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thefanficmonster · 4 years

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You Never Notice

Sykkuno x Reader (Female)

Warnings: None

Genre: Fluff

Summary: The center of someone’s world is never aware of their importance even when everyone else is in the know. People are hard to understand, no denying, but if we all spilled our truth like how Y/N admitted her feelings to Sykkuno, mutual understanding would be achieved a lot more easily. JK, she needed an eternity and maybe a thousand pushes. What’s important is the result though, right?

Requested by Anon. You are my first Sykkuno request and I wish I could thank you with a tag. Instead, I’m gonna thank you with a fic in which I put my all. Thank you for the request, hope the final product doesn’t let you down. 🥰

Here we go again. Sykkuno’s love life is brought up. This time it’s more frustrating cause I can’t shout how wrong he is about himself and the effect he has on the people around him. He has no room to speak, he hasn’t experienced what I have - one of your best friends living in your head rent-free because you’re just that whipped by them. That’s right kids, some of us never grow past the middle school crushes - they are a constant for some. That can be a good or a bad thing, it completely depends on how you view it.

Currently, him and Rae are addressing some dating rumors that started spreading about them earlier this week while Felix, Sean and I are kicking each other’s butts in Party Animals. We’re not all playing together, actually, we were all playing different games when we hopped into the call and just grouped together after playing solo got boring. Rae and Sykkuno are playing Among Us on a random server, her being the only person who’s streaming right now. She said she just wanted to clear up the dating rumors cause they were annoying to see popping up on her feed on every social media platform she’s active on.

“It’s ridiculous, really. People just look for online personalities to put in imaginary relationships. Are they that bored? I know quarantine is getting to everyone, but damn“ Rae says, laughing a bit to take the edge off her words but I know she’s bothered by this ordeal more than she’s letting on. I know how much it bothers her when people ship random youtubers and streamers together, even when she’s not involved.

And I agree. Ever since I started streaming I’ve been shipped with my friends left and right. First Corpse, then Dave, Joel...you name them. It gets kinda gross cause these people are legit like siblings to me. Unlike Rae, though, I don’t waste my breath trying to clear those ‘talks of the net’ up. I don’t know if it’s for better of for worse that I remain silent on the issue when I’m involved but am willing to stand up for my friends when they find themselves in a similar situation. Some people think the reason I don’t share my thoughts is because the rumors are true, but the hint is most often taken, resulting in the ship ending. Well, that ship ending, there’s always a new one popping up. As Rae said, it’s ridiculous.

“Why does everyone think I am ever dating anyone? I’ve already commented on this: no one would date me.“ Sykkuno says through a sigh-like laugh.

“Why are you so sure?“ I blurt out without as much as a second thought

My eyes widen just a bit, just a bit. I’m not too surprised with myself. I am slowly losing control of my raging emotions and I’m afraid of what I’ll turn into when all my restraints snap. A mess, that’s the most likely answer.

“Well....“ Sykkuno trails off, clearly more than a little nervous, “I don’t have a girlfriend right now, and I haven’t had one in a while...Nor has a girl shown any interest to be more than friends with me in what feels like forever.“

“I’m sure you just don’t notice the hints girls drop. We can be pretty subtle.“ I try to sound as nonchalant as possible while I’m still in my panicked animal mode. And by animal I mean a cub. A scared cub that is now showing confidence but will run and hide right afterwards. I silently thank the universe that I’m not streaming right now. I can feel the heat on my neck and cheeks which is pure embarrassment and would have been more than evident on-camera.

“Yeah Y/N’s right, Sykkuno. Girls can be very subtle, but they will always let you know if they like you, even through the smallest of gestures. You gotta keep your eyes open.“ Rae backs me up reassuringly.

“Guys never notice anything.“ I say, rolling my eyes. I feel the pressure lessen thanks to Rae’s involvement in the conversation.

“That’s not true.“ Sean protests, “We pay close attention, especially to girls we are attracted to.“

“Yeah!“ Sykkuno pipes in again, “I’m pretty sure I would notice if a girl was dropping signals that she likes me.“

Now that stings. That legit makes me wince and cringe as though his voice delivered an actual physical hit to my chest and stomach. It’s really unpleasant, painful even.

“You never notice.“ There’s something about this triple opportunity - proving him wrong that he’d catch onto a girl’s signals; proving him wrong that girls aren’t attracted to him; coming clean about the biggest emotional struggle I’ve experienced in recent years; - that snaps my last emotional restraints. I will totally regret this later, but after the regret comes the relief which is 100% worth it.

“What?“ He sounds very puzzled. I can just about imagine him frowning as he tries to wrap his brain around something even I can’t wrap mine around.

“You say you’d notice a girl’s hints of attraction. OK.“ I nonchalantly throw Felix off the submarine in Party Animals while I keep talking, “Would you notice if a girl purposely doesn’t kill you in Among Us when she’s impostor? Or would you notice that a girl always sends you links to videos she finds funny? Or that she always shares music and movie recommendations with you and you only?“

Dead silence ensues. I feel like they have all glitched, considering Sean didn’t even try to put up a fight when I lifted him and threw him in the ocean as I previously did with Felix’s avatar.

Maybe I was a tad too specific and made the whole situation hit a little too close to home for me.

Sykkuno and I have become really close friends and we chat and play games regularly. As I mentioned, I give him movie and music recommendations and I only recently started acknowledging the fact that I’ve never killed him in Among Us. Natural instinct I guess. In fact, I feel the need for vengeance when he’s killed. I refuse to even vote for him unless it’s absolutely necessary.

Now that I think about it, it’s not his fault he has no clue. I just don’t know how to properly drop hints.

“Um...I mean, I guess I would notice but I’d never think they are that type of hints.“ He finally replies.

On point there, dear. On damn point.

“What does it take for you to be convinced that a girl is into you?“ Who cares that a bunch of people are about to witness this outpour? It’ll make it more real, yes, but it will also help me believe that it happened so I don’t try to crawl back to the point where return is an option. No return now. You’ve already passed two thirds of the way. The last one will set you and your mind free.

“The only way I can be sure is if she tells me, really.“ He sounds so nervous and shy, like he’s trying to draw as little attention as possible.

He doesn’t have to worry. I’m about to pull all the attention on me.

“Well in that case....you leave me no other choice.“ My screen displays me as the winner of this round of Party Animals - an easy one considering my friends are glitched in real life. “I like you, Sykkuno. I like you a lot. And I know you will see it from every context except the one its meant to be in so I’ll be even more head-on - I’ve liked you, as more than a friend for quite some time now, but buddy, you can be sooo oblivious sometimes. Anyway...“ Here’s that regret I was talking about, it’s already creeping in. “Don’t feel the need to say it back. I don’t wanna hear it if you don’t mean it. And Rae,“ I can’t help but laugh at the thought, “Sorry for making your chat go crazy. Peace!“

And I disconnect from the Discord call.

“See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?“ I say out loud, staring at my desktop. “The cat’s out of the bag and you can move on now.“

I push myself to get some work done in order to get my mind off the mess I’ve created. I’m afraid of thinking about it, I know I’ll get too upset to do anything with the rest of my day if I do.

Suddenly, just as I’m about to open my email, my phone chimes. My brain doesn’t bother to stop my arm from automatically reaching out and checking the notification. A message.

From Sykkuno.

~ I knew you didn’t suggest me ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’ for no reason

Me ~ So...?

~ So, I’m not the only oblivious one here, Y/N

Me ~ Wait WHAT?

~ ‘Nick And Norah’s Infinite Playlist’?

Me ~ Oooohhhh...I see

It takes him a few seconds to reply, the bubble with the three bouncing dots popping up and disappearing a few times now. I just now feel my heart banging against the inside of my ribcage, my pulse echoing in my ears.

He did seem a little too eager for me to watch that movie...

~ So, movie date?

I laugh, wholeheartedly and honestly. Genuine joy running through my veins.

Me ~ So it is.

The grin that is now decorating my features promises to stay there for the rest of the day. I bite my bottom lip at the thought that pops into my head.

Me ~ Phew, I can stop sparing you in Among Us from now on

He sends me three cry-laughing emojis in return, but I don’t need those. I can just imagine him laughing as he usually does with one hand covering his mouth. And here I thought my grin couldn’t grow wider.

Imagining him happy makes me smile. His happiness makes me happy. He makes me happy.

Even better...

I think the feeling’s mutual.

#sykkuno #sykkuno fanfic #sykkuno fanfiction #sykkuno x reader #sykkuno x y/n #x reader #reader #reader insert #x y/n #y/n #fanfic #fanfiction #among us #requests open #requests #fluff #love #crush #happy

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agent-cupcake · 3 years

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i believe i am legally and morally obligated to ask how the wolves fit into this mobster AU 👀

~As thieves, of course! Have I ever mentioned my love of heist plots? For a while I toyed with the idea of an Ocean’s Eleven style rework of the Cindered Shadows DLC which was basically the prototype for this gangverse AU. There are ideas from that story that I think are great (Sexy powerful casino owner Rhea, Edelgard playing banker for the operation, Claude taking on the role of some super rich foreigner needing to secure his briefcase in the vault before dramatically feigning a catastrophic illness) but that is a tale lost to time.

~In our actual alternate universe, Yuri is the smooth as silk, multitalented and criminally inclined conman leader of the specialized group. Unlike the other house leaders, he’ll take his schemes to wherever the money is... but his true home is Fódlan City.

~He grew up in the southeast area of Faerghus officially known as Cathedral Street and unofficially, and quite aptly, called Abyss. It was, at one point, a government funded housing project that promised affordable living and better jobs. But, due in part to the dysfunctional bureaucratic relationship between Faerghus and the city government during the recession, Cathedral Street became a trap, keeping the poor locked into dead-end jobs and unfair rental contracts. It became a place for misfits and criminals, pretty much disconnected from the rest of the borough and city for all that anybody cared about the abandoned project.

~The internationally famous thief known only as Aubin has a suspicious number of similarities with the old man who taught Yuri all the tricks of the trade in his youth.

~For all of the shared quirks between the two, some people joke that the Mockingbird is Aubin himself.

~Although his one true passion is con jobs and heists, Yuri is willing to engage in all sorts of shady endeavors... Assuming there’s enough money involved. This includes, but is not limited to, brokering extortion, buying and selling information, fencing, arranging sales, and fixing any sort of “problems” powerful people might find themselves having. Yuri’s skillset doesn’t necessarily make him qualified for all jobs, but he has a special talent for finding the right people and organizing them together.

~He’s got fantastic aim and an impressive collection of guns. Yuri’s not one for very much hand-to-hand but he’s always got knives and such hidden on his person. You know, just in case. He also has an impressive knowledge of first aid.

~Yuri is an enthusiastic supporter of both Dimitri and Claude and their efforts to knock down the corrupt elite and “clean up”... especially Claude weeding out the business of human trafficking. Very sportingly, Yuri swore to never steal from Claude’s casinos. He's nice like that.

~Yuri doesn’t see things in terms of conflict of interest because, professionally, the Mockingbird has no interest in politics. Personally, he just enjoys the satisfaction of seeing abusive scummy people getting thrown from their ivory towers. Especially when they come begging to him for help and can’t cough up enough money for his services.

~Physical objects don’t have much value to Yuri, even money doesn’t mean much to him to an extent. He knows how easily it can all be taken away, knows that in his line of work nothing is truly permanent, and he knows how to survive without any of it.

~That said, he loves shopping. Especially at high end places. Clothes are a special weakness of his. Plus, he loooooves spoiling his mom with fancy nice things. The first thing he did when he began making money was give her the money to buy a nice house and car in her own name, assets that belong solely to her to both live comfortably and have as a security net.

~He picked up the other three Wolves kind of by accident. For the most part, his job never involved any consistent cast of people. He had people he trusted and would hire for jobs, but they didn’t work specifically for/with him. But then Aelfric hired him to steal something and he wound up working with Balthus, Constance, and Hapi. Unlike most people, they weren’t bound to any group or organization. They were skilled, but underutilized. None of them would ever admit it, but they were all missing something.

~Also, Aelfric’s job ended up being a trick. He hired a skilled but inexperienced team so he could have useful idiots to throw under the bus after he got what he wanted. Unfortunately, it did not work out so hot for him. Fortunately, it brought together four useful idiots who formed an incredibly sought after criminal organization.

~Before Balthus met Yuri, he was a disinherited alcoholic one binge away from being completely homeless as opposed to the almost-homelessness of working random jobs and couch surfing. He got picked up because he was good at punching and familiar with both the elite world and the criminal underbelly.

~He’s a terrible liar, but he is fantastic at intimidation and beating people up. He acts as a bodyguard and Yuri’s right hand man. Having something worthwhile to dedicate himself to actually helped him straighten out a lot.

~Although he’s not the one who comes up with schemes or anything, his straightforward approach to problems often helps Yuri from thinking himself into a corner. Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to take it as it is, Yuri likes to overcomplicate everything.

~Constance is the demolitions expert who gets an uncomfortable amount of joy from her job. There is, as she says, an artistry to what she does. She is not a vulgar street thug with a molotov, she is an expert of the architectural and structural, a master manipulator of destruction and dismantlement.

~The Nuvelle family was of decently high standing when she was young. Her father was on the local board working his way up. While he was in office, the topic of the “Brigid Deal” was hot. It had to do with government interaction with international businesses and corruption. When the Adrestian board had to start answering for this, they made Mr. Nuvelle their fall guy and called it case closed. There was rampant speculation about the accident that befell her family after the fact, especially when it was rumored that he had evidence of deeper corruption, but nothing ever came of it. The ensuing media circus and ruin deeply impacted Constance. She got a scholarship to go to school, but many people noted that despite her intellect, she was erratic and rather antisocial. There might be some deeper psychological reason for her love of demolition of structure and trauma inflicted by a corrupt system, but who knows.

~Hapi is pretty much the straight man to the rest of them. She doesn’t get carried away with the details, hyped up on violence, or frenzied by the idea of blowing something up. Sometimes it seems almost like she’s along for the ride, but she’s the only reason the Wolves don’t implode through their sheer quirkiness.

~She was a teenage runaway who wound up in Abyss and fell into the criminal world kind of by accident. Even more than Yuri, Hapi harbors a deep resentment for the negligence of the government.

~She’s a very skilled jewel thief, Hapi especially goes for ones obtained and profitable through unethical means. She’s also a decent pickpocket and knows how to run and/or spot a lot of typical scams. Despite her proficiency with guns, Hapi’s not really keen on the violence part and will always advocate for alternative methods to solving problems if it’s possible.

#yuri leclerc #balthus von albrecht #constance von nuvelle #hapi #fe hapi #fe yuri #fe balthus #fe constances #fe3h #fire emblem three houses #headcanons

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cpd5021 · 4 years

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Unexpected Chapter 8

I come with a fast update as a white flag for that cliffhanger of a chapter. Hugs and kisses! Don’t hate me! Also, TRIGGER WARNING: this chapter has brief mentions of sexual assault/rape.

Hailey rolled over in her bed, groaning as her sore body protested the movement. She blinked her eyes open, squinting in the light of the sun beaming through her window. She glanced at the time, sighing in relief when she realized Vanessa would be gone to work already so she could move freely about her house without the constant concerned looks from her room mate. She sat up, body protesting again and stood to gently stretch her sore body. Hailey padded to the bathroom, quickly using the toilet before wandering downstairs for something to eat. She perused her cupboards, not really having the energy or motivation to actually cook something and settled on a bowl of cereal. Hailey plopped herself down on the chair, picking away slowly at the bowl in front of her. She tried to force herself to keep going but it was no use, her slow place led to soggy cereal and she gave up. Placing the bowl in the sink, she grabbed a banana as an after thought and shuffled back upstairs. Hailey entered her room, standing in the doorway and staring at her mess of a bed. The sheets were tangled everywhere and her comforter was hanging halfway off the bed. Normally, this would bother her, but right now it looked comfy and all she wanted to do was crawl back in it. Steeling herself to be more productive than the previous few days, Hailey padded back into her bathroom and turned the shower on, letting the water heat up as she stripped down. Her eyes trailed over her body in the mirror and she was happy to report the bruises were finally getting better....okay maybe better wasn’t the right word, but they weren’t looking any worse. She stepped into the shower, relishing in the feel of the hot water running over her body and slowly began to work through the motions of cleaning herself. It felt like forever since she had taken the time to actually wash her hair and body, she couldn’t remember the last time she had showered. Well, actually, she could. It was two days ago when she came home from the hospital. Which means it had been three days since her world went to shit. Three days since she had chased their offender into the street, three days since she had been struck by the car, three days since she had woken in the hospital; surrounding by her team all wearing the same sad look on their face, three days since her massive blowout with Jay. Jay. The thought of him drained any energy she had mustered up and she decided her shower was over. Stepping out, she grabbed a fluffy towel, wrapping it around her body and heading to her room. She sat on the edge of her bed, hair dripping down her body and briefly considered just going back to sleep as is, completely naked and soaking wet. No, she told herself, keep going. So instead, Hailey stood, pulling open a draw and shuffling it’s contents around until she found what she was looking for. Grabbing a plain black bra and matching pair of black boy shorts, she groaned as she slid them on. Next she moved to her closet, pulling out a pair of black leggings and a raggedy white t-shirt that hung loosely off her small frame. She returned to her bathroom, staring at herself in the mirror while she debated how much effort to put into her hair. After a moment, she started working her hair into a braid. It wasn’t something she normally did, but it gave her hands something to do and put more time in between her and what she knew she needed to do next. Securing the braid into a ponytail, Hailey grabbed the small bottle of lotion she kept in her drawer, taking the time to rub some over her arms for the added benefit of extra time. She looked at herself in the mirror again, sighing at her reflection. She knew she was only avoiding the inevitable so she steeled herself to get it over with.

Hailey sat, perched on the edge of her bed, holding her phone in her hands. The first day, it had gone off insistently, causing Hailey to just shut it off. The second day, the text and calls were fewer and far in between. Today, there was nothing. Her stomach growled in hungry, having not had a proper breakfast, so Hailey allowed herself the extra time of returning to her kitchen and raiding the cupboards again. This time she settled on a granola bar and as she leaned on the counter while she ate it, she noticed a piece of paper she hadn’t before.

“Love you Hails, -V”

Hailey smiled at the note from her friend, she knew she had been worrying the younger woman. She had been worrying her whole unit, with one man more so than the others. With a sigh, Hailey finished the bar and headed back upstairs. Once again perched on her bed, Hailey debated whether she should call him or just send a text. She opened up her messages, deciding she didn’t want to interrupt if he was busy at work. Work. She felt so disconnected from there right now, as if she had been gone way longer than three days. She focused only on typing her messages, deliberately ignore the texts she knew were just above the one she was about to send. She decided to keep it simple, asking if he could call her when he got off work. In an instant, her phone was ringing and Jay’s cheesy grin, a picture she had snapped on one of their many nights at Molly’s, was flashing across her screen.

“Hello?” She answered, hating how hoarse it sounded.

“Are you okay?” His voice was filled with concern.

“Um...yea.” She replied, deciding he was asking more about this moment than overall. “Look I...can we talk?”

“Yea.” He spoke softly as if he wasn’t sure what to say to her, she didn’t blame him. She had dealt some pretty low blows when they fought at the hospital.

“Come over after work?” She asked, figuring she would ask Vanessa to find something to do so they could have the time alone.

“I’m uh.. not at work. I can come...now?” His reply morphing into a question, he sounded almost embarrassed at admitting he wasn’t at work but Hailey blew it off.

“Okay.” She nodded, knowing damn well he couldn’t see her. She felt her emotions reeling at the thought of seeing him so fast, previously assuming she’d have time to mentally prepare for this conversation. They hung up and Hailey flopped back onto her bed, exhaustion rolling through her. She must have zoned out, or fallen back asleep, because she jumped when her doorbell rang some time later. Hailey walked down the stairs, dragging her feet every step and trying to get a handle on herself before she pulled the door open.

“Hey.” Jay said, his face revealing a wide range of emotions as he took in her appearance.

“Hey.” She replied, hating herself when she heard her voice break slightly. She stepped aside to let him in before her emotions could get the better of her, walking into her living room with him close behind. She sat herself on one end of the couch, grimacing when he sat as far away as possible on the other end. She had hurt him, that much she already knew, but seeing it first hand was another matter entirely. They sat in silence, neither sure what to say. Hailey figured she’d better start since it was her that got them here in the first place.

“Jay...I’m sorry..” She started, her words throwing a wide net out. She had a lot to apologize for. He only nodded in return so she continued. “I should have stopped, I should have let you and Adam grab him...I just...I couldn’t help myself.” She shuddered slightly at the memories, both of her running after their offender and even farther back to a time when she sat beside Jay in an ambulance and he had said the very same words to her. That was the moment she had started to realize just how strong her feelings for him were.

“You were just doing your job.” He responded softly, but his voice still sounded cold.

“I was...” She agreed. “But I had another, more important job I should have been doing.” She trailed off in a whisper, hands coming to hover in front of her stomach. Jay looked at her, confusion evident on his face. “Being a mother.” Her words hung in the air for a moment, both taking them in. Hailey felt tears forming in her eyes but made no attempt to stop their flow.

“Hailey...” Jay wanted to say something to comfort her, but his words failed him.

“I know now that I was being stubborn, being stupid...I never should have put our baby in that situation...” Tears ran down her face now, she couldn’t bring herself to meet Jay’s eyes, sure they would be filled with anger.

“Hails..” He tried again, his own voice thick with emotion.

“I’m sorry Jay, I’m so sorry.” Her walls crumbled completely then and her words morphed into sobs. She felt the couch shift beside her but kept her eyes clamped shut as the waves of emotion racked through her. Suddenly, she was pulled into Jay’s strong embrace. He held her while she fell apart, the pent up emotion from the last three days, on top of everything she had been holding in since she found out she was pregnant, finally unleashing. She wasn’t sure how long he held her, but slowly her sobs began to slow and she felt herself calming down little by little.

“Hailey, it’s okay. I get it, I really do. This...being a mother, it wasn’t something you wanted...so to adjust to that, on top of it coming as a huge surprise...it’s a lot.” Jay’s soft words brought more tears to her eyes, after everything she had done, everything she had said to him...he still put his whole being into bringing her comfort. She didn’t deserve him.

“I should have told Voight right away. I shouldn’t have been stubborn. If I had listened to you, I wouldn’t have been hit by that car...I wouldn’t have almost-” Her words stopped as another sob raged through her body.

“Hey, look at me.” Jay placed his hands on either side of her face, forcing her eyes to meet his when she didn’t immediately comply. “You can’t sit here and beat yourself up over what happened, what could have happened. I think you’ve more than learned that lesson and it could have been so, so much worse. You’re okay. And our baby....our baby is okay too.” Jay pulled her back into his arms as more tears fell from her eyes. They sat there, both processing their emotions and the events of the last few days, simply allowing themselves to be healed by the others presence.

“I love you.” Jay whispered against her temple after some time. He placed a gentle kiss on top of her head and she nuzzled in closer to him.

“Love you too.” She replied, tightening her arms around his chest.

“You know that I’ll always be here for you right, no matter what?” Jay asked quietly.

“I do.” She smiled against him, but it wasn’t one that reached her eyes.

“And you can tell me anything...” He continued. Hailey nodded, knowing where this conversation was going. “Hailey I know it’s probably an awful time to bring this up, but I gotta know..” He trailed off, suddenly nervous she was going to shut down.

“The appointment.” Hailey said quietly, more a statement than a question.

“Yea.” Jay whispered. Hailey shifted in his arms, positioning herself so that she could look up at him. She didn’t want to tell him, to relive that memory, but she owed him something after the last few days.

“I told you about Booth attacking me..” She swallowed hard and he hated himself for even asking her. “When you confronted me about it, when I told you how he had got me alone...and had other plans...you asked me if he had..” Hailey swallowed again, throat tightening at the memory. “I told you no. And that wasn’t a lie.” She continued quickly, feeling his breath hitch underneath her. “He had me pinned down, had managed to get my pants down, and when I fought him he beat me...when Garrett found me, I was barely conscious. He got me to the hospital and they asked me all these questions I couldn’t answer because I couldn’t remember, or didn’t want to remember. They asked me over and over if he had raped me, after what Garrett had told them. I kept telling them no, but deep down, I wasn’t sure. One of the doctors told me I had to go through an exam, just so they could be sure. I fought them on that but they pushed, Garrett pushed. I had this mental block up and I was terrified of them doing anything after what had happened. I was terrified of what they might find. I didn’t know for sure what he had done and part of me wanted to just keep that ignorance. But they kept pushing and I was so tired of fighting so I agreed. But I freaked out when they started and the nurse ended up having to basically hold me down.” Hailey shuddered at the memory, she could still hear herself screaming. Jay pulled her closer to him, his heart breaking with every word. “They confirmed that he hadn’t done anything..but after that exam I felt like I had still been violated. I haven’t gone in for that kind of visit since then, so when we were at the appointment it caught me totally off guard.” Hailey let out a breath after she finished the story.

“Hailey, I’m so sorry...” Jay kissed the top of her head, feeling moisture gather in his eyes. She has been through so much yet is still so strong, it truly amazes him.

They fell silent once again, the room feeling heavy with their emotions. Hailey breathed in the scent of him, felt his strong arms around her body and listened to his heart thumping away in his chest. She felt safe, like she was finally home.

#chicago pd #chicago pd fanfiction #halstead and upton #jay halstead #hailey upton #halstead #jay x hailey #upstead #upton

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anewkaiju · 3 years

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Everybody Likes Something Good (a Premier League write up)

We have now run through two weeks of action, however, I am no closer to knowing where to place my allegiances. That being said, I remain undeterred. Over the last week, I watched Aston Villa versus Newcastle, Arsenal versus Chelsea, West Ham versus Leicester City and most of Wolves versus Tottenham. Also, last Friday, I spent my lunch break watching Manchester United versus Leeds again, but this time, paying more concentrated attention to what United were doing on the pitch.

The two football podcasts that I've been spending time with spent so much time last week raving about what happened at Old Trafford (where Manchester United play) that I began to wonder if I hadn't missed something. I struggled a bit when I watched the match the first time around because I already knew the finish so it was hard to get too excited watching shots that you absolutely know are going to find the back of the net. The second time around, I made a concerted effort to watch and follow Paul Pogba as moved around the pitch. In doing so, it was hard not to marvel at Bruno Fernandes as he racked up three goals with relative ease. It also helped seeing his tweet after the match where he said he had simply been waiting for fans to be present before registering his first hat trick. They looked so strong against Leeds but then they drew with Southampton, so there's some balance out there I suppose. While we are talking about Manchester United, we have to acknowledge their away kits which are just divine. However, all that being said, I cannot hop aboard the United train; the idea of it feels so boring.

The big highlight from the Aston Villa versus Newcastle match was not Villa's kits, although they remain pretty great, but rather the wild goal that ended the first half. It may still be early in the season, but there's no doubt that that was the best goal yet. It was picturesque. It's the sort of play that any fan of any sport can at least appreciate. In conducting research and reading around the internet, it seems that Villa are actually considered to be one of the cooler clubs around. At the very least, people who talk about football for a living seem to really want them to succeed this season after seeing Jack Grealish leave for Manchester City. It's my understanding that Villa spent the Grealish transfer money very wisely and really strengthened their club. Also, as mentioned before, their home kits are very nice and yesterday I discovered that their away kits are almost equally appealing. Villa Park was a lively atmosphere, and by all accounts, their owner is a pretty ok dude.

So, not to state the obvious, but Chelsea are incredibly strong and incredibly deep at every position. Saturday saw the return of Romelu Lukaku (he had played for the club before) and he made his presence felt almost immediately. He scored early, and probably could have scored again. Arsenal just looked powerless for much of the match. Despite finishing eighth last year, they managed to be Chelsea twice so there was a thought that perhaps they had Chelsea's number. They don't, or at least, they didn't on Saturday. They're a bit short on players at the moment, including a number of guys that they've paid handsomely for their services, but that doesn't really help explain away what happened on Saturday. That being said, that sure looked like a penalty on Saka there toward the end. It's hard to say when relief will arrive for Arsenal and its supporters as they are scheduled to take on Manchester City this upcoming weekend. Also, worth noting, I didn't love the Arsenal home kit as much as I expected. It's nice and plenty good, but the all white sleeves and red base moving around came across a little too disconnected for my tastes. Still, it's hard not to feel for Arsenal and their supporters as they struggle like this so early in the campaign.

Leading up to yesterday's match, Leicester City had really emerged in my mind as a club to watch. Their outsider status is great, Jamie Vardy is great, Jannik Vestergaard is great, their coach seems intense but in a one-step-ahead-of-everyone tactician kind of way. However, for as much as I appreciate these various things about the club, the fit still felt a little off. Maybe it's the other teams, organizations and people in my life that I throw my support behind. Historically speaking, I almost never ride with a team that other people like or appreciate (your loss, folks. The Baltimore Orioles and Washington Wizards are fantastic franchises and I will continue to run with them.) Anyway, yesterday happened and West Ham just rocked Leicester City. This was my first time seeing West Ham in action, so it's hard for me to say if yesterday's effort was in line with their usual output or what, but I do know that they finished directly right behind Leicester City in the standings last season so I'm inclined to think, yes, they are in fact a highly competitive club. Declan Rice seems like a real stand-up guy, talking with everyone throughout and helping to de-escalate things after the red card. Their kits are also claret and blue, which as has already been documented here, is just great.

If there was a battle of kits this week then it was, hands down, Wolves versus Tottenham. The Wolves kits aren't mind-blowing or revolutionary or anything like that, but yellow and black is a great, sharp color combination. Also, their full name, the Wolverhampton Wanderers sounds like something out of Harry Potter (please note: this not an endorsement of Harry Potter or its distressingly transphobic creator.)

Tottenham were the away team in this match, which means that they wore their away kits. Simply put, they are awesome. Their home kits are so clean, which is great in its own way, but these away ones look like they'd come alive underneath a black light. In reading about the Spurs, I've gleamed that their supporters don't seem to know what to make of them anymore. Some fans have posted online that the club should let Harry Kane go and fill his trophy case as Tottenham aren't really poised to compete for the title this year. Other fans come across as far more mystified and unsure what the answer for the Spurs is or what that would even look like. All I've learned about the owner is that he refuses to agree to a Kane transfer. I think I said this before, but it bears repeating. I'm very hesitant to take the side of a rich, white guy but it would just be so dull if another star player joined the Man City roster.

Speaking of Man City, they'll take on Arsenal this upcoming Saturday in a match that will probably be talked about tons between now and then.

#arsenal #manchester united #manchester city #leicester city #wolves #tottenham hotspur #aston villa #premier league #kits

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inyri · 6 years

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Equivalent Exchange (a SWTOR story): Chapter 29- What Happens on Nar Shaddaa

Equivalent Exchange by inyri

Fandom: Star Wars: The Old Republic Characters: Female Imperial Agent (Cipher Nine)/Theron Shan Rating: E (this chapter: M.) Summary: If one wishes to gain something, one must offer something of equal value. In spycraft, it’s easy. Applying it to a relationship is another matter entirely. F!Agent/Theron Shan. (Spoilers for Shadow of Revan and Knights of the Fallen Empire.)

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What Happens on Nar Shaddaa Odessen. 21 ATC.

“Sending proof of completion now.” The figure’s distorted voice crackles over the speaker as the projection stutters and flickers above her desk. “As you requested. However, you should be aware there was a complication.”

She sighs.

“Define complication.” Nine pulls up the images, flipping through them idly: the buildings of the ranch now smoldering ruins, the equipment they’d had to leave behind rendered unusable, the rakghoul test subjects-

She wrinkles her nose. They’d had to leave so quickly and there was nothing else to be done with them, of course, no room to bring them to Odessen and the experimental process leaving them unsuitable for return to Taris. Stars know they couldn’t just leave them wandering- they’d have had an epidemic on their hands in no time at all. But seeing them laid out one by one in the pens…

The poison had worked, clearly, a blaster shot to each meant to finish the job but probably unnecessary by the look of the wounds. Clean. Merciful.

Still, it seems a shame.

“Someone sniffing around the complex. Republic military, to judge by kit. He fired on us.” Arms folded, the figure shifts from one foot to the other.“It’s been handled, and he wasn’t looking for you- some rogue SIS agent, according to his datapad- but I’m going to have to insist on a surcharge. Combat and sentient disposal weren’t part of the initial agreement.”

She flips to the last image.

Shit. She should have known they weren’t going to leave Coruscant behind so easily as that. “Fine,” she says. “An additional fifty. Sixty if you send me the contents of that datapad.”

“Two hundred.”

“Oh, fuck off. One dead ‘pub? Seventy-five. Final offer.”

A pause; another voice in the background. And then- “All right. I’ll take the rest of the credits to the same account. Data incoming.”

“Very good,” she says, setting her own datapad down after a few more taps to its screen. “Credits sent. And you can drop the cloak-and-dagger shit, Renzi. I know that’s you.”

“Dunno what you’re talking about.”

She grins. “You said I. Xessa always says we.”

“She’s got you there, Ren. He thinks voice masking makes him sound exotic-” a second figure pops sideways into frame as the masking drops away, Xessa’s green-scaled face a contrast against her partner’s pale pink torso- “but mostly he couldn’t be bothered to put a shirt on. So, where in the Void have you been? We’d heard you were dead.”

“Rumors greatly exaggerated, et cetera.” Shrugging, she lets the unspoken question die. “Excellent job as always. Cleaner work’s not your usual, I know, but-”

“Work’s work nowadays, and with Zakuul’s eyes everywhere business is slow. A payday’s always welcome.” Renzi grins as Xessa straightens up beside him, one arm draped over his bare shoulders. “Though we-” a smirk for emphasis, there- “had hoped you might want to render payment in person. It’s been far too long.”

(A dangerous offer, with far too many pheromones in that room for anyone’s good. She’d fallen into that trap once or twice (or, okay, maybe it was closer to half a dozen times) with those two, back in the old days when one of her many jobs was keeping the Cartel from throwing in with the Republic; the happier she kept the Hutts and their lieutenants, the happier her Intelligence masters had been, and-

Well. It had been a particularly enjoyable trap. Besides, anyone who could sit with a Falleen on one side and a Zeltron on the other and manage to keep one’s knickers on may as well go join the Jedi- that much self-denial couldn’t possibly be healthy.)

“Not this time, I’m afraid. My cargo required urgent transport.” The keypad outside her quarters chimes. Someone’s looking for her; she ought to wrap this up. “Rain check, hm?”

“We’re working in the Core for the foreseeable future. You need us again, come find us and we’ll knock ten percent off the going rate.”

“Only ten?” The door’s chiming again. She pushes back from the desk. “If you’ll excuse me, I ought to get that.”

Xessa winks. “We’d consider fifteen. A pleasure as always, my dear.”

As the holocall disconnects, Nine stands, calling out toward the door. “Just a min-”

It slides open. Theron slips through, wiggling his fingers at her in response to her arched eyebrow. “Don’t get up. I can let myself in.”

“So it would appear. You could have rung in, you know.”

“I did. Twice. When you didn’t answer I assumed you were still in science wing.”

She shrugs. “I was on a call. Lokin’s in the middle of a treatment, so there’s no point in sitting around watching gamma rays- though you’ve just reminded me I should probably change my entry code.”

That he’d memorized her passcode oughtn’t to have been a surprise. She was careful with it, always, but over the last months they’d walked back to her room together for one too many late-night ‘meetings’- of course he’d learned the sequence. She’d expect no less from him; she’d have done the same herself, if they’d ever spent any time in his quarters.

“It took me a while- it’s a good code. Not your birthdate, not a predictable sequence.”

Old habits were hard to break. “It was my identification number at the Academy. I used it a dozen times a day, so it’s easy to remember. But I’d still appreciate a knock.”

“I thought I’d surprise you.” Theron, wearing a suitably contrite expression (she doesn’t believe it for a minute, but at least he’s halfway pretending to be sorry), holds up an insulated bag. “Figured I owe you dinner after the whole Coruscant clusterfuck. Possibly like a hundred dinners. And some other stuff. But if I’m interrupting-“

He looks down at her datapad, face-up on the table with the last transmitted image still open on the screen, and then back up, frowning.

“I didn’t know,” he says carefully, “that we were going against the Republic now.”

“We aren’t. The team I contracted to mop up on Alderaan ran into-” she gestures delicately with one finger- “this guy poking around. Anyone you know?”

Theron shakes his head. “No, but his gear looks military. Do we know what he was looking for?”

“Files are there. I haven’t had a chance to read them yet, but best guess? You.”

“No way.” Setting the bag on the table and hooking one foot around the chair in front of her, he pulls it toward him, sits down abruptly and reaches out for the datapad. “Coincidence. Must be.”

The transmission’s there, unopened, in one of her dozen Holonet accounts; Theron glances up at her again and, at her nod- he may as well see it, whatever it says- taps the screen. For the next minute he sits in silence, eyes flickering from line to line as he reads, and then he pushes the little screen away and rests his elbows on the projector table, head cupped in his hands.

“Well, fuck,” he says, voice muffled.

She waits.

“You were right. I should have gone to Rhu Caenus for supplies.”

Of course she was. Pallista was far too risky, far too many people who might have known him or might have been told to watch out for him- but there’s no point in gloating. Instead, she rolls her desk chair across the floor and sits down beside him, leans against his side until he turns his head toward her with a sigh.

“In any case,” she murmurs, reaching up to rub at the back of his neck, “it’s handled. The team that killed him doesn’t know who you are or that you were there. Loop closed. We’ll just have to be even more careful moving forward.”

“I should have known he’d do this. But I thought-” Theron closes his eyes. “I thought- I mean, my own father-”

He trails off.

“Sometimes I think you’ve got it easier, not knowing,” he mutters. “Not having to worry about your parents or-”

Her fingers dig in to his skin, harder than she means them to. “Don’t be stupid. Do you really think it’s easier?”

“I only meant that-”

“I don’t even know who they are. They could be anyone at all, or dead, and I’d never know it. I might have walked through the Kaas City market and passed a sister, a brother-” at that, a spike like lightning lances straight through her head and her hands fall to her sides; she grits her teeth to keep from crying out. Oh, she should know better than to think of such things by now, oh, oh-

When she catches her breath and her eyes refocus Theron’s shifted position, sitting up straight, holding her head close against his shoulder.

“And then there’s that, of course. A small side effect,” she says dryly, unembedding her fingernails from her palms with a shudder. “But ignorance is bliss, right?”

“I’m sorry.“ He presses his mouth to her temple, his hand in her hair. “I’m sorry. That looked like it hurt.”

“It does. But one learns to live with it. Or not. After all, it was my choice.” Forcing a smile, she nudges his hand away gently with a tilt of her head, straightening up and reaching across the table for the bag. “Enough philosophy. We should eat before the food gets cold.”

“I-” He stops. “Yeah. Yeah. I remember you mentioned these before, and since I’m probably not going to be able to go Coruscant again for… well, possibly ever- um. Ghedi was due to rotate out of embedment last week anyway, so I had him make a stop on his way to the spaceport. He flash-froze them and I just heated them up in the canteen, so I’m pretty sure they’re still-”

As Theron rambles, she raises the flap and pulls out a few takeaway containers and a chilled bottle of wine; the containers are warm, lids opaque with steam, and when she opens the first of the containers and inhales the smell’s familiar.

This time her smile is genuine. “You seriously had someone bring dumplings all the way back from Coruscant?”

“You said you liked them.”

Did she? She does like them, so he’s right, but when- oh! “When I sent your implant- Theron, that was five years ago. I can’t believe you remembered that.”

“It was the last time we talked before the Zakuul war started.” As she sets the second container in front of him, he gets up to fetch glasses from the cabinet. “I remembered.”

She takes a bite. They’ve suffered a little from the freezing, but Force knows she wouldn’t tell Theron that- he’s watching her intently when he sits back down, fills her wineglass but doesn’t eat, waiting for her reaction and he looks so ridiculously hopeful that they could have been stone-cold and stuffed with rocks and she’d still have eaten every last one. “Best thing I’ve eaten in years-” still actually true, frostburn and all- “and yours are getting cold. Here.”

Holding one up to his mouth as he starts to reply, she pops it between his parted lips.

“You know,” he says around a mouthful of dumpling, “we’ve never actually been out to dinner at an actual restaurant? The mess hall doesn’t count.”

“We’ve been more than a little busy. And Taris isn’t exactly known for haute cuisine.”

“True. But next time we’re back in civilization, I’m buying you dinner.”

She grins, leaning into him to steal a forkful of noodles. “If you’re attempting to bribe your way back into my good graces with food-”

“Is it working?”

“Maybe.” A pause. “Is there cake in there?”

“Is there cake? You wound me.” With a snort, Theron digs down to the bottom of the bag. “Of course there’s cake. Their cake is legendary.”

“Then I forgive you. For now.”

***

She lets him stay that night, too.

She missed him, even in the days it took to get from Alderaan back to Odessen in their separate ships, even with the distraction of Doctor Lokin’s fragile health keeping her in the medical bay almost constantly and having to arrange the cleaner team to cover up behind them (it had been sheer luck that Xessa’d answered her holo and that she and Ren’d been near enough to handle the job- no one from the Alliance was within range, and her first two options had been too far away or too busy to pick up the work.)

She tries to tell herself it’s habit, this thing they have- he’s a craving to be satisfied like any other but somehow still novel even after months together, her want and her affection for him enough to forgive him his recklessness, enough that she hasn’t so much as looked at anyone else in that time which is practically a record-

But when he stirs in his sleep in response to her nightmares, arm tightening around her to pull her nearer, murmuring her name against the nape of her neck, she curls into the warmth of his body and whispers back.

Some habits are worth keeping.

***

The next morning his ringing comm wakes them both a full hour before sunrise and she groans and covers her head with a pillow while he checks who’s calling.

Hang on, he signs, lifting the pillow for a moment. Need to take this.

She nods and pulls the blanket up, just in case- one wrong angle and his caller’s likely to get an eyeful- as he slides quickly into trousers and undershirt and ducks down the stairs to her desk.

“Do you know,” Theron says by way of opening, “what time it is?”

“You said call with the plans.” The answering voice is unfamiliar: female, heavily accented- native language almost certainly Huttese. Hm. She peeks out from beneath the pillow as the voice continues. “Got plans. So I’m calling.”

“And I appreciate it, I do-” he yawns- “but it could have waited an hour. Or five.”

She can’t see a thing from this angle. Ducking beneath the covers until she’s poking her head out at the foot of the bed (the sheets are a mess anyway, half-stripped, kicked off during the worst of her dreams), she tries again. Now she can see Theron, half-perched on her desk chair, and on the holo in front of him a yellow-skinned Twi’lek, a faded Black Sun tattoo on one bare shoulder, stands with her arms folded across her chest and a very smug expression on her face.

“Oops.”

Theron sighs. “I told you I was sorry those SIS guys came after you.”

“Not came after, found. Broke teeth,” the woman scowls. “Again. And stole my gun.”

“I’m paying you for the plans. You should be able to buy, like, ten guns.”

“Liked that one.”

He settles down into the chair with a thump. “Seriously, Teff’ith. I really am sorry.”

“Happens. They said I’m… um. ‘Known associate?’” She- Teff’ith, not a name Nine recognizes- sounds uncertain, mouth moving to make the shapes of an unfamiliar word. Her Basic’s awful. Not a former work colleague of Theron’s, she’d bet, though she’s got more than her fair share of old contacts with likely similar histories. “Should have given stupid medal back.”

Theron looks sidelong in her direction with a shrug and an I’ll tell you later signed behind his back. “But you got the plans, you said?”

“Yup. Not easy.” The Twi’lek holds up a data chip. “Lots of slicing. But got ‘em.”

“Your account’s still the same?” Theron glances down to his wrist for a moment, but his commpad’s still on the table beside the bed. “Hang on, I need to get my-”

Wrapped up in the blanket, Nine sits up and stretches across until she can reach it; catching his eye again, she mimes tossing it down to him and he nods, reaches up to pluck it out of the air as she lobs it underhanded in his direction. As it crosses the field of the holo’s lens Teff’ith blinks and takes a step backward, eyes darting from side to side suspiciously.

"Who’s there?” Her tone’s even brusquer than before. “Someone else spying, too?”

Letting his breath out with a huff, Theron shakes his head. “No one’s spying on you. You just happened to catch me in the middle of a meeting-” (the age-old excuse, of course, though he keeps a straight face when he says it)- “and the Commander’s here.”

“Let me talk to her.”

Clothing would probably be useful right about now. Last night’s clothes are all somewhere down in the sitting area, though, and the closet’s on the far side of the camera field; she looks around the room for ideas beyond the bedsheet but none spring immediately to mind.

“If it’s about the credits, Teff, I’m sending them right now.” Commpad slipped onto his wrist and his attention on its screen, he taps out a few dozen keystrokes before he returns his eyes to the holo. “You don’t need to-”

If looks could kill, Theron’d be a smoking heap on the floor by now. “You made me get arrested. By your mom."

“You never actually got-”

“It’s fine, Theron.” Both their heads snap in her direction but not the camera yet, thankfully, as she pulls the sheet tight around her chest and runs her other hand through her bed-mussed hair. Draping the blanket over her shoulders- it could pass as a shawl at this angle, right?- she gestures toward the holo. “I assume she’s a friend of yours?”

“That’s one way of putting it. I arrested her, she saved my life- the usual. I’ve been trying to keep her out of trouble ever since.”

Teff’ith snorts. “Saved you twice. You’re welcome.”

“It’s true,” he says, and turns the camera toward her at her nod. “Teff’ith, this is the Alliance Commander. Commander, Teff’ith. Formerly of Coruscant, currently residing on Nar Shaddaa. She managed to get us a copy of the unredacted Ternion building tenant list and schematics.”

She opens her mouth to respond, but before she can get a word out the Twi’lek looks her up and down, at her hair and her bare face and her blanket-wrapped body, and angles her head back toward Theron.

“Never thought you’d leave. Didn’t understand why you did,” Teff’ith grins. “Now I get it. She’s prettier than the wanted holos.”

“I’ll take that,” she says as Theron’s ears go scarlet, “as a compliment.”

***

“I’m sorry.” Half an hour later, even in the lift on the way up to the War Room, he’s still apologizing. “She can be… abrupt. But she’s a good kid.”

“She’s entertaining, I’ll give her that, and I’ll comp you back the credits from the discretionary fund. But she’s hardly a kid.” She scans over the schematics as they hit the top floor- they’re good. More than enough detail. They’ll just need to find their in, now. “She’s how old- late twenties?”

(Somehow they’ve all gotten old while they weren’t paying attention.)

“Something like that, yeah. I’m not sure she even knows. But we’ve known each other a long time. She was there when Ngani- when Master Zho-”

The hallway’s crowded when they step into it, bustling with soldiers and crew heading to their morning duties, and everyone’s looking at them. “Tell me later?”

Theron nods, voice lowered. “It’s a long story. Tonight?”

“Tonight.”

They’ve still got half a slice of cake to finish, after all, and she’s still got the extra toothbrush.

***

With the tenant list projected on one screen and a blueprint on the other, she and Lana and Theron sit staring at the list, crossing out names one by one.

“It seems to be mostly corporate,” Lana says, “as expected. Approaching any of the Republic-owned organizations is out of the question, I assume, so that rules out these five.”

“And these.” Theron crosses out two more. “Off the record, an SIS front and a weapon dev lab for SpecOps.”

She wrinkles her nose. They’re rapidly running out of options. “Wish I’d known that ten years ago. And these four are Cartel, and much as the Hutts want the blockade gone, I doubt they’ll approve of our methods.”

“The twenty-ninth floor looks to be vacant.”

“Right underneath the shield generator? Ten credits says it’s stuffed full of skytroopers.” Stretching, Theron reaches across the table for his caf cup. “What about Omnicorp? Twentieth floor?”

She puts a line through that one, too. “Two words: killer robots.”

“Never mind.” Theron squints, looking harder at the list. “And everything else is Imperial- wait. What about this one?” He traces a circle with one finger around the listing on the mezzanine level. “Umbrella Corporation. That’s got to be a joke.”

“Reminds me of an old friend, actually. Sia’hla. She used to talk about wanting to own a dance club.” Taking a sip of her own caf, she leans her elbows on the table as Lana, beside her, keeps scanning through company dossiers. “I told her she’d be better off running it like an umbrella company- hire girls on as independent contractors, keep the Hutts’ slimy mitts out of the whole business. She was still learning Basic at the time, though, and the phrase doesn’t quite translate into Huttese. She thought I meant she should call it-”

She stops. That’d be too much of a coincidence, surely.

“It is a cantina.” Lana raises one hand, sliding a dossier page on top of the projected list. “An odd choice in an industrial district, don’t you think?”

Theron settles into a chair, focused on the page. “Pretty genius, actually. Bunch of white-collar types working long hours and with money to burn- now they don’t even have to leave the building to drink and chase tail. Whoever owns it must rake in credits hand over fist.”

“Speaking from experience?” She grins as Theron slides down until he can reach her, extending one leg to kick at her ankle.

“Nah. That was Balkar’s thing. I was more the ‘you’ve been here for thirty hours, Shan, now go the fuck home before I have you evicted from your office’ type.”

Lana smirks. “I’d never have guessed.”

“Shut it, Beniko.” Theron flicks his tip of his stylus at her as she leans neatly out of the way, redirecting it back around with a wave of her hand; it hovers over his caf cup for a moment, then drops into the liquid with a splash. “I was drinking that.”

Ignoring him completely except for a soft, amused-sounding hum (Theron, meanwhile, fishes the little rubber piece out when he thinks neither of them is looking), Lana magnifies the line until they don’t have to squint to read it. No individual names or contact numbers, of course; it wasn’t going to be that easy. “It looks to be a clean tenancy as well- no proxy listed. No connection to the cartels at all, so far as I can see. It may be our best chance of getting into the building.”

“I’d prefer not to gatecrash.” She shifts her attention back to the blueprints, to the mezzanine level. “Assuming Ternion’s constructed like most Nar Shaddaa towers, our access to the power conduit will be somewhere back here-” one circle on the map, marking the location- “ well out of the public areas. Not impossible by any means, but we’ll be dodging repair ‘bots all the way up the conduit already. I’d rather not have to worry about security wandering in while I’m dangling a dozen floors up.”

“So, what? We ask nicely and hope whoever runs the place doesn’t mind us blowing the roof off the building?” Theron rubs his forehead.

“One never knows. We might get lucky. But no,” she says. “We just need to get access to the staff areas.” Pulling her datapad out of her jacket, she opens a new search window- the place must have a Holonet site, though whether it’ll give her the info the needs is another-

A-ha. Jackpot.

She flips the screen around, grinning.

"Hiring performers for immediate start.” Lana reads aloud as she points to the words. “Experience preferred. For interview, contact- Nine. No. Absolutely not. You’re the Commander of the entire Alliance. It’d be completely inappropriate for-”

“Shhhh.” She leans forward, lifting her finger off the screen and holding it against Lana’s mouth. “It’s a plan, which is more than we had five minutes ago. Unless you have a better idea.”

“I’m sure I could think of- there must be some other-” Lana closes her eyes, lips moving, silently counting to five. “Theron, tell me you don’t agree with this.”

He considers. “That depends. Do I get to watch?”

“I’ll need a handler.”

“I’m in. Although I probably should mention that I don’t, technically speaking, have clearance to land on Nar Shaddaa right now."

Lana sighs.

***

The last layer of concealer applied to her cheek, she sets it with powder and brushes her hair until it’s sleek and shining. A swipe of lipstick, a touch of rouge, a quick adjustment of her shirt- good enough. She hasn’t got the right supplies here to manage anything with the scar on her stomach, a problem she hadn’t considered initially; if this club wants the usual costume, it’ll be hard to hide even with makeup and airbrush.

(Most clubs don’t like girls with scars. Or tattoos. Spoils the aesthetic.)

Oh, well. One step at a time.

Emerging from the refresher back into her quarters, she grins at Lana and slips into the voice she’ll use for the call. “War wounds patched. How do I look?”

Cross-legged on the couch, Lana winces. “Force, that accent. You’ll shatter glass if you’re not careful.”

“When’s the last time you- hold on.” She clears her throat. “I know, it’s appalling. Everyone on Nar Shaddaa talks like they’ve gargled razor blades and snorted helium. But I’ve always used this cover identity for this sort of thing there, and in any case when’s the last time you saw a cantina dancer who sounded Imperial?”

“Korriban, actually. Once again, for the record, this is a terrible idea.”

“Objection noted. Theron, is the holo ready?”

He nods, done tinkering with it, gesturing toward the table as he crosses the room to settle down on the couch next to Lana. “Masked and relayed. Ready when you are.”

“All right.” Clearing her throat once again, she inhales, adjusting her posture and her voice. “Here we go.”

She stands before the camera, hands clasped, shoulders back, as the call goes through and a pretty Mirialan, throat bare in a low-cut dress, smiles politely from the other end of the connection and greets her in accented Basic. No cartel ties, no collared employees- by Hutt Space standards this place is getting weirder by the minute. “Thank you for calling Umbrella Corporation, voted Best in Sector two years in a row by the Nar Shaddaa Star. My name is Cira. How may I direct your call?”

(She’s had this conversation half a hundred times.

Breathe, girl. Just like driving a speeder.)

“Your ‘net site says you’re hiring dancers. I’m interested in auditioning, if the position’s still open.”

Cira nods, giving her an appraising look, then relaxes slightly. So far, so good. “We’re currently hiring for performers-” the correction’s subtle but emphatic; no dive bar, this. Interesting. “Any previous experience?”

“Of course.” She ticks them off, one by one, on her fingers. “Here at home I’ve been at Haven’s Blaze, Club Vertica and the Slippery Slope. I did a stint at the Dealer’s Den on Coruscant a few years ago, too.”

Across the room, Lana raises an eyebrow and Theron grins.

“An impressive résumé. If you’ll excuse me a moment, I just need to confirm with the owner but I expect she’ll want to have you in for a stage trial. What’s your name? ”

“Xari.”

All at once the polished smile drops from the girl’s face. “Yeah, right. Try again.”

If someone picked up that cover identity while she was in carbonite- no. Not possible. So what’s-

“I’m sorry,” she says, keeping her tone even, her body relaxed even as she starts planning for half a dozen contingencies. “That’s the only name I’ve got. Is there a problem?”

“She’s been gone a long time, so I never met Xari, but I’ve seen the holos. Everyone here has."

Okay, now this really is getting weird. She used the name for years, sure, in more than a few undercover ops- she never got caught out as Xari and after a little while she had enough reputation to open doors, which made the work easier. But it’s been six or seven years since she’s played the part and the only performance holos she knows of (a mistake, letting those get loose on the ‘net, but between wig and cosmetics and costume she’d barely know herself in them, let alone be recognized now) must be ten years old.

Why would she still be so well known there?

(There are holos? Theron mouths.

Lana, squinting, pulls out her datapad- then elbows Theron sharply, pointing down at the screen.)

"That bold a lie might pass down in the sublevels,” Cira continues, eyes darkening, “but you should do your research properly next time. You must know who owns this place. Did you really think you’d fool Sia’hla, of all people?”

She blinks.

Maybe Koth’s right after all. Maybe this whole thing really is destiny.

“Go and get her, then. Ask her-” she sighs, dropping the accent. This isn’t going to work, not the way she meant it to. But this might be even better. “Ask her if she remembers what happened with Belan.”

The girl scowls, pushing back from the desk. “Is that supposed to mean something?”

“It will to her.”

As she disappears from view, Nine rolls her shoulders and cracks her knuckles and Theron and Lana both stare at her, their faces twin masks of worry. Disconnect? Theron signs.

She shakes her head. Not yet.

After a minute she can hear footsteps, two sets, approaching on the other end of the call. “I should have just hung up on her-” Cira’s voice, out of frame, terse and snappish in Huttese- “but she swears she’s-”

“I’ll deal with it, Cee. Leave us.” The figure that stands behind the desk now isn’t the Mirialan girl; a slender Twi’lek woman in a high-necked black dress stares flatly into the holocam, eyes narrowed as she switches to Basic. “Look, schutta, I don’t know who you think you are or where you heard that man’s name, but-”

She stops, blinks, looks at her face again.

“It’s you. It’s… Kaliyo told me you died. Five years ago.”

(She oughtn’t have covered up her scar. It had been there the last time they’d seen each other, after Hunter and that last damned lucky shot- they’d joked about it, even. So much for my stage career.)

“I keep hearing that this week. But it’s me. I swear.”

"Prove it.” Lekku winding anxiously around each other at their tips- the markings are new, elaborate tattooed bands in a pattern Nine doesn’t know the meaning of- she presses her lips together tightly. “Tell me something only you would know.”

Theron and Lana both look entirely confused now, straight-backed in their seats, hair-trigger tense in a way that echoes in her own nerves: an op poised on a razor’s edge, ready to turn good or bad in the span of a single moment. She nods, as much to them as to the holocam.

“You shot him. You shot him because I made him stop. Do you remember?”

One hand flies up to her throat, just for a second, and the projection shimmers as Sia’hla leans forward hard against the desk. "I- I remember. Where the fuck have you been?”

“That’s a story better told in person. But I need to ask you a favor.”

***

Up next: Dress Rehearsal, in which we meet Sia’hla (and “Xari”) properly, and Nine plans (much to Lana’s chagrin) for a show with quite an explosive encore…

Hey, everyone. Contrary to plans, I got exactly zero writing done over my holiday vacation (the perils of visiting family) and I’ve been working 50-hour weeks ever since. But unless I post otherwise here, you may always assume that a new chapter is coming- it’s just a matter of when I can steal time to write it!

#inyri writes #equivalent exchange #nine #cipher nine/theron shan #swtor fanfiction #imperial agent

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billiegourd · 4 years

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Buying Engagement Rings Online - Avoid The Pitfalls - Get The Best Deals

Purchasing wedding bands online when I was experiencing childhood during the 70's? In those days, that may have seemed like something I'd have expected to see on the Jetsons - the cutting edge animation arrangement.

My soonest memory of "adornments shopping" in those days was of me as a child holding tight to my grandmother's dress tail as she entered the neighborhood gems store. She realized the proprietor by name (presumably they went to a similar church) and she appeared to be very substance to spend quite a while taking a stab at different pieces.

I pondered then why grandmother had enthusiasm for those gleaming items which to me looked more like toys than extras for adults.

The Retail Landscape Has Changed

Today, shopping on the web is generally acknowledged. In China where I live, I once needed to purchase a container of Kellogg Cornflakes from Taobao - one of the biggest web based business locales here. This was on the grounds that I was jonesing for grain and couldn't discover it in the nearby general stores.

Image Credit Essentially, purchasing wedding bands online is simple and helpful. Online gem retailers are everywhere throughout the net, flaunting their full-shading and high-goals pictures of their jewels.

You should simply pick the carat, shading, lucidity and cut, enter your monetary data and delivery address and presto. At some point later you get a pleasantly bundled ring. In any case:

Watch Out For Scams

Purchasing wedding bands online is a potential minefield. For a certain something, pretty much anybody can get a charge card shipper account, set up an online gems store and be good to go. I've perused of extortion destinations making cubic zirconia look like precious stones and costing clients in the a huge number of dollars.

Some other eminent tricks incorporate selling you treated jewels. These precious stones are helpless to breakage. Or on the other hand a merchant may copied a certified jewel lab evaluating report or create one without any preparation.

Tips For Buying Diamonds Online

So as a potential client, you have to manage dependable online gems stores. A large number of these online stores offer free prong fixing, re-cleaning, rhodium plating and cleaning for the life of your gems.

Be that as it may, and this is a major BUT, by and large, the best spot to a jewel wedding band isn't online in light of the fact that online retailers regularly don't sell completely reinforced precious stones. These are precious stones with a lifetime breakage and merchandise exchanges. So while online retailers may give comfort and bigger decisions, they regularly offer just 30-60 merchandise exchange.

Besides, gain proficiency with the nuts and bolts by perusing my wedding bands guides. Hell, your woman must be worth at any rate 30 minutes of understanding time - isn't that so? With the information you procure, you'll show signs of improvement thought of the kind of precious stone cut and clearness that you need; a superior thought of what your exceptional woman needs and a thought of what you can manage.

Thirdly, set your financial limit as it will enable you to choose what makes a difference to you most and least when purchasing a jewel wedding band. In a perfect world, you'd need to go for the most noteworthy precious stone cut inside your value run. Yet, in the event that you go for the most noteworthy cut inside your spending limit, you may need to settle on the different Cs, clearness, shading and carat.

Legitimate online gem dealers commonly offer free counsels, where they'll assist you with sorting out a tasteful wedding band at the cost you are taking a gander at.

At the point when you are prepared to purchase, utilize your charge card as that would give you some purchaser insurance. With enormous online gem dealers, you are sheltered utilizing another type of installment, for example, a wire move.

At long last, one of the essential methods for purchasing wedding bands on the web (or disconnected) with certainty is getting a legitimate precious stone evaluating lab report with your buy. This is an unquestionable requirement.

Purchasing wedding bands online is truly '"daze acquiring". Having a report enables you to look at the precious stone you are pondering with others available.

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just4programmers · 5 years

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Learning about .NET Core futures by poking around at David Fowler's GitHub

David Fowler is the ASP.NET Core Architect (and an amazing highly technical public speaker) and I've learned a lot from watching him code. However, what's the best way for YOU to learn from folks like David if you can't sit on their shoulder? Why, look at their GitHub!

Since .NET Core (and most of Microsoft) is not only open source but also developed in the open now on GitHub, we can actually watch folks in their day to day work as they commit code to projects like the C# compiler, .NET Core, and ASP.NET Core.

Even more interestingly, we can look at David's github here https://github.com/davidfowl and then under Repositories see what he's up to, filter by language and type, and explore!

You can have Private repositories on GitHub, as I do, and as I'm sure David does. But GitHub is a social network for code and it's more fun and a better learning experience when we can see each others code and read it. Read with a critical eye, but without judgment as you may not have all the context that the author does. If you went to my GitHub, https://github.com/shanselman you might be disappointed but you also may be missing the big picture. Just consider that as you Follow people and explore their code.

David is an advanced .NET developer, while, for example, I am comparatively intermediate. So I realize that not all of David's code is FOR me. It's a scratchpad, it's not educational how-to workshops. However, I can get pick up cool idioms, interesting directions the tech may be going, and more importantly - prototypes and spikes. Spikes are folks testing out technical ideas. They may not be complete. In fact, they may never be complete. But some my be harbingers of things to come.

Here's a few things I learned today.

gRPC for .NET Core

For example, at https://github.com/davidfowl/grpc-dotnet I can see David has forked (copied) gRPC for dotnet and his game is working with the gRPC folks to make a fully supported version of gRPC for production workloads with .NET Core! Here are the stated goals:

We plan to implement a fully-managed version of gRPC for .NET that will be built on top of ASP.NET Core HTTP/2 server.

Good integration with the rest of ASP.NET Core ecosystem

High-performance (we plan to utilize some of the cutting edge performance features from ASP.NET Core and in .NET plaform itself)

That sounds cool! I can go learn that gRPC is a modern (google sponsored) Remote Procedure Call framework that can run anywhere. It's used by Netflix and Square and supports basically any languaige and any environment. Nice for this microservice world we are entering and hopefully has learned from the sins of DCOM and CORBA and RMI, because I was there and it sucked.

Nothing to see here but moving to a new JSON serializer

This Web.Framework sounds fun, and I'll be sure to take the description to heart.

You can see David and James Newton-King kicking ideas around as you explore the commit log. However, the most interesting commit IMHO is when David moves this little spike from using JSON.NET (the ubiquitous 3rd party JSON serializer) to the new emerging official System.Text.Json. Here is the commit with unified differences.

It's a small change but it also makes me feel good about the API underneath this new JSON API that's coming. My takeway is that it's not as scary as I'd assumed. Looks like a Good Thing(tm).

Cool!

Multi-Protocol ASP.NET Core

This looks interesting.

"The following sample shows how you can host a TCP server and HTTP server in the same ASP.NET Core application. Under the covers, it's the same server (Kestrel) running different protocols on different ports. The ConnectionHandler is a new primitive introduced in ASP.NET Core 2.1 to support non-HTTP protocols."

I didn't know you could do that! Looks like this sample hasn't changed much since it was conceived of in 2018, but then in the last month it's been updated twice and it appears to be part of a larger, slow-moving architectural issue called Bedrock that's moving forward.

I learned that Kestral (the ASP.NET Core web server) has a "ListenLocalhost" option on its options object!

WebHost.CreateDefaultBuilder(args) .ConfigureServices(services => { // This shows how a custom framework could plug in an experience without using Kestrel APIs directly services.AddFramework(new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Loopback, 8009)); }) .UseKestrel(options => { // TCP 8007 options.ListenLocalhost(8007, builder => { builder.UseConnectionHandler<MyEchoConnectionHandler>(); }); // HTTP 5000 options.ListenLocalhost(5000); // HTTPS 5001 options.ListenLocalhost(5001, builder => { builder.UseHttps(); }); }) .UseStartup<Startup>();

I can see here that TCP port 8007 is customer and uses a custom ConnectionHandler which I also didn't know existed! I can then look at the implementation of that handler and it's cool how clean the API is. You can get the result cleanly off the Transport buffer. You're doing low-level TCP but it doesn't feel low level.

using System.Threading.Tasks; using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Connections; using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging; namespace KestrelTcpDemo { public class MyEchoConnectionHandler : ConnectionHandler { private readonly ILogger<MyEchoConnectionHandler> _logger; public MyEchoConnectionHandler(ILogger<MyEchoConnectionHandler> logger) { _logger = logger; } public override async Task OnConnectedAsync(ConnectionContext connection) { _logger.LogInformation(connection.ConnectionId + " connected"); while (true) { var result = await connection.Transport.Input.ReadAsync(); var buffer = result.Buffer; foreach (var segment in buffer) { await connection.Transport.Output.WriteAsync(segment); } if (result.IsCompleted) { break; } connection.Transport.Input.AdvanceTo(buffer.End); } _logger.LogInformation(connection.ConnectionId + " disconnected"); } } }

Pretty slick. This just echos what is sent to that port but not only has it educated me about a thing I didn't know about, it's something I can mentally file away until I need it!

All of these things I learned in just 30 minutes of exploring someone's public repository.

What kinds of code do you like to read and what have you learned from just poking around?

Sponsor: Get the latest JetBrains Rider for remote debugging via SSH, SQL injections, a new Search Everywhere popup, and improved Unity support.

#Scott Hanselman's Blog

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aneedleforyourthoughtballoon · 7 years

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Nothing more than feelings

Drum roll please. Without a safety net and with no rehearsal, I’m going to try to describe, as clearly as I possibly can, how my depression-addled brain actually works. How it feels to operate it. This is difficult, because it doesn’t work. And operating it is hard. And I need to harness its pathetic abilities to type this out. So… erm… please do bear with me.

Right now, as I type this, I have no thoughts in my head. None. Vessel empty. I am not consciously thinking about anything. I feel nothing. I do not feel happy or sad, or confused or focused, or anything, any which way. My mind feels like a vacuum. Yet… I am still typing words. How is that possible? They’re still coming. But from where?

The words I type, same as the ones that fly out of my mouth, come from a tiny part of my brain which is almost always operating at a high level, regardless of how I feel. You could call it a stream of consciousness. I can really just chatter away on any given topic with no notice at all. It’s paradoxical, having this relentless word factory going on at the same time as a total black hole, I am aware. This relentless inner dialogue never really stops, but it is also never fueled by emotion. Unless I concentrate hard and put the effort in to synergise the two, there is a near total disconnect between the things I say and the things I feel.

I see people as having two brains: rational and emotional. Rational brain is your inner Spock, dealing with logic and reason, viewing the world computationally and structurally. It is somewhat robotic and detached, concerned greatly with the how and the why. It is in charge of basic tasks. It remembers the layout of your home and where you’ve put things and how electronic devices work and stuff like that.

Emotional brain is in charge of how you react to and process everything. It is the human part of you. It’s what makes you smile or laugh or cry or feel scared. It’s a powerful curator of your memories too, especially your childhood. It puts everything you’ve experienced in important context.

In a healthy brain, these two entities work in tandem. They guide you along with a well balanced give and take, and neither are overly vulnerable to being weakened. They’re a team.

My rational brain is absolutely fine. I am always able to operate in that manner. My emotional brain, unfortunately, has never really developed properly and it’s been hobbling along on crutches for about 18 years now. Sometimes it just collapses and shuts down entirely, leaving me incapable of feeling anything at all. Things just happen around me and I quietly and robotically sit and perceive it all, then coldly commit each thing to memory with zero emotional context.

Now, this is all a fairly recent realisation of mine. I just turned 35, and I am still veeerrry sloooowly making these pretty elementary-seeming discoveries about myself and my personal psychiatric wiring. As I write this I am in the process of attempting to recover from a prolonged bout of depression which hit hard about nine months ago. It has not been easy. I initially clung on to the idea that hey, this isn’t my first rodeo - and there is truth to that. But this is definitely the first time I’ve felt such a distinct disconnect between my two brains.

Rational brain, as I say, has been fine. It has led me to consider myself these days to be a somewhat high functioning depressive. It’s very rare that my depression is so bad that I am utterly dysfunctional. I mean, some things are always hard. Waking up every morning I feel this ‘thud’, like I’m being told “yes. Another one. Get on with it”, and the process from there to getting up and out of the bed and into the bathroom (a whole nine paces) generally feels Sisyphean. Arduous, pointless, nightmarish. Today it took me well over an hour from waking up to being in the kitchen eating breakfast. Not ideal - but I have had far harder mornings.

It’s hard because the emotional brain is the supplier of motivation. Rational brain knows the basics about what needs doing during the day, but emotional brain is what gives you a sense of pride and purpose in bothering to do them. And when your emotional brain is running on fumes, as mine tends to, the position you have to fight to escape from is that nothing matters. The default is that you take pride in absolutely nothing, and that literally anything can be put off indefinitely without consequence. You are simply never motivated in any way. The loudest messages you hear are your rational brain intoning mundane things like “EAT FOOD” or “SIT DOWN”.

A rote list of things to do at any point can be vomited up by rational brain without any effort - the drive to actually do these things requires superhuman concentration in order to enact a resuscitation of the emotional brain. It’s like a battery.

Personally this whole setup leaves me feeling a bit like a giant goldfish, because each day wipes the slate clean in a way. Every day I have to remind myself what happened yesterday and then attempt to figure out how I felt about it.

And it’s very rare that I wake up with something distinct on my mind. During sleep, my emotional brain simply disappears and my rational brain goes into near total hibernation too. My dreams come from some oddball third brain I haven’t figured out yet - for one, I have never had a nightmare in my life, and it is extremely rare that any two of my dreams are remotely similar. Most dreams I recall are incredibly surreal longform fairytales with little to no obvious reference points from my day to day life. I also experience lucid dreaming every so often; and I’ve had several dreams I wasn’t even in. I was just a disembodied observer, watching mind-bendingly weird things happen without being involved in any of it - and there’s your real life parallel. I am Uatu, The Watcher.

Which brings me back to the stream of consciousness. I’ve had a recurring issue all my life in communicating with people. I find it very hard to change gears so the stream of consciousness slows down and the rational and emotional brains start having an evenhanded input in the words I say. If I’m required only to be entertaining or informal, it’s easy. I can just yammer on without thinking and probably be relied upon to be at least superficially funny. That is literally a no-brainer - this is why really great standup comedians inspire me so much; they have perfect synergy between their stream of consciousness and their sense of self.

The problems come when the topic of discussion is an important, serious, personal one. I’ll be trying to hang in there and shooting myself in the foot with every third word, having to go back and explain myself over and over again with an increasing sense of frustration - and the kicker is that this doesn’t translate at all; the other person will perceive a slightly aloof, disaffected man who just wants the discussion to end at any cost. Inside my head, I often know exactly what my lines need to be, but I have to sort of jam that message - how I actually feel -into an overcrowded Noah’s Ark of word salad coming from my rational brain and just pray that some of it gets through as intended.

To understate: it’s hard. It’s hard as it’s happening and it’s hard because explaining all this to another person is complex, and it’s hard because this is the first time I’ve even put any of this stuff in writing. These analogies and descriptions are a new self-referential language I’m getting used to speaking.

Anyway, I think the time has come again to try to get a foothold in getting over this stuff via writing about it. There isn’t yet a greater point I’m aspiring to make. This will be of use to me, so I hope it will be of use to other people too.

#depression #mental health

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mrmallard · 7 years

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Late night rant, might get a little messy.

People who can’t make a clean break from relationships.

Disclaimer, different relationships have different levels of context and backstory, no two relationships will be the same, and there’s no way to account for all relationships because factors like abuse muddy the waters. It’s not cool to tell an abuse victim that they’re weak because they couldn’t get out of their situation - that’s not what this is about.

My gripe is with people who have this pathological need to be in a relationship, and see the breakdown of a bad relationship as a failure of themselves as people to the point that they’ll threaten self-harm or act like their life is over because their relationship didn’t work out. People who will go behind each other’s backs and get upset at each other for those slights without addressing their own wrongdoing, who’ll post a cutesy selfie on facebook to celebrate their 3 month anniversary in the middle of a vicious break-up.

I think it’s our media - rom-coms and stuff that’s all about falling in love with one person, breaking up because they cause each other pain, but then one of them has a critical epiphany and gets back together with their partner because true love is absolute and weathers all storms. People see a path that deviates from the perfect fairy tale, and it causes them genuine distress because it’s a failure of who they are. They cut out perfectly healthy chunks of themselves and display them with an earnest desperation to hit that magical epiphany, instead of having the diseased flesh removed - they’d rather feel venom and gangrene to fit the desired dream instead of coming around, realizing that a diseased limb is bringing them down no matter how much they liked it when it was healthy, and getting it removed to stop the pain it was causing.

Of course, that’s an overly simplified exaggeration of what a relationship is. Like I said, relationships come with different sets of context behind them. And it sounds a bit misanthropic to compare a relationship to gangrene and diseased limbs. Relationships can be a source of immense joy, but people will roll the dice on their longterm well-being for a chance to have a slice of that. They’ll suffer through the worst storms and they’ll become so sick of dealing with it that they’ll cheat and lie and become awful people, all for a chance of that happiness, when five sides of that die are rigged to warp you as a person. And then they’ll turn around and smile, because they care so much about perpetuating the perfect relationship and making it work that they’ll stay trapped in a bad situation because of what it represents to them. They’ll cry to friends and threaten to drive into trees over a relationship, instead of taking a step back and viewing those three months of shouting, fighting and paranoia for what they were and realizing that maybe, despite your immense love and desire to be happy with someone, it’s objectively a better idea to make a clean break, re-group and go back to a life that’s less complicated and less painful to deal with.

And yeah - you get with a person, and you think you might be willing to be with them forever. That’s a valid expression of love. And a few years down the line, when things have gone south, you might still be dedicated to fulfilling that ideal. It’s not weak to save an ailing relationship, and it’s not weak to feel love and affection for people regardless of the circumstances behind your relationship. But there’s a point where being in a relationship is a net loss, and instead of making that hard call, people will anchor themselves to their relationship and get dragged down with it - give into petty grievances, fight over the same recurring issue without addressing it for what it is, change as people and do petty, spiteful things to serve one’s self and get angry when they get called out - and insist that they were making the most of the best they had, and blame everyone else for their unhappiness. They can break out, revert to an earlier state to survive - in some cases, people still live with their parents, so they have some support networks to turn to - but because romance is the be-all end-all of existence, they have to hook their claws in and suck every last drop of juice out of it until there’s nothing left to stand on at the end, where they crash and shatter at full velocity instead of stepping back and climbing down when there was something left to climb down from.

That lack of self-awareness when a relationship becomes poison, that willingness to lash out at everyone and desire to die when a relationship breaks down, is something that immeasurably bothers me. I’ve been in one relationship that barely resembled anything, so I guess outside some incredibly potent crushes I don’t have a leg to stand on. And I understand that not all relationships are created equal, not everyone can drop their whole lives to re-organize after a break-up. This is a creed about the people who can do that, who with a bit of time, sadness and support, can break things off - who would be better off single, who would be in less pain with no partner, and who could do it with little to no financial/lifestyle negatives - but won’t, because the idea of being single again is a fate worse than suicidal depression, constant paranoia and complete and utter self-loathing and content at the expense of yourself and someone else.

I was on the sidelines of a breakup like that, where a girl was cheating on my friend and he’d be so upset about it, so sure that it was happening, to the point that he’d raise his voice and claim that she’s dead to him - but they were together for six months, five of which were spent fighting and being upset about the same things, and days before they broke up - in the death throes of their relationship - shared a happy selfie for their 6 month anniversary with all this “still so in love, #blessed” crap. DAYS before they broke up. So desperate to appear sane and normal, but self-destructive and mutually resentful of each other for five months. Why bother bleeding for five months, when you can feel fucking bummed and awful for a while but ultimately recover quicker when the relationship hits that level of quality - where text messages are being deleted, you’re talking to different people and you’re always fighting about it? If you’ll struggle and bleed for five months because romantic love is worth hating your partner for, then I think you’ve wasted five months.

My relationship ended pretty cordially, all things considered. My girlfriend tried to OD on vodka and painkillers, and that was a clusterfuck - that incident was the hardest part, and arguably the moment we disconnected, but it was a whole different beast compared to how we actually ended things. When we actually split up, she messaged me over facebook one day and called it off. I was fully prepared to tell it to her face and do it right, and she saved me the trouble. But I was going to go the hard way and talk it out, when it became clear that there was no more goodwill left. Maybe we overstayed our welcomes, but the time came to break things off - I became self-aware enough to see that there was more trash than treasure. And I think people need to have that moment, and apply it to their future relationships - be happy, be good to each other and don’t get bogged down about it, but stay self-aware and get the fuck out before it becomes a hollow, hateful lie that you keep up with for appearance’s sake. Maybe my account is just as bad as the case I’m trying to make, and that’s a fair point to make - I’m biased as shit. But I didn’t drag it out and I didn’t involve anyone else. The well ran dry, it became clear that it wasn’t worth keeping up the facade and that there was no happiness left, and it came time to end things. If I had done that in the first place, we wouldn’t have fucked up as much along the way. Even then, there was a minimum level of collateral damage, and I’m proud of that.

That’s all I have to say. Thanks for reading.

#love #relationships #facebook

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rylanbbrp461 · 6 years

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How To Create An Awesome Instagram Video About Air Duct Cleaning Houston By Pure Airways

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I have related the aged spouse and children freezer and the yard-sale, green fridge into a Destroy a Watt monitor. I'll depart the check in position numerous days, I am wanting forward to returning towards the household so I am able to obtain the data from the check regarding how considerably electricity these appliances are literally applying.

Other Appliances: I notice that besides the freezer and environmentally friendly refrigerator, they have got 4 much more main appliances.

1. The kitchen area fridge - appears reasonably new. A sticker around the beyond the door along with a sticker inside the door, both show that this fridge was Energy Star competent when it had been created. It may well not meet up with present Energy Star specifications, but changing it having a new fridge would not look to boost electrical power efficiency by an important sum. The fridge is risk-free, I can't advocate substitution.

two. The dishwasher - is additionally Power Star rated. I much like the small Strength Star stickers. Dishwasher is risk-free, can not Check over here propose replacement.

three. The garments washer - is really a front load, drive button product with energy effectiveness created all over it. I don't understand what occurred to your Energy Star sticker, nevertheless it should have been there somewhere. I generate down the model quantity and go to the Electrical power Star web page and find that it really is outlined being an permitted Electricity Star model. The garments washer is safe.

4. The garments Dryer - matches the clothes washer, these are a established. An electrical outfits dryer contains a couple selections regarding vitality effectiveness that are critical. One particular is definitely the automated drying cycle - therefore the dryer will shut by itself off if the apparel are dry, along with the other is the exhaust duct. In the event the exhaust duct turns into limited, drying time boosts and so does vitality intake.

I concern the homeowner about drying moments and using the auto-dry aspect. I glimpse guiding the dryer to discover if your dryer duct is pinched, ruined, or disconnected. I also go outdoors and inspect the exhaust hood for lint build up and flapper valve perform. All looks nicely, the dryer is risk-free.

The Blower Door Examination:

I am having pretty good at putting together the blower door, just will take me a couple of minutes. I like setting it up inside the front door of the dwelling which is in city, it appears just like the DEA is undertaking a drug bust or something. The blower door can be a dazzling red canvas. Persons have explained to me later the neighbors ended up genuine interested in what was going on.

In advance of turning about the fan and sucking air from your home, I make sure the wood stove door is shut and secure, I near and latch many of the windows and exterior doorways, and open all inside doors. I transform the furnace off and pull the furnace filter out.

The blower doorway indicates the home is leaking in a fee of about 3.eight air changes for every hour. I detect sizeable draft coming from the ground heating registers. Considering that the regarded balanced level relating to air changes for every hour is 3.five, I realize which i can not safely air seal the house and help it become substantially tighter. The air coming through the heating registers issues me, subsequent could be the duct blaster examination.

The Duct Blaster Test:

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The duct blaster requires a little extended to setup given that all the heating vents need to generally be taped and sealed. The heating vent which is beneath the two ton entertainment middle is a challenge, I last but not least look for a substantial large e book and slide it excessive of the vent.

On this house, I do not need to forget about the quick cut return air duct lower in the side in the hallway wall. It will eventually need to have being sealed also. Cranking up the enthusiast within the duct blaster I see that full duct leakage is 480 cubic toes for every moment. The 480 CFM is gross leakage, what I really want is net leakage, or leakage into the outside of the house.

By utilizing the blower door as well as the duct blaster collectively, I'm able to different the duct leakage into two elements. I am most keen on the quantity of air that is definitely leaking out of the heating ducts and is particularly missing into the great outdoor.

I warn the house owners that factors are likely to get yourself a small noisy as well as a little breezy - I crank up the two lovers. The leakage to exterior the home is 320 CFM. I similar to this figure, 320 CFM can be a sizeable level of duct leakage and sealing the heating ducts will save recognizable electrical power.

Last Tips: Soon after putting away all my equipment, I sit back along with the house owners, get out my paperwork, and focus on particular recommendations on how they could ideal use $3,500 to produce their dwelling more electrical power economical plus more comfy.

one. Seal the Heating Ducts: Fortunately, this house is serviced by an influence corporation that gives incentives for duct sealing in manufactured homes. I will prepare for just a certified duct sealing contractor to seal the ducts in this particular house and it won't cost the homeowner a penny. An excellent duct sealing contractor needs to be ready to decrease the duct leakage to beneath one hundred CFM.

two. Insulation and Air Sealing: I'll suggest that the floor in the two space addition is air sealed then insulated. There is good crawl space less than the ground - I estimate this can value about $650.

three. Addition of a Heat Pump: The girl in the house is possessing additional issues with asthma. When she has an assault, the wood stove will not be made use of as well as the electrical furnace requires about - this can be occurring much more routinely. With ageing, retaining the wooden pile stocked is not really as much exciting mainly because it made use of to get.

By installing a warmth pump, they're going to have far more economical heating and they may have efficient, whole house cooling. I estimate that including a heat pump to this house will cost about $2,800.

Perfectly, I am going say goodbye to this property for now. I even now stay up for checking the Eliminate a Watt meters inside of a couple of times to check out the amount electrical power that freezer and eco-friendly refrigerator is introducing towards the electrical invoice. The subsequent action will probably be to timetable the duct sealing and also to obtain a pair bids on putting in a heat pump and obtaining the underfloor space sealed and insulated. Experience pretty good about what I have accomplished, I head on in the future.

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republicstandard · 6 years

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The Modern Conservative Movement is not Worth Saving

After the passing of John McCain last week, it was all too easy to remember the faults of the conservative movement of which he was a part of. A movement forged after the Second World War in the 1950s, which revolved around free markets, property rights, low taxes and strong support for Israel. Such shallow goals and policies, which ignore the concerns of a large swathe of the population, have left the Republican establishment, as well as the Conservative establishment in Britain, isolated and out of touch.

Only a populist candidate named Donald Trump was capable of bringing the Republicans victory in 2016, and of course, the Republican establishment did all they could to stop him. The disconnect between the Republican establishment/donor class and the party’s base has never been wider. The same is true in Britain, where the Conservative Party establishment are pro-EU Remainers, whereas 70% of their voters are anti-EU Leave voters..

The establishment in these two parties will do anything they can to please and appease the left. The greatest mistake the conservative movement made was to submit to the left’s moral framework after the cultural revolution of the 1960s, a decision with has left them weak and powerless. A key example of this was British Prime Minister Theresa May’s criticism of Boris Johnson’s burka comments. Any true right winger would have supported Boris, but she did not; alienating the majority of her party’s base in the process. And of course, the left will still call Theresa May a ‘Nazi’, ‘racist’ and ‘Tory scum’, because nothing is ever good enough for them, no matter how many times you cuck.

Even Ronald Reagan, the so-called ‘great’ conservative US President of the 1980s, was actually a disappointment in many ways. His decision to grant amnesty to 3 million illegal immigrants lead to California turning from Republican to Democrat, and anybody who has seen videos from modern-day San Francisco can see Reagan’s legacy playing out in real time. The city now needs a human waste clean-up service simply because of all the homeless who are choosing to defecate on the streets. Anybody who has seen footage or who actually experienced California in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s knows how far it has fallen.

Even Angela Merkel, the open borders advocate, is the leader of Germany’s ‘conservative’ party; which pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the beliefs and policies of the center-right. Europe’s center-right parties have always been in favor of the EU common market, and often talk extensively about enlarging it. Their obsession with free trade, even when it goes against the national interest, has allowed the importation of badly made, cheap goods from China and other countries in the Far East, and has also destroyed large areas of manufacturing; the two most prominent examples being the North of England and the Ruhr district of Germany.

But no more stark example exists of the Centre-right establishment’s painful legacy than the Rustbelt of the United States. The empty factories, the abandoned roads, the trailer parks full of poverty, the food banks, the toxic water supply and widespread unemployment offer a hard glimpse of what happens when you make very bad deals. Agreements like NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and the obsession with global economic neoliberalism completely gutted parts of American industry and allowed countries like China and Mexico to prosper. The one-sided trade tariffs have also hit American companies ridiculously hard, something which the Trump Administration is thankfully trying to rectify. But the fact that the Republican establishment is against making trade tariffs fair for the American worker tells you everything you need to know. Their autistic obsession with free trade comes first above all else, with everybody else in their country paying the price, even if the West’s enemies benefit in the long term.

The conservative movement’s obsession with small government and low taxes can also become a large problem, especially for the working class. Contrary to popular belief, the largest group of people reliant on food stamps in America are White, and they rely on these handouts to stay above the poverty line. Of course, immigrants and some racial groups, for example, African Americans, are more likely to receive these handouts on a per capita basis, but that’s not the point. Why would anyone allow their own working class to fall below the poverty line for the sake of having small government and low taxes? What good would that do the country in the short and long-term?

One of the major reasons many working class people are still, despite mass immigration, not voting for anti-immigration right-wing parties is because they fear their welfare payments will be taken away or reduced by these same parties. There is no point telling a couple with children who are both employed that their welfare benefits need to end because they are ‘lazy’, it is simply factually incorrect and political suicide.

One of the major reasons Donald Trump and other populist leaders in Europe were elected is precisely because they did not regularly attack the welfare state. Obviously, benefits should only be given to those who need them, and in the longer term, we also need to look beyond the free market vs socialism paradigm, and instead look at using the welfare state from a pragmatic standpoint. If you want to boost the birth rate among certain groups, maternity benefits are a sure way of achieving more births. If you want to stop people sliding into economic oblivion when they lose their job and are searching for new employment, then obviously unemployment benefits are required. Basically what I am saying is: not all welfare is bad, and indeed in many instances, it can be a net positive for society.

The real energy on the right comes from the populists and the emerging alt-right/alt lite/identitarian movements. Individuals like Trump, Orban, and Salvini will do more for the West than Paul Ryan or David Cameron ever did. The factor that populists lack is populist donors, something that will hopefully be corrected in the coming years. Relying on the center-right conservative movement is a road to nowhere, and from a tactical perspective, it is just a waste of time investing in such a cause.

We are in a time of immense political turmoil and change, and it is time for everybody on the right side of the political spectrum to back the worthy cause and help bring about victory for Western Civilisation.

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analisagepp6809-blog · 6 years

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Testimonial Of Hill Condensation White Out

PAULA WHITE MENTIONS THIS RIGHT up front on White Rock Hill's Web site: The United States Rainforest Service-owned recreation area is actually except everybody. Lots of individuals edged the course coming from the airport through the lakeside mountain range urban area, swaying as the motorcade accelerated through. Several hundred people collected for an objection near the town hall, holding indicators as well as making profane motions. While an amount of brand-new rivals have already entered the single-cup coffee organisation, Keurig seems to be to be sustaining a tough reasonable opening (maybe too tough a role in Canada ). Keurig Environment-friendly Mountain range has actually partnered with Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) (which took a 16% risk in the provider previously this year) to release its chilly beverage equipment next year in an effort to transform its own company and also more broaden its own client base. Our team couldn't pass that by when our team stumbled on this place on the net. At Treasure Hill Sapphires, you get a container from tailings coming from a mine, and also you come to wash, variety through, and find true SAPPHIRES OK, so our experts just weren't going to get rich performing this ... yet http://healthyblog4you.info/ our experts performed possess a superb, grimy and also damp opportunity. Need development for rare planets is actually being steered due to the enhanced embracement of brand-new modern technologies (clean electricity, energy-efficient lights, hybrid lorries, electric battery innovations, etc.), which is actually a style that ought to continue and also increase effectively into the future. That has actually since genuflected, scourged, and fixed itself, using its own now pretty fresh start to accumulate an expansionist organisation model that won't be overstretched or even overleveraged, which will definitely drive sturdy value augmentation over the upcoming several years.

As opposed to devoting a number of hrs aimlessly attempting to attack a mountain from activities, you possess a few small jobs to accomplish on a regular basis - for instance you might need to operate a broom over the kitchen flooring each day, and make use of a moist wipe as soon as a full week. I suspect, a good story following on off Q1 is actually for white colored the big rocks, huge white goods, and also the issue from significance that was spoken about a great deal during the course of Q1. That continued adventure along with polishers in the cutting centers is that those individuals are actually continuing to conduct effectively. These obstacles consist of the rate gap in between brand new well-maintained electricity modern technologies as well as incumbent, low-cost competitors; minimal economic sector resources; spillover threats coming from analysis that induce organizations to concentrate on short-term, low-risk research study and also item growth; and also a standard disconnect between publicly funded research study and also innovation commercialization in the private marketplace. I can't determine if Mountain range Condensation fans will certainly like that because its own essentially Mountain Dew with much less lemon, or even if they'll loathe it due to the fact that I on a regular basis don't such as Mountain Dew but discovered Distortion delighting. Outside companies like the Appalachian Hill Group and the Sierra Group perform their finest to inform potential hikers and also climbers regarding the happiness as well as prospective hazards of mountain range hiking and climbing, offering programs as well as assisted trips year-round that stress correct outfit, actions, and safety and security. Downhill bikes currently examine around 16-20 kilograms (35-44 pound), while the most expensive professional downhill mtb can consider as little as 15 kilos (Thirty Three extra pounds), entirely furnished with customized carbon fibre parts, sky suspension, tubeless tires and also more.

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ultranoisybouquetbird-blog · 7 years

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30 easy money hacks to obtain a little richer every day this month

Managing your financial resources and also making wise cash steps is a marathon, not a sprint. That's since there are always far better methods to save money, spend carefully and also pay for financial obligation strategically.

Now that springtime is in maturity, you'll wish to try to find methods to shake off your winter sluggishness and prosper with your financial resources. Think of it as economic spring cleaning.

One large method to get a little richer? When you submit by April 18, comply with these tips for saving on your taxes. To assist you out much more, below are 30 tips-- one for each and every day in the month of April.

1. Acquire a discount present card

Sam's Club, Costco, eBay, and also online sites like CardCash sell gift cards for much less than stated value. Savings on some cards is as high as 20%, according to CNBC. Use the discounted present cards to obtain that savings on your total purchase, specifically if you patronize vouchers that can not be incorporated with price cut offers. Take care to prevent cards that tack on charges and therefore reduced right into savings.

2. Shop generic

Three Thrifty Guys computed that a cart loaded with common grocery stores costs only about $42, versus more than $56 for the very same brand-name products. The top quality, taste and also components are generally the very same. Why pay even more for something that gives no added benefit?

3. Fill out your fridge as well as freezer

Are your fridge and fridge freezer empty but for a couple of containers of old spices? You're really paying even more to cool down empty space and also losing more chilly air than you ought to when you open the door. "Freezers run most successfully when they are full," according to Aurora Power. Intend to save money on energies but do not have lots of food? Fill containers of water and stick them in your refrigerator as well as freezer.

4. Obtain a totally free academic credit score

Bad credit score means greater rate of interest as well as greater insurance coverage costs. Sign up to services like Credit rating Fate or Debt Sesame to monitor your educational score as well as find methods to improve. Both discuss elements affecting your credit scores and also have functions like a rating simulator demonstrating how various actions can affect your rating. And also if you aren't sure your "real" score, here's the best ways to obtain it.

5. Check eligibility for an HSA or FSA

Flexible spending accounts-- supplied via an employer-- and health and wellness savings accounts-- which you could open yourself-- conserve you money on health care by permitting you to pay with pre-tax funds for certifying care prices, consisting of the acquisition of some non-prescription products. Speak to Human Resources concerning placing loan right into an FSA or open an HSA at a bank or broker agent firm.

6. Evaluation fees on your investment accounts

If you're purchasing pricey funds in your 401( k), you can be losing big. Fees could not look like a large offer, yet they add up over time: Also a 1% increase can amount to tens of thousands of bucks lost in time, according to an Investopedia evaluation. Low-fee Vanguard funds or robo-advisors like Betterment aid you stay clear of unnecessary prices. Make a modification today to save.

7. Take old clothing or household products to Goodwill

Donating unwanted stuff has great deals of benefits. You could declutter, help another person and take a tax deduction for the approximated worth of your donations see on wikipedia. Female's sweaters might be worth around a $5-$ 15 tax obligation deduction for every, while males's two-piece matches could make you a reduction of as much as $30. Keep the invoice the charity gives in situation the IRS asks about your donation.

8. Make your very own cleansing products

The ordinary household spends $42 monthly on cleaning up products: more than $500 a year or $5,000 over 10 years. That's a lot of cash for items loaded with dangerous chemicals. Attempt your hand at making your personal cleaning items with simple, environmentally-friendly dishes as easy as diluting vinegar.

9. Think about refinancing debt

Refinancing your student loans could conserve as long as 5 figures over your lending settlement period, depending upon the dimension of your debt. But greater than a 3rd of consumers don't even understand they can re-finance. Check out choices for lowering your rate of interest. Perk pointer: Charge card financial obligation can likewise be refinanced as well, so you can potentially lower prices on all your debt.

10. Mount power strips for your electronics

The average residence has around 50 devices continuously attracting power, with still devices making up 25% of home power use as well as $19 million in utility prices, inning accordance with data from the New york city Times. Set up a power strip and disconnect your phone once it's charged to save on expenses as well as lower carbon emissions.

11. Plant a couple of little herbs in pots

Fresh natural herbs are an expensive grocery product, yet a need to if you prefer to prepare. Plant your own for consistent accessibility to low-cost fresh components. Savvy Gardening reported conserving $102.89 from growing just six herb: chives, basil, dill, cilantro as well as rosemary. Herbs-- similar to this one pot natural herb garden-- could grow in an apartment home window. They'll pretty up your location as well as allow you cook for less.

12. Transfer $10 a week to your IRA

Starting to conserve for retired life doesn't need to set you back a lot of money. Just $10 a week invested over 45 years can turn into greater than $165,000 by age 67. If you do not already have an Individual Retired life Account, opening one is simple. If you already have actually one, established an automated transfer of cash money from checking.

13. Swap out your shower head

All you need is a wrench, a brand-new shower and also some teflon tape go to switch out your money-wasting one. The switch might lower warm water costs for shower use by 43%, the Nebraska Power Workplace estimates, for a yearly cost savings of greater than $32 if you pay a rate of.05 kWh. The greater your power expenses, the a lot more you'll save.

14. Make yourself some visuals

" Since so many people are visual learners, it aids to really see your loan goals. Make a financial debt snowball thermometer for your refrigerator and shade it in as you make more and more repayments," Dave Ramsey advises. Burst out your Sharpie pens or highlighters making a visual you can upgrade easily.

15. Enroll in a totally free online class

There are lots of totally free areas online-- like edX or Coursera-- where you can discover valuable skills to advance your career, recognize investing, or improve with money. You could additionally find on-line instructions for procedures like car or computer system repair service so you can DIY instead of spending. Register for a no-cost program today to broaden your mind.

16. Inspect your credit report for errors

Credit records are remarkably inaccurate. Actually, one in four customers located an error on their record that might affect their credit score, inning accordance with a 2013 Federal Trade Compensation Study. So assess your report for mistakes. If you locate an error, inform your credit report reporting firm instantly as well as make certain it gets fixed, as a reduced rating can cause much less desirable funding rates.

17. Organize a swap party

A garments swap event could help you develop a work closet, while a publication, film, or media swap celebration will give you brand-new resources of amusement-- all without spending a dime. Simply welcome over some close friends and also ask each person to bring some products they like, yet are ready to trade.

18. Learn the distinction in between a Roth as well as traditional IRA

Consider diversifying by opening up multiple kinds of IRAs for retired life savings. "A Roth Individual Retirement Account is a remarkable means to conserve for retired life because the money you invest grows with no taxation as well as there's no tax due when you take the money out," financial expert Jill Schlesinger claimed in a phone interview. Your income-- as well as hence your tax price-- typically increases as you age, so it likely makes even more sense to pay tax obligations now, while your rate is fairly low.

19. Consider cost each when you get, not overall price

When you're shopping, it's tempting to pick up the item with the most affordable rate. This isn't really always ideal. Instead, compare unit costs, which you could determine yourself to avoid misleading labels.

20. Determine your internet worth

Learn ways to determine your net worth to see where you stand. Understanding your net worth as well as viewing it change gradually is a great way to ensure you're making progression on economic goals.

21. Get a slow-cooker on sale

You can buy a slow-moving cooker for as reduced as $10 at Target. It's a wonderful choice for evenings you do not wish to dine in restaurants or spend a lot of time food preparation. Time is money, nevertheless! When you obtain house, establish it up in the early morning before you leave for job and also you'll have an affordable meal waiting for you. There are several inexpensive slow-moving cooker recipes that allow you to make entire meals for less than $5. .

22. Sign up for a cash-back site

If you're going to go shopping online, you might as well get cash back. Some cash-back websites are far better than others. Think about Swagbucks, which offers a web browser expansion you could make use of to signal you to bargains, or CouponCabin, which has supplied bargains like 7% cash money back at Target, inning accordance with Lifehacker..

23. Ask your medical professional regarding switching over to generic medication

Generic drugs "are copies of brand-name medications as well as coincide as those trademark name medicines in dose kind, safety, toughness, path of management, high quality, efficiency attributes as well as planned usage," according to the FDA. They just cost a whole lot less. A bronchial asthma user who swaps out albuterol for Ventolin, for example, might save $273 yearly, inning accordance with Healthday.. Chase Bank South Bend

24. Close vents in spaces you aren't using

Close your wardrobe doors and also close vents in areas that you typically aren't utilizing to stay clear of paying to warm and also trendy void. This could decrease energy expenses Coinstar on facebook. "Compare the temperatures inside and beyond the covered space. The greater the difference, the extra you're saving," clarified the Simple Dollar..

25. Know the best time to purchase things

If you're considering any large purchases, check out the very best time to buy so you could plan your purchase when you're likely to obtain the best offer. Mic's guide to the best time to get huge ticket things-- like linens in January and travel luggage in March-- could help you invest much less via tactical timing..

26. In fact read your food store flyers

You probably get food store leaflets in the mail, yet don't review them. This week, have a look at exactly what gets on sale and also strategy dishes that consist of discount rate things to cut your grocery store costs significantly. You can consume healthy for much less just by going shopping more strategically..

27. Take into consideration a side hustle

Your day work does not have to be your only source of income. Offer tutoring, modify college admissions essays, think of owning for a ride-sharing firm, take on some consulting operate in your industry or brainstorm other possibilities to locate a profitable side gig..

28. Explore term life insurance

You could not have a youngster or senior moms and dad depending on your caregiving services or income today. You probably will eventually, however. Take into consideration inexpensive term life insurance while you're still young and also healthy and balanced. "Acquiring life insurance as a single 25-year-old that prepares to have youngsters one day could be more inexpensive compared to waiting to buy the insurance coverage," inning accordance with US Information & World Report..

29. Switch over to cloth rags and paper napkins as opposed to paper

" The ordinary household utilizes 2 rolls of paper towels weekly, as well as at $14 for an 8-pack, you could be spending approximately $182 a year for that convenience," AOL Financing cautions. Quit getting rid of cash. Get shop towels at $3.47 for a 10-pack to pay less than $0.35 power towel. Think about towel paper napkins too!.

30. Open a savings account for something fun

. Saving for retirement or an emergency situation is important, yet hardly interesting. Open an account particularly for something fun, like an incredible holiday. You'll be extra determined to save for an objective you're anticipating, and also could take pleasure in doing Instagram-worthy activities-- without going into debt..

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