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your-rose-highness · 4 years

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Tell Me What Is Love (ch-5)

The breakfast was rather awkward. Hye Hee’s post- drunk brain was failing to comprehend the situation and Baekhyun only made small talk with Jane, very interested in her family whereabouts and her struggles of the past. Hye Hee scanned him the entire time, reading his every move. Baekhyun caught her eye a couple of times while he spoke to Jane, only to quickly look away, which made it look even more suspicious.

“What was Baekhyun doing in my dingy apartment so early on a Monday morning?” she thought to herself.

The three of them did the dishes and chilled in the living area before Jane left to go for the shift. Baekhyun and hye hee stayed silent for a long time before Baekhyun asked, “why have you been drinking so much?”

“I’m a grown woman. I can drink when I want to.`` she sternly replied.

“That's not what I meant. And you know that.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I can’t come to visit..?”

Hye Hee sat quietly. Baekhyun began twitching beside her when she looked over at him.

“The sofa is uncomfortable….”, he whimpered.

“I’m sorry it doesn’t suit your royal ass.”

“Why did you drink?”

“... I can't switch things because you don't like them…”

“Hye Hee, stop avoiding the question... Why did you..?”

“... plus why are you here anyway? Go run back to Taeyeon.”

“Excuse me? You were the one who suggested that I pretend harder..`` Baekhyun said, his voice rising.

“Pretend? When the hell…?”

“You know what, I'm leaving. You don't need me.”

“Yeah, run away Baek. That's what you did in the past. Do it again!”

“What did you say?”, Baekhyun looked at her furiously.

Hye Hee left the kitchen and walked to her bedroom, avoiding any confrontation. But Baekhyun wasn't having it.

“I left? Me? You never even tried to come back. That's how much I meant to you huh?”

“Yeah, you’re right!!! You never meant anything.i was happy to have gotten rid of you... Baekhyun this is my room, get out.”

“No.”

She exhaled slowly and began pushing him. Baekhyun didn't budge.

“I’m not leaving. Your place is my place.”

“Why are you doing this?!!” she exploded, even though Baekhyun was smiling.

It was like they were back in school again. He reached out for her hand, his eyes full of concern when he knew his best friend was hiding something really bad, “What’s wrong? Will you tell me now that you’re done yelling?”

Baekhyun was taller than her now, something she still wasn't used to yet. Her shoulders relaxed and she fought the urge to hug him. He was there for her, but he was someone else’s. The thought only made her want to cry but she tried with all her might not to.

“I miss you…”, she barely managed to say, her voice cracking.

Within an instant, his arms wrapped around her, his palm supporting her head, as he rested it against his chest.

“ I do too. Why do you think I'm here? You may be strong enough to avoid seeing me, but you know I'm not.”

He made her tea later, while both chatted about a job possibility in his company.

“Won't that be troublesome?”, She questioned.

“No… not really…” he trailed off, “at least better than someone we don't know. Teacher Sooman is more scared of sasaengs in the disguise of staff than anything else.”

“That's a good point.”

“Anyways, you have my recommendation. So there's a big chance you'll grab the job plus, your resume is a bonus.”, He stated, proud.

“It’s almost past 9 pm, don't you have to go home?”

“Well, I should… but Taeyeon and Sarang both are not home. So …. I'm free for dinner with you…”

“I didn't say I wanted to have dinner with you though,'' Hye hee responded cheekily.

Hye hee offered to make dinner this time, with Baekhyun as her assistant. They were discussing the amount of milk to add in their pasta sauce when he received a call. His expressions gave grim instantly, and he walked out to the balcony. Hye hee didn't want to trespass but she found herself a little too alert, trying to catch some words.

“..... really?... okay… yeah, you know… with the guys…. Don't wait up. Hmm.. okay.”

Hye hee wondered who it was on the other side. Taeyeon maybe? Baekhyun hung up and leaned against the wall for a few minutes before he left a deep sigh.

Hye Hee quickly made her way back to the kitchen and innocently asked, “Who was that?”

“Taeyeon.”

Bingo.

“Oh? I thought you said she was not gonna be back till a few days?”

“Yeah, she decided to come back sooner I suppose. Anyway, let's have dinner and I’ll have to leave..”

“Yeah, sure.”

His one sentence had summarised their position in each other's lives. No matter how much they wished to spend time with each other, no matter how much they meant, Baekhyun was somebody's husband and his priority was never going to be Hye Hee.

They quietly finished dinner and Baekhyun offered to wash the dishes with her, but by this point, Hye Hee didn't want to keep him away from his real family any longer.

After a few days, while Hye hee was shopping for some groceries, Baekhyun called her.

“Hello?”, She took his call, while also trying to put the pack of perilla leaves in her cart.

“Hye hee, do you have time tomorrow?”, his voice sounded urgent.

“Umm. For what??”

“The opening for staff at SM I told you about? I heard a few staff members discuss that it was the last day. What say? You want me to put you in?”

Hye Hee had a hard time saying yes, but a girl's gotta eat right?

“Yeah, okay. Fine. I'll come tomorrow for the interview.”

“Great! Alright, I'll text you the time okay? Okay, gotta go now, bye babe.” He hung up, excited like a puppy.

A faint smile played on Hye Hee's lips.

"What?!", Jane exclaimed over the phone, making Hye Hee move her phone away from her ear. She had called her on the way to her interview the next day.

Reposing herself, Hye Hee continued, "So as I was saying, I have no confirmation about the job! can you calm down?"

"No! No! Okay, do this, once you get in, can you get a spot for me too?"

"Okay, we're going in circles! Look, I'll call you after my interview, my stop is here."

Hye Hee got off in a hurry, only 10 minutes before her expected time.

She found the SM building with ease, no one could miss the tall building with a swarm of fans standing out in the hope of seeing their favorite celebrities. Hye Hee was guided to the staff entrance, on showing her interview mail on her phone.

The office was a beauty. The interiors were largely based on pastel shades and the minimal decoration gave it a very chic appearance.

I could be working here... It's so pretty...

Snapping out of her daydream, a staff scurried over to her, leading her to the exceptionally large waiting area. She and 20 others sat nervously, waiting their turn through the huge glass doors.

After which seemed like an eternity, Hye Hee was finally called in. Taking a deep breath in, she opened the door to an exceptionally large room. Her legs wobbled a little as she took small but decent steps towards the large desk that had some of their artists and also Baekhyun’s manager. Just like her, he seemed taken aback by her presence but quickly reposed himself. Hye hee took the seat in front of the panel after she greeted them all.

She quickly recognized the handsome Yunho at the left of the table and couldn't help being starstruck by his beauty.

“So, Song Hye Hee…”, boomed one of the member’s voices and also snapped her back to reality.

“You’ve quite an impressive resume and also an experience. I hope you know that the current job openings do not call for such expertise. Though we could use you for the international language department occasionally…”, he said, glancing at the other stern panelists with doubt.

“Oh yes, I know that the job doesn't entail or call for my previous work experience. I was looking to enhance my resume when I applied for this job..”

“Have you had any managerial responsibilities at the last post?”, suddenly enquired Yunho, looking straight into her eyes that could make even the non-guilty shiver.

Swinging between forming her sentences to answer and not being able to directly meet eyes with Yunho, “ Yes, I was head of the entertainment reporters team for a year…”

“Well… that’s not the kind of skills we’re looking for…”, mumbled the man on the far left, shuffling through the papers in front of him.

“Yes, sir. I have never said that I can't learn the work. My reporting job wasn't exactly my forte. But I learned the skills required for the job quickly after my supervisor helped me. I am more than sure that the responsibilities you bestow upon me will be dealt with to the end and with the utmost professionalism.” hye hee insisted.

Hye hee’s demeanor vibrated through the room as the panelists thought over what she said. It was rare even for them to have an interviewee be that direct and to the point. The employees at the company were especially strict with their new recruitments due to past such incidents when they had toxic fans pose as recruits.

Yunho seemed to be quietly talking to Baekhyun’s manager, occasionally glancing at her direction. Hye Hee couldn't be sure if it was accidental with the questions being showered on her from either end.

Boarding the bus closest to the company after filling a few more details, she headed to meet Jane for lunch at the closest ramen restaurant. Once again, thoughts clouded her mind and she found herself weighing the consequences if somehow they dug out her history with Baekhyun. Soon her phone lit up from a number she didn't recognize. She quickly dived to pick it up, expecting the company.

“Hello?”

“Song Hye Hee-ssi?”

“Yes, this is she.”

“I’m Jung Mu, Baekhyun’s manager. I was wondering if we could meet later today? I have some things to discuss with you.”

Hye Hee’s heart raced from the moment she heard him say his name. Baekhyun had mentioned his manager hyung's a million times before and continues to do so. Jung Mu had been a very quiet encouragement for him since the day he was assigned to manage EXO. he had helped him from many sticky situations and quite so even when he was out on dates with her.

“Umm sure. There’s this tiny cafe on the 17th..”, she told him but was only cut short.

“Yes, I’m aware of it.”, Jung Mu quickly responded. “I’ve dropped him close to the cafe a million times.”

Hye hee an irritation in his voice that was hard to brush off.

It reminded her of the rare occasions when baekhyun would get mad at her for nothing in particular. The sour memories clouded her, cueing the tears instantly. As she hung up, she contemplated if her working at SM would be the right choice after all. She was denying to herself that this step was taken to stay close to baekhyun and be able to see him every day, lying to herself that it was a big field break into the entertainment agency.

But, the truth was, this would only further the distance more. Materialize it. The celebrity, married to an equally popular singer, and she, a struggling writer. Nothing but a layman.

She hurried over to Minseok’s cafe soon, informing him about everything that had happened. He, being the good friend that he was, agreed in no time, however, did think that working at SM could cause trouble. Not just for her, but baekhyun as well.

“Why do I need to close the cafe for a staff?”

“Fans stalk the manager too, Oppa. I’m sorry. But this is the only safe space I know of.”

He let out a sigh and shook his head in disbelief. He soon handed her the pomegranate tea, her favorite for times when stressed. Minseok was usually very mindful of the people around him. The kind gesture made hye hee smile, he smiled at her and softly tapping her shoulder giving her courage to face what lay ahead.

She watched him walk into the low lit cafe soon, accompanied by someone she hadn't anticipated. The two dark figures approached her as they spotted the only person seated.

“Song Hye Hee?”, asked Jung Mu extending his hand towards her. But Hye Hee’s eyes only followed the other tall man behind him.

Suho.

She couldn't think of him as an old friend at that moment. His expression was too grave to be addressed as the man who would smile so gently at her whenever they met.

When hye hee didn't respond at his words, Jung Mu just drew the chair opposite to her. Suho slid into the chair next to him, without meeting eyes with her the whole time. Hye hee silently tried to read into the situation, partially terrified. Minseok appeared minutes later to ask if anyone needed anything. Suho took one glance at him and said, “Lemonade, no sugar.”

“Can we trust him?”, Jung Mu whispered to hye hee after he left, briefly meeting eyes with hye hee, concerned.

“Minseok is a very close trusted friend of mine. You’re safe here.”

Minseok quickly hurried over with the drinks and left them to talk alone, shutting the small staff door. The room where she had met Baekhyun after all those years.

Sipping from his drink, after which his face scrunched in sourness, he quickly reposed himself.

“Hye Hee why were you at the agency today?”, his clear voice boomed in quiet space.

“Baekhyun said I could apply…”

He smirked with disbelief as she spoke, turning to face Hye hee, his eyes pierced into hers.

“Are you kidding me, Hye hee? After all, this while, don't you know? If someone ever finds out about the two of you, it won't just destroy him and you. It’ll take all of us down.”

He paused for a minute before whipping out his phone, showing her a twitter update.

Hye Hee picked up the phone bewildered.

“He’s already been spotted.”, Suho hissed. “You are VERY lucky that even though they are suspicious, the angle makes it hard to be sure. Isn't this your apartment, Hye Hee? Baekhyun refuses to handle this maturely, but Hye Hee, you? I expected better out of you. I cannot allow this. I’m sorry. I need you to minimize your contact with Baekhyun, and eventually, fade him out.”

He was right. What was she thinking? She was low key yearning for Baekhyun, expecting miracles where he would abandon his family for her. He wouldn't ever. Everything that he had built over the years was at stake and so was the entire group.

“Fine.”, she whispered, a voice soft yet unshaken.

“Fine?” wondered Jung mu.

“I will fade away from his life, his memory. But I will need your help.”, said she, with eyes dark and resolute.

#tell me what is love #baekhyun exo #baekhyun scenario #byun baekhyun #baekhyun angst #baekhyun fanfic #kpop fanfic #exofanfic #baekhyun fanfiction #chapter 5

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bladekindeyewear · 4 years

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HS^2 bloggin’ mainline 2020-05-19

Figured an upd8 was coming, it’s felt like enough time has passed for one.

Huh, looking at my last post I’d completely forgotten I was supposed to play through Pesterquest sometime... work is busy and stressing me out a bit, I’m not sure when I’ll have the energy on the side to do that. (Maybe I’ll livetweet it like I did Undertale a while ago, but this time not looking at my twitter replies so I don’t get spoiled by One Guy™?)

Also, including bonus commentary on A Threat Sensed.

Okay, going in completely blind. I’d guessed from context that we’re hopping over to Meat side to get a chapter there before we can come back to actually see Yiffy?

Yep. Okay, what is this about exactly?

(Agh, dammit, I’ve been copying and pasting so much at work remoting into Windows lately that now I’m automatically trying to hit control-C instead of command-C to copy.)

> CHAPTER 9. How Goes The Eulogizing, Dear?

CONTENT NOTE: This chapter contains Child Abuse.

Which one???

Wait

JANE: (Where is he?) JANE: (It's a question I've found myself asking many times in recent days.)

Holy SHIT we get two Candy chapters in a row??? So we might see her right away?? No, it’s gotta just be another tiny glimpse.

(Has two Candy chapters in a row happened before? Future Boots, scroll back up and put this here. FUTURE BOOTS: “I forgot to scroll back up and put that here.” EDIT: Also, not the first time with two in a row, but it IS the first time with THREE in a row, huh.)

So Jane has to be talking about either Tavros or Dave. --Oh, if this was a Candy Side chapter title, I guess Rose or Jade is eulogizing Dave for John?

> (==>)

JANE: (Where now is our merry savior?) JANE: (Where is the horn that was honking?) JANE: (Where is the cape and the codpiece, and the...) JANE: (The...) JANE: (Oh, fiddlesticks.)

What? Is she reading a childrens’ book? --Oh. She’s eulogizing Gamzee. So that gives us a third option, where the rebellion crashes the funeral somehow, probably audiovisually rather than in person. (Which would make sense, given Candy practically began with Gamzee crashing Dirk’s funeral.)

> (==>)

Ah never mind, she’s still writing it.

That sure is a single button drama-remote that’s going to be pressed at some point. Oh, and who the fuck keeps a spork in a pen cup??? --No no, don’t say it’s one of those pens with a spork at the eraser end, either ready-made or rubber-banded to the side. That would make sense. You totally know it isn’t that and is just a spork.

JANE: (Okay, poetry is out.) JANE: (What else?) JANE: (Hrm...) JANE: (I've always been pretty good at crying on cue.) JANE: (Could I try staging an emotional breakdown?) JANE: (That could work; playing to people's humanity.)

Why were you crying in Jake’s arms about his death if you didn’t care that much? Did you just want him to hold you and kinda make him feel in on things again? Or did you just cry yourself out about him?

JANE: (Or whatever is the more inclusive term.)

I bet the rest of Earth C figured out a more inclusive term millenia ago FUCK I accidentally added millennia to my dictionary misspelled instead of correcting it hold on--

...There, killed the entry for it. ...Huh. Take a look at my Chrome dictionary’s custom-added words over the years, apparently:

Caliborn Eridan Kanaya Matriorb Meenah Tavros alchemiter dichotomic nephilim reblogged uncaptchalogues uncaptchaloguing

That’s fun.

Okay back to reading. Millennia. Phew! Where was I.

JANE: (One really good and calculated weep could do it, I think.) JANE: (But then there's the danger that I might get carried away and do it for real.) JANE: (And I can't risk that.)

So still feeling something, just too used to calculating over the past years.

JANE: (What can I say about him that will stir up their emotions?) JANE: (Do I mention the stuff about the milk?) JANE: (Think Crocker, think.)

WHY would you-- how much did Gamzee normalize adult breastfeeding?!

JAKE: Ahoy over there!

Not the best time.

(The thing with the divorce papers from the Epilogue and John implying he was planning with Jake to execute something that sounds like a divorce... is that going to be sprung here? Did her lawyers send the divorce papers way back when she was in a fit of pique, and he just had them available to sign now at the tactical moment? Or... let me pull the exact text...)

JOHN: now, harry anderson, i know that you and tavros haven't always gotten along. JOHN: but i am going to have to ask you to try and look out for him for the time being. JOHN: your uncle jake and i... well, i'll explain later. JOHN: let's just say that gamzee isn't the only family member jane is losing today.

(So is John going to submit the papers? Or did they already go through a while ago and default custody to John or something who’s going to adopt him too or some nonsense? And did he plan this out with Jake NOW, or a while ago, and if only a while ago, is Jake going to KNOW whatever John’s about to pull in that respect is about to happen??)

> (==>)

Butte

Janepalme

> (==>)

JAKE: Er... how goes the eulogizing, dear?

Gah. I completely forgot again that capitalized-first-letter chapter names don’t mean KANAYA is saying them. That probably makes a lot more sense out of my wondering about the chapter title earlier to those of you who didn’t realize I was making that mistake.

JANE: It turns out that it's mighty difficult to find touching things to say about a person, the relationship with whom was predicated on deep-seated mutual loathing.

Hah!

--A loathing you regarded as largely more important to you than Jake ever was, by the way. You asshole.

JANE: I imagine this is one of the reasons no funerary tradition was ever established on Alternia, besides the barbarism of their culture. DIRK: Jesus christ. JANE: Not only did a significant proportion of their interpersonality depend on romance in the form of hatred, but it was a society based on cruelty and violence. JANE: What reason could they have had to provide for the dead? JANE: What kind of last rites could they have even imagined?

I wondered for a moment why (bg!)Dirk of all people would react to a single line of her starting to bring up prejudices, but then I realized that (1) Brain Ghost Dirk is a little more Jakey, and (2) Dirk knew that more ranting would follow the first line.

JANE: I can't think of anything good to write about him because deep down, I hated his guts. JANE: But he was and is beloved of the multitude, so I have to think of something regardless. JAKE: Im not sure i understand. JANE: Don't worry your pretty little head about it. JANE: This is politics, Jakey. JANE: Lying through your two front teeth about people you hate is about as good a definition as it's possible to get. JANE: But, by gum, is it tiring work.

Mm. It’s a position Jane put herself in, but it’s still a legitimate position once you’re there.

JANE: The funeral is tomorrow, after all.

Got it.

DIRK: Dude, the bowl. JAKE: Hm? JAKE: Oh, right. JANE: What is it now, Jake. JAKE: I brought something for our guest as well. JANE: You mean the prisoner. JAKE: Y...es.

Wait, bowl?

Oh god damnit which of you had the idea to feed her with a DOG BOWL. Either of you could have thought of it, and either of you would be horrible for it.

> (==>)

Huh, that outfit on Yiffy looks familiar, like a reference to something. And a black tail? This definitely isn’t quite the look I was expecting from Jade Plus Rose, but I suppose the snazzy tie is a Roseish vibe. Also reminiscent of Jade’s old Dead Shuffle dress. Formal wear and soccer cleats??

JANE: She's over in the corner. JANE: Don't worry, she won't bite. JANE: I've seen to that already.

WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN. I don’t see anything over her mouth! Did she stick something in it, or drug her? File her fucking teeth???

I mean I did forget the Child Abuse trigger warning to be fair. Hoping whatever would be on her mouth is just not shown in-panel yet for stylistic reasons.

> (==>)

JAKE: Its only mac and cheese, sorry. JAKE: Its all I know how to make, haha. JAKE: ... JAKE: I um... hope you can safely partake of cheese? JAKE: ... JAKE: Well, JAKE: Bon appetit.

How the fuck did Jake eat on his island then? --Oh right, preserved food cans that Grandma Jade stored up, I think I remember. Why would cheese not be a thing for them, if it’s fine for Jade? I know he’s probably not just worried about lactose intolerance.

Either way, if she’s drugged here, that’ll mean we won’t get a good idea of her for a while, so which is it...

> (==>)

DIRK: Bon appetit. DIRK: Seriously dude? JAKE: (What? Did i pronounce it wrong?) DIRK: Jake. DIRK: You put the food in a fucking dog bowl. JAKE: (It was all there was, ok???) JAKE: (I feel awful enough as it is without you getting on my case about it.)

Ah, missed the bone pun. AND, yeah, Jake, you’re a fucking idiot, you could have put it in a cup or something.

JAKE: (So far ive yet to see anything come of that brilliant plan of yours.) JAKE: (Are you sure sending that message to the others was enough?)

Okay, so he IS coordinating this slightly.

> (==>)

Horrifying image to contemplate, eh Jane?

Or anger-inducing?

> (==>)

Seems about right!

> (==>)

Oh that’s a GREAT exasperated Jane face.

JANE: I hope you're not expecting dessert, young lady.

I like how Jane didn’t notice, comment on, or care about the bowl. How can you hate a kid so much??

> (==>)

Oh I know why I felt like I recognized the outfit style, it’s because it’s ANIME AS FUCK. Feels like some Persona 4 Arena nonsense, and I say that not having played any of those games or even remembering what they looked like. Also, white hair, black fur’d dog parts? Nice change of pace.

YIFFY: GRRRRRRRRR... JANE: Oh no you don't.

Red text? What color exactly... “#D00009”? Huh. That’s nowhere near Alt-Callie’s #FF0000, and darker than Dave’s #E00707. In fact, let me go back and check those spilled color pins the commentary pointed out from an update or two ago... no, the red pin is #E63225, closer to Dave’s color. (Also, is Yiffy blocking the doorway out? That’s a pretty slack chain then.)

Did Jane see to it that she wouldn’t bite with like, a water spray bottle?

(EDIT: Oh my FUCKING GOD, THAT's why it's #D00009...)

> (==>)

FUCK I didn’t notice the shock collar in the Yiffy image! FUCK YOU, Jane.

> (==>)

Keeping someone in line with collars, especially ones that punish whenever one strays out of line, has always been a decent way for her to mix in some Doomy control of others to show how she’s “grown” to balance her main role and her Tiara-controlled-like inverse for more power. Doom in part represents boundaries that you can’t cross without getting hurt or punished.

> (==>)

FUCK, those little buck teeth!? D’:

JANE: That's more like it.

She HAS to have more of a reason for hating her than hating her parents, right? Like, more than that and general racism applying to partdogfolk?

> (==>)

Hey fuck off with that!

> (==>)

This is a pretty cool ima-- are those piercings on her dog ear? I didn’t notice that in the first shot, neat.

JANE: You've been a thorn in my side ever since I agreed to enroll you at the academy, little madam. JANE: Back then, I was doing a favor for two old friends who made a disgusting mistake. JANE: I'm no longer going to play nice with you just because of your parents, however. JANE: That truce is over. JANE: Do I make myself understood?

What the fuck? WHY would you do that? Why does Jane run "Ms. Paint’s Home for Inconvenient Girls”? What did Yiffy do to piss her off so much there, how much trouble could she have caused?

I don’t know if she’s referring to the behind-Kanaya’s-back part as disgusting or she’s just being MORE racist.

> (==>)

JANE: We don't want you passing out during the ceremony, do we?

Oh, just showing the hostage off during the clown funeral, huh? Classy much?

> (==>)

JANE: Now, be a good hostage and get some rest, Yiffany dear. JANE: We've got a big day tomorrow.

For a politician, Jane’s not good at looking at herself in a mirror.

> (==>)

JANE: Night night. JANE: Hoo hoo.

> (Yiffy: Lights out.)

Huh, dream stuff is gonna be relevant out in Candy then? *click*

Okay, dark background all of a sudden. Properly dramatic? You even have to highlight the non-link “>” part of the Next link to see it.

> (==>)

-- thespiansGlamor [TG] began pestering adamantGriftress [AG] --

Well, I don’t know WHY it’s happening, but the white-backed pesterlog suddenly on the dark site framing is certainly evocative. Of like, a mood, or something.

TG: i thought he was pretty quiet down there. TG: we'll make a rebel of him yet! AG: Lol. AG: I think it's more that he can't sleep. AG: I know how he feels. TG: yeah. TG: today was a lot. AG: ... TG: do you wanna talk about it? AG: Ugh, not you as well.

It’s really jarring to transition between Homestuck’s “kids jarringly mentally resistant to freaking out about the end of the world” to HS^2′s more realistic “kids traumatized by their first firefight even though it was an overwhelming victory-escape”.

TG: but seriously, do you? AG: Not really. TG: not even about... you know? TG: her? AG: No. TG: ... are you sure? AG: A8solutely. AG: What are you, my moirail? AG: Just leave it, Harry. TG: ok.

Are they about to have an “I wonder what Yiffy’s like” talk?

> (==>)

Very similar Tav/Vrissy convo to the previous one.

GG: I havent ever shared a bedroom before,,, GG: Not even for a slumber party,,, AG: Tavvy, you are just a8out the saddest person I've ever met.

Well, we have an even better idea how horrible Jane can be with kids, now. From Nanna to THIS is quite jarring. I wonder how the double Nannasprites that must still be around here somewhere feel?

> (==>)

TG: nothing about my dad is cute. TG: what are you even saying. AG: Lmao. TG: seriously! TG: i think he has something against that word, even. he gets super weird about it. AG: He's a strange and funny m8n. TG: yeah. TG: ... TG: i think something bad must have happened.

...um. What? Why would John have some sort of trauma about the word cute or being called it?

Did John dress up as a hint of his buried June ambitions as a kid and Dad lavish him with “SO CUTE” praise in an epic supportiveness backfire that caused him to shelve the idea of wearing non-masc clothes and being happier on the flipside of gender ever again??? Because if that’s how June gets canonized as promised, it’s a little harsher than the back of my mind was hoping. I guess it kind of had to be though from the premise of how it was read into his childhood for the original idea, though. Fuck, I hope this Cute business is about something different from that (like a Terezi reference or such) just to get less John Sads. (But still June. Definitely still want to get June.)

> (==>)

Oh, and now Vrissy is doing nothing but talking about what she said she didn’t want to talk about, of course. (Also I like how JANE’s now being called the Batterwitch.)

AG: And the worst part was they didn't even fight a8out it! AG: That made me madder than 8nything else. AG: It felt like I was the only person who even W8S mad! GG: I dont think thats true,,, AG: What would you know a8out it?! GG: Maybe nothing,,, GG: Sorry,,, GG: Its just,,, GG: To me,,, all the way through the conversation,,, aunt kanaya looked even angrier than you,,, AG: ... AG: Adults are so fucking weird.

Guh, I don’t want to be reminded how hurt a good chunk of the fanbase is by Kanaya getting hurt this badly.

Original Tavros was always SLIGHTLY perceptive of others sometimes, but maybe perceptiveness is being hinted at as a Tavros specialty? We still don’t know his classpect/hero-title or have any firm guesses based on purely him evidence. (Also, frightened kids of abusive households tend to learn to get perceptive pretty fucking quickly I hear.)

> (==>)

TG: dad was sitting in the cafeteria with aunt jade and your moms. TG: it looked like they were discussing something important... they were whispering and stuff.

[etc etc] Alright, the what-happened-to-Dave bit. And I imagine they’re kind of helping John grieve there, since Rose and Jade have talked that out already.

TG: aunt kanaya's was the only face i could see. TG: she was standing next to them, but she wasn't looking at what was going on. TG: almost like she couldn't bear to. AG: I doubt it. Kanaya's got a8out as much Emotivity as a very reclusive stone. TG: ok, i think that is bullshit but whatever. TG: she saw me standing there, but didn't say anything. she just shook her head slightly, and pointed back out into the hallway i came down.

Yep, giving them some space to grieve. Also-- gosh, shouldn’t Vrissy have the same emotive senses that Aranea implied Vriska shared with her? Kanaya isn’t that EXPRESSIVE but she’s certainly full of emotion. Also, I hope part of her not bearing to watch wasn’t lingering anger toward Jade and Rose mixing with that, but there probably was a bit of that too, though Dave being gone is so much harsher than that. --I just realized they might not have broken the news to Karkat yet, either.

AG: I guesadxcxzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz TG: vrissy?

Put to sleep by someone slumping down on your phone keypad, or surprised by something about the other conversation?

Oh shit, “other conversation” reminded me I didn’t look at Tavros’s chumhandle:

glutinousGymnast [GG]

HHHHHhhhhuh. Hm... huh? hhhh. huh? what, but. Why would. ?????

I really don’t understand what that chumhandle or any of its entendres should signify in this context.

Also, this means for our new four kids we have TG, GG, AG, and ??.

> (==>)

GG: I think she might have succumbed to sleep quite suddenly,,, GG: It would explain the,,,,,, interesting messages I've been getting for a while,,, TG: hehe. TG: i guess that tracks. TG: she does that from time to time.

That’s... strange. Homestuck’s taught us to be suspicious of that.

TG: ... TG: tav? GG: Yes,,, harry anderson,,,? TG: what does it feel like to know someone who's died?

Who is Harry referring to? (EDIT: Yes I know Gamzee for Tavros, but I meant Harry talks like he's worried he'll have to feel that way soon?) Is he just kind of inferring that something bad might have happened to Uncle Dave? Got that perceptive “parents are about to tell me about a death in the family” vibe? Or did he overhear more than he let on to Vrissy?

...alright, that’s the last page of this update. Looks like this chapter is going to continue to have a good bunch of grieving, or talk around it.

---

Now for Bonus Commentary for A Threat, Sensed. For some reason I have a dim memory of like... reading this myself without commenting on it? Or skimming it? But I’m pretty sure I didn’t do that. Weird. Must have imagined doing it.

Ah, I think I saw the opening paragraph scrolling Patreon, and my mind kinda filled in the blanks, this is still looking new to me.

Okay, mostly banter and japes in the commentary here. About Dirk “throwing a huge tantrum in his philosophy cave”.

We’ve had quite a bit of speculation on whether this is “really” Andrew. To that, I think we’d say that it doesn’t “really” matter.

Really? That was speculated about? :/

Here we discover that Dirk has not, as some people have speculated, been directly intervening into the Candy timeline, or influencing it in any way. In fact, he has a very hard time seeing anything going on there at all.

Mhmm, and that was a pretty important thing to learn.

A couple of years ago I might have agreed with the take that everything happening in Candy is simply too outlandish to ever happen naturally, without direct, villainous interference, but that was before literally every fucking batshit insane thing that has happened on Real Life Earth started going down, and now I will believe literally anything.

This is a nice bit of distraction from the idea that at least the opening parts of the Candy story were written/narrated by Original, Alive Calliope over on meat side. To refresh your memory of what was pointed out to me:

ROXY: back when jade first got all effed up callie saw somethin and it made them freak out ROXY: it took me weeks to convince them that it was safe to come home ROXY: but now we got the opposite problem and they arent leavin the house at all ROXY: they stay home all day with the blinds drawn paintin some weird ass shit on the walls TEREZI: WH4T? ROXY: its not as bad as it sounds i promise ROXY: some of it is like ROXY: weird and violent?? ROXY: like lotsa nasty purple blood and um ROXY: nudity???? TEREZI: >:? ROXY: yeah yikes ROXY: but MOST of it is cute stuff like... various combos of all of us being happy and gettin married and shit ROXY: anyway thats kept callie kinda busy

Which tracks with the initial out-of-character-seemingness of almost everyone at the start of Candy, and how they kind of tried to railroad things back onto the “Happy??” track after Dirk derailed it with his weird self-accumulation suicide, along with some of the flowery-idyllic descriptions of characters seeing each other bathed in a halo of light and such.

Of course, they’re not going to out-and-out STATE that Calliope was at fault for that narration, helping the Candy story not necessarily fall out the way it did “naturally”, until we finally get a glimpse of her on the heroes’ ship in Meat probably still painting the continuing Candy events, inspiring them into the void of the singularity with her latent powers. Til then, it’s a bit of misdirection whenever the topic is to be brought up. Along with a mix of Roxy’s late-Candy point to John of more or less “why COULDN’T we have done this naturally? you don’t know”.

He might even think that he has more direct power over the narrative than Hussie does himself. Surprise, motherfucker, you are a fictional character.

I’ll quote this next part in full:

There’s been talk of whether or not this bonus was written in the two days between its release and the Yiffy reveal chapter. The answer is--no. It was written over a month ago. But I think the things it addresses were not difficult to suss out. Obviously, Dirk is highlighting the issues that the readership are having with Yiffy, in his typical Dirk fashion. If it seems a little defensive, well...I suppose it is. Yiffy is one of the two hard lines drawn in the sand, and all of us love her, and we’re hoping that everyone else will love her too. But more than that, it focuses on the fact that update culture has a rhythm to it--shock, revulsion, acceptance (or not), and then excitement (or not). Will it follow that pattern this time? Who knows. I guess we’ll find out.

Yeah, given what was going to be dropped on us I expected they would have had exactly this lined up, especially because Andrew specifically mandated Yiffy. --I wonder why they aren’t mentioning that somewhere in the commentary and only on one of their Twitters?

Also quoting this:

There’s something both incredibly “cringe” and self-indulgent, as well as philosophically intriguing, about the author arguing with his villain, especially since he’s writing both halves of the conversation himself. You are, for all intents and purposes, trying to solve a problem that you have created for yourself. You are looking an aspect of your personality in the eye and asking, hey, what the fuck, man?

But in the end, isn’t that what every story is? Trying to untie knots that you put in the rope yourself?

Since it’s part of the central struggle of this story, and kind of the question Andrew’s tried to imply with every Homestuck work about what right we have to keep these characters trapped in a story, and if they’d be better off escaping it.

I’m really trying to avoid quoting so much of this, since the commentary is paid... but I think we can make an exception here? I’ll have only quoted about half of it; just, the really plot-important half. Plus, I left out a LOOOT of japes.

Dirk has a certain idea of how stories are supposed to go. That’s pretty much what the Epilogues is about. The audience also has a certain expectation of how a story is supposed to go. In a way, the Epilogues were also about that. They were taking a story that had reached the traditionally “acceptable” happily ever after, and saying, wait, no. What happens next? Thinking past happily ever after in any story is a terrifying prospect. Once Cinderella marries the prince, what then? Sure, she got what she wanted, but who knows that it will be everything she dreamt it would? What if she changes her mind, if not today, what about ten years from now? What if the prince dies of malaria?

And I’m...

Yeah I don’t have anything else to add here, I’m kind of out of brain juice to think about this tonight. BUSY day I had. Y’all take care!

#Homestuck #hs2 #Homestuck Liveblog #upd8 #Homestuck^2 #bladekindeyewear #blastyoboots #spoiler #spoilers #Homestuck Commentary

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katieskarlette · 5 years

Text

WoW: What’s Next panel

This is the big one! I’ll be watching the panel on the livestream and editing this post as it goes, so check back for updates.

[EDIT: Panel’s over, post is finished!]

----

Ion: We are not jumping on a ship and going to a land that “mapmakers have mysteriously ignored for the last ten years.” Ha. It’s another plane of existence.

The Warcraft Afterlife: Souls cross the veil between life and death Souls are brought before the mysterious female entity known as the Arbiter All the deeds/misdeeds, aspirations, triumphs and failures are laid bare to the Arbiter, who then routes the soul to one of the Shadowlands’ realms. Each realm is ruled by a powerful Covenant.

Souls bear with them a vital force called Anima. A quiet farmer who lived an unremarkable life has only a little Anima, while “Varian, Garrosh and Arthas had a ton.” He mentioned those characters by name. Hmmmmmm.

Ion joked about how the early concept art of Bastion was already leaked.

Bastion is home to the Covenant of the Kyrians, aka spirit healers. “Souls here shed past burdens and seek virtue.” Uther’s soul is here, and we’ll encounter him!

Kyrian are ordered and purposeful, dedicated to service.

Maldraxxus is ruled by the Necrolord Covenant. It is the heart of the Shadowlands’ military might who defend the Shadowlands from the enemies of death. They’re about survival of the fittest, not strictly evil. Relentless, unyielding spirits go here, including Thrall’s mother, Draka. It’s like EPL on steroids, aesthetically.

Ardenweald is an enchanted fairy forest. It’s ruled by the Night Fae covenant. This enchanted mystical forest is the Emerald Dream’s dark mirror. It reflects fall and winter, a place of rest and rebirth. Cenarius’ soul went here after Grom killed him.

Revendreth is a creepy, gothic zone with miasma, soaring castles and dark secrets. Ruled by the Covenant of the Venthyr. Flawed and prideful souls atoning for their sins end up here. You don’t want to end up here, but it’s possible to redeem yourself and move on to another area of the Shadowlands. We will encounter KAEL’THAS there! Ooh! (And, yes, Ion made a “setback” joke.)

Covenants are the four powers of the Shadowlands and are integrated into almost every feature of the game. Each one seeks your aid, and each offers power and rewards. Each one has a full endgame narrative campaign, akin to the two factions’ war campaigns in BFA. Each gives you two active abilities, one of which is class-specific.

Endgame progression system: Soulbinds. Bind your soul to a powerful entity in the Shadowlands for unique benefits. There is no artifact power to grind! YAY! Ion says they have learned from the last couple of expansions. It’s important to have goals to work toward and ways to customize your characters’ playstyle without having it be a grind that is full of pressure and punishing to alts.

Each Covenant has a sanctum that we’ll build up and restore to glory, sort of like Shal’Aran was in Legion.

Covenants will also have rewards of mounts, transmog, etc. They will give you items for the cloak slot that will give you ornaments like, in the case of Kyrians, a halo or angel wings, etc.

Oribos, the Eternal City is an ancient city that predates memory, and the home of The Arbiter. Brokers and soul-traders gather here. It will be the main player hub and sanctuary city. “Khadgar wanted to bring Dalaran through but we figured there was already a city there, so not needed.” LOL

The Maw is a mystery even to Shadowlands natives. No known Covenant rules it. It’s ruled by a dark figure known as The Jailer, who is like a boogeyman to the people of the Shadowlands. It’s a horrific prison for the most vile souls. Nothing has ever, ever escaped.

In 9.0 the machinery of death is broken, and souls are pouring directly into the Maw without being routed first. The other parts of the Shadowlands are thus starved of Anima.

“What about Sylvanas’ role in all this?” asks the slide. Yes, Ion, do tell.

A picture of the burning of Teldrassil got a lot of booing, cheering, laughter and general excitement from the crowd.

“Arthas is dead, I’m sorry.” SO?!?!?! So are Uther, Draka and Kael’thas!

The Jailor in the Maw is the creepy silhouette that Sylvanas was facing in the teaser footage. Sylvanas doesn’t have a master, but her goals align with the Jailor’s. He’s been feeding her more power lately.

9.0 will start with Scourge marauding across Azeroth, since the Helm of Domination that held them back is shattered. Azeroth’s heroes make for Icecrown to stop the problem at its source. We are led by Bolvar, since he understands the Scourge best. He has one foot in each realm and knows more than anyone about them.

We go from Icecrown into The Maw, and that’s all, we’re trapped. Nothing’s ever escaped. “It’s a short expansion.” LOL! Actually, we escape the Maw and go on, but it sounds like some lore heroes stay trapped there...for now. Hmm.

We work with each realm’s leaders and borrow their powers, then choose a Covenant at max level.

However, once you have one character who has reached max level, your alts can pick their Covenant right away before they start leveling. You can level in any zone, do world quests, etc....lots of choices. You can work toward endgame progression while you level, reducing the sense that leveling and endgame are two separate games, that what you do while leveling doesn’t matter in the long run. Interesting.

At max level we return to the Maw, a fearsome zone with freeform outdoor gameplay. Unlike other max level zones, there are no innkeepers or friendly bases. You have to be on your toes all the time.

At the center of the Maw is Torghast, Tower of the Damned (the upside-down thing in the sky above Icecrown in the cinematic.) It’s an endless, ever-changing dungeon for 1-5 players. As you ascend the tower you earn upgrades that shore up your weaknesses, play to your strengths, etc. It looks a bit like the choices on each ring of Azerite gear.

4 dungeons to level up in: The Necrotic Wake, Plaguefall, Mists of Tirna Scithe, Halls of Atonement

4 max level dungeons: Spires of Ascension, Theater of Pain, Sanguine Depths, and The Other Side--where Bwonsamdi is!

Castle Nathria is a 10-boss raid at Revendreth. Think Dracula’s castle. It’s a winged raid and “for once you’re not going in through the sewer.”

Core philosophy: Focus on player agency. “We want to give all of you a feeling of more control over your destiny.” It’s something the playerbase has been asking for for years, and they’ve heard the feedback.

Profession updates: be guaranteed to craft an item with the secondary stats you want instead of having to craft a zillion items with random stats before you get the crit/haste/whatever you needed.

The weekly loot chest is the most hated example of RNG in the game today, according to Ion. It will now give you 5-6 items to pick from, based on the bosses you’ve used your bonus rolls on, etc.

Legendaries: Legion legendaries were fun when you had them, but the randomness of obtaining them was a major pain in the butt. In Shadowlands you’ll be able to work toward building a specific legendary that you want, then a second one, etc.

Shadowlands brings us a return to class identity as opposed to spec. Some abilities that were made spec-specific will go back to being class-specific, and some that were removed will be returning. Yay!

Shadowlands has a streamlined leveling experience. 120 characters going into the expansion will be 50 when they go into Shadowlands, and will level to 60 at the end. Every level will now unlock something and be meaningful, instead of dinging all the time but it being meaningless.

Unprecedented flexibility for alts. Want to just level in Pandaria? Do it, then go to Shadowlands. Skip everything else if you want to.

Character customization is the focus this time instead of new races. (YES!!!!!) Tattoos, body paint, new skin colors (be a Sandfury troll!), undead without visible bones(!!!), horn and tusk options, eye colors, etc. RACIALLY DIVERSE HUMAN MODELS! OMG! THEY LOOK AMAZING!

Every allied race will be able to be Death Knights.

Deep dive into Shadowlands at 11:15 AM Pacific tomorrow.

#Blizzcon with KS #shadowlands #shadowlands spoilers

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theonyxpath · 4 years

Link

The M20 Technocracy Reloaded (hence this blog’s title) Kickstarter has kept going strong, and we’re now over 400% funded! We’re all very thrilled by the many sections of the Companion PDF that have been added via Stretch Goals thanks to all of our amazing backers.

So, thanks to all of you who’ve already backed – and everyone else, please come check out the KS if you can and help us add even more! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/m20-technocracy-reloaded

Our team continue to be interviewed about M20 Technocracy Reloaded, and there are several awesome actual play broadcasts that you can check out below in the Onyx Path Media section!

If you have questions about M20 Technocracy Reloaded that aren’t answered by any of these venues, we’d love to help you out and answer them on our AMA on Reddit tomorrow, Tuesday the 12th, starting at 12 noon Eastern US time. https://www.reddit.com/r/OnyxPathRPG

Our crew will be popping in and out during the course of the AMA, and while our focus is M20 Technocracy Reloaded, please feel free to ask about anything on your mind!

Dark Eras 2 art by Brian LeBlanc

What We’re Doin’ During These Times

Which brings up the first part of our blog title today. Special Thanks to GuidoG who posted that one several weeks ago in our blog comments. Told ya I’d use it eventually! So we have that AMA mentioned above, but we’re still following up on the ideas I posted about these last few weeks.

Following up, when Dark Eras 2 goes on sale in PDF and PoD versions this Wednesday on DTRPG, we’ll also be offering individual chapter PDFs as well, for folks that didn’t pledge and might need a less expensive way to get gaming materials for the specific game lines they’re interested in.

All of the historical chapters are fantastic, and if you can get the whole book, it is well worth it – but these times, they have been really rough for a lot of our community, so we hope these discrete chapters help.

Our second set of Developer Town Halls went well last week, with lots of talk about development processes and the care and feeding of their writing teams. We unfortunately did hear of a few of our creators needing to be tested, but also a few creators who had Covid and got through it, thankfully.

In last week’s blog I asked for questions for the devs, and while I didn’t use all of them, and several folks included Onyx Pathcast related questions – which was interesting and cool – so I combined those, the Devs all seemed to enjoy answering. We actually had several more in-depth conversations based on their answers to the questions, which added a lot to our getting to know one another. So thanks for those questions, is what I’m saying!

Here’s our Dev responses to a bunch of the questions I received for them:

(Disclaimer: I was writing down the responses really fast, so if I missed anyone’s response to a question, my apologies – it wasn’t you or your answer, just my limited steno skills).

Question: What game line are you truly passionate about?

Eddy Webb: Pugmire, duh.

Matthew Dawkins: Wraith the Oblivion– capital P for Passion.

Travis Legge: Love the Scarred Lands.

Chris Allen: Werewolf: the Forsaken!

Vera Vertanian: TC: Aeon, because I’m such a giant dweeb.

Dixie Cochran: Realms of Pugmire the Masquerade the Lost Essence. (They Came From Beyond the Grave!)

Neall Raemonn Price: EXALTED!

Meghan Fitzgerald: Mage: the Awakening. But Deviant came out of nowhere and I really love it.

John Snead: Mage: the Ascension (for the arguing).

Danielle Lauzon: I’m a huge fan of everything I work on while I’m working on it. My first love/assignment was Mage: the Awakening.

Lauren Roy: Me too, I get so excited as I get to work on each line. But the game of my heart is Mage: the Ascension.

Monica Speca: Exalted, and right now Essence.

Lunars art by Joe Ng

Question: Do you feel good with the word count you handle at the moment?

Eddie Webb: Define good, I’m not freaking out.

Travis Legge: Thrilled and overjoyed.

Matthew Dawkins: That is definitely a question.

Dixie Cochran: Always dread until actually working on it.

Danielle Lauzon: I’m good with 10k, that feels easy. Any more at one time seems sooo huge!

Monica Speca: Shorter word counts work great for me. Especially fiction.

Meghan Fitzgerald: Depends on system or setting.

Neall Raemonn Price: Every time I get comfortable with my amount of work, something pops up outside my control, like Covid.

Question: Are there any groups that we could set up for slack outside of work that would help you?

Matthew Dawkins: Long form TV review and discussion slack.

Dixie Cochran: Animal Crossing, other fandom sites are too negative.

Eddie Webb: Sherlock Holmes, but not really into discussion groups.

Danielle Lauzon: Shitposting.

Neall Raemonn Price: Sopranos.

Meghan Fitzgerald: TV, all TV.

Question: Whats your party trick?

Dixie Cochran: Vanishing out of goth clubs.

Matthew Dawkins: Beating people at Mario Cart.

John Snead: Carry and open up a laptop to demonstrate memes – a memetic enforcer.

Danielle Lauzon: Go to parties at houses, and take over the grill and kitchen. “Because she knows things”.

Monica Speca: I bring the games – boardgames, card games, age and number of players appropriate, all ready for the party.

Lunars cover design

Question: Would you like to be an inerviewee for the terribly awesome trio on the Onyx Pathcast? and if so, what question would you want them to ask you?

Chris Allen: Would you like a drink?

Travis Legge: Tell me about Dead Man’s Rust?

Danielle Lauzon: I just like to taaalk. Any question.

Meghan Fitzgerald: Not so much a question, but it’d be great if there could be a group roundtable.

Monica Speca: Will always talk about game design nonsense.

Eric Zawadzki: Would love to get on there to talk about the Deviant Companions.

Neall Raemonn Price: With others, then Essence. The State of Scion, and tease upcoming projects.

Dark Eras 2 art by Alex Sheikman

Finally, we talked about the Gehenna Gaming virtual convention a few weeks ago, and there have been a few more of those popping up including a virtual convention Eddy is going to be presenting at this coming weekend. So let me ask you folks:

If we had an Onyx Path oriented virtual convention – and I’m just asking to see if there’s interest, I’m not announcing anything – what sort of events would you like to have happen during it? Would you enjoy seeing our creators play our games? Would you want to sign up to play with us? How about virtual panels and Q&A sessions? Or do you have an idea for something else?

Give me a yell, put your thoughts in the blog comments – we’d love to hear from you. And again, we don’t have plans for a virtual convention as yet, but if we were planning on maybe making plans, it’d help to know if you folks were interested in attending and virtual engaging with our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

Blurbs!

Kickstarter!

The M20 Technocracy Reloaded Kickstarter funded in 43 minutes and at almost halfway through has passed 1680 backer operatives, is over 400% funded, and has achieved Stretch Goals consisting of a Storytellers Screen unlock, an unlock of more original Mage PDFs, Backers’ Exclusive T-Shirt, Wallpaper, and building the Technocracy Reloaded Player’s Companion PDF: sections on Constructs and Symposiums (and then expanded by a later SG), Digital Web 3.0, Technomancers’ Toybox 20 and the Q-Division bonus section, Unlikely Allies (also expanded by another SG), and the expanded Digital Web 3.0.2. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/m20-technocracy-reloaded

Highlights of M20 Technocracy Reloaded include:

An Operative’s Handbook that provides a detailed overview of life in the Technocratic Union, describing the organization of the Union, the Conventions, and the roles that sympathizers, extraordinary citizens, and Enlightened Operatives play in the overall structure of the Technocracy.

An examination of Technocratic initiatives on a global scale.

Devices, procedures, and hypertech used by the Technocratic Union that explores the Enlightened Science, allowing operatives to apply similar effects in the field, if they have sufficient understanding of the principles that allow these gadgets to function.

A comprehensive list of citizens, cyborgs, operatives, progenitor creations, and allies to use as NPCs.

Storyteller support that explores story seeds and metaplot to shape a chronicle for their needs.

Onyx Path Media!

This week features a return to the Terrific Trio’s actual play of Scion!

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

The Technocratic Union continues its live broadcast Tuesday, May 12th at 9 PM EDT on the Onyx Path Publishing Twitch Channel. twitch.tv/theonyxpath

You are under instructions to not miss it.

Plus, Red Moon Roleplaying have just started their actual play of Technocracy Reloaded right here: https://youtu.be/RtdW0znt7GU Please give them your support!

Come tune in to our Twitch channel for an overloaded schedule not limited to Vampire: The Masquerade- Blood on the Tamesis, Vampire: The Masquerade – Chicago by Night Noir, Pugmire – Paws & Claws, Changeling: The Lost – Littlebrook Reunion, Changeling: The Dreaming – The Last Faerie Tale, Mage: The Awakening – Occultists Anonymous, Scarred Lands – Purge of the Serpentholds, and Dark Eras Werewolf: The Forsaken!

You can subscribe to our channel over on twitch.tv/theonyxpath to catch up with any episodes you missed!

Come take a look at our YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/theonyxpath, where you can find a whole load of videos of actual plays, dissections of our games, and more, including:

Vampire: The Masquerade: Blood City – Chicago by Night: https://youtu.be/LXWGtVy2jbE

Mage: The Ascension – Technocracy Reloaded: https://youtu.be/hHG5fBCFlTE

Trinity Continuum – Special Series run by Danielle Lauzon: https://youtu.be/K1xCbfpmKlc

More Vampire: The Masquerade: Blood City – Chicago by Night: https://youtu.be/-zVEOQJK9zc

Chronicles of Darkness: Seattle by Streetlight: https://youtu.be/gMMFhoDncNs

Eddy’s Workshop: Proofing Layout: https://youtu.be/VhkEbMbQ3cA

Do subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon if you want to be notified whenever new news videos and uploads come online!

Matthew Dawkins appeared on the excellent 307 RPG Podcast, where he was interviewed about everything from They Came from Beneath the Sea! and They Came from Beyond the Grave! to upcoming Vampire: The Masquerade books! Give them a listen here: https://307rpg.com/?p=265

Further to that interview, the 307 RPG Podcast released an episode all to do with the Archetypes in They Came from Beneath the Sea!: https://307rpg.com/?p=282

The Story Told Podcast continue their excellent journey into Demon: The Descent right here: http://thestorytold.libsyn.com/the-aggregate-choir-file-2

A Bunch of Gamers have been running a fantastic Pugmire adventure! You can check it out here: https://youtu.be/b57kVpzV2q4 and here’s a synopsis: Retrievers in the Plastic Quarter, explosions all around, and the cats of Korat demanding answers. Our heroes are locked in a deadly battle as their long time foe make their move to wrestle control of the city from King Pug. Will they be able to stop Terry or will the city of Pugmire fall into darkness?

Occultists Anonymous are here with a new special Mage: The Awakening series:

RV Mage 05: We Have a Side? Drifter meets with the Hierarch, Bless Your Heart, to get to the heart of the Consilium’s politics. Vicar and Amanita settle around a Locus to meet with werewolves, then finally, the mages join forces… https://youtu.be/w-FKL4Fnimo

RV Mage 06: Inversion Fleeing into the Shadow, away from raging werewolves, Amanita, Drifter, and Vicar confront opposing mages, Seers of the Orphean Ministry. Of course, werewolves are very good at traversing through the Gauntlet into the Shadow as well… https://youtu.be/P6Ko6_tCFDU

Please check these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games! We’d love to feature you!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

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If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

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We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost Second Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

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And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And now Scion Origin and Scion Hero and Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Aeon are available to order!

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

On Sale This Week!

This week, the PDF and PoD versions of Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras 2 emerge from the haunted past on DriveThruRPG on Wednesday!

Dark Eras 2 explores 13 new eras scattered throughout the history of the Chronicles of Darkness. Each chapter features two to three game lines which include Vampire: The Requiem, Mage: The Awakening, Hunter: The Vigil, Changeling: The Lost, and more!

The rules in this book are compatible with second edition Chronicles of Darkness. Each terrifying time period and location is examined through the supernatural creatures that dwell there.

Unlock the past. Find out what hides in the shadows.

Inside, you’ll find:

Historically inspired settings and story hooks

Character-creation tips and gameplay advice

New Tilts, Conditions, and era-appropriate rules

Conventions!

As mentioned above, our own Fast Eddy Webb will be appearing on 2 or 3 panels for the Flights of Foundry online convention this weekend! Check it out here: https://flightsoffoundry2020.sched.com/mysessions

Though dates are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, here’s our current list of upcoming conventions:

UKGames Expo: https://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/

GenCon: https://www.gencon.com/

Tabletop Scotland: https://tabletopscotland.co.uk/

Gamehole Con: https://www.gameholecon.com/

PAX Unplugged: https://unplugged.paxsite.com/

And now, the new project status updates!

Development Status from Eddy Webb! (Projects in bold have changed status since last week.):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep.)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Under Alien Suns (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Clades Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

The Devoted Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

Saints and Monsters (Scion 2nd Edition)

M20 Rich Bastard’s Guide To Magick (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

Wild Hunt (Scion 2nd Edition)

Dead Man’s Rust (Scarred Lands)

V5 The Faithful Undead (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

V5 Trails of Ash and Bone (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

V5 Forbidden Religions (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Anima

Redlines

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Hundred Devil’s Night Parade (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)

Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)

Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Exalted Essence Edition (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Second Draft

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Assassins (Trinity Continuum Core)

Dearly Bleak – Novella (Deviant: The Renegades)

Development

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (They Came From!)

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Manuscript Approval

Post-Approval Development

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Editing

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

TC: Aberrant Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

LARP Rules (Scion 2nd Edition)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Book of Lasting Death (Mummy: The Curse 2e)

Post-Editing Development

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Titanomachy (Scion 2nd Edition)

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Magic Item Decks (Scarred Lands)

Yugman’s Guide Support Decks (Scarred Lands)

Indexing

Art Direction from Mike Chaney!

In Art Direction

Scion Titanomachy

Tales of Aquatic Terror

WoD Ghost Hunters – KS final art coming in. Gaydos should be done shortly.

Aberrant – Contacting and contracting. Signing off on sketches.

Pugmire Adventure – All sketches in.

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Mummy 2

Deviant – Dividing up among current artists.

Legendlore – Kickstarter on hiatus/doing art buy breakdown.

Technocracy Reloaded (KS) – Happening.

Cults of the Blood God – Rolling along.

Scion: Dragon – Working on chapter art breakdowns.

Masks of the Mythos – Working on chapter art breakdowns.

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (KS) – Getting fulls for KS.

In Layout

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad

Vigil Watch

TC Aeon Terra Firma – Over to Josh.

V5 Let the Streets Run Red – Prepping for layout.

Buried Bones: Creating in the Realms of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Proofing

Trinity Aeon Jumpstart

Pirates of Pugmire – Waiting for backer errata.

TCFBTS Heroic Land Dwellers – Waiting for backer errata.

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate – Backer PDF out to KS backers Tuesday.

Scion Companion – Just waiting for two tweaked pieces.

Contagion Chronicle

Cavaliers of Mars: City of the Towered Tombs

Duke Rollo Book – Waiting for backer errata.

At Press

Night Horrors : Nameless and Accursed – PoD proof on the way.

Dark Eras 2 – PDF and PoD versions on sale on DTRPG this Weds!

TCFBTS Screen and Booklet

They Came from Beneath the Sea!

C:tL 2e Oak, Ash, & Thorn – PoD proof OK, on sale soon.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Today in 1997, Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of their rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a classic match format.

Not saying that was the beginning of the end for humanity, that the Technocracy won, or that this connects in any way with Trinity Continuum: Anima. Just interesting, that’s all…

#Onyx Path Publishing

1 note · View note

weaselle · 5 years

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I wallowed. That’s fine, but now it’s time to make changes.

hokay, so, time for work. Today I will work from 1pm to 11pm. Later if things go wrong, which they almost certainly will. This restaurant is such garbage. But I’m all done feeling helpless and wrecked over it. Things I need to do: 1 Take the van in to have it gutted. I don’t have the time, space, or tools, so.

2 Build the interior. Basically, it’s just two tricky long wooden boxes topped with cushion foam and some wall/floor/ceiling surfacing over some insulation. Shouldn’t be too hard or too expensive. But I’m uncertain my design is the best it could be, and it’s making me stall out on moving forward on this. Oh and these solar panels and battery bank and inverter and junk I’ve got sitting here waiting on me, I gotta install them... actually, this is quite a project. But I need to get moving on it.

(scale model of an early design) 3 Change my employment. I need more time to monetize my creative projects, but I need income while I do that, and this 60 hour a week job is killing me while preventing my progress, SO. I need a job waiting tables at night fri/sat/sun and then I need another job waiting tables for breakfast or lunch, also fri/sat/sun. This will have me working three 12 hour shifts instead of five 12 hour shifts, AND I’ll earn the same (or more!) money because my current job pays me SHIT. Then I can have 4 days a week to work on my own ambitions instead of laboring entirely for the benefit of someone else’s.

To stay on track for my timeline, I need to have all this done by September 1st, which I think is still doable. If I stick this job out until the end of August, I’ll get the rest of my signing bonus, a thousand dollars. Honestly not sure it’s worth it, but hell, it’s getting close, might as well. That’s 50 work days. Ten weeks. Just over two months. Gods and Goddesses, let me stay strong through this time. For real though, If it would make me happy and make my life easier and not interfere with my regular income... I would give up a thousand dollars to not constantly feel like I want to walk into traffic, which is what this job is doing to me. I may have to get another job sooner than later. I actually do not know which is the better course of action. Do I just quit now? Hell, if you told me I could definitely get my preferred new job situation starting tomorrow if I paid a thousand dollars for it, I would totally do it. Like, three days a week instead of five, for less headaches and more money. Maybe I should say fuck the bonus and go for health and joy instead. yeah. gonna start looking for other work this week.

#my life

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catthefearless · 5 years

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A real “Con” artist Part 3

This is from the writing challenge @deepestfirefun started at the beginning of February and I’m late, as usual. This third part of the fiction involves our beloved Richard Armitage and CAT working together at a comic convention. I’m not even going to get into the quotes in this part yet so you’ll have to follow along. Enjoy.

Part 1 Part 2

Richard seemed unusually distracted during his panel that afternoon. He was trying to concentrate on each person as they stepped up the mic to ask their personal questions after his presentation about his career. Each person seemed so ingratiating and was fan-girling on such an obvious level, all his could think about was the sweet, sincere woman he was really enjoying spending time with today. He wondered how he could see her beyond the weekend and maybe someone he really wanted to get to know better.

When the moderator signaled that it was time to wrap things up, he quickly stated that he would be back at his table in an hour and thought about how quickly he could get back to CAT. Then he struck upon an idea, a totally sincere gesture that he hoped would be well received by CAT and Julia. He whispered to the staff member what his request was and then slipped out into the back hall for a quick break and some quiet while the staff person went to accommodate his request.CAT and Julia were having fun with the people who stopped by Julia's table and had time for lots of girl talk. "It's obvious he likes you, at least a little." Julia grinned at CAT.

"He's at his panel and said he would come by and get me when he was ready." CAT sighed and smiled. "I know I have always been a fan but getting to know him up close and personally is so much better. He is such a gentleman but he has a mischievous streak in him too. His comments about some of the fans are in good fun and nothing mean spirited but I can tell he tires of it some. He seems a mostly private man and yet, he's let me into his little corner of the world."

Julia beamed at CAT. "After all the bad luck you've had with men, maybe what you need is a friend to hang out with to boost your confidence! It's a bonus he's good looking, intelligent and seems to be attracted to you too!" Julia bumped CAT's arm and laughed at her friend's obvious crush.

"As long as it stays all in good fun, I'll be just fine. I can't really see anything beyond tomorrow when we pack up again and head home." CAT frowned then looked up just in time to see Richard winding his way through the crowd with a smile on his face. CAT smiled back and Julia noticed and turned to see what was going on.

Richard was carrying a cardboard tray with beverage cups on it and the staff person who was trailing him had a couple of paper bags in her hands. Richard stepped behind the table and sat in the 3rd chair in the space as he set the drinks on the table and the staff person set the bags down and excused herself.

"Ladies, I thought it might be nice to have some tea and whatever passes as biscuits here." He indicated the cups and the bags. He reached over and opened one bag and dumped out spoons, napkins, sugar packets and creamer cups.

"Since I wasn't sure how anyone liked their tea, I took the liberty of bringing provisions." He smiled as he handed beverage cups with lids on to Julia then to CAT.

Julia popped the lid off promptly and took two sugars and a creamer as Richard carefully removed the cookies from the other bag and placed them gently on a napkin. He had gotten several types of cookies, and grinned as he picked up one and bit into it. His face had a look of pure bliss as he crunched the cookie and sipped from his cup of tea.

In the meantime CAT had dumped a creamer into her cup and stirred it slowly as she watched Richard relish his "biscuit" with his tea.

"Oh how lovely Richard! Thank you so much for this tea time." Julia smiled at him as she took a sip of her tea. "Reminds me of mum and how we could never skip our afternoon cuppa."

"I didn't know you were British," Richard's brows shot up and he gave her a quizzical look.

"No, not British dear, Irish mum and French father but we lived in Northern Canada." Julia said with a sly grin as she reached for a cookie. "Couldn't have been too different in customs and manners than how you grew up, other than the threat of Polar bears wandering down the street." She laughed with Richard and CAT joining her.

As CAT reached for a cookie, Richard's fingers brushed her hand as he did the same. She looked up into his smokey blue eyes getting lost for a moment before she remembered the cookie she almost dropped. He chuckled as he captured her hand to help her rescue the treat. She drew her hand back with the cookie and smiled up at him and took a nibble. His eyebrows shot up and he hummed and smiled as he took a bite of his own biscuit. She couldn't help but think he was shyly flirting with her and she smiled and looked down at her cup.

"I'd like to take you both to supper tonight after we get back to the hotel. The restaurant downstairs isn't too bad and we don't have to worry about walking too far in this weather." He looked hopefully at both Julia then CAT. CAT nodded and Julia smiled.

"That sounds lovely, thank you!" Julia replied and nudged CAT. CAT smiled and chewed slowly as she watched Richard who hadn't taken his eyes off her yet.

CAT swallowed deliberately before replying."I think that sounds like such a nice idea." She looked up to see Richard looking deeply into her eyes. She looked away a little embarrassed at the close scrutiny. Richard cleared his throat and looked down at his watch.

"I suppose we'd better wrap up our little tea time and I'd best get back to all my adoring fans!" he emphasized 'adoring' in such a way that both Julia and CAT laughed.

"One more cookie for the road and we should be off," CAT said as she stood, picked up a cookie and her cup and stepped out of the booth. Richard grinned at her and grabbed another cookie too and stood next to CAT.

"Au revior Madame, see you in about 2 hours." He bowed slightly to Julia who smiled back at him.

"Au revior Monsieur," Julia said as she waved to them both.

CAT and Richard started to walk back to his table, both carrying tea and a cookie each.

As they approached his table they noticed the security person wasn't there but some people had started to line up at the sign indicating Richard's schedule. Richard politely excused them as they cut through the line and went to sit down behind the table. CAT pulled the photos back out from the box under the table as Richard retrieved the markers for signing from the box and they arranged the stacks of photos around on the table. After CAT was seated again, Richard reached down and gently squeezed her hand and looked at her. She looked up at him and smiled and squeezed his hand back and they both were smiling as if they had shared a secret. The security person arrived and asked if they needed anything. Richard said they were all set and ready for fans.

"And so it begins," Richard said quietly as he leaned in to CAT's ear so only she could hear. She smiled and nodded.

"Just keep thinking of a relaxing supper with a nice glass of wine and two attractive women as company." CAT said quietly back.

"Mmmm, can't wait." he said and winked at her. She could feel herself blushing a bit from all the attention he was giving her. Her hand still felt warm from his hand on hers, giving her a secret reassuring squeeze that no one else was privy to.

She wondered if he was as attracted to her as she was to him. She had finally met her favorite TV and movie star and he had lived up to everything she had ever imaged about him in person. If nothing else, she would go home with so many pleasant memories about her weekend with him.

The first hour went by quickly and Richard leaned in and said that maybe CAT should go check on Julia while he took a break too. He told the security person he needed a ten minute break and they both walked over to Julia's table.

Richard excused himself as he needed to head to the loo and would be back by in a minute. He headed for the private security area meant for the guest artists to use and disappeared into the crowd.

"How is our tall, handsome companion?" Julia asked as she nodded in the direction he disappeared.

"Amazing," CAT said with a smile. "I think he's flirting with me." CAT looked at Julia with a surprised look on her face.

"Yes dear, he likes you and it's pretty obvious."

"I just never..." CAT stammered. Julia laughed and shook her head.

"What's not to believe? You're an attractive and intelligent woman and you're helping him more than a little." Julia grinned at CAT as she shook her head in disbelief.

"I just don't know what to think of it. I don't think he's trying to pick me up for the weekend but I just don't know what he wants."

"He is probably very comfortable and secure with you and wants a friend. Let nature take it's course and it might just lead to a lasting friendship, or more." Julia grinned at CAT and laughed.

"Yeah, well we'll see." CAT added quietly.

Julia took a much needed break just as Richard was walking back. CAT told him she would join him back at his table as soon as she was able. He squeezed her hand and told her he'd miss her until she returned, then turned and walked back to his table.

CAT stood quietly for a moment, absorbing what he had just said just as Julia walked back. She caught the far away look on CAT's face and smiled.

"Got it bad for that Brit boy, have ya?" she teased CAT.

"Oh hush!" CAT huffed in mock indignation. "He said he would miss me until I returned." She smiled at Julia.

"Yep, got it bad hun," Julia said as CAT started to walk away. CAT just shook her head as she walked away.

CAT took her turn at a restroom break then walked back past Julia's table to see her happily engaged with some fans. She waved as she continued to walk on towards Richard's table. Three squeeing women were clustered in front of his table as she returned and had to excuse herself to get past them and behind the table again. One of them looked up at her with pure envy on her face as her friend looked from Richard to CAT and back.

"Is this your girlfriend?" she inquired.

"Her name is CAT and she's a dear friend who is here helping me and another friend for the weekend." Richard replied in a friendly tone. Two of the women smiled at CAT and the third cast a baleful look at her.

"Lucky CAT," she muttered. CAT laughed and waved her hand like one of the lucky cat figures. They all three laughed and finally got their signed photos from Richard and started to walk away. One of the women stopped and pulled out her phone and snapped a quick photo of CAT and Richard at the table. She quickly dropped the phone back into her bag before the security person could comment on not taking photos of the celebrities. They quickly moved off still giggling and squeeing.

Richard shook his head and laughed and rubbed CAT's shoulder. "Are you OK with how I introduced you?" He looked into her ice blue eyes with a pleading look.

"Perfectly OK, dear friend." She smiled at him and he squeezed her shoulder and smiled broadly at her.

"I meant it," he said sincerely and then turned as someone approached the table. They got back to business again with him signing photos and taking selfies by request. His knee brushed against hers under the table and he brushed his fingers against hers whenever she handed him a photo to sign. These intimate little touches made CAT feel so comfortable with Richard it was easy working alongside him.

@deepestfirefun @theincaprincess @patanghill17@armitageadoration@pixiedurango @abiwim @bellevox @cd1242@calicoskatts @loki-the-fox@bofursunboundbraids @tomssweetbouquet@mypatronusisastag-osaurus@september-stardust @blankdblank @shikin83@fandomgalcentral @ra-of-light@thedarlingwriter @raychellefay@sweeticedtea @thegreyberet@thestorybookmistress @xxbyimm @thorins-magnificent-ass@princessofthefandomrealm@fizzyxcustard @rachel1959

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bravehardts · 7 years

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Day 2 - Now having slept, Dublin again

As predicted, we were awake at 3am, but only because some party started in the room next door and apparently these hotel walls are as thin as the vellum pages of the Book of Kells! (That's a mediocre joke but will make sense as we get further into today). After calling the front desk to get our neighbors to keep it down, it seemed like we were going to be up for good. But we powered through the night, fell back asleep, seemingly for just a little bit. That was until Allison turned over and saw the time: 9am. We had slept for about 12 hours, Alex for 14. That would usually be great, except that we had booked tickets to see the aforementioned Book of Kells exhibit at 9am. Oops. All was not lost (by "all" I mean 20 euros), as we grabbed a continental breakfast at the hotel, and wandered over to Trinity College, the location of this famous book. With true Irish charm, they honored our late tickets and we headed inside, bypassing an enormous waiting line. This ancient book is amazingly detailed in its artistry and I won't pretend to try to describe it (just Google it already). The exhibit itself features a few hallways with large, illuminated copies of various pages, showing off the colorful inks, decorative designs, and history of the time (we flew through this crowded area so again I will pass on being the expert). The final room featured the actual "book" (or series of books?) on display in a glass case, which was swamped by crowds and nearly impossible to see. It seemed like a bit of a bust, at least for our rushed tour--until we went upstairs to the "long library". This was an insanely long arched, wood paneled hallway, lined by marble busts of famous writers and Irish historical figures. 200,000 books from centuries past line the shelves on both stories, any one of which could be checked out by a student at the college. It felt like Indiana Jones had probably done a bit of digging here in his heyday. The hall even featured the harp of Brian Boru--the origin of the harp symbol, so important to country and adorning your Guinness glass. Satisfied that we had achieved our one goal for the morning, we set out for some bonus points and wandered around Trinity College. The quiet campus is smack in the middle of Dublin, yet packed with tourists grazing the lawns and viewing the architecture and statues. Wandering north, we crossed the River Liffey and quickly found a donut shop for a little coffee and sweets. This was a popular and crowded part of town that felt somewhat reminiscent of the touristy crowds around fisherman's wharf. Crossing back over the river, we hiked up the slope of Ha'penny bridge and back in the general direction of the Temple Bar area. As we learned, there is in fact a pub called the "Temple Bar", but the entire district is also called "Temple Bar"--a series of shops and pubs on narrow walking streets. This was super touristy area, yet quaint and lively. We settled into a hotel-recommended dining option for lunch, called Oliver St. John Gogartys. We were immediately greeted by the band when we walked in (calling out little man Alex right away)--two young guys, one with a guitar, and one with an accordion. There were loads of people at the bar, and just as many at the tables. It was difficult to tell if anybody was a local, or if they were all tourists (probably the latter). But hey, we are tourists and it was kind of perfect at the moment--the terrible food (fish and chips, cocktail shrimp, both instagrammable but hardly edible) did not deter us from having a great time, enjoying another Smithwicks, and perhaps singing along to a couple of songs we recognized (Wagon Wheel and Whiskey in the Jar). We left Temple Bar and stumbled upon the statue of the fictitious Molly Malone ("The Tart with the Cart"), then we headed back to the hotel for a little break. We had one goal for the afternoon and that was to visit the Guinness Storehouse, a modern museum in tribute to what one would take from the experience was nothing less than a pint of divine liquid from the Gods. Boarding a hop-on hop-off bus, we ventured out, a little ways away from the city center to St. James Gate, where the brewery (off limits to the public) and Storehouse reside. If one would consider being allowed into the Book of Kells two-hours late a minor miracle, then the wonderest of wonderful miracles occurred at the Storehouse. Upon arriving, we saw a huge line out front, and had not purchased any tickets at all. We were informed the line would take 50 minutes to get inside--and it had just rained and the wind was picking up and I was honestly about to show off my version of a donnybrook. Almost before I had a chance to formulate all the swear words I could muster, an angel from heaven, wearing a Guinness jacket and headset, walked up to us and asked how old Alex was, followed by "it's terrible to wait in line with a baby" (not sure I would call Alex a baby anymore, but...), then promptly escorted us DIRECTLY into the building. Within 5 minutes, we were on the self-guided tour. I felt a little bad for all the people we skipped in line, but it seemed like karma we earned for something good we had done in the past. Hopefully we still have a little left in the bank. The Storehouse itself was very entertaining, and way over the top. Every square inch of the building, architecturally quite stunning, felt like a monument to celebrate what could only be the single greatest beer in the world (one might think upon leaving, that maybe it is the only beer in the world). Every step of the brewing process was presented in bold-lettered exhibits (FERMENTATION) with highly produced videos and colorful displays. It had the feeling of waiting in lines at Disneyland with dramatic lighting, waterfalls, escalators, all leading onwards and upwards to the holy grail of tasting experiences--your very own pint of Guinness (or if you are a kid, a soda)! At the very top of the building rests the "Gravity Bar", where your ticket earns you a pint and a 360 degree view of Dublin, to the soundtrack of some loud rock band. It was absolutely packed and people were getting toasty, but the views were really phenomenal, enhanced by a rainbow in the distance--a special effect or real? We won't know. It was the first we had really experienced a great view of the city from high up, seeing the sea to the east, and mountains to the south, and everything in between. To end the experience, we descended about four million steps, past regal advertisements that instruct you to "Take the Legacy Home" by visiting the gift shop for your merch. It was an incredibly manicured experience--not much in terms of authenticity, but entertaining and memorable nonetheless. It's hard not to walk out happy with a beer in your stomach. How was the Guinness you ask? Allison said she thought it was better here, as lots of people say in Ireland (apparently it doesn't travel well). I thought it was just fine, but stout isn't really my bag. No complaints though, I'll have another. We taxied to our restaurant for dinner, Fade St. Social, and had an excellent meal to end our day. Allison had a salad (as Alex would say, "Bo-wing!" and I shared an Irish beef stew with the little guy. It was fantastic, and Alex claimed it was the best thing he ever had--perhaps it was the Guinness laced sauce? I guess that was his first taste of beer. We have one more full day in Dublin tomorrow--and many adventures left on the table.

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nightmare-afton-cosplay · 5 years

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Top 15 Home Features That Will Sell Your Home Fast—and for More Cash

iStock; realtor.com

It’s one of the (many) high-stakes gambles of homeownership: that awesome new feature or design improvement you’ve been wishin’ and hopin’ (and of course savin’ for) to add for your family might ultimately hurt, not help, your place’s resale value. After all, times and tastes change, and eventually most homeowners will become home sellers. So how do you know that today’s sleek, new quartz countertop won’t become tomorrow’s eye-scorching popcorn ceiling on the open market?

Relax, we’re here to help you suss it out. Realtor.com®’s data team searched to find the home features that can help folks sell their home the fastest—and for the best price. We narrowed our list to the items found in homes with the highest list prices that went under contract the fastest. It’s a high-value sweet spot.

There’s plenty on the line here. Homeowners spent more on upgrading their homes in 2017 than in any year since 2006, according to the most recent Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University study—an average $12,361 in discretionary spending. Much of that went into upgrading kitchens and bathrooms, the top room remodels, according to home design website Houzz.

“Anytime a buyer can walk into a house and see it already has the features they want, that’s a huge bonus for the seller,” says Anna Maria Mannarino, who runs her eponymous interior design firm in Holmdel, NJ. “If buyers feel they need to add key features or designs, they’re going to calculate how much it will cost and then lower their bid.”

To figure out the top home features, we dug through more than a million single-family home listings on realtor.com in February. We calculated a median price and days on market for each abode with one or more of the 70 popular features we evaluated for this ranking. Features in homes that took longer than 84 days to sell, the national median, were cut from our list. We also eliminated amenities, such as high ceilings, that are difficult—and expensive—remodels.

So what are the most profitable home features for sellers hoping to close quickly? Here are the big 15:

Chef’s kitchen/gourmet kitchen

Theater room

Home gym

Three-car garage

Solar panels

Quartz counters

Exterior lighting

Tennis court

Home office

In-ground pool

Mudroom

Security system

Fireplace

Smart home features

Walk-in closet

OK, let’s take a closer look at trends that could help you make bank when it comes time to cash in and sell your home.

Kitchen makeovers bring in the dough

Kitchen

Tony Frenzel

Once upon a time (say, when you were growing up), most kitchens were drab, unsexy spaces that folks didn’t spend much time in beyond preparing and consuming dinner. But as the open kitchen trend has exploded, they’ve become centerpieces of the home—way more visible, personalized, luxurious, and important to buyers. Homeowners have upgraded to chef’s and gourmet kitchens (No. 1 on our list), making them glamorous showpieces where they can entertain their friends.

These days, trendsetters are choosing dark and moody color palettes, like black and navy, over the more bland white, gray, and neutral shades. They’re opening the rooms to the outdoors by installing walls of windows or double doors that open to the yard. And open shelving (versus the classic kitchen cabinets) is gaining more traction.

“Even if you don’t consider yourself a big foodie or a master chef, higher-end kitchens have a huge appeal,” says Jamie Novak, a Los Angeles–based professional organizer and author of “Keep This Toss That.” She works with homeowners who are planning to stay put as well as those getting ready to list their properties. “When the appliances are pretty and functional, it’s a win-win.”

Homes with chef’s kitchens sell for a median $599,000—more than double the national median of $295,000. Chef’s kitchens generally feature an open layout big enough to accommodate plenty of cooks in the kitchen, a large island, a gas cook range built for larger, hotter flames, a Sub-Zero refrigerator and freezer, and multiple sinks and ovens. Popular brands include Viking ovens and ranges, Bosch appliances, and Kohler and Moen faucets and sinks.

The average kitchen overhaul cost $12,300, while major kitchen overhauls usually cost upward of $40,000, according to the Harvard University study.

“People look at a kitchen, and if they don’t like it—they’ll often pass on the house,” says Lori Wellman, owner of Lincoln Cabinet, a Lincoln, NE–based remodeler.

Quartz counters (No. 6) are also in high demand. The engineered variety (a fancy word for enhanced) doesn’t chip as easily as the natural kind, doesn’t require much upkeep, and is difficult to stain or damage. Plus there are hundreds of colors, patterns, and textures to choose from.

It was the material of choice for home renovators, rising from a 41% market share in 2017 to 48% in 2019, according to Houzz data.

“[Engineered] quartz is a very, very versatile material,” says Nino Sitchinava, the site’s principal economist. “You can control palettes and colors and textures really, really well.”

Specialty rooms: Why go out when you can stay in?

Rooms

Tony Frenzel

Properties with dedicated specialty rooms, like theater rooms (No. 2) and home gyms (No. 3), showed up in only a small percentage of listings (1.5% and 1.1% respectively). And while they’re not as popular as they once were, say design experts, homes that come equipped with such rooms sell for about twice as much as the national median of $295,000. They’re fun to enjoy, too!

“At the high end there’s real cachet in having those specialized spaces,” says Jenni Lantz, manager of DesignLens, a design resource for developers, builders, architects, and interior designers. “Of course you need to have the space for them.”

Folks without big bank accounts can also create these spaces on a shoestring, DIY budget. Dark basements can become theater rooms, for example, with the addition of an oversize screen, wireless speakers, and a comfy couch. Popcorn makers are a bonus!

Unlike theater rooms and gyms, mudrooms (No. 11) have been gaining in popularity in recent years, say design experts. These small rooms are where coats and dirty shoes are kept are typically located toward the front of homes, and more homeowners are retrofitting them into their abodes. They’re becoming more stylish with rustic, wood benches to store those muddy boots under and fancy coat racks.

“Mudrooms are a fantastic transition from an outdoor space to your indoor living [space],” says organizer Novak.

They cost an average $12,000 to install, according to Fixr, a company that connects owners to home-related services.

Home offices (No. 9) have also become increasingly sought-after as more people work remotely or go freelance. The key is natural lighting, perhaps a window view for the desk, and doors that can shut out the clamor of the kids playing in other parts of the home.

Outdoor features are in

Outdoor features

Tony Frenzel

The trend today may be all about indoor-outdoor living. But it wasn’t beautifully inlaid patios, outdoor kitchens complete with pizza ovens, or trickling fountains that came out on top for outdoor features. That honor went to three-car garages (No. 4).

“Americans love their garages,” says Rick Foster, a managing broker and license partner at Engel & Völkers Annapolis, in Maryland. He’s sold more than 10,000 homes during his career and has seen buyer preferences change with the times.

Buyers aren’t just looking for a place to park their cars. “Having extra storage space is a big benefit,” adds Foster.

Certainly prestige comes into play—for many, bigger is indeed better. But unlike some outdoor features, this one is difficult and costly to add after the fact. Buyers want one already in place.

Other popular outdoor features on our list include solar panels (No. 5), tennis courts (No. 8), and in-ground pools (No. 10).

Solar panels are hot (yes, really) thanks to demand from both climate-conscious buyers and those simply hoping to cut down on their electricity bills. Homes with these features sell the fastest of all of the amenities on our list, at a median 51 days. About 2% more homeowners undergoing remodels have been installing them each year from 2015 to 2017, according to Houzz data.

But be warned: They’re not cheap. Installing a 5-kilowatt system, the standard system of about 20 panels, costs around $25,000 to $35,000, according to www.solarpowerauthority.com.

“Solar is a very regional preference,” says Sitchinava of Houzz. They’re particularly appealing in places that get a lot of sunshine but have high AC bills, such as California, Arizona, and Texas. “The long-term payoff is pretty phenomenal.”

Tennis courts are also appealing, but they can set homeowners back more than $50,000, according to Quality Court Industries, a tennis court construction firm that operates throughout the Southeast.

Even having a shared court open to residents of a community can boost property values. The same goes for in-ground pools, which can be private or shared as well.

Built-in pools are polarizing features in some parts of the country—attracting some buyers while repelling others due to maintenance or liability issues. The cardinal rule for this feature: Install it for your own enjoyment first, resale value second.

“They’re consistently popular,” particularly in warm-weather areas, says design expert Lantz. “People still like to lay out by the pool.”

Smart home features and other electronics can pay off

Smart home features

Tony Frenzel

Smart home technology (No. 14) is a catchy umbrella term people use to describe everything from a few interconnected appliances or internet-controlled thermostats to fully wired homes. The expensive, built-in approach has waned a bit, but the more ad hoc approach is booming, thanks to smart devices that can be used as simple control centers, like Amazon Echo and Google Home.

“The convenience is unparalleled, and the technology is getting so easy to use,” says organizer Novak.

Security systems (no. 12), often smart ones integrated with mobile and other devices, are gaining traction as must-have features. Just 10% of homeowners undergoing remodels had a security system installed in 2015, according to Houzz data. By 2017, about 15% did.

Folks used to have to hire a security company to come in, assess the property, and then install a system that could run anywhere from $600 to more than $1,000. And that doesn’t include the monthly monitoring fees. Now, homeowners can pick up a simple, smart home security system from companies like Ring for around $150.

“People really like having an app on your phone and knowing if someone’s at your home and being able to speak to them,” says Craig Grant, CEO of the Real Estate Technology Institute, an online portal where folks can learn about real estate technology.

These classic indoor amenities have lasting appeal—and a new spin

Indoor features

Tony Frenzel

Some things never go out of style. Fireplaces remain a highly sought-after amenity, although today’s sleek, electronic models don’t have much in common with the ashy traditional hearths. These newer fireplaces are often installed right into wall.

“No matter where your home might be, fireplaces are always welcome,” says Nancy Fire, the design and trend forecasting expert behind the HGTV HOME brand.

Other timeless features that boost home values are spacious, walk-in closets. Sometimes folks will even tear down an adjacent bedroom to build that massive closet with floor-to-ceiling shoe and accessory walls, a ladder to store and fetch rarely used items, and seating to make it easier for friends and family to share their outfit opinions, says remodeler Wellman.

Walk-in closets, while still popular, aren’t as in-demand as they used to be—and the decluttering movement (and its guru Marie Kondo) can partly be blamed.

“If you’re trying to pare down your clothing, then you don’t want a big walk-in closet to fill,” says Novak, whose clients prefer smaller, sliding-door closets. “It just becomes a big mess.”

Clare Trapasso and Rachel Stults contributed to this report.

The post Top 15 Home Features That Will Sell Your Home Fast—and for More Cash appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

from https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/top-15-home-features-to-boost-your-homes-value-and-sell-it-faster/

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efosa123 · 5 years

Photo

Ecompare Review With Bonus || Ecompare 2.0 WP Store Builder Demo in this video I'm going to quickly show you how to set up he compared to and why I think it's the best affiliate store builder that you're going to come across now of course there are tons and tons of affiliate store builders online you may have want to see yourself but if I take you over to the site and show you this one unique feature there's a ton of unique features with you compared to you but I'm going to show you this one because this is the one that really pulls in your customers and turns your stores into actual profit ok so this is a demo site there's only a few products on here but if I click here you can see that it runs a life of a price comparison that this price comparison engine is built into II compared to those Bittman City compare 1e compared to is the upgraded version and we've got an awful lot of additional features built in so you can see straight away we have prices from Amazon eBay we don't have one from Alibaba but we have one from Walmart so we have three different prices here and regardless of wherever your customer decides to purchase let's just say that they click buy now from Amazon you get a commission again it doesn't matter where they buy from providing you've got your affiliate links clicked into all of the different platforms and I'll show you that in just a moment but you can see the power of this now you can also see that we have the images we have social media if I pull this green over here we've also added in shopping cart and wishlist now shopping cart is an additional element as is wish list but shopping cart now allows 90-day cookies so for example if you've done any affiliate econ work before then you'll know that Amazon is only a 24 hour cookie so that means if your potential customer doesn't buy today and it doesn't buy tomorrow then you lose out on that Commission however with you compared to because of the 90 day cookie tech if they click here and then they come back in say 89 days time for example you still get a commission before that transaction now you can see that we have descriptions so descriptions are curated they're pulled in which is great for SEO especially if you focus in your stores on specific marketplaces and issues which we suggest that you do we also have refused the support directly from Amazon if you've chosen Amazon in the product settings which I'll show you in a moment customers can also believe their own reviews here so let me take you over to the blog now so you can learn you can put the blog around these products around your niche with curated content and you can monetize it you know we have a number of videos there so again this is great for SEO forgets a home page you can see that we have a sliders we have bestsellers all of this can be set up in settings I'll show you that in a moment you can add store products you can add your autoresponder so you can build a list you can collect emails from your store and we have all of the legal pages okay so I'm going to show you this feature this additional feature before I take you into the admin area so here you can see little search box now this is a live search feature and what it allows your customers to do is to search for products which may or may not be on your site now let's assume that you've just sets up a cyan like this one you know we've only got a few products on here and this one let's just say it's about phones and let's say the customer was looking for a different brand so we pulled that in there and then we click search now obviously this phone these products are not on the site at the moment but you can see here that it pulls up those products so what happens is any potential customer on your site looking for a product which you may or may not have on your site can still search and if they decide to compare deals click here or buy that product then you still get a commission even though it's not actually on your site at the moment so this one here for example I could have that once a car again this is cooking for 90 days to wish list so you can see that we're in the car there and we're also added to the wish list there so if I click here you'll see it's up here and you can proceed to checkout so this is far more like a real econ store than it is an affiliate store builder now setting up in compare to is very very straightforward you will need your self hosted WordPress installation we do have instructions on how to set up all the basics inside the members area but again if you used to setting up WordPress sites then this is an absolute breeze so obviously you're going to need to install the seam and you're gonna need to install the plugin so first of all let me just show you the theme so you can see here that we have a pro theme this is fully customizable so you can customize it so any niche you like any interest very easy to customize very cool-looking and comes with built in sliders and the host of features to make it powerful in any niche market so next let's take you over to you can pet see this is a plug-in I'm going to show you how to set it up so this will just be a quick run-through you can just see how easy it is so initially you'll need to get the settings you need to add in your details for the platforms that you want to use obviously the comparison engine will only use the platforms that you've integrated with you compared to obviously so you can see that you can choose from or you can add Amazon Aliexpress Walmart Best Buy shop comm see discount an eBay you can say become the settings there but these are the details that you need to add in order for the comparison engine to work now if you decided that you only want to use say Amazon and eBay which are probably the most common referral platforms to use then you can just use those and the comparison engine will just search and compare from those two sites but again there are seven sites here and you can integrate all of them so once you've done that go over to the dashboard actually have to go over to the product finder then you start adding products here so for example the Lancer pull a product from Amazon or I can different Aliexpress or eBay must watched so you put a keyword in there we can set up categories or choose to select categories we can choose a number of results that we want to find we can add filters years click fetch products once the products are added to your new affiliate store they're self updating all that means is if a product runs out of stock or price changes on say amazon or ebay or any of the other platforms then it will change automatically in your store so not going to run into problems of having zero stock and assembly click throw or the price changing when they click through to the platform everything changes automatically inside your eke impaired affiliate store now one of the biggest issues with any online business is lack of traffic obviously you need traffic in order for you to drive sales having an affiliate store is great but without traffic then it's just a great-looking store it's not gonna make you any money so we recommend that you build each door around specific niches however we've added in a couple of features which will allow you to drive traffic almost instantly so of course you can share each place across social media as soon as you add the product you can share it but nearly every other store builder does that so we've added our own traffic booster so if I hover here you can see traffic booster I click there and you can set up your traffic to run directly from inside of your admin - set up everything here set up the templates preferences and this is a viral system so essentially if you're just starting out you don't have traffic your site's not yet established and it's not appearing in Google then simply use the inbuilt traffic booster to start driving traffic to your pages into your office and we compared to has unlimited stock potential so it's slightly different in as much as it lets you have as much dock on your store as for as you want there are no restrictions you can have thousands and thousands of products really makes no difference and we put no restriction on how many products you can add to your store now of course you may not want to have all of those products showing or listing at the same time you might want to show some and then some another time we have a number of sliders built in we have featured products that you can set everything up from this - here so if you go to dashboard just pull this up here if you get a dashboard didn't set everything up here like I say this is just a demo store so there are not too many products in here at the moment but you can see how easy it is to set up so you can you can add products to a featured list removed from featured hide from shop shot my shop and so on inside of the store settings you can set up and customize your theme so you can add your own logo you can turn on or switch off slider in pretty much control all of the sliders everything from inside of this panel here you can set up your life search settings so if you remember I showed you that if you put a keyword in the search bar people search and make a profit if they purchased here you can set up live search settings so if you remember I showed you that if somebody put in a keyword you could still potentially profit somebody clicks somebody runs a search for a product that's not necessarily on your site they click through the purchase and you get a commission you can put a default keyword in there insert discounts here and you can turn on the discount switch selector we have built in SEO options for SEO traffic retargeting blog options and many other features all built in to this - here Pam there are a ton of other features but essentially if you're just starting out you're interested in results you're interested in having something that's easy to set up that looks good and works I think you see that eke impaired is very very straightforward very very slick looking but perhaps the most important aspect is the fact that you can add as much stock as you want you don't have to carry any stock you weren't commissioned from anything that anybody buys on your store and the price comparison engine makes this a unique tool there is nothing else like it when you offer people the best deal the best price they will purchase from you 11 more words

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i-globalone · 4 years

Quote

CoinDesk will be on the ground in Davos from Jan. 20–24 chronicling all things crypto at the annual gathering of the world’s economic and political elite. Below is the first edition of our pop-up newsletter, CoinDesk Confidential: Davos. Subscribe below.Get your Fourth Industrial Revolution hardhats on – it’s time to ponder the slew of problems ailing today’s global economy!Hello, it’s Monday, Jan. 20, 2020, the preamble to the 50th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum begins today. I’m Zack Seward, managing editor of CoinDesk, and I’ll be your guide to all things blockchain and crypto at this yearly confab of global leaders and their many hangers-on.Weather Forecast: Fresh snowfall on Saturday and Sunday has the skiers happy. ⛷For Monday, a high of 25°F (-3°C), low of 13°F (-10°C). Chance of precipitation: 10 percent. Setting the StageBlockchain is more prominent on the WEF agenda than in years past but that’s not to say the technology will have a starring role in the Congress Centre itself. The thing to remember about Davos is that there’s the WEF’s main stage (there are 53 heads of state this year, according to the WEF) and dozens of side events.Sustainability is a major theme of this year’s event, with climate change activist Greta Thunberg arguably being the top speaker (U.S. President Donald Trump is also speaking). And while the WEF programming on Monday is only opening ceremonies, other events will already be in full swing. Don’t Miss…The Global Blockchain Business Council is a partner of CoinDesk Confidential: Davos. Visit us at the GBBC Lounge at Hotel Europe on the Promenade.Here are the three crypto-related events on Monday worth knowing about:1️⃣ Cryptocurrency exchange LATOKEN is hosting the Blockchain Economic Forum at Guggerbach Hall. It kicks off at 15:30 CET with a keynote from Chris Giancarlo, the former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Hot on the heels of his newly organized efforts to push for a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC), this session will be one to watch.2️⃣ Ethereum co-founder and ConsenSys chief Joe Lubin is headlining CryptoMountain Rocks at Hotel Morosani Schweizerhof. Kicking off at 14:00 CET, this event promises ample discussion of decentralized finance (DeFi), stablecoins and what to expect in 2020. It’s going to be deeper in the weeds for ethereum fans on the slopes.3️⃣ The other event is clearly a can’t-miss about which I am not biased at all: the CoinDesk Confidential: Davos Kick-Off Reception. This party starts at 19:00 CET at the GBBC lounge at the Hotel Europe. We’re booked solid but make sure you click Tuesday’s newsletter for tidbits on any notable happenings. We have quite a guest list already including MakerDAO founder Rune Christensen, ex-CFTC chair Chris Giancarlo and many more. Sound SmartIf you find yourself on a ski lift with a world leader, here are a few conversation starters. WEF insiders know these things to be true:The specter of Libra has been a catalytic event among the world’s central bankers.Expedited efforts from the People’s Bank of China to develop the digital yuan have raised geopolitical eyebrows.As such, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) will dominate the conversation this year.CBDCs are government-administered, digital versions of sovereign currencies (but don’t have to be decentralized like real cryptocurrencies) and are a necessarily reactive development. The way central bankers see it, a widely used supranational stablecoin (be it Libra or something else) would undermine their ability to influence the economy through monetary policy. “CBDC” should be a busy square on the WEF 2020 bingo card. Watch this space. 🥇🥈🥉Thought Leaderboard 🥇🥈🥉We’re handing out gongs to the brainiest crypto thought-leaders at Davos this year. We’ll be tracking the usual suspects’ panel appearances, briefings and media spots, so email me at [email protected] if you’ve noticed someone’s overwhelming brilliance… Related ReadingLast week CoinDesk brought you a plethora of Davos-related content for upping your conversation game.Bonus Feature:🎿CoinDesk’s Leigh Cuen was at the Crypto Finance Conference in St. Moritz last week, where crypto luminaries like Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss took a (brief) break from skiing to discuss where bitcoin fits in the currency Cold War.Double Bonus:📺Leigh, Michael and I do a quick rundown of what we’ll be exploring this week: Media DietCoinDesk Confidential on Telegram for the latest on-the-ground updates from Crypto Davos.unDavos on Telegram (invite only) for updates from those still working their way up the badge-system hierarchy. We might be able to help with an invite…Wall Street Journal WEF live blog for Davos dispatches from the financial paper of record.Quartz Davos Daily Brief newsletter for the above, but less stodgy.Politico’s Davos Playbook for a spicy-yet-comprehensive telling of the confab’s political angles.Micah White’s strategy briefings for notes on the Occupy founder’s latest efforts to build an “activist cryptocurrency.” Who Won Davos Crypto Twitter?Don’t worry, XRP fans, Brad can afford to pay for his own speaking spots: Seen on the Promenade 👀For the WEF Annual Meeting, the main street of Davos is transformed into “the Promenade,” with local shops temporarily taken over by internet giants, sovereign wealth funds and other businesses looking to shill their wares to the global elite.We took a stroll Sunday night as work crews were putting the finishing touches on signage and screen displays. A few notes:Crypto liquidity provider XBTO was the only crypto brand with signage: Last year, a number of crypto companies had “activations” on the Promenade. 2019’s big fish, ethereum venture studio ConsenSys, which had its own Ethereal Lounge on the main drag, is nowhere to be seen in 2020.The cryptography killer is here: A quantum computer was being set up at the IBM lounge on the Promenade. With “quantum supremacy” being declared by Google late last year, the computing power behind these machines may one day pose an existential threat to cryptographically secured systems. Read up here and here.Big ad-spend at Zürich Flughafen: Greeting visitors touching down at ZRH this weekend: a big old ad touting Bitcoin Suisse’s crypto-finance chops. We wonder how much they paid for the privilege… Office of the DayWe’re holding it down at the unofficial CoinDesk Davos bureau this morning before we hit the icy streets. Fun fact: the CoinDesk squad is staying at a former sanatorium up the hill from the main drag. Great views, great bunk beds! 📍Pin DropFind CoinDesk today at…The Blockchain Economic Forum starting at 15:00 CET, and then at our very own CoinDesk Confidential launch party at Hotel Europe from 19:00 CET onward. Contact UsThe CoinDesk team on the ground in Davos is:Michael Casey – @mikejcasey on Twitter and TelegramZack Seward – @zackseward on Twitter and TelegramLeigh Cuen – @La__Cuen on TwitterJoanne Po – @JoannePo on Twitter and TelegramAli Powell – @aliknievel on Twitter and TelegramAaron Stanley – @AaronWStanley on Twitter, @AaronStanley on TelegramAre you here in the mountains with a hot tip that simply must be shared? Were you unable to make it this year and have a request that would assuage your FOMO?Get in touch, say hi!Till tomorrow, —Zack “Let’s Play Hockey” SewardDisclosure Read More The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

http://m.globalone.com.np/2020/01/coindesk-at-wef-2020-crypto-themes-to.html

#SEO #Local SEO training

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secondgame00-blog · 5 years

Text

These Are The 7 Tips You Need If You Hate Wasps

Even though there are plenty of things that I love about the summertime, there are a few things about it that I wish I didn’t have to endure. Because although summer brings longer days, patio weather, and family vacations, it is also responsible for sunburns, oppressive temperatures, and of course, wasps.

Wasps can be nuisance during most of the year, but they often don’t become a real problem until the late summer. That’s because late in the summer, wasp colonies stop breeding new workers and start focusing on food instead. Humans often have food that wasps want, so one thing leads to another, and someone ends up on the wrong end of a sting. (Wasps are very rude that way!)

So in order to help us all enjoy a wasp-free summer, I thought that today I would offer up some useful ways to get rid of wasps! With the help of these 7 tips, you can be sure that your house is driving wasps away instead of inviting them in! :-)

1. Look For Nests

The first step to getting rid of wasps is making sure there aren’t any living in or around your home already. Take a few minutes to walk around the outside of your house, and look for holes, broken panels, and loose siding where wasps, yellow jackets, and hornets could build a nest. Make repairs to these areas ASAP.

If you discover a nest, you’ll have to spray it to kill the wasps. It’s best to do it in the early morning or late at night, and be sure to wear heavy clothing. Aim at the main opening, which is usually near the bottom of the nest. Spray a stead stream of the wasp spray for at least 10 seconds, then take refuge indoors. (If your attempt to get rid of them was unsuccessful, better to try again tomorrow!)

Bonus Tip: You can make a homemade wasp spray by adding 2 tablespoons of dish soap to 8 ounces of water. Soapy water clogs up the wasps’ breathing spores and kills them almost instantly.

2. Put Away Food

Don’t let wasps ruin your backyard barbecue! As soon as everyone’s done eating, take a few minutes to pack up any leftovers and put the food away. The sooner you get the food covered up, the less likely you are to have wasp, yellow jacket, and hornet problems. (Oh, and make sure to keep garbage cans covered too!)

3. Move Hummingbird Feeders

Hummingbirds love hummingbird feeders, but wasps do too! If you have a hummingbird feeder in your backyard, you may want to move it to a secluded area or bring it inside when you or your guests will be spending time out there.

4. Make A Decoy Nest

Wasps are very territorial, so if they see a nest near your home, it may deter them from building a nest nearby. You can take advantage of their territorial nature by making a simple decoy wasp nest!

To make a fake nest to deter wasps, fill a paper bag with a couple of other wadded up paper bags. Tie the opening of the bag off with a rubber band, then hang it the decoy nest wherever wasps may be tempted to build.

5. Avoid Floral Scents

Avoid wearing bold floral scents when you’ll be spending time outside. This could include perfumes, body sprays, lotions, and other scented products. Floral scents can attract wasps, and no one wants to be a walking wasp magnet!

6. Plant These Plants

There are certain plants that wasps don’t like to hang around, so adding these plants to your yard can help keep wasps at bay. Consider planting the following wasp-deterring plants around your yard:

Spearmint

Thyme

Eucalyptus

Citronella

Lemongrass

Pennyroyal

7. Use Peppermint Oil

A 2013 study showed that peppermint essential oil had a repellent effect against yellow jackets and paper wasps.

You can take advantage of this effect by putting a few drops of peppermint oil on several cotton balls. Place the cotton balls around your patio, outdoor furniture, or wherever you spend time outside to keep wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets away.

Related: My Top 10 Favorite Uses For Peppermint Oil

Bonus Tip #1: Advice For Other Pests

Not every angry stinging insect is a wasp! Here’s some tips for handling other flying pests:

Hornets – Some hornets build their nests in the ground. Take a walk around your yard to look for any holes or divots where hornets might be tempted to build a nest, then fill them up.

Yellow Jackets – Yellow jackets are often mean and persistent, but resist the temptation to swat at them. (It will only make them more aggressive!)

Mud Daubers – Mud daubers are very skinny in the center of their body, so it’s easy to pick them out. They’re not usually aggressive, and are normally only interested in stinging spiders to feed their babies.

Bonus Tip #2: Avoid Wasp Traps

Some people suggest using sugar and vinegar as bait in a homemade wasp trap, but I don’t suggest it. You may catch the occasional wasp with one, but it makes more sense to put that time and effort applying the tips to get rid of wasps that I mentioned above.

Bonus Tip #3: Be Nice To Bees!

Bees are a bit hairy or fuzzy, which makes them pretty easy to tell apart from wasps, hornets, and other pests. If you spot a honey bee or bumble bee, leave him be! He’s doing important work as a pollinator and isn’t looking to hurt you. If you have a serious number of bees around your house or have spotted a hive somewhere, contact a local beekeeper and ask if they offer removal or relocation services.

What’s your best tip for dealing with wasps?

Source: https://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/7-ways-to-get-rid-of-wasps/

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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davidoespailla · 5 years

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Top 15 Home Features That Will Sell Your Home Fast—and for More Cash

iStock; realtor.com

So what are the most profitable home features for sellers hoping to close quickly? Here are the big 15:

Chef’s kitchen/gourmet kitchen

Theater room

Home gym

Three-car garage

Solar panels

Quartz counters

Exterior lighting

Tennis court

Home office

In-ground pool

Mudroom

Security system

Fireplace

Smart home features

Walk-in closet

OK, let’s take a closer look at trends that could help you make bank when it comes time to cash in and sell your home.

Kitchen makeovers bring in the dough Kitchen

Tony Frenzel

The average kitchen overhaul cost $12,300, while major kitchen overhauls usually cost upward of $40,000, according to the Harvard University study.

“People look at a kitchen, and if they don’t like it—they’ll often pass on the house,” says Lori Wellman, owner of Lincoln Cabinet, a Lincoln, NE–based remodeler.

It was the material of choice for home renovators, rising from a 41% market share in 2017 to 48% in 2019, according to Houzz data.

“[Engineered] quartz is a very, very versatile material,” says Nino Sitchinava, the site’s principal economist. “You can control palettes and colors and textures really, really well.”

Specialty rooms: Why go out when you can stay in? Rooms

Tony Frenzel

“Mudrooms are a fantastic transition from an outdoor space to your indoor living [space],” says organizer Novak.

They cost an average $12,000 to install, according to Fixr, a company that connects owners to home-related services.

Outdoor features are in Outdoor features

Tony Frenzel

Buyers aren’t just looking for a place to park their cars. “Having extra storage space is a big benefit,” adds Foster.

Certainly prestige comes into play—for many, bigger is indeed better. But unlike some outdoor features, this one is difficult and costly to add after the fact. Buyers want one already in place.

Other popular outdoor features on our list include solar panels (No. 5), tennis courts (No. 8), and in-ground pools (No. 10).

But be warned: They’re not cheap. Installing a 5-kilowatt system, the standard system of about 20 panels, costs around $25,000 to $35,000, according to https://ift.tt/1VRVXo9.

Tennis courts are also appealing, but they can set homeowners back more than $50,000, according to Quality Court Industries, a tennis court construction firm that operates throughout the Southeast.

Even having a shared court open to residents of a community can boost property values. The same goes for in-ground pools, which can be private or shared as well.

“They’re consistently popular,” particularly in warm-weather areas, says design expert Lantz. “People still like to lay out by the pool.”

Smart home features and other electronics can pay off Smart home features

Tony Frenzel

“The convenience is unparalleled, and the technology is getting so easy to use,” says organizer Novak.

These classic indoor amenities have lasting appeal—and a new spin Indoor features

Tony Frenzel

“No matter where your home might be, fireplaces are always welcome,” says Nancy Fire, the design and trend forecasting expert behind the HGTV HOME brand.

Walk-in closets, while still popular, aren’t as in-demand as they used to be—and the decluttering movement (and its guru Marie Kondo) can partly be blamed.

Clare Trapasso and Rachel Stults contributed to this report.

The post Top 15 Home Features That Will Sell Your Home Fast—and for More Cash appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

Top 15 Home Features That Will Sell Your Home Fast—and for More Cash

#TRUSTED LOCAL REALTOR #Top 15 Home Features That Will Sell Your Home Fast—and for More Cash

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gillespialfredoe01806ld · 5 years