want to play this old lady in Darts to get her to join DeadSec! Winning led to her recruitment mission of investigating how her job replaced the 300 workers who were laid off.

I could see this recruitment loop getting stale over time but, during my brief session, I adored every moment of it because I was doing it for my new recruit and my reward was having her there for the rest of my adventure - despite the fact that the mission itself was nothing special.

Unfortunately, she was arrested shortly after being recruited.  Despite previous plans for mandatory permadeath, no one dies in Watch Dogs: Legion unless you opt-in to play with permadeath on. Instead, they just get arrested or hospitalized and locked by a timer. You can go to the police station and potentially get them out early but the easier solution is to just switch to a different operative. Having certain operatives on your team such as Albion guards, police officers, or EMTs will decrease your time in jail or the hospital.

A Dynamic and Diverse Group.Each character has their own loadouts, perks, professions, personalities, and backgrounds. Weapons and tools are shared across your team and can be swapped, but there are some gadgets and guns that are locked to certain types of recruits.

Uniform Access allows for certain characters to enter restricted areas more easily. So walking into a construction site as a construction worker means I can more freely walk through the area and it takes longer for enemies to detect my presence. However, they can still realize I don’t belong there so it’s not an instant win.

My assassin had a slew of powerful guns at her disposal but the graffiti artist had a paintball gun and would spray folks in the face after executing a takedown. Even across folks from the same background there’s some level of variation. android tv box

For instance, one construction worker will have a different set of tools than another.There were some rough edges in the build I played. When characters are defeated the animation looks a bit goofy, and there are some questionable drivers. But some of these may be cleared up by launch. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Watch Dogs: Legion and grew attached to the different characters, their arsenals, and their sparkling personalities. The lack of a primary main character doesn’t detract from the story. Instead, it incentivizes exploring and immersing myself in a world I otherwise may have ignored in favor of mainlining the story.

Watch Dogs: Legion’s gameplay follows the established formula of hacking devices to accomplish your task at hand with the option to go in guns blazing - though it’s the less enticing route when you have plenty of gadgets at hand and drones overhead.

[ginnyzero]

Getting Your Message Across

In today’s social media driven knowledge and talent economy everyone (supposedly) has a brand and a message that they’re trying to get out there to say “look at me, hire me, buy my things, I’m you!” (Some people are a lot better at it than others.) It didn’t used to be this way or at least it wasn’t as important. For writers, this trying to convey a message through words is something that we have been doing for hundreds of years whether we mean to or not.

And sometimes our messages in our books and stories gets through. And sometimes, the messages that are found in our stories aren’t the messages we thought we put in and that’s okay. Sometimes, we don’t think we have a message because we have a story we want to tell and that’s okay too. The story can be the message, something about that story is important to you even if you can’t verbalize what it is.

It can be okay to not be able to verbalize something. You might not know what you needed to get out of that story until it’s done and you’re finished and you can step back and evaluate and go “yeah, that’s it, that’s what I wanted to say.”

Writers most often come across this conundrum in the parallel problem of expressing emotions. Because emotions are things you feel rather than something you can touch, taste, see, smell or hear. Emotions are bound up in thought and many people don’t know what they are or how to express them properly. They’re ephemeral. And your message can be just as ephemeral.

Messages and emotions have to be worked around and expressed explicitly at times to convey them and have them hit home. Because your message serves absolutely no purpose if no one understands it or even gets that it’s there.

Other people are not in your brain.

Unlike the science fiction and fantasy worlds that I write in and that I love to read, people in our reality tend not to be telepaths or empaths or psychic or mind readers. Especially when it comes to the written word. They don’t know your thought process or that you spent hours of time agonizing over five variations of the same dialogue or how to convey character movement without making the characters appear like they’re fidgeting. (Unless the character is a chronic fidgeter.)

So, you, the writer, are going to have to convey your message in different ways. You’re going to have show it and tell it. (Throw that "show, don’t tell" advice out the window on this one. It’s show and tell time, ladies and gents. Just like back in kindergarten when you brought in that cool action figure.)

Comics are a great medium to study to learn about this. They are a very constrained medium. Many comics use four panels per day or week to get their point across. And there are a lot of different types of comics. There are funny comics. There are dramatic story comics. There are comics that are political and comics that are about life.

A really good comic that I love to read (because it fits my “brand”) is Manly Guys Do Manly Things at thepunchlineismachismo.com by Coelasquid aka Kelly Turnbull (a storyboard artist for Ben10 and all around amazing person tbh. I wish I had her health, seriously.) Those are the first two messages right there, the name of the comic and the website URL. I know instantly that this webcomic is about to revolve around beefy action hero types doing action hero like things.

The main original character is named Commander Rock Lobster Badass for goodness sake. You’ve got Canada Guy running around randomly killing moose. And everyone from Ganondorf to Duke Nukem popping their heads in and making commentary. (Riddick runs the occasional DnD session.) And then you’ve got Jared. And Jared is the everyman with limp noodle arms and a magikarp in this insane world to give a reason for the Commander to translate all this craziness for us to understand.

There are one off funny comics, there are story arcs, and there is the occasional political lampoon commentary, lots of bits about Overwatch, and then there are bits where the Commander explains the philosophy of Marlon Brando and his own version of actually very healthy masculinity. (Round pegs don’t go in square holes and square pegs don’t go in round holes. Do what works for you.) And there are other places where he shows healthy masculinity in being an all around awesome dad and mentor. (Seriously, don’t be Goku standing around screaming for hours.) I love the fact that Commander Badass is in a relationship with Jonesy that he refuses to pin down with labels. Because not all romantic relationships need labels!

And she does this once a week despite holding down a demanding job and breaking her limbs in motorcycle accidents and going off to Wasteland every year and keeping pigeons. (That inspired some adorable velociraptors.) Even her pictures reflect her brand!

And if that’s the type of content you might enjoy, I encourage you to check out Commander Badass. Or go read and analyze your favorite comic(s.) (I also recommend Girls With Slingshots.)

As a writer and a storyteller, you have to show your message and you have to outright tell people your message in your stories and through your stories. And some characters might not be quite as literal as Commander Badass there.

Say your story is based on the message of “Girl, you need that man like a fish needs a bicycle.” (See entertaining Sinfest Comic strip.) So, you’re story is probably going to open up with your female character thinking she needs the male in her life. Her friends and family don’t think so and tell her so and probably try to encourage her to be more independent. “You don’t need him!” “You’re better than that!” But she’s stuck in that thought pattern that she needs a man.

And she’s not going to change until she comes to the realization on her own quite possibly at her lowest point when he’s betrayed her in whatever way is the most important to her. (Or she’s done something that even shocks herself that she’d thought she’d never do.) Then she’s going to believe “Oh, I don’t need that man. “And no doubt, she’s going to think it and she might get angry about it. Now she wants to get free and be independent and she wants it badly. She’s hurt. She’s lashing out. And she may or may not lash out constructively! (Conflict! Angst! Girl Power! Boo Yah!)

Then you have to show you quite possibly kicking this man out of her life. And then doing whatever it is that needs to be done to be more independent and take care of herself. Then, the character is going to have to figure out why emotionally and psychologically she thought she needed that man. (Therapy is good people.) Or else, she’s just going to fall back into the same pattern and not learn anything or grow as a character. (Character growth is the best.) So that when she finds a new man, that man is nice and all and she likes having him around, but she doesn’t need him to fill whatever emotional or psychological need that the previous man was filling.

Give it a fancy title that reflects your message of freedom or breaking chains or independence and call it a day! (Simplistic example is simplistic.)

It’s the age old problem of show versus telling. But in this case you have to show and tell to get the point across. The point being that somewhere in your story that your main character or a character around your main characters in a not preachy way manages to say your message clearly and succinctly.

Because brevity, brevity, brevity.

People don’t come to a story for the message. They come to be entertained and yeah, the message or the theme may resonate with them. They want to see the message in action more than they wanted to be talked at about the message for a good hour or 300 pages. (Look, if I want a moral lecture I’ll go back to church.) If your brand is about romance, the story should focus more on the romance and answering the question of “why can’t they be together right now” than the message of “You don’t need that man, honey.” (Okay, contradictory to an extent, but um, not at the same time. Healthy romances, HEALTHY folks.) If your stories are like mine and are about adventure and explosions with a side of finding your place in the world, then the story should focus on action, explosions and finding your place in that world.

Your message needs to be clear and consistent and even though you as a person might not agree with something that a character is doing, it doesn’t mean that you endorse what that character is doing. You can always show that the character is wrong, that their methods are bad by giving them consequences.

And remember, just because your story has a message, it doesn’t have to be about the message. You can still save the universe and convey that being gay is okay or that racism is wrong or true love can strike twice. Stories are allowed layers.

The key being that if no one at all gets the message you wanted or the opposite message or no message at all when you’ve tried to put one in then you’ve failed as a writer. And that’s not okay.

[ruminativerabbi]

Game-Changers

Everybody knows the old French saw about how the more things appear to change, the more they actually stay the same. And mostly it’s true—we can surely all think of a dozen innovations touted in their day as societal game-changers that turned out merely to be variations on the theme they were supposed not merely to revise slightly but totally to uproot and replace. You can make scrambled eggs in your microwave slightly more quicky than in a frying pan, but you still end up with a plate of scrambled eggs. And your wireless printer does exactly the same thing as your non-wireless printer did, just without the wire. It’s nice to have fewer wires under your desk, of course. But was the world—or even just your world—really changed by the advent of wireless printers?

But then, every so often, something comes along that actually does change everything. It generally takes a while for people to understand the implications of that innovation, however. Gutenberg’s printing press is a good example: it’s hard to think of a day that more totally changed the world—and for the better—than that fateful day in 1452 on which Gutenberg produced his first printed Bible, thus opening the path for printed books to supplant hand-written manuscripts by making it possible to create hundreds, or even thousands, of  copies of a book in the time a scribe would have earlier on needed to create a single volume. And, yes, things got off to a strong start: by 1500, there were a cool 30,000 books in print across Europe. But even so it took almost a century and a half before it dawned on someone that Gutenberg’s invention could be used to publish a daily printed newspaper. (That first effort was the rather infelicitously named Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckw��rdigen Historien, a German-language newspaper that Johann Carolus began publishing in Strasbourg in 1605.)

Some of these game-changing moments seem less momentous as time passes: I can remember the teenaged me thinking that nothing would ever be the same again after Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon in 1969, only later on to realize that it was a come-and-go moment that, practically speaking, changed nothing at all in terms of the way we live our lives down here on earth. Others seem only in retrospect to have  been crucial turning points, but went totally unnoticed at the time: surely the invention of email counts as an innovation that permanently altered the way society functions, but I myself can’t say with certainly who invented it or when exactly. (I can now—I just looked it up and so can you: click here. But why V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai is basically unknown, while Neil Armstrong’s name is known even to young children—that would be an interesting issue to think through. Perhaps I’ll return to that one of these days and see what I can come up with.)

But I write about all this today because I noted in the paper something a few weeks ago that feels to me as though it might well be—at least in retrospect—a true game-changer moment. It surely went unnoticed by most. In the end, it may end up to have been a fancy parlor-trick that only felt momentous at the moment. Or it may be an innovation that possesses the potential to address the scourge of homelessness.

As recently as ten years ago, it was estimated that there were as many as 100 million people in the world living without roofs over their heads. Nor is this a Third World problem per se: in 2018 it was estimated by the government that there were about 553,000 homeless individuals in the United States, 65% of whom were temporarily being housed in shelters and 35% of whom were fending for themselves on our nations’ streets. Just this spring, the New York Times reported that there were about 114,000 school-age children who were or will be either permanently or temporarily homeless during the current school year. (To read more about that almost unbelievable statistic, click here.)

The roots of homelessness are complicated and vary from context to context, but the cost of owning a home is surely part of the problem. Maybe it’s the advent of Pesach that has made me especially sensitive to the whole issue: the holiday is formally about freedom from slavery, but the famous image of the Israelites yearning for home while spending forty years living in flimsy, roofless sukkot that provided no real protection from the elements, no meaningful security, and hardly any privacy at all—all those themes came together to draw my attention to an article in the New York Post last week that announced something that struck me as the kind of innovation that could conceivably take its place next to Gutenberg’s press one of these days. And it too had something to do with printing.

Or at least with a printer.

The article, by Mary K. Jacob, reported that 70-year-old Tim Shea, formerly a homeless soul living on the streets in Austin, Texas, now resides in a 400-square-foot home that was created with a 3-D printer and which is part of a community of such structures created especially to house 180 people like himself in homes they rent for $300 a month. (The community also provides work opportunities for the residents, so all who live there can earn their rent and remain permanently in place. To read the New York Post article, click here.) The cost of creating such a home, using machines called “large concrete 3-D printers” is about $10,000. But the price is expected to drop as the technology becomes more advanced and one essay I found projected the eventual cost of using such a machine to create an inhabitable home to be about $3500. Also relevant is that such a building can be constructed by four workers in less than twenty-four hours. (For a more detailed account by Adele Peters of how this unbelievable technology works, click here.) Each printer—obviously something akin to the printer on your desk but also quite different from it—costs about $100,000 and is expected to be able to produce about 1,000 homes. So that would add about $100 to the cost of each home, a more than bearable addition. The homes are made of concrete and mortar, both substances readily available in most Third World countries. The roofs are not 3-D printed.

As noted above, lots of innovations present themselves to the world as game-changers but only very few actually do alter the course of human society. The invention of the printing press certainly deserves its place on the list. So do the introduction of the personal computer and the invention of the Internet. But the thought that society could address the problems of homelessness and the extreme poverty and lack of resources that brings people to live on the street by constructing homes so inexpensively that even people with the most modest incomes could afford the rent…and then by constructing communities for such people that also provide the employment opportunities necessary to earn that rent and to survive with dignity in a secure and safe environment—that seems to me a development truly with the potential to change the world.

One of the Torah’s most chilling lines is in the fifteenth chapter of Deuteronomy. The text enjoins the Israelite to be generous and kind when it comes to charitable giving, and never to begrudge the poor their alms, “for it was precisely to grant you the ability to show such solicitude to the poor that God blessed you with whatever wealth you possess in the first place.” And then Scripture goes on to note wistfully that this shall be a permanent obligation, “for surely the poor will never vanish entirely from the land.” Ramban says to take this more as a dour observation than as an actual prophetic oracle—and thus specifically not to conclude that the eradication of poverty is something that could never actually be achieved—and I’d like to think that that is exactly correct. (Ramban, also called Nachmanides, died in 1270 and is still considered one of the greatest Torah commentators.) And that is why I responded so emotionally to that story in the paper the other day: the thought that it could be possible to address the world-wide problem of homelessness by building habitable homes for less than the cost of a car and then by constructing communities that present future residents with the kind of work-opportunities that will make residence in such homes affordable for all—that really does seem to me like a game-changer. If I had to bequeath to my lovely granddaughters a world in which no human being had ever walked on the moon, I could live with that. But to think that the possibility exists to offer them a world in which all human beings can live in dignified, secure housing—that seems to me like the kind of innovative change that really would be a game-changer in terms of the way we live in the world.

[elizabethjournals]

We all know how wonderful it feels when we get a great night’s sleep, we wake full of energy and ready to take on the world! Despite all of us knowing how good sleep is for us, it seems less of us are getting enough of the good stuff, and our health is suffering as a result. One of the biggest causes of missed sleep is stress. We flick off the lights and lay our head on our nice soft pillow, but instead of drifting off to the land of nod the little voice in our head begins to list all the worries we have for the following day.

  [mailerlite_form form_id=19]

  Stress and sleep are strange bedfellows. The more stressed we are, the less likely we are to sleep well. But then the worst we sleep the more likely we are to develop anxiety, stress and even depression. A cruel cycle indeed; it’s all quite unfair! What can be done to break this cycle? Well, below I’m going to let you in my top tips on how to get more sleep and reduce your stress levels.

  This post was written by Sarah, view bio below.

    Get into A Routine

  Regularity is probably the most important thing anyone can do to help improve their sleep. The human mind craves routine. Doing the same thing at the same time helps the brain build associations and with its shortcuts.

  Go to bed at the same time every day, get up at the same time. Whether it is the weekday or the weekend, try and keep to the same time. Note, your body doesn’t care about weekends, Saturday is nothing more than a social construct. You will soon find your brain knows what time sleep should be and will start to prepare for it.

  The same principle lays behind a having a good pre-bed wind-down routine. Avoiding screens in the hour before bed will help your overstimulated brain slow down. Replacing any activity that involves even the remotest possibility of stress with low key, relaxing things instead will do wonders.

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  So, that means no more tax returns, flight booking or attempting to help your son with their math homework before bed. Instead, why not slow down, read a book, listen to some music, or even take a nice hot bath.

  For other ideas on what makes a great pre-bed routine, plus a host of other tips on how to improve your odds of a good night’s kip, check out the Sleep Advisor blogroll.

    Take A Nice Hot Bath

  Speaking of baths, AH! What is more relaxing than soaking into the bubbles and having a nice long bath before bed? A lot of people swear by it, Oprah Winfrey for one. If it is good enough for the queen of daytime, it’s good enough for us!

  Pre-bed bath enthusiasts often claim it’s the toasty warmth of a good soak that lulls them to sleep. Well, they are partially right. Having a hot bath before bed is great for inducing sleepy times but not for the reason they think.

    When you have a hot bath, a process known as vasodilation takes place, this is where the blood rushes to the skin. Hence why you get rosy cheeks. When you then step out of your nice warm bath all this heat at the surface of your body is transferred to the cold air around, and you experience a massive thermal dump, and your core temperature plummets. It’s this cooling effect that is incredibly soporific.

  Having a hot bath, or an ice-cold shower will have a similar impact. It’s just a hot bath is a far more pleasurable experience. Both are ways to help you de-stress at the end of a long day and get your body and mind in a good place for sleep time.

    Calm That Monkey Mind

One method to calm that chattering voice in your head at night is to take up a little meditation. And no, before you ask, meditation is not just for monks and hippies. Though, these two groups do seem pretty relaxed!

  Everyone can benefit from the effects of a little meditation. It’s free and requires nothing but a place to sit. To genuinely feel the benefit it does, however, require the commitment of at least 15 minutes each day.

  It might sound dramatic but meditation over time essentially works by reprogramming our brain.

I know that sounds outlandish, the brain scans substantiate such claims.

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  Daily sessions of simply sitting and observing whatever images and ideas that float through our mind’s eye, help us realize how futile it is to worry about every little thought. This helps to free us from negative patterns of thoughts, reduce anxieties and de-stress. Find a quiet corner and give it a go.

  Well there you go – three simple and completely free (if you don’t count bath salts) ways reduce your stress levels and help improve your odds of a great night’s rest. A little unsure, well, why not give them a whirl. What’s the worst thing that can happen? You miss a bit of sleep!

  [mailerlite_form form_id=34]

  Author Bio:

    Hi there, my name’s Sarah, and I’m a sleep addict. I simply can’t get enough of the good stuff. When I’m not lying in bed dreaming (mainly of Chris Hemsworth) I spend the better part of every day researching and writing about sleep. I genuinely believe the world would be a happy, healthier, and even safer place to live if we all took sleep a little bit more seriously. Sweet dreams!

  Want to guest post for Jihi Elephant? Learn more here. 

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  3 Tips for Managing Stress for a Better Night’s Sleep We all know how wonderful it feels when we get a great night’s sleep, we wake full of energy and ready to take on the world!

[texanpeanut]

Why Am I Here?

I think a lot. Probably too much by some standards, which is one of the reasons I wanted to join the Peace Corps. Once upon a time I believed if I made it to this position I would be forced to think less and do more. However, over the past six months I’ve experienced the opposite. Without mind-numbing mental distractions like Instagram and Facebook readily available while I’m in my rural site, and with the heat-forced downtime that occurs between noon and five p.m., I find myself thinking all the time. Not just in a hazy, half-aware state, but actively considering a handful of topics over and over again trying to find some satisfying conclusion that may or may not exist. So I’m not sure if the amount I think has changed since coming here, but perhaps the way I do has. Maybe now it’s more focused, more linear, less wiggly and sporadic. Maybe it’s more dense and easier to hold in my hand, like pudding versus water. Maybe it hasn’t changed at all and I’m just making it all up. 

One topic currently seems to have a more substantial presence in my mind than the others, though. Sometimes it burns like a roaring campfire and I’m completely captivated and sometimes it nags silently like a mango string caught in my teeth that I run my tongue over again and again without actually making an effort to remove. When I sit on the floor of my hut at 6:30 am drinking Nescafe, when I fill my water bucket at the forage in the silent woods, when I escape the afternoon sun by doing crosswords in bed, when I sit with my family in the evening as we wait for dinner to finish cooking, I always come back to the same thought - why the fuck am I here? 

For anyone reading this who doesn’t know, Senegal is a small West African country that happens to be the furthest western point on the African continent. I honestly don’t know that much about Senegalese history because all the empire formations and and dissolvements make my head spin, but I do know that it is certainly a very rich and diverse history, which has led to a very rich and diverse culture today. Although French is the national language, apparently 36 different languages are spoken in Senegal today, and each language corresponds to a different ethnic group with it’s own stories and traditions and beliefs. In my own region of Kedougou, I can travel between Bassari, Pular, and Jaxanke villages in just a few hours, and then if I travel up to any of the northern regions I find myself surrounded by Wolof or Pulaar du Nord or Serer. 

So, take a trip in a time machine back to maybe the 7th century and you’ll find all these groups of people living their lives, forming empires and kingdoms, disbanding, migrating, adopting Islam, you know, whatever, the usual, until the advent of globalization at the end of the 15th century. At that point, Europeans began competing for trade and conquest in Senegal (like they did in almost all other non-white countries, as y’all know. I have a few other colorful ways to describe this but since I have family reading and I already dropped a fuck once (twice now, sorry) I’ll keep it tame.)* until 1677 when France won by gaining control of Goree Island, which is known for being a purchasing base in the Atlantic Slave Trade. 

Travel forward in the time machine to 1961 and Senegal becomes independent from France. After centuries upon centuries of existing as a region under various kingdoms, then 300 years under French rule, Senegal becomes a country with a border, a tax system, a school system, elected officials, all that stuff. Now travel forward in the time machine to today, 2018, 57 years later. 

SO MUCH BACKDROP. Was all that even necessary for what I’m about to talk about? We’ll see, I guess. 

Living here, I see a lot of European and North American presence. Asian presence too, actually - a lot of the roads being built are Chinese construction projects, and the Renaissance Monument in Dakar was given as a gift from North Korea. There are other development organizations like UNESCO and World Vision, some religious missionaries, some adventurous tourists traveling on their own, some old French women sunbathing on the beaches of Mbour, and of course the obnoxious buses crammed full of European tourists coming to see a waterfall and stop by the surrounding towns to take photos of ~village life~ as if strolling through a zoo. 

As a white person here I’m perceived differently based on which of these groups of white people Senegalese people have interacted with more. When I travel anywhere outside my village I hear the children sing-song chant “toubako okkan cadeau!” which means “westerner, share a gift with me!”. Sometimes the adults engage me too when I go to a boutique or wait for a car at the garage. They like to ask me if I’ll take their baby with me back to America, if I’ll give them my earbuds, my cell phone, or my dress, or if I’ll marry their old crusty-ass uncle I don’t even know. When I travel up to Thies I don’t get chanted at quite as much and am almost ignored, which is nice. The few times I’ve been to Mbour I’m almost ignored except for the occasional beach-walking knick-knack seller begging me to be their first customer of the day. 

Even though they are just children, I get so incredibly annoyed sometimes by the chanting. I usually ignore it and go about my day but sometimes I just want to scream “my name is not Toubako, it’s Binta, and I don’t have a fucking gift, leave me alone and let me walk or bike or buy a piece of bread or whatever the fucking I’m doing at the moment.” The adults can be just as irksome, too. I don’t usually get into it and play these comments off as jokes but they make me so uncomfortable. I want to tell them “stop asking me for things. Every time you see me you only ask me for things. I came here to teach, to work, to plant at least like one fucking tree, not to take your baby or marry your god-damn uncle.” 

I think I’m up to four fucks now, sorry. God, that’s five. 

But I don’t respond because in some ways I feel like I deserve it. Even though I wasn’t here between 1677 and 1961 selling humans from Goree Island, even though I’m not one of these oggling, bus-going, camera-toting tourists, because I’m white I’m still part of that story. And in some ways isn’t “international development” another form of colonialism, of imperialism? Western groups coming in with resources and knowledge trying to fix what they perceive as problems? If the people of Senegal continuously rely on foreign aid organizations to supply resources and technical expertise, how sustainable is that for development in the long run? 

So this is where my thoughts lead me every day. What’s my role as a volunteer here? How can I act as a white person without perpetuating colonialism? How can I work and learn here while being the least imposing as possible? In Peace Corps we’re told the role of a volunteer is to be a mentor, a teacher, a co-facilitator, a co-planner, etc. There’s a huge focus on “people-centered” work. Don’t do anything your village doesn’t want. Don’t force your own projects because when you leave no one will continue it. I think I feel comfortable with this part. So far I’ve really been trying to feel out my village for what they want, what they need, and what they’re willing to work toward. If no one wants to make a compost pile or build a tree nursery, I’m not going to force it. I try to see myself as a supplier of information, not an iron-fisted environmental ruler. 

But even if I am trying to work with my village, even if I am truly trying to be this mentor/teacher/facilitator figure, and not a tyrant or giver of gifts like some other development organizations can be, why is that my responsibility as an American? All my technical training in Thies was done by Senegalese people. Wouldn’t this whole program be way more effective if Senegalese people trained other Senegalese people? People who live here and truly understand their land and their culture? People who don’t have to spend a year just trying to learn a language and fit in? People who aren’t going to go home to America or Canada or Japan after 2 years? 

Well then I think maybe it’s not just about the work. The work is so fun, it’s a blast, it’s been my favorite part in village. Helping someone build a tree nursery, doing a small training, getting my hands dirty planting seeds or amending a garden bed - it’s fantastic and I say that without a single drop of sarcasm. But there’s three goals in Peace Corps - the first is about the work, the second is about sharing American culture with the host country, and the third is sharing host country culture with Americans. And I think many volunteers have a fourth, personal goal of learning about themselves or some kind of self improvement. That’s my other favorite part so far. The opportunity to challenge myself, to learn, to think in a focused way and not just bounce all over the place. But did I have to come all the way to Senegal to do that? Are there experiences I could have had in America that would have been this formative? If I’m here just to learn, is that another form of exploitation? Am I just using my village’s daily life and culture as a means to only better myself? Maybe I should really focus my efforts on this whole cultural exchange part? 

I don’t know! I don’t know anything!

I’m not sure what my goal is in writing this post, but there was something inside me nagging me to put it down in type and send it into cyberspace. I do really appreciate my service in Senegal so far. I don’t want to leave, I don’t want to go home. But I think this topic is something I will continue to come back to again and again over the next year and a half. Maybe other volunteers will see this and relate or offer some insight? Maybe some history nerds will call me out on all the mistakes I made in the earlier paragraphs? Maybe people will tell me to shut up and get back to the cool tree stuff or post more pictures of my dog? 

Like I said, I don’t know. 

If you got this far, thanks for reading. That’s all for now. 

-Maggie 

*Way earlier in this post I put a little asterisk, if you remember. I have a book recommendation. If you’re interested in globalization, colonialism, and/or potatoes I highly recommend 1493 by Charles C Mann. It’s the story about how the face of the Earth completely changed with the first Europeans coming over to North America. It tells a very, very interesting story and I encourage anyone interested in learning even a little bit to read it. 

[luna-fernanda95]

50 Crucial Blog Writing Tips For Beginners Beginning In 2018

In life when people are faced with similar scenarios most of them will certainly make similar decisions. Why can t this legislation apply to blogging?

I have located that brand-new blog the afropunk entrepreneur  theafropunkentrepreneur.com  owners no matter technological competence begin with a nearly similar viewpoint to the blog writing world. They all have the tendency to share ideas concerning exactly what blog writing is what their assumptions are from blogging. This is why it's possible making an article similar to this. We could think the majority of blog owners make the exact same mistakes when that begin (I made the same ones when I started) we can presume just what blunders new bloggers will make when they begin blogging. Highly successful individuals are those that put on t simply gain from their own blunders however the errors of others. So, to assist all blog owners available I thought I d make a checklist of all the typical major blogging blunders I have discovered consulting blog writers so that you could gain from them and also make them right for yourself. I'm turning this overview on its head.

These typically aren't your common 50 blogging ideas for beginners yet 50 points you have to REFRAIN if you intend to be an effective blog writer in 2018:-RRB- I have made a number of these blunders myself;-RRB- however time and experience has actually taught me exactly how important the little things can be. So, while several of these pointers may appear a bit mundane in the beginning. Constantly bear in mind that poor errors end up being bad habits and also poor behaviors on the internet convert right into something only: failing.

Here are 50 Blogging Tips For Beginners? (of errors you have to prevent if you wish to become a successful blog writer):.

Creating Disposable (Throwaway) Blog Site Posts.

In Search Engine Optimization, there is a term that Material is King. I personally really feel that this statement is rather mild ... In my point of view, web content is not just King however Queen, Court, Police, Husband, Spouse as well as whatever else on the internet. If you have low-quality negative web content I can ensure you that you will certainly stop working. Similar to a structure your blog's structure is the content you develop as well as weak point in your blog posts means your blog site can come rolling down anytime (Google algorithm updates anybody?:/).

Not Networking with Others in Your Blog writing Market.

You can never win in the net world by separating yourself; you have to stay on top of trends and the only method to do that is by actively connecting with various other bloggers in your blog writing particular niche. Maintain your close friends close as well as your opponents better. Blogging is a cut throat globe as well as you have to have a pulse on the competition if you want to do well and really make some cash blogging.

Not Making Use Of Social Networking to Advertise Your Blog.

The world has actually shifted to social networking and not making use of is the matching of rejecting to utilize electrical energy for medieval technology. Social media has come to be significant in obtaining your blog site direct exposure as well as assisting to construct blog site authority. You must service making your blog posts "likable" and "shareable". Usage great deals of pictures and also attempt to include punch lines which can be tweeted. Remember you're always one viral minute far from globe broad fame;-RRB-.

Going Off Subject in Your Blog Posts.

I always liked going to the Zoo when I was more youthful. I loved the Hippo s. I enjoyed the Giraffes. I liked the Flamingos Obtain it?

Not Corresponding.

This is the number cardinal blunder that blog writers who fall short make. You should be consistent. Much like working out exactly how it s better to do 15 minutes of exercise on a regular basis after that spend 5 hours in the gym when a month. Bogging calls for everyday routine initiative. So also if it s simply a small 300-word message or a pair tweets, aim to make your blog much better every day.

Spamming Site visitors.

This ought to be obvious. Your visitors are whatever! So, if you have actually finally grown a newsletter of say 1000 participants on your self-improvement blog site, please don t send them an email advertising a dishwashing machine.

Writing Long Essays Without Breaks.

No this isn t freshman year English. Please don t write in that very unintuitive awful APA design without any headings or splitting up. When It pertains to blog writing, readability is key as well as if your article resembles a job to review, 9/10 individuals will avoid it (Including me. Sorry! J).

Making Your Blog Layout Complicated.

The even more, easy, user-friendly as well as easy your blog design is the better. So miss on that full-screen video that plays on launch or that actually awesome menu that s moving around the display.

Making Use Of Bad Headlines.

Which heading would certainly you instead click? Alternative A. some truths concerning junk food Option B. 39 Astonishing Truths Regarding Junk Food That Will Certainly Open Your Eyes The response is option B if you didn t obtain it.

Having A Slow Website.

40% of people abandon a site that takes more than 3 seconds to tons. That s indicates if you re site takes 3.5 seconds to fill 4 from 10 people that visit your blog will certainly bid farewell prior to they also read a word not to mention acquire something. I recommend you make use of Googe PageSpeed to examine where you could enhance. It will offer you a malfunction of your web page and the requests a user need to make to pack your blog site. The best fix to this is to constantly purchase an excellent web-hosting supplier. I personally prefer as well as suggest BlueHost yet there are big selection of alternatives you could pick from.

[the-master-cylinder]

SUMMARY As the Earth crosses the tail of a comet, previously inanimate machines suddenly spring to life; an ATM insults a customer (King in a cameo) and a bascule bridge rises during heavy traffic, causing all vehicles upon the bridge to fall into the river or collide. Chaos sets in as machines of all kinds begin attacking humans. At a roadside truck stop just outside Wilmington, North Carolina, an employee, Duncan Keller, is blinded after a gas dispenser sprays diesel in his eyes. A waitress, Wanda June, is injured by an electric knife, and arcade machines in the back room electrocute another victim. Employee and ex-convict Bill Robinson begins to suspect something is wrong. Meanwhile, at a Little League game, a vending machine kills the coach by firing canned soda point-blank into his skull. A driverless steamroller flattens one of the fleeing children, but one named Deke Keller (Duncan’s son) manages to escape on his bike.

A newly-wed couple, Connie (Yeardley Smith) and Curtis (John Short), stop at a gas station, where a brown tow truck tries to kill Curtis, but he and Connie escape in their car. Deke rides through his town as humans and even pets are brutally killed by lawnmowers, chainsaws, electric hair dryers, pocket radios, and RC cars. At the truck stop, a black Western Star 4800 sporting a giant Green Goblin mask on its grille runs over a Bible salesman after a red garbage truck kills Duncan and dumps some of the junk on the Bible salesman’s car to make him so angry that he insults its “driver”. Later, several big rig trucks encircle the truck stop.

Meanwhile, Connie and Curtis are pursued by a truck, but they make it crash off the side of the road as it exploded. They arrive at the truck stop and try to pass between the trucks, but their car is hit and overturns. Bill and Brett, a hitchhiker, rush to help them, but the trucks attack them. Bill’s boss Hendershot uses M72 LAW rockets he had stored in a bunker hidden under the diner to destroy many of the trucks. Deke makes it to the truck stop later that evening and tries to enter via the sewers, but is obstructed by the wire mesh covering the opening. That night, the survivors hear the Bible salesman screaming in a ditch, and Bill and Curtis sneak out to help him by climbing through the sewers. Deke finds the Bible salesman and believes he is dead, but he suddenly jumps up and attacks Deke. Bill and Curtis rescue Deke, and a truck chases them back into the pipe.

The next morning, a Caterpillar D7G bulldozer and an M274 Mule drive through the diner. Hendershot uses the rocket launcher to blow the bulldozer away. The Mule fires its post-mounted M60 machine gun into the building, killing several people. The Mule then demands, via sending morse code signals through its horn that Deke deciphers, that the humans pump the trucks’ diesel for them in exchange for their lives. The survivors soon realize they have become enslaved by their own machines. Robinson suggests they escape to a local island just off the coast, on which no motorised vehicles are permitted. While the crew is resting, Robinson theorizes that the comet is actually a “broom” operated by interstellar aliens that are using our machines to destroy humanity so the aliens can repopulate the Earth. During a fueling operation, Robinson sneaks a grenade onto the Mule vehicle, destroying it, then leads the party out of the diner via a sewer hatch to the main road just as the trucks demolish the entire truck stop. The survivors are pursued to the docks by the Green Goblin truck, which manages to kill Brad the trucker. Robinson destroys the truck with a direct hit from an M72 LAW rocket shot. The survivors then sail off to safety. A title card epilogue explains that two days later, a UFO was destroyed by a Soviet “weather satellite” conveniently equipped with class IV nuclear missiles and a laser cannon. Six days later, the Earth passes out of the comet’s tail, and the survivors are still alive.

DEVELOPMENT In the late Seventies. Milton Subotsky purchased seven early King short stories from an American production company. Three of these. “The Lawnmower Man.” “The Mangler” and “Trucks. were targeted to comprise The Machines, which was to be a three part anthology film. Early on. King was approached by Subotsky about writing and directing adaptations of all or part of the material King demurred Referring to the stories, he later told a reporter . I know that if Subotsky made it, it would actually be worse than if they were never made at all. I don’t like to root for my things not to be made, except in certain cases, but…”

Milton Subotsky

Needless to say, Subotsky proceeded without the writer’s input. He commissioned Edward and Valerie Abraham to draft a screenplay using the three King stories. The husband and wife writing team had previously scripted The Monster Club in 1980, Subotsky’s last produced film. Shortly after that film’s release. Subotsky and Max J Rosenberg, the other half of Amicus Productions, became involved in a lengthy, expensive, and less than amicable legal row.

Burdened with court costs, Subotsky sold off some of his King story rights to the De Laurentiis organization. Two stories were eventually used in the Martha Schumacher produced Cat’s Eye. Now. with The Machines script in hand, Subotsky tried to find American financial backing, but to no avail. Again. Schumacher now head of production at De Laurentiis) and Subotsky did some business Schumacher initially purchased all three “mechanical stories for development, but, apparently having convinced King to act as screen writer, ultimately concentrated solely on Trucks.

Subotsky believes King’s claims of never having read the Abrahams’ work, but he has made noises about certain conceptual elements contained in the non. Trucks segments of his commissioned screenplay finding their way into Maximum Overdrive, King’s “Trucks-derived screenplay. Whatever the case. Subotsky received a co-producer’s credit at the end of another De Laurentiis/King film as he had with Cat’s Eye.

When De Laurentiis first acquired the property, he asked King to write the screenplay. King originally declined. De Laurentiis and producer Martha Schumacher approached him again a few weeks later and asked him to at least write a treatment. “I really didn’t want to do it. I didn’t have time to do it,” King recalls, but the thing with Dino is that he’s almost telepathic. He knows when the ideas have started to sink in. I had suggested another writer for the treatment and, frankly, neither one of us liked what he had come up with.

“I had been kicking around some ideas, this idea about the comet and all the machinery going crazy, not just the trucks like in the original story. So, Dino called a week later and asked me one more time to do the screenplay. I immediately said yes, because by then, I had a very clear picture of the plot and found myself wanting to go ahead with the adaptation.”   King’s ideas were so clear that he specified more than a thousand shots within the screenplay. De Laurentiis response was to ask him to direct. King decided that, yeah sure, he’d like to direct the picture himself. Admitting to being tired of being asked why the films of his books had for the most part, turned out to be so disappointing, King rationalized that with all these people ruining his material, he might as well as it go himself wanted to do it once because I thought I might be able to do a better job than some of the people who have done.” King stated. He was sure he couldn’t do any worse. Or course, with total control comes total responsibility as well.

So King signed up-another first-time director Dino took a fly on. The writer was to have the rare luxury of learning how to dire by helming his own $10 million picture. Talk about on the job training. The results? Well, it was in focus.

PRODUCTION Filming began July 14 at locations near the De Laurentiis facility in Wilmington, North Carolina. One of the first major FX shots involved a massive collision of cars when a drawbridge lifts on its own. A small scale model was built near an existing bridge and, by angling the camera over the foreground model, an illusion of perspective made the miniature appear in the same location as the existing bridge, complete with tiny wrecks and itty-bitty mangled bodies.   At a location 10 miles outside of town at the edge of a highway, the company constructed the Dixie Boy as a facsimile of a working truck stop. It was convincing enough that more than one trucker stopped in. Eventually, the producers were forced to place an announcement in the local papers advising residents that the Dixie Boy was a prop. Of the $10 million allotted for Maximum Overdrive, most was spent on location shooting, the Dixie Boy set, and the hardware-big diesel semi-trailer tractors, vans, front loaders, a bus or two, and assorted other vehicles.

“I argued very hard to get $100,000 for a truck ‘hospital’ fund explains King. “The vehicles were taking such a beating. I never got it, though, and I think it hurt us a little bit in the end. I had to make some compromises there.”

King noted earlier, he blew up a lot of things. He celebrated his birthday on location and part of his present was an explosive surprise. All the crew members wore fangs at the celebration and one FX technician handed King a button near twilight and said, “Press this.” King did so and triggered a massive fireworks display rigged by the crew. The party was one of the few times that King was able to relax. Before principal photography wrapped on October 2, he got an intense “how-to” course in filmmaking.

The bridge destruction scene involved miniatures

“I had to make my share of compromises, but I think that if anything astonished me, it was how much more I could get then I thought I could. I got more from my actors than I thought I could, more from special effects, from film editing, from the camera department, everything. I guess I didn’t realize how good they were.”

The bridge destruction scene involved miniatures

King’s first day’s as director DeLaurentiis visited the North Carolina location and surveyed King’s progress for fifteen minutes before leaving. Later, after that day’s dailies, DeLaurentiis gave King some choice criticisms on the stiff movements of his actors. “At first. I was mad as hell.” King growled. “I’m saying to myself *This guy comes out here for fifteen minutes and he takes this look and he gets back into his air-conditioned Rolls Royce while I continue to soak my jockey shorts in this damn sun.’ But I went back and looked at the dailies and he was right. Those people were stiff and wooden and totally static. Dino came out there and saw it right away.”

But still, there is Dino to contend with. “God knows, the man has made some really awful pictures,” said King. “But’ know, I agreed to do MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE for Dino because win, lose, or draw-and the man can have some pretty outlandish ideas at times-he has never told me a lie. He said he doesn’t lie to people anymore because it isn’t profitable.”

It used to be a truck stop. Now it looks like a war zone. Everything except the Dixie Boy diner is in a state of ruin. A truck that once hauled toilet paper lies exploded in the grey dirt parking lot, the unburned rolls of tissue streaming in the night wind. Burned-out cars litter the area. The constant parade of huge tractor-trailers fills the air with dust as the big rigs circle the diner, waiting for the humans to come out.   This truck stop sprung from Hell is the North Carolina set for MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE. But with all the signs of devastation and even with North Carolina State Troopers stationed along the highway on either side of the diner, passing travelers still pull in to the phony gas pumps, looking for a fill-up, a quick cup of coffee, a place to stretch their legs and relieve themselves. A grip hustles across the lot explaining that it’s only a movie, that there’s no gas in the pumps and no coffee or anything else-inside the Dixie Boy.

Some of the people driving in probably know that. They’ve probably heard that Stephen King is making a movie right down the road a piece and think it might be kind of neat to take the family for a closeup look at some genuine moviemaking. They see lots of lights and cables and fabricated destruction while popular author Stephen King holes-up inside the Dixie Boy diner, learning what it’s like to occupy the director’s chair.

After filming was completed King offered a different view. “Now that it’s all over I can say that I can direct actors, but I’m not very good with cars and trucks, Actually, I had a lot more trouble with machines. My thought going into it was that a machine is never going to tell you, “Fuck you, I can’t work today because I’ve got a hangover. ‘What a machine will do is break down on the hottest day of the year. We had old air-start trucks and when they wouldn’t start they had to be aired out and then aired up again with a compressor.

“We had incredible problems trying to get cordless electric knives. Apparently there are very few cordless ones on the market so special effects rigged up three to run on vibrator motors and Emilio hammered two of them to death on takes that were no good.”

Still, directing agrees with King. It’s late, nearly midnight, the crew is grumpy, the dust chokes everything, the night chill has set in, but the director is his usual amiable self, relaxed, joking, but serious about what he’s doing.

King takes it all in stride, openly commenting on his novice status as a director, often joking about the film school teachings to which he has never been exposed. “I was surprised by how little 1 actually knew,” said King. “When we started out I figured I’d sort of ease into this like into cold water. Well, we were shooting truck interiors, really second unit stuff, on Dino’s back lot. Trucks running themselves, gearshifts going up gas pedals going down. And I had this sequence for one of the trucks that went like this: the clutch goes in, the transmission lever goes up, the clutch goes out, the gas pedal goes down.

“We shot it with the driver’s side door open and everything was fine except the transmission lever. It stuck up so high could see the studio through the windshield. I said, ‘that’s okay, we’ll go around and shoot it from the other side. Well, everybody just looked at me the way you’d look at somebody who’s had a loud fart in a room and doesn’t know enough to excuse himself. And nobody said a word!

“When I came down here, everybody was in awe-enfant terrible, or whatever that is. Nobody wanted to say, ‘You screwed up. Finally someone took me aside and said, ‘You can’t do that.’ I said,

“Why?’ He said, ‘It’s across the axis.’ I said, “What?’ He said, ‘It’s the wrong side. He explained that it wouldn’t cut, you’d confuse the audience. We went into my office where there’s a model of the Dixie Boy and some lead figures and he lined everything up and showed it to me the way you’d show a kid. And it wasn’t until we accidentally shot across the axis a few weeks later that I fully understood.

“You learn all that stuff in film school.” King said, “but I’m learning as I go. “Later in the evening King pulls a pack of cigarettes from the rack behind the Dixie Boy’s cash register even as unit publicist Michael Klastorin cautions against disturbing anything for the sake of continuity. “Continuity?” King asks, “what’s that? Something they teach you in film school?

MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE, King, Stephen, 1986

Obviously joking, King has reached the point in the production where he feels confident about his work. Later he would say that were he to direct another film, “I would do a lot of things differently and probably better. I would spend less time in preparation and leave myself a lot more open to innovation.”

Being a first-time director, King spent considerable time preparing for the job. Storyboards were prepared as production aides, but by this night in October he has abandoned them and is relying more on impulse, allowing the film to shape itself in much the same way he allows his novels to develop their own plot details.

“I’ve never used a story outline. That’s not the way I work. We had a guy come in and do some storyboards and they helped because you have a situation where you have to introduce this restaurant and establish it for the audience pretty quickly. The storyboards helped with that. But you should be open to improvisation. I’ve learned that. You reach a point where you feel like you’re not being ridden anymore, you’re riding. That’s how I feel now. I feel like I’m sorta in charge of this thing. Then he laughs.

Surprisingly, King doesn’t see the writer as being the most important element of a movie, “Writing screenplays is work for idiots,” he said without hesitation. And he has no problem accepting the theory that the director is the author” of a film. “Ideally the writer and the director should be in bed together throughout the whole process. But the director is probably the actual author of the film. That’s one of the reasons why I’m here, to see if I can get at whatever it is about my work that makes it a Stephen King story.”

After seven weeks of filming at the Dixie Boy, King is more confident about film directing and his ability to maybe capture that intangible something that makes Stephen King “Stephen King.” He also acted as second unit director-picking up shots that didn’t require the featured actors’ presence. Many of the secondary shots involved the apparently driverless trucks and it soon became a matter of logistics. A difficult staging problem was disguising Glenn Randall’s stunt drivers. One solution was to drape the cabs in black felt and suit up the drivers in Ninja-like costumes to hide them. Special compartments were built in some trucks and one driver was disguised as a seat cushion.

The trucks rev up, ready to chase each other head-to-tail around and around the Dixie Boy for more takes, and somehow I find myself outside, right in the middle of the noise and the dust. I try to get back inside the diner, but filming has begun and Emilio Estevez, is seriously involved in the scene. A crew member charges out the door and announces, “Emilio’s on the edge again.” I’m told I’ll have to stay outside for a while, so I watch the trucks.

They’re the huge rumbling rigs that dwarf your car on the highways and interstates, seemingly oblivious to anything in their path. It’s easy to understand why King, like Richard Matheson before him, is able to find the element of fear in these eighteen wheelers. There’s something disconcerting about these trucks and finally it becomes clear. There are no drivers. The steering wheels, barely visible, are turning themselves.   When they grind to a stop, a door on one of the trucks opens and a man dressed all in black drops to the ground and leaves the truck. “It’s so simple,” says special effects technician David Sandlin, “there’s nothing to it.” He opens the door of the empty truck. “Take a look.” The truck’s sleeper cab behind the driver’s seat has been stripped and a seat for the driver has been mounted in place of the bedding. All we do is set everything back, “Sandlin explains. “Nothing’s changed. We just get pick-up points elsewhere. You weld a rod to the stick shift so the gears can be changed from here, cut the steering column and attach a chain for steering. It’s just like any other truck except that the controls are further back.

The drivers wear black clothes and sit behind a sheer black curtain that separates the sleeper from the front of the cab and the result is a truck that convincingly appears to drive itself.

Sandlin has been kept busy blowing up trucks. The toilet paper truck lying ruined in the parking lot was destroyed with mortar shells Sandlin rigged inside the trailer, angled outward in opposite directions.

The other night we blew up a beer truck. We cut out the top of the trailer, took off the doors and replaced them with dummies. We filled the trailer with fifty gallon drums of soapy water and rigged it with primer cord lifters, then fired a modified missile at the truck and it blows everything out, all over the place.”

The Dixie Boy diner has also received Sandlin’s attention. “It looks good, doesn’t it?” he asks, indicating the front of the building that was erected especially for OVERDRIVE. “Last night it was covered with bullet holes. We tore it up pretty good.”

To show the people trapped inside that they mean business, the trucks outside bring in an army truck armed with a high caliber machine gun that opens fire on the diner. “We set about 500 squibs made of a substance called Roma Plastolina and covered them up with duct tape. Out of the 500 only one didn’t go off. That’s a great ratio.

“We also built a breakaway wall with a sub-floor for a scene where one of the trucks rams the diner. What happens is it breaks through the wall, then drops through the floor boards. But the biggest thing we’ll do is blow this whole thing up.” Sandlin is specifically a pyrotechnician, and he clearly delights in his work.

“We’ll load this place with gasoline, diesel fuel, primer cord, and thermex which is eighty percent dynamite. Now I know where the safe line is. It’s across the highway over there. I’ll show them right where to set up, because that’s where I’m going to be. Some people like to get in closer, but not me. I’ve got the line marked and I’ll be on the other side of it.”

The set was then duplicated in exact miniature by model maker Emilio Ruiz del Río. As the Dixie Boy also house Hendershot’s collection of stolen Army munitions, the film’s 9 minutes of extensive stunts, pyrotechnical work and gore effects culminated in the spectacular destruction of both life-size and miniature sets. The fiery destruction of the Dixie Boy was achieved blowing the full-scale set with thermite and incline mixture, and similarly torching the finely detailed miniature, Though far different in scale, the footage from these two sets cut together seamlessly.

SPECIAL EFFECTS “To be honest with you, Maximum Overdrive is not a makeup effects film,” admits the 28-year-old Gates, a relative movie newcomer. “Basically, I had to deliver the aftermath of what happens when the machines come to life and take out their hatred on the human race. We have several people who get run over by trucks, and other makeups as the machines-chainsaws, electric knives, etc.-go berserk.”

“I was left on my own pretty much,” he explains. “I would try and feel King out on an idea, how he would like to see it. During pre-production, he gave me a feeling of what he wanted, and I would go off and work on it. And, if I pushed for something bigger, he would reconsider it and sometimes go with my idea. He was wide open on almost everything.”

One thing that King certainly pushed for during Maximum Overdrive was more blood. He loved it! That was a concern all along, whether or not we had too much blood. Stephen took great delight in pouring blood on stuff. He even named me Doctor Dean.”

In the film’s original planning it was decided that truck attacks would be acted using actors and stuntmen, augmenting the effect in the editing process. By the time filming was underway plans were changed, and a decision was made to use dummies during the attack sequences, particularly in the case of J.C. Quinn, who plays Duncan, a mechanic at the truck stop.

It was a last minute decision, but fortunately I had already made a cast of J.C. hcad for appliances. Gates made the cast by covering Quinn’s head with dental impression cream backed with plaster bandages. When the cast sets it is removed and filled with microcrystaline wax to make a positive impression of the head. It is on the wax model that the proper facial expression is fashioned. A urethane rubber mold is made from the finished model and then any number of heads can be produced from the rubber mold.

“Originally we didn’t design it for blood and guts so we had to go back and do that. We had to hustle to get it done. It took about a week-and-a-half. We mounted the head on a foam dummy rigged with pipe to give it rigidity. There was some talk of articulating it so the arms would move and all that, but we dropped it. When the shot was done it ended up being shot from behind so all the work we did on the head won’t be seen. But there’s a really good blood bag loaded in that one.”

It was easier for Gates to toss a victim to a runaway steam roller: “On that one we just used a rag dummy loaded with blood bags. It was just for the effect of the blood spewing up.”

The most satisfying work Gates has done for MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE is his work on Christopher Murney who plays Camp Loman, an early victim of the truck attacks. “He gets knocked in a ditch and everybody thinks he’s dead, but he’s still alive. At one point he sits up and a flap of skin falls off to show the skull underneath. We put a plate, a two-piece makeup.just above his eyebrow. The skull was laid over because I needed a tube-fed bladder to pump blood through a hole in the skull.

“I coated the inside of the appliance with a product called ‘Ultraslime.’ When it’s pulled apart it makes strands of goo as an extra effect. Because of the Ultraslime we had to rig a monofilament line, black fishing line actually, in order to get the flap to peel off. It took a couple of takes to get all the moves worked out so the line isn’t seen. Chris delivered his lines to me as I pumped the bladder and he reacted to my expression as all this blood and goo gushes out and it all worked. I don’t think they’ll cut any of it because he has some pretty important lines there.”

Gates enjoys the challenge of big, striking makeup effects, trying to bring a new twist to something that had been done countless times before. But he also has respect for the more commonplace, day to-day duties of the makeup department. “More subtle effects are really more difficult to perfect, because you don’t necessarily want the audience to notice it as an effect. It’s just something that’s there, like the blisters on Emilio’s hands. That can be a great challenge.”

To please both sides, King filmed two different versions of a potentially gory sequence in which a kid riding a bicycle gets run over-and squished-by a driverless steamroller. This one scene, according to Gates, caused the biggest editing room dilemmas. Unlike those Road Runner cartoons, nobody jumps back up after a tar-smoother attack!

“We shot it two ways,” Gates elaborates, with blood and without blood. On the first take, we had a dummy’s head filled with loose chopped foam, so when it popped, what looked like mashed potatoes came out. It was bizarre. We filled the second dummy with lots of blood bags, and when crushed, the blood splashed all over.”

A more subtle shock moment in Maximum Overdrive begins as potential comic relief, but quickly turns tragic. A coach  approaches an automatic soda machine that unexpectedly spits out the carbonated cans with rocket-like velocity. One hits him in the chest, then the crotch and stomach, and finally, the uncooperative machine beans him fatally in the head. King wanted Gates to devise a can indented forehead for the coach.

“Originally, I was going to put a sponge soaked in blood on the bottom of a rubber can,” Gates explains, “but then it would just be a bloody splat effect. Finally, I made a rubber bladder and sealed it on the coach’s head with mortician’s wax. Next, I drilled little holes in the bladder. The tube was hidden in his hair. Then, we hit him in the head with the rubber can and pumped blood under pressure through the holes. The blood seems to swell up on his head and gush out.”

  Gates adds that the deadly can episode didn’t work the first time. “I had sealed the thing with plastic sealant and closed the holes. So, on the first take where we applied pressure, the blood started to swell up and the bladder got bigger and bigger, but no blood came out. It looked like a baseball expanding out of his head. Suddenly it popped and blood sprayed out like a fountain! King had the take printed so we could laugh it up during dailies.”

Another actor, Christopher Murney. doesn’t fare much better than the coach in Maximum Overdrive following a close encounter with a terror truck. Murney gets knocked through the air and lands in a muddy ditch, presumably dead. Later, the mud-covered fellow rises from his temporary grave, while a sizable portion of his noggin hangs limply, more cerebral FX work for Gates and his crew.

“We put a bladder on his forehead-similar to the one on the coach-that allowed blood to be pumped through a tube and into the bladder. On top of the bladder, we placed an appliance which looked like a large gaping wound with exposed skull and hole bashed into it. A second appliance-the same size of the wound opening-filled it in and resembled a flap of loose skin.

“A piece of black thread was attached to the appliance, so when the guy rears up. I pulled the string and the flap opened up and blood surged through the wound. Murney really enjoyed working with the makeup.”   The rest of Gates’ Maximum Overdrive FX workload largely consisted of making up victims after their offscreen attacks: a torn neck from a chainsaw backfire, burned face stuff following video machine frying, a gas station attendant’s crushed-in skull courtesy of a disobedient tow truck, and for the result of a human versus lawnmower fight, Gates simply adlibbed and spread chicken livers and hamburger meat across the loser’s mug. But, his toughest challenge on Maximum Overdrive was ensuring that the dummies didn’t look like dummies when hit by King’s violent vehicles.

“Glenn Randall, our stunt coordinator, told me that any movement which can be put into a dummy makes the illusion work better,” Gates remembers. Most of the time you’re dealing with an actor who runs to the approaching car. then a shot of the coming car, and then you cut to the dummy being hit. Putting movement into the dummy makes it appear less of a static object. The trick is to choreograph the stunt closely with the actor and then set up the dummy to duplicate the motions. One dummy was rigged with a piece of monofilament wire which enabled us to move it back and forth.”

Despite the sometimes tedious FX and stunt set-ups, director King remained patient throughout, according to Gates. “King was always happy during Maximum Overdrive and did everything to make it work. He was really organized and knew each shot he wanted. There wasn’t any indecisiveness.”

RELEASE/CONCLUSION When originally submitted to the ratings board, King’s MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE got an X-rating for its excessive violence-a verdict that initially angered king because it forced him to make some cuts. “You can’t go X-rated or unrated because you run into (advertising) problems,” he said. “There is, in fact, a huge machine in place that is, in effect, economic censorship.”

Fortunately, the X-rating was only based on three counts of extreme violence, so the cuts, King said, don’t hinder the film much. “We took out one of the scenes where a man sits up and grabs this kid and half of his face slides off (see above). I thought the makeup guy kinda got carried away there. And there was a steamroller scene and a head pop that just makes strong men weak. But that whole thing was an accident, anyway. We got ready to shoot the steamroller going over a dummy of one of the actors, which was really all we were going to do, when I got an idea. I went over to Dean (Gates, the makeup designer) and I said “Gimmie a baggie of blood.’ So he gets it and he says ‘Whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do?’ like a kid–we were both like kids. Then I stuffed the baggie into the dummy’s jacket.

“All I thought would happen was that the steamroller would go over the dummy, pop the bag, then the blood would get on the roller and we could pan as it made this print of blood as it went on. But what you get instead-and it’s all real, none of it is simulated or laid in-you get this grisly pop sound and it looks like the kid’s head explodes and blood splashes everywhere.” King laughed maniacally, delighted with the vision of cascading blood. “I showed the scene to George Romero and he goes ‘Ohhhh and turned his head away! It was great! I said ‘Oh, I can’t believe it! I did it to George!

“But the ratings board made us take out the splash-I got most of it in. The scene shocked people because they had never seen anything like that before. They won’t see it now either. The problem with the ratings system is the curse of expectation; everybody who goes to the movies now knows exactly what they’re not going to see.”

King has gone on record as saying he meant to make a simple “moron movie, nothing more than fast-food entertainment for the drive-in crowd. As Maximum Overdrive was a crash course in the directorial process an undertaking rampant with technical emotional artistic and political quandaries. It is just as well for King that his sights weren’t aimed higher. It might have been better for De Laurentiis, however. Maximum Overdrive opened to hear unanimous critical pans and widespread audience apathy. The picture quickly disappeared from neighborhood screens to reappear in video stores 120 days later.

King is as hard on himself as any critic when pinpointing why MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE wasn’t a success. “I didn’t do a very good job of directing it,” he said. “I didn’t have a lot of production support from the DeLaurentiis organization which, by that time, was beginning to get on extremely thin ice financially. We probably didn’t have enough time in post-production. I’ll tell you what MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE was for me. It was a crash course in film school. What some guys take six years to learn, I learned in about ten weeks. The result was a picture that was just terrible. But it had some things in it that make me think, ‘Well, I can go back and I can do it right the second time. Now I understand.”

King admitted to scenes he’d like to reshoot, and casting decisions he’d make differently, but he also harbored an admiration for some of his work behind the camera. “There are isolated moments in the film that I think are okay, that I really like to look at,” he said. “Here’s this little kid riding his bike down this deserted street. He’s looking, and whatever happened has already happened. He sees legs sticking out of bushes, he sees a dog with a radio-controlled car in his mouth, a lady who has been strangled by her own hairdryer. That particular sequence is alive for me the way a lot of the movies are just sort of static.”

King pegged some of the fault for his directorial misstep to his fondness for the films of Alfred Hitchcock. “To my mind, he’s still the person who did this field the best,” said King. “And I’m talking about suspense. Because I was new and I’d never done anything like this before, I read a book about Hitchcock, about the way he worked. I read that he had said at some point that actually making the movie was the dullest part of the experience. What he really liked to do was plan everything in advance. He said [shooting] was the dullest part, because once he started there were no surprises. That’s exactly what I wanted! I wanted no surprises whatsoever so I did it that way. I planned out, shot-for-shot, literally angle-for-angle, everything I wanted in the movie. What never crossed my mind until I began to see rough assemblies of the stuff, when it was really too late to back out, was that this was never the way that I work creatively. My idea is to just get in there and just bash away, take the materials that are available and put them together in a hurry and go on.”

SCORE/SOUNDTRACK

King did get some unexpected allowances. The film has a mid-1980s hard rock soundtrack composed entirely by the group AC/DC, King’s favorite band. AC/DC’s album Who Made Who was released as the Maximum Overdrive soundtrack. It includes the best-selling singles “Who Made Who”, “You Shook Me All Night Long”, and “Hells Bells”.

CAST/CREW Directed Stephen King

Produced Martha Schumacher

Screenplay Stephen King

Based on “Trucks” by Stephen King

Emilio Estevez as Bill Robinson Pat Hingle as Bubba Hendershot Laura Harrington as Brett Graham Yeardley Smith as Connie John Short as Curtis Ellen McElduff as Wanda June Frankie Faison as Handy Leon Rippy as Brad Christopher Murney as Camp Loman C. Quinn as Duncan Keller Holter Graham as Deke Keller Barry Bell as Steve Gayton

CREDITS/REFERENCES/SOURCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY Cinefantastique v16n04 Cinefantastique v17n02 Fangoria#54 Fangoria#56 Fangoria#57 The Bloody Best of Fangoria#06 Twilight Zone v05n05 Stephen King Goes to Hollywood Novel by Jeff Conner

Maximum Overdrive (1986) Retrospective SUMMARY As the Earth crosses the tail of a comet, previously inanimate machines suddenly spring to life; an ATM insults a customer (King in a cameo) and a bascule bridge rises during heavy traffic, causing all vehicles upon the bridge to fall into the river or collide.

[dippedanddripped]

It was back in early March when Jerry Lorenzo and Alessandro Sartori presented their Zegna x Fear of God collaboration at Paris Fashion Week, setting the stage for one of the most curious fashion collisions in recent memory. The clothing itself did not disappoint, delivering a sensibility that somehow bridges the sartorial gap between Skepta and Don Draper. Who says a polo neck shouldn’t be bulbous with a zip? Or a tracksuit can’t be made of luxurious silk? Together, they want to blow open the menswear conversation, bringing into being a hypermodern way of comfortable dressing that cherry-picks the best bits of luxury and chic sportswear. Think of it like bodega-core for when the bodega has an exclusive dress code policy.

The Los Angeles streetwear dynamo and Milanese tailoring savant might ostensibly make for odd bedfellows, but theirs is a relationship built on mutual admiration. The dynamic isn’t so much a case of the student and teacher; rather, it’s totally egalitarian, with Lorenzo’s intuitive knowing of what young guys want to wear just as important as Sartori’s unrivaled technical expertise. In other words, they’re both reading from the same script. “I think that the difference [between Fear of God and Zegna] is obvious on an aesthetic level from far away,” Lorenzo previously explained to us. “But the souls of the brands are the same. And when we sat together, we knew that immediately, and we also had a desire to create a new language that would require the best of both worlds.”

Keen to find out where the pair were currently at given the events of recent months, we caught up with them over Zoom.

Let’s start from the beginning. What attracted you guys to working together?

Jerry Lorenzo: I’ve been a fan of Zegna for a long time. The first luxury suit to ever live in my household was a Zegna suit that my dad bought back in the ’90s. Alessandro being the head of the house made the opportunity even more exciting to me. I wanted to not only learn from the 110-year-old-plus house, but also learn from Alessandro, whom I really look up to, and whose aesthetic I’ve been a fan of for a long time. Usually, you don’t want to meet people in fashion, because they’re never what you hope them to be, but Alessandro just gets better with time.

Alessandro Sartori : We come across as very polite, but we are honest in what we say. It all started when a mutual friend asked, “Do you want to organize a coffee with this designer?” I remember seeing Jerry’s work first on the web and then in a very beautiful store in Tokyo. I was attracted by the chicness of the clothing, because what he does is not only has to do with his aesthetic and his feel, but he also has a timeless grammar. After a year or less, we talked about doing something because we shared so many values and ideas. The idea was to combine chic American sportswear with the timeless aesthetic of an Italian house.

Two opposites on the same page.

AS: I haven’t told you this, Jerry, but one of the best comments I got a couple of weeks ago was from an Italian retailer. He said to me, “You know what I adored about the picture and the video I saw? It didn’t feel like it was in Paris or of the time.” And I said, “Well, I never thought about that.”

JL: It’s exactly what we were hoping for — we wanted to land somewhere that was informed by the things we loved of the past, but spoke to something new; a new day, a new decade. Creating something that defines the early ’20s. I feel that’s the best possible comment that we can get. They’re seeing something that they hadn’t seen before.

Henry Ruggeri

Your presentation in March feels like a lifetime ago! How did that go?

AS: Jerry wanted to create something that looked like an art installation. A retrospective on this collection 10 years from now. We created a fantastic environment where there was no sense of time.

JL: That’s exactly what it was. We are trying to establish this new wardrobe for the modern man; the foundation and the principles of it are classic and timelessness. So maintaining that theme throughout all the communication, all the feelings, all the emotions from the setup, again, to the music that was played, to the location that Ali found, it really spoke to all of the different nuances that I believe Alessandro and myself poured into the project.

I feel that the runway and re-see still serves a purpose with a collection like this. To allow people to get really get up close with the fabrics and craftsmanship. Jerry, you’ve never done a runway show, and Alessandro, you just announced an online show for Zegna. But how do you compensate for that lack of physical interaction?

AS: I think the normal shows as we know needed a refresh anyhow. That’s one of the reasons why, when we decided to go with the presentation in Paris, we didn’t think about spending more or less money. We wanted to have the best effect for that collection according to what we wanted to achieve and tell. The place, the collection, the music, the light, the production, all at once conveyed the full idea of what we wanted. It felt timeless.

We decided to do a combination of digital and physical for this season at Zegna. We took the idea that we can’t invite people as a creative and challenging idea for what could be the future. Will we be able to do shows as before? Do we need to do shows before? We don’t know. I think that there’s going to be more formats, perhaps more private. Physical with, say, 300 people. But sensory in a way you can touch the fabric, you can see the material, and you can see the silhouette.

JL: We’re a little different than you guys in having never done a fashion show. Our biggest presentation was what we did together in Paris. And so we’re used to the digital way of presenting. However, as my craft develops and we start to play with knits and tailoring, and our pieces become more complex and beautiful to the touch, there’s the flip side of maybe that’s what we want to do. Perhaps having the human experience that maybe we haven’t had in the past.

We’re used to being digital, but it’s sad that at this moment — as we’re playing in a lot of new categories, that we were able to play within with Zegna and Alessandro — we kind of don’t have a platform to share this physically with the world. But as we’ve always done as a species, we adapt to the times, and we find ways to do what we have to do. I think creativity thrives when it’s limited.

There’s been a lot of talk about streetwear being outmuscled by menswear among young people as a kind of trend, but I don’t think it’s as binary as that. The modern man’s wardrobe is fluid.

JL: That’s what we believe. We believe that there’s not this jump from wearing a hoodie and sweats one day to the perfect tailored suit the next. There’s this in between area that speaks to the transition, but that also speaks to the time that the gentleman is in, in an honest way. Fear of God has always tried to create products that allow our customer to be who they are. We wanted to create something that’s digestible for our customer, that he could see himself in, that’s not intimidating. That when he walks into a room with a suit on, or something tailored, he still looks like himself, and he doesn’t look like he’s made this 10 year jump to being older.

I don’t think it’s as black as white as a tailored suiting world and a streetwear world. I think we’re all very complex individuals who have tons of different needs and desires. We were really just trying to speak to the modern lifestyle, and understanding those needs and desires, and how the consumer moves, and what his day is like, and how we can help him be best prepared for that through his wardrobe.

I’m growing, as I’m maturing in the same way that you are. My taste, needs and desires all develop, and you could say it’s an assumption that the rest of the world is kind of feeling the same way. The research and development that we depend on is asking the question “what’s missing from our closet? How do we want to present ourselves? Today’s a little different than it was yesterday, and what are the solutions that we can create?” I think we all live in the same world, and so we’re connected. And you assume that what you’re feeling is what other people are feeling, whether right or wrong, but that’s usually the safest assumption. So we’ve taken on the responsibility of an industry pacesetter and leader in what we do, and we do feel a responsibility to step up first in these instances, and go with our gut versus watching the market change and being reactive, and we’re going to continue to do that.

This collection won’t be cheap, but it embodies the “buy less but better” mentality.

AS: From day one we thought about life long garments. About pieces that you can mix and match — one collection after the other. Let’s think about a garment that you can easily give to your younger brother, or to your girlfriend. The quality of fabric and construction means it’s built to last. If you open the garments inside, you see the quality.

I’m intrigued how that plays into the studio dynamic. Jerry is very intuitive with no formal training, whereas you studied fashion design, Alessandro. How does it play out?

AS: We didn’t know how each other worked at first, but when we entered the room, I saw a fantastic soul, and the beautiful aesthetic behind the man. Keeping that in mind, all the discussion, bigger or smaller about a centimeter, or pants, or a jacket, whatever, were all part of this common idea to deliver the best possible project.

JL: We’re [Fear of God] are so unorthodox in our process, coming in with two to 300-plus images and vintage references, with what I thought was an all over the place story. Alessandro was quickly able to understand them as well as the emotion that we were trying to get across. We agreed on the question, and we agreed on that perspective, which allowed us to easily work through and work past the different ways of working that we both were accustomed to.

Let’s talk about the collection itself. Those turtle necks are wild and immediately caught my eye! I know it’s like asking to pick a favorite child, but do you have any stand out pieces?

JL: It’s exactly like picking your favorite child because we’re really trying to tell a full story. And so, every word, every child, is necessary. And if you leave one out, the story is not complete. The piece you are speaking about, I love that it’s this rear zip, like a turtleneck, but not, but it’s with shirting fabric. Living in LA and not being able to wear this turtleneck swag, it’s just like, “How do we do this?”

We considered so many different things, wanting this clean look without a lapel and this new turtleneck feel that’s not heavy knit. Every piece, if we speak to the turtleneck, or we speak to anything, is it as effortless and relaxed as it is sophisticated and elegant? That was the filter that we do everything through. On top of that, I just think it’s a solution. It’s a solution that it’s a shirt that didn’t really exist. Maybe for women in a different way, maybe with shoulder pads back in the day, but I felt we needed to propose something new in this area that wasn’t as stuffy as a traditional suit and tie. So it’s a pretty cool piece for you to mention, because it really speaks to all those different elements.

AS: I think we created, I don’t want to say new categories, but new pieces that didn’t exist in the classic menswear wardrobe before. I haven’t seen a sports pant that uses the best fabrics and finishes in the market. To channel this sportswear attitude through a tailoring mindset is interesting. I’m sure that guys will find the collection interesting because we’ll convey not only a new aesthetic, but also a lot of new pieces.

To finish, I wanted to ask about the suit. Jerry, I was learning today about the role of the suit and its relationship with black identity, power, and social politics. I think of stuff like Obama’s tan suit to Kanye and the Rosewood movement to the very idea of Sunday best. So what does this mean to you on a cultural level? The same goes for you, Alessandro.

JL: If you Google Sunday best Chicago, there’s this image that comes up of five young black kids in front of this old car and they’re all in their Sunday best. It’s a portrait that we have hanging up in my mom’s house. And there is something about a Sunday best and getting dressed for church and something about this term of church clothes, which were always considered your best clothes.

There is a lot of nuances that go into the feeling a suit gives you, and the emotion that a suit gives you, and a good feeling suit. And I think a lot of times Americans, and maybe people of color, have different shapes, many times the proportions and silhouettes aren’t best for them.

And that’s one of the things that I also considered during this process is making suits that allow the people who wear them to still feel like themselves, and even a better version of themselves, and not someone else. A lot of times when you put a suit on you begin to feel like someone else instead of the best version of yourself.

And so, yeah, there’s a lot of that deep down emotion that goes into it. And it comes from exactly that, the Sunday best growing up and only being able to wear your church clothes on Sundays. And if you got caught wearing your slacks or your blazer during the week, you would definitely catch a spanking and be in trouble. So there’s a lot of that that culturally we poured into this project.

AS: Yeah. I totally agree. First of all, I googled Sunday best Chicago 1941 [holds up phone to camera]. Amazing! I want to start from one of the sentences Jerry said about looking your best. We did this process and quite often people are forgetting that, but think, Graeme, of the first time you feel fantastic, when you were sensing what is good on you for the first time. It’s not the second time or the third; it’s only the first time because you’re used to it after that.

So when you put something on yourself and it’s so right — not every garment you own is like that — just a few pieces, and you put it on and you say, “Wow.” That emotion, and you fix and block that emotion in your mind, is exactly when we click — your emotions, the piece, this time. So we’re trying to convey — and I think it’s a very important story to build as far as suiting goes since I consider suiting the most iconic piece of the menswear uniform —  that it’s very important to be able for each customer to have a proper one. Because if not, you look like somebody else.

Jerry Lorenzo: Yep. Very well said. And I think that was the beauty in us coming together because I have a perspective of some shapes and silhouettes and you have a perspective of shapes and silhouettes, and how do we honor each and all these different body types and still give them the same emotion.

[malemblogs]

A quick rewind to the summer

While my blog might have been inactive this summer, I certainly wasn’t. With ‘Festival Season’ in our sites this May, I started working with a company called PTL who have standing contracts with a number of festivals around the country supplying the toilets for both arenas and campsites, as well as providing luxury toilets and showers at certain festivals, I began working, alongside my sister Tamara, with the festival site crew as a supervisor for the crew, affectionately known as ‘the penguins’ on the festival grounds. While I didn’t spend a lot of time onsite around production or during build and breaks, I still had my eyes opened and my mind blown seeing how much has to happen for a festival to happen, I’d compare it to a town being built easily. The toilets are a small part of what goes on, but an essential part of it, everything from the water, to the power to the roads and walkways have to be added to the site before anything can happen.

The first two festivals I worked at were both no camping events, which were the easier of the two, we had between 100 and 300 toilets on each site and were over seeing seven crew only, which for the most part was relatively easy, the crew had been split into groups and assigned toilet blocks to cover, and it was our job to ensure they had everything they needed, ensuring they got lunch and most importantly making sure the job was being done. In that group of seven we had a group of three lads (for lack of a better word), who tested and tried our patience every day for these two festivals, trying to find three young men in a crowd of 10,000+ was not an easy thing to do, especially when they’d taken their high vis off, we made it to the end of day having tracked them down and sniffing out their hiding spot, and got the job done.  I learned really quickly that some people don’t care if they have toilet roll or not towards the end of the night, I mean some people don’t even care if they have a toilet or not! Towards the end of the night at Field Day, we were severely understaffed, so it was one of those days I had to get stuck in and deal with the toilets myself, I have found condoms, knickers, used tampons, a portaloo where they’d managed to shit on the floor, a toilet that was wall to wall covered in shit, let me say, those units aren’t big, there’s about enough room to go in, sort yourself out, and leave again, you have to go a long way out of your way before you can poop on the floor. Field Day opened my eyes to just how disgusting people can be, and over the rest of the summer they didn’t let me down.

The first real festival I ever saw through from start to finish was Download festival at Donnington Park, while I have worked at festivals in the past, it was always as part of a backline crew and a matter of in that morning, set up, do the show, pack down and get back on the bus. This was a new kind of monster.  From the get go I knew that this wasn’t going to be anything like Common People or Field Day, we would be here for 8 nights, camping in tents, if it wasn’t for the fact the company also provided luxury showers and toilets for this festival alongside the portaloos, I’d have been a wreck by day 3.

This time round, we probably had the hardest crew to deal with out of all of the festivals but definitely also one of the most fun, jumping from seven to twenty-one, among them, the most difficult man I’ve ever known to work with, Rusty, a 32 year old kleptomaniac, ADHD suffering, manic depressive with tendencies to lie, who can’t be left on his own by recommendation of a doctor, who refuses to do what he’s told or asked unless he is watched and followed like a hawk all day, above and beyond everything he put us through that weekend, was the hour he vanished and when I did finally find him, he’d spent the hour helping a random punter get a large amount of drugs out of his body, I can’t fathom any reason a grown man would want to help anyone do that, never mind a stranger. Between Rusty and the rest of his friends, managing the staff at Download was one of the most stressful experiences I’ve ever had, but the rest of the summer felt like a breeze in comparison. After Download, my boss said to myself and my sister, ‘If you can manage Rusty, as effectively as Rusty can be managed, you can manage anybody.’ I haven’t yet found that to be untrue.

While I thought that Download was a new kind of beast when I got there, being blessed with luxury showers and only having to cover campsite toilets, honestly was a gentle introduction to the big beasty a festival site really is, the following festivals we worked at required our company to look after toilets in the Main Arena, Camp Bestival saw us covering the entire festival site, including staff toilets, and had us managing up to 30 staff at one time, most of which were between 17 and 21, surprisingly enough, while the younger crew did tend to sneak off more for a cheeky wee song here and there, I had the most trouble at one of these festivals with a middle aged couple called John and Theresa. They started off by sneaking their dog onto the festival site, and continued to be late very morning and then refuse to wear shoes while working in and around the toilets and who tried at every opportunity to tell you stories of their glory days. You go to any festival site and you look at the punters, you see festivals and the people there operate on a different set of rules, it’s almost like all normal social constructs go out the window, people really just do whatever they want, people like John and Theresa live their life by festival rules all the time I reckon.

Latitude was one of the most beautiful festivals I had the pleasure of working at this year, the woodland entertainment areas, the pink sheep and just the general atmosphere was lovely, however professionally Latitude was a bit of head melt for us, the toilets were just eating stock and on one occasion an hour passed before we were able to get stock to the blocks that required it, also because it’s such a big site, even on a buggy, getting from where our stock was to the blocks that needed them could take between 10 and 20 minutes depending on traffic. Speaking of traffic, on a stock run toward the end of the first working night here, going over a bump in the road, my phone fell out of my hands and proceeded get run over by one of the big gulpers, you know the truck ith the septic tank on it, and it crushed it to bits, even apple couldn’t fix it.  Despite the problems we faced, people seemed to think the toilets were well looked after and relatively clean, and two of the penguins ended up getting a £30 tip. It ended up being a fun festival and to top it off we also got a cheeky photo in with Dick from Dick and Dom.

It was also at latitude I gained a newfound respect for the portaloo, after a few drinks I thought it would be okay to brave the long drops, if you don’t know what these are, it is essentially a hole in the ground with, in this case, a long plank of wood with holes cut out, with a metal cage plonked on top like cubicles, I didn’t know there was no toilet roll provided, it was the last night of a 3 day festival and I wasn’t mentally prepared for it. If you’ve never used one, try and keep it that way.

Camp Bestival was one of the more interesting festivals I worked at production wise, it takes place just kind of in and around a village, and I often was on a main road on the buggy to get from A to B, not that I minded, because the festival was laid out like this, on the last night a friend of mine who lives fairly locally was able to make it onto our campsite and with the help of twenty-something penguins shrouding her from security, we smuggled her into the festival site itself, that night is a whole other story in itself.

At this point, it’s been a long summer, I’ve packed and unpacked my suitcase more times than I’d have liked to, and I was getting really sick of seeing it, it’s not the same as just living out of a suitcase, those little teasers of home and living like a regular person make it harder. And it’s feeling like this I leave for V Fest, the end of festival season is near and I can feel my bed. I didn’t like V Fest, it was a lot like Field Day, only younger, the number of children at this event was insane, I spoke with some of the security and drug dog handlers about the measures in place dealing with the punters and drugs, and all in all it was very lax, the general idea was they’re predominantly after dealers, but if they are alerted to a punter with a small amount of drugs, of any age, they confiscate it and it goes no further than that. After possession, it’s out of their hands. V Fest also cut the number of staff they wanted from us by 50, but didn’t cut out the corresponding number of toilets, so we were all stretched very thin, and didn’t have access to the buggy, meaning in a crowded site full of drunken teenagers, me and Tamara had to carry stock around, and also try to track down wandering staff. The women’s toilets at V Fest were beyond foul, women are a special kind of disgusting after spending a few days drunk in a field, I have been physically attacked by a grown woman over a roll of toilet paper, there was used sanitary items thrown around the cubicles, women opening the storage unit and throwing toilet roll around the main arena, I could go on but I feel as though the rest of the stories are too graphic for this kind of a blog, but I’ve seen more stranger bodily fluids at this festival than I ever wanted to, ever. The only thing I will say for working at the toilets on a festival like this, people feel sorry for you, we got free rides on the carnival rides, and as soon as people see the penguin logo, there’s discounts too.

Straight from V Fest we had 7 hours at home then onto Leeds, which was an absolute dream, as there were no portaloos involved, just the Seat of Luxury toilets, and the worst thing we had to face was the occasional chancer trying to get in without paying and the smell of the long drops next door. I got to see Eminem, who I spent my childhood listening to, we had the luxury toilets, got some free food, danced, sang, drank and generally was merry, of course though, as is my luck, after having such a great week, once it came to our journey home, we ended up stuck in Leeds for 4 more hours than we were meant to, at this point in the village all the food traders were gone, the water points had been disconnected, everything is dead and none of us had any food left, no more bottled water, not even any beer! It’s amazing how quickly a festival site managed to rip itself down, after weeks of building and work going into it, as soon as possible, it comes apart again.

Looking back on this summer, I notice now that because our bosses trusted us, we spent most of the summer left to our own devices for the most part, and personally the only other time I’ve been left to my own devices on a job is when I’m not responsible for anything else, being put in a management position without much previous experiences, especially as someone who struggles with anxiety, was one of the hardest things in the world I thought going into it, but it came so naturally once I was there and knew what I was going. Initially our boss said they were going to go with different candidates, people who’d worked for the company before and knew the festivals and what was expected, but just has a gut feeling about Tamara and I, and took a chance on us, and I think I can say it’s mutual that we’re glad they did. At each of these festivals, the head of the company and her son who acts as Sales Director as well as the Site Project Manager visited to ensure the job was being done up to standard, he ended up posting about myself and Tamara on his LinkedIn he was so impressed with how we were doing, especially as we were just students, myself without any experience of a festival beginning to end, and having never managed people before. Another thing I didn’t really think about before I starting doing this was how to go about motivating people, it’s a hard thing to do, motivating a group of tired people at the end of a festival to perk up and make sure they’re feeling good about it and making sure they’re coping well, especially those who’ve over indulged the night before, and being able to motivate them and help encourage them to work better is hard after they’ve spent several days in a field dealing with strangers shit all day, pun not intended. It wasn’t something I saw myself being good at but I ended up getting along really well with the penguins, while still managing to get them to respect me.

I know you’re not meant to pat yourself on the back, but I spent a summer completely out of my comfort zone, spent for the most part, in and around the waste of strangers, I can safely say if I never manage to smell another festival toilet block it will be too soon. Even after the many, many, many sleepless nights shivering, and being cold, and wet, and tired, and stressed out, I wouldn’t trade my shitty summer for anything, I learned a lot more about festivals than I thought I would doing this job, but even doing the toilets, if you use your eyes it’s crazy how much you notice going on at any one given time.  While I might not have gotten to see and be a part of the same side of the festival as my colleagues got to, when I do actually get to I’ll at least have the satisfaction of knowing I started from the bottom, and I’ll always be nicer to the people working the toilets. 

(You’ll be pleased to know there are no photos of the aforementioned toilets)

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Without a doubt, the Oztent RV Tent, and the Black Wolf Turbo Tent are the top contenders for ultimate high quality touring tent.

As we stock both of these tents at Snowys, our customers often ask “Which tent is the best?” The fact is, there is no straightforward answer. We recommend you approach your decision from a different angle and ask yourself: “Which tent is better for my needs?”

Having owned both the Oztent RV3 and now a Turbo Lite 240 Plus, I have found that my tent setup has changed quite a lot from being a young single bloke heading off to explore Australia to now travelling with my wife and 18 month old daughter two young daughters.

In this blog, I have summarised the key considerations to select the right tent for your camping needs.

What’s your style?

These tents suit different styles of camping and family sizes. Before reading on, have a really good think about what you want to get out of your touring tent.

Here are a few things to consider:

How much living space do you want?

How many people are you sleeping?

What accessory options would you like to have on your tent?

Do you have a lot of gear that needs to be kept out of the weather?

Pack size, and space in your car?

The Turbo Cabin 450 all guyed out. 

Built to last

I have used both tents extensively, including in harsh weather conditions, and I can honestly say that I cannot pick between the two tents on this basis. The quality of both tents from their design, choice of materials, and the workmanship is exceptional.

Time is precious

The most talked about comparison between the tents is the time it takes to set them up. The answer is not as simple as you might think as you really need to compare apples with apples, so let’s take the RV4 and the Turbo 240 Canvas as our first comparison.

The see instructions) is literally up and ready to sleep in, in about 30 seconds flat! This is because the Oztent inner is waterproof, and does not require a fly or extended awning.

Thirty seconds will see your Turbo 240 inner good to go (see video), but won’t protect you from the elements until you add the fly which’ll take a little extra time.

When comparing the time it takes to set up each tent including the fly and extended awnings, you will find that the setup time comes in at around the same click on the stopwatch.

Size matters

The Oztent RV come in 5 different sizes, with the largest tent measuring in at 2.6m x 2.6m. Of course, you can add walls to the awning and a tagalong tent, but I’ll get to the accessories a bit later.

The Turbo Tents comes in many different shapes and sizes so you can choose the size of your tent to suit the size of your family and camp setup. Turbo Tent sizes range from a small single room Turbo 210, to a huge Turbo Lite Twin 300 that has 3 rooms, as well as an awning that can be enclosed just like the Oztent.

The RV3 set up in its simplest form. 30 seconds worth, right there.

Speed vs Space

Here is where it starts to get a little complicated. You’ll see why the tents are suited to different camping setups. Let’s compare 2 setups.

1. Basic Setup (Both tents, similar size, with fly and extended awning):

In a race for both tents to be pitched in this manner, both competitors would be enjoying the sunset at about the same time.

However, for an express roadside stop, the Oztent would be a quicker option as it can be pitched, and slept in without the addition of the fly or extended awning.

2. Large Setup (Turbo 300 Plus and Oztent RV5 both with fly and enclosed awning):

Once again, both of these tents would take about the same time when setup in this manner.

But, if living space is what you are after, then the clear winner here is the Turbo Tent.

Having said that, the Turbo will always have to be set up in full for weather protection and stability, but the Oztent can still be set up in 30 seconds for those quick overnight stops, which leads me to the next comparison.

Versatility of options

Whilst both tents have the option for side walls and a front wall for their awnings, the Oztent is by far the most versatile tent.

Because of Oztent’s ‘Lego’ like set up, you simply start with a 30-second tent and add what you want from there to make your Oztent into whatever you want.

All Oztent parts join to each other so you can have anything from a single room set up, to a huge castle of Oztents and accessories that all join together, and even connect up to a Fox Wing or the side of a caravan!

The Turbo Tent has many options for walls and screen rooms to customise your set up, however, if you buy a small Turbo, it will always be a small Turbo. And if you buy a big Turbo, it will always be a big Turbo. So, you’re limited on just how versatile you can make the turbo tent.

Accessorise

There are many accessories that can be used with both tents, and both of them have the ability to enclose the awning. So, without going into too many options I will highlight a few of the key differences between the tents.

Oztent Black Wolf

Walls • Canvas construction. • Double doors in the side walls (i.e. mesh door panel behind a solid door panel). • Front wall has a door in the mesh panel and a solid flap over the entire mesh front that can be extended to an awning. • Not included. • Made from “lite” material. • Single solid door on the front panel (i.e. no mesh door panel). • No doors in side panels. • Not included. Fly • Not required for tent to be waterproof. • Adds strength to the tent. • Helps reduce condensation. • Not included. • Required to ensure tent is waterproof. • Adds stability. • Included. Screen Room • Fits on to front awning. • Free standing. • Not included. • Fits under Super Fly or Basecamp Fly. • Requires purchase of screen room and extra fly. • Not free standing. • Not included. Extra Rooms • Tag along tent available to create a second room. • Adds time to setup. • Not included. • Can be purchased in 1, 2 or 3 room options. • Quick simple setup when 2 or more rooms are required. Other Accessories • Can zip to an awning and caravan using adapters. • Not included. • Can only be butted up against another tent or caravan.

Dollars and Cents:

The Oztent and standard Turbo tent are both made from poly-cotton canvas and have tough PVC floors. These are going to cost you roughly the same amount.

The ‘Lite’ material options in the Turbo Tent range are more affordable. Check out our “Canvas vs Lite” blog for more info on these fabrics.

Turbo Tent accessories are available in both canvas and ‘Lite’ and are interchangeable between tents.

Oztent accessories are made of the same poly-cotton canvas as the tents, and while providing more durability, are more expensive.

The Wrap Up:

When comparing these two tents there is no clear winner. Both tents sit at the top of the food chain when it comes to high quality touring tents. However, the tents do suit different types of camping, so it is important to think about what you want from your setup.

Oztent: Much more versatile and allows a very quick set up when stopping overnight, but also accommodates for extended stays and larger families by simply zipping on a few accessories. The Oztent tends to suit smaller families and couples who would prefer a faster set up and more versatility, but don’t mind compromising on a bit of living space.

Turbo Tent: Seems to suit larger families or those people who appreciate a bit more living space for beds and bags, and want to have room to stand up to get changed

Oztent Turbo Tent

The Pro’s • Ready to sleep in 30 seconds. • Strong frame and materials. • Big range of accessories. • Versatile for all types of camping. • Awning can be rolled up when not required. • Windows open from inside. • Quick set up time. • More living room than Oztent. • Fits in the boot of a car. • Relatively easy to put back in to bag. • Cheaper “lite” material option. • Strong frame and materials. • Life Time Warranty. • Ability to add accessories. • Quick set up time for large camp set ups. • Gusseted windows allow ventilation as well as protection from the elements. The Cons • 2m long pack size, usually requires roof racks. • Can be a little tight to get back in the bag with poles and pegs. • Limited standing room inside tent. • Lengthy setup time when adding lots of accessories for a larger setup. • Very bad condensation when not using the fly. • No mesh windows, doors or flaps in side walls. • Awning side walls only made from “Lite” material. • 2 and 3 room must be set up in full making the tent less versatile than the Oztent. • Awning must always be set up. • Windows must be opened and closed from outside. • “Lite” material forms a lot of condensation.

Download the Oztent Blackwolf Accessories Pros and Cons PDF

Personally, my wife and I loved our Oztent RV3. When our daughter came along we needed a lot more space, the porta cot alone would not fit in the Oztent, let alone bags, nappies etc. So we moved to a Turbo Lite 240 plus that gave us a huge amount of room, in a much quicker setup time than it would take adding accessories to the Oztent.

I would highly recommend the Turbo Tents to younger families, but having said that, when my kids are old enough to jump into their own tents, the Oztent might just make its way back onto the roof of the old 4X4!

I hope this article helps make the choice between Oztent and Turbo tent easy. For more information, read all of our touring tent blogs and check out the range of tents and accessories on the Snowys website.

The post Oztent or Turbo Tent – The Choice Made Easy appeared first on Snowys Blog.