#metal gate painters near me

[khinklepainting]

Hiring an Uninsured Painting Contractor Can Be Dangerous

It is quite tempting to choose a painting contractor who does not have a license and/or who does not have insurance. Even while they can provide you with an opportunity to save money in the short term, the potential risk that they pose to you in the long term might not be worth the money that you could save in the short term. Think about the reality that hiring a Painting Contractor that isn’t insured is a serious threat to your current financial situation. If a worker is injured on your property and the painting “contractor” does not have worker’s compensation insurance, you could be held financially responsible for their medical bills.

In what ways might your decision to choose an uninsured painting contractor put you in jeopardy? It is the direct responsibility of the homeowner to avoid hiring an unlicensed contractor. As a consequence of this, the homeowner is responsible for any issues that arise as a result of the work performed by an unlicensed contractor.

If an employee of a painting “contractor” gets hurt while working on your property and needs to spend a significant amount of time in the hospital, various insurance possibilities may come into play depending on the status of the contractor. In the event that the contractor possesses a valid license, the costs will be reimbursed by the workers’ compensation coverage that he maintains. If he does not have a license and does not have insurance, then your coverage will take precedence.

In the event of a severe collision, the party who was hurt will almost certainly initiate legal action in order to seek compensation for the harm they sustained. If you purposefully hire a contractor who is not licensed, and an employee is wounded while the contractor is performing the contract, your insurance company has the right to deny the claim, leaving you accountable for any medical or personal injury costs that arise as a result of the injury. In the event that the insurance company is successful in obtaining a judgment against you, a lien may be placed on any future assets that you acquire (including an inheritance or money from your business). Your credit report will reflect any judgements that have not been paid in full until such time that they are removed.

Before you choose a painting contractor, check to see that they are covered by worker’s compensation insurance. It is important that you take the time to verify with the insurance company that the coverage is still in effect and that it will continue to be so throughout the duration of your engagement.

Call us Today — (760) 360–2424

[witch-hazels-musings]

i'd know the difference

warning -> none, sfw, fluff <3 | happy birthday Diluc

diluc x gn reader | Anthology

His back was tired. Tense muscles ignited by the sunlight pouring through the window. Diluc rolled his shoulder, dug his fingers into his trapezius muscle, and squinted at the sharp pain that ran down his arm.

The forms on his desk hardly dwindled since this morning. He swore they multiplied each time he placed one neatly into an envelope and pressed his seal into the ruby wax.

A knock at his study drew his gaze. "Sir, Diluc, the barrels are ready for inspection." A muffled voice slipped under the doorframe, their movements silenced by the heavy wood.

"I will be there momentarily," Diluc responded as his father's fountain pen glided across the final page of a contract. Another seller from Inazuma. Requests from the sealed-away nation had increased substantially after the Raiden Shogun opened trade routes. While it meant the Winery was bound to see a profitable quarter, he was bound to see many more sleepless nights.

Diluc filed the contract away into a water-sealed container and dropped it into a small, wooden box meant for outgoing correspondence. Three other letters softened the container's fall. He hadn't even made it halfway through.

---

The halls of the Winery were filled with still light, the decorated walls made everything compact but he had grown used to the opulent clutter. As a child, he spent many hours staring at the picture frames. Distant lands he hoped one day to traverse; he did and found that each depiction served little justice to the actual thing. The ornate rug muffled his steps and he moved swiftly toward the stairs. He fussed with his vest until something soft grazed his arm.

A fresh bouquet of flowers was placed on a tall, rounded table near the balcony overlooking the lower floor. A rich, sweet, earthy aroma filled his nose. Shades of royal blue, amber, and honey mixed with lush green. He rubbed a petal with his thumb and index finger, the satin texture unaffected by the roughness of his hand.

The corner of his lips lifted.

---

"There you are," Diluc said from the garden's edge. He had a feeling you'd be out here. Hard at work preparing beautiful arrangements you'd later place in the Winery. If he wasn't careful, he'd be trapped here forever watching you weave through the swaying flowers. He thought to ask a painter to capture the scene, but, in the end, he decided against it - there were some things he preferred to keep to himself.

"Morning," you called out, rising from the flower bed. With the back of your hand, you pushed up your sun hat.

The metal click of the gate rang out as Diluc made his way into the garden, narrow paths made it difficult for him to see where his feet landed while you moved through them with practiced grace. "How long have you been out here?" he asked.

"About as long as you've been cooped up in your study. I figured once you'd ultimately emerged, you'd appreciate being greeted by something lovely," you explained as you shooed a bug away from the ends of his hair.

"So why were you not waiting for me then?" he asked, teasingly, but in his heart he was serious. Your face was the thing he enjoyed most.

You shook your head and leaned in to kiss his cheek. "I'll remember that for next time." With ease, you turned down the path and made your way to a sun-bleached table holding several bundles of partially trimmed flowers. He followed after you.

Diluc watched you work. Skilled fingers stripping the stems of their leaves, the soft clipping of prunes as you, one by one, measured the height of each flower. He moved in, drawn to you like the bees to the flowers.

"You smell divine," he professed and reached to steal your hat so he could kiss your head. The sun clung to every strand of your hair and warmed his desperate lips.

"Are you sure it's not just the flowers?" you asked, chuckling softly, your hands busy with bundling a fresh bouquet.

"I'm sure." Diluc stepped closer to you, his chest pressing against your back, his fingers trailing down your arm and fixing the shawl that had fallen off while you worked. He kissed the space below your ear and breathed you in. "I'd know the difference anywhere."

You turned just enough to look into his eyes and the sight of your face made his heart beat wildly. He shielded you with your hat and, with a gentle hand he cupped your throat, his thumb held your chin so he could keep you still and let his lips linger against your own until he was satisfied.

Even in a field of flowers, none of them compared to you - none could ever compare to his favorite.

[luna-almighty-god]

Guardian Angel N°12 [Shock of realities]

This is chapter twelve !

This story is obviously not canonical, please do not refer to it if you are looking for canonical information.

Have a good read!

===

First Chapter

Previous Chapter

===

Error didn't understand and didn't try to understand, he didn't need to. He knew the principle of UA and timeline, and although seeing another Ink in his world was strange, it didn't destabilize him any more than that. For it was definitely not his painter who was facing him, his eyes veiled by hatred and rage, with a pungent smell of metal and dust.

"What the hell is this delirium? "he ventured, letting his gaze run over the devastated living room, the overturned table, the disemboweled sofa, the cracked floor and walls.

He had no trouble seeing Nyx on the floor. Nyx slowly raised his head to look up, to observe him with a relief that Error never thought he'd see in anyone. At least not in himself.

The cartoonist was most banged up, not to mention Insomnia sobbing in his arms. Insomnia that he had probably tried to protect at the risk of his life, which explained his state of great weakness.

Error sigh, looked back at the falsified Ink:

“Well, one more to erase.”

But his opponent, whom he had imprisoned in his sons, did not seem afraid. Rather... stunned. Shocked. Devastated.

“Ruru... ?” Squealed softly at the Ink.

And Error flinched, suddenly in doubt. His opponent was clearly not HIS Ink, he knew that by his failing magic, as if corrupted. But ... the way he looked at him, the way he spoke to him ... it looked very much like ... his Ink. His soulmate.

A bone flew in his direction and he dodged it only with his wily reflexes. Forbidden, the Destroyer retreated when he saw his sons shattered before his opponent threw himself on him to punch him in the face.

Error dodged even harder, caught short by the speed of the other skeleton. Fuck, was it like a mess? Who the hell was that guy? I can't believe he told his own Ink "There's a strange magic in DreamTale. Look after PaperJam, I'll take care of it", when his lover would have been very useful right now!

He scolded, teleported himself behind his adversary and tried a new capture, but this Ink seemed to know him by heart since he dodged all his attempts before suddenly finding himself against him, forehead against forehead, pupils in pupils ...

The voice of the painter resounded soberly, in a laugh of madness:

“I killed you once ... I can do it again!”

Error grimaced, hardly wiping a blow to his legs. He did manage to move back, but his cheek was grazed, which almost made him glitch. This Ink was much more mischievous than his, but more importantly ... no, not powerful. It was something else.

He petrified on contact with a viscous liquid. A familiar but terrifying liquid, which had grabbed his arms from behind. Confused, he glanced behind him to see an ink puddle on the ground from which ...

“Wh-... tentacles?” he hiccupped without believing it.

Ink took the opportunity to hit him again, making him hiccup again, while a sinister crack from his arms made him bend suddenly, tearing a cry of pain from under his slowly breaking bones.

Panting, he tried to free himself ... but petrified. Petrified when the mouth of his opponent came to take possession of his own, to devour him, dominate him, subject him to his will. He became livid, his body frozen with terror, while he felt a tongue get between his teeth and come to play sneeringly with his own.

This unknown Ink didn't care about him, only wanted to humiliate him.

And a few meters away from them, with a pale face, Nyx was watching them. He observed them with a shock too great. Shock to see his father kissing Error. To force Error to kiss him, to subdue him in such a way.

Error, who, in this timeline, hated Nyx. But the cartoonist only remembered the Error in HIS timeline. The Error who had saved him from the clutches of his parents, the Error who had taken him in, the Error who had raised him and whom he had come to see as an adoptive father.

[Nyx lost control]

[The rage overwhelmed him]

Error opened his eyes to the sudden wave of negativity, certainly much weaker than Nightmare's, but still surprising. And his surprise was even greater when he perceived, from the corner of his eye, Nyx's pupils that had turned deep red, while tentacles suddenly materialized from shadows to whip the air furiously.

Ink released Error sharply to cast a hesitant glance at Nyx, visibly feverish to face the rage of the youngest.

But the cartoonist didn't have to intervene... Because the Ink of this timeline did it perfectly well.

A bluish paint sprinkled on the 'bad' Ink, who opened his eyes and moved backwards before shouting in rage when the paint changed into a chain, a chain that immobilized him at once. Mad with anger he looked up at the 'good' Ink. The 'good' Ink who had just come out of a portal and who, with a powerful brushstroke, freed Error from the claws of the tentacles.

The confusion was only greater when the two Ink looked into each other's eyes.

“Another me?” wondered the past Ink while holding the Destroyer against him in a protective gesture.

Faced with the proximity of the two skeletons, Nyx's father yelped, foaming with rage, and felt trembling on all sides. How was it that his past self was so close to ...

He petrified.... To turn a murderous glance at Nyx:

“That's what I thought... Y.o.u. h.a.v.e  c.h.a.n.g.e.d.  t.h.e.  s.t.o.r.y.”

Nyx lost his tentacles as his pupils turned blue, he backed away abruptly, intimidated and frightened in front of his progenitor, while pressing Insomnia against him again.

“I-it was the right thing to do, he replied.

- The best thing...? Ugh, Dream and Error have really messed with your head! The best thing you say? No, no no ! Nyx, haven't we taught you nothing? Didn't Nightmare mean to make you his worthy successor?”

Nyx felt the tension pressing down on his body, his legs trembling and failing to pull away, while his father was gradually displaying a crazy grin:

“You should have killed us.”

The cartoonist lost his pupils, his hands clasped on the baby, while the skeletons of the past listened to the conversation without understanding the meaning.

Nyx's father sneered suddenly:

“You were born to kill.”

A tentacle of ink broke his chains, and the Ink of the future disappeared in a sudden teleportation, abandoning his opponents in total confusion.

Nyx's heart was heavy. His body finally let go and he fell to his knees on the ground. To tell the truth, it was even a miracle that he didn't burst into tears in the moment. Probably he was too shaken to know exactly how to react.

But the words of his father assaulted him, bit him, scratched him, dragged him into a trance, a second state that disconnected him from reality without him being able to do anything about it, as if his spirit was sliding furiously down a slope too steep to make him sink to the bottom, drowning him in a flood of memories, remorse, regret.

[You were born to kill.]

Killing physically and mentally. It was by design. He had killed the happiness, the hope of his parents. He had caused Plum's death. He had also caused the death of Error. He had caused the deaths of so many people, willingly or unwillingly. You'd think he was only good for that...

No, that's exactly what it was.

He was only good at killing everything he came near. Killing... often without mercy.

“Nyx!”

He was startled, brought back to reality by Ink who had grabbed him by the shoulders and was shaking him gently with great concern.

“Nyx, can you hear me?”

For a brief moment, the cartoonist thought it was his father. But this thought was soon swept away: his progenitor had never called him so kindly, so anxiously.

However, if Nyx wanted to answer, he interrupted himself, sensing that his arms contained nothing more, closing in on a void. He became pale, his pupils taking the form of two exclamation marks in spite of himself as panic gripped his being:

“Insomnia?! Where is he now?”

The Creator was startled, not expecting such a strong reaction. Not to mention his astonishment at seeing his pupils change shape. But he tried to keep a cool head and respond appropriately to Nyx:

“He, uh... He's with Killer.”

Nyx blinked: with ... Killer?

Ink turned his head and pointed to another part of the living room. The Draftsman looked around and ran out of bugs, lost. Killer was indeed there, holding Insomnia against him and watching him from every angle, checking that he had nothing. At his side stood Nightmare, who was also examining his son, before turning to Nyx.

"Are you finally coming to your senses? "he grunted as he approached.

The black-boned one didn't understand. He just... He'd been gone that long? A moment of absence that had prevented him from perceiving the return of the couple? Sometimes his mind was somewhere else, yes, but that long?

[Was it... because of the lack of apples?]

He shook his head, chasing away the thought as he stood trembling, helped by Ink who gently supported him.

“... I...I have to go.” he blew.

He had to go back to the gate. He had to find out if his father had told him the truth. He was... He had to close the fucking portal once and for all, before things got any worse!

But as he dodged a move to get away, a tentacle grabbed his arm, petrified him.

Nightmare's voice growled, dangerous:

“You're not going anywhere. Not without an explanation.”

Nyx swallowed, tensed up a little more when Error also intervened, arms folded, leaning against the back of the sofa:

"Yeah. You owe us an explanation. How come you know another Ink? That he talked about 'making a difference'? And more importantly... How come your pupils change like that, and you have tentacles? »

Pushed from all sides, Nyx feverishly sought help from others. But both Ink and Killer were waiting for answers. It was at this moment that the cartoonist also noticed the return of the bad Sans, except that they were standing much further back. But Horror, Dust and Cross hadn't planned to help him either, looking at him from the frowned arches, even though the cannibal seemed the most worried of all.

Nyx blew, realizing that he wouldn't get anyone's support. Not until he revealed nothing.

He gave up the idea of running away, to face Nightmare and Error:

“I guess it doesn't take a genius to figure out I'm from another timeline, right?”

No need to be a genius, certainly ... yet this information caused a sudden surprise to others, especially Nightmare and Ink.

But especially Nightmare, who imperceptibly clenched his fists:

“... What do you mean by that?” he grunted.

Nyx gently disengaged from the grip of the appendix, then took a breath and resumed his impenetrable face, before making a slight curtsy to the assembly:

“Let's take it from the top. My name is Nyx, I am a traveler. A time traveler.”

He looked at Ink:

"That's why you couldn't find any trace of me in the AUs. Simply because I'm not even from that multiverse. I come from an apocalyptic future where the multiverse has fallen into ruin, and I've been given a mission to go back to the past to change history, to prevent the fall of this world. »

He raised his hand to stop all questions:

“I'd rather not reveal more, for fear the timeline will be too shaky.”

Nightmare laughed:

“If you've made a difference, the timeline must already be a monster mess. So instead of making stupid excuses, tell me .... Is Ink the problem?”

Ink tensed up as he remembered his double, which had seemed quite terrifying to him with his aura and intimidating gaze.

Nyx hesitated:

“.... Not ... not only.”

Error growled bitterly:

“This Ink had tentacles.”

The Nightmare Keeper froze himself by understanding:

“So I'm the problem in the future? I'm the one who was made to sink Ink, and the multiverse?”

Nyx had a slight, very slight recoil. But that's enough for the master of bad emotions to understand.

[Understand that Nyx was playing him for a fool]

For the past few months, Nightmare had been plunged into doubt, hoping to be wrong, thinking that his powers had only weakened in the face of his softening and his family life. But the time had come when he had to face reality, when doubt was no longer allowed.

“You hide your feelings of your own free will.” he said to Nyx, who trembled.

He thought he'd found a friend, someone who understood him, trusted him...

“You're afraid of me.” he said, feverishly, receiving like a stab in the soul.

[No !]

Nyx would have liked to disapprove.

[No, it's not that, you don't understand!]

He remained mute, unable to defend himself. Because deep down, even if he had explained the real reason, would Nightmare have believed him? He wasn't sure. And deep down... Deep down... ...Nightmare was probably right. In Nyx still resided the fear, the terror of being locked up, tortured, confronted with his worst nightmares.

He simply looked down, confirming what Nightmare was already thinking. Confirming that Nyx had always feared him as much as anyone else.

“...I see.” he pessimised, turning away from the cartoonist.

Being unable to smile, the body relaxed, an immense emptiness in the chest while a flood of insults crosses our minds. So that was the disappointment? That bitter feeling of being betrayed? To see our expectations, our ideals flouted? To feel like a fool from the start? Offended, humiliated, what else should he have felt? Anger?

Oh, the anger was there, deep inside him, striking a slight spike in his Being while the guilt did the same. Guilt for being angry at others when others had done nothing, at least not with the wrong kind of care. But that it was painful to feel such a thing... to feel as if you had been manipulated, deceived, by someone you valued.

Nyx, seeing the nightmare master turn away from him, knew he had screwed up again. His gaze slipped on the rest of the ruined living room, on Insomnia who seemed quite feverish in Killer's arms, on the bad guys without whom were exchanging worried murmurs .... Then on Error, wounded, who was not completely recovered from his previous fight, while Ink was standing next to him without knowing how he should act.

Nyx knew he was responsible for all this. From the beginning, the very beginning, he was the problem. He, the mistake, the one who should never have existed. His life had been a continual series of problems caused by his birth, and now another timeline was threatened by his fault, another complete multiverse.

He couldn't let that happen. He couldn't allow this world to be destroyed.

“I'm going to fix everything.”

He left no time for others to hold him back, disappearing in a gust of wind through a portal as Ink tried to catch up with him. But too late, the portal had closed without leaving a shred of magic behind, as if Nyx had made sure no one followed him.

A leaden silence fell, terrible and oppressive, letting a peculiar bitterness take hold of the assembly ....

Until Nightmare froze. Let him look at Error, his eyes wide open, finally becoming aware of the words the Destroyer had spoken earlier:

“Nyx had tentacles?!”

A much more powerful apprehension had just caught him by the throat.

===

Next Chapter

You can support me on my Utip or on my Ko-fi account !

===

Credits =

Dreamtale ->  Joku

Dust -> Ask DustTale

Error -> LoverOfPiggies

Ink -> Myebi

Killer -> Rahafwabas

Cross and Lux -> Jakei

Insomnia -> EnaPouyou

[mystic-kitten-writer]

Limerence [M] ︳02

Pairing: Zuko x OC

Genre: Romance, mainly fluff with future smut, and if you squint hard enough - you’ll find some angst.

Rating: SFW

Words: 4300+ (Chapters will be longer as we go along - trust me).

Notes: As noted before - I plan on re-writing chapters one and two in the future (or after I’m done writing the series), the content will be the same, just written ‘better’. Thanks for the likes and reposts my awesome buns <3

Masterlist ︳01 ︳ 03

❤ Buy me a coffee? ❤

Limerence: (English/n.) the state of being infatuated with another person.

The moment their eyes locked they knew - the flames within him twisted while the water within her turned. It was a connection, a connection that would lead to love, adventure, and drama.

Cheiloproclitic

(English/adj.) Being attracted to a person’s lips.

~ Fire Lord Zuko ~

            “Smile - it's the key to unlocking people’s hearts, Zuko.” Uncle Iroh said with a great smile on his face, his hands placed in front of him. I looked at him and scoffed, “What hearts do you think I'll be unlocking during my visit Uncle?”

            We stood at the edge of the pier. It was early in the morning, the sun starting to rise and cast a vibrant range of reds and yellows along the water. Everyone was set to depart for our journey to the Southern Water Tribe, well, expect me.

            I stood on the dock with Uncle Iroh as the guards and servants stood off to the side, waiting at the ramp for my departure. Uncle Iroh chuckled, shaking his head at my refusal to 'unlock people's hearts'. “It’s an old saying I heard long ago, but I have good feelings about this trip. I feel like you’ll return as a different man.” A tiny smile flickered across my lips as I crossed my arms across my chest, “That’s the point, a nice vacation. Spend some time with old friends.”

            I was genuinely excited about the trip but also apprehensive.

            The notion of leaving the kingdom for a bit was not unnerving to me; I was leaving the Nation in good hands. Instead, it has been a while since I could relax, and I wondered if I could even handle such a simple task anymore. Suddenly political meetings seemed more straightforward than kicking back and letting the sun soak in my skin…or cold in this case.

             “You left the Nation in good hands, and maybe when you come back I'll have a new holiday set in place, Oolong Tea Appreciation Day…” Uncle Iroh mused.

            I let out a sigh, “Something tells me you aren’t joking…”

            Uncle Iroh must have heard as he let out a hearty laugh, his hand falling upon my shoulder. My eyes widen, completely caught off guard. The sudden contact was foreign, and for split second, I found myself as stiff as a board. I never realized how isolating being Fire Lord was until moments like these, moments of affection. Uncle Iroh noticed, his playfulness disappearing, a look of sympathy erupting as he gave my shoulder a soft squeeze, “I'm proud of you Zuko. Now go and enjoy yourself…”

            Without thinking twice, I reached over and hugged him, something I haven’t done in a while. I could feel the smile Uncle Iroh held as he hugged me back instantly. Not a single word was spoken between us as the hug itself spoke plenty already.

            Slowly we parted, and with that I walked towards the ship, ready for my long voyage. Standing at the ramp, I turned around one last time, Uncle Iroh waving gleefully.

            “Fire Lord Zuko, permission to depart?” A guard spoke from behind me.

            I waved to Uncle Iroh, bidding him my final farewell, before I noticed a figure standing off in the distance, near the main gates. Long black hair, half buns, red robes that were too long…Mai. My shoulders tensed as I could feel her piercing glare from inside the ship. My waving hand dropped to my side once again, my lips pressing together tightly, forming a thin line on my face. The last time we spoke was our argument.

            “Permission granted,”

            The guard huffed, beginning to raise the ramp. Although the ramp raised speedily, it didn’t seem fast enough - feeling the lingering glare from Mai.

            “Fire Lord Zuko, may I offer you some tea?”

            I turned around to see a petite maid standing next to me. My forehead scrunched up; she seemed familiar as if I had just seen her… “You were the maid who offered me tea in my office after Countess Mai left, correct?”

            Her eyes widen, most likely amazed I remembered her. “Yes, Fire Lord Zuko.” She stuttered out. I couldn’t exactly be upset at her evident shock. There were many servants present at the kingdom; it was at times difficult to remember faces let alone names. But unlike my infamous father, I did treat my servants with some respect and insured they were given a safe place to rest for themselves and their families. I couldn’t stop the cold shiver that ran up my spine remembering how cruel Fire Lord Ozai and my lovely sister, Azula, were to them.

            “What’s your name?”

            “Lia, Fire Lord Zuko.”

            “Are you new?” I asked.

            “Yes, Fire Lord Zuko…that day I offered you tea was my first day…” She softly spoke. I was stunned; she’s pretty courageous to offer me tea on her first day. “I see…” I muttered, but the wheels in my head were turning. Lia was nice, offered and gave me some amazing tea, and she didn’t seem like such a traditional maid. She may be my ticket to relaxation…“How would you like to be my personal maid during my stay at the Southern Water Tribe?”

            Lia looked taken aback by request. It was a bold request, and a considerable jump given her current position. But she seemed like the type who wouldn’t follow my every damn move during my vacation, something the more senior servants would do. I could actually relax, let loose, not worry if someone is watching me from the sidelines. 

            “I would love too, Fire Lord Zuko. But I would need to get it approved by the head-”

            “When you grab my tea, tea of your choice, bring it to my study with any paperwork that I would need to fill out,” I spoke quickly. Lia nodded her head, looking rattled as she nervously patted her hands against her dress, “Yes Fire Lord Zuko, I will leave to get everything set.” I nodded, “Thank you, Lia.” I turned around – Lia standing there alone in shock, couldn’t blame her. She went from a simple tea maid to Fire Lord`s personal maid in seconds; all because she makes some great tea.

            I let out a huff as I began walking to my office, ready to start reviewing Earth Nation paperwork regarding the United Republic of Nations. My hand anxiously ran through my hair; I couldn’t possibly have that much work left to complete…Two guards opened the large metal doors to my study as I walked in, documents and papers already stacked up on the wooden desk at the center of the room. I groaned, annoyed. These piles never seem to fucking disappear. Maybe I could just ‘accidentally’ burn a pile or two…

            I plopped myself upon my chair, defeated. This is why I needed a vacation – time to myself. Time to just relax and not spend hours on end scribbling my damn signature. Another week and half of sailing Zuko. That’s it, then you can relax. I reached in my study drawer to grab ink and pens, but a canvas stopped my movements, preventing me from grabbing my tools.

            It was a small painting, primarily painted with different hues of blues and whites. I raised it and smiled softly; it was a family portrait of Katara, Sokka, Hakoda, and Aang. It was a gift Aang had brought to me during one of his visits, and I kept it in my office as a random souvenir. It was at last year’s Winter Solstice festival, but the more I let my eyes gaze around the painting, I couldn’t help but notice another figure standing beside Sokka…Ying Yue.

             I heard countless stories from Sokka and Aang about her.

            She was mixed ethnicity: Fire and Water Nation, and from what I grasped she was a bender. Probably a Firebender…only a Firebender would have golden eyes that shined as brightly as hers. But before I realized, I was staring at the painting longer than I had attended, wholly fixated on Ying Yue. She was beautiful; like Fire Nation royalty. Her long black hair cascaded well beyond her hips and she bore such an innocent smile that reached her eyes. The royal blues against her milky skin made her look like a delicate flower: a Hydrangea.

            I put the picture back in the drawer, ready to get to work. As curious as I was to know about this mysterious Ying Yue, I was smarter than to trust a painting when it came to her appearance. The painter could have easily made Ying Yue look like a goddess. But…what if she did look like that…

            ‘Smile - it's the key to unlocking people’s hearts, Zuko.’

             I shook my head and scoffed, “as if I'll be unlocking any hearts…”

            Day after day, I worked away on paperwork in this forsaken office. Days became nights after sailing so aimlessly, and soon, the days became nothing more but a blur. That was why when Lia woke me up and told me that we were due to arrive in another hour I was surprised.

            Everyone on the ship was vigorously preparing for anchoring. The guards and servants seemed eager to get off the boat, and I could empathize with them, it was beginning to get stuffy, and the thought of walking on land was something I was starting to miss. I'm beginning to understand Toph’s love for Earth.

            That led me to where I was now — standing tall and proud at the end of the ramp in my uniform. Guards and servants were dressed a tad bit more formal than usual, their heads up high as they carefully lined behind me, “Fire Lord Zuko, permission to drop ramp?” a guard shouted. I sucked in a deep breath, excited that the moment has finally come. On the other side of this door was my friends, and a break from my responsibilities.

            “Permission granted.”

            I could hear the masses from outside of the vessel, not surprised that my arrival had attracted a crowd. The last time I came here, I tried to capture the Avatar. I chuckled to myself and watched in a daze as the ramp lowered. A smile snuck its way upon my face as I began feeling the cold air entering into the ship, a strange feeling against my warm skin. The sunlight shined and illuminated the boat the further the ramp was dropped, and I could begin seeing crowds of people from either side of the ramp.

            With a final thud, the ramp dropped, and I was astonished at how different and modern everything has become since I last came. The landscape was unquestionably striking, the sun illuminating the endless fields of snow and ice and highlighting the magnificent structures that were built in place of the huts that once stood. But I quickly redirected my gaze to the small group of people eagerly awaiting in front of me.

            Team Avatar stood together, Hakoda and Aang standing at the front with large smiles as they watched me approach them. I beamed, my boots scrunching over the thin layer of snow as I eagerly walked forward. I could feel the heavy boots of my guards following suit, the feeling of snow melting on my skin feeling wonderful, I could get used to this. My gaze fell over everyone, but I caught myself slightly tripping over my feet when I spotted her.

            My breath hitched as I took in what I was seeing.

            She stood delicately beside Sokka as she wore a stunning red dress, a Fire Nation dress. The dress hugged her body like a glove - accentuating curves that could make any man or woman go mad with lust. Her black hair was tied up with well ornate Bu Yao, small pieces of hair loosely framing her face. Her skin glistened under the sunlight, reminding me of the pearls fishers find during their voyages. Despite the distance, I could still make out her soft, delicate features: golden eyes that could make a man stop dead in his tracks. That can’t be her…she’s gorgeous, beyond gorgeous.

            I quickly shifted my gaze elsewhere, awkward teenage Zuko starting to bubble out at the sight of a beautiful woman. You’re Fire Lord you dumbass, act like one. Entirely taken aback by her beauty, a beauty that was memorizing - tantalizing to the eye, I hadn’t noticed how close I was to the group. Aang’s facial hair had begun to grow in from the last time I saw him, but it had been some time since I last saw Hakoda. He had aged, a few wrinkles beginning to form around his eyes and lips, but he still stood tall, and it was clear he was in charge of everything.

            “Fire Lord Zuko, I hope the journey here was smooth?” Hakoda spoke, his hand outstretched before me, which I grabbed as we shook hands. “Hakoda- it was rather quick, faster than I realized,” He grinned, pleased to hear, “It’s great to have you here.” I moved over to Aang; his hands pressed together in front of his chest as he took a deep bow. I mimicked his movements and held my bow as long and as deep as his.

            “Someone fell in love…”

            The distinct sounds of hushed voices and some chuckles coming from behind Aang caught my attention, my ears perking up at the sounds. The laughs and whispers all too familiar, Toph and Sokka. I began to straighten out, letting my eyes wander to the left of me. Sokka and Toph were suppressing massive grins on their faces, and as if Toph had felt my gaze upon her she placed her hand over her heart, moving her hand up and down while pointing in front of her.

            I cocked a brow upwards, trying to understand what she was trying to hint at, looking at where she pointed. Why is she pointing at her? Her cheeks were flushed a bright red, seemingly flustered about something.

            No, it can’t be…

            I quickly faced Aang, “It's a pleasure to have you here Fire Lord Zuko.” Aang said, his voice sounding different from the frequent informal conversations we shared. I nodded, “Thank you for letting me stay,” I spoke as I gazed back at Hakoda. But from the corner of my eyes, I could still see Toph grinning madly, entertained about something. I moved to greet Katara, she smiled as she excitedly greeted me. 

            Is Toph trying to hint at what I think she is…?

            I moved onto Sokka as he gave me a quick bow before shaking my hand, “I’m happy to see you again Fire Lord Zuko.” He said with a smile. I smiled back but quickly raised a brow and eyed her. Sokka seemed to have gotten the hint because a devilish grin painted his face. He stood beside me, and before I knew it, I was standing directly in front of her, “Fire Lord Zuko, I would love to introduce to you my adopted sister, Ying Yue Jiang.”

            All of my assumptions were true; she was Ying Yue. As I looked at her up-close I realized that I was right, the painting indeed didn’t do justice regarding her appearance.

            The painter only captured what seemed to be a sliver of the beauty she held.

            Judging by the looks Toph gave me, and the way Sokka emphasized the word love, I think…I got it. She was totally checking me out, did she think I was attractive?

            Her golden eyes meet mine as she gave me a shy smile, “It's a pleasure to meet you Fire Lord Zuko.” Her voice was honeyed, so sweet; I found myself craving to hear it once more. But the faint blush that painted her cheeks didn’t disappear, instead intensified the longer I stood in front of her.

            A large coy smirk played along my lips, realizing how much fun I could have with a bit of teasing if I were right about her infatuation - which was not one-sided granted. Although a part of teenage Zuko awkwardness wanted to pop out again, another side wanted to have fun: to see how fun-to-tease she was as Sokka and Aang spoke about to me.

            Without thinking twice, I knew what I had to do.

            Before Ying Yue could process what was happening, I went down on one knee and gently grabbed her hand. Her skin was soft to the touch; not even the most exquisite silk could compare. Ever so slowly, I pecked her hand. I could feel her heartbeat beating erratically, and mouth slightly open ajar in shock as my fingers played along with her wrist. A proud grin erupting from me; she totally likes me.

            Slowly inching away, my lips still hovering over her hand I spoke, “The pleasure is all mine, Ying Yue Jiang.”

~ Ying Yue Jiang ~

            The moment the main doors closed Sokka and Zuko exchanged a huge hug, “Oh man, I can’t believe you’re actually here!” Sokka exclaimed. Zuko grinned, “Trust me, you owe me one. The amount of paperwork I had to do to get here…I deserve a vacation.” Aang had his arm wrapped around Katara, who laughed ecstatically, “Zuko, it’s been so long! Who is watching the Fire Nation in your place? How is your mom and little Kiyi?” Katara spewed, throwing question after question.

            I stood back as the gang surrounded Zuko, flooding him with inquiries while I tried to gain my composure. He kissed my hand! My hand was still tingling, and I could still feel the heat from his soft pink lips. Not once during their stories did they tell me he was a tease, I knew he was sarcastic but not so…so…

            Sokka wrapped an arm around Zuko, completely ignoring the flooding array of questions Katara sprung towards him. “Hey Zuko, I have a bone to pick with you. What was up with that kiss?” Sokka said with a grin. Zuko smirked devilishly, making it hard to believe those lips were the same lips that were on my hand just a few moments ago. Zuko smugly shrugged his shoulders causing Sokka’s arm to slip off, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t kiss anyone.” He spoke confidently.

            I could feel someone suddenly grip my hand and raise it, “Maybe this is a reminder!” Toph shouted, a grin plastered upon her face. I blushed, why me? “That’s my sister you kissed!” Sokka shouted protectively. Zuko laughed, and before I could even bud-into the conversation, I could see Zuko slowly making his way towards me, “Sorry Ying Yue, I just had to make sure I gave a good first impression.”

            I crossed my arms and pouted, “A warning would have been nice…” I grumbled - still embarrassed by the events. Zuko grinned cheekily, stretching out his hand in front of me, “Hi, my name is Zuko, Fire Lord of the Fire Nation. A pleasure to meet you.” I was surprised, but soon realized what he was doing. With a smile, I grabbed his hand, “Hi Zuko, my name is Ying Yue Jiang, the adopted daughter of Hakoda.”

            With a tight squeeze, Zuko slowly let go, but I could still spot the hint of mischievousness twinkling in his eyes, “You don’t want to kiss my hand?” This asshole. My eyes widen, and without thinking twice, I smacked his arm - hard. Zuko yelped, surprised by my outburst, “You guys told me she was sweet, not abusive!” He shouted. I blushed, flustered by everything. I didn’t think he was going to tease me, let alone tease me as much as he did. “Serves you right!” I huffed.

            Aang laughed in the background, Suki speaking up, “Hey Sokka, don’t kids tease each other when they have a crush on each other?” This time it was Zuko’s turn to look stunned, his cheeks flushing ever so slightly, did he have a crush on me?

            “What does that mean?” I asked, “Does Fire Lord Zuko have a crush on me?” I teased out, mimicking the same tone he had. Zuko looked taken about at my outburst, and Toph gasped, “The Princess is fighting back!” I crossed my arms and was about to speak before a booming voice interrupted.

            “Lunch is almost ready! Ying Yue, do you mind showing Fire Lord Zuko his room to change? It's near yours and Sokka’s.” Dad spoke with a soft smile. I quickly nodded my head, “O-oh, of course...” I muttered under my breath.

            Dad nodded, waving his hands around and pointing the way to the dining hall, “The rest of you can make your way to the dining hall. I asked Kima to show Fire Lord Zuko’s maid, Lia I believe, the way to his room, so you should bump into them. Your items should already be inside the bedroom.” Zuko nodded, “Thank you so much Hakoda.” Dad smiled and waved us off before beginning to walk off to the dining hall.

            Zuko looked at me, suddenly raising his arm; I lifted at a brow at him. He couldn’t seriously be thinking…“Well Princess, are you going to show me the way or not?” He said as he cocked his head at his arm. I huffed and linked my arm grudgingly with his. Although the blush on my cheeks gave away my unspoken delight to connect arms with him, I could feel his muscles as we linked arms, don’t you dare start drooling Yue. I could hear Toph and Suki giggling like school girls as we walked off, me leading the way. Can they be any more embarrassing?

            It was not till we were out of sight Zuko finally spoke up, “I seriously do apologize if I took you off guard with the kiss on your hand. I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable…” Zuko mumbled. I looked up at his face as he looked straight ahead, and I couldn’t help but notice how shy he was now that we were alone. I shook my head, “It's fine… Although I think Sokka may hurt you in your sleep, so keep an eye open tonight.” I said with a giggle.

            Zuko looked over at me and laughed. I could spot the twinkle in his eyes as he laughed, a cute dimple appearing ever so slightly if you looked carefully on the right of his face when he smiled. His smile was just spectacular; so sincere and always seemed to reach his eyes. Zuko gave me a searching look, and that was when I realized I was staring for a bit too long. I quickly looked in front of me and hoped he did not notice the faint blush reappearing, gosh my cheeks are going to be permanently flushed if this keeps up!

            “I think I can deal with a Sokka if it means getting to know you,” Zuko said gently. My eyes widen, did I hear right? I raised my brow at him, and he grinned, “I’m curious about you, I’ve heard many stories about you whenever they came to visit me.”

            “I guess that makes two of us; I was super curious to meet you,” I said back.

            “Hopefully I met your expectations,” Zuko said playfully – oh, he’s sly alright. But before I could respond, I noticed we were already in the bedroom hallway, “Oh-! That door over there is yours! Across from you is Sokka’s and my room is the door right beside yours.” I said enthusiastically as I began dragging him behind me. Zuko gasped, surprised at my strength, as I quickly pulled him. His door was slightly ajar, and I swiftly pushed the grand white doors to his room, revealing some of his luggage already set in place.

            “The rooms on this side of the house have a beautiful view of the sea. In the night you can see the Southern lights reflecting on the water, and it’s simply breathtaking.” I gushed.

            Zuko looked at me and smiled, letting me ramble on. “Sometimes during the night I sneak off to the edge of that cliff over there-” I spoke as I pointed through the floor to ceiling windows, “from there you can see the whole town light up! And the way the stars twinkle above, gosh. It’s just…stunning.” Zuko chuckled as he looked at me, “You have to take me there some time…” He said softly. I looked at him and noticed our position. We looked like lovers, linking arms as we looked out the windows.

            I couldn’t help but look at those pink pouty lips of his; his tongue running along his bottom lip. It took me a minute to realize that we were both looking at each other’s mouths, his head slowly moving down towards mine. My heart throbbed loudly in my ears, my hands getting clammy, oh my gosh, he is going to kiss me! What do I do?! Instinctively I closed my eyes, and I could feel his hot breath on my cheeks...and a gust of wind hit the side of my cheek, what the-

            I opened my eyes surprised, only to see Zuko grinning, “Sorry Princess, you had something on your face, had to blow it away.”

            My face heated up, I’m an absolute idiot. Before I could utter out a word, the sound of footsteps caught my attention. Kima waltzing in with another unfamiliar maid at that exact moment. “Miss, I didn’t expect to see you here- Fire Lord Zuko.” She quickly froze and gave a low bow. The young lady beside her did the same, wearing contrasting colours of red and gold. Kima stood up and gave me a confused look as I stood awkwardly, my arm still linked with Zuko’s.

            As if he could tell, Zuko leaned over once again in my ear and chuckled, “Oh Princess, you're too cute when teased.”

Copyright © 2019 Mystic-Kitten, inc. all rights reserved. No reposting, modifying, or translations of any kind allowed. Thank you for your cooperation.

Disclaimer: I do not own any Avatar characters portrayed in this story besides Ying Yue Jiang, Lia, Kima, and any future creations.

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[iwritefanficsometimes]

13 Days of Halloween Day 1: “This Haunted House is Kind of Over The Top.”

Welcome to Day 1 of 13 Days of Halloween Writing Challenge, or, as I’m calling it, #13DoHWC2018. Here’s the main post. Here’s the AO3 work. I hope you enjoy!

Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13!

Pairing: IronStrange

Rating: T

Warnings: Cursing, subtle and not subtle innuedo/sexual language

Word count: 3,827

Summary: Newly graduated Tony Stark apparently has nothing better to do than build a ridiculously scary haunted house. At said haunted house he meets a super hot tall guy who doesn’t take any of his shit, and it’s amazing.

----

Once Upon a Time in This is a Good Idea Land, Tony decided that he wanted to make the scariest haunted house anyone had ever experienced. He didn’t know why he wanted to do it, he couldn’t conceive of any motivation for a mature young man with post grad education in engineering and physics to be working on a haunted house. It was juvenile, and it was a waste of what Pepper insisted was his very valuable time, and okay, maybe he just wanted to scare the pants off some people because it sounded like fun. Of course, making a Very Scary Haunted House quickly became a matter of personal achievement. Tony wanted to make the biggest, scariest haunted house anyone had ever conceived of... and he kind of had.

“Are those, are those paramedics?” Rhodey asked, looking at the not one, not two, but three ambulances parked near the entrance of the house.

“Um, yeah, kind of. See, we had some problems with panic attacks that people thought were heart attacks the first night. They have to sign a waiver to go in, and no one under 18 is allowed to even be in the parking lot...” Tony looked over the gutted and rebuilt structure of his childhood home. Really he’d left all the outside parts the same. He’d only changed the inside. The inside... was a problem.

“Tony, I think you went overboard.”

“Maybe,” Tony shrugged and waved at one of the anxious looking 20 somethings who was looking between Tony and the ambulances and the door like he wasn’t really sure going in was a good idea. “I had to do something to keep me busy. It’s better than drinking myself to death.”

“You could have been, I don’t know, making something that isn’t going to be obsolete in a month?”

“In a world of changing technology that’s everything playtpus.“ Tony put his sunglasses on and took Rhodey’s arm in his to lead him towards the house. “See, that’s the beauty of a haunted house, really. If the technology I put in it is obsolete in a month, that doesn’t matter, because so is the haunted house.”

“I can’t believe you did this to your house.”

“Yeah you can.”

Rhodey sighed, “Yeah, I can. Well, at least you’re having fun. The press certainly is.” Rhodey looked towards the news crews that were just off the property of Tony’s parents’ mansion, talking into their cameras about the phenomena of the Stark Raving Mad House, coined, unfortunately, by Tony.

“Oh the press!” Tony giggled and Rhodey raised a cautious eyebrow, “Boy do I have plans for them. They can’t go in until the last night, obviously, wouldn’t want to spoil the surprises, but...” He waved at one of the cameras that was obviously zooming in on them and then blew a kiss. “Boy do I have plans for them.”

“Please don’t get sued.” Came out of Rhodey’s mouth in a way that was far too easy and familiar for his liking.

“They can’t sue me if they sign a waiver.” He kept grinning as he took Rhodey around the side of the house to the staff entrance. “Besides, with as many of them that have tried to sneak in cameras, I’m not feeling all that merciful. Damn cheats.” He opened the side door, usually an entrance into an elaborate kitchen now being used for make-up and staging. It was noisy and chaotic and it just felt right. “Maybe I should do stuff like this full time. There’s good money in it, and I’m having a blast.”

“I’m sure Obediah would love that.” Rhodey rolled his eyes and let Tony lead him to the out of the way counter in the far corner where there was finger food fit for a king and smoothies for people with constricting costumes or masks that wouldn’t allow them to chew.

“You know, he hasn’t even been riding my ass about it, I’m kind of surprised. I expected a lot more resistance than I got.” Tony picked up a crustless half sandwhich and handed it to Rhodey before claiming one of the protein shakes that the chef was making one or two in advance.

“I can’t believe you have a Michelin star chef making sandwiches for a haunted house.”

Tony looked at Rhodey with raised eyebrows. “Can’t you?”

Rhodey sighed and Tony grinned, “Unfortunately, yes. Of course you would.”

“Of course I would. Nothing but the best for my favorite people.” He said it a loud enough that anyone in the vicinity probably heard him. He’d hand picked these people months ago, and he was paying them well. The set designers, painters, set builders, construction team, costume designers and actors had all been top of their field. Tony spared no expense, and it was paying off, despite Pepper’s insistence that it would be a money pit. He was pretty sure she’d only been telling him that because she wanted him to stop though, not because she thought it was true. If nothing else Tony opening up his house for people willing to buy tickets would have drawn in enough money on it’s own.

“Yeah, okay. So, when are you gonna show me your secret project, or is this all I get?” He asked, indicating the half dressed actors and costume designers and emergency crew.

“Don’t worry, Honeybear, I’m going to take your through myself once the crowds clear out a little.”

“You don’t close the doors until past 2am Tony.”

“What, can’t hang anymore, army man?”

“I’m in the Airforce.” Rhodey corrects him without much heat.

“Huh, I could have sworn you were an army man. Must be all the paint fumes I’ve been sniffing as we got the place ready. And the construction adhesive. And-“

“Don’t-“ Rhodey said, shoving the straw of Tony’s shake into his mouth, “finish that.”

“Don’t finish my protein shake? Okay, Rhodey, whatever you say.”

“Oh shut up.” Rhodey laughed and Tony smiled at him.

“If you two are done,” a woman dressed like a zombie, smiled, showing all her grotesque fake teeth that looked far too real, “Some of us want to eat before our four hour shift.”

“Okay,” Rhodey said, dragging Tony away from the table. “I don’t know what you’ve done, but it’s officially freaky.”

“That was all the costume designer. She’s wonderful, Janet! Wave and acknowledge your awesomeness to my Rhodey.” Tony called in the general vacinity of the costuming area, there were several stalls set up for people to change in and beside them was a rack of costumes and a slight woman about Tony’s age, with pins in her mouth that she was to fake skin and torn cloth delicately.

“I’m awesome, Tony’s Rhodey, thanks for acknowledging it.” She mumbled around the pins, never dropping one.

“You know, the more I look around the less I like this.”

“That’s the point.” Tony smiled, “Come on, let me show you the studio.”

Tony dragged Rhodey to what used to be the large butler’s pantry that had been converted into a control room. Several people were inside, watching the monitors and making the affects happen, each wearing a head set to communicate with the actors in their rooms. The lights were dimmed, but there was no trace of red corn syrup or costumes to be found. It was the least creepy room in the house.

Tony dragged Rhodey to the closest screen, the one with the dinning room setting and a tablet set with realistic looking cooked human remains. The bigger pieces were fake, but each of the three actors at the table, dressed to resemble Tony and his parents, were eating rather docily from plates of completely edible non-human food that looked like human food. They were getting paid extra.

“Um...” Rhodey said, but Tony smacked him in the arm lightly to shut him up. “There’s a new group coming in, shut up.”

Sure enough a new group of people, mostly college age students, were walking into the room, marveling at the scenery. The floor around the table was dripping in red corn syrup, and there were rusty pieces of metal tacked up against the wall and hidden under the floorboard to give the room a rusty feel. Someone got the bright idea to try and touch the food and “Howard,” roared, exposing fangs and red contacts. The guy jumped and Tony giggled.

“I can’t believe you really did this.”

“Yeah you can. Keep up the good work, Gary.” Tony said, clapping the tech on the shoulder as he led Rhodey back out.

“You got it boss.” Gary said, pushing a button and making a leg on one of the plates jerk.

——

“This haunted house is like the equivilent of a monster truck with six foot tires. It screams ‘I’m insecure in my masculinity and overcompensating.’” Stephen Strange, med student with no sense of adventure told his best friend, Christine.

“This haunted house is amazing and you need to quit being such a condescending jack ass. A lot of people put a lot of work into making this really cool. Respect that.”

“I will not respect one of the geniuses of our generation wasting his talents on...” Stephen looked at the plain house with a line of people all the way to the gate, “this.”

“Don’t say it like that. The staff has a twitter account and it’s hilarious. They all say he’s fun to work for, and since when is giving people jobs a bad thing?”

“Since those people are actors and he could be employing people with actual college degrees.”

“Wow, you are determined to suck the fun out of this for me, aren’t you?” Christine grabbed his arm and dragged him to the back of the line. “Well, be prepared to be amazed. Everyone who’s come out on the other side says it’s terrifying. I’m so excited!”

Stephen looked down at her, nothing short of condescension in his expression and she punched him in the chest. “Don’t be a dick. This is gonna be fun. Trust me.”

“I trust you. What I don’t trust is the ambulances parked outside.”

Christine looked at the ambulances and back at Stephen. “I bet he’s paying them just to be here. And I bet they’re not actors.”

“I bet you chicken out before we get to the door.”

“Oh, whatever. I’m so excited for this.”

“Do you remember that Halloween party we went to last year?”

“Stephen, shut up.” She glared at him and he raised his hands in mock surrender.

“Alright but all I’m saying is that frat boy in a bed sheet-“

“Shut. Up.”

“-made you jump into a lunch bowl and-“ Christine clapped a hand over his mouth. Stephen kept talking into her hand, smug at the attention they were drawing.

“You’re such a dick.” She shook her head and wiped his breath off her hand and on to his tee shirt.

“You’re the one who hangs out with me.”

“I’m starting to forget why.”

——

“Okay, I can’t wait any longer. We’re going in with the next group.” Tony said after his leg had been bouncing for nearly half an hour. The house was running smoothly, no one needed him, and Tony’s attention to Jan’s costuming of the second shifters was only going to last so long.

“Tony, the line is huge, are you sure that’s a good idea?” Rhodey asked as Tony dragged him out of his chair and Rhodey had to quickly set down his soda or risk it being dropped in Tony’s haste.

“I’m positive that it’s a good idea, unless you want me to get in a costume and go scare people, because running a haunted house is even less fun than running a company once all the planning is over. Okay, maybe not less fun, but comparably unfun.”

Rhodey sighed and just followed Tony out of the kitchen back around to the front of the house. He smiled at the ticket taker and she gestured for the tall man and the girl beside him to stop coming inside. “We’ll get you in the next group.” She promised with a kind smile Tony really admired.

“We’ve been waiting for hours, he can wait for ten more minutes.” The tall man with angry blue (maybe gray) eyes said, and Tony didn’t hide that he was checking him out.

“I built this, and I can go in whenever I want to. You can wait ten minutes.” Tony shot back even though the tall guy was obviously not talking to him.

“Tony,” Rhodey murmured, “maybe we should wait, alright?”

“No, I’m not going to wait. It’s my creation. They can wait.” Tony usually agreed when Rhodey tried to reign him in, he didn’t do it all that often so if he was trying to now it was because he was being a serious asshole, but he didn’t like tall guy’s attitude.  And Tony kind of had a good track record with verbal sparring and someone ending up in his bed, but that was beside the point.

“That’s just like a one-percenter, entitled asshole much?” Tall guy glared, and Tony smirked.

“Yeah, pretty much, but listen, I’d rather be an entitled asshole than what, a burned out college student barely making ends meet being dragged here by hid girlfriend. No offense, you seem lovely,” he said to the woman standing beside tall guy.

“I am. And he’s gay.”

“Christine!” Stephen protested, shoving her and she laughed.

“What, he’s obviously into you, I was just doing you a favor.”

“I didn’t ask for your help, because you’re help is never as helpful as you think it is.” His glare focused back on Tony. “And that wasn’t an invitation.”

Tony tilted his head to one side, looking at tall guy up and down. “It should be. I’d accept it gladly.” He winked and tall guy glared, but Tony could see him blushing. Aggressive flirting was pretty much always the answer. “And I know how to show someone a good time.”

“I don’t really want to try and fit in a bed with your ego, thanks.”

“I like you.” Tony nodded, “You’re still not going in before us, but I like you. Maybe call me or something.” He pulled out a business card and handed it between two fingers to the girl standing beside him, knowing that tall guy wouldn’t take it.

He waved at tall guy flamboyantly and then turned to go into the house, dragging an exasperated Rhodey behind him. He was almost inside when something sharp and tiny hit him in the back of the head.

“What the hell?” He yelled, clutching the back of his head where his business card had just hit him. “Lovely woman, how could you betray me like this? I trusted you.” He looked over his shoulder at the two of them, and Christine was covering her mouth to giggle while Stephen just glared back at him.

“If I wanted your number, I would’ve asked for it.”

Tony was kind of taken aback. Sure, people hated Tony all the time, because of who he was, or because sometimes he could be an asshole, but tall guy with ridiculously beuatiful angry eyes was different somehow.

“Can I have yours then?” Tony asked, and it was Stephen’s turn to be taken aback.

“They’re soulmates, right? Like, they’re obviously soulmates?” Christine asked Rhodey who was just watching them both flabbergasted.

“Probably. You guys go ahead, we’ll wait.” He said pointedly, holding Tony’s arm and keeping him from protesting.

“How evil is it that I want them to go in together? It’d be a great bonding moment.” Christine grinned, and Rhodey raised an eyebrow at her.

“They’d kill each other.”

“Stephen doesn’t bite.” Christine waved a hand dismissively.

“I’m right here, you know. I haven’t gone anywhere,” he glared and she scoffed.

“Oh trust me, I know. The indignation rolling off of you is palpable. I can taste it it like sexual frustration in the back of my throat.”

Stephen gaped at her and Tony smirked, but Rhodey couldn’t just let this Stephen guy take all the blows. “I wouldn’t look so smug Tones, your thirst just as bad. You’d think he threw a love potion at you and not your own business card.”

“I was really getting that vibe from him.” Christine nodded, pushing Stephen towards the door. “You want to go into the haunted house so bad, do it with him. Now.”

“No, I’m not going to.”

“What, are you scared?” Tony asked, seeing a chance and jumping at it. He’d take Rhodey through on the next round, but he really, really, really wanted to screw with Stephen. And maybe just screw him. Maybe at the same time. That sounded great...

“I’m not scared of some cheesy animatronics and overpaid actors.”

Tony sucked in a breath, and Rhodey looked instantly worried. “Cheesy animatronics? No, these are top of the line animatronics that I designed myself.” The sharpness to Tony’s grin made even Christine, who didn’t know Tony from Adam, a little worried.

“Um, maybe-“

“Fine.” Stephen cut her off. “Let’s see how scary your little overcompensation project really is.”

“Please, lead the way.” Tony said, gesturing for Stephen to go inside.

“With pleasure.” He glared and went inside. Tony followed quickly behind and Christine, Rhodey and the ticket woman all looked at each other uneasily.

“This isn’t going to end well, is it?” Christine asked.

“Challenging Tony’s tech is like insulting his honor.” Rhodey confirmed and Christine nodded.

“Alright, well, now we wait.”

“Actually, I was going to go watch them from the control room. This is going to be too good to miss.”

“Can I come with?” She asked, not even caring about spoiling the surprise inside the house. She cared far more about what Stephen was doing with Tony freaking Stark.

“Be my guest.” Rhodey said, going back the way he and Tony had come.

——

Twenty five minutes later Stephen was sweating, Tony’s heart was racing, and they were both having trouble breathing as they filed out of the last room into what used to be the garage that had been converted into a cool down room of sorts complete with soft couches and snacks

“That haunted house is over the top.”

“I see that now. That was my first time going through it with the staff. They make it much scarier.” Tony took a bottle of water and an apple, handing the water to Stephen and taking a bite out of the deep red apple. It was a suggestion of Pepper’s to distract anyone who may be too traumatized. Tony had thought maybe it had been overkill, but now he understood her reasoning. He was a master of horror, apparently. Who knew?

“That room where the family was eating people, it smelled like blood...”

“Rust.” Tony corrected, “Similar, but not quite the same. The visual of the blood made your brain make the association though. Yeah.”

“And the... that woman she knew our names.”

“That... I didn’t do.” Tony said, taking another bite of his apple.

“I still think you’re overcompensating for something.”

“I’m trying to fill the hole in my heart with horrifying imagery, you caught me.” Tony smiled, but it was shaky at best.

“Well, you’re doing a damn good job.”

“Yeah, I know. Maybe too good.”

“Definitely too good.” Stephen pulled out a pen, “If you ever wanna talk about that,” he grabbed Tony’s wrist and wrote his number on Tony’s arm. He was attractive, creative and intelligent, and he kept up with Stephen like only Christine ever seemed to, and he wasn’t a straight woman, so... He was pretty sure he was making the right choice. He looked up at Tony between his eyelashes as he finished, “this is my number.”

Tony breathed in evenly to hide the fact that he wanted to screech. “Yeah, I’ll do that.” He said, and Stephen nodded, smiling and then he left. Tony stared down at his wrist, almost not believing what he was seeing, but the elegant scrawl had to belong to the med student, and unless it was a fake number... Tony sighed a little because he was happy and no one was watching. Maybe making a haunted house hadn’t been stupidest thing he’d ever done. Maybe it had served a very important purpose in his life after all. Take that Pepper.

——

Stephen was smiling tentatively as he approached Christine at the front of the house. “Well that looks like a good sign,” she said, “I can’t remember the last time I saw your smile when it wasn’t related to showing someone up.”

“Who says I didn’t show him up?” Stephen asked, immediately defensive, and Christine chuckled.

“That is not your ‘I just showed someone up’ look. Tell me what happened.” She demanded, and Stephen shook his head, looking at her and then at the line, squinting at it, “Weren’t you supposed to be inside already?”

“I wanted to see how it went!” Her voice was just a bit too strained for Stephen to believe her.

“Where’s that guy, the one who was with Tony.”

“He wen’t to meet him in the staging room. Said that was probably where he’d go when he came out.”

Stephen looked at her suspiciously. “What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything!”

He glared at her until she finally sighed, looking down at her feet. “Okay, we went to the control room to watch you guys go through. No, don’t look like that! You guys were so cute!”

“You spied on me.”

“It wasn’t spy... It was just... creative intervention.”

“You told them my name!”

She bit her lower lip, “Yeah, I did.”

“You’re a piece of work.”

“You have him your number.”

“This, this is spying.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Stop being so-“

His phone pinged and she sqeaked, covering her mouth with her hand. “Is it him? It’s him isn’t it! I bet it’s him.”

“Shut up, it’s not...”

It was Tony.

Unknown number: Hey, it’s Tony. I kind of can’t shake this stupid house. Want to go get a coffee or something? My treat.

Stephen stared down at his phone for a second, giving Christine plenty of time to peer over his shoulder to look at the text.

“Say yes.” She whispered, and Stephen... did.

Stephen: Yeah sure, you know May’s?

Unknown Number: Hell yeah I know May’s it’s only the best coffee on the east coast. You’ve got good taste.

Stephen: I’m aware.

Unknown number: Are you still at the house? I can drive us down there.

Stephen: Yeah, that works. See you in a few?

Unknown number: Oh, you’ll see me alright

Stephen sighed, exasperated, but he couldn’t hide the tiny smile from Christine, who was jumping up and down on the porch of the ridiculously large house. “I told you you were soul mates!”

“Shut up, Christine.”

“I’m telling this story at your wedding.”

[miamisomers-me]

How to Select the Best Paint for Steel Entry Doors?

Choosing the right kind of paint for the exterior door of the house or commercial premises is a strenuous job. Isn’t it? Well, it’s more confusing to select the proper type of paint when the material of the door is steel. Painting the front door means providing a fresh new breath and shine to the home's entry door appeal. 

When you search on your search bar, “best steel entry door company near me” do you ever bother about which type of paint you will later require renovating it? No, right! But once you look at the doors with an idea to change their looks or give them fresh paint you become confused.

What Kind of Paint is Best for Steel Doors? 

The majority of the paints work suitably with the metal surfaces of the application process. For exterior or entry doors, you should always look for paint that has rust and fade-resistant quality in it. Painters mainly go for oil-based paint for metal surfaces as they are regarded as the most durable paint. 

Well, if we look on the other side these oil-based paints are more tainted than water-based or latex paints. As oil-based paints require a greater drying time and an arduous cleaning process, it’s up to you to look at the pros and cons of both types of paint before deciding on what to use. 

Types of Paints: 

Mostly there are two types of paints which include oil-based paints or solvent-based paints and the other one is water-based paints (also known as latex or acrylic paints). Both types of paints have their pros and cons. 

Oil-based or Solvent-based Paints: 

Pros:-

Highly durable

Possess a high rust-resistant quality 

Cons:- 

Longer drying period 

Fades away fast

Greater toxicity

Water-based or Acrylic/ Latex Paints: 

Pros:- 

Doesn’t fade away rapidly

Susceptible to work with

Fast drying process

Low toxicity

Cleans up quickly

Cons:- 

Doesn’t provide complete resistance to rust. 

Low durability over time.

While choosing the paint for the doors keep all of these factors in your mind so that you can make the right choice. 

Tips for Selecting Paint for a Steel Door: 

People just blindly search for the best steel entry door company near me, to buy a steel door but forget about these essential requirements to keep the gate attractive. Here are a couple of crucial tips for choosing the right paint for a steel door. Let’s continue:

1. Don’t Ignore the Finish: 

As like the paint type and color, the finish in the door is also extremely significant. Semi-gloss and satin are the best choices to provide an extraordinary finish. 

2. Keep the Climate into Consideration: 

If the front entry door faces more wear & tear or high sunlight, humidity etc then choosing the right type of paint that meets these needs is very important. 

3. Maintain Quality: 

The front entry door is the first impression on any person who gets in. So, it is worth it to spend an extra penny on a good coat of paint to make the exterior door attractive with a long-lasting finish. 

Wrapping Up:

Now with this information, we hope you can choose the right paint. Also, you can freely search for the “best steel entry door company near me” to get the best design doors.

[jasonblogslove]

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Our interior house painting services comprises baths, kitchens, closets and dining rooms, areas, closets, closets, game rooms, pantries, bedrooms, bedrooms and much more. Our outside home painting includes heaters, out buildings & ceilings, decks, fences & gates, barns, play houses doors, fireplaces, trim and much more.

Best Painters and Decorators at Dubai

A brand fresh coat of paint may very quickly do wonders into the inside design of almost any home. At re-pair Plus we know that some homeowners don't need the bother of painting their homes independently, or so the costly mistakes of an DIY paint project. When it's interior wall painting of one's comfy home, smart office, or lease house, our team are all exceptionally proficient and reliable. In addition, we elect for environment friendly green and paints services and products to make sure they won't harm the ecosystem or the health of your family members. In addition, we give wood and metallic painting that will help upgrade your homes. This not only enriches your property's aesthetic appeal, but also protects the environment under from rusting, tarnishing, and chipping.

Painters and Decorators Near Me

We provide a Painters and Decorators Dubai for both residential and industrial clients. Whenever we paint your house, flat, or industrial property, we guarantee that our painting surpasses the painting industry standards. Together with Repair Plus, you'll really feel confident that you're employing the very finest in the enterprise. Our group of home painters and decorators are consists of highly skilled and skilled professionals that execute a meticulous and pristine endeavor to really go beyond customer expectations. We provide top notch painting services from Dubai with the most attention and care to detail. No matter project scope or period restriction, all of us will continue to work hard to fulfill your program and price range. Together with all our home paint solutions, you may rest easy knowing your house has been cared for by professionals. Forget about all the playing round, discussions and compromises you need to survive when coping with local painters, then provide Repair along with a telephone to get a quotation today!

[the-rose-clad-demon-doctor]

Hellsing: Forest Fire Part 4

So, this is probably going to be the last update for a few days. Writing this chapter kicked my ass and, apart from a few plot points, I’m totally unsure of how to continue at the moment. I’ll probably be working on Part 5 sporadically throughout the week but hopefully I’ll have it up by Friday or Saturday.

Sunday morning. The Hellsing Organization and Wild Geese had been at full combat readiness for nearly two weeks. Full combat readiness meant constant patrols, each patrol shift pulling more than twelve hours constantly on watch. It was wearing on everyone. Normal humans simply weren’t meant to keep vigilant and alert for that kind of time each day.

        It was especially wearing on Claude. He hadn’t had an opportunity to really talk with Pip since their previous interaction. “One night zis week” got quickly pushed back to “Possibly next week.”

        More worrying to the blonde soldier, as he wandered the halls, was the effect the whole situation was having on Sir Integra. It had been at his urging that she hired the Wild Geese and pushed to fortify Hellsing Manor for what could be a siege situation. He had already passed by her door to hear her saying that she shouldn’t have listened to him. Claude knew it was just the stress, but that still stung.

        Which is why it almost came as a relief when, nearly sixteen days since the Wild Geese arrived, a spotter on the roof saw the buses pulling up at the front of the manor.

        Claude assumed his position in the ground floor. The mercenaries had taken positions up on the second storey, defiladed through the windows, with heavy machine gun nests set up at three points. The Hellsing troops had been spread throughout the manor, and Sir Integra and Walter took refuge in the basement.

        There was a brief moment of anticipation as two tall, lanky, very differently-dressed individuals walked up to the gatehouse, exchanging a brief word with the guards before opening fire.

        The whole world seemed to pause, as if taking a breath. Suddenly, it was like the gates of Hell itself opened up. Nearly a hundred guns throughout the mansion opened fire. The two men at the gates jumped, taken by surprise. They moved faster than anyone could possibly keep track of, scattering and moving out of the firing arcs of the mercenaries on the upper levels.

The buses accelerated, making a charge for the front door, tires tearing deep tracks in the ground. One of the buses suddenly split in half, torn to a hundred thousand pieces by an explosion as it rolled over an anti-tank mine. The remaining three buses slammed into the front façade of the mansion, breaking through the walls and sending soldiers scattering.

More explosions as the doors on the buses opened, spilling forth soldiers replete with riot shields, all crudely labeled with “Boo doo, people murder people.” The Hellsing soldiers hid behind barriers, but still found themselves falling under the crushing advance of the armored ghouls.

Squad 17 had been split across the first floor, not one member was within easy reach of each other. Claude had the good fortune to be placed near the stairwell, a half-dozen men and women under his direct order.

The radio on his hip crackled to life.

“This is Belmont, in temporary command of Squad 6! We’re falling back to the Southeast stairwell! All troops, masks on! Thunder Children, load your guns for area denial!”

Claude looked around as everyone around him snapped on simple painter’s breathers and goggles. “Area denial.”

The Karmina shotguns were of a large enough bore to launch custom grenades. These had been designed by Alucard and Walter in a joint venture to give humans weapons to make life very unpleasant for vampires and ghouls. A frangible outer shell made out of cold iron, boasting a very light explosive charge. The real meat of the grenades was their incredibly finely-powdered silver, each individual speck light enough to float on the softest breeze. Each grenade contained several hundred grams of this powdered silver.

As Squad 6 rounded the corner in full retreat, pursued by a charging formation of ghouls, Claude dutifully shouldered his gun and fired over the heads of his comrades-in-arms. The grenade rounds kicked more than usual, so his gun knocked the hell out of his shoulder. Its explosive projectile sailed high, smacking into the shield of one ghoul before bursting open in a flash of light.

It suddenly became much harder to see in the hallway as a million rays of light were reflected by the particulate silver floating in the air. The ghouls, clearly newly-turned, continued to breathe instinctively. That was their mistake, as they caught lungs full of powdered silver. As their lungs screamed in pain, their skin blistering from exposure to the precious metal, some dropped their shields. Some dropped their guns. All of the ghouls seized in pain. A lung full of silver wouldn’t be enough to kill a vampire, not even a ghoul, but it distracted them. Which was exactly what was necessary, as the Hellsing soldiers ripped the small crowd apart with concentrated fire.

The soldiers in that small hallway let out a cheer, but it was short-lived. The other sides of the Manor remained unsecured, a fact they were painfully reminded of as another member of Squad 17 called out over the radio that Squads 2 and 8 were wiped out.

One of the two lanky bastards from before the attack had broken in through an uncovered window in the back of the mansion and caught the two groups by surprise. His other tall associate had met up and charged together into the lower levels before splitting up again.

Integra, dead. Seras, dead. Alucard unable to save them. Pip dead. Claude unable to save him.

Claude gripped at his head, grabbing his radio, fury running through every vein in his body. He keyed the channel for the rest of the radios they used.

“This is… This is Claude Grey to all Hellsing soldiers and the Wild Geese mercenaries. Everyone on the second storey secure the stairwells at all costs! Don’t let any of those bastards up there! Level the fuckin’ stairwells with C4 if you have to! All forces on the first storey and below, do whatever you can to get to the basement! They’re aiming for Sir Integra!”

They’d probably be fine. But was he really going to risk it? He had a dinner date with Monsieur Bernadotte to look forward to. Integra was like a mother to him. Seras almost like a sister already.

I’ll be damned if some vampire asshole’s gonna take everything away from me again.

Everything had transpired over the course of a few seconds. Before anybody else had a chance to react to what he said, Claude bolted for the stairwell and stormed downstairs. Abandoning his command like this would earn him a royal chewing-out later, but he didn’t care. He knew the basement was shielded against radio transmissions. Even if Integra had a radio, she never would’ve heard what he said. He had to get there first, and one man could move a hell of a lot faster than seven.

The basement level of the Hellsing Manor was a labyrinth the likes of which would have made King Minos green with envy. It sprawled much farther out and much deeper than the already palatial mansion sitting aboveground. Twisting tunnels which doubled back, dozens of dead ends, fake doors, electronic shielding, all designed to hide the lowest dungeons and the deepest, darkest secrets of Hellsing and the Council of Twelve.

It was also where the vampire Alucard made his home, meaning it was somewhere Claude Grey rarely ventured.

He probably knew as much about the basement level as the vampires now trying to navigate their way to find Sir Integra.

Every corner had the potential to put him face-to-face with a being much more powerful than he was, much faster than he was, far harder to kill than he was.

He wasn’t particularly scared, not really. Dying was something he hadn’t been scared of in years. At the end of the day, Claude knew he was expendable. The Hellsing Organization would move on if he died, but Sir Integra was vital to their survival.

Claude was also fairly sure he was lost. Every corridor in the basement looked the same.

Voices came from the hallway to his left. The soldier hugged the wall and listened closely.

“You dumbass! Those cocksuckers were waiting for us and you knew it, didn’t you?!” How was he communicating with someone? That shouldn’t be possible. “I don’t give a shit what he told you or not! We walked into a trap you kraut fuck!”

Kraut?

Claude’s attention was taken as he heard further gunshots from down the hall to his right. That… That had to be where Integra was. He pushed away from the wall, breaking into a dead run, not caring about the noise he was making.

“Oh shit… Hey, come back here, asshole!”

Claude could hear the man behind him, footsteps moving far too fast for him to outrun. He reached to his battledress, grabbing a grenade. A flashbang. Just something to use as a distraction.

Claude pulled the pin, hearing the footsteps getting closer. After less than a second, he threw the grenade behind him and covered his ears. There was a tremendous BANG, amplified by the walls of the basement. It rattled every bone in his body, even shook his teeth. Even after covering his ears, they rang fiercely, he could scarcely hear.

A door at the end of the hallway stood open, and Claude could see the white-suited man from earlier seated against the wall, bloodied. The man turned to look at Claude, chest heaving from multiple bullet wounds. Alucard still stood, holding a gun aimed at the seated individual. He raised a second gun that Claude had never seen before. Under the ringing in his brain he could hear the vampire yelling.

“Get down!”

Claude dove for the floor, landing awkwardly on his gun. Oof. That was gonna bruise later.

There were further gunshots, though they barely registered through his already weakened hearing. He felt an impact as the vampire chasing him fell to the ground and slid along the floor.

The soldier panted, out of breath from the sprint. He clambered to his feet and trained the Karmina shotgun on the black tracksuited vampire on the ground.

“H… How’s it feel… Dickhead?”

Mr. White Suit turned, grunting. He coughed, blood spattering from his mouth.

“Jan… You should have left when I told you to…”

“Urgh… Sorry, big bro… Wasn’t gonna let you have all the fun. I wanted to take at least a few more of these assholes with us as payment for all the trouble.” Jan looked up at Alucard, and Integra as she emerged from the room behind him. “How’d you… Ungh… How’d you bitches know we were coming?”

“That’d be me.” Claude spoke, feeling vindictive. He stamped his foot on the bullet wound in Jan’s leg, prompting him to shout. “I heard you talking to your boss. Called him kraut?” He twisted his foot, digging in harder. “Let him know, it doesn’t matter what he does. I’ll see it coming. The Hellsing Organization will never let you win, whoever you are.”

Claude got a strange feeling as he said that. The little voice in the back of his head screamed at him. Jan laughed wickedly.

“Oh, trust me. He knows now.” The vampire sat up, flipping off Alucard and Integra. “He’s been listening to this entire conversation!”

Oh shit. DEFINITELY should not have said that.

“I’ll bet you wanna know who sent us, then! It was…” There was a flash of heat, catching everyone off guard as Jan and his brother erupted in flames. “M I L L E N N I U M…”

There was practically a chorus of “Millennium?” from Claude and Integra. Questions fresh in their heads, they emerged from the basement to find the ghoul army neatly cleaned up. Seras had left the basement from another stairwell as the two brothers went down, and began cleaning up the leftovers of their forces.

Hellsing had, despite their readiness, taken fierce casualties. Twenty-six killed, nearly forty injured, along with eight injured Wild Geese. Claude shuddered to imagine what would have happened if they were not as prepared as they were.

After a firm dressing-down by Integra for so recklessly running headlong into the basement and abandoning his command, Claude was allowed to rest. It was night-time by now.

Fully exhausted, he flopped onto his bed, not even bothering to strip out of his battledress, or even to put his gun away. The second his eyes closed, he was out.

There was a soft phump, then another. Claude’s eyes fluttered open slowly, unsure of how much time had passed. He looked to the source of the noise.

In the dim light of the room’s lamp, he could see a very short… Boy? Did he have… Cat ears? Claude’s eyes adjusted, and then widened as he another, much taller… Was that a woman? With a scythe? He quickly looked at the sleeping figure of his roommate. Blood… Blood on the walls.

The catboy turned to him, tittering quietly.

“Oh? You’re certainly qvite a heavy sleeper, nein?”

Without a second thought, Claude grabbed his sidearm and moved to fire it at the boy. But the woman was quicker. She was across the room before he could blink, and delivered a series of tremendous punches to his chest and stomach. Even through the bullet-resistant battledress, they knocked him utterly senseless. He gasped, struggling to breathe through the pain of what had to be several broken ribs. Thrown off balance by the impacts, Claude rolled off the bed, crashing to the floor and bringing his guns tumbling with him. Hitting the floor did nothing to alleviate the now eye-watering pain.

“Tsk… Vas zat really necessary, Obersturmführer Blitz?” The woman rolled her eyes, chomping down harder on the cigarette in her mouth.

“You vould razzer he shot you, zen? Or me, more importantly?”

Claude struggled, trying to lift his shotgun, but the catboy merely walked over and stepped a foot onto his chest, eliciting a gasp of pain.

“Ah-ah-ah… Now zat’s not wery nice.” The catboy picked up Claude’s shotgun with almost no effort. He wasn’t dying, but the pain of the Nazi Youth-dressed individual standing on his chest certainly made Claude wish he was dead.

“Mein leader visely decided to stop… How you say… pussy-footing around. If our plans vere getting foreseen, vhy not capture ze individual who foresees zem?”

Why do I ever open my big goddamn mouth?

The catboy giggled again, now standing with both feet on Claude’s chest.

“You’re going to be coming vis us.”

He bent down, cutely tapping Claude’s nose with a finger.

The world around them disappeared entirely.

(Not gonna lie, this chapter was a LOT of fun to write, but it certainly gave me guff trying to figure out how to allow Hellsing to find out about Millennium with all of the advantages they had in the battle. I also love how Medz and I, on our own, both formulated nearly identical ways for our characters to get captured!)

[mccarranhandymanservices-blog]

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[kaynamiteineurope]

Day 12: A Successful Day of Looking at Art and Not Getting Smited Day 12 of our trip, the second Friday, we got to sleep in a bit later and meet up for the bus into the city at 10:30am. I struggled, as I usually do, and took a 10 minute shower and dried and put my hair up in a ponytail, choosing to wear my yellow dress for the Vatican (with my leggings rolled up underneath). At first, I thought I looked kind of cute. Then, I nearly immediately decided that I actually just looked rough. And whale-like. So that was a great way to start the day. We went down to breakfast a bit before 10 and ate some peach halves, pastries, and scrambled eggs before getting on the tour bus that was set to drop us off near Piazza Navona for the day. We started off looking at a shop near the center, 4 Rivers, fountain and picked up some great stuff--an ornament for Natasha and a magnet and gift for my mom for me and a keychain for Carolina--then we tried to find a dress shop we had remembered passing the night before on the walk to the bus. We didn't, however, end up finding it and instead walked around for an hour or so, ducking into other shops to no avail. After we gave up on that, we bought fruit cups for a snack and decided to head back over to the Trevi Fountain so Natasha could get a video of her throwing a coin into the fountain since mine had turned out so cute compared to the pictures we had already taken. By now, my sandal-ed feet (or tour director had recommended sandals for those whose feet were hurting in their shoes) were starting to itch and burn at the same time from all the walking, and the sun was pretty high in the sky, so my entire back was basically all sweat (sexy, right?). We wove our way through a massive amount of people on a couple main streets, before finally turning off to the smaller ones to reach the fountain. Right before the Trevi piazza, we passed a line of street artists and stopped to check out some of their work. Unlike Venice, where the mode of art was usually oil, Rome seemed to be a lot of watercolors--which is tough because watercolors, especially those on mattes, are very easy to do prints of and pass them off as originals (we saw another couple from our group who bought prints, though I'm not sure they knew it). So we had been very vigilant with our browsing to make sure what we were going to get was original work. We decided to circle back after the fountain because we were on a tight time-frame (we had to meet back up at Piazza Navona at 2 for the bus to the Vatican City). We fought our way through to the fountain, where I took an adorable video of Natasha throwing a second coin into the fountain, and then we took forever in the Trevi Bar (a place the nice couple from Indiana had recommended) for some gelato. There was a tour there of Asian tourists getting their gelato, and when one of them asked for pineapple and apple, the guy behind the counter started singing the Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen song, so it's been stuck in my head ever since. Which is mega annoying. I got a small with raspberry and lemon (my favorite), and then I navigated us back toward the art. There was one guy with larger works that both of us really liked, but they were going to be 50 a piece, so we went over to a second artist who had smaller pieces for a lot less money. Natasha ended up getting a medium-sized piece and I got three wider-rectangle pieces (15 euro total!) that were of different historical sights in the city that I think will look awesome together in a collage. We got to the Piazza Navona just in time to meet up with the group, and then we walked a few blocks in the sun over to the public bus stop where we hopped onto a bus to the Vatican City. Do you know how amusing it is to watch a group of 44 people scrambling to pack into a bus? Or how subsequently amusing it is to watch the expression on other people's faces as they realize they're either trapped in their seats or won't actually be able to get on without sardining with us? Quite funny. Quite funny indeed. (Less funny for my aching feet, though, since we barely ever manage to get actual seats.) We took a small break on the steps directly across from the entrance to the Vatican--during which most people seemed to struggle against falling asleep--as we waited for Alexandra to meet up with our tour guide for the afternoon. Once we did, we started the process of going inside, walking through metal detectors and having our bags scanned. We made our way up onto the second floor where we picked up the Vatican-approved lime green and blue radios (the earbud was super big and my radio was extremely temperamental. The channel would change itself every 15 seconds and I kept having to fiddle with it the entire time just to hear our tour guide talk about the history of the city and its buildings). Then, we walked out into a courtyard area and sat down while she explained about different parts of the city we would be seeing. She explained a lot about the Pope and how even though the Pope is a lifetime gig, the current Pope was elected after the previous one resigned, which hasn't happened since the 12th century. She explained that since the only way a Pope is supposed to exit his position is through death, they still held a funeral ceremony for him and he was flown out of the city, and subsequently brought back in where he now lives on the grounds near the gardens in a private home that they renovated for him. She also said that on a tour two weeks ago, she actually saw the Pope himself walking around! In the Sistine Chapel, there aren't supposed to be photos (because it's copyrighted) and you're not allowed to talk. But she also explained that the Chapel is open to the people who live in the Palace. Michelangelo, the famous painter of the Sistine Chapel, originally wanted to be a sculptor, but while his first piece--of the Virgin Mary holding her dead child for the last time, a piece in St Peter's Basilica--was the piece that got him noticed for the first time, it was his painting that made him famous. He lived until he was 90 (whereas Raphael only lived until age 30). The Chapel itself was built in the 1400's, with Michelangelo decorating it with his masterpiece from 1508-1512, and the wall frescos were added in the 1530's (frescos are made when you have to transfer your design onto fresh plaster and then paint it to make the heat seal in the color, while is why the Chapel's art is so well preserved). The ceiling itself isn't very deep, but since painters have to lay on their backs on super tall scaffolds to paint it, Michelangelo complained a lot in his letters that it hurt his back a lot to paint the Chapel ceiling (which I totally get!). While Michelangelo was originally from Florence, he vowed he never wanted to "go back to the city that disappointed him." Unfortunately, his body was stolen from Rome and is now housed in Florence, which would have been his biggest nightmare. After all of that, and a ton more information, we walked through the Vatican's museum. A lot of it was statues and sculptures, with a pair of coffins, a giant marble bathtub, and plenty of vases. They also had painted maps, more fresco walls and ceilings, and giant tapestries. The entire thing was really interesting and fun to go through (more fun if my feet hadn't been screaming), but, of course, it was the Sistine Chapel everyone was waiting for. By the time we wound our way through the museum, and down the stairs to the chapel, there were a ton of people inside. The Chapel was smaller than I expected--especially after seeing Saint Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace in Venice--but every inch of it was covered in Michelangelo's masterpiece. Each of the people were shadowed in a way I'm not sure I'd ever be able to figure out, and they were massively impressive. Weirdly enough, my first thought was "Ooooh, this is so cool! It's even got the gated off section near the back that they had in the Da Vinci Code!" ...Yup. After our ten minutes in the Chapel, we headed out and over to Saint Peter's Basilica. Saint Peter's is the largest Catholic Church in the world. According to our tour guide, all other Catholic Churches actually have an agreement with the Vatican that they can't construct a church bigger than that of Saint Peter's. It was massively impressive. And, thankfully, we were allowed to take pictures here. They were even starting the evening rosary because services started at 6 and we were there just before it at like 5:45pm, which I'm sure my grandma would have loved. Afterward, we headed outside and our guide pointed out where the Pope lived, and that the guards who stand by the gate to his house have intricate uniforms that cost about 1,500 euro (where as the ornate Pope shoes are 5,000!). Then we walked a million miles down the street toward the store where we could purchase Vatican souvenirs which would have the opportunity to be blessed by the Pope's priests. I picked out a beautiful pearl-y looking one that has a bit of Vatican holy water in it, and had them bless it, and then our group split into two for the night. One group went off to the hotel and the rest of us took a bus back near Piazza Navona to have our 35 euro (originally 55) 5-course, 6-wine Italian dinner. It was held at a place called Buddy's and it was delish! We had a veggie plate, bruschetta, a meats and cheeses plate with the best bread I've had in Italy, then they brought out a traditional tomato pasta, pork slices, and then a dessert of these little shortbread sticks. I ate until I was full and drank a bit too much, so I was a little giggly and introduced myself to one of the guys on the trip, Gus, who I hadn't talked to until that day. He told me about how he's nicknamed "Vanilla Gorilla" and I talked about how I needed a cool nickname like that (yeah, I know. I was quite tipsy though, so it's fine). We walked a while to get to our tour bus and then our tour guide spent the entire drive back drunkenly talking on the mic about how we all needed to get together at the hotel and keep drinking. Then she started passing around the mic to the other girls of whom she actually knows the names of, joking and laughing with them. Then they used a girl's phone and put it up to the mic to play music. Our. Poor. Bus. Driver. Not only were we 40 minutes late from the time he thought he was picking us all up, but then he had to deal with a bunch of drunken college kids and an even more far gone tour director. That man deserves a raise. So we got back to the hotel and she told us to meet back in the lobby in 10 minutes and that she would buy wine and treat us all to a last drink in Italy. Natasha and I decided since we'd pretty much opted out of all of the longer nights that we'd join and get to know people. So I changed into a PJ top and touched up my make-up (though it didn't really help) and then we headed back down, where they had already broken into the wine. Alexandra finally noticed we were there, told us to get a glass of wine, and then told Natasha she loved her ancient Grecian dress and that she loved how put-together and pretty I looked with my winged eyeliner. She said "I love you guys," and then held my hand for a bit and then promptly forgot we were there. So we got kicked out of the lobby for being too loud, so we went outside and set up there. Here we drank some more wine and Alexandra had us go around the group and say what we thought would happen on the trip and what actually has happened. A lot of the girls talked about how they thought they wouldn't get along with anyone (bull) and how it hadn't been the case at all and how much they loved "literally everyone here" and that they got "along with everyone" (also bull). Natasha and I headed back up to the room around midnight and once we were back, we realized that we had both had the same thoughts. They didn't mean it. They didn't even know all of us. Barely any of them had tried to get to know us, let alone Carolina. The quieter, culture-driven girls were pushed off to the side. We weren't there for the wine and the partying or the boys (though it wouldn't hurt to get a guy along the way!). We were there for the architecture and the mythology, the culture and the experience. It was just a huge shift. And Alexandra said how we were our favorite group and she loved each and every one of us and how we were so wonderful, but she doesn't know Natasha or my name--only those of the girls who were loud and drank a lot. The entire thing was just a sort of shift in the trip. I drank too much wine (I'm sure any of you could have called that--those of you who know my minuscule drinking habits), so I spent the next hour propped up in bed thinking about how nauseous I was. I fell asleep and then from 1:30-2am, I sat in the bathroom hoping I would just puke and get it over with. But when that seemed like it wouldn't ever happen, I went back to bed and slept through the night. ...Or at least until my alarm went off at 5:50am and then it was time for GREECE! And, of course, the ESCAPE FROM THE INSECT ROOMS OF DOOM! FINALLY!!!! Ciao, Horrible "Club House Hotel" of Doom! I shall never return and absolutely never miss you!

[wristwatchjournal]

Independent Watchmaking – Kees Engelbarts – Hand-Engraved Watches, Total Creative License and Radical Skeletonisation

Kees Engelbarts might not a household name for most people. Readers of MONOCHROME, however, have been introduced to the watches of this most original Dutch engraver whom Frank has been following since 2009. Engelbarts is an independent watchmaker, a free spirit with a lively fantasy and a talent for engraving that situate his watches closer to art pieces than cookie-cutter watches made by the millions. Producing just six to eight watches a year, Engelbarts embraces the philosophy of handmade, an ideology that permeates just about every level of the watch, save the movements which are sourced from new old stock calibres. He is totally upfront about not being a watchmaker: he is an engraver who makes watches.  For 2020, Kees Engelbarts revisits his celebrated Skeletonised Tourbillon with even more daring feats of skeletonisation and a more muted, toned-down palette. The second watch he is introducing this year is Jumping Carp featuring a hand-engraved carp.

Background

Engelbarts trained as an engraver in Schoonhoven (known as the ‘Silver Town’) in Holland and then moved to Geneva in the 1990s. Turning his hand to the diminutive dimensions of watch dials, Engelbarts attracted plenty of commissions from high-end Swiss brands. In 1997 he decided to make his own watches and, like any self-respecting painter or sculptor, all his pieces are signed. To date, Engelbart’s creations revolve around two central themes: dials decorated with mythical creatures (often inspired by Japanese folklore and the Japanese technique of Mokume Gane) and skeletonisation that verges on the radical.

Intrepid Skeletonisation

If you compare the Argentium Tourbillon to the model we reviewed in 2017, you’ll notice the differences. Not only has Engelbarts toned-down the colour palette, but he’s taken his very own skeletonisation to more daring heights. For a taste of his former skeletonised watches, this bronze model will give you a feel for his organic approach. However, looking at this latest model with its barely-there support system, it’s a miracle the movement doesn’t come flying out of the watch.

Forget about CNC machines to achieve near-perfect parts: Engelbarts relies on his hands and his intuition to create his organic skeletonised watches. Most skeletonised watches start life as a non-openworked (closed) movement that is then skeletonised by the watchmaker; in short, the supporting structure already exists. In Engelbarts’ world, skeletonisation takes on a very different meaning. When he skeletonises, he doesn’t just open up pre-existing bridges and plates, he removes the ones provided with the outsourced movement and designs his very own from a blank. The mainplate and bridges are then built from an entirely different material, in this case, German silver. The German silver structure holding the parts in place is then oxidised. In the ‘Making Of’ pictures, you can see the twisted German silver structure before and after oxidisation.

As Engelbarts admits, he doesn’t start with a drawing or a technical plan. “The rough outlines are drawn on the main-plate and the bridges with a marker to see which parts of the movement are essential and which parts are not needed…I then start to cut away roughly and little by little come to the final shape.” What emerges are these amazing twisted coral-like structures that leave plenty of negative space to see the movement. The tourbillon at 6 o’clock, the gear train and the barrel are discernible from both front and back, suspended in space. Speaking to Engelbarts the other day, he described that skeletonising his latest tourbillon piece was “a blast, no challenges, pure pleasure working on a piece like that. You see it growing, getting closer to the end result. I forget the time when I work on a watch like this”.

Both the Argentium Tourbillon and the Jumping Carp are housed in 39.5mm cases made from 935 Argentium, a silver alloy that uses germanium instead of copper and doesn’t oxidise or tarnish like sterling silver. Both cases have been hardened and then brushed to create an attractive surface. The movement is a Swiss hand-wound tourbillon calibre beating at 21,600vph and with a 72-hour autonomy.

The Japanese Connection and the Jumping Carp

Engelbarts is fascinated with dragons and other mythological creatures, many of them associated with Japanese folklore. Jumping Carp is the first in a series of three unique watches and the theme is obviously related to this most Japanese of all fish; the Koi carp. With his fervid imagination, Engelbarts wanted to depict the carp in motion, jumping up to enter “through the dragon gate to transform into a dragon (and therefore become a mythical creature and achieve eternal life)”.  If you look closely at the dial, you can see the carp with its iridescent scales and fins jumping out of the turbulent waters… I’m not sure I can see the dragon gate, but that’s part of the fun. Everybody will see what they want to see.

As those of you who have followed Engelbarts well know, he is also a master of the ancient Japanese technique of Mokume Gane. In fact, he is the first to have applied this technique to the dial of a watch. Mokume Gane is a mixed metal laminated procedure developed in the 1600s in Japan and is attributed to Denbai Shoami (1651-1728), a master craftsman who specialised in sword fittings in the prefecture of Akita. Loosely translated as ‘wood grain metal’, the distinctive layered patterns of Mokume Gane transform the appearance of cold metal into warm natural wood grain and was first used to decorate tsuba, the handguard of a Japanese sword.

The art of Mokume Gane consists of layering different non-ferrous metals (a bit like mille-feuille pasty), which are then heated in an oven to the fusion temperature of the metal that melts first. As Engelbarts explained to me in an interview in 2018, “once you get your solid homogenous block with all the layers, the fun begins and you can do all sorts of things to it – bend it, twist it, engrave it and, like wood, expose the grain of the metal”. Using a tiny U-shaped scalpel and a low-relief engraving technique, Engelbarts breathes life into the stacked layers of silver and white gold that form the base. The layers of Mokume Gane accentuate the shapes of the waves and add volume and depth to the scenery.

The level of engraving is unparalleled as the sinuous shape of the carp, and the swirling waters come to life. Even the gold-plated hands that look like twisted golden branches are the result of Mokume Gane. The layers of metal used in Mokume Gane provides a fascinating depth. For this particular dial, he has used 19 layers of metal, which have then been oxidised and coloured with a process involving liver of sulphur.

The iridescent colours you can see are obtained from liver of sulphur, a foul-smelling potassium-based compound that creates patinas on metals. The intensity of colour depends on the concentration of the solution and can range from light yellow all the way up the spectrum to brown, blue, violet and even black.

As Engelbarts likes to say, the case is the frame for the artwork. Like the Argentium Tourbillon, the 39.5mm case of the Jumping Carp is made from Argentium 935 and displays the same matte brushed finish. The only difference between the two is that the Jumping Carp has an 18k yellow gold crown. As he says, “I don’t like polishing my cases because polished surfaces don’t stay polished very long” and they are more prone to scratches. Surprisingly thin for a watch with so much artwork on board, the height of both watches is 9.5mm and the dial and movement are protected with sapphire crystals.

The Jumping Carp is fitted with a new old stock manual-winding Peseux 330. This vintage Peseux 330 is the ancestor of the Peseux/ETA 7001, a simple but noble manual-winding movement with a frequency of 18,000vph and a 43-hour power reserve. Turning the watch over is another treat since the mainplate and bridges have also been hand-engraved with an Asian wave pattern, silver-plated, oxidized and then coloured with acids. Ranging from purple to blue and orange, the iridescent colours change according to the light.

Availability and price

The Argentium Tourbillon is a unique piece and will retail for CHF 120,000 (not incl. taxes). The Jumping Carp is the first of three and the watches will be sold as a trilogy. The other two are not finished yet.

For more information, please visit kees.ch.

The post Independent Watchmaking – Kees Engelbarts – Hand-Engraved Watches, Total Creative License and Radical Skeletonisation appeared first on Wristwatch Journal.

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[fitravelernet-blog]

8 Secrets of The Golden Gate

A symbol of the San Francisco Cove Zone the golden gate , the Brilliant Entryway Extension is in excess of a methods for drivers to cross between the city of San Francisco and Marin Area toward the north. A fantastic nearness in California since it previously opened following four years of development in 1937 at an expense of $27 million, the scaffold has shown up in film But then it's likewise a working scaffold, with around 200 representatives working nonstop keeping up the extension for in excess of 100,000 vehicles crossing day by day, and in addition walkers, bikers and individuals riding the extension's ships and transports. 1. For what reason is it called the Brilliant Entryway Scaffold? It's not brilliant. "The Brilliant Door Scaffold gets its name since it traverses what is known as the Brilliant Entryway Strait," said Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz, representative for the Brilliant Door Extension, Roadway and Transportation Area, which works the scaffold. "It's a three-mile-long and one-mile wide waterway that associates the Pacific Sea to the San Francisco Sound. "The scaffold had been a thought since the mid-nineteenth century however individuals felt that it was difficult to assemble. The waters were excessively unpleasant and excessively profound." 2. What shading is the scaffold? It looks red. It's not red, in spite of the fact that you're not insane to think so. Guests "all call it red," said Russell. Some time ago, the US Naval force, at that point some portion of the War Division, managed the conduits and needed to paint this extension dark and yellow for high perceivability, similar to a honey bee, said individual painter Jarrod Bauer. As the extension was being raised during the 1930s, the steel conveyed to build the scaffold had a layer of red lead on it. The couple draftsman group of Irving and Gertrude Morrow loved that shading against the scene here, Bauer said Golden Gate. They wound up blending paint to make the shading Global Orange, which is like the shade of red lead, he said. "When we're chipping away at this side individuals will need us to paint their shoes, or their coats," said Russell. "They're all, 'Would you be able to put some paint on me?'" 3. Would i be able to paint my home a similar shading? Would you extremely like to Golden Gate? We can't foresee your family's response to Worldwide Orange - don't worry about it the neighbors - yet truly, you can. Duplicate the paint recipe recorded on the extension's site - it's free! - and take it to your nearby paint store. "Download the shading lattice or plot, and really go to your paint shop and have them blend it for you," says Cosulich-Schwartz. "You can paint whatever you like Worldwide Orange." 4. Does the extension get completely painted each year? Nope, and it shouldn't be. The facts confirm that the best coat has been completely repainted after some time with new and earth enhanced Universal Orange best coats. Notwithstanding, there are ares that haven't been stripped to uncovered metal and totally repainted, said Bauer. 5. What gets painted Golden Gate?

At regular intervals, the extension's architects direct an investigation of every last trace of the scaffold, Cosulich-Schwartz said. "That makes a work plan for where we have to do painting" and other support work required to keep the extension in great working condition. When a work plan is created from those examinations. The painters know where they'll paint straight away. At that point. The extension's ironworkers will fix up the framework to make the activity site. They make control regions for painters to change into and out of their defensive apparatus. The territories likewise keep contaminants getting outside to general society, which are here and there voyaging only a couple of feet from the activity site. That is the point at which the painters begin sandblasting the territory to be painted to evacuate the majority of the old paint. At that point they prepare to a thickness of 10 milliliters, trailed by a transitional coat and two best coats. (It can take months, contingent upon the span of the zone.) 6.How long will the paint last? Generally, in any case, "we're planning to get 25, 30 years of life out of this paint work," said Bauer. It relies upon which part of the extension is being painted and that it is so presented to the components. "There are sure parts of the scaffold that still have lead paint on them that don't should be painted yet," said Bauer. Golden Gate "The lead paint was a decent paint similarly as holding up in trustworthiness of the paint." 7. What's that sound I hear on a windy sunday? It's the extension's remarkable ring tone, made by four mist horns utilizing 80 pounds of gaseous tension to shoot 165 decibels of sound. With a scope of up to six miles, it's actuated when it's unreasonably foggy for boats' teams to see the extension. Obviously, it's a reinforcement: Boats have their own GPS frameworks. And uncommonly prepared nearby ship's pilots coordinate the extensive holder sends through the strait. In any case, nobody needs to take a risk with the harm vast boats could do to the scaffold. "The Golden Gate haze can be so thick here you can't see possibly 15 feet before you," said Aaron Kozlowski. The extension's head working designer. "The mist horn remains on amid that set example until the point when we call it. Until a worker here notification and says, 'Hello, the mist's cleared.'" The extension staff endeavored to utilize computerized frameworks to turn on the haze horns, yet the salt air harmed the gear. 8. Who performs connect salvages? McVeigh and his kindred ironworkers, the supposed "Cowhands of the Sky," have that obligation. McVeigh has lost check of what number of pained spirits he's been brought to protect in the course of recent years. On the off chance that individuals aren't willing to tune in to cops, they send the ironworkers out to go over the rail and get them. "We'll set up a high line, tie off, go over the rail, and afterward we simply begin strolling in gradually to them, and begin conversing with them ourselves, to endeavor to inspire them to return over the rail." McVeigh will before long have help. In September in 2018, the extension began developing a suicide obstacle framework, otherwise called the wellbeing net. Golden Gate To shield individuals from bouncing off the Brilliant Entryway Scaffold. While it's intended to get individuals who attempt to bounce off. Its extremely presence turns into an obstacle, connect authorities said. It's relied upon to be finished in 2021. Read the full article

[wellpersonsblog]

Tips For Flying With Young Kids

Flying with young kids? Toddlers and babies are a lot of work, but a little planning and preparation before the trip can help make your travel day less stressful.

  Hi friends!

Let’s talk plane rides. Specifically plane rides with young kids in tow. Since the middle of September, we’ve flown as a family (2 adults and 2 kids) from Columbus to Minneapolis and back two times, once for a funeral and once for a wedding. While this isn’t the most elaborate travel plan – it’s a fairly simple, 90-minute direct flight, it’s still time, on an airplane, with two kids under the age of 3.

Before we left on our first trip, I asked for some tips from fellow parents on my InstaStories. I thought it might be helpful to compile those tips, plus several of my own, into a blog post for other parents who may be preparing to fly with kids. There’s no doubt about it…it can be stressful. Especially for people like me who like to plan and be in control.

All you can really do is your best. Plan and prepare, hope for the best and be ready to deal with the worst.

First, some important things to note:

You can wear a baby in a carrier (like an Ergo) through the metal detector.

Babies and toddlers don’t have to take their shoes off.

Whoever is wearing baby may or may not have to take their shoes off (definitely not with precheck, but one flight I was able to leave them on even in the regular line)

You don’t have to take your ipad out of your bag or out of the case.

You don’t have to put the ipad away during takeoff and landing.

And now some tips:

Bring empty water bottles with straws. Fill them at the drinking fountain or buy bottled water near the gate. One tip I got was to buy juice to put in it during takeoff and landing to encourage them to drink to help their ears pop. This would definitely be helpful if your kids aren’t huge fans of just drinking plain water on demand.

Download movies ahead of time on Netflix so you don’t have to pay for wifi. However, make sure you also have apps/games downloaded that work without wifi…because if you get on the plane and suddenly Netflix won’t let you log into your account, you’re going to want something else to keep them busy (not that we learned that the hard way or anything….)

Also, pack headphones if your kids like using the sound.

If you can, ship diapers and wipes directly to wherever you’re staying. We were staying with family friends and I ordered a package of diapers for each kid on Amazon and had them shipped directly there. That way you don’t have to pack enough diapers for multiple kids for multiple days, which can take up a lot of space.

Pack a change of clothes for everyone (including yourself) in the diaper bag in Ziploc bags. Use the ziploc bags to store dirty diapers if you do end up having to change one on the plane. If the baby pukes on you or has a blowout while you’re holding them, you’ll probably be glad you have a fresh shirt! And dress everyone in layers.

If you are nursing a baby older than about 6 months, and it’s in your budget, I’d definitely suggest buying them their own seat. Even if you end up holding them the whole time. Little Miss is 11 months and extremely long. On our second trip we had a seat for her but for the funeral, since tickets were super expensive to buy on short notice, we didn’t buy her a ticket and it was challenging to nurse her without her head hanging out into the aisle or half her body over the armrest on the stranger next to me.

Think carefully about using the infant-in-arms. It’s nice to save money, but having the extra seat as space for a squirmy child can be a lifesaver. You know your child best. If they’re for the most part content to sit in your lap, it might be ok. If they’re constantly squirming and wanting to move, it could be a long ride.

Wear what you’re most comfortable in, especially if you’re nursing. On the first flight, for some reason I decided to wear a nursing tank and bra, which I haven’t worn in forever. It was awkward and uncomfortable. I much prefer to just wear a looser shirt and a sports bra that I can easily push up, so that’s what I did the rest of the flights and it went much more smoothly.

Save a big bribe for the end. Bonus points if it’s salty to get them to drink water on the descent. For us it was m&ms, which I saved in my purse until the last possible moment before a meltdown. Squish had a hard time once we landed with wanting to get off the plane immediately (don’t we all?) so feeding him m&ms one at a time for good behavior helped us pass the time.

Pack all the snacks. And then pack some more. My kids are both happiest when they’re fed, so I was ready to provide a steady stream of cheerios, crackers, apples, etc to keep them pleasant and moderately well-behaved. Plus, you never know when you’ll get delayed, stuck on the runaway, etc. Better to be safe than sorry!

Hope they’ll sleep, but don’t count on it. You can do your best to plan around sleep and nap schedules and yes it’s fabulous if they do end up sleeping, but the reality is, they might not. So be as prepared as you can for them to be awake the whole time. Even though we flew close to naptime for all 4 flights, the baby only slept 15 minutes on one flight and the toddler didn’t sleep at all.

Prepare for a meltdown. It will likely happen no matter what. For us it was while waiting for our luggage after we landed at home from our longer trip. Squish went 4 days without a nap and it was oh-so-obvious. We used the divide and conquer method. Hubby waited for our luggage while I took the kids and we rode the moving sidewalk down and back 100 times to keep Squish occupied.

On that note, do your best to keep your kids from screaming on the plane, but cut yourself a little slack if they do. Little Miss screamed for a little while during the descent of one flight. Her ears were hurting, she didn’t want to nurse, she didn’t want to eat…I did my best to keep her quiet but mostly kept repeating to myself the reminder that you likely won’t see most of the people on your flight ever again. So maybe they’ll go home and complain about you to their friends, but you’ll probably never hear about it

Remember that you can gate check your car seats and strollers. On the same note, think about the size of both airports. Columbus is a fairly small airport so not having a stroller for Squish wasn’t a huge deal. However,  Minneapolis is a bit larger and it probably would have been nice to have a stroller to get to our gate coming home instead of carrying a 40+ pound 2-year-old.

If you’re unable to pick seats together when buying your tickets, email the airline. I did this before our first flight and they were able to move us so that hubby and Squish had two seats and then Little Miss and I had the aisle and middle across from them instead of being a couple rows apart.

And finally, pick your battles. Especially with the toddlers! And tell your hosts to have a beer ready and waiting for you

As far as what to pack for plane ride entertainment? Honestly, we probably could have gotten away with just an ipad and snacks on our trips. Squish alternated between movies and games, and I mostly entertained Little Miss with items from my purse and the seat pockets. But, for kids who are not quite as fixated on the ipad, here’s what we brought. The links below are affiliate links, which means if you purchase something using them, I get a small percentage, without any additional cost to you!

Melissa and Doug Water Wow! pens/pads

Reusable sticker books (I just tore a page or two out with some stickers so I could fold them and they would take up less space then the whole book. Also consider window clings/stickers they could play with on the windows!)

Coloring books + crayons

ipad + headphones with movies and games downloaded

Painters tape (they can stick it anywhere and it comes off easily!)

Squigz (suction cup toys that can stick to tray tables, arm rests, etc

Books

binkies/blankies

A few new toys they haven’t seen before!

Snacks: Annie’s bunny grahams, Annie’s cheddar bunnies, cereal (Cheerios & Love Grown), apples and m&m’s for the kids, trail mix, jerky and KIND bars for the adults.

Empty water bottles

I tried to limit things like crayons/markers/toys with wheels (basically anything that could easily roll away when dropped) to just a few since the kids were so young and drop them frequently, but those would be good options as they get a little bit older.

Flying with young kids? Here are some tips for making your travel day less stressful.Click To Tweet

That’s all I’ve got. Have you traveled with young kids recently? Leave your tips in the comments!!

Enjoy! –Lindsay–

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First found here: Tips For Flying With Young Kids