#resident: kresh

[portlandalites]

<<One of a couple of Hork-Bajir I've got cookin in the PNW-Colony Canon!

I finally settled into a facial shape/style for HB that I enjoy- they're often described as 'snake-like', though their official art doesn't look that snake-y to me. I went with a viper head shape with a short beak and dermal teeth! I've got a much more complicated linework I used to hash it out, but it would be hell to color... so I have not done that. >>

Colony + Character Lore under cut!

Kresh and a handful of other Hork-Bajir are the only ones hardy enough to handle the harsher winters of the PNW. The Colony itself rests in a large half-park/half-complex nestled in the mountains. Locomotion from place to place is easy enough for Andalites thanks to human terraforming, and in exchange for access to fancy new xeno-crossbred plants, Kresh and company keep it that way.

He's younger for a Hork-Bajir, especially to have been a former Controller born into slavery. He saw only two, perhaps three battles, but tries not to remember much (Easy enough for some Hork-Bajir)- though the bullet has since been removed, he was shot with a 9mm pistol close to the spine, causing much nerve pain despite his species' hardy nature.

When the head researcher of the more reclusive PNW Colony, Carolii, reached out with an offer of 'experimental new body customization technology in exchange for immediate nerve reconstruction', Kresh was incredibly interested (after having the concept simplified to him by Randiri and Jamilin). He's the first fully-successful non-Andalite hide modification. He chose a California Red-sided Garter snake as his favorite pick for potential coloration, and though not the same make-up as the scales of Earth snakes, the conversion has gone quite well!

[warrior-of-tol-angata]

Introduction!

It has recently come to my attention that I should make a more formal introduction! This is that!

Name: Shregresha Species: Human Gender and Pronouns: Cis woman, she/her/hers Color Identity: R/G Height: 6'9" Weight: approx 330 lbs Age: 41

Plane(s) of Residence: Alara (Jund), Ixalan Plane of Origin: Jund Affiliations: Clan-member of Tol Angata Titles/Ranks/Positions: The Scalebreaker, warband leader, senior warrior Allied Organizations: The Legion of Dusk?, The Doukuchi Reckoners Companions/Associates: Turrak (my warband's shaman), Bromley (a friend), Koda Hayashi (head of the Doukuchi and an incredible warrior), Arturo Vazante (a paladin I respect), and Freddie (a young squire in training who shows great potential)

Likes: Fighting, hunting, the outdoors, exploration, partying, smashing, and a hearty meal. Dislikes: Overly complicated systems, when people don't say what they mean, mind control, possession, necromancy, dragons (some of them), and demons

Bio: Born on Jund before the Conflux, I spent the first thirty or so years of my life living fairly typically for a warrior on Jund. I completed the rite to become a warrior, retrieving a volcanic crystal at age 10 as is standard for my people. By year 20 of my life, I was a somewhat accomplished warrior, a second in a warband, and by 25, I gave birth to my son and only child. He may be a warrior by the clan's standard, but I respect his privacy and autonomy enough to let him make his own way in the multiverse, without his mother telling the planes about him while she's not able to ask for his permission. I am very proud of him though. Incredibly proud. One day his deeds will be known across the planes! I earned my title of Scalebreaker at 26, for holding the jaws of a dragon shut, but as I've learned about the rest of the multiverse, I've come to find that many humans don't really make a name for themselves until later than that, so he's got plenty of time. When the Conflux happened, I fought alongside Kresh the Bloodbraided against the traitor-dragon Nicol Bolas and his army of Grixian horrors. Again we fought in the Invasion, and I have recently departed to Ixalan alongside my warband, originally to help fight some vampires called the Stormkirks on Innistrad, but since then, we have fought against the forces of Aclazotz. We will see him dead. On Jund, we know that so-called 'gods' can be slain.

[Cards:]

[shadows-of-almsivi]

8, 9, 14, 22, 32~

((8. Did they have pets as a child? Do they have pets as an adult? Do they like animals?

Moraelyn adores animals. As a child, Moraelyn was given a nix-hound named Aket, whom he absolutely adored. Aket followed him everywhere (or at least tried to, like this time here), carried notes and small items for him in a little pack-satchel, and could do a couple simple tricks, like hooting a basic rote melody (see here also). Aket slept beside Moraelyn’s bed, until it caught a fever from a cliffracer attack and had to be put down. That stayed with Moraelyn for quite a long time, as you’d imagine.

As an adult, he’s had several pets, most often a succession of dogs while in Cyrodiil. He’s very fond of dogs, being somewhat like nix-hounds in some ways as they are, and takes great pleasure in training them well. He’s always quite saddened by the short lifespan of dogs in comparison to nix-hounds, though, and it always comes as a tragic surprise for him when they grow old so quickly.

He also tends to think of his horses as pets, which sometimes they are; he’s been known to keep horses that he could not possibly hope to ride, simply for the companionship. For a while, when he was holed up in a shack in Skingrad, he made something of a hobby of rescuing and rehabilitating lost and feral horses he found in the woods (though I wouldn't call those horses necessarily retrained or broken in at all; that was never really his goal).

Lately, in Falkreath, he's spent rather a lot of time trying to gain the trust of the resident hawk that nests near his house. He has a curious relationship with his beehives, whose tenants oddly refuse to sting him (he doesn't think it strange, but he also has no frame of context and may think that all bees are as gentle to everyone.)

9. Do animals like them? Do they get on well with animals?

Answered here!

14. Do they have any specific memories of food/a restaurant/meal?

Several; many of his fondest memories of childhood centre around family and food, and flavor remains the sense most often tied to pleasant recollection. This goes partway to explaining his somewhat-disproportionate vitriol over terrible cooking in taverns and dining establishments. It feels almost like a personal affront to have a well-remembered dish served badly, as if it was tainting the very memory the food was previously associated with.

One memory in particular, selected at random: once when he was very small, probably three or four, his father brought him along to the outpost offices for the Order of the Inquisition while he took care of some urgent business with his superiors. Moraelyn was left with a colleague, an Ordinator of lower rank with flaming red hair; Moraelyn never saw her without her mask, but would remember her by her hair for many years, recalling with it the taste of the soursalt plums she’d given him, dusted in marshmerrow and yam sugar. Even when he did not consciously recollect the connection, the image of his father’s mask (so alike to any other of the Order of the Inquisiton) would bring with it the taste of sweet-sour candied plums well into adulthood.

22. What are their favourite insults to use? What do they insult people for? Or do they prefer to bitch behind someone’s back?

It’s important to make sure that your insults are clear enough to cross multiple cultural and linguistic barriers, yet subtle enough to confuse the offended party just long enough to get away if you need to. To this end, Moraelyn’s favorite insults are elaborate and opaque iterations on the theme of “dogfucker”. Works just as well from High Rock to Black Marsh.

If nothing immediately presents itself as a good enough vehicle for his outrage (a rare occurrence), he will search for some detail he can make use of: their manners, possibly, or some glance he does not like, or their intelligence, or bad cooking, or an outstanding debt, or their background or worship in some way or another (he is a Dunmer, still, of an age especially prone to prejudices, and having been made to be on the wrong side of the races of men too often besides). He will aim unswervingly for the jugular. He also tends to use insults as in-joke pet names and expressions of affection with those he cares for, so that can make things confusing.

Moraelyn will bitch behind someone’s back, Moraelyn will bitch directly in front of someone, Moraelyn will bitch right to their busted face, Moraelyn will bitch to himself alone in a field, Moraelyn will bitch to trees, there is no opportunity to bitch that Moraelyn will not take. How he will bitch, specifically, and about what, is always a fun treat to witness.

32. What do they dress like? What sorta shops do they buy clothes from? Do they wear the fashion that they like? What do they wear to sleep? Do they wear makeup? What’s their hair like?

Fuck, that’s so many bits… Okay, let’s see here:

Currently, Moraelyn dresses like a travelling tailor fell through a hedgewitch’s wardrobe on the way to a funeral. He mostly wears traditional Dunmeri mourning robes (black silken robes richly embroidered in golden designs, a kind of wearable ongoing art project to channel grief, constructed of spidercloth in place of the traditional moth-silk due to availability), layered with anything else he can wear to ward away the cold. He recently got himself some warm fur and woolen items, so that helps. Poor thing feels the cold so badly, especially when he’s underweight.

Most often, he makes all his own clothes, or at least heavily tailors clothing that he finds, receives in barter, or acquires from certain parties who won’t be needing them anymore. The closest thing to an answer shop-wise would be a furriers deep in the Grey Quarter, or a couple of the more familiar Khajiiti trading caravans who usually have something nice for him. He despises Nord fashions mostly, keeping mainly to items of elven make if possible, and keeping warm for a bargain price is worth any amount of aftermarket tailoring and mending.

Moraelyn makes do with what’s available, more concerned lately with survival than appearance (though only barely). The climate keeps him from his ideal wardrobe: flowing belt-lashed tunics and light kresh-linen skirts in summer, layered dress robes and long, nehru-collared jackets in the cooler months, adorned in a series of shawls and pauldron-draping scarves as he used to back in his 30s. He holds out hope that perhaps the summers in Skyrim’s southern holds will be moderately acceptable, but really, he knows he’ll likely need to move very far south indeed before he can be comfortable in those sorts of things.

Nothing. He likes feeling soft sheets or warm furs on his skin, he’s very tactile. Unless, of course, he’s sleeping in an inn he does not trust, or out in the wild, or simply too exhausted, in which case he just sleeps in whatever clothes he fell into bed wearing.

Moraelyn is a lifelong adherent to makeup regimens, and will basically never be seen without at least a little kohl on him. Times are hard, and have been for some time, so frequently kohl is as far as it goes, though he’s found ways to make do with wood-ash and other home remedies for other cosmetic needs, and every now and then he happens upon a little eyeshadow that works for him. A good lip tint is still eluding him, though; he’s a difficult person to find colours for.

Moraelyn’s hair has a rather particular texture to it, glossy and relatively fine yet somehow simultaneously thick, a little like heavily conditioned horsemane. It’s very soft and straight, just like his father’s, and he loves it dearly. He’s kept it in the exact style his father cut it into upon his induction into the novitiate ranks as an Ordinator, for some 200-odd years; it tends to make him stand out more often than he’d like, being such a markedly outdated style even to the Dunmer, but he’d never dream of changing it. It curls and waves when it’s damp or humid; he looks very, very much like his mother when it does so. It’s very slightly starting to grey, here and there; it’s hardly noticeable, but he sees it, and it utterly kills him. He dyes it back to an even blue-black as often as he’s able to find the right ingredients, or at the very least putting a little spare ink through his hair to cover the grey hairs a while.))

[tortuga-aak]

Here are the biggest winners and losers of the Senate tax bill

Scott Barbour / Stringer / Getty Images

Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site.

The Senate passed its version of a wide-ranging tax bill (PDF) early Saturday, with Republicans characterizing it as a win for middle-income taxpayers and for businesses that will help grow the American economy.

But the final bill, which was amended up until the vote at 2 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, shows some clear winners and losers. It also differs from the House version passed in mid-November. The two plans would need to be reconciled and approved by each chamber.

Several measures in the Senate plan could help middle-income taxpayers, at least for the first few years after the bill's enactment. It eliminates the $4,050-per-person personal exemption, and it doubles the standard deduction—meaning more people and families could end up with no federal tax bill, and others could see larger refunds.

Supporters say that the significant drop in corporate taxes from a top 35 percent to a flat 20 percent—along with other changes to business taxation—would spur significant improvements in the economy and job market overall. That's in spite of estimates that the bill would add more than $1 trillion to the deficit after 10 years.

Critics say the plan would benefit corporations and the wealthy at the expense of the poor and lower earners. They say the deficit caused by the bill would eventually require painful cuts in public services, as well as in entitlements such as Medicare.

Here's a breakdown of who would be most likely to win and lose if the changes become law:

Likely winners

• Those who take the standard deduction. Most individuals and families taking the standard deduction would see a tax break under the plan, according to multiple analyses. For those who itemize, it's less certain that their tax burden would go down.

The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center puts the average tax benefit for households making $50,000 to $75,000 at $850. (The U.S. median household income is around $59,000.)

"If you're taking the standard deduction now, you'll most likely get a tax break," says Michael Kresh, a certified financial planner based in Islandia, N.Y. "But if you itemize, there's a 50-50 chance you'll pay more."

Kresh calculated that one of his clients, making $200,000 but with $30,000 in property taxes and $12,500 in state income tax, could pay 24 percent more federal tax. "Most New Yorkers making $200K or less would probably not consider themselves wealthy," he says. "Yet here we are with rising taxes."

• Families with dependents. In addition to benefiting from a higher standard deduction, families whose income qualifies them for a child tax credit would get more per child: $2,000, vs. $1,000 under the current law and $1,600 in the House bill.

• Teachers of grades K-12. Educators could double their deduction of out-of-pocket school expenses, to $500. By contrast, the House bill cuts the deduction entirely.

• People with expensive medical bills. For 2017 and 2018, taxpayers could deduct the amount of medical expenses that exceeds 7.5 percent of their adjusted gross income. After that, they could deduct in excess of 10 percent, as the law is today. The House bill does not allow for the deduction of medical expenses at all.

• Wealthy, self-employed people. People who have structured their businesses as sole proprietorships, partnerships, and other special entities—also known as pass-through businesses—could shelter 23 percent of their income from taxation. A study by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found that the change would mainly help people who make significant income through hedge funds, private equity firms, real estate development, and similar investments, and not small businesspeople.

• Wealthy taxpayers in general, and their heirs. With the change in tax brackets, married people filing jointly would pay a tax rate of no more than 35.8 percent on more than $1 million in income, compared with the current top tax rate of 39.6 percent. A change in the estate tax would allow their heirs to shelter twice as much inherited wealth or gifts as before: nearly $11 million for an individual and nearly $22 million for a couple.

Likely losers

• Those without private health insurance. The Senate's proposed elimination of the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate could nudge an estimated 13 million Americans out of state healthcare marketplaces established by the ACA, according to an estimate by nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. They could voluntarily end up with no health insurance. Many analysts have suggested that the exit of those individuals also would drive up premium prices for those who remain in state healthcare marketplaces by an average 10 percent a year.

• Folks living in high-tax areas. The Senate version, like in the House version, kills the deduction of state and local taxes, except for $10,000 in property taxes. Residents of locations with very high property taxes��California, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York, in particular—would lose a portion of the valuable write-off.

• All of us, by 2026. Unlike the permanent drop in the corporate tax rate, tax breaks for individuals would mostly expire in 2026. An analysis of an earlier Senate bill draft by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation found that by 2019, taxpayers making $30,000 or less would pay more, as a group, than they do now. By 2025, the last year in which the Senate measures would be in place, only those making $1 million or more would still be paying less in taxes. The following year, all taxpayers would pay more than we would pay if the current tax structure stayed the same.

A contributor to that development is a new, permanent inflation factor that would move taxpayers up to a higher tax bracket more quickly than under current law.

Read the original article on Consumer Reports. Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright © 2017, Consumer Reports, Inc.

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