#mapping➡️made

[ladychaos]

LADY CHAOS SAVE FILE [VERSION 2]

Hi everyone! Well, it took me more than a year to finish it, but it's here: the new version of my save file! It contains two worlds complete makeovers (Windenburg and Willow Creek). I wanted to upload it to SimFileShare, but it seems the site has a file size limit now (and support doesn't answer emails). So everything is now on Gdrive!

I really hope you’ll like it. 💜

🔸 IMPORTANT [PLEASE READ]🔸

You can download two versions: the cc version or the nocc version. I’d recommend choosing the cc version so that my Sims look the same in your game as they do in mine and so you can fully enjoy gameplay in most of my community lots.

🟣 CC version: I used cc only for CAS and mods only for community lots (NPCs Everywhere) and personalization (More Selectable Icons). ➡️ Almost all the cc you need is included in the download file, but you also need the cc listed on my Patreon post.⬅️

🔵 NO CC version: no cc is needed for this save file to work, but I did use all of the packs.

⚡⚠️THERE IS A BUG related to rental residentials that makes off lot objects disappear if you don’t have TOOL. So I’d highly recommend having the mod in your game, even if you download the nocc version.⚠️⚡

🔸THIS SAVE FILE INCLUDES 🔸

The previous complete Windenburg makeover (save file V.1 updated)

The complete Willow Creek makeover with new families and builds (21 new lots + 21 new households), all of them have been updated for the save file,

A starter home to rent with a starter Sim (1 Sunrise Corner in Foundry Cove and the Butterfield household),

Every other worlds are filled with original lots (except for Copperdale High School, it is my build) and households,

All my Sims have skills, jobs, activities, relationships, multiple everyday outfits, etc.,

New clubs and holidays are included,

Bonus: some townies (NPCs) from my personal tray files (you can find them easily, they have a special description and the #ladychaostownies),

IMPORTANT: this save file is not pack restricted!

<📂 DOWNLOAD (PATREON, FREE) 📂>

💟 Thank you to all the amazing mods and cc creators (all credited in the main post)! I tried to check everyone’s TOU but if made a mistake, please let me know and send me a DM, I’ll update everything. Special thanks to @ceeproductions @depthofpixels, @obscurus-sims, @emmibouquet, @plumbheadsims, @hula-zombie, @twisted-cat, @okruee, @sims4nexus, @nesurii, @marsosims, @magic-bot, @ice-creamforbreakfast, @buglaur, @softerhaze, @kalino-thesims and @squea. For the cool fanart maps, it’s here. 💟

[simcesar]

I'm building a Latin American neighborhood in TS2!

There are not many, if not none, Latin American neighborhoods for TS2, so I decided to change that and started building my own one, which will be inspired by various cities around LatAm.

➡️If you want to watch the whole process I made a video on YT!

💭Inspiration

I started gathering images and created this mood board as an inspiration for the layout and eventually the buildings.

✍️Planning the 'hood

After gather some inspiration I used the Sims 2 HoodPlanner by greatcheesecakepersona.

This tool helped me so much to plan the layout and flip it, since TS2 flips the map you create in SimCity 4.

🗺️Working on the map in SimCity 4

🎮And finally, we boot up TS2 to see the map!

I added some placeholder decor, I'm so happy with how it turned out :')

Now I need to work on the final decor, and start building, it's going to take some time but I'm sure it will be so much fun!

[welcome-to-roomba-fazbender]

☎️🤡..... 🍽🥺🥺🥺

🎂🎂❓️ 🥺🥺

🎃🚫➡️🎂😠..

~🧠🎀, 🩷

"woah my [gender-neutral term] that's not very fergalicious of you."

"I mean seriously do you kiss your horse with that kinda wippy maps?"

Horse: Offended Neigh Noises.

"See? look at that, you've made your horse upset you can't just say that about pumpkins."

"HAVE YOU NO SHAME???"

"the nerve of some people."

Charlie began to scuttle away like dr. zoidburg and the horse climbed on his shoulders and began to make disapproving muppet noises.

[courfeyracs-swordcane]

i am mostly learning about your ballad brothers through osmosis, did they cause the punic wars?

Okay first of all. Possibly the funniest ask I’ve ever gotten.

SECOND OF ALL! Technically. No. well I mean technically the Ballad brothers main timeline is a hot several hundred years after the fact, so they couldn’t have even if they wanted to. BUT! This is a universe with both a scifantasy Roman Empire (historic)(collapsed somewhere between 100-200 years before canon and everyone is still dealing with the fallout)(called that bc I haven’t named it yet) and a scifantasy Carthage (modern)(named that bc there’s nothing else that hits the same) and. Uh. Well. Hang on here’s the world’s shittiest hand-drawn map.

Goddamnit this isn’t the one with the compass rose. ⬅️East ➡️West ⬆️South ⬇️North. Just to get a little silly with it.

Some of these guys are still around and still kind of Italian. Some of them (cough cough ScF Roman Empire) are not.

Also mostly there’s a really stupid joke to be made about how the saint who was supposed to Build Rome and then Didn’t Do That (he has really bad executive dysfunction)(and also other more sinister things wrong with him that they don’t even have a name for yet) wholeass Walked Out Of The Roman Empire and Never Looked Back (again. Combo hitter executive function and other more sinister things wrong with him) and the local perception of him would up lowkey hella influencing the culture further east, so they’re the Real Italians!

(Also if you want to know more about these guys in a more direct fashion 👀 first of all I’m always down to answer questions. Some of them might take longer than others depending how much I have to think about BUT)(also I have a discord server if you (or anyone else) is interested! Theoretically doing another PowerPoint night on these guys at some point in the near future!)

[bizkonnect]

What happened when a multinational ICT firm needed 400 customized org charts, each rich with real-time insights, delivered in just one month? 🎬 Watch to understand: What made the charts so valuable? Why do leadership teams use these account maps? How did speed, depth, and precision come together? ➡️ Curious how this works in your context? Book a short call: sales@bizkonnect.com For more, explore: https://orgkonnect.bizkonnect.com #ActionableOrgCharts #BusinessIntelligence #ICTStrategy #B2B #GenAI #CaseStudy #EnterpriseSolutions #LeadershipIntelligence #StrategicPlanning #DecisionSupport #CompetitiveIntelligence #BizKonnect

[bordersandbeyondsworld]

McDonald expansion

McDonald’s global journey began in San Bernardino, California, where the original restaurant opened in 1940. But the real expansion kicked off when Ray Kroc franchised the brand in 1955, turning it into a global powerhouse.

- Canada: This was McDonald’s first international market, with the first restaurant opening in Richmond, British Columbia in 1967. Its cultural and geographic closeness to the U.S. made it a strategic testing ground for international growth43dcd9a7-70db-4a1f-b0ae-981daa162054.

- Mexico: McDonald’s entered Mexico in 1985, adapting its menu to local tastes (like offering jalapeños and salsa). Its success here helped the brand understand how to localize while maintaining its core identity.

- Ecuador, Peru, and Argentina: These Latin American countries became part of McDonald’s expansion in the 1990s, with Argentina being one of the earliest adopters in the region. McDonald’s tailored its offerings to local preferences—like serving empanadas or regional desserts—while also becoming a symbol of modernity and global connection.

Each country served as a cultural laboratory, helping McDonald’s refine its strategy of “think global, act local.” It wasn’t just about selling burgers—it was about adapting to local customs, tastes, and even architecture to make the brand feel familiar yet aspirational.

Jollibee expansion

Jollibee store was officially opened in 1978 in Quezon City, after Tony Tan Caktiong transformed his original ice cream parlor (started in 1975) into a full fast-food restaurant43dcd9a7-70db-4a1f-b0ae-981daa162054

As for the specific branches in Talipapa, Tandang Sora, Bagbag, Novaliches Proper, Pasong Damo, Bahay Toro, Kaligayahan, and Baesa, detailed opening years for each location aren’t publicly listed. However, many of these areas saw Jollibee branches open during the 1980s to early 2000s, as the brand rapidly expanded across Metro Manila.

Jollibee’s global rise is deeply rooted in Quezon City, especially in communities like Talipapa, Tandang Sora, Baesa, and Novaliches. These areas weren’t just locations—they were launchpads where Jollibee refined its identity, tested its operations, and built a fiercely loyal customer base.

- Community-first approach: Places like Talipapa and Tandang Sora offered a diverse mix of working-class families and students. Jollibee learned to serve affordable, comforting meals that resonated with Filipino tastes—like sweet-style spaghetti and Chickenjoy—which later became its global signature.

- Operational testing grounds: Branches in Baesa and Novaliches became models for high-volume service and efficient kitchen systems. These lessons in scalability were crucial when Jollibee entered competitive markets abroad.

- Cultural branding: By thriving in areas like Bahay Toro and Kaligayahan, Jollibee didn’t just sell food—it became a symbol of Filipino pride. That emotional connection became a powerful tool when opening stores in places with large Filipino communities, like the U.S., Canada, and the Middle East.

- Training and logistics: Quezon City also hosts some of Jollibee’s key facilities, including training centers and commissaries, which helped standardize quality before going global.

Legend to explained your symbol

🔴 Red Star – McDonald's Origin

🟡 Yellow Star – Jollibee's Origin

🔴 Red Dots – McDonald’s Locations

🟡 Yellow Dots – Jollibee Locations

➡️ Arrow – Expansion Paths (from origin to new locations)

Annotation

This map illustrates the global expansion of two major fast-food giants—McDonald’s and Jollibee—beginning from their points of origin. The 🔴 Red Star marks McDonald’s beginnings in San Bernardino, California, while the 🟡 Yellow Star highlights Jollibee’s roots in Quezon City, Philippines.

Each 🔴 Red Dot represents a McDonald’s location that played a strategic role in its international growth, such as Canada, Mexico, and various parts of Latin America. Similarly, the 🟡 Yellow Dots signify Jollibee’s strongholds in key neighborhoods like Baesa, Talipapa, and Tandang Sora, which shaped its operational and cultural identity.

The ➡️ Arrows trace the direction of each brand’s expansion path—demonstrating how lessons learned locally fueled global outreach. Together, the symbols tell the story of two brands that started in neighborhoods and became international icons through cultural connection, innovation, and community roots.

reflection

Creating a map that traces the growth of McDonald’s and Jollibee reveals powerful insights into economic globalization. It shows how brands that began in specific communities—San Bernardino for McDonald’s and Quezon City for Jollibee—can grow into influential players in the global economy. The arrows across continents symbolize more than movement; they represent the spread of capital, culture, labor, and consumer habits.

McDonald’s expanded with a strategy rooted in standardization and brand recognition, adapting menus only slightly while maintainin

[mukteshwar]

🎒 Every Travel Group Has That One Friend... Tag Yours! 😄

➡️ The Navigator: "Google Maps is their superpower. Somehow always knows the scenic route. 📍🗺️"

➡️ The Foodie: "First to spot the street food stall. Lives for pahadi momos and cafe hopping. 🍜☕"

➡️ The Photographer: "Always 20 steps behind, capturing the perfect frame. Knows your good side better than you. 📸🌄"

➡️ The Planner: "Spreadsheets, itineraries, and backup plans. The reason we actually made it to Mukteshwar! 📅🧳"

And the perfect base for all these adventures? 🏡 Mukteshwar Treat Resort – where cozy meets classy in the lap of the Himalayas.

📍 Stays you'll never forget, views you’ll never stop posting.

[testforce-insights]

Why Test Salesforce? Here's What You Need to Know

When you're dealing with Salesforce, things can get complex—fast. Whether you're customizing your CRM with fancy workflows, integrating third-party apps, or tweaking code, one thing becomes crystal clear: you need to test. And not just any test. You need smart, scalable, and consistent testing.

That’s where Provar comes in.

Provar is a Salesforce automation tool that simplifies the entire testing journey. In this blog, we’re diving into why testing Salesforce is a non-negotiable, what could go wrong if you skip it, and how automation with Provar can save your team serious headaches (and money).

What Makes Salesforce Testing So Important?

Salesforce is super flexible, but that flexibility means there's a lot that can break. Testing helps you stay confident that your changes won’t backfire.

Here’s why testing Salesforce matters:

Custom Code = Custom Risks: Every time you add Apex code or custom objects, you open the door to new bugs.

App Integrations Can Get Messy: Connected tools and APIs may not always play nice.

Frequent Updates: Salesforce pushes updates 3x a year. That’s three chances for something to break.

Complex Workflows: One small change can impact multiple business processes.

Without proper testing, your team could end up spending more time fixing bugs than doing actual work.

Real Talk: What Happens If You Don’t Test Salesforce?

Let’s say you decide to wing it. No real testing strategy—just a bit of clicking around and hoping for the best. What could go wrong?

Broken business processes: Your sales pipeline stops working mid-quarter. Ouch.

Data Loss or Corruption: Fields map incorrectly, and your lead data disappears.

Delayed Deployments: Bugs found late in the release cycle = go-live delays.

User Frustration: When dashboards break or the UI freezes, trust in the system fades.

And what if your business relies heavily on Salesforce (like most do)? That’s a serious risk.

Manual testing might work if you’re just testing a couple of buttons. But let’s be real—most Salesforce orgs are way too complex for that.

With Provar, you get automation that’s built specifically for Salesforce, so you can test Salesforce workflows, code, and even third-party app integrations, all in one place.

Key Areas You Need to Test in Salesforce

Here’s where it gets practical. Testing Salesforce isn’t just about clicking around. There are some critical areas you should always cover:

1. Custom Objects & Fields

Make sure they behave the way users expect. Are the fields calculating right? Are permissions set correctly?

2. Validation Rules & Triggers

These are the silent troublemakers. If one goes wrong, it can block users or allow bad data.

3. Flows & Process Builders

Automations can silently fail or do the wrong thing without any alert. Testing them is crucial.

4. Apex Code

Unit tests alone aren't enough. You need end-to-end testing to catch real-world issues.

5. User Interface (UI)

Visualforce pages, Lightning components, and page layouts must look and function as expected across different roles.

6. Third-Party Apps and APIs

Integration failures can grind your CRM to a halt. Make sure your data moves cleanly between systems.

Why Provar Makes Salesforce Testing So Much Easier?

There are a lot of automation tools out there, but Provar is made for Salesforce. That’s a big deal.

Here’s why users trust Provar to test Salesforce the smart way:

Native Salesforce Integration: Unlike generic test tools, Provar talks to Salesforce in its language.

No Code Required: Business analysts and QA folks can build powerful tests without writing a line of code.

Regression Testing in Minutes: Schedule regular regression tests with a click. Keep up with Salesforce’s seasonal updates effortlessly.

Supports Lightning, Classic, and Mobile: No matter how your org is set up, Provar covers it.

Smart Test Maintenance: Dynamic locators mean fewer broken tests when layouts change.

➡️ TL;DR: Provar understands Salesforce because it was built for Salesforce.

The Hidden ROI of Salesforce Testing

You know testing is important, but what’s the real return?

Here’s the breakdown:

Fewer Production Issues = Less Firefighting

Faster Release Cycles = Deliver features quicker

Increased Confidence = Teams can make changes without fear

Higher User Satisfaction = Better experience = higher adoption

Cost Savings = Find bugs early when they’re cheap to fix

Companies using Provar often see 40–60% time savings compared to manual testing. That’s a big win for any Salesforce-driven org.

Common Misconceptions (And Why They’re Wrong)

“Salesforce has unit tests, so I’m covered.”

Nope. Unit tests only cover code logic. They don’t test workflows, UI, or integrations.

“Testing slows down our release cycle.”

Only if it’s manual, automated testing actually accelerates delivery.

“We don’t need to test if we haven’t made changes.”

Remember those seasonal Salesforce updates? You’re still at risk.

“Automation tools are too complex to implement.”

Not with Provar. Setup is smooth, support is awesome, and you’re up and running fast.

Getting Started with Provar: Easy Entry to Smart Testing

Ready to test Salesforce the right way? Here’s how to start with Provar:

Schedule a Demo: See Provar in action

Identify High-Risk Areas: Focus on what breaks most often

Automate Repetitive Tests: Start small, scale fast

Set Up CI/CD Integration: Make testing part of your pipeline

Don’t wait for bugs to catch you off guard. Be proactive.

Final Thoughts: Test Salesforce with Provar and Sleep Better at Night

Salesforce is the engine behind your business. Testing it isn’t optional—it’s essential. Whether you’re deploying new features or just trying to stay compliant, automated testing keeps your org healthy, fast, and functional.

And when it comes to testing Salesforce, Provar is the tool built to do it best. From native integrations to no-code test creation, Provar is trusted by Salesforce teams around the globe to keep everything running smoothly.So yeah—test Salesforce early, often, and with Provar. Your future self (and your users) will thank you. 👉 Learn more about Provar and book a free demo here

[boundlessexpeditions]

Join us as we uncover 10 hidden gems in the Pacific Northwest that you’ll adore! Discover the hidden gems of the Pacific Northwest like never before! Join Boundless Expeditions as we explore secret waterfalls, secluded beaches, and breathtaking trails deep within the rugged landscapes of the Pacific Northwest. This adventure takes you off the beaten path into the heart of Olympic National Park, uncovering places not found on tourist maps. From mystical waterfalls to hidden coves and tranquil forest lakes, we reveal the best-kept secrets of this stunning region. Whether you're a seasoned explorer or planning your next Pacific Northwest travel adventure, this video offers unforgettable destinations for those seeking untouched beauty. Ready to uncover the hidden treasures of the Pacific Northwest? Hit play and start your journey today! #Travel #TravelDestinations #PacificNorthwestTravel #HiddenGemsPacificNorthwest #PNWAdventures #ExplorePacificNorthwest ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ➡️ Click on the Community tab now and join the fun! We can't wait to see you there. ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 📌 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐬: 0:00 Introduction 0:03 Exploring the Hidden Pacific Northwest 0:51 Hiking Through Olympic National Park 1:31 Discovering the Hidden Waterfall 1:54 Transition to the Rugged Coastline 2:36 Finding the Secret Cove 3:30 Venturing to the Secret Mountain Trail 5:16 Discovering the Tranquil Forest Lake 7:01 Journey to the Undiscovered Island ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 𝑫𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆: As an affiliate, I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this video's description. They are at no extra cost to you. Explore the Pacific Northwest: 10 Hidden Gems You’ll Love! published first on https://www.youtube.com/@BoundlessExpeditions/

[mrs-starkgaryen]

I was reading this and dissecting this like it was one of my English exams, trying to find hints. Cuz I know what you're like, Maggie!

1) Rhaena, put down that piece of slate. I am wary that you have it. I am watching you 👀 also "“Okay…but if I miss, you have to save me.”➡️ if that's foreshadowing, I don't like it

2) well done aemond, I know you're stressed but you've made Helaena, my sweet, spring, oddity collecting, nature loving child, cry.

3) Aegon, my beloved nugget, don't listen to Aemond, he's stressed. (I'll have words with him). That baby is so sweet- not wanting to be a burden, drawing them a map and giving Chips his Walkman when that seems to be his only solace 🤧 I die everytime I read him➡️ Aegon offers you the other earbud. “Then let’s go somewhere else.” *jumps straight into bed with him and blue raspberry ice 🐺* Maggie, you've made me want a man who is not even real, you physcho! He truly is a honey bun

And I have a funny feeling, now that you've split soul mates, Rio and Aegon, something is going to happen to one of them! Rio most likely cuz you've put extra emphasis on his wife and baby 🤨 and even though Aegon is already crispy, I feel like that won't stop you! Especially after Aemond was rude to Aegon again!

But it could be anyone who dies in chapter 11. As long as it's not Ice, we are all good. (Don't decide to kill her off now I've said that please 🥲)

Long reply, hehehe my bad. But great work as ever and I shall humbly await (pull my hair out as the week goes by) for your next update!

Where Will All The Martyrs Go [Chapter 10: Nobody Likes You, Everyone Left You]

A/N: I sincerely apologize for the delay, but Maggie Sundays are back, besties!!! And we have a new poll! Be sure to check it out AFTER you finish Chapter 10 🥰

Series summary: In the midst of the zombie apocalypse, both you and Aemond (and your respective travel companions) find yourselves headed for the West Coast. It’s the 2024 version of the Oregon Trail, but with less dysentery and more undead antagonists. Watch out for snakes! 😉🐍

Series warnings: Language, sexual content (18+ readers only), violence, bodily injury, med school Aemond, character deaths, nature, drinking, smoking, drugs, Adventures With Aegon™️, pregnancy and childbirth, the U.S. Navy, road trip vibes.

Series title and chapter title are lyrics from: “Letterbomb” by Green Day.

Word count: 6.8k

💜 All my writing can be found HERE! 💜

Let me know if you’d like to be added to the taglist 🥰

Here’s how it happens.

Let’s say you’re on a subway, or at a bus stop, or walking in or out of a grocery store, maybe fumbling with your purse or corralling small children, or talking on the phone, or wondering how you’re going to make rent, or trying not to drop one of your shopping bags, and out of nowhere some stranger lurches over and grabs you. They are filthy and noxious and moaning, and you assume they are insane, or on hard drugs, or maybe both. Your fellow upstanding citizens rush to your aid and the assailant is apprehended and carted off, unbeknownst to you surely to infect many more blithely unaware victims.

Maybe you notice that you were bitten, even just barely, even just a scrape of the teeth hard enough to scratch the skin; maybe you don’t. If you do notice and you seek medical attention, the best a doctor will offer you is disinfectant and antibiotics, maybe a rabies shot if they’re extra ambitions. Perhaps you have too much on your plate already without a detour to the doctor’s office (or perhaps you don’t have medical insurance), and you opt for at-home remedies, a vigorous scrub with hydrogen peroxide and a large rectangular Band-Aid slapped on top. Of course, none of this will do you any good. It was over the moment a drop of zombie saliva slipped painlessly into your bloodstream and began to replicate there like an invasive species, like an insurgent force. It only takes once.

You go home, and maybe when you start to feel really bad you call an ambulance and go to the hospital, and when you turn you bite anyone you can get your claws on there. Maybe you die at home and then attack your partner, your children, your parents, your roommates; maybe this new version of yourself ends up chewing bits of gristle off the bones of your dog or cat or ferret. And if any of your victims manage to escape once you’ve gotten a taste of them—no matter how fleetingly, no matter how trivially—they are sure to die in agony and reanimate too, and to pass along this plague you’ve gifted them, the bloodiest game of telephone.

Now millions are getting sick, fevers, headaches, purging, bleeding, but where do people go when they need a doctor? The hospitals are overrun, the clinics are swarmed, and doctors and nurses are falling ill too. There are unimaginable reports of the carnage. There is censorship to smother the panic. There are public figures vanishing from sight. There are zombies-in-progress boarding planes, checking into hotels, tottering onto cruise ships with armfuls of luggage, sweating through their bedsheets in crowded military barracks, silently ticking timebombs as the world as everyone knows it hurtles towards its end.

You would be amazed what people can refuse to believe. Once you believe something, that makes it real.

~~~~~~~~~~

There are no shovels, so Cregan tills the earth with his axe and then you dig with your hands. There are no headstones, so Rhaena finds a large sand-colored rock and writes on it with a jagged piece of slate: Baela and Briar, Summer 2024. Then she hesitates, the slate hovering in afternoon air, amber sunlight and eighty degrees, dust thick in the wind. She wants to say more. There needs to be more. How can two lives end with five words? At last Rhaena adds: Mother and child who perished en route to California. They were loved. They mattered.

“That’s good, Rhaena,” Luke tells her, voice gentle, hands on her shoulders. She stares at the grave for a while, and you don’t have time to waste; the bear could return, there might be wolves or mountain lions, eventually the sun will set and you will be stranded in an infinite darkness like the ocean at night. But Aemond waits until Rhaena is ready. She tucks the shard of shale into her backpack, and then you are fleeing once again: from this day, from this world.

You hike back to I-80 and walk west towards the next ranch. All of you are here in south-central Wyoming, and yet none of you are: you are in the earth with Baela, you are back in Nebraska where Jace died, you are in Ohio where he was swept away by a river, you are in Pennsylvania where you and Rio climbed down from a transmission tower, you are in your lives before the world ended: Saratoga Springs, Boston, cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, a part of Kentucky called the Wildlands. Aegon is limping along on his own and shoving Rio away each time he tries to pick him up.

“Stop,” Aegon says, wincing and exhausted, his bandages coated with dust.

“Come on, Honey Bun. You’re going to rip your foot open—”

“Stop it!” Aegon demands. “I’m not going to slow you down anymore! I’m not going to be a burden!”

There is a sound you don’t immediately recognize: a rumbling, a squealing. A car is pulling up alongside you. Instinctively, you unholster one of your M9s and raise it as you turn.

“No, no, no, we’re cool!” a woman says, showing you both of her hands. She is around fifty and driving a Subaru Outback; there is a man in the passenger’s seat, perhaps her husband, and two wide-eyed, hoodie-swathed teenagers in the backseat. “Are you…are you guys okay?”

All of you stare blankly at her: shellshocked, distraught, covered in dirt and blood. “Yeah,” Daeron says eventually.

The woman peers around, east, west. “Do you have a car or something?”

“We have a Tahoe,” Cregan says. “It’s out of gas.”

“We have a few cans in the trunk,” the Subaru woman replies. “I can give you one, five gallons. That will get you to Rock Springs, and you should be able to find more supplies there. We came through that way, it wasn’t too bad.” And then, before anybody can ask if she’s serious, the woman steps out of the car and opens the hatchback. She lifts out a red can and hands it to Rio, who is standing the closest.

“Thank you, lady,” he says, astonished.

“I’m sorry about that,” you tell the woman, meaning the fact that you were prepared to shoot her.

Rhaena adds: “We’ve had some…bad experiences.”

The Subaru woman smiles. “Haven’t we all. Where are you headed?”

“West Coast,” Aemond answers quickly: vague, guarded, inviting no further disclosures.

She nods; she can’t trust you, and you can’t trust her, and everyone agrees, an unspoken acknowledgement of what the world is like now. “Well, you don’t want to go anywhere near Salt Lake City.”

“But that’s the only direct route,” Aegon says, crestfallen.

“I know.” The Subaru woman is sympathetic. “And it’s going to burn a hell of a lot of gas and time to drive all the way around, but you have to. There are tens of thousands of zombies, and a lot of people are trapped there without fuel. I’m telling you, if someone sees you driving by in a working vehicle, they’ll try to put a bullet in your head so they can take it. So don’t give them the opportunity.”

“Okay,” Aegon says glumly, already pulling his map out of the pocket of his khaki shorts to plot a new course.

“Stay far away from Chicago,” Rio offers the Subaru woman in return. “And any nuclear power plants.”

“We’re headed south,” she says, then grins. “I’ve got a sister in eastern Tennessee. We’re going to learn how to fish and cook moonshine and make clothes out of deer hide, and live up in the mountains where nobody will ever bother us.”

People glance at you, the resident Appalachian; and you remember the crackling of woodstoves, flecks of ice in the creek, kicking up snow as you ran through the woods, following tracks of deer and opossums and raccoons. “It’s a beautiful place. I think you’ll like it.”

Rhaena asks the Subaru woman: “Is there anything we can do for you? To thank you for the gas?”

“Oh, I couldn’t take from a bunch of bloodied people who are stranded on the side of the interstate.” But her eyes catch on the pistol in your hand and stay there, envious, longing. You have another, so you give it to her.

“The safety is on. There are only nine bullets left, unfortunately.”

“That’s nine more than I had before,” the Subaru woman says as she takes the U.S. Navy’s standard-issue Beretta. Then she says to everyone: “Good luck.”

“Same to you, ma’am,” Cregan replies. The Subaru woman gets back into her car and disappears eastbound with her family. The nine of you that are left—ten, if you count Ice—trek back to the Tahoe, where Rio pours five gallons of combustible liquid gold into the gas tank.

Rhaena climbs into the driver’s seat and turns the key in the ignition. The rust-red Tahoe growls to life, the engine idling. Then she rests her arms on the steering wheel and breaks down sobbing. In the passenger’s seat, Aegon looks up from his map—which he is annotating with a glittery green gel pen—to gaze at her with shining, wounded eyes. After some hesitation, he extends a hand to hold one of hers. From the seat behind Rhaena, Luke is rubbing her shoulders and murmuring words you can’t hear.

Aemond says softly: “Rhaena, you can take some time if you need it.”

“No,” she insists, her voice quivering but determined. “We can’t wait. We have to get as far as we can before dark.” She shifts the Tahoe into drive, guides it onto I-80, and speeds west towards Rock Springs and the Utah border.

Rio is saying something to you, but at first you can’t grasp it. Helaena is scratching Ice’s ears as the massive grey wolfdog lies sprawled across her lap. Daeron is sniffling and wiping his eyes with the sleeves of his orange t-shirt. Cregan is talking to Aemond about needing to find an auto shop so he can get supplies to change the Tahoe’s oil and filter. One of Aegon’s mixtapes whirls in the CD player:

“My face above the water

My feet can’t touch the ground, touch the ground

And it feels like I can see the sands on the horizon

Every time you are not around…”

You are watching Aemond, your heartbeat growing loud in your ears. He won’t look at you at all.

~~~~~~~~~~

As the sun begins to set, you find a vacant house on the outskirts of Coalville, Utah overlooking the Echo Reservoir. You wash away the remnants of Wyoming in the cool blue water, dried blood and caked-on dirt, hopes eclipsed by horror. Dinner is soup spooned out of cans from the pantry—Dinty Moore beef stew, Campbell’s condensed chicken noodle—and caffeine-free sodas, Sprite and Fanta and Seagram’s Ginger Ale. Then Rhaena and Luke go straight to bed, and Helaena scuttles through the house with a flashlight to search for clothes, making each person a separate pile on the dining room table: large flannel shirts for Cregan, pastel-colored polos for Aegon. Aemond and Cregan are outside on the front porch, Daeron is carving sticks into arrows on the kitchen floor, Aegon has been passed out in one of the children’s bedrooms since Aemond debrided his burns again and dosed him with the last of the Vicodin. Fortunately, Helaena found a translucent orange prescription bottle of Tramadol in the upstairs bathroom, so Aegon won’t have to suffer too much tomorrow.

Rio tosses and turns on the living room couch. You know what’s wrong, but you have to wait for him to say it. You stay with him, kneeling on the beige carpet in the murky artificial luminance of Rio’s Moonbeam flashlight, threading your fingertips through his dark curls. And then at last Rio asks something that you know must have crossed his mind a thousand times since you left Saratoga Springs, but he’s never voiced aloud: “What if Sophie and the baby are dead?”

“They’re not.”

“But you don’t know, nobody knows—”

“Bryan, they’re not dead,” you say, and he is listening.

“I joined the Navy for Sophie.” And of course, you’ve heard this before. “I was just a stupid kid who couldn’t commit to anything, not work, not school, not a future with her, so she dumped me. And I decided I was going to get her back by proving I could make commitments after all. I could sign my life away for five years, and come out of it as someone who would be a good husband and father. And now…what if by enlisting and being so far away when everything happened, I abandoned her? What if…what if she’s gone, and she died terrified and in pain and alone, and I’m the reason why?”

“Sophie and the baby are waiting for you in Odessa. You have to believe that until we get there.”

“Because if they’re not, my life is over?” he asks bitterly, this man you have never known to be wrathful, defeated, weak, hopeless. But these are beasts that live inside all of us, waiting to be shaken awake by the perfect string of calamities.

“I believe they’re still alive.”

And Rio looks at you, wanting desperately to be convinced. “Why?”

You’ve never believed that you are someone who knows the right things to say; but you have to try. “If your parents’ community in Odessa is like you’ve always described it to me, I can’t think of a better place for someone to hide from all the disorder and the violence. It’s remote, but there’s support from other families who are living the same way. People have gardens, cows, goats, pigs, chickens, enough canned food to live on for years, homemade clothes and systems to collect rainwater. There are women who’ve had five homebirths and men who’ve built houses with their own hands. And the people in Odessa have guns and know how to use them. I think when you told Sophie to go there, you saved her life. And now she and the baby are both waiting for you to come home.”

“We’ve crossed this country by raiding dead people’s homes.”

“Yes. And we’ve seen plenty of living ones too.”

Rio takes a deep breath, staring up at the ceiling; and now he is calmer. “Okay,” he says, grabbing your hand where it rests on his head and smacking a noisy kiss onto your knuckles. “I’m sorry. Thank you. I think I’m done freaking out for tonight.”

“You good?”

“I’m good.”

“Try to sleep.”

Obediently, Rio closes his eyes, and within five minutes he’s snoring.

You rise and open the door to the front porch, thinking of what you’re going to tell Aemond when he is low, distracted, wary: You did everything you could, Aemond. It’s not your fault. It’s this world, it’s poison, it’s cursed, and you can’t turn back the clock to when it wasn’t. You’re just one man. But you can try to save the people who are left.

Yet Aemond does not speak to you, doesn’t even notice you; when you peek outside you are on his blind side, and he is deep in conversation with Cregan as they keep watch in the moonlight.

“I mean, yeah, I’ve been thinking about that too, man,” Cregan is saying. “A mansion by the ocean sounds nice and all, don’t get me wrong, but that ain’t me. I don’t see myself somewhere like that forever. Hell, I’ve never even seen the ocean, and to be honest I never really cared to. But a community of folks who are living off the land out in the woods? Those are my kind of people, that’s a place I could be useful…”

You retreat back inside the house, flashlights and shadows, doubts and fears. You stand there in the quiet for a while, then go to Aegon’s bedroom, where he is awake now and snuggling with Ice in a child’s bed shaped like a red racecar, listening to his pink Sony Walkman—Ava, the gleaming rhinestones proclaim—through one earbud.

Aegon coos as he ruffles the dog’s shaggy grey coat: “You’re so sweet, Blue Raspberry Icee. You were always my favorite flavor. Do you miss 7-Elevens too? Wrinkled old hot dogs and taquitos on rollers, drenching tortilla chips with the nacho cheese and chili dispenser? Did you guys even have 7-Elevens in Iowa? No offense, but your home state kind of sucks. It’s just fields and barns and whatever. You would have loved Boston. You could have fetched my golf balls when they rolled into ponds.”

Then he sings along to the song he’s listening to, effortlessly melodic but so softly you can barely hear him:

“You really had me going, wishing on a star

But the black holes that surround you are heavier by far

I believed in your confusion, you were so completely torn…”

Aegon spots you in the doorway. He smiles, then turns serious when he gets a good look at your face. “You okay, Mint Chocolate Chip?”

He feels like the only person you can say this to. You confess in a weak, hoarse whisper: “I hate this world.”

Aegon offers you the other earbud. “Then let’s go somewhere else.”

~~~~~~~~~~

“Come on,” you say to Rhaena as Rio and Luke rummage around inside the Shell gas station for food, drinks, batteries, medicine. You know they’re fine; you’ve already cleared the store, and you can hear them in there laughing. Rio is telling Luke about the bizarre Thanksgiving dinner you once had in Chinhae, South Korea: duck instead of turkey, fried rice with pears and squash instead of stuffing, candied sweet potatoes for dessert, a choir of solemn schoolchildren brought in to sing—for reasons you will never understand—Africa by Toto. You take your remaining M9 out of its holster. “Target practice.”

“Really?” Rhaena asks excitedly. She volunteered to stay back at the little blue mobile home with Aegon, Daeron, and Helaena—only a mile away—but you knew she needed a distraction. Truthfully, you do too. Aemond is in the Tahoe somewhere searching for gas with Cregan, a strange new alliance. He still hasn’t really spoken to you. You are trying to give him what he needs, but you don’t understand what that is.

It took all of yesterday to navigate around Salt Lake City, stopping every few hours to scrounge for gas, gallons siphoned piecemeal from cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats on trailers, four-wheelers left forgotten in garages and backyards. It was after nightfall when you rolled into Battle Mountain, Nevada, a gold mining town in what is known as the Cowboy Corridor, beginning at West Wendover just over the Utah border and ending in Reno. Today supplies must be replenished; tomorrow I-80 will take you to Winnemucca, where U.S. Route 95 branches off north towards Oregon while remaining on I-80 leads southwest through the Sierra Nevada Mountains and into the Bay Area of California. A decision needs to be made, which means Aemond will have to talk to you tonight. You’re relieved. You don’t want to have to be nervous and watchful with him, studying every inflection of his voice, reading some dire premonition in each line that creases his face. You’ve spent enough of your life that way already.

Battle Mountain is cloudless and hot and sandy, dry shrubs and gnarled mesquite trees, flat secretless earth. Staggering towards the Shell are three zombies, all dressed in faded blue uniforms like a mechanic’s or a miner’s. You hand Rhaena your M9.

“How many bullets do you have left?” she says, still a bit giddy.

“Fifteen. And you can have five of them.”

She raises the pistol and closes one eye. “I’m going to miss.”

“Well you’re not going to hit anything if you don’t turn off the safety.”

Rhaena giggles. “Oh, right. Whoops.” She clicks the tiny lever, then takes aim again.

“Line up your sights. Front looks like an I, back looks like a U. Put the I in the center of the U, and keep looking at that front sight. That’s where your bullet is going. Don’t blink when you fire. Don’t be scared of the recoil, that’s not your problem, your priority is getting the shot. Your arms are a little stiff…yeah, perfect, nice and limber. The recoil won’t hurt so much that way. Don’t try to fight it, just accept that it’s going to happen. If you’re all tensed up because you’re anxious about the recoil, it’ll throw off your aim, so forget about it.”

“Okay,” Rhaena says. “I am actively attempting to forget.”

“Remember, try not to blink.”

“Don’t tense up. Don’t blink.” A few seconds pass, and she pulls the trigger. There is a spray of dark curdled blood from one of the zombie’s collarbone, but it’s still stumbling towards the Shell. “Damn,” Rhaena says defeatedly, then tries to pass the M9 back to you.

“What are you doing? You have four more shots.”

“But I’m going to miss. I’m going to waste them.”

“Practice isn’t wasteful. You have to know how to do this in case something happens to me.”

“You do it,” Rhaena insists. “I’m terrible.”

“Is it alright if I help you?”

“Yeah,” she says, her doe-like eyes brightening. “Okay. Totally.”

“Go ahead and aim.”

She raises the pistol and peers through the sights. You stand behind Rhaena, place your hands lightly over hers, adjust her angle just barely. When she fires—she’s still tensing up just before she pulls the trigger, a common mistake—you hold the M9 steady. The bullet explodes through the same zombie’s rot-soft skull and the corpse tumbles facedown into the dust.

Rhaena gasps, exhilarated, triumphant.

“No celebrating yet. There are two more.”

“Right.” Very businesslike, she lines up the next shot. You provide your slight adjustments; a second zombie receives a lethal dose of lead.

“Want to do the last one on your own?” The third zombie is quite close now, maybe ten yards. It should be an easy kill.

“Okay…but if I miss, you have to save me.”

“Obviously.”

All on her own, Rhaena aims and pulls the trigger. She hits the zombie near the top of its head; an inch higher, and it would be functionally unharmed. But the corpse’s skull snaps back and its blood and brains spill out onto the asphalt of the parking lot, and it is of no further danger to anyone. It is carrion for the scavengers: raccoons, foxes, condors, vultures, crows.

“And with one of your allocated bullets to spare,” you say with a smile, accepting the M9 when Rhaena surrenders it. “Good progress.”

“That felt great,” she admits, perhaps a little dazed.

You know what she means. “It’s nice to have some control over what happens in your life.”

Luke is saying to Rio as they reappear from inside the Shell: “Maybe those Korean children were singing Africa because they knew your unit had been in Djibouti. Maybe they thought you were homesick for it or something.”

“Oh my God, you know what, kid? You might be right. I never even thought of that.”

“Find anything?” you ask.

Rio shrugs, adjusting the straps of his backpack. “A few bags of trail mix, a box of Band-Aids, some Life Savers, cans of Arizona tea. Oh, and Marlboro Golds for Honey Bun.”

“You shouldn’t be encouraging Aegon to smoke. It’s bad for him.”

“Give him a break, he’s sad and crispy.”

You can’t think of a rebuttal. The four of you walk back to the mobile home.

In the small patch of parched dirt that serves as the driveway, Cregan is—with great difficulty—shimmying out from beneath the Tahoe. Then he reaches back under to grab a pan of old motor oil. “Just about done here,” he announces. “Gotta put the fresh oil in and then we’re set for another 5,000 miles.”

You glance around. Ice is panting in the narrow aisle of shade of a mesquite tree. Aegon is napping on the tiny front porch, sprawled on his back and snoring, his plastic neon green sunglasses shielding his eyes; Helaena is surrounded by a jumble of empty cans and stirring a pot of Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs as she heats it over a fire. She begins dishing out bowlfuls of it. Rio, Rhaena, and Luke all graciously accept their dinner.

“Did you guys find gas?” you say to Cregan.

“Not much. A few gallons.”

“Where’s Aemond?”

“Said he’d be back soon.”

“What?” You are incredulous. “You left him? He can’t be alone out there, Cregan. Someone has to watch his blind side.”

“He ain’t alone. He took Daeron.”

“What’s Aemond looking for?”

“He didn’t say. I didn’t ask.” Now Cregan is pouring a bottle of Pennzoil into the Tahoe, and Rio is prodding you with a bowl of Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs, and Aegon is waking up and yawning loudly.

“What’d you bring me?” he says, lazy and grinning; and when he receives his pack of Marlboro Golds, he immediately sticks one between his teeth and lights it. Luke goes to sit by a shrub and then jumps up when he hears a rattling noise. Almost too swiftly for you to process it, a streak of red-gold scales slithers across the earth and vanishes into the desert.

“Western diamondback rattlesnake,” Helaena notes. “Venomous. Potentially fatal.”

“Great,” Luke says, carrying his bowl towards the front door of the mobile home. “I think I’ll eat inside.”

Aemond and Daeron don’t return until shortly before dusk, the sky turning to rust, lavender, gold, fire, blood. When they walk in, Rhaena is curled up on the floral couch—shredded in spots by a cat, though there are no signs of it now—and reading Mockingjay. Luke is sitting with her and keeping watch with periodic peeks out the window. Ice is resting with her muzzle propped on her large front paws. You, Rio, Cregan, Helaena, and Aegon are playing Uno on the floor.

“What color?” Aegon asks Helaena when she puts down a wild card.

“Blue.”

He groans. “How do you always know what I don’t have?!”

“Rhaena,” Aemond says, and then tosses something to her that glints in the artificial, sickly yellow radiance of the flashlights. She catches them in midair: a set of keys. She is mystified.

“What are these for?”

“The Ford Expedition that’s parked outside.”

“What?!” Luke says, twisting around in his seat to snatch the curtain aside and peer through the window. “Oh wow. Yeah, it’s out there.”

Rhaena is staring confoundedly at Aemond. “Why do we need a Ford Expedition?”

“Because that’s what you’ll be driving tomorrow.”

“What’s wrong with the Tahoe?”

“They will be driving the Tahoe to Oregon,” Aemond says, pointing to you, Rio, and Cregan. “We are taking Expedition to California.”

Everyone is too stunned to speak at first; even Daeron looks at Aemond doubtfully, as if this is the first time he’s learning of it. Aegon’s hand hovers frozen in the air above the draw pile of Uno cards. Ice whimpers.

Rio chuckles uncertainly. “You’re…you’re joking, right?”

“No, I’m not,” Aemond says. “When we leave Battle Mountain tomorrow, you’ll take I-80 to Winnemucca. We’ll take Route 305 south to Austin and then head west so we can get off the interstate and avoid the Reno area.”

Your voice comes out dark and poisonous. You can feel your eyes glaring, searing; Aemond won’t look at you. “What are you talking about?”

“We can’t stay together?” Luke asks.

“No,” Aemond says again, and now he’s getting impatient. “We have two different destinations. That’s been the situation since the day we met, and now it’s time to split up.”

“Why can’t we all travel to one place and then the other?” Rhaena says. “We could drive to the Bay Area, see what’s going on at the beach house, and after—”

“I can’t wait,” Rio interrupts. “My wife and baby are in Oregon, I’m going straight there even if no one else is.” As distracted as you are, you touch your palm to one of his broad shoulders. You’re going too. You promised.

“So we’ll drive to Oregon first,” Aegon says agreeably. “Right? We could do that. Go north and then swing by the Bay Area later.”

Aemond shakes his head. “It’s almost impossible to find gas now. There is just enough in the Tahoe to last it until Winnemucca, and just enough in the Expedition to get it down to Austin. There is no guarantee we’ll be able to find more. Every day there’s less gas and food and bullets, because there are less places that haven’t already been looted. There are 400 miles between where we are right now and either Odessa or San Franscisco. There are another 400 miles that separate those two destinations from each other. So let’s say we drive all the way to Oregon and then can’t find any gas to go south to the Bay. How long do you think we’d last like this on foot? A month? Because that’s how long it would take us, assuming not a single rest day. So if we travel to one location together, there’s a good possibility we’ll all be trapped there.”

“Maybe I’m okay with getting trapped in Oregon,” Aegon mumbles.

Aemond lashes out fiercely. “Are you serious? What about Criston, what about Mom?!”

“Maybe there are some things about home that I don’t miss!”

“Then go the fuck to Oregon!”

“You know I have to stay with you!”

Aemond scoffs. “Because you’re so capable of protecting anyone.”

Aegon rubs his sunburned face with both hands. He murmurs softly, miserably: “I’m trying, Aemond.”

“So that’s it?” Rhaena says, staring at you and Rio and Cregan, stunned and mournful. “We’ll just never see each other again?”

Aemond shrugs and averts his gaze. He doesn’t have an answer; maybe he doesn’t care.

Aegon turns to Cregan accusingly. “You helped plan this?”

“Nah,” Cregan says, avoidant and downcast, which is unusual for him. “I mean…I said I didn’t really see myself spending the rest of my life with a bunch of millionaires in a California mansion on the seashore, and that’s still true. I’d rather live in Oregon with people who are more like me. But that’s different than wanting to split up forever. I could always try to find y’all later for a visit, I guess…”

“Sure,” Aemond replies briskly. “Whatever you decide to do afterwards isn’t my problem. But you get them to Odessa first.”

Rhaena bursts out with sudden urgency: “This feels wrong. Don’t you see how this is wrong?! We’ve been through so much together, and now we’re just going to wave goodbye and disappear? Leave them to fend for themselves?”

“You want to add 400 miles to our trip?” Aemond asks her, and Rhaena falls silent.

“You know,” Luke begins. “We…we’ve already lost people. Maybe Aemond’s right. Maybe we’re forgetting how dangerous the world is now. It would be great if we could stay in contact, but the most important thing is to get everyone safely to where they need to be.”

“Exactly,” Aemond says, and something jolts awake in you as you remember what he told you in Nebraska, and in Wyoming, and in so many quiet moments that you’ve shared since you met, each an oasis in the desert. He said we would figure it out. He said he wasn’t going anywhere.

“So you were lying when you pretended not to know what we were going to do when we got to Nevada.”

Aemond nods towards the front door. “Can I talk to you outside for a minute?”

You stand up; Rio watches you apprehensively, wondering if he should follow. Your eyes flick to his. I’m fine. He relents, redirecting his attention. Aegon is slumped and despondent; Helaena is starting to cry, and Cregan tries to console her. She’s saying that something bad is going to happen, but she doesn’t know what.

On the porch of the mobile home, beneath a lilac sky pierced with stars, Aemond does not attempt to hold your hands or kiss you goodbye or give any other indication that you have ever been someone who mattered to him. “This isn’t personal. This is what gives everyone the best chance of survival.”

“You’re afraid of making a mistake and getting hurt,” you tell him. “And I understand, I know what that feels like, but Aemond…with the way the world is now…you can’t afford to wait for things to happen or cut them loose to see if they’ll come back to you. You might not get another chance.”

“You’re going to be fine,” Aemond says flatly. “Your route is safer than ours. Less cities, less zombies.”

“You’re honestly going to act like you are completely unbothered by the thought of never seeing me again?”

“I don’t know what you expected. I’m just some guy who helped get you off a transmission tower back in Pennsylvania.”

“Really? That’s all you are?”

And then Aemond smirks to himself, a cynical, mocking twist of his lips, something so dismissive and so cruel you almost believe for a razor-thin second that you could hate him. “Look, I’m not the one for you. Go to Oregon. Fuck Cregan.”

“There is nothing romantic between me and Cregan!”

Now Aemond seems annoyed. “Well, you two seem exceptionally suited for each other.”

“Because we both grew up shopping at Dollar General and know what it’s like to have an alcoholic parent?! That makes us soulmates, that’s the end of the calculation?!”

“Then find a man like him!” Aemond flares. “That’s what you really wanted, right? That’s what you were after this whole time. Some hero to convince you he’s worth it. Someone to break you in.”

You are seething, thunderstruck. “And you just said that in the most hurtful way possible to…what, prove how little you care about me?”

“I didn’t say I don’t care about you.”

“Then why are you doing this?”

“We were never going to end up in the same place.”

“Except we were, you told me that, you told me we’d figure something out, I mean, you…you…you said you’d be there if I wanted kids someday, what was that if not some kind of commitment?!”

“You don’t trust me,” Aemond says, so sharply and so abruptly it startles you.

“I do,” you object softly.

“No, you don’t. And I don’t blame you. But there’s nowhere for us to go from here.”

You can feel yourself becoming young and powerless and desperately afraid. “Please don’t do this, Aemond. It won’t bring Jace or Baela back. If we don’t have a plan before we split up, this is over. We’ll never find each other again. We’ll never have another chance.”

And he shakes his head like this was such a needless mistake. “I knew you’d fall in love with me.”

He’s leaving, you think, hazy and omnipotent like a nightmare, the present inseparable from the past and the future. I left my family and now my family is leaving me. “I’m not in love with you,” you reply as ruthlessly as you can. “I think you’re right. Cregan is a better man.”

“Yeah,” Aemond snaps.

“And I need someone like him.”

“Yeah,” Aemond says again, staring into the west where the last rays of the sun are sinking below the horizon, you erased as you stand where his left eye would once have seen you.

“And you need someone who’s going to fuck with your head so much you can’t possibly mistake it for something real.”

You walk back inside the mobile home and leave him speechless in the dying light.

~~~~~~~~~~

“I drew this for you,” Aegon says, handing Rio a folded piece of paper torn from Helaena’s spider notebook. It’s a map, illustrated in forest green gel pen ink. “Your route is actually really straightforward, it’s impossible to get lost. You’ll follow I-80 northwest to Winnemucca, then Route 95 north until it intersects with Route 140, and you stay on 140 all the way to Odessa. The only real city you’ll go near is Klamath Falls in Oregon, and I’ve marked that. Route 140 mostly stays along the outside, but you can cut it wider if things look dicey. The whole trip is just a couple days by car, assuming you don’t have to spend too long hunting for gas. But listen…” He points to the green dot labelled Winnemucca. “Between here and Denio up by the Oregon border, there’s 100 miles of nothing, just desert. So make sure you have more than enough supplies to last you in case something happens. Then from Denio to Adel is another 85 miles with no towns in between. So just…be careful, okay? You’re not back east anymore. Things are a lot farther apart, and it’s harder to find everything. If you run out of gas or bust a tire, you can’t just call AAA to come pick you up.”

“We got it,” Rio says, touched but trying not to dissolve into too much sentimentality. The three of you are standing in the short dirt driveway the next morning, Aegon putting most of his weight on his good leg. Cregan is waiting behind the wheel of the Chevy Tahoe that once belonged to his parents. Ice is peering out at you through one of the rolled-down windows. “Thank you, Honey Bun.”

“No problem. Now flip it over.”

Rio does; on the back of the first map is another, this one from Odessa south to the Bay Area, a place just north of San Francisco called Bolinas.

“Go all the way to the coast and follow it down,” Aegon says. “You don’t want to bump into Santa Rosa, Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto, San Jose, any of those places. Too many people.” Then he smiles, kind and warm. “I’m going to see you guys again, one way or the other. But first I have to make sure Aemond is safe. And Rio has to meet baby Otter.”

Rio laughs. “Man, don’t even joke about it. I’m seriously concerned that’s my firstborn’s name.”

“If you end up not staying in Odessa, leave me a note carved into a tree trunk or something so I can track you down.”

“You do the same at the beach mansion.”

“Totally.” Then Aegon turns to you; and although he’s still smiling, his eyes—those pools of murky, melancholy blue that remind you of the Gulf of Tadjoura, Corpus Christi Bay, the East China Sea, the Indian Ocean—are catastrophically sad. “Tortilla Chip, it’s been real. Don’t forget about me.”

“I don’t think I could even if I wanted to.”

He pats your backpack and winks, and you don’t understand why until ten hours later when you’re lying on the rooftop of an abandoned RV in Winnemucca, Nevada, gazing up at the stars as Rio and Cregan swap stories to weave affinity until it’s thick like a braid: Rio hiding a dead lemon shark in the Jeep of an officer he hated when you were stationed at Key West, Cregan’s fiancé leaving him after she got a field hockey scholarship to the University of Iowa. You haven’t found any gas for the Tahoe yet. You’ll have to search again tomorrow. You reach into your backpack for a pack of Life Savers and instead are surprised to discover Aegon’s pink Sony Walkman. The rhinestones spelling out a doomed little girl’s name glint in the moonlight.

You slip in both earbuds and press play. Aegon left it paused at an Enrique Iglesias song; you assume he must have been thinking of Rio.

“You look at me and, girl, you take me to another place

Got me feelin’ like I’m flyin’, like I’m out of space

Something ‘bout your body says, come and take me

Got me begging, got me hoping that the night don’t stop…”

You try to see constellations in the night sky instead of random, indifferent distant suns. You try not to remember the way Aemond was when you thought his mark on you was permanent.

“Girl, I like the way you move, come and show me what to do

You can tell me that you want me, girl, you got nothing to lose

I can’t wait no more

I can’t wait no more…”

You spot a gimmer of light among the stars and choose to believe it is a comet rather than a fighter jet, or a forgotten satellite, or the refracted remnants of a solar storm, or something you only imagined and that never existed at all.

[therebelbroker]

What's Wrong With Real Estate Agents?

Welcome to another eye-opening episode of "Real Estate Realities with The RebelBroker"! Today, we're diving deep into a topic that affects both seasoned and aspiring real estate agents—the real problems plaguing today's real estate professionals.

Join me as we explore the notion that bad agents are made, not born. Many agents are trained to prioritize quantity over quality, a trend that leads to a decrease in overall service quality. As agents focus on increasing their transaction numbers, key metrics that matter to clients often fall below average.

We'll uncover shocking examples, like a so-called "Top 1%" agent with a 20% failure rate—meaning 2 out of 10 homes do not sell. If an agent boasts about their yearly deal count, we'll do the math together to reveal the average hours spent on each deal. It's time to question whether the emphasis on quantity is contributing to a decline in overall service.

Most training programs emphasize lead generation rather than addressing the unique needs of clients. This focus on quantity makes agents vulnerable to automation, raising the question of their long-term relevance.

We'll demystify the commonality among "Top" agents—the use of universal checklists or processes. While scaling a business is often promoted, we'll discuss how this inadvertently makes the agent's role more susceptible to automation. If agents are executing the same checklist for every home, what value are they truly bringing to the real estate process?

In the second half of our episode, we'll explore alternative metrics for evaluating real estate agents. Forget the shiny object of a luxury car; let's focus on the real indicators of success. We'll delve into metrics like days on market, sales price ratio vs. market ratio, percentage of listings resulting in a sold home, and list price reductions prior to sale. These metrics offer a more nuanced and insightful perspective on an agent's performance.

Join me as we challenge the status quo and rethink how we judge the effectiveness of real estate agents. It's time to bring quality back to the forefront of the real estate industry. Stay tuned for another thought-provoking episode of "Real Estate Realities with The RebelBroker"!

    ————————————————���—————————————————————————————————

➡️ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebelbroker/

➡️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/rebelbroker

➡️ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whitelawre/

  🏡 💵 Get Your FREE Home Value Estimate! - https://www.soldbyrobert.com/sellers-services/property-value-report

  ☕️ "Coffee And Real Estate" Live Events: https://www.facebook.com/whitelawre/live/

  📰 Subscribe To The Monthly Newsletter: https://soldbyrobert.com/get-the-newsletter

  🕵🏻‍♂️ Search For Homes For Sale: https://soldbyrobert.com/homes-for-sale-map-search

  👓 Luxury Homes List: https://soldbyrobert.com/listing-report/Luxury-Homes/1371502

  💵 Homes Priced Below Average: https://soldbyrobert.com/listing-report/Homes-Priced-Below-Average-In-Morgan-Hill-San-Martin-and-Gilroy/1281392 ——————————————————————————————————————————————————

📚 A case study in how I get better results than other real estate agents or brokerages: https://soldbyrobert.com/2020/08/breaking-every-record-for-my-clients/3444 ——————————————————————————————————————————————————

My goal is to share my insights and opinions relating to real estate so that you can make the best possible decisions in achieving your real estate dreams. If you are interested in buying, selling or investing anywhere in Silicon Valley, Morgan Hill, San Martin or Gilroy - I would love an opportunity to discuss with you what I can do to help you get the best outcome possible!

Check out this episode!

[opmythologyzine]

🌊 CONTRIBUTOR PREVIEW 🌊

Next, we have Nzkn.art (Twitter)! They made two pieces for the zine, so here's a sneak peek at one of them!

Check out where on the world map they took inspiration from for their piece!

➡️ PREORDER NOW!

~~~~~~~~~

⬇️ Legends of the Sea’s other socials!

Carrd  |  Twitter

[runbi]

c / ru ｡*ﾟ+.*.｡ / 24 /cisfem/bi/ “roon-bee”, formerly known as kurimuko

dni if you’re a minor, terf, map/p3do, or an asshole

i went away for like a while and now i’m back because i’m still a lonely little slut who’d do a lot of things for validation

149cm/4’10 chubby thing with B cups at best

dms are pretty open but if you send me a dick pic or any pics that are sexual-ish you will be made fun of and blocked regardless of who you are.

my audios can be found in the #rusounds tag and might upload a new one once in a while

currently [🔖] taken lol he went past 0.67 entanglements.

kind of delicate and currently i prefer being treated gently while doing disgusting things 🤍🫧

kink list here: 🫧

tags: #rusounds ➡️ audio, #ru yaps ➡️ ask answers, random thoughts xx. #ru shows ➡️ stuff to see…?

[simmillercc]

https://www.patreon.com/posts/75380231?pr=true

SIMS 4 - WINTER HOLIDAY NAILS - MAD FOR PLAID

I'm so happy to provide you with some detailed image nails and this is only the beginning!

There are 5 patterns in this package that come in 2 colour versions each, and there is a custom thumbnail (that grainy picture lol) to help you find them in game much more easily.

These have been made for adult males and females, teen-elder and are tagged as follows:

BY COLOUR

BY AGE/GENDER

FEMININE

HUMAN, ALIEN, MERMAID, VAMPIRE, SPELLCASTER

PARTY, SITUATION, COLD WEATHER

WINTER COLOUR PALETTE

ALLOWED FOR RANDOM

RESTRICTED OPPOSITE GENDER (THE MESHES ARE DIFFERENT FOR MALE AND FEMALE ADULTS DUE TO THE FINGER SHAPE)

➡️ Because I had to change the uv map, this is considered a new mesh, but they come from SPA DAY.

Early Access - Public release 15 December, 2022

EARLY ACCESS DOWNLOAD RELEASED TO PUBLIC

[etes-secrecy-post]

Hi, before I explain my post, I want to say something important.

• What you see my blog has become a major overhaul. And despite the changes, I decided that my 2nd account will be now my artwork blog with a secret twist.

⚠️NEW RULE!⚠️

⚠️ SO PLEASE DO NOT SHARE MY 2nd ACCOUNT TO EVERYONE! THIS SECRECY BLOG OF MINE IS FOR CLOSES FRIENDS ONLY!⚠️

• AND FOR MY CLOSES FRIENDS, DON’T REBLOG IT. INSTEAD, JUST COPY MY LINK AND PASTE IT ON YOUR TUMBLR POST! JUST BE SURE THE IMAGE WILL BE REMOVED AND THE ONLY LEFT WAS THE TEXT.

⚠️ SHARING LINKS, LIKE POSTS, REBLOG POSTS, STEALING MY SNAPSHOT PHOTOS/RECORDED VIDEOS/ARTWORKS (a.k.a. ART THIEVES) OR PLAGIARIZING FROM UNKNOWN TUMBLR STRANGERS WILL IMMEDIATELY BE BLOCKED, RIGHT AWAY!⚠️

Okay? Capiche? Make sense? Good, now back to the post…↓

My 8bitdo Pro 2 Review - Part 10 (Recorded Video) [Nov 9, 2022]

Hello! Here’s Part 10 of my new 8bitdo gamepad, the Pro 2 Bluetooth Gamepad/Controller! 🎮😁

It's been a while now since May of this year, and my Pro 2 controller surpassed my old SN30 Pro+'s lifespan. Man, I really missed my old one, but then again they're very identical, in terms of design albeit my Pro 2 has bells & whistles.

So, for this part, I'm attempting to re-download the firmware updater from 8bitdo because they released a new update version for my recent Pro 2 controller. ⬆️⚙️➡️🎮 Yeah, I lost my firmware updater, so I have no problem getting it another. And damn, I didn't get a chance to show ya my macro test while playing retro games, so maybe I'll attempt it next year (2023).

BTW, if you haven't seen my posts from May 2022, then I'll provide some links down below:↓

• Part 9 [May 26, 2022]

• Part 9.5 [May 26, 2022]

So without further ado, let’s get started:

BTW: Watch my record video first.🎦🖥️

• Alright so, here I am going to this website where I download the aforementioned software. When I checked the Pro 2's update log, I noticed that there's only one firmware version 2.00. That's odd, usually that there is only 3 firmware I've seen (evidence? → [CLICK ME!]), and as of March of 2022, I've updated the v1.07 firmware for my (Pro 2) controller. Anyways, I've already downloaded the firmware update & open it. Now, this part is quite confusing, as my current firmware update was v1.08 instead of 1.07. When did I get the v1.08 when my current firmware update was 1.07? 🤔 8bitdo probably made some little bit adjustment, I suppose? 🤨 Anyways, I decided to update their recent update, which is v2.00. Feel free to read the listing patches. And once it's done, my Pro 2 will automatically disconnect & reconnect after the completion of the firmware update. I could double-check the current firmware, and I noticed that there's literally one version, it used to have 3 firmware updates. So yeah, that's pretty strange to me.😕

• Nonetheless, let's go straight through our trusted gamepad-tester website. I reconnected my Pro 2 via my included USB type C cable to work properly. 🖥️🎮 All the buttons are functional, including my current mapped-out back buttons, and finally the analog sticks. The latter is no longer random numbers when they're centered. Even when I try to move slightly with my two thumbs, the analog joysticks are patched from the firmware version 2.00. Then again, the deadzones for the joysticks are literally the same accuracy as before. And when I tested GTA V online, nothing much to say.

(Little) Overall:

• `I'm quite happy with their firmware update 2.00 for my Pro 2 gamepad, but at the same time it riddled me where are the other firmware versions at? 🤔 It'll be better if they have different firmware versions to choose from, much like my old SN30 Pro+ gamepad. 🎮 Here's hoping, that the company itself will get to fix.

BTW:

#1 - Did you know the Pro 2 had released two new colors albeit transparency? They're totally rad, and you should check them out right here → [CLICK ME!].

#2 - Also, new controllers are also available such as the Lite 2, the Lite SE, and two configurations of the Ultimate Controller. The Bluetooth & the 2.4 GHz variant (aka Windows version). To check out the entire products by 8Bitdo, then please [CLICK ME!].

Well, that’s all for now. If you haven’t seen my previous parts of the same item, as well as my previous 8bitdo review items, then I’ll provide some links down below.↓😉

My 8bitdo USB Wireless Adapter ‘PS Classic Edition’:

• Opening parcel [Aug 27, 2020]

• Part 1 [Aug 28, 2020]

• Part 2 [Aug 28, 2020]

• Part 3 (Recorded video) [Aug 28, 2020]

• Part 4 (Recorded Video) [Aug 28, 2020]

• Part 5 (Recorded Video) [Aug 28, 2020]

• Part 6 (Recorded Video) [Oct 20, 2020]

• Part 7 (Recorded Video) [Oct 28, 2020]

• Part 8 (Recorded Video) [Nov 14, 2020]

• Part 9 (Recorded Video) [Nov 14, 2020]

• Part 10 [Final] (Recorded Video) [Nov 16, 2020]

• Extra Part / Final Plus [Nov 25, 2020]

My 8bitdo SN30 Pro+ gamepad:

• Unopened parcel [Nov 3, 2020]

• Opening parcel (Recorded Video) [Nov 3, 2020]

• Part 1 [Nov 19, 2020]

• Part 1.5 [Nov 19, 2020]

• Part 2 [Nov 27, 2020]

• Part 2.5 [Nov 27, 2020]

• Part 3 [Dec 1, 2020]

• Part 4 [Dec 3, 2020]

• Part 5 [Dec 8,2020]

• Part 6 [Dec 11,2020]

• Part 7 [Dec 20, 2020]

• Part 8 [Jan 19, 2021]

• Part 9 [Mar 27, 2021]

• Part 10 [Mar 27, 2021]

• Part 10.5 [Mar 27, 2021]

• Part 11 (w/ 8bitdo’s Ultimate Software ver. 2.0) [May 11, 2021]

• Part 12 [Jun 3, 2021]

• Part 12.5 [Jun 3, 2021]

• Part 13 [Jul 31, 2021]

• Part 14 [Aug 17, 2021]

• Part 15 (Macros mapping - 1st attempt) [Oct 9, 2021]

• Part 16 (Macros mapping - 2nd attempt) [Oct 9, 2021]

• Part 17 (Serious problem after testing) [Oct 10, 2021]

• Part 18 (Equipped w/ Panasonic Eneloop AA Batteries) [Oct 18, 2021]

• Part 19 (Final) [Nov 9, 2021]

My 8bitdo SN30 Pro 2 gamepad:

• Unopening parcel [Oct 28, 2021]

• Opening parcel (Recorded Video) [Oct 29, 2021]

• Part 1 [Dec 2, 2021]

• Part 2 (Recorded Video) [Dec 4, 2021]

• Part 3 [Feb 21, 2022]

• Part 4 [Feb 26, 2022]

• Part 5 [Mar 4, 2022]

• Part 6 [Mar 6, 2022]

• Part 7 [Mar 22, 2022]

• Part 8 [Mar 22, 2022]

• Part 9 [May 26, 2022]

• Part 9.5 [May 26, 2022]

Tagged: @bryan360, @carmenramcat, @leapant

[cryptonairesquad]

We recently learned about Volt Inu $VOLT and so far we LIKE what we see! Some of the KEY Features we’re excited about are: ⚡ It is a hyper deflationary token ⚡ Investing in multiple assets – NFT’s, nodes, altcoins, Steaking, and Farming, ⚡ Partnered with CryptoCart to allow paying for real-world goods with $VOLT. ⚡ Currently on 5 Exchanges including Uniswap, Pancake Swap, LBank, Hotbit, & XT ⚡ P2E Game - intended to be used as an in game currency in their own game, for acquiring advanced features and rewarding players. ⚡ Gamified social activity - incentivizes $VOLT holders with a “ranking and reward system” based on completed tasks that increase the exposure of Volt ⚡ They are well into Stage 3 of 4 stages on their Road Map ⚡ As of today, $VOLThas over 17K Holders One thing to be aware of is the 13% Transaction tax. Let’s look at that. 1% = Reflections – paid back to $VOLT Holders 4% = Burn - Added to Liquidity 4% = Marketing & Development 4% = Treasury - Since $VOLT is intended to be a hyper-deflationary token, profits made on treasury investments are then used to buyback & burn $VOLT tokens. This, along with the 4% burn guarantees a continuous rising price floor due to the decrease of the circulating supply. Volt Inu launched Dec. 21, 2021 so it is very new. Tokens this new have the potential for High Rewards, but they also come with a Greater Risk. If the information we have shared about $VOLT has you interested, we encourage you to do your own research on this exciting new token @VoltInuOfficial to decide if it is right for you. As for us, we have seen enough to make us BULLISH on $VOLT To get insight on new and upcoming crypto projects, be sure to ➡️ FOLLOW #CryptonaireSquad #crypto #altcoin #nft #VOLT #VOLTINU #VOLTARMY