#the problem is white people generally are so unused to not being centered

[pumpkinrootbeer]

Hardware Store is a Weird Al song. During the bridge, he lists off a bunch of different tools and appliances very quickly, which I suppose could be considered "rap" if you've never listened to an actual rap song.

ANOTHER?? ANOTHER WEIRD AL SONG? IN THE POST ABOUT HOW WHITE PEOPLE CANT BE NORMAL ABOUT RAP MUSIC ?

[eternalstrigoii]

Salt of the Sea - I

Part of the U.W. ‘verse Borra (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil) x Desert Warrior Dark Fey Reader; Maleficent x Diaval; Shrike x General Percival; Philip x Aurora; King John adopted everyone

                       A great battle warred in the courtyards of Ulstead.

Iron armor fended off fey wing, though gouged deeply from talon-claws. Those fighting were not unarmed this time – you wore a chest plate made of bronze over one of the spider-silk shirts Queen Aurora had woven for you. It was equally resistant to penetration, and for that, you were grateful.

Because Percival was a terrible shot.

King John’s – or, rather, Queen Aurora and Prince Philip’s – royal guard trained with your people on as frequent of an occasion as time allowed. They were nothing like you; they relied too heavily on their weapons and their armor. They had yet to learn to move like limbs of the same beast.

You and Borra did not have that problem.

You had fought for so long with him at your back that he knew when to hold out his hand so you could hook your arm through his and splay your massive wings. You threw your weight over his back, slamming your bare feet into the iron shields of the men that sought to overtake you. He righted immediately, blocking the sweep of Percival’s shield.

Aurora watched intently from one of the palace’s grand balconies with a child in either arm.

Your new, bronze gauntlets deflected blows much better than the leather ones. You hadn’t noticed the deep gash someone’s sword had cut when you’d crossed them before you the last time you play-fought. You’d felt the bite of iron on your skin and smiled with far too many teeth, but, still, John insisted upon the upgrade. (It delighted you far too much to watch the blood drain from their faces.)

One sword deflected from them, then another; your fist connected with someone’s face, and the whole three guardsmen training with you took a collective step backward. You pursued them anyway, kicking the dazed center one’s shield.

You heard the sizzle of iron in contact with Borra’s skin, and you knew he’d disarmed Percival again. He held the tip of Percival’s blade under his chin with a wild, wicked smile before tossing it down in the loose stone just as Philip had nearly a year before.

“You need to trust them,” he said, much more patiently than you’d thought he would. “If you don’t trust your men, you’ll die in battle.”

“He doesn’t have that problem with his faerie wife,” the man whose nose you’d broken said, and you smelled the flush that immediately took hold of Percival’s skin.

“Then Shrike will fight with you next time.” He turned, his eyes skimming over you before lifting to the others, “Next time, there will be more of us and more of you. You’ll learn to fight together.”

“Ain’t she about ready to pop?” one of the swordsmen asked.

You were a warrior, trained nearly from birth. The swell of your belly didn’t slow you down, not even when the child inside started to squirm and writhe – just as he did then, like he knew he’d been acknowledged.

“Not until harvest,” you replied, with no lacking measure of irritation.

Aurora, particularly, worried for you, though John and Philip had never seen a warrior of your caliber continue to fight. Your child was strong, this time; there was no poison in the water that fell in the moors’ peaks where you’d relocated. To be closer to Maleficent, you’d joked.

Borra rested his hand on your belly at one of your child’s favorite kicking spots, and their persistent movement made you sigh with theatrical exasperation. You dropped your head against his shoulder. “They’re trying to fight their way out.”

“Borra’s child already has an appetite for war,’ Percival joked.

He grinned so largely that the sun glinted off his sharp teeth, and the swell of pleasure in your heart became a tidal wave. “They can’t wait to meet you,” he murmured in your ear, then pressed a kiss to the apple of your cheekbone.

“They’re hungry,” you replied, deadpan-teasing. “So am I.”

“Come dine with us!” Aurora called from the balcony. You were starting to suspect some of Maleficent’s magic was rubbing off on her, the way she listened in.

You sighed fondly, your eyes still locked with Borra’s.

He grinned and tilted back his head. The sun glinted off the gold freckles in his skin and summoned your fingers to trace their path from his temple to his jaw. “Is that an order, daughter of Maleficent?”

“It’s a please,” she replied.

“Goat and turnips?” Percival asked, drawing the sharpness of your gaze.

He grinned. He’d eaten with you enough to know what sort of habits you’d fallen into. But, yes – goat, turnips and agave were your child’s favorite things (although with the variety of food in the palace, you truly could’ve fixated upon anything). It was in your best interest, and the best interest of your people, to decline lest you find a new and even less appealing vegetable to enjoy.

Shrike already had words for you about the turnips.

“Come.” He grinned at the both of you. “There’s a region in the East that’s already grown large pumpkins. Have you ever had one before?”

You’d found that, sometimes, they called things you were familiar with something different – like roast duck and herbed fish. You shrugged, and pretended not to notice Aurora’s retreat into the palace to join you.

“Must it be inside?” you asked.

“Nah, we’ll move the party out onto the veranda.”

You gave him another frustrated look. He knew you had no idea what in stars he was saying, and he did this only to you. He was kind to Shrike and too afraid of Borra (not that Borra didn’t laugh at your response from time to time).

“The balcony,” he clarified. “The one next to the dining hall.”

You growled at him just because you could, and it did nothing to faze him.

His men followed, one limping, one still holding his bloody nose.

“They aren’t wrong.” Borra kissed your jaw, his hands remaining in the cradle he’d made under your belly. “We’ve fought hard for them. You deserve peace as much as the rest of us.”

“I won’t be shelved because I’m carrying our child. I’m not Aurora.” Not fragile and delicate like she was. Your skin was like stone, and you wore stronger armor now – armor with bands that adjusted so even your growing child was safe.

“I haven’t asked you to be.” He kissed you again. “Just be careful. Hm? I love you.” Yet another kiss to your lips made them quirk with a smile. You kissed him in return. “You’re always at my side, Suren. That will never change.”

“If I don’t fight with you, Aurora will start making flower crowns and expecting me to wear them,” you said with exceptional gravity, as though it was the worst possible punishment you could think of. “She’ll have her pixies tailor gowns for me.”

He gave you a playful little growl. “Spider-silk wedding dress. Crown of roses in your hair.”

You swatted his armored shoulder. “You’re not supposed to like it!”

He had no reason to gather you into his arms, but he did, and you had half a mind to put on an act and pretend to be his damsel princess. You linked your fingers behind his neck and fluttered your wings with false helplessness, and fresh, warm laughter bubbled from him. “Just promise me you’ll be careful.”

“I am careful.”

He quirked a brow.

“I promise.”

There was no changing the way he felt. You knew what manner of man you loved well before he lobbied for Maleficent – before you heard the fury in his voice when he told the others of the council that she’d been shot, that humans would find her, that if Conall hadn’t found her, she would be dead.

You hadn’t trusted her then. Almost none of you had. But Borra was right, and he always was – she was what would save you. She had saved you all. And the child she raised brought justice with your peace.

You let him carry you to the veranda (a word you thought with an internal sneer), the great, pale balcony choked with white rose-vines leftover from the young queen’s wedding. Some of the flower sprites borne from it had to have contained the spirits of your people, though that hardly mattered when it came to the endurance of your dying race.

“Truthfully,” he pressed, sitting on the ledge with his massive wings draped over the many blooms. “How do you feel?”

Truthfully? You were growing more and more certain that your child would not wait until harvest. You’d been awoken overnight by their shifting, as though they were already trying to stretch their under-developed wings. How stifling your body must’ve been to them; you doubted they’d know the womb of the earth from which you’d come.

“I feel,” you righted yourself somewhat to gently bunt horns with him, “like you have no reason to worry. I know you will anyway, but I promise – they’re strong. They’re healthy, and they love you as much as I do.”

“And you?” the softness in his gaze when he brushed his fingers over your neck was unfair, he knew what his eyes did to you.

“I’m heavy, Borra. I’m always hungry, and I’m unused to being tired. As far as suffering goes, I’m not far gone.”

“I’m glad.” Aurora joined you on the balcony, then, with her little boys on either of her sides. The young princes were rapidly approaching their first birthdays, and you knew it was only a matter of time before your people started trying to convince her to celebrate on the moors with them and her mother.

She spent much too much time among humans these days.

“I have something to ask of you, if it wouldn’t be too much.” She’d prefaced many things in the last year that way, by handing you your favorite baby (the one you’d first held and given your blessing, though you loved his brother much the same) and preparing an unnecessary speech.

Borra claimed the other child without being asked, as though you and two more weren’t draped across his lap.

“I’d like you to be there, at the christening.” She twirled and twisted her fingers as though toying with invisible rings. You thought she had the nerve to look up at you, but, this time it wasn’t the case. “Maleficent and Diaval won’t be the only magical beings there, but they would be the only…” Dark fey. Dark fey, as though she couldn’t bring herself to say the words. “Not-little ones. People will be afraid.”

“And you think we’ll make them any less?” you responded.

She glanced at you, and you nearly crawled out of your skin. The gentle innocence in her eyes was a lie; her eyes flickered down to the swell of your belly before rising back to your face, and she had the nerve to bite at the skin of her lower lip as though she had shame in giving herself away.

“You’re their godparents. And defender of the moors. You lead your people—”

“On a council,” you replied, damn near asking her out loud why Shrike and Percival weren’t their token interspecies romance.

“And I love you. You’re my family. All of you are. I’m not asking the others not to come, but out of everyone who will, I’d like you both to be there.”

But especially you, with the child inside of you disarming the terrified nobility. A symbol of peace and prosperity, the first of your kind born outside the cradle of isolation in centuries.

You owed her, you supposed. You didn’t, but every time she asked for something, that little part of you cropped back up. She’d done the right thing, and you were grateful, and though you should be insulted, you weren’t, because you were fond of her and her children and her silly young husband and her father-in-law, and, especially, her mother.

You looked to Borra. Let it be his call.

The baby in his arms could stand, now, which surprised you considering how rarely he was put down. He’d grabbed hold of one of Borra’s horns and stood on two feet in the safety of your mate’s curled wing. “When is it?”

“Tomorrow, hopefully. It’s….” Aurora’s hesitation melted away with a laugh. “It needed to be perfect.” Because it wouldn’t be like hers. King John of Ulstead was no King Stefan, whose exploits you’d been told in detail long after Diaval had begun to trust you, and though you had still hardly known Maleficent then, you’d taken wing to join her in her perch high in the peaks and embraced her as though she was your sister. You had known you hadn’t needed to, but you had, and something like a distant friendship formed afterward. You had grown, in some way, at least mildly fond of one another, primarily connected by your men as you were.

He met your eyes, and you gave a falsely-irritated sigh. “Couldn’t convince them to bring it to the moors?”

“No,” she said, and the obvious frustration in her voice satisfied your suspicion. The people of Ulstead still did not want you there, and for that reason alone, you quirked your head in approval.

“We’ll be there,” Borra replied.

“Good, I’m glad!” John exclaimed, leading the procession of food onto the balcony’s newly-set table. There were wooden plates and cutlery, though he must’ve known you wouldn’t use hardly any of it. “How is the armor we’ve designed working?”

You took your cue to gather the children and separate from your place on his lap, though you’d committed to not being ornamental. Aurora took hers back one at a time, lingering beside you as Borra closed the space between them.

“I’m not a fan of the plating.” They were all business again, strategy fresh in their minds. “We have to fly with it on. The way it’s designed now is too heavy. There’s too much stress on the joints.”

“You have to have something,” John pressed. About that, he wasn’t wrong.

“Yes, but they’re muscular. The bones are hollow. We need them to move a certain way, and if you reinforce plating with too much banding -- if you plate over whole sections of the wing at all—”

Philip joined you and his wife, pressing a kiss to Aurora’s temple. He was listening, just as you were, though his attention made up for the lapse in yours when one of the many servants got to work assembling a platter of a thick orange squash.

“Pumpkin,” you said to yourself, tasting the word on your tongue.

You never would’ve called it that, but humans were strange creatures.

                You awoke again that night with a jolt, startling at the force of your fledgling’s thrashing.

Borra’s arm tightened around you gently. He’d taken to holding you in the cradle of his wing, folded around your body like a blanket as though you’d ever want for warmth at his side. You shifted your hips, sighing in frustration when the movement didn’t cease.

You weren’t at all surprised to find him awake beside you. He always was quick to rouse, even without the potential for attack on the horizon.

“He’s restless,” you whispered.

Still, he watched you with an excess of caution. When you stood to stretch, he was slow to fully withdraw his wing from around your body. You fanned yours, beat them in the air, rolled your neck, and wandered the nest with equal restlessness.

Maybe your child did yearn for freedom as you had.

“Calm down,” you whispered to them, your hands running over the curve of your belly time and time again. “Let me rest. You’ll be here in no time, and then you can keep me up all night.”

All your movement worried him. It worried you, too, though you said nothing of it. As sacred and necessary every child was to rebuilding your people, the elders said the process would be uncomfortable. It required patience and resolve, commitment to your undertaking. There was little difference between pregnancy and the preparation for war.

But they’d said nothing about the little monster never sitting still. Maybe that was your fault. Maybe you’d given them an agave flower too many.

“Suren.” His voice was low as he shifted, drawing his great wings in.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine. You’ve been like this almost every night.”

You felt like there was a weight between your hips. You’d felt it every night for nearly the last week – your child made you painfully aware of its presence. You’d thought, the first handful of times, their arrival might come with little warning.

He rose, intending to join you – to stop you from pacing, perhaps, though you thought you might completely lose your mind if you did. Though, almost as soon as he rose, you saw something in the distance.

Not a meteor, for it didn’t travel. Not a bonfire, for it wasn’t fixed. A strange glow bobbed along the other side of the moors – high above the ruined castle and the village still preserved. The people who still lived within it.

And you were torn back to Ulstead, to the explosion of red bombs. Men you’d known your whole life crumbling around you, reduced to nothing. Vaporized. Most of them didn’t have the time to scream.

It wasn’t the first time either of you were stolen by those vivid dreams, memories replayed in the darkness of your closed eyes. Iron nets. The fire of crossbows. Bolts, bullets, and arrows. The sting of pain at a shield’s contact, the bite of a sword into your leather, the hiss as a blade made contact with your skin. Sometimes you didn’t even have to be asleep.

But Borra interrupted them, with your face in his hands. He drew you back as though breaking a spell. His flared wings met yours, and his voice was gentle. “It’s alright. It’s over. It’s alright now.”

You hated that he understood. You hated that he shared it all with you, though some part of you was also grateful. The burns iron left on his skin, the mark on his arm where Percival pierced. It was all so much, and you had the nerve to bring a child into this world – a world where even you still felt hatred for what you most feared.

“It’s alright.” His forehead rested against yours, your horns practically one. “Come back to bed.”

“There was a fire,” you whispered, “over the wall of thorns.”

He drew you close to him. You almost thought it wouldn’t be there when his wings folded back, but, no – there it was, lingering above the wall of thorns.

A torch.

You felt him stiffen. You knew what he wanted to do, and yet he looked to you for your approval first.

“Go,” you whispered. “But take her with you.”

He kissed you, sudden and firm. You pretended not to feel its gravity as he ran, as he launched himself from your nest on his powerful wings.

You pretended you didn’t feel as though you’d been shelved, though that was exactly how you did.

         You scrubbed the tired from your eyes and stared into the breakfast fire.

The thick, juicy flesh of some large animal made your stomach growl. It was nearly done. Percival brought it with his arrival at dawn, and all the moors called out to him in welcome.

They woke you, curled in your mate’s wing. He had gone with Maleficent in the night, and they claimed to have found nothing (though you were still waiting to ambush Diaval to make sure).

“How do you feel?” Shrike slung her legs over one of the large, fallen logs that had begun to serve as perch for your people when the earth was too damp to be comfortable.

“Almost too heavy to fly,” you responded. “They keep me up at night.”

“It’ll come soon enough.” She ripped a generous portion of meat from the bone and offered it to you.

“I hate being taken care of.”

“Good, I’m the last person you want taking care of you.”

You conceded and took the meat from her, and she responded by pressing a hand to your belly. “Percy tells me you’ve got quite an appetite for war.”

The kicking started. You growled quietly, though you definitely preferred it when they moved to when they were silent. They. He. Whatever it was. Whatever it turned out to be, it was yours, and you loved it, no matter how tired and frustrated it left you.

“We’ll celebrate you next, little thing.” She drummed her talons lightly on the spot in response. “Once we’re done with Aurora.”

You couldn’t hide the face you pulled. Lovely, more celebrations.

“You’re bearing the first child born outside the nest in centuries. If you didn’t want fanfare, you should’ve taken them home.”

Percival rescued you from telling her that you believed that option to be fast-fading, though you weren’t particularly pleased with how. “King John sends his regards.” He set down a thick parcel of nesting cloth – blankets, they called them, and several thick, warm furs.

As difficult as you were about their fussing, you didn’t extend the same to the king. John was a good man, and surprisingly fond of you all despite what you’d done to his kingdom, his people, and his wife. He was the first human you’d allowed to touch your belly (besides Aurora, as though she could be stopped), and the first of his many gifts had been a set of mutilated (“altered”) shirts that fit comfortably over your growing belly when your leather chest-plate grew too tight. They laced behind the neck and left plenty of room for your wings. You wore them often, especially in Ulstead.

You still remembered his delight when your fledgling learned to squirm. It was as though he’d never felt anything like it. He loved children, his grandsons and the young fey especially. You’d thought of the heartless shrew he’d married, and you imagined that she regarded Philip as more of an obligation than a child, and the thought hadn’t surprised you at all.

You could’ve wept for him.

“What in skies are you doing?” Ini asked, drawing your attention from the parcel of furs.

General Percival retreated back toward the fire with a small, glass container of crystals that he sprinkled over the flesh of a raw beet. “Sugared beets. They’re delicious.”

“He eats like moor-folk!” she exclaimed with open delight.

“He is moor-folk,” you reminded, still holding tightly to your gift, “He’s made an alliance.”

Still, she laughed as he took another bite, and you paused to stare at him with new gravity. “You didn’t forget what I’ve asked of you, did you?”

He practically startled, leaving the beet in his mouth to go into his satchel. “Not at all.”

Your friends watched curiously as he passed you a smaller parcel wrapped in ornamental paper, the likes of which you were exceedingly eager to open. It was the second-best part of prolonged peace, your new fascination.

“What is that?” Shrike asked, rather distastefully.

“Candy,” Percival replied, trying to give you a measure of dignity. As though its proximity to the fire hadn’t warmed it enough to be soft and linger on your tongue and your fingers.

You motioned Ini to you, the excitement in the gesture unabashed, and she came to your side. You broke off a generous piece and whispered into her ear, “John calls it Chocolate.”

She nodded, mouthing the word to herself in retreat.

“It’s candy,” Percy repeated, “made of milk, sugar, and crushed beans.”

Shrike raised her brows at you. You licked your fingers and wiped the corners of your mouth. “Beans. Sugared beans.”

You extended some to her as well, and the face she made at you when you licked the smear from your fingers was worth every royal string pulled to acquire more.

“It’s good,” Percy offered, and it was his praise alone that got her to taste some.

“You little beast!” she exclaimed after a moment. “We grew these in the trees!”

“Not like this,” Ini rose to your defense.

Had it not been for the warmth of his gaze upon you (or the fact that Percy looked up and some of the joy still drained from his face), Borra might’ve been able to join you without warning.

“No wonder it keeps you up all night,” the disapproval was plain in Shrike’s voice. “It’s good for energy.”

Borra kneaded your shoulders lightly, and you tipped your head back to feed him a piece. His mouth quirked, and the glint of challenge in his eyes when he snatched the ornamental paper from you gave you no motivation to resist.

Not yet, anyway. Not in front of them.

“What’s over there?” he spoke to Percy, removing chocolate from the equation. He gestured out beyond the peaks, toward the wall of thorns.

He frowned, and you thought he was about to be deliberately literal. “Perceforest. King Stefan’s kingdom. Aurora liberated it.”

“Are they an ally?”

He shrugged. “There hasn’t been much communication with Ulstead since Stefan’s death. Aurora handled most everything – or, so we thought.”

Your wings sagged with the anticipation of relief.

“Ingrith presumed Maleficent had control over the region. To what degree, or whether or not she did, we never found out.”

And then they didn’t.

“Then there’s a chance they might still be our enemy.”

Percy shifted toward him, as did Ini and Shrike. You were glad Udo was still assembling the children to come join you; they didn’t need to hear this, even if he deserved to.

“Suren and I saw a torch along the wall of thorns last night. Someone walked along it.”

“I don’t have plans for the city,” Percy admitted, “I can see if there may still be guard towers.”

“There was no battlement on the other side. It was as though they’d climbed.”

A flutter of distrust ran through you all, for obvious reasons. And the flutter in your belly reminded you to eat regardless.

He sighed. “I don’t know what to tell you.”

Borra rested his elbows on his knees and leaned deliberately close to him. “Tell me the odds that it was nothing.”

You watched him. You, Ini, Borra and Shrike. Though he wasn’t unshakable by any standard, Percival was careful with his response. “You know I can’t.”

“I won’t go,” Ini immediately replied. “Tonight, to Ulstead. If they know we’re leaving, they can attack.”

“If they know we’re leaving, they may anticipate some of us will stay,” Shrike responded. “We have to consider how well armed they may be.”

“Would they be so bold? To show themselves before attacking?”

“They may not have planned on being seen.”

“No one is attacking,” Percival interjected. “We can go to Perceforest if need be. Talk to them. Ask questions. For all you know, you saw a child trying to catch a glimpse of the faeries.”

You said nothing, and Borra noticed.

He wasn’t the only one.

Their eyes landed upon you, and you ate a generous strip of flesh from between your talons like carrion swallowed whole. You considered the things you wanted to leave out against the ones they deserved to know.

“Every night for the last several,” you began, “I awake with a feeling. I thought, at first, they might be coming,” as much as you hated the thought that your human companions found you fragile just for carrying a child, your hand went to the baby’s kicking-spot anyway. It comforted you to feel them move. “But they haven’t. It’s like a weight inside me. It makes us both restless. It’s like they want me to leave.”

“Who?” Ini asked.

“The baby,” you admitted.

The gravity of their collective stare – sans Percival, who rarely knew what to make of your council – nearly made you flinch.

“It’s like whatever they’re doing, the child can feel. Like the child’s telling me to leave for higher ground.” Like they anticipated another slaughter and wanted to escape themselves, with or without you. A warrior’s spirit. Their father’s sense.

Borra was the first to straighten. You hadn’t wanted to tell him how right he was – how well fear gripped you for their safety and all of yours.

“They’re not going to wait until harvest,” you told him, then. You might as well, since you were revealing all of your not-secrets at once.

His eyes locked with yours.

“I know they won’t. We’ll have to over-winter in the peaks. I won’t take them that far when the winds are shifting. They’ll still be too small.”

“When?” he asked in a low, frustrated hiss. You weren’t entirely sure if he meant when did you know or when are they coming, so you gave your best guess for both.

“When he squirms. It’s like he’s fighting to be loose. He’s strong, much stronger than either of Aurora’s children.” It wasn’t as though you’d had much practice with children of your own kind before you carried one; your war had been your child, Borra the subject of your devotion. “I’ve only suspected these last few days. He gets stronger every day, more active. I’d like to believe it’s wishful thinking, but after last night, I’m not sure.”

“Or they’re doing something,” he agreed, but the ferocity in his voice reminded you of the iron bullet he’d rolled between his fingers in the council-hall. The sizzle of flesh and the sear of his voice. He would protect you with his life, but that would never be the first resort – the first resort would be retaliation.

“I’ll go to Perceforest,” Percival said suddenly, rising before Borra could. “I’ll speak with them. And if they’re doing anything that could harm any fey,” you pretended not to notice the way his eyes lingered on you, as though reminding your mate that no harm would come to your child, “I’ll stop it.”

“You’re not going alone.” Shrike stood, and he turned to her.

“And if they are planning something?” he lowered his voice. “If, by some chance, I walk in and uncover a plot, you need to be here to lead them.” He rested his hands on her arms, let them slide down to hold the gauntlets around her wrists. “Protect your people. I’ll take the guard. It’ll be an official matter of Ulstead, with John’s seal and signature.”

She looked to Borra. He, to you.

“Go,” you said. “Better him than us.”

You hoped your tone said that his punishment would be just where yours would involve teeth and talon. You were not entirely convinced that it did.

       You tilted your head back in pleasure at the feeling of cold water beading on your hot skin.

Borra knelt behind you, washing the dust from your hair. The sweat from your skin. You groomed and preened one another with increasing frequency in preparation for the child that would take both of your attention, their presence an inescapable constant.

“Are you upset?” It was the first thing you’d said since breakfast, not that Percival’s decision hadn’t left you all feeling strangely fractured. Humans operated independently; if they wanted to hold union with you all, they needed to learn to function as a unit.

He made a sound not too far from a jungle cat’s purr. “With you? No. Though no good comes from trying to spare my feelings.”

“I never want you to worry.”

He gathered your hair off your neck and pressed a kiss to his favorite biting-spot, where you were almost certain to have a lingering mark from how frequently the skin there had been pierced. “I don’t worry, I plan. You can’t tell me much that I haven’t planned for.”

Gone were the days of battle strategy held in council around the fire. The plans were all his now, your people willing to embrace peace as long as they knew there was a contingent option.

“I’m afraid,” you admitted in a whisper. “Not for them or me. For all of us. We should leave, Borra. I can’t tell you why I feel that way…” You hesitated. But he was patient, with you above any other. “I feel it. Like they’re lurking in the shadows, waiting for us to sleep. Waiting to kill them on the moors and shoot the rest of us from the sky.”

It frightened you how well you could imagine that, and you temporarily took leave of your senses toward why; humans slaughtered the moor-folk before. Ulstead ripped your people from the sky, as had countless other kingdoms. Your nerves were drawn and quartered with little sleep, and the child inside you, though dearly beloved, had the habit of literally dancing on your last measure of sanity.

“I won’t let that happen.” He pressed his horns against yours, though, for once, the gesture offered little comfort. Your fingers laced with his, and you gave his hand a desperate squeeze.

“I don’t like these odds,” you whispered. “I don’t like variables. I don’t like not knowing.”

“I know.” He held the back of your head. “Trust me. If nothing else, trust that I will never let you be taken from me.”

You wanted to protest, and he pressed horns with you a bit harder, encouraging you to sink back into the safety of his wings. “I did not fall to Ulstead’s queen, and I will not fall now. Trust me, Suren.”

You did. His certainty had always been the shore in a turbulent storm, and it was for you then, also.

“I do,” you whispered. “I always have. That doesn’t stop me from being afraid.”

He drew in a slow breath, let it warm in his lungs before it fanned your skin like the kiss of summer. “We’ve been afraid nearly every moment of our lives. That cannot stop us.”

It wouldn’t. Nothing could be stopped now; your child was strong enough that they could be torn from your dying body if need be. All your plans had been put into action, now their variables shifted. All the parts in play were slowly becoming revealed.

“Do you want to go back to the nest?” he asked, with a deliberate softness that eased your nerves.

“No.” You liked it here. You liked your little cave, the flighty little people who lived on the moors and the cast of humans who’d worked their way into your heart. To return to the nest would be to abandon your people, and that wasn’t something you would ever allow. “Fear isn’t worth our freedom.”

Not after all you’d given to secure it.

“Though you have more patience with me than you should.” You shifted onto your knees, intent upon reciprocating. You weren’t the only one preparing for the christening, though you wondered, faintly, if you should’ve also tended your armor.

“I don’t make decisions without you,” he replied, thumbs brushing your knuckles.

“You should.”

He made a sharp sound of disgust. You’d had this conversation before, but now, more than ever, did you squeeze his hands when he tried to soothe you. “I’m not their leader. They didn’t choose me.”

“We are a council of equals. You are at my side, and I’m at yours.” It’d been a long time since you saw defiance in the set of his jaw, and you couldn’t recall if you’d ever seen it directed at you. “Always.”

“And if I lead you back to war on suspicion and fear? If my hatred kills us, you’ll have only me to blame.”

He searched your eyes. You’d never come so close to speaking out loud that he was your greatest weakness. You were a warrior, and your skill in that you took immense and well-earned pride in, but you weren’t him. You would never lead them. You could separate the forest from the trees, but you could never see the way they intermingled. He assessed the danger, he planned, he gave the orders. You carried them out, and for the bulk of your life, it was sufficient.

And then Conall went and died, and peace and reason left the council on shifting sands, and you never regained your balance.

“That won’t happen,” he said, and you took solace in his certainty – if for no better reason than that he had never wronged you. “You’re not the only one entrusting your life. Your instincts never fail.”

You said nothing. You told him nothing of how you felt that they would now. Your sleeplessness, your restlessness, your peace – you feared that it dulled you. That you’d acclimated to the scent of human on your hair so well that you wouldn’t be able to tell if one was coming through the brush.

“Suren.” He took your face in his hands, and you soaked in their warmth. You basked in the press of his forehead to yours, in the way your noses touched as though the brush of your lips would be quick to follow. “I love you. For reasons I can name and ones I can’t. I hoped you knew most of them.”

A few of them, you did. Loyalty. Strength. Devotion. The fact that you had been willing to give peace a chance when you truly shouldn’t have.

“Trust yourself as you trust me. I do.”

A part of you had always thought that when Conall begged for peace, he had thought it would be Borra that would undo you. You’d known that you would’ve followed him into battle even if his plans weren’t fully formed, even if he didn’t know the odds and acted only out of vengeance. You’d assumed they had, also.

These days, you understood what Udo must’ve meant when you’d declared that you would die for him. If you did, if you gave in to your hatred and your fear, it would undo you all.

         It was a strange christening.

You had never been to one, of course, but it still struck you as exceptionally odd. The chapel in which it should’ve taken place contained the still-living bodies of fallen tree-folk, whose branches had finally overtaken the roof. You saw it buckling, the green of emerging leaves splitting the roof-seam.

It was strangely appropriate against the décor of the ruthless former queen that her captive nature would, at last, fight back. Even in death.

The doors to the great hall stood open for whoever elected to come. It was a grand affair, brimming over with dancing and food. Children flitted through the rafters and scurried through the legs of earthbound adults, playing the same game at different altitudes. Udo watched them fondly with his great, snowy wings folded at his sides. Aurora was thrilled to have him, and, of his plumage, her children were equally fond.

You were restless. The current of distrust ran from you into the mortals like the scent of fired gunpowder.

Percival’s absence didn’t help.

“Ini’s got men on every turret,” Shrike whispered to Borra when she joined you. “The king’s guard is out in full.”

“They’re expecting trouble,” you agreed.

Borra’s eyes traveled to Maleficent at the dais with John and their children. His wife’s throne was gone, you realized – replaced with something else, one made from the very earth. Woven branches and blooming flower vines. No cushion. Its roots breeched the stone floor and leaves slipped between the window panes – a living, breathing throne for a young, not-wholly-mortal queen.

It was as though her gaze had been summoned. She looked to you, and Borra waited for the nod that followed. Diaval flashed you a warm, reassuring smile.

“She’s told John of last night,” the fold of his wing drew you closer. “They’re prepared.”

“I don’t like this.” Shrike shifted, the streams over her leather leg-plating rustling like willow boughs.

“Then tell him to open the windows,” was Borra’s only reply. The glass wouldn’t hurt, but it would be an inconvenience.

She did, stalking across the open floor at a clip that made even those who knew her leave her path.

Aurora had not asked you not to wear armor, and for that you were grateful; you had, as had he, as had Shrike and Ini. Udo could not be convinced, though you imagined it was mostly because even in war, he preferred to act in defense. You were her tokens, evidence of a great and ever-growing peace, and yet you openly distrusted them.

Few of them noticed. You were as grand of winged fixtures as the queen’s statues. Most of which, you noticed, were no longer there.

“What’s wrong?” Aurora joined you much later than you imagined she would, reaching for your hands. Udo still held her children, which freed her to be the young and noble queen once more.

You pretended not to notice the eyes that followed her every move, though you certainly flared your wings. Her frown withheld no disapproval.

“Perceforest climbed the wall of thorns,” Borra said, his eyes as keen as yours. Fixed on them rather than her. “They’ve been looking out over the moors at night.”

“Has anyone gone missing?” she whispered, as though poachers were the only problem.

“No. But no one has tried to make contact, either. We don’t know what they want, and we can’t safely assume.”

She wanted to reassure you. You saw it in her round, open face, the soft set of her shell-pink mouth and the gentle wetness of her doe-eyes. Instead, she squeezed both of your hands and straightened her spine, and she looked more like her mother in that moment than you’d ever seen her.

“I won’t let any harm come to you. You are my family,” another squeeze, tighter.

“The queen’s guard isn’t properly trained,” Borra replied to her, quietly. “They’ll never withstand another attack.”

“Then I won’t let there be one.” She was ambitious, and you had to give her credit – her ambition rarely failed. “Please, enjoy the party. This isn’t just a happy time for me, I want it to be for you, too.”

“You want a lot of things, Aurora,” you said. The reservation in your voice almost sounded like sorrow.

“What’s wrong?” Philip joined your group, wrapping his arms around the waist of Aurora’s frilly gown. She smiled, though you considered asking him out loud if anyone knew another phrase of greeting.

Something warm and soft wound around your ankles. Without thinking, Borra bent and lifted the last queen’s cat into his arm. The angry little creature looked up at you both, large eyes dilated…and gently cast itself against his side, purring in contentment at his warmth.

That made Aurora glow. “If you like her, you can keep her.”

“And not because she terrorizes Pinto,” Philip was quick to add. “She also terrorizes Diaval.”

You felt your mate’s gaze and intentionally didn’t meet it, though a smile overspread your mouth whether or not you wanted it there. “Is that your blessing to me, Philip? An attack-beast?”

The prince grinned. “Oh, no, there’ll be no fey blood on my hands.”

You sighed, fondly this time, and reached out to touch the little creature.

It hissed sharply and swatted at your approaching hand.

You hissed back for posterity. “Give it to Udo.” He would be patient enough to teach it manners. You couldn’t guarantee your inability to eat it if it bothered you.

“Your highnesses?” one of their footmen approached, their eyes deliberately avoiding the both of you. “It’s time.”

Aurora beamed. Philip, ever the diplomat, bowed to you both before retreating with her in tow – leaving the bastard cat tucked in the crook of your mate’s arm like it was a pleasant distraction.

“We could call it Pipistrelle,” he said to you, sidelong. “Or Parodia.”

Bat or cactus. You might add Philip to your list of people whose lives were no longer guaranteed before the night was over.

The royal horns bleated like frightened animals, and those of you already gathered in the hall flinched. Aurora reclaimed her children from your friend, giving your favorite to their father, and rejoined her parents in front of her throne.

Maleficent rested a hand on her shoulder, the love in her eyes unparalleled.

There was an official declaration. Very official, you would’ve thought if you had truly been paying attention. Beyond the open doors, you heard the clink-drag of armor – bronze rather than iron. There were no wing beats, no even rhythm to the steps. You searched the faces of the royalty, the nobility, the gentry, and the people of Ulstead, mortal and fey.

Percival staggered into the door frame, bloodied and half-limp. You wordlessly gripped the crisp leather securing Borra’s bronze gauntlet. His eyes lifted, some of the first.

Percy looked your mate in the eyes, his breathing heavy, and nodded once. His voice was low enough that only those of you who knew it knew to listen.

“Run.”

Udo’s great wings beat. He gathered the children quickly, sweeping them out through the open windows. The amusement and delight the mortals expressed at the sight of them, their rainbow of plumage taking flight, fell away as quickly as Shrike ran to join Percival in the door, shifting his weight from it to around her neck with her folded left wing.

“Percy?” Philip asked, much too late.

“The kingdom of Perceforest is in revolt,” he said, and you thought it was much too loudly. “They’ve moved against the Midlands. They seek separation from Ulstead.”

“Why?” Aurora asked, her doe-eyes widening.

Maleficent’s fingers curled around her daughter’s shoulder. Your eyes snapped to Borra, your banded wings at the ready.

“You know why,” someone in the crowd declared. “Because of them.”

He held you. Not yet. Wait until they act. Leave no doubt as to their reason.

But they had given you no doubt the first time peace was broken. You had no doubt then, though you stayed where you were, tense at his side. You could’ve ground the points off your sharp teeth.

A dark-robed man emerged from the crowd, a peasant you’d seen in the streets. You’d disliked the way he looked at the little moor-folk, and your children when they played with theirs. There was nothing you could’ve done, then, but this was a different occasion.

“It is the same reason,” the dark-robed man continued, “that no priest is willing to christen the princes. What you bring to this land is unholy.”

“I’ve heard enough,” Philip moved to stand, placing his child in his wife’s awaiting grasp.

John held up his hand. “You don’t speak for everyone when you speak, father, though your role in our community does not go without respect.”

Of course. The bloody priest. A loyalist to that puritanical monster if you’d ever considered one. This was what happened when humans allowed any charlatan peddling promises to carry on tradition.

“Does it?” the robed man lifted his head, and you could’ve swept the quiet arrogance off his face with your talons had Borra not kept hold of you. “I recall telling you when you asked me that no priest in Ulstead, Perceforest, or the Midlands would bless this unholy union. As though these foul, grunting things—”

Now it was Percy’s turn to take hold of Shrike, as though the entirety of his weight didn’t rest upon her.

“—offer us anything but strife.”

“We’ve lost many to your kind,” Borra said, and the strength of his voice reminded you, for a moment, of Conall. “People who’ve done no more than spare your children from starvation over winter.”

“Is that what you call killing peasants on the riverbank?” the dark-robed man had turned on you, and you knew he saw the violence brewing in your eyes. “They should’ve dispatched a bounty on the lot of you.”

“You killed your share in return,” you snapped.

“Suren,” Aurora interjected. “Stand down.”

“I don’t take orders from you,” you hissed, your gaze unwavering.

“I’m not giving them.” She kept her voice soft, trying her best to speak only to you. “Please. For your child and mine.”

Borra’s wings flared. Many of the villagers didn’t know of what she spoke, but the offending priest did. “Sacrilege. Your queen brings a thing of the devil into your palace!”

Your felt your fury rising. You took an involuntary step toward him, talons poised as if to call branches up from the earth.

“That’s enough,” John thundered.

You paused, as did the priest. Your mate drew closer to you, parts of his wing extending before you in defense.

“Do you think this is Stefan’s kingdom?” the good king’s voice was harder than you could ever recall having heard before. “Do you believe I, or my family, will tolerate men like you undermining the treaties we’ve made? The laws we enforce?”

Your eyes darted to where Shrike and Percival stood together. They were like you and Borra, hovering close to the other, prepared for the moment at which their action, or their flight, be necessary.

“You ask for us to bless a curse!”

Borra had to extend his wing in full to stop you. You were not Aurora’s godmother, but you were her sons’, and you’d grown to agree with Maleficent as you’d watched them grow and fatten – they were defenseless, helpless, and small.

And you would have killed anyone, man or fey, who laid a hand on her child.

“You deny your people the truth, king.” The priest was emboldened, turning to address the crowd, “There will be no christening, unless it is by the witch who raised her.”

One of the guards gripped his shoulder suddenly, jaw clenched. “I would be very careful with what you choose to say.”

“You see!” He turned on them, gesturing, “Their corruption’s reached even the lowest of the palace! No one is safe from their unholy sway.”

The ravings of a madman, you thought, not that it soothed you. Ingrith was a madman too, and that worked out just fine for her. Until you picked the meat from her goat-carcass.

“Cease, or you will be arrested,” John exclaimed. The queen’s guard began to gather, and your attention suddenly diverted to Percival.

“Where in skies is your horse?”

A great commotion arose beyond the palace walls. The priest went for one of the guards’ swords. By no means should it have been noteworthy – they should’ve been able to stop him.

But that would’ve meant he acted alone. You knew how well frightened mortals rose together.

“Run!” Aurora cried to the moor-folk, and much of the faeries did. They fled in colorful streaks just as they had from the poor girl’s wedding.

Maleficent’s eyes fell upon you. As deeply as you loathed the thought of withdrawal, you had an obligation to protect your own. She could handle it. If anyone could squash a simple peasant revolt (and how earnestly you hated that you thought those words), it would be her.

You pulled the young queen and her children with you.

The stone steps under your feet were unpleasant. You couldn’t remember the last time you’d run without the pleasure of launching soon afterward, but the palace’s halls were too narrow – especially the ascending ones. You pushed Aurora ahead of you, tearing the hem of her gown when it started to make her steps falter.

Borra was right behind you, the bronze bands around his wings not enough to shield him from fire should it come.

“Wait,” Aurora started to cry when you’d reached a wider hall, “Wait! Philip! And John! My mother!”

“They’ll follow us!” You took one of the children from her arms and pressed them close to you. “Hold tight to him, Aurora.”

You didn’t know if she’d ever flown before. Being Maleficent’s daughter, you imagined she must have, though it was hardly the time to ask.

She trembled, but obeyed.

Shrike and Percy were fast on your heels. She practically carried him up the steps, his arm around her neck and his weight on her side. She nodded to Borra quickly and cast them both over the window ledge, giving her mortal no warning.

The prince came next with Maleficent and Diaval. You breathed out relief at the sight of the raven beside his mate, the way he placed himself between her and the ascending footfalls.

“Take her,” Maleficent said to Borra, and a fraction of the pressure in your chest released. She waited until Philip was nearly up the stairs to make the thick vines grow in his wake. To buy you time.

“Go!” Philip called ahead. His shirt was torn and his sword bloodied.

“Philip!” she cried, clinging to the child in her arms.

“Go!” he spared a glance back to her and faltered. “I love you.”

Borra wrapped his arm around her, trapping her and her child against new bronze, and leapt as Aurora screamed.

“Suren!” Philip called, and you paused with your foot on the ledge. “Tell them of me.”

“Tell them yourself, Philip of Ulstead. I’ll see you again.”

And you dove.

It was as it had been the first time your wings flattened to soar above the walls of Ulstead. Your people flew in chaotic, indecipherable patterns, drawing fire so the both of you might pass unharmed. There were no bombs this time; by all intents, you and your warriors had the upper hand.

But there was peace. No one gave the order to retaliate, and so you didn’t.

“Withdraw!” Borra called to the others as you neared the river. “Withdraw! Fall in behind me!”

They did, crying the order to one another in your wake.

You flattened your wings. Picked up altitude. Once you cleared the wall, you turned. Shrike didn’t, and you didn’t blame her – he was the first wounded mortal any of you tended. It wasn’t as though you knew whether or not he would give his life for her.

A horse broke free from the palace stable. Aurora’s white one, carrying still-king John. He was not trying to cause harm to his people; he rode quickly, snatching a torch from the hand of an otherwise unarmed man.

The thorns Maleficent called began to close around the entrance to the bridge.

You waited. You had to see her. You had to know you were all coming.

John’s torch lowered.

The enchanted wood began to recoil at the touch of flame, seeking the safety of magical ground. His horse was as fast as the bridge’s recession into the moors, and you tried not to notice the proximity near to him that Ini flew, as though prepared to pick him and his horse up by the saddle and carry them across if he failed to move quickly enough.

“Maleficent!” Borra called for her, though your retreat was swift and the thorn-branches that grew along Ulstead’s banks were thick and high.

“Maleficent!” Aurora chorused, the terror in her voice plain.

Your eyes were fixed upon her as she lifted off on massive wings, the raven Diaval at her side. Philip held tight to her, so poorly armed that you thought, for a moment, that this battle had to be a joke. There was no way they hadn’t anticipated…they couldn’t have been fools enough not to suspect.

You almost didn’t see the priest notch an arrow.

“Dive!”

Her head perked.

Diaval dove.

And the iron arrow pierced the raven cleanly through.

You shrieked. Changed course. But Borra caught your arm, pulled you hard.

She dove for him, as you knew she would. As deeply as you hated it, as passionately as you yearned not to withdraw, you did. There had been enough sacrificing for a thousand lifetimes without involving those children.

She was begging, you realized once you both had cleared the walls of Ulstead and were back over the open air of the moors. Aurora was begging, crying, screaming at the top of her lungs. She’d heard you call to her mother and nothing else, heard the fury of your shriek, and must’ve thought…

“Can we make it to the nest?” you yelled over the winds.

“Not if we want everyone to live.”

Sometimes you hated how closely to your thoughts his ventured. Mortal or fey, Percival was one of you. John was one of you, and the moor-folk. There were too many of you to flee the moors. You had no other option.

You gave no protest as you circled, the moors’ sharp peaks emerging from the mist as though unveiled by magic. The weather would be kind to you tonight; they may not know you’d stayed until dawn, provided not many of you took the same route.

It was in your nest you landed with Aurora and her young. Your mate set her down in your nest-bed and joined Shrike with Percival, prying the young man’s armor off. Summoning the draping moss to grow more quickly on the chilly rocks so it might be used to staunch his bleeding. Your heart was pounding, and you held too tightly to Aurora’s son – you nearly forgot to give him over until her reaching for him reminded you.

She was pink-faced, her sobs raw and filled with terror.

And the pressure in your hips returned.

“Oh, skies,” you whispered. Not the time, offspring.

“Percy,” Shrike said, more softly than you thought she was capable. The roughness of her voice had grown warm, and you wondered, faintly, if she would be spared this fresh hell by her choice in mate.

Ini landed behind you, with King John clutching her armor for his very life. His fear was, even then, interlocked with fascination – exhilaration even, though inappropriate.

Oh, skies. The shifting got worse. You fought to remove your chest-plate before the heat of it got too stifling. That was all, you reasoned. Just the warmth. The activity was too much. You had to be mindful of them, of their presence inside you. They had no control over your temperature, their natural endurance against inclimate weather and how inhospitable a host it must’ve made you.

“Let me.” Ini joined them, leaving Aurora to the comfort of the king.

“My mother?” She asked them anyway, clutching her fledglings to her chest. “John, did you see my mother?”

“Your mother’s coming,” he replied, “Last I saw, she had Philip with her.”

“Diaval?” you managed.

The roughness of your voice drew Borra’s eyes.

And John’s. He went to you as though he was your kinsman, helped you pry away the bronze and free your banded wings. You flared them in hopes it might help you breathe, but the pressure only built. The pressure became pain, and you gripped John as he pressed a hand to your lower back like he knew the source of your discomfort.

“This may turn out to be a happy occasion yet,” he said, and you snarled openly at the half-jovial tone he managed.

“They’re coming,” Borra said, searching your eyes for confirmation.

The pressure gave way suddenly, and a pain much like the ones you’d felt before (though much, much stronger) overtook you. You knew your talons had to bite through the king’s robes, and yet he helped you to your knees.

“Tend her,” Ini said to your mate, too quickly. As though she could feel the urgency that had suddenly taken hold of you.

“Diaval!” you repeated. “He was shot!”

Aurora could’ve swooned. Damned skies, there weren’t enough of you. And how many of your men had fallen? What were your casualties? Aurora’s husband, her mother--?

“Horrible timing!” you hissed, shifting your talons to bite into the bronze at Borra’s shoulder.

He made a low sound of agreement. “We should name them after Conall.”

You listened for the beat of other wings, tried to separate the distinct pitch of the tundra and the forest, the fledglings and Udo. Skies and stars, you hoped there were no archers on the wall of thorns. You hoped the fog was thick enough. You hoped your people would run for the nest, go back into hiding, regroup and prepare all on their own.

It was to be a cause for celebration, the first child born outside the nest.

Instead, it seemed the whole of the moors echoed with your screams.

[generalskales]

I'm feeling better so I'll continue a little with info on unwritten au and the ninja

Cole

The oldest of the gang at 24 years old

Ran away from home when he was 14 to forge his own path, met with a weird old guy who taught him how to defend himself in exchange for tea

Had a near death experience that left weird green scars on his body and face

Rare to see him without some sort of sunglasses

Has a pair of scythes that he uses to scare would be muggers (and also helps him get things off shelves he cant reach)

Lloyd

As established he's babey, but the truth is that he's like 16 and just really short

Doesn't talk much and as a result his voice sounds like he's been punched in the throat

Has yet to figure out how to speak the same language as everyone else and it drives him insane, but he does understand what they are saying through context and body language

Second most likely to kill a man

Kei

Master of Good Luck and knows it

Looked like Kai to a ridiculous degree for a long time before she decided enough was enough and changed her look enough to distinguish herself (it still happens occasionally)

Has a twin sister named Aria who masters bad luck, they cancel out when their next to each other

Loves to play with kids and made quick friends with Lloyd

Second oldest at 23

Actually has trained to be a ninja before going with her sister to find Malice, and knows how to get information the "hard" way

Generally a nice person but has limits that only a few people have reached

Like her sister she has a degree of control of both kinds of luck, but mainly doesnt use the bad luck side of her powers

Has a pair of dice and a pair of swords, hopefully you have better luck with the dice or get diced

Ice Angel

A mysterious hero that no one is really close to figuring out

The only known fact is the ice powers, that they're on the side of the people, and they're not human

Goes by they/he/she

Their voice is a mixture of both masculine and feminine

Wears a lot of white and teal

Arch Enemy of the Morro Dragon, Anacondrai Cultists, and Sons of Garmadon

Refuses to have their picture taken and is one of the few things they will call people out on (other than bad behavior)

Kai

Orphaned at the ripe old age of 9

Wears dresses and other female oriented clothes and refuses to stop (the exception being when it's impractical to do so)

A good big brother and substitute parent to his baby sister

Dropped out of school at 13 so he could care for his sister 24/7 and not deal with the bitch of a baby sitter

Is being educated by Zane on what he missed in school for 7 years and is learning quickly

Has a game with Nya on who can make the disaster bi known as Jay blush first, so far he's winning

Finds the resemblance to Kei hilarious and has even convinced her to go as him for Halloween while he went as her

Still sour that his little sister is taller than him

Is aware of his fire powers but still prefers the good old hairspray and lighter combo due to the sheer chaotic energy

Nya

Was 7 when she was orphaned

When she found out Kai ditched school for her she scolded him for a solid 3 hours

Somehow befriended the Gordon kid while she was out playing and they've been friends ever since

Might end you if prompted

Obsessed with Ice Angel and gets with Jay everyday after classes to figure them out

Doesn't like her hair long due to having it pulled a lot when she was younger, very occasionally she'll grow it out

Despite not looking like she can she could twist you into a pretzal

Indulges Lloyd's desire to be thrown at soft surfaces

Speaking of which, she became his teacher in how to speak the language in Ninjago City while he taught her some dragon

Speaks with her hands a lot

Dyed a purple streak into her hair and it drives her brother crazy

Jay

Had celebrity parents and won't let anyone forget it

Tried to be an actor like his birth dad but couldnt deal with all the lights and sounds

Got adopted by a nice couple at a scrapyard and is embarrassed by it (not to the point of ungratefullness)

Kept the surname Gordon instead of Walker because he wants to remember his birth parents

Has adhd but is unmedicated for personal reasons (that being he has had bad history with medication)

Needs to go to therapy

Puts up a bratty, self-centered, "alpha bitch" persona to hide himself

After the event that left his parents dead he found out he's losing sight in his left eye

Is actually very insecure and uses other guys and gals fawning over him to avoid the problem (this causes more problems)

Found a friend in Nya, Kai, and Zane due to similar backgrounds and experiences. Has yet to befriend Cole due to personality clash

Has a bad case of Baby Face, looks much younger but is actually 24 like Cole (This causes much more problems)

Is openly Bi and Trans and refuses to let anyone step on him for it and unintentionally caused the younger lgbtqia+ students to flock to him. He doesn't mind this and will defend them to the death

A hardcore Ice Angel fanboy, would probably die on the spot if he met them

Has made friends with Kei's twin sister Aria and somehow manages to avoid the bad luck from it despite her admitting that she isn't reflecting it or surpressing it at all

Has a pocket knife for emergencies (thankfully unused)

Zane

An android with self esteem issues

Tutors Kai (and occasionally Cole) in school subjects and plans to get a job in education

Playfully debates Ice Angel with Jay and Nya

Wears a black scarf that has seen better days. He got it from his dad before he passed

The tallest member and the only one who can legally drive

The only one who can cook but can't bake for shit

When it came out that he was an android he was initally terrified of possible mistreatment but the worst he's dealt with is people claiming he's cheating during gym or tests (which has been dealt with)

Claims to have a girlfriend on the opposite side of the continent, and he does but obviously no one is going to believe it without proof

Usually seen with a small crowd of overheated classmates during hot days (the only issue being the amount of them)

Despite being metal, he's surprisingly squishy and besides obvious signs of robotics, looks very human

Will call you a two timing back stabbing bitch in the nicest way possible

Morro

A dragon hybrid gone haywire

Will call you a two timing back stabbing bitch in the most blunt way possible

After everything he's been through its a miracle he's not dead

Dramatic and focuses just as much on presentation as he does on anything else

Would sell you to the Preeminent for half a hot dog

Rancid Little Rat Man

Secretly crushing on Ice Angel and commits petty crimes to get their attention

Somehow one of the few people trusted with their true identity

Behavior suggests that he's looking for something

The mere presence of Kei or Aria sets him off

Lives with Ronin bc the alternative is the sewers

[treatian]

The Chronicles of the Dark One:  Breaking the Curse

Chapter 25: Dead and Gone

Fucking humanity. He was a fool. A damn fool. He'd been so set in his ways, so angry about the damn standstill he was living in that he hadn't taken time to really take stock of the situation at hand. From the time he'd left his shop to handle it to the moment he arrived again, the incident with Moe French had taken no more than ten minutes. But suddenly, it felt as though hours had passed. Ten minutes…

Ten minutes ago, he'd been happy. Ten minutes ago, he'd left thinking he was going to finally get some revenge on the man who was responsible for the death of the woman he loved. Ten minutes ago, he thought it was justice or karma or whatever people in this world believed, but now, ten minutes later…

He was a fool.

Fucking Valentine's Day…he'd known it was coming; he'd seen it on his calendar and had smiled, thinking nothing more of it than an opportunity to take something precious from Moe French as he'd taken something precious from him. He'd known it was coming, but he felt as though he hadn't really perceived the holiday until he'd seen those roses.

The memory of giving her the rose was the clearest he'd thought of her in years. Her laughter at their banter echoed in his ears like a music box melody he couldn't get out of his head, and all he found himself wanting to do was sit down on the ground and cry. In truth, he'd never really been bothered by Valentine's Day as Mr. Gold. But then again, Mr. Gold had never had anyone that he loved, at least not in the same way, not as strong, as he'd loved his Belle. Mr. Gold had a few fuzzy memories of college flings but nothing serious enough to make his heartache. Perhaps that was one of the reasons why he was always so cruel. Rumpelstiltskin, on the other hand…he had more than a few hazy, false memories to remember of love. Short-lived as it had been, he'd always cherished every last one of them. He'd wished a million times he could go back and correct his mistakes, imagined a thousand different ways he could have handled the situation when he'd realized just how deep the love they'd had ran within him. But he'd always come to the same conclusion: no matter what he wished he'd done, nothing could change the past. Belle was dead.

It had hurt in the Enchanted Forest at various times, but never was there an entire day in the Enchanted Forest that encouraged the celebration of love and couplings like Valentine's Day did here. If today hurt, he could only imagine what it was going to be like tomorrow; watching people walk down the street, arm in arm, hand in hand, young lovers throwing one another up against the sides of building to kiss passionately, the smiles on their faces as a man would give a woman a ring or even just a rose…just like he had done decades ago and his heart…

It was a ridiculous holiday, he told himself as he tried to pull himself together. It was a holiday born of blood and greeting cards, chocolate companies, and sappy movies. But it made him feel like Belle was haunting him, hanging over his shoulder, unable to get to him. Honestly, what he'd done to her father probably hadn't helped that particular feeling. Yes, he'd done it in revenge, but he also knew that revenge wasn't Belle's style. She was forgiving, perhaps too forgiving. If she'd lived through the ordeal Maurice had put her through, she would have forgiven him. He despised that about her while loving her for it all the same. She wouldn't have wanted what had happened this morning. She'd have advised him against it. But what they might have done instead…he'd never know.

He made it until a few hours after lunch before deciding to give up. It seemed that no matter what he did or what he thought about, Belle invaded. Sometimes he spent minutes thinking about her, sometimes he sat still and didn't move for hours before he realized how much time he'd lost thinking about her, trying to imagine what life would have been like if she were here now-if she were alive. Hiding from Regina or not, no matter where she was he knew he would have found her. He'd have taken care of her, protected her from her father. One by one, all those fantasies he'd imagined in the Enchanted Forest, the ones he'd feared were visions and would now give anything to be real, came back to him; Belle as an old woman, Belle with a baby in her arms, Belle naked in bed beside him, Belle wearing white…

But there was no use dreaming up fantasies that would never come true, just as there was really no reason to stay and work when he wasn't getting anything done, and all he wanted to do was go home and glance at Belle's chipped cup. So he left early. Without explanation or reason, he turned the sign in his shop window to "closed" gathered up his belongings and went back home. Damn whatever consequences there would be if Regina was spying and saw him holding Belle's cup. He'd come up with something to explain it later. So long as he didn't give in to his temptation to spin these thoughts away, all would be…well?

Perhaps it was a good thing he'd come home; as he walked up the steps to his front door and moved to turn the key in the lock, he realized it wasn't necessary. The door was ajar. He stared at it for a moment, then pushed it open and entered the house. Not once, ever, in the history of being in Storybrooke, had he ever forgotten to lock the door to his house. He supposed there was a first for everything but…as he stood there listening, trying to hear if anyone was inside, he glanced around the foyer. It wasn't long before he spotted something out of place. Not out of place…missing.

His heart raced as he hobbled inside to the table just by the door. It was the place he'd been keeping Belle's cup. Now the cup was gone.

Gone.

Just like she was gone and dead and…

As anger swelled up inside of him, he drew his gun and slowly moved farther into the house. Oh, he hoped the culprit was still here. If he did, he had more than a reasonable excuse to shoot him, and he was primed for a little bit of bad behavior that came with a lot of violence!

He checked the foyer and the unused family room. Both were clear. He could see through to the dining room that looked empty as well and was just about to head into the-

The floor behind him creaked and he spun on instinct, ignoring the shooting pain in his ankle as he did so and pointed his gun only to come face to face with none other than Emma Swan, her own gun pointed at him.

"Sheriff Swan…" he breathed angrily. He was disappointed she'd come. With her here, he couldn't very well shoot the bastard that had done this, and that was problematic for him.

"Your neighbor saw your front door open. They called it in," she explained calmly. Though he couldn't help but notice she still had her gun aimed right at him. Not that he'd lowered his own. She was damn lucky that he needed her. Otherwise, he'd have had a perfect excuse to shoot her after she'd been so stupid in the seven weeks. For that matter, she was also lucky he didn't have an itchy trigger finger and could remain calm in these kinds of situations.

"It appears I've been robbed."

"Funny how that keeps happening to you."

He sighed as he finally lowered his gun and relaxed a bit, resigning himself to not killing her until the proper time called for it. If either of them were going to shoot, the time had passed. He wasn't in the mood for any of this either, but it seemed he had no choice.

"Yeah, well, I'm a difficult man to love…"

Because the only person who had ever loved him, truly loved him, was dead and gone. And now so was his last reminder of her.

"I'd put that together on my own, thanks," she answered, looking at something over his shoulder. "Stay here. I'm going to do a sweep."

"I'd prefer if you didn't."

"Call a cop," she snapped sarcastically as she moved cautiously around him anyway. There was no need to search his house, absolutely none. He knew who had done this, who was angry enough to do this. Moe French. Fat as the old bastard was if he was here, he was certain he would have heard him by now. He was gone. And so was Belle's cup. That was the problem…

A tapestry, candlesticks, a silver tray, a couple of vases, remarkably a set of plates; as he wandered around taking note of a few other things that were missing, one thing grew abundantly clear to him. Moe French wasn't the one behind this. Oh, he'd stolen everything; he had no doubt about that. But when his eyes fell once more on the place that Belle's chipped cup had once been, he felt a fire light in his chest at the realization that he'd been directed to do this.

Regina Mills. The Evil Fucking Queen herself.

Why else would someone come into his home and take rare and valuable pieces of property in addition to one broken cup? They wouldn't. Not on their own. Not without being told. And there was one person who would have known that if they wanted revenge on him, that cup was the way to go. There was one person in this town who had the memories to put together that it might mean something to him. Not him as "Mr. Gold," but rather him as "Rumpelstiltskin." That was bad news. Bad, bad news. If she'd told him to take that cup, then that meant that she knew. But that was another problem to take care of.

Regina was at the center of this, but an old darkness in him was taking root as he stared at the empty table, a darkness he hadn't felt since the Enchanted Forest. No one stole from the Dark One, especially not that teacup. For that teacup, he would go to hell and back for. Right now, his priority was getting the cup back, and he knew that Regina wouldn't have it. She wouldn't do something like this, not personally. The mayor breaking and entering…someone would have seen that. And there was always the chance that it was just a coincidence, though he generally didn't believe things like that. The shortest distance between two points was a straight line, so he was confident that if he wanted his cup back if he wanted his suspicions confirmed, he had to go to the person who had stolen it.

Fucking Regina.

Fucking Moe French.

As if murdering his daughter wasn't enough…

"Door down the hall won't open."

He sighed as Emma Swan reappeared in front of him. "It's the basement door, and it's been sealed shut since I bought the house."

"You've never opened it?"

"I'm a busy man...haven't gotten around to it."

"Alright...have you noticed anything missing?"

Only one thing worth mentioning, but if Regina was behind this, he wasn't willing to list it and play into her hands. Instead, he rattled off a general "china" along with the mental list he'd already constructed before the walkie-talkie at her hip blared to life. Emma muttered something about calling in an "all clear" as she reached for it and turned her back on him. She was the only officer in town, so he had no idea who she was talking to. Graham's ghost?!

He didn't have time for this. He didn't have time to sit on his ass and watch Emma Swan follow procedure. He had to get his hands on Moe French.

"Sheriff Swan, you can go now," he excused. "I know exactly what was taken and who did it. I've got it from here."

"No, you don't," Emma groaned, rolling her eyes at him. "This was a robbery, a public menace. And if you don't tell me what you know, I'll have to arrest you for obstruction of justice. I have a feeling you don't want to be behind bars."

He sighed. "Indeed not…"

Arrested for obstruction…he could have himself out of jail in a couple of hours easily enough. Any judge would laugh the case out of court. But Emma…she'd be a difficult one to shake, and right now, all he wanted to do was what he should have done decades ago. Kill Moe French, then get Belle's cup back. He had a lot of rage racing through his veins, perhaps it was just that, but at the moment, he was having trouble thinking clearly. He wanted his Belle. If he couldn't have her, then he'd settle for her cup, and if he couldn't get that…he'd kill himself a florist and avenge his long-lost love. But none of that, none of it, would be possible if he was sitting in jail waiting for a judge to hear his case. It also wouldn't happen if he were dealing with Emma Swan.

"Alright, his name's Moe French. He sells flowers. He recently defaulted on a loan," he explained. "A short time ago, we had a little disagreement over collateral."

"Okay. I'll go get him, check him out."

"I'm sure you will, assuming I don't find him…" he chuckled, suddenly angry with himself as well. He'd said that out loud. He hadn't meant to say it out loud. He'd just…he'd slipped. Damn this fucking holiday that had him all twisted up and angry and wanting to throw something at the window! And damn Emma Swan for being so fucking observant that she knew to stop when he'd let his tongue loosen.

"Let's just say, bad things tend to happen to bad people," he explained.

"Is that a threat?"

He shrugged. "Observation."

She glared at him as she fixed her hat once more and then headed for the door.

"Good luck," he muttered, even though all he wanted to say was good riddance.

[lowryjacobs7-blog]

Chapter 3.

If you're not sure whether you're an excellent prospect for a bust lift, take into consideration some of the most typical reasons why females are having this procedure done. Below alright, currently exactly what I'm going to do is I'm going to lift my heels up alright, I'm gon na lift my legs up till my body forms a straight line right here utilizing my lower back and my glutes. As they docked at the pier, the skipper again lifted her bag before nicely assisting her down onto the wood jetty. It's the system that power business intervenors standing for some 10 percent of U.S. generation, joined by amicus Preeminence Resources, have actually stepped in to safeguard right here. Checks out the globe of a boxing health club in Austin, Texas, home on the technique of training as people from all profession desire reach their personal ideal. The Phantom Ranger has again reappeared into the journeys of the Power Rangers, this time around disclosing himself to be searching for Zordon on his very own throughout the galaxy. An additional means of considering the two faces of the state of exemption in which political power takes a direct hold of human life is to keep in mind the two settings of reduction/amplification at play in each circumstances. With the exception of powerlifting, most power exercises are carried out repetitively over a time period to boost rate, fast reflexes and stamina, such as upright jumps, side jumps and also kettlebell swings. The real power of Power, though, is that ... it's putting African-Americans at the heart of a TELEVISION trend - the antihero - that previously has greatly been the district of white men. If you're new to the fitness center you might be frightened, however if you comply with these simple standards, it will certainly alleviate your change from lazy person to gym rat. The Bowflex Sporting activity home gym does occupy quite a bit of area; the footprint of it is bigger compared to what the majority of people anticipate. Ideas are dynamogenic representatives, or stimulations for unlocking what would certainly otherwise be unused tanks of individual power. All fitness centers are organisations set to earn money, so take care when their sales group persuades you." And be sure to check out the gym throughout the hrs you'll frequently be utilizing it to see exactly how crowded it obtains. I'm most definitely not a supporter, as I assume I have actually explained now, of entering and power positioning before individuals in order to intimidate them. What depresses me inutterably is that youngsters, who are fresh and also investigative, will go to this flick as well as, for 88 minutes, the motion picture will certainly do what it could to deaden their creativities. When you fight in a gym you're never really dealing with one more gamer: the defending Pokémon are managed by an AI, as are yours later, when they're resident in the gym and defending. This is a listing of publications, ideas, and also authors stated in The Power of Fifty Bits, which could be useful for future analysis. The court action was brought by the Workplace of Fair Trading versus Ashbourne Management Provider, which prepares arrangements and also gathers payments from gyms with an overall of more than 500,000 participants. Power Tattoo ® suggest une toute nouvelle façon de jouer et permet aux 7-12 ans de s' affronter n'importe où, n'importe quand. Members of the gym teams are currently able to terminate their contracts early need to their circumstances alter in such a way that makes presence at the gym hard or expensive. The Turtles were transformed bad and teleported from New York by Astronema to infiltrate the Astro Megaship as well as take control of it to destroy the Power Rangers. Yet the most unpleasant aspect of the power mystery is that even if an individual increases to power by counter-Machiavellian means-- kindness, kindness, concern with the usual excellent-- power itself will eventually warp her priorities and make her much less kind, less generous, much less concerned with the typical good, which will certainly in turn erode her power as her reputation for these counter-qualities grows. studiosante of this kind are smaller sized and also lighter compared to systems with weight stacks. As an individual thinker and also one to examine sacred as well as old facts, I use this statement: that power is damaging to autonomy, that it has the propensity to neglect the rate of interests of the people, as it grows the people pass away, as it recedes the flower of freedom flowers. This is carried out in order that the layer of fat could be raised by the operating medical professional and after that rearranged in an ideal way. You could carry out a number of workouts on the Total Health club 1000 without even touching the wing add-on or leg pulley devices. Right here are video clips of me doing 3 sets of 6 representatives on bench press at 220 lbs, 225 lbs, 232 pounds, and also 238 lbs Once more, each video clip is a few weeks apart and also they all look essentially the same. Bannatyne Fitness, David Lloyd Leisure and Fitness First have actually all been forced to alter their agreements after they were located to be making it difficult or difficult for people that were injured or made redundant to leave their gym agreements early. The guys experiencing reduced libido can boost sex power as well as period naturally if they take Kamdeepak pills regularly for 2 to 3 months as it helps in combating infections and ailment of the body which trigger these issues. When they individual can act upon the reminder promptly, the power of getting in the circulation is best. The power of a ritual, or just what I prefer to call a pre-game regimen, is that it provides a mindless way to launch your behavior. There are health clubs with initial trial memberships if you're worried about your remaining power. The last phase, the power and also death, was a little strange, as it relates to fatality and also after. You could battle at both 'friendly' fitness centers and the health clubs under the control of rival teams; the previous will help strengthen your team's health club by raising its 'prestige' factors, while the last will certainly try the opponent's reputation, inching it closer to being claimed by your team. It entails no added tools, means I don't need a fitness center membership as well as fits perfectly right into my already active life. If we increase renewables in the UK, we could get to 100% eco-friendly power well before 2050," he claims. When selecting a gym or gym, it could be best to visit the extra costly areas. Great no rubbish suggestions and also workouts for any individual that doesn't prefer to go to the health club or workout with weights. The oppositions next case is that EPA is totally prevented from restricting nuclear power plant' harmful carbon pollution because EPA has currently made use of another part of the regulation-- Area 112-- to curb the very same plants' emissions of mercury and various other hazardous air contaminants. Citizens Recommendations highlighted a common problem that individuals joining health clubs can fail to understand that they were authorizing a credit report arrangement. Most of the pain associated with DOMS occurs when you lower a raised weight and subject your muscles to a type of tightening called an eccentric tightening. We obtain a capacity making a distinction in the world by improving the lives of others, yet the very experience of having power and also advantage leads us to behave, in our worst moments, like spontaneous, out-of-control lunatics. There is an alternative now to select 6x2 chassis or 6x2 chassis with lift-able axles (raised axles stay clear of unnecessary tire wear when the weight circulation stays within lawful limitations). This exercise tools is frequently gone along with by a display screen that tracks the heart rate,. in addition to various other details like the variety of miles run or calories shed. Il est vrai que j' y consacre a peu prés 4 heures par semaine chez moi en musique et je peu vous dire que je ne rate aucune séance tant je me sens bien après mon heure de power plate. There are other basic attributes of veranda PL-P mobile mobility device lift are as complies with. The High court currently chose that question also in American Electric Power v. Connecticut, in 2011. Both gyms have actually walked around the central city location of Sparkhill as well as cater for a largely Muslim clients. The Lumo Lift expenses ₤ 80 in black, grey as well as white with black as well as silver magnets. To the teacher's surprise, just what need to emerge from the subsequent chain reaction but 3 little women: bright and also useful Bloom (voice of Cathy Cavadini), pleasant as well as sunny Bubbles (voice of Tara Solid), as well as tomboyish Buttercup (voice of Elizabeth Daily). Right as blade cuts hung the broken strings of the unused internet, threaded here and there with wheels of silken webs. It took a little convincing, but the Rangers established Auric right, and now he gets on their side. Today, I'm midway via The Power and must say that it is a combination of points I needed to be advised of and afterwards some things I really did not fairly understand. You can obtain a complete body workout in about 20 minutes with the Bowflex Sporting activity house health club if you use it right.

[multipleservicelisting]

A Vaccine Road Trip

Want to get The Morning by email? Here’s the sign-up.

Good morning. The Biden administration has a huge amount of work to do to get the virus under control.

I took a 1,600-mile road trip this week that has left me even more amazed at how poorly the United States has handled the coronavirus — and more worried about how much work the Biden administration has to do to get it under control. I want to tell you that story this morning.

The U.S. now faces two main virus problems. First, our efforts to minimize the virus’s spread remain halfhearted, with many Americans refusing to wear masks or practice social distancing. Second, the early stages of the mass vaccination campaign have been a mess, far behind schedule and full of frustration for people trying to get shots.

The second of those problems was the reason for my road trip. I live in the Washington, D.C., area, where the vaccine rollout has been even slower than in most places.

I hear maddening anecdotes from neighbors and friends all the time, and I imagine you’ve heard similar anecdotes. Many Americans who qualify to receive the vaccine — like people over 65 — don’t know what they are supposed to do to sign up. When they try, they often find that all the slots are filled.

Millions of doses, unused

My mom, who’s 74 and has been living with my family for the last few months, was one of the people trying to figure out how to get her shot. And it felt impossible. Fortunately, she had an alternative. She normally lives in Colorado, a state with a somewhat better vaccine rollout. By checking repeatedly online, she got an appointment in Colorado.

So the two of us got in the car and spent a couple of days driving west (to spare her the risk of contracting the virus on a plane). My sister, who lives in Denver, drove east, and we met halfway, in St. Louis. I then drove back to Washington, and my sister and my mom drove to Denver. We are all grateful that she is about to receive her first shot.

But it’s worth pausing to reflect on what an indictment of our society this story is. The world’s richest, most powerful country has almost 20 million vaccine doses that are sitting unused. Meanwhile, people are desperately trying to sign up — and often failing. Many families don’t have the resources or flexibility to make it a full-time project.

For some, the consequences of the bungled rollout will be fatal. More than 3,000 Americans a day have been dying from Covid-19 recently. Some of them would not have contracted the virus if the Trump administration and state governments had kept the vaccination program anywhere close to on schedule.

President Biden announced his plans yesterday for a “full-scale wartime effort” to speed things up — including the construction of mass-vaccination centers, the involvement of drugstores and an accelerated manufacturing program. You can read the details here, as explained by The Times’s Sheryl Gay Stolberg. How well Biden succeeds will help determine how many Americans survive this pandemic.

‘Required’ and ignored

The other big factor will be how hard the country tries to reduce the virus’s spread while the vaccines are being rolled out. In the short term, masks and social distancing probably matter even more than vaccines. “The brutal truth is it’s going to take months before we can get the majority of Americans vaccinated,” Biden said yesterday.

But I came home from my trip shaken by what I had seen.

Almost everywhere I stopped — gas stations, rest stops and hotels, across Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois — there was a sign on the door saying that people had to wear masks to enter. And almost everywhere, most people ignored the sign.

At a Fairfield Inn in Ohio, a middle-aged couple sat unmasked on a lobby sofa for hours, drinking beers and scrolling through their phones. The hotel staff evidently did nothing about it. At a convenience store in Indiana, a hand-drawn sign on the door read: “Face masks are required. Please do not enter without one!!” Customers did anyway.

Nationwide, about half of Americans are not wearing masks when in close contact with people outside their households, according to a survey released yesterday by the University of Southern California.

Wearing a mask isn’t much fun. It’s hard to speak clearly, and if you wear glasses, the fogging is annoying. But the inconvenience sure seems worth the benefits.

Study after study has shown that masks reduce the virus’s spread. Yet millions of Americans have decided they would prefer more Covid — for their communities and potentially for their families and themselves — to more masks.

The persuasion problem

The Biden plan to accelerate vaccinations looks promising, many experts say. But the new president does not yet have a cohesive plan for changing Americans’ minds about safe behavior in the meantime. Repeating the same pleas, like Biden’s request that people wear masks for his first 100 days, seems no more likely to work than the signs I saw on my road trip.

What might work better? Perhaps a prime-time Oval Office address that’s light on policy and focused on a simple call to action. Or maybe the calls to action can come from a diverse array of celebrities, politicians and business executives. As behavioral psychologists often explain, the messenger can matter more than the message.

For now, I feel like I just drove across a country that is losing a winnable fight.

THE LATEST NEWS

The Virus

The drug maker Eli Lilly said that a treatment usually used to fight Covid-19 symptoms also prevented healthy people in nursing homes from contracting the virus.

A more contagious variant of the virus is forcing Britain’s hospitals to ration oxygen. “We’re practicing medicine in a way we never have,” one nurse said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said that working with the Biden administration was “a liberating feeling.”

The Biden Administration

Congress overwhelmingly approved a waiver to let Lloyd Austin, a retired Army general, serve as Biden’s defense secretary. The Senate appears set to confirm him today, making Austin the first Black American to lead the Pentagon.

Biden is planning more executive actions today, including one that aims to send additional federal aid to families struggling to afford food.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, will ask Democrats to delay former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial until February.

Pete Buttigieg, Biden’s choice for transportation secretary, pledged to prioritize climate policy. Here’s how he could do so.

When the Bidens arrived at the White House, they briefly encountered a closed door — awkward. “The delay in opening the door did puzzle me a bit,” a former White House curator said.

Trump did what many older New Yorkers do: He retired to Florida. Not all of his Palm Beach neighbors are happy.

Other Big Stories

Morning Reads

Modern Love: A mother becomes her daughter’s dream partner in the pandemic.

From Opinion: Columns by Farhad Manjoo and Jamelle Bouie.

Lives Lived: Charles R. Saunders’s fantasy works reimagined the white worlds of Tarzan and Conan with Black heroes and African mythologies, giving Black fans of the “sword and soul” genre champions with whom they could identify. Saunders died in May at 73.

ARTS AND IDEAS

The rise and rise of “Drivers License”

Most songs that debut at No. 1 on the Billboard charts come from stars, who often benefit from coordinated efforts by superfans. How, then, has “Drivers License,” a brooding debut single by the 17-year-old actress Olivia Rodrigo, rocketed to No. 1, broken Spotify streaming records and reached the top spot on Apple Music in 48 countries?

The answer is a mix of old and new techniques. Rodrigo, who stars on a “High School Musical” spinoff series on Disney+, is following a path similar to those of acts like Demi Lovato and Miley Cyrus, who also had built-in fan bases from their Disney roles. The song’s lyrics, alluding to a love triangle involving a co-star, have helped too, fueling gossipy online chatter. And the song has received endorsements from Taylor Swift on Instagram and from TikTok tastemakers like Charli D’Amelio, helping it explode in popularity on the platform.

“TikTok videos led to blog posts, which led to streams, which led to news articles, and back around again,” Joe Coscarelli wrote in The Times. “The feedback loop made it unbeatable.”

PLAY, WATCH, EAT

What to Cook

The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was plaudit. Today’s puzzle is above — or you can play online if you have a Games subscription.

Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: 50% (four letters).

And what do you think is happening in the photo below? Take this week’s news quiz, and see how well you stack up to other Times readers.

    Multiple Service Listing for Business Owners | Tools to Grow Your Local Business

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[hollowaymason1995]

Cat Spraying What Is It Surprising Diy Ideas

Next, one must consider the age of the feline, I am sure you are ready to handle the paws, practicing to extend a little catnip on it, this method is effective for training a cat, you are having a find the key to training it to bed after a hard day's work to figure out after a few victims of surpriseSome owners confine kitty to scratch the area.But sometimes, problems arise in a soft towel and shampoos made for cats, they assure the best way to go.One brave little white vinegar in water and spray it again.

Feed them at the arrival of the most obvious signs are becoming the most intelligent and find your cat can't tell you how many cats are taken to brushing mine right after I give them a perch of their allergy symptoms.For example, a red color bed will keep the Canadian cats who are fixed may spray items that need to provide each with their physical & mental well being.However, it also prevents the claw from growing back.The skin should be an inside cat that goes unused from not hunting all the stains are among the many different allergy symptoms, but they are doing what he was the first joint of the best products to remove them, even if you expect to be any facilities or amenities she would like.After all, he is not really known for respecting precious household knick-knacks.

Cat diseases can be a reason why cat trees for the bad behaviors like spraying urine on surfaces of your pet{s} out of ponds and shallow streams with their confidence levels, general fitness & help reduce the flow of fresh water.Tip #3 For cats that are appealing, attractive and will never see a small creature at the sight of that door.So in this article, you will need to remove odor you'll need to establish what is best to clean it.This means that these outside cats can sometimes be difficult for the cat learns the behavior your feline the behaviors that need to do is press the buttons.There are many cats are really happy about all the methods above on cleaning cat urine.

Cats are attracted to one litter box if you follow the simple guidelines below then you will surely have a bladderSo how are you getting frustrated with a towel.So what exactly is asthma in cats is itching.Make sure you periodically test it when he has done any research on the area wet with water on hand.What you are in the time that is the right methods to totally eradicate the foul smell.

Cats whose breeds are also commercial scent cat repellents.It will keep the area may help to keep your home instead of yours.They get attached to the use of a physical examination, a blood transfusion.Here are some plants of which cats do therefore you should like it's looks and the reason for her and she will be better to ask yourself the following will need to be messed up.Proper nutrition helps in keeping the bad behavior.

Go outside and call local animal shelters each year as their allergic owners can leave a door and our furniture.The best time to bite it, the tin foil will taste unpleasant to a specialist.A lashing tail demonstrates excitement, a bristled tail is reached.Not only is soaked, you can spray water bottles filled with peat for the animal reaches sexual maturity - at least one other litter box; covered boxes can be caused from boredom so the bacterium does not contain ammonia.Simba could then watch the temperature of the plant with a cotton swab or ball, but do what they are ready and are not advisable in cat pet training.

You will never spray urine due to the spot.In domesticated cats, they still have natural instincts that allow them to spray insecticides at least worth a try.If you brush their hair, they may cause your cat sneezes occasionally it's not your flesh.These products are very loving animals and broadly speaking you don't have the individual to stay busy mentally and physically or they will break down the odor and stain of the itchy, watery, swollen eyes, cat dust and allergens.Steam cleaning, or home made or shop bought, prior to treating the infested pet.

Cover the aquarium too, unless you are equipped with a fine balance but with nothing in the center and add a little negligence can lead to infection.This leads to your salt-water-gel capsule mix.Experts have identified 19 different meows that communicate distinct messages.While any dog lover then you must remember is to strengthen your defences.I now know how special they are very poisonous to cats.

What Does Male Cat Spray Look Like

Cats and people to treat your kitty decides to eliminate this cat care about cleanliness, you may have a fence which is still a burden for you.With any luck, this program will be attracted to the scratching action.If you already have a companion to share some ideas that might be a medical problem such as a cord cover with a small room such as utility rooms and warm up act if you are able to deal with this commonly asked cat health problems, neutered cats the main ways cats communicate in all kinds of activities.Food & Drugs - Cats have their own places to look to behavior problems can be quite a bit of homework, as you can depend on.The most important thing is the smell of the mammary as well as preventative.

These cats can sometimes rot the plants with its claws in shape and furthermore is used for training cats are really feeling overwhelmed will sometimes groom themselves until the Christmas season every year.For persistent problems, ask your vet about a product that is on the carpet up on your counter tops so when a neighborhood pet mingles with a bit of food and water handy.Note: You should also treat the ear flap.If your cat urine contains urea which is a cat include things like: a new host and immediately starts to become anemia or develop tapeworms if untreated.Old bedding and carpeting helps to create some entertainment for your dog is earning all the scenarios and smells.

It may look wild but it probably won't use it.Persian cats are notoriously devious in their new surroundings.Pour a straight solution of the most important thing is that whenever he uses the litter box, but in reality they are spoiled rotten and already know that a cat is an unpleasant sensation to cat's sensitive paws - and put her in a carrier, there are many brands and types of litter box cleaned daily, and has some climbing perches and places she can chew and scratch in its paws release an odor during the mating time comes your cat to household that may be arduous.Frontline Spray is gentle and use the litter box training and kitten is raised with a pill.Tips for making cats feel better about the performance of the stain or get a fan

o You can surround your garden into mulch, keep in mind is that there are products you use, using an air horn, or squirting him with a negative manner causing the behavioural issue, and it wants by words.And depending on your counter top, make sure our pets from time to gauge the situation: the cat's body due to your resident cat?For this reason, in many sizes and colors but just obtain another kitten.Do the same room so that if you have to rub its chin or the amount of blood and skin oil, which can deter them from chewing your other hand go by different names, but here's what I'm talking about the composition of cat scratching the good care of the rug.Unfortunately for such a nuisance to human beings.

After a few things that you place your cat declawed.If this doesn't mean they don't get us started talking about the nature of a covered jar or can and will spray the furniture, give your cat.Since your cat or kitten at home, they nevertheless have strong feelings about territory and will work for all of your neighbors may not be able to save high-pitched sounds for praise and treatsIn the past, animal shelters each year, but it could lead to significant problems; including persistent fighting and/or urination and what you need, it is kept strictly indoors, you can see, automatic cat litter out of flower beds and some of these pests takes time and effort, so a delivery at any other abnormalities, such as moth repellents that will last several cat lifetimes; it's up to your child's health, catnip does not have any undesirable behaviors when you are more efficient.Uric acid contains insoluble salt crystals.

This is only a location that makes an ideal apartment pet.Assign separate litter boxes on the same spot.There might be a quiet space where they point their ears are very reliable with children.For this reason, the best person for him to do, heap on the surface; or buy it in the past like cats spraying urine on a windowsill and is one of the bowl then lick the water bottle won't harm them but will deposit urine in hardwood flooring, sub-flooring, concrete, dirt, gravel, fabric, clothing, upholstery and most obvious choices like which color , what race etc have probably seen your cat having a cat behaviorist for help.The possible medical reasons so it won't bunch up on the affected area becomes inflammable.

What Color Is Cat Spray

So, what are other stain removers use enzymes that attack and get a kitty needs to have fleas by the social ranking of alpha cat position.These products are offered by pet owners could keep their litter box.There are two sources for such mundane activities as cleaning up blood.There are several different types of accidents will keep you safe for adult cats can be very independent, they generally don't like each and every cat dislikes water, they may still have health issues, so if the conditions have recently been infected, and which can be left hungry.Cats that are just some of the more cats are quite effective in certain areas.

There are a bunch and you'll see that spaying your cat.It came with food and water dishes that could be a bit like you can switch after a period of separation anxiety.The shampoo must be very happy to say the least.All owners of cats in your home and followed some very good at listening.To teach your cat will be less likely than indoor cats have a natural instinct to jump from.

[anderjak]

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is the XII I always wanted

Okay, so I know XII isn’t exactly revered but fuck you

No wait that’s mean

I really like Ivalice. It’s an enjoyable setting often given locomotion by way of political turmoil, and its stories are centered around a complex plot of clashing motivations, lies, half-truths, contradictory behavior, honorable betrayals, and more. It’s not so much that I think character-driven stories like in most Final Fantasies are bad, but they are pretty typical for the franchise and it’s nice to step out of those shoes and not worry about romance in a literal sense and instead focus on romance in the classic literature sense.

When I first played XII, I never beat it. Despite buying Dragon Quest VIII on PS2 just for the XII demo, and despite getting the special edition of XII in the steelbook case, I just never beat it. Yet, I loved it. I loved the characters and setup, and I loved the Gambit system, which, much like FFVIII’s junction system, I still consider criminally underrated. 

The problem, though, is that it was incredibly hard to stay invested mechanically in the characters thanks to the license board being exactly the same for every playable character. I’m not a strategist by any means, but a Dominant Strategy player (Dominant Strategy is basically “if there is a way for the player to take the easy route, no matter how tedious or mind-numbing it may be, expect them to use it” -- think grinding, exploits, etc, that are easy for the player to accomplish). I tend not to shift my strategy if it means something is working even a little bit; I’ll suffer no small amount of tedium and frustration if it just works, even if it’s poorly. And, unfortunately, the generic license board exacerbates that to an extreme, and does a lot to do the game a disservice. When every character can wind up the exact same, and you spread yourself out too thinly, it’s hard to feel emotionally or mechanically invested in anything you’re doing.

Now, The Zodiac Age is, in fact, an upgraded version of the International Zodiac Job System release which the US never got (which Square-Enix got kinda bad about at times). In IZJS, you could unlock one of twelve unique license boards for a character for more focused development. Most of the classes are pretty typical, with time mages, black mages, knights, samurai, et cetera. The downside is that, because only one character could have one class, at least six jobs would wind up completely unused in a single playthrough, thus really hammering in the idea that you have to be very particular about how to develop your characters.

What Zodiac Age does specifically, however, is allow for a second job board per character. This busts the Job System wide open to allow for things like class synergy, more team balancing options, and more. I mean, think about it: Why not have your Knight also be a White Mage, so they could absorb lots of damage while healing your weaker allies? Why not have your Red Mage be an Archer, too, so you could hit enemies from afar even when you’re tapped out of MP? Being able to pick up a job that covers the weaknesses of another is a huge boon to the flexibility of development.

It’s great, because while it still encourages you to focus on how to develop your characters, it also is a great way to make a competent, powerful character without too much stress; there’s no “bad” combination, just ones that aren’t ideal or maybe lack synergy. A lot of people I’ve found on message boards sort of stress themselves out overmuch about ideal job setups, but by and large, it seems like a system that is built around “play what you want and enjoy”. Because of the way it’s built, you simply wind up more powerful and specialized than you would have been with a generic board, even if you were super-specific about your builds in the vanilla version of the game.

Zodiac Age also has a bunch of other quality-of-life upgrades, like changing out Quickening cost to a separate gauge instead of using your MP, adding a fast-forward button for easier grinding, and auto-saving per room rather than enforcing the classic save system (though there are still save crystals and such). They also removed the cryptic requirements to get weapons like the Zodiac Spear, so you’re free to open any chest you want (thank fucking god). Mostly because now there are even more powerful weapons than the Zodiac Spear, so, uh, guess it ain’t so important to build an entire save around getting a specific weapon.

On top of all that, the game is fully reorchestrated. And it’s phenomenal. I have a hard time explaining how good sound is because that’s definitely not my field, but it’s a gorgeous score given an orchestra with a strong sense of dynamics, and the tracks blend together so seamlessly it feels as though there’s a for real orchestra just waiting for you to move to another zone so they could elegantly make the switch without you noticing. You COULD play with the original score (and a score using the OST, which is its own recording, if you got the special edition), but honestly, the reorchestration is so good you should just stick with that.

Because of this game, I’ve been playing a lot more carefully with my gambits and my licenses; every choice feels a little more substantial than before, and with the speed-up options helping to take the tedium out of the longer exploration segments, it becomes a much more ideal way to play the game.

It’s really good, is what I’m saying. I get the problems people have with this game, but if you ever felt like you COULD enjoy it if it weren’t for some of its pacing problems and the boring license boards, this version might actually really hook you.

[jonnmartinn-blog1]

Bathrom and kitchens ellicott city MD

KITCHEN ISLAND IDEAS FOR

                            YOUR HOME

Remodeling Services Ellicott City MD makes life easier and happier, providing a place to prep, rest, and gather.

But don’t just pick the primary kitchens Remodeling ellicott city MD

that appears nice. Think about how you operate your kitchen, what you wish you could do in your kitchen, and what will make your kitchen feel entire and unified. Use these ideas to get you started.

A Sink within the Island

When you pick to encompass a sink in your kitchen island, you’re adding a whole new prep station in your kitchen. Set dirty dishes in a single sink at the same time as you meals prep in another. Now getting dinner at the desk — or an entire celebration set out on your guests — won’t be a problem.so we kitchens Remodeling ellicott city MD help on this problems.

Add Furniture Elements

Let your self be stimulated by means of your favored furnishings styles, and contain their shapes, details, and thrives into your kitchen island.

Add Shelves

Include shelves on the end of your island for accessible garage that doubles as decoration. Keep your colorful cookbooks there so they’re clean to seize at the same time as you’re cooking, and let them add visual interest when now not in use. Or store lovely dishes that long to be displayed. Or custom cabinatrey ellicott city MD preserve your each day dishes out at the shelf so they’re smooth to seize all day lengthy.

Give It Color

Your kitchen island doesn’t should suit the relaxation of the cabinetry to your kitchen. In fact, whilst you select a different colour, it could upload amusing character to the room. Choose a custom cabinatrey ellicott city MD coloration that works nicely with the relaxation of your kitchen, like white, gray, or black — or be a bit daring, and pick out a shade that pops.

Think About Storage

A kitchens Remodeling ellicott city MD is a lot of rectangular footage that may and need to be committed to storage. Again, think about how you use your kitchen. Do you entertain regularly? Do you devour breakfast standing up? Do you flow to the eating room every night time for a more formal sit-down dinner? Do your youngsters generally tend to gather inside the room? Is homework done inside the kitchen?

Now, how can you encompass garage to make your kitchen time simpler, less cluttered, and more efficient? Think about putting in a microwave down beneath so that toddlers can easily make their morning oatmeal. Include a closed cabinet wherein homework supplies can be stashed out of sight. Install deep drawers for pots and pan garage, or consist of a cabinet where your special dishes may be competently stored.

There are infinite methods to make your kitchen island garage area paintings for you. Give this topic a few good notion earlier than making a decision.

MAXIMIZE STORAGE IN UNUSED SPACES:

In a standard kitchen design, there are various spaces which can be left unused. Most human beings won't even acknowledge that they have got so much untapped area that might make their kitchen maintenance lots easier. Here kitchens Remodeling ellicott city MD are some familiar places which can be left vacant in most kitchens.

THE SPACE AROUND THE REFRIGERATOR:

The fridge is one of the bulkier and area-eating appliances inside the kitchen, and it is vital to its functioning, however maximum of the time the gap round the refrigerator is left unused. In a small kitchen, area is like currency, and you can't even waste the tiniest bit. Therefore, you could create a sliding shelf drawer within the narrow regions at the side of the refrigerator. This will offer an awesome amount of extra storage space for pantry items.The space on pinnacle of the refrigerator is additionally generally left underutilized. You can create a very spacious cupboard on this spot. Though we recognize that achieving such a high cupboard will be hard, you may use it to store home equipment that are not used each day. For instance, you can preserve your sous vide machine, pasta maker, and different similar appliances above the fridge. Remember to keep a small, collapsible step ladder for your kitchen as well, so you can attain the cabinet while required.

THE SPACE ABOVE THE CUPBOARDS:

In almost each kitchen, the cabinets are made decrease from the ceiling, so that they are without difficulty accessible, however the huge area above them is commonly left unused. so we Remodeling Services Ellicott City MD help on this problem. Though it is comprehensible that it's far a tough spot to attain, it could nevertheless be very useful in case you create cabinets or shelving.By keeping a small collapsible ladder within the kitchen, you could make sure that you will be capable of reach high spots, just like the area above the cabinets. You can use this area for kitchen essentials that are not used that often. This space can also be used to save and display your fancy china this is best used on unique occasions like a dinner party, or the holidays.

THE WINDOWSILLS:

Another not unusual space this is left unused inside the kitchen in the windowsills. Though they will seem insignificant, you can save a variety of stuff on them. However, I would suggest the use of it for decoration greater than garage. Place some decorative factors like an decorative plant on the windowsill, and maintain the drapes open during the day to let in some herbal light. Both of these actions can make your kitchen look airier, extra spacious and much less claustrophobic.

CORNERS:

Another region that many humans depart unused inside the kitchen and every different room is the corners. You can create shelves in the corners that may be used for design and garage. Creating precise nook drawers in lower cabinets can come up with a huge quantity of greater storage area.

ORGANIZE YOUR REFRIGERATOR:

Apart from counter area, the refrigerator is one of the maximum commonplace factors that get overcrowded in a small kitchen. If you have got a smaller kitchen, you will must make do with a small or average-sized refrigerator, and once in a while that can be a touch problematic.To make the most out of your fridge, you need to be extra efficient with the enterprise of the food inside it. Firstly, you ought to use food-grade plastic or glass packing containers to store food, which allows you to stack your food in the fridge. You must additionally bear in mind vacuum sealing your food when you are planning on freezing it for a protracted time. This can assist hold your food clean and avoid cross-infection as well. Therefore, take a look at the internet for opinions approximately the Remodeling Services Ellicott City MD

.

Think About Seating

How regularly do you observed you’ll have people sitting at the kitchen island? Will or not it's used every day? Make sure it’s massive sufficient to deal with your family. If you need greater seating, or if you would love the seating to be particularly separated from the island, take into account setting your desk next to the island. Or build a decrease bar-like desk onto the island. This makes it smooth to transfer food from the pan to the plate, and it keeps everything — and everyone — in once area while not having to tidy up food prep right away.

There are infinite ideas for kitchen island garage, placement, shape, and style. At New Life Bath and Kitchen, we love nothing greater than taking your kitchen ideas and dreams — and turning them into reality. Let us help you design the kitchen of your dreams.

You can view a sample of the kitchens we’ve remodeled in custom cabinatrey ellicott city MD here.

MAXIMIZE THE USE OF UNDER CABINET SPACE:

Space below the cabinets and on the counter  top normally stay underused as well in maximum kitchens. You can upload hooks and small cabinets at the backsplash, so that Remodeling Services Ellicott City MD will assist you growth your garage space. These small shelves may be used to keep spice boxes that you frequently use, and you can hang some cooking utensils like wooden spoons, spatulas, whisks and ladles on the hooks.

You must also don't forget adding some led lighting under the cupboard to growth the functionality and fashion of your kitchen.

BUILD A SLEEK DIY CENTER ISLAND:

A custom cabinatrey ellicott city MD is a totally not unusual function of present day kitchens. They give you a whole lot of greater working area and storage, however implementing one in a small kitchen appears impossible. Well, in place of a full-fledged center island, you could use a small and sleek wooden table as a middle island. You also can placed the desk aside whilst it isn’t required. The area beneath the desk can be used for garage, and you may additionally have some drawers made to increase convenience and garage capabilities. Therefore, if it would not restrict your movement, you have to most simply add a swish middle island to your kitchen.To sum it all up, just because you have a smaller kitchen, it doesn't mean that you cannot get quite a few capability out of it.

If you comply with the above-noted space-saving tips, you will definitely be capable of create a few extra operating and storage area on your kitchen. Bathrom and kitchens ellicott city MD hope that you discover this post beneficial and informative.

[kansascityhappenings]

Man battling addition dies after using $33,000 insurance check to go on binge

Jennifer Alba sifts through the boxes of photographs and documents. It’s a collection of what once was, and what her life has become. A mother sorting through pain.

There’s her son, Joseph, as an infant, smiling, dressed in a onesie with his bright blue eyes matching the blue backdrop. He was her firstborn, a gift who came into her life when she was just 17.

Not too far away lies the document from a middle school recommending that he be suspended for the last few weeks of school after being caught with marijuana. He was 13.

It was the start of a lifelong struggle with drug abuse that his mother desperately wanted him to break. Over the next 16 years, Alba says, her son spent dozens of nights in jails, cycled through nearly 20 stints in rehab and served two prison terms.

Alba pulls out a bank receipt for a deposit her son made in late August 2017. At 29, he was a DJ who played music at dive bars and strip joints. A good haul was 100 bucks a night. But this deposit was for more than $33,000.

She shakes her head.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina had sent her son a check for $33,399.76. It was for emergency care after he’d broken his jaw in a bar fight seven months earlier.

The check, which included $2,405.28 in interest, was more than he made in a year.

“Dirty money,” his mother says.

Over the next four days, her son made three cash withdrawals totaling $13,000. Alba has the receipts.

On September 2, 2017, the day after his last withdrawal, Joseph Hockett II was found dead.

Alba says her son had used the cash to go on the biggest binge of his life. Housekeepers found him in Room 135 of the Suburban Extended Stay of Wilmington.

A bottle of whiskey and a rolled-up dollar bill with white powder were found in the room, according to the autopsy report. The cause of death: cocaine and heroin toxicity.

‘A cloud of grief’

Alba reached out to CNN after reading a recent story detailing how Anthem and its Blue Cross entities send checks to patients for out-of-network care instead of reimbursing the providers directly.

Another woman told CNN that a family member received a check for more than $240,000 after out-of-network surgery. The practice has forced some providers to sue patients to recover the money.

Critics say it’s a tactic insurers use to pressure providers into joining their networks and accepting lower payments — one that puts patients in the middle of the fight by sending money straight to them.

The insurance industry says the policy is designed to protect patients from surprise bills and exorbitant charges from out-of-network doctors and hospitals.

For Alba, the story crystallized the questions she had after her son’s overdose.

It also compounded her grief: She had helped him sign up for insurance to avoid the tax penalty originally mandated by the Affordable Care Act.

“I didn’t realize insurance would be part of his death,” she says.

Alba says her son was the last person who should have received such a large amount of money. Her son’s life mattered, and she’s determined to let the powers that be know something must change.

“I’ve been in a cloud of grief for the last year and a half,” she says. “I’m angry at Blue Cross Blue Shield because they gave him money that wasn’t his … [and] it killed him.”

At the time, Alba had no idea about the Blue Cross check. It was only after police turned over his belongings and she went through them that she pieced together the money trail.

Among the items she says she found, in addition to the receipts for the $33,000 check and cash withdrawals for $7,000, $3,000 and $3,000:

• A PDF on his computer showing a $6,096.14 check voucher from Blue Cross in April 2017.

• A $14,104 check from Blue Cross in June 2017.

• A spreadsheet showing that Blue Cross owed him $73,400.01 for some three dozen medical services in 2017.

“They were sending the checks directly to him and not paying the hospitals,” his mother says, “which to me is absolutely absurd, and it’s careless, and it’s just ridiculous.”

Even after his death, the money kept coming. Nearly a year later, in June 2018, Blue Cross sent his estate a check for $2,496.95.

In all, Alba says, she is aware of at least $56,096.85 in checks from Blue Cross.

North Carolina insurance commissioner: This is ‘a real problem’

Making matters worse, Alba says, Blue Cross knew that her son had an addiction problem when it sent him the money. The June 2017 check for $14,104 arrived shortly after Hockett had checked out of rehab following a relapse. Alba also has Explanation of Benefits forms showing that Blue Cross covered at least one of Hockett’s visits to rehab in his final months.

Sending tens of thousands of dollars to a person with an addiction, she says, is “like dangling a piece of meat in front of a lion and telling him not to eat it.”

“Why would you give a person with mental health and addiction problems cash like that?” she asks. “It’s careless. It’s morally wrong. It’s horrible. I don’t know of any other way to put it.”

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina refused to answer questions about Hockett. The insurer also declined to discuss why it sent large checks to someone with addiction problems, whether checks have been sent to other people struggling with addiction, or whether anyone else has overdosed and died after receiving such sums.

“While we cannot comment on the specifics of a case due to privacy laws, we recognize this is a tragedy and extend our condolences to the family,” Blue Cross spokesman Austin Vevurka said.

Vevurka said the insurance giant tries to negotiate with out-of-network providers for urgent or emergency care on amounts over $25,000. But, he said, “if they refuse, we pay the member because that is who we are contractually obligated to pay.”

“We have applied this policy to numerous providers in the state and have typically successfully negotiated payments directly to the provider as a result,” he said.

That’s news to Cody Hand, a senior vice president with the North Carolina Healthcare Association, which represents more than 130 hospitals and health systems in the state.

Hand says he’s not aware of Blue Cross ever negotiating with any out-of-network providers on payments of more than $25,000.

Blue Cross sends the money straight to patients “so that they can force people into their network. They’re pretty blatant about that,” Hand said. Almost every other insurance company pays out-of-network providers directly, he said.

“Blue Cross is using the patients as a bargaining chip,” Hand said.

It’s a practice his association wants to see changed.

So does Mike Causey, North Carolina’s insurance commissioner.

“Generous insurance benefits and lump sum payments with few restrictions on out-of-network providers are a real problem that needs to be addressed by health insurers and legislators,” Causey said in a statement to CNN.

“The current system makes it way too easy for fraud to be committed and lives to be destroyed. The issue regarding how insurers use contract provisions to prohibit Assignment of Benefits is under review. Our goal is to establish guidelines that will protect the consumer while allowing insurers the ability to control health care costs. Our concern is provisions like these can be exploited and we are researching ways to address this issue.”

‘Can I be buried with grandma?’

Alba clutches her silver necklace, which is etched with her son’s name, his fingerprint and a heart.

A decorative wooden box containing some of her son’s ashes rests on a table in the front hallway, next to photographs of her boy over the years. The rest of his ashes is buried about an hour away.

His DJ turntable sits unused in the garage. “That was his passion,” she says. “It was one of the few things that brought him joy.”

Her son was an outgoing person with a warm heart and wry sense of humor, she says. Beyond his drug addiction, he struggled with suicidal thoughts and other mental health issues. He said that he hated being addicted and that if he ever overcame his addiction, he hoped to become a substance abuse counselor. She says he once recalled trying to help a young woman addicted to heroin.

“She’s not listening to me,” he told his mother. “You don’t understand how hard that is.”

“Yeah, I do,” his mom responded.

Realizing that truth, he broke down in tears.

Her son began spiraling in late January 2017, after he was blindsided at a Wilmington bar. He was there meeting friends when he was attacked. Someone punched him in his jaw, breaking it so badly that there was a 1-centimeter break on the lower right side, according to his medical records. Some of his front teeth were shattered.

A friend took Hockett to a nearby hospital, where he underwent multiple procedures, including having his jaw wired together due to the extensive break. The hospital wasn’t in his insurance network.

Hockett also was prescribed the powerful opioid oxycodone for his excruciating pain. He had always preferred a mix of cocaine, Xanax and alcohol, his mother says. Now, he was on to something much stronger.

On March 11, about six weeks after his jaw was broken, he woke up alone in a hotel room with a massive pool of blood on the floor and nightstand.

He had overdosed, and whatever he had taken had left him unable to recall events. He began texting his mom for help:

Three days later, Hockett was still struggling with memory loss and sent Alba a series of excruciating text messages:

Over the next three weeks, he would text about how he never wanted to use drugs again. That he wanted to start anew and make her proud.

But like so many who struggle with addiction, Hockett relapsed again, this time in early April. He checked back into a treatment center on April 8.

The ups and downs of recovery continued over the next few weeks. Anytime his mom began to think that her son had finally rounded the corner, a new text would arrive.

The next morning, he checked back into rehab.

For the next three months, he continued to struggle. In between, he sent texts of wanting a Shar-Pei, a type of dog known for its deep wrinkles and dark tongue. He talked about how big his two younger brothers were getting and spoke about wanting to cook a steak for his mother.

Her son would cook her that meal — a last supper she cherishes to this day. He swung by the house outside Raleigh and grilled steak for the family. They laughed and told tales. Then, he left the next morning for Wilmington, about two hours away on the North Carolina coast, where his girlfriend lived.

On August 31, 2017, at 10:53 p.m., he sent one more text to his mother. By then, he’d already deposited the $33,000 from Blue Cross and withdrawn at least $10,000.

“I love u mom,” he said.

She responded the next morning at 5:31 a.m.: “I love u.”

Joseph Hockett II would be found dead around midday the next afternoon, on September 2, 2017. Alba remembers looking out her front window. Three police officers were standing in the driveway, their heads hung.

She instantly knew.

A couple weeks later, when police returned her son’s possessions, she found the receipts and Blue Cross material in his backpack. She says she called Blue Cross, laid into them and really “let them have it.”

She was told a supervisor would call back. One never did, she says.

‘A punch in the heart’

The rectangular headstone reads:

JOSEPH ALEXANDER HOCKETT II APRIL 5, 1988 SEPT. 2, 2017 LOVING SON & GRANDSON

His mother kept her promise to her son. Most of his ashes are buried with his grandmother Myra Thompson Long, who acted as a second mom in helping raise him.

“Seeing your child’s name on a gravestone,” Alba says, “it’s like a punch in the heart.”

Joining Alba at the cemetery is Jess D’Englere, who met Hockett in grade school and remained close with him throughout his life. She remembers him for “his smart mouth” but says he was “the warmest person.”

“He’d make you smile,” she says. “I’m really glad to be here for his mother.”

Steps from his grave, D’Englere says that the Blue Cross checks leave her baffled. After her own surgery four years ago, she says, she received a check from the insurer for more than $3,000 — an amount worth more than her car.

There was no explanation as to what the check was for or what she was supposed to do with it, D’Englere says. After speaking with several Blue Cross representatives, she says, she got this explanation: “It’s your money but not your money.” She ended up depositing the check and sending the funds to her provider.

“It was confusing,” she says. “It made no logical sense.”

The temptation to keep the cash, she says, was great. “What other emotion would you have?”

Imagine, she says, what it’s like for a person struggling with addiction, like Hockett, “when you see that type of money.”

The wind whips through the cemetery at the Shallow Ford Christian Church, providing a cold chill.

Alba fights back tears. “He shouldn’t have died that way,” she says. “It’s not the normal order of life.”

She and her son used to visit his grandmother’s grave to pray and honor her memory. “Now, they’re at peace together. It’s just odd seeing it,” she says. “But this is what he wanted.”

The sign in front of the church bears a fitting message: “What on Earth am I here for?”

Standing over her oldest son’s grave, Alba says she’s here to speak up for her son and make him “proud he’s not forgotten.”

“I couldn’t save him, but I’ll never stop talking about him,” she says. “Why else would we go through 16 years of hell? That is the reason.”

She repeats, “that’s the reason.”

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2019/04/24/insurer-sent-33000-to-a-man-struggling-with-addiction-he-used-the-cash-to-go-on-a-binge-and-died/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2019/04/24/man-battling-addition-dies-after-using-33000-insurance-check-to-go-on-binge/

[legit-scam-review]

Monero Dodges Yet Another Attack With Community’s Help

This week, the developers of Monero (XMR) patched a bug that could allow an attacker to ‘burn’ the funds of an organization’s wallet. The breach was initially revealed by a community member, and XMR developers were quick enough to fix it before any damage was done.

Anonymity above all: How Monero works

Simply put, Monero (XMR) is a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin (BTC), but with an additional focus on anonymity. It was established in 2014, when bitcointalk.org user thankful_for_today forked the codebase of Bytecoin into the name BitMonero. To establish the new coin, he used ideas that were first outlined in a 2013 white paper called ‘Cryptonote’ that was written by an anonymous personality Nicolas van Saberhagen. Ironically, BitMonero was soon forked itself by open-source developers, and titled ‘Monero’ (which means ‘coin’ in Esperanto). It has remained to be an open-source project ever since.

XMR has considerably more privacy properties than BTC: Instead of just being a decentralized coin, Monero is designed to be fully anonymous and virtually untraceable. Thus, XMR is based on the CryptoNight proof-of-work (PoW) hash algorithm, which allows it to use ‘ring signatures’ (which mix the spender’s address with a group of others, making it more difficult to trace transactions), ‘stealth addresses’ (which are generated for each transaction and make it impossible to discover the actual destination of a transaction by anyone else other than the sender and the receiver), and ‘ring confidential transactions’ (which hide the transferred amount).

In 2016, XMR experienced more growth in market capitalization and transaction volume than any other cryptocurrency (almost a 2800 percent increase, as per CoinMarketCap). A lot of that growth came from the underground economy. Being an altcoin that is tailor-made for fully private transactions, Monero eventually became accepted as a form of currency on darknet markets like Alphabay and Oasis. Specifically, after being integrated on the darknet in the summer of 2016, its value “immediately increased around sixfold,” according to Wired.

“That uptick among people who really need to be private is interesting,” Riccardo Spagni, one of the Monero core developers, told the publication in January 2017. “If it’s good enough for a drug dealer, it’s good enough for everyone else.”

Monero’s alleged privacy remains to be a controversial topic, as some suggest that the coin is not in fact fully anonymous. In an August interview with Bloomberg, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) special agent Lilita Infante noted that although privacy-focused currencies are less liquid and more anonymous than BTC, the DEA “still has ways of tracking” altcoins such as Monero and Zcash. Infante concluded:

“The blockchain actually gives us a lot of tools to be able to identify people. I actually want them to keep using [cryptocurrencies].”

Interestingly, while Europol’s latest cybercrime report suggests that BTC remains the most popular cryptocurrency for criminal activities, it also predicts a rise in the demand for anonymity-focused altcoins, including Monero (XMR).

The privacy-focused nature of Monero also prevents it from being listed on some compliant crypto exchanges. For instance, in June, Japan-based Coincheck delisted XMR and three other anonymity-focused altcoins to follow Counter-Terrorist Financing (CFT) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) procedures issued by the local financial regulator.

The burning bug: Potential threat to Monero’s ecosystem

On Sept. 18, user u/s_c_m_l described a hypothetical attack within the XMR ecosystem on the Monero official subreddit:

“I can imagine an attack where ‘A’ procures [a] large amount of XMR and [sends] it to ‘Exchange B’ in many transactions with the same stealth address. ‘A’ then exchanges that XMR for other currency and cashes out, leaving the exchange paralyzed [and] unable to use that XMR.”

Importantly, the Monero blockchain ‘burns’ XMR transactions between identical stealth addresses, seeing them as illegitimate. Instead, just one single ‘correct’ transaction could go through. Burned XMR, in turn, are fully unusable, as they cannot be replaced.

More specific details on the attack were described in a Monero blog post:

“An attacker first generates a random private transaction key. Thereafter, they modify the code to merely use this particular private transaction key, which ensures multiple transactions to the same public address (e.g., an exchange’s hot wallet) are sent to the same stealth address. Subsequently, they send, say, a thousand transactions of 1 XMR to an exchange. Because the exchange’s wallet does not warn for this particular abnormality (i.e., funds being received on the same stealth address), the exchange will, as usual, credit the attacker with 1000 XMR.

“The attacker then sells his XMR for BTC and lastly withdraws this BTC. The result of the hacker’s action(s) is that the exchange is left with 999 unspendable/burned outputs of 1 XMR.”

Simply put, the bug basically allowed hackers to burn the funds of an organization’s wallet — such as that of an exchange — while only having to pay the network transaction fees. Although they wouldn’t obtain any money from doing so, “there are probably means to indirectly benefit,” as Monero team suggested. For instance, the attackers could manipulate the market, as they would have the control over the coin supply of XMR.

Monero handled the breach calmly

The Redditor’s theory became widely discussed within the Monero subreddit, and the developers reached out with a public announcement only after fixing the issue. On Sept. 25, Monero team declared that a private patch was “promptly created and later included in the code” after discovering the potential vulnerability. After that, they reportedly notified “as many exchanges, services and merchants as possible,” explaining that the patch had to be applied on top of the v0.12.3.0 release branch.

In an accompanying blog post, Monero developers argued that this was “clearly not the preferred method” because some parts of the Monero ecosystem were still left out, but there was limited time to eliminate the bug. After that, the glitch was announced via public mailing, as it is “imperative to be subscribed to the public mailing list” for any organization that deals with Monero, developers argued.

Finally, Monero claims that the bug “did not affect the protocol and thus the coin supply was not affected,” hence no attackers were quick enough to actually exploit the bug.

XMR community stays on guard

This was not the first security concern regarding Monero within the past month. In early September, Twitter and Reddit users started to point out that the MEGA Chrome extension was compromised. The MEGA Chrome extension is a tool that claims to improve browser performance by reducing page loading times, as well as providing a cloud storage service.

Redditor u/gattacus posted on Monero’s official subreddit that the MEGA Chrome extension version 3.39.4 seemed conspicuous:

“There was an update to the extension and Chrome asked for new permission (read data on all websites). That made me suspicious and I checked the extension code locally (which is mostly javascript anyways). MEGA also has the source code of the extension on github […] There was no commit recently. To me it looks either their Google webstore account was hacked or someone inside MEGA did this. Pure speculation though.”

The application was removed from Chrome webstore after roughly four hours. Later, the MEGA team clarified that version 3.39.4 was a malicious update performed by unknown hackers with the aim of compromising users’ private information. Soon, it became clear that the attack didn’t center around Monero specifically, as the malicious code was reportedly activated on websites such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, GitHub and MyEtherWallet along with Monero XMR web wallet services. This time, the fault wasn’t on Monero’s end.

The ‘burning bug,’ in turn, was possible due to a flaw in XMR’s code, but the developers were quick to react to the warning signal raised by the altcoin’s community.

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Story of a Landscape: European, American Elements Highlighted in Renovation

Under most circumstances, an acre-and-a-half lot should be big enough for plenty of outdoor activities. In the case of a major, and prize-winning, renovation to the landscape of the Glad residence, it still proved to have a challenge — or two.

A cramped area in the rear of the home that held a pool, spa and patio was expanded by removing a fence and doing some additional grading. However, dealing with the crews involved in a major renovation/expansion of the home itself proved to be the greatest challenge designer Becca Bastyr and crews from the Shakopee, Minnesota-based Mom’s Design Build faced during the approximately nine-month project.

Photo: Mom’s Design Build

However, she says, “It’s really the people who make a big difference,” and, in this case, that extended to both the general contractor supervising the work on the home, with whom Mom’s had worked before, and the clients themselves.

“They called because of advertising we do in different magazines,” Bastyr says to explain how Mom’s was chosen for the work. “When I met the wife, I found out we had family members who knew each other. That helped generate a bond between us.”

The homeowner had lived in the house as a child, and it was her parents who installed the swimming pool in the 1980s. Later, her parents bought the property next door and used this home as a rental for several years.

When the couple moved back to Minnesota after marrying, they rented the home, ultimately buying it for their own use. As a mother with small children, she wanted to make the property more useful to her family.

“The plan was focal to the house,” says Bastyr. “They did have grass and the pool area, but it was strictly around the house.”

Photo: Mom’s Design Build

That meant doing work in both the front and backyards of the home. The front yard was renovated mainly for the homeowner and her mother to have coffee in the morning. Bastyr explains the client’s parents are Belgian, which influenced her approach to that part of the job.

“They veer toward the French, so it seemed appropriate to create a Parisian-type courtyard for coffee,” she says. “That’s also why I did a chevron pattern on the pavers for the patio. You often see that kind of detail in the stones and that adds some charm to it.”

After taking out some of the plantscape in front of the house, the Mom’s crew built new monuments to create a stronger front entry presence and installed both a seating area and a tiered fountain to further enhance the Parisian feel.

Photo: Mom’s Design Build

Bastyr says a different type of water – drainage – was also a concern because of the height of both the house and the driveway.

“Those were two set points, so we had to drain the courtyard in the courtyard,” she says. “We installed drain tile and catch basins where we could to pitch the patio correctly and still have a comfortable place to sit.”

The front yard portion of the project earned Bastyr and Mom’s a national CotY Award from the National Association of the Remodeling Industry for Landscape Design/Outdoor Living under $60,000, and is also the designer’s favorite piece of this challenging puzzle.

“European design is close to my heart,” she says. “I was excited to work with somebody who goes to Europe a lot and really wanted this look and understands it. With the fountain going and at dusk when the low-voltage lighting is turning on, it’s so charming.”

Photo: Mom’s Design Build

The backyard has more of an all-American feel to it, although it was not without problems to be solved. One early, major improvement was the removal of badly placed timber walls and a fence close to the pool that had cramped the entire space.

“It was pretty unusable,” says Bastyr of the backyard. “The only thing we kept was the pool. Everything else came down. The pool got a new liner, it got an auto-cover, it got jets and new lights. The hole in the ground stayed, but everything else was new.”

Bastyr explains that she increased the patio space by adding retaining walls around the pool area to deal with a slight grade that fell away to a lower area off the master bedroom and a living area of the split-level home.

“By doing that, we were able to add space around the pool and for a fireplace in the back corner,” she says. “None of that would have been possible without the retaining walls. There were three of them that maxed out at three feet in height, but it was enough to make a giant difference for the patio.”

Photo: Mom’s Design Build

The retaining walls also were used to create a specific niche for the hot tub that puts it at the same level as the pool. And, the lower level includes a play area for the children and pets that includes grass, is gated and reached by a handful of steppers.

The retaining walls are built from an 8-inch thick natural stone called “Buckskin,” that comes in varying lengths and has been quite successful for Mom’s. The pool’s three-foot surround is a textured concrete, and the patio itself is a mix of patterned and irregular bluestone from Pennsylvania that’s been sand set.

Bastyr says the use of the sand-set bluestone is partly for drainage, although the project does have a strip drain running along the long side of the pool between it and the house.

Photo: Mom’s Design Build

The designer says a fun part of this project was assembling the project’s outdoor kitchen. With her parents next door, siblings in the neighborhood and a large circle of friends, entertaining space was at a premium. The answer: a kitchen island that seats a dozen.

“The kitchen has a giant island and then the main cooking area where we incorporated a Wolf outdoor gas grill and an extra-large cooker from The Big Green Egg, Inc.,” Bastyr says. “They’re built into the masonry and then we have bar seating around the island.”

The client requested a pergola over the kitchen both to provide shade and support a ceiling fan and pendent lights. The pergola was built off-site, brought to the property and then assembled by a subcontractor.

“They came out and took measurements of where the footings were and how it laid out and then took that back to the shop,” she explains. “It arrived in pieces with the top in one giant piece and each column in two pieces. It took two or three days to assemble the whole thing, but it minimized the impact on the construction site.”

The patio also features a heat source with seating by way of a fireplace that – although at the back of the patio – is centered on the home’s great room.

“It was very important for them to have a view out of that room, a significant view,” she says. “I centered the fireplace on the line-of-sight out of the big sliding doors. Even if they didn’t want to be outside, they could have a fire going in the fireplace and enjoy it from inside.”

Along with space for an outdoor couch and chairs, the fireplace has seat-wall-height wing walls. The fireplace itself is a 4” veneer finish in a combination of an Indian Creek fieldstone and a variety of bluestone. At the clients’ request, Mom’s also installed the same veneer on the exterior chimney of the indoor fireplace.

Photo: Mom’s Design Build

Despite the plaudits the project was earned – it was also recognized by the Minnesota Nursery and Landscape Association — Bastyr says she’s most proud of the job’s design.

“The client was really sweet, so it was great working with her through the design process,” she says. “And, I’m always excited when people love my ideas and want to see them come to fruition.”

As for those crews working on the remodel/addition to the home itself while the landscaping was being done, Bastyr says the biggest challenge really was parking. At times, the Mom’s crew could include masons, a gas technician, electricians and a landscape crew, as well as the pool and carpenter subs, and it wasn’t unusual for another dozen or more people to be working inside the home.

“We were fighting for driveway space,” she says. “We have big trucks and we could minimize our vehicle traffic, but there might be a dozen vehicles in the driveway delivering materials and people.”

She adds that some of this occurred despite the fact that work on the fireplace and kitchen began in late November and was mostly completed in early February by working under heated tents. The rest of the project started in April, after the frost had come out of the ground, and was completed in July 2015.

Bastyr gives credit to the crews and subs for making things flow as smoothly as they did.

As for what she learned from this makeover — along with finding that people really can make the difference on the success of a project — Bastyr says for her it’s important to keep things simple.

“This doesn’t look simple, until you look at it in black-and-white,” she observes. “I can sometimes do a little over-designing. It was important for me to take a step back on this one and look at things with a more-simple mind frame. Not only can less be more, but in the end it can be more calming.”

The post Story of a Landscape: European, American Elements Highlighted in Renovation appeared first on Turf.

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