#bc it's just a closed off and insulated community

[pteropods]

Sobbing thinkin abt William (Day's kid friend who je does the reverse dìdi/gēge honorifics w/) Bcs like.

Imagine ur like nine years old, your settlement was just destroyed and your family was lost. In a single day ur jomeless and an orphan. But lucky you, a family friend lives in a far western town called Geludum and she heard about what happened and takes you in. Ans you don't know the dialect well, everyone jokes that you sound weird talking all fancy, but nothing too bad.

And anyway turns out that family friend who took you in works at a communal home, where a bunch of other people foreign to the town lived, especially kids. And maybe you're a little shy so you don't really make a lot of friends there, but everyone's nice enough and ur not bullied or abything so its chill. Really ur just missing your family and your old town.

So then one day some guy who'd been living there about four years shows up. Apparently he hadn't been home because of work, and your family friend scolds him for working so much when he only seventeen. He sees you around the corner and asks who you were. And you see his gun and his poncho and his hat, because you'd read about cowboys and vaqueros, and explosive weapons werent allowed back in your old town so you were really curious about it.

And the family friend calls you over and introduces you to Day. She says he'd been staying there since he was around thirteen. And he sees you eyeing the gun holster on his leg so he asks if you're from an central settlement, or maybe eastern? You say southeastern and he laughs a bit before taking out the gun and removing the bullets. He hands it to you and explains what it is, how it works. He says that if you ever get one you should be careful with it, 'cause you could shoot your leg off if you're not careful. You ask if thats what happened to his leg. He smiles and said it very well could've been, but he doesnt quite remember how that happened.

So fast forward a few days and you're always hanging behind this guy, like a shadow. He's a little mean to people but he's also really nice to you and the other kids so it's fun to be with him. You ask him more about his job and he says he's a meat salesman. And you get excited, asking if he brought any meat back to eat, but he says it's not the kind that you'd want to eat and leaves it at that. He asks what you want to be when you grow up, and you say that you don't really know, but it would be cool to be a chef. Day says he knows someone about your age with the same dream. You ask who, since none of the other kids in the home really like cooking, and Day says he can't really remember, that they're not from this town.

Then it's been a while and you and Day are pretty close. He goes out a lot for work but he brings back a lot of cool souvenirs. Like one time he brought back some new shoes with really good insulation, and they were a little big but Day said you would grow into them. Another time he brought a knife that he said would be good for cutting meat to cook. You said that it was kinda weirdly shaped for a kitchen knife, but he responded that it was from Koro and they make things differently there. He smiles and told someone named Ico that he hopes it's alright, but a good chef can use any tool. You ask who Ico is and he gets confused at what you mean.

A few months later and you're in the kitchen with Day and you're making something for dinner. You volunteered to make it for the whole house that night, and Day could supervise. Everyone looks a bit sick at the thought of Day making food, so they have a few other people in the kitchen helping you, as well. You ask for Day to pass one of the carrots and when he does you say thank you. Then you think about the honorifics people use in the western dialect and you shyly add "Dìdi" at the end. Day pauses and you worry that you weren't close enough to say it, or maybe you used the wrong word. He starts to say something but his face suddenly looks gaunt and sickened, so you look around to see if he had secretly cooked something without anyone noticing. But after a moment he smiles and says of course, and he adds "gēge" to it. And its pronunciation is a bit different from what you hear other people say but you're happy about it.

And at this point you've wanted to make yourself useful to the town, so you've been shovelling snow from pathways. Your family friend says not to go too far since some of the people in the settlement aren't very nice, but you figure that they'd be greatful for you to clear the sidewalks for them. Some of them are, and some of them yell at you to get out of their sight. You learn where to avoid, and most people are very kind to you. They'll even give you a few coins for shovelling their backyards or where snow fell through their roof and piled up. At some point you make friends with a few kids who live on one of the streets you shovel. They're really nice and they tell you about their school while you tell them about the home. It's really fun talking to them.

Eventually you ask Day to come meet them, but on the walk over one of people from a mean house is outside. The house is hard to avoid since it's down a major street, but he's usually cooped up inside so it doesn't matter. He sees the two of you and yells at you, saying he told you not to shovel near him, and why'd you have to bring some gunslinger with you this time. You try to ignore him but he keeps yelling at you while you're just trying to get to your friends. Day tells you to keep walking, maybe run a littls bit, and he'd catch up. He said he was gonna talk to the man for a second.

So you do, and a few minutes later you see a crowd formed around the front of the house, but it's too thick to see what they're looking at. The crowd is lively and excited, getting louder and louder with some sort of anticipation until you hear two loud bangs, almost like all sound cut out for just a moment, and the crowd is silent. You see some doctors rush in, and some guards, but you decide to keep walking to see your friends. All of you wait a few hours for Day to come back until your family friend finds you and tells you to come back to the house. You ask where Day is and she mutters something about him pulling this shit again, that he knows they cant have him at the house if he does this. You don't really know what "this" is.

One day while passing the mean house again, you see the man who yelled at you before with bandages around his stomach. You nervously ask if he knew what happened to Day, and he grunts, saying the bastard is probably in jail. He says he wished the guy would get a life sentence, but he'll probably only be there a few months. So you go to the jailhouse and you ask to see Day. He comes out in handcuffs, and he has this look on his face that you'd never seen before. Haggard and ghostly, his eyes glazed over as if in a trance. He made eye contact, but it was like he was looking past you. He looked angry. You don't like him looking angry. And then he looks sad, and you don't like that, either.

Day mumbles a little bit and you don't really catch what he's saying. It's kind of like the language you know, but also kinda not. You can only make out a few words. "Back" and "Missed" and "Sorry" and "Ico". Then he lifts his head more and talks a bit louder. And he looks at you pleadingly, finally talking in a way you understand, but he's not talking to you. He rambles at Ico, saying he's missed him, he looks so different now but he's still his little dìdi. He says that he didn't know what happened, and asks were Ico had gone for so long. And then he asks why he isn't responding, but he's looking right at you. He switched back to the other language and asks another question, one you don't catch. He starts speaking louder, almost yelling at this point, and the guards grab him and drag him back out of view. You see he isn't wearing his leg, and they say that it got destroyed in the gunfight.

You go back to the house and ask your family friend about what happened. She sits you down and says that you shouldn't talk to Day anymore, that he's very sick and that he needs to be left alone. You ask what kind of sickness and she says that she doesn't know, that he's had it as long and she's known him. And he'll be okay, but sometimes being around people in the home can make it worse, but she doesn't know why it's so bad this time. You don't know what kind of sickness makes someone go to jail.

four or so months pass and you haven't seen Day the whole time. No one spoke about him, either. You look around his bed and he doesn't have a lot of stuff, just his gun, an extra prosthetic, a few bags of some foreign money, and a card you made him for his birthday. His closet has a shotgun in it, and a few extra clothes. You see a Koro-style uniform, too, which is weird because he said he wasn't from there. You pick up the handgun- unloaded, Day always kept his bullets hidden- and laid down on the bed. You point the gun up the the ceiling and make a "pew" sound. Then the door cracks open and you point it there.

Day raises his hands up, "Woah there, officer, I only just got back from jail" he says. And you drop the gun to run over and hug him. The canes he was holding drop to the floor as he hugs you back. You're sniffiling and crying and you sob that it's been so long and you didn't hear anything after you visited the jailhouse. And Day wad acting so weird then that you didn't know what happened, and your family friend said not to talk to you so...

Day picks his canes back up and walks over to his bed. He grabs the extra prosthetic and asks you to please forget about when you visited, that he wasn't in his right mind and he doesn't want you to remember him like that. You ask what he means and he tells you that he's gotta move out of the house, so he probably wont see you again. He's only here to grab his things. You get sad again and you ask why, but he doesn't give any good answer. So you help him pack- there isn't much, anyway- and he just... leaves. But you grab his hand and ask if you can visit, or if he can cone back? Your family friend comes in to say goodbye and sees you asking. You turn to her and ask why Day has to leave, why can't you visit him ever. And she look at you, then Day, and back to you again. She sighs and says that Day's too sick to stay, and you can't visit him because of that, too. But he doesn't look sick, he looks better than whem he was jn the

Day takes off his hat and fiddles with the sweat band. He says it may be a little big for you, but if you mess with that band a little it should fit well. And he places it on your head before leaving.

But you feel a little bump in the strap, so when you're back in your bed you feel around to see what it is, andyou pull out a folded scrap of paper. A note from Day. It tells you to meet him behind the house in two days, that he'll be waiting after you eat dinner. He also says not to tell anyone he left the note, that it has to be a secret. So you wait the two days amd you excuse yourself early, saying you don't feel well and you're going to to to bed early, if that's okay. And when you're back to your bed you grab all the clothes and items you can before going out the window. You can see in the distance a figure against the red sun, and as it comes closer you recognize it as Day. He says you can live with him, that he has a place you two can stay. It's a little outside of town but it'll be great to live in.

So you go with him to the house. It's small, but it's only the two of them so it doesn't need to be very big. On your first night you curl up next to Day as he rubs your back and you don't hear the people calling your name in the city.

When you ask to go into town Day agrees, but he says only if he can come along. So he grabs both his guns and they go. You can see other people giving you sideways glances for some reason, but you're not sure why. You walk around through stores and in one of them you see your family friend. She must've been worried about you since she ran over to you and knelt down to see your face. You could tell she wanted to say something, but when she looked up at Day she stops herself. You ask what's wrong and she asks if you're okay. Has he been violent? Did anything happen to you? Day places a hand around your shoulder and you shake your head. You tell her that your dìdi wouldn't do anything like that, that you've been having fun living with him since he has all kinds of stories from his work. And it looks like she wants to say something else, but Day ushers you out and to the next place.

A few years go on and you're still living with Day. Ever since you left the communal home he's been leaving more often for work. He says it's harder to get the meat he needs to sell since he'd been noticed a lot, so he has to go to new places. He says theres better quality in some other parts, and he needs that since he's saving up for something really expensive. You give him some coins you got from shoveling snow, but he passes them back and says he needs to get the money himself. You notice he looks a lot more weak than when you first met him, his skin red and clinging to his bones. But he insists he's okay, that's he'll be a lot better soon, if all goes well. So you let him be.

And he comes back one day with some sort of bug. It was shiny and weirdly shaped, and Day said it was very important to him. He said that he would need to be alone for the rest of the night, and that even if you heard Day screaming you needed to stay out. He said that if anything happened to him, you needed to keep him in the ice and wait until morning, that someone he knew would be there. So you agreed, and even though you heard agonizing shrieks from Day's door all night, you didn't bother him. The next morning a woman you had never seen before knocked on the door and asked if Day was alive, and if not then how much would you want for him. You don't know what to say so you just lead them to his door and knock.

He tells you to come in so you do, and he's in a tub of ice, stained red with blood. You scream and ask what happened, why did he say not to come in all night? Did he have to go to a hospital? The woman said no hospital here would know what to do with him, so it was better to keep him here. Day reached out a hand and said that he was fine, he was gonna be a lot better now that he had the bug. He told Ico that he loved him, and it was okay now. You didn't know if Ico was that woman or not, but she rolled her eyes.

The woman kicked the tub, saying she made the trip out here just for him to survive the surgery. He laughed, then stopped because it hurt, and told her he had the rest of the money for her, anyway. You didn't know what they were talking about, but you stayed next to Day, holding his wrist to feel his pulse and make sure he was still alive. He asked you to make him some food, something easy to digest. He told Ico how he always liked the walnut soup he made. You didn't know how to make that, but you could try it.

[slutsofren]

surrender the night

*this is a companion piece to my series, Danger Days, but can be read as a standalone

summary: you and joel have been together for a while, no longer worrying about fireflies or about ellie, the three of you became pretty close-knit out on the road and now in jackson but joel is usually closed off with you today until he wants to show you how much he loves you while hunkering down from the rain.

cw: no y/n, intimate/soft smut, mild bratty reader, slight angst, light humor/teasing, established relationship and life in jackson, joel being emotional AND vulnerable, SARAH MENTION that needs a whole TW i swear

word count: 3,884

a/n: congrats to pedro on this role and welcome new fans to tlou!! <spoilers> tlou2 isnt entirely canon in my version bc our man survives abby and her bullshit so we can all be happy here; but check out my series following the first tlou game with slow burn and other fun tropes here on ao3!

read on ao3 here!

Bandit attacks were on the rise again, always spiking before winter starts and at the tail end of it. You had been pulling nearly nonstop shifts at the wall and scouting nearby. Joel noticed how tired you were getting and tried to convince Tommy and Maria to give you less time on rotation. You thanked him heavily for it but if there was one thing you were good at, it was keeping those you loved safe.

The rifle was heavy in your hands, your thighs warmed by your signature dual handguns there, you were armed to the brim but it did nothing considering the visibility was poor. It was raining on and off since the two of you began your shift but as you neared the small town, it had gotten heavier as you got closer to the last stop on the scouting trail.

Beside you, Joel had been quiet nearly the entire time since the two of you left Jackson and each time you tried to ask him if he was okay, he shrugged you off. It wasn’t unusual for the man, he was a rather private person despite the many many months the two of you had been together.

The one thing that warned you something was wrong was a conversation the two of you had only last night. For the first time ever, Joel spoke of a memory between him and Sarah, the daughter he lost over twenty years ago, of how she would banter with him and keep him on his toes. He smiled while telling you a couple stories of her but fell into a tense silence afterwards that seeped well into today and you figure his silence has to do with it.

Your horses came to a stop in the garage of the safehouse as the two of you jumped down. “I’ll shut it,” you offered quietly as you lowered the garage door to keep the horses safe and warm away from the harsh chill of the winds and rain. Joel gave a grunt of confirmation and he opened the inside door to enter the house, shaking his head a bit to rid his hair of some of the dampness.

As the garage door shuttered gently to the ground, you turned to follow Joel up to the third floor of the safehouse and gave a firm pat against your horse as you walked by. Joel had already begun turning on the small lamps that were sparsely laid around the stairwell to make sure you didn’t trip. This was one of the few three story homes that were still viable despite how broken everything was inside. The walls still had some insulation but the dust and debris were stark reminders of everything that had been lost since the cordyceps virus took the world by storm. 

When you reached the landing, your stomach was in knots, Joel’s behavior wasn’t unusual per say but he was rarely like this with you on scout missions, often being more in the moment with you than his usual reserved self. Being outside of Jackson, the two of you had to communicate in order to stay alive, everybody did. It was the only means to survival but his behavior was beginning to worry you more and more.

You removed the rifle from your shoulder then leaned against the doorframe of the master bedroom, watching as Joel signed in both your names on the sheet on the desk that had been pulled in the room. He sighed heavily and turned to face you, “I don’t think we’ll make it back to Jackson anytime soon with the rain.”

“You’re probably right.” You pushed off from the doorframe and shrugged off your backpack, reaching for the long-range radio. You shifted it in your hands before clicking it on.

“Base, this is Athena’s Mark, please be advised we are hunkering down at the last checkpoint. Rain is too heavy to travel. Over.”

After a couple moments passed, you heard the tell-tale sign of a response with static then a click before Maria’s voice rang out. “Athena’s Mark, your message has been received. Notify Base if there’s any sightings out there. Stay safe you two, over and out.”

You looked up from the radio in your hands and saw Joel leaning against the desk with his arms wrapped in front of his chest. He looked at you and you gave him a soft smile before fully entering the room and setting your weapons and backpack down beside the large bed that was still in rather good condition all these years later and sitting on it.

“Y’know you never told me why your code name was Athena’s Mark,” he asked from behind you, watching as you began to unlace your boots.

You smiled as you recalled the memories. “When I was still running with the Fireflies I would sneak over to the Humanities department and steal some of the abandoned books from the offices. One of the rooms belonged to a Greek historian and I found their book on mythology,” you explained without looking up. “By the time I arrived in Jackson, I still had a few of those books in my possession. One day Maria and I got drunk and she called me Athena as a joke but the name stuck with me on missions.”

You laid the unlaced boots on the floor and laid down in the bed, listening to the rain patter against the roof and windows, drowning out all the outside noise. “She said I looked like a goddess of war when I had blood on me, fighting to protect Jackson.” You threw a hand behind your head and stared at the ceiling before continuing. “If the world hadn’t gone to shit, I’d like to think that’s what I would have done with my life. Become a historian or something.”

“I think I would have liked to see you like that,” Joel said in his gruff voice. You smiled at his words.

“What would you have done?”

“I was a carpenter, and even wanted to start my own business. Work was shit to come by but it paid the bills.”

You smiled, remembering all of his wood carvings in the spare bedroom of his house. “If bills weren’t an issue back then, what would you have wanted to do,” you prompted instead.

“I wanted to be a singer but with Sarah and all,” he trails off. You remembered him admitting this once, forever ago but now the candor feels different because he said her name.

Sarah.

You sit up from the bed and look at him, the broad strong man he is, looks like he’s a million miles away. His eyes are unfocused and his face looks conflicted. You get up and take tentative steps towards your boyfriend. “Joel?”

He looks up at you and unfurls his arms from his chest, instead opening them up at you. You walk to him a bit more confidently and walk straight into his embrace as he wraps his arms around your frame. He buries his face into the crook of your neck while you encompass him and rest one of your hands on the nape of his neck, your fingers gently dancing in his dark hair.

“I love you,” he says, his voice hoarse and thick with emotion. His arms wrap around you tighter, pulling you closer into him. “I think she would have liked you.”

You try to pull back a little to look into his eyes but his grip only tightens around you, refusing to let you budge. “I think I would have liked her too, Joel.”

For a man of few words, the ones he spoke have taken your heart by storm. The two of you have been together for a while but the intimacy between you has rarely been like this.

He stays like this for a few more minutes, composing himself. You play with his hair with one hand and the other draws random circles across his back. Silently telling him you’re there for him. After these moments pass, Joel pulls his head back from the crook of your neck to start leaving a trail of kisses there, his beard leaves a scratchy but familiar burn across your skin.

Without using words, he’s telling you how much he loves you, how much he cares, how much it pains him when you’re not together, and you bask in it. “Joel,” you whine as his kisses suddenly shift to small sucks and bites on the sensitive skin on your neck.

“Come here,” he demands slowly, finally bringing his lips to yours.

As the two of you kiss, he tangles his fingers in your hair, his other hand kneading the flesh on your ass. Joel has you melting in his hands as your worries fade. You figure today was rough on him and you’re more than happy running away from the anxiety.

The two of you do this dance with each other's lips until he pushes off the desk, advancing to his full height towering over you. He doesn’t let you break the kiss instead he presses harder into you deepening it.

The more he wordlessly asks, the more you feel like you’re drowning in him, his scent, his touch.

Joel places both of his hands on your hips as he pushes you backwards, walking you to the bed. The backs of your knees hit it and you stumble a little but his sturdy warm hands keep you from falling down. He breaks the deep kiss the two of you were sharing, both just slightly out of breath but heavily disheveled. A shuddering intake of breath and he leans his forehead on yours, his eyes closed. “Will you have me?”

“Yes,” you sigh against him. “Please.”

Just as you slightly beg, any worried thoughts you had were whisked away as he removed your denim jacket from your body. His large calloused hands worked their way back up to your head, his fingers getting tangled in your hair, gently pulling you back so your neck was exposed.

He gently laid kisses up and down your jaw, taking sweet time and care with you.

Your hands drifted up his torso, unbuttoning his soaked red and black flannel. Once the last button popped, you moved your hands across the expanse of his chest, pushing both his flannel and brown coat off him.

A deep groan rises from Joel’s throat, “Easy now.”

He takes a step back and fingers at the hem of your shirt, pulling it off your body. You rush a little and put your hands behind your back, undoing your bra. Joel watches you silently as you discard the article to the side of the bed where your shirt lay on the floor with his.

His hands return to your body, working themselves at your jeans and he pulls them down, gently easing your leg out of each pant leg. He’s being so gentle with you, being so vulnerable and soft.

You stand in front of him as he remains kneeling in front of you, still in the position he was when he removed your jeans. He leans forward and rests his head on your stomach and you feel his breath over your panties.

“May I,” he asks, fiddling with the elastic waistband.

Your fingers catch in his hair as he pulls back, looking you in the eye when you grant him permission, “Yes.”

His eyes study you as he tentatively pulls your panties down, letting them fall. He comes back against your skin, kissing from the tops of your thighs and makes his way upwards across your stomach, between the valley of your breast, your chest, and neck, before finally coming back and kissing you on the lips.

“Get on the bed for me, will you?”

“Uh-huh,” you mumble, lost in this tender moment with your lover.

Naked and kneeling on the bed, Joel fixes his stare on you, taking his time to unbutton his belt then jeans. His eyes trail over your body, watching as you begin to squirm under his watch.

He pushes forward and kneels on the bed before maneuvering himself to lean back against the headrest. He grabs your leg to swing over his thighs to make you straddle him but his hands stay at your waist, keeping you from fully sitting on his clothed cock by giving attention to your breasts, licking and biting gently as he did with your neck not moments before.

“You’re breathtaking.”

A giggle leaves you at his words aligned with feeling overstimulated by the way his mouth and beard felt on your skin. “Joel, please.”

“Settle down, you heathen,” he says between nips and kisses. You feel him smile across your skin as he pulls you down onto the sheets, coming back to your lips to kiss you more and more. His hands encompass your body, roaming up and down the valleys on your skin, completely enamored with you. 

“Make me,” you tease against his lips.

Joel takes this as a challenge and he sits up, leaving you prone against the pillows. He towers over you, his thick fingers dancing gently across your skin, making a winding trail down your body. “Please,” you begged softly.

Joel said nothing as he sank two of his rough fingers into you and laid down between your thighs to suck and lick at your clit. Your hands flew to his shaggy black hair, taking a sharp inhale at the sensations. Joel eats you out nervously, taking pride in the way you moan to the walls of the empty house. Your sharp intakes of breath get lost under the patter of rain against the roof and windows.

“I love you,” he says against your heat. “I love you so fuckin’ much.”

Your breath is already stolen away at the way he fucks you with his mouth and fingers but you’re breathless by the way he admits his love for you. The vulnerability of it makes you come against his tongue.

“That’s my girl, that’s it.”

His approval and praise send you soaring but he doesn’t slow down his efforts, instead going faster. Before you could even come down from the blissful high of an orgasm, another tidal wave is rising again. “Joel, I’m coming again,” you whine.

“Come as many times as you want,”

He leaves another trail of kisses across your stomach as he makes his way back to kiss you on your lips. You can feel your wetness on him, taste yourself on his tongue and you moan into him. 

“Lay down, let me treat you,” you say in a low voice as you try to push Joel against the bed. He leans up and puts his hands on your wrists, stopping you.

“No, tonight is about you.”

“Wha-,” he cuts you off with another opened mouth kiss on your lips, he keeps kissing you down your neck to your left  arm, not stopping until he’s kissing your hand.

“Have I ever told you how pretty you are,” he whispers against your palm. “The first time I saw you, I fell for you. You had your gun pointed right at me, coulda killed me.”

“I’m glad I didn’t.”

He huffs, hot breath hitting your hand. “I sure as hell am too.”

He drops your hand and shifts on the bed, removing the last piece of cloth covering his erect cock, “I think I woulda let you toss my ass around that first day I laid eyes on you, if I’d known then what I know now.”

“You almost didn’t let me go with you, remember,” you tease.

“Would’ve been the biggest regret of my damn life, sweetheart.” He drops his boxers to the floor, not taking his eyes off you.

“Tell me again, Joel.”

He line’s himself up with you, “I’m glad I found you.” He gently thrusts only the head of his cock into you and pulls out. “I’m glad you never put up with my bullshit.” He repeats his movements but pushes a little more into your wet cunt. “You’re so goddamn beautiful.” Finally he pushes himself all the way in, eliciting a sharp whine from you. “Fuck, I’m so lucky.”

Your lover pushes back your thighs, allowing him to fuck you deeply. His movements stir that insatiable beast inside you, constantly lingering for more and more pleasure.

He sinks harder and faster into you as his warm hands grasp your hips, his eyes trained on the way your soaked pusst takes him so deeply. He’s locked on the sight of the way the two of you are connected just as how you are mesmerized by watching him.

“Do you feel as good as I do, darlin’?”

You respond by squeezing around his cock, “You feel so good in me.”

It was like he got a second wind by the way he fucks you even harder than before. You throw your head back as you feel the familiar rumble in your abdomen and you squeeze your legs around him, not allowing him to pull out further. Joel surprises you by using two fingers to rub tight circles against your clit. 

You bite down on your lip to try and contain the coming moan but fail. He feels too good in you, on top of you. His scent invades your mind bringing you to the ultimate climax. Your head is tossed back and a throaty loud moan is released into the air by you.

“Joeljoeljoel,” you plead, coming again against him, your legs spread so far to allow him to penetrate you deeper. Your orgasm rolls through you like waves and your body lifts in response, searching for more, more, more. 

He continues to pound harshly into you, not swaying in pace. “You’re so beautiful when you come around me, feels heavenly too,” he moans above you. The hand he had tangled in your hair moves to your jaw, his thumb caressing your bottom lip as you sigh, coming down from your high.

Joel’s thrusts soon turn erratic and sloppy as he chases his own high, you hear a deep growl rise from his throat. “Fuck, shit,” he breathes, pulling out of you swiftly, pouring himself over your stomach.

You reach up and thread your fingers in his hair, pulling him up for a kiss. You praise, “Good boy.” 

Vulnerable, Joel laughs and sits up on his knees to look down at you. Basking in your afterglow with remnants of his love smeared across the expanse of your stomach that reflected in the soft glow from the lamps and setting sun. He fingers his own hair with both hands, sweeping his messy locks back. 

He gives you an indecipherable look that he hides by shifting off the bed and rummaging through his backpack insearch of a rag to clean you with. He returns and does his usual routine while you lie on the bed, feeling warm and safe.

He returns to the bed and you crawl on top of him, seeking to add his warmth to yours to fight away the rainy chill. His arms wrap around your back, holding you close. Refusing to let you move away.

Together, the both of you came down from your blissful highs, your breaths synchronizing into calm and slow inhales and exhales. You laid your head on his shoulder, dancing your fingers along his chest drawing nonsensical designs. The two of you laid like that for a while, you listened as his headbeat fluctuated from steady to rapid and back as if he was working himself up. Just before you open your mouth to ask if he was alright, he took a sharp inhale.

“I’ve been thinkin’,” he starts.

“Oh, no. Nothing good comes from you thinking,” you laugh, hoping to ease his mind.

Joel squeezes your hip and pulls you closer, “Hey now, none of that shit.” You laugh a little more at teasing him before he takes another sharp inhale as he continues. “As I was sayin’, I know this isn���t conventional, hell, none of this is conventional,” he gestures wildly in the air, “but I was wonderin’ if you’d do me some kind of honor and make me your husband.”

This knocks the breath out of you, more than the wonderful dick down he just gave you. You lean up and face him, trying to make eye contact but his stubbornness doesn’t let him take his gaze off of the ceiling.

“Joel, are you serious,” you ask.

He furrows his brow before letting go of your body and getting up from the bed. You’re about to start protesting when you see him reach for his own backpack and pull out a wooden box before he sits back on the bed and stares at it hard.

“Y’know I was married before. Back then. I never wanted to do it again, especially not in this world. But then I met you. That shit don’t compare to how much I love your ass. You’re smart, you keep this old man in check, and most of all,” he looks at you, “we don’t get to take life for granted any more. Not when every time we leave Jackson could mean we don’t make it back alive. I want to marry you in every meaningful way, even if you are a goddamn brat.”

As he says this, your eyes fill with tears and you sit up on the bed, facing him. “Is that why you’ve been so quiet today?”

He nods once, “What? You make me fuckin’ nervous.”

You smile wide and lay your hands on his, over the box. “I love you, Joel Miller, you stubborn old bastard. Now gimme the damn ring”

Joel lets out a sharp laugh at your words and lets a smile hang on his lips. He opens the box and hands it to you where you see a beautiful silver ring with a delicate floral design. A gasp leaves you as you take it in, how intricate and ornate it looks.

“Talked to the blacksmith and got it made for you especially,” he explains.

You take the ring from the box to admire it closer before Joel takes it from you and places it on your ring finger. “You had Gustavo make this for me?”

“I told him your favorite flowers and he did the rest.”

You’re too stunned to speak by his admission. He knew of your love and attachments to the old blacksmith which made this ring that much more beautiful in your eyes. You pull the elegant ring out of the box, treating it like it’s fragile before placing it on your finger.

“I’ve been wanting to marry you since you saved my damn life,” he admits. “But it wasn’t until last night when I told you about Sarah without feeling angry or sad when I knew it was time.”

His confession wells tears in your eyes again, his long since passed daughter was always a subject the two of you danced around, even his ex-wife. Him talking about this, about Sarah, it means he’s nearly ready to open up and it means the world to you.

“Does this mean I finally get to teach Ellie how to throw knives now?”

“Absolutely not, what the fuck?”

[survivor-mesopotamia]

Ep. #1 - “hail santa that is all.” (Chrissa)

Nothing much really so far. We got into tribes so far everyone seems cool ans all so can't wait to see what happens from here.

Opening thoughts: I'm very much downplaying my knowledge, making it seem like I care most about challenges, know nothing about how online Survivor works (I played and hosted one) and not a massive amount about the actual show either, asking a lot of questions. Trying to find people with the most similar personalities and let others propose any alliances.

boy am i overwhelmed

Day 1; So I'm sitting here, eating dinner, a salad with garlic bread and a mike's hard pineapple strawberry lemonade, and I decide to do a confessional! Lets talk about my tribe, first and foremost. We're the "Second Chances" tribe. Fitting, we're all FLOPS. Imma do this in the order we were REVEALED to the world. Because that's cute, right? We're basically the beauty tribe bc everyone is lowkey real scrumptious lookin. Eric; Before this game, Eric and I bonded in the Ahkmim VL about how we never get cast for tumblr survivor, and how we're waiting for redemption, and I'd feel bad leaving him as the first boot. So hopefully he'd also feel bad, and wanna talk to me. I don't think the two of us have much in common yet, he's into anime, and reading, which is like, two things I'm not really down for, but I'm definitely gonna give Spirited Away a try sometime soon so I can talk to him about it. I kinda wanna ask if the red in his hair is naturally like.. blood red. But maybe that's the lighting in the room, or maybe he died it even MORE ginger, because I often hear to him referred to as GINGER Eric, but also i don't wanna have an awkward "No, this is just like.. normal ginger" conversation. Megan; Ohhhh Megan.. my girl Megan. We've had a rocky road in our friendship, and I wish I was just talking about ice cream. Something about her though just makes me have infinite patience for the things the two of us deal with, I can't help but just want to be with her all the time. I scouted her out from FaceBook to play my Whodunnit, and we've been extremely close ever since, our game relationship has been rocky enough for me to worry slightly about her, but all I can do is trust her, and build good enough relationships with other people that if she tried to fuck me over, I would know, and strike first. Its still unclear to this day whether she had a hand in my elimination in a Big Brother game we played, 1984. What is crystal clear, is that we cried together while she cast her vote to evict me. I love her, won't never stop lovin her. I'm hoping this can be OUR season to dominate, because I feel like we're almost evenly matched when it comes to a jury vote. Will; "Whoop-de-do" iconic king of not getting his haircut. Uhh.. idk what all to say, because before the game, I knew nothing of this man. However, Monty said something about him being alive and on Skype, and my mind immediately goes to "Is he hot?" and I check his profile, and publicly announce that he's hot. Which isn't FALSE, but then we both get revealed for the game, and put on the same tribe. So now we're vibing, and relating on the fact that tumblr players hate us, and we've deemed each other, "Heather". He's currently petitioning to call our tribe "The Heathers" instead of Enlil. We get on really well, and he's pretty damn cute. Also, he goes to bed SO early, I hope we get enough time to talk and get close on this tribe. Julian; Well. This is a lot to unpack, but I found out he was playing about 3 days before the game, and since that point. He's gotten unnecessarily aggressive with me, and a couple others over non-tumblr related matters. Julian and I have a rocky history, between me being recruited, and auto-casted for his ORG, Trinity Survivor, his ex-co-host/current-best friend berating me, and deleting messages to make me look bad. To Julian throwing passive aggressive low-blows about my social ineptitude in my face if I'm angry about something, to us making final 3 together in minis. Overall, I'm constantly at odds about how I perceive our relationship, I want to be able to assume the best of him, and say that I'm good in his book, no matter what happens. I think a lot of the time, our friend group isn't the most mature, and it is really difficult to have an adult conversation with someone from within that friend group, without someone else having an opinion to share on it, so I've heard things that he's said about me, that I'm not necessarily sure if its true or not, but I try my best to hold a strong, level head and smile whenever I see him, but sometimes its difficult wanting to approach a conversation with someone head on, but knowing that you can't do that with him is definitely a struggle of mine. We have very different communication styles, and its difficult to see past it sometimes. For now, I'm going to be working with him, but I'm not sure how long that can last, as he admits it himself, he can only handle my personality for short periods of time. Jack; Well, Jack hasn't said a single word for the last three hours, since the game has begun. I don't WANT to have to stay up till 5-6 in the morning to try to have a conversation with him, but if that's what I gotta do, then that's what I gotta do. Chrissa; Chrissa, Todd. My LOVE. Chrissa is someone that I owe something to, she's amazing, beautiful, talented, show stopping, never before seen, etc. Our game relationship is not great, because I organized her first boot in Ascendance Season 4; Back to the Future. However, it was because she was attached to someone that kept accusing me of having powers behind my back. So, hopefully Chrissa forgives me, and gives me another chance, because I'd love to work with her. I feel like Chrissa is someone who is extremely intelligent, and loyal, and that's someone I want on my side. I love my tribe, lets win every challenge until the merge!!

Well... I’m back again... not going inactive this time! Let’s just do a quick roundup for now: JJ seems to think we’re in a showmance already which is either great or bad for my game, Megan’s a sweetheart and I could see us aligning, Eric is definitely a gamer and I have a feeling he’ll be a loyal, jack and Julian are both pretty straightforward and seem on the quieter side, and Chrissa straight up vanished already so we’ll see how that goes! Basically somebody thinks I’m their husband but I don’t know if I ever signed the prenup, but if it means JJ is gonna spill on how he feels about everyone then that’s some good insight. Nobody really wants to talk game yet but that’ll change soon!! Kk bye for now

Night 1/Morning 2: Everyone on my tribe seems extremely cool and I'm loving the way the tribes are divided. The only name I recognized on the cast was Monty's and he's on my tribe! I don't know him personally but I think he first played around when I was hosting a season. I have hit it off with Johnny the best so far I think, and definitely Isabelle as well. I seem to have a lot in common with both of them on a personal level. Strategically, I haven't locked anything down yet. I don't want to come right out and blurt "ALLIANCE?" with anyone; for right now I'm just trying to play it cool, get to know people as well as I can, and be a likeable presence in the tribe so people just wanna have me around.

I just asked Collin to talk to Adam about forming a four person alliance, which Collin will "bring" me into while Adam suggests someone. This might secure me in a four person alliance which would be ideal, but if it backfires, it will backfire on Collin, not on me. I'm trying to get myself into a majority while insulating myself from being seen as the strategic threat

First confessional before first IC

I was thrust on a good tribe we have JJ and Eric and hopefully this group of people won't make us last in competitions atleast lol maybe if we lose though hopefully i can argue why jack needs to go with his timezone but hopefully i don't have too. 

im ngl idk why i decided to play tumblr survivor again and the instant paranoia of just caring about my PLACEMENT is going to keep me up at night *shivers*

It's been a day in and so far I really like our tribe! I'm vibing with a few of them and it looks like there's been alliance formed between myself, Julian and JJ. JJ has said that he owes it to Chrissa not to vote her out if we lose, and I think he has something with Megan on the side based off what Julian has told me. That leaves Will and Jack, and I've talked with Will a ton. Tomorrow I'm gonna try and see if he wants to work with me too because I feel like to win this season, you will need to keep all your options open. 

Day 2: I got to talk to Jack last night, he was talkin about how he did some funky fresh survivor statistics on how tribe swaps affect tribe line loyalties, which I found super interesting. Then I decided to share a statistics thingy I did on how the Final 3 format doesn't produce an even ratio of male / female winners, but the Final 2 format does, and how potentially something about the final 3 format in survivor could be a factor in why we haven't had enough female winners in the last few generations of survivor. But he didn't even believe there was a female bias in survivor.. which kinda threw me off. Oh well, we ended the conversation on a good note before I went to bed. Well, the tribe seems to be getting along well, I tried to get a tribe call going, but it ended up just being me and Megan helping Chrissa with strategies to get higher scores in the challenge. She can't seem to break 100, and I feel really bad for her, I hope the rest of us can carry this competition, because I would feel like the worst human being in the world if I gave someone first boot twice in a row. Not to mention I'd consider Chrissa a friend of mine. Maybe I'm playing this game a bit too emotionally, before we even have our first tribal. What a concept.. Will and I are only getting closer and closer, we continuously refer to each other, affectionately, as "Heather". But he really lied to me today, pretty hard core. He said he was gonna order his weight in mexican food when he got off work... but he ate Thai instead...? How dare he ??? Rude. Anyways, if he's lying about that, what else could he lie to me about? Smh. Fuckboys amirite? I think that if we lose this challenge, Jack would be an easy vote off. He's in a different timezone, and his age unfortunately would make it really difficult to have a decent social game. If we lose more than once, there's one of two things that could happen.. 1.) There's a standoff between Julian, Megan and I, trying to maneuver this tribe to remove each other. Which is exactly why a friendship / showmance / whatever with Will is so important. Will would likely be the swing vote they try to get, I don't see Chrissa voting me out if I prove my loyalty at the first tribal our tribe faces. 2.) The three of us dominate the premerge portion of the game, and it becomes an impossible to maneuver situation for me at the merge, because all the connections I have outside of my own tribe, both Julian or Megan also have a hand in, with the exception of Jay, who I don't find myself falling that closely to. I feel like I might be thinking too much, too fast. I guess I just can't show the rest of my tribe that. I'm hoping my reads on the tribe are at least somewhat correct this time around. :/

Collin never ended up messaging Adam, and I was worried about falling behind the 8-ball, so I took alliance building measures into my own hands. I messaged Zach about joining up by stating that Collin had told me he also had a good conversation with Zach, and I made sure Zach didn't just feel "brought in" by asking him which person he would want to be 4 in our alliance. He suggested Cameron, which is fine by me. He hasn't officially reached out to Cameron yet, but our plan is to bring Cameron in if we end up losing, and I will probably want to vote Kyle or Grace in that scenario. Hope we don't lose though!

I don't really (or at least usually) stress about challenges and definitely not this early in the game, but some of these people are so stressed and panicky. Will (who I talked to about aligning earlier today like I had said I would in my last confessional) is stressed about not being able to beat his current high score of 199 and feels like he's on the lower end and might be eliminated. I was telling him though that this isn't necessarily about your score, but your ranking. You can get 209 or 189 and still get the same ranking. Chrissa on the other hand is totally panicking. She has an admittedly low score of 89 which she forgot to screenshot which is really rough. She same flash games aren't her thing (and I believe her) but when I tried to calm her down and say there's lots of time to improve and that we can win this, she continued to panic. There's not much I can do for her. I'm not aligned with her right now and she's just really scared to get first boot, which I don't even think will happen. JJ feels obliged not to make her first boot should the scenario present itself, and I'm aligned with him and Julian. If anyone's going home right now, it's probably Jack unless he has connections I am unaware of. I would really like to win though because I love our beauty tribe xoxo 

I managed to find the idol clue, and in telling my formed trio of Collin and Zach, Zach accidentally revealed that he had found it too. I don't think he intended to tell me, so now I am not sure if I fully trust him. I'll work with him for now, but he is going to be a big move player and I'll have to watch out for that

Forgive me father for i have sinned it's been a day since my last confession I've made some progress me and grace knowing each other well pregame means i have an instant ally coming in to help not be first.....or second out and me and Collin seem to be kinda working together I guess?? I hope not fully sure but I feel confident I'm not going if we go to tribal.

hiiii so glad to be back in the game!!!! So thankful I have the opportunity to redeem myself after my huge flop in 94, but lowkey worried about being on the An tribe? Only because it is filled with people who have done well in the past I’m not sure how to measure where I fall within them, but everyone has been very nice and seems to get along with me so far! Also it seems like there is no suspicion from them about Zach and I being siblings which is STELLAR. From looking at the cast I think the only person who knows for sure is JJ, and perhaps Megan? But thankfully they aren’t on a tribe with either of us so that might work in our favor. I’m a little nervous about this first challenge but I have one of the highest scores on my tribe atm, so I feel like if we go to tribal it might be okay. Fingers crossed hehe ;))

FUCK entanglement! FUCK IT IT IS THE WORK OF THE DEVIL hail santa that is all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBoZlL8ZWzY

Zach is playing super hard out in the open. That is good for me, he can make connections to help our alliance, and if there is ever a moment where our alliance gets exposed, he will probably be out in the forefront as a target. The flip side of that is that I might not be able to go to the end with him if he could be perceived as the leader of my alliance, so I'll need to see how the game develops

We came in second in the immunity challenge by ONE POINT. Thank the lord because our group seems very cohesive at the moment, and going to tribal would have put everyone into scramble mode. I've been bonding the closest over the first 4 days with Isabelle, and I am hoping it can lead to a strong game relationship. Right now, we seem to be very social with one another and we have gone as far as to say we wouldn't vote for one another, but I'm still sort of waiting for that defining confirmation (as much as you can get that in Survivor). After that, I'd say I've been pretty chatty with Johnny and Monty equally (but I think I have a slightly tighter personal bond so far with Johnny). Abrielle I talked to more so over the first couple of days but I would say between her, Jay and Madison those are the ones I've made the least connection with. They all seem like good people, just haven't had as much traction chatting with them. I don't want us to go to tribal for as long as we can help it, because for me the best case scenario heading into a swap would be if our tribe had the numbers advantage and some sort of tribe-wide unity going into it. I feel like that way I could be in a good spot but also not in the forefront of the tribe alliance (I'd hope that would sort of fall on Monty or Johnny maybe because of their Tumblr Survivor experience). For now though, just continuing to get to know everyone as best I can and try and make sure people want me around, and have me in their plans moving forward.

https://youtu.be/2ix-llpzUOQ

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https://youtu.be/bwCjV8my_Zc ok my mom walked in so i didn't get to finish my thought, but i guess the full thought is just: what the fuck? like i'm really gonna be watching this vid on repeat while y'all are just trolling us. this will end up in my nightmares. know that. also my paranoia is once again setting in. as i mentioned in previous confessional, i feel like ben and i have bonded the most, and we've both pointed it out to each other, but now i feel like he's pointing it out... almost too much? he's basically comparing our convos to his with the rest of the tribe and that they're much better (which i lowkey agree), but something feels fishy because again IM PARANOID. AM I BEING PLAYED?? like literally the scenario in my mind is that everyone's aligned except me and ben has been chosen as the bug to make me feel comfortable. okay yes im crazy. and it's only day 2 whew! im going to bed goodnight.

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ok now ive found a video about spectograms the channel has liked. this hunt is getting me anxious bc slowly but surely the amount of views on the immunity idol vid is increasing. AHHHH

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ok i found the spectogram and it literally spells out "SINK." (also this shit is scary so again, my nightmare comment holds.) so there are 5 other followers, which makes me know for sure that at least 5 other ppl have found this vid. also i have no idea what to do with the word. i assume that it'll come in handy eventually (maybe a password? send in a chat? comment on the vid? something?) and i really really hope im the only person to find this. i know that's unlikely tho.

---

oh my god. oh my fucking god. the clue is at survivor-mesopotamia.tumblr.com/sink . im screaming. proud of myself. BUT of course it says... "clue Though you have found it, No clue has emerged. UNDER CONSTRUCTION, Come back when you’ve merged." i- i have to wait until i've merged. HA. we'll see if bitches get that far. and im bitches. anyways sorry for the spam, now back to your regularly scheduled programming

Day 3: I almost forgot to do this confessional. But here I am, in bed, watching Avatar, and drinking butterscotch milk with Irish cream, which is surprisingly good? Anyways, here we go! First, you’re telling me that we LOST the challenge.. what the hell :( I thought I did so well having 188, but apparently even 256 wasn’t going to cut it. The fact that if Jack could improve his score by 30 points, means we’d be safe from tribal, it annoys me that it felt like he didn’t try as hard as Chrissa in the flash game? Julian, he says we can beast through this game and make final three. This is something I’d really love to be able to trust that he has in mind, but I just am unsure at this moment. He gave me information towards the idol search that I appreciate, and probably wouldn’t have figured it out myself. That felt good, but I feel like he wasn’t giving me everything he knew, just enough to make me feel comfortable. I’ll have to continue to keep my eye on him.. Next, Heather, or Will, my potential showmance. We’ve finally got the opportunity to call each other, we talked about the idol search, and our potential moves in the future. He told me he likes the idea of not playing with Julian, but right after he told me this, Julian asked if we were good? Which was kinda sketch. But I’ll do my best to trust Will, and call it a weird coincidence. Megan hasn’t talked to me much today, but she was a room moderator for sequester, and was visiting a friend today, so I can’t blame her. Chrissa is hopefully safe, I can’t give her first boot in back to back games together, I refuse to be that heartless. She’s so good I can’t do it. Eric hasn’t talked to me much either. For someone who should probably know that his name is on the block, I’m surprised Jack isn’t talking too much to me? Maybe it’s because I’m on the chopping block and I don’t know it. I’d be really heartbroken if I were the first boot.

So we lost the challenge by ONE FREAKING POINT, which sucks ass. But not me doing the best in my tribe on the challenge. We stan improvement. Anyway, it looks like the discussion for the vote is between Jack and Chrissa, namely Jack. Though Chrissa performed worse in the challenge, she's done a better job connecting with the rest of us than Jack has. As of now, that's what the general concensus is. I talked to Julian and he agreed, and we are aligned with JJ. Chrissa would vote our way to make sure it isn't her. Another thing that's happening is the idol search. The video made literally no freaking sense, but when the channel liked this video about spectograms, Julian put the video into it and it spelled sink. It turned out that by putting the word sink into the blog link, it says a clue will be there but at the merge. I guess this means for now there will be no idols, so as long as the people im with are truthful, the person who is planned to go home at tribal will go home without a shadow of a doubt.

https://youtu.be/ury1fLaZQec

Right now everyone on the tribe is at peace and getting along, but we all know that’s gonna change when we go to tribal council.

I'm sad we lost the first challenge. I came back to do better than i did the first time, so the idea of being the first boot would suck. I'm not that close with Chrissa so 100% she's my vote. She has played more seasons than all of us & the second chancers deserve their time. Also, Chrissa did the worst out of us in the challenge so it makes it easier to convince everyone to vote for her, but i also dont want to be the one who targets her first because that could come back round to me, and i would hate that as i've waited over a year for a 2nd shot at this. At the moment i'm closest with JJ & Will F, they are 100% my final 3 right now. I like Megan & Eric as well. I've only had 1 comversation with Julian and we did get on well but we havent talked about anything since then. I've tried to talk to Chrissa but she's never really tried to talk to me.

Hi!! Megan for my first confessional!! Yall are gonna have to remind me throughout my time in this game to do these because I'm SO bad at remembering to do confessionals lmaooo. So this first round there's been a lot going on. There are three tribes- newbies, flops, and a tribe of vets who have played well. Clearly I am on the flop tribe, because I was a SAD pre-merge boot in Svalbard. I was feeling really excited about my tribe and definitely thought we could do well and at least not lose the first challenge - we don't want to be flops again!! But alas, after a long day of doing that stupid entanglement flash game, we have proven our labels and FLOPPED yet again, getting last. SO. now we have to go to tribal council tonight. I am out of town this weekend so I haven't been able to talk to many people but I hope I can make it through this first vote. All I've heard so far is that people want to keep the tribe strong so we don't lose another challenge, and based on the first challenge scores, the two bottom challenge players would be Chrissa and Jack. So far I have heard that people want to do Jack instead of Chrissa, which I am fine with. I haven't talked to him that much and I think the time zone difference unfortunately puts him at a disadvantage, so honestly, we should probably vote him out first. I am nervous of course though because people have been fairly quiet and that's never a good thing, but I am hoping and praying that nothing crazy happens and Jack is the first boot and all is good and fine with that. Okay now I'll talk a little about the players on the tribe and how I feel about them- Okay so obviously I know JJ and Julian fairly well from previous games & also being in various group chats together. So far we are planning on working together as a trio and I am GOOD with that so far. Chrissa I have played with once before but she's not very social or talkative, and tbh, I haven't had a DM with her in this game yet, but she seems sweet. Eric I like a lot, he is funny and outgoing and a little chaotic and I love that in him. I think I know him from something previously but quite honestly I don't remember him, but he remembers me LOL. I hope they're good memories. Jack, again, I haven't talked to him much because of the time difference I think. Also isn't he like a minor? Oof that's weird. Anyway onto the final member of my tribe - the king, the legend, the literal love of my life - WILL!!!! I had never met Will before this game but we vibed IMMEDIATELY. We get along so well and we have a lot of things in common and we like the same kinda things. We've had a lot of really good conversations already and I feel the closest to him in this game by far, even though I have known other people on my tribe longer. I adore Will and I will do everything in my power to make sure we both get as far in this game as we can. Okay I think that's enough for a first confessional, bye!!!

Things have been pleasant and slow so far. Everyone on the tribe seems nice and at this point I’m still just hoping that we’ll all get as far in the game as possible at the expense of the more experienced players. I’m a little concerned because I haven’t really been party to any strategy talk yet; I think that’s just because no one has thought it necessary while we don’t have to go to tribal, but I’m still worried I might just be on the outs and not know it.

hiiii so glad to be back in the game!!!! So thankful I have the opportunity to redeem myself after my huge flop in 94, but lowkey worried about being on the An tribe? Only because it is filled with people who have done well in the past I’m not sure how to measure where I fall within them, but everyone has been very nice and seems to get along with me so far! Also it seems like there is no suspicion from them about Zach and I being siblings which is STELLAR. From looking at the cast I think the only person who knows for sure is JJ, and perhaps Megan? But thankfully they aren’t on a tribe with either of us so that might work in our favor. I’m a little nervous about this first challenge but I have one of the highest scores on my tribe atm, so I feel like if we go to tribal it might be okay. Fingers crossed hehe ;))

I’m SCARED I’ve been out of the loop for TOO LONG. 

from what I've heard i am safe i won't be comfortable until i heard the votes not being all me. 

https://youtu.be/oX4-_QPoqNk

https://youtu.be/YviOufmjmps

My brand is having 4 minute confessionals

from episode 1 https://youtu.be/VqDkCGLTARU

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from episode 1 also https://youtu.be/mklfEHtGp04

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9UqNr3fbiE

Jack voted out 6-1

[noussommeslessquelettes]

I'm a sucker for number 12 if you fancy giving it a go?

bro honestly me too? It’s kinda funny bc the next chapter of Left as in Gone has this trope too! So part of me was like “do I even gotta write another thing?” but then of COURSE the answer was “absolutely u do” so yes here have a this thing.

Thanks for your patience; I hope you enjoy!

Preview: “So you’re not going to tell him?”

“I…” Lance’s voice lowered to a murmur. “You’re sure he’s asleep?”

Pidge hummed assent. “He could sleep through the apocalypse, honest.”

“So?” Hunk prompted.

Send me a ship with one of these and I’ll write a mini fic

Full disclosure, Keith had actually woken up about fifteen minutes ago. B-list action movies were the worst genre of film, as far as falling asleep in the middle of them went, and all it had taken was one (of several, he’d gleaned over the last quarter hour) car explosion too many to jolt him begrudgingly out of his slumber.

Still, he’d learned many years ago that if you fell asleep at the end of a movie, people usually didn’t expect you to help clean up after. And though the trick no longer worked with movie nights at home—not since Adam had moved in—it had worked like a charm with his new friends over the past few months. As the end credits rolled before his closed eyelids, the couch beneath him creaked under someone standing up with a yawn.

“Let’s draw a dick on his face,” Pidge muttered.

Never mind, Keith groaned internally, lamenting the loss of his sloth for the sake of his pride. He drew in a breath—

“Don’t.”

And let it go. It was almost a task to keep his slack expression from adopting a furrowed brow, because that was definitely—

“Just let him be.” The scrape of a plastic bowl on a wooden coffee table played harmony to Lance’s continued argument, the creak of the floorboards his percussion. “He deals with enough torture from us already.”

Hunk scoffed from his place on the recliner, the silence of a nonverbal communication hanging in the air before Lance’s footfalls echoed back into the room.

Lance clicked his tongue. “The things I do for him—and he’s never going to know,” he muttered.

“Probably ‘cause of how you act when he’s awake,” Hunk pointed out, the sharp click of the recliner locking back upright following suit.

“Yeah, well—” another wordless gesture, probably “—okay? I’m dealing with it the best I can.”

Keith almost rolled his eyes, figuring the vaguery was about as much reasoning as Lance could have for the continued tension between the two of them, despite Lance denouncing their purported (A.K.A. fabricated) rivalry some few weeks ago.

Until Pidge’s response, that is.

“So you’re not going to tell him?”

“I…” Lance’s voice lowered to a murmur. “You’re sure he’s asleep?”

He felt a scrutinous gaze against his skin, and he did his best to sell the slump in his body (the tension it gave him likely not helping his case, but it must’ve been enough for Pidge.)

She hummed assent. “He could sleep through the apocalypse, honest.”

“So?” Hunk prompted.

Lance sighed. “‘Course not.”

Keith bit his tongue. Could these assholes start being more specific? Or at least have the decency to leave the room so he could pretend to wake up without embroiling himself in this secret that he can’t even understand anyway?

Hunk gave a low whistle. “Never thought I’d live to see the day.”

“Does this mean loverboy Lance has hung up his bow and arrow?”

Keith’s heart kicked in his chest. Wait, loverboy? Did she mean…

“You said it yourself: it’d only freak him out if he knew—and I’m not going to do that to the group. ‘Sides, Keith needs us: his only other friends are his dog and brother-in-law, and Adam only counts on good days.” He laughed, but the others didn’t seem as eager to join in.

Hunk gave an uneasy sound. “I don’t know if Keith—”

“He would. Trust me—Pidge?”

“I…” She sighed. “I won’t say I’ve run the numbers, but it’s not exactly promising.”

“It’s not worth it,” Lance concluded. “Even if he’d stay, what’s the point? It’s not like I have a chance anyway.”

“Lance—”

“You’re going to tell me I’m a catch?” Lance interrupted, then laughed. “Please do; I need to hear it.”

Hunk joined in with a chuckle of his own. “If I didn’t have a girlfriend, I’d date you in a heartbeat.”

Lance’s hand thumped against his chest. “A man after my own heart. Pidge?”

She scoffed. “If I had to date anyone, I think you’d be one of the least offensive options out there.”

Empty beer bottles clinked against each other. “Oh, it’s an honour just to be nominated!”

“Y’need any help, bud?” Hunk called out after his retreating steps.

“Nah, you guys can head home; I got the rest of it.”

Hunk lowered his voice, clearly addressing Pidge. “Draw straws on who’s got to wake him up?”

“Just let him sleep,” Lance answered, his voice floating over the back of the couch now. “I’ll drive him home when he wakes up.”

“Ooh,” Pidge cooed, “want him all to yourself, do you?”

“Don’t want us to know how long you’re going to watch him sleep?”

“You—” Lance groaned. “I thought we were being nice to Lance tonight!”

“We were,” Pidge argued. “Hunk, we were nice, weren’t we?”

“Super nice,” Hunk agreed, “so now we get to be mean.”

“Ugh, you guys are the worst.” The couch complained as he pushed off, their voices echoing towards the front door. “Why do I tell you anything, again?”

“‘Cause we already know all of your other secrets,” Pidge replied. “You’re forced to trust us now.”

Lance sucked on his teeth. “Yeah, can’t have that shit leaked to the press.” The front door was wrenched open. “Love you, assholes.”

Hunk and Pidge’s goodbyes were a bit too quiet for Keith to discern, but soon after they were spoken, the front door slid shut, and Keith was insulated in the soft bubble of silence of Lance’s living room. He held his breath for Lance to step out of sightline long enough so he could feign rousing, practically celebrating when Lance’s footsteps led him back to the living room, hoping they’d keep on going to the kitchen.

The echo stilled, just as he reached the foot of the couch.

“Of course, you have to look adorable when you sleep, too,” he practically spat under his breath. Then he heaved a sigh, and continued to the kitchen.

The moment the sound transferred from hardwood to tile, Keith pushed himself up to sit. His stiff muscles complained, and he rolled out his shoulders as his eyes cracked open, taking in the gentle lamplight and distant kitchen light with squinted eyes. He yawned, elbows resting on his knees as he rubbed his fingers into his eyelids.

“Oh, you’re awake.”

Keith drew in his first full breath, turning to look over his shoulder as Lance walked back in from the kitchen. “Mm.” He cleared his throat, his voice still heavy with the sleep he hadn’t feigned earlier. He scanned the living room then as Lance passed the couch, picking up a couple empty soda cans from the coffee table. He remembered himself a little, and decided to ask, “Where’s Hunk and Pidge?”

He swore he saw Lance freeze for a split-second when he asked it, saw a tension in his shoulders dissipate when he looked Keith in the eye again. He gave an apologetic smile. “Yeah, Pidge didn’t want to wait ‘til you got up to drive you home.”

Keith almost felt uneasy under Lance’s gaze—his attention undivided in the low light, his expression soft and open, dare Keith even say fond. He had no business looking at him like that, not when Keith had just woken up, and probably had bedhead or—shit, did he? He ducked and smoothed his hair down with his hands, hoping it looked as casual as he’d envisioned it in his mind’s eye.

“Well, shit.”

“I know,” Lance laughed, leaning a hip against the far armrest, “typical Pidge, am I right? But I can drive you home, if you want.”

Keith chewed on his tongue. Should I tell him?

“Lance, listen.”

It would be easy. Keith wasn’t a good actor, anyway—and Shiro always said honesty was the best policy, especially with people you cared about.

“I heard what you guys were talking about before, and…”

And what? Keith didn’t have a good answer for him—he’d hardly believed Lance tolerated him as a friend, let alone adding the prospect of… other feelings.

“Keith?” He blinked, eyes refocusing and lifting back up to match Lance’s. Lance chuckled. “Thought you fell asleep on me again.”

“No, I…” He was far too tired to think this over properly, right now. And a ride home sounded much nicer than a half-hour walk in the cold. “Thanks.”

Lance gave him a smile that made his insides flip. “Cool. I’ll just—” He pushed off the couch. “—Let me chuck these in the kitchen, and we can go.”

“Sure.”

“Don’t fall asleep on me again, ‘kay?” He called back from the other room.

Keith rolled his eyes, pushing up to stand. “I can manage.”

Lance hummed uncertainly. “You sure? You were completely out of it during the movie—snoring and the whole bit.”

Keith froze mid-stretch, dropping his hands with an indignant pout. “I did not snore.”

“Did too.”

“I don’t snore!”

Lance rounded back into sight, waving his keys in front of him. “And somehow I heard it with my own ears. Funny how that works.”

He winked at Keith in passing, and Keith’s stomach flipped. He gave a quiet groan, hoping that reaction wouldn’t become the norm, in the wake of this unfortunate revelation—Lance was the one with the crush, after all.

Right?

He twisted his neck until it gave a satisfying pop, then smirked when Lance inevitably vocalised his disgust at it.

[hoopyfrood]

not to be deep here with my like 12 page rants about capitalism and youtube and advertising culture but! honestly i am so saddened by these completely insulated communities that only exist online. we need to connect people with real people and real conversations and just. life. people get caught up in things that take up so much time and energy that dont even matter! people get hurt and insulted and harassed and its like just delete ur social media if it doesnt enrich u! marie kondo ur social media! everyone jokes about wasting their time online but dear god find peaceful activities outside of it because the internet never switches off and that can lead to us never switching off and that is not how we are supposed to live. that is not how we survive and engage and stay real and present. gain friends and communities but please do not separate yourself off and lose touch with the connections you have to people and places and things outside of the internet! looking like a make up artist online is not important! trying to get x number of followers or x number of likes was never an importance until very very recently. we all have the power to just fuckin close laptop lids and press the off button on things and just do a fucking jigsaw or read a book you loved as a child or slather yourself in grapefruit body cream or something. please dear god do not get caught up in refreshing pages every five seconds for whatever it is like i swear im not high i literally just take one look at instragram and twitter and see people whos lives revolve around so much online and im just so far away from that and u can be too. when i was bedbound and literally all i had as a connection to the outside world was the internet i got sucked into that shit i said my inbox was open to everyone i talked people out of suicide i thought i could change peoples minds online i idolised people who had any semblance of a good life like it was not my responsibility to be out there to be using any social media to feel i had to be constantly available and active and connected to the internet. it opens u up to every person ever out there and thats so much u r never gonna get thru everyone u are never gonna achieve whatever perfection u want to achieve bc the internet literally only does so much. its just fuckin code and webpages and ideas all floating around and u dont even have to listen to half of them like just do what u enjoy not what becomes more than a hobby, what becomes an unplanned commitment, a full time job, something u tell urself is ur responsibility. nobody and nothing should make u feel like u Have to have a connection to the internet every day if u dont want to. that shouldnt be in any like job description or life description like. u can just close all ur tabs and listen to the radio. light all the candles u own and draw a comic about a weird dream u had. call someone up and just ask them if they wanna hear their horoscopes. i know its not that easy i know nobody really calls ppl but like why not just fuckin do it. if reading loads of shit gets u down then stop reading all that text and just watch a muppet movie. order books from the library or read some wiki articles that arent about people. the internet opens us up to so much, makes so much available, makes our world so much bigger but dont fall into that hole just hang out there then get back to what ur doing in ur life too. im gonna go read some more about how wicker baskets are made. peace

[architectnews]

UBCO Skeena Residence, Kelowna

UBCO Skeena Residence, Kelowna Housing Building, Canadian Apartment Architecture, Images

UBCO Skeena Residence in Kelowna

9 Apr 2021

UBCO Skeena Residence

Architects: PUBLIC: Architecture + Communication

Location: Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada

Defined by sun floods, through views, and candy-coloured stairwells, the new, six-storey Passive Skeena Residence provides 220 modified traditional bedrooms and support amenities. Completing an ensemble of buildings surrounding the Commons lawn at UBC Okanagan campus in Kelowna, BC, the residence provides easy access to outdoor green space for picnics, fitness, or just hanging around.

More than with conventional building methodologies, an integrated design process is vital to achieving Passive House. A conventional design process begins with broad strokes and becomes further refined with each iteration. With Passive House, however, details rule: even fasteners become an essential element because of their ability to conduct heat. Designing the details in preliminary phases allows for accurate energy modeling.

The Passive House process accelerates decision-making and is heavily weighted toward preliminary design with significant time and cost savings achieved by working through problems in the beginning. Energy invested early in the design pays off over the lifetime of the building. To demonstrate the efficiency of the residence: at the coldest point in the year, more than ¼ of the heat required for the building is supplied by student body heat.

How is the project unique? Skeena Residence is the first Passive House dormitory in Canada and the second in North America. It will be part of UBCO’s Living Laboratory initiative. As one of several wood frame dormitories on campus, it creates a unique opportunity for studying Passive House performance in Canada. The building has been fitted with a comprehensive monitoring system which will gather data to compare Skeena’s energy use and occupant comfort with neighbouring buildings built to LEED Gold and BC Building code standards.

The first cohort of students who are living in the building will complete a post-occupancy survey at the end of the school year which will be added to the study. Every year 220 university students will call Skeena Residence home and become familiar with the advantages of Passive House and act as advocates for low energy living.

What were the key challenges? 1. The decision to pursue Passive House would not be made until after the project was designed and the schedule could not be interrupted.

PUBLIC’s solution was to design the Passive House layer and systems like a jacket that could simply be taken off within hiccup.

2. Passive House buildings require simple forms for energy efficiency. Skeena was built into a non–Passive House context, which set up unrealistic design expectations.

To counter these expectations, our team allowed for time to educate and inform the client and user groups.

3. Construction of the wall assembly is new—and therefore challenging—to many tradespeople.

To offset this learning curve, RDH, the envelope consultant offered onsite workshops focused on Passive House construction.

4. Achieving Passive House for Skeena Residence was complicated by the northern desert climatic of the Okanagan region and the student residence typology, which has higher population density; greater density of appliances (fridges, hair dryers, and computers) that creates an enormous plug load, or electrical draw; and much higher humidity than typical multi-family residential. To combat these factors, Skeena focused on insulation, airtightness, and moisture control. For example, air circulation is completely renewed every three hours via highly efficient mechanical systems, thus warding off the threat of mold. Despite these complexities, Skeena Residence was delivered ahead of schedule, under budget, and during a pandemic.

5. Some key components of Passive House building have long-lead times. To avoid schedule delays, pre-tender some of the key components such as HRV units and triple-glazed windows.

What are the sustainability features?

WATER CONSERVATION Water conservation and management is achieved through: a. Achieving a Minimum Indoor Water Use Reduction of 35% based on LEEDv4 indoor water use credit calculations). b. Installing low-flow plumbing fixtures including toilets, showers, urinals and sinks. c. Favouring native and adapted plants for landscape in order to reduce irrigation needs. Providing deep beds to absorb rainwater. Achieving a minimum Outdoor Water Use Reduction of 50% (based on LEEDv4 outdoor water use credit calculation option 2. d. Use of efficient irrigation systems with smart irrigation controllers. e. Rainwater management adheres to the UBCO Integrated Rainwater Management Plan.

OPERATING ENERGY PRESENT AND FUTURE Skeena’s annual energy consumption for the building is 70 kWh/m2 per year. This includes a heating demand of just 7.1 kWh/m2 per year, which allows the building to provide heating, cooling and domestic hot water without a fossil fuel (e.g. natural gas) connection. The building is not connected to the campus district heating system as this uses a significant amount of natural gas in its heat generation. Skeena Residence is a standalone electric-based system and utilises electric heat pump technologies for heating and cooling.

The result is a Greenhouse Gas Intensity (GHGI) of just 0.66 kgCO2eq/m2 per year. This performance is a function of the ‘fabric first’ approach of the Passive House standard (airtightness, super-insulation, minimal thermal bridging, triple-glazing etc.) combined with the efficiency of the mechanical design (ventilation heat recovery, heat pumps etc.).

MATERIALS AND RESOURCES The Passive House standard places equal emphasis on occupant comfort and energy-efficiency. The materials specified for both the building envelope and interior finishes were carefully evaluated during design. The PHPP energy model quantified not just building energy use but also thermal comfort to ensure the building envelope creates a comfortable indoor environment free from drafts and cold surfaces. This led to the specification of triple pane glazing in highly-insulated frames as well as a continuous 8” thick blanket of mineral wool insulation around the building. A super insulated roof (approx. R100) further minimizes heat loss from the building.

The exceptional airtightness of the building and the continuous wall and roof insulation greatly reduces the risk of air leakage and condensation in the structural assemblies of the building which should increase the durability and service life of the structure. The structure of the building is mainly light wood framing with a resulting saving in embodied energy over alternate materials like structural steel or concrete.

Low-VOC paint and floor finishes are specified throughout the interior of the building.

BUILDING LIFE CYCLE CONSIDERATIONS The designers worked closely with the housing operations team to ensure durability and deconstructability. Short life span elements in student housing were planning for easy replacement. The sequencing of washroom construction, in particular, was carefully considered so that countertops and shower liners could be removed without damaging adjacent wall and floor finishes.

An advantage of PH building is that mechanical systems are located within the thermal envelope and highly insulated to minimize thermal bridging and damage due to condensation. Medium and long service life elements in the building envelope system were sequenced and installed with exposed fasteners to permit disassembly without extensive deconstruction. Long service life elements such as the structure are completely enveloped in exterior insulation. No movement or degradation from thermal bridging is possible. Finally, areas prone to mechanical and moisture damage such as grade to wall transitions are thermally broken masonry units for maximum durability.

EDUCATION AND INFORMATION SHARING Located between typologically identical buildings designed to building code minimums and LEED Gold levels, Skeena Residence presents a unique opportunity for understanding PH buildings. The building has been fitted with a comprehensive measurement system that will gather data for an ongoing research project to compare Skeena’s energy use and occupant comfort. In addition, every year students provide post-occupancy surveys, a qualitative assessment to complement the quantitative data. Red dots indicate the location of sensors that collect research data.

The project team have presented the Skeena Residence story at the Passive House Canada Conference, EcoCity World Summit, WoodTALKS at the Global Buyer’s Mission, and ZBex, at UBC Okanagan won the Net-Zero Energy-Ready (NZER) Challenge, a provincial CleanBC incentive program aimed at the celebration and promotion of innovative and energy-efficient projects.

What building methods were used? Design decisions are also swayed by other practicalities such as standard and locally available materials and techniques. The building is 80% wood frame with some concrete on the ground floor. A wood structure was chosen for its inherent insulative properties as well as its ready availability and ease of construction.

Who are the clients and what’s interesting about them? To meet its green house gas reduction targets and contribute to its Living Lab initiative, the University of British Columbia (UBC) asked the project team to design Skeena Residence to meet Passive House (PH) certification. PH is a relatively new certification for midrise buildings in Canada. Currently there are few certified multiunit residential buildings and no certified student residences.

The university owns and operates approximately 15,000 beds of student accommodation and is an international leader in post-secondary education.

UBC recently leveraged reputation by building the Brock Commons heavy timber tower which has contributed to the acceleration of tall timber high rises internationally. A PH student residence is another opportunity for the university to accelerate the adoption of the standard. Every year 220 students will live in Skeena Residence and understand the numerous benefits of a PH environment.

UBCO Skeena Residence in Kelowna, BC – Building Information

Architects: PUBLIC: Architecture + Communication

Project size: 6750 sqm Site size: 4388 sqm Project Budget: $18000000 Completion date: 2020 Building levels: 6

Architect: WMW Public: Architecture + Communication Inc. Passive House consultant: RDH Building Science Acoustic consultant: BKL Consultants Site representative, Passive House advisor: Nido Design Structural: Bush, Bohlman & Partners Mechanical: AME Group Electrical: Jarvis Engineering Landscape Architect: WSP Geotechnical consultant: Interior Testing Services Code consultant: GHL Consultants Civil consultant: WSP Envelope consultant: RDH Building Science Elevator consultant: Apex Elevator Construction Manager: Sawchuk Developments

Photography: Andrew Latreille

UBCO Skeena Residence in Kelowna, British Columbia images / information received 090421

Location: Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada

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Website: Kelowna, BC

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[hot-water-tank-repair-servi-blog]

Hot Water Tank Repair Service my Area in Vancouver

Hot Water Tank Repair Service my Area in Vancouver

Pioneer Plumbing has built a reputation of honesty with our long time returning customers. We’ve found that “doing the right thing” in all aspects of our company has brought us to where we are today, and will continue to guide us into the future. Don’t hesitate to call and ask us any plumbing, heating, ventilation, or gas related questions. Chances are if you have a tricky issue, we can solve it.

We have a few goals for our clients. One is to be available for you. It is very uncommon that when you call us we are unable to make it within the same day. We give our repeat customers priority service so if you’ve used us before and you have an emergency, we are going to do what we need to, to get someone there.

Two is to be upfront and honest. From our quotes to our service techs on site, we don’t like to beat around the bush. We will let you know our concerns, our recommendations, and our opinions on how we would handle each situation as if it were our own residence where the problem occurred. We won’t tell you the job is only a 2 hour repair when we have had situations where it turned into an all day repair.

Three is to stand behind our installations and repairs. With mechanical work, it is very common for jobs to get larger or go sideways as you get into them. If we give you a quote we will stand true to the price, if we complete a job for you and you are unhappy with the finished product, we will come back and make it right. In return, all we ask is that you communicate with our office respectfully and honestly so that we can make sure at the end of the day you are happy with our services!

So next time you have a plumbing, heating, cooling, or gas question, repair, or installation you would like quoted, give us a call! Were here to help.

HVAC in Vancouver

  On this page in the next paragraphs you can find a good deal of really good information and facts about Broken Furnace.

Ways To Avoid High Heating Repair Costs

There are many ways to maintain your furnace system. Odds are, during winter months your heater runs throughout the day attempting to keep the house warm. furnace systems commonly run more than needed, due to inaccurate configuration. There there are various areas in your heating section to look at when troubleshooting for performance.

The Air Filter

This subject is what gets mentioned the most in chats about furnace maintenance, but is sometimes forgotten. If there is a obstruction, you either run the chance of not disbursing heat appropriately or possibly igniting a fire.When the air filter gets dirty air cannot flow through either which means the unit must work overtime and will also mean a risk of fire. When a system works overtime, it costs more to run. You want to obviously remove any exposure to fire. Neither scenario is good for your wallet or your peace of mind..

Try The Blower

Look at your blower blades and clean them up. If you find any buildup of dirt and dust, your fan will need to work harder to blow the air around, and your heating will be overexerting itself. This means strain on your furnace system and your pocketbook since more fuel is needed to constantly run the blower.

Fire Damper Function

Next, focus on the fire damper to make sure it is running properly. This will make sure that the fir risk is minimal and the system will work more proficiently.

Look For Holes In The Flex Duct

It is feasible that your ducts have become damaged throughout the years for different reasons. If there are blockades or if the duct has collapsed somewhere the furnace system will think the right warmth has been achieved, which will be wrong. Finally your system will be working harder to maintain your house cool while you continue lowering the thermostat to reach cozy conditions.

Band Insulation

Insulation is often missed but is one of the most frequent reasons why an furnace system malfunctions. Be sure to check the insulation and validate it has never become unfastened and prompted gaps involving the ductwork and the exterior. When this has happened the system will work more than needed while trying to reach optimal temperature.

Ductwork Needs To Be Connected

Make sure the ductwork is connected in all places to all sections. Disconnected ductwork will permit warm air to escape and naturally add to the running costs.

Return Air Inlets And Zone Dampers

Ensure that that return air intakes are free of the dust and dirt so air can easily flow. Check your dampers verifying that they are in the right spot. During the year we may change the positioning of the damper for a lot of reasons (i.e. getting into a tight space or making room for storage). For a properly working system, look to see that the dampers are in the best spot.

If these tasks are beyond what you are confident with, it may be wise to appoint an area heating service licensed for furnace and gas furnaces. You will find numerous heating specialists close to you who will care for all of this quite capably. For the right results you could set up annual up-keep for furnace and your heating people will call yearly to deal with it.

https://www.google.com/maps?cid=16109373416364653742 https://vancouver-plumber.business.site/

https://www.pioneerplumbing.com/

Pioneer Plumbing & Heating Inc

626 Kingsway, Vancouver BC, V5T 3K4 Phone: (604) 872-4946

Business Hours: Sunday Open 24 hours Monday Open 24 hours Tuesday Open 24 hours Wednesday Open 24 hours Thursday Open 24 hours Friday Open 24 hours Saturday Open 24 hours

Types of Heating Systems

Central Heat

Furnaces

The majority of North American households depend on a central furnace to provide heat. A furnace works by blowing heated air through ducts that deliver the warm air to rooms throughout the house via air registers or grills. This type of heating system is called a ducted warm-air or forced warm-air distribution system. It can be powered by electricity, natural gas, or fuel oil.

Inside a gas- or oil-fired furnace, the fuel is mixed with air and burned. The flames heat a metal heat exchanger where the heat is transferred to air. Air is pushed through the heat exchanger by the “air handler’s” furnace fan and then forced through the ductwork downstream of the heat exchanger. At the furnace, combustion products are vented out of the building through a flue pipe. Older “atmospheric” furnaces vented directly to the atmosphere, and wasted about 30% of the fuel energy just to keep the exhaust hot enough to safely rise through the chimney. Current minimum-efficiency furnaces reduce this waste substantially by using an “inducer” fan to pull the exhaust gases through the heat exchanger and induce draft in the chimney. “Condensing” furnaces are designed to reclaim much of this escaping heat by cooling exhaust gases well below 140°F, where water vapor in the exhaust condenses into water. This is the primary feature of a high-efficiency furnace (or boiler). These typically vent through a sidewall with a plastic pipe.

New furnace standards are currently under development by the U.S. Department of Energy, and are due to be finalized in the spring of 2016. The current furnace standards have not been updated since 1987.

Heating system controls regulate when the various components of the heating system turn on and off. The most important control from your standpoint is the thermostat, which turns the system — or at least the distribution system — on and off to keep you comfortable. A typical forced air system will have a single thermostat. But, there are other internal controls in a heating system, such as “high limit” switches that are part of an invisible but critical set of safety controls.

The best gas furnaces and boilers today have efficiencies over 90%

The efficiency of a fossil-fuel furnace or boiler is a measure of the amount of useful heat produced per unit of input energy (fuel). Combustion efficiency is the simplest measure; it is just the system’s efficiency while it is running. Combustion efficiency is like the miles per gallon your car gets cruising along at 55 miles per hour on the highway.

In the U.S., furnace efficiency is regulated by minimum AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency). AFUE estimates seasonal efficiency, averaging peak and part-load situations. AFUE accounts for start-up, cool-down, and other operating losses that occur in real operating conditions, and includes an estimate of electricity used by the air handler, inducer fan, and controls. AFUE is like your car mileage between fill-ups, including both highway driving and stop-and-go traffic. The higher the AFUE, the more efficient the furnace or boiler.

Boilers

Boilers are special-purpose water heaters. While furnaces carry heat in warm air, boiler systems distribute the heat in hot water, which gives up heat as it passes through radiators or other devices in rooms throughout the house. The cooler water then returns to the boiler to be reheated. Hot water systems are often called hydronic systems. Residential boilers generally use natural gas or heating oil for fuel.

In steam boilers, which are much less common in homes today, the water is boiled and steam carries heat through the house, condensing to water in the radiators as it cools. Oil and natural gas are commonly used.

Instead of a fan and duct system, a boiler uses a pump to circulate hot water through pipes to radiators. Some hot water systems circulate water through plastic tubing in the floor, a system called radiant floor heating (see “State of the Art Heating”). Important boiler controls include thermostats, aquastats, and valves that regulate circulation and water temperature. Although the cost is not trivial, it is generally much easier to install “zone” thermostats and controls for individual rooms with a hydronic system than with forced air. Some controls are standard features in new boilers, while others can be added on to save energy (see the “Modifications by Heating System Technicians” section on the heating maintenance page).

As with furnaces, condensing gas-fired boilers are relatively common, and significantly more efficient than non-condensing boilers (unless very sophisticated controls are employed). Oil-fired condensing boilers are uncommon in the U.S. for several reasons related to lower latent heat potential, and potential for greater fouling with conventional fuel oil.

Heat Pumps

Heat pumps are just two-way air conditioners (see detailed description in the cooling systems section). During the summer, an air conditioner works by moving heat from the relatively cool indoors to the relatively warm outside. In winter, the heat pump reverses this trick, scavenging heat from the cold outdoors with the help of an electrical system, and discharging that heat inside the house. Almost all heat pumps use forced warm-air delivery systems to move heated air throughout the house.

A ground-source heat pump heats and cools in any climate by exchanging heat with the ground, which has a more constant temperature.

There are two relatively common types of heat pumps. Air-source heat pumps use the outside air as the heat source in winter and heat sink in summer. Ground-source (also called geothermal, GeoExchange, or GX) heat pumps get their heat from underground, where temperatures are more constant year-round. Air-source heat pumps are far more common than ground-source heat pumps because they are cheaper and easier to install. Ground-source heat pumps, however, are much more efficient, and are frequently chosen by consumers who plan to remain in the same house for a long time, or have a strong desire to live more sustainably. How to determine whether a heat pump makes sense in your climate is discussed further under “Fuel Options.”

Whereas an air-source heat pump is installed much like a central air conditioner, ground-source heat pumps require that a “loop” be buried in the ground, usually in long, shallow (3–6' deep) trenches or in one or more vertical boreholes. The particular method used will depend on the experience of the installer, the size of your lot, the subsoil, and the landscape. Alternatively, some systems draw in groundwater and pass it through the heat exchanger instead of using a refrigerant. The groundwater is then returned to the aquifer.

Because electricity in a heat pump is used to move heat rather than to generate it, the heat pump can deliver more energy than it consumes. The ratio of delivered heating energy to consumed energy is called the coefficient of performance, or COP, with typical values ranging from 1.5 to 3.5. This is a “steady-state” measure and not directly comparable to the heating season performance factor (HSPF), a seasonal measure mandated for rating the heating efficiency of air-source heat pumps. Converting between the measures is not straightforward, but ground-source units are generally more efficient than air-source heat pumps.

Direct Heat

Gas-Fired Space Heaters

In some areas, gas-fired direct heating equipment is popular. This includes wall-mounted, free-standing, and floor furnaces, all characterized by their lack of ductwork and relatively small heat output. Because they lack ducts, they are most useful for warming a single room. If heating several rooms is required, either the doors between rooms must be left open or another heating method is necessary. Better models use “sealed combustion air” systems, with pipes installed through the wall to both provide combustion air and carry off the combustion products. These units can provide acceptable performance, particularly for cabins and other buildings where large temperature differences between bedrooms and main rooms are acceptable. The models can be fired with natural gas or propane, and some burn kerosene.

Unvented Gas-Fired Heaters: A Bad Idea

Gas or kerosene space heaters that do not have an exhaust vent have been sold for decades, but we strongly discourage their use for health and safety reasons. Known as “vent-free” gas heating appliances by manufacturers, they include wall-mounted and free-standing heaters as well as open-flame gas fireplaces with ceramic logs that are not actually connected to a chimney. Manufacturers claim that because the products’ combustion efficiency is very high, they are safe for building occupants. However, this claim is only valid if you keep a nearby window open for adequate fresh air— which defeats the purpose of supplemental heat. Dangers include exposure to combustion by-products, as discussed in Ventilation, and oxygen depletion (these heaters must be equipped with oxygen depletion sensors). Because of these hazards, at least five states (California, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Montana, and Alaska) prohibit their use in homes, and many cities in the United States and Canada have banned them as well.

Electric Space Heaters

Portable (plug-in) electric heaters are inexpensive to buy, but costly to use. These resistive heaters include “oil-filled” and “quartz-infrared” heaters. They convert electric current from the wall socket directly into heat, like a toaster or clothes iron. As explained further under “Selecting a New System,” it takes a lot of electricity to deliver the same amount of useful heat that natural gas or oil can provide onsite. A 1,500- watt plug-in heater will use almost the entire capacity of a 15-amp branch circuit; thus, adding much additional load will trip the circuit breaker or blow the fuse. The cost to operate a 1,500-watt unit for an hour is simple to compute: it is 1.5 times your electricity cost in cents per kilowatt-hour. At national average rates—12¢ kWh for electricity— that heater would cost 18¢ per hour to run—and quickly cost more than its purchase price. On the other hand, for intermittent use, it is the “least-bad” solution when alternatives would require major investments to improve ductwork for a specific area, for example. Just remember, electric resistance heat is usually the most expensive form of heat, and it is, therefore, seldom recommended.

“Electric baseboard heat” is yet another kind of resistive heating, similar to a plug-in space heater except that it is hard-wired. It has two principal virtues: the installation cost is low, and it is easy to install individual room thermostats so you can turn down the heat in rooms that aren’t being used. Operating costs, as for all resistive systems, are generally very high, unless the house is “super-insulated.”

Wood-Burning and Pellet Stoves

Wood heating can make a great deal of sense in rural areas if you enjoy stacking wood and stoking the stove or furnace. Wood prices are generally lower than gas, oil, or electricity. If you cut your own wood, the savings can be large. Pollutants from wood burning have been a problem in some parts of the country, causing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to implement regulations that govern pollution emissions from wood stoves. As a result, new models are quite clean-burning. Pellet stoves offer a number of advantages over wood stoves. They are less polluting than wood stoves and offer users greater convenience, temperature control, and indoor air quality.

Fireplaces

Gas (and most wood) fireplaces are basically part of a room’s décor, providing a warm glow (and a way to dispose of secret documents), but typically not an effective heat source. With customary installations that rely on air drawn from the room into the fireplace for combustion and dilution, the fireplace will generally lose more heat than it provides, because so much warm air is drawn through the unit and must be replaced by cold outside air. On the other hand, if the fireplace is provided with a tight-sealing glass door, a source of outside air, and a good chimney damper, it can provide useful heat.

State of the Art Heating

Radiant floor heat generally refers to systems that circulate warm water in tubes under the floor. This warms the floor, which in turn warms people using the room. It is highly controllable, considered efficient by its advocates, and is expensive to install. It also requires a very experienced system designer and installer, and limits carpet choices and other floor finishes: you don’t want to “blanket” your heat source.

Contact the Radiant Panel Association(link is external)

Ductless, Mini-Split, Multi-Split. Residential ductwork is relatively rare outside North America. “Ductless” heat pumps, which distribute energy through refrigerant lines instead of water or air, are widely used. Large field trials in the Pacific Northwest suggest that they can have good cold weather performance, and be very cost-effective where replacing electric resistance heating. Like ground-source systems, relative immaturity of the market helps assure that whole-house multi-split systems carry premium prices.

Combined heat and power (CHP) or cogeneration for houses is being seriously studied in some countries. The basic premise is to use a small generator to meet some of the electric demand of the house, and recover the waste heat (typically more than 70% of the heating value of the fuel) to heat the house (hydronic or water-to-air systems) and make domestic hot water. These systems are not yet widely available. They are likely to have the best economics in houses with high heating bills because the house cannot be feasibly insulated, such as solid stone or brick homes.

https://smarterhouse.org/heating-systems/types-heating-systems

I was guided to that editorial about Local HVAC Repair from a friend on our other web blog. Do you know about another individual who is interested in the niche? Please feel free to share it. We love reading our article about Home Ac Maintenance.

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Culinary History (Part 21): Ovens

Benjamin Thompson (1753-1814, Count Rumford) was a physicist & inventor who worked to improve English kitchens.  He was not pleased at all with their design, both in terms of health and economics.  In the 1790's, he wrote, “More fuel is frequently consumed in a kitchen range to boil a tea-kettle than, with proper management, would be sufficient to cook a dinner for fifty men.”

He didn't think it was worth it for the roast meat that England was famous for, and complained that English cooks had neglected the art of making of “nourishing soups and broths”.  The main problem, he said, was that the hearth was open.

At this time, the typical English kitchen had a very long range (because of all the pots that had to be put on the fire).  This meant that a huge, very tall chimney was needed, wasting fuel and making the kitchen extremely hot and constantly smoky.  There were also cold draughts by the chimney.

To solve this problem, Rumford built invented his own custom-built closed range, which he installed in the House of Industry in Munich (i.e. the workhouse).  It used far less fuel.

Rumford's range had many small enclosed fires, instead of one large fire.  Each pot had its own separate, closed fireplace.  The fireplaces were built with bricks (for good insulation), had a door to shut them, and each had their own individual canal which took the smoke into the chimney.

But while Rumford's design was a major improvement, it never caught to a wide audience.  Part of the problem was that ironmongers (the main producers of cooking apparatus at the time) didn't want to sell it, because it was made from bricks and not iron.  (Later on, various “Rumford stoves” would be marketed and sold, but with no connection to the original.)

But it wasn't just a marketing issue.  People hate change, and they were determined to stick to the old ways.  The English believed that open fires roasted, and bread ovens baked.  You couldn't mix the two together.  In 1838, Mary Randolph said, “No meat can be well-roasted except on a spit turned by a jack, and before a clear, steady fire – other methods are no better than baking.”

Inventors kept working on spit-jacks for ages.  In 1845, a patent was taken out for an electrically-propelled spit-jack, using two magnets. Even in 1907, the Skinners' Company in London had a 3.3m-wide roasting range in the Guildhall kitchen.  Progress was not so easily won.

Baking vs. Roasting

In the Middle East, this baking/roasting division did not exist.  The Arabic word khubz means “bread”, and from this comes the verb khabaza, which means “to bake/make khubz”. But it can also mean “to grill” or “to roast”.

Mesopotamian bread ovens have been found dating back to 3000 BC (modern-day Pakistan, Syria, Iran & Iraq).  They are round cylinders, made of clay.  A fire is lit in the bottom of the cylinder; then dough is lowered through a hole in the top and slapped on the inside of the oven.  A few minutes later, it has baked into flatbread, and is lifted out again.

These clay ovens are still used today in the Middle East, Central & South-East Asia, and in many rural areas in African countries.  It is called a tandoor.  Many other things are cooked in it, not just bread.

The tandoor cooks with intense, dry baking heat.  Even poor households used them to bake bread.  In Amarna (an Ancient Egyptian village from 1350 BC), half of the labourers' houses showed traces of a tandoor.  Unlike in medieval Europe, where it was believed that the only real bread was professionally baked, home-made bread was the preference.  In medieval Baghdad, a marketplace inspector once remarked that “most people avoid eating bread baked in the market.”

Like the portable braziers of Ancient Greece, the tandoor was portable, and far better than building a fire in the hearth.  They were also cheap.  An “eye” at the bottom of the cylinder gave control over the level of heat, by opening & shutting.  For example, a round Iraqi water-bread coated in sesame oil would be cooked in a moderate heat, but other breads needed extreme heat.  The fuel is burned directly inside the tandoor, on the bottom, so temperatures can reach up to 480°C (most domestic ovens can only get up to 220°C).

The tandoor wasn't just used for baking – it was also used for stewing, and for roasting as well.  In the West, tandoori chicken (chicken marinated in yoghurt & red spices) is well-known, and it is cooked in a tandoor.

In Baghdad in the 900's AD, the tandoor's roasting capabilities were mostly used for “fatty whole lamb or kid – mostly stuffed...big chunks of meat, plump poultry or fish.”  These were either laid on flat brick tiles, which were arranged on the fire; or put on metal skewers and lowered in from the top.

There are three different types of cooking heat.  In all of them (as physics requires), heat moves from the hotter area/object to the cooler one.

Radiant heat is used for grilling.  It's like when you put your hand above a heater, without touching it: the heat blasts out from it and warms your hand without you even needing to touch it.  No contact is needed.  A red-hot fire gives plenty of radiant heat from the flames and embers.

Conduction works through direct touch, from one object to another.  This is like touching the heater, instead of putting your hand above it.  Metals are excellent conductors; brick, wood and clay are poor conductors. For cooking, conduction is the type of heat transfer when you put a piece of meat in a pan.

Convection happens within a gas/liquid.  The hot parts of the gas/liquid are less dense than the cool ones, but gradually it evens out (for density and temperature).  This is like the heat of the heater spreading gradually through the room.  For cooking, convection happens when cooking porridge or boiling water.

While any cooking method will use a combination of these forms of heat transfer, one will usually dominate, and it is this which makes the tandoor unusual – it uses all three at the same time.  Radiant heat from the fire below, and from the hot clay walls; conduction from the clay to the bread, or the metal skewers to the meat; and convection within the hot air circulating in the tandoor. This is what makes this oven so versatile.

The old Western ovens were basically brick boxes.  They used both about 20% radiation and 80% convection.  Instead of the constant intense heat of the tandoor, their fire started off fierce (radiation) but then cooled down gradually, and convection took over.  In fact, the food didn't even usually get put in until the fire had cooled down.

Over the centuries, cooking methods evolved to make the best use of this type of heat transfer.  Food was cooked in order – bread when the oven was hottest; then stews, pastries and puddings; herbs might be left to dry in it overnight, when the oven was barely warm.

In ancient & medieval times, bread ovens were huge, communal affairs.  A manor/monastery kitchen had massive equipment to match the ovens – wooden spoons as big as oars; massive trestle tables to knead the dough on.

Bundles of fuel (wood/charcoal) were heaved into the back of the oven, taken from stoking sheds outside, and then fired up.  When the oven was hot, the ashes were raked out into the stoking sheds.  Then the dough was shoved in on peels – extremely long wooden spoons.  Bakers worked almost naked because of the heat, like the turnspits.

By the 1700's, baking equipment included wooden kneading troughs; pastry jaggers; hoops & traps for tarts & pies; peels; patty pans; wafer irons; earthenware dishes.

Baking oven & kneading trough.

Pastry jagger (American, 1800-50).

Peels in a medieval baker shop.

Modern patty pans.

Wafer iron (Italian, 1500′s).

Royal kitchen at St. James’ Palace (1819).  There is an open-grate fire for roasting (back right); a closed oven for baking (front right); and a raised brick hearth for stewing & sauces (front left?)  Each type of cooking was separate.

The Oven

It wasn't just the baking/roasting division that hindered the adoption of ovens.  A fire is homey and comforting, and people were unsure about centering their home around an enclosed fire instead of an open one.  Stoves were introduced in America during the 1830's, but people said that they might be fine for heating public places such as bars or courthouses, but not their homes.

But they got used to it eventually.  The “model cookstove” became the new focus of the home, and it was one of the great “consumer status symbols of the industrial age”.

The Victorian stove was a large, unwieldy cast-iron contraption.  It had a hot-water tank for boiling; hotplates to put pots & pans on; a coal-fired oven closed with iron doors; and “complicated arrangements of flues, their temperature controlled by a register and dampers” linking all the parts together.

By the mid-1800's, the “kitchener” was the essential object in an American or British middle-class kitchen.  And like the home, the kitchen was now centered around the stove, instead of around the fire.

At Britain's Great Exhibition of 1851, the Improved Leamington Kitchener won first prize of all the kitcheners on display.  It used a single fire to combine roasting and baking.  A wrought-iron roaster with dripping-pan was inside, but by closing the back valves, it could be turned into a baking oven.  And it could provide the household with gallons of boiling water – for a kitchener wasn't just for cooking, but also for warmth and hot water, and also for heating up irons.

The Leamington range was one of the first pieces of cooking equipment to become a household name in Britain.  It ended up being used to refer to closed ranges in general.  There were many other competing models, such as the Coastal Grand Pacific and the Plantress.

The fancier stoves were as much about fashion as they were about practicality.  But it wasn't just about “keeping up” with everyone else.  Part of the reason for the stove's popularity was the Industrial Revolution, which created a coal & iron boom, and flooded the market with cheap cast iron.  Ironmongers loved this type of stove (unlike Rumford's brick stove) because it was made almost entirely out of iron, and so were its accessories.  And new versions were always coming out, so they were constantly selling new stoves, as people wanted the latest ones.

Back in the mid-1700's, a new method of cast-iron production had been discovered, which used coal instead of charcoal.  John “Iron-Mad” Wilkinson's invention of the steam engine pushed production even further.  A generation later, cast iron was everywhere.  And kitcheners also supported the coal industry, because they were almost all coal-fired (rather than wood, peat or turf).

Coal wasn't a new fuel for kitchens.  The first “coal revolution” happened back in the mid-1500's because of a wood shortage.  Industry expanded rapidly during the 2nd half of the 1500's, and timber was essential for the production of glass, iron and lead.  Timber was also required for ship-building (the English were at war with the Spanish at that time).  So there was less wood for kitchens, and many converted to “sea-coal” (called that because it was brought by sea), albeit reluctantly.

In rural areas, the wood fire was still used, and the poorer folk in the city and countryside made do with whatever fuel they could find.

The switch to coal changed the way open hearths were set up.  Previously, the kitchen fire had really been a bonfire, with andirons or brandirons to stop the burning logs from rolling out onto the floor. And that was all.  It was dreadfully dangerous.

A Saxon archbishop in the 600's AD said that “if a woman place her infant by the hearth, and the man put water in the cauldron, and it boil over and the child be scalded to death, the woman must do penance for her negligence but the man is acquitted of blame.”  The open fire was especially dangerous for toddlers, and also women, because of their clothes.  Medieval coroners' reports show that women were more at risk for accidental death at home than anywhere else.

Kitchen fires were common, because houses were made of wood.  The Great Fire of London was caused by a kitchen fire at Pudding Lane.  The city was rebuilt with brick, and the new houses had coal-burning grates.

With coal, a container or improved barrier was needed, to stop it going everywhere.  A metal grate was used to solve the problem, called a “chamber grate” or “cole baskett”.  Now the open fires were slightly more enclosed, and a bit safer.

More kitchen equipment was needed.  A cast-iron fireback protected the wall from the fierce heat of the fire.  Fire cranes swung pots over the fire, and off it.

Firebacks (Victorian & 1300′s).

The biggest change was the chimney.  In the 2nd half of the 1500's, more chimneys were built.  Because of the disgusting coal fumes, wider chimneys were needed to carry away the smoke.  The increased levels of smoke may have contributed to the high incidence of lung disease among the English.  It was certainly terrible for people's health.

Back to the Victorian kitcheners.  While it was a technological improvement, it wasn't much of an improvement in terms of practicality.  Many of the early cookstoves were poorly-constructed and gave off terrible coal fumes, unlike Rumford's ideal stov.  A letter to The Expositor in 1853 called them “poison machines”, and spoke of three people who had recently died from the fumes.

And they were inefficient, too.  American promoters claimed that they saved 50-90% on fuel (compared to an open hearth), but a great deal of heat was wasted.  The problem with stoves being made of iron was that they weren't insulated (again, unlike Rumford's stove).  Lots of heat was being radiated out into the kitchen, and the cook had to deal with not only that, but also the soot and ash dust.

The kitchener certainly wasn't labour-efficient.  In fact, it was often worse than an open hearth in this case.  Getting the fire going was just as difficult, and polishing & cleaning the range took ages. In 1912, the wife of a policeman listed her daily duties for the range (excluding the actual cooking):

Remove fender and fire-irons.

Rake out all the ashes and cinders; first throw in some damp tea-leaves to keep down the dust.

Sift the cinders.

Clean the flues.

Remove all grease from the stove with newspaper.

Polish the steels with bathbrick and paraffin.

Blacklead the iron parts and polish.

Wash the hearthstone and polish it.

The real improvement would be the gas oven.