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marriageregistration3748 · 2 years

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This is why your marriage certificate is so important

There are many things you might be thinking about when the official date is set. may seem long but it is important to have all the necessary legal documentation completed before you get married. It is important to get your marriage certificate before you tie the knot. Sean Koski, cofounder and Florida-based company founder, said that the marriage permit is more than a paper document. "Without it, isn’t permitted to marry you." "Even though you have your marriage licence executed, you may lose it or misplaced it before your big day. You can only beg the officiant for mercy or postpone it so you only have the celebration."

Talk about a couple’s worst nightmare. Now, take a deep breathe and remember that every married couple has made it possible to have this completed in a reasonable time frame before their wedding. Both you and your fiancé will.

What is a Marriage License and Why is it Important?

"A marriage license is legal documentation that confirms the marriage as a legal union. Ashley Bourque, a wedding coordinator at, states that it must be signed by the bride and groom as well as officiant and witnesses. "Couples will need one to be acknowledged by the state as legally married. This can be useful for banking. I created a FAQ Sheet that I sent to my brides. It included the clerk's name and number as well as a list containing documents and the deadlines. The government will not sanction your marriage if you don't have a license to marry. A valid, signed license is required to obtain a marriage certificate.

When should your marriage license be obtained?

This will depend on whether the couple is getting married in their home state, another state, or elsewhere in the country. Koski suggests checking the requirements for your state's marriage license. Each state has its own set of rules and waiting periods. Lindsey Nickel says, "Ensure you do your research a few weeks in advance." Making a reservation in advance will help you avoid long lines. A few officiants might ask couples to sign the marriage licence at the ceremony rehearsal. That's a great idea, as it will take one less thing off your list to do on your wedding day. Your officiant will make sure that the state issues a marriage certification after the wedding.

What about destination weddings.

Planning a destination wedding abroad? There are many benefits to having your marriage certificate and knowing where you live before the ceremony. "You will know that all of your paperwork has been properly filed and you do not need to bring so many official documents along to foreign countries. Additionally, if documents are not in English in the country you're marrying, it will cost you extra to get them translated for legal purposes. These are just two examples of possible problems.

Popular in Wedding Planning & Advice

Here are 8 ways to eliminate single-use plastic items during your wedding celebrations There is no doubt: Plastic has a harmful impact on the environment, and on our health. Plastic can be harmful to animals, habitats, and possibly transfer chemicals to humans and other wildlife if it enters ecosystems. According to a recent report, the rapid rise in plastic pollution over the past decade is partly due to an increase single-use plastic consumption as well as a growing throwaway society.

Couples are seeking ways to reduce plastic waste on their wedding day. To help, we reached out to to ask wedding professionals for their suggestions on alternatives to single-use plastics at weddings.

Balloons

Skip these helium-filled decorations for your party and opt, instead, for . Our experts have found that large paper lanterns can still be used to add color and celebration flair.

Disposable plates and glasses. Flatware

You may find it tempting to purchase disposable products for your guests at special events like weddings and bachelor and/or bachelorette parties. However, this will lead to a lot more waste. Instead, consider . It is likely to be more expensive than disposables and take more upkeep, but it will be better for the planet.

The rental company that rents your tables and chairs may also provide a cloth option to plastic covers. As an added bonus, many companies will wash them for you.

Plastic Bar Cups

Ask your reception venue to if they will serve drinks in plastic cups. You can make barware and goblets from antiques and have your guests take them home for favors. Consider personalizing the glasses and having them decorated in a way that reflects your big-day theme.

Plastic Favors

It's not hard to see how many plastic favors will end up in a landfill. Instead of handing out plastic-wrapped gifts at your wedding, give them plantable options like seed packets.

Exit Toss Materials

Couples have elaborate plans for their night-end send-off. Traditionally, guests throw rice. But duos can offer anything from confetti and bubbles. Swap out any plastic for a biodegradable product, or birdseed. However, avoid rice as it can become squishy and negatively impact local avians.

Plastic Straws

These once ubiquitous garnishes are now prohibited in certain countries. If you're having your wedding somewhere that still allows them we recommend replacing the plastic ones by paper, stainless-steel, or silicone. Keep in mind that the venue will probably ask you to pay the cost of the alternative.

Foam-Anchored Floral Arrangements

Ask your florist for help in swapping arrangements that call for floral foam to be used with arrangements that don't need it. If you have your heart set on a centerpiece does well, ask your florist to use fillers (not foam) They can be reused such as glass beads, pebbles, and seashells.

Water Bottles

You might find it difficult to get water bottles around at parties, especially if they are part of a pre-nuptial celebration or casual engagement party. But there are plenty alternatives to plastic bottles. For smaller gatherings, you can fill a pitcher and provide cups for guests to use.

When is the best time for you to begin discussing marriage with your partner The conversation of marital status with your partner can seem daunting. Because your future together can be a serious topic. Although you may know that marriage is possible, when is the right moment to talk about it? Do you follow Hollywood and 's lead? Or, is it better to discuss the next step before it arrives

Christie Tcharkhoutian, a registered marriage and family therapist, and senior matchmaking specialist at, says that pop culture should not serve as your guiding light. This is because it forces the proposal, and any emotional work, onto one person (usually the person proposing).

Although a top secret proposal might be romantically appealing, the idea of proposing without having a conversation about marriage registration is not ideal. Lesli Donares, a marriage coach, and author of, said that a proposal should never have come out of the blue.

According to experts, a proposal should be made only after an honest discussion about marriage and the future. The question remains: When can you have this discussion?

Wait Until Your Establish Commitment and Trust

Tcharkhoutian states that trust can lead to marriage talk. "In a relation, building trust through expressing your feelings to each other is crucial to feeling the love & respect that is needed in a lasting relationship," she said.

Once you have built trust and established commitment, then it's time to share that information. Tcharkhoutian states, "If one partner feels that they want to take that next stage, it's important for them to let the other know." "If not one of you feels ready, it's important for both parties to talk about what they feel ready to do. Or what steps are needed to reach a compromise at a location that is mutually beneficial to their relationship.

Before you move in together, talk about marriage

Doares states that it is not a good idea to move in with another person before you have had a chance to discuss the subject of marriage. Here's why. Feelings will get hurt if one person assumes the relationship is heading toward marriage and the other is only concerned with what could happen over a 12-month rental agreement.

Doares states that "the marriage-desiring partner might feel that the relationship will go this way, even though it may not." "This can cause unnecessary heartache and frustration. If you are cohabiting, it is more difficult to divorce. This means that the relationship can slip along without being what each partner wants.

Do not discuss marriage too soon

Doares warns against having the marriage conversation early, even if the two of you are in love from the beginning. She suggests that you should wait until "and are clear about both your goals and those for the relationship."

Doares believes there is one conversation that can be had very early: "If one individual wants to be married someday," Doares states. It's not a 'when will they get married' conversation, but the desire is expressed up front.

How to start the marriage conversation

Tcharkhoutian advises that you talk to your partner when you're ready. She suggests saying something along the lines of: "I have been reflecting on our relationship and believe that I would like for us to move forward together in the future, and I wanted you to share your thoughts about it and where are you at this moment."

This type of start offers your partner the chance to express themselves without feeling pressure. Charkhutian also says that it allows you to allow your partner to openly share your point of view.

3 Common Emotions You Will Feel in the First Month of Your Marriage. According to a Psychologist Once the euphoria surrounding your wedding has subsided you'll realize there's so much more to love about everyday. These first weeks and days of marriage are full of surprises. However, knowing what lies ahead will help you be prepared for new emotions.

Sadness and Deflation

The engagement period can be exciting! The engagement period is full of love, enthusiasm and support. Rebekah Montgomery, Ph.D., is a Boston-based psychotherapist who specializes both in relationships and . After the wedding, don't be surprised if you feel some whiplash. We call it the post-wedding blues.

Montgomery recommends that you make a list of exciting plans and put them on your calendar to combat the blues. You can have get-togethers with your friends, even if they aren't able to make it to the wedding. They will be eager to hear about it! It's a great way to get together with friends and to share your wedding gift ideas. Although you might have just received, there is nothing wrong with taking a trip or staying for a while.

Deeper Love and Pride

Montgomery claims that your relationship will change over the following weeks. You'll likely feel a new appreciation for your partner and the depth of your marriage. Montgomery states that your relationship will be different after marriage. "It might be after your first argument post-married when you realize neither you nor your partner are moving on, or when you feel that someone has become more than just your spouse. They will become your family, and you will feel proud that they are your spouse.

There's more time to appreciate the little things, even with all of the demands that wedding planning brings. Montgomery advises, "Revel In the Ordinary Intimacy of Your Life Together, and Always Keep Talking About Your Relationship, Love, And Commitment."

Tension about the Next

It's amazing how soon after your wedding, family, friends, or even colleagues start asking questions about personal life decisions. This could be big-picture items you hadn't considered. Montgomery said that pressure for the next major life event continues after marriage. Montgomery states that it is possible to feel pressured to get married, have children, or achieve any other goal.

She encourages you to face the questions, and to keep in touch with the time that is most convenient for you both. "Set your own pace, and remember that every stage of life together comes with its own gifts," she states. "Don't miss these opportunities!"

#marriage #marriagergistration #marriageacts

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aelaer · 4 years

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☕ The fact that Wakanda was presented as an advanced country looking down on others from it's comfortable vibranium armchair but had a monarchist system that could place a ruler with 100% muscles and 0% brains at the head, along with other bothersome stuff like that, like Shuri being the head of the government's science department while she is a part of the royal family, or really, every single part of Wakanda that looks good on paper - a king with a council of people leading the different tribes - but that history has shown us very often ends up creating a dictatorship, which is really what happened in the movie and I'm surprised no one sees it.

Like, the movie literally shows us this country that's supposedly so advanced, with spies and people placed around the world, most likely putting their fingers in as many pies as possible, and an incredibly developed technology - which is frightening on many levels considering that UN or no Wakanda could blow up everything outside of its borders and people wouldn't know it until it happened -, but with a monarchist - and whatever other words could define it - governmental system that has revealed a lot of problems in its configuration. The tribes leader were literally being choked in the throne room and no one was doing anything, there was a destruction of a historical, scientific and cultural heritage being condoned by the new religious ceremony leader(???) just because the king ordered it. They would've literally tried taking over the entire non-black population (and where does that leave all the metis people? All the ones that are not white, but not black? Of middle eastern descendance? Of Asian one? Etc?) if the ex-monarch hadn't done something.

What I'm trying to ask if, what do you think of Wakanda being a good idea on paper but terrible in practice? True! Untrue? Something else?

Holy shit lady, you ask the tough questions. This is a difficult subject to cover - you’re asking me to look at the political structure of a fictional society within a disenfranchised continent - and I’m uncertain if it’s possible to do a decent analysis without addressing heavy topics. Basically, I don’t want to sound like a privileged dickwad. So I guess what I can say is - this comes from someone with a (mostly decent) American-based education, and no formal study of pre-colonial customs and political structures in Africa. I apologise for any misconstrued ideas and more than welcome any corrections to those who know more about these subjects!

I like Wakanda on paper, mostly due to the fact that the majority of Africa got completely screwed in terms of historical treatment and I’m rooting for the continent’s people to gain their own voices again. Wakanda being such a huge thing in international popular culture might serve as an inspiration for someone who ends up being important to at least one country there. In that sense, I really like Wakanda - the idea that it can potentially inspire historically disenfranchised cultures in the real world. How practical that thought is, I’m not sure - I might just be too idealistic.

Dictatorships can happen in non-monarchies as well, which you know -- as the most famous examples in 20th century history are not monarchies. The issue that can appear in monarchies -- or dictatorships -- is the lack of checks and balances to help keep those in power from going overboard (or the populace not having enough manpower/arms to get a dictator-like-coup out, but that’s an entirely different discussion!)

From what we got in the movie, Wakanda does seem to lack those checks and balances and no ability to overrule a king’s command. It seemed that they never had any sort of Magna Carta in their history (which is far from a perfect document, but did start the precedent of limiting monarchical power), and it doesn’t seem there’s anything resembling a representative government with veto power over the leader that you see in, what, 2/3rds of the world these days? (I legit have no idea, but I do know it’s wide-spread.)

But why wouldn’t they have such a document limiting monarchical power or some sort of democratic process? The modern mindset across many countries around the world leans towards democracy and elected, representative governments. But it can’t be denied that colonialism helped spread this, as -- at least, according to wiki -- representative democracy/liberal democracy/Western democracy all originate in Europe. So, in some way it makes sense that they didn’t transition yet because they were never colonized, and they were completely self-contained so didn’t have any of the outside world conflicts to force them to make changes. France helped fund the barons who pushed for the Magna Carta. France was also responsible for helping fund/arm the US in their fight to gain independence (lol France vs England history, it’s so great). External conflicts with other regions/countries caused *changes* to happen in those societies, at least from what I know of European history. Possibly happened in other continents, but I’m just not knowledgeable enough about their histories to give specific examples.

Wakanda had no outside conflict, and with no outside conflict, you get one major source of problems eliminated. Civil wars happen for a multitude of reasons, but perhaps one of their solutions historically for kingship changing without civil war was the fight of a representative of a tribe to try and win it over. Who knows? But when you’re enclosed like Wakanda was, there’s a lot less chance of things changing.

(On that note - their selection of a new leader is also incredibly disproportionately unfair to women. The average man is physiologically stronger and faster than the average woman. It’s just--biology. But who knows, maybe Wakanda was the same as much of the rest of the world in terms of their thoughts of women leading in politics. There’s comic canon that could be different, but the MCU did a lot of changes from comic canon.)

A *lot* of things changed across the world in the 20th century, making the world much smaller. Before the 20th century, it was likely considered completely useless and nonviable to make war on other nations because, though they were more technologically advanced, it’s incredibly unlikely they had something akin to nuclear bombs in the 19th century. They had to have their own steps of progression. And if they were only *a bit* better, they couldn’t stop the entire world if they started attacking and word spread. It’s only in the late 20th, early 21st century that things like destroying the rest of the world with Wakandan weaponry was likely actually feasible. Though honestly? I don’t think that shield could withstand a nuke. I just don’t see it. If Erik’s plan went through, he may have doomed Wakanda's capital city to being utterly annihilated because too many countries do have the ultimate kill button, and there are some who would not hesitate to use it.

It also could be cultural. Wakanda didn’t go conquering their neighbors left and right. They were happy with five tribes and it seemed to remain five tribes. That speaks of something deeply cultural, deep within the roots of how they’re raised and taught. Erik came from an entirely different culture with a violent childhood and background, and because they were in the 21st century, other Wakandans could *learn* of the rest of the world, and get new ideas - and get the same anger that stirs war and revolutions, and ultimately can affect a country’s culture.

So perhaps before the 21st century, limited power with the king wasn’t needed simply due to their isolation. Now, though that they are much more connected with the world, maybe they need something more like Botswana or Nigeria, only tied in with a monarchy (according to wiki -- Elsewhere, in Botswana, the kgosis (or chieftains) of the various tribes are constitutionally empowered to serve as advisors within the national legislature as members of the Ntlo ya Dikgosi. Meanwhile, in Nigeria, the various traditional polities that currently exist are politically defined by way of the ceding of definite authority from the provincial governments, which in turn receive their powers to do so from a series of chieftaincy laws that have been legislatively created.)

So basically what I’m trying to say is, while I’m personally super gung ho about representative democracies and individual liberties, that’s not necessarily the culture of Wakanda and it may not fit for them. But *what* the culture of Wakanda evolves into, being more open to the rest of the world -- and thus, the rest of the world’s ideas and cultures, remains to be seen. They may find that they do need to reform their political structure after the civil war we saw in the first film, though, and perhaps they do so.

#mdcbd #wakanda #erik killmonger #meta #mcu #ask #answered

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yuvon-writes-letters · 3 years

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Hey guys :)

Maybe I'm going chronological for one time, so I can sort my thoughts easier.

Yeah, Goldie's much mire active than I would've thought, too. But they did all those things to keep me alive and kind of save, since we still don't know who they are exactly working against. (I mean, we don't know who Goldie exactly is either, but you get my point)

Honestly, I am pretty sure the TSB timeline is continuing, at least if my theory that Goldie just set me back in an alternate timeline is true. In this case I feel sorry for TSB, though..Extremely sorry. He still was 'my' Jake back then, even though he acted weird in the end (maybe was manipulated by entities). I mean, if what he wrote was true he went with authorities. And in the end..this could've been his downfall.

And yeah, maybe I'm not exactly safe, but I just have to go back. If I go, and if I lose my job, I have some things to sort out. And Jake luckily agreed with me that clearing up my desk isn't the worst thing I can do before leaving. We're still thinking about a location, which I could luckily deside myself. Max agreed on that. Even though he still has some doubts. (I mean, of course...His cousin opened the door with bruises all over her face.) He did promise to not ask any questions until I feel ready, though. That gives myself and Jake some time to figure that out.

And also, Jake is right! We have three Jakes and three smart people. YUVON. And of course Goldie, like you said Yu :) And some information about the previous timeline. (And that was it with being chronological)

So yeah, like I said, Max and I'll go. And I also think we can be pretty certain now that the message came from Goldie not the MWAF (which is relieving). I saw the messages and they didn't make Jake the bad guy. I honestly just don't think I can quote them yet. (They're too good, but I probably start daydreaming if I do) But they talk about Jake being an important part of my life and my heart and Max protecting me when he cannot. My dear cousin jumped to conclusions when he saw my bruised face. About Max' phone...I'll probably throw it in a river or something if he brings it with him. I told him not to, also because of Jake (he's not only worried about the MWAF apparently...He didn't exactly say it out loud, but I think it's pretty obvious) but he loves this device.

And I emphasize with you about the being kidnapped thing, you'll manage it, I know it :) And if I need to jump dimensions and box some sense into your Crow-Crew xD

No but for real, you can do that. I know it :)

Jake, find a good point in time to talk to her. But do it :)

Otherwise, I still think the 'underlying desire' theory is a possibility! But, like always in the moment, we could be wrong.

As for my stasis, I really do not wish to talk to more people who think I've been kidnapped. And I am a bit scared that could somehow lead to either them or me being in more danger again. But for now we have to wait.

I for now will pack some important things and paper & pens xD I don't want to leave y'all behind :P

Liska🐾🔥

[A screenshot is glued to the back of the letter and the quick sentence "Jake wants to talk to Jake" is written above]

Hello Jake, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am not quite sure in which way Liska will handle giving you my message, but she promised me to not read it for now.

I don't know whether she told you before or not, but as far as I am concerned she realised I am not only worried about the MWAF chasing her.

With me breaking out of this stasis I am sure that my followers aren't that far behind. And I know you can't do anything from where you are, but cross checking way to protect her doesn't seem to bad to me. Especially since we are similar but still fairly different from each other. At least it seems like that from what I have read.

For my part, I recently improved and updated Nym-OS which allows me access to Liskas whereabouts. If Yuvon should read this, she knows and agrees to it.

Still I am yet stuck on one little detail: I am trying to help Nym-OS in counterattacking. So, even though I am sure you already knoe this yourself, Nym-OS gets the ability to access location of the people attacking Liskas phone. I am almost done with that, so we are able to see a bit easier if and where people are that could be a danger.

Do you have any other ideas for ways I could help? Or even improve what I am doing momentarily. I wouldn't normally ask this since I know and trust my skills, but I think that this is fairly different from a 'normal situation'.

~ Jake

Lis,

Um. I don't know if you've seen the newest person to send in a letter, but we now have an issue.

Jessy, if you're reading this, I was sort of trying to avoid talking about this right away but I'm sort of trapped in a weird place, and Jake's here too because I'm a dumbass. I did not, so you know, let him read your letter or my reply. I figured you wouldn't want that. Sorry for dancing around the issue earlier :/ But at least you can get a good sample of the complete insanity we go through on the regular now!

Yeah... you're getting thrown into the deep end right now, aren't you. Sorry. There's no way to ease into this. You should probably either stop reading these entirely or start reading the letters from the beginning, so this will all at least make some sense. The first letter should start with the words "To whoever reads this," just so you know you get the right one.

Back to you, Lis. Yeah, I feel pretty bad for TSB Jake too. I honestly can't imagine being in his position right now.

Alright. So, you can choose the place. Great! There's way less chance of you being caught that way...

Tragedies just seem to be happening to all us Duskwood detectives, recently, don't they? Rai is chronically overworked and barely has time to sleep, I'm stuck in this hellhole and I've been forgotten by most everyone, you were shot, and poor Matt died and... well.

I never knew him, but I feel really bad for him :(

You could give Max half the truth. Tell him you have a stalker, and he's starting to get physical. Jake has been trying to help you get away from the asshole. It's not even a lie, just... not the full truth. Because. You know. The whole truth is completely fucking insane.

Writing to Jessy just put into perspective how insane everything is, I think. Gimme a sec.

Oh, fuck. My Jessy just texted me. Great timing.

Jeez that whole thing with me leaving myself out was just a joke XD If I knew you and Jake would take it so seriously, I'd never have said anything. I'll steer clear from now on.

Yeah, okay, definitely Goldie. That makes way more sense. I don't think you have to be quite so drastic as destroying the phone. Just get him to leave it at home for the trip.

Ahaha, thanks. I don't think that's necessary, though. Actually, seeing future!Jessy's perspective has caused a bit of a paradigm shift. I think I might need to reconsider what all to tell and not to tell the Crow Crew. I just sort of default to keeping things secret, now, but you've seen how well that worked for me with you and Rai, and with Jake.

Again, you probably should wait for them to contact you first, but you WILL need to talk to them when that happens. What you say to them and what you don't is up to you.

Pack a couple different pens XD We're all a bit long-winded.

That's all from me :)

(The handwriting changes to Jake's.) Hallo, Lis.

Yuvon refuses to tell me what precisely she means about Jessica. Was she somehow contacted by an alternate version of Jessica? If so, how?

I am glad it was Goldie who contacted Max. Yuvon's suggestion for an excuse seems a good one, as there are far less things to remember that way. You simply need to oversimplify everything.

I do not, unfortunately, entirely believe that Yuvon was joking when she made that comment, based on previous comments and her ongoing guilt. I can't understand sometimes why she feels the need to lie so much. It is difficult for me to read people, much less her.

I will speak to her eventually. Early tomorrow, perhaps, if nothing else rears its head. Yuvon looks tired, and I am also admittedly not at my peak. I sincerely hope she does not wake up as early as she does every single day. It may get somewhat taxing, what with the lack of coffee here.

I think that is all from me to you, Lis. If you would kindly find a way to send the next section to my counterpart without looking at it, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you :)

—Jake and Yuvon

Jake,

It is a pleasure to meet you as well, despite the unusual circumstances.

That our pursuers may be freed from the stasis is a logical conclusion. Seeing as the last known location I had on them in my universe was approximately five hundred miles from Duskwood, they will likely be some of the first to free themselves from the stasis. I do not believe I need to warn you that time is of the essence.

It seems as if I am a small distance ahead of you in the development of countermeasures, perhaps because I have had more linear time to develop them. If you are where I think you are at in the development, you likely have or will soon hit a bug you cannot pin down that makes the pinpointing mechanism simply refuse to work at all. Presuming your and my version of NYM-0S are similar enough, the issue should lie in the public bool set in line 132 of the third part of the targeting script, the script that decides what constitutes a target; you have it defaulted to "false" where it should default to "true".

As for additional countermeasures: I was attempting to work on a rudimentary automated system of pattern detection when I was brought here. Essentially, its function would be such that it would be able to triangulate using the locator features already installed to find a rough estimate of where their headquarters might be. However, I have not found any way thus far to eliminate outliers, and as such the feature is currently next to useless. I am no longer able to work on the code, but perhaps you will have more luck than I did.

That is all I can think of for the moment on that subject. However, I have an odd theory on what may be part of the reason we vary so. If you have a moment to spare, please answer me this:

When I was very young, back when Mother was still around, she took me to a doctor for odd behaviors. This included not looking people in the eyes, but there was a list. I was given a diagnosis; if you had the same experience, you should likely know which one.

Did you have this experience? If so, please prove it by stating what the diagnosis was.

Do not worry if you do not know what I am talking about; I would rather you did not guess. Simply state that you don't know. It will confirm my theory.

Good luck with your pursuers.

—Jake

(The letter tucks itself in the paper clip with the others.)

#duskwood letter game #yuvon writes letters #duskwood #duskwood game #duskwood everbyte #duskwood jake #lis #this isn't precisely a puzzle #it's a genuine question on jake's end #you aren't expected to answer unless your jake is the same

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paintingcontractor3243 · 3 years

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For concerning 7 years, I was less than happy with performance so I made a decision to change in order to a percentage centered pay system. Quality of the artists work went way up significantly and typically the projects were obtaining completer in half the time. Instantly my painters had a better mindset when they knew these people would be paid out on percentage. Their interests were now directly tied in order to the quality and timeliness with the job. Excellent performance led to be able to less double checking at the conclusion of a project and a better important thing for everyone involved. When you need to be able to ask this query of your service provider, it is only an advised method of business. Now there are a good number of artists that have an excellent work ethic and even are paid simply by the hour. Following my success, My partner and i determined I would likely never again shell out a painter by simply the hour. I actually can now give my customers a higher quality of service and many involving it is a consequence of to paying my personal painters on proportion. What kind regarding contract is your own contractor offering you to be able to sign? Is it placed out well plus specific about just what the contractor may be responsible for? This kind of will tell a person immediately what a person can expect from the crew. Contractors which are organized will most of the time instill this in their crew and on the job. Disorganization will be something an structured person just can not tolerate in individuals or work web sites. Are you dealing with a contractor who is seeking a deposit before they commence? Even though plenty of projects can always be quite intensive, the typical painting contractor job will not become more than $8000. For jobs similar to this, I highly advise you never pay the deposit. Your art work contractor should have no troubles financing the project he is contemplating. If he does that is a great indication that the builder is not monetarily stable. When some sort of contractor is waiting around to become paid, an individual are likely in order to have his complete focus on detail in addition to a guarantee that your happiness may be the amount one goal. Through the years, I have read many stories from homeowners who paid a deposit and then simply watched as being the service provider left with only a day or a couple of worth of becoming done, never in order to be seen again. Since the first working day you contacted typically the contractor how effectively has he disseminated with you? Features he quickly clarified all of your current questions or concerns? Quality professional technicians value good communication. The importance a service provider puts on communication might give you one other clue to his core values. Whilst your project is being completed, you will want to work with somebody who communicates effectively. Does the contractor carry worker's comp insurance? Check into this as many companies carry several form of the liability insurance but this is not a replacement with regard to worker's compensation. A new simple liability plan will not include a worker should they be injured on the job. You should consider how well the contractor is covering his painters in opposition to injury. Many installers have labor of which is off the particular books, in some other words the painter is paid funds money with no paper trail. In cases like this, there is not any employment record an insurance company can follow or pay out upon in case regarding injury. Situations like this could put you in serious financial peril. Answers to these types of questions give a person a look directly into many core ideals that rule particular Marietta painting contractors. Consult with the provider's insurance company to verify their level of coverage. Check the particular contractor's prior task references. You be aware of that all the particular references will be what they feel are the best, however you can still learn a lot from. You could get a sense for how well they cleaned upward, communicated, timeliness associated with the project and more importantly the way the finished product viewed. Bear in mind though that people each have opinions about what quality is and you should not base your choice on references only. Watch out with regard to the aggressive painting contractors who will be volume oriented. Their complete goal would be to convert out as a lot of finished houses because possible in a brief amount of moment to earn fast money. The standard of their own work are not influenced by any kind of key values. You and your residence will suffer as a result of this type of contractor. Make certain that the contractor is completely clear my own staying a walk through with the head crew member and yourself to look with regard to areas that want tidied up or mended. This must get place before a person write any checks for your project. This particular protects both you and the service provider from issues later on. This walk by way of insures that a person are pleased with typically the work and allows to minimize or perhaps eliminate warranty concerns for the piece of art contractor, saving the business both time and money. This is the greatest approach for covering up a job and seasoned contractors that are concerned in relation to customer service know about this. You may well have already thought of the using items as these people are a bit more obvious: okay written and comprehensive warranty, how a lot of crews do that they have, can you verify business age, complaints that remain unsettled with typically the Better Business Agency and also a business permit are generally very {important|essential|crucial|significant. Business Name: Magnum Painting Elite Phone Number: 813-908-3498

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tearsofthemis · 4 years

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Tears of Themis : Chapter 1 “Social Snobbery” Part 7 [Investigation Stage]

[Previous Part] | [Masterlist] | [Next Part]

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▌Location- QingPing Restaurant

(Xia Yan doubts that this case was caused by accidental food poisoning since it’s suspicious that pesticides known to cause harm to humans would be found in a restaurant where people are eating and drinking. And to make things troublesome, the accused is adamant that this was caused by his own negligence.)

MC: “Then let’s start looking into the pesticide and how it made its way into the restaurant. Even if the incident happened two weeks ago, there should be residual powder left.”

Xia Yan: “Yeah, the pesticide used in the restaurant and the spring water that came in contact with it are our main focal points right now.” We were interrupted by a phone notification. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and checked the voice message Zuo Ran left me.

Zuo Ran (voice message): “The case isn’t as simple as we thought it would be. Pay close attention to Fang Yuan. Call me if you run into trouble.” MC: (Lawyer Zuo shares similar doubts in regards to the case, and now he’s also suspecting foul play from Fang Yuan?)

Zuo Ran: “Hey, what’s wrong? What happened?”

The sound of Zuo Ran’s voice startled me. I only then realized that I had accidentally dialed his number - and a video call at that.

MC: “!!!” ~~~In call~~~

Zuo Ran:

“Wrong number?”

“Forget it, you don’t need to apologize. As long as you’re okay.”

“The study guides for the intermediate exams… did you mean to leave them at the law firm?”

“That’s fair, the books are heavy and a nuisance to carry around.”

“Ah, there’s no need to worry that the case investigation will hinder your study progress, I’ll help you organize the key topics and questions for the exam.”

“No need to thank me. I’ll let you get back to work.”

~~~End call~~~

(After Zuo Ran hung up, I pressed a hand to my chest and let out the breath that I was holding.)

Xia Yan: “That person just now, was he your boss? You seem scared of him, is he bullying you?” MC: “Not at all. Lawyer Zuo is our firm’s executive elite lawyer, and a senior of mine. He’s one of the best in the industry. Although he’s strict, he would never bully juniors such as myself.” Xia Yan: “Really?”

MC: “Yes, really.” Xia Yan: “If you say so. Regardless of whether it’s work or personal troubles, you can rely on me to help you. I’ll have you know, I’m quite impressive myself.” MC: “Of course, Mr. Most-Impressive-Detective!~”

~~~Investigation starts!~~~

▌ [Examine powder sachets and mug]

MC: “Hai O’Sen powdered beverage? I’ve heard that this company’s wellness supplements have been all the rage these past two years.”

Xia Yan: “Consuming four or five packets in one go is way past the daily limit; overconsumption of supplements is harmful to the body.” (Xia Yan and I both reached out to grab the sachets, and our fingers touched. His fingertips felt hot against the back of my hand. I looked at our hands, then turned to look at Xia Yan.)

Xia Yan: “...We’re still so in sync, it’s like our brains work as one. C-cough! Why do you think Mr. Fang would consume so many packets?”

MC: “Ah… XinRan did mention that Mr. Fang has heart issues…” (What’s wrong with Xia Yan? He jerked his hand back as if he had gotten an electric shock. I pondered on what Xia Yan said earlier, and we gradually fell back into work mode.)

MC: “I think Mr. Fang’s been consuming supplements as placebo effects.”

Xia Yan: “But there ought to be side effects to his health if he’s been drinking so much of it…”

▌ [Examine receipt stuck under ledge]

Xia Yan: “Ow…” MC: “What’s wrong?” Xia Yan: “I cut my hand. There’s a piece of paper stuck under the cabinet, so I was trying to pull it out. My hands are too big, I can’t seem to grab it.”

MC: “Ha.. I’m sorry I can’t help but… laugh!” Xia Yan: “Then, may I inquire of this all-mighty lawyer with small hands to retrieve it? Ah, be careful not to cut yourself as well.”

(I’ve rarely seen Xia Yan be this deflated, and it’s probably unprofessional of me to be joking with him while we were working. I knelt down, and with the help of the flashlight on Xia Yan’s cell phone, I tried to free the piece of paper.)

MC: “Hu… it’s difficult. I got it! It’s a receipt.”

Xia Yan: “The time of purchase was two weeks ago, on Thursday. The item purchased was Insect Repellent 330…”

MC: “It’s an industrial pesticide, you usually won’t be able to purchase this from the stores here.”

Xia Yan: “The receipt also has the payment information. We have the first and last four digits of the credit card used for the transaction, so we can find the person that purchased the pesticide.”

▌ [Examine spring water container]

MC: “This should be the spring water sourced from YunXia mountain. The filling date is recorded on the side here. The production date is the same date as the incident. This jug is the same one that was delivered to the restaurant two weeks ago.” Xia Yan: “The container’s opening is narrow since it is to be placed on top of a dispenser for drinking. In this case, a pump would be affixed to it in order to retrieve the spring water. The likelihood of accidentally contaminating the spring water would be very difficult.”

MC: “That means whoever is behind the incident must have done it with malice.”

Xia Yan: “It’s a shame that the water container has been scrubbed clean of any other clues or fingerprints.”

▌ [Examine front door lock]

MC: “The door employs a fingerprint lock, and the door itself is free from any signs of forced entry. If the narrative is that this was a case of sabotage, then the culprit isn’t just anyone looking to extort money, but maybe one of the restaurant’s employees?”

Xia Yan: “To be more specific, the culprit would be anyone with fingerprint access, not necessarily just the employees. The restaurant’s employees would share liability if anything went wrong in the first place, so they would face the risk of being laid off. Especially if it was discovered that there was foul play, they would most likely be the ones to shoulder the repercussions. Unless one of them holds a personal grudge against Mr. Fang, under regular circumstances, an employee would have little motive to try and sabotage their workplace.”

MC: “But who else would have fingerprint access? Even XinRan had to ring the doorbell to get in. And there’s no way Mr. Fang would try and ruin his own livelihood…”

(I mulled over the possible suspects as Xia Yan pulled out a tablet from his bag and plugged it into the finger scanner’s power connector.)

MC: “Are you trying to…?”

Xia Yan: “To find the other people with access, all we gotta do is check the fingerprint IDs registered.”

▌ [Examine the water pump on the shelf]

Xia Yan: “This must be the pump that they attach to the spring water container.” ▌ [Examine water pump’s nozzle]

Xia Yan: “Look, there’s some yellow crystallization on here.”

MC: “Is this the leftover residue from the pesticide after it had dissolved in the water?” Xia Yan: “The amount of crystallization implies that the concentration of the dissolved pesticide was very high. But of course, this would be one of many possibilities.” MC: “One of many possibilities… What if someone rubbed the pesticide all over the spout? We can’t eliminate that theory, either. Regardless, we can say with certainty that Mr. Fang was lying when he claimed that the water was accidentally contaminated.”

▌ [Examine prints on water pump]

MC: “If only I had brought magnetic powder to lift these latent prints off of the water pump, then we could confirm whether or not anyone tampered with it.” Xia Yan: “You mean this stuff?”

(Xia Yan pulled a small bag filled with a powdery substance out of his shirt pocket.)

MC: “Why would you carry that around?”

Xia Yan: “As a professional, I gotta make sure I have all the tools on hand. How could I not take my gear everywhere?”

(Xia Yan used the magnetic powder and lifted several prints from the water pump. We have no way to cross-reference them at the moment.)

▌ [Examine pesticide packet in the drawer]

Xia Yan: “This must be the pesticide that Mr. Fang sent his runner to buy. The convenience store receipt was kept with it. It reads that the time of purchase was two weeks ago on Monday.”

MC: “Mr. Fang is a meticulous person. If it were me, I would’ve tossed the receipt two days after purchase. It says here, Mr. Fang purchased… Bugger-Off. Wait that’s not right, I recall that this type of insecticide is harmless to humans.” Xia Yan: “Yeah, it’s harmless towards mammals, which makes it suitable for use in households with pets. That reminds me, you used to be extremely scared of cockroaches when we were little. What about now? Are you still scared?”

MC: “We can still be friends if you drop this subject right now.”

▌ [Examine blue powder by the wine rack]

MC: “That’s strange, why can’t we find any trace of the pesticide that they claim they used? It would be counterintuitive if they sprinkled it on the ground and then wiped it up soon after.” Xia Yan: “That’s something worth looking into… Eh? There, by the corner of the wine rack, there are some traces of it left.” MC: “Judging by the blue color of the powder, it looks like any other insecticide you can buy on the market.”

Xia Yan: “It may look like it, but after we perform a compound analysis, we’ll be able to say for certain.”

MC: “Y-you even have equipment for that with you?!”

(I looked all around to see where Xia Yan would hide bunsen burners and beakers, kind of hoping that he could pull them out of thin air like magic.)

Xia Yan: “You don’t have to stare at me so intensely… we won’t need to actually test it using a chemistry kit…” (Xia Yan pulled a palm-sized device out of his bag. It looked like some sort of electronic screen with a thin dropper attached to it.)

Xia Yan: “This is the D-type Rapid Composition Tester that I modified; it’s capable of detecting common compounds.” MC: “D-type, huh… does that mean there’s an A-type, B-type, C-type that came before it? I doubt that you studied hard in your bio-engineering program.”

Xia Yan: “Wrong again, I graduated from my Master’s program with high honor distinctions!”

~~~Investigation ends!~~~

(After we finished preliminary investigations around the restaurant, Xia Yan and I sat down and discussed what we found. Xia Yan also took this time to run tests on the yellow crystals found on the nozzle of the water pump, as well as the pesticide sampled near the wine rack. The fingerprints lifted from the body of the water pump was compared to the fingerprint IDs registered in the door lock. On closer investigation, we also managed to lift fingerprints from the Insect Repellent 330 receipt. Lines of data and formulas appeared on Xia Yan’s computer, but they all looked like mumbo jumbo to me. I turned my attention to the cut on the back of his hand as it was starting to swell as it bled.)

MC: “We should take care of that cut on your hand.”

(I pulled out a packet of alcohol wipes and tried to not disturb Xia Yan as he worked.)

Xia Yan: “A cut? Where?”

(He smiled when he saw that I was staring at his hand with worry.)

Xia Yan: “Ah, I would’ve forgotten about it if you hadn’t pointed it out.”

MC: “Why are men always so careless. The underside of that cabinet probably hasn’t been wiped down in years. What if your cut gets infected?” (I pulled his hand toward me, and before he could complain, I unwrapped the alcohol wipe and dabbed it on his cut. I blew on it as the alcohol evaporated.)

MC: “Hang tight, it might sting a little. It’s a good thing that I always keep these disposable wipes when I go out for investigations. I often use them to disinfect things.”

Xia Yan: “...” (Xia Yan stayed quiet for a long time, so I looked up to glance at him. A pink blush settled on his cheeks, and it made his amber eyes look brighter than usual.)

MC: “Y-you…” Xia Yan: “Ah.. Uh… I’ll remember it well. Next... time, I’ll be careful. I’ll make sure you won’t have to worry.” MC: “Okay, as a hotshot detective, you better keep your word.”

I smiled at Xia Yan, and he turned even redder. He awkwardly coughed and scrambled to change the subject.

Xia Yan: “More on the results, there’s something questionable about both the fingerprints and the pesticide.”

-------

[Previous Part] | [Masterlist] | [Next Part]

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《CREDIT》 Translator: @humi-and-co Editor: @hallowsivy 《未定事件簿》Tears of Themis is a 2020 Chinese otome game by 米哈游Mihoyo. All original credits go to 米哈游Mihoyo.

《OFFICIAL ACCOUNTS》 Official website: https://bbs.mihoyo.com/wd/ Official WeChat account: 未定事件簿 Mihoyo official website: https://wd.mihoyo.com/

#tears of themis #teras of themis translations #otome #otome game #未定事件簿 #xia yan #zuo ran #夏彦 #左然

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searchstick10 · 4 years

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Nine Steps To Make The Most Of Mediation At The Office.

Award Winning Workplace Mediation Solutions

Content

Mediation Experts.

Resolving Neighbour Disputes

The conciliator notified the celebrations that they had little documentation for, or recollection of, the mediation and advised the events of the mediation arrangement in which they had concurred not to call them as a witness. The mediation procedure achieves these results in different ways, yet probably most importantly it boosts interaction and addresses unreasonable insurance claims and expectations. People have a tendency to occupy stiff settings as well as avoid connecting with the celebration with whom they are in dispute or will certainly connect with them via an intermediary. The face-to-face meeting that occurs in a joint session permits communication directly between the parties. workplace mediation brighton by workplacemediations gives a safe setting in which celebrations can move slowly towards rebuilding their partnership.

What documents do you need for mediation?

Checklist: Things to take with you to mediationTake documents like court documents, statements, photographs, invoices and payment records. Put all your documents and information in order. If you want the other parties to look at any documents, you may want to make copies to give to them.

While ACAS has actually seen some increase in its workload because of this, this has actually not yet been felt on a prevalent degree by various other mediation company. Mediation in the workplace is still the exception as opposed to the standard. There seems click this link to workplace mediation; although Human Resources experts express assistance for the procedure, reasonably few companies have utilized the mediation procedure.

Mediation Experts.

Very certified, experienced arbitrators can bring positive resolution to staff member disputes as well as disagreements. This workplace mediation solution offers a fast, fair, neutral and casual alternative to standard therapy as well as grievance procedures. Employees understand that they will be making the decisions, are anticipated to try to understand the various other event's issues and to look at options for resolving those problems.

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That's a huge time dedication and also does not consider that lots of such issues were not dealt with and led to work tribunal claims, including further substantial time and cost effects. Yet when disagreements entail managers themselves, or somehow the events are miserable with managers getting entailed, this ends up being difficult. Mediation is an informal disagreement resolution procedure that works in 80% of disputes.

Settling Neighbour Disputes

To get the most effective outcomes, moderators have to be trained and keep up to day with expert developments.There are numerous organisations that will certainly provide this training but, preferably, courses ought to be recognized by the Civil Mediation Council. As stated over, Acas has a training system, which causes a Certification in Interior Workplace Mediation. Acas limits student numbers to 12 on each courseto enable optimum individual focus. Several companies have different training courses for various locations of mediation work, such as civil and also industrial cases, workplace mediation and also family arbitrations. Many more individuals are encouraging employers to take on workplace mediation as a guideline to deal with problems. This write-up checks out a few of the problems that occur when considering this option.

This indicates that if you decide you wish to most likely to Tribunal, you have 30 days to make your allure.

An Expense to make additional provision about settlement and mediation services and also the application of equality legislation to such solutions; and also for linked purposes.

Our Resolution-trained arbitrators are all seasoned family legal representatives with expert knowledge of the Family members Court's assumptions.

Usually, sessions last between one and also 2 hours as well as the number called for will certainly depend upon just how swiftly agreement can be reached.

workplace mediation portsmouth works to fix the relationship for the events included and to restore a healthier environment for all those affected by the circumstance. Mediation is initiated mostly by Human Resources specialists or elderly supervisors rather than the events themselves. People should constantly be provided the opportunity to solve their argument for themselves. Nevertheless, if they can not fix it as well as the circumstance is obtaining out-of-hand by then very early intervention is recommended as opposed to watching workplace mediation as a last option. Contact us today to access a completely trained workplace moderator to help you fix workplace conflicts, conserving time, money and stress.

Can I Get Legal Guidance On Whether The Proposed Arrangement Is Fair For Me?

For example, personality clashes are usually hard to sort out utilizing grievance procedures. Identifying dispute and also taking early activity like mediation to resolve it can save time, money and also tension, as well as likewise stay clear of possibly costly disagreements establishing. These refined changes in mindset can be hard to achieve yet tend to be effective. Successfully workplace mediation reduces the damage, associated prices as well as the dangers of possible acceleration.

Mediation can be used when a dispute is in its early stage and no formal complaints have actually been made, or at any time as much as as well as after a formal Employment Tribunal end result. Where no formal complaint has actually been lodged, mediation can help those included to settle their differences without the tension and time of an official procedure. Where an official procedure has actually begun, mediation can work within formal timescales and in lots of circumstances will help to create a resolution that brings the official procedure to a very early close.

Results consist of negotiation, withdrawal of the issue, or where no contract is reached, seldom, continuation to formal procedures. It's challenging for a HR Director, any kind of Elderly Supervisor or indeed business owner to be viewed as neutral in a mediation.

Milwaukee housing advocates prepare for end of federal eviction moratorium - Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Milwaukee housing advocates prepare for end of federal eviction moratorium.

Posted: Thu, 17 Dec 2020 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Our arbitrators can aid to settle conflicts in between people in a line monitoring relationship, in between other coworkers, or between teams. All our specialist arbitrators are lengthy offering, occupation moderators that have specialised in workplace mediation.

This is despite a success rate for mediation of 70% to 80% of disputes moderated. Our conciliators are approachable, so if you have any questions concerning the procedure of our workplace mediation solution, do not be reluctant to schedule a free assessment. Our workplace conciliators are here to aid with any employment as well as workplace conflicts between a specific as well as supervisor, conflicts in a team or between an individual and HR division. When an arbitrator is assigned, they are normally given with a review of the problems associated with the workplace dispute and any kind of pertinent papers that either event desires to rely upon or go over throughout the mediation procedure. This helps the conciliator to recognize the background to the instance as well as aids guarantee that discussions will be effective as possible on the day of mediation. While businesses frequently have official plans and also procedures in place to deal with workplace conflicts, some situations might be much better suited to a much less official strategy to solving matters.

Do both parties pay for mediation?

One or both participants pay for the mediation as the payments come due. They are then reimbursed out of the assets at the end of the mediation process when they have reached a settlement.

She or he will know the personalities included and will certainly not be viewed as neutral. An external mediator will certainly help reveal that HR is aiming to fix this dispute without taking sides. The Human Resources Director or Manager also might be involved later on in a grievance or disciplinary disagreement. Workplace Mediation has actually long been gathering energy, ending up being increasingly preferred among UK firms who now utilize it as an efficient method to resolve conflicts at the workplace. In addition to situation particular mediation consultancy, we are additionally able to use internal mediation recognition training. Dealing with you and your marked workers, we can offer assistance to construct a society of 'prevention' instead of 'remedy'. Your service will then preserve control and also have the abilities internal to minimise potential disputes.

A straightforward conversation in a private setting, carefully handled by the arbitrator, can eliminate issues as well as cause fundamentally altered behaviour. This, subsequently, can lead to much more increased staff loyalty and boosted performance than any kind of number of Human Resources processes could have accomplished. Experts expected the floodgates to open up to workplace mediation following the intro of the ACAS code and also guidance.

Months after 'historic' police reforms, few want job of police arbitrator - KSTP

Months after 'historic' police reforms, few want job of police arbitrator.

Posted: Wed, 06 Jan 2021 04:01:39 GMT [source]

Each of our workplace arbitrators has a substantial case history with broad experience throughout a series of company industries and also in any way degrees in organisations. There is likewise unquestionably hesitation by some legal representatives. There is a duty for lawyers advising workers dealing with a grievance to motivate mediation. Nonetheless, some legal representatives may favour rights-based end results to informal processes intended to bring back connections.

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onegayastronaut · 5 years

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A Forgotten Spark (Hope Mikealson x Reader)

Requested by anon: Dr. Saltzman has saved Hope from Malivore and she is remembered by everyone etc, she comes back to school hoping to meet you, you were her girlfriend, but when she’s back you remember her BUT you have your humanity switch off. When you forgot her, you felt something was missing from your life and turning your switch off helped so you did. Or just hope helping her girlfriend turn her switch back on would include

Words: 2355

You could feel something was different, you just didn’t know exactly what changed. One minute you were checking your phone waiting for a text from someone, but now, you felt as if a weight had been lifted off your chest. You didn’t know what was worrying you in the first place, so you put down your phone and went about your business.

Coming out of your Vampire Studies class, a post-it note fell out of your notebook. All it said was “Love you babe! Can’t wait for our date tonight.” You frowned as you stared at it. The writing seemed familiar, but you couldn’t place who could have possibly written that and put it in your notebook. Maybe dinner could clear things up. As you ate, the feeling of unexplainable sadness came over you again, and every time someone walked past you, you couldn’t help but look up as if you were waiting for someone. The Salvatore School issued all vampires a rationed out volume of synthetically harvested blood for meals, and you sipped on it discontentedly. You’ve never liked the taste of the fake blood, and you didn’t understand why you were drinking it in the first place. Maybe it was time for you to switch over to something warmer and more delicious.

A week into feeling off, you sat in the Mystic Falls Grill waiting for your usual order of burger and fries to come along when two men started fighting across the bar. You decided to ignore the noise until the sound of a bottle breaking followed by a strong whiff of blood caught your attention. Suddenly, it seemed as if the smell of blood was the only thing you could concentrate on. You closed your eyes and tried to concentrate on something else, and before you knew it, the glass containing your soda shattered in your hand.

“Shit.”

“Don’t worry honey. I’ll go get you a new one.”

“I need to go. I’ll settle the bill later.” You ran out of the bar before the waitress could get another word in. Once you got outside, you ran to an abandoned alley in an attempt to breathe it out. Unfortunately, there was a teenager smoking in the corner. “Get out of here, kid.”

“Nah, I think I’m good here.”

“Get out!” You could feel your eyes darken, and you knew you weren’t supposed to attack this kid, or anyone for that matter. But you were hungry, and you can’t even remember why you were supposed to be upset! Maybe the smart thing to do would be to use one of the advantages of being a vampire—the ability to shut down your humanity and eliminate all the things that were making you sad. After closing your eyes, it was only a matter of seconds before you found the emotional switch to flip off.

“Duuuuude...what are you doing?” The teenager caught your attention again as you opened your eyes. This was much better: no more guilt, no more loneliness over God knows what, and best of all, no more rules holding you back. You barely remember feeding off the teenager, all you could think about was how good his blood tasted as you drank it down. All there was left to do was to dump his body somewhere secluded so you won’t get in trouble with Dr. Saltzman when you got back to school.

Days turned into weeks as you went from class to class. There were days when you simply skipped school altogether so you could run off to a neighboring city to feed. It wasn’t like school was that important anyway, vampires couldn’t age and you could pick right back up wherever you left off when you wanted to. You chose a different city every week so that you could throw off suspicion, and you’ve practiced such that your victims could still walk away from their encounters with you. It wasn’t really due to mercy on your part, it was just that you didn’t want to be locked up in one of those underground vampire dungeons at school. You couldn’t understand why the school was feeding vampires those metallic tasting runny blood bags when the real deal tasted so much better. Anyway, what the schools did was none of your business. The only thing that mattered now was finding a good place to get your next meal.

The only wrinkle to your plan today was MG. Usually, you didn’t mind hanging out with him, but today he was like a fly that you couldn’t get rid of. “You know, I’ve been thinking that the two of us could plan the next school event together. It’ll be fun!”

“I’m sure it will be. I’ve got somewhere to be right now, so if you don’t mind…”

“Oh, okay. I’ll see you later then.” MG looked hurt that you blew him off, but again, you couldn’t bring yourself to care. He’ll get over it eventually.

As you made your way over to the next town forty miles away, you were practically salivating over the thought of the meal you were going to have. The local high school seemed to house many delicious looking teenagers, and you couldn’t wait to see if their blood tasted as good as they looked. It took you a shorter time than anticipated to reach your location, and you spotted a tall jock as your meal of choice. Running up to him, you put a hand on his shoulder and looked at him in the eye. “We are going in the woods together. You will not scream or resist until I let you go.”

The boy followed you mutely into a secluded area and you turned to him with your eyes darkened and fangs prepared to bite into his neck. Just as you bit into him, a flood of memories seemed to flash in front of your eyes. A beautiful brunette girl came into your vision, and you saw her going out on dates with you and being romantic. It didn’t take too long for you to remember her name and why you were feeling so sad and empty before. You remember the fact that she was your girlfriend, until she suddenly wasn’t. These memories also reminded you of the fight against Malivore and how Hope had sacrificed herself so that supernatural beings could be safe. You could remember everything now, and again, you could not bring yourself to care. You had spent so much time feeling as if a part of you was missing when she had jumped into Malivore, you were not excited to opening yourself up to any more emotions. Finishing off your meal, you ordered the boy to forget about you and go back to class. You decided it would be best to run back to school before Dr. Saltzman noticed you were gone.

When you got back to school, you decided that keeping a low profile for the moment was most likely the best decision for everyone involved. It wasn’t that you weren’t glad that Hope was back, it’s just that you didn’t have the time or energy to care about anyone else but yourself. As it so happened, your plans for staying off the radar went out the window the moment you tried sneaking into your room. Just when you opened the door, someone rushed at you and enveloped you in a bear hug. You recognized the scent in less than a second, and waited for the hug to be over. It seemed that Hope was waiting for you to come back, but you couldn’t muster up the will to be happy at the fact that she was there in your room.

“(Y/N)! Did you miss me? Of course you did, well you technically couldn’t because everyone was memory-wiped when it came it came to me. But I’m back now, and I’m not going anywhere ever again, I promise! What have you been doing for the last three months? Have you been busy?” Hope stopped talking, and you stared at the ground.

“It’s great that you’re back, But I’m sort of busy right now.”

“Busy with what? Do you want me to come with you?”

You shook your head as you stood by the door. Hope stared at you with narrowed eyes. As she looked at you, she could see that you were still you...but something was wrong. She felt it from the moment she had come into your room and saw that all of your decorations were gone. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was really going on, but she didn’t want to jump to any conclusions before finding out more. So instead of saying anything more, she made a beeline straight to MG’s room.

“MG, I need to ask you a few questions.”

“Hope! I’m so happy you’re back! How are things? Have you talked to (Y/N) yet?”

“I came to ask you about her, actually. Have you noticed anything strange, like has she been acting differently in the time that I’ve been gone?”

“Oh thank God you noticed that too. I think she may have turned her humanity off when you went into Malivore. Before she did she mentioned something about feeling as if there was a part of her missing, but she couldn’t explain it. I guess her turning her humanity switch off was her way of not feeling like someone important to her was missing.” MG hesitated before finishing off that last sentence. He knew that Hope already felt incredibly guilty for all the pain that had happened to those around her, and he didn’t mean to make Hope feel bad about this situation too.

-----

“Dr. Saltzman, we have to talk.”

“About (Y/N)? Yes we do.” Alaric looked up from his paper. “(Y/N) has been sneaking out of school to feed on local residents for months now, and it’s a miracle she hasn’t been caught yet. She has been smart enough such that she has been wiping memories after she’s done, but this cannot continue.”

“I agree. We have to turn her humanity back on.”

“You mean she didn’t turn it on when you went to see her?”

“She practically kicked me out of her room after she got there. All of her decorations are gone, all that’s in her room is her bed and desk. It’s like there’s nobody there anymore.”

“I’ve had experience with vampires who have turned their humanity off, but they have to want to turn it back on. Is there any place you can think of that’s special for both of you? Anything that has a strong emotional impact on her?”

“I think I know a place.”

“Good. Get her there, because the longer she has her humanity turned off, the harder it will be for her to turn it on.”

———

Now that Dr. Saltzman knew that you were hunting humans in the area, life got slightly harder for you. Not only were you now required to have a partner go with you on hunting trips, you were also “asked” to meet Hope after class later on in the day. Even though it had been framed as a question, you could remember enough training sessions with Hope to realize that it would be unwise to ignore her.

When you arrived at the lake pier to meet Hope, you saw that she was already there waiting for you. “What is it, Hope? What’s going on?”

“Close your eyes.”

“Why?”

“Just do it.”

Closing your eyes, you felt a cloth being put around your eyes. With anyone else, you would have stopped things right there, but you knew you could trust Hope, so you decided to just roll with it. “Are we going somewhere?”

“Maybe. Just relax and let me show you something.” Hope picked you up, and before you knew it, she put you back on the ground again. “You can take the cloth off now.”

When you took off the blindfold, you could tell that Hope had taken you to the place where the two of you always went out on dates. Even though you could remember all the good times you had spent with Hope at this place, you still weren’t interested in turning your humanity switch back on. “Why are we here?”

Hope seemed nervous before she spoke. “I brought you here because I want my girlfriend back. I know I went missing, and --” Hope’s voice broke, and she couldn’t continue. “I should have talked to you before I went into Malivore.”

“I would have stopped you from sacrificing yourself. I could have helped you figure out a way to take out Malivore without you having to do it alone.”

“I know. That’s why I couldn’t tell you what I was going to do. I knew you’d put yourself in danger for me and I couldn’t allow someone else that I love to do that for me.” Hope reached for your hand, and you were surprised that you didn’t want to withdraw from her. Maybe having someone who didn’t want to avoid you wasn’t so bad after all. “I need you to turn your switch back on, (Y/N). I know you don’t want to, but please. I miss you, MG misses you. Even Lizzie told me that not having you to plan events with is boring now.”

As Hope stepped closer to you, the wind blew in your direction causing you to be able to smell her shampoo. You didn’t know just how much you missed waking up in the morning and burying your face in her hair, and it seemed like the natural next step to turn your humanity switch back on. The moment you did, a flood of emotions went through your mind, and you couldn’t help a few tears from coming out.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. I’m right here.”

“I just missed you so much.” Your crying caused your words to be nearly unintelligible, but you didn’t care because all that mattered was that Hope was back with you.

“I know babe. I’m never leaving you again, I promise.”

#hope mikaelson #hope mikaelson imagine #hope mikaelson x reader #Legacies #legacies x reader #legacies imagine

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marianacalheiros · 4 years

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Domestic plumbing Troubles Getting You Downward? Check This Out!

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#plumbers #plumbing #plumber

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alleiradayne · 5 years

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THERE’S SOMETHING STRANGE A READER/SAM WINCHESTER SERIES

When Y/N Y/L/N escapes to the upper Midwest for a weekend of inspiration to begin her tenth paranormal thriller novel, she never imagined the source of that inspiration to be her own life. Between the old mansion, two peculiar men posing as antiquers, and the mysterious death of the heiress of Hill Manor one-hundred and fifty years ago, Y/N learns the truth about far more than the paranormal.

Part IV - The Betrayal

Summary: The hunt begins! Warnings/Tags: Hunting, fluff, angst, near death experience, a poltergeist, I think it’s scary... Square filled: Author AU Characters/Pairings: Reader/Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester Word Count: 4,895 A/N: For @spnfluffbingo2019, this entire series fills the Author AU square. Super giant huge thank you to @atc74 who beta’d this giant thing for me. I also had to delete and reblog this post because I made some changes that were posted to AO3 and not here.

The door creaked on its worn hinges as Dean crossed the threshold into her room. Over his shoulder he brandished an iron fireplace poker like a baseball bat. “Alright, what have you touched in here so far?”

From behind Sam, Y/N shoved her way into her room and strode past Dean. His feeble protest sounded more like a bruised ego than an actual complaint, and so she ignored it. “Everything,” she declared as she gestured to encompass her room. “I've touched everything in this room. If you can see it, I've touched it. It's kind of hard not to.”

Sam swallowed hard as he prepared to speak. “I warned you. Last night. Why didn't you listen?”

“Yeah, like that basketball player and her reporter friend,” Dean said. “They were smart and got the hell out when I told them to.”

Wait. Sam had been right? “You… weren't trying to fold the basketball player?”

Dean turned to Sam with a flat look. “Fold? Did you tell her to say that?”

“Would you have preferred I use ‘fuck’ instead? Bang? Nail? Drill? Take your pick,” Y/N snipped. “I've got more.”

Dean stared at her for a moment before turning back to Sam. “I hate you and I'm jealous of you, but I'm damn proud of you, Sammy. That's the kinda girl you should marry.”

“Shut up,” Sam hissed. “We need to find this… thing immediately. It might not even be here. Whatever it is,” he added as he looked the room once over.

Y/N looked as well but didn't have a single clue for what it was for which she searched. “Sam, who was that woman in that book? And why do you think her spirit is still attached to this place?”

Sam withdrew the book from under his arm and opened the it to read aloud. “Y/N Hillstead…” he paused as he looked at Dean who in turn looked at her, “of Hill Manor, writing her twentieth novel at her scrivener’s desk in her room.”

Y/N nodded as she frowned. “Okay, I'm just gonna ignore the fact that we have the same first name and we're both authors. Why do you think her spirit is here?”

Sam flipped a few pages ahead as Dean prodded at various pieces of furniture with the iron poker. “Y/N died within days of publishing the novel she was writing in her portrait. Her cause of death was unknown, her body unmarred and in top physical health for the time.”

“So, she had an aneurysm and a 19th century doctor couldn’t figure that out,” Y/N said as she picked at the enameled corner the writing desk. At the edge of her vision she saw Dean squint as his hackles bared his teeth. “There has to be more to this story if you’re both convinced her spirit is here.”

Sam snapped the book shut and his flat stare bore into hers. “What this book omits, either intentionally or otherwise, is the fact that Ms. Hillstead's body was found in the mansion's cemetery lying on her back right where her future grave would be.”

Okay. That was definitely suspicious. “I still feel like there's more missing,” she stated.

“Would you just tell her the whole story?” Dean growled as he slumped into a chair, only to leap out of it after a beat.

Sam rolled his eyes as he scoffed and shook his head at Dean. When Sam turned back to her, he explained. “Ms. Hillstead's body had been found posed. At least that's what other sources say. Given the items found on her person, we suspect she had lain that way on her own.”

He neared the writing desk as his words slowed. A glance between the book and the desk served him one final check before he said, “she had all the ritual components for creating a phylactery.”

Y/N slumped onto her bed. Christ. Real magic. Subconsciously, her fingers tapped her chin as she spoke. “You’re trying to find the phylactery. Before anyone else does.”

Dean grunted his agreement. “Ms. Hillstead was a witch in every sense of the word. A powerful one, too.”

A witch? A real, honest-to-God witch? Y/N wondered what other fairytales might be true. A shake of her head cleared her thoughts, and instead she asked, “How do you know she was a witch?”

“We uh… have contacts,” Sam stuttered.

“You know a witch?!”

Dean waved her off. “She’s been a pain in our ass for the better part of a decade now. Don’t make it sound cool.”

“I would love to meet her,” Y/N started, “I bet she has amazing stories.”

“Can we focus?” Sam asked as he continued to stare at the writing table. “Whatever this phylactery is, we need to find it immediately.”

Y/N stood as Dean inched his way to the door. “Wait a minute,” she demanded. Dean froze at the door, his hand an inch shy of the handle. “Is Y/N Hillstead actually dead?”

Sam and Dean traded a look. “We’re not sure,” Sam started. “Either way, we find her phylactery and get it to the right people, they can handle it. Ideally, they could eliminate that part of her soul and find out where the rest of her is.”

“Rest… of her?” Y/N asked.

Dean bristled at that. “We dug up her grave last night hoping to burn her corpse,” he said.

“With salt, right? To force her spirit to move on.” Y/N added.

He visibility relaxed at that, a small smile quirking his lips. He regarded Sam as he agreed. “Yeah. But her coffin was empty. So, she either isn’t dead, or, if she is, something else was done with her body. We think she’s not dead. She’s a lich and split her soul in two, and put one half in a phylactery. She could be a baelnorn, but that’s highly un—”

Sam backhanded his shoulder and Dean stopped short with a clipped tongue as Y/N paced the width of her room, deep in thought. A thousand questions running through her mind, rabbit hole after rabbit hole spawning more and more questions. But given their convictions, it all boiled down to one issue. “How do you destroy a phylactery?”

Dean rolled his eyes as his chin dropped to his chest. Sam, all too proud, withdrew a decorative vial from his jean pocket. Golden amber liquid glimmered in the yellow lamplight as he spun it between his fingers. She neared him as her eyes narrowed to examine the tiny bottle of crystal-clear glass. Stoppered by a cork in golden metal neck, the liquid swirled in undulating circles far too much for Sam’s steady hand. Inches away, a sudden flash of a violent shade of green startled Y/N so, she jumped back a step. “What the fuck is that?”

“Venom,” Sam said as he returned it to his pocket. “From a basilisk.”

Basilisks, too? As Y/N’s mind raced, it dawned on her. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” she scoffed.

“We’re not,” Dean groaned. “It’s so damn ridiculous. But it works.”

She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Alright, fine. But we still have no clue where this phylactery is, or what it is. It might not even be in this house.”

Sam glanced at her writing desk once more. “We have reason to believe it is.”

“Sam and I were up most of the night doing research after we found her coffin empty,” Dean started as he caught Sam’s look. He hefted the iron poker in his fist as he neared the desk. “The things on Y/N Hillstead’s body included several possible phylacteries. At least, there was a list of items found on her body not necessary for the ritual. We’re assuming she planned to use one of them.”

A slow step in complete synchronization neared the brothers to the desk. “One of those items was a small journal,” Sam started.

“A diamond bracelet her husband had given her,” Dean added as they continued to close in on the writing desk.

“A scroll of parchment with the end of her last novel written on it,” Sam added, eyes still glued to the writing desk.

With each of their steps, Y/N backed further into her room until the dresser met the small of her back. Dean reached the desk first and hooked into the drawer with the poker. Its contents revealed, Dean regarded Sam out of the corner of his eye, then reached in with his bare hands.

“Wait!”

Too late, Y/N's exclamation echoed through her room unheard. Dean withdrew her leather notebook, its modern binding far too obvious among the other items in the drawn.

He discarded it on the bed before returning to the drawer. “The last item was a pen.”

“Like the one in her portrait?”

Sam withdrew a thin purple cloth from his back pocket and unfurled it with a snap of his wrist. A thick swallow stuck in her throat, and the room spun as adrenaline coursed through her veins. With rapt attention, Y/N stared as he reached into the desk, shuffled old paper aside, then froze.

Dean backed away a startled step before recovering with the iron poker bared. “Be careful.”

Y/N resisted the urge to laugh, Sam's flat glare and Dean's healthy fear of the unknown humorous in their own ways. “It's just a pen.”

“We don't know that yet,” Dean argued.

“He has a point,” Sam agreed as he searched the room, then found her empty notebook on her bed. “May I?” When Y/N nodded, he snatched it up and flipped it open to the first page and his brow furrowed. “I thought you said you started writing last night?”

“I… didn’t,” she stuttered. “There was just… too much going on. The mansion, the people. They were all…”

“Distracting?”

Sam’s bright stare locked with hers, and for a moment, the world around them ceased to exist. Dean faded to the blurry edges of her subconscious, as did the pen that Sam held. Empathy poured from him in waves, crashing over her and pulling her under. Damn his perception. Damn his emotional intelligence, too. And damn his enthralling gaze.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, will you two get a room?”

Reality returned in a rush when Dean ripped the pen and cloth from Sam’s hand and scribbled on the page of her open notebook. Y/N gasped despite not knowing what should or even could happen. And Sam nearly screamed as he bobbled the notebook into Dean's arms, where he fumbled it to the floor.

Still as stone, they froze as though that might protect them. Several seconds ticked by on the large mantle clock before Y/N opened her eyes that she had shut in a fit of terror only to find the notebook laying on the floor, unmarked by the pen.

“Piece of junk,” Dean spat as he shoved the cap on it. He tossed it back into the drawer as he handed Sam his cloth, then leaned down for the notebook and handed it back to Y/N. “Thanks. We’ll keep looking.”

“I could help,” she offered as she set her notebook on the desk.

Sam handed her the thin square of purple fabric as he said, “Use that. It’s… it has a Hoodoo barrier on it. Kinda like a… “

Dean flourished his from his pocket and grinned. “A magic condom.”

She almost felt bad for Sam. Almost. As she took the fabric from him, she looked to Dean and said, “Magic condom, hm? Does it make you look bigger when you wear it, Dean?”

The ridiculous grin on Dean's face disappeared without a trace. He looked to the door, then turned and strode out to the hallway, Sam’s cackling laughter following him as he, too, turned for the door.

“Sam.”

He stopped in the doorway, a smile so bright on his face despite the looming danger. “Y/N?”

“What should I do?”

Damn the quake in her voice. She only needed a straight answer from Sam. Not consoling or, worse, pity.

“I'll catch up to you,” he said into the hallway.

“Sure,” she heard Dean say. His heavy boots thumped down the hallway as he said, “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, Y/N!”

She laughed despite Sam’s embarrassed blush. When Sam closed her door and turned back to her, she said, “He means well.”

“Yeah, he’s meant well for the better part of twenty-five years,” he said.

She sat on her bed and Sam followed, sitting so close the heat of his presence consumed her in every way possible. “Is that how long you two have been at… whatever this is?” she asked as she gestured to her room.

“Hunting.”

Of course. “Hunting,” she repeated.

“And yes. Dean's been hunting longer. My dad taught us,” he paused as his eyes glazed over, staring off into the middle distance as though reliving too many memories at once.

“Sam?” Her hand found his without thought. “Earth to Sam?”

He blinked at last, and his fingers tightened around hers when he looked to her. “Sorry. It's… a long story. One I don't think I have time to tell. Maybe I could write a book about it all someday. Although, I don't think there's enough ink in the entire world to print that monstrosity.”

The fine hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as gooseflesh broke out along her arms. “What did you just say?”

Sam regarded his feet a moment before responding. “I should write a book about hunting. For hunters. You know, nothing I could really publish given that—”

“No, after that,” she urged as she stood.

Sam followed, his hand still held in hers. “That there isn't enough ink in the whole world to print that book.”

“Ink,” she muttered as she turned back to the writing desk. The drawer sat open a half inch and bright moonlight from the window glinted off something inside it.

“Yeah, ink,” Sam repeated. “What about it?”

“I… I'm not sure,” she sighed. Something about the pen and the mention of ink had snagged a recent memory. But far too often the last several weeks, her more intriguing thoughts fled at the first sign of scrutiny. “I thought I had an idea but, it's gone. Feels a lot like my writing these days.”

The warmth of his hands enveloped her shoulders as Sam squared her to face him. “You'll get out of this funk,” he said, “you've got a lot going on right now, especially with this bombshell of a truth dropping into your lap.”

“I know,” she groaned, “I'm just… impatient. And still so distracted.”

The second those words left her mouth she wished she could take them back. Sam parted from her with a sudden nervous shake as he said, “I'm sorry, I should go. Let you get back to work.”

Had dinner never happened? What of their walk? And the library earlier that afternoon? “I still want to help. Do you have to go?”

He checked the door over his shoulder. “I should. We really need to find this phylactery.”

The sinking sensation in her chest chilled her to her toes. “I… I understand. I'll keep looking here,” she said.

At the door, Sam paused and held up another purple cloth. “Don’t forget to use the one I gave you. And Y/N?”

“Yeah, Sam?”

“After we finish this, we’ll talk, okay?” he said with a small smile. “I promise. You deserve my complete attention and I want to give that to you when people's lives aren't at stake.”

A promise. Better than nothing. “Thanks, Sam.”

He disappeared through the door, its sharp clasp clicking against the wood as it shut behind him. For a long moment, Y/N stood in the center of her room, unsure of what to do for the first time in so many years. Though shocked, she found a sense of comfort in learning the truth, that her novels were not far from fact. Not in the least. If anything, her work demanded a review by the Winchesters. She wondered what her editor would think if she republished any of her books with corrections based on Sam and Dean’s feedback.

Shit. Too many distractions. She had intended to give Sam her phone number in case she found anything. If she moved fast enough, she might yet catch him in the hallway. From the writing desk, she retrieved her notebook. The cover flipped aside with a flick of her wrist, but when she went for her pen in the binding, it wasn’t there. The drawer of the desk came up empty but for the old fountain pen Dean and Sam had found and discarded.

The black glazed finish—wood or stone, she was unsure—glimmered in the lamplight. Thin, faint veins of gold and green shined as she twirled it between her fingers.

“Ink.”

If Y/N Hillstead had written twenty novels with that pen, maybe Y/N could tap into that well of inspiration.

All she needed was some ink.

Her room proved fruitless as she turned it over, using the Hoodoo cloth in most cases to touch anything remotely suspicious. Not a single inkwell surfaced in any of the drawers, dressers, or cabinets that lined her over-furnished quarters. The distinct lack of an inkwell in that room, the room in which Y/N Hillstead had supposedly written her novels, struck her odd. But that faint memory, newly formed earlier that afternoon, bubbled to the surface once more and she surrendered to it completely.

Corded muscle pressed against her entire body, enveloped in his suffocating embrace. How soft his lips on hers, softer than sin as they so gently teased them apart with his tongue and the faint taste of icy spearmint gum filled her mouth again. Gun oil and leather overwhelmed her nose as she breathed in to ease the relentless onslaught of arousal pooling between her thighs. Her bedroom spun as the memory unfolded and she relived it, his hands slipping to the small of her back, smoothing over the curve of her ass, and grasping, nearly lifting her from her feet.

Had Dean not interrupted them, she knew without a doubt Sam would have taken her on that very table in the library. And she would have so willingly wrapped her legs around his hips and let him fuck her cross-eyed.

But in that last moment before the memory faded at Dean’s barking interjection, an image flashed in her mind’s eye and Y/N saw it.

Behind Sam, an inkwell sat on a shelf all by itself. And beside it on the same base stood an identical pen to the one she held, standing tall in its holder.

Her eyes snapped open as she slapped her hand on the writing desk to catch her listing body. When the room stopped spinning and her breathing steadied, Y/N set her notebook and the pen on her bed as her plans took shape. She needed a change of clothes. As Sam had mentioned earlier that afternoon, running in heels begged for a broken ankle.

While she knew Sam would be well on his way by the time she changed into her jeans, t-shirt, jacket, and Chucks, she still wanted to give the pen a shot. Her superstitions about inspiration, muses, and motivation demanded she at least try it. So, she gathered up her things, stuffed them into her messenger bag, and headed for the library.

On her way, she expected to run into other guests, if only one. But no one interrupted her quick stride, not a single soul in sight from the hallway, down the stairs, and into the halls of study in the North wing of the house. Given the hour, she expected to see folks returning from dinner but when she had passed the dining room at the bottom of the stairs, darkness oozed from the doorway.

She darted in and headed for the kitchen door on a whim. If she had learned anything from all her years of research, she needed some sort of defense. In the kitchen, the overhead lights flickered to life when she flipped the switch. Y/N scanned the countertops, then, finding them bare, started in on the cupboards. The pantry proved fruitful; a large canister of salt sat on a bottom shelf and she tossed it into her bag.

On her way out, her eye caught a gleaming object hanging on the wall near the door. A small chef’s hand-torch sat in a mount and she snatched it up to toss it into her bag as she strode from the kitchen. Through the dining room, she returned to the dark hallway and headed for the library.

Around a nearby corner, she happened upon the library entrance quicker than she had expected. Yellow lamplight flooded the room and spilled into the hallway where Y/N had skidded to a stop. Empty but for the myriad rows of shelves, the library beckoned to her, inviting her to curl up in a secluded corner with a good book and a hot cup of tea on that chilly fall night.

One foot crossed the threshold, then the other as a creeping sense of dread crawled up her spine. She paused six feet inside the library doors for a breath and scanned the room as best she could. Too many obstacles obscured the furthest corners of the room, including the table at which she had found Sam earlier that afternoon. And yet, she hesitated. What might be around those dimly lit corners, the edges of shadows through which she could hardly see?

“Oh, get it together, Y/N,” she chastised as she pressed on, willing herself to traverse the bookcases once more.

Around the last row of shelves, she found the table and approached it only to stall in the last foot. She had stood there mere hours ago, lips locked with Sam’s as he all but overpowered her with his hulking frame and palpable desire. She wanted nothing more than to relive that moment again and again until her imagination finished the job and she would, at the very least, have the perfect inspiration for a scene in her novel.

But before she moved any further, her curiosity about the pen burned a hole in thoughts. She inspected the shelving surrounding her spot until at last she found the entire case of writing supplies. Near the top the inkwell sat on its base, the twin pen beside it and surrounded by copious amounts of old parchment and quills.

“Perfect.”

As she approached the shelf, Y/N noted the base upon which the inkwell sat had a second, empty holder beside the twin pen. Made of the same material—she still couldn’t tell if it was wood or stone—she determined the set must belong together.

Eager to reunite them, Y/N grabbed the base at both ends and slid it towards her. A sharp shift jolted the base as it popped free of its decades long resting place surrounded by a thick layer of dust.

Delicate hands carried the inkwell and base to the table where she set them down near a chair and sat. The moment of truth loomed, settled in her stomach like a lead weight as she dragged her notebook from her bag. On its heels, she withdrew the pen and removed the cap, its sharp clip loud as a crack of thunder in the silent library.

Her nerves had gotten the best of her, shaking hands struggling to fill the pen. Damn fragile piece of junk. The sad part, she knew, was that it probably wasn't worth it. The pen had most likely ceased to function properly decades ago.

The nib hovered over her notebook as she imagined how to begin her novel. As a solid drop of thick black ink gathered, Y/N had a second thought to take out her Hoodoo cloth and wrap it around the pen.

Just in case.

Metal met paper and dragged a thick, broad stroke as Y/N wrote in her neatest script.

The Betrayal at The House on The Hill

The last thing Natalie wanted, let alone needed, after the untimely death of her parents was to inherit a piece of property. Least of all the cursed house on the top of the hill at the edge of town. But there she stood in the massive ballroom, surrounded by too many faces with too few names.

Each sentence flowed from Y/N without thought, without any effort at all. She continued, each idea forming and solidifying in a matter of seconds. The words found their way to the page with such perfection, Y/N tore the pen away intentionally to allow herself a moment to breathe.

As she inhaled, the chill she had felt upon entering the library returned. The fine hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, and gooseflesh pebbled the skin of her arms as a numbing sense of dread chilled her toes and fingers. Her heart thumped faster and faster, hammering against her chest, until the rush of blood past her ears drowned out all her thoughts.

Lamps in the hallways flickered once, twice, then snuffed out. Darkness threatened the library as lamps along the walls followed, their brief flickers inevitably stilled. Y/N rose to her feet and reached into her bag, her fingers wrapping around a large container of salt as the last lights sputtered and died.

An unearthly cold gripped her like a vice and threatened to squeeze the life from her lungs. Ephemeral swirls of dust and dirt churned in a gathering mass not a foot before her, taking shape in the form of a hand around her throat. Y/N dropped the pen with a gasp, her scream silent as the grave, and though she clawed at the hands on her neck, she could not grasp them.

The dim light of the moon faded beneath heavy lids, her consciousness fleeing under the unholy strength of the malevolence rapidly forming before her. Before she succumbed to that darkness, the ghastly visage of a young woman—unmistakably Y/N Hillstead—stared back at her, sunken eyes wide and boring holes into her very soul.

Y/N gasped one last breath in desperation as she flung the can of salt at the spirit. Just like in her books, it scattered in a spray of dirt and dust, and Y/N collapsed to her knees as she gasped, choking for breath.

Her reprieve lasted a second before the spirit returned, but Y/N leaped faster and grabbed the pen as she rolled for the canister of salt. A handful flung in its face bought her the one second she needed to lunge for her bag and make the last move she had.

The chef’s torch ignited in one hand and she held the pen a scant inch shy of the flame. The spirit froze, expressionless but for her wide eyes glued to the pen.

“If you move one more inch, so help me God, I'll burn it,” Y/N growled. “You need leave. This is not the place for you.”

The spirit of Y/N Hillstead opened her mouth to speak but only a thin rasp emanated from her. Rage filled her eyes as her lips thinned to nothing, pressed closed as her jaw clenched.

And then everything happened all at once. A banshee wail of a scream rent the air as the spirit threw her head back and her jaw unhinged. Y/N clamped her hands over her ears as she collapsed to her knees and the pen fell to the floor, the most excruciating pain wracking her entire body. Regret plagued her final thoughts as consciousness faded once more, darkness creeping in at the edges of her vision.

But out of that deep, dark nothing, a familiar face brightened, illuminated by a flare of eerie green light. She searched the room for the source of the light and found it on the floor, shining blindingly bright out of the body of the pen. The impulse to grasp it, to encapsulate that power, assaulted Y/N with such relentless force, no amount of her willpower could have resisted. She lunged and clamped a hand over the pen, trapping it on the floor. As though she had covered its mouth, the spirit silenced in a wisp of dust, disappearing into thin air.

Warm, golden lamplight flickered to life and flooded the library in the absence of the spirit. That familiar face returned as Sam Winchester rushed to her side. His massive arms enveloped her with such ease, Y/N blushed despite the pain. She slumped into his embrace and allowed him to scoop her up into his arms, her hands shaking as they gripped at his coat.

He carried her from the library as she finally succumbed to the darkness, heavy lids drifting closed. But before she slipped into that unconsciousness, that infinitesimal space between asleep and awake, Y/N heard a gruff voice ask, “What the fuck just happened in there?”

Sam shifted her in his arms as he strode on, Dean catching up behind him. “I don’t know, man.”

“That wasn’t a lich, Sam! Or a spirit!” Dean hissed. “That was a full-on fucking poltergeist! Why is Y/N Hillstead a poltergeist?!”

A real, honest-to-god poltergeist. That final thought followed her down into the deep, dark nothing as she succumbed to unconsciousness at last.

Son of a bitch.

If you want to be tagged for this series specifically, send me an ask or a DM! If you want in on any of my tags (Sam/Jared, Dean/Jensen), you can ask for that, too!

THERE’S SOMETHING STRANGE MASTER LIST

ALLEIRADAYNE’S SPN FLUFF BINGO MASTERLIST

ALLEIRADAYNE’S SPN MASTER LIST

The Whole Thang:

@atc74 @hannahindie @bevans87 @meganwinchester1999 @plaided-ani-on-hiatus @oneshoeshort @jonogueira @andkatiethings @elfinmox @wonderfulworldofwinchester @princessofthefandomrealm @just-another-busyfangirl @jmekitchens @81mysteriouslyme @dolphincliffs @seenashwrite @canadianspnhunter @meowmeow-motherfucker @depressed-moose-78 @staycejo1 @hobby27 @pretty-fortune @mypopculturediva @fanfictionjunkie1112 @sandlee44 @4llmywr1tings @claitynroberts @maddiepants @scarletluvscas @donnaintx @blackeyedangel9805 @rainflowermoon @winchesterprincessbride @lazinessisalliknow @the-is13 @waywardafgrandma @keymology @sister-winchesters99

Sam’s Sasstresses:

@morganas-pendragons @karouwinchester

There’s Something Strange:

@peridottea91 @amanda-teaches

#spnfluffbingo #spnfluffbingo2019 #alleiradayne writes #spn fanfic #reader/sam winchester

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healthmessenger · 4 years

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The Actual Coronavirus diet…according to HealthMessenger

On March 23, the World Food Programme issued guidelines on the “do’s” and “dont’s” of eating while on quarantine. In last week’s article, I gave my take on each of the 7 tips on keeping a healthy diet in the face of coronavirus…according to the WFP…

Some of you subsequently reached out to ask what my guidelines would be. Even though I have not personally contracted the virus…yet…and havent had to quarantine, I did preventatively tweak my diet;

Full Disclosure…

As some of you already know, I strongly advocate for low carb diets, especially when tackling auto-immune diseases such as type-2 diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, etc… . I myself have recently adopted a modified Ketogenic diet in an attempt to rebalance my macros to boost my immune system. The “modified” part comes with the addition of low GI fruits(strawberries, raspberries, kiwi, apples, pears, apricots, tomatoes) and low GI starches(sweet potatoes) around workouts in order to maintain a high metabolic rate. I have also started supplementing with Vitamin D in order offset the lack of sun exposure. That’s enough about me though… . Let’s see what the science has to say…

Low-carb nutrition and immune function

On Number 15, 2019 a study published in ScienceImmunology showed that mice fed a Ketogenic diet for seven days were protected from a lethal flu virus by increasing the number of specialised immune cells in their lungs. But interestingly, this protection only came once the mice had metabolically adapted to the high-fat diet. Giving exogenous ketones without the metabolic adaptation did not confer the same benefit. Obviously, that’s a far cry from saying a keto diet will do the same for influenza in humans or for COVID-19, simply because 1)Humans are not mice and 2)something tells me we can’t do the same study where we purposely infect people with a lethal influenza strain. To be completely honest, the paper is incredibly dense with detailed discussion of the immunologic and genetic responses, but I think the basic conclusion is good enough. The metabolic adaptation to a ketogenic diet can affect the function of the immune system to the point where it can prevent a lethal infection. But one question we should ask is, if we follow a diet that is proven to help with weight loss and metabolic health and may also beneficially affect immune function, wouldn’t it be worth trying? What do we have to lose?

Quality, quality, quality…

So, now more than ever, you might want to jump on a low-carb diet. I am not going to debate which LCHF diet is the best, simply because there is no clear cut answer to that question and also because I have partially answered that question in a previous article. Having said that, the quality (nutritional density) of the food you choose must prevail over the underlying food category (fruits vs vegetables vs meat vs etc…) promoted by the diet you eventually decide to pick. I don’t care wether you are vegan, carnivore or anything in between, the quality of the ingredients/foods you pick must be of the highest quality possible. That is as organically grown as available in your area. You are better off eating a grass-fed, grass finished steak over an “enhanced” apple(genetically modified with added sugar). Vice versa, you are better off eating an organically grown apple from your grandmothers’ apple tree over an antibiotic treated piece of meat. The same rule of thumb applies across food categories. Simply pay a bit more attention to the labels and do not hesitate to ask your well-intentioned butcher/gardener.

Cook your Food

France’s health and safety agency (ANSES) convened an expert group to investigate whether the COVID-19 disease can be potentially transmitted via contaminated food.

In light of the scientific knowledge available, ANSES has suggested transmission through food could occur if a person infected with the virus prepares or handles food with dirty hands – and contaminates it.

“This could concern all types of food (animal or plant products),” noted the agency. “Furthermore, while there is no evidence to suggest that consumption of contaminated food can lead to infection of the digestive tract, the possibility of the respiratory tract becoming infecting during chewing cannot be completely ruled out.”

As with other known coronaviruses, the novel coronavirus is sensitive to cooking temperatures, ANSES continued. “Heat treatment at 63°C for four minutes (temperature used when preparing hot food in mass catering) can therefore reduce contamination of a food product by a factor of 1,000.”

ANSES has reiterated that cooking food and observing good hygiene practices when handling and preparing food are effective at preventing contamination of the novel coronavirus.

Load up on fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds

This one sounds like a no brainer…until you adopt a low-carb diet. Studies after studies have shown that the consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds is obviously a common recommendation when it comes to strengthening ones immunity. I would recommend 2-3 pieces of low GI fruits(below 50) per day and at least 5 vegetables(below 30) a day. As far as nuts and seeds are concern, choose raw over salted. Portions will vary on an individual basis. A hand full per day is good rule of thumb though. Forget about the rainbow

Stay the hell away from refined carbs and sugars

I know how tempting it can be to reach out to cookies whilst binging on the latest Netflix series, awaiting for the quarantine to end …but please…dont… .

Laboratory evidence suggests sugar impairs white blood cell function and triggers acute rises in blood sugar, leading to an increased risk of infections and complications. Therefore, it would make sense that we want to limit these blood sugar elevations. Refined carbohydrates and simple sugars are two of the biggest offenders for blood sugar spikes and should therefore be eliminated.

This is not to say that studies show avoiding these foods results in fewer infections. (We don’t have that clear evidence.)

However, one simple solution is to use the measurement of your own blood sugar as a guide. If higher blood sugar is associated with more complications, it makes sense we want to limit that. I suggest measuring your blood sugar either with a regular glucometer or, even better, with a continuous glucometer (CGM) if you have access to one. If the foods you eat cause your blood sugar to rise above 140mg/dl (7.8mmol/L), consider eating something different.

Again studies show that a low-carb, moderate protein, higher fat diet effectively reduces blood sugar and can even reverse type 2 diabetes. We don’t have proof that this will “boost your immune system,” but it may help keep blood sugars in check which may be associated with decreased infectious risk.

Chicken soup/bone broth

Treating colds and the flu with chicken soup may be the most popular urban myth of all time. Surprisingly, it may not be 100% a myth. One study showed chicken soup “inhibited neutrophil migration,” which the authors suggest could improve our ability to recover from infections. However, this is one of those instances where laboratory findings may not translate to clinical improvements such as fewer or less serious infections. But it’s hard to argue with a tasty homemade soup with chicken(grass-fed), a few low-carb veggies, and plenty of real salt. Immune booster or not, it sounds like a great meal for a period in self-isolation.

Herbs and Spices

Turmeric

Turmeric is a spice commonly used in Indian and Asian cuisine, including curries. It contains a bright-yellow compound known as curcumin, which emerging research suggests might enhance immune function. However, there isn’t any convincing evidence showing that it helps fight viral infections yet. On the other hand, adding turmeric to your food adds flavour, and taking a curcumin supplement is unlikely to cause any harm in otherwise healthy people. If you have any medical conditions — especially if you take blood thinners — check with your doctor before supplementing with curcumin.

Echinacea

Echinacea is an herb that can reportedly help prevent the common cold. But is this reputation well-deserved? A recent systematic review of randomised trials found that echinacea may possibly have a mild protective effect against upper-respiratory infections but doesn’t appear to reduce the length or severity of illness. While it’s impossible to say whether it might offer any protection against COVID-19, it appears to be safe to take on a short-term basis. If you’re at high risk, you may consider taking it for the next several weeks.

Garlic

Garlic, a popular and pungent herb with a characteristic aroma, is widely believed to have antibacterial and antiviral effects, including helping to fight the common cold. A 2014 randomised controlled trial did find that people who took a garlic supplement had fewer colds and recovered more quickly from colds than people who didn’t take garlic. Although this is encouraging, this is just one study. Other high-quality trials are needed to confirm whether garlic is truly beneficial for the common cold or other upper-respiratory infections. For now, enjoy garlic for its zesty flavour and unmistakable aroma rather than counting on it to boost your immunity during the coronavirus pandemic.

Supplements

Vitamin C

For decades, Vitamin C has been used to help prevent the common cold. Among other functions, this vitamin can help maintain healthy skin that provides a barrier to germs and other harmful invaders. In addition, some — but not all — studies suggest it may improve the function of certain white blood cells that fight infection. In addition, there is conflicting evidence about the potential mortality benefits of high dose Vitamin C for patients with sepsis, the most severe form of systemic infections. While it’s unclear whether taking a Vitamin C supplement is beneficial for COVID-19, for most people there’s no harm in taking up to 2,000 mg per day (the upper limit set by the National Academy of Medicine).

For smokers and high-risk individuals, it’s definitely worth considering. Vitamin C is water-soluble, so your body will excrete whatever you don’t need into your urine. However, at very high doses, Vitamin C may cause diarrheas or increase the risk of kidney stones (especially in men), so be sure not to exceed 2,000 mg daily.

Vitamin D

As both a hormone and a vitamin, Vitamin D plays a number of important roles in health. In recent years, people have taken very high doses of Vitamin D with the intention of boosting immunity. But is this an effective tactic? A 2017 systematic review of 25 randomised trials found that taking a Vitamin D supplement seemed to have a mild protective effect against respiratory-tract infections in most people, but provided much greater protection in those who were very deficient in Vitamin D. If your Vitamin D levels are low, you may have a better chance of staying well if you supplement with 2,000 IU per day (or more, with medical supervision). Many — perhaps even most — people are deficient in vitamin D. So it’s probably wise to take a Vitamin D supplement right now, especially if you’re at increased risk for COVID-19. Of course, your body can make Vitamin D on its own when your skin is exposed to sunlight, so try to get some sun whenever you can. How much sun depends on the time of year and your location. A good starting point is 15 minutes of exposure to a large body part (such as the torso or back). Just remember to avoid sunburns, as excess sun exposure carries its own risks

Zinc

Zinc is a mineral involved in the white blood cell response to infection. Because of this, people who are deficient in zinc are more susceptible to cold, flu, and other viruses. One meta-analysis of seven trials found that supplementing with zinc reduced the length of the common cold by an average of 33%. Whether it could have a similar effect on COVID-19 isn’t yet known. Taking supplementary zinc may be a good strategy for older people and others at increased risk. If you decide to take zinc, make sure to stay below the upper limit of 40 mg per day, and avoid administering nasally, due to the risk of olfactory complications.

Fasting

With all the focus on how certain foods affect your immune system, you may also wonder, what about fasting? As counterintuitive as this one may sound, fasting protocoles are proving more and more effective at boosting immune functions..

One study in mice showed that fasting, or more specifically refeeding after a fast, restored immune function that had been suppressed by chemotherapy. During the fasting period itself, however, fasting appeared to impair the immune system, especially in the elderly. This is a very important caveat to keep in mind, especially if yo have already been infected by COVI-19. Fasting should only be used a a preventative tool.

Over the long term, intermittent fasting and refeeding will boost the immune system. Keep this in mind in preparation for the next pandemic. Sorry but yes, we will likely face other, more or less severe, pandemics in the coming years/decades. Better be safe than sorry. However, during an acute pandemic, where the immediate risk of infection is higher than usual, it may not be a good time to try fasting, given the potential for a temporary decrease in immunity.

This may sound surprising for those who have heard the phrase, “starve a fever.” The theory is that humans have evolved to not feel hungry and purposely avoid food during an acute illness as a protective mechanism, which may in turn limit nutrients the virus needs to replicate. To be clear, this is all conjecture without any quality supporting evidence.

Other evidence suggests that ketones are beneficial for immune function, and perhaps that could be why some recommend fasting. But considering all of the data together, if that were the case, you are better off adopting a keto diet and not fasting. Based on the limited data available, I suggest not fasting longer than 36 hours during the outbreak of the coronavirus, especially if you are older than 60 years old. It’s logical that you can continue with shorter-duration time-restricted eating, although there is no data on this either.

There you go…my official guidelines on keeping a healthy diet in the face of coronavirus…

Coming up next: Why you cannot “catch” a virus

Until then…take care of you and your loved ones.

To Your Health

The Health Messenger

#CoronavirusdietImmunesystemboostersImmunologyHealthMessenger

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maxx5426-blog · 5 years

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13 Quick Tips to Enhance Your Website Design Abilities

Designing your business website can be a difficult proposition. You have actually got to manage the expectations of many stakeholders, and you can frequently strike barriers that avoid originalities from emerging.

I was the design manager for a big company website for almost six years, and throughout that time, I discovered myself losing the point of view of what our target audiences really needed. Call it "tunnel vision." When you deal with the very same website, it frequently helps to take an action back and analyze brand-new techniques. That's the function of this blog post.

What follows are some tips, techniques, shortcuts and basic suggestions for producing excellent website design. Can you attempt any of these to take your web design to the next level?

1) Design in tones of gray, then include color

If your web designer produces wireframes prior to visual designs, then you understand the worth of starting with tones of gray. Turn your wireframe into a grayscale visual design, add your photography, then carefully include color to design elements one at a time.

This will avoid an "overdesigned" website and aid to put prominence on simply the items that need it.

2) Utilize Keynote (Mac) to create rapid page models

You don't need Photoshop to produce quick models of web pages, landing pages, contact us to actions or other web user interface aspects. There's an entire underground motion around using Keynote (that's Apple's variation of PowerPoint) to create mockups.

There's even an online repository consisting of interface design templates for wireframing, prototyping and screening mobile and web apps in Keynote.

3) Add web typefaces to your corporate design guide

It's 2015, and if your business design guide doesn't include web typefaces, then you require to check out including those so your website has the very same governance that corporate documents and collateral does.

If you have not looked into this yet, Google Fonts is a fantastic place to begin. Discover a suitable web font and specify usage in your business style guide so you utilize it regularly online

4) Bury those social media icons

You did all that work to get individuals to your website, and yet you're welcoming them to leave? That's what you're doing when you put social networks icons in a popular area of your website, like in the header. Bury the icons in the footer.

If people are on your website, you want them to remain, find out and maybe ask about your services, not take a look at company picnic pictures and bowling outings on Facebook. Social media need to send people to your website, not vice versa.

5) Ditch the slideshow/carousel

When the homepage slideshow/image carousel entered into style, it was a method to get great deals of information on the very first page of your website. The issue is that the majority of people do not stay on the page long enough to experience all of the tiles/messages.

What's more, is that the messages and images normally aren't appropriate to your possibility's very first see. What's the one thing a visitor should take away from their website go to? Promote that a person thing-- generally what your business performs in layman's terms-- and ditch the rest.

6) Simplify navigation

Lowering your visitors' choices may seem counter-intuitive, but it can, in fact, assist direct people to your most productive content. Instead of overwhelming your website visitors with links to every page, simplify your navigation.

Get rid of dropdown menus and particularly multi-tier dropdown navigation that only the most knowledgeable mouse user can navigate, and go a step further by minimizing the number of links in the header or sidebar of your website.

7) Remove sidebars

The sidebar has actually been a particularly popular web design trend for the last ten years, especially on blog sites. Lots of business are discovering that when they eliminate sidebars from their blog sites, it motivates reader attention to the short article and the call to action at the end.

Eliminating the sidebar on our company blog has actually increased the number of click call to action graphics over 35%.

8) Get color motivation from nature

Struggling to discover the best color mix for your website or a call to action graphic? Get your inspiration from nature. You can either use your own camera to photograph natural wonders around you or find landscape pictures online, the use a color picker to select a color. Nature's color scheme never ever stops working.

9) Step far from the computer system

I think that excellent design begins with fantastic planning. Getting your concepts down on paper or on a whiteboard can help you iterate through a design, improving it and adding information as you go along. Drawing on a whiteboard can also make the design procedure collective and permit other team members to provide input.

It's likewise easy to remove pencil from paper or marker from white boards and make quick changes, and when you have something concrete to deal with, snap a photo with your smartphone and get to work on screen.

10) Use Pinterest to produce mood boards

When you're putting together inspiration and ideas for a new website, or you're upgrading part of your website, you require a way to gather your motivation in one location for future referral.

Did you understand that you can use Pinterest to develop a mood board of your preferred images, colors, layouts, patterns, sample websites, and principle material? Another great benefit of utilizing Pinterest is that other designers create and share mood boards too, and they have actually currently curated a ton of resources that you can use.

11) Boost your typeface size

Typography is exceptionally important in web design. Text is hard sufficient to keep reading a computer screen, so you have to make the important things stand apart.

One way to do this is to increase your font style sizes, specifically for headings and crucial blocks of text. Think about increasing the size of your normal typeface, too.

12) Usage white area

It might be hard to believe that using whitespace is a hack, however, I evaluate websites every day that could use more whitespace. Not every blank location of the screen needs to be filled.

Even though whitespace and simpleness are in design right now, too many companies attempt to cram everything into a little area, or worse yet, "above the fold." Give your design room to breathe, and your website visitors will have the ability to find things much easier.

13) Use the squint test

Want a fast way to learn what's most prominent on your website? Retreat from your computer screen and squint. A lot of everything will end up being fuzzy, and just the bigger, colorful, more popular features will be obvious.

It's said that this technique helps a designer comprehend what a newbie visitor might discover when he scans your website. Will the visitor notice what's crucial?

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chippokenabokura · 6 years

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World Trigger - Volume 19 Extras Part 4/4

From Hiatus to Return

Thank you very much for buying World Trigger volume 19. World Trigger entered a long-term hiatus between the 2016 50th Issue of Weekly Shounen Jump and the 2018 47th Issue (according to Wikipedia), and during that time I received a lot of encouragement and letters worrying over me from the fans, so I thought I would explain the course of events from hiatus to return to transfer here.

The reason for the hiatus is because I damaged my neck, but in the first place I believe it was due to how I recklessly took on too much work (besides the weekly manuscript) without considering my capacity, and then not being able to properly cut corners (conserve energy) on those subsidiary jobs.

After I damaged my neck, for a time I was given a week’s rest every 4 to 5 issues to deal with it, but the symptoms gradually grew worse. A high quality pain penetrated through the painkillers and spread from my neck to my back and head, there were more times when I couldn’t get up, manuscripts were delayed, and the result was that I entered a dark downward spiral where I had to push myself even further, drinking energy drinks every 2 hours to force my body to move in the style of a doping enemy from a sports manga to do my work. Perhaps because of that, I was becoming more and more worn down mentally, my eyes were spinning and in the end I was having trouble speaking.

Sensing my evil aura, my editor put a stop to it, and it was decided I would go on an indefinite hiatus.

According to my manager, it seems I have a habit of acting cool in front of my editor, and there were several times when I would say ‘I. Can. Do. It. Somehow. Probably.’ Even though I was kind of on the verge of death. So if my editor hadn’t stopped me here then there was the chance it could have gotten even worse. Nice work, editor.

For about a month after starting the hiatus, I pretty much lived on my back. From the 2nd month, I was able to get up for about 4, 5 hours a day, and from the 3rd month I could move around for about half a day.

Because I became unable to ride inside anything after damaging my neck (I would get dizzy after about 15 minutes from the pain in my neck), it was about 6 months into the hiatus that I could be properly looked at in a hospital.

I went to several different hospitals, but all the doctors said the same things: ‘if you continue the treatment and keep resting, you will keep getting better’, ‘for now, it’s important not to push yourself in the future. If yo push yourself you will of course get worse’, ‘it’s an occupational disease, the kind that follows you for life, so if you can I recommend you transfer to a job that’s easier on your neck’. Telling my editor left us feeling pretty down: ‘I can’t really imagine weekly serialisation that won’t make you push yourself…’ ‘Yeah…’.

I couldn’t keep making trouble for Jump, and it would soon be 1 year into the hiatus, it may be impossible to restart serialisation…

As I thought that, one day, I heard from my editor: ‘Ashihara-san, how do you feel about transferring?’

According to him, the problem with weekly serialisation is its killer schedule that doesn’t allow for ‘resting for a day because you’re really not feeling well’. If it’s the web-based ‘Jump+’, each work can be given its own deadline, so you can serialise at whatever pace you’d like. Besides that, transferring to a monthly magazine would also allow a certain amount of adjustment on the number of pages to be drawn that month. Since the worst case scenario would be ‘pushing myself too hard I had to stop writing World Trigger’, so it might be better to match how I’m feeling and draw at a pace of ‘I can manage this’. Well, it wasn’t something to be decided immediately, so if I could just consider this an option…

The more I heard, the better it sounded, and it was something I was very grateful for. But it worried me, considering my social standing as a trash author who had been on hiatus for close to a year.

I was quite attached to Jump, and ‘doing my best at the best magazine in Japan’ was also my motivation, so I was conflicted on what it would be like if I left Jump. But there was the fundamental problem of how many more years it would take me to recover enough to serialise weekly, and whether I could even recover to that extent in the first place, and furthermore I wanted to allow all the readers who still haven’t forgotten World Trigger even after over a year to read the continuation as soon as possible, so in the end I asked my editor to request a transfer.

‘If you request it, I will do my best to allow you to transfer to where you want’, I was told, so I discussed where to transfer with my manager.

Personally, I was still hung up on the paper medium, and due to the reasons of even I knowing about the works serialised in it and that it’s easy to buy it from places like convenience stores, I requested ‘Jump SQ’. Both Jump and SQ editorial departments went to great efforts, and a lot happened after as well, until the transfer was decided. I was able to safely restart serialisation.

I would like to once again thank the editorial department of Weekly Shounen Jump, the editorial department of Jump SQ, my editors from both departments, and all the readers who encouraged me even during the hiatus. Thank you very much.

Since the chapter I restart serialisation on (chapter 165) is the first in about 2 years, for an instant I considered whether to start it in a special way, but I felt it would seem unnatural when it’s made into a manga volume, so I deliberately went ahead as normal.

From now on, the pace would slow down from when it was a weekly serialisation, but I think I will be able to put out a manga volume at regular intervals. My neck currently have recovered to the point that I can live normally, but I have been told by the SQ editorial department that I am ‘strictly prohibited from pushing myself’, so if the published pages decrease, I would be grateful if you can consider it as ‘playing it safe this month’.

Also, since I want to repay Jump SQ for picking up ‘World Trigger’, if you have the time and a bit more than 600 yen a month, I would be very happy if you can subscribe to Jump SQ. If you are already subscribed, I look forward to your readership.

I will do my best.

~Ashihara Daisuke

As the last part of the extras from volume 19, I also want to take this chance to mention some of the edits made from the magazine version. There were no plot-relevant changes this time, mostly some minor differences in clothing patterns etc. (and now that we know the clothes in the magazine isn’t always decided by Ashihara and he would change it if he thinks it’s necessary, I wonder if he has headcanons for everyone’s fashion choices as well).

But one funny change I want to point out is this from ch162:

Reiji wasn’t wearing a seatbelt in the magazine, and I guess Ashihara didn’t want him to break the law lol

The other kind of major change (in my perspective at least) are these radar panels from ch165 and ch167:

Both of these radars now show LOW, matching Yuzuru’s HIGH in ch171. Showing us that radar is capable of showing whether someone is above or below you, though that’s still not very helpful in an urban environment as the top panel shows.

An earlier Q&A has said that elevation can’t be displayed on radar, so either this is the first time we’ve had a retcon, radar got beefed up without it being noted in story (yet), an operator added that through process of elimination, there’s some other reason, or Ashihara just forgot. Since this is World Trigger, any of these are possible.

As always, credit goes to this wonderful site that records all changes from magazine to manga volume. Please check here if you want to know about all the minor changes as well.

In conclusion, for all of you who wanted to know about the specific details of Ashihara’s illness, here it is.

#world trigger #volume 19 extras

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djseaward · 6 years

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my zero waste progress (& DIY oat milk recipe!)

you'd have to be living under a rock to not have heard the term "zero waste" thrown around. next to "adaptogen", i am predicting it's one of those buzzwords of the last year. and why not? even though it sounds like a phase and trendy, i am whole-heartedly on-board with zero waste becoming a thing that we just all do without thinking! zero waste doesn't have to mean that you absolutely create no waste at all, but an overall catchphrase for people trying to make steps to cut down on waste in order to live as zero waste as they possibly can in that time of their life.

making substitutes and compromises for the good of humanity and the planet. i'm all in for that. it also goes hand in hand with a thifty, frugal and minimalist lifestyle.

so i wanted to share some "zero waste" or more ecological changes i've made over the past year and some goals of mine for next year. maybe it’ll give you some ideas or hopefully inspire you a little to try something out!

i feel proud that 2018 was the year that we've really hunkered down and got more serious about zero waste and the switch to a more ecological, sustainable household.

pre-2018 there have been some really ecological switches we've already made. we started composting within the first two years or so that we moved to budejovice, and lucky for us, our landlords have a compost heap that they kindly let us put our bio into, which in turn fuels our building's garden! pretty neat. since we started doing this, we only have to take out the (small sized bin) trash about once every three weeks! hooray! that may sound strange, but there’s nothing stinky in there since we have a separate compost container which is emptied once every couple of days (choose something with a lid that closes completely!).

of course we've been recycling (no brainer), always bring shopping bags with us when we go (always on foot) to the supermarket and throw almost no plastic away.

we also had been using old holey socks as a dusting rag and plastic produce bags as "saran wrap". we've never bought saran (plastic, cling) wrap here before.

since the beginning, we've bought compostable dog poo bags for ferdie. (tip: it's better to dispose of these in bio bins vs. trash bins where they'll decompose slower because the trash isn't allowed to aerate like the compost is)

i'm very passionate about purchasing only recycled toilet paper as entire areas are deforested just to make new, fluffy toilet paper. #knowbetterdobetter

we bring our own containers, cups and utensils when we travel or go on day trips. i’ve found that glass jars make excellent “tupperware” containers as well as impromptu wine glasses for a picnic. if i were in the market for a new travel tumbler, i’d definitely spring for a stojo collapsible tumbler! that’s always my problem that i bring my tumbler and then it takes up space for most of the trip, unused.

alex is very adamant about unplugging nearly every appliance when not in use. with how expensive electricity is in europe, it helps a lot not to having a computer sucking it up! it's also much better for your battery appliances to unplug from the wall as soon as they are finished charging, so you're also taking better care of your things.

here are some recent changes we've made just over the past year.

-- eliminating use of aerosols. i personally decided i wouldn't buy any more, but the problem for a long time had been: where the heck can you find non-aerosol shaving cream? i found my answer in d'fluff shaving cream in a tub from LUSH. it smells like their rockstar soap and although it doesn't foam, i'm down with this change!

-- we switched to bamboo toothbrushes, which i had to order by mail because previously, there were no local shops that sold them! i have since found a couple so i think we're good to go now. before, i ordered from the bam and boo, which sent them so quickly even with a special, personalized note in czech which i thought was so sweet as they came from portugal.

-- choosing bar soap vs. liquid soap which has to be sold in packaging.

-- eliminating purchasing anything with palm oil or high fructose corn syrup (or glucose-fructose syrup, as it's known here). for years i believed in the myth that HFCS was banned in europe, but you can still find it in everything!

-- the switch from typical supermarket laundry soap and dishwasher tabs to an eco-label laundry soap (made from soap nuts) which is highly concentrated and therefore more ecological and more earth-friendly dishwasher tabs. both of these switches are more expensive than what we used to buy, so i totally understand going more eco-friendly isn't for everyone and all budgets. however, if you wouldn't notice an extra few dollars here and there, why not make this simple switch? i like the czech brand of laundry soap tierra verde out of brno. (why is everything cool is out of brno these days?)

-- switching from disposable feminine products to a medical-grade silicone menstrual cup has been a complete.game.changer. it's one of those things you kick yourself for not getting much much earlier. did you know a tampon applicator takes 500 years to break down? i went with first greener and am really pleased that i did. as a menstruating human, this seems like one of the single biggest improvements you can make to take steps towards zero waste. cost was an barrier for me with this and not being able to shell out for one for awhile, but the company i purchased from often runs deals for only $10 (that includes international shipping). i’m pleased some companies are making menstrual products more accessible to women of all income levels.

-- right at the end of the year, i finally found reusable produce bags that were a reasonable price. hoorah!

-- we have nearly stopped buying paper towels, using regular old towels or other cloths instead.

-- purchasing our vegetables in the warmer months from a local CSA (community supported agriculture) vegetable box program cuts down both on plastic wrapping, supports local south bohemian farms and is just a fun, healthy way to make sure we eat loads of season veggies. it also challenges me to stop being lazy and cook or make something with them before anything goes bad. (for my local budejovice friends: you can order a vegetable box starting usually around june from u dobraka)

-- alex says he's most proud of our household's switch to alternative milks vs. dairy milk. this helps loads with water consumption, is far more ecological, and much more animal-friendly. (alternative milk recipe at the end of this post - woo!)

changes i would like to make in 2019

-- one of my challenges is zero waste hair products. most drugstore products are aerosol or just the typical tube. i think i will end up purchasing from LUSH's hair line as not only have i already raved about their products but i so appreciate their commitment to reusable packaging, as well as their vocal stance against animal cruelty.

-- do better with food waste. i have already eliminated a lot of issues i’ve had with food waste over the past year and meal planning helps SO MUCH with not only reducing waste, but also saving some crowns. i’ve made some great strides in the past year, i’d like to do even better in 2019 getting my food waste down to 0%. laziness can be a big (bigbig) factor here, and that’s a tough one to overcome! i will also try making or buying less products that i don’t finish.

-- i'd like to remember to start taking what few glass empties i have back to a supermarket to get a refund. this is extremely common practice in germany, but not quite as common here, and we normally just go to the normal glass recycle bin. it would be nice to start getting a few crowns back here and there vs. nothing!

-- i'd love to invest in a set of cloth linen napkins i'm actually proud to use! will look to a thrift shop or bazaar before checking a store.

-- collectively, one of our main focuses as a household is a reduction in goods which use plastic, single-use, throw-away packaging, such as musli, for example. buying musli or any cereal here in the czech republic is such a headache -- it is either expensive or contains palm oil, for the most part. there is one brand i like, but i find i am eating it over and over and get so tired of it. any of you out there DIY your musli or cereal? please share your wisdom!

easy DIY recipe: oat milk

one of my big goals is to DIY even more. i already do quite a fair bit of DIY in terms of household products and foods, sauces that i can't buy in the czech republic, but i'd like to DIY more with products i already buy to avoid excess packaging and saving money. in the first few days of the year, i've already decided i will no longer buy oat milk at the store (40kc or $1.70 per liter) and instead, make it. it is startlingly easy to do, takes only 10 minutes of active time and can be a huge money saver! this recipe also happens to be zero waste as you can use the remnants.

you'll need...

-- a blender -- cheesecloth (or similar) -- large pitcher -- 1 cup of oats (your choice) -- 1 liter (approx. 4 cups) of water -- 1-2 TB honey or maple syrup -- 1 liter glass bottle

1) soak your oats in plenty of water for at least an hour.

2) rinse your oats and plop them in the blender with the 4 cups of water and your optional tablespoon of honey or maple syrup*.

3) blend blend blend!

4) place the cheesecloth securely over the pitcher (a rubber band helps). pour the oat milk mixture from the blender onto the cheesecloth so it strains, with the milk passing into the pitcher. wring out the cheesecloth to make sure you've got all excess liquid.

5) pour the strained oat milk from the pitcher into a 1+ liter glass bottle which will be your "milk bottle" and pop in the fridge.

6) shake vigorously before each use. consume within 2-3 days.

7) scrape off the oat bits from inside the cheesecloth and store in the fridge - you can easily tuck them into your morning oats when you make your next pot of oatmeal or porridge!

use this oat milk anywhere you would typically use milk: in your cereal, coffee, oatmeal (double down!), wherever.

* 1 TB of sweetness is just enough to give it a similar sweetness as dairy milk has, 2 TB if you like it a teensy bit sweeter - even this does not taste “sweet”, so to speak. experiment.

finally, i feel like i need to give a biiiiig shout out to polly - former expat/travel blogger turned absolute zero waste maven at green indy blog and inspires me every day with thought-provoking topics i hadn’t even realized or considered she has loads of information on her blog, instagram and even runs e-courses helping people cut back on waste and save money.

i do want to state here that i am simply learning and am a student at this whole zero waste thing. i’m not an expert by any means and am not perfect. zero waste isn’t zero. this post is simply keeping track of my progress and hopefully a way to hold myself accountable for my goals. although i don’t think we all should be one of those people who can fit their trash in a jar or anything, there is a lot of work we can do. you don’t have to have a lot of money to “join the movement”. it’s not about going out and purchasing fancy bamboo utensils or whatever. it’s just about using what you already have, being creative and resourceful, and when something you have stops working or breaks, upgrade it (funding allowing) to a more ecological version.

how do you feel about the zero waste movement? i'd love if you shared a big win from the past year and maybe also something you want to improve upon as well! here's to a greener new year.

ps, you might like how i travel on a teacher’s budget or thoughts on living without stuff.

#zero waste #lifestyle #recipe #noms #minimalism

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