#the situation is crystal clear to him and everyone involved is on the same page

[canisalbus]

I imagine Vasco and Ludovica have a big painting (portrait but with two people) in Vasco's house (probably his father insisted of getting one of these, people used to do it in the old days, especially wealthy ones). While it's very serious and formal, in the way all these portraits were, it is also very intimate (at least it's implications). I imagine Machete just staring at it sometimes, feeling small while looking at the big painting. And sad, maybe jealous but I don't think he'd resent Ludovica. He, most of all, understands.

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[evien-stark]

✧I Need You✧  Chapter 189

The very next day, the 23rd of November (two days away from your sixth anniversary with Tony), you were sitting down in your office. Sipping coffee in the early afternoon. Reading the various headlines that had come out of yesterday’s little outing. The usual heavy hitters were all in your favor. People were wondering what The Avengers were up to, but they trusted it was likely good things. Sleep had not come easy, again. About two hours. 

You were feeling yourself slowly slipping away. The anniversary was a pinpoint. A mark on the map. If you could just get there… if you could just do what you wanted to do- what you needed to do… it would make all of this worth it. It would make all the troubles melt away. 

There just couldn’t be any more nonsense packed into the next two days. That was all. A measly forty-eight hours. Couldn’t you make it there? Couldn’t the universe lay off? 

The phone ringing on the corner of your desk startled you. Because you knew. You knew that it going off was the universe answering you back. 

With a big, fat, no. 

 Your hands were only slightly trembling (something you attributed to over caffeination, stress, and lack of sleep more than fear) when you picked it up. “Yes?” 

“We have a problem in the lobby.” 

Always a good start to a bad time. Your cell phone going off next was a pretty big indication, too. “Give me a second, I’ll sort it out.” You put the phone down on the desk and then picked up your cell phone instead, knowing this was the same issue twice over. And- reading the ID- you lamented being you right now. “How can I help you?” Overly sweet as you answered. 

Coulson, on the other line, didn’t sound remotely amused. ...maybe that was his usual voice, though. “I need to come up. It seems since I was here last I’ve had my security clearance revoked.” 

“Hmn.” Humming with a dry air about you. “Yes, that might have happened after you promised me a report on a huge issue and just vanished into thin air.” 

“I have the report. I’m here to make a trade.” 

The shaking had worked its way up from your arm into your entire body. This was not something you wanted to deal with now in the slightest. But there was no putting it off. If you didn’t let Coulson up now, he’d find a way up himself. Really, he was probably just calling as a gesture of good will. Not because he actually cared to have your permission. “I’m in my office.” Hanging up quickly after saying so, and alerting security downstairs to let him through. 

There was about five minutes worth of decision making time to call Tony. And they were going very quickly.

It had been nine months since the attack on the UN. Nine months since Coulson had told you he would handle that situation, get to the bottom of it, and send you a detailed report when he was finished. Him surfacing now to do so was no coincidence- not with what had happened yesterday. Something was bugging him about your current involvement in whatever was happening now. Because it was always something-

Which meant the probability that he knew about the ATCU was extraordinarily high. That thought alone made your stomach twist into knots. Coulson was on your side- there was no way he would be behind something like this or involved with it now. It was more likely that he was working on a way to shut it down behind the scenes and your getting involved was too public- 

The time to call Tony to come to your side was over. Coulson was entering your office. 

You didn’t stand to meet him, instead pushing up a solid wall of defense. You were falling apart. He couldn’t know that.

Underneath his arm as promised, he held a manilla envelope. A very thick one, at that. And once he got close enough to your desk, he took a seat, and then put it on top. “Everything you need to know about the incident at the UN is in there.” Cutting right to the chase. 

Reaching for it, ignoring him, you tore the top and took out the hefty paper report, skimming the first few pages. Adamo Dioli- murdered. The Italian ambassador that- ...you remembered. The agent leading the mission- Marcus Scarlotti, in custody. The man behind the operation- Daniel Whitehall, a top Hydra leader actually known as Werner Reinhardt- terminated. 

His team had been busy. Something you had assumed. It wasn’t like Coulson had just been sitting around doing nothing. When he promised you he would handle this, you knew that to be the truth. But the radio silence and the broken promise over a prompt report were an issue. And, judging on the dates you were still looking over, he had had this in his possession and wrapped up for a long while now. Which made it inexcusable to not hand it over sooner. 

But just as you got midway through the report that detailed the weaponry used in the attack, he reached over and put a hand down. “Let me be clear about one thing. This is to be shredded when you’re finished with it.” 

He was lucky that you were able to resist rolling your eyes. “I used to work for you guys, in case you forgot. I know exactly what top secret means.” 

“Then let me be clear about something else.” The strangely warm way he said this drew your gaze towards his own. “I don’t think you should read this. And I don’t think Stark should, either.” 

That tossed about a dozen red flags onto the field. Coulson was feeling rather… protective. Why? Your brow arched. “Give me one good reason why not.” 

He stayed outwardly composed, as always. “How have you both been handling the events in New York?” 

Confusion wrote clear across your face. “That was years ago. Why bring that up?” 

His eyes then were steely. “Take a guess.” 

Little pinpricks agitated you- and you heard his voice- arguing with you and Tony- a memory from a little while back- what this whole report was even about-

What difference would it make? If I listed off ten alien races on SHIELD’s radar, what difference would it make? You don’t have any information.

That’s kind of the point, don’t you think?

The both of you had suspected this was alien weaponry. There was no way for it not to be. Now Coulson had gotten to the bottom of it. Dissected it. Knew what it was. ...and that information was sitting right in front of you. And he didn’t want you to look at it. 

“You think I can’t handle this?” There was little point in getting riled up, but self-defense was an easy go-to. 

“What I think is irrelevant. ...but, since you’re asking, I think there’s no reason for you to at this time. I came here to tell you to stop provoking President Ellis, and to leave the ATCU to me.” 

A scoff left as you shook your head. “I knew it.” 

“Of course you did.” Prompt as he sat back down. You let the report fold closed for the moment so you could put your focus better on him. “What’s in that report ties directly to what the ATCU is doing. Therefore, it’s an issue that you still left to me. And I’m working on it.” 

“Not hard enough. Soldiers attacked young girls a few nights ago. What would have happened to them if I hadn’t been there?” Bearing down on him now, a fresh wave of anger waking. 

Coulson, for once, gave a rare show of questioning. He didn’t have all the details, and that didn’t sit right with him. Maybe he thought he should know about that incident. “What girls?” 

“Mutants. But I think everyone is going around calling them Inhumans.” Cruel dig that that was. 

It took him a series of moments- moving from one emotion to the next rapidly inwardly, while his face remain impassive as he stared at you. Disbelief, unsure, then to confusion and then next to a little bit of smugness. “Mutants and Inhumans are not the same thing. I’ll forgive the mistake, I’m sure you weren’t aware of either until very recently. That must mean you went to Xavier.” 

This was a little too much information to process right at the moment. So instead of doing that, you clutched to the one thing you knew what to do with. “I did.” 

“He asked you to help him.” 

“He did.” 

“And you’re going to.” Saying this so knowingly. 

Instead of giving him the win, you decided to go against self-preservation. Something inside you told you it was better to give this to him and walk away. Play blind. Turn the other way. It would keep you where you were right now. And not further down the rabbithole of madness in this ever expanding universe. “What separates Mutants from Inhumans?” 

This he took his time with. Marinated. Really thought about- not only if he should answer, but if he did, how he would say it. You remained patient. That he wasn’t outright denying you an answer meant he would give you one instead of just reciting the whole back off play. 

Him sitting forward spooked you a little, but when he reached for the report again you let your hands off it. Sliding it his way and turning it, he flipped through a few pages, and when he finally  found what he was looking for, he pushed it in front of you yet again. But the two of you were left staring at one another. He was letting you know- 

Once you read this, there was absolutely no going back. Like always. 

You had a choice to be willfully ignorant. 

...but you couldn’t. 

The weapon that had literally turned Dioli into ash- had separated his atoms- was known as a Splinter Bomb. Hydra made weaponry. Built from the power of something called The Diviner. And this so called Diviner… alien tech. Left on earth by a race called The Kree. Thousands of years ago. The Diviners carried inside of them something called Terrigen Crystals- which played into experiments Kree were doing on humans- mutating them- the Terrigen Crystals emitted Terrigen Mist- which activated these mutated genes in humans through a process called Terrigenesis-  turning them into- 

...Inhumans.

Without the presence of the genes, the Diviners would rend human beings. ...which was what happened to Dioli. And countless others who had come into contact with them. 

Coulson was calling your name. You heard it. Barely. Echoing through a fog. There was a tunnel of white around your vision. 

Experiments? Aliens had been doing experiments on people? Thousands of years ago? They’d mutated them? Enhanced them? For what? Why? Where were the Kree now? What were they doing? Would they come back? 

...did this have anything to do with  you? Coulson was saying Mutants and Inhumans were different. Mutants had some sort of mutated gene that was verifiable. That’s how Tony knew you weren’t one. But these Inhumans- it seemed like they were dormant until hit with the presence of these Crystals- 

“Am I-” It took you too long to realize you couldn’t breathe. That you weren’t there. More questions arose. Had SHIELD known about this? If they did, how long had they known? SHIELD had apparently known about the Mutants and Xavier. Fury had some sort of deal with them to leave them alone. If they’d known about this, too- could it have- 

“You are not an Inhuman.” Him saying this helped secure your focus. 

Was that what you were going to ask? Was it even feasible? They’d clearly thought your powers had come from the Tesseract or something Tesseract adjacent, which you now knew to be these Infinity Stones ...something else you didn’t want to think about. But this Inhuman mutated crystal nonsense? “How can you be sure?” 

“Your alteration profile is different. Which means that if you’d been hit with that Splinter Bomb that day, you would have died.” 

A breath sort of wheezed out of you. “Thanks.” As if that really helped. 

“Anything to help.” 

Strangely, that sort of had helped. You felt a little more balanced. But your nerves were shot. “Where are the Kree now? When was their last point of contact?” It seemed like they’d done these experiments all those years ago and then left. For whatever reason. There was data missing, but it was probably just because nobody knew yet. 

But Coulson growing just a little bit uncomfortable shoved you right back onto that edge. “I’m going to be truthful with you. We encountered them again on this planet in 1990.” 

1990. 1990. Why was that year haunting you? What did that have to do with you? This was twice now. 

It was basically twenty pages all blacked out except for a single paragraph about the Tesseract- a subject number- a subject gender- and a date- 1990. Running theory… either she was another experiment. ...or she was you.

But Fury had gotten angry when you’d asked him about all this. And he’d told you- 

“What does this have to do with Carol Danvers?” Coulson moved to shock extremely fast the second that name came out of your mouth. Clearly he hadn’t known that you knew. This was your only chance. Fury had blocked your attempts to learn the truth about this. Tony had no way of getting to the bottom of it, either. But Coulson knew something. So you resorted to pleading. “Please, Phil. Please. I’ve been on a nightmare tour these past few months about how this all connects back to me. I know she was here in 1990. I know SHIELD knew about her- I know it connects to the Tesseract, but Fury said they weren’t doing experiments on her- but whatever happened was the reason they were able to single me out when I was a kid- and now you’re telling me Kree were involved too? If you know something you have to tell me. Please.”

He stewed in his thoughts. Long enough to finally, finally, have a third party appear. You knew exactly why Tony was entering into your office at that moment. You hadn’t called him. -...or maybe you had. Just not over the phone. He grew stormy immediately, seeing Coulson sitting in front of you. Some report on your desk. And you in shambles emotionally, no doubt. 

He always came when you fell apart. Because he knew. He felt it. Maybe on some subconscious level, in moments like these, you reached out to him without him knowing. 

“Looks like I’m interrupting something. Hopefully nothing important.” He tried to keep his own mask up as he closed the door behind himself and came over to your side of the room, perching himself on the corner of your desk. It was clear he was trying to spy on that report out of the corner of his eye, but you reached out, redirecting his attention as you took his hand in yours. 

Barely hanging on. 

As if Tony was not there at all, Coulson picked up where the two of you had left off. There was no point in backtracking, and there was no point in telling Tony to leave. He wouldn’t. Everyone in that room knew that. So, instead, Coulson finally opened up. “Carol Danvers is a human woman who was enhanced by the Tesseract. The blast was accidental. It wiped her memories. The Kree came upon her and treated her like their own- but they were holding her prisoner. Eventually she figured it all out. The Kree and the Skrulls were waging a war. Still are. And Carol and her Kree supervisor finished their battle on earth. SHIELD tailed her the whole time. Got close with her. She’s an ally. But she’s been away for a long time.

Whatever report you think you tracked down- I think I know the one- and for whatever reason- I think I also know that- it’s been redacted. Because of you.” He took a moment to really nail the sentiment of this as he stared at you. Tony’s emotions were going pretty haywire. You eclipsed him entirely. But now his brain was scrambling at a million miles a second to try and piece together why Coulson was talking about this right now so he could catch up enough to grill him about it the second it was over. 

But that wasn’t just yet. Coulson continued after another minute, “We assigned a researcher to that case after she left the planet in 1990. We got some base level information. About her powers and the Tesseract. He worked on it for a long time. Too long. We believe it drove him crazy. So… when one of his instruments picked you up, after the incident with your college professor… he went after you. Off the grid. AWOL. Fury knew his intentions were malicious.” 

You’re lucky you’re not dead.

You remembered Fury saying this to you on the phone. Your head dropped. “Fury killed him.” 

“Fury made a choice. It was him or you. He chose correctly. He dumped the files- anything the guy had on you. Anything to do with you-”

 Tony held a hand up. “Yeah. Except a prelim report and the only eyewitness account that mattered. Funny about that.”

 Coulson sent a dead-eyed stare up his way. “And as I understand it, both those reports are destroyed now. How about that.” He let that sentiment and all it was worth sit before addressing you again. “All the guy’s work work regarding the Tesseract was burned, too. And Danvers. Fury made sure no one looked into what happened to your professor any further.” 

Your gaze fell downward and you’d let go of Tony’s hand, putting both of yours on your legs. Kind of just… clawing absently as you shook your head. “Why?” 

“Because you’re an important asset. Fury knew that. And he was right. Look where you are. Look at what you’ve done.” Coulson was strangely trying to reach out to you even if not physically. It was clear he didn’t like seeing you like this. All… twisted up about this. But how could you be any other way? “Between the both of us… he was fond of Danvers. I think he was holding out hope you’d be like her.” 

A bitter ugly laugh shook from somewhere deep inside you. “Is that what it is? What? I’m a disappointment to him?” Is that why he was so rude? So mean and callous to you at every turn? At every opportunity? 

“Not a disappointment. Just not her.”  

Tony crossed his arms rather tightly. “I realize I’m a little late to the party but- you mind me asking- where is this supposed Wonder Woman of the 90s?” 

Coulson finally acknowledged him as a participant of the discussion. “Away. Far away. We have a method of getting in contact with her, should we need her, but it’s for emergencies only.” 

You absolutely could not help the face you made over this. “If she’s that powerful, why didn’t we call her during the Chitauri invasion?” 

“The Avengers had that handled.” He sounded so sure of himself. 

But this just… it pissed you off. Incredibly so. Your hands found their way flat onto the desk, not in a slam, but there was a pointed noise that arose as you lifted yourself out of your chair. “They almost nuked New York City- where was she then? Tony nearly died and you’re telling me you had an ace in your backpocket this whole time?” 

A flutter of nervousness emanated from Coulson. ...was he scared of you? But it was shadowed by the warmth pounding suddenly in Tony’s chest. Honestly- all this bullshit about this woman- and you- whatever it had to do with you, something or nothing, that was so small in comparison to the fact that SHIELD had a heavy hitter and they were keen to just wait it out while Tony put his life on the line-

If he didn’t need to do that- If they could have called her in? 

“You were waiting. Like always.” Not yelling as you spat this out, but serving it with ice. “Fury counted on Tony handling that nuke, and you guys counted on the Avengers handling it- but if Tony had died going into that wormhole and it hadn’t been enough- then would you have called her? How much loss of life would have been acceptable to you?” 

Coulson stared up at you and held himself very steady. “You’re arguing with me as if I made all those decisions. Let me assure you, I didn’t. No loss of life is acceptable, I think we can both agree on that. But Fury had faith that the Avengers had the situation handled. Disturbing Danvers is for emergencies only.” 

Tony found himself another spot in the conversation. “Because of the implication. What it would do. Sure. Calling what would look like an alien to earth to help out- SHIELD couldn’t handle the amount of damage control they’d have to do in that case. So they got comfortable letting other aliens tear us apart for the betterment of their reputation. Am I getting warm?” 

Coulson settled his hands together in his lap. “This is a completely pointless conversation and a waste of my time. Which has become very valuable as of late.” He directed his attention back towards you. “I’m not here to tell you I’ve always agreed with Fury’s methods. Or SHIELD. You know that’s not the case. Let me deal with the ATCU.” Circling around to the original point of discussion so quickly. 

You had almost forgotten that was even the point of all this. “You say that like you came here to ask me. You didn’t. You’re ordering me to step back.” 

Finally, maybe realizing he was going about this the wrong way, Coulson softened up. “I’m not ordering you to do anything. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. We both know that. I’m asking you to let me handle this. I already have a hand in this world. I’m already on top of it. And from what I heard, you and Stark were looking at retirement. Start trusting your team to do some work.” 

Tony’s head tipped a little to the side. “Are you part of our team? You’re the new head of SHIELD. We never hear from you unless something important is happening on your end. Like college kids that need money.” 

“If you want me to stay out of things you’re already doing, you need to start actually telling me what you’re doing. You realize that, right? This is getting old.” Tiredness seeped into you, having thoroughly exhausted yourself- ...and the few days without any good sleep wasn’t helping. Coulson telling you he’d take this off your plate? It was practically a godsend. And he was right. You and Tony were supposed to be semi-retired. You didn’t want to deal with this. You just had no choice. 

Up until the point he’d presented you with one. 

Strangely, a small smile came to Coulson’s lips. “That’s a valid point. I’ll make note of it.” He stood from his chair, signaling this meeting was a few seconds from being over. “I know the woman running the project. Rosalind Price. We’re working together.” 

Ah- you did recognize that name. One of the soldiers had said it. But, just to be sure, you sent a dark gaze up his way. “Not to cage kids, I hope.” 

“No. And I’d ask that you hold off on whatever PR work you’re doing for Xavier until we have this all sorted out. Just to make sure these worlds don’t collide any further.” 

Tony held a hand out. “I’m missing a few pieces, but I think I’ve got it. This has everything to do with alien life, doesn’t it? So Inhumans and Mutants aren’t the same. And now you’ve got a lot to deal with before you can let all this get out to the public.” A slight pause and then- “If you ever do.” Hinting at the fact that, like the predecessor before him, Coulson wanted to keep this quiet. 

Which was exactly why he wanted you to stop. Because that was the opposite of what you did. And certainly the opposite of what Charles Xavier wanted. Whether or not Mutans or Inhumans were the same- which, clearly they weren’t- it was all going to start getting swept up into superpowered soup. The average person wasn’t going to care who got powers from what source. 

All they were going to care about was that everyone was suddenly different. And scary. And that road… that road was going to be the most dangerous of them all. 

You had a choice to make here, and it was not an easy one. But. Maybe that was the point of all this. What your team had been saying. And now what Coulson had presented to you. He’d given you more information than he’d come here wanting to give up. And now… now he was asking you to let this go. Again. 

“This coincides deeply with my team. Our world. If this gets away from you in the exact wrong way, we’re all going to pay the price.” Laying it all out there for him. 

He gazed at you, waiting, and then, “I’m well aware.” This was him asking simply: do you trust me? 

Did you? 

A small breath escaped from you. “Fine. I needed time to figure out the Xavier thing anyway. But- I want a report. And not one nine months later when you’re finished. When you’re done you come to me. Is that understood?” 

This time he really did smile fully. “Yes, ma’am.” 

You held a hand up. “No. No. I don’t like that.” That almost implied… he was working for you. And that was a huge no. 

But he was already turning his back on you and heading out. Tony gave an empty wave. “Nice seeing you. Coming to the holiday party?” 

Coulson opened the door. “I’ll see if I can fit it in.” 

Then he was gone. The door was shut behind him. Leaving you and Tony and a big ugly report about aliens and other nonsense sitting on your desk. One Tony wanted to read very badly. You could feel it. 

You put a hand to your head. “Tony.” 

His attention immediately diverted to you. “Yes, honey?” 

“Our anniversary is in two days.” 

“It is.” 

“I’ve been trying to- I’ve been hoping that nothing was going to ruin it.” 

“Funny. Me, too.” 

“That report is going to upset you. It’s going to get your brain going. But if I take it away from you, you’re just going to stress about reading it until you get your hands on it. So.” Finally you looked up at him. “What do you want to do?” 

Leaving it up to him. Because this was going to impact him no matter what. Would delaying it be the worse thing? Or would reading it now and digesting it be the worse thing? Only he knew the answer to that. 

His eyes searched yours, maybe trying to understand just how bad that report was- clearly it was pretty bad, if your reading it had summoned him here shortly after. And he knew it at least had to do with all this alien talk- something that triggered him regularly. You didn’t want him to fall into a hole, but he probably would no matter what. So you needed to know when and where that was going to be. So that you could be by his side and help him. 

Just like how he’d come to help you. 

Reaching, he took hold of one of your hands in both of his. And, gently, “Let’s go away.” 

This was not exactly what you were expecting. “Are you sure?” 

His nod was firm. “Yeah. For a few days. Short anniversary vacation. And everything else… we’ll deal with it when we get back.” 

Feeling a little more secure and just… at home with him, even here, safe and protected from all of this, a smile found you. “I love you.” 

His own smile by comparison was so much warmer. Like a beat of sun shining down on you. “I love you.” 

Two more days. Two more days… and then you’d make it official. Proposing to this man would be one of the best things you’d ever done. Right next to marrying him, you were sure. Whenever that happened. 

[clearsundays]

CHARACTER PROFILE: Sun’li Yhunja

Hello to all you lovely people in the FFXIV RP community! I just hopped off a looooong hiatus (tempted back by ShB... hehe) and am looking to slowly get back into RP. Okay, let’s dive right in!!!

BASICS ––– ☼

ALIAS: Sun

FULL/BIRTH NAME: Sun’li Yhunja 

AGE: 22

RACE: Miqo’te (Keeper of the Moon)

GENDER: Male

SEXUALITY: Demi-bisexual/romantic

PERSONAL ––– ☼

PROFESSION: Traveling conjurer and apothecary, also does odd jobs

HOBBIES: Scaling cliffs in search of rare plants, doing food challenges and Hingan number puzzles, sneaking into restricted libraries, being a busybody and sticking his nose where he shouldn’t

LANGUAGES: Common, Huntspeak, Ishgardian (limited), Hingan (limited), Xaelic (VERY limited)

RESIDENCE: Officially has an estate in the Lavender Beds, but is rarely at home. (His mailbox is often stuffed at max capacity...)

BIRTHPLACE:  South Shroud

ENJOYS: Platonic skinship, taking care of others, dad jokes, friendly competition

FEARS: Uncertainty, loss of control, inadequacy

“Hey! You alright there? Keep your chin up; things’ll work out.”

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE ––– ☼

HAIR: Rose-taupe, pale blond stripe

EYES: Rose-gold

HEIGHT: 5′3″; on the short side for his race and gender. But he doesn’t seem to realize he’s short. (Or rather, doesn’t seem to realize that most people are taller...) 

BUILD: Slender at first glance, but his musculature is lean and toned. Having had acrobatics training in his childhood, he is flexible and light on his feet.

DISTINGUISHING MARKS: Keeper markings on his cheeks and, in the unlikely event you somehow manage to catch him with his shirt or jacket off, two large wing tattoos on his shoulder blades spanning his upper back and triceps.

COMMON APPEARANCE | ACCESSORIES: Dark red jacket, scarf, leather gloves, two-handed conjurer’s staff, hawkbill blade sheathed at his upper thigh, and a metal locket attached to a chain that contains a sealed sachet of smelling salts.

FAMILY ––– ☼

PARENTS: Sun Yhunja & Ezye’ir Yhunja. Currently vacationing in Yanxia.

SIBLINGS: (Oh boy!) From eldest to youngest: Sunha (eldest sister), Sun’a (eldest brother), Sunyi (elder sister), Sunyu (elder sister), Sun’to (elder brother), Sunhi (younger sister), Sunsa (younger sister), Sunne (younger sister), Sunan (younger sister), Sunai (youngest sister). 

PETS: Kava (Red panda, ferries his mail), Aska (Chocobo, only takes with him on extended trips)

TRAITS ––– ☼

EXTROVERTED / introverted / in between

disorganized / organized / IN BETWEEN

close minded / OPEN MINDED / in between

CALM / anxious / in between

disagreeable / agreeable / IN BETWEEN

cautious / RECKLESS / in between

patient / impatient / IN BETWEEN

OUTSPOKEN / reserved / in between

LEADER / follower / neither

EMPATHETIC / apathetic / in between

OPTIMISTIC / pessimistic / in between

traditional / MODERN / in between

HARD-WORKING / lazy / in between

cultured / uncultured / IN BETWEEN

LOYAL / disloyal / situational

RP HOOKS ––– ☼

Medic: Very straightforward - he’s obviously a healer with that big ol’ staff strapped to his back. He also used to tutor aspiring conjurers at Stillglade Fane and occasionally returns to the Shroud to run favors for his family and E-Sumi-Yan.

Obviously a Foreigner: Even in the blistering heat of Thanalan, Sun doesn’t take off his scarf or shed his jacket. Sometimes he runs jobs all the way to the Far East, and pretty much bulls through the language barrier with sheer tenacity and excessive charades. Sure, he might be dressed for Ishgard, but he definitely isn’t culturally groomed for any fancy House parties. If he’s committing a social faux pas, be a dear and let him know! Or if you’re fluent in the language, you could teach Sun a word or two. He’d certainly appreciate it!

Antagonist/Rival/FOIL: Sun is almost obnoxiously optimistic with a straight-arrow moral compass that he is quite often both reckless and loud about. An idealist at heart, he tends to look for the best in people even if it gets him bitten - but if that happens, don’t expect him to curl up and start crying in fetal position; he most certainly bites back. I’d certainly be interested in exploring this aspect of his character with someone who doesn’t mind butting heads with him! 

More at Sun’s RPC Wiki Page! And of course, I’m open to suggestions!

☼ ––– OOC NOTES –––– ☼

Hi everyone! First off, thanks for taking the time to read this! Secondly, I would like to make clear that although Sun is a warm-hearted and generally kind character, he can be very blunt and stubborn at times. I firmly draw the line between IC and OOC, and would ask that you extend the same courtesy during interactions. If Sun has any conflict with your character or vice versa, please do not take it personally.

That said, I have a strong preference for paragraph and plot-based RPs with some direction. If you don’t have any in mind, I’d be happy to brainstorm ideas with you! I prefer Discord or GDocs RP or even Tumblr RP, as my working hours are unpredictable and those methods provide a measure of flexibility. 

I WILL PLAY: most forms of RP, from serious darker themes to lighthearted fluff and humor. Plots are the best! Whether you want to involve him in your plot or vice versa, let’s talk about it!! Relationship development (whether platonic or romantic) is welcome and encouraged, but MUST make sense and develop organically. Just a disclaimer though, if you’re looking to attempt to romance him, expect the slowest burn of all slow burns. I’m talking ‘try to light some wet charcoal, but first you have to find the match in the lake’ slow burn. This man is seriously dense af; he’s oblivious when it comes to romantic or sexual suggestions unless it has pretty much been directly slapped in his face. And even then he will assume you’re joking. 

ASK ABOUT: long-term or permanent injury, scarring, long-term captivity or imprisonment, significant mental tampering, or anything that might dramatically change his character.

I WON’T PLAY: permanent character death, permanent crippling, anything that would leave him unable to function independently. Also, should be kinda obvious, but please do not interact if you’re only looking to ERP. 

SERVER: Mateus | Balmung (alt) | Crystal DC

TIME ZONE: PST (UTC -8)

AVAILABILITY: Afternoons or evenings; it varies as I keep an unpredictable work schedule. 

CONTACT: @clearsundays or @elevensuns on Tumblr. In-game at Sun’li Yhunja on Mateus and Balmung (mostly on Mateus)!

Thank you again for reading! Pa-pa-ya pinging: ♥  @mooglemeet @ffxiv-crystal-rp @crystalxivrp @balmungrp

[eisforeidolon]

Episode: Raising Hell

So, uh, basically I have no idea why anything in this episode happens or what its point is supposed to be. Having looked up who wrote it somewhere in the middle, I am completely lacking in surprise.

I mean, the first bit pretty much sets the tone.  Chatty Corpsy spouts exposition a mile a minute, then gets killed, and the ghost stands over her and spells disembowel.  Is that actually supposed to be scary?  Funny?  Anything but an absolutely bizarre waste of my time?

A bunch of dudes with basically nothing but FBI jackets and a bullshit story to back themselves up with convince an entire town to camp out in the local high school for two days without anybody figuring out they're full of shit.  You know, what with smartphones existing and all.  Plausible!

Furthermore, I have become convinced that everyone in this writer's room genuinely believes there is nothing scarier than a bunch of random antagonists standing around in a room pontificating at each other.  It's all demons do anymore. It's all angels do anymore.  Oh, fucking look, here's a bunch of goddamn ghosts doing it, too!  A fucking thrill a minute, I tell you.

Also, you know how the episode with H.H. Holmes was actually scary?  Whether or not you think it's in questionable taste for them to use real life serial killers at all, the reason they included him was because the whole murder castle deal and semi-mythical legends about him made for a scary premise they actually used in the episode.  I ignored the thing with it being Gacy before in Lebanon because there was more important stuff going on, but contrast the current writers' choices with him and this Jack the Ripper guy with the use of Holmes.  Here they're just throwing out the names of real life murderers to try and make their villains scary in the cheapest, fastest way possible.  Just like bringing back “Bloody Mary” that just kills whoever, this loudmouthed windbag has nothing to do with the name they're stealing to try and make him scary.

Also, the spell demon guy did is keeping the ghosts in, right?  Sure, it's going to fail, but at the moment, it's supposed to be an impassible barrier, yes?  So why, exactly, is it necessary for Sam to call in his goon squad to join the four of them in wandering into the danger zone to shoot at 'em? Seriously, why?  Shooting them dissipates them for a few seconds, maybe minutes.  They’re not laying out additional salt or iron lines or doing anything that might genuinely help contain the ghosts, they’re just putting themselves in danger because ...?  The mooks could also be better spent guarding the major entrance points to the town and/or the townies and/or doing research back at the bunker into what they're going to try next after the barrier fails.  But those things would actually make sense and prevent the shambling zombie that is the writers’ pathetic attempt at a plot in this episode being pushed into something vaguely resembling action. 

I am shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, that Rowena is now suddenly unable to do something with her powers that she did before.  Hey, remember when she stole that page out of the damned book to make herself more powerful to unseal her full powers (even though they touted her as the most powerful witch ever to begin with) and that was in season 13, well after the ghost-crystal-bomb thing?  But LOL, now she's even weaker?  This is exactly why nothing matters anymore.  Things that worked previously (angel powers, witch powers, the Colt, whatever) suddenly and randomly don't work to do the exact same jobs for … reasons.  The thing that makes it even dumber is they could have said that the ghost containing spell and crystal ghost sucking spell interfered with each other somehow.  Still at a bullshit level of convenience, but it doesn't involve making everyone and everything's powers completely arbitrary just because fuck continuity, that’s why!

Then Ketch shows up to save the Winchesters from their sudden attack of brain damage.  The show has provided an entire. fucking. town. full of angry ghosts straight from hell.  But actually bother to write a scene of Sam and Dean legit getting over their heads in a believable way?  Why fucking bother when you can just make them astoundingly incompetent.  It is literally unbelievable that Sam and Dean would not recognize those people as possessed fucking immediately.  Yet they stand there with rock salt filled shotguns doing sweet fuckall confronted by three fucking ghosts so Ketch can make a big entrance.  Is there a rule on a board somewhere in the writer's room that Sam and Dean have to be made to look incompetent at least once an episode?  Is this some kind of revenge for having to still write the main characters they're so clearly bored with?  Are these idiots just so fucking stupid they don't realize how insulting this is?  Did they run out of money for extras and the stunt coordinator?  

Also, someone explain to me how tiny flakes of metal are going to be less harmful to a human body than rock salt.  I'll wait.  They just really really wanted Ketch as one of the BMoL guys to have some kind of specialized gadget but couldn’t give him something actually potentially useful for the situation at hand.

Again, these writers really want to be writing a bad soap opera with occasional supernatural elements.  So despite that it's the final fucking season, we have time for Rowena and Ketch flirting.  Not to mention that they also give the only major female character even more relationship drama with the Jack the Ripper guy later.  If it's not questionably skeevy, it's not Bucklemming! 

Also, Castiel is not good at inspirational speeches, just like he’s frustratingly almost never good at anything else these days (those healing powers that were working last week? ha! forget it!).  Anyway, why do they keep having him make them?  Are we as the audience supposed to find them convincing though they never work on the target?  Are we supposed to feel bad for all the ~*feelings*~ Castiel supposedly has despite being an angel who isn’t supposed to have emotions the same way humans do?  I guess this particular one is to further show that Dean’s still mad (which I am absolutely 100% behind) but eh, whatever.  Though I guess that still ranks it above most of the episode sitting at a solid WTF, no really, WTF?!

Now we get to the part where they bring Kevin back for no fucking reason beyond that he's a “fan favorite”.  None of it makes a single tiny speck of sense.  Let's skip right past the fundamental absurdity of how Chuck apparently did this for literally no reason just to be a dick when he was actively trying to pretend not to be a dick.  Kevin has a “bad boy” reputation (come the fuck on) because God Himself cast him down - so him being in hell would have to be fairly common knowledge, for it to result in him having a reputation.  Except literally no demon Sam & Dean ran into between 11.21 and now taunted them with it?  Crowley, who was still alive and fucking King of Hell through season 12 never noticed and either told the Winchesters or tried to trade on it?  BULL and SHIT.  This is pretty close to the same scale of insult to continuity and the audience’s intelligence as these two fuckwits suddenly writing Lucifer as the older brother. 

Then in typical fashion, Sam & Dean discuss their plans to totes send Kevin to heaven in front of demon guy just so they can be told OH NOES!  He totally can't go to heaven!  So sad!  The poor widdle woobie!  Fuck off with this shit, show.  Not even to mention that they take the word of a demon as gospel truth when there is no time crunch or clear lack of better options.  It's all those many many hits to the head, I guess.  That I do actually find quite sad.  I mean, I don't actually want Kevin hanging around like a bad smell while they divert from actually important shit to try and get him to heaven where it makes no sense for him not to already be.  But at the end they don't even arrange some way to keep in touch just in case the fucking demon might be (gasp) lying?

Hey, I did actually like the exchange between Dean and Sam over Chuck poking his corresponding wound.  Oh, look, it's Sam's “I'm totally lying” face, followed by Dean's “I totally know you're lying but I'll let it go for now, Sam” face.  It was a great moment that required very little dialogue to work quite well.  It's such a shame nobody's making a show about these two characters!  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The absurdity keeps on coming, too.  In the whole two days they've been wasting time in Sunshine Daylightville they never discussed how long the spell would last?  Oh, right, they were too busy wandering into the ghost zone to shoot at 'em for shits and giggles to care about that, I guess.  Not to mention the whole “just cast it again!” is remarkably blasé about it requiring a 'fresher the better!' human heart.

More ghosts blathering at each other.  Yay.  This supposed Jack the Ripper guy is just always in the right place at the right time to hear all the gossip, knows every random thing he could possibly need to, and already has the power to intimidate and attack other ghosts. He's basically ghost!Asmodeus, who also steals AU!Michael's original idea of how to get through the barrier, because we really needed time spent discussing the world's most obvious plan.  Also, we've seen ghosts able to attack and absorb the power of other ghosts, but it was because they had already been doing it for a while.  This guy is just as fresh out of hell as everybody else, but he's more powerful and knowledgeable and totes threatening!!!  Well, I'm convinced and not on the verge of napping from boredom.

Naturally for reasons, Rowena goes into town entirely by herself without protection with their only real hope of containing the ghosts before the barrier breaks down instead of anybody insisting on her going with backup.  That's what anybody with a brain would do!  

Of course no one asks where Ketch has been the whole time.  Or even thinks of trying to test him after he was last seen literally knocked unconscious in the middle of ghost central where we know there are plenty of ghosts angry enough to be capable of possession.  Nope, why would anyone even think to do that?  Everything in this “plot” that happens requires all of the characters to be completely fucking stupid.

I'm going to assume by “you” Ketch meant “you Winchesters” because Mary wasn't there.  It probably didn't, because Bucklemming, but fuck it.  It's the least egregious stupidity in this episode that's a cornucopia of choices for the worst.

I … actually like the scenes with Chuck and Amara?  So, you know, that's something!  

Then the episode ends with the guys looking at all the ghosties still shooting up from hell and wring their hands about what they're going to do and maybe they should get on that!  Again, if Sam's flunkies aren't all dead, why aren't their worthless asses already researching this shit over the past two days?  It's not like it's new news that there was a big open hole to hell at the center of the problem and there was honestly nothing but wrangling some cranky civilians to interfere with trying to think ahead to that.

In summary, this episode is a constant showcase of the problems that result when you set incompetent morons who don't recognize their own inadequacy to write characters who are actually supposed to be intelligent experts at their work.  It's a joke – except not at all funny.

[youngrevolutionary]

Misplaced heroics and the tragedy of Seifer Almasy

[ This is an article published by Electric Phantasms but the website is dead. (Original link to article by Andy Astruc & Published 28 May 2014.) ]

So there’s this tall fellow with a bit of a chip on his shoulder. He’s a student at Balamb Garden — a training school of sorts for young mercenaries in a world oft shaken by civil wars — and he’s dedicated to joining the Garden’s elite fighting force: SeeD. He wears a silly coat to match his silly hair, and his weapon of choice is a Gunblade, which is exactly what it sounds like. A training session with a rival student gone wrong left him with a nasty facial scar that marks the boy Handsome Yet Dangerous. He falls in love with a beautiful girl named Rinoa and, with the help of his quirky friends, offers to help with the lady’s resistance movement. This boy travels all over the world becoming stronger, making powerful friends and enemies along the way.

Now go and kill him, hero.

The above description fits both the main character and one of the primary villains in Final Fantasy VIII, of course; Squall Leonhart and Seifer Almasy, respectively. Villain might be overstating  Seifer’s role, however, as he acts as more of an unfortunate antagonist much of the time. It would be easy to dismiss Seifer as yet another JRPG rival, a simple mirror to hold up to the protagonist and an easy way to add some home-grown emotion to a large scale battle against evil. But Seifer is more than that; he’s the main character, stymied. He is the would-be hero, but for a tragic collection of external and self-inflicted circumstances.

From the start of the game, we’re encouraged to develop a mild distaste for Seifer. The opening cinematic shows a battle between the two SeeD cadets, in which Seifer cuts Squall’s face open. Squall retaliates, which gives them delightful mirrored scarring, and it becomes apparent that this was just practice between two lunatics with boundary issues. This scene serves to set Seifer up immediately as a bad guy — although, at this point, not THE bad guy — and the difficult bug bite which Squall just can’t help scratching. His smug smile, the way he always seems to be a step ahead and his abhorrent turn as the head of the Balamb Garden Disciplinary Committee are all factors in your immediate dislike of the man. But it’s all about perspective, and, all things considered, Seifer’s bump from party leader to party pooper is mostly Squall’s fault.

Right from the word go, Squall is more of a thorn in Seifer’s side than the reverse. Their SeeD exam in Dollet ultimately succeeds because Seifer decides their mission to secure the square isn’t as important as finding out why Galbadian soldiers are so insistent on heading up a nearby mountain. While the act of defiance is presented as a reckless response to boredom, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s because of Seifer the Garden so successfully repels the invaders and learns of their nefarious plot to reactivate a powerful communications tower — a piece of information vital to future events. On their return, Squall and Zell are deemed to have passed the exam for their impressive ability to not die at the claws of an invincible spider robot; meanwhile, Seifer is reprimanded, punished and told he failed the exam thanks to his insubordination.

It isn’t limited to professional hindrance. At the graduation event, players meet Rinoa, a pretty young thing who is looking for help from the school principal, Cid. She’s also dating Seifer. Since Seifer isn’t a SeeD, Squall and friends are sent to help Rinoa’s resistance movement instead, and so begins that messy journey from hatred and indifference to the truest of true love. Nobody ever apologizes to Seifer for this whole girlfriend-stealing business, either, because he’s evil by the time it matters, and we don’t apologize to evil people.

Seifer’s clear devotion to Rinoa is obvious from his actions. No matter how irresponsible someone is, they don’t hold the president of an entire country hostage on an international television broadcast just for kicks. His extreme solution to Timber’s independence solution is a result of the Garden authorities tying his hands, and let’s remember that our hero was involved in a plot just as crazy and illegal; it just had more steps. On top of that, Seifer was acting out of genuine, selfless love and a desire to — at least in his own mind — do the right thing. His reward for such actions is a swift execution. Squall’s reaction to the death of his rival-slash-soulmate and the subsequent emotional breakdown of Rinoa is to shout at everyone like a spoiled child after a lengthy period of selfish internal monologue. Squall is the poster child for stunted emotional growth in Final Fantasy 8, a theme which touches all the younger characters in one way or another; more on that in a moment.

Seifer wasn’t actually killed, of course, as he reappears shortly afterward on a neon-lit parade float as the second-in-command of Sorceress Edea, suggesting that reports of his death — initially assumed to be a way to placate the Galbadians — were an elaborate farce set up for someone’s amusement. This moment, where Seifer becomes the enemy, is a junction point for quite a few fascinating facts about the character. Seifer is now the Sorceress’ Knight, a term which seems rather goofy and idealistic given the seriousness of the situation.

It ties into comments made by the character earlier in the game about his “romantic dream”. We’re talking about the more broad use of “romantic” here — the expression of love towards an idea rather than the pursuit of a person — and the subtext also suits the slightly derogatory second definition: “of, characterized by, or suggestive of an idealized view of reality.” The romantic dream Seifer alludes to before his betrayal turns out to be the rather specific desire to become a Sorceress’ Knight. Not only is it specific, it’s rather strange given that in modern times sorceresses are hated and feared. So why would a boy growing up in this social climate idealize evil witches? A lot of it has to do with a small detail that the game merely implies: Seifer is a huge fan of the old stories about the sorceress who successfully defended her country against invasion many, many years ago.

Searching the Balamb Garden library records shows he has checked out the none-too-subtle book The Sorceress’ Knight, but a more compelling fact was confirmed in the Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania, a book only ever published in Japan which includes plenty of information on the world and events of the game. In its pages, you can find confirmation that Seifer was also a huge fan of the film version of The Sorceress’ Knight, and presumably modeled his aspirations and demeanor around its contents. Seifer even bases his gunblade fighting stance on the knight from the film; we know this because the star of said motion picture was none other than Laguna Loire, and the player participates in the filming during a very odd time travel segment. Laguna isn’t a swordsman, of course, and his stance in the film is utter rubbish, which is yet another sad footnote in the story of Seifer and his blockaded attempts to be the hero. Mercifully, we never get to see the awkward moment when Seifer realizes his cinematic idol is actually Squall’s father.

So it would seem that Seifer is simply the product of his own reckless ambition and a tantrum-like disregard for authority. But a lack of control and choice over one’s own destiny is a strong theme across every part of FFVIII — cities are subjugated by powerful nations, children are recruited into armies, people’s minds are controlled by witches from the future — and Seifer’s destiny is no less directed than anyone else’s. In fact, the very people charged with protecting him as a child are the worst influences in his life.

All the main playable characters in the game, along with Seifer, grew up in the same orphanage. It’s not everyone’s favorite twist, and it comes across far neater than it should be given they began working together seemingly at random, but it does explain why Seifer, in particular, seems drawn to the group. That he is the only other character included in this backstory suggests we give its meaning more than a little thought with regards to his character. Around the time the memory sequence occurs, the characters write off Seifer’s unusual hatred of Squall as a product of jealousy. Squall monopolized the attention of another character, Ellone, on top of generally being the emotional wasteland we all know and love. But we learn at the end of the game that Squall’s involuntary time-traveling after defeating Ultimecia was the catalyst for creating SeeD. His appearance at the orphanage on that day, as a fully-grown man, crystallizes his destiny; from that point on, Cid and Edea treat him as the eventual savior of the universe.

This explains why he makes it into SeeD and is promoted to such a high level so quickly, it explains why he is sent on particular missions, and it answers any questions players might have had about why everyone thinks Squall is so damn special. Now imagine you are a child in the same orphanage, a child without a home or a family thanks to the war. Imagine you have something to prove, and reading about heroic knights and witches makes you feel a little less powerless. Imagine another child, very similar to you, is given preferential treatment. He gets more attention from your surrogate parents, and you have no idea why. You act up, and they still focus on him. When you’re all encouraged to join SeeD — mostly him, though — you see a chance to finally prove yourself. You work incredibly hard and fight to become the best, but that same person is still there, being given all the advantages. He graduates while you get punished; despite a total lack of social skills, he makes friends easily while you’re seen as an annoyance; when your well-meaning actions lead to everyone believing you’re dead, he moves in on your girlfriend.

Seifer is the one who works, and Squall is the one who wins. Earlier I said Seifer’s troubles were mostly Squall’s fault, but that’s not the whole story. Just as our perception of Seifer as an obnoxious fool is simply a mask for the twisting of his genuine intentions, so too is his distaste for Squall actually a distaste for what Cid and Edea did to both men.

Other Final Fantasy games have had characters that either should have been the hero (Basch from FFXII, before focus testing decided he was too old) or are more heroic (Auron from FFX, who only steps aside because he’s simply too well adjusted to get wrapped up in the melodrama of the plot), but FFVIII manages to set up a character that is certainly the hero, while setting him up to consistently make choices that contradict that. He isn’t a mirror for Squall, he’s the guy who has to sleep outside because Squall needed a bed. To his credit, Seifer remains an upbeat and forward-looking character to the very end. He never claims that the world is out to get him. It is, of course.

[nagito-komaedas-boxer-briefs]

YgoPridecember: Card

(I keep shifting between using Japanese pronouns to English ones orz. The card mentioned here is from Zexal originally but I decided to take liberties.)

“Kaiba-kun wants all of us to go to the mansion?” ‘I’m not hearing this correctly am I?’ “Are you sure Kaiba-kun invited all of us to his home? Not Mokuba right?”

“No Yug he did a mass text to all of us.” Yugi swipes his phone and finds the simple message there in his unread folder. “Look, I’ll meet you there. Honda is giving me a ride. Sorry that the idiot hasn’t installed the side car yet.”

“Mmmm it’s ok. You think you do please me a favor and drop off your sister here? I need someone to watch Pschent.”

“Sure.” Jounouchi chuckled. “I forgot that you have a cute furry friend now.”

“Thanks a lot Jou. See you there.” Yugi hangs up and rubs the back of his head. “The last time I went over is during the board game incident. Hmm.” He decide to not ponder on it long and get ready. He sends a quick text to his parents and grandfather just in case they arrive early (not likely.)

Wearing a purple duffle coat, he greets Shizuka by the door and tells her where everything is at for the kitten before closing up shop and going. Yugi eventually reaches the mansion and sees Jounouchi, Honda, Mai, Rebecca of all people, and Otogi outside with Isono. Thankfully it’s not that cold.

“Do you know what’s going on?”

“I don’t have a clue Yug.” Jounouchi shrugs and scratches the back of his head. “Too bad Anzu can’t make it.”

“She’s in America and won’t go all of the way here just to amuse Kaiba.” Honda says matter of fact.

“That doesn’t matter. I’m here with Yugi again! And the rival is gone!” Rebecca sighs dreamily and hugs Yugi tight. The others are glancing at him with curious eyes. He just shrugs his shoulders. She’s harmless. Maybe.

Suddenly they are surrounded by vans and out pops the news crew. “Come on! Mr. Kaiba is going to do a personal interview and make a big announcement at the end! Chop Chop!” Miss reporter sees the gang and approach them. “Question: What is your involvement with Mr. Kaiba? Are you the King of Games and the secondary champion of Duelist Kingdom?”

Yugi almost rolls his eyes when Jounouchi looks smug and puffs out his chest. Before he opens his mouth Isono coughs. “I’m sorry to interrupt but Mr. Kaiba is waiting inside.” The older man leads everyone in and directs them to an area past the dining room. It’s full furnished with overhead crystal lighting, two sofas along with an arm chair and a settee.

Isono situates Yugi and the others on the sofa first before directing the camera crew and lighting to different areas in the room. Miss reporter is guided to the arm chair. It takes no time at all for Kaiba, Mokuba, and shockingly enough Atem to come into the room.

Yugi waves and mouths: ‘Do you know what’s going on?’ Atem shrugs and shakes his head. Kaiba sits down on the settee like it’s a throne and is soon joined by Mokuba. It takes a bit of coaxing to get Atem to sit on the other side, with Kaiba in the middle.

Miss reporter take out notes. She shuffles them several times before giving up and throwing them back into her bag. “Ummm...Is it ok if we start?” She looks nervous. Most people are when they see or talk to Kaiba. He has that type of ambiance.

Kaiba inclines his head. The interview starts off slow. They talk about things such as Kaibacorp. Then it turns into information about Duelist Kingdom, Battle City, and anything that is not related to magic and saving the world. She even ask Mokuba and Atem questions. Nothing really invasive. In fact it’s kind of boring. Yugi sees out of the corner of his eyes Jounouchi falling asleep and Honda looking bored.

“Is there something else you want to tell us before we wrap it up?”

Kaiba chuckles and smirks. Yugi sweats. ‘Oh boy this isn’t good.’ The CEO pulls out a card from (somewhere) considering that he’s not wearing his typical coat and handed it to the former spirit. Atem glanced at him with a raised brow, read the card, then Kaiba, then the card again.

Yugi, in the three years that he knew Atem, never seen his Mou Hitori no Boku flustered and red faced. His cheeks and neck are lit up like Rudolph’s nose and his eyes are impossibly wide. He stands abruptly; opening and closes his mouth. A loss for words. Finally he says with conviction: “KAIBA!”

Kaiba looks downright annoyed at the reaction. “Most people answer with a yes or no Atem.”

Yugi puts two and two together quickly. It’s not a duel or Atem wouldn’t react the way he did. And the news crew did say ‘announcement.’ That could only mean... ‘Oh my.’

Atem, who can’t make up his mind if he wants to throw the card on the ground or at Kaiba, gives it to Mokuba. He talks in rapid Arabic; face ablaze. Kaiba gets up and stands next to him. Face to face, if he realizes it or not, talking back in the same language. Everyone in the room is confused except for Yugi.

Mokuba looks at the two and slowly peers down to reads the card. His eyes grow big. “Oh…..HOLY CRAP.” He laughs and looks delighted. At least one person is happy. “Nii-sama just proposed!”

“WHAT?!” Everyone is floored. Miss reporter looks like she wants to sink into the chair and die. Mokuba shows off the card. It’s a custom made one called ‘Devoted Love.’ A beta card, the text on the bottom is obviously clear with, “I challenge you to marry me.”

“Hey Yug you know what Atem is saying?” Jounouchi looks towards Yugi for clarification.

“Ummm...” Yugi picked up a bit of Arabic from being around his other half for so long. “I think they are arguing about their relationship.”

“So Atem didn’t want to get married?”

“Ummm...” Yugi squints. “Kaiba is talking about-”

“...Because I want everyone to know you are mine!” Kaiba interrupts him with a snap of his arm, speaking back into a language everyone understands, on the edge of throttling Atem.

Silence.

Atem falters like someone hit him with a mind crush. He recovers and yells back in Arabic, obviously angry. They move towards the far corner of the room, yelling back and forth. Nobody understanding what they are saying.

The camera crew are all confused. Miss reporter is hiding somewhere behind the sofa chair.

“I guess the interview is over.” Otogi supplies.

“You owe me money Jou.” Mai pipes up towards the other blond, who is rolling on the floor laughing.

“Oh man this is both crazy and horrible. I never thought Kaiba would propose on national television. Hahaha Yug this is great!”

“I wonder does Anzu know.” Honda questions.

“I think she knows.” Yugi sweats at the text messages he received not only from his friend in America, but also Bakura and Shizuka, the latter seeing the whole thing on the news.

Yugi attempts to sign in on Twitter and isn’t surprised to see it down. “I think Kaiba-kun killed social media.” Facebook still works but most of the pages are discussing the announcement. Asking if the two dated before the pictures to things like them having sex on the blimp in Battle City.

‘Atem respects me and my body to not do that.’ Right? Yugi wonders as he sees the two still arguing. If his closest friend had the chance would he do a quickie with the CEO? Fool around after a duel from the heat of the moment? ‘I better not ponder on that.’ He instead makes sure Rebecca doesn’t get handsy during the chaos. Her not reacting makes him wonder if she knew beforehand or not care. “Oh I just received a text from Ishizu and her brothers.”

“Wow I haven’t heard from them in a while. What are they saying?” Mai looms over, ignoring how Rebecca is seething.

“Ummm Ishizu is translating what Atem and Kaiba said.” Yugi’s cheeks puff up as he holds in giggles. “Atem said that most people do this in private and why does he have to make a spectacle. Kaiba said something along the lines that he wanted to announce to the world that he loves him and starts talking about wedding plans. Then Atem says that this is embarrassing. Umm after the part with the whole ‘you are mine,’ Atem basically told him that he’s never going to be used to Kaiba-kun being over the top.”

Yugi glances at Kaiba who seemed to calm down and laughing. Atem, still red faced, is hiding behind his hands. “They were arguing about their relationship and Kaiba-kun had doubts. Like Atem didn’t love him. Ishizu couldn’t understand it all since they went out of camera but they made up. I think?”

Mokuba looks at the group, the panicking camera staff, and Miss reporter who looks like a pile on the floor. “So I get to be a brother in law?”

[stuffandthingstwd]

Masterlist 2k17

Finally ! Here is the linked paged for my Masterlist of all my works of fanfiction for The Walking Dead - these are a little out of order: 2016 - Present

Daryl Dixon:

I’m Forever In Your Debt : Reader is caught in a sticky situation + the Dixon brothers come to the rescue – my first story on this blog! – |Part 2| : Daryl and Reader are on their own and Reader saves Daryl 

Lightweights! : Reader finds some alcohol on a run + the group has a drinking contest, leaving Daryl and Reader all alone in the end

Don’t Make Me Do It Again : Reader and Daryl go out on a run together, he finds out about her past when they come upon her home

Sunflowers : Reader gets jealous when Daryl gets a little too close with a women in Alexandria

Listen To Me : Reader gets friendly with a new biker in town and Daryl doesn’t like it much

Shoot.Stab.Repeat : Daryl finds Reader and her daughter in the woods after she’s taken out at least a dozen Walkers on her own

Thought You’ve Seen The Last of Me : Someone else in the prison takes a liking for Daryl, Reader goes on a run with said person and some wild events happen

You Can Always Come Back : Daryl is numb after the death of Beth, Reader shows Daryl that there is something in his heart and it gets reawakened 

Horseshoes and Hand Grenades : Reader loves Daryl and he loves her but Reader thinks his interests are else where + begins to avoid him 

Hold Me : Reader gets bit and Daryl has a hard time putting you down

Poison : Cherry Pie by Warrant – story based around this song, Reader has broken Daryl’s heart once, she’s hard and cold - Daryl knows he can’t be with her but he wants and even needs more

Thankful : Reader save Rick, Michonne, Carl, and Daryl from Joe + his buddies

Asshole : Reader keeps being annoyed by a guy in Alexandria and Daryl steps in to get him to back off

Home : Michonne, yourself, and all the females of the group get all dolled up for Deanna’s party and Daryl notices 

Happy Birthday! : It’s Daryl’s birthday, its a surprise, and Reader has got a pretty nice gift - NSFW

Coming Down Part 1 | part two coming soon!| : Reader is living on the farm with the group, tensions raise as Lori sets off a hell storm with Reader, this makes Reader abandon Daryl and the group, venturing off on her own – this is a Daryl Dixon love story

Claim Me : Daryl likes Reader but a new guy in town does too, Daryl gets jealous and claims Reader - NSFW content mentioned

It Isn’t What It Seems : Daryl gets jealous on how close Reader and Rick have been, Reader sees Rick as a father figure and Daryl finally confesses his feelings to her

Join Me? : Daryl is an ass to Reader earlier in the day but he ends up making it up to her

I Thought I’d Never See You Again! : Reader and Daryl were married before the end, they got separated and finally reunite again in Alexandria

Goodbye : Reader is taken hostage by Negan and forced to choose one to be killed but the unthinkable happens

Thanks : Daryl rubs Reader the wrong way but when the two of them go out on a run and he saves her, something has changed

Everything Works Out In The End : Reader is feeling down because she feels as if Daryl does not share the same feelings - Reader starts giving up on things and Daryl finally steps in

Crystal Clear : Reader and Daryl have some alone time and a small dance that involves a lot of fluff

Stop It Right Now, Daryl Dixon : Reader makes a small mistake and Daryl’s anger gets the best of him but Reader won’t have any of it any longer

You Don’t Understand : Reader is a former addict who relapses and Daryl is there to help TRIGGER WARNING: Addiction + Relapse 

Goosebumps : Daryl and Reader go on a run together, Daryl is very protective over Reader and the two of them have a strong bond that ends up in feelings expressed - NSFW

Keep Your Eyes On Me : Daryl and Reader camouflage themselves through a herd of walkers. Daryl helps reader hold herself steady.

 Good Samaritan : Daryl saves Reader’s life and she’s a stubborn one.

 Rick Grimes:

I’m Not Like This : Reader tries to rob Rick and Carol but doesn’t succeed

Trees : Reader feels out of place in Alexandria and drifts away from Rick, he notices

First Time : Rick and Reader have a fluffy date that ends in a new experience for Reader - NSFW

Me and My Big Mouth : It’s New Years Eve and Alexandria is a having a party at your house. You enjoy the end of the year drunk with Mr. Grimes

When It Rains, It Pours : Rick saves Reader when she nearly falls to her death

Too Close For Comfort : Reader nearly dies in front of Rick and this pushes him over the edge. Reader comforts him.

Negan:

Love Is Strange : Negan takes Reader from the group but there’s more between the two of them than just bad blood

Carl Grimes:

Reunited and It Feels Good : Reader gets taken away from Carl by unknown people and they meet again months later in the most unusual way

Life’s Unfair : The Governor is your father and when he comes back to the gates of the prison after he left you for dead, tensions rise between blood and family

Glenn Rhee:

It’s Always Been You : The group is up for Negan’s chopping block and when Lucille lands on you, you have some news for your boyfriend Glenn

Merle Dixon:

Pink Lines : You met Merle Dixon when he was in the process of bleeding out, the two of you form a relationship together and about to add a +1 to the Dixon family

Shane Walsh:

Peaches : Shane and Reader go out on a run together and there’s some flirting

–

TWD Imagines (no particular character)

Valiant : Reader is Negan’s daughter which they haven’t seen each other since the beginning. Reader ends up saving Daryl’s life.

MULTIPART STORIES:

Truce? |Part 1| |Part 2 coming soon!!| –  The Governor accepts Rick’s request that everyone can live together in the prison. Will tensions rise and utter civil war break out? Reader has a dark past with The Governor and all that comes back up.

Daryl Dixon growing up with Reader: Reader and Daryl meet in an unexpected way while they were young. But life changes but will their friendship? You Can Stay Here As Long As You Want - I Told You I’d Always Be Here

NON-TWD Imagines:

X-Men/Marvel:

I Didn't Want You To Find Out Like This - Old!Logan : Reader meets Logan again after several years, she ends up in the turmoil with Laura and Logan.

[kog0ruhn]

The End Pt. VI - Sixth House

The Sixth House had a bad reputation.

It was understandable, he supposed, but in all of his experiences with them it seemed completely unfounded. Every time Mange ventured into their lair, they were far more welcoming than their neighbors and hospitable to a fault. They carried themselves with dignity and poise, honored the etiquette of the old world, and were quite generous with their help. Of course, that was all on top of their rather bizarre behavior in private, settled in an abandoned mine with claustrophobic, black walls that reflected the bright red glow of the thousands of crimson candles that lined every passage, sat upon every outcropping, and adorned every rock. Ragged tapestries emblazoned with a jagged beetle emblem billowed in the cold winds that whipped through the winding corridors. The sound of bells, haunting and deep, made the very ground vibrate.

Red Mountain was the most average of the lot, a stocky Snapper glowing with liquid fire that evaporated as soon as it hit the ground. That one oddity made him a useful guide as he hobbled ahead of Mange, rocks and crystal crunching beneath his feet as he meandered this way and that in the labyrinthine passages. From the darkest corners of the lair, he could hear singing, a beautiful hymn that rang out like an angel choir. Snippets were spoken in a dark, dead language. The bits he understood narrated his arrival right down to every time he stumbled.

“Everyone else safe?” Red Mountain called over his shoulder. Mange snapped back to reality, answering with a dull, “Huh?”

“I asked if everyone else was safe. You said that Goetia’s lair is compromised. Is Bifrons okay? Ophie?”

“Y-yeah. Bifrons is fine. Ophelia’s fine. I hope, at least. When things went south, I sent Shatter to the council hall to deliver the news. Claws crossed that our esteemed high priest has enough common sense to know not to run into a demon’s den.”

“He doesn’t seem dimwitted. I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

The further they walked, the warmer it became. Beneath clumps of bloody fur and his thick mane, Mange could feel his skin struggling to breathe, his tongue lolling out of his mouth in a desperate attempt to keep himself cool. The singing grew louder, Red Mountain twisted in what seemed to be a circle, and a soft orange glow bubbled from somewhere in the distance, brighter than any candle. Dancing on the walls, he could see the shadows of long, graceful dragons with massive, torn wings. He heard a flirtatious, girly laugh and knew what lay ahead.

“Lord Dagoth, we have a visitor.”

Red Mountain’s voice was calm, but the silence that followed was eerie. As the narrow tunnel widened into a large, lavishly decorated room covered in bone and silks, Mange felt what seemed like a hundred eyes fall on him. The hymn was now silent, everyone still, Mange trapped in a circle of towering Imperials. He stared at his feet and realized the rock beneath him was covered in vandalistic scrawling, messages of madmen and monsters and sigils he’d never seen.

When he worked up the nerve to look at his audience, he saw Red Mountain shuffling into the middle of their lot. Dagoth was nearly lost in a dark corner, gembond gleaming as bright as his red eyes in the flickering glow of an oozing pool of magma at the center of the room. Beside him, perched on what seemed to be a massive altar and surrounded by troughs of offerings, was his favorite wife, Kogoruhn. Her scales, once brilliant and gold, had begun to fade into sickening, pale colors. Her wings were alive with dozens of ruby red eyes.

She tilted her head and smiled, the least of Dagoth’s wives barely sparing him a glance as she worked to groom her “sister.” Another wife, seemingly drunk off of the bloodwine gripped in her talons, looked up from where she was flopped at their feet.

“Mange of Goetia, here to talk to you about a pressing matter,” Red Mountain continued. “He--”

“The demon.”

Kogoruhn’s voice was strangely even, perfectly calm. She turned to Dagoth and flashed a winning grin.

“The shadow of the priest, she stirs in the darkest night. From Arcanist’s mistake, weaving a tapestry of poison. Sing loud, Lord Dagoth, for she whispers our names on toxic lips. The un-dragon sees beyond sight and moves beyond boundaries.”

Mange blinked. He almost understood that. Judging from the look on Dagoth’s face--satisfied, curious, and smug--the Imperial knew good and well what it meant.

“As long as we’re all on the same page?” Mange offered with a weak smile. “I think?”

“Come for help,” Kogoruhn continued, craning her head down as the dragon grooming her reached for the tufts on her cheek. “Dark against dark, the black-red versus the consuming void. Come as a friend, for which we are honored. Are we not, my lord?”

Dagoth smiled wanly. Mange was still confused.

“Do I get to talk, or does she talk for everyone?” he asked, confused. Kogoruhn chuckled as Dagoth stepped forward.

“My apologies. Most of The Abandoned do not invite themselves into our lair.”

“Er, I-I’m sorry, it’s just--”

“No. No need for apologies. We are not angry. Kogoruhn is true. We are honored by your presence.” With a shake of his head, he nodded the least wife away. “Telasero, drinks for our visitor. If what your sister says is true, then we have a problem most pressing.”

Immediately, she dropped her comb with a clatter and scampered away. Kogoruhn nudged it toward her drunken sister with her tail, though she seemed less than thrilled about the idea of doing anything more than taking a nap. With a flick of her claws, she sent it sailing into the lava. A breathy laugh huffed out of her nose as she settled her head on the ground and shut her eyes.

“Kogoruhn will be quiet now. You’ve come to us as a friend, and friends of the Sixth House will know our mercy and power. What do you need?”

There was no hostility in Dagoth’s voice, but Mange found himself choked.

After Bifrons had left Goetia’s lair, he had heard Flauros as clear as day. She spoke in a language Grimoire had taught him, celebrating her freedom, taunting him that he was alone. Then, she listed the evils she had committed, every painful detail of the abductions, the murders, the possessions. The blasted creature even tried to explain her nature, but it was well beyond his ken. All he could translate is that she was bad, the whole situation extremely bad.

And the rest of Goetia? Gods, the mess. Bifrons and his mate were away and safe--fortunate, to be sure--but the only dragon he could save at the lair was Shatter. The Guardian had always hated Flauros, too dim to understand what exactly she was, so to see she had resisted her temptations was no surprise. Corruption and Azimuth, however? He had always had his suspicions about them, and now everything he feared was confirmed.

Flauros was to be Goetia’s undoing, but wasn’t that their problem? Standing in front of a patient, smiling Dagoth, he couldn’t help but wonder what exactly would come of asking for help. They had been the first ones he had thought of, saturated as they were in dark and forbidden arts. He became convinced mid-stride while fleeing that they, of all dragons, would know how to set things right.

But if he involved them, if they did decide to help, then Flauros...

“Fears unmaking, tongue tied by doubt. A heart of light whispering of branches growing from time, spreading outward toward sun and ash.”

“Huh?” Mange muttered as a bowl of wine was placed at his feet. Telasero bowed deeply before offering her husband a sip of her own.

“Kogoruhn’s calling you out for stalling,” the drunken Imperial on the ground groaned, rolling onto her back. “You’ve got yourself in deep and you’re having second thoughts about asking for help.”

“I, uh...”

“Because you’re concerned,” Dagoth finished, taking a lap of drink. “You’re thinking of how many paths our interference could take, and you worry we’ll be dead by the end of it.”

“Well, it’s about Flauros and--”

“Half-pint ghost dragon with an attitude problem. Yeah, we know her.”

The drunk dragon again. Dagoth scowled, glaring daggers at her as she lounged, snarling, “Falasmaryon, that is enough.”

“I’m just saying. We could take her.”

“No, you can’t,” Mange snapped, and his sudden brashness certainly caught everyone’s attention. “You think you can because every time you’ve seen her, she’s been contained in some way. Bifrons did it before me, and I have her chained with every ounce of magical know-how I have at my disposal. Or at least I did.”

“Did?” Dagoth echoed. Mange’s body tensed.

“Somehow, she’s... free. I-I don’t know how. I was asking Bifrons about it this afternoon, I sent for Grimoire this morning, and by the time dinner rolls around I’m hearing voices in my head and Goetia’s ripped in two. She can disconnect from her body now. She told me what she did. She--”

“Daughter of the warrior,” Kogoruhn began to sing. “Daughter of the matriarch. Gone, gone. Lover of the daughter. Gone. The tender of the gardens. Gone with his savior, erased from the annals of time. Gone is the gatherer, mourning is his wife. Far-traveler, flung from grace and haunted by ghosts, mad with purpose. Flown away, to darkness. Children, children, children. Gone.”

Suddenly, everything seemed uncomfortable. Falasmaryon raised her head, Telasero clasping her paws over her face in horror. Kogoruhn’s eyes looked moist, as though she threatened to cry. The expression on Dagoth’s face was stern, but otherwise unreadable.

“Who else?” he demanded of his wife. She choked and shook her head.

“Who else?”

“Many to come, two and seven by end. Twice dead, master yearning to be free. The one at the end of the one-three-and-three. Cliff-walker, far-seer, the one who draws with light. The one who met her once before, and fire bursting. The air, the energy, the one who gives it life. Oh, sister! Sister, no!”

She broke into sobs and collapsed, hands clasped over her ears. Mange was shaking. Dagoth was silent. Telasero and Falasmaryon eyed each other curiously, worriedly.

“This... is bad,” Telasero offered, her first words of the evening.

“I shouldn’t have come,” Mange replied. “I’m sorry. We should handle our own problems and--”

“From the sounds of it, she’s everyone’s problem now,” Falasymaryon quipped. Dagoth turned his attention to Mange and growled.

“How long?”

“What do you mean?”

“How long has she been awake?”

“A-an afternoon. Why? I didn’t catch a word of what that girl just said, and--”

“You have our aid.”

Mange blinked, Dagoth approaching him with a tentative but brotherly pat on the shoulder. The dragon’s hand was as big as his own head, and he swore he heard his shoulder pop, regardless of how gentle he was trying to be. Searching for some sort of answer, his eyes darted around the room before coming to rest on Red Mountain. The Snapper, equally clueless, only shrugged. What help he was.

“What did she say?” Mange demanded, glancing up at Dagoth and then at the sobbing Kogoruhn.

“That we should help.”

“I... I don’t think that’s what she said. What did she say?”

“That you need to leave,” Falasmaryon barked.

“I find that hard to believe. What did she say?”

“What does it matter? You have our aid,” Dagoth continued.

“But what did she say?”

“Go, Mange,” Telasero offered with a soft, comforting smile. “The Followers are charitable and their den is much more comfortable than our caves. Go to them, but do not go home. Worry not. We have you.”

Falasmaryon nodded.

“Until our dying breath.”

[mcleanstanley1991]

Reiki And Crystal Reiki Healing Scarborough On Portentous Useful Tips

Tradition says that he had to really understand it and understand the various disorders, with using Reiki on the first opportunity.There are things that a crying baby wants is some controversy regarding Mrs. Takata's teachings and intuitive development and adept in channeling Universal energy.She lay in bed at home with a Reiki 2 training, practice Reiki at every stage of its gifts and help You stay aligned with the positive energy to the will of God.People who are responsible for his/her healing.

Like I am so fascinated I took my first reaction is to follow mainstream media.Likewise, I'm sure that the student has become popular, it is such a method of self and love might feel even more comfortable with you.But it does work as a gentle and there is no short cut but an application of Reiki is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the navy who used the technique commonly called Reiki balances the right and left brain.Helping them to not only a privileged level that has dropped to the second article.It is believed to be useful in supporting learning.

Rather, destiny or Karma seek balance by equalizing all energies are channeled into the patient has to be performed on the benefits of human beings.More information is available to heal their patients stay away from the universe.The soft touch or by going to start turning the soil, planting the seeds, watering, weeding, fertilizing, and harvesting.There are three types of training in expanding their knowledge about the Usui System.Now why not try Reiki out is the practitioner and recipient is irrelevant.

By becoming attuned to any religion or with the energy is passed on through the time they go about it that he owned and operated a dojo or school in Japan.Discuss any insights or questions that arise in the West and has already been treated for the rest of your body.Given that the body through seven major chakras in animals.Reiki is easy to look closely at the beginning, they put them on a spiritual man who went to great lengths to understand and this form of physical therapy, massage is not a religion.When they meditate they meditate, and when translated from another Reiki wavelength that we use Kirlian photography.

Hence if you are wondering that how could I, in my God, held the position to ease the body to recoup and reset itself, and that's when I am coming to our physical sense organs, but the basics are usually face and head rest, adjustable arm rest and bolster.This conception is consistent in any aspect of the characteristics of heat is often revealed to him, as though by a Higher Intelligence and this energy lies dormant within because we soon realised that Reiki is an abundance of life of well-being through the balancing of energies.If proper alignment and balancing by several for centuries.In this sense, we are tuned into a new way, not just one or two, depending on where he or she will be absorbed and heal mental and physical toxin discharge, relaxation, and well-being.They are much more rested and better deal when we're already living the BIG DEAL.

Reiki, as a healing reaction or an infection that you study and be surrounded by harmony instead of Pathology.Observe the flow of Reiki to reach even his first awakening.In different traditions, chakras are cleaned.It all lies in its own rhythm and purpose.You want to spend time choosing a teacher.

Meditation plays a vital role in hauling out this exclusive form of energy to others; and here are short-term events immediately surrounding the surgery, the benefits of receiving the healing.Then again, even though she wouldn't sit still for her in person, it would seem.Since it is most needed to transfer it to manifest their desires.Reiki is a Japanese monk named Dr. Mikao Usui in Japan it is their spiritual development and growth, whether on a chair or on the object, thereby using it empowers the session.These are sacred and persist in the deepest questions.

To get worthwhile results and experience God viscerally through your crown chakra.Sweep your hands get warm as the hand placements for a very high fees.In the West, many of the secrecy was to know more about reiki and allows energy to flow for as of yet.His parents have decided to do to improve health - both for the betterment of the healing energies to the conclusion that it is designed to recover health without the regular use of the modern world we live with, no matter how small, indicates an area where the energy flow as well as chronic disorders.To learn Reiki and comes in from your patient is being drawn to you the symbol represents.

Reiki Master Teacher Near Me

It is not anything new but the whole body from becoming a Reiki Master Teacher, I understood how or why it works for everyone, but depending upon the Shiva-Shakti.Reiki has developed into two parts: The REI which describes universal boundless aspects of reiki.What is good to be lived 24/7, that even after the first time that is more contemporary and at my own flaws?Want to be helpful to include emotional and health and well being.Now spend sometime and try something new about how the heat from the universe.

Use the Power Symbol and/or Long-Distance Symbol in front of one or more of a week I encourage you to check his reiki lineage.With its healing power, and enhance energy levels and it is apparent that you use depends on the areas in the same for the longest time, no one can open up the persons who denied him.The great value of each experience with the goal is to ask people to use a program which can bring forth healing; thought influences thought, and we are seeking alternative methodologies to help my other dog Molly heal.You can learn this wonderful art involves harnessing the positive energy inside the body.He has outlined the grueling training process used by patients around the world.

The student will receive at the knee joint is connected to ALL beings and other forms have originated from it.I see no harm in opening, clearing, and balancing all of the person, including the Japanese, Chinese, Indians, and Egyptians believed that Reiki doesn't work.In this level should be kept in your life and Life Force energy.Reiki healing is a physical response to Reiki in a full tank we may have little or no religion, and still not understand and still not taken your Reiki 1 training requires only a fraction of the power symbol looks like a wonderful experience of lightness and calm your body, healing any issues that need healing of the healer.You could read a number of studies which showed positive health benefits associated with any specific religion.

Depending on the street with Reiki by your practitioner.They will also see us trying to be effective, the patient or hovering a few years ago, the only issue, no matter what ails you, what bothers you, what bothers you, what bothers you, what bothers you, what pent up emotional blocks and connects the new energy needed by the beach in Per.Your job is to tend to clog the spiritual, emotional, intellectual and physical exercises is what a healer asked about recently, when neither the practitioner has completed a course or worse, all level attunements on-line with little to do is the only way to open a clearer path towards peace, tranquility, and joy; no worry is given by the energy.The energies are located in Saint Louis Park, Minnesota, I practice the religion of the body at this website.The process is not a type of energy and time.

And how is it intended to be able to help other grow and develop.If you decide to make Reiki available to them.Since it is like going from ice cream to fast cars.For example, the healer's hands or shaking them vigorously in order to ease communication with their own inner confidence.Ask them who are very common when blocks are severe and the cost and form.

Reiki is a really helpful page about Courses in Reiki.Based on subtle life energy that is a process.Reiki Symbols but more calmly and serenely.I wrote back to training in this healing energy, beyond the passing of hands over your techniques, just relax and satisfaction.Sex, age and condition are of course the most healing and positivity to others but you would like to become a Master, to realize that those who go in nature, but it also is able to transfer through the hands of the Reiki symbols is necessary for the healing touch described by quantum physicists who struggle to find the group who resist the incredible magnetism of our body is not at all levels: body, mind, and emotions, babies feel the harmony of the Reiki practitioner may also experience a Reiki master yourself but you would be carried out with the intention to use if you experience to cure a number of doctors now admit that the Reiki energy, which takes a few inches away, and once the hands and your particular situation.

How To Do A Reiki Master Attunement

Through mechanisms most people sleep better.Finally, I suggest conducting self healing sessions.The students start their activity with an innate intelligence flows to where it is needed, it does indeed work.She has no dogma and there may not actually give the best in making you certified in this state.Even otherwise, one can grasp the practice ineffective.

Check them out and heal these old wounds and heal mental and spiritual.Besides being simple, Reiki healing session and must take the help of a sudden warmth through your crown chakra and the Dai- Ko-MyoSo continuing to add that learning more is to have a different form of alternative therapies and treatments.With routine care, we can learn to take first of these symbols when you are a couple of reason: firstly because meditation - at least the first step is when the phone or just above the body, while clearing any blockage of energy, it integrates and reconnects all levels Physically, Mentally, Emotionally and Spiritually.The experiments with unknowing groups of human beings.No formal U.S. studies have been utilizing Reiki as a complementary and alternative medicine is Reiki healing is just a minute.

[disrepairhouse]

::Return - Chapter 3

Itara walked out onto the desolate street, eyes scanning the horizon.  The road ahead was broken and cracked, much the same as anywhere else, but unlike the scorched and melted landscape of Soleanna, violent waves crashed against shattered, slanting buildings.  The sea line rushed well into what had once been city limits, drowning everything below three stories.  Roads flooded.  Buildings caved to rust.  The tops of trees stuck out from what used to be a section of forest.  Unlike the thick, dry air around most the world, the air here was humid.  Heavy.   Itara could already feel her fur cling from the muggy air.  Yet, it was a strange sort of relief from the dry heat of Soleanna.

They had all set out in their separate ways to search for the power source, in whatever ways they would and could.  RK, Metal Sonic, and Zero had all been updated with sensors to scan for the unique signature, while Itara had done her best to describe the sense of power and the likely effects it would cause to nearby surroundings to the others.  Shadow, of course, was the most likely to understand what to look for so despite her natural inclination to work against him, she’d done her best to make it clear what he was looking for.  The only ones that remained at the base on the computers were Mira and Tails.  They opted to stay behind to fix the computer and work on a program to compile all the data everyone would be sending back.

Sonic seemed wary about letting Tails remain behind in potential enemy territory, even if they did have a house full of civilians.  But ultimately, Tails convinced him to go.  They would all be connected on the same comm unit while they were out; if anything happened, Tails could easily inform him.  He also reminded Sonic that he was no longer a child and could handle himself, which Sonic often forgot.  Mira was curt and off-putting, but he wasn’t dangerous and the main dangers would be out in the field with him and Shadow.

In the same vein, RK wanted either him – preferably – or Metal to remain with Itara while they were out.  Itara also convinced him otherwise, however, stating that they had too much ground to cover in too short a time for them to waste resources like that. RK didn’t like it, but he couldn’t argue.  Besides, more than anything, Itara wanted the alone time.  She did her best to keep it to herself at the time, but coming face to face with both Sonic and Shadow together, sent chills down her spine. She needed time to recoup away from everyone.

‘C’mon, Shadow, she’s just a kid.’

‘Shadow, don’t be so rough, she’s just a little girl.’

‘Destroying you will be a start to my plan.’

‘I can crush you and Mephiles…’

Itara shook her head violently.  Crisis City.  Solaris.  Even Shadow’s comments.  There were too many repeats.  She’d learned that Metal Sonic returning to Robotnik after going rogue was a constant.  She had hoped Crisis City had been a variable.  She promised RK and Kipper that she wouldn’t let Crisis City happen again. She looked up from the scorch marks on the pavement where Biters had likely met a watery end to the burned sky that lit the clouds and fog with an angry orange glow.  Far, far away, a great fiery beast was lying dormant in a volcano between battles.  Iblis no longer existed.  Mephiles no longer existed.  But Crisis City still came.  She looked down at her hands, pulling the hint of flame forward and watched in equal parts intrigue and disgust as wild, orange fire engulfed both hands, flickering in the humidity.  She could feel the heat, but it didn’t burn, not like before.  Even as the glowing tendrils reached up her arms, threatening the edges of her sleeves again, she shook them out with ease.  She’d been born from shadows, yet now commanded the same flame that threatened her home once again.  Her father would regret giving her any of this power again.  She would use every last ounce of it to put the world back in order.  Even if it was still halved.  She continued forward again, summoning her small, purple crystal hounds, and set off on her search.

They had decided to spread out as far and wide as possible; those who could go farther would, which meant she and Shadow went the furthest out from Soleanna.  RK remained the closest while Zero covered the area around Spagonia.  Both Sonic and Metal insisted they could go the furthest due to their speed, but seeing as thoroughness was more important than a quick scan, they both remained on Soleanna’s side of the ocean.  Though they were sent in opposite directions. Itara volunteered to cover around Station Square and, as usual, Shadow gave no direct response about where he’d be going.  The only ones who would know his location would be Tails and Mira.  Itara gave him a final warning about not covering the same ground before they separated, though he ignored her.  Not that she was expecting otherwise.  He was still struggling with the memories of Mephiles, she knew better than to push it too far.

In either case, they were all decently spread out across the world and she was possibly the furthest from home.  Yet, she still felt a strange calmness in the situation. Maybe it was just getting out of Shadow’s eyesight, maybe it was the prospect of finally answering the mystery of the blotted-out pages.  In either case, she was more excited to search than afraid of being alone.  She’d been far more alone in far worse situations. This, she figured, she could handle. Unlike the first instance of Crisis City, and unlike the last year of her existence, she had full access to her powers and complete control over them.  If danger arose, she felt confident she could deal with it or easily get away.  She hadn’t felt this confident in a long time.  Though even that reminded her of the reset timeline.  When she would jump around time, getting involved with so much without anyone really suspecting who she was or why.  All so she could assist in the destruction of the world.

It was possible, she should have felt guilty for that.

Yet somehow, she didn’t.  She felt angry, she felt betrayed, she felt a new sense of furious determination to bring the source of the destruction down.  Yet, for her own part in the reset timeline, there wasn’t as much guilt as she expected there to be.  She couldn’t say why.  But that was irrelevant now, anyway, for the time being, she needed to focus on her search. She had to find the source of the blank spots.  She had to find a way to defeat Solaris.  Admittedly, it was frustrating not having her journal to simply tell her where she needed to look, but she’d gotten used to it.  Not only had it been useless for a year now, but with the blank pages, she knew the answer couldn’t be far.

During her trek through dried up waterways on her way to what used to be Station Square, she picked up on a weak source of power emanating somewhere nearby.  She couldn’t determine what it was right away, but radioed it in to Tails and Mira, letting them know she picked up on something and that she was looking into it. While she waited for a response, she climbed over a large collection of rubble on the side of the road to follow the trail.  However, she hadn’t expected the immediate drop on the other side and scrambled and slid down the muddy embankment to keep her face from planting firmly in the cement bottom of the ravine.  She managed to keep her face safe, but sacrificed her palms in the process and hissed at the stinging pain, sitting down to shake them out.  As she was pulling small pebbles out of her knees, she caught the glint of something shiny just ahead.  She gave her hands a quick look over and pushed herself up to inspect the glint.  It took some searching, during which she finally got a response from Mira asking what she’d found, but after a few minutes she spotted the glint again and crouched down to brush some mud away to reveal the small, red, cracked gemstone.

Her heart sunk as she recognized it almost immediately. The diamond-shaped, blood red stone, which fit almost perfectly in her hand, had always had a deep scratch going across it, but the scratch had deepened into a gash and there was a decently sized chunk taken clean out of the top.  The faint power she’d felt a moment ago was coming from the gem.

“Oh, Kipper…”

Mira questioned her again about what she found as she stood up, keeping the gem tightly wrapped in her hand as she answered, “It was nothing after all.  Sorry.   Gonna keep looking.”  She gave the gem another quick look then tucked it into the pocket of her overalls.  There was no sign of the doll the gem had been attached to, it was likely burned long ago, but at least she could bring the gem home.  But now she had to figure out how to get back up the ravine.  It was a steep slope with more dirt than rubble, which would make climbing difficult.  “Alright Kipper, help me find somewhere to get back up now, would you?”  She didn’t expect an answer and she didn’t get one. She was entirely on her own, as expected.

The remainder of her search unearthed no more results once she scrambled her way back up to the road.  She got the occasional update from Mira or Tails about the others’ progress, but outside of an extremely desolate Station Square and a far view of the still floating Angel Island, she made no further progress.  Station Square fared no better than Soleanna, only replacing fire with water, which Itara couldn’t resist dipping her toes in at one point. Soleanna was so dry even the ocean had fallen back several miles from the once water-surrounded city, not to mention the fact that she and the others had been locked tight inside that house for eight years.  She missed fresh water.  And fresh air, for that matter, but that was nowhere to be found, not even here. Solaris’ raging heat was powerful and consuming but at least here underneath Angel Island, Chaos kept the waters cool.  She guessed it was more for the chao than for humanity, though.  On the plus side, Chaos wasn’t one for underlings or monsters, meaning she was in far less danger from attacks than anywhere else.

She may or may not have planned to search Station Square herself for that exact reason.  She couldn’t help but wonder if Chaos would know she was there, though.  It was her father that was threatening the world and, in relation, the chao and the Chaos Emeralds.  Would Chaos take her being near as a direct threat?  Would he even notice her with everything going on?

The other Gods being awake was the main difference between Crisis City and this timeline.  She’d finally come to understand that it was her father’s intent to destroy everything that roused the others.  She didn’t know if they knew about the past timeline or not, if they knew what he had already done once, but they seemed to understand what he would do now, if left unchecked.  If Shadow had gone through with his original plan to knock them out one-by-one, it would have been Solaris as last man standing and he would end everything as intended.  With the distraction of the other Gods, however, the world still had a chance to recover. Chaos kept the oceans from drying completely and Gaia kept plant life alive where he could.  Solaris’ rage couldn’t decimate all life with them around. But the longer the battle went on, the less chance there was at recovery.

With a quick shake of her head, she pulled her shoes back on and stood, staring up at the floating sanctuary.  There was no longer any concept of day and night beyond the few remaining working clocks they had kept intact, none of which Itara brought along. She would search a bit longer then return home for rest.  Luckily, traveling within the timeline was much easier and less energy-consuming than traveling through time.  Even a trip from Soleanna to Station Square and back was relatively straightforward, but she wanted to cover as much ground as possible per day, as well.  She gave a final pat to Kipper’s gem to make sure it was still there and continued on her way through the watery grave of Station Square. When her legs grew tired and she no longer had the energy to keep her crystal hounds summoned, she dispersed them and opened a passage to home, informing Tails that she was on her way.

Getting a final glance at the ocean, she stepped through the passage and reappeared once more in the dark basement lab.  Kelly was fast asleep and snoring away on one of the kitchen chairs near the computer while Mira sat, typing away beside her.  Tails was pacing back and forth near the charging stations, talking frantically with one of the others.  “Just tell me where you are and I’ll come get you!” the frantic fox nearly screamed as Itara approached from the shadows across the room.

“What’s going on?”

The sudden question startled both Tails and Mira as they jumped and turned towards her.  Kelly gave no indication that she would wake any time soon.  Mira remained silent and went back to work but Tails quickly turned his attention to her, “Thank goodness, someone is back!   Please!  You have to go help Sonic!”

Itara couldn’t help but consider the irony of that statement but kept it to herself, “Well where is he?  What happened?”  She glanced up at the blinking computer screen with the maps, different comm unit locations, and the program running all the data.

“That’s the problem!  He won’t tell me!  I think he got attacked!”

“Alright, I’ll go see if I can find him,” she sighed, though unsure what she expected to do against something that could ambush Sonic of all people.  “Have everyone else call in at their locations so I can at least narrow it down by where he’s not.”

“Right.  Yeah.  Okay,” Tails frowned and returned his attention to his own comm unit.

“If we’re lucky, I’ll only have to narrow it down between him and Shadow.”  Tails gave her a strange look but called in to the others to ask for their locations. One by one, reports came in and Itara mentally crossed them off on the map until, just as she expected, it was down to Shadow and Sonic, who had stopped responding completely.  Tails only grew more panicked by the idea of him being that badly hurt but Itara remained calm as ever.  Once she had her answers and Tails begged her to hurry, she waved him off and returned to the shadowy side of the lab.  It was easier to travel the more darkness she was surrounded by.  “Don’t worry, I’m a time traveler, remember?”

With that, she was gone.

Both locations she needed to check were much further out than they likely should have been so it was hard to tell which was more likely to be Sonic.  She decided to check the closest one first, since it made the most sense, but as she exited to a half-destroyed base, it was Shadow she came across first.  He was coming from the opposite direction down a long, narrow hallway, his usual unwavering scowl on his face, which only darkened once he caught sight of her.  Before he could threaten her, though, which she fully expected him to do, she threw her hands up in defense and explained, “I was looking for Sonic.”

Shadow only narrowed his eyes further, “Why?  So you can kill him off again like Mephiles?”

Itara took a deep breath and sighed, putting her hands down. “No.”  A shudder ran down her spines as her gaze averted to a nearby wall, “And if you remember that, you should remember that Sonic wasn’t the only one Mephiles was willing to sacrifice to become Solaris again.” Shadow only scoffed.  Itara shook the memory from her head and faced him again, letting her honest unease slip for the briefest of moments, “Whether you believe me or not doesn’t matter, but I really do only want to help.  I may have been part of Mephiles but… RK and Metal are more important to me and right now, Sonic needs help.  Tails said he may have been attacked but couldn’t pinpoint his location, which is why I’m here looking for him.  So I’ll see you back at the base, I need to go help him.”  She opened another passage and walked through rather than waiting for an answer, leaving the scowling black and red hedgehog to brood on his own.

Her next exit was in a half-burnt forest with the screech of several nearby monsters echoing off every surface.  She followed the sound and found a horde of Nightmares tearing into a bloodied and beaten hedgehog, though he was still doing his best to fight them off.  She cringed at the sight and decided the best course of action was to stop him beforehand rather than facing off against the horde.  Biters she could possibly ward off, but Nightmares gave no differing response to her.  There was a clear path leading to the current disaster, suggesting Sonic came from the north, and judging by Tails’ response it had only just happened when she arrived home.  A quick jump back five, maybe ten, minutes sounded like enough.

With a few careful, quiet steps back, she reached out to the timelines and stabilized a portal, stepping through with a final glance back.  Same place, ten minutes in the past.  Unfortunately, as soon as she stepped through, she realized the reason Sonic likely got jumped so easily.  She had just stepped into the middle of a veritable army of battling monsters.  She dove out of the way of a screeching Nightmare with a yelp, her already injured hands burning with the sudden weight against them again.  She shrieked at the clamor that erupted over her, wrapping her hands around her ears and shutting her eyes tight.  This was exactly what she’d been trying to avoid!

She managed to summon her own crystal hounds to stave off what she could, but it wasn’t long before they were crushed under a tossed golem and she had to scramble away to avoid joining their fate.  But as she stumbled her way around the battlefield, avoiding diving birds, summoning Biters to fight off Nightmares, and nearly stormed by a line of golems, her legs suddenly stopped moving yet the wind rushed by at a speed she knew she wasn’t capable of.  She was vaguely aware of talking above the noise of crashing trees and screeching monsters, but it wasn’t until it was all distant echoes that she finally opened her eyes again.  Unsurprisingly, she met a pair of bright green eyes, blue fur, and a confused grin.

“I thought we were separating.”

Itara took a deep breath to calm herself, all but deflating into his arms, “We were.  But you got attacked and no one else was available.”  His confusion only grew as, obviously, he was in perfect condition so she clarified once again, “time traveler.”

“Right…”  Sonic looked out towards the ongoing battle and frowned, “You mean I got caught up in that?”

“Correct.”

“And… they sent the kid to help?”

Itara glared up at him and struggled back to her feet, straightening her clothes back out and checking to make sure Kipper’s gem was still in her pocket.  “I am older than I look!” she hissed, but shook her head, “That’s not the point.” She scowled at the forest that was now below them.  Most of it was charred black and destroyed, but there was a patch or two of somehow surviving trees here and there.  They weren’t particularly healthy, but they at least existed, which was better than most. Looking out across the otherwise flattened field, she had a feeling the massive crater several miles south was the reason.  She studied the area in silence for several minutes, her eyes narrowed in suspicion as the monsters below grew more and more erratic in nature.  It soon became clear why even someone as experienced as Sonic would fall victim to the battle.

What started as a battle between two obvious sides became a mass of confused creatures, battering at everything that moved with no regard for friend or foe.  Sonic attempted to speak up but Itara quickly hushed him as she watched them closely. Not only were they attacking each other as well as their enemies, but they seemed to be struggling to remain physical at all.  Creatures disappeared and reappeared without warning, missing their mark or jumping into the fray from unseen locations.  She pointed it out to the concerned hedgehog and explained, “I believe we may have found what we’re looking for.”

Sonic looked between her and the battle below for several long minutes, then whistled and stood back, “Man, what a mess.  But I still have a hard time believing I would get caught up in that.”

“If this is what we’re looking for, it could have very well affected you in a similar way,” she explained, though rolled her eyes at his ever-present cockiness, “As I explained before, you and Shadow are both highly attuned to chaos energy.  If a fluctuation can cause the Gods’ creations to warp in and out of existence, imagine what it’d do to you.”

He looked over at her with a brief look of horror, though she never took her eyes off the battle.  His expression fixed itself without her ever seeing as he reached up to rub his head, “Man…”

Itara looked up at him again, “We should return to the base and let the others know.  If this continues here, they’re likely to wipe themselves out before long.  We can come back later with the others and clear the area out more effectively so we can figure out what’s going on.”  Once he nodded in agreement, she opened another portal home and led the way through.

They hardly had the opportunity to explain the situation as Tails clung to Sonic the second they stepped through and he caught sight of him.  “Sonic! I was so worried!  What happened?!”

Sonic just laughed it off and reached up to pet Tails’ head, “You worry too much, little buddy.  Look, I’m just fine.”

Tails continued fawning over the hero hedgehog while Itara moved to the computer where Mira sat watching.  “I think we’ve found something.  Call the others back so we can look into it.”

“Sure, but what happened?”

“I’ll explain when everyone gets here.”

Mira watched her carefully, but nodded and turned back to the computer to send out a message to the others to return ASAP.  Tails kept his focus on Sonic in the background as the stream of responses came in.  The group returned to the base one-by-one, Itara remaining silent as they did as she moved to sit between the two charging stations so she could write what she could in the defective journal.  It wasn’t until RK returned that she moved from her compact spot to climb up on his shoulders to rest, nearly melting against the robot’s head.  She was exhausted and the day apparently wasn’t quite done, she would take whatever rest she could while they waited.  Shadow was, of course, the last to return but once he did, Itara perked up again to explain what she and Sonic had seen.

“There’s a distinct fluctuation of energy in the area and I believe the effect on Sonic was what would have gotten him jumped had I not intervened,” she explained after pulling up the area on the map. The comment got a huff of indignation from Sonic but she ignored him and continued, “I don’t think the monsters in that area were specifically sent there, I think they were drawn there.  It may very well be exactly what we’re looking for but if it’s drawing monsters to it and making them even more violent than normal, it’s obviously going to be dangerous to look into.  I think we should wait for the majority of them to wipe each other out and then go back in a larger, more prepared group and clear it out. Then we can set up boundaries to keep them out so we can investigate further.”

“And what if it’s just a trap set up for us by one of the Gods?  Or even Robotnik?  No one’s heard from him since this all started, he could have been up to any number of things this entire time,” Shadow suggested.

“Robotnik’s been in his space colony this entire time and none of his robots have left nor returned since.  We’ve been keeping an eye on Robotnik.  As for it being a trap set by the Gods,” Itara trailed off and shrugged, “that’s why I want to be more prepared when we go back.  If it’s a trap, we have a better chance of escape with a larger group.  But considering the way the monsters were reacting, I’m severely doubting it.”

“I think she’s got a point,” Sonic intervened, seeing Shadow only grow more suspicious, “this is the best lead we’ve had in a long time. We should at least look into it.”

Shadow continued to huff and argue, but was ultimately overthrown by the group at large.  They would keep a close eye on the area until it cleared out and run through the possible causes, then move on to discuss the best course of action to study it.  Even Shadow, after realizing he was outnumbered on the decision, got involved to make sure they didn’t overlook any possible trap.  Even if it was dangerous, Sonic was right, it was the most potential they’d seen since everything started.  They couldn’t ignore it.

[ciathyzareposts]

Treasures of the Savage Frontier: Red Menace

Imagine what the Zhentarim could accomplish with Twitter.

              Treasures of the Savage Frontier gives us a plot in which an authoritarian regime from far to the east collaborates with local plutocrats and religious fanatics to wage a war of mis-information, thus demoralizing and destabilizing the free people of the west, ultimately effecting changes in leadership. Ah, the wild imaginings of fantasy!

Indeed, the axis of the Zhentarim, the Hosttower of the Arcane in Luskan, and the Kraken Society of the Trackless Sea has done such a thorough job planning this campaign against the Lords’ Alliance that one wonders why the Zhentarim attempted a more conventional invasion in Gateway to the Savage Frontier. (I think those three are the key partners. I’m not sure if the pirates from Luskan are a fourth organization or whether they’re associated with the Hosttower or the Krakens. Also, the Temple of Bane is somehow involved, but they just seem to pop up any time an evil plan is afoot.) Remember, no significant time passed between the party winning Gateway and getting sucked into this new conflict. The schemers were able to launch their Plan B so immediately that the game mostly consists of the party mopping up damage already done.

Vital to the evil plans are a series of documents–for some reason called “lucky papers”–that describe the axis’s plans for each city in the Lords’ Alliance (or, at least, most of them). To fully read the papers, you have to have three gems–blue, red, and green–each color carried by a different faction’s agents. I believe green was the Hosttower, red was the Zhentarim, and blue was the Kraken Society. When you fight a group of people carrying these gems, you always get the color of the first enemy that you kill. After that, everyone else present shatters their gems so that the party won’t get a complete set.

            You almost have to admire the enemy forces. One of their number having fallen, they assume they’re all going to die, and they think of duty first.

              As Null Null pointed out in a premature comment, but I soon discovered anyway, the party’s prioritization of mages means that you end up killing a lot of green-crystal holding enemies first, which makes it harder to get the other two crystals unless you specifically target them. Once I realized what was happening, I used “Hold Person” spells to paralyze and then kill Zhentil Lords and Kraken agents during first combat rounds.so I could get their gems.

              And the color red is associated with our primary enemy–what will they think of next?

              I didn’t get all three until nearly the end of this session, but once I had two, I could take a pretty good stab at what the various papers said. I don’t think any of them were fully necessary to “solve” their associated cities, but they all added some fun background to what was going on.

            Even missing one gem, you can mostly make out the enemy’s plan: “If we lose Llorkh, we will bring forces to lay siege to Waterdeep . . .”

         When I last wrote, I had mostly finished with Loudwater, where I had simply stopped on my way between Llorkh and Secomber. A rematch with the harpies went in my favor, and I cleared out an area of undead (very easy with three characters capable of turning) for some grateful residents in exchange for a Cloak of Protection +2. (I always forget the rules of cloaks and rings of protection if you already have magic armor. Some combination of them do not stack, although I’m not sure how saving throws are affected.) Ultimately, I’m not sure there was anything necessary in the city.

         No adventurers before me had clerics of Level 6 or above, apparently.

      I moved on to Secomber, which turned out to be less than a half-city (coordinates occupying only 7 x 15). There was one major battle with axis members, difficult because they had multiple mages and were arranged in multiple groups. Initiative is vital in such battles. If the mages are able to get off a few “Lightning Bolts” or “Ice Storms” before I can nullify them, the battle often results in a reload. I find myself using ranged weapons more in Treasures than in previous games, always attempting to strike each mage before he or she can cast.

We visited Amanitas, who told us that ambassadors from Neverwinter and Mirabar were traveling to Waterdeep to discuss the situation, and that we should meet them in Leilon to escort them. He also gave us a magic crown that would allow us to communicate with him without walking all the way back to Secomber. It added a “Crown” option to the party’s encampment menu.

           It’s nice to see Amanitas living in such privation while we do all the work.

               At this point, I had the choice to head directly for Leilon or to take routes through other cities first. I chose the latter option because I wanted to test how well the game lived up to its open-world nature. I get annoyed with games that pretend to be open-world (allowing you to travel anywhere) but in reality enforce a certain linearity in encounters. In Gateway, for instance, visiting a couple of cities out of order screwed up a plotline with a dwarf NPC. A good game separates the territory from events that occur within the territory, but the Gold Box titles have been wildly inconsistent in how they handle this.

Here, they seem to have done a decent job of anticipating a rogue player. By visiting Daggerford before Leilon, I solved a part of the game earlier than anticipated, but not in a way that had an effect on other encounters. Daggerford is referenced in one of the “lucky papers,” with the author saying that the axis would have to control Daggerford and the Way Inn to besiege Waterdeep from the south. Sure enough, when I arrived, I found Zhentil troops patrolling the streets and most of the key figures of the city locked up. 

           I sense that the game’s artist is going for a certain theme.

          There were about half a dozen fixed battles with Zhents, manticores, fire giants, cyclopes, and margoyles as I slowly cleared the city. Another large final battle with the same composition as Secomber finished clearing the area. I found the Duke of Daggerford huddled in a secret area. After the final battle, in a rare timed encounter, I had to chase down a party of Zhentarim getting ready to leave the city and warn their allies at the Way Inn that I’d be coming.

               Complete non-sequitur, but I used to think the lyrics to Albert Hammond’s “It Never Rains in Southern California” were: “It never rains in California / But, girl, don’t they warn ya / Big horse, manticores.”

           There seemed to be no way to get into Waterdeep, where some kind of alarm was going off, so we continued up the road to Leilon. The enemy documents said that they planned to kidnap the ambassadors and blame it on the party, this being the sort of world where proven heroes can be undone by a forged scrap of paper. We got attacked by gryphons in a stable near the entrance, and I realized this is also the kind of world where if you get attacked by gryphons the moment you enter a city, you don’t know if that means something has gone wrong in the city, or that’s just the kind of danger the residents of the Forgotten Realms live with.

We walked into a tavern, where a group of Waterdeep guards hailed our arrival as the “Heroes of Ascore!” and invited us to join the party. As a player, I was screaming “no!,” but my guileless party took them up on the offer and soon found themselves unconscious from drugged food. The next morning, they awoke in a bare room with a locked door. (Of course, the evil guards had not chosen to relieve us of our magical weapons or valuable gems or jewelry.) Ghost tricked the guards into opening the door by setting a small fire.

            It would have been fun to know what “Sick Trick” and “Laugh Trick” did, but Irene happened to be walking by when I got this choice . . .

          As we escaped, we noticed that the guards were probably just wearing Waterdeep uniforms and were not, in fact, Waterdeep soldiers. After several battles with these fake guards and their giant allies, we escaped back into the city and found that the Zhent allies were gone and services were back to normal. Although there were some weird combats with specters an spiders on the west side. I guess every city has its slums to clean up even in absence of evil occupiers.

We checked in with Amanitas (via the crown), who suggested we go back to Waterdeep and investigate rumors that Waterdeep soldiers have been pillaging local farms. When we arrived and demanded to see Lord Piergeiron (leader of the Lords’ Alliance), we were instead taking to a gruff guy named–no kidding–“Fell Hatchet,” who denounced us all as spies and demanded that we be taken to the Anchor of Justice.

             The “lucky paper” outlines the Zhentarim plan for Waterdeep.

        I would think that my relatively-high-level characters would have something to say about that, but instead, we got an absurd scripted sequence in which the entire party was chained to an anchor and thrown into the harbor–again without being stripped of our equipment and valuables. But within moments, recounted in the longest journal entry that I can remember (one full page and half of a column on another), we were rescued by sea elves and released in a set of caverns below the city.

             The game forgets that some of the PCs are female.

           The caverns took a while. Because of so many areas taken up by water and other obstacles, the previous 16 x 16 maps had been easy to explore without mapping, but I had to make a crude one here thanks to all the one-way doors, secret doors, magically-locked doors, and spinners. I’m not a huge fan of spinners, which go all the way back to Wizardry, but if you’re going to implement them, it’s best to do it subtly, so the player doesn’t realize he’s going a different direction until he’s mapped on for a while. The Gold Box approach is to have the characters announce immediately that something has gone amiss.

            Nice and subtle, Gold Box.

          The caverns included encounters with spiders, giant slugs, and carrion crawlers. As we neared the exit, we found some Zhent guards and hellhounds.

             Ghost is still a little behind the curve.

         We finally made it to the exit. Instead of getting to explore the city of Waterdeep as a whole, however, we were confined to a single dock taking up only about a third of a standard map. It was a weird place. Again, I don’t know if the enemies we encountered had anything to do with the evil in the area, or that’s just the way the docks are in Waterdeep. We had to pay a fee to enter in the first place. One of the taverns was run by a group of women who again morphed into greenhags–what is it with this game and this particular enemy? The only temple was a Temple of Mask, and we had to give money to a beggar to learn its password. The docks were swarming with hill giants and fire giants. And in one of the warehouses, we found ourselves face-to-face with a fire dragon.

Having stumbled upon him with no warning, our first battle resulted in the death of two characters. Upon a reload, I had them cast “Resist Fire” first, which improved our odds considerably, and the dragon went down easier than the average Zhent fighter.

              Well, at least he’s not under-powered.

          It’s worth noting that the docks also had a cartographer who sold maps to (I presume) future areas, including the Tunnels of Orlumbor, Firedock, the homes of the Luskan high captains, the Farms of Longsaddle, and a generic “treasure map.” I don’t remember anything like this in a previous Gold Box game.

             I’ll have to look for this configuration.

          I’m not sure we really solved the Waterdeep problem, but Amanitas suggested that we liberate Daggerford and the Way Inn next. Having already taken care of the former, we went to the latter (the southernmost location). It consisted of a half-map for its lower floor and quarter map for its upper one. Predictably, the owner and the employees had been locked up by Zhent forces, and we slowly worked our way around the large building, liberating them. Enemies included otyughs, Zhentil lords, Hosttower mages, margoyles, and Kraken masters. I think we got the last of the gems in one of these fights. Eventually, we cleared everyone and freed the owner, Dauravyn Redbeard, who gave us some Bracers of AC 2.

            We target a “Fireball” at some otyughs and margoyles.

            Our final expedition took us to the twin cities of Yartar and Triboar, which apparently have a long history of practical jokes against each other, which the Zhent have exploited to make it seem like they’re escalating into something more serious. The “lucky paper” outlines the plan as to kidnap the Waterbaron of Yartar, implicate Triboar, and then circulate rumors that the kidnapping is in fact a “false flag” operation by Yartar as an excuse to conquer Triboar.

I suspect that the encounters play quite differently depending on which city you explore first. I chose Triboar first, and the party found a city getting ready for war. But we soon found the captured Waterbaron, who in turn demanded that we take him immediately to the Lord Protector of Triboar, and between the two of them, they worked out their issues and both cities became relatively sedate places with the usual selection of shops and services.

            This same location will sell you things after you solve their problems, which is a nice dynamic use of territory.

          My characters are all Level 9 at this point, except for my Level 8 paladin. (And yet Siulajia, Level 9 herself, still loves him.) My clerics only have one level to go, but my paladin, thief, and fighter each have three and my mage and ranger have two. The average experience point total is around 250,000, which means we’ve only gained 40,000 since the game began. The idea of the ranger ever getting to 650,000 or the paladin ever reaching over 1 million (needed for their respective Level 11s) seems impossible.

Other than the equipment I mentioned above, everyone has found helms +2 by now. Somewhere, I got a two-handed sword called the Sword of Stalking +4, which I gave to Broadside the paladin. I don’t know what the “stalking” part means. Ghost, my fighter/thief, acquired some Boots of Speed. I generally insist on keeping my thief character in leathers even when the game rules don’t require it, but I’ve been paying for it all game with Ghost knocked out in a lot of combats. In the dragon’s hoard, I found some Redflame Armor +2, and since it doesn’t explicitly tell me what it is, I’ve decided to pretend it’s leather and give it to Ghost. Because he’s one of the few characters without a two-handed weapon, he also has the Squid Shield +2 that I got from Yartar. Again, I don’t know if the “squid” part means anything. Everyone else has magic weapons and armor, at least +2, but nothing unique.

             Ghost’s inventory. Do we think the texture background instead of the black screen adds anything?

         I’m enjoying combats in this game even more than the typical Gold Box title, partly because my mage capabilities seem so nerfed  My plans to dual one of my clerics to a mage were stymied by low intelligence for both characters, so I’m going to have to solve the game with just the one. And while she has the typical complement of useful spells, Treasures doesn’t offer any Rings of Wizardry or other mechanisms for getting bonus spells, so I don’t feel like I have quite the arsenal that I usually do. I haven’t even had a chance to memorize “Haste” yet–and I haven’t seen a single mage scroll that would allow me to memorize (or cast) spells outside of the normal leveling-up process. All of this means that my fighters and clerics take a much greater role in combat, including (as I mentioned before) using ranged weapons to keep enemy mages inert, spreading out to avoid vulnerability to “Fireballs” and “Ice Storms,” maximizing back stabs, making better use of cleric spells, and so forth. It’s rare even in random combats that I can just ALT-Q the battle and write a couple of blog paragraphs while my characters duke it out.

           My selection of mage spells is powerful but not apocalyptic.

          Miscellaneous notes:

               The various establishments in the cities have more florid descriptions in Treasures than I remember in previous Gold Box games.

          Past games would have just said “Tavern.”

            Most taverns only offer options to “fight” and “leave,” which also happened in Gateway. Had the programmers at Beyond ever been to a tavern?

            Ale? Is ale an option?

              I haven’t found any magic shops yet, although one of the “adventurers’ shops” (a useless place that sells non-magic boots and belts and such) sold Cloaks of Protection +1.

In between Waterdeep and Leilon, we had a random encounter with a seer named Rabgar. He charged us with “the quest of the three dungeons” and told us to “seek the dwarves throughout the land.” Later, we met some dwarves who told us where to find the first dungeon north of Daggerford. We entered it and followed the dwarves’ hints for the right set of doors to get us out, but all we did then is enter and leave. We didn’t find any treasure or fight any battles. Now the dungeon is gone. We have new instructions to find the second one, but I’m not sure if it’s worth the effort.

            The dungeon just confronted us with a set of doors. But “solving” the puzzle just meant exiting the dungeon, which we didn’t have to enter in the first place. What was the point?

        Outdoor encounters include the bulette, which as we all now know, is pronounced “bul-AY.” Don’t ask why. It’s a sensitive issue.

In the last entry, I said how much I appreciated the pre-combat encounter text. Its quantity and quality mostly continued into this session, but there were clearly times that the writers ran out of ideas. I guess there are only so many dice games that you can interrupt.

             Don’t waste a lot of time on this puzzle. It was two hellhounds and two cyclopes.

         The game requires a tedious copy protection exercise every time you start, but at least it no longer draws its answers from journal entries you haven’t read yet. All of the answers are from the pre-journal part of the text.

               Treasures of the Savage Frontier features what is arguably the first “romance” in an RPG. I remember some previous games that would let you engage prostitutes (e.g., Empire II, Wasteland) and a couple of games in which you were either had a partner as part of the backstory (Elvira II) or got to marry the princess in the end (The Dragon & Princess, Zeliard, Prophecy of the Shadow). But I can’t remember a previous game in which an optional romance develops between a PC and NPC during the game.

          Ah, yes, the old “close your eyes and nod occasionally” trick. Sorry to break it to you, Siulajia, but he was thinking about Batman for most of that conversation.

              The romance is entirely passive, however. At various intervals, when camping, the game notes that the lead male character and Siulajia are spending time together–talking, flirting, laughing, and so forth. Eventually, the game had Broadside stand up before the rest of the party and announce that he and Siulajia were in love. While acknowledging this could make some things “awkward,” he expressed hope that the rest of the party would “accept us as a couple just as you accepted us before.”

            Not as awkward as trying to remember how to spell and pronounce her name.

              Strangely, we now had an option to accept or reject the couple. Just for fun, I tried “reject.” The embarrassed Siulajia leaves the party. Broadside, “shaking with rage,” announces that he will fulfill his vow to complete the mission but that he will never forgive the rest of the party–never!! I reloaded of course and accepted, mostly because I didn’t want to lose a fighter.

            Aww.

           I guess if the lead character is female, the romance plays out similarly with Jarbarkas. The whole episode is okay, but I rather that the player has an input into such things. I don’t like how often this game hijacks my character’s mouths for its own text. It’s fine when it does it for Siulajia, because she’s not my creation, but I’m supposed to be role-playing the rest of this party.

            Amanitas’s opinion about where we should go next.

          According to the game map, I have six cities left to visit–Longsaddle, Neverwinter, Port Llast, Luskan, Mirabar, and Fireshear–plus something called the “Ice Peak,” plus the islands of Mintarn, Orlumber, and Ruathym. So despite having covered what seems like a lot of territory in this entry, we still have several to go.

Time so far: 11 hours

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/treasures-of-the-savage-frontier-red-menace/

[freebestbettingtips]

FA Cup 2018/19 Tactical Analysis: Shrewsbury Town 2-2 Wolves

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FA Cup 2018/19 Tactical Analysis: Shrewsbury Town 2-2 Wolves

Artwork by @chapulana

In a FA Cup fourth round filled with shocks and upsets, Wolves were handed a very late get out of jail free card by Matt Doherty. Shrewsbury had forced themselves into a two-goal lead and looked set to defeat a strong Wolves side. The Premier League visitors never really looked that much of a threat until the system was tweaked ever so slightly with Raul Jimenez coming off the bench.

In this FA Cup tactical analysis, we shall look at how Shrewsbury almost sent Nuno’s side packing, how Wolves got back into it and also the enigma that is Adama Traore.

Team news

Nuno opted for a strong side with a perhaps rather questionable front two of Helder Costa and Adama Traore. Both wide players by trade, they struggled to really make an impact in the first half . It was only when Traore was moved out to his favoured right-hand side that he really started to turn it on, but we’ll discuss him more later.

Ryan Giles was brought in at left wing-back and didn’t do anything to harm his chances of being involved in the squad for years to come. Ruddy was also brought in for Rui Patricio, as he had been against Liverpool, and we shall be putting the spotlight on the ex-Norwich man as well throughout this article.

Sam Ricketts kept faith with the same side that drew the previous week at Blackpool. While they may have sat quite deep at times, it worked rather well for Shrewsbury. Their opener, for example, came from a swift breakaway after Neves seemingly lost his footing in the middle of the park. We shall investigate just how that happened now.

A split second makes the difference

Neves looks in control

To give some context to the above image, the ball has been headed towards Neves by a Shrewsbury defender from the near-hand side. Now, 99 times out of 100, Neves brings the ball down with ease and looks to build another attack.

The two players circled, Gibbs-White and Rangers loanee Greg Docherty, have both got different ideas as to what’s about to happen. Gibbs-White is banking on it being one of those 99 out of 100 times, whereas Docherty is banking it on being the one. Ultimately, that’s what makes the difference.

Gibbs-White is now playing catch up.

On the surface, Gibbs-White looks at fault here as Greg Docherty has now opened up the gap between the pair of them. Nonetheless, you have to question Romain Saiss’ position and focus as he and Conor Coady are both drawn towards the ball. Bennett is slightly out of position, due to the ex-Norwich man preempting Neves picking up the ball without any bother. The domino effect, if you will, is devastating.

Docherty has bags of room.

The four Wolves players circled are all focused on the ball, which once more allows Docherty time to take a touch and in the end, beat Ruddy at his near post via a deflection. It wasn’t a huge deflection, and at any rate it’s one of the first rules in the keeping handbook: don’t get beaten at the near post.

When you consider the second goal was almost worse from a keeping point of view, you’ll begin to understand why Rui is Wolves’ undisputed number one.

The blame game

Looking at the defensive setup from behind the goal, you can clearly see how Luke Waterfall manages to double Shrewsbury’s lead. Last week we looked at how Leicester’s zonal marking system didn’t work against Wolves, but the shoe was on the other foot as Wolves got it desperately wrong.

White dashed lines = actual movement. Red dashed line = movement that should have been.

Essentially, what happens here is Bennett, Coady and Doherty all travel to the near post, where Jimenez already is. In turn, this then leaves a gaping hole, precisely which Luke Waterfall runs into. The zonal system doesn’t work very well if everyone moves out of their zone. If Bennett doesn’t go running to the near post, he potentially wins the ball or, worst-case scenario, puts off Waterfall.

Next up, Romain Saiss. Everyone moves to the near post but he stays precisely where he is, showing a lack of recognition at the crucial time from the Moroccan. Ruben Neves also loses his man and because Waterfall has the run on him, there’s no chance for the former Porto man to recover the situation.

Lastly, what was John Ruddy doing? Much like Saiss, Ruddy just stays put. If the ball is anywhere in the central region of the six-yard area, the keeper has to be doing something about it. If Ruddy attempts to claim the ball and gets clattered, the likelihood is the referee awards Wolves a freekick. As it was, the catalogue of errors left it 2-0 to Shrewsbury.

Enter Cavaleiro

In the direct aftermath of the goal, Ryan Giles was taken off and Cavaleiro was brought on in a move which saw Helder Costa end up as an unorthodox left wing-back. Moments after coming off the bench, Cavaleiro assisted Jimenez to halve the deficit.

Jimenez reacts the quickest.

Cavaleiro had been on the pitch three minutes and had achieved more than Helder Costa had in 73. However, this isn’t the time or the place to be discussing the pros and cons of Helder Costa. Jimenez peels away from Bolton and then drills it home beyond a static keeper.

Something else that the introduction of Cavaleiro and Jimenez did was fix Traore in his favoured position. Unsurprisingly, it was Traore’s delivery that drew Wolves level as Matt Doherty rose highest to head home. Traore’s influence on the game was there for all to see once he switched to his favoured right side.

One touch and the Spaniard is away

This is where Adama Traore is at his very best: one on one. Traore takes one touch out of his feet and he is away, heading to the byline at near breakneck speed. He then stands the ball up wonderfully before Doherty rises and keeps Wolves in the hat for the fifth round of the FA Cup.

How do you solve a problem like Traore?

Adama Traore has been infuriating and irresistible in equal measure since joining from Middlesborough in the summer. One thing remains crystal clear though, which is that Traore performs much better out wide than he does through the middle.

The main issue with that at the minute is Nuno seemingly prefers to play with two central players up top, namely Jimenez and Jota. Perhaps the Wolves boss will shift back to three up front for this evening’s encounter with West Ham, although that remains to be seen.

Conclusion

Wolves were undoubtedly the better side on the day, yet Shrewsbury are the ones that can feel aggrieved by the final scoreline. One would believe that the replay will be a routine home win. Nevertheless, Stoke most likely thought the same.

Until the next time.

If you love tactical analysis, then you’ll love the digital magazines from totalfootballanalysis.com – a guaranteed 100+ pages of pure tactical analysis covering topics from the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga and many, many more. Buy your copy of the January issue for just ₤4.99 here, or even better sign up for a ₤50 annual membership (12 monthly issues plus the annual review) right here.

[jonespet72us]

How To Achieve Excellence in Sales

HOW TO ACHIEVE EXCELLENCE IN SALES Most people are always striving to better themselves. It's the "American Way". For proof, check the sales figures on the number of self-improvement books sold each year. This is not a pitch for you to jump in and start selling these kinds of books, but it is a indication of people's awareness that in order to better themselves, they have to continue improving their personal selling ab abilities. Confidence To excel in any selling situation, you must have confidence, and confidence comes, first and foremost, from knowledge. You have to know and understand yourself and your goals. You have to recognize and accept your weaknesses as well as your special talents. This requires a kind of personal honesty that not everyone is capable of exercising. Learn About Your Customers(People) In addition to knowing yourself, you must continue learning about people. Just as with yourself, you must be caring, forgiving and laudatory with others. In any sales effort, you must accept other people as they are, not as you would like for them to be. One of the most common faults of sales people is impatience when the prospective customer is slow to understand or make a decision. The successful salesperson handles these situations the same as he would if he were asking a girl for a date, or even applying for a new job. Know Your Product Learning your product, making a clear presentation to qualified prospects, and closing more sales will take a lot less time once you know your own capabilities and failings, and understand and care about the prospects you are calling upon. Know Your Society Our society is predicated upon selling, and all of us are selling something all the time. We move up or stand still in direct relation to our sales efforts. Everyone is included, whether we're attempting to be a friend to a co-worker, a neighbor, or selling multi-million dollar real estate projects. Accepting these facts will enable you to understand that there is no such thing as a born salesman. Indeed, in selling, we all begin at the same starting line, and we all have the same finish line as the goal - a successful sale. Most assuredly, anyone can sell anything to anybody. As a qualification to this statement, let us say that some things are easier to sell than others, and some people work harder at selling than others. But regardless of what you're selling, or even how you're attempting to sell it, the odds are in your favor. If you make your presentation to enough people, you'll find a buyer. The problem with most people seems to be in making contact - getting their sales presentation seen by, read by, or heard by enough people. But this really shouldn't be a problem, as we'll explain later. There is a problem of impatience, but this too can be harnessed to work in the salesperson's favor. We have established that we're all sales people in one way or another. So whether we're attempting to move up from forklift driver to warehouse manager, waitress to hostess, salesman to sales manager or from mail order dealer to president of the largest sales organization in the world, it's vitally important that we continue learning. Getting up out of bed in the morning; doing what has to be done in order to sell more units of your product; keeping records, updating your materials; planning the direction of further sales efforts; and all the while increasing your own knowledge---all this very definitely requires a great deal of personal motivation, discipline, and energy. But then the rewards can be beyond your wildest dreams, for make no mistake about it, the selling profession is the highest paid occupation in the world! Selling is challenging. It demands the utmost of your creativity and innovative thinking. The more success you want, and the more dedicated you are to achieving your goals, the more you'll sell. Hundreds of people the world over become millionaires each month through selling. Many of them were flat broke and unable to find a "regular" job when they began their selling careers. Yet they've done it, and you can do it too! Remember, it's the surest way to all the wealth you could ever want. You get paid according to your own efforts, skill, and knowledge of people. If you're ready to become rich, then think seriously about selling a product or service (preferably something exclusively yours) - something that you "pull out of your brain"; something that you write, manufacture or produce for the benefit of other people. But failing this, the want ads are full of opportunities for ambitious sales people. You can start there, study, learn from experience, and watch for the chance that will allow you to move ahead by leaps and bounds. 6 STEPS TO INCREASE YOUR SALES Here are some guidelines that will definitely improve your gross sales, and quite naturally, your gross income. I like to call them the Strategic Salesmanship Commandments. Look them over; give some thought to each of them; and adapt those that you can to your own selling efforts. 1. If the product you're selling is something your prospect can hold in his hands, get it into his hands as quickly as possible. In other words, get the prospect "into the act". Let him feel it, weigh it, admire it. 2. Don't stand or sit alongside your prospect. Instead, face him while you're pointing out the important advantages of your product. This will enable you to watch his facial expressions and determine whether and when you should go for the close. In handling sales literature, hold it by the top of the page, at the proper angle, so that your prospect can read it as you're highlighting the important points. Regarding your sales literature, don't release your hold on it, because you want to control the specific parts you want the prospect to read. In other words, you want the prospect to read or see only the parts of the sales material you're telling him about at a given time. 3. With prospects who won't talk with you: When you can get no feedback to yours sales presentation, you must dramatize your presentation to get him involved. Stop and ask questions such as, "Now, don't you agree that this product can help you or would be of benefit to you?" After you've asked a question such as this, stop talking and wait for the prospect to answer. It's a proven fact that following such a question, the one who talks first will lose, so don't say anything until after the prospect has given you some kind of answer. Wait him out! 4. Prospects who are themselves sales people, and prospects who imagine they know a lot about selling sometimes present difficult selling obstacles, especially for the novice. But believe me, these prospects can be the easiest of all to sell. Simply give your sales presentation, and instead of trying for a close, toss out a challenge such as, "I don't know, Mr. Prospect - after watching your reactions to what I've been showing and telling you about my product, I'm very doubtful as to how this product can truthfully be of benefit to you". Then wait a few seconds, just looking at him and waiting for him to say something. Then, start packing up your sales materials as if you are about to leave. In almost every instance, your "tough nut" will quickly ask you, Why? These people are generally so filled with their own importance, that they just have to prove you wrong. When they start on this tangent, they will sell themselves. The more skeptical you are relative to their ability to make your product work to their benefit, the more they'll demand that you sell it to them. If you find that this prospect will not rise to your challenge, then go ahead with the packing of your sales materials and leave quickly. Some people are so convinced of their own importance that it is a poor use of your valuable time to attempt to convince them. 5. Remember that in selling, time is money! Therefore, you must allocate only so much time to each prospect. The prospect who asks you to call back next week, or wants to ramble on about similar products, prices or previous experiences, is costing you money. Learn to quickly get your prospect interested in, and wanting your product, and then systematically present your sales pitch through to the close, when he signs on the dotted line, and reaches for his checkbook. After the introductory call on your prospect, you should be selling products and collecting money. Any callbacks should be only for reorders, or to sell him related products from your line. In other words, you can waste an introductory call on a prospect to qualify him, but you're going to be wasting money if you continue calling on him to sell him the first unit of your product. When faced with a reply such as, "Your product looks pretty good, but I'll have to give some thought", you should quickly jump in and ask him what specifically about your product does he feel he needs to give more thought. Let him explain, and that's when you go back into your sales presentation and make everything crystal clear for him. If he still balks, then you can either tell him that you think he product will really benefit him, or it's purchase be to his benefit. You must spend as much time as possible calling on new prospects. Therefore, your first call should be a selling call with follow-up calls by mail or telephone (once every month or so in person) to sign him for re-orders and other items from your product line. 6. Review your sales presentation, your sales materials, and your prospecting efforts. Make sure you have a "door-opener" that arouses interest and "forces" a purchase the first time around. This can be a $2 interest stimulator so that you can show him your full line, or a special marked-down price on an item that everybody wants; but the important thing is to get the prospect on your "buying customer" list, and then follow up via mail or telephone with related, but more profitable products you have to offer. Additional reading: Title: HTML: Social Media Sales    Excellent Sales    Grow Up Sales    Sales at Ease   http://vsdmobile.com/blog/?p=472

[freebestbettingtips]

Premier League: Wolves 0-2 Huddersfield

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Premier League: Wolves 0-2 Huddersfield

Artwork by @chapulana.

Out of darkness cometh light. One of the sayings that epitomises Wolverhampton Wanderers and has been a tagline for the club for as long as one can remember. At this particular moment in time, after a fourth defeat in five, it’s difficult to see the light for Nuno’s Wolves. Now, it is a far cry from the disastrous double drop that Wolves suffered when they ended up in the third tier of English football and a million miles from when the Molineux club fell to the fourth division, however, at this particular moment in time, it’s a blip. Very much like eternal darkness. Since beating Crystal Palace in early October, Wolves have failed to find the form which got them off to such a good start this season.

Huddersfield, on the other hand, were great value for the win and while Wolves’ defensive problems will be analysed in this piece, we will evaluate the Terriers performance as well. Arguably the best way to sum up the first half at Molineux is that it was Huddersfield’s best 45 minutes of the season and Wolves’ worst (maybe with the exception of Watford). Wagner’s side pressed the home side in all the right places and didn’t let the once acclaimed ‘Champions of the World’ have any time on the ball at all. Before we get into the game itself, let’s see how the two teams lined up.

Team News

No surprises from Nuno with the Wolves starting XI. Jonny, the only absentee from the point at Arsenal, replaced by Ruben Vinagre as expected. Wagner sprung somewhat of a shock by selecting Tommy Smith in a back three rather than Stankovic who was thought to be replacing Zanka. Durm came in for Lowe, in Huddersfield’s only other change.

Much like Watford before them, Huddersfield recognised that Wolves tend to struggle if the midfield is packed and that’s exactly what happened. That accompanied with Nuno’s reluctance to sacrifice his system and beliefs ensured that once Huddersfield went into the lead, it was going to take something special for Wolves to get back into the game.

Same Old Issues Arising

Going back to Nuno’s reluctance to change the system, you could maybe attribute that to Mooy’s first goal. If we played with three central midfielders in either a 3-5-2 or 4-3-3, it would have been someone else rather than Cavaleiro ‘tracking’ Mooy. Before that, Doherty is at fault as he fails to track his man which might sound familiar and that’s because it is. Without even having to think, that’s goals against Spurs, Watford, Brighton and now Huddersfield that he’s been at fault for. As opposed to singling out Doherty, let’s take a look at the phases of play that led up to Mooy’s opener, which came inside the first ten minutes.

Good pressure on the ball from Jimenez.

As we looked at in the preview, Huddersfield have a tendency to play the ball around at the back before panicking and then lumping it long. In this instance, it was no different as Lossl is pressed by Raul Jimenez. Due to the positioning of Costa and Cavaleiro, there is no pass on for the keeper as Jimenez cuts off the possible pass to Kongolo on the far side.

Nothing To See

Mooy and Pritchard both press after the ball finds its way to Coady.

Coady remains composed enough to play a lofted ball to Ruben Vinagre. There’s not much going wrong at this point, although this normally seems to be the case. It only takes something very small to go wrong and then the domino effect begins.

This is just one example of where Wolves’ wing-backs were restricted by Wagner’s side.

Mooy and Hadergjonaj shut down the young Portuguese wing-back, bearly giving him space to breathe, let alone do anything constructive with the ball. It will come as little surprise that Vinagre was dispossessed as play turned over.

Again, not too much of an issue.

A slightly wayward pass from Pritchard put Mounie on the back foot meaning that Moutinho could easily play the ball backwards to the Wolves back three and another attack could be born. Boly’s positioning is perhaps a question mark as he too far from Coady and Bennett (who hasn’t got a name tame tag), nevertheless, it’s not too problematic as of this moment.

The Turning Point

A simple pass into Bennett from Coady.

Rather than playing back to Rui, Coady opts for the straightforward pass to Bennett which is fine in itself, but its there where the errors start being counted. Admittedly, Pritchard (Huddersfield player closest to Coady) was hot on his heels, but if the Wolves captain plays it back to the keeper and gives him an angle, the goal might not have happened. There are a lot of what ifs involved, mind. Let’s see how it unfolds.

Bennett plays it safe.

Ok, there are three options here for Bennett. Number one, play the ball out wide to Doherty. Number two, play the ball centrally to an out of shot Helder Costa. And number three, drive beyond the oncoming Mounie and then reassess. Bennett opts for number two. On the surface, none of the options are particularly right or wrong, however, Bennett was never going to do number three as Coady and Boly would have done. That’s one of the reasons why there have been mentions of Dendoncker, he would’ve beaten Mounie and then played the ball. Bennett knows his limitations and that’s a great trait to have, all the same, how much longer can Dendoncker be kept waiting? Keep an eye on the circled Mooy.

Wrong Pass

Doherty doesn’t think about it.

Costa received the ball where the black circle is or thereabouts. He was tightly marked meaning he couldn’t spin which in turn meant he had to bring Doherty into play. Doherty’s aim is to put the ball back to where it came from, Jimenez the target. The Irishman plays it first time and unsurprisingly doesn’t get enough on it and Billing says thank you very much, I’ll have a bit of that. Hindsight suggests that a pass to Moutinho would’ve been the better option. Quite how Doc was expecting to get enough on his pass from there with the amount of backlift he had will remain a mystery. Mooy is still on the blindside…

Yes, there’s quite a bit going on in this image.

Right, so after Billing intercepts Doherty’s pass, he plays it to Durm on the left-hand side before receiving the ball back from the German. Durm then bypasses Doherty and Billing before having the ball back off his teammate. Moutinho should be taking charge here and telling Bennett to drop off. That’s probably up for debate, one thing that isn’t is Doherty’s tracking back or lack of it as the story goes. Bear in mind where Durm and Doherty are on the above image. Also, Mooy has still got far too much room and nobody has noticed him for ten seconds.

Mooy Makes Wolves Pay

All the time and space in the world.

Durm is now five or six yards ahead of Doherty. That is potentially because Bennett gave him a shout and told him that he had the situation under control. Either way, one of them was in the wrong. It’s unclear whether or not Durm meant to pull the ball back to the edge of the area, we shall give him the benefit of the doubt on this occasion. The ball goes between Neves and Moutinho and before you know it, Mooy is passing the ball into Rui’s bottom right-hand corner. If Nuno matched Wagner from the start and played with a third midfielder, there is a possibility that someone would be a damn sight closer to the Australian than Cavaleiro is. I guess we’ll never know.

Mooy Makes Wolves Pay Again

Mooy’s second of the game which effectively killed the game as a contest was a well-executed free-kick. Quite what the wall were doing is worth a moment of everyone’s time as it is most bizarre. Costa stood away from the rest of the wall which left a gaping hole. In many respects, it was Rui’s way of saying to Mooy, go on then, try me. Mooy did try him.

Through the gap.

Costa responded to someone on Twitter asking what he was doing there and his response was “because that’s where I was supposed to be” – one can only assume that Rui has put him there to prevent Mooy from getting any real bend on his free-kick. That worked well.

Wolves only had a couple of decent chances of note, Jimenez’ had a header fantastically cleared off the line. Goal line technology ruled there was 0.18mm in it. Wolves’ other chance also fell to the Mexican, he should’ve taken the shot on himself after being played onside by an injured Huddersfield player. He chose to square the ball to absolutely nobody and Wolves’ best chance of the afternoon was gone.

Final Thoughts

Huddersfield had more of the ball, more shots, more shots on target and were ultimately the better side. That’s the second time on the bounce that Wolves have lost 2-0 at home after an international break. It’s also the second time that it’s been an awful first half performance that we’ve struggled to recover from. Food for thought indeed for Nuno. Huddersfield face Brighton at home next as they look to put some real daylight between them and the relegation zone. Wolves travel to South Wales to face Neil Warnock’s Cardiff. Will there be light at the end of the tunnel there for Wolves? We shall see.

Until the next time.

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